Notizie

Gold Derby's top news stories for April 4, 2025.

The White Lotus' record-breaking ratings

According to HBO, 6.2 million viewers tuned in for Sunday's Season 3 finale of The White Lotus eager to discover the fate of the vacationers in Thailand. This marked the third consecutive week of record-breaking viewership for Mike White's Emmy-winning series. The finale performed 51 percent higher than the Season 2 finale. Given the show's success, it's no surprise the network has already announced plans for another season.

Robert De Niro to be honored at Cannes

Robert De Niro will receive an honorary Palme d’Or for lifetime achievement at the opening ceremony of the 78th Cannes Film Festival on May 13. The following day, the acclaimed actor will take part in a masterclass on the stage of the Debussy Theater. De Niro has a long relationship with the festival. In 2011, he presided over the jury and most recently attended the...

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Clem Burke, the drummer best known for his work with the seminal rock band Blondie, has passed away.

He was 70 years old.

News of Burke’s passing comes to us courtesy of a statement from the band.

Musician Clem Burke attends “Blondie Panel at SXSW” on March 12, 2014 in Austin, Texas, for the documentary Blondie’s New York, premiering on Smithsonian Channel. (Photo by Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images for Smithsonian) Clem Burke’s cause of death revealed

“It is with profound sadness that we relay news of the passing of our beloved friend and bandmate Clem Burke following a private battle with cancer,” reps for Blondie wrote.

“Clem was not just a drummer; he was the heartbeat of Blondie. His talent, energy, and passion for music were unmatched, and his contributions to our sound and success are immeasurable,” the statement continued.

“Beyond his musicianship, Clem was a source...

Clem Burke, the longtime drummer for Blondie who played a key role in the New Wave movement and appeared on albums by Pete Townshend, Iggy Pop, and Bob Dylan, died Sunday at the age of 70.

“It is with profound sadness that we relay news of the passing of our beloved friend and bandmate Clem Burke following a private battle with cancer,” the band wrote in a statement. “Clem was not just a drummer; he was the heartbeat of Blondie. His talent, energy, and passion for music were unmatched, and his...

As Robert Kirkman's animated superhero series "Invincible" continues to serve up new twists and turns in its third season, viewers may find themselves wondering what the heck is the deal with Viltrumites and their mustaches. All of these men are sporting some serious facial growth above their upper lip like they're Burt Reynolds smuggling a truckload of Coors from Texarkana to Atlanta. It's a bold bit of grooming that's too uniform to be a mistake. Meanwhile, Mark Grayson (voiced by Steven Yeun), aka the half-human, half-Viltrumite hero Invincible, is 'stache free. Clearly, something is up.

There is, unsurprisingly, a perfectly good explanation for the Viltrumites' grooming preferences, as well as Mark's decision to go without one (though you could be excused for assuming the young man is as yet incapable of looking like 1980s New York Yankees great Don Mattingly). The short answer is that it all has to...

Bob Geldof’s first major charity involvement took place in September 1981, when he performed as a solo artist for Amnesty International's The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball.

Co-founded Band Aid in 1984 to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia.

Organised Live Aid in 1985, also to raise funds for famine relief.

Charities & foundations supported

Bob Geldof has supported the following charities:

21st Century Leaders46664Aegis TrustAmnesty InternationalBottletopCinema For PeaceElton John AIDS FoundationEstamosFree the wildLive 8Make Poverty HistoryMo Farah FoundationONE CampaignPopulation Services InternationalRADDRaisa Gorbachev FoundationUnited Nations Development ProgrammeWar ChildWhatever It TakesWillow Foundation Read more about Bob Geldof's charity work and events. Related articles Bob Geldof Nominated For Peace PrizePeace Prize NomineesReturn of the Secret Policeman's BallBono and Heather Mills Lending Their Celebrity to Raise Awareness of Genocide in DarfurGorbachev Cancer Fundraiser Draws Stars

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Copyright © 2025 Look To The Stars. This article...

Wham!’s festive song Last Christmas never got to number one in the year of its release 1984, but it has scored a historical first, becoming the first track to occupy the festive chart’s top slot for a second consecutive year.

40 years after its debut, the song penned by George Michael beat off competition by Mariah Carey, Gracie Abrams, Tom Grennan and Ariana Grande to top the chart. This follows its success in reaching the same position last year, following a campaign by Wham! fans.

Michael’s bandmate Andrew Ridgeley told the BBC of his pleasure that his late friend’s talent had been recognised: “He would have been utterly delighted [that] his fabulous Christmas composition has become such a classic, almost as much a part of Christmas as mince pies, turkey and pigs in blankets.

“It’s testament to a really wonderful Christmas song that in a lot of people...

