rocks

Cameron Crowe’s charming new memoir is an elegy for a lost time and place, when rock ‘n’ roll culture was still a secret handshake and the music press wasn’t just another publicity tentacle for giant corporations to shill their product (excepting the fine writers at the Los Angeles Times, of course). In fact, the “music press” as a concept is vestigial at best now, the internet having snuffed it out, but when Crowe was writing his features in the 1970s, primarily for Rolling Stone, only a handful of print publications allowed fans to glean any insight about the musicians they admired or to even see photos of them.

Crowe was one of those fans. He spent his adolescence in Palm Springs, a town with “a thousand swimming pools and the constant hum of air conditioners,” in a basement apartment near the freeway. A loner and a nerd raised by a former Army commanding officer and a strong-willed, whip-smart mother who had firm ideas about how young Cameron should conduct himself. Any humiliations Crowe might have suffered as an uncertain teen were for his mother merely speed bumps on the journey to self-actualization, ideally as a lawyer. She had a wealth of Dale Carnegie-esque aphorisms to pump up her young charge, such as “put on your magic shoes,” or “Mind is in every cell of the body. Thoughts are everything.”

“She hated rock and roll,” Crowe writes. “Rock was inelegant, and worse, obsessed with base issues like sex and drugs.”

(Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster)

As we have seen in the 2000 film “Almost Famous,” Crowe’s autobiographical account of his early years, young Cameron cared little about sex or drugs, music being his only lodestar. When his family relocated to San Diego, Crowe found himself in a conservative town with virtually no outlets for music except the local sports arena, where he witnessed his first big-time rock show accompanied by his mom: a post-comeback Elvis, knee deep in Vegas schmaltz, bounding onstage “in a glittering white jumpsuit …. striking karate poses.” A week later, mom and son witnessed Eric Clapton, full of fire with his band Derek and the Dominos. “I understand your music,” Alice Crowe finally conceded. “It’s better than ours.”

San Diego had little pockets of cultural insurrection that Crowe sought out like a moth to flame. When his sister Cindy nabbed a job with the local underground paper called the Door, Crowe wedged his way in, not because he had any interest in radical politics: his hero Lester Bangs, the iconoclastic rock critic whom he had read in Rolling Stone and Creem, had contributed work there.

As he does so often in this book, Crowe pulls the reader in with his keenly observant eye that would serve him so well in his second career as a filmmaker. The Door’s editor Bill Maguire “had a healthy girth, an open shirt with a silver pendant, and rippling brown hair. The kind of character Richard Harris used to play, most of the time with a goblet in his hand.” Maguire and his staff are hippie idealists, wary of sullying their political mission with trivialities like record reviews. But Crowe talks Maguire into letting him weigh in on a James Taylor record, and Crowe’s career is launched. He is 14.

Cameron Crowe, who started his music journalism career as a teen, pulls the reader in with his keenly observant eye that would serve him so well in his second career as a filmmaker.

(Neal Preston)

Crowe would encounter no such resistance as he worked his way into Rolling Stone, whose owner Jann Wenner gladly accepted record company advertising to keep his counterculture publication afloat. Crowe had found his professional home, filing long, admiring features with some of the era’s most important acts.

Crowe’s Dec. 6, 1973, cover story on the Allman Brothers was meant to atone for an earlier profile on the band written for the magazine by Grover Lewis, a brutally honest and often unsavory portrait. Crowe’s do-over feature, in contrast, is anodyne and respectful; the band is even given room to refute some of the facts Lewis included in his story.

Far more interesting is the stuff Crowe left out of that piece that he has now put into his memoir. To wit: Shortly after their perfectly lovely afternoon together, Gregg Allman, clearly in a drug-induced psychotic state, calls Crowe to his hotel room and demands that Crowe physically hand over the tapes of their interview, or else face legal consequences. “How do I know you aren’t with the FBI?” Allman asked Crowe. “You’ve been talking to everybody. Taking notes with your eyes.” It’s hard to imagine Crowe’s mentor Bangs not leading with that scene.

Crowe was covering rock music at a time when publicists had not become the human guardrails they are today, insulating their clients from anything that doesn’t celebrate them. There were no record company representatives present when Crowe sat in the lobby of an El Torito restaurant in Mission Hills with Kris Kristofferson, whose wife Rita Coolidge was waiting for the singer with her family in the bar (underage Crowe wasn’t allowed inside). Or when Crowe went long with David Bowie, interviewing him on and off for a year and a half while Bowie was making his 1976 album “Station to Station.”

Camped out with his wife Angie in a Beverly Hills mansion on North Doheny Drive, Bowie is affable and candid, despite subsisting on a diet of red peppers, milk and cocaine. “Over the months, I became acclimated to the normality within his insulated lifestyle,” Crowe writes. “Oh, sometimes there might be a hexagon drawn on the curtains in his bedroom or a bottle of urine on the windowsill.” While showing Crowe the indoor swimming pool, Bowie remarks that the only problem with the house “is that Satan lives in that swimming pool.”

Such weird scenes inside this once-mysterious world have been totally effaced, now that every musician can curate his own image on social media. Reading “The Uncool,” which touches on Crowe’s Hollywood career without delving too deep into it, reminds us of what has been lost, the myths and mystique that fueled our rock star fantasies and gave the music an aura of magic.

Weingarten is the author of “Thirsty: William Mulholland, California Water, and the Real Chinatown.”

Taylor Swift has already conquered the music world and the concert business, so it’s no surprise that this weekend she reigned supreme over the box office — again.

Swift’s latest venture into theaters came in the form of a listening session/fan party of sorts for her latest album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”

The 89-minute movie, titled “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” featured the premiere of the Swift-directed “The Fate of Ophelia” music video, as well as behind-the-scenes footage and commentary from Swift about the inspiration for her new songs.

As expected with anything Swift, the film quickly rocketed to the top of a weekend box office that didn’t have a lot of new big-name releases. The one-weekend-only affair hauled in $34 million in the U.S. and Canada, AMC said Monday morning. Globally, it made more than $50 million. Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” was the runner-up in its second outing this weekend, grossing about $11 million domestically.

