Absolutely agree with you guys.

It must've been a bittersweet feeling for Nicky. Performing on stage in front of 100k+ people on The X Factor tour...and sing a song he admits to hating.

If you look at Nicky's gigs over the last couple of months, I genuinely think he's chosen some superb songs to sing. All Of Me and Stay With Me are fantastic songs anyways imo and they really suit Nicky. When he sings so naturally and comfortably (ie; without straining to hit certain notes) Nicky's voice really is sublime to listen to. I just like the creaminess to his voice - that probably sounds daft, what I mean is that its a rich velvety tone.

I'm also buzzing for Nicky too. He seems so fired up with enthusiasm right now and I'm hoping this lasts a long time. Being young, and already hearing his voice coming on so much since the tour, it makes me wonder how much stronger Nicky's voice will become as he gets a bit older.

I might hear Nicky in 5 years time singing Answerphone and be thinking "wow, he's never sang the song that well before".

It's been a really good few weeks, things are going so well. He even mentioned doing a gig in Aberdeen, my neck of the woods. He forgot to give any details, but hey, that's pretty well par for the course with Nicky, and there is such a lot going on. Doing Party at the Palace on both days is a great compliment

He is so likeable, funny and polite and charming. I thought he came over so well on radio, and he does at his gigs too, not standing on ceremony and wanting everyone to have a good time. His performance skills are improving as fast as his voice, natural and easy. Honestly, he's gift wrapped for Syco and RCA, practically all they have to do is find the songs and he'll do the rest, effortlessly.

I've been mulling over the Pulse interview a little today and what I keep coming back to, what keeps giving me a buzz about it, is the part where he describes the meeting with the songwriter/s where he's communicating an experience and saying it's nothing, but the writer is saying 'no, there's something there [that we can write about]' A good songwriter is able to work with anyone, and draw from that persons experiences and any writing talent and help shape it into a song. (Robbie William's partnership with Guy Chambers is a good example. RW didn't have any writing experience before, but he was partnered with someone able to work with what was there, and not only that, who recognised and encouraged something of a lyrical flair from him. It was the making of RW's solo career, really). It suggests to me there's a strong focus on development there, and not just a desire to get Nicky to record off-the-peg songs, and that's a hugely positive sign for the future.

And yes, he's completely engaging in interviews - such a good attitude to everything, natural, unassuming and entirely unpretentious. I really think you're right, he just needs the right songs, that's all, because he has everything else going for him.

Yes, so much.

Just one of many reasons why I'm a supporter of Nicky. I said all along that it was so refreshing to see someone so young, yet so unassuming with regards to his "raw" talent, and to see this talent being nurtured and developed is equally refreshing but also exciting.

Anyways, I come baring gifts for all you Nicksters.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=3&theater

He opened with 'Story of My Life', and seems to be coping well at a bigger event. Good for him

I think it is important that the songs meet Nicky's personality and condition.
He lives confortably in an happy evironment.
No doubt whatever they ask him to sing, he will sing it, musically speaking, perfectly with a great voice.
Important is him to get also the "soul" in the song. I mean it requires a lot of empathy and acting for outcrying the feelings of a jilted lover if one has never been really in love.
Not all songs require that much of soul, but some of the public may find a song boring, however well sung, if it only touches their musical feelings but not their empathized emotions.

Nicky's Heroes programme is being shown this coming Friday at 8pm. However, I don't live in Scotland and it's being broadcast on one of their major channels, possibly STV even.

Don't know if Alex will be able to shed any light on this?

source: http://tvguide.stv.tv/

RBS - Finding Scotland's Real Heroes

Friday 15th August on STV South from 8:00pm to 8:30pm

2014, Episode 1

1 of 5. RBS - Finding Scotland's Real Heroes is presented by Carol Smillie and pays tribute to people whose hard work, ingenuity, ambition and generosity has improved local communities across Scotland. Star reporters will visit each of the nominees to interview them about their work in the community and their thoughts on the nominations for a Real Hero Award. The star reporters this year include X Factor runner-up Nicholas McDonald, STV weather presenter Sean Batty and River City actor Stephen Purdon. The year's shortlist includes deserving Scots from Wick to West Lothian, and from Skye to South Lanarkshire, and recognises the amazing work local people are undertaking in their communities across the country. Categories include Carer of the Year, Young Real Hero of the Year and a new award - Hero Animal of the Year.

Yes I have seen a few ads of this with a very cute Nicky .

Here's the little man himself performing Happy the Barfly gig.

Camera Angle 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSy2cD1yMto

Camera Angle 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Rhk3nbmz8

Sorry, didn't mean to be rude but was staying in a hotel with rubbish WiFi.

Yeah, it's definitely on STV as has been posted here, but the real question is, can it be seen down south? I know you can watch BBC Scotland anywhere but I don't know about ITV channels. How annoying if you can't.

I wonder if that's why there has been filming at some of the gigs I've been to? The Sky box is set to record anyway

Oh no, don't apologise.

My comment was just put so that you'd be able to reply next time you were online.

I'm pretty sure we don't get STV in Manchester but hopefully something will appear on YouTube. Seems a shame that a programme like this isn't going to be seen by a wider audience.

