The September edition of Monocle magazine explores Britain’s image and asks experts what they would do to improve it, from business to the arts.

I thought that it would be interesting to think about what Reading suggests to the world and what a makeover might look like.

Ask an international audience what Reading means to them and they might say “the Reading Festival” or Reading FC (I know that the football club is recognised in Premier League-loving Southeast Asia largely because of their successful run in the top flight).

The University of Reading might also get a mention, thanks to its overseas students and academic connections.

However, Reading FC are no longer competing at the highest level domestically and the Reading Festival takes place just once a year.

So football, festivals and indeed faculties aside, what else can we add to the mix?  How would you strengthen or reinvigorate the Reading “brand”?

Day 3 of the Reading Festival beckons and Guns N’ Roses are still dominating headlines after that show.  But what else has been happening at the Richfield Avenue site?

If, like me, you have been unable to go to this world-famous event this year, you might be interested in getting updates from the following online sources:

Twitter

• @allfestivals - UK music festival news
• @BBCreadingfest - BBC Reading Festival
• @BBCR1 - BBC Radio 1
• @Gigwise - News from… Gigwise
• #htfreading - Updates from Hit The Floor magazine
• @johnmcg - Co-blogger John McGarvey
• #readingfestival - The Reading Festival hashtag
• @TVP_Reading Fest - Latest Thames Valley Police news about the Reading Festival
• @vf - Virtual Festivals

Press

• NME.com news
• Reading Post special feature
• Reading Chronicle homepage
• Reading and Leeds festival on Twitter (via The Guardian)

Facebook

• Reading Festival status updates (via Openbook)
• Official Reading Festival Facebook group

YouTube

• Reading Festival 2010 videos

Who/what else should I add this to the list?

I have been amazed by the number of significant Reading organisations joining Twitter in recent months (institutions that have included Reading Buses, @reading_buses, and Thames Valley Police, @ThamesVP), the broadening adoption of the #rdg hashtag (looking much like an airport code and fast becoming a new brand identity for the town), and the continued successes that are Reading Geek Night and Thames Valley Social Media Club.  All impressive.

All this has left me wondering: where does local politics fit into this expanding phenomenon? How active are Reading councillors - they who work for us - in social media? 

Using the simplest of tools only (Google, Twitter’s people search and Facebook Search), I set out to uncover who’s using what to get closer to their constituents.

As I didn’t spend considerable amounts of time trawling the web for pages, posts and profiles, the results - listed in full below - are not likely to be fully accurate. But then anything missed is not easily findable, and of limited public interest.

So here is what I discovered: of the 46 borough councillors in Reading, 11 maintain blogs (24%), 14 are on Twitter (30%) and four have public Facebook pages (9%). Four councillors span all three - blog, Twitter and Facebook.

What do you think? Surprised or not surprised?

Of course, this research only scratches the surface and could lead to further digging (if the interest is there). How frequently do our local political Twitterati post updates? How many Twitter followers do they have? Do they reply to questions posted by local residents? Do blogging councillors prefer Wordpress or Blogger? Are any on LinkedIn? or Foursquare? Not all questions are pertinent, but interesting nonetheless. 

With Reading’s first local social media election probably not far off, perhaps it would be worthwhile to revist this every so often.   At the moment we have four social media rock stars (Daisy, Rachel, Gareth and Rob).  Expect this club to grow.  Things could get interesting over the next eight months.

And now the results in full (shout if I’ve missed somebody):

Blog

• Daisy Benson
• Ricky Duveen
• Rachel Eden
• John Ennis
• Gareth Epps
• Glenn Goodall
• Dave Luckett
• Warren Swaine
• Emma Warman
• Rob White
• Richard Wills

Twitter

• Isobel Ballsdon
• Kirsten Bayes
• Peter Beard
• Daisy Benson
• Rachel Eden
• Gareth Epps
• Paul Gittings
• Glenn Goodall
• Sarah Hacker
• Dave Luckett
• Mark Ralph
• Warren Swaine
• Rob White
• Richard Willis

Facebook

• Daisy Benson
• Rachel Eden
• Gareth Epps
• Rob White

Last week on this blog I asked readers to help identify topics I could write about from a distance.

Posting a reply on Twitter (thinking about it, tweet replies should probably now be interspersed among blog comments on Reading Roars!), the delightfully-named @alabamawhirly suggested Reading’s city status bid, the Outside Inside festival (@OIFestival) and Jackson’s 135 year old birthday.

Good suggestions.  Any other ideas?

I’m cringing.  Red-faced at the sight of the very first entry posted on this blog, dated Sunday 18 July 2005 (you will have to find it yourselves).  Yes indeed, this blog is now five years old.  Remarkable.

But will it last another five?  I hope so.  I hope to blog again as before (I’m convinced that blogging adds years to your life).  The challenge is how, and what exactly to write about.  The reason?  My location: I have been away from Reading and indeed the UK for almost one year.

Thoughts, suggestions and of course birthday wishes are welcome.  And if there are any Malaysian or Singaporean readers who wish to find out more about Reading, please get in touch!

