We 80s kids suddenly feel old
Rod Stewart, Tom Selleck, Debbie Harry, Eric Clapton, Priscilla Presley, Helen Mirren and Steve Martin are among a long list of celebrities who will all reach 'Octogenarian' status this year.
Rod Stewart rocked Glastonbury just last week, playing for an hour and a half in the festivals 'Legends' spot. Himself and Eric Clapton, Bob Seger and Bjorn Ulvaeus of Abba, are still going strong in the world of music, even if they don't perform live quite as often as they used to. All of them absolute legends and all of them 80 years old. Rod Stewart. Pic: GMCD
Debbie Harry, of Blondie fame also celebrated her 80th birthday only last week, and is still working away with her band, putting the final touches on a new album. The 'Heart of Glass' singer was a favourite among young lads back in the 1980s, who among us didn't have her poster on our bedroom wall?
She still wears her platinum hair in a sexy cropped bob and looks every bit the rock star she is. However, its doubtful the band will ever tour again after the death of bandmate Clem Burke in March of this year, and Chris Stein unable to tour due to failing health. If you were lucky enough to see them in Belfast last year, you probably witnessed their last live gig. Debbie Harry. Pic: REX/Shutterstock
In the movie world, some of the worlds best loved stars of screen are also 80 this year, with Tom Selleck, aka Magnum PI heading up the glittering list of icons. He was a huge tv star back in the 1980s with his signature bushy moustache and cheeky persona, he oozed cool in his role as Magnum the smiling detective, in the series which ran for eight seasons from 1980 to 1988, and managed to capture the enviable balance of decent storylines, humour, and adventure. Actor/executive producer Tom Selleck, wife Jillie Mack and daughter Hannah (Photo by Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage)
Its hard to believe that those stars that some of us of a certain age would have had a teenage crush on, are now around the same age as our parents, and we never saw it coming. It's amazing how the mind plays tricks on us, because if we think about any of the above-named icons, our minds remember them as they were at the height of their fame, 40 plus years ago.
Speaking of 40 years ago, last week I introduced a younger member of my family to the movie 'Back to the Future', the timeless classic starring Michael J Fox as teenager Marty McFly, who travels back in time to the 1950's and meets his own mother, who in turn, develops a crush on him, (would never be allowed today). Back To The Future. Pic: Amblin Entertainment/Universal Pictures/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Robert Zemeckis Amblin Entertainment/Universal Pictures
But it's harmless, clean, good fun, full of great music, adventure, a big goofy dog called Einstein, and of course the famous DeLorean car, which doubled as a time machine. That movie was released in July 1985 and turns 40 this week.
Other stars of music, stage and screen also reaching their 80th birthdays this year, include our own Brenda Fricker, Country music star Rita Coolidge, musicians Anne Murray, Kim Carnes, and Pete Townshend.
Take a moment to catch your breath as you realise that movie icon Harrison Ford, yes, Indiana Jones himself will be 83 next week (July 13th)
I think I need to lie down.
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The Irish Sun
an hour ago
- The Irish Sun
‘We've no call girls in Sligo' – ‘Cheapskate' music icon's shock groupie & $10k cash demands to play 80s Irish festival
CONTROVERSIAL rock 'n' roll legend Chuck Berry demanded a groupie at one of Ireland's earliest ever folk festivals — and got one — despite being told: 'We've no call girls in Sligo.' The Johnny B. Goode star was a veteran of 50 when the Boys of Ballisodare organisers broke the bank to lure him in 1981. 5 Chuck Berry demanded a groupie at one of Ireland's earliest ever folk festivals Credit: Sunshine International/REX/Shutterstock 5 Van Morrison headlined Lisdoonvarna in 1983 Credit: Getty Images 5 Rory Gallagher also played the festival Credit: Fin Costello/Redferns The desperation to shell out on a superstar who didn't really fit the bill was typical of the early As attendances grew and competition between organisers heated up, festivals began looking outside of Ireland for their headline acts. This development convinced Philip Flynn to shell out $17,000 on the ageing Philip said: 'Just the idea of Chuck Berry, with Johnny B. Goode and, you know, like . . . Jesus! We decided to go for it.' READ MORE IN MUSIC Listen to Fields Of Dreams on Getting the fading star to a field in Berry — derided a 'cheapskate' and 'not a very nice man' by organisers — demanded two first-class airline tickets, for him and his daughter, and cashed in her ticket when she didn't make the trip. Flynn dispatched his dad-in-law to a bank to withdraw $10,000 in cash to hand over to Chuck as he disembarked at And it didn't end there. Most read in The Irish Sun Berry wanted a groupie, and was willing to wait in the Mercedes which was provided for him. Flynn said: '(Berry's minder) came to me, and this was a Sunday evening, and said, 'Chuck would like some company'. What REALLY happened with Harry Styles' Glastonbury kiss - and which new celeb couples went public? 'I'm standing there saying, 'You know where we are . . . even if it was possible . . . we don't have call girls in Sligo'. 