Glastonbury 2014: James Arthur was absent

A bit from last week's Glastonbury to mop up - you've doubtless spent the last seven days ploughing through the BBC coverage trying to find out a set by James Arthur. But there doesn't seem to be one.

It's almost as if he wasn't there.

Hang on, he wasn't.

How can this be?

James has his theory. It's that Glastonbury us wrong:

Arthur tweeted yesterday, saying:

Its sad that I'll probably never play Glastonbury because of the format I was discovered.. Has anyone from xfactor ever played it?

He then tweeted: "Especially sad when you see how mediocre some of these acts are live!! #verybitter," but deleted the tweet shortly after.

I'm pretty sure Bad Lashes headlined the Pyramid Stage Saturday last year, didn't they?

Perhaps James should have a word with his record label and see if they... oh, hang on, he doesn't have a label, does he?

It's sweet though that he thinks it's his having been on the X Factor which makes him a pariah, rather than it's only that he's been on telly that sustains him at all.

Still, James: try sending a tape to BBC Introducing. You might be able to make it in music after all.

James Arthur embraces exciting, open, bold new future

James Arthur has been dumped by Syco, who suddenly realised that there was no role for a record label in running a career which seems to consist mostly of making a dick of oneself on Twitter.

It does mean the end of the modern tradition which would see, once a month, Arthur take to Twitter to deny rumours that Syco were dropping him.

But the good news is that this will free Arthur up to spend more time building his social media presence (or "regularly turning the pile", as gardeners would describe it.)

He's started already, look:

"Just to clear things up - I am no longer with Syco. I would like to thank all at the label for making a great record with me," Arthur tweeted today (June 11).

"I now have to move on and do something different - the future is bright! #LOVE."

It's unclear what the "great record" Arthur refers to is - speculation is that some of the Syco interns and Arthur collaborated on making the world's largest rubber band ball.

Even James Arthur hates @jamesarthur23

Did you know James Arthur is still going? And still on Twitter.

Obviously, he's not totally allowed to do his own tweets, but the poor sod tasked with sending tweets on his behalf is having an uphill struggle, as Complete Music Update has snickered at:

Arthur’s ‘people’ tweeted: “Well it’s next Sunday peeps – and we think your mum would #LOVE a copy of #JamesArthurTheAlbum. Don’t you? JA HQ”, to which the man himself responded: “HQ please stop writing things like ‘we think you would #LOVE this and that’ or ‘everybody #GETDOWN and buy this…’ It’s embarrassing”, and “Stick to promoting Paul Potts please. Thanks. #LOVE”.

Arthur's solution was to suggest putting a superfan in charge of the Twitter account. But surely if there is such a thing as a James Arthur superfan, they'd be tweeting to themselves?

By the way, your mum phoned. She just wanted to stress that she really doesn't want a copy of James Arthur's album, and if you even think about getting one for her, you're out the will.

James Arthur isn't a homophobe any more

Perhaps he's been to one of those places where they pray your gay(hatred) away, as James Arthur isn't a homophobe any more:

"This one will hopefully get played on the radio," the tattooed Middlesbrough lad in the Deirdre Barlow specs says, introducing new single Get Down, "'cause I'm not a homophobe any more."

He's joking, of course. Because, after all, he insisted that he wasn't a homophobe in the first place, because homophobic bullshit somehow doesn't count if it's in a shit rap.

James Arthur isn't a homophobe any more. No more than he was, anyway.

James Arthur is sorry for being homophobic, or at least being found out

So once again we must try and remember who James Arthur is, as his first strategy to defend his homophobic behaviour - by saying it's okay to call someone a fucking queer providing they're straight and you do it in an inept rap - is replaced by what to an untrained eye would look like a last-ditch media strategy pulled together by his management.

He's gone to the Sun to say sorry:

James admits he feels the diss rap was a mistake and says it is one of his most childish moments: "On reflection, it was the most immature, ridiculous thing I've ever done.

"The word 'queer' was used in the rap, which should never have been the case. In society, you can't use language like that. I'm 100 million per cent not homophobic and I despise that label being attached to me. I probably look like the archetypal bully. Now people look at me as if I might beat up a gay guy. That really upsets me.

