The sun is shining, I'm avoiding studying and all is well in the world!

So I thought, in the name of summer and joy and study-avoidance, I'd share what's been on my iPod lately. Be warned, my taste in music is dire. You're going to have to go find them yourself, because illegal downloading is BAD.

The Dykeenies - Days Don't Slow Down
I just love them, and not just because of hot singer boy (I swear, I have no idea how I managed to get through the whole interview for Three's, which you can read here, without trying to propose or something). They also make some fab indie-pop. This was a B-side for their latest single, and a hint at what's to come with the new material. Excitement central.

One Night Only - It's About Time
Their singer is about 17 or something. I feel so old. Anyway, this is a nice song, good for bobbing your head about to like a deranged person, accompanied by the odd food-tap. It's one of those nice smilie songs that you find yourself singing at random. Can be embarrassing on public transport.

The La's - There She Goes
Who doesn't love this song? The only people that couldn't love this song would be those with no soul, such as Hitler and Piers Morgan. A favourite for bellowing along to with pals.

The Zutons - Valerie
Yes, the Zutons! It wasn't Miss Winehouse who did it first, you know. That was all karaoke. This one reminds me of a couple of summers ago, and we'd all point at Gillian whenever it came to the chorus. "Everyone's going to think that's my name!" Yes, we get that, love. That's why we're doing it.

The Libertines - Death on the Stairs
This is my favourite 'dance about bedroom like a loonball whilst getting ready to go out' song. Excellent. I didn't used to like the Libertines, but something inside of me cracked and I saw the light.

Idlewild - Stay the Same
I wouldn't want to be 16/17 again, but this is what this song reminds me of. And it is excellent. Roddy Woomble, you are a legend. Mostly because your surname is Woomble, but your music is also quite fab.

The Enemy - Technodancaphobic
Try spelling that one first time without any mistakes. I like The Enemy. They are apparently very short, but they make really good songs. This is another good one for a bit of a bum-wiggle.

We Are Scientists - After Hours
I think I've made my feelings known on We Are Scientists' Keith Murray before, haven't I? If not, he's gooorgeous. Almost McDreamy/Clooney goooorgeous. That's a whole lot of good-looking energy there. That aside, his band also make some fab music. Their newest album, Brain Thrust Mastery, is amazing, but this, the first single, is possibly the high point. Although, if you listen to Radio 1, chances are you hate it by now. I blame Jo Whiley.

The Sunshine Underground - Put You In Your Place
I hadn't listened to this lot in ages, but this cropped up on shuffle one day, and I am once more addicted. I love this song. It has an infectious, shoutalong chorus, and while not terribly 'different', it's incredibly catchy.

Bored now! Going to make a list of studying to be done...

The title is as it is because, readers, I'm sorry. I just thought I'd say it before I get started. And also because it's the title of a song from a certain band...

I've been so good for so long. I haven't mentioned them in weeks. In fact, I've barely thought of them in weeks. The only reminder really is the little row of vinyl above my desk and the calendar to my left. Yes, boys and girls, I'm talking about McFly.

For those of you who remember The Column (I capitalise it now to give it much more importance that it probably deserves), you might think of my obsession with a certain boyband. They have, however, been off the raidar for quite a while now, so all McFly-related thoughts have been banished, in the name of listening to music that could almost pass as credible (shut it, you. Yes, I do mean you. You know who you are) and spending time studying/seeing my friends rather than practicing my signature for when I marry Harry.

I never did that. Well, I haven't done it in years anyway, so it hardly counts...

Way back when I was a teenage columnist (wow, autobiography title right there!), it was the days of the Room on the 3rd Floor album. Five Colours in her Hair, Obviously, That Girl and the title track. Feel good pop, bordering on plagarising the Beach Boys now and then, with more than a generous helping of influence from James-Bourne-from-Busted. In other words, they sounded like Baby Busted.

Just as the column ended, I met the boys after an afternoon hanging about outside a radio station, and since then I've seen them live with my very own eyes four times. Not a great deal, yes, I'll give you that. But I live in Scotland and they seem to not like coming up here.

Next came Wonderland, their attempt at 'serious' music - in other words, they hired an orchestra and Harry started dating one of the violinists. Then there was Motion in the Ocean, which reverted back to the McFly of old.

Possibly with a little bit of help from the record company bosses, disappointed not to have album number two hit the top spot in the charts.

However, they did disappear for a while. There was the Greatest Hits tour, followed by the album, the DVD, and then... Nothing.

Whatever happened to McFly?

Turns out (as we crazy, obsessed McFly fans have actually known for months but was only really confirmed in the press this week), McFly 'ditched' their record company, Universal Island and are setting up on their own.

No longer will they be doing what the money men say! They'll be able to push, er, creative boundaries and do it on their own! It's like the Nouvelle Vague in French cinema, but with baggy jeans and questionable haircuts.

And so 'Super Records' has been born. For the first time in their career, McFly are going to be playing as themselves. Not as the pop puppets that Island made them to be. Not that there was anything wrong with those pop puppets, in my eyes. But when you hear them play live, you do notice the difference - it's marginal, but it was probably all that they could get away with under the watchful eyes of the bosses.

I haven't waffled enough yet, no. My next thought - what direction will New Wave McFly go in?

Having watched pretty much every McFly interview that existed on YouTube up until about a year and a half ago, it can be confirmed that the four of them are absolutely nuts. Which is why I'm scared for them.

They're going to end up releasing an album influenced entirely by Star Wars. Or enlisting the help of the people behind Star Wars. We all saw what happened when they tried to get 'serious' with the Wonderland album, the Ballad of Paul K and She Falls Asleep. It was the exact reason why Island made McFly re-release Room on the 3rd Floor and call it Motion in the Ocean, for God's sake.

I've heard a leak from the new material (well, that's what it said it was on YouTube, and I trust the internet, me), an unpolished slice of what's to come from McFly HQ. I really can say that now and imagine their record label offices with Tom in a suit and glasses, feet up on the desk, smoking a cigar while the other three rund around doing some filing...

But anyway. It's all right. It's nothing really that groundbreaking. It still sounds like McFly, but they've had a shot at swearing. It's a bit odd. I could almost see them sitting round a table, engaging in the songwriting process and thinking of new ways to be grown-up McFly, ballsy McFly, the sort of McFly that mums won't be pleased with and they got as far as 'shit'. Scary.

It'll be interesting though. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes, really. Well, I won't find out until the end of the summer, I suppose, seeing as all the new stuff will be happening while I'm off in America.

The first stunt from 'new look McFly' will be on our TV screens on Tuesday, as McFly guest-chef on Gordon Ramsay's The F Word. Yes, more opportunities for effing and jeffing as poor Chef Gordan, as the Americans call him, tries to get them to cook.

Goodbye Saturday morning kids shows, hello post watershed cookery show!

Well, every image overhaul has to start somewhere... Right?

It's green now!

And I have an exam in three hours. Excellent stuff. I'm rooting for 40%. I just want to pass, I don't care if it's a crappy pass. A pass is all I need.