Latest news with #FinsburyPark
The Independent
23-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Is it time the BrewDog beer empire went flat?
When it launched in 2007, craft beer BrewDog was a 'punk' brand. It's a word that featured on many of the cans of its IPA sold at the Fontaines DC show at Finsbury Park earlier this month, and at summer festivals across the land. It's a sign of something young, cool, edgy. What's not so cool is abruptly closing 10 bars, including BrewDog's flagship outlet in Aberdeen, some within a matter of days. 'Morally repugnant,' said the union Unite, which represents some of the workers whose livelihoods have been affected by the closures. True, companies sometimes have to close outlets when they're losing money, especially if the wider group is in the red and really can't afford to be subsidising places that aren't washing their faces financially. That's the harsh reality. But while that sort of decision is always going to hurt the workers on the receiving end, there are ways and means of handling these things. Unite has raised questions about the firm's tactics, telling the BBC that this is: 'Yet another example of a company that doesn't have the slightest regard for basic employment law, let alone the welfare of their workers.' It says it is working with the affected workers to challenge the decision, legally if necessary. BrewDog was an entertaining and innovative start-up that became a big success, planting its flag overseas and tweaking the nose of the establishment along the way. It had an original way of garnering finance by creating 'equity punks' through crowdfunding. These supporters turned up at sometimes raucous AGMs. The group also had a keen eye for PR stunts. Its critics obligingly went into meltdown when the company launched nuclear-strength beers. In recent years, however, the brand has acquired a coat of tarnish. In 2021, former workers wrote an open letter highlighting what they claimed was a "culture of fear" within the business while alleging "toxic attitudes" towards junior employees. The following year, a BBC investigation aired allegations of inappropriate behaviour on the part of co-founder and now-former CEO James Watt. These were denied. But Ofcom rejected a complaint made by Watt and the company against BBC Scotland on the grounds of 'fairness and privacy'. It said: 'Ofcom's decision is that material facts were not presented, disregarded or omitted in a way that was unfair to the complainants, that they had an appropriate and timely opportunity to respond to the allegations made in the programme, and that their response was fairly reflected in the programme.' Then last April, Watt – who publicly opposed Brexit – was pictured at Nigel Farage's 60th birthday party. Now, I want to be clear here: I really couldn't care less who his friends are, or whose parties he chooses to go to. Business leaders need to engage with all sides for the health of their companies. That's lobbying. It's silly to huff and puff when they do that. But partying with a polarising figure that a large chunk of your customer base reviles is different. The optics are not good. It's a poor business decision. And it was only a few weeks after Farage's party that Watt stepped down from the top job at BrewDog, 17 years after he co-founded the Scottish brewer. The company also decided to cease paying the real living wage, based on the cost of living, in favour of the lower rate mandated by the government, citing the need to return to profitability in a tough climate for the hospitality industry. For his own part, Watt has previously decried those who seek a "work-life balance", rather than what he called "work-life integration", suggesting that if you love you work, you don't need to separate it from your personal life. Much of the hospitality sector has been swimming upstream, it is true. Its businesses have been grappling with higher taxes and costs while consumer confidence is at a low ebb. The country's economic challenges have also hit young people particularly hard. If your rent is gobbling up half your take-home pay, you're going to have to limit what you spend on going out. It's a lot cheaper to buy beer from Tesco and invite friends round than it is to meet up at BrewDog. But one also wonders whether at least some of the company's problems are down to the damage the brand has taken. Brands matter. Companies pour vast sums into building them up. History also teaches us how easy it is to blow them up. If customers stop buying into yours because you've been shooting yourself in the foot and causing them to question your authenticity, then you have a problem. No one would bat an eyelid if, say, Brexit-backing Wetherspoon's boss Tim Martin was spotted out on the town with Farage. Martin is who he is, and doesn't much care who knows it. He's authentically Tim. Is that true of Watt and, by extension, BrewDog, which he is still closely involved with even if he's no longer the CEO? How much are you willing to pay for 'punk' beer that isn't really so punk? A beer that is, in reality, part of the establishment but expects you to pay a premium price that the local Wetherspoon's doesn't demand (far from it). I suspect the answer isn't to BrewDog's taste.
