Month: June 2011

JASMINE’S CELEBRITY NAIL TECHNICIAN-AMA!

In order to stay fly all day everyday often it’s about mixing business with pleasure. This week I had jam-packed day times, even busier evening social whirls and chock-a-block weekend commitments. But youmust always keep your ‘’image and style’’ at its top level as I was told over and again by one of my first bosses- an over the top fabulous African American media genius called Kim luck who was a diva to be reckoned with in my earlydays at MTV. When I used to present MTV NEWS Kim would waltz in every morning with her real minx coat flung over her shoulder and demand to see all us presenter’s nails and faces to ensure that make up, hair and nails were ship shape. She also held an end of week Friday 5pm session where we were taught to wine taste, discuss politics and other such worldly things that she deemed imperative to our future career progression. Her rules were instilled in us early on so this week whilst working late I had Celebrity manicurist Ama Quashie (who has done nails for Alexandra Burke, Alesha Dixon & Amber Rose to name a few) drive 10 miles across London to work her magic on my nails at my desk for my very first Gelish manicure. A new hybrid gel line that stays chip free for 21 days without damaging the natural nail at all! Perfect for ladies who like preened natural nails but haven’t got the time to visit a nail bar every week. I will be testing that out this week as I shoot footage, edit, wash up endlessly, tweet, text and bbm to see just how resistant it really is!
My team did look amused but not totally gob smacked. Hey- a diva’s gotta do what a diva’s gotta do to multi task handfuls of commitments in today’s day and age! 20 minutes later my gellish nails were set, my nails were clean and twinkling and I was able to continue typing away with no ‘’post nail smudge trauma’’. I’m a pink lady so opted for a baby pink colour called ‘Go Girl’ very apt I thought! Ill be testing out one of the other pink colours next time Ama comes over & she’s promised to teach me how to make Jolof rice too!

JASMINE WITH JON SNOW

Next I took my LONDON 360 news reporting team to meet channel news legend Jon Snow. Jon had invited us up to his ITN building where he sat and regaled us with his witty, sharp and very warm personality. He told the team about his progression throughout the years and at midday took us all into the Channel 4 news gallery where a live bulletin was broadcast in front of the team who found it all very exciting. The director, audio man, vision switcher and gallery PA impressed the hell out of the team who told me later that their hearts started beating fast as the presenter Brigitte got her countdown. Bless them. Jon had me fascinated as he revealed how he got into the media…’’ I joined LBC on the day they started, and the great thing was all these commercial radio stations were new, there was no commercial radio until the last quarter of the last century, its pretty amazing, most people thought it wouldn’t work and so getting a job there wasn’t difficult, and in fact LBC went bust about 6 months after I got there, and they got rid of all the people that were expensive, and they kept the very very cheap people and I was very cheap, so that’s how I started’’.  Jon’s story demonstrates that if you offer to work cheaply in your early career that the rewards and experience more than pay off. He added that it was his competitive nature that gave him his next big break ‘’
After about 3 years I got a break, the IRA were in London and I was on a bike and I had a Motorola, it was pre-mobile phone, but I had a Motorola walkie talkie and as long as you were within 2 miles of the ITV Southbank television tower which had a transponder on the top of it- you could broadcast, but you had to have reasonable line of sight- that was difficult but anyway sometimes I would broadcast live from my bike as I was cycling towards the bomb, nobody even knew where it was- you would only see the smoke, hear the bang and then you’d cycle like billy-o to get to it, and by the time I got there the traffic would bebacked up  and I could see my colleagues from the Daily Express, the BBC , The Telegraph in the backs of taxis sitting in queues and I was racing past and then you’d get to the seat of the bomb and you’d find the police had put tapes around, but if you’d shot through the tape fast enough- they were so busy keeping the bystanders awaythat you could get through and by the time you got there they said well you may as well stay- so I often used to be the only person there and then ITN called me up one day and said we’ve got a job for you if you want to come  which doesn’t happen very often- so I’ve been here ever since. Which is a very very long time’’

When talking about what makes a great journalist he explained ‘’ I myself believe that the best journalistsare the journalists who at least have learnt how to enquire, how to research, and who are fired up by the unknown and fired up by wickedness, because actually what frustrates the development of our society is corruption, mis-management, bad politics…’’. On this pint I wanted to kiss Jon Snow’s feet. What an inspiration and straight talker. Talking about how media has changed from a one way traffic information system to a 2 way interactive vehicle hestated ‘’This is the golden age of journalism, this is the moment when you have the greatest opportunity to break stories, when I started- when you were speaking to camera there was no mechanism for anybody to challenge you, there was no way anybody could get in touch with you, they could write a letter in green ink, underline in red, saying how awful you were or whatever but only 3 people would bother to do that. Now- you don’t move every day without email traffic, twitter, facebook, I mean the traffic the two-way relationship is on the go in a big big way, and the opportunities for people to break in unconventionally are much greater than they’ve ever been, we’ve just transmitted an entire documentary this last week which is all shot on mobile phones, this was on Sri Lanka which for the first time its been possible to document war crimes as they happened on camera, footage that was either shot by Tamils who were being herded into a supposed no-fire zone to be killed, hundreds of thousands of them were herded into a smaller and smaller piece of land and 50,000 of them were massacred and we have all this on film, so were living in an extraordinary vortex of opportunity’’.

