Happy 100th Edition NOW That's What I Call Music!

Can anyone else actually believe it? The music compilation series, NOW That's What I Call Music! has reached it's 100th edition. I bet in 1983, when Richard Branson and co. decided to make a compilation on their Virgin Record label, they never imagined how successful it would be, or the fact that we would get to the 100th edition 35 years later.

Every single NOW album so far...including NOW 100 © @NOWMusic on Twitter

To celebrate, I thought that I would give you an insight into what the NOW series means to me and everyone else, as well as some facts about the most popular music compilation series in the UK ever.

I can't believe that I am typing these words...my first NOW album that I received was NOW 47, which was released in November 2000...meaning I was 7, making me feel old!  From then on, I always loved receiving a NOW for either Christmas or my birthday, as they usually are released just before these important dates. 

To put into perspective how old it is making me feel thinking about my first NOW, let's have a look at the track list. NOW albums consist of two CDs. Usually, CD 1 is classed as "the good CD," as it generally contains good songs, and CD 2 is classed at "the not great CD," meaning that whilst there are some good songs on there, the rest are usually obscure songs that no one has heard of or just not great. 

On NOW 47, we have songs that are guaranteed to take you right back in terms of memories, whether you were having your cheesy pop phase, listening to Steps' Stomp, Spice Girls' Holler (minus Geri Haliwell who had left by then) and S Club 7's Natural, rocking out to Bon Jovi's It's My Life and U2's Beautiful Day, or getting all your friends together for a club night and dancing to songs such as Darude's Feel the Beat and Storm's Time to Burn. Going back to the cheesy pop phase, it is interesting to note that NOW 47 also includes 3 Spice Girls tracks from their solo careers: Mel C with I Turn to You, Mel B with Tell Me and Victoria Beckham (featuring Dane Bowers) with Out Of Your Mind. The other thing worth noting is aside from these three technically appearing twice on this album, with also get a a double dosage of the most featured artist on NOW album ever, Robbie Williams (31 on his own and 5 with Take That) and the Princess of Pop, Kylie Minogue, thanks to their duet Kids, and their solo songs, Rock DJ and On a Night Like This respectively.




Since NOW 47, I have added other NOW albums to my collection. These are (apologies in advance for the long list!): NOW 49, NOW 52, NOW 55, NOW 59, NOW 61, NOW 62, NOW 64, NOW 65, NOW 66, NOW 67, NOW 68, NOW 74, NOW 76, NOW 79 (nearly at the end!), NOW 81, NOW 82 and NOW 86. I downloaded NOW 86 from iTunes but I have the others on CD.

To give you guys an idea at how popular the NOW compilation is, it has got to number one on the UK albums chart multiple times and it has spawned special editions, such as NOW That's what I call Christmas, NOW That's what I call Running and NOW That's What I Call Footie Anthems, due to the 2018 World Cup. NOW That's What I Call Dad Rock and NOW That's What I Call Mum have also been released, in line with Father's Day and Mother's Day in the UK. Not only has the compilation got to number one multiple times and spawned special editions, NOW 44 is biggest selling NOW album to date and the best selling compilation album ever. Not bad going considering it all started with Richard Branson buying a Danish Bacon poster from his future wife, depicting a pig watching a chicken clucking, along with the words Now, That's What I Call Music.






In order to celebrate the success of the compilation, and the fact it has reached its 100th edition, NOW 100 has taken a different approach when it came to its track list.  Whilst CD 1 focuses on the most recent hits, such as Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa's One Kiss, George Ezra's Shotgun and Anne Marie's 2002, CD 2 focuses on NOW's greatest hits, such as UB40"s Red Red Wine, which featured on the first NOW, Spice Girls' Wannabe, which featured on NOW 34, and most recently, Mark Ronson's Uptown Funk, featured on NOW 90. Yes, some people were hoping for more considering it was the 100th edition, but NOW That's What I Call NOW is due to be released in November 2018, consisting of 5 CDs filled with 100 best songs featured on a NOW CD.

