Pop Buzz UK

Sharon Osbourne sensationally quit her role as a judge on The X Factor last week, and it was almost immediately announced that Girls Aloud singer and celebrity WAG Cheryl Cole was to replace her. Unfortunately it seems that the rest of Girls Aloud are jealous of her new role on prime-time Saturday night television.

This story has two brilliant elements to it: the loss of who was surely the best judge on The X Factor, and the fact that the hiring of Cole as her replacement could bring about a premature end to Girls Aloud.

For starters we have lost Osbourne, who despite my misgivings about last year as she and her fellow judges dominated the headlines instead of the contestants that are meant to be the stars, remained my favourite judge. Now that she has gone we are left with Simon Cowell who has become a pantomime caricature of his former self, Louis Walsh who tried to be controversial but is just a camp Irishman at the end of the day, and the useless lump that is Dannii Minogue. Great, I can’t wait for the new series.

Cheryl Cole isn’t actually a bad choice, although it now means we have two young judges who know next to nothing about music and managing a singers or singers in her and Minogue. At least Osbourne had experience on her side, though I suppose the fact that Girls Aloud actually formed as a result of Popstars: The Rivals should stand her in good stead.

However, according to Heat Magazine, and reported here via Digital Spy, the rest of the girls in the group aren’t too happy with Cole’s new role, and are jealous that she seems to be getting all of the success outside of the confines of the group.

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The Eurovision Song Contest is a once yearly music (if you can call it that) competition between various countries who are active members of the European Broadcasting Union. Outside of Europe it’s probably unheard of, and even in Europe itself, the general view of the competition is one of a bit of amateurish fun.

However, some countries take it deadly serious, and fight to win it with all their might every year. They put up their biggest singers and musical artists, and instruct them to bring home the glory for their country. Here in the UK, it’s slightly different - we see it all as a bit of a joke. Oh, we put a competitor up every year, and many of us sit at home and watch the fun unfold on our televisions, but the general view is one of hilarity rather than a serious desire for victory.

A big part of that is Terry Wogan, who has provided the commentary for the competition for the last God only knows how many years, and rather than act all dour, spends the evening having a few glasses of wine and generally taking the piss out of all the competitors. Unfortunately this hasn’t gone down very well in some quarters, and now the boss of Eurovision, Bjorn Erichsen, has criticised the wise-cracking Irish radio and TV presenter for undermining the contest and making it look ridiculous.

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Do you remember Big Brother 8 star Chanelle Hayes? You know, the one who thought she was Victoria Beckham, even though she looks nothing like her, and has a northern accent. I know she was pretty forgettable, but rack your brains, as she now has her very own sex tape, and surprise surprise, it’s leaked on to the Internet.

Well, I say sex tape, when what I really mean is a sad 40 second clip of her cavorting on a bed in underwear. If this isn’t a faked sex tape which has been purposely leaked on the Web in an effort to become more famous, I’ll eat my hat, and yours too.

I can’t put the video here on Pop Buzz UK, because it hasn’t appeared on YouTube, or any of the other sites which offer embedding , quite yet, but it is only a matter of time. Until then, you can view it on The Sun newspaper’s website, although if I were you, I really wouldn’t bother… it’s not worth the effort.

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This week saw Leona Lewis hit number one on the US Billboard charts with Bleeding Love, becoming the first solo British female music artist to do so in 21 years, and only the fourth ever. Not bad for a winner of a reality television show!

Londoner Lewis won The X-Factor back in 2006, beating Ray Quinn in a final which was pretty much already decided before it even began. Where is Quinn now? I’m guessing on a cruise ship somewhere impressing old ladies with blue rinses with his generic brand of Rat Pack style swing music.

Leona meanwhile is on the cusp of a brilliant career, which with this success in the States will probably see her earn a huge pile of cash, although it’s not yet enough to buy a house in her home town of Hackney.

The Americans may be a bit slow on the uptake with how good Lewis is, as before hitting the top spot in the US, she’s already done it in many other countries around the world, including of course, the UK, where she spent 7 weeks at the top at the end of last year, and bagged the best selling single of 2007 in to the bargain.

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The Spice Girls brought their comeback to a stuttering halt last month when they played their last concert together in Toronto, Canada, on February 26th. The tour was meant to carry on of course, but the girls had earlier announced that they were cutting the tour short.

There have been many arguments put forward as to why this happened. The Spice Girls official explanation was that “family and personal commitments” had forced the group to abandon the tour, despite having already promised to play places such as Beijing, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires. The fans in these places were expected to just accept that reason, but a lot didn’t.

What most people believe is that the girls just simply couldn’t stand to be together any longer than absolutely necessary, and stopped the tour at the earliest available opportunity, although Mel C has denied that any great rift happened to cause the group to split for the second time.

She told Rolling Stones magazine:

“All of us have really enjoyed getting closer again. The whole atmosphere on the tour [was] very fun and there hasn’t been time for any bickering or the fighting that’s always reported about the Spice Girls. It’s just like a big family. There’s been more laughing than anything else.”

“We’ve been through something so unique together that even if we don’t see each other for a few months, we get together and it’s been like no time has passed at all.”

