The Absence, Melody Gardot, review

Sultry: Melody Gardot’s voice smoulders

Melody Gardot's sultry third album The Absence, plays like a late-night, gipsy travelogue spiced with world music influences reflecting, writes Helen Brown. 

While so many of today’s retro-styled chanteuses look and sound the part when they’re singing, they often break the spell when talking (or, bless her, in Adele’s case, when laughing). But 27-year-old Melody Gardot doesn’t just deliver her smoky, speakeasy jazz like a vintage vixen – she also wisecracks like Lauren Bacall.

“When people compare me to Norah Jones,” she once remarked, “I say that she wins Grammys and I act like one. I move slowly and I’m a bit of an old soul.” Referring to her trademark look she said, “Musicians are a bit strange and bizarre anyway, though, so the cane, glasses and moon boots are a bit of a hit.”

If you missed Gardot’s remarkable story when she released her debut, Worrisome Heart, in 2006, or the bestselling My One and Only Thrill in 2009, then here’s the quick version. She was knocked off of her bicycle when she was 19, suffered a broken pelvis and severe head and spinal injuries which have left her with memory problems, an unusual sense of time and a hypersensitivity to light. She had begun playing the piano in Philadelphia bars when she was 16 so one of her doctors suggested music therapy. She taught herself the guitar in hospital and – unable to tolerate the louder music she’d enjoyed before her accident – began writing quiet, jazzy songs.

Her sultry third album plays like a late-night, gipsy travelogue spiced with world music influences reflecting, we are told, “time spent in the deserts of Morocco, the tango bars of Buenos Aires, the beaches of Brazil and the streets of Lisboa”.

Produced by Brazilian composer and guitarist Heitor Pereira, and woven from wafts of intricately picked acoustic guitar, heat-hazy flutes and silky strings, it’s music that moves with the soft, supple drama of a flamenco dancer’s fan. Songs of wandering souls and aching hearts are embroidered with klezma clarinet, moody drifts of harmonica and castanet flourishes. Gardot’s dusky voice smoulders as it slinks and scats through the mix – never breaking a sweat but always in control as she sings in English, French and Portuguese.

Vocally, she’s closer to Madeleine Peyroux than to Norah Jones – she’s got the loner’s spirit of a wiley alley cat. Bird calls, church bells and backing vocals that sound like they’re drifting in from the next street add to the holiday mood, allowing the listener to fantasise about muzzy afternoons spent swaying in a hammock and late nights in pavement cafés. When you rouse yourself from Gardot’s dream, it can be hard to recall any individual song, but the reverie is beautiful.

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Online piano star Valentina Lisitsa gets Albert Hall debut

Valentina Lisitsa will play at the Royal Albert Hall in June 2012

YouTube star and virtuoso pianist Valentina Lisitsa signs record deal and will play a concert at the Royal Albert Hall. 

One of the internet's great musical sensations, Kiev-born virtuoso pianist Valentina Lisitsa, is about to break into the big time with a major record deal and a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

Predictably marketed as 'The Justin Bieber of the classical world', the talented 39-year-old has been a star on YouTube, with various online performances of Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and Schubert attracting more than 44 million views in total.

Lisitsa, who started playing the piano at the age of three, has previously been self-managed and self-promoted but has now joined the Decca stable of musicians and will play in London on June 19th. The concert will be recorded and released first as digital-only download and then as a CD. The concert will also be streamed live via YouTube. 

Lisitsa, who trained at the Kiev Conservatory, said: “I could not have done this without all my online fans around the world. Their reactions tell me every day that I am doing the right thing and that’s the best reward for my hard work. Now I want to say thank you and give them a great concert live and online.”

Jasper Hope, Chief Operating Officer of the Royal Albert Hall, said: “Valentina is a force of nature and an extraordinary talent. I don’t know anybody else who has done this before.”

Although she will now be playing in one of the world's most renowned venues, it won't be her first London gig. Last October, she played a concert at St Mary's Church, Perivale, near Ealing. The concert, at the small 12th-century church, was attended by around 130 people who paid £10 (wine included) for the special fundraiser. She used the church piano and the creaky old piano stool giving a dazzling display that included an encore featuring Ave Maria.

Lisitsa fans will be able to vote online to decide what she will play in the slightly grander setting of the Royal Albert Hall.

