Muzu TV have produced an extraordinarily good video of the Heroes of She performing Bohemian Like You and Out of My Way, the performance which got them through to the final of the “Live and Unsigned” competition at the 02 Arena on July 10th. In fact Muzu TV think so highly of the Heroes’ performance that they’ve given the video pride of place on their blog. Here’s the link-
http://www.muzu.tv/blog/2010/05/19/live-and-unsigned-5-top-alternative-bands-from-the-competition/
Archive for May, 2010
Monday, May 31st, 2010
Heroes of She- Bohemian Like You/Out of My Way
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
The Isaac-Welcomes at Chelsea Flower Show
One of the best things about having a show garden at Chelsea is that you can invite family and friends to visit the show in the evening and to share a glass of champagne when the crowds have gone. Tonight our visitors included the Isaac-Welcome family and it was just great to catch up with them in person for the first time since ‘How the Other Half Live’ was screened. We all agreed that the response of the general public had been unexpectedly warm and generous. Dominique was excited by the fact that she had been recognised in the street more than 60 times. My own experience at Chelsea has been that dozens of strangers have asked to shake my hand or take my photo or even to ask for my autograph. I was delighted that Megan, Daniel’s assistant in the production team, was also able to join us and we all went out for a late and excellent supper at Chutney Marys in the New Kings Road afterwards.
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
The Riverside Gunman Part 2
My posting of March 2nd, 2010 told the story of how armed policemen surrounded the Riverside Hotel and arrested a gunman, after disabling him with a Tazer. We have since been told that after being challenged the gunman reached for his gun and might have been shot dead by the waiting marksmen if he hadn’t fumbled, giving the police enough time to deploy the Tazer.
The gunman was Thomas Hayes, who appeared at South Lakeland Magistrates Court today and pleaded guilty to the following charges: possessing an imitation firearm in a public place.
As related earlier, our manager, Helen Clark displayed exceptional courage and presence of mind and she received the following commendation from the police, ‘I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank you and your staffs’ assistance with the incident that occurred at the Riverside Hotel on Tuesday 2nd March 2010. Your staff stayed calm and did exactly what we asked; without alerting the suspects – thus keeping the vicinity safe for customers, themselves, our officers and potentially other members of the public.’
Helen had been keeping an eye on the villain because she suspected him of making off with £180 in tips when he had been in the hotel with two friends the previous day. It turns out that it was one of the friends who had filched the tips. The tips have been returned and the the culprit was let off with a caution.
Monday, May 24th, 2010
Press Day at the Chelsea Flower Show 2010
Monday is press day, which means cameras and lots of them non-stop all day. Philippa and I began with interviews for the BBC, then our local ITV stations followed by TV companies from all over, including Iran and Slovenia. Monday is also the day for celebrity spotting; for me the star of the day was undoubtedly our local reporter Katie Robinson from the North West Evening Mail who came armed with a video camera and was ruthless in pinning down every celeb who came by. This link is of a video in which she captured interviews with Ringo, Piers Morgan, Jane Torvill, and many others all of whom she coaxed into saying extravagantly flattering things about the garden.
http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/lakes/chelsea-flower-show-garden-is-fab-says-ringo-starr-jayne-torvill-and-piers-morgan-1.712101?referrerPath=home/2.3320&resourceView=video&index=1#video
Monday, May 24th, 2010
Final Preparations
Gala Night at the Chelsea Flower Show is said to be the first day of the ‘season’. Only the glitterati can afford the tickets which sell for £328. We get our tickets for free but whether we will be in any fit state to enjoy them is another matter. Nothing could be less glamorous than the final rush to get the garden ready. A dust cart has been parked opposite our garden all day churning rubbish noisily at 10 minute intervals. One of the adjacent gardens has a crisis with its pond and has to get help from ‘Caroline’s Effluent Services’ and Caroline’s large pink tanker pumps out the offending pond water very noisily and very smellilly. This video shows Philippa trying to do some planting against this backdrop of mayhem.
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
How The Other Half Live
“My God, you must the mad”, was the common response when I told people that I was taking part in the reality TV show for Channel 4. “They’ll stitch you up, they always do”. The truth is, we didn’t know how it would turn out, until we saw it tonight. But we were pretty sure that we could trust the producer, Daniel Fromm and his delightful assistant, with the wonderful name, Meghan Just-Truelove (Meghan Just fell in love with Marcus Truelove). Our instinct, thankfully, was right. Daniel and Meghan produced a very thoughtful and surprisingly truthful “feelgood” programme. For our part we were fortunate in being paired with the Isaac-Welcome family (pictured). After watching the programme, Georgina was a little upset about how she came over on screen and she was astonished to receive 50 “friend” requests within 5 minutes of the show ending, with dozens of lovely comments from friends and strangers, so that by the end of the evening she was positively beaming.
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
Hotel of the Year Awards
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The girls from the Riverside, pictured here, created a sensation at the Cumbria Tourism awards where they were one of three finalists for “Hotel of the Year”. Stuart Maconie, the host, couldn’t keep his eyes off them and there’s no doubt he would have awarded them the first prize if it had been his choice, if only, as he put it, because they had “scrubbed up nicely”.
I was very proud to see them there- they have worked very hard to transform the Riverside into one of the best in the county. In the end, the accollade went to the four star
Armathwaite Hall- the place where Gordon Brown stayed last summer-and I suppose they deserve some consolation for that
Monday, May 10th, 2010
Are You a Homeless Person?
The build-up at the Chelsea Flower Show is so surreal that it hardly came as a surprise to be asked “Are you a homeless person?”. In fact I felt quite proud, almost human for an instant. The solicitous enquiry came from the organisor of the Eden Project garden, shown in this video here. He had seen me going about with my cloth cap (on my head, I should add, not being proferred for small change) and Flip Video and he mistook me for one of the homeless because his garden is being built by homeless people and they have been provided with Flip videos to record the event. In fact, so he told me, the Eden project garden has also been designed by the homeless. A very brave experiment. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Sunday, May 9th, 2010
The 02 Here We Come
Things are different now. Change is in the air.
It wasn’t a foregone conclusion; in fact I was mentally prepared for defeat. True, The Heroes of She had put on an amazing performance, probably their best ever. True, their army of supporters, seated just below the judges, were particularly rampant in their enthusiam. True, the rest of the packed crowd loved them as well. But there were other brilliant acts, of widely differing genres, from hip-hop to heavy rock and who was to know what were the personal tastes of the judges.
These were the area finals of the “Live and Unsigned” competition. The winners will represent the North of England in the national final at the 02 stadium on July …The 02 stadium! The very idea was unreal.
Three bands got through. The Heroes of She were the second act to be named as winners. The applause was deafening. Well done guys. You really deserve it.
Saturday, May 8th, 2010
Tranquility in a Japanese Garden
15 show gardens are being built cheek by jowl and the noise is overwhelming. Each garden has a digger, a cement mixer, a dumper truck ; there is a constant stream of lorries making deliveries and of cranes lifting plants and materials into the gardens. In fact it’s a dangerous business taking photographs- I was very nearly mown down by a lorry carrying portable loos. Being mown down by a portable toilet is not the ideal way to meet on’es end- there wouldn’t be a straight face at the funeral.
In the midst of the cacophany is one oasis of tranquility- the Japanese garden being built by the renowned Japanese designer, Ishihara Kazuyuki. This video shows his workers, all of them Japanese, preparing some stone-work and the sound of their hammering is almost musical.