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The tribute acts saving UK music, ‘green islands’, middle-aged ravers, and more uplifting stories
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Good morning.
Once the domain of dodgy Elvis impersonators with even dodgier pitch, the UK’s tribute act scene has transformed in recent years, with between 3,000 and 5,000 outfits now in operation, and multiple summer festivals dedicated to their craft.
These acts, from Pearl Scam to Wrong Jovi to Iffy Clyro, offer an affordable way to see gigs (Replika festival charges £100 for a weekend ticket) and an important route into live music for young people. But they are also helping to keep the UK’s struggling music industry afloat. The Night Time Industries Association says tribute acts contribute “many millions of pounds each year” and Nathan Clark, owner of the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds, says they provide employment – “paying musicians, designers, promoters, venues” – while revenue from their shows lets him “take the risk” on booking original bands.
Read on for more uplifting stories from the week.
The Guardian newsletters team
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Peculiar parasites: one man’s mission to champion nature’s villains
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 ‘We had no television, so I learned to look at the creatures around me’ … Dino Martins holding a rainbow locust. Photograph: Courtesy of Harper Collins
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Dino J Martins, an entomologist, argues that insects and parasites are essential to understanding ecosystems. His lifelong fascination with insects led him to study how overlooked creatures shape biodiversity. In his book Hidden Creatures, he explores parasites’ complex roles, from wasps that consume caterpillars from within, to sex-loving hookworms thriving in human intestines.
Martins contends parasites are indicators of ecological health and offer insights into evolution, immunity and disease. He warns that losing parasite species erases biological knowledge and may affect future health. His work urges readers to see parasites not as villains but as vital ecological actors.
“Even the most disgusting have some of the most incredible adaptations and abilities.”
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The Feast app: your most useful kitchen utensil
Get inspired with more than 7,000 recipes from our world-class cooks and smart, exclusive features to make cooking a breeze.
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The rave secret: why middle-aged women are larging it – and seeing big health benefits
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Having it large … more and more middle-aged women are going raving – and seeing big health benefits. Photograph: Dan Dalton/Getty Images
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When a friend first mooted to Joanna, 50, that they go to raving, her internalised ageism reared its head and she felt “almost repulsed by the idea”. Indeed, when the University of Leeds studied the physical and mental health benefits of raving in women aged 40-65, they interviewed women who were more than used to being asked “Whose mum are you?” on the dancefloor.
But the stigma is increasingly lessening and, whether it be exercise, release, or community, women are finding myriad reasons to return to clubland. As psychotherapist Rachel Giddings notes, raving provides the opportunity for women “to reclaim their identity outside ‘I’m a carer’, ‘I’m a parent’, ‘I’m a worker’ – I’m not just one dimension but multifaceted and this amazing part of me can be spontaneous and free and connected”.
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From Bernie to Mamdani, how the Occupy movement transformed American politics
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‘We’re only at the beginning of this trajectory. And around the country, a lot of people don’t feel this way at all.’ Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA
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Yotam Maron, a key organiser in the Occupy Wall Street movement, which spawned a global network in 2011, has worked on multiple social movements since then. He identifies a “politics of powerlessness” which too often hobbles them, mistaking “a healthy distrust of institutional power for a failure to build a strong, coherent strategy for political change”. Since then, he has founded the Wildfire Project, a training organisation for grassroots groups to counter that misplaced internal logic and argues now, even with Democrat socialists in the ascendancy across some parts of the US, that people power must continue to be built through movements not elected politicians.
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The astonishing sculptures only ever seen by 20 people
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‘One of the truly original sculptors of our time’ … Ray Exworth’s circus shed. Photograph: © Jem Southam
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Ray Exworth created one of Britain’s most extraordinary bodies of sculpture, but almost nobody has even seen it. He had just one major exhibition in his lifetime, at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1975. But then he disappeared almost entirely from public view, retreating to a labyrinth of sheds in remote Cornwall, where he spent the following decades working on his sculptures. Now, a new book, Ray’s Sheds, provides unprecedented access to this work for the first time. It documents his unwavering dedication and asks what the purpose of art is when it’s never publicly seen.
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The ‘green islands’ bucking the deforestation trend in central America
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A worker at one of the Carmelita cooperative’s sawmills in Petén, northern Guatemala. Photograph: HUM Images/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
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Sustainable forestry in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve shows how community‑run concessions can halt deforestation. In the multiple‑use zone, cooperatives harvest only a few carefully selected trees per hectare, under strict rules, keeping forest loss near zero.
Communities such as Carmelita and Uaxactún earn income from value‑added timber, carpentry, tourism and non‑timber products, boosting local jobs and services. Others, like La Pasadita, focus on restoration, growing more than 120,000 seedlings to regreen degraded pasture and reduce wildfire risk. Forest cover in several concessions is increasing, proving that livelihoods tied to sustainable use can protect biodiversity while raising incomes. The model is now shaping national policy.
It goes to show, says José Román Carrera, a forestry director at the Rainforest Alliance that “the forest is best protected by those whose livelihoods depend on it”.
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| When my teenage son was struggling, my partner reached him in ways I couldn’t |
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After a catastrophic falling out with university friends, Lola’s 19-year-old son was struggling to see the light. Enter Lola’s boyfriend, who made all the difference – connecting with her son and helping turn things around. It was a learning experience for the whole family, Lola included: “Watching you step in taught me that I didn’t always have to be the one to fix things,” she says. Here, she thanks her boyfriend from the bottom of her heart.
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