Virgin

As skin cells fade from fluorescent to mild tan and gallons of mud are soaked away from tents, tipis and T-shirts, the grim reality of Glastonbury disintegrating away into the Somerset hills for another three hundred and sixty days becomes harrowingly apparent. The world of Worthy Farm was rocked by the devastating news of the demise of the King of Pop, the first major musical loss perhaps of this Millennium and bar the odd sour jab (largely spurted from the overtly foul mouth of the John Peel Tent’s druid compère), a sombre note resounds within Glastonbury’s walls. R.I.P. Michael Jackson.

Despite destructive downpours, storms sounding as if the sky was cracking/ God was chomping through a fair amount of Kit Kats (depending on your religious standing) and the fickle clay ground underfoot, this year’s festival went off without a hitch. Despite the Stone Circle not being half as ancient as it may appear, Wednesday night sees traditions upheld as a bleary-eyed bunch scale the hills, alighting lanterns and necking the finer concoctions of juice cartons hijacked by spirits before warm cider takes the reigns. And so with Glastonbury inaugurated, let the festivities begin…

Thursday was this year officially incorporated into the musical end of the weird and wonderfully skewed spectrum that Eavis has refracted through tie-die beards over the past few decades, as Maxïmo Park’s afternoon slot on the Queen’s Head stage draws a monstrous rabble. Their brand of lightweight intellectual indie is anthemic enough but maybe the recently reformed East 17 would have been a more bountiful kick-off. As spirits are gradually raised throughout the evening, so too is the eccentricity of those guitar-slingers signed away to prolong their hedonism for the sake of an extra show or two; Golden Silvers’ spangling funk-pop sees them sparkle more effervescently than ever, Kap Bambino kick and scream their way through a categorically cacophonous ramshackle show and Metronomy’s synced saxophonic blasts run rejoicing into the night with spanked bass lines. The dominoes are up and they’re condemned to fall.

Friday highlights at Glastonbury - after the rain, came the sun and then came the music. N*E*R*D’s Pharrell Williams, Little Boots, Hot Chip, Gabriella Cilmi and Lily Allen all paid their tribute to Michael Jackson. The Specials offered their take on the Glastonbury lineup and revealed no love loss for Lady GaGa - Terry Hall called her ‘gross’ and ‘obnoxious’. Lady GaGa herself seemed to prefer to chat her way through her set rather than sing, Jack White’s The Dead Weather played a surprise set and headliner Neil Young proved there’s life in the dog yet…

While Glastonbury festival goers react to the news of Michael Jackson’s death, the music plays on. After a soggy start the sun comes out and Lily Allen treats the crowd to her cover version of Britney Spears’ Womanizer. While Lily later wore one white glove in tribute to Michael Jackson, Doves and Pharrell Williams of N*E*R*D offered their musings over the death of the ‘king of pop’…

Florence Welch, winner of the Brits Critics Choice, talks to Bob from virgin.com/music about her debut album Lungs, her festival plans for the summer and how she’d like to share the stage with Beyonce and Beth Ditto from The Gossip…

• watch part 1 of the Florence & The Machine interview

Florence Welch (she who is Florence & The Machine) speaks to Bob from virgin.com/music about her rise to prominence last year as one of the BBC’s Sounds of 2009 and the Brits Critics Choice of the year. She also dishes the gossip about what she got up to backstage at the NME tour earlier this year with White Lies and Glasvegas…

• watch part 2 of this interview where she reveals her plans for the summer of 2009 and who she’d like to collaborate with…

Glastonbury regulars often profess that the festival is a home from home, an annual pilgrimage. Granted, very few people actually live in enormous fields jammed with music, mud and biodegradable pegs, but it is a valid point. This year the homely feel will be bolstered by an abundance of acts that are on the latter side of the youth vs experience divide, bringing familiarity to the faces the hordes stare at from afar. Records long since gathering digital dust will be filling cars and minds on the road to Worthy Farm, taking listeners closer to where they came from.

