Add to playlist: the year's best electronic debut from Sheffield's NZO, plus the week's best tracks
It's thrilling and satisfying when an artist's debut album is so fully realised: as if they have their own hyperlocal dialect, and are saying something genuinely new with it. So it is with NZO, a mysterious Sheffield-based electronic artist whose album Come Alive is a defibrillating jolt of vitality. You can find affinities with other artists and styles here, for sure: the bookish but playful minimalism of another Sheffield musician, Mark Fell; Objekt's trickster vision for bass music and techno; the white-tiled cleanliness of some of Sophie's work; Jlin's paradoxically static funk. But the way it's all pulled together is totally NZO's, making for music that's so light on its feet despite its incredible complexity.
After a brief intro piece, main opener Rolling Around has all the hallmarks of dubstep but it's as if a slight glitch is holding it back from a deep skanking rhythm. The little ripples of conga on AXMM, or the synthetic brass fanfares of Something's Changed, are sounds you often hear in Chicago footwork music – probably deliberate homages, yet the actual productions are totally different, the former fidgeting, the latter bumping.
Her use of vocals is excellent, too, from the very quotable house-style command 'won't stop dancing til the DJ drops' on CFML, to faraway dream-pop singing on Something's Changed. There's more on half-stepping closer Looking For ': the kind of poignant snatch of pop that Burial reaches for, but rather than being cloaked in static, this lost transmission comes through with devastating clarity. This album is cute yet serious, danceable yet cerebral – very few people are operating at this level in British electronic music anywhere, much less with their debut.
Blood Orange – The FieldA fever dream of collaborators join Dev Hynes' romantic return: the Durutti Column's guitar blur meets Eva Tolkin's racing production, Tariq Al-Sabir's composition and vocals from Caroline Polachek and Daniel Caesar. LS
The Beths – No Joy'I don't feel sad, I feel nothing,' Liz Stokes rues on a classic Beths track: kinetic powerpop that blasts her melancholy – about the new numbness of life on antidepressants – with sunshine. LS
Jonathan Richman – I Was Just a Piece of Frozen Sky Anyway
'Will I make my change?' the Modern Lover asks his mother on what might be a gnomic nod to mortality, as Spanish guitar does a brisk dance with a lovely, fluted whistle. [Not on Spotify: listen at Bandcamp.] LS
Black Sites – C4Producers Helena Hauff and F#X unite as Black Sites, their debut LP led by this impressively insidious techno slither – one that feels as though it's hypnotising you into a particularly dark place. LS
Case Oats – In a BungalowSomewhere between Kathleen Edwards' open-hearted country and Kimya Dawson's lovely naivete, Chicago's Casey Walker – and nimble, fiddle-accented band – belies the pressing nature of a crush with an enticing lightness of touch. LS
Orcutt Shelley Miller – A Star Is BornGuitarists Bill Orcutt and Ethan Miller (Comets on Fire) blaze up the joint while former Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley plays it cool, steering them towards a surprisingly chill landing. LS
Silvana Estrada – Lila AlelíThe Mexican songwriter essays the pain of longing in capital-R romantic terms, although her radiant delivery and some jaunty horns suggest that there's no small amount of pleasure in this purgatory. LS
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Telegraph
13 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Flashman and the movies: The little-known Hollywood adventures of George MacDonald Fraser
'I like film people, and their crazy trade,' George MacDonald Fraser wrote in his memoir after his screenwriting career had finished. On the evidence of his work, it is not hard to see why. Although his list of film credits is far from prolific, the author worked on some of the most purely enjoyable adventure pictures made in the 1970s and 1980s. The combination of wit, swashbuckling and licentious boisterousness made for a very satisfying combination indeed. Fraser first came to prominence after having a brilliant idea following his military service: what happened to Flashman, the notorious bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays, after he was expelled from Rugby School? The answer came in the shape of 12 bestselling novels focusing on the character published between 1969 and 2005, and allowing him to interact, Zelig -like, with many of the real-life figures from the Victorian period. They have regrettably fallen out of vogue today for their perceived un-PC qualities, but for those unbothered by that and more interested in a well-told, ripping yarn, they remain favourites. His career in cinema is less celebrated. He brought fun and wit to his scripts – not least when he put Bond in a gorilla suit – but many of the projects on which he