The Sun
21-07-2025
- The Sun
Is this Britain's worst thief? Bungling food-shop bandit stuffs multi-pack of LOO ROLL in jacket then crashes into gates
THIS is the moment a bumbling thief struggles to stuff a pack of toilet rolls into his jacket before crashing into a gate on his motorbike. The young man was filmed on Friday afternoon during the bizarre theft outside a block of flats in Finsbury Park, North London. 5 5 A witness, who captured the video around 1pm, while working from home, and told The Sun: 'It was broad daylight, you could see his face as clear as day - he clearly does not care about being caught in any way.' She added: 'It's absolutely hilarious, he took his time as well. He was there for about 15 minutes. 'I even shouted at him and this guy didn't care. It was funny watching him trying to shove the bog roll in his jacket.' She went on to say she could hear a 'constant' motorbike sound before looking out of her bedroom window during the incident. 'The guy had hopped off his bike and was rummaging around the bushes where there had been an Amazon parcel left for our neighbour. It's absolutely hilarious, he took his time as well. He was there for about 15 minutes. I even shouted at him and this guy didn't care. It was funny watching him trying to shove the bog roll in his jacket. Witness 'He ripped it open, and the contents were just household items.' The witness - who did not wish to be named - said the package contained kitchen spray, a lightbulb and the large pack of toilet rolls. 'He took absolutely everything and shoved it in the little bags on his bike. 'The loo roll wouldn't fit so he shoved it in his jacket. During this time I called the police, who asked for a full description. 'I told them I have a video of him with his reg, full description of his clothes, what he looked like - you can see his face clear as day. Moment model chases thief after her phone is ripped from her hand in London 'He's a very, very young guy, on a very nice bike as well. He clearly knows what he's doing.' She said officers in two police cars arrived within a few minutes 'by which time he'd disappeared'. She added that officers believed from running a search on his bike plates that they'd been cloned. 'Credit where credit's due, the police turned up quickly,' she continued. 'But then you've got the frustrating thing of they can't do anything.' She said the officers told her it was unlikely he could be caught and are waiting to be asked to send over the footage to the force. 'We've got the reg plate, the bike, clear as day picture of the guy, you couldn't get a better description of him,' she said. 'He ripped through the whole box and took everything he could. We get parcels delivered there all the time, it's a very busy housing estate where people are coming in and out. 'For us we'll never be able to get anything delivered to our flat because the chances of it being stolen are pretty high.' Credit where credit's due, the police turned up quickly. But then you've got the frustrating thing of they can't do anything. Witness The video also sees the thief drive head on into a gate across the road at a neighbouring block. The witness said he'd done the same to the gate at their flat complex and believes he was probably trying to gain access to where residents park their cars. She explained: 'The two buildings are identical opposite each other. When I went to check on the situation, he'd crashed into our open but private parking lodge, and he'd crashed that open… and he did the same to the other one. 'What he's done, I'm not sure, you can get access fairly easily through the back of our building into the block of flats. 'Either antisocial behaviour or trying to break in to access the cars or the back of the flats. There is no way out from that way.' The witness said she has since spoken to the residents who had ordered the package, and they'd said they had been busy working and not had chance to collect the parcel. But were worried as they'd also ordered some more expensive items. Rise in anti-social behaviour 'The whole estate now is calling for CCTV, because it clearly looks like he knew what he was doing, he knew the estate,' she continued. 'You couldn't mistake it for an exit point because you're on a road.' She said there's been a general rise in anti-social behaviour in the area, with a stabbing on a neighbouring road also being reported earlier this month. Her flatmate also had her phone swiped from her pocket and two weeks later had traced it to China. Referring to the possibility of CCTV being installed, she added tenants will have to increased maintenance and rent. 'It's coming at a cost to residents. The residents are being punished in more ways than one.' The Sun has contacted the Met Police for comment. 5 5