Elton John hospitalised with "serious respiratory infection"

Sir Elton John performed at the funeral of the late Diana, Princess of Wales

British singer Sir Elton John cancels four shows after being rushed to hospital in Los Angeles due to a "serious respiratory infection", reports suggest. 

The 65-year-old was taken to Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles at around 6am yesterday morning, according to entertainment blog TMZ.

He then underwent tests before being told to rest four seven days by doctors, forcing the cancellation of four concerts which had been scheduled for this weekend as part of his Million Dollar Piano residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Speaking to TMZ, the singer said: "It feels strange not to be able to perform these Million Dollar Piano concerts at the Colosseum. I love performing the show and I will be thrilled when we return to the Colosseum in October to complete the 11 concerts.

"All I can say to the fans is 'sorry I can't be with you'," he added.

It is now thought that Sir Elton has been discharged and is recuperating at home.

This is the second time this year that the singer-songwriter has been forced to cancel concerts – in February, he abandoned two concerts at Caesars Palace after becoming ill with food poisoning.

Sir Elton – who was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight – is one of the most recognisable faces in music, having had a pop career spanning 45 years, selling more than 250 million records worldwide in the process.

His bestselling single, Candle In The Wind 1997, sold 33 million copies alone, after he rewrote the lyrics from his 1974 original to make the song a tribute to the then recently departed Princess Diana.

He is due to release his 31st solo studio album, The Diving Board, next year.

Lady Gaga 'won't tone down shows'

Pop singer Lady Gaga didn't alter her set for Philippines show. Photo: REX

Lady Gaga refuses to tone down her shows despite protests, says her tour manager. 

Lady Gaga would rather cancel dates in her world tour than make changes to appease censors and religious groups, the US singer's manager said today as controversy dogs her in Asia.

Troy Carter said that in any case, nothing would appease the religious hardliners who have denounced Lady Gaga in South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines since her tour kicked off in Asia.

"We'll skip them," Carter told a music conference in Singapore, insisting that Lady Gaga would not tone down any upcoming concerts. "We play the show as it is. It's a very specific show, it's a very specific audience."

Conservative Christians in South Korea and the Philippines, and militant Islamic groups in Indonesia, have accused the provocative US singer of espousing blasphemy and devil-worship.

Indonesian police are refusing to issue a permit for her June 3 show in Jakarta after threats of violence from the militant groups, but the promoters say they are still fighting to stage the event.

Carter said the fervid opposition was more a rejection of everything Lady Gaga represents than anything to do with her wardrobe or on-stage behaviour.

"I don't think this has anything to do with Gaga as much as it has to do with - you know, it's just a big cultural and generational gap that is happening over there," the manager said.

"You are dealing with a few different things, you are dealing with politics... you are dealing with religion. It's a little bit more complicated than her changing her outfits."

This week in Manila, Philippine censors were on hand to ensure Lady Gaga's act did not breach permit terms banning nudity, blasphemy and lewd conduct. She is next due to perform in Bangkok on Friday, before three gigs in Singapore.

After that is supposed to come the June 3 concert in Jakarta. On Twitter this week, Lady Gaga said she would perform solo if necessary, rather than bow to demands from Indonesian censors or the threats of violence.

Lady Gaga is expected to do 110 shows this year following the huge success of her album "Born This Way", which has sold nearly six million copies worldwide since it was released in May 2011.

The star, named one of the 100 most influential fashion icons by the US magazine Time, has wowed fans with outfits ranging from a dress made of raw meat to a frock fashioned out of plastic bubbles.

Six Mile Grove, Secret Life In A Quiet Town, CD review

Six Mile Grove's 2012 album is called Secret Life In A Quiet Town

Enjoyable country music from Six Mile Grove and Scotty Alan. 

Six Mile Grove stamp their own understated talent on their new CD Secret Life In A Quiet Town right from the opening, catchy, country song Sunshine In The Pouring Rain.

Singer, guitarist, songwriter (and tambourine player) Brandon Sampson is ably supported by his brother Brian on drums and long-time associates Dezi Wallace (bass) and Barry Nelson (electric guitars, Wurly and piano) in a band who are self-managed, self-produced and self-recorded.

Six Mile Grove, who recently collaborated with Bob Wooton on an album of Johnny Cash music, are equally adept at pacy country songs such as Fight Like A Man as with ballads like She Sings A Song.

For Crying Out Loud is a sardonic look at the hectic nature of modern life. It's not groundbreaking country but it's an accomplished and enjoyable album.