worked became mired in difficulty. This month sees the release of Red Sonja, a long-delayed remake of one of Fraser's less memorable screenplays, a swords-and-sorcery B-movie originally starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brigitte Nielsen. Despite the presence of the ever-dependable British character actors Trevor Eve and Tim McMullan, it's doubtful anyone will flock to see it. Still, it serves as a reminder of the distinctive voice behind its source material, whose career proved to be rich, eventful and surprisingly influential. Here are his finest films – some of which actually made it to the screen. Flashman (unmade) After Fraser published his first Flashman novel in 1969, which purported to be a true account of the adventures of the Victorian rogue that Fraser had found by chance, it soon proved to be an enormous bestseller. As sure as day follows night, the film rights were sold to the director Richard Lester, who was best known for having directed the Beatles films A Hard Day's Night and Help!. Lester began to develop the film with Fraser, but eventually tired of it, later claiming that he felt that he had essentially already made it in his head after a lengthy pre-production process. The first – and many would say best – Flashman novel therefore remains unfilmed, although there have been rumours as to its making it to the screen. Over the years, leading actors have been suggested (including Daniel Day-Lewis). In 2015, none other than Ridley Scott bought the rights to the book with a view to producing an adaptation of it. Around the same time, that well-known roisterer Dominic West threw his hat into the ring, calling the 'spectacularly politically incorrect' Flashman 'a perfectly preserved gem that's just waiting for a good revival'. Should a bold, risk-taking director wish to return to Fraser's original adaptation of his novel, the results could be spectacular. The Three Musketeers (1973), The Four Musketeers (1974) Flashman may never have happened, but it began a good working relationship between Fraser and Lester. When Fraser met the director near his home on the Isle of Man, and knowing his reputation for making broad comedies, he tentatively asked 'How d'you want the Musketeers – straight, or sent up?' Lester's answer was simple: 'I want it written by the man who wrote Flashman.' Once Lester's initial idea of casting his old collaborators the Beatles was stymied by their break-up, production went smoothly. By the time that Fraser was shown the rough cut of the picture, now starring Richard Chamberlain, Oliver Reed, Frank Finlay and Michael York, Lester was able to say, proudly, that 'it's 85-90 per cent you': something that the film's assured mixture of swashbuckling action and witty badinage lived up to. Without this film, it's doubtful we'd have the likes of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. But it was also a swift lesson in Hollywood chicanery. Fraser had written a long script, which he had intended a single epic picture to include an interval, but the producers simply cut it in half and released it as two pictures, called The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers. This came as a surprise to the cast, who were only informed at the Paris premiere that they would be watching half the film they had made. Royal Flash (1975) Fraser reunited with Lester to adapt the second of the Flashman novels, and ended up with a limp reprise of the Musketeers panache starring the likes of Bob Hoskins, Joss Ackland, David Jason and a splendidly caddish and self-regarding Malcolm McDowell. Lester later ruefully called Royal Flash 'a poor choice of mine'. He was right, but Fraser had by then moved on to another project, the similarly ill-fated Prince and the Pauper, based on the Mark Twain novel. Despite a starry cast with several Musketeers veterans (Reed, Raquel Welch and Charlton Heston), it was not a success. 'My first reaction is one of disappointment,' Fraser said upon seeing it. But it did strengthen his bond with producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind, who had also backed the Musketeers films, and would go on to make Superman the following year. Superman (1978), Superman II (1980) Although the screenplay for the first Superman film was credited to The Godfather's Mario Puzo, David and Leslie Newman and Robert Benton, Fraser suggested that Puzo's contribution was nominal. Puzo, he said, was brought on board to beef up the part of Jor-El, Superman's father (eventually played by Marlon Brando, at the then-exorbitant fee of $3m). When his usual collaborator Lester was hired to replace Richard Donner, who directed the first picture and a substantial part of what would become Superman II, Fraser contributed significant material to both films, uncredited. As he later reflected, 'there is no such credit as 'script fixer' or 'plot cobbler'.' (He was also privy to some of the more unlikely casting discussions for