The Sun Newspaper

WE pause half way up the hill, observing the perfectly still lake below that offers an exact reflection of the lush trees and craggy mountain scape behind.

Normally, I’d be pulling out my phone to snap a picture of the stunning scene. But it’s back at the hotel, locked away and I couldn’t be happier about it.

I was on a digital detox in Austria’s breathtaking Lesachtal Valley, where the alpine air, jaw-dropping scenery and tranquil sounds of nature are guaranteed to melt even the most anxious traveller’s stresses away.

Before our stunning hike, I’d ticked off a soothing yoga session, tucked into a lunch of traditional Austrian pasta with a hearty potato filling, and relaxed in a jacuzzi under a clear sky. And without the distraction of our devices, my five fellow detoxers and I felt fully present in every moment.

According to a recent study from the Austrian Tourism board, 53 per cent of Gen Z Brits spend over four hours in front of their screens outside of work or education and as a result three in five don’t feel well-rested in the morning.

I can’t argue with those stats. After a couple of days without my phone, I was sleeping significantly better. Plus, my entire group had noticed a difference in their mood and stress levels.

WAIL OF A TIME

I drove Irish Route 66 with deserted golden beaches and pirate-like islands

TEMPTED?

Tiny ‘Bali of Europe’ town with stunning beaches, €3 cocktails and £20 flights

This feeling of zen was amplified by our stay at the Hotel der Paternwirt, a beautiful building with gorgeous rooms overlooking mountains and a wellness area with sauna offering the same panoramic views.

Even the delicious breakfast buffet had wellbeing at the forefront with unusual additions like lavender butter.

Despite how jam-packed our itinerary was, life here seemed slow. And being in a rural setting, we felt that we were able to simply breathe.

The nearby meadows blooming with daisies and cornflowers were a great place to unwind. Or you could visit the Weissensee – a crystal-clear alpine lake in Carinthia, around 90 minutes from the hotel – which was worth the drive for the scenery alone.

The region is also home to the Michelin-starred Die Forelle, which serves up some of the freshest fish caught from waters nearby.

If you’re not into fish but still want to sample some traditional grub, the set dinner at Hotel Zum Weissensee is worth a go. Each of the five courses was perfectly executed with star dishes being the pickled elderleaf buds, celeriac cannelloni and plum sorbet with fennel greens.

Even on my final and rather gloomy morning in the Austrian alps, I couldn’t help but appreciate the sheer beauty of this region.

The clouds were slowly drifting behind the mountains, making the views in front of me look like an impressionist painting.

So, I’d managed to conquer a solid five days without my phone. But did I miss it? Apart from having the ability to take photos with ease, not one bit.

Being surrounded by nature and tranquillity definitely had some impact.
And I no longer felt an uncontrollable urge to check my notifications every ten minutes. Not when the views were this good.

AS the train rumbles out of the station, our heads turn to admire the stunning views from the dining car’s windows.

When the conductor announces each new destination, a feast of flavours is served up while we admire the changing landscapes.

But what’s even more incredible is the fact I am currently on board the largest cruise ship in the world — and sailing the calm blue waters of the Mediterranean.

The Royal Railway is the latest immersive dining experience to be savoured on board Legend Of The Seas.

You’ll begin your journey at the station — with the chance to pick up a cocktail or two from the bar — before entering an authentic train carriage and sitting down to a five-course feast as the train travels along Marco Polo’s ancient Silk Route including China, India, Turkey and Italy.

With some culinary corkers on the menu such as butter chicken, grilled lamb chops and Silk Road Shrimp, plus to-die-for Italian desserts, it’s a world away from a soggy sarnie on platform three at Clapham Junction.

NO KIDDING

Five of the best cruises for adults with luxury spas and all-inclusive drinks

CRUISING WITH SHIRL

I learned to dance with Shirley Ballas on a UK cruise

Like everything on this gargantuan ship — the third Icon-class vessel from Royal Caribbean — the attention to detail is staggering.

With 28 restaurants, eight neighbourhoods, six waterslides and room for 5,610 passengers, the multi-billion-dollar floating city certainly made an entrance in Malaga earlier this month. And I was one of the first on board the largest cruise ship in the world.

Billed as the ultimate family vacation, this next-generation newcomer is a riot of colour and energy from dawn to dusk, and there is something to float everyone’s boat, from lazy beach retreats to thrilling theme parks.

Holidaymakers of all ages will easily keep hunger pangs at bay grazing on food from 28 venues — the most you’ll find at sea — with every neighbourhood bringing something to the table.

Other new eateries include Hollywoodland Supper Club. Inspired by old Hollywood, this multi-course dinner is accompanied by live jazz and craft cocktails, giving guests the chance to get glam.

While this and the Royal Railway come at quite a hefty extra cost — around £144pp — there are a staggering 13 complimentary eateries included in the price of your cruise.

In the AquaDome Market you can take another global foodie tour with stalls serving up everything from Korean rice bowls to tapas bites and crepes, plus a new juice and smoothie bar for health-conscious sailors.

I also worked my way around some of the bars including 1400 Lobby Bar, which is inspired by the history of shipbuilding, and Lou’s, which evokes moody New Orleans and New York jazz bars with live performances and cocktails.

Those wanting a livelier tipple should head to the brilliant Dueling Pianos, which buzzes well into the early hours.

Outside, the mega resort facilities are designed for non-stop family fun — minigolf, rock-climbing and a surf simulator can all be found on decks 16 and 17 — and thrillseekers can dangle daringly over the water on Crown’s Edge, a part skywalk, part zipline experience 154ft above the ocean.

This playful ship is certainly making a splash, with Category 6 holding the crown as the largest waterpark at sea, while Royal Bay is the largest pool on the waves.

Splashaway Bay and Baby Bay are nestled in the purpose-built Surfside family neighbourhood, while it’s strictly adults-only at The Hideaway with its suspended infinity pool and DJ, and Swim & Tonic swim-up bar.

Early nights are out — the last thing you’ll want to do is sleep for fear of serious FOMO.

The ship’s entertainment offering is next level and I was captivated by everything I watched. This included Roald Dahl’s West End-worthy Charlie And The Chocolate Factory complete with a 15-strong live orchestra, AquaTheater’s Shockwave, where synchronised swimmers, high divers and aerialists highlight the power of water, and the ice-skating spectacle with drones at Absolute Zero’s show, Fusion.

Alongside live music and tribute bands, there are themed parties including a Y2K dance party, karaoke sessions, live trivia and silent discos.

Those familiar with Royal Caribbean’s Icon Class ships will be pleased to see the return of well loved spaces including Royal Promenade with its floor-to-ceiling ocean views.

There’s also the Pearl — the world’s largest kinetic art sculpture — weighing as much as a Boeing 747 — and the open-air Central Park, with over 30,500 lush plants as well as restaurants, live music, and pick-up windows for sushi and champagne.

With 29 types of accommodation, when it comes to hitting the sack, you and your tribe will slumber in style. On Legend Of The Seas, there are more rooms with ocean views and for groups of three, four, five and more.

The Surfside Family Suites are ideal for two adults and two kids, with the Family Infinite Ocean View Balcony cabins accommodating six, and Surfside Family View Balcony cabins sleeping three or four.

To really push the boat out, check into the exclusive four-deck Suite Neighbourhood or the Ultimate Family Townhouse, a three- storey pad that can sleep up to eight people.

Inside there’s a slide, dedicated entertainment spaces, and three balconies — lucky residents even get a money-can’t-buy experience with Royal Caribbean’s second Chief Dog Officer, a playful golden retriever pup named Skipper.

This showstopper of a ship is truly the stuff of Legends.

I AM admiring green rolling hills as the sun beats down on Italian ­terracotta roofs.

There’s just one twist. I’m not IN Italy.

I’m in San Marino — the tiny, landlocked microstate completely surrounded by its famous neighbour, and officially the fifth-smallest country on the planet.

Set atop Mount Titano, 700 metres above sea level, San Marino is the oldest republic in the world but is still relatively undiscovered by British tourists who remain in the surrounding regions of its bigger neighbour instead.

One of the easiest ways to reach the centre is via cable car and once you step out you’re welcomed by centuries-old streets, the Basilica of Saint Marinus and the incredible Three Towers of Mount Titano.

Built in the 11th century, the towers formed the medieval defences and while the steep incline to get to them is not for the faint-hearted, it’s worth it.

TRIP TRAP

The surprise charges blowing £100 hole in Brits holiday budgets

SLEIGH-ING IT

British Airways to launch new holidays to the ‘home of Santa’ this Christmas

You can visit the two main towers — Guaita and Cesta — linked by a 13th century stone walkway the locals nicknamed The Witches Path.

But there’s another reason to visit.

San Marino is virtually a duty-free haven with taxes around five percentage points lower than in Italy.

I had to be dragged away from all the beautiful handbags and shoes in the cute boutiques dotted throughout the city.

San Marino also produces an array of products including olive oil and wine, which I had a chance to sample over lunch at Ristorante Titano.

Alongside the light and fresh local wine, I devoured a bowl of cappellacci; the traditional stuffed pasta with a distinctive “big hat” shape originating from the Emilia-Romagna region that San Marino sits within.

While San Marino is landlocked, it is only 30 minutes drive from Rimini’s wide, 15km-long beaches, so close it is visible from the top of the city on a clear day.

Rimini has been a popular seaside destination for decades and I could see why as I gazed out of my balcony room at the 4* Hotel Savoia across the golden sandy beach and the newly redeveloped waterfront.

The hotel itself has the celeb factor — it featured in Italian classic La Dolce Vita and the film’s director Federico Fellini was born in Rimini.

But the hotel isn’t the only place where the famous director has left his mark.

There is a museum dedicated to his work split across three spaces, one of which is housed in Castel Sismondo, a medieval castle.

He and his most famous characters are also immortalised in a mural in Borgo San Giuliano, an ancient fisherman district full of pastel-coloured little houses.

And it was history that had me star-struck when I moved on to an­other Italian city, ravishing ­Ravenna.

Stunning mosaics from the early Christian and Byzantine periods can be found in Basilica of San Vitale and the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia.

Ravenna is also home to Dante’s Tomb, the resting place of Dante Alighieri, the famous poet known for Dante’s Inferno and as the father of the Italian language.

Another bard with links to the city is Lord Byron, and the Byron Museum is housed in Palazzo Guiccioli, where he pursued an intense love affair with the wife of aristocrat Alessandro Guiccioli in 1819.

After exploring the brilliant interactive displays, I enjoyed an incredible alfresco lunch of lasagne at Taverna Byron at the Palazzo.

All these attractions were just a short walk from my cosy, family-run hotel, Villa Noctis, which has its own peaceful courtyard overlooked by the traditional-style breakfast room.

Ravenna has its own glorious stretch of golden sand and selection of beach clubs to enjoy.

I settled on Singita Marina Beach and I have to say, a cocktail, sun lounger and a delicious plate of tuna tartare on potato croquettes — they don’t scrimp on the portions either — was the perfect way to end the day.

Now that’s La Dolce Vita.

COMEDIAN Jim Davidson admitted “I found out what legless means” after collapsing outside a pub and being helped up by drinking buddies.

The star downed two ­bottles of wine, tequila, vodka, six pints of ­Guinness and two whiskies on an all-day session, saying: “I think it must have been that last scotch that did it.”

Ex-Big Break and Generation Game host Jim, 72, had sailed to the Isle of Wight on his £350,000 yacht Lady Natasha — named after his fiancée.

The pair dined at The Hut in Colwell Bay before Natasha, 49, called it a night and Jim ­carried on drinking with some yachtsmen.

He said: “It was boys stuff. I found out what the term legless means.

“My quote is ‘must take more water with it’.

FUNNY BUSINESS

The Apprentice star sparks rumours she’s dating co-star after show scandal

tatt’s a lot

Katie Price dons bikini to show tattoo collection but ditches wedding ring

“We had a smashing meal at The Hut, which is the best ­restaurant in the country, then I decided to go on the p***.

“It was a bit of a harmless fun, no one died.”

