Brit Awards 2014

The show started at 8pm at was opened by Arctic Monkeys performing R U Mine? off their album AM. Now this isn't my favourite track off the album however it was nice to see it performed live. Performing live in front of thousands of people doesn't seem to faze them and they maintained a cool slick performance with the added extra of AM light up with fire. Truly showcasing British talent and the right act to open up the show.

This year Philip Treacy designed the Brit Award. Have to say it looked eye catching and different but could easily pass as a new weapon. A type of saw perhaps? But jokes aside lets look at the awards and the winners.

This year British Video of the Year would be voted for on twitter. People would be given one vote only and voted by using hashtags. 

1. British Female Solo Artist presented by Prince

Ellie Goulding 

Laura Mvula

Laura Marling

Birdy 

Jessie J

Ellie won which was I was more happy about because I really prefer her to Jessie J. I thought the dress she wore tonight was exquisite and made her look classy and sexy. Well done Ellie!

Katy Perry performs Dark Horse

She came on stage in a chariot going with a UV Egyptian theme. This performance was very theatrical and considering I don't really care for her live performances, simply because her vocals leave much to be desired, I found this performance palatable. At the end of the day this is my opinion her genre of music is not what I would choose to listen to anyway. She just seemed to rely so much on her backing track.

James Cordon looked pretty suave tonight in his black suit which was patterned very nice!

2. International Male Solo Artist presented by Pharrell Williams and Kylie Minogue

Bruno Mars

Eminem 

Drake 

John Grant

Justin Timberlake

Bruno has won this twice last time was back in 2012. I really wanted Justin Timberlake to win because he's amazing and he gets better with age. But that's cool. 

3. British Breakthrough Act (my favourite category of the night) presented by Tinie Tempah and Fearne Cotton

Bastille

Disclosure

Tom Odell

London Grammar

Laura Mvula

Bastille's Bad Blood was the most downloaded album of 2013 and I've seen them twice live. I'm pleased they won because they really are an amazing act to see live and don't disappoint. It was a really tough category and I would've been happy whoever won (except Laura Mvula because I don't like her music as much). 

James Cordon then skipped off to talk to One Direction but at least they made jokes about Justin Bieber. 

Bruno Mars was next up to perform on stage. He performed Treasure which was good and I really enjoyed it because he is a good performer there is no denying that. 

4. British Group presented by Lily Allen. 

Arctic Monkeys

Bastille

Disclosure

One Direction

Rudimental 

Arctic Monkeys won and when collecting their award they didn't have much to say because they didn't want to bore us with a list of people we didn't know. Alex could've cracked a smile.

Critics choice was Sam Smith which was the award we already knew the winner to. 

5. Global Success award presented by Rosie Huntington Whiteley

One Direction

This was the second time they won this award. Harry wasn't on stage and apparently this was because he's nipped to the toilet. Always thanking the fans aren't they. I won't say much more on this because I'm not a fan and don't want to offend anyone. But seriously using One Direction and the Beatles in the same sentence?!

Beyonce performs XO

She's not my favourite performer and I do believe she is incredibly overrated. What I did love was her amazing dress! It was beautiful. If only I had the figure to pull off something like that! Although her music isn't my kind of thing she puts on a great performance and she does deliver on vocal range unlike so many other artists.

6. Katy Perry was next presenting Best British Single. She did the most appalling British accent which was just embarrassing to be perfectly honest! 
Rudimental 
Bastille
Calvin Harris
Disclosure
Ellie Goulding
John Newman
Naughty Boy
Olly Murs
One Direction
Passenger

I was shocked when Rudimental won with their track 'Waiting All Night'. I love that track however I thought they would be overlooked because it was a really strong category. They collected their award with Ella Eyre who also features on the track. 

Lorde and Disclosure were the next performance of the night doing a take on her successful single 'Royals'. The song gradually merged into White Noise when Aluna George walked out on stage whilst Lorde exited. Was an amazing performance from Aluna, Lorde and the Disclosure boys. Lorde offered some lovely dance moves which ended up in her looking like she had been possessed. Blimey it's a good job she has a good voice.

