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LFB-LMB winter party 2023: were you there?
‘Pics or it didn’t happen’? Ah yes, we have the pics...
THE final meeting of London Freelance Branch in 2023 was our traditional winter in-person get-together. As per last year we joined forces with our London Magazine Branch colleagues in the heart of Soho to renew auld acquaintance, eat gluten-free mince pies and puzzle over the sandwich platter ingredients.
[L-R] Investigative journalism legend Duncan Campbell, Tim Gopsill (LFB Chair), everyone's favourite ex-Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell, and Mariam Elsayeh Ibrahim (LFB Membership Secretary) express their delight at the arrival of the Tatler paparazzi, just before being told the photos were for the Barnsley Chronicle.
The venue was St Anne's Church hall at the bottom of Dean Street: not only easy to locate thanks to its unchurch-like neon sign at the front door but also fully wheelchair-accessible. The lack of steps throughout was appreciated by certain partygoers on leaving at the end.
[L-R] LFB Social Media guru Nika Talbot advises long-time Branch activist Jenny Vaughan to leave the sweet-and-sour wraps well alone. Sound advice. Everyone else did.
Food and refreshments were served, including gluten-free options and even one or two sandwiches containing "meat". Despite ordering double the quantity of drinks compared with last year, the party organisers observed that this year's guests drank twice as much, twice as quickly. Our party newsfloor runner was sent out to Tesco to buy top-ups no less than four times during the evening.
[L-R] Documentary maker and NUJ Badge of Honour recipient Marc Wadsworth shares a joke (sorry, just kidding, it's a caption cliché) in conversation (there, that's better) with photographer and ex-deputy chair of LFB Pierre Alozie.
The tradition of holding a pre-Christmas social event in place of the monthly LFB business meeting each December is lost in the annals of Branch history. This writer remembers when the winter party was a joint endeavour between LFB and the old Photographers' Branch – before the two were subsequently merged – in which guests grazed sandwiches that had been laid out in a hired boardroom in NUJ's previous HQ on Gray's Inn Road [now demolished, as the Editor discovered on a banner-fetching mission]. Holding the event jointly with London Magazine Branch is a relatively new innovation successfully revived last year for our first post-Covid in-person social.
[L-R] Photographer Julio Etchart smiles innocently while plotting to find his way into every single photo taken at the event, as LFB Secretary Alistair Dabbs helps himself from the jug of free money Julio was carrying around.
Although there is a rule that there should be no Branch business and no speeches during the party, LFB Chair Tim Gopsill and Niall Mulholland of London Magazine Branch revealed their utter contempt for convention by interrupting proceedings to welcome everyone and share their wishes for an enjoyable Christmas and a better year for our members. It was also announced that photographer and NUJ Life Member Julio Etchart would be passing among the guests, asking for donations towards the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians. A total of £187.45 was raised by the end of the evening.
Niall Mulholland of London Magazine Branch shares a few words of welcome before launching into his celebrated repertoire of card tricks.
Another time-honoured tradition of the Branch winter party is that grizzled older hacks seek out younger (aren't they all?) new members and persuade them to stand for election to the Branch committee at the Annual General Meeting held in the New Year. If you were approached in this way, be assured that you have been nobbled by the finest freelance journalist union activists in the capital. The NUJ is a fully democratic organisation from grassroots up: we hope that you will ensure it remains so through your active involvement.
[L-R] Steve Bell demonstrates how they hold beer bottles at The Guardian to make them look bigger, while LFB Freelance editor Mike Holderness checks Wikipedia (corroborating against independent third-party sources, of course) to confirm which of the two of them is the Tallest Journalist In The Room.
St Anne's Church Hall pulled out all the stops to ensure we enjoyed a successful party by providing full access to its kitchen facilities, including its notoriously voluminous mulled wine canteen – which saw considerably more use at this year's event than in 2022. The hosts also trusted us with their grandly-decorated Christmas tree, which thankfully remained intact throughout. For those interested in such things, the church has a lively background story – consecrated 20 years after The Great Fire of London, bombed flat in the Blitz of 1940, rebuilt in 1990, and serving a community that has historically been the media, music and magazine publishing heart of the city.
[L-R] The omnipresent Julio Etchart makes its impossible to crop him out of this one as he greets LFB Treasurer Dapo Ladimeji, who remains inscrutable after reading the latest balance update for the Branch bank account.
The winter party is the fruit of organisational toil by volunteers from both Branches, at what is usually a tricky time of year for freelances and magazine journalists: the former are often busier than usual while everyone else is about to take time off, while the latter are nearly always forced to haul their deadlines uncomfortably forward in the pre-Christmas rush. Thanks go to the organisation team, including LFB's Phil Sutcliffe and Jenny Vaughan, and Liz Else and Cristina Lago from LMB. This writer helped a bit too. Also many thanks to everyone who helped bookend the party by getting stuck in with the chores of setup and cleanup.
[L-R] LFB legend and lifetime NUJ activist Phil Sutcliffe asks to be allowed out of the kitchen once he has dealt with this unannounced visit from the Soho Dishwash Inspectorat.
Passing surreptitiously among the guests like a phantom was LFB's favourite lens-ninja Hazel Dunlop. Browse more of her pap shots from that night in the gallery below. Remember, if you want to use any of them, you must ask permission or suffer the consequences. SD cards make lethal shuriken, you know.