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Northern Lights Film Festival presents ‘Better Things’
Northern lights film festival have joined forces with Culture club and are offering members the chance to win one of five pairs of tickets to see ‘Better things’ at The Tyneside cinema.
The 6th Northern Lights Film Festival will run from Sunday, November 30 through to Saturday, December 6 and promises to be totally different from any other. Once the UK’s only film festival dedicated to screening work from Northern Europe, NLFF is now expanding to take in the entire world with the spotlight on breakthrough talent.
The Festival is delighted to open with the first feature length film to be produced by Newcastle’s very own Third Films. Shot with stark realism by local award winning cinematographer Lol Crawley, and with beautifully restrained performances from a cast of predominantly young, and first time actors, Better Things is a flawless first feature from a filmmaker who has put Newcastle on the world stage.
Better Things world-premiered at Cannes 2008 and now comes home to open NLFF. It weaves several narratives together following the everyday lives of people living in the Cotswolds, dealing in their own particular way with their relationships.
For further information about the festival or to book tickets go to www.nlff.co.uk or call the box office on: 0845 217 9909
The Forestry Commission launches its weekend Christmas tree sales point at Kielder Castle on Friday, December 5 when freshly cut specimens including spruce, firs and pines will be up for grabs, giving revellers chance to fill their living room with festive fragrance.
This year a 45 foot spruce has been ordered by Parliament to stand proudly at the foot of Big Ben and Culture Club are giving you the chance to stand and watch as the lumberjacks fell the VIP Westminster tree in the wilderness.
Members are invited to don a high visibility jacket and a hard hat as we take you in convoy using your own car deep into the forest, stopping off to enjoy breathtaking views and discover more about the UK's biggest man-made wood.
Experts will then explain how they selected a tree with star quality from the 150 million specimens growing in Kielder Water & Forest Park before reaching for the chainsaw!
Numbers are limited to 20 people and rendezvous details will be given as we confirm your place on this unique event which will take place on Thursday November 27 at 10am. Wear warm and waterproof clothing and sturdy footwear. Bring binoculars if you have them. The event will last about two and a half hours and will not involve any strenuous walking.
In a series of exciting ticket offers for Culture Club members, the Northern Lights Film Festival 2008 have five pairs of tickets for the regional premiere of ‘Were The World Mine’ by Director Tom Gustafson on Monday, December 1 at 8pm at Tyneside Cinema.
Were The World Mine stars young actor Tanner Cohen as Timothy, this film takes, and gets away with, some real artistic risks, deftly combining Shakespeare, musical numbers and great laughs.
Timothy is gay, out and miserable in his all-American small town until he is cast as Puck in a school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Upon discovering the recipe to create the magical love-remedy potion featured in the play he turns much of his closed-minded town gay, ensnaring family, friends and enemies in chaos.
For further information about the festival or to book tickets go to www.nlff.co.uk or call the box office on 0845 217 9909.
As part of this year’s Northern Light’s Film Festival 2008, a programme of the finest new British short films have been produced with the support of the UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund and The Journal Culture Club are giving you the chance to attend the presentation on Thursday, December 4 at 5.30pm at Tyneside Cinema – where following the screening a panel led by the filmmakers, funders and representatives from Lifesize Pictures will discuss their filmmaking experiences.
This will be a fascinating insight into the filmmaking world for anyone who is interested and we have ten pairs of tickets to give away to Culture Club members.
Culture Club members can save £6 on tickets to see the wicked adaptation of the classic fairy tale by The Brothers Grimm, Hansel and Gretel, which is this year’s witty, scary and uplifting Christmas production for Northern Stage.
You could be one of the first to see Northern Stage's new Christmas show on Saturday, November 29 at 2pm. The ticket price includes an exclusive post-show talk with Erica Whyman, Director of Hansel & Gretel and a behind the scenes tour to see where the magic happens.
Culture Club are giving members the chance to attend the unveiling and first performance of the Silver Swan at the Bowes Museum since its 10 week conservation project.
