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PREVIEW: Christina Bianco: Me, Myself & Everyone Else – The UK Tour

After a successful week-long stint at the Edinburgh Fringe and three five-star reviews, the long-awaited one-woman show, featuring US singing sensation, Christina Bianco – Me, Myself & Everyone Else comes to Brighton.

Christina Bianco
Christina Bianco

Broadway and West End performer Christina Bianco’s stunning voice and comedic charm has wowed audiences around the world capturing international acclaim as a YouTube sensation with her ‘diva’ impression videos, which have gained over 23 million views.

A woman of many voices, she’s performed on The Ellen Degeneres Show, The Paul O’Grady Show, This Morning and Graham Norton on BBC Radio 2.

“After playing in Edinburgh, I’m thrilled to finally perform for the rest of Great Britain. We’re half way through the tour now so I’m pleased we’ve added a new date in Brighton.  I’m also very excited about coming to Brighton for the first time.  I’ve heard so many great things about this place and I can’t wait to see it,” said Christina.

Christina will also present her hilarious ‘unlikely interpretations’ that pair a singer and song you wouldn’t expect.

Ever wonder what Shirley Bassey would sound like singing Adele’s Hello? Or a soulful duet of Under Pressure between Julie Andrews and Christina Aguilera?

Me, Myself & Everyone Else features lots of audience participation. ERach performance brings something new from Ariana Grande to Cheryl Cole to Celine Dion, no celebrity is safe.


Event: Christina Bianco – Me, Myself & Everyone Else

Where: Brighton Proud Cabaret, 83 St George’s Rd, Brighton BN2 1EF

When: Sunday, September 18

Time: 7.30pm

Cost: £30, VIP £45

To book tickets online, click here:

 

 

 

Ice rink returns to Royal Pavilion for Christmas

The Royal Pavilion Ice Rink, opens for its seventh season from November 5 to January 15 on the Royal Pavilion’s East Lawn in Brighton.

Photo: Hugo Philpott
Photo: Hugo Philpott

With the former Prince Regents Royal pleasure palace as the backdrop and huge rink side bar and restaurant with a 40 metre terrace, the rink is beautifully lit at night and is a great choice for those who want to skate in a twinkling setting as well as sit down to eat après ice.

Situated just 50 minutes from Victoria by train, all of Brighton’s gorgeous independent shops are on its doorstep so visitors can get a little Christmas shopping in too.

The rink is a huge 880 square metres plus an additional beginners’ area and offers penguin skate aids and skate sizes from ‘just walking’ to adult. There’s no charge for spectating for those who prefer to sit and soak up the atmosphere and the rink side Bar & Kitchen offers patisserie snacks, Christmas treats, a quick drink with the best view in the City and tasty sharing platters for families and friends to enjoy.

Ice skating tickets will go on sale at the end of September and cost from £10 for adults (aged 12 and over), £7 for juniors (children under 12) and the one-hour skate times run from 10am to 10.15pm daily.

Club Rinkidinks (10am – 11am daily) offers children under five the chance to skate for free when accompanied on the ice by an adult paying full price. There are also season tickets for those who want to learn to skate (check website for details) and great concessions for students. The box office is open from 9.45am to 9.45pm, but it is advisable to book tickets in advance.

For more information, click here:

Brighton Pride raise £100,000 for local good causes

Brighton Pride exceed their fundraising target for Pride 2016, raising £100,000 for local good causes, bringing the total raised by Pride over the past four years to over £310.000.

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The total is made up from a guaranteed ring fenced £1 per head on every ticket sold for the Preston Park Event and Pride Village Party as well as various Pride fundraisers and bucketing on the parade and park.

£90,000 will be donated to the Rainbow Fund who give grants to LGBT organisations providing effective front line services to LGBT people in the city.

£10,00 will be donated to the Pride Social Impact Fund established in 2015 to benefit the city’s communities in the areas most affected by the social impact of the Pride weekend celebrations. The fund is facilitated by editors from the local media.

Paul Kemp
Paul Kemp

Paul Kemp, Pride’s director, said: “I am thrilled to be able to announce we have broken our fundraising target for 2016 and matched the record fundraising of our 25th anniversary year in 2015.  

