EP70 | Andy Haddon | Bees, Bread and Belief | Local Heroes Podcast

EP70 | Andy Haddon | Bees, Bread and Belief | Local Heroes Podcast

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan sit down with Andy Haddon - beekeeper, baker, accidental troublemaker, and the man Charlotte Crosby once crowned "the David Attenborough of the Stottie." Andy's the founder of Big River Bakery in Shieldfield, but that's only where the story lands. We start with bees - the waggle dance, the venom that kills cancer cells, and what twenty years of getting stung teaches you about altruism, resilience and the interconnected life. From there it's a proper journey: a psychology degree, learning to fly at Cranfield to go and kill locusts, cold stores at minus 25, designing Marks & Spencer's Christmas hamper system, and a few empty years working for big companies for profit alone before a moment on a Shanghai high street sent this Geordie boy home. What he built when he got here is something rarer than a bakery. Andy talks about turning a pallet of leftover Spamalot tins into the seed money for a village climate group, growing the first wheat in Newcastle for 200 years, six or seven years without a wage, and why the bakery is really a business model in disguise - healthy, affordable food for all, with neurodiverse folk on the payroll and a cross-subsidy that keeps prices honest. We get into shortening the supply chain, why you have to start where people are rather than preach rosemary sourdough at them, and the three times he very nearly didn't make it home. And of course, the Stottie - going extinct until Andy brought it back, gave it a giant suit and appearance money, trademarked the Stottini, and turned the stale loaves into Stottie beer. Plus a serious debate about whether you could strap two stotties to your palms and survive a fall. Then the all-important food finish: top three stottie fillings, curry chips versus gravy, mushy peas on the fish, and a Greggs order that needs a time machine to answer. #LocalHeroesPodcast #BigRiverBakery #Stottie #NorthEast #Shieldfield #NationalStottieWeek Insta - https://www.instagram.com/wearelocalheroes/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearelocalheroes?_t=ZG-8tKWkdyntYm&_r=1 Website - https://www.wearelocalheroes.com/

EP69 | Bobzilla | Murals, Music and Mercury Missiles | Local Heroes Podcast

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan sit with Bobzilla - artist, muralist, DJ, photographer, and a man whose own mum still refuses to call him anything but Robert. The name itself is a tale. Born Robert Page (yes, both off Led Zeppelin), he became Rob, then Bob courtesy of a big lad called Robbie, and finally Bobzilla on a drunken night when a mate needed a DJ name and turned himself into Optimus Prime. Sheffield-raised and Newcastle-adopted, Bob takes us from photographing illegal graffiti in dodgy railway yards (and getting arrested in one - though he did get a free lift back to town) to painting murals on the Quayside, in people's backyards, and on a Beetle now driven around by a Whitley Bay midwife. There's the cars at the Salt Market, the burger joints he's transformed, and the eternal question of what happens to graffiti's soul when the money turns up. He talks about clubland and the photo book born from it - 'It's a Family Affair' - a gritty black-and-white document of grassroots nights at World Headquarters and beyond, back when people went out to dance and not a single phone was in sight. He's honest about the baggage that comes with the lifestyle, and taking risks behind the decks - dropping Public Enemy into a techno set, and playing Windowlicker when nobody dares. And he's honest about the eight-year wait for an ADHD diagnosis, the medication that finally quietened his mind, the anxiety behind the cafe that didn't work, and why Newcastle - with neighbours who turn up to help with the gardening - has been the friendliest place he's ever lived. Plus, his last-meal favourites get a proper airing: a fierce love of PEK, a deep distrust of tinned salmon, and childhood jars of potted beef made next to his school. Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/c/LocalHeroesVIP Insta - https://www.instagram.com/wearelocalheroes/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearelocalheroes?_t=ZG-8tKWkdyntYm&_r=1 Website - https://www.wearelocalheroes.com/

