back to article Sarah Brightman plans International Space Station gig

Singer Sarah Brightman has announced she's off to the International Space Station, from where she'll become "the first professional musician to sing from space". Sarah Brightman. Pic: sarahbrightman.com The classical superstar, 52, is the best-selling soprano in history, so she's obviously not short of the few quid it will …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    David Cameron may say we're all in this together, but given this is a recession period it just shows how the "filthy rich" have masses of cash to spend. Probably from all the avoidance they have been doing.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Holmes

      You don't quite understand how central banking works.

    2. JimC

      Much better

      That she should be subsidising the Russian spae industry than Columbian drug barons as too many of her peers do...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Much better

        You mean DC or Colombia? ;)

        In any case I heard that in the past, the best place to find Colombian Marching Powder was in a Shrub :P

    3. Psyx
      Facepalm

      "David Cameron may say we're all in this together, but given this is a recession period it just shows how the "filthy rich" have masses of cash to spend. Probably from all the avoidance they have been doing."

      I'm not sure how you got from one person working their arse off and having money to it being down to tax avoidance and Cameron's fault...

      Damn thems people who haz mor moneyz that me! Damnz dem!

  2. hugo tyson
    Go

    She does know it's not quite a starship?

    Fabulous. Where are my silver space trousers? Are they with my flying car?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: She does know it's not quite a starship?

      Hold on. If nobody can hear you scream, then how will we be able to hear her sing?

      1. Ian Moffatt 1

        Re: She does know it's not quite a starship?

        Good eh?

    2. Haku

      Re: She does know it's not quite a starship?

      I think the guy on the keyboard(?) borrowed your silver space trousers... Skrillex vs Andromeda from Buck Rogers

  3. Steve Evans

    Would I be wrong...

    ...to hope there'll be a terrible technical hiccup and the rocket misses the rendezvous completely and sends her barrelling off into deep space in radio silence?

    1. h4rm0ny
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Would I be wrong...

      Yes. Sarah Brightman is one of our most nuts singers and it's nice to see her putting money into Space travel rather than any of the numerous things that pop starlets normally burn it on. Like it or not, her paying to visit the ISS helps nudge us all that one step closer to commercial space flight.

      Paris because she recently co-starred alongside Ms. Hilton in a film about organ repossession in a dystopian future as a blind opera singer with hologram projectors for eyes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZcxUaPpZPM. Like I said, she's nuts.

  4. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Unhappy

    STEM again?

    > close the gender gap in the STEM

    This is actually done by more females taking up STEM subjects, not by warbling from LEO.

    Odds are not good...

  5. ukgnome
    Mushroom

    I have a list of people I would send - Top 5

    5. David Guest

    4. George Michael

    3. The "Go Compare" man

    2. Elton John

    1. John Barrowman

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I have a list of people I would send - Top 5

      No, the expectation is that she/they come back.

      And most of this list would quite like a rocket up their backside....

      1. moonface

        Re: I have a list of people I would send - Top 5

        By the look of him, David Guest is a space tourist that comes to Earth for his holidays.

    2. Psyx

      Re: I have a list of people I would send - Top 5

      "3. The "Go Compare" man"

      There's not a rocket powerful enough to get that into orbit.

  6. 4.1.3_U1

    12" single

    Must go and find that 12"er with Sarah Brightman I had somewhere.

    Mmmm

    White label, methinks.

    1. Anonymous Coward 15

      Re: 12" single

      That's what she said.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Please sign my petition

    I'm trying to gain support for Word Radio Silence Week (and a Half).

  8. Gerard Krupa

    Perfectly valid medical experiment

    Scientists have always wondered what happens to a facelift in zero gravity,

    1. perlcat
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Perfectly valid medical experiment

      I'm more concerned with what happens to the jubblies. I can see myself generating a lot of money for breast cancer research with just a few hours of mesmerising footage.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "The Music of the Night" might be good too.

  10. Irongut

    Whatever happened to the deal ZZ Top had to be the first band to play in space?