7. International Group presented by Cesc Fabregas and Nicole Scherzinger
Daft Punk
Haim
Kings Of Leon
Arcade Fire
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

Award was won by Daft Punk and accepted by Nile Rogers. He said that 'Random Access Memories' was a team effort. As much as I like Daft Punk really wanted Haim to win. 

James Cordon is then sat having a chat with Kylie and makes a joke about Harry Styles "Even though you're single you're probably still too young for Harry Styles". Nicely done James Cordon, nicely done.

Ellie Goulding performs a mash up of 'I Need Your Love' and 'Burn'

8. British Male presented by Noel Gallagher 
Jake Bugg
Tom Odell
James Blake
John Newman
David Bowie

As much as my opinion may be an unpopular one I would've wanted Tom Odell to win simply because 2013 was such a good year for him and his album was perfection. I haven't stopped listening to him and ever since he won Critics Choice he has gone from strength to strength. However, congrats to Bowie he's just not my cup of tea. 

Nick Grimshaw made out with James Cordon again which was cute- aww.

9. International Female Solo Artist presented by Nick Grimshaw
Katy Perry
Pink
Janelle Monaé
Lady Gaga
Lorde

Finally an award I agree with! So happy Lorde won. Yes she's a controversial singer and not everyone loves her but she doesn't care what people think. Look what she's achieved at 17?! This is Lorde's first Brit Award and she had one of the most humble speeches ever. She put people like Alex Turner to shame.

10. British Video Of The Year
Love Me Again- John Newman
Burn- Ellie Goulding
La La La- Naughty Boy ft Sam Smith
I Need Your Love- Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding
Best Song Ever- One Direction

Bastille and Rudimental did a mash up of Pompeii and Waiting All Night with Ella Eyre. This was my performance of the night.

11. Mastercard Album Of The Year
Won by Arctic Monkeys and it seemed like it was such a chore for Alex Turner to get out of his seat. I wish he could've looked a bit more thankful.

So the Brits was ok this year but for me it's becoming too much about pop music and would love to see more Alternative/Indie artists involved. Maybe that's just me.

What were your thoughts on the Brits this year?

"The rest is still unwritten"

Megan

Music Monday 2 (a day late I'm sorry)

This is a day late because the start of the week was hectic for me and It's been crazy sorting stuff out and making sense of everything. Hopefully this might be included in a future depends how this go.

1. Ocean- Coasts
2. Breezeblocks- Alt-J
3. Luna- Bombay Bicycle Club
4. Velvet Elvis- Alex Winston
5. Full Circle- Half Moon Run
6. Rivers- Bipolar Sunshine
7. Caterpillar- The Cure
8. Where Did The Party Go- Fall Out Boy
9. Honey- Swim Deep
10. 18 candles- Nina Nesbitt
11. Sinners- Lauren Aquilina
12. Roots- Orla Gartland
13. You're Not Good Enough- Blood Orange
14. Treasure- Two Door Cinema Club (Cover)
15. Earth Song/Common People- Bastille (BBC Live Lounge Cover)
16. Rather Be- The 1975 (BBC Live Lounge Cover)
17. Fader- The Temper Trap
18. From Nowhere- Dan Croll
19. Stuck In My Teeth- Circa Waves
20. 5 Years Time- Noah And The Whale

"The rest is still unwritten"

Megan

p.s. really sorry this was late!

Anti-Valentines Day

The 14th February was spent with one of my best friends Jess. Surprisingly I didn't feel the usual 'forever alone' emotions that comes with the day of love. I was an excited happy chappy at the thought of a night in watching movies with a bottle of wine and some good food. Personally this is the best way to my heart.

