My end of year list of amazing things 2012.

1. ALBUM THAT SURPASSED ALL OTHERS

Newton Faulkner – Write It On Your Skin.

I’ve loved Newton Faulkner since the beginning of 2008. He makes me laugh, inspires me, he just makes sense to me. He makes me happy. Makes me cry. But it’s important that music touches you. Never mind the fact he is an actual genius.

There is a song off this record called ‘soon’. Birmingham 3rd may 2012. I got home from the London show the night before at 2am and bought an e-ticket on ebay for the next day in Birmingham. I wont ever forget how ‘soon’ felt that night.

“Today will be different, that day is gone..
The darker the night
The brighter you burn
And when it comes, you will know
The weight will fall from your bones
It's coming
Soon, soon..

 For once in your life
It's gonna be alright”

2. ALBUM THAT MADE ME SMILE

The Killers – Battle born.

As a collective album I will never love it as much ‘hot fuss’ or ‘day and age’ but it has some beautiful moments that make me so blissfully happy. I love these boys.

There are two stand-out songs:

 ‘The way it was’ paints such a vivid picture of the Mojave desert in my head.

“I remember driving in my daddy's car to the airfield
Blanket on the hood, backs against the windshield”

The other song is ‘be still’. A song can mean anything to anybody. I take my own meaning from it. It means a lot to me.

“And may your limits be unknown
And may your efforts be your own
If you ever feel you can't take it anymore..
Be still
One day you'll leave
Fearlessness on your sleeve..
Don't break character
You've got a lot of heart”

3. MAN I'D LIKE TO BE BEST FRIENDS WITH

Scott McEwan of The Candle Thieves.

The man is a bit of a tortured soul. But a talented songwriter and he has this ability to convey emotion. He intrigues me… and he is genuinely such a nice guy.

4. THING YOU'RE MOST SICK OF

The exact same as last year (and the year before that): the conservatives. FULL STOP.

Sick of them fucking our country and the Lib Dems doing Sweet F*** All to stop them. They care only for themselves.

5. THING I MOST DESIRED BUT DIDN'T GET

To see the killers play Las Vegas for new year.

To go to Paris.

To see sunset on a beach somewhere.

Next year it has to happen. 

6. ALBUM THAT MOST STIRRED MY SOUL

The Candle Thieves – Balloons

These boys are so fun but also so so dark.

They connect to my soul. I can’t explain it.

‘The rock and The bug’ could be written about me.

It’s my 7th most played of 2012.

"I’m hoping that you’re happy because I’m not...

I really wonder what you see in me, when you could fly away happily..

 it’s a miracle you found me, I appreciate the company”

7. MOST STYLISH MAN

Brandon flowers. The man is god.

I can’t begin to tell you how much I think this man is HAWT. Stylish. Cute. Fit. Sexy. The lot.

8. FAVOURITE MUSIC VIDEO

The Script - Six Degrees of Separation.

Danny O'Donoghue is also FIT. squeeeee! *dies*

I love this video. Just perfection. I also love this song. It’s one of my favourite songs of 2012 and also one of my favourites from the album: #3.

9. FAVOURITE TELEVISION SHOW

Air crash investigation. 



Intriguing. The geek in me loves it. It makes me smile. Makes me cry. Amazes me. Makes me realise life is precious and when our time is up, it's up.

10. FAVOURITE CHARACTER SINCE E.T

Sid the Sloth.

Last year I said Sid from ice age, this year I have to say the same. Sid is my hero. 

"My parents said bad news was just good news in disguise... (Was this before they abandoned you?)... yes it was"

11. COOLEST ROCK STAR

Danny O'Donoghue. 


(my pic from the amazon london show).

I love that hawt man. He’s just so honest and raw and cheeky. Meeting him will go down as one of my favourite moments of the year. It was everything I’d dreamed of when he said ‘hello again, I saw you rocking out down the front’. Totally lost in my own little world with the song ‘if you ever come back’ and I looked up and he was looking at me. I almost died right then. This band mean so much to me. as does that song.

