feat. 3

feat.

Flit

Corinne Bailey Rae GoGo Penguin John Carpenter Captain Sensible Sleaford Mods Mexrrissey Super Furry Animals

1

Brighton Dome

feat. 3 Welcome to the third issue of Brighton Dome feat.

feat. is a free music & culture magazine featuring exclusive content, interviews, and photos of some of the contemporary artists that we’re so proud to have gracing the stages of Brighton Dome’s iconic venues.

Much of this content is brought to you straight from our enthusiastic staff.

Brighton Dome boasts a diverse, dynamic team of music lovers, culturebuffs and arts obsessives. From programmers to technicians, front of house to finance, we’re a knowledgeable bunch and you can always find one of us getting nerdy and excited about something going on here. feat. is a way of showing you why we put on the stuff that we do, and why we’re so excited for you to experience the acts that we work hard to bring to Brighton.

If you want to get involved or just share your thoughts about feat. then we’d love to hear from you. Tweet us @brightdome and use the hashtag #feat

Brighton Dome is a multi-arts venue and a registered charity, Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival.

Our Artistic Planning team strive to push boundaries, deliver art for change and bring you the most exciting artists from across the globe. feat. focuses on our contemporary music programme, building on our legacy of musical history – being a concert venue for almost 150 years, hosting musicians from Jimi Hendrix to Beyoncé.

We’d like to thank Rampion Offshore Wind for their year-round support of Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival Music.

2

4

Fli An insight into this exciting new cross art collaboration in the words of Lau’s visionary accordionist Martin Green

8

Corinne Bailey Rae Interview with Grammy Award-winning soul singer-songwriter on her comeback tour

10 Glass Animals Resident reviews Glass Animals’ new album

11

Captain Sensible (The Damned) 5 minutes with the Brighton-based punk hero

12 SPECTRUM Find out more about Brighton Dome & Resident’s regular music showcase of local artists

14 What’s On Pull-out events poster so you don’t miss a gig

16 Resident’s Top 5 Picks of the season from Brighton’s music insitution

17

GoGo Penguin Interview with the Mancunian jazz-electronica trio

20 John Carpenter Preview of the horror master’s visually rich, creepy Live Retrospective is coming to Brighton Dome

22 Sleaford Mods Read up on the genre-defying Nottingham duo ahead of their tour

23 Super Furry Animals The Welsh psychadelic rockers are set to perform their first two albums back to back

24 Mexrrissey Singer and keyboardist of Mexrrissey explains just why Mexico loves Morrissey so much

26 feat.uring Meet our musical staff

27 feat. discounts & more

Fli A visually rich production that explores themes of migration through darkly atmospheric songs and breathtaking stop-motion animation with Martin Green (Lau), Adrian Utley (Portishead), Dominic Aitchison (Mogwai), Becky Unthank (The Unthanks), Adam Holmes and Whiterobot.

Martin Green is well known for musical experimentation as accordionist and composer in electronic folk trio Lau, but now he has taken this to the next level with Flit, a project combining music with stop-motion animation and 3D mapping to produce something greater than the sum of its parts.

(The Unthanks), Adam Holmes and John Smith. BAFTAwinning animators Whiterobot have taken this project to new realms.

The show was well-received when it premiered at Edinburgh International Festival 2016 with three performances, and is coming to Brighton Dome as part of a short UK tour. Green is looking forward to it though jokes that he always feels very badly dressed when he gets off the train at Brighton.

Flit is a collaboration between some of the UK’s most respected musicians.

Conceived by Martin Green, the line-up also includes Portishead’s Adrian Utley and Dominic Aitchison (Mogwai) as the band, with vocals from Becky Unthank

‘It feels like a real band now, a new living entity,’ says Green of the Edinburgh Premiere. ‘It all felt like a whole; I’m delighted. Unfortunately, as musicians we can’t really see it; we can’t really bathe in the glory of the animation.’

4

Photos © Mike Guest

are from Shetland, and who talked about large numbers of people leaving due to increasing pressure of not having enough food.

The inspiration for the music comes from first-hand tales of migration personally collected by Green, who is based near Edinburgh, starting with his own family.

