Latest news with #PaulWeller
Irish Times
28-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
The Music Quiz: Which Queen song recently broke one billion streams on Spotify?
American bourbon whiskey brand Virginia Black is a business collaboration with which high-rolling pop star? The Weeknd Snoop Dogg Drake Kid Rock On Sharon Corr's 2010 debut solo album, Dream of You, which rock guitarist is featured on her version of Seán Ó Riada's Mná na hÉireann? Jimmy Page Mark Knopfler Brian May Jeff Beck Which Queen song recently joined Spotify's 'Billions Club', streamed over one billion times? Radio Ga Ga We Are the Champions Somebody to Love Killer Queen Find El Dorado, the forthcoming covers album by Paul Weller, sees the Modfather cover Christy Moore's...? Ride On The Wicklow Boy The Voyage One Last Cold Kiss The title of David Bowie's Thursday's Child (1999) was inspired by the same title of which singer's first autobiography? Eartha Kitt Shirley Bassey Nina Simone Peggy Lee In 1980, at the height of their commercial success, The Specials released a live EP called Too Much Too Young, the B-side of which featured the reggae-ska medley Skinhead Symphony. The medley's three songs are Long Shot Kick de Bucket, Skinhead Moonstomp and...? Prince Buster The Liquidator 007 (Shanty Town) You Can Get It If You Really Want Who is the second-wave 'Oi' punk band heard in the opening scene of Made in Britain, the 1983 BBC drama famously starring young Tim Roth as a 16-year-old racist skinhead? Angelic Upstarts The Exploited UK Subs Cockney Rejects Abel Makkonen Tesfaye is better known as...? Adamski A$AP Rocky The Weeknd Bad Bunny In Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer (1986), where did Tommy (one of the song's two characters) once work? Bar Docks Cafe Casino Three slices of which fruit feature on the cover of The Stone Roses' 1989 self-titled debut album? Lemon Lime Orange Banana
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Paul Weller Taps Robert Plant, Noel Gallagher for New Covers LP, ‘Find El Dorado'
The Modfather himself, Paul Weller, has announced the release of his latest covers record, Find El Dorado. Set for release on July 25, the 15-track collection of songs sees Weller looking to an eclectic list of artists, including the Bee Gees, The Kinks, Richie Havens, Christy Moore, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and more. More from Billboard Aaron Paul Opens Up About Tracking Down Tour Managers to Get Bands to Perform in His Living Room Ye Claims He's 'Done With Antisemitism': 'Forgive Me for the Pain I've Caused' How New York's UBS Arena Is Helping to Raise the Commercial Ceiling for Caribbean-Headlined Shows 'These are songs I've carried with me for years,' Weller said in a statement. 'They've taken on new shapes over time. And now felt like the moment to share them.' Additionally, the album also features a number of talented guest musicians, including the likes of Oasis' Noel Gallagher and Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant. Other guests include Hannah Peel, Declan O'Rourke, Amelia Coburn and Seckou Keita. Alongside the announcement of the record, Weller has also shared two tracks as a preview of what to expect. The first of these is 'Lawdy Rolla,' the 1969 A-side to the only studio release from obscure French outfit The Guerrillas; and 'Pinball,' the title track to English multi hyphenate Brian Protheroe's 1974 debut. News of the forthcoming record arrives almost one year to the day since Weller's last album, 66, which arrived on May 24, 2024 – one day before his 66th birthday. El Dorado is also his first record of covers since 2004's Studio 150, which featured tracks written by the likes of Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Noel Gallagher. Paul Weller – Tracklist: 1. 'Handouts in the Rain' (Richie Havens)2. 'Small Town Talk' (Bobby Charles)3. 'El Dorado' (Eamon Friel)4. 'White Line Fever' (The Flying Burrito Brothers)5. 'One Last Cold Kiss' (Christy Moore)6. 'When You Are a King' (White Plains)7. 'Pinball' (Brian Protheroe)8. 'Where There's Smoke, There's Fire' (Willie Griffin)9. 'I Started a Joke' (Bee Gees)10. 'Never the Same' (Lal and Mike Waterson)11. 'Lawdy Rolla' (The Guerrillas)12. 'Nobody's Fool' (The Kinks)13. 'Journey' (Duncan Browne)14. 'Daltry Street' (Jake Fletcher/PP Arnold)15. 'Clive's Song' (Hamish Imlach) Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
BBC News
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Heavy hangs the crown - sadness at Wiggins' troubles
The view from the ornate throne on which Bradley Wiggins sat in the blazing London summer sun in 2012 must have been say all the planets had aligned for him would have been an had become the first Briton to win the Tour de France. He had followed it with an Olympic time trial gold in his home city. It felt like the coronation of a king. Wiggins, then 32, glided to London 2012 glory under a constantly moving tifo of union flags and Olympic 2016, thanks largely to his many successes on the track, he would become Britain's most decorated Olympian thanks largely to many track sideburns and the sharpest mod feather cut, he even looked good in Lycra. And by the end of the year, he was endorsing his signature style on top clothing brands and choosing records with his icon Paul Weller on BBC 6 seemed as if he had it then, when his career ended, came the cocaine addiction. Drugs, divorce and bankruptcy: How did it come to this? In an interview with the Observer, Wiggins said of his post-career cocaine