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BreakingNews.ie
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BreakingNews.ie
Alice Cooper says Ozzy Osbourne was ‘unmatched showman and cultural icon'
Rockstar Alice Cooper has described Ozzy Osbourne as an 'unmatched showman and cultural icon' following news of the death of the Black Sabbath frontman at the age of 76. Cooper, 77, whose real name is Vincent Damon Furnier, paid tribute to the heavy metal singer, joining the likes of Sir Elton John, Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood and other famous faces, after his death was announced on Tuesday evening. Advertisement Posting on Instagram, following a performance in Cardiff dedicated to the late singer, Cooper said: 'The whole world is mourning Ozzy tonight. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Alice Cooper (@alicecooper) 'Over his long career, he earned immense respect among his peers and from fans around the world as an unmatched showman and cultural icon. 'I always saw Ozzy as a cross between the prince of darkness, which is the persona his fans saw, and the court jester. That was the side that his family and friends saw. 'He was and will continue to be a rock and roll legend. Rock and Roll is a family and a fraternity. When we lose one of our own, it bleeds. I wish I would have gotten to know my brother Ozzy better. Advertisement 'A titanic boulder has crashed, but rock will roll on.' Also paying tribute to the late singer was Kermit the Frog, who worked with Osbourne on the album Kermit: Unpigged. Ozzy Osbourne and Kermit the Frog worked together on an album (Peter Jordan/PA) The statement, shared on The Muppets Instagram account, said: 'No-one rocked harder than the great Ozzy Osbourne. 'We loved working with him on our album Kermit: Unpigged. He recorded Born To Be Wild with Miss Piggy – the perfect song for both of them! Advertisement 'Every time we bumped into Ozzy over the years, he made us feel just as cool as he was. 'We loved having a friend like Ozzy Osbourne and we feel so lucky to have known him, worked with him and experienced his music for so many decades.' Sir Elton John remembered Osbourne as a 'huge trailblazer' who 'secured his place in the pantheon of rock gods'. Writing on Instagram, Sir Elton said: 'He was also one of the funniest people I've ever met. I will miss him dearly. To Sharon and the family, I send my condolences and love. Elton xx.' Advertisement I am so very sad to hear of the death of Ozzy Osbourne 💔🙏 What a lovely goodbye concert he had at Back To The Beginning in Birmingham🙏☀️❤️🎤 — Ronnie Wood (@ronniewood) July 22, 2025 The Rolling Stones' Wood also paid tribute after joining Osbourne at Black Sabbath's last gig at Villa Park, Birmingham, earlier this month. He posted on X: 'I am so very sad to hear of the death of Ozzy Osbourne. 'What a lovely goodbye concert he had at Back To The Beginning in Birmingham.' Singer Yungblud, who sang Black Sabbath's Changes at the Back To The Beginning farewell concert on July 5, said he was 'heartbroken' by the news and called Osbourne 'the greatest of all time'. Advertisement 'I didn't think you would leave so soon, the last time we met you were so full of life and your laugh filled up the room,' he wrote in a social media post. Rock band Motorhead said they had lost a 'dear friend' in a post that recalled the band's late vocalist Lemmy's friendship with Osbourne. View this post on Instagram A post shared by YUNGBLUD (@yungblud) The message read: 'We lost our dear friend today. Ozzy was a pioneer, a guiding force for all in hard rock and metal, and a great guy too. 'Lemmy and Ozzy were brothers in arms who enjoyed many adventures together, and his loss is seismic. RIP Ozzy, we will always love and celebrate you… ' AC/DC posted that Osbourne's death was a 'great loss to all that loved him', with Metallica members calling him an 'icon' and 'mentor' while sharing images from photographers Ross Halfin and Noah Abrams. 'He taught us how to play in the big leagues while at the same time being warm, welcoming, engaging, and all around brilliant,' they wrote on Instagram. Among the other stars paying tribute were former footballer Sir David Beckham, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, Van Halen's Sammy Hagar, Jon Bon Jovi, singer Donny Osmond, Queen guitarist Sir Brian May and US movie star Adam Sandler, who said he felt 'so happy' that he was able to meet Osbourne. Foo Fighters said in a social media post: 'Rock and Roll would not be as loud or as fun' without Osbourne, while Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant wrote he had 'truly changed the planet of rock'. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sir Brian May (@brianmayforreal) Kiss bassist Gene Simmons told NBC News that behind the outgoing stage persona was a 'loving father' and 'dedicated husband'. 'There was never an Ozzy before Ozzy,' he said. Sir Brian said Osbourne's final concert earlier in the month 'was a glorious way to say goodbye' to the heavy metal vocalist who died on July 22 at the age of 76. Actor Jason Momoa shared a photo of himself alongside Osbourne and his wife Sharon to Instagram, writing: 'Love you @ozzyosbourne All my aloha @sharonosbourne and ohana. So grateful.' Aston Villa, Osbourne's home-town football club, said it was 'saddened' to learn of the star's passing. 'Growing up in Aston, not far from Villa Park, Ozzy always held a special connection to the club and the community he came from,' the club said. An honour to have celebrated the extraordinary life and legacy of Ozzy Osbourne just weeks ago. Devastated to hear the news of his death today. One of the greatest gifts my city gave the world. My thoughts are with his family. In Ozzy's own words: Birmingham forever. — Shabana Mahmood MP (@ShabanaMahmood) July 22, 2025 'The thoughts of everyone at Aston Villa are with his wife Sharon, his family, friends, and countless fans at this extremely difficult time.' Justice Secretary and Birmingham Ladywood MP Shabana Mahmood said she was among those who celebrated Osbourne's life and legacy just over two weeks ago. She wrote on X: 'Devastated to hear the news of his death today. One of the greatest gifts my city gave the world. 'My thoughts are with his family. In Ozzy's own words: Birmingham forever.'
