Latest news with #Banshees
Extra.ie
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
Barry Keoghan opens up on addiction battles and reveals rehab stint
Barry Keoghan has opened up on his battle with addiction for the first time – and revealed he attended a rehab clinic in England to get help. The Dublin actor's profile has gone stratospheric in recent years, from an Oscar nomination and the lead turn in the cult smash Saltburn in 2023, to spending most of 2024 in a relationship with one of the biggest pop stars in the world, Sabrina Carpenter. However, during a recent trip back to his hometown, the 32-year-old spoke of the private struggles behind his success for the first time. Barry Keoghan and Sabrina Carpenter. Pic: Kevin Mazur/MG24/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue In a wide-ranging chat with Hollywood Authentic – for which Keoghan brought the magazine on a tour of his old Dublin haunts – the Banshees of Inisherin star said his trusted driver, Niall, was the one who made sure he sought professional help when he hit rock bottom. 'Niall literally drove me and put me on a plane himself, came with me and brought me to the rehab in England,' Keoghan said. The BAFTA-winning actor lost his mother to drug addiction when he was just 12, and revealed he had also 'lost two uncles and a cousin to drugs'. 'That should be enough to go, 'OK, if I dabble here, I'm f***ed,'' he said. 'But your curiosity is a powerful thing. Sometimes it's beneficial and sometimes it's detrimental. For me, it was detrimental.' Barry Keoghan. Pic: Photo by Michael Hurcomb/REX/Shutterstock (14703489aa) The Summerhill native – who, along with his brother Eric, lived in over a dozen foster homes between the ages of five and nine before going to live with his grandmother and aunt in the north inner city – said even the birth of his son Brando in 2022 'didn't stop me from being curious'. 'You go to LA, you go to Hollywood, wherever the big scene is. There's an enormous amount of pressure, and a different lifestyle that is good and bad for you. 'You're around the scene. You just happen to be the one that ends up doing it.' Showing interviewer Greg Williams marks on his arm from injuries incurred while high, Keoghan said he has 'scars here to literally prove it'. 'They're a result of using.' But the star insists he is 'at peace now, and responsible for everything that I do'. Barry Keoghan with son Brando. Pic: Instagram/Barry Keoghan. 'I'm accepting. I'm present. I'm content. I'm a father. I'm getting to just see that haze that was once there – it's just a bit sharper now and colourful.' The acclaimed actor did not reveal the specifics of his addiction, but revealed he has since gone back to visit the rehab facility in sobriety. 'It was nice to see the staff again, and for them to see the change in me,' he said. 'They were quite emotional about it. I'm forever grateful. 'When I say that [his driver] Niall is the best, I mean it, because no one else put me on the plane, by the hand, literally got on the plane with me.' Elsewhere, Keoghan revealed he has a trusted confidant in Banshees co-star Colin Farrell, a fellow Dubliner in recovery from substance issues who has 'always been there' for the younger star. 'Even now, through the tough times and good times. And so has Cillian [Murphy – with whom he starred in Dunkirk]'. Cillian Murphy and Barry Keoghan. Pic: Jim Spellman/WireImage In a whistlestop tour of the inner city streets and buildings that 'shaped' Keoghan, he brings Williams to Cineworld on Parnell Street, where he'd regularly sneak in and where he developed his love for film. He was eventually caught and barred but recalls the day he came back for the Dunkirk premiere and had to explain he was now a Hollywood actor. 'They were like, 'You're not allowed in.' I said, 'It's my movie, though.' They were like, 'No, no. You're not allowed in.' It was a whole thing. It was just a turning point for me.' The ambitious actor, and now producer, spoke at length about his excitement at being cast as Ringo Starr in Sam Mendes's upcoming four-part Beatles biopic, which also stars Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney. He said he is growing his hair out for the role and has been learning the drums for five months. Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan and Harris Dickinson. Pic:'I've got a lot of similarities to Ringo,' he said. 'You know, his story is absolutely beautiful. I felt he was always an outsider trying to get in, even with the lads. I can resonate with that. He always wanted approval, and – almost – to be loved. 'It's heartbreaking, the script that I read. It's gorgeous.' Describing the moment he, Mescal, Harris Dickinson (who will play John Lennon) and Joseph Quinn (who will play George Harrison) were officially presented to the world, Keoghan recalls: 'We all had a moment backstage and it was so, so beautiful. 