'We know, as the country is a small place, where the car went and it came back an hour later. 'I mean, that's a fact. And so somebody got what they needed. Who knows what happened?' The pioneering events in the Seventies helped transform Ireland's For five years festivals run by people with big dreams and tiny budgets dominated until a different kind of event took over the live entertainment calendar. 'I'm standing there saying, 'You know where we are . . . even if it was possible . . . we don't have call girls in Sligo'." Philip Flynn Rory Gallagher played to 20,000 fans in tiny Macroom, 'NOBODY HAD DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS' Festival historian Roz Crowley said: 'Nobody had done anything like this in Ireland. I mean, there was no template or anything for it. 'A lot of people came from Cork, of course, and slept in doorways — they couldn't afford anything with the price of it. 'A lot of people had to walk because they didn't have a car and they couldn't afford the bus fare. 'And they walked for the best part of eight hours to get to the concert in pretty poor footwear. 'So the poor things arrived into Macroom a bit bedraggled. 'So much so that the locals who saw them arriving looking exhausted put on batches of scones and came out to their gates and fed them glasses of milk and a scone to take them into the town.' 'EARLY INNOCENCE QUICKLY LOST' The festival was a huge success, but like others which were being put on all over Ireland, the early innocence was quickly lost and it came to an end a few years later. Roz explained: 'A different element crept in. I would say that maybe they weren't all music lovers, you know. 'And then, as time went on, managers recognised that, my gosh, this is a kind of a cash cow. ''We could be charging more here for our artists', and it became a different 'And it probably killed it in the end.' Boys of Ballisodare founders Philip and Kevin Flynn saw their folk acts — including Christy Moore — tempted elsewhere. FEES BEGAN TO SPIRAL Major festivals sprang up in Lisdoonvarna in The fees — which had started out at a few hundred pounds at the Sligo event — began to spiral as rival promoters lured in the big name acts. Philip said: 'Lisdoonvarna, when they came on the scene, they were paying IR£600 for the same acts that we were paying IR£200 for. 'They had no idea. They just needed to get in. Whereas I had come to it from a relationship with the acts, at least. 'The parents of one of, I think, Jim Shannon, put up their farm as collateral for bank loans. And they lost money the first year. 'In fairness to them, I have great admiration for the fact that they stuck with it. They came back. "So they did actually make profit after that and did well for a few years.' TRAGIC ENDINGS Early Irish festivals were tinged with tragedy — the first at a punk event in The Radiators From Space were topping the bill in Belfield, where a young man was stabbed to death. Radiators star Pete Holidai said: 'We weren't involved in the actual stabbing incidents — what happened was a scuffle broke out early on in the night. "There were a couple of band members who were in, trying to break the scuffle up and get people to calm down. 'But unbeknown to us some fellow stepped in and stabbed someone and then f**ked off. 'No one realised what had happened and it wasn't until we were on stage later in the evening where we suddenly became aware. 'What happened was that the ambulances were called and it appeared then this guy had died.' A young man was later convicted of killing 18-year-old Patrick Coultry, from Cabra in Dublin. The biggest of Ireland's earliest festivals was Lisdoonvarna, which came to a tragic end in 1983. HELLS ANGELS DRAFTED IN The event was moved to the end of July to capitalise on the August bank holiday, with Rory Gallagher and Van Morrison topping the bill. A staggering 40,000 people attended, but a huge number turned up without tickets and tried to breach the fence. As a result, Hells Angels bikers were drafted in to lend a hand with security. Separately, eight people drowned while swimming on the hot Sunday afternoon of July 31. The dead, all men aged between 19 and 30, included three brothers from 'PART OF US DIED THAT DAY' Stockton's Wing guitarist Mike Hanrahan remembers: 'I was there and it was dark. 'There was a bad vibe at the festival all weekend because of the security. 'We saw the big fencing being knocked over. It was a bad energy at the festival. 'And to cap it all off the young people who lost their lives on the Sunday, to drown in a part of Doolin that we all know. 'It was like part of us died that day as well. 'I remember somebody saying that was the day the music died. I guess that was the beginning of the end of those festivals as well.' The first two episodes of Fields Of Dreams are available on s 5 Huge acts like Christy Moore became wanted by other promoters Credit:5 Hell's Angels Bikers did security at one event Credit: Getty Images
Irish Independent
3 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Pat Carty: Glastonbury's main stages showed a changing of the guard from old men to young women
Last weekend I made an annual rock and roll pilgrimage. Not actually to Worthy Farm in Somerset, you understand, but rather to my own front room. 'Oh, you watched it on television,' the purists howl. 'That's not the Glastonbury experience.'