Market Place. London Street. Napier Road. Church Street. Portman Road. Shinfield Road. Southcote Service Station. Hurricane Way. Knowsley Road. Buckingham Drive. That’s ten branches of Tesco within about five miles of the town centre.

Now they’re planning an eleventh, in the old Blockbuster Video unit at the east end of Oxford Road. Do we really need it? Is the level of demand for cut-price loo roll, cheap booze and bagged salad really that high in our town?

There’s not exactly a shortage of coffee shops in Reading, but now we’ve got one that promises something different to the mediocre-coffee-mass-produced-pastry-and-free-wifi crowd. Workhouse Coffee - until now located only on the Oxford Road, away from the town centre - has begun trading from its new branch after a low-key opening on Monday.

Based in the George Hotel, it’s directly opposite Starbucks and slap bang on coffee corner near where King Street meets Broad Street.

We popped along yesterday and can happily report it’s a world away from the homogenised chains that dominate this end of town. Even though the place isn’t yet finished (there are no prices on the wall and the back half of the shop is empty), it’s in a nice old building with a one-off, independent feel. And the coffee is excellent.

That, certainly, is no surprise. Anyone who’s taken the trouble to visit the other Workhouse branch will already be familiar with the company’s range of single-estate coffees. Founder Greg Costello promises “gourmet coffee” and the staff are on a bit of a mission to make really good coffee more accessible to those of us who don’t work in the industry.

That’s important, because buying a drink somewhere like this can be intimidating. You can’t just order a black coffee; you need to choose the beans you want it made from too.

Even the simplest of choices tend to confuse this particular Reading Roars writer, so thankfully when we visited the friendly staff were on hand with lots of advice. The filter coffee we tried (the 1576 variety) was first class and even at £2.70 seemed worth the asking price, especially given the care and attention that went into making it.

Although there was a delicious-looking range of pastries, quiches and cakes on display and more food is planned to tempt the lunchtime crowd, don’t be fooled: this place is all about the coffee. Encouraging people to try different varieties and helping them to appreciate the flavours seems to go to the heart of the Workhouse philosophy.

Life in the town centre isn’t easy for independent businesses, and we really hope Workhouse Coffee manages to emulate fellow independent outlet Picnic and thrive in its new location. It brings another much-needed slice of diversity to Broad Street, and offers a quality of coffee never before available in the town centre.

Ignore this sign

Remember how Reading Festival was granted an increase in capacity last year, up from 78,500 to a total of 85,000 by 2011? No? Well then you’ll definitely have missed the accompanying news: that Reading residents now get first dibs on a batch of 3,500 tickets to the festival.

If you live in an RG1, RG2, RG4, RG6, RG30 or RG31 postcode which falls under Reading Borough Council, or an RG4 postcode within Mapledurham Village which falls under South Oxon Council, you can go online from 26 March at 6.45pm to pick up tickets. The conditions for eligibility are a little confusing, but the ticket site will check your postcode before letting you purchase.

The residents-only tickets will be available till midnight on 28 March (or until they sell out), before the big general sale happens on 29 March. During that window, you should be able to buy tickets from http://www.seetickets.com/readingresidents, though the page isn’t live at the time of writing. For more details, check the festival website.

While this is clearly a good thing for all rock fans in Reading, we do see one problem: the line-up isn’t announced until 29 March, so you’ll have to buy the tickets without knowing who’s going to be up there on stage.

This doesn’t really bother us (we’d hate to miss the biggest event in the town’s calendar), but if you shell out £175 hoping for a killer headliner only to find it’s Kings of Leon yet again then you might be a touch disappointed.

Oh, one other thing. Thinking of buying a couple to sell on at a profit? Don’t bother - they’ll be checking ID on the gate. Besides, ticket touting is evil.

Sunday 14 February is not only a day for lovers, but the first day of the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese Lunar Calendar.

London offers the best Chinese New Year celebrations in the South-East, but if you’re inclined to stay in Reading, here are several ways of getting the Year of the Tiger off to a roaring start locally:

• Feast on Chinese food with friends or family. Popular restaurants in the Reading area include China Palace (Oxford Rd), Furama (Friar St), Peking Palace (Caversham) and Peking Garden (Pangbourne).  In addition, pan-Asian restaurant Glo offers Chinese food in the form of Dim Sum.  Alternatively, shop for ingredients at See Woo and cook for guests at home.

• Sink a Tiger (or several) with friends.  The marketing whizzes behind Singaporean brand Tiger want consumers to associate the Year of the Tiger with their beer.  Fair enough, I say.  You can drink Tiger in a number of venues across town.  If Tiger isn’t your thing, how about a swig of Lucky , brewed and bottled in China?  Lucky is available from JD Wetherspoon pubs (there are several in Reading, including The Back of Beyond, The Monk’s Retreat and The Hope Tap).

• Learn how to write your name in Chinese characters at Reading Central Library (for children aged 4-12 only), between 10.30am and 12pm on Friday 19 February.  No booking is required.  This might be a good first step to learning Mandarin.

• Attend a martial arts class and kick off the New Year in style.  In Reading, it’s possible to learn various styles of Kung Fu (Wing Chun , Fujian White Crane and Jade Dragon are just three examples).

