Music: All Too Well

Following on from my previous post about the most heartbreaking Taylor Swift song I thought I would talk about the one song that I find so earth shattering and agonizing to listen to from the first string of guitar playing, I almost cannot stand to hear it even at all, All Too Well.
This song tells a story with the most intricate detail, the little moments - from wearing his sisters scarf, the weather being described at the time to the highest point and the emotional factor 'I might be okay, but I'm not fine at all.' A line that has all gone through our heads at some point no matter the reason. I think what makes it even more HEARTBREAKING is how you can picture every single step she takes in your head 'cause here we are again on that little town street, you almost ran the red cause you were looking over at me' You can literally see it happening right in front of you, with the background music getting deeper and picking up you can see it crash and fall right in front of you, it makes it too real. Relationships, in my experience all come down the little things, the tiny habits you both have , the way one of you says something, the lines on your face, the small things that add up to big moments like 'here we are again in the middle of the night, we're dancing round the kitchen in the refrigerator light'. It's the memories like that we all hang on to.

If the whole story on it's own wasn't heart-wrenching enough it hits a climax at 3:46 with a bridge where Taylor with determination and anger looks back and gives her response, the effect of something which was perfect is just broken.
'Time won't fly it's like I'm paralyzed by it, I´d like to be my old self again
but I'm still trying to find it.' I think that's the saddest thing, when someone you once knew, changes and all memories you have of them become bad. You feel like you've lost yourself and the way she portrays this makes all those feelings come up to the surface and bubble. Originally 10 minutes, this song had to be cut down for the album but this just shows that clearly there is much to this story and situation than the six minute snippet she shows us. The way she breaks down and is vulnerable, that's scary, Taylor is a role model for so many girls especially with 'awkward boy' problems but the way she admits that she's actually broken down and torn into pieces about it instead of being more 'picture to burn' about it is scary. At one time in our lives I think we all go through something like this and the way the melody, the lyrics, and the background music can just bring the emotions back can be terrifying.....we remember it all too well.

An Interview with TOWIE girl Linzi Peel

(Note: This was actually done in May 2012 alongside my college class at the time.)

After appearing in the first series of the hit ITV show as part of the girl band LOLA after reportedly being fired for being 'too fat' Linzi Peel has launched herself in an array of different careers listing herself as a Radio, Presenter and Actress and is also the face of the Trinitia tanning company.

Did The Only Way is Essex put you off appearing on reality TV again?
Going on the only way is Essex, it was a reality show and if I’m honest if I was going on it just as myself, Linzi Peel I don’t think I would have done it, but because I was in a band at the time it is so hard, for any of you that know the music industry its really hard to launch a girl band. So the opportunity came along and we thought why not go for it.

How was it being in the band LOLA?
It was amazing; we got to do some amazing things. We got to open T4 stars of 2010 at Earls Court in front of 10,000 people.
How real was the show?
The show, it wasn’t scripted however we were put in situations that would intentionally cause drama so yes it is real but it is also set up?
Was it a lie that the band LOLA got a record contract with Universal?
It wasn’t the band that lied, it was really the show that did it...
What happened to LOLA?
Well for those of you that don’t know, i was actually kicked out of my own band. Unfortunately one day just after The Only Way is Essex when the first series had finished I got called into an office by a management company which i had found for myself and the girls and they basically told me that I was no longer needed in LOLA. It came completely out of the blue because if I’m honest I actually held the band together and I would admit that I was absolutely gutted it was like my dream had been taken away from me. But to be fair it’s the best thing that could have happened to me.
Jessica Wright has gone solo, how do you feel about that?
Do you know what - good luck to her really.
Do you feel a bit bitter towards her because of it?
Unfortunately Jess and I don’t talk anymore, I have seen jess out and she has ignored me, I haven’t made much effort with her either. I’m not going to hold any grudges because as I just said, good luck to her. It will be interesting to see what happens for her, because of the industry I don’t know if everybody will take her seriously.

Did the fame go to your head being in The Only Way is Essex and LOLA?
With the industry it’s so hard you basically just get caught up in a bubble everyone wants to be your friend, even if they don’t like you they pretend to like you. You’re constantly getting things thrown at you for free people wanting you to wear their range of clothes, I think for anyone it’s hard not to let it go to your head. I think you just need to make sure that you keep your friends and family and it’s important that they keep you grounded. I must admit that a lot of the cast from The Only Way is Essex have changed since being on the show but unfortunately it’s just what happens.
Do you think they have changed for the better or worse? 
Well I’ve known Kirk for years so I can say this and he won’t mind, he has changed alot so has Amy and so has Arg. I’m not saying that they are bad people but it is because they have surrounded themselves in people that allow them to change.
You seem quite well put together how did Julian Bennett manage to become your manager?
Unfortunately this is where Lola started going wrong when Julian Bennett was brought on board. I don’t know if you watched ‘Queer eye for the straight guy’ but Julian doesn’t actually have anything to do with the music industry he is known as a stylist and ITV2 brought Julian in to be a stylist however he took it upon himself to say, infront of the cameras that he was now our manager and obviously we don’t get any say in how it’s edited. So he literally went from being our stylist to now our manager. I was annoyed that day because I didn’t like the fact we were being told what to do by someone that had no clue about the music industry and that’s when problems started to happen. There was a scene where Julian said we had a single coming out next week and for anyone in the music industry knows that you can’t have a single out in a weeks time, there has to be preparation and it takes at least two months I’d say to have something like that behind you.
Would you say he cared more about the girlbands career or yours?
Oh his, definitely

