The article about Joe sharing joy with Little Mix pal Jade takes a slight subject change halfway through

While the Little Mix girls are just starting their road to super stardom, Joe is getting ready to record his fourth album.
From pop to classical, Joe is now moving on to a different sound which, he said, will be “just me”.
“I am a bit impatient to get back in the studio,” said Joe, who has enjoyed a break over the festive holidays. “This album is going to be a new direction, not classical or pop. It is going to be new and just me. People will get what they are expecting, but in a good way – it will be a nice surprise,” he said.
Joe, who splits his time between London and his South Shields, is gearing up for his first show of the year, which will be back in the North East at The Sage in Gateshead.
On Saturday, February 25, he will headline JapaNOISE – organised by Northumbrian Water employee Jane Morland to raise funds for victims of the tsunami in Japan. Organisers hope the show will raise £50,000 for the Japanese Disaster Fund.
“It is going to be a great night,” said Joe, who will be supported by Britain’s Got Talent winner Jai McDowall and local boy JD O’Neill.
“People can enjoy the concert while helping raise money at the same time.”

Read the full article here.

First up, Teen Now:

Joe McElderry: I thought about becoming a singing paramedic!

We talk Cheryl, being sold for charity and his fight for Christmas No 1…

Singer Joe McElderry starts his Classic tour on 8 November

You’ve recently been auctioned off for £6,350 on QVC for Breast Cancer Care! How does that feel?

I’m so happy I could do my bit for such a great cause.

The highest
bidder, Mrs White, will be getting a private concert in her living room from me which will be
different!

She’ll also get a signed CD and gold disc of my Classic
album!

It’s amazing to get so much money for a fantastic charity by
doing something that I love.

So, you’ve had a very busy time recently, you’ve been back in the studio again…

It’s been great, but I recorded the Christmas album when that heatwave was happening so I was singing about snow and jingle bells and all of that, then going outside in a T-shirt and a pair of sunglasses.

I’m certainly in the Christmas mood a bit too early but I don’t care ‘cos I love it.

Your album Classic went Gold in under two weeks, how did that feel?

It’s amazing!

I mean, obviously it was like every album, you always get nervous when you release it but I was especially nervous as I was taking on a brand new style of music and I was like, ‘Oh my God, what are people going to think?’

Luckily, everyone went crazy for it, I couldn’t have asked for a better reaction.

What have your fans been like? You’ve got a huge fanbase.

They really enjoy it.

I have a kind of mixed fanbase.

I’ve got young, middle-aged and then old, so I was worried the young ones weren’t going to get it. But, as I’m young, I guess I’ve introduced them to a new repertoire, which is really exciting – I’ve been learning about it as well so it worked out for everybody!

Congratulations on winning Popstar To Operastar! You received more votes than any of the other contestants combined!

I didn’t hear about this until a couple of weeks ago!

You have no idea about that when in the show. If I’d have known that it would of saved me a lot of stress, put it that way!

How did it feel singing in that style?

Honestly, it was probably one of the hardest things I’ll ever do singing-wise.

I learnt a brand new technique, it was like being told, ‘Right, well, you can drive a car or ride a bike, but you’re doing it all wrong so forget everything you’ve learnt and let’s start again’ – and I had 7 weeks to start again.

I was scared.

The thing with it as well is, if you sing a pop song and you don’t breathe in the right way, you can still hit the note because it doesn’t matter.

If you sing a classical song and don’t breathe the right way, you can’t reach the high notes.

I was constantly petrified that I would hit a proper bum note, so I was panicking like mad.

In the past couple of years you’ve achieved so much! You changed labels too, how was that for you?

I loved my time at Syco but it was a nice, refreshing change to get the experience to move into another label.

I know what I’m doing this time round, whereas before I was still really new in the industry.

I know how to handle everything, I know what to do in the studio, what works, what doesn’t work.

Did Simon Cowell have a big input in your first album? Did he help you a lot?

Simon was great!

He used to phone up and talk about song choices and I used to go to his office and pick the songs.

People slate Simon but he’s very hands-on at his label, he doesn’t just let anything happen.

Everything goes past him, he looks at everything, even down to the photo shoot, he’s very professional.

You’ve got your tour coming up soon, how are you feeling?

This will be the first solo tour so I’m quite nervous.

It feels quite strange that the whole thing is built around me being on stage every night.

It’s just quite scary, I need to make sure that my throat’s OK and I’m a bit of a worrier anyway.