After University Jess and I made our way to Asda in Derek (my car) with the thought of getting a curry for tea. By the time we got there and scouted around the aisles we decided to follow all the other couples and get a dine in meal for £10 from Asda's Extra Special Range. Jess and I are foodies who found it hard to pick just one dish of our choice. We were allowed to pick a main course, 2 sides and a pudding. After much deliberation we decided to go for Steak Diane, Dauphinoise potatoes, a green vegetable medley, and raspberry temptations (basically a sugar soaked sponge with vanilla mousse and raspberry topping with a white chocolate heart). We didn't really want this as our desert so I have to admit we did go and choose a Sticky Toffee Pudding instead and thought we'd have the other dessert later (fatties but do we care?) haha.

So it was back to mine with DVDs in tow, The Heat and Bachelorette, to cook the dinner and get in our pjs. The dinner was beautiful of course another good choice food wise by us! We then snuggled in on the sofa and laughed our way through The Heat. I saw this movie when it first came out in the cinema with Rais and I loved it then. Everytime I watch it it seems to get better! Probably one of those films that you can never get sick of! Our second film of the night was Bachelorette and we picked it for the cast. However it left much to be desired. It wasn't what I expected. Jess fell asleep halfway through! I wouldn't recommend this film there were a few jokes scattered around but nothing that made it worth a second viewing!

Sorry this is late! A lot has happened this weekend and week so far!

"The rest is still unwritten"

Megan

The 80s Kids

I've been sat here feeling rather sorry for myself all day as I've been off Uni ill and quite frankly it's got to me! I thought I would be productive and write a blog but I think I have been stuck for some inspiration. The last thing I want to do is bore you all. So after I dropped Jess off home and found there was nothing on the telly I decided to listen to some music. It started off with The Cure and before I knew it I had a whole 80s playlist created using NME's 100 Best Songs of the 80s. This has made me wish I was a teen back in the 80s. 

For starters how good are The Cure as a band? I grew up listening to them because luckily I had a Mum with amazing music taste! I mean I have my favourites; In Between Days, Boys Don't Cry, Friday I'm In Love, The Caterpillar and Lovecats. Everytime I hear their tracks I feel the need to get up and dance around my flat. They put me in a good mood. I am gutted I missed them at Leeds Fest in 2012...that really was my year to go. 

But I mean being an 80s teen just looks like it would've been so much fun. The music back then was raw and real much better than it is now. If you're into your music like me you'll understand. You want music to be made with thought and care. You want it to bring out emotions inside you that haven't come out before. You want it to tell a story but also to be unique. I have to thank my parents for creating a child with such good music taste if I do say so myself.

So if you want to see the article I was looking at then click here and see what the best songs of the 80s were according to NME. I made my playlist picking out my favourites from the list. 

http://www.nme.com/list/100-best-songs-of-the-1980s/266358/page/10

It's not just the bands and more indie rock I like I also prefer the 80s anthems (Buffalo Stance, Push It) when I go to a club their the songs that make me dance simply because it's what Mum and I used to dance to in the kitchen and in the car on a Saturday night. Party Classics on The Pulse was our thing and still is when I visit home. Don't get me wrong I love music now and probably would miss my tech (especially my phone) but I think the 80s would've been good to experience I mean I can't miss my tech if I never had it in the first place! My goal for this year is to get a record player for my new house. I want to start collecting records so I can chill and blog in my new house. Who knows maybe I'll decide to vlog or video in my new house. I know I keep saying it but I might finally be motivated to do it!! 

My question today is have any of you wanted to be from another decade? If you did what decade would you have wanted to be from and why? 

"The rest is still unwritten"

Megan

Music Monday 1

I'm going to start Music Mondays as an addition to my blog. Each week I will write a blog on a playlist of music I will be listening to for the coming week. I hope you will find it interesting and maybe you'll give me some tips on what I could add to my playlist.

