Mayfair's Bank Holiday Blowout!

Mayfair's Bank Holiday Blowout was a smashing success as reseidents were treated to a mutlitude of parties and events. The festivities began with a fun fair, so residents chose to take it easy on the Carosel while others tempted fate (and their stomachs) on the Vortex. The Grand Ferris Wheel offered spectacular views of Mayfair and Hyde Park while the Blow-Out made more than a few residents dizzy.



After a day of rides and free beer Residents were given the royal treatment by attending the Queen Concert at Marble Arch. Freddie Mercury (Tayla Tigerfish) and the band (Snak3y Tryce and Wiccy Shackelton) gave a rousing live performance as partiers danced the night away. Regent Parx put down his pork pie and fag just long anough to provide some back up music. An amazing fireworks display followed the concert, people craned their necks skyward to see fantastic bursts of colours light up the night sky over Mayfair.



As they say, there is no rest for the wicked and Sunday was no exception. A Cash For Questions contest was held durring the day followed by a second concert event. Simon & Garfunkel took the stage Sunday night and played to a well recieved audience. The stage, located near Eros Fountain and Mayhem Dance Club, could hardly contain the excitement of this amazing duo. Some of the fans were so excited they fainted or stormed the stage for an autograph. The singing duo (played by Tayla Tigerfish and Snak3y Tryce) were undaunted and continued to play til the last song. Following the concert residents had the chance to party the night awy at Mayhem while others chose to hop over to Bogies Bar where The King of Rock & Roll, Elvis himself, gave a live performance on stage.



Monday capped off the weekends events with a cash canon and sim race. For those still awake and ready to party, Bogies Bar & Lounge presented Swelter in Mayfair - The London Beach Party! Susan Littlething took the stage at the totally transformed Bogies Bar where Wendy Helstein welcomed the weekend weary visitors. With her enthusiasm and winning personality people couldnt help but be energized and partied the rest of the bank holiday away!

Westminster Fun Weekend

Well it's the height of summer and the last UK Bank Holiday of the year, so we all knew the weather was going to be pants, but hey! we didn't care one bit because over on the Westminster sim we were having the best time, making the most of a couple of days away from RL work at the first Westminster Fun Weekend.
There were some puzzled looks late on friday as the road network around Westminster began to be closed off to make way for the weekend's street racing and the area around the square was cleared to make way for the live music stage and the fairground rides.

By saturday afternoon things were all in place and DJ Plastique Munro kicked things off with two hours of disc spinning and dancing in The Green Man, While outside the Street Car Racing began.







On the stage in the square, the first of the weekend's live music events started with The legendary Thumper Boucher playing his first Westminster gig to a packed audience of music lovers from throughout Second Life. If you have never seen a Thumper gig before now, you really should check him out, sultry funk and soul and a badass bass player too!




Over at The A List, Crofty, Donna, Sara and the gang were keeping the young 'uns entertained with dance tunes and contests late into the night and some great giveaways, courtesy of our fun weekend store sponsors, while in the square, DJs Petr Davids and Minxy kept the party going late into sunday morning while I did my best to crash the sim with a late night fireworks display!



Cue a bleary eyed Phill on Sunday morning and after several mugs of coffee, it was time for more mayhem with a morning street race around Westminster and DJ Jacomo Beltran starting the day's music and making his Westminster debut over at The Green Man, getting the ladies swooning with his sultry German tones!





Later in the square, there was more live music from The Rails, a Canadian band from Toronto and favourites of a lot of The Green Man regulars. It was my first time at a Rails gig and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the show, they kept the crowd entertained with great songs and banter and I know they will definitely be back at Westminster real soon.



