It has been over a year since I have entered the world of PR and I have certainly had a lot of crazy experiences. Along the way I had the privilege of working for a lot of different clients but working on the Weston Pier strategy is one of my most interesting roles yet.

My speciality was always the online world and my challenge was fusing that with conventional PR strategies. When the Weston Pier fire story broke it was massive news both in the conventional media and online. The BBC video of the fire was one the most viewed videos ever on the site. The story also made international news everywhere from the USA, to Canada, to South Africa, to Australia.

A month ago our company, Empica, was appointed to handle the PR for Weston Pier. We are overseeing all parts of the strategy from the disaster itself to rebuilding of the pier. It has been a rollercoaster ride since then and we have had to deal with Radio, TV and the Press all wanting the latest news. For my part I am in charge of Weston Pier's online strategy which includes monitoring stories online and social networking.

There has been an overwhelming reaction on facebook as well with many Weston Pier groups being set up. The biggest of these is in the region of 14,000 members.

The big news that broke yesterday was that of the new designs of the pier. Everyone in the media was literally scrambling over the pictures of the designs (the phones were red hot in the office!). I must say that I have never seen anything like this let alone be working on the project. You can see the top of this post for one of the designs and check out the rest on the BBC website.

I look forward to see how the story unfolds as the rebuilding of the pier commences.

I am a big fan of the Sopranos so had to write a post about it. Earlier this year I finished watching the last series. It was created by David Chase and follows a New Jersey crime family headed by Tony Soprano (played by James Gandolfini) through its ups and downs in dealing with rival mob families from New York and the FBI. A lot the story is based around the Bada Bing strip club which they own and run as front for other 'family' activities. Along with this it also follows the 'conventional' family life of Tony Soprano who has wife Carmella (Edie Falco) and two children by the names of Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) and Anthony Junior (Robert Iler).

If you don't know about The Sopranos where have you been? It has won a ton of Emmys and is one the most popular US TV shows ever. The attention to detail, script writing, directions, character depth, music and plot are outstanding. What is more they keep a consistently high standard through all six seasons. I am very surprised that it is still relatively unknown in the UK. Maybe people would rather watch the same boring rubbish on Big Brother or something. What a shame!

Anyway one of the most compelling characters on the Sopranos is Paulie Walnuts (played by Tony Sirico). Paulie eventually becomes one of Tony's 'Capos'. He is a smooth talking, machismo mafioso with strange sense of humour. He has some great lines and is always very passionate but not the most shrewdest of characters. As you can see from the clip below he is very proud of his Italian roots!



Paulie's character is not alone. Every single character is played brilliantly and you actually almost get to know them after a while. Steve Buscemi even makes an appearance in Season 5 as Tony's long lost cousin.

The Sopranos has now finished after six seasons. I really miss it - I think it is probably the best TV show I have ever seen. Well done HBO! Look forward to more TV shows like this.

It was an pretty average evening in my flat and I decided I was a bit peckish (which means hungry for the US readers). It was that kind of hunger that can only be satisfied by the wonder that is frozen food. It's cheap, it's lazy - job done.

So there I was with a frozen pizza in hand and packet of frozen chips in the other thinking 'what now?' Having had a look at the pizza box I determined the cooking time to be 25 minutes. Great, I thought, as the chip packet said the cooking time would be 25-30 minutes. At this point I assessed that if I was to put both of them in the oven at the same time they would both be ready at the same time and I would be in for a small banquet. How wrong I was! After 25 minutes of searing heat from the oven the pizza was done (almost over-done). However, the chips where bare done at all and still soft!

I decided to take the pizza out of the oven and turn up the heat. I even opted for the oven's fan assisted option. After 40 minutes (double the time stated on the packet) the chips were almost done but still a bit soft. At this point I chose take them out and start eating as the pizza, which had now been standing out for 20 minutes, was now cold. This meant I ended up with cold pizza and underdone chips - I was not a happy bunny. Is too much to ask the frozen chip industry put a more realistic cooking time on their packets? The pizza people got it right...

Most people that know me know that I have always been passionate about Drum'n'Bass music. It is a style of music that is constantly evolving and diversifying in different genres and sub-genres. I have dabbled in some d'n'b production over the years too and I hope to take this up again soon.

Anyway in this post I wanted to share some interesting facts about Drum'n'Bass that most people may not be aware of.


1. Made in the UK! - Drum'n'Bass is the only musically genre to be made in the UK. While it draws many influences from outside it has developed exclusively in the UK.