Superman before they fixed on Christopher Reeve – the boxer Muhammad Ali was at one point half-seriously mentioned.) One of his ideas, in which Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor steals Kryptonite from a museum by simply smashing one of the exhibits' cases with a brick, never made it to screen: a shame, as it could have been very amusing. Force Ten From Navarone (1978) Fraser relished working with major stars during his career, and one of the biggest was Harrison Ford, who worked on the ill-fated Guns of Navarone sequel Force Ten From Navarone, which Fraser went uncredited for. The writer relished how, when Ford was offered a local delicacy – dog meat with cheese – in the expensive Yugoslav hotel in which he was staying, he reacted with 'horrified disbelief'. But otherwise Ford was 'quite the gentlest of the cast, soft-spoken and quietly courteous, and not the one you'd expect to be first as an action man'. It was, however, a miserable business working on the film with its supposed lead, Robert Shaw, who a friend of Fraser's drily described as 'competent when sober'. Shaw hated making the picture and thought the script was appalling, complaining to a journalist on set: 'I'm seriously thinking that this might be my last film. I no longer have anything real to say. I'm appalled at some of the lines. I'm not at ease in film. I can't remember the last film I enjoyed making.' Still, when he was on set, he took delight in discussing his latest play with Fraser, complaining about the expense of the golf course he was having constructed at his Irish estate, or remarking on the price of fatherhood. The actor, who had 10 children, died of a heart attack before the film was released. Octopussy (1983) Fraser's produced scripts were less noteworthy during the 1980s, with only his work on the James Bond film Octopussy being seen by wide audiences. He attempted to bring a sense of fun and surprise to the character, much to the series producer Albert 'Cubby' Broccoli's disdain. The idea of dressing Bond up as a clown was bad enough, but another form of disguise was just unacceptable. As Fraser wrote in his memoir, 'I can still hear his cry of outraged disbelief: 'You want to put Bond in a gorilla suit?' This scene, and many other wacky moments, made it into the finished film, although the screenwriter was left in no doubt as to how insignificant his contribution would be to a strictly generic 007 romp. When his appointment was announced, Roger Moore simply called out 'Commiserations!' Red Sonja (1985) The 1985 sword-and-sorcery would-be epic was hardly a classic, being a tame rip-off of the more successful Conan the Barbarian and featuring a reluctant Schwarzenegger being crowbarred into more and more scenes in a vain attempt to give the film some box office clout, alongside the untested Nielsen. This stratagem failed, and the picture was a notorious critical and commercial flop. Yet it does have one feature of interest, and that is that most of the scenes involving Arnie as Lord Kalidor, which were added during production, were written by Fraser. He wrote that he was recruited by uber-producer Dino de Laurentiis to write the screenplay for a remake of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, to be directed by none other than Federico Fellini after Richard Lester turned down the project. It soon transpired that de Laurentiis had (perhaps deliberately) overstated Fellini's potential interest in the project. The film might be made as a musical, it was suggested – with silent underwater explosions. Fraser remained on the payroll in Rome to act as a well-paid script doctor on Red Sonja instead. 'Schwarzenegger himself was impressive,' Fraser would write, 'not only by reason of his extraordinary physique, but because he was a great deal cleverer than a Mr Universe has any right to be.' When the film finally opened, he was blasé about its reception. 'Barry Norman was kind enough to say that the other writer [the prolific British screenwriter Clive Exton] and I had been unlucky in that mice must have got at the script, but in fact it was all our untampered work.' The Return of the Musketeers (1989) It was death that sped Fraser's career as a Hollywood screenwriter to its end, although not his own. His final credit came on his reunion with Lester and the Musketeers cast in the ill-fated 1989 sequel The Return of the Musketeers, based on Dumas' sequel Twenty Years After. During filming, Roy Kinnear fell off his horse and died of his resulting internal injuries, which not only destroyed the mood on set but also led to significant rewriting and the necessity of hiring a voice-over artist to replace Kinnear; Fraser suggests that the impressionist Rory Bremner was one of those mooted. When the film came out, the reviews, no doubt influenced by the production problems, were damning. As Fraser observed: 'The aftermath of recrimination and litigation was no encouragement to the viewing public.'