Jim, who has five ex-wives, detailed his mammoth booze-up, which ended with him collapsing outside Salty’s pub in Yarmouth.

He said: “Most people leave Salty’s like that. First I had a couple of bottles of wine that made me a bit dizzy.

“I thought I better have some tequila to sober me up. After the tequilas made me feel worse, I thought vodka will kill the tequila.

“And after that six pints of Guinness. I thought well I need a wee, I’ll go into this pub and use their toilet and while I’m here I’ll have a couple of scotches.

“I think it must have been that last scotch that did it.”

Jim admitted being a binge drinker and said: “I can do that when I’m not working. I can’t when I’m working.

“Today I’ve got to drive five hours to Blackpool, do a show in the club and then five hours back tomorrow. This is the reality of showbiz. Then back to the studio to film my weekly satire show.

“When you’ve got a picture of me coming off stage in a theatre like that, then I’m in trouble.”

PINK was feeling in a very generous mood at the O2 Silver Clef Awards in London.

The American superstar forked out £16,000 on Harry Styles tickets during the auction on Thursday, only to hand them back to the charity — so they could have someone bid on them again.

An onlooker said: “Pink paid £16,000 to win the lot. She then donated it back. It was an incredibly generous gesture.”

Pink wasn’t the only one to dig deep at the bash — which raises money for music therapy charity Nordoff and Robbins — with Jessie J pledging £500 while Icon Award winner Lily Allen handed over £1,600.

Price Tag singer Jessie was handed the Outstanding Achievement award and opened up about her breast cancer diagnosis in her acceptance speech.

She said: “The last 18 months has been the most incredible, the most magical of my life. Also the hardest. But I believe we find the truest parts of ourselves in hard times.

PINK ALL PEACHY

Inside Pink’s long-awaited new album as she prepares for Vegas residency

BROADWAY BABE

Megan Thee Stallion drops F-bomb & twerks in lingerie for Tony Awards opener

“So when you are faced with them, it’s life trying to teach you something.

“To become a mum after not thinking I would, having one tt just get chopped off out of nowhere. “You never know when a tt is going to be taken from you, so enjoy your t*ts while you’ve got them.”

Encouraging other celebs to get their cash out and raise some money, Jessie added: “You’ve obviously been invited because some of you are rich as f***, don’t be a vibe killer.

“I know I wrote Price Tag, but if you’ve got money now is the time to get it out.” It was an evening of revelations too, with John Bishop telling the crowd he had renewed his vows with wife Melanie.

The pair split for 18 months in 2000, but rekindled their romance after she went to watch one of his stand-up shows.

As he handed David Gray his Silver Clef gong, John said: “I could never have imagined that I’d get the opportunity to say thank you to this artist. “My marriage had failed, everything had gone s***.

“When I was at my lowest I was introduced to David Gray and he’s been a constant part of my life ever since.

“He was there at the lowest point of my life but then when me and my wife reconciled and went on to renew our wedding vows we played Sail Away as we walked down the aisle.”

Melanie C was handed the Global Impact Award and paid tribute to her Spice Girls bandmates, after a feud put paid to a proper celebration of their 30th anniversary of Wannabe earlier this week.

She said: “We’re all in touch obviously, all of the girls, we’re so grateful and respectful of each other.

“We came together, and we achieved our wildest dreams, and we changed our lives forever, and the world forever, some would say.”

ELLIE OF A GAME FOR OUR BOYS

ELLIE GOULDING has thrown her support behind the Three Lions as we take on Norway in the World Cup quarter-finals.

The Burn pop star announced she had been booked to perform during the clash.

Ellie shared the news on Instagram last night and added: “Performing at half time for England vs Norway has me feeling like truly anything could happen.

“I already know the boys will make England proud. It’s coming home.”

Insiders confirmed that Ellie would play a medley of songs inside the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.

KASABIAN are giving fans an early Christmas present – with five huge shows later this year.

The band, fronted by Serge Pizzorno, will kick off their run at Birmingham’s Utilita Arena on December 11, followed by gigs in Glasgow, Cardiff, London and Manchester.

The announcement comes after their sold-out headline date in front of 45,000 fans at London’s Finsbury Park last weekend.

SCHULTZ: TRACK IS PERSONAL

CAGE THE ELEPHANT’s new single has special meaning for frontman Matt Schultz.

The US rockers, who supported Oasis on tour in America last year, released Beaches In Tennessee yesterday – their first new music for two years.

Matt, said: “It’s no secret I went through a mental health crisis a few years back. This song symbolises me finally being able to move past it.

“I was hospitalised for nearly three months, and the song addresses it by creating a fictionalised account of it.

“It was my attempt at reclaiming the ability to write about something serious that happened in my life, from a place of genuine experience.

“As a band, we were able to reclaim the ability to write a song rooted in a difficult and turbulent real-life event, but do it in a lighthearted way.”

TEN FANS ON SIDE

DECEMBER 10 celebrated the launch of their debut EP, On Your Side, by playing two intimate gigs at Circuit in Kingston upon Thames.

The fast-rising group ­– Nicolas, John, Josh, Sean, Cruz and Hendrik – celebrated the release as more than 1,000 fans packed the south-west London venue across the sold-out shows.

The six performing members, with Danny currently taking some time out, treated the crowd to stripped-back versions of tracks from the EP including Angel and Run My Way.

AHEAD of Iron Maiden’s historic show at Knebworth tonight, support act The Hu went on a sightseeing trip.

The Mongolian metal band, whose third studio album, Hun, drops on July 24, visited Buckingham Palace and Big Ben in London before heading to the venue.

Temka, who plays a traditional Mongolian guitar called a tovshuur, is a huge Chelsea fan and is thrilled to be performing here while the World Cup is on.

He said of tonight’s game: “I hope England play Argentina in the semi-final. Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham are great, and Anthony Gordon.”

GOLDEN GIRL ZARA

IT’S taken Zara Larsson over ten years since her debut hit, but she is a now a true pop superstar after this sizzling show.

She oozed charisma in this strappy gold top and denim shorts at Madrid’s Mad Cool Festival on Thursday night.

Zara was lifted into the air by her dancers to sing Midnight Sun.

She then did the splits during Ain’t My Fault, drove a car on stage for Hot & Sexy and also got a fan up to do her viral Lush Life dance with her.

With amazing vocals and dance moves, Zara deserves to be the biggest pop star in the world.

Mad Cool also hosted Lorde, Jennie, Cmat and Florence + The Machine, proving female pop music is thriving.

MATTY TO KICK OFF STAG DO

IT is turning into the summer of celebrity weddings – and I’m told Matty Healy will tie the knot with American model Gabbriette a week today.

The 1975 rocker will kick off the festivities in LA with a huge stag do tonight.

Matty and his pals will watch England play Norway in the World Cup quarter-final – and hopefully they will still be celebrating by the time the final whistle blows.

On Instagram last week, Gabbriette shared a video of the couple watching England take on Mexico, where her mum is from.

Thankfully, they were still on good terms afterwards.

The pair started dating in 2023 after Matty’s split from Taylor Swift – but their nuptials will be a lot more low-key than Taylor’s which took place earlier this month.

A source said: “They are flying out their nearest and dearest but it’s an intimate ceremony.

“The spectacle of Taylor’s wedding isn’t their thing.”

His bandmate George Daniel with his wife Charli XCX will be there, along with Matty’s mum Denise Welch –  so I’m sure there will be plenty of tales to tell.

CAUGHT LIVE

Johnny Marr @ Castlefield Bowl, Manchester

★★★★☆

JOHNNY MARR was at his mercurial best for his sellout homecoming gig in Manchester.

There were plenty of Smiths classics, a couple of seriously decent new singles and a stunning disco-ball moment that turned the baked concrete of Castlefield Bowl into a club dancefloor.

It was the indie icon’s biggest solo show to date, ahead of the release of his fifth album The Age Of Everything in October.

Marr kicked off with Generate! Generate!.

It was a rousing opener, but it was the second track, The Smiths’ Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before, that got the crowd going.

New Town Velocity, from his 2013 album The Messenger, was a welcome moment of reflection while new track Spin went down a storm.

The finale was epic. The juddering riff of How Soon Is Now brought the curtain down on the main set, before a trio of classics – Panic, Iggy Pop’s Passenger, and There Is A Light That Never Goes Out – culminated in arms wrapped around shoulders.

DAN CAIN

“HE just has that youthful energy,” says Ronnie Wood of his Rolling Stones bandmate Mick Jagger.

It’s not a term often used to describe someone in their Eighties but, in this case, entirely accurate.

Anyone who’s seen the consummate frontman in recent times will know he still has the voice, the moves — and the swagger.

Nearly four years Mick’s junior and, at 79, the “baby” of the band, Ronnie could still be forgiven for thinking, “I want some of whatever he’s on.”

But, as the Stones release their high-octane LP Foreign Tongues, Ronnie can also claim to have some of that “youthful energy”.

“I’m the same as Mick,” he tells me. “I’m a Gemini, I’m pulling in all directions — and I’m just loving it.”

serving glam

Lily James wows in a polka dot dress with busty Hannah Waddingham at Wimbledon

J-LO CUT

Jennifer Lopez rocks sheer dress as she attends PFW with rarely-seen sister

By that, he means his ongoing endeavours with the Stones, his work as a highly skilled portrait artist and the not-so-small matter of his first solo tour in years, beginning next week in Austria on a bill with Van Morrison.

Not to mention being husband to wife Sally and dad to their ten-year-old twin daughters Gracie Jane and Alice Rose.

Ronnie continues: “I just love to be inspired and putting my ideas into action — whether it’s on a canvas or through my guitar or harmonica or whatever I’m playing.

“And I even try my hand at singing every now and again!”

Right now, says Ronnie, “I’m in my art studio preparing an exhibition and I’m getting rehearsals together with my band.

“I even had a little rehearsal with Mick because we’re keeping our hands in, keeping our chops together. So, it’s all go.”

The main purpose of our chat is, of course, all things Stones but you’ll hear more about his extra-curricular activities later.

I discover that Ronnie has a wonderfully old-school approach to tech — none of that new-fangled Zoom stuff for him — so he calls me on the dog and bone.

Which means that I have to go half way up a steep hill on the Cornish coast, not far from Land’s End, in an attempt to get decent signal.

Thankfully, the guitar legend comes through loud and clear — and full of enthusiasm.

First, he explains why the Stones have another new studio album of original material in the bag so soon after 2023’s Hackney Diamonds.

(If you remember, the previous one, A Bigger Bang, came out in 2005.)

He replies that American producer Andrew Watt “hadn’t finished with us and we hadn’t finished with him”.

“We just sparked the fire that was already cooking with Hackney Diamonds.”

Ronnie is quick to praise the 35-year-old producer with bleach-blond hair who has worked with Paul McCartney, Ozzy Osbourne, Lady Gaga and Post Malone.

“We’re on to a good one there,” he says. “The Stones haven’t had someone with so much input since Jimmy Miller.”

Praise indeed because Miller produced a stellar run of consecutive albums — Beggar’s Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main St and Goat’s Head Soup — between 1968 and 1973.

Ronnie adds: “Andrew’s a big fan of ours and he knows what he’s talking about. He can play different instruments and knows my guitar playing better than I do.”

So what was the catalyst for Foreign Tongues? “We had a few tracks like Covered In You left over,” replies Ronnie.

“But basically we started reworking all these songs that Mick had been kicking around, some with Keith, and some by himself. Mick would come to us, saying, ‘Look, I’ve got this idea — let’s develop it’.

“The Stones are his plaything, so I just let him take the helm and get on with it. It’s great.”

Key to the success of Foreign Tongues, a big beast of an album with 14 tracks spanning 63 minutes, was a gathering in London to bring the project to fruition.

Ronnie explains: “We started working in New York at Electric Lady, then we took it to Henson studio in LA and messed around with it there — but we finished off the whole thing at Metropolis in Chiswick.

“It was a great feeling to be in London, to go down to the studio that was not far [from where I live] with all the boys there.”

