Ibstock is a town in North West Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It has a population of 5,300 people, and there are many notable people associated with the town. These include an ice hockey player with the Detroit Red Wings who was born more than a hundred years ago and carved out an illustrious career in North America, and a musician with the band Basement Jaxx which is currently one of the hottest acts in modern music, working with the likes of Justin Timberlake.

Jack "Red" Beattie was an ice hockey champion who was born in Ibstock in the year 1907. Ice hockey is a fast moving sport played on ice by teams. The team players skate on the ice and try to hit a puck into the opposing team's net with their hockey sticks. The game was originally played in regions where natural ice was available, such as North America, Canada and Scandinavia.

Jack Beattie left his home town of Ibstock as a young teenager in the early nineteen twenties. He travelled across the Atlantic by steam ship for the city of Vancouver in Canada where he started his ice hockey career by playing junior ice hockey. This must have been a great adventure for a youngster from Ibstock. He took well to the game and became noticed for his balance, agility and speed.

The lad from Ibstock went on to forge an impressive career, during which Jack Beattie played more than three hundred games in the National Hockey League, and was a member of a number of leading North American teams, including the New York Americans, the Detroit Red Wings, the Pittsburgh Hornets and the Boston Bruins. As you can imagine, the sporting success of Jack Beattie was a great source of pride to the people of his home town of Ibstock during his playing career which spanned the years 1928 to 1939.

Felix Buxton is a musician and founder member of the highly successful house music band Basement Jaxx. Born in Ibstock, Felix Buxton moved to London where he first met his band partner Simon Ratcliffe. Together they formed Basement Jaxx in Brixton, South London in the year 1994.

The band went from strength to strength, and their song Where's Your Head At became a hit all over the world in the year 2002. This was mostly due to the amazing video for the song which featured scientists with monkey's faces merged into their own faces by computerized special effects. This made the video a smash hit on MTV. The song was also distinguished by being featured as part of the soundtrack for the Tomb Raider movie.

Basement Jaxx have remixed tunes for Justin Timberlake, Missy Elliott and Sophie Ellis Bextor. The band supported Robbie Williams on his Close Encounters tour during the year 2006. They have reached number one in the US dance music chart three times, which is a great source of pride to the people of Ibstock, especially those who appreciate and follow house music.