Bassey to celebrate 60 years of Bond at charity concert
DAME Shirley Bassey will headline a charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall celebrating 60 years of the James Bond films.
The 85-year-old superstar from Cardiff, who recorded the themes to Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker, will top the bill at The Sound Of 007 in Concert in October.
The show will be curated by fivetime Bond composer David Arnold and produced by Eon Productions.
It will feature Bond soundtrack artists such as Garbage, who recorded the theme to 1999’s The World Is Not Enough, and special guests including Brit Award-winner Celeste.
Each act will put their own spin on classic theme songs, backed by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and conducted by Nicholas Dodd.
The concert will take place on October 4 in a nod to the date of the world premiere for the first 007 film, Dr No, which was held on October 5 in 1962.
Further details about the artists and charity will be announced in due course.
Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said: “Music has always played a vital role in the success of the 007 series.
“Over the 60-year history, we have been blessed with the extraordinary talents of legendary composers and artists who have created the most powerful and moving musical contributions to our 25 films.
“The Sound Of 007 in Concert on October 4 will celebrate their tremendous achievements.”
Lucy Noble, artistic director of the Royal Albert Hall, said: “We could not be more honoured to host this landmark anniversary of one of the world’s greatest franchises.
“The Hall has forged an indelible association with 007 over many years and we are delighted to help them celebrate.”
The celebrations will continue in November with a series of in-concert screenings of recent Bond films with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performing the scores live to picture. The series will feature the in-concert premiere of Spectre alongside Skyfall and Casino Royale.
The Royal Albert Hall has been the site of a number of Bond premieres, most recently No Time To Die, which was attended by the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Tickets for The Sound of 007 in Concert will be available at 10am on Monday, August 1 from www. royalalberthall.com
Over the 60-year history, we have been blessed with the extraordinary talents of legendary composers and artists who have created the most powerful and moving musical contributions to our 25 films Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli
THE Welsh Government has announced that it will spend £65m to help move people out of temporary accommodation.
Climate Change Minister Julie James has announced a programme which they claim will bring more than 1,000 additional homes into use over the next 18 months.
Almost half will be long-term or permanent homes with the others offering good-quality homes suitable for use by individuals and families for a number of years.
It will fund the Transitional Accommodation Capital Programme (TACP) which can be used by local authorities and registered social landlords on a wide range of projects to create much-needed extra housing capacity across Wales.
Local authorities and registered social landlords will use the funding in a number of ways, including:
bringing unused and mothballed properties that would otherwise not be re-let back into use as homes for individuals and families;
remodelling existing accommodation;
converting buildings into goodquality accommodation; and
using modern methods of construction as a mediumterm form of housing on some sites as they are developed for permanent housing.
Climate Change minister Julie James said: “Throughout the pandemic we worked hard to provide accommodation for everyone who needed it.
“We made sure that no one was sleeping rough or facing homeless during a public health emergency.
“We now need to build on this and continue work to tackle and prevent homelessness by ensuring that incidents are rare, brief and unrepeated.
“We have successfully helped thousands of people into temporary accommodation over the last two-and-a-half years but many more are still going to our local authorities for urgent help.
“Our ambition is for everyone to have a safe, suitable, permanent home but our housing system is under significant pressure, that’s why we are building more social homes.
“Where people are in hotel or B&Bbased temporary accommodation, in particular, it can be difficult for them to move on with their lives.
“We need more high-quality interim accommodation options – places they can call their own – to allow people to get on with their lives, while we support them to find a permanent home.”
At the moment there are 8,000 people in temporary accommodation in Wales and about a quarter of them are in hotels and B&Bs.
The Welsh Government says that the funding will create 1,000 additional homes over next 18 months.
It is understood that the plan is for 400 homes by end of the year through bringing existing accommodation up to standard.
The minister added: “These projects will provide much-needed, good-quality accommodation to help ease the pressure on housing services in the medium term.
“This work will complement what we are already doing to build 20,000 more low-carbon permanent social homes this Senedd term.”
Our ambition is for everyone to have a safe, suitable, permanent home
Cimate Change minister Julie James