Radio 2 repeat 6Music Coldplay experiment; get identical results

Earlier this year, 6Music presented listener with a list of songs and asked them for their favourite. Disappointingly, it ended up with Coldplay winning.

So when Radio 2 presented listeners with a list of "most-played albums" and asked them to rank them?

It's no surprises:

1 Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
2 Keane - Hopes & Fears
3 Duran Duran - Rio
4 Pink Floyd - The Dark Side Of The Moon
5 Dido - No Angel
6 The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
7 Pet Shop Boys - Actually
8 The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
9 U2 - The Joshua Tree
10 Queen - A Night At The Opera

I know that we should take seriously no list which clears its throat by announcing that A Fit Of Vapours In The Bentley is the best anything, but just look at that. I'm no Beatles acolyte - I think you'd have spotted that - but even I know that Dido's No Angel is not a finer body of work that Sergeant Pepper's.

Interesting to see Actually, there, though. Actually.

Gordon in the morning: A favour we could do without

Eminem is, it appears, helping us out:

EMINEM is doing the British music industry another favour 13 years after boosting DIDO’s career by sampling her track Thank You on his controversial single Stan.

That was a favour? We're still picking up the pieces from that one.

The American rapper has now sampled young Bristolian singer JAMIE N COMMONS for the chorus of an upcoming new single of his.
[...]
The blues-influenced singer will be hoping that his career goes the same way as Dido’s did.

Heh heh, very funny, Gordon.

Oh, hang on, you're not joking, are you?

The way Dido's career went, in case anyone's forgotten, was a drop in 15 million sales between first and third albums. Her last release, Safe Trip Home, didn't even make Gold in the UK, and that's despite a tie-in with Nectar Cards.

But, hey, if Jamie Commons wants a career that goes the same way, who are we to argue? Maybe he's got plans to open a DIY store or something in 2016.

Elsewhere in Gordon's section, Jennifer Lawrence appears to have been running around with her tits out:

Jennifer Lawrence flashes her ‘wonky boobs’ at Oscar nominees’ bash

Really, Alison Maloney? Jennifer Lawrence was flashing her breasts at an Oscars party? Are you sure?

The Silver Linings Playbook star – who recently stunned docs with worries about her wonky boobs – flashed her cleavage in the plunging floral gown at the Hollywood Reporter Nominees’ Night at Spago.

Ah, so when you say "flashes her boobs", you mean "wears a dress with a V-shaped neck". That's not really the same thing, is it?

The spaceman sues Dido

Dido stuck a NASA picture on the cover of her 2008 record, Safe Trip Home. It features a tiny little astronaut floating in space.

Trouble is, the astronaut, Bruce McCandless (no, I hadn't, either) is suing claiming that the use violates his privacy rights.

Sure, you go floating in space you don't expect to be papped, but... seriously?

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As Techdirt observes:

[I]t's difficult to see how much of a claim he has. It's not as if he's identifiable in the image, or that anyone will see it and think: "Hey, I'll buy this album because I know astronaut Bruce McCandless endorsed it." That's ridiculous. Most people will have no idea who the astronaut is, nor will they even care.

To be frank, the hardest thing for McCandless to do is to prove that anyone knows who he is before he can start to claim people are trading on his image. Surely this is just a shot of an unnamed guy at work?

Also: why has it taken him two years to file this claim? Has he been on Mars or something?

Gordon in the morning: What if you threw a party and nobody came?

Gordon splashes this morning on the terrible news that Brit nominees are turning down invites like they're "come to the disemboweling" requests:

Brit Busy That Night?

The idea of Earls Court being empty except for those stage-school kids they parachute down the front is an amusing one, but a caption on the photo illustrating the story makes it clear that we're not actually talking about that:

Possible no-show ... Dido

The 2010 Brits without Dido? Unimagimable! The last thing you need is the bar understaffed on a night like that.

Yes, the cards being returned are amongst those being invited for the anniversary category:

THERE could be an awkward moment next Tuesday night when the winner of the best Brits Album Of 30 Years is announced.

