Issue 101 / July 2019
July 2019 issue of Bido Lito! magazine. Featuring: BILL NICKSON, SPINN, MICHAEL ALDAG, KITTY'S LAUNDERETTE, NEIL KEATING, RAHEEM ALAMEEN, KRS-ONE and much more.
July 2019 issue of Bido Lito! magazine. Featuring: BILL NICKSON, SPINN, MICHAEL ALDAG, KITTY'S LAUNDERETTE, NEIL KEATING, RAHEEM ALAMEEN, KRS-ONE and much more.
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
ISSUE <strong>101</strong> / JULY <strong>2019</strong><br />
NEW MUSIC + CREATIVE CULTURE<br />
LIVERPOOL<br />
BILL NICKSON / KITTY’S LAUNDERETTE<br />
SPINN / ROLLING BLACKOUTS C.F.
facebook.com/o2academyliverpool<br />
twitter.com/o2academylpool<br />
instagram.com/o2academyliverpool<br />
youtube.com/o2academytv<br />
WED 10TH JUL 7PM SOLD OUT<br />
JOHN NEWMAN<br />
SAT 26TH OCT 7PM<br />
THE ESKIES<br />
Fri 2nd Aug<br />
The Fillers<br />
(The Killers Official Tribute)<br />
Sat 14th Sep<br />
Ocean Colour<br />
Scheme<br />
(Ocean Colour Scene Tribute)<br />
Sun 22nd Sep<br />
Rodrigo y<br />
Gabriela<br />
Fri 27th Sep<br />
Skrapz<br />
Sat 28th Sep<br />
Guns 2 Roses<br />
+ Dizzy Lizzy<br />
Sat 28th Sep • SOLD OUT<br />
Red Rum Club<br />
+ The Mysterines<br />
Mon 30th Sep<br />
Gary Numan<br />
+ Kanga<br />
Sat 5th Oct<br />
Definitely<br />
Mightbe<br />
(Oasis tribute)<br />
Tue 8th Oct<br />
Mountford Hall,<br />
Liverpool Guild of Students<br />
Richard Hawley<br />
Fri 11th Oct<br />
Fleetwood Bac<br />
Sat 12th Oct<br />
The Marley<br />
Revival<br />
+ UB40 Tribute Set<br />
Sun 13th Oct<br />
New Hope Club<br />
Sun 13th Oct<br />
Easy Life<br />
Fri 18th Oct<br />
Sea Girls<br />
Thur 24th Oct<br />
Jake Clemons<br />
+ Ben McKelvey<br />
Wed 30th Oct<br />
MoStack<br />
ticketmaster.co.uk<br />
Sat 2nd Nov<br />
Mountford Hall,<br />
Liverpool Guild of Students<br />
Rival Sons<br />
+ The Record Company<br />
Sat 2nd Nov • 9pm<br />
Jo Whiley’s<br />
90s Anthems<br />
Fri 8th Nov<br />
MONKS<br />
Fri 8th Nov<br />
Bear’s Den<br />
Sat 9th Nov<br />
She Drew<br />
The Gun<br />
Sat 9th Nov<br />
Mountford Hall,<br />
Liverpool Guild of Students<br />
Greta Van Fleet<br />
+ Yola<br />
Sat 9th Nov<br />
Antarctic<br />
Monkeys<br />
+ The Alleys + The Patriots<br />
Fri 15th Nov<br />
Boston Manor<br />
Sat 16th Nov<br />
The Macc Lads<br />
+ Dirt Box Disco<br />
Sat 16th Nov<br />
UK Foo Fighters<br />
(Tribute)<br />
Wed 20th Nov<br />
Fontaines D.C.<br />
Fri 22nd Nov<br />
Absolute Bowie<br />
- Legacy Tour<br />
Sat 23rd Nov<br />
Life<br />
At The Arcade<br />
Sat 23rd Nov<br />
Mountford Hall,<br />
Liverpool Guild of Students<br />
Sam Fender<br />
Sat 23rd Nov<br />
An Evening with<br />
The Steve Hillage<br />
Band<br />
+ Gong<br />
o2academyliverpool.co.uk<br />
11-13 Hotham Street, Liverpool L3 5UF<br />
Doors 7pm unless stated<br />
Sun 24th Nov<br />
Primal Scream<br />
Fri 29th Nov<br />
The Doors Alive<br />
Sat 30th Nov • 6pm<br />
The Wonder Stuff<br />
performing ‘The Eight<br />
Legged Groove Machine’ &<br />
‘HUP’ in full<br />
+ Jim Bob from Carter USM<br />
Sat 30th Nov<br />
Pearl Jam UK<br />
Thur 5th Dec<br />
Shed Seven<br />
+ The Twang<br />
Fri 6th Dec<br />
Mountford Hall,<br />
Liverpool Guild of Students<br />
Happy Mondays -<br />
Greatest Hits Tour<br />
Fri 6th Dec<br />
SPINN<br />
Sat 7th Dec<br />
Prince Tribute -<br />
Endorphinmachine<br />
Thur 12th Dec<br />
Mountford Hall,<br />
Liverpool Guild of Students<br />
Daniel Sloss: X<br />
Fri 13th Dec<br />
The Lancashire<br />
Hotpots<br />
Sat 14th Dec<br />
The Smyths<br />
… The Smiths 35<br />
Sat 14th Dec<br />
Ian Prowse<br />
& Amsterdam<br />
Wed 18th Dec<br />
The Darkness<br />
Thur 19th Dec<br />
Cast... All Change<br />
Album<br />
Fri 20th Dec<br />
Cast... Mother<br />
Nature Calls<br />
Album<br />
Sat 21st Dec<br />
Cast... Magic<br />
Hour Album<br />
Venue box office opening hours:<br />
Mon - Sat 10.30am - 5.30pm<br />
ticketmaster.co.uk • seetickets.com<br />
gigantic.com • ticketweb.co.uk<br />
WED 17TH JUL 7PM<br />
LAUREN ALAINA<br />
THUR 25TH JUL 7PM<br />
THE MURDER<br />
CAPITAL<br />
FRI 30TH AUG 7PM<br />
THE FAIM<br />
THUR 5TH SEP 7PM<br />
MORGAN EVANS<br />
SAT 7TH SEP 7PM<br />
EDWYN COLLINS<br />
WED 11TH SEP 7PM<br />
LOVE FAME<br />
TRAGEDY<br />
SAT 14TH SEP 7PM SOLD OUT<br />
THE SNUTS<br />
SAT 5TH OCT 7PM<br />
A BAND<br />
CALLED MALICE<br />
SUN 6TH OCT 7PM<br />
CREEP SHOW<br />
FRI 18TH OCT 7PM<br />
NINE BELOW ZERO<br />
SAT 19TH JUN 7PM<br />
SAINT AGNES<br />
FRI 25TH OCT 7PM<br />
LITTLE COMETS<br />
SUN 27TH NOV 7PM<br />
STRIKING<br />
MATCHES<br />
FRI 1ST NOV 7PM<br />
DAUGHTERS<br />
SAT 2ND NOV 7PM<br />
STONE<br />
FOUNDATION<br />
TUE 12TH NOV 7PM<br />
HUGH CORNWELL<br />
ELECTRIC<br />
WED 13TH NOV 7PM<br />
BLACK LIPS<br />
THUR 14TH NOV 7PM<br />
THE REGRETTES<br />
SAT 16TH NOV 7PM<br />
LONDON CALLING<br />
PLAY THE CLASH<br />
FRI 22ND NOV 7PM<br />
BLOOD RED SHOES<br />
+ GEN & THE DEGENERATES<br />
+ QUEEN KWONG<br />
WED 4TH DEC 7PM<br />
ALDOUS HARDING<br />
TUE 10TH DEC 7PM<br />
THE PAPER KITES<br />
TICKETS FOR ALL SHOWS ARE AVAILABLE FROM<br />
TICKETMASTER.CO.UK<br />
90<br />
SEEL STREET, LIVERPOOL, L1 4BH<br />
EVOL EVOL presents presents<br />
with guests to be announced<br />
with guests to be announced<br />
09.11.<strong>2019</strong><br />
O2 Academy 09.11.<strong>2019</strong> Liverpool<br />
O2 Academy Liverpool<br />
TICKETS £12 ADVANCE PLUS BOOKING FEES VIA SEETICKETS.COM & TICKETMASTER.CO.UK<br />
@CLUBEVOL @SheDrewTheGun<br />
TICKETS £12 ADVANCE PLUS BOOKING FEES VIA SEETICKETS.COM & TICKETMASTER.CO.UK<br />
@CLUBEVOL @SheDrewTheGun
20 <strong>July</strong><br />
O 2 Ritz<br />
Curated by<br />
MARY ANNE HOBBS<br />
Featuring<br />
Jlin<br />
Holly Herndon<br />
Aïsha Devi ft. MFO<br />
Klara Lewis<br />
Katie Gately<br />
Produced by Manchester International Festival.<br />
Photos (L-R): Jlin by Mahdumita Nandi; Holly Herndon by Bennet Perez;<br />
Klara Lewis by Hampus Högberg; Katie Gately by Jasmine Safaeian; Aïsha Devi by Emile Barret
FREE ENTRY<br />
SUN 21ST JULY
What’s On<br />
September –<br />
November<br />
Wednesday 4 September 7.30pm – Gods<br />
Thursday 5 September 7.30pm – Heroes<br />
Friday 6 September 7.30pm – Men<br />
Mythos: A Trilogy<br />
by Stephen Fry<br />
Wednesday 2 October 8pm<br />
With Great PowerPoint Comes Great<br />
ResponsibilityPoint<br />
Dave Gorman<br />
Plus support Nick Doody<br />
Tuesday 12 November 7.30pm<br />
Adam Ant<br />
Tuesday 19 November 7.30pm<br />
Calexico and Iron & Wine<br />
Plus Lisa O’Neill<br />
Thursday 17 October 8pm<br />
Music Room<br />
Mad Dog Mcrea<br />
Box Office<br />
0151 709 3789<br />
liverpoolphil.com<br />
LiverpoolPhilharmonic<br />
liverpoolphil<br />
liverpool_philharmonic<br />
Principal Funders<br />
Principal Partners<br />
Media Partner<br />
Thanks to the City<br />
of Liverpool for its<br />
financial support<br />
Image Mythos – Stephen Fry © David Cooper
23. - 24. AUGUST <strong>2019</strong> → BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND<br />
WEEKEND & DAY TICKETS → FUTUREYARD.ORG<br />
BIRKENHEAD TOWN HALL | BIRKENHEAD PRIORY | BLOOM BUILDING | GALLAGHER’S
SIDE A: FRIDAY<br />
SIDE B: SATURDAY<br />
BILL RYDER-JONES<br />
STELLA DONNELLY<br />
SZUN WAVES QUEEN ZEE<br />
ANNA CALVI<br />
NILÜFER YANYA<br />
AUDIOBOOKS PIXX<br />
DAY TICKETS<br />
ON SALE NOW!<br />
SQUID • CHARLES WATSON<br />
BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD<br />
SCALPING • JOHANNA SAMUELS<br />
THE INTERGALACTIC REPUBLIC OF KONGO<br />
WILLIE J HEALEY • BILL NICKSON<br />
DIALECT • MUNKEY JUNKEY<br />
STRAWBERRY GUY • SAMURAI KIP<br />
KYAMI • UNCLE JANE • ORGAN FREEMAN<br />
WILD FRUIT ART COLLECTIVE • SPILT<br />
WORKING MEN'S CLUB<br />
POTTERY • AMAROUN • DRY CLEANING<br />
EYESORE & THE JINX<br />
TRUDY AND THE ROMANCE<br />
BRAD STANK • SPQR<br />
BEIJA FLO • SEATBELTS • MEILIR<br />
ANI GLASS • HMS MORRIS<br />
LAURIE SHAW • ALEX TELEKO<br />
LO FIVE • BYE LOUIS<br />
FOXEN CYN • POLYPORES • STORES<br />
NIKI KAND • GINTIS • TORI CROSS<br />
PODGE • THE JAGZ<br />
23. AUGUST <strong>2019</strong><br />
24. AUGUST <strong>2019</strong><br />
FRI<br />
FOREST SWORDS PRESENTS PYLON<br />
A NEW INSTALLATION WITH THE KAZIMIER<br />
SAT<br />
WITH A FURTHER WORLD OF WEIRD WIRRAL WONDERMENT
www.liverpoolbandvans.co.uk<br />
info@liverpoolbandvans.co.uk +44 78 544 94764<br />
Cain’s Brewery District ● 9 Mann Street ● Liverpool ● L85AF
New Music + Creative Culture<br />
Liverpool<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> <strong>101</strong> / <strong>July</strong> <strong>2019</strong><br />
bidolito.co.uk<br />
Second Floor<br />
The Merchant<br />
40-42 Slater Street<br />
Liverpool L1 4BX<br />
Publisher/Founder<br />
Craig G Pennington - info@bidolito.co.uk<br />
Editor-in-Chief<br />
Christopher Torpey - chris@bidolito.co.uk<br />
Media Partnerships and Projects Manager<br />
Sam Turner - sam@bidolito.co.uk<br />
Features Editor<br />
Niloo Sharifi - niloo@bidolito.co.uk<br />
Live Editor<br />
Elliot Ryder - elliot@bidolito.co.uk<br />
Digital and Social Media Officer<br />
Lucy Atkins – lucy@bidolito.co.uk<br />
Community Manager<br />
Brit Williams – brit@bidolito.co.uk<br />
Design<br />
Mark McKellier - mark@andmark.co.uk<br />
Branding<br />
Thom Isom - hello@thomisom.com<br />
Proofreader<br />
Nathaniel Cramp<br />
Intern<br />
Georgina Hull<br />
Cover Photography<br />
Keith Ainsworth<br />
Words<br />
Christopher Torpey, Niloo Sharifi, Georgina Hull, Elliot<br />
Ryder, Sam Turner, Cath Holland, Tom Doubtfire,<br />
Laura Brown, Richard Lewis, Harriet Morley, Johnny<br />
Quinn, Huw Livingstone, Julia Johnson, Georgia<br />
Turnbull, Sophie Shields, Joel Durksen, Jennie Macaulay,<br />
Iona Fazer, Sam Taylor, Glyn Akroyd, Jake Penn,<br />
Paul Fitzgerald, Megan Walder, Mark Rowley, Andy<br />
McGlinchey, Bluboy, Amina Atiq.<br />
Photography, Illustration and Layout<br />
Mark McKellier, Keith Ainsworth, Hannah Blackman-<br />
Kurz, SPINN, Neil Keating, Mark Loudon, Maclay<br />
Herriot, Tarnish Vision, Nata Moraru, Carmen Zografou,<br />
Michael Kirkham, Stu Moulding, Jessica Grace Neal,<br />
Lucy McLachlan Glyn Akroyd, John Middleton, Brian<br />
Sayle, Paul McCoy, Georgina Hull, David J Colbran,<br />
Carlos Santos, Milos Sampraga, Robin Clewley.<br />
Distribution<br />
Our magazine is distributed as far as possible through<br />
pedal power, courtesy of our Bido Bikes. If you would<br />
like to find out more, please email sam@bidolito.co.uk.<br />
Advertise<br />
If you are interested in adverting in Bido Lito!, or finding<br />
out about how we can work together, please email<br />
sam@bidolito.co.uk.<br />
Bido Lito! is a living wage employer. All our staff are<br />
paid at least the living wage.<br />
All contributions to Bido Lito! come from our city’s<br />
amazing creative community. If you would like to join<br />
the fold visit bidolito.co.uk/contribute.<br />
We are contributing one per cent of our advertising<br />
review to WeForest.org to fund afforestation projects<br />
around the world. This more than offsets our carbon<br />
footprint and ensures there is less CO2 in the<br />
atmosphere as a result of our existence.<br />
The views expressed in Bido Lito! are those of the<br />
respective contributors and do not necessarily<br />
reflect the opinions of the magazine, its staff or the<br />
publishers. All rights reserved.<br />
EDITORIAL<br />
Going by my rough estimations, there were definitely<br />
a few more people out on the streets for Liverpool<br />
FC’s Champions League victory parade than were<br />
out in Birkenhead for Tranmere Rovers’ League<br />
Two Play-Off victory celebrations six days prior. Just a handful<br />
fewer, I’d say, maybe the odd half a million or so… I was there in<br />
Hamilton Square for Tranmere’s civic reception, and though we<br />
didn’t have quite the pomp of Liverpool – nor the glitter cannons,<br />
the multiple buses of millionaire superstars, the pyro or quite<br />
as extensive an arsenal of annoying chants (Zoum Bakayogo’s<br />
rendition of “Oh Birkenhead!” aside) – we still enjoyed it for what<br />
it was. It may have been quaint, but it was ours.<br />
I watched the Liverpool FC parade on the endless scroll<br />
of news updated and Instagram posts – I even heard the<br />
fireworks on The Strand from the other side of the river. Perhaps<br />
I was still on Cloud Nine following Tranmere’s back-to-back<br />
promotions, but I felt a similar kind of warmth from watching<br />
these celebrations taking place across the city. As a football fan,<br />
it’s hard not to feel a bit envious when watching these things,<br />
wishing it was you and your team; but I actually felt weirdly<br />
proud from the city’s point of view. Here was a team at one<br />
with the place it was representing, the players and fans feeding<br />
off each other, and bringing out all that is good about Scouse<br />
exceptionalism (NB – if you haven’t read Laura Brown’s excellent<br />
The Problem With Scouse Exceptionalism article on Liverpool<br />
Long Reads yet, do so; it’s excellent). Here, also, was the world’s<br />
media with their eyes trained on the city; and huge numbers of<br />
visitors basking in the positivity.<br />
Now, this strain of Liverpool culture is one that’s easy to<br />
package up and sell around the world. Indeed, it’s done very<br />
well by LFC, so much so that they can command such a global<br />
FEATURES<br />
12 / BILL NICKSON<br />
Memories on a Polaroid. The winsome artist who is following a<br />
tradition of great Liverpool singer-songwriters.<br />
14 / KITTY’S LAUNDERETTE<br />
The washhouse-cum-community space on the border of Everton<br />
and Anfield is the newest member of a crop of social enterprises<br />
across the Merseyside area.<br />
18 / READ IT IN BOOKS<br />
Publicist to the stars, Mick Houghton, recounts some of the<br />
wisdom picked up from decades working with some of pop’s – and<br />
Liverpool’s – most notorious acts.<br />
22 / WHISC AT 35<br />
From behind their unassuming façade on 120 Bold Street, the<br />
quiet heroes of WHISC have been offering advice and support to<br />
generations of Liverpool’s women.<br />
24 / ARAB FUTURISM<br />
What does the future look like if you fear you won’t exist? Laura<br />
Brown asks if we see the privilege in our ability to think it will<br />
always be better tomorrow.<br />
REGULARS<br />
10 / NEWS<br />
30 / SPOTLIGHT<br />
33 / PREVIEWS<br />
audience. But it’s far from the only form of culture the city<br />
has, and my mind started to wonder about the visitors and<br />
well wishers present at the parade, and how much they knew<br />
about the city’s many different strands of culture. Did they visit<br />
Homebaked when they made their pilgrimage to Anfield, or<br />
stop by Kitty’s Launderette to look in on the workshops? Did<br />
they stop by Squash for a cuppa, pick up some souvenirs at the<br />
Granby Street Market or swing by Output gallery to see work<br />
by local artists? How, indeed, can you grasp the multitude of<br />
conversations and ideas that make a place what it is, even if<br />
you’re just passing through?<br />
I’m pretty sure that I already knew the answer to this question<br />
– but it was upon reading Emma Warren’s brilliant book Make<br />
Some Space that the answer became crystallised. We document<br />
what happens – the small and the big, the glitzy and the decidedly<br />
un-trendy – so that we can piece together a much richer story.<br />
We give a voice to those movements and people that might not<br />
always have their voice heard over the tumult. We bring together<br />
what happens on the streets, in the minds of the doers and behind<br />
closed doors, laying down the stories and myths of the future – the<br />
things that don’t make it so readily into Twitter streams or onto<br />
newspaper front pages. Documenting your culture is a way of<br />
preserving it, making it real. That’s why our monthly cycle of Bido<br />
Lito! feels so important: because there are so many stories to keep<br />
telling, such a rich tapestry of life contributing to our society, that<br />
we need a repository for them that can be accessed by anyone<br />
who wants to know more about the living culture that surrounds<br />
us. We all have our part to play as documenters of this. !<br />
Christopher Torpey / @CATorp<br />
Editor-in-Chief<br />
20 / SPINN TOUR DIARY<br />
With a fresh new album in their back pocket, Liverpool’s jangle<br />
pop darlings SPINN hit the road to charm the rest of the UK.<br />
26 / DIGITAL LOVE<br />
Artist Harriet Morley delves into her experiments with<br />
programmed communication, showing how new modes of<br />
communication have complicated human relationships.<br />
28 / NEIL KEATING<br />
Huw Livingstone meets the man quietly shaping the aesthetic of<br />
Liverpool’s favourite spots and our Instagram feeds, one mural at<br />
a time.<br />
32 / ROLLING BLACKOUTS<br />
COASTAL FEVER<br />
“We’ve always tried to make pop music from what we have lying<br />
around”<br />
34 / MARY ANNE HOBBS<br />
“In my heart, it’s the avant-garde that excites me the most”<br />
40 / REVIEWS<br />
54 / ARTISTIC LICENCE
NEWS<br />
Future Yard Additions<br />
Anna Calvi<br />
You’ve got the date in your diary and the early Friday dart from<br />
work sorted – now all you need to plan your FUTURE YARD<br />
festival weekend is a breakdown of which artists you’re going to<br />
see at the Birkenhead festival on August bank holiday weekend<br />
(23rd and 24th August). The Bard of Wirral himself, BILL<br />
RYDER-JONES, headlines Friday’s activity, joined by underground<br />
Aussie star STELLA DONNELLY and head-spinning nu jazz trio<br />
SZUN WAVES. Strident queen of cinematic gothic rock ANNA<br />
CALVI headlines proceedings on Saturday, joined by a string<br />
of <strong>2019</strong>’s hottest talent – NILÜFER YANYA, PIXX, POTTERY<br />
– with Ninja Tune’s FOREST SWORDS unspooling his brand<br />
new sound and percussion installation PYLON over both days<br />
at Merseyside’s oldest standing building, Birkenhead Priory. A<br />
selection of experimental Welsh artists are among those acts<br />
joining the bill – MEILIR, ANI GLASS and HMS MORRIS among<br />
them – with a world of weird Wirral wonderment also promised.<br />
Day and weekend tickets are now available from futureyard.org.<br />
Leviathan, Yeh We All Want One<br />
Shezad Dawood’s epic film series LEVIATHAN comes to<br />
the Bluecoat this summer as part of a season examining<br />
society and migration. Presented alongside paintings, resin<br />
sculpture and woven textiles, Leviathan follows migratory<br />
patterns between Europe and Africa. The works combine<br />
marine biology, climate change, political systems and mental<br />
health to show how human activity and marine ecologies are<br />
intertwined. The first four chapters of Leviathan premiered<br />
in Venice in conjunction with the 57th Art Biennale. The<br />
work has developed, adapted and grown across exhibitions<br />
and screenings in Wales, the Netherlands and Italy, before<br />
reaching the Bluecoat for a major exhibition charting<br />
Dawood’s ambitious project.<br />
Leviathan by Shezad Dawood<br />
The World Of Keith Haring<br />
Keith Haring<br />
In collaboration with Tate Liverpool, Soul Jazz Records are releasing a<br />
stunning new collection entitled The World Of Keith Haring featuring<br />
music influential to the New York street artist Keith Haring, including Fab<br />
5 Freddy, Yoko Ono, Gray (Jean-Michel Basquiat’s group), The Jonzun<br />
Crew, Larry Levan, Pylon, Johnny Dynell and many others. The World<br />
Of Keith Haring is released to coincide with the presentation of the first<br />
major exhibition in the UK of Keith Haring’s work, which is running now<br />
at Tate Liverpool until November <strong>2019</strong>. Keep your eyes and ears peeled<br />
for an exclusive playback of this record coming soon!<br />
Design For Life<br />
Blown away by the talent on display at Liverpool John<br />
Moores University’s Art and Design Degree Show, we<br />
have drafted in design students to lend their expertise to<br />
the poster for the monthly Bido Lito! Social. This month<br />
CALUM JONES has put together the graphic for our <strong>July</strong><br />
Social at Sound Food And Drink, featuring OHMNS.<br />
Calum’s Rock n Roll Youth Culture project stood out<br />
among the great work in the degree show at the John<br />
Lennon Art And Design Building last month (see review<br />
on page 44) and made him the perfect candidate for <strong>July</strong>’s<br />
raucous rock show at Sound. You can find more of Calum’s<br />
work at calumjonesdesign.weebly.com.<br />
Total Bike Forever @ The Merchant<br />
Globe-trotting DJs and producers Tim Stephens and Adam<br />
Faulkner have just completed a 12-month cycle trip across the<br />
world, stretching from London to Tokyo – and they’re playing a<br />
DJ set in Liverpool to celebrate their return. Under their TOTAL<br />
BIKE FOREVER banner, the pair set themselves a task of writing<br />
an album while travelling the world, taking inspiration from their<br />
surroundings and people they met along the way. They’ve been<br />
documenting this with a series of brilliant vlogs and a number of<br />
groove-laden podcast mixes, which you can find at bidolito.co.uk.<br />
Cycle down to The Merchant after work on Friday 28th June to<br />
hear a special set from Tim and Adam where they’ll be debuting<br />
some new material.<br />
Station To Station<br />
Merseyrail Sound Station<br />
The third semester of Merseyrail Sound Station is underway with<br />
an array of talented artists taking part. The group of musicians<br />
– including Eggy Records’ ANA MAE, fast-rising stars GEN AND<br />
THE DEGENERATES and psych jazz bastions THE BLURRED<br />
SUN BAND – are in the midst of an intensive development<br />
programme and will all play a live showcase at Liverpool Central<br />
on Friday 26th <strong>July</strong>. Merseyrail Sound Station will also be taking<br />
a group of artists down to London for a showcase gig at The<br />
Waiting Room in partnership with promoters Eat Your Own Ears<br />
later in <strong>2019</strong>. More details to be announced in due course – but<br />
get along to Central station from 3pm to see the city’s future<br />
stars in action, for free.<br />
10
MEMBERS’<br />
MIXTAPE<br />
In this new regular feature, we ask one<br />
of our members to compile a selection<br />
of music from their recent listening<br />
playlists. Mark Rowley grasps the nettle<br />
this month and gives us a sample of his<br />
listening habits from this year.<br />
Bundobust<br />
Big Thief<br />
Orange<br />
4AD<br />
Desi Island Discs<br />
The newest edition to Bold Street’s mouth-watering<br />
foodie offer now has a soundtrack to match its<br />
impeccably tasty menu. Crate-digging DJ and<br />
promoter Stepping Tiger has put together a heady<br />
concoction of tasty sonic morsels to accompany<br />
patrons’ lunchtime experience at the Indian street<br />
food mecca BUNDOBUST. Stirring in a scrumptious<br />
selection of new jazz, Afrobeat and marinating it<br />
with some succulent soul, TOO MUCH SPICY is the<br />
perfect accompaniment to Bundobust’s lunchtime<br />
offer. You can hear the mix in store while you sit<br />
down to your tarka dhal and Bundo chaat, and make<br />
use of the £7.50 for two plates lunch offer. Stepping<br />
Tiger DJs play regularly around the region and<br />
host an eclectic new music night once a month at<br />
Alexander’s, Chester.<br />
In The CAN<br />
Named as one of the top 10 greenest eateries in the<br />
country, CAN WATERLOO is a vibrant new ecofriendly<br />
café just five minutes from Crosby beach. As<br />
well as serving up all manner of great vegan comfort<br />
food, CAN are a virtually plastic free business with a<br />
commitment to preventing any plastic that comes into<br />
the building from ending up in landfill. Instead, they<br />
host regular ‘ecobrick workshops’ to turn single use<br />
plastics into a reusable building block for their pop-up<br />
food stall, which will be appearing at a number of<br />
festivals this summer. If you need any more incentive<br />
go and try it out, CAN’s chefs have included a sparkling<br />
new addition to their summer menu in the form of the<br />
Bido Lito! pink pizza: a beetroot hummus base with<br />
roasted cauliflower, walnuts, and beetaroni topping.<br />
Big Thief are a Brooklynbased<br />
alternative folk band,<br />
who earlier this year released<br />
their third album U.F.O.F. to critical acclaim. Any band with<br />
a guitarist going by the name of Buck Meek has to have an<br />
edge over the rest… and with the angelic tones of singer<br />
Adrianne Lenker, we pretty well hit the jackpot here!<br />
Maribou State<br />
(feat. Holly<br />
Walker)<br />
Nervous Tics<br />
(DJ Tennis Remix)<br />
Counter Records<br />
Thirst For Firsts<br />
WIRRAL FESTIVAL OF FIRSTS is getting in on the borough’s year in the spotlight with a host of activity between<br />
5th and 14th <strong>July</strong>. As the city region’s Borough Of Culture, Wirral has been home to scores of events and exhibitions<br />
throughout <strong>2019</strong>, and WFOF brings a slice of summer to these celebrations. West Kirby’s Westbourne Hall plays<br />
host to a number of events throughout the run, including music from audacious five-piece KABANTU (5th <strong>July</strong>), a<br />
celebration of jazz, Baltic and Indian Carnatic music with MAYA JAZZ (11th <strong>July</strong>), and a premiere of Teatro Pomodoro’s<br />
darkly comedic new piece FISH OUT OF WATER: A SHIPWRECKED ODYSSEY (12th <strong>July</strong>). Author Mike Haskins has<br />
written for Steve Coogan, Sue Perkins and Smack The Pony, and he brings his extraordinary true history SEX, DRUGS<br />
AND QUEEN VICTORIA to West Kirby Arts Centre on 7th <strong>July</strong>. There’s tonnes more, including fun for all the family at<br />
HOYLAKE STREET FESTIVAL on 6th <strong>July</strong> – and you can find full listings at wirralfestivaloffirsts.org.uk.<br />
New Tunes Coming<br />
AI Audio Lab<br />
You just can’t stop the good tunes rolling in – and you’re<br />
never gonna hear us complaining about that at Bido HQ.<br />
We’ve been treating ourselves to some astounding sounds<br />
this month, not least in the form of TRUDY AND THE<br />
ROMANCE’s Sandman. The doo-wop spacemen show<br />
off their winsome, jazz chops on this stormer of a debut<br />
LP – and you can catch them live at Future Yard festival in<br />
August. Fellow Future Yarder BILL RYDER-JONES has stolen<br />
our hearts all over again with Yawny Yawn, the piano-only<br />
version of last year’s acclaimed album; and rising star of<br />
the internet, PODGE, has unveiled his glorious first single<br />
Yuka-Peno via Edge Hill’s The Label Recordings. You can<br />
also catch an IRL version of Podge in Birkenhead at Future<br />
Yard – hmmm, I sense a theme developing…<br />
AI Audio Lab<br />
In our 100th issue, we considered the implications for art and<br />
creativity in an increasingly digital world. In particular, we wanted<br />
to focus on how artificial intelligence is being used to power<br />
music-making tools, and how that might hinder or help tomorrow’s<br />
musicians. We have been carrying out further research into this<br />
at our AI AUDIO LAB installation at SEVENSTORE, which invites<br />
artists and members of the public to create a piece of music using<br />
AI software in a pop-up studio environment. There are still places<br />
to be filled on our weekly workshops on 29th June and 6th <strong>July</strong>. To<br />
book on, please email aiaudiolab@bidolito.co.uk. No prior music<br />
experience is needed – just a desire to test the parameters of AI,<br />
and yourself.<br />
Bill Ryder-Jones<br />
The original track appeared on MARIBOU STATE’s 2018<br />
album Kingdoms In Colour. It now features on the <strong>2019</strong><br />
remix EP and, by the time Manfredi Romano (DJ Tennis)<br />
has worked his magic, it’s even more of a sublime slice of<br />
soulful beauty than ever. Really looking forward to seeing<br />
these up close later in the summer.<br />
Skinny Pelembe<br />
No Blacks, No<br />
Dogs, No Irish<br />
Brownswood<br />
Recordings<br />
South Africa-born, Doncasterraised<br />
SKINNY PELEMBE is causing quite a stir at the<br />
minute. Championed by illustrious BBC Radio 6 Music DJ<br />
Giles Peterson, among others, his debut album Dreaming<br />
Is Dead Now came out last month and oozes quality from<br />
start to finish. This track, which came out as a precursor<br />
to the long player, is a throwback to the experiences of old<br />
Commonwealth immigrants made current by the Windrush<br />
scandal of last year, and is a major standout.<br />
Drahla<br />
React/Revolt<br />
Captured Tracks<br />
Leeds-based four-piece<br />
DRAHLA also released their<br />
highly regarded debut album<br />
last month. Sounding very<br />
1980s New York and fronted by singer-guitarist Luciel<br />
Brown, Drahla has drawn comparisons to post-punk<br />
legends Sonic Youth. They tore up Jacaranda Phase One<br />
recently, despite a modest turnout, and this track, featuring<br />
an absolute killer extended sax introduction, shows off<br />
their versatility as well as the range of their compelling<br />
sound.<br />
Head to bidolito.co.uk for a playlist compiled by Mark. For<br />
more information on our Community Membership, head to<br />
bidolito.co.uk/membership.<br />
NEWS 11
12
Ahead of the release his latest EP, Niloo Sharifi meets the man<br />
behind the bedroom pop wizardry and throwback childhood<br />
photos. Delving into the making of the EP, Bill Nickson opens up<br />
about the sentiments fuelling the pure emotion that emanates<br />
through his poignant songs.<br />
I’m sitting in my room, trying to convince a reluctant BILL<br />
NICKSON to let me hear his new EP. He doesn’t have<br />
the newest mixes with him, and he doesn’t want to play<br />
me the old versions on his SoundCloud. “I’ve heard them<br />
so much that I can only hear the weird, sticky-outy parts,”<br />
he tells me, but I’m insistent – I can’t interview him about an<br />
EP I’ve not heard. When he finally lets me hear it, he’s still<br />
