Category Archives: Entertainment

Cheltenham Festival Announces Preview Evening

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Cheltenham Festival announces preview evening

Horse racing fans are set to gather in their droves next year to attend a special preview evening in honour of the upcoming Cheltenham Festival.The event will take place at the Elland Road Football Stadium in Leeds on 4th March 2015, six days before the festivities begin at Cheltenham Racecourse.

 

Last year’s event was the first of its kind for the 155-year-old festival, but went down a huge success with more than 700 in attendance. The evening was attended by a panel of horse racing pundits including world class jockey Jason Maguire, Sky Sports news expert Alex Hammond and Racing UK’s Mark Howard, Donn McClean and Niall Hannity.

 

“The preview evening this March was a huge success and all parties were very keen to get the date in the diary again,” said Sky Bet Racing PR Manager Michael Shinners. “We’ll be confirming the panel in the build-up but it will be another great night for any racing fan, or someone who likes a bet at the Cheltenham Festival.”

 

Indeed, the betting element of the evening will be one of its biggest attractions – with more than £250 million expected to be spent at this year’s Cheltenham Festival. Added to that, the evening will also feature an extensive preview of each day of racing at the three-day festival, as well as video interviews with racing trainers and a buffet supper.

 

Having taken place since 1860, the Cheltenham Festival brings together some of the most prestigious racers from around the world, culminating in the famed Cheltenham Gold Cup race, which takes place next year on 13th March. Friday 13th may be unlucky for some, but for the winning jockey, there is a huge £550,000 prize at stake.

 

One jockey who will be gunning for the prize is Ruby Walsh, who has had outstanding success at the events in previous years. This famed star has won the coveted ‘top jockey’ prize – one which is awarded to the jockey with the most wins over the course of the festival – eight times in the last century.

 

Other exciting moments that spectators will be keen to keep an eye out for will be the performance of Balthazar King, as trained by PJ Hobbs. The 10-year-old Bay Gelding is already hitting headlines with his upcoming performance at the Cheltenham Open, and given his experience at the course in Prestbury Park, should impress once again in March.

 

The Cheltenham Festival may be five months away, but with a preview evening to get fans even more excited, the 155th anniversary could just be the best festival yet.

 

 

 

PlayStation 4 One Year On – The Good, The Bad and The Downright Ugly

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Happy Birthday Desktop BackgroundYes indeed, the PlayStation 4 celebrates its first year’s birthday this week. But one year on has it managed to live up to the hype or has it even earned the title of a ‘next generation’ console? I, along with many other gamers are not truly convinced. I am going to attempt to give a rundown of this much anticipated games machine with my overview of the past year.

The Good:

The Sales – Few can argue with the PS4’s sales. We might as well say that it was a two horsed race; the Nintendo Wii U was never going to stand a chance to begin with so the only other ‘real’ challenger was going to be Microsoft’s Xbox One console, which despite having what some would say were better release day titles thanks to some momentous delays from the Sony camp and the fact the PS4 machine was released some 8 weeks later than the Xbox One, the sales of the Playstation 4 still kicked ass month after month in terms of the numbers of the machine which were ‘reportedly’ flying off the shelves. Now before the Xbox fan boys start blowing up my phone, I’d like to say of course we all know statistics can and are often fiddled but one year on and one thing is evident, the accountants of Sony are very happy as sales of the PS4 continue to trump the opposition from all corners.

The Graphics – Now I’m going to say the graphics of the PS4 aren’t as earth shattering as the original expo’s made out, (see the ‘Bad’ section below) and there appears to be less of a ‘step up’ in terms of graphics between the last and this generation, but one thing is for sure, PS4 runs faster and smoother for practically every game than its counterparts and that includes all but the most powered up PCs.

