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Wales Online
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Man makes unearthly music from household objects with hilarious results
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 A wacky musician who wowed Britain's Got Talent (BGT) judges had pensioners in stitches. Dennis Frere-Smith moved from the sublime to the ridiculous when performing in Caernarfon, Gwynedd. After a rousing rendition of When the Saints Go Marching In, the veteran entertainer put aside his trumpet to produce some unearthly but hilarious tunes on a teapot, a garden hose and even a shower head. The routine, which also included a sink plunger and watering can, was similar to the one that won him acclaim on BGT last year. After initially rolling his eyes, judge Simon Cowell gave him a standing ovation. At the time, Amanda noted: 'It just reminded me of good old fashioned entertainment. There is no other show on earth where you'd be able to play a hosepipe – perfect for Britain's Got Talent.' There was also a thumbs-up from fellow judge Alesha Dixon but Bruno Tonioli described Dennis's performance as a 'waste of wind'. Dennis advanced onto the following round and performed his routine on the famous London Palladium stage - but he failed to reach the show's semi-finals. Despite this, his crowd-pleasing performance at Pendine Park's Bryn Seiont care home in Caernarfon was definitely a Golden Buzzer moment. Sign up now for the latest news on the North Wales Live Whatsapp community Among those to get out of her seat was Betty Driver, 87, a former professional dancer who often performed at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. 'That was a great show, I really enjoyed it,' she enthused. 'I couldn't help but get up and dance to some of the songs.' (Image: Mandy Jones) Dennis sang and played a selection of hits ranging from Frank Sinatra to Bobby Darin and Cliff Richard. He also performed a medley of wartime songs in preparation for VE Day in May. 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary' had a special meaning for Ethna Williams, originally from County Dublin, Ireland, who latterly lived near Holyhead. She said: 'It was lovely to hear him sing and especially when he came up to me (during the song) and held my hand.' Former police officer David Edwards, from Dolwyddelan, near Blaenau Ffestiniog, correctly identified the opening bars of 'Bring Me Sunshine', a song regularly sung by comic duo Morecambe and Wise on their TV shows. He then joined Dennis to recreate the dance Eric and Ernie did as they left the stage. 'I enjoyed Dennis' singing very much,' he said. 'He's got a very fine voice and he's a very talented musician.' (Image: Mandy Jones) Dennis, from Norfolk, rounded off his hour-long session with a stirring version of You'll Never Walk Alone. Now in his late-60s, Dennis joined the Scots Guards as a musician on leaving school and later became a teacher before becoming a full-time musician and entertainer. He said: 'I was teaching music at a school in Buckinghamshire and was asked to take a group to entertain at a care home. There was no one available so I went along and did it myself – and I've been visiting care homes ever since. 'My mother is now in her 90s and I know how much pleasure elderly people get from music. I enjoyed performing for the residents here in Caernarfon very much, they were a great audience.' (Image: Mandy Jones) Dennis said his BGT appearance last year had since given him new ideas for his act. 'Amanda Holden challenged me to play When the Saints Go Marching In and go faster and faster – and with other instruments,' he said. 'So I've prepared a backing track with the help of my son and added a watering can and a funnel to the others that I play. I'm hoping to develop a new show for the theatre and cruise ships market.' Nia Davies Williams is Bryn Seiont Newydd's musician in residence. She was blown away by the performance, saying it evoked happy musical memories for the residents. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox 'The effect of music is well known,' she said. 'It seems to linger longer even among those for whom a simple conversation seems to be very difficult. Having Dennis her to sing those old familiar songs from their earlier years does the residents the power of good.' Look for places near you
North Wales Live
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- North Wales Live
Man makes unearthly music from household objects with hilarious results
A wacky musician who wowed Britain's Got Talent (BGT) judges had pensioners in stitches. Dennis Frere-Smith moved from the sublime to the ridiculous when performing in Caernarfon, Gwynedd. After a rousing rendition of When the Saints Go Marching In, the veteran entertainer put aside his trumpet to produce some unearthly but hilarious tunes on a teapot, a garden hose and even a shower head. The routine, which also included a sink plunger and watering can, was similar to the one that won him acclaim on BGT last year. After initially rolling his eyes, judge Simon Cowell gave him a standing ovation. At the time, Amanda noted: 'It just reminded me of good old fashioned entertainment. There is no other show on earth where you'd be able to play a hosepipe – perfect for Britain's Got Talent.' There was also a thumbs-up from fellow judge Alesha Dixon but Bruno Tonioli described Dennis's performance as a 'waste of wind'. Dennis advanced onto the following round and performed his routine on the famous London Palladium stage - but he failed to reach the show's semi-finals. Despite this, his crowd-pleasing performance at Pendine Park's Bryn Seiont care home in Caernarfon was definitely a Golden Buzzer moment. Among those to get out of her seat was Betty Driver, 87, a former professional dancer who often performed at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. 