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Terrorvision at The Apex

Sledgehammer sing-along hits and shameless live rock thrills: expect classic anthems like ‘Oblivion’, ‘Bad Actress’ and of course the no.2 hit ‘Tequila‘, when Terrorvision call in at The Apex next month!

Terrorvision were born in 1988 out of the remnants of a glam rock mess called Spoilt Brats. After three years of gigs and demos they were signed in 1991 to EMI Records on the strength of ‘Pump Action Sunshine’, a demo which featured what was to become their first Top-30 hit, ‘My House’.

Incessant touring followed, including support slots with long-time heroes The Ramones and Motorhead, backed up positive reviews of their debut album ‘Formaldehyde’. But it was their second album ‘How to make friends and influence people’ which catapulting the band into the mainstream, with five top-30 singles, including ‘Oblivion’, ‘Middle Man’, and ‘Pretend Best Friend’.

Appearances at Donington Monsters of Rock and Reading/Leeds cemented their reputation as the default festival bands of the 90’s. Kerrang awards followed, for Best Newcomer in 1994, Best Band the following year (and Best Single in 1999 for their song ‘Tequila’).

With third LP ‘Regular Urban Survivors’ (1996) Terrorvision continued on their upward trajectory and single ‘Perseverance’ earned the band their first top 5 hit, with further chart success for singles ‘Celebrity Hit List’ and ‘Bad Actress’, though real chart domination was to come in January 1999 with the number 2 smash ‘Tequila’ taken from the ‘Shaving Peaches’ album.

The band knocked it on the head in 2001 but reformed again for several sold-out album anniversary tours, live albums and a new studio album ‘Super Delux’.

Terrorvision are at The Apex in Bury St Edmunds on Friday 16 June at 7.30pmVisit the website www.theapex.co.uk or ring 01284 758000 for more information or to book tickets.

Local Insurer’s support for Suffolk Accident Rescue Service (SARS) & Gatehouse Bury St Edmunds helps keep vital services going for the community

NFU Mutual Agents and their staff at the Bury St Edmunds Agency recently nominated local charities Suffolk Accident Rescue Service (SARS) & Gatehouse Bury St Edmunds, to receive a donation from NFU Mutual’s national £1.92million ‘Agency Giving Fund’.

The leading rural insurer has launched this fund, now in its fourth year, to help local frontline charities across the country. The Agency Giving Fund forms part of NFU Mutual’s £3.25m funding pledge for both local and national charities in 2023, to assist with recovery from the pandemic and to help tackle the impact of the rising cost of living.

To ensure these donations reach all corners of the UK and are directed where they’re needed most, all NFU Mutual Agencies, with more than 295 offices nationwide, have been given the opportunity to nominate local charities to receive a share of the fund.

This donation has enabled Suffolk Accident Rescue Service (SARS) to continue providing advanced medical resources to the most serious medical incidents across Suffolk. SARS does not receive any central government funding and therefore relies on donations such as this generous contribution to ensure we are able to respond to those most in need. SARS clinicians volunteer their time to bring pre-hospital emergency medicine to the scene, saving lives, providing pain relief and improving patient outcomes.

Kim Turner, Fundraising Coordinater, Suffolk Accident Rescue Service, commented: e.g. “We’re so grateful to the Bury St Edmunds Agency of NFU Mutual for nominating our charity to receive a donation from the NFU Mutual Agency Giving Fund. Longstanding Partnerships with local businesses and organisations is essential for SARS to continue and grow.

David Blackwell, Senior Agent at NFU Mutual Bury St Edmunds agency “We’re extremely proud to support S.A.R.S for this donation, they do fantastic work assisting the emergency services and greatly improve the chances of survival when accidents happen in the local rural area, we have known them to often be the 1st responders to farm accidents.

Helps keep vital services going for the community

NFU Mutual Agents and their staff at the Bury St Edmunds Agency recently nominated local charities Suffolk Accident Rescue Service (SARS) & Gatehouse Bury St Edmunds, to receive a donation from NFU Mutual’s national £1.92million ‘Agency Giving Fund’.