Ronnie wallowed in the “great studio atmosphere” and was particularly chuffed to have an old mucker like Steve Winwood on board — “he was so lovely”.

Steve, who plays organ or piano on nine of the Foreign Tongues songs, came to prominence in the early Sixties as a fresh-faced teenager in The Spencer Davis Group.

Stints in Traffic and Blind Faith were followed by his hugely successful solo career with hit Eighties albums including Arc Of A Diver and Back In The High Life.

Ronnie says: “The Americans had Little Stevie Wonder and Britain had Little Stevie Winwood.

“I first met him at The Ship pub on Wardour Street and he’s one of the only musicians from my era who’s younger than me.” (Ronnie was born in 1947 and Steve a year later.)

Back in the day, The Ship was one of Ronnie’s favourite haunts because of its proximity to fabled music venues like The 100 Club and The Marquee.

He says: “I used to meet all the musicians in this packed little pub. Just up the road, I met Rod Stewart for the first time in the Intrepid Fox. He came up to me and went, ‘Hello Face!’ ”

They bonded over their mod-style haircuts, as you do, and soon started playing music together, first in The Jeff Beck Group and then, from 1969, The Faces.

In 1975, Ronnie left The Faces to land the job he’d dreamed of since he was a teenager — to become a member of the most rock and roll band on the planet, the Rolling Stones.

His first album as a full-time member with them was 1978’s Some Girls, a sleazy tour de force featuring some dazzling Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood guitar interplay, most notably on the ballad Beast Of Burden.

Which brings us neatly back to Foreign Tongues because it is drawing comparisons with that classic LP.

Ronnie says: “We like to keep the youthful feel we had in Paris when we were doing Some Girls and Emotional Rescue. There was a lot of energy on Respectable and Summer Romance, all those mad songs . . . and we still have that kind of energy going.

“I call this Foreign Tongues album ‘more solos for me, thanks Mick’ and he loves it.”

So which songs feature Ronnie solos? I venture. “There’s one on Back In Your Life which everyone seems to like,” he answers. “It’s the last one I did and there’s a lot of feeling there.

“I also enjoyed doing solos on Mr Charm, Side Effects, In The Stars and Hit Me On The Head.

“And there are lots of songs I loved to jam on, with me and Keith bouncing off each other.”

Hit Me On The Head is one of the few tracks saved from the Hackney Diamonds sessions, a breathless three-minute blast featuring much-missed drummer Charlie Watts.

Ronnie says: “We’ve got a few Charlie tracks saved and it’s lovely to keep his memory going with these little reminders.”

He adds that Steve Jordan, the powerhouse American drummer who stepped in after Charlie died in 2021 “loved Charlie so much and to pay tribute to him on Hackney Diamonds and Foreign Tongues is so great”.

I ask Ronnie which of the other new tracks he’s fond of.

He says: “I love Rough And Twisted which reminds me of my old Faces days — a modern-day blues.”

And he singles out yearning country song Ringing Hollow, which he and Mick gave a debut live airing to at this week’s album launch party in London.

“That’s a great one,” he says. “It reminds me of the songs inspired by the Stones’ first visits to America like Dead Flowers [also performed at the party], Wild Horses and Sweet Virginia.”

Ronnie’s a big fan of the Let It Bleed track Country Honk, a rustic, fiddle-drenched take on Honky Tonk Women, which he’s promising to play with his solo band at his forthcoming shows.

He says: “I’m a big fan of Merle Haggard and Hank Williams along with Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters — a little mix of country and blues.”

This brings us to the raw and authentic cover of Berry’s Beautiful Delilah, which closes Foreign Tongues, done in the style of Mississippi Fred McDowell.

Just Mick and Keith on 12-string guitars with empathetic drumming from Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith. As with so many musicians of Ronnie’s generation, Berry was a massive influence.

“I used to have a dance in my bedroom when I was a kid,” he recalls. “Then I’d learn the solos just by ear.

“I was so inspired by this mystery man from America. In those days, you never saw a picture of Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf or Jimmy Reed.

“When you did, it was like, ‘Wow!’ Like aliens come to life. Then, when I grew up, I got to hang out with them. It was a dream come true.

“Chuck came up to me once when I was on stage with him and said, ‘Where did you get that riff from?’ And I said, ‘From you!’ He nearly fell over.”

Next, we move on to Ronnie’s solo tour, organised because a gap appeared after the Stones ruled out live dates after Keith announced he was stepping back from touring.

He’ll be performing material from his storied life in music that includes The Jeff Beck Group, The Faces, the Stones and solo work — much of it gathered up in his recent retrospective album Fearless.

Ronnie will sing Seven Days, “the song Bob Dylan gave me, one of the special moments in my musical career.”

He will be reuniting with drummer Andy Newmark and bassist Willie Weeks for the first time in 50 years — “they’re playing as great as ever”.

His jaunts will take to Lucca in Italy, London’s Kentish Town Forum, Zurich, Cologne, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Lisbon. It all starts at an open-air shindig on the Royal Sandringham Estate in Norfolk on August 23, headlined by blues maestro Eric Clapton.

Ronnie adds: “Eric said, ‘Hey Ron, get a band together and come and join me at Sandringham!’

“That’s what spurred me on. I thought, ‘Wow! While I’m at it, I may as well get my favourite girl singers like Imelda May and Chanel Haynes’.”

If Stones and solo work wasn’t enough, Ronnie gives me an update on the mouthwatering prospect of a new Faces album — a further reunion with Rod Stewart after last year’s Glastonbury outing for Stay With Me.

“Rod loves what’s going on with us,” he says. “He has so much respect for the Stones and he’s gone his own Hollywood merry way.

“But we’ve been putting our heads together and rejoining the dots and getting some Faces stuff together again.

“Next year, we’re going to get stuck in and finish these tracks. We’ve got a lot on the hob and we’ll stir them up.”

Lastly, Ronnie reflects on the enduring appeal of both the Rolling Stones and The Beatles more than 60 years after they began their journeys.

Having just released his Andrew Watt-produced solo album The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, Paul McCartney returns on Foreign Tongues song Covered In You, following his bass cameo on Hackney Diamonds track Bite My Head Off.

Ronnie says: “I was just out with Paul recently and he was going, ‘Ron, ain’t it wonderful that we can still give this and keep making people happy. That’s what we do!’

“I said, ‘It’s so great Paul’, and he gave me a hug. He’s such a lovely man.

“We have that spirit going around in the Stones as well. There’s a lot of love there and a lot of respect.”

THE ROLLING STONES – Foreign Tongues

★★★★★

THE Rolling Stones and Amy Winehouse — somehow it was a match made it heaven.

On June 10, 2007, the original rock and roll miscreants invited the supremely gifted but wayward singer on stage at the Isle Of Wight Festival.

Amy was all the rage that summer with her second (and final) album Back To Black riding high in the charts. Britain and the world had taken her songs to their hearts — Rehab, You Know I’m No Good, Tears Dry On Their Own and Love Is A Losing Game among them.

At the festival, Amy wore a pristine white shirt, skinny black jeans, a chunky belt, ballet flats and THAT towering beehive.

She looked every inch at home next to the man with all the moves, Mick Jagger — a lean, sinewy T-shirted figure in an all-black outfit.

Together, they belted out a wild rendition of The Temptations’ soul classic Ain’t Too Proud To Beg.

Together, they perfectly captured the rebellious spirit of rock and roll.

When Amy died four years later aged just 27, the world lost a generational talent — a sultry, emotionally wrought voice for the ages.

Now, in 2026, the Stones are releasing a cover of Amy’s You Know I’m No Good on their vibrant, age- defying 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues.

I’ve had the chance to speak to guitarist and lovable rogue Ronnie Wood about the song, his close friendship with Amy — and all things related to the eclectic 14-track album.

By Stones standards, it’s a rapid-fire follow-up to 2023’s Hackney ­Diamonds and a freewheeling ­confection of rock, soul, dance, country, blues and balladry.

“We just loved to pay tribute to Amy because she was such a jewel,” Ronnie says with typical warmth.

“A very lost jewel in the jewellery box but she was wonderful.”

At the time of Isle Of Wight, Ronnie was still battling alcohol addiction himself and he discovered an immediate bond with troubled Amy.

“We came back on the ferry together and had such a laugh,” he recalls. “Then shortly before Amy died, I had a real in-depth [chat] with her in the garden of a hotel in Rio.

“She was asking me, ‘Oh Ron, what am I going to do? And I was going, ‘Don’t worry because everyone knows you’ve got vodka in your water bottle. Just don’t hide it and try to go on stage tonight.

“Her band pleaded with me. They went, ‘Ronnie, please get her to go on — she’s trying to pull out of the gig.’ Anyway, I talked her through stuff and she did go on.”

“Amy needed a carer all the time otherwise she went off the rails, which of course she did.”

I ask Ronnie where Amy ­Winehouse should be placed in the pantheon of great female singers, past and present.

“There are some lovely singers around,” he answers. “They arrive in spasms. Chanel Haynes from my band is great — she played Tina Turner [in the stage musical] and really has the essence of Tina. I also like Jessie J.

“But Amy was like Billie Holiday. She had that once-in-a-lifetime deep blues. It’s a pity she was her own worst enemy.”

Of the Stones’ rousing rendition of You Know I’m No Good, Ronnie says: “I love the way Mick has put the harmonica over the brass riff.”

Mick himself reflected on the song this week at an intimate fan playback at Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, West London, where much of Foreign Tongues was recorded.

“We decided we wanted to cover this Amy Winehouse song. We do it in the same key as her. There’s a well-known horn lick on that record and I thought, ‘Yeah, I can do that. I’ll do it on the harmonica.”

Mick is accompanied by Ronnie but minus Keith Richards, who’s at home in the States and sends a video message saying “god bless you all”.

Wearing a floral shirt beneath a black leather jacket despite the heat outside, Mick, the planet’s most sprightly octogenarian, is in expansive mood. He saunters into the room and greets the assembled throng from countries far and wide with a World Cup quip, “Apologies to anyone from Mexico!” Cue much laughter.

With his face wreathed in smiles, he peers around the sound-proofed room and says: “We had a lot of fun making this record in this very room.

“It didn’t look quite like this,” he adds before waving his arms in ­different directions.

“The drums were over there, Ronnie was there, I was there, Keith was there.” Ronnie also can’t help a reference to important football matters when he describes the band’s preparations for the sessions at Metropolis.

“We had a lot of rehearsals — a bit like practising for the World Cup — at Electric Lady Studios in New York and on the West Coast at Jim Henson’s studios.”

The subject soon moves on to how the Stones have kept going nearly 65 years after Jagger and Richards met on Platform 2 of Dartford railway station and decided to be in a band together.

Listen to Foreign Tongues and you’ll be astonished by Mick’s still jaw-dropping range.

So how does he keep his most precious instrument — his vocal cords — in shape?

He says: “With other instruments, you can see them — a guitar, a piano — but you can’t see your vocal cords.

“So, you can’t say, ‘Oh they look really good today, I’ll do this.’

“If anything goes wrong, the doctor has to look at them. You have to keep them in shape like a muscle.” How does Ronnie keep his fingers nimble enough to dance across the fretboard? “There are exercises for the hands,” he replies. “And I put arnica [a herbal remedy] on them because they can hurt a lot.”

Mick says: “The thing with Ronnie is that he’s very good because he doesn’t stop playing, either with another band or doing his own gigs.”

This helps explain why Ronnie’s guitar work is a prominent feature of Foreign Tongues.

“When the first mix was finished, Ronnie came to my house and I played him the whole record,” reveals Mick. “I said, ‘So, what do you think Ron?’ And he said, ‘I didn’t really get any solos.’”

That comment was a classic piece of Ronnie mischief because, as Mick points out, “No one else gets a guitar solo on the record apart from Ronnie!

“I get a harmonica solo but Keith doesn’t really get a solo,” he adds before turning to his bandmate and asking, ‘Why is that, Ronnie?’ Ronnie gives a knowing smirk and says: “Keith told me, ‘Anyone can play a solo, it’s the riff that matters!’

