This Is It is a film of backstage footage of Michael Jackson
A film documentary containing recordings of interviews, rehearsals and backstage footage of Michael Jackson acquired by Columbia Pictures, This Is It, is set to break box office records and is out in the UK on 28th October 2009 for two weeks only.
This is your chance to see Jacko as he’s never been seen before – a tribute to the extraordinary life and career of the world’s most famous pop star, Michael Jackson’s songs reached millions and his performances electrified audiences the world over.
Since his tragic death of a heart attack suffered at his home in Holmby Hills on 25th June this year, Michael Jackson has continued to dominate the headlines. This documentary focuses on his rehearsals for a series of 50 sold-out shows at the O2 Arena in London. Directed by High School Musical’s Kenny Ortega who worked with the singer over the years, the concerts had a budget of £13 million and were planned to feature spectacular aerial dancing, 22 different sets, a 3-D video to make the audience feel like they were on the set of Thriller and costumes encrusted in Swarovski crystals. The film also features the posthumus hit single This Is It written in collaboration with Paul Anka.
Less than three weeks before the first show, Jackson died. The concerts had been cited as one of the year’s most important musical events and the first significant event since the HIStory World Tour in 1997. Michael Jackson himself had commented that these would be his final show performances in London, adding that it was his “final curtain call.” Sadly he didn’t know how final it was going to be.
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Katherine Jenkins
Tickets are now on release for concerts showcasing one of the best-selling artists of the decade.
With global sales of more than 3 million, the celebrated mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins has more or less conquered the world at the age of 29. Not only content with being as sweet as a kitten, she’s also talented, beautiful and brilliant.
So how do you become an international star, the fastest selling mezzo-soprano of all time and 13th richest young person in music in Britain? It all sounds so easy on paper. Having won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music at the University of London, at the age of 17, Katherine also studied Italian, German, French and Russian (as you do) and graduated with honours. A spell working as a freelance teacher and model for hair and make-up followed before she was made The Face of Wales in 2000. And as if that wasn’t enough, she then proceeded to land an album deal with Universal Classics & Jazz worth a reputed £1million.
Since then she has brought a new meaning to classical and pop crossover, performing at the Rugby World Cup in 2003 in her Sydney Opera house debut and achieving 8 weeks at the top of the classical charts with her 2004 debut album Première, repeated by her follow-up album, Second Nature. As a result, she broke all records as the first British classical artist to have two number one albums in the same year.
Katherine is proud of her Welsh antecedents and is now the official mascot for the Wales rugby union team. She’s has plenty of pluck too. In 2005 when she headed off to entertain troops in Iraq at the suggestion of Vera Lynne, the helicopter was targeted by a missile attack and had to be flown back to the base.
Her songs range from arias, popular songs, hymns and a mix of vibrant classical and surprising pop, with the 2007 album, Rejoice containing two songs written by Take That’s Gary Barlow. Her voice excels in her most requested song by Puccini – O mio babbino caro and her Italian version of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You which went to numbers 1,2 and 3 in the classical music charts, is full of vocal acrobatics.
A concert with Katherine Jenkins will always be a riveting experience with a stunning repertoire that’s as varied and interesting as it is beautiful. So make sure you get your tickets well in advance and there’ll be something to look forward to in 2010.
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Dizzee Rascal
He may be Bonkers but the British rapper, songwriter and record producer has got his head firmly screwed on when it comes to getting to the top.
Tickets are now available for his tour of venues in the UK when you can catch the Rascally rapper at locations including Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Manchester to name but a few.
Born Dylan Kwabena Mills and of Ghanaian descent, the Rascal has got top marks for his critically acclaimed Maths + English album. This follows on from the runaway success of his debut album Boy in da Corner for which he received a Mercury Prize in 2003, becoming the youngest artist to receive such an honour.
With music that can be defined by garage and hip hop beats influenced by heavy metal, drum and bass, grime and ragga, the Rascal has said that he draws inspiration for his beats from “ringtones, video games and staticky pirate radio sounds.”
His performances are famously frenetic using asymmetrical beats and quick-fire rapping about problems facing the young in 21st century Britain; I Luv U, his breakthrough single tells the story of an unwanted pregnancy at the age of 16 and manages to be both humorous and disturbing. With his recent singles, Dance Wiv Me and Bonkers, shooting to the top of the singles charts in the UK, prospects are looking good for his studio album Tongue “N” Cheek due to be released in September.
“Everything I do is for the music – I want to master it like Bruce Lee mastered martial arts,” he says. He’s well on the way, don’t miss out on the chance to watch him arrive.
Hawkwind
Veteran space-rockers, Hawkwind are launching a series of concerts appearing at various venues across the UK including Newcastle, Wolverhampton and London.