But the lack of competition doesn’t dilute the impact Swift had — and has had — on the box office. Her three-day theatrical total beats opening weekend grosses for other recent, studio films such as the Leonardo DiCaprio-led “One Battle After Another” ($22 million), 22-year sequel “Freakier Friday” reuniting Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis ($28.6 million) and my personal favorite, “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” ($18.1 million).

I may not be a Swiftie, but I know plenty who made their way to theaters this weekend, with some dressing up for the occasion. My colleague, Malia Mendez, wrote about the Taylormania that took over AMC Century City, which screened the Swift film 21 times over three screens, just on Saturday.

There’s something to be said about harnessing the power of a fan base to drive people to theaters. Look at Swift’s last theatrical appearance — 2023’s “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” made about $180 million domestically and brought in more than $261 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing concert film of all time.

As she did with the “Eras Tour” film, Swift bypassed the typical Hollywood system and worked directly with AMC Theatres Distribution to release “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl.” The film played at all of AMC’s 540 locations and also showed at other theaters such as Cinemark and Regal.

The unconventional release was welcome news for theaters, which have struggled to bring in crowds as they did before the pandemic

“On behalf of AMC Theatres and the entire theatrical exhibition industry, I extend our sincerest appreciation to the iconic Taylor Swift for bringing her brilliance and magic to movie theatres this weekend,” AMC Chief Executive Adam Aron said in a statement. “Her vision to add a cinematic element to her incredible album debut was nothing less than a triumph.”

The film’s success is another reminder of the value of nontraditional, alternative content for theaters at a time when they need to employ fresh strategies to lure younger audiences to the multiplex.

As the number of movies released by studios has decreased, theaters are on the hunt for content to put on their screens. Lately, that’s ranged from episodic streaming series like “The Chosen,” which chronicles the life of Jesus, to concert films, opera performances and anniversary screenings of hits such as “The Sound of Music,” “Jaws” or “Back to the Future.”

It’s a business that really took off after the pandemic. Distributor Fathom Entertainment has specialized in this kind of nontraditional content for more than 20 years, but it is now seeing increased interest in these types of titles, particularly anniversary screenings, which now tend to make up between 20% and 40% of the company’s annual revenue.

Providing these kinds of titles is a way to mitigate the uncertainty of the film business, where there can be highs driven by hotly anticipated releases and lows when there’s little in the lineup.

“Our bread and butter is, and has continued to be, the big studio releases,” said Daniel Fastlicht, chief operating officer of the Lot, a luxury dine-in theater chain based in La Jolla with four locations. “What we want to see more than anybody is more content. But if that doesn’t happen, we still need to fill our auditoriums with people.”

All of the Lot’s theaters had at least one or two screens showing the Swift film, and the atmosphere was light, with people singing and dressing up, including a few in Travis Kelce jerseys, said Marcos Sayd, director of operations. He noted that alternative content helps their theaters fill the less-scheduled holes in their calendar. In addition to the Swift release, the Lot also programs local documentaries and films, as well as one-off events such as the Newport Beach Film Festival to draw audiences in.

And they’re not alone. Other theaters have been looking to position themselves as gathering places for communal experiences, whether that’s to celebrate T-Swift fandom, sing and dance to “KPop Demon Hunters” or collectively scream at a horror movie. Will the post-pandemic zeal for connection repopulate theaters again? Only time will tell, but the popularity of Swift’s latest film is a positive sign.

Stuff we wrote

Film shoots

Number of the week

Last week, YouTube agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit President Trump filed after his account was banned by the Google-owned streamer following the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol.

San Bruno-based YouTube is the latest tech and media company to settle one of Trump’s lawsuits. Meta, Twitter (now X), Paramount Global and Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC News have all paid multimillion dollar sums in settlements. Most of the YouTube settlement dollars will go to Trump, who plans to contribute it to the Trust for the National Mall, which is “dedicated to restoring, preserving, and elevating the National Mall” and will also fund construction of the White House State Ballroom, according to court documents.

Finally …

My colleagues, Matthew Ormseth and Summer Lin, wrote about how the strange case of an illicit casino-turned-marijuana stash house/psilocybin mushroom-growing location that eventually led police to find an Arcadia mansion filled with 15 children, most of whom were born to surrogates.

Ladram Bay, which is part of the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and sits on the Jurassic Coast, is made up of dramatic red rocks. Sadly, not everyone can visit

A secluded cove with dramatic red rocks sits in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty — but not everyone can visit.

Unlike in Mediterranean countries such as Italy, where the vast majority of beaches are privately run and dominated by expensive-to-hire sunloungers, most of the UK coast is open to the public and completely free.

There are, however, a few exceptions — one of which is Ladram Bay, which is part of the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The South West Coast Path runs directly through the resort, along the Jurassic Coast.

Like the rest of the coastline — known for its dramatic rock formations and fossil-rich terrain — Ladram Bay is a striking spot. The beach itself is guarded at each end by massive red sandstone stacks, offering protection from the sea.

READ MORE: Ryanair to cancel 600 flights in blow to 100,000 passengers on major holiday routesREAD MORE: UK’s ‘most scenic train ride’ has ‘delightful’ views of countryside – and tickets cost £8.30

The red cliffs are formed of Otter Sandstone and Mudstone, dating back to the Triassic period, around 230 million years ago. They are part of the 95-mile-long stretch of Jurassic coastline running across Dorset and East Devon.

It’s a popular fishing spot too, either from the shore or from one of the hire boats. At the far end of the beach, there are teeming rock pools to investigate. As charming as this all sounds, a visit to the bay may not be as easy as you’d expect.

The beach is owned by Ladram Bay Holiday Park, and everyone who isn’t staying at the venue is banned from accessing its pebbles. How the beach came to be in the park’s hands is explained on Ladram’s website:

“Back in the 1940s, our park was tenanted farmland that was worked by Frank William Sydenham Carter, or FWS for short. During the summer, he would occasionally let campers pitch up in a field that overlooked the bay, providing fresh milk and eggs as well. Pretty soon, FWS realised that his land could provide extra income in the lean post-World War II years, and so he began to develop a proper campsite.