mumbling apologies about EQ levels.<br />
But it’s all beside the point – these songs would be<br />
beautiful in any circumstance, even croaked out on a sore<br />
throat with a barely tuned five-string guitar. The faraway<br />
sound of his voice and the instruments make me feel<br />
intensely nostalgic: for what, exactly, I don’t know. They feel<br />
plucked out of time, ageless in their sincerity. Each song<br />
feels intimate – like someone talking to their best friend,<br />
not the public. His sound varies quite a lot; from laid-back<br />
melodies, really relaxing and heartbreaking, like the last<br />
warm days of summer, on tunes like Better Days and Are<br />
You Alright; to the cerebral, relentless thrum of Grave, the<br />
aggressive wonkiness of its repetitive riff and drums, angry<br />
lyrics indistinct over the top.<br />
Maybe this is something to do with the recording<br />
process – Bill doesn’t like to record anything twice, because<br />
it’s all about the moment, and the feeling of that moment,<br />
above everything else. “I’ve always just worked, like, the first<br />
time I do it is the final. I don’t approach it like a demo. I just<br />
approach it like I’m making the next song now; just bash it<br />
out in four hours, and spend the next eight months messing<br />
around with the EQs and the volumes and that.”<br />
This dedication to spontaneity produces sounds loaded<br />
with emotion – even if we’re straining to make out the lyrics.<br />
“In Grave, the vocals are quite hard to hear in certain parts of<br />
it – I’ve kind of had a nightmare,<br />
just spent the last year trying to<br />
make them a bit more clear.” The<br />
song reminds me of Joy Division<br />
tunes – emotion is stripped bare<br />
and displayed in its most brazen,<br />
ugly form, doubling down on its<br />
own melodrama. I can imagine<br />
angsty teens loving that one,<br />
not in a bad way, I tell him. “Yeh,<br />
I think that’s where it’s come<br />
from,” he replies. “The chorus<br />
as well is: ‘You don’t know what<br />
it’s like’, and it’s one of those<br />
choruses where I wish I could<br />
be there and explain it to each<br />
person that listens to it, and be<br />
like: what I meant by that is that ignorant feeling that your<br />
problems are the biggest thing to ever happen, and no one<br />
gets it and stuff. It’s a tongue-in-cheek kinda thing.”<br />
He admits to a certain early predilection for pop punk,<br />
one that we share. “I had a band in year six, but it was really<br />
embarrassing stuff – I was into Green Day back then, so I<br />
was straining my voice to sound punky – it was just really<br />
embarrassing. I used to watch Kerrang! religiously; I got<br />
into Blink-182 really early. I feel like there’s some stuff in<br />
my music that I will have picked up from back then; I’m not<br />
scared to go in that whiny territory a bit.”<br />
Personally, I believe no genre has ever paralleled pop<br />
punk/emo’s capacity to just let the adolescent emotions fly<br />
without a shred of self-consciousness – and the result is pure<br />
theatre. Bill’s sound couldn’t be further from pop punk, but<br />
it retains that same confessional quality: “I dunno, it’s kind of<br />
like a diary of sorts; you can pinpoint each song in the past.”<br />
After his early forays into the nasal world of childish<br />
bedroom rock, Bill has experimented with many musical<br />
mediums before finding his way back to guitar. “It was only<br />
just before I went to university in 2014 that I got into guitar<br />
stuff after doing electronic-y stuff for a while. And, I don’t<br />
know, it’s hard to write a song [that’s] not coming from<br />
somewhere inside, for me anyway. One of the first songs that<br />
I sang on was, kind of, about being alone and that, because<br />
I was always in my room, on my computer, throughout the<br />
summer and stuff, and I just found it to be… I dunno, it felt<br />
weird, it felt like a weight off my shoulders a bit, if y’know<br />
what I mean – not to get, like, typical. I just got into writing<br />
about how I was feeling.”<br />
Years down the line, his songs still feel cathartic for<br />
him, which becomes a strange experience now that he’ll be<br />
singing them to an audience. “I don’t realise sometimes how,<br />
like, almost embarrassing some of the songs can be – like that<br />
Grave song. I dunno, I swear in it and that. Having a swear<br />
word in your song hinders it a bit in this day and age, but it<br />
felt like the right word at the time. I think it’s quite personal. I<br />
try to make the songs sound like how I’m feeling. And Grave<br />
is quite an all-over-the-place song on the drums – quite busy<br />
–and it’s just how your head can feel.”<br />
“Daniel Johnston<br />
opened my eyes to<br />
how music can be<br />
your outlet. If you can<br />
see music’s from the<br />
heart it’s easy to like,<br />
because it’s pure”<br />
The other songs on the EP go in a totally different<br />
direction; they’re incredibly soft, steeped in sentiment that<br />
feels really genuine. You’re a real romantic guy, that’s what<br />
I think, I tell him. “I am a romantic guy, but in a way where I<br />
don’t really know what I’m doing,” he replies. He tells me how<br />
each song relates to a moment in the whirlwind year he’s<br />
had, falling in love for the first time. “It’s weird; not what you<br />
expect from, like, the films and that.” The EP bears witness to<br />
the sweetness of these searing, complicated feelings.<br />
Are You Alright is a beautiful song, I tell him: for me,<br />
it’s one of those god-touched melodies. “I still think about<br />
you sometimes, can you see that? Can you hear that in this<br />
song?” he sings.<br />
“That one’s the oldest one in there, I recorded that in<br />
2016,” he explains. “Can’t actually mess with it, either,<br />
because I haven’t got the project file anymore, so I just have<br />
this lo-fi music file for it. It’s the most complete one there, I’d<br />
say, even though it’s the roughest one. It’s kind of a Daniel<br />
Johnston song, where it’s just short and simple.” I tell him<br />
I’ve never listened to Daniel Johnston, and he can’t believe it.<br />
“He’s a massive figure in my whole musical journey, I think.”<br />
I want to know what he loves about him. “He’s probably the<br />
purest musician I’ve ever listened to – it’s just straight from<br />
the heart, and there’s no… he’s not doing it for any other<br />
intention than creating for himself. You can hear it in every<br />
song, and he sings as if there are a million people watching,<br />
but it’s inward facing. He definitely opened my eyes to how<br />
music can be your outlet. And people can find a way to love<br />
that. It’s true what they say, where if you can see it’s from<br />
the heart, it’s easy to like things, because it’s, like, pure.”<br />
I’m curious as to how Bill’s very personal, pure<br />
relationship with music sits with the very public nature<br />
of a musical career. “Yeh, it’s<br />
weird. I don’t fully enjoy going<br />
to gigs and that, and standing<br />
in the crowd, and just being<br />
surrounded by people. I always<br />
have that feeling that they’re<br />
looking at the back of my head.<br />
It’s like that kind of insecure<br />
feeling in a crowd – I dunno,<br />
I prefer it to going to a gig I<br />
think, but it’s still awkward,<br />
I don’t know.” Bill has an<br />
irreverent approach to his own<br />
introversion, which comes<br />
through in the clear-sighted way<br />
he presents emotion. “I think I<br />
have select people that I’m quite<br />
comfortable with, and I’m not shy around, really, but I can<br />
still be a bit awkward. Like right now, I feel a bit awkward,<br />
’cos of the interview, as you can tell from my voice – it’s, like,<br />
got this weird, shaky quality to it and I don’t know why.”<br />
Bill’s musical development goes in the direction of<br />
himself, rather than the public. He’s stopped processing his<br />
own voice until it’s unrecognisable. “I used to make really<br />
dreampoppy, reverby stuff – it was a noticeable feature<br />
of the stuff I was making – and it was due to insecurity as<br />
well,” he admits. “I wasn’t a singer, so I used to hide my<br />
voice a bit by drenching it with reverb. Through university I<br />
got a lot more confident and found the sound that I’m doing<br />
now.” It’s about getting better at creating honest pieces of<br />
himself in songs, for himself.<br />
“I think, when I grow older, the stuff I’ll be making grows<br />
with me a bit. That’s why I really want to put this EP out,<br />
because I keep making EPs, and getting tired, and putting<br />
them away instead of putting them out. I feel like I’m just<br />
missing loads of key parts of my musical growth being out<br />
there, so I’ve tried my hardest to make these songs good<br />
enough to put out. Even though they’re a bit older, a bit<br />
embarrassing and stuff – so I just wanna get them out there,<br />
so I can move on and make something new, and feel like I<br />
can grow a bit.”<br />
Wherever his sound ends up in a decade, it’s certain<br />
that Bill’s now locked in. “Music has just consumed my aims,<br />
and what I wanna do in life. It’s what I think about all the<br />
time – my aim is to just make music, and keep putting it out,<br />
and doing shows.” !<br />
Words: Niloo Sharifi<br />
Photography: Keith Ainsworth / arkimages.co.uk<br />
@billnickson_<br />
Bill Nickson’s new, as-yet untitled EP is released in August.<br />
Bill plays Liverpool International Music Festival on Saturday<br />
20th <strong>July</strong> as Bido Lito!’s selection for the Music City stage,<br />
and plays Future Yard festival on 23rd August.<br />
FEATURE<br />
13
KITTY’S LA<br />
After making headlines for their<br />
successful, community-backed<br />
Kickstarter campaign, the muchanticipated<br />
Kitty’s Launderette<br />
has finally opened its doors. The<br />
washhouse-cum-community space<br />
on the border of Everton and Anfield is<br />
the newest member of a crop of social<br />
enterprises across the Merseyside<br />
area, all working together to create<br />
local solutions to societal problems.<br />
Anfield-based Tom Doubtfire talks to<br />
the organisers behind the launderette<br />
to gauge the scope of this masscollaboration,<br />
and the new forms of<br />
grass-roots organisation that are<br />
inspiring them.<br />
KITTY’S LAUNDERETTE is a new social enterprise<br />
functioning as a washhouse in the Everton area<br />
of Liverpool, aiming to provide an affordable and<br />
ecological laundry service while also providing a space<br />
for people to gather, spend time and learn. Kitty’s was named in<br />
honour of Kitty Wilkinson, the Irish migrant worker who founded<br />
the first public washhouse in Liverpool and became known as<br />
‘the Saint of the Slums’ for her pioneering work. Underpinning<br />
this whole business is a wish for autonomy and better control<br />
over our own lives. Social projects like these are transforming<br />
Liverpool by inches – and they raise a hopeful question: with a<br />
space of our own, how can we begin to reshape the world around<br />
us?<br />
After going to one of their gatherings in October last year,<br />
it was empowering to feel that I was just a part (even if very<br />
minute) of bringing this project to life. Kitty’s Launderette officially<br />
opened on the morning of 18th May this year, with a busy<br />
opening party during the evening, and then hosted a night of live<br />
Irish music in the form of a céilí from Mikey Kenney and Friends<br />
the following evening. During the day, the space was used as a<br />
playschool for children. The washhouse’s profits as a business are<br />
invested directly into the local community, through their myriad<br />
programmes and through direct employment. Now sat right at<br />
the end of Grasmere Street, they hope to become a useful asset<br />
to the local community through hosting events showcasing music<br />
and art, film screenings and workshops as part of wider goal of<br />
centring people-focused activity, adding value to the local area.<br />
They are not alone in this. Homebaked Anfield have been<br />
a valuable resource in sharing knowledge and skills during the<br />
years prior to Kitty’s opening their doors. They have grown from<br />
an art project which asked the simple question ‘what does it<br />
mean to live well?’ into a multi-faceted business which puts local<br />
people at the core of its decision-making.<br />
Initially, Kitty’s used Homebaked, another cooperative and<br />
community focused enterprise in Anfield, as a proxy space to<br />
host meetings and events to gather thoughts, feelings and ideas<br />
about how people saw the launderette functioning and operating<br />
in the future. Throughout the three years the business was<br />
14
UNDERETTE<br />
preparing to open, events like this enabled them to get a feel for<br />
what people in the area would be interested in using the space<br />
for, as well as being a way of bringing people together of all ages<br />
in a fun and relaxed, but productive, environment. At Kitty’s, they<br />
speak openly of how important this accessibility to these spaces<br />
was. “You’d go there and have your lunch,” says launderette coordinator<br />
Grace Harrison, “and it would be like a sandwich and a<br />
question on a daily basis.”<br />
For Grace, Homebaked is a crucial model for what they want<br />
to achieve. “I think there is something really powerful about<br />
seeing the success of all the hard work they put in, and the<br />
degree to which it has been really taken on by a whole range<br />
of people who now use and love that space, so I think that also<br />
gave us a lot of confidence that what we were trying to do was<br />
complementary and comparable.” Inspired by their conversations<br />
on the social high street, Kitty’s Launderette are following the<br />
likes of Homebaked in taking ownership of the spaces that are<br />
likely to become derelict over the next few years. Rather than<br />
being a collection of impersonal spaces, the high street in and<br />
around Anfield is transforming into somewhere packed with<br />
character and warmth.<br />
Through the community’s openness and willingness to<br />
share knowledge, time and resources, Kitty’s have been able to<br />
build upon the work of other community-focused organisations<br />
in Liverpool. Rather than start from scratch, places such as<br />
Homebaked, Rotunda, Rice Lane City Farm, Squash and<br />
Blackburne House have been happy to help at various points<br />
from conception. As Grace explains, this is rare: “In the traditional<br />
third sector where you are grant dependent, you end up being<br />
in competition with people who should be your collaborators.”<br />
A dedication to support those who ultimately share our goals is<br />
one part of a wider ethos formed around the fundamental belief<br />
Grace expresses. “What people can achieve together is greater<br />
than what any one person can achieve on their own.”<br />
In the context of growing austerity, and a government<br />
which still chooses to pursue a ‘there is no alternative’ narrative<br />
in favour of severe public service cuts and centralised decision<br />
making, the UK seems to be divided on what the future should<br />
look like. It becomes increasingly clear that elites and politicians<br />
alike are unable or unwilling to address the complex problems<br />
people face in the world around them.<br />
Communities have always found ways to care for<br />
themselves through taking matters into their own hands, and<br />
Kitty’s Launderette is one such business hoping to pump money<br />
back into the local community. For Kitty’s Launderette, creative<br />
thinking is integral to the world they are trying to build a corner<br />
of. “In our dream scenario,” says Grace, “it’s that we continue to<br />
value creative thinking as the business goes forward and we see<br />
that as not supplementary but integral.” In a time when funding<br />
for creative courses is the first to be squeezed, Kitty’s are intent<br />
on recognising the value of creative labour. “[That’s] also part of<br />
the social impact, because, I think artists should be paid for the<br />
stuff they do, and often they’re not – so we, as the business, can<br />
recognise value and remunerate for creative involvement.”<br />
It has become clear that the only way to solve some of the<br />
toughest issues facing people in the UK is through creative<br />
thinking and behaving with a certain nuance. It feels necessary<br />
now, as it always has been, to properly recognise the creative<br />
labour of artists, musicians and performers. Creatives work not<br />
only to give platforms to voices and experiences, but to add<br />
value and meaning into our lives. By ensuring that this business<br />
functions firstly as a launderette, Kitty’s hopes that this will<br />
enable them to become much more involved with a whole range<br />
of creative activity happening in Liverpool.<br />
Kitty’s recognise the contexts which make creativity<br />
inaccessible to people and wants to break them down. “We<br />
can just commission the work that we think is going to look<br />
good, or that the artist wants to make – we don’t have to think<br />
about someone else’s agenda.” Autonomy here is key. Through<br />
being a self-sustaining business, they can support people. This<br />
could take the form of commissioning artists to create a piece<br />
of work to be displayed somewhere in the local area, or creating<br />
more local jobs which pay a living wage; two examples where<br />
autonomy would be brought about through income generation,<br />
which was a big motivating factor in the early stages of setting<br />
up Kitty’s.<br />
The team of nine (Grace, Ehsan, Louis, Rachael, Kerrie, Kathy,<br />
Natalie, Kirsty and Michelle) aim to ensure that the project is led<br />
by as many people as possible through active listening; being<br />
open to and in favour of change. This is a business that started<br />
as a small group with an idea, but now wishes to cater not only<br />
to locals but also those who live further afield. Figuring out how<br />
they can begin to support and be supported by people who don’t<br />
live locally is something they admit will start to become clearer<br />
over the next few months. They recognise the only way to make a<br />
space as accessible as possible is through allowing people to be<br />
actively involved in shaping how the space functions in the future.<br />
The Talk Of The Washhouse project is one way they have<br />
been able to do this.. As part of their ongoing research into<br />
washhouses as important social spaces, Kitty’s run weekly<br />
drop-in conversation sessions for collecting local memories of<br />
washhouses. Supported by the heritage project, this aims to<br />
collect stories from people sharing their past experiences of being<br />
in launderettes to produce a lasting archive. Grace describes<br />
how this process has allowed forgotten pasts to be rediscovered:<br />
“We were finding out that the washhouse was a site of social<br />
life, particularly for women, and there is hardly anything written<br />
about that. Working class women’s history is largely unrecorded<br />
so this is a really important project for us.”<br />
Through listening to and harnessing memories and stories<br />
about the washhouse as a place of social activity, they hope to<br />
produce a telling archive which not only accommodates for the<br />
nostalgia of a shared past, but guides us along the path towards<br />
a shared future. By actively listening to stories and the people<br />
telling them, their enterprise continues to be “informed by the<br />
things that people really care about. People have told us what<br />
was great about it was this or that, and we can build that into<br />
how we do things – that allows people to be heard, and know<br />
their experiences are valuable and cared about.”<br />
There is a recognition here that every interaction and<br />
encounter, whether it be between members of the team or<br />
discussions with the public, have all been equally vital in allowing<br />
the business to open. “It’s really important that this business is<br />
owned by, and led by, as many people as possible, because that<br />
FEATURE<br />
15
“Taking greater care<br />
for those around you –<br />
enacted through active<br />
community organising<br />
– allows people to<br />
have power over the<br />
decisions that affect<br />
their lived experiences”<br />
is how it will be strong as a business,” Grace tells me. Funding<br />
has helped the business reach a certain point of comfort, but<br />
above all, conversations between people, and continuous mutual<br />
support are what injects energy and life into this space, and<br />
that is what will help the launderette sustain itself in the future<br />
– Kitty’s recognise the value of people – “the guy at Homebaked<br />
who comes in everyday and tells a joke and gets off”. It feels<br />
important and valuable to recognise how spaces such as Kitty’s,<br />
which have managed to become relatively autonomous, and<br />
are dedicated to working with people, can not only improve the<br />
conditions that we live in, but begin to completely shift the way<br />
we relate and interact with one another.<br />
The city of Preston offers one inspiring example of how<br />
businesses such as Kitty’s fit into wider societal models which<br />
offer crucial infrastructural change. As a reaction to govenrment<br />
cuts to local council and big businesses pulling out of planned<br />
regeneration work, Preston shifted their thinking towards<br />
principals of municipal socialism, and began to carry out<br />
community wealth building often through using the services<br />
of local businesses. Preston City Council now works with<br />
institutions like schools, universities and hospitals to provide<br />
contracts to businesses operating in and around Preston rather<br />
than outsourcing to private national companies. The result is<br />
more wealth being kept and spent between people within the<br />
local area. There has also been a successful push for companies<br />
to adopt the Living Wage, as well as the creation of the Preston<br />
Co-operative Development Network, which aims to promote<br />
worker co-operatives and employee buy-outs of businesses,<br />
for example. When a council reduces the control they have, this<br />
allows people to have greater control over their own agendas.<br />
Much needed regeneration, but achieved through focused<br />
organisation and community led businesses, committed to<br />
steering well clear of private companies, who too often favour<br />
quick profits at the expense of real investment in the area and the<br />
people living there.<br />
There is an alternative to austerity and cuts, which is actually<br />
listening to the concerns people have in a more positive and<br />
proactive way. We should reject the manifestation of racism and<br />
nationalism that has become prominent in discussions around<br />
how the UK has shifted and changed, and switch our thinking<br />
to how we can tackle capital to improve everyone’s quality of<br />
life. Simplified narratives and political slogans are not what will<br />
provide this. As Grace says, “It’s just great, because you don’t<br />
even have to get into a particularly theoretical conversation. You<br />
know, all these racists who are going round, talking about making<br />
England great, and of forgotten towns – this is the answer to<br />
that, and it is actually trying to listen to those concerns, and do<br />
something about them in a proactive way that’s tackling capital<br />
more than it is blaming it on people who aren’t actually to blame.”<br />
There is power in recognising the complexity of the world around<br />
us, and one alternative which will begin to produce positive<br />
change is a greater care for those around you, enacted through<br />
active community organising which allows people to have more<br />
power over the decisions that affect their lived experiences.<br />
If we’re interested in the sort of social impact that Kitty’s<br />
Launderette has, then our support is vital. Whether this means<br />
doing your laundry there, employing Kitty’s as your commercial<br />
laundry service, working with them on a project you have in mind,<br />
or spending time in the space, your support will become a key<br />
part of a much wider network of people all pushing for positive<br />
and meaningful change in our communities and in our city. !<br />
Words: Tom Doubtfire<br />
Photogrpahy: Mark Loudon<br />
kittyslaunderette.org.uk<br />
Kitty’s Launderette is open Monday, Thursday and Friday 9.30am<br />
to 8pm, and 10am to 8pm on Saturdays and Sundays. If you’d<br />
like to contribute to the Talk Of The Washhouse project then<br />
there are drop-in sessions every Thursday from 1pm until 8pm.<br />
16
READ IT<br />
IN BOOKS<br />
In his new memoir Fried And Justified, publicist to the stars, Mick Houghton, recounts some of the wisdom<br />
he picked up after a generation working with some of pop’s – and Liverpool’s – most notorious acts.<br />
The man described by many as The KLF’s unofficial<br />
biographer, MICK HOUGHTON handled the publicity<br />
for a string of the independent sector’s greatest groups<br />
between 1978 and 1998. After working at Sire Records<br />
for Seymour Stein with the Ramones, Talking Heads and The<br />
Undertones, Houghton set up as an independent with Brassneck<br />
Publicity. Alongside the likes of The Jesus And Mary Chain, Sonic<br />
Youth, The Wedding Present, Felt, Elastica and Spiritualized<br />
were a triumvirate of Liverpool acts: Echo & the Bunnymen,<br />
The Teardrop Explodes and The KLF. Houghton’s new volume,<br />
Fried And Justified: Hits, Myths, Break-Ups and Breakdowns<br />
in the Record Business 1978-98, charts an era marked by the<br />
dominance of the four weekly music papers, all of which are now<br />
(virtually) defunct.<br />
With a foreword by Bill Drummond and jacket design by<br />
Jimmy Cauty, all the principal players of the Liverpool music scene<br />
of the period are featured. What was it that got Mick so involved<br />
in the Eric’s scene? “It all started with the Bunnymen,” Houghton<br />
recalls on the phone from his London home. “The reason I got to<br />
work with them was because I was working with Warner Bros.<br />
who were the parent label to [the Bunnymen’s imprint] Korova.<br />
In a way I was kind of lucky to work with them, ’cos I was there<br />
at the time they were signed. By then I’d been working with the<br />
Ramones, Talking Heads, The Undertones, so I was the obvious<br />
person to do the Bunnymen.”<br />
“I’d already heard Crocodiles [the group’s 1980 LP] and I<br />
still think that’s one of the great debuts. They progressed so<br />
much – they weren’t a brilliant live band but almost overnight<br />
they became one. That’s what’s exciting if you’re involved with<br />
anything, it’s to see a group evolve. That continued certainly<br />
up to and including the Ocean Rain period, and it sort of fell<br />
apart a bit after that. There’s something about the dysfunctional<br />
nature of groups: after two or three years quite often you get<br />
factions developing and you suddenly find that the strength of<br />
relationships starts to dissipate a bit.<br />
“The way I worked as a PR – and particularly with those<br />
Liverpool bands – was [that I was] so involved with them and<br />
[manager] Bill Drummond,” Houghton continues. “The line<br />
between publicist and a manager is blurred. If you work with<br />
people enough then you become part of the whole process,<br />
really.”<br />
Having done press for one of the city’s biggest bands,<br />
Houghton found himself doing the same for their friends and<br />
creative competition, The Teardrop Explodes. “I left Warner Bros.<br />
and began working as an independent, and Bill Drummond asked<br />
if I would look after the Teardrops. I wasn’t really aware of the<br />
rivalry between them and the Bunnymen at that time. Because<br />
Crocodiles was so critically successful, and the Teardrops’ album<br />
[1980 debut Kilimanjaro] wasn’t out for another for another few<br />
months, I think that Julian felt the Bunnymen had got ahead<br />
of him. The Teardrops had had more singles out, they’d had<br />
more press, Julian was already being seen as a bit of a star. The<br />
Bunnymen always had this solidarity as group whereas the<br />
Teardrops became Julian Cope’s group, really.”<br />
While the Teardrops’ principal player was singer, chief<br />
songwriter, shamanic guru and future highly respected author<br />
Julian Cope, the band’s membership travails were so tangled<br />
it was surprising that anyone could remember who was in the<br />
group week to week. Keyboard player (and future Blur label boss<br />
and Country House dweller) Dave Balfe was the antagonist foil<br />
to Cope, the friction between the two producing the band’s best<br />
work.<br />
Distinguished by Cope’s ear for melody, the Teardrops’<br />
post-punk informed psychedelia swiftly won them a sizeable<br />
audience. Gilt-edged singles Reward and Treason (It’s Just A<br />
Story) saw them crossover to a wider audience. Reward marked<br />
the first of four Top Of The Pops appearances for the band, with<br />
Cope becoming a bona fide pop star. “In a way it became a bit of<br />
curse for him,” Houghton says of the period. “Julian kind of envied<br />
what the Bunnymen had, this kind of critical mass and a real cult<br />
following. What kind of ate away at<br />
the Teardrops – and to some extent<br />
unhinged Julian – was when Reward<br />
was a Top 10 hit.”<br />
“There was a point during 1981<br />
when Julian was perceived as one of<br />
the biggest pop stars coming out of<br />
rock,” Houghton recalls. “Even though<br />
he’d only had a couple of hits, he<br />
was on the cover of Smash Hits and<br />
teen magazines like Jackie and Oh<br />
Boy. You would think the Teardrops<br />
would be as big as Duran Duran or<br />
