Six degrees
The Stone Roses (below) have announced a Hong Kong date on their reunion tour 28 years after they formed. The Manchester band's eponymous 1989 debut album has been named the best British album of all time by The Observer. Frontman Ian Brown is not known for humility, once stating: 'We're the most important band in the world because we've got the best songs.' The lead singer attributed the Roses' success, and that of the 'Madchester' movement, which they are associated with, to the era's high unemployment figures, courtesy of Margaret Thatcher ...
The former British prime minister raised eyebrows early in her career by voting in a minority to decriminalise homosexuality and to legalise abortion. Love her or hate her, few can argue that she wasn't a formidable opponent: one Irish politician memorably called her 'the biggest bastard we have ever known', while former French president Francois Mitterrand once described her as 'Brigitte Bardot with the eyes of Caligula' ...
The Roman emperor, who had an intense stare that historians put down to hyperthyroidism, was a despotic tyrant who killed on whim, appointed his horse to the priesthood and, when he wasn't having sex with any of his three sisters, would prostitute them out. Boredom did not sit well with Caligula and on days when there were no prisoners to be thrown to the lions, he would instead order his guards to put entire sections of the crowd into the arena. Such antics have made him a popular figure to revisit and he's been portrayed on screen by everyone from John Hurt to Courtney Love ...
Love's estranged daughter, Frances Bean, who in 2009 had a restraining order put on her mother, has asked that Love be banned from using Twitter after a bizarre post in which the older woman accused her late husband's bandmate and friend Dave Grohl of hitting on the teenager. One can only guess where Love learned her parenting skills (her psychologist mother accused her father of feeding LSD to a three-year-old Courtney). Her father was a band biographer and a five-year-old Courtney was pictured on the back cover of an album by the Grateful Dead ...
The Grateful Dead played 2,350 concerts to a total of 25 million people, more than any other band. Loosely associated with psychedelia and drugs, the group is not easily categorised but its foundations lay in a wide range of genres, from pop rock to bluegrass, which is what prompted promoter Bill Graham to say, 'They're not the best at what they do - they're the only ones that do what they do.' Christian group The Cutting Edge, which claims Satan started attacking America in 1965, believes the Grateful Dead were preparing youngsters for the coming of the Antichrist. The group levels the same accusation at Harry Potter ...
According to author J.K. Rowling, the main theme of the Potter series is death. The films are the highest-grossing movie series of all time and the Harry Potter brand is worth in excess of US$15 billion. Few among us will not be familiar with Hogwarts School, Diagon Alley, Gringotts Bank or the Leaky Cauldron pub, a patron of which was played by a man who managed to bag himself a role, Ian 'I wanna be adored' Brown of The Stone Roses.