There’s a reason these reports keep cropping up though, because there’s evidence to back them up, with sources close to the girls reporting constant arguments. There’s never any smoke without fire. Egos probably pay a huge factor in that, with each of the five girls thinking they are the bigger star.

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The Brit Awards took place tonight in Earls Court, London, and here we have all of the latest news, gossip, winners and losers.

The annual event was presented by the Osbourne clan, with Sharon and Kelly taking most of the stage time. Unfortunately, Sharon spent the whole evening looking and acting drunk, while Ozzy sat in the background shaking.

There was a particularly memorable moment when Vic Reeves came on to the stage to present the award for Best British Album. He was pissed as a fart, and so he and Sharon fought over who was going to announce the winner. That was about the only controversy on a night celebrating a year of great British music.

Most of the awards went the way I had expected, or at least secretly hoped for. The big winners of the night ended up being Take That, Arctic Monkeys, and Foo Fighters, who all walked away with two awards each.

Leona Lewis ended up as the biggest loser, as even though she managed to win The X Factor in 2006, she managed to lose in all four of the categories she was nominated in.

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Kylie Minogue, she’s almost British, even though she’s an Australian by the simple technicality of being born over there. She launched her pop career here under defunct record label Stock, Aitken and Waterman, and now spends most of her time in the UK, living here when she’s not gallivanting around the world on tour… she’s even appeared in Doctor Who for cripes sakes!

So that’s my justification for writing about her here on Pop Buzz UK.

The latest saga to emerge from camp Kylie is the video for new single Wow (crappy title, not bad song) being banned from British television, or at least it’s first version.

The video was meant to be getting an exclusive première on Channel 4 last Wednesday, but was pulled at the last minute due to Ofcom (the television regulators) rules about flashing light effects.

The video heavily features strobe lighting which could affect epileptics and people sensitive to that sort of thing. Yes, while you’re happily sitting there watching a Kylie video, and wishing you could be her, or be with her, depending on your gender, you could suddenly start fitting or convulsing. Which isn’t a good look by anyone’s standards.

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Well okay, fourth favourite son after John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, but still, it’s news.

Ringo Starr was born and brought up in Liverpool before joining The Beatles and seeing his whole world turned upside down. Obviously with money, came the opportunity to leave Liverpool, and head off in to the sunset, which of course, all four of them did.

But wait, what’s this I see? Ringo has a new album to promote and so all of a sudden starts playing on his Liverpool roots again, and even turns up to perform at the city’s Capital of Culture launch.

The whole of Liverpool, glad to see the return of one of their local heroes, obviously unfurled the red carpet for him, and gave him the kind of welcome Liverpool is renowned for, although I gather Ringo got to keep his wheels, and his teeth, intact.

While playing the gig at St. Georges Hall, he even went as far as telling the crowd that he was close to returning to live in the city, and wanted to return to his home town. Which went down great, except that he was lying though his teeth.

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Amy Winehouse may be about to be made a suspect in the trial fixing plot which her husband Blake Fielder-Civil already finds himself in jail for. If this is the case, and she gets found guilty in a future trial, she could end up facing life in prison.

Fielder-Civil was arrested back in November for the alleged plot to pervert the course of justice. Along with another man, he is accused of trying to persuade a man he allegedly beat up, from giving evidence at the trial.

The police case revolves around a sum of £200,000, which was allegedly offered to the victim for him to withdraw his complaint, and fly out of the country instead.

It’s that large sum of money which is where Winehouse herself becomes involved. The police seized mobile phone records, bank details and computer software when they raided the couple’s house in Camden, London, and this is thought to contain evidence that Winehouse was involved in the plot.

Although it was thought that Winehouse was just being regarded as a witness, the News Of The World claims that her status could change to suspect this week.

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I’ve been following The X-Factor all series, right from the early auditions where we get to see the morons who think they can sing, but can’t even hit a note, get the chance to humiliate themselves on national television. Tonight was finally final time, and we were down to just three acts: Leon Jackson, Rhydian Roberts, and Same Difference.

They all performed three times, singing their favourite songs from the whole series, and they all gave good accounts of themselves, with hardly a bum note audible during the whole 2 hour show.

Rhydian had been the favourite, with the judges, fans, and even the bookies, since the live shows started and his exhibitionist style shone through, and raised him over the rest of the pack. But tonight just wasn’t his night and he lost out to Leon Jackson.

First out were Same Difference, which was the right result, because as good as they are, their fan base must have an average age of about 10, and have a limited musical knowledge which begins and ends with the hits from High School Musical.

So it came down to a straight (although I have my doubts about Rhydian) fight between Danni Minogue’s two acts. I’ve actually been a bit scathing of Dannii in the past, and even though her acts ended up finishing 1st and 2nd, I stand by my thoughts that she is an untalented lump of lard who lives in her sister’s shadow.

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The Spice Girls long awaited reunion (or is it goodbye) tour around the world kicked off in Vancouver, Canada last week, and was feted as a triumph, with very little going wrong.

But, it seems that it’s not all going so smoothly behind the scenes, with arguments and in fighting blighting the comeback tour so far.

