“As you get older, you get to a point where you think: what’s the worst that can happen?” says Kelly Cresswell, a clinical nurse and musician. She’s sat in her home studio in Warrington — it’s adorned with souvenirs and nods to her favourite music — which less than a…

“Music gives a voice to the voiceless. It gives people the chance to express themselves through sound,” says Daniel Devenney, a musician and teaching assistant from Nottinghamshire. Daniel was only seven years old when he started learning guitar, taking private lessons at a state school. He cites his older sister’s…

“It’s crazy how fast it all happened,” says Arizona-born musician Taylor Upsahl. “I was thinking: why is my song from two years ago trending? How?” It was November 2020 when the now LA-based singer, known mononymously as Upsahl, received an influx of texts from her friends. Her song Drugs, which…

From making new songs to running live gigs, there’s no part of the music industry that’s been untouched by the pandemic. Music business graduate Hollie Doherty was used to having a full schedule of freelancing at festivals across the UK and Europe while studying for her degree. “The university term…

Almost 2 million clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) people in England have continued to shield despite the government advising they no longer need to, new figures have revealed. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that 50 percent, or 1.85 …

A Woodborough volunteer who reunites lost pets with their owners has raised money for a thermal imaging drone, which will help him to find missing animals more efficiently. Phil James, 45, has reunited 12 missing pets with their owners so far this year, including a skunk. Drone flying started off…

The mother of a Chorley teenager who drowned while swimming with friends is calling for water safety lessons to be taught in schools. Rebecca Ramsay, 40, was at a football match when she received a phone call from a police officer to say her son had had an accident in…

An actress from Nottingham has set out to entertain families whose Christmas celebrations have been halted by the Coronavirus pandemic, while raising money for charity. Jess Wheeler, 22, from Wollaton, has created a series of festive videos with the help of performers from across the country. The Virtual Christmas Spectacular…