“And I said, ‘OK, you’ve done the groundwork there but I’ve got the icing on the cake.”’

This brings us to a wider discussion about the Foreign Tongues sessions which prompts Ronnie to chip in with: “We’re much more civilised than we used to be.”

Mick picks up the thread: “I’m always the last to arrive. I’m not sure how that happens.

“We usually start about half past three and finish at about ten, ­having agreed the night before what we’re going to do.”

Ronnie salutes producer Andrew Watt, the live-wire American ­producer who helmed Hackney Diamonds and Paul McCartney’s recent album, The Boys Of ­Dungeon Lane. “We need someone to boss us around, and Andrew did that.”

Mick interjects: “Otherwise, it would all fall to bits! So we’re very pleased that Andrew herds us into doing it.”

Ronnie comes back in with a very telling comment: “Mick never lets anything fall to bits because the Rolling Stones is his baby — and he won’t let anything destroy that.”

The Stones’ approach these days clearly has something to do with the fact they’re all sober.

Yet Foreign Tongues has drawn comparisons to 1978’s Some Girls, Ronnie’s first album as a full-time member — recorded when things were far less civilised.

For instance, the disco-inflected Jealous Lover, with Mick still able to produce his best falsetto, is reminiscent of Miss You. Elsewhere, the band summons the raw energy of Respectable or Shattered.

The frontman sifts through the mists of time to the sessions at Pathé Marconi in Paris: “In the late Seventies, I’d have to dig Ronnie and Keith out of a late-night pizza place. I’d go in there at 1am and say, ‘It’s time for the studio, lads!’

“And poor Bill Wyman [bassist] had been in the studio since six o’clock waiting for us.

“We’d get there at 2am and we’d leave at eight. We’d run into the factory workers getting their ­morning coffees.”

Ronnie laughs: “We played for so long back in those days that Bill would have a sleep, come back and we’d still be playing.”

With the album out tomorrow, Mick is asked about his hopes for a good reception for Foreign Tongues. It prompts a comparison with an album many regard as the Stones’ finest, released in 1972.

With 14 new songs about to be unleashed, he accepts that it’s “a lot of music” and says: “It’s longer than Exile On Main St. When that came out, reviewers generally said things like, “It’s kind of rambling and all over the place.”

“It was too much for people to take in all at once. But, from the reviews I’ve seen, we are getting very good ones [for Foreign Tongues].

The album is notable for guest appearances — Steve Winwood, The Cure’s Robert Smith and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith.

One song, the “punky” Hit Me In The Head features the late effortlessly cool Stones drummer Charlie Watts. Mick explains: “People would say, ‘Charlie’s such a subtle drummer, he loves jazz — you can hear that soft touch.

“Well, not on this one. This one sounds banging, banging, banging — very punk. We recorded it in 2021.”

In my chat with Ronnie, he talks about Paul McCartney’s bass playing on Covered In You, reprising his role on Hackney Diamonds track Bite My Head Off.

He says: “Oh Paul was so lovely.  He said playing with the Stones was one of his biggest ambitions. He loved it, like a kid in a toy shop.”

He remembers how in The Beatles and Stones’ early days, he was a bystander in a band called The Birds,” but told himself that one day he would join Mick, Keith and co.

Why the Stones? “Because I’m more of a jazzer and a bluesman,” he replies. “I respected The Beatles’ music, their adventurousness, but I liked the funk and the women around the Stones.

“I thought, ‘That looks like a good job.’ Then, like a jigsaw, all the pieces fell into place.”

Finally, I beg the question: Is there’s more in the tank from the world’s greatest rock and roll band?

“There is, but what we’ve got to do is survive!” says Ronnie.

ROLLING STONES

Foreign Tongues

★★★★★

AS Mick Jagger says, this is “a lot of music.”

But over 14 tracks, the Stones have a blast.

There’s the ragged majesty of Rough And Twisted, the dance floor-primed Jealous Lover, the politically charged Mr Charm, the country twang of Ringing Hollow, the three-minute punk mayhem of Hit Me In The Head, a yearning Keith Richards lead vocal on Some Of Us and the raw delta blues of Chuck Berry’s Beautiful Delilah.

At times, it needs to be a little rougher around the edges, but this high-energy album is nothing short of a miracle from rock and roll’s great survivors.   

OASIS classic Wonderwall is on course to hit No 1 thanks to Three Lions supporters and The Sun. 

Their 1995 mega-hit Wonderwall has rocketed up the charts following England’s victory against Mexico. 

It’s currently No2 on UK Spotify and No15 on Global Spotify—a leap of 27 places. 

The track was streamed 2.8 million times on Monday following The Sun’s campaign to make it the England World Cup anthem. 

It is due to enter the official Top 20 this Friday and is expected to finally reach No1 next week if England beat Norway on Saturday. 

Despite being Oasis’ most iconic track, the song originally peaked at No2, famously kept off the top spot by Robson & Jerome’s I Believe / Up On The Roof. 

health update

Michelle McKenna says she’s paused chemo due to side effects in cancer update

SHOW’S OVER

5ive fans ‘absolutely gutted’ as festival headlined by boyband is cancelled

Speaking to The Sun last month, Noel Gallagher backed calls for Wonderwall to become the unofficial England anthem.  

The footy-mad Manchester City fan, 59, said: “Wonderwall belongs to the people, and it was a magical moment between the people and the players.

“Best of luck to everyone who’s made the trip out there.” 

The movement was initially started by England fans who belted out the track alongside Jude Bellingham after their 4-2 triumph over Croatia at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas. 

Ahead of the World Cup starting, every nation was asked to submit a playlist of songs to be played before and after games.

England submitted three songs, with one of them being Oasis‘ Wonderwall.

The Three Lions are currently bidding to end 60 years of heartbreak and win a second World Cup title – and they are that one step closer after booking their spot in the quarter-finals.

ROCKERS Oasis will be back on stage next year — including a 12-date residency at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.

They are also set to do a record-breaking run of six concerts at Knebworth.

An insider said: “Oasis’ schedule is booked.

“It’s 12 nights at the Etihad over six weeks starting in June.

“They will then play Knebworth six times over a three-week period in September.

“Dates could be added but for now that’s the master plan.”

DOC ‘N’ ROLL

First look at explosive Oasis doc about feuding Gallagher brothers’ reunion

DOMINIC MOHAN

90s are back with Oasis & TFI Friday – but are we ready for Blair’s return?

Brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher put their long-running feud behind them to re-form the band for the 41-date Oasis Live ’25 tour last year.

The band had split up in 2009 amid rows.

A source said: “Noel and Liam always planned for the tour to have a second run.

“There were discussions about announcing [it] during the World Cup because of the connection between Wonderwall and the Three Lions in this tournament.

“But they’ve settled on August.

“It’ll give the country something to shout about — whether we’re celebrating or commiserating.”

The Etihad is the home of Manchester City, the team the brothers support.

Oasis’ gigs at Knebworth will break the record for the most times an act has played there.

Over their six gigs the band are set to play to 750,000 people.

They performed two shows there in 1996 to 250,000 fans.

A source said: “Knebworth is a special place for Noel and Liam.

“The shows in 1996 broke records as 2.6million people applied for tickets.

“It was the largest demand for tickets in British music history.

“They broke that with Oasis Live ’25.

“Now they’re going to become the only act to have played Knebworth six times.”

The shows would take the band’s tally to eight and Liam’s to ten — as he did two solo shows at the Hertfordshire venue in 2022.

Demand for the new Oasis gigs will be astronomical.

Noel, 59, and Liam, 53, are set to stick with the same line-up as their shows last year — including guitarist Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs, 61, who had to take time off from the tour after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

There is speculation there will also be shows outside England, including in Rome and Celtic Park in Glasgow.

The Sun has campaigned for the band’s 1995 anthem Wonderwall to become the soundtrack to England’s World Cup campaign.

RAPPER Cardi B pays homage to the late Amy Winehouse with a style just like the Brit singer’s — including her trademark beehive.

The US star, 33, sported winged eyeliner, similar to Amy’s signature look, along with a purple, figure-hugging dress to a party at Paris Fashion Week.

Amy also wore a purple frock to the premiere of the film Psychosis in London in 2010.

This month marks 15 years since the Back To Black singer’s death at the age of just 27.

During her career, Amy had a string of showbiz spats, including mocking singer Dido and putting an Alexander McQueen dress on a barbecue after a fall-out.

She also called US rapper Kanye West the C-word on stage at Glastonbury in 2008.

THE MASTERPLAN

Oasis to play record-breaking 6 Knebworth shows & 12-night Etihad residency

WHAT LEW DRINKING?

Lewis Capaldi splashes £2k on drinks for England fans in pub after win

Now Cardi has revealed her own feuds have cost her lucrative brand deals, following ding-dongs with fellow rappers Nicki Minaj, Latto and BIA.

The New York-born star told her followers on X: “No lie, last year when I went off, I lost about three deals.

“I lost about three deals when I was bugging out and violating, and giving b*****s the f***ing business.”

Paris Fashion Week will continue until tomorrow evening, with a series of A-listers travelling to the French capital for a schedule of high-end events.

Fresh from attending Taylor Swift’s wedding to Travis Kelce in New York on Friday, Jennifer Lopez, 56, was photographed heading to a party on Monday in a halter-neck evening gown.

Meanwhile, singer Sabrina ­Carpenter, 27, wore a white dress to Dior’s haute couture autumn/winter fashion show held on the same evening.

LOU Teasdale has split with footballer Andy Carroll for a third time – and for her sake, I hope this time it’s for good.

To me Andy is a classic Peter Pan, a man seemingly devoid of the ability to grow up and stop partying like he’s a single twenty-something.

We saw it in the run up to his marriage to the lovely Billi Mucklow back in 2022, when he made a buffoon of himself by passing out topless in bed with two women in Dubai, and now it seems history is repeating itself.

I watched him sidling up to two rather attractive women at Glastonbury last year and although it might have just been a flirt – who doesn’t get turned on by The Prodigy? – it was enough to get the red flags waving in my mind.

If you feel like this is the nineteenth time Andy and Lou have split over the past year, you’re a little way off but not totally incorrect.

They’ve been more on and off than my laptop over the past 12 months so I am hoping, if only for Lou’s sake, that this is the final time.

If she was one of my mates, I’d be staging an intervention because enough is enough.

This time around, insiders have said it’s Lou who has kicked Andy to the kerb, after he flew off on a boozy holiday to Ibiza, despite supposedly promising her he wouldn’t touch drink to save their relationship.

Lou, a respected make-up artist, has now wiped Andy from her social media.

But why she stood by him time and time again is what I cannot understand. They first started dating back in the autumn 2024 and on social media, naturally, it all seemed rather rosy.

Andy had only been single for a short time, following the end of his ill-fated marriage to Billi, the mother of his three youngest children.

But from the outside, all appeared to be well. And, long had been forgotten the scandal that had engulfed the lead up to their wedding back in 2022.

To recap, and if you don’t remember, Andy ended up landing himself in hot water after getting so drunk at his stag do in Dubai that he ended up topless and in bed with two women – who took photographs of him and shared them with pals.

I reported on the story at the time as I knew people close to Billi.

The former reality star was so humiliated by the footballer she almost called off the wedding.

Nothing happened between Andy and the women who partied with him in Dubai, but her friends confessed to me at the time that they were begging her not to marry him.

But their pleas fell on deaf ears and the pair looked genuinely happy in their wedding pictures in the summer of that year.

But fast-forward two years and they announced they were divorcing.

I rang one of her pals after hearing of his latest split with Lou and they made a pertinent point.

“Marrying Andy was something Billi did for love but it was never going to work out,” a friend admits.

“We told her not to go through with it but everything was in place for the wedding, calling it off would have been a nightmare.

“She did love him deep down and wanted to move past it though.

“Andy might not have cheated in Dubai but he was as drunk as a skunk and topless in bed with two women.

“What does it say about your future husband that he’s going to put himself in this position?”

Well, quite.

