Wednesday 23rd March 2011 – Go raft @ eaf, Bold street, Liverpool.

Thursday 24th March 2011 – Henfield charity swap shop – Raising money for children in the local area.

Friday 25th March 2011 – Greenwich Picture house for first showing of The Cave of forgetten dreams in 3D.

Saturday 26th March 2011 – EP Launch @ Bumper, Liverpool.

Saturday 9th April 2011 – The Grand National.

Saturday 16th April – 25th April 2011 – Falmouth.

Friday 29th April 2011 – Dylan Moran @ The Everyman, Liverpool

Tuesday 10th May 2011 – Hosting Kate Oakley for a talk she is giving at LIPA.

Monday 23rd May – Friday 27th May 2011 – CIAM (contemporary issues in arts management conference) @ The CUC, Liverpool.

Saturday 4th June – Sunday 25 June 2011 – Summer Break, Newquay.

Sunday 25th – Thursday 31st June 2011 – UTR, Newquay

As you can see … bread mag is pretty free this year so please feel free to fill the diary up ….

Walsaw
Vienna
Saltzburg
Innsbruck
Milan
Aix-en-Provance
Arles
Montpellier
Valencia
Barcelona
Perpignan
Paris
Berlin
Walsaw
Home tot the UK!

If anyone has any tips on where to go and what can not be missed … drop me a line! I have a pretty tight schedual but there is always room for more!
GET INVOLVED!

Keep an eye out over the next month or so for reviews, travel tips, stories and thought from my little trip away!

Hello Europe … Please to meet you!
Signed, Sally @ Bread!

I am proud to introduce to you COCO the punk rocking, eyelash nibbling, and hard working 4 month old Springer! Cute as pie and daft as a brush, COCO rocks Furners house in Henfield on a daily basis!

          Here day begins like any other. Awake by 7am for bum chilling wee’s in the garden before cuddles with her master/owner/best friend Charlie Laughton. After her daily mountain of Nutra ‘uber cool, organically processed, free range, home grown, zero sugar, fat – trace’ dog food her day really begins!

          In the Beemer she jumps riding shotgun all the way to work! Aerco is where she is based most days – Job title, Employee moral officer, bin sorter, dietician and fitness instructor!

Job Roles –

Employee moral officer – Hourly patrols of the office and warehouse spaces on the look out of anyone who seems to be slacking, annoyed or troubled. This is where her counselling degree comes into play. A little wag of her tail and a flutter of her eyelashes and she can melt the heart of even the hardest, crossed eyed accountant! Due to having very big ears she is a great listener although she has a terrible memory for faces but is great with smells!

Bin sorter – Processes and recycles office bins. There is not a bit of plastic she wont notice no matter how hard to try to hide it. This dog knows her compost from her landfill! COCO does sometimes get carried away and tries to get into the warehouse skips; physical restraint has to be used. On many occasions she has been close to being fired but her puppy dog eyes win over the MD every time.

Dietician – Due to her fussy eating habits, balance is key. Office food has to be either home grown, biscuit based or free from polyunsaturated lypo proteins. The slightest sniff of bacon fat or E numbers and she’s there giving her evil stare to make you feel guilty (and then makes you give her some as a bribe so she wont tell the boss)

Fitness instructor – Picking the laziest, sleepiest, most unmotivated worker for walks and more. She not only gives them pleasure and exercise but a, very mini, shoulder to lean upon in times of need. The worse the workers look the faster she runs!

          On top of all that good work she is doing she still manages to be the top chief chairmen’s complaint generator and seems to have a problem fitting in and making friends.

          COCO is only part time at Aerco and returns home by 3.30pm but her day is not over yet. Her second job as part time nanny/children’s entertainer begins right away. Its only when 9pm rolls around she gets to relax, listen to ‘the best of bread’ on vinyl whilst having a leisurely dinner, Rock out to the Sex Pistols and slob in front of the sofa ready for Gok’s Fashion Fix.

          At the end of the day COCO likes nothing more then to chill out in her own room, watching the world go by then drift off into a deep slumber which is normally disturbed by her snoring or farting to loudly. She dreams of days gone by when she was a, much smaller, pup going to gigs, drinking to much, Running around naked on a hot summers day, chasing butterflies and hiding scared from the chickens.

          Weekends are a lot more fun for COCO but I shall leave that until next time …..

