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The Blue Planet Live!, the innovative concert based on the multi-award winning BBC series, is coming to Newcastle for an exclusive spectacular show and you could be there.
Performed for the first time ever in an arena setting, captivating swathes of stunning sequences from David Attenborough’s series will be synchronised with George Fenton’s emotional and outstanding musical score.
The Oscar-nominated composer will conduct a 76-piece orchestra beneath a huge screen, which is 18 metres wide and as high as a 3-storey building - one of the biggest screens ever used in the UK!
This is the first BBC natural history series that has been transformed into a live event bringing together the magic of the underwater world with the atmospheric music of a world-class composer.
One of the BBC Natural History Unit’s most popular series, The Blue Planet was created in 2001, winning countless awards. Its successor Planet Earth, produced by the same team, can currently be seen on BBC channels.
With different emotional moments to appeal to a broad family audience, The Blue Planet Live! is this year’s Christmas treat!
The breathtaking performance will take place in the Metro Radio Arena Newcastle on 29th December at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £26.50 (£19.50 concessions) plus booking fee and are available by calling 0871 230 2610 (24 hours) or Piccadilly Box Office 0161 832 1111. For more information visit www.theblueplanetlive.com
Culture Club has one family ticket (2 adults + 2 children) for The Blue Planet Live! and a Blue Planet Live DVD to give away to a lucky member in this week’s competition.
Following his hugely successful London run ‘H’ from pop supergroup STEPS will be returning to play the title role in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
With performances from Monday November 20 to Saturday November 25, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sparkling family musical will be playing at the Civic Theatre for one week only!
Having enjoyed sensational reviews, Bill Kenwright’s ‘Amazing’, ‘Superb’, ‘Wonderful’ and ‘Brilliant’ production continues to enjoy huge success across the country with standing ovations at every performance. With the liveliest, most energetic company of actors, singers and dancers you’ll ever see, Joseph is brimming with non-stop action, laughter and infectious fun that is sure to delight the young and the young at heart.
Steps clocked up 13 top 5 singles, 4 smash hit albums, 15 million record sales worldwide and the largest arena tour in British history. The only British band to have had more top ten hits is The Beatles.
Retelling the Biblical story of Joseph his eleven brothers and the coat of many colours, this magical musical is full of unforgettable songs including Any Dream Will Do, Close Ev’ry Door To Me and One More Angel.
Tickets range from £12 to £24 but Culture Club members can claim 2 tickets for the price of 1 for performances on Monday 20 or Tuesday 21 November.
This Christmas, The Alnwick Garden will offer a magical winter experience. With The Garden’s stunning winter landscape as a unique backdrop, visitors can experience Adventure at The Alnwick Garden, created by visual theatre company Dodgy Clutch.
A trail around The Garden of unique Advent doors and windows, inspired by Christmas, and the magic of The Garden itself, visitors will discover intriguing delights in unexpected places. Seek out a tartan elf or follow a red-breasted robin to discover the twelve seasonal secrets; a line of Baboushkas, the Snow Queen’s icicle chandeliers, Advent gnomes playing frogs and ladders, and a partridge sheltering in a pear tree. Collect a red letter from each to reveal the password to Father Christmas, and deliver it to him in his enchanted Christmas keep.
Father Christmas arrives at The Garden on Saturday 2nd December at 4pm, and he will be welcomed by Dodgy Clutch’s beautiful lantern parade. Join a lantern workshop during the day, and then take your lantern to join the procession, led by marching band.
Saturday 2nd December
Make a lantern and welcome Father Christmas to The Garden
Father Christmas arrives at The Garden at 4pm, welcomed by Dodgy Clutch’s lantern parade.
Join workshops at 10am – 12noon and 12noon – 2pm to make a lantern (wear old clothes), and join the procession at 4pm, free after paying admission to The Garden
From Sunday 3rd December
Adventure at The Alnwick Garden
Experience a trail around The Garden of unique Advent displays, created by visual theatre company Dodgy Clutch.
10am – 4pm every day from 3rd December, free after paying admission to The Garden
Sunday 3rd December and every weekend until the 24th December
A magical meeting with Father Christmas
Come along and meet Father Christmas in his grotto, decorated with seasonal displays and wonderfully lit, and receive a small gift.
10am - 4pm, £5 per person after paying admission (suitable for adults and children) and tickets are available on the day
To celebrate the winter programme, The Garden is offering Culture Club members the chance to experience Adventure at The Alnwick Garden and have a magical meeting with Father Christmas.
Orange Bite Size Theatre, an exciting season of lunchtime plays, is proving to be a huge success with audiences in Newcastle.
