tour

Jennifer Finch, the bassist for veteran LA rock act L7, has brain cancer and will not perform with the band on its farewell tour this year.

“Our beloved bandmate, sister and friend Jennifer Finch has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer,” the band wrote in a statement on its Instagram on Monday. “Following multiple surgeries and serious complications, Jennifer now requires extensive medical care, rehabilitation and professional in-home support.”

The group said that its final tour, scheduled for fall, “was planned along with Jennifer when all four of us were in good health and spirits.” Finch asked the band to continue with these performances, according to the statement.

“We will honor her request while making her care and well-being our immediate priority,” the band wrote. “We love her, and we want her to feel the full strength of the community that has loved and supported her for so many years.”

L7, a hugely influential act in the alt-rock wave of the ‘90s, was formed in 1985 by guitarists and singers Suzi Gardner and Donita Sparks, drummer Dee Plakas and Finch. Its firey singles “Pretend We’re Dead” and “Wargasm” helped kick off the riot grrl movement of the era, until they went on hiatus in 2001. The band reunited in 2014, and will begin The Last Hurrah tour in San Diego on Oct. 6.

The band also posted a GoFundMe for donations to help with her medical care . “The level of care Jennifer needs has gone beyond what friends and family can safely provide around the clock,” the band wrote. “As we face the difficult reality that Jennifer may have more good days behind her than ahead, we are asking for help to make the time she has with her friends, family, and fans as comfortable, meaningful, and full of love as possible.”

The Grand Tour is back for its seventh series, but it has a brand new trio of presenters – and one you might recognise as a famous trainspotter from Instagram

The Grand Tour will return to screens later this year, it has been confirmed. But there are three new hosts replacing Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.

In a huge shake up to the presenting line-up, fans might be surprised to know that all the new stars are online influencers – and one of them isn’t even known for his content about cars.

Taking over the reigns from Clarkson and his clan are James Engelsman and Thomas Holland, creators of the YouTube phenomenon Throttle House, which sees the pair take on track tests, car reviews and go on epic adventures.

But one face fans might be a little surprised to see – as his car knowledge is yet to be tested – is trainspotting Instagram icon Francis Bourgeois.

Though 26-year-old Francis has won legions of fans on social media with his hilarious go-pro videos when trains go past and boasts 2.7million followers on Instagram alone, he’s only recently began to post the odd bit of car content.

Though in a hilarious post on Tuesday, the self-professed railway enthusiast and mechanical engineer posted a photo of his head on a gear stick and captioned it: “Same show. New knobs,” in a promo for the new Grand Tour show, which is set to air on Amazon Prime from September 4.

The new line-up has divided fans who are yet to tune into the new six-part series. One wrote: “Hoping they do a sort of ‘passing the torch’ episode. I’ll give the new show a shot. Love the train dude lol.”

Another said: “The throttle guys are awesome too. They may have actually cooked with this trio.” A follower joked: “They should film the segments around Chipping Norton and have Clarkson kicking off at them in his tractor!”

But other fans were less convinced, with one saying: “Thanks, I’ll continue to rewatch Hammond, Clarkson and May on my Plex server.” a social media user chimed in: “No one is going to be better than Clarkson, Hammond and May… No chance.”

“It’s not Top Gear or The Grand Tour without Clarkson, Hammond and May. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel. The format isn’t the show, those three ARE the show,” said a third. While a fourth added: “Yes, they should never make The Grand Tour or Top Gear again. Make something else.”

Speaking in 2024, when all three previous presenters retired from the show, Clarkson – who is now 66 – said: “My advice to Amazon would be – and I’ve given this to them already – for heaven’s sake, do not get well known people who ‘like’ cars. Because when you do that show it has to be your life.”

The Clarkson’s Farm star added: “I would get three complete unknowns. Start small, like we did. They’ve got to be absolute petrolheads.

“I’ve got to be able to show them a picture of a quarter of a door mirror from any car ever made, and they’ve got to know what it is. I’d go to motoring journalists. James, Richard and I are all motoring journalists. That would be my advice if you want to continue with it, and I would hope that Amazon do continue with it.” And it seems Amazon may well have listened…

*The Grand Tour returns to Amazon Prime on September 4

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Thinking back on the last two years of his life full of album releases, filming schedules and tour dates, Finn Wolfhard requires squint-inducing concentration to keep it all straight.

“Jesus, a lot has happened,” he says, looking surprised. That’s an understatement.

In that time, the 23-year-old not only finished filming the Netflix hit show “Stranger Things,” which catapulted him to global stardom, and promoted the final season upon its premiere. He also released his feature film directorial debut (“Hell of a Summer,” co-directed with Billy Bryk, which hit theaters in April 2025). Then, he starred in another movie (A24’s creature feature “The Legend of Ochi”), directed a posthumous George Harrison stop-motion music video, wrote, recorded and put out his first solo album (“Happy Birthday”), and embarked on a 22-date tour before recording a new album.

On a video call from his family home in Vancouver, Canada, where he lives with his parents and older brother, he’s chatting about the release of that record, the eclectic, guitar-driven “Fire From the Hip,” which dropped Friday.

“I think it’s a nice day?” he offers when I ask what’s happening in Vancouver. “I don’t know. I’ve been in my basement studio all day, so I don’t … I think it’s nice.”

He’s been down in the basement doing press calls like this, he explains, undoubtedly a familiar routine after so many years in the limelight. He wears a baseball cap and an oversize brown sweater, tugging on the sleeves while he ponders.

Even if Wolfhard is exhausted by the press marathon, he doesn’t show it. He’s excited for the chance to be known on his own terms. He never fails to express gratitude for the projects that afforded him recognition and opportunity, but he’s ready to “take control of the narrative.”

“I spent my whole childhood standing on marks that other people told me to stand on and saying lines that other people told me to say,” he says. “Why wouldn’t I want to make my own stuff?”

Being in control also means being the face of the operation. Before “Happy Birthday” and “Fire From the Hip,” Wolfhard released a total of two records and an EP, plus a whole bunch of singles, with his previous bands, Calpurnia and the Aubreys. Being in a band was a natural fit for Wolfhard, who thrives in an ensemble where he can “hide behind the band name.”

Touring last year was his first time seeing his own name on the marquee.

“It’s just straight up me, and if I suck, I suck,” he laughs. “It’s not like I can be like, ‘Oh, man, we’re having disagreements in the band.’ It’s like, no, that’s you. So there was a little more pressure early on.”

Finn Wolfhard released “Fire From the Hip” on Friday.

(Victoria Stevens)

Stepping into the spotlight required Wolfhard, who admits he shies away from conflict, to own both the pressure and the power of being the one audiences came to hear.

When he got sick and had to cancel a show in Portland, Ore., he remembers feeling crushingly sad “letting down” his fans and bandmates — who, of course, assured him it was outside of his control and urged him not to be so hard on himself.

Wolfhard introduced many of the songs that ended up becoming “Fire From the Hip” to his bandmates while they were still on tour, and he says playing them live “cultivated the spirit” of the eventual recordings. Despite his collaborative ethos, there was a moment during the process where he had to learn how to put his foot down in real time.

“I remember suggesting something and people being like, ‘Ah, I don’t know if I want to do that.’ And I was like, ‘No, you don’t get to do that to me. It’s my record,’” he remembers. “It was very innocent — I don’t think there was much ego on either side. But I think I maybe set up too collaborative of an experience that day.”

“I think I sometimes make it feel like a democracy, which it is in a lot of ways,” he adds. “But also, in the end, it is up to me.”

That thought is echoed in the album’s cover art, an image of two miniature Finn Wolfhards facing off, donning colonial garb and brandishing weapons. It’s meant to represent dueling impulses inside of him, he explains.

Wolfhard, a true-blue music nerd, has been described online as an archetypical example of the “child of a Gen X cool dad,” in the same vein as Olivia Rodrigo. (His dad, a former screenwriter turned lawyer and Indigenous rights researcher, does sound cool, but it was his mom who first introduced him to the Beatles. His parents apparently met over a Stone Roses record.)

That sensibility is evident in his musical influences — “I wanted everything [on drums] to sound like the first two Wilco records,” he says — and in his approach to recording. “Happy Birthday” was recorded almost entirely on four-track cassette tapes, while “Fire From the Hip” uses 24-track reel-to-reel.

The album runs the gamut from its cheeky, surf-rock opener “I’ll Let You Finish” (yes, that is a reference to Kanye West’s infamous speech at the 2009 VMAs) to more ’90s alt-inspired tunes to a surprising dose of straightforward country-folk.

Lyrically, Wolfhard divides his songs into two categories: the “very personal” and the story songs written around books he was reading (“Knockemstiff” by Donald Ray Pollock) or quotes that made him laugh. The personal themes he explores are exactly what you would expect from an early-20s rocker raised in the public eye — namely, relationship expectations and existential fears about the future.

On the nostalgic piano ballad “Good Morning,” he imagines what it might be like to settle down somewhere “with a dog and a wife.”

“I haven’t lived that part of my life yet,” he says now. “So I can really easily get lost in thinking about what that looks like.”

When it comes to sharing his music, especially the more vulnerable tracks, Wolfhard knows his “Stranger Things” fame is the elephant in the room. Anything he sings can and might be used against him in the court of public opinion.

“I could either kind of say nothing and be totally private, because it is scary knowing that everything I say, at least one person will take it a certain way that I wouldn’t want them to. But I just don’t have the control,” he says.

“So if I don’t have the control, then there’s nothing really that I can do, other than try to be as truthful and passionate and well-meaning as I possibly can, you know?”

