Derby

And that's what I did with my pieces.

The fact that we're asking the people coming to our opening on October the 23rd at the Artcore Gallery in Derby to come dressed in their velvets and their wildest clothes is to set the tone for the whole exhibition.

And that is what it's been about because...

For years and years, and all of us within this group, and I know a lot of the listeners will identify with, we weren't encouraged to be powerful growing up.

It's driven by the hearts and passions of real women who have decided that now is a time we claim our space, we claim our place, and we are stepping up and showing up in a big way, hopefully to inspire everyone else who comes to our show as well.

As a little thank you to the first 51 people who come through the door on our opening night, we've got a little gift for you, but it's only for the first 51.

So you need to be there at six o'clock at Artcore Gallery in Derby to get your special gift.

And I think that's everything we wanted to say in this episode of Art Crush.

In this episode, I am joined by Jessica Messenger, psychic, occultist, and founder of a new occult bookshop, Craft House, in the city of Derby, England.

Jessica recalls her idyllic childhood in the Midlands of England, her early affinity for the weird and the mystical, and how a life-changing experience at age 17 drove her to a lifelong study of the occult.

Jessica discusses psychic gifts, mediumship, tarot, ritual, and describes how she used chaos magic to radically change her financial circumstances.

Mm-hmm.

I'm curious if you could say something about the context of your upbringing.

You were born and raised in Derby.

Yeah.

Um, uh, I understand you're a dancer, trained dancer and so on.

And as I cruise the UK's canal network in my little boat, I shall bring you true crime cases from the cities, towns, and villages I visit.

This week, I'm in Derby and Derbyshire, where a simple missing persons case unearthed something a lot more sinister.

[gentle music] My name is Michael, I'm your tour guide, and this is Murder Mile.

Episode 369, Cracks in the Concrete.

In 2008, having known each other since childhood, while living in the same block of flats, a relationship blossomed between Iza and her friend, Anna Podworna.

And with Bozena, Iza's mother, looking after nine-year-old Kasia, in 2009, Iza and Anna headed to England for work.

[plane roaring] London proved too expensive, so they headed to the smaller city of Derby in the East Midlands, with a population of a quarter of a million and surrounded by factories, all seeking hardworking immigrants willing to do the dirtiest of jobs for a minimum wage.

With a good work history and no criminal record, Iza and Anna got jobs at Cranberry Foods, a turkey processing plant in Scropton, 20 miles west of the city.

Brocard has also traveled the world filming and making documentaries about paranormal locations.

During summer 2024, she conducted a ghost hunt at the Download Festival at Donington Park in Derby, where she claims she made contact with spirits from the 18th century.

She said, quote, "One ghost was a man named George, a pompous fox hunting fanatic who was surely lingering around to mosh to Busted, the band."

Sounds like Harry.

Because lawyers cost money, and Florence Stoker didn't have a ton despite the success of her late husband's novels, because it wasn't like he was writing anything new to bring income into the household by that point.

So when an Irish playwright named Hamilton Dean, who was a member of Irving's Theatre Company, went to her asking for the rights to adapt Dracula into a stage play, she sold them to him, and he premiered it in 1924 at the Grand Theatre in Derby, England.

The play was vastly cut down from the novel, both in scope and spectacle.

Under the Theater's Act of 1843, Dean was required to submit the script to censors, who among other things told him that he couldn't depict the death of the titular vampire on stage, but it had a number of flashy theatrical illusions that proved to be crowd-pleasers, and it soon became a roaring success.

The cricket regulator has charged the fast bowler Brydon Cass with breaching the England and Wales Cricket Board's professional conduct rules.

The allegations relate to an incident involving the 31-year-old, which happened outside a nightclub in Derby in August, just before England's second test against Pakistan.

The case has been referred to the Independent Cricket Discipline Panel.

If you're a big fan of the celebrity traitors, you might want to turn down the volume for the next 69 seconds.

He says, "That was a bit of a thing back in the day." Um, "Dennis Law, Man United, then helped relegate them with Man City." That's a really great example.

Uh, "Chris Commons played for Nottingham Forest, then came to Derby." Are we, are we not mentioning Brian Clough there? Jesus Christ.

Derby to Nottingham Forest.

I used to have a joke that I used to do when I gigged in Derby or Nottingham, uh, 'cause Brian Clough Road links the, uh, two towns.

I used to say it's very, it's very symptomatic of the East Midlands that you're linked by a road which is named after a violent alcoholic.

[laughs] Didn't always go down that well, I'll be honest.

yeah they're mecha modelling and stuff you know yeah I ought to try one of those I've not had a go yet

yeah I bought some from Boards and Swords in Derby a few months ago and I shout out to Boards and Swords shout out to Boards and Swords hi Ian I don't know the guy who owns it there's some amazing cake there as well yeah you can buy paint and cake it's a phenomenal shop um But I bought some from there, and I tried painting some of the details on the Helldrake.

You know, the wings have got a lot of trim.

It's just fantastic.