Viva Brighton Issue #28 June 2015

Safe and local cosmetic surgery
Nuffield Health Brighton Hospital provides cosmetic
surgery and non-surgical treatments including:
• Breast enhancement
• Breast uplift and breast reduction
• Eye-lid surgery
• Facelift
• Liposuction
• Varicose vein treatment
We are offering a series of complimentary 15 minute one-to-one advice sessions
for you to get expert personal advice from a Consultant surgeon specialising
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questions answered and find out more about treatment.
To book your one-to-one advice session, call
01273 961 526
nuffieldhealth.com/hospitals/brighton
Nuffield Health Brighton Hospital, Warren Road,
Woodingdean, Brighton BN2 6DX

vivabrighton
Issue 28. June 2015
editorial
...................................................................................
I look up the word ‘vintage’ in my 1973 edition of the Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary. Despite its name, this publication
is a 2,732-page two-volume affair, which takes up a good deal
of space on the office bookshelf, and is rarely consulted now
that you can google anything you want to know in half the
time. Interestingly, the dictionary does not cite any definitions
of the word that aren’t applicable to wine, which suggests that
today’s use of ‘vintage’ – to denote anything classy and old (my
definition) – is, well, pretty modern. And pretty modish, to
boot. Can you pass a day in Brighton without reading, hearing, or saying the word? Nowadays
we have companies devoted to ‘vintage’, whether that be fashion, or transport, or records, or
furniture, or even a whole way of life. In this issue we explore the world of ‘vintage’, from a chap
who lives as if it were the turn of the (twentieth) century, to another who sells pre-1987 bikes,
from a vinyl dealer to a bunch of old-style stage performers, from a photographer who still uses
Victorian methods to Brighton’s historic link with the iconic Isetta bubble car. In fact one of the
few ‘vintage’ subjects we don’t cover is the world of wine, in which the term denotes wine culled
in a particular (not necessarily long ago) year. Which might, looking back, be something of an
oversight. Tant pis. 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,
PUBLISHERS: Nick Williams nick@vivabrighton.com, Lizzie Lower lizzie@vivamagazines.com
CONTRIBUTORS: Black Mustard, Joe Decie, Nione Meakin, Chloë King,
John Helmer, Ben Bailey, Lizzie Enfield, Joda, Jim Stephenson and Yoram Allon
Viva is based at Brighton Junction, 1A Isetta Square, BN1 4GQ
For advertising enquiries call 07596 337 828
Other enquiries call 01273 810259
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.
6-19. Joe Decie’s comic strip, Viva in
Iceland, the cats of Hanover and a fair
bit more besides.
6
Photography.
21-25. Sean Hawkey, old-style tintype
photographer.
Columns.
27-29. John Helmer’s in Ireland,
Lizzie Enfield’s playing Ancient
Greek Scrabble, and Chloë King’s dog
Oscar’s not well.
My Brighton.
30-31. Michael ‘Atters’ Attree, the
Chap’s ‘resident bounder’, on brothels
and cadging wine at PVs.
30
Brighton in History.
32-33. The Isetta ‘bubble car’, a 50s
icon, made in Brighton.
In town this month.
35-47. Grasscut, Brighton music highlights,
The Beach Boys, The Moody
Blues, Joe Stilgoe, Reginald D Hunter,
and Not Only Hair come to Brighton.
And Hove, obviously.
Art, design, film and literature.
49-61. The Brighton Uni Graduate
Show, muralist Pearl Bates, Yoram Allon
on Timbuktu and other big-screen
highlights, dress designer Joanne Fleming,
author Sarah-Marshall-Ball and the
Blatchington Road Oxfam Bookshop.
....4 ....

contents
...............................
Retro businesses.
62-67. Lost and Foundry’s amazing
objet trouvé lamps, a long-serving
vinyl salesman and we try ‘stickand-poke’
tattooing.
80
The Way We Work.
69-75. Adam Bronkhorst captures
a number of amazing chiaroscuro
portraits of retro-style performers,
on location in the Mesmerist.
Food and drinking.
76-89. Steak and chips at Kooks,
a ‘guac & roll’ burger at Rockola,
tea cocktails at Metrodeco, barista
school at One Church, a pint with
the Rialto’s Roger Kay and we try
Brew School with Bison Beer and
Home Brew Depot.
62
Sport and fitness.
90-95. A bluffer’s guide to the
Sussex Sharks, we breeze up to the
Downs, vintage racing bikes, and
what’s what in the world of table
football.
Bricks and Mortar.
96. The Circus Street development,
ready by 2017.
Inside Left.
98. The London-Brighton Veteran
Car Rally, 1948 style.
....5 ....

ounds in recent years,” he says. “Movie
studios have realised there’s a market for
them, and magazines commission them
to be made for gallery exhibitions.” A
couple of months later we asked him into
the office, hoping to get him to do us a
take on a 50s travel poster, incorporating
modern-style hipster figures, for this
‘vintage’ issue. “How about I do a take
on a 50s travel poster, only with modernstyle
hipster figures?” he suggested, and
we knew we’d found the right man for
the job. Tommy’s from a product design
background, and he has carried the precithis
month’s cover art
..........................................
We met Tommy Pocket on Twitter some
months ago, clicked through to examples
of his work, and commissioned him to do
a cover. All in a few minutes. That’s the
way the world works now. “I’d only just
moved to Brighton from Bristol,” says
Tommy, real name Thomas Walker, “so
it was a great opportunity for me.” What
had caught our eye were his alternative
movie posters and book covers for titles
like American Psycho, Alien and The
Shining, far more imaginative than the
flash-bang-wallop originals. “These alternative
designs have come on in leaps and
....6 ....

this month’s cover art
..........................................
sion necessary for such work into his illustration
technique, as well as using the
same vector software. He favours using a
limited palette, to create a retro feel to his
work. In this case he researched 50s film
posters, also consulting a book specifically
profiling retro British travel posters.
He was stymied a little by our practical
insistence on having the masthead at the
top of the magazine – the text in the originals
was virtually always at the bottom of
the image – but he made do, intensifying
the 50s feel of the piece by choosing some
period-looking fonts. He played around a
bit with different colour combinations,
opting for a dramatic orange as the dominant
hue, and finally scuffed up the image
a little – but not too much – to add to the
old-style feel of the piece. “It’s a stylised
view of Brighton,” he admits; “you could
never actually get all these elements into
the same frame.” But that’s all part of the
fun of it: we’re extremely pleased with the
result. You can see some more of Tommy’s
work at behance.net/tommypocket.
He’s also got some ‘exciting’ gallery commissions
and book cover design projects
in the pipeline.
....7 ....

its and bobs
...............................
spread the word
This month’s effort was taken by Dave
Wilson, while on holiday in Iceland with
his girlfriend Katie. It appears that she’s
more interested in April’s Viva than the
amazing Strokkur geyser behind her, but
in fact, according to Dave, she was simply
scared out of her wits that she was in
for a soaking having turned her back on
that country’s most famous hydrogeological
phenomenon. Don’t forget to
take the latest Viva on your hols with
you, and send pics to alex@vivabrighton.
com, entitled ‘Spread the Word’.
on the buses: #2 john wisden (5A tilL 2001)
It’s a strange irony, and a frustrating one for anyone trying to
write about John Wisden. Though he founded the comprehensive
Cricketers’ Almanack, surprisingly little is known
about his own life and career.
He was born in Brighton in September 1826, and went to
school in Middle Street. As a child, he served as a dishwasher
for a noted wicketkeeper, then got a job as a ball-chaser at a
cricket ground in Brighton.
In adulthood he became a noted fast bowler, playing most
of his county cricket for Sussex. Being only five-foot-four,
he was nicknamed The Little Wonder. ‘A feared opponent’
and ‘pugnacious little all-rounder’, he once clean-bowled all
ten batsmen in a North v South match, according to Wisden
historian Robert Winder. It isn’t known exactly how many
wickets he took during his career, but it was a lot.
In 1855, Wisden opened a cigar-and-sporting-goods shop in London, with Fred Lilywhite, who’d been
publishing an annual Guide to Cricket for a few years. Two years into their partnership, Lilywhite ‘announced
a “large work of cricket scores” that looks to have been the model for Wisden itself,’ Winder
writes. ‘Wisden was initially a junior partner in the joint venture.’
But their partnership broke up, and they appear to have fallen out. Wisden launched his Almanack in 1864,
a non-judgemental alternative to Lilywhite’s boldly opinionated annual, which shut down two years later.
John Wisden died of cancer in 1884. The books have now passed their 150th year of continuous publication.
Further reading: Robert Winder, The Little Wonder
Illustration by Joda, jonydaga.weebly.com
....9 ....

its and bobs
...............................
cats of hanover
“More people in Hanover than you’d expect are cat owners,”
says Charlie Doidge, whose house has one official cat
resident, Bling, pictured right, and two others who regularly
drop in uninvited. Hanover’s cats were featured in a BBC2
documentary, Cat Watch, last autumn, and Hanover’s cat
owners currently stay connected on a Facebook page, Cats
of Hanover, where they chat, post pictures of missing cats,
share new cat paraphernalia on the market, and suchlike.
“One resident, an elderly chap, lost his cat, and the Hanover
community on social media played a large part in bringing
her home” she continues. “Unfortunately she had been run
over and was badly hurt. The chap couldn’t afford vet fees so we decided to club together: I asked people to
put money through my letterbox, and we raised over £500, which was enough to help him avoid incurring vast
debt.” Thus heartened, Ken and Eva, the group owners, decided to organise another fund-raising endeavour:
an art exhibition in which cat owners are invited to paint or draw their cats, frame the pictures, and the images
will be exhibited, and put up for sale, throughout June in the Dover Castle pub. Proceeds go to the Lost Cats
Brighton charity. Bling, incidentally, stars in a book written and illustrated by Charlie, Boris and Bling. He isn’t
pink in real life. eva@ohsoswedish.com
goodmoney art competition
Brighton-based social enterprise Goodmoney are launching a new giftvoucher
scheme for local independent businesses. And they’re giving
local kids the chance to see their designs printed on the greetings cards
that accompany the vouchers, in a competition open to anyone 16 and
under living in the Brighton & Hove area. The vouchers are part of a
scheme devised to encourage people to favour local independent businesses
over national and international chains, and thus to keep money
circulating in the local economy. It is all set to start up in September:
over 80 Brighton & Hove businesses have already signed up and many more are likely to have followed suit
by then. There will be three different categories in the competition, for under 8s, 9-11s and 12-16-year-olds,
and the design should be inspired by what the young artist loves about the local area. Designs should be
square(ish)-format and at least 20cmx20cm, and a photo or scan of the design must be submitted online at
goodmoney.co.uk/enter by 15th July. They will then go up in an online gallery. Two winners of each age group
will be announced on September 1st, the first voted for by the public, the second by a panel of judges, which
will include Caroline Lucas and Viva Brighton’s Art Director Katie Moorman. The scheme is free for local
businesses to get involved in; they can find out more by watching Goodmoney CIC’s video at goodmoney.
co.uk/video. For more information visit Goodmoney’s website, or email Dan Webb on dan@goodmoney.co.uk
....10....

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

eeze up
to the Downs
kids go
FREE!
See leaflets
for details
77
You can now breeze up to Stanmer
Park and Devil’s Dyke by bus
seven days a week, and up to
Ditchling Beacon at weekends.
For times, fares, leaflets and walk ideas,
go to www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/breezebuses
or call 01273 292480
Or visit www.traveline.info/se
to plan all your journeys.
5480

its and bobs
...............................
jj waller’s brighton
‘Brighton style-doyen James’s outfits are legendary: worn by anyone else they would
look absurd, but on him they are pure genius,’ writes JJ. ‘This green suit is the quietest
combo I have ever seen him wear. James is pure street theatre. North Laine is his
catwalk. He is a one-man fashion parade. James is beyond retro; his creations are of the
moment. It’s always a treat to come across him and exchange a few words, he is always
happy for me to take his picture. James is the most stylish man in the city, no contest.’
....13....

its and boGs
...............................
magazine of thE month: mid-century
There we were, deciding which magazine to feature
this month. We had a number of possibilities
to choose from – all really good and none of them
amongst the more famous indie mags such as Cereal
or Kinfolk or Frankie.
We reduced the choice down to two. Then we received
two emails almost back to back. The first was
from Viva, letting us know that this month’s theme
was ‘vintage’. The second was from Tabitha, the
editor of Mid-Century magazine, asking if we would
do a special window for them in June to mark the
new issue coming out. The choice was made.
Mid-Century is all about interiors, furniture and architecture
from the mid-20th century. It is beautifully
designed and illustrated, contains deceptively
simple articles and provides tons of ideas for anyone
interested in making their home look good.
Viva chose the theme of ‘vintage’ well; it’s about
anything from the past that has a mark of quality
about it. It’s what Mid-Century is all about - furniture,
interiors and design that all have a mark
of quality about them. There’s nothing ironic or
knowing about the mag. It reminds us of how to use
the past to make our homes and spaces look good.
In Issue 8, due out at the beginning of June, you’ll
find a buyers’ guide to the work of designer George
Jensen and to the world of travel posters; take tours
MidCentury 08 Summer/Autumn 2015
Mid
Century
08
The contemporary
guide to modern living
£11
around homes in Blackheath and Hatfield and
housing by the Cockaigne Group; meet the family
of Liberty designer Robert Stewart, and read how
colour is being used to enhance public spaces.
Mid-Century is imbued with quality. One day, it will be
a vintage magazine.
Martin Skelton, Magazine Brighton, Trafalgar Street
toilet graffito #5
Name that toilet!
Our toilet-graffiti correspondents
Fan Fan and
Thomas have been scouring
Brighton bar bogs for
more artwork.
Last month’s answer:
The Prince Albert.
....14....

its and bobs
...............................
Pub: the black dove
As soon as I walk into
the Black Dove, I realise
that, if I lived in Kemptown,
this would definitely
be my local.
It’s a fairly non-descript
place from the outside,
but that can’t be said
about its interior, which
is a well-judged jumble
of antique furniture,
candles with waterfalls
of wax cascading down
their bodies, and interesting
pictures, old and
new. Centre stage is a
piano perched five or
six feet off the ground,
with an interesting lift
contraption to hoist the
player to the keys.
I’ve rung owner/landlord
William to say I’m
coming, and he offers
me a beer to sip while
we chat. The Dove is,
rare among Brighton boozers, a freehouse, and
William’s policy is to stock premium international
beers, and sell them at reasonable prices. I choose a
USPA, which he describes as a ‘five-hopped American-style
English pale ale’. There are funky sounds
coming through the speakers and I ask him what’s
on. “It’s a Soundway Ghana compilation,” he says,
“collected in the early 2000s, featuring modern
Highlife, Afro sounds and Ghanaian Blues from the
70s and 80s.” Here’s a man who obviously knows
his music as well as he knows his beer.
I’ve done a bit of research on the building, and
found that around the
turn of the twentieth
century 74, St James
Street housed an auctioneer
and estate
agents. After WW2 it
changed use, and was,
until 1972 at least, a
doctor’s surgery. Then
it got a license to sell
alcohol. William takes
up the story, in reverse:
“When I took it on it
was a run-down oldstyle
boozer, called Gin
Gin,” he says. “Before
that, it was a massage
parlour, called the Pink
Pamperer. Customers
have told me about
what they remember
about the place before
that: apparently it was
a jazz bar in the 70s,
and then a leather bar.”
A lot of stuff has gone
on between the four walls, then, and a lot of stuff
still does. They have DJs playing jazz nights, and
Afro-centric nights, and 60s psychedelic nights;
they have spoken-word evenings and life-drawing
classes. Some of this happens in the basement, a
gloriously retro space with intimate booths and a
mini stage which reminds me of the Kings Head
Dive Bar from my London days. All this plus
they’re renowned for their cocktails – we featured
them in this context in #25 – and they sell absinthe.
“French or Czech?” I ask William. “Both”, he replies,
inevitably. Alex Leith
....15....