For the first time in 30 years, the famous Silver Swan musical automaton at the Bowes Museum has been completely taken apart piece by piece as part of a thorough overhaul with each individual part painstakingly cleaned, measured, photographed and documented.
The Swan has now been reassembled so that all of the original parts and later additions, as far as possible can be retained for future generations to enjoy.
Matthew Read, a specialist horologist with over twenty years' experience of working with clockwork mechanisms has led the major conservation.
To celebrate the reassembly and its first performance since the complex work was completed, Culture Club are giving 10 members plus guest, tickets to attend the Silver Swan Soirée on Thursday, November 27 from 6:30 8pm.
At this once in a lifetime event Matthew will inform his privileged audience about the intricacies of The Silver Swan and the challenges encountered during its conservation, culminating in this special performance.
To celebrate one of the most eagerly awaited cultural events of the year, Culture Club are giving members the chance to win one of 5 pairs of tickets for Skellig at The Sage Gateshead.
An enchanting contemporary opera of the award-winning novel by Gateshead-born author David Almond, Skellig is both magical and thrilling, dark and sinister as it leads audiences of all ages into the coarse world of an ambiguous angel and transcends all preconceptions of traditional opera.
Co-commissioned by The Sage Gateshead and culture, the opera is part of the festival for children and young people, Juice, and features a unique combination of international, national and regional talent across both the cast and creative team, including American composer Tod Machover, and author David Almond, director Braham Murray
Music will be performed by the orchestra of The Sage Gateshead, Northern Sinfonia with conductor Garry Walker, Principal Conductor at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. The chorus will be made up of singers aged twelve and upwards from across the North East, and includes members of Quay Voices, The Sage Gateshead’s youth choir, Swing Bridge Singers and 20,000 Voices.
Performances start from Monday, November 24 through to Saturday November 29. Tickets are priced from just £5 for under 19s, with full price tickets at £19.50 – to find out more or book online at www.thesagegateshead.org/skellig or call 0191 443 4661. Don’t forget you can now choose your own seat when you book online at www.thesagegateshead.org.
Culture Club are giving members plus guest the chance to attend a preview evening for Unpopular Culture Grayson Perry’s selection from the Arts Council Collection. The preview event is on Friday, November 28 at 7pm and will be attended by Grayson Perry.
Grayson Perry was catapulted into the public consciousness in 2003 when he won the Turner Prize for his delicate coil pots adorned with drawings and text suggesting a range of subject matter. Perhaps less well-known is Perry’s work as a curator.
Unpopular Culture highlights this aspect of Perry’s practice and offers his personal view of the Arts Council Collection - one of the foremost national collections of British post-war art, with over 7,500 works. The show includes works by Kenneth Armitage, Frank Auerbach, Ian Berry, Anthony Caro, as well as two striking new works by Perry himself.
Unpopular Culture examines a period in history, which Perry argues was ‘before British Art became fashionable.’ The exhibition of more than 70 works by 50 artists encompasses a variety of media, figurative painting, bronze sculpture and documentary photography.
Unpopular Culture Grayson Perry’s selection is at the DLI Museum and Durham Art Gallery until Saturday November 29. Places to attend the exhibition are limited and must be booked in advance, normal museum admission charges apply. Contact james.lowther@durham.gov.uk or 0191 370 8820 to book a place.
Culture Club have 200 places for a preview screening of ‘What just Happened’, to be featured at the Odeon Gateshead on Tuesday, November 18. What Just Happened is a winningly sharp comedy about two nail-biting, back-stabbing, roller-coaster weeks in the world of a Hollywood producer.
Award winning director Barry Levinson reunites with actor Robert De Niro and leading producer Art Linson, who wrote the screenplay based on his best-selling memoir.
They all join with an all-star cast in this shrewd tale of a man besieged by people who want him all to be sorts of things - a money maker, an ego buster, a loyal husband, an all-knowing father, everything except for the one thing he and all the preposterously behaved people he’s surrounded by really are - bumbling human beings just trying to survive by any means necessary.
