Month: February 2012

JASMINE WITH YOLANDA BROWN.
Another hectic fortnight in the diary of a media maven like myself!
I began it attending with my team at the BFI, the National film school graduation screening of films where one of my former CDN mentee’s Abigail Dankwa was showing her graduation work- The House: Beats and Tweets, a TV Entertainment MA film-and an amazing piece of content it was-so proud! Onwards and upwards to the whole graduating class

Next I took my current LONDON360 young news reporting team to ITV to meet a great TV man who has championed diversity in the industry for years- Robin Elias!

The whole team also attended the Uprise event at Channel 4 where 10 young Londoners from various youth corporations and youth organisations grilled the upcoming London Mayoral candidates on a panel in the presence of 250 audience members. more on that next week!

JASMINE WITH NEW GIRL TO LOOK OUT FOR-RUBY GOE!
Midweek all roads led to west London grimy club venue YoYo’s to see new female musician Ruby Goe perform a short set. Thursday nights at YoYo are famous for hosting new up and coming artists on the UK music scene and Ruby was worth making the late midweek trip out in the cold for. I had already heard a lot of buzz about the surrey-based lass with Nigerian roots. Ruby has had reviews in many of the mainstream press columns including the guardian and been described as the ‘’M.I.A with hooks and songs’’ so I had to go check her out. She was scheduled to hit the stage at 9.20pm, and shockingly she was! (Love a punctual act!). In the house were a number of record label heads including the late Amy Winehouse manager Raye Cosbert. She performed a few tracks- with the most Duracell powered energy I have seen in a long time. Her outfit was simple and real and consisted of sneakers, lycra skirt and t shirt. She was a unusually powerful vocally considering her small frame and I was pleasantly surprised to find she didn’t sound like she was mimicking another female act. Usually when observing new acts you can usually align them to sounding like they’ve been influenced by others before them but Ruby genuinely had a wide range of unique sounding tracks. Some were ballads; others were high-energy festival anthems- a really impressive set! Later that week I caught her on BBC2’s Review Show where she sung a ballad and the show reported back a great response to her! Will she be the latest in a long line of African rooted Londoners making it big this year? I’d bet on it!

I was invited to see female saxophonist star Yolanda Brown perform at the Hammersmith Apollo with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. That was impressive! I’ve watched this young lady come up through the years, grinding at the craft, doing numerous small shows at legendary jazz venues like Ronnie Scott’s etc and win a MOBO award. She continues to generate a huge underground fan base of real cultured music lovers and as testament to this fact her 2 Hammersmith dates saw packed houses. Its not often I go to something this classy in the music genre so I took the biggest celeb in my life-my mum-and William MacLauchlan-who was my boss and VP when I was at MTV. We enjoyed a pre-show dinner up the road at LALA and then were ushered into our seats –I always request stalls-I like to be near the action. Sat alongside us on one side were ACLT hero’s Orin Lewis and Beverly De-Gale, Damilola Taylor’s father Richard Taylor OBE and MBE and superintendent of MET Police-Leroy Logan. On other side were actress Judith Jacobs and DJ Spoony that was the maddest heckler all throughout the show and had us all entertained! Also entertained in the audience were Ashley Walters, MP Dawn Butler, PR goddess Jessica Huie, ChoiceFM presenter Kojo, Jamaica’s High Commissioner for the UK, Anthony Johnson and many more.

Yolanda’s set was fabulous! Most of the audience were smartly groomed and watched in awe as Yolanda took us through track after track accompanied by her side kick-THAT SAX!
She performed both covers and unique material and was joined by an powerhouse vocalist that has sung alongside James Brown called Phebe Edwards
and the Nigerian saxophonist, Mike Aremu who just TORE up the stage!! The crowd were on their feet as the 2-sax mystro’s had what can only be described as a ‘’sax-off’’
In the interval I went backstage to congratulate her on the wonderful show so far and as I entered her dressing room. I curtseyed to her and bowed to her Sax.
At one point in the second half of the show Yolanda’s pianist Oscar proposed to his girl friend onstage- it was brilliantly set up and so exciting to witness and she said yes-aw! Love was certainly in the air that night! Yolanda has truly mastered how to make her art visually exciting and her onstage presence is mesmerising. The fact that she was joined throughout by the legendary Royal Philharmonic was fascinating to watch-the juxtaposition of the 2 were unique and a step forward for true musicians. Yolanda certainly leads the classical music team for #TEAMUK! Post show as I was taking a memorable photo of myself and mummy at the press board-Yolanda walked by and jumped into the pic too- but that photo stays private for fam! Mummy and I had a beautiful night- a lifelong memory-catch Yolanda where you can- a show for the whole family-you wont be disappointed!

