Better late than never, here is my review of Pop T4 On The Beach from last Sunday.

Kaiser Chiefs
They sang Every Day I Love You Less And Less and I Predict A Riot (which they are predictably re-releasing soon), but where was Oh My God? Ricky is not a great singer but the songs are great and he has stage presence and personality. Hurrah for boys in pink glasses!

Madness
Since when were Madness back? And why are they singing these random songs about incest and illegitimacy, rather than any of their hits?

Athlete
This show is very indie so far. I think Athlete were on the first ever Pop Beach, in the days before it literally lost it's 'pop'. Aren't Athlete due a new single soon? Half Light was ages ago. The singer obviously thinks he's a star now cos his glasses are too big for his face. Ah, here is the next single. It's the album's title track, Tourist. It's not that great but nice enough.

Rooster
Their new single is quite a nice ballad, but reminds me a bit of Robbie Williams. They keep getting all rocky then ruining it by releasing the soppiest ballads around. The drummer has long hair now, I didn't recognise him! Come Get Some still sounds good - if only their other songs had been of the same standard, then I'd be a fan.

Mario
Let Me Love You still sounds fantastic, even with Mario's breathy live singing (yet he's still probably the best singer so far). I know it's wrong but I love this song. Why did he just say Here I Go Again is his second single? It's his fourth! I do like the bit that sounds like 5ive.

Doves
They had a no.1 album?? I never even noticed. They are so rubbish and boring. Hurry up Rachel Stevens!

Akon
It gets WORSE! If you think I'm watching this, you are officially insane. I'm off to find a very cold drink since it is boiling today.

Daniel Bedingfield
Poor D-Bed! He can't sing any of his hits because he's already done them all at previous Pop Beaches. One year he was the finale, now he's barely any more important than the indie nobodies in the line-up. Lets hope he gets some better singles for album three, because as much as I liked Second First Impression, it didn't have any standout obvious singles.

Bobby Valentino
I'm ashamed to say this song is growing on me a bit. Its still r'n'b though and we do not need any more of that. How about a Steps cover for the next single?

Audiobullies
This song is so overrated and really not that clever.

Lemar
Lemar seems to have got really big in the past few months. I know so many people in 'real life' who love him. He may be a bit 'urban' and his last album was a bit dull, but I still think he's great because he is the only leftover of Fame Academy.

Bodyrockers
They played their new single and what a surprise, it sounds just like I Like The Way! The singer hit himself with the microphone - hilarious!

Rachel Stevens
AT LAST! Someone good! So good, even! She looks lovely with plaited hair extentions and the dance routine is fab but considering how often she mimes you'd think she'd be better at it by now. Hang on, what?! Only 1 song? This is so wrong!

Garbage
I do like Garbage and we can never have too many feisty redheads in pop. Sex Is Not The Enemy is definitely not as good as Why Do You Love Me, which sound phenomenally ace today.

Feeder
Boring! I'm going on an ice cream hunt...

Tony Christie
The finale, hurrah! I thought it would never come.

Coldplay
Kelly Clarkson (great song, horrid singer)
Nelly
Jamiroquai
U2
and the Crazy Frog!

It is undeniably atrocious, although it would have been quite a good opportunity to bomb the building and get rid of them all at once (I wonder if I could get arrestedt for saying that? Oh well, too late now!) The only good person on the line-up was Amerie, and even that was likely to be a repeat of a performance from a few weeks ago when she was in the UK.

In more cheerful news, I was going to predict that Gavin Degraw's album would make the top 40 this week but according to HMV's in-store chart, he's already no.36! A visit to the Launch web site's top 75 album chart is not quite so pleasing, though, as Gavin is not even in their chart. the single is released on Monday so it's not looking too good for that no.1 he deserves but perhaps he'll get a slow burner James Blunt style. And re: James Blunt...who knew?! Well, me actually. I haven't actually listened to the album in ages but I heard Billy playing in HMV while I was in Waterstones next door and found myself inching towards the door. He is a bit annoying after a while but Billy, High and Wisemen are all very good and someone's got to stick up for him!

has a BROTHER! And he can SING! LOOK! It's not spectacularly good (but I do like It's A Game and the others are growing on me) and he is even less pretty than Gavin but I still find this rather exciting. Now I have a good idea - why doesn't Gavin come and live over here and be on our TV and radio all the time and Joey can stay in America and they'll still have a Degraw. I'm sure they won't mind which one.

