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Manchester rapper Aitch is doing a charity skydive for Down Syndrome awareness

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 22nd March 2023

Aitch is to brave a whopping 15,000ft free fall as he takes on a charity skydive in the name of Down Syndrome awareness.

You may remember that the chart-topping rapper – real name Harrison Armstrong, who proudly hails from Moston in North Manchester – became an ambassador of the Down’s Syndrome Association (DSA) back in October last year in honour of his sister Gracie, who has Down Syndrome.

The 23-year-old’s role as an ambassador came after he made a generous donation from the budget of his music video for his track ‘My G’ – which is dedicated to his little sister, affectionately known as ‘G’ – to the charity, with the rapper describing the song as the most important track on his debut album, Close to Home.

Aitch said at the time of becoming an ambassador that there was “nothing more important in the world” to him than Gracie, and that’s why the role meant so much to him.

And now, he’s taking his support one step further – and a big step at that.

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As this week is Down Syndrome Awareness Week here in the UK, the BRIT Award-winner has decided to take the leap and will be bravely free falling in tandem with an instructor from a plane that’s 15,000ft above the ground this month, all to show just how important Gracie is to him and his family.

Down Syndrome Awareness Week aims to raise awareness about what Down Syndrome is, what it means to have Down Syndrome, and how people who have Down Syndrome play a vital role in our lives and communities.

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Aitch will be skydiving alongside his Dad, and successful influencer and former Love Island contestant, Joanna Chimondes – who is also an ambassador for the charity.

“I’m buzzing to jump out of a plane for World Down Syndrome Day,” Aitch said.

“My Dad will be doing it with me, and we’ll be raising awareness for a cause that’s close to me and my family”.

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Carol Boys – Chief Executive of the DSA – says that she’s “extremely grateful” to Aitch for agreeing to take on such a big challenge, adding: “Aitch has already done a fantastic job of raising awareness and understanding of Down Syndrome among his fans and followers.

“But to actually jump out of a plane to raise money to help us continue our vital work, is just amazing.”

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Aitch has set up a dedicated JustGiving fundraising page for his skydive, and you can find out more and make a donation here.

Featured Image – DSA

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Has Liam Gallagher just casually confirmed that a new Oasis album is coming?

Danny Jones Danny Jones

Liam Gallagher is playing his usual social media mind games to perfection as it looks like he might have just revealed that a new Oasis album is on the way.

Keeping close watch on his social media needs to be someone’s full-time job, honestly.

The younger Gallagher sibling and his older brother Noel have finally patched things up after a decade and a half and barring a big bust-up on the first day of their upcoming reunion shows, the world will soon be able to see them back touring again next summer.

A comeback on its own was something we never thought we’d actually live to see come to fruition but now it looks like not only will be once again seeing the Burnage boys performing their many hits but they may or may not have been working on a new Oasis album. It all started back in September, actually.

Liam, 52, has been enjoying some playful back-and-forth with Oasis fans ever since the comeback was confirmed in August and the talk of new/unreleased music has been rumbling for a while.

Responding to a fan on 7 September, who asked point blank if it was true that a new album was on the way, “Yep it’s already finished.”

Then, as the days rolled into November, LG began swapping out the usual ‘RASTAS’ and ‘BUMBALCART’ tweets with two very random on-brand and what we presumed were merely innocuous words: “SPIRITUAL” and, most recently, “CELESTIAL”.

For a man who’s said the word ‘biblical’ more times than he’s had hot dinners, we didn’t make too much of it initially, but it was in his response to other fans on Saturday, 2 November and earlier this week that’s started to grab attention, even responding to a so-called leak about the number of the track listing.

As always, take this stuff with a big ol’ pinch of salt.

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All that being said, the last time he did this sort of stuff it was about the support acts for the Oasis reunion tour and he wasn’t lying then, so who knows? Maybe we really are going to get the long-awaited eighth album from Oasis for the first time since 2008.

Elsewhere, the frontman has been joking that he and Noel are practically the best of friends nowadays and almost pretending that there was never any bad blood, adding that he’ll be on his “best behaviour” when they head out on the road for their first tour date at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff in July.

In the meantime, lots of fans are now in the awkward position of having to sort out new plans after more than 50,000 tickets purchased through resellers were cancelled and re-listed.

Liam has also made it clear he’d much rather keep the Oasis reunion train rolling after the ‘Live ’25 World Tour’ ends than return to a solo career – as for Noel, he could always go back to his High Flying Birds project or maybe even switch industries…

‘Game’s gone’: Manchester City had an unexpected commentator in the Champions League last night – Noel Gallagher

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Raph_PH (via Flickr)/Drew de F Fawkes (via Wikimedia Commons)

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Some of the very best memes about Gary Barlow’s ‘massive’ son

Danny Jones Danny Jones Best Gary Barlow's son memes

We don’t know why the internet does what it does sometimes, all we can tell you is that on occasions like this when seemingly the entire country is making jokes and some truly incredible memes about Gary Barlow’s ‘massive’ son, we’re just glad.

In case you’ve been living under a rock – or in his case, a planet – Gary Barlow has gone viral after sharing what clearly thought was an unassuming family picture on social media.

Well, to be more accurate, his son Daniel has gone viral due to the seemingly enormous height difference between him and his dad which, naturally, has become the funniest thing in about a decade by UK standards.

The British sense of humour is elite, we all know that, but when we tell you we’ve been literally streaming tears reacting to the endless flood of memes about Gary Barlow’s big son, we’re doing so through uncontrollable fits of laughter. Here are some of the very best we’ve come across:

Honestly, typing this out has been more of a challenge than anything I’ve ever written, mainly due to the convulsive and all-consuming chuckles.

We were today years old when we learned that there’s a word for the giggles, by the way: the technical term is ‘gelastic seizures’, so feel free to enjoy that bonus fact.

Anyway, back to the nonsense.

There’s a somewhat small comfort in knowing that while the online landscape is full of very negative things going on right now, it can still be an escape for simple-minded folks like us to laugh at a pretty tall kid from Cheshire.

For context, the 24-year-old Barlow child isn’t anywhere near as big as you’re probably thinking; as far as we can tell, it’s more a case of he’s just taller than his below-average height popstar dad.

According to our very intense research (that definitely didn’t take us less than a minute before we started scrolling through the memes again), Dan Barlow clocks in at around 6’2″ and Gary is roughly 5’7″.

Sorry to spoil the party and shatter the illusion. We can all just forget that bit and keep carrying on like Gary Barlow’s wife Dawn Andrews gave birth to a ‘giant’ if you like?

Oh, sod it – here’s a few more:

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Honestly, just go on Twitter (no, not X; this is peak old-school Twitter comedy at its best) and look on the ‘Gary Barlow’ trending feed and take a few minutes, or an hour, to p*ss yourself at the endless wave of ridiculous memes about a boy who is basically just a bit taller than his dad.

As for the Take That star himself, the 53-year-old is yet to comment on the whole situation, probably because it’s utterly ridiculous but still, crack a joke would’ya, Gaz?

Brits are the funniest people in the universe. FACT. We also hope it goes without saying that this is very tongue-in-cheek; there is no sizeism or offence intended here whatsoever and he can see the sunny side of this sheer silliness.

Daniel Barlow just happens to be taller than the man who wrote the absolute banger that is ‘Relight My Fire’, so they’re both winners if you ask us. Happy meming!

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Image — Gary Barlow (via Instagram)

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