'It was such an exciting thing, to step out and be announced as The Beatles.' Keoghan said that, growing up without a father, he looked to movie stars for guidance on being a man. Barry Keoghan. Pic:'I'd watch these movies at my nannie's at night-time like Cool Hand Luke and Marlon Brando movies. 'That was my way of learning behaviour from men. Because I didn't have a father figure. I was looking at these men, and how they behaved. I was very fixated on how they just moved and had composure. 'I didn't have someone in the house showing me how to shave, or saying, 'Don't punch someone in the balls'.' The actor said his uncle Alan 'was very present for us for a good few years', but tragically also lost his life to heroin, aged just 40. During the interview, Keoghan returns to the shop where he saw an ad for inexperienced local actors that led to his first break, the low-budget crime drama Between The Canals, which came out in 2011. Director Mark O'Connor previously told 'Barry was a kid and he was ringing me for three years every couple of weeks saying 'Here, are you doing that film?' When O'Connor cast him in his next two films, Keoghan was noticed and cast in Love/Hate, from where his star continued to soar. Visiting the bedroom he slept in before it all began in his grandmother's flat, Keoghan said he would 'always leave that window open, because I loved the noise of all the fighting outside, and all the windows going through, and the f***ing arguments you hear. That, for me, would be peaceful. 'I remember being kids here and hearing my mum scream through the letterbox, asking for us, while she's battling addiction, while she's looking for money to score. And we were just told to stay in bed. We weren't to go down and hug her.' As his interviewer becomes emotional at the image, Keoghan says he is 'not in denial anymore'. 'I understand that I do have an addiction, and I am an addict. You know, when you accept that, you finally can move on, and learn to work with it.' He will soon star in the upcoming Hurry Up Tomorrow alongside Jenna Ortega and Abel 'The Weeknd' Tesfaye. And his extraordinary portrayals onscreen could be about to get even more memorable, if he is true to his work. 'Now that I'm in a healthy place I can constructively go to places, creatively and artistically, in a way that I couldn't before,' he said. 'I always say the only person that stands in my way – and this is for everything, not only acting or performances – is myself, when self-doubt creeps in. 'I put my own obstacles in place. No one else is responsible for me achieving or getting to a place of contentedness or success. The only person that is responsible for that is me, and I've learned that in the course of sobriety.'
Perth Now
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
UK Decay musician Steve 'Abbo' Abbott wants a wave of new bands to take a stand against the 'Andrew Tates and people out there' spreading hate
UK Decay rocker Steve 'Abbo' Abbott has called for Generation Z to debunk the nonsense spouted by divisive social media influencers like Andrew Tate and go and form bands spreading messages of inclusion. The 65-year-old guitarist has been outspoken against sexism and discrimination throughout his career and he is concerned that the progress made in the late '70s and '80s by the post-punk movement and 2 tone bands in Britain is being reversed by people like the controversial Tate who uses his huge following on social media platforms to promote misogyny and more recently antisemitic rhetoric. Abbott says it's up to the younger generation to call out people like Tate and spread the opposite messages and the best way to do it is by forming a band. Speaking about women in the music business at a Q+A to launch the Forever Now Festival, he said: "Women are still sexualised, big time. They're not just taken for their music. 'There was a lot of support for women, now I don't see it as much. 'With the Andrew Tates and people out there, now these figures like him exist and they're eating through everything that has been improving. I don't think enough men are standing up and saying, 'This is bulls***.' 'It's a call to arms for us to debunk all this crap, and probably form a band. 'We've all got opinions, is there right and wrong? Yeah there is a right. On so many issues there is a right. And we know that. Racism, bigotry, sexism, discrimination, that's wrong." The musician believes the late '70s in Britain were a similar climate to now when it comes to sexism and other issues in society but there were a host of female punk artists who changed the perception of women in music. He said: "I think 1977 was a revolution for female artists. Toyah, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Slits, X-Ray Spex, there were so many of them. Before that the female had been the sexy front person of the band. "A 15-year-old and 16-year-old me would have looked at Siouxsie [Sioux] as being my ideal woman, she was so strong. 