Peter Urlich Between You And Me

Peter Urlich may not have impressed the Dancing with the Stars judges, but the increased profile should help him with his next venture.

Urlich is about to release his first solo album, Between You And Me, which is described as a swing album featuring covers of well known classics. The album will be released by Liberation Music NZ who say the album includes timeless standards such as Duke Ellington’s Don’t Get Around Much Anymore to Gershwin’s They Can’t Take That Away From Me.

I don’t think this album will be making my shopping list, but with a release date of April 21, 2008 the producers are encouraging people to buy it as a Mother’s Day gift.


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Peter & Hayley Waltz Again

Peter Urlich and Hayley to Waltz again

Peter Urlich tells this week’s NZ Woman’s Weekly that his wild days of boozing and drugs are behind him. He said he got his first wake up call at the age of 38 when he had a heart attack despite having what he describes as a lean mean body without any fat.

While on the subject of his modesty, metrosexual Peter attributes his youthful looks to his Maori-Croatian genes and daily moisturising. Tina Cross is also Maori-Croatian descent, so there might be something to that.

Peter’s next shock came when his partner Danny Beh, kicked him out after he went out on a bender. She gave him a second chance and he’s been on his best behaviour ever since. They have two children, Joe (5) and Stan (2).

Peter will be back with The H-Bomb to perform their waltz on the final of Dancing with the Stars, but if you’d like to see them live you can catch Hayley Holt and Peter reprising their waltz at Westmere’s Little Day Out on Saturday 5th April 2008 from noon to 6:00pm.

Also performing are Pop’s Ultimate Star judge Jordan Luck, The Darlings (which includes ex NZ Idol judge Jackie Clarke) and Don McGlashan. The Little Day Out is a biennial school fundraising event hosted by Westmere School in Auckland. TV3’s Mike McRoberts will be the MC.


Photos: TVNZ

Peter Urlich Says DWTS Judges Too Harsh

Yet another eliminated Dancing with the Stars is having a serious case of sour grapes, but he does have plenty of nice things to say about his dance partner Hayley Holt and her boyfriend Richie McCaw.

Last week China Girl Geeling Ng complained that the judges were too harsh and stomped on her feelings. This week Peter Urlich is singing from the same song sheet, saying

"I saw the replay and I didn't think it was too bad. It wasn't the best tango in the world but it didn't deserve a three.

I felt a bit harshly treated there.

There's a way of getting people to work with things, as opposed to comparing them to planks and horses." [But it wouldn't be half as much fun for the viewers]

Clearly Peter was imbibing while he watched the replay.

As tangos go it was appalling. The only positive thing you could say about it is that it was in time, but it wasn’t even remotely a tango. It looked more like he was tiptoeing around for fear that Richie McCaw might thump him for being so close to his lovely girlfriend Hayley Holt.

Compared to Rodney Hide and Tim Shadbolt’s efforts it was reasonable but by any objective standard of tango dancing it was a shocker.

Peter went out and partied after the elimination with some of the cast and crew, and Richie tagged along.

Urlich joked he hoped to win some extra votes, thanks to McCaw's front row support.

You needed more than that, Peter. You needed to do a Marty Moobs Devlin and surprise us with an improvement on the previous weeks.

McCaw, Urlich said, was supportive but would leave the dancing to Holt.

"He certainly doesn't want to sign up," Urlich said.

"He'll concentrate on the ruck and maul."

Urlich told TVNZ that doing Dancing With The Stars was a great experience and he did it to challenge himself. Well, hello. Wouldn’t part of the challenge be taking on feedback from international dance experts?

However, he did say that being on DWTS consumed him and in some ways he’s glad to have his life back.

We’re not sure if he was joking, but he followed in Suzanne Paul’s stilettos by suggesting that he did it for the money and to get publicity for an aging rocker. We presume that’s part of his ironic humour.

Asked what sort of chocolate bar Hayley Holt aka The H-Bomb would be he says fruit and nut. He also describes her as a kind, generous, warm-hearted person. Awww.

