Yungblud are among the announced winners for the 2022 O2 Silver Clef Awards.
The annual U.K. ceremony is presented by the charity Nordoff Robbins, which provides music therapy to those “living with life-limiting illness, disability and isolation.”
Yungblud will receive the Best Live Act Award.
“I live for music and can see every time I perform how people respond,” Yungblud says. “I know that Nordoff Robbins work is incredibly important as it is harnessing that power through its music therapy sessions so that all kinds of people — from children with Autism to older adults with dementia — can express themselves and communicate — sometimes for the first time.”
The 2022 O2 Silver Clef Awards will take place July 1. For more info, visit Nordoff-Robbins.org.uk.
Country star and Army veteran Craig Morgan is on deck to perform during PBS’ annual National Memorial Day Concert. The annual, 90-minute event features musical performance, stories from military families and more.
Supporting the military is an important component of Craig’s career. As a vet who served nearly 10 years of active duty, plus several more years in the reserves, he continues to shine a light on military heroes in his role as a country star.
He recently competed in the CBS reality series Beyond the Edge, for example, where he raised money for Operation Finally Home, an organization that works to provide mortgage-free homes to wounded veterans and first responders.
Craig raised $100,000 for the cause during his time on the show, and presented OFH with the donation during the Grand Ole Opry’s annual Salute the Troops show this week.
Musically, Craig is known for hit songs like “Redneck Yacht Club” and “That’s What I Love About Sunday,” and he had a viral hit in 2019 with his poignant “The Father, My Son and the Holy Ghost.”
The National Memorial Day Concert airs on PBS this Sunday, May 29 at 8:00 p.m. ET. Also on the bill is Americana star Rhiannon Giddens.
Closing arguments in the high-profile dual defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard began Friday.
The trial began April 11 in Fairfax, Virginia, and was presided over by Judge Penney Azcarate.
Depp, 58, sued Heard, 36, for $50 million over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in December 2018. In the piece, she wrote about surviving domestic abuse without identifying her alleged abuser by name. Heard filed a $100 million countersuit against Depp in response.
In their respective testimonies during the trial, both Heard and Depp claimed the other abused them. The former couple, who met while filming 2011’s The Rum Diary and were married from 2015 to 2017, denied each other’s claims of abuse.
Depp’s lawyer, Camille Vasquez, began Depp’s closing arguments. She described Heard as “violent,” “abusive” and a “deeply troubled person.”
“What is at stake in this trial is a man’s good name,” Vasquez said. “Even more than that, what is at stake in this trial is a man’s life — the life that he lost when he was accused of a heinous crime, and the life he could live when he is finally vindicated.”
Ben Chew, another member of Depp’s legal team, ended the closing arguments for Depp’s side of the case by saying this trial has never been about money or “punishing Ms. Heard” and instead is “about Mr. Depp’s reputation and freeing him from the prison in which he has lived for the past six years.”
Ben Rottenborn, one of Heard’s lawyers, began closing arguments by asking jurors to think about the “message” he said Depp and his legal team are sending to Heard and victims of domestic violence.
“If you didn’t take pictures, it didn’t happen. If you did take pictures, they’re fake. If you didn’t tell your friends, you’re lying…,” he said in part. “And if you finally decide that enough is enough — you’ve had enough of the fear, enough of the pain and you have to leave to save yourself — you’re a gold digger. That is the message that Mr. Depp is asking you to set.”
Rottenborn added that jurors should also consider the First Amendment: “It’s about freedom of speech. Stand up for it and reject Mr. Depp’s claims against Amber.”
Elaine Bredehoft, another member of Heard’s legal team, asked the jury to hold Depp “legally responsible for his actions and to fully and fairly compensate Amber for what he has done by creating this concept of a hoax for the defamation that he has committed.”
Toast, an album that Neil Young recorded with Crazy Horse in 2001 but then shelved, finally will be released on July 8.
The seven-track collection, which was recorded at Toast Studios in San Francisco, includes three songs that have never been released before. The album can be pre-ordered now and will be available on CD, as a two-LP vinyl set and via digital formats.
Those who purchase Toast on CD and vinyl at Young’s Greedy Hand Store will receive a high-res digital download from Neil’s Xstream Store at his Neil Young Archives website.
