Former regional press journalist Kim Dawson is the music editor of the Daily Star’s Playlist column, which runs Monday-Saturday and online at dailystar.co.uk
Her blog can be found by clicking on comments then blogs. Here she tells how she is now rubbing shoulders with the stars…

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When I left the Aberdeen Evening Express seven years ago many of my former colleagues were quick to say I’d be back with my tail between my legs in six months.

“She’ll out-grow pop music,” they said. Well, last night I was partying with Jennifer Lopez and still loving every second.

Leaving regional life behind might seem scary to some but I was ambitious and anxious to make it in the big smoke so after a stint of work experience at the now sadly defunct Live & Kicking Magazine I got my big break.

The editor put me forward for a job his girlfriend was leaving on a website. That went under during the dotcom boom on my 21st birthday, six weeks after I moved to London incidentally, so I joined Teletext a month later.

It was there I made every event count – sourcing contacts and networking lead me to my next port of call and current workplace the Daily Star.

Making it in the media scene in London is all about who you know.

Paris

If you work hard, are prepared to sacrifice your personal time to work late and talk to the right people you can climb the ladder.

Now I’m on first name terms with many of the artists I write about purely from engaging them in a professional relationship.

Don’t break an act’s trust and they’ll keep giving you exclusives. Simple.

This year I’ve kept schtum about some things and because the artists respect that they’ve given me equally as good stories in return. Plus they’ll keep coming.

Take That

For Take That to know my name is incredible and to be personally invited to join them on their album launch on a private jet blew my mind.

Even more so when Mark Owen insisted on getting me a ticket for their Audience With Show a few days later – and it was front row.

Last week Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson congratulated me on my promotion to getting my own music column in the Star and said he noted the new name of the page Playlist and always reads it.

Hard-Fi, Kasabian’s Tom Meighan, Cheryl ‘Girls Aloud’ Cole and KT Tunstall are all ‘showbiz pals’ – and my feet are still on the ground.

I might have a few more dark circles under my eyes than when I worked in Aberdeen but I’ve got my dream job and it led to me meeting my soulmate boyfriend and better, supportive friends than I ever could have imagined.

And I still love pop.

Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos

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