"I totally understand what I did was wrong. If I could take it back, I would do that in a heartbeat."

It's not clear when this understanding came, because certainly he tried to suggest it was everyone else who had misunderstood.

James told The Sun: "I've been an idiot. All I can say is it was ego - foolish, foolish pride. I got ideas above my station and I made mistakes. It's the only excuse I've got."

"All my confidence has disappeared because the whole nation thinks I'm a homophobe who looks like a monster," he admitted.

"I couldn't speak to anyone for a week. It was awful. My little sister was being bullied in school and I was receiving constant death threats. I stayed in bed for days on end. Any time I tried to get up, I couldn't. I felt deep, deep shame about my mistakes since winning the show. I kept thinking, 'What the fuck have I done?'"

That his sister was bullied was unacceptable - she's not to blame for the actions of her brother, however unpleasant they were - and if there were death threats, then that's wrong, too. (Who would issue a death threat over an idiot being an idiot, though? Are these threats any more genuine than the apology is?)

James worries that he's let people down:

James also accepts that his behaviour has embarrassed his record label and let down fans that looked up to him: "What I need you to know is that I do regret everything I've done. I abandoned my responsibility as a role model. A 16-year-old kid reading about the things I said and did would probably have lost a lot of respect for me."

I think the surprise here is that James seems to believe he's some sort of role model in the first place; presumably in the same way that Jedward are fashion icons and Steve Brookstein is an oracle.

Most 16 year-olds would, I suspect, have sighed, been unsurprised and moved on.

The reason why I have my suspicions about the sincerity of this apology is that it doesn't appear on Arthur's website; his Facebook page; nor in his Twitter feed. In fact, if the idea is to tell the small portion of people who look up to him that he fucked up, it's odd he's made no effort to admit his mistakes in places where they might congregate.

Also, with all this regret about the mistakes he's made, he's turned the page by, er, continuing to slag off Lucy Spraggan for calling him out:

"I'm not a fan," he told The Sun.

"She's a talented girl, but she has a mammoth ego. We have the same management. They are disgusted by what she did.

"I respect she's got strong beliefs in gay rights, but she tried to expose me. She knew it would stick the knife in and damage my career."

Surely you mean, James, she provided a chance for you to think about your mistakes and to make your apology, right? Because otherwise it sounds like you kind-of wish that your actions hadn't been noticed and you'd have gotten away with it. And that can't be the case, can it?

James Arthur makes watery prime-time sort-of apology

So how would ITV square inviting unacceptable rapper James Arthur onto the channel after sacking unacceptable rapper Chris Fountain?

By getting Arthur to mumble something which sounded like it might have been an apology. DigitalSpy was watching:

Speaking to Dermot O'Leary on tonight's show, he said: "It's been an amazing year for me. There's been incredible highs paired with some terrible lows. I've made a few very silly mistakes.

"I just want to thank all the people who are still supporting me and especially The X Factor for giving me the opportunity to do my dream job.

"Above all, I'd like to say sorry for abusing my position as an X Factor winner, because I owe everything to this thing."

First of all: "abusing my position as an X Factor winner" - that's not even a thing, James. It's not like you're the chair of the Co-Op Bank, or Cabinet Secretary. Nobody thinks your homophobia would be okay if you'd not made it through to Boot Camp.

Secondly: Even if it was a thing, that's not what you should be apologising for, and not who you should be apologising to.

No indication that he understands why what he did was terrible; no suggestion that he shouldn't have said those things. ITV have managed to make things worse.

ITV apparently OK with James Arthur's homophobia

Here's a surprise: homophobic tosser James Arthur is due to appear on The X Factor this Sunday, and ITV are okay with that:

A spokesperson says, "Both Itv and the producers of The X Factor would like to make it clear that in no way do we support, condone or share any form of homophobia or discrimination.

"Following his comments James has since apologised last week, making it clear that he did not mean to cause any offence and explaining the context behind his remarks."

