#FELLOW UK MEMBERS RISE UP

[onlyonetifosi]

Could you do Logan x pregnant wife reader?

As the sun cast a warm glow over the picturesque Italian countryside, Y/N stood at the window, gazing out at the rolling hills. She couldn't help but smile as she thought about the news she was about to share with her beloved husband, Logan Sargeant, an accomplished F1 driver. Today, she would announce that they were going to be parents.

The couple had been together for years, having met as teenagers when Logan had made the bold decision to move from the United States to Europe to pursue his racing dreams. Y/N, being an Italian living in the UK, had been there for him every step of the way.

Y/N was standing in front of the large bathroom mirror, clutching a pregnancy test in her trembling hands. She took a deep breath, her mind filled with a million thoughts. This tiny plastic stick held the power to change their lives forever. She made her way downstairs founding Logan in the kitchen, engrossed in his morning routine of preparing a healthy breakfast. As she approached him, her heart swelled with love.

"Logan," she said, her voice filled with anticipation. "There's something important I need to tell you."

He turned to her, a curious smile playing on his lips. "What is it, amore mio?" he asked, using the endearing Italian term he often used for her.

Y/N took his hands in hers and looked into his eyes, her own sparkling with happiness. "I'm pregnant, Logan. We're going to have a baby."

Logan's face lit up with a mix of surprise and sheer delight. His eyes filled with tears as he pulled Y/N into a tight embrace. "Y/N, that's incredible! We're going to be parents! I couldn't be happier!"

Feeling a wave of relief wash over her, Y/N held him tightly, her heart overflowing with love and gratitude. In that moment, she knew that they were ready to face any challenge that lay ahead.

Over the next few months, Y/N and Logan shared their joyous news with their closest friends in the F1 world. They decided to start with their dear friend Oscar Piastri, a rising star in the racing community. Y/N had no doubt that he would make the perfect godfather for their child.

One sunny afternoon, Y/N and Logan invited Oscar to join them for a leisurely stroll through a nearby park. As they walked amidst the vibrant flowers and towering trees, Y/N felt a sense of serenity, knowing that she was surrounded by loved ones.

Finally, she found the courage to break the silence. "Oscar," she began, her voice filled with excitement. "Logan and I have some incredible news to share with you."

Oscar looked at them curiously, a playful smile on his face. "Well, spill the beans then! What's going on?"

Y/N took a deep breath, her heart pounding. "We're going to have a baby, Oscar. Logan and I were wondering if you would do us the honor of being our baby's godfather."

Oscar's eyes widened, and a look of pure joy washed over his face. He pulled them both into a warm embrace. "Y/N, Logan, I'm honored! You can count on me. I'll be the best godfather your child could ever ask for!"

As the news of Y/N's pregnancy spread, it reached the ears of other F1 drivers and their partners, and they were thrilled for Y/N and Logan and couldn't wait to celebrate this joyous occasion.

One evening, Y/N and Logan hosted a special gathering at their home, inviting their fellow F1 drivers and their partners. The atmosphere was filled with laughter, chatter, and the shared anticipation of welcoming a new member into their tight-knit community.

Y/N stood alongside Logan, her growing bump serving as a visible testament to their happiness. She glanced around the room, seeing familiar faces and feeling a profound sense of gratitude for the support they had received.

As the guests mingled, Y/N found herself drawn to Alex Albon and his girlfriend, Lily, enjoying their company and camaraderie. She knew they would be thrilled to hear the news.

Making her way towards them, Y/N couldn't help but smile. "Alex, I have something wonderful to share with you and your partner," she said, her voice brimming with excitement.

Alex's eyes widened, a mixture of surprise and curiosity lighting up his face. "What is it, Y/N? You've got that glow about you."

Y/N took a deep breath, her hand resting gently on her belly. "Logan and I are going to be parents. We're expecting a baby."

A moment of silence hung in the air before Alex and Lily erupted into exclamations of joy and congratulations. They enveloped Y/N in a warm hug, expressing their happiness for her and Logan.

"Mate, this is fantastic! You're going to be an amazing dad. Y/N, this is incredible news! We couldn't be happier for you both," Alex exclaimed, his voice filled with genuine warmth. “And I will take the role of the cool uncle. I'll teach your little one all the racing tricks."

Lily's eyes widened, and she let out a joyful squeal. "Oh my goodness! Congratulations, you two! That's incredible news!"

"Liam, we're going to have a baby," Y/N announced, her voice filled with joy when she approached the kiwi that came from Japan to visit and because redbull needed him

Liam's eyes lit up, and he enveloped both of them in a tight hug. "That's amazing, you two! You'll be incredible parents, I just know it."

The joyous announcement rippled through the gathering, spreading smiles, laughter, and an overwhelming sense of unity. The F1 community, with all its competitiveness on the racetrack, reveled in the shared happiness of this new beginning.

As the night wore on, the conversation shifted from racing to parenting, with the WAGs offering Y/N advice, sharing their own experiences, and reassuring her that she would be an amazing mother. Y/N listened attentively, grateful for the camaraderie and the wisdom bestowed upon her.

A few days later, as Logan prepared for a race, he found himself approached by Charles Leclerc. Charles Leclerc, having heard the news through his brother Arthur, made his way to Logan. A broad smile graced his face as he approached the beaming couple.

"Logan, Y/N, I heard the incredible news from Arthur and Carla" Charles said, extending a hand to his friend. "Congratulations! You're going to be amazing parents."

Logan's face lit up as he shook Charles' hand. "Thank you, Charles. Your support means a lot to us."

Charles leaned in closer, his voice filled with sincerity. "You two deserve all the happiness in the world. The news had been spread so be prepared. They're all excited for you."

The news spread, as Charles said, other drivers approached them, one after another, expressing their heartfelt congratulations. Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, and Yuki Tsunoda, among others, gathered around, enveloping Y/N and Logan in a sea of warm wishes.

Max, always the jokester, playfully punched Yn’s arm. "Miss Sarge, you're going to be outnumbered by racers in your own home now. Congrats, you both."

Pierre chimed in with a grin, "We're going to have a future champion on our hands. Best wishes to both of you."

Carlos joined the conversation, wrapping an arm around Y/N. "Logan, Y/N, congratulations! Parenthood is a rollercoaster ride, but it's the most rewarding one. Enjoy every moment."

Lando, his smile infectious, added, "Logan, mate, you're going to be an amazing dad. And hey, if you ever need a babysitter, you know who to call."

Yuki beamed, his enthusiasm contagious. "Congratulations, Logan and Y/N! I can't wait to meet the little one. They'll grow up surrounded by legends!"

As the drivers continued to congratulate Logan and Yn, their joy united them, forming a bond that went beyond the racetrack. In that moment, they were not just fierce competitors but a supportive family ready to embrace the next generation.

[feminismisstillahatemovement]

One of the most well-established patterns in measuring public opinion is that every generation tends to move as one in terms of its politics and general ideology. Its members share the same formative experiences, reach life’s big milestones at the same time and intermingle in the same spaces. So how should we make sense of reports that Gen Z is hyper-progressive on certain issues, but surprisingly conservative on others?

The answer, in the words of Alice Evans, a visiting fellow at Stanford University and one of the leading researchers on the topic, is that today’s under-thirties are undergoing a great gender divergence, with young women in the former camp and young men the latter. Gen Z is two generations, not one.

In countries on every continent, an ideological gap has opened up between young men and women. Tens of millions of people who occupy the same cities, workplaces, classrooms and even homes no longer see eye-to-eye.

In the US, Gallup data shows that after decades where the sexes were each spread roughly equally across liberal and conservative world views, women aged 18 to 30 are now 30 percentage points more liberal than their male contemporaries. That gap took just six years to open up.

Germany also now shows a 30-point gap between increasingly conservative young men and progressive female contemporaries, and in the UK the gap is 25 points. In Poland last year, almost half of men aged 18-21 backed the hard-right Confederation party, compared to just a sixth of young women of the same age.

Outside the west, there are even more stark divisions. In South Korea there is now a yawning chasm between young men and women, and it’s a similar situation in China. In Africa, Tunisia shows the same pattern. Notably, in every country this dramatic split is either exclusive to the younger generation or far more pronounced there than among men and women in their thirties and upwards.

The #MeToo movement was the key trigger, giving rise to fiercely feminist values among young women who felt empowered to speak out against long-running injustices. That spark found especially dry tinder in South Korea, where gender inequality remains stark, and outright misogyny is common.

In the country’s 2022 presidential election, while older men and women voted in lockstep, young men swung heavily behind the right-wing People Power party, and young women backed the liberal Democratic party in almost equal and opposite numbers.

Korea’s is an extreme situation, but it serves as a warning to other countries of what can happen when young men and women part ways. Its society is riven in two. Its marriage rate has plummeted, and birth rate has fallen precipitously, dropping to 0.78 births per woman in 2022, the lowest of any country in the world.

Seven years on from the initial #MeToo explosion, the gender divergence in attitudes has become self-sustaining. Survey data show that in many countries the ideological differences now extend beyond this issue. The clear progressive-vs-conservative divide on sexual harassment appears to have caused — or at least is part of — a broader realignment of young men and women into conservative and liberal camps respectively on other issues.

In the US, UK and Germany, young women now take far more liberal positions on immigration and racial justice than young men, while older age groups remain evenly matched. The trend in most countries has been one of women shifting left while men stand still, but there are signs that young men are actively moving to the right in Germany, where today’s under-30s are more opposed to immigration than their elders, and have shifted towards the far-right AfD in recent years.

It would be easy to say this is all a phase that will pass, but the ideology gaps are only growing, and data shows that people’s formative political experiences are hard to shake off. All of this is exacerbated by the fact that the proliferation of smartphones and social media mean that young men and women now increasingly inhabit separate spaces and experience separate cultures.

Too often young people’s views are overlooked owing to their low rates of political participation, but this shift could leave ripples for generations to come, impacting far more than vote counts.

[source]

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: John Burn-Murdoch

Published: Jan 26, 2024

One of the most well-established patterns in measuring public opinion is that every generation tends to move as one in terms of its politics and general ideology. Its members share the same formative experiences, reach life’s big milestones at the same time and intermingle in the same spaces. So how should we make sense of reports that Gen Z is hyper-progressive on certain issues, but surprisingly conservative on others?

The answer, in the words of Alice Evans, a visiting fellow at Stanford University and one of the leading researchers on the topic, is that today’s under-thirties are undergoing a great gender divergence, with young women in the former camp and young men the latter. Gen Z is two generations, not one.

In countries on every continent, an ideological gap has opened up between young men and women. Tens of millions of people who occupy the same cities, workplaces, classrooms and even homes no longer see eye-to-eye.

In the US, Gallup data shows that after decades where the sexes were each spread roughly equally across liberal and conservative world views, women aged 18 to 30 are now 30 percentage points more liberal than their male contemporaries. That gap took just six years to open up.