Waygood Art Boutique is offering Culture Club members the chance to win one of pairs of tickets for the preview evening for their Christmas Salon on November 27. Be the first to choose some very special and thoughtful presents this Christmas.
Gifts include specially selected art and artist-made Christmas gifts, multiples, cards, gift-wrap, and decorations, with prices from £3.
The work for sale includes a painting and braile snowflake poem by Natalie Frost, Christmas cards inspired by Leazes Park railings by Katy Merrington, digital collages by Peter McAdam, framed photographs and embroidery inspired by willow pattern fragments by Dee Shaw, and reclaimed chinaware with insect transfers by Theresa Easton.
Waygood Art Boutique’s Christmas Salon runs from Friday, November 28 until Saturday, December 20 at 31 High Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Make Christmas shopping fun with festive events and late night shopping. Open until 7pm on Thursdays leading up to Christmas, the events include a Be-Glittered session on Thursday, December 4 in which artists will transform any item, gift or decoration by completely covering it with glitter.
We all know our city, or think we do, but perhaps it wasn’t always as friendly as we’re famous for now?
On Saturday, December 6, Culture club members have the opportunity to join a historical tour to revisit the darker side of life in Newcastle, visiting four centuries in just an hour and a half.
In the middle ages the walled city was a frontier fortress – Scotland was an independent and hostile power. Scottish raiders periodically swept through Northumberland for the best part of three centuries. The strong medieval walls were not for show. We’ll see where Hotspur dueled with Douglas and where so many ‘reivers’ both English and Scots choked out their lives at a rope’s end. In the bitter civil wars between Lancaster and York, a rash of beheadings took place in the castle, decapitated not hung, these were, after all, gentlemen.
Even in the seventeenth century, during the civil war between King and Parliament, the ancient walls were pressed back into service and a fort built at Shieldfield. In 1640, the Scots defeated an English army at Newburn and occupied the city. Four years alter they returned for a great siege in the autumn of 1644 which ended in a violent assault. See where the Scots broke thro’ and retrace your ancestor’s frantic dash for the castle! The English had already shot men for cowardice and hear the story of Anthony Alexander, a redcoat who changed sides once too often.
Westgate gallows did a brisk trade; thirty Armstrongs were hanged there in a job lot in 1532. Hear about a 68 year old widow hanged for burglary, another hanged for the killing of illegitimate children. Hear how crowds of 20,000 turned out to watch executions on the Town Moor, highwaymen were always a particular favourite and men such as Jim’ O’ Neil, hanged in 1816 did not disappoint their audience.
We will re-enact the notorious and fatal duel between John Fenwick and Ferdinando Foster in Newgate Street which took place in 1701. Foster the victor was tried and condemned for murder, he was, however, hanged within the walls rather than on the moor as the magistrates feared his unruly mining tenants would attempt a rescue!
Hear of the murderous riot in 1740 when keelmen and townspeople stormed and broke a cordon of militia, one youth being shot dead and then smashed their way into the Guildhall to the terror of the civic fathers.
In the nineteenth century ‘Cuckoo Jack’ an oarsman had a highly lucrative sideline as a marine scavenger, retrieving lost property from the river. Corpses were a speciality and he was paid per cadaver dragged ashore. One day as he was attending to routine chores on the quayside a friend alerted him that a man had fallen into the river and was like to drown. Jack replied Whey man, hadaway. Ah get more for a deed ‘un. Let the bugger droon!
Birmingham Royal Ballet return to their home in the North, the Sunderland Empire, with the North East premiere of Director David Bintley’s production of Beauty and the Beast. Culture Club members can purchase tickets to the opening night performance on Wednesday, November 12, plus a pre-show historical tour of the venue for only £17.50*
This bewitching production tells the classic fairytale story of an impoverished merchant travelling wearily home. He stumbles upon a deserted castle and takes refuge from a raging storm. The merchant rests at the castle and is tended by invisible forces, but when he repays this kindness by stealing a single rose as a present for one of his daughters, a fearsome Beast appears and exacts a terrifying forfeit: the merchant must send his youngest daughter Belle to stay with the beast in his great house. A story of passion and prejudice leads Belle to discover the meaning true love.
