Calvin Harris is the Scottish dance artist come record producer who doesn’t seem to be able to put a foot wrong. He burst onto the scene with Acceptable In The 80s and The Girls, joint hits which combined styles superbly.

After a couple of less-well received singles he took a break before coming back with Dance Wiv Me, a collaboration with Dizzee Rascal which he wrote and produced. It was a huge hit in the UK and once again mixed different genres; this time dance, grime, and R&B.

After another short break Calvin Harris is back, on his own again but no less successful for it. The single being reviewed today, I’m Not Alone, has already been out a few weeks and has spent two of those weeks at number one in the UK Singles Chart.

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Here in the UK, the summer is at its peak, which as anyone who has ever visited Britain would know means lots of rain with the occasional sunny spell in between. But regardless of the weather outside, music has the ability to lift our spirits and at least make us feel like it’s fine outside.

Some of the blogs on the b5 Music Channel have put together their soundtracks for the summer, and here is mine. There are only five songs, but they are all very recent and all have one one thing in common: they cheered me up when I didn’t really feel as though it were summer.

The Ting Tings - Shut Up And Let Me Go

Mint Royale - Singin’ In The Rain

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Rapper Dizzee Rascal recently managed to score his first number one hit with Dance Wiv Me, a collaboration with Scottish dance producer Calvin Harris. The song stayed at the top of the British charts for four weeks before being displaced by Kid Rock and the oh so derivative All Summer Long.

Unfortunately, because the song was rather more pop than his usual fayre, Dizzee had to put up with accusations that he had sold out. Yes it was different than his normal grime track but then it was also a bloody good song in its own right, and the mainstream appeal it had meant that it managed to sell very well.

Dizzee recently spoke to the Daily Record, and revealed that not only is he working on another track with Calvin Harris, but that he would also be keeping it pop when writing his next album.

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The Mercury Music Prize, sponsored by Nationwide, is the annual award given to the best album by a British or Irish artist released in the previous 12 months. The ceremony isn’t until later in the year, but a short-list is first released, with the name of the 12 artists, and their albums, on it which the judges think are the best of British.

Having said that, the Mercury Music Prize has a history of choosing albums by up and coming artists, rather than necessarily widely known artists, and certainly not the best-selling ones. Which means there are always some huge surprises in the short-list, and more often than not, in the eventual winner chosen as well.

Last year saw Klaxons named as winners, for their début album Myths Of The Near Future. They beat the Arctic Monkeys, Dizzee Rascal, and Amy Winehouse along the way, although Winehouse’ performance at the awards ceremony probably invoked more press coverage than the Klaxons themselves.

This year’s short-list has now been published, and the usual surprises are present, as well as there being many names missing that were expected to appear.

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Dizzee Rascal may be heading for his first number one single in the British charts as his new song, Dance Wiv Me, is sitting at the top of the midweek charts. The song is a collaboration with fellow Brit sensation Calvin Harris, and is the first release on Dizzee’s own Dirtee Stank record label.

Dizzee Rascal is a rarity in being not only a successful British rapper, but also an artist who seems to command respect from all different corners of the musical landscape. This has helped Dizzee have success beyond the demographic you would imagine him to.

He spoke to Radio 1 about the possibility of securing his first number one, saying:

“It feels good because it’s the first release on my own label and it’s looking like it’s going to the top. I hear Basshunter is on my tail but it doesn’t matter. I’ve not heard his tune anyway.”

Collaborations also play a big part in Dizzee’s career, already having done well featuring on Basement Jaxx’ single Lucky Star. Dance Wiv Me sees Rascal team up with new rave funster Calvin Harris, and Dizzee claims there are many more artists he’d like to work with.

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The MOBOs is an annual awards ceremony held in the UK which highlights the influence of Music Of Black Origin, hence the name.

And this year it seemed to achieve its target quite well, honouring those who have taken black music and made it their own or added a personal twist to bring it to a new generation of fans.

Amy Winehouse won Best UK Female which isn’t bad for a white Jewish woman really. But its fitting, as anyone who likes her music can’t deny where the roots of her sound come from.

Kanye West won two of the three awards he was up for with Best Hip Hop and Best Video. This marked an incredible week for him after he beat 50 Cent to number 1 in the Album Charts.

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The Klaxons have won this year’s Nationwide Mercury Music Prize for their debut album ‘Myths Of The Near Future’. The New Rave band beat stiff competition from 11 other artists including Arctic Monkeys, The Young Knives, Dizzee Rascal, The View and Amy Winehouse to win the award at the annual awards ceremony.

But it was Winehouse who came away with most of the headlines, after she put in a surprise appearance at the event and sang a beautiful acoustic version of ‘Love Is A Losing Game’.

The evening awards ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London saw each band play one song from the album they were nominated for, before a team of industry judges retired to decide on a winner.

Each artist gave a good account of themselves, but Amy Winehouse‘ performance at the event had a special significance after her recent well publicised trials and tribulations.

The Klaxons were the last to perform, playing ‘Golden Skans’ before the break and the announcement of the winner.

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Kleerup Featuring Robyn have entered the Official UK Charts this week, going straight in at number one. The song called ‘With Every Heartbeat’ is an electro dance inspired monologue which isn’t the kind of song I expect to see go number one these days. I don’t really like it, although it is catchy in an annoying ‘Crazy Frog’ kind of way.

It just never seems to get going for me, and I’m sat their bored while listening to it. A bit like Marmite, you either love it or hate it, and it seems the record buying public are in the former camp. I’ll stay in the adult, grown up, real music latter group if you don’t mind.

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The Mercury Music Prize nominees were announced yesterday, and some of the artists have given their reactions to being nominated. It must be fashionable to feign ignorance of what an award is about, even though you know secretly, they are all desperate to win.

Natasha Khan, lead singer for Bat for Lashes, whose Fur and Gold is up, preferred to focus on others’ chances. She told BBC 6 Music: “I want the Klaxons to win because I think they’re really sweet and they do good interesting visual stuff.
“And I really like Dizzee Rascal as well because I like having a bit of a dance. And there’s some that I haven’t heard of which I’d like to check out - Basquiat Strings sounds quite interesting.”

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The Nationwide Mercury Music Prize is the annual award given to the best album by a British or Irish artist. The shortlist for this year is in and reveals some obvious nominees as well as others I didn’t expect to see in the running.

The Arctic Monkeys are again included, giving the distinct possibility of them being the first band to win the award 2 years running. Dizzee Rascal also gets his 2nd nomination after winning in 2003.

Here’s the full list of nominees for the 2007 Mercury Music Prize with sample tracks from the albums:-

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