Germany also now shows a 30-point gap between increasingly conservative young men and progressive female contemporaries, and in the UK the gap is 25 points. In Poland last year, almost half of men aged 18-21 backed the hard-right Confederation party, compared to just a sixth of young women of the same age.

Outside the west, there are even more stark divisions. In South Korea there is now a yawning chasm between young men and women, and it’s a similar situation in China. In Africa, Tunisia shows the same pattern. Notably, in every country this dramatic split is either exclusive to the younger generation or far more pronounced there than among men and women in their thirties and upwards.

The #MeToo movement was the key trigger, giving rise to fiercely feminist values among young women who felt empowered to speak out against long-running injustices. That spark found especially dry tinder in South Korea, where gender inequality remains stark, and outright misogyny is common.

In the country’s 2022 presidential election, while older men and women voted in lockstep, young men swung heavily behind the right-wing People Power party, and young women backed the liberal Democratic party in almost equal and opposite numbers.

Korea’s is an extreme situation, but it serves as a warning to other countries of what can happen when young men and women part ways. Its society is riven in two. Its marriage rate has plummeted, and birth rate has fallen precipitously, dropping to 0.78 births per woman in 2022, the lowest of any country in the world.

Seven years on from the initial #MeToo explosion, the gender divergence in attitudes has become self-sustaining. Survey data show that in many countries the ideological differences now extend beyond this issue. The clear progressive-vs-conservative divide on sexual harassment appears to have caused — or at least is part of — a broader realignment of young men and women into conservative and liberal camps respectively on other issues.

In the US, UK and Germany, young women now take far more liberal positions on immigration and racial justice than young men, while older age groups remain evenly matched. The trend in most countries has been one of women shifting left while men stand still, but there are signs that young men are actively moving to the right in Germany, where today’s under-30s are more opposed to immigration than their elders, and have shifted towards the far-right AfD in recent years.

It would be easy to say this is all a phase that will pass, but the ideology gaps are only growing, and data shows that people’s formative political experiences are hard to shake off. All of this is exacerbated by the fact that the proliferation of smartphones and social media mean that young men and women now increasingly inhabit separate spaces and experience separate cultures.

Too often young people’s views are overlooked owing to their low rates of political participation, but this shift could leave ripples for generations to come, impacting far more than vote counts.

==

On average, men are more moderate and centrist in their views while, on average, women are more extremist in their views. Anyone suggesting that men as a whole, or on average, have shifted is gaslighting you, as the evidence does not support this assertion.

"It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy." -- George Orwell, "Nineteen Eighty-Four"

[viviennes-tears]

Man of the match (Tom and Zawe drabble)

18+ blog: It is YOUR responsibility, as a reader, to think about the content that you consume at your own discretion. 

~

A/N: Happy belated Father's Day from the UK!

Apologies that the Father's Day special is a day late this year, at least it's here unlike when I attempted to do a Mother's Day special, which didn't end up happening in the end. Anyway I hope you like my spin on this year's Soccer Aid match, I tried my best as I don't watch football usually. With the exceptions of Tom playing both this year and last year, as well as the year James McAvoy played, are the only times I've properly sat down and watched a game haha.

Summary: Tom got the privilege to play for England for the second time to help raise money for Unicef. He does tease the fans with his small shorts a lot, knowing what it will do to the swooning fans. Also his other half Zawe and little one are watching in the crowd.

Warnings: None

------------------------------

The Avengers theme echoed throughout the stadium as Tom ran out onto the pitch while crowds of fans cheered him on. The match recommenced within thirty seconds give or take once Tom and his fellow team members were in position and their opposing team were also ready. As soon as the whistle blew everything was back in full swing.

His blood was pumping, his heart hammering, and adrenaline rushing throughout his entire body in no time. The thrill of being back on the pitch playing for England was a privilege for Tom, being able to reunite with teammates from the year prior was fun for him, as well as forming new friendships both on and off the pitch. Plus he knew his little shorts would be turning heads again, his pre-game warm ups alone had been a titillating sight for many swooning fans, it's safe to say he knows exactly what he's doing. If asked he was about it of course he'd only deny, deny, deny.

After playing for some time Tom got to do a penalty shot. As he picked up the ball he made sure to make a big deal for those sitting behind him watching, he made sure they got the view they wanted of his butt, but before he threw the ball back into the game his eyes gazed over the crowd. Spotting his other half Zawe and their little one, his pride and joy, watching him play. He blew them a quick kiss and saw his little one catching it with the cutest little smile on their face, seeing that warmed Tom's heart before he returned to the game. 

While time wore on Tom got to be a part of the half time segment with Dermot O'Leary and Alex Scott act before Tom Walker performed. However he was done playing by the point and joined his teammates who were sitting out for the rest of the game. Although he was just as invested as he is when watching tennis with his over the top reactions that everyone adores. Every once in a while he would look over at Zawe and their little one, who would wave at him, while also making numerous excited noises which made Zawe laugh at how adorable their little one was being. Tom would always wave back and one of the times the camera caught him mouthing 'I love you' to them. 

By the end of the match England won for the first time in years and in the process raised a lot of money for Unicef. Tom and some of the team who were watching ran out onto the pitch to join the others, sharing in their victory, piling up into a huge group for a team hug. The exhilarating feeling of winning surged through them like an extra boost of adrenaline. Once having gone through being awarded with fireworks being set off Zawe took their little one down to the pitch, as soon as they were their little one ran ahead of her, but she kept a close eye out. As soon as Tom saw his little one running towards him he crouched down with his arms held open, right when they were in reach he pulled them tightly into his arms, rising up before lifting them up into the air. Almost like they were flying high above everyone on the pitch for a moment, both smiling at one another, a small moment just the two of them. As Tom lowered his child and held them against his hip Zawe had by then joined them on the pitch. He then leant in and kissed her tenderly, uncaring how many could see them, yet when their lips parted Zawe couldn't help smiling and laughing along with him as it came over them suddenly. 

"We're so proud of you, Tom." Zawe says, while she cups his cheek and her thumb caresses against it, while their little one plays with his winning medal around his neck. Sending Tom's heart soaring even higher than it already had from being on the winning team.

------------------------------

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Source: @viviennes-tears

[go-scottishgal14]

LET'S SAVE THIS 550 YEAR OLD TREE!!

'Darwin's oak' to be felled to make way for Shrewsbury bypass -- note: planners have no other place to run the roadway???

DAMIEN GAYLE Updated 1 November 2023 at 6:50 pm, Daily Mail

As an eight-year-old, Charles Darwin may have sat in the shade beneath its boughs and climbed its branches. Two hundred years later, “Darwin’s oak” has been handed a death sentence to make way for a new road to bypass Shrewsbury.

Along with eight other veteran trees, the 550-year-old, open-grown oak tree, which has a girth of 7 metres (23ft), stands in the path of the planned Shrewsbury North West Relief Road (NWRR), an £80m bypass linking the northern and western parts of the town.

Despite a long-running campaign to save the ancient tree and its fellows, its fate was sealed on Tuesday night when Shropshire county council’s 11-member planning committee narrowly approved the new road, by six votes to five.

“It all ties in with Darwin’s theory of evolution,” said Rob McBride, a tree campaigner. “There’s too many dinosaurs on that committee.”

Shropshire county council describes the NWRR as the “next step in completing the ‘missing link’ in Shrewsbury’s road network”, completing a ring around the town of nearly 75,000 people. Proponents claim it will free up road space and take traffic out of the town centre, thereby improving air quality, reducing journey times and boosting the whole county’s economy.

“I absolutely accept that the NWRR divides opinions, but I’m confident that it will make a huge difference to people, not only within the town, but also in the surrounding villages,” said Dan Morris, Shropshire council’s cabinet member for highways, after the planning committee’s decision.

But critics say the planned new road “decimates” one of the last vestiges of countryside remaining in Shrewsbury. It will bisect the town’s “green wedge”, a green space that extends almost into the heart of the town, which McBride described as one of the few local areas not yet marred by development.

For five centuries, Darwin’s oak has stood as a landmark within that band of nature. It stands close to The Mount, the 1800 home of Robert Darwin, the father of Charles Darwin, and in countryside the naturalist explored extensively as a boy as he developed his love and curiosity for nature.

“It’s a majestic, impressive tree,” said McBride. “You can see it straight across the meadow as you come near the River Severn. There’s this low meadow and then it rises up into a hedgerow there. [It’s] just a brilliant landmark tree that many people, many residents use … to find solace and to connect with nature and to repair themselves, really.”

Shropshire’s decision came in the face of significant local opposition. About 5,000 objections to the new road were overruled by the planning committee when it passed the plan. Not only that, the Woodland Trust, the tree conservation charity, said the road’s approval rides roughshod over national planning rules that ought to protect ancient and veteran trees except in “wholly exceptional circumstances”.

Jack Taylor, the lead campaigner at the Woodland Trust, said: “Just weeks after the iconic Sycamore Gap tree was lost, we are now faced with the loss of another iconic tree. The narrow approval of the Shrewsbury North West Relief Road is a dark day for the environment and our natural heritage as it threatens the loss of this living legend, numerous other irreplaceable veteran trees, and will damage nearby ancient woodland. The UK needs better protection for these cathedrals of nature, before they are condemned to history.”

Local campaigners are still hopeful they can save the tree. A petition calling on the council to revisit its decision has reached 2,500 signatures. But if they fail, it means another living piece of Britain’s natural history will be lost for ever.

Shropshire Council has a facebook page where, hopefully, comments about this can be left; email to: customer.feedback@shropshire.gov.uk; write to: Feedback and Insight Team, Shropshire Council, Shirehall, Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY2 6ND. PLEASE WRITE THAT TAKING THIS TREE AND THE OTHERS DOWN IS JUST WRONG, THERE MUST BE ANOTHER WAY TO DO THIS ROADWAY WITHOUT TAKING DOWN THESE ANCIENT, MAJESTIC AND HISTORIC TREES!!

[the-real-zhora-salome]

In the stillness of London’s Harold Pinter Theatre, as David Tennant crouched on stage to deliver a pivotal soliloquy in Macbeth, chaos erupted.

A patron, incensed after being asked to wait before returning to his seat after a loo break, began shouting indignantly from the wings. Demanding immediate access, he disrupted the performance with his cries of, “two hours without a loo break! I paid £250 to see David Tennant in Macbeth and I was really looking forward to it!”

Staff intervened, but the situation escalated when the man shoved security personnel. Frustrated, fellow theatergoers began slow-clapping and chanting “out, out, out!” until he was forcibly removed, booed all the way to the door.

The incident spread rapidly across social media, sparking debates about audience etiquette. One commenter encapsulated the frustration many felt:

"Some people just do not know how to behave in public, and at the theatre, they feel they should be able to get up and move around, talk, and even look at their mobiles. They behave as if they are at home."

Others, however, sought to clarify the sequence of events, pointing to a misunderstanding that framed the outburst. Another user explained:

"The disgruntled ticket holder caused a furore when he was told he would have to wait to return to his seat after returning from the toilet. He wasn’t refused re-admission completely, just asked to wait for a suitable moment to retake his seat. All this person’s rage was because he couldn’t sit back down immediately – he HAD to wait a few minutes."