“With the help of his wife, FWS grew Ladram Bay to incorporate static caravans and a shop. Come the late 1950s, the park was becoming so popular that the workload was overwhelming. To make Ladram Bay a park to be proud of, a manager and extra staff were hired. FWS carried on leading the park until his retirement in 2006, by which time we had become one of the largest privately owned holiday parks in the country.

“With FWS’s son and daughter, Robin and Zoe, now guiding the park, we are more successful than ever, with hundreds of owners and thousands of guests visiting Ladram Bay each year.”

The Mirror’s Johnny Goldsmith visited the holiday park was his family earlier this year and enjoyed having access to the spectacular beach. “The beach was just a few minutes’ walk from our sea-view caravan. Each morning we woke to wonderful views, with our own private decked area – the perfect spot to sit, soak it all in and really unwind,” he wrote.

“On our final morning the weather was clear enough to venture down to the beach once again, and on the way we stopped at the shop and bought an ice cream. Within seconds, a marauding seagull swooped down and tried to snatch one of the kids’ cones. The shop staff advised us to stay under the covered seated area to eat them as the greedy gulls are ­notorious for trying to steal ­holidaymakers’ food.

“Ice creams finished, we strode back on to the beach still laughing about our seagull encounter and talking about all the fun we’d managed to fit in over our four days. What a Jurassic lark!”

EMILY Ratajkowski raised the temperature as she posed for steamy lingerie snaps to promote her campaign with Lounge underwear. 

The actress and model, 34, flaunted her famous figure in a selection of lingerie pieces from her collaboration with the underwear brand, and posted some of the saucy pics to her Instagram account.

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Mum-of-one Emily donned a hot-pink bra, panties and garter set in one snap, as she posed suggestively with white sheets on a bed.

In another picture, the Gone Girl actress lay seductively on the floor in an all-black set as she looked directly into the camera.

The famously slender star also showed off her frame and toned stomach as she posed stood up in the all black ensemble, 

The sexy lingerie pieces are part of the model’s collection with Lounge Underwear, dubbed “Emily’s Edit”. 

Speaking about the edit, Emily said: “Sexiness has nothing to do with what someone else sees. It’s about how I feel. 

“I’m a mother, I’m a writer, I’m someone who loves fashion. I play a dozen different roles every day. I love that Lounge recognizes how multifaceted women can be.”

The edit, which features seasonal picks from the star, marks Lounge’s Fall 2025 collection, and also features clothing items including a suede blazer and matching shorts, a cherry lacquer argyle cardigan, and a chocolate sheer shirt paired with a coordinating skirt.

It comes a week after Emily was seen partying away with British pop star Charli XCX, after attending their wedding ceremony in Sicily, Italy. 

The Brat star, 33, married her The 1975 drummer husband George Daniel in a small ceremony in London last month, before flying out to Italy to throw a huge celebration with family and close friends.

Emily was among a flurry of stars who attended the wedding, which included Matty Healy, Gabriette, Amelia Dimoldenberg and Julia Fox.

The model appeared to attend the ceremony alone – without her four-year-old son Sylvester Apollo Bear, who she shares with her ex-husband Sebastian Bear-McClard. 

Emily finalized her divorce with the film producer, who faced a slew of sexual misconduct allegations, in July, after filing for divorce in September 2022. 

The model sparked her latest romance rumours earlier this month, after she was spotted getting close to Caught Stealing actor Austin Butler in New York. 

The pair were spotted together at the Waverly Inn in Manhattan’s West Village, in what could mark her first relationship since her divorce.

She has previously been linked to stars including chart-topper Harry Styles, Oscar winner Brad Pitt, artist Jack Greer and SNL alum Pete Davidson. 

Emily recently revealed she would be making a career turn, as she gears up for a screen-writing debut on A24’s untitled drama series for Apple TV+, which is set to explore female identity and modern motherhood – with Lena Dunham and author Stephanie Danler. 

“Lena was the first person who published my writing, on Lenny Letter, but she knew about me from Instagram,” she told Variety in July. 

“I’ve had a lot of experiences, with Lena specifically, where she has seen past surface level things and given me so many opportunities.”

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The Milei government is weathering a bribery scandal as a pair of important elections approach in September and October.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei has been forced to leave a campaign rally in Lomas de Zamora, a suburb of Buenos Aires, after protesters pelted his vehicle with small rocks, bottles and other objects.

On Wednesday, Milei and members of his libertarian party, La Libertad Avanza, held a rally for voters ahead of two key upcoming elections.

On September 7, the province of Buenos Aires is expected to hold local races. And on October 26, the country faces midterm elections, which will see half of the 257-seat Chamber of Deputies up for grabs, as well as a third of the Senate.

The elections are seen as major tests for Milei as he reaches the midpoint of his four-year term as president.

But Milei, whose dark-horse election victory in 2023 upset Argentina’s political establishment, has faced backlash for the dramatic “shock treatment” he has attempted to undertake with the country’s economy.

His administration has also been rocked by a bribery scandal involving his sister, Karina Milei.

As Milei and Karina stood on the bed of an open pick-up truck on Wednesday, waving to supporters and signing autographs, witnesses reported seeing objects flying in their direction as protesters attempted to approach the vehicle.

Presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni shared a picture on the social media platform X, with a circle highlighting what appeared to be a rock thrown in the president’s direction.

“They could have killed anyone,” Adorni said of the protesters. “They don’t care about human life, and they’ll care even less about the country. The end.”

Video captured the pick-up truck accelerating to escape the crowd. One protester held aloft a mock suitcase with Karina Milei’s face on it and dollar bills sticking out in odd places. Others chanted, “Out with Milei!”

The news agency AFP reported that one Milei supporter had to be transported by ambulance for medical care after clashes with protesters resulted in rib injuries. But no officials in the Milei pick-up truck were injured.

