Music

Parkwood Entertainment today announced that The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour starring Beyoncé kicks off in Europe on April 15, 2013.  With stops in twenty European cities, including Dublin, Ireland; Berlin, Germany; Paris, France and a four-night stint at The 02 in London, UK, this is Beyoncé’s first multi-city tour in over three years.  

I went to see Jason Mraz last month at the O2 Arena when his world tour, whimsically named Tour is a Four Letter Word, hit the UK for its final night.  The tour is to support his latest album, Love is a Four Letter Word, which has spawned various other "is a four letter word" themes, including a bonus album, Live is..... and then there's the tree planting scheme, Tree is.... well, you get the idea.

He may be 63 but Lionel Richie was not lacking in energy when he performed in Belfast's Odyssey Arena this week.

The concert had previously been cancelled and rescheduled due to health issues so our expectations had dropped a little when we travelled down to see the US star sing, but the crooner was all fired up and brought out the big guns for the latest leg of his his Tuskegee tour.

We are huge fans of Lionel's most famous work and his chart topping 80's hits and were slightly worried that we would be a little bored when listening to his newer material taken from his most recent album 'Tuskegee.'

Talented live performer Gabrielle Aplin has released a new single, a cover of the 1984 Frankie Goes to Hollywood number 1 THE POWER OF LOVE. It is the theme tune for the John Lewis advert this Christmas and is doing nicely, currently number  5 in both the Amazon and I-tunes download charts. Production is rather simpler than the original with little more than Gabrielle's beautiful bell-clear voice and a piano played softly. As the festive season approaches, I predict that this will continue to sell well. Lovely, lovely version of a beautiful song.

Live albums can be a bit of an adventure. Some are great, but many don't work, not least because quite a few successful artists should really stick to the studio where there's a super powerful auto tune to edit out all those bum notes. They can be a good way to decide whether or not to pay money out to see an act live. As you listen, ask yourself this: are you making allowances for it being a live set, or are you bopping your socks off to an outstanding performance?

THE FIRE entered the album charts at a very creditable #8.

With his new album Matt Cardle has finally come out of his box and become his own man. He has a new recording contract with SoWhat? records that gives him the control he lacked with Columbia/Sony, a new album, "The Fire" and a sound that is totally, unmistakably Cardle. His three date album launch mini tour took place this week, setting venues alight in Birmingham, Brighton and culminating in the launch party at Scala, London. "The Fire" and lead single, "It's Only Love" are out simultaneously on the 29th October 2012. Take my advice and go straight for the album.

Though few will have heard of their music, or even their stage name, Stefan Storm and Oskar Gullstrand (yes, this makes them Swedish) are very good at making a very special, very rare denomination of dream-pop; the very kind of music which is capable of conjuring up long-forgotten memories and of giving you the building blocks for new ones as you soar through your own imagination into a distant galaxy. It's the kind of music that turns timid souls into brave ones that dare to tread the unknown and engage in fantastical adventures to recreate to wide-eyed wonder of simply being a child again.

For someone who puts so much effort into her 'art' (sounding familiar already, this bit, isn't it?), Natalia Kills gets quite a lot of stick from quite a lot of the microscopic portion of the public that know of her. Why is this though? It's not like it's the ruinous result of overexposure e.g. Rihanna, and on that topic - what exactly is it that's prevented the record-buying public warming up to Miss. Natalia Keery-Fisher? Once known as Verbalicious in 2005, she quickly dropped the more urban look and sound in favour of a fence-sitting combination of promiscuous femme fatale meets seductive lady-droid once she'd decided she was going to give pop music a good bash.