The year has started off well at West Hill Hall as we are enjoying a brand new floor thanks to the genius work of Skydec’s Simon Kelly. Not far from the West Hill Hall is the Exeter Street Hall. A group set up to save it and ensure it is used by the community has so far raised over £139,000 by issuing a community share offer. The Hall Get Involved Ltd was initially given 6 months by the current owners, St Luke’s Church, to raise £200,000 to purchase the 128-year old Victorian hall. Since mid-September anyone has been able to purchase shares in the company. Having struggled to buy and maintain our own West Hill Hall over the years, West Hill Community Association has supported the Exeter Street Hall group and bought shares and Vinod Mashru of Bright News has matched the donation and bought shares himself. To help ensure the future of the Exeter Street Hall, you can still purchase shares by going to www.exeterstreethall.org
STOP PRESS! As of 23 January, St Luke’s has dropped the asking price to £150k, the fund now stands at £140k, so there’s only £10k more to find.
STOP STOP PRESS! They did it – raised £150k and more (will be needed for the renovation). So well done.
Continue reading The Whistler – February 2013
Daily Archives: January 24, 2013
Musicellaneous
A series of short workshops started in January at West Hill Hall for people who want to try out new ways of creating sounds and music. The series has an overall theme of group improvisation and individual sessions may be attended.
Each of the 90-minute sessions uses a different topic as a starting point: from John Stevens’ Search & Reflect, to using electronics to process sound, to making music to film. People new to music-making are as welcome as experienced players wishing to explore new areas. Please bring an instrument/sound-maker, your voice, or both.
Fridays 1-2:30pm £7 per session, £5 if block booking.
More info & booking, from Bela: brightoncello@gmail.com
Letters to the Whistler
Dear Editor
I have been reading the various suggestions for improvements to the Seven Dials junction and Brighton station with great interest. In the long term, the only solution to traffic congestion is to build an underground railway, such as that which exists in London. I am aware that in the current economic climate, this is about as likely as me winning the national lottery. In the meantime, the powers-that-be have to consider affordable measures. My suggestion for the rail station is to re-develop the existing multi-storey car park to the north east of the station and to turn this into a taxi and bus hub. There could be warm waiting rooms for passengers. All bus routes to the east and north-east of the area would start from this hub. The outside of the building could be designed with the main bus station in Nice, France as a template, i.e. covered with vegetation and flowers in the summer!
Continue reading Letters to the Whistler
Brighton Science Festival 2013
From before the cradle to beyond the grave
This year the Brighton Science Festival straddles four weekends for four very good reasons.
Firstly (Feb 9-10) All of Life
Science has proved what we always knew: the most important thing in life is sex (Robin Ince’s Dirty Book Club, Friday Feb 8 and The Science of Sex, Saturday Feb 9). We also celebrate the 60th anniversary of the unravelling of life’s blueprint, DNA. Like a bomb that won’t stop exploding, the double helix is still blowing our minds six decades later (DNA DAY, Sunday Feb 10).
Continue reading Brighton Science Festival 2013
One Man’s Journey
Some readers of The Whistler may remember that in an earlier edition I wrote about my obsession with jazz, which began in the 1950s. Recently I came upon an obituary in The Guardian (24.10.2012) which took me back to those years.
As I learned more about jazz I started to visit the London clubs. At first I wanted to hear Traditional bands, so I went to sessions by Ken Colyer, Humphrey Lyttelton, Chris Barber and other musicians playing in that style. But my friends at University persuaded me that there were other styles of jazz on offer. Soon I was visiting clubs in Soho like The Flamingo and Studio 51. I discovered that these clubs were quite different. The music, the clientele, the dress, the style of dancing (if dancing was allowed) all contrasted quite markedly with the Traditional sessions. I enjoyed both styles, but there was clearly a great divide, with most fans firmly on one side or the other. I felt like a double-agent, but I am sure I was not alone.
Continue reading One Man’s Journey
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