Milei himself used the incident to campaign on social media against “Kirchnerism”, a left-wing political movement.

“The empty-headed nutters throwing rocks resorted to violence again,” he wrote in one post. “On September 7 and October 26, let’s say at the polls: KIRCHNERISM NEVER AGAIN.”

In another, Milei put the choice more starkly: “Civilisation or barbarity.”

Milei has taken dramatic action to regulate Argentina’s spiralling inflation, but his austerity campaign has included cuts to social safety-net services, widespread government layoffs and sweeping deregulation.

He famously campaigned with a chainsaw to symbolise his approach to government bureaucracy. But critics warn that his efforts have left Argentina’s poorest citizens more vulnerable. While official statistics indicate inflation has dropped, unemployment and poverty have risen.

The bribery allegations have heightened the backlash against his administration.

Karina Milei occupies a high-level position in Milei’s government, as a general secretary to the president.

But audio recordings have captured Diego Spagnuolo, the head of the National Disability Agency and a close ally of Milei, claiming that Karina took a cut from government contracts intended to help those with disabilities.

Milei has since fired Spagnuolo, and in his public appearances on Wednesday, he repudiated the recordings.

“Everything he says is a lie,” Milei told reporters in Lomas de Zamora. “We are going to bring him to justice and prove he lied.”

Milei put on a united front with his sister at Wednesday’s rally, appearing side by side with her in the pick-up truck.

An explosion rocked an oil facility in Novokuybyshevsk, Russia on Saturday.

Ukraine says its drones were used to attack the complex, one of a series of strikes on Russian military infrastructure over the weekend.

The governor of Russia’s Samara region said that an enemy drone had struck an industrial area of Novokuybyshevsk.

Two young men have died in the last two weeks after falling from the balcony at Ibiza Rocks Hotel in San Antonio, which is known for its live music and vibrant atmosphere but has now been dubbed a ‘death hotel’

The notorious Ibiza Rocks Hotel has faced another tragedy after a Brit holidaymaker fell to his death from the hotel’s balcony.

Gary Kelly, 19, was visiting the Spanish island when he fell from the third floor of the four-star Ibiza Rocks Hotel just after midnight on Monday. Two ambulances were sent to the scene, but paramedics said there was nothing they could do to save him.

A spokesman for the Civil Guard confirmed this morning: “We are investigating the death of a 19-year-old British man at a hotel in San Antonio in Ibiza. The alarm was raised around 12.40am this morning.

“Our officers were sent to the scene but the man in question was already dead by the time help arrived. The fall was from from the third floor of the hotel to an outside part of the complex. Court officials authorised the removal of his body at 2.40am this morning.

“The fall could be accidental based on the early information obtained from cameras but as part of the investigation possible witnesses will need to be located and interviewed. The results of the post-mortem will also be important to the investigation.”

Well-placed sources confirmed the hotel where the tragedy occurred is the famous Ibiza Rocks Hotel in San Antonio. The source said: “The post-mortem will help to determine if the man who died had consumed alcohol or taken drugs beforehand and in what quantities.”

The teen’s tragic death comes just a fortnight after Scottish holidaymaker Evan Thomson lost his life after falling from his sixth-floor balcony at the same hotel while celebrating his 26th birthday with friends. Evan was pronounced dead at the scene after medics rushed to the hotel at around 6am on July 7.

Friends and family of Evan blasted bosses over how the aftermath of his death was handled, and claimed the hotel resumed normal operations less than 90 minutes after his traumatic death. They were enraged by social media posts allegedly uploaded hours later advertising their next pool party.

They also claimed they sat in an office “without answers” for an hour after they were informed of Evan’s death before being allowed back to their rooms. Pals of the Brit said they were told to pack up their belongings before being transferred to another nearby hotel.

Evan’s sister Teila said: “Ibiza is known for its partying and it just stuns me that they don’t have higher safety precautions. Pray nobody else suffers. And, once it did happen, the hotel’s response was just completely heartbreaking; almost as if it never happened. I pray no other family has to go through this.”

Remi Duncan, 23, said: “It was disgusting. There was minimal respect for the situation, considering the music went back on soon after Evan had died. It puts a pit in your stomach.”

In April a 33-year-old British woman died at the Ibiza Rocks Hotel. Local police and paramedics rushed to the hotel, situated just metres from one of the world’s most famous sunsets, after the alarm was raised around 6.30pm on April 30.

Emergency responders confirmed when they arrived the holidaymaker had gone into cardiac arrest and spent around 40 minutes practicing CPR on her to try to revive her. She was declared dead at the scene after efforts to save her life proved unsuccessful. Well-placed sources said at the time there was nothing pointing to the death being suspicious.

On April 27 a 19-year-old Italian tourist of Turkish origin plunged to her death from the fourth-floor at the same hotel. She had flown to the island the previous day and gone out partying. She was said at the time to have tried to been trying to reach her room via a balcony from a shared area of the hotel after realising she didn’t have her key card when she lost her footing and fell. Her lifeless body was discovered around 9am on April 27.

In light of Gary’s death, Ibiza Rocks hotel has suspended its events as authorities conduct their inquiries. A statement read: “We are deeply shocked and devastated by the recent incidents that have tragically occurred. Our priority is to support those affected and their loved ones during this incredibly difficult time and to fully assist the authorities with their investigations.

“The safety and wellbeing of our guests has and always will remain our highest priority. Given the seriousness of the situation and out of respect for those involved we believe it is right to pause our advertised events programme at this time. All customers will be informed directly via email.”

The Ibiza Rocks Hotel, a hotspot known for its live music poolside events featuring top artists and DJs, is a magnet for British holidaymakers. The venue boasts a large pool, sun terraces, bars, and entertainment, drawing in young Brits with its vibrant atmosphere. Tourists are often seen dancing on balconies up to six floors above the music stage or in the swimming pool, often while intoxicated.

