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Posts Tagged ‘Manchester’

HAVE YOU EVER CONSIDERED THAT THOSE THINGS WHICH GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT MAYBE JUST……ERR…..BUMPS IN THE NIGHT?

Monday, March 7th, 2011

THE HUMAN ability to jump to conclusions has never been as well illustrated as when the UK’s X Files vault revealed some of its secrets this week.

The MoD secrets make for some intriguing reading. Seriously.

And they reveal what I have suspected for many years – we are a planet of buffoons.

A race happy to convince itself that there’s something out there, watching us, waiting to pounce and perform horrible experiments on our peculiar human condition.

You couldn’t make this stuff up.

The best example is below.

On one “unseasonably mild” night in October 1998 a bloke from Barnes, south-west London, couldn’t sleep so went for some air in his garden with a drink of milk.

“After a few moments I heard a distant roar of engines getting louder and louder,” he said in his testimony to bemused Ministry of Defence officials.

“Suddenly a huge craft appeared over the house, heading in a westerly direction at speed. It was a large cigar-shaped vehicle with large projectiles on each side like wings.

“It seemed to have two very bright lights at the front and a white light flashing round and round underneath. I was too bloody terrified.”

His story gathered pace with the revelation that he had gained “a whole hour” in time. And his conclusion? Quite obvious really – he had been the unwitting and unwilling victim of alien abduction.

The MoD, spotting a potential crank (because they’re clever like that) wrote back saying the clocks had gone back the night before.

Genius.

By Adam Moss, Brazen News Editor

CAPTAIN AMERICA IS A MANCUNIAN

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Captain AmericaFor two weeks this September, Captain America – one of the USA’s most patriotic superheroes ever – will become an adopted Mancunian.

Hollywood studio Marvel Productions have chosen Manchester’s fabulous Northern Quarter as the set for the already eagerly anticipated Captain America: The First Avenger because of its resemblance to New York in the early 1900′s.

Those of us based here know all about the area’s hidden beauty of course, we walk through it’s streets daily and one glance above street level is enough to see why it is now so sought after a location for film makers wanting to avoid the huge expense of shooting in the real New York.

The wide streets, tall buildings and pre-war architecture will all be transformed into 1940s America to bring the backdrop to the mass of superhero action scenes, due to be screened in summer next year.

The $200 million blockbuster will be Marvel’s first production outside of the UK but this isn’t the first time the fabulous Northern Quarter has been used by film making giants. Last year the makers of Sherlock Holmes used the area as a way to turn back the clock to London in 1981. And Jude Law’s remake of the classic Alfie movie was made in the same streets, once again masquerading as New York.

It’s fantastic to see Manchester being used as a visual template in blockbuster big screen hits and for the city to reap the rich rewards that the movie industry types will transfer into local accounts when it is in town. But am I the only one who thinks it’s a shame Manchester can’t be marketed as the best version of itself rather than a cheap version of New York?

A wise sage once said: “Immitation is suicide. Be a first class version of yourself and no-one can tell you you’re doing it wrong.”

While these words may have been abused terribly over the years – I saw versions of them appearing on beermats recently – they do hold some truths.

Yes, it is fabulous that Manchester is making money from being the base for a Hollywood movie. It’s also great to see that the Northern Quarter’s beauties are not just appreciated by a local crowd.

But wouldn’t it be great to see a British movie, set in the real Manchester, about Mancunians, where the amazing history and architecture of this place didn’t have to masquerade as American, make the big screens?

So while I welcome the Americans, and they’re Hollywood dollars, wholeheartedly, there are plenty of decent tales about and set in this fantastic city – isn’t it about time we started to proclaim and celebrate our own city’s heritage in celluloid too?

By Adam Moss, News Editor

END IT LIKE BECKHAM – GOVERNMENT CUTS UNDERMINE UK FILM INDUSTRY

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

July 27, 2010

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is to axe the UK Film Council

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is to axe the UK Film Council

WHERE will it all end?

Well, it seems like the cutting room floor will be the final stopping point for the UK Film Council.

The Council is to be axed as part of a cost-cutting drive by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

How typically English. Inject enough cash to finance an organisation which actually helps launch the careers of some of the UK’s best actors and directors and produces some of our most successful movies, then pull the rug out from underneath it.