Now as it approaches its final week, this is the last opportunity to enjoy some fantastic new theatre from some of the region’s brightest new writers.
The final play in the season, Immaculate Deception by Paul Charlton promises to bring the programme to a close with the ultimate family Christmas dinner.
Kenny is desperate to get his leg over. He’s been waiting all year and still he can’t persuade his gorgeous girlfriend Angela to satisfy his desires. But it’s Christmas day and he’s been promised something special. But why in this super religious household is Angela’s mum so drunk? And why has the turkey gone missing? Secrets and lies unfold in Paul Charlton’s raucous new play.
Orange Bite Size Theatre combines a delicious buffet lunch at Apartment bar and restaurant in Newcastle with some high quality theatre and all in the space of an hour.
Orange Bite Size Theatre has been devised and produced by New Writing North, the writing development agency for the North East, in an attempt to encourage people to make the most of their lunch hour.
Immaculate Deception will run for one week only from Tuesday 14 to Friday 17 November at Apartment in Newcastle with a further performance on Saturday 18 November at 7.30pm at Queen’s Hall Arts Centre, Hexham.
Further information can be found by visiting our website.
Tickets are £8 full price and £7 concession. Book your ticket by calling New Writing North on 0191 488 8580 between 10am-5pm Monday to Friday quoting Culture Club Offer. Have your membership number handy when you book. You can also book by emailing bitesize@newwritingnorth.com. Tickets must be paid for in advance. Every Culture Club member who buys a ticket for Orange Bitesize Theatre will receive an exclusive voucher entitling you to a complimentary meal for two in Apartment's stylish restaurant, The Dining Room (drinks not included). Vouchers are subject to availability and certain terms and conditions apply.
We have two fantastic mobile phones plus £100 of pay-as-you-go vouchers to give away to Culture Club members courtesy of Orange, sponsors of the Orange Bite Size Theatre season. The Motorola RAZR V3x phones are worth £179.99 each and boast an easy to navigate handset with real-time 2-way video calling, still and moving image capture and editing in a large colour display. Add to that a 2 mega-pixel camera, Bluetooth® wireless technology and removable memory, as well as all the usual features you’d expect from a top of the range mobile phone. Orange is also throwing in £100 worth of pay as you go vouchers with each phone.
Internationally bestselling author Philippa Gregory is staging four events in the UK to celebrate the launch of her new novel The Boleyn Inheritance.
Philippa will be at The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art on November 22nd from 6.00pm. Join Philippa Gregory and This Morning's Denise Robertson at this unique event for a chance to see what really goes on behind the scenes of one of her novels.
Fans and those new to Philippa's work alike will enjoy this opportunity to meet her, and perhaps gain some sneaky insider knowledge on the upcoming film version of The Other Boleyn Girl, starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson. Meanwhile, Tudor Minstrels will provide live music and drinks and nibbles will be available.
Philippa obtained a BA degree in history at the University of Sussex in Brighton and a PhD at Edinburgh University in 18th-century literature. Her first novel, Wideacre, was written as she completed her PhD and became an instant world wide bestseller. On its publication, she became a full-time writer, and now lives with her family on a small farm in the North of England.
We have teamed up with HarperCollins to give away 8 pairs of tickets for the event and 8 complete sets of her Tudor novels.
If you are not lucky enough to win tickets they cost £7.50 each and are available from www.northernstage.co.uk or by calling 0191 2305151
The Northern Lights Film Festival showcases the best in films from Northern Europe and the UK, and this year returns to the region bringing with it another crop of amazing films and events.
Now in it’s 4th year, Northern Lights runs from Thursday 16th – Thursday 23rd November and hosts over 50 films, discussions, live music events and gala screenings at Tyneside Cinema, Pilgrim Street, and at other venues across the North East.
This year, we’re giving Culture Club members the chance to attend, not one, but TWO gala screenings to launch the festival, absolutely free.
Opening Gala 1: Addictive TV LIVE presents: Jack’s Back (Get Carter Redux) (18)
Thursday 16th November, 8.00pm
Old Town Hall, West Street, Gateshead
Northern Lights 2006 starts up in style with a VIP reception to open the Old Town Hall, Gateshead as the region’s newest cultural venue. World famous, award-winning audiovisual act Addictive TV present a unique tribute to Mike Hodges’ seminal gangster movie Get Carter, right in the shadow of the film’s most iconic location, the Gateshead multi-storey car park.
