By Lucia Binding, news reporter
Nick Grimshaw has confirmed he is leaving BBC Radio 1’s Breakfast Show after six years.
The DJ, 33, will step down in September and will be replaced by Greg James.
It comes two weeks after figures revealed that Grimshaw’s show had the second lowest audience ratings since current records began.
He told his listeners on Thursday morning: “Come September it will be six years… I’ve decided it’s time for a change, time for a new show and, most importantly, it’s going to be time for a new wake-up time… preferably about 11.30.”
Image: Greg James will be taking over the popular morning slot
Grimshaw said he would remain with the station on the drivetime show, swapping jobs with James.
He added in a statement: “I had the time of my life. I’ve decided it’s time for a change and a new show.
“I love Radio 1 and can’t wait to get on with the new time slot and the removal of all alarms from my house.
“I’m so happy to be swapping shows with my friend and yours Greg James, and can’t wait to wake up to him each morning. Not literally. Just on the radio. Unless he’s up for it.”
The broadcasters are scheduled to start their new roles this autumn.
Following the announcement, Grimshaw joked that he “ain’t had a good night’s sleep since God knows when”.
He added that he has had “jet lag for six years”.
His programme pulled in 5.1 million listeners a week in the first quarter of 2018, compared with 5.7 million a week in the last quarter of 2017, according to audience research body Rajar.
Grimshaw is the second-longest running breakfast show presenter in the station’s history behind Chris Moyles.
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James said in a statement: “I am completely beside myself that I’ve been given the chance to present the most famous radio show in the world.
“It really doesn’t get any bigger than this and I really want to build on the great work Grimmy has done.”
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Entertainment
‘Piece of art’: Positive reviews for new Kanye album
By Ajay Nair, news reporter
Kanye West’s latest album has largely received positive reviews, despite the controversial hip hop star recently coming under fire for saying slavery was “a choice” and endorsing Donald Trump as his “brother”.
The 21-time Grammy Award winner unveiled the new music from the project – simply entitled Ye – at a listening party in Wyoming on Thursday.
He flew a whole host of celebrities and journalists to listen to the seven-track instalment in the mountains while gathered around bonfires.
Wyoming pic.twitter.com/xh9X5K2lyR
— J.D. (@jdotshots) June 1, 2018
West was reportedly introduced by comedian Chris Rock and was joined by the likes of actor Jonah Hill and fellow rappers Big Sean, Nas and Pusha T at the celebrity-packed event.
The 40-year-old star, who is regarded as one of his genre’s all-time greats, made e available hours later. The album features appearances from artists such as Nicki Minaj, John Legend and Kid Kudi.
The star’s wife, Kim Kardashian West, also attended the listening party and later revealed West took the photo for the album artwork earlier that day on his mobile phone.
“Kanye shot the album cover on his iPhone on the way to the album listening party,” she tweeted.
Kanye shot the album cover on his iPhone on the way to the album listening party 😂🔥❤️🔥🙏🏼🔥
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) June 1, 2018
The artwork features a mountain landscape and a field with the words “I hate being Bi-Polar its awesome” (sic) scribbled over it in bright green.
The highly-anticipated project – his eighth studio album – follows 2016’s The Life of Pablo and his treatment in hospital due to mental health issues later that year.
Image: The album art for Kanye West’s album ye
Controversy has followed since his return to Twitter in 2018, where he said he was publishing a philosophy book “in real time” straight to the social media website.
He tweeted that President Trump was his “brother” and that they were both “dragon energy”, adding: “You don’t have to agree with Trump but the mob can’t make me not love him.”
You don’t have to agree with trump but the mob can’t make me not love him. We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don’t agree with everything anyone does. That’s what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
Image: West tweeted that Donald Trump was his ‘brother’
A backlash also followed an interview with TMZ during which he suggested slavery in America was “a choice”.
West references the episode on the album with the lyrics: “They said build your own, I said, ‘How, Sway?’ I said slavery’s a choice, they said, ‘How, Ye?’ Just imagine if they caught me on a wild day.”
However, some fans appeared to look past the musician’s recent remarks.
“Yall two weeks ago: KANYE IS CANCELLED, I’m not listening to his new music. I. AM. DONE,” wrote one Twitter user, before adding: “Yall today:” with a gif of rapper Jay Z dancing, referencing their enjoyment of West’s new music.
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A samurai mentality and being cool: Who said it – Kanye or Elon?
Yall two weeks ago: KANYE IS CANCELLED, I’m not listening to his new music. I. AM. DONE.
Yall today:#YE pic.twitter.com/zqUUvkAzOP— Matt #YE (@JustMattBentley) June 1, 2018
Hollywood’s Ryan Phillippe called Ye “kinda amazing”, while other fans called it a “piece of art” and the rapper’s “most hopeful and prettiest album”.
