The Brighton Arts Blog

Dr. Geebers

2011-03-09T01:35:00.000-08:00

Here is a chap worthy of a bit of support. He was the homeless chap responsible for the pebble ying/yang near the Bandstand a while back. He is currently travelling round the country doing more pebble pictures, which he will document to help raise awareness about homelessness.

Royal Pavilion & Museums Blog

2011-03-02T01:25:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting blog. It is a look behind the scenes at Brightons museums and examines some of their more obscure artifacts.

A History of Sound Art

2011-03-01T02:04:00.000-08:00

As part of the WetSounds event mentioned a while back, the Phoenix Gallery has a "A History of Sound Art" on Thursday 3rd March.

A History of Sound Art is an eighty-minute audio composition which weaves through different sound works throughout the century with narratives and ideas from some of the prominent artists in the field. It is an insightful retrospective into the craft of sound and its development as an artistic practice, from Edison's first sound film in 1895 to today.

Brighton Festival Line Up Announced

2011-02-24T02:46:00.000-08:00

The line up for the 2011 Brighton Festival is here. DJ Shadow, John Cale, Sufjan Stevens and a live soundtrack look like the most interesting music items. Certainly not as avant garde as last years.

The Festival Fringe line up is here.

Brighton Documentary Film Festival 2011

2011-02-22T01:15:00.000-08:00

This Thursday to Sunday (24th to 27th Feb) sees the Brighton Documentary Film Festival take place. Over the four days and spread across several venues it hosts panels and screenings all of interest to those with an interest in factual films. .

Great Escape 2011

2011-02-18T05:26:00.000-08:00

It is that time of year again. The 12th to 14th May sees the Great Escape festival hit Brighton. The line up looks like this

KATY B MAX RICHTER ALELA DIANE MARNIE STERN THE JOY FORMIDABLE WARPAINT BROTHER HAUSCHKA TWIN SHADOW VILLAGERS TROPHY WIFE DUSTIN O'HALLORAN SMOKE FAIRIES LITTLE DRAGON DUTCH UNCLES MATTHEW AND THE ATLAS BEN HOWARD MARCUS FOSTER PVT BECOMING REAL D/R/U/G/S HEATHERS THE WAVE PICTURES GHOSTPOET PAPER CROWS SBTRKT SPARK THE HEARTBREAKS TRIBES BIG DEAL NEDRY THE SOFT MOON WORRIEDABOUTSATAN MARQUES TOLIVER TEETH VISIONS OF TREES LUCY SWANN THE HOLIDAYS TRIPWIRES WORSHIP BONJAY BRASSTRONAUT SAID THE WHALE SEAMS SEEKAE TEAM ME THE BONFIRES THE JEZABELS DAN PARSONS DEEP SEA ARCADE DZ DEATHRAYS GABLE NLF3 THE MOUNTAINS & THE TREES WINTER GLOVES WOODHANDS
and a special show by the
FRIENDLY FIRES

and as usuaI have only heard of about five of the bands. If you get in quick you can buy the 3 day Early Bird ticket for £45.

Electrelane to Reform

2011-02-17T02:40:00.000-08:00

Rumour has it that Electrelane, Brighton's best girlie rock group are to reform after a couple of years off. I saw them a few times and would be interested to see what they sound like now. Originally they were a bit of a Stereolab tribute act but the last couple of albums saw the band breaking out in some interesting directions. News of Brighton dates soon.

Brighton Festival Guest Director Announced

2011-02-15T04:05:00.000-08:00

In a rather bizarre coup, the Brighton Festival has bagged Aung San Suu Kyi as the Guest Director for 2011.

Aung San Suu Kyi has fought passionately for over two decades for democracy and human rights in Burma and taken to the heart of this year’s Brighton Festival is her plea ‘use your liberty to promote ours’, with artists, both local and international, presenting a powerful and wide-ranging programme.

The full line up for the festival is announced on the 23rd Feb.

Wet Sounds

2011-02-14T04:09:00.000-08:00

Not Brian Wilson touring Pet Sounds again.

Spanning two months from 28th Jan 2011 - 26th March 2011, Wet Sounds installs at swimming pools at 7 UK cities. An open to the public event featuring a live sound collage by Joel Cahen which includes the deep listening gallery featuring new work by selected artists under the theme ReVerse. For more details about the 2011 gallery, artists and works click 'Listening Galleries above'.

This reaches the King Alfred Swimming Pool in Hove on Wed, 2nd March 11 between 20:00 - 22:00.