JASMINE LOOKING AS IF SHE’S BEEN SHRUNK IN THE WASH , STANDING ALONGSIDE 2 JA SUPERMODELS- JAUNEL MCKENZIE AND NELL ROBINSON.
I ended the week at a final celebratory private dinner for the Caribbean Collections at London Fashion Week exhibition honouring fashion & musical icon Grace Jones that was hosted by Jamaican supermodels Jaunel McKenzie and Jeneil Williams (of iconic all-black Italian Vogue fame). I foolishly agreed to take a photo with them when PR goddess Jessica Huie suggested it– how crazy is the pic! I look like I was shrunk in the wash!

JASMINE WITH BBC RADIO LONDON DRIVETIME GURU AND DESIGNER JULIETTE DYKE
The dinner was the final element of a two-day exhibition of the ‘Caribbean Collections’ at London fashion Week. it was Chris Mcnair of CEDA (The Caribbean Export Development Agency) and Jampro (Jamaica Promotions Corporation ) who were responsible for making the Caribbean Collections exhibition at London Fashion Week happen so hats off to all their hard work and commitment!
A cocktail reception greeted us as we entered the very opulent, dramatic surroundings of the sumptuous Corinthia Hotel just off the Embankment. Imagining this was going to be a ballroom full of fashion folk and media I was pleasantly surprised to find a very intimate group of VIPs including music act Bruno Marrs had been invited to sit at dinner whilst various fashion collections were modeled as we ate amongst the diners.

MODEL WEARING JULAN
The creme of the island’s fashion design talent were sat amongst us including designers I first met last year at Tobago fashion week in Tobago. These included my favourites on the night; Gavin Douglas’ all black capsule collection, Mei Ling’s very European muted classic colours collection and designer Juliette Dyke of the ‘Julan’ collection of amazingly tropical coloured long gowns. I also bumped into the Caribbean version of me- girl about the islands, columnist and journo Novia McDonald-Whyte in her very striking white framed Gucci specs!
I was most excited that one of my favourite radio presenters-Eddie Nestor was sat next to me too. Eddie is a brilliant courageous broadcaster that really questions the status quo and the BBC are really lucky to have such a sharp well rounded knowledgeable man on their team- I am sure though by the end of the meal he was delighted to get away from me rabbiting on and on and on.
They had all traveled to the UK to exhibit and illustrate the talent, which the islands have to contribute to the wider fashion industry.
The whole evening was hosted in magnificently regal form by fashion mogul, Chairman of the Caribbean Fashion Industry Association, Kingsley Cooper and I have no doubt that this is the first of many a Caribbean designers foray into the European market!

JASMINE WITH TRIDENT CHAIR WOMAN CLAUDIA WEBBE and MOBO CEO KANYA KING.

I started the week guiding my LONDON360 news reporters with their latest stories which last week included Chinese new year celebrations in London’s west end-I’ve lived here all my life and never experienced it so seeing it captured on TV was amazing!, global singing superstar Amy Winehouse’s Foundation and their work with the New Horizons Youth Centre- her dad Mitch handed over a cheque for £35,000 which shows her lasting legacy for our city continues, Love Etiquette on the Tube-what with Valentines Day being in focus and so many tube travellers spotting their love crushes we explored the right way to make tube romances happen, What it takes to be a Busker-they actually have busking auditions at TFL!, our Londoner of the week was actor, director and inspiration to many youth-Ladbroke groves Noel Clarke, and our regular weekly Olympic London strand revealed why there are going to be millions of condoms handed out during the event-some of the young athletes thoughts on the matter was fascinating!. To see just what I’m talking about catch the latest show at communitychannel.org/london360 and watch the show!

I spent a very cultured night at Hammersmith Apollo watching the uber talent musician Yolanda Brown performing alongside the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, I watched 2 talented young music ladies perform at YoYo- number 1 chart star Rita Ora and London lass Ruby Goe, attended a mates housewarming party and juggled being a carer for 2 men in my life!. More on all that next week.

JASMINE AND TEAMUK’S LATEST FEAMLE SUPERSTAR-RITA ORA!