JASMINE AND  ESTELLE

Then I was happy to catch up with my West London home girl ESTELLE who was in town to talk about her new album ‘’All of me’’ and her new single ‘’Break my heart’’ featuring mister Rick Ross-whom she performed onstage with at his London date. Estelle has always been a champion of right over wrong so we asked her about issues that have us debating this week on LONDON 360 NEWS. I mentioned that a young, London child called Kye was in final stages of searching for a matching blood donor and that the ethnic community were difficult to engage. Estelle agreed ‘’I think the cultural barriers in ethnic minorities when it comes to bone marrow donation is based on slight ignorance I think people don’t quite get that it’s not about a big old needle going in your arm…. Its about as simple as a swab it’s like you know a little prick it’s not gonna hurt you that much and it can save somebody’s life and do a good thing and you’re not gonna die. That’s the main misunderstanding people have and the sooner and the quicker that people get over that and realize exactly what it is maybe you could help save somebody’s life. There’s nothing more amazing than that!’’.
When I told her my frustrations about young London menkilling each other over minor issues she was frustrated ‘’Every time I’m home the main thing I keep hearing is “oh somebody got stabbed, somebody got kidnapped, you know. I can’t go to that area. I don’t do music over there because of this.” When I keep hearing that kind of stuff it frustrates the hell out of me. Because I know how I came up doing music. You could just be a regular kid and just go round. I hate the fact that my cousins and my little brothers are like ‘we don’t go there’. I don’t understand, I don’t know if I could ever be the person I am today if didn’t have friends in south London, north London, west, just everywhere. You know I couldn’t hang out with them and roll with them or whatever, , that frustrates me, we need to end that right now, we just need to end it, its ridiculous’’.

Finally we laughed at the repeated outrage over young children being sexualised by music artists and videos and discussed the main culprits. Estelle added ‘’I think music and sex now apparently goes hand in hand.  You have o give people a lot out of yourself…I don’t know why, but it is what it is and I feel like sometimes you just gotta stop fighting it, you’re not gonna see me with knickers on at some point or anytime soon. At the same time as it is the artist’s expression I just feel like it doesn’t need to be like that all the time. You can give it a balance, sometimes you can have clothes on, and it’s all right. Sometimes you don’t have to be on the beach naked posing and then be like ‘oh they caught me’ You know, I choose not to do that kind of thing, but at the same time if they caught me on the beach I’d try and look my best though! It goes hand in hand, it is what it is.
And then obviously if your core audience is 5year olds you might want to lean off sex, you don’t want your five year old walking around being like ‘mummy what are those things on her chest., omg their actually nipple tassels. I just feel like know your audience know whom you’re selling too’’.  Later that night Estelle swung it home at the forum by dazzling rick ross fans with her onstage presence and repped well for teamuk. With champions like jon snow and Estelle still courageously fighting for the right cause we can aspire to be greater ourselves! All hope is not lost!.

JASMINE WITH TIM CAMPBELL

What a week of fabulosity in London town! Firstly Alicia keys and her hubby Swiss Beats flew in. Swiss threw an intimate dinner for a few movers and shakers and Alicia hosted her KEEP A CHILD ALIVE BALL at the round house in Camden where many wealthy folk attended as did a few music acts like Tinie Tempah who dueted onstage with the great lady herself on ‘’Written in the stars’’ (during which Tinie just kept looking at her singing his song with amazement on his face that this was actually happening. Alicia turned up clutched her mans hand tightly-they looked so loved up- she was wearing a long boob tube sheath dress with a pile of black feather plumage on the bottom and looked stunning! (the DOLCE & GABANNA celeb team Chandni and Ruth had done well!).
Chipmunk looked really relaxed and laughed all night wearing his leather jacket. His mate Wetch32 looked sweet in a suit and tie, comic and DJ Eddie Kadi looked sharp in his tux, Beth Ditto in platform wedges and a black knee length dress and Mark Ronson in his black tux (and white conversed foot!) were mostly formal in frock and suited and booted too. Ms Dynamite wore a tight corseted black knee length frock which showed off her lithe figure beautifully.
George Michael was the big draw of the night and was supposed to sing his hit ‘’Freedom’’ with Alicia. Alas he didn’t turn up due to what he described on twitter as a swollen hairy face due to toothache. Ironically the first liner of ‘’Freedom’’ is; ’’I wont let you down’’ oh how we laughed. Alicia trooped onwards though and it was all good. Anyone who’s been in the music business for years knows that George is notoriously shy and nervous doing live gigs so it wasn’t a great shock to many of us.
Another George did turn up–Boy George who gave a rendition of his hit ‘’do you really wanna hurt me’’ which was kitsch to say the least.
Alicia sung ‘’new York state of mind’’. Then an annoying woman who was probably drunk in crowd said she had something to say to Alicia who brought her up onstage (probably thinking she was going to donate millions), the woman kept telling Alicia that she needs to do a song for London and be a spokesperson for London before it became clear that her cheque book wasn’t involved in this conversation at all and it was onto the next thing.
Ultimately a great night for a great cause where somewhere along the line many children will benefit-good job Ms Keys!

