Ellie Goulding wins Brit Awards Critics' Choice prize

Singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding has won the Brit Awards Critics' Choice prize for the act most likely to break through in 2010.

The winner has been announced two months before the ceremony, with Delphic and Marina & The Diamonds named as runners up.

Goulding, who has yet to make the top 40, will collect her award live at the Brits Award ceremony on February 16.

The 22 year old will also perform at the Brits nomination launch at The IndigO2 on January 18 which will be televised on ITV2.

The previous two winners, Adele and Florence and The Machine, have both had massive success in their careers so far.

The award is for emerging acts which music critics, plus radio and TV music supremos, believe will make a breakthrough in 2010. It is open to signed acts who release their debut albums in the coming year.

Ged Doherty, Brits chairman said: "We have no doubt that Ellie Goulding will follow in the successful footsteps of Adele and Florence and the Machine”.

He added “we wish her all the best."

BBC Sound of 2010: Longlist Announced

The BBC has released the longlist for its Sound of 2010 poll, a yearly competition designed to highlight the most exciting musical talent for the coming year.

The fifteen acts on the list were chosen by a panel of 165 UK-based tastemakers, who each named their favourite three new acts, and those with the most votes were put on the list. The top five and winner will be unveiled in January.

The panel’s choices were based on strict criteria. The act can be a performer of any description, band, singer, MC etc. The act must not have had a UK top 20 single or album, and they can be from any musical genre and from any country.

They must not already be famous e.g. member of a hit band going solo, or a TV soap star. Contestants of X Factor and American Idol were strictly forbidden.

This is the 8th year of the BBC’s Sound of… competition. Previous winners have gone on to major chart success. That list includes Little Boots, Adele, Keane and 50 Cent.

Daisy Dares You, Delphic, Devlin, The Drums, Everything Everything, Giggs, Gold Panda, Ellie Goulding, Hurts, Joy Orbison, Marina & the Diamonds, Owl City, Rox, Stornoway and Two Door Cinema Club.

The fifteen best rising music stars announced as the longlist for the BBC's Sound of 2010, are:

- Daisy Dares You
- Delphic
- Devlin
- The Drums
- Everything Everything
- Giggs
- Gold Panda
- Ellie Goulding
- Hurts
- Joy Orbison
- Marina & the Diamonds
- Owl City
- Rox
- Stornoway
- Two Door Cinema Club

Virgin Media to Launch Filesharing Monitor Tool

Virgin Media in the UK has stated that it will start using technology to monitor filesharing traffic on its network, reports Music Week.

The CView system will be implemented by Data processing firm Detica. The tool has been specifically designed to detect copyright infringement within its music download service.

Virgin Media is claiming that this is the first time in the UK that such a tool has been used to detect illegal filesharing.

Virgin has stated that it will monitor around 40% of its broadband users but those being monitored will not be informed that they are part of the test base. This has been met with opposition from consumer bodies.

The technology will allow Virgin to identify P2P packets and explore inside them to determine what content is licensed and what is not.

It is the first ISP to implement such measures. Other ISPs, most notably TalkTalk, have been vocal in their opposition to such systems and disconnections.

Under the recently-published Digital Britain report, the Government gave ISPs a year to reduce filesharing traffic on their networks by 70%.

This was followed by the outlining of the Digital Economy Bill which could see a ‘three strikes’ disconnection and throttling policy imposed for persistent copyright infringers.

Earlier this year, Virgin Media announced plans to develop an unlimited music download service in conjunction with Universal Music. No launch date has been confirmed yet.

Lily Allen - SECC, Glasgow 25th Nov 2009

Cheeky Londoner Lily Allen opened her Glasgow show with ‘Everyone’s At It’, wearing a black and white striped cardi-dress, which was soon to be whipped off.

Her ‘little Miss innocent’ act was present throughout with her giggling fits, her constant fiddling with her sound FX joystick and even when she decided to start handing out pints of Guinness to those in the front rows.

Her newer electro-pop songs better suited her vocals, as she seemed to recognise by cutting tracks like LDN short. Who’d Have Known and Littlest Things were the least pitchy, while I Could Say had some tuning problems.

With a dip in the middle, the set was back on track by her cover of Just Be Good to Me, performed with Professor Green (MC). Smile broke into welcome techno territory and The Fear took it to the encore.

For those who with no opinion, one way or the other, on the 24 year old will find it hard not to be completely won over by her live show. She may have been pretty erratic, but it’s difficult to dislike her.

