RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Migrants are welcome - but not British schoolgirls in Union Jack frocks!
But bear with me and you'll discover how closely they are related. Courtney Wright, from Bilton, near Rugby, was told her frock, modelled on one worn by Ginger Spice and intended to celebrate British culture, was 'inappropriate'.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Billie Eilish surprises fans by teaming up with Oscar-winning director for upcoming 3D tour movie
Billie Eilish revealed she is teaming up with James Cameron for her upcoming 3D tour movie. The 23-year-old singer shared the exciting news of her collaboration with the Oscar-winning director during her sold-out show in Manchester over the weekend. At her concert on Saturday, she revealed to her audience that she was working on the 3D movie with the Avatar filmmaker, 70, to bring her concert experience to more of her fans. 'So you may have noticed that there are more cameras than usual in here,' she said in between songs at her show, per The Hollywood Reporter. 'Basically, I can't say much about it, but what I can say is that I'm working on something very, very special with somebody named James Cameron, and it's going to be in 3D,' she continued. Her announcement comes shortly after she enforced a completely vegan food policy at her London concerts — with her ' woke decision' leaving attendees feeling 'less than impressed.' 'So, take that as you will, and these four shows here in Manchester, you and me are part of a thing that I am making with him,' the Birds of a Feather hitmaker added. 'He's in this audience somewhere, just saying. So don't mind that, and also I'll probably be wearing this exact outfit for, like, four days in a row.' Cameron is renowned for directing big budget and large scale films such as Aliens, Titanic, Avatar and The Terminator. His films have grossed over $8 billion worldwide, making him the second highest-grossing director in film history. Eilish previously made one documentary — Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry in 2021 — as well as another concert movie that same year — Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles. She is currently on tour in support of her third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft. At one of her recent shows in London, she sparked mixed reactions from her fans when she enforced a completely vegan food policy for her show held at the O2 Arena, making it the venue's first-ever fully plant-based event. The singer is performing at the venue for six nights during her Hit Me Hard And Soft Tour. And every food vendor has been required to offer 100 percent plant-based options, removing all animal products from the arena for the evening. The menu included a peri-peri haloumi wrap, a corn naan, chipotle tacos, pizzas, and pancakes. While some of Eilish vegan fans praised her decision, others were left disappointed with the food options after paying upwards of £70 for their tickets. One attendee told MailOnline: 'Punters were less than impressed with the vegan options — a mixture of pizzas, cauliflower bits and loaded fries — with more than one asking, "Did they run out of meat or something?" Before the show started, Eilish narrated a short film about veganism, the environment, and all of the steps they have taken on the tour to do their bit. The crew all eat plant-based food on tour, while her merch is made using sustainable practices. They also had an Eco Village at the O2 arena to raise awareness of climate change. She's not the only star to take action — as Paul McCartney famously refuses to perform at venues that don't offer vegetarian options. Despite not all fans being impressed with the food choices, her performance made up for it as the award-winning artist belted out hits including Ocean Eyes, No Time To Die, and What Was I Made For? She was raised as a vegetarian and has been a consistent advocate for animal rights and veganism, frequently discussing her beliefs when it comes to animals.