This raises a troubling question: How could such a minor inconvenience – a short wait for an appropriate pause in the performance – escalate into such aggression? And why does this kind of behaviour seem to be happening in theatres more frequently?

The Macbeth incident is part of a broader trend of escalating audience disruptions. Theatres across the UK have reported an increase in violent, aggressive, and antisocial behaviour since the pandemic.

Earlier this year, a performance of the Bodyguard at Manchester’s Palace Theatre ended in chaos. Audience members, determined to sing over the cast during the final number, sparked a confrontation so intense that the production was stopped and police were called, arriving in riot vans.

Disruptions have ranged from heckling and shouting to physical altercations and even instances of public urination in seats. One front-of-house worker described to the Guardian how, since the beginning of the pandemic, she and her colleagues have faced escalating violence and abuse, breaking up fights and enduring verbal attacks on a weekly basis.

A recent survey by the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph, and Theatre Union (BECTU) found that 90% of theatre workers had experienced or witnessed unacceptable behavior from audiences, with 70% saying such incidents have worsened since the beginning of pandemic.

What’s driving this rise in impatience, aggression, and disregard for others? The answer may lie in the lingering neurological effects of Covid-19 (coronavirus).

Initially dismissed as a result of post-lockdown awkwardness or direct sales of alcohol to audiences at theatres, this behavioural shift now appears to have a biological component. Covid-19, widely understood as a respiratory illness early in the pandemic, is now recognised as a vascular disease that affects multiple systems in the body, including the brain.

Even infections whose symptoms appear ‘mild’ can lead to long-term neurological changes, with symptoms such as emotional dysregulation, impulsiveness, and aggression becoming more common.

Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Adam Kaplin of Johns Hopkins University describes a phenomenon he calls “Covid-induced disinhibition,” in which individuals exhibit drastic personality changes after infection.

According to Kaplin, it is not the virus itself but the immune system’s inflammatory response to Covid-19 that can alter brain function, particularly in areas governing impulse control, empathy, and emotional regulation. These changes can manifest as uncharacteristic aggression, a diminished capacity for social norms, and a skewed sense of entitlement.

Covid isn’t just changing how we feel physically, it’s reshaping how we think and act.

Impatience, like that exhibited by the audience member who refused to wait for an appropriate moment to return to his seat, might seem like a minor issue. But in the context of Covid-19’s neurological impact, it represents something much larger: a fundamental shift in the way we think, process emotions, and interact with the world.

One person’s impatience at a play can be irritating, but in other contexts it can be lethal.

A 2024 study published in Neurology revealed that Covid-19 survivors were 50% more likely to be involved in car accidents compared to those who had never been infected. Researchers compared this increased risk to driving under the influence, linking it to heightened impulsivity and reduced attention spans.

Traffic fatalities in the U.S., which had been steadily declining for decades, have risen sharply since the pandemic. Between 2018 and 2023, speeding-related deaths increased by 21%, while fatalities linked to distracted driving climbed by 16%.

Brain imaging studies have revealed that Covid can thin the gray matter in the frontal and temporal lobes – areas critical to moral reasoning, impulse control, and empathy. Thinning of these areas doesn’t necessarily result in cognitive symptoms or forgetfulness in the early stages. Instead, it often manifests as disinhibition, with individuals exhibiting uncharacteristic impulsivity, poor judgment, or aggressive behaviour that might not seem immediately related to intelligence or memory.

Damage to these regions of the brain can induce what has been called ‘a slow and insidious loss of the capacity for moral rationality’. What begins as disinhibition – minor lapses in patience or self-control – can escalate over time into more sociopathic behaviour, with profound consequences for society at large.

This crisis extends beyond theatre etiquette; it is a public health issue. If the whole of society are experiencing cumulative damage to our nervous systems, the consequences for society, even geopolitics, are cause for alarm. Theatre can lead the way, not only with protecting performers, crew, venue staff and audiences, but in modelling how governments and institutions can prevent further damage to the nation’s health and intellectual capital.

Advocacy groups like Protect the Heart of the Arts argue that addressing these disruptions requires tackling their root cause: COVID itself.

Theatres can lead by example by adopting measures that prioritise clean air and accurate on-site testing.

In 2021, the National Theatre in London upgraded their ventilation with HEPA air filtration. In April 2024, this may have allowed performances to continue when Michael Sheen, the lead actor of Nye, fell ill. Instead of the illness spreading to the rest of the cast, Sheen was replaced with understudy Lee Mungo for several performances.

By contrast, David Tennant’s Macbeth was cancelled for four consecutive performances and returned with the support of six understudies. Other venues can follow suit, combining air quality improvements with on-site molecular testing, like PlusLife, that delivers PCR-level accuracy in minutes.

Audience masking, though politically contentious, is a cost-effective measure that could protect both patrons and performers.

But the responsibility extends beyond theatres.

Governments, institutions, and individuals must recognise Covid’s connection to anti-social behaviour and invest in policies which will curb transmission, including face masks in healthcare settings and on-site molecular testing, such as PlusLife.

If Covid is contributing to the erosion of moral reasoning and impulse control, then preventing further infections isn’t just about health—it’s about preserving the fabric of our social lives.

Theatre has always reflected our individual and collective struggles, and Macbeth itself serves as a cautionary tale about moral decay.

Today, the challenge is to confront the slow erosion of our collective empathy and impulse control, not from ambition, but from infectious disease.

The question cannot be more urgent: if Covid-19 is silently reshaping our brains and behaviours, what kind of society will we become? The answer, as always, lies in our willingness to confront the truth and to act before we find ourselves having lost our grasp on morality – just like the play’s titular character.

[inseparableduo]

Around 75 years ago, Maria found a chest in the attic of her deceased resident as she was cleaning his house. She was a nurse and had been taking care of him for the last 5 years of his life. She was around for a relatively short time but, in that time, she had grown close enough to the family they had asked for her help with some cleaning. They even gave her permission to take anything she wanted. Her resident had once been an archaeologist, and not many things had caught her attention while she was cleaning. 

Except for one thing or really things. As she came across a chest covered in dust in, she felt drawn to it. As soon as it was in her field of sight, she had to open it. When she opened the chest, she was amazed it was ever closed in the first place with the amount of things that were inside it. Books, knives, pots, and a few bits of loose paper and fabric. Curiously, she picks up a letter laid on top of it all for any clues to why he had any of this. It was a warning to stop now before it was too late. To just destroy everything in the chest if they could. She didn’t listen to it.

The next thing she opened was a book. It contained spells and rituals. The first couple being really simple and virtually harmless. She at first wonders if any of them could work. At first, she thinks all of this stuff is some forgotten pagan deity of some sort but, as she opens the next book, that idea is completely discarded. This book was a bible, and must’ve been about the God the previous book talked about, and she quickly realizes what connects all of these things together. They are all religious. 

She wants to know more, so she asks if she can keep the chest and everything inside it, and the family agrees without much thought. Maria had another job lined up as a nurse at an asylum. During her downtime, she starts to read the bible, claiming curiosity, but it doesn’t take long for her to admit that she’s starting to become a devotee. Especially as she tests some of the spells in the other book. It starts small and simple with healing spells to ease some of her patient's pain but, as time goes on, her ideals and motivations change. The more she reads, the more spells she finds herself attempting, the more powerful she realizes she’s become. It was too late for her to stop now. She had been completely corrupted by everything she had discovered. 

At first, everything up till now was done out of curiosity. Now that there is no denying everything that she had read was true, she was willing to do the spells she had found herself disgusted with before. Part of her wonders if she can succeed where those before her had failed. Finding the secret to eternal life.

After some of her fellow nurses witness some of her ‘miracles’ it doesn’t take long for her to convert the rest of the nursing staff and some doctors to her ‘newly’ discovered religion. It takes a bit longer for the rest to become as corrupted as her, but soon enough the mortality rate in the asylum started to rise as their morals and standards started to vanish. Her leadership was unquestioned and anyone who dared to question her would become a human sacrifice, regardless of position. She was following the footsteps of the past.

Eventually, the members would leave the UK and relocate to France as the authorities started to catch on to them. They learned to be more covert after that. While she never learned how to gain eternal life, she did name her oldest daughter as her successor before her death. Setting the precedent that women should lead. 

[eaglesnick]

No Society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable” Adam Smith

The Metro had this headline yesterday.

"Rishi Sunak is demanding “restraint “ on pay - what a joke.” (Metro: (13/07/23)

The Metro goes on to point out that although pay may be going up, people are becoming poorer, especially those that work in the public sector, because inflation is far outstripping pay awards.

“Pay may be going up, but people are undeniably getting poorer. They’re feeling financially hopeless and helpless. Yet now, the Government and the Bank of England are joining forces to imply it’s all your fault for daring to ask for higher pay in the middle of a cost of living scandal."  (Metro: 13/07/23)

Multi-millionaire Sunak could of course, have followed the Metro's demand that he tax the rich a little more to help restore public sector pay and to encourage recruitment and retention within our public services. But Sunak is not going to increase taxes on the rich. After all, why would he when he and his wife are members of the Times Rich List with a combined wealth of £529million?

Sunak, for the tax year 2021/22, paid only 22% tax on a total income of £1.9million.  If you or I had earned that amount of money we would have been paying a tax rate of 45% on earned income over £150,000. The reason Sunak and his fellow multi-millionaire friends do not pay that higher tax rate is because much of their money comes from UNEARNED income: unearned income in the form of capital gains is only taxed at 20% no matter how many millions that happens to be.

 “The super-rich pay lower taxes than you …because the forms of income they often rely on are taxed much lower than the income of a typical person who has to rely on a salary.” (views-voices.Oxfam.ork.uk: 18/01/23)

Some will argue that calls to tax the rich fairly are merely the politics of envy. I would argue it’s more a question of morality than envy but lets leave that discussion aside for now. Lets look at Sunak’s claim that public sector pay rises are inflationary and that is why they have to be restrained.

“Rishi Sunak has said he would make the "responsible" decision on pay increases for public sector workers, in order to control inflation.”  (BBC News: 26/06/23)

Commentating on a £5billion increase in public sector pay, the financial journalist Andy Verity said on BBC news yesterday:

“£5billion pounds may sound a lot but, when the total spending in the economy is expected to be £2,200billion this year, it amounts to an increment of barely a fifth of one percentage point” (Andy Verity: BBC News:13/07/23)

Many economists dismiss the idea that public sector pay rises  add to inflation' as the public sector does not increases charges to reflect higher staff pay as happens in the private sector. But lets leave that argument aside as well. If a pay rise to match inflation was given for ALL public sector then economists estimate this would cost the Treasury an additional £23.5billion.

However, if you take into account what the government has already agreed to pay, and then also take into account the 30% in higher taxes and VAT receipts the government will claw back, then the total bill is below £10 billion. (Phillip Inman, Observer: 11/12/22)

This figure is twice the cost talked about by Andy Verity but it still only amounts to  TWO FIFTHS of a percentage point of total UK spending.