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed the move, which is part of a raft of DCMS cost-cutting measures that will see 16 public bodies merged, streamlined or got rid of altogether.

Mr Hunt said: “In the light of the current financial situation, and as part of our drive to increase openness and efficiency across Whitehall, it is the right time to look again at the role, size and scope of these organisations.”

The Film Council was founded in 2000 by the Labour government to develop and promote the British film industry.

The organisation has dished out some £160m into more than 900 films over the last 10 years, including Bend It Like Beckham, The Last King of Scotland and…err…StreetDance 3D.

Let’s forget StreetDance 3D for a moment shall we? We all make mistakes. Let’s look at the other two instead. Bend It Like Beckham grossed millions around the world as it topped box office charts and launched the career of one Keira Knightley. None too shoddy an affair I’m sure you’ll agree. The Last King of Scotland gave Shameless star James McAvoy one of his first leading movie roles and made him the Hollywood name he is today. Another hit then.

So, while everyone agrees that a successful British movie industry relies on producing a steady stream of quality new actors as well as encouraging new directors and, not to put too fine a point on it, actually making some real money, the moneymen inside the hallowed halls of Whitehall see the UK Film Council as an unnecessary expense.

How short-sighted. Another asset that makes Britain ‘Great’ is gone forever.

The movie business makes money for all the connected industries, be that catering, transport, toursim and bolsters the national economy. It’s not just filling the pockets of those directly involved. Do you believe for a minute that Hollywood would be such a mammoth tourist pull were it not for that fact that the global behemoth of the US movie industry is based there? Of course not. It would still be a sleepy little Californian village in the shadow of a big hill.

UK Film Council chairman Tim Bevan CBE said: “People will rightly look back on this announcement and say it was a big mistake, driven by short-term thinking and political expediency,” he said.

“British film, which is one of the UK’s more successful growth industries, deserves better.”

Exactly.

By Adam Moss, News Editor

PEOPLE WILL PAY FOR GREAT CONTENT

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

It’s a bold statement that, as little as three years ago, would have been the laughing stock of after-dinner conversation among supposedly digital-savvy media commentators.

No longer. It’s the phrase that resounded the most from the cacophony of perfectly-edited, media-friendly soundbites delivered by panelists at the first AGM of North-west Creative and Media Industries this morning.

It’s very much a reality in 2010. If the iPhone has proved nothing else it has illustrated, in multi-million-dollar technicolour, that consumers will happily pay for great content and the routes to view it.

More interesting is the fact that this bold statement came not from the lips of some future-thinking tech-wiz, an acclaimed Net blogger or a 30-something MD from the brave new world of SEO optimisation.

It came from Sara Wilde-McKeown, the regional general manager for Trinity Mirror North-west – the new owners of the Manchester Evening News.

Traditional media has finally joined the noisy digital party. Let’s hope they bring balloons.

They have no choice of course. Those who constantly look back and never look forward have a habit of tripping up don’t they? They also fail to see the bright young things enjoying the first rays of a new sunny dawn in front of them.

Traditional news media, if we believe McKeown is not only part of this all-singing, all dancing, sunshine-soaked dawn chorus, it’s even wearing the latest designer shades and blowing its ravers whistle.

I really hope so. There is room at the digital feast for everyone.

As McKeown so eloquently said: “We’ve all had a rather shitty time of it.”

While that may very well go down as understatement of the day at the NWAGM there’s, surely, none of us who don’t have a pang of sympathy for those employed by the old-guard.

Their captains may have been liable to gamble using their employees livelihoods as the stake and first to flee the sinking ship but, the crew are still putting fuel in the engines hoping it may lead them to the land of new opportunity and security.

In view of the rough crossing, let’s hope their passengers/consumers are still happy to pay for their tickets. Especially as there are newer ships now in view.

It’s a big sea but there’s no room for a Titanic on these waves.

By Adam Moss, Brazen News Editor

Manchester PR & media – first ever How-Do Annual General Meeting of North West Creative & Media Industries

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

If you’re in Manchester PR or media listen up, it is the first ever How-Do Annual General Meeting of North West Creative & Media Industries on Thursday, staged at the City of Manchester Stadium.

