NEWS
It has been reported that 50 rat sculptures are set to appear in Hull in honour of the late guitarist Mick Ronson.
The giant statues – which will stand at six-feet-tall – will create an art trail across Hull and East Yorkshire. Ronson was born and raised in Hull in 1946.
Prior to gaining fame as David Bowie‘s lead guitarist, he joined the British rock band The Rats in 1966.
Ronson then went on to play on iconic and influential albums such as Bowie’s 1972 concept album ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’ and 1973’s ‘Aladdin Sane’.
He went on to work with massive rock icons such as Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and more. Ronson passed in 1993 at the age of 46 after battling liver cancer.
Titled “The Mischief of Rats”, the sculpture trail is set to be installed in April 2025 and will be open to the public starting in May 2025 for three months.
According to The Hull Story, businesses and organisations who are local to Hull have been invited to sponsor a rat for £4,500 – which will help cover the costs of developing, creating, managing and promoting the trail.
The sculptures of the rates are set to go up for auction in September 2025, in hopes of raising up to £250,000 for the charity The Daisy Appeal.
Rick Welton, one of the project directors, shared: “This is the most radical animal sculpture trail yet,” (per the BBC). “[It] will raise much needed funds to support the vital work of the Castle Hill Hospital based charity, The Daisy Appeal, which helps advanced and detailed detection of cancer, heart disease and dementia through highly advanced PET-CT scanning techniques.”
Welton added that past trails had “proved highly successful” and attracted thousands of visitors to the region. According to trail organisers, previous trails such as the Larkin with Toads raised over £60,000 for charity while A Moth for Amy garnered £85,000 and The Puffins Galore project raised nearly £120,000. Artists will be invited to submit designs for each rat sculpture later this year.
NEWS
Brad Paisley has called Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding “one of the least pretentious weddings he’s ever seen”.
The country star attended the ceremony alongside his actress wife, Kimberly Williams-Paisley. They joined around 1,000 guests at New York City’s Madison Square Garden earlier this month as the global pop icon married the American football star.
Although the celebration attracted enormous attention and involved tight security and a stunning makeover of the famous arena, Paisley said the occasion never came across as excessive.
“Ironically, (it) was one of the least pretentious weddings that I've ever seen or ever will see,” Paisley told The Associated Press during an interview. “It meant a lot to be (invited). It was, kind of, a big thank you from her to invite us.”
Paisley, who chose Swift as an opening performer for his tour when she was a teenager in 2007, said he was delighted to be included in what many considered the biggest celebrity wedding of the year.
“They were very clear with the invite, and I took this personally when I got the invite, because in the invite, it said, ‘If you're getting this, you mean a lot to us,’” he revealed.
The musician also explained that guests were not told the wedding’s exact location until the date drew nearer.
“It was really fun to watch the cat and mouse game of, like, ‘We can tell you roughly where it's going to be, we're not gonna say what building... and here's the date. If you're in, we'll tell you more,’” he continued. “I went to my wife, I said, ‘Want to go?’ and she said, ‘Absolutely, we gotta be there!’ So, we did it, it was RSVP yes.”
Other famous attendees included Brad Pitt, Gigi Hadid, Bradley Cooper, Ed Sheeran, Sabrina Carpenter, Hugh Grant, Haim and Tom Hanks.