One person who stayed there “many years ago” told the Mirror: “It was full of 18-24 year olds, girls were more interested in their looks etc than getting drunk but the boys were getting very drunk and high. Drugs were most of the problem. I actually saw the body of a teenager lying on the ground after he fell from the balcony of a hotel nearby. It turned out he was the precious son of a good family who was on his first boys holiday and was a talented rugby player.”

They added: “The main trouble is ketamine – it makes users hallucinate and feel invincible. Spanish police once said it was main reason for the balcony deaths – and the fact that guys try to get to each other balconies for a laugh. It has not changed sadly.”

Former guests at the hotel have shared their thoughts on social media. One partygoer wrote: “It’s a really fun place… until it isn’t. It’s 24/7 carnage, just party after party with everyone dancing on balconies or swimming in pools even though they’re wasted.”

Another expressed on X: “This place needs shut down! The stories that are coming out and the way they treat their guests is appalling! A pattern like this shows serious safety failings but they continued business as usual and now unfortunately another young man has died! Heartbreaking.”

Someone else commented: “The balcony railings are far too low it seems to me.” Another fumed: “How many people need to die before you ACTUALLY do something about the safety of your hotel! absolutely ridiculous!!!!! Rest in peace Evan, so lucky to have known you.”

On TripAdvisor, yet another slammed: “A horror, to flee absolutely!! Hotel just horrible. Customers are disrespectful and there is no control or oversight by staff. If you want to spend a sleepless night, you’ve come to the right place: it’s noisy, poorly insulated, and chaos reigns all night. No respect for the rest of others. A frankly unpleasant experience from start to finish. Go your way!”

In a review from August last year one holidaymaker wrote: “DECADENT! Hotel is full of drunk people screaming and shouting 24/7 – security is rude and they don’t have control over it”.

Despite concerns being raised, the hotel has previously received a huge number of positive comments following a stay at the party hotel. One traveller wrote on Tripadvisor: “Wow!!! I have just got back from 4 nights @ Ibiza Rocks and it has been INCREDIBLE! I travelled alone with a friend meeting me out there later in the week!”

A second added: “This hotel is absolutely wild and is totally for the party goers in Ibiza. There is music daily. The hotel is very clean, staff are fabulous and so accommodating. I was expecting a very young crowd here but surprising the age group was late 20’s to mid 40’s which was great. It was definitely an experience”.

A third shared: “Stayed for a hen party with a group of 15 girls – hotel was fantastic, rooms were clean & staff were really friendly & helpful – highly recommend the rooftop room for hens was so great having the extra space! The chill pool is so good, prices there are so reasonable too – shop on site and also right opposite with everything you need – walking distance to everywhere you want to go that side of the Island!”

The Mirror has contacted Ibiza Rocks Hotel for a comment.

BERLIN — In a country that saw its democracy die in 1933, the more than 170,000 people crowding into three of Germany’s biggest soccer stadiums for Bruce Springsteen’s rock concerts in recent weeks have been especially receptive to his message and dire warnings about a politically perilous moment in the United States, one that has reminded some of Adolf Hitler’s power grab in the ’30s.

At these gigantic open-air concerts in Berlin, Frankfurt and Gelsenkirchen, which have been among the largest concerts to date in Springsteen’s two-month-long, 16-show Land of Hope & Dreams tour across Europe, the 75-year-old rock star from New Jersey has interspersed short but poignant political speeches into his exhausting, sweat-drenched performances to describe the dangers he sees in the United States under the Trump administration.

“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock ’n’ roll in dangerous times,” Springsteen says to cheers at the start of each concert. “In my home — the America I love, the America I have written about — the America that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration. Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring.”

Springsteen’s words have had special resonance in Germany, where memories of the Nazi past are never far from the surface and the cataclysmic demise of the Weimar Republic, which led directly to Hitler’s takeover, is studied in great detail in schools and universities. With that Nazi past embedded in their DNA, German fears of President Trump’s tactics probably run higher than anywhere else.

“Germans tend to have angst about a lot of things and they are really afraid of Trump,” said Michael Pilz, a music critic for the Welt newspaper, who agrees that the death of German democracy in 1933 is a contributing factor to the popularity of Springsteen’s anti-Trump concerts this summer. “A lot of Germans think Trump is a fool. It’s not only his politics but the way he is, just so completely over the top. Germans love to see Trump getting hit. And they admire Springsteen for standing up and taking it to him.”

“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock ’n’ roll in dangerous times,” Springsteen says to cheers at the start of each concert.

(Markus Schreiber / Associated Press)

The crowds in Germany have been as large as they are enthusiastic. More than 75,000 filled Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on June 11; 44,500 were in Frankfurt on June 18; and another 51,000 watched his concert in the faded Ruhr River industrial town of Gelsenkirchen on June 27. All told, more than 700,000 tickets have been sold for the 16 shows in Springsteen’s tour (for concerts that last three or more hours), which concludes on July 3 in Milan, Italy.

“The German aversion to Trump has now become more extreme in his second term — Germans just don’t understand how the Americans could elect someone like Trump,” said Jochen Staadt, a political science professor at the Free University in Berlin who is also a drummer in an amateur Berlin rock band. Staadt believes Springsteen’s 1988 concert may well have helped pave the way for the Berlin Wall to fall a little over a year later in 1989. “Germans are drawn to Springsteen as someone who played an important role in our history when Germany was still divided and as someone who may have helped overcome that division with rock music.”

Springsteen has been filling stadiums across Europe in the warm summertime evenings with his high-energy shows that not only entertain the tremendous crowds but also take on Trump’s policies on civil liberties, free speech, immigrants and universities in thoughtfully constructed messages. To ensure nothing is lost in translation, Springsteen’s brief forays into politics of about two to three minutes each are translated for local audiences in German, French, Spanish, Basque and Italian subtitles on the giant video walls onstage.

To ram the message home to more people, Springsteen also released a 30-minute recording from the first stop of the tour in Manchester, England, that contains three songs and three of his speeches onstage.