Netflix and Roku have taken U.S. rights on the BBC and Blink Films’ Wham! doc, which airs tomorrow.

Wham!: Last Christmas Unwrapped has been acquired from Sony Pictures Entertainment by Netflix and Roku for audiences in the U.S., Sbs for Australia and TV New Zealand.

The doc tells the story of how George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s beloved ’80s duo turned one song into a cultural phenomenon. It launches tomorrow on the BBC and the following day in the U.S. We unveiled trailer late last week, which can be seen below.

Directed by BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated Nigel Cole, the show includes an exclusive broadcast of Michael performing “Last Christmas” at Wembley Arena in December 2006 along with never before seen outtakes from the original 35mm music video footage. It will also reunite some of the group of friends from the original music video,...

Drummer Phil Collins is the subject of Drummer First, a documentary premiering on YouTube next week.

Despite his status as one of the best selling music artists in the world, Phil Collins is, first and formost, a drummer. He says as much in new documentary Drummer First, which premieres on the Drumeo YouTube channel next week.

Musicians appearing in the documentary include Nic Collins, Chad Smith, Mike Portnoy, Leland Sklar, Tommy Aldridge, Eloy Casagrande, Billy Cobham, Matt Cameron, Daryl Stuermer, Luis Conte, Dom Famularo, Simon Phillips, Todd Sucherman, Jonathan Moffett, Jordan Rudess, Brann Dailor, Liberty DeVitto and Chad Wackerman.

Drumeo has carved out a bit of a niche among drummers and aspiring musicians, producing videos where drummers from famous bands react, play along to or compose their own original drum parts for various songs. Michael Jackson’s drummer Jonathan ‘Sugarfoot’ Moffett playing along with metronomic precision to Smooth Criminal, and...

Bob Geldof has defended his Band Aid charity single against criticism, including Ed Sheeran’s complaint last week that he would not have added his vocals to a new mix had he been asked.

This Monday sees the 40th anniversary of the day a roll-call of the UK’s biggest pop stars (and a few overseas guests) came together to record Do They Know It’s Christmas? In response to a BBC news report about the famine in Ethiopia. The record went on to raise £8million ($10million) and its founder Geldof went on to create the Band Aid Charitable Trust, which has raised more than £140million ($175million) to date.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary, a re-mix of the single will be released tomorrow, incorporating different voices from later versions, including that of Sheeran who sang on the 2014 release, alongside other stars including One Direction and Rita Ora. However, this week...

Ed Sheeran has said Band Aid didn’t ask permission to reuse his vocals on the upcoming 40th anniversary version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”

In a post on his Instagram Story, Sheeran further explained that he would have “respectfully declined” a request to include his vocals from the 2014 version after learning more about the negative stereotypes that can be furthered by such initiatives.

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“My approval wasn’t sought on this new Band Aid 40 release and had I had the choice I would have respectfully declined the use of my vocals,” Sheeran wrote. “A decade on and my understanding of the narrative associated with this has changed, eloquently explained by @fuseodg. This is just my personal stance, I’m hoping it’s a forward looking one. Love to all x”

Sheeran referenced a post from Ghanaian-English singer and rapper Fuse Odg, in which...

A decade ago, Ed Sheeran joined the British and Irish supergroup Band Aid to cover the charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” The 2014 iteration of the song — which originally premiered in 1989 and was updated in 2004 — also featured One Direction and Sam Smith, among others. Last week, these same names appeared when Band Aid announced the lineup for the 2024 version. But now, Sheeran claims he was never contacted to extend permission to use his vocals on the recording — and even if he had been, he would have said no.

London got a taste of The Boss on Friday evening.

Bruce Springsteen took to a smaller stage than he is used to in the British capital on Friday evening, discussing the concert documentary Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band during an event organized by Disney+, which will premiere the film with Hulu on Oct. 25.

Following a screening of the doc, a Q&a that featured The Boss, who was welcomed with a standing ovation, long-time friend and band member Stevie Van Zandt and director Thom Zimny, as well as producer and Springsteen manager Jon Landau, provided additional insight. The session was moderated by Scottish radio DJ and TV host Edith Bowman.

“If you get the art right, the music right and the band right, you go out and play every night like it’s your last night on Earth,” Springsteen said about the longevity of the band.

The 2024 Netflix music documentary The Greatest Night in Pop features behind-the-scenes footage and details of the historic "We Are The World" song's creation. Released back in 1985, "We Are The World" brought together the biggest names in the music industry from all types of genres, including pop, country, folk, rock, and more. The song was assembled by producers Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian and was originated by musician and activist Harry Belafonte and manager Ken Kragen.

