Latest news with #DancingintheMoonlight
Metro
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
VE Day viewers baffled after 90s one hit wonders perform for King Charles
Viewers have been left bewildered after a 90s band who are best known for their one hit song performed for King Charles at the VE Day concert. Yesterday evening, a live concert was performed from the iconic Horse Guards Parade in London to mark the 80th anniversary of the Allies winning World War II. Host Zoe Ball presented the gig as King Charles and Queen Camilla sat in the Royal Box alongside veterans. King Charles himself spent the evening next to 107-year-old bomber pilot Harry Richardson throughout the gig. But, after a series of Strictly Come Dancing performers took to the stage to accompany Fleur East's opening, fans were particularly baffled by the choice of one band. Taking to the stage at one point during the evening was 90s band Toploader, who are renowned for their tune Dancing in the Moonlight. Taking to X, fans were quick to question why they were selected as performers tonight. @gorgeousuk wrote: 'Oh and they ended with Toploader, of course, why not???!!! I was asleep by then, no honestly, I was…I like Dancing in the Moonlight, but what the hell had that song to do with VE Day, at all??? There were some v strange choices made for the VE Day performance.' @eastcoaststoat added: 'Trying to work out how toploader singing dancing in the moonlight fitted in with VE day.' @smeeho7 also said: 'Just watching the VE concert here on the national broadcaster. If anything sums up the sacrifice and communal legacy of VE, it's Toploader singing 'Dancing in the Moonlight'. William Beveridge would have been delighted.' @Mendelpol wrote: 'Toploader's dancing in the moonlight closing the VE Day concert.. because that's what everyone sang in 1945 of course. 'Honestly, all they ad to do for this concert, was basically the Proms.. maybe get Paul Macca out also.' However, not all viewers were angry with the decision to feature Toploader, as @simplysam1965 argued: 'Just watched Toploader singing Dancing in the Moonlight on the VE Day Concert. It was a lovely concert. A nice tribute #VEDay80.' Throughout the rest of the night, there were other performances from the likes of Samantha Banks, John Newman, Victor Ray, Freya Ridings and Keala Settle. Alongside them, Calum Scott, The Darkness, Tom Walker and classical singer Sir Willard White also performed. Dame Joan Collins, Mary Berry and Sheila Hancock also spoke during the evening as actor Brian Cox delivered a reenactment of Winston Churchill's wartime speech. Before the live concert, the royal family were seen arriving at Westminster Abbey for the annual VE Day service with war veterans. More Trending London was filled with red, white and blue this week to mark the emotional moment 80 years ago when Germany surrendered and the Allies declared victory. King Charles greeted crowds outside Westminster Abbey in central London today as he attended the service with Queen Camilla, Prince and Princess of Wales, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, veterans and 2,000 guests. Charles was dressed in a pinstripe suit, while Kate donned a dotted turtleneck dress next to William, who wore a classic navy suit and red and blue tie. View More » VE Day is available to watch on BBC iPlayer. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: When is Eurovision 2025 final? Date, location and latest odds revealed MORE: 'We just went wild': how children celebrated cakes and peace on VE Day MORE: I'm proud to be British – and I'm not embarrassed to admit it
Edinburgh Live
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Live
Toploader fans are just working out band name meaning amid VE Day performance
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Today marks the 80th anniversary of VE Day, or Victory in Europe Day, commemorating eight decades since Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender to the Allied Forces, effectively ending the Second World War in Europe. The nation has been paying tribute to those who sacrificed their lives with a series of events over the past four days, including fly-pasts, beacon lighting, and street parties. Earlier, members of the Royal Family, including the King and Queen, as well as the Prince and Princess of Wales, honoured the fallen at a remembrance service at Westminster Abbey. The day's tributes are set to conclude with a star-studded concert put on by the BBC at Horse Guards Parade in London this evening, featuring acts like The Darkness, Samantha Barks, Fleur East, and classical singer Sir Willard White. However, it's another act on the line-up that's sparked curiosity among some Brits, with many only now discovering the cheeky slang behind the name Toploader. The East Sussex band, formed in 1997 and famed for their 2000 hit cover of 'Dancing in the Moonlight', has an unexpected origin story for its name. "Today I learned that Toploader, best known for their cover of King Harvest's 'Dancing in the Moonlight', were named after a joint-rolling technique," confessed one person in a post on Reddit. They continued: "Toploading is when you (accidentally or by design) put too much of the weed up at the top of the joint, so the first person to smoke it gets a bigger hit than later users." In response, one individual admitted: "I thought it was after the washing machine!" Another confessed: "I always thought it was because of those old VHS players where the tape was loaded in the top... they were called top loaders." Similarly a third added: "I often wondered about this, concluding that naming a band after a style of video recorder would be laughable." Whilst a fourth Reddit user quipped: "Oh, so not named after storing their Pokémon more securely?". Hosted by Zoe Ball, the full line-up for the concert is as follows: Samantha Barks, Fleur East, John Newman, Victor Ray, Freya Ridings, Keala Settle and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Calum Scott, The Darkness, Toploader, Tom Walker, and Sir Willard White. Strictly Come Dancing stars Amy Dowden, Carlos Gu, Karen Hauer, Neil Jones, Lauren Oakley, and Kai Widdrington are set to dazzle on stage adding to the atmosphere, meanwhile. The BBC adds online: "In addition to the musical performances, the concert will feature appearances from a raft of award-winning talent. Dames Joan Collins, Mary Berry, and Sheila Hancock will lend their voices to the event, while acclaimed actor Brian Cox is set to perform a stirring rendition of Winston Churchill's famous wartime address." VE Day 80: A Celebration to Remember airs on BBC One and iPlayer from 8pm tonight (May 8).
