Not All The Good Art In Southwark Is At The Tate Modern

Last night we headed down to the Nolias Gallery in Southwark for The Power of Three, an exhibition of three artists which we previewed here.

The Nolias gallery is located just round the corner from Tate Modern and is hidden away amongst railway arches and council estates. On entering we were slightly thrown by the layout of the place with a glass partition rather annoyingly separating off one half of the gallery. We grabbed a drink and went for a wander, pausing only to read the press release for the exhibition.

The exhibition is based around a survey carried out by one of the artists, Philippa Beale in the early 1980s. She asked members of the public what type of art they liked and were prepared to buy, what size they liked the pieces to be and a number of other questions about their tastes. It turned out that "bright, primary colours" and "ships and the sea" were the most liked styles and themes. The exhibition is an attempt to both update and respond to that survey.

So Philippa Beale's work mostly consisted of sea landscapes and birds with very dense colours and evocative images. Her work is full of life, the only problem being that we wanted to see it on a larger scale than the small canvases she had on display. Meanwhile, Jane Humphrey's work was a study of texture and much of it seemed very much based on observing nature and wildlife, but truth be told we were underwhelmed by it, mainly due to the repetitive nature of what she had on display.

Finally, there was Alice White (see inset) who we were too shy to approach in person but whose work was both the most engaging and had more personality to it than any of the other pieces present. Her main portion of the show consisted of a series of monoprints (see above). They were of variable quality: Some we adored and some less so, but hers was the only work to truly grab us and make us want to see more. She made herself the subject of the works in a lot of ways, which is no bad thing, but she avoided falling into a pit of self obsession.

The only criticism we have of the exhibition is that the concept wasn't clear enough throughout and that only Philippa Beale's work seemed to have any link to the blurb explaining what the exhibition was about. But we may have missed something and understand that it's part of an ongoing project and that there will be an updated survey in the next few weeks.

Anyway, we had fun and deeply wished we had deeper pockets so we could have purchased one or two particular pieces we liked. The exhibition runs until 10th December at the Nolias Gallery, 60 Great Suffolk Street and is well worth a peek.

We Like Books Too

We love stand up comedienne Josie Long. However, we don't think she's particularly funny. At least that was our impression from the time we last saw her play at Soho Theatre where she is about to start a new residency that will run from 28th November 2007 until 15th December 2007.

Josie is to the world of stand up comedy what Belle and Sebastian are to Ozzfest. She has none of the nastiness, overt anger and bitterness that infect the work of so many comedians. When we saw her she had a knitting accomplice who spent the duration of the show knitting a prize for a lucky audience member at the side of the stage. Meanwhile Josie showed off her home-made comics, gave away badges and discussed her love of the film Rushmore.

We wanted to hug her but, curiously, she wasn't actually all that funny. The jokes were often quite tame and predictable. The enjoyment came simply from being in her company as she made us feel a little bit better about the state of the world around us. Meanwhile, many people disagree with our assessment. A certain London listings magazine are obsessed with her and she won the if.comeddies Newcomer Award in 2006. It could just be that we saw her on a bad night.

She claims that her brand new show "will inspire people to talk to each other on public transport" which can only be a good thing so we'll definitely be giving her another chance. We guarantee you'll leave her shows in a good mood and hopefully with a touch of the giggles as well.

Learn Stuff On The Cheap

It's all very well to go out and absorb beautiful things by osmosis, but sometimes you have to work a bit harder than simply visiting a gallery. As the time for new year resolutions approaches, we thought it was time to flag up the City Lit centre in Holborn.

City Lit is an adult education college that has been running for more than 85 years. They provide courses for 24,000 students a year and offer more part time courses than any other equivalent college in London. City Lit do courses in all sorts of things. We did a superb course called "Poetry on the Edge" where we would look at a few different poems each week and have discussions about them. Later we took part in a course on 19th-20th century art and more recently we took a course in Introduction to Freelance Journalism. All three courses were enjoyable in different ways, all were worthwhile. They offer courses in all sorts of things from Clowning and Performance to Political Philosophy.

It's all housed in a beautiful but impractically designed modern building (see above) just off High Holburn. They also have an extensive library and open access to computing facilities. The good thing about City Lit is that all the courses are heavily subsidised by the government so it's not generally all that expensive. The average evening course will consist of twelve 1-2 hours sessions and will cost about £70-£100 though it does vary. However, they have heavily discounted rates for anyone receiving income based benefits so it can actually turn out to be much cheaper than that.

