Latest news with #PaulHeaton
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Summer music festivals you won't want to miss - and can still buy tickets for
While we may almost be in June, it is not too late to get your hands on summer music festival tickets - so we've put together a guide to five that you absolutely need to know With summer approaching, many of us may be starting to get FOMO thinking about everyone heading to festivals to spend the season enjoying music and entertainment outside in the sun. However, it's not too late to book tickets for an upcoming festival, and there is something for everyone - whether you're looking for rock music, a family-friendly weekend, big name stars, or theatrical performances and comedy. Here's our guide to five summer music festivals you should know about. Download - June 13 Held each year at Donington Park, Derby, Download Festival will take place between June 13th and 15th in 2025. Known as a rock festival, the headline artists are Green Day on Friday, Sleep Token on Saturday, and Korn on Sunday. Other performers include Weezer, Jimmy Eat World, McFly, Apocalyptica, Shinedown, Sex Pistols, The Darkness, Dayseeker, Bullet for my Valentine, Steel Panther, Kids in Glass Houses, and Spiritbox. You can either buy day tickets or camping tickets for the whole weekend. The festival also offers a designated solo camping area where solo attendees can meet like-minded festival goers. Attendees can also take part in the fancy dress theme each year, and this year's theme is Friday 13th. Outside of music, there will be live blacksmithing workshops, new immersive experience Darkfield Séance and a Heavy Metal Sports Day. Festival-goers can also enjoy axe throwing, skate ramps, a new and improved wellness, yoga and talking therapy offering, wrestling, RockFit, live fire cooking demos, and daily themed quizzes. This year there will be more than 160 food traders across the festival - with vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options. Drink spots include the new Mercian Axe brewery bar, the Hair of The Dog pub with a roof terrace and beer garden, and the Iron Harp arena bar. There will also be a Low & No bar, called Bar Zero. Tickets: Three-night camping tickets are priced from £325 each, while five nights will cost you £345. Day tickets are £135. You can search for Download tickets here. Isle of Wight - June 19 Taking place from June 19th to 22nd, the Isle of Wight Festival will be held at Seaclose Park in Newport. This year's headliners are Sting on Friday, Stereophonics on Saturday, and Justin Timberlake on Sunday. Other performers include Faithless, The Script, Paul Heaton, Busted, Razorlight, Jess Glynne, Olly Murs, Texas, Clean Bandit, Supergrass, James, Dean Lewis, Yard Act, LIghtning Seeds, and Mae Muller. The festival has lots of different areas to explore, including the Intoxicated Tea Rooms, which provide 'good old interactive and immersive entertainment, dance workshops, bunting galore, and sparkly glitter balls'. The Hipshaker Lounge is a 'groovy, funky, hip party venue specialising in all things vintage …. for all of the day and all of the night'; and Electro Love will host 'some of the finest tributes & cover bands bringing you music from the 80's, 90's & 00's' and by night the DJs will create the 'ultimate festival nightclub'. There is also KIDZONE where children can enjoy performances on the Bull Stage, the Living Room Stage, and the Lighthouse Stage. There will also be circus workshops, a maker's shed with creative crafts, a mud kitchen, sensory space, and a toddler area. Tickets: Camping tickets cost from £289.95 for adults, and £235.95 for students and accompanied teens. Day tickets are priced from £125 for adults and £95 for teens. You can search for tickets here. TRNSMT - July 11 TRNSMT will take place on Glasgow Green in Glasgow from July 11th to 13th. Big names performing are 50 Cent, The Script, Wet Leg, and Kneecap on Friday, Biffy Clyro, Fontaines DC, Underworld, The Kooks, Inhaler, and Sigrid on Saturday, and Snow Patrol, Gracie Abrams, Jade, and Myles Smith on Sunday. Other acts include Jamie Webster, Twin Atlantic, Jake Bugg, Alessi Rose, Biig Piig, Shed Seven, The Lathums, Nathan Evans, Tom Walker, and The Royston Club. Attendees can also enjoy Bongo's Bingo at The Hangout, listen to live podcasts, and