Other faces making a change in society include THE APPRENTICE winner Tim Campbell who popped into MEDIA TRUST towers to meet and greet our LONDON 360 news reporters this week. They grilled him on his time at The Apprentice, working with Lord Alan Sugar, his Bright Ideas Trust, and his thoughts on literally anything. They grilled him good and proper for our LONDONER OF THE WEEK slot ,bless him poor guy.

JASMINE and J LO

Capital Radio had their annual Capital Summertime Ball at Wembley Stadium. Yes –not the Arena-the Stadium and it was packed out full of 80,000 people!
I have to confess the turnout and level of the event was on another level. I’ve been to many radio road shows and one off events in the UK but this one was extremely well done from the turn out, to the screaming passionate listeners and fans, to the posters waving, the cheering and singing from the crowd, the friendly helpful staff at the stadium-it was pretty impressive!
I missed opening act JLS but was told they were gobbling up all the free sweeties backstage. They actually leapt into a helicopter straight their set to fly to Swansea for another show later that day! They did reveal backstage that they’ve finished their 3rd album though! In the ladies toilets I overheard a convo between a group of kids saying they thought J Lo was really pretty but they wanted a ‘’real a list superstar singer like Mariah’’ on the bill to blog about LOL. I had to agree-Ms Lopez lyp synced her whole set bless her pretty self. ‘’I’m into you, I’m into you’’
Wretch32 bumped into us in the lift. He looked like he’d had lots of fun onstage with his boy Example. The crowd jumped lots to their performance of Unorthodox. Cee-Lo rolled onstage wearing a huge, tick cream puffa jacket and sang ‘’Its Ok’’ to a very happily swaying crowd in the rain.
Jessie j was very regal sat on her throne as she had broken her ankle/foot so sang‘’Price Tag’’ seated but her fans were with her all the way and she didn’t lose anything by not being able to strut her usual sassy stuff.
J lo and Pussycat Doll Nicole Sherzinger tried to outdo each other with the number of costume changes they each had and the colour scheme for both was a flattering silver and black.
Pussycat doll and Lewis Hamilton’s beau Nicole was inundated with interviews and people were commenting how extremely thin she was but I reckon her extremely long straight black hair extensions may have elongated her body more. Capitals backstage described her as the most beautiful female on the line up. I practically felt the PR teams and managers of other females in attendance withering in irritation LOL. Nicole thanks her genes and ancestors for keeping her looking good. She did a bit of yoga and did some vocal exercises before getting onstage. Her beauty tip was a lot of moisturiser all the time.
Britain’s got talent dance group Flawless were backstage post set all in black leather jackets and red trousers and really milking the attention from the artist stand both from wag types in the stand and loads of little young kids who were begging for pictures and autographs- you had to smile.
Ne Yos set was as big if not bigger than you’d expect. Smoke bombs, fireworks and exploding crackers going off during his big songs like Beautiful Monster. The lighting was on another level, with style, colours, slickness-his set had it all. Even when the rain had saturated the stage a very casual unfazed Ne Yo moon walked across it spraying up splashes that looked on the giant screens like a scene from a very well shot video.
The VIP hospitality suite was crazy. Whoever hooked up the Capital suite deserves a promotion, pay rise and a Spa day at the Mondrian!. The number of external vendors giving away free Hot dogs, specifically made pizzas, pop corn, pick& mix sweets, candyfloss, loads of Starbucks, cakes, pastries and so much more just went on and on. It was like being in Charlie and the chocolate factory. My mate and I loaded ourselves up with as much free stuff we could eat, carry, take home and went to check out our boy Ne Yo the headliner.
I noted a set of funny tweets between other radio stations when they said ‘’call the lawyers-Capital are claiming they broke Wretch32 and Katy B’’. Which actually did make me laugh as I recall when Capital hardly played any urban influenced Brit acts at all.
The Green room was constantly a buzz with photographers and talent conducting interviews and grabbing quick beverages as they ran from one stage set up to another backstage interview.
The capital A LISTY GOODIE BAG contained ….are you ready for this list of product placement heaven?…- The Big Yum Chocolate covered pretzels – Starbucks Frappuccino® Gift card – Krispy Kremes, Box of 12 donuts – BaByliss Wave Envy Hair curlers to create beachy waves – BaByliss i-stubble Beard trimmer – tocontrol stubble – CKone fragrance collection Fragrances and toiletries- Champneys Voucher for a weekend spa break – Caudalie Pulpe Vitaminée Smoothing Serum  – 1st wrinkle face serum Stri-Vectin-SD Eye Concentrate- Wingman Deodorising wipes for men – Kings of London (Shower gel and hair gel for men) – Onitsuka Tiger Trainers (Trainers for men and women) – Guess watches    Watches for men and women- St Moriz Tanning Tanning lotion and bronzer- Esme Jewellery Necklace that has perfume inside – Zara Taylor Jewellery    Jewel ring and necklaces with clocks in – Calvin Klein Underwear for men and women – LEGO® minifigures minifigures including pirates, Robin Hood, clowns and cheerleaders – Butterfly Twists – Folding pumps for women – Trevor Sorbie Dry Shampoo- Queen of…Razors and shaving gel – King of Shaves Razors and shaving gel. IM BREATHLESS JUST READING THAT!

