Song for the week

Hey everyone! Sorry I've been on 'hiatus' for a couple weeks but the holidays have been a busy time for me. But its the new year, so here's to a fresh start and on time posts! 

I started off the year watching the fireworks and staying up to the early hours of the morning browsing the internet and chatting to friends, all surprisingly without listening to any music! I was about to go to sleep when I realised this so I thought about it, and decided what the first song of the year I wanted to listen to would be, so here it is:

Champagne Supernova- Oasis

Great song, perfect end to 2013 and a nice start to 2014.

Happy New Year! Hope you have a great one! 

Yas xx

Song for the Week

Hey guys, so like I said last week, my songs for the week this week are all Christmas ones! So this time its...

I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday-Wizzard

Happy Monday!

Yas xx

Music Monday: Once the musical

Hey guys, I know its not Monday, but close enough eh? so today's Music Monday is a little different, as it is a review of a musical I saw last Saturday. Now I'm not really a Musical type of person, if I do watch them its usually movie versions and there are only three musical movies I like- Oliver!, Greece, and Annie. No high school musical for me thanks, when I was about 9 and it came out I refused to watch it and I still do to this day. But anyway, what I'm trying to say is that if I like a musical, you can expect it to be pretty damn good as my expectations are very high.

So on Saturday I went to see the musical "Once" in the Phoenix theater, and I'd read the description and it seemed like something I was going to dread- a soppy romance. I'd been forced to choose a musical of some sort to watch and I initially chose "Wicked" because three of my friends are completely obsessed with it, but then changed my mind as my step-mum who is from South Africa had come over and hadn't been to London in years so I thought I'd let her choice be the one we went to, plus I had heard from a friend that it was going to be good. I am so glad we went to see "Once" instead of "Wicked" as it now has its place among the musicals that I rank the highest.

Set in Dublin (which means that everyone has lovely accents which is a nice change, I'm getting a bit fed up with London accents by now), it follow the story of a young musician who is trying to make it but has just about given up, but is unexpectedly saved by a Czech girl who shares his passion and talent for music. Its not your average love story but not just plot-wise, the way the characters interact with each other is not the usual boring romantic way either. The script is hilarious, and the use of lighting to create other rooms on stage but with using just one set is very clever. The actors are all amazing, all of them are musicians and have to dance at the same time as play music and act, and they are brilliant musicians and singers too, the music sounds as if it has been recorded. The thing that really makes this is the music, its traditional Irish and Czech sound is awesome and very fitting, used in clever ways to change scenes and also to create powerful emotive connections between the characters stronger than just the dialogue alone.

Anyway what I'm basically trying to say is: go watch this NOW! Its just too good to miss, there's probably still tickets left as I booked mine just days before I went, take advantage of that! I'm definitely hoping to go again!

Yas xx

P.S. Just before I saw it I had dinner at my new favourite restaurant, Bill's, which is near Leicester Square in London in St Martins Square, and I highly recommend it, the food is amazing! If you see the muscial you should definitely eat there!

Song for the Week

Hey guys, sorry I forgot to post yesterday, but here I am! I've decided that since its December now, the songs I put up for these posts will be a couple of my favourite Christmas songs! The one I've chosen today is my absolute favourite Christmas song, its just hilarious and great fun to sing to! Its not the original either, as I prefer this cover of it (as I'm sure a lot of other people do too).

Fairytale of New York- The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl

Happy Tuesday!

Yas xx

Book Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

My favourite types of stories are the ones about magic: The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the Harry Potter Series, and now I have another new favourite, but this particular book doesn't do magic in the same way as the ones mentioned.

The Night Circus portrays magic as being a talent practiced by a rare few, without needing spells and fantasy lands. It suggests that it is ingrained within the world, unnoticed by most people except for the ones in the know. In the novel, it is Prospero the Enchanter and the enigmatic Mr Alexander who are the rare exceptions, and they decide to play a dangerous game using Prospero's daughter Celia, and her opponent Marco, representing Mr Alexander, as the pawns. Their venue is the Night Circus, or Le Cirque du Reves, meaning the circus of dreams, a circus unlike any other built especially for the game, although few know this. Inevitably Celia and Marco fall in love, and since the loser of the game must endure severe consequences, this makes it all the more harder for them to try and win.