However some were not as pleased with what they heard. Comedian Akilah Hughes wrote: “This song is literally about when he tweeted that slavery was a choice. This is some lazy end of semester work is what this album is. #Ye.”
Entertainment
OnSound: this week’s best gigs and new releases
New albums from Natalie Prass, Father John Misty and Ben Howard and this week’s best gigs
Natalie Prass
The Future and The Past
ATO
Virginia singer Natalie Prass was about to enter the studio to record her second album when something terrible happened – the result of the 2016 US presidential election. But relax – The Future and The Past is no exercise in Trump bashing – that would be far too easy for an artist as enigmatic and inventive as Prass. She determined to make an album that would lift her spirits and, as she says, lifts other people’s too. She’s certainly succeeded with a set of thought-provoking songs that also have the dancefloor at their heart. This is also possibly the most sophisticated album you’ll hear all year. It flirts with exacting, almost metronomic funk slickness, the melancholia of Abba, and on Far From You, a flawless Karen Carpenter impression, which nearly outdoes that sorrowful siren. The Fire could be an eighties FM hit and there’s nineties r `n’ b on the superb Short Court Style while the slow groove of Hot For The Mountain is embellished by piano, sumptuous strings and the faint tinkle of bells. Elsewhere, Prass sounds like Haim trading harmonies with Wilson Phillips on Nothing to Say, which glides along on glissandos of harp and is one of the few directly political songs here. Prass’ second album is already up there as one of the records of the year. And oh, what a voice. ****
Father John Misty
God’s Favorite Customer
Bella Union
With an album title straight out of the Elvis Costello songbook, former Fleet Foxes man Josh Tilman presents another droll collection about life’s manifold inanities and inequities. His fourth album is born out of personal upheaval but this customer, who has just completed a rapturously received three-night stand at Dublin’s Vicar Street, has the good grace not to bore us with singer songwriterly clichés and pieties. As ever with Tilman, sardonic humour is the fore. “Last night I wrote a poem, man, I musta been in the poem zone.” he sings reprovingly on We’re Only People (And There’s Not Much Anyone Can Do About That), a song on which he contemplates his navel and his aching heart. His knack for sweet melodies and cutting words are present and correct on Please Don’t Die, wherein he rues countless nights of ‘pointless benders with reptilian strangers’. Tilman sings in a rich baritone and the songs are enveloped in a warm, seventies sound that recalls Elton John at his seventies prime. Late period Beatles and Harry Nilsson can also be detected on Hangout at the Gallows, while on the vaguely psychedelic Date Night, he bucks the overall feel of detached self-reproach and sounds genuinely broken up. Tilman doesn’t quite have the scything wit of a Costello or, for that matter, a Randy Newman and God’s Favorite Customer can drift off into a kind of tasteful and knowing wryness. ***
Ben Howard
Noonday Dream
Island
Ben Howard adoration of John Martyn takes its logical next step with this revelation of a third album. Noonday Dream is full of the kind of soundscapes and exploratory ambience of Martyn’s late seventies albums like One World. Lyrically, Howard also ventures into a far more inventive and mercurial seam of songwriting with songs like the rippling Someone in the Doorway and What The Moon Does catching you off guard with each listen. Abstract interludes such as All Down The Mines echo the twilight weirdness of King Creosote and standout track The Defeat picks up the pace and the heat with echoing slivers of guitar, rhythmic flourishes and a forward motion that underpins a new direction from a talented artist who is really becoming unmoored from his more prosaic beginnings. ***
Gigs of the week
Saturday, June 2
Forbidden Fruit Festival, Royal Hospital, Kilmaimham, Dublin – Justice, Richie Hawtin, Glass Animals, Hookworms, Novelist
Microdisney, NCH, Dublin
Marlene Enright, Cork Opera House
Robyn Hitchcock, Cyprus Avenue, Cork, Ireland
Sunday, June 3
Forbidden Fruit Festival, Royal Hospital, Kilmaimham, Dublin – Bonobo, Four Tet, Earl Sweatshirt, Floating Points
Monday, June 4
Forbidden Fruit Festival, Royal Hospital, Kilmaimham, Dublin – The War on Drugs, Grizzly Bear, Warpaint, Thundercat, Spoon
Tuesday, June 5
LCD Soundsystem, Malahide Castle, Dublin
Sam Amidon, Tralee,
Wednesday, June 6
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin
Thursday, June 7
The Beat, The Button Factory, Dublin
Music on TV
Friday, June 1
Africa: A Journey into Music, BBC Four, 10.00pm
Glam Rock at the BBC, BBC Four, 11.30pm
Saturday, June 2
Kate Bush at the BBC, 12.50am
