分类： entertainment

Tucked away in the unassuming London suburb of Bromley, an ordinary 19th-century terraced cottage holds the quiet origins of one of the 20th century’s most revolutionary music icons. Number 4 Plaistow Grove, a modest home originally built for railway workers, is where David Bowie spent 13 of his most formative early years, and it will soon open its doors to the public as an immersive heritage site celebrating the star’s early creative journey.

A small blue plaque beside the property’s weathered grey front door is the only current marker of its legendary history, reading simply: “David Bowie Singer and Talented Musician 1955-1968”. Bowie — born David Jones — moved to the home with his family in 1955 at the age of eight, and lived here until 1968. It was within these walls that the quiet schoolboy transformed into an ambitious artist set on global stardom, says Geoff Marsh, a renowned Bowie expert tapped to curate the restoration project.

Bowie shared the home with his father Haywood, mother Peggy, and older half-brother Terry, who would become one of his earliest and most profound creative influences. Terry introduced the young Bowie to modern jazz, Beat literature and Buddhism, but a schizophrenia diagnosis in 1966 led to frequent stays in psychiatric care, removing him from the family home. Biographers have documented a strained, often emotionally distant relationship between Bowie and his mother Peggy, while his father offered far more consistent support — even purchasing the young artist’s first saxophone, which he kept in his small back bedroom. Haywood died at the home in 1969 at age 56, and Peggy moved out a year later.

Now, the property has been purchased by the Heritage of London Trust, a leading UK heritage organization, which plans to fully restore the home to its 1963 layout, when Bowie was 16 years old. Organizers aim to welcome the first public visitors by the end of 2027. Just as Beatles fans have traveled for decades to explore the childhood Liverpool homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Bowie fans will soon be able to step directly into the environment that shaped the star’s earliest dreams.

All modern additions to the home — including central heating, an extended modern kitchen-diner, a conservatory, and an upstairs bathroom — will be removed. In their place, the project will restore the home’s original coal fireplace, outdoor lavatory, compact original kitchen, and the small garden garage that once stood at the property’s rear. The home is located just steps from Sundridge Park railway station, which gave Bowie easy access to the music clubs and bohemian culture of London’s West End and Soho, providing an escape from the constrained expectations of 1950s suburban life.

Marsh, who curated the groundbreaking 2013 *David Bowie Is* exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, notes that mid-century suburban culture pressured young people to stay in their place and avoid ambition — a convention Bowie rejected outright. “Music was his way out,” Marsh explained.

The heart of the restored experience will be the small 9-foot by 10-foot back bedroom where Bowie’s creative path began. It was here that he wrote his first songs, endured five years of industry rejection before scoring his 1969 breakout hit *Space Oddity*, and retreated to escape family tensions and nurture his artistic dreams. In later life, Bowie reflected that the space had stayed with him throughout his career, even as he constantly reinvented his persona and ran from the constraints of his suburban upbringing.

Alongside the original saxophone gifted by his father, the bedroom will display personal mementos from Bowie’s early years, including a print of Little Richard that a 10-year-old Bowie bought from a local Woolworths and pinned to his wall — an item he kept for his entire life. Friends who visited Bowie at the home recalled a quiet, austere atmosphere in the main house, but a palpable sense of excitement and possibility inside the teen’s bedroom, where the pair would play records and explore the American popular culture that captivated the young artist.

Local residents who grew up alongside Bowie in Bromley have also shared memories of seeing the young artist walking the neighborhood in bold, experimental outfits assembled from second-hand and surplus finds on London’s trendy Carnaby Street. Even then, neighbors sensed there was something extraordinary about Bowie, and were convinced he would go on to change music forever.

Nicola Stacey, director of the Heritage of London Trust, says that for fans, there will be no experience more moving than standing in the small room where Bowie’s legendary career first began: “nothing more powerful” than connecting with the moment a global icon first dared to dream of fame.

Global K-pop phenomenon BTS is set to launch its sprawling ‘ARIRANG’ World Tour this Thursday, marking the next historic chapter of the group’s career after a blockbuster group comeback ending a multi-year hiatus for mandatory South Korean military service.

The seven-member ensemble, universally recognized as the most successful boy band in modern music history, released their latest full-length studio album *ARIRANG* last month before staging their first joint public performance in years at a landmark show adjacent to Seoul’s historic Gyeongbokgung Palace. According to the group’s label, the free Seoul concert drew more than 100,000 in-person fans to the city center, while streaming giant Netflix confirmed a global audience of 18.4 million viewers tuned in for the event’s live broadcast.

The tour will open with three opening shows at Goyang Stadium in Goyang, the hometown of BTS leader RM, located roughly 10 miles northwest of Seoul. Local authorities have already transformed the city into a purple-hued celebration hub, with iconic locations including Ilsan Lake Park lit up nightly in honor of the group and their global fanbase, dubbed ARMY. The three opening shows are projected to welcome a total of 120,000 attendees, with 40,000 fans expected each night from April 9 to 12. In a message to fans ahead of the opening dates, member Jimin reminded attendees to prepare for cool, potentially wet weather, urging, “To all the ARMYs coming to watch, please make sure to dress warmly!!”

Across the entire run, the tour will include 85 shows across 34 cities worldwide. Industry analysts project the tour will become one of the highest-grossing concert runs in history, with the potential to out-earn Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour.

The album and tour take their name from *Arirang*, the iconic traditional Korean folk song centered on themes of longing and separation that is widely considered South Korea’s unofficial national anthem. The project is framed as a reflection of the group’s deepening connection to their Korean identity as they mature beyond their early career. Where BTS’s early discography centered on adolescent struggle and internal conflict, the group now enters a new phase of deeper self-reflection, according to Kim Jeong-seob, author of *The Universe of BTS*. Kim described the tour as the opening of a “new chapter” for the group, noting that contemporary global challenges including armed conflict and ethnic and religious division may be woven into their work through subtle, indirect messaging.

