Latest news with #MinistryofSound
The Age
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
OK Zoomers, it's time to quit the cringe. Let's dance
We all need to dance, at all stages and ages of life. But particularly in our 20s. A Sydney University Study published last year found having a groove is not just physically good for you but also reduces anxiety, distress and depression while improving motivation. It's also spiritual. I am not a person of faith but the times I've felt transcendence have been on the dance floor at Mardi Gras, Sleaze Ball, warehouse parties or Big Day Outs. I still have a chat group 'meet you under the mirror ball' with friends forever connected through nights of musical worship where we danced until dawn. A certain strobe light at Vivid can take me back to that communal bliss. The Faithless song God Is a DJ is a cultural anthem that celebrates a dance floor's connection to a transformative power. As Maxi Jazz rapped, 'This is my church. This is where I heal my hurt'. Loading Far from being faithless, this Buddhist from Brixton understood that the dance floor was a place where 'young lives take shape', where they can be 'content in the hum'. He told me he relished the power that dance had to raise consciousness. And when he stood on stage, spread his arms out wide and sang to the heavenly heaving mass, he was a high priest of house. Dance grounds you; it pulls you into your body, but it also allows your brain to let go and lose your body to the beat. Dance is healing. It's a mutual high and a communal hug. It's a blessing with a dose of devilishly sexy delight. It's where drums match heartbeats and bodies move together, apart. And in that universal devotion to dance there's a synchronicity of hearts and minds. A dance floor can be a place of love, compassion, kindness, respect. And it's a rite-of-passage for a young generation to feel that connection. While Generation Z avoid the dance floor, people of my age are returning. Ministry of Sound is a nightclub and record label based in London reviving its original anthems in day parties. Last year it hosted DJs and laser lights over three nights at Sydney's coolest heritage venue – the remodelled White Bay Power Station. Thousands danced on the tar-blackened concrete floors where we had danced at illegal raves in the '90s. Back in their church of beats, bellied and balding Generation X-ers regained their communal connection in comfortable shoes. Loading Due to a (dance floor) injury, I have not danced for years. But my physio has just cleared me for action. In fact, he has prescribed it. I'm feeling the nerves of the young – contained, constricted and cringed. Perhaps I'll begin with 'No L' – a dance floor in darkness, liberated from the judgment of others. I'd like to suggest these as a gateway dance drug for the generation who don't dance enough. So come on kids, you can't afford housing, your future is uncertain and old, rich, angry men are ruining your world. Take to the dance floor and let it all lift for a few hours. I wish you communal joy and the therapy of the throng. Warm up on TikTok where everybody dances. There's talk there about 'cringe mountain'. The idea that everyone who is cool started as cringe. Every good dancer started as bad. Nudge nonchalance away, climb cringe mountain, throw the phone away and dance like nobody's watching.
Sydney Morning Herald
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
OK Zoomers, it's time to quit the cringe. Let's dance
We all need to dance, at all stages and ages of life. But particularly in our 20s. A Sydney University Study published last year found having a groove is not just physically good for you but also reduces anxiety, distress and depression while improving motivation. It's also spiritual. I am not a person of faith but the times I've felt transcendence have been on the dance floor at Mardi Gras, Sleaze Ball, warehouse parties or Big Day Outs. I still have a chat group 'meet you under the mirror ball' with friends forever connected through nights of musical worship where we danced until dawn. A certain strobe light at Vivid can take me back to that communal bliss. The Faithless song God Is a DJ is a cultural anthem that celebrates a dance floor's connection to a transformative power. As Maxi Jazz rapped, 'This is my church. This is where I heal my hurt'. Loading Far from being faithless, this Buddhist from Brixton understood that the dance floor was a place where 'young lives take shape', where they can be 'content in the hum'. He told me he relished the power that dance had to raise consciousness. And when he stood on stage, spread his arms out wide and sang to the heavenly heaving mass, he was a high priest of house. Dance grounds you; it pulls you into your body, but it also allows your brain to let go and lose your body to the beat. Dance is healing. It's a mutual high and a communal hug. It's a blessing with a dose of devilishly sexy delight. It's where drums match heartbeats and bodies move together, apart. And in that universal devotion to dance there's a synchronicity of hearts and minds. A dance floor can be a place of love, compassion, kindness, respect. And it's a rite-of-passage for a young generation to feel that connection. While Generation Z avoid the dance floor, people of my age are returning. Ministry of Sound is a nightclub and record label based in London reviving its original anthems in day parties. Last year it hosted DJs and laser lights over three nights at Sydney's coolest heritage venue – the remodelled White Bay Power Station. Thousands danced on the tar-blackened concrete floors where we had danced at illegal raves in the '90s. Back in their church of beats, bellied and balding Generation X-ers regained their communal connection in comfortable shoes. Loading Due to a (dance floor) injury, I have not danced for years. But my physio has just cleared me for action. In fact, he has prescribed it. I'm feeling the nerves of the young – contained, constricted and cringed. Perhaps I'll begin with 'No L' – a dance floor in darkness, liberated from the judgment of others. I'd like to suggest these as a gateway dance drug for the generation who don't dance enough. So come on kids, you can't afford housing, your future is uncertain and old, rich, angry men are ruining your world. Take to the dance floor and let it all lift for a few hours. I wish you communal joy and the therapy of the throng.