The Sun
13 minutes ago
- The Sun
I can't wait for my kids to move out for uni this September – people call me a bad mum but I'm throwing a £2k party
A MUM of two teens set to move out next month says she 'can't wait' – and plans to celebrate 'getting her life back' by throwing a lavish £2,000 BBQ for her friends. Carla Bellucci has previously been dubbed 'Britain's most hated mum' after sharing a string of controversial views – and her latest is set to grind more gears. 6 6 The 44-year-old's two eldest children, 20-year-old Tanisha and 18-year-old Jayden, are set to fly the nest in September to attend university. And while many parents would be mourning their childhood years, Carla is itching to turf them out. 'I can't wait for them to move out and won't miss them in the slightest – I'm counting down the days,' Carla, from Hertfordshire, said. 'They drive me insane and need their own lives. 'Other mums go crazy when I tell them this, but it's the truth. 'They're mortified because their kids are their whole life – but I have always lived my life for me. 'I've put myself first as well as my kids. 'I think as parents, we are entitled to enjoy our lives. 'It angers me that mums think you have to give up your whole world for the kids.' And she believes it will be to her children's advantage too. Carla Bellucci enjoys eight holidays in one year Carla added: 'I think they need to grow up and get into the real world. 'It's not good to have your kids at home – I know people who have 30-year-old kids at home, and it's not normal, and it's holding them back. 'I actually think it's cruel to keep them at home – [other mums should] get busy and get their own life back.' 6 Carla has set a budget of £2,000 for a BBQ shindig in honour of the landmark occasion. She said: 'I'm going to have the biggest party ever and celebrate hardcore. 'There will be no expenses spared – champagne, a hot tub and good vibes. 'I'm going to invite all of my friends over to celebrate me getting my life back. 'I had the older kids when I was 21 and did it alone, so I feel like my life is just beginning. 'I'm also [planning on] travelling the world in the next year – it's my me-me-me era.' 6 Her other children have their father in the picture to help out while Carla enjoys her new carefree lifestyle. While she is looking forward to her eldest two leaving, Carla admits she is 'very proud' of her eldest children for getting into university and setting off for independence. But she won't miss life without teenagers under her roof, with just her two younger children remaining. She said: 'My whole life will be changing. 'I can't wait for the peace – no more arguments or stinky teens or rubbish music banging. 'And no one to comment on my life and judge me if I want a wine at 4 pm!' 6 Carla Bellucci's surgery history CARLA Bellucci isn't opposed to the odd nip and tuck, having had multiple tweakments over the year including breast implants, botox and lip fillers. The model also famously received a nose job on the NHS worth a staggering £7,000 and claims to have 'faked' depression to get her 'slight bump' corrected. The ex-model previously told the Daily Star: 'I went to my GP, flirted with him, and he toldme exactly what to do. 'The funny thing is I've never had depression, never been prescribed medication for it or had any therapy. They didn't check a thing.' Despite being accused of 'milking the system', Carla argued that she was 'just clever' and said that people who complained are 'just jealous'. This earnt her the unenviable title of 'Britain's most hated woman'. Whilst the Hertfordshire mum might be no stranger to going under the knife, she has hit out at Brits jetting off to get cheap cosmetic surgery. Calling them 'stupid' and 'thick', the model hit out a those who want to get the low-cost surgery after hearing 'horror stories'.
