Swing For The Heroes by Shelley Cokayne

Nottinghamshire based swing singer, Ian Campbell, has taken on a mammoth year long fundraising mission, playing 366 consecutive gigs without a night off - to raise money for ‘Help for Heroes’’.

Living out of a transit van and travelling around venues across the UK since April 19th, Campbell, who calls his act ‘Frankie Martin’ and has named the mission ‘Operation Frankie’ - is set to sing every night for a whole year and-a-day to raise as money as possible for the cause.

Campbell took on the ‘Great British Pub Tour’ on coming up to his 50th Birthday, saying “As I was coming up to my 50th birthday, I thought, what have I done with my life? And I was inspired by the work of H4H, so decided to do my bit for our brave service personnel.”

The swing singer comes from a military background, his father was a RAF sergeant and Campbell states he has been brought up around the military and thinks more should be done for our injured servicemen and women.

The singer says he was only expecting to raise around £50 a night, but has been overwhelmed by the amount of support he’s gained already, and has raised nearly four times as much every night. And barely into the third month on the road, Operation Frankie has raised over £10,000 and is gathering vast amounts of attention from the press.

Entry to all of the shows is free, though collections will be taken along with H4H merchandise on offer, and a ‘Frankie Martin’ CD is available. People are also be encouraged to enter raffles for their favourite song to be played.

The shows will end in the town of Kimberley where the singer currently resides on April 19th 2011.

For show dates and venues and to keep up with the latest on Operation Frankie visit:
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/great-british-pub-tour

Or follow Frankie Martin on Twitter here:
http://twitter.com/MrFrankieMartin

Spring/Summer 2010 edit by Clara Jackson.

It's true, when it comes to Spring and Summer and deciding what your wardrobe should consist of, it can all get a bit confusing. There's the question of; Should I wear skirts or shorts? A dress or a playsuit? Or perhaps a blouse or a vest? Along with the over-ruling question "Is it fashionable?!".

In my opinion, stick to the key pieces you adore and mix and match throughout the season. But, if you want to remain to continual fashionista you can follow along these lines. The old favourite denimn is back and on trend this year, even the recently fashion extinct double denimn look is strongly returning. Begin with a pair of simple cut-off denimn shorts to create a relaxed summer Goddess look and as your trust in the look grows, experiment with denimn jackets, denimn playsuits and even denimn trainers.

If you're looking for a more bohemian look, maxi-dresses are strongly returning. You can be inspired by Topshop's victorian edition or aim high for the flowing Chloe masterpiece that would make many fashionable heads turn and glow with envy. Although, you should keep it simple, try and avoid bright colours and prints so it's pre-raphaelite romance instead of Alex Curran WAG, especially with the World Cup approaching.

Continuing with the Chloe obsession, look to their nude coloured, military collection for this season. Key pieces like neutral, cotton trousers, shorts and jackets that will go with cute Miu Miu inspired prints or an even more simplistic look. And, this can be achieved on a budget as many high-street stores have taken note and followed the trend. Many replicas can be found in stores such as Topshop, Zara and H&M.

As summer is also festival season; fun, practical and cool outfits should be taken into account. If you want a fail safe approach go for the 1940's floral tea dress look that is always a hit. Pair that with Wellington Boots and a waterproof jacket and you're ready to go. But, if you're looking for a edgy look don't attempt the neon coloured, Klaxons approach head towards the look trend-setter and model Daisy Lowe is parading. The Americana look. Varsity jackets, t-shirts decorated with logos and slogans, converse and shorts to enable hours of care free dancing.

Take whatever trend takes your fancy and make it your own. Summer should inspire; laughter, road trips, BBQ's, music and memories. So dress with what the mood takes you. But remember the sun tan lotion because the burnt lobster look will never be fashionable.

Rock and roll story picture

This is the photo from the 'rock and roll' story. All my own things. I actually took this on the floor of my car!

More pages done

I decided to mess around with the music one, becuase i thought it looked squashed on just two pages, so i changed the size of the boxes, and that.
The festival one isnt finished yet. Im going to do a couple more pages on fashions at festivals, then local festivals and finally essentials.

Another page.

So this is the finished layout for the article i posted yesterday. I wanted an ELLE style layout, so i went with the straight edges and black and white colour scheme.