Six Mile Grove: Secret Life In A Quiet Town (Rena's Kitchen Music)
 
Another album worth checking out is Scotty Alan's Wreck And The Mess, which is produced by the experienced Bernie Larsen. There are 15 songs in 45 minutes and the highlight is Long Ways From Laughin' featuring the usual high-class guitar playing of David Lindley. Alan's strong voice is shown to good effect on Barn Dance and Sinkin' In - and the cast of classy musicians involved includes Phil Parlapiano on accordion and mandolin.

Scotty Alan: Wreck And The Mess (Spinout Records)

Guns N' Roses, O2 Dublin, review

Deliciously over-the-top: Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose, now 50

Axl Rose, the Guns N' Roses frontman, was gracious, good-humoured and almost punctual at his gig at the O2 in Dublin, writes Ed Power. 

With the charts untroubled by his effervescent shriek, it’s tempting to conclude that Axl Rose’s strategy for remaining in the spotlight has been to annoy as many people as possible. Last month the Guns N’ Roses frontman sulkily snubbed the band’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, widening the rift with the rest of the original line-up. It followed an American tour that saw G N’ R – nowadays essentially Rose and some hired help – going on close to or after midnight, leaving concert-goers torn between worshipping at the altar of old school hair-metal or missing the last bus.

Such antics have become all too familiar. In 2010, Rose exasperated a fair chunk of the 150,000 attending the Leeds and Reading festivals by turning up late and, at Reading, attempting to play through the curfew after organisers killed the power. Several days later he stormed off stage in Dublin when a plastic bottle was lobbed in his direction, presumably in protest at yet another tardy start.

On his return, one question, then, was surely paramount in the minds of G N’ R fans: would Rose come in the guise of rock deity or volcano-tempered prima donna? In fact, the 50-year-old singer, nursing a leg injury, was gracious, good-humoured and almost punctual. Arriving earlier than expected at 10.20pm, he began with a caterwauling Welcome to the Jungle, followed by the frontal charge of It’s So Easy and Mr Brownstone. On Sweet Child o’ Mine, the rollercoaster opening riff was accompanied by ardent mugging from top-hatted guitarist DJ Ashba, while the rest of the troupe, dressed as post-apocalyptic warriors, prowled back and forth, as if bothered by dreadfully itchy underpants.

Wearing a wide-brim hat and ludicrous moustache, Rose, too, got into the pantomime spirit. Shrugging off his damaged hamstring – he joked about his 2010 walk-off (“I hope you don’t mind me moving less than usual, although I’m probably moving a whole lot more than I was the last time I was here” – and chewed the scenery on deliciously over-the-top covers of AC/DC’s Whole Lotta Rosie and Paul McCartney’s Live and Let Die, the latter accompanied by dental-work-troubling explosions.

Still, at moments the near three-hour set felt more like an endurance test than a rock concert. Several tracks from 2008’s turgid comeback LP Chinese Democracy seemed to go on forever, as did a noodling tilt at The Who’s Baba O’Riley by piano player Dizzy Reed. Up in the balcony, at least one attendee had already witnessed enough. Ninety minutes in and with no end in sight, she rested her head on her boyfriend’s shoulder, fast asleep as another interminable solo rumbled past.

Lady Gaga gives hope to fans over axed concert Star vows to 'perform solo' in Jakarta to appease Islamic hardliners

Hint ... Lady Gaga

LADY Gaga gave fans in Indonesia hope her troubled Jakarta concert could go ahead today as she spoke out about the crisis. 

Cops ordered the megastar, 26, to axe the gig after opposition from hardline Islamic groups who said her raunchy act would corrupt the youth. 

She took to Twitter to hint the fight was not over - telling her "Little Monsters" she would appear alone if the show went ahead after demands that she censors her performance. 

She told fans: “If the show does go on as scheduled, I will perform the BTWBall alone.” 

The concert at the city’s 52,000-seat Gelora Bung Karno stadium on June 3 is a sell-out and was due to be the biggest of her Asian tour.

In China ... Gaga

Fundamentalist groups in the country – the world’s biggest Muslim nation - had branded her “vulgar” and accused her of spreading “satanic teaching”. 

 

Police in Jakarta refused Gaga the permit she needed to stage the show. A key religious group, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), was re-examining its opposition to the concert today after the police said they were prepared to issue a licence if she got backing from MUI and the Religious Affairs Ministry. 

