Focus Music Notes. "Out of the Blues". Popular music through the decades

CocknBullKid is poised and ready to take on 2011 and what better way to kick things off than with the massive single ‘Hold On to Your Misery’?   We all know and cherish Miss Anita Blay – from early one off 7”’s exciting the senses, her potential to grow from coolness of the underground to a true pop sensation has always been huge. Now she’s up there with the new crop of truly exciting and talented British girls and boy, has it been worth the wait. Where 2010 was all about the planning, the writing, the studio, the touring (with Marina & Kele just lately to name but a couple), this year holds big things for CocknBullKid. Following ‘One Eye Closed’ which enjoyed superb radio support at R1, 6 Music, XFM, NME and Q, ‘Hold On To Your Misery’ is an out and out smash of a pop song, whilst retaining that distinctive cool and sassy CocknBullKid sound. It’s what Blay calls 'an anti-anthem'. "It's about stopping putting so much value on being happy. When I'm happy, things

A new PJ Harvey single, The Words That Maketh Murder, will be released digitally by Island Records on 17th January 2011. It will be the first release from Harvey's forthcoming album Let England Shake due out February. Following the digital release on 17th January, The Words That Maketh Murder will be released on 7" vinyl on 7th February 2011 backed with an exclusive track The Guns Called Me Back Again, recorded during the Let England Shake album session. Award-winning war photographer Seamus Murphy has produced a series of short films - containing reportage footage shot around England and performance footage of Harvey - for each song on the album. His film for The Last Living Rose is currently on http://www.pjharvey.net/ Let England Shake, scheduled for release on 14th February, is Harvey's eighth studio album. The record received a 5 star review in the current issue of Q magazine and Mojo writes ‘…of all her many guises – this may be her most powerful… more than ever, P

Pete Lawrie releases a new single, ‘Fell Into The River’, on the 31st January 2011 through Island Records. It is taken from the debut album, ‘A Little Brighter’ released on the 4th April 2011. The obvious pressure of being a hotly-tipped young artist for the coming year is something that Pete Lawrie hasn’t even considered. Confident and assured, the young Welshman soaks up the pressure and volleys it back in the shape of another soulful pop lament. The success of Pete’s limited edition EP at the tail-end of 2010, with lead-track ‘In The End’ being playlisted at national radio, and press acclaim suggesting that the next twelve months were Pete’s for the taking, has primed the now-London-resident for an exciting 2011. It’s not just these early recordings that have raised his profile so significantly, but a hefty touring schedule which started out at 2010’s festivals (Glastonbury, Isle of Wight, Radio 1’s One Big Weekend, Hop Farm, Belladrum, and Cardiff’s SWN), and has seen Pete perform