PS Plus – One of the finest things about the PS4 which many owners have reported is that it encourages them to take advantage of the PSN and PS Plus network. With the PS3 this deemed largely ‘non-essential’ but with the PS4 it is a no-brainer. Why? Well, being a PS Plus member provides numerous benefits particularly if you own more than one Sony Machine for example the PS3, PS Vita or both. If you are a member every month you can download ‘for free’ 3 titles for each machine on your ID. Far from being the crap games no one wants to play some of the games have been pretty huge. For example, over the past year titles offered have included Crysis 3, Bio-Hazard Inifinte and even Uncharted 3. With the early release of the machines you had a free one month’s subscription so you could try it out and I have to admit, I even thought about purchasing the PS Vita as I would have had a complete games collection by now. The PS Plus PS4 freebie games have not been that great if I am honest, but if the servers had not gone down last month PS Plus members would have had a cut down version of Drive-Club.  No, I’m not kidding you.

Nice Hardware Touches – If you look at the PS4, there are some really nice innovative touches which show that the architects truly thought about what they were doing. If you put the PS3 and PS4 controllers side by side for example you can’t help but notice so much has just been chopped off the latest iteration, yet it still feels natural in your hand. The touchpad strikes you as a bit of a weird concept at first but in use increases immersion in the games as does the miniature speaker in the centre of the controller; as you play the game shots ring out, radio crackles or ghostly voices echo in the palm of your hand. Different but very nice indeed.

Share Play, Remote Play and Playstation TV – This is yet to truly surface but if Sony pull these off (and internet speeds continue to rise) what we will have will be incredible. I tried out the Share Play option a few weeks ago. You need a PSN account to do it but it means you can ‘share your game’ with people who don’t even have the title. By pressing a button you can ‘hand over’ your joypad and your friend can take over, thus helping you get through a tricky part of the game. Coupled with Voice chat this can be incredibly fun and with the time levelled at two hours before you have to start the whole process of ‘linking’ again, this could be the key to making games more social. This sounds great and it is, in practice though, my friend’s internet speed wasn’t as good as mine so although I could share with him, he could not share with me which was a shame. Remote Play too borrows a similar principle and allows the player to switch to another TV as long as their PS4 is on and they have has purchased the PlayStation TV box (around £80). Again in theory this is really exciting although it owes a great deal to internet speeds to whether there is noticeable or unplayable lag between the time you press the button and the time the character does their action. Racing games are when this really creates problems. The chances of most players having a fully LANed up house with high speeds in all rooms are probably quite small. A normal/high video quality option has been added, but come on who really wants to play a game in low resolution, those of you with ‘buffer faces’ may just switch the console off and wait until the guests have left.

The Bad

The Leap into this Generation – Now, I realise this is going to make me sound rather old but I remember the ‘birth’ of the last generation and that of the one before. I remember big releases such as Wipeout and Ridge Racer, games that really wowed the crowd in terms of graphics and sound revolutions. When the Wii was released and the Wii U they both had a modicum of ‘lets bring something new to the table’ type attitude. Now this is going to sound harsh, but this generation has been, well, rubbish in comparison. What do we have? A variation on the PlayStation Eye, is that all? What happened to the 3D games? What happened to Project Morpheus? The big release by Sony promised a big change to the way games were played – well that is yet to happen

The Quality of the Games – Despite the promise of what next generation hardware should ‘bring’ with it in terms of games, what we have had over the course of a year has largely been re-hashes of old titles brought up to date with new skins, better visuals and little else. Take some of the games releases of late such as Watch Dogs, Need for Speed Rivals and Wolfenstein and run them on the PS3 and PS4 and you will not see giant leaps of difference in terms of actual graphical quality. It has taken until Destiny and The Shadow of Mordor; games released nearly a year in to take advantage of even the basics of this generation’s hardware and both too were released on the PS3 – Shadow of Mordor in a few weeks’ time. There is just not a feeling of quality.

The Downright Ugly

Console Parity – One of the things to have surfaced of late within the gaming industry is console parity. It is purposefully underutilizing the available technology and power in a superior console so that a game looks and plays the same on inferior competing consoles.

When was the first time I became aware of this? When Watch Dogs was being hyped the night of the PS4 release and then it later emerged that it was running on a suped up PC, a version which never actually made it to the market. Why would developers do this? Well, to maintain a balance between versions; a balance by the way, that has never been actually requested by gamers or console makers.

