Jason Donovan returns to the pop
We’ve had to wait for nearly two decades but wait no more Jason Donovan fans; he’s putting out a new album… No, we’re not joking, he’s really back!
Donovan found fame, broke a few hearts and was half of one of the biggest weddings in the 80’s. We do of course mean the TV marriage of Scott and Charlene (Donovan and Kylie Minogue) in Neighbours. You didn’t think we talking about Charles and Diana did you? Pffft…
After enjoying the fame and the enviable position of Kylie’s real life boyfriend, Mr Donovan progressed onto a few years of pop stardom followed by performing in musicals and at least one clichéd drug problem.
But he is a fighter our Jason, finding fame again here in the UK after several reality stints including I’m a Celebrity, get me out of here and Dancing With the Stars. And who could forget his time as the face of budget supermarket Iceland’s advertising campaign?
Now it seems, with a rejuvenated career and his timeless ‘boy next door’ looks, it’s time to wow the world again with another batch of pop songs. Will it be as good as the 1989 smash ‘Too Many Broken Hearts’? We can only hope.
Arctic Monkeys fluff it
How’d you spend your New Year’s Eve? Maybe at a house party or a pub somewhere in the UK, most likely indoors as it’s a tad chilly that time of year. In Australia New Year’s Eve is predominantly an outdoors event because of the weather but hey, we don’t need reminding, ok!
And one of the great ways to do NYE Down Under is at the Falls Festival in Lorne, Victoria. Three days of camping, music and revelry make for a great party. Sure it gets a bit colder in the forests of southern Victoria but outside in a national forest with 20,000 other festival goers makes it a truly memorable start to the New Year.
One highlight is at midnight – when the headlining band breaks their set to count in the final 10 seconds to a chorus of wild cheers and hugs with strangers. This year the job fell to the Arctic Monkeys. Perhaps still on UK time or maybe because no one told them of their responsibility the band finished off their set at 11:58pm and walked off stage. Leaving an audience who possibly didn’t know what day it was let alone the time ,they returned at 12:01am with lead singer Alex Turner announcing: ‘Apparently we were meant to do a countdown. Should we do one now…?’
Well, better late than never and we’re sure the crowd appreciated it anyway.
Kingsmill taking a break
If any one person personifies Australia’s national radio station, Triple J, it’s Richard ‘The King’ Kingsmill. Working at the station for 23 years, the past eight as musical director, The King has long been the face of the youth station.
Even the Peter Pan’s among us qualify for long service leave at some stage and Triple J will be minus Richard Kingsmill as he takes a sabbatical from the station for the first half of the year. A Triple J press release reported he’s taking some time to travel the world. Yeah he’ll miss 2012’s Hottest 100 but baking on a beach in Mexico sounds just as good!
We can neither confirm nor deny if he’ll come join us at Music from the Motherland but our people will in touch in his people. Watch this space.