Virgin

Britney Spears won the Act of 2008 and the the Album Of The Year awards at last night’s MTV Europe Awards at the Echo Arena in Liverpool - proudly sponsored by none other than Virgin Trains. Those world conquering MTV types took the train to Liverpool this year as the city celebrates being European Capital Of Culture 2008. And which most famous Scouser took home the Ultimate Legend Award? Why Sir Paul of McCartney of course. How fitting. And God-like person Bono was even on hand to present the award. With such royalty in attendance it seemed a shame that princess of pop Ms Spears wasn’t on hand to receive her two awards - maybe she was a bit busy with other stuff in the US - you know, family commitments and all that…

Luckily the lovely Pink (or is that P!nk?) made an effort to show up, pick up an award for most addictive track (So What?), start a pillow fight with a bunch of audience members and then shower everyone in feathers. Presumably she heeded the good advice to leave the barrel of tar at home.

30 Seconds To Mars also picked up 2 awards (Rock Out and Video Star), Kanye West was crowned Ultimate Urban and Lil Wayne was the Artists Choice. The Killers also treated us to a performance of their very Giorgio Moroder-sounding single - Human, Kid Rock managed to squeeze two numbers in for the price of one with a mash up of new So Hot and old All Summer Long and bootylicious Beyonce belted out her newie If I Were A Boy. Jared Leto had the crowd standing to attention for a certain Barack Obama while Kanye and Estelle performed American Boy to the President-Elect’s giant mugshot on a big screen. Watch Kanye & Estelle’s performance.

Okay, okay, enough already. We know you Americans are now once again officially the greatest people on the planet ever after 8 years of shame - never more delightfully represented by spoon-wielding Katy Perry in a sequined Barack Obama tshirt - and we really, really love you but what about the rest of us!? Yes okay thank you for the nod in the direction of McCartney, but what about some of our slightly more, uh… hip acts? Come on the European voters - spread the love around a bit…

The Ting Tings and Duffy kept it up for the Brits by performing That’s Not My Name and Mercy, Marks & Spencers’ man band Take That debuted their new single Greatest Day while Liverpool locals The Wombats did a brilliant cover of our Olympic Games representative and MTV award loser Leona Lewis’ Bleeding Love. That’s more like it.

So did we win any awards? Err, well - yes. And which esteemed Brit act took the honour of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with McCartney to showcase the best of what this country has to offer right now? Who did legions of ‘the kids’ vote for as Best Act Ever? Rick Astley. Rick bloody-rolling-Astley. I ask you. Did this have something to do with the democratic but slightly cheeky power of the world wide interweb? Unfortunately Rick wasn’t around to collect his gong but MTV pulled a cracker and got the lovely and gorgeous Perez Hilton - star of Virgin Radio 999 in Toronto - to take it in hand and keep warm for him.

MTV Europe Awards - you have been Rick Rolled. It could only happen here. Oh thank heavens for a slice of Perez and Virgin Train back home to the Old Smoke.

New video from Canada’s own Kardinal Offishall for the song “Numba 1 (Tide Is High)”, which also features the beautiful Keri Hilson. The video is directed by Gil Green who also directed Lil’ Wayne’s “Lollipop”, Young Jeezy’s “Put On” and Kardi’s first video from this album “Dangerous”. The song is a cover version of The Paragons’ 1967 reggae song “The Tide Is High”. The version that appears on Kardi’s album Not 4 Sale is the latest version of the “Tide Is High”, which only features Rihanna.

Since I started blogging on music.virgin.com I get alot of messages on my MySpace about what I should post about and what artists to watch for. I also get emails from several people who visit our blog and they asked me why there aren’t any rap music reviews. Okay folks I have read your emails and I agree that music is all about diversity.

American rapper T.I. will be releasing his album on September 30, 2008. The album’s title, Paper Trail, comes from T.I.’s decision to write down all of his lyrics on paper. About 50 tracks have been recorded during production, including a collaboration with Fall Out Boy on a track called ‘Out in the Cold’.

Special guest appearances include Justin Timberlake, Rihanna,Usher, John Legend, Lil Wayne and Swizz Beats. Production from Kanye West and Just Blaze has been confirmed as well.