Young shared some details about Toast in a message published in on Neil Young Archives in 2021 and reposted today.
“Toast is an album that stands on its own in my collection, unlike any other,” Young wrote. “The songs of Toast were so sad at the time that I couldn’t put it out. I just skipped it and went on to do another album in its place.”
He continued, “The music of Toast is about a relationship. There is a time in many relationships that go bad, a time long before the breakup, where it dawns on one of the people, maybe both, that it’s over. This was that time.”
Neil also praised Crazy Horse’s performance on the tracks, writing that the band “shows a depth never seen or heard before on any other Horse recording.” He added, “For the greatest group I have ever met — Crazy Horse — this is a pinnacle. Where they let me go, where they took me, was unbelievable. I couldn’t stay.”
Here’s Toast‘s full track list:
“Quit”
“Standing in the Light of Love”
“Goin’ Home”
“Timberline”
“Gateway of Love”
“How Ya Doin’?”
“Boom Boom Boom”
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind / EPCOT – Walt Disney World Resort (Kent Phillips)
It’s save the galaxy time with Starlord and company! Only this time you’ll have to do it in central Florida. This weekend, Disney Parks debuts its ‘Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind’ attraction at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT — based on the Guardians of the Galaxy films. It’s one of the longest enclosed roller coasters in the world and took almost six years to complete.
“We start you off feeling like you’re on a very conventional, roller coaster-type experience,” says Disney imagineer Tom Fitzgerald, telling ABC Audio it’s a far cry from the typical theme park ride, launching backward and catapulting riders into a 360-degree spin. “Without you even realizing it, we very subtly turn all the vehicles around and suddenly, if you’re in the first car, you’re in the back car!”
There’s also that trademark Disney storytelling attached as you board the ride. “Our hook is Peter Quill [Starlord] came to EPCOT when he was a kid, back in the ’80s,” says Zach Riddley, lead creative executive for EPCOT. “The Xandarians say, ‘Hey, we want to bring a message of our culture, technology to Earth. What’s the one place?’ And they went to Starlord and he said, ‘EPCOT.’”
And it wouldn’t be Guardians without a killer soundtrack. Six songs are showcased on Cosmic Rewind, including Blondie’s “One Way or Another” and Earth, Wind and Fire’s “September.” Choosing the playlist was no small feat, imagineer Spencer Lynn tells ABC Audio. But a fun one nonetheless. “We tested over 100 songs — we would watch the cast members operating the attraction and if they were dancing, we were like, ‘Let’s keep that one, it’s probably going to be good in the long run!’”
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind opens May 27 at EPCOT. Disney is the parent company of Disney Parks and ABC News.
After a two-year layoff because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band launch a new North American tour tonight at Casino Rama in Rama, Canada.
The two-part trek’s first leg runs through a June 26 concert in Clearwater Florida, while the second leg begins on September 23 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and winds down October 20 in Mexico City.
The former Beatles drummer and his star-studded group celebrated the tour’s impending launch at a press event on Thursday at Casino Rama.
Reflecting on his long hiatus from playing shows, Starr said, “Two-and-a-half years has been really difficult. I love to play, as you can tell. I put the All Starrs together 32 years ago and, you know, I was in a couple of bands before that, and…for me that’s what it’s all about, is playing and having an audience.”
He continued, “You know, I’ve missed four tours, and I’ve really missed these guys. I love to play live, and I love to play with great musicians. And I got a crowd of them right here…with me.”
The All Starr Band also currently features Toto guitarist Steve Lukather, Men at Work frontman Colin Hay, Average White Band bassist Hamish Stuart, Toto multi-instrumentalist Warren Ham, acclaimed session drummer Gregg Bissonette and the group’s most recent addition, Edgar Winter. Winter, who previously played with the All Starrs from 2006 to 2011, rejoined the group earlier this year.
Ringo, who turns 82 on July 7, noted during the press conference that he has no plans to stop performing.
“I’m a musician. I don’t have to retire,” he declared. “[A]s long as I can pick up those sticks, I got a gig.”
