Category Archives: Culture

Sam Sparro Return’s To Paradise.

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New album ‘RETURN TO PARADISE’ released 18th June

Sam Sparro will release his sophomore album, ‘Return To Paradise’, on Virgin records 18th June 2012. Also just confirmed are two very special UK shows in Birmingham and Manchester to celebrate the release.

Part soul crooner, part pop star with an ever-morphing, chameleon-like quality, Sam coasts a fine line between disarmingly earnest and a chic, credible cool. He has become known not only for his distinct, scale-defying vocals and epic live shows, but also as a visual artist and style icon.

Signed to EMI Australia in December 2011 Sam has spent the last couple of years working on the follow up to 2008’s eponymous debut release. With a Platinum single (‘Black & Gold’), a Gold album, a Grammy nomination and 5 Arias under his belt, Sam has also been busy collaborating with the likes of Mark Ronson and Basement Jaxx as well as writing for other artists such as Natasha Beddingfield. His fans include Katy Perry, Beyonce, Cee-Lo Green and Adele who covered ‘Black & Gold’ in the Radio 1 Live Lounge.

Sam’s new album, ‘Return To Paradise’, is a play on nostalgia and “paradise garage” – a genre derived from the hedonistic discotheque scene in New York in the late 70s that began in a parking lot giving rise to the term “garage” famous for its unique and eclectic style of disco and dance music. It has been co-produced with long time collaborator Jesse Rogg.


It took a considerable amount of time as Sam was determined to get it right. “It is the product of a lot of experimenting and songwriting – I changed direction at least 2-3 times, completely. I started doing more rock oriented stuff, then I went in a pop direction and then through the process of scrap booking stuff that was inspiring me I ended up with an album that was influenced by music from 1978 to 1984”.

The central themes are love and loss and the quest for inner joy and happiness. “A lot of the songs are about me trying to find my sense of innocence and peace of mind and things that I felt had escaped me for a while”.

Whilst drawing on influences from the 70s and 80s the album is very contemporary with a modern take on these themes.

Working between the USA and UK – Sam is conscious of the sense of disillusion and struggle many people are facing. “I know things in Australia are still pretty good but things in America – especially with the economy, people are struggling and disillusioned and looking for escapism and when times are tough people resort to nostalgia”.

During the process of making this album Sam says he tapped into a new found confidence to become a more prolific song-writer and generally more self assured. “I’m more comfortable now and I’ve left things a little bit raw and not completely polished – so much modern pop music is so polished that you lose the soulfulness and essence and human touch”.

‘Return To Paradise’ challenges this and triumphs!

Sam will head out on two UK tour dates in next month:

Thu 14th June Birmingham O2 Academy 2 0844 477 2000

Sat 16th June Manchester Deaf Institute 0161 832 1111

Tickets are £10 adv and go onsale Wednesday 9th May at 9am – www.gigsandtours.com / 0844 811 0051

Solace and Stable | Music Profile.

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Artist: Solace and Stable
Album: The Systematic Erosion Of Integrity
Country: USA (Kansas City, MO)
Format: MP3 320 44.1
Song titles “Satisfiction” “Culture Of Corruption” “Design and Deceit”
Bio: Founded in fall 2008, Solace and Stable are a 5 piece melodic progressive metal band from Kansas City, MO. S&S create a sound that is both unique, and progressively complimentary. One moment Solace will have you captured ain the beauty of a lead, and the next in the hospital with high blood pressure from chaotic breakdowns. “Kudos to Solace and Stable for producing brutal, extreme metal, with an unexpected edge of poetry and guitar work that sparkles against dark musical undertones and gutteral vocals.
-Leslie, Zimms Music and Entertainment

Sounds like: Between The Buried and Me, Misery Signals, The Red Chord, Necrophagist, Into The Moat

Fox Survey: Do Brits Love Foxes?

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Earlier this month Channel 4 launched Foxes Live: Wild in the City, an interactive natural history event which put the power into the hands of the viewers. Anyone who owned a smart phone was a potential wildlife photographer and was able to contribute to new natural history research by taking part in the largest ever urban fox survey.

Before the survey, no-one really knew how many urban foxes lived in the UK and what the general public really thought of them. With the last study on urban foxes carried out over 30 years ago, Channel 4 is now able to share brand new wildlife research and information.

Thousands of people took part in the survey sharing their thoughts and opinions on foxes and whether they believed urban foxes lived up to their cunning reputation.

Over 11,500 people completed the survey with a massive 89% of people living in urban areas saying they liked foxes and were in favour of them living in their cities. People who weren’t so keen on foxes were those who encounter them more frequently.

Females liked foxes more than males and those aged 18 and younger preferred them to people aged 18 and above (18-50 age group). Residents in Northern Ireland were the biggest fox lovers (92% liked foxes) and foxes were least liked in London (19% disliked foxes).