The leading rural insurer has launched this fund, now in its fourth year, to help local frontline charities across the country. The Agency Giving Fund forms part of NFU Mutual’s £3.25m funding pledge for both local and national charities in 2023, to assist with recovery from the pandemic and to help tackle the impact of the rising cost of living.

To ensure these donations reach all corners of the UK and are directed where they’re needed most, all NFU Mutual Agencies, with more than 295 offices nationwide, have been given the opportunity to nominate local charities to receive a share of the fund.

This donation has enabled Suffolk Accident Rescue Service (SARS) to continue providing advanced medical resources to the most serious medical incidents across Suffolk. SARS does not receive any central government funding and therefore relies on donations such as this generous contribution to ensure we are able to respond to those most in need. SARS clinicians volunteer their time to bring pre-hospital emergency medicine to the scene, saving lives, providing pain relief and improving patient outcomes.

Kim Turner, Fundraising Coordinater, Suffolk Accident Rescue Service, commented: e.g. “We’re so grateful to the Bury St Edmunds Agency of NFU Mutual for nominating our charity to receive a donation from the NFU Mutual Agency Giving Fund. Longstanding Partnerships with local businesses and organisations is essential for SARS to continue and grow.

David Blackwell, Senior Agent at NFU Mutual Bury St Edmunds agency “We’re extremely proud to support S.A.R.S for this donation, they do fantastic work assisting the emergency services and greatly improve the chances of survival when accidents happen in the local rural area, we have known them to often be the 1st responders to farm accidents.

Dog-Friendly Scheme Celebrates 5 Year Anniversary

A scheme which enables residents and visitors to easily identify which shops, eateries, businesses, and attractions are Dog Friendly in Bury St Edmunds has celebrated its 5th Birthday.

Dog Friendly Bury St Edmunds was formed with a partnership between Bury St Edmunds Town Council, Camp Tails Doggy Daycare, Our Bury St Edmunds Business Improvement District (BID) and the tourism brand Bury St Edmunds and Beyond 5 years ago.

Every shop, eaterie, and attraction that is dog friendly in Bury St Edmunds displays a window sticker and branded dog bowl for use by their four-legged visitors. A list of all dog friendly businesses who have signed up to the scheme, now 140 and growing, can be found at www.dogfriendlybse.co.uk.

The anniversary has been marked with a revamped Dog Friendly window sticker for businesses and the addition of blue branded dog bowls, supported with a £500 donation from the locality budget of former Bury St Edmunds Town Councillor Richard Rout, £500 from Our Bury St Edmunds BID and £500 from Camp Tails Doggy Daycare.

Cllr Richard Rout, who is a councillor for West Suffolk and Suffolk County Councils, said: “As the owner of five dogs, it’s fantastic to live in West Suffolk where our towns and villages are so welcoming of canine guests. Dog Friendly BSE is a fine example of this. For the last 5 years, businesses that allow well behaved dogs have been able stand out from the crowd with window stickers and much needed water bowls, which are particularly useful on those warmer days. It’s a pleasure to support this brilliant initiative and my congratulations to all those who have made it such a success, I’m sure it will continue to bring dog owners flocking to the town.”

Owner of Camp Tails Doggy Daycare, who championed the scheme from the beginning, has just recently opened Bury St Edmunds first Hotel for Dogs – a boutique luxury offering to care for dogs – at his premises in Eastern Way.

Jon said: “Bury St Edmunds is now one of the most dog friendly towns in the country. It helps assist dogs gain valuable socialisation and desensitisation skills whilst at the same time supports and promotes local businesses. There are now so many places that you can take well-behaved dogs when you visit.”

Mike Kirkham, Business Support Manager for Our Bury St Edmunds BID, said: “Bury St Edmunds is a great place to shop, eat and relax. We want as many people as possible to enjoy their visit to our historic town, so we are really pleased that so many businesses invite customers to do this alongside their canine companions.”

