in 2004 rose by 11% in the UK, but from a low base. In 2009, Blue Nun launched Blue Nun Gold, a sparkling wine that contained flakes of 22-carat gold. It was hoped the drink would appeal to young women drinkers and would help position the brand differently. References to Blue Nun in popular culture and media In music Afro Celt Sound System, in their song "Rise Above It" from the album Seed, refer to dancing at gigs with Blue Nun. According to the lyrics of the song, heartburn going cheap is the reward for dancing at gigs with a Blue Nun. The Beastie Boys album Check Your Head includes a musical interlude titled "The Blue Nun", in which a narrator describes a party held in the comfortable study in Peter Sichel's New York townhouse, in which the guests compliment the wine. Peter Sichel was chairman of the Blue Nun company until it was sold in 1995. On The Beatles song "Long, Long, Long" off the White Album, rattling noises by a Blue Nun wine bottle are heard as a result of a bottle's resting on top of a Leslie speaker, which began to vibrate when Paul McCartney played a certain note on the Hammond organ. It is accompanied by a Ringo Starr drum roll. Steve Jones, guitarist of the Sex Pistols stated in his autobiography Lonely Boy that he drank at least two whole bottles of Blue Nun before the Thames television interview with host Bill Grundy dated 1 December 1976. In print In the comic strip Achewood, two cats, Roast Beef and Ray, get drunk on Blue Nun during a road trip, describing it as "the wine so bad it made the news." In issue #6 of Deadpool Corps, Lady Deadpool warns Brank, talent scout for the Blue Buccaneer/Champion, "If your spaceship is all shag carpeting and Barry White and Blue Nun on ice, you're in big trouble. I'm not looking for that kind of evening." In Jonathan Coe's The Rotters' Club, set in Birmingham in the 1970s, Colin Trotter buys two bottles of Blue Nun to accompany dinner with the Chases, who arrive at the Trotters' with an identical bottle of wine. In television Heston Blumenthal experimented with carbonating Blue Nun using a Sodastream machine in one episode of his novelty cuisine series Heston's Feasts. The programme showed interviews which gave the impression that people either preferred