OHMYGOSSIP — Massive Attack have announced their first live UK show in five years.
The trip hop group have confirmed plans for a summer climate action event in their hometown of Bristol in the summer as they mark 25 years of their own climate activism.
Act 1.5 will be an all day “large-scale climate action accelerator event” at Clifton Downs on August 25, 2024.
It will see the duo – Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall – playing their first UK concert in five years, while the gig will be the lowest carbon show of its size ever.
In a statement, Del Naja said: “We’re chuffed to play our home city again and to be able do it in the right way.
“In terms of climate change action there are no excuses left; offsetting, endless seminars and diluted declarations have all been found out – so live music must drastically reduce all primary emissions and take account of fan travel.
“Working with pioneering partners on this project means we can seriously move the dial for major live music events and help create precedents that are immediately available.”
Special guests are set to be announced as more acts join the lineup.
The show is also part of Massive Attack’s partnership with scientists and analysts at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
As part of the band’s decarbonisation efforts, the show will feature a localised pre-sale for Bristol, Bath, Gloucestershire, Swindon and Taunton postcodes to try and limit private car travel, while renewable energy will be used alongside with a rail travel incentive.
the Tyndall Centre’s Professor Carly McLaghlan added: “This is precisely the type of transformative approach that we need to see more of in the live music sector and indeed every sector; one that has the collaboration and vision to reduce emissions across all areas of impact and working beyond the areas you directly control to unlock the systemic change we urgently need to deliver on our Paris Agreement commitments.”
the localised ticket pre-sale starts at 10am UK time on Wednesday (06.12.23), with the general sale going live on Friday.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Robbie Williams is set to headline BST Hyde Park this summer.
The ‘Let Me Entertain You’ pop star has been unveiled as the next headline act for the concert series at London’s Hyde Park as he tops the bill on July 6, 2024 for a UK exclusive show.
In a statement, he said: “It’s an honour to be back here to headline BST Hyde Park. I can’t wait to see you all there!”
The 49-year-old singer will be joined by “specials guests” and a “full supporting lineup”, with further announcements to follow.
The ‘Rock DJ’ hitmaker is the second name to be unveiled for the events after the news that Andrea Bocelli will top the bill on the previous night (July 5).
The legendary Italian tenor will make history as the first-ever classical artist to headline the summer concert series.
Andrea will also be celebrating his 30th anniversary at Hyde Park and said it will be an “unforgettable” experience.
The 65-year-old recently commented: “Hyde Park is the perfect place for coming together to celebrate my 30th anniversary and reimagine it as a springboard propelling us into the future, imbued with positivity and the power of good.
“Celebrating it here is sure to be unforgettable, in the vast green lung from which London has been drawing breath for hundreds of years, in this park that is the embodiment of a glorious chapter in the history of a nation, of a continent, of a civilization… and also of so much wonderful music that has rung out here, nourishing it in its wake.”
More headliners and support bills are set to follow, with last year’s shows topped by Lana Del Rey, P!nk, Take That, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, Guns N’ Roses and BLACKPINK.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Nicki Minaj has pulled out of a performance at the Jingle Ball to give herself time to finish her new album.
The 40-year-old rapper had been due to hit the stage for the festive event in Chicago, Illinois on Monday (04.12.23) but she cancelled her appearance at the last minute explaining she needed more time to focus on the launch of her record ‘Pink Friday 2’ which was previously delayed twice before.
In a post on X – formerly known as Twitter – she wrote: “I have to tell you something. One last thing. Hope it doesn’t make you sad. I won’t be able to perform tmrw in #Chicago for Jingle Ball. I was so excited to see you guys. Pls accept my sincerest apologies. I’ll make it up to you on the Chicago stops of my tour early next year. Details to come.”
However, Nicki confirmed her pal Lil Wayne has agreed to step in and perform in her place. She added: “My beloved brother/boss stepped up for me so that I wouldn’t have to push my album back. His name is Lil Wayne AKA the GOAT. He will perform tmrw @ the Chicago show.
“I am STILL performing @ the #Atlanta Jingle Ball on the 14th and now I’ll ALSO be performing at the #Miami Jingle Ball on the 16th. Album STILL dropping this FRIDAY.”
‘Pink Friday 2’ had initially been due for release in October but was pushed back until November 17. It was then delayed again with a new release date of December 8 to avoid clashing with Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz’s joint album ‘Welcome 2 Collegegrove’.
