Latest news with #Bedford-born
Daily Mirror
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Tom Grennan wows Big Weekend crowd with four huge guests including Spice Girl
Pop star Tom Grennan already won over the BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend crowd with his impressive vocals, but decided to call upon his famous friends to join him on stage Tom Grennan left fans gobsmacked after bringing out Melanie C, The Zutons, KSI and Ella Henderson at BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend. The Bedford-born hitmaker headlined the festival three years after playing the BBC Future Sounds Stage. Thousands of music lovers packed into Sefton Park on Friday to see him perform his biggest hits including Let's Go Home Together, Little Bit Of Love and Lionheart. Tom, 29, was joined by Spice Girls icon Melanie to perform her Number three hit, When You're Gone, originally sang with Bryan Adams. Meanwhile, he sang Valerie (2006) with The Zutons. Just before taking to the stage, Tom made a huge announcement. Over on Instagram, it was announced that Tom had racked up one billion UK streams for his music on songs such as Higher, Let's Go Home Together and Little Bit of Love. Reflecting on his achievements, the Bedford-born legend said: "Morning people, what a beautiful day by the way. I'm heading up to Liverpool, 'cause today's the day, I headline Radio 1's Big Weekend. "Remembering the past eight or nine years and how crazy they have been. But remembering really today, the moment I pressed send on Something In The Water. "Hoping that someone at BBC Introducing would hear it. And now look, eight or nine years later, we're headlining the gaff. I just want to say thank you to everybody who's been on the journey with me from the beginning to now. This is just the start, but tonight is a big one. If you're coming, Liverpool, I'll see you there. Thank you so much for Radio 1 for believing in me from the beginning." Speaking to the Mirror this week, The Zutons' frontman Dave McCabe said of the smash hit, which was covered by Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson in 2017: '"It was really good, but I didn't realise at the time, you don't sit there and think 'This is going to be huge', at the time, we'd already had a huge hit with it, we'd sold over 200,000 singles which is a lot. '"But when that [cover] started getting traction and going big, the band kind of started falling apart – and it wasn't because of that. You'd look at that and be like 'God, you've got to write another one of these,' you can't force anything like that. I think it all happened at a cushy moment because we were falling out as a group, and then that went big and it kind of buried us. 'I think being on a major label, the pressure does get to you, you don't realise it." Reflecting on the cover, he said it was "good" but had no idea it would take off so quickly. "I didn't realise, no one did, that she was going to die. When she did, it was kind of immortalised even more. 'I don't even see it, is it our song anymore? It's this other thing now." Amy tragically died just four years after the release of Valerie, aged 27. It was confirmed that the singer who was found unresponsive at her home in Camden, north London, died from alcohol poisoning.
BBC News
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Tom Grennan encourages mental health discussions
The singer Tom Grennan said he now found it easier to talk about mental health issues to his friends than when he was 29-year-old Bedford-born singer made the comment during a conversation with a winner of the BBC's Make a Difference Awards (MAD) which recognises ordinary people who have made a difference to their communities. Talking to MAD winner, Kevin Willows, who helped set up a bereavement walking group, Grennan revealed the importance of walking to him. "If I'm ever feeling like I want to get something off my chest, if it's with friends, or my wife or my parents, I always say, 'can we go for a walk?'" said Grennan. Discussing the importance of walking and exercise, Grennan said "a walk can save a life, talking can save a life".The son of a builder revealed how growing up in Bedford meant he often found it tricky to navigate his emotional side."Little towns are very much like alpha (towns), with boys anyway, nobody wants to seem like they're weak," he was his mother who encouraged him to express his emotions, telling him "if you've got emotions then let them out, because letting them out is always the best thing". 'Lots of tears' Grennan described how on a return visit to his home town, he had open conversations with his friends about "our feelings, about what was going on and there was a lot of tears, there was a lot of laughter, those barriers were breaking down," he said."I think as friends we became closer and cut the rubbish out. "And as grown men now we can sit down and talk about what we're going through and how we can lend a hand."Grennan said being the victim of an unprovoked attack and hospitalised with a broken jaw while at university was when he first encountered being depressed."It ruined me (the attack), why did it happen to me, why did these people not like me?," he questioned at the time. It was by joining a music group, where he met his best friend, and talking as well as singing which helped him recover from the trauma. The BBC Make A Difference Awards celebrate those who make life better for others in our communities. Listen to the full broadcast of Tom Grennan meeting some of the Make a Difference heroes with Gaby Roslin. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
