Latest news with #ska
National Post
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- National Post
Ottawa Bluesfest a 'very big deal' for local bands. Here's how they get the gig
The British-born musician known as D.B. Cohen used to daydream about playing Bluesfest when he saw how the festival took over the entire city for days at a time. Article content 'I've seen the big crowds and thought what a wonderful experience to be able to play it,' said Cohen, who's been a resident of the Ottawa area for almost a decade. 'It's the marquis event of Ottawa, and I remember going there the first time thinking, 'Wouldn't it be nice to be up there,' and kind of daydream about it. Article content Article content Article content 'Eight or nine years later, lo and behold, here we are,' he added, pointing to his slot at this year's edition of Ottawa's biggest summer music festival, which runs July 10-20 on the grounds of LeBreton Flats Park. Article content The singer-songwriter-guitarist brings his ska-blues band, the Revelers, to the festival's River stage on opening night as part of a bill with folk-rock catalyst Father John Misty and Australia's Melbourne Ska Orchestra, led by Nicky Bomba, former drummer of the John Butler Trio. Article content 'I follow all of those as a fan, and to see them doing sell-out tours around America and Canada, you think 'OK, this is this is the benchmark,' ' Cohen said. 'It's a step up in the game, and I think the bands are reacting to that as well.' Article content His Ottawa band members have plenty of Bluesfest experience, but it's a first for the 45-year-old bandleader. 'It's a very big deal,' he said. 'It's the biggest show I've played since I came to Canada. My 10-year-old daughter will be in attendance.' Article content Article content Article content Cohen is one of about a dozen acts based in Ottawa-Gatineau selected to play Bluesfest in 2025. Others include soulful singer-songwriter Claude Munson, bilingual chanteuse Kristine St-Pierre, pop-punk rockers We Were Sharks, bluesman J.W.-Jones, funksters Funk Yo Self and the harmonious West Quebec faves, Leverage For Mountains. Article content The number represents a decline in local representation that began in 2018, when organizers decided to cast a wider net. Instead of drawing acts within a 100-km zone of Parliament Hill, they changed the parameters to encourage indie bands from a broader region, ranging from Ottawa to Montreal to Toronto, and as far north as Sault. Ste Marie and Maniwaki, Que. Article content
BBC News
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Godiva Festival 'a must' for The Specials' Neville Staple
"I love being on stage and I had to do Coventry."Despite serious health concerns, there was no way The Specials' Neville Staple was going to miss playing the city's Godiva one of the founders of the legendary ska revivalists, has been told he can only play five gigs a year, after having to cancel several gigs and festival sets last year when he was diagnosed with a serious heart Godiva performance on Saturday saw him back in the city where The Specials first took to the stage after forming in 1977. "I've missed being on stage so much," Staple told BBC CWR, explaining that after discussions with his wife and his doctor he accepted he had to cut back on wife and fellow musician Christine "Sugary" Staple knew his heart was immediately set on playing Godiva, where she also played in the band's line-up."He said I've got to do Coventry – out of the five [shows], Coventry is a must," she said. The three-day Godiva festival, which showcases local acts as well as famous bands, will end later with a headline set from Ocean Colour Specials were at the forefront of the 2 Tone movement that started in Coventry in the late 1970s, quickly gaining national acclaim. The genre blended Jamaican reggae, ska, and British punk with the likes of The Beat, The Selecter and Madness, the band captured the mood of the late 1970s, when future prospects for young people looked bleak. Now firmly fixed in Coventry's cultural heritage, 2 Tone continues to inspire successive generations, with tributes posted across the city when The Specials' frontman Terry Hall died in of Hall's piano's has been on display at Godiva this year, alongside a stall from Tonic Music for Mental Health, a charity he supported. "Sugary" Staple described the gig as "a homecoming" and added that "we love Godiva, we've got history at Godiva."The couple have also been involved with anti-knife crime campaigning in recent years, after their grandson Fidel Glasgow was fatally stabbed in Coventry in Saturday, Staple's message to people in the city was: "Stay positive, love one another, and put away those knives." Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Forbes
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Connections' Hints For May 26: Clues And Answers For Today's Game