At the time, Nicki explained in an appearance on Instagram Live: “I have changed my album date. It’s been changed for some time now behind the scenes. Weezy [Lil Wayne] and 2 Chainz, they announced their date and you know how me and Weezy play. He would never do that if that was my album date.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Cher missed out on “a lot of money” after failing to secure a writing credit on ‘Believe’.
The 77-year-old singer admitted one of her biggest regrets was being too “stupid” to ask for her contribution to the 1998 single – which was formally credited to Brian Higgins, Stuart McLennen, Paul Barry, Steven Torch, Matthew Gray, and Timothy Powell – to be officially recognised because the song went on to sell more than 11 million copies around the world.
Speaking on BBC Radio 2’s ‘Tracks Of My Years’, she told host Vernon Kay: “You can’t even imagine — about 30 people wrote on it. And I was so stupid. I didn’t ask. I didn’t even get a writer’s credit.
“I wrote, ‘I’ve had time to think it through, and maybe I’m too good for you’.
“It sold 11million copies. I could have got a lot of money.”
Cher recalled how tense recording the song was and she even walked out of the studio when her vocals were criticised.
She laughed: “The verse was so bad. I couldn’t make it good.
“We — the songwriters and I — got into a big fight over it. I walked out after they said I had to sing it better.
“Then in the morning I said ‘[Use] a vocoder?’ and they said, ‘No, you’ve got to do it at the time [live]’.”
But the track was eventually altered and Cher loves how unrecognisable her voice is in parts of the song.
She said: “My favourite thing was that you didn’t know it was my voice at the beginning.”
The veteran singer is currently promoting her first ever festive album, which is titled ‘Christmas’, but she insisted she just wanted to make people “feel happy”, rather than place particular emphasis on the holiday season.
She said: “I don’t want people to think of me and Christmas as one with this album.
“What I wanted to do was make an album that would make people feel happy,
“I wanted it to be joyous. I just wanted to pick songs that even if it doesn’t go together, it makes you feel better.”
And she dismissed speculation she is trying to take the festive crown away from ‘All I Want For Christmas is You’ hitmaker Mariah Carey.
She said: “Mariah is a great vocalist.
“She can do amazing things with her voice. It’s unbelievable.
“’All I Want For Christmas’ is on my playlist.
“When you hear what she can do with her voice . . . it’s such a thrill to hear someone who sings so well.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Take That love connecting with their fans through social media.
The pop group first formed in 1990 as a five-piece – which included Robbie Williams – and they would try and connect with their fans through the media, fan clubs and in person when they could.
Now, the trio – Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen – love the fact they can communicate with their followers via Instagram, X and TikTok and they loved seeing what dance routines fans come up with to their songs.
Talking to the Daily Star Sunday newspaper, Gary, 52, said: “If there was one thing we longed for in the ’90s, it was connection to our audience beyond talking to journalists or going through a TV show.
“That was the only way of getting to our audience, and now they’re in our hands.
“In the past, people used to take your music home and listen to it on a Friday night.
“Nowadays they’re making dance routines to it, It’s a not new in the way people are engaging with music. It’s just a new format of it.”
Howard, 55, added that the group also love to canvas opinions from their fans when they meet them and take their feedback about their live shows seriously.
He said: “Sometimes fans are outside the hotels and you ask them, ‘Do you like the tour?’
“If someone says, ‘Oh, it’s not as good as the last one’, but that’s their honest opinion and it really, really does count.”
Social media played a huge part in Take That’s decision to carry one as a trio after Jason Orange quit in 2014.
Mark, 51, said: “We were watching social media to see if fans were interested in having three people as Take That and everyone was so positive. We really didn’t wat to be coming back to everyone going ‘What the hell is this?!”
Garry added: “Even though Jay and Rob aren’t here, Take That is the five of us still, but right now that is the band. It’s a funny band, it’s like no other.
“They are still here in a way those guys, because they’re so much part of the music we perform every night.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Rick Ross says Phil Collins is a huge influence on his music.
The 47-year-old rapper has just released his joint album with Meek Mill, ‘Too Good To Be True’, and he admits that Genesis frontman Phil, 72, has been an inspiration to him, citing his 1981 solo smash hit ‘In the Air Tonight’ as one of his favourite tracks.