He said that he was conscious of the fact that he was dancing with Richie McCaw’s girlfriend (especially with him in the audience in the last episode) but that both Hayley and Richie were cool about it.

Peter is picking Temepara George and Miriama Smith to make it to the finals.


Photos: TVNZ

Peter Urlich's Last Tango + Photos

Peter Urlich and his partner Hayley Holt were the second contestants to be eliminated from Dancing with the Stars.


In the first episode, Peter impressed the judges with his heartfelt waltz, although it’s a mystery how the judges could see his footwork with all the dry ice swirling around the floor.


Last week he sat down on the job and blamed his poor performance in the Rhumba on a knee injury. It sounded pretty painful, but Paul Mercurio had a point when he said that even without the changes to accommodate his injury the routine still wouldn’t have been good enough.


This week he said he didn’t want to disappoint his Charity or ‘The H-Bomb’, as he dubbed his partner. But his tango wasn’t good enough for the judges, and the public vote couldn’t save him from elimination. Miss Prozac also wondered if he was on high doses of painkillers as he seemed a bit "dopey" and out of it during some of the video footage.




Tina Cross whom many say shouldn’t be in the competition, due to her past dance experience, was placed third after the judges’ scoring but surprisingly found herself in the bottom two. In all fairness, her dance experience is in other types of dancing (mainly Jazz) and anyone who has watched So You Think You Can Dance? will have noticed that being able to do one type of dancing doesn't automatically make you good at other types of dancing. But, it does help with learning new choreography.

Sounds like Tina needs to take a leaf out of Rodney Hide's book and do some campaigning if she wants to stay in the competition.

We’ll have a full episode recap and all the photographs tomorrow.


Photos: TVNZ

Th' Dudes Sue for Royalties

Thirty years after on, Th’ Dudes are suing Stebbing Studios and owner Eldred Stebbing for royalties and rights to the recordings they created in Stebbing’s Herne Bay Studios.



Th' Dude band members Dave Dobbyn, Peter Urlich, Ian Morris, Bruce Hambling and Peter "Lez" White say they were naive at the time, and were just happy to get their songs recorded.

The action was prompted by their recent reunion tour, and the realisation that they don’t own the rights to any of their recordings, and are unable to re-release their album.

Th' Dudes claim never to have received a cent from songs recorded during late-70s sessions at Stebbing Studios in Auckland.

Instead, band members say, owner Eldred Stebbing has for the past 30 years collected the profits from the recordings, which included the group's greatest hits, Be Mine Tonight, Walking In Light, and the boozer anthem Bliss.

The band claims that Stebbing commercially exploited the recordings through television, film, advertising and album deals without paying any royalties.

The band own the publishing rights to the tracks, which cover lyrics and arrangements, but Stebbing holds the master tapes and retains the royalties from the album sales, including for compilation albums featuring Th' Dudes' songs.

Band member Ian Morris said

"Our recordings are among the most enduring and classic of NZ songs, yet in the 30 years they have been available we have never received one cent in royalties from the Stebbings."

Th’ Dudes are asking for

• The master recordings
• A statement of all royalties received
• All royalties and profits
• Plus interests, costs and possibly damages

Good luck dudes.


Photos: TVNZ

Peter Urlich Dancing Dude

Peter Urlich rose to fame as a member of the infamous Th' Dudes, who had a reputation for sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

And it would appear, they were also a fan of what the Urban Dictionary describes as a camel hump, which has several definitions, but Miss Prozac's favourite is:

Dude, his pants are so tight... I could see his camel hump a desert away.

The group was recently profiled on TVNZ when they reformed for a tour

Speaking frankly about the rock 'n' roll scene in the late '70s, including the temptation of hard drugs and groupies, he says the band worked it hard: "We had the tight trousers and the boots. We were giving off a sexual vibe, we were young guys full of hormones and rock 'n' roll - that's what you do."