“I’ve always tried to be a good ambassador for America,” said Springsteen while introducing “My City of Ruins,” a song he wrote after the 9/11 terror attacks that has taken on a new meaning this summer. “I’ve spent my life singing about where we have succeeded and where we’ve come up short in living up to our civic ideals and our dreams. I always just thought that was my job. Things are happening right now in my home that are altering the very nature of our country’s democracy and they’re simply too important to ignore.”

Springsteen’s first speech during the tour’s Manchester show on May 17 prompted a sharp rebuke from Trump on his Truth Social platform. “Springsteen is ‘dumb as a rock’… and this dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare’. Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”

Springsteen did not respond directly. Instead, he repeated his messages at every concert across Europe. He delivered more political commentary in introducing his song “House of a Thousand Guitars” by saying: “The last check on power, after the checks and balances of government have failed, are the people. You and me. It’s the union of people around a common set of values. That’s all that stands between democracy and authoritarianism. So at the end of the day, all we’ve really got is each other.” In the song, Springsteen sings about “the criminal clown has stolen the throne / He steals what he can never own.”

His concerts also included the live debut of “Rainmaker,” about a con man, from his 2020 “Letter to You” album. At the concerts in Europe, Springsteen dedicates the song to “our dear leader,” with a line that goes: “Rainmaker says white’s black and black’s white / Says night’s day and day’s night.”

More than 75,000 filled Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on June 11, 44,500 were in Frankfurt on June 18, and another 51,000 watched his concert in the faded Ruhr River industrial town of Gelsenkirchen on June 27.

(Markus Schreiber / Associated Press)

He also changed one line in the song from “they don’t care or understand what it really takes for the sky to open up the land,” to “they don’t care or understand how easy it is to let freedom slip through your hands.”

Springsteen’s enormous popularity across Europe has long been on a different level than in the United States, and that gap could grow even wider in the future. Springsteen’s close friend and the band’s lead guitarist, Steve Van Zandt, recently observed in an interview with the German edition of Playboy magazine that the E Street Band may have lost half of its audience back home because of the group’s unabashed opposition to Trump. (The band’s concerts in the United States are often held in smaller indoor arenas.)

Bruce Springsteen, left, performs with Steven Van Zandt: at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, June 11, 2025.

(Markus Schreiber / Associated Press)

But in Europe, Springsteen and his band have been reliably filling cavernous stadiums during the long, daylight-filled summertime evenings for decades with improbably enthusiastic crowds that sing along to the lyrics of his songs and spent most of the concerts on their feet dancing and cheering. There are also large numbers of hearty Springsteen fans from scores of countries who use their entire yearly allotment of vacation to follow him from show to show across the continent. This summer, Springsteen’s message has been amplified even more, sending many in the boomer-dominated crowds into states of near-ecstasy and attracting considerable media attention in countries across Europe.

“The message of his music always touched a deep nerve in Europe and especially Germany, but ever since Trump was elected president, Springsteen’s voice has been incredibly important for us,” said Katrin Schlemmer, a 56-year-old IT analyst from Zwickau who saw five Springsteen concerts in June — from Berlin to Prague to Frankfurt and two in San Sebastián, Spain. All told, Schlemmer has seen 60 Springsteen concerts in 11 countries around the world since her first in East Berlin in 1988 — a record-breaking, history-changing concert with more than 300,000 spectators that some historians believe may have contributed to the fall of the Berlin Wall just 16 months later.

“A lot of Germans can’t fathom why the Americans elected someone like Trump,” said Schlemmer, who had the chance to thank Springsteen for the 1988 East Berlin concert at a chance meeting after a 2014 concert in Cape Town, South Africa. “We saw for ourselves how quickly a democracy was destroyed by an authoritarian. The alarm bells are ringing about what a danger Trump is. People love [Springsteen] here because he tells it like it is and because he is standing up to Trump.”

Stephan Cyrus, a 56-year-old manager from Hamburg, said Germans view Springsteen as a trustworthy American voice during a period of uncertainty.

“When Germans hear Springsteen speaking about his worries about the United States, they listen, because so many of us have so much admiration and longing for the United States and are worried about the country’s direction too,” said Cyrus, who saw the June 11 concert in Berlin. “He definitely touched us with his words.”

In one of his concert speeches, Springsteen goes after Trump without mentioning his name.

Spectators watch Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform at the Olympic Stadium, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, June 11, 2025.

(Markus Schreiber / Associated Press)

“There is some very weird, strange and dangerous s— going on out there right now. In America, they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now. In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. This is happening now.”

Springsteen then adds: “In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they are inflicting on loyal American workers. They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just and plural society. They are abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom. They’re defunding American universities that won’t back down to their ideological demands. They’re removing residents off American streets and, without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons. This is all happening now. A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government.”

He tells the audiences that those in the administration “have no concern or idea of what it means to be deeply American.”

But Springsteen ends on a hopeful note, promising his audiences: “We’ll survive this moment.”

The street is built in a giant overhanging cave, giving it its name of “shelters beneath the rocks” in the whitewashed town of Setenil de las Bodegas in Andalusia, Spain

Nestled directly between Seville and Málaga, the breathtaking Spanish town of Setenil de las Bodegas boasts one of the globe’s most enchanting streets. Here, whitewashed houses are hewn straight from the rockface, known locally as “abrigos bajo las rocas”, or shelters beneath the rocks in English.

Located about 98 miles northeast of Cádiz, Setenil de las Bodegas earned its moniker for two distinct reasons. The first stems from the era of Reconquista, where it’s believed that Christians took 15 days to conquer the castle and made over seven attempts to reclaim the village.

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This historical feat inspired the name “Setenil”, derived from the Latin “Septem Nihil”, which translates to “seven times no”. The second part of its name, Bodegas, meaning “wineries”, from its once thriving wine trade, reports the Express.

Today, the town is most known for its delicious almonds and olives, picked from the surrounding fields of olive trees. Home to roughly 3,000 people, Setenil de las Bodegas’ distinctive setting is along a narrow river gorge, extending along the course of Rio Trejo river.

