Viva Brighton March 2015 Issue #25

Music Listings
Trio Da Kali
Sun 1 Mar
The Unthanks
Wed 4 Mar
Underworld
Sat 7 Mar
Dr John and the
Nite Trippers
Thu 12 Mar
African Night Fever
Fri 27 Mar
SPECTRUM
Early Ghost
Sat 28 Mar
Sam Lee
Sat 28 Mar
Orquesta Buena Vista
Social Club
Sat 4 Apr
Marius Neset
Sat 11 Apr
brightondome.org
01273 709709

vivabrighton
Issue 25. Mar 2015
editorial
...................................................................................
You may have noticed that we have started loosely following a different
theme in each Viva edition. Thus January was our ‘clean and green’
issue; last month saw us exploring ‘love and tats’. The Christmas theme,
unsurprisingly enough, was ‘eat drink and be merry’. It would be disingenuous
to pretend that there was no commercial aspect to having such themes;
it would be inappropriate, however, for readers to think that this is their
entire raison d’être. Far from it: having a theme helps us to stretch ourselves when it comes
to editorial content, so we’re motivated to go further out of our way exploring what’s what
in this happening and eclectic city. Which is why we’re not just about Brighton’s trendy new
restaurants, or which cool band’s coming to town. After much (sometimes heated) discussion,
for reasons too obscure to mention in this space, we decided that this month’s theme should
be ‘sky’. This set the editorial team off on a tangle of tangents: Adam Bronkhorst spends a day
fly-on-the-walling at Brighton City Airport; our photographic curator Jim Stephenson examines
the sky-filled nightscapes of ‘sleepwalking’ photographer Alex Bamford; Nione Meakin gets
the lowdown on Brighton’s first plein-air theatre; Lizzie Lower meets our local flying doctors,
the Redhill air ambulance team; Chloe King meets the architects who’ve designed the i360
tower. We even unearth a picture of the first German fighter jet shot out of the sky in the Battle
of Britain – which crash-landed on a farm in Shoreham. Next month we’re going to be much
more down to earth, with a spring-based theme... subject to no more heated discussions. In the
meantime, stick your head in the clouds, and enjoy the issue.
The Team
.....................
EDITOR: Alex Leith alex@vivabrighton.com
DEPUTY EDITOR: Steve Ramsey steveramsey@vivabrighton.com
ART DIRECTOR: Katie Moorman katie@vivabrighton.com
PHOTOGRAPHER AT LARGE: Adam Bronkhorst
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Rebecca Cunningham
ADVERTISING: Anya Zervudachi anya@vivabrighton.com, Nick Metcalf nickmetcalf@vivabrighton.com,
CONTRIBUTORS: Black Mustard, Joe Decie, Nione Meakin, Chloë King, John Helmer,
Ben Bailey, Lizzie Enfield, Rebecca Hattersley, Lucy Williams and Jim Stephenson
PUBLISHERS: Nick Williams nick@vivabrighton.com, Lizzie Lower lizzie@vivamagazines.com
Viva Magazines is based at 52 Ship Street, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1AF
For advertising enquiries call 07596 337 828
Every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of our content. We cannot be held responsible for any omissions, errors or alterations.

contents
...............................
Bits and bobs.
9-21. The dismantling of the Royal
Pavilion, a pint at The Windmill,
resident cartoonist Joe Decie and
plenty more.
57
Photography.
23-27. Alex Bamford’s long-exposure
landscapes and seascapes.
Columns.
28-31. John Helmer bemoans his doppleganger,
Chloë King is all ears, and
Lizzie Enfield has an extra pinta.
My Brighton.
32-33. Gin-brewing radio presenter
Kathy Caton.
Brighton in History.
34-35. The bombing of Brighton
Odeon in 1940.
23
Maxim Grew
55
In town this month.
36-51. Ben Bailey’s Brighton band
round-up, folkie sisters The Unthanks,
Slovenian politicos Laibach,
Krautrock cover-band Radioland,
Monty Python’s Spamalot, comedians
Gina Yashere and Vicky Gould,
and Sue MacLaine and Professor
Tanya Byron from Sick! Festival. Plus
Whalefest’s Steve Backshall.
Art and Design.
52-59. Tabletop photography by
Philippa Stanton, sketching and etching
by Jo Riddell, Patrick Edgeley’s
vintage prints, and we meet i360
architects Marks Barfield.
23
58
Literature.
61-63. Anders Breivik biographer
Åsne Seiestad, a naked rendition of
Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Sick! Festival
literary curator Julia Crouch and
this month’s flash fact short story.
....4 ....

contents
...............................
56
Work.
63-71. Milo’s hairdresser’s, fashion designers
Travail en Famille, chocolate
architect Evelyn Day, and electro-bike
delivery service Recharge Cargo, and
the local heroes from the Air Ambulance
Service.
The way we work.
77-81. Adam Bronkhorst spends a
fly-on-the-wall day at Brighton City
Airport.
Food and drink.
84-93. Birthday lunch at The Prince
George, stunning seafood at The
Urchin, Algerian cuisine at The Blue
Man, veggie breakfast at the Almond
Tree, food and drink launch news, and
Coffee Guy Alan Tomlins.
98
77
Health and fitness.
94-95. The benefits of a vegetarian
diet, and the science of cycling.
Bricks and mortar.
97. Brighton Open Air Theatre, on
track for a May launch.
Inside left.
98. A grounded Battle of Britain
Me109, in a field in Shoreham. For its
pilot, the war was over.
86
....5 ....

nearly this month’s cover art
................................................
Sam Waters
Geordine Ritarita
Daniel Roberts
Jin Wang
Here are some of the cover submissions from Sussex University Product Design
students that we considered. As you can see competition was fierce...

this month’s cover art
..........................................
For this month’s cover, we returned
to the Product Design
students at Sussex University, as is
becoming something of a March
tradition. After viewing an impressive
array of designs, we chose this
Brighton-themed illustrated cover,
designed by Scott Rogers. “We
were given quite an open brief,
and told to do whatever we felt
like doing,” he tells us. We loved
his energetic style and the way
that, the longer you look at the cover, the more
little details you spot, including the famous legs
of the Duke of Yorks. “I went for elements of
Brighton which are personal to me; the Chinesestyle
dragon is symbolic of my first tattoo which
I had done here during my first year at uni, and
I drew the chilli because there are so many chilli
shops here and I love spicy food.” Scott’s illustrative
style is inspired by the work
of Aubrey Beardsley - you might
be able to spot a snippet of his
‘Peacock Skirt’ hiding within the
cover. “I really like doing this
type of sketching, but it’s usually
something which stays in my
notebooks.” The Viva Brighton
masthead creates a centre-point
to his illustration with its lively,
almost tribal vibe. “I could have
put the text in afterwards on the
computer, but I wanted it to be done in the same
way as the illustration. I like sketching on paper,
just using normal fine-liners and markers. Then
right at the end, I scan the image and use Photoshop
for the final touch-ups.” Scott and the other
final-year students will be showcasing their work
at their design show, which is open to the public
this April. designshow2015.wordpress.com
....7 ....

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Van Morrison
chaKa Khan
huGh MaseKela // Joshua redMan & the Bad plus
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dianne reeVes // GinGer BaKer Jazz conFusion
suBMotion orchestra // aMBrose aKinMusire
hiatus Kaiyote // iBiBio sound Machine
GoGo penGuin // raG ’n’ Bone Man
Jarrod lawson // Bill laurance proJect // Get the BlessinG // theo croKer
KneeBody // Joe stilGoe // GaBBy younG & other aniMals // hacKney colliery Band
dylan howe’s suBterraneans // christine toBin // partisans // Blue eyed hawK
elliot GalVin trio // the VaMpires // shiVer
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its and bogs
...............................
magazine of thE month
We opened the shop magazinebrighton, in
Trafalgar Street, partly because we wanted
to encourage the development of independent
magazine production in Brighton.
Soon after opening, someone asked us if we
stocked Simpson magazine. We hadn’t heard of
it but we checked it out. To our joy and surprise,
the founder and creative director, Terry
Hawes, is a Brightonian. For no other reason
than that, our first five copies arrived in the
shop just days later.
Simpson is a magazine for people who love
road cycling; beginners and experts alike, but
definitely not nerds. The paper, the printing
and reproduction, and even the smell of it,
shouts out the care that goes into each edition
and the passion of the people who produce it.
The current edition looks back to the Grand
Depart of the 2014 Tour de France, goes
backstage to look at one of the last remaining
European designers and makers of cycling
clothing, takes us into the heart of a road race
for historic bikes, features the national road
races of Britain and Spain, discusses the best
cycling films, looks at the work of race marshals
and even has a page for cycling foodies.
One of my favourite pieces is an interview
with Andrew Diprose about his favourite
bike. It’s special because Andrew, with his
brother, is the force behind The Ride, another
really good cycling magazine we also
stock. The interview is a good one but the
fact that it is in the pages of what might, in
a more corporate world, be seen as competitor
typifies the spirit of independent magazines
that has already made operating our
store such a nice thing to do. From page 1 to
page 100, Simpson exemplifies those values.
Martin Skelton, magazinebrighton owner
Simpson magazine, £6.00
toilet graffito #2
Name that toilet! With thanks to our toilet-graffiti
correspondents Fan Fan and Thomas.
Last month’s answer: The gents at The Foundry.
....9 ....

Joe decie
...............................
....11....

its and bobs
...............................
buried in brighton: Dorothy baigent
It was the day before his wife’s 29th birthday, and Rupert Baigent, a chauffeur, was out working. He wouldn’t
have seen the low-flying plane, because of the fog, but it’s possible he heard the explosion, sometime after
3pm. The police weren’t able to contact him till late in the afternoon. By the time he got home, the bodies had
been removed.
Sergeant William Brun was 22, a fairly experienced RAF reservist. As he died instantly, it’s impossible to know
exactly what happened, but it appears he became lost in the thick fog, and flew low to try to spot a landmark
he could use for orientation. The plane was reportedly traveling at 120mph when it hit the Baigents’ flat in
Freshfield Road, breaking through a kitchen wall.
Rupert’s wife Dorothy and their two daughters, aged two and three, had been in the kitchen. Firemen arrived
within four minutes of being called, but couldn’t get in at first, because the fire was so powerful. Anyway, it was
obvious to the fire chief that ‘anyone in the vicinity of the plane’ would have died instantly.
The funeral was on Feb 17th, 1939, six days after the accident. The three coffins were put into the same
grave, at the Brighton and Preston Cemetery. Something like 6,000 people turned out for the procession and
funeral, and police reportedly struggled to keep order. Local historian Rose Collis has called this ‘one of the
last mass public outpourings of grief displayed in Brighton.’
permanent painting: two figures, 1929
Fernand Léger (1881–1955) often painted works showing
two women together, exploring the shapes and patterns
created by the symmetrical image. Although regarded
as a Cubist painter, Léger developed his own adaptation
of the movement, preferring bold tubular shapes and
therefore earning the ‘tubist’ label. Léger was greatly
influenced by modern industrial technology, rendering
the human body as a robot-like machine. In Two Figures,
the female on the left is steely and naked but for red
beads; the female on the right is a warm brown and wearing
a dress of frills and stripes. Perhaps this is in reference
to social position, or a disconnection of some sort. But
with their arms crossed and resting within the body of
the other, there is a sense of harmony between the two
women, united on some level, if only in their femaleness.
Rebecca Hattersley
Two Figures, 1929, by Fernand Léger. Brighton Museum
and Art Gallery. http://artseries.tumblr.com/
....12....

its and bobs
...............................
jj waller’s brighton
St Peter’s Church undergoing restoration looked like a rocket launch pad when JJ
Waller took this picture in February, so it fitted into our ‘Sky’ theme. “So often civil
engineering and construction resemble art installations,” he comments. “The scaffolders
on this project could be candidates for the Turner Prize. Impressive work.”
....13....

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pics and bobs
...............................
miniclick
Jane Hilton loves photographing America, and in particular she loves photographing Nevada, the only state in
which prostitution is legal. Jane is a film-maker and photographer and has spent much of the last fifteen years
documenting Nevada’s brothels, making ten films for the BBC, as well as preparing for an exhibition. She has
recently been back to compile the material for Precious, a book of intimate portraits of prostitutes who have
posed for her in 11 different houses across the state. She is showing work from this and other projects as the
latest guest at Miniclick, Jim Stephenson’s monthly photography-related evening at the Old Market on Mon
23rd, 7pm. There will also be a screening of one of Jane’s films.
FotoDocument competition
A reminder that Fotodocument, the ecofriendly
body behind the One Planet City
photo essays that you might have seen
exhibited in public spaces throughout the
winter, has set up a connected competition for
the public, open till May 31st. Locally shot
entries are invited corresponding to the ten
key subject areas of One Planet City, from
‘Health and happiness’ to ‘Zero Carbon’.
There are a whole load of prizes on offer,
from photobooks by the judges to free meals
at local restaurants: plus the chance to be
published on the FotoDocument website, and
within these pages. For more information, and
competitions rules, check fotodocument.org.
....15....

its and bobs
...............................
Copyright images Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton and Hove
....16....

its and bobs
...............................
Secrets of the pavilion:
dismantling the palace
Last month’s feature on the Royal Pavilion recalled
Queen Victoria’s last visit to the palace in February
1845, during which she and Prince Albert were
‘hounded’ by members of the public during an incognito
visit to the Palace Pier. The sorry incident
was reported by the Illustrated London News and
worries were expressed that the royal family might
be put off staying at the Pavilion in the future. The
paper was right: Victoria effectively mothballed and
locked up the building and eventually sold it to the
town commissioners of Brighton in 1850, focussing
instead on two new building and decorating projects.
One was her recently purchased chosen holiday
home, Osborne House on the Isle of Wight,
the other a new wing to Buckingham Palace, facing
the Mall and St James’s Park.
Designed by Edward Blore, this construction
effectively closed off John Nash’s open courtyard
and gave Victoria much desired privacy and the
additional space she wished for. The money raised
from the sale of the Royal Pavilion was used to
meet the costs of the new wing. From as early as
1846 there had been talks about reusing the furniture,
decorative objects and part of the interior
decorations of the Pavilion to furnish the new wing
of Buckingham Palace. In Victoria’s defence, she
had only sold the buildings and the grounds of the
Pavilion estate, meaning the contents were hers to
take, and it was assumed that the buildings would
be demolished quickly.
The removal of the Pavilion’s decorations was
carried out, with great force and disregard for the
precious decorative detail, by the Department of
Woods and Forests. As early as September 1848
the paper Scientific American reported on the sorry
state and ghostly appearance of the Pavilion: “The
Royal Pavilion, so long the favourite abode of
George IV, is now shut preparatory to its being
offered for sale. Not a single individual is left to
disturb the silence that reigns throughout the
building. Every removable article has been taken
away, even to the grates, which have sold for old
iron, the keys were delivered to the Lord Chamberlain,
for the purpose of being handed over to
the Commissioner of Woods and Forests, who has
now possession of the property. So great was the
hurry to lock up the place, that the few remaining
workmen were obliged to finish the packing of the
furniture upon the lawn.”
The leading historian John A Erredge commented
on it with bitterness in 1851: “The ‘Woods and
Forests’ had set so liberal an interpretation of the
word ‘fixtures’, that in carrying off the pier-glasses,
grates and marble chimney-pieces, their agents had
nearly carried off the building itself […] in short,
if a pulk of Kozacs from the Don, a band of Red
Republicans from Paris, or a host of Californian
>>>
....17....

its and bobs
...............................
Copyright images Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton and Hove
dismantling the palace (cont...)
gold-seekers had been turned loose into the Pavilion,
with instructions, as the Americans say, to do
their *** worst, they could not have committed a
tithe of the ravages effected by the delegates of the
‘Woods and Forests’.”
The Royal Pavilion was, in truth, not completely
demolished; in fact it was surprisingly quickly
spruced up enough for the two main state rooms
to soon be used for public functions and fundraising
events, such as balls and a ‘Fancy Fair’ in 1851
(pictured p17), heralding the new, and no less interesting,
era of municipal ownership of the palace.
By March 1850 Queen Victoria was already enjoying
the Pavilion’s interior decorations in their new
setting in the recently extended Buckingham Palace:
“Walked about the new [Blore] wing, which is
being furnished with many things from the Pavilion
of Brighton. There is splendid china & many very
fine doors, panels, &c.,…” She had made use of
the very invention that changed Brighton so much
for the worse in her opinion, the steam railways, to
move all of the Pavilion objects from Brighton to
London.
In the 1860s she gracefully returned many important
and large objects, including the Banqueting
Room chandeliers and other large chandeliers from
the Music Room. However, many of the Royal
Pavilion decorations remain in Buckingham Palace,
mostly in three rooms on the Principal Floor of
the Blore Wing: the so-called Chinese Luncheon
Room, the Centre (or Balcony) Room, and the Yellow
Drawing Room, with additional objects, such
as candelabra and chandeliers, dotted around other
royal palaces. As is in the nature of buildings and
their interiors, these already recycled Chinoiserie
interiors have since been further changed, developed
and re-interpreted, especially by Queen Mary
in the early 20th century, who, coincidentally, also
returned many items to the Royal Pavilion.
So should we bemoan the fact that some elements
of the original Royal Pavilion have become part of
the fabric of other buildings? That would be harsh.
Instead, we should look at public buildings as always
being in a state of flux. We should also not forget
that some of the Chinese decorations that were
in the Royal Pavilion during George IV’s lifetime
had were taken from another building: his lavish
London residence Carlton House, in which he
first experimented with Chinoiserie interiors. Each
generation has changed the appearance of the Royal
Pavilion and will continue to do so.
Alexandra Loske, art historian and curator
....19....