Meanwhile, it's a fine way to occupy yourself for one evening a week and it feels good to do something where you have to involve yourself rather than just passively observe the work of others. It's a fantastic place and well worth checking out, but courses often get booked up very early so be sure to act quickly if you see something that you like.

A Whole Month Of Burton

It's almost December and that means it's almost time for the BFI Southbank's Tim Burton season. They're showing pretty much every film Burton has been involved in. There are a few oddities on show for the true Tim Burton obsessive. On the 3rd December for example, the screening of Burton's first feature Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, will be followed by Frankenweenie, a half hour re-working of Frankenstein that kick-started Burton's career. There's also a chance to see the real Ed Wood's tribute to cross-dressing: Glen or Glenda.

Everything you'd expect is being screened at some stage. The first two Batman films are the perfect example of how to make comic book films that respect the original whilst bringing a bit of Hollywood razzmatazz to the equation. The Nightmare Before Christmas is brilliant in places (especially the bit where the witches play hockey with pumpkins) and Sleepy Hollow is quite fun in a goofy way.

But best of all are Burton's two masterpieces: Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands. Both star Johnny Depp. Both have all the classic Burton hallmarks: The outsider, the naive central character, the ultimate rejection of difference. The only difference is that Edward Scissorhands is ultimately a love story with a tragic ending whereas Ed Wood's stance is that even freaks can find other freaks and live happily ever after. These are the two essential films to see and we will certainly be ambling along at some point.

We may even go and see Planet of The Apes again to check if it's as bad as we remember. Mark Wahlberg opposite Helena Bonham Carter. In monkey suits. Ugh.

The Power of Three (Not a reference to the anti-racism novel by Dianna Wynne Jones)

In the very first proper posting to this blog we sung the praises of Alice White, an artist whose work we encountered at an unusual exhibition in Peckham, described in more detail here. We only saw a few of her paintings, all fleshy portraits, all fantastic. Now Alice is one of three artists with an exhibition coming up at the Nolias Gallery on Great Suffolk Street in Southwark.

The Power of Three is an exhibition of three contemporary artists: Alice, Philippa Beale and Jane Humphrey. Sadly we know nothing of Jane or Philippa but we're looking forward to finding out more. See right for a description of the exhibition from the invitation we received. Apologies for not being able to make it larger-gremlins in the Blogger machine.

It certainly should be worth investigating. We'll be heading down next Thursday but the exhibition opens tomorrow. We'll be sure to report back once we've had a look and drunk some of the inevitable free wine.

Books, Music, Poetry and Booze:A Genius Combination

Book readings tend to be rather earnest affairs. Authors are not necessarily the most outgoing of people and, whatever the quality of their work, it can often be stilted and basically less fun than sitting at home and reading their work on your own. This was made particularly clear to us a few years ago when we saw the wonderful Jonathan Coe stammer and struggle as he attempted to read from his excellent novel The Closed Circle.

So as a night out concept, the book reading isn't necessarily all that much fun. But for some time Book Slam has challenged the idea that these things have to be so bloody serious. We've been attending Book Slam for several years now and have never once failed to have a great time.

The format is simple: A bar in West London. Good DJs. Three or four acts. This will usually consist of perhaps one author, a performance poet and a musical act of some kind. And they often get big names. Zadie Smith, Irvine Welsh and Nick Hornby have all done readings there in the past. However, much of the fun comes from seeing authors you don't know read from works you've never heard of. We were turned on to the brilliant Luke Sutherland (see above) when we saw him read from his novel Venus as a Boy with such ferocity that you couldn't help but be impressed. It encouraged us to buy the novel and it remains a favourite. That's the whole point of events like this: Get a round of drinks in, chat to your mates, watch something interesting for ten minutes, go back to your chatting, repeat etc. A very fine night out. It always takes place on the last Thursday of the month and entry is a fiver. The next one will be held at Neighbourhood on November 29th. It will feature Luke Wright and Joel Stickley who will be reading from their new book Who Writes This Crap and the New York poet Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai will also be performing. Music comes from rather odd electro choir The Heard.

Oh yeah, we forgot to say: The musical acts are always, without exception, awful.

More details are available here.

