Issue 86 / March 2018
March 2018 issue of Bido Lito! magazine. Featuring: ELEANOR NELLY, BREAK WAVE, FIELD MUSIC, EVERYMAN THEATRE, JORJA SMITH, GARY NUMAN and much more. March 2018 issue of Bido Lito! magazine. Featuring: ELEANOR NELLY, BREAK WAVE, FIELD MUSIC, EVERYMAN THEATRE, JORJA SMITH, GARY NUMAN and much more.
ISSUE 86 / MARCH 2018 NEW MUSIC + CREATIVE CULTURE LIVERPOOL ELEANOR NELLY / BREAKWAVE ROY LICHTENSTEIN JORJA SMITH / GARY NUMAN
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ISSUE <strong>86</strong> / MARCH <strong>2018</strong><br />
NEW MUSIC + CREATIVE CULTURE<br />
LIVERPOOL<br />
ELEANOR NELLY / BREAKWAVE<br />
ROY LICHTENSTEIN<br />
JORJA SMITH / GARY NUMAN
Sat 3rd Feb • £12 adv<br />
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What’s On<br />
Liverpool Philharmonic<br />
<strong>March</strong> – May<br />
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Music Room<br />
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–<br />
Monday 23 April 7.30pm<br />
Film<br />
12A<br />
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Thursday 17 May 8pm<br />
NILS LOFGREN<br />
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Sunday 20 May 7.30pm<br />
Writing on the Wall<br />
THE LIFE AND RHYMES OF<br />
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CONTENTS<br />
New Music + Creative Culture<br />
Liverpool<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> <strong>86</strong> / <strong>March</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />
bidolito.co.uk<br />
Second Floor<br />
The Merchant<br />
40-42 Slater Street<br />
Liverpool L1 4BX<br />
Editor<br />
Christopher Torpey - chris@bidolito.co.uk<br />
Editor-In-Chief / Publisher<br />
Craig G Pennington - info@bidolito.co.uk<br />
Media Partnerships and Projects Manager<br />
Sam Turner - sam@bidolito.co.uk<br />
Assistant Editor<br />
Bethany Garrett - editorial@bidolito.co.uk<br />
Reviews Editor<br />
Jonny Winship - live@bidolito.co.uk<br />
Design<br />
Mark McKellier - mark@andmark.co.uk<br />
Branding<br />
Thom Isom - hello@thomisom.com<br />
Student Society Co-Chairs<br />
Daisy Scott - daisy@bidolito.co.uk<br />
Sophie Shields - sophie@bidolito.co.uk<br />
Intern<br />
Maya Jones<br />
Cover Photography<br />
Lauren Jade Keir<br />
Words<br />
Christopher Torpey, Maya Jones, Jessica Greenall,<br />
Nick Booton, Damon Fairclough, James Davidson,<br />
Ian R Abraham, Bethany Garrett, Sam Turner, Sophie<br />
Shields, Richard Lewis, Daisy Scott, Jonny Winship,<br />
Sinéad Nunes, Cath Bore, Glyn Akroyd, Paul Fitzgerald,<br />
Joe Hale, Sophie Brereton, Georgia Turnbull, Conal<br />
Cunningham, Alison McGovern.<br />
Photography, Illustration and Layout<br />
Mark McKellier, Lauren Jade Keir, Adam Szabo, Paul<br />
McCoy, Mook Loxley, Brian Roberts, John Johnson, Tom<br />
Wood, Glyn Akroyd, Stuart Moulding, Day Howarth,<br />
Darren Aston, Gareth Jones, Jerry Kiesewetter.<br />
Distributed by Middle Distance<br />
Print, distribution and events support across<br />
Merseyside and the North West.<br />
middledistance.org.uk<br />
9 / EDITORIAL<br />
Editor Christopher Torpey praises those giving<br />
voice to the working class at a time when our<br />
notions of class structures are more fractured<br />
than ever.<br />
10 / NEWS<br />
The latest announcements, releases and nonfake<br />
news from around the region.<br />
12 / ELEANOR NELLY<br />
Her name may already be familiar to Merseyside<br />
music lovers, but ELEANOR NELLY’s journey to<br />
stardom is just getting started.<br />
16 / ROY LICHTENSTEIN<br />
We invite artist and designer Nick Booton to<br />
give his verdict of the pop art maestro, whose<br />
iconic work is showing now in a major exhibition<br />
at Tate Liverpool.<br />
18 / BREAKWAVE<br />
Promoter, producer, tastemaker and DJ: Jessica<br />
Beaumont is using her music to open up space<br />
for innovative new artists and venues.<br />
20 / IN GOOD COMPANY<br />
After a successful return in 2017, The<br />
Everyman’s in-house repertory company look<br />
set for another busy year in <strong>2018</strong>. Two of the<br />
theatres’ directors explain to us why they’re<br />
once again going back to the future.<br />
22 / YEP TO REP<br />
As part of their desire to develop their own<br />
homegrown rep company, the Everyman And<br />
Playhouse are investing in some of stage and<br />
screen’s future talents.<br />
24 / THE EDGE OF FANTASY<br />
In a world full of noise, contemporary orchestral<br />
troupe MANCHESTER COLLECTIVE are making<br />
a case for music. Will you be moved by their<br />
intensely human experiences?<br />
26 / GARY NUMAN<br />
The electronic music pioneer has endured<br />
some ups and downs across his 40-year career<br />
in music, and is relishing his latest return to<br />
Liverpool to reconnect with his devoted fanbase.<br />
32 / SPOTLIGHT<br />
We take a closer look at some artists who’ve<br />
been impressing us of late: God On My Right,<br />
Esme Bridie and Wild Fruit Art Collective.<br />
34 / FIELD MUSIC<br />
Over the course of seven albums, Sunderland<br />
brothers David and Peter Brewis have quietly<br />
gone about their business as one of the most<br />
critically admired bands in the UK.<br />
35 / PREVIEWS<br />
Looking ahead to a busy <strong>March</strong> in Merseyside’s<br />
creative and cultural community.<br />
40 / REVIEWS<br />
Born In Flames, Nadine Shah, Ezra Furman and<br />
Nightmares On Wax reviewed by our team of<br />
intrepid reporters.<br />
54 / THE FINAL SAY<br />
On the centenary of women in the UK being<br />
given the right to vote for the first time, MP<br />
for Wirral South Alison McGovern hails the<br />
progress made, and reflects on the continuing<br />
battle for universal acceptance.<br />
The views expressed in Bido Lito! are those of the<br />
respective contributors and do not necessarily<br />
reflect the opinions of the magazine, its staff or the<br />
publishers. All rights reserved.
“I had<br />
forgotten<br />
that music<br />
could make<br />
you feel like<br />
that.”<br />
MANCHESTER COLLECTIVE<br />
OLIVER COATES<br />
DANIEL ELMS<br />
VESSEL<br />
100 DEMONS<br />
£18/£5<br />
MARCH 2<br />
DOORS 7PM<br />
INVISIBLE WIND FACTORY<br />
manchestercollective.co.uk
EDITORIAL<br />
This Is England<br />
“If we’re to get away<br />
from a fetishised<br />
view of our class<br />
structures, we need<br />
to hear a wider<br />
variety of voices”<br />
Michael Parkinson’s TV interviews were often a sign of a<br />
boring Saturday night in when I was growing up, a brief<br />
period of televisual purgatory before Match Of The Day<br />
came on. Though obviously a master of the one-onone<br />
interview, Parky’s technique in teasing out stories from some of<br />
the world’s A-listers (and Billy Connolly, every other bloody week,<br />
seemingly) wasn’t so complicated that it couldn’t be deciphered by<br />
a teenager with even a passing interest. After warming up his guest<br />
with a jovial exchange and a chance to plug their latest vehicle, the<br />
Yorkshire maestro would make his move. Hitching up his trouser legs<br />
to reveal the tops of his socks, Parky would fold his arms and lean<br />
back in his chair as he exhaled, half-conspiratorially, half with the air<br />
of a challenge: “Now, you had a very difficult childhood…”<br />
At first it was amusing how regularly this template was used<br />
as a gateway to more serious territory, a clear signal that we were<br />
transitioning from light-hearted mischief to deep and meaningful<br />
discourse. And then it became kind of weird how similar the ensuing<br />
stories were: a tough upbringing, strong parents, hard work.<br />
Basically, Parky was giving our untouchable celebs a chance to talk<br />
up their humble origins, a free hit. ‘Life wasn’t easy in that smalltown<br />
rat race – but, underneath all this make up, I’m just like you,<br />
y’know?’<br />
Now, I’m under no illusion that these personal stories are<br />
precisely what we want to hear in these circumstances – the<br />
universal struggle, striving to overcome adversity. It’s also part of our<br />
own fascination with the rich and famous. We all want to feel some<br />
sort of connection with celebrities, on a human level; but we’re wary<br />
of them spending too much time telling us that they’re just ‘normal<br />
people’ – like us – for fear of them ruining our view that their status<br />
is something to aspire to. When the stars of film and TV hit the red<br />
carpets during awards season, this relationship becomes even more<br />
finely balanced. Not only are these stars expected to look immaculate<br />
in designer clothes, but their speeches need to show us that they’re<br />
in touch with the issues of the ‘common man’. There’s no better<br />
compliment we can find for a performer, while holding aloft their<br />
award – an award they’ve been given for their talent – than to say<br />
that they’re ‘down to earth’. Just like one of us.<br />
This, I believe, points to a murky little thought festering in our<br />
collective psyche that we still haven’t quite squared ourselves with<br />
– that there’s something noble about being at the of bottom of the<br />
ladder looking up. It’s a sign of our inverted view of social mobility<br />
that the wealth and fame that comes with achieving success makes<br />
us feel a bit uncomfortable, meaning that those that do manage to<br />
climb a few rungs – get a better job, buy a bigger house – spend an<br />
inordinate amount of time talking up their working-class credentials.<br />
It’s part of the reason why certain sections of society scoff at<br />
millennials and their privileges. There’s a snooty view that you can’t<br />
live comfortably and afford things like cars, holidays and a university<br />
education, and not be working class. More often than not, those that<br />
come in for most ire are the children of people who have worked<br />
their whole lives to create a comfortable existence – and when they<br />
try to relate to their working class background, they’re criticised of<br />
virtue signalling and playing down their entitlement.<br />
And still there is even more hypocrisy at play. For every person<br />
who identifies with their working class roots, there is someone ready<br />
and waiting to paint those at the bottom of the societal ladder as<br />
an underclass. “It seems as though working-class people are the<br />
one group in society that you can say practically anything about,”<br />
wrote Owen Jones in his brilliant book Chavs. It’s the conflation of<br />
working class with poverty that exacerbates this view, and creates<br />
a polarising vision of a section of society who can be neatly blamed<br />
for, among other things, Brexit’s ‘howl of rage’.<br />
One way of changing this toxic narrative is to encourage more<br />
voices to be heard. Know Your Place is a collection of essays on the<br />
working class, by the working class – for which one of our regular<br />
contributors, Cath Bore, has written an excellent piece. At the time of<br />
commissioning the book in 2017 – in reaction to a tweet by novelist<br />
Nikesh Shukla – Know Your Place’s Editor Nathan Connolly felt that<br />
the post-Brexit, post-Grenfell debate in the country had spiralled<br />
so far away from the point as to being ridiculous. “It felt as though<br />
a lot of commentators felt justified placing their own opinions in the<br />
mouths of the working class,” he says in his introduction. “What we<br />
rarely found was the working class allowed to speak for themselves.<br />
An awful lot could be justified in their name without actually giving<br />
them a chance to speak.”<br />
Another writer who has contributed an essay to Know Your<br />
Place is the Birmingham-born Kit De Waal, who has set up a<br />
writing scholarship for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.<br />
“Working-class stories are not always tales of the underprivileged<br />
and dispossessed,” she wrote in a recent article for the Guardian<br />
calling for publishers and newspapers to make more room for<br />
working class writers. “These are narratives rich in barbed humour,<br />
their technique and vernacular reflecting the depth and texture<br />
of working-class life, the joy and sorrow, the solidarity and the<br />
differences, the everyday wisdom and poetry of the woman at the<br />
bus-stop, the waiter, the hairdresser.”<br />
Analysis of the 2014 British Labour Force Survey shows<br />
that publishing is the least socially diverse of all the UK’s creative<br />
industries: 43% of people working in publishing, including those<br />
in the influential editorial roles, were from middle-class origins,<br />
with only 12% from working-class backgrounds. Similarly, 47% of<br />
all authors, writers and translators hail from professional, middleclass<br />
backgrounds, compared with just 10% of those with parents<br />
in routine or manual labour. “If the majority of decision makers<br />
– gatekeepers – come from such a narrow social and cultural set<br />
(white, middle-class, good contacts, right accent and cultural<br />
references),” writes De Waal, “then the question of who gets<br />
published and which stories get told is unlikely to change.”<br />
I’ll be honest with you, I have absolutely no idea whereabouts I<br />
fit into our country’s fractured class system – and nor am I bothered.<br />
The fact that I can happily sit in a coffee shop and eat avocado on<br />
toast while working away on my MacBook will undoubtedly make<br />
me middle class in many people’s eyes. That’s fine with me, as<br />
I’m aware of the privileges that have been afforded me – and my<br />
actions and lived experience will be the ultimate judge of my social<br />
credentials. If we’re to get away from a fetishised view of our class<br />
structures, we need to hear a wider variety of voices from those who<br />
identify as working class. Know Your Place is an excellent place to<br />
start.<br />
Christopher Torpey<br />
Editor<br />
09
NEWS<br />
Zuzu Headlines Bido Lito! Open Day<br />
Zuzu<br />
For our <strong>March</strong> Social we’re delighted to be joined by power pop star ZUZU, who<br />
has just inked a deal with Virgin Records. The guitarist and songwriter has been<br />
making waves for a couple of years now, and you can catch her on 23rd <strong>March</strong><br />
when the Bido Lito! Social checks in at Constellations. PIZZAGIRL and KING<br />
HANNAH also appear on the bill, which follows our first Open Day. If you’re<br />
interested in journalism, photography and DIY publication, or you want to come<br />
and get involved with the team, the Open Day will give you a chance to learn<br />
from experts in this field across a series of workshops. Bido Lito! members get<br />
free access to the evening show, as well as a number of events over the coming<br />
months: our Bido Lito! Social live events in April (a special Clockwork Orangethemed<br />
gig at Everyman Bistro) and May (a top secret collaboration which we’ll<br />
be announcing soon); plus regular Special Events, such as the members-only tour<br />
of Tate Liverpool’s expansive Roy Lichtenstein exhibition, with expert insight from<br />
the gallery’s curators. All this action plus the magazine delivered to your doorstep,<br />
a digital bundle of the best new music each month, a Bido record bag and limited<br />
edition free gifts throughout the year makes the Bido Lito! membership one very<br />
attractive offer – find out more at bidolito.co.uk.<br />
Up For Smithdown<br />
SMITHDOWN ROAD FESTIVAL has unveiled its line-up for<br />
the <strong>2018</strong> edition of the South Liverpool extravaganza and<br />
it looks to be their biggest event to-date. BEARDYMAN,<br />
STEALING SHEEP (DJ set) and Dave McCabe’s new project<br />
SILENT K are among the names in the first raft of acts<br />
announced to play the free festival on 5th-7th May. Taking<br />
place in bars, cafés and other nooks and crannies along the<br />
Wavertree thoroughfare, organisers are looking to build on<br />
the success of past editions with the introduction of a Big<br />
Top main stage in the Mystery Park. Also announced are<br />
Natalie McCool performing with her new band MEMORY<br />
GIRL, Franz Ferdinand off-shoot MANUELA, and garage<br />
rock juggernauts STRANGE COLLECTIVE.<br />
Beardyman<br />
The Hottest Event In Easter<br />
Walk the Plank<br />
Bringing together some of Liverpool’s finest art organisations, FEAST OF FIRE will<br />
provide your Easter with some fiery flair at St. George’s Hall between 23rd <strong>March</strong> and<br />
2nd April. The seven-night spectacular will play host to a medley of world-class fire art,<br />
sculpture and performance, put together by award-winning collective Walk The Plank,<br />
and including collaborations from Africa Oyé and The Kazimier. There’s an additional<br />
twist to the Feast Of Fire Lates evening events: SOULFEST kick off the week of<br />
celebrations with Fire In My Soul and MILAPFEST provide the grand finale with a blaze<br />
of colour, music and dance. All events throughout the week aim to raise awareness and<br />
support for the LGBTQ+ community and Liverpool’s Mental Health Consortium.<br />
Live Music Innovation On Wirral<br />
WIRRAL NEW MUSIC COLLECTIVE is an independent group of record<br />
labels, music writers, promoters, visual artists, artist managers, magazine<br />
publishers and musicians who believe in music’s power to shape a new<br />
future for Wirral. The group is dedicated to nurturing new music, and the<br />
little infrastructure that currently exists in the borough, to support the<br />
local music community, and will do so through its brand new live music<br />
innovation fund. Thanks to The Beautiful Ideas Company and Wirral<br />
Borough Council, the fund has been set up to provide a series of £500<br />
grants for local musicians, promoters or music lovers to help them put on<br />
an innovative live gig in Birkenhead this summer. Any interested parties<br />
should head to wirralnmc.co.uk and fill out the form available.<br />
Building Solid Foundations<br />
MERSEYSIDE ARTS FOUNDATION have been working<br />
tirelessly behind the scenes to support budding<br />
talent and offer artist development to musicians on<br />
Merseyside. Funded by Help Musicians UK, applications<br />
are now open for Round Six of the development<br />
programme, which supports the multifaceted aspects of<br />
the music industry – from studio time to tour subsidies<br />
and help with promotional and equipment costs. Some<br />
of the region’s recent breakout acts – including Queen<br />
Zee, She Drew The Gun and Natalie McCool – have<br />
benefited from the programme, which is open to artists<br />
from all genres. If you think you’re ready, find out more<br />
and register your interest in the programme by emailing<br />
music@merseysideartsfoundation.org.uk.<br />
Lounge Wizards<br />
We’re massively excited to announce a great<br />
partnership with our friends at SAE Institute. In<br />
alternate months we will be inviting one of our<br />
favourite new acts into the studios of their Pall<br />
Mall campus to record a track as part of their<br />
Live Lounge series. You can see the first session<br />
recorded with this month’s Spotlight artist GOD<br />
ON MY RIGHT at bidolito.co.uk now. SAE Institute<br />
run courses on a wide range of audio and visual<br />
disciplines with their Liverpool base boasting a<br />
plethora of industry-leading technology with which<br />
students can get to grips while gaining real world<br />
experience. Look out for the next Live Lounge<br />
session coming soon.<br />
Hearing Both Sides Now<br />
Following the large-scale initiative across the North<br />
of England supporting emerging female-identifying<br />
artists and industry professionals, the first OPEN<br />
SPACE event for BOTH SIDES NOW will take place at<br />
Constellations on 17th <strong>March</strong>. The idea underpinning<br />
Both Sides Now’s ethos is to connect women in<br />
music, from the classroom, boardroom and onstage,<br />
while the concept behind the Open Space event is to<br />
welcome conversation from all attendees. The series of<br />
discussions opens the floor to the question of what can<br />
be done to make gender equality in the music industry<br />
a reality. Places are free and you can register to attend<br />
via Eventbrite – food and drink will be provided and<br />
children are welcome to come along too.<br />
10
DANSETTE<br />
LAURIE SHAW reveals some of<br />
the inspirational records that<br />
were key touchstones for him<br />
during the making of his new LP,<br />
Weird Weekends.<br />
Binhan<br />
Jake Thackray<br />
Worried Brown<br />
Eyes<br />
EMI<br />
Oyé Additions<br />
Following their bumper 25-year anniversary<br />
celebrations last year, AFRICA OYÉ is showing<br />
few signs of resting on its laurels with three<br />
impressive names announced for their <strong>2018</strong><br />
event. The first trio of names confirmed for the<br />
Sefton Park weekender represent artists who<br />
have transcended the music scenes of their<br />
native countries to perform to huge crowds<br />
around the world. Guinea Bissau’s BINHAN,<br />
GUY ONE from Ghana and Gambian artist<br />
SONA JOBARTEH will all arrive in Liverpool for<br />
the weekend of 16th-17th June. More acts are<br />
set to be announced including the coveted Oyé<br />
Introduces slot which is given to a local artist<br />
from the North West’s African diaspora.<br />
Where’s My Revolutionary Spirit?<br />
Liverpool’s musical past has a fierce independent streak<br />
running through it, and a new five-CD boxset from Cherry Red<br />
Records aims to add some detail to that particular narrative.<br />
REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT: THE SOUND OF LIVERPOOL 1976-<br />
1988 is an extensive collection of gems and rarities from one of<br />
the region’s most fertile and productive eras. Artists from the<br />
‘second wave’ of Merseyside music are featured, ranging from the<br />
cult (YACHTS) to the obvious (ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN) to the<br />
obscure (NIGHTMARES IN WAX). Put together by key observers in<br />
the scene at the time – Bernie Connor, Mike Badger, Yorkie and Joe<br />
McKechnie – the boxset also comes with a 56-page book that goes<br />
into more depth, full of views and insight from the compilers.<br />
Jake Thackray is an underrated British folk singer and<br />
one of the leading lights for me in terms of great northern<br />
storytelling. This song is about a girl writing to an Agony<br />