Opening Gala 2: London To Brighton (18) plus Q&A
Friday 17th November, 5.25pm
Tyneside Cinema, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle
Prostitute Kelly hares across the country with a 12-year-old girl in tow. They’re both being chased by a mysterious man - we don’t know why, and we don’t know who he is - but we find out in a clever series of flashbacks as the chase, and the tension, heat up…
Director Paul Andrew Williams will introduce this screening of his film and take part in a Q&A session after the show.
This event is presented in association with Northern Film and Media.
We have 15 pairs of tickets to see Addictive TV LIVE presents: Jack’s Back and 25 pairs of tickets to see London To Brighton to give away to Culture Club members.
Culture Club Members are being offered an early Christmas present … the chance to get two tickets for the price of one for the Living North Christmas Fair (Thursday 16th – Saturday 18th November) at Newcastle Racecourse.
The event will be the biggest and most original of its kind featuring the best of local food and drink, arts and crafts, jewellery and wonderful and unique gift ideas for all the family. The event will also feature demonstrations from some of the region’s foremost chefs, wine and beer tastings, how to make Christmas decorations and much more.
Each day there will be live performances featuring opera, jazz, pipes, carols and other music. There will also be entertainment for partners and children who don’t quite get the shopping idea. This will be the most unique shopping experience of the year; just purchase one ticket at £5 and receive the second free.
As lovers of all the finer things in life we are excited to announce a gin tasting/cocktail evening in conjunction with Blackwood Distillers in the sumptuous surroundings of the award winning Secco Caffe Bar and Restaurant on Tuesday 21st November.
The evening will begin with a delicious Blackwood’s Gin and Tonic before you sit down and taste your way through the fascinating history of gin. You will learn how to taste and appreciate the differences between today’s leading brands and decide upon your own favourite tipple.
You will then be given a chance to make some classic gin cocktails with expert tuition from Secco’s highly skilled bar tenders and shown how to recreate these cocktail bar best sellers in the comfort of your own home.
Blackwood Distillers are a small independent boutique producer of high quality spirits and the creators of the worlds first Vintage Gin. Using hand picked botanicals from the weather ravished cliff tops of Shetland, the Blackwood’s 2005 Vintage Dry Gin (Gold Medal Winner - International Spirit Festival 2005) gives a bold fresh sensation on the palate with a light balanced floral finish.
Available at Fenwick’s and enjoyed in the finest bars and restaurants in Newcastle, Blackwood Distillers started in 2002 with the aim of becoming the most innovative drinks company in the world and are also responsible for JAGO’s Vanilla Vodka Cream and DIVA ‘The worlds most glamorous Vodka’.
The evening will be hosted by the highly acclaimed Secco, with elegant surroundings and a reputation for excellent food and drink. Secco was created as a three floor concept to allow customers to access different parts of Secco depending upon their requirements. On the first floor you will find Secco’s Blue Room that serves award-winning cocktails and Italian beers and the Caffè-bar; both can be hired for private parties for up to 220 people.
On the second floor is Secco’s Ristorante Salentino which received a Hardens Remy Award for best New Restaurant Opening in 2005, one of only 10 restaurants in the UK to achieve such an accolade. It is now officially the best Italian restaurant outside London.
If you would like to eat in either the café or restaurant before or after the event please call in advance on (0191) 230 0777 and receive a 10% discount off your bill.
Secco, 86 Pilgrim Street in Newcastle. The restaurant is currently open 12-2:30 pm and 5:45-10:00pm Tuesday-Saturday and the Caffè-Bar is open from 11:00am-1am Tuesday-Saturday.
For further details on Secco please visit www.gustouk.com
For more information on Blackwood Distillers please visit our website on www.blackwooddistillers.com
In order to create an intimate atmosphere places are restricted to 20 people. Entry is free to Culture Club members. The event will last from 6.30pm to 8pm.
Neil Atkinson is 52 years old and one of the longest established professional photographers in the region. Last year he became the first UK photographer to have a prime-time TV series devoted to his work. Neil wrote and presented his 6-part series A Moment in Time in which 12 celebrities from the region each nominated one special location from their early lives. Neil discussed with them their personal - and sometimes very moving - memories and shot portraits of each person in ‘their’ special place.
Neil is now working on a new series, this time featuring celebrities from all over the UK, together with other projects based on the relationship between photography and personal reminiscence. He also visited Cuba earlier this year to shoot a documentary project around the sport of boxing...and whilst there, amazingly, met and chatted with the son of Fidel Castro!
The Journal Culture Club has joined up with Neil Atkinson and is offering members the chance to attend an event at the Laing Art Gallery on November 15 2006. It will be an opportunity to hear Neil speaking about the making of A Moment in Time, to have a sneak preview of some of his current projects - and to see a live demonstration of some of his famous digital trickery close up!
