Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra acknowledged by Portsmouth
BSO chief executive Dougie Scarfe addressed the council's cabinet decision meeting, and said the orchestra existed to "bring music into peoples lives" and to foster "cultural engagement, creativity, opportunity and well-being in our communities".He said the BSO brought world class musicians from the UK and across the world to Portsmouth each year with "probably the most accessible UK pricing for this quality of music".
Scarfe highlighted the Sea Change concert, which gave 1,326 children the opportunity to experience the "awesome sounds of a symphony orchestra".He also noted the orchestra's investment in live streaming, which he said had helped address barriers to cultural access, pointing out that live stream audiences were about 50% more likely to identify as disabled compared to in-hall audiences.Scarfe thanked the council for its continued support, which totals £22,500 this financial year.He added that while the grant had "reduced in real terms by 65% since 2010 it remains vital to our work as your support helps us secure investment from Arts Council England and enables BSO to leverage significant funds through fundraising".
Steve Pitt, leader of the council, said he planned to attend one of the two concerts in Guildhall Square in August and encouraged residents to buy tickets.The BSO will perform a John Williams concert on 1 August, followed by an ABBA Symphonic Spectacular on 2 August.
You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
32 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Thomas the Tank Engine clung to me like a disease': the film about the choo-choo's global grownup superfans
'I kept it a huge, dark secret,' says Matt Michaud. 'I tried to push people away. I wouldn't call it shame. I wasn't sure if it was right or wrong. I wasn't sure if it was something I could share with other people.' It is curious to hear these words spoken at the outset of a disarmingly sweet documentary. What kind of perversion, or even crime, is twentysomething Michaud confessing to in his own living room? A glimpse behind him provides a clue to his obsession and anxiety: displayed on a table is a collection of toy locomotives and model railway books. And the centrepiece is a model of Thomas the Tank Engine. In one of his letters to the Corinthians, St Paul wrote that when he became a man he put away childish things. Brannon Carty's documentary, called An Unlikely Fandom: The Impact of Thomas the Tank Engine, is a rebuke to that philosophy. It celebrates the men (and the fans Carty interviews are overwhelmingly male) who have found friendship, community and creativity in what, as far as I can judge, is the most wholesome of subcultures. Yet a sense of shame pervades Thomas the Tank Engine fandom. 'Aside from a handful of people,' says Carty, 'no one's really out and proud about it – because it's socially unacceptable, especially here in the States.' Why? 'I think Thomas gets looped in with Sesame Street and other preschool TV shows over here, whereas in the UK it's seen more as a children's show.' Such nuances of a multiplatform global brand – whose merchandising spans pasta shapes and duvet covers, and whose fans number devotees in Japan and Australia – were not, you would think, on the mind of Reverend Wilbert Vere Awdry in 1943. It was then that Thomas was born, on a fictional island called Sodor. Awdry's son Christopher needed cheering up from measles. And the reverend thought his tales of anthropomorphised steam locomotives, operating on the Fat Controller's North Western Railway, would be just the ticket. Two years later, the first illustrated books appeared, colourful antidotes to postwar austerity Britain. When I was a child, in the 1960s and 70s, I borrowed the illustrated adventures of Thomas and his pals from my local library. For later generations, though, Thomas means something else. His name evokes nostalgia not for the books but for all the TV series, in particular Thomas & Friends, which first aired in 1984 in the UK, written by the late Britt Allcroft and narrated first by Ringo Starr, then later by Michael Angelis and others including, in one spinoff, the silken-voiced ex-007 Pierce Brosnan. Many of the twenty- and thirtysomething Thomas fans whom Carty interviews, and Carty himself, watched these shows as kids, and nostalgia for the plucky locomotive has haunted them into adulthood. Carty and his older brother watched the show as preschoolers in North Carolina, and would play with Thomas toys, but then their paths diverged. 'He lost interest,' says Carty. 'I didn't.' Why? 'I can't explain it. My parents can't explain it. They thought it was weird. I remember my 10th birthday: I was still asking for Thomas toys. I don't know – it just clung to me like a disease. I'm happy that it clung to me, though. Now I'm a year shy of 30 and it's still my thing.' What's the appeal of Thomas in the US? 