Yes, it's ‘just' me — please don't sit me in Siberia
T here must be an art to eating out when there is 'just one' of you but, if so, I haven't mastered it. 'Yes, it's just me,' I say to the man at the entrance who is looking over my shoulder, trying to spot my phantom friend. 'No,' I add, brightly, 'just me!' I've tried to stop myself saying 'just'. It just doesn't work.
It sounds like an apology and, on some level, it must be. As Three Dog Night (remember them?) once sang, though admittedly not about dining: 'One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do.' Even the online booking system seems aghast. I have to keep changing the number of diners from the de facto '2' to '1'. If I look away for an instant, it flips back to '2'.
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The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
I made money & partied every day until terrible decision during Covid made me change everything, reveals Rita Ora
SHE broke strict lockdown rules to host her boozy 30th bash, but four years on Rita Ora says her birthdays are a lonely affair. The singer reveals that the milestone birthday in November 2020 sparked a major U-turn that saw her overhaul her health and focus on work. And it seems to have paid off. 6 6 She has just released song Heat, filmed movie Voltron with Superman actor Henry Cavill and this week posed in a bikini from her successful Primark collection. Rita said: 'My work ethic, I'm proud of it. I think it's higher than other people's in a lot of different ways. 'I always want to break boundaries and inspire people, that's always been my goal. 'And I do sacrifice a lot of things to do that, like I don't see my family as much. "I have lonely birthdays. I miss Christmases. It's a lot of sacrifices to do this. 'I just came off this three-and-a- half-month shoot in Australia for a huge film called Voltron, which is a big-budget movie. 'It's not easy doing these things and then also making a record on the weekends, which is the only days I have off. 'If you're willing to do the work, nothing is impossible. I really do believe people can do it all.' Her new attitude to life is a far cry from in her twenties when the Hot Right Now singer admits she was dazzled by the fame and fortune she had created for herself. It is perhaps why she thought it was acceptable to splash out thousands of pounds on her party at Casa Cruz, in London's Notting Hill, for all her mates when the UK was in its second strict Covid lockdown. 6 'Confident in my choices' Not only had the venue been paid to flout the rules, the star's security team had ordered the CCTV cameras to be turned off. Rita ended up paying a £10,000 fine. Talking about her hellraising days, Rita, who grew up in West London after her family moved there from Kosovo when she was a baby, admitted: 'I made money, I didn't come from money, and I just really was living every day like it was my last, with no care about what was going to happen the next day. 'I regret not being a bit more considerate, I would say, with myself, my body, my mental health, but also others. !I was always respectful and appreciative of others, but I was like, 'This is what we are doing and that's that'. 'I never really understood, I guess, how much responsibility I had for other people, like my fans, how much I inspire people or, I guess, the pressures we have to keep people on the right path. 'I think a lot of people were looking up at me, looking for me to give them a lot of answers, and I didn't mentally digest that. 'I was just living, going and going and not stopping. 'But it's hard for me too. I think for anyone in my position to wake up one day and you're like, 'Oh, wow, I have all these people that are depending on me to really give them inspiration'. I'm also human. 'But now I feel like it's something that I take pride in.' I don't want to stop feeling good. That's the one thing I care about. Rita Ora The backlash over her bash, after which her father give her a ticking-off - was the catalyst for change. On the Reign With Josh Smith podcast, Rita explained she felt 'old' and decided to get her 'life in check'. She said: 'When I turned 30 a lot changed. My body was just not reacting the same and I was not eating healthily. "I was getting sick all the time. I couldn't do more than two, three shows in a row - and usually I could do a whole week of shows if I needed to. 'I was like, 'OK, I want to just try to simply eat a little healthier'. So I would do cauliflower rice instead of rice. I would change things a little bit. Rita's routine 'I don't want to become a health guru or anything, but during that time I was really seeing my body reacting differently. 'And then I was like, 'Oh, let me lift some weights'. And now I'm really obsessed with my weekly routine.' That routine involves 'exercise, ginger shots and supplements' and being 'mentally present'. Rita says her mum Vera, a psychiatrist, helped too. The singer explained: 'She never forced therapy on us, but there was always that essence of maybe you should speak to somebody. 