In an interview with People magazine, Ross highlighted some playlist picks that might surprise his fans, saying: “It’s too easy. Phil Collins, ‘In the Air Tonight.’ This is that yacht music right here
“So when I talk about that sound, I know where to draw from. I know where I want inspiration from. I know where I need it. Timeless records. When I’m talking about records that’s 40 years old, 30 years old, what’s the feeling I’m looking for? I could just keep going.”
The hip hop star also revealed that he is an unlikely fan of Gloria Estefan.
He said: “Welcome to Miami! You feel me? That’s just that top-down, let the top down. Matter of fact, leave the top at home. Don’t only let it down. Leave it at home. You can’t even let it back up. That’s Miami.”
On his new LP, Ross and Mill sample ‘Shout’ by Tears for Fears on the track ‘Go to Hell’ and he wanted to use the hook from the British pop rock band because he wanted an ’80s vibe on the song.
He said: “I’m a young kid then, but when you look at all the TV shows that was based out of Miami, and being in Miami, it was no way around it. So if you wasn’t from Miami and you was watching Miami Vice, they riding in the Ferraris, that’s what went with the Ferraris. That European sound, man.
“But most definitely, that European music scene in Miami was… The same way the Latin scene was in Miami, the European music scene was in Miami. So Tears for Fears, most definitely, that was like 2 Live Crew.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Michael Stipe has “finished the songs” for his debut solo album.
Fans of Stipe’s former band R.E.M have been patiently waiting since the American band split in 2011 for Stipe, 63, to release an LP under his own name.
The ‘What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?’ singer has now revealed that he is at a point where he is happy with the tracks and has set himself a deadline to release the album.
In an interview with The New York Times, he said: “I have a deadline now. I could keep working on this record for a decade and let my insecurities get the better of me.
“We can say … that I finished the songs.”
Stipe also explained that the record was delayed over the past 18 months by the COVID pandemic, and his own experience of the respiratory illness, family emergencies, a house move and writer’s block.
Referring to the interruptions over the the past several months, he added: “Life got in the way.”
In May 2023, Stipe spent a week at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village, New York, the recording studio opened by Jimi Hendrix in 1970 and met Taylor Swift, her producer Jack Antonoff and 1975 frontman Matty Healy, with the latter two telling him they were R.E.M fans.
In a previous interview with Departures, the singer revealed that he felt free to be working on a collection of songs with no pressure from a label.
He said: “I’m working on a solo album, my first. I’m collaborating with a bunch of different musicians and each of those songs, if I get my way, which I think I will because I’m paying for it, will be very different.
“I have no management. I have no label. For the first time in my adult life, I don’t have a contract with anyone except myself. So I get to do whatever I want. Anyway, there will be a visual representation for each of the songs, and it should come together next year. I’m hoping to build slowly.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Van Morrison has insisted he and Bob Dylan are “worlds apart”.
The two musicians have often been compared but the ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ hitmaker, 78, insists what they do is different because the ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ hitmaker, 82, is a “songwriter who sings” and he is a singer first.
He told Vintage Rock magazine: “Well, I’m just nothing like Bob Dylan, so I guess what I was trying to say was, like, I’m coming from the place that I’m a singer first. I’m a singer. Right? And I write songs.
So Bob Dylan and I are, like, worlds apart.
What he does and what I do, you know, it’s nowhere near.”
He continued: “I am a singer who writes songs, so I was comparing myself more to the singer who writes songs, rather than a songwriter who sings.”
Van’s latest project is the covers album ‘Accentuate the Positive’, and he insists he is only motivated to do things that inspire him, not what other people want him to do.
He said: “I’m not interested in what other people want me to do or what they expect. I think if you’re successful, then you should be able to do what you want. So I enjoy doing this music. I have always enjoyed it… I just do what I like with music that inspires me and has always inspired me. So there’s no particular reason. It’s just what I want to do.
I can do it, you know?”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Nick Cave has written a poignant tribute to the late Shane MacGowan and Sinéad O’Connor.
The 66-year-old singer hailed The Pogues frontman a “true friend and the greatest songwriter of his generation” when his death was announced on Thursday (30.11.23), and he’s now written on an essay reflecting on the singer’s 60th birthday gig, where he performed on a bill which included the ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ hitmaker, who passed away five months ago.
Asked about his memories of the stars on his Red Hand Files website, Nick told how he felt “agitated and nervous” about performing alongside the likes of Bono, Carl Barat and Bobby Gillespie but Sinead offered him comfort.
