I'm thinking about quitting the US after visiting this little-known UK town with fantastic views
Cara, a vlogger who has 75,000 subscribers to The Magic Geekdom channel on YouTube, told viewers she was left with her 'mind blown' after visiting the destination in northern England.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
13 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Huge boost for 'declining' UK seaside town as abandoned pier to get £13m refurb
Following years of outrage from locals and tourists a like, it seems one seaside town is finally ready to bring its abandoned pier back to life, thanks to a £13 million pot of funding A 164-year-old pier defining one of the UK's most popular seaside towns could be brought back to life by next year thanks to a hefty investment. Stretching out a staggering 3,600 ft (around 0.68 miles), Southport Pier is the second longest in the UK - and first opened back in 1860. For decades, it attracted swathes of tourists who walk around 10 minutes to reach the end of the pier and soak up the stunning sea-views, as well as to make use of the indoor cafe and small arcade. Visitors could also take the miniature railway, which whizzed Brits over to the end of the pier for just a couple of quid. But in 2022, the Victorian structure was closed due to safety fears, with necessary repairs estimated to cost a whopping £13 million. The three-year closure has sparked outrage amongst locals and tourists alike - with many arguing the abandoned site is the perfect omen for the 'declining' seaside town. In fact, one 'embarrassed' Brit dubbed Southport 'a very sad neglected town for tourists and residents' on TripAdvisor back in 2023. Another agreed, scathing: "It's time the council got this beautiful historical pier sorted and opened again! This is one of Southports main attractions and they cant afford to have the renovation. A real shame," while a third penned: "I still can't believe that Southport has been allowed to decline even further, the council do not seem to be bothered." Still, Visit Southport, the area's official tourist board, hailed the destination as being a 'fun-loving' seaside resort with 'attractions for all the family'. "[There's] an abundance of independent restaurants and bars making it a foodies' haven, and full of culture," it wrote. "When it comes to beaches, you're spoiled for choice. We have 22 miles of coastline from Formby Beach, Ainsdale Beach, Crosby Beach (where you can visit the famous Antony Gormley 'Another Place'), and Southport Beach itself. You can enjoy some of the most stunning views along our coast." However, last month Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed the pier would be eligible for cash from a new fund dedicated to speeding up 'forgotten' local projects. Speaking on BBC Radio Merseyside, Sefton Council leader Marion Atkinson said the authority would be ready to start work on the pier 'within six to eight weeks' of receiving the government funding. "We're absolutely wanting to get on with it," she said. The councillor stated that repairs would take between 12 to 14 months, adding: "We'll be looking at ways in which, if we can, to get it done as quickly as we possibly can. But, it does take a lot of time because there's a lot of work." When approached for comment, Sefton Council directed the Mirror to the Southport Pier's FAQ page. Here, the council explains that the pier endured a UK-wide extreme cold weather snap at the end of 2022 which caused 'further damage' to its structural condition. "Following an inspection by a team of independent Structural Engineers, Sefton Council was told to close the pier to protect the safety of anyone working on it or visiting the iconic tourist attraction," the council said. "A full and extensive independent structural survey was commissioned, the interim feedback from which has confirmed the need to keep the Pier closed until further extensive repair and replacement works are carried out. The final surveys state the same explicitly, and the Pier would no longer be insurable so had to be shut." Sefton Council says it has since engaged in several conversations with regards to external funding having already completed phase one of the decking replacement. The council also agreed to allocate £3 million to the Pier project. "Sefton Council has also made several appointments in order to specify the works that will be required to refurbish the Pier and we are preparing for appointing a contractor for the works, again reaffirming Sefton's commitment to the project," the authority added.
