Maura Higgins puts on a busty display in skintight jumpsuit as she giggles and kisses her pal goodbye after fun-filled birthday dinner in London
looked in the highest spirits on Sunday night, as she made a glamorous exit from a friend's birthday dinner in Camden.
The Love Island star, 34, couldn't hold back her giggles as she left the restaurant with the birthday girl, before warmly kissing her pal goodbye.
Flaunting her incredible figure once again, Maura slipped into a black halterneck jumpsuit that hugged every inch of her svelte frame.
The backless number boasted a plunging neckline to display some major cleavage, while the corsetted bodice and leather belt accentuated her tiny waist.
She flashed her gleaming white smile, sporting a full face of radiant makeup and sweeping her hair up into a chic bun with several curls left down to frame her face.
Maura completed her striking look with a pair of statement red earrings and a matching pleather clutch, as she climbed into her waiting car to whisk her home.
Flaunting her incredible figure once again, Maura slipped into a black halterneck jumpsuit that hugged every inch of her svelte frame
Her cheerful outing comes after her big return to the red carpet, following her 'drunken' kiss scandal with McFly 's Danny Jones earlier this year.
The brunette beauty pulled out all the stops at the BAFTA TV Awards last Sunday, turning heads in a backless blue gown with a huge skirt.
But while she made sure all eyes were on her on her arrival, Maura was later pictured sitting alone during the ceremony and reportedly didn't stay long before making a sneaky backdoor exit.
In a photograph exclusively obtained by MailOnline last week, the presenter could be seen sitting by herself on her phone in her stunning ball gown at the event.
Meanwhile, in pictures published on The Sun, she later risked the wrath of BAFTA as she left an hour into the ceremony as she snuck into a taxi.
A source told the publication: 'Maura wanted her red carpet return to be a big moment. She thinks enough time has passed — she can't hide forever.'
Explaining how her huge dress meant she was uncomfortable in the cramped hall they continued: 'She was talking about her dress taking up too much space and was absolutely boiling.
'So she snuck out with pal Luke Hamnett while a nominations reel was shown. It'll be frowned upon in TV circles as the Baftas is an incredibly prestigious event and leaving is a big no-no.'
She flashed her gleaming white smile, sporting a full face of radiant makeup and sweeping her hair up into a chic bun with several curls left down to frame her face
Her cheerful outing comes after her big return to the red carpet, following her 'drunken' kiss scandal with McFly 's Danny Jones earlier this year
Maura hit the headlines in March, after she and Danny, 39, were spotted in a compromising clinch at the Universal Music's BRIT Awards afterparty, after appearing on I'm A Celeb together last year.
The married singer is said to no longer have a 'normal relationship' with his wife Georgia, 38, and while they are still living under the same roof, they now have 'separate lives'.
Both Danny and Maura have generally kept away from public events since the scandal, until her big return at the BAFTAs, where she kept mum on the kiss.
While she wasn't at risk of any awkward reunions with Danny as he reportedly skipped the ceremony to avoid 'putting a foot wrong' with his wife.
Danny previously issued a public apology to Georgia and their seven-year-old son Cooper, admitting he was 'deeply sorry' and vowing to deal with things privately.
Sources previously claimed to MailOnline that despite their efforts, the couple are like 'passing ships' and friends fear their relationship is hanging on by a thread.
A source said: 'Danny and Georgia have been trying to navigate a very difficult time in their marriage and for the best part they have been taking each day as it comes.
'They may be living under the same roof, but they barely see each other and right now are like passing ships.
In a photograph exclusively obtained by MailOnline last week, the presenter could be seen sitting by herself on her phone in her stunning ball gown at the event (seen)
Maura (L) hit the headlines in March, after she and Danny, 39, (R) were spotted in a compromising clinch at the Universal Music's BRIT Awards afterparty, after appearing on I'm A Celeb together last year (both seen on the show)
The married singer is said to no longer have a 'normal relationship' with his wife Georgia, 38, and while they are still living under the same roof, they now have 'separate lives' (seen together in September)
'Danny is preparing for his summer gigs with McFly, and Georgia has been attending influencer events and collaborating with brands, all while looking after son, Cooper, who regularly features on her Instagram profile.
