NF01 November/December 2023

38 Bristol Beacon
Left Num venda vel
moluptaquo eost acita
dolenim usamento
dignis nonserehenet
mod maio
Right Num venda vel
moluptaquo eost acita
dolenim usamento
dignis nonserehenet
mod maio
BOOKING AHEAD
Don't miss these at nfld.io/beacon
Lankum
1 February
Fall under the spell
of these doom-folk
purveyors.
Fatoumata
Diawara
6 February
Malian singersongwriter
who
reinvents traditional
African music.
Jonathan Pie:
Heroes & Villains
20-21 February
Tom Walker's ranty
correspondent
gives his enemies
both barrels.
Fever Ray
29 February
Moody electro-pop
from the Scandi
experimentalist.
Photo: Cathy Mager
Above
Creator,
producer,
Deaf activist
and head of
the Lantern
Heritage
Project,
Cathy
Mager;
Bristol
Beacon's
Sound
Lounge
WALL STORIES
In large bold letters emblazoned above
the information desk, WELCOME is the
first thing you see when walking into
Bristol Beacon from Trenchard Street.
“It wasn’t part of my brief, but I came up
with the idea,” Cathy tells me, pointing to
the sign. “With accessibility, small tweaks
can make a difference. It’s about trying
to make the space welcoming to people
who might feel alienated from it.”
Opposite is the Sound Lounge, a cosy
cubby hole bedecked with vintage
posters, a lyric wall, video screen and
reference library. Cathy repurposed
the space from an unused cupboard
to better represent the city’s diversity,
and “for people to occupy; a community
artwork curated by people and artists”.
The main chunk of the Herculean brief
Cathy took on three years ago, though,
was to unearth the venue’s lesser-known
radical history. Trawling digital archives
through the pandemic she discovered
the stories that are now immortalised on
the Lantern Hall's frieze wall.
Over coffee she regales me with tales
of flying monkeys, giant water tanks,
a canine orchestra, and palm trees
looming from the orchestra pit. When
the circus came in 1933, the auditorium
had to house elephants, kangaroos and
bears. “And there was Doll Land – 3,200
dolls handmade by local people, which
sounds quite creepy,” laughs Cathy.
She speaks of legendary characters, like
Carlos Trower, the Black acrobat from
the 1890s who’d walk over the audience
on a tightrope, cooking a beefsteak.
There were Bristol divas, Clara Buck,
Elsie Griffin, and Eva Turner – “the
Kardashians of their time!” And Alfred
Hollins, the blind organist who would
perform mashups of songs called out
by the crowd.
NF01