Halifax Piece Hall launches scheme to pay back into grassroots venues

Lenny Henry has launched a scripted production outfit backed by the £50M ($61M) Banijay UK Growth Fund.

Three months after welcoming a beautiful baby girl named Finty, Ferne McCann is embracing her post-partum figure as she focuses on her health.The First Time Mum star, 33, shared a post to her nutrition-based Instagram, where she posts about health and fitness, celebrating fitting back into a pair of jeans she wore prior to falling pregnant. Over the moon with her weight loss since giving birth, Ferne shared her excitement by writing in the caption: "You lot won’t believe it…..I’ve only gone and got myself into my jeans ….I am absolutely BUZZING! "A few weeks ago these wouldn’t even do up!!! & 2 months before that I could barely pull them up over my thighs." Explaining how she has achieved weight loss through changing her diet, she continued: "Here’s the deal…all I have been following is my simple, delicious breakfast plan.

It's been out of sight for decades but now one of the most historic rooms in Rochdale Town Hall is ready to open to the public following a complete transformation.

EXCLUSIVE: David Harbour (Stranger Things), Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (The Mandalorian, Kim’s Convenience), Scott Thompson (The Kids In The Hall), and Gabbi Kosmidis (Unicorn Academy) are among voice cast attached for international animation Night Of The Zoopocalypse, which Anton and Charades are launching for the AFM.

Music Venue Trust (MVT) – a leading charity devoted to protecting, securing and improving UK Grassroots Music Venues across the country – detailing that the UK is set to lose 10 per cent of its grassroots music venues in 2023 due to issues such as the cost of living crisis.Now, to help save grassroots music venues across the country from closure, taxi app FREENOW has launched a new ‘Ride for Music’ initiative – pledging £1 for each taxi ride to Music Venue Trust.Already, the music industry has rallied behind the initiative, and the likes of Ed Sheeran, Steve Lamacq, Ticketmaster and Academy Music Group (AMG) have all come forward to pledge their support.With the ‘Ride For Music’ incentive, FREENOW has guaranteed a minimum commitment of £200,000 to be donated to the cause, and all users need to do to ensure the donation is made is top ‘opt in’, at no extra cost to them.“Like so many musicians, I started out playing in grassroots music venues. They are such a vital part of the music ecosystem.

Music Venue Trust (MVT) have said that grassroots venues in the UK are heading for “disaster” without intervention as more venues face closure – repeating the call for large arenas to invest back into the grassroots.Speaking on a panel about the future of grassroots music at Manchester’s inaugural ‘Beyond The Music‘ conference on Friday (October 13), Mark Davyd, CEO of MVT, said over the last 12 months, “127 music venues of the grassroots type have stopped programming live music or closed down entirely” – something he described as a “fucking disaster” – despite the fact 2023 has been “the best year in history for live music receipts” with the industry making over £765million in 2022.Davyd, who was speaking on a panel alongside representatives from Manchester’s AO Arena, Manchester’s Co-op Live, MIF/Factory International and Rachael Flaszczak, Managing Director of The Snug – a venue that was recently saved by MVT under its new ownership scheme – said “it’s completely unacceptable that our music industry is letting music collapse underneath it while it’s making the maximum amount of money it’s ever made in the history of music.”He continued: “That is ridiculous. It’s totally unacceptable to me.

Eva Longoria and Cris Abrego, two of the most high-profile Latinos in Hollywood, have joined forces.

Walt Garrison, who won a Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys and competed as a rodeo cowboy, has died at 79. The NFL team posted the notice on its website Thursday that Garrison died overnight. It did not give a cause of death.

Last week, a Greater Manchester gig venue was saved in a first-of-its-kind music scheme led by the ‘National Trust of music venues’.

Stephen Gerard Kelly and Garry Keane’s documentary In The Shadow of Beirut has been submitted as Ireland‘s entry for the 2024 Oscar International Feature Film race.

Liev Schreiber and Taylor Neisen are enjoying a night out after the birth of their daughter!

The 2024 Tony Awards will broadcast live Sunday, June 16, on CBS from the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The event will be the first Tony ceremony in the Upper West Side building’s 50-plus-year history.

Ethan Shanfeld Forest Hills Stadium could have been a condominium. The legendary Queens, New York, tennis-stadium-turned-amphitheater — longtime home of the U.S. Open, which would later host outdoor concerts by the likes of the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Ray Charles and the Rolling Stones — had gone decades without live music and was casually courting offers from developers to knock down the stadium and build housing units.

legendary gig spaces like North London’s Nambucca and Sheffield’s Leadmill were closing their doors or under threat, respectively.Having been backed by Ed Sheeran, the scheme aims to secure the long-term futures of such venues by directly tackling the issue of ownership.The campaign has been likened to “The National Trust, but for venues”. Earlier this year, a similar stand-alone initiative was launched by Sister Midnight in a bid to become Lewisham’s first community-owned venue run by shareholders.Today (October 4) the MVT has shared details of the first grassroots music venue to have been purchased by Music Venue Properties (MVP) – the independent Charitable Community Benefit Society (CCBS) created by the MVT to progress its plans to revolutionise cultural ownership in the UK.The official launch of The Snug – a 100-capacity venue in Atherton, Greater Manchester – took place this morning, as did the unveiling of a commemorative plaque.Many of those who helped the #OwnOurVenues scheme to fruition attended the opening, along with some local musicians – Ivor Novello-winner Jamie Lawson and 16-year-old Jennifer King, the latter of whom is a shareholder in MVP.Music Venue Properties announce first venue purchase with shares bought by the live music community! @SnugAtherton has become the first acquisition under #OwnOurVenues scheme!Official Launch Event held today at The Snug to Celebrate new ownership +unveil a commemorative plaque! pic.twitter.com/HmDamLlrRl— Music Venue Trust (@musicvenuetrust) October 4, 2023Unlike a charity, a CCBS can raise funds via community shares.

A drug dealer known as 'Big Red Devil' has been ordered to pay back almost £500,000 of his ill-gotten gains. Wayne Christopher Marcus, 56, was slapped with the bill under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Michael Beale has challenged Cyriel Dessers to click into gear as Kemar Roofe sweats over another spell on the sidelines.

The second phase of a mammoth masterplan to transform the centre of Ashton-under-Lyne has been agreed – but there’s no money to pay for it.

EXCLUSIVES: The Joes are dusting off their sports kits for the first time in 13 years.

Emiliano De Pablos European production-distribution giant Studiocanal is teaming with Spain’s Mr. Fields and Friends and Bambú, both led by producer Ramón Campos, on dramatic comedy “Rondallas,” written-directed by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo (“BlueDarkAlmostBlack,” “Cousinhood,” “Seventeen”).

Stretford Public Hall is to get vital repairs as part of a huge funding drive from the government to 'secure' the future of pubs, museums and sports clubs across the UK.