The double-edged sword of fandom hasn’t stopped Wolfhard or his musically-inclined “Stranger Things” co-stars from pursuing this path. Fellow Hawkins alums Joe Keery (who releases music under the moniker Djo) and Maya Hawke are indie darlings in their own right, and Wolfhard has previously referred to Keery as a mentor. None of them face the unique challenge of relatability in quite the same way, however.

“I’m aware that my specific problems are maybe not as relatable because of how specific of a life I have,” he said. “The only thing I can hope for is that some other person out there listens to it and relates to the same things that I do.”

Sometimes an air of wistfulness accompanies these admissions. When asked about how he feels about Los Angeles, he tells me that it’s complicated: “I think if I wasn’t a young actor, it would be a very different situation.” His favorite parts of the city are its repertory cinemas and lush neighborhoods like Mount Washington, where his godfather resides, because they look the most like Vancouver.

That said, he’s not through with Hollywood. He’ll be back in L.A. for an Oct. 13 show at the Fonda Theatre, and acting and directing are still on the agenda. He would like his next film project — other than the Matt Johnson and Bong Joon Ho projects he’s already committed to, of course — to be something more “personal.”

For now, though, the focus is music. Wolfhard launches a new tour this month, and he’s most looking forward to “doing dumb s—” with his friends.

He tells a quick story to illustrate: When he and the band last toured in Glasgow, Scotland, he was trying to leave the venue without being noticed. (“I have a hard time dealing with fan interaction,” he says.)

“We kind of made it into this joke thing, knowing it wouldn’t work, where me and Rand, my guitarist, were like, ‘let’s switch clothes.’ Rand pretended to be me and I pretended to be Rand,” he says. Miraculously, it worked up until the “very last second” before they stepped on the bus.

“I couldn’t help myself,” he says: He instinctively made eye contact with someone in the crowd. “They did a double take, like, ‘Wait, what?’”

It sounds like a scene straight out of “A Hard Day’s Night” — or maybe inspiration for his next film.

“I’m pretty in my head about things and want them to be a certain way,” he says. “The thing that I have to remind myself all the time is that, like, dude, you’re with your friends, you’re playing music — it’s the best.”

NORTH West has flashed a massive new face tattoo and lip rings ahead of her tour across the US.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s eldest daughter, who recently showcased two fresh body piercings, debuted her dramatic look on Instagram.

She pulled up her striking blue hair into an up-do so her face art could be showcased to full effect.

After applying pink eyeshadow and black false lashes, North finished off her look with the writing on her right cheek which read: “Are you ready for the Kimokawaii tour?”

The tour – which spans 14 dates across the US – sees the budding songstress team up with Molly Santana for the shows.

The gigs come after North penned a huge deal with Mariah Carey’s record label and was confirmed to be “recording music”.

While her face tatt – which is likely to be fake or temporary – took centre stage, North made sure her lip and ear bling was on point for the sassy snap.

In her caption, she put two question marks, but fans were quick to reply to the question posed by her body art.

One wrote: “Ohhh yesssss”.

Another confirmed: “Yess can’t wait”.

A third then put: “So pretty omg”.

North is no stranger to vamping up her look.

In another Instagram snap she showcased two piercings on her pointer and middle fingers, which she debuted in November.

Over the last few months, North has flaunted numerous body and face piercings, tattoos, heavy makeup, and drastic hair transformations.

Her followers expect to see even more shocking makeovers now that she’s branched out from posting on a joint-TikTok account with her mother to her own Instagram page.

North shared her first post on the platform on December 19th, sending social media into a frenzy.

Many fans have criticized her mom Kim for allowing her daughter to “grow up fast” and not act her age.

Kanye, 48, has shared the same thoughts, publicly calling out his ex-wife numerous times in the past for letting North be on social media and to dress in a mature way.

The former couple is also parents to a daughter, Chicago, 7, and sons, Saint, 10, and Psalm, 6.

All of their children are primarily in Kim’s care, despite their 2022 divorce settlement granting them joint legal and physical custody.

RICKY Gervais banked £16.2million from his sell-out 80-date live Mortality tour, accounts show.

The Brit comedy legend, 65, raked in £311,500 a week for the stint.

It meant the 2025-26 financial year was his best earner to date.

His firm, Red Lion 99, has £17.9million in assets and he has another £33.9million in his TV and film firms listed on Companies House.

Gervais will earn even more from a new nationwide tour, Legend, which starts this autumn.

Yet the Reading-born star is known to be disinterested in wealth.

READ MORE ON RICKY GERVAIS

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He once said: “People ask me why I dress like a tramp.

“And I say, ‘My clothes are clean and comfortable.

“Who am I trying to impress?’

“I don’t wear £50,000 watches. I don’t collect cars. I can’t drive.”

“Nothing gives me more of a buzz than to help an animal. I don’t get excited about things.

“I’m not a hippie or communist, I think money’s for the safety of your family and friends, and you can’t take it with you.”

On Friday, a group of retired judges stepped off a tour bus in a ritzy Michigan suburb after three days of barnstorming through corn fields, cities and coal towns in Ohio and Pennsylvania. They carried with them a message.

In courthouses and public squares, they marked the nation’s 250th anniversary with a dire warning: The rule of law in America is in grave danger. They delivered a similar message at a library in Grosse Pointe just outside Detroit — the last stop on an extraordinary tour to defend judicial independence and bolster trust in courts.

Americans’ confidence in the court system and democracy has dipped in recent years. The country is more polarized, and President Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on the fairness of the judicial system.

Some judges on the tour said in phone interviews this week that the United States was at a precipice.

“Looking back in history, we have teetered,” former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Michael Donnelly said. “This is a moment where we can decide to reinstill those beliefs that we are a country of laws and not of men.”

Judges step off the bench

The four-day tour through the Rust Belt is a sharp departure for a typically reserved and insular branch of government. Federal judges in particular largely limit their comments to the courtroom and written decisions, focusing on the facts of individual cases.

But that restraint is loosening amid a barrage of attacks by Trump and other White House officials, the administration’s rampant defiance of U.S. district court orders and its expansive view of executive power. Trump has called a district judge who ruled against one of his immigration moves “crooked” and suggested with no evidence that Supreme Court justices who struck down his tariffs were motivated by foreign interests.

More federal judges have recently begun talking about receiving death threats and profane messages, though they have not blamed Trump or any other officials. Some have blasted administration policies in sharply worded opinions that strayed beyond the legal dispute before them. Even U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has weighed in.

In an appearance in March, Roberts said personal criticism of federal judges was dangerous and had to stop. The rare rebuke from the head of the nation’s top court came two days after Trump’s remark about a “crooked” judge, though Roberts didn’t mention Trump or anyone else by name.

The U.S. Marshals Service reported 564 threats against federal judges in the government fiscal year that ended in September, up from 509 the year before.

“I don’t want to say we have moved into an era of lawlessness, but it sometimes feels that way,” said former U.S. District Court Judge Victoria Roberts, who joined the bus tour in Michigan.

Timothy Lewis, another former federal judge on the tour, said his concerns about the politicization of the judicial branch reached a tipping point a decade ago, when Senate Republicans thwarted President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Today, the rule of law is facing an “existential threat” from an ongoing breakdown of norms, according to Lewis, who spent seven years on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“I have fundamental concerns,” he said, “about where we are headed as a nation.”

Their route has been varied

The tour started Tuesday in the western Pennsylvania town of Greensburg — once the hub of a thriving coal industry that now lures visitors from nearby Pittsburgh for highland recreation and a historic downtown.

Judges mingled with customers at a coffee shop before speaking at the domed, ornate Westmoreland County Courthouse. Then it was off to Washington, also in western Pennsylvania. The town of 13,000 people, where about 15% of the population is Black, was a key stop on the Underground Railroad and a regional base for the civil rights movement.

From there, the bus headed west for events Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio, and the city of Wooster in Amish country. The judges stopped at a Cracker Barrel restaurant on the way. They spent Thursday in Cleveland before circling Lake Erie north to Michigan.

The two groups that planned the tour — dubbed “Justice in Motion” — say they were inspired by a similar campaign in Poland in 2021 after that country’s governing party took control of key judicial institutions.

Independent Polish judges visited scores of towns to promote the rule of law and teach voters about the country’s constitution. The U.S. tour also aims to educate people.

An effort to combat misinformation about what they do

Maureen O’Connor, a former chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, said judges risk ceding the narrative about their roles and motives to “voices of misinformation” if they don’t speak up.

A letter she received years ago, and still keeps, reminds her of that danger. The writer accused O’Connor, a Republican, of betraying her party when she repeatedly struck down Republican-drawn legislative maps as illegal gerrymanders. “There was just a basic misunderstanding of what my role was as a judge,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor is among roughly 30 judges, including two former federal judges and two current federal judges, who participated in the tour. One of the federal judges was nominated by a Democrat, the other three by Republicans. The state judges, some of whom are also still on the bench, represented both parties.

They were joined by former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, former Ohio attorneys general and a few lawyers. The event was put together by the Democracy Rising Collaborative and Keep Our Republic, nonpartisan advocacy groups.

Organizers say they chose stops that would get the judges in front of as many people as possible to build connections and trust. The judges embraced that mission.

“The lifeblood of the judiciary is public confidence,” Donnelly, the former Ohio Supreme Court justice, said. “If you lose that, it’s very difficult to get it back.”

Thanawala writes for the Associated Press.

Chunky platform sandals, fitted baby tees, butterfly clips on perfectly crimped hair, brightly patterned skirts and tons of sparkles. Pure Y2K-fueled nostalgia filled the Kia Forum on Wednesday night in celebration of all things Hilary Duff.

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Duff graced the stage at the Inglewood venue as part of her Lucky Me tour, her first global headlining tour in nearly two decades. And her fans couldn’t have been more thrilled. The pop singer and actor, who released her sixth studio album “Luck… or Something” in February, performed two back-to-back sold-out shows.