its and bobs
...............................
Secrets of the pavilion:
anatomy of a room: The Royal Pavilion’s Saloon
Part 2: Chinese lanthorns, tassels and bells
The look of almost every room of the Royal
Pavilion underwent several changes in George IV’s
lifetime. Some schemes are no longer visible, for
example the neoclassical interiors which preceded
the playful and intensely coloured Chinoiserie ones.
The earliest Saloon interior was decorated by the
Italian fresco artist Biagio Rebecca in the 1780s.
The ghostly faces we showed in Viva Brighton #27
(May 2015) are probably fragments from this neoclassical
scheme and reflected the architectural style
of the first manifestation of the building.
We know that from around 1801 George (then the
Prince of Wales) was experimenting with Chinese
elements in the interior decoration of his Pavilion.
The Saloon’s first Chinoiserie scheme was created
between 1802 and 1804 by the artists and decorators
John and Frederick Crace, who also supplied
George IV with export ware from China. The
main colours were blue, red and yellow, in high
saturation. An early entry in the Crace account
books from 1802 reveals that George IV was even
overseeing the hanging of some Chinese-style or
Chinese-export wallpaper and other work himself.
Frederick Crace charged for 3¾ days for ‘attending
the Prince in hanging the paper in sundry rooms,
attending fixing up and cutting out the Birds, &c on
the paper in Saloon’.
There are no complete views available of this very
early Chinoiserie scheme, but many of the Crace
design drawings survive; some in our collection and
many more in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian
Design Museum in New York. In early books about
Brighton we can find the occasional intriguing
description, for example in HR Attree’s Topography of
Brighton (published in 1809). He praises the clouded
sky ceiling, suspended dragons and ‘lanthorns’,
and then goes into considerable detail about other
interesting ornamental features of the ‘Rotunda’, as
the Saloon was often referred to then: ‘The cornice
and frieze of this elegant apartment are scarlet,
blue and yellow, before which hangs a yellow silk
net, with tassels and bells, splendid in effect, and
perfectly unique.’
Until 1815 the Saloon was the principal state room,
The Saloon in c.1815, from John Nash’s The Royal Pavilion at
Brighton, aquatint © Royal Pavilion & Museums
The Saloon in 1823, from John Nash’s The Royal Pavilion at Brighton,
aquatint © Royal Pavilion & Museums
....16....

its and bobs
...............................
Detail of cross section of the RP, 1826, from John Nash’s The Royal Pavilion at Brighton
(London: 1826), aquatint © Royal Pavilion & Museums
flanked by the two galleries which were decorated
in a vibrant yellow and blue respectively. Some
alterations were made to the Saloon between 1802
and 1815, but the dominant colour remained a
strong blue. Fragments of these schemes have been
uncovered in the course of the current restoration
project and some will be left exposed temporarily,
as well as a ‘hole-in-the-wall’ where one of John
Nash’s cast-iron columns from 1818 can be seen behind
the 18th-century timber-and-brick structure.
The design schemes of all rooms changed
significantly after John Nash’s transformation of
the Pavilion between 1815 and 1823. The most
vibrant and saturated colours were used in the new
Banqueting Room and Music Room (both added
by Nash), while the old rooms were toned down.
A visitor would, for example, leave the intensely
coloured and decorated Banqueting or Music
Room and enter the adjoining galleries, which were
decorated in a calmer pale green, cream and gold
scheme. The Saloon’s look changed, too.
For the schemes from 1815 onwards we have
extremely rich and detailed images, based on
watercolours executed by Augustus Charles Pugin.
These were engraved and reproduced as handcoloured
aquatints in an elaborate book entitled The
Royal Pavilion at Brighton, which provided views of
the exterior and interior of the Royal Pavilion as
completed by John Nash. It was commissioned by
George IV and published in 1826 and has become
known as Nash’s Views. It even recorded earlier
design schemes, as for example the Saloon interiors
in 1815 (see image). The final scheme of the Saloon
was the work of the artist Robert Jones and dates
from 1823. It is more regal in appearance than the
previous ones, with the main colours being red and
cream, accentuated by lavish use of silver and gold
and completed by a multi-coloured carpet. More
about this magnificent scheme in the next issue.
Alexandra Loske, Art Historian and Curator
....17....

Make sure your home stands out
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01273 622664
BOUTI
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www.qsalesandlettings.co.uk
info@qsalesandlettings.co.uk

its and bobs
...............................
whitehawk’s crown jewels
Congratulations to Whitehawk FC, this year’s
winners of the Sussex Senior Cup, the trophy
being cheerfully raised by midfielder JP Kissock
in the Amex dressing room after the Hawks’ 5-0
demolition of Lewes FC on May 15th (see VB #27).
The picture, of course, is by JJ Waller, who did a
photographic project on the Hawks last season, and
got hooked. Commiserations are also due to JP and
the lads, as a week before the Amex game they lost
another big game, the Play-off final against Borehamwood,
in North London. A victory would have
seen the club move into the Conference National
League. Better luck next time to manager Steve
King, his talented squad, and all the Hawks Ultras,
who turned every home (and, increasingly, away)
game into a noisy but amiable party.
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photography
..........................................
Sean Hawkey
Old-method portrait photographer
Photography as we know it is almost 200 years old,
and whilst the technology has changed, the concepts
behind image making have remained largely the same.
Documenting and storytelling is still at the heart of
taking photos, even with the introduction of megapixels
and Instagram. Amongst all this there are a handful of
photographers working in the old ways. So, in keeping
with this month’s theme of ‘vintage’, Miniclick speaks to
one such photographer.
The process that you work with dates back
to 1851... It uses chemistry to make metal plates
light sensitive with silver nitrate. You end up with
a photo that’s silver on metal, known as a tintype.
We still have tintypes from 150 years ago, and the
plates I produce will easily last that long. I don’t
believe that my digital images will last that long.
How does this process change the way you
interact with your subjects? The chemistry
is slow; the exposures are normally around ten
seconds. It’s not easy for people to sit still that
long, so I hold the back of their head with a special
brace. My shutter is a hat that I take off the lens
and I time the exposure with an old stopwatch. A
ten-second exposure records as much of a person
as a ten-second video, and though it’s a still, you
can see that in the image. The results are soulful,
intense, revealing portraits. You can’t sustain the
sort of vain expressions that people often do with
selfies, I think that’s a good thing. The image you
get is reversed, it’s what you see in the mirror,
there’s no negative, it’s taken straight onto the
plate and because the chemicals are only sensitive
to warm light and UV - not the light spectrum we
see with our eyes - the picture is never what we
see normally, so it’s always slightly surprising. It’s a
unique look, and often has imperfections. I think
everyone finds imperfection much more interesting
than perfection. Unless you’re Swiss.
Tell us a bit about your visit to Peru. I took my
kit to silver mines in Peru last year and spent a few
days underground taking portraits of miners, and
for the photographic chemistry I used the silver
they mined. I can take about one image every 15
minutes, but the images are developed on the spot,
so the miners saw their portraits emerge from the
chemicals, and they loved it.
You’ve travelled a lot in your time. Do you
still feel the same enthusiasm when you’re
photographing in Brighton? I’ve worked in over
50 countries but I was born and bred in Brighton.
Photographing people in Brighton means a lot to
me (the photos shown over the following pages
are all of Brighton people), and I think it means
more to me because I’ve travelled so much. It’s a
study of where I’m from, and, in a way, who I am.
Jim Stephenson of Miniclick, miniclick.co.uk
www.hawkey.co.uk
Portrait of Sean by Peter Høvring
....21....

photography: BRIGHTON PORTRAITS
......................................................
Alex
Daniel
Bosie
Susie
....22....

photography: BRIGHTON PORTRAITS
......................................................
Eddie
....23....

photography: BRIGHTON PORTRAITS
......................................................
Emma
Alex
Gerry
Maya
....25....

‘IF I HAD A HAMMER...’
...I’d use it sparingly.
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HARMONY IN CONSTRUCTION, RENOVATION AND RESTORATION.

column
...........................................
John Helmer
in South Dublin
Illustration by Joda, jonydaga.weebly.com
There’s a boat in the back garden, all the street
names are in two languages (the first incomprehensible
to 66% of the population) and
fuck is spelled with an ‘e’. Guess where I am, as
they say on Facebook. Yes, we’re in Dublin.
Idly die, say the pipes.
We’re hitting the tack shops and trying on
orange wigs. We’re taking the Guinness tour,
which is basically Willy Wonka for alkies.
We’re watching, at the famous Forty Foot
bathing station, a sprightly nonagenarian do
Charles Hawtrey-style physical jerks after his
morning dip in the snotgreen, scrotumtightening.
We’re visiting the famous Martello
tower where, as the only visitor on
the tour who will admit to having
read any James Joyce, I am invited
by the tour guide to summarize
Ulysses (try it some time). We’re
gawping at Mr. Bono’s house on
the Vico Road (Mr. The Edge
used to live here too, but he’s
moved away). We’re looking
out for psycho-nun Sinead
O’Connor, who I fully expect
to appear round a corner
in Dalkey at any moment,
levitating two feet above the
cobbles…
And the craic is mighty – except
that no-one in their right mind
says craic any more.
Kate has a seemingly limitless
supply of aunts in South
Dublin who convene in hospitable covens to
witch away your cares with conviviality and
talk. Radios and TVs are left permanently on
in their homes, but no-one listens to them.
They’re too busy talking. Many stories.
Like the one about Aunt Caro’s kitten who
nearly got carried away by magpies. And we’ve
brought a story of our own to share; a richly
amusing one.
Several times over the four days of our visit will
I hear my children tell delightedly how Daddy
forgot he wasn’t allowed to take his washbag
in cabin baggage. How in Security at Gatwick
I had to empty out for a stern-faced airport
official the many pills, ointments and electrical
devices a man over fifty accumulates to soothe
his passage in this harsh world and keep his
nasal hairs under control.
She allowed me my statins, she let me keep
L’air de Panache – but she balked at an overlarge
bottle of male moisturizer. This we had
hastily to decant into smaller vessels purchased
at the nearest Boots. Which wasn’t, actually, all
that near.
How the aunts hoot.
Neither are my facepalm moments over for
the holiday. On the way to the airport heading
back, we lunch with a further aunt who also
happens to be an internationally respected
novelist. She shows us with great pride a photograph
of her latest grandchild.
‘He looks a bit like the Greek finance minister,’
I remark.
‘Well he’s a fecking eejit,’ snaps the Aunt.
....27....

column
......................................
Chloë King
My dog is very ill
Reading between the
lines here, my dog is
dying. I took him to the
vet after he vomited
twice on the mat next
to the back door and
did a poo the colour of
wheat. Other than that,
I thought he was okay.
We have my friend
Line visiting. As a teen
she spent a year living
with my family when
I was five, the year
of the Great Storm.
Line wore short hair
and baggies with red
Illustration by Chloë King
or white t-shirts and always put everything in a mixed
wash so the whites came out pink. She recalls asking
my mum ‘what does crotchless mean?’ having bought
tights at Safeway, and the pair of us collecting snails,
only to leave them creeping all over the kitchen.
I haven’t seen Line since I was eleven. This is her first
in-the-flesh impression of grown-up me. Although
definite memories are scarce, she is just as I remember.
Line urged me to call the vet after she saw our tenyear-old
Jack Russell looking like “he might crawl
away and die”. Her young daughter was chatting away
in Norwegian: “his snout is dry”. Only yesterday, Oz
was vigorously engaged in tug-o-war with the kids and
a skittle shaped like a dragon. Now he’s really shaky.
The vet is surprised by the test results. Oz’s liver isn’t
functioning well at all, despite the fact he can still leap
powerfully off a 1200mm examination table. He needs
an ultrasound and a biopsy. “Worst case scenario,
cancer,” says the young vet as he admits my mutt for
an overnight stay. “Are
you insured?”
Mr and I got Oz from
a flat in Hackney
when I was just out of
university. Our friends
took his sister home.
It wasn’t our most
sensible idea. Looking
at the photos, we
were so young. The
puppies’ tails had been
docked so short their
neat little bottoms go
right round. When
Oz is excited, you can
just about see a wiggle.
He attacks the television whenever a mammal comes
on, sometimes a fish. Even though we had him done,
he still gets kicks licking a wrist, preferably an elbow.
Oz has put up with our chaotic routine for a decade
now. Turns out that might have had grave consequences
- at least, that’s what I’m thinking. Pets do come
with a manual after all, and I’ve been all ‘take it as it
comes’ when I should have been doing a Gina Ford.
“You’re beating yourself up,” says Mr. I reply solemnly:
“he’s not insured.”
Oz comes home on a low-fat diet and medication. He
spends most of the weekend lying on the sofa and on
the garden step in the sun. We await the results.
“You’ve got wheat grass growing in your lawn,” observes
Line. It’s self-seeded from the hay bales brought
in for our wedding party. “It’s a superfood,” I joke. “I
could peddle green smoothies to cover the vet bills.”
Really, I think it’s just another signifier of my still not
quite being a proper grown up
....28....

column
.............................
Lizzie Enfield
Notes from North Village
Illustration by Joda, jonydaga.weebly.com
I’m searching through emails from Esteemed Editor.
I say this more because I’m fond of alliteration
than because I hold him in any… (Note to ed. Only
joking). I find the first email I ever sent him.
We’d been to a press lunch at the fabulous Indian
Summer restaurant. The body of the mail read
along the lines of “nice to meet you. Give me work
one day!” but the subject heading was “Ancient
Greek Scrabble.”
Well, you know how it is, or you would if you lived
in North Village, where kids go to school and study
hard and spend their spare time Scrabble rousing.
Seriously, Other Half and I went away recently. We
wondered what the offspring might get up to in
our absence. When we got home, it appeared new
heights of debauchery had been reached: the 18
year old had several friends around for an evening
of… Scrabble and hot chocolate. We reassured each
other, “she’ll probably go off the rails at university.”
Our house is not quite Ab Fab and I’m not quite
‘Edina’, but I am vaguely embarrassed that the list
of teenage misdemeanors runs to only two.
1) Eldest went to London, supposedly with a friend
and her father. Turned out they went ON THEIR
OWN “to see the Hockney exhibition at the Royal
Academy…”
2) Same child woke me in the early hours, secreting
gang into the kitchen, calling out, “it’s just Gemma.”
I find the whole of the brass section of the youth
orchestra, discussing cadences VERY LOUDLY.
While I suspect there may be worse things, which
I don’t know about, there is also a sweet level of
innocence, which I do.
There’s a story. It’s about whether ‘coit’ is a word.
Teens have never heard of it, even in the ‘coitus
interruptus’ context. I am about to relay the story to
those at the lunch where I met Esteemed Editor.
Because of the way I set up the story, I don’t quite
get to the punch line.
“I was playing French Scrabble with my daughter
last night,” I begin and everyone starts falling about
piss taking.
I know how it sounds. I start furiously pédalage
arrière (back pedalling).
Pédalage doesn’t score many points but it helps you
with your French GCSE, “which was the next day.
Which is why we were playing French Scrabble. We
don’t normally.”
Peut-être I protest too much.
“Where do you live?” asked Esteemed Ed. (Note to
ed. That’s three times in one piece I’ve glorified you.
You owe me fine wine).
I mention a street in the ‘North Village’.
“Fits,” someone else, says. “Wouldn’t be surprised if
they played Scrabble in Ancient Greek there.”
“You’d be surprised at the plethora of words and
kudos gained by playing,” I quip but the joke falls
diamérisma – flat.
Still, if you start that on a triple-word score and the
M lands on a double letter, it’s 51 points. So there…
....29....

