If you buy one album this year, make sure it's this.

If you buy one album this year, make sure it's this.

This is something that has to be spoken about. The Viola Beach album. Maybe you heard of them from Coldplay's Glastonbury performance? Maybe you heard them in the news at the beginning of the year? Or maybe you don't even know who they are? Either way who cares, the album is masterful and you need to listen. 

It excites me massively that the album has been created from songs previously recorded. Had the boys still be making music on earth, I can imagine they would be taking over the world. At the beginning of such a promising career, they created 9 beautiful songs that then became the content of their self titled album, which was put together by the boys families.

For those that don't know, at the beginning of the year unfortunately the band and manager Craig were taken from us to join the music legends above, but their album was released the other day. Money from which will be going to the families. 

Anyway, the album is right up my street. Full of energy, catchy and a breath of fresh air for the music scene. My personal fave, although I love them all, is Go Outside, it really makes me want to have a little dance, even at 7am on my way to work. All the tracks on the album are pretty upbeat, even sad song, Call You Up leaves you wanting to tap your feet.

It makes me sad that we won't be hearing any new music from the guys because I can tell they would have had a massive career. I'm buying the album for all my family and I think you should too. 

Let me know what you think! 

Buy it here on iTunes or Amazon

July Playlist

July Playlist

It's been a while since I told you what I was listening to, so here we have it - my faves throughout July.

Hello Operator - Stephanie

Mantras - Boulevard

The Shimmer Band - Freedom

Yak - Habour the feeling

Paves - Woman

Spring King - Adele Cover

Jackals Rose - D.I.D

Anteros - Breakfast

Viola Beach - Boys That Sing

My Week

My Week

What have I done this week? Well for a start, my life has been completely revolved around work - again! I mean I don't mind working all the time but I wish it was for a job I actually wanted. I've also been ill so I have been trying to sleep as much as possible which has lead to me not doing a lot of fun stuff.

I went and saw Me Before you, which is an incredible film and I highly recommend you go and see it. I loved it that much that I actually bought the books so I can continue the love story.

I have started watching Skins again to try and relive my youth. Some of the stories on there, no, most of the stories are so far fetched and unrealistic.

The biggest thing I have done this week is think about my career. I have decided I want to either to a degree in music management or go into PR. I am really unsure as to what to do, I know I could do whatever if I got a load of work experience. It's really stressing me out because I want things to progress and I want to work hard but I need to have a plan on how I can do it.

Finally my week ended with a spot of shopping - again. I am starting to get pretty obsessed with shopping now, I used to hate it. Honestly, I used to order everything only because I hated going to shops so much.

Thinking about it, I'm not really sure why I even wrote this post because it's boring as f*ck...

Ps. This is my view from work. Very lucky!

Favourite Acts at Glastonbury 2016

Favourite Acts at Glastonbury 2016

This year has been incredible! I'm pretty glad I got to watch from the comfort of my own home rather than in a mud swamped field and getting wet. Radio 1 kindly streamed everything so we were able to pretend we were all at the notorious festival. I thought I would share a couple of my faves with you because I've watched so many performances and I need to pretend I'm doing it for a reason ok.

Source: Independent

Blossoms
I am absolutely obsessed with this band at the moment, after seeing them at Isle of Wight and my friend telling me how good they were I thought I would give them a go. So glad I did because when I watched their Glasto set it reminded me of two weeks ago. Their new single is out now and I highly recommend you check it out, it's called Charlemagne FYI. Personally I think these guys sound even better live than on their tracks although still amazing.

Jake Bugg
Where do you even start with Mr Bugg. I guess he's got a very love hate voice but for me, I LOVE. I think I'm a bit biased because I have never seen him do a bad performance. For me it was great to see him playing his older music as I was a huge lover of his first album. It's interesting that lights remained fairly dark during his performance, making it a little harder to see his usual emotionless face. Either way the suspense makes me have a crush on him that little bit more.