Yes, ITV seem to be endorsing Arthur's tortuous 'it's not hateful providing you know the guy you're calling a fucking queer is straight' logic.

The odd thing, though, is that when Coronation Street's Chris Fountain was revealed to have pushed an ill-advised rap video to the internet, ITV were less forgiving:

An ITV spokesperson said: "Chris Fountain's contract with ITV has been terminated as a result of the unacceptable comments he made in a number of online clips."

But Chris Fountain also "explained the context", said he didn't mean to cause offence and apologised profusely. He was still sacked.

Not quite sure what the difference is, unless ITV really is so scared of Simon Cowell it's quite happy to apply double standards. But it couldn't be that, right?

James Arthur didn't keep his promise to quit Twitter

James Arthur and Lucy Spraggan having a Twitter fight about homophobia. This never happened in the old days of talent shows - you didn't get Pam Ayres and Lena Zavaroni squaring up over the Biafran War, did you?

Obviously, Arthur is on the wrong side of the argument. Spragggan called him out on his "it's not gay bashing because I rapped it" logic from last week and Arthur, despite his quitting of Twitter last week, felt the need to come back and defend himself:

He then called Lucy ‘just another narrow minded person in this narrow minded country with narrow views’ and added that she could ‘say whatever you like on you’re Twitter [sic].

Yeah, how narrow minded can you be, Spraggggan? With your 'homophobic bullying can lead people to kill themselves' viewpoint, you're really making it difficult for people like Arthur to enjoy his freedom to call people "fucking queers". I mean, did you not read the story, Spragggggan? He only called a straight person queer - how could that possibly be homophobic?

Arthur then underlines that he has the facts on his side:

‘My album sold 10 times youres in it’s first week so you can f*** off with you’re career sh**e… two faced fickle attention seeker. Dissapear [sic].’

It's actually true that every album you sell makes your facts a little more correct.

Although there is this fact:

And for you’re information my album was self-penned

That's true. James Arthur's album, also called James Arthur, was entirely self-written. James and James alone.

I say James Alone, but obviously Tom Barnes helped out a bit.

Tom and William Bell. They were the writers with James.

Tom and William, and of course Ben Kohn. But other than those three, it was all James own work.

James alone. And Tom and William and Ben. Oh, and Booker T Jones.

Tom, William, Ben, Booker and Pete Kelleher. Mustapha Omer, James Murray, Jonny Coffer, Wayne Hector, Ronald Bell and Robert Bell.

Tom, William, Ben, Booker, Pete, Mustapha, James, Jonny, Wayne, Ronald and Robert. Obviously, James needs a little help when he's writing his own album.

He also got some help from Salaam Remi, Arnthor Birgisson, Ina Wroldsen, Richard Stannard, Ash Howes, Bradford Ellis, J.J. Johnson, Tiago Carvalho, Shahid Khan, Emeli Sandé, Gustave Rudman, Ben Harrison, Phil Leigh, Matt Holmes, Marcos Palacios, Ernest Clark, Sean "Elijah Blake" Fenton, Eric Jackson, Steve Robson, Claude Kelly, Komi Al Hakam El Kaubaisy, Jerry (JL) Lang II, Phil Plested and Grace Ackerman.

James totally wrote his own album, along with thirty-five other people.

Mind you, who can blame him getting a bit of help? We've seen from his Twitter feed what happens when he's left alone to write for himself.

James Arthur explains: he's a rapper, not a homophobe

After James Arthur's surprisingly homophobic rap from a couple of days back comes the attempt PR fightback. You'll recall Arthur called another musician "a fucking queer", so it's quite a hole he's got to dig himself out of.

It might be best to be careful how you go about it, James. I mean, you don't want to just crash in and send a bunch of ill-considered Tweets.

In a series of tweets which have now been deleted, Arthur apologised for using the homophobic slur...

Oh.

The Mirror has published the tweets, in which Arthur commented: "I just have to say I'm extremely disappointed in myself for being so naive with the diss track I made for an unknown rapper recently."

I think we can all understand where he's coming from - weren't we all young and naive once, calling people "fucking queer" in all innocence?