However, as well as the unfailing non-debate about the shocking nature of the line up – last year too radical, this year too wrinkly – there will be another constant at this year’s festival of festivals: houses. While the second homes scandal has left politicians shamed and the public has been left mortar-fied (sorry) by ever-decreasing property values, Michael Eavis has gone and booked a main stage nigh-on obsessed with dwellings of all shapes and sizes. There even seems to be a hierarchy happening with this property phenomenon. Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen, as the undisputed joint legends of the jaunt, don’t just get the biggest trailers – they get the largest house references. Both singers are likely to boom out separate songs titled Mansion on the Hill, clearly illustrating their financial clout as well as their musical standing. The tales tell of aspiration rather than grandeur, but at Glastonbury these hypothetical mansions are on “no ordinary hill”. According to Glastonbury Tor’s website, people “develop personal, profound relationships” with the mound. As the final headliner, Blur are not quite at mansion status, having to settle instead for their Country House. The Oasis-beating single, which the band promise will be revamped and rocked up for Glasto, may be a tad on the small side quality-wise, but Damon Albarn assures us it is a “very big house”.

With the big guns taking the intellectual property rights issue slightly too literally, those preceding them on the Pyramid Stage are playing catch up. Madness lay claim to the only home to spawn its own musical with Our House, while House of Fun gives them another track to claim expenses on. Meanwhile, Fleet Foxes’ slow-burning prospects will be offered to the masses when Quiet House breathes its understated mastery, while Crosby, Stills and Nash’s own Our House is sure to fire up memories. All that will be left before the long trip back home for another year is for the only investment more reliable than real estate, Tom Jones, to croon a rather famous number concerning some place or other where the grass is always greener. Home sweet home.

• Photo courtesy of al_green’s Photostream

Chances are you’ve not yet hunted down territorial Sunset Strippers Steel Panther. After all, they’ve vanished from the public eye for the past twenty years. Allegedly…

With Spinal Tap lined up for a special Pyramid Stage slot at this month’s Glastonbury Festival there’s never been a more apt era for a tongue-in-cheek glam-metal resurgence and Steel Panther are the men to spearhead the movement. Grounding in the UK a mere matter of hours ago, they’ve already attempted to enter the Guinness World Records through staging the largest air guitar collective at last weekend’s Download Festival. News of the success of such a mission is yet to escape the walls of Castle Donnington but all will be revealed this week on Virgin Music.

Their debut UK outing, Feel The Steel was let loose last week and lead single Death To All But Metal is out today which sees Slipknot main man Corey Taylor (or #8) out from behind the mask on a record that also features the likes of The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins, Anthrax’s Scott Ian and The Donnas’ Allison Robertson. Not that they’re strangers to the fickle world of showbiz; their onstage guests read like the index to an American gossip mag, counting the likes of Avril Lavigne, Gene Simmons, Dave Navarro, Kelly Clarkson and Dennis Rodman in amongst the ranks of US “celebs”. Not too ragged for a bunch of glammed up hair metallers playing Las Vegas casinos twice weekly…

• Delve into the crazed existence of Steel Panther’s Myspace
• The band play a one-off, exclusive show at London’s 229 Club tomorrow (16th June) and tickets can be caught here

Picnics, Pimms, plasters and paralytic climes swarm about the initiation of the British festival season like mosquitoes over Latitude’s lake. Wychwood is upon us. Camping in the shadow of Cheltenham racecourse’s solitary stand, the sun’s laser-like rays gleaming off its dubious futuristic architecture, pretence and cares simultaneously fly out of the kaleidoscopic array of tents that litter the innards of the track. And they’re quite literally the only litter to be seen. Whilst tent pegs can be found six feet under at Worthy Farm months after Glastonbury has passed through, Wychwood’s recycling scheme has caught on. The sheer cleanliness is astounding; not a single path is doused in vomit, dreadlocks are showered and nigh on every last biodegradable cup makes its way to a bin.