Friday night saw me celebrating MOBO founder Kanya Kings birthday with a bit of dinner and spot of bowling with a small group of her closest friends who were fiercely competitive on the bowling alley. Trident chair woman Claudia Webbe showed she puts as much effort keeping her eye on the ball and striking down those pins as she does at work and won the session whilst lovely TV news presenter Ronke Philips was happy to just bowl her best alongside Kanya and the rest. Kanya’s actual birthday was on the Sunday-that Whitney passed-so Kanya and I spent most of the day speaking to broadcasters like BBC and LBC radio about her legacy.

I made it my mission to watch the R&B SUPERSTARS show at Hammersmith Apollo with featured a classic 90’s line up of male group Silk, male group Dru Hill, solo heart throb Genuwine ,and female trio SWV! I was looking forwards to going anyway but after hearing that morning that the legendary Whitney had passed away I felt I needed to be around like minded music lovers to commemorate the day and remember her positively. As expected throughout the show the dj’s played Whitney and the sell out very passionate audience sang her lyrics at the top of their voices. It’s the old adage played out true that even if the person was at times a car crash in life, we still cherished them as one of our own. Whitney was a musical inspiration to generations of would be singers and young women of colour. When she began her career it must’ve been even more of a minefield to be a woman of colour making black soul music than it is now. Can you imagine the politics and bullshit she has had to deal with in her career? No wonder the pressures lead to a negative side in her personal life. I felt ashamed that so many times my industry had used Whitney’s personal dark times as entertainment. When our celebs are reaching out for help we respond by relishing in their downfalls. So sad. I wanted to sing loud at the concert to honour her memory.
I missed Silk as I came in they were onstage-but I could hear their voices booming through the foyer and they still sounded great. the show was clearly organized well as all acts were on time, came on immediately after one another with no long waiting around or shabbiness that is sometimes associated with these shows. Dru Hill were amazing! Still so strong with their voices! Sisqo was as ever a strong focal point but it was Jazz and Woody-the bigger boys-that showed off their booming vocals prowess. They weren’t as energetic on the ‘’Tell me’’ piano dance moves but more than made up for it with their pipes! Genuwine who I’ve never been a massive fan of (in my MTV days when interviewing him I recall him being very effeminate and a bit full of himself in a comical manner), as expected had the ladies all in a frenzy, he looked a lil too throwback with his all white jeans and shirt combo but sang well. I wish this were my lasting memory of his performance but all I recall now is his bitterness at not being the final headline act which he moaned about onstage a few times-so unprofessional! He worked the serenading the ladies angle by not crooning to 1 but 3 ladies that were picked from the audience! The headliners SWV looked and sounded great-as strong as ever and sung all their hits in matching red blazers and black leggings with high black patent shoes. The only negative thing in their set was that they had left their own backing vocals off their backing track making their set feel a little flatter than the previous acts. The after party in the venues upstairs bar was nice, a nice selection of grown folk drinking and reminiscing with the acts, lots of fans excitedly taking pictures of and with the 4 acts in front of the branded ‘’urban arts’’ (promoters of the show) board. all in all a great night showing that R&B certainly isn’t dead-it just lives elsewhere. Apparently there are lots more exciting shows to come from them in 2012 -keep updated at www.urbanartsent.com

I ended the week at one of my fave spots THE BEAUTY LOUNGE for a celeb facial with celeb facialist Nuz Shugaa (who’s fingers touch Hollywood stars, global singers and your better than average London radio dj) who told me she was giving me a facial great for jet setters ‘’as travelling can cause skin to have fatigue and look aged’’. Eek with the amount of travelling I’ve done my skin is lucky its not looking 234 years old right now! Many people like a nice quiet facial where they can nod off, I prefer to engage in the experience and ask a million questions about what’s being plastered all over my skin. I smell things and go ‘’ooh yummy what’s that?’’ every few seconds, so Nuz now talks me through my skins session. Firstly after getting my kit off and lying in the aromatic relaxing room, my skin was cleansed with organic palm of coconut, aloe vera, , sugar crystals, bamboo powder and co enzyme gel for a super deep cleanse. After which papaya, oatmeal and manuka honey was bespoke to my facial needs and used to exfoliate and clear my dead dry skin cells. (you know I refused to believe I had any dry dead cells as my nightly cleansing regime is close to a scientific laboratory session). This was followed by an apple pectin skin booster masque to draw up blackheads and comodones (yep-I couldn’t pronounce it either!). Next my skin was toned with witch hazel and menthol mixed with manuka honey as an antiseptic to heal any redness. This smelt so good I confess to licking my upper lip for a cheeky taste.
In the next step my skin was massaged with the following oils and pomades; vitamin e to help hydrate and nourish, vitamin a, caviar to repair, African potato wax, collagen with vitamin c to help circulation, then Nuz’s special blend of several oils to help skin bond, green tea and rose was sprayed on m face and neck, collagen and q 10 eye lift patches were applied. I was most fascinated by the caviar on my face –it felt like squishy velvet! Then Nuz painted onto my face with a paintbrush a face masque which contained vitamin c, fish oil, collagen which had been whipped up like a soufflé and applied. Finally Nuz told me something that had me laughing away at product PR teams and their gimmick names. She announced ‘’and now I am applying to you dragons blood gel- this forms a clear shield on your skin to plump and hide fine lines’’. Oh how I laughed as I skipped out of her parlor laden down with a good bag of lovely new products to try out! they’ll come in really handy as I’m now off to Caribbean fashion week to have dinner with the icon that is Grace Jones!