Arthur's really off to a bad start here, because he's supposed to be contrite, but he's actually rather elegantly including a sly dig at Micky Worthless. Pulling a deft move like that might be ill-advised if you're going to try and argue you didn't really know what you were doing.

But sorry, James: You were telling us how calling someone a fucking queer is alright, yes?

I Would just like to make it completely clear that it was not meant in anyway as a reference to homosexuality

Oh, that's okay then. It was one of those queerbashing that isn't a bashing of queers.

Hang on a moment, what?

I realise where the term has come from in meaning

Yes, you would. Because what else could you have meant by it?

but used in the context of the rap battles I have grown up with it has come to mean something completely different

Ah, James. I see: we thought you'd used a gay slur aimed at a straight man because you thought it was a way of attacking him, but actually you were trying to create a teaching moment for the rest of us who hear straight people yelling "queer" and think we know exactly what's going on.

Let's look at this in the context of those rap battles Arthur has grown up on - presumably he means the ones on Pokemon and Tracy Beaker, where they're always calling each other 'fucking queers' - and see how the context helps, shall we?

That said, I understand why it could cause offence and that definitely wasn't my intention.

You were trying to insult a man by calling him gay. In what way was the intention not to be offensive?

Some of the things said in this rap can be mistaken for homophobic slurs

Yeah, that's the funny thing about 'fucking queer' - it's surprising how often that gets mistaken for a homophobic slur in this day and age. Why, I've pretty much stopped writing 'you fucking queer' in Christmas cards these days as people take it all wrong when they open them.

and I assure you homophobia is something I do not believe in

James, given you're clearly a stupid man, I wouldn't be surprised to discover gravity is something you don't believe in. But that doesn't stop your toast soldiers from falling on the floor when you drop them.

I have many many gay friends

You might want to check your voicemail before you assert this so firmly.

Val Doonican used to claim at the start of his BBC One show that "some of his best friends are songs". We would believe him. You know why? Because he hadn't spent the day before running up and down the street yelling out "Max Bygraves is such a cloaca he's like a fucking song."

All you're really doing here, James, is compounding the crime by telling us you've got friends who you're prepared to sell out and trample on in order to score a few points against a rapper. "I have gay friends" merely expands the list of people you've upset, it doesn't get you off the hook. They're not your offence beards.

But sorry, before you told us how many gay friends you have but apparently have never spoken to, you were going to educate us on how in the case of calling someone a fucking queer, the context makes it alright.

In rap feuds/rap disses the words I used have a different intent.

Perhaps it's intended as a term of praise?

This is a straight man I was attacking.

You realise that is kind of the reason why it's offensive? That you think calling a straight man "gay" is a dis. You do understand that is the whole point of why you are so far in the wrong here? Surely?

Please?

A straight man who littered his track...

But you're a straight man, too, James.

... with severe homophobic slurs towards me.

Well, why didn't you say so? That's alright then. Micky Worthless recorded a rap which flung homophobic insults at you. You returned in kind.

Except you've just been explaining to us rubes that when people use gay slurs in rap battles, they're not actually gay slurs at all. So if you are defending yourself as not actually having used any gay slurs, how come when Worthless does it, these words suddenly ARE slurs, and so terrible they justify you calling him a queer in return?

Like I said though it was a rap diss

That isn't an excuse. It sounds like you've got one of those beliefs - like 'what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas' or 'you can't get pregnant the first time' or 'it doesn't count if you don't kiss them afterwards' - that might offer some sort of befuddled justification in your head but doesn't actually have any basis in any law, whether the Code Napoleon, Law of the Jungle or natural law.

James, you're an idiot homophobic asshat. And just so we're clear: I don't have any idiot homophobe asshat friends, and I'm not calling you that in a rap dis style.

James Arthur burns through goodwill

James Arthur is well on his way to being a Pointless answer in the X Factor winners category in a year or two. You might have caught his appearance on Children In Need last night; even with what seemed to be seventy other people on stage, the song and performance was totally empty. It was like watching someone humming in a very busy bus station. Even his tattoos seemed to be embarrassed to be part of it.