I've just been looking into this and apparently if you have Sky you should be able to manually add STV to your channel listings. But as an 'added' channel you can only watch, not record. Here are the details of what you have to input (hopefully still correct) if it doesn't show up automatically.

STV HD 10.936 V 22.0 5/6 - showing as Label 3855

Not sure if this works, but I'll try and have a play later and see if it works for me at least.

A tiny little a cappella clip of All of Me, courtesy of vk of course. Lovely to hear him singing unaccompanied and without 'help' from the audience

http://instagram.com/p/rrWq6bF8D9/

Hopefully Pukkelpop will be drier than Party at the Palace ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8783zUmvsM

Nicky has just announced that he is now an ambassador for jeansforgenes. Lovely news, and good for him. He really does do a lot for others.

So happy that I am an official ambassador for @jeansforgenes! Go here http://ow.ly/Alh6Y for more about this great fundraising cause!


http://www.jeansforgenesday.org/abou...eneambassadors
Last edited by A_Smith : 15-08-2014 at 10:29

That's excellent for Nicky. I really admire his loyalty and dedication to helping those who aren't as privileged as others.

Can Nicky win one of the Pride of Britain awards this year? Maybe we should nominate him, and spread the word on Twitter and Facebook. #TeamNicky

Thanks. It has been raining at Pukkelpop too.
But the show went on, as you can see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC48x-5Zeek

Nice clip, looks like a fantastic event. I'd love to see Nicky do a cover of Thinking About You, maybe at Greenock at the end of this month .......

Looks like his holiday in Blackpool has done him the world of good too, which is great to see.

http://instagram.com/p/ruxKxvMQsI/?modal=true

http://instagram.com/p/rvARiHsQn9/?modal=true

And from Party at the Palace

http://www.dominic-martin.com/Photo/...ce/i-MW4DChq/A

I know Nicky is a massive fan of Ed Sheeran. Wouldn't it be awesome if both of them perform together one day? I could imagine Nicky being completely starstruck but Ed Sheeran has become one of the biggest British acts now.

If Ed & Nicky recorded a song together, it could be the key to getting Nicky more recognition as an artist all over the world.

Same could apply with Sam Smith too.

Well, lets bury our dreams and phantasies.
It's up to Nicky's management to select where they will focus on.
Some objectives will be more easy to realize than others. But I guess that counts for us all.

Yeah, a gig with Ed Sheeran would be fantastic but I can't see it happening quite yet. If plans for a second album go ahead then everything could change for Nicky. As ever, we come back to finding the right songs for him, then anything could happen.

Doing mainly covers, as he does at the moment (although on that note, why doesn't he do Smile more? Perhaps he doesn't really like it, but on the radio interviews I've heard, the presenters seem to prefer it to Answerphone and always play it) lets him learn his craft in the way that all apprentices do, by copying a master, and gives him time to find his own music.

He's still got bags and bags of time. The xf platform doesn't disappear when a new series starts, but it does become less and less of a part of an artist's id as time passes and they establish themselves independently. I've found it becomes a reference point in a biography but not the defining point eg Olly Murs, Ella Henderson etc.

That is indeed very true Alex. We've just got to wait and see what happens with the second album. Still doesn't hurt to have a big imagination though.

I reckon the next album will be more "Nicky" and give us an idea of where Nicky is heading.

As we all keep saying, his voice alone has the ability to make an otherwise ok song sound so much better. That pure tone wins me over. I just hope Nicky doesn't shun ballads for an album full of Midnight Memories style uptempo pop/rock songs. His voice really shines on ballads. On the flip side, Nicky doesn't really want to be another one man Westlife either.

The thing with Olly Murs is that his music oozes personality. I could never imagine Joe McElderry singing Heart Skips A Beat, or Troublemaker. With Nicky, I could. Answerphone is halfway there to being an Olly Murs track (although most likely with different lyrics).

I still think there's so much potential, I just hope Nicky's team really work together and produce a superb final product (ie; album #2).

I think the McD management could do something on short term for getting some "decent" recordings of a couple of his covers made and published on YouTube. Almost all artists have some takes of them performing covers, e.g. Sheeran with the 5SOS underwear song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzSqXcaJXWg

As for Nickly's own songs:
I think I have seen just one clip of Nicky performing "Smile" at the occasion of a gig.
Searching on YouTube it may have been this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W28QquAinLk
I think he never has sung "Solid Gold" in public??? And it's just for that song he was co-writer (as to the booklet that came with the album.).
I don't understand. Normally artists preferably sing their own songs at gigs, rather than covers. Or is the intention to keep the X-Factor link hot with songs from that time?
Anyhow people cannot start liking "Smile" or "Solid Gold" if they never hear it.

As for his preferences: Most kids of his age are not looking TV on Saturday evenings but rather dancing on upbeat up to house music. So the X Factor supporters may be rather in ranges under 16 and above 24, and he may not hear nor Bublé, nor Bolton nor his own songs in night clubs.

I have uploaded a new copy of the meet & greet of 2014-05-18
It no longer has a Boilsoft watermark and I could add a little piece (1:02 - 1:14) that I recovered from the junk part of the original recording.
It is now at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1O7-mZFoOQ

I had some video editing material in house, but it is not compatible with iPhone files. I bought now "Aimersoft Video Editor" for 35 bucks over the internet. It is very limited, bot OK for cutting, pasting & joining for different file formats.