BBC News
13 minutes ago
- BBC News
How Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath found their sound - and invented heavy metal
If you saw Black Sabbath's first ever gig, you wouldn't have recognised in 1968, they had the decidedly less sinister name of The Polka Tulk Blues Band, and came complete with a saxophonist and bottleneck guitar player.A year later, they'd slimmed down, found a new name and invented heavy metal. Few bands are so inextricably linked with a musical genre, but Sabbath set the template for everyone from Motörhead and AC/DC to Metallica and Guns 'n' the way, singer Ozzy Osbourne, who has died at the age of 76, became one of rock's most influential figures, with an electrifying and unpredictable stage presence and an almost mythological intake of drugs."If anyone has lived the debauched rock 'n' roll lifestyle," he once admitted, "I suppose it's me."So how did these four working class musicians from Aston, Birmingham rewrite the rules of rock? According to Osbourne, it was a visceral reaction to the "hippy-dippy" songs like San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair) that saturated the airwaves after 1967's Summer Of Love."Flowers in your hair? Do me a favour," he seethed in his 2010 autobiography. "The only flowers anyone saw in Aston were the ones you threw in the hole after you when you croaked it at the age of 53 'cos you'd worked yourself to death."Teaming up with guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward, Osbourne's initial idea was to put a Brummie spin on the bluesy sound of Fleetwood band's first name, Polka Tulk, was inspired by a brand of talcum powder his mum ditching the saxophone, they rebranded as Earth, taking as many gigs as they could manage, and even blagging a few extras."Whenever a big name band was coming to town, we'd load up the van with all our stuff and then just wait outside the venue on the off-chance they might not show up," Osbourne later worked... but only once, when the band were asked to stand in for an absent Jethro Tull. "And after that, all the bookers knew our name," Ozzy said. That opportunistic streak also steered them towards their signature just so happened that the band's rehearsal space was directly opposite a cinema that showed all-night horror audiences flock to these shows, the band conjured a plan."Tony said, "Don't you think it's strange how people pay money to get frightened? Why don't we start writing horror music?" Osbourne told music journalist Pete Paphides in 2005. "And that's what happened."The musicians metamorphosed into their final form: Adopting the name Black Sabbath, after a low-budget Boris Karloff film of the same name, they started writing lyrics that dabbled in death, black magic and mental suit the material, the music needed to get heavier, too. Ward slowed down the tempo. Iommi turned up the volume. Osbourne developed an aggressive vocal wail that always seemed to be teetering on the precipice of it was Iommi's guitar playing that really set Sabbath apart. His riffs leapt from the amplifier and hit the audience square in the chest with taurine was a sound he developed by necessity. When he was 17, Iommi was working in a sheet metal factory when he lost the tips of his two middle fingers in an industrial accident. Although surgeons tried to reattach them, they had gone black by the time he reached hospital. It looked like the end of his guitar career. Obituary: Wild life of rock's 'prince of darkness'Did Osbourne really bite the head off a live bat?'There will never be another Ozzy': Rock royalty pays tribute "The doctors said: 'The best thing for you to do is to pack up, really. Get another job, do something else'," Iommi wrote in his autobiography, Iron to prove them wrong, he melted down a fairy liquid bottle to make protective thimbles for his fingers, and slackened his guitar strings so he wouldn't have to apply too much pressure on the fretboard to create a months of painful practice, he learned a new style of playing – using his two good fingers to lay down chords, and adding vibrato to thicken the sound. That stripped-back, detuned growl became the basis of heavy metal."I had never heard that style of playing," said Tom Allan, who engineered Sabbath's self-titled debut album in 1969."I couldn't really fathom it. I didn't really get it. You never heard anything like that on the radio." The record was grim and sludgy – partly because the band had recorded it in just two days, with limited weren't sure what to make of it. Writing in Rolling Stone, Lester Bangs said the album had been "hyped as a rockin' ritual celebration of the Satanic mass or some such claptrap... They're not that bad, but that's about all the credit you