EBay to the rescue – 2 tickets to The Saturdays at original face value.

First act was a girl from LA called Jessie Malakouti who reminded me of Madonna when she first hit the UK – Lucky Star era. Full of energy, catchy pop tunes with a punky edginess to her look. She managed to get the audience up on its feet within the first few bars which was no mean feat considering the capacity crowd consisted of parents with teeny boppers (Me), twenty somethings and a contingent from Brighton’s gay community.

Jessie Malakouti Live in Brighton

Next up was a slightly more established 18 year old Pixie Lott who had a recent number one with Mama Do. She was framed by a couple of dancers for most of her set but her acoustic version of Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” was by far her highlight moment.

When the the headliners came on the place went wild and my little girl was as excited as Christmas morning. I was excited for other reasons – seeing attractive young girls cavorting on stage in various revealing outfits still has an effect on me for some reason.

The girls belted out their hits to the delight of the crowd who were eager for a nod or a wave from Mollie, Una, Frankie (my personal favourite), Vanessa and Rochelle. They also obliged us less knowledgeable members of the audience by playing a few covers like Kate Nash’s I kissed a Girl and a bit of Pink’s So What.

Many costume changes later and up and down the stage staircase a few times and The Saturdays had exhausted their repertoire including a few new songs from the new album. Eye candy aside they put on a half decent show that seemed to have something for everyone. The Brighton Dome is a great venue and perfect for an act of this magnitude – half filled concerts are embarrassing for all concerned.

10 year old Lily loved it and will be buzzing about the experience for a long time to come and if I am honest it wasn’t a bad way to spend twenty quid.

Being a male I can multi-task, (often thought to be only a female trait but not so!) that is to say I can surf the net and watch TV at the same time. This comes in handy sometimes when I spot an ad that takes my fancy and lets me research it instantly.

It also helps to save arguments when the wife and I are trying to guess the band behind the advert music and occasionally it means we stumble upon a real gem.  The 2007 Jaguar TV ad was one of those gems. The ad itself was ok but the soundtrack had both me and the wife saying “I like that”. Internet to the rescue. Within 10 mins I had found the artist, title and downloaded from iTunes.

It turned out that the band were Fujiya & Miyagi who hail from just down the road in Brighton and  in a further twist of coincidence it turns out that one of the wife’s colleagues is dating a band member! Small world.

Fujiya & Miyagi’s MySpace site list Serge Gainsbourg, Kraftwerk and Aphex Twins as some of their influences and I’m not quite show how to pidgeon-hole their sound. There is definately an element of techno but it is gentle not hardcore. The vocals are not like most ‘chart music’, they blend in almost like an additional instrument. It’s good and I like it.

Apparently the origins of the band’s name come from a brand of record player and the old guy in the movie The Karate Kid (and not a firm of Japanese lawyers as I read on one website).

Oriental sounding name aside Fujiya & Miyagi are a regular on the old iPod.

Olya Chubarova – vocals
Anton Zalygin – programming, vocals, guitars, sound production
Sergey Chernov – bass
Michael Zencov – drums

This four-piece hail from Samara (somewhere in Russia) and mix together funk, disco, electronica and hip-hop in a new and I think quite refreshing way. The sound is obviously influenced by European indie and electronica bands and the vocals are bit crazy – definitely must be some helium involved.

They gained some attention after their song Uaaa…a! appeared in a 2008 Russian movie hit Rozidgysh (Prank) and from trawling the net it seems the Cheese People are doing their thang in clubs across Russia.

Their debut self-titled release is difficult to get your hands on (I’ve been trying for quite a while now) and I read a piece that described some tracks as ‘post-punk’ and others as similar to The Prodigy but I don’t quite see the link.

Musically it is a bit mad and reminds me of the freshness that bands like Pop Will Eat Itself were creating in the early nineties. It may take a few listens to get into it but when you do you won’t get bored. I have a few tracks that I was able to get but from their MySpace site a while ago on my iPod and they are regularly on my playlists.

If anyone hears of them coming to Blighty, be a good sport and let me know.

http://www.myspace.com/cheesepeopleband

In efforts to stop you reaching for the ‘value’ products in these tough times major brands are trying remind you of times gone-by, when things were better or reminding you of your childhood. Hovis led the way with their iconic TV ad from last year which showed the boy running through the ages with his loaf under his arm.

These nostalgic ads also instill some elements of Britishness, encouraging you to spend your pounds patriotically.

Loads of brands have taken the nostalgia route and with a little help from my Twitter followers I have been reminded just how many there are:

Sainsbury’s 140 Years

M&S 125th Anniversary

Virgin Atlantic 25 Years and Still Red Hot

Other brands have had a slightly different slant on the nostalgia theme by creating a new ad using a montage of their tv adverts from yesteryear. I know in my living room the wife and I have pointed at the screen excitedly to say “I remember that one, ooh and that one…..” on a few occasions.