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

What will you be doing to mark CNY in Reading?

Anyone wandering around Reading may have noticed this curious spectacle of PEEPSHOW in the window of the now-derelict Long Tall Sally shop, opposite the Town Hall.

Step closer and you will find tiny worlds and surprises tucked behind each of the peeping holes. Some of the things appear connected, some seem more random, some make you laugh, some surprise you, but whatever you think about what you see as you peek in, you have to admit that this is not what you expected to see on your way to work or to the train station.

PEEPSHOW is an exhibition by arjeea21; a group of mostly Reading-based artists who meet every month at the Jelly Legg’d Chicken workshop in the Town Hall to plan shows in and around Reading. I remember a striking exhibition organised by this same organisation in December 2008, in the now empty Gallery 10 on Gun Street. My favourite work at the arjeea21 show was called Curation Play, and involved a miniature gallery with moveable elements that could be reorganised freely into whatever you liked.

The Jelly Legg’d Chicken negotiated the use of Gallery 10 for many groups of artists during 2008 - 2009. I went to a few shows there and showed work myself around this time last year, and it was really exciting to have a gallery in town that unknown or emerging artists could afford to show work in.

But Gallery 10 and the Long Tall Sally shop are just a couple of examples in a long series of empty buildings in Reading that Jelly has negotiated for use by artists. The history of Jelly is long and rich, and wherever Jelly have been, exciting stuff has happened in Reading. Stuff which - like PEEPSHOW or Gallery 10 - was fresh and new and rootsy, coming straight out of the vibrant creative community that lives in this town.

The Jelly Legg’d Chicken was founded by Suzanne Stallard in 1993 and first lived on Gun Street in the building that now houses Lakeland plastics. Exhibitions were shown there every 2 weeks and artists were charged a small amount to show their work there, but the space made no commission on sales which meant that young or emerging artists could afford to show their work there.

In 1997, Jelly moved to Broad Street, to what is now the building with Coffee Republic in it. The Jelly Legg’d Chicken was also formally incorporated as a not-for-profit organisation. At Broad Street there were 12 studios in the building. Artists paid either in kind or with money for the use of these spaces, while money was also raised for the rent by art classes and the proceeds from the cafe in the building.

In 1999 when The Oracle was being built, Jelly managed to negotiate a deal with the builders and planners, for a lease that let them rent the enormous space that is now STRADA for £30,000 per year. By running the space in a more commercial way and putting on yet more classes and exhibitions, and by working 10am - 8pm most days, the rent just about got paid. But when the lease terms were renegotiated with much higher, commercial rates, Jelly was forced to relocate.

In 2004, The Jelly Legg’d Chicken moved to the Town Hall, where it has remained up until today, continuing to support local artists and negotiate the use of spaces for exhibition and studio purposes. Artist groups who use the Jelly workshop include the outcast knitting group, the hang on artists and arjeea21. As well as this, Jelly still offers a range of creative classes and acts as a bookable space that artists who want to put on workshops or study days can afford to rent.

But perhaps as important as these tangible services, is the hub-like quality of the Jelly Legg’d Chicken. At the moment, artists who need to talk to each other pass through the same space and get chatting to each other, or are put in contact with one another by arch-networker, Suzanne Stallard. Without a central space used by all these artists’ groups, such groups will recede back into people’s living rooms and random bars around town, invisible to one another, and isolated. Having a central place that is used by all these artists groups puts them in touch with one another, and this sense of community and network is absolutely vital if we are to have a vibrant, colourful, thriving creative scene in Reading.

However, the work of all the groups mentioned above will be compromised after 1st March, which is the date that the Jelly Legg’d Chicken has been ordered to vacate the Town Hall by. Reading Council apparently want to use the space instead as a gallery, because they believe that in this way they can reach more people. But I want to know more about this plan. I would like to know, for instance, what provisions will be made for emerging artists, what kind of prices artists will be expected to pay in order to use the space, and who will curate the shows and decide what kind of Art to show in Reading.

So with Jelly looking like a basically homeless organisation, and the Council hatching plans for some kind of future gallery space, I wonder if curious, strange, exciting shows like PEEPSHOW will continue to be a part of our urban scenery, or whether they will be replaced by something blander, more ubiquitous, less distinctive, less difficult and less exciting. Something perhaps, like STRADA, or Lakeland Plastics, or Coffee Republic?

If you want to support Art in Reading, there are a number of things you can do;

• Click the links from the Jelly blog, browse through the hang on artists blog, check out the arjeea21 website and find out what people are making - all the time - in this town!
• Leave comments on posts about Art - interact with it and say what you think
• Go to the Sunday Art Market at the Oakford Social Club and buy work directly from artists there
• Buy a cup of coffee in Moondogs cafe before it closes down
• Watch this video that was made by Reading artist, Peter Montford, in Moondogs Cafe
• Go to the Arts Forum meeting this coming Tuesday (9th February 2010) at 7pm at The Kennet Room, Civic Offices, all welcome

And remember to look in those peepholes next time you walk by Long Tall Sally.