Alt-drag cabaret super-troupe The LipSinkers will be returning to The Marlborough Theatre, during Brighton Pride on Saturday, August 3, at 9pm.
Guest host, Lorraine Bowen, will be joining them for some new skits and classic hits – all performed with the usual chutzpah!
Event: The LipSinkers featuring Lorraine Bowen
Where: The Marlborough Theatre, Princes Street, Brighton.
When: Saturday, August 3 at 9pm.
Tickets: £11/£10
To book, CLICK HERE:
Or telephone: 0800 411 8881
Based on the much loved picture book written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, We’re Going On A Bear Hunt settles into the daytime slots at the Lyric in Shaftesbury Avenue this month, while Thriller continues its night moonwalk.
Padding out the five minute read-out-loud story to a 55 minute stage piece nicely, director Sally Cookson has created a lovely little show that can be enjoyed by adults just as well as kiddies. Using panto devices, everyday props, and a make do and mend music vibe (courtesy of Benji Bower), Bear Hunt is sweet, touching, silly, full of vim and very British in its eccentricity.
There’s Dad (played by Duncan Foster who created the role and, according to the press release ‘is aiming to surpass Yule Bryner’s 4,600 performances in The King and I), his two young kids (played by adults Gareth Warren and Rowena Lennon), and Buddy the dog (Ben Harrison). There’s also a very convincing cloth puppet baby who appears at the beginning and end of the show, but who spends the strenuous middle having a big baby nap in a cardboard box.
Their adventure takes them through (never under, never over, oh no!) a forest, a river, mud, and snow and on the way they, and we, get a little wet thanks to water pistols and an absolutely magical snowstorm which fills the theatre with little faces lighting up, and an awful smell of washing-up liquid!
Buddy the dog bounds around in dungarees, a flying ace’s hat forming his floppy ears, and with a pair of bottle glasses bouncing up and down on his face like a pair of wobbly tits. Sometimes he’s part of the adventure – rolling around in poo, which the youngsters adored – and sometimes he bounds off to the side of the stage to his one-man-band music kit where he plays the kazoo and bashes on the basic percussion instruments.
Do we get to see the bear? We sure do, and he’s as far away from grrrrrrr as you can imagine, running onto the stage to Keystone Cops-style piano tinkling, while the kids in the audience shout wild and heartfelt warnings to the characters they know and love.
The music is catchy, the simple visuals work well, the characters are loveable and the special effects work. There’s not much else you could ask for in a kids’ show than that. Highly recommended for both little’uns and big’uns.
What: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
Where: Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London
When: Until Sept 2013, 11pm & 2pm on various days
Tickets: £14-£21.50
For more information, CLICK HERE:
The following organisations have received small grants to help them participate at this years Pride on August 3 where the theme of the Parade is Gay Icons and the theme of the park is Icons on the Park.
All local organisations who applied for grants received something towards helping with their participation on the big day.
The organisations were:
B&H Federation of Disabled People: Access Tent and BSL Interpreters: £2.000
Say Up Late: ‘Gig Buddies’ information stall: £425.00
BLAGSS: Parade participation and Information Stand: £250.00
Allsorts Youth Project: Parade participation: £250.00
Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus: Parade Participation: £250.00
MindOut: Parade participation: £400.00
Calabash: BME Tent on Preston Park: £1,000
Lunch Positive: Community Cafe On Park: £425.00
Brighton Women’s Centre: Women’s Performance Tent: £1,000
Sussex Beacon: Parade participation and Information Stand: £250.00
LGBT Switchboard: Parade Participation: £250.00
LGBT Community Safety Forum: Parade and Park Participation: £250.00
Rainbow Chorus: Parade Participation: £250.00
£7,000
There’s no doubting Big Brother hunk Benedict Garrett is a dreamboy. No, really, he IS actually a Dreamboy, with a capital D, although stripping and contorting for a group of drunken hens is only one of his many jobs, most of which involve sex in one way or another.
He’s a porn star, an escort, a dancer, a TV rent-a-gob, an actor, a one-time Guardian columnist, an actor, and a sexual activist. A sexual activist? What’s that when it’s at home? Well, more of that later…
When he walks into the large Islington pub we’ve arranged to meet in, no one bats an eye despite his high-profile Big Brother appearance last year, but that may be because we’re right next to Arsenal footie ground and it’s full of Germans here for a match. And despite having his finger in many an entertainment pie, I don’t think Benedict is internationally famous just yet. Give him time, though. The guy’s definitely got the drive and ambition.