So...what's next for the NOW compilations? Will it reach to NOW 200? Well...my honest answer is yes. Despite the easy access to many songs and albums, using streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify, I reckon that the NOW compilation albums will stand the test of time. Whether it will remain on CD is another story considering how advanced technology is becoming (10 years ago, we were only just getting an iPhone...how scary!) but I know that this won't prevent people from buying this beloved compilation. I mean, it's managed to get to the 100th edition so it must be doing something right!

As for me? Writing about the NOW albums and seeing images on Twitter of people with all, or most, of them has made me want try and see whether I could get as many NOW albums as I can. It'll be a challenge and I'll probably only get the ones from mid nineties onwards but we'll see!

Em x

TRNSMT Festival 2018!

For the last couple of weeks, everyone was caught up in Football Fever. However, for the last two weekends, those who were in Scotland were in festival fever...yep, in TRNSMT festival fever to be precise.

The first TRNSMT happened in 2017, as replacement for T in the Park, who were having problems at its new site. However, since then, it looks like that TRNSMT has now replaced T in the Park altogether.

There was a change this year to TRNSMT. Compared to last year, where the festival was only held on one weekend, this year's festival took place over two weekends. Without further ado, here is a rundown of what happened at TRNSMT 2018.

The Headliners

For the first weekend, on Friday and Saturday, we had two 90s-early noughties icons and a UK exclusive. For the Friday, we had Stereophonics, who brought their latest album Scream Above the Sounds to Glasgow Green, where the festival was being held. They went through a great set of songs, from recent songs, such as I Wanna Get Lost With You, C'est Le Vie and Indian Summer, to bonafide classics, such as Just looking, Have a Nice Day, Dakota and Mr Writer.

On Saturday, another 90's-early noughties icon played, in the form of Liam Gallagher. He released his first solo album, As You Were, in October 2017 and TRNSMT was the first time he had headlined a festival in Scotland since 2002, when he headlined T in the Park as part of Oasis. In addition, he had also played T in the Park twice, as part of Beady Eye, in 2011 and 2013.

In terms of his set, he delivered a set that only Liam Gallagher could...a set that consisted of new Liam hits, such as For What It's Worth, Wall Of Glass and Greedy Soul, and old Oasis hits, including Rock n Roll Star, Wonderwall, Supersonic and Slide Away, which I think is what everyone wanted right?




However, the biggest highlight was Sunday's headliner, which was a UK exclusive...Arctic Monkeys. Yep, the Arctics played their first and, as far as we know, only UK festival date (unless they do a secret set at Reading and/or Leeds...). This is also notable as it was almost 4 years since they last played a festival in Scotland; they headlined T in the Park in 2014. During their set, they played songs from all six of their albums, including The View From Afternoon and From the Ritz to the Rubble, which they have started bringing back into their setlist, and Teddy Picker, which made its Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino tour debut, showing the audience exactly why they had been missed for 4 years or, in Alex's case, 2 years, as he last played in Scotland as part of The Last Shadow Puppets at T in  the Park 2016.  Saying that, there was a Last Shadow Puppets reunion, as Miles Kane joined the Arctic Monkeys on stage to play guitar on 505, as per tradition.



During the next weekend that TRNSMT was held, the headliners were Adam Lambert and Queen and The Killers. Delivered a great set, Adam Lambert and Queen brought out hits such as Killer Queen, Who Wants To Live Forever?, The Show Must Go On, Radio GaGa and, of course, Bohemian Rhapsody, among others, putting on a show that would have made Freddie Mercury proud.

In terms of The Killers, they brought Glamorous Indie Rock and Roll (see what I did there?) to Glasgow Green. However, they didn't actually play this song during their set. Instead, they made sure they got the classics in there, including All These Things I've Done, Smile Like You Mean It, When You Were Young, Somebody Told Me and, of course, Mr Brightside. They also covered Side, by Travis and The Whole of the Moon, by The Waterboys and invited a fan to drum with them on For Reasons Unknown. They later came back to Scotland to play the King Tut's Wah Wah Hut the next day.

