Celebcity with Jo Brooks: Back to black
We’re still saddened by the untimely death of singing legend Amy Winehouse this year, but her legacy has touched Brighton in a multitude of ways. Mitch Winehouse, the singer’s beloved father, launched the Amy Winehouse Foundation following her passing and has since pledged £10,000 to Brighton’s children’s charity Chestnut Tree House. That’s not all though, after being blown away by a visit to the hospice, Mitch decided he would perform in honour of them for their fourth annual Snowball Spectacular Fundraising Ball. Mitch’s love of music was a great influence on Amy in her younger years and continued to play out within all of her work. Guests can expect some old time favourites and perhaps maybe a tribute to his remarkable daughter – it promises to be a special night all round. The Snowman Spectacular Ball takes place on Saturday 3 December at the Hilton Brighton Metropole but sadly tickets are already sold out!
it’s the single life for Preston
It’s a 50/50 split in the office at the moment between (not-so) ‘smug marrieds’ and ‘singletons’ so we were interested to see local lad Preston debate the issue in his Huffington Post blog last week. The Ordinary Boy singer confessed that he’s usually found himself in a string of long-term, and sometimes long-distance, relationships which have guided him through much of his adult life, and – that age old problem – provided him with something to do on Sundays. Despite his high profile divorce from Big Brother winner Chantelle in 2007, Preston admitted that this was the first time he’d found himself single for ‘a very long time.’ It’s not all bad, however, as he reckons this period of singledom was key to his first Number One hit as a songwriter; Preston co-wrote the Olly Murs and Rizzle Kicks chart topper ‘Heart Skips a Beat’ alongside the Brighton rapping duo. If this is the kind of thing we can expect from Preston’s single life we can only hope he plays the field a bit longer! Of course, if not, there’s a few JBPR ladies who wouldn’t mind helping him out.
Oh, and if you want to catch the (newly single) Preston perform with his Brighton based band The Ordinary Boys make sure you get tickets to their ‘farewell’ gig at the Green Door Store this week. The band will take to the stage after Ice Black Birds as part of Juice FM’s New Music Showcase on Wednesday 30 November. Tickets available on the door – £4.
Spotted!
Norman Cook watching Stephen Merchant wife-hunting on his current ‘Hello Ladies’ stand-up tour.
Peter Andre’s central perk
So Peter Andre has finally turned to his other love, besides singing and his kids, to open a coffee shop in East Grinstead. The New York Coffee Club sees Peter’s first venture into the catering industry, which he hopes to eventually go national with. Amy Childs has already stopped by for a hot chocolate and Aldo Zilli and Gino D’Acampo also popped in for a quick caffeine-fix. The hordes of screaming girls made sure that the cupcakes sold out within the first couple of hours and no doubt it’ll be generating quite a buzz for some time. We’re yet to visit but it promises real coffee and ‘great service’; we will resist any jokes about him liking his coffee like his women then.
The Kooks go dance
Brighton based band The Kooks have come up with a new musical direction
it seems. Once known for their skinny jeans, curly hair and whimsical rock, lead singer Luke Pritchard said he’s going for a much more electronic sound with his new work. “I’ve never done anything like it,” he explained. “It’s dance music essentially.” What with the return of Preston’s band The Ordinary Boys, and the Kooks new album Junk Of The Heart, it sounds like Brighton is about to have a bit of a pop-rock Renaissance. Bring it on boys!
