HONEY CLUB
It’s all go down the seafront as the Honey Club unveils a lavish refurbishment, including sumptuous furnishings as well as a luxurious VIP area which you can gaze longingly into or pityingly out of, depending on your clubland social standing. Highlghts on the Honey’s schedule for the near future include Kiss Da Funk, back from dirty Leeds on Friday 19th with Rob Tissera at the controls, and Freemasons, playing their pumping funky house at Sevensins on Saturday 6th.
MAMMOTH COFFEE
As longstanding advocates of Starbucks avoidance, we’re happy to bring you news of a new independent caffeine outlet that’s opened outside the Mocha-in-every-other-shop confines of the city centre. Mammoth Coffee is at 35 Ditchling Road opposite The Level, and instead of raping the local retail landscape with identikit inter-city offerings, it’s buzzing with local creativity and high-end liquid jump-start, sandwiches and desserts. Artists and musicians are already a weekly thing, and they’re expanding into kids’ story hours, language swaps and scrap book parties.
APRES VOUS RECORDS
A fledgling new music label collective spanning Brighton and Camberley, Apres Vous has its beginnings in giving friends’ bands a leg up in touting their wares. Co-founded by members of Hold Your Horse Is and Jealous Again, keep your ears to the ground for more seminal acts soon to be unearthed. The first of this month sees the release of Brighton’s own Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea’s latest E.P ‘It’s The Falling That Counts, Not the Landing’, available via mail order and iTunes.
LEWES BIKE TRAIN
Calling all eco-conscious students! A new movement has been gathering amongst Sussex students and the issue of cycling to campus in time for lectures. The Bike Train wishes to make Lewes Road a safer, bike-friendly route by travelling in convoy and without the fear of being knocked down by one of the alleged 18,000 vehicles which travel along the road daily, stopping off at destination points along the way to pick up fellow commuters. Check their facebook page for upcoming routes.
GUILTY PLEASURES
Share your shame and rejoice as national treasure Guilty Pleasures starts up a monthly residency at Komedia on Saturday 6th, having swept across festivals and clubs over the country in the past four years from humble beginnings at a working men’s club in Hammersmith. Confess online your easy listening habits along with celebrities from Russell Brand to Suggs and Sophie Ellis-Bextor – this night promises to celebrate with glittering pomp all those long lost hits, so dust off your dancing shoes and boogie on down.
MARWOOD CAFÉ
A new fortnightly music night at Marwood Café hosts an array of performers starting with poetry and ending with the in-house band Golden Sounds, not forgetting the singers, MCs and Beatboxers in between. A small but very charismatic venue offers the chance of a more sophisticated gig experience on the first and third Wednesday of each month. Watching the bands won’t cost you a penny to get in, but if you do enjoy yourself a donation upon leaving is welcomed.
COACHWERKS
It’s been an ongoing project for a while now, but building is finally nearing completion. Taking over a disused bus garage, with the aid of volunteers, they have transformed the area into a public space comprising of creative studios, a community cafe and a small venue. A regular timetable of events and workshops, screenprinting, photographic darkrooms, performance studios and sound recording are all available. Get in touch and volunteer, or realise projects of your own. For more information visit www.coachwerks.org.uk.
SPONSORED WAX OFF
As part of a wider campaign to raise much needed funds for The St Martlets Hospice, one local resident is holding a Beard-tastic fundraiser at The Loft on Friday 5th, daring the hairiest in our community to shave against cancer. Not exclusive to men, ladies and the follically-challenged are encouraged to come and help with the mammoth task of waxing fifty sponsored bearded wonders upon donation. The entry fee is up to you so dig deep and help this worthy pursuit.
Emma Bertrand, Nick Coquet, Lydia Stockbridge