Aunt column. I think Thackray had a great knack of<br />
immortalising the everyday and he’s one of the finest<br />
singers the country has ever produced.<br />
Suede<br />
Stay Together<br />
Nude<br />
One thing I got fascinated with during the recording of<br />
Weird Weekends was the Britpop scene in the 90s. It<br />
seems like it was a rollercoaster of hedonism that came to a<br />
crashing end, but nevertheless it produced some gems, and<br />
one song I heard for the first time when I started the album<br />
was this song.<br />
Gibberish Brewpub<br />
Gloria Gaynor<br />
I Will Survive<br />
Polydor<br />
On The <strong>March</strong> With EBGBS<br />
Seel Street’s basement bolthole has a busy run of gigs<br />
programmed in for <strong>March</strong>, building on a succession of<br />
intense, sweaty shows over recent months. THE SHEAFS<br />
bring their high-octane indie swagger on 9th <strong>March</strong>, while<br />
dub degenerates THE WHOLLS swing by on 22nd <strong>March</strong><br />
as part of a UK tour in support of their debut, self-titled LP.<br />
Elsewhere, Metal 2 The Masses Merseyside take over the<br />
basement on 23rd <strong>March</strong> with the first of their regional heats.<br />
You want more? How about RIVAL BONES (3rd), SPARK<br />
(16th), PIST (30th), plus Liquidation every Saturday night?<br />
Sorted.<br />
A Load Of Gibberish<br />
The Baltic Triangle’s newest addition Gibberish Brewpub<br />
are hosting a knees-up over the first weekend of the month<br />
with food, booze and music. The Caryl Street venue, set up<br />
by Mad Hatter co-founder Gaz Matthews, is inviting jazzers<br />
BLIND MONK TRIO, bluegrass ensemble DONKEY HOKEY<br />
and other artists to provide the soundtrack as they unveil<br />
their latest batch of brews. There will also be street food from<br />
vegan purveyors Wings And Clay as well as meaty fare from<br />
smokehouse specialists Cowfish. Taking place over the 1st-<br />
3rd <strong>March</strong>, this is the place to be to sate your gastronomic and<br />
aural appetites.<br />
Partially inspired by the disco-y bits of Separations-era<br />
Pulp, I thought it would be fun to do a more disco-infused<br />
song, which became the seven-minute track Sophistication.<br />
On that song there’s definitely a bit in the vocals where I<br />
do a bit of a Gloria Gaynor thing. I like the combination of<br />
telling a pretty grim story over the top of a funky beat.<br />
Blur<br />
Young And Lovely<br />
Food<br />
Damo Suzuki<br />
Competition: Wrong Festival<br />
Invisible Wind Factory, North Shore Troubadour and Drop The<br />
Dumbulls welcome the return of WRONG FESTIVAL on 28th<br />
April, with a line-up that is positively brimming with special<br />
acts from the psych and stoner rock scene. Alt. grunge band<br />
FUTURE OF THE LEFT head up this year’s Wrong line-up, with<br />
scene don DAMO SUZUKI joining MUGSTAR, and GNOD, HEY<br />
COLOSSUS and KAGOULE packing out the undercard. We’ve<br />
got a pair of tickets to the event to give away to one lucky winner<br />
– all you need to do is answer this question: In which band did<br />
Damo Suzuki replace Malcolm Mooney as lead singer? Email<br />
your answers to competition@bidolito.co.uk – the winner will be<br />
notified by email. Good luck!<br />
I feel like this song wears the same kind of trainers as some<br />
of the songs on Weird Weekends. The title track of the<br />
album came about after a few days of hearing this song<br />
quite a lot. Those slightly melancholic chords that Blur<br />
sometimes do definitely crop up, and then the solo is pure<br />
Oasis circa 1995. So in a way I’ve bridged a gap between<br />
the North and South. Kind of like the M1.<br />
Head to bidolito.co.uk o read (and listen to) more of Laurie<br />
Shaw’s selections. Weird Weekends is out now via Black<br />
Leather Soul Music.<br />
NEWS 11
12
ELEANOR<br />
NELLY<br />
Her name may already be familiar to Merseyside music lovers, but<br />
ELEANOR NELLY’s journey to stardom is just getting started.<br />
The years between 16 and 18 are always significant, but<br />
for ELEANOR NELLY they have proved life-changing.<br />
When Bido Lito! first sat down with Eleanor in 2016,<br />
the local singer-songwriter had just been named one<br />
of LIMF Academy’s Most Ready artists. Now, she is signed to a<br />
management deal with Decca Records and, with the upcoming<br />
release of her new EP, the incredible pace of the past two years<br />
shows no sign of slowing. People Like Us confirms that Eleanor<br />
Nelly is in it for the long run.<br />
Meeting up with Eleanor during a brief period of down<br />
time, I start by asking her to summarise the past two years. She<br />
describes leaving school – “the biggest relief of my life” – and<br />
the excitement of being signed with a bubbly energy that I come<br />
to realise is something of a signature of hers. Her highlights<br />
from this whirlwind period include writing music in Nashville,<br />
supporting Rhys Lewis on her<br />
first tour and recording in Abbey<br />
Road Studios. It’s an impressive<br />
résumé, one that could threaten to<br />
overwhelm your average 18-yearold,<br />
though she is quick to reassure<br />
me. “I’ve definitely grown up and<br />
found my feet, both in music and<br />
outside of music. It’s been hard, but<br />
also the most magical experience.”<br />
Eleanor is evidently hardworking<br />
and, while in awe of her success, she<br />
is far from overwhelmed. “It’s just<br />
been crazy,” is a phrase that Eleanor<br />
repeats throughout our conversation,<br />
but only a fool would think she<br />
couldn’t keep up.<br />
Eleanor began gigging around Liverpool at the age of 13,<br />
and she credits the city’s supportive music scene as instrumental<br />
to her success. “No one ever held me back and said, ‘Oh you’re<br />
a bit too young.’ Perhaps I was just too persistent; I knew I was<br />
getting into that venue no matter what, and that I would play.”<br />
Persistence clearly pays off. At 18, Eleanor’s voice is remarkably<br />
mature and confident; this is surely in part because she began<br />
playing live at a young age. Surprisingly, Eleanor tells me that<br />
she had only had six guitar lessons when she started gigging.<br />
“Everyone would be like, ‘Try this,’ so I learned from older<br />
musicians.” This speaks volumes about her ability to throw<br />
herself into and learn from every opportunity. Eleanor’s affection<br />
for Liverpool extends to her music taste, which includes local<br />
band Shamona and singer Thom Moorcroft. Particular favourites<br />
are The Hummingbirds, who she has written music with and<br />
supported at the O2 Academy, giving a refreshing outlook of<br />
an artist that remains so invested in local musicians: “The music<br />
scene has changed a lot since I first started gigging but I always<br />
know it’s like a second home to me.”<br />
In 2015, Eleanor was named One To Watch by LIMF<br />
Academy; the following year, she was one of their Most Ready<br />
artists. “It finally felt like people were taking me seriously,” she<br />
tells me of her reaction to the accolades. “I wasn’t just some kid<br />
with funny hair who played a guitar that was too big for me.” It<br />
would certainly be hard not to take Eleanor seriously once you<br />
hear her voice, but it is a credit to the LIMF Academy programme<br />
for recognising her talent. Eleanor praises LIMF for giving young<br />
musicians in the city a platform: “It’s so good to get them into the<br />
public eye in Liverpool, because we’re all so supportive.”<br />
The Academy experience itself is something that she thinks<br />
will stay with her for a long time, and she’s keen to give credit<br />
to the programme for giving her direction when she needed it<br />
most. “Being a part of the masterclass sessions and getting the<br />
“It finally felt like<br />
people were taking me<br />
seriously. I wasn’t just<br />
some kid with funny hair<br />
who played a guitar that<br />
was too big for me”<br />
mentoring has been a massive help in me finding my feet, and<br />
working out what route I want to take. You learn things from<br />
industry professionals, from their experiences, that you probably<br />
couldn’t learn anywhere else.”<br />
“Whether that’s exposure, the experience, the mentoring<br />
and masterclasses, or the feedback,” she continues, clearly<br />
grateful for both the advice and opportunities afforded to her<br />
through the Academy.<br />
Her performance with the Philharmonic Youth Company at<br />
Liverpool International Music Festival in 2016 remains “the most<br />
surreal experience of my life and forever my favourite memory.”<br />
That show, where she worked alongside the composer Katie<br />
Chatburn to perform three songs with the Phil’s Youth Orchestra,<br />
showed not only her immense capability in a live setting, but an<br />
ability to be unfazed by performing on such a high-profile stage.<br />
It also showed Eleanor’s maturity<br />
when facing a new challenge, and<br />
stood her in good stead for what<br />
was to follow over the next couple of<br />
years, once the doors to the Decca<br />
Family had been thrown open.<br />
As well as her maturity, one<br />
of the first things people comment<br />
on with Eleanor is her enthusiasm,<br />
whether seeing her perform or<br />
meeting her away from the stage.<br />
Her personality is effervescent and<br />
infectious, and you can see her love<br />
for music flowing into everything<br />
she does. But it’s more than just an<br />
outlet for her, and has helped her<br />
through difficult times as well as been there to express the good.<br />
“Music is important to me because it dragged me out of a really<br />
dark place when I was younger,” she admits. “It [music] helped<br />
me get away from… bad situations, and whatever else the kids<br />
were doing at school. Music saved me from God knows what.”<br />
As expected, Eleanor’s music has matured over the past two<br />
years since her school days, as the experiences she has been<br />
subjected to have shaped her as an artist. “I think my music has<br />
grown with me; it’s developed and matured as I have.” People<br />
Like Us places Eleanor firmly alongside today’s indie singersongwriters,<br />
who are forging a distinctly modern sound that<br />
borrows from classic country, folk and blues. Eleanor’s voice<br />
has also matured and is deceptively rich and warm; it is a softer,<br />
more effortless iteration of her early self, and reminds me of Kate<br />
Stables from This Is The Kit or Louisa Roach from Liverpool’s<br />
She Drew The Gun. Vocals take centre stage on this EP, and are<br />
complemented by simple, catchy riffs on guitar or piano. Gone<br />
is the tendency to move wildly between musical genres, which<br />
suited her early gigging days but would perhaps have appeared<br />
disjointed on an EP. Eleanor laughs when I bring this up with<br />
her. “I’m not as extreme as I used to be because I’ve got people<br />
monitoring it; I used to go from playing AC/DC to, like, Joni<br />
Mitchell.”<br />
This is not to say that her new EP lacks variety, and Eleanor<br />
is keen to stress that it has “something for everyone”. People<br />
Like Us is no less experimental than her older music, just more<br />
refined. Front Row is the first song Eleanor has written for piano<br />
and it’s less country, more acoustic pop; the simple backing<br />
chords accentuate the power of her voice, and the song feels<br />
more emotional than others. By contrast, the title track People<br />
Like Us is an upbeat, bluesy number that reminds me slightly<br />
of Jeff Buckley. This track is also the most interesting lyrically<br />
and best proves her self-declared role as a ‘storyteller’. Choke is<br />
one of Eleanor’s favourites from the EP, and mine too. Her voice<br />
FEATURE<br />
13
effortlessly climbs and falls, and the chorus remains with you<br />
long after the song finishes. All of her tracks achieve that perfect<br />
balance between being innovative and catchy.<br />
Eleanor tells me that she wrote Polaroid, the first track on her<br />
EP, in Nashville. Immediately it’s clear that we have arrived at her<br />
favourite discussion topic. The song describes the perfect stillness<br />
depicted in a Polaroid picture. For Eleanor, this picture is Nashville:<br />
“I remember looking out of the window in Nashville and what I was<br />
seeing was the song.” Eleanor has been dreaming of a visit to the<br />
city since she was a child obsessed with country musicians and<br />
Texas radio stations. She is evidently still in awe that her dream<br />
came true, and her eyes light up as she describes the trip. “When<br />
I finally got there, I was like ‘Yeh, this is what I’ve been listening<br />
to on the radio, this is what I’ve been dreaming of’.” She tells me<br />
that Nashville was “just lovely, it was warm like Liverpool.” Both<br />
cities are famous for having a welcoming musical scene, and have<br />
produced some outstanding musicians. Eleanor agrees “It was<br />
just so musically inclined. Every single bar on all the streets had<br />
a live band playing.” She talks of meeting welcoming musicians<br />
who helped her “write some of the most amazing songs I’ve ever<br />
written”. ‘Look around here at this place,’ she sings in Polaroid, a<br />
tribute to how Nashville has influenced her music.<br />
People Like Us was produced entirely by Cam Blackwood (who<br />
has previously worked with George Ezra, London Grammar and<br />
Florence And The Machine), and Eleanor has had the opportunity<br />
to work with a number of highly successful songwriters over the<br />
past two years. I ask what it felt like working with Sacha Skarbek,<br />
who co-wrote Miley Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball and James Blunt’s You’re<br />
Beautiful. “He had worked with all these amazing people and<br />
then he just had little me in his studio writing. It was surreal,” she<br />
exclaims. “I was like, ‘Why are you writing with me of all people?’”<br />
It’s a question that is obvious to her listeners: at just 18, Eleanor has<br />
a voice and a work ethic to rival most mainstream pop stars. She<br />
may be humble, but she does not pause to wonder at her success.<br />
“I’ve got to snatch all the opportunities up and get everything I<br />
can from these people that I’ve always looked up to.” It’s the same<br />
determination that helped her secure gigs at just 13, and it is bound<br />
to take her even further.<br />
When I ask Eleanor where she imagines it all going, she is<br />
quick to answer: “No idea.” She hopes that Decca Records will<br />
become a long-term family for her to grow into, but is aware that<br />
“things like that can end in the blink of an eye”. Eleanor takes<br />
nothing for granted; a simple, 20-minute conversation convinces<br />
me that she will make the most of this opportunity. The only<br />
certainty in her future is that she will keep singing: “I wanna be<br />
making music for the rest of my life.” If People Like Us is anything<br />
to go by, I certainly hope she will too. !<br />
Words: Maya Jones / @mmayajones<br />
Photography: Lauren Jade Keir / laurenjadekeir.format.com<br />
@eleanor_nelly<br />
Polaroid, the first single from the People Like Us EP, is released on<br />
7th <strong>March</strong>.<br />
“I wanna be<br />
making music<br />
for the rest<br />
of my life”<br />
14
An Arts Council Collection Touring Exhibition presented as part of the National Partners Programme<br />
24 February to 3 June <strong>2018</strong><br />
FREE ENTRY<br />
liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/kaleidoscope<br />
@walkergallery<br />
#kaleidoscope<br />
@A_C_Collection #ACCNationalPartners<br />
Arts Council Collection is managed by Southbank Centre, London on behalf of Arts Council England<br />
Image: Point X, 1965, Phillip King. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist
We invite artist and designer Nick Booton to give his verdict on the<br />
work of the pop art maestro, whose iconic work is showing now in a<br />
major exhibition at Tate Liverpool.<br />
The current Roy Lichtenstein In Focus exhibition is the latest in Tate Liverpool’s in-depth looks at some of the greats of modern<br />
and contemporary art. Lichtenstein’s large-scale, comic book style pieces – and the Ben-Day dots technique, which he helped to<br />
popularise – came to be closely identified with the explosion of pop art in the 60s, alongside Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. Whaam!,<br />
one of his most famous pieces, is on show in Liverpool for the first time since 1993, after being restored to its 1963 glory.<br />
Looking at the breadth and impact of the art on show – which includes some examples of his early interest in landscapes, and his<br />
subsequent fascination for advertising – we were interested to get the perspective of what Lichtenstein’s body of work means from an<br />
artist’s point of view. So, we asked two of our regular contributors, both designers and illustrators, to give us their own views on what<br />
Lichtenstein – and, indeed, pop art – means to them. Mook Loxley has interpreted some of Lichtenstein’s famous comic-style imagery<br />
in his accompanying illustration – and Nick Booton (Bruï Studio) spoke with one of Tate’s curatorial team to give an overall perspective<br />
on the exhibition.<br />
“It’s not so much the<br />
artist’s hand but the<br />
artist’s eye where<br />
the value lies”<br />
When I was approached to write something around<br />
Tate’s Lichtenstein exhibition, the thing that<br />
attracted me to it was the idea of using my own<br />
artwork as a response and conversation around<br />
the influence of these themes, particularly in the way that visual<br />
artists work now. There are a lot of interesting points that come<br />
out of looking at these types of shows because they can be quite<br />
divisive in some ways, almost a commodity in themselves, but I<br />
think that idea is quite relevant now.<br />
After speaking with Tate’s Darren Pih, one of the angles I<br />
was struck by was this idea of Lichtenstein’s work being cyclical,<br />
in that it commented on the use of advertising and mass media<br />
but then became so well known that it almost came back into<br />
ownership of the public realm and is mimicked itself within<br />
advertising campaigns today. Darren referenced a Specsavers ad<br />
on a bus that was in a Lichtenstein style, then immediately after<br />
the interview I saw some Northern Rail adverts that hi-jacked<br />
Lichtenstein’s distinctive style too. I guess the idea of parody and<br />
ownership is a chicken and egg type situation.<br />
Art and design are merging in the online world and the way<br />
people (inter)act on social media is almost like a brand. Artists<br />
are curators of modern life, choosing what is relevant, humorous<br />
or valuable and finding ways to reflect these ideas through visual<br />
collage. I think the idea of the artist as observer of modern life<br />
is reinforced when we focus on mundane and overlooked ideas<br />
because they take an extra level of attention and intuition to<br />
understand the value in them. This all stems from the pop art<br />
movement and lifestyle artists in New York: their influence is<br />
major, particularly now, so it’s a good time to discuss their work<br />
in a modern context.<br />
Could you quickly introduce yourself, and explain your role in<br />
curating this exhibition at Tate Liverpool.<br />
My name is Darren Pih, Exhibitions and Displays Curator at Tate<br />
Liverpool. I curated the Lichtenstein display, which essentially<br />
brings together works from the Artists Rooms collection, which<br />
is a collection of single rooms of works, including artists such as<br />
Andy Warhol, Martin Creed and Louise Bourgeois. Essentially<br />
it consists of 20 works from the early 1960s until the end of<br />
[Lichtenstein’s] career in the late 90s, really showcasing his major<br />
themes and preoccupations, as well as his use of drawing on<br />
readymade imagery and comic imagery.<br />
With such a vast archive to pull from, how have you selected<br />
these specific works and what aspects do they communicate<br />
about his practice?<br />
Lichtenstein’s interesting because he had a sort of pre-career. He<br />
was a tutor and an abstract painter in the 1950s, but I think it had<br />
to be a survey of the range of subject matter, whether that be<br />
war comics, romantic comics, still life or his later nude series.<br />
You can definitely see the influence of comic strips throughout<br />
his career. When he was searching through reference material,<br />
what was the essence that he was trying to pick out of the<br />
comic frames?<br />
He was selecting an image that was already an emotionally<br />
charged moment or which somehow summarised a narrative that<br />
was ambiguous, and it was a heightened moment of high tension<br />
or drama. It’s sort of false as well, somehow, and rendered in an<br />
impersonal style with the way he used this language of painted<br />
dots and stripes.<br />
Removing the visible brush stroke from his work, it’s an almost<br />
mechanical reproduction of images, so what value would<br />
people get from seeing this in person rather than through<br />
widely dispersed images online?<br />
I think it’s that oscillation between them being machine-made<br />
and man-made. There’s an ambiguity in the dots, they’re not<br />
perfect and they kind of spill beyond the canvas. That’s the<br />
power of the work: they’re cheap and expensive, formulaic and<br />
inventive. It’s ready-made and hand-made.<br />
He seemed to embrace mechanical processes and new<br />
technology, for instance in the use of projectors to scale his<br />
images up. Would you say in this age he would have worked<br />
digitally?<br />
Definitely, I would think so. There was a sense in which he was<br />
removed from the touch of the artist, I think that was a process<br />
he was working towards. A painted pop brush stroke is really<br />
the ultimate statement of removing yourself. Then it becomes<br />
something that is dispersed and democratised, and somehow<br />
universally meaningful.<br />
He does tend to use a language of images we instantly<br />
recognise, scenes of non-descript romance or banal household<br />
objects. What does he see in these subjects and why are they<br />
presented at such size and scale?<br />
I think it was responding to the ubiquitous power of billboards,<br />