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its and PUbs
...............................
Painting by Jay Collins
pub: the windmill
The painter John Constable lived in Sillwood
Road, then on the very edge of town, for four
years between 1824 and 1828, and frequently
went plein-air painting on the slope above, which
is now known as Montpelier. He moaned about
the Sussex landscape, calling the Downs ‘hideous
masses of unfledged earth’ but nonetheless painted
this area many times, often including the two
windmills that stood on that part of the hill.
The painter would almost certainly have witnessed
the building of the public house named after one
of these mills (it has not been recorded which one;
they were equidistant) – The Windmill, founded
in 1828. The mills are long gone, but the pub has
retained its name, and remains a favoured drinking
spot, its just-enough-off-the-main-drag location
meaning it pulls in both short-term visitors
and long term locals, particularly in the summer
months, when its south-facing front terrace becomes
one of THE prime early-evening drinking
spots in town. (Hint: get there before five).
Perhaps The Windmill’s heyday was in the early
seventies, when it became popular with Sussex
University students, whose hair was considerably
longer than that of the landlord, it’s been fondly
remembered on the My Brighton and Hove website.
He was a stiff-upper-lip type, apparently, with a
Brylcreemed side-parting and a military tie, and he
watched the shenanigans going on in front of him
through gritted teeth, eventually moving to the
then-less-racy Royal Sovereign, down the hill.
I pay my latest visit on a cold February evening,
and sup a pint of London Pride, casting my mind
back to a number of memorable times recently
spent there, including a landmark birthday (I was
gifted a cycling helmet, and insisted on wearing
it for the latter half of the evening) and a heated
political discussion with a journalist from the Jewish
Chronicle. The interior could do with a bit of a
revamp, frankly – the décor looks like a teenage
lad’s been given an improbably large budget to
kit out his bedroom – but The Windmill’s always
been there for me if I’ve been in that part of town,
a great place to duck into after (or during) a Western
Road shopping expedition. Oh, and whatever
you think of the neon skulls, the staff serve you a
fine roast there, too, and half-decent pub grub all
week through. Alex Leith
....21....

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photography
..........................................
Alex Bamford
Night-sky photographer
One of the beauties of Brighton
is that we can stand on the beach
and look out on nothing but the
sea and the sky. It’s no surprise
then that those two elements have
been a constant source of inspiration
for local photographers. Last
month we focused on the sea, with
Kevin Meredith and the Brighton
Swimming Club. This month,
we look to the skies with Alex
Bamford, who shoots by the light
of the full moon...
What initially drew you to
shooting in moonlight? My
mum says that as a child, I
would always talk in my sleep
when there was a full moon, so I think it’s always
had an effect on me. I love the surreal quality of
moonlight and also the way that the long exposures
I shoot capture the movement in the clouds
and sea. I work as an art director in London by
day so time for personal photography is limited
to weekends and nights. I’d worked on a number
of night shoots for Land Rover, culminating with
a trip to Japan with a night photographer called
Satoshi Minakawa. After seeing the results of a
90-minute moonlit exposure of Mount Fuji, I
was hooked. Most of my own subject matter lies
around Brighton, close enough to drive or cycle
but far enough to escape the invasive orange glow
of streetlights.
How does your background as an art director
influence your photography? I work with layouts
every day so composition is important to me. For
my own work, I try not to
think too hard, preferring to
follow my instincts. I react to
the landscape I’m in and use
whatever props I find there.
Over the years I’ve experimented
with homemade light
sticks, pyrotechnics and most
recently, striped pyjamas. I’ve
been lucky enough to work
with loads of really talented
commercial photographers
over the last 30 years. Much
of what I do creatively and
technically has rubbed off
from them.
How do you motivate
yourself to get the PJ’s on and head out in the
middle of the night? I’ve been working on my
Sleepwalking series since October 2011. If I’m
lucky, a full moon will coincide with a clear sky
one or two nights a month so, as a project, it takes
a long time to build upon. Wherever possible, I
jump at the opportunity. Standing on a beach or a
field in the middle of the night is a great antidote
to working in an office all day. It’s exhilarating, a
bit scary and great fun. Unsurprisingly, the trickiest
bit is keeping warm. Over the years I’ve built
up a good collection of thermals. I keep the PJs
hidden until I get on location, and even then I only
reveal them for the time it takes to get the shot.
I’ve only been caught in my pyjamas once, by the
Beachy Head Chaplaincy who patrol for suicide
risks. I’m not sure who was more surprised, them
or me. Jim Stephenson
....23....

photography
...............................
Striaght down the middle
Medina Groyne
....24....

photography
...............................
Red posts
Sleeping in a four poster
....25....

photography
...............................
The slippery slope to sleep
Falling into a deep, deep sleep
....26....

photography
...............................
Double Security
By the light of the silvery sea
....27....

column
...........................................
John Helmer
Doppelganger
‘Nigel?’
‘Sorry?’
‘Nigel Slater – it’s you isn’t it?’
We’re on the concourse at Victoria Station in Cafe
Ritazza, my least favourite coffee bar chain, and I’ve
just been mistaken for my least favourite TV chef.
I look at the man who has made this error. Middle
aged, affluent-looking; in his Boden shirt and ‘The
North Face’ jacket, it’s no stretch to imagine he
might actually be on first-name terms with Nigel.
Perhaps they’re friends. This is a disaster.
Back home I consult the mirror in trepidation.
‘Make me a piece of toast, Mummy,’ I mouth.
Kate think it’s hilarious. So do the children, when
she tells them. They take to calling me Nigel.
Whenever my new lookey-likey comes on TV
(which I already think is way too often) they fall
about the place.
‘It’s not so bad,’ says Kate, ‘He’s quite goodlooking.’
‘No he isn’t,’ says Poppy.
‘I resent the implication this is about my
personal vanity’.
‘Isn’t it?’
The truth is, we never get mistaken
for the person we would like to be
mistaken for, because we would
rather be mistaken for someone
hotter.
I once got mistaken for David Bowie,
on the London Underground, in
1984, by two Japanese girls. It was at
the time, and probably remains, a highwater
mark.
More often in those days I got compared to John
Gordon Sinclair from Gregory’s Girl. I mention our
supposed likeness to him when we happened to be
in the same nightclub once. We were having quite a
laugh about it – they must be blind! We’re not alike
at all! – when he was yanked away by the person
he’d come with, Peter Capaldi. (I wouldn’t mind
being mistaken for Peter Capaldi come to think
of it, Malcom Tucker being such an obvious role
model; even though he looks a bit fucked nowadays.
It’s not looks I’m coveting, here, so much as
swearing skills).
No, after the Bowie débâcle – and granted, those
girls were wearing very thick spectacles – other
lookey-likey experiences just don’t compare. Being
an obscure ex-popstar I got called up to do my stint
in the line-up for Never Mind The Buzzcocks a few
years ago. It turned out that one of the extras in my
line-up had a sideline as a Pierce Brosnan imitator.
Given those guys are supposed to resemble you,
I should have been pleased. But no: why couldn’t
I look like one of the good Bonds? You see, once
you’ve been mistaken for the Thin White Duke it’s
all downhill.
Life is short: Is it really too much to ask that I
could pass for David Bowie, swear like Peter Capaldi
and perhaps only cook like my least favourite
celebrity chef, rather than allegedly look like him?
Standing at the kitchen range, I examine my reflection
in a spatula.
‘Nigel,’ calls Kate from the sitting room; ‘could you
rustle us up a Coq Au Vin?’
....28....

column
......................................
Chloë King
‘I’m on the train’
If you’re reading this,
man on the Gatwick
Express who works in
advertising and has a
four-car port outside
his spacious, open-plan
refurb in Kemptown:
I’m not sorry for outing
you. You asked for
it when you publicly
bragged that you like to
watch the road outside
Illustration by Chloë King
your house and call up the traffic wardens whenever
anyone contravenes parking restrictions.
I was intending to write this column about conversations
I listen in to on public transport. I’m bad for
this. Sometimes I even write down what I hear. My
friend G is so well aware of people like me (being
not unlike me) that she says she avoids talking on
trains and buses, and gets quite irritated when her
companions expect her to. I don’t share this phobia of
being listened to; like a good liberal I feel it is only fair
to give a little back.
I was going to write this column about eavesdropping,
but reading my notebook it seems there is something
else going on here. The second most noteworthy
exchange I heard on a train recently involved a father
and his two children, both under five. A homeless
man entered the carriage and asked for money to pay
for his hostel. Shortly after he passed by, the girl, who
was sitting a few seats apart from her dad, reading his
phone, called over:
“Daddy, why’s that man asking for money?” ...and
before he had time to reply… “Is he one of those poor
people who live on the street?”
“Yes darling,” her dad replied, visibly embarrassed,
“but he has other issues
as well.”
“What Daddy?”
“He has issues with
substances.”
“What’s that Daddy?”
“Well, he probably
drinks too much,” the
man said, more quietly.
“Why is he walking
down the train causing a
nuisance?”
“I don’t know darling,” he said, terminating the
exchange. His daughter turned away, and a few moments
later said sharply:
“Go away, nuisance.”
Another passenger sat opposite me smiled at her
mother, rolling her eyes. The father carried on
looking at his phone. I looked down at his little girl’s
Hunter wellies and felt self-righteous. If my daughter
had said, “go away, nuisance” to a homeless person I
would have pulled her up on it. I might have told her
not to be unkind; that we don’t know why he is in
that position; that he needs help; or that the situation
is complicated. This child’s lesson was to not ask, and
not to look.
You can gauge a lot about the state of a place by tuning
into petty conversations, so what do I find notable
here? A guy with room to park his car four times over
so enraged by the residents and visitors parking on
his street that he grasses them up to the council, and
a man teaching his five-year-old daughter ‘the poor’
are a nuisance. I see the ABC1s engaged in a passive
aggressive battle with the C2DEs. I guess it all comes
down to the question of to whom we are directing our
anger, while we all feel shafted.
....30....

column
...........................................
Lizzie Enfield
Notes from North Village
I am trying to buy milk. We have a milkman, known
as ‘Alan with an ampersand’ on account of the way
he signs his name.
It looks like &lan, so the name has stuck, just as
our friend Iain is known as ‘Ian with two I’s’ to differentiate
him from the other Ians we know – who
are Cyclops…
I’ve never actually met &lan, but I feel I know him
quite well, through the doorstep notes we exchange
and elaborate games of ‘hide the milk’ we engage in.
I like having milk arrive on the doorstep but, even
in the North Village, it’s subject to theft and tampering.
Recently, someone/something’s been getting
the milk before me. The foil tops have been pierced.
I wonder if my husband has been secretly trying to
poison me and make it look like birds. He reckons it
might actually be birds - but then he would say that,
wouldn’t he?
A friend tells me 21st-century birds have some sort
of inherited memory that draws them to milk even
though it’s hardly ever the full-fat variety their fifties
forefathers were after.
More often than not, having pecked the tops, they
don’t drink much milk. So &lan and I plan
to thwart them (I leave a note asking
him to place the plate I’ve left over
the top of the milk). This works
for a while but today &lan, who
in his Christmas cards describes
himself as an ‘endangered species’
(and thanks us for helping
to protect him) appears to have
become extinct.
Either that or someone has stolen
our milk. There’s none on the
doorstep.
So, I head to the Co-op, which has a whole chiller
cabinet specifically dedicated to milk. In it is every
possible variety of milk you could imagine. Except
the type of milk which Alan with an ampersand usually
brings. Milk, which I call ‘normal milk’. There
is almond milk, soya milk, goat’s milk, sheep’s milk,
rice milk, UHT milk, raw milk and lactose-free
milk, but no regular milk.
“Do you have any normal milk?” I ask the teenager
who’s on duty.
“What do you mean by normal?” he says, looking
slightly offended.
“Well you know, just regular whole milk.”
“Whole milk?” he looks mystified.
“Cows’ milk,” I say.
“I don’t think so,” he looks as if I’ve asked if they
stock camel milk.
Maybe they do.
“The rice milk is good,” he says. “That’s what we have
at home. Or lactose free. We get that for our cats.”
“I just want milk,” I persist, scanning the rows of
Tetrapaks looking for milk that resembles the milk
that &lan brings. I understand why he thinks he’s
endangered.
In the end I plump for lactose-free milk,
reasoning it’s at least cows’ milk, but minus
the lactose.
I am wrong. I take it home and make
tea and realize that I really like lactose.
I really, really like it. And I don’t really
like milk without it.
“That’s because you’re tolerant,” a
friend says.
But he’s wrong. I may not be lactose intolerant
but I am intolerant of living in a
village where I can’t buy regular milk.
....31....

....32....
Photo by Adam Bronkhorst

interview
..........................................
mybrighton: Kathy Caton
Radio Reverber and Brighton Gin maker
Are you local? I’m a blow-in. I came here on a dirty
weekend 15 years ago and thought ‘why haven’t I
lived here for the previous 25 years of my life?’ So I
quit my job, came down in a van with all my possessions,
including my drum kit, and drove round till I
found a flat.
And you got into radio... I started my Brighton
radio career as a DJ at the end of the pier, playing
Donna Summer remixes to one pissed woman and
a pair of seagulls. Eleven years ago I was part of the
team that set up RadioReverb. Brighton had been
under-represented on local broadcast media, and
RadioReverb addresses that, because it’s all about
the city. There’s such a diverse music scene for a
place of this size; we’re the only radio station in the
UK with a female-fronted rockabilly show. There’s
an experimental jazz show, too, which just isn’t for
me, but there’s a demand for it, so we put it on. And
we believe we’re the only radio station in Europe
with a regular show presented and produced by
trans broadcasters.
What do you like about Brighton? People are
very tolerant, and very accepting, too, which is a
different thing. You have to try quite hard before
you turn heads. I saw somebody rollerblading down
the street the other day dressed just in tiny spandex
shorts and the comments he was attracting were of
the ‘bet that’d sting if he fell over’ variety, rather
than ‘what an outrage’. Plus there’s something for
everyone here, whatever you might be into, whether
that’s raw pressed juices and yoga or seven-nights-aweek
clubbing. Or a combination of all of those, for
that matter.
Is it a good place to live if you’re gay?
Section 28 came out when I was in school and
growing up in the countryside, and consequently
I found it hard to come out. I had no positive role
models to look at. Here, there are so many LGBTQ
people obviously living wonderful lives and it’s easy
to think ‘hey, I want to like to be like that’.
What’s your favourite pub? I love the Bedford
Tavern, my local, which is so welcoming. They do a
good roast, and a perfect Sunday afternoon would
definitely involve a session of piano bingo there.
Though I’d make sure that my Monday morning
diary was empty. My local area is full of great places
to go: my favourite restaurant (for treats) is the
Ginger Man just up the street, or, more frequently,
the Regency round the corner; I feel privileged to
have Taj, and ‘Baby’ Taj, nearby.
How did Brighton Gin come about? One morning
two years ago I was slowly jogging off the effects
of too much late-night gin – it’s a very forgiving
drink in terms of how you feel the next day – and
I suddenly thought of Brighton having its own gin
distillery. It seemed such a good fit I actually ran
back home to check on the internet if anyone had
done anything similar, and it turns out that no-one
had. After jumping a huge number of hoops we
brought our first batch out before Christmas – and
beyond our expectations it sold out. People have
been amazingly supportive and generous, and our
second batch is now hitting the streets.
When did you last swim in the sea? Late September.
I used to start in March and go through till
November but my swimming window has shrunk as
I’ve got older. Brighton is a very unflattering place
to swim: the ‘wobble of shame’ as you come out of
the sea is something you wouldn’t want to incorporate
into a first date. Interview by Alex Leith
To celebrate its eighth birthday, between March 6
and March 8 RadioReverb is broadcasting live for
52 straight hours for its fundraising Reverbathon:
radioreverb.com or 97.2 FM
....33....