Before the final L.A. show, we caught up with fans to talk about their outfits (many of which were inspired by Duff’s most famous roles such as Sam in “A Cinderella Story” and the title role in “The Lizzie McGuire Movie”), the memories her music brings up for them and why her work still resonates with them. Here’s what they had to say.

(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)

Tristan Hallam, 36, of Chicago

Tell us about your outfit.

This is my wedding dress that I had stuffed in a suitcase. She’s been in a suitcase for 10 years, and I still fit into her, which is nice. People ask me why I keep stuff and this is exactly why: You might get divorced and use it as a costume. My outfit is inspired by “A Cinderella Story.” It’s my favorite Hilary Duff movie. She plays diner girl Cinderella. She disguises herself with a mask and a L.A. Dodgers cap. I did have a tiara, but I didn’t bring it because I didn’t want to be too much. So I figured, you know what, why not buy an apron and a little black crop top, and rep L.A.

I have a tattoo of her signature. It’s a little faded because it’s like 10 years old, maybe older than that now. It was at a book signing at Barnes and Noble at like the Grove or something. I asked her if she would initial my wrist, and I got it tattooed the same night. I literally drove to the tattoo shop on Hollywood Boulevard with my arm out the window because I’m so clumsy and I didn’t want to smudge it. Then the next time I saw her, she asked me, what did your parents say? I said, “My mom asked me how long I kept the Sharpie on so long.”

How long have you been a fan?

I think I was like 8 or 9 years old when I saw “Casper Meets Wendy” for the first time. My grandma took me to like a K-Mart or something, and told me that I could get any movie that I wanted. Then I was into “Lizzie McGuire,” but as soon as Hilary started doing all her like movies and independent work, obviously the music is great. I used to live in L.A., so I went to a bunch of her book signings. I’ve done a lot of meet and greets for her concerts, and right now I’m traveling around. I’m going to 18, technically 19 shows now, and I’m gonna see her in New Zealand, Australia and some other places. I’m actually really excited because one of my friends, I met her in a Hilary Duff fan club chat room in 2005 on MSN Messenger, and we are still friends, so we are going to a ton of shows together.

Why does her work still resonate with you today?

The fact that we’re around the same age, there’s been a lot of relationship similarities. I don’t have any kids, but the struggles with family, with your dad, with your siblings. She’s got some songs that are more mature and relatable for people our age. People who have gone through ups and downs in relationships, struggles with family and figuring out who your real family is, not just by blood but who your chosen family is. I think that’s really important.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Leilanie Martinez, 30, of South Gate

Tell us about your outfit and the inspiration behind it?

It’s my quinceañera dress. It’s supposedly very traditional to wear a white dress, like young women coming of age. For mine, I wanted to wear something that I didn’t see a lot of people wearing and I was very firm that if I didn’t find the love of my life, I was going to wear a white dress and this was my moment. My quinceañera was such a precious time. It really was a labor of love, and I think it’s one those memories I hold very near and dear. I think it’s an ode to her history, her legacy.

How long have you been a fan?

I remember I was 5 and I was running around in my neighborhood, playing with Barbies and watching “Lizzie McGuire.” I’m here today with my neighborhood and childhood friends. We used to watch it together and now we’re reliving our nostalgia and childhood.

Thinking back on when you first fell in love with her work, why does it still resonate with you today?

There’s a lot of power in her being a woman and she’s going through so many milestones that a lot of people my age are going through like having children and growing her career. Sometimes I think people “wash out” and I think it’s wonderful how she’s combating that narrative in so many ways, and that people are out here supporting her. I think there’s a lot of beauty in being able to be together as young women and relive some of these memories, but also cheer her on as she continues developing further.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Crystal Chesher, 33, of Mar Vista and Isabella Sanchez, 33, of Culver City

Tell us about your outfit.

Sanchez: We’re channeling “The Lizzie McGuire Movie.” My actual name is Isabella. She gives more Lizzie vibes and I give more Isabella vibes. It’s funny because I’ve literally saved [looks] of Isabella and Lizzie on my Pinterest board and I’ve always wanted to dress up like this. It’s not 100% of what I wanted, but it’s giving what it’s supposed to.

How long have you been a fan?

Chesher: Since I was little. I remember watching “Lizzie McGuire” since the age of 10 at the very least so I’ve been growing up with her movies and shows. She’s definitely my idol.

Sanchez: Same. Growing up, I was bullied so she was a very big part of me being more positive about myself. I can relate to her and she really helped me. It just feels full circle to be able to see her at 33 when I wanted to see her when I was like 10.

Thinking back on when you first fell in love with her work, why does it still resonate with you today?

Chesher: She has a heavy influence in the LGBT community as well especially with the [anti-gay speech campaign]. I loved that. With her movies and her music, it’s all relatable and it resonates with you, the lyrics, the storyline and even her new album that just came out.

Sanchez: She’s just that girl. I’ve never even met her, but I feel like she’s so genuine and real and she’s always stayed consistent with who she is. She’s not like your typical celebrity. She’s just awesome. I’m literally probably going to tear up seeing her on stage.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Lucca Petrucci, 33, of Santa Monica

Tell us about your outfit.

This is a last-minute choice. It’s very like ’70s or retro. I feel like I’ve seen her wear something like this. I’m wearing wide-legged pants, Doc Martens, platform, new haircut, facial. The inspiration for this fit was elegant pop star like confidence, grounded, a baddie. I’m a baddie who knows my worth and that’s what I wanted to embrace. I feel like she’s like doing that. She has a lyric that’s like ‘I look in the mirror, like I’m a bad b—.”

How long have you been a fan?

Since third grade. I thought she was my crush, but I think I just wanted to be her. So many of my core childhood memories are with her.

Why was tonight a non-negotiable for you?

I wanted to experience with my bestie and her sister. I feel like as a kid I didn’t allow myself to fully embrace it because it would be too girly, too much, too gay. So I feel like as a 33-year-old, I’m reclaiming that experience. I’m so excited just to hear everybody in the Forum sing “So Yesterday” and “Come Clean.” She has always been my number one pop star, to this day, and I’ve never seen her perform.

Why does her work still resonate with you today?

I feel like, especially when she was on “Lizzie McGuire,” she was figuring out who she was, but was open to being her authentic self. So I think that just like hit me when I was like in third and fourth grade, like figuring out myself. I felt so seen by her, and her music just brings back like such good feelings. Younger version of me, life wasn’t always great, but, I don’t know, she made things better.

(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)

Liv Guardado, 8, Priscilla Cruz, 38, Ava Guardado, 10 and Jezelle Velasco of Costa Mesa

Tell us about your outfit.

Cruz: We went thrifting for the first time for this. I’m plus-size, so thrifting is not easy in my size, so we did what we could. We got some overalls from Goodwill. And then we got some cowboy boots because we just wanted to be comfy.

Velasco: I probably stressed the most. I ordered so many pieces and it just kind of came together. I think the nails took the longest. One of my friends did my nails. It took some time but we got it done.

How long have you been a fan?

Velasco: Probably since I was their age. I never got to go to a concert, so this is my first time seeing her live.

Cruz: I definitely got inspired around middle school. I had a friend who was like Lizzie, and I was the best friend, Miranda. People would always say I was Miranda. I was a little older than [my girls], but I definitely have kept tabs on her life, and we love her.

Why does her work still resonate with you today?

Cruz: It definitely feels like memories and home when you think of her music from back then. And now she’s obviously stepped into a different phase of her life, and it matches where we’re at in our phase too so it’s nice.

Velasco: It just brings back the nostalgia from back when we were younger and now being parents, and being able to relate to her and her new music.

(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)

Paige Beard, 34, and Tayler Nelson, 27, of Bakersfield

Tell us about your outfits.

Beard: I was supposed to be wearing purple and she was going to wear green, and we were going to do the Isabella and Lizzie look at the end of “The Lizzie McGuire Movie.” It turned out more pink, but we ran with it.

Nelson: I was all about that performance, so I was like green. Gotta go green. We’ve been planning for a while, like two months.

How long have you been a fan?

Beard: I’ve been a fan for a long, long time, probably since “Casper Meets Wendy.” I was also a really big “Lizzie McGuire” fan, so I got into her acting as well as her music.

Nelson: Same. I was all about the Cinderella movie though, so it’s probably been 10 years for me.

Why does her work still resonate with you today?

Beard: I was telling my sister that I really liked “Lizzie McGuire” because it was one of the first times I saw somebody’s inner dialogue acted out in cartoon form. It showed me that I’m not too much. She’s a little bit older than me and I see her crying on stage and I’m like “OK, it’s OK.”

Nelson: “The Lizzie McGuire Movie” was a big turning point for me. I just loved how she expressed herself with what she wore and how she acted. I feel like I understood her in different ways. I enjoyed the dancing and the singing for sure. She felt free and I’m like, “Dang, I want that.”

(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)

Freddy Lopez, 38, and Raymond Lockwood, 36, of San Bernardino

Tell us about your outfits.

Lopez: Just a ’90s vibe. I guess a little old-school.

Lockwood: The outfits are a little last-minute because we were like we should’ve done diner girl [from “A Cinderella Story”] or one of her other movies, but we chose the little cartoon character from the show.

How long have you been a fan?

Lopez: I’ve been a fan since “Lizzie McGuire” and her movies.

Lockwood: For the past 20 something years. We grew up watching “Lizzie McGuire” and got introduced to Hilary Duff when she started singing.

Why was tonight a non-negotiable for you?

Lopez: We don’t know if she’s going to come back after this, so you’ve gotta take every opportunity. There’s other artists who cannot come back to perform right now. So when she said I’m coming back, we had to.

