Category Entertainment News

Iconic rock star and legendary drummer Viv Prince has died at the age of 84 years old.

The musician famed for his skill on the drums played for a plethora of bands during the sixties including The Kinds, Pretty Things and The Who. Following news of his death, tributes started to pour in. Lead singer of White Stripes, Jack White led the tributes. 

Taking to his social media, he said: “I was lucky enough to meet Viv some years ago who was working on his farm in Portugal at the time.

“He was an inspired and eccentric rock and roller and maybe I’ll have to put together a team to work on a documentary about this man one day.

“Safe travels into the sweet beyond Viv, you were one of the real ones. -III” As of yet the cause of death remains unknown.

As soon as news circulated regarding his death, fans wasted no time in posting their tributes.

One person said: “So sad to hear, Viv was pretty much the only musician of my formative era that I had any personal connections with. Wonderful to hear you were familiar with his work.”

Another person said: “Those early Pretty Things records were something else. Dude was a trendsetter for sure. He will be missed.”

And a third added: “RIP thank you for your talent.” A fourth fan said: “The Pretty Things, what a band. Rest easy Viv.”

Speaking about the legendary musician, a fifth person said: “Such an amazing drummer.” A sixth wrote: “Cheers to a legend.”

Viv Prince was born in Loughborough in 1941 and started to make a name for himself in the 1960’s. And at the time, he joined a band titled Pretty Thing in 1964.

Aside from his drumming abilities, he was also famed for his on stage antics which drew in crowds far and wide.

But within twelve months, Viv left the band.

Speaking to Classic Rock about his decision to leave the band, Dick Taylor explained: “The final straw with Viv came at The Twisted Wheel in Manchester. He refused to play because the pub across the road wouldn’t serve him.”

He added: “What he hadn’t twigged was that it was attached to the hotel he’d been in the night before, causing mayhem with The Kinks.

In the end, Phil [May, vocals] said ‘You’d better just go home’ He was a wonderful drummer, but….”

The band is perhaps better known for hits including Don’t Bring Me Down and Honey I need.

Viv was part of the band’s first two albums Pretty Things and Get The Picture before he bowed out of the group.

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The NTAs took place this week which saw some of the biggest names in British TV take to the stage to collect their well-deserved awards

This Morning star Tom Swarbrick shared his “massive red carpet fail” at the NTAs by posting an “embarrassing” video to his social media this week. Tom left his fans in stitches as he shared a clip of his awkward outfit mishap at the annual event.

The journalist spoke to the camera in his video as he revealed to viewers that he decided to take his backpack to the event, despite it being a black tie dress code. The 38-year-old attended the National Television Awards where he rubbed shoulders with other celebs, all while carrying his backpack with him.

Tom mentioned in the caption that he even got to walk the red carpet with Liz Hurley. He said: “Massive red carpet fail.

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“It’s really not my natural habitat. But I’ve honestly surprised myself at this level of self-inflicted personal embarrassment. And all in front of @elizabethhurley1.”

Tom speaks to the camera as he makes his way through the star-studded crowd holding his Berghaus rucksack. He says: “On the red carpet. Obviously got my bag.”

While he is among some A-listers, he then points out: “Actual Liz Hurley. Shouldn’t have brought my bag.” The LBC radio presenter was then met by several comments from his This Morning colleagues.

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Ashley James commented several cry laughing emojis while presenter Josie Gibson did the same. Tom replied to Josie: “Don’t Gibbo… absolutely terrible.”

Fans then took to the comment section to share their own funny messages. One said: “The head of IT on his annual ‘go on then’ to afterwork drinks queuing for the club.”

Another said: “When you’ve finished teaching maths at 6pm but you’ve got the NTAs at 7pm,” while a third wrote: “Absolute legend Tom. I hope this now catches on and more people do the red carpet with back packs.”

This comes as This Morning won an NTA on the special night for best daytime show. The programme won for the first time since 2022, triumphing over Loose Women, James Martin’s Saturday Morning and Scam Interceptors.

During the speech as they accepted the award, Friday presenter Alison Hammond claimed “Natural order has been restored.”

She said: “Can we just say a massive thank you to each and every person who voted for This Morning. We are so overwhelmed.

“This award means so much. We’ve been humbled the last two years, we haven’t won this award. We don’t take it lightly that we won this award, we’re so grateful.”

Main presenter Cat Deeley then went on to add: “We are so lucky to get to do this show, we all love it. Every single person who comes on, we love this show and it’s like having a family.”

The ex wife of Hollywood actor Colin Firth was forced to close down her fashion firm after an employee stole £500,000 from her business forcing it into financial ruin

Colin Firth’s ex wife Livia Guiggioli was left with no choice but to close down her once lucrative fashion firm after her Head of Finance stole £500,000 in a fraud plot. Stavros Pavlou, 64, is now facing prison for his crimes after stealing the money from Livia’s sustainable fashion consultancy brand called Eco-Age Lt, over a period of two years.

The consultancy firm, which was based in west London, advised well known fashion retailers on how to make their products more sustainable as part of combating an issue that is taken seriously across the entire world. The business was founded in 2007.

