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Noel Gallagher shocked by 'great' Oasis rehearsals

Noel Gallagher shocked by 'great' Oasis rehearsals

Yahooa day ago

Bono has revealed close friend Noel Gallagher is "shocked" by how good Oasis sound in rehearsals.
In a new interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1, Bono discussed the upcoming Oasis tour, which will see the band reunite for their first live appearance in 16 years.
Noel, who left the group in 2009 following mounting tensions with his brother Liam Gallagher, has apparently been impressed with preparations ahead of the gigs.
"I'm still very close with Noel," the U2 frontman told Zane. "And he got a message to me, and he says that he's kind of shocked by how great the band is. So I think we're going to have a good summer."
Elsewhere in the interview Bono proclaimed himself a huge Oasis fan and revealed he's going to the Oasis Live '25 Tour, which kicks off in Cardiff, Wales, on 4 July.
The Beautiful Day singer also praised Noel and Liam for their "swagger" and recalled his first impressions of the brothers when they shot to fame with their debut 1994 album, Definitely Maybe.
"I love them. I just love them. And what I really love is this, the sort of preciousness that had gotten a part of what was called indie music. They just blew it out," Bono shared. "And there was just a swagger. The sound of getting out of the ghetto, not glamorising it. And they're both funny, funny, funny."
Earlier this week, Liam revealed he's also enjoying rehearsals as he expressed regret that it took so long to heal his rift with Noel.
"You know what it's spiritual but I can't help think about all those wasted years what a waste of PRECIOUS time (sic)," he wrote on Instagram when a fan asked how it feels to be performing with Noel again.

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Personal touches, secret messages: Behind the scenes of making Caitlin Clark's new Wilson basketballs
Personal touches, secret messages: Behind the scenes of making Caitlin Clark's new Wilson basketballs

Yahoo

timea day ago

  • Yahoo

Personal touches, secret messages: Behind the scenes of making Caitlin Clark's new Wilson basketballs