SINGER BLUEY ROBINSON, SBTV’S JAMAL EDWARDS, JASMINE and ED SHEERAN.

I was unlucky enough to be invited to the 1000th red carpet celeb filled show of the west end musical Thriller (where Blue and Shaheen performed in cameo roles) whilst I was away in Tobago! But every cloud has a silver lining and I was lucky enough to be offered tickets for when I returned instead. Saturday night saw us arrive at a full house at Piccadilly’s Lyric Theatre where a diverse set of public attended a night to remember. The show took us on a journey through Michael Jackson’s musical career starting chronologically with his Jackson Five family hits. The songs were sung averagely to begin with and had us entertained but dubious but it wasn’t until the 2nd half of the show when the set, lighting and cast really came to life and had the audience excited and dancing in the seats and aisles. A few different actors played the role of the young Michael Jackson and then the older Jacko. The younger actors could’ve in all honesty been better. They looked sweet but vocally not the strongest and after watching Britain’s got talent and being spoilt by artists like little Welsh Shaheen they seemed pretty average as they ran through the Motown nostalgia-fest which included I Want You Back, The Love You Save, ABC and more.
One of the actors that played the character of an older Michael and took the part of main narrator in the show was Haydon Eshun who used to be the main singer in eighties boy band Ultimate KAOS (at the age of 9 years old) who a then unknown Simon Cowell put together. Ultimate Kaos back then started as Sinittas-backing dancers, as Sinitta at the time, was dating Cowell. Hayden did a really good job and (unlike another of the actors, who in a very high squeaky voice which was often off pitch sang Smooth Criminal, Billie Jean and Thriller,) was very accomplished. Hayden was as strong singing as he was narrating and held the show together really well. However it was the lead female actress and singer Trenyce Cobbins that really showed she could stand up alongside the men and even out shadow them at times with her very strong vocal ability and her physical performance that had me mesmerized as every inch of her body was on point performing all the way from the ends of her fingers to her high heeled strapped up toes and so strong were her postured poses whilst singing and at rest she was gripping and alleyes were on her every time she was onstage.
When it came to dancing though, Ricko Baird was my favourite Michael as he really encompassed the physicality and lithe, lean, very fragile quality Michael had.
Throughout the show at intervals the narrator would remind us of Jackson’s huge incomparable accomplishments and record-breaking sales figures flash on a video screen. Just as the cast took their bow before the encore my guest got quite het up and outraged that we hadn’t seen Billie Jean, Bad or Thriller yet and as sure as night follows day the encore was indeed those 3 tracks and had him dancing and jumping happily satisfied with the encore.  Throughout the show the music reminds you of how great Michael’s catalogue really is and the audience were literally all bopping their heads and swaying at all times in their seats and by the end the audience were and down in their seats dancing and singing and even jumping on the posh red carpet trampling their eaten Haggan Daaz ice cream cartons as they leapt up and down as if they were at Glastonbury- a great nights show if you want to experience good music and entertainment in the west end and at incredibly inclusive prices for the whole family too. In fact THE VOICE should have a VOICE READERS evening there! (I know the vibe would be that much more special with us all up in the lyric theatre!).

