The Meteors 2010: Hanging Out Backstage and Such

I was lucky enough to get to head along to the Meteor Ireland Music Awards last Friday. It's hard to believe the show is now in it's 10th (!) year but there you go. It's fast become a key part of the Irish music calendar attracting lots of press and international stars. This year's heavy hitter was no doubt Florence and the Machine. Everybody was talking about her, in the backstage media area she made many stop and gawk while she rehearsed her soundcheck. She looked like a knock out too. The Temper Trap, Dizzee Rascal, Pixie Lott, The Script were all there too.





Thanks to IMTV I got to head down to the show and do some interviews and help the team out in nabbing as many celeb interviews as possible. The Orange Carpet was actually great fun. It was a tad stressful but I did like how polite everyone was. There was none of the shoving/elbow in the face drama I had been expecting! 


It was a bit weird seeing the array of local and international celebs (of varying degrees of fame) in the flesh. Many of them looked better than on the telly. I'm not going to go into the who looked best in what when it was covered with such wit on Stylebitches but I will say this: Grainne Seoige looked HOT. That is all.


The media room was totally different though, at times a bit of a nuthouse. Lots of "PIXIE ONLY HAS TWO INTERVIEWS SCHEDULED, PLEASE STEP AWAY" moments (I'm of course exaggerating, I don't envy PRs and their ridiculously tough jobs at all) and then loads of people who'd happily amble over for a chat. Wallis Bird was a good example, a real sweetheart and in obvious shock about having won again. 


I really enjoyed it I must say. The lovely Helen O' Reilly nabbed some interviews with the likes of The Coronas, Bell X1 and Una Healy of the Saturdays (at one point I thought they were going to go to the bathroom and do their makeup together, they were getting along that well!). Katie Smyth of Limehouse magazine, who is doing presenting work with IMTV, was hilarious too check out her interviews when they go up, she had me in stitches.


I was lucky enough to do some interviews too, starting off with Katherine Lynch on the Orange Carpet who I made a complete tool of myself in front of. Honestly, I thought I'd peaked when I started singing S Club 7 before the celebs arrived (I'm. Not . Joking) but that interview was even worse. Following that I had a chat with a few others. 


Ray Foley of Today FM, who won his category AGAIN (nice one) who was very sweet and seemed a bit nervous. 


Mark Feehily of Westlife was very polite but kept saying things and looking off into the middle distance. I.e. "Well, I would say to Jedward and them to just enjoy it because it went awful fast for us and we didn't really get to enjoy it like .." *middle distance gaze* I kept thinking I was going to have to pat him on the shoulder. It was odd.


Inside the interview bunker (as I've now christened it) I grabbed some face time with Michelle Heaton who was actually very nice. She came across like a real grafter and she obviously missed her days with Liberty X. Alphabeat were very polite and friendly and awfully beautiful (the cheekbones! honestly). Their new album is also AMAZING, just to point out. There was also a hilarious "interview" I did with Louis Walsh and Sinitta who were clearly out for a good time and not really a chat. Sinitta's legs are incredible, that was all I really took away from our brief time together.


There were other classy moments throughout the evening including eating too many mini sandwiches and indulging in antics like this with Blanaid Hennessy:

Overall I had a fantastic night and can't wait for the next one. The show itself was slick and enjoyable and I think all involved should be commended for keeping this show running for so long and with such success. And for not kicking me out for singing S Club on the orange carpet. How nice of them. And for letting me spend my Friday night getting up to this kind of carry on:

The videos will be going up over the course of the next few weeks but you can see the first of the interviews below where I have a natter with Alphabeat about Lady Gaga, DJing and the 90s sounds on their current album:





(photos nicked from Straywave CEO Stephen McCormack's iPhone snaps)

Tunes of the Moment Circa Mid August 2009

Lets list some more top tunes shall we?

In no particular order:

Whitney Houston - Million Dollar Bill : shimmer-y, sassy and uplifting disco pop and a great comeback single for Miss Houston.

Eva Simons - Silly Boy: Still sounds like a Rihanna/Lady Gaga demo but really thats no bad thing. The video is bonkers too which helps.

Eve - Me N My (Up In The Club) : a blippy, noisy electro hip hop track that I wasn't expecting from Eve but great nonetheless.

Little Boots - Catch 22 : I don't know why it took me so long to find out how amazing this and also why it wasn't on the album! Forshame Little Boots, forshame. See also Stuck On Repeat (Fake Blood Mix)

Fake Blood - Mars : this is one of those "dimly aware of it ages ago, finally got around to listening to it now" songs and I love it.

MGMT - Kids (80skidz Remix) : adds a lick of a paint and covers ovrt some of the overplayed sheen this had a while ago. Not a new mix as far as I know but I stumbled on it and it makes me happy.

Sean Kingston - Fire Burning : I hate Sean Kingston with a fiery passion but I really love this completely by the numbers Red One number and I'm not sure why!

Might Like You Better - Amanda Blank: I like that the first time I heard this I was dancing like a trooper on a Sunday evening. Always a nice way to be introduced to a song.

Richard Vission & Static Revenger feat. Luciana - I Like That: Brilliant dirty dance pop. Why isn't Luciana huge?

Jade Ewen - My Man : So four years ago but so fun. a great slice of R&B pop. The Cahill Remix is great.

Boys and Girls - Pixie Lott: Chirpy and enjoyable pop. The Moto Blanco and Hot Pink Deleorean mixes are fantastic too.

Backstreet Boys - Straight Through the Heart : Catchy, immediate old school pop.

Miley Cyrus - Party In The USA : You can try and resist. But why bother? This is sunny, carefree and will plaster a smile over your face. You cynic you.

Irish Chart Update

I'm going to assume next week will be full of the greatest MJ hits but still interesting to check out the current Irish Top 40, which can be viewed here (top 50 in this case, and yes there are some people who still don't own Just Dance. IN JUNE. I mean really.)

The biggest surprise is Industry getting to number one with "My Baby's Waiting". I had pegged this as too cheesy and old fashioned to take off but apparently :

"a string of daily performances in record shops around the country has generated enough CD sales to take their independent debut release ‘My Baby’s Waiting’ straight to No1."

There you go. Interesting though, to see a pop act slog it out for a top spot, especially this market which is obviously tiny. I'm still not a fan of the song at all but it is nice to see a pop act do well in Ireland home of the "mid 30s and over" radio playlists.

The top 10 is actually quite exciting, having Battlefield by Jordin Sparks and Bulletproof by La Roux enter the bottom reaches (despite In For The Kill peaking at number 13, hugely different to it's long standing top ten run in the UK earlier this year) and the new Cascada single, which whatever you think of them is hugely enjoyable, opening up so strongly. Interesting moves outside of the top ten aswell with Pixie Lott climbing to number 13. I still think its so funn how a song can top the UK charts and only hit the mid teens here.

This week feels a bit more interesting then recent ones on the chart where you would see the same top 5 songs unmoved for what felt like an age. Of course this time next week should be interesting. Industry will struggle to keep that lead of a second week I'd imagine and given the small size of sales needed to get a hit song here, I wouldn't be shocked if we had a Michael Jackson number one along with several top ten entries.

Keep an eye on chart-track.co.uk for more.