addiction: "There were times my son thought I was going to be found dead in the morning."I was a functioning addict. People wouldn't realise - I was high most of the time for many years."Wiggins - a gangly north Londoner, from a broken home, brought up in poverty - made it to the very top of a sport that requires clinical preparation and a calm head under interviews during his career, Wiggins exuded calm and charm. He seemed to have everything under perhaps it was, with the hyper-organised, big-budget Team Sky around him between 2010 and 2015, run by Dave Brailsford and Rod Ellingworth - with whom he would win the 2012 Tour, the 2014 world time trial championship and much talent and presence inspired the team to a period of domination in road cycling never before post-career, his troubles 2020, his marriage to Cath came to an end. They have two children: Ben - now a rider himself with Hamens Berman Jayco - and came the collapse of Team Wiggins, which he had founded in 2015. The team lacked enough blue chip sponsors, despite having so many talented British riders. There was an awful more of Wiggins' own money invested in the team than most and a cocaine addiction, would spell trouble for anybody's wallet - even a sporting icon. And Wiggins was declared bankrupt."I already had a lot of self-hatred," said Wiggins of his post-career addiction. "But I was amplifying it. It was a form of self-harm and self-sabotage. It was not the person I wanted to be. I realised I was hurting a lot of people around me."There's no middle ground for me. I can't just have a glass of wine - if I have a glass of wine, then I'm buying drugs. My proclivity to addiction was easing the pain that I lived with."Mark Cavendish, another retired cycling great, told BBC Sport recently that he had shared many good times with Wiggins."He's like a brother to me," Cavendish said. "He has an incredible personality, he's a brilliant friend, and to see his rise and for him to be part of my rise is something we can share forever - and he's someone who's very close to me." The 'Jiffy bag' question As Wiggins emerged as top-level cyclist, he became the focal point for what those following the sport hoped would be a new cleaner era. The scandal surrounding EPO, and Armstrong, was playing towards its there was a hard-fought fourth place at the 2009 Tour de France, just behind a fading Armstrong. Then the clean rider and ultra-clean Team Sky were soon at the top of the sport, winning seven Tours between 2010 and like, Armstrong before him, the questions came flooding in once the pedals had stopped was in a 'Jiffy bag' sent to him via Team Sky doctor at a race in 2011?Two investigations - by the UK Anti-Doping Agency (Ukad) and the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee - failed to prove what was in the the report by MPs on the DCMS committee said Wiggins and Team Sky "crossed an ethical line" by using drugs allowed under anti-doping rules to enhance performance, instead of for medical reasons."I would love to know one way or another what actually happened," Wiggins told Cycling Weekly., external"The amount of times I then got asked 'what was in the package?' But I had absolutely no idea."The episode left a bitter taste for many. Fans and politicians came to understand how grey an area sports medicine can be. Cycling's great escape Pretty much the only thing professional cyclists agree upon is that time on the bike is time alone, away from it all, and a form of crucial Wiggins, it mattered more than most, right from the start. The football fan from a crowded inner-London suburb known needed an escape during his his mother pointed him towards the TV to watch Chris Boardman take a very rare Olympic track cycling gold medal for Britain at Barcelona in 1992, he was if his estranged Australian father Gary had himself been a professional cyclist, this was Wiggins' it was a journey soured. Not only by Wiggins' father insisting he would be "never as good as your old man" after an ill-fated reunion during his teenage years; but also by Wiggins' admission that, during his early career, he was "groomed" sexually by a coach. Back on the bike Wiggins himself has asked whether there should be more support given to cyclists during and after their careers.A comparatively open sport, growing ever more globalised by TV money and new structure proposals, road cycling expects athletes to rinse themselves physically day after day, going "full gas" for six hours – something which many feel has to have an psychological and emotional he's not alone. British Cycling chief executive Jon Dutton has reached out to Wiggins, and the pair have discussed a number of things, according to was inducted into British Cycling's hall of fame last year, and the new leadership want to pay their respect to a past that yielded many Olympic gold medals and gave rise to an era on the road which changed the face of the sport Wiggins, change is coming – but one of his sources of help has raised eyebrows. The disgraced once seven-time Tour de France champion Armstrong makes a habit of reaching out to the fallen,, external and is said to have offered to pay for Wiggins' latest round of rehabilitation., externalArmstrong has established his own media presence on the fringes of the sport he once had total control over. But he is a long way from being himself can rebuild bridges, and says he recently rediscovered his sense of peace from riding his bike may never return to the victor's throne, but being back in the saddle could be comfort enough.
