3 h. ago ‘We got hate mail after the Proms!’ The towering visions of UK jazz legend Mike Westbrook

Having worked alongside everyone from Laurence Olivier to a French circus, the 89-year-old is still composing, learning church bells, and using AI to resurrect a lost epicMike Westbrook is reflecting on his 89-year life from his cottage by the sea in Devon. Sitting with him in his cosy, book-lined sitting room under a signed picture of Duke Ellington, and next to his Broadwood grand piano, the experience is calm and peaceful.His version of jazz is anything but. For more than six decades, Westbrook has been composing vast, cinematic works. He was the first jazz artist to play at the BBC Proms, created theatre alongside Laurence Olivier, and in the 1970s merged his entire ensemble with the avant-rock band Henry Cow to form the groundbreaking Orckestra. The result is music full of brass fanfares, unusual time signatures, poetry, free improvisation, and genre-bending jazz that invites the listener into a continental circus full of elephants, acrobats, and clowns. Continue reading...

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5 d. ago London's Tower Bridge closed as large emergency services presence shuts down area

Police are currently dealing with a incident that has prompted the closure of a major London landmark, Tower Bridge, as both lanes have been closed while emergency services on the scene

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1 week ago If the right really wants free speech in universities, why is it so obsessed with discrediting students? | Jason Okundaye

Conservatives see these institutions as finishing schools for the next generation of leaders – and they won’t cede them to progressive ideasWhen I was a 20-year-old undergraduate student at Cambridge University, I was plastered all over the national press for making a tweet about white people. It has not turned out to be a big deal for my life or career, but at the time it felt monumental: racist hate mail was sent to my college for months; the Conservative MP Bob Blackman called for my prosecution; and tabloid journalists turned up at my home and harassed my mother (it was August, a famously slow news month). I received a lot of support from the student population, alumni and the police (and none from the university, bar a few kind academics), but it cast a shadow over the rest of my time there – I worried about what future I could have or what employer would hire me if they were to Google my name and see I had attracted scandal. Mostly I wondered why this was national news.I found...

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2 w. ago Revealed: Businessman who appeared on stage with masked 'Muslim brothers' at anti

The prolific social media poster known variously as 'Big Fish' and 'Trendz' played a prominent part in an anti-UKIP demonstration in Tower Hamlets, east London.

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2 w. ago Mike Tyson’s emotional response to John Fury comment as he reached for tissues

John Fury and boxing legend Mike Tyson have a complex relationship with the former once moving the boxing icon to tears with his comments

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3 w. ago Mike Tindall dubbed 'idiot' by wife Zara but rugby legend had last laugh

Mike Tindall was branded an "idiot" by his Royal wife Zara after accidentally buying a racehorse - but the stallion paid him back in dividends by the time the Grand National rolled around

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