Fab Friday Freebies from O2 Treats and iTunes

If you're an O2 customer and fancy some free choons, listen up! 

They've teamed up with iTunes to offer five free songs of your choice every Friday between now and 17th December 2010. Just opt in for O2 Treats on the website, and then when you click the Download button on this here page of a Friday, iTunes will open and five credits will have magicked themselves on to your account. 

You don't need to use them right away - the credits are valid until 31st December - and they can be used to purchase songs priced at €0.69, €0.99, or €1.99.

I've used four of mine today so far and am enjoying listening to Ryan Sheridan Jigsaw, Delorentos Secret... and, er, Cheryl Cole Promise This and Kesha Take It Off. Oh, come on. They're catchy!

Image source: Threadless

Separated At Birth: The Musical

Song starts at 2:09

Does Lady GaGa's Alejandro remind anyone else of, well, something else?

Because I can't hear it without expecting it to turn into this...

I can haz '80s mix tape/iTouch yoke?

Feeling retro today. This may be a music hangover from Friday night in The Players Bar in London, where the live music/singalong was largely 70s and 80s and showtunes a go-go, and we mostly spent the evening howling "Tuuurrrrnarrrouuunnnnd...." at each other long after Total Eclipse Of The Heart had ended.

Oops.

Oxegen 2009: Wet 'n' mucky, but VG fun!

Myself and Himself decided to live dangerously last weekend, so we packed up our wellies and raingear and drinking hats and headed off to Oxegen.

And before you ask - no, no, we did not camp. We stayed with Himself's aunt and uncle and their real beds and loos and showers, who live about a half hour's walk up the road and do the World's Fanciest Breakfasts. Bliss.

Despite the rain, it was a great weekend, filled with some very good grub and lots of red wine in very classy squeezy Capri Sun-alike containers with screw caps or little lunchtime-sized cartons complete with aerating straws [sold in a carton like that, it's called "tandem wine", by the by]. Oh, and there was some music, too - stand-out highlights were Lily Allen, The Script, Snow Patrol, Little Boots, Elbow, Pet Shop Boys, Lady GaGa, Paolo Nutini, and The Killers.

Blur were good, but not nearly as blow-me-away amazingly awesome as I expected - there was a lot of filler that even my music nerd pal Denise wasn't au fait with - so I felt puh-retty let down.

There was other mediocrity, too - stand up and shuffle your feet awkwardly and mumble an apology, Ting Tings (I was nearly sick with disappointment), Kings of Leon and Regina Spektor, who was 20 minutes late starting her set and was then blinvisible behind the lid of the baby grand piano for its duration.

And as for The Saturdays... lookit, I like pop, and I wanted to get a goo at them because Himself's aunt had been insisting that I'm the spit of one of the birds in the band, and I hadn't a breeze what any of them looked like.

Well, I discovered that I could well be in The Saturdays since I can't really sing but am very good at flicking my hair, pouting into a microphone/hairbrush, having lots of attitude, and stomping about in heels. We stayed for two songs, I think, before looking at each other, smirking, and deciding to head out into the teeming rain rather than listen to another note.

Unusually for me, I actually did take a couple of photees...






Ummm, yeh.

Did I mention it was mucky?

Oh, and if I'd had a Best Hoodie badge to hand out, it would definitely have gone to this guy - the King's County's answer to Nick Stokes:


So if you're thinking about heading to Punchestown for next year's Oxegen, you now know to bring rubber boots/a mud wrestling bikini and a natty navy hoodie. But don't stress if you don't own a pair of matching socks, yo, because those are totally optional. See?


Snazzy.

Pedantic Pat.

One of my absolute favourite songs at the moment is Irish group Bell X1's The Great Defector, which you can have a listen to coutesy of the YouTube vidjo at the head of this post. I love hearing it in the mornings because it always makes me smile and it features some really great lyrics, best of which I think is the line "You're the chocolate at the end of my Cornetto".

Best. Compliment. Ever.

Unfortunately, because I like to really listen to lyrics (and then madden Himself by knowing the words to every song that comes on the radio, with the exception of one or two Scissor Sister numbers which will be the death of me), I can't just let go and really enjoy the choon fully. And that's because the next line of the song is "I love the way your underwired bra / Always sets off that x-ray machine".

Now, I'm a girl. I wear bras. Most of the bras I wear, be they sexy or comfy or covered in lace or polka dots, have underwire. I'm pretty sure that I've never encountered an x-ray machine while wearing my underwired over the shoulder boulder holder. Ah no wait, I have - in the dentist and the orthodontist. But it didn't beep, emit a warning tone, explode, or give any indication that it was being set off.

Strange soda.

The next few lines run:
"Comin’ into land and
Now I love the colour of it all
Blue lights on the runway
I love the colour of it all"

Very airport-y. And airports do have x-ray machines, sure enough. But then you wouldn't be breezing through one of those on your way to Lanzarote with your underwired bra on.

Eh, is it metal detectors you're thinking of, lads..?

Sadly, I messed up possibly the only chance I'll ever have to quiz Bell X1 about this. They were on The Tubridy Show on Radio a hAon this morning for a chat and to perform The Great Defector, so nearly spluttering with excitement I whipped out the mobile and texted in. "Ryan", sez I, "can you ask the lads about some of those lyrics - how would an underwired bra set off an x-ray machine..?" Like an absolute fool, I neglected to mention my metal detector hypothesis in my hurry to get the message off, so when the question was put to the band one of them knowingly replied "Oh, I've seen it happen many a time."

GAH!

Well now I'll just have to go see them on their upcoming tour, try and get backstage, and force them to explain themselves, won't I.

Tomorrow: people who dont' know how to punctuate or spel...