THE PLACE TO BE

WHEN the search started for someone to spearhead Brighton and Hove's millennium project, people kept saying it needed "someone like Simon Fanshawe".

Eventually they got round to asking him.

Simon didn't take much persuading, though. The 41-year-old journalist and stand-up comic says Brighton is "the love affair of his life".

Now he is the main man behind not just the celebrations to mark the new millennium, but also Brighton and Hove's bid to officially become a city. The project is called The Place To Be.

Simon said: "I had been talking about the millennium possibilities for Brighton for some time and people kept saying to me, 'We need someone like you to front them', until one day Steve Bassam popped the question directly."

As initial discussions about a major millennium celebration got under way, news emerged that the Queen planned to confer two new city charters in the year 2000, and hopes are high that one of them could go to Brighton and Hove.

Simon said: "The potential presented by the millennium and the fact that two new cities were going to be created gave us a tremendous opportunity to celebrate Brighton and Hove."

He added: "Brighton has a huge name culturally, and with things like the new Dome project - which will really be a totally new arts venue for the South rather than just a rebuild - we will be constantly making our own cultural product here.

"Beyond that, the idea of going for city status is about self-confidence, and about trying to draw in more investors to create more work for people.

"We want businesses to come and take a look and see that our rates aren't too high here and labour costs won't be that high either, and the reason for that is that people want to come and live and work in Brighton."

Simon's Place To Be executive includes Zap Productions director Dave Reeves, Brighton and Hove Bus Company boss Roger French, Donald Clarke the managing director of the Epic multimedia group, and Argus editor Simon Bradshaw.

The aim is to come up with a truly distinctive way of marking the new millennium.

Simon said: "I worked hard putting this group of people together.

"Who they are is important because of the range of organisations and interests they represent."

He added: "The Place To Be executive is here as an umbrella, to bring people together and create a critical mass, but it is up to individual organisations to promote their own events."

So what can people in Brighton and Hove expect from the towns' mammoth millennium celebrations?

Things will kick off in style with a giant New Year's Eve party organised by Zap and featuring bands, street performers and a huge fireworks display.

Aroving video tent will be set up and passers-by challenged to answer questions about Brighton and Hove, asked by top local personalities.

Stars like Steve Coogan, Norman Cook and Dora Bryan will appear on video screens to pose teasing questions put forward by local people.

Other ideas include a children's millennial diary, to be updated throughout next year, and a sculpted ice arch which members of the public can walk through.

Added to this, there will be a bigger-than-ever Brighton and Hove in Bloom flower festival and a Brighton Pride 2000 event which, it is hoped, will attract more than 100,000 people.

And a major highlight will be an attempt to find the 100 Faces Of Brighton.

Through the Argus, the public will be invited to nominate ten people from each decade of the last century to represent the sheer variety of local life.

Ten of these will be singled out, one from each decade, to feature in a series of in-depth Argus photo features and provide material for listening posts around the towns.

Simon's enthusiasm for Brighton goes back many years.

He first came as a young boy, during a visit to his grandmother in Ferring, near Worthing, and was soon hooked.

But it was only when he turned down a place at Oxford University to study law in Brighton that he realised the full extent of the town's charms.

After leaving Sussex University in 1978, Simon became involved with community arts projects in Hove and very soon knew he would never escape.

He said: "Brighton has been the greatest love affair of my life, and I know now that I'll never leave here."

Now Simon is on a mission to banish all the outdated cliches about Brighton.

He said: "We want people to see that Brighton is a fun place to be, but there's a lot more to it than the seaside and the Palace Pier."

You won't hear Simon brag about his Perrier Comedy Award win or his regular slots in The Guardian, The Sunday Times and on Radio Four.

But he's loud and proud about his Brighton connections - not least radio station Surf 107, of which he is chairman.

As the catalyst behind Brighton and Hove's city bid, Simon believes the towns will give all other competitors a serious run for their money.

But he wants the taking part to be every bit as important as the winning.

He says: "I'm not interested in going on telly and arguing with Swindon about whether they should be a city or Brighton should be. Good luck to them.

"I think we will be seriously considered, and I hope we make the shortlist, but I don't want this to be dependent on our winning. I want winning to be an added extra."

He added: "This is all about providing a framework for as many people in Brighton and Hove as possible to get involved, and it's about celebrating the city we live in.

"It is much more important that people get involved in things than it is that we get city status."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.