David Cameron "too busy" for Ellie Goulding

Ellie Goulding sought an interview with David Cameron, the current Prime Minister of some of the United Kingdom. He couldn't find time:

The Starry Eyed singer wanted to meet with David Cameron in her role as patron for the Marylebone Project, which is dedicated to helping homeless women in London.

But the 29-year-old, who has campaigned for vulnerable people since rising to fame, said she and project chief executive Mark Russell were told the PM didn't have the time to meet with them.

She told The Mirror: "We genuinely just wanted a chat to see what his view was on it. We're not trying to confront him.

"Mark reached out to talk about the recent housing bills and received one of those standard letters, so I don't know whether he even saw it or not.

"I can't say at this point that he's not interested, as I don't know if that's the case. It might be that he's looking for an opportunity to do something."

This story might, then, be 'someone in Prime Minister's office sends form reply to letter' but the Belfast Telegraph decided to go with this as the headline:

Ellie Goulding claims snub by David Cameron over women's issues talks

They repeated the "snub" in a photo caption on the story:

Ellie Goulding claims David Cameron snubbed her after she asked to discuss women's issues with him

And the first paragraph of the story also drops the s-bomb:

Pop star Ellie Goulding said she was snubbed by the Prime Minister after asking to discuss women's issues with him.

The only thing is, she doesn't actually say, or claim, that she was snubbed - just says, with an air of reasonableness, that no meeting was arranged and Dave probably didn't even have anything to do with it.

It's not quite as bad as the claims that circulated this week suggesting she used IV drips rather than food as some sort of diet fad. But it's still unfair. It's even unfair on bloody Cameron, and anything that makes you feel sympathy for the Grinning Pauper-kickbot has to be a bad thing.

Ellie Goulding is from round these parts, sort of

A whole bunch of Gloucestershire parish records have been put online, and the Gloucestershire Echo is excited:

More than three million historic Gloucestershire parish records have been published online for the first time, offering unique insight into the history and people of the area – including the relatives of pop star Ellie Goulding.

Yes, having gone through three million births, marriages and deaths, the most exciting thing they can find is that Ellie Goulding's great gran lived in the county.

Given that Goulding was only born 45 miles from Gloucester, it's not even that surprising, surely?

Ellie Goulding wears an outfit

Ellie Goulding played a gig in Cologne earlier in the week. Here's a photo of her doing just that:

How would you describe that outfit?

Hmm. And if you were a shrill, link-baiting former newspaper turned SEO machine like the Daily Mail?

She's not short of admirers: Singer Ellie Goulding takes to the stage wearing bondage-inspired outfit in Germany

Bondage-inspired? In what way (except for 'trying to pick up some murkier Google natural searches') is that bondage-inspired?

It seems the words "bondage-inspired" was, erm, inspired by Perez Hilton describing the outfit thus. So that's a reliable source, then.

Brits 2014: The nominations

It's considered bad luck to not have your Christmas decorations down by the time the Brit Awards shortlist is released, so let's hope your tree is packed away.

Moving a large pile of baubles to one side, let's see what we've got this year.

Katy Perry, Ellie Goulding, Bruno Mars and Bastille are all going to play the event.

In totally unconnected news, Katy Perry, Ellie Goulding, Bruno Mars and Bastille have all been nominated.

For some reason, they've produced a shortlist for Critic's Choice, even although they announce the winner of that prize at the same time as the shortlist - so, congratulations Sam Smith; bad luck to Chloe Howl and Ella Eyre. Especially to Chloe Howl, who must be wondering why critics have favoured Sam Smith's plodding-about-in-a-dead-mans-coat over her work. It's like a fun fair losing out to a domino table.

Smith presumably helped through his work with Disclosure, whose name ripples through the shortlists alongside that of Bastille. It's actually quite positive to see this - two names that I don't think you'd have been able to predict having such resonance this time last year.

Elsewhere it's business as usual: Lady GaGa, despite her only having done a shit record last year. Pink, despite her not having done any records at all. Bruno Mars, despite him being Bruno Mars.

That godawful One Direction One Way Or Another record has somehow been picked as one of the best singles of the year.

It's unclear what's more surprising - that Olly Murs is considered to have made one of the best singles of 2013, or that - if we accept this as a fact - he's not considered to be one of the best male solo artists of the year.

Anyway, here's the slim pickings that some poor sods will have to weigh against each other in full:

British Male Solo Artist
David Bowie
Jake Bugg
James Blake
John Newman
Tom Odell

British Female Solo Artist
Birdy
Ellie Goulding
Jessie J
Laura Marling
Laura Mvula

British Group
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
Disclosure
One Direction
Rudimental

British Breakthrough Act
Bastille
Disclosure
Laura Mvula
London Grammar
Tom Odell

Critics' Choice
Sam Smith
(Winner)

Chlöe Howl
Ella Eyre

British Single
Bastille - 'Pompeii'
Calvin Harris/Ellie Goulding - 'I Need Your Love'
Disclosure ft AlunaGeorge - 'White Noise'
Ellie Goulding - 'Burn'
John Newman - 'Love Me Again'
Naughty Boy ft Sam Smith - 'La La La'
Olly Murs - 'Dear Darlin''
One Direction - 'One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks)'
Passenger - 'Let Her Go'
Rudimental ft Ella Eyre - 'Waiting All Night'

British Album of the Year
Arctic Monkeys - AM
Bastille - Bad Blood
David Bowie - The Next Day
Disclosure - Settle
Rudimental - Home

British Producer of the Year
Ethan Johns
Flood (Mark Ellis) & Alan Moulder
Paul Epworth

International Male Solo Artist
Bruno Mars
Drake
Eminem
John Grant
Justin Timberlake

International Female Solo Artist
Janelle Monae
Katy Perry
Lady Gaga
Lorde
Pink

International Group
Arcade Fire
Daft Punk
Haim
Kings of Leon
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

The Kings Of Leon. Nobody actually likes the Kings Of Leon, do they? They just exist to pad out this sort of thing.

Now, time to try and shove tinsel into a tube.

Ellie Goulding is on the side of the kids

You see the headline "Ellie Goulding bends the rules" it's natural to be a bit cynical. What's she done? White after Labor Day?

Nope, she's been... checks again to make sure ... encouraging fans to defy The Man to form a moshpit. Is that right, American Songwriter?

“I know this venue is supposed to be seated, but I like having people near me.” With that, Ellie Goulding defied the [Nashville] Ryman Auditorium’s ushers and stage managers — the same people who’d been spending the first third of her set rushing from aisle to aisle, shooing people back into their seats — and created something that’s rarely seen at the Ryman: a mosh pit.

They admit it was a PG mosspit, but even so... it was a mosspit. And even though they were moshing to, erm, a cover of Your Song, it was still a tiny moment of Footloose-style rebellion. Well done, Ellie Goulding.

Gordon in the morning: Ellie for leather

One-handed typing from Gordon this morning, as he gets excited about the Ellie Goulding comeback:

ANYONE who still thinks of ELLIE GOULDING as the “girl-next-door” type needs only to look at these boots for a reality check.

Racy ... Ellie Goulding poses for album cover Halcyon

Clean-cut singer ditches her wholesome image as she strips down for the sleeve of her latest album Halcyon.

It's true that Ellie does appear to have decided and/or been persuaded that her career needs an FHMication, which is disappointing, but... let's take a look at that album cover which is getting Gordon all excited, shall we?

Er... yeah, that's racy.