The dazzling success of the first three albums in the 'Dreamboats and Petticoats' series sent the message loud and clear. With over 2 millions copies sold and several weeks at the Number One spot in the compilation charts, the Great British public were saying that they didn't just want to listen to pure nostalgia: they'd love to see it as well. Thus 'Dreamboats' was born as a musical, opening at The Churchill Theatre in Bromley in February 2009 to rave critical reviews and widespread audience acclaim. Over a million people have since been enchanted by an evening of pure hedonistic affection for a more innocent era, when love was young and so was rock 'n' roll.

Written by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, the team behind Goodnight Sweetheart, Birds of a Feather, The New Statesmen and Shine On Harvey Moon, this spectacular feel-good production, which will play at the Marina for just one week from February 20, promises 'the greatest time of your life' - taking you back to a time when each passing week brought another classic track.

Featuring songs from Roy Orbison, The Shadows, Eddie Cochran, Billy Fury, Chuck Berry and many more, including Let's Dance, To Know Him Is To Love Him, Shaking All Over, Bobby's Girl, Little Town Flirt, Only Sixteen, Sleepwalk, Runaround Sue, Happy Birthday Sweet 16, What A Wonderful World, Let's Twist Again, Let It Be Me and many more hits from music's golden era!

Dreamboats will be the first full scale musical to play at the Marina in over a year and follows the popular venues transition into a charitable trust last December.

People wishing to obtain remaining tickets to see Dreamboats & Petticoats are advised to call the theatre Box Office on 01502 533200.

Dear Parent / Carer

Free Disability Sessions at Waveney Gymnastics Club – February Half Term

We are pleased to announce that Waveney Gymnastics Club has been successful in securing funding from the NHS to deliver two FREE taster sessions during February half term.

Details of the free taster sessions are as follows…

Date: Friday 17th February 2012
Session 1 Timings: 13.00 – 14.00
Session 2 Timings: 14.00 – 15.00
Cost: FREE
Venue: Waveney Gymnastics Club, 101 Southwell Road, Lowestoft, NR33 0RR
Places Available: 6 per session (only 5 years plus)

Individuals must pre-book by contacting us on 01502 501419. A registration pack will then be sent to you, which will include a Waveney Gymnastics’ Care Plan. This must be returned when registering for the session, once these have been looked at by our Special Needs Coaches, your place will be confirmed via letter or phone call.

Individuals that turn up on the day without pre-booking will not be able to attend the session.

Please find enclosed the WGC Care Plan, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact the Centre on 01502 501419.

Also please feel free to pass on, advertise to other parties that may be interested in the free taster session.

Yours sincerely,

Chloe McMorran
Centre Manager

 

Soprano Lesley Garrett and Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber headline one of the regions most successful concert series which begins on February 11 2012.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) commences an unprecedented eighth year of residence at the Marina Theatre in Lowestoft on February 11 with another prestigious series of concerts and once again the venue will welcome an international guest orchestra as part of the season.

The RPO has been in residence at the Marina since 2005 and will once again bring high profile, internationally renowned soloists and conductors in addition to its own World class musicians to the east coast.
The first concert in the season opens with the hugely popular Nicholas Cleobury conducting Rossini’s The Italian Girl In Algiers Overture, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 with soloist Mark Bebbington followed by Dvořák’s Symphony No.9, 'From the New World'.
March 1 brings guest orchestra, the European Union Chamber Orchestra directed by Hans-Peter Hofmann with soloist Julian Lloyd Webber. The programme includes Handel’s Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba, Elgar’s Serenade For Strings, Haydn’s Cello Concerto No.1 in C, Sibelius Romance For Strings and Mozart’s Symphony No.29 K.201.

Celebrated British soprano Lesley Garrett takes centre stage for a magical evening of music from opera, stage and screen on May 26. Renowned for her unique and diverse talents, she has performed on the operatic stage with English National Opera and Welsh National Opera and has won unanimous acclaim for her solo albums and stage appearances. This special concert with the RPO will be conducted by Phillip Ellis and is set to showcase her sensational voice in a programme of well-loved favourites, ranging from music by Puccini, Mozart and Bizet to Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hammerstein.