It’s ugly because it really is an insult to gamers who invested cash on their console or PC, buying the machine hoping it would give you the best quality of games out there. In terms of the PS4 everyone knows it is a more powerful machine than the Xbox; developers have even bragged about it, yet the common practice seems to be to use the powers of the limited competing console, namely the Xbox One and base that as the ‘standard’.  Now, some are saying that there have been ‘financial incentives’ for the developers to dumb down the PS4 and PC versions of games, others are saying that the developers are lazy, others have gone further by saying that if developers don’t do this then Microsoft have threatened to remove a games licence all together. For me this is just ugly, it’s monopolising the market as it means we are not truly in a next generation of gaming unless either Sony or Microsoft develops a title ‘in house’ where they can effectively ‘take the brakes off’.  Overall it is very, very worrying and it makes you wonder what else do we not know about.

Playmobil Advent Calendar Santa’s Workshop Review | Christmas Gift Guide

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Playmobil Advent Calendar Santa’s Workshop is a great gift for children. The play scene is built up and complete after 24 days. More permanent and healthier than chocolate, it provides a good amount of entertainment for any little ones in your life.

The Playmobil Santa’s Workshop Advent Calendar has 24 boxes for kids to excitedly count down to Christmas. As each box is opened it creates a wonderful scene, with Father Christmas and his elves helping to load the sleigh with toys, pulled by his trusty reindeer. The set also comes complete with a matching pairs card game for your little one to enjoy.

Suitable for ages 4-10 years.

Playmobil Advent Calendar Santa's Workshop Review | Christmas Gift Guide

Available from Boots.com, tesco.com and Amazon.co.uk

 

 

Scottish Music Awards Take Centre Stage In Glasgow

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Shirley MansonAfter an incredible year of major international events in Glasgow, including the MTV EMA, the Scottish Music Awards will round off 2014’s year long celebration of sport and culture in the city on Saturday November 29th at the Old Fruitmarket.

Held annually by the charity Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy in Scotland, the exciting ceremony is their main source of funding, and promises its usual mix of inspirational and moving recognition for the vitally important work the charity delivers across the country, presented alongside performances and the coveted Tartan Clef awards for some of Scotland’s top musicians.

Previous years have seen Scottish favourites Twin Atlantic, Camera Obscura, Mogwai, Biffy Clyro, Deacon Blue, Barbara Dickson, songwriter John Reid, Emeli Sandé and Paolo Nutini honoured for their work among others; and stand out live performances from Edinburgh born pop star Nina Nesbitt, and a rare performance from Shirley Manson and Martin Metcalfe who were reunited on stage for the first time in 20 years at 2013’s event.

Since its debut in 2011, the PEOPLE MAKE GLASGOW Special Recognition Award has also shone a sparkling spotlight on the charity’s heroes from Howford school head teacher Karen Mathieson to violinist Nicola Benedetti.  Councillor Gordon Matheson, Leader of Glasgow City Council and Chair of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, will present the award on the night.

Nordoff Robbins Scotland uses the power of music to improve the lives of over 400 children and adults isolated by disability, trauma or illness every week.

The charity needs £600,000 each year to operate, with every note raised in Scotland, staying in Scotland.  The charity is grounded in the belief that everyone can respond to music, no matter how ill or disabled. The unique qualities of music as therapy can enhance communication, support change, and enable people to live more resourcefully and creatively.

Music therapy represents a relatively new force in contemporary music which has established roots all over the globe over the past few decades. The Nordoff Robbins approach has played a pivotal role in this development.

It is named after its co-creators, Clive Robbins and Paul Nordoff who teamed up in 1959. Clive was a British special needs teacher Scottish Music Awards Take Centre Stage In Glasgowwand Paul was an American composer. Through musical improvisation, they pioneered an extraordinary new way of reaching and engaging children who had additional support needs.

In the 1960s and 70s they toured many parts of the world demonstrating their work, leaving groups of followers wherever they went. After Nordoff’s death in 1977, Robbins continued to champion the cause of music therapy, maintaining an active practice, teaching and lecturing until he was well into his 80s. He died in 2011, having inspired and captivated audiences worldwide with his life-transforming work in music.

