The Evening Standard – 26th November, 2002

Celebrities will be heading to Somerset House tonight for the third annual opening of the Christmas ice rink.

They include Richard E Grant, Sophie Dahl, Janet Street-Porter, Michael Heseltine, Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, film director Stephen Frears and artists Antony Gormley and Sam Taylor-Wood.

The question is: will any of them don skates? No one knows for sure, of course, but Shulman is known to go skating with her children, while Taylor-Wood and Street-Porter are also fond of going for a spin.

Heseltine, however, is expected to steer well clear of the ice. But that is not to say Tories are not naturally skating folk: last year Oliver Letwin, the Shadow Home Secretary, took his family for an outing at Somerset House.

This year the rink will have a distinctly Swiss feel. It is being sponsored by Switzerland and there is a 40ft Christmas tree from Basle.

Skating is becoming very popular in London. The Somerset House rink – which is even bigger than before, at 900 square metres – has already attracted 25,000 advance ticket sales. It is open from 10am-10pm until 20 January. Bookings through Ticketmaster (020 7413 3399). Call 020 7845 4670 or visit www.somersethouse.org.uk for information.

A couple of articles sent in by Jolie prompted me to do some re-recording of a tune that might have slipped past people’s notice way back in 1997. The articles were from Melody Maker and New Musical Express and focused on a tune released in the U.K. by a collective calling themselves Orpheus. It also featured a vocal track by someone called Richard E. Grant?

So with this in mind I dug out my taped copy of “To Be Or Not To Be” and reformatted it into an mp3 so that it could be uploaded to the site for all REGimentals to listen to. I’ve also uploaded the Melody Maker article, which you can read here, and the NME article which you can read here. The link for the song can be found on each of the pages.

The chat room has been re-invented and refurbished with a lick of paint here and there. It’s been long overdue, I know! Apparently the old chatroom was “de-commissioned” by the company it served time on and then re-deployed as a “Spanish Gay chat” or something or other (Hey, that’s what I was told anyway!) All of this took place while no-one was apparently watching? It must have been interesting to see the new recruits march into the chat, ask about REG and get nothing but blank responses.

But that was then, this is now! The new chatroom is (hopefully) user-friendly, faster and grander than the original one was – with features for both the user and the Admin person (that’s me!) I’ve also set up a rough guide to indicate the times most people should be on. To see the new chat room just point your browser to the “Fan Stuff” section of the Temple site. Have fun and play nice!

By the way if there’s any problems with the new chatroom just email me and I’ll look into it.

As you’re probably aware Richard appeared at the Orange Tree Theatre last Sunday as part of Richmond’s Literacy Festival. The profits of his particular event were donated to a local charity (of which Richard is a patron) called Shooting Star. Pictures and reports from the event are now up on the Temple site. To read Denise’s report, click here, to read Nikki’s report, click here and to see a special greeting to the REGiment from Richard (courtesy of Joan), click here.

Thanks to the respective parties for this stuff.

There’s a new article on the Temple courtesy of Jolie (and her German-translating friend, Tessa). The article first appeared back in 1996 in the German magazine “Cinema”. You can read the translated text as well as view the original article here.