The Sun
13 minutes ago
- The Sun
Rise of sick ‘Cougar Clans' sparked by Bonnie Blue's ‘barely legal' romps where predatory women hunt ‘cubs' for sex
SHE'S the 26-year-old from Nottinghamshire who claims to have had sex with 1,057 men in just 12 hours - but that's not all that has garnered controversy for Bonnie Blue. The glamorous sex star - with her bouncy blowdries and Love Island-esque looks - has sparked outrage over her sex marathons with "barely legal" students - many of them eager for her to take their virginity. 12 12 12 Bonnie proudly advertised for young lads to 'bonk me for free' at university freshers' events, with as many as 158 queuing outside her hotel room. She then challenged Spring Break "barely legal" college boys to see who could give her the best orgasm - with a pledge to pay for the tuition of the "winner". Despite the head-turning influencer - real name Tia Billinger - growing up in a sleepy village and formerly working in NHS recruitment, she now rakes in a whopping £1million a month. She's now claimed she'll risk HIV to break records and said her shocking 1,057-men sex stunt was just the start. Disturbingly, Bonnie is not alone in the industry, with her sexploits being copied by other women trading in their bodies for likes on social media in horrifying trends. 'PREDATORY' BEHAVIOUR Bonnie is facing a growing chorus of hate in the UK, with A&E doctor Maddy Lucy Dann calling her 'predatory' for targeting teenagers. However, she's far from alone, with over 300,000 videos with the #cougar hashtag on TikTok, and numerous 'Cougar & Cubs' Facebook groups set up for older women to hook up with younger men. Here women, mostly over 40, give tips on where to pick up their 'cubs', brag about their 'experienced' sex lives and also plug hook-up sites on where to find toyboys. Despite the controversy around older women and younger men, Bonnie has claimed that she always IDs participants first to ensure they are of legal age - so while her stunts have raised eyebrows, they have not been illegal. But discussing Bonnie's antics, Maddy said on TikTok: 'I'm just going to say it, there's a woman on this app that is creating content centred around having sex with freshers. 'Freshers in the UK are people who have just started university and broadly speaking they are fresh out of six form, fresh out of school and they are probably about 18 years old. 'In this person's content, she makes a comment about how a lot of them might be virgins, sexually inexperienced, and I'm sorry but this kind of behaviour is predatory. 'She's an older woman and these are younger, inexperienced, vulnerable people that she seeks out via social media in order to have sex with them to create content. 'This person cares far more about their social media presence and making loads of money than they do about these people they are having sex with, who I do not believe are correctly informed and therefore cannot fully consent to what is happening. 'The ramifications of having sex with the person can be plentiful, but the ramification of having sex with somebody that is filming it and posting it – the internet is forever.' 12 'RAPE CULTURE' Bonnie was slammed for "promoting rape culture" and labelled "vile" for announcing what she called " Bonnie Blue 's petting zoo". Explaining the sickening idea during an interview on Kat Baker's podcast, she said that she was going to be naked and tied up in a glass box, which would be "open for the public" to do basically whatever they want to her. When Kat asked "where" the box was going to be, Bonnie continued that she would be in "the centre of London" but "in a house". Making the planned event even more repulsive, Bonnie told Kat that she wanted to beat her own record by "doing 2,000". However, the news led her to being banned from OnlyFans with her set to lose her massive "£600,000 a month" pay. Bonnie had her page pulled due to breach of terms after her "extreme challenge" content "crossed a line". An OnlyFans spokesperson said: 'Extreme 'challenge' content is not available on OnlyFans and is not permitted under our Acceptable Use Policy and Terms of Service.' Why Bonnie Blue MUST be banned from social media By Kate Kulniece, Fabulous Digital writer and rape survivor When it comes to sex, I like to consider myself open-minded - and non-judgemental. But the vile, attention-seeking OnlyFans porn star Bonnie Blue makes me sick to my stomach. When the 26-year-old first hit the headlines with her gruesome stunts in March 2024, I'll admit - I didn't pay much attention to her. But as the challenges became more perverted and she eventually bedded over 1,000 men in just 12 hours, I became not just disappointed - but angry. Her most recent - and most disgusting - stunt to date, of being tied up in a glass box for men to fulfil their sick desires, is wrong and worrying on so many levels. The number of rapes being reported to police are at a record high, with a shocking 1 in 4 women, 1 in 6 children and 1 in 18 men falling victim to this horrific crime. It's an alarming rise and many believe, as I do, that the sexual assaults are fuelled by access to toxic online culture - with Bonnie seemingly leading the way with her vile sex marathon stunts. As a young woman who is a survivor of two rapes - aged just 13 and 23 - and who has been sexually harassed on countless occasions, I feel sick and enraged. In a society where sexual abuse, violence against women and misogyny have become a widespread pandemic, we should ban people like Bonnie from social