Celebrating 18 years of Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy in Scotland, November 29th 2014 will see some of Scotland’s top musicians; media and music industry join forces to raise awareness of and money for the charity with raffle and auctions donated from businesses across the country – for a full list of donations please click here. 

Glasgow has a worldwide reputation for producing and launching some of the world’s greatest musicians from Oasis’ now legendary performance at King Tut’s to previous award winners Edwyn Collins of Orange Juice, Wet Wet Wet and Sharleen Spiteri of Texas to name but a few. The Award’s home city is regarded by Time Magazine as “Europe’s Secret Capital of Music”, with the city hosting on average 130 music events every week (more than any other Scottish city), which generate millions for the city’s economy each year.

The Scottish Music Awards is a celebration of the massive strength, and huge diversity, of Scotland’s internationally successful and renowned music industry.

For more information on Scotland’s only music therapy charity please visit

www.nordoffrobbinsscotland.org.uk or to make a donation please visit http://www.justgiving.com/nrmt or call 01506 239578.

Keep up to date at www.facebook.com/nordoffrobbinsscotland and on Twitter at @NRScot

Text MMCL14 to 70070 to donate anything up to £10

 

 

 

Hit TV Shows Spark Baby Name Boom

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There’s no doubt that TV has a massive impact on our culture. It affects the music we listen to, it can change our ideas of what we may perceive as what is right or wrong, it influences how we dress and can even change our attitudes towards certain issues.  There is no greater testament to the power of TV however, than its ability to dictate how parents’ name their children.

Of course, TV isn’t unique in this sense but the prevalence of blockbuster TV shows such as Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and True Blood mean that TV is now right up there with movies and celebrity culture when it comes to influencing parents’ naming choices..

With is in mind, below are some of the biggest shows that have influenced baby names over the last few years.

game-of-thrones

Game of Thrones 

The hugely popular HBO series has captured the public’s imagination like nothing else that’s currently on television. Its mix of fantasy, drama and violence which makes it a unique offering and given its popularity, it’s no surprise that there have been a growing number of babies named after its main characters.

Tyrion and Theon both made it onto the 2013 list of baby names. Apparently the names were given to 3 or more boys, with 6 Tyrions and 11 Theons making the list. Whilst relatively speaking these are quite small numbers, given how obscure these names are, it’s very difficult to deny the influence due to the popularity of Game of Thrones.

It’s not just boys’ names that the show has affected though. In 2011, Arya was 711th in the top 1000 baby names in the US. The following year however, it jumped all the way up to 413th, representing a huge leap in popularity.  The name is similarly popular in the UK, with 187 girls named Arya in 2013. There were also 50 baby girls named Khaleesi last year, the same number of babies named Peggy. The popularity of the name is doubtless inspired by the character of Daenerys Targaryen.

The fantasy epic wrapped up its fourth season this year and with the fifth soon to follow, there’s no doubt that it will continue to have an impact on how parents name their babies over the coming years.

breaking bad

Breaking Bad 

Coming to a close last year, Breaking Bad enjoyed both great critical acclaim and immense popularity with audiences around the world. Whilst it had a cult following for its first few seasons, the more intense the show became, the more people loved it and by the time it reached its fifth and final season it had become a phenomenon.

As you would expect, the names Walter and Skyler have both seen surges in popularity thanks to the  show. Last year there were 58 boys named Walter and 72 girls named Skyler. The fact that Walter would previously have been considered to be a fairly old-fashioned name shows how much a TV show can change peoples’ perceptions in regards to names.

How much influence does TV have? 

Whilst TV shows certainly have an impact on how parents name their children, it’s important not to overstate the influence it has. If you look at the most popular names for both boys and girls it’s clear that in general, parents stick with safe and traditionally popular names, regardless of how trendy a certain name might be at any one time.

It’s no surprise when you think about it – Just because a particular name might be in vogue at the moment, doesn’t mean that will always be the case. Names that are particularly obscure often put parents off. Of course there are also some parents who take the opposite approach however and feel that giving their child a unique name will help them to stand out. These parents are usually the ones who are most likely to give their children offbeat names that are inspired by popular TV shows such as Game of Thrones.