The Greatest Night in Pop features new present-day interviews from Lionel Richie, who was a songwriter on "We Are The World" along with pop star Michael Jackson. Richie and Jackson had become acquaintances while their immensely successful music careers were just taking off as the lead singers of The Commodores and The Jackson Five, respectively. "We Are The World" remains to be one of the best-selling songs of all time, selling over 20 million physical copies during the mid-1980s.

Exclusive: Irish rock knight Bob Geldof and the producers of Just For One Day, the musical about the Live Aid rock concerts in London and Philadelphia on July 13, 1985, will transfer the show, which world-premiered at London’s Old Vic Theatre last January, into the West End in 2025 to mark the seminal event’s 40th anniversary.

The production, directed by Luke Sheppard and with a book by John O’Farrell, weaves together the Live Aid story from the perspective of those who worked behind the scenes to put it on, namely Geldof and Scottish musician Midge Ure. Both co-founded The Band Aid Charitable Trust.

The trust has funneled its funds into helping to alleviate starvation and poverty in Africa. It will receive 10% of every Just For One Day ticket sold, plus, after recoupment, some 50% of the show’s profits.

The starry names who performed that summer day on both sides of the Atlantic included Mick Jagger,...

Through gathering the voices of the people, Live 8 has managed to get promises from world leaders concerning increased financial aid, debt cancellation for 18 countries, and access to AIDS drugs and care for AIDS orphans.

Celebrity supporters

Live 8 has 28 known supporters, including Sting, Annie Lennox, and Bono

Areas of work ChildrenPovertyAdoption, Fostering, OrphansAIDS & HIV Read more about Live 8's work and celebrity supporters. Related articles Peace Prize NomineesPhoto Auction For Third World ReliefSir Bob Geldof Honored For Music And Humanitarian WorkBand Aid Founder Awarded Honorary DegreeBob Geldof Explains His Turning Points

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Los Angeles’ Frieze week got off to a hot start in a fairly chill environment: a roller rink.

“I’m so glad Jimmy finally found a place to entertain in!” cracked James Corden, regarding the estate of super-producer/entrepreneur Jimmy Iovine. The former Late Late Show host played emcee to a crowd that included a rare fusion of music and art royalty: Ed Ruscha, Brian Grazer, Katie Couric, Joel Madden, Benny Blanco, Bob Geldof and sports agent Rich Paul, aka Adele’s partner.

All convened at the sprawling Bel Air manse of Iovine for an art auction, co-hosted by Dr. Dre, to raise funds for a revolutionary education program. In 2013, Iovine and Dre (born Andre Young) opened the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy, a novel university program fusing art, tech and business. In 2022, the duo went a step further, opening their own magnet high school in Leimert Park: the Iovine and Young Center.

Exclusive: UK production and distribution outfit Swipe Films has recently completed post-production on under-the-radar feature documentary Quintessentially Irish, which it has sold globally to Vision Films (ex UK & Ire).

The film celebrates what it is to be Irish with celebrities and politicians offering their take on the Emerald Isle. It explores some of Ireland’s most beautiful sights and famous exports, including the origins of whiskey (which the Scottish also lay claim to), Guinness, horseracing, Gaelic sports and Ireland’s oldest inhabited castle at Dunsany.

Interviewees include Navan-born Pierce Brosnan, Bob Geldof, Andrew Scott, Sharon Horgan, Oscar winner Jeremy Irons, and Prince Albert II of Monaco, discussing the Irish heritage of his mother, the Oscar winning actress Grace Kelly.

Rory Guinness — the great-great-great grandson of Guinness founder Arthur Guinness, former Man Utd owner John Magnier, Grand National-winning jockey Rachael Blackmore, Celebrity Masterchef winner Riyadh Khalaf, and Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt are also interviewed.

Hillary Clinton and Sharon Stone shared the stage at the annual Cinema for Peace funder raiser in Berlin on Monday night with the latter presenting the former U.S. secretary of state with the Ngo’s Cinema for Peace Award.

Stone described Clinton as an inspirational figure in her life: “The things you’ve said have changed my life, changed the direction and changed the course of the things I’ve chosen to do.”

Clinton gently ribbed Stone about her gala gown, a tie at the front robe covered in mauve spots.

“To my friend Sharon Stone who can look amazingly beautiful in anything. When she walked in, I was like, ‘Wow, who besides Sharon Stone could wear a gigantic bath robe and look stunning… you are one of a kind my friend, one of kind,” she said.

Further honorees included Pope Francis, who was seen receiving the award on taped recording,...

Exclusive: Dominic Sessa, the 21-year-old rising star, didn’t win a Supporting Actor BAFTA Award Sunday night — that went to Oppenheimer’s Robert Downey Jr. — but he did pick up his first post-The Holdovers role that will see him starring with Rose Byrne in director Stephanie Laing’s drama Tow.

