Latest news with #AHorseWithNoName
Business Insider
29-06-2025
- Business Insider
We moved in with a couple in their 50s when we were in our 20s. Despite the age difference, we became lifelong friends.
When we were in our 20s, my partner Sam and I decided to do a working holiday in Banff, Canada. Initially, we rented a room in a three-bedroom share house with two other couples who were close in age to us. It was loads of fun, but nobody did much cleaning, and there was a fair amount of drinking and partying. Sam got a job with the town of Banff and soon he befriended this Canadian guy named Billy. Billy is one of those larger-than-life personalities; he's high energy and extremely likeable. Everyone in town knows him, and he's affectionately known as "Billy Banff." One day, Billy mentioned that he and his wife had a room available in their cozy two-bedroom property. After chatting with me about it, Sam told Billy we'd love to take it. We lived together well I'll never forget the day we moved in. I met Billy's wife, Fern, who's a wonderfully warm, very calm, grounded person. She's the yin to Billy's yang in a lot of ways, and the pair complements each other beautifully. As we talked through the finer details of the rental arrangement, I asked her if I could have a set of keys for the property. "Oh, honey, we don't even know where they are," she said, smiling. "We never bother locking the house!" That's the kind of trusting, beautiful people Billy and Fern are. Their house is always open and full of loved ones. When they showed us our room, they'd left a bottle of Yellow Tail merlot from Australia on the dresser for us, as a nod to our home. We felt so welcome. At that point, Billy and Fern were in their 50s, while Sam and I were 29 and 26. Despite the age difference, the living arrangement worked really well. Fern and Bill were fun and young at heart, but also very caring and nurturing. We all helped out with cleaning and often shared meals together. I used to love coming home after a waitressing shift to find Fern on the veranda, relaxing and taking in nature. We'd have deep conversations about love, life, and everything in between. Sometimes, if Billy was home, we'd crank "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5 and dance around the living room like kids. I also played "A Horse With No Name" by America over and over; it had been featured by our favorite TV show at the time, "Breaking Bad," and Billy and I often sang it together. It became a bit of a theme song for that chapter of my life. We moved out, but we've stayed in touch all these years When we eventually decided it was time to move on from Banff, the feeling was bittersweet. It was springtime when we left. The deer were out in full force and the sun was still shining at 9 p.m. As a final farewell, Fern made an amazing feast for us and we sat around the fire drinking wine. It really felt like home. After we left Banff, we moved to London for a year and then returned to Australia. As fate would have it, Fern and Billy's daughter Penny lives on the Gold Coast, where my family is based, so we've been lucky enough to catch up with them over the years. In 2019, we even took our kids to Canada to show them Banff, which still feels like our "happy place." On our most recent catch-up on the Gold Coast earlier this year, I was walking through a beachside park when I heard someone singing a familiar tune with a thick Canadian accent. "I've been through the desert on a horse with no name. It felt good to be out of the rain," they sang. I could not wipe the grin off my face as I turned and saw Billy standing nearby, his arms outstretched and ready for a bear hug. Whenever we get together with Fern and Billy, it's always like old times. They're more than lifelong friends. To us, they're family and always will be.
Perth Now
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Limahl is releasing his first album in over three decades
Limahl "will be" bringing out his first album in "30 years" in 2026 or 2027. The 80s pop icon, who shot to fame as a member of the boy band Kajagoogoo and then carved out a successful music career as a solo artist, is proud of the last three singles he released - 'A Horse With No Name', a cover of rock band America's 1971 track, 'Still in Love' and 'One Wish for Christmas' - and they have motivated him to release a new LP. Limahl, 66, told "My last three singles have all - I think they've been a really good standard with really strong videos, and I feel like I can hold my head up high with those tracks, and it's actually encouraged me to do an album. "I've got some really great songs just sitting there waiting. So in '26, or '27, I will be coming back with my first album in, I don't know, 30 years." The star - whose most recent album 'Love Is Blind' was released in 1992 - spent "months" working away on his new single as he blended electronic-sounding beats with the strong songwriting from America in his rendition of 'A Horse With No Name' - which Limahl has said the song has acted as a "friend" in his life. The 'Too Shy' singer said: "I am so proud! You have no idea of the journey that the production has been through. I worked on it. I left it. I worked on it. I left it. I worked on it. I left it because, sometimes, you just get to the point where you just can't hear it anymore. "And then my sister and my partner, Steve, were both saying, 'Well, you've got to release this. You've got to release this.' "And finally, after enough space, I started working on the video. And that really emboldened me. It was so much fun trying to create an interpretation of those bonkers lyrics." Limahl took the plunge of releasing his first cover song because he wanted to "put my own stamp on it". The 'Never Ending Story' performer explained: "Well, I've always loved the journey of having this spark here. "And from nowhere. And then suddenly, in three months, I'm listening back to something that started here. And I'm going. 'Wow, wow! This is exciting.' Or, 'Oh, that's terrible! On the shelf with that!' "But you know, there is a challenge in doing a cover. And, you know, one of my favourite singers of all time, Luther Vandross. He was a great songwriter. But when he did covers, OMG, they were so good, he did a cover of Karen Carpenter's song, 'Superstar', and he brought his own stamp on it. "And that's what I've tried to do with Horse. Put my own stamp on it. initially. I thought, 'Well, I can't use a guitar, because a guitar drives the original. So I'll go. I'll sort of start electronic. I'll go contemporary electronic, and we'll see how that goes.'" Limahl's version of 'A Horse With No Name' is out now via Christopher Music.