On the web site there were 17,532 fox sightings logged in total in the UK. Southern England had the highest frequency of sightings. Over 75% of people in London claimed to see a fox once a week or more.

When it comes to how foxes interact with other animals, 8% of people think that foxes might regularly attack pets but only 5% of people actually reported fox attacks on pets. And foxes may be the surprise victims: people reported they were three times more likely to see foxes being chased, attacked and even killed by pets than the other way round.

Eight out of 10 people agreed that seeing foxes enriched their lives and 36% of people living in urban areas admitting to feeding foxes in their gardens. Less than 1 out of 10 people said foxes should be removed from cities.

Foxes Live: Wild in The City was backed by The RSPCA and featured experts including Dawn Scott, Head of Biology and Biomedical Sciences Division at The University of Brighton. Dawn, who also analysed the online survey results, said ‘This information will provide us with a better understanding of the national distribution of urban foxes and enable us to produce new population estimates. It has also helped us to understand people’s perceptions of both the benefits and issues of living with urban foxes.’

NEW beactive PROJECT ON A “COLLIDER” COURSE with SCI-FI SUCCESS

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BRAND NEW beactive PROJECT ON A “COLLIDER” COURSE with SCI-FI SUCCESS

Multi-award-winning trans-media production company “beActive” have released another ingenious cross-platform creation, “Collider”, on Monday 4th of June 2012!

The new sci-fi concept will be available in various formats, spanning comics (print and digital), live-action web-series, app/online game, graphic novel and eventually becoming a feature film, to be released in 2013.

The first of the weekly series of eight webisodes are available exclusively on Frost Magazine first and then on beActive’s You Tube channel and stars BAFTA award-winning Scottish actor Iain Robertson of Rab C. Nesbitt and Basic Instinct fame.

The edge-of-your-seat action sees Iain’s character, Peter Ansay, a quantum physicist who is ostracised by the scientific community after issuing warnings about the dangers of The Hadron Collider.

Peter takes matters into his own hands when he breaks into CERN, the facility on the Franco-Swiss border, to sabotage the collider and accidentally transports himself and five others to 2018 where the post apocalyptic world is racked by natural disasters and at war with the “Unknown”. The six time travelers now have to fight to discover how they got there, how to survive and most importantly, how to get back to the present!

beActive’s co-founder and CEO Nuno Bernardo said: “Collider is a real sci-fi spectacular! By transporting the viewer into another dimension we are really able to delve into each of the characters pasts and follow their journey as they fight to return back to their present time.”

Follow the rise of Collider at:

www.facebook.com/colliderworld

and on Twitter; @beActiveMedia

Opossom sign to Fire Records

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Hotly tipped New Zealand band Opossom have signed to Fire Records. The brainchild of Kody Nielson, formerly of acclaimed “trouble gum art punks” The Mint Chicks, Opossom will release their first record on the label ‘Electric Hawaii’, on 6 August.

Already acclaimed by the likes of Pitchfork, NME and CMU, the band’s intense live performances have garnered rave reviews and the band made waves after their UK live debut in April. Joining Kody on stage are Bic Runga in the role of chanteuse and multi-instrumentalist and former fellow Mint Chick Michael Logie on bass guitar duties. There are plans are afoot for UK, European and US shows in the Autumn.

Have a watch of the video for the first single from the album, “Blue Meanies”, below:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQSiiNrW8P4&w=560&h=315]

Zac Goldsmith, John Bird and Sir Trevor McDonald do a “Dragon’s Den”.

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Zac Goldsmith with Frost Magazine editor Catherine Balavage

Zac Goldsmith MP joins Big Issue John Bird and newsreader Sir Trevor McDonald to judge a Dragon’s Den style contest to boost social enterprise in South-West London.

The winner of the competition will be awarded £10,000 by the panel for their business. Almost 100 people have already joined “Richmond’s Den”, which has been set up to find start-up firms that can contribute to society.

Bit of Spice on the Side – Emma Bunton is spitting image of ‘typical cheater’

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New research indicates that we should be able to spot cheating spouses at first glance: they look completely different from the average Brit.

The UK’s largest extra-marital dating website Illicit Encounters reveals that the average female cheat is 5ft 3”, aged 37, has a dress size 10-12 with blonde hair and blue eyes: visually very similar to ex-Spice Girl Emma Bunton. The site, which has over 670,000 members and represents 3% of Britain’s married population, carried out an extensive survey with over 5,000 of its female members.

The average woman in the UK however, looks similar to TV presenter Kirstie Allsop. Physically, the average British lady is taller at 5ft 5”, older at 40 years old, is a larger dress size of 14-16 and has black hair with brown eyes*.