If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission. Pricing and availability are subject to change. INDIANAPOLIS – Caitlin Clark's favorite color is blue. Outside of the gym, she's happiest being on the water or a golf course. She says the same thing to teammate Aliyah Boston before every Indiana Fever game. When you buy one of the basketballs in Clark's new line from Wilson, you're not just getting a ball. You're getting a glimpse of Clark herself. Advertisement The colors, the patterns, the detailing — all are the result of months-long conversations between Clark and Wilson's design team about who she is, what she likes and what messages she wants to send to young fans. 'It was a really fun process for me to go through,' Clark told USA TODAY Sports. 'It's things that are super important to me and all very different things, too, throughout my life. So hopefully they can make an impact on whoever's going to pick the ball up.' Clark joined Michael Jordan as the only athletes with full basketball collections for Wilson, signing a multiyear sponsorship deal in May 2024 with the official manufacturer of basketballs for the WNBA, NBA and NCAA. In part because of the short turnaround time before the release of her first signature ball last October, Clark's first line leaned heavily into history. The records she broke at Iowa. Her historic rookie season with the Fever. But Clark and Wilson knew they wanted future lines to be more personal, reflecting who Clark is as a person as much as a player. Advertisement 'She's actually influencing this. It's not just people at Wilson picking the design,' said Hudson Vantrease, director of product design at Wilson. 'We never wanted to just put her name on a ball and call it a day,' he added. 'We want to tell the most compelling story, and having her as part of that is a positive to it.' Wilson invited USA TODAY Sports to attend the design team meeting in April where Clark saw the finished basketballs for the first time. The design team also gave USA TODAY Sports a behind-the-scenes look at the collaboration process with Clark for the latest collection, which will be released June 23. There are four balls in the collection, and they differ in both purpose (one is an indoor-only ball, one is outdoor-only and two can be used either indoors or outdoors) and price point. One, the Embrace, is an Evo NXT basketball, meaning it has the same construction as a regulation W ball and could be used in official games. Advertisement 'Awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome,' Clark said when she walked into the Fever's practice gym and saw the four new basketballs. 'You guys killed it.' Caitlin Clark poses with basketballs from the second edition of her signature collection with Wilson Sporting Goods. The new line of four basketballs -- the Aspire, the Embrace, the Envision and the Oasis -- will be available June 23. The team responsible for developing Clark's line has about a dozen core members. They met with Clark at last year's All-Star Game and got her initial thoughts about the collection, including what a young Caitlin Clark would have wanted. 'I think she said a blue ball,' said Haley Reines, the product line manager at Wilson. Afterward, Reines and product designer Julia Muscarello sent Clark a detailed questionnaire, asking her everything from her favorite color to her hobbies outside of basketball to what she'd be if she wasn't a basketball player (chef). They also monitored social media, taking note of Clark's clothes — there's an Instagram account devoted to her fits — and what she does off the court. Advertisement 'I don't want to say borderline stalking, but yeah,' Muscarello said with a laugh. 'I was trying to stay on the Caitlin pulse.' Those answers and details drove the design process, which involved 'hundreds' of hours. Christopher Rickert, the senior director of global production at Wilson, said the team began with 50 design ideas and whittled them down. Sometimes the color wasn't right. Sometimes the pattern didn't work. Sometimes what seemed like a great idea on paper didn't quite translate into reality. When the team had 10 ideas, they sent the designs to Clark for her thoughts. There were further tweaks, and prototypes were made to make sure the designs looked the same on an actual basketball as they did in drawings. Advertisement The four designs ultimately chosen for this year's line all have very different looks, but there's a commonality to all of them. Clark. 'Whenever I do something, I want to make it the best product possible for people. But also I feel like this is an easy way for me to connect with my fans,' Clark said of being so involved in the design process. 'I want it to feel very personal for them, too. They can connect with me, not just by watching me on TV or coming and buying a ticket to a game.' Take the Oasis ball, which can be used indoors and outdoors. Clark told Reines and Muscarello her favorite color is blue, she likes pastels and her happy places are the water and golf course. So the panels of the Oasis ball are white and light blue, and the light blue panels have what looks like pink and green splashes of paint but is actually an abstract drawing of a golf course. Advertisement Clark picked up on it right away when she saw the ball. 'That looks like a hole on a golf course!' she exclaimed. Light blue is also the shade used for the pattern on the Envision, an outdoor ball. At first glance, it looks like a maze, but it's really the words 'DREAM BIG.' That phrase is also on the Aspire, an indoor/outdoor ball that at first appears to be white or grey. Put it in the sunlight, however, and the phrases 'Dream Big,' 'Keep Going' and 'You're Going to Be Amazing Because You Are Amazing' emerge in bold, Fever-red letters. That last phrase is what Clark says to Boston before every game. Advertisement 'See, she loves it!' Clark said, pointing to a picture of her and Boston on the bench that was on the design team's planning whiteboard. 'We'll get her a free basketball. She'll love it. I'm going to put it in her locker.' The second edition of Caitlin Clark's signature basketball line with Wilson Sporting Goods launches June 23. Clark was personally involved in choosing the designs of the (shown left to right) Envision, Embrace, Oasis and Aspire balls. Because the Embrace is an official basketball, it cannot have any obvious detailing. Look closely, though, and you can see a pattern — again, light blue — within the Wilson logo and in what looks like a sunburst around the airhole. Both are the visual representation of the decibel level at a Fever game; the Wilson team took an audio file of the sound and made a graphic out of it. 'Fans really admire how she just plays so well under pressure,' Muscarello said. 'Sometimes it's OK to embrace the noise.' Advertisement Though Clark had been involved in every step of the design process, seeing the basketballs on a computer screen is very different than holding the finished product. Clark picked up each of the basketballs and examined it, taking note of the different details. She spun each ball and shifted it from one hand to the other. She also studied the design team's whiteboards, pointing to some of the notes and photos. Though she initially seemed most taken by the Oasis ball, she was fascinated with the Envision's UV technology and said she'd have loved to have had a basketball that revealed 'secret' messages when she was a kid. She also was impressed that Wilson's design team was able to turn a decibel meter reading into a design. Advertisement 'They're all unique in their own way. They all have different things I love about them,' Clark said. 'I think they each serve their own purpose and are different. Caitlin Clark takes a shot with the Embrace basketball from her latest collection with Wilson Sporting Goods. The ball features a graphic of the decibel level at an Indiana Fever game last season. 'So I guess you have to buy 'em all!' she added, laughing. While there will be some fans who buy the whole collection, whether to use or keep as memorabilia, Clark was conscious of not pricing any fans out of the new line. Two of the balls are less than $50, with the outdoor Envision ball costing $27.95 and the Oasis indoor ball priced at $49.95, while the Aspire outdoor ball is $54.95. The Embrace, which is Wilson's premium Evo NXT basketball, costs $124.95. Advertisement All the balls will be available on Wilson's website and at retail sporting goods stores. Last year's collection sold out almost immediately and, given the appetite for all things Clark, it's a good bet this one will, too. 'It's kind of cool to see how the balls came back and they feel very 'me,'' Clark told USA TODAY Sports. 'That's what I love about it. I feel like I'm sharing part of my life and my journey with people. "I could have never dreamed (as a child) to have something like this," she added. "It's pretty special." Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour. Get IndyStar's Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Caitlin Clark Fever newsletter. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Caitlin Clark's new line of Wilson basketball has personal touches, secret messages

