Latest news with #RoyalArmouriesMuseum
Daily Mirror
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
American names England's 'most overlooked city' after visit leaves her in awe
Cara, who runs The Magic Geekdom channel, said she was "blown away" after her first ever visit to Leeds and she believes the Yorkshire city is extremely overlooked by outsiders An American YouTuber has been left utterly enchanted by one UK city and labelled it a "hidden gem" after visiting for the first time. Cara, the face behind The Magic Geekdom channel, couldn't contain her excitement when she arrived in Leeds. She explained: "This was my very first time in Leeds and it completely blew me away! I didn't know much about the city going in, but after a full day exploring its stunning arcades, fascinating museums, delicious food spots, and lively streets, I can honestly say Leeds is one of the most overlooked cities I've visited so far in the UK. "From beautiful architecture to incredible markets and independent shops, this city has so much to offer." In her video, Cara expressed surprise at the aesthetic appeal of Leeds, telling viewers: "I don't know why, I wasn't expecting this much gorgeousness in the buildings around here but there is a lot of pretty things to look at here." Highlighting Leeds City Museum as a prime example of the city's allure, she mentioned that before visiting, she sought recommendations, with the Royal Armouries Museum topping the list. After exploring the free-to-enter museum, Cara concluded with admiration: "What a great museum, something that I was not expecting to love but then ended up being very fascinated by many different aspects of the museum." Instead of solely delving into arms and military history, she spiced up her day with a jaunt on a boat and savoured a pint at Whitelock's Ale House in Leeds, the city's oldest pub. Eager to soak up local Yorkshire flavour, she opted for a crisp pint of Kirkstall Pale Ale. Her adventure continued through the city's arcades, where she eagerly anticipated Queen's Arcade but found it her "least favourite" due to its less impressive appearance compared to Thornton's Arcade. She found County Arcade to be "much more opulent" than the rest, describing it as "beautiful and very posh" yet her preference leaned towards the more understated. During her exploration, she offered a unique take: "Here is an observation I've made here that I've never made anywhere else. "I think in most places, buskers have mapped out times or areas and I think here in Leeds it is just a free for all because there are people everywhere doing all kinds of things with microphones and it is kind of hard to hear any of them at any given time. "But I think that adds to the experience a little bit." The video, available for viewing here, prompted one viewer to comment: "As a Manchester lad that has lived in Leeds for 14 years I can say it is different, it has it's own vibe. It's full of amazing people. And a place I am proud to call home." Replying, Cara said: "It definitely has a vibe." Another person said: "Lived in Leeds all my life. You've shown off the city beautifully." A third added: "My son went to Leeds uni for three years, i love this city and he loves it so much he's moving back to Leeds this September to work. There is so much there plus its close enough to the Yorkshire dales and Cumbria which is even better!"
Stuff.tv
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Stuff.tv
Help! I'm a serial reloader in videogames
I have a confession to make: in videogames featuring gunplay, I reload. Excessively. I'm not sure how or when this became a problem, but in bullet-ridden titles like Call of Duty or Apex Legends, I'd down an enemy and immediately mash the reload button on my console controller before they've even hit the floor, no matter my ammo status. Meanwhile, their best friend comes steaming around the corner, catching me like you would your dog with their snout in the biscuit tin, desperately trying to jam my virtual magazine into my virtual firearm. And then sweet revenge is theirs. Yes, yes, I still hear the advice of the late Gaz from Call of Duty (2007) ringing in my ears: 'Remember, switching to your pistol is always faster than reloading.' But you see, I'm the sort of person who can't stand the sight of my ammo counter reading 29 when it could and should be 30. So, I reload. And reload. And reload again. The familiar sight of me hemorrhaging barely empty magazines all over the shop is enough to turn John Wick crimson. Jonathan Ferguson, Keeper of Firearms and Artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, England, says I'm not the only one: 'I can only speak to my experience and a couple of friends who've found themselves doing this due to a) time to kill and b) lack of skill where you need most of a mag to kill a player, so you reflexively reload after one burst, which gets you killed if someone is close by when you're in the middle of the reload animation. Play For me, ammo anxiety is very much