of Hollywood and the silver screen, which was forging a new<br />
language of painting that was larger in scale. The source of<br />
the image would have been minor and very insignificant and<br />
then to monumentalise it asserts the truth of the artificial; mass<br />
16
mediated images are somehow of a new nature, it becomes a<br />
new landscape.<br />
It’s playfully ironic that there was a higher monetary value to<br />
his larger paintings, this scaling up almost correlated with the<br />
criticism of consumerism.<br />
Ha ha, yes!<br />
So, he moved back to New York around the early 60s, did city<br />
life have an impact on artists like him who may have been<br />
moving away from Abstract Expressionism at the time?<br />
I’ve no doubt that it did, it [New York] was the centre of the art<br />
world in the early 60s. Art was moving away from something<br />
that is interior, this Rothko idea of spiritual truth, and it was<br />
becoming reflective of something in the world. Art was changing,<br />
it became live, it became performative, it became a critical<br />
reflection of mass media and a subject matter.<br />
I know Lichtenstein described advertising as “a new force”,<br />
maybe something to be wary of, which would explain his<br />
fascination with the language of consumer marketing.<br />
It was kitsch as well, he was drawn to cliché subjects. I saw a<br />
Specsavers advert on the side of a bus and it was rendered using<br />
the Ben-Day dots, it looked like a Lichtenstein. It’s almost gone<br />
full circle, pop art in turn begins to influence the language in<br />
commercial advertising.<br />
With his subversion of text and image from mass media<br />
sources I wonder if we can see the influence of his one-hit<br />
compositions in today’s meme culture, which interestingly, is<br />
heavily informing the landscape of advertising.<br />
I think they’re not unrelated. I think with pop art especially there<br />
is this sort of re-dispersal: you’re taking very low vernacular<br />
images and then making them monumental and meaningful<br />
and that’s not unrelated to the use of memes. It’s the power<br />
of the image and I think there’s something quite ironic about<br />
Lichtenstein.<br />
He does talk about the separation between himself and the<br />
America he was representing in his images. Do you think the<br />
digital age has increased the cultural gap between the artist<br />
and the subject?<br />
I think it’s necessary to critically stand apart and just to be<br />
part of the flux. Maybe that’s not such an interesting thing to<br />
be but I think, in a way, Lichtenstein’s work is symptomatic of<br />
the use of technology, acceleration of life and the proliferation<br />
of mass media imagery, I think his work is almost like a short<br />
hand for that. In the age of car crash and catastrophe images,<br />
paradoxically people want to see that stuff, which is how<br />
newspapers sell. But, actually, if it’s mass reproduced it loses its<br />
charge, you become immune to it – and how do we bring back<br />
the emotional connection?<br />
Maybe it’s not so much the artist’s hand but the artist’s eye<br />
where the value lies and he’s able to bring back a human<br />
element to these images. When he came under criticism over<br />
authorship from comic cartoonists, they put on their own pop<br />
art exhibition to demonstrate how easy it was to emulate, but<br />
instead their paintings fell short, maybe lacking this element.<br />
There have been many examples of questions about originality<br />
and authorship, that’s why I think Duchamp responded [Duchamp<br />
defended criticisms around authorship by playing up his work’s<br />
avant-garde and often obscene nature]. He could see what was<br />
going on and he could see he was part of this lineage.<br />
Do you think rather than the act of painting, it was<br />
Lichtenstein’s assemblage of ideas, applicable to a multidisciplinary<br />
audience, that has helped maintain its relevance up<br />
until now?<br />
Of course he is an artist who has had a huge influence on<br />
graphics and interior design so I think you can see he’s an artist<br />
whose influence could go beyond art. I think he’s still relevant<br />
because it shows how an artist was responding to his age. How<br />
do we make sense of this proliferation, this changing state of<br />
images in the world, how do you create? It’s about removing<br />
yourself from the flux of mass media and being able to ironically<br />
make sense of it and to see it for what it is.<br />
Words: Nick Booton / bruistudio.com<br />
Illustration: Mook Loxley / mookloxley.tumblr.com<br />
Photography: Brian Roberts / brianrobertsimages.com<br />
tate.org.uk/liverpool<br />
Artist Rooms: Roy Lichtenstein In Focus is on show at Tate<br />
Liverpool until 17th June, and entrance is free. Bido Lito!<br />
Members will enjoy a curator’s tour around the exhibition on 7th<br />
<strong>March</strong> – full details on how to sign up can be found at<br />
bidolito.co.uk.<br />
FEATURE<br />
17
18
BREAKWAVE<br />
Promoter, producer, tastemaker and DJ: Jessica Beaumont is using her<br />
music to open up space for innovative new artists and venues, placing<br />
BREAKWAVE at the cutting edge of UK nightlife.<br />
The importance of space and protecting our creative<br />
communities is manifested by Jessica Beaumont’s own<br />
organic journey in the music scene. Noting a lack of<br />
creative events and spaces in Liverpool’s nightlife, as<br />
well as platforms to promote up-and-coming DJs, Beaumont set<br />
out to fill the void herself. Space is an important element behind<br />
her innovative club night, Meine Nacht, which she started with<br />
Or:la back in 2015 – and she has, in turn, provided opportunities<br />
for the city’s grassroots DJs. Her career has naturally progressed<br />
with a bold identity – BREAKWAVE – developing as a result.<br />
Praised for her pulsating sets that have been pumping their<br />
infectious rhythms into venues and onto the radio waves,<br />
Beaumont is currently working on her debut EP that will feature<br />
two tracks on 12” vinyl, set to be released towards the end of this<br />
year.<br />
Informed by the atmosphere she wants to create for her<br />
audiences at Meine Nacht nights, the Breakwave sound is an<br />
extension of what Beaumont has been honing for a number of<br />
years. “It’s mainly breakbeat techno and a bit bassy, that’s the stuff<br />
I’m producing at the moment and the kind of vibe I want to create,”<br />
she tells me when we meet up to discuss her emergence as one of<br />
the North West’s most in-demand DJs. “I get sent a lot of music,<br />
and a lot of good grassroots DJs send me their work, so I’ll include<br />
a bit of that in my mixes. Mostly I’ll just do my own digging, so I’ll<br />
go to record stores and create a mix between ambient techno, the<br />
bassier side of things, breaks and jungle as well. I try to include<br />
a wide variety of genres, so I suppose you could say it’s genrespanning.<br />
It makes it harder to mix, but I think it keeps it more fresh<br />
and exciting for the audience.”<br />
Beaumont’s career started with Meine Nacht, while her own<br />
label (Deep Sea Frequency) and music gradually began to take<br />
shape. The event provided an insight into producing and the<br />
confidence to share her own mixes. “I started making music about<br />
two years ago, but it was just a fun element alongside doing the<br />
event. I didn’t play out back then, but I’ve been DJing since I was<br />
18 when I got my first set of turntables. I was more focused on the<br />
business aspect of it. When I started getting a bit more confident I<br />
kind of launched into my own career: it was pretty steady with the<br />
label, the event was going really well, and I felt more relaxed. That’s<br />
when I started taking my own DJing and producing more seriously.<br />
So, it’s a recent thing with the production that I’m now going into.”<br />
Meine Nacht turns secret, unused spaces into a safe haven<br />
for clubbing communities to enjoy the music they love. Each<br />
event takes place in a different venue, and clubbers don’t find<br />
out the location until the night of the show. Beaumont explains<br />
that she started the event at the right time, when it was apparent<br />
that something was lacking in Liverpool’s nightlife. Her aim<br />
was to create something that would have a secure spot in the<br />
scene, unlikely to get lost in the noise. “There are so many nights<br />
that start up, say in September when all the students are here,<br />
and then 80% of them drop off. With Meine Nacht, I came up<br />
with the concept of live streaming it in Liverpool when no one<br />
else was doing that. I taught myself how to live stream and<br />
then implemented that into the event, so that’s kind of how the<br />
word got out too.”<br />
“It doesn’t matter<br />
whether you’re male<br />
or female, if you’re a<br />
good DJ and you’re<br />
a good producer,<br />
you’re gonna get<br />
somewhere”<br />
Beaumont travels around Liverpool in search of unique<br />
locations to house a more relaxed club night where there are<br />
no overpriced drinks or overwhelming frills. Her experience<br />
of Berlin’s nightlife played a great part in how she set up the<br />
event, describing a “more laidback approach and a happier, free<br />
environment” that she wanted to bring a piece of back home to<br />
Liverpool. “Meine Nacht is a more stripped-back approach. No<br />
intense, flashing lights, you know? I don’t do it to make money or<br />
show off. I limit the capacity for a reason, because some people<br />
go to big clubs and really enjoy it, but others go and they’re really<br />
intimidated and uncomfortable. They have no space to move and<br />
they don’t have a good experience. I want the customer to return<br />
and I’ve been really lucky with that. I do have a loyal fanbase that<br />
attends the parties and that’s what keeps it going.”<br />
Beaumont has quickly become a pioneer of Liverpool’s<br />
underground music scene, catching attention from other events<br />
and venues across the country, as well as worldwide music<br />
platform, Resident Advisor. She is taking part in their Alternate<br />
Cuts Series, which celebrates the UK groups keeping their<br />
local nightlife scene thriving. Sponsored by Absolut, the series<br />
promotes nightlife sustainability and shines a spotlight on the<br />
tireless work done by those at the heart of it.<br />
“They [Resident Advisor] contacted me to collaborate with<br />
them and choose three brands worldwide to take part in this<br />
series. We choose one really big DJ that’s current on the scene<br />
[Roman Flügel], someone who wouldn’t normally play the set.<br />
It’s called Alternate Cuts, because they will be playing music they<br />
wouldn’t normally play, so in this instance it’s gonna be a 90s rave<br />
set. The focus is on the promoter, so Resident Advisor do a short<br />
film to document their process, and try and get an insight into the<br />
event. When I held my last event at a warehouse in Liverpool on<br />
the dock road, with Courtesy and Skee Mask, they came down<br />
to film that. They also filmed a few other locations that I’ve used<br />
including an old supermarket, a disused police station and an old<br />
bakery.”<br />
As if that wasn’t enough to handle, Beaumont has also been<br />
brought in as events programmer at Kitchen Street, and is lining<br />
up a celebration of female musicians alongside The Wonder Pot<br />
for the venue’s event for International Women’s Day in <strong>March</strong>.<br />
Even though some semblance of balance is approaching, I wonder<br />
what her experience is as a female in a predominantly male music<br />
scene, and if she’s witnessing improvements in gender balance<br />
for line-ups. “I think there’s been a shift and I definitely think it’s<br />
improving. I haven’t experienced any negativity at all. It doesn’t<br />
matter whether you’re male or female, if you’re a good DJ and<br />
you’re a good producer, you’re gonna get somewhere. It’s about<br />
giving people opportunities as well, which is what I’m trying to<br />
do with my night. With places like Kitchen Street giving me a<br />
residency, people are seeing more females playing and performing<br />
and working in the scene, so more and more are wanting to<br />
get involved. That can only get better! There are a lot of female<br />
collectives starting as well, which I notice a lot of, so if I could<br />
give any advice to anyone it’s to start a collective: get together, DJ<br />
together, and that’ll be another way for girls to get out there.”<br />
“The University of Liverpool also asked me to do a<br />
masterclass with them and I’ve been doing a little more to give<br />
back and inspire the younger generation,” Beaumont continues.<br />
“Quite a lot of girls turned up, which was refreshing. I think it’s<br />
important to give people an insight into the fact that you can run<br />
your own night, your own label, you can produce, you can do it<br />
all! You just have to manage what you’re doing well and have the<br />
confidence to go out and do it, which a lot of people don’t.”<br />
Striking a balance between ensuring gender equality and<br />
focusing on talent is something that Beaumont thinks is crucial,<br />
even if she’s not completely sold on the idea of promoting allfemale<br />
line-ups. “I’m trying to push a lot of women this year on<br />
my line-ups, but maybe not saying it’s a ‘female only’ thing. You<br />
have to be careful with how you word it and ensure there is an<br />
equal balance. In those instances [International Women’s Day] it’s<br />
good, but other events that are strictly for females only can put<br />
girls off. It shouldn’t matter if you’re a female: what matters is the<br />
quality of the music you’re making, and your technique.”<br />
As the conversation comes to a close, I can’t help but wonder<br />
the question that’s on everyone’s mind. How does she gain<br />
access to these quirky locations for Meine Nacht?<br />
“It’s about the element of surprise and announcing the<br />
location on the day. People don’t even know where they’re going<br />
and I sell the tickets, so it works! But then again, that’s just the<br />
ethos of my night.”<br />
Beaumont may keep her cards close to her chest, but as long<br />
as the appetite for clubbing in unique spaces remains, her work,<br />
and her multifaceted identity as Breakwave, will be at the centre<br />
of Liverpool’s vibrant nightlife..!<br />
Words: Jessica Greenall / @jessrg1995<br />
Photography: Paul McCoy / photomccoy.tumblr.com<br />
soundcloud.com/breakwavedj<br />
Alternate Cuts takes place at 24 Kitchen Street on 29th <strong>March</strong>,<br />
where Breakwave will perform alongside Roman Flügel and<br />
Meine Nacht residents.<br />
FEATURE<br />
19
20
IN GOOD<br />
COMPANY<br />
2017’s return to an in-house repertory company, after a 25-year break,<br />
has been one of Everyman And Playhouse’s biggest recent successes.<br />
Two of the theatres’ directors explain to us why they’re once again<br />
going back to the future.<br />
Sometimes, it turns out the old ways really were the<br />
best. Take theatre for instance. In an age before the<br />
lure of telly and film, most British theatres had their<br />
own permanent teams known as repertory companies.<br />
These tightly-knit groups of actors rattled through productions at<br />
a fearsome rate, sometimes switching shows on a weekly basis.<br />
The work was tough, but the system built strong bonds between<br />
actors and audiences. Famous names like Judi Dench and Ian<br />
McKellen believe it gave them the skills for which they are revered<br />
today.<br />
However, this ‘rep’ system fell out of favour in the 1970s,<br />
and these days, virtually all British theatres hire actors for one<br />
production at a time. They come in, do the job, then move on.<br />
Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre abandoned rep just like<br />
everywhere else, but in 2017 it decided the time was right to<br />
revisit the ways of the past. It had a history of celebrated rep<br />
companies going back decades, with actors including Julie<br />
Walters, Pete Postlethwaite, Alison Steadman and Jonathan<br />
Pryce having made big names for the city, the Everyman and<br />
themselves, and according to the theatre’s current Artistic<br />
Director, GEMMA BODINETZ, the rep company dream never died.<br />
“You’re always trying to find ways that audiences can<br />
connect with the work you do, and it felt to me that growing a<br />
familiarity with the actors on stage would be a lovely thing to do.<br />
“I’d also observed the director Mike Shepherd working with<br />
his company, Kneehigh, and I could see the rapport he has with<br />
actors, and the shortcuts he can make with a group of people that<br />
trust him. They also share a group responsibility. It’s a different<br />
thing when actors feel like they’re here for a while, they’re part of<br />
the theatre, part of the whole season.”<br />
Wanting to capture some of that trust and rapport for itself,<br />
the Everyman recruited 14 actors – including older, experienced<br />
performers and fresh faces straight from drama school – for a<br />
season of five productions, all performed within six hectic months<br />
last year.<br />
And the result? According to NICK BAGNALL, Associate<br />
Director at the Everyman And Playhouse, “it worked beautifully.<br />
We were changing the face of regional theatre, and that was<br />
really exciting.”<br />
There were a clutch of prestigious awards too, and The<br />
Stage newspaper said, “Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre must<br />
be applauded for resurrecting its repertory company and<br />
repackaging it for the 21st Century”.<br />
It should be no surprise, therefore, that the Everyman’s rep<br />
company is back for <strong>2018</strong>, with seven actors returning and seven<br />
new faces. They launch on 3rd <strong>March</strong> with the musical Paint Your<br />
Wagon, followed by A Clockwork Orange, Othello and a new<br />
adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt called The Big I Am.<br />
So why are there four shows this time rather than last year’s<br />
five?<br />
“There’s been a lot of learning,” says Bagnall, “and doing four<br />
shows has already made a big difference. We’re not dribbling in<br />
corners with tiredness any more. And also, last year we weren’t<br />
able to work in our communities, which a lot of the actors are<br />
really keen on doing. There weren’t enough hours in the day.”<br />
If the Everyman team was anxious about how its first rep<br />
season would be received, nerves were quickly settled when the<br />
opening production of Fiddler On The Roof went down a storm.<br />
For Bodinetz, who directed the show, it remains a treasured<br />
memory.<br />
“The first preview of Fiddler was the moment I knew we<br />
were doing something special. It was a bit ropey and there were<br />
“You’re always<br />
trying to find ways<br />
that audiences<br />
can connect with<br />
the work you do”<br />
things that went wrong, but you could feel something in the<br />
room. You could feel it was a different way of working.”<br />
Having successfully resuscitated one magical old musical,<br />
Bodinetz hopes to do it again with Paint Your Wagon. The stage<br />
version of the gold-rush era story is quite different from the<br />
famous film starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood, and it offers<br />
the company of all-rounders plenty of opportunity to let their hair<br />
down. Or hoedown, if you will.<br />
“The palette of musicals we can do is quite limited,” says<br />
Bodinetz. “We only have a cast of 14 and a small budget for a<br />
band, and although we choose actors who can sing and move<br />
under the direction of a great choreographer, they aren’t musical<br />
theatre specialists. You can’t do something like 42nd Street<br />
without exposing them.<br />
“But I was really taken by how funny Paint Your Wagon was,<br />
and there are some really resonant themes in it. For instance,<br />
there’s sexism in there, and we’re really playing with that. What’s<br />
interesting is that the female stories are at the forefront. It’s<br />
about women wanting learning, wanting freedom, and it’s about<br />
oppression.”<br />
Even during the season’s planning stages, issues around<br />
sexism have grown in prominence in the public eye, with the<br />
Harvey Weinstein revelations and the #MeToo movement helping<br />
to shift the terms of debate. Something of this mood will also<br />
be reflected in Bodinetz’s second show, Shakespeare’s Othello,<br />
in which she will be switching the lead character from male to<br />
female.<br />
“I love Othello but I kept thinking that when that first black<br />
general walked onto a Jacobean stage, there must have been<br />
quite a reaction. And I wondered whether that was still true for<br />
a contemporary audience. But I think if a woman turned up in an<br />
army uniform today – a black woman, and a lesbian – she would<br />
be in the same position as that black male in Jacobean England.<br />
“People would ask ‘Can she really do what those men do?’ or<br />
‘Why is Desdemona in love with her and not him?’. I want to take<br />
the audience back to asking some of the questions of themselves<br />
that the original audience might have asked.”<br />
The season’s other two shows are directed by Nick Bagnall,<br />
who kicks off with Anthony Burgess’ infamous A Clockwork<br />
Orange.<br />
“I read the book when I was 16,” says Bagnall. “It seemed to<br />
hit me in the stomach. I loved its language, its violence, just the<br />
whole muscle of the book really hit me. When we were thinking<br />
about big titles for this year, I suggested it without really knowing<br />
whether there was a play version of it.<br />
“It turns out that in 1984, Burgess wrote a version for the<br />
stage – a play with music. I read it and realised it’s a condensed<br />
version of Stanley Kubrick’s film, but it’s got a massive<br />
theatricality about it. It moves in and out of music hall, cabaret,<br />
song and dance. No one else has ever done it in its entirety with<br />
Beethoven’s music. It’s a really big piece of theatre, a proper<br />
Everyman company show. It’s incredibly dangerous, but it’s also<br />
got a redemptive quality.”<br />
