Scissor Sisters fans distracted as A-list guest 'blows roof off' at reunion gig
A familiar face from the silver screen 'blew the roof off' of The O2 in London during Scissor Sisters' reunion gig on Friday (May 23). The American pop group behind hits like I Can't Decide and I Don't Feel Like Dancin' has recently reformed and are playing a series of shows across the UK.
Their performance last night had fans screaming as the show featured an unlikely cameo appearance, and those who attended the concert have since shared footage showing the Hollywood legend unexpectedly appearing on screens around the arena.
As the band performed, the room went dark with strobe lights filling the arena. When the lights came back on, fans were taken aback to see Sir Ian McKellen – the acclaimed actor known for his work in X-Men, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Flushed Away – at the microphone during a rendition of the hit song, Invisible Light.
During his brief appearance, he read out the monologue he performed on the recorded version of the track.
The 85-year-old's appearance was met with rapturous applause from the attending public, with one user sharing footage of McKellen's performance to the crowd.
They wrote on X: "A concert cameo like no other. Sir Ian McKellen has blown The O2 roof off at The Scissor Sisters' 21st anniversary tour."
That wasn't the only celebrity appearance at the New York trio's concert last night. Rebecca Lucy Taylor, who performs under the stage name Self Esteem, also took to the stage and danced as the band played Take Your Mama. Self Esteem's album, A Complicated Woman, was released earlier this year.
One fan who attended the show wrote: "Absolute mayhem as Sir Ian McKellen does a dramatic reading of his lines from Invisible Light, one of my favourite Scissor Sisters songs of all time. Cried a little, just so blessed to see this."
Another excited fan wrote: " WHAT DO YOU MEAN SIR IAN MCKELLEN WENT ON STAGE WITH THE SCISSOR SISTERS LAST NIGHT?!"
Other fans who attended the show were remaining hopeful of new music from the band, with some saying a "haunting" version of a hit song could suggest new material is on the way.
One X user wrote: "A quiet, haunting version of Mary by the Scissor Sisters At the O2, London. What a night, what a show and I hope this means we're blessed with new music soon."
These performances are among Scissor Sisters' first since they went on hiatus in 2012. The band briefly returned in 2017 for the charity record Swerlk, and in 2019 the group topped the Billboard dance charts with Let's Have a Kiki.
Vocalist Jake Shears says hitting the top of the charts in the US was a huge moment for the band. In 2019, he said: "When that song came out and did what it did [hitting #1 on the Billboard dance charts], I was just like, 'Well, there it is, I guess we did it."
But the group has since returned, with Shears, Babydaddy, Del Marquis, and Randy Real touring the UK. Ana Matronic has not returned after the band confirmed it "didn't line up" for her to be a part of this year's tour.
The band have already played Nottingham's Motorpoint Arena, Glasgow's OVO Hydro, the International Centre in Bournemouth, Cardiff's Utilita Arena and Manchester's Co-op Live in addition to their most recent London show.
They have yet to play the Utilita Arena in Birmingham, the SSE Arena in Belfast and 3Arena in Dublin.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
19 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Julia Roberts rom-com in sequel talks nearly 30 years after the original
Julia Roberts earned a Golden Globe nomination for her work in the beloved romantic comedy My Best Friend's Wedding and now, nearly three decades later, there's talk of a sequel. Roberts, 57, who was turned in to a blonde bombshell for the new thriller After The Hunt, starred as a food critic in the 1997 rom-com co-starring Dermot Mulroney as the friend whose wedding she tried to destroy after realizing she was in love with him. It was Mulroney, 61, who first hinted at the second chapter in the story while promoting his latest project The Hunting Wives on Netflix. He told The New York Post 'there is talk of a sequel,' but when asked for more details he only answered, 'I know nothing about it. Last I heard, quote, lawyers were talking, unquote.' My Best Friend's Wedding starred Roberts as a food critic who panics when she learns her bestie, Michael, played by Mulroney is getting married. The two had promised each other if they were still single by age 28, they would marry each other. After receiving the big news, Roberts' Julianna (Jules) decides to break up the engagement and claim Michael for herself. The film provided a launching pad for a budding actress named Cameron Diaz, 52, who starred as the young bride Roberts' Julianne wanted to be jilted at the alter. It also introduced Rupert Everett, 66, to American audiences as Jules' gay best friend George. No word on who the director will be or if Roberts, Mulroney, Diaz or Everett will be part of the sequel's cast. Collider offered some more juicy details revealing that Materialists writer and director Celine Song has been tapped to write the script. The romantic comedy stars Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal and has earned more than $52 million so far. Song previously proved her box office bankability with Past Lives, starring The Morning Show's Greta Lee and Teo Yoo. My Best Friend's Wedding opened at number two when it debuted in theaters behind Batman & Robin. It went on to earn $299,288,605 globally with Roberts and Everett earning Golden Globe nominations. The movie, which featured a fun sing-along scene with the cast performing Diana King's I Say a Little Prayer. Variety ranked My Best Friend's Wedding as 100 of the Greatest Movies of All Time. In doing so, the publication called the movie 'the most delectable and heartbreaking rom-com of its era.'