This week's playlist:

1) Kodaline- In A Perfect World

2) King Charles- Mr Flick 

3) Alex Winston- Sister Wife

4) MGMT- Electric Feel 

5) Two Door Cinema Club- Something Good Can Work

6) The Wombats- Your Body Is A Weapon

7) The Cure- In Between Days

8) Foster The People- Coming Of Age

9) Tom Odell- Can't Pretend

10) Bastille- Weight Of Living Pt 1

11) Train- Drops Of Jupiter

12) The Wombats- Let's Dance to Joy Divison 

13) Twenty One Pilots- Fake You Out 

14) Bipolar Sunshine- Rivers

15) Breach The Summit- We All

16) Bombay Bicycle Club- Luna

17) Ben Howard- Keep Your Head Up

18) Imagine Dragons- Working Man

19) We Were Evergreen- Daughters

20) Wolf Alice- She 

So this week I've decided to listen to some older songs I maybe haven't listened to in a while as well as newer singles/albums that I am currently loving! I hope you all like my playlist and maybe give some new songs a try! Indie/Alternative music isn't everyone's choice however I always think it's good to give something new a try because that's the best way to find new music! 

"The rest is still unwritten" 

Megan

My Girly Weekend

In need of a quiet weekend I think because I'm ill writing this blog so think it's time for some downtime for old Meg. 

This weekend has been fab! I spent it with my favourites Jess, Megan and Zoe. We had a sleepover at my flat Friday where Megan being the good wife that she is made me some lovely chicken fajitas! We also sat and had a lovely chat in our pjs which was much needed after a pretty bad week in terms of emotions for me. Everyone has bad weeks though. Megan and Zoe then came back to my parents house so we could go out Saturday and meet up with Rais. We called it an early night as Megan wasn't really feeling great and the weather was awful so back to mine it was for a boozy pj party! Much better!

Going back to Halifax with my faves gave me time to do a spot of shopping which I really shouldn't have done but was much needed! I will write another blog showing the things I caved in and bought!

This week has made me realise that I need sometime to myself and need to give myself some space away from boys because they always let me down and whilst I'm stronger than I was to be able to handle it I feel that it's time I focused on myself. This coming week is all about motivation! Positive Megs bearing in mind it's only Sunday I haven't a clue what Monday will bring! 

My song for this week is: Electric Feel- MGMT. This is a classic and has wiggled it's way back into my music playlist. 

"The rest is still unwritten"

Megan 

Weekend in Paris

Day 1 

I am currently sat on the flight drinking wine and eating crackers feeling rather sophisticated. Dad had us in full military mode whilst going through the airport fussing over passports and boarding passes. He has to have everything planned otherwise he will just panic! I'm rather excited to finally explore Paris and I am starting to decide where I want to go. The drive back to my house this evening from Leeds was manic with torrential rain and appalling drivers! The usual 35mins journey took me 1hour and 15mins and when I arrived home I was put in another car and driven to Manchester airport. Sad to say as soon as I get to Paris I want to fall into my hotel bed! 

Arriving at the hotel was much needed! Have to say I have absolutely NO confidence in French driving and found it to be really unnerving. There seemed to be no laws and instead it was much more like a 'free for all' if you're brave enough! Hotel is nice though if a bit small for all four of us! Mum and I claimed the bed whilst we left the sofa bed for the boys. After logging into wi-fi and checking Facebook think it's time to finally get some shut eye.

