Latest news with #Beatles
Metro
18 hours ago
- Business
- Metro
Is luck of the Irish real? How locals have reacted to huge £208,000,000 win
It took only a few minutes walking through Dublin to find someone who had won a fair few Euros in the lottery. After the huge £208,000,000 jackpot was claimed by someone in Co Cork Metro went to find out if the 'luck of the Irish' was a real thing and if people believed in it. The phrase originated in 19th-century America during the Gold Rush, where many successful miners were Irish immigrants, yet their fortunes were often attributed to luck rather than perseverance and skill. Strolling through the Irish capital was Amanda Walsh, 45, who said she has been awarded 1,500 euros 'at least twice' on the lottery after picking three correct numbers. Shrugging as if it is the most normal thing in the world, she said: 'When I go into the betting shop I usually come out having won something. 'But that's just luck of the Irish.' And it is hard to disagree. Ireland is home to 18 Euromillion jackpot winners with one person this week already beating the 1 in 139,838,160 odds. Hearing about the country's latest EuroMillions win seems to have surprised no one. The sunny weather has brought everyone to a small market in the heart of Dublin, next to a number of betting shops. Stall holder Amanda, winking, told Metro: 'You should go in there when you get a free moment. I bet you'll get lucky.' But the luck isn't all about money – just being in the country is more than enough for those who have come from further afield. Tejol Lahane, 25, from India, said the Irish are some of the happiest people she has ever met. She said: 'We are lucky because we are in the safest country possible to be in. The economy is up, people are in good spirits, and people are enjoying buying tickets!' As Metro chatted to local we quickly found out everyone had their own lucky moment they were desperate to share. Amanda said she has had more than her share after being able to 'bring herself out of abuse and addiction'. She said: 'If I won the lottery, I would just want to be able to help people escape the situation I was in.' Rakesh Bolle, 25, who is originally from India, said he counts himself in possession of Irish luck ever since he was granted his Visa. He said: 'Back home, hardly any of my friends got their Visas to come and study here – but I did. I am truly one of the lucky ones.' Musician Matthew John Lennon, 43, who insisted he is not actually related to the Beatles legend, said he knows the Irish are lucky, but he's not bothered about buying a ticket. He said: 'I already consider myself lucky in life. I love music, I have a great family, what more can I need.' Phyllis Tynan, 74, said she is still waiting for her 'lucky moment' but knows it is coming. But when asked why it was the Irish were so lucky, she put it down to all the leprechauns. 'They are everywhere, of course we have it a lot,' she laughed. Even lottery officials themselves admit the Irish have shown a lucky streak after the latest win. Andy Carter, Senior Winner's Advisor at the National Lottery, told Metro: 'There's definitely a bit of the luck of the Irish involved in this win. 'The highest win in the UK in comparison was £195 million. There's a 76 million to one chance of winning the EuroMillions and following the sequence of rollovers this is amazing luck for them.' Sisters Noleen Kearny and Veronica Daly, 60 and 62 respectively, said they've already won the lottery living in the capital. Veronica told Metro: 'It is a privilege to be born Irish, and an honour to be born in Dublin.' Here are the winners to date: July 2005: Dolores McNamara from Limerick, was Ireland's first and biggest EuroMillions winner scooping over €115 Million July 2008: A player from Co. Tipperary won a €15 Million Jackpot with a ticket bought in Carrick-on-Suir June 2009: A family syndicate shared the Jackpot with a British winner, taking home over €29.4 Million with a ticket purchased in Dublin June 2013: A Dublin player earned half of the €187 Million Jackpot and picked up over €93 Million September 2013: A man from the South East shared a jackpot of over €25 Million with a player in Spain April 2014: €15 Million was claimed on a ticket sold in Castlebar, Co. Mayo September 2014: €86.7 Million Jackpot was won by a syndicate from Dublin from a ticket sold in Centra, Ballybrack, Co. Dublin January 2016: A syndicate of friends won over €66 Million, splitting the Jackpot of €132,376,632. The ticket was sold in Eason's store, Fairgreen Shopping Centre, Carlow July 2016: 22 colleagues from Dublin Bus won the €23.8 Million. The ticket was sold in O'Hanlon's Portarlington January 2017: A Dublin work syndicate claimed the €88.5 Million EuroMillions Jackpot. The winning ticket was sold at the Applegreen Service Station on the M1 Northbound in Lusk, Co. Dublin. July 2017: A syndicate from the West of Ireland won a €29 Million EuroMillions jackpot. The