Paul Heaton, Jacqui Abbott to perform free for NHS staff
Former Beautiful South members Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott are performing a free show for National Health Service (NHS) workers at the 9,000-capacity Nottingham Motorpoint Arena.
The show will take place on Tuesday 13 October as part of a UK tour, which has recently been rescheduled due to the coronavirus outbreak. The tour is promoting the duo’s recently released album, Manchester Calling.
NHS staff, “including but not limited to doctors, nurses, support workers, porters and cleaners”, will be eligible for free tickets to the show.
“The coronavirus pandemic should remind everyone, and let no-one forget, that our National Health Service is the most brilliant and significant institution in our lives”
“The coronavirus pandemic should remind everyone, and let no-one forget, that our National Health Service is the most brilliant and significant institution in our lives,” says Heaton.
“The men and women who serve us and care for us, give us hope and sacrifice for their own wellbeing, can never be thanked enough. We are just musicians, so there is little we can do but sing for you.”
Tickets will be available from 7 p.m. on Tuesday 31 March, and will be limited to two per person. Ticketholders must bring a valid NHS or Primary Care Trust identification card to the show. More information can be found here.
Photo: Simon Fernandez/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) (cropped)
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Motorpoint Arena Nottingham holds greenest-ever event
Motorpoint Arena Nottingham and National Ice Centre (10,000-cap.) has celebrated its greenest event day in history, recording its lowest-ever electricity and water consumption as part of it ongoing Greener Arena campaign.
On Friday 15 March the live entertainment and sports venue successfully used less energy than on any other event day, beating its previous lowest electricity usage by 1000 kilowatt hours (kWh).
The day, named Greener Arena Day, saw team members working together to promote the venue’s eco-friendly initiatives and environmental solutions, which come under the venue’s Greener Arena umbrella campaign.
Throughout the day, the arena generated a total of 1063 kWh of electricity from solar panels.
Environmental initiatives include rooftop solar panels, a waste water system, biodegradable polystyrene cups and recycled paper. The venue also has a dedicated environmental group that looks for new ways to reduce energy consumption.
The arena has reduced its energy usage by over 20 percent over the past five years.
“We have built some real momentum engraining sustainability into the culture of our business”
In 2017, the arena became the first UK indoor entertainment and sports venue to introduce eco-friendly cups, both fully reusable and recyclable. The venue is also a zero-landfill site, with 40 percent of waste recycled and the remainder used to power the building.
During the Greener Arena Day, team members made pledges to reduce their personal carbon footprints, including taking public transport, going paperless, using reusable water bottles and cutlery and avoiding unnecessary lighting.
“We have built some real momentum engraining sustainability into the culture of our business,” comments Lee Chadburn, head of facilities at Motorpoint Arena Nottingham. “Our industry doesn’t lend itself to changing processes and systems overnight, but we are leading the way we operate environmentally compared to other arenas.
“We’re not perfect but continue to take steps towards sustainability at every opportunity,” adds Chadburn.
Examples of recent environmental initiatives across the music industry include ID&C’s eco-friendly event wristbands made from recycled plastic bottles and bamboo and Glastonbury Festival’s blanket ban on single-use plastic bottles.
Motorpoint Arena Nottingham’s environmental policy can be found here.
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Connecting to wifi at venues? Read the small print…
Some 22,000 people have agreed to undertake 1,000 hours of community service – including cleaning festival toilets and scraping chewing gum from the pavement – in return for free wireless internet, reveals an experiment designed to illustrate a lack of awareness among consumers signing up for free in-venue wifi.
Purple, whose venue clients include Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena (10,000-cap.), United Wireless Arena (5,500-cap.) in Dodge City, Kansas, and Alexandra Palace (10,400-cap.) in London, for two weeks hid a “community service clause” in its terms and conditions. By accepting the T&Cs, users agreed to:
- Cleansing local parks of animal waste
- Providing hugs to stray cats and dogs
- Manually relieving sewer blockages
- Cleaning portable lavatories at local festivals and events
- Painting snail shells to brighten up their existence
- Scraping chewing gum off the streets
While Purple says it is “unlikely to call in the community service debt”, its CEO says the findings underline a lack of public awareness over an important issue.
“Wifi users need to read terms when they sign up to access a network,” comments Gavin Wheeldon. “What are they agreeing to, how much data are they sharing and what licence are they giving to providers? Our experiment shows it’s all too easy to tick a box and consent to something unfair.”
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Motorpoint Arena Nottingham appoints Chief Exec
Deputy CEO of Motorpoint Arena Nottingham and National Ice Centre, Martin Ingham, has been appointed chief executive of the venue and its indoor ice rink.
Ingham takes over from Geoff Huckstep who retired in May after 15 years. Since then, Ingham, who is also chairman of the National Arenas Association, has been the interim replacement. He joined Motorpoint Arena in 2002.
Discussing his promotion, Ingham said: “I have loved working at this superb venue from day one. The combination of delivering both sport, from social activity to competitive and Olympic level athletes, and world class entertainment, including concerts, comedy, sport and family shows, is unique and utterly compelling to work within.
“When you add in a team of staff that display such extraordinary skills, dedication, tenacity, creativity and humour that the complexities of our industry demand, then it is an even greater privilege to be appointed to the role.
“I am really looking forward to developing the relationships with our extensive range of stakeholders to ensure that we continue to further improve the range and quality of our services.
“We have numerous exciting projects already in the pipeline and the whole team are looking forward to delivering these for the benefit of all our customers, the city of Nottingham and the East Midlands region as a whole.”
“We have numerous exciting projects already in the pipeline and the whole team are looking forward to delivering these for the benefit of all our customers, the city of Nottingham and the East Midlands region as a whole.”
Chairman of the Motorpoint Arena and National Ice Centre, Mich Stevenson, added: “I have really enjoyed working closely with Martin over the past six months and have been impressed with the way that he has led the company through a smooth transition since Geoff Huckstep’s retirement in the summer.
“The board are delighted to endorse Martin with his appointment to chief executive, a role which he has clearly demonstrated he is more than capable of performing.”
“The board are delighted to endorse Martin with his appointment to chief executive, a role which he has clearly demonstrated he is more than capable of performing. There are exciting challenges ahead and we are confident that Martin is the right person to lead our wonderful team of staff.”
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