Belfast Telegraph
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Belfast Telegraph
‘It's an absolute disgrace': The Wolfe Tones are ‘totally behind' under-fire Kneecap
It follows last week's revelation that the rappers are being investigated by counter-terrorism police in the UK following a video allegedly showing them calling for the deaths of British Tory MPs. They are also feeling the heat from an incendiary performance at the Coachella music festival in California last month during which they described Israel's military action in Gaza as a US-funded genocide. As a result, group members have been called anti-Semitic and 'terrorist sympathisers' of Hamas and Hezbollah. Due to the controversies, Kneecap have had numerous summer festivals and show appearances cancelled in Europe and America. However, a string of artists including Christy Moore, Fontaines DC, Paul Weller, Pulp, Massive Attack and Shane MacGowan's widow Victoria Mary Clarke are supporting Kneecap. And in an exclusive interview with the Sunday World, Brian Warfield of The Wolfe Tones said: 'We are totally behind Kneecap. I believe those young lads are very courageous and we don't want them left out there on their own. 'They are only starting their career and we totally and absolutely support them. It's an absolute disgrace that they are being portrayed as public enemy number one at the moment. 'We went through that ourselves for years. Our music was banned from radio by the then Minister Conor Cruise O'Brien under Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act in the '70s. That Act banned paramilitaries from speaking on the airwaves, but he included us in that saying he didn't want to hear any more Wolfe Tones-type songs on the radio because it was supporting violence in the North. 'So you couldn't sing a song about any Irish hero at all because they felt it was supporting violence. It was a ridiculous comparison to make.' Singer-songwriter and musician Warfield says he fully backs the stance taken by Kneecap on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 'Kneecap were just drawing attention to the atrocities in Gaza,' Brian says. 'I think that's their objective. They are angry about it. They want to… highlight what's going on because nobody seems to be supporting the Palestinians and nobody seems to be looking at what really is happening, which is a genocide and ethnic cleansing. And I have no doubt about that…it's what Netanyahu wants. 'I support the Palestinian cause and I just don't understand why the world is not up in arms about what's going on. 'It's just heartbreaking when you look at the children being starved. It's very difficult to look at it. I have to force myself to look at it because I want to know what's happening there. 'And just because I would criticise Israel for what is happening in Gaza, it doesn't mean I'm anti-Semitic, far from it. Kneecap criticising Israel doesn't mean they are supporting Hamas or are anti-Semitic or anything like that. 'I believe that everybody has a place in the world and the way the Israelis have treated the Palestinians is beyond belief. It should be called out more and it's not. And that's worrying. 'So I think it's totally unfair to demonise Kneecap for speaking out. They are on the crest of a wave and the way they speak out takes a lot of courage.' Celebrity Sharon Osbourne has called for Kneecap's work visa to be revoked for America. 'I couldn't believe that,' Brian says. 'I thought she'd be more understanding being married to a famous musician (Ozzy). I thought she'd have a greater understanding of the way musicians are very outspoken about things. ' Kneecap's manager Daniel Lambert said the group are happy to apologise in person to the daughter of murdered British Conservative MP David Amess after the controversy over a chant of 'kill your local MP.' News Catchup - Monday 5th May Kneecap have already published an online apology to the families of Mr Amess and Labour MP Joe Cox after footage from a gig in 2023 allegedly showed one member saying: 'The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.' They also insisted that they have 'never supported' Hamas or Hezbollah.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Kneecap row makes our cultural elite look like brazen hypocrites