JASMINE WITH NOEL CLARKE.
Did you know that 92% of the UK music industry is white? Do you think that matters when you consider that its totally unrepresentative of the music scenes artists, promoters, record labels workers and fans? It does matter. The music industry here is one of the last areas that doesn’t have an active organization that champions equality within this world. Well now that’s been put right!. Last week saw the launch of the Equality & Diversity charter for UK music! The event was hosted at London’s Commonwealth Club, where the UK music industry launched a commitment to increase equality and diversity within the commercial music sector. At a time when our musical talent and audience is as diverse as ever, the UK Music’s Equality & Diversity charter will encourage organisations, businesses and individuals to commit to two or more actions in 2012 to help improve equality and diversity in the industry. The charter can be found www.ukmusic.org/edc, this morning was all about getting people from the industry behind the charter and pledging and we saw players from leading industry company’s come together and sign the charter! Jo Dipple, chief executive UK Music said: “Diversity is a massive asset for the UK music industry. Our creative talent and the audience who enjoy our music is, without doubt, diversity personified. Promoting that key strength to the companies and organisations in between can only be good for our business.”
This week’s been mostly about juggling the stresses of work and personal life strands. Don’t let anyone kid you-we all juggle joy and pain. Some of us just choose to put on a happy face. The happy face actually works-you should try it).
I also managed to pop to a couple of fabulous places like the “A” Lifestyle Magazine launch party at The Grange St Paul’s Hotel, where there was a VIP reception. It’s a very brave concept in this day and age starting a magazine as most print press have either gone out of business or online- I was told that ‘’this International luxury lifestyle magazine was aimed towards the main stream South Asian community in the UK as well as International territories’’. The quarterly publication targets today’s young and vibrant professionals, combining entertainment with fashion, travel and arts, fusing them together with the underlining themes of lifestyle and luxury. They added ‘’Intellectually stimulating editorials, light hearted, informative, fast pages and strong photography, which all merge to present the readership with a unique appreciation for the finest things in life’’.

Finally just before my friend, actor, writer and director Noel Clarke flew off to shoot his next film STAR TREK 2 in Hollywood, he caught up with me to let me and my LONDON360 young reporters grill him about all things London and life in the BBC’S biggest studio in Whitye City where all were gathered to hear the great man speak. Unlike many of my circle, Noel isn’t interested in any of the good life party perks that fame brings- he says ‘’Life is just work, work, work and looking after my family, that’s all that counts really. I don’t head out to all those events and stuff I just stay home and do my work, look after the missus, looking after the kids and that’s what its about, writing, writing writing. Getting jobs, working hard’’. (Embarrassing hearing that when my feet were still throbbing from the vertiginous heels I had worn to the national TV awards the night before where I had totally jollied it up).
He continued ‘’ I don’t go to a lot of premiers, because I don’t think I need to flash myself everywhere it’s not really me, I don’t want to be famous, I’m not interested in being famous. I’m just interested in working hard and hopefully having the results speak for what I do. Not just turning up at events with champagne glasses self-[promoting, it’s not me’’.

