Repair bills could force hundreds of UK churches to close within five years

Hundreds of Britain’s churches may be forced to close in the next five years as the cost of maintaining heritage buildings becomes unmanageable, a conference at the V&A in London has heard.Many of the UK’s 20,000-plus listed places of worship contain important heritage treasures, such as stained glass windows, and monuments of historic significance. They are also hubs for community groups and social action projects.But, according to a survey by the National Churches Trust, one in 20 churches say they will definitely or probably not be used as a place of worship by 2030. Rural churches are most at risk, with about 900 in danger of closing in the next five years

London museum identifies black Waterloo veteran in rare 1821 painting

He fought in the Napoleonic wars and is one of only nine Black soldiers known to have received the Waterloo Medal, the first British medal awarded to soldiers regardless of their rank.Yet the story of Pte Thomas James has been overlooked for centuries.Now the National Army Museum in London has identified James as the likely subject of an “extraordinarily rare” painting from 1821, which it has attributed to the artist Thomas Phillips, whose more typical sitters were Georgian luminaries such as the Duke of Wellington and Lord Byron.The portrait will be unveiled to the public on Tuesday at the museum’s “Army at Home” gallery in Chelsea, where it will be placed on permanent display to highlight the service of James and other Black soldiers during the Napoleonic wars.“There’s this misconception that there weren’t any Black soldiers at Waterloo,” said the museum’s art curator, Anna Lavelle

‘I was working as a cook when it went to No 1’: how Norman Greenbaum made Spirit in the Sky

‘My label said a four-minute single with lyrics about Jesus would never get played on radio. But, in 1969, the song sold two million copies. It’s now been No 1 in three different decades’Spirit in the Sky started as an old blues riff I’d been playing since my college days in Boston, but I didn’t know what to do with it. After I moved to LA, a guy I knew came up with a way of putting a fuzzbox inside my Fender Telecaster, which created the distinctive sound on Spirit in the Sky.I’d come across a greeting card with a picture of some Native Americans praying to the “spirit in the sky”

I can’t stop watching videos of people discovering Beds Are Burning by Midnight Oil. Send help

Oh the pleasant pain of waiting impatiently for someone to understand the point! Oh the power of dramatic irony; the smug joy of knowing something they don’t.Oh how I wallowed in these feelings and more, when YouTube sucked me into a genre I had previously known nothing about: First Time Hearing videos, where people film themselves watching the music video of a song they’ve never heard before and grace viewers with their impromptu reactions, thoughts and facial expressions.Even before noticing the six-figures-plus viewing counts and the apparently endless number of people vying to deliver more, I instantly clocked all the trappings of the very best attention economy traps. You know: the immediate, certain knowledge that – despite your best intentions, growing hunger, thirst and backpain; despite the increasingly urgent pleas of your neglected children – you’re just going to slump there swiping your finger for hours until your higher brain finally kicks in.The first one my algorithm mugged me with was from US rapper Black Pegasus, who told us he was listening for the first time to Tim Minchin’s song Prejudice

‘London could 100% compete with Cannes’: Aids charity UK gala debut honours Tracey Emin

It’s recognised for its pomp, the celebrity supporters and the fabulously glamorous locations, but for the man behind the amfAR gala, an A-list charity roadshow that rolled into London for the first time this weekend, the event is deeply personal.AmfAR – the American Foundation for Aids Research – is a nonprofit group that emerged in the 1980s to support research into HIV and Aids.“I’m an HIV-positive man. I’m lucky to be alive because of organisations like amfAR,” the foundation’s incoming CEO, Kyle Clifford, said.“I had an Aids diagnosis, and nobody in my life knew that until recently, including my family

Champagne, celebs and artefacts: British Museum hosts first lavish ‘pink ball’ fundraiser

There will be champagne, of course, and dancing, fine Indian food served alongside the Parthenon marbles and cocktails mixed in front of the Renaissance treasures of the Waddesdon bequest. And everywhere – from the lights illuminating the Greek revival architecture, to the carpet on which guests arrive, to the glamorous outfits they are requested to wear – a very particular shade of pink.When the British Museum throws open its doors on Saturday evening for its first “pink ball”, it will not only be hosting an enormous and lavish party, but also inaugurating what its director, Nicholas Cullinan, has called a “flagship national event” that he hopes will become as important to his institution’s finances as it will to the London elite’s social calendar.Eight hundred invited guests have each paid £2,000 to party alongside some of the world’s most sensational artefacts and a roll call of bigwigs from the worlds of fashion, art and culture: Naomi Campbell and Alexa Chung, Miuccia Prada and Manolo Blahnik, Sir Steve McQueen and Sir Grayson Perry and Dame Kristin Scott Thomas.As well as glitz, however, there will be brass