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Overheard: Puking with the Enemy

Disturbing news from the camp of The Enemy, one of the many Midland bands currently being groomed for fame.

The band's guitarist, Andy Hopkins, ended up in hospital last week, apparently due to a spiked drink – or so he says.

The guitarist was taken ill following the band's appearance at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Preston, and passed out.

He tells me: "It was scary. I'd only been drinking booze, it must have been spiked. I can't remember any of it but the lads said I was trying to headbutt cars and jumped out of the van and headbutted the concrete. Then I was being sick in a corner – they had to call an ambulance. I think I scared them".

No news on the state of the headbutted cars.

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Make a note in your diary for July 16. As well as being my mum's birthday, it's also the date of the release of the debut mini-album by Birmingham's Poppy & The Jezebels.

With an average age of just 15, the band are only able to tour during school holidays and only after they've put their My Little Ponies or Bratz Rock Angels away.

The band has been mentored by the legendary Nightingales - singer Rob Lloyd rates them highly. Follow Me Down collects six songs – all new band compositions – that showcase the band's diverse influences, the driving psychedelic sea-shanty of The Lips of Cleopatra, the big-top swirl and irresistable hooks of Electro Bitch, the girl-group harmonies and Regent Sound Bo Diddley beat of Jezebel and the waltz-time fairy tale of the title track.

The band will be featured on CBBC in a documentary about the making of their video next month.

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Jonn Penney leads a Spider-Man type existence.

By day he's the press officer for Wolverhampton's Civic venues, trying to get me to run stories about Daniel O'Donnell. By night he's the frontman for the deeply cherished Ned's Atomic Dustbin, a proper West Midlands band.

It seems that the band are celebrating 20 years in the cheap seats by releasing a warts and all DVD. Knowing the Neds, that's probably real warts too, the sort you rub with a bit of offal at midnight before burying it in the garden.

Amongst the many treasures promised on the film, called Don't Exist, is footage of the band rehearsal, larking about and playing live.

Says Jonn: "If you want to know which Neds make the tea, what a rehearsal is like and who likes ducks, this is the film for you!"

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Our good friend Mike Hamblett at the Robin 2 in Bilston has passed on an appeal for a bed for a week for a foreign music student.

A gifted guitarist called Laurent from hot-rockin' Denmark will arrive in the first week of September for a cultural exchange programme. Hosting Laurent will be rewarding, we are told. He is a scholarship student and says it's his dream to come to England.

Laurent describes himself as calm and friendly and easy to talk to. He is good with computers and enjoys cooking. He speaks fluent English and during the week he will study at a sixth form local to his accommodation.

The costs of hosting are met by Study Abroad UK. All Laurent needs is a comfortable place to sleep, somewhere to store his belongings and of course that he can bring and play his guitar.

For more information about hosting Laurent, please call 0800 084 2410 and ask for Kerry or Matt.

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on June 4, 2007 6:39 PM.

The previous post in this blog was Iron Angle: Take a walk, Mike.

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