Irish Daily Mirror
3 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
'Musicians - Stop being self-elected martyrs on stage & get back to rock n'roll'
It's the debate of the moment: should musicians get political on stage? It's come up again after the most controversial, angry Glastonbury ever, with plenty of acts getting in on the Kneecap zeitgeist. The answer is: No they shouldn't, for one main reason - it's boring. It's the opposite of rock n' roll. It's painfully pompous. It's as tedious and predictable as a beauty queen going on about world peace, and has about as much depth. I love music, but musicians can be docile morons. Many will say whatever it takes to make everyone love them. For every superbrain like David Bowie, there's an absolute thick wielding a mic. I respect them creatively more than any other artists, yet the uninformed, performative blather they've the hubris to come out with is mortifying. It's generally student politics stuff, safely in line with establishment consensus, yet held up as being punk and brave. So it's also hypocritical, as well as pretentious, self-promoting and publicity-seeking. Sincere activists are admirable, no matter if you agree with their cause or not, but bandwagon-jumpers do campaigns more harm than good. Take the Glastonbury fiasco over last weekend, when there was a queue of bands and singers trampling over one another to take to the stage and bash Israel. It's the easiest thing in the world to do, at the present political moment. And it guarantees attention. One of those subject to a police hate speech probe is punk duo Bob Vylan, who chanted: 'Death to the IDF.' Up to last week you would have said: 'Bob Who?' So, job done. The hate speech laws in Britain are wrong, in my view; censoring and heavy-handed. Yet those who sacrificed free speech to support them are now the same ones complaining about them, seemingly only realising such laws are for all. Hate that. Belfast rap trio Kneecap have morphed into performance artists with a gift for publicity. They think they're subversive, mocking Maggie Thatcher, who was last British PM back in 1990 and is dead 13 years. At the recent gig in Dublin's Fairview, Mo Chara told the crowd; 'F**k Kemi Badenoch.' Few in the Republic could tell you who Badenoch is. But where's the fun in any of it? As a music fan, I'd prefer if musicians left politics aside at live gigs and instead delivered tear-the-roof-off shows worthy of Sly and the Family Stone. And the argument that 'musicians wouldn't have to speak if politicians did their job right' is whiny, entitled, self-martyrdom. Do you actually think you've the power to change anything? Thankfully, all the smart, genuine artists know this. They put any social commentary in the songs - which is from the heart and has far greater effect. Ireland's live music queen Roisin Murphy is one of the most clear-minded on the issue, posting during the week about it: 'Division is running through its veins. Ego and self-hood is destroying the music scene. No fun, no unity, creativity last. It's empty.' Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson pinpointed Glastonbury as one of the hotspots for such preening indulgence. He previously labelled the festival 'the most bourgeois thing on the planet' and said he'd refuse a spot on the line-up, as he didn't want to play 'in front of Gwyneth Paltrow and a perfume-infused yurt'. Noel Gallagher deserves the last word. The Oasis singer said Glastonbury had become 'preachy and virtue-signally'. 'I don't like it in music. Little f**king idiots waving flags around and taking to the stage saying: 'Hey guys, isn't war terrible, yeah? Let's all boo war.' And all that. It's like: look. Play your f**king tunes and get off.' The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week