Gaga – real name Stefani Germanotta – added: “The Jakarta situation is 2-fold: Indonesian authorities demand I censor the show & religious extremist separately, are threatening violence.” 

Hardliners have even threatened to intercept the singer at the airport to stop her entering the country.

She later tweeted about her concert in the Philippines: "And don't worry, if I get thrown in jail in Manila, Beyonce will just bail me out. Sold out night 2 in the Philippines. I love it here!"

Adele wins 12 Billboard awards

Adele wins 12 Billboard awards as Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and LMFAO pick up trophies in Los Angeles. 

It was another night of triumph for Adele who won 12 trophies at this year's Billboard music awards in Los Angeles.

The London-born singer was named Top Artist, Top Female Artist and Top Pop Artis. Rolling In The Deep was named Top Streaming Song (Audio) and Top Alternative Song, while her album 21 was named Top Billboard 200 Album and Top Pop Album. She won 12 awards in total from 18 nominations but was not present to collect her awards.

Adele's Billboard success comes after she was named songwriter of the year at the Ivor Novello Awards last Thursday. Rolling In The Deep picked up the award for most performed work at the same bash.

There was also success for Coldplay who were named Top Rock Artist and Top Alternative Artist, while their album Mylo Xyloto was named Top Rock Album and Top Alternative Album.

Other winners included Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and LMFAO, who picked up song of the year for their single Party Rock Anthem. The US pop act also picked up five other awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Perry was given the spotlight award for being the only female artist in history to have five number one singles in America from one album.

Rappers Wiz Khalifa, Lil Wayne and R&B singer Chris Brown won top new artist, male artist of the year and R&B artist of the year respectively.

Former American Idol winner Jordin Sparks and John Legend performed a tribute to Whitney Houston at the event.

Bieber also sang his new track Boyfriend accompanied by dancers dressed as clowns and neon geisha girls.

Other performers included Kelly Clarkson, The Wanted, Carly Rae Jepsen, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Linkin Park and Nelly Furtado.

Swift was named Billboard woman of the year and picked up the award from New Girl TV star Zooey Deschanel and veteran country singer and songwriter Kris Kristofferson.

Bieber, 18, picked up the award for the most social artist, thanking his 22 million Twitter followers and 43 million Facebook fans, saying "the internet is where I got my start".

LMFAO kicked off the show with an energetic medley of their hits "Party Rock Anthem" and "Sexy And I Know It." They were followed later by a shirtless Chris Brown performing his dance single "Turn Up The Music" with BMX bikers doing stunts.

Perry, clad in a white dress, hung above the stage in a swing to sing her latest "personal and intimate" heartbreak single Wide Awake. Veteran soul singer Stevie Wonder, 62, was honoured with the Icon award this year and sang "Higher Ground" and "Overjoyed" with R&B singer Alicia Keys, wrapping the set with his hit song "Superstition."

How the Bee Gees defined the disco era

Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb, who with brothers Barry and Maurice helped define the disco era with their falsetto harmonies and funky beats, died late on Sunday. He was 62.

The Bee Gees photographed circa 1975

The Bee Gees, were among the most successful vocal groups in rock and roll history, having sold more than 200 million albums. In 1977, they became the first and only songwriters to place five songs in the Top Ten at the same time.

The three Gibb brothers made their earliest performances at local movie theatres in Manchester in 1955, singing between shows.

After emigrating to Australia with their parents, the Gibb brothers returned to England in the mid-1960s to further their singing careers. Their early recordings, including dramatic hits such as Massachusetts (1967), drew comparisons with the Beatles.

The trio reached the Top Ten with I've Gotta Get a Message to You and I Started a Joke (both 1968) but split briefly after the relative failure of their concept album Odessa (1969).

They reunited in 1970 and had hits with Lonely Days (1970) and How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (1971), but there were several hitless years before they returned to the charts with Main Course in 1975 - in which they produced a new sound - the emphasis being on dance rhythms, high harmonies, and a funk beat.

Spearheading the new sound was Barry Gibb, who, for the first time, sang falsetto and discovered that he could delight audiences in that register.

Jive Talkin', the first single off the album, became their second American number one single, and was followed up with Nights on Broadway and then the album Children of the World, which yielded the hits You Should Be Dancing and Love So Right.

Recorded in Miami, it put the Bee Gees at the forefront of the disco movement, which their work on the sound track album of the film Saturday Night Fever (1977) would popularise and define.