'I still play those records, it's not nostalgia for me, it's a wake-up call, how brilliant Poly Styrene was. Before that there wasn't anything. 'Unfortunately the industry always grabs any moment of revolution and turns it into a product, it happens time and time again. I think it was a moment where women in music could tell their story. It wasn't ideal, it's still not ideal, but it was a big step." Abbott and his band UK Decay will be performing at the Forever Now Festival which is a celebration of the post-punk movement, which emerged in the UK in 1977 in the wake of the punk rock explosion spearheaded by The Sex Pistols. The line-up for Forever Now includes The Psychedelic Furs, The The, Berlin Theatre, Johnny Marr, The Damned The Jesus and Mary Chain, Billy Idol and headliners Kraftwerk among many other artists. Abbott feels proud that a movement began six decades ago is still being celebrated for its cultural impact the and music made by the artists. He said: "Festivals are now a bit everything for everybody. It's quite nice to go to a festival where it's focused. Jazz festivals are focused, blues festivals are focused. Here you've got bands that didn't quite fit into a genre back in the day all coming together. 'I think it's really interesting. 'I don't think it's a bill where you come and see one band. I've been to festivals where I've gone just to see one band, and you might discover something which is great. This is not a day of discovery, it's a day of celebration." Forever Now will take place on 22 June, 2025 at the iconic National Bowl, Milton Keynes, and tickets are on sale now via AXS and Ticketmaster.
Edinburgh Reporter
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Reporter
Review – Jah Wobble live ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
It's a Saturday night in Edinburgh's Cowgate and the streets are buzzing with revellers. Jah Wobble walks on stage and gives a strongman pose while sporting a 'Dub Specialist' T-shirt. There will be no argument from the trade descriptions act there. For opening number Albatross the East-End Londoner plonks down in a seat with the Fender P like punk royalty. He was after all one of the originals and given his name by Sid Vicious because the late Sex Pistol couldn't say John Wardle. The set tonight is Metal Box in Dub which delves into Wobble's time with John Lydon in Public Image Ltd. The material allows Martin Chung and former Siouxsie and the Banshees guitarist Jon Klein soon get to work on those choppy razor-like riffs. Watching them all lock into a groove is sublime. Memories finds versatile and jazzy keyboardist George King delivering flourishes reminiscent of Ray Manzarek from The Doors. Klein delivers something much closer to the jagged spirit of the original and together both styles complement each other well. Two young couples down the front dance as if their lives depended on it while older fans at the back nod along in approval. It's an arresting moment when Wobble stands up to deliver the opening speech from William Shakespeare's Richard III: 'Now is the winter of our discontent' he bellows into the mike. You could hear a pin drop as he conveyed the short spoken word performance with aplomb while throwing a few laughs in before the opening bass rumble of Poptones. The affecting circular riff fills the entire space as people begin to move and sway again getting lost in the moment. We are taken back to the autumn of 1978 and treated to two versions of PiL's first single Public Image. Fan favourite Swan Lake gets a roar of approval, the infectious dub groove with Klein's unorthodox style brings just the right amount of dissonance. An epic performance by a true punk original and genre-hopping pioneer. They don't make geezers like this anymore. Jah Wobble And The Invaders Of The Heart, at La Belle Angele PHOTO Richard Purden PHOTO Richard Purden Like this: Like Related
New York Times
29-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
A Scrum of Their Own
The fans erupted as the home team, the Exiles, ran out of the tunnel and onto the turf at Memorial Field in Mount Vernon, N.Y., to play the Boston Banshees on March 22. Some waved signs and others swung scarves and towels as an age-old rivalry — Boston versus New York — was renewed in a contest between two new professional women's rugby teams. The crowd roared again when, after less than six minutes, the Exiles flanker Misha Green-Yotts pushed past a Banshees tackle and dove into the try zone. She had scored the first points of the game, the first for her team and the first of the inaugural season of Women's Elite Rugby, the first professional women's rugby league in the United States. At the end of an aggressive and lively match, which the Banshees won, 29-27, in the final minute on a rare penalty try, fans supporting both sides stood and applauded as players basked in a moment that felt like a turning point in the evolution of women's rugby in the United States. 