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
19 Things That Seem Wholesome But Actually Have Some Reaallly Disturbing Backstories
Recently, Reddit user Drakeskulled_Reaper posted to the Ask Reddit page, "What is the disturbing backstory behind something that is widely considered wholesome?" The answers range from strange to awful to heartbreaking. Here are just a few: 1."Candy Land was invented during the polio epidemic by retired school teacher Eleanor Abbott, who was recovering from polio herself. She invented the game to keep affected children entertained during their hospital stays." —sheerduckinghubris 2."Canonically, Chuck E. Cheese is an orphan who never knew when his birthday was so he celebrates other people's birthdays to fill the terrible painful void of his abandonment." —PoppinsFresh 3."Free school lunches in America started because the military complained that many 18-year-olds were too skinny during World War II to serve in the military. Free school lunches were added afterward to make 18-year-old men strong enough to be drafted into the next war." —u/imaxstingray 4."Nintendo started as a card company in the late 1800s and probably would have gone defunct were it not for the Yakuza." —Alternative_Fill2048 5."St. Valentine was a priest who was supposedly killed for... marrying people so men could get out of war. For this, he was beheaded." —UrMomsSideDish 6."The man who started the black and blue/white and gold dress debate from 2015 was charged with attempted murder after trying to strangle his wife." —Any_Acanthocephala18 7."Bananas. You thought cocaine was a blood-soaked, cartel-backed, war-driven commodity? The banana trade makes cocaine look like a farmers market." —u/WaterChestnutII 8."Henry Ford promoted square dancing in public schools, starting in the 1920s. Sound wholesome? He did it because he hated Jewish people and thought they invented jazz. He wanted to get America back to 'traditional' (white and Christian) music and dancing." —copperdomebodhi "Hitler looked to Henry Ford's assembly line method of making cars and separating the tasks so that each person only did a single part of the task and applied that to his methodical extermination program where tasks were divided along the way so no person was involved in, or ever saw, the full process to make it easier to dehumanize and carry out the tasks they did." —PrimarySquash9309 9."Sherman Kelly wrote the lyrics to Dancing in the Moonlight while recovering from a violent assault carried out on him and his girlfriend by a youth gang. He envisioned an alternative reality where people just dance and be happy all the time. It was his way of dealing with the trauma." —TheBoomExpress 10."A.A. Milne based the Winnie The Pooh stories on his son, Christopher Robin, but the real Christopher grew to resent the fame it brought him." "Bullied and feeling exploited, he distanced himself from both his father and the beloved books. A tale of innocence, built on a child's unhappiness." —Low_Place5917 "Everyone always leaves out the fact that Christopher eventually came to terms with his father's work and the fictionalized version of himself and that he and A.A. Milne ended up being incredibly close during the latter's final years." —SexyAcosta 11."I think Tina Fey is a pretty wholesome woman. She has a small scar on her chin. When she was 5 years old, some random psycho went into her yard and slashed her face with a knife." —Clownfishsoup 12."I know Bob's Burgers isn't SUPER wholesome, but it's generally agreed that it's pretty wholesome and tear-jerker-y for an adult cartoon. It started out being pitched as a burger restaurant run by a cannibal family. 😂" —TheNeverEndingPit "Hence the pilot episode: the restaurant being shut down for being suspected of selling human meat." —PrimarySquash9309 13."Corn Flakes were created to stop boys wanking." —Hyperbolicalpaca 14."The Kennedys. JFK's sister, Rosemary Kennedy, was forced to undergo a lobotomy that damaged her brain so badly she was disabled for the rest of her life." —sithmaster297 "What's worse is her own father ordered it done." —Ms_Schuesher "The brain damage is the goal of a lobotomy. It's a horrific procedure." —PrimarySquash9309 15."Mel Blanc, a voice actor for Looney Tunes and a whole bunch of other things, was in a really bad car crash that put him in a coma for a while." "He was unresponsive when the doctors tried waking him up. One of his doctors started asking his characters — Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird —if they were 'in there.' Mel started responding as the different characters. Anyway, while he was recovering in bed, he was recording Barney for The Flintstones (parts of Seasons 2-3, if I remember correctly). His son filled in on a few episodes. Now, if I see The Flintstones, I think about how he was doing some of it in bed, recovering from a bad car wreck." —ZoeKitten84 16."Judith Barsi, who voiced Ducky in The Land Before Time, was murdered by her own father at the age of 10. She never even got to see her own film and the joy it brought so many children. After I learned that, especially now that I'm a parent, I can't bring myself to watch the film." —jscarlet 17."Teddy bears. They were originally inspired