Ready to check into the Tokio Hotel again?

Good news for fans of the band and also the eyeliner industry, as the German pop/rock phenomenon that is Tokio Hotel is on the way back.

Their latest album "Humanoid" will be released in October, with its first single "Automatic" - described as an 'epic' - set for release in September.

"Allein Allein" finally getting a UK release!

I've just been to the BBC Radio 2 website (!) to check their weekly playlist and I found out that next week "Allein Allein" by Polarkreis 18 will be their 'Record of the Week' and the song will be released on 27 July.

Hopefully it will be a big summer hit!

(Just in time for you coming back Rachel - it'll make you feel like you're back in Germany again!)

EuropeCrazy Day!!

Hi folks....!

Yes I am back from Dusseldorf, and a rather fab short break it was too. The weather was variable - it started off dull, wet, windy and rainy (Tuesday afternoon probably the low point) then the rain went off and it was still a bit dull (but not cold) and then it came good on Thursday - the sun came out and summer arrived, and stayed till our flight left the runway on Friday night at which time the rain returned. By that time it didn't matter of course!

The inevitable travel diaries will follow over the next week - stay tuned.

Anyway today is "Europe Day" which rather appeals to me. This is a day of celebration of European unity - an event which is commemorated on the continent, but is sadly overlooked here in the Euro-sceptic UK, which views "Europe" as some dull political organisation foisting rules and regulations on us, rather than a varied and vibrant continent with so much to offer: places to visit, music to listen to, culture to absorb and lifestyles to envy. That was one of the reasons I started this blog in the first place: I am proud to be a citizen of Europe, and with that in mind I'd also like to declare today "EuropeCrazy Day" and officially relaunch this blog after a couple of months' reduced service (for reasons which regular readers will be well aware of!).

I thought I'd get a little celebration going here, so appropriately let's have something German - "Allein Allein" by Polarkreis 18, still getting lots of airplay and still very popular at EuropeCrazy HQ!

Tokio Hotel take home an MTV VMA

I've just been reading through the list of this year's MTV Video Music Award winners. A rather uninspiring bunch if you ask me, what's with all the Britney-mania again? (Although credit should go to Robyn for lifting "Piece of Me" out of the ordinary).

Anyway great to see Tokio Hotel getting the Best New Act prize. Europe loves them and now so does America - so when is Britain going to wake up???

Scooter Mania in the UK!

Confession time: I know I'm way too old for this kind of thing, but I like Scooter. There, I've said it.

Can you believe that after all these years, the German rave band are enjoying a revival here in the UK? Their current album "Jumping All Over The World" recently hit no.1 in the album charts - a sure sign of their popularity, particularly with the young "Clubland" folks. The Scooter formula is simple: hardcore-rave beats mixed with sampled old songs and topped with some distinctive shouty rapping by equally distinctive frontman HP Baxxter.

There are many Scooter-haters out there, particularly those music snobs who turn up their noses at this successful formula. Well, you know what? I like it. Scooter might well be one of the guiltiest pleasures, but their music never fails to put a smile on my face and get the old feet tapping. I'm not sure if I could sustain a full album of it, but I do intend to get "Jumping All Over The World" if only for the greatest hits CD which includes some of the band's classics like "Nessaja" and "Jigga Jigga".

Germany's 'Disappear'-ing act

I can't really comment as I haven't seen the clips from the German national final (apart from the winner), but at the moment I'm rather annoyed that Marquess or Cinema Bizarre didn't win. "Disappear" by No Angels is admittedly one of the more contemporary efforts to enter this year's Eurovision Song Contest, with its Sugababes-type vibe going on, but it isn't one of the most memorable songs I've ever heard and their vocals may not be strong enough to deliver an amazing performance.

Not too much more to say really, I'm feeling quite sleepy and it looks as if an early night may be a good idea.

Will post this week's playlist on Saturday, and needless to say I might even mention Melodifestivalen. :-)

More German stuff.

Germany chooses its 2008 Eurovision entry this Thursday in what looks like one of the better national finals of this season.

My two favourite songs in it are "La Histeria" by Marquess, which has been in my weekly playlist for the past couple of weeks. Would German voters send a song in Spanish to Eurovision though? That's the only problem I can see. "Forever Or Never" by Cinema Bizarre, whose visual image is somewhere between Tokio Hotel and 80s new romantics, with an electro-pop song that is very reminiscent of "All The Things She Said". This song is now stuck in my brain and will probably be in this week's playlist as well.

"Disappear" by comeback Popstars-band No Angels is also ok I guess, they have been very popular so are in with a big chance. A kind of Sugababes sound going on there too. "Just One Woman" by Tommy Reeve is, well, a bit dull and seems to be there to make up the numbers. "Hinterm Ozean" by Carolin Fortenbacher is a Euro ballad by numbers, she has a nice enough voice but again I'm not a ballad fan and wouldn't really want this one to qualify.

Unlike my weekly attempts at predicting Melodifestivalen, I'm not gonna predict this one! All I'll say is - Germans, please pick Marquess or Cinema Bizarre!

A brief diversion to something Serbian: I like the uptempo disco-tastic "Beli Jablan" by Aleksa Jelic and Ana Stajdohar, which is in their national final, but will probably lose out to the usual meaningful Balkan ballad. Groove along to Aleksa and Ana in the meantime at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTzRi-pqAUM&feature=related

Those Echo awards results at last.

Germany's national music awards were announced a couple of weeks ago but I'm only getting round to putting the results on here. The Echo Awards are based on the year's best selling recording artists rather than the usual juries or phone votes. So here are the results:

Male Artist - Herbert Gronemeyer
Female Artist - LaFee
International Male - James Blunt
International Female - Nelly Furtado
Group - Die Fantastischen Vier
Group - Linkin Park
Hip Hop - Bushido
International Hip Hop - 50 Cent
Rock Act - Die Arzte
International Rock Act - Nightwish
Album - "12" - Herbert Gronemeyer
Newcomer - Mark Medlock
International Newcomer - Mika
Single - "Ein Stern" - DJ Otzi & Nik P
Live Act - Bushido
Video - "Spring Nicht" - Tokio Hotel

...not too many surprises in there, but only one award for Tokio Hotel. Still it's another one to add to their growing collection. Last week's Pop Xport on DW-TV reported that the boys are now trying to break North America and already have a growing band of obsessive fans over there. World domination awaits!!

Marquess!

I have mentioned this German band (which sings in Spanish) before on my blog and thought I'd do a little video-feature on them today. "La Histeria" is of course their latest song and it has really grown on me now:



Probably they're thinking - why change a winning formula? The new song bears a remarkable similarity to their hit from last summer, "Vayamos Companeros" with an equally sun-soaked video:



The song that brought them to my attention two years ago was "El Temperamento" which was another summer hit and you can guess by now what the video will be like...