The Lady's A Tramp

Good morning! I have decided to share another one of those videos where I sing at you for around 3 minutes. So here it is! I'm doing my best Frank Sinatra at a benefit concert in Sleaford, Lincolnshire.

My Love Letter To Lana Del Rey

Seriously, I love this woman and I think, if you got to know her (maybe not personally but musically) you would love her too. Lana Del Rey is an odd mix of intriguing beauty. Not in the new way beauty has come to be defined, tanned, blonde and plastic but in a mystical way that makes it seem like she is constantly being viewed through an Instagram filter. It's beauty in sepia. She is Audrey Hepburn with attitude, and I'm not talking about being able to hold her own with the men. Lana has had a strange series of life developments that have led her to become the musician she is today. 

Del Rey was born the daughter of a domain investor in Lake Placid, New York. Critics have used this to suggest that her music that seems critical of American excess (National Anthem) is hypocritical. Del Rey's story however goes much deeper than the often cliched American love story with Upstate New York. At the age of 14 Del Rey was sent to boarding school in Connecticut to deal with an alcohol dependence that by anybody's standards had begun very early. She moved back to New York when she turned 18, studying metaphysics at Fordham University. 

She has talked candidly in interviews that she used this time to experience New York fully. In a recent interview with GQ Del Rey professed her love for adventure in ways that most of us would consider simply downright insane. She would walk down dark alleys with the purpose of putting herself in danger,

 and accept rides on the back of motorbikes with people she met down there. 

For me her self styling as the 'Gangster Nancy Sinatra' is perfect. Her music harks back to the age of the Kennedy's in America, when Sinatra was king and Nancy the Queen of independent America, whilst still maintaining a modern view of the country she loves. The music is, to use the perpetually boring cliche, hauntingly beautiful, choosing odd chord combinations and a blurring between rap and singing that is surprisingly new and, quite frankly a breath of fresh air. 

In my opinion Del Rey will go down as a game changer in the music industry and possibly even in modern social history. She has given everybody the right to express their distaste with things that are often percieved as the best. And by the best I mean money. As Lana Del Rey herself puts it "Money is the anthem of success, so before we go out what's your address?"

We Found Love In Trafalgar Square

Hello all.

This week we saw the end of an incredible summer for Great Britain. Me and a few friends decided that we wanted to see the summer out in style so we went to Trafalgar Square to watch the Paralympic closing ceremony on a big screen. The atmosphere was absolutely incredible with Boris Johnson, our soon to be Prime Minister I am sure, getting the loudest cheer. Everyone was singing and dancing along as if they were in the stadium and we could even see the fireworks from the river. It really was an amazing evening.

I was very pleased to see Rihanna and Coldplay perform I song I absolutely love and have sung myself, We Found Love. My friend Nicolas and I perform a bit together and We Found Love is one of our set-pieces. Below is a video of Nicolas and I, with his brother Kit performing We Found Love at my last ever school concert. Watch out for my amazing cymbal bashing!

The September Issue-Design

Fresh from winning GQ's 'Cultural Icon' award at this year's Men Of The Year awards and being the man responsible for the stunning 2012 Olympic cauldron Thomas Heatherwick really is the designer of the moment. Boris Johnson has publicly shown his love for Heatherwick commissioning him to design the new Routemaster bus for London which by anyone's standards is a daunting task, taking an already loved and established piece of design and bringing it in to the 21st century. Heatherwick, however, has succeeded. Whether he is designing the new routemaster or the beautiful and yet truly simplistic curling bridge in Paddington his work and his draw is universal. Mayors love him, the public love his work as shown during the 2012 games and the adoration for his seed cauldron.

The new routemaster is evidence of Heatherwick putting people first. Many designers create beautiful and elegant works with no function or with limited use as the designer hasn't thought or doesn't care about it's use for humans. 

The routemaster has sweeping windows that wrap around the bus flooding the inside with light and improving the black spot of the old routemaster, those dingy stairs. Heatherwick has even used heritage fabrics which, although are covering and replacing the old bucket seats, hark back to the original and well loved London bus. 

Heatherwick's crowning glory, however, has to be the stunning Olympic cauldron, comprising of petals that merged when lit, it was a triumph of British design. Olympic fans have praised the design for breaking the unwritten IOC rule that bigger is better when Olympic cauldrons are concerned and instead going for beauty and subtlety when designing the cauldron that became the icon of the games. Some even attribute Heatherwick to the success of the games, stating that without his design the public wouldn't have taken to the 2012 brand at all after a string of design nightmares. But who can even remember the negative press when the 2012 logo was unveiled? After commissioning Heatherwick the London 2012 organising committee turned the games around and brought back important elements to the games that run through Heatherwick's work. Unity and humanity.  

The V&A are currently running an exhibition 'Heatherwick Studio: Designing The Extraordinary' where you can see his design processes and a scale model of the 2012 Olympic cauldron. The Exhibition runs until the 30th of September and tickets are available from the V&A website. 

The September Issue-Music

Music is a massive part of my life. I listen to music when I'm sad, happy, shopping, stuffing a turkey, you get the idea. I listen to music all of the time. I also have a musical memory that allows me to relate specific times of my life with songs. I could probably tell you when a song was number 1 by thinking of what I was doing at the time. I like my music to connect with what I am doing, in a weird way, so that when I am listening to music, walking along the street it fits perfectly. That's why I have specific songs I listen to when Autumn comes. Just listening to this music makes me long for crisp, Autumn days, falling leaves and my trusty coats and scarves. So here are my picks for the first September Issue post. Perfect Autumn m

Blondie's 'Heart Of Glass'

The Specials and 'Message To You Rudy'

I'm not usually a big Buble fan but I make an exception for this brilliant version of 'A Foggy Day' (especially as I am moving to London this Autumn)

Haddaway and 'What Is Love'

I am aware of what the lyrics to this song really mean but for me it is another Autumn song. The harpsichord is really warm and the words 'golden brown' well they speak for themselves regarding Autumn. 

So they are my picks for Autumn listening. There will be more from the September issue looking at art, fashion, illustration and many more. 

The September Issue

Every good publication has its flagship September issue so for the first couple of weeks of September I will be sharing my picks for Autumn/Winter 2012. Everything from music to books and art to fashion will be covered so I hope you enjoy reading about what Autumn means for me! 

The September Issue series will begin tomorrow. 

Lincolnshire Hasn't Been All Bad

Right, time for a university update. It is rather exciting thinking that I am going to be moving to London in 20 days time. However, I have also decided that even though I have spent the last 8 years of my life complaining about Lincolnshire and telling everyone I have ever met that I want to move back to London I am going to sample some of the delights of the county that has been my home for nearly 8 years over the next 20 days.

Even I cannot deny that in certain places and in the right conditions Lincolnshire can be pretty. Even if it is a little bleak in the middle of winter, this time of year brings golden fields and very low sunsets as everything is so flat! So over the next 20 days I will be posting some of my favourite memories and photographs from a county that, although I complain a lot about, has served me well.