He recorded his grandmother talking about her life – she fled Austria in the 1930s as a Jewish refugee. Green then began to collect other stories, and says that finding interview subjects was not as difficult as one might imagine.

‘What they have got is land masses which have been nearly deserted, that’s the other side of having to leave where you are from,’ says Green. ‘Many moved from Shetland to Canada. It was fascinating to be able to read letters from both sides.’

The creative process was slightly unusual, with Green doing some improvisations at Adrian Utley’s studio in Bristol which he then waded back through before putting together about 25 tunes. These along with the interviews and some stories on the same subject matter, were then sent to a team of songwriters (Anaïs Mitchell, Karine Polwart, Aidan Moffat and Sandy Wright). No one song follows a single narrative however.

‘Once you are looking for something, there are people everywhere,’ he says.

‘One of the things I learned was if you go and find people and tell them you are interested in something they have to say, they talk in such a different way. Even shy people became animated.’

‘Flit doesn’t really tell the stories of those people, it muses around the subject. I think it was perhaps a harder thing

Green also spoke to his wife’s family who

5

for the songwriters than we realised.

Then the songs got to the singers and we changed it all again. Nobody feels a protective ownership of it. That gives you a certain freedom.’

Rather than an album of individual songs therefore, Flit feels more like a single work exploring a theme. In this, Green says, Flit differs from the majority of albums he has made to date.

Green says that while sonically the finished article is similar to his original vision, there were always going to be surprises coming from the songwriting.

‘Sonically, when Adrian Utley and I first talked about doing something with Becky Unthank, we had something in mind that was more synth-based, and what it has ended up as is that it’s more sample-based with more playing than we expected,’ explains Green. ‘The sequence of analogue synthesisers maybe doesn’t fit the more felt timing of how folk musicians phrase songs.’

Working with animators was a new experience for Green, who comes from a pure music background.

‘I spent a long time talking with Whiterobot and about how the feel of it all was going to come out,’ he says.

‘We set some rules together, like there is no direct reference to any time or geographical location. We went through the storyboard and talked about symbols of migration.’

The idea of boxes came up which then developed into brown packaging paper.

The majority of the project used two large rolls of brown paper – everything from the video shoot to the puppet animation made use of the same paper, creating a very distinctive aesthetic.

© Genevieve Stevenson

‘It is still going,’ says Green of the seemingly endless supply of brown paper.

‘It is very comforting, when you are surrounded by it, there’s something remarkably homely about it.’

continue on. I also like working with a crew that’s not pure music.’

‘ The visual effect was always very important. One of the things that we were very keen to do was to find ways of integrating their film and the music, to create a semi-cinematic, semi-live music experience’ One of the things that happened was after we finished making the film we recut it and re-jigged all its bits in a different order, to the music.’

Green reflects that this was probably an unusual approach from Whiterobot’s perspective.

‘They are such narrative filmmakers and it’s possibly quite strange to have somebody change your timeline.

It certainly has fuelled my desire to make shows that are not pure music. I really enjoyed working with filmmakers.

It feels like a huge learning curve that I would like to

The subject matter of Flit could not be more current, but the intention was never to be overtly political.

‘All we set out to do was muse on this topic; I hope it’s not a preachy thing,’ reflects Green. ‘Like everybody else, I would prefer it if more people would agree with me, but that’s not the intention.

It’s not all grim either, that’s one of the things. Migration is presented mostly as a problem right now. The fact that people move around the world does not need to be viewed as a problem. If there is any message, then it’s that. It seems important to present compassion wherever possible.’

Experience Flit at Brighton Dome Concert Hall on Sun 30 Oct See this show for just £10 with special feat. discount. Turn to page 27 for more info.

