Pendulum review — blasting their music into outer space
In a blitz of flames, lights and ear-bursting beats, they arrived with the appropriately titled Napalm, the sound of the Prodigy backing Rage Against the Machine and a fine summation of their wider impact so far. In the wake of the electronic and industrial metal innovations of Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Enter Shikari and others, in the mid-Noughties Pendulum brought an authentic clubland sensibility to the party: electro-rock gigs that blended and flowed like DJ sets, monster riffs played on squelchy synths, soulful and melodic pop hooks lodged between pounding drum'n'bass onslaughts that felt like going ten rounds with Robocop.
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Even after a five-year hiatus after the 2010 album Immersion and a further decade making Inertia, it's a method they still revel in. Witness the frontman Rob Swire mashing the 2007 single Blood Sugar into their remix of the Prodigy's Voodoo People, or crooning and screaming through Save the Cat like a boy band singer with a succubus trying to climb out through his gullet.
Weighting their 90 minutes towards the new material, Pendulum swung through the gabba metal gamut, from the hellfire mayhem of Halo to the slick superclub techno of The Island. Even cinematic soul-barers such as Encoder were eventually hit by a truck full of filthy synths, but plenty of variety poked through: Morricone brass on Propane Nightmares, dream pop textures on Colourfast, 8-bit bleeps and Tetris visuals introducing Self vs Self.
Watercolour came with a kisscam worthy sway-along section which Swire called 'the closest we come to Coldplay' while, at the far end of the wholesome scale, Silent Spinner was accompanied by grainy antique film of demonic baptisms, torture implements and witches wielding pickled hands, and sounded like Depeche Mode descending a circle or two deeper. They closed with the reggae rave Tarantula, career inertia conquered. The Andromedans won't know what hit them.★★★★☆Pendulum play HERE at the Outernet, London, on Sep 5
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The Independent
12 minutes ago
- The Independent
13 hard truths about the Cotswolds that JD Vance should know
Growing up in the Cotswolds in the 1980s, my childhood was all village hall discos, feral kittens in farmyards, and one bus a week to the local market. Now it's a world of deVOL kitchens, security gates, and an epidemic of A-listers cosplaying Cotswolds life (I see you, David Beckham). Oh, and this week – much to everyone's dismay – JD Vance and his entourage arriving, complete with road blocks and an apology from his host, Pippa Hornby, who bought her 18th-century Cotswolds home in the hamlet of Dean with her husband Johnny in 2017, and told villagers that she was 'so sorry for the circus'. But really, the whole region should come with a warning: just as the Greek islands have morphed into a Mamma Mia theme park, the Cotswolds risk becoming a caricature of America's idea of it: Downton Abbey meets the Hamptons. But here's what the influencers won't tell you… 1. Be prepared for Zimmer Frames Yup, for every midriff flaunting twentysomething doing peace-fingers by the pool at Soho Farmhouse (for somewhere that bans photography, Instagram is somehow awash with striped towels and picante-boomerangs), you'll find an army of octogenarians playing bridge inside the multi-million-pound homes they bought for £25k in the 70s. Those high-end apartments next to the market square you fancy the look of? It's a retirement community. 2. It might be the bleakest place on Earth in winter Night falls AT 3PM and the only thing to do is pull those thick curtains to block out the sideways drizzle. If you can survive the strip-lighting at Tesco in Stow-on-the-Wold on a Tuesday afternoon in February (because everything else shuts just after lunch), then go ahead and press purchase on that stoneclad farmhouse, but don't blame me when no one can hear your screams through those sixteenth-century walls. 3. You will have to book a taxi days in advance And it will cost you £50 to get anywhere. 4. They CAN see you coming As soon as tradespeople see a GL or OX in your postcode, they get very giddy with their decimal points. And to be fair, if you can afford a bespoke wine cellar, a temperature-controlled barn for your art collection or an underground garage for your fleet of luxury cars, then some might say you deserve to be taken for a ride. 5. Every village has a celebrity –but there is only one that matters to locals Kate Moss basically christened the Cotswolds when she bought a cottage in 2003. Since then, the Beckhams have converted a barn next to Soho Farmhouse, Ellen is Goldilocks-ing her away around the villages, Simon Cowell converted four separate homes in to one £8m mega-mansion (of course he did), Jamie Dornan is setting hearts a-flutter in his local co-op, Calvin Harris's new build project is keeping the local economy afloat, Hugh Grant, Amanda Holden, Kate Winslet… you get the picture. The funny thing is that the aforementioned pensioners have NO idea who any of them are. Apart from Jeremy Clarkson. 6. There is a love-hate thing going on with Carole Bamford Aka the queenmaker of villages, not content with turning the sleepy hamlet of Daylesford into Disneyland for people who like scented candles and over-priced cabbages, Carol-with-an-e Bamford has now waved her magic wand over the village pubs in nearby Kingham, Oddington and Asthall, steroid-injecting neighbouring house prices and local business opportunities. Less fun for anyone who doesn't want to wait six weeks for lunch on a Wednesday, but still, villagers around the Cotswolds can be heard begging 'pick me!', 'pick me!' whenever Carole drives through. 