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘It destroyed me': two more men accuse Christian rock star Michael Tait of sexual assault
Two more men have come forward to accuse Christian rock superstar and Maga firebrand Michael Tait of drugging and sexually assaulting them – including Jason Jones, the founding manager of the American hard-rock band Evanescence. Jones said he was fired from the band – which had ties to Tait – for speaking out about his alleged assault. Jones said the firing, which he claimed happened in 1999, cut him out of Evanescence's massive success beginning in 2003. 'It destroyed me,' said Jones. 'I was achieving my dreams at an early age, and Tait changed all that.' Evanescence co-founder Ben Moody denied Jones was fired from the band for speaking out against Tait. Moody said he does recall Jones telling him about a sexual encounter with Tait, but at the time Moody interpreted it as consensual. 'I was a kid, only 18, and clearly didn't realize what he was going through,' Moody said. 'I'm sure I missed a lot of things I'd recognize today. I didn't realize he was traumatized.' In all, eight alleged victims have now come forward publicly with sexual assault allegations against Tait. A previous investigation by the Guardian reported allegations of sexual assault by Tait against three young men while another from the Christian news outlet the Roys Report reported allegations by three other men. Tait became famous as the frontman for DC Talk and Newsboys, two Christian mega-bands known for packaging conservative rhetoric about sexual abstinence, sobriety, Christian nationalism and the coming rapture in catchy rock songs. Tait has been a supporter of Donald Trump and served as a key bridge between Trump and evangelical voters. Tait has not responded to questions from the Guardian about the allegations against him. But in an Instagram post in June, Tait confessed to a decades-long addiction to cocaine and alcohol and admitted that he had 'at times, touched men in an unwanted, sensual way'. In the post, Tait added that he had recently 'spent six weeks at a treatment center in Utah'. Jones was described by friends who knew him in the 1990s as a happy-go-lucky Christian teenager, bursting with ambition and creativity. Growing up in Arkansas, Jones remembers, one of his biggest dreams was 'to meet DC Talk'. Jones achieved that dream in 1994 after moving to Nashville to manage the band of his friend, Randall Crawford, who was also friends with Tait and introduced the two. Jones recalled going to McDonalds with the DC Talk frontman and being mobbed by so many teenage fans they had to leave before getting their food. 'That kind of thing happened a lot,' he said. Jones was thrilled to be welcomed into Tait's inner circle, yet he was taken aback by what he described as Tait's proclivity for randomly grabbing other men's genitals. He said he eventually learned that Tait was living a double-life as a closeted gay man, which was becoming a problem for a band mentored by Moral Majority co-founder Jerry Falwell, who called Aids 'God's punishment for homosexuality'. While surprised, Jones held no negative feelings toward Tait's sexuality, even taking him to gay clubs in Little Rock (at Tait's request) when DC Talk performed there. Jones was regularly traveling back and forth from Nashville to Little Rock, and in 1995 he met aspiring musician Moody – the two of them hitting it off and collaborating on a project that would come to be named Evanescence. After co-producing the first Evanescence demo, Jones returned to Nashville and began talking up the band to his friend, Tait. Jones, as an evangelical, was sober and a virgin at the time. But he recalls getting caught up in a whirlwind of partying with Tait in 1995, chain-smoking cigarettes and marijuana and closing down bars, then returning to Tait's house to continue drinking. Jones said he was uncomfortable with all of it, but was eager for Tait's approval so he complied. 'I had this band that I was trying to take places,' Jones recalled. 'And [Tait] had the power to open doors for us in the industry. So I went along with whatever, but didn't know what it would cost me.' Jones' used his connection with Tait to help Evanescence get a foot in the door in Nashville, speaking with A&R people, record labels, venue owners, producers and musicians. Sources that wish to remain anonymous alleged that Tait had a rotation of attractive young men at his Nashville home at this time, some of them underage, and that Tait had a 'no clothes allowed' rule in his hot tub. 'He would put his penis against one of the jets, and tell us to do the same, saying 'see, it feels good!'' recalled a source who visited Tait regularly at this time, and wishes to remain anonymous. 'He was all about the shock factor,' recalled Crawford, who was close with Jones and Tait throughout the 90s. 