Friday night headliners and prime purveyors of Welsh surrealism Super Furry Animals recently renounced gigs indoors given the proposed force of their pulsating psychedelia. Colossal as ever, Gruff Rhys and his fuzzy-bearded sonic companions produce the respectable rather than the promised spectacular. Splitting their mammoth set in two, the first half sees Rhys waving placards labelled “Applause” and “Whoa” in his best Jerry Springer impersonation whilst flowing through choice cuts from latest record, ‘Dark Days/ Light Years’. ‘Inaugural Trams’ comes across as Kraftwerk on a sugar high and a budget photo reproduction of Franz Ferdinand’s German guitarist Nick McCarthy counts to four. With its message of reduced emissions, quite why Rhys & co are yet to be roped into children’s TV frankly is anyone’s guess. The space-funk of ‘Moped Eyes’ is phenomenal and adds a tinge of Woodstock to proceedings whilst the slump of ‘Mt’ is a sublime soundtrack to a Gloucestershire sunset. Disappearing for a second or two, the Yang to their newfound Ying is a ramification of every mangled moment for which tonight’s swaying throng fell head over heels for these seasoned dragons. Opening with ‘Slow Life’, even without Power Rangers helmet it’s empoweringly euphoric. ‘Juxtaposed With U’, eight years down the line, is the best hotel jazz never to be spurted from nicotine-soaked vocal chords and knock-off ivories whilst ‘God! Show Me Magic’ is a refreshing a burst as a torrential downpour over baked soil and frazzled limbs. Rounding off with the extendable cult classic ‘The Man Don’t Give a Fuck’, the Super Furries’ manifesto is as clear as the azure skies above; neglecting all but one of their masterpieces unleashed in the last five years, they’re playing for themselves. Who jumps on their inaugural tram is irrelevant but you’d be mad to miss it.

With every child tucked away in a sleeping bag, it’s off to the Silent Disco which sees European DJs cavorting onstage with gatecrashers, acoustic guitars and enough Motown to resuscitate New Orleans. Queens of the Stone Age are about as out of place as any alcohol with a higher content than watered down cider but with ears ringing, The Mummers early afternoon Independent Stage offers ideal respite. Dreamy Alice In Wonderland-esque vocals paired with Circus instruments and Mini Moogs elevate the Brighton troupe into the realms of the ephemeral. ‘Wonderland’ is otherworldly, melding together the muffled synths of Air and vocal heights last scaled by infamous Icelander Björk. A stunningly operatic take on Passion Pit’s ‘Sleepyhead’ is the unforeseen highlight and lands just the right side of twee. Somehow quintessentially British in braces and ruffles yet unfathomably eccentric, they may well be what all the murmurs are about come Latitude.

Priding itself on emerging artists balanced precariously on the cusp of greatness, following in the footsteps of The Feeling and Duffy, Little Boots is this year’s One to Watch, albeit whilst retaining an ounce or two more of credibility. Not that a whole load of revellers are altogether fussed; pirates wail sea shanties and nippers bash balls terrifyingly through sunbathing throngs whilst Victoria Hesketh initially draws dribs and drabs. As with last week’s Dot to Dot, once more she arrives late, making the comparatively foetal crowd wait as a synth’s playing up. Opening with the crushing cacophony of ‘Every Little Earthquake’ it’s evident that the only ground-shaking this weekend will emanate from Hesketh’s minute, Minogue-like frame. And that’s not just due to the vociferous volume belted out from speaker stacks left, right and centre. Subdued and humble as ever, her primed, pure guitar-less pop speaks greater volumes than her wilted Lancashire accent could ever speak. There’s little the Pet Shop Boys wouldn’t do for either ‘Tune Into My Heart’ or ‘Symmetry’ but it’s the singles that hit home hard enough to hammer bells on Blackpool pier. The pulsation of ‘Stuck on Repeat’ is hypnotic whilst ‘New in Town’, out this week, is perhaps the best British single of the year thus far. That is until ‘Remedy’ cures the current misconception of indie. If her festival shows this summer don’t get there first. Pint-sized, picture-perfect: pandemonium is sure to ensue.

• Photo courtesy of Deargdoom57’s Flickr

What better way to expand the empire founded on this week’s number one album Sunny Side Up than heading out on a UK tour counting the heads of each and every loyal record purchaser? Whilst fans of Paolo Nutini may have to wait until the supposedly ’sunny’ Summer months have passed, the Scot’s 15-night stint’s sure to bring out female hysteria in Bournemouth and beyond. If his Autumn voyage is just too distant, he’ll be rolling in and out of every festival from Glastonbury to T in the Park and V Festival.