The News Of the World’s Rav Singh was given exclusive access behind the scenes of the rehearsals in preparation for the tour, and reports all five of the girls were at each other’s throats in the build up to the record breaking concert run.

He reports the following as having taken place:

“Mel B shouted at Geri for mucking up the dance routine for Stop. She yelled: “You’ve got to keep it together, if you spent more attention on your routines then it would be right.”

“Posh had a pop at Mel B for dancing out of time to Spice Up Your Life. She snapped: “Next time we all have to stand in line and get it right.”

“The others rounded on Posh for spending too much time chatting with pals Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes when they turned up to watch rehearsals with baby Suri.”

There’s no surprises there really, as the attention, and expectation on the five girls must be incredible at this stage. Even though they are all older, and (potentially) wiser, you can’t pile stress on people and expect them not to clash with people close to them.

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Amy Winehouse had a bit of a difficult day yesterday. First of all she went to visit her husband Blake Fielder-Civil in Pentonville prison, where he is currently remanded in custody awaiting trial on charges of perverting the course of justice.

I wrote the full story up on Brit Music Scene, but in a nutshell, he is accused of allegedly trying to fix a trial in which he was accused of assaulting a pub landlord.

While visiting hubby, also a drug addict like Amy herself, The Sun claim she had her famous beehive haircut searched for drugs. Now this could be bullshit, but it made me giggle none the less, so I thought I’d run with it. I’ve never thought of Amy’s beehive being useful for storing things in, but thinking about it, it’s the perfect place!

I can just imagine her having her own pharmacy stored up there, and if she actually combed it, a whole barrage of drug paraphernalia would tumble out on to the ground.

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The Spice Girls comeback is going very well so far, with almost all venues on their huge world tour, which I detailed here on Pop Buzz UK when it was announced at the end of June, sold out already. But they’re not getting it all their own way by any means.

The girls have recorded a new song, their comeback single, which is called ‘Headlines: Friendship Never Ends’ which is being released as part of the ‘Children In Need’ charity fund-raising event for the BBC.

It’s received mixed reviews so far, with most agreeing it isn’t exactly up to par on the girls older material, which love them or loathe them, was always ultra catchy pop. This song is more like take it or leave it pap. I reviewed it on Brit Music Scene… and was quite cutting about the video.

Now the Radio 1 playlist team have also put the boot in, deciding that the song is only good enough to be categorized as C List. This means that the song will only receive one play per day on the national BBC station.

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Robbie Williams, already one of the best paid British singers, has added another £32 million to his vast fortune, due last year’s recent world tour.

Mr Williams has been in the news a lot recently, first for upsetting American television viewers with his jokes about anal sex and drugs, and then by calling Courtney Love fugly. But this time, he’s being written about for the stupendous amount of cash he earned from last year’s massive world tour.

Williams performed 44 gigs in 14 countries over a nine month period, earning a cool £32,200,163. The profits from last year almost equalled the total he earned from the last four years.

An industry insider told The Mirror:

“People often say that Robbie is on the way out, especially after his last album Rudebox was panned by the critics. But this just proves that he’s still got what it takes to earn big money.”

But what is the true cost of performing like a monkey on stage every night for months at a time without a break? Money is obviously great, but the extensive touring and the pressures of fame have lead to Robbie suffering from a whole range of problems.

From a downward spiral in to depression, and long spells in rehab for drink and drugs abuse, it hasn’t exactly been a fun time for the former Take That singer.

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Pete Doherty has had a video clip of him injecting heroin into a vein in his right arm published by a British tabloid newspaper. As sick as that is, it’s made even worse by the fact that he;s spent the last week claiming to be completely drug free after attending the court ordered rehabilitation sessions.

Yesterday, two stories about the Babyshambles, and former Libertines front man appeared at virtually the same time. The first was an interview which Pete had given to NME, in which he claimed to be “in mourning” for drugs. He said:

“It’s hard work. I think I miss it [drugs] a bit. After years of entrenched drug abuse, you have a mourning period. I know it’s a bit sad, but I’m in mourning. I’m in mourning for an armful.”

“”It’s quite a lengthy probation requirement and drug-testing order. It might have been better to do a couple of months and have it done with, to be honest. But that’s a bit defeatist - it’s pessimistic.

“I don’t want to go to jail, I’ve had enough of all that. But the chances of me not getting arrested once in the next 18 months are quite slim really - the way the Old Bill are.”

That’s quite sad to be in mourning for drugs isn’t it, although there was me at least thinking good on you for sticking with it, and just focussing on your music. And then The Sun newspaper published a video on their website, with stills in the newspaper itself, showing Doherty allegedly injecting a needle full of heroin in to his arm. What an idiot.

The footage was supposedly shot at his home on Friday, after he arrived back from the MTV EMAs. At the awards ceremony everyone was surprised at how genuinely nice Pete was, though now the reasoning becomes clear, he was probably chilled knowing he was a day away from getting a fix.

After the video was published, fans of Doherty slammed message boards and forums on the web claiming that the footage was old, and that he was still free of drugs. But they have been roundly shut up by Pete admitting it was him, and it was shot on Friday.

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