Music
SW1 playlist
By Tina Kumar
One Dance - Drake
Peaches- Justin Bieber ft Daniel Caeser, Giveon
Uncover- Zara Larsson
Mood Swings- Pop Smoke
Roses- Saint Jhn (Imanbek Remix)
2 Much - Justin Bieber
Antidote- Travis Scott
Left, Right- YG, Mustard
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After Party- Don Toliver
What the hell- Avril Lavigne
Fever- Dua Lipa, Angèle
23- Mike Will ft Miley Cyrus
Like That- Doja Cat
Hold you down - DJ Khaled, Chris Brown, August, Future, Jeremih
Kiss me more- Doja Cat
Die for me- Post Malone
Carousel- Travis Scott
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We won - D Block Europe
Save your tears- Ariana Grande, The Weeknd
Work - Rihanna
I’m with you - Avril Lavigne
Gimme More- Britney Spear
Run this town- Rihanna ft Jay Z
After Hours- The Weeknd
Cool - Dua Lipa
Aladdin- Not3s
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Brit Awards 2021: What happened and what did you miss?
By Tina Kumar
Little Mix make history by being the first girl band to with in Best British Group category. They dedicated their award to their former bandmate, Jesy Nelson and to previous, iconic, girl bands such as: “The Spice Girls, Sugababes, All Saints, Girls Aloud and all other female bands- this one’s for you!” Said Jade Thirwall.
Other big winners of the night were Dua Lipa and Harry Styles. Dua Lipa took home 2 awards, one for Best British Female Solo artist and for Mastercard’s album of the year for her sophomore album, Future Nostalgia. Harry Styles took the Brit Award for Best British Single for Watermelon Sugar. Lipa and Styles won similar awards at the Grammys held beforehand in March 2021.
Taylor Swift was honoured with the ‘global icon’ award. She released 3 albums within the space of a year, Folklore, Evermore and the re-recorded version of her second album, Fearless. She gave an inspiring speech as always and it’s extraordinary to watch her journey over the last 10 years. Other winners were Griff, Arlo Parks, J Hus, Haim, Billie Eilish. Unlike the Grammys, The Brits honoured one of the most streamed artists of lockdown and the past year, The Weeknd; who also gave a refreshing performance. The performance was much like somewhere in the middle of nowhere of America with heavy rain pouring down.
Like many artists such as Stormzy, Dua Lipa used her platform at the Brits and her speech to make a political statement. She called our the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and the Government for not doing enough to honour our frontline workes in a time of a pandemic. She pressed for ‘fair pay rise’ being awarded to the NHS and frontline workers.
Although she was criticised due to her travelling in the pandemic, she got the applause from the crowd; whom 2500 were made up of NHS and frontline workers at The o2. Award ceremonies have been used to make political statements such as the ‘Me Too' campaign being championed and talked about on red carpets here in the UK and in the US. However, is a glitzy awards bash the place to try to make a political change or should celebrities just go with the flow and show support if and when they are asked about it? Surely, with all the wealth, fame and success celebrities have they can make real change to some capacity behind the scenes or on a more regular basis using their platforms.
I don’t know but perhaps we would we saying the same if celebrities if they didn’t talk about political matters at awards shows that they weren’t showing enough support or raising awareness about pressing issues that affect us all in society.
I feel, if a celebrity is able to use their platform to influence a positive change and they continue to do this it’s good on their part for speaking up; even when they might not need to. However, if celebrities use awards shows as a way to make the headlines, or support something just because everyone else is talking about it at the time or just agree with whichever movement is going on. Then the juxtaposition in that means they shouldn’t be supporting a cause they don’t really believe in.
The Brits was an exciting and engaging event, with 4000 people in attendance without social distancing or without the audience/crowd wearing masks. The event was a test live event for future live events to come by the government.Rapid, pre negative Covid tests were taken by beforehand to ensure safety of everybody in the room.