Last July, just three months after Pavlou stopped taking money from the company, Livia, who was married to the actor for 22 years until 2019, announced that the firm was “tragically” closing down due to a “financial crisis.”

At the time, she reportedly explained that the crisis was “targeted by criminals” and it has now come to light that she was subtly referring to her former employee.

According to the Daily Express, a court heard yesterday that head of finance Pavlou admitted the fraud when interviewed by police after his arrest in May.

He is now facing a prison sentence for his act of fraud. Prosecutor Edward Aydin told Highbury Corner Magistrates: “Whilst working as head of finance, he stole around £500,000 from his employer. The fraud involved large amounts of documents and files.”

Appearing in court wearing a grey suit, Stavros admitted to one count of fraud by abuse of position.

His defence solicitor Paul Oliver explained: “This is clearly a matter which needs to be sent to the Crown Court for sentence. He was released under investigation in 2024, and I ask to grant him bail. There have been no attempts by him to contact the employer. He is a man of previous good character.”

However, Magistrate Rod Barr told Mr Pavlou: “You have pleaded guilty to this charge, but this matter is too serious to be sentenced in the magistrates’ court. We are sending your case to the crown court where you will be sentenced. You are free to leave the court today, but you must go to Wood Green Crown Court on the date you are told to.”

He added: “If you don’t come back to court at the time, you will be committing a separate offence, and a warrant will be issued for your arrest.”

Stavros Pavlou was given unconditional bail and is set to appear at Wood Green Crown Court when a date has been arranged by court officials.

Speaking about the closure of her much-loved company, she explained last year: “We began 17 years ago with a family shop in West London selling the latest in eco lifestyle products. Nobody would have predicted our trajectory.”

She added: “We are incredibly grateful to those who supported us from the beginning and proud of the work that took us to become a globally recognised consultancy and communication agency and for the role we played to change the landscape of sustainability globally.”

Despite her split from Colin, Livia claims that they have maintained a “wonderful relationship.”

In an interview with Hello! magazine, she said: “We’re always together. Colin and I have a wonderful relationship. We have worked a lot on that, and on keeping the family together. I have a partner, he has a partner and we’re all together all the time. It’s an extended, crazy family.”

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Scottish singer Lulu has said that her first two relationships didn’t progress past kissing after the way she was raised made her see sex as ‘shameful’

Lulu has opened up about her complicated relationship with intimacy, admitting she was “afraid of sex” while rising to fame in the 1960s.

The singer, now 76, looks back on her early years in a candid extract from her upcoming memoir If Only You Knew, which will be released on September 25 to coincide with her latest tour.

In it, she explains how her upbringing and family dynamics left her uncomfortable around the subject of sex around the time when she became a household name after the success of her 1964 hit Shout.

“I wasn’t a fan. I was a musician. But, the truth is, I was also afraid of sex,” she wrote. “It had never been openly discussed in my home and Betty [her mother] had made it seem almost shameful, one of the many threads that coursed through the black rage between my parents.

“I wanted love, I wanted romance. I was just scared of the reality, so I spent my time wrapped up in fantasy, in love with the idea of love.”

Despite her fears, Lulu makes it clear she never went through negative experiences in the bedroom. She says her fear stemmed from the taboo surrounding sex during her teenage years.

She wrote: “There was one area in particular which made me feel very self-conscious: sex. It felt like a black hole pulling every-one around me in while I floated around in deep space watching them get swallowed up, which fed my feeling of being a step apart.”

She added that while she had boyfriends – including Alex Bell from her band The Luvvers and Herman’s Hermits frontman Peter Noone – she kept things PG.

“None of it went much further than a goodnight kiss because I’d skipped so much school that human biology had completely passed me by,” she said.

“And, in those days, we didn’t do the teenage conversations that you see in Hollywood films today which might have started to reveal its secrets. I didn’t have a clue.”

Her memoir also touches on her youthful crush on Eric Clapton, admitting she once threw a party for the chance to see him. “My crush on Eric, however, still burned strong and I remained desperate to see him.

“So, one night, I threw a party and invited everyone – the Beatles, the Who, the Animals and Cat Stevens – hoping he’d come too,” she confessed.

“Nervously waiting for him to arrive, I kept an eye on the door until he finally walked in… But, late that night, we ended up outside smoking and, heart palpitating, I tried to act cool.”

On a professional level, Lulu has recently been busy championing mental health awareness. Earlier this year she launched Lulu’s Mental Health Trust, which recently held its first sponsored walk.

She told The Mirror: “The process of writing my memoir opened my eyes to the role that mental health has played in my life. When I was first coming into the industry we didn’t talk about it! But it’s so important, and I want to give back.”

Legendary actor Terrence Hardiman, who played an iconic and terrifying headteacher in the hugely popular children’s CBBC series The Demon Headmaster, shared his nerves at returning to the role just a few years before his death

He was the stuff nightmares were made of and scared the life out of a generation of children in the late nineties when he portrayed an evil school principal with terrifying green eyes.