Calvin Harris reteamed with both Dua Lipa and Young Thug on a sultry new track called “Potion,” out Friday. It’s the first single off Calvin’s upcoming album, Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2. He also dropped the video for the track on Friday, which Dua revealed was shot on a time crunch. “thank you to the incredible crew who made this day so easy and flow so seamlessly with the minimal time we had between my tour dates ~ loved shooting this video and had the most fun 24hrs!!!!” Dua wrote on Instagram.
Anne-Marie is back with a new song titled “I Called,” featuring Latto. The track puts a breakup anthem spin on the Stevie Wonder classic “I Just Called To Say I Love You” — changing up the lyrics to say, “I just called to say I hate you.” It marks Anne-Marie’s first release since her 2021 sophomore album, Therapy. The singer just wrapped the U.K. leg of her Dysfunctional Tour and will be headed to the U.S. and Canada this fall for six more dates.
Ed Sheeran dropped Equals (Tour Edition), the extended version of his 2021 album. As previously reported, the album contains nine additional tracks, including two brand new songs, “I Will Remember You” and “Welcome to the World,” and two unreleased songs he recorded for the movie Yesterday, “Penguins” and “One Life.”
Country star Jimmie Allen released his duet with Jennifer Lopez, “On My Way.” It’s a harmony-packed remix of J-Lo’s solo version of the song, which first appeared on the soundtrack for her recent rom-com movie, Marry Me. The new version appears on the track list for Tulip Drive, Jimmie’s next album. The duet is a full-circle moment: J-Lo was a judge on season 10 of American Idol, the same season during which Jimmie competed on the show.
After a three-year wait, Top Gun: Maverick is finally in theaters this weekend! Director Joe Kosinski is thrilled the moment is finally here, telling ABC Audio that he feels like his life was leading up to this moment — this was the film he was supposed to direct.
“I made model airplanes as a kid, radio controlled airplanes when I was in high school, I studied aerospace engineering in college,” he shares. “So I’ve always been into it, like obsessed with aviation.”
Speaking of aviation, Kosinaksi says that some of the most complex filming sequences came in the fighter jets, which he had very little control over in the moment and just had to have faith in the actors.
“So there’s no way to communicate when they’re up in the jets. So we built a six camera array,” he explains, adding that they set up everything so that the actors only “had to turn them on.”
That wasn’t the only complicated thing about making Top Gun: Maverick, though.
“I mean everything’s hard on a movie like this, but…the script, the story is the most important. And until you crack that, everything else almost doesn’t matter,” Kosinski admits. “Everything was hard on this film. But it should be. You’re making Top Gun, so you need to reach high.”
Another thing that’s high, according to Kosinski, is the bar set by the first film, so he hopes that he succeeded in making a film that is “a reason to go back to the movies.”
“We just wanted to make an emotional, exhilarating film that gives people a reason to go to the movie theater and makes them feel like they’re a Top Gun pilot for two hours and entertain them,” he says.
(UVALDE, Texas) — A small town in rural Texas is reeling after a gunman opened fire at an elementary school on Tuesday, killing 19 children.
Two teachers were also among those killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, according to authorities.
Prior to opening fire at the school, the suspect also allegedly shot his grandmother, officials said.
The alleged gunman — identified by authorities as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a student at Uvalde High School — is dead.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
May 27, 12:36 pm
Officers did not breach classroom for 35 minutes while shooter was inside
Steven McCraw, director of Texas Department of Public Safety, admitted it was the “wrong decision” for officers not to go into the classroom where the suspect was for 35 minutes. Children were inside the classroom with him, making 911 calls, McCraw said in a press conference Friday.
The incident commander believed he was dealing with was a barricaded subject inside the school and the children were not at risk, he said.
A tactical team from CBP was on scene at 12:15 p.m., but did not breach the classroom until 12:50 p.m.
“Of course it wasn’t the right decision,” McCraw said. “It was the wrong decision.”
May 27, 11:23 am
US Marshals say they never arrested or handcuffed anyone outside school
The U.S. Marshals said they never placed anyone in handcuffs, but they say they “maintained order and peace in the midst of the grief-stricken community that was gathering around the school,” in a statement posted on Twitter.
U.S. Marshals arrived on scene from Del Rio, Texas, at 12:10 p.m., and the first deputy U.S. Marshal went into the school to assist BORTAC, the elite tactical CBP team that ultimately shot the alleged shooter, the statement said.