This novel is the type where you either love it or hate it, depending on what type of reader you are. If you are someone who is more enchanted by the exquisite imagery created by the detail in the descriptions like me, then you will absolutely love this book. The way all the tents in the circus are described and the focus on the senses is just amazing, and it enables you to imagine exactly what it would be like to step through the iron gates of the circus and see the performances. However, if you are more of a person who prefers their books to be less on the descriptive side and more plot driven, then this is probably not the right book for you. Personally I'm a bit of both, as after I finished reading the book I didn't feel like I'd read a story and I didn't feel like I'd taken anything from it away with me, instead it feels rather more like someone has written down your dreams for you to experience again, which is why even though it has a slow moving plot and there aren't solid explanations for how everything works, I still loved reading this.

Anyway I hope you enjoy if you decide to give this a go!

Yas xx

Song for the Week

Hey everyone, apologies for the radio (or I guess blogging) silence, but I've been awful busy lately! Anyway, here is the song for the week this week, been playing it a lot recently!

A-Punk- Vampire Weekend

Happy Tuesday!

Yas xx

(I'll make up for the lack of posts with a book review for this week!)

Song For The Week

Hey guys, so since Halloween is over, I think we're all now officially allowed to be excited about Christmas!! So I thought I'd pick an appropriate song, as I really wish Christmas would come a lot faster.

I Wish It Was Christmas Today- Julian Casablancas

The one xmas song that you can't actually listen to on Christmas day haha!
Happy Monday!

Yas xx

P.S. Music Monday post will either be up late tonight or tomorrow!

Music Monday: Jake Bugg's Secret Show

Hi everyone! So last Wednesday was a pretty exciting day for me, I went to Jake Bugg's secret location show in London!

 It was in a small upstairs room in a pub, the first venue that Jake had ever headlined in London before, so it was a pretty big deal. There weren't many people there so it was a very intimate gig, not one that you could really sing the lyrics to but I did anyway, and not surprisingly the crowd mostly consisted of teenage girls, but my brother spotted Jake's friends who were in the Two Fingers video which was cool. He let us request songs and played a few new ones from his next album that will be coming out soon, and he played everything on acoustic guitar with no band, which sounded great! Definitely made up for missing most of his set at Reading this year, and he played and sang really well. I'm really looking forward to his album coming out, the new songs that he played sounded amazing, so I'm thinking the rest will too. I was really lucky too as the tickets were free as my brother (who is the luckiest person when it comes to competitions) won them, and after the gig we got to meet Jake! Very shy and nice in person, and also surprisingly about the same height as me. Got a pic with him an all which was nice, he took the time to take pictures and chat with everyone there!

The new video for Slumville Sunrise is out now and is really weird, but funny, and it contains Elvis. What's not to like? The album "Shangri La", named after the space in which it was recorded, comes out on 18th November, so not too long a wait!

Yas xx

Song For the Week

Hey guys, sorry I wasn't posting last week but its been a very busy week for me! Anyway today's song for the week is...

Two Fingers- Jake Bugg

I've chosen this song as he's released his new video for Slumville Sunrise and also I went to his secret show in London last week! More on that in the Music Monday post.

Happy Monday!

Yas xx

Music Monday: Best All-round Albums

Hi guys, today I thought I'd share a few of the best all-round albums in my opinion, and by best all-round I mean the ones where you rarel skip songs, or don't skip at all! I'm not going to cover all of my favourite albums, just the ones that stand out to me the most. So, (*mario voice*) here we go!

1. Is This It?- The Strokes. This album is probably my favourite album of all time, and every song is just perfect. For me, the best albums are the ones where its incredibly hard to choose a favourite song from that particular album because there is not one bad song on it. And this is a definitive good album in that sense.

2. Origin of Symmetry- Muse. This album is just brilliant. Every song flows into one another perfectly. This is like my equivalent of The Strokes Is This It because I love every song and it's almost impossible to choose a favourite song. I would probably say that my favourite is "Citizen Erased", but as soon as I say that I immediately feel bad because I also love "New Born" and "Bliss" and "Plug In Baby" and "Hyper Music"... and I should stop or I'll end up naming every single song on the album. Side-note, recently I've been getting very into Muse's stuff, which is weird as I went through a phase of liking them as a kid but only knowing about 4 of their songs, then didn't like them for a while, and now they're my favourite band at the moment (emphasis on 'at the moment' as my all time favourite is still The Strokes).

3. Come of Age- The Vaccines. Not absolutely perfect as I'm not a huge fan of "Change of Heart pt 2", but its still pretty close to perfection. And also definitely an improvement on their first album, but I still absolutely love 'What Did You Expect'. I'm just wondering what The Vaccines will make in the future after hearing their EP.