Interviewed by Hannah Collisson

Flit’s debut at Edinburgh International Festival 2016

7

Brighton Dome

Corinne Bailey Rae The Grammy Award-winning soul singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae shot to fame in 2006 with her self-titled debut. Her follow-up album The Sea was released in 2010, two years after she lost her husband to an accidental overdose. After several years out of the limelight she is back with a genre-defying third album recorded between Leeds and LA. With the release of The Heart Speaks in Whispers was it good to get back to touring? It must have been quite a change of pace after having been out of the spotlight for a while.

fleeting. I also enjoy working as a producer a lot but it is very rigorous and intellectual and technical. Performing is really about following instinct, and that’s really in keeping with The Heart Speaks in Whispers.

It was really good to get back to touring and performing. Being in the studio is not the same as being in front of a live audience and hearing people cheer and clap. It’s such a thrill, and instant feedback.

It’s all about listening to the inner voice, we have inherent wisdom inside of us but we live in a culture where we are educated really early to be rational, and ignore our intuition. There is a lot of chaos in life and the album is really about calming down and reconnecting to nature and responding to our bodies and paying attention to our subconscious and dreams. Most of the writing is about honing in, that way the story or the feeling comes through in a primal or elemental way. I learned a lot, making this record.

In the studio I do my performance, come out of the booth and assess it as a performance. The moment of joy is

What would you say were the main themes of the record?

The album was six years in the making, was there a sense of relief when it was finished?

I’m loving being a performer, meeting people, travelling, flying around the world. There are definitely days when I love just being a writer and playing my guitar and starting seeds of ideas and phases of producing songs. I also love answering all the questions as a producer, mixing and thinking about reverb and delay. I was itching to get that stuff into the world. I kept saying I really wanted it to live. The great thing about being live is that it is different every time.

You worked with a number of musicians on this album including Esperanza Spalding, Marcus Miller and members of the band KING. How did these collaborations come about?

I met Esperanza Spalding and I instantly got on with her, she really likes experimenting with music. She introduced me to a band called KING

8

and connected me to this community of musicians in Los Angeles including James Gadson (Marvin Gaye’s drummer) and bassist Marcus Miller. When I was invited to play and record there I jumped at the chance. We rented a place in the Hills for seven months. That really affected the record; it extended the sound. In some cases, it made for an authentic soul sound, because I was working with people who played with the likes of Curtis Mayfield. It also made the record more experimental. It made me feel like I was on the right track. I am signed to a major record label but the label has always allowed me to be free.

Who were your main musical influences growing up?

I played classical violin as a child and I loved singing but never felt like I had a singing voice as a kid. I knew that my voice had a lot of texture to it. Everything changed when I was introduced to the music of Billie Holiday - the texture in her voice and her conversational style.

I remember hearing Kurt Cobain a year later and hearing those songs that were very conversational and guitar playing that was very simple. Music is such a big part of my life and how I experience the world. I have always made up songs, and the mood of certain songs is in me.

I don’t listen to a lot of music all the time, but it’s in my head a lot.

How well do you know Brighton, what are your impressions of the city?

I love Brighton, I think there’s really a sense of freedom there. I think Brighton is cool because there are so many people who are involved in art and music. I see it as a really idyllic place.

Corinne Bailey Rae plays Brighton Dome Concert Hall on Thu 3 Nov Interviewed by Hannah Collisson

9

Brighton Dome

Resident Reviews

Glass Animals Ahead of their show at Brighton Dome, record shop and our partner on SPECTRUM review the new Glass Animals album, How To Be A Human Being.

A propulsive indie-pop record full of immersive, exotic and outré earworms - in short, this is tropical pop gold.

The Oxford band’s second album is jam-packed with tunes; each song a kaleidoscope of big drums, wavy bass lines, high tempo energy shifts and lyrics that conjure up vivid images from beginning to end. It’s not just a step forward for the band themselves, but a leap forward for big, bold pop music. It’s the sound of summer - think La Roux, Wild Beasts and Boxed In. Glass Animals take to the stage at Brighton Dome, Sat 22 Oct

10

Pick up a copy of How To Be A Human Being from Resident on Kensington Gardens in the North Laine

5 mins with...

© Morat Photography

Captain Sensible ‘This is the last refuge for those who don’t fit in anywhere else’ The Damned have paved the way for punk rock in the UK since the ‘70s. Founding member, true punk hero and adopted Brightonian Captain Sensible talks to feat. ahead of the band’s 40th anniversary performance at Brighton Dome.

probably more public transport knowledge than some local councils I could mention.