by President Theodore Roosevelt's refusal to shoot a tied-up bear on a hunting trip. It sounds cute until you realize the bear was already injured and had to be put down anyway." —Danniedear 18."Sir Alan Turing is regarded as the father of modern computing and is, of course, known for cracking the Enigma code." "After his contributions to ending the war earlier, saving lives, and contributing towards the invention of the computer, he was chemically castrated because he was gay. Two years later, in 1954, he died by suicide through cyanide. His work was mostly sheltered during his life because of the Official Secrets Act. He got an official pardon from the Queen in 2013." —Klor204 finally, something tongue-in-cheek: "OJ Simpson, the beloved football player and actor, was surprisingly problematic. Go ahead, look it up." —u/Enky-Doo I want to hear alllll your thoughts on these down in the comments below! Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity.
Buzz Feed
30-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
19 Things That Seem Wholesome But Actually Have Some Reaallly Disturbing Backstories
Recently, Reddit user Drakeskulled_Reaper posted to the Ask Reddit page, "What is the disturbing backstory behind something that is widely considered wholesome?" The answers range from strange to awful to heartbreaking. Here are just a few: 1. "Candy Land was invented during the polio epidemic by retired school teacher Eleanor Abbott, who was recovering from polio herself. She invented the game to keep affected children entertained during their hospital stays." 2. "Canonically, Chuck E. Cheese is an orphan who never knew when his birthday was so he celebrates other people's birthdays to fill the terrible painful void of his abandonment." 3. " Free school lunches in America started because the military complained that many 18-year-olds were too skinny during World War II to serve in the military. Free school lunches were added afterward to make 18-year-old men strong enough to be drafted into the next war." 5. "St. Valentine was a priest who was supposedly killed for... marrying people so men could get out of war. For this, he was beheaded." 6. "The man who started the black and blue/white and gold dress debate from 2015 was charged with attempted murder after trying to strangle his wife." 7. " Bananas. You thought cocaine was a blood-soaked, cartel-backed, war-driven commodity? The banana trade makes cocaine look like a farmers market." 8. "Henry Ford promoted square dancing in public schools, starting in the 1920s. Sound wholesome? He did it because he hated Jewish people and thought they invented jazz. He wanted to get America back to 'traditional' (white and Christian) music and dancing." Bettmann / Bettmann Archive — copperdomebodhi "Hitler looked to Henry Ford's assembly line method of making cars and separating the tasks so that each person only did a single part of the task and applied that to his methodical extermination program where tasks were divided along the way so no person was involved in, or ever saw, the full process to make it easier to dehumanize and carry out the tasks they did." — PrimarySquash9309 9. "Sherman Kelly wrote the lyrics to Dancing in the Moonlight while recovering from a violent assault carried out on him and his girlfriend by a youth gang. He envisioned an alternative reality where people just dance and be happy all the time. It was his way of dealing with the trauma." — TheBoomExpress 10. "A.A. Milne based the Winnie The Pooh stories on his son, Christopher Robin, but the real Christopher grew to resent the fame it brought him." Bettmann / Bettmann Archive "Bullied and feeling exploited, he distanced himself from both his father and the beloved books. A tale of innocence, built on a child's unhappiness." — Low_Place5917 "Everyone always leaves out the fact that Christopher eventually came to terms with his father's work and the fictionalized version of himself and that he and A.A. Milne ended up being incredibly close during the latter's final years." — SexyAcosta 11. "I think Tina Fey is a pretty wholesome woman. She has a small scar on her chin. When she was 5 years old, some random psycho went into her yard and slashed her face with a knife." 12. "I know Bob's Burgers isn't SUPER wholesome, but it's generally agreed that it's pretty wholesome and tear-jerker-y for an adult cartoon. It started out being pitched as a burger restaurant run by a cannibal family. 😂" 13. "Corn Flakes were created to stop boys wanking." 