Sheffield’s most time honoured live music venue is now at the forefront in the running for one of the industry’s most prestigious awards.

The Leadmill – which celebrates its 31st birthday this year –constituted one of the nine venues originally nominated for the Live UK Music Award and has now made it through to the final round of voting, which will conclude at the awards ceremony on the 6th October.

Short-listed as one of the final three establishments nominated for the Best Venue Teamwork (+800) award, The Leadmill is competing alongside Nottingham’s Roxy City and Brixton Academy with Koko – both greatly esteemed London venues.

Live UK is the only music industry publication focused solely on live music, read by the industry’s most influential people, and the award is an outstanding achievement for one of Sheffield’s most highly regarded music venues.

Rupert Dell, General Manager of The Leadmill, said “We are so very proud to have made it into the final three nominees for this award. We pride ourselves on hosting outstanding gigs every time and feel this accomplishment sums up just how passionate we are about delivering fantastic live events.

We’re so excited and this nomination is testament to the huge efforts the team puts in, as well as the loyalty of those who continue to support and enjoy The Leadmill.”

The winning nominee for each category will be announced at the award ceremony, which takes place at the Radisson Blu Portman Hotel in London on the 6th October.

This Autumn The Leadmill are offering another outstanding line-up, hosting gigs from Benjamin F Leftwich, The Pierces, Miles Kane, The Twang, Pop Will Eat Itself, Billy Bragg, British Sea Power, The Pigeon Detectives, Death in Vegas and many more.

See here for their full line-up and to purchase tickets or for updates on The Leadmill events visit their Facebook or Twitter pages.

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Elizabeth Taylor’s passing yesterday, from heart failure at the age of 79, has undoubtedly saddened many across the globe. One of Hollywood’s most alluring leading ladies has long since been a commanding presence on the big screen but continually commanded our attention away from it. Her work on raising Aids awareness throughout the 80s, her 8th marriage in the early 90s, her friendship with Michael Jackson, and her increasingly fragile health all ensured she remained in the public eye until her death. Hollywood’s original and best loved Glamour Queen had no intention of fading away quietly.

Along with Charlie Chaplin, Taylor remains Britain’s most successful and popular export to the Hollywood hills. Only Chaplin’s enduring popularity can match the attention and adulation afforded to Taylor by the American public. Born in London, Taylor was evacuated to California with her parents in 1939, on the eve of WWII. It didn’t take long for the strikingly beautiful child to be signed up by MGM, and she appeared regularly as a child actress before really coming to the fore in A Place in the Sun (1951), which garnished best actor nominations for her co-stars Montgomery Clift and Shelley Winters. It wouldn’t take long for Taylor to outshine her illustrious contemporaries, and after another commanding performance in Giant (1956), alongside the inimitable James Dean, Taylor was nominated three times successively for Raintree County (1957), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), before eventually winning for Butterfield 8 (1961). The sultry, seductive brilliance of Taylor in these roles can easily be forgotten amidst the extravagant glamour of her career from the 60s onwards.

By this point Taylor’s tumultuous personal life had begun to overshadow her credibility as an actress. During the production of the infamously extravagant flop Cleopatra (1963), Taylor acquired her fifth (and sixth) husband, Richard Burton. Their glamorous, but troubled, romance would dominate the silver screen as much as the gossip pages over the next decade or so with the couple appearing in no less than 10 films together. However, it is to be noted, that dung this time Taylor won much critical acclaim, to go with her second Academy Award, for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) in which she shed her sex symbol status to play the unflattering role of Martha, a bellowing, bullying drunk.

Taylor’s acting career continued to trail off, excluding a couple of notable performances in Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) and Secret Ceremony (1968), and essentially died completely after a series of unremarkable films in the 1970s beginning with the disappointing The Only Game in Town (1970). Her personal life remained captivating however, and she finally shed Burton for her 7th husband, John Warner, a Republican senator, in 1976. Her continuing presence in the gossip columns was augmented by a stint in rehab for alcohol treatment, another marriage, her continuing Aids awareness campaigning, and her often poor health. The sight of a wheelchair-bound Taylor attending a variety of functions, still clinging on to her glamorous heyday has been the most recent image to trouble the paparazzi rags.

Ultimately, however, Taylor will be remembered as one of Hollywood’s great leading women, alongside Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis, Rita Hayworth, Grace Kelly or Lauren Becall. That kind of stardom, the marriage of classical beauty and sultry talent which inhabited the Golden Era of Hollywood, will long be fondly remembered.

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Some of the best bands around the current US pop punk scene have joined forces and created a fantastic collaboration CD called Vs. The Earthquake, as a means of contributing something positive to the catastrophic events that have recently occurred in Japan. As the world knows, northern Japan suffered their largest notable earthquake and if that wasn’t enough, this was then followed by a tsunami which destroyed lives, homes and businesses. Such a disaster affects everyone with each person keen to do all they can to help. You too can help by donating a minimum of $5 and in return you get 22 tracks by 22 incredible bands– a small price to pay when you think about what you are getting and where your donation is going.

The CD is composed of unreleased covers such as The Wonder Years doing Hey Julie originally by Fountains of Wayne. There are also rare acoustic tracks by Man Overboard and The Swellers, along with live tracks by Allison Weiss and La Dispute.

It is a very clever release as the choice of songs and lyrics manage to bring home the message that these bands are trying to portray but in a way that is positive and spirited. There are upbeat tracks from Perfect Lines and Save Your Breath but there are also more moving songs from Koji. This CD is made up of so many different artists it just isn’t possible to mention them all but there is something for everyone, whether you are a fan of pop punk or not.