I knew I wanted to be a performer when… I saw T. Rex play the Fairfield Halls, Croydon. I was having no luck whatsoever with the ladies and yet this bloke had them throwing themselves at him. I started saving for a guitar that week.

The last song I listened to was… Eleanor by the Turtles.

60s pop still sounds fresh to me.

My favourite song to perform live is… Neat Neat Neat - it’s just a great riff to jam around.

The proudest moment of my career to date was when… my Dad attended his first Damned show and said that, apart from all the swearing he’d quite enjoyed it.

My first public performance took place at… Beulah Heights community festival with early Johnny Moped lineup. We masked our musical ineptitude by claiming we were playing free form jazz.

If I wasn’t performing, I’d probably be… that’s the whole point. I have no other discernible talents. There was no plan ‘b’, it was twang a guitar or bust.

The first gig I went to was… Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch... somewhere in Streatham when I was 10 and had nagged my mum to take me.

People would be surprised to learn that… I was the singer of the TV’s Big Break theme tune - composed by head Womble Mike Batt and recorded in Abbey Road with a live band. Shame the programme is off the telly, I used to enjoy the repeat fees.

The first album I ever bought was… The Rolling Stones’ psychedelic masterpiece Their Satanic Majesties Request - what a way to start a record collection.

The best thing about living in Brighton is… you can be yourself without worrying what everyone else thinks. This is the last refuge for those who don’t fit in anywhere else.

My favourite part of touring is… getting up in the morning and purchasing a day travel pass then riding the town’s local bus, rail and (if they have them) tram network. I’ve been doing that for 40 years now so

Don’t miss four decades of The Damned at Brighton Dome, Thu 24 Nov

11

Brighton Dome

SPECTRUM In association with

SPECTRUM cultivates and supports the vibrant music scene of Brighton & Hove in partnership with Resident. Here Brighton Dome’s Creative Learning Manager Rebecca Fidler explains more about the project.

How did SPECTRUM come about and what are the different elements?

at BYC, who then get free tickets to the headline gig at Brighton Dome. It’s a great way to bring the two creative communities together. Young people at BYC can be inspired by seeing the artist at work, and the artist benefits from the response and ideas coming from the young people.

It began in 2010 when we wanted to give an opportunity for young bands to play in a professional venue – big stage, proper lighting proper sound, and invite all their friends. It was called Young Bands Night.

We wanted to widen it out so we went into partnership with Brighton Source magazine - it became Source New Music. Then it was open to all different acts, all ages, not genre specific. We were also doing seminars for bands that wanted to learn more about the industry.

How do artists become involved with SPECTRUM? We are always looking out for acts and Resident make suggestions. Generally, we’ll be looking for an interesting headline act who’s maybe signed to a smaller label, beginning to tour and already have a good following.

For them it’s an opportunity to invite industry, to hone their show in a professional venue and build their audiences.

Support acts have a chance to gain more exposure and the experience of playing in a professional space.

After Brighton Source closed in 2014 we partnered with Resident and the night became known as SPECTRUM. The live element stayed the same, having our monthly gigs and seminars at Brighton Dome Studio Theatre.

Have there been any particular SPECTRUM highlights?

We added other elements like Residencies and Site and Sound. Site and Sound is an opportunity for bands to make a live artefact somewhere in the venue and take advantage of all the beautiful spaces we have.

Both residency shows have been amazing; Sam Walker and Bunty. Both are original, inventive and passionate artists who brought in stunning visual elements to their work and made the whole venue come alive. It’s great when BYC do their takeovers with younger bands coming up through the ranks. They are always so wild and full of energy. We have done two Record Store Day mini Festivals having 18 acts throughout the day and evening – they have both been pretty spectacular.

What does a residency involve?

Residencies are a chance for an artist who is working in a cross art collaboration, developing their live show.