ighton in history
..........................................
Kemptown in flames
Brighton’s most deadly air raid
More than a quarter of Brighton’s civilian deaths in
WWII were the result of a single bombing run, by a
single plane, whose pilot may not even have intended
to kill anyone – at least not in Brighton.
This was Saturday Sept 14th, 1940, and the Germans
were trying a new air strategy, sending ‘in quick
succession, large formations of bombers, protected
by hordes of Messershmitt fighters,’ in the direction
of London, according to the Times. About 300 planes
came that day, ‘in two main waves’. It was cloudy.
At this point, Brighton had experienced relatively
few air raids, and the civilian death toll was about
five. Around 3.40pm, a lone German plane appeared
over Kemptown. Perhaps it had separated from its
group accidentally, or perhaps intentionally. It was
being chased by a Spitfire. It dropped 20 bombs on
Brighton, killing 52 people and leaving many others
injured or homeless.
Several places on the south coast were bombed that
day, so the raid may have been tactical. However, the
Brighton Herald’s report hinted that the pilot had jettisoned
his heavy load to make escape easier, and this
seems to have become the standard explanation.
***
The Odeon cinema, on the corner of Paston Place
and St George’s Road, was busy, as it usually was
during the Saturday matinée. There were maybe
300 people there, including many unaccompanied
children, watching a comedy, The Ghost Comes Home.
A warning light flashed up on the stage: ‘Air raid:
please keep your seats’. Some people left before the
bomb came through the ceiling and blew up in a
corner near the screen, right by the cheap seats.
There are two versions of what happened next.
‘Stunned and horrified as the audience were, there
was no panic,’ the Herald reported. An eyewitness
apparently said: ‘I think the anxious parents and
friends rushing up to see how their own had fared
were more strung up than those who were quietly
coming out’.
‘The children, the grown-ups and the staff were
marvellous,’ cinema manager Cyril Huxtable told
the Argus. ‘The bomb fell through the roof into the
front seats, where the children were sitting, but there
was no panic. Everybody behaved with great courage.’
Huxtable claimed that he hadn’t seen a single
child crying.
The other version of the story comes from eyewitness
accounts published subsequently, by local
historian David Rowland, the BBC, and the Argus.
Here are excerpts.
Tony Bishop: ‘There was a terrifying rattle, almost
like a shower of giant hailstones landing on the
roof of the cinema. In a split second the rattle was
followed by an enormous explosion and I saw the
soldier in front of me had no head.’
Ronald Carr: ‘Everything went black and there was a
terrible smell. People were screaming. I tried to get
to the exit, and I remember the hands of the injured
reaching out and trying to grab me as I went.’
Kenneth McNeill: ‘The whole cinema became panic
stricken. People and children were screaming and
shouting. Everyone was so frightened, it was so
dark, the whole place was black with dust, debris and
everything was falling down on us. I thought I was
going to be buried alive. I pushed and struggled and
managed to get to the exit, falling over people and
kids who I know were seriously injured.’
McNeill: ‘The police and wardens went in and out
getting mums with their kids who had been trapped
....34....

Photo courtesy of David Rowland
inside the cinema. They brought out many people
and laid them down on the floor. A boy who was
lying next to me came round and started shouting
for help. A nurse came to us again and the boy, who
was crying and frightened, said to her, “I’ve got a
big hole in my belly, nurse”.’
“How could the newspapers say there was no
panic?” Rowland asks. Well, as he explains, “there
were government instructions that the press
couldn’t print anything that might upset the public
or cause panic.”
So the local papers’ coverage of the raid depicted
Brighton as unruffled, defiant and stoical. They
focused on the rescuers who worked through the
evening and the night, sustained by tea, biscuits and
buns provided by helpful locals.
The Herald printed a story about a rescue worker
who ‘was himself badly gassed’, but ‘stoutly refused
to be taken to hospital’, saying that was ‘only for
the real casualties’. And there was a great tale about
a bomb falling on Hove’s cricket ground, during a
match - ‘after a hurried consultation it was decided
to take the tea interval’.
The following morning, people who’d been left
homeless came back ‘with carts, lorries, barrows
and even perambulators,’ salvaging as many of
their possessions as they could, the Argus reported.
‘The spirit of the people was one of magnificent
courage… Everywhere the civilian morale was high
in the stricken areas, and the murder attacks only
produced a cold fury against the instigators.’
It’s hard to know how accurate this fight-themon-the-beaches
stuff is, though some of the stories
are very believable. The Herald ran one about an
80-year-old woman from Moulsecoomb who used
to go to the Odeon every Saturday afternoon.
‘When kindly wardens assisted her out, smothered
in dirt and rubble, she would not even wait for a
cup of tea before going home. To a friend she said
firmly: “I shall go to the [blank] cinema from now
on. It ought to be safer.”’ Steve Ramsey
With many thanks to David Rowland, whose books
on WWII in Brighton include Target Brighton and
War in the City vols I and II.
....35....

Brighton music
..........................................
Della Lupa
‘A balance between familiarity and discomfort’
It’s a busy month for Della Lupa. With a crowdfunding
campaign underway, the Brighton pianist is putting out a
release every week, doing some secret shows and organising
a multimedia launch gig at One Church.
Sounds like you’re pulling out all the stops… I
definitely am! It’s not only the launch of our new
single, Storm of Swallows, it’s also the main event in
our crowdfunding campaign to make our next EP.
It’s to be an all-immersive event with music from
Ellie Ford, Kwil and Summa as well as visual art by
Beth Steddon, a screening of the Storm of Swallows
video and a dance performance from the Ceyda Tanc
company.
Is this a first for you? Well, I’ve been playing a few
special shows recently – a ‘secret’ show in a beautiful
18th-century house in Cheltenham and a ‘flash’ gig
where we hijacked the piano at Brighton train station.
It’s so much fun to perform in a different type
of venue in a different kind of way. And that’s what I
want to try and recreate for the launch.
Is it true the new single was inspired by a photoshoot?
Beth Steddon was looking for a model for
a visual idea we had. We did the shoot and it was so
inspiring I went home and wrote a song about it. For
the video, I had a very clear idea of a contemporary
dance between women on a shoreline that reflected
the mood in the photographs. I tried to dance in
front of a mirror at home and it was not pretty – I
am definitely not Kate Bush. But then I found Ceyda
Tanc, a Turkish dance company, whose style fits
beautifully with what I was aiming for.
Does your Vietnamese and Italian background
influence your music? Massively. I often try to give
my music a kind of Asiatic melodic twist as I find it
so pleasing to the ear. And I’ve been told by a lot of
drummers I work with that I often choose Latino
tempos, which must come from the Italian side. But
the biggest influence of my mixed heritage has been
the merging of ideas and ways of seeing to create
understanding between things that seem far apart.
I love trying to strike a balance between familiarity
and discomfort.
What made you decide to use crowdfunding?
Because I spent all of my worldly savings on Della
Lupa’s debut. I like the creative freedom of being
an independent artist, but having jump-started the
project I need help to take it to the next level. Our
target is £2,500 – it doesn’t even cover all our costs.
It’s a lot of money, but we’re giving ‘perks’ to those
who donate – including vintage dresses I’ve worn
at special shows (Ronnie Scott’s, etc) and the handsewn
feather costumes I made for our first video.
People can also get Della Lupa to perform in the
comfort of their homes.
You’re playing a secret house show in Brighton
later this month. Can you give us any clues?
Where do you get your information from? Very sly!
Clues: Roni Guetta from Traumfrau. BN1 location.
Limited tickets available at the launch gig. That. Is.
All. Interview by Ben Bailey
Della Lupa’s launch gig is at One Church on Mar 5.
See www.igg.me/at/dellalupa.
....36....

local musicians
..........................................
Ben Bailey rounds up the Brighton music scene
CONRAD VILGOE
Thur 5, Otherplace @ The Basement
A master craftsman of
crystal-clear songwriting,
Conrad Vilgoe
launches his fourth
album this month.
Looking to get back
to a purer way of
working, Conrad
recorded all 13 tracks
of Tomorrow, Then
straight to tape in two
days – with a little help from engineer Phill Brown
(who’s worked with Led Zeppelin and Bob Marley,
amongst others). The approach sits well with
Conrad’s no-gimmicks delivery, not to mention his
loose and honest lyrical flow. “All that’s left here is
me and this fucking guitar,” he sings on Letters In
The Night. “I’m playing songs nobody hears.” Not
for much longer.
OH CAPTAIN!
Sun 22, Green Door Store, 7pm, £5/£3
While we all know that the heavy metal death
growl is a universal signifier of emotional intensity,
it’s also true that sometimes it’s just nice to hear
a tune. Although they started life as an acoustic
trio, Oh Captain! have ended up as something you
might well label post-rock – their website gives
advice on how to build an effects pedal board – but
the band are surely all the better for taking the
scenic route to get there. Their instrumental crescendos
might fool you into thinking you’re about
to get an earful of beard, but the vocals actually
come in the form of sparse boy-girl singing that
works a treat.
EARLY GHOST
Sat 28, Dome Studio Theatre, 7.30pm, £4
Brighton’s vintage
shops have a lot to
answer for. Early
Ghost’s new single, a
wall-of-sound groove
driven by a peddling
organ, is a fine reminder of the perennial appeal
of 60s psychedelia. It’s calling out for tie-dye
and lava lamps; it’s fear and loathing in Snoopers
Paradise. There are shades of The Doors and
even Morricone in the sextet’s sound, but there’s
a folksy side too, most evident when the sparky
surf guitar meets its match in an equally reverbed
lead banjo. Having landed some incredible support
slots with Beirut, First Aid Kit and Neutral Milk
Hotel, Early Ghost are passing on the favour here
to Brighton folk outfit Seadog.
GET ON WITH IT
Sat 28 & Sun 29, Green Door Store,
2pm-11pm, £28/£15
Punk rock took a decidedly political turn in the
early 80s when the Tories started in earnest to
dismantle the country. Fast forward three decades
and they’re still at it, the punks too. This two day
‘bashtival’ features headline sets by Zounds and
Rubella Ballet, both veterans of the 80s anarcho
scene, alongside The Adverts’ TV Smith and
punk poet Andy T. There’s twenty acts in all, and
plenty of Brighton music in the mix: from the
frantic accordian-led ska of RatBag, to the comedy
misanthropy of the notorious Anal Beard, and the
lean post-punk of Interrorbang – a new-ish local
trio featuring former members of agit-pop heroes/
villains Chumbawamba.
....37....

Gigs In Brighton...
The PreaTures
Wednesday, 11th March
Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar
lucy rOse
Tuesday, 17th March
Concorde 2
charli XcX
Tuesday, 24th March
Concorde 2
FOur year sTrOng
Saturday, 28th March
Concorde 2
The cOrOnas
Tuesday, 31st March
Komedia
TheraPy?
Tuesday, 31st March
Concorde 2
Oscar
Tuesday, 31st March
Bleach
Kill iT Kid
Wednesday, 1st April
Green Door Store
yOung guns
Thursday, 2nd April
The Haunt
sTeel Pulse
Sunday, 5th April
Concorde 2
ghOsTPOeT
Monday, 6th April
Komedia
Villagers
Friday, 17th April
The Old Market
www.loutpromotions.co.uk
Wednesday 4 March — Komedia Studio
Chris Wood
+ Tim Keegan
+ Ez Stone
Saturday 14 March — St. George’s Church
Courtney Pine
& Zoe Rahman
Thursday 19 March — Komedia
Radioland:
Kraftwerk’s Radio-
Activity Revisited
Thursday 19 March — Komedia Studio
RONiiA + support
Wednesday 25 March — Komedia Studio
Tom Williams
+ The Fiction Aisle
+ Bella Spinks
Friday 3 April — The Hope & Ruin (FREE)
bitbin & Melting Vinyl present
Electroworx
bitbin + Adolescent + Pollen
+ Champion Fever
Resident Music
Dome Box Office
Union Records
Music’s Not Dead
(Bexhill)
Pebbles
(Eastbourne shows)
The Vinyl Frontier
(Eastbourne)
Venue if applicable
seetickets.com
ticketweb.co.uk
Age restrictions may apply.
Wednesday 15 April — Komedia
Polar Bear
+ Leafcutter John
Monday 11 May — Brighton Spiegeltent
BUNTY
(MULTIMOS LIVE — full AV show)
+ VJ metaLuna
Wednesday 13 May — Komedia
Thea Gilmore
+ support
14 –16 May — St. George’s Church
The Great Escape
Tuesday 19 May — Green Door Store (FREE)
Aquaserge + support
Wednesday 20 May — Komedia
LAU + Siobhan Wilson
Sunday 24 May — Concorde 2
The Julie Ruin
+ Slum of Legs
3–5 July — Glynde Place, Lewes
Love Supreme
Jazz Festival
meltingvinyl.co.uk

music
..........................................
The Unthanks
Doin’ it for themselves
Our parents got into folk music in
the 60s, and when we came along
it was always a big part of our lives.
Every summer we’d go to festivals.
We were in a clog-dance team, so
we’d get tickets that way.
On the way to the festivals, to keep
us busy, our parents would teach us
songs. At family parties everyone
would do a turn, and we all sang in
the house. On Boxing Day, every
year, we go and see this mummers
play near Teesside and go and sing
in the pub; it’s one of our favourite
days of the year. We’ve gone since we
were kids.
There’s quite a big age gap between
me and Rachel, seven and a half
years, so when I was just going to
uni, she’d finally admitted to herself
that she did want to be a folk singer
and make an album and see how that
went. But I really didn’t think of it
like that. I went to uni to do history
of art and fine art, and thought that’s
what I’d do with my life, and that
singing would always be a huge part
of my life, but as a hobby.
I thought working in a nightclub
was the best job ever, I thought it was
brilliant, because your day started at
1pm and finished at 4am, and you
got to hang out with your friends
all the time. I was too consumed in
having fun, doing art and working in
a nightclub, to think seriously about
my career at that point. I was always
very involved. It was always me and Rachel singing. We were
an unaccompanied duo before we met Adrian [their manager/
producer] and became a band, but we originally labelled it Rachel
Unthank and the Winterset because if I did do something else, it
wouldn’t confuse things. But it ended up confusing things more,
because I didn’t go away.
Mine and Rachel’s first plan, or ambition, because we loved singing
together… our parents had three kids, and taking us round
festivals got a bit expensive, so they said ‘we can’t afford to pay
for you anymore to go to every festival all summer’. So we were
like, ‘oh, ok, we need to get to festivals for free.’ That was our
first aim, to get a free ticket for singing, and [the first time it happened],
that was huge to us, that was like, ‘how have we managed
to pull this off?’
I can’t remember which festival it was, but it would have been a
small folk festival, maybe Homefires, or Warwick Folk Festival.
It would have been a 20-minute slot, and to be honest, I’d be surprised
if we got through… sometimes we wouldn’t get through a
song without forgetting the words or giggling. We were rubbish.
We’re lucky they booked us. And then when we met Adrian, he
was like, ‘if you practice you could actually be a lot better than
this’. We were like ‘oh, ok…’ Becky Unthank spoke to SR
Wed 4th, Brighton Dome Concert Hall, 8pm, £20/£17.50
Photo by Andy Gallacher
....39....