He wrote: “I saw Sinéad O’Connor standing slightly separate from everyone else, half hidden by the curtain, gazing at the floor, looking fierce and intense.
“I didn’t really know Sinéad, I’d met her a few times here and there, and maybe chatted briefly with her, but I had always liked her uniqueness, her raging spirit, her disagreeableness, her beautifulness and, of course, her celestial voice.
“Sinéad looked up and caught my eye, smiled, and walked over and hugged me. I’m not sure why, but I was terribly moved by her gesture. She was so warm and giving and kind in that moment. I was unaware quite how precious a moment it would turn out to be.”
Nick didn’t get chance to speak to Sinead as he was “ushered” on stage to perform ‘Summer in Siam’ with Shane, and what struck him most about that moment was the love between the ‘Dirty Old Town’ singer and his wife, Victoria Mary Clarke.
He wrote: “Shane’s wife, Victoria, then pushed Shane on in a wheelchair and, well, I know I should be talking about the pure unbridled genius of Shane MacGowan and how he was the greatest songwriter of his generation, with the most terrifyingly beautiful of voices — all of which is true — but what struck me at that moment was the extraordinary display of love for this man, so powerful and deep, that poured forth from the audience. It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced…
“Shane was not revered just for his manifold talents but also loved for himself alone. A beautiful and damaged man, who embodied a kind of purity and innocence and generosity and spiritual intelligence unlike any other.”
The ‘Into My Arms’ singer described both artists as “truly beloved and greatly missed”.
He concluded: “Sinéad once said of Shane, ‘He is an angel. An actual angel’. Whether or not this is the case, who’s to say?
” But Shane was blessed with an uncommon spirit of goodness and a deep sense of what is true, which was strangely amplified in his brokenness, his humanness. We can say of him most certainly, ‘he was beloved on the earth,’ and Sinéad too — truly beloved and greatly missed, both.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Olivia Rodrigo “felt so much pressure” while working on her second album.
The 20-year-old singer released ‘GUTS’, the follow-up to her debut record ‘SOUR’ in September and admitted that the process of creating the album was difficult as she was worried about how it would be received.
Speaking at Variety’s Hitmakers brunch, where she received the Storyteller of the Year Award, Olivia explained: “I wouldn’t say it’s always been effortless for me by any means. Especially making my most recent album, I had so many voices in my head and I felt so much pressure to please everyone with the music I was making.
““I found that just simply showing up to create something everyday, even if I didn’t feel extremely inspired, was what pulled me out of that dread and made me start to get really excited about the music I was making.
“I’ve always been a big believer in the magic of creativity. And I think that the more often I show up and I have discipline with my writing, the more often I feel ideas come through me almost like you’re just tapping into some otherworldly well for the hour or so that if takes you to write a song, and then you’re kind of snapped back into reality. I think it’s what makes telling stories and making music so incredibly exciting and fulfilling.”
Olivia was presented with her award by St Vincent, who said: “Olivia sees the cracks and contradictions in herself and others and makes the ineffable understandable and transformational for her listeners. Her honest songs about the impossible task of growing up have liberated so many young people fighting and fumbling their ways through the same experiences. But it’s not merely paying attention that matters to the craft of songwriting. It’s also how you observe and how you listen.
“And that’s what’s special about Olivia, and why her fans consider her songs their personal rallying cries, is that she bears witness from a place of openness and compassion. Olivia’s songs pull off the magic trick of sounding like all of us at once, but also uniquely just like her.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Perrie Edwards has been working on her debut solo album with Ed Sheeran.
The Little Mix singer has been discussing ideas with Ed and is hoping to collaborate with him on her debut record.
A source told The Sun on Sunday’s Bizarre column: “Perrie is taking her time with her debut solo record and she wants to get it just right.
“She really respects Ed and loves his music, so has been keen to collaborate with him on ideas.”
Perrie, 30, is signed to Columbia Records and previously shared how happy she is to be able to take her time on her new music, with no pressure from her label.
She told Grazia: “My label have told me to just go with the flow and enjoy discovering what my sound is going to be, the fact there’s no deadline in my life just makes me the happiest person. I feel so lucky to just be having fun.”
Perrie has been in the studio with Little Mix collaborator Kamille, alongside producer Fred Again and song writing legend Steve Mac.
Kamille previously told OfficialCharts.com: “They’re just so early in their discovery of what they want to do.