Oasis Fever Hits Sotheby's: 'Liam + Noel' Portrait Set to Fetch $2 Million USD
Oasis Fever Hits Sotheby's: 'Liam + Noel' Portrait Set to Fetch $2 Million USD

Hypebeast

timea day ago

  • Hypebeast

Oasis Fever Hits Sotheby's: 'Liam + Noel' Portrait Set to Fetch $2 Million USD

Summary With theLive '25tour kicking off next month, it's safe to say:Oasis Feveris back in full swing. Britpop nostalgia is back in the air and theElizabeth Peytondouble-portrait of the Gallagher brothers couldn't have arrived atSotheby'sin better timing. The 1996 painting is among the headlining works at the house's contemporary art auction in London on June 24, expecting to fetch £1.5 – £2 million GBP ($2.03 – $2.71 million USD). Created in the aftermath of their Knebworth Park shows, which made history as the UK's largest live concert,Liam + Noel (Gallagher)was based on a photographer of the brothers taken by Stefan De Batselier just a year before. The painting belongs to a pivotal series within Peyton's oeuvre surrounding the brothers, one of which sold for $4.1 million USD last year. Here we see the two tracksuit-clad brothers in an tight embrace, yet beneath the matching mod cuts, full brows and rosy cheeks is the quiet tension of their professional-private sibling dynamic. 'It is a press image,' Sotheby's specialist Antonia Garnder toldThe Guardian. 'They've got their arms around each other, but you can feel that sort of slight tension within it. It feels so prescient, knowing now how it all ended up' Just as the indie duo soar into pop stardom, so too did Peyton whose soft and moody paintings solidified her title as one of the most defining American portraitists of the era. Known for her portraits of pop icons,Liam + Noel (Gallagher)embodies her ability to rescue pop faces from the oppressive pressure of the spotlight and instead, present them with a tender, raw radiance. The painting will be on view ahead of the auction at Sotheby's London galleries from June 18 through 24. For more information on the upcoming sale, head to the house'swebsite.

Master motivators put 90s chart-toppers Bath and Leicester back on Premiership final stage
Master motivators put 90s chart-toppers Bath and Leicester back on Premiership final stage

Yahoo

timea day ago

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Master motivators put 90s chart-toppers Bath and Leicester back on Premiership final stage

