No one does breakup anthems like Fleetwood Mac. The band had two couples, both of which broke up during perhaps the peak of their fame. So, while it made for really awkward band meetings, it also gave us incredible songs. Because all of those tracks came from a real, raw place, it's impossible not to feel a connection to what they're singing about.

Following up on one of the greatest albums of all time is no easy feat. When Pink Floyd was tasked with doing just that, following up on Dark Side of the Moon, they were struggling. The record and its success had left the band jaded with the music industry. Eventually, the four-note riff of “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” became the catalyst for the album, as it reminded bassist Roger Waters of the somber story of their former lead singer, Syd Barrett. As the song finally came together, what none of the band expected was an unexpected appearance by Barrett in their studio.

In just two days, several artists who had been announced for the Great American State Fair—a festival organized by Freedom 250, an initiative backed by the Trump administration—have withdrawn from the lineup after claiming they were unaware of the event’s political ties. The fair, scheduled for June 25 through July 10 on the National Mall in the nation’s capital, was billed as a massive celebration of American identity, featuring concerts, rodeos, amusement rides, livestock competitions, military exhibitions, and fireworks displays. It was also part of the extensive calendar of celebrations promoted by President Donald Trump leading up to the 250th anniversary of American independence in 2026.

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Other western acts have attempted to crack country’s music scene since singer’s breakout success in 2018

One week after announcing she was “cancer free”, the British pop star Jessie J did what any recovering patient would do and travelled thousands of miles around the world to perform for an audience of more than a billion people.

On 29 May, the singer-songwriter, whose real name is Jessica Cornish, belted out a stage-rattling rendition of Frank Sinatra’s My Way on the stage of Singer, a hugely popular Chinese singing competition similar to The Voice. She also performed her new song, California, briefly adapting the lyrics to change California to Changsha, the Chinese city where Singer is hosted.

Truus, Bob & Jan too! posted a photo:

Spanish postcard by CyA, no. 81. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. John Ericson in Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955). The Spanish film title was Conspiración de silencio.

German-American film and television actor John Ericson (1926-2020) started in the 1950s as a young hunk with wavy-haired good looks and an athletic build. He made a series of popular films for MGM, including Teresa (19, 51) and The Student Prince (1954). Later, Ericson worked mostly for television, most memorably as the partner of Anne Francis in Honey West (1965-1966).

John Ericson was born Joachim Alexander Ottokar Meibes in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1926. He was the son of Carl F. Meibes, a German chemist and Ellen Wilson, a Swedish actress and opera singer. Escaping from the Nazi regime, his family emigrated to the U.S. when he was three. At first, living in Detroit, they eventually settled in New York, where his dad (according to a 1955 newspaper article) found lucrative employment as president of a food extract company. After graduating from Newton High School, John enrolled at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, financially supporting his studies by working at a Walgreens drug store. Most sources, including Wikipedia, incorrectly cite his acting debut as being in 'Stalag 17' on Broadway, but Ericson himself stated (in a 1989 interview with Skip E. Lowe) that his career kick-started with the romantic wartime drama Teresa (Fred Zinnemann, 1951), filmed in Italy by Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Afterwards, he made the decision not to sign a studio contract for fear of being typecast as 'boy-next-door' types. On the strength of his performance in Teresa, producer/director José Ferrer offered Ericson not only what amounted to being the nominal lead in 'Stalag 17' (1951), but the opportunity to play an initially unsympathetic part as the slick, cynical gambler J. J. Sefton. The coveted film role was eventually assigned to William Holden, who won an Academy Award. Between 1954 and 1955, Ericson was under contract at MGM and made four films for the studio: Rhapsody (Charles Vidor, 1954) opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Vittorio Gassman, Green Fire (Andrew Marton, 1954), co-starring Stewart Granger and Grace Kelly, who had been in his class at the Academy. and the seminal Spencer Tracy Western Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955) as a nervy hotel clerk.

During the next three decades, John Ericson worked as a freelance actor. His wavy-haired good looks and athletic build were not lost on the industry. He co-starred with Barbara Stanwyck in Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller, 1957). His career continued mostly on television. He co-starred with Anne Francis in Honey West (1965), a short-lived series apparently modelled on the British series The Avengers (1961). It featured a crime-solving, judo-savvy lady detective (even wearing Diana Rigg-style jumpsuits) and her right-hand man. The show only lasted for 30 episodes, but has since gained a minor cult following. Ericson's frequent TV guest appearances included Rawhide (1959), Bonanza (1959), Burke's Law (1963), The FBI (1965) and The Invaders (1967). For the big screen, he went to Italy and Spain. There he starred in the Peplum Io Semiramide / Slave Queen of Babylon (Primo Zeglio, 1963) about Semiramis, a queen of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (Yvonne Furneaux). He also starred in the James Bond pastiche Agente S 03: Operazione Atlantide / Operation Atlantis (Domenico Paolella, 1965) and Spaghetti Westerns. In the U.S., he had leads in thrillers such as The Money Jungle (Francis D. Lyon, 1967) with Lola Albright, Westerns like Day of the Badman (Harry Keller, 1958) with Fred MacMurray, and Science Fiction B-graders like The Destructors (Francis D. Lyon, 1968) starring Richard Egan, and The Bamboo Saucer (Frank Telford, 1968), which was Dan Duryea's last film. Ericson also starred as the titular 1930s Depression-era gangster in Pretty Boy Floyd (Herbert J. Leder, 1960). He appeared in the Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Robert Stevenson, 1971) and posed for the nude centrefold in Playgirl magazine's January 1974 issue. On the stage, he played King Arthur to Kathryn Grayson's Guinevere in a 1967 production of the musical 'Camelot'. A reviewer commented that what Ericson lacked in the vocal department, he more than made up for by a 'masterful performance'. His dramatic theatrical credits included 'Richard III', 'Mr. Roberts' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire'. In his spare time, John Ericson took up painting landscapes and still lifes. He was also a sculptor and a keen amateur photographer. Until he died of pneumonia in 2020, he resided in New Mexico with his second wife, Karen Huston, whom he married in 1974. With his first wife, Milly Ericson Courye, he had two children, Brett and Nicole. John Ericson was 93.

Sources: I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

When did Europe go wrong? For decades, we thought the European project would disappear due to external threats… but we never imagined that this would happen because of the irresponsibility of its leaders, nor because of the inaction of its citizens. Nobody thought that Europe would cease to be the horizon that the rest of the world aspires to reach.

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When Led Zeppelin’s founding drummer, John Bonham, died due to an alcohol overdose in 1980, the classic-rock band broke up, and its three surviving members vowed to never reunite. Guitarist Jimmy Page, vocalist Robert Plant, and bassist John Paul Jones did so informally a few times, mostly for tribute events.

Welsh singer, best known for 1983 hit Total Eclipse of the Heart, had emergency intestinal surgery in May

Welsh pop star Bonnie Tyler is no longer in a coma but remains “very unwell” in intensive care at a hospital near her home in Faro, Portugal.

The 75-year-old singer received emergency intestinal surgery in May and was placed in an induced coma to aid her recovery.

At a time when tens of thousands of people flock each night to see Bad Bunny in Madrid and share millions of videos capturing his every move, it feels strange to think that on this very day, exactly 50 years ago, a concert took place that was likely attended by fewer people than those dancing each night in the Puerto Rican star’s casita — and yet may have changed popular music forever.

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