Poor Kneecap. The pro-Republican Belfast rap trio have had such a rotten week. And all because of two tiny little pieces of concert footage. In one, a member of the group appears to declare: 'The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP!' And in the other, a member of the group appears to shout: 'Up Hamas, up Hezbollah!' Although Kneecap insist that they've 'never' supported those two proscribed terrorist organisations, say they 'reject any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP', and claim that the footage has been 'taken out of all context', it seems not everyone's convinced. They've been dropped from a music festival in Cornwall, and seen several gigs cancelled in Germany. Thankfully for them, however, they've now had some good news. More than 100 of Britain's leading pop stars – including Paul Weller, Brian Eno, Thin Lizzy and Primal Scream – have signed an open letter, stoutly defending Kneecap's 'artistic freedom of expression'. 'This past week has seen a clear, concerted attempt to censor and ultimately deplatform the band Kneecap,' proclaim these brave and principled musicians. 'The question of agreeing with Kneecap's political views is irrelevant: it is in the key interests of every artist that all creative expression be protected in a society that values culture, and that this interference campaign is condemned and ridiculed.' These sentiments are of course wonderfully noble. I wonder, however, if I might ask these courageous artists to consider the following hypothetical scenario. Imagine there were a rap trio that loudly supported causes that were unmistakably Right-wing, rather than Left-wing. And now imagine that, in a piece of concert footage, a member of this trio appeared to declare, 'The only good Leftie is a dead Leftie. Kill your local Labour MP!' And that, in another piece of concert footage, a member appeared to shout, 'Up the KKK!' In response, would these same 100-plus pop stars rush to sign an open letter, stoutly defending the Right-wing trio's 'artistic freedom of expression'? Would they say that 'the question of agreeing with' the Right-wing trio's 'political views' was 'irrelevant'? And would they dismiss criticism of the Right-wing trio as an 'interference campaign' that must be 'condemned and ridiculed'? Indeed, would they do all this even before the Met's counter-terrorism officers had finished investigating the footage? I wonder. But, since we're on the subject, I can't help remembering that, in 2023, the singer Roisin Murphy saw two of her concerts cancelled after she argued that puberty blockers should not be given to children who are confused about their gender identity. I don't seem to recall many open letters from celebrities leaping to her defence. Or many open letters in defence of another singer, Louise Distras, when, that same year, she said that she'd been dropped by her booking agent for refusing to agree that 'trans women are women'. Of course, pop stars are very busy people, so it probably isn't possible for them to sign an open letter every time a fellow artist's free expression is under threat. Thank goodness they've at least managed to find the time on this occasion, when the artist just happens to be anti-Tory, anti-Israel, and Left-wing. For a good two months, Adolescence – the Netflix drama about a boy who stabs a girl to death after watching sexist videos online – appeared to drive our liberal elite absolutely potty. Indeed, their hysteria rose to such a frenzied pitch that, at one point, two scandalised BBC interviewers asked Kemi Badenoch why on earth she hadn't watched it yet. Given that they were referring to a piece of TV fiction, their indignation was extraordinary. I'm fairly sure that, in the 1990s, there were no editions of Newsnight in which Jeremy Paxman barked, 'Secretary of State, I'll ask you once again. Have you, or have you not, watched last night's Brookside yet?' 'Jeremy, I'm afraid I—' 'It's a simple yes or no question.' 'But I just don't see why—' 'Secretary of State, Brookside is regularly watched by as many as seven million British people. Are you really telling us that you're so out of touch, you don't know that Julia (Gladys Ambrose) was pipped at the post for the job in the flower shop, while Peter (Robert Black) had to rescue Anna (Kazia Pelka) from a tricky situation?' Still, it wasn't just BBC types who were obsessed with Adolescence. Sir Keir Starmer was, too. He even said it should be shown in every school. Since the PM is so anxious for pupils to learn about vital issues of national debate, I wonder whether he's seen a new programme aired this week by Channel 4. Groomed is a documentary about the grooming gangs scandal. And unlike Adolescence, which is about fictional events, Groomed is about events that are all too horrifically real. I'll be impressed, therefore, if Sir Keir announces that Groomed is to be shown in every school. I suspect, however, that he won't, bearing in mind his deep reluctance to hold a full national inquiry into its subject matter. Frankly, we're more likely to get a full national inquiry into why Kemi Badenoch hasn't watched Adolescence. 'Way of the World' is a twice-weekly satirical look at the headlines while aiming to mock the absurdities of the modern world. It is published at 6am every Tuesday and Saturday Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