Adam And the Ants, the amount of<br />
press they got. He didn’t really want<br />
that. On one level he did want to be<br />
successful, and on another he didn’t<br />
like the nature of the success the Teardrops were getting. Julian<br />
would far rather have been Jim Morrison or Tim Buckley, not a<br />
pop star. That was weird for me, personally, ’cos I wasn’t used to<br />
dealing with that kind of success.”<br />
Moving into the second half of the 1980s, Houghton began<br />
doing press for The KLF, continuing a working relationship<br />
with key Liverpool player Bill Drummond. “We were lucky to be<br />
around in that era. The music press was so dominant you could<br />
become successful through the music press and have fun with it,”<br />
Houghton states. “That’s what The KLF did. Actions speak louder<br />
than words and by their actions people wanted to write about<br />
them ’cos there was nothing else like it, there never has been.<br />
What other group at the height of their success says, ‘We’re<br />
splitting up, we’re deleting all of our records’, then burns a million<br />
pounds?”<br />
“In 1991 they were the biggest-selling singles artists in the<br />
country – [but] it wasn’t what they wanted. I think they genuinely<br />
felt ‘we can do anything now’ and the press would lap it up. It<br />
really did become too much for them. KLF Communications was<br />
about six people: there was them, their partners, I did the press,<br />
Scott Piering did the TV and radio and that was it. I think they<br />
were both having breakdowns, which explains what they did at<br />
the Brit Awards [spraying the audience with blank machine gun<br />
bullets and dumping a dead sheep at the afterparty]. It was fun to<br />
be part of, but a bit scary in some ways.”<br />
All of which leads to the most (in)famous chapter in The<br />
KLF’s history, The K Foundation Burn A Million Quid. “I wasn’t<br />
“The music press<br />
was so dominant in<br />
the 80s, you could<br />
become successful<br />
through solely that<br />
and have fun with it”<br />
there, but I never, ever doubted that they did it,” Houghton says<br />
of the notorious event that took place on 23rd August 1994 in<br />
a farmhouse on a remote Scottish island. “They could shape<br />
the story because they didn’t make anything of it, they allowed<br />
people to find out for themselves. The journalist they had with<br />
them wrote a story for the Observer Magazine – that was all<br />
there was. But most people at that point actually didn’t believe<br />
them, because they had this reputation of being – and I hate<br />
this – ‘pranksters’, or they were involved in these scams. Which<br />
is completely wrong because everything they were alleged to<br />
have done, they did. When the story first came out I sat in my<br />
office thinking that the phone wasn’t gonna stop ringing all day.<br />
Most people’s reaction was they couldn’t believe they did it and<br />
then ‘how dare they, who in their<br />
right minds would burn a million<br />
quid?’ And when they did there was<br />
outrage.<br />
“When they were at the signing<br />
in Liverpool at News From Nowhere<br />
in 2017, for a long time people still<br />
doubted they’d done it,” Houghton<br />
continues, bringing the story back up<br />
to the present day. “It would’ve been<br />
very easy to fake the photographs<br />
and everything, but what’s interesting<br />
when we did the thing two years<br />
ago, I don’t think anyone nowadays<br />
doubts they burnt it, it’s just been<br />
accepted. It’s kind of overshadowed<br />
everything else they’ve ever done to<br />
some extent, which on one level is quite possibly deliberate on<br />
their part, ’cos I think they wanted to move on and do something<br />
else. You can’t buy the records and there aren’t greatest hits<br />
albums coming out every six months, so the music has kind of<br />
faded into the background a little.”<br />
In a vastly changed landscape when waiting a week for a<br />
music story to break through the press seems incredibly quaint,<br />
the era of drip-feeding news and slowly building up bands is very<br />
different. “Some groups do far too much press,” Houghton says.<br />
“I always thought it was a ‘less-is-more’ thing. If you don’t need<br />
to do press, don’t do it. Justine Frischmann from Elastica thanked<br />
me for keeping them out of the press!” Indeed, despite scooping<br />
NME’s Album of the Year for Ladies And Gentlemen We Are<br />
Floating In Space in 1997, Spiritualized main man Jason Pierce<br />
was seldom interviewed.<br />
“Part of the reason I kinda gave up doing press by the end<br />
of the 90s was that I was never gonna repeat that experience.<br />
I was never gonna work with anyone like Bill and Jimmy again,<br />
or Julian, or the Bunnymen, or Spiritualized, or the Mary Chain.<br />
I think, for me, music was going into this incredibly dull phase<br />
post-millennium. Partially because the music press had been<br />
diminished so much.” !<br />
Words: Richard Lewis<br />
Fried And Justified is released on 4th <strong>July</strong> via Faber & Faber.<br />
18
SPINN<br />
With a fresh new album in their collective back pocket,<br />
Liverpool’s jangle pop darlings SPINN hit the road to<br />
charm the rest of the UK. The band’s winsome frontman<br />
Johnny Quinn gives us a peek at his tour diary.<br />
Hi! For the past month I’ve been hitting everyone<br />
interested enough to ask with the statistic that the<br />
band I’m in (SPINN) has played 31 gigs in 30 days.<br />
However, after completing the largest tour in our fancy<br />
haircut and jangly guitar spangled history, I was informed that<br />
my favourite catchphrase was factually incorrect and that we’d<br />
played a mere 26 gigs in 28 days. SHAMEFUL!<br />
Last month we released our debut album, it’s called SPINN<br />
because we couldn’t think of a decent enough name. I implore<br />
you to listen to it. It’s not exactly rock ’n’ roll, and it’s mostly in a<br />
major key, but it will probably brighten your mood and it also has<br />
the word ‘transgressions’ in one of the songs, so there! Anyway,<br />
we booked a tour last month to promote the shit out of it, we<br />
thought a normal tour would be enough but we got booked to<br />
do an HMV tour on top of it. This was a logistical nightmare, but<br />
most of the time we got free Kettle Chips.<br />
With that in mind, dear reader, I invite you to read a tour<br />
diary that I wrote one afternoon while fighting a mild red wine<br />
hangover.<br />
Love from Johnny x<br />
3rd May – Manchester<br />
The first gig of the tour was in HMV Manchester. picture the<br />
scene, dear reader… windowless<br />
backstage, no Kettle Chips on the rider<br />
and all topped off with a perilous 30-foot<br />
drop off the side of the stage because<br />
we were playing next to some stairs. We<br />
spent 20 minutes arguing about who<br />
was going to stand on the side with the<br />
drop; Andy had vertigo, so decided it<br />
would be Sean because he’s the bassist<br />
and, as everybody knows, they’re the<br />
easiest to replace. My little sister was<br />
present and asked, “Is it always this<br />
exciting, Johnny?” I said “Yes.”<br />
I’d like to extend my thanks to HMV<br />
and their staff for having us; they were<br />
lovely to us and applauded us even if<br />
nobody came, ha!<br />
5th May – Liverpool<br />
Last year we played to 400 people at Sound City after just<br />
releasing our EP – this year we had just released our album<br />
and played to, like, 800 people. It felt like a homecoming to so<br />
many people who were just made up for us, kind of how Trent<br />
Alexander-Arnold must have felt when he was texting that girl<br />
while riding that Champions League victory bus. Unbelievable<br />
scenes. Liverpool is our home and the city that we love most,<br />
and we’ve been all over the UK, man, believe me. I’ve seen the<br />
bright lights of Bedford don’t you know? Can’t remember much<br />
of Sound City after the gig, we spent it with Nathan from The<br />
Peach Fuzz and all of Monks. For me, Confidence Man were the<br />
highlight – they’re just fab, aren’t they?<br />
23rd May – Huddersfield; 24th May – Aberdeen<br />
This set of dates was probably the biggest surprise I’ve had<br />
since my mum and dad got me Mousetrap for Christmas 2005,<br />
and the people who came the gig were probably more up for it<br />
than seven-year-old Johnny was when he opened his prezzies<br />
that fateful morning. To be completely honest, I didn’t even<br />
know where Huddersfield or Aberdeen were and I’m still not<br />
“Terror-stricken<br />
faces and spew…<br />
this is how I<br />
will remember<br />
St Albans”<br />
entirely sure. But I do know that they know how to do a gig right,<br />
absolute limbs throughout, the people were all dead friendly,<br />
too. In Aberdeen we stayed in some crazy hippy commune,<br />
there were twigs glued to the ceiling (cool) and a trapeze on the<br />
stairway (dangerous). That said, our hosts were fantastic and<br />
cooked us all some delicious cinnamon and apple French toast<br />
for breakfast, with a vegan option available for Louis, our loverly<br />
Brummie drummer.<br />
Note: against our will, we found out the hard way what<br />
a ‘true Scotsman’ wears under his kilt in a smoking area in<br />
Aberdeen. Actually, it wasn’t hard but it would have been a lot<br />
more interesting if it was… snigger.<br />
28th May – St Albans<br />
We’re all human, so, alas, there comes a time in our life where<br />
we must all face some sort of gruelling and/or embarrassing<br />
moment. I thought my entire high school experience, or perhaps<br />
when I gracefully threw up on stage during last year’s Liverpool<br />
International Music Festival, was more than enough to cover<br />
my fair share of said moments. Surely, I mean surely, it couldn’t<br />
happen again… But as we all know too well, dear reader, life<br />
has a funny way of doing things. Perhaps it was a higher power<br />
trying to keep me humble, or perhaps it was an underlying<br />
stomach issue that needs addressing –<br />
who knows – but despite my hopes and<br />
prayers I did throw up again during a<br />
performance, and also managed to terrify<br />
the entire front row when I announced<br />
this. And this is how I will remember St<br />
Albans: terror-stricken faces and spew…<br />
31st May – Manchester<br />
Full circle! First gig of the tour –<br />
Manchester; last gig of the tour –<br />
Manchester.<br />
However, two very different affairs:<br />
the most notable difference being the<br />
fact that there wasn’t a drop to certain<br />
death on one side of the stage. The<br />
gig was in The Deaf Institute with<br />
Manchester band Carpet and our mates Monks on the support.<br />
If you take anything away from this, let it be Monks – very<br />
talented young lads indeed. We went for a Nando’s off Oxford<br />
Road. I got the halloumi and portobello mushroom burger (hot)<br />
with peri chips and garlic bread. Free refills. Optimal hydration.<br />
My whole family was present for this one and one particularly<br />
sweet moment was when my mum saw that we were sweating<br />
on stage, got us all a cup of water each and handed them to<br />
us halfway through the set. The crowd were amazing, our long<br />
suffering roadie Alex Forster said that the floor was shaking,<br />
I think that’s a good thing. Anyway that was the last date of<br />
the tour, when we got back we bumped into a load of Baltic<br />
Weekender goers, they were so barneted they didn’t know who<br />
was playing when we asked. Ended up out till 5am with Monks.<br />
Liverpool won the Champions League the day after. Stayed in the<br />
house all weekend, drinking myself out of the pit of misery Divock<br />
Origi caused me, while the rest of SPINN partied. Wrote this.<br />
Up the Toffees. !<br />
@spinn_band<br />
SPINN’s debut, self-titled album is out now. SPINN’s UK tour was<br />
supported by Liverpool Band Vans.<br />
20
FEATURE<br />
21
“Bold Street is truly<br />
at the heart of culture<br />
in our city. How many<br />
of us have strolled<br />
past WHISC and never<br />
given it more than a<br />
passing glance?”<br />
WHISC AT 35<br />
From behind their unassuming façade on 120 Bold Street, the quiet heroes of WHISC have been offering<br />
advice and support to generations of Liverpool’s women.<br />
In 1984, a group of women in north Liverpool noted<br />
the provisions around the city for helping women gain<br />
knowledge of their own health were scant at best. Armed<br />
and strengthened with knowledge from a women’s health<br />
course plus money from the council, they went on to create<br />
Women’s Health Information And Support Centre (WHISC). The<br />
service zigzagged between different premises across the city<br />
before finally settling at 120 Bold Street in 1994, where WHISC<br />
resides to this day.<br />
In the mid 80s when the germ of the WHISC idea began,<br />
Thatcherism was on the march. In the here and now it’s easy to<br />
reflect that, in some ways, we’ve come full circle. Women’s rights<br />
are still under attack or under threat of erosion, equality is not<br />
won, and women are the first to suffer when cuts bite.<br />
Nevertheless, over the past 35 years WHISC has adapted<br />
with the ever-changing political and social landscape to improve<br />
the lot of women living on Merseyside.<br />
“Originally things were about physical health and sexual<br />
health, but now, over the years, our primary focus has moved to<br />
mental health because there’s been such an increase in demand<br />
in Liverpool,” says WHISC funding officer Kelly Teeboon. Many<br />
difficulties experienced by Merseyside women in <strong>2019</strong> are the<br />
ongoing results of austerity, she believes, pointing out cuts to<br />
refuge and sexual violence services as perilous to women’s health.<br />
Kelly cites the introduction of Universal Credit and limiting<br />
child tax credits as the two main things affecting women<br />
disproportionately. “There’s been a change in women’s mental<br />
health in response to benefit changes, so we’ve had a huge<br />
number of women come in for support,” she says. “Universal<br />
Credit is often paid to only one member of the household, which<br />
makes it difficult for women who are being abused financially.”<br />
WHISC’s main ethos is the belief that all women and girls<br />
should have equal access to education around their physical<br />
and mental health. “They should have equal opportunities to<br />
access that information. Regardless of race, sexuality, disability,<br />
status, we work with all women. Whether they are homeless or<br />
not, it doesn’t matter. It’s about supporting all women. Because<br />
we know women are backbones of the community and their<br />
families.”<br />
The charity boasts over 50 volunteers, supported by seven<br />
paid members of staff. Many volunteers are previous service<br />
users. They’re giving something back, in a way, I mention to Kelly.<br />
“Women are experts in their own life,” she nods. “The support<br />
groups we have, like the domestic violence support group, eating<br />
disorders, depression anxiety groups, these are all led by women<br />
who have personal experience in those issues who then want<br />
to share their coping mechanisms, what they’ve done to help<br />
themselves, with other women.”<br />
Merseyside has a disturbingly high rate of domestic violence,<br />
so I ask what support there is at WHISC for survivors. As Kelly<br />
lived in a refuge when younger, her interest in the issue is strong.<br />
“We know [for] a lot of the women who attend our anxiety and<br />
depression groups, there is a history of domestic violence there.<br />
We didn’t want to tread on the toes of organisations we’ve<br />
worked with for years… they do a lot of amazing work, but we<br />
wanted to create a support group that goes beyond the initial<br />
help, once women are safe. We created a peer-to-peer support<br />
group.<br />
“We also wanted it to be open to women who are still with<br />
their partner. Because we know a lot of women don’t leave, but<br />
we wanted that support there, so they know other women are in<br />
the situation. We hope women can teach each other what to look<br />
out for. In those groups you can see the penny drops on occasion,<br />
someone else who is still with their partner thinks, ‘I thought that<br />
was just me’.”<br />
It’s so empowering for women in abusive relationships to not<br />
feel alone, and important that women who stay with partners<br />
or go back to relationships don’t feel they’re doing something<br />
wrong, or are at fault in some way.<br />
“The most important thing, whether it’s domestic or sexual<br />
violence or mental health, is that the door stays open,” Kelly<br />
stresses. “If they fail to attend meetings, we don’t write them off.<br />
If they have an appointment and they don’t come, we just create<br />
another one. We keep that door open because we know that<br />
access to these services is difficult anyway, the last thing you<br />
want to do is feel like you’ve burnt a bridge and have nowhere<br />
to go. We know that when you have mental health problems you<br />
can be inconsistent, we know that sometimes you’re unreliable,<br />
but that’s fine.”<br />
WHISC are hosting a fundraising event in <strong>July</strong> at Leaf<br />
on Bold Street, a mixture of music, spoken word and poetry,<br />
plus an auction and raffle to boost funds, but also to celebrate<br />
35 successful years. The fundraiser is supported by local<br />
independent businesses and the wider creative community<br />
across the city. Yvonne Page, business manager from Dig Vinyl<br />
record shop, is stage manager for the event.<br />
“Bold Street is truly at the heart of music and culture in our<br />
city. We all walk up and down this street on our way to work<br />
or to meet friends or go about our daily lives,” says Yvonne.<br />
“How many of us have strolled past WHISC a million times and<br />
never given it more than a passing glance? The support that the<br />
organisation gives to women all over Merseyside is so important<br />
and, with this event, I really hope to engage with the local arts<br />
and culture community and bring in a diverse crowd to celebrate<br />
and support this great organisation.”<br />
There’s been an assumption that WHISC is a service for<br />
older women when in fact anyone 18 or over can use the service.<br />
Recent times, Kelly emphasises, have seen an increase in the<br />
number of young people coming through the doors. “We’ve<br />
branched out to the universities, we have a lot of students who<br />
are on placement, social work students, counselling students,”<br />
she says. “We’re open to all women, and my own mental health<br />
has benefited from that intergenerational aspect of WHISC –<br />
hearing experiences from older and younger women, women<br />
from different cultures and communities. It’s that resilience that<br />
women have across the board.”<br />
There’s a massive value in women only spaces, I think. They<br />
bring with them a sense of safety. “A huge number of women<br />
who come here rely on us being a women only service. Especially<br />
if you’re a survivor of violence, also with some of the refugee and<br />
asylum-seeking women there are issues compounded by their<br />
gender and there aren’t many services available to just women.<br />
Because of maybe cultural stigma, we have women who come<br />
here and take their headscarves off. When they come in they feel<br />
like they’re free to do that, because they’re not in the presence<br />
of men. They’re with their children. And there are things women<br />
will say to other women that they won’t in the presence of men. I<br />
think that’s really important, almost [like] consciousness raising in<br />
the 60s [laughs]. We have a women’s health course talking about<br />
different issues and sometime it’s freeing to be away from men.”<br />
Confidentiality is a big issue for many women and it is<br />
reassuring that WHISC benefit from their location in that respect.<br />
There’s so much footfall on Bold Street that women could be<br />
in the area – or building – for myriad reasons. For things like<br />
domestic violence, sexual violence, if women want to disclose<br />
that information in a safe space then WHISC is the perfect place.<br />
“No one’s going to know why you’re here,” says Kelly. “There’s<br />
no flashing neon sign outside saying ‘I’ve got a mental health<br />
condition!’ You could be coming in for yoga, a massage or some<br />
intervention support, but nobody knows. I think that’s the key<br />
value of WHISC.”<br />
There’s a monthly poetry group, a reading group (“short<br />
stories and extracts, we don’t have a specific book, it’s to get out<br />
of your head a bit, get into a good story. A lot are usually fables,<br />
it gets women talking, having conversations”) plus meditation,<br />
a craft group, self-esteem workshops, drumming group,<br />
menopause and gynaecological support. As Liverpool has one of<br />
the largest dispersals of refugees and asylum-seeking women in<br />
the country, WHISC have a Saturday club doing English language<br />
classes, to support integration and racial cohesion. “We’ve bits of<br />
everything really,” jokes Kelly.<br />
Accessibility is at the root of what WHISC do. As 29 per cent<br />
of the women who use WHISC are disabled, there’s a stairlift,<br />
and the yoga and pilates they teach is doable in a chair. “Liz, our<br />
mental health worker, will sometimes offer a telephone listening<br />
ears service for women who can’t leave the house.”<br />
With the fundraiser, all are welcome to attend and WHISC<br />
are keen that as wide a demographic as possible is able to enjoy<br />
the night, but learn about WHISC’s services as well. People can<br />
help with increasing accessibility by buying a ticket and donating<br />
it to someone who otherwise cannot afford to attend. “We<br />
wanted to do a pass-it-forward scheme for our service users who<br />
have little or no income,” says Kelly. “WHISC is about women<br />
supporting women and it’s great that people have done this<br />
already.”<br />
“To have a sanctuary dedicated to the support and wellbeing<br />
of women at the heart of the city on Bold Street is a testament to<br />
the forward-thinking bold character of Liverpool’s community,”<br />
adds Abi Dot aka Galileo Girl, who is to perform at the event. “To<br />
the women that provide safety, compassion and vital information<br />
to women in the midst of difficult and sensitive situations, you<br />
are so appreciated and loved. I can’t wait to perform for the<br />
celebration of such a special place.” !<br />
Words: Cath Holland / @cathbore<br />
Illustration: Hannah Blackman-Kurz / @HBKurz<br />
whisc.org.uk<br />
An fundraiser for WHISC’s 35th anniversary takes place on 11th<br />
<strong>July</strong> at Leaf.<br />
22
What does the future look like<br />
if you fear you won’t exist?<br />
With the launch of Palestine +<br />
100 – a new collection of short<br />
stories by Comma Press which<br />
invites ten Palestinian authors to<br />
look ahead to 2048, 100 years<br />
after the Nakba – at Liverpool<br />
Arab Arts Festival in <strong>July</strong>,<br />
Laura Brown asks if we see the<br />
privilege in our ability to think it<br />
will always be better tomorrow.<br />
ARAB<br />
FUTURISM<br />
24
From the outside, at the end of the drive, my<br />
grandmother’s house looked like any of the other<br />
1930s semi-detached homes in Yorkshire. Yet, cross its<br />
doorway, and you were transported through space and<br />
time.<br />
At the other end of the hall was the kitchen, so first you<br />
would smell whatever was bubbling on the hob. When we<br />
visited, she would often be making our favourite: stuffed cabbage<br />
with rice and lamb, served with lemon. She would stand for<br />
hours, patiently rolling each cigar-shaped cabbage leaf. The<br />
pictures on the wall showed a family from another land. A<br />
single hand shielding the eyes as they<br />
squinted into the sun, low-level, white<br />
buildings behind them. Decorative<br />
plates, in vibrant colours and Arabic<br />
calligraphy, dotted around the walls.<br />
When the conversation turned to<br />
something we children shouldn’t hear,<br />
it slipped from English to French. If<br />
she was on the phone to her siblings<br />
and a word better described what she<br />
wanted to say, Arabic and Italian would<br />
also enter the lexicon. Eavesdropping<br />
was a challenge.<br />
My grandmother had grown up in<br />
Palestine. From the time she still held<br />
me in her arms, I would hear stories of<br />
her mother’s ‘pension’ (a hotel or guest<br />
house); of the fruit trees; the market. In her rich Arabic accent,<br />
elongating the first vowels of my name, she would talk of her<br />
home. They had fled, when my father was just seven, his sister<br />
11, carrying a suitcase each. First to Cairo, and then to England,<br />
with its black and sooty air.<br />
The stories were interwoven with the daily violence they<br />
lived with in that period. Bombings, stabbings, shootings. One<br />
of my father’s earliest memories was of being scooped up into<br />
someone’s arms when shots were fired on a beach.<br />
Yet, however horrific the story, my grandmother still hoped,<br />
one day, to return. Her life in Palestine, the place of her birth and<br />
her siblings, was not a closed chapter in her mind. God willing,<br />
she would say, one day, I will show you where we lived. She<br />
ached for it, in a way.<br />
She was happy here, but it was not home. She – we – were<br />
not English. Our story, our history, was wrapped up in this other<br />
land, far away. The future brought with it, always, the possibility<br />
she would return.<br />
The Palestine diaspora is filled with stories like this.<br />
Grandparents, parents, uncles, siblings, keeping stories of the<br />
country alive, as though that will keep its candle burning.<br />
Basma Ghalayini is the translator and editor of a new<br />
collection of short stories by Comma Press. PALESTINE + 100<br />
looks ahead to 2048, a century after the Nakba. The Nakba<br />
describes the expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians from their homes<br />
in 1948. The word ‘Nakba’ means ‘catastrophe’ or ‘disaster’.<br />
“When I was a child,” Basma writes in an essay on the 71st<br />
anniversary of the Nakba, “my grandfather would tell us about<br />
his shop in Yaffa, a business he owned with his brother in 1948,<br />
before being expelled to Egypt, where my father was born and<br />
grew up. He told us that, on their departure, they only packed a<br />
few days’ worth of clothes for him, his wife and children, as they<br />
were told they would be back as soon as it was safe. They left<br />
their sheets on the lines, chickpeas in soaking water and toys in<br />
the yard. He locked the door, put his key in his pocket and headed<br />
to safety as instructed. They never returned, and his key stayed in<br />
his pocket until he died in Cairo 60 years later.”<br />
There is a privilege when we look to the future. The final line<br />
of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind, as Scarlett O’Hara<br />
promises “After all, tomorrow is another day” always provoked a<br />
guffaw from deep within my bones. What rot, I have said more<br />
than once. What idiocy to assume you can go back home after<br />
war, that tomorrow will be well? But we do, with our (Western)<br />
power, privilege and agency, assume that even if we just have<br />
our wits, we will make tomorrow better than today. That is, we<br />
believe, our right.<br />
And yet, even though I know it is probably impossible,<br />
I dream that tomorrow I will go back to my family home in<br />
Palestine; a building or dwelling that probably does not exist.<br />
As Basma says, “This child has never been to any of those<br />
places, but they know that if they keep them alive in their heart,<br />
then once they go back, it will be as if they never left; they can<br />
pick up where their great grandfather left off. Indeed, wherever<br />
Palestinian refugees are in the world, one thing unites them: their<br />
undoubted belief in their right to return.”<br />
Futurism, especially Arab futurism, is about seeking the<br />
future as a place of hope and potential. Following Comma Press’<br />
Iraq + 100, which asked Iraqi writers what the country will look<br />
like a century after the 2003 invasion, Palestine + 100 is part of<br />
a genre that feels relatively new in literature. The stories blend<br />
time-travelling angels, technophobic dictators, talking statues,<br />
macabre museum-worlds, even hovering tiger-droids – using<br />
science fiction to bring hope into the darkness. There is Basma<br />
Abdel Aziz’ The Queue, Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in<br />
Baghdad. In artist Larissa Sansour’s A Space Exodus (2009), she<br />
plants a flag in the moon sand: “One small step for a Palestinian,<br />
a giant leap for mankind.” It is both hopeful and profoundly<br />
depressing. Hopeful because it suggests a country with either the<br />
“We are all<br />
refugees because<br />
our identity is so<br />
tied to this place<br />
that is so fragile”<br />
individual power of statehood to afford and coordinate a space<br />
programme, or a powerful proponent enabling it to do that. It is<br />
depressing that this lone voice of Palestinian development seems<br />
only to find its place in the vast emptiness of space.<br />
Arab futurism is different from the arguably better known<br />
Afrofuturism, which came from jazz artist Sun-Ra, with the<br />
phrase coined by Mark Dery in the 1990s. It reflected on the<br />
scarcity of black representation in science fiction, a buoyant<br />
genre in 80s and 90s popular culture. From Sun-Ra to Black<br />
Panther, Afrofuturism imagines a stronger black identity across<br />
its diaspora. Autonomy, authority, independence – Afrofuturism<br />
often imagines a future in which there<br />
