ALL THE SINGLE LADIES – start queuing up for Australia’s only John Williamson! (although I do somewhat suspect he’s somewhat spoken for)

And on a completely separate note, we present you Solange Knowles’ take of The Dirty Projectors‘ Stillness Is The Move.

ARIA and J Award nominated Paul Dempsey (or P Diddy as I now affectionately call him – not to his face though, he might not like it and he’s much taller than me. I hope he doesn’t read this post) recently performed an exclusive gig for triple j at The Troubadour in Brissy with one of my new fav bands Kid Sam.

Unfortunately I wasn’t at this special show and when I saw this performance of  Ramona Was A Waitress I wished I was even more!

Paul just finished a national tour but it seems he just can’t get enough of life on the road so he’s off again like a travelling wilbury. This time he’s a one man band, performing songs from Everything Is True solo stylz. Maybe it will be like this?

Or maybe not.

You probably read in the Sunday Papers that the gorgeous Erika is releasing her first single in February next year with an album out in 2010!

You can join Erika on her journey writing, making, and releasing an album for the first time by joining her on MySpace (www.myspace.com/erikaheynatz) and reading her funny and insightful view of how it all works… starting with her first story and video up now, which incidentally features a whole lot of Erika’s new tunes!

Today I got within inches of the man himself, Robbie Williams at his press conference held in Sydney in the lead up to his intimate Metro gig tonight and his ARIA performance tomorrow night

He said he was feeling great, had lovely things to say about Australia and Australians and he is looking forward to both performances. Of moving to Australia he said it’s on the cards because it’s one of those places that feels like home. On getting married he said yes and babies he’s coming around to the idea and had names picked out. It was agreed on Sunny or Sonny, depending if it was a boy or girl but Snowy was voted in a consensus by the journos. When asked about reforming with Take That he said he was happy they’d buried the hatchet and performing together with them recently was a great feeling like it was when they first got together, to go further than that it’d be about getting right thing happening.

In usual Robbie style he turned the questions to the journos and found out a few pet names and threw a few relationship questions back at them.

Rob is here to promote his album #1 album Reality Killed The Video Star. This afternoon at 4pm tune in to Hamish & Andy’s drive program for an interview and I’m sure a laugh. He’ll be on A Current Affair tomorrow night pre-ARIAs and of course the Channel 9 ARIA presentation and red carpet. On Friday he’ll be joining Kyle and Jackie O for a chat.

Nation, she may not have a treadmill at the International Space Station named for her, but she has probably sold enough albums to stretch to the moon and back. The other night, Norah Jones sat down for an interview with Stephen Colbert and she had to field some heavy hitting questions. Like with all her success, why isn’t she living large at the Bellagio with an albino alligator?

Take a watch at how Norah handles that one before she performs Young Blood from her new album The Fall. After many listens of the album, that’s the standout track for me.

Want to hear more? Oh good, because we have Norah’s album streaming in full now.

The Muppets have covered Queen’s classic Bohemian Rhapsody!

Featuring over 40 of our favourite Muppets, it coincides with the release of Queen’s Absolute Greatest album!
Nothing short of brilliant!

GO ANIMAL!

Angus & Julia Stone have been surfing, visiting friends and travelling the globe performing shows and recording music and last week on triple j announced their album Down The Way will be released in March. Listen to their triple j interview below or here:

The first single And The Boys is really beautiful and has all those things about it that made you fall in love with them.

Tomorrow we’ll be welcoming Keith Urban back home to Australia to perform Kiss A Girl at the ARIA Awards on Thursday night… but before he took off Keith was busy taking home one of the top honours at the American Music Awards – favourite male country artist.

Also picking up awards were Taylor Swift who supported Keith earlier this year taking home 5 awards, Michael Jackson 4 and Jay-Z and The Black Eyed Peas 2 each.

The Max Sessions have had a 6 year history, kicking off with a little band called Coldplay back in 2003. Tonight is performance #40 for the Sessions and the guest of honour is Ben Harper & Relentless 7.

Over the years these sessions have been held in different intimate venues in cities around Australia but it’s spiritual home is the Sydney Opera House and that’s where we were last night to witness a truly special performance.

Ben Harper has been on a mission. To establish his new band, Relentless 7 and showcase another side of his musically ability, to rock out. Studio A at the Opera House is a small room with a capacity of around 250 people. As I enter I’m taken aback at how amazing the crew at Max have set the room up, with beautiful lighting, audience members sitting right up close to the stage and a standing room only section right behind, surrounded up seats on an upper level. The entire audience is as close as you can be to a stage and I know we’re in for an amazing show.

Ben & R7 didn’t disappoint. I love their White Lies For Dark Times album and to me, this is the ultimate way to seeing this album live. Kicking off with Number With No Name and into Shimmer & Shine the band are on fire and have stepped up another level since they played some of their first shows in OZ last April. Time on the road with Pearl Jam hasn’t hurt either. Amps weren’t held back in this small room either. Guitarist Jason Mozersky asks the audience “is it too loud? Do you want it louder?” to which be obliges.

After a short Q&A with Jon Farris (who’s a bit of a hero to R7’s drummer Jordan Richardson), what a better time to play the new cover in their repertoire, the INXS classic Never Tear Us Apart, amazing. Most of the White Lies… album was given a work out including new single Lay There And Hate Me which really showcases Harper‘s amazing soul vocal.  At the end of the set the audience wanted more and we were treated to an unexpected two song solo acoustic set featuring Another Lonely Day and Morning Yearning. It was the perfect end to an amazing experience.

Ben Harper & Relentless 7 Max Session will be screened on Max on Foxtel January 2010.

Emperor Steele has taken out the 2009 GQ Man Of The Year Award in the Music Act Of The Year category!With tight competition within in the music category, Luke Steele has beaten Daniel Merriweather, Wolfmother and fellow EMI label mates, Keith Urban and JET.Staged inside the historical Great Hall of Sydney University on Thursday night, the GQ Awards honoured leading Australian men across the arts, sport, politics, business and community service. Luke was unable to attend the awards ceremony due to upcoming touring commitments but recorded this brilliant acceptance speech played to all those in attendance. Don’t forget to check out the Special Edition (2CD) version of Walking On A Dream available from today and don’t miss the Empire perform live at next week’s ARIA Awards, Thursday November 26.

Luke will also appear on the special gatefold cover of the 2009 GQ Men of the Year Awards issue on sale November 25.

Go the Empire!