Photo by Adam Bronkhorst
....30....

interview
..........................................
mybrighton: Michael ‘Atters’ Attree
The Chap Magazine’s ‘resident bounder’
Are you local? I came here 18 years ago for two
reasons. I was wooing and also wished to visit a
few historical Attree haunts. Our HQ was once the
Great Otehall in Wivelsfield where John “Dominus”
Atte Ree was Lord of the Manor in early
Medieval times - and I spent all my time in local
record offices and libraries. In 1715 Rev’d Thomas
Aedes banished all Attrees from working at Chittingle
church (literally forever). He then financed
a legacy that his ‘stone and grave be no way abused
in perpetuity,’ but that didn’t stop me from spinning
my naked bottom on it while cursing. I’m still
friends with the young lady - she’s just got married
(always a relief).
What do you like about Brighton? I adore the
creepy rolling ripper mists and watching sunsets
over the sea. I can almost feel the decadent history
engraved in the cobblestones beneath the tarmac.
Does anything get on your wick? When I came
here the place was seedy and Mod (I liked that);
there were lots of grannies running cafés and wonderful
old antiquarian bookshops. Now it’s more…
‘twee’ and opulent. And the LA-by-the-sea image
doesn’t agree with my physique or psyche either.
LA? Is that Luton Airport?
You’re ‘editor at large’ of The Chap magazine.
What does that involve? Well I’m also its resident
bounder. In short I ponce around in silk scarves
and look down cleavage while pretending to be an
expert at things. I am an expert at blagging private
view drinks and gifts from celebrities I interview. I
also write the paranormal section (a great interest
of mine) and on aspects of the hirsute, be it animal,
vegetable or mineral.
Is Brighton a good place for a chap to live?
Anywhere is, if you’re a genuine one. No one can
take that away. The architecture is also excellent
for projecting my psychedelic liquid light-wheel
on. I’ve created a mental safety bubble where I
live, conducive to my atmospheric needs. It’s very
retrospective, to put it mildly.
Who are your Brighton heroes? I had the
honour of interviewing Leslie Phillips a few years
ago. Marvellous chap. James, who walks around in
leopard skins and helmets. An old aristocratic lady
who always dished out sandwiches at the bandstand
to the homeless. And Aleister Crowley of course -
what a great dresser.
What restaurants can you recommend? Living
three minutes from the beach, it would be a pity
to waste it. So there I treat my female company
to Bankers chips and a saveloy, if they’re lucky.
If they’re paying, it’s bubbles at the Regency (or
whisky macs if it’s nippy) and a grand seafood platter.
I’m a long-term fan of English’s too: upstairs is
like a delicious 19th-century brothel!
Where do you shop? Waitrose out of necessity,
then anywhere I can rifle through antique boxes. If
it was Churchill Square my soul would simply leave
my body.
How else do you entertain yourself? Voyeurism
from my Oriental Place balcony watching people I
know patronize the brothel opposite, and pondering
who to blackmail. If it’s cold, poking burning
wild sea coal I’ve freshly collected off the beach.
When did you last swim in the sea? Last year
at midnight in a storm. It was more sinking than
swimming. I was crapulent drunk and it was the
second closest I’ve come to death. My friends
dragged me out of the sea down the coastline.
Still, I was clad in a stripy 19th-century swimming
costume, so at least I looked good. Alex Leith
....31....

ighton in history
..................................
Bubble Cars
50s icons, made in Brighton
It could go over 50mph, but not much over. It
shook you up on bumpy roads. It supposedly could
fit three people, but was cosy even with two. It had
a 250cc motorbike engine. Its odd appearance led
people in Germany to nickname it ‘the rolling egg’.
It had no seatbelts. Dave Watson, who owns one,
says that, “like a lot of things made 60 years ago”,
by modern standards it would be considered “a
complete death-trap”.
And yet, something like 130,000 Isetta cars were
sold in the late 50s and early 60s. Elvis had one.
It could get 83 miles to the gallon, if you stuck to
30mph. The three-wheeled version could be driven
on a motorbike license. As it was so small and its
door was on the front, you could park it sideways in
a narrow space, then get out directly onto the pavement.
And the basic model only cost £320 – around
£6,000 in modern money. It was marketed as ‘the
world’s cheapest car to buy and run’.
It appears that the bubble-car craze was triggered,
or at least accelerated, by the 1956 Suez crisis. The
situation caused fuel shortages throughout Europe,
and led to five months of petrol rationing in Britain,
which made fuel-efficient small cars much
more appealing.
The Isetta, which according to
the Brighton Gazette was
‘the original bubble
car’, had been
developed in
1953 by
an
Italian company. At the time of Suez, it was being
made in Germany by BMW, who sold the UK
manufacturing rights to a Captain RJ Ashley. A former
pilot, Ashley had given up a secure managerial
job in order to set up his own factory, according to
local historian Brigid Chapman.
Production started in spring 1957, on New England
Street, Brighton. A month or two previously, the
factory had been a British Rail locomotive works,
and many of the train engineers were kept on.
The site had no road access, but still had its own
railway line. The factory layout, which was designed
by BMW, was “like a U shape around the railway
line,” Watson says. “They used to unload the parts
....32....

ighton in history
..................................
on one side and go round in a horseshoe, and load
the finished cars on the other side.”
Each car, Chapman writes, ‘took a maximum of 16
hours to assemble and 20 minutes in the paint shop.’
They were soon producing more than 200 a week.
“From what I understand it was pretty disorganised,”
Watson says. “There was no real smooth
production, they were always waiting for parts to
come in; if they didn’t have the right parts they
wouldn’t fit them, or bodged them up and sent
them out, apparently.”
I wasn’t able to confirm this, though, or much
else about the factory. The local record office has
virtually nothing about it; the Isetta Owners’ Club
has little more. “There’s very little information that
exists about the factory,” Watson says. “We don’t
really know why. I’ve been in the Club probably 20
years, and it’s kind of a quest that we’ve got, to try
and find out more.”
Production in Brighton stopped in 1964, at a time
when the rising popularity of the similarly-priced
Mini meant the bubble-car craze was coming to an
end. “I think they just had their day,” Watson says.
“We say the decade from 55-65 was the bubble-car
time, then the bubble burst.”
Watson still has a working Isetta, and says the reaction
he gets when driving it is “just bonkers. I’ve got
all sorts of cars, but it’s always the Isetta that gets
the attention. If you want to get noticed...” SR
With thanks to Dave Watson, who also supplied
these photos. See isetta-owners-club-gb.com
....33....

music
.........................................
Grasscut
South Downs-inspired electronica
A uniquely innovative
electronica duo inspired
by a love of local landscapes
and the music
of jazz-rock pioneer
Robert Wyatt, Grasscut
are not an easy act to
pigeonhole. Andrew
Phillips, who lives and
works in Brighton, is a
multi-instrumentalist
film composer. His
partner in sound, Marcus O’Dair, is a lecturer and
author of a recent Wyatt biography. This month
they’re promoting their third album with a special
multimedia gig at The Basement.
The Sussex landscape has cropped up a lot
on your last two albums; does the new record
continue this theme? Yes. Two of the songs, The
Field and Snowdown are set in the Sussex Downs.
What is it about the Downs that inspires you
so much? I walk loads. Snowdown is the story of a
sixteen-mile walk I did in the big snowfall of 2013
from Ditchling to Saddlescombe to Devil’s Dyke
and back to Brighton.
What prompted the move from Ninja Tune to
Lo Recordings? Does it reflect a shift in the
kind of music you’re making now? Yes, definitely.
I wanted to explore different textures, and
record more with live musicians, live strings and
drums, and to try to do something different with
the electronic elements in the music. Ninja were
great, but this album does mark a move on for us.
How does writing songs for Grasscut differ
from composing soundtracks? Is it a completely
separate approach or do both outlets borrow
from one another? Certainly on this album I’ve
felt I’ve explored techniques
of arranging for
strings and percussion
that I developed in film
scoring, into Grasscut.
And I hope as a result
the album has a more
consistent feel to it.
What influence has
Wyatt had on Grasscut’s
music? Well I’ve
loved Wyatt since the
80s, and working with him on his last album,
Unearth, was a dream and an ambition. I don’t
think anyone who’s worked with him is going
to be the same after – he’s a powerful musical
presence, because of his humility and sensitivity.
And because, like all great musicians, he has an irreducibly
brilliant feel and instinct. And that spirit
for me comes out of his records – it’s an attitude to
be aspired to.
What can we expect from your show at The
Basement? Any special plans? Yes. The Creaking
Chair are supporting us. We’ll play the whole of
Everyone Was A Bird, the new album, and you’ll see
the eight films that have been made for each of the
tracks, and a four-piece band: me on vocals guitar
and samples, Marcus on piano and bass, Emma
Smith (Elysian Quartet) on violin, vocals and
glockenspiel, and Aram Zarikian on drums.
What’s the next big project you’ve got
planned? We are inviting fans to record a few
words about landscapes that are meaningful to
them and send them to us via grasscutmusic.com
for us to make a new track featuring the voice
recordings. Interview by Ben Bailey
Grasscut, The Basement, 17th June, 7.30pm, £10/8
....35....

Summer
with music from
and
A collaborative musical evening of four corners:
Kristin McClement’s soft, poetic and questioning
songs echoed by Jools Owen on drums and
supporting vocals. Philippe Nash playing heartfelt
alt-folk; rumbling in guitar lines and swelling rhythm.
Astra Forward singing intense, fever-like vocals
slow dancing over pop-synth atmospherics and
Hilary Repko’s true-heartthrob simplicity, guitar
and a beautiful voice. Expect hand-picked visual
accompaniment, local beer and a warm welcome.
One Church Gloucester Place,Brighton, BN14AA.
Doors at 7.30pm, all ages and abilities welcome.
pay what you’d like on entry or exit
01273 709709
brightondome.org

local musicians
..........................................
Ben Bailey rounds up the Brighton music scene
A CRAP NIGHT OUT
Sat 6, Green Door Store, 7pm, £5
A cheeky title for a night, but one you might
recognise if you were knocking around Brighton
in the 90s. Named after some infamous events at
The New Kensington, this gig is a memorial for the
pub’s former landlord, Miki Hall. Local ska legends
Tragic Roundabout have reunited for the occasion
and will be joined for a rowdy punk singsong by
The Fish Brothers and some Bonzo-esque chap
rock from The Don Bradmans. The mischievous
Miki was a kind of father figure for the punks and
activists that made The Kenny their home. If you
were there, you’ll be here.
KRISTIN MCCLEMENT
Fri 12, One Church, 7.30pm, £donations
Elegant but unpretentious,
this baptist
building should
be a great setting
for Kristin Mc-
Clement’s dramatic
folk music. A host
of Brighton musicians
contributed to
the South African
singer’s recent
debut, released in Feb on local label Willkommen
Records. Five years in the making, it’s a richly
layered collection of waltzes, marches and gypsytinged
ballads, each topped off with vocals that
veer between dreamlike whispers and the kind of
arch delivery usually associated with chanson. We
don’t know if she’s bringing along all the strings and
woodwind, but if she can pull off half of what she’s
managed to capture on record it’ll be a joy to hear.
THE BRAKES
Fri 19, Concorde 2, 7pm, £12.50
A welcome return
for the Brighton
supergroup formed
in 2003 from elements
of British Sea
Power, Electric Soft
Parade and The
Tenderfoot. While
those bands were
pretty ambitious in their different ways, Brakes took
a more straightforward (and arguably more fun)
approach to indie guitar rock. Yet what started as a
knockabout side project soon took over when constant
touring led to a deal with Rough Trade. While
BSP have their own anniversary gig a week before,
this one-off hometown show marks ten years since
Brakes’ debut Give Blood. Support comes from Rose
Elinor Dougall, a former Pipette and Brakes backing
vocalist. A proper family reunion.
GAPS
Wed 24, Hope & Ruin, 8pm, £6
Two friends from Coventry who hooked up years
later in Brighton, and whose early demos featured
cameos by passing seagulls, Rachel Butt and Ed
Critchley never had a masterplan for GAPS. And
perhaps their fusion of acoustic and electronic
sounds is more unique for not having a fixed destination
in mind. Rachel’s sombre guitar and vocals
sit well with Ed’s wash of synths and lightfooted
beats – like Vashti Bunyan guesting on a Four Tet
track. After starting the band almost by accident,
they’ve spent a couple of years developing a stage
set-up that happily avoids the ‘open laptop, press
go’ approach to live electronica.
....37....

music
.........................................
The Beach Boys
‘Brian attached us to his vision’
The newest Beach Boy, Bruce Johnston, was
going out for dinner with his girlfriend. It was
March 1966, and he’d been in the band for less
than a year. Carl Wilson had been hyping up the
new songs his brother Brian was working on, and
Johnston and his girlfriend decided to stop by the
studio before their meal. The backing music for
God Only Knows was being recorded. The experience,
Johnston says now, “completely changed
my life” and “put me about 150% into ‘I’m not
worthy, Brian’ mode.”
As far as I can tell, Johnston is still in awe of Brian
Wilson, whose musical genius, dramatic life, and
unfulfilled potential have made him endlessly
fascinating to music writers. I hadn’t intended to
ask much about Brian, but, perhaps unsurprisingly,
his name came up a lot.
***
Hi, is that Bruce Johnston? It still is – what a
miracle!
(Nervous wittering by me) Now, be quiet for a
second, can you hear this?... (Pause)… I thought
I’d share the Pacific Ocean in front of my house.
(More nervous wittering) Chill, my brother.
Your time; I’m totally cool. Do it the way you’d
like to do it.
Apparently the 20/20 album (from 1969) was
the group’s 20th album in seven years, if you
include compilations. Was the high work rate
partly a result of pressure from Capitol? I think
the band didn’t know any better; people in the
music business didn’t know any better. In the old
days, pre-rock and roll, if you go to Tony Bennett,
Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, whatever, you’d walk in
the studio, the arrangement would be perfect, and
you could sing and finish an album in just a few
days. But I don’t think they realised how difficult it
was for Brian to go down the bottom, side, top and
back of his soul to pull all of his talents together
and deliver these amazing musical compositions,
which various lyricists, mostly Mike Love, wrote
to. I don’t think the label got it, how hard it was.
Did you feel there was any conflict between
feeling the need to make a lot of albums and
the artistic standards you were trying to maintain?
I think that as Brian progressed, he slowed
down, in the right kind of way. Like someone
writing a little classical piece and then writing
a symphony, he was just digging deeper into his
emerging talent, and he just couldn’t crank the
albums out the way the label wanted. You’ve got to
understand, as far as the musical – not the lyrical –
the musical composition goes, it was pretty much
Brian. Brian had the vision, and he attached us to
the vision.
Mike Love seems to be perceived as having
been the commercial voice within the group,
while Brian was trying to experiment more.
Has that been exaggerated? I think it’s been
exaggerated, because Brian was just as thrilled as
anybody to be making hit records. Brian, one side
of him loved commercial music, and the other
side loved to push the envelope. Mike Love gets
criticised, unjustly, all the time. If Mike Love
hadn’t been pushing all those years, you wouldn’t
be talking to me, I guarantee you that; there would
never have been hits and there would never have
been budgets to make those albums.
Have the difficulties the group has faced –
particularly the lawsuits, and Brian Wilson’s
mental-health problems – affected the way you
feel when you sing the group’s classic songs?
....38....