Additional research shows that the average British woman earns £22,151 per year, works as a secretary or administrative assistant and drives a Chevrolet Matiz. The average British female cheater however earns much more – £37,000 per year – works in Heathcare, and drives a BMW.

Spokesperson for the site, Rosie Freeman-Jones said:

“I’m not surprised that women on the site tend to be more successful than the average female Brit. These women know what they want and are seizing life by the horns – and it’s these type of women that tend to excel across the board.”

“This data might indeed prove the saying that ‘blondes have more fun’.”

Women have a huge presence on the dating site. Each active male on the site is outnumbered by 3 active females. Additionally the site has seen a 20% increase in women signing up to the site over the last 3 years.

Edinburgh Festival Preview

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I sit down to write this preview in the full knowledge that my opinion is in no way important. I am therefore one of the more honest reviewers you will find on the internet. I am here to tell you about an awesome show that is coming to Edinburgh this year called “James & Amy: Dysfunctional Legends” and stars the amazing comedic talents of James Loveridge and Amy Howerska. The show will take place at the Jekyll & Hyde, Venue 249, 112 Hanover Street in Edinburgh and the show takes place from 10:35pm to 11:35pm. For tickets you can call the venue on 0131 255 2022. Now let me tell you why you want to see this show.

Let me tell you all about the two fantastic acts that make up this duo of….some amazing word I can’t think of right now. Or Amy…a..zing even. No? Probably for the best. Let’s start with Amy Howerska. I could spend ages telling you about her many competition accomplishments like being a finalist in the 2011 Up The Creek one to watch or a Semi finalist in the Leicester square New Act of the Year or how she won the 2012 award for welsh wizardry. I might have made the last one up. I could tell you how she’s been a promo writer for Law & Order, House and Burn Notice. And no Burn Notice was a real show I didn’t make that one up. Google it. I could quote reviews that say things like ”Charming Welsh live wire” London Is funny or “Witty and intelligent observational humour, beautifully delivered.” Creative Cows Comedy Club or “man she is so awesome her stuff is so clever I really enjoyed that” which was said by…hold on just let me check…that was said by….oh yeah that was me. Amy Howerska is as funny as she is smart and is as smart as she is beautiful and is as beautiful as she is funny. I think I’ve made my point. Now to the second part of duo who is in no way Robin to her Batman. Why would anyone even bring that up? That’s a ridiculous thing to say. James Loveridge is not Robin. I’ll tell you all about him now ok if you can stop labelling him as the sidekick. Good.

James Loveridge is a comedian and because I am lazy I am just going to quote from his comedy CV “In his first year he made the Semi-Final of ‘So You Think You’re Funny?’, won The Comedy Cafe New Act Night on his first attempt as well as beating the King Gong at The Comedy Store in Leicester Square. He is the resident compere of The Lions Den Comedy Club in Piccadilly and his debut Edinburgh show ‘James Loveridge and Other Losers’ was met with excellent reviews.” I would be a terrible journalist/writer, which is what I am but still, if I didn’t quote one of those reviews “James is an animated story teller; an entertainer. His jokes and asides are self-deprecating and sharp, and delivered in such a manner that makes it difficult not to laugh along.” and that review comes from www.edfringereview.com. James Loveridge is a winner, James Loveridge is a man who beat up King Gong and took it’s lunch money, James Loveridge is a man who taught himself how to do a handstand. This is not relevant to his comedy but it is a bit of trivia I know about him. James Loveridge is a name I like to say and a name I like to type. It sounds like the online handle of someone who is way too into Klingons. But that’s not important and I don’t think my private life has anything to do with this.

I should talk about the show now. But I’m not going too. That’s what kind of crazy, maverick previewer I am. I’m just going to tell you to see it. If I talk about it I might spoil it and I do not want to do that. I can say that it rocks like that boat but is in no way rubbish like that film about said boat that was rocking. If you are going to Edinburgh then you must go and see it. However if you are not going to that place at that time then I have another suggestion for you lovely people.

You can see their awesome show in London before it hits Edinburgh. How is this crazy yet amy…a..zing piece of news possible I hear no one ask? Well I will tell no one. You can see it at the Hen & Chicken on Saturday June 16th at 7:30pm. That’s right and it’s only £6. You can’t have any fun in London for £6. No that’s not true you can, you can see this show! You can book now by going to http://www.offwestend.com/index.php/plays/view/7952

I will leave the final words on the matter to laziness and quote the “about Dysfunctional Legends” section from the above link “James Loveridge and Amy Howerska, have tried to be good humans…but have failed- excellently. Join them in their celebration of breathtaking ineptitude, because you too could be a dysfunctional legend!” and if that doesn’t make you want to see this show then you’re not a legend and you never will be.

You can follow James Loveridge on twitter @Loveridge87 and you can follow Amy Howerska on twitter @Howerska.