is much hope.<br />
Arab futurism is slightly<br />
different, especially when we think<br />
about Palestine. Anwar Hamed, the<br />
Palestinian-Hungarian author of Jaffa<br />
Prepares Morning Coffee (longlisted for<br />
the 2013 Arabic Booker Prize) features<br />
in the Palestine + 100 anthology.<br />
“Palestinians are living in a harsh<br />
reality that would kill their appetite for<br />
life, so for them to survive they need to<br />
believe in the future, not to lose hope,”<br />
he says. “The present reality does not<br />
hold much hope for them, yet they<br />
cherish a mysterious hope that things<br />
will change one day. Here comes the<br />
role of ‘futurist writing’: to scan the present in search of seeds of<br />
hope for the future, to give readers some kind of motivation and<br />
appetite for life.”<br />
Basma Ghalayani says storytelling allows us to imagine a<br />
future and, notably, the elements of the future we would like to<br />
avoid. The power of the dystopia is that it allows us to articulate<br />
our deepest fears of what might come to pass.<br />
“Often what we don’t want to happen ‘here’ is informed<br />
by things we’ve seen happen, tragically, elsewhere. So in the<br />
West, dystopias and science fiction provide countries that have<br />
never experienced certain types of societal nightmares with a<br />
vocabulary for talking about them: modern Britain, for instance,<br />
has never quite experienced totalitarianism, so a book like<br />
Orwell’s 1984 is really important for you<br />
to feel what it might be like. America has<br />
never been occupied by a foreign military<br />
power, so American audiences go crazy<br />
for extended space-dramas about<br />
rebels fighting imperial occupiers with<br />
lightsabers. And when these Western<br />
writers come to do their worldbuilding,<br />
they only have other people’s<br />
recent pasts to go on. So they steal<br />
it and, if they can, elaborate on it<br />
too. Orwell stole from Russia under<br />
Stalin and reset it in a British future.<br />
Lucas stole the whole Third Reich<br />
thing and re-dressed it for a<br />
galaxy far, far away.”<br />
To assume the future offers a<br />
renewed strength suggests you<br />
are in a secure present, or are<br />
confident you have the means<br />
to shift your present into a<br />
more solid future. Palestinians<br />
do not have this luxury. Arabs<br />
are used to sharing stories; it<br />
is a vital part of their culture<br />
and heritage. The stories<br />
written in Palestine + 100<br />
are all by (and about)<br />
Palestinians. Yet many of<br />
its authors exist within<br />
the diaspora, much like<br />
Palestine itself, which<br />
largely exists within the<br />
people who hold its<br />
culture and heritage<br />
on foreign shores.<br />
“It’s difficult,”<br />
says Basma, “to<br />
begin with, the<br />
Palestinian diaspora<br />
is a special case –<br />
because, for many<br />
of us, ‘home’<br />
doesn’t even<br />
exist anymore. It<br />
got deleted. And<br />
yet, our link to<br />
what’s left of<br />
home is all<br />
the stronger<br />
for it. Any<br />
Palestinian<br />
living abroad effectively lives<br />
in two places at once. We’re over here in<br />
body, but we feel every bomb that drops in Gaza, every<br />
bullet that’s fired at a checkpoint in the West Bank. We live a<br />
strange double-life.”<br />
Anwar adds: “Literature and storytelling is built on<br />
imagination, trying to use your imagination to tell a story that<br />
never happened about people who don’t exist. Whether a writer<br />
writes about the present, the past, or the future, what they do<br />
is try to use an existing model to weave a new one, and furnish<br />
it with events, characters and thoughts. So the future, though<br />
the fruit of imagination, is based on the author’s knowledge of<br />
the past and present. An understanding of the past and present<br />
is needed to nourish the imagination in its quest for the future<br />
model.”<br />
We are all refugees, one way or another, says Basma,<br />
because our identity is so tied to this place that is so fragile.<br />
Those with Palestinian heritage are so tied to Palestine’s<br />
preservation and future that, when we imagine what it might<br />
be one day, we aim to frighten and scare. Science fiction is an<br />
incredibly powerful medium to achieve this. Yet, we are also a<br />
cautionary tale. And perhaps it is this edge which infuses Arab<br />
futurism with something of difference; that the future may<br />
harbour something far worse, more unstable, more chilling.<br />
Palestine is proof that anyone’s land and nation might not exist in<br />
their future, and that they will have a duty to preserve it through<br />
imagination and storytelling. !<br />
Words and images: Laura Brown / lauramariebrown.com<br />
arabartsfestival.com<br />
Palestine + 100 launches at Liverpool Arab Arts Festival on<br />
Tuesday 6th <strong>July</strong>.<br />
FEATURE<br />
25
D I G I T A L<br />
L O V E<br />
Artist Harriet Morley delves into her experiments with programmed communication,<br />
looping us in on an internal monologue about the complications that new<br />
modes of communication have introduced to human relationships.<br />
The creative processes I find myself in take form through<br />
research and experiments: they’re necessary for me<br />
to produce work. They’re necessary for informing my<br />
perspective so that I’m able to represent feelings of<br />
uncertainty with a kind of urgency, in a way that can be received.<br />
Experiments being: expressively talking into Google Translate and<br />
analysing its understanding; getting Alexa and Siri to converse;<br />
calling people up simultaneously for an (unwitting) conference<br />
call; texting people replies while they’re speaking next to me to<br />
test my restrictive feelings; conversing with people using Google<br />
Answers instead of my own thoughts. I wanted to apply this<br />
same approach to Tinder, after being away from my work for a<br />
time. It’s interesting to test out technology by using it in ways<br />
other than its prescribed function – by talking to it, analysing its<br />
interpretation of my words, how it registers/receives/perceives<br />
the way I approach language, how it hears my tone, what it does<br />
with what I’ve said. How it doesn’t understand the way in which<br />
I mean things, in any way. And why should it, I suppose. You can<br />
argue some people adopt these strategies irl too – misperception,<br />
lack of engagement, how some pretend to understand, or how<br />
they’re becoming less and less receptive to human elements. Or,<br />
perhaps introversion was always inevitable for some. I don’t have<br />
the answers; I’m just trying to unpick this stuff – the uncertainty,<br />
ambiguity, increasing physical distance.<br />
I also find myself torn between recorded and live processes<br />
– between performing or playing something recorded (e.g.<br />
spoken word/conversations), knowing the recorded will do<br />
what I want it to, but knowing I can’t ignore the beauty in the<br />
unexpected nature of a live performance. I want for something<br />
to be lived presently, but I want to remember the feeling of<br />
that presence, so I inevitably record it, retrospectively removing<br />
myself from actually being present, instead creating something<br />
smaller and fragmented. The fragments become something<br />
minimised and framed in a digital pocket that we can return to,<br />
enlarge or remove, and momentarily re-live. And everything,<br />
to me, feels transitory and short-term. Short-term-letting of<br />
each other, moments, possessions, things feel disposable and<br />
replaceable with capitalist materials, apps, online intimacy, digital<br />
conversation, inhaling and exhaling currents of data, moving at<br />
a speed so fast we skim-read our way through<br />
moments.<br />
I did performances in university<br />
with students where they asked me<br />
questions: I typed what they asked into<br />
Google and copy-pasted the first<br />
answer that came up into the<br />
Google Translate voice. I liked<br />
using this tool to converse;<br />
I never got bored of<br />
it. It was refreshing<br />
to have the weight<br />
of conversation<br />
alleviated from me<br />
because I didn’t<br />
have to carry<br />
it or worry<br />
about being<br />
interesting. The conversation that happened was disjointed<br />
but direct, it was random and every sentence was new; it was<br />
engaging. Once you start speaking in unconventional ways, the<br />
‘normal’ elements of human conversation make themselves clear. I<br />
got Tinder in November after feeling lonely. I’d never had it before.<br />
Human window shopping for any potential similarities and trying<br />
to extract that from infinite option<br />
was fun… but overwhelming and so<br />
strange. The users never end. Swiping<br />
face after face, inspecting only their<br />
appearance with nothing else to go<br />
off; not being able to get any sense<br />
of who they could be, what type of<br />
humour they have, what their voice<br />
sounds like, how genuine they are,<br />
what type of laugh they have, if they’re<br />
self-conscious or bold, how they hold<br />
themselves. It’s pretty far-fetched to<br />
approach it with that expectancy, but it<br />
is literally so difficult to decide whether<br />
you’ll get on with someone just based<br />
on their 2D frozen appearance, and<br />
I think I just notice how much more<br />
I have got out of interactions that weren’t dating apps, the<br />
intricacies and layers to a personality, and hoping people don’t put<br />
too much wasted faith in these systems.<br />
It’s a guessing game, and it feels like a gamble of my time.<br />
Putting my energy, momentarily, into disposable users who I’m<br />
not able to trust is a gamble of my time. Every interaction we<br />
have with someone is because of a shared experience, something<br />
that binds you together by place. So Tinder, naturally, feels<br />
obscure and forced and unnaturally placed. Tinder has limitations<br />
on connection, and maybe it’s exciting to experience fleeting<br />
moments of a displayed attraction but it is just that, fleeting. How<br />
do people translate themselves online? Like, how do you achieve<br />
a distinctive translation of your character? Is that important?<br />
Intimacy and humour find new expressions in text, replacing<br />
speech and touch. We’re learning to read empathy and emotion<br />
through the composition of texts – every typed word becomes<br />
heavy with potential, intentionality – macro, fleeting<br />
love letters that disappear instead of lining<br />
your drawers.<br />
After having it for a couple days I<br />
thought it would fill a void, or give me<br />
instant gratification, but I felt even further<br />
away from intimacy, and closer to<br />
loneliness. I realised I wanted familiarity,<br />
something I knew, but all this was so<br />
unfamiliar and brief. I felt so disposable.<br />
I initially just wanted sex, but after<br />
having it for a bit I realised I missed<br />
knowing someone. I don’t really like<br />
displaying the best version of me in<br />
2D edited pics, but I feel the need to.<br />
I don’t like the pressure to live up to<br />
that, the worry of them not liking<br />
the intricacies about you that you’re<br />
conscious about. It’s so easy to create<br />
an ideal of someone through their<br />
online persona, and the pressure to<br />
get something valuable out of it is<br />
overbearing. Maybe I’m thinking too<br />
much into it, and the time is worth<br />
the embarrassment or failure, maybe<br />
not. All of this isn’t infallible, but my own<br />
subjective, personal experience of digital<br />
compatibility. I had more success with<br />
women on Tinder – the men were very<br />
transparent to me.<br />
I really wanted to experiment<br />
again with Google Answers. This time I<br />
was deceiving them; they didn’t know I was<br />
“These new forms<br />
of communication<br />
are changing how<br />
we relate to each<br />
other – it’s exciting to<br />
poke and prod at the<br />
alien possibilities”<br />
Google. I felt guilty doing it, because of my false self, making<br />
them believe I thought they were attractive and then pretending<br />
to follow their conversation, even though everything about my<br />
profile was how I would usually present myself online. I also felt<br />
vulnerable and exposed as I had no filter on who I was matching,<br />
and I knew that I was more open to objectification. On top of this,<br />
I felt protected by my programmed<br />
façade. Because I’d programmed<br />
myself to be something other than<br />
myself, I was untouchable to them;<br />
because I wasn’t absorbing anything<br />
they said, their words didn’t matter to<br />
me. They could ask anything, insult<br />
or compliment me, and I wouldn’t<br />
be touched by any of it; I was<br />
inaccessible, shielded by Google.<br />
Despite the guilt, I realised that I<br />
could speak any way I wanted to – why<br />
does it matter if it’s recycled, direct and<br />
unemotional language? Why did I feel<br />
momentarily disloyal to these strangers<br />
for programming myself? I don’t owe<br />
them anything and I’m not harassing<br />
or manipulating them – they started the conversation and were<br />
able to control where it went, just like I could. Some of them, I<br />
could tell, felt refreshed because it was completely different to the<br />
usual mundane small talk and it was something that threw them<br />
off guard, made them feel maybe a little on edge and confused<br />
but intrigued. Some knew it was something bot-related and went<br />
along with it; some knew it was something bot-related and exited<br />
quickly; and some didn’t have a clue. Conversing in this way feels<br />
exhilarating because it either makes you think really hard or not<br />
at all, because the content is there already, and the interaction is<br />
solely derived from the words’ experience rather than either of our<br />
personal experiences. So, instead of us talking about ourselves, we<br />
were forced to talk about what related to the words, while they<br />
were trying to figure me out and place me with the history of those<br />
words. They would either be relentlessly trying to work out what<br />
the fuck I was talking about, unpicking each sentence, or ignoring<br />
me entirely and saying what they wanted, like I was, like we were<br />
having our own separate conversations. It was interesting for me<br />
to test, because I was able to look at how Tinder operates without<br />
being there. Like, I felt removed from the situation, because I was<br />
Google. I’d only previously tried it with students or friends irl,<br />
so I felt compelled to do it with strangers online, because while<br />
everything else is stripped back, it limits it to just the exchange of<br />
topics and how they’re received and interpreted, I knew there’d be<br />
more willingness and urgency behind it.<br />
I’m drawn to the shift in how human interaction and intimacy<br />
now operates, how that is sieved through online and into offline<br />
space and where the gaps are translucent in both. People fall<br />
in love online all the time – maybe there’s a beautiful freedom<br />
to accessing people you’ll never meet, and maybe it’s just nice<br />
to not have the constant strain of self-consciousness that is<br />
permeated in real life situations, and instead a space to curate<br />
yourself in a relaxed setting by your choice of language. I think<br />
those fleeting mini-relationships can be a cathartic saviour when<br />
distance is so strong in a society that separates us by exhaustive<br />
work hours and mental health. Maybe it depends on the person<br />
– it can be a destructive self-display where people are almost<br />
encouraged to be shallow and exploitative, but sometimes the<br />
relationships formed in the nowhere of the internet turn into the<br />
foundation for something real somewhere. It can be a beautiful<br />
platform to discover people who are exactly like you who you’re<br />
unable to access in your day-to-day life. These new forms of<br />
communication are changing how we relate to each other, and it’s<br />
exciting to poke and prod at the alien possibilities and the foreign<br />
digital languages we are writing collectively. !<br />
Words: Harriet Morley<br />
hlmorley3.wixsite.com<br />
26
“As a younger artist,<br />
you worry a bit too<br />
much about your art.<br />
Now I don’t really care…<br />
I trust my instinct”<br />
NEIL<br />
KEATING<br />
Huw Livingstone meets the man quietly shaping the aesthetic of<br />
Liverpool’s favourite spots and our Instagram feeds, one mural at a time.<br />
NEIL KEATING’s success is visible, painted on the<br />
streets of Bold Street and the Baltic Triangle; his style<br />
has been the vehicle for a new crop of independent<br />
businesses to make their mark. You might not know<br />
Keating by his appearance and perhaps not by name, but for the<br />
past two years he has been painting himself into the tapestry of<br />
the Liverpool independent bar and restaurant scene. The man<br />
himself claims that despite his ubiquitous presence as a local<br />
artist, he keeps a low profile. “You might know the back of my<br />
head from my Instagram feed, but that’s about it.” Since 2017,<br />
he has been working with venues around Liverpool, promoting<br />
their efforts with an inventive style of guerrilla marketing and an<br />
aesthetic infused with an eclectic array of influences ranging from<br />
Robert Crumb to The Beano. If you ever saw the Avocado Is Bae<br />
mural on the late Love Thy Neighbour on Bold Street, you are<br />
familiar with his work.<br />
As we weave through a bright and windy day down the<br />
back streets of the city centre towards the Baltic Triangle, he<br />
tells me about his professional history and how it has shaped his<br />
style and mentality. Growing up in Liverpool, he had a natural<br />
fixation on art and drawing. “I spent a lot of my youth just<br />
copying comics all the time, just trying to get as close as I could<br />
to them. I went away from it when I went to university, where<br />
you kind of deconstruct yourself, a little bit too much sometimes.<br />
After university, I went to work in a studio at the Bluecoat. I was<br />
messing around with loads of different styles, messing with live<br />
art and stuff. They used to commission me to automatically draw<br />
as part of an exhibition. They’d have a poet on deconstructing<br />
their poetry: I’d sit there and illustrate what they were saying.”<br />
He went from there to work in an animation studio in<br />
Southport called Wyzowl, taking from that an education in how<br />
to work to the clock, but also a distaste for office life. “I was just<br />
sat behind a desk and I felt like I could do so many other things<br />
aside from animation. I missed the physical aspect of painting and<br />
that’s what convinced me to take the plunge and go freelance.”<br />
If the idea of risking safety and trusting your instincts to<br />
venture into a financially insecure world is daunting to you,<br />
Keating’s story has been one of success. Since then he’s gone<br />
from creating a series of prints and labouring with his dad to<br />
support his family to finding himself battling through the chaos<br />
of fully fledged freelance work. “The past 12 months have been<br />
the busiest, but also the hardest in my life for personal reasons.<br />
The work has really helped me through that. I threw myself into<br />
my work and sometimes that emotion can drive you to success. I<br />
thrive off other people’s energy, that’s what drives me.”<br />
The demands of the job seem to have had an impact on his<br />
process. “I don’t really like going back to things. I think that’s just<br />
the pace and the way I have to do things now, and that pace stops<br />
you from over-thinking things as well. I can get quite manic when<br />
I’m working. If I’m doing a mural, I won’t eat all day because I’ve<br />
gotta keep my mind on it. As a younger artist you worry a bit too<br />
much about your art, whereas now I don’t really care what people<br />
think about it. If I feel what I’m doing is a good thing, I trust that<br />
instinct.” This kind of internal confidence must be essential when<br />
working with people who are placing their trust in you.<br />
He tells me about a particularly successful job where he<br />
was granted this trust at The Dog House on Penny Lane. “It was<br />
absolutely dead and the venue had lost its coherence. They got<br />
me in and, slowly but surely, we started developing a branding<br />
project for it. It’s a different approach to the way a design agency<br />
would go at it. It’s giving the artist the freedom to go with it, and<br />
they were happy to give me the license to do my own thing. It’s<br />
been six or seven months now and the place is chocker. We’re<br />
collaborating with local breweries now to create some beer labels<br />
and keep it inventive.” Is it always this rosy? “Not always, I did a<br />
project with the Dockside Dining Club, we put our heart and soul<br />
into that one and it didn’t really work out. After about three or<br />
four weeks I stopped going in there for my breakfast. It was a bit<br />
too much. You’ve got to laugh, really.”<br />
We wander in sight of two of his pieces on Jamaica Street.<br />
One is a reproduction of a simplistic, line-based illustration he<br />
created for Craft Minded. There’s no name or obvious brand<br />
screaming at you; it sidesteps the crudeness of traditional,<br />
money hungry advertisement and in its subtlety, betraying the<br />
optimism of a venue which is first and foremost passionate<br />
about what they do. The other is a personal piece that depicts<br />
‘life’ symbolised as an arcade game, and the distraught character<br />
playing it has run out of lives. Game Over. “I just came out and<br />
did this on a Wednesday night, I wanted there to be something<br />
on the wall that wasn’t branded by anything.” It’s a mischievous<br />
and colourful reflection on failure and is in tune with Keating’s<br />
die-smiling attitude. “You’re always going to get setbacks, but it’s<br />
about taking your chances. You can’t let things get to you, you<br />
just have to keep going.”<br />
The stylistic contrast between to two pieces shows the<br />
versatility Keating has developed as an artist, a quality that has<br />
won him a job with local stalwart Cains Brewery developing a<br />
graphics project for their latest effort, the revamped The Brewery<br />
Tap. “It’s a mix of contemporary and traditional styles. We’ve got<br />
some poppy screen prints. We want to slowly build the brand<br />
with it, develop merchandise, badges and T-shirts, and slowly<br />
draw people into them from it. And that’s where street art comes<br />
into it. I started thinking of different ways of using it, maybe<br />
doing some guerrilla marketing round the Baltic, finding locations<br />
for street art, maybe using QR codes.”<br />
These inventive strategies have been key to Keating’s<br />
success in monetising his talents, and as the arts take their usual<br />
hammering and financial starvation from our blessed political<br />
leaders, the feeling that art has little value is laser beamed into<br />
our collective conscience. I thought I’d ask Keating where he<br />
hopes to take it from here and what the future holds for Liverpool<br />
and its budding artists. “Prices are starting to go up round the<br />
Baltic, and studio space is expensive. The government should<br />
provide funding to help artists get a space to work. There are a<br />
lot of young artists with talent out there – I hope my work shows<br />
people that you can work with artists, you can trust them. On the<br />
other hand, your talent is in your ideas – it’s up to you to work<br />
hard and make something grow. I love working in Liverpool but I<br />
want to start working more nationally. The summer is going to be<br />
mad, I’ve got projects winking at me, they’re all exciting projects<br />
but I know it’s gonna be busy.” !<br />
Words: Huw Livingstone<br />
Imagery: Neil Keating<br />
@Neil_Keating<br />
28
the<br />
social<br />
OHMNS<br />
SILVER LININGS<br />
IRENE & THE DISAPPOINTMENTS<br />
SOUND FOOD<br />
AND DRINK<br />
THUR<br />
18th JULY 7:30PM<br />
£5 ADV/ MORE ON THE DOOR
SPOTLIGHT<br />
MICHAEL ALDAG<br />
A rising star who is managing to merge classic Scouse songwriting with the freshness of contemporary<br />
electronic production. You heard him here first.<br />
If you had to describe your music in a sentence, what would<br />
you say?<br />
It’s anthemic electro-pop. It can range from heartfelt ballads to<br />
guitar driven anthems. My aim is to have people screaming at the<br />
top of their lungs, and then sobbing, within the same set.<br />
How did you get into music?<br />
As soon as I came to the harsh realisation, when I was about<br />
seven years old, that I wasn’t going to play up front for England,<br />
I really focused on it. I started writing when I was 14. The first<br />
song I wrote was a tribute to the victims of the Hillsborough<br />
disaster, as it was around the time of the inquest that found they<br />
were unlawfully killed.<br />
Can you pinpoint a live gig or a piece of music that initially<br />
inspired you?<br />
My dad used to play The Killers a lot. I remember listening to<br />
them in the car on the way back from my nan’s and it gave me<br />
this feeling of vast awesomeness and emotion. Like you could cry<br />
but you wouldn’t know why you were crying. I was lucky enough<br />
to see them two years ago in the Echo Arena and I’ve never felt<br />
jealousy like it in my life. I just wanted to be Brandon Flowers. I<br />
still do.<br />
Why is music important to you?<br />
It’s crazy the fact that you can be sat there, hear something, and<br />
then three and a half minutes later your mood has changed. And<br />
that’s something anyone can experience. I think writing is one of<br />
the best outlets: a lot of the time I’ll write a song in a rush, listen<br />
back to it and it’ll outline events<br />
in my life and feelings that I didn’t<br />
necessarily know I had. That’s special.<br />
Then sharing what you’ve made<br />
with other people who might relate<br />
to something that you’ve written,<br />
alone in your bedroom, creates a<br />
connection that we can sometimes<br />
overlook but is amazing.<br />
What does your favourite song to<br />
perform live say about you?<br />
I have a song called OKAY and it has<br />
an energy about it that people seem<br />
to respond to. It’s basically a confession of all my insecurities and<br />
flaws and it’s a strangely liberating feeling getting to sing them<br />
out to a room full of strangers. It has a cool synth line on it as<br />
well, so that helps.<br />
What do you think is the overriding influence on your<br />
songwriting?<br />
Definitely a mixture of influences and art, but the majority of the<br />
time it’s my own emotions. I think writing about current affairs<br />
is very important, though; I’m trying to do it more. As artists we<br />
have a unique platform with which we can do a lot of good, so<br />
we should try to.<br />
Do you have a favourite venue you’ve performed in? If so, what<br />
makes it special?<br />
“As artists we have<br />
a unique platform<br />
with which we can<br />
do a lot of good, so<br />
we should try to”<br />
I recently played a new electronic<br />
set at Constellations for Sound City<br />
as a part of Levi’s Music Project.<br />
Debuting songs that you’ve produced<br />
over months is always exciting,<br />
if not nerve-wracking. Levi’s had<br />
personalised the venue for us artists<br />
and created graphic design to play<br />
as a backdrop while we performed. It<br />
was grand.<br />
Can you recommend an artist, band<br />
or album that Bido Lito! readers<br />
might not have heard?<br />
There’s this guy called Jimothy Lacoste who I’ve only just<br />
discovered. He has an 80s feel and does some funny songs.<br />
It’s worth watching his videos because his dance moves are<br />
something else.<br />
If you could support any artist in the future, who would it be?<br />
It’ll come as no surprise after my earlier fanboying, that it would<br />
be a dream to support The Killers. Bastille as well. They’re both<br />
great bands who’ve influenced me a lot.<br />
soundcloud.com/michael-aldag<br />
Michael Aldag is one of the new cohort of Merseyrail Sound<br />
Station artists who will be performing live at Liverpool Central<br />
station on Friday 26th <strong>July</strong>.<br />
30
SHAI-LI<br />
This Liverpool-based producer<br />
and multi-instrumentalist<br />
crafts sweeping vistas from her<br />
minimalist compositions.<br />
“I love that I<br />
can express<br />
myself without<br />
needing to talk”<br />
If you had to describe your style in a sentence, what would you<br />
say?<br />
The demands of dedicated training provided the confidence for<br />
experimentation: contained within major and minor notes is an<br />
atmosphere of hope and of focus.<br />
Have you always wanted to create music?<br />
When I was five I started playing piano – and I haven’t stopped<br />
since then. I started playing guitar when I was 10. I have always<br />
been playing, studying and listening to music, and I think I<br />
always knew that this was my path. However, it was only after<br />
my military service in 2013 that decided I wanted to develop it<br />
as my profession. That’s when I ended up moving to Liverpool<br />
from Israel to study at LIPA, where I focused on production and<br />
composition.<br />
Can you pinpoint a live gig or a piece of music that initially<br />
inspired you?<br />
Opening by Philip Glass. I came across this piece last year and<br />
it introduced me to the style of minimalistic music. I found the<br />
hypnotising feeling of this piece meditating and really unique.<br />
Do you have a favourite song or piece of music to perform?<br />
If I have to pick one piece it might have to be Clair De Lune by<br />