a real fear. Case in point, when the undead hordes in Resident Evil 2 Remake are bearing down on my tasty brain lobes, and I have the closest creeper's noggin perfectly lined in my sights, but suddenly, 'click.' I'm out. Cue my gratuitously gory demise with that heavily unsubtle 'You are Dead' message. No, I say. I'd never let the lack of a lead projectile accelerated by igniting gunpowder be my untimely demise. So, if I fell an enemy, I reload. If I'm testing a game's physics by shooting a window out, I reload. If I nudge the R2 trigger mistakenly and let loose a rogue bullet, I reload. In fact, the only time I'm not reloading is when I'm firing. Then, I'll reload. Of course, this gets me into all sorts of trouble 'twixt-gunfight. When you're a level 1 noob, re-magazining takes an eternity when there are no skill points banked under reload speed. And as I'm unsheathing my next mag before glacially placing it into my firearm with all the grace of a double decker rolling down a cliff, I wonder if my foes die of laughter before I succumb to lead poisoning. Of course, common sense dictates that the ideal time and place to reload is between bullet trading sessions, in plenty of cover, away from adversaries. When I'm doing it, I'm out in the open and surrounded, so I do the 'dance.' An erratic choreography of circling frenziedly across a 3-foot ballroom, optimistically dodging airborne lead and waiting impatiently for my reload to complete. It rarely ends well. Jonathan has some ideas on how to help counteract this phenomenon: 'The only ways I know of to avoid that would be to slow the pace of the game itself, or implement semi-realistic ammunition management. So a reload over half full means you drop a load of ammunition or fully realistic where you end up with a load of half full mags later in the map/mission, which isn't ideal if you end up in a protracted gunfight. And despite my damage per second and K:D ratios drastically diminished, there's almost no reason to reload so compulsively. Except for when your mag isn't full, and you hit a spare ammo pickup, maxing out your reserve ammo without topping up your mag, losing out on precious bullets in the process. We call that disposophobia, or a fear of waste. So there's that… Forgive me, Gaz.
Irish Independent
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Acclaimed composer and poet unite to mark Bray Choral Society's anniversary
The Bray Choral Society, under the direction of Frank Kelly, presented a fabulous evening of music on Sunday, May 25, at Holy Redeemer Church, in celebration of its 40th anniversary. The programme featured a specially commissioned work by acclaimed composer Howard Goodall, 'The Creation Song of the Choir of Light', written to mark the choir's significant milestone. The highlight of the evening was The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins, originally commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum. Composed in 1999. The work is dedicated to the victims of the Kosovo conflict, part of the broader and devastating Balkan wars of the early 1990s. Accompanied by imagery projected on screens in the church, the performance was widely praised as both powerful and deeply moving and was met huge applause from a full Holy Redeemer Church. The performance in Bray followed a similarly spellbinding concert in St Andrew's Church, in Westland Row, on Saturday. Keith Brennan, the poet and farmer from Roscommon, was commissioned to write the lyrics to 'The Creation Song of the Choir of Light'. He told RTE's Philip Boucher Hayes how it came about and described working with Howard Goodall to compose the piece. 'Howard Goodall, had seen and heard my writing about my life on a small, unkempt, half-wild, Roscommon farm. And he thought to set some of that life and home to music. I have never done anything of the sort. To take my words and have them weaved into the sung air seemed, still seems, like a kind of magic,' he said. "The piece begins on a morning on the farm. The ragged thorn hedges. The curl of wind through trees. The rising tide of birdsong that breaks over the fields. I talk to Howard. Of pine martins. Sapphire-eyed sparrowhawks. Of farmer friends in love with cuckoos and swallows. Of the leverets I find in the rushy lee of a field. The furious greening that grips the spring world. 'The ramshackle hedges and pastures that let slip tumbles of wildflowers from the fields that flow out and along roads and across woodlands. He talked to me of choral music. Of Brexit and of culture wars. The public and private loneliness of Covid. Of how community can be made by music. Song. 'And because, as both Howard and I believe, wherever we share with one another the experience of beautiful things, the divides are blurred,' he continued. 'The gap between people close and is bridged. We are pulled a little closer in the sharing. And in the sharing we build community. So it is in my farm. So it is in my neighbours' fields. And so it will be, I think, when the choir sing.'
