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'Whatever we do, this will always be the seminal band'

On page 253 of his compellingly readable memoir, One Train Later, Andy Summers logs the April 1978 release of the Police's Roxanne, adding tersely, "It gets reviewed by John Pidgeon in Melody Maker." That short statement telescopes into a more convoluted reality. True, for one issue only, I was MM's singles reviewer, though not until mid-October, by which time Roxanne was a six-month-old stiff. But that record was still a hit on my turntable, so I made it the yardstick by which I would judge the new releases.

Roxanne had come at me out of nowhere on a wavering car radio signal, as so much rock'n'roll of my short-trousered youth had, title or artist's name or both obscured by static, leaving only a half-heard lyric and melodic hook lodged in my brain along with a memory of the palpable thrill they had provoked. It took a trawl of record shops to track it down. "It was the Police's Roxanne, and it still makes me tingle," I preambled. "I had no idea who they were, and I still don't really, but I don't care. Roxanne is simply a great single." And if that reads like an all-too-obvious endorsement of an acknowledged pop classic, remember: Roxanne was a flop, a sleeper that wouldn't chart until May 1979.

My singles column appeared on Thursday October 12. No one had matched Roxanne - not Elton John, not PiL, not Bruce Springsteen. That afternoon A&M Records' press office rang, asking if I would be free to spend some time on the road with the Police in November. Let me check my diary. In the States? I'm free.

I had already seen the Police play live, at one of the scant 10 gigs they had played since April. The venue was the Nashville Room in West Kensington, and I was accompanied by two pals, former Faces keyboard player Ian McLagan, who'd been every bit as excited as I had on hearing Roxanne, and lugubrious, lovable Kevin Coyne, in whose band Andy Summers had played and who was intrigued by his erstwhile guitarist's punk makeover. While Kevin chuckled over Summers' bottle-blond hair, Mac and I scoured the sparse crowd for someone who might be Sting, our only sight of the singer having been an arty Xeroxed image on the single's sleeve. It was the parachute suit and peroxide crop that persuaded us we'd found him, but, to be certain, Mac asked, "You're Sting, aren't you?" to which Sting responded, "Yes, but you're Ian McLagan."

Half a lifetime later, on July 28 2007, after the first of two formidable performances at Boston's Fenway Park on the US leg of their reunion tour, the Police are convoyed back to their hotel with a full lights-and-sirens police escort, each intersection cleared of cross traffic, every red light run as green. Having sprinted from stage to car, Stewart Copeland heads for his room to shower. A couple in the lift have seen the cavalcade arrive going the wrong way up a one-way street. The woman will rail against this extravagant abuse of her top-rate tax dollars, but, before she does, her husband asks the still-sweating drummer what he has done to merit such treatment. Copeland grins and says, "Easy, why d'you think I named my band the Police?"

My band. Which it had been, originally. Having tired of the unwinnable race to recoup record company advances, been invigorated by the punk scene, and spotted a singing bass player in Newcastle ready to try his luck in London, Copeland had not only come up with a name for the group, but composed its entire repertoire of mile-a-minute thrash and found a three-chord Corsican guitarist, Henry Padovani, to help play it.

"It was a difficult period," confided Sting, that singing bass player, in 1978. "Stewart had wanted to form a new wave group, but I'd just come down from playing in a jazz group and I wasn't exactly keen, but I was inspired by the amazing energy of the whole thing, and I thought, 'Well, I'm new to London and I'm totally unknown, so I'll give it a go.' We did a 15-minute lightning set and I squealed and screamed."

Then Summers, already an experienced player, saw them at the Marquee. "I thought there was fantastic potential in Sting and Stewart," he explained. "I'd always wanted to play in a three-piece band and throughout all my years of playing I never had. I felt that the three of us together would be very strong. They just needed another guitarist and I thought I was the one." The group played a French punk festival as a four-piece; then there were three.

The effect of Summers' arrival was instant. "One by one, Sting's songs had started coming in," Copeland explained, "and when Andy joined, it opened up new numbers of Sting's we could do, so the material started to get a lot more interesting and Sting started to take a lot more interest in the group." Despite the lack of progress represented by those 10 UK gigs in seven months, Copeland insists today that he never doubted - "never for a second" - that the trio would make it, the core of his unshakable confidence being his belief in Sting.

"The minute I saw Sting," he recalls, "playing in the refectory [of St Mary's College, Newcastle], I thought, 'There is a unique talent that is going all the way to the top.' Once we were in a band together, I would go on stage knowing that whatever was going to go wrong, Sting was going to kick ass, and he wasn't going to quit until he'd got the place going."

Summers joined the Police in August 1977 - lending this current tour, which comes to the UK on September 4, the air of a 30th anniversary - and owns up to moments of doubt during those first 12 months. "We'd been at it for a year, and just basically hanging by a thread," he recalls. "There wasn't anything happening. There was no point in doing gigs, because we'd end up with about two quid each a night. Then we lined up that first little tour of the East Coast of the US, and that's where it started."

I met them in Washington, DC, on November 10 1978, and took advantage of my tab at the Watergate Hotel, several stars swankier than the band's budget accommodation, to treat them to dinner. After two shows at the Atlantic Club, I joined them in their van for the drive to Philadelphia, where they played the half-empty Grendel's Lair, then we drove to New York for two final gigs at CBGB.

The tour had been made possible by three things: Freddie Laker's pioneering Skytrain, which delivered the trio and their tour manager to New York for £100 each; an Econoline van with two rows of seats and space behind for equipment, which their manager, Miles Copeland (Stewart's brother) had bought earlier in the year for a Squeeze tour; and the support of a third Copeland, Ian, an agent who would not have picked up the phone to book $200 club gigs for anyone other than his kid brother. That fee covered two modest hotel rooms, fuel for the van, and a $20 per diem each for food and drink. Some nights they made more, which took care of extras and their flights back to the UK.

On my own (non-Laker) flight home, I composed the opening paragraph of my piece: "The Police are not punk. The Police are not disco. The Police are not heavy metal. The Police are not power pop. The Police are just the best rock and roll band I've seen in years." I assured MM's editor they would be the next big thing and, as such, deserved the cover, but when the issue appeared they had been demoted to an inside spread, with rockabilly voodoo weirdos the Cramps on the front instead.

By then the Police were back in the UK, supporting student favourites Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias on a short tour, during which it became clear to Summers that "there was something serious happening. The period of self-doubt probably disappeared with the Alberto gig in Bath [on December 1], where there was just this mob scene and hysterical girls, and that was the moment when we went, 'Wait a minute.' That was a turning point, and we started to go like a rocket after that."

