Christmas is mere days away and that means just one thing for Northern Ireland’s legion of electronic music fans – Planetlove’s annual WKD Winter Party is imminent!Planetlove are embarking on another sensational Christmas party in the King’s Hall, Belfast, as they round off their 10th anniversary year in style with their ‘Dance Against The Machine’ spectacular.
It has been another groundbreaking year for the team at Planetlove who kicked off the year with their new Love Fridays residency in the Beach Club, Odyssey Pavilion, Belfast, and their hugely popular Winter Session in Leopardstown.
In June their parent company, PLM Promotions, brought the fabulous ‘Live in Portrush’ beach party to the sunny shores of the North-West with Grammy award winners The Chemical Brothers and a host of chart-topping international acts and DJs including Fedde le Grand, Eric Prydz, Utah Saints and Steve Angello.
And that was followed by Planetlove’s milestone 10th anniversary festival, which was held over two days incorporating Tiesto’s massive ‘In Search of Sunrise Tour’ and the PLANETLOVE WKD festival, complete with camping and world renowned names like Pendulum and Ferry Corsten!
Magical events continued throughout the year and now Ireland’s leading electronic music brand bow out of 2008 with the party to end all parties;
Three hours of the world’s Number 1 DJ (DJ Mag Top 100) Armin van Buuren, alongside global superstars Lisa Lashes, Alex Kidd, John O’Callaghan and the voice behind some of the biggest dance hits in history (‘Beautiful’ and ‘Liberation’), Marcella Woods. Support comes from Planetlove resident DJ Mog.
And this year these iconic vinyl and CD spinners are joined by a robotic film star, ‘T8’, who is the brainchild of Bruce ‘Robocop’ Hansing and has taken the world by storm.
‘T8’ has appeared in an upcoming hip-hop music video, performed on television for the BBC and ITV, starred in the world’s most elite clubs including the Limelight (New York), Number 1 (France) and Le Pacha (Switzerland) and dazzled HRH Princess Anne and her family at The Royal Variety Show with a watching television audience of 18 million people!
The excitement surrounding this year’s WKD Winter Party is immense and pre-event ticket sales have hit an all-time high.
“We’re really looking forward to this one. It’s the perfect end to our 10th birthday year which has just been sensational from start to finish. It’s great to have Armin back with us again too,” explains Eddie Wray, Promoter.
And Judith Robinson of WKD, sponsors of Planetlove, says:
“Planetlove never stops impressing. This has been a great year for them – definitely an appropriate celebration of their 10th anniversary – so this is the ideal way to end it. We’re really proud to be associated with Planetlove.”
Planetlove’s WKD Winter Party – ‘Dance Against The Machine’ is almost upon us!

TICKETS
Standard and VIP tickets are available from www.planetlovemusic.com, Ticketmaster and independent outlets nationwide priced at (standard) £32.50 (+bf) and (VIP) £52.50 (+bf). For more ticket information see below artist blurbs.

WHO’S PLAYING?

Armin van Buuren:
Armin van Buuren is the Dutch superstar who sits proudly on the thrown as the world’s Number One DJ (DJ Mag Top 100).
With a string of trance anthems to his name, van Buuren has already written himself into electronic music history!
He has achieved global success and worldwide acclaim with some of the biggest trance productions ever released including ‘Blue Fear’, ‘Communication’, ‘Sound of Goodbye’, ‘Shivers’, ‘Burned with Desire’ and ‘Going Wrong.’
He frequently sells out 15,000 capacity venues and his global radio show, A State of Trance, now has over six million weekly listeners and is broadcast around the world.
A global icon and true trance legend, this is your only chance to see Armin van Buuren perform in Northern Ireland this year!

Lisa Lashes:
The self-professed Queen of Hard Dance!
For over a decade Lisa Lashes has entertained the masses across the UK, Europe and the world.
Undeniably the world’s leading female DJ, Lashes is renowned for playing some of the most amazing sets ever witnessed in Ireland and continues to sell-out venues across the island wherever she plays.
Her ‘Lashed’ clubbing brand has proved to be a phenomenal success and the popularity of her harder edged sets refuse to dwindle with her playing some of the biggest clubs in Ibiza, Tenerife, Cyprus, Canada and South Korea this summer alone!
Lashes continues to release productions under an array of aliases and after producing some of the biggest tracks in Hard Dance she is diversifying in to other genres, thus keeping her sounds as fresh as ever.

Alex Kidd:
Alex Kidd is undeniably one of the most eccentric, energetic and craziest artists on the DJ circuit today!
Thumping out some of the hardest and freshest sounds in electronic music, Kidd’s raw passion and enthusiasm for what he does has transformed him in to one of the most popular DJ’s in Europe.
His unique ability in cutting up the hottest hard dance sounds with CDJs and fx machines has propelled him to the forefront of harder edged music and set him apart from the competition.
Voted Hard Dance DJ of 2008, Kidd has made the UK scene his own and books out venues across the nation each and every week.
This year sees him take his ‘Kiddfectious’ brand Stateside as he prepares to conquer the USA and Canada!

John O’Callaghan:
Described by Paul van Dyk as “one of the most exciting producers in the world today,” Irish DJ/producer John O’Callaghan has taken the trance world by storm!
Over the past two years O’Callaghan has remixed for some of the biggest artists in the world and earned releases on world renowned record labels such as Armada, Vandit, Discover and Euphonic.
His 2007 production ‘Big Sky’ became an instant trance anthem and received worldwide support from just about every DJ in the genre and catapulted him to the forefront of the world’s DJing circuit!
With tours of South America, the Far East and Australia already under his belt, O’Callaghan sits proudly as one of the most in-demand DJs and producers in the world today.

