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For music fans planning a getaway, North Carolina mountains vacation rentals near Asheville provide excellent lodging for anyone who wants to hear live music in world-class venues.

The Grey Eagle (828-232-5800), a smoke-free venue open to all ages, is considered one of the best listening rooms in the country and features a wide range of nationally and regionally touring artists in many genres. Located at 185 Clingman Avenue in Asheville’s River Arts District downtown, The Grey Eagle also features Twin Cousins Kitchen, featuring Southern Louisiana cuisine by native New Orleans chef Arthur Douglas. Noted artists who have performed at The Grey Eagle include Leon Redbone, The Bottle Rockets, The Wood Brothers, Iris Dement and Lori McKenna.

While North Carolina mountains vacation rentals are located in prime areas known to draw thousands of visitors each year, The Orange Peel Social Aid & Pleasure Club (828-225-5851) is a mountain destination in and of itself. In the heart of downtown Asheville at 101 Biltmore Avenue, the venue has been voted one of the top five rock clubs in the country by Rolling Stone magazine. Some of the artists who have appeared there include Bob Dylan, The Flaming Lips, Ben Harper, Blondie, Spoon, Sonic Youth, My Morning Jacket, Dinosaur Jr., Smashing Pumpkins, and many others.

Also downtown, The Diana Wortham Theatre (828-257-4530) at Pack Place provides a remarkable and diverse lineup of music artists each year. Located at 2 South Pack Square, the theatre has hosted performances by such stars as George Winston, Natalie McMaster and Donnell Leahy, and Arlo Guthrie.

In addition to the music venues above, the Asheville area offers many other venues for music-loving visitors in North Carolina mountains vacation lodging. With an unusually vibrant local music scene, music fans have plenty to choose from on just about any given night across the region.

In Black Mountain, music industry veteran Bob Hinkle and Kim Hughes, who had a successful opera career in New York for 15 years, founded and operate the White Horse Black Mountain (828-669-0816). They renovated and converted the old Chevrolet dealership at 105-C Montreat Road into a state-of-the-art musical hall that holds an audience of up to 300 people and features nationally and regionally touring artists, as well as local performers.

Additional music venues in the area to check out include The Garage At Biltmore in Asheville, the Town Pump in Black Mountain, The Back Room in Flat Rock, Tressa’s Downtown Jazz and Blues in Asheville, and Mo Daddy’s in Ashevillealong with scores of restaurants, pubs, coffeehouses and galleries that feature live music.

X-Factor judge Simon Cowell has confirmed that he thinks fellow judge Cheryl Cole has “sex appeal”. Cowell told reporters that he “fancies” Cheryl Cole although he admitted that the feeling is not mutual saying that he probably fancied her more than she fancied him”.

Simon Cowell recently caused controversy when he said that he didn’t think the current crop of reality TV stars were as good as the previous years contestants.

The news comes after fellow X Factor judge Danni Minogue revealed that she and Cheryl Cole are not friends away from the reality TV show. Danni Minogue told a national UK newpaper, “I don’t have her phone number. I don’t ring her up. We don’t go shopping or have dinner together.”

Cheryl Cole has recently reached number 1 in the UK singles chart after the release of her single “fight for this love”. The singer also performed live on the X-Factor. Even though Cheryl Cole has now embarked on a solo career it is doubtful that she will leave her current group Girls Aloud. Fans of Girls Aloud had been worried that Cheryl’s solo career would lead to a split in the group, however, these fears have proven to be unfounded.

Music download service is the latest craze among users around the world. Realising the market potential, Virgin Media had promised a service of unlimited music downloads under a premium subscription plan to be launched during Christmas. This announcement came from the company in the month of June.

However, if the latest report posted at the news website The Register is any indication, then Virgin Media has decided to shelve its promised service. Instead, it is planning to launch a music download service with a ceiling of 40 MP3 downloads at a fee of £15 a month. This will include an added benefit of unlimited streaming of music tracks.

A spokeswoman of the service provider announced that talks are on with various labels, and in all certainty Virgin Media will take Universal Music as its partner, leaving aside the other two major competitors Sony Music and EMI. These competitors are reported to be unhappy with the deal, as they have been left out.

There will be other service providers too who will launch similar services. BSkyB has announced its new service named Sky Songs. However, the plan is at its nascent stage and no date for its launch has been fixed.

Take a look at all the plans offered by the various operators, I found some excellent Virgin Broadband deals at Broadband Genie, so take a look at their website; click on the provider, and check out the latest offers on broadband UK.