ticket was sold in Garryduff XL Store on Pound Road, Castlebar in Co. Mayo. December 2017: A small family syndicate from Dublin won €38.9 Million on a ticket purchased in The Village Shop in Malahide Shopping Centre June 2018: 32 colleagues from Stakelums Hardware store in Thurles Co. Tipperary share a €17 Million EuroMillions Jackpot with a ticket they purchased at Eason's Store in Thurles Shopping Centre in Co. Tipperary. February 2019: A family syndicate from Nail won €175.4 Million on a ticket sold in Reilly's Daybreak February 2020: A Co. Mayo family shared the €17 Million Jackpot with a ticket they purchased at Mulroy's Londis Store in Castlebar July 2020: An online player in Dublin won a €49.5 Million Jackpot which they won with a €2.50 normal play ticket February 2022: Mid-West ticket holder scoops €30.9 Million Jackpot with Quick Pick ticket they purchased at Larkin's Gala Service Station in Ballina, Co. Tipperary Sitting, drinking tea in front of their flower stand, the pair insisted they wouldn't even bother telling their children they had won the money if it came to it. 'Money is the root of all evil,' Noleen said. 'The money needs to go to charity. I would send food into Gaza, and help Ireland's homeless.' The pair said they had an unlucky start in life after their mother died when they were only young. When their father was offered a blank cheque to help raise the girls, he turned it down saying everything he needed 'was now six feet under'. Veronica said: 'He taught us the luck you have in life is if you can make your own happiness.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Someone has come forward to claim £208,000,000 Euromillions lottery win MORE: Biker dad will retire and buy wife a hot tub after £3,900,000 Lottery win MORE: EuroMillions players urged to check tickets with £208,000,000 jackpot unclaimed
Auto Blog
19 hours ago
- Automotive
- Auto Blog
Volvo's Abbey Road Mode Turns the EX90 Into a Personal Music Venue
One of pop music's hallowed sites is coming to Volvo's largest EV Music is an essential part of driving, whether through your car's radio, on physical media, or a streaming service like Spotify or Apple Music. Some of us have that special mixtape, burnt CD, or mixtape full of the essential tracks meant to lift the spirits on the morning commute, the drive home, or a long drive somewhere far away. 0:08 / 0:09 Nissan's revolutionary self-driving tech hits Japan's streets Watch More One of the bands I grew an unhealthy, obsessive fixation over when I was a kid was The Beatles, and ironically, one of those songs on one of my driving playlists is Drive My Car. Though we know the words and notes of our favorite songs by heart, the most discerning ears know that there are wildly different and noticeable differences when we listen to them in our cars, our headphones, and through various types of speakers. Volvo EX90 — Source: Volvo Abbey Road, in your Volvo Nothing can compare to the experience of attending a live performance or being in the room with artists as they record. However, if you're a Beatles fan like I am, you might need a time machine to experience that era. But while time machines and flux capacitors remain the work of fiction, Volvo's latest software update has a cool new feature that may be the next best thing: a way to bring you closer to one of the most iconic studios in the world. After teasing this feature last year, Volvo has officially introduced what they call the 'Abbey Road Studios Mode' in an over-the-air (OTA) update for its all-electric EX90 models equipped with the optional Bowers & Wilkins High Fidelity Audio system. This innovative digital audio experience has been crafted in collaboration with audio engineers from the actual Abbey Road Studios in London and high-end audio experts at Bowers & Wilkins. Autoblog Newsletter Autoblog brings you car news; expert reviews and exciting pictures and video. Research and compare vehicles, too. Sign up or sign in with Google Facebook Microsoft Apple By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe from email communication at anytime. In essence, Abbey Road Studios Mode was made to replicate the distinct sound and acoustic character of the Abbey Road recording rooms inside the Volvo EX90. In its quest to explore the limits of the in-car music listening experience, Bowers & Wilkins worked closely with the same audio engineers who obsessed over the minute, fine details for a wide range of music artists to create a series of digital soundscapes that could bring the studio alive in the big Volvo EV's ultra-quiet cabin. Abbey Road Studios Mode makes global debut in Volvo EX90 — Source: Volvo Though other expensive brand-name high-end stereo systems in other cars allow you to tweak, tune, and mess with various equalizer (EQ) settings like the balance, bass, treble, and even focus the sound on passengers or drivers, Volvo says that the Abbey Road Studios Mode is different. The mode comes with some special presets that 'provide a selection of sounds, optimised for different listening styles,' as well as a special 'Producer Mode,' which 'allows you to engineer your own sound' by adjusting between retro-style warmth or modern, crisp depth, and even shifting the simulated acoustic environment in the same way George Martin would've done. 