James Blunt brings out the beautiful people, Tara's 'fling' with Beautiful James, AMANDA: BLUNT'S TOO SMALL

James Blunt brings out the beautiful people
The Gateway - Omaha,NE,USA
British boy wonder James Blunt crooned to a sold-out Sokol Auditorium Tuesday night, riding the night out on his hot and hoarse falsetto and shaggy good looks. ...

Crystal R. Reid March 31, 2006

British boy wonder James Blunt crooned to a sold-out Sokol Auditorium Tuesday night, riding the night out on his hot and hoarse falsetto and shaggy good looks. And what a strange, strange ride it was.

The normal indie-rock crowd of the Sokol was transplanted by hundreds of West Omaha socialites, with their distressed jeans and graphic tees, 3-inch stilettos and sparkly eyeliner. In the place of lighters and glow sticks flashed the blue screens of cell phones: concert-goers texting, talking and recording through the evening.

Blunt didn't mind. His simple ballads, which may have once been considered better for a quiet bar with a crooked wooden stool and a mic, intoxicated the denim-clad crowd. Twenty-something girls shrieked as he bounced toward the stage's edge, with one girl timidly offering up a humongous black padded bra.

I say bounced because that's what he did. He's in fact a very peppy, bouncy fellow, despite his sad-story songs of heartbreak, loss and war. His self-deprecating British humor between songs was a curious contrast to those haunting lyrics and lonely piano poundings.

Another strange contrast: A bizarre dancing cartoon monkey outline that flitted across the background scene through several of his songs. There was also one on the bass drum. Mr. Blunt, what is up with that monkey?

The high point of the show wasn't the much-anticipated hit single, "You're Beautiful," or his flirty winks to the shrieking girls and soccer moms up front. It wasn't the last official song of the set, when the band rocked out "So Long, Jimmy," a tribute to Jim Morrison and Jimmy Hendrix, under green flashing circa-1970s lights, complete with strange dancing monkey.

It was the disturbing song "No Bravery." Blunt took the piano and played sans band, as his homemade video of a war-torn Kosovo rolled silently in the background. The young Blunt, at the time a soldier for the British Army, had filmed the scenes of waving children, shallow graves and devastated buildings in 1999.

Yeah, I'll say it. It was beautiful. It's true.

In a ballsy move, or maybe the right one, he played a dozen songs, including two new ones, without touching the No. 1 hit during his original set. The band walked offstage from a stunned and screaming crowd, who proved their undying devotion to the beautiful British singer by flipping open their cell phones, raising the blue screens high above their heads and chanting "James, James, James!!" You can't make this stuff up. But the band came back out, and closed the show with "You're Beautiful."

All in all, it was a solid show. He's not a talentless hack, as some more established artists and music lovers like to say. He has the sappiness of Elliot Smith without the suicidal tendencies (I hope), and the breathiness and hook of early Leonard Cohen. His four-person band backed him up brilliantly, with the synth and electric guitar contributing a perfect edge to throaty, little-girl voice. Yes, the entire band was beautiful, and rocked the stage like they owned that little corner of new West Omaha.

Blunt is scheduled to continue touring through mid-April, and will play Sunday, April 30, in the main tent of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Coachella, Ca.

Tara's 'fling' with Beautiful James
This is London - London,England,UK
His love songs have won him legions of admirers on both sides of the Atlantic. And it appears that James Blunt has plenty of experience to draw on. ...

By Richard Simpson, Daily Mail 31 March 2006

His love songs have won him legions of admirers on both sides of the Atlantic.

And it appears that James Blunt has plenty of experience to draw on.

Yesterday, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson claimed she had an affair with the singer despite his long-term relationship with an heiress.

Commenting yesterday on rumours of a fling, the 34-year-old 'It Girl' said: 'If nothing had happened between James and I then I would have come right out and said nothing had happened.

'And I haven't done that, have I? That's your answer - it's pretty easy to work out what I am saying. It's not rocket science.

'However, I am quite deliberately stopping short of going into detail. I'm keeping my dignity here. I really would like the whole thing just to blow over.'

At the weekend, Miss Palmer-Tomkinson had refused to comment about her relationship with Blunt. That led his girlfriend of 18 months, Camilla Boler, to accuse her of publicity seeking. Miss Palmer-Tomkinson hit back, saying: 'I didn't even know James had a girlfriend when it happened. Now she's come out of the woodwork and says I made all this up for PR.

"Well, first of all, I never talk about my private life. And secondly, I'm not the one who needs publicity out of the two of us.'

Blunt, a former Household Cavalry officer, apparently spent a night with Miss Palmer-Tomkinson after she saw him perform at New York's Webster Hall earlier this month.

The 30-year-old singer - whose hits include You're Beautiful and Goodbye My Lover - has also been linked to Czech supermodel and tsunami survivor Petra Nemcova.

They spent a night flirting at a New York club and were reportedly spotted leaving hand in hand. Blunt is on a nine-month world tour having notched a U.S. number one single - the first Briton to do so in nine years.

Sources say the pressures of touring have caused his relationship with Miss Boler to falter. She is an artist and aspiring singer and daughter of the late tycoon Stephen Boler, who set up Kitchens Direct.

Miss Palmer-Tomkinson seems to have been holding a candle for Blunt for some time. In her column in Closer magazine, she wrote: 'My pal James Blunt came round for a cup of tea during rehearsals for the Brit Awards last week.'

Another column said: 'I was in heaven last week when I went to see the incredibly talented James Blunt in concert.

'I caught up with him after the show and he was absolutely charming.'
She has also told how she got over her split from Matalan heir Jamie Hargreaves by 'listening to a lot of James Blunt'.

AMANDA: BLUNT'S TOO SMALL
Mirror.co.uk - UK
DESPITE co-wrIting his biggest hit, Amanda Ghost hasn't fallen for James Blunt. "I've heard all this stuff about him being a bit ...

DESPITE co-wrIting his biggest hit, Amanda Ghost hasn't fallen for James Blunt. "I've heard all this stuff about him being a bit of a ladies man," the singer-songwriter told us after her showcase gig at Too 2 Much on Wednesday.

"But he's way too small for me, so I don't really get it. But he's a lovely guy".

A case of You're Beautiful on the inside, then.