It has been a while but the old firm of English club rugby are finally back. Between 1978 and 1997 Bath and Leicester collectively won 15 national knockout trophies and over the first 15 years of the league's existence they claimed 12 titles between them. Their reunion at Twickenham is akin to those other 90s chart-toppers, Oasis and Blur, dusting down their favourite guitars and appearing on stage together. The temptation is to dive head first into a foaming tub of nostalgia and wallow in the rekindled rivalry. If anyone had predicted in 1996 that Bath would not win another domestic title in the next 29 years they would have been laughed out of the convivial old Rec clubhouse. Leicester, similarly, thought the ABC Club and the Tigers' steely winning mentality would live for ever. Advertisement Related: Super Ted or Superman? Hill's 'different game' key for Bath in Premiership final It is the here and now, though, that really matters in a grand final week. And how interesting that it has taken a South African and an Australian, neither of whom played Test rugby, to bring the good times rolling back to two famous English institutions. At first glance the outwardly calm, process-oriented Johann van Graan and the more animated Michael Cheika might not appear to have much in common. But drill a little deeper and the renaissance of their respective teams has been built on broadly the same tenets. Both are widely travelled family men who have long since understood that coaching is ultimately about people. And, specifically, about channelling the power of the collective, not least psychologically. Both have also looked beyond rugby's normal tramlines for inspiration. Cheika, born in Sydney to Lebanese immigrants, used to run a successful fashion distribution business, which he says taught him plenty about how to manage and operate under pressure. And did you know that Bath's rise has been partly shaped by the best strategic minds in the US army? Van Graan, it emerges, has made multiple visits to the US Military Academy at West Point, just up the Hudson River from New York, to discover how real combatants prepare for battle. 'I often think about what I've learned there,' he said this week. 'We speak a lot about war in training but I go to learn from guys who are actually in a war. I remember this one platoon leader taking us into a little restaurant and giving me live examples of training and battle and how the two differ.' Advertisement Van Graan's attention to detail has also taken him to several NFL teams including the New England Patriots, San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins. The 45-year-old has also embraced the vision of continual improvement embedded in Japanese Kaizen culture and tapped into the benefits of mind-and-body yoga. At half-time in the dressing room, before a single coaching message is imparted, Bath's players collectively take a deliberate yoga-style deep breath to help bring them back in sync. 'Obviously rugby's a very emotional game and when you're in the middle of the battle it can be hard bringing yourself back to a calm state,' says Miles Reid, one of several local Bath boys yearning to bring the league title back to their rugby-centric home city. 'Before a message is delivered in our huddles we take a breath. It just gets us all on the same page. It calms us down and then you're clearer and more receptive.' Bath's second-half surge against Bristol Bears in last Friday's semi-final would suggest it is working. As with his native Springboks, for whom Van Graan worked as an assistant between 2012 and 2017, Bath also possess a 'bomb squad' bench who blow most opponents away. Van Graan will also tell you that relaying the infamously muddy pitch at the Rec – ironically after a narrow defeat by Leicester – has been even more vital to Bath's resurgence, finally suiting the all-court brand of rugby they wanted to play. The Tigers have not had the luxury of Bruce Craig's generous financial backing. Having won the title against the odds in 2022, they trailed in eighth in the table last year and Cheika's tenure will span only one year. As recently as January they contrived to concede 80 points to Toulouse, forcing their resident Australian wizard to dig into his box of motivational tricks. He has plenty of them: among his more famous ploys was handing out engraved golf clubs to each member of his Waratahs squad before their Super Rugby final against the Crusaders in 2014. He wanted to encourage them to have a swing and not have any regrets. The Waratahs duly beat a strong Crusaders side 33-32. The 58-year-old Australian has not yet been spotted in any pro shops this week but, whether it be through tone, body language or symbolic messaging, he will unquestionably have Leicester pumped up for the big one. 'He's obviously unbelievable in terms of the strategic side,' says England's Ollie Chessum, set to embark on his first Lions tour next week. 'You don't get as far as he has in rugby without having that rugby IQ. But for me he just finds a way to galvanise the group and get them to find a real meaning in what they're doing. We've probably not learned too much technically that we didn't already know but what's really changed this year is around that mental and emotional side of the game. Cheik's incredibly good at finding a way to motivate boys. He'll also say that just believing you can do it makes a huge difference.' Advertisement Leicester, even so, will require something special to stop a team who are chasing a trophy treble, having already landed the Challenge Cup and Premiership Cup. Not only do Bath have the baton-twirling Finn Russell but they have impressive power and pace across the field. Even without the injured Ollie Lawrence, Van Graan's multifaceted squad is finally well placed to reward Craig's investment. Then again the white-shirted Tigers will be feeling an emotional surge as they bid farewell to, among others, their retiring legends Ben Youngs and Dan Cole. 'It's sad seeing Coley retire,' says Joe Heyes, his front-row teammate. 'Lenny too. They've been a huge part of this club. We want to send them off in the right way.' Chessum, increasingly influential for club and country, is another believer. 'When we've needed it most in the last five, six weeks the squad has really clicked. As Cheik says, we've been playing under pressure for quite a few weeks now.' Or, to quote Cheika himself: 'When the opportunity's there you'd be mad not to take it, wouldn't you?' But Bath and Van Graan have not come this far to abandon their process now and lose a second consecutive Premiership final. If they can crack the title code it may just be the first of many.

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