We wish we didn’t care but we do. Here it is, the first peek at Kim Kardashian’s wedding dress, and we think it’s beautiful. She may be 33-years-old and on her third marriage, but that hasn’t stopped her going all-out again. Let’s just hope this one lasts. What do you think?
The Talks Release Radio | Music News
Their new single on All Our Own Records
Radio
Release Date: 30th June
Format: Digital Download
“There aren’t many bands that are good enough to catch the attention of members of The Specials, but then there aren’t many bands like The Talks. Proving that hard work, persistence and a pocket full of irresistibly catchy tunes can pay dividends” – Music radar
L-R: Jody Moore, Pat Pretorius, Iain Allen, Richard “Titch” Lovelock
It’s an exciting time for The Talks and the release of new single ‘Radio’ is only going to add to the buzz that surrounds this four piece from Hull. The band have built up a reputation across Europe for bouncing, blistering live shows supporting the likes of The Specials, Rancid, Madness, The Beat, King Blues and The Toasters.
Their 2012 single ‘Can Stand The Rain’ featured the legendary Neville Staple of The Specials and had over 55,000 views in its first week on YouTube. 2013 saw the release of their ‘West Sinister’ EP, which received fantastic reviews and airplay on both Ska and mainstream stations across Europe, leading to The Talks being invited to appear at a large number of festivals across the continent, including the famous Mighty Sounds Festival (CZ), Rebellion (UK), Galtres (UK) and This is Ska (DE).
The success of The Talks last single ‘Don’t look behind you’ has brought the band to an even bigger audience and with sellout shows and invites to play across more European festivals including Boomtown (UK), Sapi Festival (FR), Camden Rocks and Fusion Festival (DE) amongst many others.
Lead vocalist Pat says “it is amazing to see so many people showing up to the gigs and seeing such great reviews from the likes of Team Rock, Punk Archives and Louder than War to name a few. Truly makes us happy to know that driving miles and miles in the tour bus is worthwhile when we know people out there are digging it.”
Further proof that The Talks are on the receiving end of a huge amount of attention from all corners comes in the form of tweets praising the band from big hitters ‘Less Than Jake’, ‘Sonic Boom Six’ and Itch from King Blues; glowing reviews, front cover features and appearances on various UK TV networks.
The Talks highly anticipated debut album ‘Commoners, Piers, Drunks and Thieves’ is released later in the year.
CrimeFest 2014
This year’s CrimeFest happened last weekend, May 15-18 at the Bristol Royal Hotel. So, what’s CrimeFest? It’s the annual gathering for anyone who has any interest in reading, writing, or simply talking about (sometimes quite loudly over several drinks) that curious and bloody phenomenon: crime. Especially crime fiction, but there’s always room for true crime, too. Why go? You want to meet authors? Find out what they’re writing? Try to work out how people with such deviant imaginations can be really great company? These are all good reasons. Mark Billingham, one of Britain’s best-selling thriller writers was one of the featured authors this year. His books are spell-binding and disturbing – and he gave one of the funniest interviews I’ve had the pleasure of hearing. At the rather less dark end of the spectrum of crime-writing, Simon Brett was on top form as a speaker. There was also masses to learn about the Iceland Noir writing which has acquired such an enthusiastic following on UK TV – you could even have won a trip to the Iceland Noir convention in Reykjavik.
CrimeFest4 B Forshaw EUROCRIME Panel
The long weekend is full of difficult choices: should I go to the panel discussion on historical crime or does it clash with the one which asks Does a crime novel have to have something to say? The one that deals with the problem of When your character isn’t qualified to solve crimes, or What have old thrillers ever done for us? Choices, choices, choices. There was a quiz on the Thursday evening when we discovered just how competitive we all were – who said you couldn’t argue with the judge? Not us. The Gala Dinner on the Saturday, was a triumph of organisation and good food, which kept us all comfortable in our seats, happy to celebrate the award of prizes for humorous crime, for e-books and audio books, for works in translation and for Euro Crime. And afterwards you could linger at the bar ….
The joy of CrimeFest is that it doesn’t discriminate between readers, writers (wannabe or distinguished), publishers or agents, nor does anyone show the slightest sense of exclusivity. You can find yourself talking to a top author or an ardent fan. You can discover how the Alibi Channel’s crime dramas Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and The Murdoch Mysteries have developed from page to screen; or hear the husband and wife team which makes up the author Nicci French (Nicci Gerrard and Sean French) discuss how they combine their relationship with writing international best-selling psychological suspense.
CrimeFest5 Alison Joseph, Felix Francis, Susan Moody
Alas it’s all over for this year – but it will happen again next year. If you enjoy crime writing or reading, or just want a slightly different weekend with a lively mix of people, all of whom seem eager to talk to you (I think writing, or reading, about terrible events must make people appreciate the good things about real life) then you might want to think about giving it a try.
