Newcastle football legend lined up for Sam Fender’s huge homecoming gigs
SAM Fender will be joined by Alan Shearer and a string of other special guests as he plays the biggest shows of his career so far.
He is pulling out all the stops with some local heroes for two sold-out, back-to-back gigs next week at Newcastle’s St James’ Park stadium.
I’ve learned the Geordie singer has asked former Toon and England striker Alan along with a string of musicians to join him as special guests.
A source said: “Sam wants to make sure his fans at these two homecoming gigs get the show of their lives.
“He is a massive Magpies fan and to play at St James’ Park is a dream come true.
“For the first gig on Friday night he is hoping that Newcastle legend, and his good pal, Alan Shearer, is going to come on stage and introduce him.
“And for Saturday, there is talk of some more special guests.
“There have been discussions with Sting and Rod Clements from Lindisfarne, as well as Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler.
“The final decisions on that are being kept completely under lock and key as Sam wants to surprise his fans.
“It is going to be really emotional for him but also completely magical. Sam said this is something he’s dreamed about doing all his life and now it is going to become a reality.”
Sam, who comes from North Shields, announced the special gigs last year and said it was a life-long goal.
At the gig he will play a selection of hits, including tracks from his two No1 albums Hypersonic Missiles and Seventeen Going Under.
Sam said of the concerts: “It’s a childhood dream come true.
“I always joked that one day we might play St James’ Park in Newcastle, the biggest stadium in the North East.
“It’s going to be such a special moment and I hope you all join us for it.”
Give that man a Newcastle shirt, a bottle of Newkie Brown and a guitar, and he will be good to go.
Have you net the wife?
IF you hadn’t noticed by now, Rita Ora wants you to know she is still very much in the honeymoon period.
The You Only Love Me singer married New Zealand-born film director Taika Waititi during a secret ceremony in August.
And by the looks of their new joint photoshoot for Australian Vogue, the couple still can’t get enough of each other.
Rita wore a series of revealing outfits for the loved-up shoot with Taika, including this red fishnet dress, a pink furry mini-dress and a black and silver mini skirt and crop-top.
One of the racy shots even saw Rita in a lacy black dress straddling Taika.
In the interview, Rita said she was nervous about the intimate photoshoot.
She explained: “It’s such a personal moment with someone I obviously really care about.
“These pictures, in my opinion, are going to last a long time. I wanted to capture the authenticity of us as friends and partners, capture a moment in time.”
Enjoy it while it lasts, Rita.
Soon you’ll be rowing about the dishwasher and what to watch next on Netflix.
Megan’s ringside
LOOKS like Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly are back with a bang after partying together at the Bomb Factory in London.
The pair, who briefly split at the end of last year, showed they were on track again by holding hands at the art gallery bash.
Rapper Kelly was in town to unveil a new ring collection, The 8th Deadly Sin – GOSSIP, with British jewellery designer Stephen Webster.
Megan looked cool in a pair of high-waisted trousers, which she wore with a white crop top.
I’m less than sure about her companion’s get-up though, as it looked like someone had yanked the sleeves off his cheap-looking suit.
The pair partied until late in the evening alongside other celebrities including presenter and model Lisa Snowdon.
Somehow I doubt the conversation was flowing freely between those three.
Matty’s just after a piece of the reaction
MATTY Healy admits he likes to wind up his fans.
When asked if he messes with them to get a reaction, the The 1975 frontman said: “A little bit. But it doesn’t actually matter.
“Nobody is sitting there at night slumped at their computer, and their boyfriend comes over and goes, ‘What’s wrong, darling?’ and they go, ‘It’s just this thing with Matty Healy’. That doesn’t happen.
“If it does, you’re either deluded or you are, sorry, a liar.
“You’re either lying that you are hurt, or you’re a bit mental for being hurt.
“It’s just people going, ‘Oh, there’s a bad thing over there, let me get as close to it as possible so you can see how good I am’. And I kind of want them to do that, because they’re demonstrating something so base level.”
Matty, who is dating Taylor Swift, also revealed to The New Yorker magazine that he started a fight club in his posh secondary school after struggling to fit in.
He charged fighters 50p and invited other schoolkids to watch, before he was expelled.
Matty added: “Because I hadn’t come from that culture, I was very aware of this hypermasculinity, and this desire for domination.”
I can think of a few people who would like to go a few rounds with the singer.
Orange takes charge
Gary Barlow has revealed Jason Orange became Take That’s true frontman when the band first got back together in 2005.
Jason now lives out of the spotlight and will not be a part of the band’s upcoming album and tour.