12. BEST PROTEST SIGN

THIS. The End.

13. THE THING THE HUMAN RACE WILL BE ASHAMED OF IN 30 YEARS

The hate that continues for LGBT people.

Russia, with their anti-gay propaganda law.

The list of 78 countries and 5 other political entities with laws against homosexuality.



As if that wasn’t disgusting enough, two more countries were ADDED this year when the list should be getting much shorter. Much shorter.

14. COOLEST STYLE AND DESIGN ICON

Darren Hayes. 



I said it last year and I will say it again, the man is a genius. His 2012 The Secret’s Out Tour was one of the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed. And the merch. I cant begin to even tell you how amazing September was. laughter. joy. tears. love. friends. memories.

15. BEST GIG of 2012.

Without hesitation, Darren Hayes – Birmingham Symphony Hall. 



One of the most beautiful nights to be alive on this earth.
very emotional.

16. FAVOURITE PICTURE(s) YOU TOOK THIS YEAR.

I could sit here forever, so I’m going to pick just one. 
This was what Darren Hayes had referred to as ‘Sex Face’:

17. MOST MEMORABLE NEWS EVENT(s) OF 2012.

The Costa Concordia disaster.

fabrice muamba’s brush from death and his miracle escape.

The Olympics.

Obama being re-elected.

Lance Armstrong being found to be a drugs cheat.

The Newtown shootings.

18. THE MOST EXCITING THING(s) OF 2012.

So many...

(my grin says it all really).

• Bringing in 2012 with Darren Hayes NYE 2011 party with the most amazing people I'm proud to call my friends.
• Darren Hayes hug fest.
• Meeting Darren at radio 2 with my girlie Anna. ‘For my hails, I love you more’. I wont ever forget his cover of 'like a prayer' that day, Anna and I, one earphone each, and afterwards we just hugged.
• Seeing Snow patrol play Nottingham Arena.
• The most amazing birthday in Ireland and my little roadtrips with my bestie in that week.
• The killers – Leeds academy with the girlie Hils. Both drunk as fuck. Meeting mark. No idea how we got home. ‘AMYYYYYY’ lol.
• Standing in a field in front of a castle in the pissing rain singing my heart out to scouting for girls.
• Blagging my way into Ed Sheeran’s itunes festival performance.
• The script in London. Danny looking at me while singing ‘for the first time’. Mark looking at me whilst I sang his lines from ‘six degrees’.
• Darren Hayes tour, followed by Newton Faulkner’s tour, and then The Killers tour.
• The killers – Sheffield. Worst chest infection ever, centre barrier, singing for my life, jumping like my life depended on it. Brandon flowers watching  me grin while singing ‘smile like you mean it’ back to him.
• Ronnie Vannucci calling me a little shit.
• Meeting drunk Dave.
• Kelly Clarkson with my girlies in London. Emotional night. demon’s laid to rest.
• The candle thieves tour with my girlies.
• An amazing friend’s wedding.
• The script live for radio 2. ticket 001. meeting the band. Amazing!
• The best ever xmas with my family.

19. FAVOURITE SINGLE OF 2012.

Kelly Clarkson – stronger. 



Soundtrack to my year.

‘what doesn't kill you makes stronger, stronger, just me, myself and I’

20. FAVOURITE FILM OF 2012.

Ice age 4. seriously. I’m a big kid. So what.

Closely followed by best exotic marigold hotel.

“Everything will be all right in the end... if it's not all right then it's not yet the end”. Wise words to live by.

21. THING(S) YOU ACCOMPLISHED THIS YEAR.

Erm…..

Moving house.

Seizing life by the reins in Ireland.

The most gigs in one year yet?

Surviving the chest infection from hell. Lol.

I’m happier than last year.

Yeah that’s about it.

22. MOST EXCITING DISCOVERY THIS YEAR.

Monsters inc 2 is actually coming in 2013. SQUEEEEEEEEE.

….and you can pause live TV on sky. who knew. Lol.

23. THING YOU ARE MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2013.

The killers first stadium gig.

