Radio Forth – News

Anne Kane presents hourly news bulletins on Forth 1, Forth 2 & Radio Borders.

BNI Networking

Chris Kane will be chairing the Enterprise Chapter of the BNI Networking group.

BBC Radio Scotland “Culture Cafe”

Chris Kane will be presenting the Culture Cafe for BBC Radio Scotland.

BBC Radio Scotland “Book Cafe”

Chris Kane will be presenting the Book Cafe for BBC Radio Scotland.

Julia Donaldson (Gruffalo) interview

Julia Donaldson (Gruffalo creator) talks about her latest book “Stick Man & Co” and there will be a special appearance from The Gruffallo.  Chris Kane will be interviewing Julia for the Stirling Observer and an audio version of the interview will be available at www.beeherdmedia.com from Tuesday 12th October

About Chris Kane

Chris Kane has been working as a broadcaster since he was fifteen.  He says, “When a high school teacher of mine suggested we should reach for the stars when deciding on work experience placements, he wasn’t amused when I suggested going to NASA.  My teacher thought my big mouth might be good on radio, so he organised a week with a local station”.

Chris went for a week and stayed for ten years, learning as much as he could about radio.  He says, “I’m sure I presented every show, sold advertising, scheduled music, produced commercials – you name it, I did it.  It got to the stage that after presenting a Breakfast Show for two years, I kept saying what time it was after every sentence – something I wouldn’t recommend in job interviews.”

For the last few years Chris has been a freelance broadcaster working with stations such as BBC Radio Scotland, Forth 1(Edinburgh), Smooth Radio (Glasgow), Westsound (Ayr) and Central FM (Falkirk).

He also comes from a strong business background.  He says, “My grandfather started an electrical shop in 1932 which my father still runs with my brother.  My mother ran a bed and breakfast from the family home when we were young, so I’ve constantly been surrounded by business and business people.  Although I studied for an arts undergraduate degree, I went back a few years later to complete a diploma in Entrepreneurial Studies, which was great fun and exceptionally useful”.

When combined, Chris’ media and business background are a powerful force.  He is in great demand as a marketeer, helping business people better understand the relationship between business and customer and putting in place some sound marketing and PR practices.  Chris is spending more and more of his time helping businesses make sense of social networking and how it will impact on marketing strategies.

Chris is also Editor of an online sports radio station:  “Kicktalk” provides programming for fans of Scottish football and rugby.

An engaging speaker, Chris also dabbles in after dinner speaking.

Stirling Observer Entertainments

Romeo and Juliet

The Pilot Theatre Company are currently appearing at the MacRobert Theatre with their latest production, Romeo and Juliet.  The show started on Tuesday evening, with further shows on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week.

I get into trouble from English scholars when I say this, but I am not a fan of reading Shakespeare; I find having to “translate” the words in my head gets in the way of appreciating the story.  I am, however, a huge fan of Shakespeare when seen on the stage, they way it was always intended.   Then the words seem to make more sense and the story captivates and enthrals.

Romeo and Juliet is undoubtedly the best know romance story in the Western World.  Since written in the late 1600s, it’s never lost any of its popularity and whether studying it in High School English classes, or watching the various versions that appear on stage or screen ever few years, it’s a powerful story.

Pilot Theatre are the award winning company behind recent productions of “Lord of the Flies” and “Looking for JJ”.  Although the words are original, the setting has been given a makeover for this production as the MacRobert’s Markus Stitz tells us, “Pilot Theatre promise a fast moving and contemporary telling of this celebrated story.  With a soundtrack from BAFTA award winning composer Sandy Nuttgens, this production will inspire and enthuse audiences of all ages with its intensity and exuberance.”

The inspiration for the setting comes from the phenomenally successful “Twighlight” vampire stories by American author Stephenie Meyer.  The set has been designed to look like a shrine with over eighty candles and 6000 silk flowers.  The actors will all be dressed in retro clothing, creating a show which should be both familiar and different at the same time.