The sad truth is we are governed by a rich elite who put their own wealth and well-being before that of ordinary working people. For Sunak and his friends, the public sector is seen as a missed opportunity for them to make even more money than they already possess. The NHS in particular holds the potential for some individuals to make billions but first they will have to privatise it. What better way to do that than to starve it of funds, underpay and undermine its workforce, and run it into the ground.

[fareydonch501]

Want visa-free access for Indonesians to Europe and South Korea? Reinstate the 2015 visa-free rule.

This isn't really something I frequently write often since I constantly nerd out to weird and niche technology, but ever since obtaining my Indonesian polycarbonate passport, I can't help but wonder about visa-free agreements and things that can make travel easier for people.

When it comes to travelling, the topic of visa-free travel comes to mind to Indonesian travelers concerning the strength of their passport. According to the Henley Passport Index per December 2024, the Indonesian passport ranks the 66th strongest in the world, the strongest it has been since 2006. This strength grants Indonesians visa-free access to 76 different countries and territories around the world, including ASEAN member states, Timor Leste, Hong Kong and Japan. Although, this middle-power passport does pose as an inconvenience as Indonesian passport holders still need to apply for a visa to access the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and many European countries that fall under the Schengen Area.

As international travel recovers in a post-COVID era, and as more and more countries enact electronic travel authority for passport holders of visa waived countries, including fellow ASEAN member Thailand, Indonesians are wondering what's next that could strengthen the position of its passport. Especially concerning South Korea and Europe.

The rise of South Korea's soft power through the Korean wave has attracted many Indonesian travelers to travel the country for themselves, and with Europe's longstanding popular destinations such as the Netherlands and Germany with Indonesian travelers have left people wondering when will they be granted access free of visa?

On May 2024, the Indonesian embassy in Seoul spoke to the press on the possibility of granting Indonesians visa-free access to the East Asian country but citing difficulties such as the issue of reciprocity. And I think this is the time the Indonesian government should renew its 2015 visa-free rule for foreign nationals to enter Indonesia free of visa, even visa-on-arrival schemes.

THE 2015 VISA-FREE RULE SCHEME

Back in March 2015, the Indonesian government, through a collaborative effort from the Tourism Ministry and the Law and Human Rights Ministry, granted visa-free access to Indonesia initially for Japanese, Chinese, South Korean and Russian passport holders, before expanding to 30 countries including Canada, the US, the UK and many European countries.

However, there was one main problem. The reciprocal principle that was set forth in the Indonesian immigration law. What does that mean, you might ask? To put it simply, if Indonesia wants visa-free access to the United States for Indonesian passport holders, then Indonesia also must give the US the right for its citizens and passport holders visa-free access to Indonesia. You give me the same thing you want.

The Indonesian government then moved to revise the immigration law to abolish this clause of visa-free reciprocal arrangements. Since then, the visa-free system Indonesia grants to foreign nationals have increased to 174 countries as an incentive to boost the country's tourism industry.

This system was met positively by many countries, and it even kickstarted the Indonesian government's first attempts to woo the European Union in granting Indonesians visa-free access to the Schengen Area, referring to a group of European countries who voluntarily given up its internal border checks in 1985 as a milestone of European integration. It gained the attention and support of French, Dutch and Belgian governments.

Although, this system has ever since then been halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and has never been fully resumed. As of 2024, the Indonesian government has only granted visa-free access to Indonesia for citizens from fellow ASEAN member states, Timor Leste, Colombia, Suriname and Hong Kong.

Without the 2015 visa-free system, the Indonesian government has little to offer in the negotiating tables to European and South Korean officials in proposing visa-free access for Indonesians to their territories. And ever since then, negotiations have remained in limbo, especially as environmental issues such as the sustainability of Indonesian palm oil and nickel have gained greater optics between Jakarta and Brussels.

With Indonesia's rising power in the world, now is the perfect time for the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in collaboration with the Law Ministry's Immigration General Directorate to reinstate the 2015 visa-free system for foreign nationals to renew negotiations back if it wants Indonesians visa free access to Europe and South Korea.

Reinstating the 2015 visa-free system could give Indonesian diplomats a sign of commitment to EU and South Korean officials that they are ready to commit themselves to the visa-free arrangement and negotiations that has since then been in a limbo.

From there, the Indonesian government could even convince to bring other nations into the negotiating tables to expand Indonesians' visa-free access list, including with next-door neighbor Australia. Australians make up the second-largest travelers inbound into Indonesia yearly, yet on the other hand many educated Indonesian and Australian elites, as well as bureaucrats called for an increase in people-to-people interaction between both countries as the current arrangement is still considered inadequate.

Resuming visa-free access for Australians under the 2015 system could also bring Canberra into the negotiating tables with Jakarta in granting Indonesians access to subclass 601 - the Australian ETA system for countries where their visa requirements are waived, reducing the need for an Australian visa that would cost Indonesians AU$190 (Rp 1.9 million) - something neighboring Malaysia and Singapore have enjoyed for years. Not to mention, such a move would also bring a new level of positive relationship between Indonesia and Australia, as both countries has signed a free trade agreement back in 2020, a new defense pact few months earlier, and as the Prabowo administration allowed the return of the remaining Bali Nine prisoners to Australia, gaining Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's gratitude.

For years, Indonesians are hopeful that more countries can fall onto the list of visa-free travel to strengthen the standing of their passports. But that process starts with how much Indonesia's policymakers, bureaucrats and diplomats are willing to commit on the negotiating table.

[ijustwantedtobeoneofthestrokesuk]

Anarchy In The UK

The North

Conor McNicholas (NME editor) “Franz Ferdinand were the first UK band to break through after The Strokes and Stripes.”

Scotland

Scotland has a reputation for having the best crowds. Bands loved playing T In The Park festival as well as iconic venues such as Glasgow’s King Tuts and Barrowlands. The bands coming out of Scotland were just as lively despite being diverse in sound. 

Franz Ferdinand

Art pop Glaswegians Franz Ferdinand seemed to explode out of nowhere with the release of Take Me Out. This was just their second single, after Darts Of Pleasure, which came out in September 2003, quietly putting Franz Ferdinand on the radar.  

Conor “Franz Ferdinand were more influenced by The Strokes than The Libertines were.” 

There was nothing quiet about its follow-up when it was released in the January 2004 and peaked at no.3 in the UK singles chart, introducing the 4-piece to the mainstream with high impact. 

Franz Ferdinand formed in Glasgow in 2002 but they weren’t newbies, they had been playing in other bands in the city but when the quartet came together it quickly gelled. Being a band, especially during these years was a young man's game, Franz Ferdinand used their experience to succeed. By May 2003 they signed to Domino and headed to Sweden to record their self-titled debut album.  

Their goal was the write songs for girls to dance to, in the end, they got everyone dancing as the album went mainstream.  

With such a huge debut, Franz Ferdinand had to deal with high expectations, could they follow the success up? Yes. You Could Have It So Much Better, it topped the charts in the UK and they started to “break it” in America. Their distinctive sound has allowed them as an established band who can go away and be missed. 

Glasvegas

Franz Ferdinand wasn’t the only ones flying the flag for Scotland. Fellow Glaswegian’s Glasvegas formed in 2003. Cousins James and Rab Allan along with Paul Donoghue are the ever-present members while a series of drummers came and went before they settled with, Caroline McKay who was in the band from 2005 to 2010 despite not being able to play the drums. She got the job because she looked cool but she was learning on the job, she’d throw up before each gig due to nerves and as the gigs got bigger she left and was replaced by Swede Jonna Löfgren who looked cool and could play drums.  

It wasn’t just Caroline who lacked skills, none of them were great which is one of the reasons they sounded unique, the other being their influences that range from Oasis to The Velvet Underground and ‘60’s girl groups, particularly the Phil Spector ones. 

In February 2006 Denise, the bands' manager messaged Alan McGee on MySpace inviting him to see the band at King Tuts in Glasgow. Alan was in the city as he was managing Dirty Pretty Things who were recording an album there. Both Alan and Carl turned up and loved them, and he started to manage them.  

They already had half an album worth of material but they started taking things seriously when Alan came on board and they quit their jobs, bought a van, started touring the UK, mostly playing to empty rooms…

Tim Jonze from the NME saw them play one of Alan’s club nights in spring 2007 and used his own money to release Daddy’s Gone, without the knowledge of the magazine. That single was the start of Glasvegas’ rise.  

The band started selling out venues in the UK and the press were shouting about them so when they signed to Columbia Records in February 2008 the label was keen to keep the momentum going. Within 2 weeks they were recording their self-titled debut album in Brooklyn, it was finished by May, released in September, charted at no.2 and nominated for a Mercury Prize. 

The success of the debut album took them around the world, touring with Oasis, U2, Muse and Kings Of Leon, they were kicked off the Kings Of Leon tour for partying too hard.  

They returned to America to record the second album, Euphoric Heartbreak but in very circumstances. Not only were they staying in a luxury beach house in Santa Monica with a home studio, compared to the intense short-but-sweet stay in New York, the band was also a 3-piece following Caroline’s departure as she found the pressure harder and harder, leaving James to play drums on the album.  

The mainstream indie scene had drastically changed between the debut album and the follow-up and streaming services started to be introduced leading to sales of Euphoric Heartbreak being just 10% of what the previous album did. In the week that their second album was released Columbia Records dropped them but that wasn’t over for the band who returned in 2013 with Later...When the TV Turns to Static after signing to BMG. 

The wait for a fourth album was a bit longer, despite going straight back into the studio after finishing their tour Godspeed wasn’t released until 2021.

The View

Dundee 4-piece The View are a bunch of schoolmates who fully embraced the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle during their peak years. The band formed in 2005 while they were still at school where they’d perform cover versions at talent competitions. Once they started writing their own songs they began to build a local following under various names as they made their way through Dundee’s pub circuit.  

The band signed to a local record label in early 2006 when they were called The Doghouse and released an EP called The View. The EP got the attention of James Endeacott who had signed The Libertines to Rough Trade, he had just launched his own label, 1965 Records and got The View on board, brought them to London and into the bubbling music scene ahead of the release of their first single, Wasted Little DJs. BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 pushed the song and the rest of 2006 saw the band continue to get bigger and bigger as they released more singles, headed out on tour and gained a loyal fanbase who were vocal at their Reading & Leeds Festival set that summer. 

During their hectic rise, the teens from Dundee headed to the studio to record their debut album with the eccentric producer Owen Morris. Hats Off to the Buskers was released in January 2007 and went straight in at no.1 and they continued the party as they joined The Horrors, Mumm-Ra and The Automatic on the NME Awards Tour around the UK. 

After touring the debut album around the world the band released their second album, Which Bitch? in February 2009 but the glory days were looking like they were coming to a close as it failed to have the same success as the debut. It didn’t look great for the lads in their early 20’s but they didn’t give up and they have been rewarded for their persistence as they continued to sell out venues during their 5 album career.