Not long after his split from Billi was revealed by The Sun, it emerged Andy had started dating Lou.

There was no crossover between the relationship and on the outside, things between Andy – who has two older children from a previous relationship – and Lou seemed happy.

Their Instagram accounts were full of snaps of them together in France, where Andy had been playing for fourth tier club Bordeaux.

But less than a year into their relationship, it all started to get a bit messy.

Lou, who is sober and has been for over a decade, appeared to have no issue with the fact Andy drank alcohol and the pair made it work.

But last summer, things came to a head in Mykonos – with Andy being quizzed by the police twice after two very public rows last June.

The first incident, at the Nikolus Tavern, was so shocking, a restaurant worker went on the record and told us Andy was “very drunk and furious” with Lou.

He added: “He was using very bad words. It was improper behaviour. The woman looked very upset.”

After speaking to police, Andy was allowed to return to Lou but just hours later alarmed staff called cops again after reports of damage to their £500-a-room at a posh hotel.

Andy was taken to a station for questioning but was released without being arrested. Despite the two incidents, Lou stuck by Andy and their relationship continued.

For eight more weeks, the pair went back to posting loved-up selfies online, until out of the blue – Andy’s pals confessed he had dumped Lou last August.

And thus the madness started.

A friend close to Andy was less than charming about their relationship when they told us about the break-up and said: “Andy got sick of Lou’s demands and her influencer lifestyle.

“She’s always posting on social media and he hates that. He told her it was over this week. He’s single now.”

Days later, Andy then confessed he’d “made a mistake” and they got together again.

But fast forward a few weeks and they split up once more.

This time was after a “make or break” holiday, with a friend saying: “They’ve tried to make it work, but they’re just too different.”

Bizarrely, even after all of this – they ended up patching things up – but unsurprisingly it’s now over again.

That relationship, which has become a very tedious version of Groundhog Day, should, in my opinion, end for good now.

And Lou, I implore you not to take Andy back.

There are only so many times someone can drag you down before something has got to give.

I had the misfortune of standing next to the Dagenham and Redbridge player at Glasto last summer as I watched The Prodigy and he got very friendly with two women during the set.

Lou had been on-site with Andy that weekend but by this point had retreated to the Babington House for a well-earned rest from the stench of the long-drops at Worthy Farm.

Being honest, I can’t work out what annoyed me more – having a colleague poke me repeatedly because Andy was all over these women while my favourite song Smack My B**** Up was playing or the fact he had the gall to act like a single man when he was in what appeared to be a loving relationship.

I’m not saying anything happened with those women, or that his actions went beyond a flirt and someone to lean on late at night.

But when a man truly loves a woman, he doesn’t give another one a second look, let alone put his arms around them when his missus’ back is turned.

We’ve all been the woman, or man, that forgives stupidity because we love. But as the old saying goes, once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern.

Don’t let him make a mug of you, Lou.

IT MAY be sizzling at the moment – but set your sights on winter breaks to bag some real value.

Now is the best time to book a Christmas getaway, says Sophie Swietochowski, with prices as low as they go for the next few weeks. You can try out these top deals . . . 

WINTER SUN IN EGYPT

THOSE wanting to spend Christmas on the beach in luxury lodgings should set their sights on Hurghada.

It’s around a five-hour flight, temperatures will reach 23C and you’ll be waited on hand and foot.

You can score a cracking deal with easyJet if you book before July 21, using the code FOOTBALL26.

There’s £100 off a seven-night B&B getaway to the 4H Cook’s Club El Gouna with a new price from £876pp based on two sharing and including flights from Bristol on December 19.

TIME TO GO

I went to the new historical live-action theme park in the UK with NO rides

WAT-ER RUSH

The UK’s best leisure centres that are more like waterparks

See easyjet.com/en/holidays.

SANTA IN LAPLAND

IF bucket list is what you’re after, that’s what you’ll get when you whisk the kids off to Finnish Lapland.

Who wouldn’t dream of seeing Santa Claus on Christmas Day?

The Suomo resort will take your breath away, with its thick woodland coated in fresh snow, and cosy wooden lodges where you can hunker down with some wine or a board game around a roaring fireplace.

Along with feeding the reindeer, little ones will get to join the elves filtering through letters and go husky sledding or tobogganing, all while wrapped in their snowsuit and boots — free for all guests.

The four-night package costs from £1,890pp based on a family of four sharing and includes all of the experiences mentioned above, plus flights from Stansted on December 23.

You’ll stay in the Scandi-decorated Arctic Circle Hotel with all meals included and a meeting and gift from Santa.

See canterburytravel.com.

MICKEY IN PARIS

DISNEY doesn’t come cheap, no matter what time of year you visit, but if you book now you can bag seriously good deals over Christmas.

Disney Enchanted Christmas brings the magic from November 7 to January 6 and this season, for the first time, the joy will spread beyond Disneyland Park as you celebrate in Arendelle style in World Of Frozen.

Queen Anna, Elsa ,Olaf and friends, will welcome guests into the Kingdom of Arendelle at Disney Adventure World, plus there are carol singalongs and character meet-and-greets.

Three nights’ room-only in Disney’s Santa Fe hotel is from £745.96pp based on a family of four sharing, flying from Heathrow on December 23.

This price includes four days’ worth of park tickets for the whole family.

See disneyholidays.co.uk.

AMSTERDAM MARKETS

SOME cities simply come alive in winter ­— and Amsterdam is undoubtedly one of those.

The frosted canals of the Netherlands city are lit up by old-fashioned lampposts and pokey cafes serve up piping- hot mugs of Choco- mel spiked with rum to give it some extra warmth.

The Christmas markets will be in full force in the lead-up to the big day.

But these are not your stereotypical tat stalls — everything here if authentically Dutch.

Don’t forget to sample the oliebollen — warm doughballs dunked in powdery icing sugar.

Check in at the 4H Leonardo Museumhotel Amsterdam City Centre which is slap-bang in the heart of the action.

Four nights’ room-only costs from £485pp based on two people sharing and including flights from Liverpool on December 23.

See onthebeach.co.uk.

SKIING IN ANDORRA

Few scenes are more spectacular at Christmas time than those from the top of a snow-drenched ski slope, the sun reflecting off the mountain-scape.

Crystal Ski has some great deals at the moment, including this one to Andorra. The resort of Grandvalira is perfect for both pros and beginners, with one of the largest ski domains in Europe, home to a whopping 215 km of interconnected slopes, meaning there’s great variety.

These pistes are often praised for their world-class ski schools that exceed many others in Europe, plus it’s a little more affordable than the Alps.

Seven nights’ half board at the 4* Residence Pas de la Casa Alaska is from £825pp based on two people sharing including flights from Gatwick on December 20.

See crystalski.co.uk.

SCISSOR SISTERS added some Spice to their set supporting Duran Duran – by inviting Melanie C to join them on stage.

Gushing over landing Sporty Spice as a special guest at the BST Hyde Park Festival on Sunday, frontman Jake Shears said: “We love Melanie C, she’s always been the loveliest person.

“She loves what she does, she’s a killer singer, so we’re so happy she could join us.

“We’re all big show ponies!

“We’ve had a blast.”

Jake told the audience he still can’t believe the group are still going strong and selling out arenas this far into their career, adding: “It’s been 25 years for us this year, and we’ve gone from literally singing along to CDs to being a fully fledged band in that time.

SHE’S BACK

Reclusive Duffy sneaks into secret comeback gig after rape and kidnap horror

SPINNING AROUND

Australia PM issues grovelling apology for saying he’d ‘s**g’ Kylie Minogue

“Showmanship takes a long time to learn, as does enjoying yourself on stage.

“Our favourite moments on stage are when we achieve a sense of, ‘What the hell is going on here?’”

Reflecting on their sometimes chaotic live shows, Jake spoke of a particularly memorable performance with the late Dead or Alive singer Pete Burns.

He recalled: “One of our best collaborations has to be in the early days with Pete.

“He was such a special, special human being.

“He was a fierce, amazing character – in stilettos – and we like that, we like a little bit of chaos.

“That show was dangerous, scary, and fun.

“We look back at those times and feel like that was another era, those are people that are gone now.

“It’s very special to know we could do that with someone we looked up to before even becoming a band.”

CAUGHT LIVE: LONDON ROCKED BY METALLICA

FOR a band 45 years into their career, Metallica were still full of life as they tore through the final night of their three-year M72 World Tour.

The rockers turned London Stadium into a theatre on Sunday with an in-the-round stage in the centre of the venue as part of their “no repeats” weekend.

They also played there on Friday night but vowed there would be an entirely different setlist.

That meant they didn’t play many of their hits, but still had plenty of material to keep going for over two hours.

The gig fell on the one-year anniversary of the Back To The Beginning concert at Birmingham’s Villa Park, which the band performed at and where Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne played for the final time.

Honouring the late rocker as his widow Sharon watched on from the crowd, they covered the Sabbath epic, Electric Funeral.

Ending on their biggest UK hit Enter Sandman, it was clear Metallica are still at the top of their game.

★★★★☆

Thanks a bunch, Sara

SARA COX kicked off her tenure as the host of the Radio 2 breakfast show by blasting out Lizzo‘s About Damn Time just after 6.30am.

Full of beans, she was congratulated on air over her new job by Hollywood star Tom Hanks, before leaving the studio with flowers just after 10am.

It sounds like Sara’s taking it old school with a new feature called SurpRise And Shine, where she will phone up listeners who have to answer with a specific phrase to win a special prize – either orange socks with her face on or a Sara-branded toothbrush.

One person who definitely wasn’t listening to Sara’s debut though was sacked host Scott Mills.

His husband Sam Vaughan posted a rare story on Instagram which showed he had snubbed the show and was tuning in to Heart Radio instead.

Can’t say that I blame him . . . 

Hot Tyla, so cool

IF this heatwave carries on, I might have to start dressing like TYLA just to stay cool.

The South African singer took to the stage at Afro Nation festival in Portugal at the weekend wearing this miniscule white top and the tiniest of black miniskirts.

She is gearing up to release her second studio album A*Pop on July 24, which includes her recent singles Chanel and She Did It Again featuring Zara Larsson.

I’ve got a sneaking suspicion we can expect a tour announcement in the not-so-distant future, too.

Tyla was forced to cancel her first headline tour in 2024 due to injury, but she was back on stage last year and is earning rave reviews for her festival sets.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed it isn’t long until she’s back here in the UK.

Shania ends in Styles

HARRY Styles had a smile on his face and the Three Lions on his chest before taking to the stage for the 12th and final night of his record-breaking Wembley Stadium residency.

He posed backstage with Shania Twain, who has been opening for him at the shows, which have been seen by almost one million fans.

Writing on Instagram after the concert – where fellow singer Kylie Minogue and actress Rosamund Pike were spotted in the audience – Shania said: “Thank you again @harrystyles for the memories. You have the greatest fans! Leaving London with an overflowing cup – happy and grateful.”

MADONNA’s Confessions II is now outselling the rest of the Top Five combined in the UK album charts, as it races to become her first No1 record in 14 years.

It came out on Friday and is also on track to land two singles in the Top 40 – Danceteria and her Sabrina Carpenter collab, Bring Your Love.

RIGHT on the front and offering gorgeous views, Weymouth’s elegant Hotel Prince Regent is a focal point for tourists who flock to be beside the seaside.

Venture inside, and there are 75 comfy bedrooms with a cosy lounge that’s ideal for whiling away the afternoon. It’s the perfect home away from home.

And best of all, I was chauffeured straight to the front door by coach.

This Georgian-style property is one of several charming hotels bookable through Daish’s Holidays, a UK coach-break specialist for the over-sixties.

It certainly helps to remove all the faff from transportation, food and entertainment.

Stays include pick-up from a number of accessible spots around the UK (or you can drive yourself), plus there’s regular entertainment and half-board accommodation, meaning lunch is the only meal you need to spend on.

TEMPTED?