'The Abbey Road Studios Mode brings the unique sound of our spaces and equipment to the Bowers & Wilkins system in the Volvo EX90 for the first time,' Abbey Road Studios GM Jeremy Huffelmann said in a statement. 'We are hugely proud of this collaboration, and excited for Volvo customers to experience this landmark technology.' Abbey Road Studios Mode makes global debut in Volvo EX90 — Source: Volvo Final thoughts The Abbey Road Studios Mode is a nice addition to the EX90, which already features a Dolby Atmos-capable, 1,610-watt Bowers & Wilkins system with 25 speakers placed throughout one of Volvo's quietest interiors. As a music fan, words underestimate the kind of songs that were recorded at Abbey Road. We're talking 190 of The Beatles' 210 song catalog, Lennon's Imagine, the entirety of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of The Moon, modern hits like Lady Gaga's Born This Way, Frank Ocean's Pink + White, and even the scores of Oscar-winning movies like Gravity and The Shape of Water. Although it may seem like a bit too much of a niche 'if you know, you know'-type of deal, I feel that given the studio's rich history in modern music, the 'Abbey Road mode' is the ultimate form of an audiophile's stamp of approval, which can sway at least some music-loving buyers towards the Volvo. At least for me, it could make 'Drive My Car' sound true to the original recording. About the Author James Ochoa View Profile
Telegraph
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Why Paul McCartney's girlfriend hid from him in a bathroom
Sir Paul McCartney caused his then-girlfriend to storm out of a 1960s dinner by telling guests he would only marry 'if the right girl came along'. Jane Asher ran out and locked herself in a bathroom, it has been revealed. The couple started dating after they met backstage in 1963 at a Beatles concert in the Royal Albert Hall, which Asher had been sent to cover for the Radio Times. She was 17 and he was 20. Later in their relationship, the pair went out for dinner with Richard Armitage, the talent agent, and a number of other famous faces of the 1960s. Armitage's son, Alex, told Danny Baker about the clumsy exchange that followed, during Baker's one-man show in Somerset last week. A female guest had been quizzing McCartney over his marriage plans, pointing out that two of his bandmates, John Lennon and Ringo Starr, had already tied the knot. Alex told Baker's audience: 'And then she said: 'And what about you Paul? Are you the marrying kind? Are you going to settle down?' 'So McCartney, while sitting next to Jane Asher, said, 'Er, yeah. I think I would if the right girl came along, I'm sure'.' The frank admission caused Asher to slam down her cutlery and run into the lavatory, which she would not leave. Despite the rocky start to their relationship, the couple became engaged in 1967. In a later interview, McCartney told how living at Asher's house with her parents for a spell was 'homey' and 'kind of perfect'. The singer-songwriter is said to have written We Can Work It Out about their relationship to try and prove they could get things back on track. He also wrote And I Love Her in Asher's parents' house. Their engagement came to an end when Asher announced their break-up on live TV in July 1968, in news that surprised McCartney himself. She said although their relationship was 'finished', she suggested they could perhaps be 'childhood sweethearts and meet again and get married when we're 70'. However, McCartney went on to wed Linda Eastman in 1969, with whom he formed Wings. After Eastman's death in 1998, McCartney had a shorter marriage to Heather Mills before meeting Nancy Shevell, his current wife. Asher, who is an actress and author, married Gerald Scarfe, the cartoonist, in 1981 and had three children. She has said she finds it 'insulting' to be asked about her relationship with the Beatle.
Evening Standard
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Evening Standard
Everything we know about The Beatles biopics so far
When the cast of the forthcoming Sam Mendes-directed quartet of Beatles biopics was announced on 1 April, the image of the four actors clad in black immediately broke the internet to a level where it would have been easy to cry 'April fool'. But far from a prank, Mendes has, indeed, managed to cast the holy quaternity of modern-day Hollywood heartthrobs to portray The Fab Four. Harris Dickinson will play John Lennon; Paul Mescal will trade his surname for McCartney; Joseph Quinn will take on the role of George Harrison, while Barry Keoghan will round out the quartet as Ringo Starr.