Long before their comeback, BTS has cemented a legacy of global social advocacy, leading UNICEF anti-violence campaigns, speaking out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and pushing back against rising anti-Asian racism across the globe.

To date, *ARIRANG* has already made history as the first album by a K-pop act to top the U.S. Billboard 200 chart for two consecutive weeks, with all album tracks securing top positions on major global streaming charts including Spotify’s Top Songs Global and Top 50 Global. This early success defies a common trend in the highly competitive K-pop industry, where many groups see their career momentum fade after completing mandatory military service. Pennsylvania State University sociologist Sam Richards notes that BTS’s post-hiatus success upends this pattern, carrying major implications for South Korea’s global soft power. “This is extremely significant for the future of K-culture and the nation of Korea because it means that unprecedented growth in soft power will continue,” Richards told Agence France-Presse.

Industry observers attribute BTS’s enduring global dominance to the unprecedented loyalty and organization of their ARMY fanbase. The group counts more than 80 million followers on Instagram alone, with over 34 million members registered in their official Weverse fan community. Billboard K-pop columnist Jeff Benjamin explains that BTS built their global following by prioritizing direct, authentic engagement with fans on social media platforms including Twitter and SoundCloud years before the wider music industry embraced this strategy. “ARMY were never made to feel like consumers, but like they were friends and participants in BTS’ story, making the group’s rise feel personal to millions of people in a way that superstardom doesn’t typically resonate,” Benjamin explained.

In a high-profile sentencing that closed one major chapter of the investigation into the 2023 death of beloved *Friends* star Matthew Perry, a British-American drug trafficker known publicly as the “Ketamine Queen” has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for her role in supplying the ketamine that caused the actor’s fatal overdose.

Forty-two-year-old Jasveen Sangha, a dual U.K.-U.S. citizen, was one of five people charged in connection with Perry’s death, the 54-year-old actor who was found unresponsive in the hot tub of his luxury Los Angeles home in October 2023. Court documents detail that Sangha operated a large-scale illicit drug distribution ring out of her upscale Los Angeles apartment, intentionally targeting wealthy, high-profile clients in the heart of Hollywood’s entertainment industry.

Prosecutors emphasized in sentencing filings that Sangha deliberately built her brand as an exclusive supplier for A-list clientele, boasting to customers of her tight-knit VIP network of celebrity buyers. In a 2020 message to one customer, she wrote, “I’m really select with people, it’s a very VIP circle of celebs.”

The conspiracy that led to Perry’s death saw Sangha partner with middleman Erik Fleming to sell 50+ vials of ketamine to Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s live-in personal assistant. Court records confirm Iwamasa administered repeated injections of Sangha’s ketamine to Perry, including at least three separate doses on October 28, 2023—the same day the actor died of an overdose. Within hours of learning of Perry’s death from breaking news reports, Sangha attempted to cover up her involvement, ordering Fleming to “delete all our messages” to destroy evidence of their arrangement.

Prosecutors argued that Sangha’s actions reflected a deliberate disregard for human life, prioritizing illegal profits over the well-being of her customers. “She chose profits over people, and her actions have caused immense pain to the victims’ families and loved ones,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing recommendation. When law enforcement raided Sangha’s home following Perry’s death, they seized a large cache of controlled substances including methamphetamine, ketamine, ecstasy, cocaine, and counterfeit Xanax, alongside drug trafficking equipment: a money counting machine, a digital scale, and electronic devices designed to detect hidden surveillance cameras and wireless bugs.

The investigation into Perry’s death uncovered a broader network of enablers who profited off the actor’s long-public struggle with addiction, including two medical professionals who violated their oaths to traffic drugs to Perry. Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of ketamine distribution connected to the case, was sentenced to 30 months in prison last year. A second physician, Dr. Mark Chavez, received a sentence of home confinement coupled with hundreds of hours of community service. Court records show Chavez supplied ketamine to Plasencia, who then resold it to Perry at exorbitant markups. In one text message, Plasencia wrote, “I wonder how much this moron will pay,” highlighting the callous exploitation of Perry’s addiction. Prosecutors confirmed Perry paid more than $2,000 per vial of ketamine, while his suppliers paid only a small fraction of that price for the drug.

Sangha pleaded guilty to a five-charge indictment, including one count of operating a drug-involved premises, three counts of ketamine distribution, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. Her guilty plea also acknowledged she supplied four vials of ketamine to 33-year-old Cody McLaury in August 2019; McLaury died of an overdose just hours after purchasing the drug from her.

For decades before his death, Perry spoke openly about his decades-long battle with substance use disorder. The actor, who found global fame and fortune playing sarcastic everyman Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s-2000s sitcom *Friends*, had long struggled with addiction to painkillers and alcohol, even as his role on the show made him a household name worldwide. In 2018, he suffered a life-threatening colon rupture linked to drug use that required multiple emergency surgeries. In his 2022 memoir *Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing*, Perry documented his experience going through detox more than 60 times, writing, “I have mostly been sober since 2001, save for about sixty or seventy little mishaps.” At the time of his death, colleagues told reporters Perry appeared to be managing his addiction and making progress in his recovery. He had originally been using ketamine as part of a physician-supervised therapy program for depression, but prosecutors confirmed he developed an addiction to the drug, which is used legally as an anesthetic and depression treatment but is also commonly misused as a psychedelic party drug.

The remaining co-defendants in the case—personal assistant Iwamasa and middleman Fleming—are scheduled to be sentenced later this month. Perry’s death triggered an outpouring of global grief from *Fans* across multiple generations who grew up watching the hit sitcom.