Six years earlier, my first major assignment as a music journalist had been to tour, riotously, with the Faces, and as recently as July 1978 I'd caught the end of the Stones' US tour in California, more fun and games. But in Washington, with the Police, I visited the National Air and Space Museum; on a night off in Philadelphia we went to the cinema; and in the van we talked about books. Photographed in New York, Sting hid neither his glasses nor the copy of Daniel Martin he was reading. I remember thinking, sure, the other way is fun, but there's no denying theirs is a practical, economic approach to touring. Those thoughts stayed with me, until, reading One Train Later, I came across Summers' sardonic description of his on-the-road self in 1982: "I am a rock-and-roll asshole, an emaciated millionaire prick." How did he get to that from where I'd left them? Could the clue be in the penultimate word? "It got much more dissolute as time went on," he confirms. "It did turn into the usual clichéd stuff, where everywhere we turned up there was a party. The rot set in. You know, the water keeps hitting the rock and it finally starts to crumble." Sting's assessment of their excess is more moderate. "We never really qualified as rock and roll animals ever," he says. "It never crossed my mind to trash a hotel room or get completely fucked up. We dabbled."

By the early 80s, of course, the Police had become the biggest band in the world, in August 1983 playing Shea Stadium in New York, a marker for mega-popdom set in 1965 by the Beatles. By then the three were reputed to be permanently at each other's throats. Yet, in 2005, when Stewart Copeland got round to editing the 50 hours of Super-8 he had shot on the road and in the studio for his film, Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out, and he reached the moment where the band broke up, the only footage he could find was of them goofing around. While pointing out that he would not have been filming when they weren't getting on, he admits that Sting's anguished look, inserted into the film to signify strife, was in reality a frown of concentration as the singer worked on a vocal harmony.

"People have asked what went wrong back in the day," Copeland expands, "and the answer is it didn't go wrong, it went rather well actually. We broke up at exactly the right time. What would have gone wrong is if we had stuck together to the point where we hated each other and started to hurt each other and self-destruct. That would have been wrong."

After the final gig in Melbourne in 1984, all three, he says, "hit the ground running." Each made signally non-Police music. Sting's first solo album, The Dream of Blue Turtles, was "a real patchwork of all kinds of styles. I was just having fun as a songwriter, and I carried that on in the interim." Summers formed new musical alliances, played jazz, pursued his interest in photography. Most strikingly, for a decade Copeland didn't pick up a drum stick. "I was a film composer, and not only that, but I was desperate to escape type-casting as the drum-score film composer, and so for many years I was writing scores with no discernible rhythm at all. I went a little too far, as you do when you've got something to prove."

In his memoir Summers writes of "the ache of something unresolved ... The problem with the demise of our group is that we didn't play out all our potential," though he now admits: "We had it all there in a way. But I definitely felt wounded afterwards. It felt like something was stolen and I had to deal with it. Then I occasionally thought, 'Maybe it was the best thing to do.' I didn't just want to be in a pop band."

Distilled into a two-hour live show, the Police's musical history feels fulfillingly complete. Every stage of their musical journey, from the proto-punk of Next To You to the enigmatic universality of Every Breath You Take, is revisited. And, surprisingly perhaps, although the songs are all familiar, they still sound vital, visceral, with emotion or meaning still to impart.

Confounding red-top gossip, the three are emphatic that some form of alliance survived the intervening years. Copeland says, "We have a basic underlying respect and, I would say, love for each other, the three of us. There's a bond there that none of us can shake off." Sting agrees: "Relations with Andy and Stewart have always been cordial. We didn't see much of each other, but it's bullshit that we've been at loggerheads for years and years."

"Over the last twenty years," Copeland adds, "people in my company have assumed that what I like to hear is Sting-bashing, so I hear a lot of it, and I'm sure I don't need to tell you what the opinions are. I tell these friends of mine, 'If Sting was here now with a guitar in his hands, you would within moments realise he's the most talented, gifted musician you've ever met - ever.' Because he is."

"Despite all the crap written about us, how we all hate each other, we're not like that, it's such bullshit," Summers confirms. "If that was the truth, we wouldn't have been able to come back together and do this. Whatever we do, this is always going to be the seminal band we were all in."

While Copeland was assembling his film, Summers was writing his book, a project with the potential, he became increasingly aware, to put paid for good to any chance of a reunion. But he stuck to his aim "to be completely honest, not to do some varnished story. What I was interested in was the fragility of it, how it's always about to collapse at any point, and how difficult it is to bring three egos together and sustain it for a long period of time. It was necessary to talk about the arguments, the difficulties, the tension, as well as paying tribute to the talents of the other two. When I got the book out, I thought they may never speak to me again, but in fact the reverse happened. Sting was very complimentary."

Recalling his suggestion for the running order of the Police's final album, Synchronicity, Summers wrote spikily: "Sting likes this idea, and thus it is ordained." If a reunion was ever going to take place, Sting would need to like that idea too - as eventually he did, surprising even himself.

"I woke up one morning in November last year, and the John Dowland record [Songs From the Labyrinth, Sting's lute recordings] had just gone in the charts, so I was very happy about that, and I thought, 'What do I do now? Should I do that again? No, that'll paint me into a corner. Do I do another Sting album? No, I'm not really ready for it. What do I do to surprise people? Or surprise myself even?' And this little voice said, 'You reform the Police.' And another little voice said, 'Don't be ridiculous, you don't want to do that,' but this persistent voice said, 'No, that'll really surprise everyone.' And surprise, as you know, is everything in this business. So I had a meeting with my manager, floated the idea, and she fell off her chair. We phoned Andy and Stewart, and they didn't believe it either, because I'd been so adamant. If you'd asked me the day before, I would've said, 'You're out of your fucking mind. I don't want to do that.' But suddenly everybody clicked with it, it just triggered something, and the timing was perfect."

With Sting long accustomed to tailoring the musical setting for his solo shows - "having my own way or 'You're fired!'" - what form would the line-up take? Backing singers? A keyboard player? Horns? Summers, for one, was initially apprehensive. "In the early days we did one tour with backing singers and one with saxophones, which I personally hated. I thought, it's got to be the band, the three of us, or not at all, and there was absolutely no contest about that. Because Sting is a natural musician, he's a player. He's not some singer who's got old and fat, he's the real thing."

