Neon Jungle are hoping their busy schedules can calm down enough for them to enjoy a spot of partying with their new mate Cara Delevingne.
The Braveheart singers got to know the 21-year-old model after performing at the annual Victoria’s Secret catwalk show last November and would love to include the model as an honorary member of their band.
‘Cara is the kind of person that you meet her and you feel like you’ve known her all your life. It doesn’t feel like it’s the first time you’ve met her. She is so down to earth and warm,’ Jessica Plummer, 20, told Guilty Pleasures during an exclusive chat.
Despite Cara proving she’s something of a triple threat as a model, actress and singer, the girls wouldn’t mind drafting her in for a sing-a-long after being impressed by her YouTube cover of Klangkarussell’s Sonnentanz (Sun Don’t Shine) with Will Heard.
‘I’ve seen when she’s acted before and she looks the way she does and then to hear her voice it is like, is there anything this girl cannot do? She’s got a sweet tone to her voice. She is Cara.
She’s doing her thing. She can be Neon Cara any time she wants! She can be the fifth Neon,’ Jessica gushed.
The band, which also includes 16-year-olds Asami Zdrenka, Shereen Cutkelvin and Amira McCarthy, also made friends with pop superstar Taylor Swift at the Victoria’s Secret event. She too proved to the girls that you should never judge someone by their celebrity persona.
‘You may have watched her and thought, “No way, she is just being sweet for the cameras”. But she is really genuinely so lovely and so down to earth,’ Jess said.
‘She popped her head in our dressing room and said, “Hi, I’m Taylor”. As if we didn’t know!
She is so sweet and brought herself to the same level as we were. She is a normal girl. I think I can take a lesson from her to be humble and remain nice as people will be remembered for that.’
And the Londoner already has Swift’s back after the country-pop star was mocked following for embarrassing dance moves as Kendrick Lamar performed at last week’s Grammys.
‘I can’t blame Taylor for trying to dance, even if she couldn’t, because his performance was amazing,’ she told us, saying she loves it when people lose themselves to good music.
‘There was an NBA pre-party in London the other week and everyone was dancing and I remember I saw this old guy that was so off-beat and really couldn’t dance but he was giving it and he didn’t care. It makes me happy.’
[Originally published Metro, Guilty Pleasures, Monday 3 February 2014]
Fans have told Katy B they enjoy making love to her tunes – so they’ll have a treat in store when she unveils new album Little Red in time for Valentine’s Day.
But while others are getting frisky, the 5am hit-maker has admitted she’s unlikely to see any action on the night of February 14.
‘It would be my dream to have someone whisk me off to Paris. But that has never happened, unfortunately,’ the singer wistfully confided to me.
Katy, 24, admitted she is a romantic who ‘loves things like roses and someone telling me they love me’.
But with nobody begging her to be their Valentine, she has vowed not to let her single status stand in her way.
‘I’ll treat myself,’ she said. ‘I’ll take myself to a spa day or something and then have dinner with another single friend. I don’t need to rely on anyone and then be disappointed.’
While Katy may have to take her followers’ word for it for now, she said being told her tunes act as an aphrodisiac is ‘one of the biggest compliments’ she’s had. And it’s not only in the bedroom that listening to her music gets people’s blood pumping.
‘I like it when people tell me they listen to my music at the gym. My music has got that energy,’ she said.
The Brit School graduate, who performed at the MTV Brand New and Emporio Armani Diamonds club in Islington, north London, last night, is limbering up for a string of dates. But she’s still found time to watch Celebrity Big Brother – and was intrigued to hear Dappy admit he had leaked a naked photo of himself to boost record sales.
The south London native confessed her admiration… but said she wouldn’t pull such a stunt herself.
‘I think it’s amazing that he did that and he’s a clever dude. But, um, I don’t think it would help me somehow,’ she laughed, before speculating that the rapper’s manhood might not be all it seemed. ‘Did he say that he Photoshopped it at one point? I heard a rumour about that,’ she said.
[Originally published Metro, Guilty Pleasures, Thursday 30 January 2014]
Foxes says taking fame tips off her hunky pal Michael Fassbender will help her cope with fame after the Southampton-born singer stormed to the Grammy award for best dance recording on Sunday.
The 24-year-old songstress, real name Louisa Allen, is confident she will keep her ego in check and revealed her friendship with the 36-year-old pin-up has got her hot under the collar at times.
‘I know Michael quite well. I’ve known him for a while. My sister is friends with him and I’ve known him since before he turned into a mega superstar,’ the victorious star told Guilty Pleasures in an exclusive chat.
‘It’s weird when I see him on the front of magazines or in great, massive movies. The first time I felt really freaked out was when I watched X-Men and I was like, “That’s his face blown up on the big screen”. It was really freaky,’ she laughed.
Foxes also explains it was something of an embarrassment when she first watched Shame, the film in which Fassbender won acclaim and raised eyebrows in equal measures for his gritty performance and full-frontal sex scenes.
‘I watched Shame with my sister and my mum. It was the weirdest experience we have all been through together as a family,’ she laughed.
‘My sister went to the premiere and sat next to him when they watched it. I think that was slightly more awkward. At least he wasn’t there when I watched it.’
Foxes provided vocals on German producer Zedd’s hit smash Clarity which scooped the Grammy.
The duo beat off stiff competition from Calvin Harris, Florence Welch, Duke Dumont and A*M*E to secure their gong, but the honour still took Foxes by surprise.
‘WE F****** WON WTF I HAD GUM IN MY MOUTH @Zedd,’ she said on Twitter, shortly after the win was announced.
‘I want to thank Zedd so much for giving me the opportunity to sing on his song and to take me on this journey. It has been like a dream and I can’t believe it,’ she gushed when accepting the Grammy along with 24-year-old Zedd – real name Anton Zaslavski.