Photo by David McClister, Brian Johnston is second from left
Why would they?
I’m wondering if there are bad memories attached
to some of them. The only bad memories
Bruce Johnston has personally is, during Smile
[the shelved Pet Sounds follow-up] seeing all these
hipsters, they would come over to the studio, very
hip and cool, they’d try and slide drugs to Brian.
This is documented, I’m not talking out of school.
I would just see the vocal sessions kind of crumble,
and I’d slide out and go home.
Was the band aware while Pet Sounds was being
made that you were sitting on something
spectacular? Let’s not turn our backs on Fun Fun
Fun and Don’t Worry Baby and all those wonderful
singles, but the band knew, collectively, that Brian
took a giant step with Pet Sounds, the biggest step
you could ever take.
It seems generally agreed that none of the
Beach Boys’ other albums quite matched up to
Pet Sounds… Well, why are they supposed to? It’s
not a beauty contest.
I’m asking because I wonder if you think the
Beach Boys reached their full potential? No,
Brian reached his full potential, as far as being a
guy in a band goes. With hindsight he probably
should have made that like a pop-classical album
and had us guest on it; he should have split it
off from the Beach Boys, because he was going
higher and higher. With hindsight, Brian should
have turned into John Williams. Brian, right now,
should have ten Oscars on his shelf. That’s how
good he is.
Why isn’t Brian Wilson taking part in this
tour? Would he have been welcome?
He’s always welcome. Brian’s band, they don’t
work as much as we do, nevertheless, they recreate
so much of the minuscule perfect Brian compositions.
There is a market for the way Brian does it.
It’s probably not as mass-market as the way we do
it, but nevertheless, it’s pretty special to hear it. I
recommend you see him, in addition to us.
Steve Ramsey
The Beach Boys, Wed 3rd June, Brighton Centre,
8pm, from £42.90
....39....

Brighton ad_Layout 1 23/01/2015 17:03 Page 1
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Concerts
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Louis
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Mozart, Beethoven,
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Esther Yoo (violin)
BBC New Generation Artist
Robert Koenig
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J.S.Bach, Beethoven,
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2015
Photo : Marco Borggreve
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music
.........................................
Moody Blues
Renaissance man Justin Hayward
“We had a choice,” says Moody Blues frontman
Justin Hayward. He’s talking about the 80s. “We
could become a 60s and 70s nostalgia act, or we
could join the 80s pop look, and feel and sound.”
Hayward’s speaking to me from the Ritz Carlton
hotel near Palm Springs, the day before the group
plays a 5,900-capacity amphitheatre in Los Angeles.
So it seems they chose wisely. If they hadn’t,
“we’d have been left behind.”
In the band’s early days, “we were always everybody’s
opening act,” Hayward says. “The Moodies’
success was a very long, slow thing”. Their penchant
for art-rock concept albums didn’t stop them
having hit singles, and eventually they became big
enough that, for their nine-month 1973-4 world
tour, they had their own Boeing touring plane. It
was nicknamed ‘Starship One’.
Despite some critical backlash – “I think we were
always quite enjoyed and given good reviews until
we became successful” – they were left “unscathed”
by the punk revolution, Hayward says. “We’d
gone our own way so much, we were so far off the
beaten path, that people didn’t look upon us differently,
or say ‘the game’s up for you guys now…’”
Nonetheless, Hayward thought they needed to
change to fit the new synth-pop era. “It was very
important to me, and I expressed it to the rest of
the group that we should, to survive... we needed
to make some kind of mark, instead of just relying
on things we’d done from the 60s.”
So they worked with the producer Tony Visconti
on a new sound, and started to be more mediafriendly.
“The early Moody Blues never did
interviews; we were very moody, we didn’t smile
in a picture until about 1981. In the 60s and 70s
the music was always the star, and that’s fine, but in
the 80s you needed to have a look as well. It didn’t
work, just hiding behind the music, in the 80s. You
had to come out from under your stone”
Their 1986 album The Other Side of Life, produced
by Visconti, got to number one in America,
kicking off their ‘Polydor Years’, which Ultimate
Classic Rock has called their ‘late 80s renaissance’.
“I was just around 40 years old, and we had videos
on MTV and two hit singles, and to be recognised
in the street for the first time, it was like another
life from the early Moody Blues,” Hayward says.
“To have that kind of success a second time around
was just wonderful for me. I was straight; I’d
been a bit stoned the first time, and in a kind of
race, I suppose, with the rest of the group, to get
somewhere. But in the 80s we were relaxed about
it, could enjoy the success; that was the difference.
If I could only have one decade of the music in
general, I think I would choose the 80s.” SR
Timeless Flight: The Polydor Years Tour, Mon 8th,
Brighton Centre, 8pm, £41.50
....41....

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comedy
.........................................
Reginald D Hunter
An American comic in Brighton
A hyper-intelligent stand-up
social critic and philosopher
who I once saw do a
routine about looking at his
own anus with a mirror,
Reginald D Hunter is one of
the best and most puzzling
comics currently active.
Would you be happy if
you could be a stand-up
philosopher and not
have to bother with the
jokes? You know, I think
about that sometimes, a
lot recently. It’s like, the
deal is, for my stand-up
shows, I can talk about anything that I want, as long
as I make it funny. That means that some of, to me,
my more interesting ideas, that I’ve been unable
to make funny, don’t get aired. So you do wonder
what it would be like to not have the mandate to
be funny. But that’s not a gripe, or… I don’t think
I’m ready to consider a change of life in that regard,
like, ‘From now on I shall continue to speak, but I
just won’t be funny.’
I have a theory that you can tell how artistically
inclined a comedian is by how long they’re
willing to go in a routine before they get to the
laugh. How do you feel about that? I’ve never
looked at it that way, and, quite frankly, I find that
point of view very encouraging. I can go inordinately
long periods without a laugh, longer than I
like sometimes. So thank you for that point of view,
I’m putting that one in the pouch. ‘Why did you
go so long without a laugh?’ ‘Well, ma’am, I think
you’ll find it’s because I’m an
artist.’
Would a super-intelligent
robot make a good standup
comedian? Good, probably.
Great… I don’t know.
What characteristics, if you
were designing this robot,
would you try and give
them? Let’s see… I would try
to design the robot to come
from a position of inquiry,
rather than from a position of
having a position. I would… I
don’t know how you’d design
a robot to intuit. I’d design
the robot to not attack unless attacked. To not go
out and look for people to insult or go immediately
on the defensive if heckled. I think I would design
the robot to be able to say words like ‘I was wrong’
or ‘you win’, or ‘please, stop talking’. And to be able
to determine whether someone is trying to resolve
something with you, or just trying to win.
It sounds like this robot would also be quite
good at life in general… Well art is life, it’s not
separate from life. So if you’re a musician, it’s not
like you stop living your life to make music; you
make music within the confines of your life. So yes,
I have found that the principles that work in standup
are the principles that work in life.
That’s an interesting idea. So great comedians
are also great people? Oh, well, there are a lot of
women that thought that and got severely disappointed
when they dated us. Steve Ramsey
Brighton Dome Concert Hall, Sun 28th, 8pm
....43....

hair art
.........................................
Not Only Hair
There’ll be music and dancing and tats, too
Not Only Hair will apparently also feature graffiti
artists, musicians and dancers. How’s that
going to work? Well, it’s part of the decoration
of the stage, let’s say. The thing is, in the past few
years, hairdressers have been considered artists…
ok, if they’re artists, why don’t other artists share
space with them? Because usually in hair shows, it’s
models, the DJ, and hairdressers: that’s it. Usually
hairdressers only check other hairdressers’ shots.
We want to show them that they can get inspiration
from artists in other areas.
Will they be cutting people’s hair on the night?
Yes, they will work on models. There are three acts.
The first one is combining tattoo artists with hairdressers;
the hairdresser does shapes, on the head,
and then the tattoo artist adds designs; the final image
is hair with different drawings inside. They will
be accompanied by dancers and musicians.
The second one is UV hair; that section includes
graffiti artists and more. The last one, there’s a local
hairdresser that’s been working for Milan Fashion
Week, New York Fashion Week, London, Paris, so
he’s presenting techniques that he’s learned during
those. There will be an orchestra, singer and dancers.
But, always, the hairdressers will be working
on stage.
How does UV hair work? The hair looks normal,
until you’re under the UV light… The artists
presenting this collection have been working on the
concept for a while.
Aren’t the most artistically interesting hairstyles
also the least functional, in terms of day-to-day
life? Artistic hairstyles are the ones that inspire
hairdressers to do personalized works in their
daytime work or shops. But that doesn’t mean they
are the least functional.
What’s your favourite hairstyle of all time? The
bob. It’s one of the most wearable, stylish and timeless
haircuts.
And you say hairdressers are nowadays seen
more as artists than tradesmen? From our
point of view, hairdressers are artists; they have a
great responsibility for the personal image of their
customers. Hair gives you a unique identity. You
can see it around Brighton; people wear red, blue or
green hair and it looks great.
So Brighton is a place where you can get away
with an unusual haircut? Exactly, no-one’s going
to turn to look at you. We’re bringing people from
Spain and Italy [for the event] because we want to
show them that everything is possible here; you
don’t need to be blonde the rest of your life. If you
want blue hair, go for it, why not? This is the right
place to see that everything is possible.
We spoke to Ximena Rodriguez and Jesus Oliver, the
event’s co-organisers
NOH: Not Only Hair, Sun 7th, The Old Market,
7.30pm, £25/£20, facebook.com/NOHevent
....45....

LEWES CHAMBER MUSIC
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music
...........................
Joe Stilgoe
Jazz mash-up man
Joe Stilgoe’s party piece is to take a load of requests
– any genre allowed – and mash them together
“into one hopefully coherent medley. It would be
things like the Neighbours theme tune, Ride of the
Valkyries, Inspector Gadget, Hey Jude...” A pianist and
singer who used to be in comedian Alex Horne’s
band, Stilgoe’s ‘inclination to combine jazz and
comedy has,’ according to the Guardian, ‘caused a
certain sniffiness in some quarters.’
“Jazz has always been, from its birth, a music
that was born out of people wanting to free the
shackles of whatever society had placed on them,”
Stilgoe says. “There was always a sense of humour
and sort of madness and release, and I think jazz
has become a bit too serious, in a way; it treats
itself far too seriously.
“Often anyone who’s having a bit of fun, they’re
sort of seen as not being reverent enough to the
music. I just look back, from Ronnie Scott, even
before him, Louis Jordan, Louis Prima, Sinatra, all
these people, their act was songs, but in between it
was all about engaging with the audience, and that’s
what I want to do as much as possible.”
He’s a big fan of Billy Wilder, “who could go from
starkly emotional to hilarious; I love that… I enjoy
that aspect of performance, of that mixture of the
audience laughing then being shocked into some
kind of emotion, because I think they go hand in
hand; people often laugh and cry at the same time.”
Stilgoe is the son of the musician Richard Stilgoe,
of That’s Life fame, who was the lyricist of Starlight
Express. He says “maybe that was an early ill-judged
ambition, to be Greaseball, the rock ‘n’ roll diesel
train” from the musical. Later, he spent about six
months wanting to be an estate agent. His fondness
Photo by Carl Hyde
for the soap Neighbours was such that in his teens
he wanted “probably to be in Neighbours, or at
least have a job that could let me watch Neighbours
all day.”
He tried out “loads of rubbish jobs, like driving a
van for a wine merchant, and trying to get to the
delivery point as quickly as possible, and realising
I’d smashed half the cases of red wine. I realised
wine merchanting wasn’t for me.”
Now, looking back, music seems an obvious career
choice. It was what both his parents did. He’s
been playing piano since he was five, and “once
I’d worked out the notes I could play anything,”
which meant he was often co-opted into entertaining
at parties.
“You know some people say they have that moment
when they’re 12 and they see someone performing
and they know they’re going to be a performer? I
never really had that… I think music sort of gave
me that drip-drip inspiration and ambition, and
then when I was about 21 I just thought ‘this is all I
can do, all I want to do’.” Steve Ramsey
Joe Stilgoe appears at the Love Supreme Jazz Festival,
Glynde Place, Jul 3-5, see lovesupremefestival.com
....47....

PRESENTS
POP-UP FLOWER
WORKSHOPS
Look out for themed events popping up
over Brighton or book your own for a
hen party or any occasion.
We find a venue, you choose a theme
and create your own Flower Show.
For more information and prices email
katie@flowershowpresents.com
or call 07861730925
www.flowershowpresents.com

ART
.....................................
FOCUS ON: Ceramic Macaroons
By Alice Stewardson
Why have you chosen food as a subject? When I
started the project I wanted to do a really hardhitting
critique of advertising; I went for a walk
around town to photograph all of the adverts I could
see and within ten minutes I’d taken 50 photos – it’s
ridiculous, really. But what actually caught my eye
in the ads was the food. I started playing with the
ideas of temptation and expectation, and the project
grew from there. I find pâtisserie really inspiring;
the balance of textures and the combinations of matt
colours always grab my attention.
They look good enough to eat. Has anybody
tried? I haven’t had any casualties so far! The reason
they look so lovely is the glaze – I probably did 50
or 60 tests to get the glazes just right. That was a big
part of my project; I want the people who see my
pieces to be expecting a delicious treat.
Did you observe traditional macaroon-baking
methods? I visited the bakers at Real Pâtisserie to
learn what makes the perfect macaroon: it should
have a nice domed shape, a thick filling and the colour
has to really pop. I developed a method of laying
cling film over a slab of clay, before cutting out
the top and bottom of the macaroon with a cookie
cutter, to achieve the rounded dome shape. For the
filling I experimented with mixing powdered clay,
water and other dry ingredients to make a paste
which simulated the cream. Then I’d pipe a dollop
into the middle and squeeze the two halves together,
so some parts of the process were just like making a
real macaroon.
How did you get into ceramics? When I started
my course in Design and Craft, I tried out four
different areas: wood, plastics, metals and ceramics.
During my second year I went on an exchange trip
to Nagoya in Japan and spent four months studying
there. When I arrived they asked me what I wanted
to do and I was a bit bewildered - I just said ‘yes’ to
ceramics so they put me there. Clay turned out to be
perfect for me; it’s so malleable, whereas with metal
I always felt like I was fighting against it.
What’s your favourite flavour of macaroon? I
always go for the bright pink ones. I’m not even sure
what flavour they are… raspberry?
Rebecca Cunningham
Alice’s work is in the Graduate Show at Uni of Brighton’s
Grand Parade campus, 6th-14th June. arts.brighton.ac.uk
alicestewardsonceramics.wordpress.com
....49....

Gallery 1
13 June — 6 September
Open every day, 10am — 6pm
Admission Free
dlwp.com
Crest, 1964. Emulsion on board. 166.5 x 166.5cm | 65 1/2 x 65 1/2 in
Prudence Cuming Associates, London. British Council Collection, London

ART
.....................................
FOCUS ON: Pearl Bates
Lanes muralist
This is one section of a mural, right? One of
nine. Together they form a narrative following the
adventures of a Pirate Queen through the Lanes,
featuring the nine businesses and organisations who
have commissioned and paid for it.
How did the project come about? The project
was conceived in 2007 as part of an anti-graffiti
strategy by Soozie Campbell, then the City Centre
Manager for Brighton. The idea was to put beautiful
murals on walls that were attracting tagging, as a deterrent.
Soozie persuaded Southern Water to come
up with the funding, and launched a competition
to find an artist. I was the winner. However, a shop
owner moved into the building we were planning to
paint onto, and he opposed the idea, so the project
was shelved. Instead, I painted the mermaid mural,
which was up in Bond Street for four years. Soozie,
who is now Chair of the Tourism Alliance, revived
the original project last year when a study revealed
that 85% of tourists in Brighton struggle to find the
Lanes. The protesting shop owner has moved on
and the building’s current occupants, the Brighton
& Hove Bus & Coach Company, are delighted for
us to use the wall.
How long did it take to make? I started working
on the painting of it in January of this year, having
bought all the wood panels for it before Christmas.
I had to do a lot of things that took me out of my
comfort zone. I had to produce something that was
able to withstand the weather, so I had to think
about what materials to use, how to waterproof it
with yacht varnish, how to protect it against graffiti.
Did you paint directly onto wood? I started with
a storyboard, and had to size that up by drawing a
grid on the wood panels and upsizing the image, in
acrylics. I drew over the figures with a black pen,
then treated the finished images.
What was the inspiration behind the characters?
I’m always sketching ideas, taking inspiration from
people I see, or music videos, or fashion magazines.
They get processed in my head and come out again
with my own twist on them. The Pirate Queen had
been floating in my imagination for some time. I
had the idea of her living in one of the onions of the
Pavilion and fishing in the sea for breakfast. I hope
she might embody the spirit of Brighton. AL
The mural was commissioned by the Lanes Traders,
Choccywoccydoodah, Pretty Eccentric, Paul Goble
Jewellers, Tegen Accessories, Centurion, Donatello’s,
Hotel du Vin, The Grand Hotel, Moshimo, Frames in
the Lanes, Angel Food Bakery, Sweet William Fudge
Shop, First Light and Ring Jewellers.
....51....