"My instinct was it should be us raw, warts and all," Sting says, "and I was pleasantly surprised at the first rehearsal. Although it certainly wasn't polished, there were still moments of, 'Oh, that's why we were good, that's why we were successful.' So rehearsal was just about joining those moments together and expanding them, and I think we're still on the way."

Their once-teenage fans are now in their 40s, and from his drum stool Copeland has observed other changes: "At the front we used to have a lot of teenage females fainting. Now we have grown men weeping." Weeping for what? Their lost youth? "I guess that's what it is. There are certain songs, and I look out there and they're weeping inconsolably. It makes me feel good. It hits me with, 'I guess it must be important what we're doing.' I mean, it isn't, it's just music, but it does affect people - and that affects me."

The reunion is scheduled to end in February 2008, when Copeland is looking forward to getting back to being a composer and suburban dad, and Summers will be braced for a post-tour crash before immersing himself in diverse projects. Sting, as always, is eager to embrace the future. "Nothing goes on forever, and once you accept that, that's a great relief," he says. "If I thought I was agreeing to be manacled for ever to this thing, like Sisyphus, I wouldn't have come into it. I think freedom, even to go back, is what I want - to contradict myself, to go back on what I thought was dogma, to be open."

So what is this bond, the shared chemistry that took these three from half-empty clubs to the biggest stages in the world, and still has people filling stadiums to see them? Does the man who formed the Police have the answer? "There are times when Sting and I shake our heads at the disparity in our music values," Copeland offers, "and yet there are 60,000 people out there that want to hear us play together. How's that possible? We disagree so deeply and profoundly about fundamental pillars of our artistic philosophy that sometimes we look at each other and it's not just like we come from different planets, but that different rules of physics apply, and, like I say, we shake our heads and wonder at the strangeness of life that you put these two value systems together and something happens that makes people cry."

· The Police's Their Greatest Hits is available on A&M. The band's European tour opens in Stockholm on August 29. Their first UK date is at Birmingham NIA on September 4.

· Andy Summers' exhibition I'll Be Watching You: Inside the Police 1980-1983 is at Jill George Gallery, 38 Lexington Street, London, from August 30 to September 10.

· This article was amended on Monday September 3 2007. We were wrong to say that the Beatles played Shea Stadium, in New York, in 1966; they played there in August 1965. This has been corrected.

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The London rock band comprised of Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland were one of the most successful bands of their time.

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One of the true phenomenal acts of their era, The Police bossed the pop charts for most of their career, achieving fame not long after they formed in London in 1977, dressed in combat fatigues and playing a brand of literate, funky pop with jagged, razor wore rhythms that meant they were never going to be part of the punk movement but would be the standard-bearers of the new wave. They’ve won six Grammy Awards, two Brit Awards, various MTV video gongs and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. Truly a global act, their album Synchronicity sold eight million copies in America alone and their fame spread around the planet, winning fans from France to Russia and New Zealand to Argentina. Thanks to the 2008 reunion tour they were officially recognised as the highest-earning musicians in the world.

Although they were briefly a quartet until original guitarist Henry Padovani’s fairly amicable departure, it’s as a trio that Sting , Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers turned The Police into a household name. Each one a gifted musician – on bass, drums and guitar respectively – and with all three men having strong opinions, robust personalities and oodles of under the belt dues playing experience they were an unusual proposition by any standards since they straddled what might be termed old school values associated with the early 1970s, combining those with the kind of technical savvy that kept them abreast of a rapidly changing industry.

With their bleached blond ‘look’ adding a pin-up scream appeal, The Police were also at the forefront of celebrity culture with Sting a particularly ingenious manipulator of the media in all its forms. The Police were a smart bunch for sure and they didn’t outstay their welcome either. They released five albums in as many years, sold 50 million of them and then went their own ways on solo projects that suited them. They left a timeless body of high-class work. There is no denying the sheer melodic exuberance of their singles and their live shows were always special events.

Stewart Copeland was looking for a new project after quitting Curved Air when the American expatriate bumped into Wallsend-born Gordon Sumner, aka Sting on account of a jumper he wore that made him look like a bee. With Padovani they performed in all the usual seedy clubs, building a devoted following that allowed them to release the indie single ‘Fall Out’ in 1977. When Henry quit (he’d set up the well regarded IRS label) Andy Summers was a strange choice for the guitar seat but an inspired one nevertheless. A ‘proper’ musician whose CV glittered with time spent playing with Zoot Money, Dantalion’s Chariot, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Kevin Ayers,  Kevin Coyne , Neil Sedaka and Jon Lord, Summers was obviously somewhat older than his new bandmates but the three-hit upon a style that allowed each one to shine, achieving a level of harmony that was given extra punch and colour by Sting’s unusual vocal range and distinctive high notes.

Stewart’s brother Miles Copeland who would become the band’s legendary manager financed the debut album  Outlandos d’Amour . The album was recorded on a shoestring budget and featured the outstanding track ‘Roxanne’, that didn’t sell well initially but would soon fly when it was re-released in 1979. ‘Can’t Stand Losing You’ amazingly ruffled BBC feathers at the time on account of its picture sleeve but The Police really hit the ground running after they returned from a character-shaping US tour and made the outstanding Reggata de Blanc , a reference to their own in-house white reggae styling which was derided in some quarters of the press but adored by increasing legions of fans. In fact, they became so popular it’s worth recalling there was a kind of Police-mania afoot in 1979 and the singles ‘Message in a Bottle’ and ‘Walking on the Moon’ were ubiquitous. Cleverly the Police’s first world tour paid special attention to areas of the globe ignored by most rock groups, such as Mexico, Taiwan, Greece and Egypt. Copeland and the band knew that they were mining gold with their music and their appeal became universal. It was a master coup.

Zenyatta Mondatta (1980) includes ‘Don’t Stand So Close to Me’ (the biggest selling UK single of the year) and despite the frantic pace of their lives on the rapidly spinning merry-go-round of mega-stardom even the harshest critics now fell into line. While they don’t yet deviate from their tried and tested sound here you can catch them widening the lyrical net on Sting’s ‘Driven to Tears’ and Copeland’s ‘Bombs Away’.

Ghost in the Machine  pushed the band further out as they replaced producer Nigel Gray with High Padgham and embarked on one of the first digitally influenced albums, creating a sound that defined the decade for many. Probably most people are familiar with the hits off  Ghost  – after all ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic’, ‘Invisible Sun’ and ‘Spirits in the Material World’ are virtually pop standards.

