|
|
 |
| |
What makes Fashion Designers tick?
Established over 50 years ago, Fashion at Northumbria's School of Design is internationally recognised for producing innovative and hands on designers.
With the perfect blend of individuality, creative flair, and commercial awareness, their students have helped shape the fashion industry as we know it today.
Each year, graduates show the results of their creative endeavours at Graduate Fashion Week in London, and also in a fabulous fashion show here in Newcastle. This is your chance to meet this year's ascending stars before anyone else, in a special preview evening hosted by Newcastle's most stylish new gastronomic destination, Café 21 at Fenwick.
What makes fashion designers tick? You'll have the unique opportunity to talk to future designers about their brief, their inspiration, and the design process. The evening will conclude with a trunk show showcasing highlights from this year's collection. The evening will also include a drink and canapés reception and a Q&A session.
This exclusive event will take place on Tuesday 8th May from 6pm to 8pm in Café 21 at Fenwick.
The restaurant, the latest food offering from celebrated restaurateur Terry Laybourne, is located on the first floor and allows diners to eat, drink and relax in highly designed surroundings overlooking Northumberland Street.
Terry - probably the North East’s best-known chef – opened the latest Café 21 last month and the development is just the first phase of a major expansion programme that will see Terry open three new restaurants this year.
|
|
 |
|
Culture Club members are being offered an exclusive discount for a once in a lifetime dining experience!
NewcastleGateshead's first ever food and drink festival which has been showcasing the best of the region’s food produce and culinary delights from its retail outlets, restaurants and hotels comes to a spectacular climax this Sunday, April 15.
Ten Things to Eat Before you Die
Sunday April 15, 7.30pm- 11pm
Venue Discovery Museum Great Hall, Newcastle
Smart casual dress
This heavenly five-course dinner will feature local and international foods that everyone should try at least once in their lives. Gastronomic delights include Lindisfarne Oysters, Spanish Iberico de Bellota ham, Perigord truffles, Graeme Head’s Middlewhite pork and local wild foods.
Developed with leading NewcastleGateshead chefs using fabulous and rare ingredients the proceeds from the event will be donated to leading North East England healthcare charity The Children’s Foundation.
Remaining tickets are priced at £85 but Culture Club members can attend this event for only £50 per head – an amazing saving of £35 on the full ticket price - for an all inclusive menu of fine food and wine.
We are delighted to offer 4 Culture Club members and their guests the chance to enjoy a pre theatre supper (up to the value of £50) at Italian restaurant Strada before an evening's entertainment at The Journal Tyne Theatre. Each winner will receive a pair of tickets to see La Bohème Puccini’s romantic masterpiece, performed by Opus 1 Opera on Thursday May 17, 2007.
With an impressive set and beautiful costumes, Opus 1 Opera’s colourful production brings out the best of Puccini’s exciting masterpiece. Set in Paris in the 1840s, La Bohème is the story of love in all its guises: romantic, tempestuous...and tragic. Four starving friends fool their idiotic landlord, intending to use the rent to treat themselves at the famous Café Momus. Rodolfo, the poet of the four, lags behind and by chance meets his neighbour Mimì. He immediately falls in love with her (well, this is opera!) and invites her to join them at the Café, where his friend, Marcello, rekindles his stormy relationship with the feisty Musetta.
Love is in the air, however tragedy, as is often the case in opera, is just around the corner…
This unforgettable cast will be accompanied by the Opus 1 Orchestra, under the baton of Fraser Goulding, a former conductor of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company.
If you are not lucky enough to win one of our dinner and drama packages tickets for La Bohème are on sale now and available from £15. Call the Booking Hotline on 0870 145 1200 or visit www.thejournaltynetheatre.co.uk
Overlooking the war memorial on Old Eldon Square, Strada is part of the new Eldon Square development. Strada is a contemporary Italian restaurant split over two floors with stunning views over the green. The menu consists of authentic Italian dishes using the finest seasonal produce available. A range of traditional pizzas each one theatrically spun by hand is also an integral feature of Strada's menu.
Strada's founders Chris Benians and Marcus Cload are both established chefs with a passion for Italian cooking. Marcus, who grew up in Italy wanted to recreate his passion for Italian food in England.