Penny Deacon
Photos: thanks to Ali Karim of Shots Magazine
Verdi Italian Kitchen At The Royal Albert Hall | Restaurant Review
Rather obviously, the first thing you take in when going to Verdi is the surroundings. As gorgeous and historical buildings go, it is hard to beat the Royal Albert Hall. You really do feel like you are dining in a piece of history.
We start off by ordering Mozzarella di bufala with Coppa: Salted, seasoned, dry cured thinly cut pork shoulder from the Mozzarella Bar, where you order either mozzarella di bufala or a burrata along with a side of your choice. I have the Gamberi Con Pancetta: Grilled pancetta wrapped prawns, rosemary, chargrilled lemon.
The prawns are sizzling when they arrive and of a decent size. They are meaty and the pancetta is smoky. It is well seasoned. It is a good starter. The mozzarella is soft and creamy. It has a beautiful texture but could do with more flavour. There is too much rocket and the pork is absolutely delicious but is a little stringy.
We also ordered some bread, which we would have liked to have been a little softer. It came with some good balsamic vinegar.
We also ordered some amazing cocktails: a Aperol Spritz: Aperol, Moët & Chandon, orange bitters, which not only tasted amazing, but also a little like Irn Bru, so perfect for the Scottish amongst us and an IL Verdi: Gin, sciroppo di fiori and pressed apple juice, which was delicious and refreshing.
The service was excellent throughout and the atmosphere was peaceful due to the fact we went in-between shows. For our mains we had Agnello Ripieno: Stuffed lamb breast, white beans, tomatoes, smoked pancetta, spinach, garlic, basil and a Gamberoni pizza: King prawns, asparagus, mushrooms, tomato, mozzarella. The lamb was soft and beautiful. It came in a nice sauce, the beans added texture but the stuffing was just a little bit too spicy. A good meal all in all.
For a side we had Patate Arrosto: Sea salt roast potatoes, sage, garlic. We were not overly impressed. They were okay but not roast potatoes as we expected. The pizza was superb. It had a thin and tasty dough and was just wonderful. The prawns were generous and the ingredients worked together amazingly well.
For dessert we have Tiramisu: Mascarpone, coffee soaked sponge,cocoa, coffee liqueur and I have some Gelato because I am full and mildly allergic to coffee. You get to choose three scoops and I choose chocolate hazelnut praline, natural mint and chocolate chip and lime. The tiramisu is excellent, with a thick layer of cocoa dust and a delicious liqueur soaked base. The gelato is equally as good and the portion is generous.
I would recommend Verdi for good food in a stunning location.
Verdi, Door 12, Royal Albert Hall
Kensington Gore,
London, SW7 2AP
Tel: 020 7070 4401
You can enjoy fantastic free live music on Fridays from 8:00pm played by popular jazz artists including favourites from Ronnie Scott’s and the 606 Club. Live music will also be performed on Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes. Full list of music dates and performers.
Open All Hours By John Adsetts
Who and what might I find in a supermarket at 3.0am in the morning?
Shift workers catching up on their shopping? Insomniacs? Smelly old men dressed in rags trying to keep warm? It had been a hard day but my cupboards were bare. I drove towards the temple of mammon. I felt discombobulated, foolish, embarrassed even and was glad to see the 24 hr petrol station. Somehow that seemed less ridiculous so I squeezed in a few litres and cast a glance towards the store. Do people really go shopping in the middle of the night?
Expecting to find a cathedral of silence with wide aisles and an absent congregation, I entered what looked like the inside of a monster ant hill. Everywhere were boxes, pallets, torn cardboard, damaged packages and an army of grim looking minimum wage slave shelf stackers. No room to move anywhere. No eye contact anywhere. I clutched my shopping list and moved toward the Baked beans. No chance of getting even close: Branston- ‘four for two pounds’ and Heinz ‘low salt and sugar’ blocked my way. The extravagantly moustachioed young man’s T-shirt read ‘Get a Life’ I think that must have been elsewhere in the store. Leaving Beans till later I looked for Baking powder. No obstructions here just a carpet of snow. An accident with flour awaiting a sweeping brush to happen by. I headed beyond the Lady Chapel where fish should have been piled upon an icy altar. A few chilly pre-packed kippers winked at me. The bananas huddled together in a corner. Bruised and lonely.
Feeling disoriented and confused I sat on a pallet of ‘value’ minestrone to take stock. In my fantastical haze, it seemed as if that the Rastafarian hovering around the alcohol section was going to drink his fill in the store on the basis of some misunderstanding of the shoplifting regulations. A small crowd of nuns must have nipped in after compline but before matins. How would they pay? Did God issue a debit or a credit card? A little old man and his wife were pushing a trolley laden with ready meals, and a parasol. Wake up! Get your stuff and go.
