John Tempest
PR consultant and Founder/Director of the award winning, The Bradford Soup Run, John Tempest attended Bradford College in 1967.
John arrived at Bradford College fresh from Bradford Grammar
School. Despite the best efforts of tutors to retain his interest, other
attractions beckoned.
"The course would have been a general catch-all (but not in my
case) GCE. I remember my best times at Bradford College were with
Chris Norman - who later went on to form the band Smokie. The
music we played together was good, but I don't think we got much
work done. The Rag Week gave us enough leeway to raise funds
for charity as well as have some fun. And some of the girls who
attended seemed pretty fit, too, if I remember rightly."
John went into sales, then marketing and public relations. He has
worked with William Hague, Tony Benn, Paddy Ashdown, among
many others. He was Campaign Director and PR Advisor to the late
Screaming Lord Sutch, and was responsible for
many Loony policies including, locally, the renaming of Five Lane
Ends to Six. He had his own daily 3 hour radio show which taught
him how to interview all sorts of people, which means he often has
fun when being interviewed.
He founded The Bradford Soup Run 25 years ago as a result of
a bet in a pub. The charity has provided a hot meal, blankets
and clothes for thousands of rough sleepers and John regularly
speaks to schools and business people about the grim realities
of homelessness. In 1999 TBSR was voted the Best Community
Group in the Millennium Awards; in 2006 they were finalists in the
BBC sponsored Best of British Food & Farming Awards. "It was good
to meet Ainsley Harriott, Marcus Wareing, Jamie Oliver and Gordon
Ramsey - who swore at me (I swore back and after that we got
on fine) and they applauded our stance that because people are
homeless they shouldn't have to eat crap."
In 2007 his play with music: Homeless! was widely acclaimed at
its premiere in Bradford and he is now working on another play.
John enjoys ruffling feathers and is not afraid to ask embarrassing
questions of pompous politicians. "If the political will was there,
homelessness could be eradicated. But most politicians are more
interested in their own gravy trains rather than helping those at the
foot of the heap." He is currently campaigning to save the Odeon.
Photograph by Trevor Griffiths