X FACTOR’S CAITLYN VANBECK HINTS AT RETURN TO ITV SHOW

Beverley Lyons
FORMER Scots X Factor contestant Caitlyn Van Beck says she turned down Love Island but has hinted she may return to the reality series after notching up an incredible 64 Million view’s online in just four hours.
The Edinburgh born singer appeared on X Factor 2016 and got through to the judges house before being eliminated from the competition.
A video of her first audition was posted up on the Facebook channel of X Factor Global just days ago and was viewed 64 million times by an audience around the world - in the first hour hours.
Fans then inundated Caitlyn with direct messages in a bid to know more about her and find out what she is doing now.
Caitlyn, who has been training to be a primary school teacher in amongst gigs has now revealed that she will consider reentering the show.
She said: “It’s just magnificent it’s still doing the round and had racked up so many hits in just a few hours. It has all has gone a bit hectic.  When I first entered X Factor I  was at teacher training so it was very hard for me to focus on one particular thing. My journey ended where it do and although it was unfortunate it gave me time to work on myself and do my thing and work on my degree but obviously  Music is where my heart lies and it’s where I want to be. I did get an offer from Love Island and turned it down. Everybody is looking for love but music is my passion at the minute and the love will follow.”
Caitlyn also revealed she is in the midst of recording a song with Chandler Riggs who plays Carl Grimes on telly series The Walking Dead.
The two became friendly after Caitlyn was asked to sing at The Walking Dead convention in London last year.
She added: “We’ve been working on some material and although it’s not official yet there is potentially something coming your way from both of us.”

BELLSHILL BELTER SHEENA EASTON SAYS HER KIDS DONT KNOW HER SONGS

Beverley Lyons

SHEENA Easton claims her children wouldn’t be able to name her hits because she never played them when they were growing up. 

The Morning Train, For Your Eyes Only and Sugar Walls singer who is currently starring in 42nd street in London’s West end revealed: “My kids don’t listen to any of my stuff. You’d be lucky if they could name you three of my hits. I don’t know if they listen to any of my hits. I made a point my whole life of just saying ‘mum is going to work’. There are no shrines to me in my house, no gold records on the wall or awards sitting around. It’s not one of those houses. The children grew up in a normal house.”

Bellshill born Sheena, 58, who now lives in Nevada, has never encouraged her two adopted kids Jake and Skylar to follow her into her profession after seeing friends in the business struggle. 

She said: “Neither of my kids is in the business and I bless the day for that. I know I’m an anomaly in the sense I managed to make a living out of this, managed to support myself and had a career where I worked. I earned but worked always whereas so many friends struggled to put food on their tables and had to work two or three other jobs. As an industry there is not a lot of work from it on a steady basis and as a mum you want a job where your kids can afford to pay rent and fortunately my kids do. I have loved earning a living from it.”

Sheena also revealed she once hated hearing her hits but has now come to love them.

She said: “You have a hit and then you go ‘I never want to hear it again. Then the circle comes back around and I’m very fond of my hits because there is enough distance now. 

I can look back on the early hits and think ‘wow’.

I also love when I start the intro to a song and I see peoples eyes light up or they nudge or grab one another and it’s their favourite song and it helps connect me with other people.”

Sheena also said she doesn’t envy the pressure now placed on young artists to keep in touch via social media preferring to stay low profile. 

She said: “There was an isolation to a lot of the early years with the travelling and I took it for granted that was part of gig. When you went away you’d tell people you were going away and tell them ‘I’ll call you when I get back’. Now they expect to be connected to you no matter where you are and what you are doing.

In some ways it was beneficial because it kept me focused and centred on what I needed to do and today I’m grateful I’m not a young artist starting out today. They expect the younger kids to be on twitter and Instagram all the time and to document what they had for lunch that day. I’m a very private person and I don’t think I would have handled that well. I think that would have made me crazy. Isolation can be negative and hint at loneliness but it gives you the chance to focus what you’re doing and get the job done and then get back into the real world.”   