The really special tracks come from Transit and Valencia. Transit’s track Indoor Voices is not an exclusive as it can be found on their latest album Something Left Behind but with lyrics such as <‘I’m getting tired of being told you’re only one person to the world, when to one person you could be the world’, the song is just so fitting. Valencia contributes an acoustic version of their track Spinning Out which again has fitting lyrics including ‘I know somehow, someway, things will get better’.

Limited Pressing, who are responsible for donating a store front for the project state ‘music has always been there to help people through difficult times’ and I am sure this CD will help in some way– be it to raise awareness, raise funds or just simply make someone smile. This compilation CD would be great for those who are fans of the 22 artists and want a rare recording to add to their collection or even those who have not heard any of the artists before.
Go buy it!

Vs. The Earthquake can be purchased from the official site:
Buy Vs. The Earthquake now

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The series of covers kicked off with Rihanna — Only Girl (In the World) and has continued all the way through to the current UK Number 1 single Adele — Someone Like You. These covers are not created as mere copies of the original but in every cover comes a new take on each single. Pandora’s Box never fail to add their own original sound and feel to each single, making their covers completely unique.

As soon as lead singer and guitarist Chloe mention this project to myself, I knew this was something completely original and something that I wanted to help with. Our Journalists are currently working on reviewing each and every one of the cover versions and these should start to appear over the next week. We do have two reviews available right now for you and I urge you to give them a read and the video a view. The first one is the cover of Bruno Mars’ — Grenade. The second is the cover of Ke$ha’s — We Are Who We Are.

The best way to round of this introductory article to this impressive and original project would be to leave you with the award winning video for the cover of Jessie J — Price Tag. With comments like ‘i’m in love with ur version more than the original one’, you can see why it has been such a hit.

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Maltese singer/songwriter Adie has just released a new song called Tug of War. This single has been released with the notorious rapper Hooligan. Although Adie’s main focus is Pop, Tug of War was influenced from American music, mainly RnB and Hip Hop.

Tug of War was officially released on Facebook on the 12th September 2010 and has become very popular with the listeners and viewers of the video. In fact those who would like to listen and watch the video of this song can find it on Adie’s Youtube Channel.

Adie is making a name for herself and also for Malta. In fact, a song that Adie wrote last year was classified as a semi-finalist amongst 50,000 songwriters in the UK Songwriting Contest. She also reached no.2 in international charts with her song Somebody Out There.

Currently Adie is working with American, English and Australian top-notch songwriters and therefore, in the next couple of months, we will be listening to more songs from Adie’s second album that are mainly Pop but with a cross-over of RnB, influenced by singers such as Alicia Keys, Nelly Furtado, Rihanna and Beyonce.

More information about Adie can be found on her website www.adie.com.mt , on Adie’s Facebook page , on Adie’s MySpace , or follow her on Twitter. You can also contact her directly via her personal email address — adie4you@gmail.com.

Background:

Shakira is the founder of the Fundación Pies Descalzos. This foundation supports over 6 thousand students and their families from 6 schools in the areas of Barranquilla, Quibdó and Altos de Cazucá in Columbia.

Shakira went onto start the Barefoot Foundation which is dedicated to advocating for global education worldwide. In January 2010, the Barefoot Foundation and Barefoot board member Howard Buffett recently announced plans to construct a Barefoot School in Haiti to support recovery efforts.

Full Announcement

The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) has named Grammy Award-winning artist and philanthropist Shakira an ambassador for 1GOAL: Education For All. 1GOAL is an international campaign to ensure that every child can exercise their right to an education.

1GOAL is co-chaired and co-founded by Queen Rania of Jordan and backed by FIFA and the global football community. The 2010 FIFA World Cup™ is the first World Cup tournament hosted in Africa, home to the majority of out-of-school children. 1GOAL is asking fans to lobby their country’s leaders and help ensure all boys and girls have access to quality primary education.

Shakira, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and President and founder of the Barefoot Foundation, is a tireless spokesperson for the 72 million children worldwide who do not have access to quality education. A leading advocate for education, Shakira has successfully lobbied world leaders for education at venues such as the Ibero-American Summit and the United Nations.  In 2008, she served as the chair of GCE’s Action Week.  The Barefoot Foundation provides quality education, nutrition and psychological support to more than six thousand disadvantaged children and their families in Colombia. 1GOAL is delighted to welcome her as an experienced and dedicated global education advocate.

“The World Cup captures the attention and hearts of millions.  We must use this moment to raise our voices for 1GOAL and demand that this generation of children have the chance to fulfill their dreams and live up to their full potential through education,” said Shakira. “I’m honored to be part of this incredible movement.”

As 1GOAL Ambassador, Shakira will advocate for universal access to education to world leaders and to the public.  Shakira will work to strengthen the campaign alongside world leaders, top footballers and celebrities who have already signed up to the goals of the campaign, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President Jacob Zuma, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Bono, Kevin Spacey and footballers Marcel Desailly, Rio Ferdinand, Eusébio and Alessandro Del Piero.

Adrian Lovett, chair of the GCE 1GOAL campaign committee commented:

“We are delighted Shakira has joined 1GOAL. She is a humanitarian, a philanthropist, and one of the world’s biggest artists.  Her lasting concern for the millions of children who do not have access to any kind of education make her an ideal 1GOAL Ambassador. We look forward to working with Shakira in this very special year to achieve our shared vision of education for all.”

Additional resources

• H1GOAL: Education For All (join1goal.org)
• Shakira Awarded Medal From United Nations (idiomag.com)

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