The town itself has been described as one of the most picturesque towns in Andalusia. The canyon was formed naturally by water from the creek below.

There are several key sites that any visitor must see. Nazari Castle, which dates from at least the Almohad period in the 12th-century, once had about 40 towers. Today, only one remains, but it is possible to climb to the top for a couple of pounds, for which you are rewarded with beautiful views across the village and valley. The nearby Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación is a rare example of a Moorish and a Gothic church.

Plaza de Andalucía is a perfect spot to stop for lunch, with the square offering a selection of bars and restaurants serving tapas and other dishes, and giving you the first glimpse of the rocky buildings.

In prehistoric times, it is believed that Troglodytes (cave dwellers) lived within the caves in this village, according to Salt in our Hair.

The modern town evolved from a fortified Moorish town that occupied a bluff overlooking a sharp bend in the Rio Trejo. Today, the houses built by villagers in the spaces between the rocks remain, preventing them from getting too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter.

There are several streets which must be experienced. The main street – Calle Cuevas del Sol (“caves of the sun”) – is built under a massive slab of overhanging rock. It is home to many cave restaurants sandwiched between mammoth boulders and the charming river. One particular recommendation is wild asparagus soup, a delicacy in the village, according to Salt in our Hair.

Calle Cuevas de la Sombra (“caves of the shade”) is the narrowest street, while Calle Herrería is the oldest, known as the most romantic spot in Setenil. Couples often get a photo together under the plaque “Besame en este Rincon”, translating to “kiss me in this place”.

The best time to visit is usually in the morning and evening, as tour buses tend to arrive in the middle of the day. This makes the streets particularly busy in the summer, when temperatures can reach up to 40.

Spanish lunchtime is generally between 2 and 4pm. After this, locals will typically go for a siesta, and restaurants will not reopen again until around 8pm.

While Jerez is the closest airport, it is very small and mainly runs domestic flights. Most, therefore, travel from Málaga. From here, you can hire a car to give more flexibility, and enjoy the added benefit of the beautiful drive to the town, particularly between Setenil and Olvera (another white village in Andalusia) through olive groves and sunflower fields.

The town is about 20 to 30 minutes from Ronda and about an hour and a half from Málaga. It is also possible to book day tours from Málaga, but as previously mentioned these tend to arrive when the town is at its busiest and hottest.

On Tripadvisor, Calle Cuevas De La Sombra was described as “extremely cool to see” and being “great for photo opportunities”. Calle Cueva Del Sol too was highly recommended: “The buildings are filled with tourist shops, local wares boutiques and numerous restaurants and is packed with tourists, who create an amazing atmosphere.”

THE new series of Love Island has been rocked by the arrival of its first bombshell – gorgeous American Antonia Laites.

Antonia – known as Toni – made her shock entrance moments after the 12 new girls and guys had coupled up with each other.

In a savage twist, Toni was told to pick a man as they gathered around the revamped fire pit and she chose footballer Ben Holbrough.

This has now left Shakira Khan, who was coupled up with Ben, single.

Shakira has just 24 hours to find a connection with a new man otherwise she is out of there.

The new couples are: Shakira & Toni, Meg & Dejon, Sophie & Harry, Helena & Conor, Alima & Blu and Megan & Tommy – with Shakira now being single.

In scenes yet to be aired, one unlucky girl has already been booted out of the villa.

Viewers think Shakira will fail to find herself a man by tomorrow and get the chop as a result.

Love Island is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year – and has hit 2 BILLION streams on ITVX.

Host Maya Jama will kick off the brand new series tonight at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.

You can follow our live blog, below, for all the latest updates and best fan reaction …

GREECE has been struck by a horror 6.1-magnitude earthquake with tremors being felt across Turkey and Israel.

Fears are now growing that a major tsunami could hit the popular Brit holiday islands of Crete and Santorini.

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The Greek government has issued a national directive ordering people to stay safe as they continue to asses the quake and any potential aftershocks.

The national fire brigade are also now on high alert for any casualties, major damage or rescue operations which need to be carried out.

As of yet no injuries have been reported.

It comes just over a week after terrified Brits were told to immediately evacuate coastal regions of Greece amid tsunami fears.

A 6.3-magnitude quake struck both Crete and Rhodes overnight and quickly sparked panic among holidaymakers and locals.

More to follow… For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Sun Online

Thesun.co.uk is your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see video.

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Explosion reported in Al-Mayadeen, in the Deir az Zor countryside, also wounds several people.

At least three people have been killed in a blast targeting a police station in the eastern Syrian town of Al-Mayadeen, the SANA state news agency has reported, citing a security source.

The explosion in the Deir az Zor countryside on Sunday also injured several people, the report said, without providing further details.

A video verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit Sanad shows the aftermath of the explosion.

The incident took place a day after Syrian authorities said security forces killed three ISIL (ISIS) fighters and arrested four others in Aleppo. It was the first time the interim government announced such an operation against the armed group.

The raids, launched by the General Security Department in coordination with the General Intelligence Directorate, targeted multiple ISIL sleeper cells operating across Aleppo, Syria’s Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Saturday. One security officer was killed in the operation, it said.

Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who assumed power in Damascus in December, has long opposed ISIL. His forces battled the group’s self-declared caliphate during the Syrian war.

Al-Sharaa seized power after his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham armed group led a lightning opposition offensive that toppled Syria’s longtime President Bashar al-Assad. Al-Sharaa cut ties with al-Qaeda in 2016.

The recent operation comes just months after Syrian authorities said they had foiled an ISIL bombing plot near the Sayeda Zeinab shrine, a key pilgrimage site for Shia Muslims south of Damascus.

This also comes after US President Donald Trump stunned the world by announcing on Tuesday that the United States was going to lift sanctions on the country – a move that Syrians hope will help their nation reintegrate into the global economy, and bring much-needed investment.

It’s a bitter feud the likes of which are seldom seen in law enforcement circles — or at least those that boil over into public view.