Tiny ‘Bali of Europe’ town with stunning beaches, €3 cocktails and £20 flights

HOLS AT HOME

UK beaches we rate BETTER than abroad – with stays from £12pp a night

My Weymouth base is handy for the Esplanade, which runs for well over a mile to the harbour.

A stroll along here into the old town and colourful working port area takes ten minutes or so with lots of seats and shelters along the way, or you can grab the bus from the stop just outside.

Bikes are not allowed in the summer, making it a pleasure to stroll.

Be sure to enjoy time in the old town and admire the wonderfully preserved buildings, including The Tudor House Museum on the south of the harbour.

The Nothe Fort stands guard nearby and it’s a gentle climb from the old town – or a steeper climb by steps – but well worth a visit for the views and a peep into the history of the place.

If walking is big on your list then you’re in luck as this area is on the famous Jurassic coast, with fossils dating back 185 million years.

I consider myself to be a bit of an old fossil, so it was apt that I treated myself to a local souvenir, a tiny fossilised local ammonite – a mere 175million years old. I came away feeling I am a spring chicken in comparison!

If you’re feeling a little peckish, the fishing harbour has great pubs and restaurants with lots of outdoor tables.

The boats land their catch on the dockside where you will find a wonderful fresh fish market.

They will even ice pack some for taking home should you wish.

Keep your eyes peeled for the road bridge.

Built in 1930 to connect the north and south side of the harbour, it opens up every two hours to allow taller boats to enter the marina.

In high season there is also a rowboat ferry service you can use instead of taking the bridge.

In the evening there was no need to leave the hotel, as the nightly entertainment in the Crown Ball Room was top-notch with a mix of very good singers, as well as bingo and quizzes.

Before heading home, I couldn’t resist a ride on the old-fashioned Helter Skelter in Weymouth’s amusement park.

I last slid down one when I was under 11, so I was not surprised when the ticket man gave me a look.

Excited, I carried the mat up and whizzed down.

Although it is just as high, the ride seemed to have shrunk over the years.

So, of course, I had to go up one more time, just because I could.

I HAVE normally necked far too much Ouzo the night before to rise with the sun during a holiday in gorgeous Greece.

But my eyes are being opened, literally, to a much more wholesome and healthy way to start the day here on the island of Crete.

While my downward dog should arguably be put down, as my balance has gone walkies, the sound of the Cretan Sea gently lapping at the shore does make a sunrise yoga session surprisingly satisfying.

Never mind sinking sambuca shots, this is how holidays should be — relaxing, restful and geared towards recuperation.

I’m staying at Giannoulis Santa Marina Plaza, a 4* adults-only hotel tailored to a quieter and more authentic Cretan vacation.

Superbly serene, with a calming, child-free environment, it’s right on the golden, sandy, Blue Flag-rated Agia Marina beach.

READ MORE ON GREEK ISLANDS

SHELL SHOCKED

Bizarre rule that could see you stranded last-minute on Greek island holiday

RHODE TRIP

5 cheapest Greek islands this summer revealed with 7-night holidays from £249

My double room is small but comfortably formed, with an ensuite bathroom, TV and compact balcony to enjoy the sunrise over Kri-Kri island (more on that later).

With just 51 rooms and suites at this boutique hotel, even at full occupancy you’ll always get a sun bed.

The food is as good as you’d expect in Greece — super souvlaki, terrific tzatziki, outstanding olive oil — but the jewel in the crown is the hospitality.

From reception staff to the waiters and cleaners, this family-run resort is full of welcoming faces, attentive and always ready with a friendly “kalimera” (good morning) or “kalispera” (good evening).

The majority of guests are couples, over 50, enjoying the easy-going vibe.

By day, the only activity is people rising from a sun lounger for a refreshing dip in the pool or sea.

By night, it’s all about a game of cards on your balcony or a casual al fresco dinner by candlelight.

Crucially, this tranquil base is only 20 minutes — by bus, right outside the hotel, or taxi — from Chania, Crete’s charming old town, where ancient architecture meets a more modern city.

It’s an easy-on-the-eye cultural hub, with shops carved into honey-coloured stone walls, restaurants, cute cafes and churches.

After a few relaxed hours searching for souvenirs down its narrow, cobbled streets and snapping away at the beautiful Venetian harbour and 16th-century lighthouse, it’s time for a change of location, as I head west along the coast to Giannoulis’s sister hotel, Cavo Spada.

A much larger complex, with 150 deluxe rooms and suites, this sporty 5* leisure and spa resort is more suited to active holidaymakers. With tennis and padel courts, an assault course, a running track and indoor and outdoor gyms kitted out with top-quality equipment, its facilities are so good that the Swedish Olympic team use it for their training camps.

You can take part in a calendar of events ranging from spinning to body combat.

But that’s not my idea of a holiday.

Instead, I take advantage of the ­all-inclusive board to sample the decent cocktail menu at the bar overlooking the huge lagoon pool at the heart of the resort.

After over-exerting my right arm with the repeated lifting of a pina colada from table to mouth, I head to the on-site spa for a full-body massage, followed by a sauna and steam room.

Clearly a gem of a resort for keep-fit couples, it’s also a good option for families, with a kids’ outdoor playground and indoor play room.

And it’s just a short taxi ride from Kolymbari port, where I clamber aboard a catamaran for a half-day at sea. Destination — Kri-Kri island.

Our deckhand tells us of the ancient Greek mythology that Kri-Kri — AKA Thodorou island — was created when a massive sea monster and its child were turned to stone by Crete’s protector Poseidon, God of the Sea.

Now it’s a breeding ground for the protected Kri-Kri wild goat.

And while anchoring up for some paddleboard play and a snorkel in clear azure water, it’s fun to see if you can spot any of the cliff-climbing goats.

Having worked up an appetite thanks to all that, well, relaxing, back at the hotel’s Azzuro restaurant I really get stuck into a sensational a-la-carte option with Michelin star-worthy food.

After another cocktail workout (my right arm really is doing the heavy lifting on this break), I educate myself with two mainstays of Greek culture.

A complimentary olive-oil tasting session (FYI: trust the Cretan chef and store your olive oil in the fridge) is followed by wine-tasting with the hotel’s maitre d’.

I could quite easily finish a bottle of the white — an indigenous Vidiano.

But like I have done since arriving in Crete, I’m taking it easy — I’ve got another yoga session at sunrise.

WATCHING the morning sun sparkle on an immaculate padel court as the first players warm up, I can’t help but admire their dedication.

I, however, have a different priority in mind and a few minutes later I’m settled at a shaded table on a flower-filled terrace, enjoying breakfast of omelette, mini tortillas and crushed tomatoes on crusty bread.

Fellow guests in their pristine tennis whites head towards yet more courts as the Andalusian sun rises into a clear blue sky.

Perhaps later. For me, the comfy Balinese beds beside the terrace pool are calling.

And that’s the joy of the Higueron Hotel Malaga Curio Collection by Hilton on Spain’s Costa del Sol.

There are sporting and spa facilities that would put a posh country club to shame — and all sorts of indulgent ways to do very little but soak up all that sunshine.

SANDS BAD

The 14 ‘Black Flag’ Spain beaches to AVOID this summer including popular resorts

GO GREEK

Brits swap Spain for these 7 Greek spots to save BIG – August hols from £235pp

Don’t let the name fool you though.

While it has Malaga in the title, the hotel actually sits in the hills directly above the bustling, British beach favourites of Benalmadena and Fuengirola.

Malaga city itself — with its Picasso Museum and buzzing tapas bars — is an easy 30-minute drive away.

Meanwhile, the superyachts, designer boutiques and champagne-fuelled glamour of Marbella and Puerto Banus sit 30 minutes in the other direction.

Snag yourself a cheap hire car from the airport and the whole coast is your oyster.

But the joy of this hotel is just how much there is to keep you busy without ever leaving the grounds.

The extensive sporting facilities include not just the ten padel and tennis courts, but beach volleyball sand courts and three for basketball as well as indoor and outdoor pools and a huge air-conditioned gym.

The spa is just as comprehensive, with a hydro circuit in its heated pool with pressure jets, massage beds, Jacuzzi and waterfalls.

There’s also a sauna, steam rooms and dedicated rooms for treatments.

Luckily for me, the hotel had plenty to keep non-sporty guests busy.

As well as the main pools and terraces — including a stunning adult-only rooftop infinity pool — there’s also a private beach club on the coast.

A free hotel shuttle whisks you down the hill to yet more comfy lounging spots, a pool and two superb restaurants.

And what could be more indulgent on a sunshine break than food created by a Michelin-starred chef?

There are seven a-la-carte restaurants in the hotel and the beach club, three of which have menus designed by award-winning chef Diego Gallegos.

While the Michelin-starred Sollo has tasting menus at £150pp, you can still enjoy the chef’s creations at funky fusion restaurant Arara.

Its £51 tasting menu features Brazilian, Peruvian and Andalusian flavours with a South East Asian twist, with eight courses designed to be shared by diners.

For daytime indulgences, catch more chef- inspired dishes at the beach club, including clams cooked in sherry with flying fish roe and delicious prawns in a spicy pil pil sauce.

Rooms in the main resort are ultra-modern — opt for a deluxe for stunning views of the resort and Mediterranean beyond.

And if you’ve really got cash to splash, the exclusive Leiro Suites are another level.

There’s more space, Scandi designs and funky balcony furniture.

But you’ll also get the choice of breakfast at the rooftop Infinity restaurant and access to the Balinese beds there and at the Beach Club.

Also included is spa access, free guided sports activity, early check-in and late check-out and parking, as well as priority ­reservations.

The hotel offers the best of the Costa Del Sol and a host of sporting options to keep you fit and healthy.

For me though, those Balinese beds at the Infinity Rooftop are the reason

I’ll definitely be returning for the stunning views — and the most chilled of snoozes.

SOAKING up the breathtaking Perthshire scenery in style is the perfect way to unwind.

Here, Janice Hopper goes glamping in a wagon and discovers some of the area’s best beauty spots.

The Pad

With a wood-fired bath that offers sweeping views over Loch Doine and Loch Voil, an outdoor pizza oven and a wood-burning stove, a stay in Monachyle Mhor’s restored 1950’s Pilot Panther showman’s wagon is pretty unforgettable.

Set on a 2,000-acre working family farm within the stunning Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park, it has a double bed, cute bunks and bucketloads of vintage charm.

At the estate’s blush-pink farmhouse, you’ll find your private bathroom and get a free cuppa as you sink into deep-green sofas beside the fire to play board games – just be sure to tuck into delicious, home-made chocolate cake, £4 a slice, while you do.

Explore

Start your day with a bracing wild swim in Loch Voil, before warming up in Monachyle’s cocooning sauna, from £20 per hour.

ALL CHANGE

Abandoned WWII torpedo testing site to become massive holiday resort

COOL OFF

All of the best aquaparks in the UK from huge obstacle courses to glamping sites

Then stroll five minutes along the shore to discover the LookOut artwork – a mirrored cube reflecting the landscape.

Kids will love the hour-long farm tour, collecting eggs, meeting donkeys Jake and Mylo, and feeding lambs, £20 per family.

Or, ditch the clan to try apitherapy – lying in an “apipod”, listening to 60,000 bees buzzing away in the hives beneath you.

It’s surprisingly calming and costs £25 for one hour, including soothing lemon balm tea (Monachyle mhor.net/experience).

Just four miles away is the quaint village of Balquhidder, where you can check out the resting place of famed Scottish outlaw Rob Roy, buried in 1734.

Later, hop in a canoe to beaver-spot on beautiful Loch Tay with CAG Adventures. A two-hour tour costs £40 per person (Cagadventures.com).

Refuel

Combine seafood with the landscape at Falls Of Dochart Smokehouse.

As the roar of the waterfall surges in the background, tuck into a platter of hot and cold whisky-smoked salmon, cheddar, paté, plus oatcakes and blinis, from £22, while sipping gin infused with local tayberries, £7.40 (Fallsofdochart.co.uk).

Quaint cafe The Golden Larches serves up tasty cream teas, £4.75 (Thegoldenlarches.com).

