a whim.

let's define the word 'whim', shall we?
a sudden desire, caprice: a sudden desire; "he bought it on an impulse"

they say. too right. i saw kulpreet's video on YouTube telling people to vote for her... and i was like WHAT IS THIS? so i take a little look, don't i? and i get a bit nosier and realise that i wanted in on it! so that's exactly what i did. i uploaded a video so i wouldn't feel left out. little did i realise the october competition was ending in a matter of hours and i had somehow managed to get a place in the quarter finals to win a chance of £25,000 worth of sponsorship money?

sounds truly baffling, doesn't it? and it was. still is
i got a phone call like brilliant! you're through! someone will come to plymouth and FILM A BACK STORY about you and then you'll come up here and do this, this and this. and i'm there thinking, "what the fuck?"
not in a bad way of course. it's brilliant...

i'm gonna do things on a whim like that more often, for sure.

so anyway, tom the camera man (what a ridiculously lovely person! though he literally called me fat to my face) came to plymouth and filmed me! you may have seen us on BlogTV for a few minutes. was really fun, just dreading seeing it.
then i went up to London on sunday 1st november and had to get a HORRIFIC jubilee line replacement bus that crammed literally about 1000 people on it, and took 7 years to get there (about 40 minutes). i'd have rather died.
then i found my way to the hotel, met hannah, kulpreet and AJ - the other musicians! gotta say, there was zero feeling of competition. we all really got on and were quite supportive, haha. we met with two girls from 1click called Annabell and Ambreena (i know! cool name) and they took us for the weirdest indian meal i have ever had in my life.

at an indian restaraunt, you kind of expect there to be chicken korma, no? NO!
instead i literally had chicken tikka pieces in a bun (chicken burger apparently) with some chips. odd, but satisfying!

so anyway. we go back to the hotel and sleep and it's all nice
we get there in the morning to the stevie lange studios and there are people just milling everywhere and chatting. honestly, everyone was so friendly... it didn't feel like a boot camp. more a camp of... i dunno. nice people (it's going well kate)
we met stevie, THE NICEST PERSON IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD and she gaves us all a vocal warm up. learnt a ridiculous amount in the space of about 15 minutes! who knew you had to breathe when singing? haha, i'm definitely kidding. or am i?
then straight away i had to go in and record short straw! we each has an hour and a half with the producers and i was first...which was a little nerve racking but i soon got over it. can't wait for you to hear the final cut! they said "that's actually quite impressive"

needless to say i died a bit inside

the rest of the day included eating at the wetherspoon and burning my tongue, a lot of interviews, a lot of singing and rooms with the most amazing acoustics and pianos EVERYWHERE, and generally being very comfortable and musical and happy. brilliant day. i wanted to stay in that room and sing for so long, though... really did

very impressed if you've read this far.

we got a lot of tips from Stevie and a list of things we should use for our voices and whatever! very successful indeed.
then went home and am now enjoying a full week of working at zara. the contrast is literally killing me

SO.
THE GOOD PART.

the final cut of short straw and the video performance of it will go up on http://www.1click2fame.com, (i'll let you know when and how to do it), and all you have to do is vote YES WITH A BIG THUMBS UP, once a day. every bloody day for 2 weeks. or 1 week, i can't remember

if you do this, i will
a) love you too much to even comprehend
b) win 25,000 pounds worth of sponsorship money and therefore
c) will be able to spend my life making music for you to (perhaps) buy

that is it, i think. fucking hell i've never written so much in my entire life
hope everyone is well.
kate

if you don't know about her yet (which is impossible seeing as i tweet about her every second of my life haha), you're about to find out!
ellie goulding has been a massive inspiration to me this last month... honestly, she's completely inspired me into a different wave of music altogether. such a talented musician with a stunning voice and you need to hear her.

she's touring with little boots soon and is about to do so fucking well for herself - i wish her aaaall the best.
anyway, her first single is called under the sheets...and here is a 1 minute nowhere-near-enough clip of the song (which i have had on repeat for literally an hour. still not sick of it, haha)




how fucking brilliant is that?
and here is another goldsmith piece of gold, called 'swimming pool'. i now alternate between the two, haha. seriously..


aaaaaaaand last but not least, here is a clip of her singing starry-eyed live.



i'd just like to point out the fucking amazing DRUMMING AT THE END. she's hogging the talent, ha
anyway. a lot of love for this music. too much! way too much!
long live ellie goulding (and of course star smith.)

HELLO!
could life possibly get any better, at all? ever? no! no is the answer, my friends and minions! haha i'm sorry. i'll definitely stop calling you that at some point in life

if you're ready for a ridiculously detailed account of my last two days in LDN... keep reading.