'He was always saying 'let's make out in front of these people!' And I was like 'no, you're gonna destroy your career.' But he felt untouchable. And in some ways, he was.' Around this same time, Crawford recalls Tait driving him through the campus of Liberty University – Falwell's Christian college where DC Talk formed – speeding at 60mph and getting pulled over by campus security, who turned from anger to laughter when seeing Tait behind the wheel, even asking for pictures and autographs. 'After they left, Michael turned to me, calm as ever, and said: 'I can do anything and not get in trouble.'' Jones recalls drinking at Tait's house one night in late 1998, just after DC Talk finished rehearsals for their Supernatural album tour. Jones remembers feeling tired suddenly, and Tait recommended he go to sleep in his bedroom. 'I felt honored that he felt that close to me, that he trusted me enough to let me sleep in his bed,' Jones said. Some time later, Jones recalls waking up, his pants missing, and Tait was giving him oral sex. 'I said no and pushed him off, but then, somehow, I passed out again. I woke back up and he was still doing it. I said no again, then nodded out. And then I woke up a third time, aggressively shouted 'no!' and pushed him harder. It was then that he left me alone.' Looking back, Jones said, 'I believe that Michael Tait drugged me.' Two alleged victims from the Guardian's previous report also say they believe they were drugged by Tait before their alleged assaults. In addition, a female accuser cited by the Roys Report said she believed that Tait supplied Rohypnol or some other sedative to a crew member on a Newsboys tour, who then drugged and raped her while Tait watched. Distraught and in need of comfort, Jones flew home to Little Rock the day after he said he was assaulted. There he confided in a friend and mentor – who wishes to remain anonymous – that he had had 'a bad experience with Tait,' but wouldn't go into details. 'He wasn't the same after that,' Jones's friend recalled. Jones said that in early 1999 he had also confided in his friend and Evanescence co-founder, Ben Moody, about being sexually assaulted by Tait. 'Ben was only 18 at the time, new to the music industry, and I wanted to warn him,' Jones recalled. '[Tait] was flying Ben out to Nashville to write songs together, to see if he fit in Tait's inner-circle.' Moody remembers things differently. 'He didn't frame it as 'sexual assault,'' Moody said. 'He described it as like frat-boy joking around while they were drunk, with [Tait] saying 'what's the big deal? A dick's just a muscle.' And Jason said 'the next thing I know he's sucking my dick.'' Jones said he remains confident that he told Moody the full details of the assault, including that he verbally and physically resisted Tait three times as his consciousness came and went. Moody said he soon noticed a change in Jones's demeanor. Jones, a passionate, fun-loving guy who was easy to get along with, began suffering manic swings from depression to rage to paranoia and then to dissociation. 'After a late night studio he couldn't get the car shifter into gear and he just started screaming, hurling his body around, jerking the shifter violently like he was going to break it off.' Moody said he and the band began wondering if they should continue working with Jones. In retrospect, Moody said: 'I didn't know what he was going through. Looking back I would've been a bit more attentive, but I was the typical 18 year old who wanted to be a rockstar.' Moody said that in a phone call with Tait, he mentioned that Jones had told him about a sexual encounter between them, which Tait then denied. 'I wanted to get ahead of [Jason] talking shit about us and ruining the whole thing. Back then there were rumors Michael Tait [was gay] and at that point, right after [DC Talk's Grammy-winning album] Jesus Freak, he was the biggest thing in Christian music history, and the scandal would've been a huge deal.' Jones and Moody differ on whether he was fired or quit, but both recall the incident with Tait – however it was characterized – as the turning point of the relationship. 'I hid away after that,' Jones recalls. 'I started snorting meth, then smoking it.' His isolation and drug binge would continue for five years. Moody said he regrets how things went down with Jones back then. 