News: Pet Shop Boys Announce The Release Of "A Man From The Future"

 

The Pet Shop Boys are pleased to announce the forthcoming album release of  "A Man From The Future", along with a special listening and conversation event in Manchester to mark the occasion.

Created in collaboration with Alan Turing biographer, Andrew Hodges, and performed by Pet Shop Boys and the Manchester Camerata Octet with narration by Juliet Stevenson and string arrangements by Sven Helbig, the work explores eight significant chapters in the life and death of Alan Turing, the pioneering British mathematician and cryptanalyst who laid the foundations of modern computing. The work has been revised and updated since its first performance at the BBC Proms in 2014. This new version, produced by Pet Shop Boys and Sven Helbig, will be released as an album on October 9th., via Parlophone Records. It is now available to pre-order in various formats at this link: AMFTF

Pet Shop Boys and Andrew Hodges will take part in a listening and conversation event for “A man from the future” on Thursday, 8th.,  October at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester which will feature a full playback of the album followed by a discussion about the work by Pet Shop Boys and Andrew Hodges. Tickets for the event go on sale on Monday, 7th., September at 10am BST via the link below. The conversation will also be filmed and made available online shortly afterwards.

News: Simple Minds Announce Their Brand New Studio Album

Simple Minds announce their brand new studio album ‘Sacrosanct’ with today’s release of it’s first single "Beginner Boys". The album will arrive on 29th January 2027 and is available to pre-order right now!

 

The North American leg of their hugely successful Global Tour in 2025, inspired Kerr and Burchill to draw on their art rock and new wave roots, after witnessing fans in cities they’d never before played, react ecstatically to early songs such as "Sons and Fascination". This atmosphere prevails throughout Sacrosanct, and its eight brilliantly crafted songs that have both a simplicity and an ethereal directness to them.

The album finds the lifelong collaborators on supremely confident form, on one of their most vital albums in decades; one which recaptures the magic and majesty at the very heart of Simple Minds.

Sacrosanct is an artistic triumph and the third, alongside Walk Between Worlds and Direction of the Heart, in an emphatic trilogy.

The metalwork on the album artwork comes from a collaboration between Simple Minds and Glasgow-born sculptor Andy Scott, who has reimagined the band’s logo in steel. Scott was awarded an OBE in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours for services to sculpture and fine art.

A lifelong fan who first saw the band at Glasgow's Tiffany's in 1982, Scott builds his large-scale outdoor works using a distinctive welded assembly technique, composing each form from thousands of hand-cut steel sections. He is best known for The Kelpies, the pair of 30-metre horse heads at Falkirk — the largest equine sculptures in the world.

 

Sacrosanct Track List: 

 

1. Elysium 

2. King Of The Underworld

3. Beginner Boys

4. Jerusalem (State Of Mind)

5. Our Secrets Are The Same

6. Songs

7. Alive In This Moment

8. The Next Right Thing 

New Music: Beginner Boys

           

Simple Minds started off in Glasgow way back in 1977 and the group's two longtime members, singer Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill, are about to celebrate their 50th anniversary nxt week and will publish their joint memoir Our Secrets Are The Same. But now it's time to share the band's new single "Beginner Boys" taken from their forthcoming album Sacrosanct. Kerr says that the brooding lead single "Beginner Boys" is about watching his grandsons grow up, "how strength, tenderness, courage, and gentleness might still belong together, even when the wider culture around them can send mixed signals. It's less a statement than a question I hope they'll spend their lives answering for themselves." 

New Music: The Ballad Of Terry Fox

            

Singer Bryan Adams has released a new song, "The Ballad of Terry Fox," and an accompanying music video that celebrates the Marathon of Hope runner. The song will be featured in the upcoming documentary about Fox, Run Terry Run and also in his forthcoming album "How's It Goin." The film details Fox's journey with losing his right leg to osteosarcoma and his run from St. John's to raise money and awareness for cancer research. "I remember Terry’s run back in 1980 when I was on tour in Canada playing 200-capacity clubs," Adams said in a press release. “I was 20 years old and I think Terry was a year older than me." "When he stopped near Thunder Bay on Sept. 1, I had just played in Ottawa, and his run was all over the news," he continued. "Thinking back, it was a pivotal time in Canada. Without knowing it, Terry gave our slightly fractious country a ‘something' and ‘someone' that everyone could agree on and unite behind."The song's lyrics detail Fox's run and his dream of finding a cure for cancer: "The finish line was in his mind, not a city on a map," Adams sings. Fox ended his marathon in Thunder Bay, Ont., after cancer spread to his lungs. He died 10 months later at 22. Sean Menard, who directed the film, shared that "Bryan is a legendary storyteller, and his words paired with Terry’s story on screen felt incredibly powerful. To have one Canadian icon write a song about another is truly special. Given the political climate while I was editing the video, I often found myself deeply moved with Canadian pride." Run Terry Run will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