An Alternative to the Football

In contrast to interesting but slightly worthy book readings at Foyles, this is something we're actually very excited about. We’ve been big fans of (We are) Performance for ages, going back to a happier time when they were simply called Performance and didn’t have ugly brackets in their name.
They play a particularly striking brand of electro pop. Even better, they have genuinely intelligent lyrics and singer Joe Stretch has a novel coming out in a few months time. The band were briefly hyped a few years ago and eventually signed to Universal Records but never released an album with them. Ultimately, they released their debut album on their own label. In our view, it’s the best album of the year, bar none. If it was 2001 and Trash was still in all its pomp, they’d be massive, touring around the world and pissing on Fischerspooner from a great height by virtue of their actual talent. As it happens, they came through at just the wrong time and their “career” appears to have stalled.

Live, Joe Stretch definitely has a touch of Ian Curtis about him, but only in the sense that he is a sweaty, awkward looking dancer who captivates. He has his own style and tends to throw himself around a bit. They have an energy and a loyal fan base who have followed them since their early beginnings in Manchester through good times and bad. It’s actually quite a novelty to be able to see them play a gig of their own in London that isn’t part of a crap club night.

They’re playing at the Barfly on Wednesday night. It’s worth missing any football match for. Honestly. If you don’t believe us go here and listen to album highlight Surrender .

Love and a Sexy Beast

So artslondon popped over to Foyles for Four Letter Word: An evening "dedicated to the art of the love letter". Well actually, that's not quite what it's about. Four Letter Word is a collection of fictional love letters written by an array of writers young, old and trendy.

It's actually quite a good idea for a collection. When you describe it to others it sounds rather wet but the potential for comedy, tragedy, farce etc. in a love letter is pretty much infinite. Match the idea with writers like Douglas Coupland and Michel Faber and you have something worth, well, at least an in-store browse.

The evening consisted of a slightly dull talk from the people who put the collection together followed by readings from four of the authors involved. First up was Lionel Shriver. We've never read We Need To Talk About Kevin but feel like we know it pretty well, such is the frequency with which we see it being carried on public transport. We definitely won't be reading it now. Lionel Shriver was the only person there to come across as self-important and arrogant. If artslondon had written a short story as tedious and predictable as her contribution to the collection, we would be embarrassed to read it in front of an audience. The fact that she seemed to take great pleasure in its every line and kept making herself laugh even though it wasn't at all funny, did not help. We're not fans.

She was followed by a nervous Gautam Malkani who read a short, sensitive piece about memory and death which was rather sweet if instantly forgettable. Much better was Hari Kunzru who had written a fictional letter from a Brit to an Oman local with whom he had a fleeting romance. He is consumed with guilt by the tawdriness of the whole affair and the boundaries which spring up around their relationship without them having any power over it. There was a lot of colonial guilt there but it was the only truly great piece we heard all evening. If you do have a browse through the book, that's the one to read first.

And we can't tell you what Michel Faber's contribution was like because we had to leave and go and see a free screening of Sexy Beast at the Prince Charles Cinema. As part of the Channel 4 birthday celebrations they'll be showing a range of free films in the next few weeks. Best of all, next Thursday we will be heading on down there to see the awesome Motorcycle Diaries. Ewan Mcgregor isn't in it. Che Guevara is.

Tomorrow night: Rilo Kiley at Shepherds Bush Empire. We can't claim to be excited at the prospect, but the tickets were free and it was that or stay in and watch old Prime Suspect DVDs.

Phwooar

Oh-and we've just got back from the Four Letter Word event at Foyles that we mentioned here. Proper review to come in the next couple of days, but let's just say that Lionel Shriver is terrible at reading her work out loud and Hari Kunzru's contribution to the collection is fantastic.

Afterwards, we went to a free screening of Sexy Beast at the Prince Charles. Which presents a good opportunity for us to post a big picture of Ray Winstone in Y fronts, as if any excuse were needed.

A Day Out In Which artslondon Wanders Around Posh Galleries Pretending To Be A Millionaire Art Dealer

We were broke and bored on Saturday afternoon. So we went for a wander around Piccadilly to see if we could find something pretty to stare at with our mouth open for a few minutes at least.

So what did we find? Well to start with, we were unable to make it in time to get into the Joan Miro sculpture exhibition that's currently on display at Connaught Brown. Peering through the shuttered window we could see warped three dimensional versions of his paintings, but without the colour obviously. Which made for a rather different experience. Definitely worth checking out, but arrive early if you go on a Saturday because it closes at 1pm.

