Every year, around three million people congregate to Italy’s famous canalled city to celebrate the Carnival of Venice. This annual masked event started off as a Catholic celebration and runs until midnight on Shrove Tuesday, which marks the beginning of Lent and a period of fasting. In the past, games and feasts were a traditional part of festivities but these days, many revellers come to the city to enjoy music and dancing as well as getting dressed up.

This may come as surprise to many but Valentine’s Day is infact the most celebrated holiday around the world after New Years Day!

Valentinus was an early Christian saint who was imprisoned by the Romans for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry. His letter to the his jailers daughter signed “From Your Valentine” prior to his execution is for what he will be best remembered.

The English ambient-electronica-neoclassical act In the Nursery, centred on the twins Klive and Nigel Humberstone, have been making mesmerising, intelligent and often sinister music for over three decades. They have a particular affinity for soundtracks, but also like to experiment, as demonstrated by their latest project, The Calling, which sees them collaborate with best-selling crime author Simon Beckett to create a musical exploration of his grisly ‘Hunter’ series of novels.

After the recent deluge of bloodsuckers, from Twilight to True Blood, even the most fervent fang fan could be forgiven for feeling a little vamped out. If so, the new film Midnight Son could be just the fresh plasma you need, a gritty indie horror flick with brains and heart as well as guts, this is a nasty, clever twisted love story that makes Bella and Edward look anaemic by comparison.

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of Edgar Allan Poe – the 19th Century author whose Romantic visions of melancholy and madness helped define Gothic – here at Alchemy. So it was exciting to hear the news that the B-movie legend Roger Corman, who made his name adapting Poe, is planning to revisit the author’s work. Corman’s been in the film business for sixty years now, during which time he’s directed more than fifty features and produced well over 300 more. While he’s best known for shooting his films faster and cheaper than the competition, Corman’s also noted for fostering young talent. Directors such as James Cameron and Francis Ford Coppola and stars like Jack Nicholson and Robert de Niro were given breaks and learnt their respective crafts on Corman productions.

For over 35years we have offered a unique service manufacturing a vast array of items that are not necessarily alternative! We can create ‘Whatever you want when you want it’ The beauty of working with Alchemy is that we are totally in house from concept, design and manufacture, specialising in merchandise for any occasion or event.

New year, new you or so the mantra goes. It’s all connected to the custom of making a new year’s resolution, which dates back to ancient times when both the Babylonians and the Romans made promises to their respective gods. These days, our commitments are more about self-improvement than appeasing deities.

If you didn’t get one for Christmas, chances are you might well be on the look out for a new calendar. If you’re looking for something saucy, yet a little different, then how about the latest tastefully erotic calendar from the Polish company Lindner? Of course, there’s nothing new about improbable businesses promoting themselves with sexy calendars, with Italian tyre company Pirelli setting the fashion with their iconic version way back in 1964. What makes Lindner’s unusual, is that they’re a coffin manufacturer.

You could be forgiven for thinking that 2012 was a pretty poor year for heavy metal, particularly here in its British birthplace. London hosted the Olympics, with the filmmaker Danny Boyle directing the opening and closing ceremonies, designed to highlight the best of British culture and tradition. Of course the soundtrack was crucial, and Boyle carefully picked a selection of timeless British music and song, from hymns, to TV themes tunes and pop songs, and even some classic punk. The only obvious style conspicuous by its absence was heavy metal. But metal’s used to being regarded as beneath contempt by the media’s accepted arbiters of taste. For many metal fans, being perennially out-of-fashion has become a mark of pride.

Morbid culture vultures visiting the capital over the next few weeks will be spoilt for choice, with not one but two exhibitions dedicated to the only certain thing that awaits us all. The Wellcome Collection on Euston Road offers Death: A Self Portrait which is open until February 24th, while the Museum of London (near St Paul’s Cathedral) is hosting a special exhibition dedicated to Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men which runs until April 14th.

Perhaps all good magicians should be controversial. The English illusionist and sceptic Derren Brown, certainly is, specialising in boggling minds with clever psychological tricks that have a habit of telling us more about how our brains are wired than is strictly comfortable. His recent two part TV special, ‘Fear and Faith’, is a good example. In the first part, Derren claimed to have developed a miracle pill that could control fear, giving it to a selection of subjects, who all agreed that it worked. It was, of course a placebo – a sugar pill with no medical effects – and any results his subjects experienced was all purely in their minds.

It seems like only yesterday that we were getting ready to go on our summer holidays and now it’s almost Christmas! That means festive parties are on their way and whether you’re going to a student, work or private do, you’re probably already thinking about your outfit.

