Celebcity: Chris Packam gets environmentally friendly

Chris Packham, Conor Maynard, Nick Cave & Celebcity in NYC

The Ladybird Books Story â The Bugs That Got Britain Reading

Environmentally friendly
Naturalist and BBC broadcaster Chris Packham is backing an environmental centre for Brighton & Hove. Beacon Hub Brighton is part of a plan by conservation group Friends of Beacon Hill (FOBH) to maintain and promote the Beacon Hill Nature Reserve between (our sweet home) Rottingdean and Ovingdean. The plan is to also renovate the old golf course into a community and education hub focusing on conservation of the natural world and local heritage. The planned centre would provide permanent exhibitions on local flora and fauna, space for local artists and crafts people to display their work, a classroom for visiting parties of school children, a venue for interested groups and clubs to meet and share knowledge, and a meeting place for walkers, cyclists, nature lovers, local residents, parents and children (and breathe!). There’s also rumours of a small café with an adjoining children’s ‘eco’ play area joining the original build if all goes ahead. With Chris Packham, who followed the lives of two urban fox families in Brighton in last year’s Autumnwatch, leading the way we only hope Brighton and Hove council will take note. Discussing the plans Packham said: “Brighton is one of the liveliest, interesting and cosmopolitan cities in Europe. It’s also perched on the edge of one of the most important pieces of habitat that we have anywhere in Europe. The Downs are a great repository of unique life, a beautiful landscape and a treasure trove of history and culture. Developing an educational focus point for Brighton’s populace to better enable them to engage with this fabulous and valuable part of the world is quite simply a fantastic and irresistible idea.” Go Chris!

Conor Maynard’s new album
Brighton’s answer to Justin Bieber – minus the arrests, strippers and sizzurp (we hope!) – Conor Maynard has been discussing his much anticipated sophomore album. The R U Crazystar explains he’s been “trying lots of weird stuff,” in the studio at the moment, alongside the likes of Labyrinth, Travie McCoy, and hip-hop mega-mind, Timbaland. Spending last week’s Valentine’s Day in Dubai with his GF, Maynard dished on his upcoming release, on which he hopes to secure a track with the ‘everything-I-touch-turns-to-music-gold’ singer/producer Pharrell. This came hot on the heels of the announcement, and subsequent sell-out, of Conor’s pre-BRIT awards show at the Brooklyn Bowl this week. We’re sure Mayniac’s everywhere are chewing at the bit to hear Conor’s new stuff – whereas we’re taking bets on whether he’ll do ‘a Bieber’ any time soon.

CELEBCITY IN THE BIG APPLE
Last week we cheerily relocated our Brighton office to New York City where there was no rain but plenty of snow as the temperatures dropped to a spine-chiling -11C. A great place for a celeb spot; while in the city that never sleeps we spied bearded Brokeback Mountain bombshell Jake Gyllenhaal dining with a friend in Soho and the ever fragrant Brit star Orlando Bloom dodging the snowdrifts in Chinatown ahead of that night’s premiere of his new film Romeo And Juliet at Chelsea Cinemas.

While we were in the Big Apple we took in the latest Ben Eine show Heartfelt at the Judith Charles Gallery on the Bowery. Ben, who rose to international fame when David Cameron presented one of his works to Barack Obama on his first state visit to the White House, was in town painting up a storm on walls from Broadway to the famous Rikers Island prison. You can see more of his work at einesigns.co.uk and, of course all over East London.
Pic: Orlando Bloom in The Three Musketeers
© Picselect

Nick Cave
Brighton resident Nick Cave – front man of cult band “The Bad Seeds” – has presented his latest cinema project to the Berlin Film Festival, and our city has a starring role! In amongst shots of Cave composing Push the Sky Away, talking to a psychoanalyst and performing with The Bad Seeds, are far more exciting glimpses of Brighton doing its ‘thang’. The Brighton frames were shot a while back – as Celeb City reported when they glimpsed Kylie helping her ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’ duet-partner along the seafont. We’re sure the film will be typically obscure, but none-the-less-brilliant, and eagerly anticipate its release later this year.