Lockwood: We’re healing our inner child. As a kid, we didn’t know she was having tours or we couldn’t afford to come out. Now, we’re like we don’t have to ask our mom and dad for anything.

Why does her work still resonate with you today?

Lockwood: For me, it’s being a teenager, watching the “Lizzie McGuire” show and watching the movie and then learning her songs. My favorite song is from the movie, “What Dreams Are Made Of.” It’s just us getting to live back in the past and kind of understanding it a little bit more. As a kid, our dreams are not what they realistically are today. I ended up becoming a nurse. As a kid, I didn’t sit on the couch like “Oh, I’m going to be a nurse,” but that’s what my dream ended up being.

(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)

Stephanie Rodriguez, 32, High Desert

Tell us about your outfit.

If you ask my fiancé, I was hunting for outfits and last-minute I was like, “I’m just gonna order something on Amazon.” When I saw this, I was like, “That’s it.” Total nostalgia with “13 Going on 30.” We went shoe shopping at the South Coast Plaza over the weekend. The metallic is pulling it all together and the butterfly clips.

How long have you been a fan?

Probably since I was like 8 or younger, pretty much very much obsessed. All of my holiday gifts were Hilary Duff. I had her K-Mart home products. Any magazines she was in, I got. Any outfits that I could try and replicate, I would. My first Hilary show was either Wango Tango or a Jingle Ball with KIIS-FM, so it was just a festival with a bunch of different artists but I went specifically for her.

Why does her work still resonate with you today?

I think a lot of us feel like we grew up with Hilary, so all of her music resonated with us then, and now, now that we’re older, through relationships or divorces or motherhood. It’s pretty cool to see just how we’re all kind of growing up together. The first time I think I found out about her was at the Glendale Galleria. I was recently telling my fiancé that my dad had me on his shoulders because she did a meet and greet and the entire mall was packed.

(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)

Kelsie Wagner, 35, of Temecula and Tyler Walsh, 35, of Long Beach

Tell us about your outfit.

Wagner: I’m channeling Lizzie McGuire. My favorite part is the butterfly clips.

Walsh: This is from Company D, which is a discount store for Disneyland. I was like let me get the biggest shirt and make it into a dress, but I’m wearing shorts — it’s still appropriate. I have like six authentic Disney pins here. This is about $200 on my hat. I was like I have to do something that represents. It’s a big hobby, pin trading, that I picked up in 2023. Then I wore my Lisa Franks. I figured I would channel everything from the ’90s and 2000s.

How long have you been a fan?

Wagner: Whenever the “Lizzie McGuire” show came out.

Walsh: I remember going to sleepovers with all of my friends and we would do Lizzie nights. I was on a soccer team and on Saturday nights, we’d go watch the newest episode. It was just so fun because I feel like I had a little clan that loved Lizzie. We went to her concert at the Grove together and it was back when you paid $50 to get in. We were front row and we like smelled her. It was wonderful.

Why does her work still resonate with you today?

Wagner: For me, especially her new album, she talks about marriage, relationships, motherhood, so it’s still relatable in that sense of that stage of life that we’re in.

Walsh: For me, it’s just nostalgia, because I’m not married, I have no kids, like I’m that fun aunt. And I will say, like, because she goes to Disneyland a lot, so I luckily got to meet her too. I asked her for a picture, and she’s like “Yeah, of course, honey.” It’s the most embarrassing photo of me ever though.

Wagner: I told her she should get it printed and wear it to the concert.

Walsh: I should have.

A POPULAR 90s band have cancelled their entire UK tour following the tragic death of one of their band members.

Sixpence None the Richer were due to head out on the road later this year but the concerts have now been pulled following the death of bassist Justin Cary last month.

They confirmed online that they had decided to take some time out to “grieve” following the saddening news and and as such would not continue with their current touring plans.

The band said in a post online: “We are completely heartbroken over the tragic and untimely loss of our bandmate, brother-in-arms, and friend for 30 years, Justin Cary.

“The past three years had been full of international tours, recording new music, and an even further deepening of the joy of making music together.

“We were looking forward to connecting with new and old fans around the world this summer and fall, but for now we need time to be still and grieve.

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“With heavy hearts, we are canceling all remaining tour dates for 2026.”

Heartbroken by the loss, the band added: “Hundreds of pictures. Thousands of memories, 30 years worth. Thank you, Justin.

“There’ll never be another you, sir. No one could pack a suitcase better or make us laugh harder.

“We don’t know what is ahead, we never do, really. But for now, we must grieve our brother.

“Prayers are welcome for us all, especially his beautiful wife, Linda. We love you all so much and will see you again.”

They had been due to perform dates across the UK in late September and beginning of October of this year.

The performer died at the age of 50 after suffering a stroke on the 18th of June.

The Kiss Me musician had been receiving treatment at Albany Medical Center in New York.

He underwent two surgeries following the stroke and was placed in intensive care.

Sixpence None The Richer got its start in 1992.

Justin joined the lineup five years later, the same year the band dropped its self-titled album, home to the breakout single Kiss Me.

The smash-hit song climbed all the way to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Kiss Me landed a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals in 2000.

Taylor Swift has yet another new thing to celebrate.

Now in her newlywed era, the pop superstar’s concert film, “The Eras Tour: The Final Show,” earned five Emmy nominations Wednesday. This includes nods for variety special (pre-recorded), sound mixing for a variety series or special, directing for a variety special, picture editing for variety programming, and technical direction and camerawork for a special.

The nomination for variety special (pre-recorded) means Swift herself is a nominee as the performer and a producer of the concert film, which showcased the final performance of her record-breaking tour. This marks the “The Life of a Showgirl” singer-songwriter’s second career Emmy nomination. She previously won in 2015 in the category of creative achievement in interactive media — original interactive program, as the executive producer of the mobile app AMEX Unstaged: Taylor Swift Experience.

The accolades come just five days after Swift married beau Travis Kelce in an extravagant — yet secretive — Manhattan affair at Madison Square Garden. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end has spoken about his failed attempt to slide Swift his phone number (via friendship bracelet) when he attended an Eras tour concert in 2023.

The Emmy nominations follow her latest legal win. On Monday, a federal judge in Florida dismissed with prejudice a copyright lawsuit that accused Swift of plagiarizing a self-published poet.

In February 2025, Kimberly Marasco, representing herself, filed a lawsuit that alleged Swift copied “unique expressions” such as short phrases and specific words from her poetry in numerous songs, including “The Man,” “Down Bad,” “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” “Hoax,” “Guilty as Sin?” and “It’s Time to Go.” A similar lawsuit Marasco filed against Swift and other named defendants was dismissed by the same judge last September.

Swift’s lawyers called the lawsuit “absurd and legally baseless” in their filings. “For instance, the concept of betrayal or the words ‘fire’ or ‘love’ cannot be owned by one person, as basic themes or words are not protectable by copyright law,” reads the motion to dismiss submitted by attorneys James Douglas Baldridge and Katherine Wright Morrone, who also represented co-defendants Republic Records and Universal Music Group.

In her order granting Swift and her record label’s motion, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon agreed, reiterating that “the allegedly infringed material — basic ideas, themes, metaphors, isolated words, and short phrases — is not protected expression and cannot be infringed.”

Cannon mentioned these allegedly plagiarized words and phrases included “tears,” “running,” “fire,” “rain,” “sky,” “love,” “invisible,” “caged me,” “flesh and blood” and “it’s time to go.”

Even if they were protected expressions, “the works are not even substantially similar — a point Plaintiff effectively concedes by characterizing the alleged copying as ‘paraphrase[s],’ ‘rephrase[s],’ and copying with ‘minor word substitutions,’” Cannon wrote.

But it appears Swift has not completely shaken off Marasco’s copyright lawsuit. The Florida poet has already filed an appeal.

Lionel Richie appears to be on the mend from the unspecified health issue that prompted him to cancel a pair of concerts in June.

The 77-year-old Grammy-winning “Hello” and “All Night Long” singer on Sunday thanked fans for “every message, every kind word and for all your love” on Instagram, sharing photos from recent concerts. He also seemingly addressed his health, writing, “I’m doing well, and I’m grateful for all of you.”

In late June, Richie unexpectedly hit pause on his concert at the Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul, Minn., after taking a seat on stage multiple times while performing “Dancing on the Ceiling.” According to videos shared on social media, the singer told his audience that he felt “dizzy.” Later in the evening saxophonist Dino Soldo told concert attendees that Richie was “not feeling well” and would not continue the show.

TMZ reported at the time that the singer-songwriter was hospitalized after the health scare. Paramedics reportedly met the artist backstage and transported him to a nearby hospital out of precaution. Richie then postponed his following concerts at Chicago’s United Center and the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio. He returned to the stage June 30 for his show in Pittsburgh.

“Pittsburgh and Detroit were an absolute joy,” Richie said Sunday of his recent concerts. “The energy, the dancing, the faces in the crowd … we made real memories together.” The singer also performed in Toronto on Saturday and in Montreal on Sunday. He is next set to perform in Boston on Wednesday.

Live Nation unveiled Richie and Earth, Wind & Fire’s joint tour in January, revealing a 26-city lineup with concerts in Chicago, Orlando, Fla., San Francisco and Los Angeles. Richie and the group are scheduled to play Inglewood’s Intuit Dome on Aug. 9. The tour ends Aug. 14 with a show at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas.

Tour de France fans have been urged not to attend the end of the third stage because of wildfires in the south of France.

Monday’s mountain stage will begin in Granollers, Spain, and conclude within 60 kilometres (37.3 miles) of some of the worst of the fires across the border in Les Angles.

