As the Hot Shorts Film Festival 2016 gears up to bring filmmaking talent to the capital on October 8th you can bet your life that the making of those shorts provided a fertile learning ground for all of those film-makers. Nothing beats going out there and doing it. But is active production an effective apprenticeship in […]
During the Cold War era of the 60s when President Brezhnev was locking horns with his liberal, free thinking arch enemies in the West, the first signs of a counter culture that dared to be even more free-spirited than democratic capitalism grew out of the music, art, fashion, poetry and world love philosophy sweeping Western […]
If you’re an undiscovered author or book fan seeking an event where you can network with fellow literary minds and hear first chapter readings by emerging novelists then look no further than Novel London, which runs every first Friday of the month. Organised by creative writer Safeena Chaudhry, it has been running since 2015 during […]
Flamboyant Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara) has been honoured with an English Heritage blue plaque on the walls of his childhood home in Feltham, West London. Band member Brian May and Mercury’s sister Kashmira Cooke addressed the media outside at 22 Gladstone Avenue sharing memories of his early years and beyond, when […]
Michael Jackson’s birthday was only a few days ago on August 29th and naturally would have prompted a sense of nostalgia amongst his devoted fans. The London-based ones would have headed in droves to his Thriller Live Show at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue for a performance and atmosphere that would make up for the great […]
Writer/director Noel Clarke’s latest instalment in his urban ‘hood’ trilogy has him again in the lead role as Sam Peel but this time – as his paunch in a gym mirror shows – age brings with it both undesired physical changes and also much required emotional maturity. That is until the latter is severely tested […]
Born on this date in 1797 in Somers Town, London, Mary Shelley stepped from the shadows of her more renowned husband, father and mother to make her mark in literature with the tale of the gothic man-monster Frankenstein. She certainly drew from an inspiring literary circle. Her father was radical political philosopher William Godwin and […]
This varied photo series by What’s Hot London?’s Eddie Saint-Jean shows the heart of our capital on a typical day. You’d get the impression that London is a pretty eclectic, cultured, cosmopolitan and sometimes barmy city. Which is just what it is!
Founded by double-bassist Chi-chi Nwanok, the Chineke Orchestra is Europe’s first all-black professional orchestra. Its principal conductor Wayne Marshall is the only black one in Britain and made his big stage debut on September 13th 2016 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank. The organisation seeks to address the under-representation of ethnic minorities in this area […]
Punk was born on February 12th 1976 when the Sex Pistols had one of their typically anarchic, venom-fuelled gigs at The Marquee, Oxford Street. This exhibition at The British Library takes you back to those early days and the bands that launched a sub-culture that shocked the world. Punk svengali Malcolm McLaren’s input into the look […]
Hillary Clinton Graffiti/Painting Shoreditch By Street Artist Pegasus