Excerpts of this article have since appeared in the Scottish Mail on Sunday 

From Scotland with Love theshowbizlion.com 

FAIRMONT ST ANDREWS WILL MAKE YOU FEEL FRESH AFTER LUXURY REFURB

Beverley Lyons

WITH a huge sparkling atrium, chandeliers, artwork and a spa that is heaven sent, it’s clear that you don’t have to play golf to stay at the luxurious Fairmont St Andrews hotel.
Theshowbizlion.com recently took in the incredible sights and style on offer at the 520 acre five star hotel and we really didn’t want to come home.
We were lucky enough to attend a night of fine cuisine courtesy of the UKs top chefs at the lavish venue and we also had time to explore the brand new fixtures and fittings in offer.
The hotel offers tranquility and cliff top views as well as two prestigious golf courses, a sumptuous spa, St Andrews bar and grill restaurant serving the freshest of steak and seafood, afternoon teas and 220 luxury guest rooms.
With offers of valet parking and a traditional concierge service it aims to make everyone feel like a VIP.
Modern portraits of Billy Connolly, JK Rowling, David Tennant and other global Scots adorn the corridors while stag heads, warm fireplaces, and wooden furnishings adorn public areas.
The spa itself offers everything from the pool, saunas and steam rooms to massages, facial and relaxation therapies using exclusive Aromatherapy Associates products in 10 chic treatment rooms.
The hotel service was second to none and although the hotel attracts an older crowd with its tongue in cheek spend your kids inheritance packages for seniors of sixty and over at around £126 a room per night it also offers dinner bed and breakfast packages around £96 per person per night and and spa escapes for £142 per person per night with full Scottish breakfast and a treatment included.
We opted for a facial and felt revived after just one night.
If you feel like a wee holiday to kick of the new year it could prove the perfect pick me up.

KERRY KATONA EX AND FORMER GLOW STAR ENDS UP ON GLASGOW STREETS

Exclusive
Beverley Lyons
A Scots reality star turned filmmaker ended up sleeping rough on the streets at Christmas to document the plight of our homeless over the festive period.
James English, an ex model from Glasgow who most recently dated Kerry Katona and appeared in reality series Glow admits he had to resort to defacating in a bag for the life changing experience.
James slept rough without a phone and with no money or food for seven days during the run up to and including a Christmas Day - but he doesn’t want applauded for his bravery.
He claims he was doing it to highlight the plight of Glasgow’s homeless and show everyone the great work that is done for them by Scots charities for a new documentary.
James, who used to have a gambling addiction and drink and drug problem, admits that the whole experience has left an indelible mark on him and he’s still trying to adjust to being back in his comfort zone.
He said: “My head is messed up now that I’m back into normality. You feel it’s a world within a world where you don’t exist in the human race and it’s such a weird feeling.”
I can see why people turn to drink and drugs. I’d never promote drinks and drugs but when people have that kind of life they have nothing. It’s definitely been an awakening.”
James grew a beard but also wore a fake Santa beard and hat during his week on the streets so no one would recognise him.
He said he spent his time moving from street to street trying to find somewhere to rest his head as well as begging for money in between.
He said: “At first you can’t sleep and you hear every noise. Every time you close your eyes you feel as if there is someone standing over you. There are shelters but there are only thirty or forty beds so you go into bus stops or doorways. I would go to the Buchanan Galleries and beg for money and sometimes slept under a bridge. I got eighty two pounds during the week and I think that was because it was Christmas and there were more people wanting to give. I didn’t take my phone and I had only the clothes on my back and a sleeping bag as well as a Go Pro provided by my cameraman Gordon Campbell to film it all. I was lucky because it wasn’t too cold last week but it has got colder since.”
James was given wet wipes and a survival kit with a toothbrush and toothpaste in it by some charity workers but he said he didn’t shower once during the whole experience.
He said: ”There are showers at some places but I didn’t want to deprive others of them.”
He also found himself caught short with no where to go on Christmas Eve and ended up defacating in a bag down a lane.
He said: “I had to do it. It’s survival and there’s nothing you can do. It had to be done because everywhere was closed and there was no stopping it. I felt dirty but there was no option.”
James had Christmas dinner at a shelter. He said: “They fed two or three hundred people and there were Christmas songs. There was a lot of violence around about Black Friday. I was with two friends on Buchanan street and saw them being attacked. Some people told real horror stories about getting hit and battered, set on fire or getting peed on . They are the real heroes and became my friends.”
“I realised it wasn’t all alcoholics and junkies who use food banks. A lot of people had two jobs and still can’t afford to feed their families.”
“I went in blind and kept thinking that if my family and friends hadn’t been around when I was gambling that I could have been there.”
When I got home on Boxing Day I just felt so strange about everything. I was sad because I knew I had a family to go home to.”
James is keeping in touch with the friends he made and is trying to help them since the experience.
He said: “I want to say a massive thanks to the City Mission, The Invisibles also Second Chance Scotland and the Humanists who were working round the clock in Glasgow given out shelter, food and clothes every day and night and talking with homless people. The world needs more people like them as they do so much work and the majority of these organisations are non funded so they do it off their own back. The Lodging House Mansion there is open 365 days a year offering a bed for the homless and food and these people are amazing.
“And down Cadogan street there is a diffident charity organisation every night doing a soup kitchen or handing out clothes
while Street Connect do 12 week drug programmes to help with people with addictions.”
He added: “I was only there for seven days but old Pete under the bridge has been there for twenty years. I’ve only scratched the surface and hope that when we release the documentary at the end of January that something more can be done.”
From Scotland with Love - the showbizlion.com
Excerpts of this article have since appeared in the Daily Record.