CINEMA
..........................................
Timbuktu
A cry from the heart
The opening scenes of Abderrahmane Sissako’s new
film, Timbuktu, starkly present the brutality meted
out against Mali’s traditional culture by occupying
forces of Islamic jihadists. Wooden tribal statues
are shot to obliteration; a terrified gazelle is chased
by a truckload of heavily-armed men. As Sissako
explained to me during his visit to the London
Film Festival in October 2014: “The gazelle is our
culture; it is being hounded. It is too weak to fight
and can only run. If the statues being destroyed offer
an objective metaphor, this pursuit of the gazelle
provides a simple vehicle for empathy.”
Timbuktu, nominated for the Best Foreign Language
Film at the 2015 Academy Awards and playing at
the Duke of York’s this month, portrays a place ruled
by religion and a people traumatized by division. It
also honours the rich and humane traditions of the
ancient city of Timbuktu, and the central place that
music occupies in Malian culture.
The film was shot soon after the French military
operation in Mali to push back the jihadists in 2013.
The impulse to make the film came as a direct result
of the occupation, and the crimes being committed
in its wake. “The government in Bamako abandoned
northern Mali, and jihadists took over as there
was no social structure, no police, no order.” Yet
after the liberation of Timbuktu – originally seized
by Touareg separatists before their uprising was
hijacked by Al Qaeda-affiliated militants – Sissako’s
plans had to adapt quickly. “The idea initially was
to make a documentary about the actions of hostile
groups whose foreign members included mostly
Libyans and Algerians, but we had to fictionalise the
characters in order to preserve the safety and security
of those who told us their stories. Then it was
a short step to re-imagining the film as a fictional
tale, but one very much born in reality.” Ironically,
this move from a non-fictional mode to a fictional
one allowed for a more naturalistic mode of cinema:
poetic, lyrical, yet truthful.
This cinematic storytelling is evident in many
scenes based on actual events, such as when a market
fishmonger refuses to wear gloves so as to hide her
hands for modesty’s sake, daring the armed militants
ordering her to do so to cut off her hands instead.
Other key scenes are wonderfully imaginative
cinematic devices to challenge, and ridicule, the draconian
laws of the governing Islamists. Most memorable
is the balletic portrayal of boys playing football
without a ball, thus escaping the iron justice of the
jihadists. This idea arose from the bans imposed on
activities from playing any sport or performing any
....52....

CINEMA
..........................................
kind of music. “This is forbidding something one
cannot forbid. If you forbid someone to sing, he
will sing in his head; he will sing lullabies in the ear
of his child. You cannot stop him from doing that.”
Sissako says that he decided to film the football
game without a ball, beautifully choreographed to
syncopated music, “to show resistance. That was
important to me,” he says. “Art must be optimistic.”
However, such optimism is extremely difficult to
sustain. In some of the film’s most heartbreaking
scenes, Fatoumata Diawara, the young rising star
of Mali’s female singers, plays a powerful cameo as
‘la chanteuse’, a local young woman who is publicly
flogged after being caught with friends simply
singing and playing music. Her fierce resistance
is encapsulated by her insistence on continuing to
sing, louder and more profoundly, with each beating.
What is interesting is that, as Sissako explains, this
central, iconic scene was created late in the process:
“Fatoumata heard through the grapevine of exiled
Malian artists that I was shooting the film, and so
she contacted me, insisting that she be a part of it.
We talked it through and the role of ‘la chanteuse’
was born.”
Yet the film contains much ironic humour too,
again using ridicule as a weapon of resistance. When
singing is heard in the town, a dumbfounded jihadi
assigned to root out its source calls his superiors
to ask for instructions since the music he hears is a
song praising Allah. This comic moment is balanced
by more serious interrogations of the perversions
of true faith by the militant Islamists. Tellingly, the
local imam attempts to uphold the traditions of benevolent
and tolerant Islam and appeals to a militant
leader to refrain from such extreme brutality, asking,
“Where is the mercy? Where is God in all this?”
This singular moment encapsulates the bravery
and timeliness of such filmmaking, as well as its
authenticity. The film is performed by a mix of
professional actors and local non-professionals and
musicians – most significantly Ibrahim Ahmed, who
plays Kidane, an honourable man who accidentally
kills a neighbouring fisherman in a dispute involving
a trespassing cow. This drives the tragic narrative,
highlighting the inequity at hand when such
governing authorities assume ultimate control in
meting out justice. In some of the most emotionally
affecting scenes, Kidane can be seen as the most
contented man in the world – in his humble tent,
with his loving wife and 12-year-old daughter, and
his guitar. Until, that is, his world is destroyed.
Yoram Allon
Duke of Yorks, 29th May-4th June
....53....

cinema
..........................................
Yoram Allon takes a look at other film highlights
Other highlights this month include special
screenings of London Road, the film adaptation
of the National Theatre’s acclaimed
musical, starring Tom Hardy, with a satellite
Q&A with key cast and crew at the Duke
of York’s on Tuesday 9th; and the incredible
follow up to The Act of Killing, Joshua
Oppenheimer’s haunting film The Look of
Silence, with a satellite Q&A with the director
hosted by Louis Theroux at the Duke of
York’s on Sunday 14th. Also of note is the
screening of The Damned: Don’t You Wish
That We Were Dead, plus Q&A with director
Wes Orshoski at the Duke’s at Komedia on
Wednesday 10th.
But, as it’s now officially summer, don’t miss
the special pop-up outdoor screenings, all
commencing around dusk, 9pm, at the Saltdean
Lido – Ghostbusters (Friday 12th), Ferris
Bueller’s Day Off (Saturday 13th), Gravity
(Sunday 14th) – and at Stanmer House – The
Imitation Game (Friday 26th), Raiders of the
Lost Ark (Saturday 27th), Some Like it Hot
(Sunday 28th). So, no excuses not to get
involved with some quality cinema action.
....55....

....56....

design
.....................................
Joanne Fleming
‘People have got used to ill-fitting clothes’
Opposite Brighton Pavilion, down steps tangled
with vines, is the studio of occasion-dress designer
Joanne Fleming. A well-groomed schnauzer greets
me at the door and Joanne, all in black, apologises
for her pooch. “He doesn’t usually come to work.”
Seated on a vintage sofa, I admire Joanne’s creations:
dresses that may suit a guest of Gatsby or a Grecian
deity. To my right is a rail of tea-length numbers
made of silk and fine French lace.
Joanne began making clothes in her teens. “My
mother didn’t used to be too impressed,” she says.
“I’d cut up curtains and sheets to make ball gowns… I
loved Hollywood Noir and fantasy.”
As an unlikely biochemistry student at Bristol, Joanne
made “huge great velvet ball gowns” for guests of the
Bastille club. On graduating, she apprenticed with
Savile Row-trained tailor Paul Hubbard, working on
collections for Luella and Giles Deacon.
When Joanne set up her own studio, Paul let her
keep her machine. She still uses the old ‘workhorse’
ten years on, but much else has changed. Although
her early clients included Madame Tussauds, Joanne
is “not interested in making reproductions” anymore.
She prefers Twentieth Century vintage style, combining
details from different eras with modern cuts: “It’s
not supposed to look like fancy dress.”
Part of Joanne’s appeal as a dressmaker is that she
isn’t ‘constrained to a single style’. She encourages
her clients to keep an open mind too. “If someone’s
really keen on a twenties style but they are fuller
figured, I’ll try to steer them towards a more flattering
cut that uses twenties-influenced decorative
techniques,” she says.
One client had a 20s-inspired wedding in a Scottish
castle. “We went for an antique silver-lace dress just
below the knee but the real centrepiece was a beautiful
silk velvet opera coat with amazing sleeves and
a circular pin-tucked pattern.” Joanne developed the
design from a 1930s coat she found in Totnes.
I ask whether the appeal of vintage is partly a reaction
against the modern world. “I think there has
been a reaction to mass-production,” she says. “It
used to be that everyone was very pleased if they
picked something up in Primark for a fiver. [Now]
I think people are prepared to invest in something
that is more ethically produced.
“Up until WW2, people would have made their
own clothes or have had them made, if they could
afford it, by local seamstresses… That disappeared
and it was all about shop-bought. People got used to
ill-fitting clothes.”
With 40-50 dresses on her books at any one time,
Joanne doesn’t have time to make many of her own
clothes now. She seems glad, however, that blogs
and programmes like the Great British Sewing Bee
are re-popularising the art.
“Even if people don’t follow through on actually
making things, I think it gives them more of an appreciation
of what it involves to actually hand-make
something. It’s not any cheaper to make your own
clothes often, but it is very rewarding.” Chloë King
joanneflemingdesign.com
....57....

literature
..........................................
Sara Marshall-Ball
A quiet side project
Sara Marshall-Ball is an insurance claims assessor. In her
spare time, she writes. Look for her on the internet and
you will find little evidence of her double life as an accomplished
author. Yet her first novel, Hush – a suspenseful
look at how childhood trauma affects two sisters – was
shortlisted for Myriad’s Writer’s Retreat Competition in
2012 and is published this month.
You once worked as a proofreader of tombstones…
I actually organized memorial services
and advised clients on the right wording for the
tombstones, then proofread the copy. A fun job, I
know, but someone had to do it.
Now you assess insurance claims. You must get
intriguing glimpses into the lives of others! I
mostly work on accident protection, so I definitely
get an interesting perspective on the variety of ways
that people can injure themselves! But I also see
people at their lowest: recently bereaved, embroiled
in family disputes over money, and so on. While it’s
nice to be able to help them, it gives an unpleasant
insight into the way people deal with grief. In
that sense it’s very similar to working at a funeral
director’s.
You seem happy to keep yourself to yourself
while working at your novels. How do you feel
about your upcoming book launch? I am excited,
but also scared. I don’t have any experience in public
speaking. I know it comes with the job. But I just
wish I didn’t have to start in front of all my friends
and family.
One of the main characters in the book suffers
from selective mutism. Where did the idea come
from? In the first 50,000 words I submitted, Lily,
the youngest sister, never spoke. It was my editor
who came up with the idea. After researching the
condition, I realized Lily doesn’t strictly fit the
profile of someone with selective mutism, because
she doesn’t speak at all, and most people with SM
will only be silent in certain situations. But to me,
the most important detail is that her condition is
anxiety-based, rather than just an obstinate refusal
to speak, which definitely fits in with everything I
found out about SM.
Hush describes the relationship between the
two sisters beautifully. Do you have a sister
yourself? No, only two brothers. I based the sisters’
relationship on close friendships I’ve had for years.
I always wanted to have a sister. I used to feel like
I missed out, but I like my brothers – now they’ve
stopped beating me up!
Hundreds of Brightonians will be cycling from
London to Brighton this month. Will you be one
of them? No. I did it two years ago. I tried to conquer
hills in preparation but never quite managed it.
I was surprised by how easy it was, though. I seem to
remember a lot of people stopping for a whole hour
for lunch! It’s definitely not a race. Black Mustard
Sara Marshall-Ball’s Hush launches at Waterstones,
Brighton on 9th June at 7:30.
....59....

flash fact competition
..........................................
The Party
By Cheryl Day
There was never a ‘morning after’ like the one I
experienced twenty years ago.
“Nick, honestly, I really appreciate this, I’ll definitely
pay you back Friday.”
Nick was my hero; the only friend I knew with a
car and a couple of hundred pounds to hand.
My brother – two years younger than me but infinitely
wiser – sat in the back seat rolling his eyes.
I felt sick, not because of my drinking the night
before, but because of everyone else’s.
My Dad had a homemade bar; spirits on optics, a lift
up hatch, a pineapple-shaped ice bucket and his most
prized possession, his collection of alco-pops. Almost
ninety bottles, every one different and each one still
full. An obsessive collector, he was convinced that
one day they would be worth something.
“Have anything you want,” I’d said, “just don’t
touch the collection.” But now they were all gone.
After my Friday night bar shift I’d decided to
invite a couple of friends back. My parents were
away for the weekend so why not, what was the
worst that could happen? It was actually quite
amazing when I look back at it now, especially as
this was the age before mobile phones, that it managed
to escalate so quickly and to such a scale.
Saturday morning, as I ran frantically in and out of
each off-licence with bags clanking, I recalled the
uninvited DJ complete with decks and flashing lights.
My stomach churned as I remembered someone
throwing up on the driveway as a neighbour walked
by. As I entered the DIY store I was reminded of the
state of the bathroom as a ‘friend’ had decided to
paint the white walls with red hair dye. The whole
time, as the music boomed, my brother had sat on
the stairs watching, shaking his head.
Sunday came and my parents returned. Dad got
settled and mum started making dinner. Had they
not noticed how clean the house was? Did they
not smell the fresh paint and spy the flecks of
emulsion in my hair? I must have got away with it.
“I’m having a party tonight,” dad announced, “I’m
inviting all my friends. I think it’s about time I
broke open that collection, no point in it sitting
there, what do you think?” he smirked.
It has been twenty years since my last party.
Next month’s prompt is ‘The Gift’. True Life stories
of no more than 400 words in by 15th June please.
The winning entry gets published here and receives
a £25 book token from Kemptown bookshop. Please
send entries to barbara@blackmustard.co.uk
....60....

literature
..........................................
oxfam books, blatchington road
I choose Polly Toynbee’s
Hard Work (it is just after
the election and I am feeling
‘engaged’), a Kazuo
Ishiguro I’ve not read, and
The Observer Book of Trees.
Brighton has many secondhand
bookshops but to my
mind, the Oxfam bookshop
on Blatchington Road offers
the most rewarding browse.
Squeezed between a dentist
and a vacuum-cleaner service centre, the shop is
both hard to find (currently under scaffolding) and
hard to leave. I have a friend in Hove who won’t
have second-hand books in the house, because of
dust or mites (or is it germs?), but I find trawling
for old books irresistible. Until you find the right
book, you don’t even know what mood you’re in. You
don’t go into a second-hand bookshop looking for
specifics. It is a treasure hunt, or rather, a lucky dip.
Peter, 83, checking my bounty at the till, shows me
the ten bags of books that have been dropped off
that day. “I do find at my age carrying books rather
fatiguing,” he says. Mags, the assistant manager,
has had to have a back operation. “Whatever the
doctor says”, she says, “I can’t keep away. You’ve
got to love books to work here.” Alex McCord (72)
is a retired painter and decorator,
mad on CDs and vinyl. “I’ve got
a rare one here,” he says, showing
me a Seventies soft porn DVD
called Burn Innocent. “£90 on the
internet that is.” The shop turns
over between £1200 and £1500 per
week, but over and above regular
sales, rare books and oddities are
sold on Amazon by the rotating
team of 40 volunteers (profits to
Oxfam, of course).
Mags likes horror and sci-fi novels. “Without being
too snooty,” she says, “we do think of ourselves as
a little specialist book shop.” The shop has many
regulars. “That’s one of our best customers,” she
whispers, pointing to a patrician-looking fellow in
brogues, stuffing his copious purchases into three
carrier bags. “He’s a green Councillor, been coming
for years.” She whispers even more quietly, “he’s just
lost his seat.”
If books provide both solace and inspiration, so
does voluntary work. Alex has been here for fifteen
years, Peter twelve, Mags five. “I can’t give up,” says
Alex, who works two days a week even though his
hands are cruelly twisted by arthritis. “I’d be in the
pub otherwise. In the Neptune, where my son plays
the blues.” Black Mustard
bookends
We are proud to congratulate Hove’s own children’s bookshop, The Book Nook, which has scooped the
2015 Children’s Bookseller of the Year award at the Bookseller Industry Awards, beating both Waterstones
and Foyles. The bookshop (on First Avenue) has an amazing outreach programme, sending authors
into schools and fostering literacy by leading on a council reading scheme across Brighton & Hove. The
impressed judges commented that The Book Nook “has helped create a community of young book lovers.”
Good job.
....61....