A few doors along was the tiny Archeus gallery. They’re currently hosting an exhibition called Ten Most Wanted, showing ten contemporary artists. It’s a mixed bag really. On one wall there’s a ‘50s advert style painting by Franziska Holstein (see above) for an electric cooker with pork chops sizzling away which looked distinctly tasty. Directly opposite, Shintaro Miyake’s distinctly odd “Tree House” shows a world of childhood secrets, hidden away amongst bare foliage. Elsewhere, excitement is rather hard to come by, though we liked the stack of sugar cubes made to like the visuals on a sound desk, even if we couldn’t really see the point.

Across the road at the Belgravia Gallery they had an exhibition of twentieth century Russian pieces (see inset). Much of it was tedious and veered from the over familiar style of Soviet propaganda posters to dull depictions of Lenin looking inspirational and noble. Still, they had some pretty landscapes and it’s probably worth a look if, unlike us, your attention span lasts longer than twelve seconds.

So it was a fine afternoon in the end and we got to wander around Mayfair looking as if we just might be Russian billionaires. We even popped over to Fortnum and Mason to steal free samples of posh food from their displays. Well if they’re stupid enough to give it to us, they’ve only got themselves to blame.

He May Or May Not Be Jesus. There's No Way Of Knowing

It's difficult to emphasise just how emphatically artslondon admires the comedian Stewart Lee. It's got to the extent where, every time a classic set by Bill Hicks or Richard Pryor is released on DVD, artslondon watches it only to be re-affirmed in our belief that Stewart Lee is up there with the best of them.We consider ourselves to be un-shockable but In 2005, artslondon was so affected by seeing Stewart Lee live, performing his set "90s Comedian" that we staggered gasping out of the Soho Theatre afterwards, gagging for air, wondering at what we'd just seen. Lee had just managed to lay a full scale frontal assault on Jesus Christ himself. With Jerry Springer The Opera, it was very much a case of"what's all the fuss about, that isn't offensive at all, unless you have no sense of irony". With '90s Comedian, that certainly wasn't possible. You can't perform jokes about vomiting into the gaping anus of Jesus Christ without legitimately upsetting people.

There was a point to it all of course. What makes Stewart Lee gigs so great is that there is always a hidden narrative behind what you're seeing. The '90s Comedian set was as much about the process of writing comedy and attacking lazy comedians as it was about the War on Terror or Christianity.

At a more recent, gig, in a 20 minute slot, we were rather underwhelmed by Lee's current set. But we're willing to give it another go because it's Stewart Lee and because he's a comedian whose sets don't work particularly well when rushed. Lee will be performing at the Soho Theatre from tonight until Christmas. Most of the early dates are sold out but there are still places available for the December performances which can be purchased here.

Darren Hayman Live: In Which We Get Over-Excited and Bounce Until Our Ankles Hurt Before Feeling Guilty About Our Obsession Wth Image

If artslondon gave the impression here that we were anything other than in complete love with the live act that is Darren Hayman and the Secondary Modern then we wholeheartedly apologise. It could be that we're spoilt from the sheer quantity of gigs he plays in London. It might be that making lazy-journalist style jokes aout his appearance is an easy cop out. Or even that the over-use of banjo and ukelele in some of the past gigs has rather grated on us.

But last night's gig at the Luminaire was an absolute treat. And he's not actually that odd looking really. And as a speccy, odd looking skinny type, artslondon shouldn't really criticise other speccy, odd looking skinny types. In fact, dressed in a blazer as he is tonight, he has a certain kind of rough charm.

But there we go again, talking about the look and forgetting to mention the music. Since Darren swapped the lovely Amos and co. for the rockier Secondary Modern bunch, his live performances have improved dramatically. He finally has a band that can do justice to the rockier Hefner songs and breathe new life into French songs like Porn Shoes and Gabriel in the Airport.

"I know how to judge an audience and that look you just gave me was saying "Please stop playing the Hefner songs and play one of the ones off the new album"". Darren does like to toy with his audience and made quite an effort to stir up an atmosphere by orchestrating a guitar-violin duel between two members of the band. Meanwhile the new songs sound great and artslondon has fallen in love with Art and Design, a song about forbidden love between two teachers, one of whom may just be Mr. Hayman himself.