Welcome to Tea Club! My name is Sally Ayres and I am a bit of a TEA freak. I will be your host from here on in and I am very pleased to meet your acquaintance.

What is TEA CLUB?

Tea Club started in 2009 at Flat 17 Lydia Ann Street Liverpool! It’s a place to come, chill, natter and drink tea.

When I say drink tea I mean real tea, from a real pot with real milk and sugar lumps, none of this granulated sugar malarkey!

People come and go from week to week sharing their stories. Sometimes there’s laughter, others there are tears but the tea makes everything seem brighter by the end of the evening.

Tea Club has 25 members to date and is now branching out to the masses!

I have made a little bit of a discovery … My discovery came from some under cover research at various festivals over the year and was culminated at this years (2010) Latitude festival.

When Belle and Sebastian came on stage and asked …

 “Who is the crowd likes proper tea in a proper pot with real loose tea leaves?”

Almost the whole crowd raised their hands. I realised I was not alone and I got to thinking, why cant you get a decent ‘cuppa charlie’ at a festival?

It’s the one thing I miss whenever I’m ‘aving it’ at a festie. Waking up in the morning, hung over, sweaty from sleeping in a tent, smelling because of the massive lack of showers, TEA is what I want. Whether it be in a mug, teapot or by the bucket load, Anti-oxidant beverages is where it’s at!

£1.50 for a cup of tea that is advertised as fair trade but is obviously the 1 million tea bags for 3p variety that you get from certain, un-named (Asda), super markets.

Not only is in served in those polystyrene cups that squeak as you sip from them but they are stewed, covered in scum, COLD and drowned in milk.

Not pleasurable at all.

TEA CLUB aims to solve this!

A few hints of how to make the prefect cuppa!

1. Ignore everything the packet says about brewing time. Each tea is different and each person’s taste buds are different. Brew it for as long as you like but keep an eye on it. Once you see what looks like dust patches appear on the top you know it’s stewed. No good!

1. Don’t follow rules. Earl grey does not have to be served with a lemon, herbal tea is not just for hippies and English breakfast is not boring and can be drunk at anytime of the day. Make your tea however you want it. If you want Earl grey with a hint of lavender, a single sugar lump and a drop of milk then do it … It work’s trust me (and send you to sleep if you having insomnia problems)

1. Don’t squeeze the tea bag! This is why you get that harsh taste when drinking tea. Squeezing the tea bags allows the tannins to escape tarnishing the flavour of the tea.

1. Mugs are for daytime.

1. Teapots, cups and saucers are for breakfast.

1. Wherever possible use loose-leaf tea even in mugs. Loose-leaf tea has a higher concentrated amount of tealeaves then tea bags, which results in a stronger flavour. Cheep tea bags contain dust. When the leaves are chopped, normally the dust falls on the floor and is swept away. With cheap as chip tea bags (as mentioned before) this dust is put into the bags to make the leaves go further. You get a drink out of it but its nasty! Cheep tea bags are the beverage equivalent to Sovereign cigarettes.

1. Never wash a teapot. Rinsing with hot, not boiling water, is fine but no soap allowed!

1. Stir your tea as many times as you like … it makes no difference. If someone asks you to stir their tea 3 times to the right and one to the left, do it the opposite way round and I bet you they will never know.

1. Don’t waste your money on ice tea from the shop. Its so easy to make and taste 100 times better. Make a teapot of English break fast tea and pour into a jug. Add an equal amount of lemonade. Chuck in some fruit and a truckload of ice. Leave to cool and ‘Bobs your uncle, Fanny’s your aunt’ ICE TEA’s all round!

1. Tea is good for you! It contains anti-oxidants that help you live longer and it improves your memory. FACT!  

How is TEA CLUB gonna sort out This tea mess that’s seems to be happening at Festivals in the UK?!

The TEA CLUB tent!

A big selection of all your favourite teas from Twinning and PG tips to Smokey Earl grey from Fortnum and Mason and Camomile, lavender and rosehip produced by Pukka teas.

£1 per cup to take away.

£1.10 per mug to drink in.

£1.50 for a pint of green tea to help those gruesome festival hang over’s. Take away or drink in.

£4 for a box of your favourite tea.

£5 for a pot to drink in.

All come with as many free biscuits as you like and a smile!