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Where's the music that meets this moment? Black artists are stepping up
It's been one year since Kendrick Lamar took the Kia Forum stage in Inglewood for 'The Pop Out: Ken and Friends,' the first in a series of highly publicized victory laps that have come at the expense of his deflated rival, Drake. Their rap battle began more than a decade ago, and the two heavyweights exchanged subtle lyrical jabs until the gloves came off in the winter of 2023. By the following spring, they were exchanging a flurry of scathing diss tracks, each diving deeper into the other's personal life. The fight was competitive until K-Dot landed the haymaker. It wasn't the chart performance of 'Not Like Us' that declared Lamar the winner. No recording artist has more Billboard Hot 100 entries than Drake. In fact, he has more appearances on the chart than Michael Jackson, Elvis and the Beatles combined. When it comes to talent and commercial success, Drake is unquestionably among the greats. The reason Lamar was able to knock him out was because Drake's authenticity couldn't take a punch. That's not just my score card. That's what the culture was feeling. Lamar performed 'Not Like Us' five times during that Juneteenth show last year and dropped the accompanying music video on the Fourth of July. By the time Vice President Kamala Harris was playing it at her first rally as the presumptive Democratic nominee in Atlanta, every sporting event in America was playing that song. Yes, the 'A-minor' double entendre was catchy, and it is always good to have Mustard on the beat. But what elevates 'Us' is the same thing that grounds the artist who wrote it — an unapologetic defense of the culture and the people from which the art originates. As the saying goes: 'Everybody wants to sing our blues. Nobody wants to live our blues.' For Lamar, the decadelong rap battle stems from his lifelong disdain for gangster cosplay and the vacuous monetizing of Black culture. As the diss tracks between the two progressed, it was clear Drake was still trying to win a rap battle — while Lamar was inspiring a conversation beyond their beef, rap music and even the entertainment industry. At the heart of Lamar's surgical evisceration of Drake's brand of artistry is a question all creatives must ask of themselves at some point: What am I doing this for? * * * Few inflection moments in American history have shaped our society quite like the convergence of war, technological advancement, old-fashioned prejudice and artistic expression during the summer of 1969. From the Apollo moon landing and Woodstock to the Stonewall riots and the Harlem Cultural Festival, there wasn't a disciple or demographic that was not directly affected over that stretch. It was during the summer of 1969 when the great Nina Simone gave a concert on the campus of Morehouse College in Atlanta after the school's most famous alumnus — the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — had been assassinated the year before. Simone joined other artists there to offer the students encouragement. That summer she also debuted the song 'To Be Young, Gifted and Black' and performed it during the Harlem Cultural Festival. Her contemporaries Donny Hathaway and Aretha Franklin soon recorded their own versions of the song — not because of its chart success, but because of its purpose. 'An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times,' Simone said after her Morehouse performance. 'How can you be an artist and not reflect the times? That to me is the definition of an artist.' Indeed, after Bob Dylan asked 'how many years can some people exist before they're allowed to be free?' in his 1962 protest song, 'Blowin' in the Wind,' Sam Cooke was inspired to declare 'it's been a long time coming, but I know change is gonna come' in 1963. The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham pushed Simone to write her first protest song in 1964: 'Mississippi Goddam.' By the summer of 1969, she was known as much for her work in the civil rights movement as for her music. Simone still wrote songs about love, heartache, those sorts of things. However, the reason her legacy still looms large today (the Irish singer Hozier named his third EP after her in 2018) is that Simone was also willing to use her art to reflect the times. Not sure if you've looked around the country recently, but the times we live in are a-changing. And just as was the case in the summer of 1969, the summer of 2025 finds the U.S. at a convergence of war (Ukraine-Russia/Israel-Gaza-Iran) and technological advancement (especially artificial intelligence) and old-fashioned prejudice (indiscriminate ICE raids). However, in this updated version of America, the White House has taken over the Kennedy Center, has cut off National Endowment for the Arts grants, has threatened the broadcast licenses of news networks and is holding a guillotine over Big Bird's head. Because of President Trump's unprecedented hostility toward long-standing cultural and academic institutions, there is a question of how far tech and media executives will allow today's artists to reflect the times we're living in. 'I think it's hard today to get a feel for the totality of what people are feeling because there's so much out there to consume,' documentarian and author Nelson George told me. 