Gary explained in a new interview: “One of our big leaders, who was a silent leader in the Nineties but became more of a leader when we came back as a group, was Jason.
“He was one of five brothers, he was used to the family pyramid, and a band in a family pyramid.
“As one leaves or one leaves the room you all shuffle and change position.”
Gary added on the High Performance podcast: “He was wise.
“He told us a few things, a few situations appeared and he resolved them and he was someone we all came to look up to a lot, me especially, as I had been the one who was always leading.
“I always felt that pressure of, ‘I’ve got to look like I know what I’m doing even though I don’t know what I’m doing’. It was shared all of a sudden.”
Ry dolls out Ken wisdom
RYAN Gosling has rubbished critics who say he is too old to play Ken in the Barbie movie.
The US actor, who at 42 is a decade older than leading lady Margot Robbie, insisted it doesn’t matter because he is a secondary character.
Ryan said: “It is funny, this kind of clutching-your-pearls idea of, like, #notmyken. Like you ever thought about Ken before this?
“Barbie never f***ed with Ken. That’s the point. If you ever really cared about Ken, you would know that nobody cared about Ken.
“So your hypocrisy is exposed. This is why his story must be told.”
He added to GQ mag, with a laugh: “I care about this dude now. I’m like his representative.”
Lourdes scarred in crash
MADONNA’s daughter Lourdes Leon looks effortlessly cool posing on this motorbike.
But the model-turned-singer wasn’t quite as relaxed when she recently crashed one in New York.
Lourdes said: “I have a scar on the back of my thigh from crashing my moped into the Williamsburg Bridge and getting body-slammed by my own scooter.
“I was sandwiched between my scooter and the bridge, and the scooter was locked into the bridge, so I couldn’t get out.
“The wheels were still turning and I lost three nails, my hand was bleeding, I was spurting blood.”
In a new shoot for The Face magazine she also opened up about her sexuality.
Lourdes, who dated actor Timothee Chalamet in school, said: “I don’t like girls. I’m painfully straight, it’s terrible. I am cursed, plagued with liking these men.”
Sam and Madge: We are proud to be vulgar
SAM Smith and Madonna are two artists certainly not known for being shy and retiring.
But their collaboration is antagonistic – even by their standards.
The work pokes at the hornets’ nest of their critics, with lyrics about how being slammed is a sign of beauty.
The hardcore electronic track, out on June 9, has been teased online with their initials S&M, but is actually called Vulgar.
On the track, Sam sings: “You know you’re beautiful when they call you vulgar. I do what I wanna, I go when I gotta. I’m sexy, I’m free and I feel vulgar.”
Sam was criticised in January after releasing a crude music video for the track I’m Not Here To Make Friends, while Madonna has spent years provoking her haters.
They hit it off and recorded the collaboration after coming together at February’s Grammy Awards, where Madonna introduced Sam and Kim Petras on stage for their performance of Unholy and praised them for being rebels.
Sam said at the time: “Here’s what I’ve learned after four decades in music. If they call you shocking, scandalous, troublesome, problematic, provocative or dangerous, you are definitely on to something.
“I’m here to give thanks to all the rebels out there, forging a new path and taking the heat for all of it.
“All you troublemakers out there need to know that your fearlessness does not go unnoticed. You are seen, you are heard and, most of all, you are appreciated.
“It gives me great pleasure to introduce two incredibly talented artists who have risen above the noise, the doubt, the critics, into something beautifully unholy.”
Stuck Jared in on the case
JARED Leto has been forced to wear his own merchandise everywhere he goes on a trip to the UK after British Airways lost his suitcase.
The 30 Seconds to Mars frontman admitted he was wearing a branded hoodie, sweatpants and baseball cap yesterday.
But he was also “freeballing” because the band don’t make their own pants.
Jared made light of the situation during a chat with Nick Grimshaw on the Virgin Radio breakfast show.
The Stuck singer, who wore a top with the name of the band’s single on it, said: “It’s not because I’m a shameless promoter – which I am – but our bags were lost. The world’s greatest airline, British Airways, had a woopsie.
“We still don’t have our bags. Some socks and underwear would be nice. In some places they call it ‘freeballing’.”
Thankfully, the merch had been packed in their hand luggage but that gear might be a bit smelly by now, especially given what he has been up to in the capital.
On his tricks to beat jet lag, he explained: “I try to protect sleep as much as possible.
“I try to do other things – like yesterday I was running from promo to promo and I was literally running on the streets of London. I was jogging from place to place and doing sprints down side streets.”