....40....

music
...........................
Laibach
…and think of Slovenia
Laibach are a Slovenian industrial band whose
‘militaristic self-stylisation, propagandist manifestos and
totalitarian statements’ have attracted much attention,
as their own website says. They have a philosophy of
‘de-individualisation’, and give interviews through an
unnamed spokesman.
What is Laibach trying to achieve?
We are trying to make sense of our existence, help to
create a better world and make evil lose his nerves.
The Rough Guide to Rock claimed ‘Laibach
have always seen themselves more as ideological
offensive than rock group’. Is that correct?
We wish it were like that; we certainly don’t feel like
a rock group, although we are sometimes forced to
behave like one. In principle we believe rock is dead
and has been since at least the beginning of the 90s.
A member of Laibach was quoted about a year
ago as saying: ‘Pop music of course has a lot of
fascist elements’. Is this the band’s view?
It is the band’s view, and we wouldn’t even deal with
pop music (and pop culture in general) if it didn’t
have this fascist dimension. This matter is, of course,
a complex question and quite impossible to explain
in a few words, but as is now already more or less
clear to everyone, in a market determined by popular
taste there is a fine line between the ideology of
neo-liberal consumer capitalism and fascism, and it
can easily be crossed. Just compare the most blatant
character of the American pop icon, Superman, in
relation to the Nazi Übermensch, for instance.
The majority of pop music is constructed and
promoted to please the collective unconscious, the
actualization of social desire, which could also be
the concise description of the theory behind the
Führerprinzip. Of course there’s more to it, but
like manufactured food, manufactured pop is also
a product designed to be a commodity, which will
impel its consumers to return again and again - a
typical dystopian economic model of the present,
based on fascists’ paradigm.
Do you all live in a quite disciplined, austere way?
If we have a chance, yes, but not necessarily always.
The road to enlightenment is long and difficult,
demands an effort and takes many victims.
Is it possible to be a member of Laibach who
is Laibach-like at work then goes home and
watches TV and relaxes?
Being a Laibach member is a full-time calling that
certainly dominates our lives, and watching TV at
home does not ease the situation. But there’s also
a privilege to be able to be what you are for your
entire life.
Laibach interviews are often full of detailed
political and philosophical analysis. Is that what
you’re like when you chat to each other? Or do
you ever discuss something like sport?
Are you having a laugh? Of course we discuss sport,
with great pleasure and excitement. And we not only
discuss it - we practice sport as much as we can. SR
Laibach, Mon 30 Mar, Concorde 2, 7.30pm, £17.50
....41....

music
...........................
Radioland
Kraftwerk re-makers
Photo by Sarah Mason Photography
“Right, we can both improvise - so what?” Franck
Vigroux said to Matthew Bourne. Bourne had
suggested they should work together again, and
flown to France to see him, without having decided
what the project would be. During the drive from
the airport to his house, Vigroux pitched the idea of
doing something relating to Kraftwerk. Bourne had
never really listened to Kraftwerk that much, and
had no strong feelings about them. But he agreed.
They decided to try to exactly recreate Kraftwerk’s
album Radio-Activity as a live performance. It was
a strange project for two improv specialists, and a
strange choice of album: it does feature some great
Kraftwerky tunes, but also has weird experimental
passages.
“I think there’s a really good mix of stuff,” Bourne
says. “There are songs, very identifiable, almost
romantic songs, then there are these interludes,
whether they’re instrumental or those vocoder
spoken-text things. It’s very conceptual, but at
the same time, I think it is quite accessible, even
though they went on to do even more accessible
things after that. I’d say it’s a warm album; it feels
very approachable. It grooves as well, it’s quite
funky [in places]. I don’t know if it was such a
big deal at the time, but it’s now become quite a
landmark album.
“It’s very ahead of its time. They were creating
their music in what essentially was a bit of a void in
post-war Germany, and it’s like listening to music
that’s started from scratch, almost. ‘We’ve reinvented
these drums, used these synthesisers, we’ve
got this new vocoder machine which is altering and
manipulating voices’, that sort of thing.”
Working on the re-creation, Vigroux and Bourne
“came pretty close to approximating the original
sounds, but it wasn’t exact. We realised we actually
needed our own spin on it, because if we can’t get
the exact sounds and be really nerdy about it, then
perhaps we shouldn’t be doing that. I think we also
felt we needed to be celebrating the album’s 40th
anniversary by bringing our own influence onto the
music, rather than it being a museum piece.
“Trying to replicate it exactly just seemed to be a
bit of a false trail, because we’re certainly not doing
it for any kind of novelty aspect… We’re not a
Kraftwerk cover band.”
Thus, they won’t be wearing Man Machine-style
matching suits, or “fancy clothes that glow in the
dark”. But, to make sure it’s not just “two guys
twiddling knobs with old equipment,” they’ve
recruited an installation artist of the “hardcore algorithmic
programming” variety, Antoine Schmitt.
He will produce a live generative video projection,
which will change in response to the music.
“A lot of the time we’ve got our heads down concentrating
on moving switches and dials and knobs
and looking at each other for cues, but when I have
looked at the visuals… I wish I could just stand and
watch the show.”
Radioland: Kraftwerk’s Radio-Activity Revisited,
Thurs 19th, Komedia, 7.30pm, £12/10
....42....

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This season includes:
March 2-28: sick! festival
fringe award winner: pioneer
acclaimed irish folk: villagers
family favourite: captain flinn
NEW ON SALE:
May 29: craig charles funk & soul
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spam
...........................
Spamalot
Spam Spam Spam Beans and Spam
They hadn’t written a proper film before; they
didn’t have enough money; their lead actor was
struggling with alcoholism, and his lines. Shooting
was a ‘nightmare’, because they were ‘so up against
the clock all the time,’ Terry Jones later said. Their
camera broke during the first shot on the first day.
It was cold and rainy and the actors spent a lot of
time standing round in damp knights’ costumes. It
has a rubbish ending, possibly because they couldn’t
afford a proper battle scene. The first preview
screening was a disaster.
So perhaps it’s surprising that Monty Python and the
Holy Grail is as good as it is. But if you think about
The Life of Brian, is there anything which could
be added, or taken out, to make it even marginally
better? By comparison, The Holy Grail looks
improvable. So if you were Eric Idle, and you were
thinking of making a musical version of a Python
film, which would you go for?
Inconveniently for this theory, Idle has also cowritten
an oratorio called Not the Messiah. But
Spamalot came first, and was apparently something
he’d been thinking about since the 80s.
Also, in the Pythons’ autobiography, Idle gives only
moderate praise to The Holy Grail, which he calls
‘sketchy’, with ‘no plot whatsoever’, but nonetheless
‘good’ and ‘very hard not to like’.
I put this theory, in brief, to Sarah Earnshaw, who
plays the Lady of the Lake in the current Spamalot
tour. She doesn’t quite agree. She’s loved The Holy
Grail since she first saw it, as a teenager, and thinks
“the heart of Python is their humour and the timing
of their work anyway, and both of the films have
that sensibility about them.
“It was a very clever idea of his to turn it into a musical,
because it lends itself to songs so well. I think
Photo by Manuel Harlan
he’s done a brilliant job of capturing in a musical
sense what they did in the film. The Holy Grail is a
very theatrical film, which of course then translates
well into a theatre show.”
Some bits of Spamalot are “faithfully lifted from the
movie”, Earnshaw says, but the new bits, plus the
“fantastic music”, mean that someone with Holy
Grail fatigue could still enjoy it. People involved
with the show call it “a gag machine”, and though
Earnshaw’s now seen it “hundreds of times”, it still
makes her laugh.
When she was training in musical theatre “I sort of
thought I’d be in Les Mis, but this is a lot more fun,”
she says. “I think it is because of the silliness you
mentioned. You go to work, start the show, and it’s
bonkers from the word go. You come in and laugh
and sing and be silly. It’s great.”
Questioned about her consumption of ham and jam
and spam, Earnshaw responds: “Oh, every day, of
course! No, I do like ham, I’m a big ham fan, but
not necessarily spam, I’m afraid.” Steve Ramsey
Spamalot, Theatre Royal, Mon 30 Mar – Sat Apr 4
....45....

comedy
...........................
Gina Yashere
Engineer-turned-comedian
“I’d come in and all the guys were there with their
Sun newspapers with the tits out, talking about
women,” says Gina Yashere. “There was also racial
discrimination; I’d come in and there’d be pictures
of monkeys hung above my jacket, or bananas.
“So when people ask me ‘ooh, what’s it like as a
female comedian, is it hard?’ I go ‘no, compared
to working on a building site with 2,000 engineers
where I was the only female, comedy’s a walk in the
park.’ I wouldn’t say I haven’t faced discrimination
in comedy; I have, but it’s been a lot more subtle.”
Born in 1974, Yashere had been funny at school,
and a drama teacher advised her to become a performer,
but she was 13, and didn’t take it seriously.
“I came from quite an academic family, so I knew
my mum wouldn’t let me do drama as a subject.”
She’d wanted to be a pilot seriously enough that
she “went for the exams and passed,” but was ruled
out because she didn’t have 20/20 vision. So when
someone from the engineering industry gave a talk
at her school, and mentioned the lack of women in
the profession, “I thought
‘ah, I’m going to give
that a go, that
should be an interesting job’. And that’s basically
how I made my decision. In fact, that’s how most of
my life decisions are made.”
Yashere spent about five years as an engineer,
at a company which, back then, “were still very
discriminatory towards women.” She’d had enough
by the mid-90s, when “the building industry went
through a slump, so they were making people
redundant anyway. I thought ‘this is my chance to
get out, take a summer off, enjoy my summer, and
look for another job at the end of it’.
She did some voluntary work, and for a fundraiser
“I wrote what I thought was a play, and it turned
out to be a comedy sketch, because people laughed
all the way through it”. She and a couple of friends
started performing it at competitions.
“One day we were in the semi-final of a competition,
and they didn’t turn up. I was left on my
own, so I went up on stage and talked crap for ten
minutes and got through to the final. That’s when I
was like ‘mm, stand-up, maybe I’ll do this’.
“I was doing the open mics, and people started offering
me money to do shows, and I got on a couple
of talent shows on TV and stuff, all within the first
year. I remember thinking: ‘Ok, well I’ll ride this
comedy thing out and have fun with it, and then
when it dries up I’ll go back to work as an engineer.’
“They used to print the engineering jobs in the
back of the Evening Standard every Thursday. I was
still checking it on a Thursday for a good four or
five years before I was like ‘you know what, I think
this is going to be alright.’” Steve Ramsey
Gina Yashere: Laugh Riot, Wed 1st April, The Old
Market, 8pm, £15
....46....

comedy
..........................................
Vicky Gould
Rude girl
“So, what inspired
you to go into standup
comedy?” I ask
Vicky Gould, during
a half-hour interview
about what it’s like to
get involved in such a
high-pressure, precarious
occupation.
Vicky has what you
might call a portfolio
career. She has a day
job in London doing audio descriptions for TV.
“It’s for people with sight difficulties, and I have to
describe what’s happening on the screen around
the dialogue.” She’s in a band called Sexy Disco
Party “doing bluesy stuff, and Nick Drakey stuff.”
She is an artist, with one of her offbeat, darkly
playful works shown at the Royal Academy Summer
Show last year. And then there’s the comedy.
“I had a particularly nasty split up,” she replies.
“And I realised that a lot of the stuff that happened
to me would be good material for comedy songs.
It’s been very therapeutic.” One of those songs
played out on a synthesiser, and sung in a sweet,
melodious voice, is called My ex-boyfriend is a c**t.
It is not the only song of hers with the ‘c’ word in
the title. Another is called People who pretend to be
nice are not nice they are c***s. “I’m quite well known
for being rude,” she says. “The Royal Academy
work is called Shit”. It sold.
Vicky is just starting out on the comedy circuit,
having done a course this time last year with
Jongleurs-awarded comedian Susan Murray. She
was already doing ‘funny songs’; she wanted to
work out how to do the talking in between them.
Her first gig was
in the Caroline of
Brunswick, soon
after finishing the
course. “I didn’t
know how to finish
off the act, so I just
carried on till I ran
out of material,” she
says. “Then it was,
like, ‘I’m going to
have to go now.”
She’s also appeared in Charmaine Davies’ monthly
night ‘Funny Fursdays’ at the Pelirocco.
So far she’s gone down pretty well, though there
was a bit of a dodgy gig in Lewes. “I couldn’t get
anyone I knew to go,” she says. “Nobody laughed
at my stuff. Mind you nobody seemed to be laughing
at anything. It was a bit of a kick in the ego.
At least I had the songs to fall back on. Someone
afterwards said ‘well, you have got a nice voice’.”
This was last spring. Since then, she hasn’t done
any on-stage dying. “I’ve done a lot of acting,” she
says, “which helps my confidence on stage. But I
like the comedy better, because I’m in complete
control of what I’m doing. There are no more
auditions for cereal ads.”
Vicky was brought up in South West London, and
she’s looking forward to getting involved in the
London circuit. She shows a rare sign of nerves
when she talks about it: “I mean, I’m an eccentric
female act. London can be mean.” No, I tell her: if
she’s survived Lewes, it’ll be a doddle.
Alex Leith
Vicky appears in Fills a Hole, 6th March, The Caroline
of Brunswick, 7.30-10pm, £3
....47....

sick! festival
..........................................
Can I start again please?
This time with clothes on
I see Sue MacLaine standing
outside The Basement, where
I’ve arranged to meet her,
and I recognise her from a
promotional picture from the
one-woman play she produced,
directed and has performed
all over the country, Still Life.
There’s one big difference,
though: she’s not naked.
In Still Life Sue (52 years old,
born and bred in Brighton) plays a life model, and
gets the audience to draw her. It breaks a lot of
rules. Downstairs now, she tells me how. “I am naked.
I close my eyes and don’t look at the audience.
I don’t talk for ten minutes or more.” It won the
‘most ground-breaking’ award at the 2011 Brighton
Festival and she’s performed a run at the Edinburgh
Festival, and the National Portrait Gallery.
Sue speaks in measured tones, and a Brighton
accent. She has a wicked laugh. She tells me about
the project she subsequently developed. In Sid and
Valerie she plays Sid Lester, a 70-something ‘tap and
patter’ vaudeville comedian. Sid’s on-stage partner,
played by Emma Kilbey, is his daughter, with whom
he has a dysfunctional relationship. It’s touring
village halls round England; local acts are invited to
perform on the bill.
In March, her latest project will become reality.
Can I Start Again Please was commissioned by the
Sick! Festival, and Sue will draw on a skill she uses
in her second career: she is a qualified British Sign
Language (BSL) interpreter. She’ll be working with
another sign-interpreter/actor, Nadia Nadarajah, in
a work exploring the difficulty an adult has describing
traumatic events from their childhood.
“What I found with interpreting
was that instead of being
the big gobby girl in the corner,
I suddenly couldn’t have
an opinion. I couldn’t interrupt.
So the piece will be about
power and powerlessness, and
how difficult it is to interpret
what’s being expressed.”
I ask if there are elements of
‘unreliable narrator’ in the
concept and she nods appreciatively. “Exactly. Can
you trust the translator? There are points in the
piece where you’ll be thinking ‘who is interpreting
for whom?’”
Sue had what she describes as ‘a violent’ childhood,
but she stresses that Can I Start Again Please is not
intended to be a purely autobiographical work. “It’s
more an investigation of the linguistic capacity of
expressing a traumatic experience,” she says. She’s
been concentrating on the piece pretty much all her
waking hours for some months now. A spell in a retreat
in Cornwall and a six-week trip to South Africa
(from which she has gleaned much about living in
the shadow of trauma) have helped her shape the
piece; work with the Lewes-based choreographer
Jonathan Burrows is bringing the visual narrative
to life.
One consequence of having to wear clothes in this
piece, she tells me, is that she’s had to get a provisional
script worked out fairly early, to accommodate
her costume designer. It’s no bad thing: giving,
in order to get back: “I fully trust all my collaborators,”
she concludes, “and when that happens you
know you can start to bump and fly.” Alex Leith
Sun 22 and Mon 23 March, The Basement, 8pm
....48....

sick! festival
..........................................
Tanya Byron
‘There’s no clear distinction between sane and insane’
Clinical psychologist Tanya Byron’s
book The Skeleton Cupboard,
covering her period of work experience
training with mentally ill
patients in the late 80s, certainly
begins with a bang.
‘I first became fascinated by
the frontal lobes of the human
brain,’ she writes, ‘when I saw
grandmother’s sprayed across the
skirting board of her dark and
cluttered house.’
Tanya’s found a twenty-minute
window in her busy schedule – as well as dealing
with 15 patients a week she writes a column for the
Times, serves as Chancellor and Professor of Public
Understanding of Science at Edge Hill University,
and looks after two teenage kids – to talk to me
about the round-table discussion she’s involved in
for the Sick! Festival, about why readers and writers
are drawn to the subject of human pain.
Her grandmother was murdered – with a metal
poker - by a heroin addict when Tanya was 15 years
old, and she suggests in the book that this was the
reason she went into psychology.
On the same opening page she later admits that
she might not have actually seen her grandmother’s
brain matter – there might just have been a pool
of blood – which suggests that her narrator-ship is
somewhat unreliable: I ask her if this is a theme of
the book.
“I’m making the point that memory is very unreliable
when remembering trauma,” she says. “The
book is the journey from chaos to clarity; the narrative
of that journey to good mental health.”
Tanya strongly dislikes the general distinction
between ‘sane’ and ‘insane’, telling
me that life is not so simple. In
her book she deals with six cases
she witnessed (though for reasons
of client confidentiality details
have been changed) as well as her
personal voyage of psychological
discovery as a 22-25 year old
coping with her own problems.
“This is particularly apparent in
the chapter when I’m working
in the HIV Services with lots of
people who are dying and at the
same time in the Drug Services with a lot of drug
users,” she says.
The hardback edition of the book has been a
bestseller: the paperback and US editions are coming
out in April, and there is talk of the book being
made into a TV series. “But I’ve taken pains to
make sure that the book isn’t voyeuristic,” she says.
“It’s not like some Big Brother reality TV show, or
like the Victorians who used to take their children
to asylums on a Sunday morning for entertainment.
It’s about understanding and thinking about ways in
which they [patients] can be managed so they can
lead good quality lives.”
And there’s more. “There’s a stigma around mental
health and I’m saying to the reader: ‘look, this is
possibly going to make you uncomfortable, but
these people do exist. There are simply some people
who are predisposed to retain their [mental] functionality
better than others during difficult times in
their lives.’” Alex Leith
Tanya appears at The Basement with Karl James,
Damian Barr and Katie Green in Baring the Scars,
Sat 14th March, 4pm, £8/5.
....49....