4. Nevermind- Nirvana. Great album, I prefer it to In Utero, which a lot of people disagree with since they say Nevermind is commercialised and isn't the same as Bleach, but I just genuinely prefer Nevermind, because of songs like "Come As You Are", "In Bloom" and "Lithium" which I love listening to.

5. London Calling- The Clash. Now this was a hard one to decide where to put. It probably is at the same level as Nevermind in my head really, but for the sake of it being a 1-5 thing I just decided on a whim to put it here. Almost all the songs on this are some of my favourites, especially Death or Glory", "Clampdown" and loads of others. Out all of all their albums this is their most recognised, and my overall favourite (hence why it is on my list).






Its funny as my favourite songs from all these bands (or at least the ones I say are my favourites because I can't really choose actual favourites) are not on any of these albums, except for "Come As You Are", which is my favourite Nirvana song. But I guess that just shows that I pick overall favourites rather than albums with just a few stand out songs on them. Anyway if you haven't heard of some of these (you probably have but there's always going to be someone) then you should listen to them when you've got the time, I usually listen to new albums while I'm doing something else like my homework, so why not try something like if you don't have enough time?

Hope you enjoyed!

Yas xx

Song For The Week

Hey guys, again last week was a little barren when it came to posting here :/ But I'm back! Anyway today's song for the week is a nice calming one.

High And Dry- Radiohead

Happy Monday!

Yas xx

Song For The Week

Aaaargghh not again! Seriously school has messed me up. Blogging on time and doing homework on time do not mix! there won't be a Music Monday post this week, but here's your song for the week! Its not a serious one, but its been stuck in my head for a few weeks because I've been slightly addicted to the game Robot Unicorn Attack (check it out, its awesome) and this song plays in the background.

Always- Erasure

Happy Tuesday and rest of the week!

Yas xx

Music Monday: Reading Festival Review Pt 3!

Hi guys, final review of Reading Festival!! yay!

So by this last day, I had sort got into a proper routine now, I knew exactly where I was most time (except later that night which I will explain nearer the end of the post) and I knew all the secret places that make surviving at the festival a little easier *cough* the church by Tesco has nice toilets and serves cheap breakfast *cough*. Unfortunately it was the last day (even though I left the next morning), so I was incredibly sad when I got home (but also relieved since there were some not so great parts about it which again I will explain later).

Anyway onto the bands! First band I saw were Haim, who'd I'd been really looking forward to the whole weekend, and they didn't disappoint. I especially liked their new song "The Wire", but of course songs like "Falling" and "Don't Save Me" were crowd favourites too. Next was Fall Out Boy, who I didn't really watch from the crowd because I wanted a good view so I was fairly far a way and looked a bit weird jumping around to some of their songs as no one else was, and I think the 8 year old me would have slapped myself for not trying to get right to the front or something because she liked that kind of music a lot more than I do now even though I only knew a few songs, but anyway it was a great set and was kinda surreal (as was Green Day and Eminem from the previous days).  the straight after that were Nine Inch Nails, who I hadn't listened to before so I didn't quite know what to expect but they were pretty good! Also managed to get really close to the front of the main stage this time which made it even cooler since I could see all the cool smoke and effects they used, the only thing is is that their songs seemed to get progressively worse as the last few seemed to all sound exactly the same: just a heavy bass line which gave me a really bad headache (I sound like a grandma). And then Biffy Clyro. Again, hadn't really heard of them and just assumed they'd be some quiet folky hipster type band from the music that was played while the stage was being set up, but obviously, I don't think I've ever been so wrong in my life. Me and my friend actually decided to leave the front of the crowd after their third song since the moshing was the most violent of the whole weekend, including a guy on top of a guy's shoulders with another guy on top of his, and naturally they all fell down and the guy at the bottom of it all got a concussion. The annoying thing was that I'd just made friends with a nice person and his friends and then these loud albeit very funny nice guys and a couple girls too ran in front and pushed us far away from them, but we had a good chat with those people too anyway (including the question: "what language do you speak, I speak Christian" they were super drunk). So, back to the band, I was intrigued by them so I will check them out as unfortunately due to the fact that me and my friend left pretty early I don't really know if I'll like them or not. We also then proceeded to get lost in the dark and go to Tesco to find that it was closed. (yay.)