News: Pet Shop Boys Announce A New Recording Of "A Man From The Future" Will Be Premiered On BBC This October

Made in collaboration with Turing's biographer, Professor Andrew Hodges. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, it was first performed it at the Royal Albert Hall in 2014, as part of the BBC Proms, with the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC Singers. For this new version, both the text and the music have been revised.

BBC Radio 6 Music will broadcast the 2026 edition on Sunday 4 October, within Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone (8–10pm) and Maconie will also speak to Tennant, Lowe and Hodges about the reworking, including their approach to combining electronic and orchestral music.

A man from the future will then air on BBC Radio 3 later the same evening, within Unclassified (11.30pm–12.30am), with Pet Shop Boys and Hodges joining presenter Elizabeth Alker in the studio to discuss the original performance and its revision. After that, both broadcasts will be available on BBC Sounds for 30 days afterwards.

The piece follows Turing's life chronologically across eight parts: his school days and early interest in mathematics, his time at Cambridge, his work breaking the German Enigma machine's codes during the Second World War, his role in the invention of the digital computer and his early predictions about artificial intelligence, his trial and conviction for a homosexual relationship, his death in 1954, the royal pardon granted to him in 2013, and his lasting influence.

The duo explain the piece was intended as a tribute to Turing's life and treatment. "Our motive in creating this work was to make a musical memorial to Alan Turing, who gave so much to his country and the world and was rewarded for it by being prosecuted for his sexuality. In both his professional and private lives, he was ahead of his time."

Lorna Clarke, BBC Director of Music adds: "When Pet Shop Boys debuted A man from the future at the BBC Proms twelve years ago, audiences were treated to an ambitious and moving tribute to the life and legacy of Alan Turing."

The 2026 recording is co-produced by Pet Shop Boys and German composer Sven Helbig, who also worked on the original 2014 orchestrations. This version leans further into electronic production, alongside a more intimate string arrangement from Helbig. Olivier-winning actress Juliet Stevenson, who appeared in the 2014 Royal Albert Hall performance, returns to deliver narration adapted from Hodges' biography, Alan Turing: The Enigma, which Hodges has updated for this revision. Manchester Camerata Octet perform the strings, with Manchester Grammar School choir also featured.

In Memoriam: The Iconic Artist "Yayoi Kusama" Has Died Aged 97

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who splashed her signature polka dots on paintings, sculptures and museum installations around the world, has died, she was 97. In a statement issued on Wednesday, her representative David Zwirner said Kusama passed away from multiple organ failure at a Tokyo hospital on August 14. 

“She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul,” the studio’s statement said. “We will carry forward Kusama’s wishes and, through art, continue to bring hope and strength for the future to people around the world.”

Kusama, one of Japan's most respected contemporary artists, was widely exhibited around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Museum Ludwig in Germany.

Repetitive motifs were her trademark, in various shapes, resembling netting, swirls or worms, but most often dots, dancing proudly on her canvases, or as sparkling balls or dots of light in her installations, in all their vibrant psychedelic glory.

"I want to create a thousand paintings, maybe two thousand paintings, as many as I can draw," she said in her childlike but matter-of-fact tone. "I will keep painting until I die." Kusama insisted she drew the way she saw the world: covered with spots, part of the hallucinations she said she had from childhood. 

She was in and out of psychiatric institution for decades, although her sickness did not hold her back as she was one of the first Japanese women to go to New York to pursue her art, in 1957. Although soft-spoken and shy in her mannerisms, Kusama was always unabashedly bold in the assertion of her dotty vision, not only in sticking to the style for decades but also in making it accessible to the masses.