I said its only rock and roll, but i like it.

One afternoon, a couple of years ago, I sat with my mum, in the car, going into town. I can’t remember for the life of me which song came on the radio, but I can remember turning it up loud. Really loud. Cue my mum ‘Bloody hell, Rach. You’re a proper music head. Can’t we just have abit of peace and quiet’? That’s stuck with me to this day, and it’s still true.
My iPod is stuck in my ears as I write this.
Music is one of those great pieces of work where it gives you the opportunity to forget where you are, what you’re doing, where you’re doing it.
I get in the car, turn the radio on. Is still stand by the idea that there is nothing better than driving down a country lane, window down, bright sunshine, with music coming out of the stereo. After a stressful day at college, university or work, it’s like a little piece of heaven on earth.
Now, I have a pretty random taste in music. I was chatting to one of my mates recently about a song, and when I mentioned songs on my iPod, her reply was something like ‘I don’t really want to know what’s on there’. This is going from the girl who wanted Jedward to win X Factor, so she will remain nameless for her sake. Clicking Shuffle is guaranteed to give you a right concoction of tunes. Anything from Adele, to All Time Low, via Biffy Clyro to Florence and the Machine. Pussycat Dolls, Glee cast, JLS, Lil Wayne and The Saturdays are all on there too. If I had to nail down the kind of music genre I like the most, it would probably be rock/indie. Bands like Kasabian, The Features, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys and Vampire Weekend are some of my favourite bands in the whole world.
One band, however, which takes up the most storage space, is Kings of Leon. 103 songs, 5 music videos, 115 photos. I’ve got a pile of magazines that they’re in, and I literally ran to HMV when the live DVD came out. It was my best friend who got me interested in them. There were some home movies which the guys had done whilst recording their fourth album, and she told me to go and watch them. I can still remember sitting in the corner of the living room a couple of weeks before Christmas in 2008, and having to cover my mouth because I was laughing so hard. Not long after I got hold of Youth And Young Manhood and Because Of The Times, and listened to them non-stop. I’d already downloaded some of the songs off of Only By The Night after recommendations from iTunes. Aha Shake Heartbreak is one of my favourite albums ever, and I couldn’t even begin to choose a favourite song because I have so many.
I never really understood how you could be so into just one band and, growing up, I always listened to loads of bands and artists. I still do. I can buy five or six CDs at once, but I’ll always go back to the old faithful.
It’s gone past the point of their music now, too. I’ve made some awesome friends through our mutual liking of them. I’ve bought albums and songs because they’ve been recommended by the band members.
At the end of June, I’m going to Hyde Park to see them play to 40,000 people. Their biggest solo show to date. Along with some of girls I’ve met through social networks and forums and my best mate, we’re going to have the time of our lives. That may sound extreme, but as someone who is obsessed with music, obsessed with the feeling she gets from music and the way it plays apart in her life, I don’t think it is.
I’ve never seen them live. I almost went to see them at Manchester, then London, then Leeds, but it never happened.
Because I’m slightly shallow, I’ve started looking at clothes to wear, (I thought it was best to get some fashion in this and it not turn into a total groupie-esque story) but I do live in England after all. Wellies, sandals, shorts, jeans, jumpers, vests. You name it. A Kings t-shirt is standard.
I found a quote a couple of days ago: ‘Mix tapes are like pictures, but without sound. I think music makes you love a person.’
I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Photos

The photos on the 'Summer and Me' story are from We Heart It (http://www.weheartit.com/). Arent they gorgeous?!

'brighter than most' images

These are the full sized photos from the 'brighter than most' story. All of these were took by me. I wanted the images to look grainy, so i took them on a disposable camera.

Finished pages

These are some of the pages that i have already completed. Im so pleased! I knew the kind of layout that i wanted to do, reading magazines like Elle and NME, which are totally different in content but similar in style. Let me know what you guys think!

Flickr

www.flickr.com/photos/rachadoodle

Heres the photo album for some of the photos ive used. All of these were taken by me.

LACE MAGAZINE!

Hey guys. Im putting together a magazine for a college project. If you want to help out, contact me via my other blogspot nothingbutaclotheshorse.blogspot.com until i get this up and running.
Thanks!
Rachel