• Sting is agin it – and in my heart, so am I too. He says they are Karaoke performers, aping Celine Don, Whitney Houston and Take that. Actually he is right. It is a pantomime. it is a programme to boo and hiss at. It’s is not about music – it is about pop. Real talent wouldn’t be seen dead on it.

    One problem with XFactor, is that we get to know the contestants too well. I just switched iTunes on and there is a promo photo of Leona Lewis, glammed up to the nines, pretending to be a Diva. Well, we know better, She is a charming young woman with a heck of a voice, which is not being wasted on the pap she is made to sing.

    She always looks so uncomfortable, bumping and grinding away on her videos – it just isn’t her. She will probably come into her own when she is about thirty, her voice will be at it’s peak and she will be in a position to find herself proper artistic support. That is – unless she is just a very good karaoke singer.

    Real, enduring popstars, are made on the road, driving from gig to gig, honing their performance and their style, building their following.

    But of course, that’s not possible anymore – health and safety has banned live music – there’s nowhere left to play and learn the trade.

  • We all need a little encouragement, but time and time the internet has let me down. Often I get a good idea and put some work into it, then the rules change half way through making the job not worth the candle.

    I love looking at my website statistics. I get all sorts of information from it, I’ve learned to not believe a word anyone says about their website statistics. They can be read, interpreted and presented in many ways.

    But I kind of thought that when I post a video on YouTube, the number of view would mean just that. It seems not. Many people’s videos stop around 300, as a couple of mine have. This is apparently so Youtube can check you are not fiddling the stats by sitting at home and reloading the video once every few seconds.

    I’m probably very sad, but those views encourage me to post more – as I’m sure they do to most other YouTubers. The view numbers are our validation. We all need a little encouragement, but if YouTube tell us no one is watching our videos, then what’s the point of doing them?

  • Bethan and her little brother, Thomas, asked me how to draw a fierce lion. Well here you are – follow the instructions and – Voila!