The show was packed with fun, era-defining pop songs, glamour, and even some shameless filth, but Lily Allen staked her claim to be one of the finest pop stars in Britain at the moment.

Setlist:

Everyone's at It
I Could Say
Never Gonna Happen
Oh My God / Everything's Just Wonderful
"Him"
Who'd Have Known
LDN / Dance Wiv Me
Back to the Start
He Wasn't There
Littlest Things
"Chinese"
"22"
Not Fair
Fuck You

Encore:
"Smile"
The Fear
Womanizer (Britney Spears cover)

ALBUM REVIEW: Tom Waits, Glitter and Doom Live

The first disc of Tom Waits much anticipated two disc live album ‘Glitter & Doom’ is a musical document of the legendary musician and storyteller’s 2008 Glitter and Doom Tour of the US and Europe.

Disc one sounds like a recording of a Tom Wait show, even though the 17 tracks are selected from 10 different dates of his tour. However, each track flows effortlessly and seamlessly into the next.

Waits turns in a very strong performance, with his rendition of classics like ‘Fannin Street’ and the yearning ‘Falling Down’ are heaving with unreserved emotional impact. His raspy vocals sound even more powerfully raw, particularly on tracks like the bluesy ‘Trampled Rose’.

Waits' has left out almost 20 years of the start of his career here. Still he has managed to keeps it fresh by doing new arrangements of many tracks, such as the rocky makeover given to ‘Singapore’ and the groovy beats on ‘Get behind the Mule’.

Disc Two contains a monolithic 35-minute track of a selection of the comic bromides, strange musings, and unusual facts that Tom traditionally shares with his audience during the piano set.

Both discs are edited so they feel like one cohesive slab, despite the fact that they’re very clearly not. This is nice, in that the song selections are cherry-picked, but the listener still gets an experience that feels like Waits’ legendary live show.

Track listing:

1. Lucinda/Ain' Goin' Down
2. Singapore
3. Get Behind the Mule
4. Fannin Street
5. Dirt In the Ground
6. Such a Scream
7. Live Circus
8. Goin' Out West
9. Falling Down
10. The Part You Throw Away
11. Trampled Rose
12. Metropolitan Glide
13. I'll Shoot the Moon
14. Green Grass
15. Make It Rain
16. Story
17. Lucky Day

Mercury Winner Speech Debelle Quits Label over Poor Sales

Mercury-winner Speech Debelle is quitting her record label, saying the company were to blame for disappointing sales of her Mercury-winning debut album.

Debelle has told BBC 6 Music that sales of her debut album Speech Therapy, suffered because of poor distribution by Big Dada records.

The album had sold around 3,000 copies prior to her win, with sales increasing to just below 10,000. Speech Therapy never rose above No 65 in the charts, despite winning the Mercury prize in September.

Compare this to the 300,000 sold by last year's winner, Elbow's The Seldom Seen Kid, and you begin to understand why Speech Therapy has had the worst-ever chart showing by a Mercury winner.

"The Mercury Prize was on Tuesday, and on Friday there were no more physical albums in the shops," she said.

"So, on the Mercury weekend, which would have been my biggest selling weekend, people couldn't get it," added Debelle, whose real name is Corynne Elliot.

"I wasn't disappointed that it didn't sell well, I was disappointed in the people I was working with", she told the BBC.

Big Dada has yet to comment on Speech Debelle's departure.

U2 to Headline for Glastonbury Festival's 40th Anniversary

U2 are to headline next year's Glastonbury Festival, helping the event celebrate its 40th anniversary.

The Irish rockers have been slated for the Pyramid stage's top spot on Friday 25 June, in what will be their first ever appearance at the Somerset festival.

It will be their first festival gig for more than 25 years and will see them make a flying visit to the UK in the middle of a North American tour.

Organiser Michael Eavis had promised something special for Glastonbury's 40th anniversary, and in booking a band that have been rumoured to headline every year since the mid 1980s, he's done just that.

Eavis said "The 26-year-old rumour has finally come true."

"We've been trying for years, and now we've finally made it happen. I'm sure they will pull out all the stops to make next year's Glastonbury the most memorable ever," he added.

As the 2010 event marks its 40th anniversary, Mr Eavis has promised a line-up fit for the occasion.

Some 177,500 people will be at the event after tickets sold out in 24 hours last month.

The festival will take place from Friday 25 to Sunday 27 June 2010. So far, no other headliners have been confirmed.