Lotto Money - A former Sunderland fire station will be transformed into a performing arts hub after being granted £2.4m from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The conversion of the building, which has been derelict for 22 years, is part of a three-stage project to transform the area surrounding the Sunderland Empire into a £10.5m cultural quarter for the city. The new centre will include designated studios for drama and dance, as well as a digital heritage centre. Ivor Crowther, head of HLF North East, said, "It's our historic buildings that give our towns and cities distinctiveness and the old fire station is central to the identity of Sunderland. This HLF grant will not only help secure its future but will give the building a new lease of life and provide the area with a much-needed economic boost."
Band Aid - Bob Geldof says he doesn't care about criticism of the new Band Aid track and insists it's actually a good thing. He made the comments as the CD single was released in shops. The song, which is 2014's fastest-selling single with more than 312,000 downloads in its first week, is raising money for the ongoing Ebola crisis in west Africa. "Where Band Aid is effective is that it creates all this noise," Bob Geldof told BBC's Newsbeat. "It creates this argument, it creates this debate. People find it very hard to understand that I love the level of criticism. I personally enjoy it."
Theatre Backing - Playwrights Alan Ayckbourn and Arnold Wesker have joined performers including Judi Dench and Christopher Biggins in calling for Brighton Hippodrome to be retained as a theatre. They are among a list of more than 100 arts figures who have signed an open letter against plans to turn the theatre into a cinema and restaurant complex. Others who have signed up include Roy Hudd, Equity general secretary Christine Payne and Malcolm Sinclair, Equity president. In the letter, they state they are "appalled that this is the prospect for this iconic and irreplaceable building" and cite the "irreversible damage" that will be done if the conversion to a cinema and restaurant complex goes ahead. They state that there is still time for Kuig Property Investments, which owns the building, and cinema chain Vue to reconsider, claiming the "world of theatre and the nation will thank them for years to come". Plans to turn the theatre into a cinema complex were granted by the local council in July.
In The White House - British singer Sting and Oscar-winning US actor Tom Hanks have been feted in Washington as recipients of this year's Kennedy Centre honours. "I'm not sure when I'll wear it again," said Sting, "but I think I look rather fetching in it," he said of his rainbow ribbon. The former Police frontman is set to join the cast of his Broadway musical The Last Ship, about shipbuilding in the north east of England.
Farewell R.I.P. saxophonist Bobby Keys and keyboard maestro Ian McLagan. Thankyou for the music.
(Jim Evans)
