Recent News...
TV's Real Deal
Joining forces
recently with David Dickinson, the flamboyant presenter of ITV's Dickinson's Real Deal and Bargain Hunt, was great fun. We
were helping to promote Rex Johnson and Sons, Birmingham's leading gold merchants.
At Camden Lock Market
Towpath Ted,
one of my latest creations, took to the canalside recently to meet and greet visitors to the Camden Lock Village
Canal Market... and he certainly proved popular with the crowds.
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Having Fun at The Stage Annual Christmas Party
As usual, The Stage annual Christmas party was a great event. Here are a couple of photos of me with Barbara Windsor and Michael Southern from Blood Brothers.
Posted by Alan (30-JAN-12)
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Happy New Year!
I hope 2012 is a great year for you all! Here's just a quick look back at The Deluxe Father Christmas tipping the scales at Ascot.
Posted by Alan (5-JAN-12)
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Uncle Fester Goes On Tour
I'm
currently in the middle of a UK tour as Uncle Fester, the popular character from the Addams Family films.
(Between you and me, sometimes I lose track of who I am!)
This is my 17th tour and I'll be appearing in loads of places including Petersfield, Camden, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Edgware, Enfield, Salisbury, Stevenage and Eastleigh.
I'll let you know how it goes - it's been a lot of fun so far!
Posted by Alan (25-OCT-11)
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Off With Their Heads!
I
spent a day in Birmingham last week at the wonderful International Convention Centre.
Having the same girth as old Henry VIII makes me a great candidate for the role so I was invited to attend the Annual Congress of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) 2011 as MC.
More than 5,000 delegates attended the Congress including international physicians, radiologists, medical physicists, technologists and radio pharmacists. Apparently, the exhibition is the largest show of nuclear medicine equipment in Europe.
Posted by Alan (20-OCT-11)
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Birthday Celebrations in Woking
I
was invited back to Woking yesterday to help celebrate the 1st anniversary of the newly refurbished Londis
convenience store.
Dominic, the store franchisee, has worked very hard over the past 12 months to get the store into shape and is now selling local produce and involving all of the community in planning further improvements.
The locals were all summoned at dawn (by you know who) to join in the celebrations with complimentary refreshments including hot dogs, tea and coffee plus plenty of chocolate frogs and balloons for the kids. I also hosted a Junior Town Crier competition - they were all winners as far as I was concerned!
I was delighted that they've invited me back again next year to celebrate their 2nd birthday.
Posted by Alan (16-OCT-11)
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Happy Anniversary to CAMRA
The Gloucestershire Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) celebrated their 20th anniversary recently. Being a bit of an
ale lover myself, I was delighted when they invited me along to cut the cake and help the party along.
I'm already looking forward to their 21st!
Posted by Alan (13-OCT-11)
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Confessions of a Town Crier
I've given lots of talks to different groups over the years, usually on my favourite theme of Confessions of a
Town Crier. This theme always seems to go down well - I think people like to hear some of the behind-the-scenes
stories of events and what it's like to meet celebrities or members of the royal family.
Here's a photo of members of the Sainsbury's Veterans Group (Gloucester and Cheltenham) branch. I was delighted to spend time with them recently and we had a good laugh over some of my tales. I've also spoken at Rotary, Round Table, Lions groups and Probus clubs.
Posted by Alan (8-OCT-11)
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Leggy Ladies at Celtic Manor
It's a tough job but someone's got to do it.
I've spent a couple of days recently at the wonderful Celtic Manor hotel and resort in Wales. The event pictured is a mobile phone seminar where I was asked to bring along my ringmaster outfit and spend the day surrounded by leggy ladies. No sympathy, please.
Posted by Alan (5-OCT-11)
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Ted Davy
I
was very sad to hear that my old friend and fellow Town Crier, Ted Davy, had passed away the other day. Along
with other colleagues, I attended his funeral service in a packed Grimsby Crematorium to pay my respects. Members
of the Grimsby branch of the Royal Anglian and Royal Lincolnshire Regiment, in which Ted had served, formed a guard
of honour at the service.
Ted was a lovely guy who befriended me more than twenty years ago. He was a consummate professional, a member of the Britannic Guild of Toastmasters and the Loyal Order of Town Criers, a master chef, a circus guru and a first class Town Crier. He always had a smile on his face and he'll be sadly missed.
Posted by Alan (26-SEP-11)
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Arresting the Mayor of Luton
I was
called upon to help the boys in blue arrest the Mayor of Luton and other local dignitaries recently. They
were detained in a specially constructed mock gaol set up inside The Mall Luton as part of the shopping centre's
latest fundraising initiative to support Keech Hospice Care.
Friends and family were invited to visit them in their cell and offer emotional support while I read out a long list of their crimes. They were released after two hours but only after they'd raised sufficient money to secure their bail!