The only fault was that it was all just too short.
The only bonus being that its lateness meant that artslondon ended up seeing both the support acts. The Wave Pictures were excellent and seemed to have a large fan contingent in attendance. It was the second time we've seen My Sad Captains (see opposite) and although in terms of appearance they resemble a sort of lo-fi Mcfly (a band member to suit every taste) they play perfect indie pop that just doesn't sound all that great on record yet. Check out first single Bad Decisions here if you don't believe us. There's a great song there fighting to get out.

In fact, the whole evening was suffocatingly Indie Pop. Which is fine every once in a while. Let's just say we had fun. And that we won't be so blasé next time Darren announces a London gig in a small-mid sized London venue.

An Evening of Wine, "Nibbles" and Luuurve

At artslondon we've always been in love with Foyles on Charing Cross Road. Perhaps it's the sheer size of the place. It might be something to do with the staff who are frighteningly helpful. It could be because it remains one of the best places in London for a game of hide and seek. Or maybe it's simply because it's not a Waterstones or a Borders. Whatever, it's always a pleasure to wander around its ramshackle corridors.

On Thursday, they are holding a special event to celebrate the release of Four Letter Word which purports to be a collection of fiction "exploring the charm, potency and seductive powers of a classic genre... the love letter". Hmm.

There are some great authors involved though. Michel Faber, who wrote The Crimson Petal and The White, Orange-prize winning Lionel Shriver (see above), Hari Kunzru and Gautam Malkani will all be in attendance to read their contributions to the collection. With the added bonus of there being "complimentary wine and nibbles" it suddenly starts to sound like a very attractive evening. It's at 6.30 in the Gallery area and it's absolutely free. For tickets e-mail Foyles here.

George Is Short For Georgina Apparently

In the absence of John Peel and Steve Lamacq, Radio 1 has felt increasingly pointless in the evenings. There is one glimmer of hope remaining though, in the form of Huw Stephens who partly fulfils the Peel remit of providing a forum to the type of lo-fi indie acts who wouldn’t get played anywhere else. As with Peel, you have to wade through a lot of crap to find the gems but it’s better than nothing and a million times better than Colin Murray playing theme tunes from TV programmes you liked when you were six.

Back in August, Huw started running a monthly band night at the Social on Little Portland Street to tie in with his radio show. artslondon haven’t been able to go down there yet, but the lineup for this month’s show on Thursday week may prove an allure too hard to resist.

George Pringle (see above) is half art school joke, half Black Box Recorder style genius. She also sounds unnervingly posh. She actually reminds us of Pulp spin off band Venini. The Guardian described her as “Shoegaze-pop, poetry and electronica”. Definitely worth having a look at. And headlining is Gideon Conn (see below) who may just be the most lo-fi alt-folk singer songwriter you’ll ever come across. Whch isn't a particularly complimentary way to describe someone but we're currently addicted to his myspace site and desperate to see him in the flesh.

The good thing about these nights is the opportunity to take a risk and see some new bands with the safety net provided by knowing they’ve been chosen by Mr. Stephens. It’s only £4, takes place in one of the West End’s cosiest venues and has to be better than staying at home and listening to this prick rap to himself for two hours. See you there.

War is Beautiful. Fact.

The Imperial War Museum are currently staging a fantastic exhibition entitled Weapons of Mass Communication. The exhibition looks at war posters and the way in which they have evolved over time. It's a superb way to spend an hour or so, containing over 300 posters, ranging in subject matter from the Spanish Civil War (see above) to CND to the 2003 anti war demonstratons.

What's most striking is just how well so many of the posters stand up as works of art in themselves. Anyone with any interest at all in design will be blown away. It's also amusing to see the dated nature of some of the posters. One print, for example, features an attractive blonde lady speaking to some drunk soldiers in a bar. Underneath the tagline reads "Keep Mum, She's Not So Dumb". Hmm.

If anything, the large number of posters on display rather lessens the impact, particularly in the sections that deal with the home front and the encouragement of the public to invest in government bonds. But the exhibition clearly demonstrates the way in which the development of propaganda posters has been largely based on the theft of ideas. No sooner does one campaign come up with a clever new design idea than it is seen on posters by designers on the other side of the world. The exhibition also gives a glimpse into some of the social values of the past, in which women were demanded to work in factories at one moment and harangued into returning to their homes a few years later.

