Latest news with #NateBaker
BBC News
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Flowers, beer bottles and an orchestra - Birmingham pays respects to Ozzy Osbourne
Just two-and-a-half weeks ago, disciples of the "prince of darkness" flocked to Birmingham for Ozzy Osbourne's final gig. Now they have come back to mourn following his death - laying pint glasses and whisky bottles among the flowers and at the impromptu shrines to Ozzy Osbourne in Birmingham tell the story of how deeply his impact was felt, and how far it conveyed the pride of his home city ("Birmingham forever Ozzy - you rock!"), while others came from further afield ("Gracias Ozzy!"; "Thank you for the music - from me and all your fans in Bulgaria.")Others were personal messages about how much his music meant."You have touched millions, my whole life your music has played almost as if raising me," another congregated at locations including the Black Sabbath bench - which features cut-out figures of the four band members. Ozzy's was dressed with a Sabbath hat and a scarf of Aston Villa bench itself was covered with flowers - interspersed with some beer bottles, empty glasses and a Jack Daniels bottle, in honour of his famously hard-drinking lifestyle. "It's just amazing to see the big community come together and support everyone," said one fan, 20-year-old Nate Baker from Redditch in wore a special Aston Villa shirt that was sold to mark Ozzy and Sabbath's huge concert at Villa Park less than three weeks gig was billed as their farewell show. Ozzy suffered long-running health problems and performed seated - but appeared in good spirits, and no-one expected the end to come for him so soon after that landmarks were created before that event to celebrate the show - and have now been turned into makeshift memorials. 'There will never be another Ozzy': Stars pay tribute to rock legendFans pay tribute to Ozzy Osbourne's 'immense cultural legacy'Wild life of Ozzy Osbourne, rock's 'prince of darkness'Did Ozzy Osbourne really bite the head off a live bat? A row of bunches of flowers lines a mural depicting the faces of the band's four members on a bridge near New Street station."To be honest, it hadn't really sunk in when I heard the news last night, and I thought that coming here and seeing all the tributes and all the love being expressed would really start to make it feel real, and it has," said Paul Williams, from Stafford."It feels comforting to be part of the community here, where we've all come to the same place to express our grief and our love and our thankfulness for what he gave the world."Mr Williams added a sheet of paper to the memorial with his own portrait of Ozzy."I'm a comic artist, and so the way that came most naturally to me to express my thankfulness was to do a quick doodle before I came down on the train this morning. It's not necessarily my best work, but I'm happy to see it there amongst all the flowers, being blown askew by the wind." Those laying flowers included Paul Allen, a classical musician from Walsall. His brother loved Sabbath - but Mr Allen said he has only recently been catching up on the appeal of the founding fathers of heavy metal."I'm only just starting to grasp their place in musical history, and I have a lot of respect for that," he said."They took their industrial background and heritage, and somehow managed to expose that in the music, along with a strange mixture of Lord of the Rings ideas and Dennis Wheatley witchcraft, devil worshipping, science-fictiony stuff."They had this melting pot of new ideas. They weren't part of a hippy movement. They weren't part of a prog rock thing. They just were doing their own thing." Elsewhere, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra gave Ozzy a symphonic send-off by recreating Black Sabbath - the doom-laden self-titled track from the band's debut album - as part of a performance under the departure boards at New Street exhibition about Ozzy's life in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery - which was opened to coincide with the farewell gig - has now also become another destination for fans to remember him.A queue soon formed for a book of condolence - watched over by a black-and-white photo of Ozzy clutching a cross, which the museum hastily put up on Wednesday morning. "I just wrote, 'Condolences to the family, and Ozzy's making his way through the Hole in the Sky'," said Steve Bennett, from Liverpool - referring to the title of a song from Sabbath's 1975 album Sabotage."I've got every one of their albums, and a lot of his solo stuff as well."Ozzy was "one of rock's great frontmen, in a great band, who changed the way music was perceived", he signatory to the book of condolence was 32-year-old Tamara Jenna. "I said, 'Rest in peace, Ozzy. You made Birmingham proud'."She added: "I heard the news last night and it's such a sad loss to Birmingham. He did so much for the city and for heavy metal, and I think it's definitely worth paying respects to what he's done for the city, let alone the genre." The age range of the visitors to the exhibition proved Ozzy's cross-generational appeal. Jonty Carter, a volunteer at the museum, was there at the very start of Sabbath's journey - after being taken to see them play at a pub in Birmingham in the late 1960s by fellow members of his Boys' Brigade."They sneaked me in the entrance, and Black Sabbath were on. So I saw them when I was 12, which is just unbelievable," he recalled."And some of the music has just lived for me forever. I don't think it's ever going to be surpassed. It was game-changing at the time." Kelly Pearce went to pay her respects at the exhibition with her mum and two children."He never changed - even when he went to America, he was still always a Brummie, which we love," she said."What makes me laugh is that the way he speaks, with all these swear words, is so natural to normal Brummies. My father grew up in Aston as well, and he's exactly the same."So to me, he could have just been one of your uncles. He was just so down to earth with no airs and graces. Just love him."It was lovely that he got his final wish as well - to come back to England and do his last gig here, which was just unforgettable."