This news was confirmed by several sources over the BAFTA Awards weekend where your intrepid columnist attended more soirées than is healthy. The trick though is to go teetotal and guzzle down fruit juice: cranberry with a tear-drop of orange juice is the mocktail du jour!

My Deadline colleague, international editor Andreas Wiseman, revealed last week that Byrne is expected to star in the true-story Tow.

Bryne will portray Amanda Ogle, a homeless woman who slept in her 1991 Toyota Camry, who entered into a 369-day legal battle against a towing company that had impounded her car after it had been stolen.

The producers and key creatives behind the Live Aid musical Just for One Day, which officially opened Tuesday night at the Old Vic, have banded together to ensure that 10 percent of every ticket sold goes to the Band Aid Charitable Trust established by Bob Geldof and others to help relieve the hunger and poverty in Ethiopia.

The trust also can expect more funds pouring into its coffers if and when the show transfers from the Old Vic into the West End — and possibly to Broadway, where its capitalization will be many times more than the approximately £6 million ($7.6 million) it cost to develop and stage in London.

The Old Vic (Baz Bamigboye/Deadline)

The former Boomtown Rats frontman who spearheaded the landmark Live Aid mega rock concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London and at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia on July 13, 1985, featuring the biggest rock acts of the time — David Bowie,...

Pope Francis, Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Un chief Ban Ki-Moon will be honored at the upcoming Cinema for Peace gala in Berlin on February 19.

The long-running gala run by the Cinema for Peace Foundation will be accompanied by the inaugural World Forum on the Future Of Democracy, Tech and Humankind.

The latter event will run from February 18 to 19 at the Allianz Forum next to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin with the aim of promoting the renewal of democracy and freedom at a time when both are under threat.

The Cinema for Peace Foundation was created in 2008 as an international non-profit organization with the goal to foster change through film. Over the years it has worked with a host of stars including Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney.

Clinton and Ban will attend the February 19 gala in person while Pope Francis will be shown receiving his award in a recorded video.

When Quincy Jones posted a sign above the entrance to Am Studios in Los Angeles that read “Check Your Ego at the Door,” the night the producer and a group of 40 or so of the biggest singers of the ‘80s recorded the charity anthem “We are the World.”

It wasn’t exactly foolproof.

“The egos were still there; let’s not pretend they weren’t there,” says Kenny Loggins in the documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, now streaming on Netflix.

The Bao Nguyen film, which made its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, tells the story of how the single that raised more than $80 million ($214 million today) for humanitarian aid in Africa and the United States came to be, with commentary from entertainers such as Loggins, Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, Sheila E., Huey Lewis, and the key orchestrator who co-wrote the song with Michael Jackson and kept the...

"We Are The World" and "Do They Know It's Christmas" were both charity songs in the 1980s that raised millions of dollars for important causes. The supergroup USA For Africa, which recorded "We Are The World," included top artists of the era and raised over $63 million. "Do They Know It's Christmas" by Band Aid raised £8 million for Ethiopia and led to the creation of the benefit concert Live Aid, which raised over $140 million.

Netflix’s documentary The Greatest Night In Pop tells the origin of the song “We Are The World” and the process of recording, and the inspiration for it was Band Aid’s 1984 song “Do They Know It’s Christmas”. Back in the 1980s, various musicians from different backgrounds, bands, and with different styles joined forces for different charity events and singles, the most notable ones being “Do They Know It’s Christmas” and “We Are The World...

Netflix's documentary reveals that Prince was originally supposed to sing an important section of "We Are the World." Contradictory reasons for Prince's absence from the recording include not wanting to work with other stars and a feud with Michael Jackson. Despite not showing up for the recording, Prince still donated a song to the "We Are the World" album.

Netflix’s new documentary about the “We Are the World” recording, titled The Greatest Night in Pop, has a surprising revelation about which part of the song was supposed to be sung by Prince. The Greatest Night in Pop tells the story of the fateful January night in 1985 when the world’s biggest pop stars assembled to record “We Are the World,” a charity single created to donate funds for African famine relief. It was intended as an American version of the UK-based Band Aid track “Do They Know It’s Christmas?...

Plot: In late 1984, inspired by the success of Band-Aid in the UK, legendary producer Quincy Jones decides to make a charity single including all of the biggest pop stars in the country. Due to the complicated schedules of all involved, they only have one evening to complete what will become one of the best-selling singles of all time, “We Are the World.”

Review: If you’ve seen the music video for “We Are the World,” you’ll know that pretty much every pop-rock icon of the first half of the eighties was there for its recording. In addition to co-writers Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie, there was Huey Lewis, Hall & Oates, Diana Ross, Kenny Loggins, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Kenny Rogers, Paul Simon, Steve Perry and so many more. Even Dan Aykroyd showed up singing in the chorus.

