News & UK Play Chart

It is the wedding of the century.

Like it or loathe it, this Friday sees the joining of Will and Kate. It will be a wedding of monumental proportions; the wedding of the century. The BBC won’t stop talking about it, Hello magazine launched a special wedding issue and we're all getting the day off. Huzzah.

Here at Soundnet, we've been speculating about the royal wedding. In particular, we've been ruminating on the issue of the first dance; just what will their 'first song' be? Naturally, given the nature of our business, we've been trying to work out if their choice of tune will come from the Soundnet top 30 chart.

Indeed, is it so preposterous to imagine a first dance to the current number one track 'Party Rock Anthem' by LMFAO? Or perhaps S&M by Rihanna? Maybe 'F*ckun' Perfect' by Pink will kick off the night? Possibly not though.

Still, we can definitely see the potential in some of the more tender songs on the Soundnet chart. It's not hard to imagine a romantic dance to Adele's 'Someone Like You' or 'Just The Way You Are' by Bruno Mars.

And while Soundnet doesn't have a jukebox at the royal wedding, we'd happily step in to provide the audio entertainment if any last-minute disasters transpire. Our top 30 playlist has a number of toe-tapping beats suitable for any potential monarch to be. Plus, we'd pay good money to see the Queen jive to Jessie J or Alexis Jordan.

In short, you can find a song for any occasion on a Soundnet jukebox. Give us a bell and find out just what we can offer your customers. Just don't ask us to do any recommendations for first wedding song.

Opening hours extended for Royal celebrations

This coming April the nation will be gripped with wedding fever as Prince William and Kate Middleton tie the regal knot, and in order to accommodate this fresh bout of patriotic partying it's been announced that pubs and clubs in England and Wales will be allowed to stay open until 1am on the 29th and 30th of April.

It's rare for licensing laws to be relaxed, but according to James Brokenshire, the Crime Prevention Minister, the wedding is "an occasion for national celebration" and thus just cause for extended hours. It's not just the opening hours which have been pushed back either, with recorded and live music allowed in venues, alongside the slightly more ambitious trio of "films, plays and dancing".

With an additional Bank Holiday and a relaxation of opening hours it looks like the Royal nuptials are going cause quite a stir across the land, and leave most of us with plenty of cause, and opportunity, to toast the happy couple. If all goes to plan, similar scenes could be seen as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012.

V For Vendetta was a thoughtful, chilling and stylish look at a dark vision of the future where totalitarianism reigns supreme and censorship is the order of the day. One of the most exciting of all mediums has always been music, so it's no surprise to learn that one of the things the regime has clamped down on in this fiendish future is songs which aren't in line with their vision of the world.

The film's leading man, the mysterious and disfigured V, has one melodic weapon in his fight against oppression – a Wurlitzer which he's manage to get back from The Ministry Of Objectionable Materials. The presence of this iconic and exciting contraband helps to highlight what a world without freedom might look like, and the lengths people will go to save themselves from the death of self-expression.

The jukebox in the movie has a grand total of 872 blacklisted tracks, including I Found A Reason by avant garde rockers The Velvet Underground, Julie London's version of Cry Me A River and Bird Girl by arty chamber poppers Anthony And The Johnsons. Further proof of the freedom music gives us, and the lengths people will go to to keep it alive

In the first of a series of blogs we look at iconic movie scenes featuring jukeboxes:

Tom Cruise's high flying antics in Top Gun saw it become one of the most popular and talked about films of the 80s, but it proved more than the fact that sunglasses and camaraderie never go out of fashion. Tom played Pete Maverick Mitchell, a cocky pilot who has to overcome a major crisis of confidence following a tragic accident during training which sees his best friend Goose killed.

It's not just jet streams that catch Maverick's attention, however – his female instructor Charlie quickly becomes the object of his affection. His attempts to win her heart with a rendition of the classic Righteous Brothers song You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling doesn't quite work out as planned, with Charlie less than bowled over. At the film's close however, in the famous bar scene, the same song is played on a jukebox and brings back the memories of the pair's romance, providing the perfect soundtrack to a touching reunion. Proof that songs can be powerful tools for memory, and that some music never goes out of fashion, this scene's the stuff of movie legend.

With Christmas on its way, you might have noticed that your customers' tastes in background music have taken a turn for the unusual. Rather than flocking to the latest number one or a slice of classic rock 'n' roll, many will have developed a peculiar, annual love of songs about reindeer, Santa and all things tinsel-based. Luckily, music's back catalogue is jam-packed with festive songs guaranteed to get the seasonal spirit, and spirits, flowing and ensure that even the biggest Christmas fan has plenty to drink mulled wine to.