According to a band profile on Sergent:

The national success of the Th' Dudes came about through a combination of genuine talent and clever marketing and, at the height of their popularity, the group acted and demanded to be treated like stars. For a while they were, but few groups have come tumbling down as fast as the Th' Dudes, leaving behind a trail of bad debts and bad manners.

A record contract was negotiated with Eldred Stebbing and in the beginning of 1979 came their debut single, "Be Mine Tonight", written and sung by Dave Dobbyn, backed with "That Look In Your Eyes". The entire year was taken up with a gruelling touring schedule. It was a life style fit for stars, full of booze, drugs and groupies. They made a controversial move on Anzac Day, when at the last minute they pulled out of a concert at the Wellington Opera House, claiming the sound system wasn't up to their standard.

At the awards they picked up two prizes, Top Group and Single Of The Year for "Be Mine Tonight". They had an air of arrogance about them at the National Music Awards and generally made people feel uncomfortable around them. If they were best group, they certainly didn't give the industry something to be proud of.

Charley Gray now had a big problem with Th' Dudes, having encouraged them to act like stars, they were acting like superstars, running up enormous hotel bills and generally living beyond their means. Their appetites were being satisfied by booze and drugs.

However, Urlich has grown up now, and is so dedicated to his quest to be New Zealand's best celebrity dancer that he's threatening to have a total body wax. Brazilian anyone?

When he's not judging the likes of reality singing contest Pop's Ultimate Star, Urlich is a breakfast DJ on George FM, which he says leaves him free to spend time during the day with his kids.

He recently featured on David Hartnell's Best & Worst Dressed List 2007 for being a fashion throwback with his leather jacket and boring clobber.

Peter Urlich will be partnered on Dancing with the Stars by sexy Hayley Holt.



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Photos: TVNZ

Karl Urban, Peter Urlich cook Kai!

Scrummy Karl Urban will be joining Chef Ann Thorp and Dancing With The Stars contestant and Th' Dudes frontman Peter Urlich to help her cook up ‘party kai’.

This is the last episode in the second series of Thorp's food show Kai Ora so she's inviting all her mates over to complete the programme with an all-time classic Maori waiata!

Kai Ora screens on Maori Television, Sunday February 24 at 7:00pm.



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Photos: Maori Television

Confirmed Dancing With The Stars 2008 Line Up

The final four dancers in the 2008 series of Dancing With The Stars returning in February to TVNZ have been confirmed.

Former Silver Fern Temepara George, actor and restaurateur Geeling Ng, radio DJ and musician Peter Urlich, and World Surf Ironman champion Cory Hutchings, will team up with professional dancers for this year's series.

The final four will join boxer Monty Betham, actor Miriama Smith, radio and TV presenter Martin Devlin, and performer Tina Cross, who were confirmed in December.

While I’m delighted that this year’s selection means that we no longer have to put up with politicians clumping their way around the dance floor, I am disappointed at the strong sports bias in the selection. I think Cory Hutchings will be magnificent. He is always extremely cheeky and entertaining when he appears on Game of Two Halves and he makes great eye candy, but the lack of a good cross selection of celebs concerns me.

In the final tally the selection is limited to:

• Four sporting personalities (Temepara George, Monty Betham and Cory Hutchings plus a sports DJ and Game of Two Halves panellist Martin Devlin),
• Two singers/musos (Peter Urlich and Tina Cross), a third celeb that appeared in a singer’s video (Geeling Ng appeared in David Bowie's China Girl),
• And the inevitable ex Shortland Street actress (Miriama Smith).

Yawn.

Update Professional Dancers:
We also have the exclusive list of the professional dancers for the 2008 series of Dancing With The Stars.

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Photos: TVNZ

NZ's Best & Worst Dressed Celebs

David Hartnell's Best & Worst Dressed List 2007 has been published in this week's NZ Woman's Weekly and as usual Miss Prozac wonders how he chooses the best dressed. Does he throw a dart at a board and pick the names out of a hat? The "supreme winners" are elegant dressers, and a decent bit of eye candy but some of the other contenders for Best Dressed are boring and umimaginative in their choice of clothes.