Debussy. A simple melody line accompanied by rich, beautiful<br />
and effective harmony is what I’m trying to create as well when I<br />
compose. I find the simplicity in it powerful and moving.<br />
What do you think is the overriding influence on your<br />
songwriting: other art, emotions, current affairs – or a mixture<br />
of all of these?<br />
For me it is the mixture of all these together. I never write with<br />
a clear intention, but when I need to explain to myself whether<br />
a piece of mine is one to keep, I analyse it considering how it<br />
matches the state of mind I was in.<br />
If you could support any artist in the future, who would it be?<br />
Absolutely Ólafur Arnalds!<br />
Do you have a favourite venue you’ve performed in?<br />
I performed in an OUTPUT gallery in May. What made it special<br />
– aside from the fact it was my EP release – was that it combined<br />
two types of art together: music and visual arts. The space was<br />
small and the audience was set on the floor. Taking music outside<br />
the studio or the regular stage created an intimate connection<br />
with the audience that I’ve never felt before when playing at<br />
typical music venues.<br />
Why is music important to you?<br />
Music is my way to express myself. I usually write instrumental<br />
music, and I love that I can express myself without needing to<br />
talk.<br />
soundcloud.com/shai-li<br />
RAHEEM<br />
ALAMEEN<br />
One of last year’s LIMF Academy Most<br />
Ready artists has started to fulfil his<br />
huge potential, with two stellar tracks<br />
already released so far in <strong>2019</strong>.<br />
“Music helped<br />
me through a<br />
tough time in my<br />
life and it also<br />
helped me get on<br />
a better path”<br />
If you had to describe your music in a sentence, what would<br />
you say?<br />
I take a lot of influence from RnB and combine that with Afro<br />
style music.<br />
How did you get into making music?<br />
I’ve been singing since the age of four and have wanted to do<br />
music since I can remember. I decided to take it up at university at<br />
the age of 18. I started writing and making music in my friend’s<br />
studio and we’d just mess around ’til I thought it would actually<br />
be good to pursue this is a career. I put out a song on BBC<br />
Introducing in early 2015 and then everything just started to fall<br />
in place after that.<br />
Where were you brought up? How, if at all, did your<br />
surroundings inspire the music you make now?<br />
I was brought up in Liverpool. My family were heavily into RnB<br />
and hip hop when I was young, so I took my influences from<br />
there and made my own path as I grew older.<br />
Can you think of any artists who inspired you when you were<br />
starting out?<br />
Maverick Sabre. I Need was the first song I ever recorded in a<br />
studio. I remember a friend asking me to come in and record a<br />
cover for one of his university projects. I went and recorded it and<br />
that’s when I really fell in love with creating and recording music.<br />
What do you think is the overriding influence on your<br />
songwriting: other art, emotions, current affairs – or a mixture<br />
of all of these?<br />
I write about things I’ve been through in life and also what other<br />
people around me have gone through. I take inspiration from life<br />
events and try and interpret them in my own way. Writing music<br />
to me is like writing a script to a film, I always visualise the story.<br />
Which contemporary artists do you feel are making the most<br />
interesting music today?<br />
I think Yxng Bane, Octavian, Khalid and Daniel Caesar are really<br />
paving a way for the younger generation in music.<br />
Why is music important to you?<br />
Music saved me… It helped me through a tough time in my life<br />
and it also helped me get on a better path. I spend most days in<br />
the studio writing and creating music. It’s become a lifestyle for<br />
me and I’m finally starting to turn my dreams into a reality.<br />
@raheemalameen<br />
Raheem Alameen’s new track Too Deep is out now. Raheem<br />
performs at Liverpool International Music Festival on Saturday<br />
20th <strong>July</strong> on the Central Stage.<br />
SPOTLIGHT 31
PREVIEWS<br />
“We’ve always<br />
tried to make<br />
pop from what<br />
we have lying<br />
around”<br />
GIG<br />
ROLLING BLACKOUTS<br />
COASTAL FEVER<br />
Invisible Wind Factory – 09/07<br />
These self-christened “soft-punks” from Melbourne<br />
have been riding a wave of acclaim that has taken<br />
them across the world, showcasing their bright and<br />
thoughtful guitar rock.<br />
Prior to their European tour, Melbourne’s ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER<br />
return to the UK, stopping off in Liverpool for the first time when they play at Invisible<br />
Wind Factory. Their tour is currently in support of their new 7” double A-side single,<br />
In The Capital/Read My Mind, a continuation of their critically lauded 2018 album,<br />
Hope Downs. To measure up to this acclaim, the group have been on the road fairly consistently,<br />
drawing ever-increasing crowds the further they play from home. Georgina Hull spoke to vocalist<br />
and guitarist Fran Keaney for his take on how the quintet have found the ups and downs of the<br />
past year.<br />
So you’re currently in the midst of a worldwide tour. How is that treating you so far?<br />
We’re just in the middle of a US run; we started over at the East Coast – New York, Washington,<br />
Philadelphia, Toronto, Chicago – and then flew over to the West Coast. We played Seattle last night,<br />
we’re just driving up to Vancouver today to play there, and then we’ll play Portland tomorrow night,<br />
finishing off the US run playing San Fran and L.A. It’s been really good. I think it’s our fourth time over<br />
here now, and I think we’re getting slightly better at doing the big American road trip scene.<br />
Compared to the tour you had for your debut album, how have you been finding the run of shows?<br />
In the States it’s been a bit bigger this time around. We put a double A-side out recently, but it<br />
seems like a lot of people who are coming to the show that haven’t seen us before and have sort of<br />
come onto the album a little bit more recently. The States is a little bit of a different beat to the UK or<br />
Australia. There are these little spot fires, ’cos all the towns have their own radio stations so they’re<br />
very separate entities; state to state, town to town. It’s different in the UK and Aus because we have<br />
national broadcasters that people listen to.<br />
For me, the music on the new single sounds like you’ve paid a little more attention to the finer<br />
details – it’s not quite as stripped back and direct as the album. Do you think this is a sign of<br />
maturity, or advancement in your songwriting?<br />
I hope so. We worked on In The Capital for a long time, actually. It was in the mix for the album, but<br />
we couldn’t quite capture the essence of what the song felt like. So we just worked on it and worked<br />
on it and changed the lyrics, eventually we got to the heart of it a lot better. I think the themes fit<br />
together a lot with the other single, Read My Mind; overall the lyrics are a bit more opaque than our<br />
earlier stuff. I think they service the feelings that the melodies use, that’s something that we tried to<br />
do – not to distract from the point that was being made by the music. I don’t know if we’ll do that all<br />
the time, but for these songs it seemed like the way to go. They’ve been nice additions to the set, ’cos<br />
they’re more introspective and subdued, or something. The crowds seem to react positively to them,<br />
so it’s been feeling good.<br />
What changes and adjustments have you made in terms of style and production?<br />
There hasn’t really been anything different that we’ve done this time around, our band has always<br />
been a basic sort of set up. We’ve always tried to make pop from what we have lying around. We<br />
don’t have any vocal effects, really; I think we just sound like what a band from 30 years ago would’ve<br />
sounded like. We don’t try and toy with the formula too much, we just try to work within the confines<br />
of the tools that we have. We stay true to ourselves and our original style; initially, the band was just<br />
a few acoustic guitars, sitting around in a bedroom and trying to find strong melodies and ideas. So<br />
we’ve just tried to make that the focus to make the songs strong enough. Then we don’t have to rely<br />
on smoke and mirrors to beef things up here and there. Making the ingredients work hard for you, like<br />
they do in some cuisines.<br />
At the time of writing the new material, was there a particular sound palette you wanted to<br />
surround yourself in? Any artists you found yourself listing to a lot?<br />
Musically speaking, not really. We just sort of noodle around until we find a melody that feels like<br />
something, feels like a feeling, and then we have to sort of diagnose what that feeling might be,<br />
and chase down the lyrics and jigsaw pieces to fit that. We just listen widely, and what comes out,<br />
comes out. Lyrically, for In The Capital – which I wrote the lyrics for – I had a breakthrough when I was<br />
reading this Australian author called Gerald Murnane, who’s got this really odd little book called Border<br />
Districts. It’s about this guy who’s just, sorta, tracing his memory through this ‘mind’s eye’ imagery. He<br />
goes on tangent upon tangent, recalling the tint of a stained-glass window that was at a house when<br />
he was five years old and had a piano lesson, and the song in the piano lesson that he was learning<br />
– retraces that through to some party somewhere, and it’s this long roundabout memoir. It’s all very<br />
hysteric and lyrical, so it’s hard to describe it. Just a long bit of poetry, basically.<br />
In terms of the music you’re currently making, do you perceive yourselves as band firmly in the<br />
indie bracket? What’s your perception of this genre tag?<br />
Certainly. I mean, it’s very broad. It’s so broad as to be un-useful, but I’d proudly say that we are in that<br />
category. There are a lot of subsections in that category that might be more useful with describing our<br />
sound. We say “tough-pop, soft-punk”. Soft-punk is a little tongue-in-cheek; not too many punks that<br />
would describe themselves as soft, but we’ve got no problem with that. We’ve got melodies, strong<br />
hooks, but we also like playing the songs with conviction. That’s what I really like about The Smiths,<br />
you know, they really played strong melodies and ambitious melodies with absolute venom – I think<br />
that’s a really cool thing.<br />
I noticed that when you were discussing Hope Downs you mentioned “there was a general sense<br />
that things were coming apart at the seams and people around us were too” – is this a direct<br />
reference to the change in the political and social climate happening in many countries across the<br />
world?<br />
Yeh. The album came out in 2018, it was recorded in 2017, the songs were written in 2016 and 2017,<br />
and obviously 2016 was where everything went to shit. I think everyone was just trying to make<br />
sense of it; it really rocked a lot of people. Particularly the people I know. A lot of those songs are<br />
just, sort of, trying to grapple with this shit thing in the sands. I don’t really have a definitive answer<br />
regarding my own take on it – one thing that we say is to just try and find the ones you love and hold<br />
on to them. That sounds pretty drastic, but… we had an election two or three weeks ago just before<br />
we came over here, and it was the same sort of feeling. It was quite deflating because it seemed like<br />
maybe our country was heading in a positive, progressive direction, and all of the polls suggested that<br />
was the way it was gonna go, but then there was this shock on election day like what happened in<br />
2016 in the UK and the States, just watching everything turn blue rather than turn red. I don’t know<br />
if it’s the same in the US, but the shade of blue is a frightening one. It’s driven by selfishness, first and<br />
foremost. That seems to be the story of the day, and that was what was so deflating about it, to see<br />
that selfishness is still pretty much the basis in our country. It takes the wind out of your sails a bit.<br />
Is it a feeling you want to explicitly want to highlight in your music, or a reality you’d like to escape<br />
from?<br />
Yeh, but the escapist thing is a bit of a weird one. You don’t want to just close your eyes and pretend<br />
everything’s fine. I think we just want to make people have a good time and want to create an<br />
inclusive atmosphere and break down some barriers. I don’t have a clear answer yet. We try and<br />
carry ourselves through our music, we try and break down walls between people. A lot of our songs<br />
are about men who are closing themselves off from others, which is something that happens a lot in<br />
Australia, which we want to hold up to the light and poke at.<br />
More specifically, are these issues more closely linked to the rise of social media and the decrease<br />
of actual human contact? Are people’s views becoming more isolationist?<br />
I think the main thing with social media is that it creates these echo chambers; people just live in their<br />
own separate communities. If they wanna just read Premier League news or if they just wanna read<br />
about darts, they’ll do that, and they don’t have to watch the nightly news or read the daily paper.<br />
Previously there were, sort of, established mediums; people were on the same page, as it were, and<br />
they’d have different views but at least there was a common conversation that was happening, but now<br />
it’s just babble. People living on the same street live in all sorts of different communities, so they start<br />
talking about different realities, different facts, different takes on science. That seems to be the problem.<br />
In an entertainment way, it’s great. You can just go down your own little rabbit warren, you can<br />
find all sorts of things, and as a band you can establish a worldwide community without any real<br />
physical infrastructure and you can see on Spotify that people are listening from Mexico City and<br />
Philadelphia. So, yeh, it’s really useful, you don’t have to rely on as much luck as you used to, because<br />
you’ve got a platform in your own bedroom. !<br />
Words: Georgina Hull / @georgiehull<br />
Photography: Maclay Heriot<br />
rollingblackoutsband.com<br />
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s new single In The Capital is out now via Sub Pop.<br />
32
Nile Rodgers<br />
FESTIVAL<br />
Liverpool International<br />
Music Festival<br />
Sefton Park – 20-21/07<br />
MEMBERS<br />
PICK<br />
Le Freak, Everybody Dance, Good Times, I Want Your Love…<br />
we haven’t got the space in this previews section to list all of<br />
the copper-bottomed bangers NILE RODGERS AND CHIC<br />
have been responsible for, but you get the idea. To get the full<br />
experience, Liverpudlians can get their hands on a wristband for this<br />
year’s LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL. In a wildly<br />
exciting turn of events, the disco originators have just been announced<br />
as this year’s headliners! And the fun doesn’t stop there.<br />
Returning to Sefton Park for its seventh consecutive year, LIMF is<br />
celebrating the 30th birthday of legendary homegrown label 3Beat Records<br />
with a run of exclusive live headliner performances. The Saturday will<br />
present special guests including British-German DJ duo M-22, Liverpoolborn<br />
house producer ANTON POWERS and platinum-selling SIGMA.<br />
Adding to the disco flavour, SISTER SLEDGE FEATURING KATHY<br />
SLEDGE will be dishing out more familiar funky favourites on Sunday,<br />
before DISCO CLASSICAL give the orchestral treatment to any remaining<br />
floor-filling anthems.<br />
Another genre-defining act, in the form of hip hop pioneers DE LA<br />
SOUL, will also be wowing Sefton Park crowds. The New York trio, famous<br />
for hits The Magic Number, Me, Myself, And I and Eye Know, is another<br />
coup for the jewel in Culture Liverpool’s musical crown. There will also be a<br />
healthy smattering of homegrown emerging talent; PIZZAGIRL, EYESORE<br />
& THE JINX, SUNDOWNERS and our own pick, cover star BILL NICKSON,<br />
to name four, will be gracing the Music City stage this year. The festival’s<br />
esteemed LIMF Academy will present a selection of its progeny across the<br />
two top stages throughout the weekend. We recommend checking out<br />
LUNA, KYAMI and RAHEEM ALAMEEN from 2018’s intake.<br />
For those who want to groove down to phat beats, the legends that<br />
are NORMAN JAY MBE and Soul II Soul’s JAZZIE B will be spinning tunes<br />
in the True School Clubhouse on the Saturday of the festival, while the<br />
Shubz DJ Tent hosts DJ ACE and MANNY MORTE among others across the<br />
weekend. Offering a truly eclectic and impressive line-up that will appeal to<br />
a multitude of generations and fans of a diverse mix of genres, this year’s<br />
LIMF will be a real highlight in <strong>July</strong>’s packed festival calendar. Ridiculously<br />
good value day tickets, priced at £10 each, can be purchased now from<br />
ticketquarter.co.uk.<br />
Candice Breitz, Sweat (2018)<br />
EXHIBITION<br />
REAL WORK<br />
FACT – 12/07-06/10<br />
Established concepts of work and employment have shifted<br />
massively over the course of the last decade. Since the 1980s,<br />
the barrier between work and perceived freedom has gradually<br />
been rubbed away to the point where the working 40-hour week<br />
no longer exists for most people living in the UK. Shift patterns are split,<br />
casual, unreliable, applied with short notice. In contrast, office-based<br />
work can stretch well beyond five o’clock and into the weekend – emails,<br />
agendas, social media accounts attached to phones that don’t switch off<br />
when the head hits the pillow. But it’s not only these seemingly established<br />
lines of work that are changing. In certain parts of the world, work in the<br />
sex industry is working its way into public discourse and rightly shifting<br />
attention towards better protection and rights for workers.<br />
It’s these themes of precarious work that are to be the subject of FACT’s<br />
brand new summer into autumn exhibition, titled REAL WORK. The exhibition<br />
features one brand new commission piece by New York based visual artist LIZ<br />
MAGIC LASER. In Real Life, a series of films by Laser, explores the most current<br />
and largely deregulated profession of online gig-working. Shown alongside<br />
the new commission will be Sweat, the 2018 film by CANDICE BREITZ, which<br />
seeks to destigmatise sex work, a profession that remains criminalised in<br />
most parts of the world. Both of the artworks on display as part of Real Work<br />
incorporate an experimental documentary format, highlighting the human<br />
dimension of invisible work by putting the uncensored, unfiltered stories of real<br />
life workers front and centre.<br />
Real Work’s core pieces will be accompanied by a season of events, the<br />
centrepiece of which will be The Liverpool Complaints Choir – Citizens Singing<br />
About Work. Created by TELLERVO KALLEINEN and OLIVER KOCHTA-<br />
KALLEINEN, anyone living in Liverpool is invited to share their personal<br />
complaints related to work, and join a process where these complaints are<br />
turned into an impressive choir song. Anyone is welcome to join, with an open<br />
call being launched during the exhibition. FACT’s <strong>2019</strong> summer events will also<br />
include family activities, exhibition tours, summer camps, film screenings and<br />
hands-on creative technology workshops.<br />
fact.co.uk<br />
EVENT DISCOVERY PARTNER<br />
ticketquarter.co.uk<br />
PREVIEWS 33
PREVIEWS<br />
“In my heart, it’s<br />
the avant-garde<br />
that excites me<br />
the most”<br />
FESTIVAL<br />
MARY ANNE<br />
HOBBS<br />
Queens Of The Electronic Underground<br />
@ Manchester International Festival – 20/07<br />
Broadcaster and proud Lancastrian Mary Anne<br />
Hobbs returns to MIF to curate a celebration of avantgarde<br />
female musicians while simultaneously bigging<br />
up the North’s credentials as a cultural powerhouse.<br />
The cultural magnetism of Manchester International Festival has proven a compelling force<br />
since launching in 2007. It consistently pieces together a colourful programme of music,<br />
arts and film, one that stands out on a national scale – not simply in the North. With<br />
the help of a talented team of curators and guest curators, the festival places innovative<br />
commissions on a platform beside emerging artistic practice, evolving year on year to light up<br />
the rapidly expanding Manchester cityscape. This summer’s edition follows suit. Brand new<br />
experiences featuring Skepta and David Lynch are just some of the highlights on the line-up.<br />
Over the years, MIF’s future focussed sensibilities have helped carve out a relationship with<br />
BBC Radio 6 Music’s MARY ANNE HOBBS, who returns to this year as a guest curator and creative<br />
advisor. Previous incarnations have seen Mary Anne curate her own Dark Matter series in 2017, as<br />
well as collaborations with The Warehouse Project. For <strong>2019</strong>, Mary Anne will be taking over the O2<br />
Ritz on Saturday 20th <strong>July</strong> for a one night only audio visual showcase headed up by academically<br />
astute sound designer HOLLY HERNDON. Looking ahead to the show, Elliot Ryder spoke to Mary<br />
Anne Hobbs about her latest showcase.<br />
So, this year you’ll be returning to MIF with Queens Of The Electronic Underground. Can you tell<br />
us a little bit about the project?<br />
Queens Of The Electronic Underground is essentially a creative statement with feminism imbued<br />
within. The greatest thing about MIF is they give you a licence to dream, to destroy boundaries, to<br />
do something that is pure. This event aside, on the full line-up there’s a great selection of hugely<br />
influential women, so it’s great to be working alongside Laurie Anderson, Maxine Peake, Janelle<br />
Monáe, Yoko Ono. For this event itself, we’re going to black out the entirety of the O2 Ritz and build<br />
and eight-metre AV screen across the back wall. With this, artists can premiere new visual work,<br />
as well as the sound that they’re bringing. Holly Herndon, JLIN, AÏSHA DEVI, KATIE GATELEY and<br />
KLARA LEWIS – these women are going to show you what the future looks like.<br />
I think it’s really interesting where you mention that these artists will show us what the future<br />
looks like. Do you think there’s an argument that we’re on a steady trajectory for these sounds<br />
and concepts to more heavily influence mainstream artists in the next few years?<br />
What’s really fascinating, if you look at the work of Holly Herndon, who’s released a serious<br />
contender for album of the year with PROTO, you’re looking at an artist who is building a whole<br />
new relationship with machines and AI. I think she really understands the value of integration with<br />
technology. She is creating high art in new ways by teaching and mentoring machines. As for Jlin,<br />
she’s breaking new ground in a way that no other artist really has. Her rhythm patterns at the<br />
moment are second to none. With these two women, they’re not just pushing the boundaries of<br />
music and the mainstream, they’re asking what music even is.<br />
With the eight-metre AV screen, there’s going to be a strong visual element to the show. To<br />
what extent have you been involved with the visual design of the shows? Is this something you<br />
find frees up another side of your imagination away from radio?<br />
In terms of my involvement, visually, I’m just a catalyst for things to happen. I’m creating a bridge<br />
for an audience that’s hungry for this new sound, bringing them into a space where they can see<br />
the most incredible all women line-up. The creative element is given over to the artists themselves.<br />
Aïsha Devi is working with a Berlin-based visual artist named MFO. She’s a really unpredictable,<br />
radical artist, and she’s going to be premiering that show for the very first time at the festival. I have<br />
absolutely no idea what it’s going to look like, but my belief in her is absolute; I trust her implicitly<br />
to bring something that’s going to absolutely blow people away. The first time I’ll see it will be in<br />
soundcheck, which I’m completely fine with. I need that rush of seeing something brand new, you<br />
know? For me, just investing in an artist and the visual aspect is a really exciting process.<br />
Looking at your role as a DJ compared to your freedom as a curator, do you feel there are any<br />
barriers to your remit to testing the boundaries of a listener in the daytime hours?<br />
I think finding a balance is really important. Personally, I’m a child of the underground; I grew up<br />
as a disciple of John Peel. When my dad smashed up all of my records, he didn’t find this tiny<br />
little transistor radio that I had that I would listen to in the dead of night. Peel, for me, stood at a<br />
gateway to a complete alternative universe. As much as the world has blossomed and changed with<br />
coming of the internet, I still feel like I carry his torch. I feel like the pendulum has swung so far in<br />
the opposite direction to when I had my transistor radio, where we now we have oceans of sounds<br />
online. I think it’s very difficult to navigate through; you need a trusted guide to get through it, in the<br />
same way John was my trusted guide as a kid. So I feel passionately about that role. And still, in my<br />
heart, it’s the avant-garde that excites me the most. I think if you listen to the daytime show and the<br />
things we’ve played in the short space of time we’ve been on air, such as premiering the new Sun<br />
O))) album, you can start to hear elements of the avant-garde making their way onto the radio in the<br />
daytime hours. Many people will be listening with a vast musical knowledge, and they’ll be coming<br />
to me to discover something they don’t know. It’s a joyful task to bring elements of the avant-garde<br />
forward and infuse them into daytime listening. Ultimately, it’s about reimaging what you can do<br />
with daytime radio.<br />
You’re also involved in the curation of the really exciting David Lynch exhibition, which covers<br />
everything from film, art, and music. What role did you have in this side of the project?<br />
I was there to help select the artists that David wanted to work with throughout the programme.<br />
I think I put together a list of maybe 100 artists at the outset with an understanding that he really<br />
wanted to work with local artists, as well as British and international artists. The first message I got<br />
back was that he loves them all, but can you please narrow it down a little bit. But, really, it was an<br />
incredible honour for me to be involved, even in just a small way.<br />
As for the programme, it’s his first major show of visual art. Unbeknown to most he’s a highly skilled<br />
painter and sculptor, and the curators at HOME have been able to bring together some of his most<br />
extraordinary pieces. They’ll be going on display as part of a free exhibition, but there’s also a brilliant<br />
cinematic element. There’ll be an archive of his work shown in some of Manchester’s most beautiful<br />
cinemas. The music element will also take place in a theatre space – a setting that completely fits with<br />
the whole Lynchian vibe. It’s a beautiful backdrop with three-tiered balcony. It’s been put together with<br />
the help of a specialist set designer, with further input from lighting designer Stuart Bailes, someone<br />
who I’ve worked with on many occasions, including Dark Matter.<br />
It’s going to be exciting to have David Lynch’s influence pervading Manchester throughout the<br />
summer. And it’s great that the exhibition will be free. For me, it’s almost miraculous that we were able<br />
to bring him here and create a programme that reflects all the different elements he’s excited about.<br />
In terms of the festival’s cultural magnetism, a couple of weeks back there was a widespread<br />
campaign by northern newspapers for greater power in the North. With festivals like MIF<br />
and the new Keith Haring exhibition opening in Liverpool, do you think that there is a strong<br />
argument for equal arts funding to be spread through the country?<br />
I think there is a real appetite for boundaryless creativity in the North. But, the North’s really exciting<br />
because the North is going to do it anyway. It won’t wait for something to be given and to be told<br />
to get on with it. People will always just find a way. I think there’s a real sense of ingenuity and a<br />
real desire to make things happen – and that’s a beautiful thing. Obviously, we would love to have<br />
more funding, which may well be forthcoming, but we’re going to do it anyway, aren’t we? With or<br />
without anyone’s approval, with or without anyone’s purse, with or without somebody’s sanctioning.<br />
The North’s always been that way. There’s an organic audience who will gravitate towards these<br />
events. Artist experiences up here have always created an incredible sense of communion with<br />
an audience, whether it be in the back room of a tiny pub or to a full crowd at Old Trafford cricket<br />
ground. The symbiotic exchange of energy for artists is so important, and you find it in abundance<br />
when anywhere in the north. The proximity between some of the main cities, Liverpool, Manchester,<br />
Leeds, provides so much opportunity. If we can encourage people to move between them all,<br />
support one another’s events, the future should be really exciting. !<br />
