Blunt a new breed of pop star, Tara PT's Blunt Words

Blunt a new breed of pop star
Ottawa Citizen - Ontario, Canada
VANCOUVER - First impressions of meeting James Blunt, the rapid-rise pop star who's selling out venues across North America: His voice is husky enough that you ...

VANCOUVER - First impressions of meeting James Blunt, the rapid-rise pop star who's selling out venues across North America: His voice is husky enough that you might think he was developing laryngitis. "That's just my voice," he explains, smiling.

He is down-to-earth in jeans and scruffy hair that looks like he cut it himself. He is direct in the way that a former soldier might be -- and gracious, always looking his interviewer in the eye and smiling kindly for emphasis.

With his educated English accent, he enunciates softly and clearly, and he hasn't got any of that forced pop star charm that smacks of calculated artifice.

He doesn't fidget nervously, like so many rock stars do when they sit down for a chat.

And his listening skills are top notch. He doesn't miss a word. Following our interview, there are camera crews waiting in line for the star, yet he chats briefly with the photographer about a war movie.

This is a guy who's living in the moment, all right. And he's as soothing a presence as a cup of sweet tea.

Blunt fans who snapped up tickets to his sold-out show in Vancouver recently are well acquainted with the string of hits that have come off the artist's debut release in the last year. For everyone else, the songs are ubiquitous whether you know his name or not.

His You're Beautiful single was the first British-made song to top the U.S. singles chart since Elton John's Candle in the Wind in 1997. His sleeper album Back to Bedlam has sold more than 6 million copies.

But Blunt also comes from a military family and he served with the Royal Air Force. The 32-year-old spent half a year stationed in Medicine Hat, Alta.

"I was a Russian, yes, and the British came out and fought World War Three on the Prairie for six months," he explains. "You have to train somehow, and that's the way we do it."

It's better known that he also spent six months witnessing atrocities in Kosovo as an army captain. He returned to England for a less traumatic kind of service in the Household Cavalry.

From soldier duty Blunt went to L.A. for a year for songwriting and recording duty, plunging yet further into the surreal.

But he also feels his vast experience has given him proper perspective on the trappings of celebrity.

"I find some of this really amusing, what I do now. People will throw their opinions and comments and even trends, where they'll say if I'm wearing fashionable trainers, and that seems a big deal.
"The whole notion of worrying about whether or not you're cool is the most pathetic thing I've ever come across in my life," he says, for the first time looking irritated. "There are things that people are involved in here, in this industry. And sometimes I remember being worried about them when I was in primary school."

It's put to him that according to the gossip sites, he's dating about 20 women at the moment.
"God, I must be good," he says, perking up and smiling. "And some of them I've met actually on the same night as well," he jokes. "No wonder I'm so goddamn tired."

These days, appearances on Oprah and Saturday Night Live are the biggest badges of success for the Brit. Unlike some other major acts, Blunt's success doesn't stop at borders.

"Maybe it's because I'm writing about what it is to be human, to be on this planet right here and now," he says, throwing out a guess for his success.

Perhaps, or it could simply be that Blunt has a gift for packing songs with hooks, even creating beautiful bridges, and not wasting a moment with filler or a throwaway piano or guitar part.
Judging from the names involved, a lot of people had faith in that talent. Elton John's manager took him on. Songwriter and producer Linda Perry signed him to her Custard Records label.

His two biggest overall collaborators, however, were songwriters Sacha Skarbek and Jimmy Hogarth, who, he says, "put me in good stead as a songwriter."

And then there's the unlikely involvement of Hollywood writer Carrie Fisher, who was Blunt's landlady during the making of his album. A friend of a former girlfriend, Fisher let Blunt stay in one of the guest houses on her property in L.A.

Fisher's mother, old-school film star Debbie Reynolds, has a guest house on the property as well.
The atmosphere provided the inspiration for the album's name, says Blunt. (Bedlam is a reference to a mental institution).

"It was probably the best environment I could possibly be in, because I would come home at night and she is a writer, and there is still that creative play-off with each other.

"She didn't critique my songs," he adds, laughing. "But Carrie was also a great influence on the title of the album. The energy in the house was a mad house. To a degree, it was a house where there was so much going on, it was kind of mental pandemonium in itself."

Blunt is also caught in a lawsuit with songwriter Lukas Burton, whose claim for copyright on a few Back to Bedlam songs has resulted in the freezing of royalties. Blunt likes to quote an old saying that, "where there's a hit, there's a writ." He can't speak directly about Burton's involvement with the record for legal reasons.

"It's happened before and it will happen again as long as music has gone on," he says.

"I guess people do music for some reasons and other people see an opportunity, and that opportunity is very green," says Blunt, without a trace of anger. He might balk at trends, but he's the picture of cool.

Tara PT's Blunt Words
Sky News - United Kingdom
And Tara Palmer-Tomkinson isn't holding back after being branded a publicity seeker for talking about getting together with Beautiful crooner James Blunt... ...
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Tara PT's Blunt WordsBeware a woman scorned, so they say.

And Tara Palmer-Tomkinson isn't holding back after being branded a publicity seeker for talking about getting together with Beautiful crooner James Blunt...

The It Girl says she was completely in the dark about the fact that he was still with girlfriend Camilla Boler, 24, when she stayed with him in New York.

Tara, 34, told the paper: "I was deceived by this guy and that's it.

"One thing I will say is I was never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, told by James Blunt that there was a girlfriend. One thing's for sure I don't think I did anything wrong.

"I mean all the stuff about how I went to America and I did this and I did that, I was never told there was a girlfriend, in fact James told me he had split up with her at Christmas.

"I am certainly not the type of person who would tread on somebody else's toes. I completely disrespect women who do that to other women.

"I don't know who's lying but it's not me. But one thing's for sure - he may have a reputation as a bit of Casanova but he's not."

It's been reported that James and Camilla since split about two weeks ago.

The word from James' spokesman: "No comment."