65 m. ago Whether wistful or euphoric, Brian Wilson made pop’s most overwhelmingly beautiful music

He was the Beach Boys’ resident genius, seeping melancholy into even peppy teenybopper hits. Beyond all the myths about his life, that brilliance is still intoxicatingBrian Wilson, visionary creative spirit for the Beach Boys, dies aged 82Brian Wilson: a life in picturesIt’s fair to say that no one who bought the Beach Boys debut single in 1961 would have realised they were in the presence of genius. Surfin’ sounded exactly like what it was: one of dozens of cheap, hastily-recorded singles released on a tiny independent label to cash in on the burgeoning craze for surf music, albeit a regionally-successful example of type. You might easily have expected to never hear of the band who made it again.But the 19-year-old Brian Wilson was determined – he was the taskmaster that had relentlessly drilled his unwilling younger brothers Carl and Dennis into learning to harmonise – and a quick learner. The leap in quality between Surfin’ and its 1962 follow-up Surfin’ Safari was striking. The ...

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2 h. ago Harris Yulin dead: Scarface and Ghostbusters star dies after suffering heart attack

Scarface and Ghost Busters actor Harris Yulin has died aged 88 after a heart attack as his family have confirmed the sad news

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3 h. ago Harris Yulin, veteran actor known for Scarface and Ghostbusters II, dies aged 88

The LA-born actor also had roles in ‘Training Day’ and ‘Ozark’ and worked extensively on Broadway

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4 h. ago Beach Boy Brian Wilson wrote 'greatest song of all time' but battled demons

The Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson has died at the age of 82 - Wilson was the eldest and last surviving of the three musical brothers who formed the American rock band in 1961

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5 h. ago General Hospital and WWII series actor dies as tributes roll in for star

Actor Chris Robinson, who was best known for his roles in General Hospital and WWII series 12 O'Clock High, has sadly died at the age of 86 after the news was confirmed by a friend

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5 h. ago Twelve of Brian Wilson’s greatest songs – from surf to psychedelia and beyond

Elaborating classic pop and doo-wop into divinely beautiful and inimitable hitmaking, these are some of the late musician’s most unmistakable masterpiecesBrian Wilson, visionary creative spirit for the Beach Boys, dies aged 82Although co-written with Gary Usher, this reflective hymn to isolation was pure Brian autobiography, conceived as the pressures of pop success loomed. “I had a room I thought of as my kingdom,” Wilson said, “somewhere you could lock out the world.” The domain in question was the Wilson family’s music room where Brian slept “right beside the piano”. Part-inspired by the Charms’ 1956 doo-wop hit Ivory Tower, which the Wilson brothers sang themselves to sleep with, In My Room sonically recreates Brian’s feelings of sanctuary by blending his brothers’ sweet-sad harmonies with finger cymbals, harp glissandi and Santo & Johnny-style Sleep Walk guitar. Soothing yet eerie, the song spoke to the nation of 60s teenagers whose only refuge was their bedroom, and whose ...

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5 h. ago Beach Boys icon Brian Wilson dead at 82: Musician passes away after battle with dementia

Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson, one of the most acclaimed and influential songwriters of the 20th century, has died aged 82.

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5 h. ago Chris Robinson, General Hospital actor who coined ‘I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV’, dies aged 86

The Florida-born actor also appeared in long-running soap opera ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’

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5 h. ago Young bride heartbroken as husband, 19, dies in horror crash soon after wedding

Chloe Maloney had only just married her husband Jerry Maloney before he was tragically killed in a car crash - moving tributes were paid to Jerry, who died aged only 19

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6 h. ago Brian Wilson dead: Beach Boys singer and songwriting legend dies aged 82

‘We are at a loss for words right now’, his family said

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6 h. ago Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson dies aged 82 as family 'lost for words'

“We are at a loss for words right now”

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6 h. ago Brian Wilson dead: The Beach Boys star dies at 82 as family share tear

The Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson has died at the age of 82, his family have announced in a tearful tribute shared on social media

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6 h. ago Brian Wilson, visionary creative spirit for the Beach Boys, dies aged 82

Musician, who suffered from mental health problems, wrote and produced the 1966 album Pet Sounds – seen by many as the greatest album of all timeBrian Wilson, the Beach Boys musician, songwriter and producer who created some of history’s most purely beautiful pop music, has died aged 82.In a post shared on Instagram on Wednesday, Wilson’s family wrote: “We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away. We are at a loss for words right now. Please respect our privacy at this time as our family is grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world. Love & Mercy.” Continue reading...

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6 h. ago The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson dies aged 82 as family share 'grief with the world'

The Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson has died and his family have announced the sad news after it was revealed last year that he was battling a disease similar to dementia

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6 h. ago Gary England, beloved CBS meteorologist who appeared in Twister, dies aged 85

England helped pioneer storm tracking systems and changed national weather coverage

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8 h. ago Chris Robinson dead: General Hospital and WWII series star dies aged 86

General Hospital actor and star of WWII series 12 O'Clock High has died at the age of 86, his friend has confirmed in a sad update on social media

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14 h. ago Toddler's heartbreaking final days before 'being beaten to death by grandparents' with mum upstairs

Paramedics who attended to little Ethan Ives-Griffiths, who died at the age of just two years old, described how the emaciated toddler looked like a '90-year-old man', while experts have shed some light on his painful final days

Society

30 h. ago ‘Send me some money!’ My unforgettable encounters with the legendary Sly Stone

He went from the towering highs of the 60s and 70s, where he changed the face of music, to the shambolic lows of a decades-long addiction. But interviewing the music genius over the years showed me a man who was awed, revered and strangely shySly Stone, pioneering funk and soul musician, dies aged 82A trailblazer and icon of hope and painSly Stone – a life in picturesIn 2013, there didn’t seem much point in requesting an interview with Sly Stone. It was 31 years since he had released an album of new material, Ain’t But the One Way, which he had abandoned midway through, vanishing completely from the studio and leaving the producer Stewart Levine to patch together what he could. It was longer still since he had produced any music that was even vaguely close to the standard he had set himself in the late 60s and early 70s – a six-year period bookended by the release of the groundbreaking single Dance to the Music in 1967 and his last truly classic album, Fresh, in 1973 – when he could...

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31 h. ago ‘He changed the rules for all of us who came after’: Lee Child remembers Frederick Forsyth

Forsyth did away with the conventions of thriller-writing and still kept readers enthralled. He reset the whole genre, the author of the Jack Reacher novels writes• Frederick Forsyth, Day of the Jackal author and former MI6 agent, dies aged 86I remember two things about the first full week of January 1972. I passed my driving test on the Monday, and on the Friday I made my weekly trip to the library and borrowed The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. I had no idea I would one day be a writer myself – at that point I was merely an insatiable reader – but in retrospect that Friday marked an important way station on the journey from one to the other.I gobbled up the book and thought it was fantastic – fast, pacy, exciting, suspenseful and laced with detail and intrigue. Then I thought, wait, what? How was this book working? It was a twin-track thriller – an assassin hunts his target while law enforcement hunts the assassin. But the intended victim was Charles de Gaulle, a real per...

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32 h. ago TikTok star with millions of fans dies as family left 'truly devastated'

Norma, who appeared in hundreds videos over the last four years with her granddaughter Jess, has died aged 91

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