Tourist Tax - Bosses at Royal Opera House and Shakespeare’s Globe are among more than 300 business leaders calling on the chancellor to axe a so-called ‘tourist tax’. Alex Beard of the ROH and Stella Kanu of Shakespeare’s Globe have added their signatures to a letter appealing to Rachel Reeves to reintroduce tax-free shopping for tourists ahead of this month’s budget.
Business leaders, including those who run department store John Lewis and make-up giant Charlotte Tilbury, claim the tax is deterring some two million foreign visitors from coming to the UK, thereby diminishing their spend on British products, hospitality, and culture.
The letter reads: "In 2021, in the aftermath of the pandemic that had hit businesses like ours hard, the then chancellor Rishi Sunak scrapped the tax-free shopping scheme for tourists that had existed for decades. This decision came as a shock to those working in our sectors and many of us warned at the time that there would be a heavy price to pay. So it has proved. What has become known as the ‘tourist tax’ has turned into a spectacular own goal for the UK."
Hall of Fame - Ozzy Osbourne has been inducted as a solo artist into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Birmingham's 75-year-old Prince of Darkness received a standing ovation from an all-star band and the 20,000-capacity crowd in Cleveland, Ohio on Saturday. "I’d like to thank whoever voted me into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for my solo work. Thank you from the bottom of my heart," he declared.
The diverse group of inductees this year also included Mary J Blige, Cher, Peter Frampton, Foreigner, A Tribe Called Quest and the Dave Matthews Band. "My fans have been so loyal to me over the years. I cannot thank them enough", said Osbourne, who was inducted at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse arena.
ELO Goodbye - Jeff Lynne's Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) is set to say farewell with a final show next year on 13 July at London's BST Hyde Park. Festival organisers called the gig in 2025 a "final goodbye" from the band, which was founded in 1970 by Lynne and Roy Wood. "My return to touring began at Hyde Park in 2014," Lynne said. "It seems like the perfect place to do our final show. As the song goes: we're gonna do it One More Time." The band has just completed a farewell US tour.
In The Saleroom - One of the guitars that Rory Gallagher played throughout his career has been sold at auction for more than £889,000. Gallagher, widely regarded as one of the greatest guitarists of all time, bought the 1961 Fender Stratocaster for £100 in 1963. The guitar has been purchased by Live Nation Gaiety Ltd with a view of donating it to the National Museum of Ireland. It was one of a number of the Irish musician's instruments and other items being auctioned by the Gallagher estate.
Farewell - Paul Di'Anno, the original singer for heavy metal band Iron Maiden, has died at the age of 66. Born Paul Andrews, the musician featured on the band's first two albums, Iron Maiden and Killers, establishing them as a crucial part of the new wave of British heavy metal. He left the band in 1981 and was replaced by Bruce Dickinson. Di'Anno later admitted he had been partying "non-stop, 24 hours a day" and that the impact of his lifestyle "wasn’t fair to the band, the fans or to myself". RIP.
(Jim Evans)