watch Drag-aoke with Miss Lola Fierce. There will also be a Radio 1 Dance Stage at this year's festival, where acts like Nimino, Jaguar, and Jazzy will be playing. The Green is just a five minute walk from the Merchant City and is on the banks of the River Clyde, which means there are plenty of transport and accommodation options available. Tickets: Day tickets cost £92.50, while a two-day ticket will cost £180.40. Three-day tickets are priced at £254.90. You can search for tickets here. Latitude - July 24 Held at Henham Park in Suffolk, Latitude takes place from July 24th to 27th. Headliners include Sting and Basement Jaxx on Friday, Fatboy Slim and Kaiser Chiefs on Saturday, and Snow Patrol and Elbow on Sunday. Other performers over the weekend include Clean Bandit, Doves, Leon Bridges, Maribou State, Mika, Sigrid, Arthur Hill, Billy Bragg, Example, and Feeder. There is also comedy at the festival, with headliners being Bridget Christie on Friday, Greg Davies on Saturday, and Reggie Watts on Sunday. However, there is plenty of other entertainment, too. Latitude is one of the best performing arts festivals in Europe so there will be performances displaying the 'emotionally uplifting, the visually astonishing and the physically defying'. For book-lovers there is The Bookshop, 'an intimate hub for browsing the aisles for your next paperback purchase, reading the latest works from a plethora of brilliant authors and sipping on delicious coffee'. It also hosts a range of authors, poets, and thought leaders on stage. There is a Faraway Forest complete with interactive art installations, workshops, performances and games; and attendees can even go lake swimming. The festival is family-friendly, with the Kids Area open from 10 to 6pm every day. The Kids Theatre Tent is home to a full programme of live shows, workshops, puppetry, drama and more. The Hive geodome and its wildlife garden hosts visiting authors, illustrators, and poets, and kids can also join in on the daily Wild Earthworm Walk led by Dr David Jones from the Natural History Museum. Kids can also enjoy the Wild Science tent, the Enchanted Garden and the Woodcraft Folk Woodland Base. Tickets: Weekend camping tickets cost £308 for adults, or £190 for teens and £28 for kids (bought with an adult ticket). You can search for tickets here. Magpies Festival - August 8 Based in Sutton Park, York, the Magpies Festival is set to take place over the August 8 and 9 and will be the perfect spot for kids, dogs, camping and glamping. More than enough for you and the family to enjoy! This boutique festival offers an exciting line-up of folk, americana, acoustic, swing and everything in between. You'll also be supporting an independent festival by going along, as the two-day event is run by Yorkshire-based transatlantic folk band, The Magpies. You'll be in safe hands thanks to the young, female management team are set on championing gender equality in the music industry, achieving gender parity in both line-up and staff, as well as providing a safe and comfortable environment for female musicians and festival goers. Tickets: For adults, a weekend ticket cost £72.50. Friday day tickets are £35, Saturday tickets are £50. You can search for tickets here. Creamfields - August 21 Creamfields will take place from August 21st to 24th this year in Daresbury, Cheshire. Acts include Chase and Status, Fisher, Jamie Jones, Sub Focus and Vintage Culture on the Friday; Swedish House Mafia, Chris Stussy, Hardwell, Camelphat and Patrick Topping on Saturday; and David Guetta, Oliver Heldens, D.O.D, Martin Garrix, Sonny Fodera, and Fatboy Slim on Sunday. At this year's festival there will be a 'stunning new stage set amidst immersive woodland-inspired décor' called the Electric Forest. Another new addition is HALO, a 'monumental 45-metre diameter, cyclical outdoor arena with pioneering 360 and overhead video, lighting and sound package designed by renowned stage and show design studio Lucid Creates'. 'Downtown' at Creamfields is a brand-new sports, wellness, and entertainment village which comes equipped with activities like inflatable five-a-side football, mini golf, rave karaoke, and basketball. Attendees can enjoy workouts at the Fitness Zone, theatrical performances, food at the Culinary Quarter, and beauty treatments like make-up and hair styling.