Back to Baked Beans, Baking powder and Bananas and then the exit. A green light indicated the one automatic check out counter available No actual operator was provided for those uninitiated in the art of bar codes. Swiping my goods across the glass panel, I watched for the correct sum to be recorded on the screen. Beans- fine. Baking powder- OK. Bananas- no weight recorded. Red light.
Pressing the ‘assistance’ button I waited and waited (and waited). No-one came. The ants still toiled in the aisles but none was interested. Something inside me snapped. I stepped away from the check out counter and carefully emptied my entire trolley into a large messy pile by ‘Customer Service’ and strode out to where the first streaks of light were creeping into the night sky
Ashton Kutcher, Kit Harington, Courteney Cox, Emma Stone Read Mean Tweets About Themselves
A group of celebrities have rea
d aloud mean tweets about themselves,and it is funny and sad at the same time. Jimmy Kimmel had a number of celebrities read out the tweets in his “Mean Tweets” segment on his show. Ashton Kutcher, Kit Harington, Courteney Cox, Emma Stone and Julia Roberts all joined in.
Mindy Kaling read out her mean tweet from @chipheuston94, “Mindy Kaling is not funny or attractive, she has an annoying voice and just plainly sucks…why does she have her own show.” and then quipped “I feel like this is more than 140 characters.”
Courteney Cox read out, “I hate Courteney Cox I f*cking hate her. P*ssy hoe” Courteney’s excellent response makes something horrible funny, “That’s sweet.”
What do you think? Would you read mean tweets about yourself?
Scarlet Starlings | Music Profile
Album released June 1st 2014 Unsigned. Independent release.
Scarlet Starlings are a London-based folk rock band made up of cousins, siblings and significant others. They grew up listening to their large musical family playing jangly folk music like Fairport Convention, Crosby, Stills & Nash and The McGarrigles. Granny Maisie, the family matriarch, taught each of them how to play on an old Takamine guitar held together by a piece of Meccano nailed to the bridge. Mike Scott brought his love of electro pop and Grant Lee Buffalo to the mix – he and Sara-Mae have been writing songs together for years. Now, they love bands like Fleet Foxes, Sufjan Stevens, Conor Oberst and Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
Their sound will take you down some unexpected roads where folk, indie and alt country deliciously combine with harmonies and sweet melodic riffs.
They are Sara-Mae and Mike Scott, Simon Tuson, Joe and Jen Tuson and Talitha Gamaroff.
Their music was on the soundtrack of 2011 Portabello Film Festival award winning documentary, ‘Hard to Get: From Patient to PinUp. One of their songs ‘Ransom’ was played on Gary Crowley’s BBC London Calling radio show. They have played at festivals Lakefest 2013, Shuffle Fest London 2013 and a variety of venues across London including The Old Queens Head Islington, Folklore at the Half Moon in Putney, Into the Warm at The Harrison Kings Cross and many more.
The debut album has been a year in the making and includes these 9 tracks:
1. You Give It All Away 2. So Glad You Stayed 3. Anyone Can Say I Love You 4. The Wolf 5. Death of Innocence 6. Montauk 7. Beckons 8. Don’t Fix it 9. Shape You’re In
It was mostly recorded at a small studio just outside Oxford, England. Jason King at Shed Studios recorded So Glad You Stayed, The Wolf, Montauk, You Give It All Away and Beckons. John Laurence (of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci) and Geraint Jones mixed and mastered those tracks. Daniel Green of Laish mixed and mastered Anyone Can Say I Love You, Death of Innocence, Don’t Fix it and Shape You’re In.
This Is How Real Men Take Selfies: Firefighter’s Selfie Goes Viral
Most selfies are, let’s be completely honest, a moment of vanity and posing. How many photos have you seen of people in bathrooms, taking a picture of themselves in the mirror with their phone? I am not immune to the occasional selfie myself, but it seems at the moment that selfie means any picture that has a person in it. The word ‘selfie’ has become as ubiquitous as the pictures themselves.
Which is why this picture of a firefighter and his colleagues, completely exhausted after battling wildfires in California, is not only one of the best selfies of all time, but quite rightly went viral.
Firefighter Tim Bergon took this selfie to show his wife that he was okay. He had been battling the Cocos fire in San Marcos, San Diego County.
A restaurant in Escondido, Plan 9 Alehouse, then posted the picture to their Facebook page, captioned “Thank you!!!” The owners are friends with the Bergon and his family according to CBS 8. The picture has 36,549 likes and 4,624 shares so far.
Plan 9 Alehouse is also giving out free food to firefighters.
What do you think? Best selfie ever?
Image via Plan 9 Alehouse Facebook.