Or join exuberant owner and chef of Monachyle Mhor, Tom Lewis, on a wine safari, combining walking Balquhidder Glen with nibbles and plenty of vino stops. Six-hour wine safaris cost £150 per person.

After a hiking pit stop? It’s got to be Broch Cafe’s suntrap terrace in Strathyre, where you can recharge with a generous BLT, £9.50 (Brochcafe.com).

It handily sits on the 79-mile Rob Roy Way, and the scenic stretch from Strathyre to Callander along Loch Lubnaig is a much more manageable nine miles (Robroyway.com).

Book It

Stays in The Wagon cost £170 per night for up to four guests (Monachylemhor.net).

“TIKTOK made me do it”, I say to my friend, as I send her a snap of my coffee  made by a robot.

If there was ever a city that embraces technology to celebrate the ridiculous, it’s Tokyo. And ­coffee is just the beginning.

Last time I went to Japan’s capital, around 10 years ago, it was an expensive trip. Back then, the Yen (the country’s currency) was strong against the British pound and everything was twice the price.

This time around, with rates dropping over the years, one of the world’s coolest cities is surprisingly affordable again.

And I was buzzing to begin exploring on a budget.

Starting strong, I’d checked into trendy Yotel, a slick and modern hotel that embodies Japan’s futuristic vibe.

IF YOU KNOW, EURO

3 European countries for a CHEAP summer trip with holidays from £159pp

HOL NO

UK travel company goes into administration after 15 years

With 23 properties around the world, the brand is known for its prime locations, without the steep price tag.

The Tokyo one has room rates from £118 per night and is just steps away from one of the city’s coolest areas, the Ginza district.

The well-heeled neighbourhood is packed with stylish restaurants and bars, high-end shopping and elegant department stores.

Shopping is a major activity in Tokyo, with the flagship Uniqlo store just a few minutes from Yotel. This is the biggest Uniqlo in the world, its 12 floors packed with cool clothes and knitwear at a fraction of the UK price.

Then there is possibly the most famous shopping district in Tokyo, Harajuku. This is the place for eccentric outfits, outrageous headwear and funky souvenirs.

There are also cool vintage stores nestled between the tourist tat, but I was more concerned with all the ridiculous things to eat and drink along here.

A toasted sandwich with rainbow cheese, followed by a giant multicoloured candyfloss and a coffee at Café Reissue that had a foamy top in the shape of Hello Kitty.

This is where you will also find the Shibuya crossing, the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world, where crowds get ready to race across when the traffic stops.

With 3,000 people crossing every two minutes, this interchange has become a tourist attraction in itself, as you run for your life and dodge people making TikTok videos, taking selfies and proposing.

For dinner, we bunked down at Kushiyaki Bistro Fukumimi Ginza, an underground izakaya.

The antidote to Tokyo’s tech-savvy tourist trails, this traditional tavern serves meat skewers and Japanese picky bits, with lots of lively banter.

As well as the great food, we made some new pals at the bar.

The language barrier didn’t seem to matter in the jovial atmosphere.

After a taste of authentic Japanese dining, I wanted to experience the country’s unique culture and try some traditional pastimes.

First stop was a Tea Ceremony at Maikura (£43, mai-ko.com).

Once we’d been decked out in colourful kimonos, we all sat on the floor to enjoy matcha with a special blessing.

Then it was straight on to Ginzabashi to make and carve our own chopsticks at an independently owned cafe (£18, ginzabashi.com).

By this point, we had worked up quite the appetite, so we tried our hand at sushi making at the famous Tsukiji Fish Market.

Covered in rice and with a not-so-artistic display of Nigiri and Maki in front of me, I can confirm it is not as easy as it looks.

But, our patient sushi master was on hand to help us out and the end result was a lot more impressive than I was expecting.

The experience is £52 per person, but the price includes a tour of the market and you get to eat all the sushi you roll and some extras too (japanwondertravel.com).

Simply wandering around the city itself is enough to keep you busy. Street art, historic buildings, quirky characters and buzzing neighbourhoods are all part of Tokyo’s appeal.

That’s how I found myself at the hole-in-the-wall coffee shop in Harajuku being served by a bear.

The name Anakuma Café means “bear in a hole” in Japanese, and this tiny booth is exactly that.

I order my flat white on a tablet and it’s served through a hole in the wall by a comedy furry hand.

By the time I stopped laughing and taking pictures, my coffee had gone cold, but it was all about the experience. Which is as cheap as chopsticks.

THINK family fun, adrenaline- seeking and a Stateside holiday – and Orlando is most likely to spring to mind.

But the Florida tourist favourite is now being given a run for its money by the Texan city of San Antonio. 

Sure, there’s no destination with more theme parks than Orlando — which has ten to choose from, including big-ticket names Disney and Universal — but San Antonio’s four are unique.  

And, best of all, they are significantly less hard on the wallet. 

First stop on my theme park crawl of the city was Morgan’s Wonderland, the world’s first ultra-accessible theme park and a prime example of what makes San Antonio so special for this type of holiday. 

The thinking behind the 25-acre park’s “inclusive” billing is that there are genuinely rides for everybody to enjoy — families can truly participate together and have fun with one another.  

FLYING VISIT

I day-tripped to barely-visited European city – it was cheaper than UK seaside

CITY ESCAPE

World’s most beautiful cities revealed – and THREE in the UK made the list

Then there’s SeaWorld which, while also plying its trade in Orlando, provides a much more immersive and educational experience in Texas — really shining at a time when many are questioning the ethics around zoos and aquariums.  

On my visit, I was hugely impressed by the knowledge and passion that staff brought to our animal encounters, and by the lack of showiness around these — the sense was that we were there to observe, not that the marine life was there to perform.  

Adrenaline seekers are not forgotten about in San Antonio, either.  

They can get their kicks at Six Flags — a site of more than 200 acres with 11 roller- coasters and a waterpark.

The rides may not be as dramatic or heavily themed as those at Walt Disney World, but they will certainly impress even the biggest coaster buffs.  

Meanwhile, those travelling with younger children can avoid the heaving tourist crowds that you will likely encounter on a holiday to Orlando.  

But what also makes San Antonio a sure hit for parents, compared with Orlando, is that you can save mega-bucks on entry.  

On average, you’re looking at spending around US$50-$100 per adult here, compared to US$99-$147 in Florida — a huge difference if paying for an entire family.  

Theme parks aside, San Antonio is a marvel in itself, too. 

It predates Orlando by around 150 years so has more of a story to tell, having played a significant part in The Texan Revolution.  

You can learn all about this at the fabulous Alamo heritage site. 

Visitors can view the preserved Catholic mission where the Battle of Alamo was fought in 1836, between a small number of plucky Texan defenders and the mighty Mexican army.  

It’s rare to see anybody, let alone a proud US state, celebrate a fight they lost. But this two-week conflict, where the Texans ultimately met with defeat, has become synonymous with bravery and resistance.  

Touring the historic site, which includes a chapel and barracks, I was struck by the overarching message that comes across: it’s not about winning but about trying. And at $48 entry for a family of four, it’s great value for money.

San Antonio also has an impressive zoo, in Brackenridge Park — but if your holiday aim is to do things you’d not easily be able to do back home, then take a short stroll through the park to the Witte Museum.  

It is somewhat akin to London’s Natural History Museum in terms of being brilliantly kid-friendly.  

It’s also fascinating — to the extent that little ones will barely even clock how much local and historical knowledge they’re soaking up.  

Naturally, the Dinosaur Hall is a draw, but the Texas Wild Gallery and McNay Family Global Gallery are each special.  

Wildlife habitats in the former, and tales of how locals lived in ancient times in the latter, combine in a way that’s compelling for visitors both young and old. 

Do note, however, that some attractions in San Antonio are closed in winter, or operate on a limited schedule. Six Flags, for instance, opens only on weekends. 

In summer, meanwhile, beware the heat — which can near 40C. But there is welcome air-con at museums such as the Witte, and the very child-friendly DoSeum — a hands-on, learn-through-play space. 

Outdoors, the San Antonio Botanic Garden has a water-play feature, and boat rides along the San Antonio river are shady and cool, plus a load of fun for families.  

San Antonio serves up great food, too. While “family friendly” can mean highly processed hot dogs and chicken nuggets, it’s a different story here — where barbecue, Tex Mex dishes and celebratory decor make for fun and flavourful dining.  

In particular, do eat at local institution Mi Tierra, which is festooned with colourful paper banners and wandered through by traditional Mexican mariachi musicians.  

The Tejas Rodeo is unmissable, too, bringing people of all ages together for an evening of bull and horse riding, as well as barrel racing, against a backdrop of Western music and steakhouse aromas.  

Even littlies get in on the action, with “mutton bustin’” — trying to stay on the back of a bucking sheep.  

You’re not likely to find that in Orlando.  

WHEN it comes to booking a family getaway, holiday parks always tick the right boxes for us.

But taking a kid-free, romantic mini-break at one? That probably wouldn’t have made the checklist.

After a blissful weekend in one of the new Butterfly Lodges at St Ives Bay Park, however, I’m more than happy to add it to the list.

The Cornish park has the air of a fancy hotel — only without the steep price tag.  

Snuggled in the golden sand dunes facing the wild Atlantic Ocean on the three-mile, award-winning Towans beach, the front row lodges — all wooden boards and fishing net decking — look more akin to a project from Grand Designs or George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces than a static caravan.

And the luxury look is mirrored inside, too. The master bedroom is kitted out with orange and teal velvets, wooden surfaces and an ultra comfortable super-king bed.

IF YOU KNOW, EURO

3 European countries for a CHEAP summer trip with holidays from £159pp

CAMP OUT

Britain’s best holiday campsites revealed from beachfront pods to £8 pitches

Plus there is a stylish sideboard in the spacious entrance hallway, mood lighting and sofas and throws worthy of a smart New York apartment.  

Even the bathrooms were a cut above — stylish matt gold taps and smart black framed shower screens. 

And if we had decided to bring the kids, there was also a second bedroom with twin beds that could be converted into another super king, as well as two bunks above, each with their own TV and curtain for privacy.

Looking out towards our private decking area, however, we were a little relieved we’d left our children at home.  

This meant we could enjoy the splendid St Ives sunset views from the hot tub, glass of bubbly in hand, without the fear of being dunked at any minute. Bliss.

Aside from the lavish accommodation, one of the best highlights of a grown-up getaway to St Ives Bay Park is the location.

It goes without saying that this part of Cornwall is utterly stunning and there are walking routes aplenty from your doorstep.

Although if you’re after something truly spectacular, the seven mile hike from Porthcurno (around a 40-minute drive away) to Land’s End along the South West Coast Path is a must.

We started in the white sandy cove of Porthcurno beach which, framed by craggy cliffs and with the clearest blue sea, could have easily been mistaken for a cove in Thailand.

The water, of course, is a tad colder, but some brave souls, including a wetsuit-clad teenager, were having a great time being hurled around in the huge foamy waves.

A steep climb up some stairs carved into the cliffs followed, and then beautiful beach, after beautiful beach, after beautiful beach along the coastal path, from tiny little fishing cove Porthgwarra to the lofty rocks and golden sands of Nanjizal Bay.

It’s a taxing hike, but the views make it totally worthwhile.

Just make sure to plan ahead as the buses back from Land’s End to Porthcurno, where we had parked, are a little unpredictable, so we were stung for a costly taxi ride.

It’s not just glorious beaches and cracking rambling trails that our park was surrounded by either.

The town centre of St Ives is a 15-minute car ride from the lodge and is home to some brilliant little restaurants.

On our first night we had visited Porthminster Beach Cafe, a gorgeously relaxed place that received a mention in the Michelin Guide for its delicious seafood dishes — we tucked into a delicious monkfish curry and a yummy piece of halibut loin with artichoke and chicken butter sauce.

For something a little more casual, though, Talay’s Thai Kitchen really hit the spot.

The pleasingly spicy roasted duck red curry and juicy weeping tiger steak really added some warmth to our windburnt cheeks post hike.

