You may have encountered the dynamic personality of Huey Morgan in many ways. Frontman, radio and television broadcaster, author and DJ, Huey is many things at once. 

Coming to prominence as the frontman and driving force of the eclectic American Rap/Rock outfit Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Morgan led the band from 1993 – 2021. 

Best known for the hit record Scooby Snacks, Fun Lovin’ Criminals released 6 albums between 1996 and 2010 and sold over 10 million records. As host of The Huey Show on BBC Radio 6 since 2008, Morgan is a cherished voice on national radio in the UK, where he hosts a mix of Hip Hop, Soul, Punk, Funk, Rock and everything in between to his listeners. 

A charismatic, authentic, passionate, and popular renegade himself, Huey’s groove is infectious. And now he’s heading out on a solo tour – mixing music and chat – so fans can get up close and personal with Huey Morgan – The Fun Lovin' Criminal.

The
High Priestess of Punk burst onto the scene in 1976 as she forged dual careers as a
musician and actress who featured at The National Theatre and London’s Royal Court. 

Her
role in Quadrophenia made her a household name and soon after she gate-crashed the
charts with It’s A Mystery, I Want To Be Free, and Thunder In The Mountains, as the album,
Anthem, earned a gold disc, and BRIT Award Best Female as well as a BRIT Nomination for
British Breakthrough Act. She married King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp in 1986, and she
starred opposite Sir Laurence Olivier and The Who’s Rodger Daltrey, among others.

Acting,
presenting, performing, headlining tours, and releasing 23 studio albums continued her
unique story and now it’s time to reflect. With a new book in the offing, Toyah is hitting the
road for an extensive UK tour in which she’ll sing favourite hits and tell stories from her
remarkable career.

We will discuss past, present and future space missions that have shown these planets in amazing detail. We will also look at their various families of moons – Jupiter now has 95! A veritable mini solar system in its own right. 

No talk about the gas giants would be complete without discussing one of the most successful space missions of all time – the Cassini probe to Saturn – extraordinary details in its rings and moons were revealed.

We will discuss why it was re-classified as a ‘dwarf planet’ but show that irrespective of how we define it the New Horizons probe revealed to us the most intriguing world – a surface unlike any other with its own family of ‘minimoons’.

We will also discuss the related and most distant worlds from the Sun – the trans Neptunian objects.

Comets are therefore essential for our existence providing the Earth with the necessary ingredients for life ‘as we know it’. However, it has also been shown that the impact of comets, and their more rocky cousins the asteroids, on the Earth over many eons have caused major destruction – including mass extinctions – most notably in the famous case of the dinosaurs. Ultimately that was also to our benefit, allowing the mammals to ‘come out of hiding’. 

The next one may not be! – however current space missions dedicated to deflecting asteroids have shown that we can for the first time in history do something about it!

In this talk we will discuss each of these diverse worlds in detail. Mercury – moon sized and extremely hot. Venus – even hotter thanks to a ‘runaway greenhouse effect’. 

The Earth, ‘just right’, being in the so called Sun’s habitable zone allowing life to thrive on its surface. The Earth will be put in context and described from a planetary perspective.

In this talk we will endeavour to show what an extraordinary world we have 'on the doorstep' (astronomically speaking). 

Questions such as: 'Why do we always see the same side of the Moon' and 'Why does the Moon appear very large as it rises or sets', will be addressed as well as some of the Moon's still unsolved mysteries. 

We will also discuss human exploration of the Moon – from Apollo to exciting plans for the near future.

We will consider the origin of the solar system and then give a brief overview of each major planet and their interesting families of moons. We will show how to find planets in the night sky and briefly discuss the equipment needed to observe them in more detail.

Our Astronomy Talks will be brought to you by Dr Fred Stevenson.

Dr Stevenson obtained a degree in Physics with Astrophysics from the University of Leicester in 1980 followed by a PhD in Cosmology from Durham University in 1986. 

After further research he has spent the past twenty five years teaching adult education classes in astronomy, physics and mathematics at a variety of venues throughout Northumberland, County Durham and North Yorkshire. 

He has organized and taught numerous weekend courses in astronomy based in the Kielder forest park and other venues in the North Pennines. Fred is passionate about talking to the public about astronomy and has given numerous talks to astro societies and other groups. 

When he is not teaching Fred can be found wandering the moors and fells of the North of England and also in our Theatre bringing you these very exciting talks.