2–24
May 2015
GUEST DIRECTOR:
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whalefest
..........................................
The whale whisperer
Steve Backshall, underwater eavesdropper
What is your most memorable experience swimming
with a whale? I was free-diving off Dominica
when a female sperm whale came over to us with her
calf, to introduce it to us and show it what we were.
Having an animal that size approach you in the big
blue is something nobody will ever forget. Sperm
whales historically have been persecuted by people
to an extraordinary degree, so you struggle to find
whales – particularly the great whales – that will
actually want to come and play with you. They are
incredible animals. The females constantly chat with
each other when they’re at the surface and if they
turn towards you, you can feel the resonance they’re
creating just echoing through every single airspace
in your body.
Have you ever felt scared by an encounter with
whales? There was one occasion when I was diving
with humpback whales in what’s called the ‘heat
run’, where a group of males will pursue a female
intent on mating with her. They travel at great speed
and while they’re travelling they’re thrashing out at
eachother to try and dissuade the other male suitors,
and you - as a tiny speck in the water - are just not
on their radar. You’re looking at an animal that can
weigh 40 tons - if you ever did get clouted by their
tail then that would be it, all over. As they came rampaging
past me, there is a sense that you are utterly
insignificant in their presence.
What do you think is the greatest threat to the
whale population? The insidious effects of marine
pollution are probably the most worrying. There
are many, many unexplained strandings of cetaceans
and although we as yet lack the scientific evidence
to back this up, it seems likely that their incredibly
sensitive acoustic systems are being disrupted by the
enormous amount of noise pollution that we humans
are creating in the marine environment. From the
constant clack-clack-clack of big ships’ rotors to the
underwater communications and the sonar of various
submarines – they all create a constant background
noise that must make communication very difficult.
There’s very little regulation on marine noise pollution
– if you look at the proportion of British waters
that are protected as marine parks, it’s something like
0.04%. And outside of that it’s the Wild West, you
can do whatever the hell you want.
Give us one fact that people might not know
about whales. In 2007 a bowhead whale was caught
in Alaska, which had a harpoon point embedded in
its blubber that dated back to the late 1800s. So it’s
believed that bowhead whales could live to be well
over 200 years in age. Rebecca Cunningham
Steve will be talking about his experiences and
encounters with whales at Whalefest on Saturday
14th March. For tickets and more information, visit
whale-fest.com.
....51....

....52....

art
..........................................
Philippa Stanton
Famous on Instagram
Brighton-based artist Philippa
Stanton made her name
with her synaesthetic work,
creating visual representations
– particularly paintings – of
sounds, smells and tastes. But
she has become most famous
for her daily Instagram posts,
as ‘5ftinf’, having amassed an
incredible 410,000 followers
on the photographic social
medium, since joining four years ago.
I have an old-fashioned camera, and a posh
camera, but for Instagram I just use my iPhone.
It’s small and easy to use and I can immediately
edit the photos I take.
I used to look at a lot of lifestyle blogs, but it
wasn’t really my thing, as I was more interested in
visual essays without words. When I discovered
Instagram, about four years ago, I immediately
thought ‘that’s my thing’. It’s really simple, and
succinct, and you can follow people from all over
the world.
I was very influenced by a number of Japanese
photographers, who would photograph things
they’d laid on the table. I did a couple of shots of
things on my table, and got a massive response.
Now I put something on the table nearly every day.
I bought the table in the Lewes Flea Market.
There’s nothing particularly special about it,
but followers have come to recognise it, and are
sometimes disappointed when I post a photo that
wasn’t taken on the table. I have a south-facing
garden, and I’ve put it by the window, so it gets a
lot of light. I know the contours of the table very
well, now.
When Instagram first started my posts used
to have more of a whimsical
look; they had a kind of Bagpussy
filter which I used a lot; now
there are sharper filters and better
tools and so the pictures have
become more about composition
and colour. They are like visual
haikus, or abstract paintings that
evoke an emotional rather than
rational response.
Nearly everything that I
photograph has personal relevance. My granny
died a few years ago and my brother and my
father wanted to throw all her stuff in the dump. I
wanted to keep it, so I did. Some of it I car-booted,
much of it has been used in my photos. Once I’ve
put it on Instagram, I feel I can get rid of it.
I don’t know if I’m an ‘Instagram star’ but if I
am it feels no different to not being an Instagram
star. But I do have a very engaged audience: I get
a lot of ‘likes’.
American Instagram posters are much more
advanced when it comes to monetising their
photos, but I have started working on campaigns
with companies. I did some photos for Spotify, for
example, and I’m currently collaborating with the
store West Elm. It’s also a shop window for my
paintings, which I can now sell worldwide.
Posting on Instagram is definitely an art form.
I just never thought it was the one that I would
excel at!
As told to Alex Leith
Philippa is conducting still-life photography workshops
in March, at Vine Street Studios and in her
house (Sat March 14th & Sun March 15th)
www.5ftinf.com/www.philippastanton.com/ info@
philippastanton.com for more details.
....53....

ANNA STANDISH INTERIORS
LEWES
T: 07971 512132 | WWW.ANNASTANDISH.COM
SI_ad_66x94.indd 1 15/01/2015 14:11

ART
..........................................
FOCUS ON: ‘Sky’ by Jo Riddell
Etching and Aquatint, 14” x 13”
This shot is clearly semi-abstract… but where is
it ‘set’? On the Downs, up near Ditchling Beacon.
I walk up there quite often and do pencil sketches,
and take photographs, which I then use as the basis
for etchings.
It’s called ‘Sky’, and that’s quite a sky… I’m
originally from Norfolk, home to vast cloudscapes,
which has influenced my obsession with the sky. Particularly
dark skies. I love representing storms, with
shafts of light underneath and the drifting greyness
of rain in the distance.
How do you turn your sketches into an etching?
I have a studio on Lewes Road with two other print
makers. The etching process I use is called ‘acrylic
resist’ and it involves copper sulphate, salt and warm
water. It’s fairly environmentally friendly. You put an
acrylic ground onto the steel plate and make your
marks: the solution bites into the metal.
Presumably you have to do everything in reverse?
You have to visualise everything the wrong
way round, which can be tricky. I often make mistakes,
but because I’m going for mood rather than
accuracy it often doesn’t matter! I have an image in
my head of what the eventual print will look like; occasionally
it looks very different. Sometimes I make
happy mistakes, sometimes I have to abandon the
plate. It’s all a learning process.
Who have you been influenced by? I love the
work of Norman Ackroyd, a traditional etcher who
does a lot of moody skies and seascapes. He paints
nitric acid directly on to his metal plates, a process
called spite bite. I would love to be able to evoke the
mood of a beautiful rainstorm like he does. He’s the
master. I also like the work of Edward Bowden, Eric
Ravilious and Robert Tavener.
Etching and printing must be a messy process…
I have to wear an apron and old clothes, and I often
have ink all over my hands, which can be embarrassing
when I’m paying for shopping in Sainsbury’s on
the way home.
What picture would you hang on your desert
island palm tree? Can I have two? In the daytime
one of Egon Schiele’s figures – maybe a nude. At
night-time Whistler’s Nocturne.
Interview by Alex Leith
A number of of Jo’s prints, including ‘Sky’, are on
show at Cameron Contemporary Art in the show ‘Edition
2015’ until March 16.
....55....

....56....

ART
.....................................
Patrick Edgely
Retro screenprinter
I begin each piece by deciding on a
theme or subject and draw up lots of
different items that might be included in
such a print. I love to draw the objects
by hand and play around with compositions.
Once I’ve settled on the arrangement
of the items, I scan them onto the
computer and experiment with different
colour-ways. I then separate the overall
image into its layers and burn the screen
for each layer.
It’s really important that the colours
work cohesively, so I can spend quite
a long time mixing them. Some of my
earlier prints had only a handful of colours,
but lately many of them have over
15 and these each need to be laid down
separately. So for a print run of 100, I
might need to pull over 1,500 times – as
you can imagine this take days and days.
It can be quite a time-consuming
process from the initial idea stage
through to the hand-pulled complete
print run, but I really love the quality
of the finished piece, with its bold, flat
colours. Each layer is printed by hand,
so no print is the same. It feels and looks
hand-made - you just can’t get that with
a digital printer, there is no comparison.
I’ve always loved and collected vintage stuff, from
cameras, metal letters and kitchenalia to 50s slot machines.
I love the graphics of the 50s, 60s and 70s, especially the
packaging; the typography, design, product names and misregistered
colours all add to their charm.
Having spent many years working for clients as a
graphic designer, I love making work without thinking
about a client, but I have started to work in collaboration
with other brands. I was commissioned to design a pattern
for Joseph Joseph kitchenware which they currently use on
one of their products. I have also worked with Art Angels to
produce a series of wrapping papers and cards. RC
Patrick will be selling a selection of prints and cards at Art
Junky in the Phoenix Gallery on 28th and 29th March.
....57....

design
..........................................
Sky High
i360 architects Marks Barfield
I’m not with architects David Marks and Julia
Barfield for long before I ask what their earliest
memories are, relative to the built environment. It’s
not what they expect, but I suspect their answers
may be quite far-out. The Marks Barfield portfolio,
after all, includes the London Eye, a fleet of flying
figures just beyond the Severn Bridge for Landmark
Wales, a science centre in the Amazon rainforest,
and the Brighton i360.
David says gently that growing up in Switzerland,
he built an igloo that was “wrecked” by boys from
another gang. His wife and partner Julia recalls
“spending hours doing various underpasses,
overpasses and bridges on the beach.” Both say they
came to architecture much later in life, but their
answers are ‘Iggy Peck’ enough for me. How wonderful
it must be to spend your life realising spaces
of such extreme forms; they seem like a child’s
impossible dream.
The i360, the 162-metre observation tower being
constructed next to the West Pier, has already been
nearly a decade in the making. It was beset by financial
problems; as David says, “the global financial
crisis made it difficult.” But thanks to contributions
from the central government Public Works Loan
Board as well as the architects themselves, and the
Local Enterprise Partnership, the £46 million build
is due for completion in summer 2016.
“It’s important for people to realise that this isn’t
coming out of local expenditure,” says David, who
is quick to defend the project that has faced criticism
from some residents. “Brighton & Hove City
Council will actually profit from this arrangement,”
he explains. “What a lot of people have missed in
this discussion about funding, is that it’s going to
create jobs; it’s going to bring more people to the
city; it’s going to improve the general wellbeing
by helping to regenerate the seafront and the area
around it, and it’s not costing council ratepayers
anything.”
I wonder if they are concerned that cuts will make
adventurous, public-funded projects like the i360
less possible in future. “We did have the private
investment before the global crash,” says David.
....58....

“In the last five years, debt levels globally have
risen… The financial sector lost a lot of money and
the public sector bailed it out. They spent a fortune
bailing out the financial sector at the expense of
the country, the taxpayer, as opposed to spending
money on infrastructure. This project is a bit of leisure
infrastructure. I hope there is more investment
into projects like this.”
There are some who think the hyper-modern
aesthetic of the i360 may not sit well on Brighton’s
Regency-style seafront. The architects, however,
are certain it’s perfect. “The West Pier was very
innovative in its time,” says Julia. “It was using new
technologies; new kinds of piles… It was a whole
new language, and I suppose we’re sort of building
on that same tradition. The aspect ratio of width
to height for most tall buildings is 1 in 6 maybe,
but the i360 is going to be 1 in 40: a bit like a palm
tree.” A doughnut-shaped viewing pod will move
slowly up and down a central pillar constructed of
steel ‘cans’ - tubes that will be raised one-by-one
from the bottom up using a jacking frame. “That’s
going to be spectacular,” says Julia, who is particularly
excited about the day this summer when the
first cans will arrive “by sea and land on the beach.”
“When you go up the Brighton i360, you’ll realise
you’re on the edge of the land and the sea,” says
David. “It’ll be like being in a helicopter, and I think
that will be a really compelling part of the experience.”
Trouble is: building on a beach faces challenges
from the same elements as a child’s sandcastle.
Technical problems are caused by “the effects of
salt and the water and the wind,” says David, and
crucially, because it’s on the site of a Grade 1 listed
structure, and on top of a sewer. It’s clearly worth it,
however. David says the i360 is driven by the desire
to offer people the opportunity “to see things a little
bit removed.
“Just enough [to] get a bigger perspective on
things… It’s not quite the same, but in the way
that when astronauts first took pictures of Earth
and realised how beautiful it was, how we had to
take care of it, I think when you go up high, it
naturally leads to thoughts of wanting to look after
the environment… If done well, architecture and
design can improve people’s lives... It’s transformative.
Brighton has a reputation for innovation, for
creativity, for being forward-looking, and I think the
i360 will fit right in. We hope people will love it.”
Chloë King
www.brightoni360.co.uk
....59....

literature
..........................................
One of Us?
The enigma of Norway’s island killer
“It’s wrong to present him as a nutcase and a loser
and a lone wolf and all that. He had periods of that,
but at times he was quite well functioning. So why
did he go from a more-or-less well functioning
person to a terrorist?”
This is the journalist Åsne Seierstad, describing
Anders Behring Breivik. Her book about the Norwegian
mass murderer, One of Us, is an amazing feat
of journalism, so detailed that it reads like a novel,
with Seierstad as the almost-omniscient narrator.
But there are still things she is yet to find out.
Why did he turn to violence and terrorism? When
did he really start planning it? How much did he
deliberate about whether or not to do it? When did
he decide to kill people at the youth camp, rather
than trying to topple the government? “There are
many questions like that. And, of course, I’d like
to have an honest account of his life.” But Breivik
refused to be interviewed.
Talking to people who knew him as a child, and
reading social services reports, Seierstad was surprised
at “how bad his childhood was, and how you
actually feel sorry for him; it’s impossible not to feel
sorry for this four year old who’s left on his own,
and probably should have been taken away from his
mother.”
Nonetheless, Breivik was “totally responsible, 100%.
Yes, he had a bad childhood; hundreds of thousands
of children have childhoods that are probably worse.
It doesn’t give him anything to take away responsibility,
but it could give some kind of an explanation.
“It’s not like he had the worst childhood on earth,
but it was something in him, he then… genetic
disposition, the upbringing, the lack of a father, the
rejection, the atmosphere in society, so many different
factors, that in this person added up and made
terrorism possible.”
Having become interested in extreme-right politics,
Breivik indoctrinated himself using the internet, and
started putting together a long and bizarre manifesto.
Despite his purchase of weapons and bombmaking
materials, he seems to have largely escaped
the attentions of the police. He was on some kind
of list, because he’d bought certain chemicals, but it
was a long list.
“He had no record of violence, he had no membership
of any extreme organisations, he had never
written hate speech on the internet. He was very
careful to not even have friends on his Facebook
page with Nazi symbols or things.
“To have caught him before 22 July, they would
have had to have been quite lucky, actually. His
weapons were bought legally, because he had a
hunting license and was a member of a pistol club.
He rented a farm so he could buy fertiliser, and
people would just think ‘oh that silly boy, that
farmer’. He was such an unlikely terrorist; the possibility
didn’t even strike anyone, as far as I know.
I have no indication of anyone saying ‘aha, I knew
it!’” Steve Ramsey
One of Us: In Conversation with Åsne Seierstad,
Thurs 5 Mar, Brighton Dome Studio Theatre,
7.30pm, £10. (The book is released the same day)
Photo by Juan Pablo Sierra
....61....