Posted by Alan (15-SEP-11)
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Gloucester Quays Food Festival
I
hope you made it down to the Gloucester Docks the other day when the Food Festival was on. It was a great
event, with top chefs, food and drink master classes and lots of great food stalls. Here's a photo of me with one
of the chefs taking part - Stacie Stewart, who reached the Masterchef semi-finals in 2010. She's since become a
regular guest chef on ITV's This Morning as well as making appearances on BBC's Children in Need and the Good Food
Channel's Market Kitchen.
Before that, I was travelling with the Royal British Legion to Minden in Germany to celebrate the organisation's 90th birthday. Another wonderful event with a great bunch of RBL members.
Posted by Alan (31-JUL-11)
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They Make Them Big Round Here!
It's been a busy few weeks with lots of new places to visit as well as all my regular gigs. Here are some photos of me with the pearly kings and queens in London, working at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich and meeting Jeffrey Archer in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.
There's also a photo from an event in Crewe where I entertained the crowds while we all waited for the arrival of HRH The Duchess of Gloucester. Her Royal Highness later commented to the Mayor of Crewe about my presence, saying 'They make 'em big round here, don't they?'
Posted by Alan (15-JUL-11)
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Wild Woods Day
I
may look as though I'm lost in this photo, but actually I'm taking part in the eighth annual Wild Woods Day
at the wonderful Hockley Woods. This is a great event which is organised by Rochford District Council and
sponsored by Virgin Active. It attracts more than 2,500 visitors each year and offers a range of activities in
the ancient woods - from hi-tech treasure hunting with Geocaching to admiring rare breed owls, all to the
backdrop of the uplifting acoustic sounds of the Lumberjack Jazz Band. This year, it was also part of the popular
National Family Week.
Posted by Alan (21-JUN-11)
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New Testimonials Booklet
I've
worked with some wonderful people over the years and many of them have been good enough to write and thank
me for my services.
I've now compiled some of their comments into a testimonials booklet which can be downloaded here (2.5mb, PDF) and also from my profile page. I'm really chuffed with how it looks and I hope you enjoy looking through it too.
Posted by Alan (7-JUN-11)
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Sent to The Tower
- but
not for bad behaviour, honest! I recently had the job of meeting and greeting representatives of the
Yorkshire Bank and acting as MC in the City of London's Tower Bridge.
The event took place in one of the Tower Bridge walkways, 240 feet above the River Thames with fantastic views of London, as far as Westminster and The London Eye to the west and the high-rise Canary Wharf and historic Greenwich to the east.
I was also at the Hotel Rafayel, Bermondsey, recently as this photo shows. I'd been commissioned by Burke's Peerage and was working alongside Elizabeth Richards, the famous Queen Elizabeth lookalike.
Posted by Alan (23-MAY-11)
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A Dad's Army Outing
One
of my favourite characters is Captain Mainwaring from Dad's Army.
Here's a photo of me taken earlier this month at Springfields Garden Centre.
Posted by Alan (13-MAY-11)
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I've Gone Social
Yes, that's right, earlier this week I set up pages on Facebook, Linkedin and Flickr and I've been amazed by the response so far. You can see the icons in the top right hand corner of this page so click on them if you'd like to view my latest photos or join my network.
Posted by Alan (13-APR-11)
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At the City of London's Marvellous Guildhall
London's Guildhall is a fantastic historical building and has been an important landmark since the twelfth century when the Lord Mayor of London held court there. I was officiating there last week for an evening banquet and was privileged to be asked, prior to starting my duties as town crier, to sound a state trumpet kindly loaned to me by a member of the Blues and Royals regiment.
Posted by Alan (31-MAR-11)
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The Happy Herb Shop
Another
new store has opened at the Stables Market and I was on hand to help promote it during my regular weekend
stint in London as town crier. As you can see from the photo, I morphed into a Native American for the occasion,
complete with authentic feather headdress, to help drum up some interest in the new outlet!
I've been the official town crier of the world-famous Stables Market for more than 18 years now and the place is continuing to thrive. It's the second largest tourist attraction in London attracting 35 million visitors each year so weekends there are always a wonderfully busy time for me.
Posted by Alan (16-MAR-11)
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The Stage Newspaper Annual Party
Had a great time at the annual party of The Stage the other day... Once again, I was the official Master of Ceremonies, taking care of all the meeting and greeting and introducing my old mate, Brian Attwood, the newspaper's editor. It was great to see so many friends from over the years plus meet lots of the industry's newcomers.
After the champagne and canapés, we retired around the corner to The Globe public house as our previously favourite haunt, The Opera Singer, has now evolved into a tex mex restaurant, would you believe!
Here are some photos from the event - Arthur Smith from Grumpy Old Men, Prunella Scales and Timothy West, plus Paul Daniels and his wife Debbie McGee.
Posted by Alan (31-JAN-11)
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Happy New Year!
Just a quick message to wish you all the best for 2011. It was great to take some time off at the beginning of January to spend with the family, especially after such a hectic period of bookings before Christmas. I lost count of the number of compliments I had from people about my Deluxe Father Christmas character and already I've been taking calls about switch-on events and promotions for next Christmas.
Posted by Alan (2-JAN-11)
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You can read entries from 2010 here.