Strada serves purely regional Italian wines, as well as beers and spirits, which have all been carefully chosen to complement the menu. In addition every table receives complimentary bottled filtered water.
balletLORENT are back to enchant Newcastle audiences with their acclaimed production la nuit intime. The company will be kicking of their UK tour with a two-night run at Jesmond’s Mr Lynch bar - an eclectic venue in which to recreate the spellbinding, humorous and sensual underground world that captivated audiences in 2006. To celebrate the beginning of the 2007 tour, balletLORENT are delighted to offer Culture Club members the opportunity to win 2 tickets to see the opening night performance on April 30th.
la nuit intime is an extraordinary evening of dance which creates the atmosphere of a sultry nightclub where the audience find themselves in a very informal and otherworldly environment in which they are free to move position in the venue, go to the bar, chat to friends or focus on the dancers. Choreographer Liv Lorent offers 13 dancers in a mesmerising environment that allows audiences to experience dance close up.
The performance is complemented by a highly sought after soundtrack, a sublime jukebox of music that includes underground songs, rare instrumentals and some forgotten as well as contemporary classics. la nuit intime’s stunning visuals are completed by the rich and luxurious costumes designed and created by couture designer and long term balletLORENT collaborator Paul Shriek.
Lose yourself in a world of feather fans, roller skates, exquisite costumes and seductive instrumentals. Drink, relax and be swept away as la nuit intime fills your senses and envelopes you in an evening where dance gets up close and personal.
Monday 30st April and Tuesday 1st May (7.30pm - last entry 9pm)
Mr Lynch, Archbold Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 1DB
Box Office: 0191 2610505, Tickets: £12.50 (£10 conc)
We’ve teamed up with Tyne & Wear Museums to offer Culture Club members the chance to attend the preview of the new exhibition ‘Work, Rest & Play’ appearing at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Work, Rest & Play brings together a varied selection of artworks, all exploring the themes of work and leisure. The exhibition from the National Gallery includes spectacular works by artists including Monet, L.S. Lowry, Maggi Hambling and Paul Gauguin.
As well as the exhibition itself, there will be a programme of free events and activities taking place over the summer, including talks and tours as well as family art and craft activities.
The pieces on show span a timescale of more than 400 years, reflecting the changes in the way we spend our time. From Monet’s painting of a 19th-century seaside holiday and Gainsborough’s nostalgic depictions of agricultural life, to Duane Hanson's striking and realistic sculpture of a holidaymaker dozing in an airport lounge.
The role of female factory workers during the Second World War is highlighted in Laura Knight’s iconic portrayal of Ruby Loftus at work in the Royal Ordnance factory, while Megan Davies’s Gran Turismo shows a contemporary scene of an elderly woman watching her two grandsons playing computer games.
The exhibition also includes work by Tyneside artist Ralph Hedley, whose painting is thought to show the Free Public Library which once stood on New Bridge Street in Newcastle.
More details on the exhibition and activities can be found by calling the Gallery on (0191) 232 7734.
The exhibition is open to the public from April 28 to July 15, 2007 but we have 25 pairs of tickets for the preview event on Friday April 27 (6pm to 8pm).
With the summer months on the horizon what better way to entertain guests, wow friends at barbecues or relax at home in the last of the day’s sun, armed with the skills to conjure up the finest cocktails?
We have teamed up with stylish bar and restaurant, The Living Room, to give 10 lucky people and their guest the opportunity to be taught the art of cocktail making by some of the finest ‘mixologists’ in the North.
The event will take place on May 1, 2007 (lasting from 7pm to 9pm). You’ll be taken on a spiritual tour around the cocktail menu, shown how to mix the drinks and told what measures to use. You’ll also be able to sample the drinks along the way and have a turn behind the bar to give it a go yourself.
During this unique event – brought to life with demonstrations from the venue’s own expert Flair Bartenders - you will be given the option of choosing a selection of drinks to learn how to master. Classics such as the Mojito, Cosmopolitan and French Martini to the new age Jammy Donut, Raspberry Limbo and Cookies and Cream, are just a few of the choices on offer. Non-alcoholic options will also be available.
The Living Room can be found on Newcastle’s Grey Street and is the perfect location for business lunches, romantic evening meals, private functions and of course live music and late night drinks. The Living Room can also hold your very own cocktail making experience in its sumptuous basement bar, making it a novel alternative to the traditional night out or celebration.
We are delighted to offer 5 Culture Club members and their guests the chance to enjoy a pre theatre supper (up to the value of £50) at Italian restaurant Strada before an evening's entertainment at the Theatre Royal. Each member will receive a pair of tickets to see Charley's Aunt directed by Mel Smith on Thursday 26th April at 7.30pm.