ighton maker
................................
....62....

ighton maker
................................
Lost and Foundry
‘I must have a wiener-dog bedside lamp!’
Are you from Brighton? I am an English-born
Greek raised in a small Canadian prairie town.
Canada is a wonderful country but I always missed
England. I settled in Brighton in the mid-nineties,
where I worked as a jewellery designer, as a prop
maker at Glyndebourne, a wedding planner, a set
dresser at The Sherlock Holmes Museum and on
various TV shows, and a fetishwear maker. I also
travelled with a circus. I love Brighton and am
constantly inspired by the creative people that live
and work here. I feel lucky to call it home.
Why did you become a lighting designer?
After meeting my partner Tom in 2007, my love
for lighting began. He had rewired all his home
electrics using the lovely silk flex which is now so
popular and showed me how to wire a lamp - and
that was it. I’ve made well over 1,000 lights now. I
like seeing the surprise on people’s faces when they
ask ‘where is the fellah that makes the lights?’ I do
all my own work and am a qualified Portable Appliance
Tester. I enjoy being one of the only female
lighting designers around. I think that sets me and
my style apart from other lighting designers.
When did you become interested in vintage?
From 2011 till 2013 Tom and I ran The Yard - a
Sunday vintage market in Diplocks Yard on North
Road. I had always been interested in vintage and
hunting it out in flea markets, auctions and even
skips, but now I had to start buying and selling
every week. I was most attracted to kitsch, nostalgic
and humorous found objects, like old metal roller
skates, dogs on wheels and pottery cats. It seemed
a natural progression to start making these objects
into lamps and giving them a new useful life.
Where do you go to find the objects? I am
always on the hunt for objects to make lights from.
I like Snoopers Paradise, the Sunday market at the
Marina and the various flea markets. Every trip out
of town finds me returning with a huge tinkling
suitcase. I’ve just come back from a trip to Canada
with 45 glass jars, some pottery birds, two ice buckets
and a box of vintage cat trophies.
Do you get requests for things to be transformed
into lighting? Sometimes someone will
get in touch and say “I must have a wiener dog
bedside lamp!” I then seek out a suitable candidate.
Often people bring me items to convert. The
strangest one so far has been the chap who wanted
me to turn his stuffed cat into a light. He has yet to
bring it to my studio but I wish he would as I’d love
to give it a go!
Maxine Michaelides spoke to Rebecca Cunningham.
Maxine is exhibiting at Dynamite Gallery on Trafalgar
St. Lost and Foundry lighting is available at Vine
Street Vintage, Snoopers Attic and Workshop Living.
lostandfoundry.co.uk
....63....

PELLS
POOL
ENJOY YOUR PELLS POOL
2015
Saturday 16 May to Sunday 13 September
12 noon-7pm Daily. Open 10am weekends from start of June
Early morning adult only 7am-9am from start of June
Adults £4, Junior & Concessions £2
PellsPoolLewes
@pellspool
Pells Pool, Brook Street, Lewes Infoline 01273 472334 www.pellspool.org.uk

talking shop
................................
Photo by Rebecca Cunningham
The Record Album
Soundtrack specialists
When did you start selling records? I took
over the shop in 1962, but I was selling records
before that. When I was in the RAF, stationed in
Germany, I would collect records and sell them
on. I used to trade under the name ‘Film Fanatic’,
purely selling soundtracks. British film music has
always been my main interest, my favourite period
from the 30s to the 60s, but into the 70s as well.
The stock of the shop when I took over didn’t impress
me that much, but I gradually got rid of the
old stock and replaced it with my own interests.
When did you become interested in film
soundtracks? When I was seven - that was in
1937 - well, in those days children were allowed to
go out on their own without the fear of anything
dire happening. I was out and I joined a cinema
queue, without any idea what it was. I sneaked
in – we used to call it ‘bunking in’ – and I plonked
myself down on the first seat I saw. I remember
the film well, Camille, starring Greta Garbo and
Robert Taylor. I was gazing up at the cinema
screen when I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder
– it was the commissionaire, who had noticed this
little squirt of a boy sitting there, and he yanked
me out of my seat, cuffed me around the head and
sent me out. There began my love affair with film.
What was the last film you went to see?
The last Bond film – Skyfall – but I do not like
Craig. Bond, to me, is Sean Connery – he’s suave.
Why did you move to Brighton? We’d lost three
houses to German bombs, so my mother decided
to move to Nottingham, where we would be safer.
After the war ended in 1945, she pulled out a map
of the country and unfolded it on the table. She
closed her eyes, got out a pin and said ‘wherever
the pin lands on the map, that’s where we’re going
to live’. And so we ended up in Brighton.
What do you listen to in the shop? I enjoy
listening to classical music, although recently I’ve
taken a liking to 80s electro-soundtracks. I love
the synthesizers and Synclavier they used.
George Ginn, interview by Rebecca Cunningham
The Record Album, 8 Terminus Road,
therecordalbum.com
....65....

we try...
..........................................
Stick-and-poke tattoo
‘Like having a full-stop on life’
In a time of fast fashion and
instant gratification, some
might argue that the original
mystique of old school tattooing
has been lost; buried
under a pile of angel-wing
designs and misspelt poetry.
There are, however, artists
carving out niches in a progressively
diluted industry:
Adam Sage of intoyoutattoo
in Brighton is one of them.
Adam stands out by choosing to work without
electricity. A humble needle (attached to a pen-like
steel cylinder) and ink are his only tools, a method
called ‘stick and poke.’
Whilst an electric tattoo machine can puncture
the skin more than 3,000 times per minute; hand
tattooing involves ink being inserted into the skin,
one jab at a time, like a sculptor chipping away at a
piece of marble.
I discover Adam’s portfolio through his blog and
was instantly taken by his skill. His work ranges
from woodlice to windmills; everything beautifully
detailed. I decide to send him an email to see if I
can book an appointment.
Two weeks later and I find myself shivering, cold
and nervous, outside the green façade of intoyoutattoo
in Little East Street. I’m having doubts.
I’ve settled on a tower design, something that features
heavily in Adam’s work. There was no great personal
meaning behind my choice. I just liked the imagery.
I gather myself before stepping through the door,
where Adam greets me: Calm, erudite-looking,
dressed in black and wearing glasses, his hands and
neck covered in intricate tattoos.
After a short wait whilst he
redraws the design to fit
my right tricep, we climb
the shop’s old wooden
staircase to start the task
at hand.
My heart skips as the first
jab of the needle pierces
my skin in silence. It feels
strange to not hear the
mosquito buzz of electricity
so synonymous with
tattoo shops.
Asking questions as a distraction, I discover that
Adam studied fine art at university. He learnt to
tattoo by practicing on friends with makeshift
equipment whilst they listened to music. I ask him
why he decided to pursue tattooing by hand.
“I think you find your own way in whatever you do.
Some people make furniture by hand; they enjoy
the process. The same goes for me with tattooing.”
Hand tattooing is a slow process indeed, but five
hours and a lot of grimacing later, we are done. I
am astonished by the result. The original drawing
lies perfectly against the back of my arm.
Before leaving, I ask Adam if he feels like working
without electricity has more of a spiritual element
to it than regular tattooing. He pauses thoughtfully
before responding.
“I think that getting tattooed by hand makes even
the smallest of tattoos into a ritual. It is like having
a full stop on life.”
As I step out into the bracing cold of a Brighton
evening, I start to think that there might be some
mystery left in it after all. Finlay Renwick
intoyoubrighton.com
....67....

the way we work
Spoilt for choice by this month’s ‘vintage’ theme, we sent Adam Bronkhorst
to photograph just a few of Brighton’s vintage performers, shot in the style of
photographer Gregory Crewdson. We asked each of them:
If you could go back in time to any decade, which would it be and why?
Thanks to The Mesmerist, Prince Albert Street for the kind use of their venue
www.adambronkhorst.com
Cherry Shakewell, cherryshakewell.com
I would go back to the cusp of the 60s into the 70s to attend a few amazing
parties and gigs, but mainly to grab lots of the fashion and bring it back to 2015
....69....

the way we work
Rob Marks, ghostwalkbrighton.co.uk
I’ve lived through quite a few decades and have no desire to revisit any of them;
things are infinitely more agreeable now

the way we work
Coco Deville, coco-deville.com
I would go back to the 1920s, where sex, jazz and liquor reigned supreme
....71....

the way we work
Corrinne Williams, corrinnewilliams.co.uk
I would go back and visit the 1920s. It seems like such and interesting period in time.
The cars, flapper girls, prohibition, underground speakeasy bars, gambling in smoky secret clubs,
bath tub gin, gangsters and of course… jazz music

the way we work
The Swing Ninjas, theswingninjas.co.uk
Will (standing): 65,000,000 AD, as it would be illuminating to understand the musical
preferences of massive lizards as they lumbered about for their final days on Earth.
Swing, lizard, swing. Taking retro to its natural conclusion

www.thetanningshop.co.uk
Free tanning
sessions*
Sunbed and luxury spray tanning available in-store.
130 Queens Rd, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 3WB
Tel: 01273 771 770 or
88 Western Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 2LB
Tel: 01273 779 993
*Terms and Conditions apply. New customers only. Must have advert to redeem.
Excludes Sun Angel and spray tanning.

the way we work
The Iron Boot Scrapers, ironbootscrapers.com
Ian (right): I’d go back to 1820s India as part of the East India Co, as Builder of Empire!
....75....

Food & Drink directory
Semolina Café/Bistro
A small independent restaurant focusing on local and seasonal
ingredients freshly prepared from scratch also offering locally
made alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.
Special offer: 20% off Bistro menu on Wednesdays and
Thursdays in June. Quote this offer when booking a table.
Not to be used in conjunction with other offers.
15 Baker Street, semolinabrighton.co.uk, 01273 697259
29 Tidy Street, 01273 673744, rockolacoffeebar.com
Rockola
Named by customers
as Brighton’s best kept
secret, Rockola is tucked
away just off Trafalgar
St. With its 50s/60sstyle
decor, and owner’s
private collection of
memorabilia, Rockola
is the perfect place to send you back to a bygone
era. With food including home-made burgers,
breakfasts, pancakes, waffles, wraps and thick
shakes, Rockola has something for everyone, including
vegans and veggies. Also it has an original
1960 jukebox with a selection of 200 songs, and it
is FREE to play. Open 10.30-4.30 Mon-Fri. Sat.
9.30-4.30. Friday nights are Burger nights and
include the massive Elvis Burger (6-9pm). And
you can BYO.
71 East Street, 01273 729051, terreaterre.co.uk
Terre à Terre
Sun it out and summer
is here. Al fresco
dinning available at
Terre à Terre, the local
go-to for the most
creative vegetarian
food in Brighton and
always delivered with
a cheeky little pun!
Open 7 days a week
offering Brunch,
Lunch and Dinner
options from small
pates, sharing tapas to
3 course set meals and
not forgetting their magnificent afternoon
tea menu, multi - tiered savoury, sweet and
traditional delights available from 3 till 5pm
daily and lots of chocolate goodies!
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, bohogelato.co.uk
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.
Saint Andrew’s Lane, Lewes, 01273 488600
209 High Street, Lewes, 01273 472769
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
Flint Owl Bakery, Lewes
Our breads contain organic stoneground flours,
spring water, sea salt and that’s it. No improvers of
any kind. Long fermentations bring characteristic
flavours and a natural shelf life.
We wholesale our craft breads and viennoiserie in
Brighton & Hove and deliver 6 days a week. For
more info contact: info@flintowlbakery.com
Come and visit us at our shop/cafe on Lewes High
St where you can buy our full range of breads,
croissants, cakes, salads and enjoy square mile coffee
in our courtyard garden.
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

food review
...........................................
Kooks
Music-themed bistro
It’s decided that Kooks –
the new restaurant/bistro
on Gardner Street – is to
be this month’s main food
review some days before
I actually make it to eat
there, which means that a
certain David Bowie song
is a persistent earworm
for everybody in the office
for days. Try singing it: you’ll see.
The musical name is chosen for a reason. The
place is run by international DJ Tim Healey’s
partner Rebecca, and Tim has selected
soundtracks from his vast musical collection to be
played according to what time of what day it is:
when we come in, at 7.30 on a Tuesday night, it’s
Rocket Man o’clock.
There’s a musical theme throughout. One of the
back walls is decorated with framed LP covers
– The Manics, Flamin’ Groovies, Suede, Sgt.
Pepper; there’s a nightclub-themed mural running
round the main space; the menus are clipped onto
mutilated album covers. I get the Boomtown Rats’
Tonic for the Troops, coincidentally the first 33” I
ever bought.
And the food? We decide to go for ‘nibbles’, and
starters and a main course. For the former we
choose ‘twigs of haddock in batter, dill mayo and
sweet chilli dip’ and ‘twice-cooked pork cubes
with fennel, cumin and lemon wedges’. Both of
these are excellent: the fish is fresh; the pork is
just the right blend of chewy and crunchy. Both
portions are much bigger than we imagined
they’d be. There’s a midweek free cocktail offer,
so mine is helped down by an espresso Martini.
Music comes from The
Magic Numbers, who sing
Morning’s 11.
The starters arrive with
the wine we’ve chosen,
a Biferno Rosso Riserva
(‘good with grilled meats’):
I’ve gone for a ‘Parma ham
purse with melon, mozzarella,
mango purée, and
mint leaves’, which is a refreshing sweet-tasting
antidote to all that fried pork, and looks lovely on
the plate. By now Alison Mosshart is killing Iggy
Pop’s The Passenger.
I’m wondering if I’ve got room for the main, but
when it arrives – immaculately laid out on a chopping
board – I realise I have. I’ve ordered a sirloin
steak (medium rare) which has come with a Jenga
of fat chips, and a couple of (intentionally) charred
baby leeks. The chips are too chunky for my
liking – I’m more of a fries man – but the steak
is good, particularly in its juicy middle section.
They’ve hit the medium rare nail on the head. I
need help from Shazam to identify the music by
now, which has moved more upbeat. Turns out to
be Microcuts, by FC Kahuna.
What’s more to say? The place, it being Tuesday
night, is fairly empty, but I bet it’ll be packed at
weekends. Rebecca and the waitress and the chef
are extremely friendly. The bill comes to £73. The
concept is very Brighton. As is the name, I guess,
as I can imagine younger customers will think it’s
referencing the mop-topped local pop band rather
than the über-cool 70’s-glam song. Oh, and… if
you go, you won’t be sorry. Oops. Alex Leith
kooksrestaurant.com, 01273 673045
....79....

