Co-host of Frank Skinner’s Absolute Radio show dies from injuries sustained in car crash in late March
Comedians across the UK have paid tribute to the comic Gareth Richards, who has died aged 41 from injuries sustained in a car crash on the M25 last month.
Richards’ wife, Laura, said in a statement on Saturday: “It is with great sadness that I have to share that Gareth passed away on Friday 7 April (Good Friday) at 6.30pm.
Continue reading...Avengers actor apologises to family for snowplough accident that left him close to death
The Oscar-nominated actor Jeremy Renner has said he was at fault in a New Year’s Day snowplough accident that left him close to death and apologised to his family for putting them through the ordeal.
Renner, in an interview on Walt Disney Co’s ABC network on Thursday, said he was driving the snowplough after using it to pull one of the family’s trucks out of the snow.
Continue reading...Photography space that inspired Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall launches fundraising campaign with aim of reopening in 2024
A small and much-loved photography gallery that has punched well above its size for more than 45 years will close this weekend because of funding cuts and cost-of-living pressures.
The Side Gallery, near the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle, was opened in 1977 by a collective championing positive images of working-class life.
Continue reading...CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere convicted over tweet as Zanu-PF accused of curbing free speech
One of Zimbabwe’s most vocal opposition politicians, Fadzayi Mahere, has narrowly avoided a prison sentence after being convicted of “communicating falsehoods” in 2021.
The verdict has stoked fears of a brutal state clampdown on freedom of expression before this summer’s general election.
Continue reading...Metal used for west African artworks was acquired from manilla bracelets, the grim currency of the slave trade
Scientists have discovered that some of the Benin bronzes were made with brass mined thousands of miles away in the German Rhineland.
The Edo people in the Kingdom of Benin, modern Nigeria, created their extraordinary sculptures with melted down brass manilla bracelets, the grim currency of the transatlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries.
Continue reading...Opponents say memoir The Courage to be Free, published in February, violates law governor signed last year
Democrats in Florida are attempting to use a state law that censors books in public schools against the governor who signed it, Ron DeSantis, by asking schools to review or ban the Republican governor’s own book, The Courage to be Free.
“The very trap he set for others is the one that he set for himself,” Fentrice Driskell, the Democratic minority leader in the Florida state house, told the Daily Beast.
Continue reading...In speech to Bafta, Chariots of Fire producer says industry must invest ‘far more’ to close yawning skills gap
The Oscar-winning producer David Puttnam has issued a rallying cry to the film industry to address its yawning skills gap and grow audiences before the UK is eclipsed as a cinematic powerhouse.
In a speech to Bafta on Tuesday, Puttnam – the president of the Film Distributors’ Association (FDA) and a former peer – urged the industry to “invest far more” in its workforce to retain international competitiveness.
Continue reading...Jimin’s single Like Crazy is the 66th track ever to debut at the peak of the Hot 100 chart, and the first by a South Korean solo artist
Jimin, a member of the K-pop supergroup BTS, has made history as the first South Korean solo artist to land the No 1 spot on the top US songs chart, Billboard announced on Monday.
The single, Like Crazy, debuted at No 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 this week, bumping Miley Cyrus’s track Flowers out of the top spot, where it had reigned for eight weeks.
Continue reading...Novelist compares UK to Hungary in Radio Times interview, while Ken Bruce criticises handling of Radio 2 exit
The BBC is “under threat, politically,” the novelist Ian McEwan has said, as he compared sections of the Conservative party to the populist right in Hungary.
The author of Amsterdam, On Chesil Beach and Atonement recently collaborated with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for an evening of words and music at the Barbican. The event came as the BBC’s classical music performing groups faced “catastrophic” cuts, and the corporation’s high-profile presenters including Gary Lineker clashed with the government over its policies.
Continue reading...Apo Whang-Od appears on front of Philippine edition and is credited with keeping batok form of art alive
An Indigenous tattooist in the Philippines credited with helping to keep alive a form of the art known as batok has become the oldest Vogue cover star after appearing in the Philippine edition of the magazine at the age of 106.
Apo Whang-Od, who is from Buscalan, a remote, mountainous village in the Kalinga province of the northern Philippines, began tattooing at 16. Once described as the last remaining mambabatok, or traditional Kalinga tattooist, she has since inspired a new generation to learn batok, said Vogue. Batok involves tapping the tattoo into the skin by hand, using a thorn, which is dipped in soot and natural dye, and is attached to a bamboo stick.
