Northern Irish DJ Fergie back on home turf

 

BY DONNA MCGARRY – donna@ragazine.co.uk

IT is safe to say that most of us get that inner cringe feeling when we hear someone from Northern Ireland speak on the radio or TV. The unmistakable twang usually sparks the dreaded question ‘Oh no, do I sound THAT bad?’

We’ve been lucky enough to export some of the country’s finest across the media spectrum to represent our dodgy accent and no-one has done us more proud than dance music DJ, Fergie who is most famous for taking Radio 1 by storm with his controversial weekly show.

There is no denying that Fergie, better known as Robert Ferguson to friends and family, has an impressive CV spanning over ten years playing to music lovers worldwide. Gigging across the globe in places like Hong Kong, Berlin and the clubber’s paradise that is Ibiza, this Larne native could be considered a DJ veteran at only 28.

Boris Eyes a London win

FORMER journalist Boris Johnson looks set to become London’s new Conservative mayor.

Early indicators suggest that the blond Tory will replace Labour’s Ken Livingston, on the day that saw Labour suffer a crushing defeat in many local council elections across England and Wales.

Tonight’s Evening Standard has called the mayoral election in Johnson’s favour.

The paper has reported on Boris’s over-whelming majority of first preference votes, making it a cert that he will be installed as the city’s next mayor.

Focus: Northern Ireland, immigration nation?

BY ROBYN CLARE SCOTT - robyn@ragazine.co.uk

FOR decades Northern Ireland was hardly the first choice of destination for foreign travellers, but, with the advent of the peace process, Ulster has finally begun to draw visitors from across the globe.

After enduring over forty years of sectarian violence and civil conflict, Northern Ireland has started to gradually put the troubled past behind it, hesistantly becoming a multi-cultural society.

Much of this change has been the result of the ongoing peace process, which last year has led to the well publicised restoration of devolved government, led by the so-called ‘chuckle brothers,’ Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness.

Whereas before Northern Ireland was made up almost solely of the two warring Protestant and Catholic traditions, it has a newfound stability and as result gained a surprisingly large number of immigrants.

R.I.P. Joy Division

MAY 2nd 1980, High Hall, Birmingham University, a band played together for the final time.

It was a highly acclaimed performance and one of such significance it is hard to believe it would be their last.

This was the final performance of JOY DIVISION.

Just over two weeks later lead singer Ian Curtis would be found hanged. He was 23 years old.