“There’s so many things that they’re interested in, I couldn’t pinpoint it to one thing. The best thing right now is that we’re having fun discovering. Hearing their voices on stuff you wouldn’t typically hear it on is just sending me. It’s so, so exciting for me. Can you imagine, as someone who’s used to just one thing with them? I couldn’t even pinpoint it, but just know it’s going to blow everyone’s minds.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Dolly Parton was “nervous” about doing Glastonbury because she thought it was mainly a “rock audience”.
The ‘Jolene’ hitmaker – who has just released her first rock album ‘Rockstar’ after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – headlined the Sunday afternoon legends’ slot at the world-famous music festival in England in 2014 and she didn’t know if her storytelling-style of show would go down well.
She told Classic Rock magazine: “I felt a little nervous about doing Glastonbury, because I knew it was mostly a rock audience. They were having their fun, just wanting to get into the music, dancing and feeling it. And I was thinking: ‘So much of my music is slow and storytelling. I’m not sure about this.’
“I thought that when I got out there they might be whooping and hollering over the stories I was telling.”
However, the country music legend, 77, was blown away by the “tremendous acceptance” she received from the Glasto crowd.
She continued: “But when I walked out I just got this tremendous acceptance. And when I would tell my stories they were as quiet as they could be and they seemed to really be into it. It turned out to be one of the best things I’ve ever done. And then with Richie [Sambora, formerly of Bon Jovi] coming out and playing with me on ‘Lay Your Hands On Me’, y’know, that killed it.
We had a fine time.”
Richie and Dolly go way back and he plays on the title track on ‘Rockstar’.
Asked why someone should listen to a rock album by Dolly, he said: “Music is coming from a long time ago and we’re all just pushing it on. So hop on. I learnt how to play guitar by listening to records, reading the backs of records: let’s find out where Zeppelin got their stuff from, let’s find out where The Beatles came from.
They came from Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters and Good Golly Miss Molly and Little Richard. And where did they come from? That’s the way people should look at it. Dolly may have been the beginning of that movement, whatever you want to call it. If you’re not a fan of Dolly, you don’t understand music very much.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Ally Brooke has found recording a festive track with Dinah Jane to be “fantastic healing”.
The Fifth Harmony singers have teamed up for a cover of ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ in what marks the first collaboration between members of the group for the first time since they went their separate ways in 2018, and it was “empowering” for them to get back into the recording studio together.
Ally told Rolling Stone magazine: “It’s just been fantastic to be reuniting with Dinah. I feel like me and her connected in such a special way. We had similar upbringings and backgrounds. We know the grind and the love that we have for music and for what we do.
“Me and Dinah loved to sing with each other. Together, we were unstoppable. We really were.
“To be able to reunite has been empowering. It’s really such fantastic healing.”
And the pair are keen to work together again on something else.
Ally said of the possibility: “I would love to do more with Dinah. We’re just beginning, and I’m just so glad we have the collab that we have. Especially in the world nowadays, I feel like the world needs happiness and they need something that’ll bring that magical feeling.”
Dinah added: “I would love to. I’m even down to just even song-write, and get into a studio.”
And Dinah admitted the project has made her keen to get closer to former bandmates Normani, Lauren Jauregui, and Camila Cabello again.
She said: Music is very healing. Collaborating again and starting from scratch would be a very big healer as well. This planted the seed for us, I would say. I would collaborate with any of the girls, honestly, but just to hear each other’s stories and be open with one another because we know it’s not easy out here in these streets. I think just getting to know the new us and just making sure every girl’s okay and in a better head space. I know for a fact that I went through my own storm, I can only imagine what everyone else is facing.
AB:

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OHMYGOSSIP — Noel Gallagher is set to return to the studio to make his next solo album.
The former Oasis frontman, 56, narrowly missed the No1 spot with his fourth High Flying Birds record ‘Council Skies’ in June, but will be hoping to land the top spot with his latest effort which he says he’s going to start recording the New Year after banking enough tunes to fill two albums.
He was quoted in The Sun saying: “I’ve had to stop writing because I need to get these songs recorded and get them out there so I can write some more.
“In the pandemic there was nothing to do all day so I just wrote songs. There’s another two albums-worth of material there.
“I think I’m going to be back in the studio in January, so we’ll see where it goes from there.”
Noel also said he was still learning about the impact of his anthems on audiences, adding: “I wouldn’t still be doing it after 30 years if I didn’t love it.