Now adding horns and synths and through heavy use of keyboards, this album marks a significant change in the Police although they retained elements of their adopted Caribbean roots and Summers’ enduring love for reggae riffs. This album, inspired by Arthur Koestler and Carl Jung’s theory of synchronicity, saw Sting assume greater control over their direction as he insisted they concentrate on a far more thoughtful approach to arrangement and lyric – meaning the raw trio charm of the original was now a sophisticated beast prepared for the new age.

Talking of  Synchronicity , that is the Police’s fifth and final first phase release. Recorded again in Montserrat and Canada this is their most popular disc. It includes the classic singles ‘Wrapped Around Your Finger’, ‘Synchronicity 11’, ‘King of Pain’ and the immortal ‘Every Breath You Take’. So great was its appeal that this was the album which ended Michael Jackson ‘s chart dominance with  Thriller  in the US and it’s frequently cited in respected Great Albums lists, from  Pitchfork  to  Rolling Stone  where you won’t be surprised to see five stars by the title. It is a masterpiece for sure and went eight times Platinum in America.

As befits a band of this stature there are a select number of recommended live discs and well-presented compilations.  Live!  is interesting because it showcases band concerts from 1979 and 1983, in Boston and Atlanta respectively.

The collections such as  Every Breath You Take: The Singles ,  Greatest Hits ,  The Very Best of Sting & The Police  and  The 50 Greatest Songs  all provide hours of listening pleasure. The box set  Message in a Box: The Complete Recordings  has been hailed as final proof that the Police were a stellar act, the digital remastering of all 78 songs providing a fitting testimony to a group who truly left an indelible mark on rock and pop music with every breath they took.

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The Police concert was one of, if not the best, live shows I have ever attended.

The show was at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, outdoors on a hot July night. The atmosphere was magical, absolutely electric. It was so exciting!

The Police hadn’t toured for years, and now they were back, live, and no one there was going to miss a second! This was my first time seeing The Police live, and I was really surprised at how engaged they were with the crowd. I had expected pretty much a straight set list, with a break in the middle, but the band talks a lot during their shows. Lots of jokes, unscripted conversation and interaction with the audience

.This show was part of the 30th Anniversary Tour, so the set list was classic – they opened with Message in A Bottle, and played all their hits – Synchronicity, Don’t Stand So Close to Me, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da, Roxanne and of course Every Breath You Take. The crowd sang along quite a bit, and was encouraged by the band. This show will always stick out in my memory. Just seeing The Police was great of course, but the outside venue, the crowd standing on the field, right up close to the stage and the hot summer night made it even more special.

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UK Police Unity Tour

Welcome to the home of the 2024 UK Police Unity Tour fundraising event for the Care of Police Survivors (COPS) Charity.

26th July – 28th July 2024

About the Tour

In 2024, the UK Police Unity Tour enters its 12th year increasing awareness and honouring police officers who have died in the line of duty. Learn how the tour was created and how it has grown…

Who are COPS ?

With thanks to all our tour sponsors

With Drake releasing his latest Kendrick Lamar diss, " The Heart Part 6 ," on Sunday, it feels like we've reached a period of calm in the back-and-forth between two of rap's biggest stars. Some have gone as far as to speculate that the feud has now drawn to a close, though that remains to be seen.

Before we go any further, take a moment to pause and reflect on what the past few days have given rap fans. Regardless of how you feel about either artist, there’s simply no denying how thrilling (and genuinely surprising) all of this has been.

Interestingly, there is no real argument against Drake’s long-held status as the biggest male artist on the planet. In fact, he’s soon set to blow past 100 billion streams on Spotify, becoming the first artist to ever do so. A big part of what makes what we’ve witnessed in recent weeks so exciting is that both Drake and Kendrick, respectively, are truly fucking great at what they do. They are vastly different artists using vastly different tools to paint their sonic portraits, but both have moments of indisputable greatness in their respective catalogs.

But a battle was fought and the people want to know, who won?

Well, it sure looks like the 6 God lost this historic beef. Feel free to make up your own mind. But there are lot of signs that the world at large has definitely sided with one rapper over the other, and that rapper is the guy from Compton. Don't believe it? Here are 10 signs Drake lost...

1. Drake’s "The Heart Part 6" has more dislikes than likes on YouTube

View this video on YouTube

As of this writing , "The Heart Part 6" has just under 640,000 likes and over 938,000 dislikes on YouTube. Considering that even the biggest Drake hater would have to admit he dominates when it comes to the streaming numbers, it's a tough look to have this many fans actually click the dislike button.

The Heart Part 6 by Drake officially has more dislikes than likes on YouTube. Meanwhile, Kendrick is cruising with a 1% dislike rate on Not Like Us #NahDrake pic.twitter.com/18qZQnGj12 — jvck (@itsjvck) May 6, 2024

Meanwhile, Kendrick’s "Not Like Us" is currently sitting at 1.6 million likes and just over 14,000 dislikes.

2. Kendrick may land four songs in Top 10 next week

On May 7, Kendrick had four songs, including " Like That ," in the top 10 on the U.S. Spotify chart . By extension, Kendrick could very well pull off a similar feat with the next Billboard charts update. " Euphoria ," notably, has already debuted at No. 11, and "Like That" (the song that started this whole fiasco) has already hit No. 1 this year. If he lands four diss songs in the Top 10? That's a chart accolade even Drake has never achieved.

3. A high school teacher said her students quickly turned from Drake fans to Kendrick fans

@stillateacher drake lost his target audience 🪦 #teacher #teachersoftiktok #highschoolteacher #englishteacher #kendrick #notlikeus ♬ original sound - Ms. C

Yes, this is just one person's story, but it's telling. According to TikTok user @stillateacher , "Kendrick is winning this thing." At least, that's what it looks like among kids at her high school.

"I, up until today, taught at a very Drake-centric high school," Ms. C told her followers on Monday, adding her students would often request to play Drake's "Rich Baby Daddy." But more recently, the tide has turned. "Oh my god, this is a Kendrick school now," she said.

She claimed she polled her students and in every class they sided with Kendrick, minus one kid or two defending Drake (and those kids got screamed at by their classmates). She added that many of her students, even ones who hate reading, are closely dissecting the lyrics of the Kendrick and Drake disses . Sounds like these kids want to work at Complex.

4. The RDC crew has clowned Drake

We already told you , but here we are saying it again: the RDC crew's recent string of beef-focused sketches has produced some genuinely funny material, including the above clip imagining how Drake and company may have felt amid the chaos this weekend. Yeah it's just jokes, but as Eminem once said, a lot of truth is said in jest.