His UK tour calls at:

September

Sun 27th BLACKPOOL, Empress Ballroom

Mon 28th NOTTINGHAM, Rock City

Tue 29th BIRMINGHAM, Academy

Wed 30th LONDON, Hammersmith Apollo

October

Fri 2nd BOURNEMOUTH, BIC Solent Hall

Sat 3rd PORTSMOUTH, Guildhall

Mon 5th MANCHESTER, Apollo

Tue 6th CARDIFF, Wales Millennium Centre

Wed 7th SHEFFIELD, Academy

Fri 9th LEEDS, Academy

Sat 10th NEWCASTLE, Academy

Sun 11th NEWCASTLE, Academy

Tue 13th DUNDEE, Caird Hall

Wed 14th GLASGOW, Academy

Thu 15th GLASGOW, Academy

Tickets go on sale this Friday 12th June at 9am and are priced at £20-£25 + booking fee

• Paolo Nutini’s Myspace

Whilst electro princesses couldn’t take up any more column inches were they armed with metre sticks, London’s VV Brown’s modern Motown is more than holding its own. Following the release of Little Boots’ debut a mere matter of hours ago, Brown’s planned her attack in the wake of Human League-inspired pop with catchy-as-swine-flu single Shark In The Water and debut LP Travelling Like The Light both shooting out next month. Stripping back the glitz and the glam, here’s an acoustic bedroom cover of Kings of Leon’s Use Somebody. Maybe don’t bet on catching it at Glastonbury though…

Recently I was fortunate enough to catch up with one of the most genuine guys in the business, Tommy Sparks, just following the release of his second single, She’s Got Me Dancing. We talked about his upcoming debut, self-titled album, his plans for the summer, thoughts on the current music scene, just how important playing live is to him and loads more.

Tom Sowerby: She’s Got Me Dancing has just come out. Is it being well received?
Tommy Sparks: Yeah, I think so. The last show at least we had a lot of people singing along, but I actually don’t keep too much track of it. Obviously you can get a feel for it, by monitoring friend requests and seeing comments, but it’s not something I really think about to be honest. I’ve been involved with music and bands for so long that whatever way it goes doesn’t really matter to me.

TS: I’ve heard your new album; I liked it. How do you feel about it?
TommyS: Oh thank you, I’m so pleased you liked it. As an artist you’re never happy though.

TS: How was it working with Mike Crossey?
TommyS: I’ve got nothing but love for that guy, he’s amazing, and actually at the time I did another session with another producer, who I won’t name his name but it was a complete disaster. We did it abroad, in the Czech Republic actually and came back and it just didn’t work out… at all. We came back to London and it just felt negative. Then we stumbled upon Mike Crossey and had one meeting with him, and I was like “This guy’s so sweet and amazing!” and we did the record in four weeks.

TS: Yeah, now you did the record in four weeks, didn’t you?
TommyS: Well it’s hard to say because modern music making is so different. My mum basically lives in these thousand islands outside of Stockholm and you have to travel there by boat and she basically had a hut outside her house in the forest, it was like a woodcutters lodge and it had electricity, I don’t know why, but it had and a couple of sockets. I went out there at the Vatican DC split and I basically recorded all these songs and programmed some basic stuff and recorded it, and on the record some of the sounds are from there and some are from London. It would be like I’m going to e-mail you a drum pattern and then you e-mail me back. It used to be cool and simple; we wrote our songs there then we all set up in the studio and played but it’s just not like that anymore! Anything goes; I wrote most of it out there, and recorded loads and then kind of re-recorded it back here.

TS: It sounds like a pretty inspirational place; do you think it helped you get in the mind frame?
TommyS: Well I was pretty down at that time, because I put a lot of faith in Vatican DC, but it also taught me to not give a fuck, you know? But it’s like the saying “You haven’t really made it until you’ve failed four times”, and you know, if I fail this time, I’ll be halfway there! Can’t wait for the next two! But it’s true, because you just get over yourself, and get less pretentious and just become more and more honest in what you do, what you create and write about. It’s an important process, for me anyway. A lot of musicians, I think, don’t have that.