    1. Graham Bartlett

      ZZ Top in space

      They were arrested for flying whilst blind. Probably because of their cheap sunglasses.

  11. Natalie Gritpants
    Alien

    "mindful, shared consumption of resources and a clear and unwavering focus on sustainability"

    She does realize she will be getting there on a rocket presumably?

    1. frank ly

      Re: "mindful, shared consumption of resources and a clear and unwavering focus on sustainability"

      It's time to draw a line under this so called 'rocket' incident and move forward. I was mislead by advice from recognised experts; so don't judge me on what I did, but on what I do from now on, for the next few days anyway.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ryan Space

    I don't suppose there's any chance the economy will get worse and she'll only be able to afford a one-way ticket?

    Ryan Air should launch a space service. It would be like going up on board a Saturn 5 rocket and spending a week in Mir when there's a raging fire on board and limited dry food, but without all the luxuries and comforts, and a less glamorous launch experience.

    If you want to amend your space flight details, it'll cost more than simply buying a new ticket.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Alien

      Re: Ryan Space

      I can see it now. You board a Ryan Space Air flight at Leeds Bradford Airport destined for the wonderful planet of Mars only to find that you are landing on Venus, which Ryan Space Air describe as a quaint spaceport on the outskirts of Mars' orbit and that you have to pay an additional fee to get a space shuttle bus from Venus to Mars which you spend the whole time aboard raging because your bag has turned up on Pluto after a baggage handler at Leeds Bradford failed to read the tag properly.

  13. EddieD

    Good for her

    I'd do it if I had the money.

    And besides, as a teenager in the late 70s, I still have my memories of Hot Gossip and figure she earned it.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Love that tune

    Unashamed entertainment exploitative pop music with catchy melody and saucy lyrics.

    Mrs Coward says she can't stand it - I tihnk it's because once you hear that tune it stays in your head for a while.

    Appropiate lyrics - "hand in hand we'll conquer space".

    Right, now I'm off to fight for the Federation (Servalan's not Kirk's)

  15. pctechxp
    Coat

    @Irongut

    It was found they were B-b-bad to the bone

    Mine's the leather one with the fake beard hanging out of the pocket

    1. frank ly

      Re: Bad To The Bone

      That was George Thorogood and The Destroyers.

  16. h3

    The reason why there is the gender gap in those subjects is because of the very high risk that women will quit prior to being able to do something useful (Due to starting a family).

    Then for a while they put their children before all else. (Then perhaps go on HRT and put themselves first).

    The only I can think of guaranteeing they won't do this would be for the women to be sterilised.

    (Maybe a one shot contraceptive that lasts a decade or something would be suitable as well).

    If you want to be at the cutting edge of this stuff it is not something you can dip in and out of.

    The only way to get to be the best is to dedicate your life to it above all else.

    I don't think it can be fixed really without messing around with genetics.

    1. perlcat
      Black Helicopters

      Statistically, you make a point...

      But in terms of individuals, it boils down to the choices made. Universities et al don't hire statistics. They hire people, and due to the way the system works now, if a young woman wants to explore that as a career, she has that right.

      I think that women have a vital role to play in industries like this, but their numbers will always be lower in proportion to men for the above reasons, which is why I both agree somewhat and also want to clarify, in order to not close doors to women who *do* want into STEM industries.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Stop

      > very high risk that women will quit prior to being able to do something useful

      That feels a bit like a rant from Rip van Winkel - in my 2012 workplace (Telecomm software) I see a variety of responses from both men and women to the challenge of balancing family and career. Some women take minimal time out for the birth and return to work, some take all of the available paid maternity, some take even more, and some do quit "forever", not at the outset but instead by electing not to return (could be that this was always their plan but wanted to keep a foot in the door, or could be that they found child-rearing more emotionally rewarding than work. And the return to work is often supported by professional childcare but it's increasingly common that the father suspends work (voluntarily or otherwise, economy being what it is)