For more information about Bury St Edmunds Dog Friendly Scheme visit www.dogfriendlybse.co.uk

BID Member Weekly news w/c 15th May

  • Spring Fayre 28th & 29th May

The Spring Fayre is just around the corner!

We have created some graphics to be used over social media to further promote the event! We recently shared these as a news article on the BID Members News on our website but in case you missed this and would like to help promote this popular event you can download and use the images via this page: https://www.ourburystedmunds.com/latest-news . Also, we still have some A4 & A3 posters of the event so if you would like to display one in your window, just email mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com  and we will deliver to you.

  • Burys Open Gardens in aid of St Nicholas Hospice

This year’s  Hidden Gardens will be held on Sunday 2nd July from 11 am to 5pm in aid of St Nicholas Hospice Care. As you are probably aware this extremely popular events regularly draws in over 2,000 visitors and creates a lovely atmosphere throughout the town.

Businesses may want to adjust their staffing levels accordingly and may also like to consider fundraising for their local hospice.  If you do then please contact Heather Warren, their Community Fundraiser at Heather.Warren@stnh.org.uk who can provide you with more information including collection tins.

  • Make Music Day & Suffolk Day – 21st June

As I have mentioned previously we will be celebrating both International Make Music Day and Suffolk Day on Wednesday 21st June. We will providing opportunities for musicians, bands, singers & choirs to perform within either the Provisions Market and/or Charter Square between 10.30 & 4.30pm.

We have had a great response so far but there are still more performance spots available for anyone who is interested and all they need to do is contact me for more information. So if you know of anyone who might be interested please make them aware.

  • Bury Free Press Business Awards

Nominations for the above are open from today for the awards that will be held on the 13th October. The BID are once again delighted to be sponsoring the Customer Service award.

I would though encourage you all to click on this link Bury Business Awards 2023 – Enter Now! – Bury Free Press (iliffemediapromotions.co.uk) to see which categories you think might be appropriate for your business and/or an employee(s) and you can either nominate yourself or one of your customers can.

If shortlisted for an award there are considerable promotional benefits available to you, as the event is organised by our local weekly paper, who also have a considerable digital presence.

Best of luck!

  • Our new website

Our plans are progressing well for our new website to go live before the end of the month. Next week I will be in touch about how you can access and amend your business listing and also add details of any jobs, events or offers you wish the public to be aware of.

I will circulate a single subject email explaining all you have to do and how you can discover how you can update the issues I mention above.

Believe me it is pretty straightforward as even I could do this!

Have a great weekend

BID Member Weekly news w/c 8th May

  • Spring Fayre

At the end of this month (28th & 29th May) will see our first significant town centre event for 2023, the Spring Fayre (previously The Whitsun Fayre).

Our events bring in significant additional footfall which ensures more people discover the town centre and BID businesses. Also, as a Free Entry event with many Free Activities and Free Games, visitors will hopefully be more inclined to spend locally and boost the town centre economy.

Marketing for this event has already begun and will ramp up as we approach the date so in support of this it would be great if you could display the attached A4 Event poster in your business window.

It is also available in A3 and if you would prefer us to deliver a hard copy to you just email mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com

 

  • Place Promotions App

You may have seen across social media our latest results  highlighting that we have exceeded 46,000 interactions and 3,000 registered users in Bury St Edmunds which continues to grow. We are very pleased with these results and wish to thank member businesses for their support and engagement with this free service that we provide in partnership with LoyalFree www.loyalfree.co.uk . App – Bury St Eds Headline Stats

If you would like to become involved, then please contact mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com who is happy to assist.

 

 

  • Training Courses

We are pleased that so many members are taking advantage of our free training courses. We have places left for.

Mental Health Awareness on Monday 26th June (half day)

Mental Health Awareness on Monday 25th September (half day)

Fire Marshal on Monday 2nd October (half day)

Emergency First Aid at Work on Tuesday 24th October (full day)

If you’d like to take advantage of any of the above, please contact mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com

  • BID Members accessing our new website

With the launch of our new website later this month I wanted to let you know let you know about its new updated features and how they can aid you in your business.