Liverpool

Without Deltasonic Records, Liverpool would have had a very different sound to it. 

Think Liverpool, you think The Beatles. Then what, The Coral? The Zutons? The Dead 60’s? Unfortunately, Deltasonic wasn’t around in the ‘60’s but if it had, it would have been the label for Sgt Pepper. Deltasonic celebrated Liverpool and off-centre pop. 

The label was founded by music obsessive Alan Wills who’d wanted to start a label, after seeing The Coral. Deltasonic needed The Coral and The Coral needed Deltasonic, it was meant to be.  

Bill Ryder-Jones (The Coral) “We for some reason hated admitting it but there was a great scene in Liverpool with great venues great people and yeah I felt a sense of community.  

We first met Alan in our rehearsal room called Crash, it was down some back street in the financial district. Peasy who ran the place loved us and sent Al the demo. He came into rehearsal one day and pinged his head off a speaker, was dead funny.  

He did something amazing, sadly he was just a bit too mad to make it work as it should and of course, he died which didn't help“ 

Alan had previously run another label in Liverpool but Deltasonic was a fresh start and The Coral were the perfect reason to kick start the new venture. They teamed up with Sony who had a 49% share in Deltasonic which helped the label achieve more as they had the resources to reach a larger audience.  

After The Coral broke out of Liverpool, more local acts formed and Deltasonic was their home too. This included The Zutons, The Dead 60’s as well as Miles Kanes’ first two bands, The Little Flames and The Rascals. With a focus on local talent, a scene formed as the bands would tour with one another and since then they’ve gone on to work together.  

Matt McManamon (The Dead 60’s) “Back then the scene was buzzing, so many good bands emerging. Deltasonic definitely signed the best acts in Liverpool at the time. It was an exciting time, Deltasonic was massively important in exposing the music that was coming out of Liverpool.” 

In May 2014 Alan was killed in a cycle accident but the label lives on, continuing with the ethic Alan had put in place since day one.  

Dave McCabe (The Zutons) “The scene in Liverpool at the time was pretty close and tight, everyone was looking out for each other. We’d support one another and help each other out. You didn’t necessarily have to be close to people and they would lend you an amp or a guitar at a gig  It was a very special time and we created it ourselves in the Zanzibar, we were flying, it was a happy time.” 

The Coral

The Coral were the leaders of the Liverpool scene that exploded in the 2000’s but they had been together since 1996. 

Bill Ryder-Jones “Ian the drummer started the band. He spied me and Paul as people who could play. He'd just got into The Who and kind of pushed us into playing with him. James came in very soon and started leading the group, then Lee came in as he was my mate and then Nick came in as he worked in the pub with James.” 

The newly formed 6-piece made their way through Liverpool’s venues on school nights but it was an arty gig poster that caught the eye of Alan Wills. The band were yet to release any music (this was a time before bands put demos online), it was that poster that not only gave him a reason to go to the gig but the gig drove him to fulfill his desires and start the label.  

The Coral were one of the first bands out of the era with the release of their first single Shadows Fall in 2001. They started to grow a following outside of Liverpool, then in July 2002 they released their self-titled debut album, which was nominated for the Mercury Prize.

Bill left the band to become a solo artist as well as a producer and collaborator. Initially, he took a break from playing live with the band, “touring is something that I don't think is very healthy for me.” As a co-founding member, Bill experienced the years without success and those when the band was at its peak. “I was never under any pressure, I'm sure James was as the songwriter but yeah the first few years were the best for me. I loved it, we were against the world and we didn't give a fuck. I prefer being on my own generally. My music is basically me bitching about my pretty sweet life. I just write about what's going on for me.” 

The Coral have consistently released genre-bending, often experimental records that have seen the band become much loved amongst both musicians and fans. 

The Zutons

The Zutons might be known for writing the ‘Amy Winehouse song’ but they deserve much more credit than that. They formed in 2001 from the ashes of former Liverpool bands, originally as a 4-piece, led by Dave McCabe. Saxophonist, Abi Harding became a the full-time 5th member after joining the band on stage a couple of times, her addition gave the band a new dimension.  

Dave “I first got into music from birth I suppose I had 2 older brothers so it was always there in the ‘80’s with Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk etc… I got into Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Rage Against The Machine and Nirvana when I was around 10 and it grew from there.” 

Dave and The Coral’s frontman, James had previously written together. James had to convince Alan, the head of Deltasonic to sign the band. Alan wasn’t a fan of Dave’s previous bands but when he heard some of the demos he was in.  

A year after forming the band released Devil’s Deal, a 3-track EP which was followed up by a series of singles in 2003 ahead of their debut album, Who Killed...... The Zutons? in April 2004.  

After the big sales and accolades from the debut, The Zutons came back stronger with their second record Tired of Hanging Around 2 years later. Unfortunately, for The Zutons (well, maybe not, their bank balance will have benefitted), Mark Ronson chose one of their songs, Valerie to feature on his second album, Versions (where he recreated songs with other artists) with Amy Winehouse, which not only became an instant classic but one that many remembered following her death in 2011. 

Their third, You Can Do Anything was released in June 2008, after touring the album for a year the band took a break, returning for the occasional gig before a 4 album in 2022. 

The Dead 60’s

The Dead 60’s were a 1-album band who went from playing in pubs to a handful of people to mainstages at festivals within 2 years. Their rise was rapid, as was their decline.  

While at school in guitarist and singer Matt McManamon formed pop-punk band Pinhole and they made a name for themselves in Liverpool, playing any venue that would have them.  

Matt McManamon “I was about 10 years old when I heard The Beatles and knew I wanted to be in a band. A few years later (1998) that happened with Pinhole who was very much a ‘high school’ band as I like to describe it. As I got older my musical taste(s) and style(s) started to mature and change, which reflected in the style of music I began to play. Pinhole reached its natural conclusion thus leading to the formation of The Dead 60s in 2003.” 

Pinhole released an EP with Manchester punk John Robb’s label Thrill City Record but their biggest achievements were recording a John Peel session and supporting Green Day at an arena in Newcastle. 

As the lads had grown into their 20’s their tastes had evolved, getting into reggae, ska and punk. This started to influence their songwriting which didn’t fit the Pinhole sound. They invited Alan Wills to the rehearsal rooms for a bit of guidance. After a few weeks Alan saw the progression the band was making and in 2003 offered The Dead 60’s a record, despite never playing a gig under the new name. 

Matt “We formed, spent a year writing and rehearsing and basically honing our sound, then spent a full year on the road touring mainly doing support tours and building up a following. Then we released our first album. 

Quite early on we did our first ever TV performance in London on ‘Tim Lovejoy & The All stars’ show. Mani (Stone Roses) was a guest, as was Super Furry Animals who refused to speak to us in English and would only speak in Welsh, apparently, this was due to an unsavoury experience they had had in Liverpool, so decided not to take to us as we are all scousers. Mani and ourselves ended up on a massive bender together after the filming was done, things got rather messy, Mani ended up passing out in my hotel room. He apparently was under strict instructions to fly back to Manchester that night but went missing with us! Funny days, they were great.” 

They rehearsed regularly, jammed out for a couple of hours, a song would emerge but their main focus was on their live shows. They made songs that would get the crowd going, in the early days they’d be supporting their label mates, it would be Scousers On Tour. When they wrote Riot Radio, their breakthrough hit they knew it would be well-received live but they didn’t realise how good it was until they went into the studio.  

Their management team, based in New York got Riot Radio on college radio and it was becoming a huge hit. Commercial radio picked it up too and they ended up touring the States, selling out shows before they sold out anything in the UK so they focussed on America where they released the debut album in May 2005, ahead of the rest of the world.  

After touring the debut album they returned to New York to record the second album, Time to Take Sides. Sony’s involvement in Deltasonic gave them additional resources with Sony’s team and a major label budget.  

Over 3 months, in 2 studios with legendary producer David Kahne the band recorded a different-sounding album than the debut, which was infused with ska, the follow-up was more anthemic. The Sony team would drop into the studio to see how it was sounding, they were all happy with it.  

The band returned to the UK for a tour. They had a meeting in London with the Sony team who had loved the album in New York, but that was no longer the case. The band was dropped from the label, they were still on Sony France so it was released there but they lost their management team and agents and the band split up without ever releasing the second album (except for in France).  

Newcastle

Maximo Park

Named after Máximo Gómez Park in Miami, Maximo Park from Newcastle originally formed as a four-piece in 2000 however, the bands' vocalists wanted to focus on songwriting and their instruments so, in 2003 they recruited Paul Smith. Having Paul up front was a game-changer for the band as he brought them to life with his energetic live performances.   

The following year they released a 7” double A-side of Graffiti and Going Missing which started to get the band noticed by Paul Epworth who produced their second single The Coast Is Always Changing and The Night I Lost My Head. With Paul Smith’s lively stage persona the band started to build a fan base in their hometown which led to them getting their first record deal with Warp Records who released their Mercury-nominated debut album, A Certain Trigger in May 2005. 

Maximo Park stood out with a mix of punk, pop and ‘80’s post-punk that filled dancefloors at indie discos. He band have continued to release albums that remain relevant in an environment where other bands faded. 

Sunderland

The Futureheads

The Futureheads are an energetic, fast-paced post-punk band who weren’t influenced by what was going on in London or New York but what really made them stand out was their vocal harmonies. None of the band members wanted to sing so they shared the responsibility between them, creating a unique wall of sound.  

The best music often appears where there’s not a lot going on. In Sunderland, the 4 lads started attending a social club in 2000 that was focused on music, encouraging them to try different instruments. 

They came from different areas of the city and they had different tastes in music. They would share records with one another and watched the rest of the group of people at the social club leave Sunderland for uni, they were still there. They’d played a few gigs for fun, each one different then they started to see progress and rehearsed in their parents' garage, after 6 months they were playing outside of Sunderland. These gigs, such as the iconic King Tuts in Glasgow became a regular occurrence and they were building up a fan base, it was grassroots in its truest form.  

In early 2002 they got a manager which led to recording some demos with Andy Gill from Gang Of Four, one of the bands’ main influences. They also headed out on a DIY tour of squats in Europe for 2 weeks and in early 2003 they signed a record deal with 679 while still at uni (graduating that summer and going full time with the band). Their growth was organic. 

The 5 tracks recorded with Andy Gill featured on the self-titled debut album, released in July 2004, they recorded the rest of the album with Paul Epworth. Their unique harmonies made them a great live band and a cover of Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love allowed them to get audience participation, even with new audiences. In January 2005 they joined The Killers, Bloc Party and Kaiser Chiefs on the NME Awards Tour around the UK, the following month they released Hounds Of Love as a single which went on to become the NME’s Single Of The Year. The rest of 2005 was spent on the road with a busy summer of festivals and support shows with Franz Ferdinand, Foo Fighters and Pixies.  

