Catch-up week!

Apologies for the lack of activity on the blog this past weekend.

Retro Saturday: none last night, purely because I was in Melodifestivalen mood and decided to watch my MF DVDs from the last 3 years instead. Normal service resumed next week.

Star Academy: Delighted that Quentin won - I thought from the beginning that he had real star quality and raw talent but the test now will be how his career is managed. I'm still watching the video clips from the final and will post my review in the next couple of days.

Brit Awards: yes it will soon be time for Britain's biggest music awards show. Preview and predictions will be on here tomorrow night. I'm trying to be interested, honestly I am, but the fact remains that British music is not exciting me at the moment in the way that European music is. That's not to say there isn't any good British music at all - there always is, if you dig deep enough - but there is too much focus on hype-over-content at the minute.

It may come as a surprise that much of my favourite music for the last 25 years has come from British 'indie guitar bands' but I'm particularly disappointed at the tedious crop we have here in the UK at the moment, to the point where I don't really want to hear that kind of music anymore, as long as it's being played by the Arctic Monkeys and all those dire Libertines soundalikes. Rant over.

Because I need to catch up, there will be lots of posts between now and next weekend - which will also be a big, busy one as it's national finals "Super Saturday".

Quick plug here too for Planet Salem, which I've been updating regularly although there is now little or no news about the magnificent Salem Al Fakir at the moment. Still, one of the joys of doing a fansite is that you never let the lack of news get in the way of 24/7 appreciation/love/obsession, call it what you will. :-)))