While the 195.9km route is not expected to change, Tour organisers have asked fans and unessential personnel to stay away from the final 40km.

“An exceptional fire calls for exceptional measures for the Tour,” said race director Christian Prudhomme.

“We invite the public not to come to the edge of the race or to the finish site.”

Europe has been dealing with extreme heat and wildfires during the past few weeks, with a record-breaking heatwave recorded in June.

The fire that has affected the Tour is currently being contained within the Pyrenees-Orientales region, where aircraft have been deployed to battle the blaze.

A key stretch of the mountain pass providing access to the race will be closed.

Nearly 3,000 people were evacuated after a wildfire ignited near Perpignan on Thursday.

“We obviously think first of all of the populations who are affected by the fire, of all those who have to move, and then we also think about the people who would be here to host the Tour,” added Prudhomme.

Jonas Vingegaard holds a narrow lead over reigning champion Tadej Pogacar in the general classification standings after Isaac del Toro won stage two on Sunday.

TAKE That’s Gary Barlow has bid goodbye to the Circus tour in an emotional statement to fans.

The 55-year-old and his band mates Mark Owen and Howard Donald have been travelling the UK with their returning Circus tour this year that they first performed to audiences back in 2009.

But in a candid new statement, Gary revealed ‘with a heavy heart’ that it’s unlikely the Circus tour will ever return again as he opened up on the physical toll of the tour.

“Best tour ever – to say that 35 years into our career is saying something #circuslive,” he began. “And another tour comes to a close.

“Somehow, this one feels a little different. With the other tours, it’s always comforting to know there will almost definitely be a next time. But I’m pretty sure this tour won’t return.

“I was 38 when we originally did this show, and I have to say it’s been a whole other challenge doing it as a 55-year-old,” he admitted. “I just can’t see a way I could physically do this show again.

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“So, it’s with an extremely heavy heart that I leave The Circus in my past. I got to run away with The Circus twice. Now I’m running towards our next exciting, brand new show.”

The boy band concluded their tour in Dublin on Saturday night, having performed a number of sold-out shows in London, Manchester, Cardiff, Southampton and Coventry throughout the year.

Fans were quick to congratulate Gary on another brilliant tour reacting to his statement online.

“We came to the circus with you & you were phenomenal, one of the most magical days of my life, last Saturday in London,” wrote one user on X. “You boys did yourselves & the Circus proud.”

While another penned: “Thank you for bringing this amazing show again. Watched it back in 2009 and 16 yrs later you guys did not disappoint.”

Others agreed, calling it a ‘magical experience’ seeing it live again, with one fan thrilled at having seen it in 2026 having missed out on the 2009 experience.

“Utterly amazing,” they tweeted. “I didn’t get to the first Circus tour and vowed to try and get to every tour after watching on DVD. So glad you did a second Circus tour. Box ticked.”

Despite just finishing up the Circus tour, Gary, Mark and Howard have no plans to slow down as they begin promo on a new single.

Sweet July dropped on Friday and is available to stream now.

As someone with Cypriot roots and distant Greek heritage, I’m often asked the question: which is the best island? People lean in, expecting a secret – some tiny, untouched haven, known only to locals. My answer is always the same: Crete. With its fiercely proud identity, warm communities and exceptional food, it feels both deeply Greek and entirely itself.

For our anniversary weekend, my husband and I head to Lassithi, in the island’s far eastern corner. As a chef and food writer, I’m drawn to the area’s reputation for exceptional produce: Sitia extra virgin olive oil, creamy xigalo cheese, mountain honey and an abundance of excellent tavernas.

After an early start, we check into our hotel and freshen up. The Sand Suites is a new, adults-only retreat with just seven suites and a pathway leading directly to the wide, sandy Almyros beach and its clear shallow waters. Our suite is a serene hideaway with a private pool overlooking dramatic mountains.

For our first evening, we head to Karnagio in the pretty harbour town of Agios Nikolaos, a 10-minute drive up the coast (or a 45-minute walk). We’re told it offers the perfect introduction to the flavours of Lassithi. Despite a warning from Dimitri, the knowledgable manager at the Sand Suites, we order far too much food. We begin with Cretan classics: dakos (barley rusks softened with grated tomato, olive oil and mizithra cheese), alongside mizithropitakia (delicate mizithra-filled pies). More plates arrive. Spring onion-topped fava, tender horta (wild greens dressed generously with lemon), followed by melt-in-the-mouth sauteed lamb with locally made pasta and torched anthotyro cheese. Weeks later, and I am still thinking about that lamb.

Eventually, we admit defeat. Unfazed by the unfinished dishes, the waiters arrive with a tray of complimentary sweets. Then comes a small carafe of raki. “Only if you join us,” I tell our waiter in my Cypriot-Greek. He needs little encouragement. “Yamas!” we declare, raising our glasses before downing the fiery spirit. The glasses are refilled. I know I’ll regret it in the morning, but we drink again, buoyed up by good food and excitement.

The next morning, fuelled by a delicious breakfast of fresh juice, coffee, pastries and freshly cooked eggs, delivered to our room, we jump in the car and drive half an hour south-east down the coast to Evotry, a roadside bakery that we are told to visit early to stand any chance of getting the best of the day’s bakes. Inside, it is a treasure trove: cakes and biscuits, alongside trahana (cracked wheat fermented with yoghurt), are all made by Stefanos and his wife Maria. Like many families in Greece, they press their homegrown grapes each September to make petimezi – a dark, naturally sweet grape molasses. As well as being sold in bottles, it also forms the base of many of their bakes, most notably kalitsounia (traditional Cretan sweet cheese pies). Found all around Lassithi, here they are distinct: Stefanos does not use refined sugar, relying solely on his petimezi for sweetness. We leave with a box and some cookies, and regret travelling with hand luggage only.

En route to our next stop of Mochlos, we are told about a 3,000-year-old olive tree so make a detour. The road climbs into the mountains, winding and steep. The tree is exactly as expected – vast and commanding, yet somehow gentle, like a great grandmother rooted in the landscape. We sit beneath its branches and eat the kalitsounia, surrounded by birdsong and the hum of bees.

We carry on east to Mochlos, a peaceful fishing village steeped in Minoan history on the far side of Mirabello Bay, and settle into Ta Kochilia, a waterfront taverna, for lunch. Octopus hangs drying in the sun; the sea sits just beyond the edge of the path. We keep things simple: grilled squid, horiatiki (Greek salad) and bread with local olive oil. The squid is tender, slightly charred, perfect. As always, there is fruit at the end, followed by something sweet – here, halva dusted with cinnamon – and strong Greek coffee, which briefly resets us before we continue inland.

After a 10-minute drive into the hills above Mochlos, we arrive at Nektaria’s Kitchen, an open-air cookery school where every detail, from the rustic tables and benches built by Nektaria’s father Tassos, to the wood-fired oven and herb-filled demonstration kitchen, feels considered.

On Nektaria’s website a range of four-hour cookery classes are on offer, from vegetarian and meat menus to olive oil tours and local wine tastings. However, I get the impression that whatever it is you want to learn, Nektaria will be able to teach you.

Over coffee, we chat with Nektaria, her partner, her father, her best friend. We are offered homemade treats: more kalitsounia, this time perfumed with orange blossom, and mounds of biscuits – spiced melomakarona and almond honey patouda, both traditionally made for celebrations. A slow-cooked joint of pork is pulled out of the wood oven to entice us to stay and join them for a meal later on. And while the food is delicious, it is Nektaria herself who is the star of the show. Having left a career in finance just four years ago, it is clear what she has created is less a cookery school than a gathering point – a life reorganised around food, hospitality and community.

We begin our last full day in quaint Kritsa, one of Crete’s oldest villages, just a 15-minute drive inland from our hotel. A winding main street is dotted with a range of shops, traditional cafes and a fascinating natural history museum and tapestry centre.

We begin at the women’s cooperative, where biscuits and cakes are being prepared for nearby restaurants. A demonstration is also being set up in the outdoor kitchen and dining area. We stock up on boxes of syrupy sweet pastries and a bag of skioufichta, a type of rolled Cretan pasta, ready to recreate the lamb dish from Karnagio on our return home.

Our penultimate stop is an olive oil tasting at the family-owned Mourello, where visitors can book a range of olive oil experiences. Escaping the midday heat, we’re seated in a cool, quiet room overlooking valleys of olive groves. Over two hours, Eleni guides us through her family’s growing, harvesting and pressing process in such detail that I leave feeling I could semi-confidently turn my hand to making my own olive oil. We taste and compare different grades and types. Mourello’s Vedema oil is outstanding – peppery, punchy and silky. We leave with several bottles under our arms.

For our last evening we drive up into the hills again to the village of Kroustas. Sitting at 520m above sea level, the view over Mirabello Bay is dramatic. We’ve booked a table at Xatheri, a destination restaurant that feels deeply rooted in family life and is much loved in the area. Chef Konstantinos has built the menu around recipes from his parents and grandmother, who we are told has just stopped by to check in on service. We start with one of her recipes, dolmadakia, small, delicate stuffed vine leaves. Goat stew arrives rich and slow-cooked, tossed through spaghettoni and topped with aged graviera cheese. And finally gamopilafo, also known as “wedding rice”, which feels appropriate given it’s our anniversary. It is deeply comforting and impossibly rich.

Despite protesting, dessert appears – a generous slice of galaktoboureko, a just-set vanilla cream encased in crisp syrupy filo, which is somehow light enough to avoid being cloying. There is dessert wine, then raki, of course. We leave not just full, but slightly reoriented – already thinking about returning to this calm corner of Crete.

The trip was provided by Simpson Travel , which offers a week at the Sand Suites from £1,124pp B&B, including flights and car hire

A MAJOR US band has cancelled all of their UK tour dates including a massive headline festival appearance. 

