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The Arts

Don’t Miss the Bus

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Bert Williams
Bert Williams
When you get your 2010 diary, please write a memo to yourself at the beginning of October: “Find out when in October Bert is doing his Black History Month bus tour.” I went on it this year, along with many Brightonians of all colours (and sizes) who filled up the chartered double-decker bus while Bert filled us in with fascinating historical facts about Brighton’s black history. The continuous history of black people in Britain dates from the mid 16th Century and the beginning of the slave trade. Many black people “employed” as slave-servants, musicians, footman, soldiers and sailors visited and worked in Brighton.

Starting off from Brighton library, Bert took us on a magical tour of the places in Brighton associated with black history. We passed Dr Brighton’s baths which stood on the site of the Queen’s Hotel. Sake Dean Mahomed (1759-1851) grew up in India, emigrated to Ireland in 1786, and in 1814 Dean and his Irish wife Jane, moved to Brighton and opened the first shampooing vapour masseur bath in England. Both King George IV and William IV appointed him as their shampooing surgeon in Brighton.

Black History
Black History
As the bus travelled from the seafront into West Street, we passed St Paul’s Church to which Emperor Haile Selassie made a donation in 1947, in appreciation of the five years he spent in exile in Britain between 1936-41; the King’s Head pub (now The Heist) where, in 1651, Charles II stayed on his flight to France, aided and abetted by ‘a tall Black man six feet and two inches high’.

We got off the bus and went into St Nicholas Church, the oldest church in Brighton, which is packed full of associations with black history – including the resting place of Dean Mahomed; the home to a set of wooden carvings of the stations of the cross depicting African figures, donated by Dame Flora Robson; the wedding venue of Sarah Forbes Bonneta, a West African of royal lineage who was married there in 1862 in a ceremony sanctioned by Queen Victoria. So little room here, so much history to learn – don’t miss the bus in 2010.

For more information, visit the Black History website http://www.black-history.org.uk/

The Arts

Artichoke Arts

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The Artichoke Artgroup is running a children’s physical theatre weekly workshop in the West Hill Hall.

Physical space is a workshop that focuses on a return to the basics of theatre, without the use of make up and with neutral costume. It is based on a return to the origin, the empty space, and in evaluating our body as the first tool of creation in empty space.
We explore impulses and directions, physical gestures and their meaning. We develop the use of movement as a synthesis and as means of expression to recreate characters, situations and spaces. The company explores the environment (materials, colours, elements, sounds) and creates narratives through play where the theatrical text is created from the action.
The group is directed by the actress and teacher Florence Leon. James de Malplaquet is the sound design teacher and Solange Leon is the voice teacher.

Here’s what was said about the Artichoke Arts show Show off, first performed at West Hill Hall in July of this year.

“The performances by the children of the Artichoke Arts Group were just inspirational. They delivered their own short plays and mimes, which were dazzlingly complex, fast-paced and breathtakingly executed. The young artists’ energy, creativity and overwhelming sense of fun were evident in everything they did. How this was channelled so successfully into such a professional performance from very young people is a mystery! How do you do it, Artichoke?” Bruce Dickinson, Education Director BIMM – Brighton & Bristol Institutes of Modern Music.

“A terrific night! The kids were brilliant. It was lovely to see such confidence and commitment in them – and their execution of their devised material was amazing! Creative, funny, clever! The grown-up stuff was a gas too! I had a fun time! Bundles of charm in the event! Congratulations for a sterling job.” David Scinto, Writer & Award Winner of the British Independent Film Award & Golden Satellite Award for ‘Sexy Beast’.
For more info please visit www.artichokeartgroup.co.uk

The Arts

West Hill Hall Events

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ITCHY SCRATCHY A fundraiser for The Permanent Gallery Saturday 31 October
A musical event to accompany the October exhibition at the Permanent Gallery, Itchy Scratchy, a show which invites photographers to donate a photo as a digital file, which will then be printed and exhibited at the gallery. Itchy Scratchy is a term coined by writer Charlotte Cotton to describe a troubling photo in a photographer’s practice that doesn’t quite fit but precipitates a new way of working. The event at the Hall will be about inviting a group of musicians to respond to this notion in musical terms, either with a piece they wrote which changed their musical direction or to play in public a current unresolved direction. For more info please visit www.permanentgallery.com

CHRIS T-T plus support Saturday 21 November 7.30pm – 10.30pm
Chris T-T is an English songwriter. So far he’s made five albums. His current release is ‘Capital’ which came out in March 2008 on Xtra Mile Recordings. Chris says “It’ll be a solo set on piano, acoustic and maybe electric guitar. I’ll be playing my new record ‘Love Is Not Rescue’ which is much quieter than the last album and has a miserable, personal vibe to it. The West Hill Hall show will be the last night of my UK tour.” www.christt.com

ODDFELLOWS CASINO plus support Saturday 28 November 7.30pm – 10.30pm
“A hidden treasure of the English music scene”, Oddfellows Casino has been quietly releasing albums over the past five years, to great critical acclaim. They hail from the mountains of Sussex and are an ensemble whose music and live performances centre around forgotten corners of England, birds, landscapes, death, hauntings and an old Victorian freak show from which they take their name. At the centre of the group is singer-songwriter David Bramwell (“an English Sufjan Stevens” Plan B) who is also known locally as being the co-author of the Cheeky Guide to Brighton and creator of the Catalyst Club.