So all in all, a bloody great exhibition. Oh-and don't bother going to see the annoyingly overrated Camouflage exhibition that a certain London listings magazine got so excited about. It's too small to warrant the £7 price tag and the use of camouflage in modern day fashion isn't nearly as ironic or interesting as they make out. There's plenty of other stuff to see there and there's always the treat of standing next to a bloody great cannon to excite you if your adrenalin levels flag.

Odd Looking Pervert Sings To People In Room

Monday night sees yet another gig by ex-Hefner frontman and all round perv Darren Hayman. This time he's playing at the Luminaire in Kilburn, one of London's finest venues. Darren is a songwriter who has written plenty about the, ahem, pleasures of London. As the lead singer of Hefner, he penned the lyric "This is London not Antarctica so why don't the tubes run all night?". His website includes a guide to classic London cafes which can be found here. He has the knack of wringing out stories from the most mundane London lives. Seeing Darren live is always a treat and he will be promoting his excellent new album.

Support comes from My Sad Captains. artslondon have witnessed them live and were mightily impressed but a little disappointed when we actually heard them on record. Still, definitely worth getting there early for.

Boil-In-The-Bag Perversion For Sexually Repressed Accountants

On Saturday the BFI Southbank will be showing the excellent Spaced. All of it. For six hours. Which might be a bit too much post modernism for some people. Except that Simon Pegg, Jessica no-longer-called-Stevenson Hynes, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright will be doing a Q and A as part of the event.

If you've heard their commentaries on the original Spaced DVDs you'll know that they're good company, insightful and amiably obsessive. So an afternoon in their company would be time well spent. Unfortunately, the BFI inform us that it has sold out. They told us though that there is a good chance of getting some returns on the day and that they become available from 4.30 onwards.

This is all part of the BFI's Celebrating Channel 4 season marking the channel's 25th anniversary. They have quite a few treats in store including Sexy Beast, a preview of the next series of Shameless and the fantastic My Beautiful Laundrette.

A Night Of Mancunian Back-Slapping

Now this looks interesting. Lemn Sissay, currently artist in residence at the Southbank Centre will be curating a special evening of Manchester themed events on Friday night. Lemn is probably best known for his "public poetry" which adorns the walls of a number of Manchester buildings. The pictures below are of a pub called Hardy's Well, which is situated on a busy bus route from South Manchester into the centre of the city. Part of the fun is that you see the poem each time you catch the bus into town but rarely have time to read the whole thing before the bus ploughs on.

Friday night's event is entitled 24 Hour Party People which just goes to show that even great poets can sometimes suffer from an embarassing lack of imagination. The gigs feature, amongst others, Dave Haslam, who has basically made a career out of being more Mancunian than anyone else ever, socialist poet Chloe Poems, Johnny Bramwell from I am Kloot, Henry Normal and, god forbid, Terry Christian. So it's a true mixed bag.

It remains to be seen whether this is yet more dull Manchester mythologising or whether it will actually be a fun, original night out. Probably worth turning up for though if only to gaze at the beautiful new Southbank Centre building.

Inspirational Ramblings

Monday is rarely a day for splashing the cash about so artslondon found ourselves wondering down to a free talk at King's College.

Geoff Travis founded the Rough Trade label in 1978. Over the years, Rough Trade have released music from the likes of The Smiths, The Strokes, The Libertines, British Sea Power, Belle and Sebastian, The Go-Betweens, The Fall and pretty much everyone worth listening to ever. Last night, Geoff came to do a Q and A session with a large group of frighteningly well groomed students.

The event was one of a series of talks set up by the Cultural and Creative Industries programme. Previous speakers have included a certain Mr. Terence Davies. It’s worth keeping an eye on the King’s College website for future talks and more information about upcoming events can be found here.

Geoff’s passion for new music is immediately apparent to anyone who crosses his path. He was asked a series of questions about what he felt the future held for the music industry. His stock response was something along the lines of “I don’t know and I don’t care”. Most amusingly, he called Razorlight “hollow” and described their music as sounding as if it were “almost designed by computer”. He re-iterated his longstanding accusation that the NME fixed its annual album of the year poll a couple of years ago to ensure that the more fashionable, over-hyed Bloc Party took the Number One spot above the Arcade Fire who had not at that time even appeared on the cover of the magazine.