Brighton Rock

2011-01-31T06:27:00.000-08:00

As you may have heard, they have remade Brighton Rock, the old film based on the Graham Greene novel. It is now set in the 60s against the mods and the rockers doing their thing. Rather shockingly, bits of it were filmed in Eastbourne as it was cheaper than giving actual Brighton a CGI make over.

The premier was last Friday at the Duke of Yorks and was attended by the director and some of the stars. It is out at the cinemas from Friday the 4th Feb.

Vive la France! Festival

2011-01-27T08:07:00.000-08:00

Between now and Saturday, Melting Vinyl are organising Vive la France! Festival, a mini festival of french film and music. It is the third year they have done this and the line up looks interesting, including this year one of the women from Nouvelle Vague.

Fatboy Slim Not Dead

2011-01-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

It is strange but one of the many popular pages on the blog is this one. I used to think it was because it mentioned the Brighton Port Authority and that I was getting a lot of yachtsmen accessing the page by accident. It turns out however that there are a lot of people out there enquiring if Mr Cook is still breathing. Despite his reputation for chemicals, you will all be glad to know he is.

Seedy Sunday

2011-01-20T03:45:00.000-08:00

No, it is nothing to do with lap dancing clubs or hanging around Dukes Mound. Seedy Sunday is a meeting for all those green fingered folks who want to wish to exchange seeds of plants they possess for the seeds of plants they don't. Like the Multi Coloured Swap Shop but for gardeners. The next one is Sunday 6th Feb at Hove Town Hall.

Circus of Horror

2011-01-17T07:39:00.000-08:00

If you fancy some good old fashioned weirdness then you could do worse than the Circus of Horror at the Theatre Royal on Wednesday.

"The show contains some of the greatest, most bizarre & beautiful Circus acts on earth. From dare devil flying trapeze to a vampiric crow woman suspended only by her hair, from whirlwind roller skaters to sword swallowers. All this plus pickled & bendy people, Voodoo Warriors, Knife throwers and an almighty cast of 26 of the wildest, weirdest but most of all greatest performers on earth."

Animal Collective in Eastbourne

2011-01-16T11:03:00.001-08:00

On the back of their ATP festival, Animal Collective are playing a gig at the Winter Gardens in Eastbourne on Monday the 16th May. Tickets are sure to go quickly.

Goldie (Looking Teeth)

2011-01-10T02:18:00.000-08:00

It seems next Saturday everyones favourite D'n'B DJ is playing the Concorde. Frankly I think we should all be down there protesting. Inner City Life was great single abut frankly everything after that was a bit rubbish, and since he started appearing on TV he has well and truly jumped the shark.

According to Wikipedia.

He hosted Crime Business on digital TV channels Bravo and ftn, as well as presenting The World's Deadliest Gangs on Bravo in 2001.

Price also appeared on the second series of Celebrity Big Brother UK in 2002; he was the first celebrity to be "evicted".

He was scheduled to appear in The Games, a UK reality TV show on Channel 4. During training for the water-ski jump event, he fractured his femur, and was unable to take part in the show. He was replaced by Adam Rickitt.

He appeared on Celebrity Mastermind on 27 December 2009 and came fourth behind Paul O'Grady, Gail Emms and Loyd Grossman.

On September 11, 2010, he was announced as part of the line-up in Strictly Come Dancing and on the 10th of October he became the first celebrity to leave the show.

Not to mention his recent appearance on "Come Dine With Me". I am just saying that anyone on the same "Celebrity" list as Adam Rickitt and with less dancing ability than Anne Widdicombe really
ought to keep a lower profile.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-23T08:21:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas

and a

happy new year

to one and all!

Ida Barr @ Pavillion Theatre

2010-12-21T07:53:00.000-08:00

Ida Barr is a rapping granny from London. If you can imagine Hinge and Bracket freestyling over dance beats then you are almost there. "Last Christmas (possibly)" was her reminiscing about the the past year, telling a few jokes and having a bit of a sing song. Her act was nice and at times poigniant but as it was the first night, a little under polished. Her guest acts were where it really got interesting. Ukelele Eric was an old chap giving some old Max Miller material a bit of a "Kemptown" twist. The Two Wrongies were the main surprise though. Without giving too much away, they did a 6 minute synchronised swimming routine on stage, sans costumes. It is really not something you see every day. The show runs until Friday so it is probably worth trying to catch this show before the council or the Argus try and close it down, as they surely will.