Critics are calling Paper Trail T.I.’s best work thus far. I’ve already have heard the album and I’m giving it 5 stars - it’s amazing!

Check out his MySpace.

As I had mentioned in a previous post, the Baltimore Virgin Mobile Festival was fantastic! Without a doubt it was the best festival I’ve ever attended. The old saying is ‘Too much is given, much is tested’ so I knew things weren’t gonna be all perfect. So Lil Wayne came on 45 minutes late, causing The Black Keys to only perform a small set and the raging Black Keys fans ended up chanting ‘LIL WAYNE SUCKS’ … I knew that backstage could get a little heated but I didnt realise that I knew someone with a first-hand account. I was talking to my friend Jeff (who, BTW, had a great view of the stage and was working the backstage security) and he revealed that when the Black Keys first got onstage, the lead member shouted ‘Blame Lil Wayne for taking up our time!’ When they were done, Lil Wayne went up to the band backstage and apologized for being late. I love when things end on good notes! With all that tension and a few angry fans… I still believe that both performers did an excellent job. See you next year Baltimore!

Check out some.verve’s Flickr photostream for more photos.

My fave blog right now is lateboots.com (shout out to Rich for letting me mention the site!) The diverse writers bring such a edge to the site. As I was browsing it, I saw several updates on what is supposed to be one of the biggest concerts to be televised this year…

September 9th 2008 (9pm Eastern/8pm Central) the world as we know it will be on stand-by… waiting for one of the biggest shows of the year. No not the Olympics but, for the 5th consecutive year, Fashion Rocks will bring fashion and music together to put on a dope concert in New York benefitting cancer research. And as we’ve come to expect, the lineup includes the biggest names in pop music today. Featuring performances by such superstars as Beyonce, Chris Brown, Rihanna, N.E.R.D, Lil Wayne, Justin Timberlake, Keith Urban, Duffy, Kid Rock, One Republic, The Pussy
Cat Dolls, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, The Black Eyed Peas and many more guest appearances.

My sources have told me that the special guest will be Lynyrd Skynyrd!! How cool is that!!??

Sidebar: I tried my hardest to get tickets,but with gas being $4.05 in the US it just didn’t fit my budget…

Check back soon for pictures and visit lateboots.com

Check out Hot Meteor’s Flickr photostream for more Lynyrd Skynyrd photos like this one.

Okay so my weekend was amaaaazing, one bad turn… sidebar: My car was stolen Saturday morning from outside my hotel. But luckily the great people at ONSTAR found it.

As I walked through the VIP gate I could hear people saying ‘Lupe Fiasco is gonna kill it’ … and he did. Duffy and Bloc Party were among my favorite performances. As the sun started to set and the crowd on the South stage started chanting ‘We want the Foo Fighters’ …that was exactly what they got.

The always energetic Foo Fighters brought out a huuuuuuuuuge crowd. Beer started to be thrown and people start shoving… the entire performance people had up their rock and roll sign. It was surely a night to remember!!

Sunday - I got up extra early because I was so excited to see Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Paramore, Bob Dylan and The Black Keys. Lil Wayne came on an hour late so the crowd started to booooooooooo. When he finally came out he was great and very apologetic. He kept saying how he loved the fans..blah..blah… Him being late caused The Black Keys to only perform 5 songs. Their fans were so upset they started chanting ‘F!@# Lil Wayne’!

Up next was the legend Bob Dylan. He brought out a more mature crowd and some hippies! His soothing voice and his harmonica was the only thing he brought on stage.  Even though his music is not my generation… we all know his catchy song ‘Everybody wants to get stoned’!!!!!!!!!

Kanye West closed the show and I was in the first row. His performance was full of emotion. It was the best light show I’ve ever seen in my life - other then the Olympic opener. He talked to us and told us how much he loved us. One fan screamed ‘I wish I was you!’ He replied with ‘No you dont,can you imagine how it feels to have everyone know your name?”

It was such a wonderful night and I can’t believe I was that close to someone I have been an admirer of for such a long time. Thank you Mr Bob Fear for picking me to win the VIP ticket competition and to blog on this site which has finally made my dream to see Kanye come true.

Check out Napalm filled tires’ Flickr photostream for other Kanye photos.