Dappy

 

So as we’ve all heard, Dappy from N-Dubz was off living up to his name and reputation the other day, displaying his obscene stupidity by sending abusive text messages to a young mother of one. You’ve all heard the story, I won’t  elaborate on the details.

What I will say is that this is a ridiculous abuse of Dappy‘s responsibility as a celebrity to behave reasonably in the public eye and not to promote abusive behaviour and bullying through Social Media platforms. The obvious irony here is that Dappy is a spokesperson and ambassador, as celebrated by Schools Minister Ed Balls, for BeatBullying – the countries leading anti-bullying charity. BeatBullying‘s predominant focus in the current climate is tackling ‘Cyber-bullying’: abusive behaviour across Social Media channels such as Bebo, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, SMS and so on. Dappy‘s behaviour therefore is all the more offensive, irresponsible, and perhaps most worryingly of all, stupid!

I guess in this era of barely literate, socially inept, Neanderthal-esque celebrities, who feel socio-politically activated, influential and justified whenever their management company wheels them out at a charity gala or benefit drive, we have to remember a few things.. Celebrities are not like us: they live in a bubble. When they need something done, their management assistant, tour assistant or PA will do it for them. When they fuck up, their PR team is on the phone to every physical format / online publication, TV show and newsroom to clear the air, or a spokesperson will utter some well-timed, immaculately worded and completely insincere apology.

So should we be mad at Dappy? Probably not. He is completely and blissfully oblivious to the real world. I can’t even imagine he has the rudimentary tools necessary to understand the irony of this whole situation. We should be mad at the system which allows celebs like Dappy to make these glaringly hilarious, yet dangerous faux pas: the management and labels that buffer from the outside world, the hordes of drone-like fans that nurse their fragile and massive egos, and most despicable of all: the necessity for every charity and community cause to waft a fat cheque in the faces of celebs in order to gain a shred of publicity and to reach the youngest demographics.

Rant over.

It’s not usually my style to post videos.. but I couldn’t resist this. Absolute genius. Stunning close harmonies, mind-blowing arrangment and impressive multi-instrumentalism – Pomplemoose are definitely onto something here, and, with just under 3 million views on YouTube, their cover of All The Single Ladies is proof if ever proof was needed that interesting covers are an excellent way of exciting public imagination and gaining much needed attention if you are a small act. If you like this – check out their other covers, including an amazing rendition of Beat It by the late Jacko.

Hey Zeus live at the Corner, Manchester

 

So here goes, a long-awaited first post of Twenty Ten, and to get us started who better than one of the hottest Indie bands to explode onto the Manchester scene for a long time.. And I mean literally explode – with just three shows under their belt, and barely a full complement, Hey Zeus smashed all competition to be crowned best unsigned band in Manchester in the back-end of 2009 – an accolade which saw the young four-piece supporting the likes of Snow Patrol, Happy Mondays and KiD BRiTiSH at the MEN in December.

If that didn’t get your attention, then their blend of time-sig bending experimentalism a la bands such as At The Drive-In; Jagged, clean Vampire Weekend-esque Indie guitars, and vocal melody Pop-sensibility – an homage to the likes of The Kooks… will.

Hey Zeus have only recorded two tracks with which to adorn their MySpace so far – the strongest, Sirens, a triumph in intelligent Indie, complete with ethereal verses, strong pop-hook guitar melodies, intricate bass lines, jagged powerchords and an epic chant-along pop outro. The lads glide seamlessly and effortlessly through time signature changes in what is undoubtedly an incredible first effort.

Dont be surprised to see these boys getting serious recognition and hot support slots in 2010!