I wish I was on Ken Bruce (With rotation on Jo Whiley)

Sandi Thom's heart-string-tugging video complaining that she wasn't on Radio 2 got a bit overshadowed by events last weekend.

To be fair, 'Sandi Thom posts self-pitying video to Facebook' is the sort of story which would have been overshadowed by reports of a fifteen-minute delay to services on the Cambridge guided busway, so it's not surprising her pleas for fairness didn't get full attention as stories started to come in from Paris.

Thom has, in case you missed it, pulled a Status Quo, assuming she had some sort of divine right to be on Radio 2's playlist with her new single. Her birthright denied her, she has elected to stop making music (or, in other words, bring her life into line with the position we'd assumed she'd reached several years back):

“I am done with this industry. I am fucking sick and tired of having to sit on the edge of my seat waiting for these people to come back and tell me their verdict of whether this song is going to be a success,” she said in the video, which was later taken down from the social network.

"Honest to God I'm fucking sick to death of the bullshit this industry pulls on people like me and I've had it. Enough. I'm done.

"Fuck you Radio 2. Fuck you Bauer network and fuck the lot of you."

The suggestion that maybe she might try to make a better single next time seems to have passed her by.

Are Radio 2 being unfair? Not really; Thom hasn't released a single since 2013; she hasn't scraped the top 40 singles since 2006; and nobody's bothered to update the list of her albums on Wikipedia since 2012. It's not really Radio 2 saying that the new record won't be a success; it's the form book.

What's especially toothsome about this whole thing is that Thom was launched - well, relaunched - as a vanguard of How The Internet Changes Things, with those live stream sessions in her basement online years back. I say "her basement" - notably, the basement was constructed on the same backlot they used to fake the moon landings. But to go from sitting on MySpace disrupting the music industry to swearing on Facebook because the music industry has disrupted you back is the circle of life.

As you'd expect, Thom has received a backlash, some of which has been bullying and unfair, some of it fair comment. Thom seems vaguely surprised there was any response at all. She told The National:

“A lot of the people commenting were men and a lot of them, which is sad to me, were Scottish.

I'm not sure Thom really would prefer it if people who didn't like her came exclusively from Wales.

“It has been mad. I had to tell myself not to take a lot of it personally. I have been here before and I didn’t do anything to deserve it – it just feels like ‘round two, ding ding’. It’s tough for my family – my mum has really struggled with reading some of the things about me.

That must be hard, and - this being the internet - a lot of people went too far, too harshly, and too quickly. But...

Thom, who plays in London tonight, added: “I’m pretty outspoken, I don’t tend to teeter round the edges and smile in all the right places. It’s easier to say nothing than it is to speak out.

You can't, surely, put a video out telling the BBC, the commercial networks and "the lot of you" to get fucked, and praise yourself for being blunt speaking and unafraid to take a stand, while also complaining that people take a stand back at you, can you?

“I was called a brat – I’ve worked my arse off for years and these people don’t appreciate that. They don’t know about my life and how hard I’ve worked.

But this is, sadly, irrelevant. The guy who plays the drums night after night after night on a cabaret cruise liner is also working really hard in music, but that doesn't mean that Chris Evans should have him on the programme to drum. And if you're putting so much effort in, and not getting anywhere... well, it's harsh, but maybe you're wasting that effort?

“I don’t know how many people have messaged me privately and said they agree, but they won’t say it publicly. Everybody shoots the messenger.”

This is a lovely - the implication that there might be thousand upon thousand of secret Thom supporters, quivering in seclusion; uncountable even to Thom such are their numbers.

It might have been better if she'd not accidentally implied that she'd shot the people who had contacted her via Messenger, but let's set that aside and just breathe in that claim:

Everybody shoots the messenger.

This is often true; but it's a phrase usually used when a person has attempted to reveal something unpleasant but important. Thom seems to think that "waaah waaah Radio 2 won't play my song" is a communication on a par with the dangers of thalidomide, or the risk of global warming, or bullying in the Tory Party, or sexual misconduct in the Liberal Democrats.

She seems to be saying that the people who responded to her video by comparing her to Les from Creme Brulee are punishing her because the truth that Jeremy Vine won't be cueing her up to lead into a discussion of the Autumn Spending Review is a truth too harsh for us to look at directly.

Maybe time will prove her right.

(It won't.)

Sandi Thom takes a while to settle a bill

Back in April 2014, Sandi Thom played Egremont Market Hall in Cumbria.

It's taken a while for the council to get the money for the hire of the venue:

Egremont councillor, Elaine Woodburn, said they tried to contact the singer but had no luck in getting a response about the money owed.

“We e-mailed her agent and messaged her on Facebook and Twitter but we never got anything back,” said Coun Woodburn.

It's all a terrible mistake, apparently.

hen The Whitehaven News contacted Sandi Thom about the unpaid bill she replied in an e-mail saying: “My colleague had posted the cheque to the council months ago and if the council has not received it, then it was simply a mistake and perhaps got lost in the post. I’d be more than happy to pay them if they haven’t received the cheque and I look forward to playing the Maryport festival in July when I return to that neck of the woods.”

The cheque got lost in the post - presumably sometime around 1973 when people used to pay bills by sending cheques through the post. And presumably the emails also got lost in the post. And then the Facebook and Twitter messages - why, you know what the Royal Mail's like for not getting those to the places on the envelopes.

Still, nice work for Sandi on turning a consumer journalism story into a chance to plug a forthcoming gig.

And has the bill been paid yet?