“You tend to find out more about the songs when you play them live than when you’re just listening to them at home. It’s a special thing.
“The live experience, although the songs are the same – it’s a little bit different.
Noel recently said he wants to follow in Adele’s footsteps with a Las Vegas residency.
The singer, who was in Sin City in October to see his friends U2 perform their ‘Achtung Baby’ album, added he loved the idea of not having to move in between gigs like Elvis during his famed runs in Vegas.
He told comedian Matt Morgan on his podcast: “Would I do Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds in Vegas? Possibly in later life.
“You don’t have to go anywhere. You live in the hotel that you play at.
“Elvis Presley used to get a lift from his room to the stage – I wouldn’t mind doing that.”
Adele is thought to have been paid a record $1.2 million per night for her Vegas shows.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Peter Gabriel predicts that Artificial Intelligence will soon be able to create better songs than he can.
The former Genesis frontman has just released his 10th solo LP ‘I/O’, his first full-length album of new original material in over 21 years, but Gabriel believes in the future that AI is going to “turn our world upside down” and will be able to do many things better than humans, including making music.
In an interview with The Sun newspaper, the 73-year-old musician said: “AI is about to turn our world upside down and should be able to do all our jobs, including mine, better than we can.
“So we need to do some urgent thinking and brainstorming about how we can best live with each other and AI in the future.
“People talk of the ‘age of abundance’ and clearly that’s ridiculous for most people struggling to pay their bills but I do believe it’s coming if we can get through this difficult period of transition.”
Peter – who is married to Meabh Flynn with who he has son Isaac – and added that the human race is facing “very real, existential problems” and we need ingenuity to fix it.
He said: “In many other cultures, humans are much more seen as part of the whole, as a part of everything.
“We are now facing very real, existential problems and realistic, energetic optimism is the only possible way to tackle them.”
Since reaching his 70s, the ‘Sledgehammer’ hitmaker has been thinking a lot about his own mortality and has been researching ways in which he can prolong his life.
Peter said: “At age 73, mortality creeps into the rear-view mirror. You either bring it to the front screen or run away from it.
“I am very interested in longevity research which I used to believe was a billionaires’ plaything but now see as a critical driver for all manner of medical breakthroughs for all of us.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Shane McGowan “captured what Christmas was like for a lot of people” in his song ‘Fairytale of New York’, his sister Siobhan MacGowan has claimed.
The Pogues frontman passed away aged 65 on Thursday (30.11.23) after living with several health issues over the past few years. Shane had been diagnosed with viral encephalitis – a deadly infection that can cause brain damage and life-threatening complications – last year, and had been receiving care at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin, Ireland.
Now, his sibling Siobhan has shared her thoughts on her brother’s festive classic – which The Pogues recorded with Kirsty MacColl and released in 1987 – and why she believes it has endured for over 30 years.
Speaking to Hot Press magazine, she said: “I thought it was absolutely amazing. What a song: the orchestration, the pathos, the beauty, the anger.
“I thought it captured what Christmas was like for a lot of people, which we all understood but nobody ever put in Christmas songs. I was very impressed that, finally, there was a Christmas song that maybe portrayed real life more than the other Christmas songs did.
Siobhan gushed about how “very proud” she was of her brother’s lyrics on ‘Fairytale of New York’ – which he co-wrote with Jem Finer – but not “surprised” that he was the artist to bring this sort of honesty to the festive season.
She added: “I was very proud of Shane for having done it – but not a bit surprised that he was the one who this to the fore.”
The news of Shane’s passing was shared by his wife Victoria Mary Clarke in an emotional social media post.
Victoria, 57, wrote: “I don’t know how to say this so I am just going to say it. Shane who will always be the light that I hold before me and the measure of my dreams and the love of my life and the most beautiful soul and beautiful angel and the sun and the moon and the start and end of everything that I hold dear has gone to be with Jesus and Mary and his beautiful mother Therese.
“I am blessed beyond words to have met him and to have had the joy and fun and laughter and so many adventures.
“There’s no way to describe the loss that I am feeling and the longing for just one more of his smiles that lit up my world.
“Thank you thank you thank you thank you for your presence in this world you made it so very bright and you gave so much joy to so many people with your heart and soul and your music. You will live in my heart forever.
“Rave on in the garden all wet with rain that you loved so much. You meant the world to me (sic)”

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