The song was a charity single...

At one point as the supergroup dubbed “USA for Africa” was assembling on January 28, 1985, at A&M Recording Studios in Hollywood, Paul Simon reportedly joked, “If a bomb lands on this place, John Denver’s back on top.” Such was the magnitude of mid-‘80s music luminaries on hand, everyone from Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick and Tina Turner through Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel and beyond. Unless you’ve spent your whole life under a rock, sometime or other, the resulting charity single, “We Are the World,” has likely gotten stuck in your head. The song achieved instant global saturation, selling out the initial run of a million copies in the first weekend of its release.

Of course, this is pre-downloads, so we’re talking actual vinyl sales, and it’s audiences with fond recollections of those analog days and the music stars who dominated the charts during the...

“I didn’t really know much about the making of the song,” admits The Greatest Night in Pop director Bao Nguyen of 1985’s star-studded Ethiopian famine relief hit “We Are the World.” “You just make these assumptions about how things are made because it just happens. But when you think now of 46 great artists getting together to make that, it would be really impossible for that to happen now.”

Whether or not the superstars of 2024 could or would come together like the hit makers of the Reagan Era did in America and the UK almost 40 years ago is debatable. What is a fact is that Nguyen’s latest documentary is debuting today at the Sundance Film Festival just a few days short of when U.S.A. for Africa recorded the Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson penned tune in a studio in Los Angeles. It is also a fact that, after a total of four Sundance screenings,...

As a global pop culture event, it’s hard to match the release of “We Are the World,” the charity single that sold more than 20 million copies in 1985 and united 46 musical stars as enormous and disparate as Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Diana Ross at an all-night secret recording session. The story of that night — the scrambling, the egos, the moments of creative kismet — is now told in Bao Nguyen’s documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, which will premiere Jan. 19 at Sundance before streaming on Netflix beginning Jan. 29.

“When I heard how they assembled the team, to me it was almost like a heist film,” says Nguyen, who directed the 2020 Bruce Lee documentary Be Water. “You have Quincy Jones as the Danny Ocean of the whole effort. And they’re assembling [the team] — who’s the best rock star, who’s the best legend? There’s a bit of...

The Pogues are reissuing their drunk tank Christmas classic, “Fairytale of New York,” on seven-inch vinyl with proceeds benefiting a charity long supported by late frontman Shane MacGowan.

The new seven-inch is available to pre-order now, and £6 (about $7.50) from each sale will be donated to the Dublin Simon Community, which works to end and prevent homelessness. MacGowan frequently performed at the Dublin Simon Community’s annual Christmas Eve Busk — and in fact his last public performance before his death occurred at the 2021 event.

“Music is an emotional and visceral gift...

Thousands of mourners converged on St. Mary of the Rosary Church in Nenagh, Ireland, on Friday to pay their respects to the late Pogues frontman, Shane MacGowan. MacGowan died of complications from pneumonia on Nov. 30.

Those in attendance included Nick Cave, Johnny Depp, Bob Geldof, and Ireland’s President, Michael D. Higgins, according to Sky News. MacGowan’s sister, Siobhan MacGowan, told the congregation that her brother’s veins had run “with Irish blood.”

Cave performed the Pogues song “A Rainy Night in Soho” at the service. His face looked emotional,...

With enough passion and grit, powerful, personal stories made one-man-band style can stand up against the best work of top Hollywood talent with far greater budgets.

Warwick Thornton’s “The New Boy,” inspired by his own experiences of being packed off to a Christian boarding school in Australia as a youngster, was in development for 18 years, finally coming together when Cate Blanchett read the script and suggested taking it on through her company Dirty Films. After working with him to adapt the lead role into the character of a nun who fills in for a priest whose death has been kept secret, the project began to come together, with newcomer actor Aswan Reid as the titular boy who begins to work wonders.

It just won the top Camerimage Film Festival prize, the Golden Frog, beating out work by some of Hollywood’s most lauded directors and cinematographers.

Thornton’s background...

Cinematographer and director Warwick Thornton scored top honors Saturday at the Camerimage cinematography film festival for his magical tale of an aboriginal youth, “The New Boy,” which film jurors called a distinctive “portrait of an extinguished spirituality.”

Thornton, in accepting the Golden Frog, said he had been so moved by the cinematography work onscreen at the fest, a top global event for directors of photography, he’d been “tearing for a week.”

Ed Lachman, director of photography for Pablo Larrain’s horror fantasy “El Conde,” inspired by the life of Chilean tyrant Augusto Pinochet, won the Silver Frog for what the jury called “cinematic high poetry,” while the Bronze Frog and Audience Award went to cinematographer Robbie Ryan for his Gothic dream-like imagery in Emma Stone-starrer “Poor Things,” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.