14. "The Kennedys. JFK's sister, Rosemary Kennedy, was forced to undergo a lobotomy that damaged her brain so badly she was disabled for the rest of her life." Keystone / Getty Images 15. "Mel Blanc, a voice actor for Looney Tunes and a whole bunch of other things, was in a really bad car crash that put him in a coma for a while." Bettmann / Bettmann Archive "He was unresponsive when the doctors tried waking him up. One of his doctors started asking his characters — Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird —if they were 'in there.' Mel started responding as the different characters. Anyway, while he was recovering in bed, he was recording Barney for The Flintstones (parts of Seasons 2-3, if I remember correctly). His son filled in on a few episodes. Now, if I see The Flintstones, I think about how he was doing some of it in bed, recovering from a bad car wreck." — ZoeKitten84 16. "Judith Barsi, who voiced Ducky in The Land Before Time, was murdered by her own father at the age of 10. She never even got to see her own film and the joy it brought so many children. After I learned that, especially now that I'm a parent, I can't bring myself to watch the film." 17. "Teddy bears. They were originally inspired by President Theodore Roosevelt's refusal to shoot a tied-up bear on a hunting trip. It sounds cute until you realize the bear was already injured and had to be put down anyway." — Danniedear 18. "Sir Alan Turing is regarded as the father of modern computing and is, of course, known for cracking the Enigma code." Pictures From History / Pictures from History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images "After his contributions to ending the war earlier, saving lives, and contributing towards the invention of the computer, he was chemically castrated because he was gay. Two years later, in 1954, he died by suicide through cyanide. His work was mostly sheltered during his life because of the Official Secrets Act. He got an official pardon from the Queen in 2013." — Klor204 19. And finally, something tongue-in-cheek: " OJ Simpson, the beloved football player and actor, was surprisingly problematic. Go ahead, look it up."
CBS News
09-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Metal guitarist turned crooner plays annual Valentine's show at Du Nord
A longtime figure on the Bay Area's rock and metal scene explores a different side of music when vocalist Sven Söderlund and his Masterful Orchestra play their annual Valentine's Day gala at the Cafe Du Nord Friday. A well-regarded metal guitarist who came up during the rise of the thrash-metal scene in San Francisco during the early '80s, Soderlund was raised in a musical family (both his parents played jazz) and picked up the six-string at the age of nine. By 1984, he had been invited to join then fledgling thrash outfit Mordred before eventually striking out on to found Mercenary with Mordred guitarist Danny White. While Mercenary would only play a couple of gigs and record a demo in 1986 during it's initial existence before imploding, the group achieved a sort of legendary status locally and in Europe as their demo was shared between metal fans. Söderlund would also work in the music industry as a roadie and guitar tech, working extensively with Exodus at local shows and touring with Megadeth. As the '80s turned into the '90s, Söderlund played guitar in a number of projects (Exterminator, Morticious and Mercyful Fate tribute Hail Satan) as well as a stint in Laaz Rockit. Later, he would participate in an onstage reunion with Mercenary in the early 2000s and live performances with Mordred and Heathen. Though Mercenary would reform as an active group in 2007, more recently the musician decided to try his hand at the music he heard his parents playing during his youth. Convening a large ensemble featuring horns and strings in 2017, the group rehearsed a set of jazz and swing standards made famous by the likes of Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Last July, Söderlund and the band he christened the Masterful Orchestra made their debut at the Bottom of the Hill, cramming onto the stage for a full house of fans. They have since performed at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek and Sweetwater Music Hall. The singer and his group celebrated the release of their debut CD with an outdoor concert at the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater in McLaren Park a few years ago, drawing a big crowd to enjoy an afternoon of classic standards, Sinatra deep cuts, a song written by his composer mother and even a nod to his hard-rock roots with a swinging take on the Thin Lizzy hit "Dancing in the Moonlight." In the fall of 2021, the band returned to the stage for it's first public performance in over a year, drawing a large crowd for a free Saturday afternoon concert at the Golden Gate Park bandshell. Söderlund is preparing to release his sophomore album summer that will feature more standards, a rock hit, an R&B tune and an original song. Last year, the lead single for the album -- a version of Neil Diamond's classic hit "Love on the Rocks" -- becomes available on all digital streaming platforms. The song was recorded at San Francisco's Hyde St. Studios with engineer and producer Jamieson Durr (who has worked with Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Don Felder of the Eagles, Nancy Wilson and Wyclef Jean), before the finished track was mastered in London at iconic Abbey Road Studios by Andy Walter (David Bowie, Jimmy Page, U2, Coldplay, Radiohead). The singer and his group bring their annual Valentine's Day show to the stage at the Cafe Du Nord Friday night. Opening the show will be creative local tribute Bond Gir l. Fronted by guitarist/vocalist Cherie Lebow, the quartet covers hit songs from 007 films throughout the years as well as other spy-related soundtrack tunes (the themes to "Mission: Impossible," "The Avengers" and "Peter Gunn").