'And I did. Now I've just got really cool, great tools and I just feel more confident in my choices. I do have the best relationship with myself than ever before, I really do. 'It's also made other relationships stand out that were not healthy. "And those people now are angry, but that is their problem and not mine. 'I find that when you have that relationship with yourself, everything changes, you know? 'You find things come to you that you're like, 'Whoa, how have I blocked that out?'. But it's taken me a while, and I'm still working on it. "I don't want to stop feeling good. That's the one thing I care about.' Happily married Rita, who married Hollywood filmmaker Taika Waititi, 49, in 2022, has also slowed down — after a fortune teller, who only works with high- profile clients, suggested she do this. She told the podcast: 'She said to me, 'Your life is like a pile of sand in your palm and it can go through your fingers at any moment'. 'It's about how you protect your one pile of life in the palm of your hand and make sure you move slowly and steadily. 'That always stuck with me. I used to rush to things and be like, 'I want it now'. 'I'm trying to move a bit more steadily and not react so much because once you react impulsively, it's usually something you'll end up regretting, right? 'I try my best to just take a second before I respond to things. And that's helped me a lot.' 6 After a few years away from the charts, Rita's new summer hit Heat makes a return to unadulterated pop after her last, very personal, album You & I charted her romance and marriage to Taika. She said: 'My last record was amazing, in my opinion, because it had depth and a storyline, and it was about love. "I got married and I really was inspired by my relationship, and it just was where I was at in my life. "And now I'm at a point where I love my partner, love my relationship.' Laughing, Rita added: 'But f*** that. I just want to be in the moment and have fun and think about what I want to feel like when I'm in Ibiza with my friends, drinking a Chardonnay with ice, having the sun beaming down, SPF making me sweat. 'How do I want to feel when I'm drunk in the day? 'And that was how Heat happened. I had the best time making this record. 'I love the idea of the fact I'm speaking, it's like sex on sight, it's intentional, it's direct, it's kind of cheeky, it's rude, it's iconic.'
The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
The night I tried to reunite Liam & Noel with their estranged dad & why it's still one of my biggest regrets 29 years on
SOME might say I have zero chance of ever being granted forgiveness by Liam and Noel Gallagher. I don't deserve it but, for a very long time, I've wanted to tell them: 'I'm sorry.' 7 7 Looking back, I now completely understand why Liam was furious. He was so angry that he tried to punch me in the face. But at the time, I really didn't know the truth about what I'd been dragged into. The summer of 2025 will be the summer of Oasis — the comeback fans have patiently waited years for. But their reunion is a stark reminder of a particularly dark night in my past. The night I accompanied their father, Tommy Gallagher, to the Westbury Hotel in Dublin on Saturday, March 23, 1996. I was a junior reporter based in Yorkshire who, weeks earlier, after just turning 21, was asked to go to Tommy's home in Manchester to see if he'd talk about his world-famous sons. I was polite, he was friendly. We built up a rapport. He told me he hadn't seen his three sons since the day his wife left him. Lonely Tommy often said how much he adored and missed them and was desperate to be back in their lives. I felt sorry for him. He would get emotional showing me family photos and the guitar he said he had taught them their first chords on. When I relayed this to bosses in London, they told me I had to play a Cilla Black Surprise Surprise-type role — bringing the family back together. So, the plan was to accompany Tommy to Ireland, and to stay at the same fancy hotel the band were at while performing in the city. I was told to stay at Tommy's house the night before the trip to guarantee he made the early-morning flight. I knew better than to argue, so spent the night where Noel used to sleep. I say 'spent' — not 'slept' — because, believe me, you don't do much sleeping when in a house with a much older man you barely know. I was naive, young and inexperienced. It was my first ever solo job for the paper. 7 I was eager to impress my bosses in the tough newsroom down south. After checking into the hotel, Tommy wrote a letter explaining why he was there, which was handed to Liam. Minutes later, Liam rang Tommy's hotel room and barked at him: 'If I catch you round . . . walking round the lobby in this hotel . . . you're going to get your legs f***ing broke. Right? See ya later.' Reign of terror Tommy appeared devastated and said his heart was 'broken'. But Liam hadn't minced his words — and there would be no tear-jerker Cilla reunion role for me. We were told to head home in the morning, and the photographer who was on standby for the reunion snaps was told to leave. It was done. But Tommy wouldn't listen. At 2am, my hotel room phone rang. Tommy shouted: 'If you want a