Lady Leshurr
She's such a breath of fresh air, especially for a grime fan like myself. Its amazing to see a girl doing so well in a very male populated scene. Using popular backing tracks such as "Know Me From" by Stormy and covering a snippet of "Werk by Rihanna" definitely energised the crowd. She definitely knows how to hype a crowd.

Adele
When I first heard Adele was going to be headlining the Pyramid Stage on the Saturday I honestly thought what the hell. Don't get me wrong she is an incredible singer and I would absolutely love to see her live. But to play a festival? I wasn't too sure.  Well how wrong was I! I actually put off watching her performance for a while because I thought it would be a little boring. Again I was wrong, it was brilliant! She has the best personality and really connected with the crowd. The sound of thousands singing along side her was truly breathtaking! I didn't actually realise how many of her songs I actually knew too, very impressed.

Coldplay
Of course I'm going to mention Coldplay, its just standard. When do they ever give a bad performance? It was great to see that when they had a technical issue halfway through the set, front man Chris Martin took to the stage alone to perform Everglow. Another breathtaking moment was when they paid tribute to Viola Beach whom sadly lost their lives alongside manager Craig Tarry earlier this year. This performance as a whole just proves that they haven't been outdated and are still as loveable as ever. Definitely a band I NEED to see live!

My experience at the Isle of Wight Festival 2016

My experience at the Isle of Wight Festival 2016

Most of you probably aren't aware but from Thursday 9th to Sunday 12th June I went to a festival near to where I live. I was fortunate enough to be my best friends plus one as she was reviewing the weekend for a magazine. This meant we got VIP, which was pretty cool. Not only that she managed to get us Jack Daniels wristbands, allowing us to get backstage at the Jack Rocks tent. Yep we definitely had a good weekend.

Who did I see?

BUSTED!! They were definitely my favourite! I definitely relived my childhood seeing these. They were even better than I had thought. Highly recommend seeing these.

I also saw big acts like Faithless, Queen and The Who. However I spent the majority of my time in the Jack Rocks tent and may I say there were some fab acts, Yak gave a completely eye opening performance, I've never seen someone pass their guitar out to the crowd or try to hump the stage scaffolding with their guitar - yes this actually happened! Some of my favourites from Jack Rocks were probably Paves, The Amazons, Mantras and annoyingly Judas (lets not talk about them).

What was my highlight?
The highlight for me was definitely spending the weekend with my best friend Shannon, she's just so cool and is doing ridiculously well for herself. I spent the whole weekend telling her how proud I was of her, which definitely got annoying.

Any stupid things happen?
Yep, a lot. I'm not going to go into some of it on this post, we're keeping this clean, but yes I am probably a whore. I just hate how people get the wrong impression, mainly the opposite sex but still.

What have I taken away from it?
Well I have learnt a lot from my weekend actually! The first being that I am a fantastic cupid, well if you're looking for a one night thing anyway. Another thing I have taken away from it is that I shouldn't trust boys in bands. They are smelly, weird and probably on drugs - even if they are pretty attractive and their music is good.
I have made loads of friends! That's an amazing thing. It has also brought me closer to an old school friend which is great.
The last thing I have taken away is that I need to live more. I got stuck in this whole 'eat, sleep, work, repeat' routine and I forgot that there is actually a world out there full of amazing people that I need to meet. Look out London, I'm coming for you..

BLOSSOMS

BLOSSOMS

Stop right there. Let me just tell you about a band that are about to take over the world. A five piece indie pop band from Stockport known as Blossoms. Labelled as BBC Sound of 2016 they were sure to have a good music career ahead of them.

I was lucky enough to see them recently at the Isle of Wight Festival and they quickly became one of my favourite acts of the whole weekend. I find a lot of indie bands get a little cocky onstage and really try and get the crowd going. Blossoms however did none of this, I mean they got the crowd going for sure, but the crowd did that out of free will.

I'm sat writing this post trying to decide what my favourite track is but I'm not sure I can. I would say Charlemagne is definitely the most memorable. Then again, I do love a good sing song to Getaway, why am I so indecisive?! The album is set to be released 5th August so a full review will be up then.