The trio's contributions to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack album pushed sales past the 40 million mark. It also reigned as the top-selling album in history until Michael Jackson's "Thriller - an album that Jackson acknowledged was inspired by Saturday Night Fever - surpassed it in the 1980s.

Saturday Night Fever and 1979's Spirits Having Flown combined to yield six number one hits, making the Bee Gees the only group in pop history to write, produce and record that many consecutive chart-topping singles.

In 1997 the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and this led to a resurgence of interest, which heralded the release of the live album "One Night Only" (1998), cut at their first American concert in almost a decade.

Their success was not limited to recordings issued under their own name. Individually and together they've written and produced major hits for artists including Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, as well as Frankie Valli.

The Bee Gees remained active until the death of Maurice in January 2003, from cardiac arrest during surgery. Following his death, Robin and Barry decided to cease performing as the Bee Gees.

One Direction have "£14k phone bills"

The One Direction lads are making the best of their sudden rise to superstardom since The X Factor. 

They've bought some fancy cars and seen some very pretty girls - but apparently they've entered Kanye-levels of lavish wealth this time by running up a whopping £14,000 in phone bills! 

We understand there's five of them, but how they can spend quite that much money on phone bills is beyond us - that's enough dosh to buy a car! Or two cars! The bills were racked up while they were on tour in North America and Australia, and the phone companies aren't just counting calls, but texts, and of course data roaming. 

A source from their record company Syco told The Mirror: "Like most teenagers, the boys are obsessed with all things social media." 

"They're also encouraged to tweet by management to keep them interacting with fans but Niall and Liam in particular got pretty homesick during their travels and regularly called home." Awwww. How could we have guessed it would've been these two to call home the most? 

"When the bills landed on their doormat, the guys were utterly stunned and slightly devastated thinking they'd have to fork out themselves." Too right, we'd have a heart attack if a bill that huge could even fit through our door! 

"In the end they got called in for a meeting and given a lecture on finances, and how to handle their money. It is vital wealth does not go to their heads. Their bills got signed off and the boys will not be making the same mistake again."

Phew!

Caught Live: Watch The Throne @ The O2, London

Coming from America ... Jay-Z and Kanye West on stage at the O2

RAPPERS Jay-Z and Kanye West hit the UK last night, starting their show on stages which rise 20ft.

Cheryl Cole, JLS, Jessie J, and The Saturdays watched as they began with recent tracks, including a cracking, flame-filled Otis, Who Gon’ Stop Me, New Day and Paris. 

Then came a greatest hits set from both. Jay-Z plays Hard Knock Life, 99 Problems and Empire State Of Mind. 

Kanye runs through Diamonds Are Forever, Jesus Walks and Can’t Tell Me Nothing. 

Someone should have told him not to wear a leather skirt.

Zoolander of rap ... Kanye West in a leather skirt

On tour ... Jay-Z and Kanye West's first night

Jigga Man ... Jay-Z in London

Lost some of those excess pounds Matthew?

Transformation ... Matthew Fox

MATTHEW Fox appears to have Lost his good looks in this shocking shot from his new movie.

The star of the long-running TV drama is unrecognisable with bulging, sinewy muscles, tattoos and a shaved head as he pulverises a victim in a cage fight. 

The 47-year-old has transformed himself into a muscle-bound killing machine for his role in Alex Cross, an adaptation of a James Patterson novel. 

Another shot shows him with outstretched arms, showing his extensive body art, as he holds a gun. 

Tyler Perry stars as detective Alex Cross, who vows to track down the brutal killer of a family member.

Chilling ... Matthew Fox

His investigation soon uncovers similar crimes as he gets closer to the dangerous murderer, known as Picasso. 

It’s a far cry from the amiable, slightly chubby, heartthrob Jack Shepherd, the character Matthew played in Lost until 2010. 

And that could make his female fans Cross.

Beach body ... Matthew in Lost

Listening to music isn't enough...I need to go where it's made

Well-travelled ... Melody Gardot

AFTER a gruelling world tour two years ago, Melody Gardot felt she had “used up everything in the bag”. 

Seeking fresh inspiration, the US jazz singer packed her suitcase and embarked on a year-long, global musical crusade. 

She embedded herself in the diverse sounds and cultures of Morocco, Portugal, Bali, Brazil and Argentina — acting on the resulting surges of creativity and penning songs for her beautiful third album, The Absence, on the way. 