Best Dressed Woman:
Former Miss Universe and Dancing with the Stars champion Lorraine Downes

Best Dressed Man:
Hunky newsreader Eric Young

Also on the Best Dressed List

• Singer Hollie Smith who could only be well dressed if she covered those hideous tatts
• Pebbles Hooper, who dresses like some preppy school girl. Oh hang on a minute. She is a school girl.
• Singer Brooke Fraser who is so beautiful she could make a sack look attractive - which is handy because some of the clothes she wears bear a stunning resemblance to paper sacks
• Breakfast/Sunrise hosts Pippa Wetzell & Carly Flynn
• The recently engaged MTV Presenter and Model Amber Peebles also makes the list of stylish dressers and deservedly so but the pink leopard print dress in the accompanying photo has to be the ugliest thing Miss Prozac has ever seen her wear. It makes her look dumpy and frumpy.
• TV One's cute weather presenter Tamati Coffey
• Boring Bob Parker
• Lorraine Downe's partner Martin Crowe
• Shelton Woolright. Sigh. If lime green sneakers and a hoodie qualify one for the best dressed list then it's time for David Hartnell to hand over his crown to someone with 20/20 vision
• Shortland St actor Ben Mitchell who would like good in anything, and even better sans clothes
• Trendy Dancing with The Stars pro dancer and teacher Jonny Williams

Fashion Boo Boo award
Topping the worst dressed list is TV presenter Paul Holmes

Also making the worst dressed list:

• Publicity Hound Nicky Watson
• Journo Ingrid Leary
• TV personality Louise Wallace
• Lynda Topp (Camp Mother). Boo hiss. Miss Prozac likes Camp Mother and thinks her tacky clothing great comedy
• Labour MP Ruth Dyson
• Radio DJ Pauline 'Polly' Gillespie
• Weather presenter Jim Hickey
• Reality TV contestant John Horse McLeod
• Muso and Pop's Ultimate Star judge Peter Urlich
• TV presenter Mark Sainsbury
• Comedian Te Radar
• Radio and TV presenter Marcus Lush

Photos: TVNZ, infonews.co.nz

Bid on a night of dinner and dancing with Megan Alatini

Megan "I'm not cocky" Alatini and Jonny Williams from Dancing with the Stars, are offering to take you and a partner for a night of dinner and dancing to raise funds for Auckland City Mission. Bidding currently stands at $196, which is a bargain when you consider they are offering meals of up to $250.

Bidding closes tonight at 8:45pm.

The auction to spend an afternoon with Pop's Ultimate Star judge Peter Urlich to watch The Warriors sold for $700.

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P.U.S Awards Ceremony

Joe Cotton may have won the title of Pop's Ultimate Star, a Kia Rio, and $50,000, but everyone was a star, and they all deserve some recognition.

That's why we have come up with our very own Awards Ceremony.

The Piffler Award goes to Jordan Luck, for the most unintelligible dribble ever spurted forth on the show.

The Agreement Award goes to Harry Lyons, for the amount of times he agreed with Kim.

Kim Willoughby gets The Time Warp Award, for being firmly stuck in the 80's.

The Pacifier Award goes to Peter Urlich, for his timely interception in the argument between Harry and Matt.

The Personality Award goes to Dominic Bowden, because he doesn't have one.

Nik Carlson is the proud recipient of the Suave Ribbon, for excellent taste in shirts.

Camillia Temple did the best Banshee Interpretation, and gets a merit for that.

The people Most Likely To Appear On Another Reality Show are Joe Cotton and David Wikaira-Paul.

The person Most Likely To Deliver A Pizza is Ben Lummis. I wonder how long the pizza jokes will go on for?

Matt Saunoa is the person Most Likely To Have A Play Station In His Car.

Least Likely To Have A Singing Career was clearly Keri Harper.

Best Drag Queen Performance goes to Steve Broad, because he was seriously in the groove when he performed 'I Need You Tonight' by INXS.