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Drake Taps Lauryn Hill, 21 Savage, Rema, More Surprise Guests for London's Wireless Festival
Drake headlined the three-day Wireless Festival at Finsbury Park in London over the weekend and it was a star-studded, surprise guest-filled affair. Lauryn Hill, 21 Savage, Rema, Vanessa Carlton, and more joined the rapper throughout the weekend. On Friday, Drake set the theme for the night. 'This is the first time in my life that I've done three different shows on three different days,' Drake told the crowd, per Billboard. 'You came to a very special night. It's night one. It's a celebration of all things R&B. All things melodies. All classics.' Beyond his own classics, surprise guest Lauryn Hill also dropped one of her own. Her performance of 'Ex-Factor' transitioned into Drake's Hill-sampling 'Nice for What.' The night also included appearances by Bryson Tiller, Givēon, and PartyNextDoor. More from Rolling Stone Lauryn Hill Addresses 'Nonsense' Idea That She's 'Too Important to Care' About Being Late to Shows Ovrkast on Working With Drake, Dealing With Success, and His Supernatural Inspiration Drake's 'Iceman' Era Could Be a Misstep if It's Too Focused on Beef On Saturday, Drake switched gears. 'London, tonight is different,' Drake told the crowd. 'All that sweetheart, singing shit? That shit is over tonight. This is for my motherfucking dogs. I see my dogs came out tonight.' Rappers Skepta, Latto, Sexyy Redd, and 21 Savage were among the guests. He and 21 Savage performed 'Knife Talk' and 'Rich Flex' from their collaborative 2022 album, Her Loss. The second night also had the crowd chanting 'Fuck Kendrick.' Drake's response was to ask someone to pour him a shot, before he said, 'I'll drink to that.' The two rappers' monumental beef has continued to spark conversations even a year later, and so it's not surprising that their respective concerts (along with Drake's defamation lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us') touch on it, even if it's crowd-sourced. He capped off the rap-focused night with an unexpected surprise guest: He invited Vanessa Carlton out to perform her 2002 song, 'A Thousand Miles.' Sunday's set was a brief 40 minutes due to a strict curfew, per the BBC, but Drake still had some surprises in store. He teased an unreleased collaboration with British rapper Central Cee, and Rema drew cheers, as did Vybz Kartel. Earlier in the month, Drake dropped 'What Did I Miss?' ushering in his Iceman era. Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked Solve the daily Crossword
New York Times
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Drake Returns Robustly, With Reinforcements
At the end of the first night of Wireless Festival on Friday, after Drake had been hoisted out over the tens of thousands of fans who had taken over the bottom half of London's Finsbury Park while Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You' blared over the speakers and fireworks brightened the night sky, he asked the audience, and also festival organizers, for a little indulgence. Curfew was firm, but art has its own clock. Boom, there was Lauryn Hill, suddenly onstage performing the feisty Fugees classic 'Ready or Not.' Drake had dropped down into the pit below the stage, and was looking up at Hill with joyful awe. He popped back onstage while Hill performed her biting kiss-off 'Ex-Factor,' which formed the base for one of his breeziest songs, 'Nice for What,' which he performed alongside her until the festival cut their mics off. This year's Wireless Festival was a three-day affair given over to Drake and his many spheres of influence, and in a weekend full of collaborations and guest appearances spotlighting various corners of his very broad reach, this was perhaps the most telling. During her career, Hill has been a ferocious rapper, a gifted singer, a bridge between hip-hop and pop from around the globe. She is the musician who, apart from Kanye West (now Ye), provided perhaps the clearest antecedent for Drake and the kind of star he wished to be: eclectic, hot-button, versatile, transformative. Apart from a few dates on an Australian tour earlier this year that got cut short, this was Drake's first high-profile live outing in over a year. That public retreat came in the wake of last year's grim and accusation-filled battle with Kendrick Lamar — in which Lamar's Not Like Us,' which suggested Drake had a preference for too-young women, became a pop anthem, a Grammy winner and a Super Bowl halftime showstopper, as well as the focus of a lawsuit by Drake against Universal Music Group, the parent company both rappers share. The question of what's next for Drake has, for most of the last 15 years, also pointed to what's next for hip-hop, and often