We’re here to talk about Benedict’s upcoming project that’s heading to the Marlborough Theatre next month. Up4aMeet?, billed as ‘the naked gay comedy,’ stars Benedict as well as fellow Big Bro housemate Nikki Grahame (‘Who IS she?’ – that one) and X-Factor welsh hottie Lloyd Daniels.
Written by Jeff Moody and Simon Peek, Up4aMeet? is about the trials and joys of internet dating. It had a successful short run in London last year and is now going on tour around the country, stopping off at Brighton on the way.
Two men with very different outlooks on dating and the London gay scene, try to find love and/or a good shag through an app called The Cock Shop. They’re joined by their older gay next-door-neighbour who thinks he’s too past it to find the love he’s looking for, and their fag-hag friend who lives upstairs. Soon, everyone is messaging everyone else under pseudonyms, and confusion and hilarity ensue.
“There’s an awful lot of nudity in it,” says Benedict, cheerfully. “I’m actually naked in every scene but one. My character Costas loves to walk around the house naked. He’s very open about sex, like me.” Which is where the self-styled ‘sexual activist’ title comes in. So what’s that all about, Benedict?
“When I went into Big Brother it was for two reasons. Firstly, and selfishly, I wanted to raise my own profile, and secondly I wanted to raise important issues,” he tells me. “I really feel we should be more frank and open about sex in this country. I used to be a teacher and feel we need to talk about sex a lot more to our young people.” Tonight, after doing a stripagram and a Dreamboys gig, busy Ben is off up to Manchester for tomorrow’s BBC show The Big Question where he’ll be advocating that a discussion on porn should be a formal part of the school curriculum. He’s nothing if not passionate about his chosen cause.
But back to Up4aMeet. Benedict was the only one of the three celebs staring in the tour to have been in the original London run. I ask if he’s met the other two. “No, but I’ve had some interesting chats on Twitter with Nikki. And Lloyd’s that cute X-Factor guy isn’t he? He didn’t win it though?” No, I say, he came 5th in what I fondly call ‘The Jedward Year’.
“I’m really looking forward to meeting Lloyd. Is he gay or straight?” he asks Assistant Producer Luke who’s sitting next to him on the sofa. Luke, throughout the interview, has been a model of diplomacy. “He doesn’t like to say,” he mutters, although I point out he does play G.A.Y. an awful lot. “And he does a lot of naked shoots for gay mags,” mumbles Luke. We all get the picture, all fall silent.
Benedict is, of course, not quite so coy. “I’m predominantly straight, but I’ve tried other things,” he says. “I’ve only done straight porn but that’s only because I feel more comfortable with it. The things I’ve tried with men, well, I wouldn’t feel confident doing it in front of a camera and asking people to pay for it.” A ‘not very confident’ Benedict doesn’t fit in with what I’ve seen of him so far.
“I like to cuddle and kiss a man but to actually get sexual, I’m not that comfy, so to portray that on film, well, I wouldn’t feel comfortable because I don’t want to offer a shoddy service.” This is the odd thing about Benedict and where, I think, his ‘sexual activism’ comes in. Yes, he may be a stripper, yes, he may be a porn star, but he takes sex in all it’s manifestations very seriously. He’s got scruples, morals, standards, call it what you will, but he’s not blindly working his way through a career in sex. He is the very definition of the Thinking Man’s/Woman’s Crumpet if the thinking involves the philosophy of sex itself.
Has he spent any quality time in Brighton, I ask him. “Only days working,” he says. “I like Brighton. Who doesn’t? If I could pick a place to live in the UK it’d be Brighton. It’s the most liberal and open-minded place in the country, although most of my memories of the place are of a race to find parking before a Dreamboys show while being chased by screaming fans. And of the parking being ridiculously, horrendously expensive.”
So is he now settled down with someone? It says on his website that he’s a single dad, but is there a someone special in his life? “Only myself,” he laughs. “Nah, actually I’m quite content. I’ve got my nineteen year old foster son still living with me, and my two dogs. I’ve got my little family.”