They quickly recorded a second album, News and Tributes which came out in May 2006 however, as the music industry was going through a transition with illegal downloading on the rise there was less money going around, Warners Music Group had started cutting budgets in some of their subsidiary labels, one of them being 679. Without the marketing budget, the album didn’t perform as well as expected and the band managed to get themselves out of the record deal and launched their own label, Nul Records for the third album, This Is Not The World.  

This Is Not The World in 2008 and 2010’s The Chaos were much rockier than the first two, the band took a huge turn 2 years later with Rant, a cappella record. It might have been their worst-performing record but the band loved creating it.  

Following Rant the band went on a hiatus in 2013 due to Jaff’s mental health. There wasn’t a plan to reform, each member went in different directions, Ross went on to play guitar with Frankie & The Heartstrings.  

In 2018 the band got back together, touring and recording their 6th album, Powers in August 2019. 

Nottingham

Paul Melbourne “Nottingham was a good city for music, not necessarily that many great local bands coming through but it had some amazing venues from very small to big ones, so bands would come through playing The Social or Junktion 7 or Rock City basement then next time be at Rescue Rooms and then Rock City. It was a stop on most bands tours so it was a good city to be in at that time. 

We started putting on our gigs, the Tudor Rats nights, we would invite everyone back for a party at ours, it was a big 6 bedroom student house so it was a great party house. That year and that house bring back such great memories of that time, it wasn’t just after our own nights just every time we were all out at a gig, we would get people back and inevitably the bands would all pile back too. 

The only band that actually played in the house were The Rakes, on mine and my housemate Kelvie's guitars and their drummer on a saucepan and spatula! But I can remember having The Others, 10,000 Things, The Paddingtons, Dustin's Bar Mitzvah, Thee Unstrung come round. 

All I can do is feel sorry for poor Winston and his wife who lived next door to us at Tudor Grove. The amount of times we went to buy her flowers from Tesco after we'd had all-nighters, it worked the first couple of times but WInston's patience soon grew thin, looking back rightly so! 

The Tudor Rats nights started after we were going up to Sheffield every week to see Arctic Monkeys. They got to know us as the Nottingham boys and they were amazed people from another city were actually travelling to Sheffield to see them play! They said they'd never played Nottingham and could we sort them a show, we only remembered the next day feeling very hungover that we'd promised them we'd sort them a gig,  bearing in mind none of us had ever put on a gig before! So we thought shit, we better actually see what we can do, so we just started trying to find a venue we could hire for cheap and found The Old Angel, we booked that and had Arctic Monkeys and The Mardous play, we didn't have a clue what we were doing but managed to sell it out (well, oversell it) as Arctic Monkeys were really starting to get hype then! I remember we paid them £100 and their guitarist Cookie was still a tiler then so they couldn't soundcheck as he couldn't get to there till he'd finished his tiling job for the day! 

We did the nights under the name 'Tudor Rats', then had Milburn, 1984, Dustin's Bar Mitzvah, Chineapples, Bedford Rascals (a great Nottingham band with a great name) and I think that was it we didn't do too many! We had a good run though, for saying we had no clue what we were doing! I kept the Tudor Rats name going though when I was in Uni in Brno in Czech Republic where me and two mates did a weekly indie night.” 

NEXT CHAPTER

[influencermagazineuk]

5 Seconds of Summer Share Their Grief On Liam Payne's Sudden Death and One Direction's Influence on the Group

To 5 Seconds of Summer, who share the stage with One Direction, pay their respects following Liam Payne's sudden death. Payne was a former member of One Direction, an English-Irish boy band, died when he fell from a hotel balcony, which led to his death, in Buenos Aires on Oct. 16. Reports state that the hotel staff had called for emergency services to admit a guest who was suspected to have overdosed. Following the autopsy, it was determined that Payne died from "polytrauma and internal and external bleeding" from the fall. Toxicology also revealed that the victim had "pink cocaine," the drug used for leisure use among other toxins in his system. Alex Goykhman, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Paying through the nose with bandmates Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, and Niall Horan when they were created as One Direction on The X Factor UK in 2010, One Direction later dominated the world's music charts and became one of the greatest boy bands of the 2010s. Now, although they are in hiatus since 2016, the influence that they wielded was such that it did really reach groups such as 5 Seconds of Summer, which were their touring mates when they were at the height of their fame. One of those groups is 5SOS, the Australian group of Ashton Irwin, Luke Hemmings, Michael Clifford, and Calum Hood. The group soared to international fame in 2013 when they opened for One Direction on the latter's world tour for Take Me Home. Four boys received this opportunity when Louis Tomlinson found them on YouTube and offered a spot to open for One Direction on their Take Me Home tour. These young men had formed their band way back in 2011 in Sydney but were thrust into international stardom after teaming up with One Direction. During his tour with One Direction, 5SOS gained extreme publicity and has a very large following. All their first three studio albums did well: the 2014 and 2015's Drive-Thru Live, and 2018's Five Seconds of Summer, all topping the Billboard 200. Their fast rise in fame is often partly attributed to the launching pad that was One Direction. The members of 5SOS have demonstrated and are very grateful to their former touring friends. Even though the bands take different paths about their career, for all those years in the tour, friendship relationships came into place, and mutual respect was always high. As a matter fact, it was reported in 2014 that all the members of the boyband One Direction have a financial interest in 5SOS. According to reports, the five 1D members reportedly had shares of a London-based company called 5SOS LLP, making this another reason even for the two groups to be more bonded together. Under that rapport it's no surprise that 5SOS lamented the news of such lightning-fast report that Liam Payne died. Band issued a joint statement on Oct. 18, days after the tragedy stated, "We are heartbroken by the loss of Liam," they wrote in a touching tribute, stamping out the deep pain of the loss that they have lost some precious hours while being part of it. The members of 5SOS appreciated the support and camaraderie they enjoyed with the One Direction star and how much that influence came into their lives professionally and personally. Liam, in concert with his bandmates, did much to define 5SOS's career history, and the fact that the bonds forged in those formative years seemed stronger because of them. 5SOS commented on the kindness, influence, and friendships that were formed due to years of shared touring in their statement. Given that so much of their journey to international stardom was intertwined with that of One Direction, Payne's early death likely really resonated with the members of 5SOS as much of their early success sprang from the opportunities they were given while opening for One Direction. These tributes, especially from fellow musicians who actually knew him well, remind everyone of the lasting impact he had on those lives. For 5 Seconds of Summer, a friend now is gone, but also someone who played a key role in their rise to fame:. Read the full article

[mediamonarchy]

https://mediamonarchy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20241016_MorningMonarchy.mp3 Download MP3 Revenge of the mask mandate, consumption lounges and the child murders at Robin Hood Hills + this day in history w/Havana sound attacks and our song of the day by Tom’s Apple Pie on your #MorningMonarchy for October 16, 2024. Notes/Links: Shocktober Surprise IV https://mediamonarchy.com/series/shocktober-surprise-iv/ UK firm GSK to pay $2.2bn over Zantac cancer claims https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62r5nn94d7o The Hidden Pfizer Report That Shows Up to 40% More Heart Conditions in the Vaccinated https://dailysceptic.org/2024/10/08/the-hidden-pfizer-report-that-shows-up-to-40-more-heart-conditions-in-the-vaccinated/ Mask Mandates Set to Return in Several California Areas: What We Know; Mask mandates will be returning in several Bay Area locations starting Nov. 1, lasting until the end of March 2025. https://archive.is/UkDBS Video: Mask mandates return for some California health care workers (Audio) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPHMUHGUvLw ‘Ground Zero With Clyde Lewis’ Montage Made By Media Monarchy – “Thirty-Three Movement Reload” (Nov. 21, 2013 // Audio) Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ Attorney Says ‘Food’s Probably the Roughest Part’ of Mogul’s Life in Prison; Sean “Diddy” Combs’ trial date on sex crimes charges has been set for May 5, 2025 https://people.com/sean-diddy-combs-food-toughest-part-life-behind-bars-8726560 7-Eleven is closing more than 400 locations in North America https://abc7.com/post/7-eleven-is-closing-more-400-locations-north-america/15421921/ ‘It’s mindblowing’: US meteorologists face death threats as hurricane conspiracies surge; Storms Helene and Milton have triggered rise of misinformation stoked by Trump and fellow Republicans https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/11/meteorologists-death-threats-hurricane-conspiracies-misinformation #WeedWorldOrder: Eleven members of Amish family hospitalized after eating toxic mushrooms https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/toxic-mushrooms-peach-bottom-township-b2629028.html #WeedWorldOrder: ‘Definitely not a bag full of drugs’? Uh, not so, discover Oregon police https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/oct/12/definitely-not-bag-full-of-drugs-uh-not-so-discove/ #WeedWorldOrder: Californians are ‘panic buying’ hemp before an expected THC ban https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/newsom-hemp-thc-ban-panic-buying-19763212.php #WeedWorldOrder: California bans all hemp THC products; Gov. Newsom’s controversial ban on hemp THC takes effect immediately. Learn about the new restrictions and industry reactions. https://boingboing.net/2024/09/26/california-bans-all-hemp-thc-products.html #WeedWorldOrder: Bighorn Weed opening onsite edibles facility, consumption lounge; Additions mark first for Taos’ budding cannabis market :New_Hexico_Mexico: :weedscroll: :New_Hexico_Mexico: https://archive.is/QXOt1 #WeedWorldOrder/Video: Taos Ski Valley approves first cannabis license (Audio) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnmgUlLu4zw ‘Ground Zero With Clyde Lewis’ Montage Made By Media Monarchy – “Steady Diet Of Nothing” (Jun. 3, 2013 // Audio) True Crime Week: Wednesday – Paradise Lost // Aaron Hernandez https://mediamonarchy.com/calendar/paradise-lost-aaron/ #ShocktoberSurprise/Video: Damien Echols of the ‘West Memphis Three’ Speaks Out (Audio) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APvDTH4mkZc #ShocktoberSurprise: ‘Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost:_The_Child_Murders_at_Robin_Hood_Hills #ShocktoberSurprise: “They took an Alford plea so the case is closed. They were found guilty…” https://www.reddit.com/r/RealWestMemphisThree/comments/174qg8m/comment/k4bwoen/ #ShocktoberSurprise: West Memphis Three Facts http://www.westmemphisthreefacts.com/ #ShocktoberSurprise/Video: Paradise Lost: Official Trailer 1996 (Audio) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QkUJtt61ps ‘Ground Zero With Clyde Lewis’ Montage Made By Media Mona...

[jsms01]

Yes you can… eat healthily for less

With household bills rising, we were keen to understand the link between increased costs and healthy living. We surveyed 2,000 UK adults who aren’t Slimming World members* – here’s what we found:  - half of UK adults (51%) say spiralling costs have made it harder to make healthy food choices  - more than a fifth (23%) say they weigh more now compared to a year ago, and of these, nearly two in three (58%) believe the financial crisis has contributed to their weight gain  - one in three say they prioritise the cost of food over how healthy it is (31%)  - of those who’ve gained weight, 38% feel it’s because of comfort eating or eating more convenience food; 36% feel they’ve put on weight due to having to buy cheaper, less nutritious food, and 31% say they’re less motivated to eat healthily because of the cost of living crisis  We also surveyed 2,000 Slimming World members** – and the good news is, 83% agree it’s possible to lose weight on a budget.   Dr Jacquie Lavin, special advisor on the science of weight management at Slimming World, says: ‘The survey shows that being supported and getting advice about healthy eating is so important when it comes to losing weight on a budget. In fact, since joining Slimming World, 90% of members now feel more in control when it comes to their food choices.’ 