In her later years, as the times caught up with her art, she enjoyed fame. She signed on with fashion brands like Louis Vuitton as well as other licensed products like teacups, T-shirts and key chains with her illustrations, including replicas of her likeness that were used in show windows and other marketing. In 2008, Christie's auctioned her work for $5.8 million. In 2016, she won the most prestigious award Japan gives its artists, the Order of Culture.

Kusama was called pop, avant-garde, feminist, just to name some of the categories thrown at her, most of which Kusama brushed off as not quite representative of her art. She was born in a middle-class family but felt misunderstood, as her parents wanted her to simply get married. They wanted to buy her kimono, not paints and brushes. She knew she had to get away. She chose America.

In New York, the fad was "action painting," characterized by dribbles, swooshes and smears, not dots. She suffered years of poverty and obscurity. But she kept painting dots. She put circles of paper on people’s bodies, and once a horse, in "happening" anti-war performances in the late 1960s, which got some people arrested for obscenity but helped get media attention for her art. 

Over the years, Kusama made quirky but stunningly celebratory works like "Macaroni Girl," a female figure plastered with macaroni, which expresses the fear of food; "The Visionary Flowers," giant sculptures of twisting tulips, and"“Mirrored Corridor," a room with mirrors that delivers an illusion of a field of phallic protrusions speckled with dots. Kusama has also made films and published several novels, said she wasn’t sure where she got her ideas. She just picked up her brush and started drawing. 

Rest In Power Kusama.

In Memoriam: The Legendary British Actor "Tim Curry" Has Died Aged 80

The legendary and prolific British stage, screen and voice actor, the beloved Tim Curry has died aged 80. He was best known for his starring roles in the cult "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", "Clue", "It" and "Muppet Treasure Island".

A cause of death was not immediately available, though Curry had suffered from several health issues since a severe stroke in 2012 left him unable to walk.

Best known for his role as Frank-N-Furter, the "sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania", in the cult musical comedy The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Curry was considered one of the most charismatic performers of his generation.

Born in Cheshire, England, on 19 April 1946, Curry began his professional acting career in a 1968 West End production of the rock musical "Hair" shortly after graduating from the University of Birmingham. He followed that up with roles in stage performances of Shakespeare, Brecht and Stoppard, before the subversive camp classic Rocky Horror launched him to worldwide stardom. It is still considered a classic of musical cinema and continues to run in limited release to this day, making it the longest-running film release of all time.

Other memorable big screen roles include Rooster Hannigan in Annie, Dr. Yevgeniy Petrov in The Hunt for Red October, Hector in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers.

Beyond Rocky Horror, Curry also made quite the lasting impression in the 1990 miniseries It, based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. He played the main antagonist Pennywise the Clown, and scared an entire generation of children in the process. Curry continued to act on stage throughout his career, with a Tony-nominated performance as Mozart in 1981's Amadeus. Other memorable roles followed in The Pirates of Penzance, The Rivals, My Favourite Year  which earned him a second Tony nomination and Spamalot, the stage adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail in which he played King Arthur. That role earned him his third Tony nomination.

Following his stroke in July 2012, Curry pivoted to voice acting. Among his voice acting projects were FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Peter Pan & the Pirates - with the latter winning him an Emmy Award.

Curry, who never married and had no children, was deeply private about his personal life. However, he wrote in his 2025 memoir, "Vagabond", that he was convinced to tell his story thanks to so many moving encounters with fans.

Rocktrospectiva: Flowered Up's Biggest Album "A Life With Brian" Turns 35

Released on 26 August 1991 "A Life With Brian" was the debut studio album of the conic UK indie band Flowered Up, seen as London’s answer to Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses. Formed on the back of meetings with original members, brothers Liam Maher vocalist and guitarist Joe Maher joined by Andrew ‘Jacko’ Jackson on bass along with John O'Brain on drums and Simon Lovekin on keyboards. Soon after this first line up O'Brain was replaced by John Tuvey, Lovekin replaced by Tim Dorney with the addition of onstage dancer and off-stage serial prankster Barry Mooncult the band lit up their audience with their dance funk indie fuelled anthems and legendary live on stage mad capped performances. 

Flowered Up signed to London Records and recorded their only album, A Life with Brian, originally the band released three singles, the synthesizer anthem "It's On," the haunting "Phobia," whilst "Take It" showcased the bands love The Clash and had lyrics from Joe Strummer. Other classic and stunning single "Weekender" was released to criticism and plenty of scratching of heads with it being over 12 minutes long it that unfortunately not many radio stations played it.