I’m a complete perfectionist!

If your dreams as a singer hadn’t come true, what do you think you’d be doing now?

Well, I was at performing arts college before I went into X Factor, but I also wanted to be a paramedic. I would imagine I would’ve probably gone into teaching performing arts or singing or being a singing paramedic!

It could catch on!

So your Classic Christmas album is coming out on 28 November, fingers crossed for a No 1!

Well the Rage Against The Machine Christmas No 1 back in 2009 made me very relaxed about chart positions.

I learnt so much from that. As long as people enjoy your music, turn up for the shows and sing along to the songs, that’s my chart position.

It would be absolutely amazing to get a Christmas No 1 but there are thousands of artists releasing at that time and you’ve got The X Factor single too, we’ll see what happens…who knows.

Your single Last Christmas is set to be released on 19 December. You actually performed with George Michael on The X Factor, did he give you any useful advice?

Well, me and Cheryl Cole went into his dressing room for a cup of tea, you know, as you do.

That was a very surreal moment!

He was such a down-to-earth lovely man and it was such an honour to sing with him.

George just said: ‘Enjoy why you do this job.

‘You’ve got a voice, you sing, forget about everything else, just go out there and sing your heart out and enjoy that.

‘That’s the thing you need to remember.’

Do you still keep in contact with any of The X Factor judges or contestants?

I keep in contact with Olly Murs, Stacey Solomon and Jedward.

I speak to those guys a lot and we always bump into each other at events and things.

I speak to Cheryl as well, she’s lovely, we text each other when we can. it is hard to keep in touch as we’re both constantly travelling but we do catch up when it’s possible.

You’re attending the Spooky Spectacular in Newcastle, your home town, on Saturday. What will you be performing?

A bit of the stuff off the classical album and some of the stuff off the Wide Awake album, so a bit of everything.

Got to get them dancing then sing the more emotional ballads!

What are you up to for Halloween?

I think I’m working actually!

I’m doing a secret gig somewhere in London, it’s this new thing and I’ve been dropping clues all week.

Keep an eye out!

On Monday I’ll be at tour rehearsals so I’ll get dressed up in something spooky for the occasion.

Jasmine Holley

Now for Trash Lounge.

by Shaun Kitchener

Joe McElderry Interview: Concerts, Christmas and QVC

The below interview was conducted on behalf of Entertainmentwise.com – be sure to check it out over there too!

Joe McElderry waltzed to victory on the sixth season of The X Factor, fending off Olly Murs, Stacey Solomon and initial favourite Danyl Johnson. But the road ahead wasn’t quite as easy as it was for most previous winners. A Facebook campaign to get Rage Against The Machine to Christmas No1 ahead of his cover of ‘The Climb’ got the South Shields lad off to a rough start, and when his debut album Wide Awake “only” got to No3, he parted ways with Simon Cowell’s Syco record label.

But to say he’s bounced back is an understatement. Having another crack at the reality TV whip, he won the second series of Popstar To Operastar with an enormous 80% of the vote, and his second album Classic has sold 177,000 copies in two months (Wide Awake has sold 100,000 in a year).

As he gears up to tour the UK, perform in the living room of a QVC viewer and release a special Christmas disc, I chatted to discuss how things are going…

Hello! Thank you for speaking to me today.
It’s a pleasure. How are you?

I’m good thanks, how are you?
Very well thank you.

Well, first thing’s first. You’ve been auctioned off on QVC, how did that come about?
It was for breast cancer, it’s a charity event. We came up with the idea of auctioning a performance in a living room. People were phoning in left, right and centre!

Did you have any expectations going into it? I know if I was doing it I’d be worried the top bid would be 63p or something…
I was slightly worried it would auction off for like twenty pence. But we got six and a half thousand pound!

That’s fantastic. And when’s the concert taking place for that?
I don’t know yet, it takes place between now and next September so whenever both people are free. Whenever I’m free, whenever the audience are free.

Plenty of time, then. And speaking of live stuff, you’re going on tour in a couple of weeks… How’s the preparation going for that?
I can’t wait. I’m a bit nervous but it’s always an exciting time for a performer to be able to go on tour, and I start rehearsals on Sunday morning. I can’t wait to see the stage and the band… I’m just so excited!

