11 h. ago Olivia Dean bags first UK number one single and album in rare chart double

The 26-year old singer is the first British solo female artist to claim both titles since Adele in 2021.

Politics

59 h. ago Bishop urges Church to ‘reclaim St George’s Day’ in wake of protests

Arun Arora, the Bishop of Kirkstall, encouraged other bishops to ’embrace’ St George’s Day and ‘celebrate positive patriotism’.

Events

4 d. ago ChatGPT getting parental controls after family say it drove teenager to suicide

Adam Raine’s family has claimed that ChatGPT became a ‘suicide coach’ for their son after it failed to flag alarming messages he sent on the app

Society

5 d. ago 'Creepy Facebook message 10 years after husband's death was instant red flag'

Romance scam-fighter Ruth Grover received a strange message on Facebook - and uncovered a dark world of duplicity

Events

1 week ago British artists reclaim St George’s flag with a message of inclusivity

In Manchester and beyond creative responses to the unwelcome message of ‘raise the colours’ are appearing‘Scary’ and ‘I loved it’: the ‘unite the kingdom’ marchArtists in Britain have customised St George’s flags with messages celebrating diversity, in response to a campaign in which national banners have been flown from lamp-posts, outside homes and painted on roundabouts.While for many, flying the flag is a genuine expression of national pride, some flags have been graffitied on businesses and places of worship belonging to minority ethnic Britons, in some cases with slurs, after the launch of the operation “raise the colours”. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Photographer Joy Gregory on her new project, decades in the making: ‘A lot of people I worked with on it have died’

A new retrospective by the Black British artist plays with everything from the Victorians’ use of flowers to Eurocentric beauty standards – including one piece she started in 2003There weren’t many Black students at the Royal College of Art when Joy Gregory was a student in the 1980s, but she did study alongside artist and Blk Art Group founder Keith Piper, who was putting together a Black photography exhibition. “He asked me if I would submit some work,” says the 65-year-old artist.Piper had liked her work, which explored themes of colonialism, beauty, gender and race. However, her submission was rejected by the organisers on the basis that it simply wasn’t Black enough. “You have to recognise the political climate at that time around practice and making a mark and I was basically taking pictures of flowers,” says Gregory. “For me, you have the right to make whatever work you want. By shutting down what can and cannot be, you start to censor yourself. I was a bit pissed off, thinki...

Events

3 w. ago Ed Sheeran: Play review – subcontinental sounds and shards of darkness – but still unmistakably him

(Gingerbread Man/Atlantic)Despite embracing Indian and Persian sounds, Sheeran’s eighth album goes back to basics after two records of muted melancholy – albeit with some surprising undercurrentsAs he points out on the opening track of Play, Ed Sheeran has now been around a long time. It’s 20 years since he self-released his debut album and 14 since he signed to a major label and set about becoming the most commercially successful British artist of his age: long enough that we’re now seeing the appearance of pop stars who claim him as a formative influence. (Singer-songwriter Myles Smith, who was just into his teens when Sheeran released his breakthrough album +, even plays one of those little acoustic guitars that have long been Sheeran’s trademark.) It’s certainly long enough that anyone with even a passing interest knows what to expect when Ed Sheeran releases a new album.Sheeran’s success is based on a certain dependability: it doesn’t seem to matter who he works with – Pharrell...

Politics

3 w. ago British folk artist speaks out after abandoning own concert because JD Vance was in attendance

Dolly Mavies said ‘leaving is the most peaceful way of protest’

Culture

3 w. ago Chineke! Orchestra/Heyward review – kaleidoscopic concert combines energy and complexity

Royal Albert Hall, LondonThe ethnically diverse orchestra played with vigour and spirit in a varied programme that included Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Shostakovich and Valerie ColemanThis concert was to have been conducted by Simon Rattle – a mark of the esteem in which leading artists hold Chineke! Orchestra, the trailblazing British ensemble made up of a majority of Black and ethnically diverse musicians. In the event, Charleston-born Jonathon Heyward put his own indelible stamp on a varied yet satisfying program.Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s La Bamboula, a kaleidoscopic dance with roots in the West Indies, played to Chineke!’s strengths. The performed it with vigour and spirit, while Heyward kept its likable blend of late-Victorian tunefulness and proto-Hollywood glitz gossamer-light. You could see why Henry Wood programmed it at the Proms 16 times, making its subsequent 91-year absence inexplicable. Continue reading...

Events