Finally, we return to Big Brother and the hot topic of wanking. I didn’t watch Benedict’s turn on last year’s show, but he assures me that he got into some very hot water because of the subject. “When I went in, the producers said ‘would you have sex in the house?’ and I said, ‘for god’s sake, I’ve done porn before, what do you think!?’ I told then that if I felt like it of course I was going to have a wank. We were in there a bloody long time! But I assured them that I wouldn’t do it, as it were, in anyone’s face, but I might do it in places that I thought were appropriate and then I’d clean up after myself.”
His mistake, however, was not just having a Sherman, but talking openly about it to his other housemates. “There was an uptight girl, boarding school and all, who was appalled. Not that I’ve got anything against boarding school girls,” he quickly adds, and this, I think, sums him up. He’s a lovely boy really. One that you could easily take home to your mother. He’s polite, he’s considerate, he’s thoughtful. But the stuff he’s polite, considerate and thoughtful about is sex – and we’re British. I don’t envy this ‘sexual activist’ his fight one bit….
Event: Up4aMeet
Where: Marlborough Theatre, 4 Princes Street, Brighton BN2 1RD
When: July 16 – 20
Times: 8pm Tues-Thurs, 7pm & 9pm Fri & Sat
Tickets: £16 from www.brownpapertickets.com/event/381144
This year’s York Lesbian Arts Festival, an event to promote LGBTQ artists, will take place at The Guildhall, St Helen’s Square, York on Saturday, August 10 from 10am.
Produced by Mei Wiltshire, the event is a springboard to promote lesbian arts, includes music, performance, reading and writing and will be fully inclusive by featuring selected works by heterosexual artists.
Event: York Lesbian Arts Festival 2013
Where: The Guildhall, St Helen’s Square, York, North Yorkshire, YO1 9QN
When: Saturday, August 10 from 10am–5pm.
For more information, and listings, CLICK HERE:
Or FACEBOOK:
Brighton’s, Jurys Inn Hotel needs your votes after making the Top 10 of the People’s Favourite Award at this year’s PEA Awards 2013.
The awards demonstrate the importance of sustainability, whether its in the community, by raising awareness, creating technologies, designing products and services, travelling responsibly, developing specific campaigns or proving ethical best practice.
All votes from three rounds will be combined to decide the winner, who will be announced at the ceremony in October.
For more information, and to vote, CLICK HERE:
Brighton & Hove’s councillors are to consider re-introducing measures to protect office space in central Brighton and at other key employment sites at a Policy & Resources Committee meeting on Thursday, July 11, at Hove Town Hall, from 2pm.
This follows from a temporary change in planning law introduced by the Government in May that has removed the need to obtain planning permission for change of use from office space to residential. The council and their leading partners in economic development of the city fear that this could affect the city’s business growth.
Brighton & Hove City Council is the first local authority in the country to bring forward a proposal for an article 4 direction in some areas of the city to ensure that owners of office buildings would still need planning permission to change their office building to residential use.
Brighton & Hove was one of around 160 councils to apply to the government for an exemption to the policy as a practical way of protecting businesses and jobs in the city but only 17 local authorities were successful. A number of other unsuccessful councils are also looking at the possibility of introducing an article 4 direction but Brighton & Hove is the first to actively consider it.
The Economic Partnership, Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership and Wired Sussex all supported the council’s application for an exemption.
If agreed, the article 4 direction would apply to central Brighton, New England Quarter and London Road Area and two office sites at the Edward Street Quarter and City Park in Hove. The direction, which would remove the temporary permitted development rights, would come into force after 12 months to allow for extensive consultation.
Council leader Jason Kitcat, said:
“Central Brighton accounts for 32% of the city’s stock of office space and the economic cost of losing even 10% of it could be equal to a loss or displacement of up to 700 office-based jobs, with an impact of £25.6 million Gross Value Added (GVA) a year.
“The city centre, New England Quarter and London Road are very well located for business as they offer affordable workspace for new companies. Many creative, digital and information technology businesses are in these areas and the sector is growing at twice the national average. The government recognised this with a £5 million award to provide ultrafast broadband services to serve central Brighton.”
The government’s ‘permitted development’ rights introduced in May apply to all buildings last in use as (B1 a) offices. The government’s new rules apply until 2016 when they will be reviewed.
There is no control over whether the units will provide a contribution to affordable housing but developers have to seek prior approval from the council in relation to transport and highways, contamination and flooding. Since May, five prior approval applications have been submitted to the planning authority in Brighton & Hove.
The independent Employment Land Study which looked at employment space in the city revealed a shortage of available office space in the central Brighton area and that need is reflected in the City Plan. This cannot be achieved through new development alone, but also requires renewal and upgrading of existing office space.