Beauty and the Beast enjoyed its world premiere in 2003 at the Birmingham Royal Ballet’s home, the Birmingham Hippodrome and is performed by the Company’s 60 dancers and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, the Orchestra of the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Grammy nominated Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel makes a welcome return to Newcastle when he appears at the Journal Tyne Theatre on Saturday, November 29. Five lucky Culture Club members, (plus guest), have the chance to see this phenomenal musician perform and get to meet him in person before the show.
A self-taught player, Tommy has developed his own distinctive ‘finger style’ technique, which has to be heard to be believed. Over the years, he has collaborated with hundreds of musicians, including Keith Urban, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder, Men At Work and Hank Marvin, and career highlights include performing at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games. The late great Chet Atkins gave him the title ‘Certified Guitar Player’, while Clapton simply described him as “the best I’ve ever seen”.
After the success of our Perfect Pasta night this summer, Culture Club are delighted to be able to offer members the opportunity to join Cool Cooks again - this time, for a Christmas special.
Cool Cooks will be giving you the opportunity to make your own tray of 'Christmas Sweets' whist enjoying a glass of mulled wine and listening to festive music. The evening will be held on Wednesday, November 26 at Holy Trinity Church Hall in South Jesmond, (near Armstrong Bridge) and starts at 8pm.
Cool Cooks has been in existence for over four years and runs After School Cookery Clubs, Holiday Fun food Workshops and Children’s Birthday Parties. The evening will be led by Gillian of Cool Cooks. Culture Club members can enjoy this festive evening for just £5. Tickets are available at £10 for non members.
Seven Stories is the first accredited museum in the UK wholly dedicated to the art of British children’s books and is home to a growing national collection - a unique resource for learning, research, inspiration and enjoyment. With original artwork and manuscripts by over fifty writers and illustrators, Seven Stories is fast becoming the place for visitors to get a close-up view of the best in British children’s books from the 1930s to the present day.
The Collection is at the very heart of all of Seven Stories’ activities, and is being used by the widest possible audience. It provides primary source material for exhibitions, associated programmes, residencies, outreach projects and research as well as for electronic resources which extend access to the Collection worldwide.
Latest acquisitions to the Collection include works by David Almond and Kim Lewis – both inspired (though in different ways) by their local environment in Tyneside and Northumberland.
Kim Lewis’s has been telling stories for almost twenty years through titles such as Floss, The Shepherd Boy and Little Baa. Kim has now generously donated a large quantity of original material, including drafts, sketches, layouts, dummy books and finished artwork for eleven titles. The material reveals the painstaking work involved in honing the text for each title and getting the illustrations just right.
The settings for David Almond’s fiction vary from the Felling-on-Tyne of his childhood to Hadrian’s Wall. He has recently donated original work for two titles – Heaven Eyes and My Dad’s a Birdman. Heaven Eyes is a particularly special acquisition for Seven Stories, because it is set in a derelict print works in the Ouseburn valley – eerily similar to the Centre when it was bought back in 2002! My Dad’s a Birdman started life as a play for younger children, commissioned by The Young Vic to run alongside their production of Skellig in 2003. The transformation from play to picture book involved several rewrites; both the playscript and drafts for the picture book text are now in the Seven Stories Collection.
Seven Stories have teamed up with Culture Club to offer members an exclusive behind the scenes look at highlights from the Seven Stories Collection. The Seven Stories Collection is stored off-site, at Design Works in Felling. There are two slots available on Thursday, November 13, at 2pm and 3.30pm for 1 hour, 5 members plus one guest each are welcome at each session.
For information on the Seven Stories Collection visit www.sevenstories.org.uk
Newcastle’s very own basketball team - The Eagles, sponsored by Northern Rock, are offering Culture Club members the chance to watch team coach Fabulous Flournoy and his fantastic troop of Eagles play their ‘grudge-game’ of the season when they come face to face with The Cheshire Jets at the Metro Arena on Friday, November 21.