Cosmopolitan
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Cosmopolitan
New Love Island Casa Amor bombshell Yaz arrives tomorrow: "I do fall fast in a relationship"
It's official, there's just one more day to go until Love Island's Casa Amor kicks off. While we've already learned that one of the bombshells is Harry's ex - who looked visibly shocked when Meg read out her name - there are five other girls ready to enter the villa. One of the new Islanders is Yaz, who has shared that she's not afraid of turning someone's head, because she's joining the show to find a "genuine connection." So, as we prepare for Casa Amor and the drama that is likely to come with it, let's find out a little more about Yaz. From her age, occupation, to who she currently has her eye on in the villa... Yaz is 26 years old and currently lives in Manchester. Yaz is a DJ. "The one thing that people are most surprised to learn about me is that I can sing. Some people also think I'm lying about being a DJ. Especially guys on a night out!" she joked. OK, this fully means that she needs to flex these skills in the villa. Pool party, anyone? Casa Amor's latest bombshell has stated that she doesn't have a game plan, but knows what she wants and who she wants. When reflecting on how it's been watching the show in the knowledge that she'll be entering the villa, Yaz said: "If I was to sum it up, I would say it's been wild, feral and crazy. From watching it at home and comparing it to previous series, it's a crazy one." The new Islander also revealed that she falls fast in a relationship, and can get "a bit delusional." She explained: "When I fall for someone, I forget everything else. My whole life goes on hold for the person I'm in love with. I'm a lovergirl." As for the kind of Islander she thinks she'll be, Yaz used the terms "fun and geeky." But, she said that these personality traits won't be expected. She added: "People always tell me they never thought I'd be like that but then I open my mouth." "I have my eye on three boys: Harrison, Tommy and Conor. They all seem like they treat women really well, and they have nice personalities and nice bodies." "Definitely someone that's masculine, muscly, taller than me and emotionally available," the Islander shared. You can find Yaz on Instagram under @yasmin_lauryn, where she has 16.2K followers. Her grid is littered with DJ content, from promoting her Ministry of Sound mixes to footage of her playing at events like Parklife festival, and the Sabrina Carpenter pre-party in Manchester. Love Island continues on Sunday night at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.
The Independent
03-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Opioid ‘hundred times stronger than heroin' linked to UK clubbing deaths for first time
Two people in their twenties have died in London after allegedly consuming a super-strong opioid drug, the first that experts have linked in the UK to the new substance. Warned that they can be hundreds of times stronger than heroin, nitazenes are a newer form of synthetic opioid and can be mis-sold as drugs including oxycodone, which is a highly addictive prescription drug used to treat pain. A 20-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man are understood to have taken the drug after visiting a club in south London over the May bank holiday weekend. The blue tablets, which are marked with the number 80, could potentially be mistaken for 'oxys', which can help users fall asleep. In a statement on their social media page, the nightclub Ministry of Sound in Elephant and Castle said: 'We have been informed of a dangerous batch of blue-green pills marked with '80' are being sold across London. 'These pills have been linked to hospitalisations and tragically two confirmed fatalities. 'Reports indicate they contain synthetic opioids, along with traces of ketamine and MDMA. They are being mis-sold as Ecstasy or Oxycodone, and investigations are ongoing.' They encouraged anyone who was feeling unwell while at the venue to seek medical help immediately from their on-site team. The Cause, in east London, and Fabric, in Farringdon, also posted similar messages warning people of the risks of consuming the drug. It has prompted fears ahead of festival season, with increased calls for front-of-house drug testing. Speaking to The Times, Professor Fiona Measham, the founder of drug checking charity The Loop, said: 'Up to now, there have been about two nitazene-related deaths per week in the UK, predominantly linked to contamination of opiate and street benzodiazepine markets,. 'This appears to be a leap from dependent to recreational drug using communities with the deaths of two clubbers but we don't yet know the purchase intent. If we did, we could target the appropriate groups looking to buy, for example, oxycodone or ecstasy pills.' The Home Office said: 'Every death from drugs is a tragedy and our thoughts are with the family and friends of the two individuals who have sadly lost their lives. 'We are determined to take steps to prevent drug-related deaths and we support the testing of drugs seized by the police or deposited in amnesty bins, but we cannot endorse testing for recreational users because there is no safe way to take illegal drugs. 'We are doing everything we can to tackle the evolving threat from synthetic opioids such as nitazenes, including working closely with the police to increase the number of officers carrying the opioid overdose antidote naloxone.' The Metropolitan Police said: 'We are currently investigating the death of two people at a residential address in Havelock Road, Southall. 'Met officers were called on Monday, 26 May at 16:00hrs following reports that a 20-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man had been found unresponsive. 'Paramedics from the London Ambulance Service attended the scene where both people were sadly pronounced dead. The deaths are being treated as unexpected and an investigation remains ongoing. 'Post-mortem examinations have been carried out and we await the results of toxicology findings. 'Next of kin for both the man and the woman have been informed, they are currently being supported by specialist officers.'