Oddfellows Casino have recently completed their third album, Raven’s Empire, produced by award-winning composer and producer Andrew Phillips (Grasscut). Their most ambitious project to date, this album sees the group plunging into darker waters with the music veering from pounding hypnotic orchestral arrangements and plaintive piano tracks to Stooges-style guitars; all held within Oddfellows distinctive English sound. In 2008 they were commissioned by Brighton Live and the Arts Council to perform with the Brighton and Hove Concert band, culminating in a concert at St George’s Church with over 50 musicians on stage. The gig in November at the West Hill may be more stripped down in comparison but promises to be a treat, this is the band’s first performance in over a year, and will be a showcase for lots of new tunes with Bramwell at the piano and a small band comprising of horns, percussion, bass, electronica, harmonium and flute. www.myspace.com/oddfellowscasino

The Arts

No News is Not Good News

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It makes my blood boil – the fact that Brighton & Hove is in the South East but the local TV news bulletins do not report news about Brighton & Hove. We see traffic in Southampton, news from Dorchester, Weymouth and even Oxford, but no traffic news about the A23, only the A4; we never see what happens in Patcham, let alone what is going on in nearby places. Announcements are made: “Listen for traffic reports on Radio Solent/Oxford”, neither of which is in our area. Lewes (8 miles away) and Steyning (West Sussex) get the correct local news, also, all the other transmissions in the South East miles away.

Television is surely obliged to cover the news here and around us. If not, then the licence fee money is being paid under false pretences. TV companies often have a story about Post Offices that are about to close, but none in our area is ever mentioned. I have campaigned for years, ever since the Coronation, without success.

We need news for the whole of the South East. I have been in touch with the TV transmitting companies concerned. Their reply is that I should use Blue Bell Hill or Hannington which are, of course, way out of the cachement’s signal area. I can send evidence on DVD of all this.
The lack of local news is not only confined to ITV and BBC but is also the same for teletext and Ceefax. Whatever we watch, we get no local news. Now, the Government intends to top slice the licence fee to give a substantial amount to commercial stations to pay for local news broadcasts – hopefully the future will include B&H news.

Reg Moores

The Arts

Brunswick Westward U3A

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Shared learning for pleasure, for people no longer in full-time employment
U3A stands for University of the Third Age: people who, with their youth and working life behind them, have the leisure to expand their understanding and who come together to share and pursue learning in all its forms, not for qualifications but for pleasure.

There are now more than 670 local U3As all over the country, self-managed, lifelong learning cooperatives, run entirely by volunteers. Brunswick Westward U3A is one of them, set up in 2001 originally to cover West Hove, Portslade, Hangleton and Knoll, but now, in practice, welcoming members from all over Brighton and Hove.

Members share learning and leisure experiences in a wide range of special interest groups: Drawing with Crayons, Gardens, Patchwork, French (intermediate/advanced), Spanish (elementary), Play Reading, Theatre and Film Groups, Reading Fiction, Exploring Poetry, Family History Support, Local History, History Discussion, Walks, Meditation and Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now.

We’d like to start other groups as interest arises. Groups are interactive, with members contributing from their own interests and experience. Some groups have a leader with special knowledge or skills but in many cases it’s a co-ordinator who’s just responsible for organisation. Groups meet weekly, fortnightly or monthly, usually in members’ houses; but we hire a hall for get-togethers such as our Spring Celebration.
As well as the special interest groups we have regular illustrated talks by knowledgeable speakers, and members can attend the popular regional Study Days held monthly on Saturdays at various venues across Sussex.

Details of these are in our Brunswick Westward Newsletter and members also get a regular U3A magazine from head office. Membership is £16 a year. If you are interested in joining you would be most welcome to have tea with existing members and group co-ordinators at our open Introductory Meeting, to be held at 2pm on 11 September 2009 in the Ralli Hall, Denmark Villas, near Hove Station.

Further details from our Secretary, Dee Bartaby, tel 747565 or de@bartaby.co.uk. If you’d like to join now contact our Membership Secretary, Pat Sawyer, tel. 551425 or sawyep_7@yahoo.co.uk.

Anyone wanting information about other U3As in the Brighton area should visit www.sura.org.uk.