It wasn't the worst thing involving James Arthur yesterday, though: he's outed himself as a racist homophobe, too.

Somehow Arthur got himself caught up in a rap diss war with Mickey Worthless. Miss, miss, Worthless started it:

‘You sucked Simon [Cowell’s] bell to get your deal. You suck Simon’s bell and Louis [Walsh’s]’ as well. Yeah you did, you faggot. Yeah you did, fuck off.’

Leaving aside the obvious homophobia of this line, if it was true, then surely Arthur could at least be said to have put in the hours to get his deal?

Arthur, though, wasn't taking it lying down - the claims, that is - and decided to respond. Rather than write a reply which said 'Actually, you're homophobic and I'm far far greater/ won a public vote with an independent adjudicator', Arthur responded in kind:

“You’re a terrible rapper, you should shoot yourself”[...]

“You fucking queer. Hilarious, precarious you Talibani confused, imbecilic mimic of a gimmick”.

Ah, yes. The moral high ground of adding pedestrian racism to homophobic insults.

Arthur at first tried to brazen it out:

He thought he was Mr Rap Battle, so he had to get it. He asked for it

You'll note that Arthur seems convinced that it is HE who is Mr Rap Battle.

Someone, though, has intervened and pulled Arthur's Soundcloud o' Intolerance.

As the shit, stitched-together Tommy Duckworth without Tommy Duckworth storyline on Corrie shows, ITV isn't amused when its tea-and-crumpets image is disrupted by children doing filthy raps, so let's hope Arthur isn't expecting to appear on X Factor this season. (Equally, if Arthur does, Chris Fountain might have the makings of an unfair dismissal claim on his hands.)

In the short term, it might be best if someone stops buying the two boys top-up vouchers for their phones.

[Thanks to Michael M]

Show us how to die well, show us how to let it all go

Normally, it's all too easy to giggle at the X Factor stars who rage at the dying of the light, but James Arthur has just made me feel a bit sad:

James Arthur admits he will be very ''disappointed'' if there isn't a good reaction to his new single 'You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You'.

James Arthur will be crushed if his career flops.

The 'X Factor' 2012 winner is nervous about fading into obscurity after experiencing initial chart success, a fate which has befallen previous winners of the talent show, and hopes his new single 'You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You' will be a hit.

What makes this so heartbreaking is that when I was reading the summary of this story, I thought he was one of this year's contestants, not last year's winner.

He's crossed into the fade-out, and doesn't even know yet.

Gordon in the morning: A dog of a story

If you're curious as to what stories are bubbling away behind Gordon Smart's paywall this morning, you might want to find the cash to read a story about James Arthur getting a puppy.

James Arthur.

Apparently he won the X Factor last year.

This is one of those 'man gets puppy' stories where the celebrity glitz comes from the puppy.

Gordon in the morning: Million seller

Despite all the jokes about 'who he?' and 'no, really, which one was he again?', Gordon reports this morning that James Arthur has managed to sell a million copies of Impossible.

The X Factor winner. No, you remember.

So, that's a sign of a strong future career rather than a quick return to the milk round. (I always assume anyone who does well on the X Factor used to be a milkman.) Right?

Maybe not... only three other X Factor finalists have broken the million mark with their prize-winning single. Alex Burke - whose career has more or less judder to a halt; Matt Cardle and Shayne Ward.

If I were James Arthur... well, I'd have gone on Pointless instead of the X Factor in the first place, but if I leaped into James Arthur, Sam Beckett style, right now, I'd be keeping my options open down the dairy.

Gordon in the morning: Arthur life

Whatever happened to James Arthur, eh? The X Factor winner's single is out now, and Gordon is excited:

JAMES ARTHUR’s Impossible had sold a whopping 187,000 copies by midnight on Monday after just 24 hours on sale.

That sounds interesting, except when you compare it with how earlier winners did.

Leona Lewis sold 50,000 downloads of A Moment Like This in the first half hour. And even Shayne Ward managed over 300,000 copies in the first two days and nearly three quarters of a million in the first five.

It all makes Arthur's sales look a little underpowered. But he's got a few more days to make the numbers up.