We have a strong partnership with Brighton Youth Centre (BYC) and offer the chosen artists the opportunity to have two weeks in a space at BYC to explore and develop their ideas. The artist then gets more time in the venue working with our Production team to put together their headline show. The artists have done workshops, jam sessions and special gigs for the young people

Marika Hackman played a couple of times many years ago when we were Young Bands Night, we also got her supporting Madeline Peyroux in Brighton Dome Concert Hall after seeing her fresh and hypnotic talent.

12

Other personal highlights have been Merlin Tonto, Strings of Peace, Olivia Louvel, Soccer 96, Our Girl, just recently Mount Bank… there are so many to mention!

What feedback have you had from participating artists?

It’s the professional experience that the artists appreciate. Having that comfort of being able to be free in what you’re doing on stage, because you can trust that everything is being taken care of. I like to think it’s also a feeling of community as a lot of the bands that play will know each other or if they didn’t before, it’s building that network.

What are the plans for SPECTRUM while Brighton Dome Studio Theatre undergoes refurbishment?

SPECTRUM will continue and you will see it popping up in different or more unusual spaces. We are looking at new ways of using the venue to continue that professional live experience as well as exploring more intimate or site responsive spaces. Like us on facebook or sign up to the Resident or Dome newsletters to be kept up to date with SPECTRUM gigs!

In a band? Contact spectrum@brightondome.org to get involved.

For updates find SPECTRUM on Facebook @BrightonSPECTRUM or sign up to receive the Brighton Dome newsletter.

SPECTRUM is kindly supported by

© James Kendall

‘ It’s that really professional experience that the artists appreciate. Having that comfort of being able to be free in what you’re doing on stage’

Eva Bowen at SPECTRUM Digital Festival Special 2016

14

For new announcements keep an eye on brightondome.org and sign up for on sale emails now

What’s On

Brighton Dome

© Sarah Piantadosi

Sleaford Mods // Mon 31

Flit // Sun 30

Koko Kayinda & the Congo All Stars // Sat 29

ABC // Wed 26

Glass Animals // Sat 22

Jamie Lawson // Fri 21

John Carpenter // Thu 20

Oct

Nov

Black Stone Cherry // Wed 30

The Shires // Tue 29

Jack Garratt // Mon 28

Nigel Kennedy // Fri 25

The Damned // Thu 24

Anderson, Rabin & Wakeman // Wed 15

// Mon 13

Mike and The Mechanics

Crystal Fighters // Mon 14 Passenger // Sat 19 – Sun 20

Mexrrissey // Thu 26

Primal Scream // Wed 14

Super Furry Animals // Tue 13

Dec

KT Tunstall // Thu 10

Corinne Bailey Rae // Thu 3

GoGo Penguin // Wed 2

Bear’s Den // Tue 1

The Stranglers // Tue 28

Mar

Jan

15

Brighton Dome

Resident’s Top 5 John Carpenter

As if you didn’t already know, Resident is Brighton’s home-grown independent record shop in the heart of the North Laine. They’re quite possibly our city’s most dedicated music lovers, so we’ve entrusted co-founders Natasha & Derry to share their top five picks from the Brighton Dome calendar.

When we heard about this show, a wave of excitement rippled around the Residents – it looks like we’re in for a horror-ble night out together in October!

Glass Animals The band’s 2nd album has been on heavy rotation on the Resident stereo since its release, providing a colourful soundtrack to our Summer.

Sleaford Mods What an incredible rise we have witnessed for Nottingham’s wordsmith Jason Williamson & beatmeister Andrew Fearn. They are not mods they are not from Sleaford - but they are, for many (including us), the saviours of the English ranting street-punk tradition.

GoGo Penguin Smart, fresh, minimal jazzelectronica awash with glitchy breakbeats, wandering basslines & skittering melodic piano that sells off the deck everytime we play it.

One to delight fans of Portico Quartet, Polar Bear or Bonobo.

ABC Derry was lucky enough to see ABC play an amazing show at The Brighton Centre when The Lexicon of Love was first released. As it’s still one of the most perfect pop albums of all time, seeing them perform the whole album with full orchestration should be just as magical for him.

