If you’re a gamer and a bit of a karaoke whore, I’m sure the next Xbox game, Lips: Number One Hits, has you quivering in your socks. While you may be familiar with Lips, its hotter and more “down with the kids” younger sister, Lips: Number One Hits is sure to please. Perfect for house parties, corporate events and even those nights in by yourself, Lips: Number One Hits is one of the coolest games I’ve seen in a while.

Obviously, it’s not a hardcore shoot ‘em up type game, and even someone who’s never played on an Xbox before can be good at it. (Which is why I like it.) The game features 40 of the biggeset and best “chart smashes” spanning over the last 20 years, so you have your GaGa and your Lily Allen, but there’s also songs from the Pet Shop Boys, Culture Club, and even MC Hammer. Awww yeaaaaah.

To celebrate the launch of this exciting game, James Morrison, whose overly-played duet with Nelly Furtardo ‘Broken Strings’ is featured on the game, agreed to try his luck at singing… well, his own song.

This is something you’d assume would be pretty easy to do, but when I spoke to James after his set, he wasn’t exactly loving his performance. Although he says he loves having his song on the game for other people to sing, when I asked if he found singing ‘Broken Strings’ on LNOH ‘awesome’ he groaned and swiftly replied: “It wasn’t awesome at all! I was really embarrassed, I felt like I was doing Karaoke or something! It was hard, it hard…”

Despite the fact that it was embarrassing and hard for James to get up and sing his own song, I recall he reached the ‘Super Nova’ level. And that’s pretty high up there on Lips: Number One Hits, especially considering James had to sing the duet on his own, sans Nelly. As he put it, there was “too much J-Mo and not enough Nelly.” I was more than happy to step in and take Nelly’s place, but for some reason this wasn’t allowed.

While most celebrity endorsements seem forced and unrealistic – as if Davina really uses Garnier Fruitrisse on her hair to get rid of “all your greys, Mum” – Morrison is seriously into his Xbox. He explained that he has an Xbox at home and that he even took Guitar Hero on tour with him. “I tried to take Rock Band but it never came out of the box because no one was arsed to play it, but I wanted to play it.”

As far as games go, Morrison says he’s into Splintercell and a “couple of other games”, but that he stays away from World of Warcraft-like games as he’s “got quite an addictive personality” and has to “be careful with games”.

I suggested that his girlfriend must love this, and he says that the Xbox thing was originally his girlfriend’s idea, “Yeah, she’s not too happy about it now. But I don’t really play as much as I haven’t got time, really.” Sure, sure. That’s what they all say.

Curiously, despite being in to his gaming, Morrison says that he’s “not that technological”. Is he an iPhone or Blackberry guy? “I have a 3 phone. It’s like a touchscreen one. It’s alright.” Is he into his gadgets? “Not really, I mean, I don’t mind ‘em. I’ve got a nice laptop and an iPod and stuff and a Bluetooth kit for my car but I’ve never put it in!”

And what about Twitter? Facebook? “No no no, I hate Twitter, and Facebook…I just think it’s not the same really. If everyone just talked to me like a normal bloke, I’d go on there.” Ah yes, otherwise you’d have OMGJamesMorrison fans, eh? “Yeah, I don’t bother going on and talking about day-to-day stuff ‘cause they would just like analyze it or whatever.” Which is fair enough, and when I pointed out that his Facebook statuses would just end up being headlines in The Daily Mail, he laughs and agrees, “Or some other depressing paper…”

Surprisingly, despite being “old fashioned” and liking things “simple”, J-Mo is a big fan of Eminem, as you may have seen him recently singing the rapper’s praises on the 4Music ‘The World’s Greatest Popstars’ program. Morrison says Relapse is the last album he bought, as he finds Eminiem “well good” and “wicked”.

Yes, James Morrison says “well good” and if that doesn’t endear you to him right away, I don’t know what will. He really is just a chill, laid back guy. How many other stars do you know who would get up and sing karaoke, on a video game, to their own hit song? He’s so laid back and down to earth that the only diva-like request I could tell that Morison had was that a cup of tea on stage and ready and waiting for him.

From PG Tips to Assam to “even a bit of Earl Grey”, Morison likes his tea. “Straight forward tea is good. PG Tips is good enough for me, man.” One or two? “Two sugars. Every time.” So the guy says “well good”, loves his tea, and is good looking chill? What’s not to like?

But, if all that still didn’t win you over, this might: “I can bake!” Despite not being “a great chef”, Morrison says he can make a “good roast, a curry, and a chilli” as well as baking. Be still your heart. “Well, I’ve got a sweet tooth, you see, so the first thing I learned how to make was cakes, doughnuts and stuff like that.”

When my eyes widened with awe and breathed “oh my god doughnuts” at Morrison, he nodded with understanding: doughnuts are a bitch to make. “Doughnuts are pretty tough, to be honest I don’t know how to make them by heart yet, but they’re really tough. I’m not even going to get into it, but it’s hard.”

From what I can tell, James Morrison is as kind and chill as he is talented.

The crowd at the Lips: Number One Hits launch party absolutely loved his rendition of Broken Strings – so much so that a vast majority of the guests in attendance chose to sing that song on the Lips set-up they had in the back of the venue. (That, and far too many butchering of ‘Just Dance’.)

Written by Cate Sevilla

-back to top-