A shortage of good quality office space has also led to rents increasing and becoming uncompetitive for many of the city’s small and growing businesses.
Councillor Kitcat concluded:
“We have limited space, so need to provide a balance so that growing businesses have affordable premises where they can develop and provide future employment, and avoid the danger of Brighton & Hove becoming a dormitory town.
“This proposal is designed to give the council control through the planning process to help protect existing office supply that is of the greatest importance to the city’s economy.”
Introducing the need for planning permission in the selected areas would not mean that office space could never be converted to residential. Annual average losses of 3,000 square metres of office space to other uses shows that the council considers change of use applications on merit against local planning policies.
The amount of private rented properties in Brighton & Hove is 21% – twice as high as the national average – with a very high number of ‘Houses in Multiple Occupation’ (HMO’s). The city has the sixth largest private rented sector in the country and over seven times the number of converted flats. Three-quarters of the housing stock was built before 1919, often these homes are harder to insulate and to heat.
Affordability is a key issue, with high average house prices, and high rental prices, many people struggle to find somewhere to live.
Camping; where you can be at one with nature. The stars your blanket, the soft night sounds your comforter. Until that inevitable moment, usually at around 3am, when you wake up needing the loo. Hate that moment – scrabbling for shoes, hunting for the tent zip, crawling outside into the cold air to do what needs to be done… But good news all – I have found a cure for that moment. It’s called camping in the Serengeti. Trust me, when you’re surrounded by lions, elephants, leopards, hyenas and every other denizen of Africa David Attenborough has ever introduced you to, your bladder control becomes strangely super-efficient.
When we booked our seven-day Tanzania Wildlife Experience I was labouring under the impression that we would be staying in fenced enclosures guarded by armed gamekeepers. There were no fences. We were told by our guide that there would be a couple of blokes with guns – but he then added that “they’d probably be asleep”. So far, so terrifying. But by then we were in Arusha and it was too late to back out.
To be fair, day one was pretty luxurious as camping in the wild goes. We were heading to the Serengeti via Lake Manyara National Park, and the night stop there actually had some proper brick cottages. Not for us, though. Canvas all the way…
The day brought our first wildlife encounters from the seven-seater pop-up roof truck that was our transport for the five days of safari. Heading into the reserve we were greeted by flocks of storks bouncing in the upper branches of the tree, scores of baboons – mothers with babies, big old males scratching their bits by the roadside – blue vervet monkeys then, rounding a corner, we came literally face to face with a family of five elephants, so close we could have reached out and touched them. Zebras, giraffes, wildebeests all congregated around the lake, sadly depleted by the lack of rain, but flocks of flamingoes still fringed its boundaries and hippos wallowed in the shallows. The park area is lush and green and seemed enormous – until we reached the edges of the Serengeti the following day via the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, a volcano that would have been the size of Mount Kilimanjaro when it was live.
There are hardly words to describe the vastness of the Serengeti, that great, flat savanna which annually sees the migration of wildebeest and zebra heading in great lines as far as the eye can see towards the Masai Mara. Barely had we crossed the conservation line when we spotted two male lions basking on rocks in the 37° heat. Our driver got us within 20ft of the animals which graced us once or twice by raising their heads to pose for the cameras before returning to do what male lions do best – snooze.
Heading to base camp the massive vista of the plain was awash with Hart beasts, ostriches, water buffalo, giraffes, zebras and gazelles. Then came the heart-stopping moment our road (the ‘roads’, by the way, are little more than tracks in the grassland, or, where water is nearby, giant grooves carved out by the four-wheel drives transporting adventurers daily) was blocked by a herd of elephants, one of which took umbrage at our being there, raised its trunk in the air and charged. “We’re all going to die,” I thought. “Jaq, are you videoing this?” asked my partner. It turned out to be a mock charge, but it set off a smaller elephant that chased us as we took off. Welcome to the wild.
I can’t say I slept well that night. The unidentifiable snuffling noises outside the tent by my head were disconcerting to say the least and the howls of the hyenas as they raided the bins by the kitchens weren’t exactly comforting either. All part of the thrill though, eh?
Over the next three days we saw sights I could never have imagined I would ever experience first hand. Two lions mating, a crocodile dragging a zebra leg through the water, a lioness with two four-week-old cubs, a leopard sleeping on a tree branch, dozens of hippos crammed into a wide pool of water, jackals in a face-off with a lion (really, another lion? We were so over them by now!). But the day we left the Serengeti for the Ngorongoro Crater was the day it all really kicked off.