decent story, you'd better get down to the bar, NOW.' I begged him to calm down, to go to bed, to stop being ridiculous. He wouldn't listen. I was bleary-eyed but will never, ever forget the extraordinary scenario I raced into. There was Tommy, sitting in one corner of the bar, staring forcefully at the band who were at the other side. He refused to leave. In an instant, all hell broke loose. Liam swaggered over, bouncing up and down, and screamed: 'I told you I'd break your legs.' He lunged for his dad first, and then tried to punch me. Bouncers held him back, but Liam snarled: 'I'll break that tart's f***ing legs, too.'' Noel watched on, ready to wade in. Liam told his dad he was a 'loser', while he was a 'millionaire' who 'can afford bail now'. Tommy made jibes about Liam's then partner, Patsy Kensit, and called Liam a 'silly boy'. I sat there trembling. Finally, Tommy stormed off and one of the huge but kindly Oasis security guards 'escorted' me and my luggage out of the hotel, as I fought back tears. Liam and Noel have since, rightly, spoken out about how appalling this incident was. What they knew at the time, and I didn't, is that Tommy was a shocking, vile, evil father. And a liar. Just six months after that night, their mum Peggy set the record straight, revealing she had fled from Tommy because he was a womaniser and a drunk who beat her, Noel and their eldest son Paul. She said they were all left scarred by his reign of terror. When I read her words, I felt physically sick. That terrifying night now fully made sense to mje. I had been fed a pack of lies. And used. I have felt remorse for my part in what happened ever since. And if Noel and Liam still look back in anger at that night, I really don't blame them. I do, too. And I'm sorry. Don't hound Royals 7 THE charity folk at Peta – People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals – have slammed William and Kate for allowing their cocker spaniel, Orla, to have puppies instead of adopting one amid an 'animal homelessness crisis'. They even said the royals were 'staggeringly out of touch' for 'churning out a litter'. How ridiculous – and nasty. They went on to openly praise Charles and Camilla, who have 'chosen to adopt from a shelter rather than contribute to the problem'. Adopting a dog doesn't suit every family. Sometimes a family really needs the focus and joy of seeing new life come into this world. Like, for example, when three young children have seen their mum go through an agonising cancer battle. One of the pups is staying with them, the rest will be guaranteed good homes. You wouldn't find a children's charity chastising people who have a bouncing baby instead of adopting, would you? Even though there are thousands of desperate kids in this country who need homes. Surely Peta must realise Kate and William actually do more for charities in this country than most. And I hope that they stop for a moment to think about how 'stag-geringly out of touch' they are for thinking it acceptable to attack a family in this way. Brazen Bezos 7 BILLIONAIRE Jeff Bezos either has very thick skin or zero self-awareness. On Thursday, as protests around his lavish wedding to Lauren Sanchez hit fever pitch, he gushed to anybody that listened: 'We love Venice.' Clearly not grasping the fact that Venice really doesn't love him. Kim's classy collab 7 KIM KARDASHIAN shows off a new bikini for her collection – a collab between her Skims brand and Roberto Cavalli. She said the lucrative partnership came about because she looked through old holiday photos and saw she was wearing Cavalli, which prompted her to contact the brand's creative director. Which, to the rest of us, is like contacting the boss at M&S, Primark or Next. But getting absolutely zero response. Crumby queues 7 FANCY trying that M&S strawberry-and-cream sarnie? Yes, me too. They couldn't have pushed it or hyped it up any more than they have, could they? I burst into my local Marksy's with full enthusiasm on Friday to be told that they only receive 'a few' packets each morning and are 'selling out by lunchtime'. That will be that, then, because there is zero chance-I'm joining an early-morning Wimbledon-type queue for a sandwich, however wonderful it sounds.
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
The reign of Tommy Smith as the king of jazz is over — what now?
Tommy Smith is no longer the leader of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. But the saxophonist is still very much its face. Last week the musician stepped down as the band's artistic director after he was dismissed from Scotland's premier music and drama university, the Royal Conservatoire, over allegations he had a relationship with a student. Yet Smith's picture remains plastered all over the website of the publicly funded orchestra he founded 30 years ago. Its youth wing is even named after the musician. For decades, insiders say, the former teenage prodigy has been the king of Scottish jazz. His reign is now over. Some lament the loss of a genuine talent. Others last week were celebrating what they see as an opportunity for musicians to come out from under his shadow.