Anyway, I'm just gunna go say all the other things which I haven't mentioned about the festival as these three posts have mainly been about the bands: Camping was fun and horrendous at the same time, as it was freezing at night and someone decided to "mark" our tent which was lovely but it rained so hopefully that washed off, I didn't once use the toilets at the camping sites as they were like the pit of hell itself so me and my friends either used the toilets at the arena, Tesco or the church we found.  The thing I regret is not forcing more of my friends to come with me and not actually taking any details down from any of the people I met, and for being a bit reserved when it came to talking to new people at the start of the festival. It was only really on the Sunday that I found my confidence with new people, and found myself having a conversation with a person through my tent about Game of Thrones even though we couldn't see each other and sharing food my with random people and just chatting and giving people high fives and hugs.

So to conclude, it was one of the best experiences of my life and as long as the line up is good next year, I'm definitely going again. This years line up wasn't as good as some of the previous ones (especially the 2011 one- The Strokes, and Muse playing "Origin of Symmetry" in full, I would have killed to see that, I'm not joking) as it was trying to cater to a slightly wider audience and they should probably just stick to the normal demographic or it loses its identity a bit, but I still loved it. Recommend you go 9/10! (would have been 10 if it was the 2011 line up!)

Yas xx

P.S. if you are confused about my sudden enthusiasm for Muse, its because I have recently rediscovered them and now they're my second favourite band and my fave band for the moment (that changes every few months, recently it was tame impala, and before that was the vaccines etc.but I think Muse will be my favourite band for a long long time, but The Strokes are still my all time favourite band). Anyway I'll probably do an updated top five bands or maybe ten in the future.)

Song for the Week

My history teacher played this in our lesson and I forgot how much I like this song, so I'e decided to make it the song for the week!

Sweet Home Alabama- Lynyrd Skynyrd

Happy Monday! 

Yas xx

Song for the Week

Arghh behind on my blog! Damn you, A2 homework! Sorry guys for the lack and lateness of posts, school has overwhelmed me! No Music Monday post this week, but I do have a couple of book reviews up my sleeve so stay tuned for that! Will do my final Reading Festival post next Monday yay. Today's song for the week isn't the usual type, its just something which I've had in my head for the past week or so:

Wake Me Up- Avicii

Yes, its a little more top 40 than I would normally pick, but I think its genuinely a good song.

Happy... Tuesday this time!

Yas xx

Reading Festival Review Part 2!

So, Saturday of Reading review! This was the day I was most looking forward to as one of my favourite bands, Tame Impala played that day and they are still my favourite live band after seeing them for the second time! Their set was of course considerably shorter than when they had played at Hammersmith Apollo, but that didn't stop them from still being amazing!

I'll go chronologically now, the first band I saw was Palma Violets, and their entire set was brilliant and energy filled, Chilli Jenson looked like some  sort of wizard that was controlling us what with all the weird hand movements and everything. I was most looking forward to Palma Violets that day because I've never seen them live before and I've been listening to them a lot recently. Anyway back to their set: Chilli Jenson actually went into the crowd, plus Alana from Haim was in the crowd on someone's shoulders at one point! So basically a fun gig. Next was Splashh, fun and lots of moshing, but not as good as Palma Violets. I caught the very end of Imagine Dragons, and I kinda regret not having seen all their set as they were good, plus my favourite youtubers Dan and Phil introduced them on stage! Ah well, at least I got to see them perform Radioactive.

Then next it was Tame Impala, who I've already talked about (my favourite band from Saturday). I managed to catch 4 of Jake Bugg's songs after that, and luckily he played my favourite song by him ("Seen it All"), before I had to rush off to see Eminem. And yes, Eminem. Eminem was one of my favourite artists as a kid so I was so fricking excited when he came on stage, even though I was incredibly far away as there were so many more people than there had been for Green Day. People said he was miming, but I like to think he wasn't. Highlight of the set was when he sang "Stan", and Dido came on stage and we all went absolutely mental. The only problem was for me personally that there were too many new songs which just aren't as good as his old ones to be honest, and there was also zero on stage chemistry between him and Dido, but it was still Eminem so it was a pivotal moment all the same and I did enjoy singing lyrics which I obviously didn't hear properly when I was little so I was just making the lyrics up.

Anyway, overall Saturday was a great day, some great bands and the ones I was most looking forward to didn't disappoint!

Day 3 next Monday!

Yas xx

Song for the Week

Hey guys, everyone's back to school now! Collective sigh from all teenagers. So I thought it'd be appropriate for today's song for the week to be...

