Showbiz22.02.2008 - Tom Keenan first ar­rived on the island of Tenerife almost 28 years ago and slept on the beach in Puerto De La Cruz with nothing but his guitar…

Every day he would sit outside a little café when one day the owner, a Belgian gentleman asked Tom “Why do you sit here every day, why don’t you come inside? Tom re­plied “because I have no money”. The gentleman replied “come inside and I will give you breakfast every day and when you get a job you can pay me back”.
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ShowbizPlaya de las Americas - 12.02.2008 - Soul music is the product of ever-developing social conditions and a variation of musical influences which started way back in the mid-1600s with the arrival of African slaves in North America, and as they toiled in the fields the slaves tried to lessen their misery by singing their traditional African folk songs. These folk songs changed form to become ‘African spirituals’ when the black workers started to convert to Christianity, but by the late 1800s spirituals had mostly been displaced by gospel songs. more...

Showbiz22.12.2007 - Our showbiz reporter Barbara Law was in the UK recently and met up with some of the musicians from the Big Band days – so time for a look back! It was in the early 50’s that the then Head of Light Entertainment BBC North felt that the establishment of a resident orchestra in Manchester was justified. So a very distinguished London Musical Director Ray Martin was invited to form an orchestra using mainly musicians from London.
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Showbiz24.11.2007 - A single engine light aircraft ploughed into a cornfield in a snowstorm a few miles from Clear Lake, Iowa, on Tuesday February 3rd 1959. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) died instant­ly, along with the pilot Roger Peterson who was only 21.

Unknown to his passengers, Peterson was partially deaf, suffered from vertigo and panic attacks, and was not fully qualified for night flying. Hitting a sudden snow flurry shortly after take-off, Peterson panicked and misread his instrument panel. In the mistaken belief that he was climbing, he flew the plane nose-down at 125 mph into a field of frozen stubble.
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