For over seven years now, Orange County’s top prosecutor and a decorated former cop have been locked in an acrimonious dispute that shows little sign of abating. Both parties have accused the other of fractured ethics and corruption, and even an independent arbitrator likened the situation to a simmering cauldron.

Damon Tucker, a former supervising investigator for the county, has alleged in a lawsuit that he uncovered potential evidence of money laundering, terrorist threats and extortion by his then-boss, Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer. Tucker claims in his lawsuit that Spitzer and others quashed the probe and then fired the investigator as an act of retaliation, leaving him humiliated and shunned by law enforcement.

Spitzer has publicly called Tucker a “dirty cop,” and accused him of working with his opponents — including former Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas — to launch an investigation to hurt him politically. Tucker’s behavior, Spitzer says, was a “disgrace to the badge.”

Now, in yet another escalation of this Orange County drama, Tucker has called on the California attorney general, the U.S. Department of Justice, the State Bar of California and other agencies to investigate Spitzer; the OCDA Bureau of Investigation Chief Paul Walters; and former Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Shawn Nelson, who is now an Orange County Superior Court judge.

“These allegations must be fully investigated,” Tucker wrote in a letter to those agencies.“Failure to investigate these men casts a shadow over our system of justice.”

Tucker’s call for an investigation of events dating back nearly a decade comes as the district attorney’s office is already facing increased scrutiny over its treatment of employees. Both Spitzer and Nelson face a potential civil trial next week over accusations they retaliated against female employees who say they were sexually harassed by former Senior Assistant Dist. Atty. Gary LoGalbo, a onetime friend of Spitzer’s who is now deceased.

Spitzer and Walters have declined to discuss Tucker’s accusations with The Times. Nelson, through a court spokesperson, also declined, saying judges were prohibited by ethical rules from discussing cases before the court or in media reports.

The California Attorney General’s office confirmed that it is reviewing Tucker’s complaint but would not comment further. The State Bar has also begun a review of the allegations and has requested more information and documentation, according to a letter reviewed by The Times. A spokesperson for the State Bar declined to comment or confirm whether a complaint was received, adding that disciplinary investigations are confidential.

The U.S. Department of Justice would neither comment nor confirm that it had received the letter. Tucker said he also sent a letter to California’s Commission on Judicial Performance. The commission also declined to comment.

A veteran investigator of nearly 30 years, Tucker was fired from the DA’s office in December 2020 over allegations he had initiated a unilateral investigation into Spitzer shortly after he took office.

Tucker sued the county — alleging he was fired and retaliated against for uncovering corruption — and in 2022 he won his job back, along with lost wages. Last year, he received a $2-million out-of court settlement from the county, according to Tucker’s attorney.

Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, said a non-disparagement agreement signed by Tucker and Spitzer as part of the settlement prevented the office from commenting.

Tucker’s accusations date to an inquiry that was begun in October 2016, when another district attorney investigator, Tom Conklin, was assigned to assist the Fair Political Practices Commission in looking into allegations of campaign finance irregularities by Spitzer, who was at the time an Orange County supervisor but was considering a run for district attorney.

In his recent letter to multiple agencies, as well as in his lawsuit, Tucker alleges the investigation into Spitzer was left unfinished and, even though he and another investigator at one point suggested it should be forwarded to the FBI or state attorney general, the investigation was never referred to an outside agency.

A year after the 2016 investigation began, Conklin’s report was leaked to the Orange County Register, and the newspaper reported that Conklin had been unable to corroborate the allegations.

The leak came at a key time for Spitzer, who had just announced his campaign for district attorney. At the time, he told the Register the investigation had been politically motivated by his political rival, Rackauckas, and that nothing had been found. At the time, a spokesperson for Rackauckas confirmed the investigation but declined to comment on the allegations.

The leak sparked an internal investigation in the district attorney’s office and, when the initial investigator retired, Tucker was ordered to finish the case.

Tucker was tasked with finding out who leaked the report, but after reviewing the case, Tucker concluded that Conklin’s investigation was incomplete.

At least 10 identified witnesses in the case were never interviewed, and several leads had not been followed, according to an investigative summary written by Tucker, and given to a senior deputy district attorney he consulted with in the case.

During his investigation, Tucker reached out to superiors and colleagues at the district attorney’s office and said the allegations against Spitzer needed to be sent out to an outside agency, such as the FBI, for an impartial review.

Tucker said that as he continued to investigate and prepared to send the case to an outside agency, things suddenly changed.

The day after Spitzer was elected district attorney in 2018, Tucker said Walters ordered him to stop digging into the accusations, and to remove any mention of Spitzer’s name from questions in his investigation, according to an investigative summary and sworn depositions, taken in Tucker’s lawsuit against the county. Two days later, Tucker was removed from the case.

In a sworn deposition, Walters confirmed he ordered Tucker to remove questions about Spitzer from his investigation the day Spitzer became the district attorney-elect.

“That’s where I have to tell Tucker, ‘You can’t be asking all these questions about Spitzer,” Walters testfied. “It’s not the case. And I make him redact all that stuff.”

Tucker maintains that, up until the election, Walters supported his investigation.

“I was doing the right thing,” Tucker told The Times. “This should have been sent out.” Walters declined to respond to The Times about that accusation.

However, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office said it was Tucker who refused to turn over the investigation.

“He was given the opportunity and declined to do so,” said Edds, the D.A’.s spokesperson. “He was offered the opportunity repeatedly.”

Tucker disputes that assertion.

Spitzer has characterized Tucker’s investigation as being politically motivated, and has pointed out in sworn depositions that Tucker had donated to his opponent, Rackauckas, and was friends with Rackauckas’ chief of staff, Susan Kang.

According to county records, Tucker made a $2,000 donation to Rackauckas’ campaign in August 2018, after he’d been assigned to investigate the leak.

Tucker had also been critical of Spitzer during the campaign in multiple Facebook posts, before and after he took up the case.

“I think they sent him off on this fishing expedition to get something on me after the primary election in 2018,” Spitzer said in a deposition. “He’s investigating me while he’s making a major campaign contribution to my opponent? That’s not objective.”