They came from 70 miles away and got the first call around 11:30 a.m., according to the statement.
“These Deputy US Marshals also rendered emergency trauma first aid for multiple victims,” the statement said.
“Additional Deputy U.S. Marshals were asked to expand and secure the official law enforcement perimeter around the school,” the statement said. “Our hearts are heavy with sorrow and sadness at this horrific crime. We send our condolences to all the victims and families affected by this tragedy.”
Angeli Rose Gomez, a mother waiting outside for her children, told the Wall Street Journal she was one of numerous parents urging police and law enforcement officers to go into the school sooner, first politely and then more urgently. She said U.S. Marshals put her in handcuffs, and told her she was being arrested for intervening in an active investigation.
Angel Garza, the stepfather of one of the children killed in the shooting, ran to try to reach and help his child, and was restrained and handcuffed by a local police officer, Desirae Garza, the girl’s aunt, recounted to the New York Times.
May 27, 6:30 am
10-year-old survivor recalls gunman saying: ‘You’re all gonna die’
There was blood in the hallway and children were covered in it, one of the students who survived the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, told ABC News.
Salinas was a student in Irma Garcia’s fourth-grade class. They were scheduled to graduate Thursday, but the ceremony was canceled because Garcia, another teacher and 19 third- and fourth-grade students were killed in Tuesday’s massacre.
Salinas said his aunt dropped him off for school on Tuesday morning.
“It was a normal day until my teacher said we’re on severe lockdown,” he told ABC News, “and then there was shooting in the windows.”
Salinas said the gunman came into his classroom, closed the door and told them, “You’re all going to die,” before opening fire.
“He shot the teacher and then he shot the kids,” Salinas said, recalling the cries and yells of students around him.
-ABC News’ Samira Said
May 26, 9:57 pm
Accused shooter’s mother at one point worked at same establishment of gun purchase: Sources
Sources told ABC News the accused school shooter’s mother, Adriana Reyes, at one point worked at Oasis Outback, the same store where the gunman purchased two weapons just after his 18th birthday earlier this month.
The establishment is half gun retailer, half restaurant; Reyes’ employment was with the restaurant portion, sources say.
It is unclear if she had any role in her son’s purchase of the firearms. The owner of Oasis declined to comment to ABC News and added he would only speak with law enforcement at this time. Reyes has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Laura Romero and Victor Ordonez
May 26, 6:49 pm
Law enforcement examining if lockdown was audible to students, staff: Sources
The response by school officials and law enforcement is becoming a key focus in the ongoing investigation into the Uvalde school shooting, law enforcement sources told ABC News Thursday.
It is unclear whether any students and teachers heard an official call for a lockdown once the gunman entered the building, the sources said.
Additionally, investigators are looking into whether officers on site could have made other attempts to enter the school to end the gunman’s rampage faster, the sources said. Responding police were met with gunfire and called for tactical teams with proper equipment to enter the classroom and neutralize the gunman, according to the sources.
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Josh Margolin, Aaron Katersky and Luke Barr
May 26, 5:19 pm
10-year-old survivor recalls moments after hearing shots fired
A student who was in the classroom next door to the one the gunman entered recounted to ABC News what she did next.
Gemma Lopez, 10, said she heard five to six gunshots and commotion outside her classroom at Robb Elementary School before a bullet whizzed by her arm and into the wall. She recalled seeing a puff of smoke, which is when she knew they were all in danger.
She said she turned off the lights and then ducked under the tables — what she learned to do in the active shooter training she has undergone since kindergarten. There were no locks inside and they did not have a key in the classroom to lock the door from the inside, she said.
Authorities yelled at the gunman to put down his weapon, to which he reportedly shouted in response, “Leave me alone please,” in Spanish, Gemma recalled.
Gemma said her best friend, Amerie Jo Garza, was one of the 19 children killed in the massacre.
(UVALDE, Texas) — Two months before Tuesday’s mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead, the Uvalde school district hosted an all-day training session for local police and other school-based law enforcement officers focused on “active shooter response.”