'You don't see a lot of steam engines over here. People see the Thomas engines and think, 'Well those are just made up. Those aren't real.'' As US versions of the TV series started appearing in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Thomas got a makeover. The Fat Controller became Mr Controller. After Starr's stint as narrator ended, he was replaced in the US first by countercultural comedian George Carlin, and then by Alec Baldwin. How did An Unlikely Fandom come about? 'I was studying film at the University of Northern Carolina,' says Carty. 'My professor said, 'Just go shoot a documentary. I don't care how long it is. Just find something you care about.' So I decided to film the adult Thomas fans who I knew. I made that film and graduated – then I realised there's a bunch of fans in the UK that needed to be in this. A ton in Australia. A whole scene in Japan.' The fact that many of the interviewees are in their 20s and 30s suggests that much of the TV shows' enduring appeal lies in nostalgia for childhoods dating from when the shows were first broadcast. But there's more to it than that. Thomas has long held an appeal for people with autism. Indeed a 2001 survey found that children with autism and Asperger syndrome enjoy and identify with Thomas more than any other children's character. Why? Respondents cited Thomas & Friends' straightforward stories, overt narrative resolution, bold colours and clear facial features. That said, anyone really can identify with the scamp. For example, in Down the Mine, Thomas gets his comeuppance after teasing Gordon the big engine for smelling of ditchwater after an unfortunate incident. When Thomas later tumbles into a mine, he is rescued by Gordon, who indulges in no tit-for-tat sneering whatsoever. Thomas learns two lessons: don't ignore warning signs and don't be a jerk to your mates. Carty sometimes struggled to get interviewees to appear in his film. 'A handful were nervous about being on screen and having their identity out there. I said, 'Trust me. No one's going to look stupid. This is going to be very honest, but it's also going to be sincere. So as long as you are honest and sincere, the film will reflect that.'' An Unlikely Fandom does more than that: we watch devotees expressing themselves articulately, detailing how they learned film-making, or other creative pursuits, through fashioning fan fictions. Matt Michaud recalls how he took a video class at school and, inspired by a teacher to make his own movie, went home, got out his Thomas toys, put up a sheet for a backdrop, assembled rudimentary lighting and made his debut film. 'That summer,' he says, 'I made 13 episodes and started to build a following on YouTube.' Indeed, the life expectancy of Thomas has been extended by two things Awdry could never have foreseen. Without the internet, forums instantly connecting fans worldwide might not have existed; and without YouTube, the rich world of fan films – such as Carty's own 2012 short Snow Trouble – might not have been seen so widely. 'I don't think that happens as much with other cartoon characters. I'm sure there are Star Wars fans who make fan films, but I don't think Bob the Builder or Fireman Sam fans do.' Carty's next project could not be more different. 'It's about these Italians who came to Florida in the 1990s and made Jaws 5.' That's its unofficial title: Bruno Mattei's film is also known as Cruel Jaws. 'They wound up getting sued and their film was banned in the US. It spoke to me because Jaws and Thomas are my childhood.' Why was it banned? 'They stole footage from the first three Jaws movies and the main theme is lifted from Star Wars. It's horrible, but I love it. It's cheesy and streaming free everywhere. I would recommend it.' Before he finishes that documentary, provisionally entitled Twilight Jaws, Carty will next month attend the UK premiere of An Unlikely Fandom. Much of the film's sweetness comes from Carty's footage of fans at conventions, making podcasts or – having been initiated into the world of steam railways through Thomas and his friends – working happily with like-minded souls as volunteers on narrow gauge heritage railways. What I most enjoyed about his film is the complete lack of snarkiness about grownups who are essentially playing with toys. 'That was just the thing I wanted to get out to the world. I faced a lot of hardship for it. Other people faced a lot of hardship for it. Even fans gave other fans a hard time. They didn't know how to process it, right? A lot of people said to me, 'I wish I had this film when I was growing up because I would have realised I was not alone.' When you're growing up, parents are like, 'Why aren't you making friends? You need to find your crowd.' A lot of Thomas fans did just that in later life. It's such a healthy, positive thing.' Carty tells me he and his girlfriend, also a Thomas fan, don't yet have children. 'Whenever kids come into the picture, it's going to be a Thomas household,' he says. Then, with the hint of a sigh, he adds: 'If they don't like it, we'll reconsider.' Brannon Carty will take part in a Q&A following the UK premiere of An Unlikely Fandom at Alstom's Litchurch Lane Works, Derby, on 2 August.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Ozzy Osbourne: did he really bite the head off a live bat?