'But when they're not working, Danny is out on his motorbike or exercising in the gym, and Georgia is either on her own or spending time with family and girlfriends.
'They haven't actually been publicly seen together for six weeks and behind the scenes, their relationship is anything but normal.'
But now the singer is also making his TV return and will join the second series of You Bet!, ITV's rebooted challenge show, hosted by Stephen Mulhern.
Danny will appear alongside former I'm A Celeb campmate Oti Mabuse and Olympian Greg Rutherford, and has already filmed some segments at London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
In behind-the-scenes clips shared on his Instagram last weekend, Danny looked upbeat as he returned to work, grinning alongside his co-stars and cheering on contestants tackling extreme rides.
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The Guardian
43 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Yes, there was a riot, but it was great': Cabaret Voltaire on violent gigs, nuclear noise – and returning to mark 50 years
Fifty years ago, Cabaret Voltaire shocked the people of Sheffield into revolt. A promoter screamed for the band to get off stage, while an audience baying for blood had to be held back with a clarinet being swung around for protection. All of which was taking place over the deafening recording of a looped steamhammer being used in place of a drummer, as a cacophony of strange, furious noises drove the crowd into a frenzy. 'We turned up, made a complete racket, and then got attacked,' recalls Stephen Mallinder. 'Yes, there was a bit of a riot, and I ended up in hospital, but it was great. That gig was the start of something because nothing like that had taken place in Sheffield before. It was ground zero.' Mallinder and his Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Chris Watson are sitting together again in Sheffield, looking back on that lift-off moment ahead of a handful of shows to commemorate the milestone. 'It is astonishing,' says Watson. 'Half a century. It really makes you stop, think and realise the significance.' The death in 2021 of third founding member Richard H Kirk was a trigger for thinking about ending things with finality. 'It'll be nice if we can use these shows to remind people what we did,' says Mallinder. 'To acknowledge the music, as well as get closure.' It's impossible to overstate how ahead of their time 'the Cabs' were. Regularly crowned the godfathers of the Sheffield scene, inspiring a wave of late 1970s groups such as the Human League and Clock DVA, they were making music in Watson's attic as early as 1973. Their primitive explorations with tape loops, heavily treated vocals and instruments, along with home-built oscillators and synthesisers, laid the foundations for a singular career that would span experimental music, post-punk, industrial funk, electro, house and techno. 'There was nothing happening in Sheffield that we could relate to,' says Mallinder. 'We had nothing to conform to. We didn't give a fuck. We just enjoyed annoying people, to be honest.' Inspired by dadaism, they would set up speakers in cafes and public toilets, or strap them to a van and drive around Sheffield blasting out their groaning, hissing and droning in an attempt to spook and confuse people. 'It did feel a bit violent and hostile at times, but more than anything we just ruined people's nights,' laughs Mallinder, with Watson recalling a memory from their very first gig: 'The organiser said to me after, 'You've completely ruined our reputation.' That was the best news we could have hoped for.' Insular and incendiary, the tight-knit trio had their own language, says Mallinder. 'We talked in a cipher only we understood – we had our own jargon and syntax.' When I interviewed Kirk years before his death, he went even further. 'We were like a terrorist cell,' he told me. 'If we hadn't ended up doing music and the arts, we might have ended up going around blowing up buildings as frustrated people wanting to express their disgust at society.' Instead they channelled that disgust into a type of sonic warfare – be it the blistering noise and head-butt attack of their landmark electro-punk track Nag Nag Nag, or the haunting yet celestial Red Mecca, an album rooted in political tensions and religious fundamentalism that throbs with a paranoid pulse. Watson left the group in 1981 to pursue a career in sound recording for TV. Mallinder and Kirk invested in technology, moving away from the industrial sci-fi clangs of their early period into grinding yet glistening electro-funk. As the second summer of love blazed in the UK in 1988, they headed to Chicago instead – to make Groovy, Laidback and Nasty with house legend Marshall Jefferson. 