Its been a good minute since the good old days of record labels extravagance throwing opulent parties in decadent venues where guests dip into silver platters of mini food stuffs, binge hard on champagne Bellini’s all night and are entertained by a superstar before falling intoxicated into a paid for by their company Addison lee taxi home. So when a snazzy invite popped into myinbox (unlike the stiff black and gold posted envelopes from yesteryear that just seemed that much more exciting to open), I made it a hard pen date in my diary.
The invite was for the relaunch of the website for SBTV- a London based youth and music site that in recent months has gained an underground cult like following. . SBTV describes itself as an online youth broadcaster on YouTube and is at the forefront of new talent around the UK. That’s pretty much it and a lot more. SBTV are a multi-faceted company with a team of talented, highly skilled, passionate young adults who can be found working on web based viral content at a range of different events. From street shot freestyles and music video production, to the red carpet glamour of film premières, SBTV are currently definitely a site to be reckoned with. So many UK based online sites quote themselves as being the UK’s leading urban broadcaster’’ but SBTV are that are a lot more as they have diversified into all genres and not limiting themselves with stereotypes at all. From their intelligent, articulate Caucasian female presenter Georgia to the CEO of the company being a young, black 20-year-old male called Jamal Edwards (I told you all about him last year), they have really switched up the status quo!
As if this in itself wasn’t on another level in itself, Jamal and his team also managed to do the impossible! Get the country’s biggest most popular chicken food restaurant-Nandos- to become a brand partner and hold the event at one of their flagship restaurant on the South Bank which was packed full when we arrived just after the start time of 7pm- clearly free chicken being served all night endlessly on platters and never running out coupled with good times equals a popular party! I managed to scoff a whole mini box of their delicious garlic olives on entry meaning all those that conversed with me during the rest of the night had to eat some too or risk being fumigated by my breath!
The good times were in the form of stage performances every 30 mins when a music act took to the stage for a really short set. I managed to catch Maxsta, GFrsh, Loickk Essien, Island records new signing Angel, and U.S songstress Keri Hilson all do a short set each but it was Suffolk born, ginger head Ed Sheeran whoblew the crowd away with his easy manner, great live dynamic and hit songs.What a charmer he was! The entire crowd screamed for him non-stop-I’m convinced he’s bring sexy back for the red heads in society! Watch this space-next year he will have lost the shaggy hair and surfer garms and be on the front of GQ with a six-pack. Afterwards I spoke to Ed outside as we got some air-he had worked so hard onstage his dry head was totally soaked with sweat once he’s finished. He was extremely eloquent and charming which I know will take him far. Jamal himself finally took to the stage and read his thank you speech from a piece of paper bless him. He was very sweet in his humble thanks to his team and even revealed that SBTV have a new show on Channel 4- you know you are big when you have a show about making a show!. Whilst there was too much to love about this party- free chicken! Free beer! (Bet Ludacris wished he’d have thought of this for his album launch for his ‘’chicken and beer’’ disc!), the ONE thing I LOVED about the night was there was no VIP AREA! I have always stated that VIP areas equal bad vibe parties- Puffy taught me that- it was proven as the vibe and good energy around the room with all being equals was mature, fun and sexy!
Guests that just turned up and mingled included JLS’ Oritse, actor Dexter Fletcher, actor Will Poulter, Flawless dancers, Devon Anderson, Lucian Laviscount,  new ROC signing Rita Ora, Louisa Lytton, Adam Deacon, Preeya Kalidas, Labrinth, Ms Dynamite, Cher Lloyd, Twist and Pulse, Cleo Sol, Davinche, Bluey Robinson, music A&R TwinB, DJ Ras Kwame, DJ Shortee Blitz , Wileys manager John Woolf, girl group Rough Diamonds and their manager Carla, Shola Ama, DJ Sarah Jane, Eastenders actor that played Billy and a number of movers, shakers and taste makers from the capital.
The night was a true success in so many ways- salute to the SBTV team and Jamal Edwards-you are putting the rest of the dawdling old skool media to shame!

JASMINE with young UK designer ROMERO BRYAN and his entourage of models wearing ROMERO BRYAN.

Occasionally my work hard, play hard mantra comes through with shining results. A fortnight ago my Caribbean contact Douglas Gordon (a man that champions the islands like a trooper and taken my former MTV team out to film there on numerous occasions) reached out and asked if I’d be interested in flying out to Tobago to experience Tobago fashion week. This was not-contrary to belief- a trick question. A few days off to go visit a Caribbean country with sun, sea, sand, fashion and culture and call it work?. A no brainer. So there we were ready to jump on 3 planes after being informed we were booked American airlines to fly into Miami, to Trinidad, to Tobago. Immediately I begged they change our travel to a direct flight to Tobago with any carrier. My experience at Miami Airport has always been a negative experience with their ‘’random checks’’ always leaving you frustrated and flat before your trip has really started.

Luckily they changed our flight to a direct one via Monarch. Monarch premium class. Clearly it was not the same experience you get on virgin or BA but it has to be said- aside from the rubbery tasteless food, the flight was pleasurable. I noted that being hugely obese and booked into economy often means the passenger and all their mates get upgraded to premium/first as they don’t fit into the economy seat?!. And the government say being over weight isn’t in your favour KMT!

Anyhoo- I digress. We landed at the ANA Robinson Airport in Tobago -the usual small, quick customs experience. They looked at me suspiciously after noting I was bring in 2 huge bags full of Bassets wine gums. When I’d asked Douglas if I could bring him anything he’d requested wine gums. So in order to thank him I took him as many wine gums as we could afford and carry- that was £80 worth!. I explained to Mr customs man they were gifts for my granddad Dougie LOL.