'This has been a game that really was built on the backs of a lot of players ahead of us,' said Katie Lohaus, 27, who plays wing for the Banshees. 'That brought both an excitement and then a pressure to perform, but not necessarily in a bad way. You just want to make the people that are supporting you, and have built it to this point, proud.' For Nikki Richardson, 31, who plays fly half for the Exiles, hearing the fans was the 'cherry on top' of the experience of playing in the league's first match, and it took the edge off her team's loss. If that support can be sustained and built on, league officials say, it could create new opportunities for women's rugby players and raise the level of play in the United States. Women's Elite Rugby, or W.E.R., was established on the foundation of the Women's Premier League, a player-run, amateur organization that had served as the main pipeline to the women's national rugby team since it was formed in 2009. After that league finished its 2022 season, its players, coaches and leaders began talking about ways to professionalize the game. In 2023, they established a board of directors and a full-time central office to create a structure for a new women's league for 15-a-side rugby, known as 15s. 'We have an opportunity to improve how we play rugby in the U.S.' said Jessica Hammond-Graf, the president of W.E.R. and one of its founders. One of the long-term goals, she said, is to prepare players for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the 2033 Women's Rugby World Cup, which will be played in the United States. The rosters of the W.E.R.'s six teams — based in New York, Boston, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco and Minneapolis-St. Paul — are filled with senior players and fresh talent: Some have played in Rugby World Cups and the Olympics; others are just getting their start at the professional level. All players receive some compensation, though their pay rates have not been made public. Most players juggle full-time jobs with their training and game schedules to make ends meet. By the time the World Cup kicks off in 2033, Hammond-Graf hopes to double the size of the league, bringing its six teams to 12. W.E.R. kicked off at an auspicious moment — one that Hammond-Graf said few would have anticipated when planning for the new league began two years ago. Global revenues in women's professional sports are expected to exceed $2.3 billion for the first time this year, according to a report issued by Deloitte last week, driven primarily by the surging popularity of women's basketball and soccer. Women's professional hockey and volleyball are also attracting more fans, sponsors and investment. If rugby hasn't figured prominently in the buzz around women's sports, there are signs that may be changing. The women's team won bronze at the Olympic Games in Paris last summer, and breakout stars like Ilona Maher, a star of the U.S. women's team who has 4.9 million followers on Instagram, have brought new audiences to the sport. Even so, building an American audience for rugby could be a challenge, said Arianna Uhalde, associate professor of clinical marketing at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. U.S.A. Rugby, the national governing body, and Major League Rugby, the men's professional league in the United States, have struggled even as the sport's boosters have promised a rugby boom for years. Still, rugby's popularity abroad could create opportunities for the new women's league, Uhalde said. 'I just think that the interplay between the global game and building something here domestically is really, really interesting and challenging,' she said. 'International investors could be really relevant given the strength and momentum of women's sports in the U.S. right now and the love of rugby globally. That's perhaps where rugby could have a strategic advantage over something like the W.N.B.A.' Even in the absence of mainstream buzz, the first W.E.R. game attracted all kinds of fans to Mount Vernon last week, including longtime ruggers in team jackets and complete newbies. The crowd, which measured in the hundreds, reacted loudly to every big hit. Between cheers, fans could be heard explaining the game to confused newcomers. Becky Breda, 53, of Connecticut learned about W.E.R. recently on social media. Excited to witness the beginning of a new women's sports league, she invited her friend, Robin Mills, 45, of Wheatley Heights, N.Y., on Long Island, to join her for the first match. The two showed up knowing virtually nothing about rugby — Mills reviewed the rules while stuck in traffic on the way to the field; Breda asked some fans who were playing beer pong in the parking lot to give her a 'quick crash course' — but said they were eager to support the women on the field. 'If it was dudes we would have just went to lunch,' Mills said. 'I wanted to see women play.' They said they would be back for another game. 