TEA CLUBS tent will be relaxing, friendly, well decorated and fun. Full of fresh tea plants, information cards, gingham table clothes and the sound of conversation. Uplifting and welcoming. Tasty and refreshing. Pleasurable and tempting. Topped off with a ukulele playing staff member and gorgeous aprons.

FANCY IT?

I have become hooked!
The people seem 100 times more intelligent which means the arguments they are getting into are really juicey and they are all incredibly devious which makes for some fantastic gossiping topics!

What does everyone else think? Have they found them selves switching over to channel 4 due to being totally bored and having nothing else to watch? Are we loving this year more then the others or hating it as always with a passion?

How do you want out? I think ‘GET BEA OUT!’ What a nosey, sneaking little bitch she is and that halfwit … god, I used to like him but my word what a nob! He’s tyotally fallen for Bea and now he has changed for the worse to impress her, we should have taken the opportunity to get him out long ago! If knew then what we knew now …. !
Dogface to win! Sivash to conquere the world!

Any thoughts?

            On one hand I have my critical side telling me that this is just rubbish. Made by a film company to rake in the dollars regardless of how similar this film is to all of the others, On the flip side my fairytale like mind loves a good girly film and it did make me laugh so coming to a solid conclusion about this film is not an easy task.

             Remember Meg Ryan in ‘When Harry met Sally’ You know the scene, In the café when Meg does her ever so convincing fake sexual climax, well this film has its very own version but unfortunately I don’t think Katherine Heigl will be going down in the Hollywood book of fame for this imitation as Mrs Ryan did back in 1989 although the events leading up to it are very humorous and some what true to life.  

            Half of the main story is about an outrageous guy who appears on TV to tell the nation about ‘The Ugly Truth’ the ugly truth basically being that he has a problem with women due to being heart broken and never getting over it and women don’t know how to read men’s signals or act in the right way to keep them interested. After a while this becomes very tedious and I did start to wonder if the scriptwriter had a chip on his shoulder, which he was expressing through this film.

            The fighting and the sexual tension grows stronger throughout until the ever-predictable ‘near miss’ scene. The near miss scene is always some thing along the lines of the couple nearly getting their dream but then real life prevented it. All romcom’s must have a ‘near miss’ scene, without this, us, as the audience wouldn’t be able to emotionally connect. Without the ‘near miss’ scene tears of joy would not be shed throughout the whole auditorium of women all hoping for that same happily ever after ending just before the credits roll up or the photo montage begins.

            Although I’d love to turn round and tell you how much I hated this film, to my surprise and deep embarrassment, I didn’t. I quite enjoyed it. Its not the sort of film that you would make the effort to go and see on a Saturday night out, but, early one Tuesday morning when the cinema is pretty empty and there is no line for the popcorn stand, its very pleasurable. It’s the kind of film you can sit back and watch without having to think too much. You can switch off and let your brain absorb it like a sponge while you fill your belly with naughty treats and sweets.

            If you like the generic American romcom’s then you’ll love this. Its funnier then other I seen recently but the story line is just as heart warming. Very slapstick and very obvious and its got the added bonus of seeing Gerard Butler’s perfectly formed torso so don’t take the boyfriend girls he’ll only get jealous when your drooling over your ice-cream.

One wants time and effort and the other space and calm, Each of them pulling at strings to alter the others mind.

Singly breathing freely but as one suffocation occurs, Feeling trapped one just walks away the other stands a ground. Momentarily easy with out a care, smiles with hidden anger, One turns it back; the other pulls it back around.

One’s more Hippy flowers the other more Rock ‘n’ Roll, Talent sparkles from their fingertips but neither can appreciate.

Hard worker or lazy socialite, neither supports such silly dreams, One gives up on the other because mind set says it’s to late.

Phone calls melt to thick black tar and love dissolves to fizz, These 2 know that the clashing must finally come to an end,

One wants closure and the other needs time, Sorry’s and fake romances are not the way to mend.

One said they never understand the other asks for a break, One nags to get their own way while the other tries to tear away.

Outsiders know that each are blinkered and both need to same, But stuck in the mud it’s hard to see, hard to say what you want to say.

One cries alone the other drinks the bar dry, Inevitably the air blows clear and the make up begins,

In the back of their minds they know they will never forget, One always loses and the other always wins.

Ones more us and the others more them, Ones here and now the other plans ahead.

Ones more I love them the other more they love me, Each understands the other but this will never be said.

WHATS YOUR THOUGHTS? Please let me know.

