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The Londoner: Superstar Sheku Kanneh-Mason saved date for gig with college pal

Dave Benett
Dave Benett

Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a man of his word. Despite coronavirus chaos, the cellist who performed at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding is to keep a date agreed over two years ago to play a concert in Kensington tomorrow with a conductor friend from his Royal Academy of Music days.

“I’m thrilled to let you know that on Saturday 19 September I’ll be conducting concertsof Dvorjak’s Cello Concerto with my group Fantasia Orchestra and superstar cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason,” conductor Tom Fetherstonehaugh announced.

Kanneh-Mason and Fetherstonehaugh met age 13 at the Royal Academy of Music and have been friends since.

This is set to be Kanneh-Mason’s first post-lockdown live paying concert in London as the music world tries to get back on track.

It’s the start of a busy period for Kanneh-Mason, who is also aiming for a Christmas number one album as part of a “supergroup” featuring his six siblings and poems written by Michael Morpurgo and performed by Olivia Colman.

As for his Kensington concert, Fetherstonehaugh added “the gig was fixed two years a go and it so happens with corona pandemic it has become high profile all of a sudden”. Well, if your cellist has played at a royal wedding...

How Sasha beat ‘pig H’ in game of Chequers

(Alan Davidson/REX)
(Alan Davidson/REX)

As related in her diary, Sasha Swire, above, rushed to Chequers at the PM’s invitation in 2013, when her marriage was in trouble. Her husband Hugo was being a “pig” and she writes movingly about how the Camerons, especially David, brought her back to life. However, others present noted that in fact the Camerons had been under quite a lot of pressure to host her and that she was in high spirits that weekend, delighted she’d got one over on “H” as she, not he, was at Chequers with the Prime Minister.

B-word gaffe as French Vogue hails animal activist Pamela

(Dave Benett)
(Dave Benett)

Pamela Anderson has found her voice as a campaigner for animal and environmental rights, but in trying to praise her, poor French Vogue has come a cropper with English idiom. On their website the magazine lists (in English)“5 inspirational women dedicated to fighting for animal welfare” and praises her for taking on governments Unfortunately, it also describes Anderson as “the Baywatch bimbo”. Get with the times.

UK literary prize puts Booker under pressure

Paul Burston, of the Polari First Book Prize for LGBTQ writers, says entry is limited to UK and Irish-born writers because “other English-speaking countries have their own LGBTQ book prizes ... and UK authors are often overlooked or ineligible”. The Booker has announced four Americans on its shortlist of six. How long will its line hold?

SW1A

Skepta, possibly looking up Priti Patel (Getty Images for Greenwich Penin)
Skepta, possibly looking up Priti Patel (Getty Images for Greenwich Penin)

Grime star Skepta has sparked a flurry of speculation after posting a photo of Home Secretary Priti Patel with no caption. Patel was in a pink suit and was cocking an eyebrow across the benches in the House of Commons. Skepta has offered no explanation, but fans have filled the vacuum with theories about the root of Skepta’s admiration. That would be one crush we certainly didn’t expect.

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Labour must be feeling flush as the party is on a hiring spree, including for one “social listening” manager. The party, proudly “under new management” is on the hunt for at least five jobs, including a regional director for the South East. But it’s the role of the social listening manager that’s caught our eye. Paid to sit on Twitter? Not bad work if you can get it.