'Good vibes,' Breda said. For Gio Cruz, 29, a flanker, joining the Exiles this year set up the perfect ending to what she called her tumultuous 'love story' with rugby, which began when she joined the first girls team at the Bronx Studio School for Writers and Artists as a junior. After years playing for college, club and amateur teams as far away as New Zealand, she said she was thrilled to start for her new team just eight miles from where her rugby career began. 'This has been the goal,' Cruz said. 'I wanted to be a part of it.' Tess Feury, 28, a wing for the Exiles, said she was excited to return to the United States after finishing the season with the Leicester Tigers in England to play in a new professional league just miles from her hometown, Denville, N.J. Her hope is that the league helps popularize the sport to the point that the stadiums are sold out when the Women's Rugby World Cup arrives in 2033. 'This is the first step is getting this professional league in the U.S., getting eyes on the game, building up the player pool, building the talent,' Feury said. But in the short-term, Feury has her eyes on getting the Exiles to the first W.E.R. final this summer.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Women's Elite Rugby: new league aims to boost US game and – finally
Kittery Wagner Ruiz went to two World Cups with the US Eagles and on Saturday will help make history as head coach of the Boston Banshees against the New York Exiles in Women's Elite Rugby, a six-team semi-professional league kicking-off its first season. But even illustrious careers have to start somewhere, and Wagner Ruiz's story is typical of the American game in all its unruly glory. Related: US rugby hopes Ilona Maher will be part of England and Fiji DC doubleheader 'In high school, I played basketball, softball and soccer, and unfortunately, or fortunately, I was a little too aggressive for some of those,' Wagner Ruiz said, before heading out for training. 'I had yellow cards, fallings out, all that kind of stuff. But I had a friend that said, 'There's this sport that you can actually hit people and you're not gonna get in trouble for it.' And clearly, I was an angry teenager, and needed that. And so I found rugby.' Her first club was a men's club: the Northern Colorado Flamingoes, a pink-clad band from Fort Collins, near the Wyoming line. 'I played with them for a little bit, just to run around and get an idea of what the heck was going on. And then I got to college and played … I never looked back. I played all over the country and all over the world.' Wagner Ruiz played hooker, winning 28 USA caps out of Beantown RFC in Boston, the club that now forms the backbone of the Banshees, and for Glendale in Colorado – aka RugbyTown USA – the team that now undergirds the Denver Onyx. She taught math too. 'I retired in 2014 and immediately started coaching the Gray Wolves – they were the Glendale Raptors then. I didn't leave teaching until 2017 when I started moving around the country with my late wife, who was a Marine.' Wagner Ruiz has spoken of Kandis Ruiz elsewhere, of her loss, and of support from the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS, named for the bugle call played over military graves. 'There are people that I've met through my time with TAPS that I consider some of my closest friends,' she has said. 'We are bound by our losses, but can lean on each other to get through our hardest moments and celebrate our joyous moments as well.' Rugby players also treat each other as family. Ruiz played too, for clubs including Glendale and for the US Under-20s. Wagner Ruiz has coached Life University and Atlanta Harlequins; with Atavus, in Seattle; and at Brown, the Ivy League college in Providence, Rhode Island. Her 'full-time day job' is there, as an assistant, 'then I get to coach the Banshees at night.' That seems apt, given WER marketing. The Banshees are 'supernatural, otherworldly, bringing wails of fury … born of Celtic mythology and the New England history of rebellious women … harbingers of doom to our opponents.' But if training nights in Weymouth might turn a little harum-scarum, Wagner Ruiz hopes to stir up home game days too, first in Quincy, home to the New England Free Jacks of MLR, the men's pro league. Wagner Ruiz describes the daily challenge of switching between sevens, Brown's spring game, and WER's 15-a-side. But no one in women's rugby ever had it easy, and the new league simply wants to help its players have it better than before. In New York, Denver, the Bay Area, the Twin Cities and Chicago, all teams built on clubs from the amateur Women's Premier League, other coaches are working. The regular season will run for 10 games before playoffs in June. Wagner Ruiz is 'really excited. Not that right now there's a lot of money but … the stepping stone is now they get to just play. Players don't have to fundraise for their club, they don't have to pay the coaches, they don't have to find field space. The league has hired coaches and general managers. It