On tour promoting their new EP ‘A Beautiful Thing’, Die Twice hit up Brighton’s very own Hope and Ruin with supporting acts Slag and Fever Rouge. Tallulah Gray was there
After a phenomenal sets from the first two bands – and more of them later – Die Twice had a lot to prove by the time their headline slot rolled around. And they didn’t disappoint.
The first thing that strikes as the band take the stage is a palpable chemistry that can’t be ignored. The ease and charm with which guitarist Billy Twamley moves around the stage while playing his bluesy-alternative riffs with such precision is something to be studied.
Lead vocalist Olly Bayton is an absolute treat of a frontman, playing a wonderful game of cat and mouse with the audience, while the rhythm section proves to be the real strength of the band’s sound. With bassist Finn Lloyd and drummer Jake Coles in perfect harmony throughout the set. It’s hard to go wrong with such a fervent rhythmic backing and unique bass riffs that really set the band apart from the standard alternative rock/indie bands of the present moment.
The band comes across as refined, yet loose. Allowing the audience to peek behind the curtain of professionalism at four young men having fun on stage, doing what they love, with the people they love. Particular standouts include their performance of ‘The Art of Dying’ that was met with roaring applause by an audience screaming along to every word.
Not to be glossed over is how truly incredible both Slag (below) and Fever Rouge.
Slag has been the Brighton band to watch for a while now, and are doing an excellent job cementing themselves as must-sees within the Brighton music scene. Their latest single ‘Ripped’ is a refreshingly authentic and excellently produced release.Catch them while you can.
photo by Anna Polianichko @tale.pho
As for Fever Rouge (above) , the change up of their usual setlist served to create what has to be one of the best shows they’ve performed thus far. The impact they’ve made on the Brighton scene over the last year or so has been clear and effective – Fever Rouge are not going anywhere. With absolutely stellar performances of tracks ‘Weatherman’ and ‘Feed the Villain’ as well as their latest single ‘The Buzz’, their set was tight and utterly electric. As they gear up for new music releases and plenty more gigs Fever Rouge will continue to blow audiences away with their sharp sonic ability.
For the last nine years, Club Silencio has been staging extraordinary shows in various Brighton venues. I remember seeing my first one in a sex dungeon in Kemptown and feeling as if I had walked into one of the transgressive early films of John Waters. The next time I saw them they’d built a giant television set in the Phoenix Art Space, where they performed a surreal version of Blind Date, in which a water phobic contestant won a date with the Creature from Hove Lagoon. Then they turned the Arcobaleno bar into a pool party set in hell.
You can see Club Silencio yourself this December, in the Latest Music bar in Manchester St, performing My Bloody Pantomime (“Pantomime characters are quaking in their stilettos as a serial killer is picking them off one by one”). We are promised “gags, gore and a giant eyeball in this pantomime of epic proportions.” Stuart says this is the first Club Silencio show to feature panto characters: “However, most of them are dead!”
I asked Stuart how it all began. “Silencio was created back in 2015. I’d been spending some nights at Subline, at the time Brighton’s only men-only sex dungeon, with my friend John Tovey. We loved it down there and saw loads of possibility for the subterranean space. The idea was to subvert the space by making it a very classy night. Dressing up in fancy clothes was encouraged, and the space was dressed with frilly lamp shades. We had a toilet attendant, who recited poetry, and a gimp in a tuxedo who walked around with doughnuts on a silver tray. I booked friends – mostly female folk singers – to play, as they brought something unique to the dank and seedy space, and I dressed up as a clown, and sang songs between the acts. For the first show I didn’t really have many acts, so I made up sketches involving puppets, and got friends to wear masks and lip-sync to weird audio clips.”
As for the Silencio name, Stuart says, “I had been to Paris that year and really wanted to go to David Lynch’s nightclub, Club Silencio, named after the club in his film Mulholland Drive. However, it was very expensive to get in and I couldn’t afford it at the time. So, irked by the exclusiveness of it, when it came to picking a name for my own club night, I chose that as a bit of a screw you to David, because Brighton’s Club Silencio was going to be a cheap and more subversive space.
John was my chief in command, and he was brilliant at dressing the room. My friend Joe worked with me in a kitchen at the time, and I persuaded him to be the gimp for the night. My friend Louis was the toilet attendant, and Juno was happy to DJ. Another friend, Ralph, ate doughnuts slowly to a weird advert for Krispy Kreme I’d made (the joke was they were our sponsors). I loved the idea that anyone who wanted to get involved could. After that lots of amazing performers, musicians, actors and creatives have come and gone over the nine years that followed, but John, Misha, Kit, Damian, Tommy, Jon, and Juno, have been at the core of Silencio.”
Alongside Stuart, the main writer is the novelist and actress Juno Dawson. Juno played Dorothy in Club Silencio’s wonderful musical, Return Again to Oz, a hit show in last year’s fringe. You can listen to the songs from the show on Bandcamp.
The regular club host is Jon Griffin, who does an uncanny impression of Death from Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. Jon writes his own satirical monologues for the shows, and is so good at being Death that he has since taken the character into stand-up comedy clubs. He’s a composer, like Stuart, and they co-write the songs for the shows.
For Pride in 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Stuart and Juno created Equality of the Daleks. Juno, author of several Dr Who related books, got to play the doctor in a time travelling investigation of how the brick that started the riots was thrown. The brick thrower was a sexually confused dalek.
I wondered if the shows are a reaction to the way Brighton Pride has become corporate and mainstream? “Well, I thought the gay scene was crap, and Pride was just an extension of that. It had nothing to offer me and made me feel unwelcome because I didn’t conform to the idea of what a gay man should be like. I rejected it, and thus was an outsider from my tribe, so in the end I made my own tribe. Now queer outsiders are very in vogue, and there’s loads of great nights that cater to them.”
For the last nine years, Club Silencio’s magnificent sets, props and costumes have been made by Kit Yellery (Odd Fabrication on Instagram). Stuart says, “Kit is incredible and one of the things I always loved was arriving at the venue and seeing what amazing things she’d made. She really is a genius. Last year was her final show with us, and it feels very strange not to have her involved now.”
Club Silencio shows are inclusive, welcoming and immersive. Audience members are encouraged to dress up and take part in surreal games and competitions. There’s usually an interval, when the actors pose for life drawing sessions, with prizes at the end.
Next year will be Club Silencio’s tenth anniversary, and Stuart says he has big plans for the celebration: “I can say no more but it will be something special.” Meanwhile, we have My Bloody Pantomime to look forward too – guaranteed to be a highlight of the festive season.
The Whistler 