A unique sculpture inspired by heavyweight champion boxer Tyson Fury that’s made out of drainpipes has been unveiled on Morecambe’s seafront.
The contemporary artwork of the Wythshawe-born self-proclaimed ‘Gypsy King’ was displayed in Fury’s hometown at the Morecambe Bay Art Fair this weekend, and will soon be permanently-installed at Jo & Lee’s By The Sea cafe – which is on the site of the VVV gym and care where the Gypsy King used to train.
The sculpture was created by artist Anthony Padgett, who said the piece “depicts the essence of the punch – the key moment in boxing.”
Mr Padgett told the Lancaster Guardian: “It is great to have a sculpture depicting Tyson’s world achievement in Morecambe [and] also to have a contemporary artwork shows Morecambe is progressive in its views of art.
“I used to see Tyson Fury in the cafe but never spoke to him.
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“I hope he likes the work.”
He continued: “My contemporary art has a sense of fun and humour to it [and] the sculpture respects Tyson and his achievements, and celebrates him as a global personality of popular culture.”
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The contemporary artwork of the Wythshawe-born self-proclaimed ‘Gypsy King’ is displayed in Fury’s hometown of Morecambe / Credit: Instagram (Anthony Padgett – @artistdancerwriter)
While the unique art installation has understandably already captured the attentions of many visitors to the Lancashire seaside town, as well as boxing fans on social media, not everyone has had good things to say about it, with one Twitter user quipping: “Is this a joke? It’s a bit early for April fools isn’t it?”.
Another added: “Bet he’s thrilled with being likened to a drainage system.”
Another cleverly joked: “Tyson Fury’s career is really in the GUTTER [and] things have really gone down the DRAIN.”
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“Looks like a load of drainpipes hatched together,” another claimed.
Some people did decide to keep things more on the positive side however, with one adding: “l think it’s quite good [as] it’s not meant to be anything more than a talking point and a bit of fun.”
Robbie Williams is releasing a big budget biopic later this year – only it stars him as a monkey?…
Danny Jones
Robbie Williams has always been a true popstar but he’s never exactly played it paint by numbers, which is why learning that his upcoming biopic features him as a CGI monkey sounds much less random than it would be coming from anyone else.
There have been countless big-budget movies about rockstars and famous musicians even in just the past few years – One Love about Bob Marley, Back to Black about Amy Winehouse, Elvis and even the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic – but there is a single one we could name where the star is a monkey.
Announced this week, BETTER MAN will tell the story of Robbie Williams’ life and career right up until the present day and is set to be released this festive period.
The first trailer has now dropped too and whatever you make of the concept, visually at least, looks pretty good – only time will tell whether it’s a good film or not.
First trailer for the Robbie Williams biopic ‘BETTER MAN’, starring a CGI monkey as Robbie Williams.
The tagline for the film is, “Discover an extraordinary journey that can’t be told in an ordinary way” and as Williams addresses in the short teaser, starting by simply saying, “I know what you’re thinking? What’s with the monkey?”, they’ve certainly found a way to tell this story diferently.
In fact, although telling his story through the medium of a monkey wasn’t his idea to begin with and, as he and director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) told the likes of Heart Radio, there’s a few reasons for it.
First off, Robbie said of the film and its vision: “I want everything that I do from here on in to be slightly unusual, so that fits that narrative.”
“As humans, we care more for animals than we do for humans. So the audience is probably going to have more empathy for me as a monkey than they would’ve done for me as me.” That’s a fair point: a cute CGI monkey can definitely be rooted for, but it’s Gracey’s explanation that makes it sound most interesting.
As he puts it, the idea to make a furry version of the 50-year-old came from looking to reflect the hitmaker being “pushed on stage” like a “performing monkey” throughout his life, even when heavily under the influence of durgs and alcohol. But it goes much deeper than that.