The album was recorded at Pete Townshend's Ell Pie studio with money and time thrown at the band at the time of recording, there was too much time and money thrown at the project, resulting in familiar live fresh anthems, when the actual appeal of the band came live and direct in their on stage frantic, ardent performances, meaning virtually everyone connected to the band mentioned they really should have gone into the studio recorded live cuts and left in a flash. 

About the recording, you can hear Dorney providing his own shine and polish overall sound; Liam's iconic vocals were so shining to be heralded, this combination resulted in a voice of unrivalled passion and startling vibrancy, Liam really ranked up there with the very best. Other highlights across the album included "Egg Rush,"  the would be single with Anna Haigh sounded like a modern-day Siouxsie Sioux, the dynamic rush of keyboards introduces the band in formidable form, a track right for a Saturday night on the tiles.

Joe Maher a modern day Hendrix, fingered all over the fret, it'd be hard to find a more naturally gifted guitarist from this period who has not had the light shone firmly in his direction. His work shone proudly on "Take It," Clive Langer version of "Crackerjack" and "Weekender." 

A Life with Brian contained many of their popular live songs, as well as new versions of the previously released singles. Not long afterwards, Flowered Up released the 13-minute-long single "Weekender" on Heavenly, with a video directed by W.I.Z. starring Lee Whitlock and Anna Haigh. Despite the group's—and Heavenly's—refusal to compromise on a standard-length edit for radio play (although two "radio edits" were circulated, neither really addressed the needs of radio programmers, as one was merely the full-length version but with the two instances of the phrase "fuck off" muted, while the other reduced the length of the intro, but still ran for over 12 minutes), the track went on to become their biggest hit, reaching number 20 on the UK Singles Chart. After much-publicised drug problems with some members of the band, and unproductive (and some unreleased) studio work, the band split up. Keyboardist Tim Dorney went on to form Republica, their debut album went on to be remastered and reissued.

A Life With Brian Track List: 

 

1.  Sunshine

2. Take It

3. Crackerjack

4. Mr. Happy Reveller

5. Histerically Blue

6. It's On

7. Silver Pan

8. Phobia

9. Egg Rush 

10. Doris...Is A Little Bit Partial 

Rocktrospectiva: The Eclectic And Inventive "Martika's Kitchen" Turns 35

Released on 26 August 1991 "Martika's Kitchen" was the second and final studio album by singer-songwriter Martika, the album spawned the singles "Love...Thy Will Be Done", "Martika's Kitchen", "Coloured Kisses", "Safe In The Arms Of Love" & "Spirit."

The album was a departure in musical styles from Martika's debut album, cause incorporated elements of gospel, jazz, funk, R&B and traditional Cuban music. The album featured four songs written and produced by Prince. The four Prince songs (tracks 1–3 and 10) on the album were recorded by him and then sent to Martika to overdub. Three of those songs were based on a lyrics notebook she had given him for inspiration. Although Martika's Kitchen, bought the listener into a world where the diversity and eclectic nature of the songs were just as varied as any inventive recipe.

The album had the touch of Prince on it, apparently she approached him, and this ended up with her having the title track Martika’s Kitchen written solely by him and three co-writer credits, unfortunately this album didn't replicate the success of her debut eponymous 1988 album, Martika, although it fared better outside the US.

The big hit was the Prince co-written track Love… Thy Will Be Done, definitely Martika's breathy vocals and the soft backing track really worked out. The lead single for the album bought worldwide success that was more than justified. It remains an all-time favourite Martika tune, it was like nothing Martika had sung before and a risky, one of four Prince contributions to the album, this slow burn, shimmering piece of pop has more than stood the test of time and is just as elegantly exquisite today as it was back then, the drum and bass are consistent throughout the song, with the melody following a similar pattern. Martika's Kitchen" the album's title track was, of course, a single only Martika could release. It was an equally enticing but entirely different Prince contribution than the single that preceded it, this vibrant, up-tempo nugget was polar opposite to the stately love, the sassy lyrics were a thinly disguised metaphor for all sorts of naughty shenanigans, emboldening the listener to be as confident as Martika's sultry, confident vocal. Coloured Kisses, was produced by Clivilles and Cole, better known as the awful act (at least for me) C+C Music Factory.  Safe In The Arms of Love  was like a narrative sequel to Coloured Kisses, this sweet musical tune was allowed to flow at its own pace, as if replicating those moments when you are entwined with your lover and time doesn't seem to matter, and finally Spirit, whic was co-written by Prince with Martika and his bassist, Levi Seacer Jr, this was a pulsing dance-pop vibe with the same liberating message that had, it's a layered, textured score that is further appreciated with subsequent listens - but stand outs are those drum loops, the repetitive and satisfying backing vocals and that free-flowing deep Chicago house piano that acts as the anchor to the music. 

