Category: Новини

Singer Matiu Walters grinned as he gazed out over 50,000 damp but delirious fans and said those magic words: “So, what’s up Eden Park?”While much of the world remains hunkered down, the band Six60 has been playing to huge crowds in New Zealand, where social distancing isn’t required after the nation stamped out the coronavirus. The band’s tour finale on Saturday night was billed as the largest concert in the world since the pandemic began.Equally momentous for a band which met while playing rugby at university was getting to play the first concert ever held at the storied Eden Park rugby stadium. And finding themselves at the apex of world music came as a twist for Six60, which has enjoyed unparalleled success in New Zealand but whose forays abroad have ended without the breakthroughs they sought.Saturday’s set by the five-piece band included powerful cameos by military musicians ahead of the nation honoring its war dead on Sunday, and Maori performers who stretched across the stage while the band switched to singing in the Indigenous language.One fan, Lucy Clumpas, found it a surreal experience to be surrounded by so many people after she spent last year living through endless lockdowns in Britain. “It’s very important for us as humans to be able to get together and sing the same songs together,” she said. “It makes us feel like we’re part of something,” Walters, the lead singer, said they desperately want their musician friends around the world to be able to play live shows again.”We know what it’s like to be in lockdown. It sucked. And we didn’t know if we’d be able to play gigs again,” he said in an interview before the show. “But we are fortunate, for a few reasons, here in New Zealand.”Guitarist Ji Fraser said the reception they received while on the road for their summer tour had been incredible.”It was amazing to see how fanatical people were, and excited about being out and seeing live music, and seeing something to drag them out of a long, brutal year,” he said. “It was very special.”Walters said they did worry that something could have gone wrong — that their gigs could have turned into super-spreader events. But he said there was not much to do other than play by the rules and follow the government guidelines.The band formed thirteen years ago after they started jamming in their rugby changing rooms, making their concert at the hallowed ground of the nation’s All Blacks rugby team feel like completing a circle.
The band had pushed for changes to civic rules to allow concerts at Eden Park, but not all the neighbors were happy.One who objected was former Prime Minister Helen Clark, who said at the time that the concerts would represent a “home invasion” of noise.”But the people wanted it. And the people spoke,” Walters said. The singer added that Clark would have been welcomed at the concert. “Six60 is for everyone. And maybe if she came and enjoyed herself, she’d have a change of heart.”Promoter Brent Eccles said they got permission to use the venue only at the last moment.”And we thought to ourselves, well, how crazy are we?” he said. “And the answer was, well, pretty crazy. So let’s do it.” It’s been a heady rise for a group which began as a hard-partying student covers band. Their style has evolved and remains difficult to define, blending elements of reggae, pop, rock and soul.Bass guitarist Chris Mac said their fans now span rich and poor, young and old. “We’re pretty lucky to have become the soundtrack of people’s lives. Weddings, funerals, birthdays, engagements,” he said, before breaking into laughter. “You know, gender-reveal parties, which are all the rage.”As the band’s popularity grew in New Zealand, it became a kind of sport for critics to knock them for being too bland. Walters said criticism of success remains a problem in New Zealand, and was something that annoyed him at the time. But he said it also energized the band. “We are very serious about the music,” he said. “It’s important for us to express an emotion and tell a story, and for our songs to be healing and magnetic for people. Because, it’s not a fluke that we’re playing to 50,000 people.”The band has been trying to get more recognition abroad, although six months spent in Germany and a U.S. record deal both ended in disaster, as recounted in a behind-the-scenes documentary about the band “Six60: Till The Lights Go Out.”But the band is ready to give it another shot, with a tour of Europe and the U.K. planned for November. They hope that by then, there will be many more places around the world where huge crowds can gather in song.
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A piece of copper that was struck by the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1794 and  was a prototype for the fledgling nation’s money was auctioned off for $840,000, considerably more than expected, an official said.Heritage auctions spokesman Eric Bradley said the “No Stars Flowing Hair Dollar” opened at $312,000 when it was put up Friday evening but “in less than a minute, intense bidding quickly pushed the coin to its final auction price of $840,000.”The coin, formerly owned by businessman and Texas Rangers co-chairman Bob Simpson, had been expected to sell for $350,000 to $500,000, Bradley said.This is the back of a piece of copper that was struck by the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1794 and was a prototype for the fledgling nation’s money. The item, which is known as the “No Stars Flowing Hair Dollar,” sold for nearly $1 million.While it closely resembles silver dollars that were later minted in Philadelphia, it gets its name because it is missing stars. Jacob Lipson of Heritage Auctions said earlier that starless coins are considered by collectors and institutions as “one-of-a-kind prototypes for the silver examples that would follow.” Known as a pattern, the front features the flowing hair portrait of Liberty and the date 1794, while the reverse side shows a small eagle on a rock within a wreath. Similar starless examples are part of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Numismatic Collection. The pattern was forgotten as the Mint continued the process of creating the nation’s first silver dollars. “Coin collecting lore states the unique rarity was excavated from the site of the first Philadelphia Mint before 1876,” Lipson said. That was how the coin’s first owner described its history at its first auction appearance in 1890.The pattern is corroded and not in perfect condition, Lipson said, likely because it was buried at the site of the original Mint. There are some scratches and other marks on its brown surfaces. It has traded hands eight times, according to the auction house.Simpson, 73, purchased it along with other patterns in 2008 to add to his large collection. “I think coins should be appreciated almost as artwork,” he said. “I have gotten more than enough joy from them.”