Marcella Woods:
Marcella Woods is the voice behind some of the biggest dance classics of all time.
Her collaboration with Matt Darey on the massive trance anthems ‘Beautiful,’ ‘Liberation’ and ‘Fly Like an Angel’ propelled both artists to world stardom and sold millions of records across the globe!
Now working alongside her brother (Michael Woods aka Warrior) under the guise Out of Office, Woods is introducing her amazing vocal talent to the world of electro.
Out of Office’s first release, ‘Hands Up,’ won huge support from the likes of Roger Sanchez and Pete Tong and went on to be a massive hit on both Radio 1 and MTV, thus reinforcing Woods’ status as one of the leading electronic vocalists and Live PA’s in the world!

DJ Mog:
The cornerstone of PLM events throughout Ireland and abroad, DJ Mog is PLANETLOVE’s resident DJ.
The Belfast boy has established himself as one of the nation’s leading DJs/producers, not only DJing across the island but also releasing a string of productions under numerous aliases.
In 2006 his electro remix of the Killers’ anthem ‘Mr Brightside’ (under his Krowd Killerz guise) brought him genre-wide support from the world’s biggest DJs including Judge Jules, Pete Tong, Dave Pearce and Annie Mac to name but a few.
Mog continues to release material under the names Space Hustlers, Tatoe & Tease, Krowd Killerz and DJ Mog and remix requests have been flooding in from some of the biggest names in trance and electro!
The future looks blindingly bright for PLANETLOVE’s home-grown hero.

24-Hour Online

By Phone
Ticketmaster Credit Card Hotline
Calling from Northern Ireland and UK: 0870 2434455
Calling from Republic of Ireland: 0818 719300
Or from PLM Promotions +44 2892 667000

For a full list of Ticketmaster and independent outlets please check

Event info. line + 44 (0) 28 92 667000.

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey is a film for our credit crunched, cynical times. No sex or violence, no loud rap music or cool dance moves, this movie is about hearts and what moves them.

Based on the best selling book of the same name written by Susan Wojciechowski, Bill Clark bought the rights to the book and then set about making the story into a movie.

He succeeded against the odds, raising a budget of $10 million (US) and enlisting an award-winning cast to create The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey.

Jonathan Toomey (Berenger) known as “Gloomy Toomey” to the local children, is a fantastic wood carver with a secret past. Some years before his wife and newborn son had died – so he locked his heart away and moved to a lonely log cabin deep in a forest.

Thomas McDowell, played by Luke Ward-Wilkinson of Wild at Heart and Beautiful People fame, is a young boy living a happy family life of baseball cards and cookies in the city with his devoted parents.

All this is destroyed when his father is killed in a far off war. His mother, Susan (Joely Richardson) is forced to sell their home and move to the country to live with her sister, leaving behind Thomas’s beloved Grandfather and the housekeeper and everything he holds dear.

Just when Thomas thought that his life couldn’t get any worse, he realises that on the journey to the country he has lost the family’s wooden carved nativity set. This is his last link with his father and his past life.

Angry at the broken promises of grown ups, Thomas retreats within himself. Nothing is ever going to be the same. His mother, Susan, decides to try and bring him out of his shell and a chance encounter with the woodman Toomey leads her to put aside her own struggles with grief and ask the carver to create a new nativity set for the boy.

She even convinces the reclusive Toomey to allow Thomas to watch him as he works.

With each carving the relationship between the man and the boy grows stronger – each dealing with their own grief in their own way. They learn to laugh and move into the future with hope. The scenery and musical score add to the sentiment and humour of this lovely Christmas movie.

Yes, this film does deal with dark themes but more importantly it deals with life and new beginnings.

Watch it with your kids, it’s a movie that should be shown every Christmas along with all the other classics.

A thought provoking, gentle film for those of us who long for a time when Christmas was more about people than presents.

Merry Christmas!

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey (U) is released on DVD on November 24 at around £9.99 available from HMV and all good DVD outlets.

For more information on the film, please visit thechristmasmiracleofjonathantoomeythemovie.com

© FAME Inc

By Cathy Black
© FAME Inc

By Cathy Black
© FAME Inc

For more information contact 028 9078 1524.

If you would like more information on the work of the Centre or to make a donation call 02890 329001, 02890 329002 or log onto rapecrisisni.com

To view the documentary online log onto: click here

Eileen Kelly, Centre Manager and Co-Director of the organisation said the response from the film made by award-winning director Alison Millar of Tern TV was encouraging.
She added: “We have been taking calls non-stop since the documentary was screened last night from clients past and present, concerned members of the public, other voluntary organisations and professionals we work with who didn’t realise the extent of the financial crisis offering everything from a simple message of encouragement to donations.
“More than one person have even came to the Centre with their donation and we would like to thank everyone for their kindness.

“The messages of support and donations have lifted the spirits of the organisation and we believe this is just the beginning of our fight to survive.

“Now we would call on all our politicians and public representatives to take heed of what their constituents want and to help us support victims and survivors of rape and sexual abuse”.

The documentary screened on BBC last night highlighted the financial plight of the organisation as well as that of its staff members who have been working without pay for approximately nine months.

It also told the stories of four survivors who all expressed the fact that they felt without the Centre they would be “just another suicide statistic”.

For more information or to make a donation to the Rape Crisis & Sexual Abuse Centre you can log onto rapecrisisni.com or call 02890 329001 or 02890 329002.

Children will have the chance to visit Santa in his grotto, with the proceeds going to the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign. There’s also a new Christmas carousel, face painter and the opportunity to send a letter to Santa at his post box.

Photos by Fabrizio Belluschi
© FAME Inc