7. It voted Remain, but you'd better get along with Tories Boris and Carrie held their wedding party at the Daylesford Estate (see above). Chipping Norton, the unofficial capital of the Cotswolds, is David Cameron's home turf. And now the rightest of right-wingers, JD Vance, is holidaying in the tiny village of Dean. The Cotswolds has long been a safe haven for the yellow-corduroy brigade, but Vance's impolite and aggressive chat about his brand of American politics will get short shrift at the local bowls club. Oh, and he might want to know that when it comes to childless cat ladies, there are quite a few in these parts too... 8. There are two driving speeds Country lanes in the Cotswolds are not for the fainthearted. It's either tourists gripping the steering wheel at 15mph or locals taking corners at 85mph. You can always tell someone who has just moved from London, as there's a pristine Range Rover parked on the drive. Real Cotswoldians drive second-hand Volvos. 9. There are two tiers of tourists too And they are literally EVERYWHERE. One cohort on buses heading to Bourton-on-the-Water for a cream tea (sometimes up to 90 coach trips a day), the other thinking they're in an exclusive Tom Ford fragrance ad in dad's Porsche, en route to Estelle Manor. 10. Beware the village boardroom Let's face it, you've got to be rich to move to the Cotswolds (house values have increased by approximately 22.8 per cent over the past five years) and most people with the kind of money to buy the best properties tend to have sold a soul at some point. Now imagine what happens when you throw that kind of CEO energy into a tiny village with not a lot going on. Yup, the local horticulture show suddenly becomes more like the Chelsea Flower Show and the backstabbing dramas are like something out of Succession. 11. There's more to the Cotswolds than meets the eye Every postcard-perfect cottage and charming village pub has a flip side: the locals peddling very fast indeed behind the curtain to keep the whole fairytale from collapsing. A Coventry University project, Hidden Hardship, found that many residents in the North Cotswolds quietly endure low-paid seasonal work, rare affordable housing, poor transport, and challenges accessing health care and services. Meanwhile, they're surrounded by weekend warriors blowing absurd money on hearts made out of twigs to hang on their front door. There's a reason the Lidl car park is rammed and why Daisy May Cooper's mockumentary This Country was so popular. 12. It IS as ridiculously beautiful as it looks It might be easier to get a reiki massage than a pint of milk, but on a summer afternoon, there is nowhere on earth better than the Cotswolds. 13. But it's still closer to Birmingham than it is to London…
The Independent
12 minutes ago
- The Independent
Nicola Sturgeon says ‘midlife crisis' tattoo may not be her last
Nicola Sturgeon has revealed she got her first tattoo, describing the decision as a "midlife crisis" move, but hinted at future inkings. The former Scottish first minister displayed the new design, located on the inside of her wrist, and suggested it "might not be my last one", adding she has now "got the taste for it". The revelation came during an exclusive interview with ITV News, ahead of the publication of her memoirs, Frankly, later this week. What is Nicola Sturgeon's tattoo of? Ms Sturgeon described the design, which she came up with, as being 'kind of an infinity symbol with an arrow' – adding that stood for 'strength, resilience and continuing to move forward, even when it feels impossible'. She was asked about it when she was questioned by ITV News at Ten presenter Julie Etchingham. Ms Sturgeon said: 'Midlife crisis alert! What it is, is known really only to me, but I'll give you a kind of sense of it. It's kind of an infinity symbol with an arrow, and I came up with the design myself. 'In summary, what it signifies to me is strength, resilience and continuing to move forward, even when it feels impossible. 'And it might not be my last one now that I've got the taste for it.' In the same interview Scotland's former first minister said that she still misses her mentor Alex Salmond 'in some way'. The pair formed one of the most successful political partnerships in UK history however their relationship deteriorated and then broke down after sexual misconduct allegations against him emerged. Following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2020, Mr Salmond was cleared of all 13 charges, which included attempted rape and sexual offences. She said she was hit by a 'wave of grief' after hearing of his death in October last year. Speaking to ITV News at Ten presenter Julie Etchingham, she said: 'Even today I still miss him in some way, the person that I used to know and the relationship we used to have. 'But I thought I had made my peace with it, that I'd got to a point where I felt nothing. 'And then I got a call to tell me that Alex Salmond had died. I started crying on the phone and I just was hit by this wave of grief… and it was complicated because obviously we weren't just no longer friends, we were political enemies. 'There was no prospect I was going to be able to go to his funeral or anything like that and it was a kind of strange, strange feeling.' Mr Salmond went on to become leader of the Alba Party, which became a frequent critic of his former party the SNP. He died suddenly of a heart attack in October in North Macedonia at the age of 69. Ms Sturgeon, who succeeded him as Scotland's first minister in 2014, said: 'At the point he died, I hadn't spoken to him for years. 'I felt really deeply the loss of the relationship with him. I suddenly didn't have him. He wasn't there. I couldn't talk to him. And I went through this period of I would still talk to him in my head. 'I would have vivid dreams that we were still on good terms. And then I'd have this feeling of such sadness when I remembered the reality. 'So, I went through that process. I still missed him in some bizarre way.'
The Sun
13 minutes ago
- The Sun
Princess Andre reveals what mum Katie Price thinks of her TV career after star vowed NOT to watch new show
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