And what a way to start.

Among the guest speakers will be the new uber-boss over at the beleaguered Manchester Evening News.

Sara Wilde-McKeown, Regional Managing Director of Trinity Mirror North West and Wales, could be in for an interesting time after Trinity’s recent takeover at Scott Place.

It could certainly make for a busier than expected question and answer session towards the end of the event.

And while these kind of events have habitually turned into elongated boozing and back-slapping sessions there are clear signs that there will be some real agenda to this one.

If you’re attending – especially one of those chosen few hand-picked to address the baying media mob – I expect, nay, demand some serious revelations and news scoops from you of elevated position.

Don’t expect to get anything approximating a back-slap unless you can tick ‘yes’ to the following three criteria.

i) I am a hugely important North-west creative influencer with unrivalled insight in my chosen field.
ii) I intend to be hugely revelatory and provide at least three news scoops/pints of bitter.
iii) If I can’t do any of the above I promise, without compromise, to start the most talked-about fist-fight in the history of Manchester media get-togethers to provide headlines for any under par/lazy journalists and the gathered Manchester PR glitterati.

Alternatively, I’ll see you all in the bar. Mine’s a Boddies.

By Adam Moss, Brazen News Editor

#BRAZENQT FLASHBACK – GORDO TWINTERVIEW

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Gordo

Last week saw Brazen PR’s News Editor, Adam Moss, Twinterview the man, the legend, the Manchester Confidential icon that is Gordo. Missed the action? Fear not…read the full transcript here revealing Gordo’s revolutionary plans for Manchester Confidential and the biggest question of them all…has Gordo ever been offered sexual favours in return for a good food review?

AdamMoss @gordomanchester Hello Gordo. So, what would you eat for last supper and where would you eat it? #brazenqt

GordoManchester @adammoss #brazenqt Eh UP, Foie Gras with raisins, Michel Guerard 80km from Bordeaux

AdamMoss @gordomanchester So, not in Manchester then? #brazenqt

GordoManchester @adam moss of course I would obviously frefer pudding chips peas and gravy down at the fish hut #brazenqt

AdamMoss @Gordomanchester Quite right too. So food critics – freeloaders or discerning diners? #brazenqt

GordoManchester @adammoss allreviews on Mancon are unnanounced and paid for, discerning critics not jaded journo’s thrown a tidbit from the editor #brazenqt

AdamMoss @gordomanchester OK then, serious stuff – will manCon be better when it’s paid for? #brazenqt

GordoManchester @adam moss bringing in free to read, Friends, then heroes means that we will have more resource = more deal, more stuff, = better #brazenqt

AdamMoss @gordomanchester But haven’t a large number of your readers objected? Do you care what they think? #brazenqt

GordoManchester @adammoss 95 seperate ranters have been negative out of 12,800 polled so far, over 300 have been positive by joining heroes #brazenqt

AdamMoss @gordomanchester But hasn’t history demonstrated that once something is given away free you can’t then successfully charge for it? #brazenqt

GordoManchester @adammoss 330,000 readers within five years shows we absolutely do care and we listen, we don’t hide negative comments #brazenqt

GordoManchester @adammoss History demonstrates exactly the opposite, give people a free trial, give ‘em something they value, they will then pay #brazenqt

AdamMoss @gordomanchester What will change for those ManCon readers who don’t become ‘heroes’? Do they still count? #brazenqt

GordoManchester @adammoss Front of the site will be Editorial and free, the next level, Friends, under a fiver a month and Heroes under a tenner #brazenqt

GordoManchester @adammoss and the guests will of course still count, they are the reason our ad revenue is there, we love ‘em, even seanxsmith ;-) #brazenqt

AdamMoss @gordomanchester What will the free ‘front of site’ bit include? And what’s worth paying for in the extras? #brazenqt

GordoManchester @adammoss front end free = articles, The Vote, The Rants, manchester 250 archives some offers, Competitions, Newsletters, and more #brazenqt

AdamMoss @gordomanchester OK. Well best of luck with it Gordo. One final Q – Ever been offered sexual favours for a good food review? #brazenqt