Scotsman
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
BBC ALBA launches talent search to open Belladrum main stage
Following the success of the 2024 talent search, BBC ALBA has teamed up with The Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival once again with a new quest to find the best up-and-coming musical talent from the Highlands and Islands. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Open to solo artists and bands (where at least 50% of its members have a Highland home address) across all genres, one newcomer will be given the opportunity to perform on the main stage at this year's Belladrum Tartan Heart Music Festival. Known for its unique and diverse showcase of music and the arts, the festival has grown in popularity over the past 20 years, now attracting thousands of visitors. As it prepares for its 21st year, with acts including Texas, Supergrass, Paul Heaton, Tom Walker and Natasha Bedingfield confirmed, the team is on the hunt to find the best new homegrown talent to open the main stage at the Hot House Arena on Thursday 31 July. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad True to its longstanding support of Scottish artists, BBC ALBA is supporting the search, providing a platform to propel newcomers onto the celebrated Scottish music scene, as well as an additional opportunity for the winner to record an acoustic session in the BBC ALBA studio at the festival. Cameron Ferguson and band open the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival 2024 Calum McConnell, commissioning editor at BBC ALBA, said: 'While there is nothing quite like the atmosphere of being in the field at a festival, shoulder to shoulder with fellow music and arts fans, BBC ALBA remain committed to bringing the magic of Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival to audiences who can't be there in person, as we have done for the past 13 years. 'Our festival highlights are always a popular fixture in BBC ALBA's summer schedule, and this year will be no exception. The addition of the talent search will shine an even brighter light on the incredible creativity emerging from the Highlands and Islands.' Musicians can apply by submitting a bio and link to their music to tartanheart@ with entries judged by a panel of experts, including representatives from the BBC and Belladrum, alongside an independent musician appearing at the festival, before the shortlist goes to a public vote. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Applications will open on Tuesday 27 May at 9am and will close at 11.59pm on Sunday 8 June. Cameron Ferguson and band open the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival 2024 It is expected that the public vote will open on Friday 13 June on the Belladrum website, closing on Friday 20 June, ahead of Belladrum Tartan Heart Music Festival 2025 from Thursday 31 July to Saturday 2 August. Belladrum festival producer, Dougie Brown, said: 'We're so excited to be teaming up with BBC ALBA once again to uncover and celebrate the next wave of incredible Scottish talent. This opportunity is so much more than a performance slot — it's a potential launchpad for an artist's future. Over the years, we've seen past talent go on to build amazing careers, and that journey often starts right here, on the Belladrum stage. 'Our partnership with BBC ALBA has been instrumental in showcasing not just the festival, but the creativity and energy coming out of the Highlands and Islands. Fourteen years on, it's still a huge moment when a fresh new voice gets the chance to share their music with thousands, both on site and at home. We can't wait to see who takes that spotlight this year.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Last year's BBC ALBA x Belladrum talent search winner, Cameron Ferguson, said: 'Almost a year on from winning the 2024 Belladrum talent search, I can still say that opening up that stage was the proudest moment of my musical journey to date. The feeling of playing on a stage I had once only dreamed of playing was surreal, especially one so close to home. Thank you Belladrum, you've opened a lot doors for the band and I. We will be back soon enough!' Cameron Ferguson and band open the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival 2024 Belladrum brings together top musical acts, comedy, cabaret, spoken word, dance, drag and even wrestling as part of the annual family-friendly festival. A wealth of new names and popular crowd-pleasers have been added to the festival line up in recent weeks, including The Pigeon Detectives, Example, The Hoosiers, Irish singer and songwriter CMAT, and Scottish folk rock and pop favourites Skipinnish and Tide Lines. Find out more about Belladrum and get your tickets at
Telegraph
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Chris Wilder interview: When Sheffield United get poked, we retaliate and push back
Regardless of the result at Wembley in the match worth more than £200 million, Chris Wilder will be back at Bramall Lane the next evening to see Paul Heaton perform at the stadium where they both watched Sheffield United from the terraces. At first glance, it seems an unlikely friendship. Wilder has rubbed shoulders with Pep Guardiola, Jürgen Klopp and José Mourinho as a manager, while Heaton is a musical anti-hero, who had No 1s with The Housemartins and The Beautiful South, but is far removed from Premier League glamour. Yet there are striking similarities, both are champions of the underdog as well as having Blades in the blood. When Wilder needed words of inspiration ahead of the Steel City derby earlier in the season, he commissioned motivational messages from Heaton, along with Joe Root and Matt Fitzpatrick, from the club's well-known supporters. 'Paul is a friend and a big Sheffield United fan as well,' Wilder says. 'I'll be there without a win, but it will seal a magical week if we get the result, which is the biggest thing to focus on. 