The popular nineties group pulled out of their tour just hours before their first UK show due to “medical issues”, leaving fans devastated. 

The American punk rock band, Alkaline Trio, have revealed to fans the sad news that they are unable to continue on their UK tour. 

Frontman Matt Skiba, Dan Andriano and Tosh Peterson make up the Chicago originated group.

The trio were all set to perform last night in Birmingham but hours before the show was set to start, the band released a statement on social media.

It read: “We are immensely sorry but we must cancel our dates in England, including tonight’s show in Birmingham, due to medical issues Matt has been suffering from that have worsened.

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“He’s gonna be okay but needs to be treated stateside as soon as possible.

“We will be back healthier and stronger!

“Refunds are available at the point of purchase.”

Not only will the band miss their upcoming UK tour dates to return to the States, but they have also been forced to cancel their highly anticipated headline performance at 2000trees Festival. 

Frontman Matt went on to share a video to fans from London Heathrow Airport, expressing his gratitude for “all the love and support”.

He added: “You guys deserve a better show than I can throw right now. I got numbness in my feet, numbness in my hands as you can tell I’m losing my voice so I can’t really talk, walk, play or sing. But I’m okay.”

After the news broke fans rushed to the comments, one user said: “Sorry to hear this and get well soon.

“Have flights and accommodation booked for the Manchester gig on Wednesday as no Dublin date. Dang.”

Another added: “Gutted to hear this guys, was so looking forward to seeing you again in London tomorrow, but know this decision wouldn’t have been taken lightly. Get well soon Matt.”

“Me looking at my tickets for London and 2000trees (crying emoji) Get well soon, Matt! Wishing you a speedy recovery fam,” a third added.

“It is what it is. Just a shame cus I was literally about to leave my hotel when I saw the message,” penned a fourth.

The band, whose name derived from Matt Skiba simply flicking through a dictionary to find a cool word to stick in front of the “Trio”, was founded in 1996 and went on to sell over a million albums.

Matt is well known for serving as the co-lead vocalist and guitarist of Blink-182 from 2015 to 2022.

Alkaline Trio are best known for songs like ‘Stupid Kid’ and ‘Private eye’. 

The band shot to fame when they released their debut single ‘Sundials’, in 1997.

The bass legend and superproducer Don Was didn’t expect to be covering Curtis Mayfield’s Civil Rights-era anthem “This Is My Country” on the road in 2026. But lately, the chaos in the United States made the song seem regrettably apropos.

“It wasn’t supposed to still feel potent. It was supposed to be something that served a moment,” said Was, who included the defiant single on his 2025 album “Groove In the Face of Adversity.”

“It’s shocking to be here in 2026 and, whatever distance we traveled from 1966 until now, to see it all get reset,” Was said. “That song’s a more powerful statement now than it was then. It was inconceivable that it would still be relevant — this is supposed to be the utopian age of Aquarius. This is not the way it was supposed to turn out.”

Was remembers the tumult, violence and hope that came out of that era in his hometown of Detroit. The city’s music, famed for rough-hewn virtuosity from blues to soul to techno, is the spring that waters “Adversity.” It is, remarkably, the 73-year-old’s first solo album after a career spanning the pioneering electro-pop band Was (Not Was) and deep producer relationships with the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Bonnie Raitt.

He also spent years in Bob Weir & Wolf Bros with the late Grateful Dead founder, and will play from the Dead’s landmark “Blues for Allah” on his tour that stops at Lodge Room on July 7.

With a backing band of studio killers dubbed the Pan-Detroit Ensemble, “Adversity” has an expansive modern atmosphere, yet a lived-in, filament-bulb quality in the playing that carries through funk, jazz, rock and R&B. It’s largely a covers record, but you wouldn’t know it from the depth of the revisions — veering from the Yusef Lateef standard “Nubian Lady” to Hank Williams’ “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But Time,” closing with funk group Cameo’s “Insane.”

“I’ve been carrying it around in my head for 30 years,” Was said. “This first album to me is really a handshake, a ‘nice to meet you,’ this jambalaya of Detroit sounds.” While much of the source material comes from elsewhere, the cumulative mood is extremely personal to an artist who has spent his life helping the greats find true expression.

“I’ve come to admire artists who are willing to go in deep inside their most personal thoughts for the sake of helping the listener understand their own lives,” he said. “To help them deal with the trauma of being human — especially in these times, man.”

Tops on that list is the late Grateful Dead founder Bob Weir — who died in January at 78 — as a model for a band staying fearless and uncompromising. Was, still heartbroken about the loss of his friend and bandmate, recalled their first time on tour.

“When Bobby called asking me to play bass with the Wolf Bros, I thought at the very least, this is going to be a master class in losing self-consciousness and forgetting about fear,” Was said. “If the band stumbled, the audience wouldn’t walk out. They appreciated the fact that you were trying to do something new for them. Then there’d be a couple moments every night with an incredible exchange between the musicians and you can feel the audience becoming a member of the band.”

Playing the Dead’s “Blues for Allah” on this tour — an LP rooted in Middle Eastern scales, pirouetting time signatures and improvisational telepathy — put him in communion with his old friend.

“I used to think that songs like ‘King Solomon’s Marbles’ were just jams and conversations on the spot. But when we really got into it, there’s a form underneath and you can take tremendous liberty with that form,” Was said.

Was’ production career was built on a similar principle.

His early band Was (Not Was) remains a visionary electro-pop act with subtle, salient politics. “Out Come the Freaks” is a favorite on Pride month dance floors — “If you just wanted to do poppers and dance all night, it worked, and if you wanted to think about the government careening out of control, it worked too,” Was said of the band’s club material.

The late Ozzy Osbourne sang on the band’s international hit “Shake Your Head,” alongside a winking, very game Kim Basinger. The actor was a replacement after Madonna backed out, leaving the proto-rave tune one of the era’s most unlikely collaborations.

He recalled Ozzy fondly. “In 1975, this folk group I was in booked us to open for Black Sabbath at the Toledo Sports Arena, playing for a bunch of 14-year-old white boys on amphetamines,” Was said. “They weren’t having it. I’ve heard the tape of that show, and the drummer was bleeding from being hit by so many bottles that we had to stop playing. That was my first exposure to Ozzy, so I was a little afraid to do the session, but he was up for an adventure.”

Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble

(Gemma Corfield)

A Stones confidant and producer from 1994’s “Voodoo Lounge” up until 2023’s “Hackney Diamonds” (where Andrew Watt took the helm), Was had nothing but praise for the band, and still admits to a twinge of fandom in their presence.

“There’s never been a day in the studio with the Rolling Stones where I didn’t look around the room and go, ‘Oh my God,’” he said. “I’ve known Mick for over 30 years, but the last time they played L.A. at SoFi Stadium, Mick came walking down that stage and I was like, ‘Wow, there he is, it’s 1965 again.’”

With Dylan, he recalled the mercurial genius’ impish side. “I was producing Dylan, and George Harrison came in to play guitar. Bob was messing with him, Bob pushed the engineer aside and he ran the tape machine. George had never heard the song before, didn’t know what key it was in, and Bob just starts the tape. George played a respectable solo, but clearly it was rough. Bob, just to be funny, stopped the machine and said ‘That’s it, perfect.’ George turns to me and said, ‘What do you think, Don?’ And Bob goes, “Yeah, what do you think, Don?’ I’m looking at these two guys and time slowed down. I remembered trying to sell my car to get a ticket to go to New York to see the Concert for Bangladesh. Now they’re asking me what I think. I was paralyzed.”

“A voice appeared in my head,” he said, “Telling me, ‘He’s not paying you to be a fan.‘ So I said to George, ‘It was good, man. Let’s see if we can beat it.’ You can’t allow the iconography to dictate the outcome in the studio. You have to put that aside.”

As president of Blue Note Records, the estimable jazz label he’s led for more than a decade, Was relentlessly looks forward. He’s released restless modern records by Domi & JD Beck, Fathers, Makaya McCraven and Julian Lage (the hotshot jazz guitarist now playing with Dylan). He’s refreshingly optimistic about challenging music in streaming’s ruthless economy.

“Don’t make music for the delivery system,” Was said. “I don’t think about streaming, I think about touching people. If you do that, nothing has changed fundamentally in the music business. If your purpose is to get under people’s skin and make them feel something, that’s the same job it was for Mozart. How people listen can keep changing, but I don’t think the palette of human emotion changes, and that’s who you’re addressing.”

Was came from a working-class industrial city, making music reflective of Detroit’s technological upheaval and economic neglect. “Adversity” is a beacon to keep playing in spite of everything.

“I think that the salvation of musicians is that no matter what happens, what technological advancements come along, there’s still nothing like the experience of being in the same room as people who are playing together,” Was said. “It’s always been tough, man. It’s harder these days to buy a Ferrari as a musician, but I don’t know that that’s necessary. I have total confidence that the opportunity is there for anybody who is willing to give the audience a meaningful experience.”

Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome has brought an end to his illustrious career in professional cycling.

The 41-year-old British rider has not raced since a serious crash in August 2025 when he collided head-on with a road sign at more than 30mph and suffered five broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a lumbar vertebrae fracture.

Froome’s wife later said doctors discovered a pericardial rupture – an injury where the sac that surrounds the heart is torn – during surgery and were able to repair it.

“Unfortunately, there was that crash last summer – that was not the way I wanted it to end. But even then, I knew it was over,” Froome told Belgian broadcaster Sporza.

The Kenyan-born rider retires as one of the most decorated cyclists in history, winning seven Grand Tours with Team Sky (now Team Ineos).

His four Tour de France victories came in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Only four men – Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Eddy Merckx – have won more Tour de France titles.