'The Chuck D who's 25, right now, I don't hear him. The Tracy Chapman of this era. Do we really not have voices that are saying something or are we not getting access to those people? All those songs from other moments in history, I'm surprised there hasn't been an anthem for this time yet.' Comedian Roy Wood Jr. said he feels that in his line of work, 'resistance humor or educating humor' works best in television because 'TV is a reflection of who we are, where I feel like movies are what we wish we could be or were.' The host of CNN's 'Have I Got News for You' also said because of the political climate we're in, instead of challenging us to learn or grow as a culture, TV executives are 'canceling a lot of the shows that really focused on serious societal issues because there's a pushback against those types of topics.' Big Sean, whose 2013 project with Lamar is pegged as the starting point of the Drake beef, said there was significance to Lamar's 'pop out' appearing on Juneteenth, the federal holiday marking the end of slavery in the U.S. 'I feel like being Black is awesome.… We worked as a people to get there, to feel like that,' he told me. 'That's why I'm so thankful for the people that said I'm Black and I'm proud.' And that James Brown vibe is the type of art Big Sean said he is currently working on, the kind that uplifts and gives listeners hope. Lamar's Juneteenth show was livestreamed on Prime and became Amazon Music's most-watched production. For Ben Watkins, creator of the Prime TV series 'Cross,' the success of Lamar's performance — along with his Super Bowl show and current tour with SZA — is proof there is a hunger for authentic Black artistic expression in this current political environment. As he was putting together the TV show, Watkins said, he told everyone involved: 'I'm going to do a Black man with swagger, I'm going to show D.C. to its fullest and I'm going to honestly talk about some of the controversies and contradictions of a Black cop.' The reaction? 'That sounds great to us.' 'Cross' premiered the week after the 2024 election and for 100 days it was among Prime Video's top 10 most-watched series. Grammy winner Ledisi said she wasn't planning on writing a political anthem when she began composing 'BLKWMN' for her latest album. However, her tribute to the resolve of Black women was embraced as an anthem after its release in February. 'I wasn't thinking of any of that, just creating,' she told me. 'When you're truly creating … you just have an intention of releasing whatever that feeling is. I'm glad it resonated with the times.' Even before the song took off, Ledisi unexpectedly found herself in the middle of social media attacks for daring to sing the National Black Anthem at this year's Super Bowl. That's why when she sang a couple of lines from one of Lamar's anthems during a recent tour stop in Chicago, I couldn't help but feel it was more a word of encouragement for herself and the predominantly Black audience than it was a nod to a commercially successful track. That week Trump announced plans to resurrect names from the Confederacy on public land. Just hours before Ledisi took the stage, 'No Kings' protesters came marching by, followed closely by local police. Their chants echoed loudly throughout the North Loop, their passion forcing those shopping and dining near the river to take notice. The concrete walls and thick glass designed to rebuke Chicago's winter could not keep out the cries of the people. Later that night Ledisi, whose Nina Simone tribute album was nominated for a Grammy in 2021, looked up in the balcony, smiled — and visibly exhaled. 'We gon' be all right,' she sang to a full Chicago Theatre house. 'We gon' be all right.' * * * Few inflection moments in American history have shaped our society quite like the convergence of war, technological advancement and old-fashioned prejudice during the summer of 1865. The second round of the Industrial Revolution was on the horizon, the Confederacy was on its last legs, and the first Juneteenth celebration was born. However, while the Civil War was all over, racism managed to emerge from the wreckage unscathed. In fact, a Confederate journalist by the name of Edward A. Pollard began working on a revisionist history book that painted the South as noble and slavery as unimportant to their way of life. Pollard's piece of fake news, 'The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates,' was completed before President Andrew Johnson had even declared the war officially over. And to this day there are elected officials from former Confederate states who repeat untruths about the war that originated from Pollard, an enslaver. Today there are state holidays in honor of men who fought against this country because for some white people it still feels better to believe Pollard's lies about the Confederacy than to accept the truth about America. Historically this is where creatives have come in, using artistic expression to fill in the gaps in our understanding of one another. Sometimes the art is profitable. A few times it hits No. 1 on the New York Times Bestseller list or Billboard chart. More often than not, it is underappreciated. However, art that reflects an authentic lived experience is always necessary. It is both the spark that can ignite a fire and the coolant that prevents us all from overheating. Over the last century, each time it seems the world was falling apart — be it war, famine or disease — it was always the artists who kept us laughing, hoping and believing. A year ago, on Juneteenth, Kendrick Lamar took the Forum stage for what was initially viewed as a victory celebration. And it was … though he didn't do it for himself. KDot did it for 'Us.' @LZGranderson