We congratulated Noel on his Hollywood role but he was as unaffected as ever claiming ‘’It’s just an audition like all the others really, you kind of just do your lines and see what happens and luckily this time I got the job., they didn’t test me on my knowledge. When they called to tell me I got it I was at home, in my kids room, and I was told I got it and I was happy, I don’t get overexcited about things because I’m just kind of like that. I was happy but it was like you know a job is a job, some you get and some you don’t get and you cant get overexcited about stuff because that would mean if you got a review that was good then you would have to be really happy and if you got a bad review then you would have to be distraught. I think its just one of those things where its another level of accomplishment where you’ve done another job that is bigger than the ones you’ve done before and all of that stuff helps in your career so hopefully it will just help me in mine but I have no idea, how people look to me is up to them’’.
Just to test Noels knowledge of STAR TREK we decided to do a quick fire round to see how good he was. (If you know Noel, you know that he isn’t always up for any silly foolishness so it was good to see him half squirm and get involved). This is how it went down;
So first of all, can you tell me the Vulcan sign for live long and prosper?
(NOEL CLARKE DOES SIGN) That’s the sign.
What would you say if you wanted to be teleported back to the ship?
Am I on my own or with someone else?
You are on your own
One to beam up. You won’t say beam me up Scotty, no one really says that
Why not?
Because they don’t, and that was in the original star trek and since then there has been Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyageur and Enterprise.
Who would be your captain? Jean-Luc Picard or James Kurk and for what reason?
Cant really get that question right or wrong, My captain would be Jean-Luc Picard probably because that’s the one I grew up with really, the original series was done when I was little, but the Next Generation I watched quite a lot when I was growing up.
Are you a fan of tight lycra and will you be sporting any in the film?
No idea, not a fan of tight lycra, no idea, no comment.
So clearly Noel had done enough research on his up coming role.

Once we’d finished the tomfoolery we went back to asking noel about the other 3 films coming out this year. He revealed ‘’We have Fast Girls, which is about four runners in a 100 metre female relay team and their quest from being girls who don’t always get on, to see if they win the event in the end, it’s a really good sporty movie, really exciting and I’m the lead writer on that. There is Storage 24, which is a sci-fi film about five people stuck in a storage facility and there is something in there. Sci-fi should give away what’s in there but I don’t want to reveal more, and that’s really exciting as well, that’s a Universal Picture. And then we have a wedding rom com called The Knot, which is sort of like a UK Bridesmaids Hangover type thing and its really quite funny ‘he says’ LOL’’

Clearly it’s realty impressive that noel isn’t stuck in a one sided genre. I bet many out there think he just does ‘’urban road movies’’. Clearly they forget that he cut his teeth on BBC dramas like Dr Who and others. He’s even written a MMA Mixed Martial Arts movie which he said ‘’it was supposed to be in February, now its indefinitely delayed but maybe in the summer or when I get back or like I said if something else interests me more, I don’t know.’’
Noel described his process of writing a film as thus ‘’Well I formulate the idea in my head for a long time, I keep going over it and once my head is full of the idea I get up one morning and I write it in a sort of flow of information on one page or how many pages it takes and then basically the whole thing will be written in prose, story kind of terms and then I copy and paste it onto a script document and I start writing the script by looking at that and as the script gets longer, that gets shorter and that’s kind of how I do it’’.

Noel described his highs and lows to me ‘’I started in 1999 and it didn’t really work that often, I kept a full time job until 2002 and then after that I did Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and I thought, ‘wow this is where things are going to take off’ and then you would finish that job and then nothing would happen. There have been loads of downs. There’s been films I’ve done of my own where I have had producers that were of the unsavoury variety and not being paid on my own film you know, it’s just, these things happen. Its not as big as people think it is and its not like America where they can just throw loads of money at stuff and so there’s been loads of downs, how you pick yourself up is the same way you carry on like when you win an award and you don’t get overconfident and arrogant about it, you put it on the shelf and move on, that’s how you pick yourself up because when your at your lowest point you can’t dwell on it and get depressed you just have to go, ‘alright, I’ve done all that work and I haven’t been paid or I’ve done this and this happened’ or you know, people you helped get far go and do things to you that you would never do to them. You’ve just got to move on’’.

We laughed about the fact that so many critics suggest that Noels films like Kidulthood and Adulthood are either changing the images of young people in London or cementing them?
Noel didn’t agree with either ‘’I think anyone who’s actually inspired enough by a film to go and behave like that is an idiot. That’s like people are saying that computer games make people go out and do stuff… I haven’t been zombie hunting in years; I don’t know about you, you know what I mean? I think the films themselves never claim to represent young people. The films represented those young people in the film on that particular day. Just because you do something on a Monday doesn’t mean you will do it on a Tuesday firstly. Secondly, it’s a film so they were all slightly exaggerated, the things that happened in Kidulthood in one day and the things that happened in Adulthood in one day don’t usually happen to people, so there is dramatic licence there. But I don’t think for a second that anyone other than saying the lines ‘are you dizzy blud?’ or whatever I don’t think anyone is really influenced by the films and if they are then they need to be educated a little bit more and I think that’s probably a problem’’.