5. Kendrick's "Not Like Us" is going off in the clubs

pic.twitter.com/pqS6Kp8K1D — . (@stillsmallz3) May 5, 2024

You've no doubt seen the clips. If you haven't, check the example above. "Not Like Us," especially, seems to be going off particularly well, resulting in crowds shouting out some choice lines directed at Drake. Turning a diss song into a club anthem (a la "Back To Back") was once seen as Drake's superpower but clearly Kendrick hit him with the reverse UNO card.

6. Even Macklemore feels comfy mentioning Drake's name

HIND’S HALL. Once it’s up on streaming all proceeds to UNRWA. pic.twitter.com/QqZEKmzwZI — Macklemore (@macklemore) May 6, 2024

Macklemore 's protest track "Hind's Hall" is about what's going on in Palestine, and he simply questions why the Drake and Kendrick beef is getting more attention than a global issue. But, only one artist gets a specific mention: Drake . We're guessing Macklemore didn't want to have name-drop Kendrick cause he'd likely have to apologize to him again.

7. Even college professors are sharing deep-dives declaring Kendrick the winner

Man WTF is going on !!!! This beef btwn Drake and Kendrick is on another level.. Here we have a University Professor breaking down Drake's diss and my Lord .. He said "This is why Critical thinking is so important". Kdot doesn't need to respond. listen til the end".. #NahDrake pic.twitter.com/VKMDK8dR4Y — Gated,Grated and Goated (@uknowwhy_telme) May 7, 2024

Even people who might otherwise not pay much attention to a back-and-forth between two rappers are getting in the mix and taking an extremely in-depth approach when digging into the lyrics. This man may be a newcomer to hip-hop analysis, but he's arriving at similar conclusions as many fans.

8. Even TNT's music supervisor seems to be rooting for Kendrick

Kendrick has been getting some serious NBA-related airtime amid the feud, including with a "euphoria" being used as the intro of a recent halftime report on TNT . But that's not all. TNT has also given "Not Like Us" some prominent airtime.

Baseball heads are getting their share too, with the same song recently getting play at a Dodgers game.

"Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar is now an MLB walk-up song pic.twitter.com/k1h6UbnBHX — Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 7, 2024

TNT plays ‘Not Like Us’ by Kendrick Lamar pic.twitter.com/uZMyBkfyr4 — NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) May 7, 2024

9. GoFundMe trolls are launching fake fundraisers for Drake

A rep for GoFundMe told TMZ this week that the company was "monitoring" the site for fake fundraisers jokingly launched in connection with Drake and Kendrick. Drake, for the most part, is the butt of this particular joke, an example of which can be seen above.

10. Even wrestlers are taking pages from Kendrick's playbook

CM Punk paraphrased a few choice lines from Kendrick’s "euphoria" when calling out Drew McIntyre for leaving the building during Monday Night Raw . When your ( DMX-referencing ) lyrics become shorthand for unrelated acts of dissery, that surely means something .

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NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Unknown singer speaks out on ‘whirlwind’ week after replacing Olly Murs at Take That concert

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A bar singer who stood in for Olly Murs at the last minute has described the ‘whirlwind’ week he’s had since he supported Take That.

Daniel Rooney, 26, was playing in a hotel bar next door to the Ovo Hydro in Glasgow when he was asked to fill Olly’s support slot at the 11th hour.

Olly couldn’t make it to the venue , situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, because of transport issues, leaving the concert’s organisers in a bit of a pickle.

Thankfully, Daniel stepped in after being approached by Scots TV presenter Ross King, and played in front of 14,000 fans – a crowd more than 300 times the size of his usual audiences in pubs and clubs around Glasgow.

The busker was later thanked by Take That frontman Gary Barlow before heading back to his life in Cambuslang, a town in the south-east of the Greater Glasgow area.

Olly struggled to make it to Glasgow despite supporting Take That throughout the rest of their current UK tour, with his flight from London cancelled on the day of the Scotland gig.

Speaking to the BBC about the last few days, Daniel said: ‘It’s been a whirlwind. My phone’s not stopped for three days. It’s been really fun.’

Describing the feelings he had while on the biggest stage in Glasgow, he explained: ‘I usually play to around 40 people. It’s madness. I was more just focusing on what songs to sing. I was more excited than anything else.’

He then said his concert was ‘the craziest 30 minutes ever’ and thanked members Gary, Mark Owen, and Howard Donald for calming him down and discussing his setlist.

Watching Daniel Rooney on @lorraine , it was a privilege to witness this young lad get this incredible opportunity on Friday at @takethat , he was amazing and the crowd loved him! Great spot by @TheRossKing ! #danielrooney #rossking #takethat #ollymurs #ovohydro #lorraine pic.twitter.com/HrSczLETpO — Jann79 (@Jann79) May 6, 2024

After giving the performance of a lifetime, Daniel’s whirlwind week started when Gary paid tribute to him on Instagram, saying, ‘This young man saved the day, thank you,’ adding a picture of him and posting three love heart emojis.

He admitted to Lorraine shortly afterwards that he thought the whole thing was a ‘wind up’: ‘One of the waiters [at the hotel] came up and says “Ross King wants to speak to you and he might have a life changing opportunity for you”.

‘I’m thinking someone’s trying to wind me up, but he was telling the truth. I packed up my stuff and I said to the Radisson “Look, I need to go, I’ve been asked to play at the Hydro”.’

https://www.instagram.com/p/CmWNoQWN7ef/?img_index=1

Days later, he was asked to perform a short setlist at the Celtic Park football stadium as Celtic took on Heart of Midlothian in the Scottish Premier League.

Since then, it sounds like Daniel has had an incredible week in the spotlight and is only just coming back to Earth, with TikTok videos of his performance racking up over 100,000 views.

While Daniel had already played the Hydro as a member of Rod Stewart’s backing band in December 2022, it was the first time he’d played the arena solo.

Olly supported Take That on their remaining two nights in Glasgow and will support them for their Manchester dates too, which have been moved from the newly-opened Co-op Live Arena to the city’s AO Arena.

The venue, situated in the east of the city by Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium, has been troubled by a serious of technical issues in its opening days which have resulted in several concerts being rearranged, postponed, or moved.

