The Darlington Arena (known as The Northern Echo Darlington Arena for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in England that hosted Darlington Football Club's home fixtures between 2003 and 2012.

Prior to moving to the ground in 2003, Darlington had been playing at Feethams, located near to the town centre. The current stadium is built on a greenfield site next to Darlington's A66 bypass.

Upon completion the arena was originally called the Reynolds Arena, after the club's then-owner, George Reynolds. However, following Reynolds' bankruptcy and arrest on charges of money laundering, the name was changed to The New Stadium in April 2004. Since then the club have sold the naming rights for the stadium to sponsors, firstly as the Williamson Motors Stadium then as the 96.6 TFM Darlington Arena between November 2005 and September 2007, and then as the Balfour Webnet Darlington Arena between September 2007 and February 2009. The ground took its current name in February 2009 when The Northern Echo began sponsorship. It was the largest Blue Square Premier venue with a capacity of 25,000, although attendances were restricted to 10,000 by local planning laws.

Oliver "Olly" Stanley Murs (born 14 May 1984 in Witham, Essex, England) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and TV presenter. Murs rose to fame after being the runner-up on the sixth series of The X Factor. He is currently signed to Epic Records and Syco Music.

In late August 2010, Murs released his debut single "Please Don't Let Me Go", which debuted at number one on the UK Singles Charts, becoming Murs' second number one single after releasing "You Are Not Alone" with the other series 6 finalists. "Please Don't Let Me Go" received a Silver certification by the BPI. He released his second single from his debut album "Thinking of Me" which charted at number four on the UK Singles Charts, however the single also got a Silver certification by the BPI. "Heart Skips a Beat" was released and became his third number-one hit. Murs' second single from his follow up album In Case You Didn't Know, "Dance with Me Tonight", became his fourth to reach number one.

In November 2010, Murs released his self-titled debut album, which entered the UK Albums Chart at number two, with the biggest week one album sales for a debut album in 2010, with over 108,000 albums sold. The album went on to sell over 600,000 copies, and was certificated double platinum by the BPI. In November 2011, Murs released his second album, In Case You Didn't Know. The album entered the charts at number one, and has spawned two number one singles. In May 2011, it was announced that Murs would return to The X Factor to co-present spin-off show The Xtra Factor with Caroline Flack. It was also confirmed that Murs would present a Celebrity Club Classic show on Heart FM. He also has an active Twitter account with over 2 million followers as of May 2012.

The Darling Buds were an indie band from Newport, South Wales. The band formed in 1986 and were named after the H. E. Bates novel The Darling Buds of May – a title taken in turn, from the third line of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18: "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May".

Influenced by the catchy simple sound of the early Beatles, the band created melodic, hook-driven, short-duration singles. They were considered part of the short lived "Blonde" movement (indie rock band fronted by blonde female singer with all other members being dark-haired males) along with the likes of The Primitives and Transvision Vamp, but also referenced the C86 scene of a few years earlier.^{[citation needed]}

The Darling Buds formed in Caerleon near Newport, South Wales, in 1986, by the then 19-year-old Andrea Lewis. Their debut single, "If I Said", was released on February 1987 and was well received. The group re-released the single on an established label, Native Records, receiving radio play on John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show. Signing with Sony in 1988, several singles preceded their critically acclaimed 1989 debut LP, Pop Said.... The album ultimately reached the Top 30 in the UK Albums Chart, and the band appeared on the cover of Melody Maker twice (24 September 1988 and 18 February 1989). In 1990, the original drummer, Bloss, left the band and was replaced by Jimmy Hughes from Black. Their second album, Crawdaddy, was not as well received. Pressing forward with their new style, the group followed with their third and final album in 1992, entitled Erotica, a few weeks before Madonna's album of the same name. The album contained the US single, "Long Day In The Universe", which was featured on the soundtrack for the Mike Myers film, So I Married an Axe Murderer. Although they toured the United States in support of the album for a year, the members of the Darling Buds grew increasingly frustrated by their lack of commercial success and disbanded.

James "Jamie" Campbell M. Bower (born 22 November 1988) is an English actor, singer and former model. Bower is best known for his role as Anthony Hope in Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, his role as Caius in The Twilight Saga: New Moon, his role as King Arthur in the Starz original series Camelot and as the young Gellert Grindelwald in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.

Bower was born in London, England. His mother, Anne Elizabeth (née Roseberry), is a music manager, and his father, David Bower, works for the Gibson Guitar Corporation. His maternal 4th great-grandfather was Sir John Campbell, of Airds, Lieutenant Governor of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. He attended Bedales, and is a former member of the National Youth Music Theatre and the National Youth Theatre. He began his professional career when friend Laura Michelle Kelly, who also appears in Sweeney Todd, recommended him to her agent. In addition to acting, he is also the lead singer in the band The Darling Buds. Bower was a part-time model with Select Model Management in London.