literature
..........................................
Julia Crouch
Sick! literary curator
Launched in 2013, the SICK!
Festival is the first in the UK
dedicated to examining physical,
mental and social challenges
through theatre events,
installations, dance and film.
This year, local author Julia
Crouch curates the new strand
of literature events.
How did you get involved
in the project? I have
known Helen Medland,
the artistic director, for years. We talked about
the literary events and I thought, why not? I
also organised events for Dark And Stormy [the
literature and film festival] last year, so I had some
experience.
Sick! Festival has expanded to Manchester this
year. Are you in charge of those events? Yes!
Lots of travelling during the weekend, but I am
enjoying it. Mine was a very open brief. I had to
program three debates on a theme for three weekends,
one in Manchester and two in Brighton. The
themes all touch on personal interests and they
are all rather cheery. I picked sexuality for the first
weekend, abuse for the second, and suicide for
the last one. I wanted to offer a mixture of frank
discussions and strong views, so for each subject I
organised a panel that includes a fiction writer, a
memoirist and an academic.
How did you make the themes work? I decided
to start each one with a question as an inroad
into the subject. So the first one was, how does
porn impact young people? Is it a bad thing or
just useful information? The first experience most
young people have of sex these days is internet
pornography. Some of is very
extreme. It doesn’t teach
them about romance and
relationship. So how do we
talk to young people about
sex today? Around the time I
was programming, Ann-
Marlene Henning published
Sex & Lovers: A Practical
Guide. It’s a very graphic book
aimed at young people, with
beautifully shot photographs
of couples having sex. Nothing is taboo. I decided
to buy it for my 15-year-old son and left it on the
kitchen table… And it stayed there. So I moved it
to his bedroom. I think it’s been read.
You mentioned the themes all stem from
personal interests. What about suicide? A very
close friend of mine killed himself a few years
ago. Within a year and a half two of his friends
did the same. It’s almost like Graham gave them
permission to succeed. Many of us in the friendship
group had children; I felt sad, then angry,
then ultimately I asked myself, “How do we tell
the kids?” If Graham had died of cancer, we would
have told them that his tumour killed him. But he
was depressed, so that’s what killed him. And that’s
what we decided to tell the kids. It was a very
thoughtful and simple way of explaining it. And it
didn’t only help them, it helped me too. I still cry
about it sometimes. I might see a beautiful sunset
and think “Oh Graham, you twat, look what
you’re missing!” Black Mustard
The Sick! Festival runs from 2nd-25th March in
venues across Brighton and Hove. Download a
programme at www.sickfestival.com
....62....

literature
..........................................
Naked boys read… Woolf
Orlando, in the buff
Virginia Woolf has become a
cottage industry since I was
forced to read To the Lighthouse
at school. Her former homes
are museums, there are tea
towels, teapots, ‘tote’ bags.
Feminist academics have built
careers on the back of her,
preserved her in aspic, torn
her apart, blamed men for her
death, blamed madness for her
death, blamed each other for her death. There are
films, plays, even a new opera coming out based
on Woolf’s writings, but never, ever before have
five naked men stood on a stage and celebrated
the modernist author. There are advantages to this
job. First off, I have to go along to the Marlborough
Theatre on March 6th (8pm, £6) to see if
the performance artists Naked Boys Reading, who
intend to spend an evening celebrating Woolf,
really are naked. Secondly (non-compulsory) I
have revisited Woolf’s writing. For an exhilarant
transgender fake biography spanning three
centuries, start with Orlando, written in 1928 - part
novel, part love letter to Woolf’s lifelong friend
Vita Sackville-West. The Naked Boys, who are
reading from Orlando, as well as from her diaries,
letters and other novels, promise
to “err on the under-represented
side of happiness in Woolf’s
oeuvre”. Happiness? The woman
committed suicide, surely. Aged
59, she filled her pockets with
rocks and walked into the River
Ouse, near Lewes. Her body was
found nearly a month later, on
18 April 1941, and her ashes
were buried under an elm tree
at Monk’s House, Rodmell, where she had lived
with her husband, the publisher Leonard Woolf.
Her last note to Leonard makes you cry. It made
me cry this morning. It must have made Leonard
cry a lot. “Dearest, I feel certain I am going mad
again…I begin to hear voices…What I want to say
is that I owe all the happiness of my life to you…
If anybody could have saved me, it would have
been you. Everything has gone from me but the
certainty of your goodness. I can’t go on spoiling
your life any longer. I don’t think two people could
have been happier than we have been. V.” Virginia
Woolf knew happiness alright, but she also knew
pain. As she writes in Orlando, “Nothing thicker
than a knife’s blade separates happiness from
melancholy.” Black Mustard
bookends
Matt Haig’s Reasons to Keep Living may not have kept Virginia Woolf alive. Do we need another book on
‘how to be happy’? We all know how to be happy. Have more sex and read better books. (Like Orlando.)
And if you’re too lazy to read (or to have sex), then write. It helps. Even Matt Haig thinks so. Of his latest
book, he says: “I wrote this book because the oldest clichés remain the truest. Time heals… Words, just
sometimes, really can set you free.” Ropetackle Arts Centre, Shoreham, 7pm, March 24th, £8
....63....

flash fact competition
...................................
Invisible
by Holly Maya Fitzgerald
I sat on a train in a window seat, the
only free one without suspicious stains.
At the fourth station - unremarkable
but quite something in its plainness
– a tall man flustered down the
carriage, stopped and hovered above
me, removing his hat and scarf. He
peeled off his gloves between his teeth,
one finger at a time. He seemed to
have brought the cold in with him, so
I pulled my scarf tighter and my legs
in closer to make space for his spindly
stretch, as he sat and shuffled, all
elbows and knees. His bag was in the
way and, huffing with the business of
getting comfortable, he threw it on my
lap. Confused, I checked his face to see
if I knew him. No, I didn’t. The bottom
of his bag was damp – probably a
piece of squashed fruit inside it.
“Excuse me,” I said “Your bag is on my
lap. I can hold it whilst you get comfortable.
Or would you like it back?”
Perhaps I wasn’t loud enough. He
had headphones in. I shuffled in my
chair to make my presence known. He
didn’t react. He had found comfort, his
arms taking both of the rests, his feet
tucked under the chairs in front.
I turned my face towards his. “This is
Illustration by Lucy Williams
your bag,” I said, pointing. “It is on my lap. Could you please
move it?”
I thought that moving the bag myself would be rude. I
thought about waving to get his attention. I coughed. Ahem.
Resolute, the man sat, his head relaxed on its rest, eyes
closed. There was no other space for his bag. The train raced
through a tunnel, I saw my reflection; though blurred, I was
there, I wasn’t invisible.
The train continued, fields turned into industrial landscapes,
back gardens to pig farms, dusk to night, but the bag
remained on my lap, digging into my thigh, the dampness
sticking to my skin.
Before his stop the man stretched and checked his watch.
The train slowed into the station. Standing up, he dusted
himself down, donned his hat, his scarf, and pulled his gloves
back over his fingers.
I passed him his bag. He picked it up, put it on his shoulder
and left.
The train pulled out of the station. On my leg the stain left
by the squashed fruit was already drying around the edges.
Next month’s prompt is ‘Busted’. True Life Stories of no more
than 400 words, in by 14th Mar please. The winning entry gets
published here and receives a £20 book token from Kemptown
Bookshop. Please send entries to barbara@blackmustard.co.uk
....65....

trade secrets
..........................................
Milo’s
Shop or hair salon?
Is Milo’s a shop or a hair salon? We have
always predominantly been a hairdresser’s. I’ve
been styling hair for 20 years – my wife has
been doing it even longer – and all of our team
come from well-known London hair salons,
so we have a lot of experience between us. But
hairdressing is massively influenced by fashion,
and stocking a small selection of clothing and
accessories seemed to tie in well.
Which clothing brands do you stock? We
sell a select range of ladies and menswear and
accessories, but we are beginning to focus more
on designing our own range of products, a
UK-manufactured ‘crafted’ clothing collection,
inspired by Brighton’s nautical environment
and influenced by traditionally made British
garments. Milo’s is our own version of apparel
clothing and we’re working towards producing
a capsule wardrobe collection, so our customers
can just pop down the road and get a new
outfit and a haircut all in one place. The range is
designed in collaboration with Burro, an iconic
British menswear brand who are friends of mine
and have worked with companies like Boxfresh
and Marks and Spencer.
Are you looking to develop any more of your
own products? We are currently beginning to
launch the By Milo’s range of hair products. We
want to design a selection of shampoos, conditioners
and styling products to suit everyone,
which are angled towards the high-end market
but not at high-end prices. The first product in
the range is the By Milo’s styling cream, which
we’ve just launched. While there’s a lot going on
with the shop side of the business, our focus is
still mainly on hairdressing.
Are you planning on opening another shop?
We’re definitely looking to expand; we already
have two locations in Kent as well as the
boutique and cutting rooms here on Dyke
Road. We’d love to open another shop here in
Brighton, but I don’t think we’ll be looking for
a spot in the middle of town – I prefer the local
atmosphere you get with being a bit further
out. We’re actually looking for one more stylist
to complete our team here before we expand
further. We want to start training our staff inhouse,
so that they get the experience of learning
from a team of really skilled hairdressers. RC
216 Dyke Road, milosonline.co.uk
....67....

KITSCHIKU
At Kitschiku we create bespoke funky furniture using
one of our designs or you can choose a pattern or image
that suits your style
DESIGNER MAKERS
OF CONTEMPORARY AND
TRADITIONAL CRAFTS
DESIGNER MAKERS
OF CONTEMPORARY AND
TRADITIONAL CRAFTS
Ceramics
Enamelling
Furniture
Glass
Jewellery
Metalwork
Pewterwork
Printmaking
Silk Painting
Silversmithing
Textiles
Woodturning
Woodwork
Quilt Making
Contemporary
EVENTS 2012
CRAFT SHOW
CONTEMPORARY
Stanmer House
CRAFT 21 - SHOWS 22 March 2015
THROUGHOUT 10.00am - 5.00pm SUSSEX
Admission:
adults £3.00
children free
WWW.KITSCHIKU.COM
The Sussex Guild
Shop and Gallery
The North Wing
Southover Grange
Southover Road
www.thesussexguild.co.uk
Stanmer House,
Stanmer Park, Brighton BN1 9QA

ighton maker
................................
Travail en famille
Luggage for unknown lands
What was the inspiration for
this range of bags and scarves?
‘Terres Inconnues’, the name of
our first collection, translates as
‘unknown lands’ and is inspired
by people who travelled, like
Bruce Chatwin, Yuri Gagarin
and Gertrude Bell. We wanted to
design bags, so it seemed fitting
for our fabrics to be influenced
by the theme of travel. My mum
and I work together to design
each piece, from designing and
printing our own fabrics, to the
products themselves. Although she lives in Brussels,
she calls me every week with new ideas of inspirational
people she’s come across.
Do you have a background in fashion design?
While I was at university I created my own brand
of digitally-printed t-shirts. They’re very different
from Travail en Famille, there were a real mixture
of styles and it was quite an experimental range,
but I learnt a lot through doing it. My mum was a
fashion buyer for Liberty and she really encouraged
me to become a designer.
Why did you decide to set up your brand in
Brighton? I moved here quite randomly. I grew
up in Brussels – hence the French names – and
went to university in Norwich, but I had friends
and family in Brighton who loved it here. It’s been
a really good place to start a business because there
are all sorts of small start-ups and freelancers. We
work with some great people here, including an
embroidery company called ‘ableandwilling’ who
employ and support people with disabilities. My
mum’s dream is to set up a shop here, but I think
we’ll begin by holding pop-up shops in the future.
Are your designs aimed towards
men or women? Both. There are
some fabrics which may appeal
more to men or to women, but
we’re really keen on unisex. There
is a growing movement towards
gender-neutral fashion, with Selfridges
opening up a unisex department
in their Oxford Street store
later this year. We’re going to be
adding shirts and coats to our next
collection, which will be graded by
men’s and women’s sizes, but the
shape and style will be the same.
Why is it important to have all of your products
manufactured in Britain? It’s important to us ethically,
because having our pieces made here means
that we can go into any of the factories and see that
the people who work there are happy and being
paid fairly. But it also suits us as a small business,
because we can produce our collections in small
quantities. With most of our bags we only produce
about five of each design, which means you’ll never
see someone else wearing the same bag as you.
What will be the theme of your next collection?
It’s going to be called ‘Notre Jardin’ or ‘our garden’.
The original idea came from the film Van Gogh
which follows the final months of the artist’s life. He
stayed with a physician named Dr Gachet, whose
garden became the subject of some of Van Gogh’s
paintings. The theme of gardens feels like a natural
progression for us, as we already use the language of
flowers in our designs and my mum has always been
a keen gardener. It’s about 90% finalised, we’re just
making the final tweaks before launching the collection
in the next couple of months. t-e-f.co.uk
Rebecca Cunningham talked to Alek Stoodley
....69....

ighton maker
................................
Photo of Bandstand by Paul Wrede, Eiffel Tower by Simon Pepper (simonpepperphotography.com)
....70....

ighton maker
................................
Chocadyllic
Evelyn’s edible art
Where did Chocadyllic
begin? I’ve always
liked baking, ever since
I was little. It was just a
bit of fun and I would
always make cakes for
my friends and family.
It became a tradition
to sneak the cake into
the restaurant for their
birthdays. At the end
of 2012 I offered to make a friend
“a proper chocolate cake” and
spent ages experimenting with
different techniques, recipes and
ingredients. I took pictures of the
cakes I’d made and posted them on
Facebook. Then, one day, someone
contacted me and said, “can I commission
you to make a cake for my
twins’ birthday?” I thought, ‘yes!’
I could get paid to make cakes and
play around with chocolate. So that
was really the beginning of Chocadyllic.
Do you still make a lot of cakes? I still make
cakes to commission and I’m now also making
chocolate sculptures. I don’t really want to be
another cake maker - my work is more like
edible art. I recently finished a sculpture of the
Eiffel tower which is about one metre high in
total! I’ve also made one of the Bandstand on
the seafront – both were created as showpieces.
Sometimes with customer commissions, people
will see a cake I’ve made online and want one
exactly the same, but I prefer making one-off
designs. I like to have different challenges and
to be able to be creative
rather than being a
factory cake maker. For
me it’s about cakes and
sculptures which make a
statement about people
– I’d rather do just a few
of those a month than
take lots of orders for the
same designs over and
over again.
What type of chocolate do you
use? I use Belgian chocolate,
which isn’t really considered fine
chocolate but it’s really versatile –
it’s perfect for melting, tempering
and sculpting – and people can
just enjoy it, that’s really important.
With really fine chocolate,
it’s a different experience - it’s like
when you go to an art exhibition
and it’s all quiet and you’re not
allowed to touch anything... but
with Chocadyllic art pieces you get to thoroughly
enjoy them, you can touch, taste and even get
messy with them. My work brings so much joy
to my life and to everyone else who enjoys them.
Do you ever get sick of chocolate?I’m actually
trying to give it up, but it’s so addictive. Obviously
I taste little bits to make sure the chocolate
I’m using is good quality, but I buy it in 5kg bags
so it can be really easy to have too much! But I’m
such a chocoholic, I don’t think I’ll ever get sick
of chocolate. Evelyn Day interviewed by Rebecca
Cunningham
facebook.com/Chocadyllic
....71....

Photo by Adam Bronkhorst
....72....

trade secrets
...............................
Recharge Cargo
Sam Keam, electric-cargo-bike courier
What do you do at Recharge Cargo? We
deliver things around the city using electric
bicycles equipped with storage boxes. Our
depot is in Trafalgar Arches, beyond the Green
Door Store, where Amsterdammers bike shop
is also based.
How did you get the idea? I was struggling
with a PhD in Environmental Geography
in London, and I took a break in Portland,
Oregon, a city which has a lot of similarities to
Brighton. I saw a similar thing going on there,
and I realised it could be reproduced quite
easily in England. So I had a crack at it. We
started up in early 2013.
Why Brighton? My partner – now wife –
Laura had roots over here. I thought two
things. One that Brighton was perfect, because
it’s very open to new ideas. And the other was
that if it could be done here – with all the
crosswinds and the hills – it could be done
anywhere else, too.
And it benefits the town? Brighton has
traffic problems, and, especially nowadays that
a lot of items people buy on the internet are
delivered, much of this congestion is caused by
delivery vans driving around looking for parking
spaces. We can deliver much faster than a
van, because we can pull up much closer to our
destination, and get going straight away again,
meaning less time wasted between deliveries.
And it’s much more energy efficient, obviously.
The bikes are electric – isn’t that cheating?
I’d like to see anyone try to pedal a 45-kilo
bike with an 80 kilo load up Trafalgar Street
without any help. And that’s not to mention
Hanover. It’s an ingenious device: a torque
sensor works out how much power is needed,
alerts a little computer, and the motor kicks
in. It gives you the maximum extra power of
another strong rider as well as yourself. The
bike goes up to 15mph… or 20 downhill.
It hardly uses any electricity – an overnight
recharge costs about 10p; running the bike for
15 miles is like leaving a 100-Watt lightbulb
on for three hours.
Where are the bikes built? The bikes
are made in Holland, the storage boxes are
custom-built in Yorkshire. Dutch people use
these bikes for carrying their kids around, and
doing their shopping. They call them ‘bakfiets’,
which means ‘box-bikes’.
Who hires you? Our biggest client is DHL,
who use us for about half of their ‘last mile’
deliveries in Brighton and Hove. We also
do business-to-business deliveries, personal
deliveries, and distribution. Anything from
parcels to cakes to flowers to sensitive documents.
I’ve got to know Brighton better than I
ever imagined, through delivering to doctors,
dentists, tattoo parlours and random plastic
surgery clinics.
Are you a growing business?Yes we are. I’m
still delivering myself, and we now hire three
part-time couriers. But it’s fairly difficult to
spread the word: people who deal with delivery
logistics in companies aren’t always the earliest
adopters of new ideas and methods, however
cost-effective they are.
As told to Alex Leith
Unit 8 Trafalgar Arches, 01273 571 555
....73....