The script tour.

The feeling with the girlies.

Bill bailey.

ROBBIE WILLIAMS. Been a dream since ‘come undone’ in 2004.

kings of Leon. Been a dream of mine since 2008.

Seeing more of my friends and having epic times.

I still wanna go see sunset on a beach.

I wanna go paris. It has to happen.

13 is my lucky number. Something good has to happen this coming year. I will make it so.

That is all.

A Note to Ben Montague

March 2011.

Nottingham Royal Concert Hall. There was this guy called Ben Montague supporting The Lighthouse Family. From the first few notes I knew he was onto something. It's so rare to be so bowled over instantly. You know that feeling, when a song just flows right through you, to your core, and you just want to burst with the love you have for it? Well that was what Ben did to me. He's got this song called Haunted, I fell in love with it even more than the other songs.

June 2012.

I never forgot about Ben. Haunted and the other songs on the overcome CD that I’d bought on whim that night in 2011 remained in my iTunes recently played. Ben played a tiny acoustic show in the rescue rooms in Nottingham. I fell in love with the new songs; I'm especially obsessed with ‘hummingbird’.

 

July 2012.

It was an amazing moment so see the singer I’d supported 18 months ago finally on the music channels. It was the moment I thought Ben is onto great things. ‘We love like stars’ <3 .="." o:p="o:p">

August 2012.

I Bought another hard fall. :D

I even managed to win a lyric competition on twitter and get a follow off Ben on twitter. Squee. :D

Is it January yet? I’m in need of some ‘Tales of flying and falling’ ;)

love you Ben.

much love,

@babyhails

Hails xx

Enrique Iglesias – Finally Found You.

It was one day in feb 2002 I turned on the tv and it changed my life. On Top of The Pops that evening was this guy I’d never heard of at number 1. Enrique Iglesias. ‘Hero’ was such a song. So much emotion, as a bit of a screwed up 15 year old that song spoke directly to me. I needed a hero in my life. The song made me cry that night.

The song stayed at number one the next week and I listened to it again. That same performance on the show. And the week after. And the week after that. I was sold.

We didn’t have much money and I didn’t have access to a radio of my own so TOTP was my bible. Enrique became pretty big in the UK quite quickly and I searched the music channels for his songs. I found his programme on VH1 with a back catalogue of his songs. ‘Bailamos’, ‘rhythm divine’, ‘could I have this kiss forever’, and this other song that made me fall in love with Enrique even more ‘Be with you’. It had that same magic formula that Hero did.

After that I searched everywhere for everything Enrique, I found a poster in my local shop (much excited in a tiny village in Ireland), I found the hero single on cd. I’d found this new video for a song called ‘escape’ on the music channels constantly being played and I fell in love with it. By the time escape (the album) was released in October I had saved enough and bought it. I never looked back. I spent many nights alone in my bedroom that covered in posters like a 16 year old does, with my bubble fish lamp, listening to that album, writing in my diary about how much I loved a boy who never loved me back. Tragic I know. I played it so much the white colouring on the CD started to chip away.

“You make me strong 

You make me weak 

You lift me off my feet 

You give me hope 

When all my dreams 

Seem like they're out of reach 

If the world came crashing down over me 

I know that my life is complete”

I especially loved the cover of ‘only you’ that was on a video for the one of the singles. That performance was fearless, I remember sitting in the sun in Ireland listening to that cover that summer. I was absolutely gutted when my mum wouldn’t let me go see his concert in Belfast as I was too young. Looking back she was right but I remember wanting it so bad.

I stuck with Enrique for the year until the release of his next album ‘7’ in nov 2003. In the mean time I begged mum for my pocket money, I bought his first English language cd with ‘be with you’ on, and then I begged to go buy his Spanish language CD’s from amazon US. I don’t speak a single word of Spanish but the songs were good. Enamorado Por Primera Vez, Si Tu Te Vas, Cosas del Amor & Esperanza we my favourites. Then I discovered a relatively new Spanish cd called quizas. It took ages to arrive from America, but to this day love it. Practically every song I love. You can hear the emotion in his voice, especially the title track about his dad. And there is something so damn sexy about rolling those ‘R’s’. I used practically all my printer ink printing the lyrics translations from dial up and sticking them on my wall too LOL.