Continue reading...Sakamoto was one of Japan’s most successful musicians, acclaimed for work in Yellow Magic Orchestra as well as solo albums and film scores
Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Japanese musician whose remarkably eclectic career straddled pop, experimentalism and Oscar-winning film composition, has died aged 71.
Sakamoto’s management company said he died on Tuesday. He had been undergoing treatment for cancer.
Continue reading...Comedian broke down in tears live on air as he told listeners his friend was involved in serious road accident
Frank Skinner told listeners to his Saturday radio show that his friend and former co-host Gareth Richards is fighting for his life after a car crash.
The 66-year-old comedian and broadcaster broke down in tears as he revealed that Richards was in a “very big road accident” on Monday.
Continue reading...Artists open centre in area of east London where they have lived and worked for decades
Every creative person yearns for a room of their own. But for the stars of Britain’s contemporary art world, it seems that now only a venue of their own will do. Last weekend it was Tracey Emin in Margate; on Saturday morning it was the turn of the veteran duo Gilbert and George.
“It is very exciting to see so many people,” said George Passmore, 81, after the gates swung wide at 10am to let in an orderly queue of first visitors. “Most amusing,” added his lifelong collaborator – and, since 2008, civil partner – Gilbert Prousch, 79. “They will all keep coming along, we hope.”
Continue reading...Theatres such as now-closed Oldham Coliseum vital for northern working-class people, says actor
Christopher Eccleston has said it would be impossible for him to become an actor in today’s world, in an impassioned interview after the closure of Oldham’s Coliseum theatre.
The British actor spoke about how the closure of the historic theatre would affect the acting community and people from working-class backgrounds.
Continue reading...Dave Halls given six-month suspended sentence after pleading no contest to gun charge as part of agreement with prosecutors
A Santa Fe judge on Friday accepted a plea deal, bringing the first conviction for the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during filming of the western movie Rust in New Mexico.
Dave Halls, first assistant director on Rust, pleaded no contest as part of an agreement with prosecutors to the misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon for his role in Hutchins’ death.
Continue reading...The annual event, which faced years of Covid disruption, will not return in 2023
E3, the video game industry’s biggest annual expo, has been cancelled.
The show had been due to make a return after years of Covid-19 disruption this June in Los Angeles, but in a joint statement, the US’s Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and events company Reedpop announced it would no longer be going ahead.
Continue reading...The were gasps in the crowd as a cult indie shooter beat the blockbusters to the key award of the night
It must be one of the biggest shock wins in the history of the Bafta Games Awards. Up against huge blockbuster titles such as Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarök, the best game winner at this year’s ceremony, which took place on Thursday evening, was Vampire Survivors, a shoot-’em-up largely developed by lone coder Luca Galante.
There were gasps in the crowd at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London when the title was read out, with Galante’s small team accepting the award on his behalf and looking shaken. The game, in which players attempt to survive as long as possible in an ever-changing landscape swarming with monsters, had earlier won the game design award.
Continue reading...Founded by two translators – one American, one British – the Salt initiative will provide mentorships, funding and a south Asia-focused literary translation school
A new project to help bring the “extraordinarily rich” literature of south Asia to English-speaking countries will launch this summer, it has been announced.
The cross-continental South Asian Literature in Translation (Salt) project has been set up by the University of Chicago, in partnership with the American Literary Translators Association, English PEN, Words Without Borders and the British Council. The multi-year project will try to “strengthen each part of the publishing chain across the English-speaking world”, the University of Chicago has said.
Continue reading...Songwriter behind psychedelic 1960s masterpiece A Whiter Shade of Pale had been receiving cancer treatment for two years
Keith Reid, the lyricist for Procol Harum whose poetic vision on Whiter Shade of Pale made it a defining song of the 1960s, has died aged 76.
He died in a London hospital, after receiving cancer treatment for two years. The band paid tribute to him on social media, writing: “His lyrics were one of a kind and helped to shape the music created by the band. His imaginative, surreal and multi-layered words were a joy to Procol fans and their complexity by design was a powerful addition the Procol Harum catalogue. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.”
Continue reading...Report says some depictions of violence in pornography should be allowed, with government to first tackle gambling in video games
Australia should ditch its censorship of certain fetishes and some instances of violence in pornography, according to a review that could open the way to everything from wax fetishes to pirate pornography.
On Wednesday the Albanese government released a review of the classification system handed to the Morrison government three years ago, promising to prioritise reforms to tackle in-game gambling.
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