Stuffed and tired after the day’s exertions, it was back to the lodge for a recuperating sunset soak in the hot tub.

We ended the night hunkering down in the gorgeous living area as the wind buffeted the lodge from the Atlantic beyond.

And there hadn’t been a mini disco or mascot in sight. How’s that for an affordable romantic getaway?

THE word “splat” has been on Ian Gillan’s mind for a few years now.

To him, it is a word to conjure with, one to fuel his wild flights of imagination.

To most of us, it summons visions of insects hitting windscreens or ripe tomatoes falling to the floor.

As you will discover, however, the Deep Purple singer and lyricist — he of the legendary full-throated holler — has given “splat” a much deeper meaning.

What if it represents the end of humanity as we know it?

Then, as he suggests with an “optimistic” spin on the notion, “What if we morph into something else that’s metaphysical?”

star’s tears

Emotional moment Yungblud breaks down on stage & admits to ‘struggling’

STOP THE FLO

Grammy-nominated Brit group postpone new album release as member has surgery

When Gillan first considered Splat! as an album title, he thought it sounded “too terminal”.

He says: “I knew how the interviews would go — ‘So this is your last record, right?’ ”

It soon becomes clear from talking to the hard rock survivor that Deep Purple, the last band standing in a so-called “unholy trinity” alongside Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, are very much alive and kicking.

When it came to writing themed lyrics for Purple’s 24th studio LP, Splat! screamed out from the pages of the notebook Gillan keeps to record his ideas.

Now, in tall, spidery type, it adorns an album cover housing some of the band’s heaviest, most riff-driven, yet most concise music in years.

As Gillan attests, Splat! summons the devil-may-care spirit of iconic early albums Deep Purple In Rock and Machine Head — and songs like Child In Time, Smoke On The Water and Black Night.

“What I’m hearing now is the band as it was in ’69,” he says.

There’s no doubting that the current line-up of Gillan, founder member Ian Paice (drums), another stalwart in Roger Glover (bass), Don Airey (keyboard player since 2001) and recent recruit Simon McBride (guitar) has hit a purple patch.

“You can give all kinds of reasons, but, quite simply, I think it’s human chemistry,” says Gillan, who lives in Portugal and turned 80 last August.

“The songs are coming easy.

The band is cranking live.

When all the elements work well, they feed off each other.”

He salutes Northern Irish guitarist McBride, who replaced Steve Morse in time for previous album =1, for adding a dynamic gut-punch to proceedings.

He agrees with me that the songs on Splat! don’t “outstay their welcome”, crediting legendary Canadian producer Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, Kiss) for “keeping the arrangements snappy”.

Gillan recalls how it used to be: “With the band having no leader — we never have really — it was often a case of sitting there and one of us would say, ‘Let’s make this bit longer, let’s put another section in there’.

“We might spend weeks arguing or debating an arrangement.

But Bob just comes in and says, ‘I’m not liking that’, and cuts it out.”

Gillan considers Purple to be “an instrumental band”, with the music always getting written first.

Then it’s time for him to step in with the lyrics and those still mighty vocals, delivered with all the theatricality you might expect from someone who took the part of Jesus on the original Jesus Christ Superstar album.

It’s fair to say that Splat!, also the name of the album’s emphatic closing track, represents one of Gillan’s most ambitious concepts, so let’s return to his thought process.

“For some time now, I’ve been trying to make an album sound as if all the songs belong,” he says.

“There’s one exception on this record and I’m not happy about it,” he announces by way of a slight digression.

When I suggest that the track in question might be Third Call, which seems more to do with sex than metaphysics, Gillan replies: “Oh, how did you guess?

It should have been called Sore Thumb.

“I’ve done my own little album on my computer, replacing it with a song destined to be a B-side or bonus track called Hoot ’n’ Slither, which does fit.”

So, let’s hear about his mind-boggling concept, so big that it almost hurts the brain.

“I’ll probably find myself in pseud’s corner again,” he mutters with a smile, before launching into his explanation.

“I’ve been fascinated by the word eternity since I was eight.

I couldn’t understand how things could go on forever.

As a child, it didn’t seem possible to me.

“One summer night, I started thinking about the end of the road, the end of the country, beaches, the sea, the sky, the stars.

“I started panicking, so I built a brick wall around my universe, as many kids have, I’m sure.

“That was it, I was safe.

And then, a horrible thought occurred to me: ‘What’s behind the bricks?’ ”

Gillan says that “later in life”, Edwin Abbott’s classic novella Flatland, a satirical study of a two- dimensional world written in 1884, got him thinking about other dimensions, the afterlife and spiritual worlds.

Then he considered that the population of Earth had “virtually tripled” during his lifetime.

He continues: “For some years, this explosion has seemed unsustainable to me and that the only way to escape is not by flying through the solar system in tin cans.

“It has to be metaphysical.

I’m hopeful.

Perhaps we might become some sort of intelligent energy.”

Gillan draws my attention to the song The Only Horse In Town, one of the last recorded for Splat! and driven by Airey’s fulsome keys and McBride’s shimmering riffs.

It was inspired by a real-life encounter with someone close to death near Noble Street Studios in Toronto where Purple were doing a recording session.

“The snow came down and we saw there were these vagrants living under a blue tarp,” he says.

“The place looked like a rubbish dump.

“We offered them some hot food when we went out to get our takeaway for lunch — and they didn’t want it.

They just wanted dollars for crack.

“I thought of this one guy who probably had days to live.

I imagined his final hit.

“Then (in my mind) I stepped into his shoes and started walking across America until I got to the high plains of New Mexico and found this derelict film set.

“Along with a clapped-out old horse, this guy finds solace, a haven.

It fits very nicely with the overall pattern of the album.”

Next, we take a dive into more of the Splat! songs, starting with the three-minute opening blast, Arrogant Boy, about a bloke called Billy.

“The attitude in the music screamed frustration to me,” says Gillan.

“I had this idea of an ordinary guy down the pub who doesn’t give a monkey’s toss about what goes on at the higher levels of society.

He’s sick of the political pendulum.

“Everyone knows that nothing’s happened in the last fifty, sixty years.

We’ve built nothing.

We’ve done nothing.

We’ve gone backwards in almost everything.

The great institutions are useless piles of rubble.

“So Billy is sticking his head up out of a hole and saying, ‘Get on with it!’”

This brings us to the wild Diablo, recorded in Nashville and featuring guitar solos from none other than country rock star Keith Urban, whose studio the band were occupying.

Here, Gillan truly lets his imagination run riot.

“Diablo is a place where young people go for their rite of passage.

It’s dangerous and many don’t come back,” he says.

“This is the story of Dra-ma.

She pickles her knuckles and has 20 fights before beating up Guts McKenzie in the final.

She celebrates with a bucket of wine and falls into the glitter pool.

It’s all a bit surreal.”

You may think Gillan’s gone off on one but this ceaselessly entertaining character is also partial to a bit of humour.

The Rider is not about someone on a horse, but more about the notorious demands of rock stars when they go on tour.

He says: “I’m not going to mention his name, but he’s a very famous musician in a very famous band.

I was sitting having a beer with him and he said, ‘Someone got a fear of flying so we hired a psychologist.

The next week, there were four psychologists on the plane, one for each member of the band.

Then someone got a bad back so we got a physiotherapist.

The next week, there were four of them.’’

So what about his band’s riders?

“Deep Purple have never been extravagant,” he answers.

“When I was with Black Sabbath, it was a slightly different story, more funny than extravagant.

“I remember Geezer [Butler] complaining that the ham was round and the bread was square, that his sandwich was an incongruous mess which didn’t look right.

“My rider has always been very simple.

It’s bread and cheese, some tea bags — it has to be PG Tips — and a kettle.”

Elsewhere on Splat!, Jessica’s Bra has got to be one of the most eye-catching song titles of the year.

It was supposed to be Bar but, as Gillan admits: “I can’t see too well and make loads of typos these days.

“It’s a sort of Irish pub song.

I grew up in pubs with a beer in one hand, a fag in the other, and in fantastic company.

“My pals were drinking pals — I didn’t smoke a joint until I was 38.

We were pub guys who got locked in, behaved outrageously, but it stayed within the walls.

No harm done.”

Guilt Trippin’, with its gorgeous piano intro and outro and screaming vocals, is about “God and Charlie Darwin having a pint”.

Gillan says: “God is saying, ‘We’ve got to get the numbers right next time,’ but Darwin just goes, ‘Humpty, humpty’.

He doesn’t want to interfere!”

The Lunatic, inspired by the plight of George Orwell’s 1984 protagonist Winston Smith, summons a bout of indignation from Gillan.

“I can’t believe the prescient nature of that book, which was published in 1949,” he says.

“More recently, the NHS proscribed the word lunatic.

I take great offence at that.

Most of my friends are lunatics and always have been — and I happily follow the moon around.”

Through the song Scriblin’ Gib’rish, Gillan vents his spleen at those online matrixes where you have to identify motorbikes or traffic lights, “proving that I am a human being to a f***ing robot”.

Of note here is that he’s heading to UK theatres next spring for his Talking Gib’rish spoken-word tour, a departure from the arena-sized norm.

It’s an opportunity for him to regale audiences with stories from more than six decades in the business.

On a personal level, it’s clear that Gillan is pressing on despite the rigours of live performance and, as he reports, “failing eyesight”.

“Over the past few days, I’ve been taking a deep breath and looking at the future,” he says.

“A few years ago I was doing a talk and the theme was positive ageing.

I realised that when people retire, they stop making long-term plans — even if it’s small things to do with the house or garden.

“But I keep thinking some years ahead with projects, and don’t worry whether I complete them.

“That’s a self-creating energy, like nuclear energy.

It’s incredible.

So, I’m making long-term plans and to hell with it!”

If that’s the template for his mind, what about his body?

Alluding to his younger self — that skinny figure in tight flared jeans with a shaggy mane — he says: “Obviously, I used to be quite athletic when I was young, but I can’t pole vault anymore!

“Well into my sixties, I used to run upstairs two at a time, and now I run down ten at a time.

“So, you’ve got to have a laugh.

Otherwise, you’d sit down and cry.”

One thing is for certain, Ian Gillan and Deep Purple are NOT about to go Splat!

DEEP PURPLE

Splat!

★★★★☆

SINGER Rita Ora has all hands on deck as she enjoys a holiday refresh with friends.

The 35-year-old wore a black bikini as she crawled on a boat in one snap, while in another she lounged on board in a silver bikini.

She was joined on her getaway to Greek island Mykonos by pals including hair salon owner Jade Rae Williams, with the pair posing for a selfie.

Rita posted on social media: “Needed a soul refresh — sun, bikinis and music.”

Recently Rita looked stunning as she soaked up the sun in Greece and flashed her bum on the high seas.

Her toned body and rock hard abs were on full display during her summer holiday which saw her sail onboard a luxury yacht.

star studded

Taylor Swift’s A-list wedding guests revealed as stars arrive in New York

TAKE TWO

What REALLY sparked Housewives of Cheshire ‘assault’… as Rachel Lugo pals hit back

Rita and her crew visited the famous party island of Mykonos where she shared a traditional meal at restaurant Scorpios and also sailed on a luxury yacht.

She put on a cheeky display in a metallic bikini onboard the yacht and flashed her bum as she rode aboard a paddle board.

The singer was spotted enjoying the blue waters including diving and jumping off the yacht in beautiful style.

Her close friend and former Towie star Vas J Morgan holidayed with Rita and was close at hand to supervise her leap into the sea.

While on Mykonos, Rita also rocked a retro style leopard print halter bikini and which she accessorised with ruby coloured chandelier earrings and a black hair bandana.

The Black Widow singer showed off her impressive collection of swimsuits as she relaxed on a sailboat, feasted with friends and took in the sights.

The singer shared a video montage of her on the island of Hydra which included scaling down stone steps, admiring the island’s cats and sunbathing on the sailboat as they cruised over crystal blue waters.

Rita is one of many celebrities known for stripping down to their birthday suits in the hopes of avoiding tan lines.