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House Used for Early Beatles Gigs Becomes Holiday Rental

A statue of The Beatles, featuring (L-R) musicians Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon, created by sculptur Chris Butler, in their native Liverpool. PAUL ELLIS / AFP
A statue of The Beatles, featuring (L-R) musicians Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon, created by sculptur Chris Butler, in their native Liverpool. PAUL ELLIS / AFP
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House Used for Early Beatles Gigs Becomes Holiday Rental

A statue of The Beatles, featuring (L-R) musicians Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon, created by sculptur Chris Butler, in their native Liverpool. PAUL ELLIS / AFP
A statue of The Beatles, featuring (L-R) musicians Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon, created by sculptur Chris Butler, in their native Liverpool. PAUL ELLIS / AFP

A Liverpool house famous for hosting some of The Beatles' first gigs in the basement has been given a new lease of life listed on Airbnb.
Mona Best, the party-loving mother of the band's original drummer Pete Best, opened the Casbah Coffee Club in the city's West Derby suburb in 1959, just before the group formed, AFP said.
The band went on to perform more than 40 times in the basement of the property, on a leafy residential street, after it had also hosted 13 gigs by John Lennon's first band The Quarrymen.
The Casbah started with Saturday night gigs, but soon opened Friday to Sunday. It closed three years later but has remained a tourist attraction for Beatles fans from around the world.
Now the property has been transformed into suites named after members of the Fab Four -- though one is named for Best rather than Ringo Starr, who became The Beatles' drummer in 1962.
Stuart Sutcliffe, the band's original bass guitarist, also gets a room named in his honor.
"The Beatles played here, The Beatles partied here and The Beatles slept here," Pete Best told Britain's Press Association (PA) news agency, which first reported on the change to a holiday rental listing.
The 82-year-old added it was intended as a "lasting tribute" to the world's most famous band.
He has been working on converting the house into rental accommodation since 2020, along with younger brother Roag, 62 -- the son of The Beatles' road manager Neil Aspinall.
'Unique'
The rooms have been decorated with a "sprinkling" of The Beatles, including photos of band members, posters and guitars on the wall.
The famous basement has been preserved from its 1960s heyday, with drum kits still on display and "John I'm back" scratched into the ceiling above the stage area.
The five suites above have been available to book since early August, with guests from different parts of Britain and the United States already staying over.
They are yet to post any reviews.
Under Airbnb's "what makes my home unique" section, the brothers have playfully entered: "The Beatles played and stayed here".
Prices for next month were starting at around £125 ($163) per night.
Roag revealed to PA that he was actually born in what is now the McCartney suite while most of the band were downstairs.
"So upon being born I was basically presented to The Beatles," he said.
He grew up in the property and moved out aged 24.
Roag noted McCartney has previously said he loved playing in the Casbah because "it was like playing a big house party" and "it felt like a safe place" to try new things.
Explaining the lack of a Starr suite, he added it was "about being authentic".
"The Beatles that performed and partied here were John, Paul, George, Pete and Stuart."

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Entertainment

Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar or Lady Gaga Could Make Grammys History

Lady Gaga. (AFP)
Lady Gaga. (AFP)
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Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar or Lady Gaga Could Make Grammys History

Lady Gaga. (AFP)
Lady Gaga. (AFP)

The music industry will hand out its highest honors on Sunday at the Grammy Awards, where Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga will battle for the most coveted album of the year prize and a chance to make history.

Trevor Noah is returning to host for a sixth time, which he says will be his last Grammys gig. The show will air live on CBS and stream on Paramount+ at 5 p.m. Los Angeles time (0100 GMT on Monday).

Any of the three artists could take home the album accolade during the ceremony in Los Angeles, awards experts say. None of the musicians has ever won the honor, which last year went to Beyonce for "Cowboy Carter."

A 'SUPER TIGHT' THREE-WAY RACE

"It's going to be super tight," Paul Grein, awards editor at Billboard, said of the album category.

Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican rapper who is scheduled to headline next month's Super Bowl ‌halftime show, is ‌in the running for "Debi Tirar Más Fotos." It would be the first Spanish-language ‌album ⁠to win in ‌the category since the Grammys began 68 years ago.

If Lamar wins for "GNX," he would be the first solo male rapper to win the award, Reuters said.

Only two hip-hop musicians have been honored in the category - female artist Lauryn Hill and the duo Outkast.

For pop singer Lady Gaga, the album prize would be the first of her celebrated career. She has never won any of the top four Grammy prizes despite more than two decades in the music business. This year, she is competing with the album "Mayhem."

Grein predicted the trophy would go to Lamar, who won five Grammys a year ago for the single "Not Like Us."

Current events ⁠may boost support for Bad Bunny, Grein said.

BAD BUNNY SKIPPED US SHOWS FOR FEAR OF FEDERAL RAIDS

The singer skipped the continental United States on ‌his recent concert tour, saying he feared federal agents carrying out US President Donald ‍Trump's immigration crackdown would show up to arrest his ‍fans.