We were whisked from the airport to our first residence, which was the beautifully chic Half Moon Blue hotel. A small, boutique hotel in a quiet, hilly countryside location with a private beach and stunning suites. The rooms were crisp, clean and beautifully orchestrated with stunning 4 poster beds and i-pod docks. I woke up on my first morning in Tobago feeling like a princess in tropical paradise. The hotel was stunning with marble glass floors and an infinity pool that leads to the ocean and private beach. With an excellent chef my only criticism is that the hotel had loads of American food like your steak, chips on the menu instead of the island fare that we had anticipated with eagerness. And they played the awful euro dance music that has currently saturated the globe when we had wanted island music like soca and reggae.

2 days later we joined the rest of the media at another hotel -Le Grand Courlan- where we spent the rest of the week. This hotel was in a busier part of the city and much bigger with a massive stunning huge sandy quiet palmed beach at its rear. It was a very nice looking hotel but often its staffs attitude made Roti Huts staff on Uxbridge Road look polite. One morning the waitress actually kissed her teeth when my mate asked for an extra order of something at breakfast. Also- whilst the hotels gym was nicer and more equipped than your average hotel gym, the spa was questionable. Our American media colleague booked in for a body massage and was appalled by the lack of experience of the beauticians. The hotel had mass potential-it just needs a strong guiding hand and it would be amazing.

Whilst out there we went on a tour of local town Scarborough, an imposing looking Fort George, long, relaxing lunches at quaint restaurants like Jemma’s tree house in Speyside-an actual restaurant in a tree! ,Kariwak Village restaurant -a fabulous straw hut roofed room, and Renmar’s in Pigeon Point eating local fair like mahi mahi, shark, crab and dumpling soup, roti’s so huge they fed two, sea moss cocktails and plenty of other mouth watering food.
One afternoon we were taken to go snorkelling in blue lagoons where we spotted multi coloured fish and coral underwater gardens and reefs. We also went to stand in the shallow nylon pool in the middle of the ocean where the water for around one square mile is waist height and warm. They say when you bath there you emerge looking 5 years younger. I attempted to visit daily so I could look 10 years old again after a couple of days!. The one thing that always happens to me abroad is the ocean likes to leave me with life long gifts. Once in Mexico whilst swimming with dolphins, a dolphin attacked me leaving me with a nice row of mini teeth marks along my arm. Another time in Anguilla whilst having ocean races with Mariah I jumped onto what I thought was a rock and left with rash all over my bottom as the rock was live coral that stung me. (mc did try and warn me but my stubborn know-it-all ass knew better!). Then in Miami on a girly holiday I kept making ‘’jaws like’’ soundtrack theme noises in the water and then got badly stung by a jellyfish. My girls ignored me as I’d cried wolf once too many times and assumed I was messing. Well this time I was snorkelling in the warm Tobagonian waters and whilst having an underwater race with my mate felt my fast moving legs scrape sharply against something underwater. I emerged from the water to find a great long bloody gash on my right thigh. My mate swum down to explore what had caused it. A big black anchor!. I’d swum across a flipping anchor!  So here I was not able to recall when I’d had my last tetanus injection and wondering whether my leg would go limp and fall off. On enquiring how I could get a tetanus on the island I was constantly greeted with lethargic excuses about it being a weekend and national bank holiday and so on. Good thing I wasn’t actually dying eh!?

Anyhoo-the day continued with captain Chris guiding us through the ocean with his informative talks. Midway through the conversation I asked a question about coral and got cussed out as apparently he had already told us this info earlier and ‘’hadn’t I been listening!’’’. Oops!. Inside I sniggered as captain Chris informed us that we were sailing on the Britannia boat. The boat outside was in fact called the ‘’Bretana’’.
JASMINE BEING INTERVIEWED BY OCEAN STYLE TV PRESENTER SAMANTHA

Then it was time for the reason we were actually there- TOBAGO FASHION WEEKEND!!  The first time we arrived at Pigeon Point to see the venue it made you catch your breath it was so beautiful. They had erected a full stage, rows and rows of white-caned chairs, a huge sound system and hundreds of huge mutli coloured flags at the edge of the sandy ocean where the fashion collections would be seen.  The first night was the opening ceremony where the red carpet was rolled out, the music was booming along the coastline, Tobago’s finest mingled with international designers and media and everywhere was buzzing. Before every event began the Trinidad and Tobago National anthem was always played and all present were required to stand in respect to the music, which would be played by a pan steel band, sung by a local singer or played once by a very accomplished saxophonist. Like a typical western event the event had branding sponsored by the Bombay Sapphire gin beverage and others. Impressive cars, hummers and motorbikes were dotted around the beach on which partygoers jumped on, in and took pics with them. They also gave us a taste of what was to come by giving bus a mini fashion show with clothing by local designers. It was amazing to think that a fashion event on this scale was possible with such a stunning backdrop of location whilst seeing the waves roaring up behind us. Truly breath taking on another level.