With the new Indian variant making waves; will this model be enough for the a well anticipated return to live music?
SW1 May 2021 playlist
By Tina Kumar
Ferrari horses - D Block Europe, Raye
Airplane Modes- Nines, NSG
Man don’t care about all that
Commitment Issues- Central Cee
Astronaut in the Ocean - Masked Wolf
Essense- WizKid, Tems
New Shape- Young T & Bugsey
Boasty - Wiley, Idris Elba and more
Whoopty- CJ
Drogba- Afro B
For the Night - Pop Smoke
Latest Trends- A1 x J1
Pick up- Darkoo
My Touch- Chop Daily
That Kind of Woman - Dua Lipa
WOW-Zara Larsson
Deep end - Fousheé
Siberia- Headie One
Money Talks- Fredo, Dave
Princess Cuts- Headie One
Energy- Pa Sale
Up- Cardi B
Mama Say- WSTRN
Best friend- Saweetie
Rapture- Koffee
What do you know about love- Pop Smoke
Loading - Central See
OT Bop- NSG
Shiny - Between Friends
Calling my phone - Lil Tjay
What’s Next- Drake
Believe it- Rihanna
Gangsta- Darkoo
Don’t Rush- Young T & Bugsey
Ay Caramba- Young T & Bugsey
Introducing The North by South
By Chris Humpries/ The North by South
Where to begin, it's been a long 2 and a half years… I started recording my project's debut EP "The North by South" in late 2017 with a French producer, Mathieu Garcia, who lived across the road from me in Manchester. It was fairly laid back, I'd show up with a smoke and coffee in my hand and we start recording/mixing.
Fast forward a year and a bit, I make my debut as The North by South with some random band members at Zombie Shack off of Oxford Road. Next thing I know I'm hosting and playing gigs almost every night, playing three Chorlton venues every Wednesday or Thursday night acoustically, which I dubbed the Chorlton Triple Tour. We ended up being picked by Alex Fraser and Tim Burgess to play at Kendal Calling 2019.
By October 2019 I was in Archway, London, living in a sub-let on a counsel estate, eventually relocating to Walthamstow in the East End. I ended up being picked by Zach to play in the live band for his project The Skinner Brothers while still releasing and promoting my own music.
After the first lockdown I knew I had to record more. I booked a bus up to Manchester for a weekend in August. I recorded the first two tracks of the EP with Jonny Woodhead at Green Velvet Studio in Stockport over the course of 2 days, there were a few more songs, but I doubt they'll be released. I got the idea of a stripped back EP a long time ago, I just had some people blocking me from doing it, saying it wasn’t in line with sound of my earlier work, but I said f*ck it I'm making this anyways haha.. the EP’s songs were all written a year or two before they were recorded!
It’s a dark romance about life, moving on and lost loves. The title refers to the philosophical term “Episteme” which means source of knowledge, all my songs start with an acoustic guitar, and my memories I put into lyrics, so I thought it was a fitting title. Most of the songs are references to both Manchester and London memories. After this release, I've teamed up with fellow mate and musician Oliver New for double alt rock single that's due for release in February!
Follow @thenorthbysouth insta page for more!
Charlie Watts dies aged 80
By Tina Kumar
Rolling Stones legend, Charlie Watts, dies aged 80. He had been a member of the The Rolling Stones since 1963. Sir Mick Jagger and Keith Richards paid tribute to their former band mate on social media. Beatles members Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Ringo Starr and Sir Elton John were amongst others in the music industry to remember Watts. He was the quieter member and preferred to stay out of the spotlight.
It was announced he would not be joining The Rolling Stones on their concert tour that is due to start next month.
He was married to Shirley Shepherd for 57 years and met her while he was a sculpture student before finding fame in music. He has a daughter, Seraphina and a granddaughter Charlotte. After becoming successful in the band he ended up retreating to the countryside with his family choosing a more private lifestyle.