The UKG descended on the National Space Centre to celebrate the occasion with its usual array of Star Wars characters with some great new costumes too. The star signings were kept busy by the crowds who flocked down to the Space Centre on one of the hottest weekends yet. Warwick Davis was there on the Sunday promoting his new auto-biography "Size Matters Not" which I am part the way reading through myself, a great read and recommended. On the Saturday I was treated to having Alan Harris attend as part of the star line up. For those of you not so Star Wars savvy, he is best known for playing the character Bossk, the lizard Bounty Hunter from ESB. This was the excuse I needed to dig my Bossk costume out for another outing! Typical the weekend I wear a full latex head, it's the hottest weekend! Pretty horrible to wear with the heat and lack of vision due to the lenses misting up but it was still enjoyable and great to see the kids reactions and recognizing the character. Shame we couldn't manage the full bounty hunter line up from the movie but we looked great all the same.
I was over the moon with Alans response and praise for the costume and he couldn't be a more friendlier, nicer chap. I hope he will be along to another event with the UKG.
A special mention also goes to the Replica Prop Forum boys with their amazing display of movie props, well done guys as ever a brilliant job.
Thanks to Sean for taking some great photo's over the weekend and looking after Russ and myself on the Sunday as we could both hardly see out of our masks! :D
A big thanks to all the guys and gals of the UKG who made this event happen and all the spotters who kept an eye on us all. And a big pat on the back to all those who ran the side events through the day, Jedi School, Droid Hunt, Photo Stand who in total over the weekend raised over £1000 for charity! Whoo!!
Alan Harris (Bossk) with us Bounty Hunters!
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( 3 / 86 )Even though this event seems to suffer from falling attendances and not so many big headliner signings, I still really like the vibe of Mem. Some of the best actors to chat to are the ones who have more long standing careers and not in the big block busters. It was an absolute pleasure to meet some of the actors but specifically Alexandra Bastedo of whom my middle name derived from my dad having a crush on her years ago
. Anita Harris was an absolute pleasure to meet and was sooo lovely. Another great person to meet was Victor Spinetti who has appeared in many things over the years but I will always fondly remember his role in the Revenge of the Pink Panther film.
The weekend was unfortunately marred with one of the UKG members having their Stormtrooper costume stolen overnight from the event which really put a dampener on the next day, but as ever in true UKG style, it's members rallied together and had a collection the following week and managed to donate enough for a new suit to be bought.
It was great appearing as Xena again, and like the last Mem Xena fans are still alive and kicking and showing their appreciation which is great! I even had Lee MacDonald who played Zamo from Grange Hill (for all you oldies that can remember that!) wanted his piccie taken with me. What was funnier was he asked his helper/assistant to ask as he was too shy! ha ha. I met Alan Harris again who played Bossk in Empire and is just such a lovely guy I am really hoping he will be attending the next Space Centre event next month.
As ever it was made all the more fun walking around with Sean on the Sunday and I"m already looking forward to the next one!
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( 3 / 83 )Winter Mem descended on Birmingham and as ever was attended by the UKG and many stars of film and television. The event had a smaller feel to it, being in a different (smaller) hall and smaller crowds, but the crowds did seem to be fairly enthusiastic.
This time I went as Xena with Sean as Jack Sparrow. I was really pleasantly surprised by the crowds reaction to me what with Xena not being on the screen for a while. I had loads of photo's taken and had a couple of very excited fans jumping up and down when they saw me!
Great to see the spirit of Xena continuing out there with fans showing their appreciation of me.
Met some really great people and some of the stars were just great! Had to have my piccie taken with the only actor with a Xena connection at the event, Tony Todd who played Cecrops.
Scary bloke but nice too! He said he enjoyed watching Xena climb the ropes from below!! cheeky
Other actors that were really lovely was Neil Dickson who played Biggles in the 80's movie what a gent. Anthony Montgomery from Star Trek Enterprise was just lovely and very friendly, chatted with him for a while. The kind of guy you could imagine being mates with. Catherine Schell from Space 1999 and Return of the Pink Panther remembered us from last Mem and invited us to go horse riding with her in France! How cool is that! Mitch Pileggi who plays Skinner from the X files was very nice and complimented me on how much I looked liked Lucy. He said he was great friends with her and that he had seen several Xena impersonators at similar type of events and how I was the closest he had seen! Wow great compliment! Another nice meeting was with Deborah Moore, Roger Moores daughter who I worked with on a film called Merlin several years ago with Jason Connery. We chatted about the film, she was very nice and friendly, it was lovely to see her again.