Meanwhile here is Getaway, the video is a bit strange but don't let that put you off.

Is this the end?

Is this the end?

I said last month and the month before that I was finally going to start my blog again. Wow, how wrong was I!  After 6 failed attempts and spending each day wishing I could blog again, I find myself here - writing that blog post. Again. Telling myself that yes I am going to do this and yes I will become a regular blogger again. No doubt I'm lying to myself though. Lets not fool ourselves into thinking I'm going to stick at it but I'm certainly going to try.

I know what you're thinking, why don't I just give up? When I was blogging before I found myself so organised with everything - work, social life and blogging. I actually did things and had a life. Whereas now all I do is work. I need that life back, that organisation and that happiness. I want my little diary back.

Wish me luck and hopefully posts will resume shortly.

My favourite R1 Live Lounge's

My favourite R1 Live Lounge's

There have been a LOT of incredible live lounges over the years and they just keep getting better and better. I thought I would share a few of my faves.

Jack Garratt - 7 Days 

This man had me from the very first time I heard Worry, so I knew I would probably love any music he makes. I have to say I was never really a huge fan on the original 7 days but this has completely changed everything. It honestly feels like a completely different song.

Frances - 7 Years/Stressed Out

I don't really listen to Frances a great deal but her voice is spectacular and after this cover I gained a lot more respect for her. Very excited to see more of her work.

Zara Larsson - No Scrubs 

No scrubs is definitely one of my favourite songs of all time. Zara Larsson definitely brought the 90s song into this decade. Zara is set to have a big pop career ahead of her so covering this has certainly won her brownie points when it comes to popularity. 

The 1975 - Sorry 

I love everything 1975 related. This cover isn't too different, its just The 1975 spin that makes it that bit more special. That and I really fancy Matty but whatever.

Taylor Swift - Riptide

Such a good singalong song! I feel like Taylor herself when I'm in my car singing this, I'm probably not at all but I can dream. The original of this is fab too but Taylor gives it that little bit of sass. 

Miley Cyrus - Summertime Sadness

This is a golden oldie. Now I know this is around 3 years old but I still love it! Miley has such an incredible voice, it's just such a shame she doesn't make as many Bangerz anymore.

I could go on forever... 

#3

#3

/1/

/2/

/3/

/4/

/5/

/6/

/7/

Things to do this weekend

Things to do this weekend

I find myself wasting so much time. When I don't plan anything I end up staying in bed for hours and then I wish I had done something. I always used to write goals on my blog and most of the time I would stick to them if I had published them with the world. So that's why I'm here today - to write my plans or goals over the weekend.

To do:

Life lately | 23.03.2016

Life lately | 23.03.2016

Well it looks like it's that time of the month again - not THAT time of the month but the time where I update you on my life. I think I've had quite a lot of stuff going on since the last but I won't bore you with the all details. 

Why Lukas Graham is so relatable

Why Lukas Graham is so relatable

We all know the 7 Years song by now, especially since it feels like its been in the charts forever. Here's 5 quick reasons why Lukas Graham is so relatable, to me anyway.

Source

1. They looks like us. Maybe not exactly like us as I don't have a beard but the guys look and dress like the rest of us, nothing special. They aren't covered in designer clothes that we will never be able to afford. They haven't let fame get to their head and started showing off, which I think is the best thing for such a new and popular artist.

2. They live in the real world. From their songs you instantly know that they haven't been wrapped in cotton wool until hitting the stage. They have lived with the struggles of day to day life.

3. We haven't been forced to listen to them. Not naming anyone in particular, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Jess Glynne...

4. We all listen to mamas advice. My personal favourite song Mama Said is a healthy reminder that you can still listen to what mum says.

5. They admit they are still learning about life. As said in the 7 Years track, 'I'm still learning about life'. It's refreshing to hear that I am not the only one making mistakes and we don't all have to pretend to be perfect.

Listen to Mama Said below and let me know what you think.