Last night, Darrin and I went to a charity screening of Africa United. The film (in association with Comic Relief) is about three Rwandan children who walk 3,000 miles to the World Cup in South Africa.

We were both really impressed by the film, so make sure you see it! It is a bit of a tear jerker, so be warned!

The venue for the screening was The Lexi Cinema in Kensal Rise (North London). It is an amazing independant cinema which donates all profits to a charity in a village just outside Cape Town, South Africa. Darrin noted down the details for the charity and is hoping to visit to see what they are doing when he heads back to South Africa in a couple of weeks. The charity teaches local children about film production, keeping them occupied and providing them with employable skills to offer an alternative to street gangs and crime.

If you get a chance, we highly recommend visiting The Lexi Cinema as it has a very intimate atmosphere with great independent films showing regularly, and of course because it is for a very good cause! Visit the website for more information at www.thelexicinema.co.uk

Lots of love.

Pob xx

It’s no secret that I’m a very keen video game enthusiast, so when the call came through to invite Boy Banned along to the launch party tomorrow night for XBox’s new release from the Halo series, I literally jumped for joy.

Ethan and I regularly battle it out on shoot-em-ups after rehearsals and in our spare time, with an “official challenge” last month crowning me as the best gamer! Although I must admit that the battles since have been very closely fought. So maybe tomorrow with a fresh game in our hands we can see who really is the best.

Having watched us play at the apartment, Darrin is a keen learner to gaming so is very excited to practice his skills at the launch of Halo Reach and try and get up to speed with us both so we can expand our battles to include him in the fun.

Unfortunately David is abroad on holiday and comes back after the event so will be missing out on the launch party, but the rest of us will do plenty of gaming to make up for his absence!

A big thank you to XBox for the invites and we can’t wait to be there!

Pob x

I thought I’d take some time out to write a bit about our gigs over Bank Holiday Weekend earlier this week. It’s a long one…sorry!

Firstly I think I should say a MASSIVE thank you to all of you who sent messages of support on twitter and facebook. You all know who you are. We tried to respond to as many as we could, and apologise to those who were trying to find out where they could meet us. We had interviews after our performance and couldn’t check our mail. It was overwhelming how many people have been in touch over the past couple of weeks, so thank you all!

We did an all day rehearsal on Saturday until the late hours to make sure we were ready for the gigs, and then after a nice mini lie-in on Sunday and some X Factor on catch up, we all met up before heading on down to Southampton.

After checking into our hotel we went to the club (where The Wanted performed just a few weeks ago!) for our sound check, and became acquainted with the size of stage for our routines. Then after a nice big dinner we returned to the club to do our set at The Edge in Southampton where we were greeted by a very friendly crowd. A big thank you to all the staff at The Edge who looked after us so well, and to all those who came to meet us afterwards. We met some great people that night and would love to come back and see you all again in the future.

We all unwisely ended up watching the Xtra Factor in our hotel rooms when we returned, despite having to be up for our flight to Manchester in less than 5 hours. So with big sunglasses covering our eyes, we all boarded the plane on Monday morning ready to get psyched up for the mainstage at Manchester Pride! David and Darrin attempted to sleep whilst Ethan and I were amazed by the views over England on the way up north.

Once in Manchester we destroyed our breakfasts and went to get ready at our own private apartment. Before we knew it we were on stage in front of a great crowd of people who were dancing along with our tracks and making us forget all about how tired we were! It wasn’t until we returned to our apartment that the exhaustion kicked in and we collapsed on the sofas.

But that wasn’t the end of the day. We had a couple of video interviews to get through before heading all the way back to London where our beds were calling our names.

We had a great weekend and once again would like to thank everyone involved with making it such a good time for us, whether you messaged us, supported us in person or were working at the venues, you were all fantastic.

I made a little handycam diary over the 3 days, so expect a little video early next week of what we got up to behind the scenes.

Our next gig is Monday 20th September at Popshow in London. See www.facebook.com/boybanned for more details.