Beanz Meanz Heinz

Persil 100 Years

The cynic in me thinks that this montage style is not just to tug at our memories but is also considerably cheaper to produce. No scripting, no actors, no locations and no clever aftereffects. Just re-hash the old ones that everyone loves.

The one brand that could have gone down this route but didn’t is Guiness with their 250th anniversary advert from early this year.

This ad bucked the current trend by creating an ultra-modern, if not futuristic offering:

Guiness 250 Years

I’m sure that there will be more nostalgia tv adverts on our screens in the coming months as the recession continues to bite so please feel free to comment as and when you see them or if there are any that I’ve missed.

It’s one of those tracks that pops up all over the place including chill out albums (you know the ones that are supposed to help you come down from that post-clubbing high) and it’s on one of these albums that my wife first heard Gymnopedie No.1.

When we got married a few years back and were considering the music for signing the register we both independantly chose this tune.

Satie was born on 17th May 1866 in Hornfluer in France and wrote his first musical composition aged just 18. During his life, Satie had been artistic in all incarnations of the word having produced musical compositions, art and contributed to a number of publications including Vanity Fair. Most of all he was the sort of guy that stuck to his ideals and called a spade, a spade.

That said he lived his life with certain eccentricities; he formed his own church, lived in relative poverty and produced the Vexations – a short piano piece that is repeated 840 times! He was also considered to be a forerunner of minimalism and devised ‘furniture music’ – music that was supposed to be in the background rather than listened to (the elevator music of its day?).

From what I’ve read he was always considered as an ‘outsider’ and valued his privacy so highly that he never let anyone see his apartment in Arceuil (suburb of Paris), where he lived for 27 years until he died in 1925.

After his death they found further evidence of his unusualness in his home including:

• four pianos: two of which were back to back, two of which sat upside-down on top of the other two
• a portrait of Satie by his former lover, a trapeze artist called Suzanne Valadon and
• love-letters and drawings from his romance with Valadon
• his collection of drawings of medieval buildings
• seven velvet suits
• dozens of  never been used umbrellas

His music was rather unknown  until the early 1960s but his now thought by many as composer that was ahead of his time. It’s also claimed that he influenced others such as Debussy.

I’m still not sure I can decide on whether he was a genius or a nutter but I do know that I love Gymnopedie No.1.

For those of you who are not in the wonderful world of advertising, Thinkbox is the marketing body for the main UK commercial television broadcasters and they have launched their first ever TV advertising campaign, to remind advertisers of the  power and effectiveness of TV advertising.

The ad uses lines from many of the best loved and memorable TV ads from years gone by and most of us know them all.

The ad really does remind us of the power of TV advertising but for every memorable one they produce, ad agencies churn out a dozen or so that are utter crap.

If you are going to go to the expense of running a TV campaign then does us poor viewers a favour and put some creativity into the ad.

The ad shows a lad in the late 1800s collecting a loaf from the bakers and running home to his mum. On the way he travels through time, the scenery changes through the generations using historical landmarks such as; the sinking of the Titanic, the Suffragettes, WWI & WWII, the 1966 world cup, 70’s fashion, the miners’ strike and the millenium.

The advert has a patriotic feel and perfectly achieves the original brief to re-establish Hovis as a legendary brand. Those of you who are old enough to remember the 1973 Hovis ‘bike’ ad will see that the new ad is a clever extension that brings the Hovis brand right up to date.

Hovis started out in 1886 but under the not so catchy name of Smith’s Patent Germ Flour. In 1890 the owners ran a national competition for someone to come up with a new name with a prize of £25 for the winning entry (quite a lot of money at the time).

The winner was Herbert Grime with ‘Hovis’ which was derived from the latin ‘Hominis Vis’ which means ’strength of man’.

By 1895 Hovis was already selling more than a million loaves per weekand the Hovis marketing machine was already well oiled. Early ads pointed out the relative merits – a 1.5lb loaf of Hovis was more nourishing than a 0.5lb of steak and a 1lb loaf of bread.

In the 1890s Hovis had the backing of the medical profession who advocated Hovis as a cure for indigestion and the company was also quick to capitalise on the fact that their bread was being supplied to the Royal Family.

Hovis recognised the importance of the brand and the familiar name was stamped on the side of the loaf to protect against imitations. By 1895 they even offered £50 as a reward for information on anyone selling bread as Hovis without the patented flour.

Hovis was one of the first brands to embrace TV advertising when it was introduced in 1955 and in 1956 they produced 9 different TV ads. In 1973 the now famous ‘bike’ ad was aired and became one of Britain’s best remembered ads. The ad was directed by (Sir) Ridley Scott and featured music from Dvorak’s Symphony Number 9 – ‘From the New World’.

This latest ad is a clever reminder of the heritage of a great British brand and I will definately be putting a slice or two of thick Hovis in the toaster tomorrow morning.