News - Archives - June 2006
Dream On by Ewen Spencer
Our current exhibition is DREAM ON by Ewen Spencer, photographs from a decade of youth culture. Until 21st July. Open Tuesday - Saturday 11 am - 7 pm Admission free.‘Dream On’ is a retrospective of work by photographer Ewen Spencer, is our current exhibition
Spencer has documented people from many of this country’s musical subcultures, including Northern Soul, Drum 'n' Bass, Heavy Metal, Punk and Garage.
‘Dream On’ is a reflection of these subcultures, and of how they have changed over the past decade. Prints shown in the exhibition will range from groups of teenagers on London’s urban ‘Grime’ scene, to images taken on the media party circuit during the glory days of UK Garage. Spencer’s photographs are a candid snapshot depicting a specific time and place in UK youth culture and music.
For print sales - please contact the gallery for more information.
Kid Harpoon - update
Get down to Kid Harpoon's single launch special on Tuesday 27th June at Marino's Restaurant - 31 Rathbone Place, (off Oxford St.)Entrance is free.
NO 2 ID
Did you know that, from October of this year, as preparation for the ID scheme, all first-time passport applicants will have background checks and be interviewed by officials at one of the government's 69 new 'enrolment centres'? This will include your children as they reach 16. Before long it will include you too, when you renew your passport. And you will be fingerprinted as well.
So, unless you need it soon, you should renew your passport now. If you wait till autumn, you risk giving up personal data to be used for the government identity database. Pay £51 for a 10-year passport while you can. The charge for ID registration and a record for life will be at least £93.
The website www.renewforfreedom.org explains in more detail. There's a fact-sheet there that you can download and pass on to others.
Info sourced from the NO ID website.
Kid Harpoon
We like Kid Harpoon. Originally from somewhere else, this friend of Jamie T's now resides in London. Lyrical and funny in turns our young balladeer sings about what he knows and we love it. Honest, fresh and without pretention, he is proof that you dont need to date a model, wear reeboks, or stumble from one controversy to another to write a decent song. Remember where you heard about him first.
Artist: Kid Harpoon
Single: ‘Riverside’
Label: Brikabrak
Release Date: 26th June 2006
Hi Mum,
Just a quick letter this time to keep you up to date, things are hectic at the moment.
I’ve moved above a pub in North London. There’s ten of us living here alongside the mice and cockroaches, and everyone is involved in music somehow. I’ve got about 100 songs written and recorded on my laptop, and if I’m not writing or recording then I’m out playing at parties or gigs. The gigs that are just about keeping me fed at the moment. I’ve played with some great bands lately, Larrikin Love, The Kooks, Vincent Vincent & the Villains, The Rumblestrips, and another singer songwriter called Jamie T.
My first single is coming out in June on a new indie label called Brik a Brak. It’s that “Riverside” song coupled with “It’s Time” on the b-side. The two are separate parts of one of my stories called “The River, The Ocean, The Pearl”, which is what I’ve titled the single. They sound great with a full band.
A friend said I was quite Dickensian the other day. I’ve been dipping into “Great Expectations” and watching “Oliver!” since, and they remind me of home. Say hello to the River Medway for me, I miss her.
The CD is a compilation I made of stuff I’ve been listening to lately. My favourites are the Palace music, Tom Waits, Smog and TV on the Radio. The electronic stuff is quite interesting too. I’ve put on a Bob Dylan and Radiohead as always. I hope you like it.
Looking forward to seeing you soon.
Tom
xxx
www.myspace.com/kidharpoon
www.kidharpoon.com
Market Boy - David Eldridge
I rarely go to the theatre specially places like the National but I went to the press night of Market Boy and I have to say it was very very good. For anyone who lived through the eighties it was a painful reminder of growing up in an era of little hope and incredibly bad music and fashion. The nineties weren’t much better but the site of Thatcher on stage reminded everybody there that Labour new or old really aren’t any different from the Conservatives. Once in power all politicians are dangerous. Cameron only looks alright now because we’re bored of Blair. They’re both assholes.The lead guy Danny Worthers was a little too wide eyed for me, not enough petulance for a young boy growing up in Essex. Theatre sometimes suffers from lacking conviction where it matters most, there must be a real kid that’s grown up on estate that can also act. How about doing a workshop in front of some real marketeers from Romford? They’ll tell you whether you’re on the money or not. That said the rest of the cast were brilliant and Eldridge is as east end as anyone in theatre right now.
The National are also doing a £10 a ticket promotion, which allows folks like you and I the chance of seeing decent play at a good price. Forget an episode of CSI and a take away, check out a £10 play today.
Market Boy is on at the Olivier Theatre from the 6th June
From the publisher’s blurb:
Gloriously raucous rites-of-passage drama set in Romford Market.
'You've got to talk to them son. Listen to them. Look for a way in. You're a handsome bloke – they'll love you. Give me a year and I'll teach you everything I know.'
There's an art to selling stilettos and you'd better grasp it. Learn a good wind-up, learn the pull of cash, learn drugs, learn sex, and run wild with the market monkeys. Stay sharp in the ruthless world of Essex traders. Romford Market, 1985. This boy has everything to learn.
A spectacular, savage, gorgeous yarn which brings a market jungle to the vast Olivier stage; a tale about the time Mrs Thatcher said we should embrace the marketplace; a story about losing your innocence. And your cherry.
Darren Aronofsky
Aronofsky seems to be top of the respect list on our artists' Q&A top five directors so here’s some info on the great man.
Darren Aronofsky was born February 12, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up, Darren was always artistic: he loved classic movies, and as a teenager he even spent time doing graffiti art. After high school, Darren went to Harvard University to study film (both live-action and animation). He won several film awards after completing his senior thesis film, "Supermarket Sweep," starring Sean Gullette, which went on to becoming a National Student Academy Award finalist. Aronofsky didn't make a feature film until five years later, in February 1996, where he began creating the concept for Pi (1998). After Darren's script for "Pi" received great reactions from friends, he began production. The film re-teamed Aronofsky with Gullette, who played the lead. This went on to further successes, such as Requiem for a Dream (2000) and, most recently, the American remake of the Japanese film series Lone Wolf and Cub (2005).
For more info visit the Internet Movie Database.
Zongamin
Zongamin (the moniker used by Susumu Mukai) does things differently. While 90% of dancing music is created on computers by people who can't play any instruments, he is someone crafting something sonically adventurous and soul-stirring with a bedroom full of musical tools (man-made and Zongamin adapted) and a singular outlook. He plays the bass, drums, guitar and percussion, blurring ESG's punk-funk elasticity and catching the attention of a varied selection of DJs (Andy Weatherall, Trevor Jackson, Soulwax). His self-titled debut album is simply breathtaking, as are the live shows from the five-piece band incarnation of Zongamin. His numerous remixes of others (Air, Cut Copy, Mystery Jets...) are also a cut above the rest.