In other Gavin news, he's starting to get a bit famous in the UK! I Don't Wanna Be was the single of the week on Radio 1 last week (well only on the Scott Mills show but lots of people listen to that, sadly) and I've heard it on some other radio shows too. The feedback when it was played on Radio 1 seemed to be extremely positive so it's all looking good for him to move up the playlist soon (he's currently in the C list - you can see the full Radio 1 playlist here, it's quite interesting). I knew he would be this year's Maroon 5 and now it's really happening/ it's just a shame that his second single isn't better. I do love Chariot but it's now This Love. However, if he releases Just Friends after that, he will have a megahit and his album will go to no.1 for definite, just you wait and see! You know I'm going to gloat til my head explodes if it happens :D

and here are some of the interesting ones:

Mc Lars - Signing Emo
This song combines two of the very worst music genres in existence, rap and emo-rock, yet somehow it is one of the catchiest, cleverest and best singles of the year so far. It was released a few weeks ago but you'll be lucky to find it in any shops. However, he has had a little Radio 1 airplay and been on MTV in the US, so perhaps we'll be seeing more of him soon. I think he could do extremely well.

Ryan Cabrera - 40 Kinds Of Sadness
You may think that the title of 'silliest hair in pop' belongs to one of the Noise Next Door or that bloke out of Good Charlotte, but you would be. The proud owner is in fact this young man. These cheesy John Mayer for 10-year-olds boys like Ryan and and Jesse McCartney seem to be the closes thing to boyband pop allowed into the US charts at the moment. This song is quite a sweet guitar-pop number, but could it be any less memorable?

Aaron Bayley - I Didn't Plan To Love You
Yes, this IS Aaron off Pop Idol, and yes he is at least 3 years too late with this single. It's not horrible and he is a pretty good singer but really was this project ever going to get anywhere? I hope he has not put too much money into it, cos he won't be making any.

Pussycat Dolls - Don't Cha
It's good to have a new girl band on the scene, even if they are far too 'urban' for my liking. The video is very cool and the song is a bit of a grower, but they'll need to make something far more poptastic before I'm a fan. It's also spoiled a bit by Busta Rhymes' presence on the new version (the original was just the girls).

Representing Warwickshire: Nizlopi - JCB
"I'm Luke, I'm 5 and my dad's Bruce Lee, drives me round in his JCB" - how cute can you get? The band is made up of Luke and John, indie's sweet but geeky answer to Sam and Mark. The song is very unusual, it might get annoying after a while, but for now it's great!


Representing Edinburgh: Idlewild - El Capitan
I loved the first single from this album, Love Steals Us From Loneliness, and the socond single, I Understand It, was quite good too, but this is just as good if not better than the first one. It's very jaunty and has a similar sound to Snow patrol's Chocolate, which is my favourite song by them.


Representing London: Hard-Fi - Hard To Beat
This band are obviously quite keen to tell us how 'hard' they are, but actually this song is not so scary. Their last single, Tied Up Too Tight, had one ace bit ("straight outta West LonDON!"), but this one has several. Am I going soft or are they? I think the latter!

As part of our 2nd birthday celebrations I am bringing back a feature from the very oldest of olden days!

What are the names of all 4 members of Alcazar?

Scroll down to the bottom of this page to see the answer.

but these pop stars certainly did...



It would be nice if more than just Cheryl and Kimberley were happy about it, though. Even Cheryl's smile looks rather forced.

Read this! Now!