Actor Peter Dinklage, honored with a festival director’s prize, expressed his gratitude for the Frog statuette,...

Rocker and activist Bob Geldof made an appearance at this week’s EnergaCamerimage cinematography film festival, where he reflected on his career and revealed that an Imax film about Live Aid, the 1985 benefit concert that he organized, may be on the way to theaters.

He also didn’t mince words when he talked about his dislike for 1982 musical film Pink Floyd-The Wall, a screening of which he helped to introduce at Camerimage in Torún, Poland, with his friend, cinematographer and Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Peter Biziou. “I don’t like the film. I think I’m really bad. I’m not an actor, and I think it’s like an extended video,” he freely admitted of the Alan Parker film in which he starred. “I don’t think it’s a film, and I think that’s the nature of the exercise. It’s an album by Pink Floyd. I don’t like the record.

Torun, Poland, is a quiet hamlet nearly three hours from Warsaw, and one of the hallmarks of the yearly Camerimage Film Festival—celebrating the best and brightest in the world of cinematography—is how tranquil and non-dramatic it is.

Until this year, that is.

After a not-having-it-at-all “Ferrari” star Adam Driver’s slyly profane rejection of a dopey audience query got the internet all hot and bothered, Boomtown Rats frontman and Live Aid mastermind basically Bob Geldof said “I can top that!” with a much more profane, much more indicting and all-around hilarious roasting of not only himself, but the film he was there to support: Alan Parker’s visually innovative 1982 rock opera “Pink Floyd the Wall,” one of several retrospective screenings celebrating the career of Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Peter Biziou, an Oscar-winning director of photography.

Of his performance as Pink in the fever-dream film based on Pink Floyd’s legendary 1979 album,...

Classic rocker Bob Geldof is the latest high-profile name to pass through what is turning out to be a bustling and A-list edition of Poland’s EnergaCamerimage Film Festival, where he is presenting a screening of his 1982 feature Pink Floyd – The Wall.

Geldof plays the lead in the music drama, and he’s set to introduce the pic here at Camerimage with the film’s DoP Peter Biziou, who is the recipient of the festival’s lifetime achievement award.

When quizzed by journalists during a press Q&a whether he looked back on the feature, directed by Alan Parker, as a defining moment of his artistic career, Geldof’s response was definitive: “No, I don’t like the film. I think I’m really bad.”

“I’ve seen the movie twice, and I was embarrassed,” Geldof continued, adding that he could only finish working on the film because Biziou made it “very easy.

London – A psychedelic eye mosaic commissioned by John Lennon for the swimming pool at his Kenwood home in Surrey in 1965 leads Bonhams’ Rock, Pop & Film sale on Wednesday 29 November at Knightsbridge, London.

Claire Tole-Moir, Bonhams Head of Popular Culture in London, commented: “This monumental mosaic, commissioned by John Lennon is a striking example of the Beatle’s artistic vision and influences. Lennon’s Kenwood home in the English countryside was a place of respite from all the public attention he experienced during the height of The Beatles’ popularity. It’s said Lennon would spend idle hours near the swimming pool and that the mosaic could even be seen from his favoured ‘sunroom’ at the top of the house. With Kenwood still under private ownership, it is very rare to see anything from when John Lennon lived there, making the ‘Psychedelic Eye’ mosaic an incredibly important artefact of Beatles history.”

Consisting of approximately 17,000 tiles,...

There are few people in the music industry who have the presence of Bono. The Irish frontman of U2 knows no limitations when it comes to fighting poverty and hunger, and is constantly in direct contact with world leaders and policy makers in his quest to make the world a better place.

Bono was inspired to get involved in charity work after seeing The Secret Policeman’s Ball in 1979. In 1986 he helped organize Amnesty International's Conspiracy Of Hope tour alongside Sting, who was one of the Secret Policeman’s Ball performers seen by Bono, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, and Bryan Adams. He also got involved in the Band Aid and Live Aid projects which were organized by Bob Geldof – another Secret Policeman’s Ball performer, and later helped Geldof organize the 2005 Live 8 project.

His first contact with charitable causes was in 1986, prior to the Conspiracy of Hope tour, when...

The landmark 1985 charity concert, Live Aid, has been turned into a stage musical. Titled Just for One Day, the show will feature songs by Queen, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and more, and is set to premiere next year at the Old Vic in London.

In a new interview, the original Live Aid’s organizer, Bob Geldof, explained that the show is “based on actual testimony from the day,” and will give a stage to “real people telling their story.” To that end, it won’t be your run-of-the-mill jukebox romp, but rather, a fresh narrative meant to inspire a new generation of rock music lovers.

Among the other artists whose songs are included are: David Bowie, The Who, U2, The Police, The Pretenders, The Cars, Status Quo, Paul Weller, Sade, The Boomtown Rats, Bryan Adams, Diana Ross, and Ultravox.