'We got slagged off for working with Marshall,' recalls Mallinder. 'People were going, 'England has got its own dance scene. Why aren't you working with Paul Oakenfold?' But we're not the fucking Happy Mondays. We'd already been doing that shit for years. We wanted to acknowledge our connection to where we'd come from: Black American music.' This major label era for the group produced moderate commercial success before they wound things down in the mid-1990s. But in the years since, everyone from New Order to Trent Reznor has cited the group's influence. Mallinder continued to make electronic music via groups such as Wrangler and Creep Show, the latter in collaboration with John Grant, a Cabs uber-fan. Watson says leaving the group was 'probably the most difficult decision I've ever made' but he has gone on to have an illustrious career, winning Baftas for his recording work with David Attenborough on shows such as Frozen Planet. He recalls 'the most dangerous journey I've ever made' being flown in a dinky helicopter that was akin to a 'washing machine with a rotor blade' by drunk Russian pilots in order to reach a camp on the north pole. On 2003 album Weather Report, Watson harnessed his globetrotting field recording adventures with stunning effect, turning long, hot wildlife recording sessions in Kenya surrounded by buzzing mosquitoes, or the intense booming cracks of colossal glaciers in Iceland, into a work of immersive musical beauty. When he was at the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania with Oscar-winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, recording sounds for the score to the 2019 TV series Chernobyl, he couldn't help but draw parallels to his Cabs days. 'It was horrific but really astonishing – such a tense, volatile, hostile environment,' he says. 'But it really got me thinking about working with those sounds again, their musicality and how it goes back to where I started.' Sign up to Sleeve Notes Get music news, bold reviews and unexpected extras. Every genre, every era, every week after newsletter promotion Mallinder views Watson's work as a Trojan horse for carrying radical sounds into ordinary households. 'The Cabs may have changed people's lives but Chris is personally responsible for how millions of people listen to the world,' he says, with clear pride. 'And one of the things that helped make that happen was the fact that he was in the Cabs, so through that lens he opened up people's ears.' Watson agrees, saying Cabaret Voltaire 'informed everything I've ever done'. Watson's field recordings will play a part in the upcoming shows: he'll rework 2013 project Inside the Circle of Fire, in which he recorded Sheffield itself, from its wildlife to its steel industry via football terraces and sewers. 'It's hopefully not the cliched industrial sounds of Sheffield,' he says, 'but my take on the signature sounds of the city.' These will be interwoven with a set Mallinder is working on with his Wrangler bandmate Ben 'Benge' Edwards as well as longtime friend and Cabs collaborator Eric Random. 'We've built 16 tracks up from scratch to play live,' says Mallinder. 'With material spanning from the first EP' – 1978's Extended Play – 'through to Groovy …' Mallinder says this process has been 'a bit traumatic – a very intense period of being immersed in my past and the memories that it brought, particularly of Richard. This isn't something you can do without emotion.' Mallinder and Kirk were not really speaking in the years leading up to his death, with Kirk operating under the Cabaret Voltaire name himself. 'Richard was withdrawn and didn't speak to many people,' says Mallinder. 'And I was one of those people. He wanted to be in his own world. It was difficult because I missed him and there was a lot of history, but I accepted it.' There will be no new music being made as Cabaret Voltaire because, they stress, tsuch a thing cannot exist without Kirk. Instead, it's a brief victory lap for the pair, a tribute to their late friend, as they sign off on a pioneering legacy with maybe one last chance for a riot. 'Richard would probably hate us doing this but it's done with massive respect,' Mallinder says. 'I'm sad he's not here but there's such love for the Cabs that I want to give people the opportunity to acknowledge what we did. You can't deny the music we made is important – and this is a way to celebrate that.' Cabaret Voltaire play a Forge Warehouse, Sheffield, 25 October, then tour the UK from 17 to 21 November. Tickets on sale 10am 6 June
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Riding a polo pony — how hard can it be?