Partners with Brighton Dome for SPECTRUM. See p12

16

GoGo Penguin

© Emily Dennison

‘There’s plenty of improvisation in the records but not in the typical jazz sense...

Every component reinforces each other.’

17

Brighton Dome GoGo Penguin are a band apart: performing a singular form of acoustic music (piano, double bass and drums) that’s structurally inspired by the electronica of acts such as Jon Hopkins, Aphex Twin and Death Grips. Pianist Chris Illingworth spoke to Joe Fuller ahead of their November concert, discussing compositional techniques, why they spurn traditional jazz solos and what’s next for the band.

What can the crowd expect from the concert?

Will it be loud or quiet, relaxed or intense?

I think it is going to be a real mixture of those things because we try, in the same way that we make an album, to give a lot of shape to it. You’re taking the audience somewhere, it’s not just random tune after tune or all on one level. The path that you take is what develops, makes it interesting and keeps people engaged. We’re starting to work on some new material at the moment so there might be something that we decide to have a little bit of a trial of. Can’t promise anything!

Could you tell me about the techniques you use to create your songs?

Since v2.0 we’ve been trying new techniques and ideas. For example one of the tracks, Initiate, was written

by Rob completely electronically, there was no piano, bass or drums. I then tried to interpret that and almost arrange it as if it was someone else’s music. That was the approach we had with that track and once we started playing it together we arranged it even further, so that it became something that we made as a trio.

but combine that into the band that we’ve become.

There’s plenty of improvisation in the records but not in the typical jazz sense of one person soloing and other people supporting. We didn’t want to be a band where some people are in supporting roles and another person’s at the front.

We wanted it to be much more that every component reinforces each other.

Your music often has a very distinct melody, whether it’s a bassline or a piano part, which the song then builds around. Did you make a decision to be more pop-y and have more crossover appeal?

Do you jam or improvise on stage or is it generally more constructed than that?

It was just natural. It was more the way we wanted to be as musicians and we’ve ended up being quite lucky that we’ve got this kind of crossover going on in the music so it means it’s a lot more accessible to people.

Not for any reason other than that, we wanted to try and be ourselves and be the individuals that we are,

In classical music, dynamics play a major part in creating an emotional idea in a piece of music. Sometimes in modern jazz bands, that can often be forgotten about: it’s either a ballad played very quietly or

18

© MANOX

Are there plans for a new album or any more live scores like Koyaanisqatsi?

it’s a loud bebop tune or something like that and there’s not a lot of variation. Something we wanted to take from the classical side of things is that you can play the same notes that you played the day before but you might completely change the feel of it with different speeds or different articulation, to take it somewhere new.

We’re hopefully going to be touring Koyaanisqatsi next year which will be really nice. There’s a project we’re doing for Hull City of Culture next year: we’ve been commissioned to write music inspired by a composer called Basil Kirchin for a project called Abstractions of the Industrial North. He lived in Hull for a long time and was seen by people like Brian Eno as being one of the pioneers of ambient and electronic music. It’s hopefully going to be great for us because of new techniques and new ways of working so it could be interesting.

Do you see yourself going along more of a distorted electronic path along the lines of the ending of Smarra?

We use effects live in the gigs and we’re gradually developing it a little bit more. We’re trying some stuff out with the piano soon where we’re using guitar based effects that create unique sounds we haven’t heard before. I might use that as a foundation to start writing some of the new stuff instead of the old ways of writing to see if something new comes out of it. It might be complete rubbish, I don’t know yet!

Brighton Dome are presenting GoGo Penguin at the Attenborough Centre at the University of Sussex on Wed 2 Nov as we begin to transform and redevelop Brighton Dome Corn Exchange.

Returns only.

Words by Joe Fuller

19

Brighton Dome

John Carpenter Horror’s most striking director, composer and performer John Carpenter haunts Brighton Dome this October with his Live Retrospective.