It's time to declare war on boring lunchtimes with an exciting programme of midday theatre.
Is it going to be another week of eating sandwiches at your desk and not leaving the office all day? Why not try and do something different with your midday break for a change and take advantage of a fantastic new programme of lunchtime theatre this autumn.
During October and November, four new plays by up-and-coming writers from the region will be performed at the Apartment bar and restaurant in Newcastle during lunchtimes.
Orange Bite Size Theatre will combine a delicious buffet lunch with some high quality theatre and all in the space of an hour. The plays will be performed by a selection of the region’s best professional actors, and directed by Deborah Bruce and Meriel Baistow-Clare who between them have vast experience of working for the country’s top theatre companies.
Orange Bite Size Theatre has been devised and produced by New Writing North, the writing development agency for the North East, who is hoping this exciting project will encourage people to make the most of their lunch hour.
The programme, which runs from October 24 to November 17, includes plays from four of the region's most talented new writers. Each of the plays has been set during lunchtime but that is where any similarity ends as we experience everything from illicit lunchtime liaisons, to life running a cutlery museum, and the ultimate family Christmas dinner.
Each play will run for one week only from Tuesday to Friday, with a further performance on Saturday at the Queen's Hall in Hexham. Tickets cost £8 and include the tasty buffet lunch provided by Apartment.
THE PLAYS
SCARBOROUGH written by Fiona Evans
Laurenís having an illicit lunchtime liaison behind the bike sheds with Daz. Will their secret dirty weekend in Scarborough be the beginning of a wonderful love affair or the end of a relationship that was never meant to be? Fiona Evans’ new play takes a cool hard look at schoolyard love.
Tuesday 24 - Friday 27 October @ Apartment, Newcastle
Saturday 28 October (2.30pm) @ Queens Hall Arts Centre, Hexham
KNIVES by Eileen Jones
For Flora and Jacqui life running the cutlery museum that they inherited from their grandfather has been a blessing, and a curse. But their antique avocado forks and their livelihoods come under threat when a stranger turns up to interrupt their lunch. This dark comedy reminds us that history is often not quite what it seems.
Tuesday 31 October - Friday 3 November @ Apartment, Newcastle
Saturday 4 November (2.30pm) @ Queens Hall Arts Centre, Hexham
MAM, DAD, MONKEY AND ME by Alison Carr
When Jess returns home from her first term at university full of tales of her first few weeks away from home she is delighted to see her parents again. She is less delighted to discover that whilst she has been away her parents have found someone new to lavish their attentions on! The first term of a psychology degree might not quite be enough to deal with such nutty parents. In Alison Carr’s new play your childhood toys can turn out to be your worst enemies.
Tuesday 7- Friday 10 November @ Apartment, Newcastle
Thursday 9 November (7.30pm) @ Queens Hall Arts Centre, Hexham
IMMACULATE DECEPTION by Paul Charlton
Kenny is desperate to get his leg over. He’s been waiting all year and still he can’t persuade his gorgeous girlfriend Angela to satisfy his desires. But it’s Christmas day and he’s been promised something special. But why in this super religious household is Angela’s mum so drunk? And why has the turkey gone missing? Secrets and lies unfold in this raucous new play.
Tuesday 14 - Friday 17 November @ Apartment, Newcastle
Saturday 18 November (7.30pm) @ Queens Hall Arts Centre, Hexham
Tickets are £8 full price and £7 concession.
The King is coming to Sunderland – well, almost.
Fans of Elvis can see tribute band, Paul ‘Elvis’ Priestly and the EP Band, play a selection of Elvis’s greatest hits at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens on Wednesday 8 November from 7.30pm.
Paul is from Sunderland and has been performing as Elvis for nearly ten years. He now regularly appears with the ten-piece EP band which includes backing vocalists and a brass section, re-creating Elvis’s memorable performances of his classic hits including Suspicious Minds, Little Less Conversation and All Shook Up.
Tickets cost £7 and £5 for concessions but Culture Club members can get 2 tickets for the price of 1.
The concert ties in with the current exhibition at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, The World’s Most Photographed, which features over 100 photographs of some of the world’s most recognisable faces including Elvis Presley. Concert-goers will be able to see the exhibition, which will be open late on the night of the concert.
Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens is open Monday to Saturday 10am-5pm and Sunday 2pm-5pm. Admission is free.
Follow squeaky clean sweethearts Brad and Janet on an adventure they’ll never forget, with the scandalous Frank ’n’ Furter, rippling Rocky and vivacious Magenta. Get ready for a night of fun, frolics and frivolity in this brand spanking new production, which marks a return to Richard O’Brien’s classic original script!