[Originally published Metro, Guilty Pleasures, Monday 28 January 2014]
Hot new pop punk band The Vamps have revealed they are shocked by the level of flirty messages they receive online.
After taking the twittersphere by storm – and subsequently the charts with their No.2 hit Can We Dance in October last year – the lads said some fans were a little overzealous when it comes to expressing their appreciation.
‘There is branch of the English fans who are the worst,’ band founder James McVey, 19, told Guilty Pleasures during an exclusive chat.
He said the home crowd were ‘the raunchiest. They propose things I couldn’t even think of!’
Explaining his shock at the sexually graphic detail some of his Twitter fans go into – and reading some choice examples too explicit to reprint – the guitarist’s band-mates told how they were forced to brace themselves after coming face-to-face with one of their most notorious social media fans at a meet and greet in Manchester.
‘We were scared to meet her,’ explains West Midlands-born lead singer Bradley Simpson, 18.
‘We were expecting her to literally pounce on James but she just looked at him. It’s all talk! I expected her to literally rub herself on him,’ he laughed.
Having spent much of last year supporting acts on tour including McFly, Lawson and Selena Gomez, the boys are looking forward to offering musical support to Taylor Swift when she arrives in Britain next month.
‘James wants to be married to her with kids within the next year,’ drummer Tristan Evans, 19, told us, with McVey confirming he has something of a crush on Harry Styles’ ex.
But the boys are most excited to be releasing more music of their own – with a debut album due in April and their brilliant new single Wild Heart out this week.
‘I think there is an element that we’re a little scared the second one won’t do as well,’ McVey said.
‘But at the same time we are just so grateful to have the fans supporting us. Whatever happens we’ll enjoy it,’ he went on.
[Origianlly published Metro, Guilty Pleasures, Monday 20 January 2014]
Lena Dunham says there is a fine line when filming sex scenes between being ‘comfortable’ and feeling ‘violated’.
The multi-talented 27-year-old writer, director and star of TV’s Girls has been near-universally praised for her boldly honest approach to sex scenes in the show but says she is always considerate of her male co-stars whenever they strip off for an intimate moment.
‘It’s really important in a sex scene to know each person’s limits, if they’re going to be comfortable if you improvise slapping their ass, or if it’s going to make them feel really weird and violated,’ she told a packed London audience as the show made its third season UK premiere on Wednesday.
While the show has won fans around the world for showing the struggles of four twenty-something women living and working in modern day New York, it seems some have found issue with Dunham’s approach to showing realistic sex scenes – and with her herself.
‘A lot of people like to tell me they hated the show, and me, when they first saw the show,’ she said.
She also expressed her slightly masochistic approach to keeping up with the response from viewers, explaining: ‘I read all the tweets and I don’t know if it’s a good idea, but I can’t stop the joy and the pain.’
Dunham also took the opportunity to play down recent reports that Victoria Beckham is being lined up to guest star on the show.
‘We would be very excited to welcome Victoria Beckham on to our set, but this is an arranged marriage made by the Daily Mail,’ she said, adding she thought 39-year-old Posh would be too ‘chic’ to appear on the show.
This week the New York born star made her debut on the cover of American Vogue where she again addressed her bold approach to sex scenes in her show.
‘Seeing somebody who looks like you having sex on television is a less comfortable experience than seeing somebody who looks like nobody you’ve ever met,’ she told the magazine, emphasising the fact that she has become something of a figure-head for ‘real sized’ women in today’s celebrity obsessed culture.
However her appearance on the magazine cover has sparked controversy with many criticising the use of airbrushing on the star and observing the decision to provide a close up of Dunham’s face as the cover shot as opposed to her full body.
[Originally published Metro, Guilty Pleasures, Friday 17 January 2014]
Zosia Mamet says Girls stands out as a female centric TV show because there is no bitchiness on set.
The 25-year-old actress, who plays lovably ditsy Shoshanna Shapiro in the hit Sky Atlantic show, says Girls has avoided the reputation that dogged former female led shows like Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives.
‘There hasn’t been any back-stabbing or bitchiness. We all like each other! That’s kind of it. We just happen to get along,’ she told Guilty Pleasures as she celebrated the launch of the show’s third season in London on Wednesday.
‘Honestly we’ve become such a family at this point we would do anything,’ she added, praising her co-stars Lena Dunham, Jemima Kirke and Allison Williams.
The pretty brunette also explained that she loves the fact that the show divides audiences and doesn’t mind that some viewers are alarmed by some of the more explicit sex scenes that get aired.
‘Everybody has an opinion and I think that’s part of the mark of success,’ she said defiantly.
‘Some people love it, some people hate it. If you don’t like the nudity, you can watch something else,’ she went on before adding: ‘Is it good to be nude? It’s just part of my job!’
[Originally published Metro, Guilty Pleasures, Friday 17 January 2014]
Ella Eyre might be preparing to take 2014 by storm with her banging music material – but her frizzy hair might just slow her down.
‘It is very high maintenance. Very, very high maintenance! It provides a tough job!’ the 19-year-old Waiting All Night vocalist told Guilty Pleasures at the launch of the 2014 Brit Awards last week.
But she has managed to put down her brushes and step away from the hair spray long enough to promise that her new solo material will be with us imminently.
‘My single is hitting the radio soon and I’m about to record the video. The album is written but is still in production stages.
It will be out in time for the summer and I have a UK tour in March,’ she told us, adding she hopes to hit the road again before the year is out.
Having made her debut as a vocalist with Rudimental, the singer has also boasted she can hold her own when it come to partying with the electronic dance band.
‘I hang out with them partying. It is always a good night!’ she laughed.
[Originally published Metro, Guilty Pleasures, Monday 13 January 2014]