media. Her foul and obscene challenges, which are becoming worse every time, are a slap in the face to millions of rape survivors like myself. Not only are her videos a constant reminder of the trauma and pain that was forced upon us, but she also teaches perverts that women are a piece of meat - and nothing else. Despite repeatedly insisting she empowers women, Bonnie promotes a culture in which women are passed around by men like toys. She also plays into the narrative that our husbands, fathers and sons can't control their sexual urges - or shouldn't have to. As a vocal multi millionaire, Bonnie may think this is all harmless fun, paying her many assistants to keep her out of real harm's way. But in reality, the sex-insatiable Bonnie is promoting dangerous rape culture and pushing victims like myself deeper into the abyss of trauma. Her twisted antics, and those of rival Lily Phillips and Aussie OF star Annie Knight, are damaging impressionable young teenage boys - half of whom have been exposed to pornography by the age of 13. These very same boys will grow up thinking this is normal, this is what women want - and what we're here for. There are countless things I look forward to, but the day the sick content creator finally gets banned from platforms cannot come soon enough. COPY CAT STUNTS A Sun probe has found that at least three more women in their 20s have started taking part in similar sex marathons and are promoting the footage on websites including TikTok and Instagram. Lily Phillips, 24, from Derbyshire, claimed to have had sex with 101 men in 14 hours at an Airbnb - and she received over one million views when she posted the footage online. Lily, who has banked well over £2million thanks to her OnlyFans career, said the youngest man she slept with was 18 and the oldest was in his 60s. Insisting she didn't complete the feat for money alone, she said: 'I didn't need to sleep with 101 random men, I did that out of enjoyment.' Bonnie had previously opted not to make her real name public. And it's little wonder, given the furious backlash she received after bragging about sleeping with teenagers - and their married dads and grandfathers. Appearing on the popular Saving Grace podcast with internet personality GK Barry recently, Bonnie, who has 256k Instagram followers and 60k on TikTok, said: 'I don't want to discriminate. I don't want to just to students – I want to do their dads as well. 'To be fair, I need to give credit to this student, he came with his dad. "I was like, 'Are you joking?' When I first saw him with his dad, I thought he was going to come and tell me off. No, it was the opposite, he wanted to join in." 'TOXIC AND GREEDY' In Australia, where Bonnie previously travelled with two bodyguards to attend 'Schoolies' university induction events, thousands have signed a petition calling for her to be barred from re-entering the country. Child safety expert Kristi McVee is one of those supporting the ban. She told The Sun: 'The main thing is, she is a grown woman exploiting barely legal and young men who don't and won't understand the impacts until they get older. 'Some of these young men - after the high of being with her, the overall excitement and potential disappointment wanes - will have regrets. In this person's [Bonnie's] content, she makes a comment about how a lot of them might be virgins, sexually inexperienced, and I'm sorry but this kind of behaviour is predatory Maddy Lucy DannA&E doctor 'For some it won't even register, and they will be ok. It will depend on their level of emotional intelligence during and after. 'The point though is that 18-year-old men, who are just leaving school, haven't had the life experiences or skills to make critical decisions that could impact their future and careers, such as having these videos on the internet for all to see, and most won't think through the potential long-term consequences before getting involved. 'Only in the aftermath will we see the potential overall harm. 'Quite frankly, I am shocked that a grown woman would be so persistent in her mission to exploit young men. 'Who profits here other than her? I haven't considered her motivations but she's toxic, greedy, and predatory. 'She is feeding the beast of child abuse and exploitation by creating content using teenagers. 'Anyone who does this is, regardless of their gender, is a predator.' Bonnie Blue's rise to fame and controversy Born in May 1999, Bonnie - whose real name is Tia Billinger - grew up in a small Derbyshire village, and attended the Friesland School in the village of Sandiacre. She has two half-siblings - a sister and a brother - who have always remained out of the public eye. She never knew her biological father, and considers stepfather Nicholas Elliott her dad. Bonnie also became something of a dance star in her local area, and competed in the British Street Dance Championships alongside her sister back in 2015. She also had a part-time job at Poundstretcher as a teenager. After school, she began working in recruitment. In October 2022, Bonnie married Oliver Davidson, who she had started dating when she was just 15. Once they were married, they moved to Australia, where Bonnie continued working in recruitment. However, it was in Australia that she decided to pursue a different line of work, and tried her luck as a 'cam girl' - crediting Oliver for giving her the confidence to enter the adult entertainment world. She quickly made a name for herself in the industry, and was soon making £5,000 a week. But