Otago Daily Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Youth choir hitting all the right notes
From standing ovations to high praise from critics, Dunedin's Southern Youth Choir is going from strength to strength. Rebecca Fox asks choir members and its director, John Buchanan, about its success. When members of the Southern Youth Choir begin to sing The Armed Man , many will be thinking of what their ancestors went through while serving in the armed forces. The "Mass for Peace" by Sir Karl Jenkins celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Originally commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum, it premiered at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on April 25, 2000, and was dedicated to the victims of the Kosovo crisis. Written for a choir with soloists and a symphonic orchestra, it is considered an anti-war piece, using the text of the Latin Mass and poetry and prose from around the world to tell the story of going to war and the horror and loss that results. It ends with a prayer for peace. It has been performed around the world more than 3000 times — including in New York on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The 3000th performance was conducted by Sir Karl, celebrating his 80th birthday, at the Royal Albert Hall last year. Southern Youth Choir director John Buchanan says they selected the work as it commemorates 80 years since the end of World War 2. "I think it's an appropriate work in these times to do." Having conducted the piece twice before, Buchanan is no stranger to the work, which he describes as very relatable for an audience. "He weaves poems to it, like one of the Rudyard Kipling ones about getting ready for war, going to war. Then we know that we could be going to die. It's quite a powerful poem. It was that Victorian thing about being brave and going off to die for your country. "And then it takes you to the actual battle. And then at the end there, there's this amazing part where the choir just makes this huge noise like the sounds of battle, the sounds of people dying, really horrific-sounding and then silence." It also includes "Benedictus" played on the cello, before finally concentrating on peace being better than war. "It ends up with a beautiful unaccompanied chorale, just about God shall wipe away your tears." Choir member Kate Koller, 20, a student from Christchurch, says it is also appropriate as it is coming up to the first Matariki since the last member of the 28th Maori Battalion (Sir Bom Gillies) died. "So it's coming up to the first chance to remember him and I guess the members of the Maori Battalion, so that's special." For the choir members it is also a chance to remember their own great and great-great grandparents' contributions to various wars around the world, as well as the impact on and ramifications for their families. Soprano and New Zealand Youth Choir member Rosie Auchinvole's great-grandfather on her father's side was a Royal Air Force squadron leader who was in a plane which crashed on the Isle of Mull during World War 2. Her family went to Mull in 2015 and visited a whisky shop, which turned out to be owned by the descendants of the people who saved her great-grandfather. "It was, like, middle of winter, high up on a mountain, he had to trek through the snow in the middle of the night [to save them]. It's just a crazy, weird story." Her grandfather Chris, who was in the armed forces in the United Kingdom, but now lives in Dunedin, sings in the RSA Choir and Auchinvole, who grew up in Dunedin, is an RSA choir scholar, so they sing together sometimes. "Which is really, really cute, so that's a nice connection to The Armed Man as well." The grandfather of fellow chorister George Warren was in the British Army for most of his working life and served a lot of time in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Holding his grandfather's medals, Warren, 25, of Kaiapoi, says his grandparents travelled to a lot of different postings over the years, and his late uncle was born in Germany while they were stationed there. "Performing this concert makes me think of Granddad in a way because, I mean, he's still with us and me and him used to attend all of the Anzac Day services together ever since I was a wee lad." That had only stopped this year as, after a car accident last year, his grandfather, who is 85, struggles to walk. Koller's great-grandfather was more like a grandfather to her, but died when she was 9. Before he died, the Royal Air Force navigator, who had been reluctant to talk about the war, spoke about his time in the Pacific. "He had some really cool stories ... [such as] one day the pilot dropped something so he bent over to pick it up right as a bullet went above his head. He had some close experiences. I think it really impacted him. My mum said her granddad was the same. He didn't talk about it at all. He survived everything he fought but he didn't talk about it ever." The worst family story for her was learning of her relatives in the mounted services having their horses killed before returning home. "I'm such a big animal lover and that has always got to me." Dunedin's Ewen Clarke-Wallace, 21, who is one of the longest-serving choir members, having joined at 15, will be remembering his great-grandfather, who died in Egypt at the beginning of World War 2. But other ancestors, two brothers from Lawrence, luckily returned from the war. Another was involved in the South African Light Horse Brigade in the Boer Wars. "It kind of just underscores the reasons why people went to war and why they actually did that. Because it's very easy to be like 'these silly people with their silly killing each other'. But they