Melody, 27, explains: “In the jazz world, when a cat has everything that he’s got in his bag and he uses it all the time, he gets tired of his bag of tricks. 

“I had used everything that I knew and learned from people I’d encountered in the cultures I had lived among up until that point in my life. 

“When I came off tour, the first thing I needed to do was rest. But I was intrigued by other parts of the world and I was interested in picking up new information, new languages, new kinds of music.

“It wasn’t enough just to listen to it. I had to be there.” 

What struck her the most was the powerful impact music had on every community she immersed herself in. 

Unlike much of the Western world, songs weren’t confined to the iPods of individuals — they were blasted out in public to drive all-singing, all-dancing celebrations of togetherness. 

She reflects: “It’s interesting to walk through Lisbon — everybody’s singing. In Brazil, people converse through song. 

“You finish whatever it is you’re doing and you come home and play an instrument. It’s a way of expressing yourself. 

“In the Western world, we do it only at Christmas with carolling. We don’t sit down and play, which is a real shame.” 

The Absence encapsulates the musical souls of the places Melody visited, hence its universal appeal. 

Mesmerising opener Mira starts with a verse sung in Spanish — one of several languages she picked up with fluency.

New album ... out May 28

She says: “I was learning different languages and dialects and using these words every day. 

“When I was finally sent back to LA, I was almost refusing to speak English because I hadn’t done it in so long. The words weren’t coming out of my mouth.” 

Revitalised by her year abroad, Melody recruited Brazilian composer Heitor Pereira to produce her album. And with their shared love of authentic audio and experimentation, it didn’t take them long to establish a strong chemistry in the studio. 

Melody says: “After coming from all these places where the soundtrack to my life was the beauty of the breeze, I had loads of recordings. I’m a bit of an audiophiliac. 

“I love beautiful, natural sounds. They inspire me. It could be someone who’s singing along their way or sweeping. 

“In Bali, you could hear the sound of women sweeping for two hours every morning. The whole city sweeping as the whole city was sleeping. 

“When I met Heitor, one of the first things he said was, ‘Let’s get a tree and shake some leaves and make the breeze’. 

“I silently smiled because I had said this exact same thing to someone the week before and he thought I was crazy.” 

Melody’s hypnotically soothing voice belies her history of poor health. 

While cycling along a road in 2003, she was knocked down by a car and suffered serious head and spinal injuries. 

She spent a year on her back in hospital and has been living with the debilitating consequences of that accident ever since. 

“My nervous system is not so good — my hands and my feet freeze up,” says Melody. 

“I’m in pain on a regular basis, but I can deal with it. I get out of bed slowly and move my body so that I can manoeuvre. 

“I don’t get to see the world as quickly as most people. It takes me a while to get moving. 

“But if spending all day soaking in a bathtub means I get to play a two-hour gig at the end of the day, then life is good.”

Kristen Stewart would love to play a “psychopathic, evil c**t”

As well as having a mild case of potty mouth (using the c-word, naughty), Kristen Stewart has been talking about her dream acting roles, and the Twilight star is keen to take on darker acting jobs.

K-Stew told Elle magazine that she’d love to play Cathy Ames in an adpation of East Of Eden because, “She's a psychopathic, evil c**t! I haven't done that yet.”

Goodness – what will the Twihards have to say about this?

The 22-year-old actress also has her sights set on playing Peyton Loftis in the film version of Lie Down In Darkness because it's another intemse part, 

“I want to play Peyton more than anything I can possibly taste or touch in my life. I want to play her so bad. There's a script adaptation I've read and it's good.”

And if that all sounds a little intense, it’s probably because K-Stew is an intense person herself. 

“Yeah, I'm still a very intense person,” she tells The Guardian. “I'm chilled out about some things. 

I'm cool. But definitely, I take things far too seriously... I am just a serious person. I love joking around, and it's obviously about mood, because sometimes I can definitely be a silly idiot. But most of the time I am like this. And I'm overtly aware of fucking everything. I'm always like just obsessive, analytical.”

What sort of film would you like to see Kristen in next?

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau: touchstone of perfection

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau at his home in Berlin in 2011

Ivan Hewett pays tribute to the masterful German classical singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who has died aged 86.

To describe Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as a giant among post-war singers is actually an understatement. For many he was, and is, the singer of the period, and a model of what a singer of art-song should be.