And what sort of stuff are you going to be doing? Are you going to be doing stuff from both albums, or you focussing mainly on the newest one…?
You’re gonna get stuff off both albums, you know, you’re gonna get some of the Wide Awake stuff, some from X Factor, the Classic album… it’s a snapshot of where I am today cos obviously there’s a lot of different fans, a lot of different people that have bought different albums so I’m doing a snapshot of both.

Looking back over gigs you’ve done so far, what songs have been sticking out as fan favourites when you’re performing?
There’s all sorts! They like the uptempo ones, they like the slow ones, they like the emotional ones… I think they like all different kinds. I think they like it when I show all different styles of singing.

What are your personal favourites to perform live?
I do love ‘Until The Stars Run Out’ off the first album. Off the second album, Somewhere ‘Over The Rainbow’, ‘Canto Della Tella’, ‘Nessun Dorma’… quite a few on the second album actually.

And you’ve got a Christmas disc coming out soon, how’s that going? Is it done, or putting finishing touches on it…?
It’s done! We’re all done! Finished it last week. It’s very exciting and so excited to be doing a Christmas album, always wanted to do a Christmas album, so to do an album full of them is really exciting. And it’s kind of one of those sentimental things as well that you can keep forever, you can play it every year, you can perform them every year… it never gets old!

Now I’ve been doing some research and you are the only X Factor contestant to have their second album chart higher than the first one…
Is that really true?!

I think so! I was having a bit of a Wikipedia stalk, and apparently so…
Well, get bigger and better each time, that’s my motto!

Number one next, then…
We’ll see, we’ll see!

Did you feel less pressure with Classic compared to the post X Factor pressure of the first record? I think I experienced the whole pressure thing of being the winner and trying to show everybody that you deserved to win… and the second time I just thought I’m gonna sing my heart out and just enjoy it, and that’s what I did. And I think it came across that way as well.

Now what’s next? Is the sound of Wide Awake something you would return to, or are you carrying along the classical route? Gangster rap, maybe?
I think I’m gonna balance it out you know, with each different album. I might make another Wide Awake style album, I’ll probably make another classic-style album, one where you get a bit of both… I wanna just keep trying to incorporate all of it into the repertoire, and I think people enjoy both aspects of it so I don’t wanna just do one or the other.

Now there are rumours that you are performing on The X Factor this series, is there anything you can tell us there…?
Well I don’t know, it depends whether Mr Simon Cowell would have us, doesn’t it. I would absolutely love to go on, but you know, I haven’t been asked as of yet so we’ll see. I’m not waiting around, but we’ll see what happens. It’d be nice if I did but if I don’t then it’s fine.

Now this year’s winner is already looking like it’s going to face a Rage Against Machine-style campaign like your year faced. What advice would you give to the winner?
My advice to them is just let them get on with the stupid campaign. Let them get on with it. You can’t control it, and at the end of the day, it goes straight out the charts the week after so it’s pointless! And the reason behind the campaign is the most stupidest reason, that they say X Factor conflicts the charts and yet they make a campaign that conflicts the charts! It doesn’t make sense! I just think it’s hilarious, to be honest, and I think – well, it’s not hilarious for the person that’s involved in it, but it’s a ridiculous idea. It’s stupid!

And it’s quite hypocritical as well, isn’t it?
It’s the same as what it claims X Factor does! It’s not like X Factor is buying all the singles and making it go to No1, people are going out and buying the X Factor single. I don’t understand it, it’s so pointless! To be honest, the winner will be so excited and in awe of what’s going on around them, they won’t care about the chart positon or about this campaign cos I was so excited and I was so busy I didn’t even realise what was going on!

And chart position aside, you look at the sales figures and regardless of whether or not another song sells more, it still sells hundreds of thousands of copies…
Exactly.

Now speaking of X Factor, you must get asked this every 10 minutes but have you been watching this year? Any favourites?
I haven’t seen much of it because I’ve been really busy but my friend is in the band Rhythmix.

Ahhh, and you’re actually going for the Christmas Number One youself again, aren’t you? What track are you doing?
‘Last Christmas’. It’ll be eligible for Christmas Number One but we’ll see what happens. It’s more about getting it as close to Christmas as possible because it’s a Christmas song.

It’s always good when the Christmas songs start coming out.
I’m really excited. I’m already in the Christmas spirit, it’s far too early…

I guess you must have been in the Christmas spirit since August if you’ve been recording. Everyone like “Erm… it’s the summer…”
[Laughs]

Well thanks very much for talking to us, good luck with the tour and new album!
Thank you very much, thanks for your time!

Bye!