did that for a reason. And we are that reason. So it's important for me that there's, you know, both sides of that interaction." Buchanan says performing a full work like The Armed Man will be the biggest performance the choir has done in recent years. The choir will be performing the "reduced orchestration" option, so a cellist — choir member Portia Bell — flautist, three trumpets and a group of percussionists have been enlisted. Having conducted the piece before, he is impressed at how well the choir are singing it in rehearsal. "There's this wonderful youthful freshness that this choir's got. It's just wonderful." The choir was was established in 1992 by Maureen Smith and Anthony Ritchie for young singers aged 16-25, whether students or working. "It's open to all people but they're mainly university students, and it's had its ups and downs as far as numbers are concerned over the years." In recent years, they have stopped auditioning and opened the choir to anyone who has performed in a secondary school choir, and numbers have grown to about 65. The singers all enjoy the collegiality of the choir, the ability to meet others with similar interests and how it provides a break from the stress of study. The aim is to do at least two performances a year. Last year the choir performed Vivaldi's Gloria at the Big Sing, and have also performed concerts featuring a mixed bill of classical and popular music. "And those concerts got a standing ovation. They're singing really well. They are singing magnificently." Buchanan puts their success down to a change in the ethos of the choir, which has a student committee very involved in its work. "There's a good range of experience in the choir. There's people who have sung in school choirs their whole lives. There's people doing music degrees. People in national choirs. Everyone gets along." To see: Southern Youth Choir and chamber orchestra, The Armed Man , May 25, 2.30pm, St Paul's Cathedral.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Jousters around the world aim to get to this tournament'
As the Royal Armouries Museum gets ready to celebrate 25 years of its annual International Jousting Tournament at the weekend, competitor Mike Collin is preparing at his farm in Derbyshire. Top jousters from Germany, the USA and the UK will compete in the four-day tournament, attempting to strike opponents with a 10-foot lance at speeds of up to 30mph (48km/h). Mr Collin will be representing the UK alongside Emma Pearn, with the pair hoping to build upon their successful partnership after winning a tournament at the Leeds museum in August 2024. "The tournament this Easter weekend at the Royal Armouries is a world-renowned joust that jousters around the world are aiming to get to," Mr Collin says. "So to be a part of it alone is insane, but to win it for me would mean a lot." The pair will face German duo Bernd Joachim Voigt and Stephan Weiss, and American challengers Vince Todd and Kyle Van Dolah-Evans. Mr Collin has also won the UK's other big tournament at Arundel Castle in Sussex and competed internationally. He says jousting is growing in popularity, with an international following. "America has a huge jousting scene, Norway has a growing scene, Holland, Scandinavia, Australia are all growing," he says. "There's even an Ashes tournament for jousting that's been going for six years. "We won the 'Smashes', as it's called, back in 2023 and then it's just gone over to Australia, and they narrowly won this time around." Mr Collin will be competing in the Royal Armouries tournament for the fourth time. He began jousting 12 years ago after meeting Mark Atkinson, who supplies horses to the Royal Armouries. Working with Atkinson at his stables, Mr Collin - who is also an actor - started stunt riding and trick riding, which led to him taking part in display shows at the Armouries. He says he soon moved from "string mail jousting, which is where all the armour is plastic or very pantomime", to real armour. "What we do now is a sport, and we're trying to score points on each other," he says. "My armour weighs about 45kg so it's like having an 11-year-old on your shoulders. "If it's cold, armour saps all the heat out of you. If it's hot it heats you up like a stove. "I've had heatstroke in it about three or four times. The sun reflects off your armour back in your face so you end up quite sunburnt as well." Weather is not the only danger posed by a sport involving 10-foot lances, but Mr Collin says it is about training to avoid causing any damage. "Accidents do happen, like with any sport," he says. "You train yourself to be able to avoid risk. You want people to aim the lance quite high, so if it does miss it hits thin air and not anything solid like a person." Some jousters have armour specially made to replicate what they have seen in history books, but Mr Collin says his is what is known as an Italian composite. "I've always been interested in history, so every time I get into the armour and get to meet new people, I learn interesting things about medieval history," he says. Now Mr Collin and Ms Pearn want to create an official jousting league, to encourage more people to try the sport. There is a certainly an audience for it, he says, and the Royal Armouries is expecting thousands of fans at the purpose-built jousting arena this weekend. "We're trying to create a modern, centralised, affiliated sport, to raise the profile and get more competitions going," he says. "We're trying to open it up to more people because quite a lot of jousts here are invitation only." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. In pictures: Jousting tournament at Caerlaverock Australia take on England in jousting 'Ashes'