Inevitably, talk later turned to The Smiths and Geoff was asked how he felt about releasing records which, let’s say, weren’t too complimentary about him. He handled the issue with grace saying “you have to have a sense of humour about these things.....They were frustrated. They thought they should be riding in limos and be taking helicopter rides up to Rusholme”. He noted with some satisfaction that Morrissey later expressed a desire to come back to Rough Trade.

Geoff is a man whose love of music appears to know no bounds. He seemed to have no interest in the mythology of the industry or in making himself look cool. If anything, he seemed to revel in his awkward geek status. A man truly worthy of our admiration and a genuine London icon.

Proof that winning the Perrier award doesn't mean you have to instantly become both annoying and ubiquitous

This is Mr. Daniel Kitson. He won an award once. But he doesn't have his own Channel 4 panel show. He doesn't look as good in skinny jeans as Noel Fielding. Actually he looks like Fozzie Bear. See:

Anyway, he happens to be one of our greatest living comedians. An evening in his company is a bit like being an adult and hanging out in your school staff room with the most eccentric geography teacher you ever had being regaled with tales of fossils and geological mishaps. Whilst at the same time being made to laugh uncontrollably until you can barely control your bodily functions.

Fans of Mr. Kitson will know that it can sometimes be rather difficult to see him perform. This is because many of his shows sell out quickly and are announced with very little fanfare. Still, if you head to http://www.danielkitson.com/danmailinglist.html and sign up to his mailing list you should be able to get into one of his shows. He is currently doing a series of Sunday night shows at The Hob in Forest Hill which isn't as out of way as you might think. It's not listed yet on the website but rest assured that it is happening and is worth booking for beforehand. Much of his set feels improvised but there's still a tightness to his performance. His glee at the idiotic and ridiculous is infectious and an evening in his company is time well spent. Reviews of stand up comedy have always seemed rather pointless so we'll leave it there. Just go and see him.

An Unusual Afternoon in Peckham

Yesterday was spent in deepest, darkest south-east London for a rather special event.






The Fall Into Place exhbition was a bit of a treat, set up in the organiser's own home on a quiet residential street in Peckham. Beforehand, I was wondering whether I had the energy to wander down there. Then I noticed that the e-flyer claimed "Entrance is through the ground floor window". Well it's better than "Take the A5 slip-road just after Watford Gap Services". Having tracked down the address and journeyed down with my A-Z, I walked up the stated street slightly worried that it was all some kind of hoax and that a bunch of trendy mulleted East London types would jump on me and beat me to death for even thinking myself cool enought to attend their party.

But no. Some fairy lights marked the entrance and indeed, there was the ground floor window. We had to practically hurl ourselves through, landing with a rather undignified thump to find a gracious host welcoming us. "Beer is in the bath. Feel free to wander around. The main performance will begin in about 20 minutes. Just relax and have fun". Well. Okay.

In the bath were lots of small bottles of beer. We took a couple and sat down in the living room. Any type of performance which involves free beer is good. Most impressive was the collection of paintings which adorned the living room, painted by the marvellous Alice White. They were portraits-cold but not impersonal and deeply impressive. She is exhibiting more of her work at the Nolias Gallery from 22 November 2007. Make her the first artslondon hero.

Upstairs, a tiny room was filled with records pinned to the walls and a pre-teenage DJ. Next door, what resembled the form of dismembered limbs was stuck to the wall. Isabelle Tasseff-Elenkoff was the lady responsible and they were rather striking, even if her description on the flyer did say that her work:

"investigates the role of memory as an inherent part of human psyche and its possibilities of translation through the tangible medium of art. The textile shadows act as a template of our presence into the lights. They perform as memory drawings of our past threaded into our future.". Hmm. Someone needs to get over themselves I think. Still, it was interesting stuff and I'd be intrigued to see more.

Elsewhere, the buzz of children's cartoons and scattered audio-visual technology filled another room, increasing the feeling that we were embarking on some kind of magical mystery tour. Live music just added to the fun. It was part party, part installation art, part squat and everything that makes the London arts scene so great. Unusual, original, DIY based but with very little bullshitting. Nice one.

For more details, have a look here: http://pecknam.com/blog/fall-into-place-at-the-manor/

Start at the beginning...

Welcome to artslondon. Apologies for the inevitable use of lowercase formatting. This is an arts blog for London. If you are planning an event and you want to get it publicised, please e-mail me. The purpose of this blog is to provide previews of forthcoming events in London and reviews of events which have already occured.

I will think up some ground rules shortly, but let's start off and see how we get on.