DJ CiaraNiamh McDonnell continued the after gig party till early monday morning while the regulars danced the night away in the square.
It was so good meeting so many new faces as well as welcoming old SL friends who I hadnt seen for the longest time. The whole weekend was a blast and we already have plans for a lot more live music and special events in Westminster.
I must say a special thanks to Fibi Felisimo and kai Sachertorte for their help in organising the weekend's events, Croft Atolia and the gang over at The A List Club, all the hosts and DJs over at The Green Man for their hard work and dedication to Westminster and to Westminster store owner's Mojo Cisse from Mojo's, Charles2 McCaw from New York Couture and Zoex Flanagan from Miu for their kind donations of prizes and voucher giveaways for the weekend's competitions.

All the best from Westminster
Philly No Shoes!

Bank Holiday in London

The Queen Mother Gates

Introducing London's latest landmark, The Queen Mother Gates.

The Queen Mother Gates where opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 6 July 1993. They where built by money raised by public donors under the patronage of HRH Prince Michael of Kent to honour Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother on her 93rd Birthday.

The Queen Mother Gates - officially known as the 'Queen Elizabeth Gate' - lead into The Carriage Road in Hyde Park from Park Lane in real life, and are placed in almost exactly the same place in London in Second Life.

Expertly created by Billy Arentire with texture work by Ice Hartshon, this structure puts The London Sims ever closer to its goal of replicating Real Life London.



Click Here To Visit The Gates

Hello from Phill at Westminster

Well it has been just over a week now since i started my new post as sim manager over on the Westminster sim.
So far, so good, I have managed not to accidentally return the sim to Deb's inventory so in my books thats a good week ;)
Some of you old timers in Second Life may remember me many moons ago from the the Three Lions Pub. It closed it's doors a couple of years back now due to real life commitments and since then i have been away from virtual world stuff apart from the odd bit of building work here and there.
A few months ago though, I discovered The London Sims by chance on a rare visit into SL with my partner, kai Sachertorte and we immediately fell in love with the place and rented a home in Mayfair.
There is something very unique about the London sims that makes it stand out amongst the many attractions in Second Life. Fantastic buildings and layout, some amazing clubs and hangouts and a great team of knowledgable greeters over in Hyde Park on hand to help newcomers on their first important steps on their journey into SL.
What makes it such a special place for me though is the strong community feel everywhere you go in London. every one of the sims here has it's own group of staff and regulars on hand and you are always guaranteed a welcome and a place to call home. So much of Second Life seems disjointed and cold these days and i feel very fortunate to have found London and made it my new home.

So, on to more recent events and I have been fortunate enough to be entrusted with the care of Westminster by Debs and Torric and the team. I am still getting to know everyone at the moment but I do know that there are some amazing talents working there already, bringing daily entertainment, fun and frivolity to the city.
Over the next few weeks, we will be organising a lot of fun events and we value you, the residents and visitors to Westminster's input on what you would like to see going on there in the future. I always say that communities are what make Second Life special and there is already a great crowd at Westminster, we have The Green Man pub and The A List as well as a growing selection of some of the finest designers in SL running stores here.

Well thats it from me for now, but if you see me around Westminster, don't be shy, come and say hello, I love meeting new people and listening to your SL stories.

All The Best
Phill Plasma

Time Warp at the Three Bells

Monday was a groovy night at the Three Bells as Londoners enjoyed a time warp to the 70's hosted by manager Rosie Haroldson, Asst. manager Blonde Avon and DJ Jack Rosea.

The prize was a cool 200L and dancers competed for the psychedelic title while dancing to fabulous 70's tunes.

Looking for more happening events? Check the Weekly Club updates page AND

TP to the PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! at the Three Bells

Pool Party at the A-List

18th August 2010 was a warm night, so The A-List set up a pool and decided to have a pool party.

DJ Prettybones was playing the music and the hostesses donna and sara0long were there keeping the party flowing.

The club was full of people who were all enjoying themselves playing in the pool and drinking and dancing. The contest board was open for the best swimwear which was won jointly by Rin Atolia and Genie Zulaman.

A great time was had by all, the music kept coming and the party went on into the night from 9pm-2am UK/1pm-6pm SL.