Despite his horribly menacing portrayal of the spooky school leader with a lust for power in CBBC’s The Demon Headmaster and his numerous other roles throughout his lengthy career as serious authority figures, Terrence Hardiman was known to be a true gent in real life.

A highly respected talent in the British entertainment industry, he starred in many hit shows such as Prime Suspect, Casualty and Doctor Who. He also toured with the Royal Shakespeare Company in principal roles but his extensive acting experience and success didn’t mean he had lost his humility.

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He was offered a cameo to reprise his part in The Demon Headmaster when it returned to screens over 20 years after he first sent shivers down the spines of the nation’s kids and he humbly spoke of his nerves beforehand. “I thought, well, it’s 22 years since I played that part on television,” he told the RadioTimes in 2019.

“Are people going to say, ‘What the devil is he doing that for? Doesn’t anyone else want him to do anything else?’ No, it wasn’t quite like that, but I was slightly nervous about meeting new people. I didn’t want them to start saying, ‘Why have we got this old chap in again?’.”

Assuring fans he wouldn’t be scaring them too much, he revealed he would just be making a cameo as the head who loved to be mean and control his pupils. “I just make an appearance for a while,” he explained. “So it’s not about me. It’s the new lot and that’s lovely. I’m not there for long. So I won’t frighten you for too long!”

The return to the BBC series came just a few years before Terrence’s death which was announced in May 2023, aged 86. He was described as a “beloved client and much-loved stage and screen actor” by his agent in a statement at the time. His passing sparked many tributes from his legions of fans who he both delighted and petrified in equal measure.

“Goddammit, we’ve lost Terence Hardiman. I honestly can’t think of anyone who could have played the Demon Headmaster better,” one fan wrote on Twitter as the news broke.

“To this day I struggle to think of a more terrifying figure from my childhood,” another added, referring to Hardiman’s iconic portrayal of the wicked headmaster who hid his eerie eyes behind dark glasses which he only took off to hypnotise his victims as he demanded, “Look into my eyes”.

A third added: “Terribly sad news of Terrence Hardiman passing away. He was supremely terrifying in The Demon Headmaster, but I had the pleasure of meeting him once at one of my school’s fetes, It took a bit of convincing to go up to him, but he was absolutely wonderful and kind. RIP.”

Another mourning fan mused how the actor was so synonymous with the part that many didn’t even know his real name. “Sad news, as he was a big part of my childhood,” they began. “But also, I can’t believe how this is the way 90% of people my age are finding out the name of the actor who played The Demon Headmaster.”

Based on the children’s books by Gillian Cross of the same name, the children’s drama premiered on CBBC in 1996 and ran until 1998. The 2019 sequel starred Nicholas Gleaves as the titular character.

Born in 1937 in Forest Gate, Newham, London, Terence studied English at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he got the acting bug. He would go on to become an icon to a generation of kids and performed for The Marlowe Society and the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club, alongside many of his future screen co-stars such as Derek Jacobi who he starred in the long running historical murder series Cadfael with.

Joey Essex showed off his extravagant side just days after his dire financial situation emerged as he shared with fans a number of pictures of his lavish holiday

Joey Essex is never one to shy away from sharing his extravagant lifestyle. And so it comes as no surprise that he was quick to post a series of pictures from his latest summer break to Ibiza on social media.

But his most recent jaunt to the Spanish party island comes just days after it emerged that he has racked up an eye-watering amount of debt.

In an exclusive by the Mirror, it was revealed that he had amassed £1.3million of debt through his performing arts company after he “failed ” to repay a £780,000 loan from his company Joey Essex Management Ltd.

Documents which had been obtained by the Mirror show that liquidators have been left unsure if he will pay back the director’s loan, despite signing a Declaration of Solvency in August last year.

At the time, the document stated: “I have formed the opinion that this company will be able to pay its debts in full together with interest at the official rate within 12 months.”

But his director’s loan is not the only financial strain for the former reality TV star turned boxing champion.

According to reports, he has other debts of £497,246. He reportedly owes £442,303 to HMRC which is for outstanding VAT, PAYE, corporation tax and court costs.

The former TOWIE star was taken to court last year due to his outstanding debts and was served with a “winding up petition.”

So you’d think that the TV personality would be more humble when it comes to splashing the cash.

Posting to his Instagram stories, in one picture Joey is seen sat with a pal drinking a beer.

Dressed in all black with matching shades, Joey, who recently won his boxing debut, looked relaxed and content.

In another picture, he shared with fans the enviable sea view.

And it seems he is also sharing his trip with his new girlfriend Leila Soper. The couple were spotted kissing while frolicking in the sea.

With their arms around each other, the pair seemed oblivious to those around them.

Leila is the daughter of British racing driver Steve Soper.

Leila is a photographer and her career focuses on editorial and fashion photography.

Away from his budding relationship, Joey’s financial strain also includes £39,942 to Coutts bank and £15,000 to Companies House.

Joey is reportedly the company’s only director as well as shareholder and the company was set up in 2011. This is the same year he joined TOWIE.

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