Stephen Tompkinson, star of TV's Wild at Heart and Ballykissangel, stars in this dazzling new production of the comedy classic that every family loves and with a hysterical cast of ten promises mayhem and hilarity.
Overlooking the war memorial on Old Eldon Square, Strada is part of the new Eldon Square development. Strada is a contemporary Italian restaurant split over two floors with stunning views over the green.
The menu consists of authentic Italian dishes using the finest seasonal produce available. Notable dishes include Roasted fillet of Scottish salmon wrapped in pancetta, served with braised lentils, green beans and a mustard dressing or Risotto Primavera a creamy Risotto with grilled asparagus, broad beans, peas, spring onions, zucchini, green beans and mint.
A range of traditional pizzas each one theatrically spun by hand is also an integral feature of Strada's menu. Options include the Caprino, which is a mouthwatering pizza with Goats cheese, mozzarella, tomato and oven roasted Mediterranean vegetable's. Strada serves classic Italian desserts such as the Pannacotta a traditional Italian vanilla pannacotta pudding served with fresh raspberries.
Strada's founders Chris Benians and Marcus Cload are both established chefs with a passion for Italian cooking. Marcus, who grew up in Italy wanted to recreate his passion for Italian food in England.
Strada serves purely regional Italian wines, as well as beers and spirits, which have all been carefully chosen to complement the menu. In addition every table receives complimentary bottled filtered water.
A popular Northumberland curry house is offering five lucky Culture readers the chance to enjoy a meal for two, including wine. Diwan-E-Am, on Priestpopple, Hexham, is an established favourite with connoisseurs of fine cuisine from the sub-continent, offering a range of popular dishes and houses specials.
"We have been established in Hexham for 25 years and I'm very pleased to offer this prize to Culture Club members," says Mr Chowdhury, owner of the Diwan-E-Am.
"The restaurant has a very loyal clientele, which I believe is down is down to the personal
service and the fine quality of the food that we offer."
Diwan-E-Am was the first Indian restaurant in Hexham and the restaurant is proud of its role in the Tynedale community, hosting monthly charity nights for local causes and providing a popular venue for the celebration of birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas.
Mr Chowdhury is also offering a 10% discount to all Culture members on production of a valid membership card.
Building on the increasing popularity of its annual Victorian Christmas Market The Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle is to pilot its first Garden Plants and Produce Show this spring.
The free outdoor event, which takes place on Sunday, 22 April, from 10-5, will offer a wide variety of goods for the green-fingered enthusiast. The extensive list of stallholders will be setting up their wares on the terrace of the Museum, selling alpines, heathers, shrubs, perennials, roses, climbers, vegetable plants, patio plants suitable for tubs and barrels, fruit trees, bedding plants, begonias and geraniums. Planted hanging baskets, some in novelty shapes, will add to the riot of colour.
All of this will be complemented with demonstrations of woodcarving and a range of handcrafted, creative outside garden furniture and sculptures.
Barnard Castle Farmers’ Market will be in attendance, with a range of goods from eggs, fudge, cheeses, pickles, organic vegetables, meat and fish.
There is plenty of free parking in the grounds of the Museum, which will be open as usual during the show.
We have teamed up with The Bowes Museum to offer 10 Culture Club members the chance to win a pair of free tickets to the museum for the day of the show.
Next month the Gala Theatre Durham will host Beamish Boy a production written by Ian Skelton and directed by Simon Stallworthy.
The North East is a region in transition. When the boat comes in nowadays, it’s likely the lads here didn’t build it. The pits, ships and steel have gone now, and a generation of lads has grown up without the traditional expectations of work in Durham; and they can’t all be ballet dancers.
Beamish Boy is a dramatic and touching look at the changing face of the North East, focusing on a single family.
For The Bridges, life is a familiar struggle - jobs, work, money, kids in trouble, even though Grandad Jackie is the last surviving member of the famous Jarrow March. But their daughter Elaine is something of a success. She works in property development - enforcing repossessions, acquiring and selling on. There is a very lucrative contract up for grabs, and she just needs to purchase the last in a row of old miners’ cottages. Time is running out and this deal could make or break her. But the stubborn ex-miner won’t move - and it’s Grandad Jackie.
Writer Ian Skelton was born and raised in Durham. He has written for TV, radio and film, and won the 2005 BBC/Live Theatre Short Fuse award. Set in the heart of County Durham, Beamish Boy is a poignant, heart-warming story of a family trying to adjust, a family in turmoil, but in the end, a family that wins through.