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If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

MORE : Gary Barlow’s £6,000,000 home raided by burglars in the dead of night

MORE : Take That still the hot daddies of British pop as they titillate fans on new tour

MORE : Olly Murs enjoys baby snuggles with newborn daughter after sharing parenting guilt

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Money latest: Sainsbury's running Nectar points scheme - check if you're eligible

Our cost of living specialist is back with a money-saving tip for using the internet abroad. Read all today's personal finance and consumer news - and listen to the latest Ian King Business Podcast below.

Friday 10 May 2024 10:54, UK

• Interest Rates
• UK exits recession, official figures show
• Interest rate held at 5.25% | Bank of England: June rate cut 'not ruled out but not fait accompli'
• Gordon Ramsay to open new restaurants on London skyscraper

Essential reads

• Ed Conway on economy: Three reasons to be gleeful about the ONS figures
• How to avoid a holiday data roaming charge (while still using the internet)
• Mortgage rates up again this week - here are the best deals on the market
• How you can turn nightly chocolate into a superfood
• Cheapest 10 European cities for a holiday - and how costs compare
• Listen to the Daily above and  tap here to follow wherever you get your podcasts

Sainsbury's is running a scheme that allows some shoppers to earn easy Nectar card points. 

To earn extra points, shoppers just need to spend £1 across multiple transactions at Sainsbury's this month. 

The supermarket says the scheme is available to "millions" of customers, though all it would say about the eligibility criteria is that it's "based on a range of factors".

Check if you're eligible

Log into your nectar card app and check to see if you have this message...   

Make sure you opt in once you see the message. 

From there, you simply need to spend £1 or more five times - earning extra points each time. 

The number of bonus points on offer varies for each customer.

The offer runs until 4 June. 

Britain is not just out of recession. 

It is out of recession with a bang.

The economic growth reported this morning by the Office for National Statistics is not just faster than most economists expected, it's also the fastest growth we've seen since the tailend of the pandemic, when the UK was bouncing back from lockdown.

But, more than that, there are three other facts that the prime minister and chancellor will be gleeful about (and you can expect them to be talking about this number for a long time).

First, it's not just that the economy is now growing again after two quarters of contraction - that was the recession. 

An economic growth rate of 0.6% is near enough to what economists used to call "trend growth", back before the crisis - in other words, it's the kind of number that signifies the economy growing at more or less "normal" rates. 

And normality is precisely the thing the government wants us to believe we've returned to.

Second, that 0.6% means the UK is, alongside Canada, the fastest-growing economy in the G7 (we've yet to hear from Japan, but economists expect its economy to contract in the first quarter).

Third, it's not just gross domestic product that's up. So too is gross domestic product per head - the number you get when you divide our national income by every person in the country. After seven years without any growth, GDP per head rose by 0.4% in the first quarter. 

And since GDP per head is a better yardstick for the "feelgood factor", perhaps this means people will finally start to feel better off.

But this is where the problems come in. 

Because while this latest set of GDP figures is undoubtedly positive, the numbers that came before are undoubtedly grim.

GDP per head is still considerably lower, in real terms, than it was in 2022, before Liz Truss's disastrous mini-budget, or for that matter lower than in early 2019.

Raising another question: when people think about the state of the economy ahead of the election (and obviously these new figures are likely to increase the speculation about the date of the election), do they put more weight on the years of economic disappointment or the bounce back after them?

Do they focus on the fact that we're now growing at decent whack or on the fact that their income per head is, in real terms, no higher today than it was five years ago?

These are the questions we will all be mulling in the coming months - as the next election approaches. One thing is for sure: this won't be the last time you hear about these GDP numbers.

The chancellor is speaking to Sky News after the welcome news that the UK has exited a recession. 

"It's encouraging that the UK economy is growing faster over the last quarter, not just than France, Germany or Italy, but actually faster than the United States," Jeremy Hunt says.

"But I think what's more encouraging is the longer-term data that we are now seeing about the economy."

He praises the government's handling of the economy. 

"I think that for families who've been having a really tough time, this is an indication that difficult decisions that we've taken over recent years are beginning to pay off and we need to stick with them."

He nods to the Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey's comments yesterday that inflation is expected to fall to 2% in the coming months: "So we're seeing that inflation is falling faster and I think people recognise it's been a very, very challenging period."

He's then asked whether the UK can compete with the US's economy in the coming years. 

Mr Hunt says he wants the UK to become "the new Silicon Valley" as a route into the tech sector. 

"Tech is the sector that is growing the fastest and will continue to grow the fastest," he says. 

Finally, he's asked when national insurance will be abolished - a recent Tory pledge. 

"We haven't set a date... we'll only do it when it's affordable and when we can do so without impacting on public services."

Our economics editor Ed Conway   is giving his first reaction to the ONS statistics that show the UK is no longer in recession. 

"These are great numbers," he says. 

"Certainly in the context of things, they are close to what we would normally historically call trend growth - a good rate of growth - and that's going back a long time. 

"They're better than expected... this is definitely some good news."

The UK economy is no longer in recession, according to official figures.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.6% between January and March, the Office for National Statistics said.

A recession, which is defined as two consecutive three-month periods where the economy contracts, was declared in February.

The previous set of figures showed that GDP, a major measure of economic growth, shrank 0.3% between October and December. It followed a contraction of 0.1% in the three months from July to September.

The slump was blamed on reduced consumer spending power as inflation and energy bills stayed high. Months of wet weather also contributed to keeping shoppers at home, commentators said.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, was buoyant about the figures: "It has been a difficult few years, but today's growth figures are proof that the economy is returning to full health for the first time since the pandemic." 

By Megan Harwood-Baynes , cost of living specialist

When my plane touched down on the runway of Manila airport, I was welcomed to the country with a text. Coming from Sky Mobile, the message informed me that using my phone abroad would incur hefty charges - including £2.16 for every megabyte (MB) of data I used.

One MB is equivalent to a short WhatsApp voice note message, and given my average monthly data allowance is 20GB (20,000MB), I would be quickly bankrupted if I continued to use my phone as normal. And while I love switching off from work while I am away, for me, the internet is as much a holiday essential as toothpaste and a hairbrush. 

From the ability to check Google Maps when out and about, or do a quick search to check I am not being scammed, it is now something I always factor into my holiday budget.

Welcome to the world of eSims

An eSim is an industry-standard digital SIM card that allows you to activate a mobile plan on your phone without the need to install a physical SIM into your phone.

TLDR - it means you can activate a short, temporary internet plan while on holiday for a fraction of the price it would cost you through your network provider.

I used an app called Global Yo (other providers are available, but this is the one I used), which has 24-hour plans from as little as 99c (71p) for 1GB. 