The final show is “a massive, open-hearted romp” called The<br />
Big I Am. Freely adapted from Ibsen’s Peer Gynt by the Liverpoolbased<br />
writer, Robert Farquhar, Bagnall is excited to be bringing<br />
this fresh new work to the Everyman stage.<br />
“It opens in 1942 when Peer Gynt is born in the north of<br />
England during a bombing raid. It’s a story about a man in search<br />
of himself. It all started with a conversation about John Lennon<br />
– the cruel genius. We started thinking about how that tied into<br />
Peer Gynt, and it very much did in the sense that he was a man<br />
who was capable of extreme cruelty but also extreme genius and<br />
extreme questioning.<br />
“It goes everywhere – from Liverpool to Dubai to a hippie<br />
commune to Las Vegas – and we tell the story through 70 years.<br />
It’s completely bonkers but also really sad and moving. Bob’s<br />
done an amazing job, the dialogue crackles along.”<br />
Also integral to the season is the theatre’s youth programme,<br />
Young Everyman Playhouse (YEP). Their own show, The City<br />
And The Value of Things, acts as a season opener, and one place<br />
in the main rep company is always reserved for a YEP graduate.<br />
This year, Nadia Anim joins the Everyman’s chosen 14.<br />
This integration of youth and experience is clearly important,<br />
with Bodinetz explaining, “Finding meaningful ways that YEP<br />
members can learn from the professionals is hard if actors are just<br />
here for an intense rehearsal and then they’re gone.” As Bagnall<br />
says, “YEP are involved throughout the whole season, plus all<br />
our assistant directors are from the YEP Directors programme, so<br />
once again they play a big part in it.”<br />
If the rep company system pays dividends for the actors and<br />
creative teams, it also gives audiences a unique opportunity to<br />
follow familiar faces through a wide variety of roles.<br />
“You can see an actor go from a Californian gold digger<br />
to playing Iago,” says Bagnall, “and just watching how that<br />
development and transformation happens is fascinating. But<br />
you also get a sense of the camaraderie, and you see how an<br />
ensemble can transform throughout the season.”<br />
This transformation, it seems, is not confined to the actors<br />
themselves. According to Bagnall, the Everyman as a venue also<br />
enjoys their transformative touch.<br />
“When they arrive they do claim the building, which is great,”<br />
he says. “They create their own special energy, and that’s not to<br />
say there aren’t loads of bloody problems with people living in<br />
each other’s pockets, but the brilliant things outweigh all that,<br />
and we all feel a massive buzz.”<br />
Whether the Everyman’s <strong>2018</strong> rep season is remembered for<br />
its bloody problems or its massive buzz remains to be seen, but<br />
somewhere in the crack between the two, there’s the potential<br />
for magic to be found. After all, rep may be a new way of working<br />
for today’s generation, but it remains one of the oldest theatrical<br />
tricks in the book. !<br />
Words: Damon Fairclough / damonfairclough.com<br />
everymanplayhouse.com<br />
The Everyman’s new Company season begins with Paint Your<br />
Wagon on 3rd <strong>March</strong>.<br />
FEATURE<br />
21
“It is a great<br />
programme,<br />
it makes<br />
the building<br />
feel alive”<br />
YEP TO REP<br />
As part of their desire to develop a homegrown repertory<br />
company of the future, the Everyman And Playhouse are<br />
investing in some of stage and screen’s future talents.<br />
The Everyman And Playhouse theatres’ innovative youth<br />
programme, YOUNG EVERYMAN PLAYHOUSE, kicked<br />
off <strong>2018</strong>’s exciting season of shows with their eyeopening<br />
original production, The City And The Value<br />
Of Things. Entirely their own creation, the performance was<br />
directed, produced and performed by young people between the<br />
age of 14 and 25, allowing budding actors, set designers and<br />
impresarios to get their first taste of a production on the main<br />
stage. The dystopian play not only addressed how we live in<br />
the city, but how we view the people who live within it. Tackling<br />
important issues surrounding homelessness and class, the<br />
students’ performances made the audience really question how<br />
much we value the people who populate our cities and what we<br />
can do to help change attitudes.<br />
Noticing some similarities with our own new project focussed<br />
on students, our Student Society Co-Chair, Sophie Shields,<br />
sought out YEP’s Director Chris Tomlinson and YEP actors<br />
Leah Gould and Chloe Hughes as they were preparing for their<br />
final performance of The City And The Value Of Things. On the<br />
agenda was the importance of the programme giving young<br />
people the chance to get involved with such a revered artistic<br />
institution.<br />
Would you be able to tell me a bit about the concept of the<br />
Young Everyman Playhouse?<br />
Chris Tomlinson: YEP is a large-scale youth organisation that<br />
we expanded from the Everyman Youth Theatre drama groups.<br />
We went from two to six acting groups, and then from that we<br />
developed the directing and writing courses. It now has producer,<br />
technical and marketing courses. The whole idea of it is to try and<br />
put people at every level and strand of what the main [theatre]<br />
does and seat them within the thinking of the building.<br />
What opportunities do the young people get out of the course?<br />
CT: The actors attend weekly sessions and the main thing they<br />
get out of it is the practical learning of how to devise large-scale<br />
shows for the main stage, and then doing text-driven work for<br />
the Playhouse Studio. On top of that, there are masterclasses<br />
with people who are experts in their field. And then there is just<br />
being in the building – belonging to the space is a cool advantage<br />
to them in terms of learning what the industry is about.<br />
The directing course is a bit different: they undertake a two-year<br />
course that involves a series of masterclasses that culminates in a<br />
festival of their own plays at the end of the year. The production<br />
course is similar: we give them a small budget, they produce a<br />
bi-monthly evening that is completely run by them. Whether it’s<br />
poetry nights, spoken word nights, rap battles, it doesn’t matter,<br />
we give them the space to try and pull artists in. The writers will<br />
work on a script and it gets passed around the producers and<br />
directors and the actors will perform it, so all the groups work<br />
together to put on the shows. We have a young marketing group<br />
now as well, and they have the same responsibility to promote<br />
their shows as our main communication and marketing teams do.<br />
We get a good age-range of people in: the actors are between<br />
14 and 22; the producers, technicians, writers are a little bit older<br />
due to the nature of the work, so they are between 18 and 25. It<br />
is a great programme, it makes the building feel alive. If we didn’t<br />
have it I don’t know what we’d do.<br />
Does YEP help work with the main company in any way?<br />
CT: Definitely. There are now 14 professional actors in the rep:<br />
13 recruited nationally, and then there is a space for a YEP actor<br />
for each production. We audition everyone in their classes. It’s a<br />
full professional role, paid every week like everyone else [in the<br />
company]. Leah recently got a part in Othello and another one of<br />
our young actors, Phil, is going to take on a part in A Clockwork<br />
Orange.<br />
Have you had anyone gone to achieve success out of the<br />
programme?<br />
CT: I guess it depends on what you measure as success: [if<br />
it’s] people going into the industry, yeh, loads! At the moment,<br />
we have one guy from the production course who is on the<br />
producing team for the touring production of Matilda. A few<br />
of our directors have been assistants within the rep company<br />
and are now producing their own shows. We’ve had actors go<br />
on to drama school or university and are working on becoming<br />
professional actors. A couple of years ago one of our YEP actors<br />
did work with Jeff Young and from that was picked up by an<br />
agent, and now works with The Royal Exchange. It is definitely<br />
successful – the industry experience is something they can take<br />
with them through to university or drama school.<br />
I am working with Bido Lito! on our new Student Society, and<br />
that is very much about providing budding creative people a<br />
chance to get on the ladder. How important do you think it is<br />
to give young people these opportunities?<br />
CT: For me it’s a no-brainer, it’s vital. Especially at the moment.<br />
Not to get too political about it, but the students are [often]<br />
outpriced out of [higher] education or outpriced [because] of<br />
living costs. The actors pay £4 a session on this course, but<br />
other than that everything at YEP is free. There are even bursary<br />
schemes for people who might need it. To get any form of<br />
training or industry experience for free is vital.<br />
We’ve got great relationships with LJMU, LIPA, The City Of<br />
Liverpool College and Edge Hill, which help provide somewhere<br />
for these guys to come and be creative. It is so important,<br />
otherwise I don’t know what the future is for the next great<br />
play or theatre company in Liverpool. We’ve got a history here<br />
of creating communities and companies, and, at the moment,<br />
the support isn’t huge, which is what YEP is trying to change.<br />
It shows that we value these young people and care about<br />
what they have to say. We also get away with it because of the<br />
beautiful naivety of youth, to get on the stage and just have a go.<br />
I absolutely back that!<br />
Leah and Chloe, do you feel like you have benefitted from the<br />
programme?<br />
Leah Gould: Yes, definitely! Even as a person, my confidence has<br />
grown so much, and just being around like-minded people is<br />
great. Everyone is the same and everyone gets on so there are no<br />
barriers.<br />
Chloe Hughes: Getting your point of view across, how you view<br />
the world and seeing everyone else’s point of view is really<br />
helpful, especially when we are devising a piece. It’s all about<br />
how people look at life so differently, which really helps to<br />
produce the shows.<br />
What do you hope to be able to achieve from taking part in<br />
YEP?<br />
LG: I’ve had the opportunity to play Bianca in Othello which I<br />
am so happy about. It’s made me believe in myself more, I am so<br />
grateful to be able to get the experience. It’s all about meeting<br />
new people as well.<br />
CH: I’m hoping to go to drama school rather than go straight to<br />
university; if not then I want to keep working in theatres, I prefer<br />
them to film.<br />
The production, The City And The Value of Things, was billed<br />
as an episodic drama on the changing face of Liverpool’s<br />
cityscape. It all sounds a bit dystopian, doesn’t it?<br />
CT: Yes it has definitely got an element of that to it. If you look at<br />
the shows we have produced over the last few years, they have<br />
been based on some big, weighty topics and it all comes from<br />
them [the students]. We felt like this year we wanted to focus on<br />
real life, the everyday and the values of what that is. Liverpool<br />
at the moment is going through yet another facelift in terms of<br />
luxury accommodation and student flats everywhere, which on<br />
one hand is incredible but on the other hand, who is benefitting<br />
from that? !<br />
Words: Sophie Shields<br />
everymanplayhouse.com/yep<br />
22
23
THE EDGE<br />
OF FANTASY<br />
In a world full of noise,<br />
contemporary orchestral<br />
troupe MANCHESTER<br />
COLLECTIVE are making a<br />
case for music. Will you be<br />
moved by their intensely<br />
human experiences?<br />
In the basement at Invisible Wind Factory, MANCHESTER<br />
COLLECTIVE are playing Henryk Górecki’s String Quartet<br />
No. 2, and the audience is spellbound. I’ve never been to<br />
a performance like this: we’re sitting in a circle around the<br />
four musicians, and we are so close that we can follow the silent<br />
communication of their eyes as they challenge and respond to<br />
each other. The show is called The Edge Of Fantasy, and the<br />
quartet are fearless in propelling us across that edge.<br />
From the hypnotic, repeating E note of the cello that underpins<br />
the opening movement, through the jagged rhythms that come<br />
into play, with interludes of hymn-like chordal progression,<br />
Górecki’s quartet seems to hint at new potentials in the human<br />
experience, born out of the vast mechanisation of the 20th<br />
Century. We feel the anxiety of something at stake, some vital<br />
essence that might be lost, and yet there is exhilaration in the<br />
sheer scale of the forces set in motion.<br />
“I loved it.” ADAM SZABO is the Managing Director of<br />
Manchester Collective. He talks me through the show from the<br />
inside: “The experience feels really raw, it feels really stripped<br />
back. People are super close to the musicians, which does make a<br />
difference. It’s kind of a visceral intimacy, which you don’t get in a<br />
big concert hall. Most of the work we do is about finding different<br />
ways that our audience can listen to music, and different ways of<br />
listening to music, and different ways of seeing music.”<br />
The group will return to Invisible Wind Factory in <strong>March</strong>,<br />
echoing the idea that they have hit upon a deep connection with<br />
the former wind turbine manufactuary. The venue’s low-ceilinged<br />
Substation is exactly the kind of setting where Manchester<br />
Collective feel at home, having previously played in a restored<br />
cotton mill in Manchester, a former steel mill in Sheffield, and a<br />
renovated post office in Hull. “These are cool spaces,” Szabo says.<br />
“It feels like you are discovering an authentic part of the city as<br />
well. Invisible Wind Factory feels really kind of Liverpool, to me.”<br />
“I suppose part of what we do is about finding the authenticity<br />
in the music, and allowing the audience to feel like they can make<br />
authentic reactions to the music. Everything that we put out –<br />
everything, from the venues, to the players, to what we wear, to<br />
the way that we try and communicate with our audience – has to<br />
come from a place of authenticity.”<br />
The experience of classical music in locations of urban<br />
regeneration creates a powerful sense of time and space<br />
unwinding, recycling, and reforming in new figurations. Cellist<br />
Nicholas Trygstad performed at January’s event on an instrument<br />
that was made over 200 years ago, making it even older than<br />
the historic building. This is another aspect of the appeal, for<br />
Szabo, in taking classical performance into new spaces. “Most<br />
of the time you only see these instruments in what is basically<br />
a museum environment, a humidity-controlled, well-lit concert<br />
hall environment. They need to be really well looked after, these<br />
instruments, because they’re incredibly precious and fragile.” No<br />
beer was spilled on the cello at the January event, I am happy to<br />
report.<br />
“It’s kind of a<br />
visceral intimacy,<br />
which you don’t<br />
get in a big<br />
concert hall”<br />
The collective are hoping to build on the success of The Edge<br />
Of Fantasy for their new show in <strong>March</strong>, with Szabo pointing<br />
out they’re aiming to break through to a different crowd with<br />
this eye-catching offering. “Liverpool is our big project for <strong>2018</strong>.<br />
If we get to the end of the year, and nothing else has changed,<br />
but we’ve built up an amazing grassroots audience here, and we<br />
have a group of people who we can be in dialogue with about the<br />
shows, and discussing how they felt, and talking to them about<br />
programming in the future, then it will be a job well done this year.<br />
That’s the mission.”<br />
24
The new show is a multifaceted beast that features a triple<br />
billing of guest stars, with underground electronic artist VESSEL<br />
opening up proceedings with a collection of live music from his<br />
latest LP, Queen Of Golden Dogs. “Vessel is this really incredible<br />
electronic musician,” Szabo explains, visibly excited to bring this<br />
collaboration to Liverpool. “His music, more and more, comes from<br />
a place where he’s inspired by classical art and music, and he uses<br />
elements of classical harmony and classical instrumentation. He<br />
also builds a lot of his own instruments.”<br />
“The set that he’s doing for us combines music for the new<br />
album, mixed with various samples and inspirations that he’s used,<br />
and that we have played, so it’s a real melting pot.”<br />
Fresh from touring with Radiohead – having worked on the<br />
orchestral arrangements for their 2016 album A Moon Shaped<br />
Pool – world-renowned cellist OLIVER COATES will be joining<br />
Manchester Collective’s Music Director RAKHI SINGH for the<br />
middle portion of the show – a special set of music for solo violin<br />
and cello, with an added swamp of electronics, including Steve<br />
Reich’s celebrated piece Violin Phase. Szabo describes Coates as<br />
“a really incredible cellist, right at the cutting-edge of new music<br />
and the classical world, electronic, and contemporary music. Their<br />
set will be all about finding out how these instruments can work<br />
together.”<br />
“The culmination of that half of the show is this piece, Industry,<br />
by Michael Gordon,” Szabo continues, “which finishes with this<br />
huge sound, just from one cello, but using this very particular<br />
distortion pedal from the 80s. It’ll be good fun.”<br />
The performance at Invisible Wind Factory will be the world<br />
premiere of the titular 100 Demons composition, which forms the<br />
main body of the show. A work for electronics and string quartet,<br />
100 Demons has been specially commissioned by Daniel Elms, an<br />
award-winning, contemporary composer from Hull.<br />
“It’s a really political piece about fear and manipulation of the<br />
media, and fake news,” Szabo says of 100 Demons. The content<br />
chimes with Elms’ previous work too, which has been praised for<br />
addressing disparate social, economic, and political relationships<br />
between people and cities. “The setup is that there are speakers<br />
placed around the hall, and the live musicians are there as well, and<br />
it’s impossible to tell throughout the piece what sound is coming<br />
from where, what sound is electronic, and what sound is live, being<br />
performed now, in the space. It’s a political piece that was born out<br />
of the time it was written in: the Trump era, Brexit, and the whole<br />
fractious political situation. I think it’ll be a really exciting work.”<br />
“We’ve built up a wonderful crowd of young people, in both<br />
Liverpool and Manchester,” enthuses Szabo when he steps<br />
back to look at what Manchester Collective have achieved over<br />
the past two years. “It’s not only an edgy thing, we also have a<br />
bunch of hardcore classical music dudes who come along for<br />
the repertoire, and are like, ‘Oh my god, nobody ever plays this<br />
piece!’”<br />
And does Szabo see any conflict in the collective putting<br />
down roots in Liverpool? “We see Liverpool very much as our<br />
sister city. The stuff that is going on here, like the grassroots<br />
music and culture world, is incredible. There’s so much that<br />
Manchester can learn from the scene that is going on here.<br />
People want to hear that it’s the real deal, and I love that about<br />
this city. People are sceptical and questioning: they don’t just take<br />
what they hear on the news and be like, ‘Oh yeh, that’s definitely<br />
right, let’s do that.’ People want to know that they’re onto a good<br />
thing, and that these guys are for real, and that the music is really<br />
what we say it is. And as the word is starting to get out now – I<br />
hope we can build this into something special.”<br />
Audience experience is key to the collective’s approach, which<br />
is evident if you’ve ever attended one of their performances. “Our<br />
mission statement is ‘Radical human experiences through live<br />
music,’ and everything has to come back to that,” Szabo explains.<br />
“It’s about not using the music and live performance as kind of a<br />
lukewarm anaesthetic that just blocks out the shit that’s going on<br />
in your life. It’s not a spa holiday for us. We want people to come<br />
and be moved and changed, and to have a visceral experience.<br />
There’s a lot of good stuff on Netflix that you could be watching,<br />
to switch off to for a few hours – but there is this incredible power<br />
in music, where you go and have a shared experience with the<br />
performers and the audience, and you come away feeling like<br />
you’re a different person than when you came.”<br />
With that sign-off ringing in your ears, you can’t really afford<br />
to miss Manchester Collective’s next showing. You’ll never know<br />
who you might have been by the end of the music. !<br />
Words: James Davidson<br />
Photography: Adam Szabo<br />
manchestercollective.co.uk<br />
100 Demons, featuring music from Vessel and a guest<br />
appearance from Oliver Coates, takes place at Invisible Wind<br />
Factory on 2nd <strong>March</strong>.<br />
FEATURE<br />
25
“Don’t accept<br />
the first thing<br />
you come up<br />
with, everything<br />
can be better”<br />
GARY NUMAN<br />
C<br />
M<br />
The electronic music pioneer has endured some ups and downs across his 40-year career in<br />
music, and is relishing his latest return to Liverpool to reconnect with his devoted fanbase.<br />
Y<br />
CM<br />
MY<br />
CY<br />
CMY<br />
It’s a Friday night in North London in late 2015. There’s a<br />
venue in the area named The Forum. It’s open for business,<br />
however the turn on the stage is winding up for the night.<br />
The instruments are silent, the band standing slightly<br />
relaxed, but slightly on edge as there’s at least one more song to<br />
perform. The singer clings to his microphone stand and surveys<br />