Acts including COLDPLAY, DIRE STRAITS and TRAVIS are nominated - but organisers are having a nightmare persuading any of them to turn up.

OASIS, KEANE, DUFFY, SADE and DIDO are also in the running but none of them have agreed to attend yet either.

Imagine that. It's almost as if the whole event is nothing more than a giant marketing opportunity that nobody would be arsed to attend if they had nothing to sell.

It's not all bad news, though:

PHIL COLLINS and THE VERVE's frontman RICHARD ASHCROFT will be there - but unless they win it could be a little embarrassing.

To be honest, if Phil Collins gets a prize for having made the best record out of all those released in the last thirty years, that might be a little bit more embarrassing than the recipient not being in the room.

But the chances of winning and prize and being on the television - surely that must be tempting?

Radio 2 listeners have already decided the outcome in a public vote and the winner will be announced on the night.

Hey, let's hope the lack of people picking up the invites isn't down to conversations along the lines of "did we win? But you must know... did we? did we? We didn't? Sorry, busy that night..."

The other awards tonight: The ASCAPS

I don't often get surprised by the winners of awards, but tonight's ASCAP prizes have left me agape.

Corinne Bailey Rae's Go Put Your Record On has been named 'song of the year' and even more confusingly in the arse-end of 2008, Dido has picked up songwriter of the year. Have I missed something? There's some talk that she's about to release a single later this month, but how can a year stretch so far to include the release of Bailey Rae's track and the release of Dido's new material?

Jonny Greenwood picked up an award for his There Will Be Blood soundtrack.

The world's most expensive download store?

Nectar - Green Shield Stamps without the need to lick anything (unless you want to) - has launched a downloads store where you can redeem your points for tunes.

Now, obviously, you don't have to collect points and redeem them, and when you get the points you could see it as a bonus gift rather than something you're actually paying for, but at 30 tunes in return for 5,500 points, you're looking at getting a song every time you spend £91.60.

They are giving away a free Dido song, though. Sorry, I made that sound like it was sweetening the deal, didn't I?

The comeback

Everyone describes Gary Glitter as "disgraced ex-pop star", which seems a little unfair, as one of the few things about him that isn't disgraceful is his pop stardom. That, at least, he did pretty well.

Now, if you want to talk about someone who disgraced pop music suddenly coming back: well, Dido has decided she doesn't want to be known as Whatever happened to Dido? anymore and has a new album lined up. There's been no album from her for five years, and barely a murmur since she turned up at Live8.

A lot of good work for charidee

Let's just preempt the comments box and say: Yes, we know Annie Lennox's Band Aid style single is in a good cause and, yes, it will raise a bit of money.

However, wouldn't it be better all round if Shakira, Joss Stone, Dido, Celine Dion, Pink, Fergie, Gladys Knight, Bonnie Raitt, Melissa Etheridge, KT Tunstall and Madonna all released a proper single - one that they might have released anyway - and gave the money from that to Nelson Mandela's 46664 Aids charity instead? Wouldn't that raise more money and, indeed, mean that the artists involved could feel a sense of actually contributing to the cause by redirecting some of their royalties, rather than just spending an hour or so making a record that nobody would really want for its own merits?

Spot-on soundtrack

Well done to whoever picks Coronation Street's background music. Last night, Paul locked Leanne in his boot and rang Liam. While Liam took the call, the radio in the factory was playing Dido's Thank You. A song not unconnected with tales of angry men locking women in trunks.

What could spook Marilyn Manson?

Obviously, we're betting here without the prospect of him being held accountable for his stage act. No, Marilyn drew the line at working with Eminem:

"The song he asked me to sing was — and this may sound strange — too misogynistic. It was the one about killing his girlfriend and putting her in a trunk. ... It was too over-the-top for me to associate with. First of all, I don't drive. And I wouldn't put a girl in a trunk; that's where I keep other stuff. That's my dry, deadpan humor kicking in."

If we've got this straight, doesn't that mean that Dido is more extreme than Marilyn Manson?