The band first impressed the late radio 1 DJ John Peel when they turned up for a local talent night in Notting Hill. Their 1970s self-named debut album put them on the underground map and gained them many bookings, if little commercial success. After a gig at The Roundhouse in 1972, the live album Greaser Truckers Party was released, featuring the single Silver Machine with dancers and mime artist. It later got to number 3 in the UK charts. A second album In Search of Space in 1971, introduced the Hawklog booklet which developed into the Space Ritual stage show and gave the band their ethos and identity.
The band formerly reunited at a reunion event at Brixton Academy in 2000 called Hawkestra, when about 20 members took part. With bands like The Sex Pistols and Joy Division citing Hawkwind as influences on their music, this classic concert is essential for psych rockers and space travellers. Hawkwind’s famous wall of sound, created by synthesisers, guitars and sequencers is guaranteed to lift you off the planet.
Maximo Park Gig Tickets
Fresh from appearances at Reading and Leeds Festival and following a successful tour of the US and Canada, Maximo Park have only been around since 2000 yet in that time have released three studio albums, A Certain Trigger, Our Earthly Pleasures and Quicken the Heart, two of which went double platinum and one was nominated for a Mercury Prize.
Formed in Tyne and Wear, the band got their name from Maximo Gomez Park in Cuba. Front man, Paul Smith is noted for his supreme command of the stage and blisteringly energetic performance with some nifty footwork, as much as for his perfectionism, while Lukas Wooller on keyboard and guitarist Duncan Lloyd add to the general excitement without missing a note.
Maximo’s sets are never superfluous and there won’t be a dull moment. Watch out for singalong songs like Nosebleed, the exuberant Apply Some Pressure and sheer onslaught of Graffiti. And the new songs are just as good as the old.
Maximo Park have had pretty much blanket sell-out gigs in the past so tickets need to be reserved now.
Franz Ferdinand
After winning and being nominated for a host of awards including the Ivor Novello, BRITS, Mercury Awards and Grammy, the Scottish Rock band composed of Alex Kapranos (vocals, guitar), Bob Hardy (bass), Nick McCarthy (guitar, keyboards, vocals) and Paul Thomson (drums, percussion and backing vocals) are back on tour.
Recent appearances at Reading, Glastonbury and Radio 1’s Big Weekend had the crowds begging for more and with a back catalogue of groundbreaking singles like Take Me Out, Ulysses and The Dark of the Matinee, the band’s track record in the album charts at home and in the US is impressive.
Franz Ferdinand’s first eponymous album was described by NME as the best album of 2004 – praise indeed from the magazine that sets the benchmark. Recent album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is as at home in the club culture as in the world of indie rock and as front man Alex Kapranos himself says; “The last record was…like a teenager having sex. This one’s a bit more assured and a bit friendlier for the dance floor.”
Performed live, the songs have a hint of slightly camp sauciness with glamorous, sexy vocals provided by Alex Kapranos and a touch of art school bohemianism. It’s hard to beat the excitement and build up of the intro to Take Me Out and other songs are equally addictive and catchy. So psych yourself for “a night of hedonism” – there’s no other way to describe a performance of Franz Ferdinand.
Jonas Brothers
Teen idols, the Jonas Brothers will be setting hearts alight in a series of concerts taking place across Birmingham, Newcastle, London and Manchester. The UK dates are intertwined with a further hectic schedule of international performances taking in France, Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Ireland.
Winning over audiences of all ages, but proving to be especially appealing to young girls and their mothers, the US pop trio, Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas gained a huge following after their appearances on the Disney Channel children’s network and have now have sold an amazing eight million albums worldwide.
The youngest member of the band, Nick Jonas began performing on Broadway at the tender age of 7 and recruited his brothers to the band after they started composing songs together and began to excel in writing and performing catchy or romantic pop-rock and sing-along anthems.
When their album, It’s About Time in August 2006 was limited to a release of 50,000 copies, it subsequently commanded prices of up to $200-$300 on eBay. Performances at the White Hall followed with a set at the American Music Awards and frequent appearances on shows on the Disney Channel like Hannah Montana and Me and Mr Jonas and Mr Jonas and Mr Jonas. In 2008 the brothers were given starring roles in the Disney Channel Movie, Camp Rock when the soundtrack reached number 3 on the Billboard charts. Four album releases later, they were nominated for the Best New Artist award at the Grammys.
Known for their clean living and wholesome family image, the brothers have pledged to remain virgins until they get married which made them the butt (literally!) of some rather more unwholesome jokes by Russell Brand when he introduced the MTV Video Music Awards in 2008, for which he later had to apologise.
Tickets are hot and the concerts are guaranteed to be a sell-out so it would be advisable to buy as soon as possible and get ready to scream your heart out at a high energy, top-quality show.
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Motorhead
One of the – if not the – defining metal band, Motorhead has been playing heavy metal, thrash and speed metal or simply rock’n’roll, all over the world since the 70s, with frontman, Lemmy becoming a national institution. Tickets are available for their series of gigs across the UK, taking in cities like Manchester, Leeds, Southend and Glasgow and London.