'That was a great show, I really enjoyed it,' she enthused. 'I couldn't help but get up and dance to some of the songs.' Dennis sang and played a selection of hits ranging from Frank Sinatra to Bobby Darin and Cliff Richard. He also performed a medley of wartime songs in preparation for VE Day in May. 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary' had a special meaning for Ethna Williams, originally from County Dublin, Ireland, who latterly lived near Holyhead. She said: 'It was lovely to hear him sing and especially when he came up to me (during the song) and held my hand.' Former police officer David Edwards, from Dolwyddelan, near Blaenau Ffestiniog, correctly identified the opening bars of 'Bring Me Sunshine', a song regularly sung by comic duo Morecambe and Wise on their TV shows. He then joined Dennis to recreate the dance Eric and Ernie did as they left the stage. 'I enjoyed Dennis' singing very much,' he said. 'He's got a very fine voice and he's a very talented musician.' Dennis, from Norfolk, rounded off his hour-long session with a stirring version of You'll Never Walk Alone. Now in his late-60s, Dennis joined the Scots Guards as a musician on leaving school and later became a teacher before becoming a full-time musician and entertainer. He said: 'I was teaching music at a school in Buckinghamshire and was asked to take a group to entertain at a care home. There was no one available so I went along and did it myself – and I've been visiting care homes ever since. 'My mother is now in her 90s and I know how much pleasure elderly people get from music. I enjoyed performing for the residents here in Caernarfon very much, they were a great audience.' Dennis said his BGT appearance last year had since given him new ideas for his act. 'Amanda Holden challenged me to play When the Saints Go Marching In and go faster and faster – and with other instruments,' he said. 'So I've prepared a backing track with the help of my son and added a watering can and a funnel to the others that I play. I'm hoping to develop a new show for the theatre and cruise ships market.' Nia Davies Williams is Bryn Seiont Newydd's musician in residence. She was blown away by the performance, saying it evoked happy musical memories for the residents. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox 'The effect of music is well known,' she said. 'It seems to linger longer even among those for whom a simple conversation seems to be very difficult. Having Dennis her to sing those old familiar songs from their earlier years does the residents the power of good.'
North Wales Chronicle
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- North Wales Chronicle
North Wales care home enjoys visit from former BGT contestant
Dennis Frere-Smith, who impressed judges on the ITV talent show, visited Bryn Seiont care home in Caernarfon to entertain residents. He started his performance with a rendition of When the Saints Go Marching In on the trumpet, before dancing with some of the residents. Residents Barbara Kealy, Hefina Williams, Kathleen Taylor, and Sylvia Webb all enjoying the performance (Image: Mandy Jones) Dennis then swapped his trumpet for a teapot, a garden hose, and a shower head, to play music for the residents. The performance was the same one that wowed the judges on Britain's Got Talent last year. Amanda Holden said at the time: "It just reminded me of good old-fashioned entertainment. "There is no other show on earth where you'd be able to play a hosepipe – perfect for Britain's Got Talent. "I'm going to kick this off with a yes." Dennis Frere-Smith playing a tune with the shower hose (Image: Mandy Jones) Simon Cowell added: "I'm definitely saying yes." There was also a thumbs up from fellow judge Alesha Dixon but Bruno Tonioli described Dennis's performance as a "waste of wind". He advanced onto the following round and performed his routine on the famous London Palladium stage but failed to reach the semi-finals of the show. But it was definitely a Golden Buzzer moment for the residents and staff of Bryn Seiont Newydd who hailed Dennis as a "musical maestro". Resident Betty Driver gets out of her chair to dance and sing, watched by Audrey Phillips (Image: Mandy Jones) Betty Driver, 87, said: "That was a great show, I really enjoyed it. "I couldn't help but get up and dance to some of the songs." Dennis also sang a medley of wartime songs in preparation for VE Day in May. Ethna Williams, who is originally from County Dublin, Ireland, said: "It was lovely to hear him sing and especially when he came up to me (during the song) and held my hand." Dennis Frere-Smith plays a tune with the tea pot (Image: Mandy Jones) Former police officer David Edwards, from Dolwyddelan near Blaenau Ffestiniog, said: "I enjoyed Dennis' singing very much, he's got a very fine voice and a very talented musician." Dennis, who hails from Norfolk, was visiting North Wales when he called into Bryn Seiont Newydd. Read more: Couple one step away from winning 'dream' Eryri farm! He said: "I love performing as a solo musician and an entertainer in many different settings and enjoy giving happiness to other people in the process. "My mother is now in her 90s and I know how much pleasure elderly people get from music. "I enjoyed performing for the residents here in Caernarfon very much, they were a great audience."