Day 2

We were up bright and early however we quickly returned to our beds when we heard torrential rain outside. However an extra hour or two in bed was lovely as we eventually got out of our beds for 9.30. We strolled around our hotel looking for a place to eat breakfast and soon found a small cafe in which we parked ourselves and looked through the menu. Mum and I embraced the French culture with a 'traditional' French breakfast which allowed us to have a hot drink (cappuccino), orange juice, baguette, croissant, butter and jam. It was a nice change for what I usually eat in a morning. Max and Dad tried something new with sausages, bacon and scrambled eggs (what they would usually order at home). We must've enjoyed it though because we decided to eat there Sunday morning. After breakfast we walked to the metro and took the tube to the station near the Louvre where we used our Paris passes to queue jump (thank god)! The Louvre was beautiful and I enjoyed walking around inside but for me the real 'art' was the architecture. I thought the ceilings were beautiful (see photos) rather than endless paintings or sculptures of people. Something which was new to the the gallery was the Lady Gaga paintings which were displayed virtually on a screen. I found the screen was rather out of place surrounded by paintings of Napoleon and of course the Mona Lisa. On the subject of Mona Lisa I have to say I was quite shocked at how small the painting of her is. She was placed on a plain wall on her own and to me didn't really 'wow' me. I love art but I guess I expected a lot more than what I saw! Maybe I'm just hard to please. 

After we left the Louvre we hopped on a bus and went to Notre Dame. As a joke we decided to take a family selfie which turned out pretty funny for us. Sad to say this is one of the best pictures I have of us as a family! Finally giving into the cold we took shelter in a nearby cafe and if had another cappuccino and ate a cinnamon sugar crêpe, whilst Max tucked into a rather sickly looking crêpe with chocolate sauce. We were then on our feet again this time walking past 'Lovers Bridge' to go to the wine tasting. We tasted 3 wines (1 white wine, 2 reds). I hate red wine so I really didn't like them but I could've easily finished a bottle of white wine! Wine tasting was soon over and it was off to the Rugby Match. I have to admit I wasn't looking forward to this as much because I don't really get rugby. When we arrived outside the stadium there were groups of England fans dressed as knights and soldiers and I tried to get as many photos as I could with them although some groups refused so I stood in front of them and my dad snapped a few photos.

The rugby match was brilliant the atmosphere electric with the DJ from 'fun radio' blasting out many songs that reminded me of going out. Although we lost France did play a good game and I honestly though we were going to win until the French scored in the last 7 minutes which was gutting. Nevertheless it was still an enjoyable match and has changed my view on rugby.

After a busy day we chose to wind down in an American style restaurant which offered comfort food from the chilling Parisian wind! After consuming far too much food and lovely wine we called it a night and headed back to the hotel. My feet were aching and it was quite painful to walk however Dad soon cheered me up by slipping in dog poo and almost falling over but was saved by a tree. I was laughing so much I started crying and Mum and I almost collapsed on the floor.

     

       

Day 3
Our final day in Paris started at the same café again with the same breakfast I had had the previous morning. I was getting rather used to my morning cappuccino! After iMessaging my french friend Alix all day Saturday and again Sunday we had arranged to meet up under the Eiffel Tower later that day.

Firstly we caught the red tour bus using our Paris passes and Dad chose to sit on the open top deck. It was freezing so if I wasn't awake already I definitely was now! I took a lot of photos as we passed the Arc de Triomphe, the ferris wheel, the streets of posh Parisian shops and world renowned jewellery stores as well as some commercial ones. Have to say it was boring simply because we kept stopping as traffic was terrible and eventually we had to get off near the Eiffel Tower if we wanted to see it. So we took the Metro and I ran to meet Alix. I was so happy to see her again as it had been 4/5 years since we last saw eachother. I always considered her like a big sister and I was her little sister and being together again was so good. She's invited me over to stay at her house so hopefully I'll be able to save some money and go over soon. On the Metro on the way back to collect our bags some people jumped on the train with us with speakers, mics and clarinets and started singing. It was really cool and I wish I had filmed it because they were surprisingly really good!

After we had coffee and a catch up with Alix we left to grab our bags and head to the airport. Paris was definitely a good experience and an awesome trip. When I finally got back to my flat in Leeds I was so tired and fell asleep quickly. New blogs will be written this week so stay tuned to hear more ramblings from me!

                                                                                            

 

 

Sorry if this was a bit long but I hope you've enjoyed it! Oh and don't forget to check me out on Bloglovin! Would make me dead happy!

'The rest is still unwritten'

Megan

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Brief update

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'The rest is still unwritten'

Megan