Although 7 it had moments of genius, the change in direction wasn’t something I stuck with. It was never gonna be the magic that I held for escape. I drifted from him, until in 2007 when for whatever reason one day I thought of him and found him on myspace, I still held a little torch for him. I found his new single ‘do you know?’ and fell in love. It was a comeback. It was a few months after the album release I remembered I was meant to order it and I did and I never looked back. ‘Insomniac’ is his best English language album since ‘escape’.

Tired of being sorry, somebody’s me, little girl. All amazing songs. I have a real love for ‘on top of you’, I love cheeky Enrique. I think the minute it clicked was when I watched him perform ‘somebody’s me’ on the lottery show. I was about 21, but I was totally lost. I just wanted someone to love me. Hell, I’m 26 and still do.

“Somebody wants you 

Somebody needs you 

Somebody dreams about you every single night 

Somebody can't breathe without you, it's lonely 

Somebody hopes that one day you will see 

That somebody's me”

That song was my life right there. And I suck by Enrique again. I missed the next tour in 2007 but watched it live in Belfast online and finally I went to see him play on his birthday at the MEN in Manchester in 2009. It was magic. But there was this strange atmosphere in the room, it was all women of all ages, mostly middle aged, screaming, and this vibe that they weren't listening but just wanting to kill each other to get to him. I was quite far back on the floor but I was in total awe. Even when two women decided to have a flown blown row over me in the seat between them :/ I wont ever forget how it felt to stand and sing happy birthday to him.


   


































I bought the Spanish greatest hits CD ‘1 – exitos’ and the English greatest hits, then his new album Euphoria. Once again though I didn’t like the direction that euphoria took. Heartbeat was a typically brilliant Enrique song, the rest of the album I didn’t really take to. Dirty dancer is fun. I LOVE ayer.

One dark night in 2010, whilst looking at the track differences been the UK euphoria and the US version, I came across an old US bonus track from insomniac. ‘baby hold on’. It just happened to be a hard time in my life. It’s hard for me to listen to now, I played it to death them. :’(

“she bought a ticket to nowhere 

And she told me that she's sick of this life 

She's forgotten how her smile used to feel 

I know it's not easy, but 

Baby, baby; hold on 

I wish that you could see 

Oh, how beautiful you are to me”

I went to see him again twice more in 2011. LG arena Birmingham and Nottingham. The LG arena was incredible, I had a good seat but I still ran to the front just before he came on. No one moved us. wahoo. I was so close. I couldn’t believe it. I left buzzing, this was the concert I dreamed off. dreams do come true. And that incredibly sick little girl molly that he had on stage with him who has since sadly passed away. My arms KILLED me recording this video of molly but I was determined to share it when I got home so hopefully it would reach her family. I don’t know if it ever did. But I hope it did.





   






























































Then I went to Nottingham and Enrique seemed to be really feeling it but the audience didn’t seem to be. He’s a strange artist like that, I can’t pin point it. Was a great show though. I wish I could meet him, I just don't have the $700 to do so at a concert VIP package. That makes me sad.


   


























I haven’t loved the singles since Euphoria: Tonight, I like how it feels or naked. I kept in touch though on his newsletter, twitter and facebook. MTV has this week been playing him a lot lately, his MTV live show, his back catalogue and his 2011 VH1 behind the music. I fell in love all over again.

I’ve just played his new song ‘finally found you’ and I like it. It reminded me why I loved Enrique in the first place. His voice is velvet, he is as sexy as hell, and he had the power to take me somewhere else, somewhere where the sun shines, the darkness doesn’t exist and I forget everything for the 4 minutes of the song. I will always have a corner of my heart for him.

“In this crazy world of choices I've only got a few 
Either you're coming with me, or I'm coming with you”

I heart you Enrique.