It’s also worth mentioning that it’s sometimes hard to quantify how much of an influence TV shows have, especially when it comes to common names that are generally popular anyway. However as can be seen by the evidence here there really are clear cases where the surge in popularity of a name is down to the influence of a TV show.

 

 

 

Only 2% of Britons Know How Rich They Really Are

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moneyWe are not sure if you saw Channel 4’s How Rich Are You Show last night but it was interesting. Take the quiz and find out how rich or poor you are below. The poll is also an eye-opener.

In a new poll commissioned by Channel 4, people in the UK were asked to guess how their income compared with the rest of the country’s, and then answer a series of questions to calculate the true result. Only 2% of the people surveyed guessed correctly.

The poll was commissioned to accompany How Rich Are You (1 x60) which airs at 8pm on the 10th November. Presented by Richard Bacon, this one-off special will show each of us where we stand in the great money map of Britain – and what that position means. With the help of leading experts, a studio audience and individual case studies, the show builds up a shocking and surprising portrait of the country that is now – officially – the most unequal in Europe.

Alongside the programme, the channel has launched a website app which will enable every viewer to take the ‘How Rich Are You’ test at home. Visitors to channel4.com/howrichareyou can answer a set of simple questions to determine if they are as rich or as poor as they think they are. The data for the app has been provided by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

As many as 67% of the people surveyed underestimated their income compared by more than 10%, indicating a serious lack of understanding as to the economic state of the nation. Only 7% of people overestimated their income compared to the UK – but nobody overestimated by more than 10%. Just 2% correctly estimated their level of income vs the UK population.

The survey reveals that despite the struggles of the current economic climate, 75% of adults say that they manage financially, with 16% stating they struggle to get by.

Despite this there is still a bleak picture of life in 2014, as 61% feel that life in Britain has worsened over the last 20 years. Just 13% feel that life has improved.

The survey shed light on our embarrassment at talking about money. It revealed that 31% of adults surveyed would not be happy to discuss how much money they earn with family and friends, while 19% are not sure how they feel about it.

Interestingly, it is younger people who are more willing to discuss finances, with 60% of those aged 16-24 happy to talk about how much money they make.

When asked about inequality across the UK, the majority of adults (84%) think that the wealthy should pay higher taxes.

Those that feel they have enough money in their household (rating themselves as ‘well off’) feel less strongly on this matter, but still display strong agreement at 73%.

The survey also asked people about average salaries of other professions including a nurse, MP, care worker and average CEO. The results were fascinating with 70% of people overestimating the salaries of a CEO and more than half overestimating the salaries of an MP.

  • An average Nurse in the UK earns just over £26,000. Half of the adults that we spoke to correctly chose this amount, a quarter over estimated how much they earn, while a further quarter under-estimated their wage. Interestingly, those who were struggling in their household underestimated a nurse’s wage the most, while those that were well off overestimated their wage the most.
  • Just 27% of adults correctly knew an MPs current wage of £66,400, while a further 31% thought that MPs were on their soon to be higher wage of £72,000. A further 26% thought that they were paid nearly £20,000 more than their current wage.
  • An average care worker in the UK earns just under £13,000, 42% of adults correctly chose their wage. 50% thought that their earnings were at least 30% higher.
  • An average CEO in the UK earns an annual income of just under £118,000. Just 13% of the adults we spoke to correctly picked this amount, the majority (70%) thought their wage was significantly higher.

Dr Fazia Shaheen, Economist and expert on How Rich Are You? commented: “These numbers serve as a reminder of how little we understand about each other’s lives. We are failing to see the bigger picture – too busy trying to get by on our own wages to notice the growing gap between the very rich and the rest of us.”

John Hay, Commissioning Editor for Channel 4 commented: ““I’m convinced that years from now we will look back on the growing gap between rich and poor as the most significant issue of our age, and I think there’s a real hunger to understand it better (as well as to find out how much our neighbours earn). Richard and the team at Electric Ray have a gift for making important television that doesn’t feel like homework, so I hope this will be both revelatory and addictive viewing.”

Take the quiz here.