My closeing thought is they are all very brave for getting up on that stage and exposing their selves to the elements! In my eyes, anyone has the guts to do it is a winner in my eyes!

What exactly does “no talent” mean? Everyone has a different view on what constitutes a person being talented. Some people many think that a male soprano singer (as seen on x-factor) is talent, some may think that Kerry Katona is talented for manipulating the media in the way that she does, others may see stage actors as more talented then on-screen performers. Talent is an opinion, its not just black and white. You don’t have to be talented to be a celebrity same as people are not always a celebrity because they are talented. The 2 do not go hand in hand and especially at the moment they are at opposite sides of the spectrum.

            I went to see something in the Brighton festival recently called ‘On celebrity’ Cosmo Landesman, along with 2 other celebrity critics, was discussing how we are effected by the media and about the explosion of celebrity culture due to reality T.V shows and televised talent competitions. One statement that stuck in my mind was;

‘There seems to be so many celebrities but so few stars’

            Celebrity culture is not a new thing, its been going on since the 1920’s, if not before, with publicized scandals, evidence of this can be found on Google and Wikipedia by searching for 1920’s scandal but the question Cosmo and others were asking at this particular talk was why are people buying into the culture and celebrity life style more now then ever? Do people really think that the only way to make it somewhere in the performing arts industry is to almost disgrace their selves by appearing on a reality television show for media exposure?

            How have the public become so attached to the lives of others? Are our lives so boring that we need to read about other peoples so we have something to talk about? As an example, if you take the likes of ‘OK’ magazine and flip through its pages it contains nothing more then airbrushed celebrity faces, most of which we have never heard of, circles of shame around a well known faces sweat patches or chipped nail polish and articles about well known celebrity couples buying everyday things in every day ways. Is this entertainment? Celebrity gossip columns and magazines offer us a common ground on which to work from when talking to others, conversations such as “Oh! Did you hear about Jordan and Pete getting divorced?” At the ‘On Celebrity’ talk Cosmo mentioned a newspaper, of which I have forgotten the name, that decided to deal with real life people and real life events but it never took off or made any money, people apparently were not interested. When a non-celebrity takes a train ride up from Euston to Liverpool, for example, no one batters an eyelid but when a celebrity takes the same journey or another such as a flight from one place to another its front-page gossip news in the morning, evidence of this can be found when looking at the recent story about Victoria Beckham flying from America to Milan. Heat magazine apparently laid to rest the rumours that the Beckham’s were planning to buy a house in the city of Milan, In a exclusive interview to heat, Mrs Beckham, told them the rumours weren’t true and she was just popping over on a shopping trip. Do we really care where celebrities are buying houses?  It seems people are becoming obsessed with celebrity culture and it also seems that many people are striving to become a product of that culture. I say the above because when you look around many people, especially girls, have a case of champagne taste and beer money, they seem to be copying what the celeb’s wear and the way they act but because these people, obsessed with celebrity, don’t have the same spending power or bank balance as their, what some people may call, ‘phoney’ icon’s they don’t seem to pull it off.

Cosmo’s statement “When critics of celebrity culture shake their heads and complain that these dreadful people have “no talent” they’re missing the point; they are liked because they don’t have talent! They offer human forms of entertainment. People don’t care about their singing – they want the life, their story of triumph and sorrow.” (The Guardian, April 16^th 2007) Implies that to become a celebrity takes talent but not in its organic form. Talent of today comes from having ‘no talent’ It implies that to become famous, a ‘celebrity’, all you need is a little tragedy or a whirl wind romance gone wrong, the guts to tell everyone about it and your on your way.

Speaking purely for myself, I love a good sob story and I am always won over when watching Britain’s got talent by the 1 or 2 a week they single out to have their life shown by a picture story with a voice over. For those few minutes before they audition I become totally attached to their story and their quest to be there on that particular day and whatever the outcome I slightly feel the emotion they are experiencing. Does this mean I am buying into the new bread of celebrity that’s coming from reality television shows?  It’s obvious that these stories, blasts of gossip, exploitations of someone’s life, are what people want to see the evidence is clear, its on the TV’s we watch, the magazines we read, the radio we listen to and the newspapers we pick up for the real hard news.

Landesman’s view on celebrity cultures implies that the worst is yet to come; he even said so when I went to see him in Brighton. We live in an age of modern individualism, be ordinary and loved for nothing in particular.

