Little Mix to perform at iconic Knebworth House this week…in front of two meerkats
OASIS, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones have all performed landmark shows at iconic British venue Knebworth House over the years.
And now Little Mix are joining the list, with what’s sure to be one of their most memorable concerts to date.
I can reveal the chart-topping girl group will hit the stage at the 125,000 capacity venue this week to entertain a crowd of . . . two meerkats.
Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall, Jesy Nelson and Perrie Edwards have signed a bumper deal to do the show for price comparison website Compare The Market, along with the firm’s meerkat mascots Aleksandr and Sergei.
The band are now preparing for the gig and were pictured looking less than impressed as they left their first rehearsals in four months on Sunday.
A source close to the group said: “It’s all go, go, go and they’re just figuring out the final details of how everything will pan out.
“The plan is for them to perform there later this week. There are discussions about whether it could be live-streamed or be the basis of a TV ad.
“Whatever happens, the website is just chuffed to have signed up such big stars for the campaign because they know Little Mix’s loyal fans will be thrilled to see them finally performing again, for the first time since lockdown started.”
The band are no strangers to the Herts country house itself, as it is where they shot the video for hit single Woman Like Me in 2018.
And it comes at a perfect time following the release last week of their new single Holiday, which is set to break the Top Ten this Friday.
As well as being a success here, it’s had a promising start in the US too — somewhere the girls have been trying to make it for years.
Their decision to team up with Compare The Market comes three months after Take That did a tie-in with the company.
It saw Robbie Williams rejoin the band for a live-streamed show, despite him being in Los Angeles while his bandmates were in the UK.
Away from business deals, Jesy has played down the prospect of another kind of collaboration.
After her bandmates teased they could be teaming up with major artists on their sixth album, she insisted nothing has been completed yet due to the lockdown.
She said: “I really wish the girls would stop saying we’ve got big collaborations. They get really excited and say stuff, and we haven’t even recorded any of them yet.
“I don’t want to say there are big collaborations when there might not be.”
I’m always available if you want me to sing a few notes, Jesy.
Dua’s Big Apple appeal
DUA Lipa made sure her outfit choice was nothing short of eye-catching while out in New York on Sunday.
She is now living with boyfriend Anwar Hadid in the Big Apple after spending much of lockdown in London.
The New Rules singer wore a cleavage- baring top and is riding high after her album Future Nostalgia was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize Award last week.
But she revealed she had felt “really scared” to release the record in March during the Covid pandemic and had to face her fear of live-streaming to fans.
Dua said: “I was really scared to put music out during this time, to be really honest.
“But it’s been nice to connect with my fans and listeners in a different way.”
bizmeter
- LILY Allen and Mark Ronson have been working on new music after he helped produce the tracks Family Man and My One on her last album, No Shame. But however talented Mark is, perhaps he’s not the best match for Lily as she was dropped by her label following that record’s release.
- Tove Lo had a surprise wedding at the weekend, tying the knot with Charlie Twaddle. The Swedish pop star revealed the news on Instagram, with a snap of her white dress and showing off the wedding drinks with the caption: “Ooops!” A month ago she called him the “love of my life”.
- McFly will release comeback single Happiness this Thursday – the first track to be taken from their new album Young Dumb Thrills, due on November 13 and their first record in a decade. Tom Fletcher said: “As soon as we wrote Happiness, it kind of defined where the rest of the album went.”
- Emma Bunton has spilled the secret to the Spice Girls’ songwriting success. Speaking on her Heart radio show, she said: “I do remember recording Viva Forever while drinking a bottle of £8.99 Asti Martini. You’ll find it at the back of your drinks cabinet, left over from a party that you had ten years ago.”
Rob gets punchy
WHEN Robbie Williams left Take That in the Nineties, I imagined all sorts of arguments but never anything violent.
But the singer has imagined what would happen if the boy band had a rumble and says Howard Donald is the hardest, while Mark Owen and Jason Orange would be the first to be beaten.
And Robbie boasted he could put up a good fight even against lead singer Gary Barlow – who is a black belt in karate.
The Rock DJ singer said: “Mark would be gone first. I would leave Howard to take on Jason.
“I would be up against Gary. I don’t think Gary would be a pushover, but I think I’d just inch it.”
Robbie has form for talking himself up in a fight having challenged Liam Gallagher to a boxing match for years, although they have since made up.
But for any fisticuffs with Take That, Robbie reckons he’d have to fight dirty.
In an Instagram live, he said: “The only way to beat Howard would be to fight dirty.
“He wouldn’t be expecting the grab of the testicles. I’d have to resort to trickery.”
Gives the name Take That a whole new meaning.
bizbit
TAYLOR Swift’s new album Folklore is a sure-fire No 1 this Friday as it is currently outselling the rest of the Top Five combined.
Ronan Keating’s 11th studio album, Twenty Twenty – also released last Friday – is at No 2.
Myleene inspired by Madge-ic
GEMMA Collins told me in yesterday’s Bizarre that Madonna was her inspiration, and now Myleene Klass has said the same thing.
The former Hear’Say singer, who is now a radio host, said she strove to be more like headstrong superstar Madge after getting divorced in 2013.
She said: “I thought I was going to be like Madonna. I don’t know who I think I am.
“But she seems to just have a really happy life and her daughter seems balanced and she doesn’t seem like she’s tied to anybody and she just keeps working.
“I’m less of a people- pleaser since I got divorced because I realised the people who genuinely are there for me.
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“[I did] the quickest cull of my Christmas card list you ever did see, and it was brilliant. So if you are going to look for the silver lining . . .”
Myleene added: “Madonna is unapologetic so I thought she had a good blueprint. The problem is, I’m not Madonna.”
You can say that again.
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