Each business will be given a unique account to log in, to manage its business listing.

The business physical address, telephone number, email address, social media handles, website link, description, and images can be changed or updated at the click of a button.

Not only this, but through your profile, you can add events, offers, the latest news and job listings.

These will appear on your own page, as well as the main over-view pages gaining extra exposure for you.

To set up your account will require you to input an email address you are happy to use for this purpose.

I am working on the assumption that this will be the email address you use to receive my weekly emails but if this is not the case then please let me know which email address you would prefer to use so we can get the back office records set up for when we go live.

 

We are currently creating guides for the website, including How to update your business listing. These will be coming to you soon.

 

  • AGM

Just a reminder that the above will be held at The Guildhall from 6pm on Thursday 15th June. To reduce our printing costs, an environmental footprint, we will be looking to send, electronically, to those who inform us they are attending, the papers for the meeting with limited copies available on the night.

Also, if you have any questions you would like to raise please let me know, so we can ensure providing the best informed answer.

If you intend attending then could you let my colleague Jackie know, jackie.regan@ourburystedmunds.com and also if you have any dietary requirements as refreshments will be provided.

 

BID Member Weekly news w/c 24th April

  • Velvet Food & Drink Awards

Please find attached details of the Velvet Food & Drink Awards 2023, and the link to the website is below:

https://www.iliffemediapromotions.co.uk/velvet-food-drink-awards/

There are 8 categories and – it would be great if some of our BID members entered. It’s a public vote where the 3 businesses, with the most votes, in each category, get short-listed and judged by a panel of experts, entries close on 31st May. So it might be worthwhile asking your customers to nominate your business for one or more of the categories. The geographical area covered by the awards is: West Suffolk, Cambridge and North Essex.

 

  • Make Music Day – 21st June

You may have seen in the local media that we are working with the arc and the District Council on providing some places for performers on the above date, which is also Suffolk Day, to celebrate International Music Day. Attached is a flyer about the day and if you know any musicians and/or singers who you think would like to perform in the town on this date please pass on my contact details and ask them to get in touch.

 

  • Our new website will be with us soon

I just wanted to make you aware that we are approaching the final testing stage of our new website and we will be contacting you shortly with further details about this and explaining how you can access & update your business listing, add offers and jobs for the public to see. We are very pleased with how things are going, what it looks like and its functionality and the better service it will provide to your current and potential customers. So watch this space for further updates over the next couple of weeks or so.

  • Coronation shop front and/or products

Its only just over a week to the Coronation and I know that many of you are getting into the spirit so if you have any window displays or products which are Coronation linked please let Grace know at pr@ourburystedmunds.com and she can spread the word to our social media followers.

 

  • Defibrillators Save Lives – Used printer cartridges.

You may be aware that we support a scheme that includes the provision of used printer ink / toner cartridges collections bins in the Apex as part of the national Keeping Hearts Beating campaign. These recycled cartridges are turned into cash which is then used to fund additional defibrillators including numerous ones in our town centre. Most recently (being officially launched this week) this includes a publicly accessible 24/7 defibrillator fixed to the external wall of Verve Bar & Restaurant in response to a request linked to our night-time economy.

You may also be aware that a defibrillator session is included in our free first aid courses.

So if you have printer cartridges that you would like to recycle then please make use of these collection bins and your contributions will be gratefully received. If you require any further information, contact mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com

Celebrate Suffolk Day by making music with Our Bury St Edmunds

Celebrate Suffolk Day by making music with Our Bury St Edmunds

Live music is coming to Bury St Edmunds town centre in a special event to celebrate Suffolk Day on June 21.