Words: Elliot Ryder / @elliot_ryder<br />
Photography: Tarnish Vision<br />
Mary Anne Hobbs curates Queens Of The Electronic Underground at The O2 Ritz on Saturday 20th<br />
<strong>July</strong>. Head to mif.co.uk to view the full festival programme.<br />
34
Juliana Yazbeck (Carmen Zografou)<br />
FESTIVAL<br />
Liverpool Arab<br />
Arts Festival<br />
Various venues – 05/07-14/07<br />
Bringing a selection of the music, art, performance and theatre<br />
of the Arab diaspora together, LIVERPOOL ARAB ARTS<br />
FESTIVAL has a packed and vibrant schedule for its Shadow<br />
And Light-themed <strong>2019</strong> edition. LAAF is the UK’s largest<br />
annual Arab arts festival, taking place in Liverpool for a fortnight in<br />
<strong>July</strong>.<br />
Premiering with a performance of JULIANA YAZBECK’s debut<br />
album, SUNGOD, at Royal Court Studio, LAAF will feature exhibitions<br />
and performances across nine days, including the Shadow And Light<br />
exhibition at Northern Lights inspired by BEAU BEAUSOLEIL, a tribute<br />
to Palestinian singer and activist Rim Banna. Shadow And Light is a<br />
collaborative project honouring the lives of more than 400 academics<br />
killed in targeted assassinations between 2003 and 2012.<br />
Born in the US to Lebanese parents, Juliana Yazbeck is an<br />
unapologetic lyricist who challenges the effects of colonisation on cultural<br />
identities. Drawing on her mixed cultural upbringing, SUNGOD is a call<br />
to all women and cultures to shed internalised shame, through Yazbeck’s<br />
signature sound that’s a mesmerising fusion of spoken word, otherworldly<br />
electronics and haunting Levantine vocals.<br />
An inspiring line-up of groundbreaking women artists from across<br />
the Arab diaspora has also been curated across LAAF’s bill, in support<br />
of RISE, Liverpool’s season of extraordinary female artists, thinkers<br />
and leaders. Award-winning Palestinian writer, performer and activist<br />
DANA DAJANI is the festival’s artist in residence for <strong>2019</strong>. Bringing her<br />
theatrical poetry with gesture and character to four festival events, Dajani<br />
will perform a world exclusive of her one-woman show Heroine With A<br />
Thousand Dresses at the Bluecoat on 13th <strong>July</strong>. Palestinian dancer and<br />
choreographer, FARAH SALEH and spoken word artists AMINA ATIQ and<br />
LISA LUXX are also part of the multifaceted array of events that speak of<br />
LAAF’s devotion to celebrating this rich culture.<br />
The ever-popular Family Day rounds off festival proceedings at Sefton<br />
Park’s Palm House on 14th <strong>July</strong>. A packed day showcasing traditional<br />
and contemporary Arab cultural music and dance is brought together by<br />
DARAA TRIBES and HAWIYYA DANCE COMPANY. Alongside this there<br />
will be an offering of authentic cuisine, traditional crafts, market stalls,<br />
henna painting and an enhanced programme of family-focused activities.<br />
LAAF’s storyteller in residence ALIA ALZOUGBI will also be on hand to<br />
share folk tales from the Arab world.<br />
arabartsfestival.com<br />
Liverpool Pride 2018<br />
FESTIVAL<br />
Pride In Liverpool<br />
Various venues – 27/07-28/07<br />
Liverpool’s pride event may have a new name, but it’s all<br />
systems go when it comes to celebrating the foundation’s<br />
ethos of acceptance. PRIDE IN LIVERPOOL has also adopted<br />
the theme Come As You Are for its programme of events,<br />
cultural and community activities. The theme calls to all people,<br />
regardless of where they are from or how they identify, to take pride<br />
in their identity and come together in the spirit of friendship, love and<br />
respect.<br />
The free festival will return to its usual home on Tithebarn Street<br />
in the city centre on Saturday 27th <strong>July</strong>, with multiple stages of live<br />
entertainment, a dedicated youth zone and whole host of inclusive<br />
activities, stalls and food and drink vendors. Festival-goers will also be<br />
invited to March With Pride on Saturday 27th, along the traditional route<br />
from St George’s Hall, finishing at Moorfields. Those wishing to march<br />
are encouraged to sign up to the LCR Pride Foundation mailing list at<br />
lcrpride.co.uk to be notified when registration opens.<br />
The fun will continue on 28th <strong>July</strong> – billed as Pride Sundae – with<br />
more activities taking place at a soon-to-be revealed city centre location.<br />
There are also plans to further celebrate pride all year round, with LCR<br />
Pride Award in October, acknowledging the brightest, bravest and best<br />
of the region’s LGBT+ community and its allies. There will also be a<br />
chance to explore the very best of new and classic LGBT+ cinema from<br />
around the world, with exclusive post screening discussions at FACT at<br />
Picturehouse and other venues across the region. Upcoming films include<br />
Lizzie, Sauvage and Rafiki.<br />
Co-chair of LCR Pride Foundation, John Bird, said: “At a time<br />
when the LGBT+ community is increasingly misunderstood, marred by<br />
misconceptions and targeted with hate, LCR Pride Foundation wants the<br />
world to know that the Liverpool City Region is taking a stand. No matter<br />
where you are from or how you identify, we are open to all and you are<br />
welcome here, just Come As You Are!”<br />
PREVIEWS 35
PREVIEWS<br />
GIG<br />
Anathema<br />
Grand Central Hall – 19/07<br />
Anathema<br />
Back To The Start will be the title of this exclusive<br />
hometown show for rock titans ANATHEMA, who remain<br />
one of the world’s leading pioneers of doom metal.<br />
Forming in 1990, and initially going under the name Pagan<br />
Angel, Anathema stand as one of the most underrated<br />
bands to emerge from the 90s, having released over<br />
20 studio albums across their 29-year career. <strong>2019</strong><br />
also marks the 20th anniversary of their fifth album,<br />
Judgement, an album that marked a more experimental<br />
strain of Anathema’s trademark style. Nostalgia and awe<br />
will be present in equal measure when the quintet are in<br />
town for this homecoming show.<br />
GIG<br />
Mount Kimbie<br />
Meraki – 13/07<br />
MEMBERS<br />
PICK<br />
London-based electronic duo MOUNT KIMBIE are due to perform<br />
a whopping four-hour extended DJ set at Meraki’s Summer Yard<br />
Party, bringing summer bopping and weaving to the North docks.<br />
Joining them behind the decks are local selectors BOOGALOO,<br />
FLOSSY (Down To Funk) and GIOVANNA BRIGUGLIO (SisBis)<br />
for some cheeky choons blasting all the way through until the<br />
next morning – if you can hack it. But don’t worry, it’s not as<br />
exhausting as it sounds, especially when Faux Liverpool will be<br />
supplying an array of vegan snacks and treats. Be sure to grab<br />
tickets as soon as you can – Summer Yard Party is known to sell<br />
out early, so you’d best get cracking.<br />
Mount Kimbie<br />
GIG<br />
Harambe Maoni<br />
Phase One – 02/07<br />
ParrJazz are renowned for bringing some of the newest local breakthrough<br />
acts to centre stage, and their latest effort is more of the same. HARAMBE<br />
MAONI is the latest project of saxophonist Andrew Myers; joining him at the<br />
best-established jazz night in town are funk jazz-driven trio ANDCHUCK.<br />
Myers has an extensive list of jazz projects he has previously worked on: The<br />
Sputnik Two, Ranga and Harambe, Rumjig, The Fire Beneath The Sea, We<br />
The Undersigned and The Solid Air Band. Influences from DnB, Afro jazz, hip<br />
hop and modern and contemporary jazz are to be expected. The event also<br />
offers the chance to win a vinyl record of your choosing on the night. Tickets<br />
for this show are available now via Ticket Quarter.<br />
CLUB<br />
SAL-SOUL<br />
24 Kitchen Street – 13/07<br />
The first edition of the SAL-SOUL summer party sets expectations<br />
of a non-stop, all-day concoction of disco, funky house, club classics<br />
and everyone’s favourite summer anthems. After selling out earlybird,<br />
first and second wave tickets, Sal-Soul is very limited capacity with a<br />
very varied line-up including DJ sets from: ADAM RYLANDS, ANSON<br />
AND CHELLEW, ANTHONY BRAY, and LUCA WINTERTON. After<br />
successfully selling out at the launch party in December, this summer<br />
time day party foresees a sardine-packed Saturday with Sal-Soul<br />
developing a fierce audience of their own from dedicated listeners to<br />
their Sal-Soul Presents mixes on SoundCloud.<br />
FESTIVAL<br />
Bluedot<br />
Jodrell Bank Observatory – 18-21/07<br />
Kraftwerk 3D<br />
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing of 1969, BLUEDOT festival combines a fusion of music,<br />
science and cosmic culture all under the grand Lovell Telescope. For fans of electronica, Bluedot could not<br />
be a more perfect line-up: headline acts over the three days include HOT CHIP and NEW ORDER, with a<br />
special KRAFTWERK 3-D audiovisual show topping off things on the Saturday night. Bluedot is inspired by<br />
the 1990 photograph taken of Earth by the Voyager 1 space probe in 1990, popularised by astronomer Carl<br />
Sagan. Much like the analysis of Sagan, the philosophy behind Bluedot is to highlight the fragility of earth,<br />
while exploring the frontiers of human advancement. Family friendly workshops and panels will explore this<br />
throughout the weekend – but even if music’s your primary vice, there’s plenty to satisfy your needs.<br />
FESTIVAL<br />
Manchester International Festival<br />
Various venues – 04/07-21/07<br />
The quite brilliant Manchester International Festival gets underway this month<br />
(if you haven’t already, check out our interview with curator Mary Anne Hobbs<br />
on page 34). As well as a sterling programme of activity including theatre from<br />
IDRIS ELBA, happenings by YOKO ONO and curation from DAVID LYNCH, MIF<br />
HQ has announced they’ll be transforming the city’s Albert Square into Festival<br />
Square with marvellous programme of live music and DJs. JANELLE MONÁE<br />
opens proceedings with a show at Castlefield Bowl on 4th <strong>July</strong>; elsewhere on<br />
the bill you’ll find varied events and performances featuring, among others,<br />
NITIN SAWNEY, THE ORIELLES, THE BLACK MADONNA and HORACE ANDY.<br />
MIF.co.uk<br />
Janelle Monáe<br />
36
GIG<br />
Deeper Cuts<br />
Phase One and Kazimier Garden – 13/07<br />
A three-venue all-dayer on the lower end of Seel Street is<br />
Getinothis’ contribution to summer festivities. Deeper Cuts<br />
– an expansion of their monthly shows – takes place across<br />
Phase One, the Kazimier Garden and intimate new space<br />
Kazimier Stockroom. Teeth-rattling noisemakers TEETH OF<br />
THE SEA and GUM TAKES TOOTH lead the charge, with<br />
some smart supporting acts in the form of HOUSEWIVES,<br />
BUZZARD BUZZARD BUZZARD and URF. Liverpool’s own<br />
maverick noiseniks are more than up to support billing,<br />
too, with art-proggers RONGORONGO, thrash metal outfit<br />
VIDEO NASTIES and industrial noise-makers LONESAW<br />
joining the fray.<br />
GIG<br />
Chip Wickham<br />
The Spot – 13/07 and 14/07<br />
With his latest offering labelled “fantastic dancefloor jazz”<br />
by Clash magazine, and spearheading a house revolution<br />
in a previous life, CHIP WICKHAM is responsible for<br />
soundtracking various eras of hedonism. More recently the<br />
flautist has rebounded from Gilles Petersen’s Brownswood<br />
label to settle at Madrid’s Lovemonk, where he’s created<br />
some truly vibey new jazz. Last year’s Shamal Wind album<br />
demonstrated Wickham’s appreciation for middle eastern<br />
sounds combined with his dance background. Wickham<br />
drops in at 3b Records’ wonderfully intimate The Spot venue<br />
for a full live show on 13th <strong>July</strong>, before curating a line-up of<br />
DJs for the Chip-Fest All-dayer the following day.<br />
GIG<br />
SPQR<br />
The Deaf Centre, Chester – 05/07<br />
Fresh off the release of new EP Low Sun Long Shadows,<br />
SPQR are ready to export their frantic, squalling rock to<br />
a new fanbase, down the road in Chester. The trio have<br />
expanded on the blueprint they laid down with 2017’s The<br />
House That Doubt Built EP, adding more tightly-wound<br />
tension and explosive, Pile-esque dynamism to the mix.<br />
They’re sure to find adherents to their cause in old Deva –<br />
and they’ve got some great help at hand to make the night<br />
fire on all cylinders. Restless Bear signees YAMMERER are<br />
well known to Chester audiences, as are fellow support ace<br />
DEH-YEY. Expect audio fireworks from this lot. And don’t<br />
moan if you miss it, we did give you plenty of notice.<br />
SPOKEN WORD<br />
Matt Abbott<br />
Naked Lunch Café – 01/07<br />
Either side of volunteering at the Calais Jungle refugee camp, MATT<br />
ABBOTT saw his native city of Wakefield vote 66 per cent leave in<br />
the EU referendum. In a bid to understand why so many workingclass<br />
communities like his come out in droves for Brexit, Abbott<br />
devised his Two Little Ducks tour to find some answers. Following a<br />
full run at Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 and a 22-date UK theatre tour<br />
in autumn 2018 that gained rave reviews, Abbott’s political spoken<br />
word show has established itself as one of the most vital pieces<br />
of work on the poetry scene. Powerful and personal, the show’s<br />
sequence of 22 poems is an intense, moving and challenging piece<br />
of theatre.<br />
Matt Abbott<br />
GIG<br />
Cream Classical In The Park<br />
Sefton Park – 19/07<br />
Cream Classical<br />
Electronic dance music’s most notorious brand returns to its spiritual home this summer<br />
for an orchestral rendering of some of the most memorable dance anthems committed to<br />
tape. CREAM’s successful Cream Classical series adds an open-air string to its bow by<br />
bringing the mighty Kaleidoscope Orchestra to Sefton Park, welcoming thousands of fans<br />
across two stages to experience a show that features FAITHLESS, PAUL OAKENFOLD<br />
and ROGER SANCHEZ, among others. It’s only right that these classic tracks from<br />
Cream’s esteemed 25-year history are re-imagined and recreated in spectacular fashion<br />
in Cream Classical’s biggest show to date, right here in Liverpool. The final few tickets for<br />
this show are on sale now at ticketquarter.co.uk.<br />
GIG<br />
The Murder Capital<br />
Arts Club – 25/07<br />
MEMBERS<br />
PICK<br />
Dublin quintet THE MURDER CAPITAL are whipping up a frenzy in anticipation of the release of their debut album When<br />
I Have Fears, with over 50 tour dates booked in for <strong>2019</strong> across the UK and Europe in the run up to the album’s release on<br />
16th August. The birth of The Murder Capital is important to note when parsing the group’s intense relationship between<br />
freedom and pain; the suicide of a close friend is a defining message of not just their philosophy, but also of their upcoming<br />
album. This is in addition to their discovery of the work of photographer Francesca Woodman, who took her own life at<br />
the age of 22. The group’s fiery post-punk growl is reminiscent of Idles and Fontaines D.C. – and if The Murder Capital can<br />
follow in a similar vein to those two acts, it won’t be long before you’re wrapped up in their intriguing slew of noise.<br />
The Murder Capital<br />
GIG<br />
The Bido Lito! Social w/ OHMNS<br />
Sound Basement – 18/07<br />
Ohmns<br />
Normal service resumes for the monthly Bido Lito! Social in <strong>July</strong>. After the<br />
bido100! celebrations we’ll be returning to our M.O. of ringing in each new issue<br />
with the best new music Merseyside has to offer. <strong>Issue</strong> 102 will be celebrated<br />
with the brash brilliance of OHMNS at Duke Street’s premier muso den, Sound<br />
Food And Drink. Also on the bill on 18th <strong>July</strong> are SILVER LININGS, Eggy Records’<br />
loudest noiseniks, and IRENE & THE DISAPPOINTMENTS, who will raise the<br />
curtain with their infectious brand of dreampop. As usual, Bido Lito! Members get<br />
free entry – tickets are available now from ticketquarter.co.uk. Come along and<br />
champion great new sounds.<br />
PREVIEWS 37
5pm til 9pm - SUNDAY TO FRIDAY<br />
£2 Slices<br />
£10 Pizzas<br />
2 cocktails £10<br />
cheap plonk<br />
25 Parr Street, Liverpool L1 4JN.<br />
0151 559 2599
Box office:<br />
theatkinson.co.uk<br />
01704 533 333<br />
(Booking fees apply)<br />
–<br />
: TheAtkinson<br />
: @AtkinsonThe<br />
: @TheAtkinsonSouthport<br />
The Atkinson<br />
Lord Street<br />
Southport<br />
PR8 1DB<br />
Exhibitions<br />
Free Entry<br />
—<br />
donations welcome<br />
Opening Times: Mon – Sat 10am – 4pm<br />
Inspired by Alice<br />
Until 7 September <strong>2019</strong><br />
An imaginative and slightly bonkers exhibition looking at the<br />
impact of Alice in Wonderland on the world of Art and Craft.<br />
Exhibition includes Salvador Dali illustrations of Alice and<br />
original sketches by Lewis Carroll.<br />
Southport Double Take II<br />
Until 7 September <strong>2019</strong><br />
Intriguing photography that blends the historic with the new.<br />
Old photos have been overlaid with new images giving the<br />
appearance of people from the past looking out on modern<br />
day Britain.<br />
Bessie Downes: Flowers<br />
of the Southport Coast<br />
Until 2 November <strong>2019</strong><br />
Beautiful botanical illustrations of flowers found on the coast<br />
from the 1890s until the early 20th Century.<br />
Cross Pollination<br />
Until 28 March 2020<br />
A celebration of floral art and literature including a digital<br />
artwork of 18th Century Dutch still life that gives the illusion of<br />
the painting steadily dissolving into the digital sands of time by<br />
Gordon Cheung and an installation by Heywood and Condie.<br />
The Atkinson is just 3 minutes walk from Southport Train Station
REVIEWS<br />
“This is a festival<br />
that has its eyes<br />
fixated on bringing<br />
a full spectrum of<br />
sounds into the<br />
heart of the city”<br />
Loyle Carner (Michael Kirkham / michaelkirkhamphotography.co.uk)<br />
Sound City <strong>2019</strong><br />
Baltic Triangle – 04/05-05/05<br />
If 2018 was a year of self-discovery for SOUND CITY, refinding<br />
itself once more in the Baltic Triangle, then <strong>2019</strong> was<br />
to be all about restabilising confidence. The wide spanning<br />
programme of headline talent, international and burgeoning<br />
artists serves as a good starter. It’s up to the music to fill in the<br />
blanks from here, and only good things can follow.<br />
Manchester-based trio ELEPHANT TREES treat the<br />
crowd that have squeezed into Ditto Coffee to a stripped back<br />
performance of their usually energetic shows. Their quality isn’t<br />
lacking: lead singer Martha Phillips belts out acoustic versions of<br />
tracks such as Uncomfortable and Monster with enough energy<br />
to wake everyone up on a Saturday morning. Ending a brilliant<br />
set on a positive note, Phillips sends everyone on their way with:<br />
“It’s Saturday morning, enjoy yourself. It’s not often you get a day<br />
off, so spend the day in a beautiful city listening to some music.”<br />
Wise words that we all go on to follow.<br />
The beauty of festivals is that you may stumble upon<br />
something entirely magical. Seoul shoegaze outfit DABDA give a<br />
performance that would make some headliners blush. Infectious<br />
guitar lines and African rhythms are peppered throughout the set,<br />
like the lovechild of Totorro, Chon and Paul Simon’s Graceland.<br />
Kim Jiea channels Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins and Bilinda<br />
Butcher of My Bloody Valentine, casting a spell over the audience<br />
with her heavenly voice and Korean lyrics.<br />
Constellations is the setting for a heartwarming performance<br />
from THE FLORRIE GUITAR CLUB. The local jam group<br />
consisting of people of all ages, backgrounds and ability overflow<br />
the stage with their guitars. Led by The Tea Street Band’s Timo<br />
Tierney, the group treats the crowd to renditions of some classics<br />
in a performance that shows off everyone’s skills to much<br />
applause.<br />
The great thing about Sound City is the variation of genres<br />
across all the stages. Over at Love Lane Brewery, the party duo<br />
TOO MANY T’S spit out lyrics reminiscent of old school hip hop<br />
of the 90s. Encouraging the crowd into the middle of the room,<br />
the London duo do a stellar job of starting a throwback rave in a<br />
brewery.<br />
SOPHIE AND THE GIANTS are another stand out act of the<br />
weekend. Packing out Hangar 34 to no surprise, the Sheffield<br />
natives put on a hell of a show with their retro pop/indie rock<br />
inspired tracks. Bulldog is definitely a track to look out for.<br />
Completely throwing rockism to the wayside, HUSKY<br />
LOOPS embrace dance music and hip hop to a degree that is<br />
unmatched by most rock bands in this day and age. Husky Loops<br />
have the audacity to straight-up cover Lift Yourself by Kanye<br />
West. And why shouldn’t they? Like a punk interpretation of<br />
Death Grips, stuttering samples and a demonic pitch shifter on<br />
guitarist/frontman Danio Forni’s voice as he screams, “What’s up<br />
Liverpool!” The Italian band are a talented bunch, with Forni and<br />
bassist Tommaso Medica switching instruments, while drummer<br />
and quasi-DJ Pietro Garronev plays as tight as a drum machine.<br />
The trio are heading for bigger and better things, with their<br />
song Everytime I Run being included in the FIFA 19 soundtrack.<br />
Hopefully they return to Liverpool soon for a big blow-out party.<br />
SHAME are swiftly on their way to becoming titans of the<br />
rock world. The paradox of a punk show is that, sometimes,<br />
the worse the show goes the better it actually is. Bassist Josh<br />
Finerty had technical troubles from the start, with his bass amp<br />
coming crashing down mid-song. He sends his bass flying and<br />
soon follows suit, flipping and cartwheeling across the stage<br />
like a madman. “We’re not getting paid for this show,” frontman<br />
Charlie Steen jokes. The crowd feeds off the wild energy from the<br />
band, there’s a feeling in the air that anything could happen. They<br />
are conducted into a mosh pit at the wave of a hand. Plastered<br />
behind the band is a blown up image of EDL founder Tommy<br />
Robinson from the infamous milkshake incident in Warrington<br />
just days prior. Inadvertently, their set serves as the perfect<br />
metaphor for the political climate they rail so hard against: in the<br />
midst of adversity, the youth rally together when the odds are<br />
stacked sizeably against them.<br />
Saturday night makes way for the first headliner of the<br />
weekend, MABEL. The pop star is currently working her way<br />
through the charts with her new single Don’t Call Me Up and she<br />
puts on a show stopping performance at the New Bird Street<br />
main stage worthy of her chart positions. Armed with backing<br />
dancers and a set list of all her biggest hits including Finders<br />
Keepers, Fine Line, Ring Ring and a cover of Drake’s Passionfruit,<br />
the stage is made for her. With vocals permanently on point,<br />
the crowd join in singing and dancing along. Having not even<br />
released an album yet, she shows her worth and proves to be a<br />
Confidence Man (Michael Kirkham)<br />
perfect headline act to be championing new music.<br />
The night is not quite over yet, however, as Liverpool rockers<br />
QUEEN ZEE have been announced as the late night secret gig<br />
at Best Before. Fans who got wind of the news have packed out<br />
the tiny venue as one of the most energetic performances of the<br />
day ensues. However, the secret is surprisingly quite well-kept,<br />
especially for a few at the front chanting for Miles Kane. The<br />
eyeliner-drenched Queen Zee take the stage and absolutely give<br />
it their all. In keeping with the punk-show-paradox of the worse<br />
the show goes the better it actually is, Queen Zee’s raw power<br />
is too much for Best Before’s electrical systems to handle during<br />
I Hate Your New Boyfriend, causing a full scale power outage.<br />
This doesn’t stop the crowd as they pick up where the band left<br />
off, chanting the chorus at the top of their lungs. It’s a sweaty<br />
ordeal, with three out of five members ending up shirtless by<br />
the end of the set, despite bass player Frank drenched in an allwhite<br />
turtleneck. Queen Zee doesn’t go out looking for severed<br />
mannequin legs, they always seem to make their way to show<br />
on their own. Frontwoman Zee holds it up like a Tusken Raider<br />
holding a rifle, shouting “this is the second time someone’s<br />
brought a fake leg to our show”.<br />
Late on Saturday night, an interactive experience is brewing<br />
within District. Curated by GWENNO, Both Sides Now is a<br />
cult-like silent disco, encouraging you to immerse yourself in<br />
sound. There’s a mix of synthetic sounds and also organic folk<br />
vocalisation coming from my channel – with two selections on<br />
headphones across the venue, meaning you’d hear one half of<br />
the set, bizarrely. There’s rapping, there’s poetry, there’s classical<br />
instruments and chanting. It feels amazingly innovative but also a<br />
bit of a left field choice for such a big festival. Very experimental<br />
and atmospheric, but once the headphones are removed<br />
someone can be heard muttering “is this just them warming up?”<br />
Sunday afternoon welcomes a whole load of great acts.<br />
Proceedings kick off early at Birdies Bar, with Canadian rock ’n’<br />
rollers MOTHERHOOD taking the stage. The crowd at this time<br />
is sparse, but the band are having a great time anyway. Their<br />
sound is very likeable when it works, but does have a habit of<br />
sliding into twee. There’s a sense that there’s not much substance<br />
behind it yet, but the pieces are all there and with a bit of work<br />
they could fall into place nicely.<br />
SCALPING take things up to a whole other level at the<br />
Baltic Social. Their techno-punk sound is ferocious and brilliantly<br />
unrelenting. Their graphic presentation captures their mood<br />
perfectly – contorted bodies tumbling through a warping<br />
blackness. It does feel particularly incongruous that it’s only<br />
2.15pm – this is music for the small, dark hours of the morning,<br />
and the crowd seem to wish it was too so they could truly let<br />
loose. Ones to watch, these.<br />
As a showcase festival with a focus on discovery, it’s great<br />
to see the Levi’s Music Project feature heavily within Sound City<br />
this year. The talent development programme hosts its own<br />
packed out showcase at Constellations on both days, and it’s<br />
heartening to see the crowds being so supportive of the artists.<br />
Having built a studio in Anfield where the handpicked local talent<br />
have been mentored by festival headliner LOYLE CARNER, the<br />
40
“Aystar sets a high<br />
bar for celebrating<br />
Liverpool music in<br />
the city tonight”<br />
Shame (Stu Moulding / @oohshootstu)<br />
Mabel (Jessica Grace Neal / jessicagracecreative.com)<br />
project brings them into the bosom of Sound City where their<br />
new fans await. SSJ gets a great reaction from a crowd keen to<br />
deliver on his request for “energy”. You can hear the poetry in his<br />
rhythmic delivery, with lyrics based on everyday life. Similarly<br />
well-received are fellow LMP alumni REMY JUDE and MICHAEL<br />
ALDAG, who perform to a bustling room in Constellations.<br />
Over in Brick Street’s garden, SAMURAI KIP are wafting<br />
along jazzily just as the clouds come across, which feels unfair,<br />
as their retro-inspired sound is perfect for the sunshine, blending<br />
cosmic jazz with punchy lyrical delivery. Retreating somewhere<br />
warmer, Hobo Kiosk is the home of the day’s acoustic sounds. MK<br />
PATTERSON are a fascinating trio: with double bass, cello and<br />
violin, accompanying an extraordinary vocal performance, they<br />
tap into folk’s stranger depths.<br />
Back at Constellations it’s KAGOULE’s turn to take the stage.<br />
These guys know how to make a sound that is slightly grungy:<br />
bass-driven and stripped back at the right moments. But what<br />
makes them great live is their stage presence. Bassist Lucy Hatter<br />
is a particular draw, and it’s the contrast of her sweet harmonies<br />
against the big chorus riffs that defines the core of their sound.<br />
A rainy Sunday evening welcomes Loyle Carner, perhaps<br />
the most critically acclaimed hip hop act in the UK at the<br />
moment. Through albums Yesterday’s Gone and Not Waving But<br />
Drowning, he’s captured the hearts and minds of people across<br />
the UK, especially within Liverpool. Even if you haven’t heard a<br />
note of his music, it’s clear to see he’s a master of his craft. No<br />
matter how far you are in the sea of people in front of New Bird<br />
Street’s outdoor stage and how many rucksacks clash into you,<br />
the energy and soul is still there, reverberating off the walls.<br />
By the time CONFIDENCE MAN hit the stage late into Sound<br />
City’s endurance-testing run, Hangar 34 is still bouncing, proving<br />
that the crowd’s appetite is still to be sated. Two people in<br />
cloaked hats emerge and blast out a hypnotic beat, sucking you<br />
in before the gig has even properly started. The bonkers Aussie<br />
disco quartet’s debut album Confident Music For Confident<br />
People gives off the air of Talking Heads at a Zoolander after<br />
party. Somehow the live show exceeds that mad expectation:<br />
perfectly choreographed dance moves throughout; the constantly<br />
infectious beat; various costume changes, including flashing bras;<br />
the sleek monochrome aesthetic; and the cheeky, well-composed<br />
dynamic between the joint leads Janet Planet and Sugar Bones<br />
is unmatchable. You won’t have seen anything like it before, and<br />