Japan Times
22-04-2025
- Sport
- Japan Times
A soccer field can be sacred
The green of a soccer field is not a precise shade. It is too vivid to be olive, too dark to be mint, too full to be emerald, too verdant to be sea. Nor is it constant. It sparkles in sunlight, glistens in rain, grows somber under clouds. At night, illuminated by the megawatt glare of floodlights, the color is so rich that it almost glows. Its effect, though, never changes, never wanes. I thought this not long ago when I found myself walking, chin buried against the wind, to St. James' Park. That walk is one of English soccer's great pilgrimages. Unlike most stadiums, St. James' is neither hidden away on some bleak retail park on the fringes of a town nor tucked into a neighborhood, fenced in by neat rows of red brick terraced houses. Instead, it sits right in the heart of Newcastle, nestled in England's northeast corner. The stadium is elevated just a little over the city center, enough to dominate the skyline, to serve as both a symbol and a sentinel. On game day, as thousands of fans, all clad in Newcastle's black-and-white jerseys, stream in its general direction, it feels as if it occupies the space where, ordinarily, a cathedral might be. It can be easy to overlook its majesty. I had spent the day on another assignment, in the wild Northumbrian countryside, trying to piece together the mystery of who might murder a tree. The traffic had been terrible. I was late. It was cold, and raining, because it is always raining. Besides, St. James' Park has long been familiar. It is a place, through work, that I have been dozens of times. The walk to St. James' Park is one of English soccer's great pilgrimages. On game day, thousands of fans, all clad in Newcastle's black-and-white jerseys, stream in the stadium's general direction. | Reuters But once I battled my way through a thicket of fans and rushed inside, I saw the green of the field, lush and pristine, brilliant in the halogen light. That green is too elusive to have a name. But the feeling it produces is constant. For millions around the world, it is something approaching sacred. No matter where the field is, no matter whom it belongs to, it is anticipation and thrill and hope, but it is also familiarity, and comfort, and belonging. That soccer has always presented itself as akin to religion is obvious from the language of the sport. Faith is the metaphor of first resort: The game's great stadiums are cathedrals, breakout stars are revelations and established ones are icons. Its chants, no matter how profane, are songs of praise, hymns sung by a choir of worshippers. A number of widespread fan chants — "When the Saints Go Marching In,' for example — are borrowed from Christian tradition. It has its relics — major trophies, famously, are supposed to be touched only by those who have won them — its martyrs, its saints and its sacred spaces. Generally, only players and essential staff members are allowed in dressing rooms. Visionary English manager Vic Buckingham once told one of his players not to walk on the field except on game day: The turf, he said, was "inviolate.' (As the story goes, his response, sincerely: "No, it's not, it's in green.') Players, managers, executives and, in particular, fans spend a considerable amount of time fretting over the state of the game's soul, threatened as it is by rampant commercialization and its long-standing litany of sins: diving, playacting, spitting. Sometimes, the subtlety of allegory is abandoned and that parallel is made more explicit. A banner at Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United Football Club, reads "MUFC The Religion.' There is a statue outside the stadium of stars George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton, inscribed with the words "The United Trinity.' The temptation, of course, is to dismiss this as mere pomposity, a gauge of soccer's colossal self-regard. But the parallel is rooted in something concrete. Like faith, soccer requires devotion: the devotion to follow a team around a country, around a continent; the devotion to wake early, thousands of miles away, to see it play; the devotion to believe that this year, everything will be different, everything will be fine. While a banner at Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United, reads "MUFC The Religion,' a statue of stars George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton stands outside the stadium, inscribed with the words "The United Trinity.' | Reuters Like religion, soccer asks that its adherents learn their scriptures, the myths and the legends that are passed down from one generation to the next; it offers a holistic worldview, in which all events are parsed through a specific lens of belief. Like the religiously zealous, people subsume themselves in their fandom. Social media is awash with accounts where the bio has the name of only a team or, increasingly, an individual player. Asked to distill the essence of their lives into a staccato sentence, a surprising proportion of the human population