Rock and Roll High School- Ramones

Happy Monday!

Yas xx

Music Monday: Reading Festival Review Pt 1!

Hi guys, so last week I went to the Reading Festival! And no, not Reading as in books, Reading as in the place. It was so much fun and at the same time disgusting but was well worth it! I saw tonnes of bands including all the main stage headliners and loads of smaller bands too, but writing about all of them is going to take a lot of time and space so I'm spreading this review out and won't talk about everyone I saw but almost everyone. As a heads up I'll list everyone saw in chronological order, note that for some of the bands I only stayed for a couple of songs!

Friday:
Parquet Courts
Fidlar
Peace
RX Bandits
The Strypes
Green Day

Saturday:
Palma Violets
Splashh
Imagine Dragons
Tame Impala
Jake Bugg
Eminem

Sunday:
Haim
Fall Out Boy
Nine Inch Nails
Biffy Clyro

So, a quick review of Friday's bands- Parquet Courts were great, they had a really great energy so the atmosphere was awesome, and I'd only heard two of their songs before seeing them so I was pleasantly surprised when they played the songs which I hadn't heard yet, I'd definitely recommend checking them out. On the other hand there was Fidlar, I did have a lot of fun at the gig but they didn't really convince me and I probably wouldn't listen to them on my iPod so I don't recommend them. The only reason I watched Fidlar was because I was waiting to see Peace, who I preferred but I'm not mad about them, I will check out their album though. While waiting to see The Strypes I wandered into the Lock Up Stage tent and caught a good amount of RX Bandit's set as I was intrigued by the sounds emanating from that tent, and was glad I did watch them instead of Kate Nash who I could hear wailing unintelligibly from the Festival Republic tent where The Strypes would be on. And The Strypes were awesome, really loud and fun with some great songs and a surprisingly long set, everyone singing along to "Blue Collar Jane." They may look about 12 but they're helping to save this generation of rock n roll. And then what we'd all been waiting for: Green Day.

Green Day deserve their own paragraph because they were just that AMAZING! They played a couple of songs, Billy Joe Armstrong talking to the crowd and getting us to chant, and then they proceeded to play their album "Dookie" in full! They even got a guy up on stage to sing along before they played "Dookie", and other highlights of their performance was when Billy  got out a hose and what I can only describe as a toilet roll gun and started covering up the nearest camera with, you guessed it, toilet roll, and got an awesome t-shirt gun and starting firing Green Day merch out into the crowd. Mid set billy also started randomly playing a bit of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" and got everyone singing along for a bit. After playing "Dookie" they played a couple more songs with two encores, and out of their whole performance these songs -"Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Wake Me Up When September Ends", "Basket Case", "Minority", "American Idiot" "Jesus of Suburbia",  and "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)"- stood out to me the most. It was an incredibly long set so I was kinda tired by the end of it but it was well worth it, they saved the best till last in my opinion with their encores so I'm so glad I saw the entire performance. If I ever get the chance to see them again I am definitely going.

Anyways so that's day one of my Reading experience covered! Stay tuned for day two and three!

Yas xx

Song for the Week

Hi guys, so I spent most of today watching and listening to Radio 1 on their website as they had a Radio 1 Reboot where loads of DJs were essentially trapped in a room for our entertainment while they waited to be randomly chosen to do their show for an hour, the catch being that one of the DJs wouldn't be chosen and all that waiting would have been for nought (poor Gemma Cairney). Anyway, I was listening to the one hit wonder slot and heard this song, which I remember loving as a kid, so I thought I'd have it as today's Song for the Week!

All The Things She Said- t.A.T.u.

Happy Monday!

Yas xx

Song for the Week

Hi everyone, I'm back from Reading Festival! Still recovering from the many blisters (it turns out that army boots are pretty much useless for walking for a prolonged time) and bruises from essentially sleeping on the floor + getting caught in crazy mosh pits, and already I have post-festival blues, but I will say that it was one the best weekends ever and I am definitely going again next year! In honour of the main headliners for Reading 2013, the Song for the Week this week is:

Boulevard of Broken Dreams- Green Day

Since I'm pretty much shattered I haven't perfected my Music Monday post yet so that will go up at some point, and it'll include all the experiences both good and bad from the five days I was there, sort of like a Reading Festival Guide and review of all the bands I saw. Anyway hope you enjoy your week!

Happy Monday!

Yas xx