Find the links between the words to win today's game of Connections. Each day's game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. As such, 'today's Connections hints and answers' depend on where you are in the world. In case you need them, here are the Connections hints and answers for Sunday: Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to the start of a new week. I know it's going to be a great one for you. I'm happy back to be with you for another midweek run of Connections columns. For those who are just joining us, I have a little thing I do on Mondays. In addition to the daily recommendation I include at the end of every column, I like to kick off the Monday edition with an upbeat song. My hope is to put a smile on your face (or make one that's there even broader) and get you moving around. Let's get those endorphins flowing and your week off to a positive start. Summer is almost upon us in the northern hemisphere and that's the best time of year for upbeat music. Whether it's pop, funk, soul, Motown, reggae… whatever. It's time to listen to fun music and have a good time. I do love a bit of ska punk, though. I firmly believe that you can improve any song by adding a brass section, and the syncopated guitar chords in this genre meld beautifully with the trumpets, trombones and saxes. I have just decided as I write this to make this an all-ska punk theme week here on my column. Even if you don't think that's going to be your thing, give it a go! We're gonna kick things off with an absolute classic, 'The Impression That I Get' by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Enjoy: FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It's a fun hangout spot, and you're more than welcome to hang out with us. Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don't look at the comments or Twitter much. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes. Today's NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, May 26 are coming right up. Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT's website or Games app. You're presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part. There's only one solution for each puzzle, and you'll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them. Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay. Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you're incorrect, you'll lose a life. If you're close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you're one word away from getting it right, but you'll still need to figure out which one to swap. If you make four mistakes, it's game over. Let's make sure that doesn't happen with the help of some hints, and, if you're really struggling, today's Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it's easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication's Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed. Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find my hints via Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query. Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today's Connections groups, I'll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them. Today's 16 words are... And the hints for today's Connections groups are: Need some extra help? Be warned: we're starting to get into spoiler territory. Today's Connections groups are... Spoiler alert! Don't scroll any further down the page until you're ready to find out today's Connections answers. This is your final warning! Today's Connections answers are... That's win number 90 in a row. Yay! I did it with a perfect game too, which was even better. Here's how I fared: 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 POLAR, COUNTER, REVERSE and OPPOSITE certainly seemed like a group. I decided I wanted to go for the reverse rainbow today, so I held off on submitting those at the jump. WASHCLOTH, SHEET, PILLOWCASE and TOWEL seemed like a decent shout for a group as they're all household fabric items (I wasn't sure a WASHCLOTH would quality as a linen). My guess was that the synonyms would be yellow and the fabric stuff would be green. However, I wasn't seeing what would go together with TEDDY, SLIP and GARTER (TEDDY and GUMMY seemed like a red herring!). Perhaps PILLOWCASE, as a group of things make of silk? But that would throw off what I presumed would be the green group. Hmm... Eventually, I realized that HOSE could be short for "pantyhose." So I figured I had the blues at that point. As for what I presumed were the purples, I did not figure out the connection there, largely because I almost never get these kinds of groups were one letter is changed. Still, I submitted those first. They refer to gin (DIN), bridge (FRIDGE), rummy (GUMMY) and poker (JOKER). (My hint refers to bluke, king, pitch and knack. Not the most obvious card games, but there weren't a lot of options that made sense! These are the purples and they're not supposed to be easy, so I'm okay with it.) The blues were next, followed by... the yellows. Rats! I got the yellows and greens mixed up. So, so close to my sixth-ever reverse rainbow. Maybe tomorrow. That's all there is to it for today's Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Tuesday's game if you need them. P.S. I'm really looking forward to playing the remake of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 that's coming soon, so I've been listening to a playlist that includes songs from across the series. For me, no song is more closely linked with these games than 'Superman' by Goldfinger. It fits this week's ska punk song theme and it's still terrific, so here you go: Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love! Please follow my blog for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes.