Sid Vicious: Who Killed Nancy, Sky Arts, 9.00pm
Anarchy: The Mclaren-Westwood Gang, sky Arts, 12.00am
Sunday, June 3
The History of The Clash, Sky arts, 10.00pm
Here to be Heard: The Story of The Slits, Sky arts, 10.00pm
Manic Street Preachers; Escape From History, Sky Arts, 11.55pm
Thursday, June 7
Prince: Sign O’ The Times, Sly Arts, 11.15pm
Friday, June 8
Prince: A Purple Reign, BBC Four, 9.00pm
Africa: a Journey Into Music, BBC Four, 10.00pm
When Pop Went Epic: The Crazy World of the Concept Album, BBC Four, 11.00pm
Ireland’s Top 10 albums
New 1 Wildness – Snow Patrol (Polydor/Universal Music)
New 2 Shawn Mendes – Shawn Mendes (EMI/Universal Music)
3 (last week) 3 (this week) The Greatest Showman Motion Picture Cast Recording (Atlantic/Warner Music)
1 4 Divide – Ed Sheeran Asylum (Warner Music)
2 5 Beerbongs & Bentleys – Post Malone (Republic Records)
4 6 Speak Your Mind – Anne-Marie (Asylum/Warner Music)
New 7 MTV Unplugged – Live At Roundhouse – Biffy Clyro (14th Floor/Warner Music)
7 8 Staying At Tamara’s – George Ezra (Columbia/Sony Music)
5 9 x – Ed Sheeran (Asylum/Warner Music)
New 10 Testing – ASAP Rocky (ASAP Worldwide/Polo/RCA)
Ireland’s Top 10 singles
1 (last week) 1 (this week) One Kiss – Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa (Columbia/Warner Bros)
2 2 2002 – Anne-Marie (Asylum)
3 3 Nice For What – Drake (Cash Money/Republic Records)
4 4 No Tears Left To Cry – Ariana Grande (Republic Records)
5 5 Friends – Marshmello & Anne-Marie (Asylum/Atlantic/Warner Music)
14 6 Solo – Clean Bandit Ft Demi Lovato (Atlantic)
7 7 Better Now – Post Malone (Republic Records)
8 8 Paradise – George Ezra (Columbia)
9 9 Lullaby – Sigala & Paloma Faith (Ministry Of Sound/Sony Music)
11 10 Answerphone – Banx & Ranx/Ella Eyre/Bane (Parlophone/Warner Music)
Chart courtesy of IRMA
Alan Corr @corralan
Entertainment
Singing priest Fr Ray Kelly misses out on BGT final
Singing priest Fr Ray Kelly was eliminated from Britain’s Got Talent on Friday night and has failed to make it through to Sunday night’s final.
Musical comedian Micky P Kerr went though to the final after a public vote and he said, “I just trying very hard not to cry to be honest with you.
“Thank you so much to everyone that voted. I need to speak to my boss because I don’t think I can make work on Monday.”
The Giang Brothers were also voted through to the final in the public vote. “We are very happy … I would like to say thank you so much to Britain’s Got Talent viewers for letting us make Vietnam people proud.” the Vietnamese brothers said
65-year old Fr Kelly is a priest in Oldcastle, Co Meath and he rose through the ranks of the shows after impressing judges and viewers with his first audition, which Simon Cowell said was one of his favourite auditions ever.
“I was really, really shocked by the reaction,” says Fr Kelly. “When I decided to go on Britain’s Got Talent I kind of thought maybe I would be embarrassed and told to get off, thanks very much for coming blah, blah, blah.
“That was my biggest fear but then I said you know I’ll go in with the attitude of I’m not going to beat myself up if something negative happens.
“I have another life and I’m 65 years of age so I’ve been around the block a little bit. I’m not a teenager thinking, ‘this is my life’. I love to sing and I love to perform but I have my life here in Oldcastle too.
“So I was pretty relaxed going in to audition. I was not expecting that reaction.”
Entertainment
29 Royals You Had No Idea Were on Instagram
Meghan Markle may have had to erase her social media presence in order to become the Duchess of Sussex, but that doesn’t mean other royal members aren’t on Instagram. In fact, not only can you still keep up with Meghan and Prince Harry’s whereabouts through Kensington Palace’s official account, but there are also tons of other royals all around the world who have public accounts. Yep, that includes Princess Eugenie, Princess Charlene, and even Queen Rania of Jordan. Oh, and in case you haven’t heard yet, Prince Carl Philip just made his account public! Get ready to hit “follow” on all the royal profiles ahead.
Related: All the Celebrities You Should Be Following on Instagram!
Entertainment
7 Must-Do Foam-Roller Moves Perfect For Runners
When you’re training for a race, foam rolling is vital. This self-massaging technique loosens stiff muscles and helps keep fascia (connective tissue in muscles) loose. Foam rolling, along with stretching and cross training, can help prevent repetitive stress injuries that could disrupt training. We want to keep you healthy and strong leading up to race day. This preventive routine takes only 10 to 15 minutes – you could do it every day if you like but should aim to roll at least once or twice a week. Your body will thank you.
Related: No Gym Needed With This At-Home Fitness Plan – All the Workouts Are Videos!