“This is how he sees himself.” Director Michael Gracey explains why Robbie Williams is a monkey in #BetterManMovie – In select US theatres December 25. Everywhere in the US January 17. pic.twitter.com/GBSyFNfRe5
The Australian director, who also headed up fellow pop music icon P!nk’s autobiographical documentary, goes on to explain: “He was always putting on a performance at [his hometown] Stoke for the other kids, at home for his parents.
“It made it so powerful for me because I was like, You’re going to fall in love with this character, this little monkey. And you’re going to invest emotionally in this little monkey. As long as you set that contract at the start of the film, you’re in, and you will go with that monkey through the entire journey.”
Robbie will be played and largely voiced by Chesterfield-born actor Jonno Davies via motion capture technology, not unlike that used for the Planet of the Apes films, with the story spanning his fractious childhood to boy band success with Take That and then solo superstardom.
Still one of the best-selling and most well-known pop stars to ever do it, he will naturally take full control of the singing sections in the film as well as provide narration.
As he put its himself in the voiceover we’ve now heard, “I’m one of the biggest pop stars in the world but I’ve always seen myself a little less… evolved”. The stylistic choice has certainly split opinion already, with some calling it a “fantastic” approach from a “working class lad” who made it. Others have only found the immediate humour in it thus far.
idea for a film… the life of Robbie Williams told through the perspective of a CGI monkey pic.twitter.com/UhVtr4O8cX
Set to release on Boxing Day 2024, the blockbuster project from Paramount Pictures also features Steve Pemberton, Damon Herriman’ Raechelle Banno, Alison Steadman, Kate Mulvaney; Frazer Hadfield, Tom Budge and Anthony Hayes.
With a budget of a reported $110 million, the movie has actually already been debuted at the Toronto Film Festival and was met with pretty positive reviews, with The Guardian giving it four stars and labelling it a “surprisingly entertaining saga.”
As for us, we will say that we’d probably have watched a Robbie Williams biopic anyway, but let’s just say it being told through the lens of a monkey has very much piqued our interest.
There’s also another feature-length project still being made right here in Manchester that we’re very much keeping our eye on.
Featured Images — Paramount Pictures/Drew de F Fawkes (via Flickr)
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Aldi is looking to give someone free shopping for a year with its new ‘superfan card’
Emily Sergeant
Aldi has launched its first ever ‘superfan card’, and is looking to give one lucky person free shopping for a full year.
Did you know that, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the average UK household now spends, on average, £4,124 on groceries annually? For many families, that figure could be even higher too unfortunately – but for one lucky Aldi shopper, they soon won’t have to part ways with a single penny for 12 whole months.
That’s because the budget supermarket retailer has just launched a new ‘superfan card’ for the first time ever, and wants to celebrate its most loyal customer by offering them a year’s-worth of groceries for free.
Only one shopper will be able to claim the exclusive new card.
Aldi has launched its first ever ‘superfan card’ / Credit: Simon Hadley (via Aldi UK)
While Aldi is the UK’s cheapest supermarket, which tends to mean customers spend less groceries overall, the wide selection of seasonal Specialbuys on offer in the fan-favourite ‘middle aisle’ can often mean they end up spending more, which is why Aldi’s Superfan Card will be worth £5,000 so the winner can bag the exciting extras as well as the essentials.
Richard Thornton, who is the Communications Director at Aldi, is calling this a “once in a lifetime opportunity”, adding: “We know how passionate our customers are about Aldi, and we wanted to find a way to give something truly special back to Aldi’s biggest fan.
“We can’t wait to see the creativity and enthusiasm in the entries.”
The new card will give one lucky person free shopping for a full year / Credit: Aldi UK
All bargain-lovers need to do to be in with the chance of winning the new card is explain to Aldi judges – who will carefully review all submissions – in no more than 250 words they are the company‘s biggest fan and deserve to win a year’s worth of free shopping.
You just need to be over 18, and to email your name, age, hometown, and your entry to [email protected], before the deadline on Halloween (31 October) at 11:59pm.
Emily Sergeant -
6th December 2021 