He also won the Giro d’Italia in 2018 and Vuelta a Espana in 2011 and 2017, and claimed two Olympic bronze medals in the individual time trial in 2012 and 2016.

Froome was made an OBE for his services to cycling in 2015.

Travelers Championship second round

-16 S Scheffler (US); -14 V Hovland (Nor); -12 E Cole (US), A Bhatia (US); -10 M Fitzpatrick (Eng), B Griffin (US), B Cauley (US)

Selected others: -9 J Rose (Eng), T Fleetwood (Eng); -8 R MacIntyre (Sco), W Clark (US); -7 A Rai (Eng), S Lowry (Ire)

Full leaderboard

Scottie Scheffler fired a 10-under-par 60 to hold the lead after the second round of the PGA Tour Travelers Championship.

The world number one made 11 birdies and a lone bogey on Friday to move to 16 under at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.

That put him two shots clear of Norway’s Viktor Hovland, who also threatened a rare round of 59 as he fired a bogey-free 61 which included seven birdies and an eagle.

Jim Furyk holds the tour-record lowest round at 58, but Scheffler is one of 14 players to have made a 59, which for him came during the 2020 Northern Trust at TPC Boston.

The 30-year-old American had the chance to repeat the feat with a birdie at the 18th hole but missed from just outside 26 feet.

“It was a little tricky,” Scheffler said. “It actually went right to start, and there was a tonne of break right to left at the end.

“It was a tough read, but overall it was a really solid day. I was pretty happy with my execution.”

On his plans for the weekend, the four-time major winner added: “Hard to keep up that pace, but continue to execute, continue to give myself looks.”

Compatriot Akshay Bhatia sat four shots off the lead in a share of third place having matched his career-low round with a bogey-free 62, with fellow American Eric Cole alongside him after a 65.

England’s Matt Fitzpatrick lurked two strokes back on 10 under, having had to settle for a four-under 66 after two bogeys on his final three holes, with Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood a single shot further behind and Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre at eight under.

Lionel Richie brought the first stop on his summer tour with Earth, Wind & Fire to an abrupt stop Wednesday evening, citing his health.

The 77-year-old Grammy winner, hitmaker of “Hello” and “Say You, Say Me,” unexpectedly hit pause on the concert at the Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul, Minn., after taking a seat on stage multiple times during his performance of “Dancing on the Ceiling” and telling his audience he felt “dizzy,” according to videos shared on social media.

“What I have learned about my years of being in the business, when you are feeling dizzy, sit your a— down,” he joked, according to a TikTok posted Wednesday evening by user ynaffitmocha. “When you are feeling strange about yourself, sit your a— down.”

Moments later, saxophonist Dino Soldo informed the audience that the singer was “not feeling well” and would not continue the concert. A representative for the singer did not respond to a request for comment, but TMZ reported on Thursday the singer-songwriter was hospitalized after the health scare. Paramedics reportedly met the artist backstage and transported him to a nearby hospital out of precaution.

A spokesperson for the Saint Paul Fire Department did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation on Thursday.

Live Nation announced “American Idol” judge Richie and Earth, Wind & Fire’s joint tour in January, unveiling a 26-city circuit that includes stops in Chicago, Orlando, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Richie and the “September” group are next set to perform at the United Center in Chicago on Friday and again at Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio. It is currently unclear whether Richie will resume performing for those concerts.

Richie and Earth, Wind & Fire are scheduled to play Inglewood’s Intuit Dome on Aug. 9. The tour ends Aug. 14 with a show at the Moody Center in Austin.

There are few things a Los Angeles local is less likely to do than take a Hollywood sightseeing tour on a big, garish bus. Only rush-hour traffic and $20 tacos inspire the same level of dread.

Yet nearly everyone aboard the open-air bus for a Tuesday night production of “California Gothic: A Bus Tour” was an L.A. resident. The show, which is produced by the aggressively hip New Theater Hollywood, recently wrapped its third “season” after debuting in February and returning for an April encore. Set on a moving bus, the 1.5-hour-long experience is part esoteric Tinseltown history lesson, part immersive theater. The narrative conjures meaning from the Los Angeles cityscape by fusing a hodgepodge of textbook theories about the sprawling metropolis onto the gritty reality of daily life.

“We originally organized this thinking there would be more people coming who aren’t from here,” said Oliver Misraje, the show’s writer and primary tour guide, as the bus pulled away from the curb at Santa Monica and Wilcox. “But this just goes to show how much people love the city and are from here, contrary to popular belief.”

In lieu of celebrity-hungry tourists, “California Gothic” has been packing its bus twice a night with rowdy young scenesters and in-the-know locals eager to absorb its heady mix of California history, public intellectualism and performance artistry.

While the show wrapped its latest run in mid-June, it will reopen its automated doors during the last week of October for a special “ghost tour” edition co-written by Misraje and New York it girl Ruby McCollister.

The bus arrives for New Theater Hollywood’s “California Gothic: A Bus Tour.”

My tour was far less steeped in irony than I feared. As the bus wound its way through the streets of Hollywood, starting at the New Theater’s doorstep before eventually circling the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Misraje led the audience through his take on the death of the “California dream” and the rotting carcasses of empty buildings and broken promises left in its wake. Along the way, we encountered a haunted-eyed Marilyn Monroe impersonator (Brooks Ginnan), a masked Hollywood legend known as the Duchess of Argyle (Shauna Frente) and a singing, swaggering “Rat Czar” with a lot to say about real estate developers (Loren Kramar).

Yes, it’s whimsical, and yes, it references Mike Davis’ “City of Quartz” more than any of the TMZ-type excursions it gently parodies, but it’s still, at its heart, a bus tour.

In a nod to classic Hollywood tour advertisements, the show’s winkingly all-caps poster declares, “You Will See: The Hollywood Sign, Marilyn Monroe, the Schizo City State.” There is also a stash of BuzzBallz ready-to-drink cocktails for trivia winners, but Misraje and his cast do not deliver their performances with smirks or smarm. They commit full-throatedly to playing out Misraje’s vision of a Hollywood haunted by the dreamers it’s wronged and the secrets it’s plastered over.

“Ultimately, we are trying to pay homage to the bus tour format, which is intrinsically ‘carny,’” Misraje said, likening himself to a carnival barker espousing aesthetic philosophy aboard an ever-changing “Ship of Theseus.”

Before the performers infiltrate the ship, “I’m trying to intentionally set up audience expectations to think they’re going to get this run-of-the-mill Hollywood death tour,” he explained. “I consider myself a kind of impish person, but still fundamentally sincere.”

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1. Tour guide Oliver Misraje begins the show. 2. Rat Czar, portrayed by Loren Kramar, performs during the bus tour. 3. Guests board the bus.

Given the show’s monologue-heavy format and bevy of literary references, it’s no surprise that the concept began as an essay. Misraje, a 27-year-old writer and self-described “Hollywood hustler” raised primarily in the Inland Empire, was inspired after the 2025 Palisades and Eaton fires to stage a piece he had written bridging his love of Gothic literature with his “welfare class” upbringing in a family of seven raised by a single mother, which he considered gothic in its own right.

“We were in the Inland Empire and it was the 2008 financial crisis,” he said. “There was all this imagery of things famously California-coded, like the suburban house, the pool, the strip mall, and when we were there, it was just, like, destroyed. There were abandoned housing subdivisions rotting in the sun.”

The perfect setting, he explained, for the kind of “literature that emerges after the failure of a historical project.”

After reaching out to New Theater co-owner Calla Henkel and conceiving the project, Misraje and his producers elected to turn the funhouse mirror onto Hollywood, framing the neighborhood with historical context and Freudian theory but ultimately letting it speak for itself.

The bus passes the TCL Chinese Theatre.

The highly mutable nature of street life and the participatory character of the show means its tone can shift drastically from tour to tour, even within the same night. Sometimes, the streets appear glittering; other times, seedy and dangerous. Once, there was a showdown with another tour bus — one presumably not carrying theatergoers. At a different show, a drunk pedestrian tried to board the bus during faux-Monroe’s speech. One particularly harrowing night, someone circled the bus on an electric scooter, shouting homophobic slurs at the all-queer cast.

“It’s almost like surfing,” Misraje said. “There’s so much chaos you’re confronting, and you have to find a way to ride it and let it be a part of the show.”

The show’s high production costs make bringing in a profit difficult, but Misraje said he and the New Theater Hollywood team plan to revive it periodically, with an evolving story and cast of characters.

On my tour, no performer better represented the blurred line between theater and street life than the Duchess of Argyle, a.k.a. the Mysterious Masked Lady of Hollywoodland, a.k.a. Shauna Frente, a busty Blanche DuBois figure in an eyeless flapper mask and gartered stockings. Just three days before, she had been evicted from a home on Argyle Avenue that once allegedly belonged to Cecil B. DeMille. This happened after a lengthy legal battle, during which the show helped raise money for temporary housing.

As the Duchess spilled neighborhood secrets, our bus repeatedly passed an Extra Space Storage facility painted with images of old Hollywood behemoths: Lucille Ball, Groucho Marx and the like. The intermingling smells of sizzling hot dogs, urine and marijuana wafted through the open windows.

Hollywood may be ghostly, the Duchess told us, but it was hers to haunt.

Duchess of Argyle (Shauna Frente) tells Hollywood stories during the tour.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

Sitting in the control room of their home studio known as the Centre of Mental Arts (COMA for short), Long Beach husband-and-wife duo Scott Montoya and Julia Kugel smile as they discuss new music they recorded for their band Soft Palms. Their new album, titled “In Echo,” has been in the works for over five years. The 10-song album, out Friday on Everloving Records, was inspired by their frustration about how they feel the world has devolved since 2020.