....80....

ecipe
..........................................
Divinely Decadent
An afternoon tea cocktail made by Metrodeco’s Helen Taggart,
with a floral, fruity blend of hibiscus, rosehips, cassis and lime
I’ve always liked antique shops. I love old furniture,
especially from the art deco era, which was what
drew me to Metrodeco. Maggie had been running
it as an antique furniture shop for about a year, and
I was working as her personal trainer. As we already
had such a good working relationship and I’ve
always been a believer in trying something new, we
decided that I’d join her.
We decided to create a place where people could
sit down, have a cup of tea and buy some antiques
at the same time. For a long time we split the space
between the antiques and the tea room, but most of
the furniture that people were sitting on was also
for sale, which became a bit difficult logistically.
Bookings for afternoon tea became more and more
popular, especially with lots of hen parties looking
for the vintage experience of Brighton - rather
than the West Street experience - and we started to
realise that we couldn’t manage both sides of the
business in the space. We gradually expanded the
tea shop and stopped selling furniture altogether.
I only knew a little about tea, but my interest in
creating new blends came from a love rather than
a knowledge of it. We usually start with a lot of experimenting
with different flavours to come up with
our recipes, and work with a master tea blender to
perfect the blends. One of my favourite tea infusions
on our menu, Liberty Spirit, I gave as wedding
favours when I got married. It’s a cleansing tea with
milk thistle, so the idea was that my guests could
drink it to recover the morning after the wedding…
but it has a beautiful, refreshing liquorice flavour.
Our cocktails came about as our afternoon tea
menu evolved. Now that there are more places
serving afternoon tea we have to keep thinking
about what the next new thing will be. I’d been to
a few places in London which served tea cocktails
and decided to try out some recipes using our own
tea blends. We love serving our cocktails in teapots,
especially when people are sitting in a group,
because they can share them and it becomes part of
the afternoon tea experience.
This recipe came from memories of drinking vodka
and cranberry juice in my early twenties and also
from cassis being a favourite in my first shared
house. We loved a Kir Royale - which is definitely
an inspiration for a bubbly version of this cocktail.
We develop all the recipes from a lot of tasting
sessions amongst the staff, but it is choosing the
right tea for the right spirit that is the first step in
this process. This cocktail is made using one of our
most popular infusions, Deliciously Decadent. It’s a
blend of fruits, berries and flowers, including apple,
mallow flowers, hibiscus and rosehips.
We start by infusing the tea in vodka for three to
five days, and then sieving the mixture to remove
the loose leaves. To the vodka infusion we add
a little cassis liqueur, some red grape juice and
a squeeze of fresh lime. What I like about this
cocktail is that it’s very easy to drink and although it
is sweet, it’s not sickly. The rosehip and limes give a
hint of tartness which balance the cocktail perfectly.
It’s a great early evening drink but it goes well with
afternoon tea as well, so any time after midday
wouldn’t go amiss.
As told to Rebecca Cunningham. Photo by Lisa Devlin,
whose food-photography website is cakefordinner.co.uk.
metro-deco.com
....81....

food review
...........................................
Rockola
Phew, guac & roll
The first thing you notice as you walk into Rockola, on
Tidy Street, is the 50s-style jukebox it was named after,
on this occasion playing The Shadows. There’s a drawing
of Cliff on one of the walls, which are otherwise
covered with photos, portraits and album covers of rock
‘n’ roll stars and other mid-century icons: Elvis Presley,
The Four Tops, Elvis again, Jim Morrison, The Beatles,
a young Liz Taylor, Elvis… you get the picture.
The seats are upholstered in sparkly red and blue,
the central of eight or so tables is flanked by two
same-colour banquettes. I’m on my own, so I choose
a more modest affair by the window. I’ve been looking
forward to an Elvis Burger (a sky-scraper of a thing
I’ve seen advertised on a previous visit there) but am
told that these only get served at the weekend. It’s
Monday lunchtime.
I go for the next best thing, a ‘Guac & Roll Burger’
(with chilli, cheese and guacamole), musing that
sometimes, while on a review assignment, I order food
because it will look good on the page, rather than
because it’s my favoured choice. A colleague arrives to
take a picture of it, luckily before it’s served, so I don’t
have to sit in front of it, slavering, waiting for her.
Then it arrives, with fries, and little pots of relish and
guacamole. “That is a tasty burger,” I think, but don’t
say, as Samuel L Jackson impersonations are corny.
And it is: the beef is succulent; the pungent cheese
vies for attention with the faint chomp of chilli. It’s
properly sloppy. Nutbush City Limits comes onto the
jukebox. I’m a happy man. Alex Leith
LocaL vegetabLes, fruit,
meat, dairy & more
for more info:
07966 972 530
www.finandfarm.co.uk
deLiveries twice a week
to brighton & hove
4th
box
free *
*New customers only – please ask for full terms.
....83....

coffee
...........................................
Barista Training
One Church, ten students, great coffee
According to a recent survey from the University of
Stirling, Brighton residents drink more coffee than
anyone else in the country. Which has led to a proliferation
of independent specialty coffee shops in the
city: 20 in Trafalgar Street alone, at the last count.
The trouble is there aren’t enough trained baristas
around to work in them. Making a good cup of
coffee from a Gaggia-style machine is no easy task:
it requires a complex set of skills as sensitive adjustments
frequently need to be made, depending
on numerous variants concerning the provenance,
quality and age of the coffee. All this at top speed
in front of an often impatient queue.
“Some of these cafés have invested in the right
equipment,” says Ben Szobody, “but they’re serving
a bad cup of coffee as they don’t know how to use
it properly. So cafés are either poaching baristas
who have been trained up properly, or using staff
who don’t really know what they’re doing.”
Ben is project manager of One Church’s charity
wing. One Church is actually two combined
churches, one in Gloucester Place, the other in
Florence Road, Fiveways. The group have moved
all their religious ceremonies to the latter, freeing
up the North Laine space for community-friendly
activities, from food banks to winter homeless
sheltering. And barista training.
Ben realised that Brighton was “full of youngsters,
many from deprived areas, with nothing to put on
their CVs, so no way to get started. How depressing
is that?” He put two and two together, and
successfully applied to get grant funding (including
£15,000 from the European Social Fund) to
set up a barista apprenticeship course for 16-24
year-olds, with three hours’ practical training at
the church on a Monday (followed by English and
Maths classes delivered by academic partner PACA
in Portslade) then four days a week working on
placement for a café.
We’re talking in the church, at the Monday morning
class, where ten students are being trained up
by the enthusiastic Laura, who performs that role
the rest of the week at Small Batch. Experienced
barista ‘mentors’ Kat and Philippe are looking on,
too, as the students try out different combinations
of dosage and yield (how much coffee to use, and
how much water to put through it) on three different
state-of-the-art double-cup machines (supplied
through an ‘amazingly affordable deal’ by UCC
Coffee). There’s a concentrated buzz of happy
learning about proceedings, and the church starts
smelling better and better.
I chat to Laura and Philippe and Kat and a couple
of the students, one of whom brings me a cup of
espresso. It tastes great, though Ben, a much more
seasoned judge, has a sip and pronounces that it’s
got a bit of a dry finish. A work in progress, then,
but the course is far from over. I get the feeling
we’re in a win-win-win here: most students will
come out the other end, heads held high, job
secure, capable of making blindingly good brews
for the city’s growing population of coffee drinkers.
Alex Leith
New courses start Sept. ben@onechurchbrighton.org
....85....

food AND DRINK news
...........................................
Edible Updates
Ten years after opening in Soho, and having developed
a cult following in London, The Breakfast
Club (yes, named after the film) is on June 1st
opening its first site outside the capital. We are
happy that they chose Brighton. Situated where
Fat Leo’s used to be in the Lanes, the BC will be
serving up a mean brunch, including classics like
pancakes and eggs benedict, done every which
way and covering all spectrums of the hangover,
with the option of either toasted muffin or healthy
roasted butternut squash stack. The huevos
rancheros (fried eggs, tortilla with melted cheese
refried beans, chorizo and guacamole) is likely to
become a central part of many locals’ weekends.
And it isn’t just breakfast: from midday at weekends
and 5pm weekdays there will be super-healthy
salads, burgers and tacos, though they will still
serve breakfast options in the evening, because, as
they put it, it’s always breakfast time somewhere
in the world. There’s a very respectable drinks and
cocktail menu too.
Another London export arrives in the form of Patterns
(above), which has renovated its location on
Marine Parade with a Bauhaus-inspired refurb, and
aims to become the city’s hottest new music venue.
The drinks menu will include local craft beers,
international draught favourites and an extensive
range of spirits (so far, so Brighton), but there will
also be a carefully curated, seasonally changing
cocktail menu, including a homemade fruitand-spice
based concoction, and a fiery Mexican
‘beertail’ called Micheladas, served in giant steins.
Brilliantly, they are teaming up with Street Diner
for the food. Antonia Phillips @pigeonpr
custom made - make it yours
quality country furniture
theold-forge.co.uk
the old forge
ringmer, bn8 5nb
01273 814317
....86....

we try...
................................
Brew School
Get to know your wort from your sparge
We’re greeted by Jack of Bison
Beer, East Street’s craft beer
bottle shop, and Josh from
Home Brew Depot; here to
teach us the dark arts of the
brew master, and increase our
brewing lexicon. This pair have
beer for blood. As a thirdgeneration
home brewer, Josh
can crack the recipe of almost
any brew and assisted the Bison
boys with the recipe of their
own Seeside IPA. It’s one of
the beers on the tasting menu
– delivered at healthy intervals
in 1.9 litre ‘growlers’ - and it’s
delicious.
The clock is running and
we’re soon rolling up our
sleeves. We’re making two
brews – one pale ale, one
porter – and there’s much
to know. Apparently the key is same ingredients,
same quantities, same timings, every time. Best pay
attention then. First we pour 11 litres of liquor
(70ºC water) into the mash tun (adapted picnic
cooler). So far, so simple. We slowly add the malt
(malted barley) creating a porridge that must be
around 66º if it’s to turn into to beer. Check. This
must then sit for exactly an hour. Set watch. An
opportunity for beer chat over a beer. A growler of
Burning Sky’s heavenly Saison Le Printemps arrives
and I’m converted. We’re soon on to the sparge.
Adding 17 litres of liquor to the mash tun in five litre
increments, drawing it off and recycling it through
in carefully calibrated batches before transferring it
to the boil kettle (giant saucepan). Lost? I was too,
the ability to count being inversely
correlated to the consumption of
beer. What’s in the boil kettle is now
called wort and is ready for hops
and heat. Hops, I come to understand,
are added for both aroma and
bitterness and taste terrible in their
natural state. The boil kettle goes on
for exactly an hour.
Lunch is provided by the Fishbowl
– upmarket burgers and
fish and chips – washed down by
(guess what?) more beer. This
time Northern Lights Pale Ale
from King Beer, up the road in
Horsham. Of course, conversation
returns to beer and our growing
love of it (and each other) and
suddenly it’s flame out (turning
off the heat at the end of an hour’s
rolling boil). We finish the beer
with aromatic hops before chilling.
The next bit can’t be rushed and it’s left to the
kind folks at Bison Beer to watch over our beers
as the fermentation takes place. This bit, dear
reader, would be up to you, so you’d better take
notes. Better notes than mine, which seem to have
been written by a drunken spider. You’ll end up
with five litres of your very own hand crafted beer,
a bubbler and a packet of yeast and, possibly, a
hangover. Our Press Pack Pale Ale and Gentleman
Caller Porter are not available at Bison Beer but
plenty of better beers are. Lizzie Lower
Saturdays above The Fishbowl, East Street. 12-
5.30pm. £89.99pp including all beers, lunch and
recipes. Book in store at Bison Beer or online at
homebrewdepot.co.uk
....87....

a pint with...
................................
Roger Kay
Just let’s start up a theatre
Roger Kay has a soft voice. He gesticulates but
doesn’t get animated. He chooses his words
carefully, diplomatically. He says he’s artistically
minded and a businessman and it’s not a contradiction.
His outfit is a mix of both: a smart shirt
and jacket with blue jeans. Sitting in Bacall’s Bar,
at the Rialto, he drinks a pint of the house ale and
explains why a letting agent, at a time when the
market’s particularly strong, would take on a risky,
ambitious side project: turning an old nightclub
into a theatre.
***
The story kind of starts with Lauren Varnfield
deciding she was “tired of going to auditions for
Tic Tac adverts,” as she told Viva earlier this year.
She’d had success as an actor in London, including
a couple of TV roles, but then “things kind
of dried up a bit. I thought, ‘I fancy a change of
scenery.’” So she moved down here in 2011. She
took a job as a letting agent, at Just Lets in Hove.
“I didn’t act for ages, and kind of lost interest for
a while, and thought: ‘What am I doing?’” Then
she happened to see an audition notice for A
Streetcar Named Desire, one of her favourite plays,
which was being staged for the 2012 Brighton
Fringe. Though she auditioned for a lesser role,
she was cast as the female lead, Blanche.
***
Roger Kay was born in 1963, in Brighton.
Though he’s loved theatre for “all of my adult
life,” and maybe longer, he didn’t pursue a career
in it. He worked for Brighton council, did a
business degree, and lived in Italy. He travelled
extensively, and learned Italian fluently, French,
German and Spanish passably, and “only a smattering”
of Czech. He learned determination and
self-reliance and what to do if someone pulls a
gun on you.
He worked for a bank and a tyre company, then
spent his late 20s and his 30s doing something
IT-related for an insurance company. He did an
acting course, and had a minor role in an Oscar
Wilde play at a festival, but “quickly realised I
wasn’t good enough to take acting really seriously”.
When he was about 40, “wanting to be more a
master of my own destiny,” he started working for
a small company in Hove: Just Lets.
When Lauren Varnfield applied for a job there,
Kay interviewed her, and read her CV. So he knew
she’d been an actor. But when he later bought
tickets for Streetcar, he had no idea she was in it.
Even when he found out, he didn’t know what to
expect, except that he’d see his colleague and have
a drink and maybe it would be good but maybe
it wouldn’t. “What I didn’t expect was for it to be
incredible. It really was incredible.”
So, later that month, over a drink at Hove Place,
Kay asked Varnfield why she hadn’t started her
own production company. She laughed. But by
the following April, they had set up Pretty Villain
Productions with a couple of people from Streetcar,
and were staging a Lorca play.
For the Fringe in 2014, they put on The Crucible
at a church in Preston Park. To make the play
possible, they had to do some work on the building’s
infrastructure, and provide their own lighting,
which was expensive.
“It was a little bit out of town, there wasn’t a
particularly nice bar, there wasn’t anywhere to sit
down, it was cold, the acoustics were difficult, and
....88....

a pint with...
..............................
yet we still had strong sales, and the critical acclaim
was extremely good.
“After that I thought, ‘the only thing holding us
back as a production company is the lack of a permanent
venue’. We’d been looking tentatively for a
venue, then we just looked harder.”
Eleven Dyke Road became available. It had been
a nightclub; actually, several different nightclubs,
over the years, some of which Kay had visited as a
customer. They took it.
Though “we were a talented group of people, for
sure”, they didn’t have quite enough experience, or
a big enough contacts book, to run a venue on their
own. So they brought in Mark Brailsford, whose
Treason Show had been looking for a permanent
home for years.
Opening night was a Thursday, December 4th,
2014. Kay was “apprehensive”, not nervous. He remembers
watching people as they walked down the
dull corridor, saw the charming art-deco-inspired
bar, and smiled. It is a nice place for a drink.
***
As our pints gradually disappear, Kay tells me about
his plans for the place: staging new work, getting
people to come to the bar even if they aren’t seeing
a show, and balancing artistically important shows
with things that pay the bills, for example. He says
the venue “absolutely isn’t a plaything for Pretty
Villain”, but aims to be a general “receiving house
for lots of other talent”, including comedians and
musicians as well as theatre companies.
He’s working 8.30am to 6pm at Just Lets and
trying to fit Rialto stuff around it and not being
worn down by it, apparently, because both jobs are
interesting. He says the Rialto is “a big risk,” both
in terms of money and reputation, but he’s a “measured
risk taker” and a determined person.
“I think you only go round once. I didn’t want to
die wondering. I wanted to know if we could run a
venue, a theatre space. We’ve really tried our best
to find out.”
Interview by Steve Ramsey
11 Dyke Road; rialtotheatre.co.uk, 01273 725230
....89....

