April’s Campfire at ditto will be the legendary DJ and Producer, Ashley Beedle. It’s a sentence we’ve repeating rather a lot around here, and the more we say it, the more it seems real. Ashley Beedle is coming to Campfire. Whether its talking about it father’s record collection, producing floor fillers under his myriad names including Black Science Orchestra, Xpress 2, and DarkStarr, or collaborating with the likes of Horace Andy, Ashely’s passion for all things musical it at the core of his existence.

Ashley managed to fit us in for a quick chat recently about what makes him tick, and what the audience can expect from his Campfire in April. Keep your eyes peeled on Radio ditto for Ashley’s incredible Fireside Favourites – a journey through the Ashley’s own life, and the music that is most important to him.

ditto is delighted to announce that in May, our very special guest at Campfire will be Ruth Mackenzie, an arts director with an enviable pedigree. As general director of the Manchester International Festival, Ruth debuted daringly original works including Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s opera Monkey: Journey to the West. She was also director of the Chichester Festival Theatre and headed up the Scottish Opera.

Her biggest project to date, however, is as director of the Cultural Olympiad, which in 12 months’ time will be launching an unparalleled programme of arts events under the banner of the London 2012 Festival. Timed to coincide with the Olympic and Paralympic Games, names already confirmed include Cate Blanchett, Damon Albarn and David Hockney.

Ruth has a wealth of stories and insights to share, from starring as a singing snowflake in The Nutcracker to working with the Gorillaz, so make sure you don’t miss out on what promises to be a very special evening.

Check out our short interview with Ruth here.

Ruth’s Campfire will take place at ditto’s Lighthouse Thursday 19^th May – drop us a line at campfire@ditto.tv for free tickets, and we’ll see you there.

Phil Cheeseman joins us this St Patrick’s day with tales from Strictly Rhythm, New York City, a place where they traditionally turns the Hudson Green. We met up with Phil ahead of his March Campfire, for a quick chat about how he went from being an amateur enthusiast to a professional one. From convincing bands such as Crass to play chicken in-a-basket venues, to running the European arm of Strictly Rhythm Records.

Phil’s personal experiences in house music reads like a who’s who of the genre, and it was fascinating to talk to a man who’s managed to be at the centre of two cultural storms, in Punk and House, and lived to tell the tale.

Thursday 17th March will see Phil share his extraordinary journey with the Lighthouse audience, while downstairs on the ditto doors in our gallery space we’ll feature some of the visual highlights of the Strictly Rhythm back catalogue. So come down for a glass or two of the black stuff, and a night of great entertainment.

Campfire will happen on the 17th March 2011 at the Lighthouse. ditto doors exhibition private view starts from 6pm. To reserve your place, email campfire@ditto.tv

Our next Campfire on Thursday 17^th February will see ditto host a particularly special evening for the entrepreneur in all of us, with business consultant, leader, mentor, entrepreneur and forward thinker, Ralph Blundell.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world, or so they say; business is a cutthroat arena where if you’re not quick, you’re dead. In a context of corporate scandals and growing public mistrust of big business, Ralph will joins us to tell us how he sees things in a different light.

You may not know who he is, but you’ve certainly seen the fruits of his labour. In a world where discretion is key, you won’t see Ralph bandying his client’s names, but take it from us, it’s everyone from Wall Street to Hollywood.

Whether you’re an office junior, or a multinational CEO, knowledge is everything; and Ralph is a man with answers. Forget The Apprentice – come speak to the Master.

Having established a client portfolio covering everything from aerospace, to Wall Street, to Hollywood, Ralph has built a reputation on getting great results out of businesses and doing it ethically. Today he helps his clients see their work as service to humankind, ensuring both they and the people around them prosper.

Keep your eyes peeled, as we’ll soon have a short interview with Ralph available here at ditto.tv

And prepare the airways for Ralph’s Fireside Favourites with Really O’Rielly on Radio ditto. Stories, slipmats and shenanigans.

The Campfire crew recently headed over to the Editworks in Soho to interview television producer, artist and musician, Grant Philpott in an edit suit whilst he was busily overlooking the production of Harry Hill’s latest TV Burp DVD. Grant has had a 20 year career in TV, during which he as worked on everything from The Word, to Room 101 and has in recent years won a number of BAFTA’s with Harry Hill’s TV Burp, he will be presenting December’s Campfire.

Grant Philpott pre Campfire Interview from ditto.tv on Vimeo.

Grant will be presenting his Campfire on December 16th, all are welcome, the address of the Lighthouse is available on our contact page.

The Campfire crew recently headed over to Borough market to interview interior designer and architect, Ben Kelly at his design studio. Ben and his company have built their reputation producing high-profile innovative spaces, such as Manchester’s legendary night-club The Haçienda and will be presenting the November Campfire.

Ben Kelly Pre Campfire from ditto.tv on Vimeo.

Ben will be presenting his Campfire on November 18th, all are welcome, the address of the Lighthouse is available on our contact page.

Back in July ditto and Campfire had the distinct pleasure of welcoming Brand Ambassador to Glenfiddich, Jamie Milne in to the Lighthouse to tell his story of how he went from rocket ships to whisky. The evening was a fantastic success, and as well as having the opportunity to sample some amazing single malt scotch, Jamie told us the story of his inspirational journey, career progression and life so far. We have already posted some of the highlights from that evening, which a blog post and video that you can watch here, however, that only told half of the story, that of Jamie himself. The second half was dedicated to Glenfiddich and the history of the Grants, the family who founded Glenfiddich and have been distilling whisky for over a century now. So, without further delay, the story of the Grants is viewable below.

Campfire – Jamie Milne + The story of Glenfiddich from ditto.tv on Vimeo.

The Campfire team caught up with Jan Pulsford, aka JaNa KyoMooN, an accomplished composer, producer, songwriter, keyboardist, virtual artist and explorer in the world of music and technology, has worked with the likes of the Thompson Twins and Cyndi Lauper. Today Jan performs as the virtual artist JaNa KYoMooN to a global online audience.

Jan Pulsford pre Campfire interview from ditto.tv on Vimeo.

Jan will be presenting our next Campfire on 21st October where she will be telling us her story.

The ditto team recently caught up with esteemed Martyn Ware, the presenter for the September campfire. Founding member of both The Human League and Heaven 17, with a range of hits, production accolades and currently working with Illustrious, creating new forms of spatialised sound composition using a unique three dimensional AudioScape surround-sound system, we at ditto are extremely excited about having Martyn in to tell us the story of his journey.

Martin Ware pre Campfire interview from ditto.tv on Vimeo.

He will be telling us his extraordinary story on 16th September, so put it in your diary now for what will surely be a very interesting evening.

The Campfire team caught up with Jamie Milne, brand ambassador for Glenfiddich. Jamie will be presenting our next Campfire on July the 15th where he will not only be talking about his work with the worlds most popular malt whiskey, but also giving us some insight into how he came to being there from a degree in aeronautical engineering and career in IT consultancy.

Jamie Milne pre Campfire interview from ditto.tv on Vimeo.