There were so many cool things over the weekend, had a piccie in a Back to the Future car, one coming out of a Tardis with the Doctor to name a few. I may put some other pics up on my My Space page in the next few weeks will let you know if I do.
As ever had a great time at Mem with the family G and Sean and to finish off a great photo of us with Warwick Davis and family our new found friends
Until the next one!
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( 3 / 278 )Well here we are again 3rd time around, Movie Mania 3. I remember the first one where I played an Alien in the Alien Encounter for the whole weekend! I missed the second one due to work but thankfully I was free for this one. The event had star signings by Dave Prowse (Darth Vader) Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), Jerome Blake (several Star Wars characters) Warwick Davis (Wicket plus several other characters) and Trevor Steedman (Pvt. Wierzbowski) from the film Aliens.
The UKG as ever was out in force supported by the UKCM (Alien Legacy guys) and the Replica Prop Boards with an amazing display of real and re-production props and costumes.
The welcome return of the Alien Encounter went down well and was busy all day long scaring the heck out of all who dared to enter. I started the day as Dark Phoenix with Seans Wolverine, after lunch we changed and both took part in the Alien Encounter.
As ever it was a great experience and made all the better by all those taking part in it. It was great to wear the Alien costume again in the best surroundings that there can be. This time around at one point there was 5 aliens! After the last public tour of the day 3 of us in our alien costumes went outside escorted by some of the colonial marines. We joined other characters outside and were mobbed by the crowds! People cautiously edged towards us to have their photo taken with us. There was also a very special treat for the UKG as well as the public, something which has never happened before and a first not just for the Garrison but a first anywhere. The actor Jeremey Bulloch who played Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi had secretly slipped away for a surprise. Members of the bounty hunter forum "The Dented Helmet" had pooled together and made Jeremey his own Boba Fett costume. In the changing room a surprise presentation was announced that required everyones attention, as Teri the UKG CO handed over to "Mark" who was dressed as Fett, he removed his helmet to reveal Jeremey in the Fett costume! Well you can see the reaction here "Jeremey's Reveal" He then spent the next hour or so trooping as Boba Fett! What a top bloke, he is so lovely!
Another reason why I enjoyed this troop was my good friend Big Tony, I helped him get his costume together so he could get involved with the UKG. This was his first troop and he was dressed as Indiana Jone's dad from the third Indy film The Last Crusade. He went down a storm with the UKG and the public and even made the Leicester Mercury website! Check him out Indy's Dad 4th image on the page.
Well a big thanks goes to all who made this event happen and here's hoping we will do it all again next year. As ever thanks to Sean for trooping with me and making a crackin tag team!
Thanks to Mike Watters for the Alien photo and Samantha Jones of the Jeremy Photo's.
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( 2.9 / 238 )The Help for Heroes day held at Hindlip Hall, near Worcester, had parachute display teams, helicopters and bomb disposal teams entertaining thousands of people who attended, along with a number of special guests, including some brave soldiers who were themselves injured in action.
Organisers believe they have doubled the number of visitors they had at last year’s event, with an estimated 12,000 people turning up, helping to raise about £40,000 over the day for the charity.
Also on display were emergency service vehicles, tanks, helicopters and an amazing fly over by a Spitfire. The UKG were there in support for this very worthy cause, with Darth Vader, Stormtroopers, Vaders Aprentice, Batman and Sean and myself as Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann. The UKG members themselves raised over £650 with their collection tins aided by the cadets who followed us around.
We had a brilliant time at this event, were well looked after by the organisers and was humbled meeting the injured servicemen. Speaking to the soldiers it brings it home what these lads go through over there in Iraq and Afganistan and they should be supported by us all. It was a pleasure to support this event!
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