Rosita Vai and Emily Williams deserve the Diva Award, because they were the best female vocalists of the series.

And finally Charlie, the female backing vocalist, gets the Hot Chick Award. No wonder the cameras shied away from her. She is quite stunning, and a great singer to boot.


If you'd like to suggest your own awards, let us know in the comments and we'll add them to the list. How about a Merit Award for Joe Cotton for Services to the Wonder Bra? Or an award to producers Touchdown for plumbing new lows in the reality television genre? All suggestions welcome!

Pop's Ultimate Star - You Decide!

Yes, you heard right. We always knew the judges were purely decorative, now we have proof. The result of Pop's Ultimate Star will be decided by your vote. So if, you have a favourite, get texting!

According to TVNZ:

There will be a lot of surprises, it will be a glamorous and glitzy event not to be missed.

The public will decide who is Pop’s Ultimate Star!

Glitz! Glamour! I guess our invites got lost in the post...

So there you have it, be prepared for some surprises. Our pick? We have often speculated that they will bring back Ben or Rosita as a surprise finalist.

Our wish?
We'd like the best singer to win, but we're not crossing our fingers. The judges have already eliminated Ben and Emily, who were widely expected to be in the final.

We'd also like to see the judges show what they're made of. We'd love to hear them sing some of the songs they assigned to the finalists, and show us their versatility, as we can't help but suspect that they would struggle with songs outside their genre. Perhaps Kim Willoughby could attempt 'Smile'? One message board regular 'trex' suggested the guys be given a Michael Bublé song. How about Jordan Luck or Peter Urlich attempts the mainly falsetto song by Silverchair, that got Steve Broad eliminated?


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Episode 4: Pop's Ultimate Scam
Episode 3: Pop's Ultimate Star Ultimately Confusing
Episode 2: Pop's Ultimate Star not Shining Yet
Episode 1: Pop’s Ultimate Yawn

Images: TVNZ

Pop's Ultimate Star gossip

Matt Saunoa's mystery envelope!
Matthew Saunoa was banned from SkyCity casino for receiving an unknown item in exchange for cash. The item was suspected to be drugs, although Big Matt stated that it was a packet of ciggies. There are a lot of questions over this incident, however it doesn’t appear to have affected voting.

Miss Prozac’s theory is that Matt was paying the guy to vote for him…

Nik’s desire for kids
Last week’s gossip mags ran the story of Nik Carlson and his best friend Sarah Jefferies, who live together in Henderson Valley. Nik is very attached to Sarah’s daughter Oceana Olsen and wants to have his own children some day, but doesn’t know how it will happen. Yes, folks they're just friends!

Miss Prozac’s helpful tip for Nik:
First, you find a man and a woman who are in lust, and then the two of them… Oh! Miss Prozac nods in understanding. Well, there’s always adoption, Nik.

Kim Willoughby’s love child
Last week’s NZ Woman’s Weekly included an interview with Temuera Morrison and his two children. Eldest lad James, the son of Pop’s Ultimate Star judge Kim Willoughby, is apparently a talented photographer. Tem recently split from partner Peata Melbourne, but is raising their child in his central North Island home.

Also, on the subject of Kim, Sunday News reports that she is reforming the band When The Cat's Away, sans Annie Crummer. Miss Prozac found that confusing, as the TVNZ website states:

Kim still performs regularly with her three bands When The Cat's Away, The Kim Willoughby Band and The Golden Kiwis, and runs a personal styling business in her home town of Napier.

Miss Prozac's prayer is that Kim closes her personal styling business, described as offering "real style for real people". After her television styling fiasco, where real people on Pop's Ultimate Star were dressed like caricatures from 80s rock shows, Miss Prozac is frightened to visit Napier.


Peter Urlich’s young fans
Boring, boring. The magazines must have been incredibly short of real news last week. They trotted out the story of Peter Urlich’s devotion to his sons and the joys of being able to spend time with them during the day.