can give them."The supposedly satanic imagery sparked a moral panic in the mainstream press, which intensified when it was discovered that the album's title track contained a chord progression known as the Devil's Interval, which had been banned by the church in the Middle the press didn't realise was that Black Sabbath, the song, had been written as a warning of the dangers of satanism, after Ward had fallen asleep reading books on the occult and woken up to see a ghostly, hooded figure standing at the end of his bed."It frightened the pissing life out of me," he later the truth, the controversy sold records and attracted legions of the band returned to their hotel to find 20 black-clad satanists holding candles and chanting outside their room. To get rid of them, Osbourne blew out the flames and sang Happy Birthday. Still, Sabbath leaned into their reputation, writing darker material and gaining a reputation as hellraisers as the 70s wore the music was never as basic or one-note as their image second album, Paranoid, marked a seismic leap in songcraft, from the visceral anti-war anthem War Pigs, to the creeping intensity of the title track, via the sci-fi horror of Iron Man, and the ghostly balladry of Planet kept up the pace on 1971's Master of Reality, with Osbourne describing Children Of The Grave as "the most kick-ass song we'd ever recorded".Vol 4, released in 1972, is sometimes overlooked because of its lack of a big radio single, but it also contains some of the band's best and most varied documents their descent into drug abuse with a depth-charge guitar riff; while St Vitus' Dance is a surprisingly tender piece of advice to a heartbroken friend, and Laguna Sunrise is a bucolic instrumental. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, meanwhile, was written as a furious critique of a music industry that had written them off."The people who have crippled you / You want to see them burn."After 55 years, and hundreds of imitators, the revelatory shock of Sabbath's sound has dimmed. How else do you explain Osbourne and Iommi performing Paranoid at Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee in 2002?But the power of those songs, from Iommi's brainsplitting riffs to Osbourne's insistent vocal wail, is he inducted Black Sabbath to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Lars Ulrich of Metallica said, "if there was no Black Sabbath, hard rock and heavy metal would be shaped very differently"."When it comes to defining a genre within the world of heavy music," he said, "Sabbath stand alone."Writing after the band's penultimate farewell show in 2017, Osbourne said he was humbled by the acclaim."I never dreamed we would be here 49 years later," he said."But when I think about all of it, the best thing about being in Black Sabbath after all these years is that the music has held up." Five essential Ozzy Osbourne songs 1) ParanoidWritten as a last-minute "filler" for Black Sabbath's second album, the group accidentally created their biggest hit: The story of a man battling his inner voices, set to one of rock's most powerful riffs."Every now and then you get a song from nowhere," said Osbourne. "It's a gift." 2) Crazy TrainThe song that launched Osbourne's solo career, it's almost atypically upbeat - shrugging off Cold War paranoia and declaring: "Maybe it's not too late to learn how to love." It's only the maniacal laughter in the fading bars that suggests this outlook is the purview of a madman. 3) Sabbath Bloody SabbathSabbath's reputation for darkness means their melodic capabilities were often overlooked. But Osbourne was a passionate admirer of the Beatles, and you can hear their influence on the pastoral chorus of this song, before Tony Iommi powers in with a growling guitar line. John Lennon would undoubtedly have approved of Osbourne's seething critique of the music industry, summed up in the line: "Bog blast all of you." 4) ChangesSabbath revealed their soft underbelly on this 1972 piano ballad, written about a break-up that drummer Bill Ward was experiencing. "I thought the song was brilliant from the moment we first recorded it," said Osbourne, who later reworked it as a duet with his daughter, Kelly, and scored a UK number one the week before Christmas 2003. 5) Mr CrowleyInspired by notorious occultist Aleister Crowley, this track from 1980's Blizzard of Ozz allowed Osbourne to play up to his mock-satanic image. But is also helped him escape from the shadow of Black Sabbath, with a swirling, heavy-psychedelic sound, capped off by a blistering solo from his new foil, guitar virtuoso Randy listening: War Pigs and Iron Man are all-time classics; while Diary of a Madman and Suicide Solution are crucial chapters in Osbourne's solo songbook. Also check out Patient Number 9, the title track of his final album, which ended his career on a high.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
