Stephen Fry intersects with modern music

Newsbeat got Stephen Fry in to listen to some pop music and say what he thought.

He was, reliably, all high-court-judge-what-is-beatles about his task:

“I could lie, but I couldn't even say what it is. I don't know the names of anybody. I'm not interested,” he admitted. “There's someone called Adelia? Adalia?”

“Adele,” replied the interviewer. “Adele. I've heard of her,” he said.

They played him some Little Mix:

As the English popsters sang the ‘sha-la-la-la, woo-ooo chorus’, the 58 year old asked: “Oh, they're not still singing ‘sha-la-la-la’ are they? It's got bits of Phil Spector right at the background through '70s bubblegum pop into a sort of modern version and it's a hideous, toxic compound. It's basically the musical equivalent of Haribo Starmix.”

Actually, Stephen, that's not really an insult.

BAFTAs 2015: The big story

Okay, the real big story of the night was how badly Paddington got robbed. But the second biggest thing at the BAFTA last night was the painful Kasabian peformance. Even someone who can't really understand what function it is Kasabian deliver, it was hard not to feel for them.

The sound was dreadful; the mixing in of film effects and dialogue swamped their wheezy rock giving the impression of a million people watching YouTube clips while they were trying to play. The decision to end on a kid saying "that was amazing" (or awesome, or something of that nature) provided an unintended boom-tssh for a song played to a room of people sat in chairs, stock still, trying to look polite. Kudos to the director, scanning the crowd for someone, anyone, even moving their head just a little.

In a room that was both a cacophony and arctic-silent at once, Serge's decision to wear a tshirt with the words "black tie" on it didn't help. An empty gesture at once lazy and disdainful of the audience, the audience responded in kind.

Still, Stephen Fry got them a nice round of applause as he started the task of picking the thing up off the floor.

Gordon in the morning: Rap sheet

Apparently, Nicki Minaj is going to offer Stephen Fry rapping tips.

Nicki, Stephen was making rap music when you were still eating Cheerios and collecting My Little Ponys:


(Sadly, Channel 4 has removed all traces of Fry doing his Sheep Rap from the internet. Boo. Baa. Boo. Baa.

Bookmarks: Internet stuff - Stephen Fry meets Lady GaGa

It's a lovely piece, although written from a fan's perspective - so difficult questions either get dropped altogether or satisfied with an unsatisfactory answer. It's the FT who have brought the pair of them together:

Please respect FT.com's ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this link to reference the article - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/0cca76f0-873a-11e0-b983-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1Ndtnd6F5

That message, “Find out who you are and be it,” clearly means a great deal to her. Like any simple aphorism it can be made to sound naive or profound according to one’s point of view. I think I’m old enough to know when I’m being fobbed off, bullshitted, lied to or deceived. There was in Lady Gaga’s eyes and voice enough to tell me that whatever else she is, she is no fraud. The “messages” in her songs and albums, the calls to freedom and self-actualisation, the addresses she has made to the American military on the subject of their fatuous and hypocritical “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, the support she has shown for the dispossessed and marginalised in society may cause many to roll their eyes and make the obvious cynical observation that being a friend to the friendless is damned good business. Just look at the figures. Number one after number one, record-breaking releases of singles and albums, record-breaking YouTube visits, record-breaking numbers of Twitter followers. Oh, sure, this is one smart cookie. There’s money to be had in self-publicity and the championing of the lonely ones out there.

Well, of course, all that can be said. But against such arid ­cynicism it should be pointed out that Lady Gaga did herself few financial favours during her last major world tour, The Monster Ball, which she began in 2009 to promote her album The Fame Monster. One of the most successful promotional tours ever, it quite literally bankrupted her.

The Beatles: Number crunching

With apologies to Private Eye.

Sales of Abbey Road, best-performing of The Beatles albums on re-release day following a month of press coverage, Beatles Week on the BBC, and Gennaro Castaldo pulling double-shifts:
7,164

Sales increase of David Eaglemen's Sum on Amazon alone, after a single tweet by Stephen Fry:
6000%

Michael pulls HIV interview

We wonder what George Michael had to tell Stephen Fry about his attitude towards HIV and AIDs? We can have a hint, as the producer of Fry's programme on the subject, tells us:

"George says he does not believe in tests," said producer Ross Wilson.

"He says he finds the wait for results too harrowing and that he hasn't had a test since at least 2004 due to his fears it might be positive."

However, we can't know for sure, as he's now decided that he doesn't want the programme to be shown. Presumably he fears that taking his HIV status on - arf - Faith might make him look a little wreckless, or selfish. Or weak.

Still, there's good news from the BBC News report:

Michael is still set to appear in this year's festive edition of Catherine Tate's BBC comedy programme.

Well, that's alright, then.