Axios
30-04-2025
- Business
- Axios
Raleigh's massive Gipson Play Plaza will open in June
Across the Triangle, cities are pouring tens of millions of dollars into building new public gathering spaces for residents hungry to take advantage of new amenities in their fast-growing communities. Why it matters: Since it opened in late 2023, Downtown Cary Park has been a catalyst for downtown Cary's resurgence from an afterthought destination to one that attracts individuals and families from across the region. The $68 million park — featuring large play areas, common spaces and even a bar — has attracted new development and new businesses around the edges of the park. Driving the news: In June, Raleigh hopes to capture a similar energy when it opens Gipson Play Plaza in Dix Park. Gipson Play Plaza is a $69 million interactive area that leaders hope will serve as the new entrance to Dix Park and attract tens of thousands of visitors. A large portion of the plaza's funding comes from a $275 million parks bond Raleigh voters approved in 2022. It's one of the first phases of Raleigh's long-term plans to turn Dix Park into one of the leading urban parks in the country. Between the lines: Mitchell Silver, a Raleigh City Council member and former New York City parks commissioner, told Axios that cities risk falling behind if they're not investing in gathering spaces. "If we want to build a great city you have to have amazing public spaces," he said while on a trip with the council to Kansas City, where he learned about that city's park efforts. "We don't have many of those [great gathering spaces] in Southern cities," he added. "It's important to make [Dix Park] that social gathering place." Zoom in: The 18.5-acre Play Plaza will feature several playgrounds and gathering spaces, including a waterfall wall, picnic grove, food vendors and skywalks. State of play: The success of Downtown Cary Park comes up frequently at gatherings across the Triangle, with residents wishing something similar existed near them or as a source of comparison to existing parks. That was true in Durham last week, when its city council gathered to discuss making improvements to Durham Central Park and studied a presentation that featured images from parks across the country, including Downtown Cary's. A great city is "deserving of a great space like this," Durham City Council Member Nate Baker said at the meeting. He noted that he and his colleagues "look around to our neighbors in Cary and Raleigh and Dix Park and all of the work that is going into great parks." What's next: The Durham City Council will discuss making more improvements to Durham Central Park later this spring, and it's also studying the future of the historic Durham Athletic Park as another potential gathering space. Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams told Axios that improving those downtown spaces is a "high priority," but the price of those changes will need to be studied carefully, with many residents feeling the sting of large property value increases. Silver, for his part, hopes Raleigh uses the momentum of Gipson to invest more in its downtown spaces — specifically making Nash Square more active and bridging the roughly 1.5-mile gap between Dix Park and downtown.
Fox News
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
South Carolina AG takes on illegal immigrant hit-and-run, promises criminals 'we're coming for you'
FIRST ON FOX - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson on Friday announced that he will be prosecuting the Salvadoran illegal immigrant accused in the fatal hit-and-run of a University of South Carolina student on Wednesday. Rosali I. Fernandez-Cruz, 24, is charged with hit-and-run resulting in death, failure to give information and render aid, failure to yield the right of way and driving without a license in connection with 21-year-old Nate Baker's death, according to a statement from the Columbia Police Department (CPD). "My message to people who are here illegally, especially people who were members of gangs like TDA and MS-13 and other violent extremist groups that have crossed the border illegally … is: we're coming for you. And we're going to leave no place for you to hide. If you pose a threat to the people of South Carolina, this office will be coming for you," Wilson told Fox News Digital. He added that those here illegally who are nonviolent and seeking a better life should "find a lawful pathway to citizenship in this country, report yourself, and then follow the processes like so many millions of immigrants who come to this country to seek a better [life] for themselves and their families." Baker was riding his motorcycle on Tuesday when he collided with the suspect, who allegedly failed to yield the right of way while turning left, at the intersection of Blossom and Assembly Streets in Columbia. The 21-year-old victim was a junior at USC majoring in business. He was also an active leader in the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. "I appreciate the Trump administration for patching the holes of the boat that is America. We close the borders, that's akin to plugging the holes, but we still have a lot of water that came in, a lot of the violent gang members, a lot of drugs, a lot of illicit crime that is an outflow of the illegal crossings at the southern border are still in this country," Wilson said. He continued: "We are committed here in South Carolina to working with our state partners and our federal partners and working with the Trump administration to remove those people who are violent and a threat to the public health and safety of our communities." A Department of Homeland Security source previously told Fox News Digital that Fernandez-Cruz was previously arrested by border patrol in Hidalgo, Texas, on Dec. 24, 2016. In September 2018, an immigration judge in Charlotte, North Carolina, ordered Fernandez-Cruz to be sent back to El Salvador. At the time of the crash, Fernandez-Cruz was wanted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), police said. Two men were with Fernandez-Cruz at the time of the accident and also fled, according to police. No charges are pending against them. The immigration status of the other men is unknown. The Phi Gamma Delta chapter at USC described Baker as "not just a brother, but a leader, a role model, and a true embodiment of what our fraternity stands for." "Nate Baker brought light, laughter, and love into all of our lives. Nate will always be remembered for the way he showed up for others and the impact he had on everyone around him," the fraternity wrote in an Instagram post. "His passion, loyalty, and love for this brotherhood will never be forgotten. May we honor his memory by living with the same kindness, selflessness and generosity that he showed to everyone around him. Rest in Peace Nathaniel Baker."