Our Bury St Edmunds, which runs the Business Improvement District (BID), has teamed up with the organisers of Make Music Day – an international event which takes place annually in 125 countries on 21 June. As this is also the day when the county of Suffolk is celebrated, the team at the BID have combined both to fill the town centre with music and celebrate the talented artists from Bury St Edmunds and around Suffolk.

Chief Executive of Our Bury St Edmunds, Mark Cordell said: “The town has a long established reputation for music – the annual competition BurySound which has brought a number of musicians to national acclaim has just celebrated 25 years and I congratulate BlueFeed on their win last week and Bury-based Outbound who took the rising star award. We have some fantastic venues in the town centre such as The Grapes, Hunter Club, Market Cross, Theatre Royal and The Apex and we’d love to see established acts from the local music scene as well as up and coming artists perform on Make Music Day.”

Two performance spaces in the market area and arc Shopping Centre will see local talented musicians perform between 10.30am and 4.30pm.

The event coincides with Suffolk County Music Service’s annual WCET Festival at The Apex. Primary schools in the county are invited to take part in Whole Class Ensemble Tuition and form a large orchestra for the day culminating in a concert for an invited audience. More than 2,000 children from 64 different schools will be involved in events in Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich and Lowestoft across two weeks. In addition to the day’s live music events, regular market trader vinyl record dealer MistyMountainMusic also plans to be involved.

Mark Cordell added: “We look forward to hearing an eclectic mix to celebrate both Suffolk Day and Make Music Day.”

Further information is available at Making Music in Bury St Edmunds on Suffolk Day! – Make Music Day.

BID Member Weekly News, w/c 10th April

  • Spring Fayre

Next month (28th & 29th May) will see our first significant town centre event for 2023, the Spring Fayre (previously The Whitsun Fayre). Our events bring in significant additional footfall which ensure more people discover the town centre and BID businesses. Also, as a Free Entry event with many Free Activities and Free Games visitors will hopefully be more inclined to spend locally and boost the town centre economy. Marketing for this event has already begun and will ramp up as we approach the date so in support of this it would be great if you could display the attached A4 Event Poster in your business window. It is also available in A3 and if you would prefer us to deliver a hard copy to you just email mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com

  • Free Training Courses

You will be aware that we continue to provide a range of free training courses for BID Businesses including the popular Emergency First Aid at Work (with defibrillator element), Fire Marshal and Mental Health Awareness.

There is now an opportunity to add a Neurodiversity Awareness (3 hours) course but before doing so we would like to gauge the level of interest for this. This course would help attendees understand a range of neurodiverse conditions including dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, ADHD, and autism.

Attendees would develop a better appreciation of the challenges that can be faced by neurodivergent individuals and explore steps that can be taken to make interactions and environments more accommodating for those with neurodiverse conditions. If this course would be of interest, then please email mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com

 

  • Free Google Digital Training – 26th April

The New Anglia LEP have organised the above for a half day session from 9am to 1pm at Ashlar House, in town, on the Eastern Way Industrial Estate.

This is an opportunity for small businesses to access expert advice and guidance for free.

Click on this link Google is coming to Bury St Edmunds – Google Digital Garage Tickets, Wed 26 Apr 2023 at 09:00 | Eventbrite to find out more about the session and how you can book your spot.

  • Coronation Weekend

With the above taking place in early May you may well be planning to commemorate this with events, products or services to celebrate the Coronation of the King.

If this is the case please let us know and we will be very happy to spread the word to all of our social media followers to raise the profile of what you are doing. Just contact Mike Kirkham at mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com and he’ll arrange this promotional activity for you.

  • BID AGM

Here’s a date for your diary, our AGM will be held at The Guildhall from 6pm on Thursday 15th June. This is an opportunity for BID businesses to meet our Board members and our staff and hear about what we have achieved during the financial year 22/23.

Additionally our priorities for the forthcoming financial year, will be outlined.

In order to make the necessary logistical arrangements, if you would like to come along can you let my colleague Jackie Regan at jackie.regan@ourburystedmunds.com know and also if you have any dietary requirements can you make her aware as we will be providing refreshments for those attending.