James Blunt releases new album on same day as Adele – and ‘paradise’ hosts beer TV show | News about Ant-Man & Art

James Blunt must have been very difficult.

He lives in Ibiza, has sold 20 million albums, and owns a pub in Chelsea.

As if things weren’t so bad yet, he’s now getting paid to enjoy beer on TV.

Not everything is purely hunky-dory. He hints at a tough course, and the “pressure” of being stuck within the “four walls”.

First, though, beer.

“I thought I had died and gone to heaven,” Blunt said of Beer Masters, new to Amazon Prime.

Performance – a kind of liquid Bake off, looking for a home brew good enough for commercial production – launched at an exciting time for beer lovers.

There has been an explosion of new breweries in the UK over the past decade, churning out a multitude of styles ranging from table beers (about 3% alcohol) to tart and pastry beers.

The latter is essentially a dessert in the glass – strong stout with side ingredients like chocolate, coffee, and almonds.

Where the Master Beers differ from MasterChef and The Great British Bake Off is in its format.

There are five pairs of home brewers and each has a chance to win gold, silver or bronze each week. No one left.

In one of the episodes, they are tasked with brewing a beer that goes well with a certain food – chili, brie, anchovies, dark chocolate, or strawberries.

And the show is international, with contestants from Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Italy and the UK.

Blunt says it’s a “celebration of our differences and our culture”.

He clearly enjoys drinking his beer, saying that his mantra while on tour is “don’t eat, just drink”.

And while Beer Masters will be a journey for the contestants, it’s clearly been for him as well.

Before presenting it to brewer Jaega Wise, he admits “going out for a beer is a cheap pale ale”.

But the show “really opened up to me the difference in beer and the choices out there,” he added, referencing the Belgian Monastery’s beers and wines – the likes of which “I never imagined I would like it.”

Does he sometimes drink too much?

“As a touring artist, how do you slow down after a performance?” he mused.

“And as a public one has to socialize, and now I’ve got my own TV show about beer.”

He joked that he was “pickpocketing” himself, asking: “Is there any other way for you to keep your youthful look?”

He describes himself – several times in our conversation – as a “touring musician”. It is clearly central to his identity, and so the pandemic cannot be an easy time for him.

When the first lip-lock happened, he was “so sad” about giving up on what was meant to be a year-long tour after just a month.

“It was horrible that my tour was cut,” he said. “We went all the way to Germany and then had to bring the band and crew back home.”

A collection of his biggest hits, released this weekend, includes some new songs written in lockdown – songs he calls “four songs”.

He hopes that one of them – Love Under Pressure – will help people “get in touch with the pressure we all feel trapped within the four walls of our homes during lockdown.” .

Called The Stars At My Feet, the album was released on the same day as 30 by Adele.

Anyone who has browsed Blunt’s Twitter feed will know he has a sense of humour, and he says he’s “very worried” that Adele’s sales might suffer in competition with him. that.

He added that Taylor Swift’s latest collection (Red, Taylor’s Version), which is also due out on November 19, has been pushed back by a week, “completely understandably”, to avoid competition. fight with him.

Swift and her record label were “panic,” he said, deadpan.

As for Adele, she’s “certainly worried”.