Al Bawaba
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Bawaba
Damascus uproar: Historic Syrian cinema ordered to vacate in one week
ALBAWABA - Artists, directors, and cultural leaders from all over Syria are very angry about the Damascus Endowments Directorate's choice to end its lease deal with Al-Kindi Cinema. A lot of people on social media were upset about what they saw as the disappearance of a major cultural icon in Damascus. Some even said it was a blow to the city's film history that goes back more than a hundred years. The General Organization for Cinema used to own Al-Kindi Cinema, which is listed under property record number 2285 in the Salhiya area. On July 10, 2025, the Directorate sent out a formal letter ending the lease. A less than $30-a-year rent has been paid for decades for the more than 700-square-meter spot. The relatives of the original tenant, Mohammad Aref Al-Kheimi & Co., have been told by the authorities to leave the property within seven days. If they don't, the order will be enforced through the courts. The Directorate said that the site would be fixed up and turned into a culture center to "spread knowledge and enlightenment" among young Syrians. After opening in the 1920s as "Adonis Cinema," Al-Kindi Cinema changed its name to "Balqis Cinema" before being bought by the General Organization for Cinema in 1976. It has been an important part of Syrian film culture ever since, hosting both foreign and Arab film events. Some people are against the lease because they say it is a "automatically renewable contract," which means that it can't be broken without a change in the law. Legal experts, like lawyer Ismail Nasr, said the Directorate's action wasn't legal and that it should have waited for future changes to property rules before taking action. Some people wanted to take back long-leased trust homes, but a lot of other people said that renegotiating the rent would have been a better option for everyone. They also didn't like the one-week date for eviction, pointing out that the cinema had valuable technical equipment and was historically important.
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Iconic Headington car receives more artistic decorations
An abandoned car – recently described as a 'cultural icon' – has had more decorations added to it. For over a month, the black and silver two-seater has been parked on London Road, near to Bury Knowle Park, and since then it has seemingly taken on a life of its own. While initially the decorations were limited to Christmas tinsel, in the following weeks a Budweiser bottle was smashed into its windscreen and a note left saying 'it's my birthday'. A previous photo of the car which has been there for over a month (Image: Stephen Czajewski) In the latest update, the decorations have hit a new level with a piece of artwork depicting two fish circling the yin-yang symbol. READ MORE: In addition, several costume headbands – of an elf and the devil – have been stuck onto the heavily damaged car as well Christmas snowflake decorations. On top of being an art display, the car is also gaining a functional use, sporting flyers for local restaurants and the St Mary and St John Church. One resident claimed the car has become more iconic than the Headington Shark (Image: Oxford Mail) Such is its decor that, despite its dilapidated state, one local resident joking claimed it had become more recognisable than the famous Headington shark. Missed a copy of the Oxford Mail you wanted? Here's what to do — Oxford Mail (@TheOxfordMail) May 13, 2024 Stephen Czajewski said: 'Move over the famous shark as the car is becoming the cultural icon of Headington.' He added: 'I noticed the smashed window a couple of weeks ago and I'm surprised nobody has shifted it yet.' Oxford City Council previously said its officers would visit the abandoned vehicle and initiate an investigation within one day of a report being made.