Once downloaded from the App Store, you can scroll through the list of countries to select your destination. Select the plan you want - while in the Philippines, I paid around £7 for a weekly plan that would give me 5GB of data. It is cheaper to do it day by day, but that also means you have to remember to top up each morning.

Once purchased, you are sent a QR code to scan - this will help you install the eSIM. The process varies by phone, but once installed, you go into the SIM manager settings on your phone. You can then toggle the settings so your calls and texts come via SIM 1 (your primary phone number), but mobile data uses the eSIM. This means you won't miss any vital text messages that come through to your phone number while on holiday.

The downsides

Not every network, or mobile phone, supports eSIMS, so check with your network provider before you shell out, and make sure your phone is unlocked. My sister, who lives in Hong Kong, wasn't able to install the eSIM on her phone but only realised this after paying £7.99 for a week's worth of data. 

We also had some difficulty installing it on my mum's iPhone, but that could be because we are all Android users.

You also have to be connected to WiFi /the internet to install the eSIM in the first place, so make sure you do it while at your hotel in the morning. A few times while I was paying each day I would forget this, head out and be without internet for the day. 

This wasn't exactly a hardship, but did mean I couldn't share with my Instagram followers what a great time I was having.

It can be hard to balance eating well without spending a lot.

In this series, we try to find the healthiest options in the supermarket for the best value - and have enlisted the help of Sunna Van Kampen , founder of Tonic Health, who went viral on social media for reviewing food in the search of healthier choices.

In this series we don't try to find the outright healthiest option, but help you get better nutritional value for as little money as possible.

Today we're looking at chocolate - and why, before sugar and dairy is added, it's a superfood, in Sunna's view. 

A superfood is anything with a very high "nutritional density" - or lots of nutrients for few calories. 

Superfoods need a high concentration of antioxidants - molecules which neutralise unstable molecules that can harm your cells.

You can get antioxidants by purchasing expensive "greens" powders, but Sunna says plenty of supermarket options can be classified as "superfood".

"Chocolate is not unhealthy, it is actually a superfood - it's the sugar we added to it that is the problem," he says.

"Chocolate in the supermarkets tends to come in at only £27.50/kg, which is almost half the price of your cheapest greens powder." 

Sunna points out that cacao, from which chocolate is made, is in its own right a superfood and has more antioxidants than blueberries, acai berries and cranberries - well-known superfoods. 

"Cacao actually has more than 40x the antioxidants of blueberries in its raw form," he says. 

But, as he says, the added sugar is where the problems come in. 

Sunna's guide to buying chocolate

Sunna recommends picking chocolate that contains a high proportion of cocoa solids - which brings down the sugar content. 

Here's how the different kinds of chocolate stack up:

• Milk – 25% cocoa solids, 54g of sugar per 100g.
• Dark – 47% cocoa solids, 49g of sugar per 100g.
• 70% dark - 70% cocoa solids, 29g of sugar per 100g
• 85% dark - 85% cocoa solids, 15g of sugar per 100g
• 90% dark - 90% cocoa solids, 7g of sugar per 100g

"A typical milk chocolate only contains 25% cacao solids, and the first two ingredients are actually milk and sugar," Sunna says. 

"For chocolate to be a superfood, it has to be dark chocolate - at a minimum of 70% dark ideally."

A couple of pieces after dinner each night means you'll be consuming 200g of superfood chocolate a week for £5.50.

"If you're a milk chocolate fan, don't fret," Sunna says. "It is possible to retrain your taste buds in just 10 days to get the superfood benefits of 70% and above."

That might sound easier said than done, but Sunna says the trick is to start with the lower percentages and work your way up to the higher ones. 

"Get to a level you are comfortable with and then make sure you have a piece of chocolate every night for 10 days straight," he says. 

"The more you train the taste buds, the less sugar you consume."

The switch from milk chocolate to 70% dark will save you 2.6kg of sugar a year, while working your way up to 90% will save you more than 4.8kg of sugar a year (assuming 200g consumption per week). 

"Small chocolate changes - and a bit of work to train your tastebuds - can lead to huge sugar savings that are worth it not just for the reduction in sugar, but also the increase in antioxidants," Sunna concludes. 

Read more from this series... 

Every Friday we get an overview of the mortgage market with independent experts from  Moneyfactscompare.co.uk .  Today, finance expert Rachel Springall outlines what's been happening with mortgages this week, before honing in on the best rates for remortgaging…

Fixed-rate mortgage repricing has quietened down this week, but a couple of prominent lenders have made tweaks, such as Virgin Money increasing selected fixed by up to 0.2% and Barclays reducing by up to 0.39%. 

This comes off the back of a busy week for repricing, as lenders reacted to rising swap rates. 

The Bank of England's next rate decision will be in June, but it's uncertain whether a rate cut will happen, with some economists predicting no change until the last three months of the year.

Week on week, the overall average two and five-year fixed rates rose to 5.93% and 5.51%.

Looking at remortgaging, this week the lowest two-year fix for customers with 40% equity comes from The Co-operative Bank, priced at 4.76%, which comes with a £1,999 fee and offers borrowers £250 in cashback and provides a free valuation and free legal fees incentive package. This is available to those who borrow a minimum of £750,000.

Those looking to fix for longer will find the lowest five-year fixed remortgage deal comes from NatWest this week, available to those with 40% equity. Priced at 4.32%, this deal carries a £1,495 fee and offers a free valuation and free legal fees incentive package.

Best buy alternatives

As a remortgage customer, it's possible you are looking to save on the upfront cost of any deal. You might also want a deal to cover a valuation or legal fees. A best buy mortgage could be the most cost-effective choice in this instance.

This week the top packages on a two-year fixed remortgage deal at 60% or 75% loan-to-value come from First Direct, priced at 4.83% and 4.98% respectively, both of which come with a free valuation and free legal fees incentive package and charge a £490 product fee. 

If you want to borrow more, then there is a best buy deal priced at 5.19% from Suffolk Building Society at 80% loan-to-value, which carries a free valuation and free legal fees incentive package and charges a £1,198 product fee.

A five-year fixed mortgage may be more appealing for you to guarantee your monthly repayments for longer.

Vernon Building Society has a deal priced at 4.49%, and charges a product fee of £999 but does not carry any incentives. If you are borrowing at 75% loan-to-value, then Cumberland Building Society has a best buy package priced at 4.58% for five years, which includes a free valuation and free legal fees incentive package and charges a £999 product fee.

