... Tower revamp By ROBIN DUKE THE CONTROVERSIAL £17 million revamp of Blackpool Tower has been approved by the Department of the Environment. The decision has ended months of deadlock over the historic build ing's future and allows owners First Leisure to go ahead with plans for a radical facelift. The plans including replacing the century old live circus with a com puterised animatronics ...

... Hyatt gets US bar A £900,000 BAR extension is being constructed at Birming ham's newest and most presti gious Hyatt-Regency Hotel. The 23-storey building in Broad Street and situated opposite the £150 million International Convention Centre is preparing to open a theme pub featuring live enter tainment on a daily basis. Manager Ron Hilvert was reluctant to reveal too much about the plans at ...

... Venue faces cash crisis By HELEN GOULD POPULAR East London variety theatre, the Hackney Empire has revealed that it pays the tax man almost six times as much as its annual state subsidy. This year it has received a state con tribution of only 32 pence, per person per ticket, which is almost 20 times less than the average subsidy per seat in regional theatres. The astonishing figures have been ...

... Bristol's kinder Christmas A VARIETY concert at Bristol Hippodrome on Sunday (Decem ber 2), organised by comedian Rob E Ryan, raised £5,500 for a children's charity, writes Dennis Dethendge. Performers from throughout the West Country took part in The CLJC '90 Variety Show, in aid of the Bnstol- based Cancer and Leukemia In Children. The four-hour production, com pered by Rob E Ryan, featured ...

... O'Brien tells Horror Show to rock off THE AUTHOR of the cult musical, The Rocky Horror Show, has banned a disco version-two years after it was launched, writes George Dearsley. Kitsch guru Richard O'Brien's deci sion has cost dance troupe organiser, Lee Howard at least £10,000 in over heads after scores of shows had to be cancelled. Lee, 20, onginally set up the Rocky Horror Disco Show with ...

... Club classic SINCE its refurbishment in December 1989, Wokingham Town Football Club has contin ued to offer light entertainment to the residents of the Berkshire town. Booked from the end of November until January 1991, female singing comedy duo, Livewire, are the Christ mas attraction with most perfor mances already sold out. Seating up to 160, the venue, run by club manager Roy Merryweather, ...

... Rats change the guard A PRINCE among rats. No insult intended to Mrs Wind sor's youngest, PRINCE ED WARD was guest of honour for the Grand Order of Water Rats annual gala board at the Grosvenor House Hotel when DAVID LODGE Chief Rat for 1990 handed over power to his newly elected successor WYN CALVIN. Awards went to Nicholas Lyndhurst, star of Only Fools and Horses, who was chosen as show- ...

... Tennis stars work on video smash TENNIS champions John McEnroe and Pat Cash are rumoured to be the stars of a new spoof rock and video venture to help victims of the Armenian earthquake. The sportsmen will be banding together for a single which is expected to be in the record shops early next vear. Joining their antics will be several leading international rock musicians. A substantial advance ...

... EC pirate crackdown EAST European states who apply to join the European Community may be forced to prove they have cracked down on music industry pirates before they can qualify for membership, writes Brian Aawood. Record industry watchdog the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry wants to use the EC as a lever to put a stop to the growing black market trade which has ...

... Snow-business! AVID fans of impressionist Joe Longthorne (right) will brave anything, even atrocious weather conditions, to see their hero perform. Jean Carbutt one of his most dedicated followers, ploughed her way through the weekend snowstorms with three friends from Broxbourne in Hertford shire to Central Television's Nottingham studios where Longthorne was to record the last programme in ...

... Illness puts Milligan on hold COMEDIAN Spike Milligan has been forced to drop plans to appear in pantomime at the Assembly Hall, Royal Tunbridge Wells, on doctor's orders. The ex-Goon was looking for ward to his second Christmas show at the venue following his successful appearance there last year. But a spokesman for the the atre said that Milligan had received medical advice warning him not ...

... Gays blast disco ban bid ANGRY gay activists have criticised a leading Bath councillor in a row over their application to hold a disco at Bath sports centre. Gaywest, a social and support group for gay people in the south west, has applied to hire the Avon suite at the centre for a disco. But Elgar Jenkins man of the city council spa and recreation committee, believes the group may cause ...