DESIGNERS ROBERT YOUNG, MEILING, JASMINE and NIGEL EASTMAN (OF ZADD & EASTMAN)

The following night was day 1 of the collections featuring designers like Garnett D`Andrade, Gerard Perry, Christian Boucaud, Frances Hendy and Ivaek Archer.And what a strong start it was. After the obligatory national anthem a solo male contemporary dancer in white flares kicked off the show with a mesmerising dance routine along the catwalk after which 15 designers showed their collections. Extremely tall, svelte, glamazonian models of every hue and colour from gorgeous dark black, to coolie brown, to fair skinned models with extremely professional standards strutted their stuff. Much of the clothing was island inspired with lush, tropical floaty fabrics that fly in the wind and sexy swimwear, which had the crowd whooping in appreciation. I particularly liked the Black and cream themed pieces with frills, ruches, and sexy rain macs.

 

A running theme through out the fashion week event was models carrying puppies and small dogs along the catwalk to highlight an animal charity for homeless pets. It was a nice visually lingering image and concept but I wonder if it actually made a change to any canine’s lives?
There were also a few collections just for children modelled by stunning professional very young kids which had the crowd all applauding with pride and encouragement.

Amateur mistakes like models walking with the labels still on their shoe bottoms was distracting. Also some models were struggling with shoes 4 sizes too big for them but still managed the walk with grace, which was impressive. One designer had my attention with their Stripy baby doll dresses in black and white with French beret styles. Very chic. Another didn’t impress me with shiny satin and nylon suits. Also-there was a lot of very camp (some would say fitted and colourful) men’s wear. My favourite designer of day 1 was the Final designer Nigel Eastman – his line is called Zadd + Eastman. His was a beautiful capsule collection of black garments with rainbow jewel sherbet colours that would work well on a hot island or the streets of a hectic city like London. The night ended with a party on the beachside with scrumptious edible nibbles and rum cocktails and we left with a goodie bag containing great booty like lip-gloss, sun lotion and bronzer, fabulous magazines and my fave- real home made hot pepper sauce.

A NIGEL EASTMAN DESIGN.

Day two’s show was similarly memorable with more kids fashion which unlike your average British high street store, catered for more colourful, childish and appropriate children’s wear. Not sexy-just cute and correct! Once again the dogs and puppies bounded onstage to highlight their cause and the show continued with a variety of looks from a tie dye collection. (Hate tie-dye!), a lot of floaty flowing fabrics and garish colours, and some pretty average swimwear modelled by males with had females in the audience very excited! I really like a collection by Pink lemonade which was described as resort wear. A lot of white mini dresses and backless black shorts jumpsuit and pink and lilac looks that were very fly.

One collection that had the night buzzing was by designer Iveaek Archer with his collection of Chizl underwear for men. It was introduced as playful and sexy and that you had to open your mind to appreciate it so we knew we were in for a shocking look. His very sexy male models strutted onto the catwalk in a variety of looks that was very kinky men’s wear and included eye patches. Face masks, string vest boxer shorts, towels draped over shoulders like a batman cape. The reaction from the very outraged and disgusted macho red blooded males in the audience with their heads in their hands was as entertaining as the collection!. Some of the models were rocking extremely tiny gold lame lycra hot pants, others had “Wotless’’ embroidered on their pants ( P.S ‘’Wotless’’ is the name of a very popular carnival song this year sung by Kees Dieffenthaller) , one model rocked shorts with a koala bear face on his groin with the kolas nose pack pocketing the males genitals and another was the Essex version of under pants with a pair of giant furry dice hanging from the waist band. All fantastic fun!.

A MODEL WALKING IN A ROMERO BRYAN DESIGN.

The best part of the night though was when British, young designer Romero Bryan took to the stage to close the whole event with a range of uber sexy, bondage inspired very couture cut dresses. The audience sat up, the paparazzi snapped and flashed away furiously and his collection really showed that London was in the house. Even after the first 3 models walked in his collection it was clear that the standard had leapt and that he had shut it down and easily stolen the show.

After the show the paps went nuts photographing the whole of Romero’s collection alongside Romero on the sea front where his dresses with their structured tassels and boned pieces which were very reminiscent of bondage straps were the centre of attention. Post show we congratulated Romero on his moment and agreed that he had done us proud and the annual Tobago fashion week was a great time to visit the island for a vacation meets fashion fix and that we would attempt to attend next year without fail! This has really put Tobago front and centre when it’s usually its twin island Trinidad that takes centre stage.

