Britney's Circus is Coming to Town

Billed as one of the all-time comeback pop albums, and accorded the pomp and circumstance of Michael Jackson's Dangerous (1991), Britney's Circus, the follow-up to last year's stunning Blackout (2007), comes to town this upcoming holiday season.



The complete track listing:

1. "Womanizer"
2. "Circus"
3. "Out from Under"
4. "Kill the Lights"
5. "Shattered Glass"
6. "If U Seek Amy"
7. "Unusual You"
8. "Blur"
9. "Mmm Papi"
10. "Mannequin"
11. "Lace and Leather"
12. "My Baby"
Bonus track
13. "Radar"
Additional bonus tracks for international release
14. "Rock Me In"
15. "Phonography"

"Womanizer" was one of the first music videos I downloaded, from iTunes, onto my iPod touch 32GB! The single failed to impress me upon first listen! However, the promo video changed that and "Womanizer" is a contender for pop single of the year along with The Saturdays' "Up" and Girls Aloud's "Promise"!

Zomba Label Group has revealed that Circus' title track will be the next single released to whet your appetite for the main event. I'll be reviewing the album soon.

Opulent Tunes

Enough ruminating on the Sony BMG Music UK competition fiasco! Yesterday, I discovered that singer Nerina Pallot is from South London! Her dulcet transatlantic intonations fooled me!

Nerina sounds reminiscent of Sheryl Crow (famous former backing singer on Michael Jackson's Bad Tour). In the words of Times Online, Nerina has an 'astonishingly versatile voice' and a 'knack for alchemising half-focused images into phrases that haunt as long as her opulent tunes echo in the head'. Her album "Fires" is truly worthy of your consideration!

'80s mix master, Chris Lord-Alge (Darren Hayes' Spin), adds further snap, crack and pop to Nerina Pallot's production - you can really envisage "Learning To Breath" playing in The OC or The Hills. Chris would you mind remixing my DEF Track demo single?

Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover (MP3)

Nerina Pallot will be performing at the Acorn Theatre in Penzance on January 24th. A tempting post Birthday treat!

Beyoncé Interlude

I never heard any more from Sony BMG Music UK regarding winning tickets, in an online competition, to see Beyoncé Knowles perform live before a specially invited audience, backed by a 12-piece band, on an outdoor stage at BBC Television Centre last November!

Over the New Year weekend BBC 2 showed highlights (in SDTV and HDTV formats) of the Beyoncé concert. The one-off show looked and sounded spectacular. An acoustic arrangement of Irreplaceable was particularly effective.

No follow-up calls or an explanation has been forthcoming from the Sony BMG Music UK offices! Don't you think I deserve some form of compensation? My B-Day is on January 23rd and I await concert tickets and a backstage VIP pass. Thanks in advance Sony BMG Music.

Meet & Greet

Last evening I received a telephone call from Sony BMG Music UK! I've won tickets to see Beyoncé, in concert, later this month at an exclusive BBC event! What an amazing pre-holiday surprise!

Don't ever recall winning a competition before, and am therefore, if you'll excuse the informality, stoked! I've been a fan of Beyoncé since 1999 when I saw Destiny's Child perform, seminal song, Say My Name on MTV.

Hmm, wonder what future Sony swag is in-store for consumers following the release of the P!nk co-branded PSP? One endorsed by Beyoncé or Jennifer Lopez? Yum, yum!

G'day

Welcome Australians to iTunes Music Store sans Sony BMG (only a matter of time). My family, down under, can now subscribe to my podcast with even greater ease!

Went to Rydon Retail Park after having coffee with one of my relatives (on my Mother's side of the family) in Sainsbury's! Made the obligatory trip to the KFC drive-thru. The sales person gave us extra pieces of chicken, portion of chips and large Pepsi at no extra cost! That deserves a BIG SHOUT OUT to the Colonel.

I'm selling a Sony widescreen television on eBay, which segues into this cautionary tale. The Exeter Sony Centre closed a few months ago. In late 1999 I was in dispute with the store manager regarding a highly publicized RGB SCART fault with a model that I'd purchased 6 months earlier. After myriad callouts (at no charge) they replaced it with another model (KV32-FX60U FD Trinitron). However, it was £600 cheaper and the store manager never refunded the difference or gave me a credit note. If he'd pulled that same stunt now, solicitors would have been hired to resolve the matter! Taking closure to its literal conclusion. You reap what you sow.

Flock is based on beta 2 of Firefox 1.5 and performance is pretty slick for an alpha application. No crashes to date.

Sony Wars

Sony Classical began its illustrious association with George Lucas' space opera with the release of the Star Wars Trilogy in 1990. Following its merger with BMG, Sony is set to release the Original Trilogy Soundtracks to coincide with the DVD release.



Over the years I've owned the Star Wars soundtracks in vinyl, tape and CD guises. However, this latest edition introduces digital surround sound (Charles Gerhardt released Dolby Surround recordings from 1977 onwards) and value added content.

With this release of the trilogy soundtrack CDs, the entire collection of Star Wars film music is now on the Sony Classical label.

On the subject of future Sony music releases. The new studio album from the Destiny's Child franchise will be based on CD/DVD flip-side technology! This was announced during their manager's keynote speech.