GordoManchester @adammoss membership = special columns, mobile site, advance notice of offers, exclusive store deals, 20% off ten restaurants #brazenqt

GordoManchester @adammoss concierge service, academy voting for food and drink awards, sale previews… #brazenqt

AdamMoss @gordomanchester Thanks for being so frank Think the jury’s still out on your plans for many people but we’re all keenly watching! #brazenqt

Keep an eye out for the next #brazenqt Twinterview happening soon…


GORDO BREAKS COVER TO GIVE FRANKEST INTERVIEW YET

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

MANCON MAN TALKS SHOP IN BRAZEN TWINTERVIEW

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HE’S REGALED as a man who doesn’t mince his words and now Mark Garner – or Manchester Confidential’s “Gordo” as he is better known – is set to reveal his hidden depths in a ‘tell-all’ live interview.

Breaking free of the relative security of his Manchester Confidential base Gordo – feared restaurant critic, fiercely competitive businessman and respected raconteur – has agreed to be quizzed and probed by Manchester-based Brazen PR’s news editor Adam Moss.

And the entire interview will be beamed live to the nation on Twitter this coming Wednesday (25 November) afternoon at 3pm.

There’ll be no hiding place.

But that’s just how Gordo likes it, apparently.

This is the man who transformed the way Manchester held conversations; how its restaurants operated; how we debated pressing city issues papered over by our city council. Gordo and Mancon gave us a new insight into the machinations of this great Northern city, from the perspective of the people who know it best, Mancunians themselves.

And all for free. For now.

That’s the next great Manchester Confidential debate. And we’ll be asking Gordo all about his plans to start charging his Mancon readers for content.

It’s a move described as ‘arrogant’, ‘foolhardy’, ‘deluded’, ‘brave’ and ‘thought-leading’ depending which thread you’re reading on the Manchester Confidential site.

Brazen owner Nina Webb said: “Gordo is one of the Top 5 when you’re talking about notorious Mancunians. We’re really pleased he’s agreed to take part in our Brazen Twinterview, the second in the series.

“There will undoubtedly be irreverence, humour, serious business and a soupcon of rib-poking going on, and that’s even before Gordo gets started.”

You can follow the ‘live’ twinterview by logging onto Twitter at 3pm on Wednesday November 25 and typing in a search for #brazenqt.

The questions will come from Brazen PR’s resident news guru @AdamMoss and Gordo will be responding from @GordoManchester. The interview can also be viewed by following both Adam and Gordo.

BITE ME

Monday, November 16th, 2009

newmoonposterjpeg

‘Vampiremania’ is sweeping the nation yet again as we gear up to the release of New Moon, the second in the Twilight film saga.

A marvel of ‘Potter’ proportions, The Odeon Printworks, Manchester has pre-sold over 3000 tickets alone for the movie and, even there is no official premiere for the film, the special midnight screening on the 19th November is already sold out – the demand is so high that a second screen is now on the cards.

Based on Stephenie Meyers’s books about a teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire, the phenomenon has snowballed since the release of the first movie with DVD, book sales and subsequent on/off screen romances driving interest in the original cast and story line to ‘cult’ status and a wider audience.

But what is it about the lure of the un-dead that brings us back time after time? Dracula, Buffy, True Blood and now the ashen faced Cullens in Twilight? Are we so attracted to the notion of living forever that we’re all ready to throw away our eternal souls?

Forget botox, be young and beautiful for eternity! The only downside it seems is a little blood sucking and senseless murder – a small price to pay?

By Peter Burling, Client Services Director

YOUNG TORIES SET TO BRING BACK STARLIGHT EXPRESS AT PURE IN MANCHESTER!

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

The Conservative Party conference is in Manchester this week – a city that is historically Labour through and through, so, what the Tories have up their sleeves to prove their streets cred and tempt the younger voters in the North West to vote Blue.

It may come as a surprise to some people but there are actually members of the Conservative Party that are under 30!

Despite David Cameron’s best efforts to appeal to Britain’s youth, with his ‘cycle to work to set an example but have my bags driven into the office behind me ’ stance on the green issue and, ‘getting down with the kids’ on inner city visits, the jury is still out as to whether the Tory Party is a viable and attractive choice for Britain’s under 26’s.