'He was my best friend for so many years, and now I ask myself 'how fucking blind could I have been?'' Evanescence went on to be one of the biggest bands in the world, winning 'Best New Artist' and 'Best Hard Rock Performance' at the Grammys in 2003 and eventually selling tens of millions of albums. The following year, Moody and Tait would go on to be roommates and musical collaborators, with Tait singing on Moody's solo album, and Moody producing Tait's solo album, Loveology. In 2003, Moody left Evanescence to pursue his solo career. Evanescence co-founder Amy Lee and other representatives of the band could not be reached for comment. Like Moody, Crawford remembers his friend Jones as a 'a happy guy, a real sweetheart, but all that changed after 1998. I could tell something had happened. He didn't tell me about it at the time, but he has since. And I believe him, because the same thing happened to me.' Crawford first met DC Talk when the band was filming the music video for its first single, Heavenbound, in 1989. Crawford was working in a movie theater in the same Nashville mall the band was filming in. He loved their debut cassette and when they came by to catch a movie he introduced himself and gave them a discount. Crawford remembers his friend Jason Jones getting squeezed out of the management position of Evanescence in early 1999, and that 'it had something to do with Tait', but was unaware of specifics at the time. Back then, Crawford was an ambitious musician, and was being hired to write songs for solo projects for Tait and DC Talk's Toby Mac (the band went on 'hiatus' in 2000, and never officially reunited). Mac's project was later nominated for a Grammy and Dove Award. Crawford had also just signed his own record deal for his band, Webster County. Crawford recalls being distraught over a breakup one night in the fall 2000, and Tait inviting him over to hang out. 'You'll bounce back,' he recalls Tait saying, as he handed him a shot glass of Makers Mark whiskey. 'I told him 'just one,' and took the shot,' he recalled. 'I had a pretty high tolerance for alcohol at the time, but I blacked out shortly after I took that one drink.' Crawford said his memory picks up some time later, finding himself propped up on Tait's kitchen counter, his pants around his ankles. 'My legs were up in the air, and Tait was licking my anus,' he claimed. 'I said 'what are you doing, dude?' and then he said the weirdest thing: 'Hey man, did you catch the Colts game last week?' Like we were just hanging out, chatting.' Crawford said that he fled Tait's house, but has no memory of driving home. He said he is convinced that Tait drugged him. Two close friends of Crawford's have corroborated his story. One of them confirmed that Crawford told him details of the alleged assault at the time, but only named the perpetrator two years ago. The other friend said he was told the whole story at the time. 'I was never the same after that,' Crawford said. 'The joy and drive I had for music went away. Suddenly I had stage fright for the first time, brain-fog, anger issues, depression, and was even suicidal for a time. It ruined my career.' Despite having finished recording the album for his band, Crawford felt unable to perform as a musician, and the record was never released. Both Jones and Crawford recall thinking their assaults were isolated incidents and continued to have some involvement with Tait. Jones accepted a phone call from him when Tait's father passed away and he was distraught, and Crawford says he was 'love bombed' by Tait and succumbed to future advances. After not speaking for years, Tait re-entered his life in 2020. Crawford's wife was a musician herself, and Tait had offered to produce her album. 'I had buried the memory of that night for a long time,' Crawford said. After seeing Tait again, Crawford said, a lot of feelings came to the surface and he found himself weeping uncontrollably in the shower. After confessing to his wife what had happened, she encouraged him to enroll in EMDR trauma therapy, which he said had been helpful. 'Hearing Jason's story recently broke my heart,' he said of reuniting with his friend, Jones, decades later. 'I believe we'd both be in the music industry today if it weren't for Michael Tait.' Jones has been sober since 2008. After leaving the music industry he worked in banking and co-directed a sober living facility. Today he travels around the country sharing his story of abuse and addiction (not mentioning Tait's name when recounting the experience). Shortly after getting sober Jones contacted a law firm to ask about potential compensation he could be owed from Evanescence. According to his 2008 correspondence with the law firm that he shared with the Guardian, the firm told him that, because of the statute of limitations, his window for a suit against Evanescence had closed years earlier. Jones said the lawyers told him that, had he pursued the matter sooner, he could be entitled to up to tens of millions of dollars in compensation. Moody disputed the notion that Jones has ever had the right to compensation for his management efforts in the early days of Evanescence. Looking back 27 years later, Jones recalled the night he told Moody about what had happened to him. Warning him not only about Tait, but about the music industry in general, he recited a quote from the magazine journalist Hunter S Thompson, who said: 'The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free.' 'And that's true for the Christian music industry as well,' Jones said. 'Even more so, in my case.'