wednesday 26th august:

woke up, shitting my absolute brick. but got changed and looked vaguely ok to leave the house. got on the coach... was definitely scared that i'd left the guitar (not even mine!) underneath the coach in the baggage bit to get savaged by bigger bags. bullies! alliteration! but it was fine.
i had to be at Relentless Garage at 2pm... (please bare in mind our coach got physically in at 13:15 and none of us plymouth lot know where the hell we're going.) and it gets to about 12, half 12ish...and the bus driver pulls into the service station because there's an EMERGENCY!!! we're all like shit shit, getting off our seats quicker than you can say fuck you. walk towards the front of the bus and there's a definite smell of horrific smoke! anyway, we got off. went inside after being RAINED on and after ringing people saying "hey...just gonna ruin your lives a little bit more and say that i won't be able to make it for 2. brilliant"
then after being inside for about an hour...we were like, shit, what the hell is going on? at this point i was panicing that i wouldn't actually be there for 7 o clock...haha. you can imagine how ridiculous i was being
then after waiting for a further hour outside in the rain with loads of other pissed off english people, we got a fancy replacement coach and were well on our way! at this point, i was nearly puking on everyone :)

got into London and met some lovely people with t shirts saying Kate McGill on... WAIT. LET ME REPHRASE! Kate MCJILL, haha. and that was so lovely!! a special thank you to Steph, Maria, Aimee, Becky, Hua and James!
after traipsing around London we finally got into Islington and it was all fine from there, really...
after classily (not a word) drinking vodka in a park close to the garage, haha...i went in and had a sound check. after meeting lovely people from Bombay Bicycle Club! the sound check killed any nerves i had to be honest. it was a brilliant way of getting over it... 'cause they expected me to be a professional, haha...so i just sang and made no bones about it. and then i was FINE, 'cause i knew exactly what to expect and what it looked like and how i sounded etc etc. also helped being complimented when i got off :)

i got the BEST RECEPTION EVER! people were clapping and loving and singing and loving... aw it was so lovely! people were SINGING to my songs! myyyy songs! it was crazy, i really can't describe haha
i got bought drinks and was asked for photos etcetcetc... it was a crazy and brilliant and exciting night :D after taking about 10 years to get to my aunt's house who lives in Hertfordshire, we were able to sleep for about 1 minute and then i had to be up again to meet people!

thursday 27th august:

i met a friend of mine called Charlie, who introduced me to loads of wicked people in EMI/Virgin Records and spent the day in various rooms and buildings (that were all ridiculously massive and posh and didn't need little ol' me in them, haha), but it was completely worth it and i actually have no idea what my future will hold... all i know is i can't wait to start writing and collaborating! bring. it. on

caught MORE wrong trains and scraped time deadlines.. but finally got to the coach station on time to come homeeeee! i definitely thought this would be more detailed but SO MUCH HAPPENED. i can't even remember it all

if you weren't able to come to the gig but you'd have liked to... check out these videos of the gig! the sound quality is pretty alright, and i'm sure there will be more somewhere along the line!

so tomorrow morning (it's definitely 20 to 1...) at 7.45am, me and a few people will be travelling to London for this skindividual gig! which is definitely on the nme news (!?), haha. look! http://www.nme.com/news/ladyhawke/46893

anyway. i'm really quite nervous, but really excited too! i've been on the virtual tour of the garage and it's wicked! petrified... but excited. as i keep saying, haha. i've had a lot of help from my parents and their wise ways, and i've stocked up on little things to keep me going... i'm sorted!
i'm so grateful for everyone who's travelling from everywhere just to come and see me...god knows how much i fucking appreciate it! thank you, really
can't wait to meet you all :) i know some of you will be there to meet me at victoria coach station - which is bizarre! haha, it'll be wicked! god knows how my life will pan out the way it's going now...
i'll update this with how it went and everything, and hopefully there'll be loads of pictures and videos for you all to see :D
i'll be in Crete for a week next tuesday...but i'll definitely update before then!
wish me luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck...eek!

ok, so i am horrificly tired round about now. i feel as though i have been dragged through an absolute bush of hatred. ew i definitely think of pubes when typing the word bush. let's just never mention this ever happening...
i've worked all day. i definitely have work tomorrow as well... this is just bad times. all i can think of though - is this gig in London and how absolutely terrified i would be if it actually went ahead. i mean, say if i did win it? then what would happen? i'd actually have to sing my songs in front of people...? shit bruv.
apart from that, life is wonderful. just got to get two more weeks of work out the way (plus a weekend canoeing! woop!), and then i'm on holiday for TWO WHOLE WEEKS. which means, i can go to London, Telford (hopefully!), Wales and maybe even Crete on September the 1st...
ah, can't wait.
September will be a brilliant month. i've decided this. after chatting with Hayley this evening, we realised there really is a lot to look forward to! like seeing Michael McIntyre live, and moving back into Dev Ter and house parties and Emma's return and musicmusicmusic.
life's wonderful...if you make it that way. everyone has a choice...all the time. it's really quite true.
this time last year was very very different...i remember exactly what happened to the day! i'm glad it's different now, and i'm glad it'll be different again next year. roll on '10.

so, earlier on i did like... a 3 hour show on BlogTV. if you missed it...you're lame. but you can definitely catch some of the recorded clips right here:

http://www.blogtv.com/Shows/947762/date/YeXwbuTGaeXwb2VGb_

it was really really fun! thanks for everyone that came along and watched...sorry about my throat as well. it was making me die quite frequently. anyway! i'll leave you with "i'll continue", an original of mine that i hadn't performed live before this video!

enjoy :)



i'll continue - Broadcast your self LIVE

let's make this short and sweet. it's 6 minutes past 1 and i definitely have work in about 2 seconds, though it's not looking likely at all 'cause i feel scarily ill.. i really am tired to be fair but this website is just too exciting. i'm adding widgets here, there and everywhere. though none of them seem to be working.