while her work life was going from strength to strength, her relationship was crumbling, and she and Oliver split after almost a decade together. She moved over to OnlyFans following her cam girl success, and once again found fame on there. She quickly became a favourite on the site, especially thanks to her "niche" of sleeping with young male students - such as when she bedded 158 students during Nottingham Trent University's freshers week in September 2024. Bonnie is now estimated to be worth £3 million, and makes around £600,000 a month on OnlyFans. Her family are also supportive of her work, with mum Sarah Billinger even claiming she's her daughter's PA, and helps clean up after Bonnie's events - as well as handing out condoms to young clients. In January 2025, Bonnie claimed to have broken the world record for the most amount of sex in 12 hours, after apparently sleeping with 1,057 men from 1pm to 1am at a secret London event. 'KARENS HAVE AN ISSUE' Despite claims of 'predatory' behaviour, Bonnie Blue has insisted her content is 'educational', adding: "It allows you to understand consent better." Bonnie hit back this week, blaming so-called 'Karens', or privileged white women, for trying to force her out - and pointing out that 18-year-olds are allowed to vote and join the army. She said of the lads she films with: 'They have to sign a consent form [saying] they have not been drinking or have done drugs in the last 24 hours. She [Bonnie] is a grown woman exploiting barely legal and young men who don't and won't understand the impacts until they get older Kristi McVeeChild safety expert 'It's the 'Karens' that have got an issue with it. I understand what I do is out there, but sex is focused on one thing. It's pleasure and enjoyment, and that's all I see it as. It's not anything more than that.' In the same interview, Bonnie doubled down on previous comments she'd made about married men having a right to cheat if their wives won't sleep with them. She said: 'You can come home, deal with your wife's whinging, look after the kids - but you're just sneaking off elsewhere to get pleasured. 'If [men] are going to work and do a hard day's shift, they need to be treated.' 12 SEX REGISTER CALLS Dubai-based lifestyle creator Jade Katy also slammed Bonnie on TikTok, saying: 'Guys, Bonnie Blue belongs on a sex offenders register. 'I said what I said, I'm not going to take it back. 'I'm convinced the woman's frontal lobe isn't fully developed the way she goes about her life but that's by the by. It's the 'Karens' that have got an issue with it. I understand what I do is out there, but sex is focused on one thing. It's pleasure and enjoyment, and that's all I see it as. It's not anything more than that Bonnie Blue 'If you had a grown male hanging around student halls, ready to film, in her own words by the way, 'barely legal' girls, to profit off on an account he had, I'm sorry but he'd end up in court and being put on a register. 'So I'm standing by the fact that this woman also deserves fully to belong on a register.' Meanwhile, TikTok influencer Kayla Barker compared Bonnie to former kickboxer Andrew Tate, who is accused of spreading sexist views and is currently facing charges of sex trafficking and rape. 12 Kayla said: 'Giving women like Bonnie Blue a platform contributes to violence against women and girls and if you think that's a reach, please let me educate you. 'It's clear to see that we're in a femicide. Violence against women and girls is growing literally every single year. 'It doesn't come from nowhere, men aren't born as rapists and abusers, it grows as misogynistic values grow. 'Misogynistic values passed on from creators like Andrew Tate and now Bonnie Blue coming on to the internet and saying, 'Oh if you're not having sex with your husband, he has a free pass to cheat on you.' 'It's so much cheaper than rage bait, it contributes to the objectification of women and it reinforces the idea that men are entitled to have sex with us whenever they want basically." SEX AS A 'COMMODITY' Psychotherapist Lucy Beresford also fears that women like Bonnie might end up regretting their actions. She said: 'Sleeping with so many people will mess you up to some degree because it turns sex into a commodity rather than being an intimate act. 'It runs the risk of anaesthetising you to the joy and pleasure that sex can bring in a healthy relationship. 'There is an argument to say such behaviour is pathological because they're doing it like a job. 'The lines between the act and the emotions that arise through intimacy might be warped – because they are doing it with so many people.' However, she adds: 'But then what is too many? And why is it OK for men to have lots of lovers, but it's not OK for women?' Sex addiction expert Dr David Ley also accuses Bonnie's critics of having double standards. He said: 'Many lay people and therapists alike believe that females engaging in casual sex is a sign of low self-esteem, neediness, or even severe mental health. 'An old professor once told me that women who engage in gang bangs are likely pre-psychotic and the multiple men they sleep with fulfil the needs of a fragmenting psyche. 'But we now know these beliefs are all driven by misogyny, sexism and sexual double-standards in our societies. 'The only reasons that women who engage in promiscuity or group sex experience negative outcomes is because of social judgement and stigma. 'If we want women to not experience such harm, we as a society must consider our role in it.'