On September 14 the RPO present an elegant evening of enchanting Viennese classics conducted by Gavin Sutherland and featuring Soprano Deborah Norman. The programme will feature excerpts from Die Fledermaus and other popular works from Strauss, Lehár, Mozart & Suppé including Tritsch-Tratsch Polka, Emperor Waltz, Pizzicato Polka, Gold and Silver Waltz, Don Giovanni: Non mi dir, Radetzky March and excerpts from The Merry Widow.

The 2012 season ends on November 16 with orchestra leader, Clio Gould directing Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Flute and Harp Concerto followed by Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

Tickets for the 2012 season are now on sale, for more information or to book seats, please call the Marina Box Office on 01502 533200.

Galleon Storage & Mooring at Puddingmoor Beccles, has invested £500,000 in transforming a run down yard into one of the most state of the art and environmentally friendly yards on the Norfolk Broads.

Among its eco-friendly features is a unique decontamination facility, which removes toxic chemicals from hull wash water and bilge water. After the boats are washed down in a specially built bay the wash water is stored in a decontamination tank. It is then run though a WashTek filtration system and 98% of the pollutants are absorbed by cartridges before the clean water is returned to the river.

The American WashTek system is considered to be the most efficient equipment of its kind in the world and it can be mobilised to deal with oil and diesel spills.

The Broads Authority's Sustainable Development Fund has contributed £12,500 to the project.

Conservation Officer, Andrea Kelly, who has worked closely with the yard, said: "This is an innovative boatyard development which has adopted very good practice in protecting the Broads from pollutants, and we hope other boatyards will be inspired by it."


The yard is also the first on the Broads to offer a 'dry stack' system of boat storage which does away with the need to antifoul boats. The yard is able to store boats up to 33 ft long out of the water, launching them when owners wish to use them, saving the cost of antifouling and the cost to the environment.

The yard also offers three EZdock pontoons for storing small boats out of the water.

To add to the yard's environmental credentials the navigation lights marking the entrance from the River Waveney are solar powered.

Work to the yard has included dredging out and piling a yacht basin, building a slipway for the launch and recovery of 'trailer sailers' and secure facilities for storage of cars and trailers. There are also ten berths for boats either awaiting their owners or left ready for returning to the shore after use.

The man behind the venture, Mr William Bent, said: "We were concerned about a lot of antifouled boats being in a basin where there were no tides to sweep the pollutants away. Although I'm not obsessive about being green I think everyone should do their best to protect the environment.

I adopted the dry stack system because of the limited bankside moorings and slipways in the area. I wanted to provide a specialist facility which would enable people to bring their own boats to the Broads."

The 2012 Festival takes place on Sunday 27th May on Oulton Broad in Nicholas Everitt Park, Lowestoft with new charity partner, St Elizabeth Hospice on board, and is one of the largest and most eagerly anticipated team events in the region.

Over 30 crews representing companies, organisations, clubs and groups of friends from all over East Anglia are expected to battle it out over the 200m race course. They will all be seeking to knock Expro North Sea from Great Yarmouth off their pedestal as reigning champions whilst also aiming to add to the event’s impressive fund-raising total of more than £100,000 for charity over the years.

Dragon boat racing has an ancient Chinese history and the Festival is a re-enactment of a tragic event that took place more than 2,000 years ago in the kingdom of Chu. Legend has it that falsely accused of treason and exiled by jealous rivals in the government, despairing warrior poet, Qu Yuan, threw himself into the Mi Lo River.

Local fishermen rowed out to save the drowning poet and tried to rescue him from vicious fish by beating the water with their paddles. But their attempts failed and every year in Hong Kong a Tuen Ng (Dragon Boat) Festival is held as a mark of respect for the fishermen’s frantic efforts and to commemorate the tragic death of Qu Yuan.

The dragon boat’s fierce looking dragon’s heads were added later to ward off evil spirits and in Hong Kong special dumplings are eaten to represent the dumplings that were thrown in to the river to stop the fish eating the mighty Qu’s body.

According to the Chinese calendar, 2012 is the Year of the Dragon which may result in some interesting races as the dragon is said to be all powerful but completely unpredictable! It also symbolises great success and happiness, so the winning teams should be even more excited than usual in their victories!