How Slimming World helps 

We’re determined that your budget shouldn’t be a barrier to eating healthily and getting the weight loss you want. There’s a real focus on low-cost living in our groups and in our Slimming World Online Community right now, with members sharing cost-cutting cooking hacks and their best bargain buys. Our members have access to lots of help on our app and website, too, including low-cost recipes and money-saving advice.  Our survey of Slimming World members reveals that…  - knowing they aren’t alone and getting support from others helps a third of Slimming World members (33%) to spend less  - more than two-thirds (69%) have received batch-cooking suggestions from their fellow slimmers  - 55% have had advice about bulking out meals with cheaper ingredients, such as vegetables and lentils, and 52% have been given low-cost recipe ideas  - nearly half (47%) say planning meals has helped them to save money since they became members  - cooking from scratch is key to saving money for almost half (47%), and for 39%, switching to energy-saving appliances like an air fryer or a microwave has made a difference   - for 28%, freezing leftovers rather than wasting food help to cut food bills   Jacquie Lavin adds: ‘Getting practical advice and tangible tried-and-tested tips from fellow slimmers on the same journey can be especially valuable when you’re finding it more difficult to eat healthily and lose weight. Being part of a group where you’re facing the same challenges together and helping each other to stay motivated makes a real difference. It’s even better when this support is in a warm, friendly community, particularly during such difficult times.’  

Kerri’s story

Mum Kerri Hayes, from Walthamstow, east London, has lost 11st and saved £100 a month on food since joining Slimming World. 

“When I joined, I weighed more than 22st. I’d recently been hospitalised with Covid, which was a real wake-up call, and I was determined to lose weight and get my health back. Being a single mum and a teacher, I was worried that eating healthily might cost more – but it really hasn’t. In fact, I’ve saved around £100 a month on my food bills, as I’m not buying ready meals and takeaways any more. If I think back to how I used to eat, I wasn’t cooking… I was just putting convenience food in the microwave. Now, I make healthy versions of all my favourite foods, and because they’re nutritious and filling, I’m never hungry. I’m even using up all the vegetables in my fridge, which would usually have gone to waste before!”  Read Kerri’s full story here 

Save and slim with Slimming World  

We’re here to help you shop, cook and eat in a way that suits your lifestyle, and that includes working within your weekly budget. For more money-saving tips and our best low-cost recipes, head to your local Slimming World group or join Slimming World Online.   Discover our latest special offers here    *Data relates to a nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK adults surveyed between 3rd-6th March 2023.  **A self-selecting sample of 2,000 Slimming World members were polled via Slimming World’s member website between 3rd-6th March 2023. 

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Would you love a taste of the Food Optimising plan? Enter your email address below to receive a full week of Food Optimising recipes, as well as our regular newsletter packed with more Slimming World food, inspiring member transformations and exciting special offers.  Source link Read the full article

[natromanxoff]

Record Collector - August, 1987

Credits to Silvia C and Queencuttings.com

ROBERT McGRATH LOOKS AT THE SOLO RECORDINGS OF MERCURY, TAYLOR, DEACON AND MAY

The sharp rise in the number of Queen solo projects during the 1980s continues to add to the uncertainty surrounding the future of one of the world's top acts. While all four members have released solo recordings in one form or another, it is the continuing success of their charismatic vocalist, Freddie Mercury, that seems most likely to threaten the band's existence.

The sharp rise in the number of Queen solo projects during the 1980s continues to add to the uncertainty surrounding the future of one of the world's top acts. While all four members have released solo recordings in one form or another, it is the continuing success of their charismatic vocalist, Freddie Mercury, that seems most likely to threaten the band's existence.

In this feature, we shall examine the solo output of each member in turn, paying particular attention to collectable editions like picture discs and promos, highlighting rare tracks, and looking at one or two choice items of ephemera. But there are a couple of pre-Queen recordings, involving band members, which are attracting vast sums of money on the collectors' market, and it is to these that we turn first.

Smile

While a student at Imperial College, London, guitarist Brian May formed Smile around 1967, along with an old friend, Tim Staffell (bass), and fellow student, Roger Meddows-Taylor (drums). The band's one and only original release was a US-only single, coupling "Earth" and "Step On Me", issued on Mercury in 1969. Interviewed in the mid-Seventies, Staffell alleged that none of the group had actually set eyes upon a copy, so it isn't surprising that the record is highly prized among Queen collectors, changing hands for £40. Beware of red vinyl copies because these are bootlegs and shouldn't sell for anywhere near that price.

Fans were delighted when an import mini-LP, "Gettin' Smile", appeared on the market around 1983. Of Japanese origin, this included both sides of the single, recorded at Trident Studios, plus the four tracks laid down with producer Fritz Fryer. One of these, "Doing All Right", later appeared on the "Queen" debut LP. "Gettin' Smile" itself has become something of a collector's item and now fetches as much as £18.

By the summer of 1969, the single had bombed and Smile were dropped by the Mercury label. Staffell drifted away with ambitions of a solo career, while Taylor and May went on to form Queen.

Larry Lurex

As a prelude to the release of the debut "Queen" album, the band decided to issue a spoof single under the pseudonym of 'Larry Lurex'. Although an obvious tongue-in-cheek reference to the glam idols of the day like Gary Glitter and Alvin Stardust, the songs they chose to record were surprisingly conservative. The decidedly un-teenybop A-side, a cover of the Ronettes/Beach Boys hit, "I Can Hear Music", was backed by a Goffin and […]

[Photo caption: Freddie Mercury has been by far the most successful solo member of Queen, thanks to the release of commercial singles like "The Great Pretender", and some startling promotional videos.]

[…] King song, "Goin' Back".

Recorded at Trident after sessions for the LP had been completed, there has always been speculation concerning the musicians involved. Once thought to have been an early vehicle for Mercury to camp it up, it now seems likely that all four members, plus the inevitable 'friends', played on it. Collectors pay £30 for UK copies, slightly less for the US equivalent. But don't be fooled by promo copies. They are almost as common.

Freddie Mercury

While not the first band member to strike out alone, Freddie Mercury has had by far the most success to date. It must be said, however, that this owes as much to the rise of the promo video as it does to his distinctive voice. Although Queen remain very much a team effort, amongst the general public, it is undoubtedly Mercury who instantly personifies all their classic hits.

His first solo outing was "Love Kills", which gave him a Top 10 hit in autumn 1984. Recorded for Giorgio Moroder's revamped soundtrack for Fritz Lang's "Metropolis", its success gave Mercury added confidence as a solo performer, even if artistically the project was a failure.

The soundtrack album is still easy to find, but the single has been deleted and the 12" version and a picture disc edition now fetch £4 and £5 respectively. US 7" and 12" promos are worth slightly more in their picture covers, but perhaps the choicest item is a one-sided acetate, recently seen offered for a staggering £95!

Freddie's one and only solo album, "Mr Bad Guy", was released by CBS in April 1985, and has since been made available on CD. Co-producing and writing all his own songs, he included a mixture of ballads and dance floor material, which was not always to the liking of Queen die-hards. One track, "Foolin' Around", had already appeared on the soundtrack for "Teachers", while on another, "There Must Be More To Life Than This", he sings of "people fighting for their human rights", an obvious reference to his embarrassment at Queen's two-week stint in Sun City the previous year. Overall, the record was a blending of the macho bravado and the maudlin, couched in Freddie's inimitable style.

Success

Over the next seven months, no less than four singles were lifted from the album, though none could emulate the success of the first, "I Was Born To Love You", which just missed out on a Top 10 placing. Like the follow-up, "Made In Heaven", it boasted a non-LP cut on the B-side. "Made In Heaven" also came out as a shaped picture disc, and while this is collectable, uncut copies are rarer and sell for as much as £15. All four singles also came out in 12" form featuring extended remixes, one of which, "Living On My Own", had a limited edition gatefold sleeve.

Freddie's next project was recording for the soundtrack album of Dave Clark's "Time" musical. Contributing three tracks to the LP, his version of the title track failed to set the charts alight when issued as a single. However, he followed that with his biggest hit yet earlier this year, by taking his version of the old Platters' song, "The Great Pretender", into the Top 5. In addition to the usual 7" and 12" formats, there was a radio-shaped picture disc edition, complete with plinth, and this already sells for £5. A video release of the single fetches £8, while a limited number of 10" promos are worth nearer £10. The promotional campaign for "The Great Pretender" spawned several other collectable items, most notably an 18" high Freddie-figure counterstand, which changes hands for around £5.

Perhaps the most appropriate of Mercury's solo releases was the video EP released last summer, consisting of promo films for four of his hits, including "Living On My Own", banned by TV. This particular promo depicted wild scenes at Freddie's 39th birthday celebrations, filmed in Munich in October 1985, where he was joined by 300 friends, all feasting on caviar and champagne.

Freddie Mercury rarely guests on other artists' work, though one notable exception was his appearance on Billy Squier's "Love Is The Hero" 12", where he can be heard at the start of the song.

Roger Taylor

Apart from Mercury, only drummer Roger Taylor has taken more than a passing interest in solo recordings. In fact, it was Taylor who first broke from the group formation to record a one-off single, "I Wanna Testify"/ Turn On The TV", back in 1977. This record, long-since deleted, has become a highly-prized item among Queen fans and though it has been seen on sale for as much as £12, its true value is nearer £9.

Whereas Freddie still retains much of Queen's pomp and pageantry on his solo recordings, Taylor has developed a more traditional back-to-basics rock'n'roll style. However, his first LP, "Fun In Space", received a universal thumbs-down from the music press, when released in 1981. Despite this, the loyal body of Queen fans ensured that the record still reached the Top 20. Recorded in Switzerland in six weeks, "Fun In Space" provided Taylor with two singles, "Future Management" and "My Country", and like the album, these are now deleted and both fetch around £4 on the market today.

After a three-year gap, Roger braved the wrath of the critics and released a second LP, "Strange Frontier". This boasted two covers, Dylan's "Masters Of War" and Springsteen's "Racing In The Streets", as well as two songwriting collaborations, "Killing Time" with Freddie and "It's An Illusion" with Status Quo's Rick Parfitt. Of the two singles lifted from the album, the 12" of "Strange Frontier" is of most interest to collectors due to the inclusion of a bonus track, "Two Sharp Pencils", which is unavailable elsewhere.