It is quite apparent that although we are sick of Labour, Britain’s Generation Y or ‘Millenials’ don’t have a party that really appeals… until now maybe? Is their secret weapon the next generation of Conservative Party members – the Young Tories?

Their new policies on pensions, healthcare, education and public service reform (among others) are all being outlined this week at the Manchester Central conference centre and while this is all very worthy and probably massively important (and I will at some point take the time to have a look at their key points on the BBC website) I’m more interested in what the Young Tories have got planned.

On Wednesday 07 October the Young Tories are set to take over Manchester’s biggest nightclub Pure at The Printworks for a night of Rollerdisco! – I can just see it now, blue suits, top buttons undone and ties either at a jaunty angle or wrapped around heads, Rambo style to Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’…brilliant!

As if this wasn’t enough (I can feel my vote swaying already), Boris Johnson is rumoured to be joining the organised fun. In his own words “[Manchester is] one of the few great British cities I have yet to insult” and a part of me wants him to try.

This is the man that when talking about drugs said

“I think I was once given cocaine but I sneezed so it didn’t go up my nose. In fact, it may have been icing sugar.”

And on voting Tory

“Voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3.”

Cutting down 24 hour drinking is a card that the Tories plan to use in the forthcoming General Election but shouldn’t this probably mean the conference centre bar should shut at 11pm and the Young Tories should be tucked up in their plush hotel suites before midnight? Who cares I say, this is much more appealing, I can see the Diary page in the MEN already; ‘Boris Bashes Bum in attempt to get down with the kids”.

A poll around the office seems to show that although David Cameron is the best thing to happen to the Conservative Party for quite a while, his Blair-ish similarities are seen as old hat and the rest of the party are labeled Old Dodderers and Wolves in Sheep’s clothing, but I say if this is a party that in the next few years will be run by youths with ties wrapped round their heads dancing to disco whilst on Roller-boots then they have my vote!

By Robbie Platt, Account Executive

MANCHESKI – THE RUSSIANS PLANNED TO TURN ALBERT SQUARE RED

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

CAN you imagine?

Red flags draped from the front of Manchester Town Hall. Tanks patrolling up Deansgate. HMP Strangeways under the control of Spetznaz special forces.

It could have happened.

A startling map showing Soviet plans to invade Manchester have been revealed for the first time this week.

The detailed drawing, created just 35 years ago in 1974, shows how Russian tanks would have targeted the city.

It identifies that T-72 tanks could have come up the Mancunian Way and colour coded targets around the city including the nuclear site and prison.

Chris Perkins, University of Manchester geography lecturer and curator of a new exhibition which unveiled the map, said there was not much the Soviet generals missed out.

‘It shows the roads – familiar to many Mancunians – which the Soviets felt were wide enough to carry tanks including Washway Road, the Mancunian Way, and Princess Road.

‘They even transliterated place names – such as Urmston, Salford and Stretford into Russian.

OK – so while it is conceivable that we may now have been going to shop at the Traffordski Centre rather than using the piste at Chill factor E, or parking our cars at the Stretski Arndale, going to see a consultant at Trafford General Hospital in Urmski or viewing that iconic photo of The Smiths posing outside Salfski Lads Club – it all would have come to a grinding halt in Moss Side(ski) wouldn’t it?

While the Soviet Generals didn’t seem to miss out any detail of how they were going to transform the Capital of the North into a new St Petersburg they did actually neglect one crucial detail – the Republic of Mancunia hasn’t rolled over for any invaders since Caesar sent his legions this way a couple of thousand years ago.

Imagine the might of the Soviet Army coming face-to-face with Moss Side’s Pepperhill Gang or, in 1974, those esteemed ‘businessmen’ who went by the title of the Quality Street gang.

Even Spetznaz Special Forces aren’t equipped to deal with those kind of shock troops!

Worse still, they’d have come a serious cropper in the face of the army of shell-suited chavs whose regiments patrol the corridors of the Arndale Centre.

Russian invasion of Manchester – don’t make me laugh – they wouldn’t have made it past the ‘street traders’ on Marketski Street before turning around and speeding back towards Moscow at full tilt!

By Adam Moss, News Editor