Pob x

We had a late night last night rehearsing our routines and getting them polished in time for our UK gigs in less than a weeks time, and tonight we are having a party at our stylists salon…whilst he cuts our hair! Music, drinks, food, and haircuts. Perfect way to spend an evening! Expect lots of photos this time tomorrow…

We also have decided a list of tracks to make up our debut album! We all sat down around the computer last night and listened through a huge list of available tracks and came to an agreement on our favourites. Over the next few months we will fit the recording for the album around our gigs and make sure we get a great record made for you all to buy and enjoy!

For all of you in and around the Southampton area, you can catch us onstage at midnight performing at The Edge in Southampton on Sunday 29th August before we rush off to Manchester Pride where we are on the mainstage at 2:15pm alongside Same Difference, Adam Rickitt, Beverley Knight, and the legendary Four Poofs And A Piano!

See you all soon!

Pob x

We have just completed recording our two new tracks! There are now lots of tired (but happy) people involved with these tracks heading home to sleep, but I thought I’d quickly write a little blog to touch base.

We now have a beautiful ballad and a full on dance track to add to our initial three tracks that we recorded for our Berlin debut, and now we begin our UK promotion whilst working on more material over the next few months.

Whilst the others were busy singing into the microphone, I made a friend in the garden of the studio…

Except, after playing with me for ages, my new friend didn’t seem to want to let me prove my friendship existed for the camera…

For the past few weeks we have been tucked away working on various secret things that we haven’t been able to blog about, but over the next few weeks the Boy Banned Blog will be a hive of activity as we work on our new songs, have dance rehearsals, recording sessions and photoshoots in the build up to our first UK gigs.

This month we are appearing at The Edge nightclub in Southampton on Sunday 29th August (it’s a Bank Holiday before you accuse us of being crazy doing a Sunday gig!) and then we are flying up to Manchester the following morning to appear at Manchester Pride’s “Pop Day” alongside Beverley Knight, Adam Rickitt…in fact just click here to see the whole line-up!

We are really excited to do some gigs in the UK, and will keep you updated with all relevant news on our progress. If you aren’t already, you can become a fan of us on facebook by clicking this link here.

See you soon!

Pob x

Keep your eyes peeled for some very exciting announcements this week too…I can’t say anything more at this moment, but you will find out soon enough!

It’s too early to be up after last nights epic recording session!

We were at the studio well into the late hours of the night laying our vocals down for our brand new track “Hot Spot”

This track is very different to our previous tracks as they were all produced with Berlin in mind for our debut. This has less of a Euro-Pop feel, and we will be performing it later this summer once we have completed our set extension and choreography (which will be full on for this song!)

Whilst I was recording my vocals, David and Darrin had a little falling out over the flapjacks…

The ‘Pob’ Diet is taking L.A. *the office* by storm.

Want to know how to look at your peak all year round and have that beach perfect body to make everyone stop and stare?

Here is a the daily guide to Pob’s dietary intake…

• Chocolate Spread on toast
• Bag of 5 Rolo Cookies
• Tuna & Cucumber Baguette (large)
• Large can of energy drink
• Bag of mini cheddars
• Pizza
• Strawberry milkshake made with real strawberries (and vanilla ice cream and lots of sugar)
• ‘Fab’ ice-lolly
• Candy Floss (Freshly made!)
• Sweet & Sour Chicken with noodles/rice

Reward Yourself:

Unlike most fad diets, you can still reward yourself after all that torture.

Ahoy!

If you are wondering “Where have those lovely boys from Boy Banned gone?” then I have the answer for you.

We have gone quiet because we are working on extending our set with some new songs, and next week we start recording the newest track.

We have a few UK gigs over the next couple of months (more info on them soon) and once we have added our new tracks onto our set list we will be working hard with as many live performances as we can fit in to our schedule!

See you soon!

Pob x

So last night I was invited along to the World Premiere of Leonardo DiCaprio’s brand new film “Inception” at Leicester Square.

I went along with our media expert (Dom) and walked along the red (it was actually blue) carpet STRAIGHT past Leonardo himself without realising it until Dom looked horrified at me at how not-bothered I was to pass inches from him!

We ended up sitting just a few seats away from my personal fave Pixie Lott and actor Dominic Cooper, but all I wanted to focus on was the free popcorn!

The film itself was very clever and I highly recommend it to you all to go and see!