what's next for global pop. And that's part of what's made the past year so disorienting — the sidelining of Drake has left an explicit hole in that conversation. But the post-conflagration part of his battle with Lamar has been something of an anticlimax. The struggles with Lamar often distilled to one central perceived tension — Lamar had purchase over a purer version of hip-hop, while Drake had less claim to it. Side-picking was hip-hop's primary sport last year. But if Lamar's victories were arguments for a traditionalist view of hip-hop ethics, Drake's performances here, and the ones he orchestrated around him, offered a more catholic approach, and also one focused on the future — an implicit rebuke to that mode of thought. Drake headlined each night of Wireless with a differently themed set list: a day focused on R&B, a day of rap, a day of club and party music. And his sets were peppered with guests — he kept referring to the calls he'd made, the subtext being that plenty of people still happily answer those calls. And so these appearances were about alliances, sure — with American rappers like 21 Savage and Sexyy Red, or British stars J Hus, Skepta, Headie One, Dave and Central Cee. (Drake even anointed a young British comer, Fakemink, who delivered an out-of-breath version of 'LV Sandals.') 'Nobody can outrap London rappers,' Drake said. The Nigerian star Rema, during the festival's third night, gave one of its most electrifying performances, ranging wide from the tender flirtation 'Calm Down' to the warlike 'Ozeba.' Opening night tilted toward the sensuous with Mario, sounding hale on 'Let Me Love You,' and Bobby Valentino, slightly less so on 'Slow Down.' Giveon did an austere three-song set wearing silk and cradling a glass of wine. Bryson Tiller, perhaps the first R&B singer to respond to Drake's innovations in real time in the mid-2010s, excelled on 'Exchange.' There was also an intoxicating but slightly overlong run of songs with Drake sharing the stage with his longtime collaborator PartyNextDoor, with whom he makes some of his most astrally placid music. Sometimes these performances felt designed for an audience of one: Drake. Few stars of his level are so vividly fans of other musicians, and certainly not in hip-hop. His joy while watching Skepta rap, or helping Sexyy Red out of her shoes so she could twerk more freely, was infectious — even when others were performing, Drake was working harder. Around half of Drake's time onstage was devoted to his guests. When he himself performed, he leaned on high-energy strings of like-minded tracks — on night two, it was the pugnacity of 'Headlines,' 'Energy,' 'Know Yourself' and 'Nonstop'; on opening night, it was a tender run of 'Teenage Fever,' 'Virginia Beach,' 'Feel No Ways' and 'Passionfruit,' which he sang just a touch behind the beat, then smeared the back half into a quiet-storm vamp. He didn't overindex on his biggest songs: often just a hint of a familiar warm-bleed synth sent the crowd into a roar. His opening songs each night weren't hits, per se — they were Easter eggs for loyalists. On the first night it was 'Marvin's Room,' his 2011 magnum opus of toxic solipsism. On night two, it was 'IDGAF,' a rage-rap experiment with Yeat, who joined him onstage in a matching Chrome Hearts poncho. And on the final night, it was an unheard new song with the British star Central Cee, manna for the local crowd. Each time, it was the equivalent of walking in a room and immediately making yourself comfortable on the couch — no pretext, no pretense. Drake is also not immune to schmaltz — at the end of each night, he took to the same crane-hoisted platform to thank the crowd during 'I Will Always Love You' (a gesture he borrowed from his mentor Lil Wayne). And on the second night, just before that, the pop singer Vanessa Carlton emerged at a piano and pounded out a sweet rendition of her yearning 2002 hit 'A Thousand Miles' while Drake cheesed madly. (The daily pre-Drake performer lineups displayed deep reverence for each form: sets from the nimble R&B singers Summer Walker and Sailorr, Southern rap surrealism from Sahbabii, the inventive British rappers Lancey Foux and Fimiguerrero, the South African amapiano star Uncle Waffles, the Nigerian neo-traditionalists Burna Boy and Odumodublvck.) Though joy was his dominant mode throughout the weekend, Drake was also keen to project strength. On the first night, he was wearing a bull-riding vest (or something like it) that read 'Stay Cocky.' Drake also brought his own press, sending a private jet to ferry a boatload of popular livestreamers and YouTubers — Adin Ross, BenDaDonnn, DDG, Los Pollos, Kyle Forgeard of Nelk, and more — who provided nonstop content online throughout the weekend. It was a sophisticated media strategy — their collective reach exponentially outstripped the real-time crowd, and allowed Drake to do for high-profile streamers, still a media curio to many, what he once did for promising little-known regional rappers: boost their profile with his simple stamp of approval. Here, Lamar and other enemies were mostly an afterthought, or at the most, a subtext. At one point on night two, the crowd erupted into a vulgar chant directed at Lamar, spurred on by Ross. Drake heard it and puffed his chest a little: 'Y'all thought y'all could knock the boy off for real?' Earlier this month, Drake livestreamed on YouTube for an hour, driving an ice delivery truck through the streets of Toronto to premiere his new single, the sinister 'What Did I Miss?,' which just made its debut at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It's almost foaming at the mouth with disdain, a strong entry in Drake's long catalog of I-wish-you-would disdain. He performed it on the festival's second night, but only then. However, he played 'Nokia,' his optimistic up-tempo party hit from earlier this year, each of the three nights. 'Nokia' was released in February on 'Some Sexy Songs 4 U,' Drake's collaborative album with PartyNextDoor. As a whole, that release felt like a tentative place holder, a style experiment with loose energy and low stakes. But 'Nokia' was different, an electro-rap hybrid that recalled 'Hotline Bling,' one of his biggest hits. It felt of a piece with the story about himself he was telling especially on the festival's third night, which showed off his gift for big-tent pop — 'Controlla,' 'Find Your Love,' 'Work' — that absorbs elements from around the globe, from vital music scenes often overlooked in the mainstream. Drake's reach takes in British drill, Jamaican dancehall, Nigerian Afrobeats, South African amapiano, Southern rap, and so much more — in short, a trans-Atlantic cosmopolitanism unconcerned with any one local rule book. The rest of the world is so, so big.
The Sun
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Watch the moment Drake re-ignites feud with Kendrick Lamar live on stage at Wireless 2025
DRAKE sends fans wild as he re-ignites his bitter feud with rapper Kendrick Lamar live on stage. The singer performed a three day set at Wireless Festival this weekend but has got tongues wagging with his on-stage antics. 5 5 This years Wireless saw thousands of festival goers attend the three day event with a star-studded line-up at London's Finsbury Park. And in a festival first Hotline Bling hit-maker Drake took to the stage for his first full UK performance in six years. He headlined the main stage each evening in a deal thought to be worth millions. The singer put on a stellar performance bringing out incredible guest acts including Skepta, Lauryn Hill and Rema. But, it was another moment on stage that really caught fans attention. In clips circulating social media snipped from the event, Drake can be heard onstage asking the audience to name an artist he should clash with and that he will bring them onstage. The crowd then breaks out into a chorus chanting the expletive 'F*** Kendrick' in reference to rap rival Kendrick Lamar. To which Drake responds: 'Grab me a shot I'll drink to that.' The pair had seemingly buried the hatchet from their long-standing feud but now Drake has reignited the pair's rivalry. Fans took to social media gushing over the clip, one user said: 'Things like these don't end that easily.' 'Yeesh, this battle still going?' questioned another. "It's been a year and drake is still dragging it I'm in tears." penned a third. 'Kendrick n Drake will never end this feud.' added a fourth. The duo's feud began when Drake and J. Cole released First Person Shooter, in which the latter claimed that himself, Drake, and Kendrick are the 'big three' of hip-hop. Their beef then escalated when Kendrick featured on Future and Metro Boomin's song Like That. On the abovementioned track, Kendrick responded to the claim of a "big three" in his verse where he instead stated, 'It's just big me," and accused Drake and J. Cole of sneak dissing. Kendrick also alluded to Drake's album For All the Dogs and added: "For all your dogs gettin' buried, that's a K with all these nines, he gon' see Pet Sematary." Drake responded to Kendrick with the track Push Ups, which had lyrics ridiculing Kendrick's height and his mainstream collaborations with Taylor Swift and Maroon 5. Fuel was added to the fire when Kendrick then released Not Like Us, which accuses Drake of being a pedophile. The tune won Kendrick five awards for best music video, rap song, rap performance, song, and record of the year at the Grammys in 2025. With Canadian superstar Drake suing Universal Music Group with a defamation lawsuit over the track. 5 5