Photo by Lizzie Lower
....74....

Local heroes
..........................................
Air Ambulance
‘Delivering A&E to the patient’
It was easy to think of airborne superheroes for
our sky-themed issue but they’re largely the
stuff of comic books. We had the privilege of
meeting the real deal when we were invited to
Redhill Aerodrome by the team at Kent, Surrey
& Sussex Air Ambulance.
We’re met by the Helicopter Emergency
Medical Service (HEMS) crew on duty: Chief
Pilot, Captain Nick Bramley, his co-pilot, First
Officer Graham Robinson, Dr Ashley Hague,
and Critical Care Paramedic Lewis Allam. They
explain that, far from being a speedy way of
delivering a patient to the emergency room, the
Air Ambulance is more a means of delivering
A&E to the patient. With a team member
monitoring all calls to the emergency services
and a captain and co-pilot capable of getting the
crew airborne within four minutes, the highlyskilled
and experienced emergency doctor and
paramedic are capable of performing advanced
medical interventions at the scene. They are
able to administer an emergency anaesthetic,
give a blood transfusion, or even perform
enhanced surgical procedures at the road-side if
necessary. Once stabilised, the patient is taken to
the most appropriate hospital, often the specialist
Major Trauma Centres – King’s College,
St George’s or the Royal Sussex at Brighton -
where definitive treatment helps to ensure the
best possible outcomes.
Much has been made of the ‘Golden Hour’ - an
optimum window for delivering critical care to
trauma patients - but with a typical flight time
of around 17 minutes from Redhill to Brighton,
that care can commence well within those crucial
60 minutes, giving patients the best chance
and quality of survival. So severe are some of the
injuries the air ambulance crew attend, that it is
immediately apparent when the patient may not
survive the transfer by road.
Whilst the doctor leads each callout, assessing
the patient’s injuries and planning the course of
treatment at the scene, the HEMS crew work as
a perfectly aligned and interdependent unit. The
pilots are tasked with the most efficient transfer
to and from the scene and, of paramount
importance, the safety of the team. The paramedic
is charged with managing the realities of
delivering emergency medicine in a non-sterile
environment such as a muddy field. Imagine
an operating theatre without lights, open to a
disoriented public and with weather overhead.
They admit that it can be initially overwhelming
but that their intensive, multi-trauma scenario
training helps to build the required level of
confidence.
The 24-hour a day, 365-days-a-year service
operates outside of the NHS which means that
they measure their success by patient outcomes
and not targets. Following up on all of their
patients means the crew can see the rewards of
their work in lives saved. The charity receives
no statutory or National Lottery funding so
every contribution towards their £6.4million
annual operating costs helps to keep this incredible
service airborne. The charity is celebrating
its 25th anniversary this year with a chance to
win a brand new Mini. Visit their website for
more information. Lizzie Lower
www.kssairambulance.org.uk
....75....

the way we work
This month Adam Bronkhorst has been behind the scenes at Brighton City
Airport in Shoreham, photographing the people who help put the planes in the sky.
And we asked each of them, ‘what’s your favourite type of plane?’
www.adambronkhorst.com
Cheri Thorogood, Executive Handling Manager
I love the PC12, but my dream would be to fly
a fighter jet, so that would have to be my favourite.
....76....

the way we work
Stuart Purves, Firefighter
My favourite aircraft is the Eurocopter EC 120
(I’m not a fan of fixed wing!)
....77....

the way we work
Dave Barrow, Visitor Centre volunteer
I’ve been an avid aircraft spotter since 1995 so I don’t
think I could choose a favourite.
....78....

the way we work
James Latham, Senior Air Traffic Control Officer
I’ve got to say the Concorde is my favourite aircraft!
....79....

the way we work
David Bennett, Watch Manager (both pages)
My favourite plane is the Mosquito.
....80....

the way we work
....81....

the way we work
Darren Greene, Firefighter
My favourite is the Citation.
....82....

the way we work
Beth Jones, Air Traffic Control
My favourite plane is the Gulfstream 650.
....83....

food review
...........................................
The Prince George
Veggie Veggie, so good they named it twice
It’s Monday and it’s my birthday.
Viva editor Alex and I turn into
Trafalgar Street in search of
lunch. I’m vegetarian and he’s a
confirmed omnivore (with a jaw
visibly clenched at the thought
of a meat-free menu). Birthday
girl’s prerogative means we
head into The Prince George at
number 5. It’s too long since I’ve been in here and
I’ve forgotten how much I like it. There are plenty
of interesting beers on tap and interesting people in
the bar. As Groove Armada segues into Elvis, it’s the
perfect spot for North Laine people watching.
The menu, by Veggie Veggie, is (guess what) all
vegetarian but offers plenty more than the obligatory
falafel burger (£9). Alex opts for the more
adventurous Organic Veg Box
special (£9.95) – pan fried halloumi,
root veg and quinoa superfood salad
- which, whilst sounding incredibly
worthy, is a perfectly sized portion
of moist smokey, savory sauce atop a
pile of quinoa and green leaves. Alex
muses that, not only does it make
for a delicious lunch, it supplies that
gratifying feeling that you’ve done yourself a favour.
I’ve opted for a more indulgent baked burrito
(£9). A rib-sticking beany, ricey, cheesy plateful accompanied
by a portion of potato wedges generous
enough to be shared (rare in my book). So big in
fact, that I can’t find the room for one of the delicious
sounding desserts. I’ll have to come back for
one of those on my unofficial birthday. Lizzie Lower

food review
...........................................
The Urchin
The shellfish gene
I heard the news about a month ago. “The Small
Batch guys are doing a seafood and craft beer
restaurant.” WHAAAT?
I manage to book a table the first night they do
food, which is the second night they’re open. The
word ‘manage’ is right. There’s been no advertising
I’m aware of, and we’re talking deepest Hove, but
word has got out. The place - all slate grey walls
and pendant lamps hanging off thick nautical ropes
– is jammed.
The menu has been on their Facebook site and we
know exactly what we’re going to order. Six oysters
to start, first course of razor clams and salt and
pepper squid, main of scallops and ‘Chermoula’
prawns, and fries, and salad. I’m with Antonia, and
we’ve got something to commiserate, and something
to celebrate.
She orders a pint of Brooklyn lager while I consult
the vast beer menu looking for something that
fulfils two requirements: it’s big, and it’s strong.
The waiting staff look completely rushed off their
feet, and we seem to get a bit forgotten, so when
we finally manage to summon the girl our way, I
order two more pints of Brooklyn, and the entire
meal. “That’s a lot of food,” she warns, so we cancel
the fries.
The oysters, from Ireland I ask and discover, are
excellent, smothered in lemon juice, slurped out of
the shell, enjoyed as the indulgence they are. But
the first dish that gets a real ‘wow’, a few minutes
later, is the razor clams, which come in a shiny
Portuguese cataplana. Whenever I’ve been served
these I’ve got about three, but we get about FIF-
TEEN, swimming in a piquant cocunutty sauce. I
say ‘we’ because we’re sharing every course. Shellfish
are made for sharing. The sauce is so delicious
I ask for a spoon, as we’ve nearly finished our bread
in the mopping operation.
There’s been a run on the squid, so we’ve been
brought another option, crab cakes, as a foil to the
clams. They’re flat and soft and come in a ‘Remoulade’
sauce, which turns out to be white, and tangy.
Another hit.
It’s not long till the main courses arrive, in identikit
cataplanas. The scallops are huge, and bearded
with roe, and plentiful, and succulent. ‘Chermoula’
turns out to be a chilli-hot North African sauce
that coats the monster prawns. I go for another
beer from the menu: a Schneider Weisse, for the
record. We chew, and pick, and dip, and make the
requisite appreciative noises. Antonia can’t fit in
her last scallop, so I gratefully hoover it up.
There’s one surprise left: the bill. I haven’t been
keeping tabs, so I’m fearful of a three-figure sum,
but no, far from it, it comes to a pleasingly affordable
£64.40 (though I later find they’ve forgotten
to account for the last beer). While paying I learn
that they’re completely booked out for the rest of
the weekend, and I figure that sort of situation is
not going to change in a hurry. My advice? Go.
Book early. Book NOW. Alex Leith
The Urchin, Belfast St, 01273 241 881
....85....

....86....

ecipe
..........................................
The Blue Man
Majid Bensliman (better known as Magic) prepares a Blue Man salad - a
favourite from his North African menu – served with homemade flatbread
and houmous, made to his mother’s own recipes.
My mum was a bit of a legend – she was known
for being the best cook in our town. If there was
a wedding or a party, people would always ask, “Is
Fatima doing the food?” As the youngest of 13, I
loved being around my mum, so I spent a lot of
time in the kitchen helping her with the cooking.
Back in Algeria, we’d always be entertaining,
talking and laughing with the neighbours rather
than spending ages in the kitchen, so my favourite
thing to cook is something like a tagine where you
can put all the ingredients together and let it do its
thing. My mum would say, “chuck everything in
the pot and let the pot do the work.”
I opened The Blue Man about 15 years ago, as a
tiny restaurant in Kemptown with 12 seats. I lived
upstairs and spent all of my time cooking. We were
the first place in Brighton doing North African
food – tagines, Merguez sausages, cous cous - back
then, people hadn’t even heard of houmous. Now
there are loads of quirky restaurants in Brighton,
but at the time, I was one of the quirkiest. I moved
to Little East Street a few years later to be in
the middle of town, where people would get to
know me, but it was still very much a sit-down
restaurant.
We moved to Queens Road about three years ago,
and we’re in our element here. People come in for
a meal or a few drinks, to talk and socialise - it feels
more like a gathering or a party than a restaurant.
This is the way I grew up, with people eating,
drinking, dancing. Algeria is the biggest country in
Africa, with seven borders, so it has a huge variety
of food as you travel from town to town. Back in
Algiers, the cuisine is a mixture between Moroccan,
with lots of fresh and dried fruits, and Tunisian,
with a lot of spices. You never get just one
plate of food, there are usually eight to ten plates
on the table and everyone helps themselves.
I’m an old woman sort of a cook, I like to make
everything from scratch. For the houmous, I put
chickpeas along with the salt water they come in
into a bowl. I add three cloves of garlic and some
tahini – don’t be shy with it! Some cumin adds to
the North African spice – if you can’t taste cumin,
then you know it’s not really North African – and
then I put in a little paprika, a bit of extra virgin
olive oil, some flat-leaf parsley and the juice of half
a lemon, and blend.
Next is the salad, and there’s nothing boring about
our salads! I wash the leaves - you won’t find any
iceberg lettuce in there – and on top I put a mixture
of grated carrots and raisins. Then I drizzle
over some rosewater, a handful of pomegranate
seeds and a scoop of homemade tabouleh. Slice up
some apple and put that under the grill, and then
cut the halloumi into slices. It’s worth buying a
good halloumi – you can get it quite cheaply now
but it just melts all over the place and doesn’t taste
as good. I put the apple on the plate first, top with
the halloumi and drizzle over a bit of pure, clear
honey. I like to sift a little icing sugar over everything
to bring out the sweetness. And that’s it!
As told to Rebecca Cunningham. Photo by Lisa Devlin,
whose food-photography website is cakefordinner.co.uk.
bluemanbrighton.com.
....87....

food review
...........................................
The Almond Tree
Veggie brekkie
Breakfast for vegetarians can be boring. It often consists
of a mound of baked beans and several grilled
tomatoes, accompanied by veggie-friendly replicas
of traditional cooked-breakfast foods. At vegetarian
& vegan café The Almond Tree, though, I’m pleased
to see that there are no bacon-style rashers or meatfree
sausages. The vegan option sounds delicious,
with scrambled tofu on the side, but I can’t resist the
Cajun halloumi and poached eggs, so I opt for the
standard (vegetarian) English breakfast. It comes
with a glass of orange or apple juice, and I order a
flat white too: big and frothy and delicious.
The food arrives, piled generously onto the plate,
and there is a lot to take in. The halloumi is tangy
and spicy and crispy around the edges, and when I
cut into the poached eggs the yolk melts onto the
plate. There are two kinds of Tempeh (or fermented
tofu, which I’ve seen in health food shops but never
quite brought myself to pick up, because it looks a
lot like vacuum-packed brains), one rich and peppery,
the other mild and nutty and coated in sesame seeds.
The grilled tomato is no mere filler; it’s cooked to
the point of being soft and squashy, the skin slides
off and it’s properly seasoned, with a good spreading
of pesto. There are some baked beans, but only
a small portion, and two thick slices of well-toasted
fresh bread.
The verdict? A very satisfying start to the day… and
there’s more to come. They do cakes, too.
Rebecca Cunningham
The Almond Tree, 109C Dyke Road. Breakfasts from £6

food news
...........................................
Edible Updates
Beer we go
This month sees the
opening of Brighton’s
first specialist beer
shop, Bison Beer
Crafthouse, on East
Street. The shop,
situated just off the
seafront, will be offering
an eclectic range
of beers with over
300 different varieties sourced from around the
world by founders Nick Vardy and Jack Cregan.
In a space furnished with materials recycled
from the local area, customers can find their
favourite beers, discover something new, and
buy supplies for their own home brew. It will
be the first shop to bring draught ‘growlers’ to
Brighton. Originating from the US, growlers
contain 64oz of beer (roughly three and a half
pints), and, using a counter-pressure filling
system these good-looking containers keep beer
fresh for over a week – perfect to take to the
beach with mates. ‘Meet the Brewer’ evenings
will be a regular feature at the shop, and an
upcoming brewschool collaboration is in the
pipeline. You’ll even be able to find a beer that
matches your dinner, by using the shop’s iPad.
Pop-up restaurants are on something of a roll
in the city at the moment, and we have featured
them in the last few issues of Viva Brighton.
Good news though, as top Brighton chefs
Semone Bonner and Dan Kenny are settling
down and bringing their pop-up The Set to a
permanent residence, at uber-chic B&B Artists
Residence on Regency Square. The Set will
offer diners the choice
between three set
menus, costing £25, £29
and £34. After selection
they are allocated a
two-hour slot to make
their way through a sixcourse
menu, featuring
‘duck egg, toast, truffle’,
‘chicken nugget, red
cabbage ketchup’, ‘miso marshmallow’, and
(our personal favourite) ‘venison, truffle mac
‘n’ cheese, cabbage’. There’s a lunch option
too which is a quicker tasting menu or seafood
sliders. Also, we should mention that they both
previously were with The Gingers Man and Pig,
so you’re in good hands.
There’s obviously a bit of a trend at the moment
for fast food to get a gourmet makeover (see
burgers and chicken), but it appears that no
one has revamped fish ‘n’ chips, until now. Fish
+ Liquor does what is says on the wrapping
paper; chippy fare taken up a dozen notches and
excellent booze, all to be enjoyed in the retro
comic-book-themed restaurant (the owner, David,
has painstakingly wallpapered the joint with
pages from old comic books, with eye-catching
results). All in a prime location on Brighton’s
seafront, in front of the Wheel. Menu items
include a fish dog (like a hot dog, but fish), and
chicken wings, with a house sauce that is out-ofthis-world
good. The Liquor part of the name
is borne out by the impressive selection of craft
beer and ale, as well as a cocktail menu.
Antonia Phillips @pigeonPR
....89....