Looking for some longer Money reads for your evening/commute/lunch break?

Here's four from the last few months you might like...

Should you offer kids cash rewards for good grades? The psychologist's view

As exam season gets under way, some parents are putting hundreds of pounds aside to reward their children if they achieve certain grades. 

While some parents lambasted the idea as "absolute potatoes", others told Sky News they saw their children's focus increase after offering up to £250 for the top results.

We also spoke to teachers and a psychologist...

What can I do if flexible working request declined?

Every Monday we put your financial dilemmas or consumer disputes to industry experts. A few weeks ago Sky News reader AJ2024 asked...

"While on maternity leave my employer rejected my flexible work request and told me to pick from four new shift patterns or take redundancy if they didn't suit me. All new shifts were full working hours. No support as a new mother and ruined my last few precious weeks. What are my rights?"

We got an employment lawyer to answer...

'£2,000 landed in my account' - The people who say they're manifesting riches

Money blogger Jess Sharp spoke to people who swear they've made money from manifestation - before finding herself meditating under a tree to see if she could get in on the action...

The world of dark tourism - what is it, is it ethical, and where can you go?

Interest in a phenomenon known as "dark tourism" has been steadily rising in recent years - but what is it?

To find out, we spoke with tourism academic  Dr Hayley Stainton  and renowned dark tourist and author Dr Peter Hohenhaus, who runs a  dark tourism website ...

Be the first to get Breaking News

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Baby dies days after going into cardiac arrest at Legoland, police say

(Gray News) - A baby has died days after going into cardiac arrest at a theme park in the United Kingdom.

According to the Thames Valley Police , a 5-month-old boy was seriously injured at the Legoland Windsor Resort on May 2 in what they are calling a neglect incident.

Three days later, the infant died at an area hospital, officials said.

The baby was allegedly injured near the Coastguard HQ boat ride in the afternoon that day at the park with police asking anyone who was in line for the ride to come forward with information.

Police said a 27-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with the incident.

Authorities did not immediately identify her but said she was facing charges that included suspicion of neglecting a child to cause unnecessary injury.

The woman’s charges were announced before the child died.

The Child Abuse Investigation Unit said its team is working with the family of the boy and the resort to find out what exactly happened.

“We are investigating a distressing incident involving a very young child at Legoland Windsor,” Detective Constable Zoe Eele said. “We are supporting the family at this extremely difficult time and working closely with the team at Legoland Windsor Resort.”

Police said they are currently not looking for anyone else as a suspect with their investigation ongoing.

Copyright 2024 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. TMX contributed to this story.

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Jason Donovan returns to Rocky Horror role for UK Tour

Australian actor and singer Jason Donovan has spoken about the sentimental value The Rocky Horror Show has for him after meeting his wife Angela in 1998 on the production.

Former Neighbours star Donovan, 55, will reprise the role of suspender-clad Frank ‘N’ Furter in the 2024-2025 UK tour of Richard O’Brien’s musical.

The show will hit the road from August this year, and the new West End production of The Rocky Horror show also includes a two-week run at London’s Dominion Theatre from September 6 2024.

Donovan, who has been playing the role in Sydney and Melbourne as the show celebrated 50 years, told the PA News Agency: “It’s also special for me because I met my wife on the show in 1998. She was working on the show.

O’Brien, who previously presented Channel 4’s The Crystal Maze, wrote the musical stage show The Rocky Horror Show in 1973, which was later adapted for the 1975 film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, starring Susan Sarandon and Tim Curry.

He co-wrote the screenplay for the film and also starred on the big screen as Riff Raff.

The show, which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in June 1973, follows Brad and his fiancee, Janet, as they happen across a gothic looking mansion after their car breaks down.

They meet the head of the house Dr Frank ‘N’ Furter, a self-proclaimed “sweet transvestite from transexual Transylvania”, and the couple watch on as he creates a man called Rocky in his laboratory.

Donovan said the show “seems as fresh as it’s always been and still is relevant”, and said he loves the “eccentricity” of the character Frank ‘N’ Furter.

He added of the character: “I love its heart, I love the madness. I think the music carries you, it’s punctuated in the right way. And it just works for me.

“I always wanted to be the lead singer of a band and this is my moment. I’m in this band, this sort of crazy, alternate band, indie band, and it’s sort of, the shoes fit”.

He has starred in a West End run of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert and gained plaudits for his time playing the title role in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

He told PA: “I sort of came into musical theatre in a big blonde wig with a pair of white fluffy socks and a technicolour dreamcoat. In a way I was fit and right to play that part.

“But there are other things I am and I wanted to do. And Rocky Horror sort of tickled that sort of darker side of me and it’s a show that I never get bored of. I don’t get bored of the music, I don’t get bored of my time in the character.

“I’m not looking at the clock going, can’t wait for the second act to finish and I think that is unique.

“It’s a short show, too, you know, but it punctuates in the right, it has the right rhythms in it. And not many shows of this nature last with such a following, as Rocky Horror has”.

The show is set to hit the road from August 19 until February 1 2025.

Tickets are on sale now from RockyHorror.co.uk.

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2 killed when a small plane headed to South Carolina crashes in Virginia, police say

The Associated Press

May 6, 2024, 2:50 PM

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Two people were killed when a small plane headed for South Carolina crashed in Virginia, authorities said.

The Fluvanna County Sheriff’s Office received reports of a low-flying plane and an explosion around 9 a.m. Sunday in Palmyra and an aircraft was found on fire in a densely wooded area, Virginia State Police said in a news release.

The twin-engine aircraft departed Manassas Regional Airport, about 71 miles (114 km) northeast of Palmyra, and was headed to Georgetown County Airport in South Carolina, the FAA said in a statement.

Both the pilot of the privately-owned 1975 Rockwell Aero Commander 690A and the passenger were killed, police said. Police identified the pilot as John W. Latham, 63, of Haymarket, and the passenger as Niiben C.A. Ayivorh, 73, of Burke.

The cause of the crash is under investigation, police said. There was a light rain at the time of the crash.

Two National Transportation Safety Board investigators were at the crash site beginning to document the site and the wreckage, which will be taken to a secure facility for further evaluation, the agency said in a statement. The NTSB asked for help recovering an engine, propeller and other airframe parts.

As the plane flew near Miles Jackson Road in Palmyra, parts started to separate from the airplane and some parts have already been recovered from a debris field that stretches nearly 3 miles (4.8 kilometers), the NTSB said.

Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

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