EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: No jumping and not so flash! Mick Jagger’s brother rocks out at village festival
Like a Rolling Stone, well almost. Hanging out in Glastonbury, singing in fields and being part of a rock band — Chris Jagger spends much of his time just like brother Mick.
However, while Sir Mick’s band have just wrapped up their 60th anniversary world tour, playing to some of the planet’s biggest stadiums, Chris has just headlined the rather more humble Wild On The Wall festival in the village of Walton, Cumbria, which is named after local landmark Hadrian’s Wall. There was an audience of 200.
In contrast to 79-year-old Sir Mick’s energetic stage style, Chris, 74, takes a more cerebral approach to performing, with a guitar in hand and a harmonica in a rack.
Clearly, Chris does get some satisfaction from his musical exploits, even if he is the lesser spotted Jagger. Saying previously of the Stones: ‘I love what they do but I do something else.’ Quite.
Mick Jagger’s brother Chris headlines tiny music festival Wild On The Wall, on a Cumbrian farm just days after the Rolling Stones wrap up their huge 60th anniversary tour
Chris has just headlined the rather more humble Wild On The Wall festival (pictured) in the village of Walton, Cumbria, which is named after local landmark Hadrian’s Wall. There was an audience of 200
Chris Jagger (pictured with brother Mick) does get some satisfaction from his musical exploits, even if he is the lesser spotted Jagger. Saying previously of the Stones: ‘I love what they do but I do something else.’
Macca bringing John Lennon ‘back to life’ on stage shocks son Julian
Sir Paul McCartney’s Glastonbury gig may have been this summer’s musical highlight, with his posthumous duet alongside John Lennon going down particularly well with festival-goers and TV viewers alike.
But not everyone was pleased.
For Lennon’s son Julian, it was initially tough watching his late father ‘brought to life’ by video to perform with his old Beatles bandmate, which Macca did for the first time during the opening concert of his world tour in the U.S. in April.
‘I watched it on YouTube — and I kind of went: “Errrr . . . I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that.” It shocked me,’ says Julian, 59, whose mother was Lennon’s first wife Cynthia. Sir Paul became the Worthy Farm festival’s oldest ever headliner when he played a week after his 80th birthday.
Sir Paul McCartney’s Glastonbury gig may have been this summer’s musical highlight, with his posthumous duet alongside John Lennon going down particularly well with festival-goers and TV viewers alike – but not everyone best best pleased
As well as inviting the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl to join him on stage for some of his near three-hour set, it was McCartney playing with Lennon on 1969 track I’ve Got A Feeling which wowed the crowd the most. The brainchild of Beatles documentary Get Back film-maker Peter Jackson, the New Zealander used technology which isolated Lennon’s vocals from recordings so Macca could sing live alongside John, who was shot and killed in New York in 1980.
Explaining how he’d been able to make it work, Lord Of The Rings director Jackson, said: ‘We developed a machine learning system that we taught what a guitar sounds like, what a bass sounds like, what a voice sounds like. In fact, we taught the computer what John sounds like and what Paul sounds like.’
And with two months having passed since the U.S. concert, Julian did bring himself to watch Sir Paul’s Somerset set at the end of June, and found he’d finally made peace with the concept of seeing his father play on a big screen. ‘I actually enjoyed it,’ he adds.
Having notched up two Oscars, a couple of Golden Globes and three Baftas, at the age of 63 Dame Emma Thompson is allowing her thoughts to drift towards the final curtain. ‘I think death would be a huge relief,’ she reflects. ‘Suddenly you don’t have to do anything any more!’ Might Greg Wise, her second husband, seven years her junior, feel she’s overdoing the enthusiasm?
Bankers pay Theresa £308 a minute to chat
Former PM Theresa May had a nice little earner from Deutsche Bank, to the tune of £74,000 no less, for speaking at its London office in June. She states that the engagement involved four hours’ work — which equates to £308 a minute. Pictured at the Global Women’s Forum in Dubai in February 2020
Theresa May clearly carries some clout with the German banking fraternity. I can reveal the former PM had a nice little earner from Deutsche Bank, to the tune of £74,000 no less, for speaking at its London office in June.
Recording the figure in the Register of Members’ Interests, May states that the engagement involved four hours’ work — which equates to £308 a minute.
That’s slightly lower than the rate she received from the Danish Bar and Law Society in May — £109,000 for five hours or £363 a minute — but well ahead of the £404,800 for 40 hours she picked up for six speaking engagements in the U.S. in March. Still, a nice example of how to outpace inflation . . .
When he invited her for coffee via Twitter, I wonder whether the Archbishop of Canterbury was aware that Sandi Toksvig doesn’t use social media personally? Justin Welby would be forgiven for thinking the QI host’s response — ‘Thanks, lovely. Mine’s a black no sugar, please’ — came straight from Sandi, 64. But it appears it might have been somebody tweeting on her behalf. ‘I do not use social media,’ says the comedian, ‘I have a Twitter account to stop other people tweeting in my name, and occasionally my agent says something that I do.’ Like having her coffee black with no sugar perhaps?
Jaws! Sophie really has a lot of bottle
Pop pixie Sophie Ellis-Bextor is a woman of many talents. But there is one that divides opinion more than anything else — her ability to open bottles with her teeth.
‘Everyone is squeamish about me using my teeth until they can’t find a bottle opener,’ she laughs.
Sophie, 43, pictured with husband Richard Jones, says of her gnashers: ‘They’re all right. I only had my first filling a couple of years ago. I have strong teeth.’
Pop pixie Sophie Ellis-Bextor is a woman of many talents. But there is one that divides opinion more than anything else — her ability to open bottles with her teeth (pictured with her husband Richard Jones)
Buying a weekend home in Oxfordshire is a practical escape for comedian Jack Whitehall’s mum and dad. ‘The problem in Putney is that everyone knows our house as it’s been on TV so often,’ says Hilary Whitehall, 60, who lives in a London riverfront house with husband Michael, 82. ‘The other day we were arguing while loading the car when a stranger started videoing us.’