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Catherine Zeta-Jones details her and husband Michael Douglas' surprisingly low-key UK staycations to Butlins and Legoland with their two kids - despite their £260million net worth
Catherine Zeta-Jones has detailed her surprisingly low-key family staycations with her husband Michael Douglas and their two kids. The Wednesday star, 55, and the American actor, 80, have been married since 2000 and share two children - Dylan, 24, and Carys, 21. The couple have raised their children amid the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, but also enjoy some very low-key family moments away from the spotlight. Catherine has revealed she and Michael have taken their kids on UK staycations to Butlin's and Legoland - despite their £250million ($360million) combined net worth. She told Radio Times of her kids: 'They've been to Butlin's, Legoland, seen the sights in London, up to Scotland, over to Ireland. They've even been to the Isle of Man, I think.' Catherine added that she insists her children spend two weeks in her native Wales every year to spend time with her parents - David James Jones and Patricia Fair. However, Dylan and Carys have also enjoyed some bucket list trips abroad over the years including to India, Patagonia, Africa and Cambodia, among others. Catherine said she always wanted to be a mother and sweetly described it as one of her biggest achievements. 'Having children is one of the most amazing joys of my life,' she gushed, before reflecting on how motherhood changed her perspective on the world. 'All of a sudden, I saw doom and gloom everywhere,' she quipped. 'My husband would be throwing them up in the air and I'd be thinking, ''We have ceiling fans! They'll be decapitated!'' 'I started to see the worst-case scenarios everywhere. But I think that's just getting older and thinking ''Ooh, what if?''' Catherine added that having children brought home the amount of work her parents put in raising her and her two brothers David and Lyndon in Swansea. 'My mother brought up three kids. She had no help. My brother was judo, my other brother was swimming, I was dancing,' she explained. 'I was part of the amateur dramatics, the Dylan Thomas Theatre, I'm sure there was gymnastics thrown in there at some point… 'Just taking us to all of that, as a parent you think, ''Oh my gosh,'' whereas as a kid you're p****d off that she was five minutes late in picking you up that one time.' Catherine and Michael are both household names in Hollywood and their two lookalike children look set to follow in their showbiz footsteps. Carys recently finished her degree in Film and International Relations from Brown University in Rhode Island and is also a skilled piano player. Carys' has four acting credits so far listed on IMDB, with her work including her taking on directorial roles in short films Shell and August. Her latest film, another short called F*ck That Guy, headed to the PROOF Film Festival in Los Angeles and saw Spike Lee serve as an executive producer. Her brother Dylan is also in the spotlight and hosts Young American - 'Gen Z powered political talk show' - with Dylan Douglas. Catherine has previously opened up about how both her children are determined to get into acting - despite a candid warning from their father. Read Catherine's full interview in Radio Times, out now She said on The Drew Barrymore Show in 2021: 'Their love of the craft of acting is so strong that even when their brains are doing politics and history in school, their passion is acting. 'And they've never done anything professional, but they would like to go into acting.' Acting certainly runs in the family as Michael is also the son of legendary actor Kirk Douglas and actress Diana Dill, though he warned Carys about always being known as 'the daughter of...' in Hollywood. Catherine and Michael have been in a relationship since 1998 after meeting for the first time at the Deauville Film Festival in 1996. They tied the knot in 2000 and celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary in November of last year.