Get out of town
................................
Brighton Breezy
We bus up to Ditchling Beacon... and walk to Lewes
We Brightonians are
pretty lucky. We have
the sea to dip our toes
in. Endless opportunities
to see art, hear
music, watch theatre.
Restaurants galore
to feed our every appetite
and a shop for
every whim. It’s hardly
surprising then that
there’s a price to be
paid in personal space.
Happily, when the squeeze gets too much, we can
easily beat a retreat and head for the hills.
Striking out in any direction but south will soon
land you in a patch of green. But, as a fair-weather
walker (keen on sweeping vistas, fresh air and
picnic food; happy to avoid hills and wet weather
wherever possible) I’m always keen to pick a route
that demands minimum exertion for maximum
scenic return. The number 79 bus, bound for
Ditching Beacon, is perfect then, dropping us seasiders
within a few steps of the South Downs Way,
having shouldered the seven-mile climb from the
coast. I’ve rallied a Viva crew in need of an airing
to join me for the gentle six miles to Lewes along
well-trodden paths, and we make an unlikely posse
as we muster under uncertain skies. Our eldest
member is 68 (the best prepared with kagoul and
sausage rolls), our youngest is nine, if you don’t
count the two dogs. Among our number are 1
Chinese national, 2 Americans, 5 Brits, 1 Labrador
and 1 Parson Russell.
At 248 metres above sea level, Ditchling Beacon is
the highest point in East Sussex and, on a clear day,
promises unrivalled 360º
views. The law of sod
dictates that we step off
the bus into a raincloud.
We’re woefully illprepared
for the weather
(except for the kagoulpacking
elder), dressed
as we (always) are for
a pint in a pub garden.
In a display of stoicism
bordering on naivety, we
push on regardless.
We fall into a determined head-down march and
soon outrun the worst of the weather, now able to
enjoy those promised panoramas. To the north the
ridge drops away to the bucolic expanses of The
Weald. To the south, the receding, slow slide of the
city to the Channel. Ahead lies Kingston Ridge and
Lewes, with the familiar cradle of Mount Caburn
and Firle Beacon beyond. The views go on and on
and on. We walk in shifting twos and threes, sometimes
side by side, falling in and out of easy conversation,
stuffing sausage rolls, feeling the growing
anticipation of arrival. In under three hours we’re
in Lewes, recalibrated and ruddy cheeked, muddy
trousered and deserving of refreshment. There’s
much to recommend a day in the Downs. Not least
to get your bearings, both geographical and otherwise
and, best of all, to breathe deep and spread
out. Lizzie Lower
Breeze Up to the Downs services 77, 78, and 79, to
Devil’s Dyke, Stanmer Park and Ditchling Beacon.
For links to the timetable go to brighton-hove.gov.uk
Adults from £2.90 single. National Bus Pass Holders
travel free.
....90....

the bluffer’s guide to...
......................................
Sussex Sharks T20
‘Blink and you miss it’ cricket
Doesn’t cricket drag on
for five days? Twenty20
(or T20) is the blink-andyou-miss-it
version of the
sport: each team bats for a
maximum of twenty overs,
which means the whole
game lasts around three
hours. Plenty of sixes,
plenty of wickets, plenty
of excitement.
So I won’t get bored?
It’s practically impossible, as the runs pile up, the
stumps fly, and advantage swings one way then the
other. Matches generally take place on a Friday
night, and there’s a party atmosphere, with entertainment,
including bands, dancers, face painting
before the game starts and beer flowing throughout.
There’s plenty for the kids to do, too: they can even
get a bit of cricket training from Sussex coaches in
the ‘Shark Pit’.
If it goes on at night, how can I see what’s
happening? The ground is floodlit, and the ball is
white. Plus there are giant screens to help you.
Any rules I might not understand? It’s just like
one-day cricket, only shorter. And you’ll soon get
used to the Power Play…
Does the season go on all summer? Pretty
much. The first games were in mid-May and the
semis and final are played at Edgbaston on the
29th of August.
Any stars on show? This summer the Sharks have
signed up two world-class cricketers: the legendary
Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene (above)
for the first half of the season, and, to replace him,
the Aussie batsman George Bailey, who once hit
James Anderson for 28 in a Test over. That’s a
world record. Oh, and let’s
not forget big-scoring Sussex
skipper Luke Wright.
Anyone else worth mentioning?
The real star of
the show is Sid the Shark,
the club mascot. Don’t
leave the ground without
getting a selfie with him.
Gully from the Albion will
be along to keep him company:
BHA season-ticket
holders get discounted entry.
Are the Sharks any good? They won the trophy
in 2009; last year they scored a world-record runchase
total of 226 against Essex Eagles, with Luke
Wright scoring 166 in 66 balls.
What if I get hungry? Don’t expect your usual
gristle-in-a-bun burgers: there’s something for
everyone, including paella and noodles. And if
you’re a real-ale cognoscente, don’t worry. There’s
Harvey’s Best on tap, as well as a range of other
tipples. If all that makes you want to jump up and
down and sing, go to the Cromwell Road end.
That’s where the mosh pit is.
What’s the damage, then? Tickets cost £20 in
advance, and £25 on the night, for adults. Details
are all at Sussex CCC’s website sussexcricket.co.uk.
I’m going. Do I have to wear a Panama hat?
Only if you want to. And some people do. Otherwise
dress code is completely optional. As is the
singing, clearly, though we advise learning the
words to Sussex by the Sea. Gary Pleece
Sussex Sharks play Essex Eagles at the County
Ground, 7.30 June 12th; they also play T20 against
Surrey at Arundel Castle at 2.30pm, June 14th.
Check website for full fixture list.
....91....

the lowdown on...
......................................
Vintage Bikes
Kevin Stone, Vintage Velo owner
Racing bikes
changed about 1987
when they moved
the gear shifters
from the down tube
to the handlebars,
and moved the brake
cable under the handlebar
tape. Anything
made before this date
is classed as ‘vintage’
and they are very
much in demand.
One reason is the ‘Eroica’ rides, which are all
the rage all over Europe, in which people ride
a pre-1987 bike round a course with hundreds of
other retro-bike enthusiasts. This year’s Eroica
Britannia is in the Peak District, June 19th-21st.
Another reason is that a lot of people in their
40s and 50s have started wanting to ride the
bike they had as a kid again, and need to find a
similar one. Because these bikes were built to last
they know they will be able to hand them down to
one of their children, eventually.
If you are a highly competitive racer, you’ll get
the best results on a modern carbon-frame
bike, mainly because it’s lighter. But I’ll tell you
one thing: there won’t be any of them around in
thirty or forty years’ time, because they’re not
made like vintage bikes were.
A good quality vintage bike gives you a nice,
smooth ride, too, because the steel frame soaks up
the bumps, where carbon frames are more brittle,
and you can feel every ripple.
Another reason older bikes are popular is
because they’re stylish and they’re nice things
to look at. Every little component on a higher-end
bike, like a Bianchi or
a Colnago, is beautifully
crafted, having
the brand names engraved
on the frame
and forks makes the
bikes highly desirable.
Bianchi is the most
desirable make, in
my opinion: they
were the top bike in
the mid-seventies.
The ‘Specialissima
Professionale’ (pictured) was in celeste, a greeny
light blue, and nobody ever made anything quite
like it again. I deal in vintage bikes, and I travelled
down to Bordeaux earlier in the year, just to pick
one up, because they’re so rare.
A high-end vintage bike like that will set you
back £3,000 or so, but we sell perfectly good
vintage bikes for as little as £200. There were
hundreds of different manufacturers in the 70s,
particularly in Italy and France, so chances are you’ll
end up being the only rider in town with that model.
People also like to wear vintage accessories,
like the shirts made of a cross between wool and
acrylic, with the team sponsor’s name written on
the front, and the racing caps. I’d advise not to
sacrifice safety for style, though: wear a helmet
over that cap. From personal experience, I can tell
you it’s worth it.
Cycling is good for the soul, as well as the
body. Take my girlfriend’s dad, who’s an inspiration
to me. He’s 78 years old and he rides over 100
miles a week – on the racing bike he’s had since he
was 15 years old. As told to Alex Leith
Vintage Velo, vintagevelo.co.uk/01273 252959
....93....

the lowdown on...
....................................
....94....

the lowdown on...
....................................
Table football
No spinning allowed
Table football was invented and patented by
the Englishman Harold Seares Thornton, in
1922, after he’d been to a Tottenham game and
wanted to replicate the experience at home.
He started off using a matchbox and matchsticks,
and developed it from there. Like with
real football the game took off in the rest of the
world and now the Brits are trailing well behind
their counterparts in countries such as the USA,
France and Italy.
The game, however, is enjoying something
of a renaissance in this country, after
hipster-types started playing it ten years or so
ago in Bar Kick in Shoreditch and Café Kick in
Clerkenwell.
The trend was pushed along by the fact that
those bars chose cool retro-style Bonzini
tables, made in France in a similar style to the
classic B60, designed in 1959. Bonzini are based
in Paris, and were formed in 1923. Their UK
operation is run from Brighton.
The game is usually played by one or two
players per side, operating the four bars. The
formation, of course, is fixed, with a goalkeeper,
two defenders, five midfielders, and three
forwards. The object, like in real football, is to
score more goals than your opponent.
As you get better at the game, you can learn
various trick shots, such as the tic-tac, the
push shot and the pull shot.
The game is more about skill than power, so
women can and do compete at the same level
as men.
Table football (called Foosball in Germany,
and Baby-foot in France) is not an official
sport, but it does have a governing body, the
ITSF, the International Table Soccer Federation,
who organise a World Cup, a World
Championship Series, and international player
rankings, as well as national competitions. In
the latest World Cup, in Turin this April, Luxembourg
beat the USA in the final. The ITSF
uses Bonzini, Roberto Sport, Garlando and
Leonhart tables.
At Babyfoot in Brighton we supply bars
as well as companies and individuals with
Bonzini tables. Pubs in Brighton with tables
include the Fortune of War, the King and
Queen, the Fishbowl and the Gladstone. We
supply a table to the Albion at the Amex, in
which we repaint the players’ shirts every year
to match the current style. Customers have included
One Direction – who wanted a supersize
3.5-metre table – and Jackie Stewart, who had
his lime-oak clad, to match the other furnishings
in the room.
Standard Bonzini tables start at £1,895, so
it’s not the sort of thing you’d have in your
average open-plan kitchen, Joey and Chandlerstyle.
They are popular as 40th or 50th birthday
presents. 5,000 or so are made each year; we sell
around 125 in the UK.
The most popular two team kits chosen in
the UK are England and Brazil - we’re ever
hopeful, aren’t we! We can supply kit colours,
hair colour and even skin tone to order, but we
can’t put players’ names or club emblems on
the players’ shirts, as that would be infringing
copyright.
Spinning is not allowed, unless in exceptional
circumstances. Larry Barnett spoke to Alex Leith
Babyfoot Ltd, 01273 811 099
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icks and mortar
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Circus Street Development
An artistic quarter for the city, arriving 2017
‘This is Brighton, not London-on-Sea.’
Property developers Cathedral sent out a clear
message to architects hoping to win the contract
to design the new Circus Street development, in
the space that the Old Municipal Market used to
occupy, just off Grand Parade.
“We told them that any design they came up with
would have to show an understanding of the city.
We didn’t just want something that might be in
London plonked into the space.”
I’m talking to Cathedral’s Development Manager,
Karen McCormick, over a coffee in the Brighton
University café, after a tour of the site. “Most of
the designers came in with the usual little models.
Liverpool architects shedkm went the extra mile.
They brought their whole company down to the
city. They went to the Wood Store, which is on
the site of the development, and bought a half
a tree trunk, and carved into the flat side of it a
3D map of a cross section of the city running
from the pier up to their representation of the
development. It took four men to carry it up to
our office.”
Shedkm, unsurprisingly, won the contract.
And it’s quite a contract. There will be 142 new
residential units, of course, as well as student
accommodation, office space and workshops, and
a public square with shops and restaurants. There
will also be a new library, for Brighton University,
and a three-storey ‘Dance Space’ studio which
should make Brighton a go-to destination for
dancers to study and practice, and for dance performances
to be held in front of audiences of up
to 150 people. “The ground-floor studio will have
a wall-to-ceiling glass front, which will open up
....96....

icks and mortar
..........................................
so that performances can take place in the square,”
says Karen. It is estimated that the dance building
alone will attract up to 70,000 visitors a year.
Cathedral, who specialise in urban regeneration
projects, have been working on this plan for
eight years now, and are leading a public-private
partnership which includes site owners Brighton
& Hove City Council, the University of Brighton,
and South East Dance. Demolition of the existing
site will start in July, and construction is scheduled
to begin in November. Brighton’s spanking new
quarter is planned to be completed by September
2017, in time for the new university term.
It looks like the City Council chose well in selecting
the London property developers for the job. They
have gone more than the extra yard with public
consultation, opened out the space for community
activities (including Brighton Festival events) and
collected many more letters of support than of objection
to the scheme. A recent regeneration project
in London, the Library Building in Clapham, won
them 12 prestigious awards.
I’m convinced by Hove-resident Karen’s enthusiastic
manner that Cathedral’s attempts to embrace
and include the community in the project is out
of a genuine desire to do a blindingly good job for
the city, rather than being a sophisticated charm
offensive.
“If it all goes to plan, it looks like it’s going to be
amazing,” I tell her.
“What do you mean ‘if’? she replies.
Alex Leith
....97....

inside left: london to brighton old crocks, 1948
.......................................................................................
This picture was not taken in Brighton, as is usual in this slot, but in Hyde Park, in November
1948. We’re not sure whether or not the car in the centre-ground of the photo made it, but
we know that its destination was Brighton, as it was just setting off on the 15th edition of the
London-Brighton Veteran Car Run, the second to take place after a six-year hiatus caused by
WW2 (1947’s event was cancelled due to petrol rationing). The rally was first held in 1896,
and named ‘The Emancipation Run’. It was held in order to celebrate the Locomotives on
Highways Act of that year, which increased the speed limit to 14mph. Before the limit had been
2mph in town and 4mph in the country, and an escort had been required to walk 20 yards in
front of the vehicle, waving a red flag. The event was revived in 1927, nicknamed ‘the old crocks
race’, and has been organised, those war years aside, every year since, making it the longest running
motoring event in the world. Dig around a bit and you can find a Pathé newsreel item on
the 48 edition, in which a record 110 cars finished, out of the 120 which started. For the record,
seven broke down, two were caught exceeding the speed limit of 20mph, and one was adjudged
to be under age: cars had to have been constructed in or before 1905 to be eligible. In 1953
the film Genevieve, starring among others Kenneth More, came out, celebrating the event and
showcasing a very sedate-looking Brighton in the middle section of the film: Genevieve was the
second-biggest box-office hit of the year, and won the Best Film BAFTA. We found this photograph
on the wonderful blog alondoninheritance.com, which juxtaposes a father’s photos of
London with his son’s modern-day pictures of the same places and events. The car is captioned
as a 1904 4-cylinder, 24-horse-power Delaugere et Clayette. Our go-to veteran-car man Mike
Ward-Sale suggests it’s a 1903 Renault.
....98....

*Based on an adult ticket at £465 on our 12 month free direct debit scheme.
**On public transport within our extended travel zone.