The rest of the show.

Whilst the headliners were all rock acts, the rest of the acts across both weekends were more varied.  Yes we still had rock acts, such as Blossoms, Wolf Alice, The Courteeners and Miles Kane, who performed a cover of Donna Summer's Hot Stuff, which suited the hot weather that we have had throughout the whole of July, as well as playing some new songs from his upcoming album Coup de Grace, like his new single, Cry On My Guitar.







In addition, there were some pop acts, such as Jessie J, who hasn't played a festival in ages and The Script, who rounded off their Freedom Child Tour with a stint at Glasgow Green, playing a selection of their biggest hits, such as Superheroes, For the First Time, The Man Who Can't Be Moved, Rain and Hall of Fame (minus Will.I.Am unfortunately).







We also had some newbies on the line up, with some being higher up the lineup (on the main stage) than what I thought they would be, such as Tom Grennan, who had a massive hit with his debut song Sober, and Lewis Capaldi. However, many of the newbies were on the King Tut's Stage as well, such as Sigrid, winner of the BBC sound of 2018 prize and known for her very popular song Strangers, Tom Walker and Pale Waves. However, we also had well established acts, again on both stages, like Nina Nesbitt, Jessie Ware, Franz Ferdinand and Chvrches. Finally, we had classic bands such as Shed Seven, Interpol, The Darkness (Yep, they're still going), Embrace and Texas.

Overall, TRNSMT was the perfect mix of pop and Rock and young and old and I for one thought it was the perfect balance. Yes, it could be said that the headliners were not very diverse, in terms of genre, but hey, they still brought the crowds so TRNSMT must be doing something right!

Em x

London Calling...

A couple of weekends ago, I had, what can only be described as, a big musical weekend and it all took place in London! London is probably one of my favourite places in the UK because there is so much to see and do. However, because we were only going to be there Saturday and Sunday, arriving saturday and leaving Monday, plus seeing two shows ( I'll get on to those in a bit), we didn't really have time to do much sightseeing. Anyway, here is my run down of what I did with my family (including 2 reviews...yay!)

Saturday:

Saturday was quite a busy day as we had to be in London at a good time, due to going to the theatre. However, all was good as we arrived at the hotel at about 1:30 pm. We stayed at the Landmark, which was in a convenient place, considering what we were doing on Sunday. Anyway, once we were settled in, we got a taxi and headed straight to the Prince Edward Theatre for our first musical day; we saw Aladdin: the musical...

REVIEW: Aladdin at the Prince Edward Theatre - 16/06/2018

For those who have seen Aladdin, you will know the story and the songs but for those who haven't seen the disney film (seriously...where have you been?!), Aladdin is the story of a poor street boy who falls in love with the Princess, whilst coping with the fact that she can only marry a prince and that the Sultan, who is the Princess's father, has an advisor, who is plotting to be Sultan himself...

As soon as the curtain opens, you are immediately transported to the city of Agrabah, and you meet the genie, played by Trevor Dion Nicholls, who introduces himself to everyone, accompanied by the familiar sounding Arabian Nights.

From then on, it is lights, camera action, as we meet Aladdin and all the other characters, including Iago, in the form of a man rather than a parrot. However, this worked as it gave Iago a personality and more of a character. Okay, Iago the parrot has a bit of a character but I just take human villains more seriously sometimes.

Oh and of course, there was Jasmine. Played by Jade Ewan (girlband fans of the early to late noughties,  you will recognise her name from the Sugababes),  she showed that not only was she good at singing, she was also good at acting, taking us through the emotions that Jasmine went through, as she tried to prove to her father that she was going to be an independent woman and marry who she wanted, even it was a street boy from the market place.