No previous experience is required to take part in the dragon boat racing, just plenty of team spirit so why not take up the challenge? Thankfully, you don’t need the physical strength of a Steve Redgrave or the athleticism of a Jessica Ennis to be successful as teamwork and timing win the day.

The dragon boats, qualified helms and all racing equipment are provided and each crew is guaranteed a minimum of three races. The Festival offers a full day of fun on land as well as water with plenty of activities on the bankside to entertain teams and spectators between races. The event is supported by Waveney District Council, BBC Radio Suffolk and The Lowestoft Journal.

St Elizabeth Hospice is delighted to be the new official Festival charity this year having seen the event’s unique potential for fundraising and fun. The charity is dedicated to helping people living with a progressive illness and supporting their families free of charge. This year it is expanding its services for patients in Waveney and Great Yarmouth. The Hospice relies on fundraising events such as the Dragon Boat Festival as well as individual and corporate donations and the income generated from its shops.

Sara White, St Elizabeth Hospice’s Corporate Fundraising Manager, said: “We are encouraging as many businesses as possible to take up the challenge and enter a team in this year’s Dragon Boat Festival and raise sponsorship for St Elizabeth Hospice. By entering a team in this fun event you will be helping us to raise awareness of the services we provide free of charge in the local area as well as raising funds which will help us to continue to provide these services in future.”

The top fundraisers for St Elizabeth Hospice will win the charity trophy plus a full day of spa and gym use and lunch kindly donated by the Marriott Sprowston Manor in Norwich.

Carol Lester, Director of Festival organisers, Gable Events, adds: “The Festival is a great chance for companies and organisations to try something completely different, promote themselves to a large local audience, network with local companies and potential clients and raise money for St Elizabeth Hospice. It is also a fantastic team building opportunity - what better way to get to know what makes your colleagues and competitors tick?! We expect the Festival to be as popular as ever this time around so we recommend teams get their entries in early to guarantee a place”.

For further information and an entry form visit www.dragonboatfestivals.co.uk/eastanglia or call Gable Events on 01780 470 718. To find out more about St Elizabeth Hospice services in your area call 01493 690990 or visit www.stelizabethhospice.org.uk

Attached pictures of the East Anglian Dragon Boat Festival, courtesy of Satalight Photography.

The East Anglian Dragon Boat Festival is one of seven Dragon Boat Festivals Gable Events organise around the UK. They also offer a variety of other corporate events for motivation, team building and fun. For further information on the East Anglian Dragon Boat Festival and Gable Events services, call Carol Lester on 01780 470718 or visit www.gable-events.co.uk


 

 

KT Tunstall switched OFF the Christmas Lights at Westfield London to launch the countdown to WWF’s Earth Hour, which will take place on March 31st 2012.


The globally renowned singer also performed an intimate performance for fans gathered at Westfield London in Shepherd’s Bush.

KT’s sparkling performance also marked the launch of WWF’s nationwide competition to find one lucky community which will be given the honour of leading the Earth Hour switch off in the UK. The winning community will win a £1,000 grant to make sure that their ‘switched off’ event goes with a bang.

WWF’s Earth Hour is a simple idea that’s become a global phenomenon, with hundreds of millions of people turning off their lights to show they want to create a brighter future for the planet. Spanning a record 135 countries in 2011, this year’s Earth Hour is set to be even bigger.

WWF’s Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses joined in. Last year hundreds of millions of people and landmarks from Big Ben and Buckingham Palace in London to the India Gate in New Delhi, and even as far as The Sydney Opera House, took part.

Westfield has supported WWF’s Earth Hour globally since it began in 2007 as one of the first organisations to sign up. In 2011, Westfield London became home to Rooftop Rainforest with Sky, bringing a taste of the Amazon rainforest to the city.

KT Tunstall, ambassador of WWF’s Earth Hour, said:

"I'm delighted to have switched off the festive lights at Westfield London today to launch WWF's Earth Hour. It's such a simple, powerful campaign and it's a great feeling to be joining many millions of others around the world who care and are taking action. I really hope that people feel inspired to sign up and switch off their lights on 31 March."

"I've always cared deeply about the environment and try my best to limit the impact my life and work has on the planet. It's not easy but there are simple steps and commitments you can make and WWF's Earth Hour is a great chance to tell others what you are doing and get them to join you."