2. It's gone Worldwide - While Drum'n'Bass used to be just a UK ting, there are new scenes cropping up all around the world (such as Germany, Brazil, Holland, Scandanavia, Eastern Europe, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, USA Canada and Japan). Recently even the French have begrudgingly embraced a Drum'n'Bass scene.

3. David Bowie did a Drum'n'Bass Album - Even Rock Legend David Bowie saw the light when he released his album 'Earthling' in 1997. 'Little Wonder' was released as a single and it was 'little wonder' it didn't do so well as I don't think Bowie actually understood Drum'n'bass (Genius that he is!)

4. The Live Act - Drum'n'Bass is one of the few electronic dance music styles that can be performed live with 'real instruments'. After winning the Mercury Music Prize in 1997 Roni Size's Reprazent paved the way for the Drum'n'Bass live act. Their act featured live drums, live double bass and live vocals. Since then others have built on the live sound such as London Elektricity and Craggz and Parallel Forces.

5. Drum'n'Bass in Adverts - Advertisers use Drum'n'Bass as bedding music. Check out the Specsavers or Ford Focus ads for good examples. Even Pantene Pro V used a Drum'n'Bass track in their ad - who'd have thought it!

6. Drum'n'Bass in the Movies - More and more Drum'n'Bass producers are getting involved movie soundtracks though they don't shout about it. For example The Italian Job (2003) soundtrack was composed by Photek (long time and well respected producer).

7. Drum'n'Bass Producer makes waves in the Hip Hop Scene - In 2002 Adam F proved he could make it in the Stateside Hip hop world when he released the album 'Anti Acoustic Warfare'. He teamed up with likes of Redman, De La Soul and LL Cool J among others.

8. Who are the Godfathers? -Since the early nineties LTJ Bukem, Fabio and Grooverider have been pushing the Breakbeat, Jungle and Drum'n'Bass sound in the clubs. Nowadays Fabio has his own Radio Show on Radio 1. Fabio effectively created a sub genre known as 'Liquid'. Bukem championed Ambient D'n'B in the 90s and is still DJing along with running the record label Good Looking Records. Grooverider has recently been released from prison in Dubai after a drugs charge! We look forward to having him back.

9. How can I forget the Man Goldie?!! - Wild child of Drum'n'Bass, Goldie (real name Clifford Price) is famous for his album 'Timeless' and seminal track 'Inner City Life' in 1995. On his next album 'Saturnz Return' he did an immense 1 hour track dedicated to his mother. Goldie has crossed over into TV and Movie Land. He starred as a Bond Villain in the film 'The World is Not Enough' and had a brief apperance in 'Snatch'. He also appeared on Celebrity Big Brother but was kicked out of the house pretty soon after! He was even in Eastenders briefly playing a gangster with a bad attitude. Not a difficult role to pull off for him I think and Im sure he gave Phill Mitchel a run for his money. He has continued to make waves in the scene with his long standing label, Metaheadz and a new album called Sine Tempus.

10. Drum'n' Bass is not Dead! This is the biggest load of BS ever as you can see from the previous 9 points. I have a theory that this is most likely a conspiracy created by the UK Garage headz in about 1999 and 2000 (you know who you are!! lol!) I have one question for them "where is UK Garage now?" ;-) Drum'n'Bass continues to goes from strength to strength without compromising its roots.

If you are interested in checking out some of the tunes I did a while back head over to www.myspace.com/taurusbeatz

It is hard for me to to really chose a topic to focus on a the moment. So much seems to be going on at the moment from the Global Financial Crisis to Facebook's new look.

What I will say is that everything seems to be speeding up with internet communications. Something can happen on one side of the world and within seconds it can be transmitted to the other side of the world. It is certainly the the wonder of technology that the world has become an even smaller place.

It is possible now to virtually walk the streets of Tokyo and New York with Google's Street View. Coming from the UK, I have never been to Tokyo but now I have an idea of what it looks like without going there.

I think all of these developments are good and I think it can certainly help people to share ideas. I hope it will mean that people will be able to understand each other better. Unfortunately there is a negative side to this as well. Unfounded rumours and scaremongering spread like wild fire. As we have seen over the last month or so with 'credit crunch', information has spread across the world instantaneously causing panic in places. It has cost companies millions and been the demise of others.

It looks like we've opened Pandora's Box and we are finding it very difficult to control it at the moment.