For those expecting the story and songs to be exactly the same, you may be surprised to learn that there are some slight differences between this and the film. For starters, we learn about Aladdin's background, in the form of the melancholic song about his mother who died, Proud of Your Boy. Aladdin also has some friends to help him along his adventure (minus the genie of course), called Babkak, Omar and Kassim, played by Leon Craig, Julian Capolei and Daniel de Bourg respectively, adding a bit of comedy to the show. There is a well known saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," but this definitely did not apply to the show.

It wasn't just the characters who made the show, it was the set and the costumes that were great, as it really felt like you were in Agrabah. Also, the transitions between the sets worked, e.g. the market place morphed into Aladdin's roof top home, the interior of the cave of wonders swiftly became the interior of the palace etc, meaning the show flowed, rather than be really clunky. However, the best part of the whole set was when it all went dark bar twinkling lights, with Aladdin and Jasmine floating on the magic carpet, as they sang A Whole New World, which will make you want to cry.

Overall, for fans, new and old, of Disney and looking for something to do, Aladdin - The Musical is perfect for the whole family. So, grab your magic carpet and fly off to a whole new world.

*****

Sunday

After a bit of a busy day on Saturday, it was a chance for us all to chill a bit on Sunday. It was also Father's Day. The whole family basically spent the morning and early afternoon watching Doctor Who (much to my Mum's annoyance!) and I gave my Dad his card and present, which was The Darkest Hour on DVD (We still haven't watched it yet and Father's day for the UK was a few weeks ago...).

After, we decided that we had a bit of time before the big finale to our weekend (more on that in a bit...) so we decided to have wonder around London, near where we were staying. We walked a bit through Regent's park, found the Sony studios and the 20th Century Fox London studios and...Sherlock's House (no...Benedict Cumberbatch was not there...sorry!).

Anyway, after we had seen that house, we set off back to our hotel and got ourselves ready for the big finale of the weekend...Ed Sheeran at Wembley!

REVIEW: Ed Sheeran at Wembley Stadium - 17/06/2018

Ed Sheeran, the biggest pop act on the planet right now, last played Wembley Stadium back in 2015, in support of his mega popular album Multiply (X). Well, since then, his success has since...erm...multiplied, earning him another stint at Wembley Stadium.

It's always a concern when you see someone attempt to perform in a massive stadium on their own, as there is a worry that there wouldn't be much atmosphere. However, Ed proved that it was simply a walk in the park for him, getting the audience going with feel good hits, like Bloodstream, made them want to dance an Irish jig, with songs Nancy Mulligan and Galway Girl, and made the audience cry, with gentle tearjerkers, Perfect and Thinking Out Loud. He also sang a cover of Nina Simone's Feeling Good, which suited his voice so well, and I See Fire, a song from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

The other concern about seeing someone on their own, particularly in a venue the size of Wembley Stadium, is whether they would be able to build a relationship with the audience and yet Ed managed it. He connected with the "super dads" (Dads who got dragged to see Ed by their children on Father's Day!) and those that think they can't dance, telling them to dance anyway...and dance they did.

However, whilst Ed was good a creating an atmosphere among the audience, as well as interacting with them but in all honesty, there is a danger for someone like Ed to become a bit repetitive and becoming a bit of "what you see is what you get." In other words, there is a question about whether you would see Ed again once you have seen him. Saying that, judging by the number of people who turned up to the show (Bearing in mind that Wembley holds up to 90,000 people), it seems that his popularity will not diminish any time soon.

Overall, Ed proved that he is worthy of the success of his albums, along with his many awards that he has won, including the Global Success Brit Award in 2018. Ok, he is a bit like marmite but when it comes to performing, he really does put on a good show and proves why he deserves the popularity and success that he has.

Setlist:

Castle On the Hill
Eraser
The A Team
Don't/New Man
Dive
Bloodstream
Happier
Lego House
Galway Girl
Feeling Good/I See Fire
Thinking Out Loud
One/Photograph
Perfect
Nancy Mulligan
Sing

Encore:

Shape Of You
You Need Me, I Don't Need You


***

So there you have it...a little run down of what I got up to in London including reviews of both events I went to. Hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I enjoyed going to, and writing about, these events.

Em x