Polo may be the only sport in the world more sensibly played on elephants. Cannoning round a field on a horse, swinging a croquet mallet the wrong way round, is like driving a Formula 1 car one-handed while using your other arm to practise your serve. In India, they play polo on elephants. Elephants are generally more inclined to lumber than speed, and come with their own elephant whisperer to steer. Alas, I'm in southwest London not Rajasthan, it's decades since I sat on a horse, and I've never had a riding lesson in my life. Nevertheless, I arrive for my first ever polo lesson well prepared. I am wearing cowboy boots and two bras. I am invincible. For one hour only, Nube is my horse. She lives at Ham Polo Club and looks at me doubtfully, as well she might. 'Her name is Spanish for 'cloud',' says my teacher, Manuel, stroking her nose. I sign a waiver promising that any calamity that befalls me will be entirely my fault. I look at Nube, wonder what the Spanish is for 'oh shit', then haul myself into the saddle and very nearly straight over the other side. When I'm safely installed, they insist that Nube is placid and small, even though the ground seems a long way down. But she is also a polo pony, and polo has always struck me not as placid but borderline lethal. We clippety-clop to the training ground and I hope for the best. • Read more luxury reviews, advice and insights from our experts Ham is a rural idyll near the A3, a place of vast green polo lawns, broadleaf trees and little white clubhouses stacked with catering company chairs. Traditionally, summer in England isn't summer without the royals being photographed at a polo match, from Charles and Camilla in the 1970s to William and Harry in the 2000s. Just once, there was Meghan and Kate at the Guards Polo Club in 2019, back when everyone was playing happy families, but no more. 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This is difficult when your main focus is not falling off. I hold the reins in my left hand, as Manuel's shown me, and grip the front of the saddle with my right, to his consternation. I'm used to saddles with pommels, I tell him. The last time I got on a horse was when I lived on Vancouver Island in my twenties, and over there the saddles have pommels. A couple of times a week, I'd pick up a toffee-coloured horse called Rocky from the local stable after work and we'd head off fearlessly into the forest to explore. That was then, I was 24 and Rocky, bless him, was a Ford. Nube is a Ferrari. How I sit, and lean to swing the mallet, how I hold the reins, where and how I kick and with which part of my heel are all carefully calibrated parts of the equation geared to getting her to do what I want. Get any part of it wrong and Nube will effectively shrug, take the path of least resistance and do what she wants, which is stop. Manuel is an Argentinian professional polo player who's been riding since he could walk. He makes cannoning round a field swinging a mallet look as easy as falling off a log, or indeed a horse. From my reassuringly stationary position at the side of the pitch, I watch him demonstrate a rising trot. 'Now your turn,' he says, with an encouraging smile. I rack my brains for diversionary polo-related small talk. 'Is Prince Harry any good at polo?' I ask. He considers this with the seriousness all things polo deserve. 'He's a decent amateur,' he replies. 'Now lift the reins so she knows to move forward and kick your heels. Keep kicking so she knows to keep going.' 'And Prince William?' I ask, exhausting my supply of polo-related small talk quicker than I'd hoped. 'Probably a bit better,' he says, adding that he didn't like Harry's Netflix programme Polo at all. It concentrated on the social side, not the sport itself, he complains, so he watched two episodes and gave up. 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I could ride a bit when I was younger, and had a pommel, so why can't I do it now? I read Black Beauty as a child. I know my Jilly Cooper. I watched Rupert Campbell-Black canter elegantly across my TV screen in Rivals and honestly, how hard can this be? Every so often Nube and I find our rhythm and I get a tantalising glimpse of just how wonderful riding must be. Then it's gone and I'm bouncing around in the saddle like a double bra'd jack-in-the-box. After my lesson, I walk bow-legged back to the clubhouse. The polo ponies look down their noses at me from their stalls. Nube is led away without so much as a disdainful backward glance. In the distance, real polo players gallop across the pitch with languid grace, turning on a dime and belting the ball to kingdom come. Rocky would have been good at this, I think, if he'd ever got the chance, but next time I think I'll try elephant polo. Anyone can ride an elephant. How hard can it be? Chestertons Polo in the Park is at Hurlingham Park on June 6, 7 and 8.
North Wales Live
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Shoppers say skincare with 'unique' ingredient is 'worth every penny' for clearing spots
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