Hurts all over like a rash

It's taken well over a year, but Hurt's Wonderful Life single finally gets an official video in the run up to the release next month. The Hurts camp have been clever in their mass global awareness campaign. Like a slow creeper, they've spread roots all over Europe. It remains to be seen whether or not it all pays off: the last stop before release, radio play seems to be non-existent. I find it very odd that Radio 1 are resolutely ignoring one of the most talked about bands of 2010. With a few weeks to go, it should be way up there on the playlist. A message to the band themselves though... "Don't let go. Never give up it's such a wonderful life"!

**UPDATE AUGUST 5th: Wonderful Life now on Radio 1's B-List!!!**

Judie Tzuke: something new, something old

A friend of mine bemoaned the lack of updates here, "I suppose there's nothing new worth writing about though". Coming from the queen of the bright and shiny and all that's new, it's a big statement. But he and I both know there's loads of new stuff worth writing about, it's just we take our eyes of the horizon for a bit of a rest. And that's where we uncover hidden gems from the past. Or rather, it becomes the new discovery. And that quite neatly sums up the stunning collection of 33 (bloody Nora!) tracks Moon on a Mirrorball from Judie Tzuke .

Her name has always been always been synonymous with the UK's rock and pop pantheon, but weirdly, I couldn't recall any of her music. A chance encounter on a radio interview where they played her 1979 hit Stay With Me 'Til Dawn and THAT VOICE just lifted me. Yes, I actually elevated off my seat. And then I realised I knew her voice all along, usually in the back of a cab gurning all the way home at sunrise o'clock when the taxi driver's tuned into Magic or Heart or dressed in Mylo's clothes as Need You Tonite on his classic Destroy Rock and Roll album (quick aside: where the fluck has he gone?!?).



After 30 years as a singer/songwriter she's packaged her favourite tracks alongside new ones which is the PERFECT introduction for Judie Tzuke philistines. And the new stuff is KILLER. Take the introductory single If (When You Go). Her daughters Bailey, 23 (yes, the Freemasons singer on the glorious Uninvited) and Tallulah, 15, provide the angelic, ethereal backing vocals - one in each ear - with their mum front and centre with a deeper, resonant, slightly gravelly voice on a track co-written with Kylie's longtime collaborator Steve Anderson. His trademark strings do the business, sweeping and swooshing underneath this mammoth song.



Judie Tzuke's songs are like looking up into a blue sky to see jetstreams criss-crossing. They're the past and the future. And it's clear she has influenced a plethora of singer/songwriters with her music. Sia springs to mind immediately.

Go buy Moon on the Mirrorball here. She's touring the UK in autumn and the gig in majestic Union Chapel in London promises to be vare special.