ABC News
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Sly Stone's biggest songs tell us everything about his impact on modern music and culture
The tragic truth is that Sly Stone's recording career was only a very short part of his life. The singer and bandleader, who died this week at 82, was a groundbreaking figure in popular culture of the 1960s and 70s known for his open-minded approach to creating music. His band, Sly & the Family Stone, was one of the first prominent mixed-race, mixed-gender, mixed-genre bands to gain mainstream support. They broke musical boundaries as well as social ones, bringing rock'n'roll, funk and soul together in a heady melange we now take for granted. His work hasn't just influenced artists over the past 60 years, it has provided the architecture for so much modern music. Funk, soul, hip hop and even pop music have all been shaped in some way by the leaps made by Sly Stone's band, who broke the mould at a time when such behaviour was unheard of. While much of his life was marred by drug addiction and homelessness due to financial mismanagement, the impact he had on music has never dulled. The music and the message has remained relevant for decades. Here are five songs to start with if you're not yet across some of the biggest moments Sly Stone gave us in his early career. Sly and the Family Stone's debut album, A Whole New Thing, didn't sell a lot of copies upon release and didn't garner the same critical acclaim that would come with their next albums. They came out of the gates strongly though, 'Underdog' — the first track from their first album — set the tone for the energy they were set to inject into American pop culture in the coming years. Recorded live, it's a clear display of the band's sheer brilliance as individual musicians and as a unit. The song sounds like a party from the moment they all kick in after its 'Frère Jacques' intro, and Sly Stone sounds every bit the formidable leader he was as he barks about the feeling of being underrated and under-appreciated. It's a brilliant piece of music, and that was clearly enough for Sly Stone to realise success was worth chasing. After failing to shift the needle on their first album, Sly Stone took his band in more of a pop direction on second album 1968's Dance To The Music. The band was good, they just hadn't captured the public's attention yet. The title track, which opens the album, took care of that. While they were unapologetically shooting for broader audiences, that didn't stop them from breaking ground. This is the song perhaps most responsible for the explosion of psychedelic soul music that was to come in its wake. Rock bands began to embrace the grooves and spirit of soul music, soul groups dug into the freedom and experimentation that came with psychedelic rock and, perhaps most importantly, the listening public got used to these worlds colliding. If 'Dance To The Music' was the band's introduction to a mainstream audience, 'Everyday People' was — and still is — the song that would cement them in the annals of pop culture forever. The band's first number one single is the most prominent example of the peaceful politics that drove much of the band's early work. It remains an anthem for equality almost 60 years later and perhaps speaks to the band's ethos more clearly than any of their work. That it was a hit was no accident. Stone knew precisely what he was doing. "I didn't just want 'Everyday People' to be a song, I wanted it to be a standard," he wrote in his 2023 autobiography Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin). "Something that would be up there with 'Jingle Bells' or 'Moon River'. And I knew how to do it. It meant a simple melody with a simple arrangement to match." At just two minutes long, it feels like it's all over before it begins. While it doesn't overstay its welcome, that simple melody sticks in your head well after the track is over. 'Everyday People' is still everywhere in pop culture, thanks largely to its appearances in TV advertisements and innumerable cover versions, the latest of which to go viral features pop icon Cher and mumble rap superstar Future. Sly's lyrics start to sound a bit more paranoid and cautious at this point, as he sings of a wrestle with the devil, later proclaiming that "Flamin' eyes of people fear burnin' into you" and how "dyin' young is hard to take, sellin' out is harder". As for that title: it's more than sensational spelling for the sake of it. "Mice, elf, small humble things that were reminders of how big the rest of the world was," he wrote in his autobiography. "You had to stand up straight to be seen at all. And there were forces working against standing up straight. I tried to get to them in the lyrics." This song has perhaps the most practical example of the immense musical impact of this group: it is widely considered the song that introduced the concept of slap bass, courtesy of Larry Graham, a style of playing omnipresent through various genres of music to this day. Thanks to that, the influence of this song is too broad to accurately chart, but the clearest example is probably Janet Jackson's career-defining song 'Rhythm Nation', which is built from a sample of this track. In 1971, the civil rights movement was losing momentum, flower power and the energy it had inspired was also waning, and Sly Stone's lifelong battle with drug addiction was beginning to take a serious toll, leading to infighting, missed concerts, and general unreliability that hampered his personal and working relationships. On their dark fifth album, There's A Riot Goin' On, Sly and the Family Stone threw the positivity of their late-60s records in the fire and turned in a series of druggy, pessimistic takes on modern life. It's a dour but brilliant record and its centrepiece, 'Family Affair', remains one of Stone's finest works and biggest hits. His lyrics, about the complexities of familial love, aren't groundbreaking but its chorus, sung by Sly's sister Rose Stone, makes it both sweet and sad in a haunting kind of way. The tensions within the band meant the line-up on this track wasn't the Family Stone as they'd previously existed. Billy Preston, fresh from his turn with The Beatles, played keys, Bobby Womack played guitar, while a drum machine replaced founding drummer Greg Errico. Admittedly, this primitive electronic beat-making proved hugely influential on the development of hip hop years later. It's been covered extensively: Lou Reed's version is the pick, though takes from reggae pop star Shabba Ranks and Aussie favourite Stephen Cummings warrant investigation too. It's also been heavily sampled: most notably in the Black Eyed Peas 2000 jam 'Weekends'.
Fox News
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson highlights top Black officials in his administration
All times eastern FOX News Radio Live Channel Coverage WATCH LIVE: Trump joins Kennedy Center board for dinner as he eyes cultural icon's revival