The A-list is starting to become a popular venue again with different themes every night. We have a board on the wall displaying the week's events/themes.... Contest board with avatar photo display... and a flashing squares dance floor... complete with dance poles so feel free to pop in, join in the party at any time and say hello to Croft, Donna, Sara0long and the fellow party goers there.

"The A-List, Rocking London"

Songbyrd Chiantelle Celebrates Rezz Day at the Rendezvous!

Rendezvous in Kensington London celebrated staff member Songbyrd Chiantelle's first Rezz day Monday Aug 9 with a Japanese themed celebration. Party goers enjoyed traditional cherry blossom trees and lightened lanterns and fantastic music by London's DJ Thom MacBain.

Arrizz Janus 1969 - 2010, A Tribute

Saturday in the Green Man, Westminster there was great joy, tinged with great sadness as we celebrated the life of Arriz Janus, known to many in Second Life as a DJ and friend.

Arizz (Liam Mansfield) was a long-time DJ at the Bushy Beard pub in Brugge and Fibbers in Dublin. Sadly he lost his fight with cancer earlier this year and tonight his family and friends assembled in the Green Man, the Bushies' refuge in SL London, to honour his memory and share our own memories of a talented and truly funny man.

Music was provided by fellow DJs Plastique Munro, CiaraNiamh McDonnell, Petr Davids and Arriz's partner minxy Denimore and we came close to crashing the SIM. There were so many people in the SIM at one point that we attracted the notice of Debs Regent, London owner.

All proceeds of the event are being donated to Relay for Life Cancer Research.

by Rob Fenwitch

Texturing in Second Life

Recently Linden Labs have made changes to the way that textures load in your viewer.

For most people the only difference you will see is that Textures load quicker in most places.

For the technically minded Textures were loaded by the internet protocol UDP by the simulator itself, but ongoing the intention is that this will be loaded by HTTP easing the load on the sim, there are also planning to roll out software that will make sim crossings less laggy and smoother. This is due to be in beta soon so a roll out cant be far away .

Some beta versions of Emerald don't support the http textures properly and as I type ;Emerald 1.23.5.1636 is ok, viewer 2 and its betas and snowglobe should work ok, but in some sims http hasn't been implemented.

UDP still has no plans to be phased out as far as i can see so if you are a legacy, viewer user, you should see a bit of improvement as more and more users take advantage on the http delivery and less use the UDP. Hope this is helpful.

In some places its been seems that the loading of external web pages in the internal browser makes objects and textures disappear and reappear when the browser is closed , Im guessing here that the HTTP bandwidth get used up by the browser and returned to the viewer we your browsing on the net stops.

Wiccy’s birthday!

Wiccy Shackleton has been a dedicated member of the London team for over a
year now. He ran the Coach and Horses with great success – remember the potty
races and the bathtub races? I took part on one - racing round the streets of Mayfair.
Wiccy was always there to see us off and to welcome us back. From those days,
he has gone on to become Torric’s deputy, helping Torric in running both Mayfair
and Westminster. Wiccy is a valuable member of the team.

Say ‘Hi’ to him if you see him in London!

This week London’s team held a surprise birthday party for Wiccy’s at the A-List in
Westminster. Thanks to Croft Atolia it was a great occasion. Loads of balloons, cake,
an open bar and lovely dancers.

Many of Wiccy’s friends came and the music was great too. What a great Dj! A real
selection of new hits and oldies and we all enjoyed it. We all danced the conga – for
hours on end to both modern hits and oldies.

Wiccy was given a big cake and lots of surprises. I gave him a cake too – but he
decided to wear it instead – No Wiccy that isn’t what you do with a cake – or maybe
foxes do? Does anyone know?

Torric was caught in the act of being on duty – checking texts from his tenants
while in the Conga Line! Now that is dedication! Perhaps he was secretly texting
someone – let us know what you think he was texting – and to who?

The party went on for hours and we were all laughing for ages - there was loads of
cake there for everyone. I think some got drunk too – but I’m not naming names –
you know who you are!

Happy Birthday Wiccy and thank you Croft
for making it such a memorable night!

/Debs Regent