When Alchemy’s old friends Gavin Baddeley and Keri O’Shea told us that the Vikings had once more invaded the Norsemen’s former English capital of Yorvik (that’s York to any Angles, Normans or Saxons among you) this autumn, we had to know more. This time the invaders were wielding guitars rather than broadswords, though the locals were just as devastated by the assault that people were calling the Warhorns Festival. A weekend of the best in the kindred genres of folk, pagan and black metal, Warhorns was a truly international affair, with bands hailing from as far afield as Latvia and North Carolina, delivering a heathen feast of the kind of music you might find if the mythic hall of Valhalla had a jukebox. While the dust finally settled some time back, we were still eager to hear who prevailed and who fell on that fateful weekend of Warhorns…

ZZ Top, The Damned and Lynyrd Skynyrd were among those honoured at the eighth annual Orange Amplification Classic Rock Roll of Honour awards on Tuesday night at a gala evening held at the Camden Roundhouse, London.

The event was hosted by Duff McKagan (Guns n’Roses, Velvet Revolver, Loaded) and was attended by some of the biggest names of Rock! Alchemy were once again proud sponsors of the event, this time sponsoring the re-issue of the year award. We were also honoured to have sculpted and individually crafted each award in our own Leicester studios, as we do each year along with the Metal Hammer Golden Gods awards.

Among the winners on the night were The Damned, rewarded for their outstanding contribution to music, 36 years on from their recording debut. Rush, who received the award for Album of the Year (Clockwork Angels) and Band of the Year. As well as Tracer who received Best new band, having completed their first headline tour earlier this year.

Anthrax were named Metal Gurus and manager Tony Smith was named VIP, while the late Deep Purple keyboard player Jon Lord received the Tommy Vance Inspiration award.

The Final award of the evening was for ZZ Top, claiming the coveted Living Legend Award presented by last year’s winner, Jeff Beck. The Texan three-piece join an exclusive club including Jimmy Page, Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop.

Bringing an end to a great evening was a 30 minute set by Lynyrd Skynyrd, who had earlier collected the Comeback Award. Scroll down to view a video from the night, as the band perform the well known ‘Sweet Home Alabama’

Classic Rock Roll of Honour 2012

The Living Legend Award (Sponsored by Orange Amplification): ZZ Top

Event Of The Year (Sponsored by Roadrunner): Ginger Raises £250k

Breakthrough Act Of The Year (sponsored by Olympus): Rival Sons

The Musicians’ Union Maestro Award: Phil Manzanera

Tommy Vance Inspiration Award (Sponsored by Lewis Leathers): Jon Lord

Classic Songwriter Award (Sponsored by Sennheiser): Russ Ballard

Outstanding Contribution (sponsored by Monitor Audio): The Damned

Classic Album Award (sponsored by Eagle Rock): Status Quo ‘Live!’

V.I.P. Award (sponsored by currencies.co.uk): Tony Smith

Metal Guru Award (sponsored by Mascot Label Group): Anthrax

Best New Band (sponsored by Kraken): Tracer

Album Of The Year: Rush ‘Clockwork Angels’

Reissue Of The Year (sponsored by Alchemy): Pink Floyd’s ‘Immersion’

Film/DVD Award: Pink Floyd ‘The Story Of Wish You Were Here’

Band Of The Year (sponsored by Live Nation): Rush

Spirit Of Prog Award (sponsored by USM / UMC): Family

Showman Of The Year (sponsored by Rimowa): Nikki Sixx

Comeback Award (Sponsored by Jeffery West): Lynyrd Skynyrd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQPwQOl6SCw

A new survey released this week reveals that, for a large number of Brits, seasonal stress officially kicked in on 12 November. Whether you plan your shopping trips early to avoid the big queues or leave it up to the last minute, there’s no denying that festive times cause the biggest headaches for many of us and there’s now just over a month left until Christmas day itself.

The high street is already full of decorations and festive foods so whatever your faith or culture, the chances are you’ve already started at least thinking about if not planning your festivities. American readers will be a little further into their preparations as Thanksgiving is on 22 November!

You’ll be able to find plenty of gift ideas for the Goth, punk, metaller and steampunk in your life in the 35^th anniversary edition of the Alchemy catalogue. Once you’ve made your selection, why not get in the mood with a hot brew served in an Alchemug [ALMUG.1],or maybe something a little stronger in our Viking Horn Tankard [AAT.25]. Don’t forget to stock up on our Alchemist Pen Top [BE.4] decorated ball pens – they’re just the thing for signing your seasonal cards.

Now is the time to get festive, don’t leave it last minute! To buy all the above items and plenty more stunning Alchemy gifts, click on the link to take you to our approved Alchemy Dealers in your area: www.alchemyengland.com/buy