“First responders to the active shooter scene will usually be required to place themselves in harm’s way,” according to a lengthy course description posted online by the Texas agency that developed the training. “Time is the number-one enemy during active shooter response. … The best hope that innocent victims have is that officers immediately move into action to isolate, distract or neutralize the threat, even if that means one officer acting alone.”
Now relatives of victims and neighbors of Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School are raising questions over how police officers who first arrived on the scene handled the situation — including whether they followed their own training.
At a press conference on Friday, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw acknowledged that officers on the scene miscalculated what was unfolding, failing to go after the gunman sooner.
“From the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course it wasn’t the right decision. It was the wrong decision, period,” he said.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the DPS, Lt. Chris Olivarez, said on national TV that at one point on Tuesday, police officers on the scene decided to “focus” on evacuating students and teachers “around the school,” instead of racing to the shooter’s location — even as they heard more gunshots.
“They kept hearing the gunfire as they were doing this, as they were performing these rescues,” Olivarez said Wednesday on CBS.
ABC News contributor John Cohen, formerly the top counterterrorism official at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and himself a former police officer, said that response “would seem to be inconsistent with accepted practice.”
“What we are hearing from Texas law enforcement officials seems to be inconsistent with the operational philosophy that has guided the response to active shooter situations for well over a decade,” Cohen said. “Having been a police officer, it’s a scary job — but what the public expects is that when confronted with those situations, the officer is going to do what they need to do in order to protect the public.”
A man who lives across the street from Robb Elementary School, Jesse Ortiz, told ABC News that he watched on Tuesday as officers took cover behind a vehicle.
“I said, ‘Why aren’t you going inside? Why aren’t you going inside?'” he recalled.
Videos posted online show angry parents outside the school, urging police officers to take more action.
In the wake of the 1999 high school shooting in Columbine, Colorado, where 12 students and one teacher were killed, federal and state law enforcement officials developed new practices for equipping and training first responders. As a result, Cohen said, it has become “generally accepted” that the first officers on-scene must find and “engage” the shooter as soon as possible, even if that means putting their own lives at risk.
In 2019, the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s policy center published an “issues paper” on active-shooter situations, which noted that “current thinking reemphasizes that, given proper justification as defined by law and agency policy, taking immediate action during active shooter incidents, rather than waiting for specially equipped and trained officers, can save lives and prevent serious injuries.”
“[I]t has been recognized that even one or two armed officers can make a difference in the outcome of active shootings by taking swift, but calculated, individual or coordinated action,” the paper said. “Time lost by delayed action is likely to result in additional casualties.”
Over the past decade, law enforcement officers in cities and states across the country have received training reflecting such policies, according to Cohen. The course that the Uvalde school district hosted in March was developed by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, which oversees the certification of police officers throughout the state and requires school-based officers to take the “active shooter response” course.
On Thursday, a top Texas Department of Public Safety official held a press conference seeking to clarify what unfolded two days earlier — though he didn’t answer some key questions.
Victor Escalon, director of the DPS South Texas Region, told reporters that about four minutes after the shooter first entered the school, “initial officers” on scene “receive[d] gunfire” and “[didn’t] make entry initially because of the gunfire.” At that point, officers call for “additional resources,” including tactical teams, body armor, and other equipment, and they also begin evacuating students and teachers, Escalon said.
It was “a complex situation” with “a lot going on,” Escalon said. About an hour after the shooter first opened fire inside the school, a tactical team from the U.S. Border Patrol arrived, entered the school with other law enforcement, and then killed the shooter, according to Escalon.
Toward the end of the press conference, a reporter asked Escalon, “Did you follow best practices for active shooter scenarios?”
Escalon didn’t answer, instead telling reporters, “I have taken all your questions into consideration … we will answer those questions.”
In 2014, the FBI released a study of 160 active shooter incidents that had occurred since 2000. It highlighted “the damage that can occur in a matter of minutes,” noting that the vast majority of active shooter incidents ended in five minutes or less — and more than a third of those whose durations could be ascertained ended in two minutes or less.
“Officers need to operate in a way that not only protects their safety, because a dead officer is not going to [help], but at the same time, the absolute number-one priority for a law enforcement officer responding to the scene is to … prevent people from being killed or injured,” Cohen said.
“That’s why they’re there,” said Cohen. “That’s why they took the oath.”