With a truly impressive back catalogue and tremendous output, Motorhead is one of the hardest working outfits around undertaking a gruelling list of tours across Europe and the US every year since 1975; they are a band that deserves success and success they have – in bucketloads.
Lemmy was famously fired from space-rock outfit, Hawkwind in 1975 which prompted him to set up his own rock band. He was originally going to call it Bastard but was advised that such a moniker might preclude him from Top of the Pops. Around about that time, he described his aim which was to; “concentrate on very basic music: loud, fast, city, raucous, arrogant, paranoid, speedfreak rock n roll… it will be so dirty that if we move in next door to you, your lawn will die.” Probably remains the best description of Mot?rhead’s music to this day.
The Overkill album recorded with Bronze records represented the band’s first main breakthrough with the follow up Bomber, complete with the legendary Bomber lighting rig on tours. A quick succession of classics followed and the No Sleep At All album became a benchmark for all metal bands with the 1916 album nominated for a Grammy. As a huge fan base developed across Europe and America, singles like The Ace of Spades became Motorhead’s defining sound as a steady flow of albums continued to be churned out to the delight of fans. In 2005, the same year that Motorhead played an amazing 20 festivals, a 30th anniversary show at Hammersmith Apollo took place.
A live performance from the band is a true event; expect walls of amps, a superb set with classics, newer material and surprisingly varied songs, bleeding eardrums and Lemmy, the gravel-voiced legend presiding over all.
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Andrea Bocelli
One of the most exciting voices in the world of opera today, don’t miss the chance to see Andrea Bocelli perform his unique mix of classical and pop ballads as he appears in concerts in London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Glasgow.
Often described as “the fourth tenor”, the singer who became completely blind at the age of 12, was influenced by Luciano Pavarotti and Zucchero Fornaciari and has recorded duets with Celine Dion and Sarah Brightman. Al Jarreau, who performed with him at the Albert Hall in a Proms concert, said that Bocelli had the “most beautiful voice in the world.” Having sold 60 million albums worldwide, it would seem that many people would agree with him.
Bocelli was raised in rural Tuscany. After he was rendered blind by glaucoma, his mother said that music was the only thing that could console him. His breakthrough came in 1992 when he was successful in an audition arranged by Zucchero Fornaciari, to record a demo version of Miserere which he had co-written with U2’s Bono. When the resulting recording was sent to Pavrotti, after thanking Zucchero for writing such a wonderful song, the tenor commented; “Let Andrea sing Miserere with you, for there is no one finer.”
Bocelli recorded the song with Pavarotti and performed at the Pavarotti International Festival in 1994. After embarking on a solo career, Bocelli combined famous arias and traditional songs with recordings of contemporary romantic songs and ballads, winning a Golden Globe Award for his album Sogno released in 1999 which features a duet with Celine Dion on The Prayer. He later recorded a collection of romantic cover songs for his album Incanto. In 2009 he sang Il Gladiatore from the Gladiator soundtrack at the opening of the UEFA Champions League Final.
With a voice full of passion and stirring emotion, you won’t fail to be moved at a concert by Bocelli. Don’t miss a chance to see this legendary singer in a performance near you – it’ll be one you can tell your grandchildren about in years to come.
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Marc Almond
A series of concerts from Marc Almond is something of a special treat, especially since the prolific artist’s almost-fatal motorbike accident in 2004, so tickets are bound to be at a premium.
Thankfully the star is back on top form now and is playing in support of his new album Orpheus in Exile. With a career that spans over 30 years in the industry, Marc Almond’s musical origins as one half of the electronic duo, Soft Cell, are well known. At the forefront of the music scene, the avant-garde pair occupied a unique slot in musical history with their immediately identifiable singles like Tainted Love, Bedsitter and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye providing theatrical commentary mixed with sleazy undertones and electronic beats.
After the demise of Soft Cell in 1984, Almond began a successful and highly creative solo career releasing 12 studio albums with many live recordings, influenced by diverse performers and styles, including artists like Jacques Brel, underground musicians and Russian folk. A reunion of Soft Cell in 2001 with the release of Cruelty Without Beauty prompted a series of comeback shows gaining many new fans as well as delighting the old guard. In 1999, Almond wrote his autobiography, Tainted Life for which he received many critical accolades.
He combines his singing and songwriting career with DJing gigs. In 2005, he went on tour with Jools Holland, when he gave a stunning performance of Say Hello, Wave Goodbye and Tainted Love, rearranged by Holland. A new album of cover songs, Stardom Road was released in 2007.
With a talent for reinventing himself and his material, Almond’s concerts are not to be taken lightly. Full of emotion, passion and intensity, you can’t fail to be moved by his unique style of performance peppered, as it is, with high drama, elegance and poignancy.
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