His selection for the coming Super Bowl halftime show on February 8 also drew objections from critics who argued ‍the National Football League championship game's entertainment should be performed in English.

"I think the culture wars work in his favor," Grein said. "There are people who will vote for him in part - not only for this reason, but in part - as a rebuke to President Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric."

Lamar and Gaga are represented by Universal Music Group . Bad Bunny is signed by Puerto Rican label Rimas Entertainment.

Grammy winners will be chosen by the roughly 15,000 voting members of the Recording Academy — industry peers including artists, songwriters, producers and engineers — whose ranks have been revamped over the past seven years to increase ⁠diversity. About 1,000 Latin Grammys voters became eligible to vote this year, and 73% of members have joined since 2019.

Recording Academy Chief Executive Harvey Mason Jr. said the changes reflect the growing popularity of different types of music such as KPop and Afrobeats that now have fans around the world.

"For us, the academy, we had to keep up with that," he said. "We have to make sure we are responsible and we're honoring music regardless of where it comes from."

KPop will be represented in the song of the year category, an honor for songwriters. "Golden," from Netflix movie "KPop Demon Hunters," will face off with "APT.," a duet between KPop singer Rosé and Bruno Mars.

"APT." also will vie for record of the year, given to the performers and producers, against Lamar's "luther" collaboration with SZA and Gaga's "Abracadabra."

In the best new artist category, R&B and soul musician Leon Thomas is considered a frontrunner. He received six Grammy nominations in total including an album of the year nod for "Mutt." His competitors include ‌British soul-pop singer Olivia Dean and pop musician Alex Warren.

Scheduled performers include Sabrina Carpenter, Addison Rae and all eight best new artist nominees. Producers promised some surprise appearances among performers and presenters who have not been announced.

Entertainment

Movie Review: Jason Statham Sticks Close to the Formula as a Lethal Former Spy in ‘Shelter’

This image released by Black Bear shows Jason Statham, center, in a scene from "Shelter." (Black Bear via AP)
This image released by Black Bear shows Jason Statham, center, in a scene from "Shelter." (Black Bear via AP)
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Movie Review: Jason Statham Sticks Close to the Formula as a Lethal Former Spy in ‘Shelter’

This image released by Black Bear shows Jason Statham, center, in a scene from "Shelter." (Black Bear via AP)
This image released by Black Bear shows Jason Statham, center, in a scene from "Shelter." (Black Bear via AP)

Jason Statham lives in a Scottish lighthouse when we meet him in “Shelter” and that's a pretty good analogy for Statham's usual movie role these days: Tall, cold, alone, tough, quiet and only intermittently illuminating.

Statham may appear to be just a grim-faced lighthouse keeper, but he's really a hero laying low, like he was when he was cosplaying a construction laborer in “Working Man” and a honey collector in “The Beekeeper.” Statham is Hollywood's go-to guy for sidelined-waiting-to-pounce-again action stars. Gruff, with a heart of gold and a strong moral compass, he's our lighthouse: Protecting us from danger and guiding us to safety while being very, very distant and very beard-forward.

This time, you'll notice that the lighthouse isn't actually working, so Statham is just a dude off the grid. He has a lovely dog, so we know he's cool. He draws and plays chess, so we know he's smart and arty, too. But there's no internet, no Netflix. Just a lot of staring at the horizon in a big coat.

When a young woman who has been delivering his lighthouse with supplies suddenly needs his help, he's thrust back into the modern world. And it gets worse: A whole lot of folk want him dead. The hunt is on.

Turns out, Statham's character is a lethal former MI6 operative and he's part of a covert, extra-judicial conspiracy that goes straight up to the British prime minister. Has he been hiding out for a decade on a Scottish rock because he did something bad? Or good? (Remember, he has a sweet dog.)

Bodhi Rae Breathnach, looking not unlike a young Saoirse Ronan, plays the young girl and she's marvelous, a talent to watch. Bill Nighy plays a venal spycraft master who also is surprisingly good at computer coding. For his part, Statham is classic Statham, never getting out of first gear. His dog emotes more.

Statham has always been an artist who uses his fists to express himself and “Shelter” is all about letting that inner Picasso out. Some of the deaths he inflicts here are done by boat oar, martini glass stem, industrial hook, boulder, fire, fork, factory chain and nail gun.

Ward Parry's screenplay is really just a jumble of other action movie tropes, with plenty of military-speak like “kill on sight” and “eliminate” and he leans into the tired “True Grit” to “The Last of Us” theme of lone wolf and cub. “Stay down and hold on,” is some of our hero's best advice to his new ward.

The swiftness with which the girl and Statham bond is quite sudden. “Just promise me you're not going to die,” she wails in a line that only could exist in the movies. One says to the other: “I have to save you.” The other replies: “You saved me already.” Will anyone please save us from this drivel?