Tickets for the show are £12 for adults and just £3 for under eighteens.  For more information, contact the box office on 01786 466666.

Stick Man & Co

Award winning author Julia Donaldson will be appearing at the MacRobert Theatre on Sunday afternoon in a show called “Stick Man & Co”.  Along with her husband Malcolm, she’ll be acting out stories from her many books and singing songs with the help of the audience.

The title of the show comes from Julia’s latest book, “Stick Man”, although for most of us she is best known for her book “The Gruffalo”.

As a parent with young children, I’m already finding Julia’s stories to be excellent bed time reading;  my daughter enjoys her stories and I find there is enough to keep me entertained as well.  Her rhyming stories regularly top the children’s bestselling charts and the animated version of the Gruffalo was a big Christmas Day hit on BBC television last year.

In the hour long show, Julia will introduce you to the Stick Man and, I’m told, there might even be a special appearance from the Gruffalo himself. After the event, Julia will be signing copies of her books, including her recent best sellers Zog, Cave Bay and Freddie and the Fairy.

Julia has also written songs, plays and novels and is the author of the popular “Songbirds” series of phonic reading books for schools.  Her husband Malcolm enjoys taking time off from his job as a doctor to play the guitar and act out the parts of generous giants and wicked dinosaurs.

Tickets, priced £6, are available from the box office on 01786 466666.  There are shows at 1pm and 4pm.  Half of the proceeds from the performances will go to the Scottish charity Artlink Central.

Southern Tenant

The Tolbooth is fast becoming a little colony of Americana music, with a regular series of great folk and bluegrass bands appearing at the venue.  On Thursday night (7^th), the excellent “Southern Tenant Folk Union” will be on stage.

They are band who attract the radio attention from big names such as Bob Harris, Mark Lamarr and Steve Lamacq and their songs regularly pop up on BBC Radio Two.

The Tolbooth’s Eddie White says, “This seven piece acoustic band with banjo, mandolin, fiddle and harmony vocals perform with soul and beauty on their ballads and tear it up with Hottenanny sawdust kickers on the faster songs.  All that, plus amazing musicianship, heartfelt storytelling and their special brand of honest, intelligent music will make this a great concert”.

Bluegrass music really comes into its own when seen performed live; listening to it on the radio doesn’t really give a sense of the power, urgency and fun with which the musicians play.  If you’ve never seen a live show, then “The Southern Tenant Folk Union” would be a great place to start.

Tickets, priced £12, are available from the box office on 01786 274000.

Session A9

One of the things I love most about Scottish folk musicians is that the music is more important than the brand.  It means that some of the top musicians from some of the best known folk groups in the country occasionally come together in a totally new way, often putting bands together for a one off tour or special occasion or just when they feel like doing something different.

On Saturday night, one such band will be appearing at the Tolbooth.  “A9 Sessions” have been performing together since 2003.  The lineup has changed in the last seven years, but on Saturday you’ll hear Adam Sutherland, Brian McAlpine, Charlie McKerron, David Robertson, Gordon Gunn, Kevin Henderson and Marc Clement.

To give you an example of their pedigree, Charlie  and David play with Capercaillie, Adam with the Peatbog Faeries, Kevin with Fiddlers Bid, Marc with Blazin Fiddles and Brian MacAlpine with too many well known bands to mention.

Over the last seven years they’ve been described as a Scottish “super group”, “the best band to come out of Scotland in 100 years”, “tighter than James Brown” and an “amazing festival band”.  Great praise indeed for a band that formed through informal music sessions at venues up and down the A9.

This concert will be Scottish folk music at its very best and well worth the £12 ticket price.  For more information, contact the box office on 01786 274000.