When it comes to the unruly world of rock, shocking behaviour is rarely frowned upon. Just the opposite. Most of the time it's practically there are limits, few performers have pushed those generous boundaries more than John Michael Osbourne, aka Ozzy Osbourne, or the Prince of Darkness, who has died aged don't get a nickname like that by Sabbath fans initially dubbed him with it thanks to his jet black onstage persona, decadent aura and lyrics that seemed obsessed by the his actions on the night of 20 January 1982, when the body of an unfortunate creature ended up separated from its head, were bat-split crazy, even by Ozzy's excessive an event that, decades later, is still discussed as one of the most notorious moments in heavy metal oddly, this wasn't even the first time that the singer had seemingly been involved in the decapitation of an innocent more of that it comes to Ozzy and the bat, it's unsurprising that, over the years, recollections have differed on the precise turn of that was because people's memories clashed. But mostly it depended on which version of the story Ozzy was in the mood to facts about the incident, however, are unambiguous. In January 1982, Ozzy was two months into a gruelling tour promoting his second solo album, Diary of a Madman. A tradition had developed where the singer would catapult pieces of raw meat and animal parts - including intestines and liver - into the far, so revolting. And perhaps, not totally inexplicable behaviour for a man who'd once served an apprenticeship at an the tour, word quickly spread about the practice, and Ozzy's fans were nothing if not resourceful. At every venue, they knew exactly what was coming, and they turned up armed and ready to when something small and black landed on stage during a rowdy Wednesday night show at Des Moines' Veterans Memorial Auditorium, the singer thought it was a rubber here's where recollections start to veer off in different his 2010 autobiography I Am Ozzy the singer says he picked it up, stuffed it in his mouth, and chomped down."Immediately, though, something felt wrong. Very wrong. For a start my mouth was instantly full of this warm, gloopy liquid," he recalled. "Then the head in my mouth twitched." "Somebody threw a bat. I just thought it was a rubber bat. And I picked it up and put it in my mouth. I bit into it," he told the he says he realised: "Oh no, it's real. It was a real live bat."So is this the definitive version of the story - live bat thrown on stage, Ozzy bites into it? Far from hadn't always insisted the bat was alive when it was thrown towards in 2006, he gave the BBC a take on the story that was subtly, but crucially different."This bat comes on. I thought it was one of them Hallowe'en joke bats 'cos it had some string around its neck," he said."I bite into it, and I look to my left and Sharon [Osbourne, his wife and then manager] was going [gesturing no]."And I'm like, what you talking about? She [says], 'it's a dead real bat'. And I'm... I know now!"So was the unfortunate winged mammal dead or alive?Who better to confirm whether it was bereft of life and had ceased to be, than the person who claims to have actually brought the bat to the concert? Dead or alive? According to the Des Moines Register, that man was Mark was 17 at the time of the concert. And his account of the events leading up to the gory night was this: His younger brother had brought the bat home a fortnight before but, sadly, it hadn't said that, by the time he took it to the concert, it had been dead for it seems that the available evidence about this legendary piece of heavy metal excess, placed at number two in Rolling Stone magazine's list of Rock's Wildest Myths, does point to it being largely agrees that the bat did find its way into Ozzy's mouth, although it seems likely it was no longer alive by that point - something Ozzy himself concurred with. what of an eerily similar incident some nine months before in Los Angeles? Again the details vary, usually depending on who Ozzy was talking basic facts have never been in dispute. Ozzy was due to meet a group of CBS record label executives in Los Angeles, and Sharon had the idea of him bringing three live doves with giving a short speech of thanks, the plan was for Ozzy to throw them into the air, so everyone could watch them flutter away, in a symbolic gesture of alert: That's not what ended up happening. Doves of peace Ozzy had been drinking brandy all morning, and he later told rock biographer Mick Wall that a PR woman at the meeting had been seriously annoying to Wall's book, Black Sabbath: Symptoms of the Universe, Ozzy "pulled out one of these doves and bit its [expletive] head off just to shut her up"."Then I did it again with the next dove," he added, "spitting the head out on the table"."That's when they threw me out. They said I'd never work for CBS again." In version two, recounted some months later, he told Sounds' magazine's Garry Bushell a slightly different story."The scam is the bird was dead. We were planning to release it there, but it died beforehand. So rather than waste it, I bit its head off."You should have seen their faces. They all went white. They were speechless." The ringmaster of rock excess Ozzy, of course, had a reputation to uphold. After all, this was the man who'd been thrown out of Black Sabbath because, even by rock's astronomically lax standards, his drink and drug consumption was considered too while his encounters with bat and dove may not have seemed cricket to many, they - with helpful dollops of exaggeration - added significantly to Ozzy's outrageous undoubtedly gave him even greater publicity and notoriety, helping his solo career to skyrocket like a bat out of even though he might not be guilty of every misdemeanour that was attributed to him over the years, there's little doubt that he reached heights (or depths) that other rock stars never dared to meant that he was seen as the undoubted ringmaster of rock excess - a career defining reputation that stayed with him right to the end.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Jessica Simpson hints at Eric Johnson marriage breakdown in new song after sharing 'rough' dating experience