No Walls Gallery

2010-12-17T03:52:00.000-08:00

Seems there is a new gallery in town. No Walls Gallery specialises in all your trendy graffiti and alternative outsider artists. Their artists list is quite impressive (if you read Juxtapoz) and they seem to have quite a few Banksy pictures for sale. Then again, what shop in Brighton doesn't have some Banksy tat for sale.

KickStarter

2010-12-16T06:46:00.000-08:00

Alright, its not particularly Brighton related but my fave web site at the moment is KickStarter. If you have ever fancied yourself as a patron of the arts then this is the place to go. Or if you are a struggling artist and want to raise some money for a particular project.

To begin with, you submit a description of your project and how much money you want to raise. You then say what levels of pledge (££) you will accept and what the pledger will get in return. So if you are making a film then $5 gets a name in the credits and $25 gets a signed copy of the DVD.

You can pledge as little or as much as you like. So far I have received CDs, MP3s, Comics, DVDs, paintings and the warm feeling of having helped someone make their dream come true. Check it out.

Robin Ince @ The Dome

2010-12-13T02:49:00.000-08:00

It was billed as "The Return of Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People" and was sort of an anti Christmas show. Or at least a Christmas show with all the "little baby Jesus" stuff taken out of it Jesus. What you got was Robin Ince compeering a string of comedians and entertainers all doing their slightly nerdier material. There were a couple of mathematicians and journalists in the mix but not as many as I'd been expecting. Richard Herring started off reading his letter of application for the post of Pope which surprisingly was a post he didn't get. Josie Long came on and talked to the audience about nothing much for several minutes. Other acts included our own Stepen Grant, Simon Singh and Frisky and Mannish. Local lass (and friend of JohnnyVegas) Joanna Neary did a hilarious skit about buying sex toys for Christmas and Dara O'Brian finished the night off with a thorough dissection of the film 2012.

It was a good show but probably one for the more scientific amongst you. If you don't know your Quantum Physics from your Quantum Leap then you may miss some of the jokes. Also if you are familiar with the podcast work of any of the above people then you may have heard some of the material before.

Vampire Weekend @ Brighton Centre

2010-12-06T05:35:00.000-08:00

Who would have though, when they played Audio a couple of years ago, Vampire Weekend would end up headlining festivals and playing the Brighton Centre. Most people who were there might have guessed it as, despite being a Brooklyn band and playing African rhythms, they do write incredibly catchy pop tunes.

Their set consisted most/all of the tracks from their two shortish albums, with the four piece band spread out over the centres largish stage. The arrangements were looser than on the album and every now and again the drummer would wander off and play some of the other percussion they had lying about. The centre of the show was "I think you are a contra" the slow one with the political message off the last album. As with the album its change of pace made it more memorable compared to the surrounding tracks.

As usual the singles were saved till last and went down a storm. They left after one encore promising to have written some new material for their return. Considering they have only been around a couple of years, they have played Brighton a few times. There was Audio, the C2, Great Escape, Del La War Pavillion and now the Centre.

Let It Snow ...

2010-12-02T08:44:00.000-08:00

It may have escaped your attention, but it has been snowing a bit recently. There was much consternation on the Brighton Centre Vampire Weekend Facebook forum. It seems that some people might not be able to make it to the gig. There lots of call for the gig to be rescheduled even though the band were already in town. There was even a Facebook group set up.

Anyway, the gig came and went and i have to say Brighton town centre was quite magical that night. It was snowing quite heavily and the roads were devoid of traffic. The beach was covered in snow and for once the clock tower Christmas lights actually looked quite lovely.

Of course by this time of night all the taxis and public transport had packed up and gone home. Almost all that is, there was a lone 700 bus sat at Churchill Square that picked up the everyone it could and headed off west. Western Road was deserted except for a few brave antarctic explorers and deserted cars. The roads were very treacherous and the corner or church road and grand avenue took several minutes to navigate.

Have you had any adventures?

Get Your Skates On ...

2010-12-01T06:35:00.000-08:00

If you have been past the Pavillion recently you will have noticed that there is an ice rink out the back now. It runs from 13 November 2010 to 16 January 2011 and comes with its own bar and restaurant. Tickets cost about £10 and are available here.

PAY & DISPLAY Pop-Up Gallery

2010-11-30T03:12:00.000-08:00

Unlike puppies, some things are just for Christmas. One of those things is the PAY & DISPLAY Pop-Up gallery. It looks like a selection of artists have taken over a shop in the North Laines and are selling their wares there. The folks from Modern Toss are there selling a particularly rude tea towel.