Before we left Tobago we visited the stunning, Tobago Coca Estate- a tropical cocoa plantation where all number of tropical fruit trees like mango, cassava, guava and sugar cane were grown. No one had advised us to bring welli boots or a pair of socks so I had a diva moment when I had to put my bare foot into an oversized, crusty old boot to protect my feet. Gross!. A beautiful, sun kissed rakish, mature, strong woman in baseball cap and Wellington boots called Christina took us around the estate and showed us how the cocoa pods were grown, dried and sifted before sale. We were able to taste the cocoa pods-bitter and sweet-and enjoy some freshly baked cassava bread in the outdoor oven. If there’s one memory I will never forget its that I will never devour a bar of chocolate again without thinking of Christina and the work it takes to accumulate a few cocoa beans!
On our final day we went on a catamaran cruise on the ‘’Island Girl’’ boat where it rained torrentially all day relentlessly but the crew were so much fun they cheered us up by encouraging us to snorkel in the warm Caribbean bath water and cooked us a tasty lunch and kept the rum cocktails flowing. What could we do but get involved in the always positive island spirit. Tobago-you’ve made another friend for life!

JASMINE with TINIE TEMPAH and DUMIE

Breakfast meetings, post work meetings, meetings at shows, meetings about meetings, honestly the corporate world has gone mad.
With recession fear and a now-its-anyone’s-time talk brainwashing us 24-7 no one wants to relax and chill for a minute .As one hip hop legend said to another- Slow down son-you’re killin em!.
I’m observing a long standing trend for young, hungry talent that has no patience with a ”get rich or die trying” philosophy that is admirable but not if you’re not prepared to put in the hard work. Honestly, there’s no point in starting. I hear people describe themselves as music stars of the future that can’t sing, play an instrument or song write. Seriously miming’s not gonna cut it. I hear others describe themselves as being the CEO of TV Company. They then proceed to tell me they’ve never picked up a camera, can’t edit, and have no ideas for creative shows and no business acumen. Confused? I am. Don’t get it twisted, many entrepreneurs have made it without being the main act as such but a unique talent in some field is essential or like the 1 hit wonders we’ve seen come and go-you will go and never come back again!
The media is an easier place to get into working than it was years ago, but for a certain demographic-its still and always going to be tougher. At MEDIA TRUST we’ve recruited new, young reporters without much experience in the field and are given them the most hardcore boot camp training which actually see’s them delivering a real TV show to a real UK TV channel with our corporate partners (BBC, ITV, C4, C5, SKY, MTV) having an option to pick up their content too.This is exciting. But scary. Really scary. Cos if one of them slips’ then ashow is affected. They’re doing intense training on filming, research, scripting, producing, writing, editing and more. They are interviewing realpower players, stars, community folk and more- like any real reporter world. As if that’s not enough I have them writing columns for national newspapers and iconic websites as well as spots on national radio. I believe they have to leave me at the end of their time knowing they are a 360-degree media a champ that can be thrown into the deep end with any project. This way they have ticked the all-important stumbling block that states all graduates need experience. They are very employable and able to hone their skills on a deeper level now knowing which areas their strengths lie in. There are no limits any more as to a job role. Once you were a writer, producer, director etc. nowadays if you’re not everything you’re unemployed. This example relates to most industries now. (Brain surgeons and their peers should ignore the paragraph above).

One young Londoner that’s a pure fire example of talent, positivity, diversity, inclusion and graft is Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu otherwise known as Tinie Tempah. Tinie’s been slogging away for years with smaller music broadcasters and singles but eventually it certainly was Written in the stars for him that his talent was spotted by theright people who were able to spot a future star in the making and he playedball. Often record labels sign acts and the act expects it to be plain sailing from there on in. it isn’t. Labels can promote and distribute but cant give you a personality or a work ethic. Tinie persevered without making enemies, badmouthing his peers or playing up to the stereotypical urban artist model. His inspiring attitude, unique music, articulate manner, humbleattitude and hard work have paid off. His manager is his cousin Dumi who learnt everything he knows about the music industry from a book! Imagine that!. They set up their own record label DISTURBING LONDON- and then
Last fortnight tinie went platinum in the USA with his single ‘’Pass out’’. This is ground breaking for a UK rap act. Admittedly he went top 10 in the USA pop charts but the enormity of his achievement cannot be smothered. This will undoubtedly open up new doors for UK acts from the same genre. Tinies team has always thought out of the box. His new mix tape is being hosted by comedian and actor Russell Brand. That’s some next level-ish. Achievements like this in my industry make the rest of our jobs easier. Often people wonder where the power in success lies. It lies everywhere. Tinie makes it big on his own merit. We help push him further. He helps himself and us by playing the game and raising it. We all win.

JASMINE with KOJO.

A true winner in every sense of the word is Kojo the comedian. A few years ago he was a comedian doing the London circuit. After bringing him onto MTV BASE with his own series he has spread his wings in the worlds of TV, Film and now radio by presenting the breakfast show on ChoiceFM with former Radio1Xtra DJ Max. congrats to both on their unshakable tenacity. In this business you’ve got to have lots!
FINAL NOTE- Current Office Debate-is it a good or bad thing when corporations jump on the urban bandwagon & exploit it in a negative way for the culture? More on that soon!