the 2000-plus people that are stood before him. All of the songs<br />
played in this venue tonight have been drawn from a period<br />
of time that ended a long time ago: 1979-80. All of the songs<br />
played tonight created a household name. All of the songs played<br />
tonight mean so much to the individuals that stand before the<br />
artist.<br />
“I know I don’t play these songs very often, but they are quite<br />
good, aren’t they?”<br />
The 2000-plus audience howl their appreciation. “Thank you<br />
for coming and thank you for still being there after all this time. I<br />
didn’t realise how hard it’s been for most of you over the years.<br />
But I do now and I’m very, very grateful.”<br />
This is GARY NUMAN, a musician, artist and songwriter with<br />
a devoted fanbase that has strengthened and hardened down<br />
the years. Now, finally, his peers are recognising that consistency<br />
coupled with a belligerent desire to plough his own furrow has<br />
meant that, nearly 40 years after his first release, Numan has<br />
earned the right to be seen as influential. Very influential.<br />
Fronting a punk band, Tubeway Army, Gary Numan nascently<br />
organised his songs into three-chord noises. He picked up the<br />
basic record deal from a fledgling punk label, Beggars Banquet,<br />
and on arriving at Spaceward Studios in Cambridge in late 1978<br />
was astonished to find the previous client had left a synthesiser<br />
in the studio. Switched on and programmed. The teenager<br />
cautiously pressed a key and, without knowing, became one of<br />
the biggest electronic music artists ever.<br />
Numan sits at his desk in his home studio in sunny California.<br />
He relocated with his young family around five years ago and<br />
is currently relaxing before the second half of his Savage tour<br />
begins in Scandinavia and then marches into the UK with a soldout<br />
show at Liverpool O2 Academy (tickets are still available at<br />
Preston Guild Hall, if you fancy a small road trip).<br />
So, with that introduction and an imminent return to the<br />
North West in the offing, is Numan approaching his work in a<br />
different way now than he did, say, 10, 20, 30 or 40 years ago?<br />
“I don’t think so,” he tells me. “I’m essentially an electronic<br />
music artist so the technology you use is constantly changing<br />
and you have to adapt to that and learn new things with every<br />
album. But, with that requirement understood, it doesn’t really<br />
change that much at a basic level. We may record straight to<br />
a hard drive instead of a tape recorder but the process is very<br />
similar: the detail changes but the underlying function is much<br />
the same. You [still] have to write a tune, record it, make it better<br />
with production, mix it and then put it on a format that people<br />
can listen to.”<br />
Numan’s music has seen artists such as Nine Inch Nails’<br />
Trent Reznor, Dave Grohl, Beck, Marilyn Manson, Billy Corgan<br />
cover and eulogise about the importance of his work. Heck, even<br />
Bowie and Prince have commented on certain areas of his work.<br />
Even with a heavier, industrial music style, has his approach to<br />
songwriting changed today from the very early days of being,<br />
ostensibly, punk?<br />
“Not a great deal. I sit at a piano and come up with tunes.<br />
What happens after that has changed enormously of course but<br />
the basic job of coming up with a tune and structure is much the<br />
same now as it’s always been.”<br />
“I would suggest don’t try to write your version of something<br />
you’ve heard elsewhere,” he continues. “Don’t accept the first<br />
thing you come up with, everything can be better. Make melody<br />
the heart of every song you write.”<br />
Advice that has been forged through a learning curve that<br />
has seen Numan’s album sales veer between the fantastical<br />
and the less so. Yet, for every bump in the road, the journey has<br />
seemed less arduous as the above statement has carried his<br />
expertise into a new generation. A generation that haven’t hurled<br />
him into the nostalgia machine. Numan’s recent studio album<br />
Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind), released in 2013, has<br />
arguably some of his best and most complex songwriting of the<br />
last 30 years.<br />
“The bumpier the ride, the more proud you feel to survive<br />
and have worked your way through the more difficult moments.<br />
I’ve been about as big as you can be, and I’ve also seen sales<br />
and interest so low it appeared to be all over, more than once.<br />
Coping with success is fairly easy, coping with losing it not so<br />
much. The important thing, the thing that kept me completely<br />
sane and grounded throughout the highs and the lows, is that<br />
it’s always been a hobby for me as much as a career. Sometimes<br />
a hobby that paid well, sometimes one that didn’t pay at all, but<br />
I’ve always loved doing it. For me, success is the icing on the<br />
cake, the cherry on top, the cake itself is just being a professional<br />
musician, being in a band and all that entails and that’s actually<br />
enough. If you simply enjoy being a part of this, successful or not,<br />
then any extra success that comes your way is just a special treat<br />
once in a while.”<br />
After the trials and tribulations of the last 40 years, being<br />
grounded has meant there is a relaxed beauty about how Numan<br />
develops his work. His answers are thoughtful and, for anyone<br />
who has crossed his path, unnervingly honest. Embracing his<br />
fanbase, talking candidly about his back catalogue and attitudes<br />
towards him and his music has seen a gigantic shift from the<br />
loathed to the loved. Something that, during his career, was<br />
absolutely unthinkable. The Ivor Novello awards in 2017 saw<br />
Gary Numan finally get to stand up and be counted. Sharing<br />
an evening of awards dished out to Anne Dudley, Skepta, Bill<br />
Withers, Nitin Sawhney et al, he received one of the coveted little<br />
trophies. “I’ve been doing this a long time and that was probably<br />
my proudest moment,” he admits.<br />
Rising through the tastemaker violence of the music industry<br />
to achieve global success, invoking the chagrin of those that seek<br />
to starmake, Numan has remained. The Ivor Novello Inspiration<br />
Award is years of regeneration finally putting a stamp on an<br />
industry that has mocked and ridiculed his work. To see Numan<br />
lauded and respected in this way is almost payback for some of the<br />
vitriol that he has undertaken to get to this point.<br />
Does he have any idea, I wonder, why he has retained<br />
his popularity in our city? “I don’t know. I’m very grateful for it<br />
though,” he confesses. “Liverpool is definitely one of those places<br />
that makes playing live such an exciting thing to do. There is an<br />
unbridled enthusiasm you don’t always get in some other places.<br />
The Exhibition Centre show was the biggest crowd I’d played to<br />
in Liverpool in decades so that was very exciting. It was the first<br />
show playing songs from the new Savage album, the first time that<br />
my 11-year-old daughter ever performed, so it was quite a night!”<br />
Can you recall a really good show in Liverpool?<br />
“I’ve played there so many times but I think my favourite was<br />
at the Olympia a few years ago in 2016. I just loved the building<br />
and the crowd seemed particularly up for it.”<br />
Liverpool has always embraced artists with creativity and<br />
resilience. After 19 studio albums, two number ones and a UK<br />
albums chart placing of number two for Savage, Gary Numan has<br />
left an indelible mark on an industry that never quite understood<br />
what he was trying to do. That mark is firmly etched on those<br />
that chose to embrace and buy into the otherworldly pop noises<br />
from 1979. It is now <strong>2018</strong> and Gary Numan is still crafting his art,<br />
and finally being recognised for it. Here in Liverpool and across<br />
the globe. !<br />
Words: Ian R. Abraham / @scrash<br />
Photography: John Johnson / johnjohnson-photography.com<br />
garynuman.com<br />
Gary Numan plays O2 Academy on 24th <strong>March</strong>.<br />
K<br />
26
Audio production degrees<br />
and short courses<br />
at your local Liverpool campus<br />
Introduction to Ableton Live<br />
Professional Mixing and Mastering<br />
Electronic Music Production<br />
Songwriting and Music Production<br />
SAE Liverpool<br />
38 Pall Mall<br />
Liverpool<br />
L3 6AL<br />
0151 255 1313<br />
enquiries@sae.edu<br />
www.sae.edu/gbr/audio<br />
@SAEUK<br />
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#proudtobecreative
Box office:<br />
theatkinson.co.uk<br />
01704 533 333<br />
(Booking fees apply)<br />
–<br />
: TheAtkinson<br />
: @AtkinsonThe<br />
: @TheAtkinsonSouthport<br />
The Atkinson<br />
Lord Street<br />
Southport<br />
PR8 1DB<br />
Music<br />
Woody Guthrie:<br />
Hard Times and Hard Travelin’<br />
Fri 23 February, 7.30pm<br />
Marcus Bonfanti<br />
Fri 2 <strong>March</strong>, 8pm<br />
Grateful Fred’s Presents<br />
Bronwynne Brent<br />
Wed 7 <strong>March</strong>, 7.30pm<br />
Sam Kelly & the Lost Boys<br />
Sat 10 <strong>March</strong>, 7.30pm<br />
Moya Brennan<br />
Thu 15 <strong>March</strong> 7.30pm<br />
Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman<br />
Sat 17 <strong>March</strong> 7.30pm<br />
Friends of Folk<br />
Julie Felix<br />
Thu 22 <strong>March</strong>, 7.30pm<br />
Comedy<br />
Phil Wang: Kinabalu<br />
Wed 28 February, 8pm<br />
Laugh Out Loud<br />
Sat 3 <strong>March</strong>, 8pm<br />
Mitch Benn - I’m Still Here<br />
Fri 9 <strong>March</strong>, 8pm<br />
Simon Evans: Genius<br />
Thur 15 <strong>March</strong>, 8pm<br />
Carl Hutchinson Live<br />
Fri 16 <strong>March</strong>, 7.30pm<br />
David Baddiel My Family:<br />
Not The Sitcom<br />
Sat 17 <strong>March</strong> 7.30pm<br />
FILM<br />
Sold out<br />
Southport Film Guild<br />
Things to Come (PG-13)<br />
Wed 7 <strong>March</strong>, 7.30pm<br />
Image: Marcus Bonfanti
4th Annual Festival of<br />
Experimental Music and Technology<br />
10th - 14th <strong>March</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />
Liverpool<br />
Featuring:<br />
(Mini) Rocket Science<br />
Ensemble 10/10<br />
Cellophonics<br />
Electric Odyssey<br />
Electronic Music and<br />
Video Showcase<br />
Interactive Traces<br />
Emerging Voices<br />
liverpool.ac.uk/music/events/opencircuitfestival
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30
UPCOMING<br />
BIDO LITO! EVENTS<br />
23.03.18<br />
The Bido Lito! Social<br />
ZUZU<br />
PIZZAGIRL<br />
PALE RIDER<br />
Constellations<br />
07.03.18<br />
BIDO LITO!<br />
SPECIAL EVENT<br />
LICHTENSTEIN<br />
IN FOCUS<br />
CURATOR TOUR<br />
Tate Liverpool<br />
19.04.18<br />
The Bido Lito! Social<br />
A CLOCKWORK SOCIAL<br />
EYESORE AND THE JINX<br />
CARTWHEELS ON GLASS<br />
Everyman Bistro<br />
Tate Liverpool curators will<br />
give Bido Lito! members an<br />
exclusive tour of this popular<br />
exhibition of one of the<br />
most influential pop artists<br />
of the 20th Century. As<br />
Lichtenstein’s iconic Whaam!<br />
painting joins the exhibition,<br />
Tate staff will set the artist’s<br />
works in context and tell the<br />
story behind the pieces in this<br />
fantastic retrospective. Don’t<br />
miss the chance to get the full<br />
story of an artist who is up<br />
there with Andy Warhol and<br />
Jasper Johns.<br />
MEMBERSHIP REVIEWS 31
SPOTLIGHT<br />
GOD ON MY RIGHT<br />
Liverpool-born brothers Sean and Michael Hollywood are channeling<br />
their inspirations through a fizzing strain of darkwave electronica.<br />
“Music is one of<br />
the purest forms<br />
of art – it’s got<br />
the power to bring<br />
people together”<br />
Alternative electronica duo GOD ON MY RIGHT have nailed<br />
their delectably dark aesthetic, and created immersive pop<br />
tunes reverent of late 80s synth-pop. With influences ranging<br />
from Muse, Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails – of whom they both<br />
have matching tattoos in honour – the Liverpool brothers have<br />
made sure their music keeps their inspirations in mind all while<br />
creating something fresh. “Our music is quite direct and focused,<br />
and although often heavy and aggressive, it’s more often about<br />
restraint.”<br />
Having grown up with a mutual admiration for expressive<br />
musical bombast, it took some time for the pair to put their sibling<br />
chemistry to use on their own projects. “We have always talked<br />
about doing a project like this,” says Sean. “We worked together<br />
a lot in the past on film and art projects but lived at opposite<br />
ends of the country, so it’s only now that we have finally been in<br />
a position to really do this properly. We’ve always loved music<br />
though and we have really similar tastes.” Deltasonic Records<br />
were suitably impressed by the possibilities that the sibling<br />
powerhouse possess that they released the pair’s debut EP,<br />
Swallow, at the end of 2017.<br />
God On My Right’s latest single, Not So Young, demonstrates<br />
their ability to keep both electronica and 80s synth pop separate<br />
and conclusive. A mini-manifesto of sorts, the track is indicative<br />
of the duo’s outlook on other forms of art – and also the world<br />
about them. “We don’t close our eyes to what’s happening<br />
around us and feel really strongly about a lot of issues, so that<br />
will always seep into what we are doing in some way.”<br />
“I like playing a song we have called Fear,” says Sean, “as it’s<br />
a chance to let loose a bit and have a bit of a release. Most of our<br />
songs don’t allow for that. Black Rope is always great to play,<br />
even on a really bad night we usually get a good reaction from it.”<br />
“I enjoy playing Black Rope too,” chips in Michael. “Its layers<br />
build to a bit of a frenzy and to feel an audience nodding their<br />
heads to the beat as you play is pretty cool. You have to see us<br />
play these songs live to know what they say about us though.”<br />
Both Sean and Michael are intent on their reasoning on why<br />
music is important to them, and ultimately the reasoning abides<br />
by the rolling inspiration to why they continue to make music.<br />
“Music is one of the purest forms of art. Nothing engages with<br />
our emotions as directly and as profoundly as music does – it’s<br />
got this amazing power to bring people together.”<br />
That pull towards the thrill of a live show is evident in God On<br />
My Right’s output, one which is echoed by Sean’s outlook. “Every<br />
time I see a great show I get that inspiring feeling again that helps<br />
keep me going.” The gripping experience that is a Young Fathers<br />
gig has obviously left a mark on the Hollywood brothers, as they<br />
list the trio from Edinburgh as an ideal act to support in the future.<br />
“We have so much respect for them as artists in terms of what<br />
they stand for.” Although, they wouldn’t turn down Nine Inch Nails<br />
either. “If Trent ever called, we’d come running without hesitation.”<br />
Words: Daisy Scott<br />
godonmyright.com<br />
God On My Right play District on 1st <strong>March</strong>. Swallow is out now<br />
via Deltasonic Records.<br />
Head to bidolito.co.uk now to watch God On My Right’s exclusive<br />
SAE Live Lounge session in association with Bido Lito!<br />
32
ESME<br />
BRIDIE<br />
With her first full-length album<br />
due for release in <strong>March</strong>, this<br />
emotive singer-songwriter is<br />
finally ready to step into the<br />
limelight.<br />
“I definitely<br />
only play songs<br />
that I connect<br />
to lyrically”<br />
If you had to describe your style in a sentence, what would<br />
you say?<br />
I’d say my music style is a combination of contemporary folk<br />
and pop. The folky aspects include storyteller lyrical themes<br />
and intimate vocals, whereas the overall song structures and<br />
arrangements give it an element of pop.<br />
How did you get into music?<br />
I always wanted to be a writer from a young age. I used to write<br />
stories and poems and then when I began learning guitar at 13,<br />
these stories and poems turned into songs. From then on I was<br />
obsessed, and I knew this was what I wanted to do. More than<br />
anything, it’s the songwriting that drives me.<br />
Can you pinpoint a live gig or a piece of music that initially<br />
inspired you?<br />
I remember going to see a singer-songwriter called Ingrid<br />
Michaelson when I had just started writing songs. I remember<br />
being completely captivated by her performance. I think that was<br />
the first real live gig I went to see.<br />
Do you have a favourite song or piece of music to perform?<br />
I really love performing a cover of Leonard Cohen’s Bird On The<br />
Wire. The lyrics are incredible! I’m not sure what this says about<br />
me, it probably just shows that I find lyrics really important. I<br />
definitely only play songs that I connect to lyrically.<br />
If you could support any artist in the future, who would<br />
it be?<br />
If I could somehow go back in time and support Carole King,<br />
or maybe James Taylor, that would actually be a dream come<br />
true. Of current artists, Laura Marling or The Staves would be<br />
incredible. I would actually cry of happiness if that happened,<br />
ha!<br />
Can you recommend an artist, band or album that Bido Lito!<br />
readers might not have heard?<br />
Anaïs Mitchell is an incredible American singer-songwriter. Her<br />
songs have such intelligent lyrics. I particularly love her album<br />
Hadestown, which follows the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus<br />
and Eurydice. If you like artists that tell stories with their music,<br />
you should definitely give it a listen!<br />
esmebridie.com<br />
Today It Rains is released on 23rd <strong>March</strong> via Klee Records, with<br />
an album launch at Studio2 on 22nd <strong>March</strong>.<br />
WILD FRUIT ART<br />
COLLECTIVE<br />
Jamie Roberts from esoteric, guitarjamming<br />
rock curveballs WILD FRUIT<br />
ART COLLECTIVE talks about the<br />
group’s “scatty” origins.<br />
“The act of<br />
writing a lyric and<br />
setting it to music<br />
is inherently<br />
political”<br />
Have you always wanted to create music?<br />
I can’t pinpoint the moment I knew, but I read guitar magazines<br />
for about seven years before I ever picked up a guitar as my<br />
father was an avid reader, so I guess I must have always intended<br />
to play. It wasn’t til I was about 15 my mother showed me how to<br />
play Seven Nation Army. I’d drive her mad playing it constantly;<br />
she always said if I worked as hard in school as I did at guitar I’d<br />
achieve anything I wanted, but all I wanted to do was to play.<br />
Can you pinpoint a live gig or a piece of music that initially<br />
inspired you?<br />
I remember the first time somebody gave me Nirvana’s greatest<br />
hits when I was about 10 and that being something that really<br />
excited me. But when we started the band, it was all the<br />
Trashmouth Records stuff that inspired us; we had years of beige<br />
indie dross and all of a sudden there was a vibe of ‘scattiness’<br />
that really appealed to us all [as a band]. But since those days<br />
we’ve found our own thing that’s away from that. We have no<br />
intention of replicating anybody else.<br />
What do you think is the overriding influence on your<br />
songwriting: other art, emotions, current affairs – or a mixture<br />
of all of these?<br />
I’ve become kind of anti-politics in music lately, it’s all too easy<br />
to oversimplify just to make people agree, and, if we’re honest,<br />
these things are more nuanced than you can explain in a catchy<br />
chorus [so] it kind of seems irresponsible. However, I think the<br />
act of writing a lyric and setting it to music is inherently political.<br />
Writing about being unhappy or happy, hungry or full, awake<br />
or asleep, that is political because when you are describing any<br />
state of being, the question becomes why? And this inevitably<br />
reaches back to politics. I don’t claim to have all the answers,<br />
most of the songs are more like investigations.<br />
Do you have a favourite venue you’ve performed in? If so,<br />
what makes it special?<br />
In Liverpool, District is my home turf. I put on a lot of shows<br />
there and, full disclosure, Jayne and Eric who run it have been<br />
two of my biggest supporters for years, I owe them more than<br />
I could ever repay. The sound there is phenomenal for a band<br />
like us, the big open space complements our layers of noise<br />
excellently.<br />
If you had to describe your music in a sentence, what would<br />
you say?<br />
In a world where the only music that exists is Joy Division, we<br />
want to be Led Zeppelin.<br />
wfac.bandcamp.com<br />
Wild Fruit Art Collective’s new single Fabric is out now.<br />
SPOTLIGHT 33
PREVIEWS<br />
“There’s a kind<br />
of defiance in<br />
playfulness”<br />
GIG<br />
FIELD MUSIC<br />
Arts Club – 22/03<br />
Over the course of seven albums, brothers David<br />
and Peter Brewis have quietly gone about their<br />
business as one of the most critically admired<br />
bands in the UK. Open Here, their latest effort, is<br />
their most expansive to date.<br />
Sunderland was the first region to declare a result in the EU referendum of 2016, giving<br />
us the first sign that the country was lurching towards Brexit. Many people see it as<br />
the first rumbling of the howl of rage that came to define the divisions in the country,<br />
cracks that only seem to have grown wider since. Anger, frustration and a sense of<br />
disenfranchisement all came bubbling to the surface.<br />
That Sunderland became synonymous with the Brexit vote is a little harsh, indicative of the<br />
picture painted by some that working-class northerners were to blame for tipping the balance.<br />
Sunderland is, in fact, no different to dozens of towns and cities across the country who once relied<br />
on industry to power them, and have been left dealing with the consequences of privatisation ever<br />
since. All they did was count the votes the quickest.<br />
It’s from under this cloud that Sunderland brothers Peter and David Brewis make their return,<br />
with their seventh LP as FIELD MUSIC. And on first listen to Open Here, you’d be forgiven for<br />
