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

Rosi’s Tinted Spectacles was a music and spoken word event that ran from 2008 to 2010 in various Brighton venues, beginning in the Hanover Canteen. It was organised and compered by Rosi Lalor. Here she is:

I performed at the event many times, sometimes with celery. Here I am suitably tinted:

As well as performing at regular spoken word events in Brighton, I’ve performed many shows in various odd temporary venues, such as bars, community centres, artist’s open houses, open-air street events, art galleries and even an allotment:

Here are a few of them: In 2009, I performed with one of my paintings stuck to my hand in a performance-art evening at Mocha café…

In 2010, I organised and compered The Christmas Cabaret, performing my stories between folk and jazz acts, in the palatial Brighton Ballrooms in Kemptown (now Proud Cabaret). I made a giant winged egg and hung it at the back of the stage. Here it is:

In 2010, my short story “Dunce” was performed as a monologue by an actor wearing (as the role demanded) a fez, at the New Venture Theatre. He did an excellent job. If only I could remember his name.

You can read “Dunce” for FREE here: https://strangebooks.com/strange-story-weird-fiction/

To be continued…

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

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

Tight Lip was a spoken word night organised by Jay Clifton in Brighton. It began in 2005 at Zoot Street, then The Victory, had forays in Hotel Pelirocco, and HQ gallery in Lewes, but found a regular home in the optimistically named Permanent Gallery in Bedford Place. It was a very cool and well oiled event. Jay would compere and perform as Hammett Story Agency, telling Dashiell Hammett inspired noir detective stories accompanied by Sam Collins playing atmospheric and artful electric guitar. Here are a few of the flyers:

Jay invited me to perform at the first event and I became a regular performer between 2005 and 2008. It was an opportunity to expand my performances and experiment.

Special guests at Tight Lip included musician, journalist, author Max Decharne (Gallon Drunk, The Flaming Stars). I remember him reading from his dictionary of hipster slang…

And journalist and crime novelist Cathi Unsworth. Here is Jay Clifton interviewing her…

And Barry Adamson (of Magazine, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, David Lynch collaborator on Lost Highway etc). He performed a short story called Maida Hell set to his own industrial soundtrack. It could be heard down the street.

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/1199583.tight-lip-permanent-gallery-brighton-fri-feb-16/

To be continued…