More news from nowhere
My weekly newsletter is back! Did you miss me?
Hello! I’ve been quiet on the ol’ newsletter for a few weeks while I get Indie Brighton off the ground.
The weekly newsletter is going well so far. It turns out I’m not the only person who misses easy-to-read, editorially curated cultural listings. The next step is to actually live in the city I’m writing about (working on it).
For this week’s newsletter I interviewed Mr Simon Topping, a lovely man who puts on Brighton’s best alternative comedy night. We met up and talked about this, that, and the other. I especially enjoyed hearing how he came up with the character of Leslie Bloom1. The way she emerged reminded me of my recent songwriting joys and trials.
With Simon, you get the impression Leslie was always in there somewhere. She just needed to be let out. Similarly, I’ve realised there are songs I have to get out of my system, warts and all, before the new ones can emerge.
This Machine Kills Wasps with Coal Porters
I’ve been so lucky with my bookings for Wasps this year2. Brighton’s only alternative music AND comedy night has become a very special thing. It’s beautiful chaos, and is therefore working pretty much how I wanted it to.
Last month, stood at the back of the room, seeing some fans of a young blues-rock band slowly get Mark Silcox’s unique brand of anti-comedy - it made me so happy. This was the plan all along, even if I might not have realised it at the time.
December 4th is the last show of the year and possibly the last one til spring. I’m going to keep Wasps sporadic to keep it special - and I already know who’s going to headline the next one3.
And to finish off 2024 in style, feast your eyes on this preposterously beautiful lineup, and do buy tickets if you fancy coming. This is sure to sell out.
Next Level Sketch Comedy is five years old
Five years ago this month, a bunch of aspirant sketch comedy writers gathered upstairs of an old community centre just off Brick Lane.
Two of us - myself, and Mr Euan Brown - had decided to put on our own regular sketch comedy night, and we’d arranged the meeting to see if anyone else fancied joining us in writing and performing the thing.
We lured the BBC’s Gemma Arrowsmith - our sketch comedy course tutor - along, to lead the meeting and to prove that we meant it.
People did indeed turn up. Gemma started things off, but after she snuck away, we kept on pitching and sharing ideas, and offering feedback, and jokes, and laughter.
In the pub afterwards, I remember, turning to Euan and saying “my god - we’ve done a thing. This is actually going to happen.”
It did. And January 30th 2025 is five years to the day since our first show.
I fought the hate and the hate won
Like a lot of you, I’ve been struggling with the US election result. And yet I had assumed Trump would win, and had seen nothing to change my mind since the disastrous Biden debate.
To paraphrase one writer, Trump offered hate, and the Democrats offered nothing. And hate won.
And even this isn’t quite true. I’ve seen the Harris ads targeted at American voters in swing states. And it was all: we’ll secure the border. We’ll give the police more money than they’ll even know what to do with. And hey, did you know our Vice President owns a gun? It’s a glock. She likes firing it, it makes her feel good. Bang!
It was all fought on the Republican’s turf (and, indeed, TERF). All this stuff about the Democrats being too “woke” is nonsense, a media creation, and one designed to push them yet further right before the next election.
It’s also interesting to compare the Democrats to Labour, some of whose own staff members got into trouble for heading over to canvass for Harris in their spare time.
There are similarities. Both parties were offering continuity neoliberalism at home and continuity genocide abroad, though one from a position of incumbency and one from a position of “change”.
The Tories had imploded, giving Labour room to offer more progressive policies they truly believed in if they wanted to, the only problem being… there aren’t any.
Meanwhile Harris couldn’t separate herself from Biden, and her many dire warnings about Trump - many of which are true - fell on deaf ears with voters more concerned with decades of stagnating wages than more abstract conceits like the survival of democracy.
Oh, and racism, of course. Lots of racism.
Trump’s election is awful enough on its own terms, but I can’t help thinking ahead to five years’ time. Starmer continues to manage the country’s decline in a manner sensible enough to be approved of by the establishment centre… for now.
The poor get poorer, and migrants and foreigners continue to be useful scapegoats. And at the next election, a populist leader with half a personality takes over the Tory rump claiming he wants to make Britain great again…
It’s socialism or barbarism, friends.
This stayed with me: “Leslie always has a point of view on everything, whereas I am so on the fence with so many things.” An excellent reason to perform as a character, rather than an exaggerated version of yourself!
Jason Pegg! Shelf! Coal Porters! And wow the emergence of my very own band with lovely humans. Job’s a good’un.
They’re not famous, but they are wonderful - and I’ve lured them out of retirement for one night only…