Ready to thrill you with its frothy fun and naughty moments, this is the boldest bash of them all. So fish out the fishnets, stuff up your basque and sharpen those stilettos for the rockiest ride of your life!
The production is narrated by Tim Healy, and stars the Olivier Award Winning David Bedella as Frank’n’Furter and Suzanne Shaw as Janet.
The Rocky Horror Show will be playing at Darlington Civic Theatre from Monday November 6th to Saturday November 11th. Mon - Thurs 7.30pm; Fri 6pm, 9pm; Sat 5.30pm, 8.30pm.
Tickets normally cost £22 - £29.50 but Culture Club members can purchase 2 tickets for the price of 1 on Monday November 6th and Tuesday November 7th with our special offer.
The world’s leading theatrical ice skating company, The Imperial Ice Stars, return to the Sunderland Empire -for one week only, from Tuesday November 21 2006, with a dazzling brand new production - Swan Lake on Ice. Culture Club Members can enjoy a chilling and thrilling ticket offer for opening night!
The Imperial Ice Stars enjoyed phenomenal success with their first UK tour in 2005 with The Sleeping Beauty on Ice, a thrilling production that amazed audiences in 10 countries, played to over 500,000 people world-wide and received nightly standing ovations.
Starring ITV’S Dancing on Ice star Olga Sharutenko, the timeless story of Swan Lake, which is performed to Tchaikovsky’s glorious music, tells the tale of Prince Siegfried, who falls in love with Odette, a woman transformed into a swan by an evil curse. Odette is destined to remain a strange composite creature, until rescued by a man's undying love. Only the evil Rothbart and his daughter, the black swan Odile, stand in her way of release from the curse.
Culture Club members can see SWAN LAKE ON ICE at the Sunderland Empire, at 7.30pm on Tuesday November 21 2006 with a fantastic 2 for 1 ticket offer (Tickets £12.50-£27.50)!
The cold is creeping in and the nights are getting dark early so why not stay in and start a good read. This month the Journal Culture Club’s book group is reading Sarah Water’s “sharply drawn page turner” The Night Watch. Come and join Amelia Joicey after work to discuss the bookie’s favourite for the Man Booker Prize 2006.
If you don’t fancy reading the Night Watch why not try one of the other Man Booker nominations and come and tell us about it instead?
See full list on http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/news/article1603662.ece
ABOUT THIS BOOK
'The Night Watch' by Sarah Waters (Virago)
Sarah Water’s fourth book is a historical novel tracing the lives of seven characters from 1947 backwards in time to the depths of WWII in 1941. It is the story of four Londoners - three women and a young man - and their interweaving stories during the Second World War. Kate is an ambulance driver, while Helen harbours a painful secret and Viv, a glamour girl, is stubbornly loyal to her brother Duncan, an apparent innocent.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Sarah Waters, 40, was born in Pembrokeshire and went to Cambridge University. Her first book, Tipping the Velvet, the Victorian lesbian novel, was adapted into a three-part television serial, its successor, Fingersmith, was shortlisted for the Booker and Orange prizes. It was also serialised on TV. Waters lives in London.
REVIEWS:
“The Night Watch is sharply and compassionately observed, richly coloured, and compelling to read” The Independent
“..you find yourself turning the pages as if in a thriller, your mind racing to solve the puzzles that Waters has devised.” Spectator
DISCUSSION STARTERS:
Is the end the beginning or the beginning the end? What do you think of the way the story is unfolded backwards?
How does this novel compare to other thing you have read or seen set in the same period? Is it a cliché?
Does true passion always have to lead to catastrophe?
What’s most successful about the book, plot, historical accuracy or characterisation?
Our second book group meeting will take place on Wednesday November 8, 2006 at The Salsa Club, 89 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4AE. The session will last from 6pm to 7.30pm.
BOOK ACQUISITION
Readers are expected to source their own copy of the book. Newcastle and Gateshead libraries both have multiple copies. Most major retailers have special offers on this novel.
The session is limited to 12 people per group.
IF YOU CAN’T ATTEND BUT DON’T WANT TO MISS OUT
Feel free to share your ideas and responses online by sending an email to rachel.suddart@ncjmedia.co.uk
We will publish people’s comments and encourage debate.
Most public libraries in Tyne Wear run a variety of reading groups, call in to find out what’s available near you.
Alternatively there are several online reading groups run by publishers and individuals, a search engine will list the majority. Try http://www.bookgroup.info/041205/index.php
 
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