“It has been a challenging year for Pride. Money raised from parade collection buckets (£1670.00) and contributions towards fundraising from local businesses is much lower this year. With many businesses across the city benefiting commercially from the influx of Pride visitors it remains disappointing that more don’t help with the fundraising effort.”

“Over 60% of visitors to Pride come into the City by train and with an announcement by Southern railway to find alternative means of transport and the planned strike from Pride Sunday at midnight, clearly this may have deterred visitors and effected business in the City. Wristband sales for Sunday Pride Village Party this year were down by two-thirds ”

“This year the Pride Parade had the biggest number of participants ever and there were new festival sites across the city. The Pride Festival on Preston Park has received the best feedback ever from visitors while Brighton & Hove Pride is recognised as the UK’s biggest Pride Festival bringing in an estimated £18million to the local economy”

Pride cost £1.5 million to stage this year. 70.414 tickets were sold for either the street party or the main event on Preston Park generating £70,414 for the Rainbow Fund. Official Pride parties raised £3,282.00 while the Pride buckets generated a disappointing £1,679.00 from people watching the Pride Parade.

The Pride Rainbow Fund Grant Awards will take place at the Hilton Brighton Metropole on September 21 when grants will be distributed to local LGBT charities, community groups and good causes.

In addition to Pride’s continued commitment to fundraising for the Rainbow Fund, in 2015 they also established a Social Impact Fund from Pride’s additional activities.

Pride will continue to work with community organisations to develop projects and ideas that could be of social benefit to the wider community.

Pride Social Impact Fund applications will open in October with grants being awarded in early 2017.

Brighton & Hove Pride is produced by Brighton Pride CIC, a not for profit community interest company (CIC). All ticket revenue raised goes directly to the operational and running costs of producing the Pride Festival, LGBT+ Community Parade, Pride Village Party and community fundraising towards the Rainbow Fund and Pride Social Impact Fund.

Groups benefitting from Rainbow Fund grants in 2015 included; Allsorts Youth Project who provide vital support for young people; MindOut who deliver pioneering work for people with mental health issues, GEMS and Older & Out, both organisations providing social networking and support opportunities for older people and the LGBT Community Safety Forum who facilitate delivery for the Accessibility Matters project making Pride more accessible and safer for disabled, blind, deaf and older people.

Raspberry Beret – new queer and inclusive clubnight for Worthing

Worthing!!! In ‘funk til you post-punk’ memory of Mr.Prince himself, featuring DJ Geraldine/Madame GeGe, Janey Blam Blam and The Glitter Police.

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Raspberry Beret launches this weekend, Friday 16 in his hottness’s honour, and no better place to launch than in wonderful sexy WORTHING!!

This is not a Prince tribute night! It is a new monthly Queer and inclusive night featuring the best of ecelectic and locally sourced DJ’s.

This months offering involves the highest calibre of Pop, Post-Punk, Electro, 80’s Cheese, 60s Motown, Soul, 70s Punk, Disco, Goth, New Wave, 90’s Indie with bouts of Acid and Plenty of Funk!!!

Think Who’s That Girl? Deceptacon! It’s No Good, give A Little respect! Cat Rider, Don’t Go (!) into A forest to Cherish, Cherry Coloured Funk while Running Up That Hill looking Pretty In Pink – The Model, is Hunting High and Low for the New Moon on Monday! … Life’s What You Make It, on Planet Earth, in God’s House. Deus, What have I Done To Deserve This? I Would Die For You! I need you tonight. Love is the drug! Da Funk.

See you on the dance-floor, take your mates along – LET’S GO CRAY CRAY!


Event: Raspberry Beret

Where: Bar Forty Two, 42 Marine Parade Worthing BN11 3QA

When: Friday, September 16

Time: 7.30pm – 00.30am

Cost: Tickets £2.50

To book online, click here:

West Sussex man needs stem cell donor

West Sussex man with leukaemia makes urgent appeal for people to register as potential blood stem cell donors with the charity DKMS.

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The appeal is being made by 47-year-old Shaun Graham, who urgently needs a donation of blood stem cells from someone with a matching tissue-type to his to treat his blood cancer, leukaemia.

Unfortunately nobody with a matching tissue-type to his has been found yet, so he is urging people to register as potential blood stem cell donors to help find a donor for him and all those seeking matching donors.