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
How e-bike riders are doing double the speed limit - and many of them work for fast food delivery firms
It's lunchtime on Birmingham's New Street. Close to its many restaurants, food delivery riders are congregating on their bikes. The area is packed with shoppers and workers. PC Paige Gartlan is approaching with other officers. She's on the lookout for illegally modified e-bikes - and she knows she'll find them here. "You can physically tell by looking at the bike that it's generally going to be illegal - the battery pack is taped on to the sides and generally the size of the motor that's on the back wheel," she explains. Sky News has been invited on an operation by West Midlands Police to find these bikes and get them off the streets. PC Gartlan has been hit by one before. She's had to tackle a rider to the floor after he drove into her. Within minutes, she's spotted a suspicious-looking bike. The rider makes a run for it - followed by plain-clothed officers. PC Gartlan tests the bike - it's showing a top speed of 52km/hr on the speedometer - just over 30mph. The speed limit for e-bikes in the UK is 15.5mph when using electric power for assistance. I look up the street and another two riders have been detained. In less than an hour, officers have confiscated four bikes - all were being ridden by fast food delivery drivers. The commotion is attracting a lot of attention. "They are dangerous," Sandra, who has just finished work, tells me. She's stood watching the riders being questioned. She says she's had near-misses herself and is worried for the safety of the elderly and children. It's not just West Midlands police officers here - immigration officials are carrying out checks too. They're involved in a nationwide operation, which has seen more than 7,000 arrests in the last year - a 50% increase on last year. Matthew Foster, the immigration enforcement lead officer for the West Midlands, tells me they've already found one individual who has entered the UK unlawfully. "He's been detained," he says, "to affect his removal from the UK." Further down the street, police are loading illegally modified bikes on to a van - they're destined to be crushed. One of them had belonged to Demoz. He's on his way home, carrying a big box with the logo of one of the main fast food delivery firms on it. He tells me he used to have an illegal bike, but he thought his new one was legal. "I make a mistake, I have to say sorry, I will do better for the future," he says. I get in touch with the big delivery firms; Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Just Eat. Their representatives say they constantly remind workers of their safety obligations, and that they're all working closely with the government to increase security checks on riders. As he leaves, Demoz, now bike-free, tells me he's thinking of changing his job.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Roger Norrington: a maverick, an irresistible firebrand and a musical visionary
The conductor Sir Roger Norrington, whose death was announced yesterday at the age of 91, remains still the maverick presence that classical music needs. His mission wasn't only to make us hear the repertoire we thought it knew through the prism of the techniques and playing styles of its time, rather than the ossifications of later traditions. He was also an irresistible firebrand in performance, whose energy wasn't only about inspiring his performers to get closer to the music they were playing, it was also an invitation to his audiences that their listening should be involved too. Norrington wanted everyone to feel the urgency of Beethoven's rhetorical power and rudeness, from the radiance of one of his favourite pieces, the Missa Solemnis, to the emetic contrabassoon in the finale of the Ninth Symphony, which was always the richest of raspberries in his performances and recordings. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. Haydn's symphonies, particularly, were pieces of participative performance art in Norrington's hands, in which his delight in sharing the radical humour and jaw-dropping discontinuities of the music was so evident. The conductor would turn round to his listeners - especially in the Prommers in the arena of the Royal Albert Hall in one of his 42 appearances at the Proms - to make sure we all realised just how weird and wonderful this music really was. The revelations of hearing Norrington's historically informed musical mission in action defined an era, along with his fellow iconoclasts, such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Christopher Hogwood and John Eliot Gardiner, all of whom founded ensembles of period instruments, like Norrington's London Classical Players, and took the lessons they had learnt therein to transform the sound world of modern instrument orchestras. Norrington's work with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra is the sound of his later legacy in action, in Brahms, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, and Elgar, as well as Beethoven and Mozart. But Norrington's distinctiveness was his unshakeable belief that there was a right way to play Beethoven – and a wrong one. He was also completely committed to his idea that the curse of vibrato was an aberration in performances of all music composed before the early 20th century, whether Bach to Mahler. While his vibrato-free performances brought astonishing moments – listen to the opening of the slow movement of Bruckner's sixth symphony, and connected music from across the centuries, it was an experiment that didn't catch on. Or at least it hasn't yet. Norrington's many crusades for the right tempo and textures in Beethoven's symphonies, for the clarity and directness of drama in Bach's Passions, for the transparency of sound world in Wagner and Debussy, have had repercussions across the whole of classical music, even with conductors and orchestras who might not think they're working under his influence. Norrington's decades-long mission to wean musical culture off the drug of vibrato may yet have its day. And his work remains fresh and thrilling. His Beethoven recordings with the London Classical Players - all the symphonies, and the piano concertos with Melvyn Tan, from the 1980s - are as impishly radical as ever. The paradox of Norrington's performances is that what seemed like austerity and ideology was in fact a generous invitation to re-hear the incendiary meanings and power of music that had been taken for granted for too long. Norrington was associated with what used to be called 'authenticity' in the performance of 17th, 18th, and 19th century repertoires. But he was too intelligent to believe that what he was doing was a mere restoration job or a return to a sound world of Mozart's or Beethoven's time - something that can never truly be recaptured. He wasn't a musician trying to return to the past. Instead he was going back to find a musical future. The sound of his recordings is the sound of the indelible imagination of all those composers he loved being released in all their rapier wit, sublimity and delirium into our time.