      Many of my male colleagues also "put their children before all else", in that they leave the office at fixed times (refusing to jump into bug hunts), are hostile to coming in at weekends, refuse travel of more than a day or two, etc. And these feed stereotypes tacit in hiring - the keen young man who occasionally comes in late with a hangover is generally preferred over the eternally slightly-shattered daddy: the former takes a death march as a chance for flamboyant heroics, the latter sees it as an imposition needing thwarting. So really we should be neutering the blokes too - otherwise they'll fall short of your pointer that "the only way to get to be the best is to dedicate your life to it above all else".

      Of which note that contraceptive sterilisation for either sex is probably insufficiently effective: neutering of pre-pubsecents is better since we seek to eliminate all external distractions such as sex and its associated meaningful relationships.

      Plenty of women also defer reproduction until long after they're "able to do something useful" - if by that you mean the ordinary usefulness that most of us hope to reach then that may be mid-to-late twenties, or if you mean epoch-shaking Nobel garnering boffinry then it's a truism that most of the really stellar stuff is cooked up before the mid-thirties: few stars first shine at advanced age. This still leaves some time before the curves for birth difficulties and defects really become scary.

      HRT and menopause of course come rather later, and I'm perplexed that you appear to regard seeking treatment as "put[ting] themselves first" - if John Q Boffin told me he had distressing prostate symptoms I'd equally urge him to holster his testtube and seek some good advice.

      1. perlcat
        Unhappy

        Re: > very high risk that women will quit prior to being able to do something useful

        Poor Mongo. Didn't expect you to be out posting so soon after you'd ceased to be only pawn in game of life.

        http://stevemaley.com/2012/10/10/rip-alex-karras-mongo-only-pawn-in-game-of-life-rsrh/

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Candygram for Mongo!

          Mongo like candy! Thank you Mr Perlcat!

          (and tvm for pointing out the sad demise; I shall raise a flagon in his honour)

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Entirely correct, but you will of course get The Hate from people who think that having a long attention-span is unfashionable.

  17. Local G
    Angel

    Don't Cry For Me

    Cassiopeia

  18. DavCrav

    She also intends to use her jaunt to "advance education and empower the role of girls and women in science and technology in an effort to help close the gender gap in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields".

    Wouldn't it have been helpful if, you know, the woman trying to do this actually had anything to do with STEM? As it is, it looks like "sing well and you can go to space!", which isn't really the objective.

  19. Michael Hoffmann Silver badge
    Facepalm

    I read that as Sarah Silverman...

    ... and my first thought "oh great, that'll sound like some astronaut has developed Tourette's Syndrome".

  20. Graham Marsden
    Thumb Up

    Ah, Hot Gossip...

    ... displaying their naughty bodily particles!

    - K Everett

  21. disgruntled yank

    classical superstar

    I am really foresakenly sorry, but you do not get to be a "classical superstar" by singing the works of Andrew Lloyd Weber and doing the occasional turn with fellows who sing opera. You had better have had a number of leading roles at the major opera houses: Bayreuth, Salzburg, Convent Garden, the Met, or their like. Deborah Voigt is a classical superstar, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is a classical superstar, retired But Ms. Brightman? I think not.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: classical superstar

      Thank you! Can't believe I had to scroll this far down to find someone saying this.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: classical superstar

      I think she became a "classical" superstar by putting on lots of concerts around the world, appearing alongside other classical performers and earning a shit load of money .

      I understand that she may not be the critics choice but you cannot deny she is popular and successful

  22. druck Silver badge
    Alien

    <- It's her

    In Space no one can hear you scream sing - THANK GAWD!

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    GTFO

    T*ts, or HAL opens the pod bay doors, Dave.

  24. Lloyd
    Megaphone

    To (mis)quote A J Rimmer

    "We don't want her. Go away. You took her, you can keep the smegger!"

  25. tonyoung
    Angel

    Good song ...

    ... shame about the dancing!

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