TS: Now, is it right that you left school at 13?
TommyS: Yes

TS: Was it for music purposes or…?
TommyS: Well, when I was in school I was bullied, so school wasn’t a good experience. It never was, I never felt protected. So leaving school was a positive thing for me. My dad, he isn’t alive anymore but he was a thespian and I got a lot of cultural education just from being with him at home, and I got a lot of language skills too.

TS: Sorry to hear that. So you left school for other reasons, but what made you decide that music was for you?
TommyS: Well my sister gave me a mix tape of Hip Hop and it really impressed, completely blew my mind. Big Daddy Kane and stuff. And there were still mix tapes around! And Public Enemy as well, all these awesome pop/Hip Hop guys, and the lyrical content and the beat really impressed me. A good beat goes a long way…

TS: Yeah, when did you move to England?
TommyS: I moved in with my sister, pretty much a year after leaving school, but then I’ve also moved back here at times so it’s quite backwards and forwards. It was quite a positive thing for me, leaving Sweden, as even though I love it, it was kind of a life saving experience.

TS: What was the first concert you ever saw live?
TommyS: Trying to think… could have been Kiss actually, I think my mum got some tickets when I was like 6 maybe? They didn’t have make-up on, I don’t know what year it was, but it was quite shit basically, it was like “where’s the make-up!”

TS: Yeah, I can imagine. Did you have a real love for music by that age?
TommyS: Well I didn’t grow up in a hugely musical home; my mum was a TV producer and my dad was an actor, so they didn’t do music, but I suppose arts are all connected really. So there wasn’t really a lot of music going on, but I got my first bass at 14 and it cost me like £50 and I’m so gutted I don’t have it still, because I would love it. I play the drums as well.

TS: Yeah, I know, it seems like you play everything!
TommyS: Well I didn’t play drums on the record- bass is the instrument I can actually play, where I’m not just blagging it, but drums is the instrument I really love. You keep the whole band together and stuff, you’re the one. Front man… fuck you! If the drummer goes, the band is done.

TS: Definitely. Do you think you’ll be confident enough to play drums on future releases?
TommyS: I don’t have to be confident doing it, because you just fake it! On this record I used this guy Tal Amiran, an Israeli drummer in my old band, Vatican DC. We released a record in Vatican DC but it got a bit unpleasant and ended in a horrible way, but I wasn’t going to talk about that actually. But on this record we didn’t use any fake beats or anything and he sounds like a machine.

TS: Yeah, do you think in future you’ll get into more of a band format?
TommyS: Well the members of the band I have now are perfect and it took me ages to find the right ones. It’s got to the point where I almost feel awkward saying that I’m a solo artist now because of them, because of Sam, Tom, Min and Salvador. They’re amazing and really contribute. We’re not a pretentious bunch; We want to fight all that shit; that artist bullshit.

TS: So Tommy Sparks kind of feels more like a band than just you?
TommyS: It’s started to feel that way because we spend so much time together as well. I always try to get one of them with me for the interviews as well but they were all busy today.

TS: What are you mainly listening to at the moment?
TommyS: I got the new Horror’s album, and I fucking love it, and NME actually got it right; it’s fucking awesome. That first single, Sea Within A Sea, blew my mind when I first heard it. Because I love Krautrock, like Can and it’s good music. I just make pop music but I love that shit; one of my favourite bands are Sonic Youth and I love Helmet, this hardcore band- actually get ‘Mean Time’ it’s really good- but yeah, Sea Within A Sea is just excellent, that’s the last album I bought. It might not make any sense as to who I am, but what can you do? The only music I listen to now really is Hip Hop and dance music, band music very rarely gets me. The Horrors album is the first in a long time to get me.

TS: Yeah, and you have a pretty distinctive sound. Do you think your varying influences are the reason behind that?
TommyS: Of course, I never ever went in to make a certain sounding record which I think a lot of people are very good at, like the Horrors, they are great at going for a genre and doing it so well, but I’ve never gone in thinking “I’m going to tap into this”. I just do whatever.