“This isn’t a tribute thing,” Geldof told the BBC.

Sir Bob Geldof is returning to his best-known project to develop a stage musical based on his 1985 Live Aid concert.

Featuring some of the era’s biggest names in music — ranging from Mick Jagger to David Bowie to to Tina Turner to Bob Dylan to still-legendary performance by Freddie Mercury and Queen — Live Aid raised millions of dollars to fight famine in Africa.

Now, Deadline is reporting that Geldof has teamed with Luke Sheppard (“& Juliet”) for “Just For One Day”, a new musical based on that iconic concert, set to premiere at London’s Old Vic Theatre in early 2024.

Read More: Queen Recreate 1985 Live Aid Performance For Fire Fight Australia

The musical will dramatize the events behind the scenes of the show — which was actually two concerts, one in London’s Wembley Arena and another in JFK Stadium in Philadelphia — and will feature many of the musical numbers famously performed at Live Aid.

Exclusive: Rock icon Bob Geldof is collaborating on a stage musical about the global phenomenon that was Live Aid. The show, called Just For One Day, devised and directed by Luke Sheppard (& Juliet), will have its world premiere at the Old Vic Theatre in London early next year.

Live Aid was a concert like no other, organized by Geldof and fellow rock ‘n’ roller Midge Ure in July 1985 to raise funds and awareness for the famine crisis then taking place in Ethiopia.

Just For One Day will run at the Old Vic from January 26-March 30.

The UK leg of Live Aid kicked off at Wembley Stadium where the likes of Queen with frontman Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Elton John, George Michael, Sting, Sade, The Who, Paul McCartney, U2, Geldof’s the Boomtown Rats, Ure, Paul Weller and tons of others rocked and raved in the presence of thousands of spectators — including Charles and Diana,...

Born in New Zealand, Richard Curtis is the director and/or writer of films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually, as well as the hit sitcoms Blackadder and Mr. Bean.

He is a founder of both Comic Relief and Make Poverty History and organised the Live 8 concerts with Bob Geldof to publicise poverty, particularly in Africa, and pressure G8 leaders to adopt his proposals for ending it.

Charities & foundations supported

Richard Curtis has supported the following charities:

Boys & Girls Clubs of Americacharity:waterComic ReliefGlobal GoalsLive 8Make Poverty HistoryMo Farah FoundationUNICEFUnited Nations Development Programme Read more about Richard Curtis's charity work and events. Related articles The Spy Who Loved Me For CharityRed Nose Day TV Special Breaks RecordsEddie Izzard Completes 43 Marathons For CharityBritish Celebrity Show Benefits Malaria No MoreBritish Stars Back Robin Hood Tax For Charity

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Sinéad O’Connor’s family have released a public statement a month after her tragic death at age 56.

The “Nothing Compares 2 U” singer passed away on July 26 and her children Jake, Roisin and Yeshua, and her family have now thanked people for their support in an emotional notice in The Irish Times.

The statement read, “The children of Sinéad together with Sinéad’s extended family wish to thank the countless kind people who sympathised and offered condolences on Sinéad’s recent passing.

“Their helpful support for the family is much appreciated.”

Read More: Bob Geldof Recalls Final Texts From Sinéad O’Connor Both ‘Full Of Desperation’ And ‘Ecstatically Happy’ Before Her Death

The family thanked Irish President Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina and Prime Minister Leo Varadkar for attending the funeral service on August 8.

They also gave a special mention to Dingle Druid Juli Ní Mhaoileóin, who performed the...

On Tuesday, as the funeral car drove past her old residence in Bray, Country Wicklow, hundreds gathered in the streets of Ireland to bid an emotional goodbye to the late Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor.

Covered in pink, white and blue flowers, the singer’s coffin lay in the cortege that also displayed a picture of hers through the back window. Her music played from a van draped in pride flags. Amidst cheers, claps and a shower of flowers, the public funeral procession saw fans mourn the death of their beloved singer.

Now, the late singer’s final song is set to be released – her rendition of the time-travel series Outlander‘s theme song, “The Skye Boat Song.” The song was updated for each season and the producers asked O’Connor to create her own version. O’Connor said that she really related to the lead character, Clare, who traveled back in time to 18th-century Scotland.

Following Sinéad O’Connor’s death, her 2021 memoir Rememberings has soared to the top of the bestseller lists.

Last Wednesday, the beloved pop star was found “unresponsive” at her London home. She was 56.

In Rememberings, O’Connor recounted the story of her controversial and celebrated career from her point of view. The Irish singer rose to fame in the late 1980s and ’90s with several gold records, and jumped to stardom after covering Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” — perhaps her best known hit single.