thinking that all the Wearside doom and gloom was blown out of all proportion. It’s a joyous prog<br />
pop masterclass, replete with fleet-footed orchestral passages that elevate it beyond the level of<br />
‘just another album’. Some critics have already been hailing it as one of the year’s best so far, and<br />
it’s hard to disagree: the sumptuous production locks together a plethora of inventive ideas from<br />
a rotating cast of musical luminaries from the group’s home base of Wearside. Echoes of Peter<br />
Gabriel, Talking Heads and even Madonna abound, making for a bit of a romp – but, scratch beneath<br />
the surface and you’ll find that Open Here has a bruised heart.<br />
“I’ve been down and angry about the state of everything lately,” songwriter David admits. “Our<br />
town has become infamous in that it was the first place that voted for Brexit, and that threw into<br />
really stark relief loads of fears I have about where we live. It’s been a downtrodden place for quite a<br />
long time and people look for someone to blame.”<br />
It’s a sentiment that his brother Peter echoes, hinting that the album’s surface level brightness<br />
is a mask for something that hits an awful lot deeper. “With some things that have been happening<br />
personally to us recently – and obviously the things happening in the wider world – there’s a kind<br />
of defiance in playfulness, and that’s what we were trying to capture. It isn’t escapism, but it’s an<br />
attempt to confront those things with a deliberate sense of fun. Fun in the face of hardship. We set<br />
out to have a good time making this record, in spite of everything.”<br />
The album’s stand out single, Count It Up, is a case in point: a song born out of frustration, but<br />
with a hook that marks it out as an instant classic. The thread that runs through it – a list of things<br />
that western white men take for granted – is a familiar enough musical trick, layering more and more<br />
privileges over a snaking, funky beat. It’s perhaps a bit too obvious to be subversive, but it’s still a<br />
statement that leaves its mark.<br />
“I went through a period not long after the global financial crisis when I read a lot about<br />
economics,” David continues. “There’s a section in a book by Joseph Stiglitz called Making<br />
Globalisation Work about how those on the right hand side of the political spectrum tend to ascribe<br />
their fortunes entirely in the frame of their own talents; if somebody is poor it’s because they’re<br />
stupid, and if I’m rich it’s not because my parents gave me a great start in life, or money, or a great<br />
education, it’s because I’m talented and brilliant. I think all of that fed in to this howl of rage set to<br />
what’s basically my version of Material Girl.”<br />
Field Music came through the indie ranks at roughly the same time as The Futureheads, and the<br />
Brewis brothers’ alt. folk/art rock amalgam has stood the test of time much better than their fellow<br />
Wearsiders. The duo’s past five albums have all been made in their own studio, a space in a riverside<br />
industrial unit that they were free to shape into their own creative environment – and a studio that<br />
has just been bulldozed. For Peter and David, shaping and playing together in that studio was a<br />
form of joyful exorcism. The space became a sanctuary away from everything political and personal,<br />
a cocoon of creativity – and the eviction notice served to them was the impetus they needed to<br />
finish Open Here, which brought together a host of musician friends and one-off collaborators.<br />
One of the delights of Open Here is the way songs spiral off into lush waltzes of woodwind and<br />
brass. The time limitations imposed on them by the closure of their studio forced David and Peter to<br />
connect with these musicians – Sarah Hayes on flute and piccolo, Liz Corney on vocals, Pete Fraser<br />
on saxophone, Simon Dennis on trumpet and flugelhorn, a Cornshed Sisters choir and the regular<br />
string quartet of Ed Cross, Jo Montgomery, Chrissie Slater and Ele Leckie – in a different way. The<br />
co-collaborators were invited to leave their mark on the music, giving the LP a sense of scale that<br />
couldn’t be achieved between the two brothers. A collection of these musical guests, under the<br />
name the Open Here Orchestra, joined the band for two triumphant live shows at Northern Stage in<br />
Newcastle in February, and are set to hook up with them again for a date at The Barbican in May.<br />
Parenthood has also been a touchstone for both Peter and David, with two songs on the LP<br />
directly referencing experiences relating to their young families. Aside from Father And Son, there<br />
aren’t too many songs that jump to mind that are built on the experiences of fatherhood. Share<br />
A Pillow is Peter’s ode to the bed-hopping ways of a toddler, even if it has often been mistakenly<br />
interpreted as a rant at other bed-hopping ways. And David’s powerful No King No Princess,<br />
written in response to the birth of his daughter, rails against society’s fascination with gender<br />
stereotypes, and how damaging they can be to young children (sample lyric: “You can dress up how<br />
you want/And you can do the job you want”).<br />
“People have a sort of romanticised idea of feelings that are painful or dark, that they are more<br />
meaningful,” says Peter, “but when I’ve been through dark times, I find that there isn’t a lot of<br />
romance in that, that I function better and get more meaning out of positive experiences.”<br />
The skill with which the Brewis brothers have spun a variety of personal experiences into this<br />
wholesome album is dazzling, tiptoeing along a line between turmoil and joy with what looks to be<br />
great ease. The fact that they’ve come out of a period of great turbulence with such an optimistic<br />
view is testament to their ability as musicians. Underestimate them at your peril.<br />
Words: Dariusz Kubicki<br />
field-music.co.uk<br />
Field Music play Arts Club on 22nd <strong>March</strong>. Open Here is out now via Memphis Industries.<br />
34
Open Circuit<br />
FESTIVAL<br />
Open Circuit Festival<br />
Victoria Gallery and Museum –<br />
10/03–14/03<br />
Held in the venerable Victoria Gallery and Museum on<br />
Brownlow Hill (the building that coined the term ‘Redbrick<br />
University’, trivia fans), OPEN CIRCUIT FESTIVAL is<br />
a celebration of avant-garde music. Curated by the<br />
Interdisciplinary Centre for Composition and Technology (ICCaT),<br />
based in the Department Of Music at the University of Liverpool, the<br />
centre specialises in research that investigates the very fabric of sound.<br />
Their ethos sees staff and PhD students working together to explore<br />
how music composition and sonic artforms relate to new technology,<br />
performance and perception.<br />
The <strong>2018</strong> event opens with a sterling double header on Saturday<br />
10th <strong>March</strong> as (Mini) Rocket Scientist welcomes legendary free jazz<br />
saxophonist EVAN PARKER performing with instrumental mavericks<br />
ROCKET SCIENCE. The evening event sees the Royal Liverpool<br />
Philharmonic Orchestra’s ENSEMBLE 10/10 perform a concert of<br />
American and British contemporary music curated by ICCaT in<br />
conjunction with Royal Northern College of Music conductor Clark<br />
Rundell. A new work by Liverpool composer Matthew Fairclough<br />
takes its place alongside contemporary pieces by Wubbels, Meredith,<br />
Mincek and Horne. Alongside this, a new work by French composer and<br />
installation artist GILBERT NOUNO – ICCaT’s composer-in-residence<br />
for <strong>2018</strong> – will be on display in the VGM café.<br />
Monday 12th <strong>March</strong> sees Cellophonics take place as JONATHAN<br />
AASGAARD, principal cellist for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, leads<br />
an afternoon concert of virtuosic performance for cello and electronics.<br />
This is followed by an evening concert from PIXELS ENSEMBLE<br />
(ICCaT’s ensemble-in-residence for <strong>2018</strong>) featuring acclaimed young<br />
guitarist SEAN SHIBE. Tuesday 13th <strong>March</strong> sees the festival’s Electronic<br />
Music And Video Showcase take place, an annual fixture which focuses<br />
on the relationship between audio and visual through fixed media work.<br />
All performances will be projected in the concert hall through multiple<br />
loudspeakers creating a virtual “cinema for the ear”. The evening<br />
concert will be centred around interactivity, improvisation and audience<br />
participation as the MERSEYSIDE IMPROVISORS ORCESTRA take to<br />
the stage.<br />
The festival reaches its finale on Wednesday afternoon with<br />
Emerging Voices, as Pixels Ensemble return to perform exciting new<br />
collaborations with PhD candidates from the University Of Liverpool. All<br />
events are free but interested parties are advised to reserve tickets as<br />
places are snapped up swiftly.<br />
Mim Suleiman<br />
GIG<br />
Mim Suleiman<br />
Buyers Club – 09/03<br />
All-female nightlife collective SISBIS touch down at Buyers Club<br />
for their biggest live show yet, with leftfield Afrobeat sensation<br />
MIM SULEIMAN at the helm. The Zanzibar-born singersongwriter<br />
and campaigner – commonly known as Mama<br />
Africa Of The Modern Era – will be filling the dancefloor with a mix of drum<br />
machine beats, ukuleles, percussion and synth magic that will undoubtedly<br />
inspire you to get up and lose yourself in their bouncy grooves.<br />
Suleiman moved to the UK from Zanzibar in the 1980s, teaching<br />
metallurgy at the University Of Birmingham before turning her focus to<br />
music. In a 2017 interview with BeyondSkinMedia, Suleiman credited this<br />
career change as a massive force for good in her life. “[Who] was once a<br />
person of no art has become now an artist within 15 years... it’s given me<br />
a depth of life I’ve never had before.”<br />
A passionate collaborator with world-famous artists (Baaba Maal,<br />
Paul McCartney, Amadou & Mariam), Suleiman will be bringing her ultramodern,<br />
Afrobeat-inspired futuristic pop music to Liverpool. The crowd<br />
will be treated to a heady mix of soul, disco and deep house, with songs<br />
that swell with love and affection. Suleiman deftly navigates themes of<br />
freedom and oppression, unity and everyday life, predominantly sung<br />
in her native Swahili, and skilfully accompanied by traditional Tanzanian<br />
percussion. SisBis’ resident DJ – the Sicilian-born, adopted Scouser<br />
GIOVANNA – will also contribute an electric DJ set full of Afrobeat and<br />
hip hop to the festivities.<br />
For this show, SisBis are teaming up with Africa Oyé to raise money<br />
in aid of women’s refugee charity, MRANG (Merseyside Refugee And<br />
Asylum Seekers Pre And Postnatal Support Group). MRANG work with<br />
asylum seeker and refugee women and their children, including victims<br />
of trafficking, sexual violence, domestic servitude, and other forms of<br />
gender-based violence and human rights abuses. Suleiman’s inspiring<br />
lyrics and infectious melodies will no doubt resonate with the themes<br />
of the night, and those of SisBis and Africa Oyé; themes of acceptance,<br />
tolerance, positivity and love.<br />
PREVIEWS 35
PREVIEWS<br />
GIG<br />
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry<br />
Arts Club – 13/03<br />
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry<br />
At 81 years old, LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY is one of the longestserving<br />
reggae producers and artists of all time – not to mention<br />
one of the most loved. The Jamaican’s innovative style and<br />
creative genius have seen him become one of the biggest<br />
reggae influencers in the world, pioneering a distinctive sound<br />
that has formed the basis of decades of exploration in dub. His<br />
2013 remix of Forest Swords’ track Thor’s Stone showed how<br />
deep his influence stretches, opening up his music to a world<br />
of groundbreaking contemporary electronic artists. With a big<br />
following in Liverpool, ‘Scratch’ knows he’ll feel the love in Arts<br />
Club once more.<br />
CLUB<br />
Eyez<br />
North Shore Troubadour – 09/03<br />
On a mission to revolutionise grime across the UK, fast-rising grime<br />
MC EYEZ is bringing his infectious presence and stage persona to<br />
an intimate Liverpool show from the team behind the successful<br />
Merseygrime nights. Starting in his home town of Derby and<br />
climbing the grime ladder by winning all the rap battles thrown<br />
at him, Eyez is one of the few MCs giving the blossoming genre a<br />
regional voice. After being part of the winning team at the 2016<br />
Red Bull Grime-A-Side – where he was named man of the match in<br />
the final – Eyez went on to host the show in 2017 and now counts<br />
scene don Wiley as one of his fans.<br />
Eyez<br />
EXHIBITION + GIG<br />
Nasty Women Launch<br />
Constellations – 09/03<br />
Constellations is being transformed into an exhibition space for<br />
female-identifying artists as part of the global NASTY WOMEN<br />
movement. Nasty Women is made up of art collectives all over the<br />
world and serves to demonstrate solidarity in the face of threats to<br />
the roll back of women’s rights, standing up and speaking out against<br />
intolerance in all its forms. Over 40 artists will be showcasing their<br />
work in the venue, with a line-up of talented musicians slated to play<br />
the exhibition’s opening night. HANNAH’S LITTLE SISTER head up<br />
proceedings, with their gravelly, bruised blues rock proving to be the<br />
perfect hors d’oeuvre to what the exhibition has to say.<br />
EXHIBITION<br />
Viking: Rediscover The Legend<br />
The Atkinson – 31/03-07/07<br />
If traditional works of art aren’t your thing then ancient Norse artefacts<br />
might just be more up your street. The most significant Viking<br />
treasures ever discovered in Britain will be on display together for the<br />
first time at The Atkinson in Southport. VIKING: REDISCOVER THE<br />
LEGEND will feature historical objects from The British Museum and<br />
The Yorkshire Museum that will offer you a new perspective on how<br />
Vikings shaped every aspect of British life. Featuring one of the UK’s<br />
most famous Viking collections – The Vale Of York Viking Hoard – and<br />
showcasing groundbreaking archaeological research, the exhibition<br />
reveals what it was really like to live as a Viking.<br />
CLUB<br />
Onra<br />
24 Kitchen Street – 16/03<br />
Onra<br />
In support of his forthcoming album due to for release in <strong>March</strong>, a rare appearance from the globetrotting<br />
Parisian beat maker ONRA will take place in the Baltic’s disco bolthole. Bringing with him a mix<br />
of jazz through to funk, as well as a multitude of refreshing takes on traditional hip hop, the experimental<br />
DJ and producer is sure to make Kitchen Street his home for the night. With six albums and numerous<br />
EPs already under his belt, Onra is known as one of the most exciting producers around. His Chinoiseries<br />
trilogy will be completed with his upcoming release, with his edits praised for their splicing of traditional<br />
hip hop with Chinese pop influences.<br />
FILM<br />
Doc’N Roll<br />
FACT and British Music Experience – 28/03-01/04<br />
PLAY YOUR GENDER, a film documenting the disparities in the number of<br />
female music producers and the consequences of this for female recording<br />
artists; and SOME OTHER GUYS, a feature looking back at Liverpool’s vibrant<br />
music scene in the 1960s, centered around the rise and fall of Merseybeat<br />
group The Big Three, are just two of the films premiering at this year’s DOC N’<br />
ROLL FILM FESTIVAL. Alongside some brilliant and thought-provoking music<br />
documentaries, there will also be Q&As with filmmakers and artists as well as<br />
live performances. For the full line-up of events taking place at FACT and the<br />
British Music Experience head to docnrollfestival.com.<br />
Play Your Gender<br />
36
GIG<br />
Belle And Sebastian<br />
Philharmonic Hall – 19/03<br />
Glaswegian indie folksters BELLE AND SEBASTIAN<br />
pinpoint Liverpool as the place to end their latest tour, with<br />
the opulence of the Philharmonic Hall joining a list of venues<br />
from across Europe to host indie’s cosiest of gems. After<br />
putting out nine high quality LPs over the past 22 years, the<br />
group have decided on a different approach for releasing<br />
their newest material, opting to tease us with one EP a<br />
month. Their most recent single, We Were Beautiful, was<br />
released through the first of these EPs in December 2017,<br />
and is in tune with the quintessential Belle And Sebastian<br />
cinematic slice of life, painting a picture of what it is to be<br />
waking up over a Saturday morning in Glasgow.<br />
GIG<br />
Gnoomes<br />
Buyers Club – 06/03<br />
With <strong>2018</strong> down to be a fallow year for PZYK, there’s no doubt<br />
a psych-filled hole in your gig-going schedule – particularly<br />
that of the intercontinental kind. Good job then, that Russian<br />
komische-electronic mash-up trio GNOOMES are stopping off at<br />
Buyers Club this spring. Last year the three-piece released the<br />
universally acclaimed album Tschak! through Rocket Recordings<br />
– praised for the way it progressively uses synths and guitars to<br />
explosive effect, it’s possibly, nay, probably, best experienced live.<br />
Support is still to be announced but we imagine it will represent<br />
the best of what Liverpool’s artists have to offer on the everexpanding<br />
psych spectrum.<br />
GIG<br />
Shipwrecked IV: Sunstack Jones<br />
Shipping Forecast – 02/03<br />
Don’t worry if it feels too wintry right now – the sun is on<br />
its way, because SUNSTACK JONES have a new album in<br />
the pipeline. The group’s third LP will arrive just in time for<br />
a spring upturn, full of lush textures and earworm melodies.<br />
<strong>2018</strong> has already seen them trial some of the new material<br />
at a number of shows, and this latest event – hosted by THE<br />
SHIPBUILDERS – will give you another chance to catch some<br />
of their golden vibes prior to the album’s full release. You want<br />
more? OK – GINTIS will be performing prior to Sunstack and<br />
the night’s hosts, and you’ll be swooning all over them too<br />
once you’ve been subjected to their winsome charms.<br />
GIG<br />
Fickle Friends<br />
O2 Academy – 21/03<br />
Named as one of the most essential new British indie-pop bands of <strong>2018</strong>,<br />
FICKLE FRIENDS are bringing their debut album You Are Someone Else<br />
to Liverpool as part of a massive UK tour. With a string of tracks in their<br />
wake, from Glue and Hello Hello (both regulars on Radio 1 playlists),<br />
to new single Hard To Be Myself, which exudes all the tell-tale signs<br />
of a classic pop anthem, Fickle Friends effortlessly capture the joy and<br />
uncertainty of growing up in the millennial age. A killer band who have<br />
worked tirelessly to build a loyal fanbase, songs surrounding relationships,<br />
anxiety and pure unadulterated youth will no doubt resonate with<br />
everyone who has experienced the pains of growing up.<br />
Fickle Friends<br />
COMEDY<br />
Mark Thomas: Showtime From The Frontline<br />
The Playhouse Theatre – 08/03-10/03<br />
Mark Thomas<br />
Setting up a comedy club in a refugee camp in Palestine is no mean feat, but<br />
comedian MARK THOMAS managed to do just that. Thomas and his team<br />
travelled to the Palestinian city of Jenin, where they joined forces with The Jenin<br />
Freedom Theatre to get people sharing stories and cracking a good joke. Showtime<br />
From The Frontline tells the story of Thomas, FAISAL ABU ALHAYJAA and ALAA<br />
SHEHADA, two performers and aspiring comics from The Jenin Club, and their<br />
mission to get people laughing in the face of adversity. It’s a funny, moving and<br />
much needed story about being yourself in a place that doesn’t necessarily allow it.<br />
GIG<br />
Mark Sultan<br />
Drop The Dumbulls – 07/03<br />
As one half of The King Khan & BBQ Show (as well as being a former Spaceshit), MARK<br />
SULTAN is one of a number of cult icons responsible for dragging garage rock ‘n’ roll kicking<br />
and screaming into the 21st Century. Sultan – AKA Needles, Celeb Prenup, BBQ and a host<br />
of other aliases – is a one-man whirlwind of a show, which he himself describes as “real<br />
rock ‘n’ roll from the jukebox of Satansville”. Dumbulls is the perfect vessel for this night of<br />
debauchery, with MINCEMEAT and EYESORE AND THE JINX setting the scene alongside<br />
first-timers TEENAGE CRIMEWAVE.<br />
Mark Sultan<br />
CLUB<br />
ENRG: Jon Hopkins<br />
Invisible Wind Factory – 30/03<br />
Jon Hopkins<br />
Presenting a series of electronic experiences in the presence of worldclass<br />
DJs is ENRG’s MO, and they’ve nailed it again for their latest effort<br />
(rescheduled from December). Acclaimed recording artist and turntable<br />
wizard JON HOPKINS heads up the main room in the Wind Factory with<br />
his hypnotic grooves, joined by Hot Chip’s JOE GODDARD and ENRG<br />
resident BLEHRIN. Along with this celebratory upstairs line-up, IWF’s<br />
Substation will be hosting cult DJ collective A LOVE FROM OUTER<br />
SPACE (Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston) throughout the night,<br />
an oasis of slow in a world of increasing velocity.<br />
PREVIEWS 37
THE<br />
SOCIAL<br />
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+PIZZAGIRL<br />
+KING HANNAH<br />
23/03 - 8PM<br />
CONSTELLATIONS<br />
Free entry to Bido Lito!<br />
Members, £7 adv<br />
ticket to non-members<br />
via bidolito.co.uk<br />
Our free open day for music writers and photographers takes place at<br />
the same venue from 6pm - for more info go to bidolito.co.uk
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REVIEWS<br />
“These women are asking<br />
every venue, bar and cultural<br />
organisation in the city to<br />
question themselves: is<br />
my space truly accessible<br />
to everybody?”<br />
Born In Flames<br />
Grrrl Power and Hannah Bitowski<br />
@ FACT 31/01<br />
By now, many of Liverpool’s feminist, queer, and politicallyengaged<br />
twenty- and thirty-somethings will be familiar with<br />
Grrrl Power, a collective of three women collaborating to create a<br />