SOUL LEGEND SEAL PROMISES KILLER OF A CONCERT IN GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH

IT’LL be guaranteed all Killer and no filler when British soul legend Seal comes to Scotland on tour next month. 

The man behind the incredible hits Killed and Kiss From A Rose is on tour this February and coming to Edinburgh on 10th Feb 2018 and Glasgow on 11th February in support of his tenth studio album “Standards”. 

Backed by a big band, the multi-award winning star will be performing songs from the new album as well as others notched up over a career spanning three decades, racking up over 30 million records sales worldwide and a string of Grammy, Brit and Ivor Novello awards along the way.

Seal’s new album “Standards” brings the glamour of Old Hollywood straight to the present. 

His tour also sees him take in Manchester, Brighton, London and beyond. 

SEAL “STANDARDS” UK TOUR DATES:

Saturday 10 February – Edinburgh Usher Hall

Sunday 11 February – Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Tuesday 13 February – Gateshead The Sage

Wednesday 14 February – Manchester O2 Apollo

Saturday 17 February – Brighton Dome

Sunday 18 February – Bristol Colston Hall

Monday 19 February – Nottingham Royal Concert Hall

Wednesday 21 February – Birmingham Symphony Hall

Thursday 22 February – London Palladium [SOLD OUT]

Friday 23 February – London Palladium [NEW SHOW ADDED]