neither will have anyone in the audience. There’s a fun energy<br />
in the air, especially when their hit Boyfriend lands, making<br />
everyone get down to the ground and jump in the air. They’re the<br />
perfect mix of disco, house music and drama that we all need in<br />
our lives.<br />
The show goes on, and opening the Levi’s × Noisey after<br />
party on Sunday night at Constellations is Levi’s Music Project<br />
participant REMÉE. Projecting her voice with perfection over the<br />
melodic, electro RnB tracks proves to be the correct way to warm<br />
up a crowd. To follow is fellow participant and Ellesmere Port<br />
rapper THAT’S JUVEY? From the bouncing boom-bap of Modern<br />
Science to the grittier grime and fast flows of Land Of The Poor,<br />
Juvey’s creatively charged vernacular creates new atmospheres<br />
with each song in the set. The third act of the night is the hotly<br />
anticipated AYSTAR. The up and coming Scouse rapper instantly<br />
turns up the vibe with his signature flow and trappy beats and<br />
a few of his popular tracks – 86 ’ozs, Trap Mode – get the crowd<br />
fully involved and the energy is real. Aystar sets a high bar for<br />
celebrating Liverpool music in the city tonight.<br />
Next to come through is the queen herself, MS BANKS.<br />
The crowd adore her, especially when she drops the remix for<br />
arguably this year’s biggest drill anthem, Gun Lean. Suitably<br />
tasked with closing proceeding is SLOWTHAI. The king of<br />
Northampton makes a royal entrance on to the stage, greeted<br />
by a room screaming at full lung capacity. He initiates what feels<br />
like a riot with his hit Drug Dealer. The feeling of being at an<br />
after party hits; the set is a literal shut down. Mosh pits, crowd<br />
splits and Slowthai’s face contorted inside a Donald Trump mask<br />
are memories to treasure. This year’s Sound City finishes with a<br />
sweaty, satisfied audience, a wave of excited screams ringing in<br />
the ears.<br />
Back to its best as a three-day musical trip into the<br />
established and unknown. With a clear focus on the next<br />
generation, this is a festival that has its eyes fixated on bringing a<br />
full spectrum of sounds into the heart of the city. !<br />
Sophie Shields, Joel Durksen, Georgia Turnbull,<br />
Julia Johnson, Iona Fazer<br />
REVIEWS 41
REVIEWS<br />
standing firm as a band completely unique and refreshing in the<br />
current music scene. With added brass and percussion, their beat<br />
builds the tension song by song, note by note. You’re waiting in<br />
anticipation for the crowd to go mental, but they don’t – not quite.<br />
The first signs of wildness begin to show during their blistering<br />
single Houseplants, a song that builds and builds with growing<br />
21st-century disillusionment. It’ll be interesting to see where<br />
Squid go next. I have a hunch that it will be far.<br />
Mainly playing their new album Street Worms, Viagra Boys’<br />
show is a full-on sonic assault. It’s hard to stand still and take<br />
in what’s going on from the front few rows; everything and<br />
everyone is moshing, slamming into each other in the aftermath<br />
of each chord and snarled lyric. Even if you don’t know the song,<br />
you’re dancing along – or practically forced to.<br />
Sweaty. This is how I’d describe the night. Very, very sweaty.<br />
I’m pretty sure items of clothing are being lost while bruises are<br />
found. It’s almost hard to pay attention to the music being played,<br />
but when you hear it, it’s tight. It oh so cleverly orchestrates<br />
Beefheart-esque punk. It’s crazy but contained. An artistic<br />
paradox resting on loose hinges, clinging on to established<br />
stability. Just. With songs such as Just Like You, you can hear it<br />
in there.<br />
With a Viagra Boys crowd, it almost seems cultish. You know<br />
full well that loads of fans will be over at that merch table at<br />
the end of night buying the full Viagra Boys tracksuit. There are<br />
people in the crowd who will say it’s the greatest gig they’ve ever<br />
been to. Others, however, will say it’s like a fight for survival. You<br />
just don’t want it to end. But, in contrast, it becomes too much<br />
to handle. I guess that’s a sign of a good punk gig: full of sweat,<br />
intensity and mesmerising.<br />
Georgia Turnbull / @GeorgiaRTbull<br />
Viagra Boys (Tomas Adam)<br />
Viagra Boys<br />
+ Squid<br />
Harvest Sun @ Phase One – 22/05<br />
Music enthusiasts young and old are steadily piling into<br />
tonight’s upgraded venue, reminiscent of the following Swedish<br />
punks VIAGRA BOYS have gained over the years. They’ve only<br />
released a bunch of EPs and singles since their inception in 2015,<br />
gaining some attention through certain indie and punk scenes.<br />
But with their debut album Street Worms and their juggernaut<br />
single of fun and rage, Sports, crowds of people outside of the<br />
hipsters and aficionados have started talking about them. With<br />
added buzz from the much-hyped Brighton act SQUID, tonight in<br />
Phase One seems the hottest ticket of the month.<br />
Squid set the tone for the night. With a tight bassline groove<br />
reminiscent of post-punk bands such as Gang Of Four or early<br />
Talking Heads, they break beyond these initial comparisons,<br />
The Mysterines<br />
+ The Besiders<br />
Telford’s Warehouse – 31/05<br />
Baby-faced and bold, THE BESIDERS kick off at Telford’s<br />
Warehouse in their hometown of Chester. It’s an instrumental<br />
track to warm things up. Without a wrinkle in sight, they<br />
proceed to test our hearing with glass-shattering, shrieking<br />
guitar shreds ripping from a red Fender Jaguar. Despite guitarist<br />
George Asbridge’s evident capabilities, his entire presence<br />
screams imposter syndrome; it’s as though he doesn’t feel<br />
talented enough to be laying his hands on the mighty Fender,<br />
the source of so much energy in the room. It burns his fingertips<br />
to the touch. The indie four-piece deserve to have a lot more<br />
confidence. They show a large amount of potential for an art-rock<br />
band just starting their music career.<br />
In the blink of an eye, the holy trinity of palatable indie-postpunk-who-knows-what<br />
(who even cares?) appear almost out<br />
of nowhere. Fittingly, there’s a deployment of angst during THE<br />
MYSTERINES’ opening track, Good Conditions. Lead vocalist and<br />
guitarist Lia Metcalfe’s menacing voice cuts through the crowd<br />
like a hot knife through butter, closely resembling the piercing –<br />
and rightly irritated – tone of The Big Moon’s Juliette Jackson. All<br />
hope of not needing a hearing aid later in life is completely gone;<br />
my eardrums are probably permanently damaged, but it’s totally<br />
worth it. When it becomes so easy to lose yourself in the heat<br />
and energy of sonic delight, ironically, the last thing you’re going<br />
to be thinking about is your ear health.<br />
Listening to The Mysterines invokes a curious depth in your<br />
chest, almost a nervous energy. The kind that makes you feel<br />
like you’re going to throw up. But, weirdly, in this situation, it’s<br />
somehow a good thing; something big is coming, and neither you<br />
or I are ready for it.<br />
The Mysterines take no prisoners with their all-guns-blazing,<br />
kicking and screaming attitude. They use this to their advantage,<br />
progressing through more of the eerie, upbeat and harrowing<br />
tunes, including Bet Your Pretty Face, which fits immaculately<br />
into their shadowy yet gorgeous aesthetic.<br />
The frame of the stage is all very cinematic. On the far left<br />
you’ve got the ruthless heroine Metcalfe, who looks to have been<br />
transported straight from the riot grrrl movement. In the middle is<br />
drummer Chrissy Moore. The fast forward button is clearly stuck<br />
on this guy. He’s an example of why you should always make<br />
sure your real-life remote is in working order…Wait, what? That’s<br />
not a technical issue? So, he’s genuinely that fast? Someone hide<br />
him away before he’s harnessed by scientists as source of heat<br />
energy. Completing the set with a naughty bit of bass, right of<br />
stage, is George Favager.<br />
They are the kind of people your stiff elders warned you<br />
about when growing up. Which, of course, means that The<br />
Mysterines are fucking badass, in the best sense. They’re the<br />
perfect way to get back at those voices of authority, those that<br />
haven’t allowed you to be exposed to the very real, no bullshit,<br />
stating-it-how-it-is stuff, rather than experiencing it all first hand.<br />
I’m certain that the trio would have been a great comfort to<br />
many during those times; their music has a way of empathising<br />
with those who are heartbroken and frankly pissed off with the<br />
world. They simply vocalise that pain in a way that’s accessible<br />
to everyone. Although this seems very depressing, it’s really not.<br />
The general vibe, while embedded with a twang of pain, carries<br />
the listener through its high-energy style, rather than weighing<br />
them down.<br />
Gasoline, the threesome’s most recent single, is the song that<br />
The Mysterines (Georgina Hull)<br />
marks the unfortunate end to the short but sweet set. During<br />
those last few thrashes of each instrument, Metcalfe finds the<br />
perfect opportunity to mercilessly boot the microphone stand<br />
down to the ground. That move – and indeed the whole gig –<br />
feels like it’s been lifted straight out of an impossibly cool coming<br />
of age movie. One about a young teenager from a relatively<br />
sheltered, suburban background who learns what rock music is<br />
for the first time. I feel like I want to hit replay on this experience.<br />
Blow off the dust and rewind the video. I didn’t prepare myself<br />
well enough for so much to come at me so quickly; I need a round<br />
two. There’ll definitely be a next time.<br />
Georgina Hull / @goergiehull<br />
42
Anne-Marie<br />
+ Lennon Stella<br />
Mountford Hall – 03/06<br />
English singer-songwriter ANNE-MARIE has been storming<br />
her way through the UK charts over the last 18 months.<br />
Appearing on some of the biggest hits to grace the airwaves<br />
– David Guetta’s Don’t Leave Me Alone and Clean Bandit’s<br />
Rockabye, to name a few – and with a string of her own hit<br />
singles, she’s growing in popularity by the second. After the<br />
release of her debut album, Speak Your Mind, in 2018 and a<br />
support slot opening for Ed Sheeran, Anne-Marie’s first headline<br />
UK tour has unsurprisingly sold-out.<br />
Mountford Hall is the setting for her Liverpool show and a<br />
venue she probably could have filled three times over. It’s unlikely<br />
we’ll get to see her play in a space of this size again. Hordes of<br />
adoring fans fill the room with excited anticipation as Canadian<br />
singer LENNON STELLA warms up the crowd. Another regular<br />
who features on chart hits, Stella works her way through tracks<br />
from her new album and her version of Jonas Blue’s Polaroid.<br />
The crowd is dancing non-stop: not necessarily knowing the<br />
songs but fully getting into the occasion of the evening. I’m not a<br />
frequent flyer at pop gigs and I didn’t really know what to expect<br />
but it’s so refreshing seeing a room full of people making the<br />
most of the music.<br />
Lights dim, the crowd screams and a thousand phones are<br />
raised into the air as Anne-Marie bounds onto the stage, bursting<br />
with energy. Drum stick in hand she dives straight into the<br />
anthemic track Bad Girlfriend from her debut album. There doesn’t<br />
seem to be a person in the room who isn’t chanting along with<br />
hands in the air or sitting on shoulders to grab a closer look. Pop<br />
singers can sometimes get a bit of stick for their vocal capabilities<br />
but she can ignore all those comments. Her voice is powerful<br />
and full of range and as she bounces around the stage it doesn’t<br />
falter once. The crowd often provide backing vocals so loud she<br />
occasionally gets lost in the volume but it only highlights how big<br />
of a fanbase she has. A room full of people screaming back your<br />
lyrics can only be a good thing from her point of view and it adds<br />
to the party-on-a-Monday-night vibe she has going on.<br />
An impressive backdrop of a light show accompanies her set<br />
and it feels more like a rock show at times as shredding guitar<br />
solos and heavy drums shake the room. It’s not like listening to<br />
her reel off song after song from an album; it’s a proper show you<br />
expect to see in arenas up and down the country.<br />
Mixing up a setlist filled with dance tracks, ballads and<br />
punchy pop, Trigger, Ciao Adios, 2002 and Alarm are highlights<br />
of the evening. A bit of audience participation comes in the<br />
form of fans in the front row providing Sean Paul’s rap during<br />
Rockabye, which they have obviously practised, because it is<br />
word perfect.<br />
There’s definitely a theme to a lot of the songs this evening.<br />
Brushing off old boyfriends and expressing the importance of<br />
loving yourself are topics included in the majority of the tracks.<br />
The latter, however, is a powerful message and one Anne-Marie<br />
expresses well on the stage. A video of people, including Ed<br />
Sheeran, talking about their perfect imperfections gains cheers<br />
of appreciation from the crowd before she bursts into the ballad,<br />
Anne-Marie (Jessica Grace Neal / jessicagracecreative.com)<br />
Perfect To Me.<br />
Ending on a high note with her rendition of FRIENDS,<br />
a collaboration with producer, Marshmello, Anne-Marie has<br />
managed to keep a crowd dancing and singing along for her<br />
whole set. Playing hit after hit from a range of genres, the energy<br />
doesn’t die once and for a singer-songwriter with just one album<br />
to her name, it’s an impressive feat.<br />
Sophie Shields<br />
This Is The Kit<br />
+ Racheal Dadd<br />
Harvest Sun @ Phase One – 06/06<br />
There’s no new album to tour, but THIS IS THE KIT are on the<br />
road to test out some new material and have some fun with their<br />
previous effort. 2017’s Moonshine Freeze saw Kate Stables and<br />
friends introduce a fuller sound, while staying true to the psychfolk<br />
template of their earlier albums and maintaining Stables’<br />
reputation for writing quietly insistent and engaging songs full of<br />
interesting observations and leftfield subject matter.<br />
Support comes from long-time collaborator RACHAEL DADD<br />
– with a new album of her own due for release in November<br />
– who is joined by drummer Rob Pemberton. The duo enjoy a<br />
healthy early crowd and one that is quickly immersed in Dadd’s<br />
multi-instrumental virtuosity. Moving from banjo to electric guitar<br />
to keyboard she works through traditional folk stylings to jazzier,<br />
modal chord progressions. She delivers some delightful discord<br />
along the way, a counterpoint to her beautifully melodic vocals,<br />
and draws a hugely appreciative reaction.<br />
There’s something disarming about This Is The Kit even as<br />
they set up; band members sitting, kneeling on the stage chatting<br />
about pedals and connections as though they were back in a<br />
West Country practice room, seemingly unaware of the proximity<br />
and size of the crowd which has now packed out Phase One to<br />
the rafters. It’s all very good natured and that is a feeling that<br />
persists throughout, with Stables’ ease and charm winning over<br />
the audience from the off – although, in truth, I think this audience<br />
were won over long ago, repeated requests for songs from the<br />
band’s earlier albums are testament to that.<br />
But we begin with something new. “This is a work in<br />
progress,” announces Stables, going solo, her delicate vocal<br />
floating over a choppy riff, the audience already in the palm of her<br />
hand.<br />
Stables’ lyrics suggest a constant state of searching, of<br />
uncertainty, of flux – her meaning sometimes shrouded in<br />
mystery, lovely melodies rubbing up against gritty imagery.<br />
Barefoot, she occasionally steps into a tambourine and adds<br />
shimmering percussion with the tap of a foot. Mostly she sings<br />
standing on tiptoe, the tension implied by her stance adding<br />
a physical quality to her delivery. Her vocals are accompanied<br />
beautifully by bassist Rozi Plain and Dadd, who joins them for<br />
several songs, their harmonies adding yet another layer over the<br />
hazy groove.<br />
There is a persistent pulse to TITK’s music, a rhythm that<br />
sits beneath the shifting waters of Stables’ traditional folk vocal<br />
stylings, her banjo picking, her guitar riffing, and guitarist Neil<br />
Smith’s blues rock wizardry. The pulse is nailed down courtesy<br />
of Plain’s bubbling basslines and Jamie Whitby-Coles’ crisp<br />
drumming. Smith plays some beautifully melodic counterpoints<br />
to Stables’ rhythms before launching into some wonderful sonic<br />
explorations of his own, really hitting the heights on Hotter<br />
Colder and Earthquake, amping up the dirty blues riff of the<br />
latter and wildly replicating the climactic saxophone squall of the<br />
former to great effect.<br />
This Is The Kit (Glyn Akroyd / @GlynAkroyd)<br />
The set takes in the full range of TITK’s work but Stables<br />
goes on to perform a couple more solo “works in progress”,<br />
starting one and then deciding it should be in a higher key, but<br />
the new work sits right in with the old and it will be a treat to<br />
hear them fully realised. Amid great applause she laughingly<br />
says, “OK, now let’s play some songs we know how to play,”<br />
and the band kick back in for the final few songs of a hugely<br />
enjoyable evening, the crowd nodding, dancing, cheering their<br />
approval.<br />
Glyn Akroyd / @GlynAkroyd<br />
REVIEWS 43
REVIEWS<br />
“The ideas here<br />
represent the end<br />
of learning, and the<br />
beginning of practice”<br />
The End Is Nigh! (Carlos Santos and Milos Sampraga)<br />
The End Is Nigh!<br />
LJMU Art and Design degree show<br />
<strong>2019</strong> – 24/05<br />
As an early major platform for many of the artists involved,<br />
degree shows are a unique prospect. LJMU’s <strong>2019</strong> edition –<br />
dramatically titled THE END IS NIGH! – is big in both significance<br />
and size, occupying every floor of the John Lennon Art and<br />
Design Building. Four subjects have been given space: alongside<br />
fine art there’s graphic design and illustration, fashion design and<br />
communication and architecture.<br />
The fine art presentations cover pretty much every<br />
medium – film, painting and sculpture. There are a couple of<br />
rooms dominated by installations that are clearly meant as ‘big<br />
statements’. The ambition to do something large-scale must<br />
be tempting when several years of study have all led up to this<br />
moment. The success of these pieces, though, must rest on the<br />
same question as any artwork: what’s their point, or purpose? Is<br />
it clear, and do they succeed in moving the audience? In a couple<br />
of cases, this isn’t entirely successful. The best is one of the<br />
simplest: a tent-fort made out of dyed sheets. Inside music plays,<br />
soundtracking videos of people being unequivocally themselves;<br />
whether dancing semi-naked or dressing up, this is a space for<br />
expression without shame, and filled with warm feeling because<br />
of it.<br />
Among the rest of the show, in the objects of the walls<br />
and floors, there are some really great pieces to discover. An<br />
armadillo-accordion hybrid creature, standing in a sea of torn<br />
fables, is totally endearing. There is a corner of weavings<br />
stretching up from and down to the ground like braids – slightly<br />
unnerving, but irresistibly tactile. An intricately detailed, sexually<br />
charged dragon appears to shoot lasers from its eyes at anything<br />
that might disturb its power.<br />
Despite being closely related disciplines, there’s a massive<br />
difference between the work by the fine art and graphic design<br />
and illustration students. The graphic design and illustration<br />
section is somewhat more straightforward in terms of message<br />
and medium – more enjoyable for it. It’s not that politics isn’t<br />
present – there are zines about the environment, cults and Trump.<br />
But there’s a sense that the more defined medium unlocks a<br />
different sense of play. Details of everyday objects are enlarged<br />
to abstraction; new worlds are filled with characters ready for you<br />
to join their adventures. These artists have produced work that is<br />
confident in its own ability to make a point without feeling a need<br />
to overthink things<br />
The fashion design and communication show is<br />
predominantly based around the publication of UN_FOLD<br />
magazine. Combining design, editorial, photography and<br />
graphics, the look and feel is polished and it feels ready to sit<br />
alongside any other publication on the shelves in a gallery gift<br />
shop. It’s an impressive vehicle for conveying the students’ skills.<br />
Architecture is arguably, in terms of its impact on the way<br />
we live, the most significant discipline here. In exhibition form,<br />
however, it can be difficult for a casual observer to relate to.<br />
Each building comes with a significant amount of rationale and<br />
exemplification about its approach and solution to issues. This<br />
isn’t to say it’s not impressive, but it’s a very different kind of<br />
experience to engage with. So as well as being here for design<br />
value, the decision to have these presentations sharing the space<br />
with the more immediate visual disciplines is interesting for the<br />
questions it raises about what it interrogated in each type of<br />
work, and the complexities of defining success.<br />
The End Is Nigh! is a title that really only tells half the story.<br />
The degree show marks the end of one phase, but the beginning<br />
of another. So the ideas here represent the end of learning, and<br />
the beginning of practice. Should we expect the finished article?<br />
Or should this be seen instead as a starting point for the next<br />
stage? The world offers huge learning curves: if an idea doesn’t<br />
land now, it can still be a point for the development that comes<br />
with experience. !<br />
Julia Johnson / @MessyLines_<br />
44
KRS-One<br />
+ Beyond Average<br />
+ DJ 2Kind<br />
Bam!Bam!Bam! @ 24 Kitchen Street<br />
28/05<br />
J Mascis<br />
+ Rosali<br />
Harvest Sun @ Arts Club – 17/05<br />
Moving past the eclectic mix of fans that occupy the Arts Club<br />
tonight, I’m reminded of The Bronze from Buffy The Vampire Slayer.<br />
A slow and steady sway of its inhabitants congregate around the<br />
bleak yet appealing tones filling the room – sounds that pine for better<br />
times. The low murmur of Philadelphia-born ROSALI harps back to<br />
the dreary 90s alternative scene, with flashes of heavenly vocals,<br />
accompanied by meandering chord progression. Cutting a lonely<br />
figure on the stage, Rosali produces a dreamy cover of Karen Dalton’s<br />
Something On Your Mind before shortly departing the stage with a<br />
quick thank you, leaving everyone with something to contemplate.<br />
“Alright?” is just one of two words J Mascis utters all night as he<br />
greets the room of hopeful followers waiting to capture a glimpse<br />
of his capabilities. With his Gibson slung low to the hip, he starts<br />
with Thumb from Dinosaur Jr.’s 1991 album, Green Mind, reminding<br />
onlookers of the impressive catalogue he can call upon, both with<br />
his band and various solo outings over the years. On Little Fury<br />
Things the incredible amount of distortion and volume produced by<br />
one man stuns the crowd; the reverb shakes everyone to their core<br />
A Certain Ratio<br />
Phase One – 23/05<br />
40th anniversary tours are generally pale imitations of a band<br />
in their heyday, with connotations of rockers past their best giving<br />
lacklustre performances even Status Quo fans would swerve. A<br />
CERTAIN RATIO, however, not only meet the expectations of those<br />
who remember these Flixton natives during the Factory Records postpunk<br />
explosion of the late 70s, but also gain a fair few new converts<br />
to their music during the night. But then again, talent and good tunes<br />
always win the day.<br />
Unsurprisingly, given the nature of the tour and the release of<br />
their new album acr:box, which comprises over 50 tracks of well<br />
known material and some unreleased songs, the set list is a trajectory<br />
through their career.<br />
It starts with 1979’s debut single All Night Party, with its<br />
repetitive rhythmic guitar and heavy metallic sound inspired by their<br />
industrial Manchester setting. The track segues into their recent<br />
cover of Talking Heads’ Houses In Motion. The cowbells, bongos and<br />
whistles which come out for the tracks from 1990’s acr:mcr (Be What<br />
You Wanna Be and Won’t Stop Loving You) take it up a notch or two<br />
and conjure up the spirit of the times.<br />
The crowd is made up of diehard fans and music aficionados with<br />
a real appreciation for how good the band are. But it’s surprising there<br />
are not more people eager to see them; tonight’s gig is relatively quiet<br />
and empty, especially for a band with A Certain Ratio’s calibre and<br />
history. What it is does allow for, though, is an intimate gig that’s a<br />
pleasure to be at. There’s enough people here with love for the band<br />
and their songs that dancing breaks out sporadically. And by the end<br />
of the gig everyone around the room is moving – on and off stage<br />
there’s joy and palpable passion for the music.<br />
It’s clear the band still enjoy playing together, too, and vocalist<br />
Denise Johnson extends this throughout the venue as she banters<br />
with the audience. Technically they’re excellent. A fair few musicians<br />
are multi-instrumentalists, but to add a certain frisson to the<br />
J Mascis (Lucy McLachlan / lucyalexandramclachlan.com)<br />
before surfacing back into the calm waters of acoustic delivery. It’s a<br />
juxtaposition that Mascis has honed throughout his career; streaming<br />
distortion coupled with mumbled sensitivity. It hits hard, no matter the<br />
setting. The exclamation of “I know you’re out there” from Out There<br />
prompts a wave of psychedelic euphoria as the venue becomes the<br />
artist’s spaceship, transporting its passengers with every change in<br />
tempo and dictated by the exploration of Mascis on his fretboard.<br />
He starts to layer his sounds, playing one riff on top of the next,<br />
giving him the freedom to melt faces with his solo endeavours.<br />
Watching him command his instrument, I wonder how he can<br />
continue at such a blistering pace, but he does. Unrelenting. It’s like<br />
his industrious musical capacity knows no bounds, like he does not<br />
observe auditory norms. The more recent hits of Elastic Days and<br />
See You At the Movies are met with huge approval from the crowd<br />
as Mascis amazes the room again with his ability to gear change into<br />
thrashy solo brilliance.<br />
Acknowledging his contemporaries, Mascis then produces his<br />
unique homage to The Cure with a redeveloped cover of Just Like<br />
Heaven, before ascending to the heights of Fade Into You by Mazzy<br />
Star. It leaves the crowd astonished, a momentary wonderment as<br />
they arrive at a true contented disposition with the night’s events.<br />
Tonight shows that Mascis’ axe-wielding powers are still<br />
significant. The considerable importance he has played in forming the<br />
modern landscape of alternative rock should not be forgotten.<br />
Jake Penn / @p3nno<br />
experience, Martin Moscop and Donald Johnson swap over between<br />
guitar and drum mid-song, which isn’t something that can be done<br />
without years of practice. They literally clamber over instruments<br />
on the cramped stage without missing a beat or a chord. The bass<br />
playing by Jez Kerr is hypnotic, reverberating round the small room<br />
round better than any recording in post-production.<br />
It’s an energetic and entertaining gig that belies the age of both<br />
the band and the majority of the people in here, those of which should<br />
be so lucky to get the opportunity to see the band in such an intimate<br />
space again. They’re as fresh as they were at the start of their career<br />
and could give some younger groups a good run for their money. If<br />
and when the chance arises again, whatever you do, do not miss out.<br />
Jennie Macaulay<br />
A Certain Ratio (Paul McCoy / paulmccoyimagery.com)<br />
It’s a quiet night in Baltic Triangle, but there’s<br />
still room for 24 Kitchen Street to embrace hip hop<br />
legend KRS-ONE, appearing on his The World Is Mind<br />
tour. KRS-One is one of the most respected figures<br />
in hip hop, one of the original pioneers of the musical<br />
culture within the hip hop movement of The Bronx.<br />
Once predominately known as a member of the group<br />
Boogie Down Productions, there became a vacant<br />
space for KRS-One as a solo artist, amassing over<br />
13 albums under his belt to date. His new album The<br />
World Is MIND is a boom bap rap throwback, including<br />
a track called Fuck This, recorded in Liverpool’s own<br />
GoPlayStudio’s with Kofi and featuring a verse from<br />
one Liverpool’s own rappers KOD (now known as<br />
Niggy Raw).<br />
Pushed back from last November, KRS-One’s<br />
arrival in Liverpool has been hugely anticipated by<br />
eager Scouse fans and upon stepping in, you can<br />
feel it. Instantly I am embraced by masterfully mixed<br />
set from Liverpool’s urban music advocate DJ 2KIND<br />
(L100), channelling the crowd’s needs and providing<br />
tracks from hip hop greats. In the short time prior to<br />
the supporting act arriving on stage, DJ 2Kind played<br />
