Alan Murphy at his home in South Shields with some of his Customs House memorabilia. Photograph: The Journal.

THEY call him The Laughing Man – and just about everyone in South Shields should know exactly where to find him.

Seat A11 at the Customs House is rarely left empty, whether the act on stage is a pantomime, an opera, or a rock ‘n’ roll gig. In fact, for pensioner Alan Murphy, who spends many of his evenings in the front-row seat, it’s got to a pretty bad week at the theatre if he doesn’t attend... Read more.

(This story was first published in the print edition of the Newcastle based Journal on 29 November 2010. The online edition has a different by-line.)

Simon Hales in hospital following his accident which left him brain damaged.
Photograph: Sunday Sun.

WITH another drunk reveller dead, heartbroken Jane Hales has revealed the alcohol tragedy which tore her family apart as a warning to others.

Like thousands of parents, Jane watched as her child left home for university full of hopes for the future.

But the dreams ended in despair, and now she has opened her heart to tell how a single night of binge-drinking left her beloved son Simon severely brain damaged.

Jane has decided to reveal her family’s tragic story to warn other young people of the dangers of excess alcohol... Read more.

(This story was first published in the print edition of the Newcastle based Sunday Sun on 7 November 2010. The online edition has a different by-line.)

Streetdance show Blaze at the Theatre Royal. Photograph: The Journal.

SEXY, smooth and ultra slick – the booming bass line, electro beats and backstreet bopping leaves your body itching to dance.

Blaze: The Streetdance Sensation will knock you off your feet as the colours, digital backdrop technology and music remix compilation activates all the senses.

The 80-minute performance is a melting pot of creativity with a wonderful flavour of rich diversity as dancers are brought together from nine different cultural backgrounds.

The tap dancing moonwalk to Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean and the UV futuristic science sequence really make this contemporary dance performance world class... Full review.

(This review was first published in the Newcastle based Journal on 20 October 2010.)

A HARROWING play about domestic violence will go on a national tour . . . after victims of abuse were so moved by the production.

Audiences wept openly when There’s No Excuse was staged at Newcastle’s Theatre Royal in April.

THOUGHT-PROVOKING: past and present cast members in a promotional picture for the play. Photograph: Copyright acknowledged.

The play vividly depicts rape, battery and harassment and different people’s experience of domestic violence... Read more.

(This story was first published, with an incorrect by-line, in the print edition of the Newcastle based Sunday Sun on 10 October 2010.)

Brenda Mullen at the school crossing patrol on Hedgeley Road, Hebburn. Photograph: Evening Chronicle.

FEARS for young lives emerged as 67 school crossing patrols were axed in a cost cutting shake up.

Labour-run town hall chiefs in part of Tyneside are leaving eight out of ten school crossing patrols unstaffed at lunchtime in an effort to save £220,000...

Read more.

(This story was first published in the Newcastle based Evening Chronicle on 4 October 2010. It was a page lead in the printed edition which featured a second photograph.)

GUNMAN Raoul Moat’s death has been transformed into a chilling one-man stage show, the Sunday Sun can reveal.

Is it art? Mark McGowan in his cardboard Moat mask.

And the performance artist wants to bring the play, which recounts Moat’s last days, to North audiences, having gone down a storm in a packed-out London gallery.

The Lottery arts-funded play – which sees artist Mark McGowan play Moat, a newsreader and a police officer – has been slammed by victim support groups.

Last night, however, McGowan insisted The Re-enactment of the Assassination of Raoul Moat has not been created to shock and upset, saying: “This is just an interpretation of the story, everyone has to take an angle.

“There were no winners in the case of Raoul Moat.”

It is now 11 weeks since 37-year-old Moat, pictured below, of Fenham, Newcastle, is thought to have shot himself following a six-hour stand-off in the Northumberland village of Rothbury... Full story.

(This story was a front page exclusive, with an inside double-page spread, for the print edition of the Newcastle based Sunday Sun on 26 September 2010. The story was picked up by the national media, including the BBC and Sky News, and was reprinted in modified form in the tabloids with the Daily Mail reproducing the report under the byline ‘Daily Mail Reporter’)

Battling: Charity campaigner David Goulding.

When David Golding lines up for the Great North Run he will be carrying out the best wishes of the President of Liberia, the former President of Tanzania and the deputy Prime Minister

The only person not convinced he should be pulling on his spikes is his wife, Veronica.

Dad-of-two David, of Brierdene Crescent, Whitley Bay, has decided to mark his 70th birthday by tackling the half-marathon for the first time. The energetic international campaigner will be raising funds for the Jubilee Debt Campaign and HIV/AIDS - causes dear to his heart.

David, who was awarded a CBE for his work in alleviating world poverty, has only ever organised other runners to take on the half-marathon, but decided he had better step up to the mark this time... Read more.

(This story was first published in the print edition of the Newcastle based Sunday Sun, on 19 September 2010.)