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Old machines are transformed into new robots in an exhibition that makes viewers think twice about the machines they use. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details. 
Camera: Roy Kim  Producer: Elizabeth Lee 
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Old machines are transformed into new robots in an exhibition that makes viewers think twice about the machines they use. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details. 
Camera: Roy Kim  Producer: Elizabeth Lee 
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Now that plans to create a European Super League comprising 12 of the continent’s elite clubs have collapsed, officials from the English, Italian and Spanish leagues are considering what to do in the aftermath.Six clubs from Britain (Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea), three from Spain (Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid) and three from Italy (AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus) signed up for the breakaway European Super League, whose formation was announced Monday.Hours after that announcement, however, several English teams announced they were no longer going to take part. The idea was completely dropped within 48 hours, driven largely by fan outrage.’Dirty dozen’Fans called the 12 teams in the Super League “the dirty dozen.” They were upset that teams would not have to win games to play in the league’s tournament — their places would be guaranteed. To play in the Champions League, teams must do well the year before.England’s Premier League is looking at possibly sanctioning club officials in the breakaway teams, The Associated Press reported. Officials are also looking at removing club executives from key league positions.The league could also consider expelling teams that try to break away.Tottenham fans protest the planned creation of a European Super League, outside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium ahead of the English Premier League football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton in London, April 21, 2021.Most of the British teams have apologized to fans.The Italian soccer federation said it would not punish Italian teams involved in the breakaway, saying it could not punish something that didn’t happen.The president of Spain’s LaLiga said Spanish teams would probably not be punished.”The most important thing is these clubs have been sanctioned by their own fans,” Javier Tebas said in Madrid on Thursday. “Rather than sanctions, we are looking at protective measures so that this doesn’t happen again. They haven’t abandoned LaLiga. They abandoned the idea of European competition.”European Super League organizers said the new competition would rival but not replace existing domestic leagues and European tournaments, such as the UEFA Champions League.Motivation? MoneySports finance analyst Borja Garcia of Britain’s Loughborough University said the primary motivation for the new league was money.”Football has never been a very good business for club owners until a few years ago,” Garcia told VOA. “But now, of course, comes the pandemic. Manchester United, Manchester City, Real Madrid — almost every club in Europe and around the world — are in massive debt. But the big clubs are in more debt because they have more salaries to pay. They depend more on audiences.”So, if I had to pick one [reason], I think it is indeed the level of debt that the pandemic has created in European football. But probably it is fair to say that that is not the cause of everything, but rather, an accelerator.”
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Russian Olympic medal winners in Tokyo this year and at the 2022 Beijing Games will be serenaded by Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s music, the country’s Olympic committee said on Thursday, as their national anthem is banned because of doping offenses.Russian athletes are barred from competing at major international events, including the Olympics, under the country’s flag and with their anthem until 2022 following a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) late last year.Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a gala concert of the winners of the 15th International Tchaikovsky Competition in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in Moscow, July 2, 2015.The ban was designed to punish Moscow for providing global anti-doping authorities with doctored laboratory data that could have helped identify drug cheats.Stanislav Pozdnyakov, president of Russia’s Olympic Committee (ROC), said in a statement that the music used at medal ceremonies for Russians competing as representatives of ROC will be a fragment of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1.”As of today, our Olympic team has all the elements of its identity,” said Pozdnyakov, a five-time Olympic medalist in fencing.”We have the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee with the colors of our tricolor, our official equipment — easily recognizable for both our compatriots and fans from other countries — without any inscriptions. And now we have a musical accompaniment.”In its guidelines on the implementation of the CAS ruling, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed that Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 will be played for all ceremonies.Many Russian athletes were sidelined from the past two Olympics, and the country’s flag was banned at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games as punishment for state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Sochi Games.Russia, which has in the past acknowledged some shortcomings in its implementation of anti-doping policies, denies running a state-sponsored doping program.
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