The production stars Donald McBride, Jane Holman, John Sumner, Grace Stilgrove, Paul Hartley and Dean Logan and runs from Tuesday April 24 to Saturday April 28.
On Wednesday 25 April, Culture Club members are invited to a Pay What You Like performance of Beamish Boy. Members will also get the chance to attend a a pre-show chat from writer Ian Skelton, and Director Simon Stallworthy, giving background to the play and characters. Designer Simon Pell will also be present, and he will chat about the process of designing the set; and then everyone can have a chance to go on stage to look around the set, props etc.
The pre-show event starts at 6pm and places are limited.
NewcastleGateshead will stage its first food and drink festival next month showcasing the best of the region’s food produce and culinary delights.
EAT! NewcastleGateshead will include a range of fun and informative events and run from the 6-15 April and forms part of NewcastleGateshead Initiative’s programme of world-class festival and events for 2007.
For all the latest details log onto www.NewcastleGateshead.com/eat
Wines of the Times takes place on Wednesday April 11 from 7.00pm to 8.30pm at Newcastle Guildhall, Newcastle Quayside.
20 wine retailers, suppliers, micro breweries and restaurateurs will bring their very best to the table for an enjoyable mass wine tasting of 100 wines and beers at Newcastle’s Guildhall. Before diving in to the tastings, Newcastle Wine School will be on hand to teach you everything you need to know in a twenty-minute wine school. Participants include Champagne Mumm, Tavasso Wines and Wylam Brewery.
Tickets normally cost £15 but a 10% discount is being offered to the first 50 Culture Club members to sign up for the event.
James Loughran will conduct a very special concert, an all-Beethoven programme, with Camerata Scotland on Tuesday, 3 April 2007 at The Sage Gateshead (7.30pm).
Camerata Scotland is the pre-professional chamber orchestra of The National Youth Orchestras of Scotland (NYOS) that runs six national youth ensemble for students from all over Scotland. This is a return visit after the orchestra performed at The Sage in Summer 2006.
“I am delighted for Camerata Scotland to return to The Sage Gateshead in April 2007. It promises to be an exquisite concert with the great James Loughran conducting in this fine venue,” said Richard Chester, NYOS Director.
Founded in 1992, Camerata Scotland has become a valuable bridge between youth orchestras and professional ensembles. Camerata Scotland is regarded as the cream of musical youth in Scotland and the demand to join the orchestra is very high. Camerata Scotland has toured extensively in the UK, Australia, France, the Netherlands and Estonia.
James Loughran has conducted in most European countries as well as the USA, Mexico, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In 1965, he became Principal Conductor of the BBC Scottish Orchestra, beginning public concerts in Glasgow’s City Hall and appearing at the London Proms and Edinburgh Festival for the next seven years. ln 1970, he became Chief Conductor of the Halle orchestra in Manchester and toured with the orchestra from Stockholm to Sydney. His recordings won a Gold Disc from EMI and there was universal praise for his Beethoven, Brahms and Elgar cycle of symphonies. Later, he became Principal Conductor of one of Germany's premier orchestras, the Bamberg Symphoniker. Since 1980 he has been Permanent Guest Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra who in 2006 made him Honorary Conductor. He has also greatly enjoyed his recent work in Denmark as Principal Conductor of the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra.
Tickets normally cost £7 adults / £5 concession / £3.50 student but Culture Club members can get 2 tickets for the price of 1 with this great offer
The house at Cragside reopened this spring after a closure of 18 months, which saw a complete rewire take place.
Cragside House was the revolutionary home of Lord Armstrong and the first house in the world to be lit by hydro-electricity. Contractors and staff have worked hard to ensure minimal intervention to the fabric of the building. With the doors being open again we’re challenging you to spot the difference!
A special tour is taking place for Culture Club members on Friday April 20 of the Cragside estate, with the morning’s visit focusing on the house. Our tour guide will visit the rooms of the house and explain some of the detail and work that has gone into the rewire project as well as give a historical tour of the property and the family that once lived there.
After lunch, there will be an opportunity to browse our shop and courtyard area before joining a tour of the Formal Garden with our garden staff. See the restored Italian Terrace, the Orchard House and hear more about Lord Armstrong’s influence and aims for the garden.
The event starts at 10.30am and places are limited to 20.
This event has now been fully allocated.