EP68 | Solo | Diaries, DIY & Dread | Local Heroes Podcast

This week, Chris and Dan set out to talk about what’s been happening in their lives and somehow end up covering everything from decorating disasters and DIY injuries to family diaries, old letters, horror films and the stories that shape who we are. Dan shares his ongoing battle with decorating, including drilling through his own foot, near misses with electrics, and why he may never become the DIY hero he hopes his family thinks he is. The conversation explores confidence, competence, and the pressure many people feel to be good at things they simply don’t enjoy. From there, things take a more reflective turn as Chris talks about discovering his grandmother’s handwritten diaries and his late father’s letters from working abroad. What starts as a loft-clearing exercise becomes a powerful insight into family history, memory, gratitude, and the ordinary moments that often tell the richest stories. Along the way there are debates about supper, school dinners, art classes, sketchbooks, Garfield slippers, horror films, Poltergeist, Jaws, Freddy Krueger, and why live radio somehow makes an empty house feel less lonely. A funny, nostalgic and unexpectedly moving conversation about creativity, family, fear, and the importance of preserving the everyday stories that might otherwise be lost forever. Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/c/LocalHeroesVIP Insta - https://www.instagram.com/wearelocalheroes/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearelocalheroes?_t=ZG-8tKWkdyntYm&_r=1 Website - https://www.wearelocalheroes.com/

EP67 | Cal Byerley| Gordon, Gastronomy and Great British Menu | Local Heroes Podcast

This week on the Local Heroes podcast, Chris and Dan sit with Cal Byerley of Restaurant Pine - and Gordons (plural) steal the show. Gordon, the podcast mascot, is named after a rock star, carved from a sculpture celebrating Mary Ann McCann's escape from slavery and destined for a bag stool at a Michelin-starred restaurant. Not bad for a bench. There's also a dog called Gordon - named after Ramsay himself, Scottish and yappy - who nearly caused a very awkward moment on a TV set. The tale of many Gordons. Cal talks about Third Bite - the chef collective born from a conversation with Sir Brendan Foster that has since pulled together some of the country's best chefs to raise serious money for cancer research. He talks about what it took to finally cook the main course at the Great British Menu banquet after three years of competing - including how the third time around you feel bold enough to put a dish shaped like genitalia on the BBC, complete with a police hat as the reveal. There's also the story of how Cal once used ski-scene shower curtains as wallpaper in their staff accommodation, and how that slightly chaotic energy somehow became the foundation for one of the North East's most celebrated restaurants. He also comes clean about his love of the air fryer. And, as is tradition on Local Heroes, Cal reveals his Greggs order. Drum roll, please 🥁

EP66 | Rob Sampson | Shields, Shandies and Sausage Rolls | Local Heroes Podcast

This week on the Local Heroes podcast, Chris and Dan sit with Rob Sampson, the man behind "Gan for bait, like?" One of the North East's most-followed food voices, the conversation that wanders from Capri Sun smuggling tactics and a wonky table nicknamed Gordon, all the way to foie gras at the old Cafe 21. Rob talks us through how a lockdown creative itch, fed by Anthony Bourdain, years of writing band reviews for Narc magazine, and a hunch that nobody was telling Newcastle's food stories properly, turned into an Instagram blog, then a YouTube channel, then a 170,000-view Pickle and Peach video that changed everything. We get into the ethics of food reviewing: why he won't slag off struggling small businesses, how one sentence can undo five years of a chef's work, and why a hyped London restaurant left him cold while somewhere like St Vincent would walk a Michelin star if you picked it up and dropped it in Soho. Then it gets personal. Dropping out of two universities, running the Mill Tavern in Hebburn at 23, the panic-attack night the dodgy football boxes blew up mid-match, and the boss who laughed at him for it. And here's where it gets uncanny, Rob and Chris realise they've basically lived parallel lives. Same hospital, same year, same South Shields college, same tutors (shout out Keith and Ben), same media studies and sociology dropout arc, same brutal Thursday-night crawl from Oscars to Venue, same Smirnoff Mules, same bouncers who'd dent their own car bonnet on your head to teach you a lesson. Two lads who somehow never crossed paths but absolutely should have. We close with the important stuff: chip butties (double salt, no ketchup), the perfect cheese savoury (half mayo, half salad cream - non-negotiable), the pop man, chalk ices, Bass Shandy at the kids' disco, and a forensic breakdown of the ideal Greg's order. Sausage roll first, obviously. A proper Local Heroes one. Funny, honest, and very North East.