Naively, I hadn’t realised that the reason many people go on safari is to see a kill – and plenty are prepared to pay what it takes for the privilege. Now, I refuse to watch wildlife programmes on the grounds I don’t want to see creatures getting killed. But as we reached a zebra watering hole the lioness we had seen with the young cubs began stalking the herd through the trucks that had amassed, the word having gone out on the radio that she was on the hunt. Then suddenly she took off in a cloud of dust, the zebras scattered, screaming, in all directions, but when the dust cleared the lioness had a zebra on the ground, her jaws around its throat. There was no blood. It was strangely humane. But, as we learned from The Lion King, the circle of life goes on, and, leaving the lioness dragging the carcass to her cubs, we saw a new-born zebra struggling to its feet, still black (the stripes take a while to appear) and not five minutes later we were watching a wildebeest giving birth under an acacia tree.
Our last stop, camping on the Crater rim, was the most dangerous. All traces of anything that might vaguely be considered to be food had to be removed from our tents – even toothpaste – as the wild pigs will apparently stop at nothing. Not scarey enough? As we tucked down for the night we watched a herd of elephants heading into the camp to drink from the water tanks in the toilets. Sweet dreams all.
There isn’t room here to describe all the wonders of the Serengeti and the Crater (where we spotted the last of our Big Five, a rhino) but if wildlife is your bag, I can’t recommend a safari highly enough. But if you’re a feint-hearted camper and you have the cash, opt for the cabins, not the canvass.
Tips:
• We flew into Nairobi and travelled by bus to Arusha. As you are crossing borders you need visas (not cheap) for both Kenya and Tanzania and the check points are ruthless. Also, the drivers in Nairobi are nuts!
• Your diptheria, typhoid and polio jabs need to be up to date and you will need a yellow fever jab with certificate as well.
• There are many safari groups to choose from but be warned – we saw plenty of trucks broken down in the middle of the Serengeti and you don’t want to be changing a tyre or fixing a fan belt in that heat or with that many teeth around.
• We went with G Adventures (formerly Gap Adventures), gadventures.com. We had a dedicated driver and a constant guide and there were only seven of us in the truck. Others had up to 12 passengers. All meals were also provided and every diet was catered for. (The wildlife approved of the food – an eagle actually snatched a sandwich from one of our number’s hand on the Crater rim.)
When to go:
Everyone considers October to be the month to see the migration but it is a year-round event. We went in early February, which is the calving season for zebras and wildebeest so best for seeing newborns aplenty.
GT (Gay Times), the gay men’s lifestyle magazine, today launch GT socializer the first social discovery network to connect reader’s offline at group social events and help guys to meet new people and explore their city.
The networks aims to fill the gap in the market for guys who want to connect with new groups of friends locally, as opposed to dating or meeting up one to one, and coincides with the launch of DIVA socializer – a network for lgbt women looking to meet new groups of girls.
Teaming up with citysocializer, the UK’s largest social discovery network, it comes as one of the first branded partner channels on the Socializer platform the company is set to launch this summer.
Anyone who joins GT socializer can search by interest and location for days and nights being organised near them and click to join whenever they are free. Members can also post their own plans on the site and see who is free to join.
Kim Watson, Media Director at GT (Gay Times) and DIVA, said:
“We are very happy to be launching a much needed unique social discovery and events platform targeting the LGBT community. As social media is growing and the gay scene is changing across the UK, it is sometimes harder for people to meet up face to face and we are very excited about the prospect of working with citysocializer to bring people together face to face in gay friendly venues.”
The activities on the site range from after work drinks, cinema nights, and Sunday lunches to walks in the park or nights out clubbing, exhibitions or anything the community wants to share. The interest based search engine then makes it easy for members to find things to do and people to do them with.
GT socializer host their launch party in London next Wednesday, July 16. Anyone who signs up this week will be in with a chance of attending.
Further city launches will follow throughout the summer starting with Manchester and Brighton, with a full calendar of events and activities already in the pipelines.
The site is a premium paid network, costing from £7.99 per month, however anyone that signs up before July 16 will receive one month free membership using the promotion code GTPRESS giving them unlimited access to socials & events, unlimited messaging and more.
For more information, CLICK HERE:
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