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News Guardian, Thursday, July 5, 2012
WEEKENDER
www.newsguardian.co.uk
e-mail your reports to tegan.chapman@northeast-press.co.uk
Fun for everyone at 12th annual festival THE 12th annual Wallsend Festival will take place this weekend. Billed as the biggest and best yet, the festival on Saturday will feature a range of craft and food stalls, live music, dance groups and a fairground. Organised by local businesses and supported by a number of organisations, including North Tyneside Council, the festival will see Alexandra Street car park come alive with British vintage cars and US hot rods on display, as well as a skate, BMX and scooter park. With Wallsend Parks under refurbishment, the council will also be bringing the park to the town centre for festival day. A pop-up park will be erected outside the Forum shopping centre, which will host a range of free activities themed around the park. Festivities begin on Thursday at Wallsend Library when Cloudburst, an over-60’s theatre group, will be performing a series of free comedy sketches at 2.30pm in the library. For the latest festival news and information, visit www. wallsendfestival.org or call (0191) 643 6419.
McFly shelve superstitions for Tynemouth Priory gig ONE quarter of best selling pop band McFly and reigning King of the Jungle Dougie Poynter talks to TEGAN CHAPMAN ahead of the band’s appearance at next week’s Mouth of the Tyne Festival. DESPITE McFly bassist Dougie Poynter being deeply superstitious, he will join the multi-selling band on stage at Tynemouth Priory on Friday the 13th. In the wake of the recent floods, and with a history of torrential downpours, the Mouth of the Tyne Festival looks doomed to always be blighted by bad weather. But it will take more than a drop of rain to put Dougie off. “Gigs tend to be better if it’s raining because people can’t sit down, they have to get up and jump around, so I say – ‘bring on the rain!’,” he said. “We are all really superstitious – there’s a band that we now can’t listen to because if we do it just brings us bad luck. “Because it’s Friday the
13th our belt buckles will probably break and our trousers will all fall down. “We are always, always excited to play and we are not blase so it will be amazing to play in a historical building like the Priory.” Fans of the band can expect a string of famous hits next week – and the possibility of hearing some of the band’s latest material. “It is about making sure that everyone there is 100 per cent involved,” he said.
“We want to satisfy all ages. “It’s actually better if we play bad because then we just talk a lot.” 2011 was a bit of a rollercoaster for Dougie, pictured, who started the year checking himself into rehab where he received help for depression, to finishing on a high of being crowned King of the Jungle in ITV’s I’m a Celebrity Get me Out of Here. “It was certainly a year I will never forget,
there were a lot of ups and downs,” he said. “But the jungle was just awesome. I met a lot of amazing people that I’m still friends with now – I texted Mark (Wright) yesterday and I saw Willie (Carson) the other day.” It seems just a moment ago that the fresh-faced teens of McFly burst onto the music scene with the catchy Five Colours in her Hair, and now it seems the boys are growing up – with Tom now a married man, and Harry engaged. Will Dougie be following suit with girlfriend Lara Carew-Jones? He added: “The world is meant to end in December – even Michael Jackson said so – so I might plan the most expensive wedding you’ve ever seen, with elephants, fire-
breathers and the Red Arrows spelling out ‘congratulations’ – and plan it for January 1, knowing the world is going to end. “Seriously, though, we will have two weddings this year, so not for a while yet.” Not content with five best selling albums and a career in pop spanning almost a decade, the 24-year-old also owns his own clothing range, and is due to release a children’s book, written with bandmate Tom, later this year. “We mixed Christmas, dinosaurs and poo together and created a magical festive tale,” he said. “It just proves that good things come to those who mess around.” McFly will be at Tynemouth Priory on Friday, July 13.
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