classic hip hop tracks by MF Doom, A Tribe Called<br />
Quest and Wu-Tang Clan that massively pleases the<br />
Scouse fans.<br />
Liverpool’s own a grassroots Scouse rap duo<br />
BEYOND AVERAGE, consisting of Jeopardy and Big-O,<br />
bring finesse in production and lyricism. The audience<br />
is seduced by the raw energy of popular new releases<br />
The Mullah, The Re Up and No Comment. Finishing<br />
up with Be Like You – a trappy beat featuring up and<br />
coming rapper Jono – the entire set allows us to catch<br />
the talent in the flesh rather than just on Spotify. DJ<br />
2Kind holds it down with Pharcyde’s Drop while we<br />
sing along and chat, queueing for our drinks, awaiting<br />
the grand reveal.<br />
Suddenly, with no warning and bursting onto the<br />
stage, is KRS-One. Enthusiastic in his entrance, but the<br />
crowd is oblivious, he returns to the exit, announcing<br />
that he’ll give this one more attempt. This time he<br />
bounces out on to the stage receiving loud cheers<br />
of appreciation. His attire is a simple black tracksuit<br />
with contrasting clean white Air Max, a black cap<br />
covering his dreads. The performance kicks off with<br />
the rumbling of bass notes and crunching samples.<br />
In come the old school DJ scratches over the grungy<br />
and grimy boom bap beats. His first vocal note booms<br />
down through the mic and out the speakers, “This is<br />
the sound of the city,” he announces, like an old school<br />
preacher. “Real hip hop is over here,” he states like an<br />
invocation of the true spirit of hip hop to a church of<br />
loyal followers.<br />
We cool off as a low beat kicks in and he starts<br />
recites a thoughtful spoken word scripture, then the<br />
beat kicks back in and we give out the cheers. His<br />
poetry helps us visualise back on yesterday and the<br />
potential that our future holds: “The world is mind,”<br />
he tells us. Next thing, the beat spins back and with a<br />
swift click, it’s a sing-along. “WOOP WOOP that’s the<br />
sound of the police!” It kicks off a riot. To follow, 9mm<br />
drops with such an aggression it feels like the room is<br />
going to blow up, and the source is a cooking pot of<br />
hip hop front and centre on stage. Some trouble with<br />
the sound engineering means that KRS’s microphone<br />
drops in and out, but it really doesn’t matter too much;<br />
everyone knows the lyrics anyway.<br />
One microphone switch later, we can finally<br />
hear him, although it’s clear that the 50 years young<br />
artist doesn’t miss a bar – even when inaudible. Over<br />
beats that he credits to being “the original sound” he<br />
consciously and openly speaks of his conspiracies<br />
concerning Mexican culture under the affairs of Donald<br />
trump. KRS shouts at the sound guy to turn this<br />
music up higher and higher, really wants us to feel the<br />
“healing music”. It feels like I’m in a lecture from a wise<br />
oak tree.<br />
The fact that KRS has been performing since the<br />
80s means it’s no surprise that he decides to take us<br />
through a journey, spanning over three decades. He<br />
even shows off his complex rapping skills by spitting<br />
over classical music. Overall the beat production<br />
holds a range of styles, all appealing to the crowd of<br />
hardcore fans. It seems that KRS will forever deliver<br />
the rawest of live hip hop performances. Liverpool<br />
should always remember them.<br />
Iona Fazer / @_iona_fazer<br />
REVIEWS 45
REVIEWS<br />
Manic Street Preachers<br />
Eventim Olympia – 30/05<br />
The Olympia’s theatre walls shine blood red. From the fog<br />
they appear: lead singer and guitarist James Dean Bradfield,<br />
followed by bass player and lyricist Nicky Wire, dressed in a Lou<br />
Reed Transformer T-shirt, with patch and badge adorned white<br />
blazer featuring a picture of David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust<br />
stitched onto the back. Then, finally, drummer Sean Moore sits<br />
Manic Street Preachers (John Middleton / johnmiddletonphoto.co.uk)<br />
himself down, drumsticks in hand eager to let out his rage.<br />
The Olympia is filled to the brim at this point with fans<br />
sporting feather boas, leopard print blouses and lipstick and<br />
military surplus uniforms replicating their heroes. The MANIC<br />
STREET PREACHERS are ready to preach their manifesto<br />
of culture, alienation, boredom and despair to the people<br />
of Liverpool. Their first 13 songs of reflective ballads are in<br />
celebration of 20 years of their second most commercially<br />
successful album, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. After that, as<br />
Bradfield says, is “cheap, dancey fun”.<br />
They open with The Everlasting, calling out to the useless<br />
generations of past and present while Bradfield screams with<br />
his mighty and majestic voice: “The gap that grows between our<br />
lives/The gap our parents never had/Stop those thoughts control<br />
your mind/ Replace the things that you despise”.<br />
The audience is completely captivated by their teachings<br />
of nihilistic beliefs. They stand strong in protest of a hegemonic<br />
world blinded by neon lights and societal expectations. Soon<br />
after, the stage disperses, and Bradfield is standing alone below<br />
the spotlight. He gently strums his guitar playing Born A Girl, a<br />
song with lyrics that judge what it is to be a man, the androgyny<br />
a more human way of expression of the self: “And I wish I had<br />
been born a girl Instead of what I am/ Yes I wish I had been born<br />
a girl, and not this mess of a man”.<br />
Later, Nicky Wire’s bass sends a wave of aggression that<br />
penetrates the sweat soaked crowd, droplets falling from their<br />
hair. They cover Guns N’ Roses Sweet Child O’ Mine, a song that<br />
many compare the Manics’ sound in their formative early years to.<br />
Though surprised, the audience scream back the words and jump<br />
up while their arms wail in the air.<br />
Bradfield spits at the stage floor then wipes it with his<br />
shoe. Wire limbers up, stretching on the amps decorated with<br />
Welsh flags; he turns, flinging his twig-like legs in the air, which<br />
provokes screams of enjoyment from the fans pressed up on the<br />
barricade. Halfway through the gig Bradfield stops playing his<br />
guitar, Wire stops strumming his bass and Moore’s wailing arms<br />
came to a halt. Bradfield introduces his band: “General life force<br />
and lifeblood to everything which is MSP, currently standing in as<br />
tall as Radio City in Liverpool: Mr Nicholas Wire”. Then Sean: “the<br />
man who gives the beat with no punctuation and the power and<br />
the madness: Mr Sean Anthony Moore.” Nicky reminisces on their<br />
love for Liverpool from performing at the Hillsborough Justice<br />
Concert in 1997, and the love for Liverpool that the band’s key<br />
lyricist and rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards, who mysteriously<br />
disappeared 24 years ago, had for our city. Wire states that<br />
he “tried to look like Ian McCulloch for five fucking years”, then<br />
dedicates their next song, You Love Us, to his greatness. Their<br />
final song, A Design For Life, comes to an end, and the band wish<br />
us goodnight as they leave the stage and we, the exhilarated<br />
audience, turn to the exit doors, wading through a sea of spilt<br />
lager and plastic cups.<br />
It’s clear from their monumental performance that the Manic<br />
Street Preachers are one of the last true rock ’n’ roll bands out<br />
there. At one point during the performance, Wire says that<br />
“sometimes only through true misery do you achieve greatness”. I<br />
think that’s understandable whether you’re a writer, an artist or a<br />
musician. There’s nobody more inspiring than the Manics.<br />
Sam Taylor<br />
Liverpool Arab<br />
Arts Festival<br />
5-14 <strong>July</strong> <strong>2019</strong><br />
Discover the richness of Arab music,<br />
culture, film, art and performance<br />
at venues across the city.<br />
Featuring<br />
UK Premiere<br />
Juliana Yazbeck: SUNGOD<br />
Fri 5 <strong>July</strong> | Royal Court Studio<br />
Yara Boustany: ēvolvō and<br />
One Day and One Night in Beirut<br />
Thu 11 <strong>July</strong> | Unity Theatre<br />
Rim Banna:<br />
The Trace of the Butterfly<br />
The only show outside London<br />
Fri 12 <strong>July</strong> | Philharmonic Music Room<br />
Gesturing Refugees: Farah Saleh<br />
Sat 6 <strong>July</strong> | Bluecoat<br />
LAAF Family Day <strong>2019</strong><br />
Supported by Qatar Foundation International<br />
Featuring Daraa Tribes UK debut, Hawiyya<br />
Dance Company and Reham al-Hakimi<br />
with the Al Awahdal Band, as well authentic<br />
cuisine, henna painting and family activities.<br />
Sunday 14 <strong>July</strong> | Sefton Park Palm House<br />
See the full programme and book tickets at:<br />
arabartsfestival.com<br />
arabartsfestival @arabicartsfest @liverpoolarabartsfestival<br />
Search ‘Liverpool Arab Arts Festival’ arabartsfestival.com/spotify<br />
46 LAAF_Bido_Lito_half_Page_Ad_v5.indd 1 11/06/<strong>2019</strong> 17:18
Kaiser Chiefs<br />
Mountford Hall – 04/06<br />
From the slick merchandise stall in the foyer to Ricky Wilson’s<br />
reminders to pre-order their new album, this is a gig by a band<br />
who have a keen awareness of their commercial appeal. The gig’s<br />
a mix of their early material and the less palatable newer stuff. It<br />
feels as though they’re trying to carve a place for themselves in<br />
the rock cannon (a cover of The Who’s Pinball Wizard as part of<br />
the encore seems a calculated stab at relevancy) as they make<br />
their way to the bank, made all the more ironic by them coming<br />
on to Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing – one of several ironies<br />
through the night.<br />
Ricky Wilson is an engaging frontman and he has a good<br />
voice. His patter with the crowd is easy (“We’re here to entertain<br />
you” and “Are you going to scream?”) and hints at a persona<br />
honed through various TV performances and a burgeoning,<br />
latter-day career as a TV celebrity. But it’s when he relaxes,<br />
removes his pristine blazer and gets going on the tambourine –<br />
expertly caught after being thrown on from the wings – that it<br />
becomes a more interesting and natural performance.<br />
Kaiser Chiefs have some good songs, they really do. The<br />
indie-rock style of their initial albums, 2005’s Employment and<br />
2007’s Yours Truly, Angry Mob, are pretty good and reminiscent<br />
of a particular cultural era that many in the crowd seem to be<br />
harking back to.<br />
Part of the demographic is very much Radio 2 listeners<br />
and, while there are quite a few younger people here, there’s a<br />
sense the older part of the audience and band are reliving their<br />
glory days. There’s an awful lot of filming, taking of photos and<br />
uploading on to social media, but then, why not? It’s a welldesigned<br />
show that is visually captivating.<br />
The light show is on a big scale, timed to perfection to help<br />
work everyone in to a frenzy for the big hits. There’s a disco<br />
ball during Love Is Not A Competition and a truckload of paper<br />
streamers and party poppers which are fired in to the crowd<br />
intermittently. There’s also a backdrop of the band’s name in<br />
lights, which flashes throughout the performance – useful in case<br />
we forget who we’ve been watching when we go to download<br />
that new album, as requested.<br />
Some of the newer material leaves the mood a bit flat. Some<br />
of it is pretty mediocre pop which doesn’t fare well when placed<br />
next to their older stuff: the crowd understandably go crazy for I<br />
Predict A Riot, Ruby and the pinnacle of the encore Oh My God.<br />
15 years in the business has certainly honed Kaiser Chiefs’<br />
self awareness; they know who their material is aimed at<br />
and who their core market is. And it’s here that the ironies lie:<br />
those who were young and carefree in the 2000s are now the<br />
Kaiser Chiefs (Brian Sayle / urbansubrosa.co.uk)<br />
characters in The Angry Mob who “read the papers everyday”.<br />
Even the band itself has mutated from relevant indie rockers to<br />
the more mundane “everything is average nowadays”.<br />
But they’re popular: the packed hall and stomping and<br />
cheering which continues until they reappear for the encore<br />
shouts down a lot of the criticisms – people here are loving<br />
it and, at one and a half hours, the bottom line is it’s a very<br />
comprehensive tick box exercise in giving the mildly-disgruntledby-middle-age<br />
mob what they want.<br />
Jennie Macaulay<br />
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets<br />
Shipping Forecast – 21/05<br />
Stewart Francis: Into The Punset<br />
+ Rachel Fairburn<br />
Philharmonic Hall – 25/05<br />
Opening up a comedy show for a name as big as STEWART<br />
FRANCIS can’t be easy, especially to a full house of dedicated<br />
fans who’ve been watching his unique act on stage and screen<br />
for decades; fans who are, by definition, used to big laughs at<br />
short jokes, a particular and defined style of humour and delivery.<br />
Undeterred, RACHEL FAIRBURN takes to the Philharmonic stage<br />
and delivers a short set of self-deprecating gags to a supportive<br />
crowd. Hers is a different style to that of the headliner (isn’t<br />
everyone’s?) and the Phil is a big room to fill, but she battles<br />
through the quieter responses. And there are a few, it’s fair to say.<br />
The few laughs there are come as a result of the self-deprecation,<br />
rather than the content, so at times, it does feel a little forced.<br />
Stewart Francis comes dancing onstage and immediately<br />
launches into a characteristically relentless barrage of one-liners,<br />
wordplay gags and brilliantly observed puns. His unique take<br />
on this style of instant humour is full of the trademark sharp,<br />
acerbic wit that all his material is crafted from. The nuanced art<br />
of the pun is a skill few of his peers possess. Much of his work<br />
involves deconstructing well-known phrases and giving them a<br />
new meaning, and Francis’ gift, or one of them, is in how easy<br />
he makes it look and feel. And the deadpan delivery helps him<br />
Kaiser Chiefs (Brian Sayle / urbansubrosa.co.uk)<br />
distance himself from the punchlines, the jokes just left hanging<br />
for all to enjoy. He takes a scattergun approach, flying wildly<br />
between related, and often unrelated topics, yet somehow makes<br />
it all feel like one big joke.<br />
The set is peppered throughout with callbacks – a wellpractised<br />
specialty of his – which sees him referring back to<br />
earlier jokes, earlier shows and older material, so when a joke<br />
works, as they all do, we’re given several chances to laugh at it<br />
again. In other comedians this would be seen as some kind of<br />
disappointing sell out. With Francis, it’s practically demanded<br />
of him. That’s why it works so well. Again, the delivery and<br />
the timing is pin sharp throughout. He moves in parts towards<br />
physical theatre, using every part of his body to stretch the<br />
surreal narrative of so much of the show’s highpoint. The magic<br />
of his act is held in the sober, straight-backed nature of how<br />
he sets the jokes up, leaving the audience concentrating their<br />
focus so hard on the build-up, that the punchline, when it lands,<br />
really does punch. Even though they’re often so very obvious,<br />
we just don’t see them coming. Which, of course, makes them<br />
even funnier. Comedy such as this is really the perfect craft, and<br />
Francis an absolute master. It really is a shame that this tour, Into<br />
The Punset, is his final swan song at standup, as he retires from<br />
performance at the end of this year. Punderful, wonderful work.<br />
He’ll be missed.<br />
Paul Fitzgerald / @NothingvilleM<br />
A mannequin foot with a hat on points towards the band in a<br />
kind of salute. For a band like PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS,<br />
I don’t think anyone expects the ordinary.<br />
The beating heart of the crowd jumps and thumps the<br />
roof to the drum beat. You can feel it in your chest. Heads nod<br />
uncontrollably as the music takes over.<br />
Hailing from Australia, this band aren’t easy to come by in<br />
the UK. And ever since Dependent On Mary came out in 2017 on<br />
High Visceral Pt. 2, they’ve been on my must-see live list. Recent<br />
single Bill’s Mandolin sends an electric shock through the crowd;<br />
the jumping gets higher, the voices louder and the atmosphere<br />
becomes its own entity. Pints are downed and no one is going<br />
to the bar out of fear they’ll miss what comes next. The speed<br />
of the guitar increases and my sympathy for the photographer<br />
in front of me heightens. This song is the exact song I’d<br />
recommend to those wondering if they would like tonight’s<br />
act. Quintessential PPC: the mix of national flavours and killer<br />
musicianship. Even without being in a room of fans, you can feel<br />
the energy from it, but tonight elevates the entire experience.<br />
The energy that exists in the room is similar to that at<br />
a football game, with the band stepping onto the stage to<br />
the sound of the Champions League tune. This football-like<br />
atmosphere adds an air of tribal allegiance and a thrill of what<br />
will happen next. It’s not dampened by the risk of us losing<br />
something, other than a pair of glasses that went skidding across<br />
the mosh pit.<br />
Self-proclaimed “soy latte drinking hippies”, PPC’s sound<br />
and demeanour definitely doesn’t bring that imagery to mind, no<br />
matter how long their locks are. More like Cousin It, or long-lost<br />
Cousin It, the weird just exudes from this band. In a day and age<br />
where anything other than the ‘norm’ is facing judgement, we<br />
need to go further in our weirdness. We should amplify it.<br />
Their finale, Cornflake, has us gasping for breath. In the lulls<br />
of garage psych crunching, the crowd is dripping with sweat,<br />
waiting for the guitar and drums to ramp up to 100 per cent<br />
capacity for the chorus. We’re a whole now, my sweat is yours<br />
and the grossness of it no longer matters because just listen to<br />
that guitar! If Psychedelic Porn Crumpets aren’t now on your<br />
must-see list, they should be.<br />
Megan Walder / @m_l_wald<br />
REVIEWS<br />
47
BOOK NOW: 0161 832 1111<br />
MANchesteracademy.net<br />
GUS DAPPERTON<br />
TUESDAY 23RD JULY<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
POND<br />
MONDAY 4TH NOVEMBER<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
VISTAS<br />
WEDNESDAY 16TH OCTOBER<br />
ACADEMY 3<br />
WHITE LIES<br />
THURSDAY 5TH DECEMBER<br />
MANCHESTER ACADEMY<br />
CAM<br />
FRIDAY 6TH SEPTEMBER<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
ANOMALIE<br />
FRIDAY 18TH OCTOBER<br />
CLUB ACADEMY<br />
DUB PISTOLS<br />
FRIDAY 8TH NOVEMBER<br />
ACADEMY 3<br />
A TRIBUTE TO<br />
MANCHESTER<br />
FRI 6TH DECEMBER / MCR ACADEMY<br />
SKINNY LIVING<br />
WEDNESDAY 11TH SEPTEMBER<br />
ACADEMY 3<br />
BILLY BRAGG -<br />
3 NIGHT RESIDENCY<br />
MON/TUE/WED 11/12/13 NOV / A2<br />
TINY MOVING PARTS<br />
WEDNESDAY 25TH SEPTEMBER<br />
ACADEMY 3<br />
LAMB<br />
MONDAY 21ST OCTOBER<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
CAVETOWN<br />
SATURDAY 7TH DECEMBER<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
NEW RULES<br />
MONDAY 30TH SEPTEMBER<br />
ACADEMY 3<br />
FREDDIE GIBBS<br />
WEDNESDAY 23RD OCTOBER<br />
CLUB ACADEMY<br />
THE AMAZONS<br />
FRIDAY 15TH NOVEMBER<br />
MANCHESTER ACADEMY<br />
REMO DRIVE<br />
THURSDAY 12TH DECEMBER<br />
ACADEMY 3<br />
SEBADOH<br />
SATURDAY 5TH OCTOBER<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
THEORY<br />
TUESDAY 19TH NOVEMBER<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
THE WEDDING PRESENT<br />
FRIDAY 13TH DECEMBER<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
JON BELLION<br />
TUESDAY 8TH OCTOBER<br />
MANCHESTER ACADEMY<br />
REAL FRIENDS<br />
FRIDAY 25TH OCTOBER<br />
CLUB ACADEMY<br />
HAPPY MONDAYS<br />
THURSDAY 21ST NOVEMBER<br />
MANCHESTER ACADEMY<br />
BURY TOMORROW<br />
FRIDAY 20TH DECEMBER<br />
MANCHESTER ACADEMY<br />
BARNS COURTNEY<br />
TUESDAY 8TH OCTOBER<br />
CLUB ACADEMY<br />
WEYES BLOOD<br />
TUESDAY 29TH OCTOBER<br />
CLUB ACADEMY<br />
THE BIG 3-0 TOUR:<br />
DAN REED + FM + GUN<br />
FRI 20TH DECEMBER / ACADEMY 2<br />
BLACKBEAR<br />
WEDNESDAY 30TH OCTOBER<br />
MANCHESTER ACADEMY<br />
LUCKY CHOPS<br />
THURSDAY 21ST NOVEMBER<br />
CLUB ACADEMY<br />
JAH WOBBLE & THE<br />
INVADERS OF THE HEART<br />
FRI 17TH JANUARY / CLUB ACADEMY<br />
JORDAN RAKEI<br />
FRIDAY 11TH OCTOBER<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
SPECTOR<br />
THURSDAY 31ST OCTOBER<br />
CLUB ACADEMY<br />
ACADEMY IN THE UK<br />
SATURDAY 23RD NOVEMBER<br />
CLUB ACADEMY<br />
PROUD MARY<br />
SATURDAY 12TH OCTOBER<br />
ACADEMY 3<br />
HONEYBLOOD<br />
FRIDAY 1ST NOVEMBER<br />
ACADEMY 3<br />
PUP<br />
FRIDAY 29TH NOVEMBER<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
THE DEAD SOUTH<br />
SUNDAY 23RD FEBRUARY<br />
MANCHESTER ACADEMY<br />
facebook.com/manchesteracademy @mancacademy FOR UP TO DATE LISTINGS VISIT MANChesteracademy.net
ADVERTISE<br />
IN BIDO LITO!<br />
! promote your brand, venue or event to an<br />
engaged culture-centric readership<br />
! support an independent publication<br />
! get full support from a dedicated team of<br />
friendly staff<br />
Go to bidolito.co.uk/advertise and get in touch today!
The<br />
SAT 13TH JULY<br />
CHIP WICKHAM<br />
FULL LIVE SHOW 8-12 . TICKETS £15<br />
LIVERPOOL’S AWARD<br />
WINNING INDEPENDENT<br />
RECORD SHOP AND<br />
NOW SO MUCH MORE...<br />
RECORDS | BAR | TICKET OUTLET<br />
EVENT SPACE | DJ ACCESSORIES | CDs<br />
<strong>2019</strong> Winner<br />
Best Shop<br />
SUN 14TH JULY<br />
THE SPOT PRESENTS<br />
CHIP-FEST<br />
JAZZ FUNK SOUL ALL DAYER<br />
2PM TILL LATE . FREE ENTRY<br />
DJ'S CHIP WICKHAM, MOODYMANC<br />
ZESSICA LAUREN, ANTONIO PAX<br />
SIMON ‘SNEAKY’ HOUGHTON<br />
THOMAS TUFT<br />
CHIP WICKHAM<br />
FULL LIVE SHOW 7PM IN THE SPOT. TICKETS £15<br />
5 SLATER STREET, 0151 7076444 : INFO@3BRECORDS.CO.UK<br />
5 SLATER STREET. TEL: 0151 7076 444. EMAIL: INFO@3BRECORDS.CO.UK<br />
Shezad Dawood, Leviathan, 2017, courtesy of the artist and UBIK Productions<br />
Grace Ndiritu, The Ark, 2017<br />
Shezad Dawood:<br />
Leviathan<br />
Grace Ndiritu:<br />
The Ark<br />
At Bluecoat from Sat 6 Jul – Sun 13 Oct<br />
Two major exhibitions examining society,<br />
migration and the environment.<br />
School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BX<br />
thebluecoat.org.uk<br />
@thebluecoat @the_bluecoat @thebluecoat<br />
Funded by:<br />
Supported by:
BE A BIDO LITO!<br />
CONTRIBUTOR!<br />
We are looking for writers,<br />
thinkers, photographers,<br />
drawers, designers and<br />
other creatives to contribute<br />
to Bido Lito!<br />
If you are interested<br />
send your portfolio to<br />
submissions@bidolito.co.uk
ARTISTIC<br />
LICENCE<br />
As part of our continuing series focusing on the region’s wordsmiths, we’ve<br />
curated a selection of work from some regulars on the city’s poetry scene.<br />
Andy McGlinchey<br />
Celestine<br />
I’ll let you in on a secret<br />
An astronaut floated down to me last night<br />
They all fell at once, without a word<br />
And I was doing pretty fine without her<br />
But then I woke, to see myself gazing back through reflection<br />
I helped her fix her helmet,<br />
After a while she helped me with a few things<br />
She fixed the painting in my wall and made it crooked again<br />
Made me fresh wax gave me Valium and skunk rats,<br />
And we played with the stars, they were ours<br />
Though she never spoke a word of her Heavenly birth<br />
A devilish curse but only at first<br />
Later we didn’t even need to speak we knew each other’s taints and<br />
flukes, even though she never let me see her beneath the suit<br />
Others came and they never knew; all wore the same suit<br />
White helmet and black boots<br />
though you couldn’t see through<br />
You could always tell when her eyes saw the real you<br />
Amina Atiq<br />
Sir, I speak Scouse<br />
My gran-dad arrived on a boat to a strange land,<br />
rested on her port, drank water from her Mersey –<br />
greeted by her Liver birds – they lent out their<br />
wings and here, he opened his corner shop on Lawrence Road –<br />
selling broken biscuits for half a penny. Here, he settled<br />
where dreams are carved and never forgotten.<br />
She is not New York where dreams are wonders.<br />
She is a promise never broken and secrets are cross<br />
my heart and swear down to never tell a soul.<br />
She is the love letters found at the bottom of the riverstories<br />
floating to her waves – voices echoing her painhappiness<br />
of those who passed by and those who stayed.<br />
The Irish, Afro-Caribbean, the Chinese, the Yemenis,<br />
Somalis, the Greeks – her beauty is her diversity.<br />
She has a face that is hard to forget. Maybe not the<br />
prettiest of them all but the most friendliest you’ll find.<br />
She is the most down-to-earth bird you’ll ever find,<br />
enough to make your heart go by.<br />
Her stubbornness is her resilience, reds or bluesshe<br />
never gives up, she never walks alone – wounded<br />
or scarred, she picks you up too – that’s her charm.<br />
She is Hope Street, hoping for a better tomorrow and when<br />
The broken-hearted people living in the world would agree/<br />
There will be an answer, let it be, let it be…<br />
What makes her whole, is the peoples voice because Sir,<br />
I speak Scouse, fire from my stomach – love and kindness<br />
from my heart – she taught me to Stand up, Stand up, Speak up-<br />
Speak up be Anything, Anything.<br />
My city is my home and my home is my city.<br />
She is perfect and her name is Liverpool.<br />
Balcony<br />
Featured in ROOT-ed zine’s Arrival City issue<br />
Bluboy (@thisisbluboy)<br />
Untitled<br />
They said don’t dream big! Don’t dream grand!<br />
Our parents said work twice as hard to get half as far<br />
So we work four times as much keeping our feet to the ground while<br />
we reach for the stars<br />
But even if we succeed you won’t let us be!<br />
Trapped! With your assumptions, even if we break through that glass<br />
ceiling. Or if we beat the odds Because we’ll still be considered the<br />
red and brown eyed beans, never seen as the same green peas in a<br />
pod.<br />
Strength of our women over romanticised, because they’re still<br />
standing because it’s an understatement to say they’ve been through<br />
a lot!<br />
But they never stay down they reach for the top! But we never let em<br />
have a couple moments weakness.<br />
Small things everyday that you face, from having to stand up for<br />
yourself on both sides!<br />
Practically at all times, being fetishised in your daily lives.<br />
“I’ve got a thing for black chicks”<br />
“Black women have always been a fetish of mine”<br />
Sometimes even get it from one of us like:<br />
“You’re pretty for a dark skin girl”<br />
Or<br />
“I like lighties”<br />
But for years you’ve been the backbone of the community!<br />
So we gotta teach our kids they’re already dripping they can shine<br />
without jewellery.<br />
There I go again romanticising the strength of black women.<br />
But the press want to paint a picture a black man’s a strapped villain!<br />
Truth be told we’re full of beautiful spirits, brilliance and excellence.<br />
Inventive, innovative.<br />
Is that why they love to appropriate us?<br />
Or see us as taste-makers is that why you copy our slang kid and<br />
adopt it as a language?<br />
Copy our sense of fashion from the hats to the kicks.<br />
You wanna be like us till it comes to our trials and tribulations.<br />
But you’ll never face our daily situations.<br />
I feel like I shouldn’t even have to say that because it’s obvious.<br />
People assume we’re violent because we have no choice but to be<br />
warriors!<br />
As we fight small & big battles daily.<br />
Try and call out someone for micro aggressions then we’re labelled<br />
as crazy.<br />
54
MEMBERSHIP<br />
BECOME A BIDO LITO! MEMBER!<br />
Through our team of community writers, photographers, illustrators and creative minds, Bido Lito! has<br />
chartered our city’s vibrant, do-it-together ethos for 100 issues. You can join this dedicated community<br />
by becoming a Bido Lito! Community Member.<br />
As well as receiving the latest edition of the magazine in the post before anyone else each month,<br />
Community Members get a plethora of sweet rewards. Upon signing up you’ll receive a Bido Lito! Tote<br />
Bag with your first magazine, at the end of the year you’ll get the premium Bido Lito! Journal and you’ll<br />
get free admission to the Bido Lito! Social and a download bundle of the best new music which informs<br />
the pink pages every month.<br />
As well as this, you’ll help shape the content of the magazine itself each month. Whether it be<br />
recommending subjects for features, providing insight into live events, curating recommender playlists or<br />
suggesting your favourite new artists, our members are at the centre of everything we do.<br />
!<br />
HAVE YOUR SAY<br />
Bido Lito! members get opportunities to have direct input into the<br />
editorial direction of the magazine.<br />
! SOCIALISE<br />
Bido Lito! members get free admission to the monthly Bido Lito!<br />
Social. The best artists at the best independent venues bring in<br />
every new issue.<br />
!<br />
SPECIAL DELIVERY<br />
As well as the monthly magazine, the Bido Lito! TOTE BAG will be<br />
sent as your joining gift and you’ll receive the end of year BIDO LITO!<br />
JOURNAL each December.<br />
Join the community media revolution and sign up today at bidolito.co.uk/membership
YOUSEF PRESENTS...<br />
BIRTHDAY INCOMING<br />
SATURDAY 28TH SEPT <strong>2019</strong><br />
BRAMLEY MOORE DOCK - LIVERPOOL