From the sing-along classics from glam rockers like Slade and Wizzard, to novelty tunes you can only get away with when people have had a few too many eggnogs (Mr Blobby, we're looking at you) to the classier end of the scale, with perennial favourites like Nat King Cole and Judy Garland, music has a very close-knit relationship with yuletide. Whether your vote goes to The Pogues or Bowie and Bing for best Christmas tune, there's nothing as certain to get you in the festive spirit as the right sleigh-bell laden soundtrack. So from Coldplay's new attempt at cornering the Christmas market to the favourites which have been a fixture of the season for decades, Soundnet offers all the hits you'll need to ring in the holidays in style.

On the 23rd of November, 1889, the world's first ever jukebox was installed in San Francisco's Palais Royale Saloon, and a craze that was set to sweep venues across the world was born. The brains behind this new device were the Pacific Phonograph Co. and while it wasn't quite as sophisticated as a modern digital device it quickly became a word-of-mouth hit.

The machine was made of four tubes which looked a little like stethoscopes and were attached to an electric phonograph, all contained within an oak cabinet. It wasn't called a jukebox at the time – the man who brought it to the Palais Royale, Louis Glass, christened it a 'nickel-in-the-slot-machine' – but it could cater to up to four customers at a time, thanks to its separate listening tubes. There was even a towel provided so listeners could give their tube a quick wipe before listening.

The success of this first ever jukebox (the name jukebox came later, possibly as a reference to juke houses – the slang name for rowdy nightspots) signalled the death knell for the player piano, which up until this nickel machine was the most popular way for drinkers to sample the hits of the day.

Kanye West is hooking up with some unlikely artists for his new album. He's been in the studio with acoustic folkie Bon Iver, and is also working with Justin Bieber. Kanye's collaborations have got us thinking about some of pop's oddest couples.

David Bowie and Bing Crosby

Bing was the cardigan-wearing epitome of cosiness, David Bowie a genre-warping rock 'n' roll chameleon. When they got together in 1977 it was an oddly soothing experience, with their Little Drummer Boy quickly becoming a Christmas standard.

Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue

There's one way of proving you're no longer a cheesy pop puppet, and that's by letting Aussie king of Goth-rock, Nick Cave, stove your head in with a rock in a video for his latest murder ballad.

Shaun Ryder and Russell Watson

You couldn't get two more dissimilar vocalists than Ryder and Watson. One's a gobby Mancunian who half-sings, half-raps lyrics about your mum being dirty, the other's an opera star who knows his way round an aria.

Lady GaGa and Michael Bolton

No, your eyes are not deceiving you, GaGa performed a duet with the 80s fromage-meister, Michael Bolton. In her defence it was before she was a star, but the song, Murder My Heart, is a GaGa original.

Pavarotti and U2

The biggest band in the world needed someone to give their song Miss Sarajevo a bit of welly, so they called in the biggest tenor on the planet. It really shouldn't have worked, but somehow it did.

Colombia might not have qualified for this year’s World Cup in South Africa, but they’ll still be represented at the showpiece tournament thanks to their most famous singing export – Shakira.

She’s been picked to provide the official song for the tournament, alongside South Africa’s Freshlyground, and with football in the blood in Colombia we’ve no doubt she’ll be up to the task.

The Hips Don’t Lie star has teamed up with the Afro-fusion band from Cape Town to record the track called Time For Africa, which is available for download from 26 April. She’ll perform it live with the band at the World Cup’s opening ceremony in Soweto on the 10th of June, in front of a global audience of billions. She’ll reprise it before the final on July 11 (hopefully in front of a stadium full of England fans).

Let’s hope Shakira doesn’t pull a Diana Ross at the US 1994 opening ceremony and miss a penalty from close-range – that moment’s still one of my favourite footy gaffs.

Get your venue in the mood for the World Cup with the track, and a whole host of other football themed songs in Soundnet’s bespoke football package.
 

If ever there was any doubt about how much we love Led Zeppelin, their anthem Stairway To Heaven has been voted Britain’s favourite rock song of all time in a poll taken by the radio station Absolute Classic Rock.

The epic rock classic pipped The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody to top the poll, and proving the public still has a whole lotta love for the Zep. The hard-rocking, guitar-soloing giants might be reluctant to put on a full comeback tour, but their songs are still soundtracking millions of rock fans’ lives.

While it may come as something of a surprise to see Led Zeppelin and not The Beatles topping the list, it proves there’s still a huge appetite for great rock songs, even when the bands who played them are now a little grey around the temples.

There’s nothing quite like a great rock song to get a crowd going at a live show, and the same is true in any venue – make sure you’re fully stocked with the greatest hits of the greatest British bands, and your customers can see if they agree with  this poll.