Competitive Joe falling apart?
Did anyone else notice Joe Cotton complaining that it wasn’t fair for Emily and Matt to sing together? Rumour has it that our Joe is feeling the stress of being in the competition, performing with her band, and DJing on The Edge. She’s taking a break from radio until Pop’s Ultimate Star is over.

An interview in last month’s Herald on Sunday reported that the stress of the competition is affecting her with a breakout of a stress-related skin condition (psoriasis) and no time to wash or anything else… (is it smelly in here?)

A frank admission that she’s been wearing this make-up since Sunday night’s instalment of Pop’s Ultimate Star, and it’s Tuesday now.

Joe admits she’s put on some weight, but reckons she’s comfortable with herself as she is. Good on her - she's still beautiful. Of producers Eyeworks Touchdown she says:

If there's drama they're going to sniff it out and put it on TV

The article also contains an interesting titbit on celebrity earnings:

You know your status by the sums the magazines offer. If they offer you $8,000 for a photo shoot you know you’re OK. If they offer $1500 you know they’re
really scraping the barrel for an article that week.

Miss Prozac wonders how much she was paid to be on the cover of Herald on Sunday View?

Images: TVNZ

P.U.S: The Final Four Countdown.

This week, Joe Cotton, Matt Saunoa, Emily Williams, and Nik Carlson battle their wits against former friends to secure themselves a place as the top contenders of Pop's Ultimate Star.

Dig at Dom.
Yikes! Tonight's ensemble was tragedy, from top to bottom. That Rustic Brown (choccy brown) suit did nothing with the charcoal tie, and blue/gray shirt. And, honestly Dom, don't stand there looking like a dork. Lead the judges, instead of waiting for them to lead you.

Tonights Cover Girl Victim was Emily's little sister? Err. What?

The Group Song was Just Be Good To Me, by Mariah Carey and formerly by Beats International.

• Nik and Matt looked hot, hot, hot. But Joe's outfit was slightly marred by the ankle ribbons.
  
• Once again, Emily's tattoos' made her look too street gangsta. We don't like that.
• Vocally, no-one stood out, but it was mushy nice-ish.

Emily 'The Powerhouse' Williams came out with Since You've Been Gone, by Kelly Clarkson.

She started off with some shaky vocals, then burst out with her "I'm gonna knock you into next week" power notes. Unfortunately, she let herself down with unconvincing low tones. It was unstable at best.

Sorry Em, babe, but the outfit was really bad, and the hair, jewelery and make-up was a bit too weird. Nappy shorts and tight knickerbockers are a bad combo.

Tip: Long straight hair look so good on you. Less jumping, more singing.

6/10

Jordan said: I loved you singing low. I see victory.
(I say: Hmmm. Is that right?)

Peter said: Very strong. Especially the chorus. But there was a lack of control.
(I say: Wow. I agree. Shock horror!)


Joe Cotton sang Stop, by Jamillia, originally done by Tori Amos.

The dress was absolutely stunning, and complemented well by the dramatic dark hair, and earrings. Gorgeous.

I felt like Joe threw the vocals a bit beyond her range. This was the perfect song for her, but there was too much falsetto where it wasn't called for. She kind-of butchered the song in her attempt at showing off her abilities.

Tip: Use your natural capabilities to enhance the song. Don't force the notes.

7/10

Jordan said: That was magic. An under current of evil-ness.
(I say: Umm, have another drink Jordan.)

Kim asked: Were you nervous?
(Joe answered: As you know, I was nervous earlier.)
(I say: Yeah. It takes away from the judges comments when they have already seen you guys perform, doesn't it?)

Peter said: Even I know that wasn't your best performance.
(I say: Well clap-clap for you, Peter. Joe Bloggs could've said that too.)



Nik Carlson sang Beautiful Soul, by Jesse McCartney.

Very nice outfit. White tee, striped denim jacket, faded custom denim jeans. Lovely.

Knock-out vocals. It took a while for Nik to get into his groove, but when he did, it was flawless. Good use of the stage too.