THE SEX, LIES AND LOVE STAGE at WESTMILL FARM FESTIVAL

(Click the pic to go to the festival website!)

Click below to see some of the channelmogo interviews with Sex, Lies and Love Stage bands:

SEX, LIES AND LOVE STAGE BAND INTERVIEWS

Thanks to a very fruitful collaboration between festival organiser Kev Saunders and nationally renowned youth work author and guru Vanessa Rogers (www.vanessarogers.co.uk), Herts County Council Youth Connexions and Hertfordshire Music Service, this year’s Westmill Farm Festival features an exciting new addition.

It’s called the SEX, LIES AND LOVE STAGE – a dedicated YOUNG BANDS’ STAGE on the Saturday of the festival, featuring about fifteen bands and soloists nominated by local schools, Youth Connexions and Hertfordshire Music Service.

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CLICK THE PICTURE TO GO TO THE WEBSITE!

www.westmillfarmfestival.co.uk

Westmill Farm Festival

SPONSORED, PARTNERED AND BACKED BY: YOUTH CONNEXIONS, HERTFORDSHIRE MUSIC SERVICE, GRAPHIC NATURE STUDIOS, THE CREAM ROOM STUDIO and YP SOUND

After a hugely enjoyable weekend last year, Westmill Farm Festival is back for 2009 on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st June – and since it straddles the Summer Solstice, organisers Kev ‘Hertford’s Mr Music’ Saunders and Pippa Deeble-Rogers are making sure we can look forward to two enjoyably long, lazy days with more than 50 of the best established and up and coming bands and solo performers from the Herts area and beyond.

‘This year, we’re planning to keep all the action in the main field with a main stage roughly where it was last year and a slightly smaller one further downhill towards the lakes – and we’ll be alternating music styles between the stages so that there’s always a choice!’ says Kev.

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View the three parts of the film by clicking below (then click the full screen icon on the appropriate movie)

THE END OF THE LINE – PART ONE

THE END OF THE LINE – PART TWO

THE END OF THE LINE – PART THREE

Herts County Council Youth Connexions asked me and my partner in crime, youth work author/guru Vanessa Rogers (www.vanessarogers.co.uk) to work with the Watford Youth Advocates to create a film about their problems with local public transport.

Working with production company Positive Strides, director Laura Baylem and Director of Photography Stephen Foloronshu – as well as Jonathan Jack at Youth Connexions we ran a weekend residential workshop to help the young people focus and refine their ideas. I then wrote the script, with the young people’s approval, and we shot the 15-minute movie over several very long days in Watford.

Read the synopsis:

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The renowned advertising and PR group were changing their name and location – so they needed something snappy to bring everyone up to SPEED. Together with illustrator Ben Hewer, I developed their idea of representing each of the constituent companies as a superhero.

Here’s the resulting cartoon strip!

Screen East/UK Film Council invited me to submit an outline idea to their New Feature Writers’ Scheme and finally my detailed treatment was one of two commissioned for further development to a full-length first draft. The resulting screenplay St Peters and Paul is ‘a black comedy about how bad the good can be and how good the bad’.

As part of a larger live event project (3Style – see post under Live Events), Herts Youth Connexions asked me to create a ‘brand’ for the mineral water bottles they’d be giving away at the live music event to promote alcohol-free entertainment. My answer: N’EAU ALCOHOL! (although I’d have preferred it if we’d kept the French – N’EAU ALCOOL)

A national TV ad, sponsorship ident, press and 48 sheet/adshel poster campaign for Jungle.com. Concept, copywriting, original illustration by Saunders Milner Ltd. Animation by Flicks Films. Directed, written and produced by Kev Saunders.

VIEW THE AD HERE:

JUNGLE.COM TV AD

Don Murfet had been struggling to write his memoirs  and after an introduction through a mutual friend, he handed over the job to me. That meant trawling through hours upon hours of audio cassettes as well as conducting countless interviews before writing the book in Don’s distinctive tone of voice. ‘I could hear my Don’s voice as I read it!’ said Don’s wife June shortly after his death.

About Don Murfet and the book

an was not only part of things in the music business but worked with the biggest and the best. He looked after the scene when Jon Bonham died. The Led Zeppelin drummer died in his sleep and the rest of the band knew they only had to call one man to protect them from the full glare of the police and the media.

This book is the first volume in the journey through Don’s life and shows in a respectful way how the music business works and also what happens when you fall off the edge of your life and end up in prison.

From the respectable business man to the darker side of his life this book is a great rock and roll ride through the sixties and seventies without having to rely on shock stories.

READ THE PRESS RELEASE (also written by yours truly):

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I was the instigator and Music Director of Hertford Marquee from its opening in May 04 until a few months before it closed early in 2009. Having helped the owners transform it from a failing pool club into the ‘best rock venue of its size north of London’ (Time Out magazine), I promoted most of the shows myself for the first few years before involving outside promoters. Many of the acts featured at the venue were already big names – or have gone on to become international stars.

They include:

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Paul McKenzie asked me to carry out a complete and very ‘deep’ edit of his manuscript for ‘Extinction’ and after some re-jigging of chapters and honing of characters he was successful in getting it published by M-Y Books, who later asked me to apply the same process to Paul’s next Sci-Fi dystopia, ‘Desecration’.