Getting up to date with April - part 9 (music and mum's knitting)

In the weeks since my last update I've been enjoying listening to lots of music and reading and watching interviews with some of my favourite artists. When a song name is a hyperlink, clicking on it will let you watch the video for the song on Youtube.

Marina and the Diamonds has had a lot of publicity recently to promote her latest single. I read an interview with her in a local magazine and saw her being interviewed and/or performing on Loose Women, Live from Channel 5 and BBC Breakfast (which you can see here). I thought she was fantastic performing 2 songs on Later with Jools Holland. Unfortunately the programme isn't available on iPlayer any more but you can see the video of her performing I Am Not A Robot on her blog here. She was also on Radio 1's Live Lounge where she was interviewed and performed one of her own songs (I Am Not A Robot) plus a cover (Starstrukk by 3Oh!3), which you can listen to here. I Am Not A Robot was released a couple of weeks ago and despite all the work she did promoting it it didn't chart very well in the Official UK Top 40 - it only reached number 26 the first week and then fell to number 33 this week :( I've really enjoyed listening to her album, The Family Jewels, on repeat lots more and am very happy that I managed to get tickets to see her in concert in Oct (which I blogged about here).

Diana Vickers has also been doing a lot of interviews and TV appearances recently promote the release of her debut single and debut album. I read an interview with her in a local magazine and saw her on GMTV, Something for the Weekend, Live from Channel 5 and a T4 programme. She was also on Radio 1's Live Lounge where she was interviewed and performed one of her own singles (Once) plus a cover (Just Say Yes by Snow Patrol), which you can listen to here. Hew debut single Once charted at number one in Official UK Top 40 the week it was released. It's really catchy and will get stuck in your head. Her debut album, Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree, is out now and made number one in Official UK Album chart yesterday. She put her album up on her MySpace page the week before it was released so I enjoyed listening to it there and now it's released I can listen to it on Spotify. It took a few listens but I love it now. I'll buy the album at some point when it's dropped in price a bit so I can put it on my iPod but for now I'm happy listening to it on my laptop through Spotify. I was faced with a bit of a dilemma when I discovered that Diana would be performing at a venue in my local city tonight. I'd love to see her live but this concert was standing only and I know I'd be in a lot of pain if I attended a standing concert. So I was sensible and decided not to go. I'm hoping she'll do some seated concerts in the future, fingers crossed.

Mika's latest single, Kick Ass (from the film with the same title), was released about a week ago. Unfortunately it didn't chart within the Official UK Top 40 :( I've listened to Mika's music a lot recently as it works well to cheer me up when I'm feeling down :) Unfortunately I still don't seem to have learnt that listening to Mika late at night isn't a good idea because it make me go hyper, hehe :P

I've also enjoyed listened to Ellie Goulding's album, Lights. I'd not listened to it for a little while, but then I heard Under The Sheets when I was in HMV last week and it reminded me how much I like Ellie Goulding's music. I saw her interviewed and performing on a C4 programme called 5.19 a few days ago promoting her new single Guns and Horses, which hasn't been released yet.

Me and mum listen to the radio a lot and tend to alternate between Heart, Radio 2 and Radio 1 to avoid adverts, boring talking bits and songs we don't like. Mum enjoyed dancing to the radio the other day when Never Forget You by the Noisettes was played as it brought back memories of seeing them in concert :) I've been hearing a song called I Need You Now by Lady Antebellum on the radio a lot recently and I think it sounds just like Taylor Swift.

Some new videos I've seen on the music channels over the last few weeks are Turn It Up by Pixie Lott (which I love), All Night Long by Alexandra Burke (which I quite like, but I hate the rapping), Umbrella Beach by by Owl City (which is growing on me), Bittersweet by Sophie Ellis Bextor (which I don't mind), On Your Head by Tiffany Page (we saw her supporting the Noisettes and although her new song is catchy I'm not very keen on her) and Hearts Don't Lie by Gabriella Cilmi (I loved her first album, but don't like her new change of direction although On A Mission was catchy). I also heard JLS' next single The Club Is Alive on Radio 1 this morning although there isn't a video for it yet. I don't mind the singles that JLS have released so far, but don't like their latest one after the first listen.

I thought you might like to see some of my mum's latest knitting creations :)

An entrelac cushion for my uncle and aunt's 45th (Sapphire) wedding anniversary

A knitted string bag

An Adipose from Doctor Who

A handpuppet
(My mum helps out with organising shoeboxes filled with toys to go to children in war-torn countries each year at Christmas. They don't allow stuffed toys to be included unless they have a special mark on them to prove they're safe, so mum can't knit stuffed toys for the boxes. She thought she'd try to knit hand puppets instead as they don't include any stuffing.)

A very cute cat made from simple knitted shapes

A very cute tortoise for me (you can see how tiny it is in Alf's hand)

A turtle for Alf

Mum modelling her knitted moustache for my nan!

My blog is now pretty much up-to-date :) I've not blogged about today yet but I'll do another update shortly when I've got a couple of days to write about. And tomorrow I'm hoping to do a blog about ME Awareness Week 2010.