Director Ric Roman Waugh has a nice, gritty visual style and the fists and bullets land hard here, less stylish balletic and more thumpt thump. There's a car chase through the countryside that's all straining steel and revving engines and a sequence in a London nightclub — every action movie apparently needs one — that shows off close-quarter murder beautifully choreographed as clueless dancers sway.

“Shelter” is everything you expect a Jason Statham movie to be, no more and no less. Now we just wait until the next one, when the gruff but amiable dog surfing instructor next door turns out to have a secret past, an English accent and an ability to kill people with a nail gun.

Entertainment

‘One Battle After Another’ Leads BAFTA Nominations, ‘Sinners’ Also Recognized

Cast member Leonardo DiCaprio attends the London premiere for the movie "One Battle After Another" in London, Britain, September 16, 2025. (Reuters)
Cast member Leonardo DiCaprio attends the London premiere for the movie "One Battle After Another" in London, Britain, September 16, 2025. (Reuters)
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‘One Battle After Another’ Leads BAFTA Nominations, ‘Sinners’ Also Recognized

Cast member Leonardo DiCaprio attends the London premiere for the movie "One Battle After Another" in London, Britain, September 16, 2025. (Reuters)
Cast member Leonardo DiCaprio attends the London premiere for the movie "One Battle After Another" in London, Britain, September 16, 2025. (Reuters)

Action-packed dark comedy "One Battle After Another" led nominations for the BAFTA Film Awards on Tuesday, with vampire thriller and box office smash "Sinners" also widely recognized at Britain's top movie honors.

"One Battle After Another", in which Leonardo DiCaprio plays a washed-up revolutionary whose daughter is kidnapped, secured 14 nods, of which five were for its cast including DiCaprio and Chase Infiniti, who plays his daughter, in the leading acting categories. Their co-stars Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro were nominated in supporting acting categories.

The critically-acclaimed movie also secured a best director nod for Paul Thomas Anderson and is up for the awards' top prize, best film, alongside "Sinners", "Hamnet", "Marty Supreme" and "Sentimental Value".

'SINNERS' RECEIVES 13 NOMINATIONS, 'HAMNET' 11

"Sinners", celebrating blues music and Black culture in the Segregation-era US South, received 13 nods, including for actor Michael B. Jordan who plays ‌twins returning to ‌their hometown to set up a juke joint. Director Ryan Coogler was nominated in ‌the ⁠directing and ‌original screenplay categories while cast member Wunmi Mosaku is up for supporting actress.

"It's a great year for filmmaking, and I think what we see is that it's a year of really strong, bold storytelling," CEO of BAFTA Jane Millichip told Reuters.

"There's a group of movies that I would say are tackling quite big geopolitical subjects, and they're doing it through very different lenses...And then you have a group of movies which are much more personal."

"Hamnet", which fictionalizes the relationship between William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes and the death of their son, followed with 11 nods.

Jessie Buckley was nominated for leading actress for ⁠playing Shakespeare's wife, Agnes, while Paul Mescal received a supporting actor nod for his portrayal of the bard. Chloe Zhao was the only woman in the ‌best director category. Adapted from Maggie O'Farrell's bestselling 2020 novel of the ‍same name, the film follows the highs and lows of ‍their love story as well as the grief over the loss of their son Hamnet, which leads Shakespeare ‍to write "Hamlet".

"'Hamnet’ is the most nominated film directed by a woman in all BAFTA history. So that's something really positive," Chair of BAFTA, Sara Putt, said when asked about the recognition of female filmmakers this year.

"I think we're still on a journey. We're very pleased we have the intervention at long-listing stage to make sure that more films are being watched and therefore more films being directed by women are being watched. Cutting the cake in a different way, there are 46 films nominated and over a quarter of those films were directed by women."

COMPETITION FOR BEST ⁠DIRECTOR

Alongside Anderson and Coogler, Zhao faces competition from Josh Safdie for table tennis tale "Marty Supreme", Yorgos Lanthimos for absurdist comedy sci-fi "Bugonia" and Joachim Trier for Norwegian family drama "Sentimental Value" for the best director prize.

"Marty Supreme" secured 11 nominations in total, including expected recognition for Timothee Chalamet in the title role.

The leading actor category also includes Robert Aramayo for playing a Tourette syndrome campaigner in "I Swear", Ethan Hawke as lyricist Lorenz Hart in "Blue Moon" and Jesse Plemons for "Bugonia", in which his character kidnaps a female pharmaceuticals boss, played by Emma Stone, believing she is an alien.

Stone was recognized in the leading actress category, alongside Rose Byrne for her portrayal of a mother whose life is unravelling in "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You", Kate Hudson for "Song Sung Blue", the story of a Neil Diamond tribute band, and Renate Reinsve for "Sentimental Value".

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande were snubbed in the acting categories for their performances in "Wicked: For Good".

The musical sequel was only nominated for ‌costume design and makeup and hair, although that was better than the Academy Awards, where it has scored zero nods. Its predecessor received seven BAFTA nominations.

The BAFTA Film Awards will be handed out at a ceremony in London on February 22.