TS: Because the whole dance/electro scene is really big right now, how do you think you fit into it?
TommyS: I don’t think I fit in at all- I think if people see us live they will realise that we are more of a guitar band. Labelling bands is very hard, and I suppose the best label for us would be pop, because that’s pretty much where we’re at, dance or pop. Its more a journalist thing labelling, because you need to sum up our sounds. But I don’t really mind, it’s just there to try to explain to people what it is. I just think sometimes it can work in a negative way because it can narrow it down. I always wanted to write a pop record, but make it interesting. Interesting lyrically and sonically, that was my ambition.

TS: Now, you have a really impressive list of festivals for this summer…
TommyS: Yeah, I think it’s just from people coming to check us out live and I guess the promoters thought “yeah, that will work” and decided to book us up. We’re playing a surf festival in Newquay which for me is the most exciting one of the year because I’m big on surfing too; I’ve been there so much and have friends that live there. We really focus on the live show as where once you would promote your records by going on tours, now you put out a record to promote your tour.

TS: So for you, playing live is making your money?
TommyS: Exactly. I’m not a greedy person obsessed by making money or anything. If I was I would have gone and got a real job, and not fucked about in different bands for so long! But yeah that’s the way it looks now… which I like, because I love the live side, it’s the bit I most enjoy.

TS: Do you think you could have achieved any similar success if you had stayed in Sweden?
TommyS: Erm, I don’t know, probably not; I never settled in Sweden and funnily enough I feel more English at this moment in time. But I feel it was more important for me to move. It could have been anywhere but it was because my sister lived here and it was good moving here, I love London. When you travel and stuff you realise, even though London has its days when it’s like “Ah it’s doing my head in!”, coming back to London is always amazing, and I don’t even know why, because it’s like shit isn’t it! Looks like shit, smells like shit, there’s nothing awesome about it, but there is something about it, there’s a good vibe, good people. I live in Kilburn and I really love it there.

TS: What would you say has been the highlight of your career so far?
TommyS: This interview! I don’t really look at it as highlights, I enjoy the moments playing live, every gig we’ve ever done, even the ones that go bad; we’ve always come out of it with something that feels real. I would just say playing live; all kinds of playing live, like the session for Bloc Party, which was possibly the best moment of my life… except for being born, but I don’t remember that. I keep getting Blackberry messages saying that I’m doing well on the iTunes chart, but I haven’t even got an iTunes account.

TS: Ideally, where can you see yourself in five years time?
TommyS: Just hopefully still being creative and happy really, that’s about it, being nice. I don’t know where I’m going to end up; I want to do all of it!

TS: And last question: who out of anyone would you most like to work with?
TommyS: Neil Young’s Harvest is one of my all time favourites. It’s fucking mind-blowing. I saw him a while ago in Finsbury Park and I remember he played Piece of Crap. It’s a newer one and it was when George Bush had been in for around three years and he came out and said “I want to dedicate this next song to the President of the United States of America” and I was just thinking “Oh god, my hero’s just gone in front of my eyes, and he’s going to play one of my favourite songs!” Then he said “This song is called Piece of Crap!” and it was fucking brilliant! I’m going to try and get onstage to see him at Glastonbury. We’re going to have a good time this year; we’ve got our own outfits and we’re doing a couple of covers, like Pets by Porno for Pyros, and the Frankie Knuckles remix of Blind by Hercules and the Love Affair. It’s going to be amazing. I’ll never be able to match his vocals but it should be great, we’re just trying to have fun, I’m over being pretentious. I’m always hanging out in the crowd, it’s so boring back stage, just loads of bands walking around recognising each other but not wanting to talk to each other. We’re just trying to have fun… if anyone gets in our way, we’ll kill them! Put that in the article!

• For more information on Tommy Sparks, visit his MySpace site.

Karima Francis is a young lady currently playing and singing in a style way beyond her years. Her fragile yet striking appearance gives little away about her confident vocal delivery and solid guitar style. She is one to watch.

The diversity of her songwriting style and deeply personal lyrics about a difficult upbringing presents us with a fresh hybrid of many genres and artists, from folk to alternative, from Tracy Chapman to Joan Armatrading. Yet, besides these almost too-obvious comparisons is a real diamond in the rough. An authentic artist - bells, whistles and all - honing her craft into something unique and memorable.