Geraldine Pritchard, Egremont Town Council’s financial officer, said: “Since being contacted by The Whitehaven News, Sandi Thom has contacted us asking for our bank details to pay the money. No cheque had been sent to us otherwise it would have been cashed but hopefully we will get the money soon.”

Not quite.

Even Sandi Thom has problems at her own gigs

Sandi Thom had trouble during her weekend date at The Green Hotel in Kinross, when it was all hot and all. That's date as in gig; not that she'd gone out with the son of the woman on the deli counter at the Co-Op:

In a series of posts on Twitter.com, she writes, "Last night's show in Kinross was possibly the hottest gig I've ever played. To say I was burning is an understatement... And to then discover that the air vents were covered up with cling film was outrageous. I literally could not breathe... For a girl who sings her a** off & plays harmonica constantly I need my air on stage!! I am calling health and safety. It's just not right!"

It might have cooler - no pun intended - had she actually called health & safety from the stage; a musician getting their own gig closed down would have probably been more noteworthy than a series of post-event Tweets that sound a little bit overwrought. (Literally not breathing, Sandi? Burning "an understatement"?)

If it was that bad, why didn't she say something while she was on stage?

Sandi Thom: Condensed

James T emails with exciting news:

I hope you're as excited about this as I am. Sandi Thom is finally releasing her Greatest Hits! I'm surprised they managed to condense it down to just *one* CD, but I'm glad they're giving it a summer release to prevent a witch-hunt after she beats the inevitable 15 Jackson compilations to number 1. Full story (just as tongue in cheek as this email) at Popjustice.

They've managed, somehow, to find 18 tracks for the album. Actually, 17, because the only song that anyone remembers is on there twice (I Wish I Was A Punkrocker - no, the one you were thinking of was probably KT Tunstall).

They've got a "live from the basement" track in the mix - you'll vaguely remember that Thom was launched as some sort of internet powerhouse who was self-made in her own basement with a webcam, until the story started to unravel and it turned out to be a PR stunt, so it's nice to remember that happy time.

There's also a song called When Horsepower Meant What It Said - which, erm, would be ever since the term was invented, as it's a measure of the amount of work a horse could do and only makes sense as a comparison figure for machines.

Still, the upside of all this is it sounds like a recording contract being tidily finished up, doesn't it?

Sandi Thom, it's been too long

Thanks to David E for bringing Sandi Thom's interview in today's Metro to our attention.

When the question about those webcasts comes up, Sandi doesn't blink:

Some people have said the stories about your webcasts are overhyped. What do you make of that?

I just try to remember the good times. When we were doing those webcasts we were all staying in the same house. I don’t pay attention to the mean things people have said, I just think of the fun we had doing it.

Well, yes, you probably did have fun doing it, and you might not want to think about the "mean" things people said - which, of course, boiled down to the supposed DIY webcasts being actually part of a PR blitz; that the spikes of interest came after the stories circulated to the press about the supposed popularity of the shows; that she'd already signed a publishing deal before being "discovered" singing into a webcam from her basement, and so on. "We had fun, people are mean" is hardly much of a defence of the Thom camp's position.

Sandi also makes clear her position on Scottish politics:

Scotland should be its own country in the European Union. We’re not going to tow Scotland away in a tugboat; I just think Scotland should be more independent than it is now. I think it’ll happen one day. I’m very proud of being Scottish.

We're delighted to have the big question on Scottish independence clarified - we had always assumed that should Scotland secede, there'd be men with chisels along the north edge of Cumbria and Northumberland chip, chip, chipping away while the tugs were steaming.

Mind you, of course Sandi's not going to be tugging Scotland off anywhere. As she's just revealed, she loves the country so much, she's made her home in, erm, Brighton.

And who would Sandi talk to if she could speak to anyone who had passed over to the other side?

JFK. I’d want to know who shot him. He may not know but I’m sure he’d have a better suspicion than we would. I’m not convinced it was Lee Harvey Oswald.

Clearly JFK's instincts on his assassination should be trusted. Although they weren't so sharp that he put the car's roof up when he went to Dallas, were they?

Sandi Thom reveals marketing plan B

Since the "internet superstar" angle is a busted flush now, how on earth can Sandi Thom flog her second album?

Hey! How about naked pictures in a magazine? That'll work, right?

Sadi Thom takes it on board

Apparently, the criticism of her last album has shaped Sandi Thom's new one:

"I've learned to take criticism better and grown a thicker skin," Thom told the Daily Record. "Some of the songs were inspired by criticism from the media."

She can't have taken too much on board, though, otherwise she wouldn't have made a second album, would she?

Thom suggests the whole stunt which launched her was a bit of a mistake:

"The webcasts were a great thing to happen but they overshadowed the music. It was unfortunate. I want this album to wipe the slate clean. Just listen to the songs. There's nothing contrived, it's just about the music."

So, that would seem to admit the whole of the first album - from the 'unsigned basement sessions' onwards - was contrived.

Thom smashes hotel room

Well done, Sandi Thom: smashing up a hotel room and throwing wine around. That'll show people how rock and roll you are. If we're using "rock and roll" in its strict sense of "not giving a shit about the minimum wage slaves who are going to have to clean up after your few minutes of fun", of course.

Sandi Thom does a lot of good work for charity

To be honest, we'd have thought that the time to announce a charity concert is when you've organised it, rather than when you're thinking about doing so, but Sandi Thom knows the PR industry better than we do:

"I'm organising a gig for EDA, the only charity associated with eating disorders."

The only charity? Apart from SWEDA, of course. And Anorexia Bulimia Care. And the British Nutrition Foundation. And the work MIND does, too, of course.