surrealism spoken word

The Path To Strange Books: Spoken Word Adventures In Legendary Brighton Arts Venues Part 7

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Music Collaborations and Swans…

In 2006, at The Permanent Gallery in Brighton, Jay Clifton organised “An Evening With a Theremin” at which three spoken word performers were accompanied by three theremin players. I was paired with Caroline Weeks (formally of Bat For Lashes). Here she is singing about swans:

I was inspired to purchase my own theremin and performed with it on many occasions, putting it through a reverb peddle to create ethereal reverberations:

Here is The Swan played on the theremin:

In 2008, at Brighton’s Phoenix Gallery I performed a monologue and some stories with a live musical saw soundtrack by the excellent multi-instrumentalist Jules Lawrence. Here he is playing the saw:

Here is The Swan played on the saw:

In 2010 at Brighton’s Upstairs at the 3 & 10 venue, I performed a lengthy story with a live soundtrack performed by Sam Walker’s band The Adventurists (harp, double base, percussion, slide guitar). Sam co-wrote and produced the album Zim Zam Zim by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, which I am very fond of so here it is:

In the same year, I organised and compered The Holistic Cabaret at Brighton’s The Hope, during which I performed with Anna Walkenhorst on trumpet and Rosi Lalor on guitar.

In 2020 I worked with Jules Lawrence again when he asked if I would provide some very short stories for various actors to voice over original soundtracks composed and performed by Jules and fellow multi-instrumentalist Mark Wilson. We made an album of 9 tracks. Here is one of them:

The whole album can be listened to here:

https://mrwilsonlawrencescabinetofcuriosities.bandcamp.com/album/strange-sounding-stories

The recordings proved popular so Jules asked to collaborate again. We made two more albums, again with me providing the words, and actors voicing the stories over music composed by Jules and Mark. Here is the second album:

https://mrwilsonlawrencescabinetofcuriosities.bandcamp.com/album/stranger-sounding-stories

And here is the third album:

https://mrwilsonlawrencescabinetofcuriosities.bandcamp.com/album/strangest-sounding-stories

To be continued…

The Path To Strange Books: Spoken Word Adventures In Legendary Brighton Arts Venues Part 6

The Path To Strange Books: Spoken Word Adventures In Legendary Brighton Arts Venues Part 5

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In 2008 I was asked to perform in Brighton’ s Bom-Banes Cafe. From 2008-2017 I performed many shows at Bom-Banes, incorporating my stories, artwork and sounds.

Bom-Banes Cafe is run by Jane Bom-Bane. Here she is:

Here is Jane talking about Bom-Banes Cafe:

Here are a few of the flyers I made:

These were memorable shows. Like they don’t say about the sixties: If you can’t remember it, you weren’t there.

You can visit Bom-Banes here:

Bom-Bane’s

To be continued…

The Path To Strange Books: Spoken Word Adventures In Legendary Brighton Arts Venues Part 4
The Path To Strange Books: Spoken Word Adventures In Legendary Brighton Arts Venues Part 6

The Path To Strange Books: Spoken Word Adventures In Legendary Brighton Arts Venues Part 4

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In 2007 Dan Pryde-Jarman saw me performing at Tight Lip (see part 3) and asked me to do something similar in his new underground (in both senses of the word) gallery called Grey Area, an artist-run space exhibiting experimental contemporary art. Grey Area existed from 2006 – 12 underneath a Money Shop in the centre of Brighton.

More info about it can be found here: https://danielprydejarman.org/greyarea

I performed at Grey Area regularly between 2007 and 2012. The nature of the space offered an opportunity to create longer performances and tell stories that incorporated my artwork, sounds and sculptures.

Here are some of the flyers I made:

To be continued…

The Path To Strange Books: Spoken Word Adventures In Legendary Brighton Arts Venues Part 3
The Path To Strange Books: Spoken Word Adventures In Legendary Brighton Arts Venues Part 5

The Path To Strange Books: Spoken Word Adventures In Legendary Brighton Arts Venues Part 2

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In 2005 I became resident storyteller at the Alternative Folk Nights in Brighton’s Duke of York Picturehouse cinema, where unsuspecting cinema goers were treated to my surreal monologues and stories. These evenings took place in the bar and were organised by Felicity Beckett who often provided music. Here she is…

Flick also made the cool and cute flyers. Here are a few of them:

I remember introducing a story by hammering a watch into pieces. It wasn’t a trick.

To be continued…

The Path To Strange Books: Spoken Word Adventures In Legendary Brighton Arts Venues Part 1
The Path To Strange Books: Spoken Word Adventures In Legendary Brighton Arts Venues Part 3

The Path To Strange Books: Spoken Word Adventures In Legendary Brighton Arts Venues Part 1

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My spoken word adventures began in 1999 at the now legendary arts cinema Brighton Cinematheque on Middle Street where Mel Absolon organised cabarets consisting of short films and performances.

These were eclectic, exciting events. I performed wearing an oversized top hat with holes for eyes and mouth in the spirit of DaDa and Cabaret Voltaire.

I remember one evening a virtual fireplace which filled the cinema screen behind me as I performed suddenly being replaced with the words ‘Not for public screening’. ‘Oh,’ I remember saying, ‘it’s gone out.’

Brighton Cinematheque was a fantastic phenomenon where, in exchange for a pound or for nothing at all, you could see a Kenneth Anger movie, a John Waters double bill or work by local artists such as ourselves. Here is a great article about it… Memories of Brighton Cinematheque: https://www.lazaruscorporation.co.uk/articles/cinematheque-changing-reels

It was during this time that my top hat shrank to a more manageable size and grew an eye.

To be continued…

The Path To Strange Books: Spoken Word Adventures In Legendary Brighton Arts Venues Part 2