Diamonds, indeed

In my continuing effort to find a little something to brighten up the depression that is a Monday morning, here are the wonderful Three Degrees appearing in one of the cheesiest, campest videos I have seen in a while... Enjoy!

Three Degrees - Diamonds Medley

Three Degrees on Wikipedia

Sour grapes, maybe?

Estelle has made some sweeping digs at the British music industry lately, by claiming that white artists can't be credible if they do "soul" music. She took a particular swipe against artists such as Adele and Duffy because they are white.

Duffy, however, insists that when it comes to soul music, the colour of an artist's skin is irrelevant. "We don't live in the 1950s any more, we're in a multicultural country. If the talent and the desire is there, I don't really think it matters what colour you are," she said.

I am on the side of the Welsh diva. It sounds like sour grapes to me - just because Estelle's music has been unsuccessful over the years is, just maybe, because it is crap! She has a far weaker voice than Duffy's, and it is only because of the help of American Kanye West that she has hit the top of the charts at all...

Read more in the BBC Newsbeat article

Duffy on MySpace

I think I love you

Happy 58th birthday today to the lovely David Cassidy - erstwhile former member of the cheesy Partridge Family and teen heart-throb of the early 1970s.

It is unbelievable to think just how much of a stir David caused when he burst onto the music scene - with his tight satin trousers and androgynous pretty-boy looks, he was chased, screamed at and generally mobbed by hordes of teenage girls (and, more subtly, lusted over by queens of all ages) in a way not seen since the Beatles a generation earlier.

Bizarrely at the time my pre-teenage crush was (gulp!) Donny Osmond, but I was not immune to David's charms. I do know he was Madame Arcati's favourite, though, and he still is today...

And David is still cute even now, as he - unbelievably - heads towards sixty! Here he is at the height of his fame:

David Cassidy - I Think I Love You

I Think I Love You, indeed.

David Cassidy official website

Hands up your organs

A little discovery I needed to share.

Some clever dick has mashed-up Sunshine in the Rain by the bizarre Swedish band Bodies Without Organs (the newest creation of Alexander Bard, who founded both Army of Lovers and Alcazar) and that tacky Ottawan classic Hands Up (Give Me Your Love)!

Bodies Without Organs vs Ottawan - Sunshine Hands Up In The Rain (2ert mash-up)

It cheered me up...

Frankly my dear...

Oh dear. Apparently the simpering two-time-losing contestant from PopStars Darius has landed the part of Rhett Butler in the forthcoming musical adaptation of Gone With The Wind. He may be cute, but...Ewww!

Darius Campbell-Danesh - Rushes

Read the article in The Telegraph

A voice like chocolate

We celebrate today the birthday of the gorgeous Hannah Gordon, TV star and flower expert. A stalwart of dozens of comedy series or dramas - including My Wife Next Door, Upstairs Downstairs and Monarch of the Glen - for the last four decades, Hannah’s cheekbones, comfortable "mumsy" demeanour, and above all, that voice has made her one of the UK’s favourite actresses. In a fabulous twist in the genre, she also played the woman who killed Victor Meldrew in One Foot in the Grave...

Here’s Hannah narrating the intro to a documentary about our much-loved kids' TV programme Jackanory.

Jackanory documentary

Happy Birthday to a British institution!

Hannah Gordon’s long career listed on IMDB

So now who’s gonna cry for you

The song that is stuck in my head at the moment (its hook is sampled from Bronski Beat Smalltown Boy, which explains a lot), and a rather kooky video from the Swedish band September...

September - Cry for You