Darlington Civic Thetare welcomes Acorn Antiques The Musical next month marking a triumphant return to the stage for this new production.
Acorn Antiques was first seen on BBC television 21 years ago and has been a firm favourite with the nation ever since.
Acorn Antiques The Musical with an all new cast, follows Miss Babs’ struggle to keep her antiques business open, as shop after shop in the High Street is forced out by faceless chains. Can she afford to turn down the offer from The Guilty Bean (the world’s second biggest chain of coffee shops – ‘We’re second so we grind harder’) and if they do update the shop, can they still afford to employ Mrs Overall?
The show will be performed from Monday April 16 to Thursday 19 at 7.30pm, Friday 20 and Saturday 21 at 5.30pm and 8.30pm. Tickets range from £20 - £28. Book, music and lyrics, written by Victoria Wood.
Culture Club members can claim two tickets for the price of one for either Tuesday 17 or Wednesday 18 April at 7.30pm.
April most certainly isn’t the cruellest month* if you come to the Culture Club’s book group. This month we are reading the prize winning novel; The Sea by John Banville, described as a book to be savoured, remembered, and reread.
*T. S. Eliot 1888-1965: The Waste Land (1922)
ABOUT THIS BOOK
When art historian Max Morden returns to the seaside village where he once spent a childhood holiday, he is both escaping from a recent loss and confronting a distant trauma.
The Grace family had appeared that long-ago summer as if from another world. Mr and Mrs Grace, with their worldly ease and candour, were unlike any adults he had met before. But it was his contemporaries, the Grace twins Myles and Chloe, who most fascinated Max. He grew to know them intricately, even intimately, and what ensued would haunt him for the rest of his years and shape everything that was to follow.
John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. His first book, Long Lankin, was published in 1970. His books are Nightspawn, Birchwood, Doctor Copernicus (which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1976), Kepler (which was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1981), The Newton Letter (which was filmed for Channel 4), Mefisto, The Book of Evidence (shortlisted for the 1989 Booker Prize and winner of the 1989 Guinness Peat Aviation Award), Ghosts, Athena, The Untouchable, Eclipse, Shroud and The Sea. He has received a literary award from the Lannan Foundation. He lives in Dublin.
REVIEWS:
‘With his fastidious wit and exquisite style, John Banville is the heir to Nabokov. The Sea [is] his best novel so far . . . Banville’s prose is sublime’ Daily Telegraph
‘This is a novel in which all Banville’s remarkable gifts come together to produce a real work of art, disquieting, disturbing, beautiful, intelligent, and in the end, surprisingly, offering consolation’ Allan Massie, Scotsman
‘The Sea is a beautiful novel, challenging and richly rewarding . . . It is a comfort to know that we have a lord of language among us’ Gerry Dukes, Irish Independent
The book group will meet on Wednesday April 4th from 6p to 7.30pm at The Biscuit Factory, Stoddart St, Newcastle.
A new hands on trip at Easter from Newcastle based travel company, Real World Journeys, aims to open up the world of Morocco’s rich cultural heritage to grown ups, children (aged 10 upwards) and teens alike. Everyone can get involved at their own level and experience the taste of this magical land through its arts. This is brilliant for families wanting to do something creative together and bring home new skills.
You will be able to have a go at four exciting workshops, which will be led by Moroccan master craftsmen and women. Learn the art of zellige (mosaic) where a master in his art will take you through the stages of cutting and assembling small terracotta tiles. You’ll also be able to learn how to create tadelakt, the marblelike, waterproof coloured finish traditionally applied to walls in Moroccan houses. The third workshop will introduce you to the weaving techniques, which are the basis of all Moroccan rug making. And if you have never tried the decorative art of calligraphy in Arabic script, this is your chance. You’ll be able to learn to write your own name and begin to understand a little of the language.
The trip will be based at a beautiful Moroccan Riad located near to the centre of Marrakech, home to mountain guide Mohamed Nour and his family. Mohamed leads the Real World Journeys team in Morocco. The workshops will be held in its grounds. All accommodation is ensuite and displays the kind of fascinating craftwork you will be learning about. A day in Marrakech, evening visits to the city, a day out to the High Atlas mountains and the chance to have your feet and hands henna’ed at the Riad are also included.
The trip’s all-inclusive cost is £899 pp with concessions for children under 12 but Culture Club members can save 10% on each place booked.
The trip runs from March 30 – April 6, 2007.
 
|
|