platform for female creatives in the city and raise awareness about<br />
issues concerning women, especially those from marginalised<br />
communities outside of mainstream conversation.<br />
Much of that activity has been focused on conversation;<br />
creating spaces to discuss the challenges women face daily,<br />
including harassment. Don’t Touch Me is a campaign seeking<br />
to target clubs and venues to enforce stricter policies on verbal,<br />
physical and sexual harassment, and to encourage victims to feel<br />
confident in reporting such abuse, as well as giving others the<br />
green light to step in and take action when they see it happening.<br />
Other groups across the UK are doing similar work too, from Pussy<br />
Palace (London) to Come Thru (Leeds), highlighting how this<br />
behaviour has become worryingly normalised until now.<br />
As part of FACT’s Refuge season – a programme of events<br />
considering the idea of safe spaces in relation to art and cultural<br />
institutions – Grrrl Power (Olivia Graham, Michelle Houlston, Aoife<br />
Robinson) and Hannah Bitowski (co-founder of Queen Of The<br />
Track, an alternative women’s magazine focusing on culture and<br />
gender politics), present Lizzie Borden’s polemic BORN IN FLAMES.<br />
Opening the event with an explanation of the collective’s<br />
accountability statement, these four women stress the importance<br />
of such guidelines. While I’ve engaged in conversations with<br />
people who believe such formalities are a case of “political<br />
correctness gone mad”, these reference points for respecting one<br />
another’s identities can go some way to ensuring people of diverse<br />
backgrounds and experiences feel comfortable in the same place,<br />
and thankfully it’s something we’re seeing more of in our city’s<br />
ever-developing cultural landscape, most notably with LGBTQ+ and<br />
‘alternative’ events.<br />
And why shouldn’t we? It’s our collective responsibility as<br />
members of a community, and consumers of culture, to agree to<br />
respect and listen to one another when sharing a space. Such<br />
statements in no way limit enjoyment, or prevent experimentation,<br />
but create an environment where audiences can feel comfortable<br />
to be themselves, and to call out prejudice when they see it.<br />
And so the tone is set for Borden’s documentary-style<br />
feminist science-fiction film. The plot follows two New York<br />
feminist groups, each using local pirate radio stations to convey<br />
their message. After a political activist dies mysteriously in police<br />
custody, both groups are galvanised into action, many joining<br />
the Women’s Army, whilst being closely watched by the FBI and<br />
a team of journalists. The film splices jarring scenes together,<br />
pairing news reports with police meetings, picket lines with<br />
intimate moments showing the various characters’ relationships.<br />
Some of the most arresting scenes occur when Honey and Isabel<br />
– the two group leaders – stare directly into the camera, spitting<br />
into a microphone broadcasting to their radio listeners, melodically<br />
enunciating the issues their communities face, and how they<br />
must overcome. Music is hugely important in the film, with radio<br />
segments pinpointing key plot moments, and the film’s title<br />
coming from a song by the psychedelic experimental rock band,<br />
Red Krayola, which punctuates the narrative.<br />
Born In Flames is a stylised art film with a moody new wave<br />
soundtrack and a message; demonstrating that when the police<br />
and patriarchy will not help, women must organise, protest and<br />
ultimately revolt in order to gain justice and safety for themselves.<br />
“Which would you rather see come through the door: one<br />
lion, unified, or five hundred mice? Five hundred mice can do a lot<br />
of damage and destruction.”<br />
Borden anticipated the importance of intersectional feminism,<br />
as the film explores race, class and societal oppression against<br />
women in addition to everyday sexism. The director also toys with<br />
our understanding of labour, particularly in a montage sequence<br />
showing female hands doing manual chores, from mundane<br />
factory work, to putting on a condom, setting up the idea that<br />
the Women’s Army eventually broadcast for consideration by the<br />
nation: to pay women for housework.<br />
In the same way that Borden created the script for her film,<br />
so do Grrrl Power and Hannah Bitowski create their manifesto;<br />
by inviting their peers to participate in a post-film discussion.<br />
This democratic approach reflects the aim of creating a charter<br />
that works not just to combat sexism, but to address racism,<br />
transphobia, biphobia, homophobia, ableism and ageism too.<br />
In essence, these women are asking every venue, bar and<br />
cultural organisation in the city to question themselves: is my<br />
space truly accessible to everybody? As Houlston admits on the<br />
night, however, this event being hosted in FACT is immediately<br />
problematic, as there are some communities who may not feel<br />
comfortable or welcome in a gallery space, and subsequently that<br />
earlier democratic discussion quickly becomes led by the white,<br />
educated and middle class. I therefore hope that as this project<br />
develops, Grrrl Power are able to reach out to other groups, hold<br />
workshops and talks in more accommodating spaces and truly<br />
listen to the people most affected by these issues, in order to<br />
enact real change. !<br />
Sinéad Nunes / @SineadAWrites<br />
40
Nadine Shah (Day Howarth / dayhowarth.com)<br />
Nadine Shah<br />
Harvest Sun @ Leaf<br />
01/02<br />
The last time Liverpool hosted NADINE SHAH, she stole<br />
the ramshackle show that was John Cale’s Velvet Underground<br />
Revisited at Clarence Dock. Her interpretation of Femme Fatale<br />
that night leapt out from the rest, a strange and otherworldly<br />
moment when the sound took on a sudden unexpected<br />
clarity and the wind piped down so we all could hear. Divine<br />
intervention? Who knows.<br />
Shah’s gig at Leaf some eight months later is sold-out, and<br />
such is her popularity that the BBC are here too, making a radio<br />
documentary about her status as a political songwriter. Her<br />
most recent album, Holiday Destination, has themes around<br />
immigration and class, the latter a topic carrying extra currency<br />
right now, and Shah is knowledgeable and spirited about both<br />
themes.<br />
Tonight we’re treated – and it is a bloody treat too – to songs<br />
from Holiday Destination: Place Like This, Jolly Sailor – about<br />
her local pub back home in the North East, where her immigrant<br />
parents have always been welcome – and Yes Men standing out<br />
as particular highlights. That voice of hers is warm and engaging<br />
on record, but tonight it takes on an extra richness and darkness,<br />
and her band throw up flashes of Scott Walker’s brilliant and<br />
unsettling Climate Of Hunter, adding to my own personal thrill.<br />
Shah, this expressive, bold woman, conjures and claws at the air<br />
as she sings, and pulls at both the ear and the eye.<br />
She talks, storytelling, explaining her songs, why she wrote<br />
the album, and pays tribute to murdered Labour MP Jo Cox, again<br />
with her trademark passion. She’s an admirer of Billy Bragg and<br />
his live delivery, I’m thinking. The two artists are miles away<br />
musically, but as Shah speaks between songs with great emotion<br />
– there’s no bullshit here – I can’t help but be reminded of a gig<br />
Bragg delivered at the old/new Picket, now District, when the<br />
British National Party were in bloom, instructing us all to spread<br />
the word that racism and injustice are really bad things. Everyone<br />
cheered noisily, and then went home, and along came UKIP.<br />
The crowd tonight agree with everything Shah says and<br />
sings about, and when they file out, they nod heads in approval.<br />
Yet when I talk to the radio documentary people afterwards they<br />
say vox pops from the audience – overwhelmingly of white men<br />
comfortable and content with their lot – have been predictable,<br />
safe within the boundaries, questions left unstretched and<br />
untested. Nadine Shah knows she’s preaching to the converted at<br />
Leaf, and at most of her shows. We’re of like minds in this room,<br />
both those onstage and off it. Still, she insists that the messages<br />
need saying anyway, and often, until things change. And she’s<br />
right.<br />
Cath Bore / @cathbore<br />
Idles (Darren Aston)<br />
Idles<br />
Independent Venue Week @ Studio2<br />
02/02<br />
Let’s be honest, punk died years ago, but occasionally its corpse<br />
creaks and twitches. The protagonists of the movement would be<br />
swelling with pride, as Bristol’s best go at punk ethic since The Pop<br />
Group are maturing into a vital and exciting act. Seeing them in<br />
this environment before the inevitable rise to longer sets and much<br />
bigger rooms is nervously exciting.<br />
It’s the climax of the wonderful Independent Venue Week<br />
<strong>2018</strong>. BBC 6Music have spent the week touring England and<br />
highlighting the benefits, wonders and issues that running a venue<br />
in these music streaming times presents. The week reaches a<br />
high-point here on Parr Street with a live broadcast from IDLES:<br />
the shouty five-piece are the epitome of what the week stands for.<br />
The venues that have helped them get to this position of being able<br />
to make a career out of what they now do is a testament to what<br />
these places stand for. With studios, rehearsal rooms and venues<br />
being squeezed out of the smaller satellite towns and the bigger<br />
towns downsizing due to cultural austerity, shining a light on what<br />
these places do is essential, and, for the BBC to actively support<br />
and shout about them is one of the most important things for new<br />
music right now.<br />
With Idles being a case in point, one can imagine them jumping<br />
at the chance to get involved. Tonight, the rarefied air of post teatime<br />
is shattered by the aggro-punk every-night-is-bonfire-night<br />
of Idles. 6.30pm on a freezing February evening is one way of kick<br />
starting the weekend. Being broadcast to the nation should give<br />
any band an excuse to temper the show and be a little more careful.<br />
Not here. The band do their required 30 minutes and bounce back<br />
after the broadcast to throw us some more as they don’t want to<br />
“rip anyone off”.<br />
Studio2 is definitely an intimate show and it more than satisfies<br />
all parties’ criteria. You can see the whites of the eyes, smell the<br />
sweat and feel the globs of spittle that frontman Joe gobs in the air<br />
at various points. Although the free tickets given out to Liverpool<br />
postcode holders isn’t making the place ‘sold-out’, it does lend an<br />
air of curiosity from the rather aging crowd which only adds to the<br />
expectation. The performance is so intense that the expectation<br />
is met by the end of Stendhal Syndrome, the opening track. As<br />
the effects of the first pint kick in, the band launch into the brilliant<br />
Well Done and thus make it a more effective stormer. Mother<br />
is self-edited as apparently you can’t use the word “fucker” on<br />
daytime radio and kudos to the new song, Lovesong, with the lyrics<br />
affirming the author’s love for their partner because they bought<br />
them a card.<br />
Idles are the real thing: they mean it maaaan. They are quite<br />
simply one of the best live bands driving their battered van around<br />
the country right now. And they will only get better. Brilliant.<br />
Ian R Abraham / @scrash<br />
REVIEWS 41
REVIEWS<br />
“Their contemporary<br />
and satirical<br />
approach ensures<br />
that this remains a<br />
highly enjoyable and<br />
accessible exhibition”<br />
The King Is Dead Long Live The King (c) The Singh Twins<br />
The Singh Twins: Slaves Of Fashion (Gareth Jones)<br />
The Singh Twins: Slaves Of Fashion<br />
Walker Art Gallery<br />
19/01-20/05<br />
Donald Trump sits on a Wal-Mart throne at fashion week; he is the epitome<br />
of consumerism, the King of Cotton. Theresa May straddles India and the USA,<br />
dousing the former in Scotch whiskey. Bush and Blair shake hands, smiling; they<br />
make a blood pact while the globe they stand on burns.<br />
SLAVES OF FASHION is the latest exhibition by THE SINGH TWINS<br />
to grace the Walker Art Gallery, and it is just as politically engaging and<br />
controversial as I had hoped. The Singh Twins are known for their unflinching<br />
criticism of political corruption, and, in this exhibition, they choose the Indian<br />
textile industry and its relationship with western fashion as their subject.<br />
There is an important history lesson here, but their contemporary and satirical<br />
approach ensures that this remains a highly enjoyable and accessible exhibition.<br />
In recent years, The Singh Twins – Amrit and Rabindra Singh – have<br />
received international recognition for their work. However, their relationship<br />
with the art world and this city has not always been straightforward. While<br />
at the University Of Liverpool, the twins faced prejudice for their interest in<br />
Indian miniature painting, which was deemed traditional and outdated by their<br />
professors. Certain members of the department were reluctant to accept that<br />
non-European artforms had influenced contemporary, western art. The Singh<br />
Twins refused to concede and never graduated. The success of this exhibition<br />
thus feels particularly pertinent.<br />
At the centre of Slaves Of Fashion are 11 large, mixed-media portraits of<br />
historical figures. Each tells the story of a different aspect of the Indian textile<br />
industry, and reveals the human cost behind luxury goods. In Coromandel:<br />
Sugar And Spice, Not So Nice a slave hangs from a tree, barely visible behind<br />
the rich detail and fabrics that dominate the image. In other paper works, The<br />
Singh Twins explore this continuing colonial legacy, which is now manifested in<br />
unethical consumerism. The title of one piece, The Adoration Of Profit Without<br />
Consequence, could sum up the entire exhibition, and is a stark reminder of our<br />
role in this deadly trade.<br />
Though the subject matter of this exhibition is challenging, the aesthetic<br />
appeal of The Singh Twins’ work is undeniable. They have revived the Indian<br />
miniature tradition by including modern symbols and themes, creating a unique<br />
style that they label ‘past modern’. The intricate detail and eclectic mix of political<br />
references means you could spend hours decoding a single painting. It is<br />
perhaps symbolic that I am initially drawn to their work for its beauty; only upon<br />
closer inspection do I realise that they are telling a painful story.<br />
Slaves Of Fashion is a must-see for anyone interested in colonial history,<br />
traditional Indian art or political satire. Most of all, this is a chance to learn more<br />
about two fascinating women of colour artists, who stuck with their interests<br />
despite condemnation and discouragement. Their success story is truly inspiring.<br />
Maya Jones / @mmayajones<br />
42
Side A 33rpm<br />
The UK's Music Documentary Festival returns<br />
for its 3rd annual Liverpool edition! Presenting<br />
7 film premieres + Q&As featuring the following<br />
artists & scenes:<br />
L7<br />
The Big Three<br />
John Coltrane<br />
Ella Fitzgerald<br />
The The<br />
Iranian Techno<br />
Manchester’s Infamous Electronic Scene<br />
Tickets via:<br />
Venues:<br />
LISTEN TO THE<br />
LIVERPOOL-IRISH<br />
PLAYLIST AT<br />
BIDOLITO.CO.UK<br />
NOW<br />
COME AND SAY<br />
“HAIGH/HI” TO US AT<br />
THE THREE<br />
FESTIVALS TALL<br />
SHIPS REGATTA<br />
(25-28 MAY <strong>2018</strong>)<br />
PROGRAMME TBA SOON<br />
LIVERPOOLIRISHFESTIVAL.COM
REVIEWS<br />
Nightmares On Way (Paul McCoy / photomccoy.tumblr.com)<br />
Nightmares On Wax<br />
+ Hector Plimmer<br />
+ MC Nelson<br />
Bam!Bam!Bam! @ Invisible Wind Factory 09/02<br />
Touring his latest album Shape The Future, NIGHTMARES ON WAX (George Evelyn) has<br />
been around for a somewhat astonishing 27 years. He pretty much pre-empted the sound of the<br />
21st Century back in the 90s with the release of three albums that mixed soul, hip hop, and dub<br />
into a chilled soundscape that many have copied and which, given the critical acclaim of his latest<br />
release, is showing no sign of fatigue.<br />
An expectant crowd is filtering into the Invisible Wind Factory as another eclectic and<br />
inspired set by No Fakin’ DJs precedes local rapper MC NELSON, who wastes no time in showing<br />
why he is garnering so much attention, his easy flow and jazzy beats setting the tone for the<br />
evening in a well-received set. He is followed by HECTOR PLIMMER who, along with keyboard<br />
player Dave Koor, hits an immediate groove, a rock-solid drum pattern underscoring a melodica<br />
style motif. Things take on a jazzy swing, tempo changes effortlessly executed, and they are<br />
joined by vocalist And Is Phi whose rich, relaxed tones enhance the trip hop vibe, coolly delivered<br />
over a dubby bass, which sees the growing crowd grooving as one.<br />
While we wait for Nightmares On Wax, thunderous bass-heavy dance tunes fight against<br />
a tremendous hubbub from the sell-out crowd and I wonder how they will impose themselves<br />
on this gregarious gathering. George Evelyn takes to the stage and plonks himself down on<br />
the leather couch that sits behind a low coffee table bearing his keyboards and mixers. Having<br />
previously stated “… that’s why I don’t have a live drummer. The sound of the beats is what<br />
makes Nightmares”, it is interesting that he has now decided to test that philosophy with the<br />
inclusion of drummer Grant Kershaw (although I’m not quite sure that a drummer and additional<br />
vocalists equates to the advertised ‘full band’).<br />
They begin with several numbers from the new album Shape The Future, the first couple of<br />
which do indeed seem to be competing with the crowd. The title track itself seems to hook them<br />
in, floating on an eerie synth wave and exiting on the chanted “Shape the future” refrain via a<br />
soulful introduction to the vocals of Sadie Walker, whose dreamy voice illuminates several songs.<br />
Among them is a superb rendition of Deep Shadows, buoyed by apocalyptic clouds rolling slowly<br />
across the twin video screens onstage. She and vocalist Mozez (Zero7) swap vocal duties with<br />
Evelyn, and the connection between dancefloor and stage is cemented as old favourites Flip Ya<br />
Lid, Les Nuits and You Wish really take the crowd to another level, singing and dancing along. At<br />
this point we can introduce the phrase “couch-dancing” into the vocabulary, as Evelyn bobs and<br />
weaves across the Chesterfield, projecting his spaced-out beats into the ether.<br />
The decision to include a live drummer proves judicious as Kershaw turns in a virtuoso<br />
performance that brings so much to the overall sound – maybe a drum machine can do this but<br />
just to be able to watch Kershaw as his hands fly across the kit in a controlled fury is a joy, and<br />
his playing is sublime throughout.<br />
The images on screen have run the socio-political gamut from Soul Train to starvation, and<br />
though Evelyn’s plea for funds for dance music charity lastnightadjsavedmylife.com could have<br />
killed the atmosphere somewhat, the crowd are supportive. An encore of up-tempo grooves – Be<br />
I Do, Da Feelin’ and Gotta Smile – ensures that the Invisible Wind Factory feels the bounce. Who<br />
says you can’t mix compassion and hedonism?<br />
Glyn Akroyd / @GlynAkroyd<br />
44
This Is The Kit<br />
+ Emma Gatrill<br />
Harvest Sun @ Leaf<br />
14/01<br />
They come, hands buried deep in pockets and shoulders hunched against the biting grip of<br />
the January cold. Seeking warmth and welcome, they pack in tight upstairs at Leaf for a soldout<br />
show, one of many on this tour, from THIS IS THE KIT. Caught in their moment, and riding<br />
the crest of a wave created by superb new album Moonshine Freeze, the band’s return to the<br />
city feels a lot like a family occasion. And while This Is The Kit holds Kate Stables at its centre,<br />
just watching the interaction between these innately talented musicians enhances that familial<br />
feeling.<br />
This latest record sees Stables’ wildly eclectic influences honed into a perfectly positioned,<br />
cohesive whole. From folk to Afrobeat, blues to shiny pop, it is an album so naturally written and<br />
delivered that there is no surprise in the fact the gig sold out so quickly, or that people are so<br />
plainly delighted to be here.<br />
The evening begins with an all-too-short set from EMMA GATRILL. Her voice, graced with<br />
a delicate fragility, carries on waves of harp, piano and bass organ, with Marcus Hamblett’s<br />
genteel assistance on guitar. Shockingly for Liverpool, the simple prettiness of their set hushes<br />
the excitable crowd into reverential, pin-drop silence, as songs such as Cocoon, Cast Out and a<br />
wonderful cover of Björk’s Hyperballad warm the room and the hearts of the eager crowd.<br />
Stables takes the stage alone for the opener of Easy On The Thieves, circular rolls of banjo<br />
lying under her lilting vocal, borne with the inflections of both her British background and her<br />
current French home. With the gentle underpinning of Rozi Plain’s bass and the sparse, spacious<br />
drums of James Whitby Cole, whose playing is essential yet understated throughout, songs such<br />
as Bulletproof, one of Moonshine Freeze’s greatest moments, are given room to move, and lend a<br />
sense of space to Stables’ vocals.<br />
The new album’s title track, with its insistent, loose funk rhythm, all high-end bass and<br />
stripped-back drums, is a true highlight of the set. Stables’ vocals dance freely over the top, and<br />
Hamblett and Gatrill’s warm brass stylings add flavour.<br />
Two Pence Piece is another album highlight. Set across a bare groove and highlighted<br />
with Neil Smith’s spaghetti western guitar strains and close harmonies, it features the intuitive<br />
opening line “Blood in my mouth, tasted of coin”. As with so much of Stables’ writing, it pulls the<br />