“The first record I was like, ‘I want to give the world a hug,’” Kugel says. “And then this one I was like, f— this world.”

For Kugel and Montoya, the album serves as the latest chapter of their creative and personal journey. The pair met in 2012 at a music festival in Dallas (“The most romantic city,” Kugel quips), while playing in the Atlanta-based band the Coathangers and Orange County’s the Growlers, respectively. They bonded over a shared disgust at gladiator shoes, and soon thereafter, were in a relationship.

By 2017, they were married and settled in Long Beach. Despite Kugel’s role in the Coathangers at the time (Montoya left the Growlers in 2016), the couple wanted to form a band. Previously, they recorded a pair of songs that constituted Kugel’s second solo seven-inch single. That experience made them comfortable knowing they could balance their professional and personal lives.

“He’s super easy to work with,” Kugel says of Montoya, who sits beside her, trying to hide a smile. She looks at him and continues, “he’s very talented and very patient.”

“When we were in our other bands, we used to meet up on tour,” Montoya, who also produces and engineers for other artists, says. ”You see the absolute worst of people on tour … so this is nothing.”

To kickstart Soft Palms, Kugel drew from a batch of songs she had previously written that had no home. Being able to record in their own studio allowed the pair to craft songs without feeling any pressure to meet a deadline.

By late 2019, the pair put the finishing touches on their self-titled debut. When the record was released in July 2020, the pandemic was still in full force. The pair were disappointed and upset by the state of the world, and after a few years of stewing, Kugel and Montoya got started on a second album.

Don’t be fooled by its breezy ’60s-analog vintage pop sound. Soft Palms are angry, and that informs the spirit of “In Echo.”

The pair points to “Radio” as the album’s bellwether. First released in 2025, the song rails against how, over the past handful of years, people have fought for the sake of fighting, with no end in sight.

More strikingly, on the biting “Nervous as Hell,” Montoya points to Fox News as “infecting everyone’s parents.”

“I did some digging because I couldn’t believe something that hateful existed,” he says of the network, specifically its landmark $787-million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems. “It turned it from this horrible thing into this s— business that has taken advantage of the elderly and destroyed families.”

That anger continues on the angsty rocker “The Wedding Song.” Kugel points to attending a wedding where a family member married a “total raging maniac,” and how they dealt with the buildup of delicately balancing being cordial yet firm.

“He [the family member] goes, ‘I just want you to show up and shut up!” she says. “I was like, ‘Well, firstly, f— you. Then secondly, this is a song — you just handed me gold.”

Since settling in Long Beach, for the last 10 years Kugel and Montoya took it upon themselves to help foster a positive, artistic community. It’s that mindset that pushed them to found and operate their 501(c)(3) nonprofit called Studios for Schools with the goal of providing recording equipment to underprivileged schools.

Their DIY work ethic in entertainment was also the driving force behind Happy Sundays, a free Long Beach-based music festival. Running for 10 years, the fest created a block party in the city’s Zaferia neighborhood that eventually expanded into a full weekend of shows across stages set up at local businesses to host a diverse lineup of veteran and up-and-coming area bands. Though the event was paused this year so they can focus on the new album and book, the couple plan to bring it back in 2027.

“It was like a statement in that way of like f— these giant prices, VIP experiences and all of that stuff,” Kugel says. “It’s the anti-music festival and a celebration of community.”

Keeping with that spirit, and drawing from the experiences of their two-decade careers, last month the pair released a book titled “How to Be Self-Reliant in the Music Business.” The genesis of this self-published guidebook occurred when the pair realized they were not receiving a portion of a royalty stream they were owed. They knew that if they were in the dark on the issues they thought they knew, others likely were as well.

“We decided to turn it into a book because we realized there’s so much stuff that few artists know about on their own,” Montoya says. “I want people to understand the scope of what they’re actually getting into, and the reality of their situations.”

“It’s a very thorough overview,” Kugel adds.

The book includes information beyond what one would find in Donald S. Passman’s longstanding industry bible “All You Need to Know About the Music Business.” With assistance from a lawyer friend and a CPA family member, the pair addresses topics ranging from backstage etiquette to managing social media to dealing with record labels and publishing companies. They hope that it will provide a blueprint for bands old and new to better navigate music’s notoriously choppy waters. Their accessible, snack-size chapters move fluidly as they explain the realities artists face in 2026.

Battling through the disappointment of the first part of the decade allowed Kugel and Montoya to find their creative way. Armed with this infusion of activity across various disciplines, the couple is inspired to continue to shake their way out of the past. Though focused on their impending U.S. and European tour, the duo promise that the next Soft Palms album won’t take as long and are mulling over their next music-industry book project. For now.

“It’s a lot to keep up with all of these projects,” Montoya says. “We work all day, every day. And it’s been cool to see signs that it’s paying off.”

JAMES Bourne is made of sterner stuff. The Busted rocker stepped back from the public eye in September after falling ill and ten weeks ago told his fans was awaiting major surgery to extend his life.

And now, James tells me he’s used his time to finish a project which has been 13 years in the offing – and on July 1 will release new album Murder At The Gates, which he created for a brand new musical with legendary American playwright Steven Sater.

“I didn’t want my health to stop me from promoting this project because I’ve put 13 years of my life into it,” James tells me from his home in the UK.

“There was a fear of not finishing it. But I knew I had to finish it and give this to the people. “There’s like a few people that have been waiting for it. There are hardcore fans who show to up for everything – and I have been speaking about this for a long time.

“It feels so good to now have this as a finished product. And it’s the first album I’ve ever produced. So I’m proud of it.”

James, who has racked up eight top ten singles including four No1s with Busted, pulled out of the McFly V Busted tour last September citing his health.

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But rather than wallowing, James threw himself into the 13-track album – which features big name screen stars, including Stranger Things actor Gaten Matarazzo, on vocals.

“This album definitely has a different feeling to all the others,” James explains.

“With everything going on with my health, I have been given the gift of time.

“I was given a lot of time back when I wasn’t touring. It was like turning a negative into a positive. It was such a shame to have to drop out from the tour, because I love touring so much.

“But  you have to turn negative into positive. They’re the conversations I’ve had with my closest friends.

“I wanted to take the time I’d been given and deliver this album.”

James’s last musical, Loserville, earned an Olivier nomination back in 2013 and when he was tapped up by Steven, who earned a Grammy and a Tony award for his cult-hit musical Spring Awakening, he jumped at the chance to get involved.

“Musicals are a very difficult thing to do well and to do properly and to develop properly,” James explains.

“And this one’s been developed on the highest level with the most talented people.

“Steven was looking for a composer and that is when Loserville was in the West End.

“He invited me to his place and I knew immediately how I would do it.

“I’d never done a project where someone else did the words because he’s a lyricist.

“But as I was reading the lyrics, I could hear the music. And we partnered on the project.

“To work on this with someone on Steven’s level has been a dream.”

Of the score he’s created, James adds: “I knew I wanted it to be a very solid piano vocal score to begin with and I knew I wanted it to be orchestral but with a rock band at the heart of it.

“But I don’t think it is a rock musical in the way that rock musicals are presented.

“Rock musicals like We Will Rock You or Rock of Ages tend to veer more towards classic rock and this isn’t what Murder At The Gates is.

“I think a big part of what sold Steven’s show Spring Awakening so well was how contemporary the score was.

“The music is very customised. This is tailormade for Steven’s words and the world that he imagined and the characters that he imagined

“The score had to represent that world, you know.”

James adds: “We wrote about 50 songs for the show and whittled it down to 13.

“Some are old, some have been rewritten, some are completely new.

“It’s a long process that you can’t complete unless there’s a lot of passion involved.

“With songwriting in the pop world, you can blag it. Go into the room with a producer you’ve never met before and come out with something amazing.

“But if you don’t get anything great, you’ve not lost much. With a project like this, it’s a life commitment.”

James admits all of his spare time since 2013 has been dedicated to this project, with him missing dates on the McBusted tours with One Direction in 2014 and 2015 to get his teeth into it.

After stepping back from their tour last September, James was able to focus fully on getting the project finished – and spent time flying from his home in the US to New York to record the tracks.

“We’ve got amazing people like Gaten on board, he was definitely one of the top people on our list,” James explains.

“It was a total cherry picking situation. Steven has so much recognition from Spring Awakening – he’s like a rock star in his own right. He is a genius.

“All of the people who sang on it were busy, many of them were on Broadway so I would fly to New York for each vocal.”

And like all the best projects, James had kept his cards close to his chest – with not even his Busted bandmates Matt Willis and Charlie Simpson hearing the finished product.

“They might have heard something a very long time ago when we were doing promo for one of our tours,” James explains. “But apart from that, I haven’t played it for anyone.

“Even the actors who have done workshops with us over the past decade haven’t heard it.”

Once the record is released, Steven will get to work with James in getting the production green lit.

And James admits he is excited to see what comes of the project.

“We don’t have an opening night yet for the show but we’ve got the album and we’re saying, ‘This is a great representative of what the show is,’”James explains.

“There are still some bonus tracks to come later on. I’m just incredibly proud of it.

“When you do these projects, you strive to create things that can be timeless in a way.

“Classic musicals go on for years and years, and we’ve definitely been really striving to create something amazing.

“When I make albums with Busted, you’re making music for yourself to perform.

“With a project like this, you’re giving something to the community. This show is original, memorable and I don’t think there’s another show like it.

“I just can’t wait for people to hear it, then see it.”

Somaliland’s President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi is on a ‘historic’ tour of Israel, where he’s opened an embassy and visited the Knesset. The landmark trip comes months after Israel became the first country to recognise Somaliland as an independent nation.