Jessica Simpson appeared to make a thinly veiled dig at her estranged husband Eric Johnson in her latest song. The singer, 45, dropped a new track titled Fade on Tuesday, in which she opened up more about her recent heartbreak, seemingly directed at her marriage to the football player, 45. In the song, she hinted at 'empty promises' her past lover once told her before their relationship ended. 'You can always say you love me / That doesn't mean that I feel loved / There's a green light in the distance / And all your words become too much,' she sang in a verse. In the chorus, the actress — who recently shared a grim update on her dating life following her dramatic split with her longtime partner — crooned about how she walked away and left her ex waiting on her. 'You can just wait on me / I won't be around / Watching you fade on me / Your words mean nothing now,' she sang. The singer, 45, dropped a new track titled Fade on Tuesday, in which she opened up more about her recent heartbreak, seemingly directed at her marriage to the football player; pictured June 2023 in Los Angeles In the song, which she co-wrote with Trent Dabbs and Teresa LaBarbera, Simpson also sang about how her former spouse made too many mistakes and broke her heart too many times. 'I have way too good a memory / I have no more heart to break / You're as empty as your promise / Go sleep alone in the bed you made,' the star continued. 'I've been way too optimistic / Now it's all taking a turn / They're gonna talk, but it's not their business / The stars align and sometimes burn.' On the same day, she opened up about the songwriting process behind the track, revealing that her newly released music was born from a 'heavy, emotional moment.' While she did not name her estranged husband in the song, she was notably married to Johnson for 10 years before they separated several months ago. 'This song came straight from my heart,' she revealed in a press release on Tuesday, per Us Weekly. 'I had just lived through this heavy, emotional moment, but there was no way I was gonna cancel my songwriting session,' she recalled. 'I walked into the studio with tears still on my cheeks, and what came out was a prayer.' Simpson then explained her song Fade 'is about watching someone you love slip away in real time, while trying to hold on to something that's already gone.' Fade is the first single from her upcoming EP, Nashville Canyon, Pt. 2, which is set for release on September 4, 2025. She dropped the first collection of songs, Nashville Canyon, Pt. 1, in March, just two months after announcing that she and her husband of 10 years had called it quits. In recent weeks, the Dukes of Hazzard alum has also been opening about dating after her dramatic split with her husband outside of her art. As she has been open about her split with estranged husband Eric amid their divorce and swirling cheating rumors, there has been plenty of intrigue if she is back in the dating pool yet. In a video obtained by Simpson was asked if she was ready to move on romantically to which she replied: 'It's a rough road in the dating world.' She remained mum on whether she has actively tried to put herself out there but she is not ready for online dating. Simpson explained: 'I mean I'm not getting on the apps yet.' The Irresistible hitmaker was asked if it had to be a dating app or if she would be open to being set up by a friend. The mother-of-three said: 'I would love for a friend to set me up. Are you kidding me?' The blonde bombshell looked stylish for the flight as she was seemingly heading to New York City for a concert at Rockefeller Center on Wednesday. She donned an oversized grey blazer with silver sequins all over it with an oversized white T-Shirt won as a dress and black leather platform boots. Simpson wore her signature blonde locks down as she sported natural, complementary make-up and accessorized with large designer shades. She and Johnson, 45, announced their split in January after nearly 11 years of marriage and three children together, and Simpson has since hinted at infidelity on Johnson's part in her fiery comeback track Leave. In early April, the I Wanna Love You Forever singer and the former NFL star were spotted reuniting with their daughters Maxwell, 12, and Birdie, five, and son Ace, 11 — along with what looked like Johnson's parents — signaling the two are working to co-parent despite the drama. In May, a source reveals that Simpson and Johnson are on surprisingly good terms. 'They are getting along well and everyone seems to be very happy,' the insider shared with USWeekly on Thursday. 'They talk and see each other all the time and have decided that no matter what happens, they will get along for the kids.' Despite the fact that neither has filed official divorce papers yet, the source made one thing clear: 'Right now there is no talk of getting back together.' But they didn't shut the door entirely, teasing, 'With Jessica and Eric, you never know.' 'They love each other and will always be supportive of one another,' the insider added.' 'For now, Jessica and Eric will be at a lot of holidays and birthdays together and just navigating their new truth.' Simpson — who once famously called Eric her 'sexual shaman' — came back swinging with Leave, a track dripping with breakup venom. The lyrics pull no punches: 'What we had was magic / Now you've made it tragic / Giving her what you gave to me / Now the well that you drank from is empty.' She digs even deeper, singing: 'Your weakness made me lonely / Unholy matrimony / Did you do to her what you did to me? Was she on her knees? / She's everything but me.' And she lands the final blow: 'I want you to leave / I don't even wanna breathe the air you breathe / I am stronger on my own / So hold on / I'm letting you go.' In April, Simpson opened up onstage at the Luck Reunion about confronting her husband just before things fell apart, saying her world ' turned upside down ' after she followed her gut and asked 'some very personal questions on the home front.' These days, Simpson is embracing her single status, telling fans she's a 'very single lady.' While their split may feel sudden to the public, whispers of trouble began as early as November 2024 when Simpson teased her new music on Instagram, writing, 'This comeback is personal, it's an apology to myself for putting up with everything I did not deserve..' Simpson was previously married to 98 Degrees frontman Nick Lachey from 2002 to 2006, a relationship immortalized on their reality show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica.