The rest of the album was was an eclectic, powerful mixture of musical sounds and styles, all cohesively held together by Martika's rich, resonant voice - it was ripe for other potential singles had the record label wanted some alternatives for different markets, Temptation. was the most Cuban music influenced song on the album, was a hard hitting song about addiction that felt like the lyrical prequel to Toy Soldiers. Brazen horns, more quasi-rap and a shuddering beat made this an electrifying four minutes of organised, marvellous mayhem. The fourth Prince collaboration, Don't Say U Love Me had a Paisley Park production is exquisite; tasty Hammond organ chords give the song a frisson of excitement, whilst the frenetic percussion adds to the kiss-off Martika delivers so emphatically. The hip-hop Eastern influences salutes with A Magical Place were somewhat mystical and fairy story, essentially a duet with the song's composer, Christopher Max, it was a beguiling four minutes of music designed to take you away from the every day. Pride and Prejudice was a dreamy, ethereal quality to it - perhaps the most theatrical moment on an album full of them, and finally Take Me To Forever was the type of soaring ballad perfect for a Disney movie score.

Despite the album had a top ten single, it wasn't as big as her debut at least in the United States, although it had better received and airplay abroad, the album was certified gold in the UK and Australia, "Love... Thy Will Be Done" reached #1 in Australia, and the top 10 in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand. The "Martika's Kitchen" single reached the top 40 in the UK, Ireland, Germany,  Australia, and New Zealand. A third single, "Coloured Kisses", narrowly missed the top 40 in the UK, and peaked at #39 in Australia. 

 

Martika's Kitchen Track List: 

 

1. Martika's Kitchen

2. Spirit

3. Love...Thy Will Be Done

4. A Magical Place

5. Coloured Kisses

6. Safe In The Arms Of Love

7. Pride And Prejudice

8. Take Me To Forever

9. Temptation

10. Don't Say U Love Me

11. Broken Heart

12. Mi Tierra (Duet With Cecilia Cruz)

In Memoriam: The Great "Dolly Parton" Has Died Aged 80

Dolly Parton, one of the greatest singer-songwriters in country music who was also much cherished for her philanthropy, has died aged 80. Her death was announced by nephew Brian Seaver on Instagram. "I have imagined the heaviness of this moment but haven't truly felt it until now," he said. "It is an honour, an honour that is mixed with absolute pride and great sadness."

Parton's songwriting was characterised by its vivid storytelling, emotional acuity and melodic strength, all sung with strident clarity. From an eventual catalogue of hundreds of songs, she scored a record 25 US country No 1 singles and 47 albums in the country Top 10 . She crossed over into the pop charts with 9 to 5, a US No 1 in 1980; balanced her music career with acclaimed acting, twice earning Golden Globe nominations for her roles; and her Imagination Library literacy scheme donated more than 150m books to children.

This was all done with considerable panache, rhinestoned glamour and towering hairdos, with her immortal assertion regarding her appearance –  "it takes a lot of money to look this cheap" – the most quoted example of Parton's ready wit. Parton was born in poverty in a one-room cabin in Tennessee, the fourth child to a mother who would have 12 children by the age of 35, and a father who was a farmer and construction worker. One of her best-loved songs, Coat of Many Colours, was about her mother creating patchwork clothes; Parton's first guitar was cobbled together from a mandolin with bass guitar strings. Her first proper guitar was given to her aged eight by her uncle, and she went from singing in church, to appearing on local television aged 10, to cutting her first record aged 13. That year she appeared at the Grand Ole Opry, the concert hall in Nashville at the centre of country music, and her performance was introduced by Johnny Cash. 