'We've had to get the culture right, but it's what Sheffield United is about, what Matt Fitzpatrick is about, what Chris Wilder is about and maybe what Paul Heaton is: 'Let's go to work, let's stay real, let's get on with being good at jobs'.' Wilder is qualified to speak about what Sheffield is about. Aside from a few years as a child, when his family briefly moved to London, he has lived in the city for his entire life. When he moved back, aged 10, he started to go to Bramall Lane. If he was not the manager, he would have been travelling down with friends to Wembley for the Championship play-off final against Sunderland and watching from the stands. 'My pals are dotted all around the ground,' he says. 'We talk about when I finish. I'd love that opportunity of going to meet them for a pint at 12 o'clock and having a little walk, watching the game and having a moan-up like they do. I'll go with the family, grandkids and pals and see it from that side.' 'Lazy to say we tossed away automatic promotion' Now 57, Wilder has been at the heart of Sheffield United being one of the football underdog stories of the last nine years since he was appointed for the first time at his beloved club. From League One to the Premier League and now on the brink of returning to the top flight again. He rails against the suggestions of having an advantage with the parachute payments that come with relegation, and points out that it has been conveniently forgotten that the club were docked two points this season for defaulting on payments. The deduction is not shown on the tables of the BBC and Sky Sports websites. 'I spoke to Daniel Farke [the Leeds manager] and he said that really the two points would have made a difference to Leeds United. Especially the way they are as an emotional football club,' Wilder says. 'I do believe it has been overlooked, 92 points is an outstanding season. 'We weren't at the level of Burnley and Leeds at the start of the season in terms of what we had to deal with. In my opinion our challenges were far greater at the start and even through the season. We would have had to get 103 points to go up, so even if we won all three games that week we wouldn't have got that number. We just had a bad week. I don't think we tossed it away. It's pretty lazy to say that.' Wilder is referring to the week in April when his team lost to Oxford, Millwall and Plymouth in a week. The defeat at Home Park ended with Wilder in a bust-up with opposition players, and the club adding to their Football Association fines for the season. Another angle of Chris Wilder's clash with the Plymouth players after full-time 👀 — Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) April 12, 2025 The governing body has fined them a total of £445,500 and says it was an 'incredibly poor period of behaviour'. Wilder admits he is now at a period of his career where he is thinking less about what he ought to say. He took aim at fans earlier in the season for criticism aimed at his players. When last in the Premier League, he was fined for his rant at an assistant referee for eating during talks between officials and manager. 'I'm not doing it for effect. I do it out of what I genuinely feel,' Wilder says. 'We're a breed that when we get poked, we retaliate and push back. That is just the characteristics of people from this city. And I'm that. There have been certain things there and it is an emotional sport. I am an emotional guy in terms of how I go about managing and how I go about representing. Sometimes it is not for some people, sometimes it's OK, but I'm not here to win any credit or favour. 'I was talking about it to my pal the other day, I've got to that stage in my football career where you have to say the right things and do the right things … you come out of that and go into you own personality. And I've got to the stage now really where I'm not bothered about impressing anybody, I'm just going to say what I feel and what I think. 'I'm only human. I make mistakes. I say certain things that, maybe when I put my head on the pillow, I think 'should I have said that? Should I have been a bit more conservative?' It is what it is. I have to get on with it and move forward.' Wilder went viral earlier in the season after the derby in November. Heaton, Root and Fitzpatrick had helped players prepare for the match with their messages, then after the victory Wilder celebrated like most fans do: a pint and a sing-song in a pub on Ecclesall Road. It showed the rivalry between the two Sheffield clubs is as fierce as ever. Chris Wilder celebrating the Steel City Derby win tonight by changing Sheffield Wednesday's song "Danny, Danny Rohl" to "Sausage, Sausage Rohl's"😂😂😂 #twitterblades — The 44 ⚽️ (@The_Forty_Four) November 10, 2024 'Maybe it's gone to a different level now. Maybe not a level. Maybe two or three levels. I don't know whether that is social media bringing it in. Maybe the actions of the Sheffield United manager has not really helped my cause at times,' he says. Should they defeat Sunderland and return to the Premier League, there will be lessons learnt from the last time they went up. Under Paul Heckingbottom, they lost Iliman Ndiaye and Sander Berge – their two most impactful players – and had to call for Wilder to return mid-campaign. 'The team was undercooked. The club spent £15 million on the team that summer, which when you talk about Ipswich struggling and spending £150 million ...' Wilder adds. 'The club were not prepared, we lost our best two players through contractual issues and that was really disappointing for the club to be in that position and for the players here to gain promotion and lose their best two players. 'Paul had a difficult hand dealt from the off. I've picked those cards up and had to play them as well. Resetting and getting us back to what the club should look like and play like was the most important thing. When that door opens to the Premier League you have to be prepared to step through it.'