When asked if Noel regrets anything in his career thus far he barked ‘Nah you cant have regrets in front of the camera, what you do is what you do. You have to try and perform as best you can and you know I always watch myself back, I know actors that are like ‘I cant watch myself’ I always watch myself because that’s how you learn because I’m not the best at anything. People say ‘you think you are big out there‘ I’m not the best at anything at all. The reason I do better than a lot of people is because I work hard because half of it is preparation. You can have someone is this talented and I’m here this talented but they aren’t doing any work because they think they are number one. My whole focus is that I’m going to knock you off your perch, that’s my whole focus everyday I get up it’s like ‘you see you there? You’re lazy, you are sitting there, lazy, your number one, I’m going to knock you off, I’m going to knock you off, I’m going to knock you off. And they’re like ‘Man it’s good up here’, not doing any work. And eventually you knock him off. The difference with me is I don’t stop working. I just continue working because I don’t ever want to be number one. I’d always rather be number two because you are always chasing someone’’.
It’s better to chase the dream then live it.
Yeah. If you become number one, you get lazy. I wouldn’t but people do get lazy so I’m quite happy always.. Even in some people’s mind they are like ‘but you are number one’, in my mind I’m not because I’m always refocusing. There used to be a couple of actors that would be like ‘why am I never going auditions with this guy? I want to go to auditions with that guy’ And my agent is like, ‘he is there and you’re here. My whole focus is, ‘Alright. One day I’m going to audition with that guy.’ Work hard, work hard, work hard, you get on set and you work hard. You’re not the best, you learn, you watch yourself and you learn. Eventually I went to auditions with that guy. Then I became friends with him. And then I didn’t see him anymore, why? Because I was up there and he was still there. Then you focus on the next person.
When noel worked with young people at BBC blast he told them to broaden their minds. he elaborated ‘’I feel like a lot of young people who have been inspired by maybe what I’ve done or what other people have done around me are focused on doing that, and I want them to broaden their minds because you don’t need to focus on what I did. The reason I just don’t write ‘this hood that hood’ ghetto this knife that, the reason why I don’t do that is number one, it’s for me, I cannot physically pigeon hole myself like that but also for you guys in the future. If you come from a similar environment or a similar place and you go to a film company, you’re like ‘I want to write about fairies, or I want to write about aliens’, and they go ‘well, who is the blueprint of this person?’ ‘Oh it’s that Clarke guy all he did was knife this, gun that, hood that’ he might look at you and go, ‘yeah we don’t think you can do that.’ If I’ve shown that someone from my environment can do different things when you go in and say you want to write about aliens they can’t question you because you might be able to do it. So I want young people to broaden their minds and go ‘actually you know what, just because I was raised in a one bedroom single parent council estate it doesn’t mean that I can’t write about trolls or whatever, you can. But you have to believe you can and you have to go in there confidently, knowing you can and when they go ‘yeah but you’re from a one bedroom council home’ you can say ‘hold on, but that Clarke guy did it.’ They can’t argue’’.
Noel added ‘’you can’t regret anything you have to make mistakes to grow as a person. I’ve made choices of people I’ve worked with, the producers like I’ve said have done things and I don’t get paid for my own film, I’ve made choices of actors I’ve given jobs that if I could go back in time I would never give them a job. But you know what; you don’t know how people are going to treat you. You can only treat people how you want to be treated. If someone helps me out then I would never s*** on them but there are people out there that do that’’.

Asked finally about young actors we should be looking out for in 2012 noel smiled ‘’People to watch in 2012? I have no idea. You can never tell who is going to do well, what people need to do is to stop watching other people and concentrate on themselves and hopefully they will be one of the people to watch’’.
Noel finished by telling the LONDON360 team why it was important for him to be a London 360 Ambassador. ‘’It’s important for me to be a London 360 Ambassador because I’ve always been about people having the opportunities to do things they wouldn’t always have the chance to do. I think what London 360 provides young people to be journalists and to be in this industry, I look at the people here today and I can already see future big time journalists, hopefully they’ll all be nice to me when they’re reviewing stuff if any of them become reviewers. In all seriousness you can see the future and I think that’s what’s important. There’s a big old guard out there trying to control us and have certain set ways and certain views but luckily for us they’re all retiring and getting out of there and getting young people that can represent the country the way it should be represented and I think that’s important’’.
ENJOY HOLLYWOOD NOEL! #TEAMUK!