The National
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
DJ and jazz artist Rebecca Vasmant on 10 things that changed her life
1. The Stan Tracey Quartet GOING from collecting house and techno into jazz from the day that I heard a track called The Stan Tracey Quartet - Starless and Bible Black. From the day that I first heard that song until the rest of my life, it's completely changed the trajectory of it, and I've gone into embracing this passion for jazz, and it's changed my career, it's changed my life, it's changed my mental health. Because listening to down-tempo jazz really helps my mindset, it's changed everything. 2. Horses I DECIDED that I was going to try and do some things that I did in my childhood that I stopped doing in my childhood, and kind of rediscover my childhood self. One of those things was getting back into being around horses. It has made me really calm and centered, and happy. READ MORE: Scottish director's film set during Highland Clearances takes Cannes by storm It's allowed me to feel really free and like riding around the countryside on the back of horses, and kind of work in unison with this massive being that could, at any point, just kill you, but they don't, because you form this amazing relationship with them. I think it really symbolises how I like to be as a person in the world. Showing people mutual respect and just being grateful for other people and nature. 3. Ibiza WHEN I was in my early twenties, I went and did my first ever DJ season in Ibiza. It changed my life massively because, number one, it taught me how to DJ to crowds, and it also made me see that I really knew what I wanted to do with my life, even at an early age. Doing those seasons in Ibiza, DJing, doing residencies and gaining independence, living in another culture. I made sure that I had Spanish friends and didn't just surround myself with British people. 4. Ministry of Sound GETTING my World Tours residency at Ministry of Sound just after Ibiza, I must have still been 22. I got a residency where, pretty much overnight, I was flying all over the world and doing this residency for the brand. I just went from being quite a nervous young person who was quite scared to go places on their own, into getting on planes to do multi-city tours of India, and I went all over the world. I think that changed my perception of myself in the sense that I was a strong, independent person, and I could just do things on my own. 5. Own Place PROBABLY getting my own place and not flat sharing because, in my late 30s, up until that point, I'd always been met with limitations of sharing your space and not being able to make noise. I think for the first time ever, I was able to be creatively free and living on my own. 6. Paris I WENT to DJ in Paris one night, and I met my core group of lifelong friends that I have in Paris to this day. I just feel like you sometimes get these nights where you don't realise at the time that you're going to look back on as it changed everything, but that night really did change everything. My dad lives in Paris because I'm half French, so I'm in Paris quite a lot and that [night] gave me a group of friends, a music network, multiple DJ residences, and a family in Paris that I never had before. 7. MacBook Pro I WENT from not having the means or the access to be able to make music at home, because the laptop that I was on before wouldn't run Ableton. Upgrading my laptop to a laptop, that was a second-hand one, which was good enough to run Ableton, changed my life because I then went on to teach myself how to make music. While it is a material thing, it allowed me to open so many doors for myself, and I had saved up all my twenties, and I didn't get my first MacBook Pro until I was like 31 or something. 8. Cheese Fondue THE first time I went to DJ in Switzerland at a ski festival, I tried my first cheese fondue, and oh my God, I'm now absolutely obsessed with any form of melted cheese. Sometimes food is not really that life-changing, or it's not really that deep, but cheese fondue is absolutely that deep to me. The way I cook, the way I think about food now, is just so different because of using wine in the sauce and just all these things to do with the actual food itself feels a bit spiritual when you cook in the kitchen. It made cooking exciting for me. 9. Mr Scruff THE moment that Andy, AKA Mr Scruff, asked us to play my music live. We formed the band that we now play in, and then we basically went on to do four plus years of touring and playing all over with a nine-piece jazz band, which is absolutely mental. That one phone call where he asked us to play live has definitely changed my life. 10. The Internet THE first time that we had a computer at home and we had the internet on the computer. I started to realise that there was a bigger world out there other than just the small village that I live in [Saline]. Even the concept of the internet existing and being able to speak to people in other countries and being able to send an email, because I'm old enough to remember that, that's definitely changed my life. Rebecca Vasmant will be playing at the Kelburn Garden Party on July 5.