Not only do the players guarantee a good show, the courtside entertainment is not to be missed! Previous acts have included Newcastle dance troupe, Encore, leading sports entertainer, Tommy Baker and DJ, Steve Keys from Newcastle’s Apartment Bar. Courtside entertainment is a massive part of the game, and the next act due to appear on November 21 will be Britain’s Got Talent contestants, Tae Kwon-Do team Chi.!
Offering the ultimate American basketball experience, there will also be exciting off-court activities and competitions taking place at the arena for kids of all ages, ensuring this is a treat for the whole family.
Culture Club has a VIP package of four courtside tickets up for grabs for the game on Friday, November 21. The lucky winners will also receive a match programme, signed ball and a team photo at the end of the game.
Geoff Dead: Disco for Sale Ticket Offer
Culture Club members have an unique ticket offer available. When a ticket is purchased for Geoff Dead: Disco for Sale, you can attend one of four fascinating events for free.
Private Geoff Gray was just seventeen when he was found dead, next to the perimeter fence at Deepcut barracks on September 17 2001. He had two bullet wounds to his head. The Army said it was suicide. Private Gray was not the first young recruit whose life had ended under suspicious circumstances at Deepcut, nor would he be the last: Private James Collinson died from a single gunshot wound while on guard duty in March 2002.
At a time when most families can shut the door and retreat into private grief, the Grays and the Collinsons are propelled into the harsh glare of the media spotlight as they take on the might of the British Establishment to campaign for a public inquiry into the deaths of their sons.
Live Theatre’s new season opens with Geoff Dead: Disco for Sale - a powerful new drama guaranteed to take you on a rollercoaster journey of emotions. To find out more about the families fight for justice there are a series of four weekly events which Culture Club members can attend one event for free with every ticket purchased for Geoff Dead: Disco for Sale. The events include:
The Deepcut Families in conversation- The parents of James Collinson and Geoff Gray will be at Live Theatre to tell their story, and answer your questions as they continue to fight for a public inquiry into their sons deaths.
The making of Geoff Dead: Disco for sale- Writer Fiona Evans and director Deborah Bruce discuss the process of creating Geoff Dead: Disco for Sale. Fiona Evans has been working with the Deepcut families to write the play.
The media’s Response- Brian Cathcart Professor of Journalism at Kingston University and Heather Mills of Private Eye will be interviewed by political editor for BBC North East and Cumbria, Richard Moss. Join them as they probe the media’s response to the case.
The legal Response- The Barrister representing the Deepcut families, John Cooper has been involved in some of the most significant cases of recent times both for prosecution and defence. John will be interviewed at Live Theatre by the BBC’s senior home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford, and asked why its so difficult to get a public inquiry.
Culture Club members have an amazing opportunity to see the preview of ‘We Got Mittens Too!’ at the Lit & Phil and Mining Institute, followed by drinks with the cast.
Some of you were lucky enough to see last year’s promenade performance ‘Novocastrian Philosophers’ Club’, which attracted brilliant reviews. Audiences were taken on an historical tour of the buildings, and watched a delightful tale unfold.
The team that created that sell-out show are back with ‘We Got Mittens Too!’ a piece inspired by real lives and events during World War I, and enhanced by the talents of those involved.
The original idea and script for this show have come from Kay Easson, the Lit & Phil’s Librarian. She was interested to know how the Lit & Phil was affected by the war, and did her own research which included trips to the battlefields. Her script has been transformed into another beautifully crafted show. Kay says ‘At the heart of We Got Mittens Too! is the commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War, a war that is still, but only just, within living memory. The inspiration came from the archives and collections housed here, and more importantly, the stories of people who inhabited the buildings, the members and the staff, those who fought at the front and those left behind. I hope it is a fitting tribute to them all.’
This preview show is on November 3, and the show runs until the November16th.
Tickets for the Culture Club Preview Performance are available at the concessionary rate of £8. To get your tickets for ‘We Got Mittens Too!’ please call Northern Stage with your Culture Club membership number 0191 230 5151.
 
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