After graduating high school in 1964 she moved to Nashville and started out as a songwriter rather than performer. The following year she was signed as an artist and initially moulded as a pop singer, without success; after she was allowed to switch to country, she scored back-to-back hits and released her debut album Hello, I’m Dolly. In 1966 she married Carl Dean – who died in 2025, with the couple renewing their vows in 2016 to mark 50 years together.

Beginning in 1967, a duet partnership with country singer and TV personality Porter Wagoner helped her star continue to ascend, and she had her first country No 1 in 1971 with the song Joshua. Then appeard "Jolene," her unforgettably raw and desperate plea to a rival lover, was released in 1973 and became one of her first success, written at the same time, "I Will Always Love You," written to Wagoner as a farewell after their creative partnership, was a country No 1 in 1974 and again via a re-recorded version in 1982, and would go on to be a huge pop success when revived by Whitney Houston for the soundtrack of The Bodyguard in 1992: it is still the bestselling single of all time by a woman, with an estimated 20m sales.

In the mid 1970s Parton broadened her sound, embracing pop-rock arrangements on songs such as 1977’s Light of a Clear Blue Morning – its accompanying album New Harvest … First Gathering was her first entry in the pop album chart. Later that year its follow-up Here You Come Again reached the Top 20 and was her first million-selling LP, powered in part by its hit title track, which also won Parton the first of her 10 Grammy awards.

1980 was a peak in her success, with three back-to-back country No 1s, including 9 to 5, taken from the film of the same name which Parton starred in alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, earning her an Oscar nomination for best original song. Parton would later write songs for a stage musical version of 9 to 5, in 2008.

Another classic single came in 1983: Islands in the Stream, a duet with Kenny Rogers, which topped the US pop charts, and a Christmas album with Rogers in 1984 went two times platinum. There were more notable film roles in the 1980s, too, opposite Burt Reynolds in the The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Sylvester Stallone in Rhinestone, and an all-star female ensemble in Steel Magnolias.

A landmark Parton album came in 1987 with "Trio," an exquisitely harmonised, springwater-clear collaboration with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, earning Parton her only nomination for album of the year at the Grammys. Another all-star trio recording came in 1993, with Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn on the album Honky-Tonk Angels, followed by a reunion with Harris and Ronstadt for Trio II in 1999, featuring a Grammy-winning cover of Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush.

The turn of the century brought a trilogy of acclaimed bluegrass albums, and Parton would release 10 more LPs, the most recent being Rockstar in 2023. She was courted by a younger generation of stars, appearing with country artists such as Brad Paisley as well as pop singers such as Kesha, and her goddaughter Miley Cyrus. There were fewer acting roles, but she lent her voice to animated film Gnomeo and Juliet in 2011 and the following year appeared alongside Queen Latifah and more in the musical film Joyful Noise.

Alongside her music and acting, Parton was an astute businesswoman and philanthropist. She founded the film and TV production company Sandollar, with former manager Sandy Gallin, which went on to produce hits such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Father of the Bride film series. In 1986, she took a stake in the Silver Dollar City theme park in Tennessee and renamed it Dollywood, doubling its size over the next two decades, and a Dollywood-branded spa, cabin complex, theatre-restaurant concept and waterpark have since been opened.

The Dollywood Foundation, funded through these business ventures and creative projects, was created in 1988, initially awarding college scholarships and running a scheme to help children complete high school in her native Sevier County, Tennessee. In 1995 Parton began her Imagination Library project, which sent an age-appropriate book to every child in the county every month until they were five. “My father could not read and write, and I saw how crippling that could be,” she explained. It expanded nationwide in 2000, internationally in 2006, and nearly 25m books are now distributed each year across the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and Ireland.

Parton has also set up a reserve in 2003 to help preserve the bald eagle; contributed $500,000 to the opening of a Sevier county hospital in 2006; coordinated relief efforts for those affected by the Smoky mountain wildfires of 2016; and contributed to an HIV/Aids charity album. She supported Black Lives Matter and transgender rights, opposing a North Carolina “bathroom bill” that restricted transgender people’s access to toilets (Parton was also nominated for an Oscar for her song in trans drama Transamerica, entitled Travelin’ Thru).

She made a number of donations to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, where her niece was treated for leukaemia. The most high profile of these was in 2020, when she donated $1m for research into Covid-19, which formed the basis for the eventual Moderna vaccine.