You may have noticed that I didn’t post DP:UK last Sunday, but don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten you! I was visiting a friend in Belgium, so I’ll just carry the votes over to this Sunday.
I made some interesting discoveries in Belgium, particularly a great Flemish radio station called Q Music, which you can listen to online. I thought I’d found a nice new Belgian artist, but in fact the song I kept hearing turned out to be by Jack McManus, so I’ll have to give him another chance, since I’d previously written him off as a boring post-Blunt type. In fact, Bang On The Piano, sounds more like something a continental Idol winner would do – very cute and jolly with vague leanings toward ‘serious music with guitars and everything’ but not going overboard with it.
I also danced to Eurodance with real live Europeans, so that was a fun new experience, although there was sadly no Kate Ryan involved. I did discover that there is a Dutch version of Boten Anna (or Bota Anna as it’s oddly pluralised on the UK album cover), which was rather odd. At the end of the night, loads of Flemish songs were played and all of the men sang along loudly and drunkenly, which made it feel more like a football match than a night out, but it was rather fun anyway. I had Rood by Marco Borsato in my head for the whole trip, and must take this moment to remind you to listen to it if you never have, because it’s an absolute masterpiece of modern pop music!
Speaking of pop masterpieces, yesterday I went to see the stage production of High School Musical! There were many odd changes to the plot, for example neither Jason nor Mrs Bolton no longer exist, and instead there is a random radio DJ who likes Kelsey, and a disturbing love affair between Coach Bolton and Ms Darbus! Now I’m really excited for HSM 3, although I’m in two minds about it coming to the cinema. It’ll be exciting to see it on the big screen, but it’ll cost £7 if I want to go on opening night. Downloading it hours after its first American showing (as I did for 1 and 2) was so much better, cos I could instantly watch it repeatedly in good quality. I feel more sorry for the Australians, though – they don’t get to see it til the end of November!