Celebcity: Royal Blood at the NME Awards

Royal Blood at the NME Awards; Zoe Ball geeks out; Adele’s stateside house hunt

A royal flush
Brighton band Royal Blood will be performing at the 2015 NME Awards next month. The annual muso ceremony takes place on 18 February at the Brixton Academy and will see Royal Blood’s Ben Thatcher and Mike Kerr nominated in no less than seven categories.

Along with Kasabian, Royal Blood are in the running for the four main NME Awards – Best British Band, Best Album, Best Live Band and Best Track – and will also compete in the Best New Band and Best Video categories.

The Brighton duo are also confirmed to perform alongside Paloma Faith, Sam Smith and George Ezra at this year’s Brit Awards. With Brit nominations yet to be announced as we go to press, it’s a safe bet that Royal Blood will be nominated for the British album of the year after their eponymous first album became the fastest-selling British rock debut in three years.

Good luck fellas – make us all proud and bring those gongs back to Brighton!

Adele’s neighbour, the lovely Zoe Ball, has this week announced that she has no intention of putting herself in the running for the presenter’s job on the primetime Strictly Come Dancing shows.

Speaking to the Daily Express, Zoe said; “I like my job on It Takes Two, so I’m not gunning for Tess’s job or anything like that.” Zoe, who replaced Claudia on the BBC1 shows last series following her daughter’s hospital ordeal, joked that the main reason she wouldn’t want Tess or Claudia’s spot in the limelight is the hard work involved in tracking down dresses to wear on air for two shows a weekend.

Zoe also revealed that as a self-styled ‘Strictly geek’ she is getting over-excited about hosting the Strictly Come Dancing live tour. The 31 show dance spectacular starring ex-contestants including Mark Wright, Simon Webbe, Alison Hammond, Scott Mills and Caroline Flack opened at The Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham last week.

Seaside, stateside
One beachfront pad clearly isn’t enough for singing sensation Adele. News reaches us that the multi-award winning singer/songwriter – who has a sea-facing home just outside Hove – has put in an offer on a gorgeous oceanfront mansion in Malibu, California.

Adele, who denied rumours of a split from her partner and father of her two year old son, Simon Konecki, last month, is buying the posh Malibu pad as a “family home” in the States. Malibu is a 21-mile strip of prime Pacific coastline, famous for its warm, sandy beaches and for being the home of many Hollywood movie stars. Just like Portslade, then.