should give the opportunity for athletes to hone their craft.' ••• Wagner Ruiz has coached at national level, U20s and talent ID, giving her insight into players who might boost the Eagles at World Cups after the one in England this summer. The state of the college game, she said, 'speaks highly of what's happening in high schools, because the level of talent and the level of athlete that is looking to play rugby in college has grown. Related: 'This is the time for women's sports': investor Deb Henretta backs US rugby 'There are athletes who've played since they were eight, nine years old. So they they already know the laws. They already know how to catch-pass. They already are comfortable in contact. Those are the three big things we want them to have, and obviously then being able to read space and all those other things.' At mention of the writer Malcolm Gladwell, who devoted a chapter of his latest book to why women's rugby is growing in elite colleges, like many in US rugby Wagner Ruiz gives a rueful shake of the head. Maybe the simple fact an esteemed New Yorker writer noticed speaks for how the game, like women's sports in general, has begun to surge. Happier thoughts relate to the explosive success of Ilona Maher, the Quinnipiac University and USA sevens standout turned social media genius and reality TV star doing for women's rugby what the Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark has done for WNBA. Maher has just finished a stint in England with Bristol. Back home, she is chasing a World Cup place. To have such a role model on every fan's phone is simple good news. 'Ilona's from Vermont, right? A New Englander through and through. I think something with this league is, we're a bit on the coattails of the US bronze medal [in Olympic sevens, in Paris last year], and then yes, Ilona's success and being a very public figure definitely has brought more publicity in general. Young athletes seeing her as a beautiful, big, strong woman – I think about my [six-year-old] daughter, right? I hope kids see Ilona and realize, 'I can do anything.' That's what's great about rugby: everybody can play. It doesn't matter who you are, what you look like, shape, size, etc. It's a place for you.' Wagner Ruiz's squad is built on Beantown but includes talent pulled from a process involving all six WER coaches. There are 'a few sevens Eagles, a few Olympians … five or six current [15s] Eagles, and then a handful that have been to national identification camps and have played along the pathways.' The center Emily Henrich, who had time in England with Leicester, is one established Eagle. The prop Lauren Ferridge, like Henrich out of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, is among those chasing a cap. 'The majority of players have day jobs,' Wagner Ruiz said. 'There are a select few that have decided to move here for the five months that we're training and stock up money or work remotely. But for the most part, people are keeping some semblance of a nine to five … In three to five years, if that is a thing of the past, and we're training midday, and athletes can come to the facility, whatever that looks like, and can be there to train and then lift and then do a recovery session, that's kind of my vision.' ••• After two games in Quincy, the Banshees will play three home games in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. It's down to logistics. Wagner Ruiz speaks warmly of the relationship with the Free Jacks. They have won two MLR titles in a row, success recognized with the hoisting of championship banners at Logan Airport in Boston, alongside honors for the Celtics (NBA), Bruins (NHL), Red Sox (MLB), and New England Patriots (NFL). Rugby is gaining a presence. Related: Phaidra Knight, rugby great, set for pro MMA debut at 50: 'All roads lead to where I am' Asked what success for the Banshees and WER might look like, Wagner Ruiz said: 'I think success is putting on a good show. I want us to have a team that it plays good rugby, and the athletes to be good ambassadors for the sport.' To the average US sports fan, rugby has a somewhat 'traditional' appeal, a sport for non-conformists but very social too. Wagner Ruiz speaks as enthusiastically about a game in which 'you beat the crap out of each other, and then you hang out afterwards, and have a good meal together' as she does about elite performance. 'We all really want this league to succeed. And for that to happen, we need good rugby. We need good games. We need to be fun and exciting and fast-paced, very close scorelines, things that make people want to come watch. How many rugby games have we watched that were, like, all right? We know so-and-so is going to win, or it's going to be a blowout. Then it's boring rugby. 'We want to be something that's exciting, that really makes our fanbase want to come back year after year after year. And that, to me, is success.' WER will stream live and on-demand for free on DAZN