The Blackpool-born, Manchester-based singer/songwriter fills you with something uncompromising and unashamed, something that gives you great pride in the independent labels pushing alternative artists to the forefront of the transnational mediascape. That something is hard to pinpoint, but Karima is assured, note-perfect and so pleasing to the ear that you find yourself in a trance throughout the listening experience. And believe me, it really is quite an experience when the 21-year-old opens her mouth. You find yourself crossing genre barriers and culture canons you never thought you would. This girl makes it okay to do that, and with an upcoming tour supporting James Morrison and an appearance at Glastonbury Festival waiting, the future is looking bright.

Armed with songs to fill you with feelings of regret, love, tragedy and truth, she will almost certainly enchant everyone lucky enough to see her. And for someone only just finding her feet in the business, she has already begun to confidently walk the uneven road to success. She may be just finding her voice, but what a voice it is.

Again is the first single from Karima’s new album titled The Author, and is released on March 23rd.

• MySpace

As I typed Tony Christie’s number into my phone I began to chuckle to myself. I scrolled down my contacts list as if I was a stranger to my phone so I could surprise myself when I stumbled across the celebrity name. My job was to speak to Christie about his new single and even though the legend himself had managed to catch a cold, in true ‘the show must go on’ attitude he battled on with the interview…

Tony Christie’s new single Every Word She Said sounds surprisingly fresh coming from a man who has been in the business for the best part of 40 years. Undoubtedly former Pulp guitarist and producer of his latest album, Richard Hawley, has had a huge influence on this raw sound. It’s a sound that I have never associated with Christie although he assured me that he is going back to his roots with this single. With banging drums and thrashing guitar this was a pleasant surprise as I was expecting an ‘Amarillo’-esque sing along.

Christie decided to leave this single off his recent critically acclaimed album, Made in Sheffield, as he believed it didn’t fit. Without setting out to make a commercial album it received a great reception by the likes of NME, The Guardian and the Times.

Christie is proud of his Sheffield roots, the fact that all the songs on the last album are written or co-performed by Sheffield artists reaffirms this. In terms of musical UK cities he told me: “It’s right up there, it always has been.”  However he also believes that Sheffield bands were never very radio friendly as those that hail from there “always have a cutting edge, a grittiness.”

Being as success hungry as he is, Christie believes that the highlight of his career has yet to come and with his first Glastonbury slot in the summer he may be right. Although Made in Sheffield was only released at the end of 2008 he has already some new projects in the pipeline. One of which is a reworking of his original hits which he assured me sounds “contemporary and up to date” with the helping hands of Richard Hawley.

Although he admitted: “I haven’t a clue what sells these days, I can’t keep up with it”, Every Word She Said is probably the best of his songs that I have heard. It is certainly an improvement on some of the granny ballads that someone my age would usually associate him with.

While finding it hard to compete with youth Tony insisted that you should never change your style. “I would never try to be cool and hip, if I change then I’m not me.”

Being in show business for as long as he has you would think that his passion for music would have wilted by this stage. This is certainly not the case.  Christie talked of his love for analogue music “real guitars, bass, drums, pianos. No computers, the way it used to happen, the human side to music.”

“I’ll go as long as I can”, said Christie, although he did admit that when he has no control over his voice he will stop. “I would hate people to say ‘you used to be good”.

From what I can see Christie is only getting better and if his new single is anything to judge by, I say bring on the next album.

• myspace.com/tonychristie

The summer is officially over, so this episode of Eleanor Conway Presents comes ‘atcha from the UK Festival Awards at the O2 indigo, London.

350,000 people voted in this year’s awards, for Best Major Festival, New Festival, Rock Act… the list goes on.

Catch up with Eleanor as she chats to Rob Da Bank winner of Best New Festival (Camp Bestival), goes camping with Best Rock Act winners Biffy Clyro and Pete and the Pirates and chats to hat trick winner Michael Eavis (Glastonbury) as he dishes the dirt on Jay Z and next year’s line up.

View previous episodes of Eleanor Conway Presents on music.virgin.com/author/eleanorconway.

Join her Facebook group before 23/11/08 for the chance to win a copy of Goldfrapp’s Seventh Tree:

Good Luck!