ART: Iain Forsyth And Jane Pollard: Audience/Performer
Lighthouse Sat 5th – Sat 26th
Bobby Gillespie talking about Nick Cave’s music. If that isn’t all you need to know, we’ll elaborate that this series of films was commissioned by Cave to embellish each remastered release of his 14 longplayer beauties, portraying the depth of feeling behind them through the stories of affected listeners. Other works follow, created in film and video duo Forsyth and Pollard’s Audience/Performer project, as well as an exclusive performance with comedian Iain Lee – Performer. Audience. Fuck Off. – on the 12th.
ART: Hangover Square
University Of Brighton Gallery Sat 5th – Sun 27th
Hard to imagine much bleaker than Patrick Hamilton’s 1941 novel, Hangover Square, a story of reclusiveness, alcoholism, hatred, suspicion, murder and suicide. Even a romantic trip to Brighton only results in the central character’s missus shagging another bloke. Featuring a seedy London flat and a Brighton hotel room, designers recreate the film set for this homage to former Hove resident Hamilton’s best-known work, bringing rainswept, pre-war Britain into the gallery. Weave your own story, hopefully with a slightly brighter ending.
ART: The Otolith Group / Invisible Flock
Fabrica Sat 5th – Sun 27th
Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun, aka The Otolith Group, nearly won the 2010 Turner Prize for a film mixing an intergalactic future with archive footage from Mumbai slums. Fusing memory and imagination again, these poetic installations see leading Middle Eastern literary thinker Etel Adnan reciting a poem, Sea, against the ambient noise of her Paris apartment. You’re then invited to follow a mythological trail to the Marina, before messaging the ocean via a buoy which translates texts into Morse Code.
FILM: VANESSA REDGRAVE ON SCREEN
Duke Of York’s Sun 6th/Sun 13th
Festival director Vanessa Redgrave has been in loads of films that people know, and she was also in this. Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment from 1966 (Sun 6th) is just one of the best films we’ve ever seen – Swinging London seen through the eyes of a car-dwelling cuckold with a gorilla fixation, as he tries to win back his rich, estranged wife played by Redgrave. Bonkers photo-based plot-free art drama Blow Up (Sun 13th) from the same year cemented her reputation as go-to gal for stylish 60s cinema.
SPOKEN WORD: A Tribute To Gil Scott-Heron
Pavilion Theatre Tues 8th
An evening celebrating the life of American poet Gil Scott-Heron, who died last year. Scott-Heron’s 1970s albums and performances were some of the founding stones of hip hop, earning him the title ‘the godfather of rap’. He was recording and touring up until his death, with 2010’s album ‘I’m New Here’ introducing his voice to a new generation of listeners. Fellow poets Lemn Sissay and Salena Godden perform readings alongside Jamie Byng from Canongate, publishers of Scott-Heron’s memoirs ‘The Last Holiday’.
FILM: The Best Of BUG: The Evolution Of Music Video
Duke Of York’s Picturehouse Thurs 17th
Adam Buxton was one of the first British comedians to realise the potential of YouTube for disseminating his skits and song parodies. Best known as half of cult broadcasters Adam & Joe, his 2002 sitcom The Last Chancers, following the trials of a failing Brighton indie band, is required viewing for the city’s aspiring musicians. Tonight’s edition of his irregular BUG events see Buxton unveiling an evening of bizarre, inventive and hilarious music videos discovered during his compulsive internet trawls.
Theatre Royal Brighton Thurs 17th- Sat 19th
A collection of Bourne’s earlier works including Spitfire, Town And Country and The Infernal Gallop, here’s an opportunity to see what his work is about in this unique triple bill. Made famous for adaptations of the Nutcracker!, Swan Lake and Dorian Gray, Bourne has shattered conventional conceptions of ballet and redefined it for the future. Hailed as a revolutionary in dance, his show is certainly one of the highlights of the festival.
MUSIC: JOY DIVISION
Duke Of York’s Picturehouse / Pavilion Theatre / Brighton Dome Mon 13th / Thurs 17th /Fri 18th
Brighton Festival offers a week of opportunities to assess the legacy of Manchester post-punk legends Joy Division. On the Monday, the Duke’s screens Anton Corbijn’s biopic Control, followed by a Q&A with Stephen Mallinder from Factory contemporaries Cabaret Voltaire. Photographer Kevin Cummins and writer Paul Morley discuss the group in a modern context at Thursday’s Music & Legacy talk, before Friday’s Live Transmission show brings reinterpretations of their music by the Heritage Orchestra and sound artist Scanner to the Dome.
CHILDREN: Kid Carpet & The Noisy Animals
Old Market Sat 19th & Sun 20th
Bristol musician Ed Patrick stepped out under his Kid Carpet moniker in 2003, bagging a record deal with Rob Da Bank’s Sunday Best label for his lo-fi junk shop pop. Much of Kid Carpet’s music is assembled from Patrick’s collection of children’s instruments, so it’s fitting that he’s turned his attentions to creating rock’n’roll musicals for kids. Kid Carpet & The Noisy Animals teams him with a gorilla, a bear, a badger and a hedgehog for a part live, part animated tale of music, dancing and friendship.
MUSIC: The Lady: AN Homage To Sandy Denny
Brighton Dome Mon 21st
Sandy Denny is best known to many as the haunting singer songwriter out of Fairport Convention. That’s haunting because of her lovely voice, not because she’s dead. But since she is, a load of her former colleagues and contemporaries, together with fans from the modern age, have got together to produce this evening dedicated to her work with Fairport as well as Fotheringay and her solo catalogue. Maddy Prior, Thea Gilmore, Joan As Policewoman and PP Arnold are among the tribute payers treading the boards tonight.
MUSIC: Matthew Herbert: One Pig
Theatre Royal Mon 21st
It seems like a long time ago that Herbert made really very good microhouse records like ‘The Audience’. These days he’s more likely to be sampling people dancing than making them dance. His latest arty exploration into the furthest corners of electronic music involves sampling a pig from near-silent birth to being butchered, cooked and scoffed. The music is as out there as the concept – dark, abstract electronica, including instruments made out of the pig itself. Asked why, he simply says, “Why not make a record out of a pig?” Fair enough.
LITERATURE: The Cult of the Ruin
University of Brighton Fri 25th
Featuring panellists Ros Kerslake, Paul Finch, architect Sunand Prasad and chaired by David Dimbleby. The panelists will be discussing whether a prevalence and reverence for architecture of the past is translating to an opposition of modern buildings. For all those lovers of Question Time it’s a rare chance to see the Dimbleby in action and for those interested in architecture and how it affects society it’s a chance to get involved and find out more.