Again in marked contrast to Mercury, Taylor has ploughed himself into other artists' work. One early venture was writing, co-producing and performing on Hilary's "How Come You're So Dumb"/"Rich Kid" single (Mainly Modern STP 2) in 1980. This is now fairly rare and is worth £6. Other notable appearances include guesting on Gary Numan's "Dance", backing vocals on Kansas' "Vinyl Confessions" LP, drums on Roger Daltrey's tribute to Keith Moon, "Under A Raging Moon" and on Carny Todorow's "Bursting At The Seams" single, which he co-produced with David Richards. Other co-productions with Richards include Feargal Sharkey's "Loving You", Jimmy Nail's "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" and Sideway Look's "Bullet Proof Heart". In most cases, he can be heard playing on these productions.

Brian May

While Brian May's solo output has been restricted to just one mini-LP and a spin-off single, he has, like Taylor, involved himself in several other projects, and obviously prefers this to strict solo work.

In fact, his thirty-minute mini-album, "Star Fleet", was more a group effort, instigated by May, than a solo record. On 21/22 April 1983, he rallied together a few friends for recording sessions at the Record Plant, Los Angeles. These musicians included guitarist Eddie Van Halen, Fred Mandel (keyboards), Phil Chen (bass) and REO Speedwagon drummer, Alan Gratzer. When the results of […]

[Photo caption: Guitarist Brian May has released just one solo album, accompanied by a number of musician friends. The "Star Fleet Project" album contained a lengthy jam session, a tribute to Eric Clapton."]

[…] this "supersession' appeared in November, May explained in the sleeve notes that this was "not a Queen album. Not a solo Brian May album. It is a record of a unique event." But the three lengthy tracks on which the virtuosos traded licks set the critics yawning. Even May was on the defensive when he talked about "Bluesbreaker", a lengthy jam dedicated to Eric Clapton, which took up all of side two: "It seemed very indulgent putting out a long jam, but having listened to it, I think it's worthwhile... it's rock blues with all the mistakes left in." In actual fact, "Bluesbreaker" was the album's saving grace.

The single was an edited version of the title track — an adaptation of a theme tune for a TV sci-fi series, introduced to Brian by his son, Jimmy — and was the most developed track on the record. The LPs third cut, "Let Me Out", was an old song of May's. Collectors pay up to £15 for 12" US promos of the single on Capitol and an American interview picture disc sells for roughly the same.

Brian has contributed to a number of extremely varied projects which range from an early guest appearance on Lonnie Donegan's 1977 comeback LP, "Puttin' On The Style", to jamming on stage with Def Leppard. He plays guitar on Jeffrey Osborne's "Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right" single, and on "A Shift In The Wind" on Chris Thompson's "Radio Voice" LP. He has even moved into production for Heavy Pettin's debut album, "Letting Loose".

John Deacon

Although the Queen bassist was reported having begun work on a solo LP back in 1985, only a one-off single with the Immortals has since materialised. In fact, like his role in the band, Deacon has kept the lowest profile in terms of extra-mural musical aspirations.

The Immortals' single, "No Turning Back" was originally released on the "Biggles" soundtrack LP. However, collectors undoubtedly go for the 12" version of the single, which also contains two further mixes of the song. Issued in May 1986, copies should not prove too difficult to trace.

Among John's few forays into session work have been appearances on Roger Taylor's "Strange Frontier" LP, where he turns up on "It's An Illusion", and on a 1983 single by Man Friday and Jive Junior called "Picking Up Sounds". In February 1986, he apparently recorded a song with Hot Chocolate's Errol Brown, but like the solo LP, this too has yet to see the light of day.

Guest Appearances

In addition to these individual projects, there have been a number of joint guest appearances. All bar Deacon played on "You Nearly Did Me In", from lan Hunter's 1976 album, "All American Alien Boy" (CBS 81310). In the same year, Mercury produced Eddie Howell's "Man From Manhattan" (Warner Bros K 16701), and, along with Brian May, plays on it too. This is now worth about £10.

Freddie and Roger Taylor turn up as backing vocalists on the title track of Billy Squier's "Emotions In Motion" LP, while May and Deacon helped out on Elton John's 1985 album, "Ice On Fire".

While Queen have not been exactly the most prolific recording outfit of the 1980s, these ongoing solo projects have provided fans with a variety of recordings to add to their collection as well as an endless task in keeping up with the latest guest appearances. Even though doubts about Queen's future remain, it is a fact of life that all major recording groups find it necessary, sooner or later, to pursue solo projects. As well as providing an outlet for material which has no place in the group context, it enables members to bring freshness to the band when they regroup. Due for another album in 1988, there is no doubt that Queen will bounce back sounding refreshed and ready to rock.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Hello BPP! I hope you’re doing great :) I used to follow your old blog and was sad when you deactivated so when I found out that you were back, I was so happy!

Anyway, I wanted to ask you if you have any opinions on the common discourse of white people trying to become k-pop idols. I’m not much of a k-pop stan but I am of asian descent so seeing fellow asians rising through the world stage as k-pop idols makes me happy for the representation.

A lot of stans say that white people are encroaching into asian spaces - k-pop is still just one of the few ways asians CAN take vs trying to get there through the USA or UK or any of the western countries - and taking away chances from asians because white people traditionally have it easier if they want to establish a music career compared to POCs. They have fewer barriers of entry so them trying their luck in SK is seen as greedy.

In a way, I can see their point but I also don’t want to gatekeep, you know? I guess I want to be more inclusive and that way of thinking is kind of racist or at least discriminatory? I’m aware that a homogeneous country like SK and Japan can be racist too and can make foreigners very othered so the chances of them blowing up the same way as native koreans is slim… I don’t know, I haven’t reached my own conclusions yet so I was hoping to hear your perspective.

Thank you!

**

(Thanks for the kind words anon 💜)

Oh goodness,

Anon, this topic is one of the discourse topics that can get me heated. Even my casual manner of speaking is typically a bit caustic so I'm going to try to keep it together in this post. And the best way to do that is to try to make this short.

"In a way, I can see their point but I also don’t want to gatekeep, you know?"

I (EYE) want to gatekeep. I want to gatekeep everything. Needless to say, I think most white people are perfectly capable of respecting whatever culture they take interest in, and many will be phenomenal idols. I might come to love a few. But if I was convinced that K-pop and Korean artists will also be elevated, respected, and accepted as true equals to their white counterparts in America and the West, I'd be all for this. But it would be stupid to expect equitable treatment even though Asian representation is so needed. Real and equitable Asian representation is terribly needed, and just when it's starting to really happen partly thanks to BTS, non-Asian artists want in. White/American artists are already played everywhere in South Korea. Random people on the street know what Billie Eilish did on TikTok last week. But if you ask Jennifer from Kansas if she knows who Yuqi from (G)I-dle is, I hope she'd say yes, but it's more likely she says no. If White entrants into the genre increase rapidly, Korean artists will benefit as well, but the benefits won't be split equitably imo.

An influx of white entrants would also facilitate some exchange of culture as well, which is a great thing, but...

There's so many ways I can go about saying this, but the bottomline is, roots are important. K-pop is distinctly Korean and should mostly remain that way. By this I don't mean all the members have to be Korean, I mean the group has to remain Korean. We have Korean groups with members of all nationalities and races, but the group's identity remains Korean - the language and culture is infused somewhere in the group. I'm not talking about J-pop or C-pop or whatever, I'm talking about K-pop. And let's be real, it's easier to have this arrangement with POCs than not, because we can’t ignore a history of imperialist/colonizing impulses in white cultures, and the impacts those attitudes have had on other cultures. It's not just possible but likely that whatever is Korean about K-pop will be appropriated and whitewashed, and I struggle to see how respect will be given to the history and culture behind the genre.

But,

Ironically, and maybe because of my background, this is exactly how I feel about k-pop, but with regards to Black culture. This time the k-pop industry is the offending party, because k-pop also borrows heavily from Black culture and even in the big year of 2022, refuses to sufficiently credit and elevate the Black artists they too often, blatantly rip off. And this one thing I will always give props to BTS for.. Because these guys do their homework. They put in the work and pay up. It's respect and cash, from Bangtan to every single Black artist they've referenced (because let's be real, money talks and you should put your money where your mouth is). We need to talk more about the sort (and lack) of homage paid to Black culture, Black artists and activists by the K-pop industry.

*

More exposure and collaboration with other nationalities/races is almost always ultimately a good thing. Homogenous societies like Korea are somewhat unprogressive in their politics and racist in their attitudes, and mingling with more liberal ideas could be a good thing for the industry. There's a lot of room for growth in K-pop.

I think it's inevitable we get more white participants into K-pop. It's also possible that rather than white entrants into K-pop in Korea, what we end up seeing is something more of a hybrid of "K-pop" with more Western ideas of a boy/girl band. So something a bit like FLO, but a group with more of a K-pop structure.

Music entertainment is going to evolve in interesting ways this decade. And I hope to be here for all of it. I hope the same for you too anon.

[lzsylovesanime]

Anime Spotlight - Stars Align

This is a beautiful truly underappreciated wonderful series that I can't recommend enough.

The plot is constantly outperformed by the girls' club, the boys' soft tennis club faces disbandment due to their poor skills and lack of positive results in matches. In desperate need of members, Toma Shinjou is looking to recruit capable players, but he fails to scout anyone. Enter Maki Katsuragi, a new transfer student who demonstrates great reflexes when he catches a stray cat in his classroom, instantly capturing Toma's attention. With his interest piqued, Toma ambitiously asks Maki to join the boys' team but is quickly rejected, as Maki doesn't wish to join any clubs. Toma refuses to back down and ends up persuading Maki—only under the condition that Toma will pay him for his participation and cover other club expenses. As Maki joins the team, his incredible form and quick learning allow him to immediately outshine the rest of the team. Although this gives rise to conflict among the boys, Maki challenges and pushes his fellow team members to not only keep up with his seemingly natural talent, but also drive them to devote themselves to the game they once neglected. This story focuses on the potential of the boys' soft tennis club and their discovery of their own capability, while also enduring personal hardships and dealing with the darker side of growing up in middle school.

Underneath its exterior of a sports anime is so much more, a series of battling so many of Japan's social norms and the roles of parents in the life of these young people. The sports element is good, a real sense of the underdogs finding new strength and passion in their soft tennis. Of a team coming together, forming bonds and a desire to improve themselves and give it there all. The characters are all so likeable and its lovely to see them grow and develop and improve.

Then the darker side comes through as we learn about these poor middle schoolers and their family situations. No not all the parents are horrible human beings but this series deals with some traumatic themes and it does it with respect and delicacy. All kinds of social issues are reflected here, from the helicopter parent, LGBTQI+ representation, domestic violence, adoption and cyber bullying.

Soft tennis is the safe space for these characters, its they're joy and passion. A place to escape their horrible home lives. Its never feels force or drama for the sake of drama. Its honestly and beautifully depicts real struggles and opens dialogues and is just so good. It has one of the very few conversations on non-binary that is a thing of beauty.

I can't recommend this series enough and I wish it had got its full 24 episode run and that the movie was available in the UK.