Read More: Bob Geldof Recalls Final Texts From Sinéad O’Connor Both ‘Full Of Desperation’ And ‘Ecstatically Happy’ Before Her Death

In 1992, the musician’s career quickly fell apart after she protested on “Saturday Night Live”, in which she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II while staring directly into a camera.

However, O’Connor felt otherwise.

“I feel that having a No. 1 record derailed my career,...

During a concert, Irish singer-songwriter and political activist Bob Geldof paid tribute to Sinead O’Connor, who died Wednesday, July 26, at the age of 56.

Geldof said he was “very good friends” with O’Connor and was her neighbor when they were growing up. He told the audience that she often came to see his band, the Boomtown Rats, as a teenager.

As a photo of O’Connor was projected on a screen, Geldof and his band dedicated two songs to her: “Dave,” which is about carrying on when faced with tragedy, and “Mary of the Fourth Form,” which he said was O’Connor’s favorite song of theirs.

At the concert, he mentioned that they were “talking right up to a couple of weeks ago.” “Some of the texts were laden with desperation and despair and sorrow and some were ecstatically happy,” he continued. “She was like that.”

He also recalled...

Bob Geldof is sharing his memories of his friend, Sinéad O’Connor.

At the Cavan Calling festival in Ireland over the weekend, the musician and activist spoke from the heart about the death of the iconic Irish singer last week, at age 56.

Read More: Sinéad O’Connor Instructed Her Kids To Protect Her Art And Finances After Her Death

The Mirror reported that Geldof told the crowd, “There’s no other option, as all of you know, than to just keep on.”

He also revealed that he was in touch with O’Connor until just weeks before she died.

“Many, many times Sinead was full of a terrible loneliness and a terrible despair. She was a very good friend of mine,” he said. We were talking right up to a couple of weeks ago. Some of her texts were laden with desperation and despair and some were ecstatically happy. She was like that.

Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor, who was known for her powerful, evocative voice and her activism, has passed away at the age of 56.

The singer, recognisable by her shaved head and her wide eyes, passed away after years of mental health battles.

Her death comes a year after her son Shane, 17, took his own life in January 2022 after escaping hospital while on suicide watch.

Details surrounding Sinead’s death remain unknown at this time, reports said.

Her longtime friend Bob Geldof, Irish musician and activist, confirmed her death, as did her family in a statement, according to the BBC and the Irish public broadcaster Rte.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinead,” the statement said.

“Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time.”

No other details were provided.

In a final Twitter post before her death, the...

A protestor stormed the stage with the Israeli flag at Roger Waters’ concert in Frankfurt, Germany on Sunday in response to his ongoing tour that some have deemed anti-semitic.

Waters has long faced pushback for his criticism of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, but he came under heightened fire recently after wearing a uniform that resembled that of a Nazi soldier. The costume was part of a segment meant to reference Bob Geldof’s character Pink in The Wall, while the screen behind Waters displayed the names of people the artist believes were killed by state-sanctioned violence. Waters has maintained that the costume was meant to condemn fascism, but German police didn’t view it that way; he is reportedly under investigation for “suspected incitement” following the incident.

Waters discussed his decision to don Nazi attire, as well as the protestor who rushed the stage, at the Frankfurt concert. Despite...

Roger Waters is reportedly under criminal investigation by German police for “suspected incitement” following his concerts in Berlin on May 17th and 18th.

As Stereogum points out, Waters came under fire for wearing a uniform of a leather jacket, gloves, armband, and rifle that appeared to resemble that of a Nazi SS soldier. His stage design also featured an inflatable pig covered in Third Reich-esque imagery and a Star of David, a prop Waters has been using since 2010. Per The Jerusalem Post, Waters began the show with a message on a screen announcing: “I condemn antisemitism unreservedly.”

“The context of the clothing worn is deemed capable of approving, glorifying or justifying the violent and arbitrary rule of the Nazi regime in a manner that violates the dignity of the victims and thereby disrupts public peace,” police chief inspector Martin Halweg told the Jewish News. “After the conclusion of the investigation,...

Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon was announced in 1973 at a press conference held at the London Planetarium, a spectral site which mirrored the album cover’s beam of light refracted through a triangle into a rainbow. Perhaps the iconic prismatic image provided the initial idea for fans to sync the classic film The Wizard of Oz (1939) to the album’s rock soundscape.

The band’s history with movies is vast and varied. They scored films in the aftermath of the demise and departure of the band’s founder, Syd Barrett. The success of Dark Side of the Moon also helped the group become motion picture producers, investing in the 1975 comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The Wall, directed by Alan Parker and starring Bob Geldof, pushed boundaries and redefined a rock opera on film. And while the bassist/vocalist/songwriter Roger Waters didn’t let Stanley Kubrick...