Lewes Catalyst Club Wed Feb 12th
January’s Catalyst may have been delayed by snow but it was worth the wait. We had three different but very personal stories. Alan Jackson shared the heroic but short life of Spitfire pilot Alistair ‘Sandy’ Gunn, David Bradford took us on a familial journey into the heart of darkness of our colonial legacies, and Caraline Brown shared her adventures putting on post-punk and metal gigs in Hull’s Welly Club.
We return with artist Clarissa Shanahan, cinephile Mark Keeble and podcaster Chris Hogg.
Brighton Catalyst Club Feb 13th
In January Caraline Brown shared her adventures putting on post-punk and metal gigs at Hull’s Mrs Wilson’s in the late seventies; Mark Sheerin took us on an entertaining journey to Creswell Crags where the UK’s only cave art is to be found; and Paddy Clarke explored the subversive cultural legacies of the band Soft Cell.
We return on Feb 13th with three more fascinating topics and captivating speakers: Chris ‘Friday Night Service’ Hogg, authors Chris Roberts and Rebecca Stott.
Shoreham Catalyst Club Feb 18th
In January we learned about the role of Latin in law from Martin Allen, Caraline Brown took us back to the late 70s when she put on post-punk and metal bands at the Welly Club in Hull, and Lynne Murphy shared her experiences growing up in a funeral home in the US.
For February we welcome back Linsay McCulloch and Chris Hogg and a third TBC.
Theatre Show: Mark Farrelly's Jarman
Derek Jarman: film-maker, painter, gardener at Prospect Cottage, gay rights activist, writer…his influence remains as strong as it was on the day AIDS killed him in 1994. But his story, one of the most extraordinary lives ever lived, has never been told. Until now.
This vibrant new solo play from Mark Farrelly (Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope) brings Derek back into being for a passionate, daring reminder of the courage it takes to truly live while you’re alive. A journey from Dungeness to deepest, brightest Soho and into the heart of one of our most iconoclastic artists.
Jarman’s works include taboo-breaking films like Sebastiane, Jubilee and Caravaggio, pop videos for the Pet Shop Boys (It’s A Sin and Rent), his extraordinary borderless garden in Dungeness, his shocking last paintings, and his unforgettable final film Blue, consisting of a single continuous frame of blue and chronicling what it’s like to lose your sight…but never your artistic vision.
Mark dazzled Catalyst Club audiences in 2022 and 2023 with his theatre shows exploring the lives of Quentin Crisp, Patrick Hamilton and Frankie Howerd and his partner Dennis Haymer. Jarman is the fourth of Mark’s quartet exploring the lives – both personal and creative – of pioneering queer artists.
Odditorium Presents: Youth Gone Wild: Teds, Mods, Rockers and the Styles That Shock Up the Nation!
What better location than Brighton Pier for an evening exploring Britain’s first youth counterculture with guests Travis Elborough and Max Décharné?
This special event will begin at 7pm with a complimentary screening of We Are the Lambeth Boys, Karel Reisz’s 1959 depiction of South London teens aimed to challenge the media perception of ‘Teddy Boys’. (49mins/BFI).
From 8pm there will be illustrated talks from Max and Travis, ending with the pair in conversation and an audience Q&A.
Max Décharné: Teddy Boys
Musician and author Max Décharné tells the story of Britain’s first youth counterculture. With their draped suits, suede creepers and immaculately greased hair, the Teds defined a new era for a generation of teenagers raised on a diet of drab clothes, Blitz playgrounds and tinned dinners.
Travis Elborough: Mods and Rockers
It’s over 60 years since fighting broke out on Britain’s beaches between those rival style tribes the mods and rockers, an event that Travis Elborough chronicles in his acclaimed book Wish You Were Here: England on Sea. He will explore the emergence of these contrasting youth cults, one razor sharp smart, the other leather-clad and hairy, and examines just what got them fighting on the beaches just two decades after the war.
Afterwards, in conversation, Max Décharné and Travis Elborough will discuss the shockwaves these youth tribes caused in their eras and what legacy remains of these grassroots working class fashions and the music that set them dancing.
Max Décharné has written about music regularly for Mojo magazine since 1998, prior to which he wrote extensively about film for Neon. Décharné is probably one of the only people currently writing about music to have played on BBCTV’s Later… with Jools Holland show, at Madison Square Garden and at the Hollywood Bowl.
Travis Elborough is the Shoreham-born author of many books, including Wish You Were Here: England on Sea, The Long-Player Goodbye, Through the Looking Glasses: The Spectacular Life of Spectacles and Atlas of Vanishing Places, winner of Edward Stanford Travel Book Award in 2020. He is described by the Guardian as ‘one of the country’s finest pop culture historians’.
Dress code: DA, drainpipes, drape coat, brothel-creepers, slim-jim tie, flick-knife/comb.
Ivor Cutler, Brian Eno on Clarinet, David Bramwell and Jane Bom-Bane
Entertaining Talks on Outsider Music with David Bramwell
(Plus a song or two from David and Jane Bom-Bane)
Why did the world’s worst orchestra split up at the peak of their powers? Who were they? Why did Brian Eno join them on clarinet? Did they really shock the classical world and get banned from the airwaves, despite a Top 20 hit?
This entertaining and thought-provoking talk uncovers the group’s unique history, offers (hilarious) recordings and rare film footage and asks Zappa’s famous question: does humour belong in music?
Poet and musician Ivor Cutler is best-known for his funny, surreal and bittersweet poems and songs. He was also interested in silence, Zen philosophy and nonsense. A lifelong fan of Cutler’s work, in 2018 David presented Ivor Cutler at 90 as a BBC R4 Archive on Four and has twice performed onstage with Ivor’s partner Phyllis King. In this second talk David explore’s what made this dour Scotsman such a unique talent and reveals how his own, strange relationship with Ivor led to his being given access to an extensive archive of Cutler’s work. Expect plenty of pregnant pauses, knees pickled in cheese and a harmonium drenched song or two at the end from David and Jane.