He had a voice with the mysterious quality of being both instantly recognisable and a touchstone of perfection. ‘Fischer-Dieskau is a miracle and that’s all there is to be said about it’ said the writer John Amis. Of course Fischer-Dieskau had his critics. Roland Barthes famously scorned his smoothly honed sound, saying it lacked the ‘grain’ of a really memorable voice.

And yet Fischer-Dieskau was anything but bland. It was encountering Fischer-Dieskau’s recordings of Hugo Wolf’s songs that first made me aware of their colossal intensity and layers of irony. Beauty of tone may have been what the audience heard, but it was the always the meaning of he song that Fischer-Dieskau’s sights were fixed on.

The other thing that made Fischer-Dieskau unique was his sheer productivity. Artists who are admired for their ‘perfection’ are usually careful to keep their rarity value, like the pianist Michelangeli or the conductor Carlos Kleiber. Fischer-Dieskau poured out his talent unstintingly. He simply sang more operatic roles and had a greater repertoire of songs than any other baritone - around 3000 by some estimates.

He worked with numerous composers, notably Hans Werner Henze and Benjamin Britten. He sang in the premiere of Britten’s War Requiem at Coventry Cathedral in 1962, and in 1978 appeared as King Lear in Aribert’s Reimann’s opera Lear, one of several roles created specially for him.

Fischer-Dieskau’s last operatic role was Falstaff, in 1992, and he retired from the concert platform the following year. But he continued to lead a hectically busy life as lecturer and author of, among other things, a study of Nietzsche’s relationship to Wagner. In his later years he observed stoically that he was being forgotten, but the constant reissue of his recordings on CD suggests otherwise. For young singers like Ian Bostridge he is still the model to aspire to. And for those of us who love art-song, his recordings are like a companion one wants to keep for life.

Cannes 2012: Jackie Chan to retire from action movies

Jackie Chan doing his own stunts in The Spy Next Door

At Cannes, Jackie Chan has announced his retirement as an action star, saying he is too old for stunts and the world is “too violent”. 

The 58-year-old actor said he felt “really, really tired” after decades of pushing his body to the limit.

Speaking in Cannes, Chan said that his latest Hollywood outing, Chinese Zodiac, would be the last time audiences see him in a leading action role.

“This is my last action film,” he said. “I tell you, I’m not young any more. I’m really, really tired.

“And the world is too violent right now. It’s a dilemma - I like action but I don’t like violence.”

Chan has been talking of retirement for the past couple of years but said today that this time he really means it.

FilmDistrict Acquires Dead Man Down Starring Noomi Rapace And Colin Farrell

The Cannes Film Festival is now well underway in the South of France and amidst the glitz and glamour, there is still also a lot of business taking place. FilmDistrict, perhaps best known for being behind last year's Drive - a strong contender for the Palme, Nicolas Winding Refn walked away with Best Director - has already acquired Intrepid Pictures' horror flick Oculus this year before closing the deal for U.S. distribution rights to Dead Man Down.

Deadline reports that FilmDistrict has also acquired the new film from director Niels Arden Oplev , the man behind the original Swedish adaptation of Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Män Som Hatar Kvinnor). Dead Man Down re-teams the director with his Dragon Tattoo leading lady as Noomi Rapace stars alongside Colin Farrell in this romantic revenge thriller set in the criminal underworld. The studio also just released the first official still from the film-- take a look at Farrell's character, the right-hand man to a New York City crime boss.



Written by Fringe's J.H. Wyman, the film follows Farrell's criminal 'number-two' who is tricked and then falls for Rapace's vengeful former victim. The pair's immediate and undeniable chemistry not only sparks an intense relationship but also a plan for her character Beatrice to get her revenge. And their quest for retribution might get a little violent. 

Also starring Terrence Howard and the great Dominic Cooper, Dead Man Down began shooting in Philadelphia and New York back in April and FilmDistrict is planning for a fall of 2013 release. Until then, you can catch Rapace in Ridley Scott's Prometheus this summer as well as Farrell in the Total Recall remake and (back with his In Bruges director Martin McDonagh for) Seven Psychopaths.

American Idol Results: Who Made the Finals?

I love you guys so much because you have the courage to have a dream.

That's what Steven Tyler told the remaining three American Idol contestants tonight. Alas, for one of Phillip Phillips, Jessica Sanchez and Joshua Ledet, the dream is now over. So... following a painful Ice Age 3 tie-in and a performance by Adam Lambert, who got voted out of season 11?