will come up with something like: "Husband, father, Arsenal, not necessarily in that order.' Fans submit, but soccer provides. Teams give their adherents, no matter where they are in the world, a sense of identity and community. Something bigger than themselves. Something that can transcend obsolescence. For decades, the BBC has broadcast the results of Saturday's games, not just in the Premier League but down to the sixth tier of English soccer, as well as fixtures in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. For many of the hundreds of places that warrant mention, no matter how briefly — Halifax and Yeovil and Arbroath and Haverfordwest — it will be the only time their names are spoken aloud by the national media that week, the only time the rest of the country considers their existence. This matters. As society has grown both more fluid and more atomized, most of the building blocks of participatory civic life have crumbled. Unions are struggling. Politics has become nationalized, and more polarized. Community spaces — libraries, leisure centers, working men's clubs — have diminished. The industries around which so many towns were built have decayed, and with them the sense of pride of place and unified purpose that factories brought. Even television, music and film have fractured, shattered into a million pieces by the rise of on-demand content and streaming. Soccer, and almost soccer alone, has proved not only resistant but ideally suited to thrive in this hostile environment. It is, now, a sort of cultural Esperanto, a pastime and passion to be shared not just with friends but strangers in Nigeria and Malaysia and Japan. It's a shared language, one that can be immediately understood, instantly shared, anywhere in the world. That's why people seek it out. They travel around the world to chase that feeling — of belief and belonging. It has become, for millions, the principal source of identity, a claim to membership of a community. They brave the rain and show up, searching for the enduring wonder and comfort that come from that imprecise, ineffable shade of green. This article originally appeared in The New York Times © 2025 The New York Times Company
Boston Globe
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Hats off to Moonbox's stirring ‘Crowns'
Kaedon Gray and Janelle Grace in "Crowns." Chelcy Garrett The narrative is slender — and, truth be told, sometimes disappears altogether. But the story being told is rich and deep, extending back to Africa, to the Middle Passage, to 2½ centuries of slavery in America, and to the vital, sustaining role of song through it all. Advertisement Mother Shaw (Mildred E. Walker), one of the congregants at the church where 'Crowns' takes place, traces the historical roots of flamboyant hats, saying: 'Church was the only place slaves were allowed to congregate. And after slavery there were 'Whites Only' signs everywhere. So if you had something you wanted to show off and be in style, you'd wear it to church.' Advertisement Mildred E. Walker and Mirrorajah in "Crowns." Chelcy Garrett At the center of 'Crowns' is a young woman named Yolanda, played by Mirrorajah. Originally from Brooklyn, Yolanda has been sent down South to live with her grandmother after her brother was killed. Yolanda's hat of choice is a ballcap, worn backward or to the side. At first, she rolls her eyes and sneers 'Head rags' as the assembled church congregants speak about the transformative power of hats and of gospel song — and then proceed to demonstrate that power. They speak, too, of how gospel song can be an accessory to flirtation, or a prod to remembrance, or glue for a family. Making that case, along with Mother Shaw, are Mabel (Cortlandt Barrett), Jeanette (Janelle Grace), Velma (Lovely Hoffman), Wanda (Cheryl D. Singleton), and a character identified only as Man (Kaedon Gray). Costume designer E Rosser should also be considered one of the stars of this 'Crowns,' having attired the seven-member cast in a spectacular array of broad-brimmed hats and outfits that are bursting with color. Key contributions come also from conductor David Freeman Coleman, on the keyboard, and Brandon Mayes, on drums. 'Crowns' features two dozen musical numbers, most of them traditional gospel songs, but extending to jazz, blues, and hip-hop, including 'In the Morning,' 'When the Saints Go Marching In,' 'Mary, Don't You Weep,' 'Marching to Zion,' 'Take Me to the Water,' 'I'm Gonna Roll On,' 'Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around,' and, of course, 'I Got a Crown.' 'Crowns' is the sixth Advertisement Within that space, a line from 'His Eye Is on the Sparrow' is particularly resonant: 'I sing because I'm happy/ I sing because I'm free.' CROWNS Play by Regina Taylor. Adapted from the book by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry. Directed by Regine Vital. Music directed by David Coleman. Associate directed by Davron Monroe. Presented by Moonbox Productions. At Arrow Street Arts, Cambridge. Through May 4. Tickets $55. At Don Aucoin can be reached at