James Bond star Rory Kinnear reveals extreme lengths the producers take to keep who will play the next 007 secret
James Bond star Rory Kinnear has revealed the extreme lengths producers are going to in order to protect the franchise amid feverish speculation over who will play the next 007. The celebrated actor, who has played MI6 Chief of Staff Bill Tanner in four Bond films opposite Daniel Craig, has disclosed that scripts are being delivered by hand rather than emailed - a strict security measure introduced after the 2014 Sony Pictures hack that saw early drafts of Spectre leaked online. 'The script for James Bond is delivered by car,' Rory revealed on Jesse Tyler Ferguson's Dinner's On Me podcast. 'And if there are changes in the script, they are delivered by car.' The unprecedented leak more than a decade ago not only contained major spoilers for Spectre, but also the projected budget of $300 million made the film one of the most expensive to be made at the time. The cyber leak also contained celebrities' details and exchanges between executives slamming the ending, to have it rewritten multiple times. Producers were forced to immediately scrap digital distribution. Since then, the franchise has become infamous for its cloak-and-dagger approach - even among its own cast. Rory, 47, added of the script delivery strategy: 'They got burnt, so I understand why they do it.' The Olivier award winner starred in Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre and No Time To Die, and is one of the longest-standing actors in the current Bond universe. His comments come at a pivotal moment for Bond, as the franchise undergoes its most radical transformation in decades. Amazon, which bought MGM in an $8.5billion deal, now holds the creative reins, and has appointed Dune director Denis Villeneuve to take charge of Bond 26. The French-Canadian filmmaker, a self-confessed 'die-hard' Bond fan, promised to 'honour the tradition' of 007 while opening up the franchise 'to many new missions to come.' He is joined by powerhouse producers Amy Pascal and David Heyman, with Eon's Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson still involved behind the scenes. Casting, however, remains the hottest topic of conversation - and the race to replace Daniel Craig recently took a dramatic turn. While Kick-Ass and 28 Years Later star Aaron Taylor-Johnson, 35, remains the bookies' favourite, a surprise new contender has emerged: 37-year-old Scott Rose-Marsh. The relatively unknown British actor - whose credits include Wolves of War and Code of Silence - has leapt to eighth place on the Oddschecker leaderboard, overtaking heavyweights like Henry Cavill and Jack Lowden. Despite his lack of blockbuster experience, Rose-Marsh's sudden rise has set tongues wagging in industry circles. Sources say Villeneuve is keen to cast an actor who can grow into the role, rather than one already saturated by franchise fame. Tom Holland, Theo James, Aaron Pierre, Harris Dickinson, Jacob Elordi and James Norton also remain in the top ten, though insiders claim the director's shortlist has shifted several times since he took the reins earlier this summer. Meanwhile, on the Bond girl front, Euphoria and Anyone But You star Sydney Sweeney is widely tipped for a lead role. A source told The Sun: 'Sydney is the top name on the casting sheet for Bond. Denis believes she is hugely talented, as well as having an alluring appeal to younger generations — vital in modernising the franchise.' Sydney, 27, is reportedly close friends with Villeneuve and is being considered for a central role in the upcoming film - potentially as a high-stakes MI6 agent or a powerful femme fatale to match 007 blow for blow. Amazon is expected to officially unveil the cast later this year, with pre-production already underway and filming expected to begin in 2026. The release date is currently pegged for late 2027, though that may change depending on location availability. Bond purists were reportedly unsettled by news that filming may not take place in London due to a Central London ban next year. According to insiders, Liverpool is now a frontrunner to double for the capital - a choice previously used in major franchises such as The Batman and Captain America. A source said: 'This will no doubt irk Bond purists who already fear Amazon taking over the 007 franchise may lead to them making big changes. But Liverpool has become a well-known alternative to London for filmmakers. That doesn't necessarily mean the story is set there — but fans will spot it.'