In recent years, according to Landesman’s discussion panel, there has been a dip in politics. Young people are not taking note of what’s going on in the world of politics, which means a gap in the market has appeared that celebrity culture has moved into. In my opinion this is showing future generations that the most important people in the world are the celebrities and being a celebrity is the mark of success.         

By putting a price on your life opens up doors that are otherwise guarded by the VIP list. From what I can gather, many people want this celebrity feeling. People want to be seen and recognised, people’s desire takes over and that strive and struggle of exclusivity becomes ever more prominent. It seems to me that the first step up the celebrity ladder is magazines such as Women’s weekly or even TV guide. These magazines have lots of real life stories and as a closing statement ‘£250, tell us your story’ People see this as a way of making money, fast, and getting their face splashed across magazines for hundreds, if not thousands, to see meaning they have gained visibility just like their favourite celebrities but don’t they realise that their lives are being exploited? Visibility is not the same as celebrity. It may get them noticed in the street and it might get them into a club once or twice for free but the flavour of the month will change and change very quickly.

What is interesting is how celebrities, not stars, stay in the public eye for so long. These people need to have a continuous narrative to stay in the limelight. Once a story gets old onlookers get bored and move on to their next victim, to keep the attention of the public these so called “no talent” celebrities have to create interest through scandal, plastic surgery, working for a charity, adopting a child, marriage or divorce.

By our entertainment industry being taken over by generic “on talent” celebrities does it now mean that the performing arts sector will, in years to come, seize to exist? In stead of children and young people going to stage school to learn and expand on their talents such as drama or music will colleges start offering qualifications in celebrity, How to exploit yourself to get ahead? 

Landesman’s view implies that anyone with the correct attitude can become a celebrity, its not hard and you don’t even have to be talented, in fact the more ‘untalented’ you are the better.

            Celebrity seems to be based on appearances. If you look the part you must have talent. A perfect example of this was Susan Boyle on Britain’s got talent this year, 2009. The judges, especially Simon Cowell, judged her completely on her looks. When asked “why are you here and do you think you can win?” she said, “I want to prove that I do have something to give and to perform in front on the queen would be an honour” and then “where do you see yourself in 10 years?” her reply “I what to be world known for my singing” got laughs from all over the auditorium. This was a prime example of people judging someone by their appearance. Simon’s blinkered view of ‘Prettiness sells!’ appears now to be outdated. Once they heard her sing they should have hung their heads in shame. She was brilliant! Now, even though Britain’s got talent isn’t over, she has become known worldwide. She has been mentioned on a recent episode of The Simpson’s, interviewed on Oprah and is constantly mentioned on Radio as I just heard on Radio 1. Due to this new found celebrity ITV seemed to give her more interview time in the semi final then any of the other contestants. Yes she is talented but also she has a story of struggle, being bullied at school, never being given a chance due to her looks etc. To me this is a prime example of what exactly Landesman is talking about in his statement from his article in the Guardian.

            I personally think that the entertainment industry has come to a dead end. Everything seems to have been done before. There isn’t any imagination going into the industry and I cant help but wonder is this because of public demand or is it due to the industry just running out of innovative ideas and angles? Have the public created a demand of celebrity or have the media forced it upon us to cover the lack of fresh ideas?

            Stars of the past have been remembered for their huge talent and many of them had other problems going on alongside their celebrity lives but they seemed to be kept under wraps, the personal lives of celebrities of the past were not the thing that sold them, their talent was. Now its been reversed. The more tragic a life is the more records they sell, the more magazines they sell. I watched the documentary of The Carpenter’s on BBC 2 yesterday, 25/05/09. This was about a brother and sister team who expressed their talent in any way they wanted. They strived to gain that first hit and as soon as they did people fell in love with them. It wasn’t Karen Carpenters Anorexia or her brothers sleeping pill addiction that sold their records or made people watch their TV programme, it was their talent, Karen’s voice, Thomas’ music arranging and their presence on stage. I cannot think of someone around today that has this. Media is more prominent now and without the media stars of the future would never stand out, never get that chance to show their potential.

            The more I think about it, the more I realise that we are surrounded by individuals addicted to money, being recognised, living the high life and they all seem to think that it’s easy to get there and I guess Landesman’s view implies this. If stories of celebrity births, marriages, shopping trips, heart ache, illness and addiction are what people want then I guess that’s what they are going to get.

Is celebrity the new drug of choice?