Posts Tagged ‘ celebrity ’

I’m a Celebrity Get me to a Birmingham City Council Event

Much amusement to be had I would imagine at this spreadsheet of ‘Celebrity’ speakers engaged by the council since 2005. Have a look online and see what you can find, I’ve spotted ‘Chico’, ‘Duncan out of Blue’…

A sign of Dick, and Joan

A superbitch famous for wide-shouldered dresses, those are the qualities that made Leo Morgado the idea person to meet Joan Collins. She’s staring the Hippodrome’s panto this year, y’see: As Birmingham waits to see whether or not it will receive the title of being UK City of Culture 2013, we have already received a much more important honour, and that’s having Joan Collins booked to perform pantomime at the Birmingham Hippodrome. Detractors and cynics say that panto is just giving losing contestants in reality TV shows, and once popular light entertainment stars a reason to exist. All I can say to that is, Goldilocks. Pantomime, like all art (and it is art), has its low and high forms. Low form is the excruciatingly embarrassing spectacle of seeing sub-lebrities trying extremely hard to be liked by an indifferent audience. Truly great and engaging pantomime not only brings out the best actors, but also the best out of an audience. Pantomime allows families to leave their homes and spend time together whilst being lavished with colourful productions. It gives theatres the opportunity to fill auditoriums day after day, night after night and create much needed income. It is also a chance...

Sarah Jane Lynch (on twitter) is s putting together a project on Moseley, its history and community over the last 100 years — she started by interviewing Pete the Feet… Pete Mckenzie, better known as Pete the Feet, aged 64 has been propping up the bars of Moseley, Birmingham since the hedonistic days of the sixties. His resilience against the norm of wearing footwear, the fact he has created his own merchandise in form of homemade lighters and purses which he carries everywhere, and not least his warm and friendly nature have made him into something of a local legend. For many Pete is an iconic figure. He isn’t one of the many millions on the social networking site, Facebook, but a group set up in his honour has attracted over 1000 members. He has had a song written about him by local band ‘Katlama’ and was even voted the ‘most famous Midlander who isn’t actually famous’ in a radio poll. I caught up with Pete to unveil the real man behind the legend and to discuss his love of Moseley, the corner of Birmingham he is synonymous with. “ I came here I was about 20, I’d travelled...

Got a chance yesterday to pop into the mac (still a week or so before the opening, and work being done all over the building) and taste the catering. Yum. The building re-opens to the public on May 1st, with loads of events, a very much refurbed bar and café and free wifi streaming out into the park. The cinema, theatre and hexagon theatre have all had a spruce up and there’s now extra performance space around the building. Most impressive is the huge new gallery space — a vast room that already looks to be very flexible. The opening exhibition ‘Plug In’ is currently being installed, and features a ton of locally related art, including a sound piece by Peter Cusack, photos by Stuart Whipps and this masterpiece too long out of sight: It’s also got the Brum word cloud in situ — have a quick look on the mac blog. But best of all I found out that the mac had once been the site of Bob Carolgees’s brief foray into the World of architecture:

Is just one of the Brum-related ephemera to be found in collage on the booklet of the new Lilac Time collection ‘Memory and Desire’. It’s a proper WMPTE Travelcard with him in New Romantic regalia. Other bits include a photo of Washwood Heath, one of the Perry Barr Poly campus, a Kynoch cycles advert, a Library card… see what else you can spot (click through for a bigger pic): And the album is beautiful, even if one track does feature Nigel Kennedy. There’s also news of a film, woo hoo!

Skint Christmas

Vernon off of Skint has released a Christmas single, it’s step up from the X-Factor…just.

Brummie of the Year 2009 – Nominations Open

Doom, Tighe, Mitton, Malik, Furnell, Babu — who’s next? Nominations are now open for Brummie Of The Year 2009 — and you’re welcome to nominate any Brummie or Brum resident that has been great or just very very Birmingham this year. How about Brian Travers of UB40 for sterling efforts to save Brummie music culture? Or maybe you know better? All that we know is that the nominations will close at 7am Saturday 5th December and the voting will open the next day. Leave your nominations, with a reason, in the comments — and feel free to discuss amongst yourselves. NOMINATIONS CLOSED – Vote now

American cartoonist and underground comix artist Gilbert Shelton is going to be in Brum on Friday November 13th at Nostalgia & Comics. He’s the bloke who did The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers (which is being made into a stop motion film), and the spin off series Fat Freddy’s Cat. He has also contributed to Wonder Wart-Hog, Not Quite Dead, and is also well known in some circles for his cover art to The Grateful Dead’s 1978 album Shakedown Street. Knockabout Comics have just published The Fat Freddy’s Cat Omnibus and they also have The Freak Brothers Omnibus available., and Nostalgia & Comics is welcoming Gilbert to sign both books between 4.00 & 5.30. It’s at 14 –16 Smallbrook Queensway, Birmingham, B5 4EN. For further details: 0121 643 0143 or noscomic@noscomic.plus.com

What do you think? Worth getting these set up on the BiNS shop? R2D2 is of course a Brummie, played as he was by Kenny Baker — Star Trek Tastic. Thanks to Michael for the idea.

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Posts Tagged ‘ celebrity ’

I’m a Celebrity Get me to a Birmingham City Council Event

A sign of Dick, and Joan

Pete the Feet Exclusive

Spit and Sauce, Us

Stephen Duffy’s Bus Pass

Skint Christmas

Brummie of the Year 2009 – Nominations Open

Fat Freddy’s Bloke

New T-shirt design, maybe

@onBirmingham – Breaking Brum News on Twitter