TICKETS FROM GIGSANDTOURS.COM & TICKETMASTER.CO.UK

MUSIC LEGENDS THE JACKSONS TURN SCOTTISH FOR CHARITY AHEAD OF SCOTFEST GIG

Beverley Lyons
HERE’S music legend Tito Jackson trying out his awful Scottish accent to wish punters a great new year ahead of a Scots music fest next July.
Taking time out from his tour, the Blame It On The Boogie and ABC singer tried out Scottish slang like Hoots Mon and Lang May Yer Lum Reek as well as admitting he couldn’t wait to explore the capital’s haunted dungeons as he teamed up with Scotfest to give 500 free tickets to deserving children.
Tito and his famous brothers The Jacksons are coming to Edinburgh to play Scotfest eighties and nineties music event at Ingliston’s Royal Highland Centre on July 6 and 7.
The singer, who has just celebrated the band’s fiftieth birthday this year said:
“We love Scotland and can’t wait to play our full stage show for the first time at Scotfest in Edinburgh in July. We might even have a tour of the castle and haunted dungeons when we’re there.”
Revealing that organisers of the big bash have donated £12,000 worth of free tickets to the NSPCC with their blessing as a special present to those in need, he added: “My brothers and I are so happy that we and other artists can help the children of the NSPCC through Scotfest.
“It is important to remember those who are less fortunate than ourselves at this time of year. It’s a lovely idea for a unique New Year present and it will be great to see them boogieing to our music over the two day festival.
We are looking forward to meeting with other artists including Five Star, and Boyzone during our summer trip to Ingliston.”
Tito who reckons the impending visit will be pure brilliant managed to mispronounce Edinburgh in our video but also sent a New Year message to fans saying ‘Lang May Yer Lum Reek.’
Scotfest is bringing other acts including Liberty X, B*witched and 5ive as well as local talents Blue Delta, The Session and Timed Out to the 35,000 capacity event which takes place the same weekend as Glasgow’s TRNSMT festival.
Festival boss Mark Bennett who ran the PKD festival in Dunfermline for eight years which was nominated for Scotland’s Best Outdoor Festival in the Scottish Outdoor Leisure Awards, alongside events like T in the Park, is hoping to offer a family friendly event.
He said: “Charity has always been at the heart of the festival and we are delighted to team up with NSPCC this year. We’ll also be offering lots of child friendly activities during the festival and have special areas to keep the children safe while their parents enjoy a great weekend out.”

GRAMMY NOMINEE ELLE KING GETS BACK WITH HER GLASGOW EX

EXCLUSIVE

Beverley Lyons 

Ex’s and Oh’s charttopper Elle King returned to Scotland for the festivities in a successful bid to get back together with her estranged Scots husband. 

Triple Grammy nominee Elle, 28, whose father is comedian Rob Schneider, flew in from The States over the festive period to give her marriage to Andrew Fergie Ferguson another chance - and the star was clearly besotted. 

Elle who stayed at the city centre’s plush Dakota hotel enjoyed a whirlwind romance with Uddingston lad and former Cruise employee Fergie at the beginning of 2016, and the couple were secretly married in February that year, just weeks after meeting after Fergie ,33, proposed to her under the Golden Gate Bridge.

Elle even appeared in a series of US wedding show Say Yes to the Dress.

The pair announced their intention to divorce in February last year Elle was pictured getting cosy with rocker Josh Logan in September but last month announced proudly that Fergie was ten months sober.

She wrote: “Somebody smart told me that every day should be national grateful day. Not just thanksgiving. I just want to say that I am grateful to have made it through this year. And the guy I married is 10 months sober today.

"I'm proud of him setting a good example. I'm grateful for forgiveness and new beginnings. I'm proud of you Ferg. 10 months is a long time to be sober and I'm grateful for you being alive.”                                                             

It was the news she was waiting for to give things another go with ‘the love of her life.’

Having taken in the Christmas lights at George Square, Elle even went to a Rangers match with her man and also posted an Instagram story of the two of them in bed, singing ‘Let it go’ repeatedly in his ear.                             

She tried out the bagpipes with the Red Hot Chilli Pipers and enjoyed food at Julie’s Kopitiam

She said of her visit:”Goodbyes suck. I look forward to a new stage of my marriage in 2018. Not just forgiveness from each other, but moving the f*** on from it. Thankyou to kind souls who give support without judgement. Fergie and I are only human. I love you Fergie. I can’t wait to share my new record with the world. Bring on the new year.”

From Scotland with Love - theshowbizlion.com

Excerpts of this article have since appeared in the Scottish Daily Record.