Did you actually release a single?
We released ‘Claustrophic’ which was whilst working with universal records however because Julian Bennett decided to say on national television that our single was out, it was like right our single is out whereas if it was done properly we probably would’ve released a second single and you could see the whole process, but unfortunately he ruined it for us.
Was Jess really keen to get rid of her brother?
I suppose, I think the problem that Jess had was that she was always known as ‘Mark Wrights sister’ and Jess wanted to be ‘Jessica Wright’.
On your column for Styledmagazine.co.uk is says that you did the 10k walk for the project waterfall..?
I was invited and it was really challenging actually. You say to people 10k and they think ‘really?’ but when you carry 10 litres of water on your back it was really really hard. I don’t know if you’ve seen the video but it’s on YouTube somewhere I got quite emotional because I suppose we take it for granted really.
Is that something you want to do more of?
Yeah, don’t laugh but I’m actually taking part in a charity football match on the 8^th July in Ipswich which is for a little boy with a brain tumour so raising money for him. I’ve also got a skydive coming up in August, I’m really not looking forward to that! So yeah I really do want to get more involved in charity work!
You mentioned that you are now presenting a radio show could you tell us a bit more about it?
After TOWIE finished I took a year out to sort of find what I wanted to do, I’ve always loved radio presenting it’s something I’ve always wanted to get into so I looked around and an agency asked people and started working for Saint FM and did the Monday & Tuesday breakfast show it was fantastic, I absolutely love working in radio it’s such a buzz. I actually left Saint FM because I’m trying to get a bigger and better show basically but I don’t want to rush into anything yet!

You can follow Linzi on Twitter @Linzi_Peel and read her column on Styledmagazine.co.uk!

Music: Sad, Beautiful, Tragic

Taylor Swift writes a lot of sad songs. The word “sad” is pretty well used, I suppose, but what if I used the word heartbreaking ?

What if I asked you to name a Taylor Swift song that literally has left you curled up in a fetal position on your bedroom floor with tears streaming down your face? You’d probably say Last Kiss, or Dear John or All Too Well.

Personally I have spent many nights on my own bedroom floor listening to Breathe on repeat in the complete darkness in my pjs with a duvet wrapped around myself while rain falls down at my windows. Nights like those, where I don’t want to talk to anyone, and just turn off my phone, are the most perfect for Taylor Swift songs.

What defines a sad song? – quiet and slow and melancholy – but then again you’d call Forever and Always a pretty sad song, too, wouldn’t you? And not just because of the piano version, but because of lines like back up, baby back up, did you forget everything, because those lines hit home, in whatever way they do, for you. That’s what makes a Taylor Swift song sad, the lyrics.

The name of a person flutters through your mind when you hear a lyric like 'and you come away with a great little story of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you' and a memory passes in front of your eyes when Taylor sings 'you call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest.'Taylor’s best sad songs have a tendency to reach a climax – in Dear John she howls that she’s shining like fireworks over his sad empty town. In All Too Well she wonders, angrily over a noise of guitars, if she asked for too much. In Last Kiss she comes pretty close to tears as she explores what’s left of a relationship that she never thought would end. In Cold As You she’s accusatory, screaming out you 'never did give a damn thing, honey.'All of these are moments that you scream-cry through alone lips yncing in your bedroom at 2am, that have you thinking no song has ever made me cry this hard until another Taylor Swift song with the next album has you saying the same thing. But once again, it’s the lyrics that really get you. What happens when you get a song that has no “chill inducing” climax? When happens when you can’t scream-cry along? What happens when Taylor doesn’t accuse anyone of anything, doesn’t howl, doesn’t get angry? From the beginning, the first five seconds of Sad Beautiful Tragic, with the ringing, the sound of forgetting, and the thumping of a train car blazing down the tracks, all the way to the end, the sudden drop off and silence, giving a feeling of being left behind altogether by a train that you can only see in the distance, there is no climax. There are no accusations. There is only a dismal sort of hollowness. The  plucking of the ukulele, marking each and every downfall of the relationship.  It’s almost like you can feel her giving up. 'We had a beautiful magic love there, but now it’s just…sad'. Tragic. Beautiful enough to want to get it back, and tragic enough that you just can’t. It ends, just like that with no warning, no happiness, it ends.