Shaun, who is from Midhurst, was in good health until his life was turned upside down when he was diagnosed with leukaemia in March this year. Shaun, a father of two, loves life in the countryside and has worked at dairy farms for many years. He can often be found taking photos, walking, and travelling around the world. However, his life has been put on hold since his diagnosis.

web-300Help find a donor for Shaun
As Shaun is adopted, he has no known biological siblings and is therefore reliant on finding an unrelated donor on the public registry of blood stem cell donors. For many blood cancer patients like Shaun, a blood stem cell donation is their only chance of survival but many patients in the UK never find the lifesaving blood stem cell donor match they need.

This isn’t because a match doesn’t exist, it’s because there aren’t enough people registered as donors. The charity says that the more people who register as potential donors, the greater the chances of finding matching donors for those in need of a blood stem cell donation. That is why DKMS works to increase the size and diversity of the registry.

Speaking about the appeal to find a matching blood stem cell donor for him, Shaun said: “I just want my life back. I know things won’t exactly be as they were before, but to do the things I enjoy would be a step forward.

“Also, to see my kids grow up and to be there for them. Myself and Sarah, my partner, have so many things planned for the future. I want to be able to put those plans into reality.

“Not forgetting my dog Buddy, I want to be able to take him on those long walks I used to do with him.

“So please register as a potential donor, if not a match for myself, you may be for someone else and save a life. Thank you.”

Lisa Nugent, donor recruitment manager at DKMS, added: “It will only take a few minutes of your time to register as a potential blood stem cell donor to find out if you are a match for Shaun or someone else in need of a blood stem cell donation. I would urge anyone aged 17 to 55 and in general good health, to register online through the DKMS website www.dkms.org.uk.”

 

PREVIEW: #Outcome an LGBT photographic portrait project

Tom Dingley started his #Outcome project in 2014, to photograph LGBT people while holding a picture of themselves as a child – showing that it does get better, by providing young LGBT people with role models for life beyond adolescent angst, uncertainty and bullying.

web-600His message is: No matter how hard it is growing up and coming to terms with your sexuality or identity; you can be who you are, living a successful and happy life, out of the closet. His aim is also to help breakdown stereotypes of what an LGBT person looks like, or can be – because  as the project shows, there is no absolute definition.

Tom has exhibited the ongoing project at London Pride, Brighton Pride, Student Pride, Digital Pride and as part of LGBT History Month celebrations.

Over time, more portraits have been added to Outcome and the collection now includes: Lord Chris Smith, Elly Barnes MBE, Britain’s Got Talent’s La Voix, Bake Off’s John Whaite, The Apprentice’s Sanjay Sood-Smith, Emmerdale’s Alicya Eyo and many other people.

The project is a celebration of all LGBT people, known and unknown.

The University of Greenwich will host the book launch and exhibition. Tom is a Greenwich Alumnus, many of the portraits were taken locally and while the exhibition is at the university, he plans to have as many of the 112 portraits on display as possible.

Tom will organise pop-up studio days for LGBT people who would like to be photographed for Outcome on Tuesday October 11 and Thursday October 13 at the university.

The university is organising a number of events linked to the exhibition, including a public Q&A panel on Wednesday, October 12, from 1-2pm.

Tom, says: “It has been such a privilege to meet so many wonderful people over the course of this project and is very humbling to see it come together in a book & exhibition for all to enjoy.”

Sarah Cretch, Head of Alumni & Development at the university, says: “We are so proud that Tom is an alumnus and fully support his work. Tom and the whole Outcome project are a great inspiration for all our students and staff.”

web-300The Outcome book published by Arachne Press is 168 pages and contains 80 full-page portraits, with accompanying text from each of the subjects and costs £25.

To purchase online, click here:

 

Launching on October 10 for National Coming Out Day on October 11, Tom plans to expand the launch exhibition into a travelling exhibition to visit colleges, schools, libraries and community centres around the UK, setting up a studio day at each location to add to the project.

 

 


Event: Book launch and exhibition – LGBT photographic portrait project #Outcome

Where: The Heritage Gallery, University of Greenwich, Queen Anne Court, Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London SE10 9LS

Book launch (invite only): Monday October 10 from 6pm till 9pm

Exhibition: Monday, October 10 until October 15, 10am-5pm

 

 

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