Steel pans, new friendships and lots of tea: how funds raised through The Health Lottery help bring different generations of Vincentians together in High Wycombe.If you catch St Vincent & the Grenadines 2nd Generation in action at the Roundhouse Centre in High Wycombe, Bucks., you’ll be greeted by the glorious sound of steel pans. And with a group who range in age from seven to 80-plus, you’ll hear a wide range of music from calypso classics such as Hot Hot Hot to Estelle and Kanye West’s Americ...

You might not expect a man with a plastic bag on his head to give you an audio hug with his soft voice, but that’s one of the many contradictions of Blindboy Boatclub. The prolific podcaster (he drops one a week) has the ability to stop you in your tracks and leave you in a better place, whether he’s talking about the “fun challenge” of cycling in a storm, exploring his shame around crying or straying into Greek mythology. He also nails the feeling of scrolling your phone in bed, comparing it to...

Experiencing pleasure from sex can improve cognitive function, according to a longitudinal study from the US.
Researchers studied more than 1,600 people and found that those having sex performed better in cognitive tests than those who weren’t.
It’s a good reason to maintain a healthy sex life, but the benefits were slightly different for older and younger groups.
For people aged between 62 and 74, the quality of their experience was a key factor, while for the over-70s regularity was importa...

If you notice any of these symptoms, it’s important to dial 999 and get them checked immediately.The British Heart Foundation says that currently there are more than 7.6 million people living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK, but there could be one million more by 2030, and two million more by 2040. NHS figures show that the number of people admitted to hospital in England with a heart attack has risen to one of the highest levels ever: 100,000. The NHS is highlighting the lesser-kn...

Following up a global hit like “Messy” is an intimidating job. But Lola Young was never in any doubt about her next move. The South London singer-songwriter took the authenticity she’d shared in the anthem to being your imperfect self and doubled down on it.

I’m Only F**king Myself finds Young teetering on the brink of superstardom, with her turbulent past still looming large in her memory. Breakups, hookups and leaving her vices behind are all covered in a raw, straight-talking but playful sty...

“How can I ever write anything again?” That was Self Esteem—aka Rebecca Lucy Taylor’s—first thought when it came to following up her second album, 2021’s Prioritise Pleasure, with its five-star reviews and album of the year accolades.

But after she followed an exhausting bout of touring in 2023 with almost six months of playing Sally Bowles in West End show Cabaret, Taylor packed herself off to Margate and got down to business. The result is A Complicated Woman, a massive album full of joy, ang...

St Etienne did a club tour in early 1991 and we were hearing all these dance hits like DJ H featuring Stefy’s I Like It and (I Wanna Give You) Devotion by Nomad. We thought: “Let’s go home and write something that will work in a club.” We made the song as basic as possible, with a memorable hook.Sarah Cracknell sang on the original demo and Pete Wiggs and I pressed up the white label promo records ourselves and drove around London dropping them off in various shops: City Sounds at Holborn, Black...

When Ken Bruce announced his departure this week from Radio 2 after 31 years, leaving behind his 8.5 million regular listeners, many people assumed the 71-year-old legend would be hanging up his headphones for good.But his next move – announced within minutes – was an unexpected one: Bruce was taking his beloved voice and fiendish PopMaster quiz to a mid-morning show on Greatest Hits Radio.His new home may be unfamiliar to some, with a comparatively small official audience of 4 million, but the...