madness takes its toll.

...but listen closely, i´ve got to keep control. ("time warp" - rocky horror picture show)

the past couple of weeks have been one big single hassle sprinkled with a few pleasant events in between. all in all, a lot of stress but 99 % of it were more than worth it – hopefully. it´s nice to be back home, my german home that is. only five and a half more weeks and i´m leaving again for manchester, my uk home. things have been crazy lately and there´s still more to come (especially tons of paperwork)  in the next five weeks. and as if that weren´t enough, people i thought left for good suddenly came back into my life. which is probably something i should be thankful for (and i certainly am) but at the same time i keep asking myself “why now?” i´m leaving in less than two months and people i once cared about very much (i honestly still do) coming back now, doesn´t make leaving any easier.

this basically explains why my first music suggestion this time will be tina dico. thanks to recent events i digged her debut album “fuel”, which was released in 2001, out again. “back where we started” was the single that got me hooked on her music. i first heard it two years ago when i went to pick my mum up from work. the cd they played at the store was some mix that one of my mums co-workers brought in. apparently she got it from a friend who got it from another friend and so on. so this basically meant that no one could tell me who the the artist was. they didn´t even know what the song was called which meant that i had do some research because i simply couldn´t get that song out of my head. after a few hours (yes, it didn´t take me days or even weeks) i came found tina dico. if you listen to the lyrics of a song carefully, it´s not that hard to find out who sings it or what it´s called… all thanks to google. 

 tina dico

anyway, “back where we started” is only one of 11 songs on “fuel”. it is an incredible debut album and if you haven´t heard anything about tina dico up until now, you definitely should change that now. she released her 7^th studio album “welcome back colour” last year in september. it´s a compilation of her most popular songs  and some new ones which pretty much makes it the perfect record to get an overview of her music. time to check it out now.

 tina dico - "welcome back colour"

not only tina dico and “back where we started” have been on constant repeat on my itunes player lately. right along with her were “turning tables” by adele and “let it go” by allie moss. i´m sure that pretty much everyone knows who adele is, so i´m not gonna talk about her. allie moss is a different story though. thanks to songs from the shed,  allie moss came to my attention. after watching her shed session i was so impressed that i wanted to check out more of her music. but “let it go” has been stuck in my head ever since i first heard her sing this song for the shed session. her latest record “late bloomer” was released worldwide on june 14^th this year. check it out, you won´t regret it.

 allie moss

allie moss - "let it go" (songs from the shed)

and since the haldern pop festival is only a few days away now, i´d like to recommend julia marcell as well. i haven´t heard anything about her until a few days ago and i´ve only listened to her latest single "matrioszka" until now which is the first single from her new album “june”. “matrioszka” is a rather unusual song but i absolutely loved it. after checking her out at the festival next week, i´m sure i can tell you more about her. check out her website till then – you can also listen to her new single on there and get a first impression.

 julia marcell

enough ladies for one blog post? definitely...

so here´s the reason why i´ve learned to love twitter. when i first got my twitter account i honestly wasn´t too excited about it. i just got one cos people were annoying me to create an account. my thought back then: “if you have facebook, there´s no need for twitter!” of course i was wrong. i got to know goldtrip because they followed me first on twitter and now, i´m thankful they did.

a week ago or so a band called boy lights fire from ireland started to follow me. and since i´m always open-minded when it comes to new music, i checked out their single “weatherman” and was quite impressed. those guys are not bad – not bad at all.

they´ll release their debut 3-song ep “weatherman” on august 19^th. it´ll be available on cd and as download. i can´t wait to get my hands on their ep! check out their myspace page to have a listen.

boy lights fire - "weatherman" ep cover

and now, here´s a short review for the take that concert in düsseldorf, even though i´m sure it´ll end up being much longer than i originally planned.

take that stopped in düsseldorf, as a part of their progress live tour, on july 25^th. düsseldorf is not really right around the corner for me but the 4 hours getting there and the 4 hours getting back home were definitely worth it. i haven´t been a take that fan back in the 90s and i´m still no fan but i sure am willing to admit that their comeback album “beautiful world” is one of the best records ever made in my opinion.

almost 62,000 people were squeezed into the esprit arena. i´m usually a fan of small and intimate gigs but honestly, there´s no way i can imagine take that playing a small gig. their show needs a huge audience like this.

the pet shop boys opened the show as the special guests of the progress tour. it confused me for a moment that i knew all the lyrics to their songs but actually it just made me realize again that i was definitely born in the wrong decade. they dedicated their last song “west end girls” to amy winehouse which was something i wasn´t very fond of but ok. the pet shop boys were great and definitely an experience i won´t forget.

 pet shop boys

take that opened their show as a four-piece band which was very cool because i like them as a four-piece band much more than with robbie williams. they performed five songs from their albums “beautiful world” and “the circus”:

-         rule the world

-         greatest day

-         hold up a light

-         patience

-         shine

the first highlight of the night was of course when the audience sang the german national anthem. that was really intense and i have to admit, i know the first line of the anthem and that´s pretty much it. i was surprised to see so many young people singing along – they actually knew the lyrics. that proves once more that i´m just no real german…

take that + german national anthem

when robbie williams came on stage, i think the first hundred girls probably collapsed somewhere in the stadium. love him or hate him, it doesn´t matter. one thing you have to acknowledge though is that he certainly is an amazing entertainer. over 60,000 people in the stadium, one tiny guy up on stage who managed to get every single person there involved in his show. it was absolutely stunning. robbie williams performed:

-         let me entertain you

-         rock dj

-         come undone

-         feel

-         angels (which he dedicated to the people in norway and amy winehouse)

robbie was joined by the other four guys after his 5-song set. they performed another 14 songs starting with “the flood”. they performed songs from their recent record “progress” including “sos” and “eight letters” with which they ended the night, and of course their biggest hits from the 90s including “back for good” and “relight my fire”. 

 take that in düsseldorf

i wish they would´ve played more songs from “beautiful world” like “hold on” or my all-time favourite “mancunian way” (haha, what else, right?!). but it didn´t matter. it was a perfect show and worth every penny, even though i complained about the ticket prize at first. if you enjoy an incredible show like this, you have to pay a little more obviously.

my personal highlight of the entire gig was “never forget”. when i first watched the live dvd from the circus tour, it was this song that got me so excited that i wanted to see them live. and yes, i´m such a baby because i honestly had tears in my eyes. i don´t know what it is about that song but it gives me goose bumps every single time i listen to it.

 jason orange, robbie williams, gary barlow, howard donald and mark owen

oh, even though this gig was awesome, it is not my number one concert experience ever. the take that gig is probably 5^th on the list behind elbow (liverpool, march 2011), stornoway (london, july 2011), keane (birmingham, 2010) and jamie cullum (london, july 2011). it´s rather strange that all those gigs took place somewhere in the uk, isn´t it? although meeting jamie cullum in frankfurt last year was pretty amazing too…

anyway, that´s it for today. next blog post will be a video review (yes, my first one ever) for natalie mccools single “your hero”. hopefully i´ll get it posted before i´m heading off to haldern next thursday! full report on that of course the week afterwards. 

enjoy the heat outside! xx

video credits:

- allie moss: songsfromtheshed

- take that + german national anthem: filmed by me

photo credits:

- tina dico: her facebook

- tina dico album cover: her website

- allie moss: her facebook

- julia marcell: her facebook

- boy lights fire ep cover: their facebook

- pet shop boys + take that: taken by me