crowd in, involving them in the stories as participants rather than merely observers.<br />
The earthy, woody dance vibes of Magic Spell, from 2015’s Bashed Out LP, has the crowd<br />
light on their feet, with Smith’s African guitar flavours, and Plain’s punchy bassline throbbing its<br />
way through. It’s in moments such as these that Stables’ well-tuned ability to fluidly arrange the<br />
perfect band around herself for each album shines through once again.<br />
Hotter Colder carries a sense of the campfire, smoky and personal and looped around a great<br />
riff from Stables’ ancient Hofner guitar, with the brass bringing that added French jazz vibe. It’s<br />
another highlight in a night and a set of real highlights, a wonderful, warm celebration of a fine<br />
band; a friendly welcome to all their listeners, the family they haven’t yet met but surely will.<br />
Paul Fitzgerald / @nothingvillem<br />
This Is The Kit (Stuart Moulding / @oohshootstu)<br />
• Journalism<br />
• Photography<br />
• Publishing<br />
The<br />
Open Day<br />
Meet the Bido Lito! team and develop your writing<br />
and photography skills at free workshop sessions.<br />
For more information go to bidolito.co.uk<br />
23.02.18<br />
6pm Constellations<br />
REVIEWS 45
REVIEWS<br />
Ezra Furman (Glyn Akroyd / @GlynAkroyd)<br />
Ezra Furman<br />
Arts Club<br />
04/02<br />
An illuminated clock face emblazoned with the word<br />
‘Transangelic’ dimly lights the front of the room, while I side-step<br />
my way through the huddled crowd, in pursuit of a space with<br />
sufficient oxygen to get me through the next 90 minutes of EZRA<br />
FURMAN’s latest visit to the Arts Club. It’s the most packed I’ve<br />
ever seen the venue, yet there seems to be little anticipatory<br />
energy in the room, and one too many comfy, space-engulfing<br />
hiking jackets. Contrastingly adorned in pearls and a kneelength<br />
frock, Furman opens with From A Beach House from<br />
his new album Transangelic Exodus, which serves as a gentler<br />
introduction to his set from what we’ve come to expect from the<br />
Chicagoan rocker.<br />
It takes a while for things to get going and with a less than<br />
enthusiastic version of Haunted Head, he perhaps displays<br />
early indulgence and fulfilment in tracks from his new album.<br />
Furman’s seventh studio album could be described as being more<br />
considered and creatively outreaching; exhibiting an impressive<br />
story-telling dynamic to his songwriting, it details the paranoid,<br />
visceral and supernatural tale of an angelic lover and their<br />
evasion from an oppressive government.<br />
In general, his newer tracks aren’t received with any<br />
enthusiasm; No Place, which features bludgeoning toms and<br />
a deep and distorted bassline, ignites a bracing, Iggy Pop-like<br />
rawness in some, but in others it seems to unsettle or irritate.<br />
This irritation seems to resurface at times through the set, as<br />
audible shushing and passive-aggressive remarks are exchanged<br />
between punters packed at the back of the room.<br />
It may be due to the intended lack of support for tonight’s<br />
show, but the crowd show very little of the attitude, rawness and<br />
empowering emancipation that emanates from Furman’s music.<br />
Fortunately, favourites such as My Zero and Tip Of A Match draw<br />
the crowd in for the carefree cavorting of which you’d expect.<br />
Furman is, as ever, engagingly powerful; his voice commanding,<br />
you feel every word, the pain, the joy, the humour. In between<br />
songs he evokes a fragile, coy, child-like playfulness that is<br />
incredibly endearing.<br />
Furman’s new album seems to mark an end of a chapter<br />
musically for the artist, a necessary evolution for artists that like<br />
to stay fulfilled and relevant. Parts of the crowd around me may<br />
not have been ready for their ears to be turned to new sounds,<br />
but there is certainly more to come from Furman, and I’m sure<br />
this will be a defining new chapter in his musical ascent.<br />
Jonny Winship / @jmwinship<br />
Ezra Furman (Glyn Akroyd / @GlynAkroyd)<br />
Moodymann<br />
+ Pooky<br />
Boogaloo x Down To Funk @ Meraki<br />
26/01<br />
For someone who’s had such a big part to play in the<br />
progression of house music over the years, MOODYMANN<br />
(Kenny Dixon Jr.) has kept himself out of the limelight. Since the<br />
90s he has gained a staunch, underground following, which<br />
has made him a cult hero in Detroit and worldwide. He has<br />
stayed mysterious yet a name that all music lovers know, which<br />
is something that not many producers and DJs have done so<br />
successfully.<br />
Last year the Detroit spinner played at Invisible Wind<br />
Factory, one of Liverpool’s largest venues; this time round, it’s set<br />
to be a much more intimate gig at Meraki, one of the city’s most<br />
exciting, upcoming venues in the North Docks. The single room<br />
is stripped back and has that raw feeling to it, which a lot of the<br />
best new venues have gone back to nowadays.<br />
Up beforehand is POOKY, and, similar to what we expect<br />
from Moodymann, he’s keeping the crowd on their toes with his<br />
selections, switching between acid-infused techno, psychedelic<br />
funk and even shifting on to Thundercat’s Friend Zone.<br />
Almost an hour after originally anticipated, Moodymann<br />
makes his way behind the decks. The packed-in crowd are, by<br />
now, eager with anticipation. If you’re stranded the back of the<br />
room, there’s no way of getting to the front to get a glimpse<br />
of the main man – and even those at the front have to let their<br />
imagination do the work, with Moodymann’s bucket hat and<br />
black mask creating an enigmatic façade. “How are you feelin’?”<br />
are the first words we hear from that smooth, velvety voice as he<br />
slides behind the mic as he always does. The crowd is primed.<br />
The selector fires into a set that includes an array of house<br />
tunes, like the flawless Transient by Mr G, before switching up<br />
the set halfway through as he veers into liquid drum ‘n’ bass.<br />
He keeps things on the right side of party, too, mixing into Kelis’<br />
Millionaire before paying his respect to the city with The Beatles’<br />
classic Come Together. The room stays packed, and no one<br />
leaves until the set finishes. When you experience a night with<br />
Moodymann, you can never be sure what music he will bring with<br />
him, but you can be certain that it will be a night you won’t forget<br />
too easily.<br />
Joe Hale<br />
46
ROUND UP<br />
A selection of the best of the rest from another busy<br />
month of live action on Merseyside.<br />
Sat 3 Mar to Sat 14 Jul<br />
Lerner and Loewe’s<br />
Jorja Smith (Stuart Moulding / @oohshootstu<br />
Some would say her musical style is smooth hip hop, others have called it vintage RnB, even<br />
garage or jazz, but JORJA SMITH doesn’t want to be defined by a genre. She simply makes the<br />
music she wants to make. Sophie Brereton finds herself at Invisible Wind Factory, trying to unpick<br />
what her sound is all about.<br />
Support act MAHALIA kicks off the night, and it seems people are just as excited for<br />
her as they are for the headliner. Mahalia makes the stage her own, performing a flawless acoustic<br />
cover of Solange’s Cranes In The Sky mashed-up with The Weekend by SZA. She revels in the<br />
reception from her new fans.<br />
Smith opens with Something In The Way, an atmospheric and moody number that makes this<br />
warehouse feel like an intimate club show. An unreleased track, February 3rd, embraces the neosoul<br />
vibe that her work tends to embody and is complimented with a catchy chorus. There’s a lot<br />
of love in this room for her, and it’s easy to see the passion that Smith bears for each of her songs.<br />
The size of the crowd exhibits the influence this ascendant artist is having on the industry.<br />
Much like his internet-famous artwork, psych-pop musician MONTERO is a rarely wholesome<br />
and relatable songwriter. Georgia Turnbull heads to Shipping Forecast, hoping to find the chilled<br />
out early Neil Young and Nilsson-esque loveliness of his new album Performer. The first act on<br />
the bill is THE WOOLS, who sound like the best of The Coral (that’s a big compliment, by the<br />
way). SEATBELTS are one of the highlights of the night; their jangly psychedelia is energetic and<br />
amazing from the get-go. DANYE have a motorik vibe; all the songs melt together into one within<br />
their set, creating a synthy, dreamscape throughout.<br />
Then the main act arrives, without his band – but it’s not long before members of the audience<br />
are encouraged up on stage to fill in as his impromptu band. I’m not sure I’ll be asked back after<br />
my brief stint behind the drum kit, however. Montero’s first ever solo set is ramshackle, witty,<br />
wholesome and full of love for The Beach Boys. If you have a chance to see Montero, you’re in for<br />
an experience you won’t forget – but for all the right reasons.<br />
After amassing a loyal, cult-like following from 2014’s debut album Don’t Say That,<br />
SUPERFOOD have transformed from a regular four-piece band into a duo, producing 2017’s<br />
critically acclaimed, brilliant Bambino. Conal Cunningham heads to EBGBS where funky basslines<br />
and catchy sing-a-long choruses make it impossible not to let loose, swing your hips and show<br />
your love for the band. The disco-influenced, bassy numbers of Natural Supersoul and Raindance<br />
complement the older, singalong tracks such as TV, You Can Believe and Superfood. The feel-good<br />
atmosphere is infectious and seemingly inevitable at a Superfood gig, and their short, sweet set<br />
only leaves the crowd wanting more.<br />
A musical play<br />
Book and Lyrics by<br />
Alan Jay Lerner<br />
Music by Frederick Loewe<br />
Original dances created by Agnes DeMille<br />
Director Gemma Bodinetz<br />
Designers Molly Lacey Davies & Jocelyn Meall<br />
Musical Director & Orchestrator George Francis<br />
Lighting Designer Kay Haynes<br />
Sound Design Everyman Sound Department<br />
Choreographer Tom Jackson-Greaves<br />
Assistant Designer Natalie Johnson<br />
Casting Director Sophie Parrott<br />
Performed by arrangement with<br />
Music Theatre International (Europe) Limited<br />
Full reviews of all these shows can be found now at bidolito.co.uk.<br />
REVIEWS 47
february<br />
14th feb - mellowtone w/ ellie rose smith<br />
16th feb - limf academy showcase<br />
17th feb - life at the arcade (dj set)<br />
18th feb - mike dawes guitar seminar<br />
18th feb - ground floor open mic<br />
21st feb - mellowtone w/ dave o’grady<br />
22nd feb - ‘we want women’ open mic<br />
23rd feb - brickhouse + guests<br />
24th feb - rats (dj set)<br />
25th feb - ground floor open mic<br />
26th feb - silent movie night<br />
28th feb - mellowtone w/ alan o’hare<br />
thursday 1st march - launch night of<br />
‘the underground arts society’<br />
Monday / wednesday / Thursday / friday / saturday / sunday
FEBRUARY & march<br />
Feb 16 liverpool Art Society presents ‘Date Night’<br />
Feb 17 Strange Bones + Three From Above & more<br />
Feb 18 Mike Dawes + Alx Green, greg larkin<br />
Feb 23 Cabezudos + frazer, monks<br />
Feb 24 28 Costumes album launch<br />
Feb 25 Old Corpse Road + Daemona<br />
march 2 plugger beatz presents satin beige + guests<br />
march 3 rival bones + takotsubo men, mad alice<br />
march 9 sheafs + very special guests<br />
march 10 salvador + phase3, faraday & more<br />
march 16 off axis presents spark + jekyll<br />
march 17 st patricks day special<br />
march 22 the wholls + hello operator, big bambora<br />
march 23 m2tm heat 1 with special guests - prognnosis<br />
march 24 liverpool beard and moustache championships<br />
march 25 hair club live<br />
march 29 vinyl junkie & amp presents broken witt rebels<br />
Tickets available via skiddle.com - all shows 18+
BOOK NOW: 0161 832 1111<br />
MANchesteracademy.net<br />
MOOSE BLOOD<br />
SATURDAY 3RD MARCH<br />
MANCHESTER ACADEMY<br />
THE QUIREBOYS<br />
FRIDAY 23RD MARCH<br />
ACADEMY 3<br />
UGLY KID JOE<br />
TUESDAY 17TH APRIL<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
HOPSIN<br />
TUESDAY 6TH MARCH<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
THE FRATELLIS<br />
FRIDAY 23RD MARCH<br />
MANCHESTER ACADEMY<br />
TRIVIUM<br />
FRIDAY 20TH APRIL<br />
MANCHESTER ACADEMY<br />
YO LA TENGO<br />
MONDAY 30TH APRIL<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
COASTS<br />
FRIDAY 20TH APRIL<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
REEF / THE WILDHEARTS<br />
/ TERRORVISION<br />
FRIDAY 4TH MAY / MCR ACADEMY<br />
TURBOWOLF<br />
FRIDAY 9TH MARCH<br />
ACADEMY 3<br />
PHOENIX<br />
SUNDAY 25TH MARCH<br />
MANCHESTER ACADEMY<br />
RUSS<br />
MONDAY 12TH MARCH<br />
MANCHESTER ACADEMY<br />
NO HOT ASHES<br />
SATURDAY 31ST MARCH<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
SALAD<br />
SATURDAY 21ST APRIL<br />
ACADEMY 3<br />
NINA NESBITT<br />
SATURDAY 19TH MAY<br />
CLUB ACADEMY<br />
BEN HARPER &<br />
CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE<br />
FRIDAY 6TH APRIL / ACADEMY 2<br />
PROUD MARY<br />
SATURDAY 9TH JUNE<br />
CLIUB ACADEMY<br />
AT THE DRIVE-IN<br />
TUESDAY 13TH MARCH<br />
MANCHESTER ACADEMY<br />
SOLOTOKO<br />
FT. SONNY FODERA<br />
SATURDAY 7TH APRIL / ACADEMY 2<br />
LARKINS<br />
SATURDAY 21ST APRIL<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
PLASTIC HOUSE<br />
SATURDAY 17TH MARCH<br />
ACADEMY 3<br />
MISTERWIVES<br />
SATURDAY 7TH APRIL<br />
ACADEMY 3<br />
SKINDRED<br />
SUNDAY 22ND APRIL<br />
MANCHESTER ACADEMY<br />
EELS<br />
TUESDAY 3RD JULY<br />
MANCHESTER ACADEMY<br />
KING NO ONE<br />
SATURDAY 17TH MARCH<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
JOSH ROUSE<br />
THURSDAY 26TH APRIL<br />
ACADEMY 3<br />
CARPENTER BRUT<br />
THURSDAY 22ND MARCH<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
THE DEAD DAISIES<br />
THURSDAY 12TH APRIL<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
GEORGE CLINTON &<br />
PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC<br />
SATURDAY 7TH JULY / MCR ACADEMY<br />
LITTLE COMETS<br />
FRIDAY 13TH APRIL<br />
CLUB ACADEMY<br />
REJJIE SNOW<br />
FRIDAY 27TH APRIL<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS<br />
THURSDAY 4TH OCTOBER<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
SANGO<br />
THURSDAY 22ND MARCH<br />
CLUB ACADEMY<br />
THE WONDER YEARS<br />
FRIDAY 13TH APRIL<br />
ACADEMY 2<br />
THE SMITHS LTD<br />
SATURDAY 28TH APRIL<br />
ACADEMY 3<br />
FAT FREDDY'S DROP<br />
SATURDAY 3RD NOVEMBER<br />
MANCHESTER ACADEMY<br />
facebook.com/manchesteracademy @mancacademy FOR UP TO DATE LISTINGS VISIT MANChesteracademy.net
Lee ’Scratch’<br />
Perry<br />
Arts Club, Liverpool<br />
Tuesday 13th <strong>March</strong><br />
Michael<br />
Chapman<br />
Deaf Institute, Manchester<br />
Sunday 22nd April<br />
Michael<br />
Chapman<br />
Philharmonic Hall,<br />
Liverpool<br />
Thursday 26th April<br />
Courtney<br />
Marie Andrews<br />
Arts Club, Liverpool<br />
Saturday 21st April<br />
Peter Hammill<br />
The Stoller Hall,<br />
Manchester<br />
Wednesday 25th April<br />
Robyn<br />
Hitchcock<br />
Philharmonic Hall,<br />
Liverpool<br />
Wednesday 23rd May<br />
The Rutles<br />
Philharmonic Hall,<br />
Liverpool<br />
Friday 1st June<br />
@Ceremonyconcert / facebook.com/ceremonyconcerts<br />
ceremonyconcerts@gmail.com / seetickets.com<br />
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SAY<br />
THE FINAL<br />
“The single<br />
hardest right to<br />
exercise is to be<br />
seen as an equal<br />
amongst my<br />
peers”<br />
Photo by Jerry Kiesewetter<br />
On the centenary of the<br />
Representation Of The People<br />
Act, which gave certain eligible<br />
women in the UK the right to<br />
vote for the first time, MP for<br />
Wirral South Alison McGovern<br />
hails the progress made,<br />
but reflects on the implicit<br />
bias that still exists in the<br />
continuing battle for universal<br />
acceptance.<br />
Many of the worst conversations I have about<br />
feminism are with the men I love most in the world.<br />
It is easy to be angry with Donald Trump<br />
when he says feminism is “going too far,” after all<br />
he has done for women; it is hard to be angry with your friend<br />
because he has just blamed the female members of juries for<br />
not convicting more rapists. Because even though there may be<br />
evidence of bias of women jurors, the act of men blaming women<br />
for sexism, is, in the end, just more misogyny. It is hard to be<br />
angry with a close family member because they have called your<br />
little girl ‘bossy’ again. And to make them see that even though<br />
he wants to be kind to her, the constraints he is unwittingly<br />
applying to her behaviour contrast wildly with the easy<br />
acceptance he has of all manner of aggression from little boys.<br />
What’s more, it is harder still to challenge the women you<br />
love when they tell you your skirt is too short, that they are really<br />
enjoying their new diet, and that they can’t imagine how you<br />
work so late, given how much your child must miss you.<br />
Thankfully, the current centenary of the first women voting<br />
in 1918 will involve no such hard conversations. It will involve<br />
myriad easy conversations. Women should be allowed to<br />
vote. Thankfully, now it is so obvious that this should be the case,<br />
we can gleefully celebrate the 100 years since, and we can gloss<br />
over the fact that <strong>2018</strong> is only the anniversary of middle class<br />
women over 30 getting the vote.<br />
We can have easy conversations about how right the<br />
suffragettes were, even though by today’s standards quite a<br />
few of them would still be considered violent arsonists. We can<br />
have easy conversations celebrating the number of women MPs,<br />
while we gloss over the fact that one of our main political parties<br />
can elect two women Prime Ministers but cannot stop making<br />
women in the country financially worse off; and the other main<br />
political party – much though Labour should be proud of – cannot<br />
elect a woman to lead it at all.<br />
We can have easy conversations about the past, because it is<br />
a different country, and no one need think about what they would<br />
have done if in the shoes of men in the House of Commons 100<br />
years ago, even though at the time 55 Members of Parliament (all<br />
men, of course) voted against the bill to give women the vote. We<br />
will gloss over all of this, because it is only right that the people who<br />
gave their lives up to campaign for women to vote are remembered<br />
and properly celebrated. These are the easy conversations, and we<br />
should have them in great volume and length.<br />
Much harder are the conversations about death.<br />
I have heard the often repeated statistic that, ‘two women<br />
a week are killed by male violence’, so like most of these things<br />
you hear all the time, I assumed it was bullshit. It turns out it<br />
is. It’s actually numerically closer to three women a week (the<br />
yearly total in 2017 was 138). I am not an expert, so I cannot<br />
tell you why men kill women. But they do. And hard though that<br />
fact is to face, it must stop. We cannot live anymore in a country<br />
where one of our gender defaults is that women who seek a life<br />
partner take their life in their hands.<br />
I don’t think the suffragettes took hammers to smash<br />
Parliament’s windows because they thought it was a great way<br />
to raise awareness of their issue; they did it because the power<br />
of that hammer in their hand was the only channel they could<br />
think of capable of expressing their emotional fire at women’s<br />
oppression. Imagine how their anger would burn if they knew<br />
that, still, 100 years later, in the minds of many men, women<br />
are expendable. If they knew that, too often, women are just a<br />
feature in a man’s control and power over his world. I can tell<br />
you that the people I have met who have suffered from such<br />
abuse are deeply and rightly angry. And anger must not be<br />
wasted so change must come. And we should not hold back in<br />
protesting until it does.<br />
But one thing that I have learnt from my past eight years as<br />
a Member of Parliament is that, whatever my legal rights – to<br />
vote in an election, to be a candidate in an election, to take my<br />
seat in the House of Commons and represent my constituents<br />
– the single hardest right to exercise is the right is to be seen<br />
as an equal amongst my peers. This is the unconscious bias<br />
that holds women back. Whether it is the assumptions that<br />
are made about our knowledge and interests, or the manner in<br />
which we are interrupted, or the frankly patronising tone that<br />
is taken about women who use their position to campaign for<br />
equality, this bias against women is the biggest problem we<br />
face.<br />
And that is what makes it the very hard conversation we<br />
must have this year. The suffragettes won a victory in law: to<br />
make their victory one of lived reality, people who harbour a<br />
bias – conscious or unconscious – against women must leave<br />
that state of mind behind.<br />
Sadly, though, I cannot make that happen. Women cannot<br />
make it happen. It is – as it was in 1918 – in the gift of men to<br />
change their minds. !<br />
54
BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND<br />
5TH - 7TH MAY <strong>2018</strong><br />
OVER 180 BANDS ACROSS 16 STAGES, INCLUDING...<br />
KRAFTY KUTS • BEARDYMAN<br />
[MORE HEADLINERS TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON]<br />
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AFTERPARTY TICKETS £10 - MORE DETAILS COMING SOON<br />
facebook: smithdownfestival // twitter & instagram: smithdownfest<br />
proudly supporting
BIOCENTRISM<br />
ENERGY CREW PRESENT<br />
FRI 30 MARCH <strong>2018</strong> ENRG PRES.<br />
GOLDILOCKS PRINCIPLE<br />
JON<br />
HOPKINS<br />
DJ SET<br />
JOE<br />
GODDARD<br />
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BLEHRIN<br />
In The Substation all night long, very special guests...<br />
A LOVE FROM OUTER SPACE<br />
ANDREW<br />
WEATHERALL<br />
& SEAN<br />
JOHNSTON<br />
Venue:<br />
Invisible Wind Factory,<br />
2 Regent Road,<br />
Liverpool, L3 7DS<br />
ENRG:<br />
0151 707 5010<br />
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