Food & Drink
As we keep mentioning, Brighton was voted, by Conde Naste Traveller
readers, no less, ‘Best UK city for restaurants and bars’. To
celebrate, we’ve created this space, a directory for bars, restaurants
and other food-and-drink-related establishments who wish to appear
in our ever-expanding food section, along with our incognito
reviews and head-chef recipes. This month we’re joined by some
of our favourite eateries, in the city and beyond. To appear in this
space in future issues please contact anya@vivabrighton.com.
Directory
12 York Place, 01273 671191, carlito-burrito.co.uk
71 East Street, 01273 729051 terreaterre.co.uk
Terre à Terre
Carlito Burrito
For Grub and Glory! Carlito Burrito Mexican
street food and Mezcaleria. Food and drinks from
the Gods. Brighton’s first and only Mexicanowned
restaurant. Margarita heaven. Sea food
specialist. Fresh homemade corn tortillas. Festival
vibes. Mexican folk art. Life changing fish tacos.
Tunes! Best steak in Brighton. Skulls. Mexican
craft beers. Huggable staff. Gluten free. Imported
Mexican chillies and Sussex produce. Dive in or
Take away. Halloumi-nati Cult.
Brighton Restaurant Terre à Terre customers can
enjoy any wine from their wine list at retail bottle
prices any Monday & Tuesday evenings from
February 23rd until March 31st. They have a
fabulous organic wine list and offer boutique take
home retail prices and it’s time for everybody to
take advantage.
No need for customers to bring a bottle - its
hassle free, its corkage free. Buy a bottle of Terre
à Terre wine at ‘Retail Prices’ while they dine.
And perhaps bag a bottle on the way out!
No.32
No.32 has it all and more in this all-in-one venue. A restaurant, bar and
club in the heart of Brighton, serving freshly made food and drink seven
days a week. From traditional grills to fashionable burgers to freshly
made cocktails. With the sound of great music from local DJs you can
eat, drink and dance at this all-encompassing modern setting, so come
and visit us for an evening to remember!
Burgers, grills, bites, platters, sandwiches, salads. Modern & classic
cocktails. Craft & draught beers. Happy hour Sundays - Fridays 5-7pm.
No.32 is a restaurant, bar and exclusive late night venue in Brighton with
regular live music and special events.
32 Duke Street, 01273 773388, no32dukestreet.com

advertorial
Boho Gelato
6 Pool Valley, 01273 727205
Ranging from Vanilla to Violet, Mango to Mojito and Apple
to Avocado, Boho’s flavours are made daily on the premises
using locally produced milk and cream and fresh ingredients.
24 flavours are available at any time (taken from their
list of now over 400) and for vegans, Boho Gelato always
stock at least five non-dairy flavours. Gelato and sorbet
is served in cups or cones or take away boxes.They were
recently included in the Telegraph’s top 10 ice creams in the
UK and last summer were featured in Waitrose magazine.
bohogelato.co.uk
Saint Andrew’s Lane, Lewes, 01273 488600
50A Cliffe High Street, Lewes, 01273 474720
Pelham House, Lewes
A beautiful 16th-century four-star town house
hotel that has been exquisitely restored to create
an elegant venue. With beautiful gardens, a
stylish restaurant and plenty of private dining
and meeting rooms it is the perfect venue for
both small and larger parties.
www.pelhamhouse.com
Facebook: Pelham.house
Twitter: @pelhamlewes
Le Magasin
Le Magasin is a unique cafe/bistro located in
the heart of Lewes, serving breakfast and lunch
all week and a delicious evening menu from
Thursday to Saturday. The menu varies in styles
from a fantastic full English breakfast to a selection
of traditional European dishes, all prepared
to perfection. To complement the menu the cafe
serves monmouth coffee which goes well with
the selection of cakes. Come enjoy an evening at
Le Magasin and with a copy of this viva Brighton
and enjoy 10% off your evening meal!
Ten Green Bottles
Wine shop or bar? Both, actually... wine to take away
or drink in, nibbles and food available. Many wines
imported direct from artisan producers. We also offer
relaxed, fun, informal private wine-tasting sessions from
just two people up to 30 and for any level of wine knowledge - we encourage you
to ask questions and set the pace. We also offer tastings in your home or office,
and will come to you with everything you’ll need for a fun, informative and even
competitive evening. The best-value destination for great wine in Brighton!
9 Jubilee Street, 01273 567176, tengreenbottles.com

Brighton
Hove Lawns
May Bank Holiday
2, 3, 4 May
To celebrate Foodies Festival’s 10th
anniversary we are giving away 5 pairs of
tickets to the festival at Brighton’s Hove
Lawns - May 2,3,4 - so you can join the
celebrations and enjoy a day out with friends.
www.foodiesfestival.com
Win Foodies Festival Tickets
For your chance to win
email enter@foodiesfestival.com
with with ‘Absolute ‘Viva Brighton’ in in the the
subject line. Closing date 17/4/15.

coffee
...........................................
Coffee Guy
Small Batch’s Alan Tomlins on home-brewing coffee
Unless you’ve got serious
money to spend on a caféstandard
espresso machine,
my advice is not to try to
make espressos at home,
because they’re not going
to taste anything like as
good as they do in a café.
The machines work by
forcing the water through
the coffee very quickly at
very high pressure, and
there isn’t a reasonably
priced one on the market
that’s going to be able
to do this well in your
kitchen.
The first thing you should purchase is a coffee
grinder, because coffee starts going stale the moment
it’s ground: the finer the grind, the quicker it
stales. I’d advise grinding just enough to make the
amount of coffee you’re drinking, to keep every
brew as fresh as possible. I use a burr rather than
a blade grinder, as the beans are gently crushed
rather than savagely chopped up, which leads to
better flavour. You can get hand grinders, if you
don’t mind spending a bit more time on it, or
electric ones.
If you want something that’s getting close to an
espresso, try a stove-top, or ‘Moka’ machine, which
works by building up the pressure of the water
in the lower chamber before releasing it through
the coffee and filter into the top one. Use finely
ground coffee, and boil the water in a kettle before
heating it on the hob, which will lead to a less bitter
brew. Screw tight! I would use a fuller-bodied
coffee in a Moka, from Colombia or Brazil, but
experimenting and finding
what you like is the key.
I was brought up at home
with a simple cafetiere,
and these are a good filter
option, which relies on the
coffee releasing its flavour
into the water over a longer
period of time. Put four
heaped tablespoons of freshly
coarse-ground coffee into the
(400ml) pot, pour in boiling
water, and wait four minutes
before plunging. Here’s a tip:
skim off the foam at the top
before plunging, which will
decrease bitterness.
Another, quicker, option is the AeroPress, great for
taking with you on a camping trip but just as good
as a day-to-day kitchen implement. Insert mid-tocoarse-ground
coffee over the filter, pour boiling
water over, and plunge after just 30 seconds. It’s
simple and effective: you can experiment with
different grinds and different brewing times to
produce a range of strengths.
Perhaps the simplest option, though, is the
Chemex filter, a US design classic which is
exhibited in MoMA New York. Simply pour the
water over the coffee and it will dribble through
the paper filter into the bowl below. It’s simple, but
clean, and the perfect way to enjoy an acidic, fruity
coffee, like an East African or Central American
variety. Enjoy!
Alan offers home-brewing coffee courses at the
Seven Dials branch of Small Batch, for £35 a session.
All Small Batch outlets sell coffee-making equipment
and coffee beans.
....93....

health
..........................................
Vegetarianism
Viva!’s Juliet Gellatley
There is not a single chronic disease that you get
more of if you’re vegetarian or vegan, but there
are many diseases you get more of if you consume
animal products, whether they be meat or dairy.
There’s lots of studies that have been done which
look at things like the mortality of vegetarians and
vegans versus meat eaters, and we know, for example,
that vegetarian men definitely live longer than meateating
men, largely because they get a lot less heart
disease. Also with women you’re looking at several
years longer on the average life span. For me, that’s
not the most important thing, though: it’s how you
feel when you’re living.
Meat eaters in the UK, for example, have more
diseases like heart disease, stroke, type-two diabetes,
gall stones, kidney stones, rheumatoid arthritis,
bowel cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, stomach
cancer, cataracts, constipation, and so on. So it’s
funny if people say vegetarians and vegans have less
energy, because obviously if you’re not ill you have a
damn sight more chance of having more energy and
thriving because your diet is giving your body and
your brain everything it needs to feel good, instead
of slowing you down and making you ill.
One massive study found that a much smaller
percentage of vegans were overweight compared to
meat eaters. Looking at why that’s the case, where do
we get most of our fat from in the British diet? Dairy
and meat products.
Cows these days are milked while most of them are
pregnant or they’ve just given birth, because that’s
when their milk kicks in. This means the milk is
loaded with hormones, a cocktail of chemicals which
can activate cell growth in human beings, which
we’re not meant to consume at all, because we’re not
supposed to have milk after weaning. Cows’ milk
and dairy products have increasingly been linked
to hormone-dependent cancers; breast cancer in
women, prostate cancer in men.
I met a professor of cancer biology last year, and he
was saying the first thing you do if you’re at risk of,
or have cancer, is get all dairy products out of your
diet. This professor is not a vegan, he just knows
that’s probably the most dangerous type of food you
can consume if you’re at risk of, or have, cancer.
I’ve always been very interested in where humans
fit into the natural order. This whole thing of are
we meat eaters or wheat eaters. If you look at the
physiology of carnivores, omnivores or herbivores,
we fit into the herbivore column. That’s not to say
we’re grass eaters like cows. What it’s saying is we’re
a great ape, and we’ve adapted over millions of years
to thrive on plant foods. As told to Steve Ramsey
VegFest, Brighton Centre, Sat 28-Sun 29.
Gellatley, founder of Viva!, discusses Why We
Don’t Need Dairy on the Saturday at 2pm
....94....

the lowdown on...
................................
How bikes work
Max Glaskin, ‘Cycling Science’ author
There are two thousand bits
on a bike, all flying in very close
formation, most of the time.
People think they can see how it
works, but nobody quite knows
why it works. Not yet, anyway.
Teams of scientists are still trying
to work out how it stays upright.
There’s all kinds of science going
on, and some of it is still utterly
unexplained.
We know that there are four things going on,
simultaneously, to make the bicycle ‘work’: the gyroscopic
effects of the wheels turning; the fact the
front wheel is a caster, like on a shopping trolley;
the fact that the front wheel is articulated; and the
distribution of weight, which makes even a riderless
bike self-stabilise above 8mph. But the exact
relationship between these factors is one of the
world’s great mysteries, as mystifying as the origin
of the universe, or the whereabouts of Shergar.
It was the eruption of a volcano in Indonesia in
1815 – the largest explosion in history – that led to
the invention of the bicycle. The ash in the atmosphere
changed the world’s weather, leading to crop
failure and an increase in the cost of horse fodder.
A German carriage maker, Karl Drais, invented
the ‘hobby horse’, made of wood, weighing 40lbs,
the prototype bicycle. Over the decades since this
invention became refined and evolved into the
modern-day bicycle.
Cycling is the most efficient use of energy for
a person to travel under their own steam. Using
the strongest muscles in your body the best bikes
convert 98.5% of your energy into
forward movement. Walking, in
comparison, is rubbish. You waste a
third of your energy swinging your
arms, bending knees and so on.
The US expert Chester Kyle discovered
in the late 70s that above
12mph cyclists use the majority of
their energy just pushing the air
aside. So the more aerodynamic
you can make yourself, the more of
your effort will be translated into forward motion.
This is why, for example, professional cyclists wear
skin-suits with the directions of the threads in the
fibre carefully designed to minimise air resistance.
Leg hair will not hamper your performance,
unless your legs are as hairy as the rump of a
wildebeest. Leg-shaving might give pro riders a
psychological advantage if they think it will have
an effect, but mostly they do it to aid efficient
treatment to injuries, and to save on the amount of
essential oils needed to give them a massage.
Because they are more aerodynamically efficient,
recumbent bikes are the fastest. The fastest
a human has powered a bicycle, on the flat, without
sheltering behind another vehicle, is 83.13mph.
Look out for the human-powered helicopter,
an airborne relation to the bicycle. In a recent
experiment, one of these machines took off and
stayed 10 feet in the air for a minute. This is the
culmination of 30 years of experiments. AL
Join Max on a group bike ride with scientific
demonstrations. Brighton Science Festival, March 1,
advanced tickets only from cyclingandscience.com
....95....

GARDEN DESIGN
Call for a FREE consultation
info@saraekstrand.co.uk
01273 400695 / 0795 8102992
www.saraekstrand.co.uk

icks and mortar
................................
Open-air Theatre
‘When Adrian set his mind to something, it always happened’
“Most people are
happy with a bench or
a shrub to remember
them by but Adrian was
bigger and bolder than
that…” James Payne is
talking about his late
friend Adrian Bunting,
a playwright, construction
worker and man of
grand ambitions.
When, in 2013, Bunting found out he had only a
few weeks to live, he began making arrangements
to realise one of his dearest dreams – an open-air
theatre for Brighton. “Adrian was one of those
blokes who had a lot of ideas,” says Payne fondly.
“He was always looking for ways to make theatre
new, exciting and inclusive and he saw the open-air
theatre as all of those things.”
Bunting had little more than some rough drawings
when he became ill but was undeterred, calling
on Payne and four other close friends to see the
project through after his death. “We all said we’d
do our best. But I think he knew it would happen.
He asked us to scatter his ashes there – we could
hardly have backed out!”
With Bunting’s life savings of £18,000 behind
them, the group began work, securing an underused
bowling green on Dyke Road as the site and
enlisting the goodwill of local businesses, including
Drivepoint Contractors and Acre Landscapes, to
help them realise the ambitious project. The first
phase – to introduce a thrust stage and construct a
concrete acoustic wall to bounce sound back into
the amphitheatre – is now complete. Next up is
landscaping before the theatre officially opens to
the public in May, with
The Globe’s Romeo &
Juliet, part of this year’s
Brighton Festival and,
says Payne, quite the
coup for them.
The Brighton Open Air
Theatre (BOAT) will be
open every May until
September with a mixed
programme of touring
shows, local productions, talks, film screenings and
more. “We very much want to celebrate the spirit
of the man and Adrian’s artistic policy was that
there is no artistic policy,” says Payne, who first
met Bunting in the ‘90s when he ran the “gloriously
unpredictable” Zincbar Cabaret at Brighton Art
School’s Basement Club. Whether gold or rubbish,
his friend would cheer the end of every act with:
“Wasn’t that magnificent?” Bunting wanted the
BOAT to run on a similarly egalitarian lottery system
where people are invited to pitch shows before
a handful are picked out of a hat every season. “He
wanted everyone to have a chance,” says Payne.
The opening of BOAT will mark exactly two years
since Bunting’s death. How pleased he would have
been to see his plans realised. “I think he’d have
been delighted,” says Payne. “But I really don’t
think he’d have been surprised. When Adrian set
his mind to something, it always happened somehow.”
Nione Meakin
More funds are still needed to complete and maintain
BOAT. If you can help with fundraising, or
would like to donate, get in touch with the project
via www. Brightonopenairtheatre.co.uk.
....97....

Photo courtesy of the Sussex Archaeological Society © SAS
inside left: New salts farm, august 1940
...................................................................................
August 13th 1940 was the Luftwaffe’s ‘Eagle Day’ (Adlertag), on which they launched the first
of a series of massive air attacks on air bases in England in order, in Hitler’s words, ‘to destroy
the RAF as quickly as possible’. The Battle of Britain had started. In all Göring’s Luftwaffe flew
1,485 sorties over the Channel that day; a number of tactical blunders meant that it was a far
better day for the defensive forces than the aggressors, with the Luftwaffe losing five aircrew
for every RAF pilot casualty. One such blunder was the early-morning failure to get the word
to many Luftwaffe units that due to bad weather the attack had been delayed for some hours,
meaning a number of squadrons jumped the gun. This Messerschmitt Bf 109 (colloquially
Me109) from the Jagdgeschwader 2 wing based in Beaumont-le-Roger, was shot down at
07.10hrs that morning over Shoreham Airport, crash landing in a cornfield in New Salts Farm
nearby. It was the first German fighter casualty of the battle. It had been separated from the
rest of its squadron and shot down by two Spitfires while trying to assist a straggling Junkers
88 which was under attack. According to an eyewitness report, Cpl Frank ‘Boots’ Dorey, an
on-leave aircraft mechanic, was first on the scene, pointing a service revolver at the uninjured
pilot, and stating ‘Hände hoch!’. The same report has it that the pilot [Obltn Paul Temme]
replied in perfect English, producing a razor, soap and towel from his cockpit, and explaining
he carried them everywhere, as he never knew where he might land. For him, the war was over.
The Germans continued attacking English airfields, of course, well into September, but ‘the
Few’ prevailed, and Operation Sea Lion – the German invasion of Britain scheduled to follow
the defeat of the RAF - never materialised.
....98....

eeze up
to the Downs...
Every Saturday
and Sunday
Now only
£4.50
Breeze
return!
Can be used to return from
Stanmer, the Beacon or the
Dyke: ideal for walkers!
...at Devil’s Dyke, Ditchling Beacon
and Stanmer Park by bus.
For times, fares, leaflets and walk ideas:
www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/breezebuses
Phone 01273 292480
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for journey planning
Kids go FREE! See ‘Breeze’ leaflets for details
5405