This Rough Magic, the spectacular show witnessed by thousands of people on Brighton seafront, received a mixed reaction, not least on our opinion page.

But it was our news report of the event in last Monday's paper that upset Geoff Crowe of George Street, Brighton.

The two-page spread - plus pictures - reported how the interpretation of Shakespeare's The Tempest left the 30,000-plus crowd spellbound with fantastic aerobatics and flaming stunts organised by local group Fireraisers as the centrepiece of the Place To Be campaign's summer entertainments.

Geoff, however, was not impressed. "If you ask a director how a play went, he is bound to give you a glowing account," he says. "If instead your reporter had asked almost anyone in the audience, he would have got comments like the many I overheard, ranging from 'amateurish' to 'a scandalous waste of money'."

He goes on: "It surely does not help your paper's credibility to present a full-blown flop like Rough Magic as a triumph simply because the Place To Be campaign, which you fairly support, was unwise to put cash into it."

Hang on a minute, Geoff. Firstly, The Argus has supported the Place to Be campaign since the start of our bid to become a city because we believe it's right to celebrate all that is good about Brighton and Hove - our people, heritage, diversity and culture of tolerance.

It is that very make-up that allows groups like Fireraisers to perform alternative arts events, many of which then become international hits. OK, so maybe This Rough Magic wasn't the success we hoped for, but that's a judgement that could be made only with the benefit of hindsight.

It is much more important, though, to state Argus reporting is completely independent of the Place To Be campaign, as our full-page review of the show in the following day's paper surely proved.

Reviewer Sally Hall said the show "promised to be one of the most amazing spectacles yet to hit Brighton beach but to most people it was messy, pretentious and neck-craningly uncomfortable to watch".

She concluded: "I thought before I saw it, this would be either the most amazing thing I had yet seen or a baffling, obscure shambles. It is a shame to condemn something so ambitious and inventive to the latter category."

It's also a shame Geoff felt he had to condemn The Argus. A bit rough, I reckon, and certainly not magic.

Quantity surveyor Paul Johnston, from Hove, tells me we made a mistake in the caption accompanying the picture of Rod Stewart and Britt Ekland on the television pages last Saturday, which claimed they were man and wife in the Seventies.

"Wrong!" says Paul. "They never married." He is right, of course, but gracious enough to add a PS that he likes the paper, especially the Wednesday centre section, ahead. Thanks, Paul.

Richard Shipley, from Patcham, says we wrongly edited his letter about the 5A bus service. We got our numbers muddled up and what it should have said was that there are only two 5As an hour during the day and one in the evening. And just one an hour all day on Sunday, when he has to go to work at a local hotel. Sorry, Richard, and commiserations to you for the winter when, as you put it, "I am dreading the proposed evening and weekend cuts in our bus service."

Wrap up warm or, better still, call Fireraisers!