JOSHUA LEDET!

The talented crooner takes it very well and even brings his mom on stage as he sings farewell via "Man's Man's Man's World."

This leaves Jessica Sanchez, likely the best voice of the season, and Phillip Phillips, the obligatory cute-white-guy-with-a-guitar-who-wins-every-season, to square off on next week's finale.

Steve Wozniak Hired To Work On Sorkin's Steve Jobs Movie

Ashton Kutcher’s biopic about Steve Jobs might have beaten Sony’s out of the gate, but it’s already trailing in both good press and expectations. Much of that, of course, has to do with Aaron Sorkin writing the screenplay, but now some of the credit should go to Steve Wozniak as well.

The deceased CEO might be given the lion’s share of the credit for turning Apple into one of the largest companies in the world, but Wozniak was an incredibly important player during the early years. He and Jobs both sold many of their possessions to get the start-up money, and it was actually Woz who hand-built the Apple I. In the late 80s, he reduced his role to part time in order to build universal remote controls and beat Tetris high scores, but he’s always remained an official employee.

In short, other than Steve Jobs, there are few people in the world who know as much about Apple as Wozniak, and according to Reuters, he’s not only given his stamp of approval, he’ll actually work on the film.

Wozniak’s official job on the project will be as a “tutor”. Essentially, that means he’ll monitor the technology and meet with Sorkin to make sure those details are correct, as well as the facts concerning Apple’s early years. The screenwriter hasn’t yet decided what portion of Jobs’ life he’ll focus the movie on, but whatever era he chooses, Woz will be able to fill in the details.

I don’t know how much having someone intricately involved affects the overall quality for an adaptation of real events, but somehow, having Wozniak on board here just feels right. If the film is good enough for him, I’m sure it’ll be good enough for the rest of us. Not that Sorkin hasn't earned our trust already.

Guinness World Records Responds To Jack White's 'Elitist' Claims

Guinness spokesperson explains why they refused to recognize a White Stripes show as 'the shortest concert of all time.'

Over the years, Jack White has taken umbrage with overzealous radio programmers, the Internet and, uh, Jason Stollsteimer (to name just a few) but in the new issue of Interview magazine, he lashes out at a new foe: The folks at Guinness World Records.

Yes, in what could only be described as the latest step in his ongoing transformation into the music world's foremost eccentric — sorry, Kanye — White has lashed out at the venerable record-keeping institution, calling them "a very elitist organization" after they refused to acknowledge the White Stripes' one-note performance in Newfoundland (seen in their 2010 doc "Under Great White Northern Lights") as "the shortest music concert ever."

"I was thinking that afterwards we could contact the Guinness World Records people and see if we could get the record for the shortest concert of all time. So we did it, but ultimately, they turned us down," White tells astronaut Buzz Aldrin (for real) in the Interview piece. "[They're] a very elitist organization. There's nothing scientific about what they do. They just have an office full of people who decide what is a record and what isn't ... so something like the shortest concert of all time, they didn't think [it] was interesting enough to make it a record. I don't know why they get to decide that, but, you know, they own the book."

Well, yes, they do own the book ... and, as it turns out, the Stripes' Newfoundland concert was featured in the 2009 edition of it, as a spokesperson for Guinness World Records pointed out to MTV News on Thursday (May 17). Of course, they'd subsequently remove the notation in later editions, though it had little to do with elitism and more to do with the simple fact that Guinness had no way of qualifying what actually counted as a performance.

"We received a large volume of applications from bands and performers seeking to beat this record. We got an influx of individuals claiming that simply appearing on stage was enough to qualify them for this record," the spokesperson wrote in an email to MTV News. "It became increasingly difficult for us to measure this objectively (for example, how many members of the crowd need to be able to see the performer before they disappear off stage?)

"The nature of competing to make something the 'shortest' by its very nature trivializes the activity being carried out, and Guinness World Records has been forced to reject many claims of this kind," the spokesperson continued. "As such, we have closed record categories for similar designations such as the shortest song, shortest poem, and also the record of shortest concert currently in question."

Of course, the spokesperson was quick to add that Guinness World Records "admires the band and we encourage them to attempt any of the 40,000 active records currently housed in our database." And knowing White, we're pretty sure he'll take them up on that offer. Soon.