Stirling’s Cinema this week

This week at the MacRobert cinema you can see “The Expendables” (Friday and Saturday), “Eat, Pray Love” (Friday – Thursday), “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” (Saturday and Sunday) and “the Tooth Fairy (Tuesday – Thursday)

“The Expendables” is an action thriller more famous for its cast than its story.  For the record, it’s about a group of mercenaries who are hired to infiltrate a South American country and overthrow its ruthless dictator.  However, once the mission begins, the men realise things aren’t quite as they appear and find themselves caught in a dangerous web of deceit and betrayal.  Now to the cast list:  Director Sylvester Stallone picked up the phone to some of his contemporaries, many of whom he was in direct competition with for much of the 1980s and 1990s, and convinced the following to appear:  Jason Statham, Jet Lie, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis.

“Eat, Pray, Love”, is Julia Roberts latest movie.  She plays Liz Gilbert, a woman who appears to have it all but suddenly finds herself lost, confused and at a crossroads in life.  When she gets divorced from her husband, she steps out of her comfort zone and embarks on a journey around the world that becomes a quest for self discovery.  In her travels, she discovers the true pleasure of food by eating in Italy, the power of prayer in India and, finally and unexpectedly, the inner peace and balance of true love in Bali.

For those of you who got a little excited about seeing the Disney masterpiece “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” when you saw it written above, I’m sorry to dash your excitement but this isn’t that film.  It’s Nicolas Cage’s latest adventure in which he plays Balthazar Blake, a master sorcerer in modern day Manhattan trying to defend the city from his arch nemesis Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina).  Balthazar can’t do it alone, so he recruits Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel), a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential as his reluctant protégé.  The sorcerer gives his unwilling accomplice a crash course in the art and science of magic and together they must work to stop the forces of darkness.  It sounds alright, but I’d rather have seen the Mickey Mouse movie.

Finally, “The Tooth Fairy”.   One of these movies that you can never, ever admit to liking.  You can watch it, but tell anybody and they’ll laugh at you.  Derek Thomson is “The Tooth Fairy”, a hard charging minor league hockey player whose nickname comes from his habit of separating opposing players from their teeth.  When he discourages a child’s hopes, he’s sentence to one week’s hard labour as a real tooth fairy, complete with tutu, wings and a magic wand.  He initially hates his job, but slowly begins to rediscover his own forgotten dreams.

For more information on films showing at the MacRobert, contact the box office on 01786 466666.

For information on films showing at the Vue cinema, log onto www.myvue.com

Bee Herd Can help in a variety of different ways …

You’ll find out more about what we do by browsing the various sections on the website, but in summary Bee Herd Media can help your company in the following areas:

Public Relations

When you have something to say, let Bee Herd help you tell the world. We offer a range of services from writing a press release and distributing it to a selected list of journalists, right through to orchestrating a full scale PR campaign which we’ll manage and you’ll get all the credit!

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Marketing

If you think advertising is a “necessary evil” for your business, then you’re probably spending a lot of money and not seeing enough results.  We can help change this by working with you to make sure your message is correct, consistent and deployed in the right places not just the obvious ones.

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Copy Writing

Barak Obama may be one of the best orators of our time, but he employs a speechwriter!  From a presentation to a website, well crafted words can motivate people exceptionally well.  We can take your ideas and turn them into creative copy that works wherever it is needed.

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Media Content Creation / Social Networking

Static websites, where your message is delivered using only words and pictures, are fast becoming outdated.  In a virtual world increasingly dominated by interactive websites, your customers expect more.  From audio and video content, to blogs, tweets and posts, we can help you understand the social networking world and ensure you are swept along with the revolution rather than swept aside.

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Radio

Both Chris and Anne are available for a variety of roles within radio.  Whether you need cover for existing presenters, newsreaders or journalists, Bee Herd can help.  Or if you’re looking for short audio features or longer programmes, we can do that too. Chris Kane is also Editor of online sports radio station www.kicktalk.co.uk and is well versed at sports reporting and commentary.

You’ll hear examples of our work all over our website.