The theme to Halloween (1978) is instantly recognisable – tense, jittering piano paired with low, sinister synths, a sense of dread creeping up the hairs on the back of your neck. It’s synonymous with both horror and one of the genre’s greatest directors, John Carpenter, who in addition to writing, producing and directing the film, also composed its The band very rarely grant interviews, music. and when they do they generally And the inspiration for that statements theme? communicate via collective – The bongos. however, co-founder and guitarist Efrim Menuck and drummer Aidan Girt have No, really – Carpenter has said that the been known to discuss the band when seed of the theme came from learning promoting their other bands (the former its 5/4 time signature on the bongos plays in Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial with his father, a violinist and music Orchestra, the latter in Exhaust). professor.

Notoriously hard to track down, we’ve His musically-versed upbringing scoured the internet for a small handful intertwines with his prodigious film of quotes taken from the small handful career – he’s composed 18 of his own of interviews out there to sum up films, including horrors like The Fog Godspeed You! Black Emperor ‘In Their and Christine, and thrillers such as Own Words…’

Assault on Precinct 13 and Escape from New York. of the band…

On the beginning For most of making those themes, he together would ‘We started this noise simply sit down with the first cut the when we were young and broke of – the film and a synthesiser and would start only thing we knew for sure was that improvising. professional music-writers seemed hopelessly out of touch and nobody Then a few of years ago he decided to gave a shit about the shit we loved see what would happen if he tried to do except for us. Talking about punk rock the same, but without the films. with freelancers, then as now, was like

Lost Themes, released in 2015, and its 2016 follow-up, Lost Themes II, were created along with Carpenter’s son Cody and godson Daniel, and both are filled with the darkly atmospheric music that’s emblematic of the director’s oeuvre.

Critics have praised the albums not for just their synthsoaked ‘80s audio aesthetic but for their ability to conjure the movies within your mind. All you need do to is listen let the music lead imagination and farting at aand fundraiser, a thing thatyour got you kicked out soon you’ll be picturing horrific threat destroying the of the party.’ The Guardian, 2012 world (or Kurt Russell saving it).

On turning down label offers when the band got ‘big’…

While the first album was formed from the group ‘There was a lotand of it.

But theback oneand thingforth I realise now, sending ideas themes between in hindsight, only have to say saw ‘No’the a couple them over theyou internet, the second three ofof times getting before together the wordingoes out. It studio, felt likewhich we were them the same they representing our town andcame we didn’t to shit enjoyed so much the idea aboutwant to take theon that. Jesus, man, when we first started playing regular music on tour. rock clubs, that was a stress for us as a band. Our first John Carpenter: Live Retrospective a mix of exposure to professional rock musicisinfrastructure… classic themes from his films and new from We were appalled and horrified. We songs were worried the Lost Themes albums, performed in inimitable about ending up in situation that we didn’t want to be fashion

by Carpenter in it.’ Clash, 2013 and a full band. Not forgetting his roots, Carpenter pairs the music with a rich On their surprise at winning theclips 2013from Polaris visual experience, including hisMusic films Prize… to accompany their themes.

‘You have to remember that Godspeed's relationship with the Canadian music industry has terrible Whether you’re a fan of his films or justbeen pining for from the beginning. antagonistic from the something just a littleIt's bitbeen creepy, Live Retrospective beginningtosobeit an wasn't unreasonable for us to be like, promises incredible gig.

'We're not going to get this thing. Why would they John Carpenter’s Live Retrospective at Brighton Dome give us this thing?' We said it in our press release: we on Thu 20 Oct feel like orphans in our own country. We feel fairly invisible here.’ Vish Kanna’s Kreative Kontrol podcast, Words by Charlie Hayton 2014

20

21

Brighton Dome

Sleaford Mods Half-sung, half-shouted in his thick Nottingham accent, Williamson’s brilliantly-written lyrics reflect on life for and from the perspective of the working class, the disillusioned and the looked-down-upon. What really makes them work though is that they never seem smugly clever or po-faced, possibly thanks to the sheer force of invective behind them.

Come for an alternative Halloween with Sleaford Mods

The two have dismissed accusations that the swearing in their songs (and even some of their song titles) is gratuitous, telling The Guardian: ‘A lot of the lyrics come from day-to-day conversation at work or pub banter, which can be brutal, but is always funny. I suppose a lot of middle-class people never experience that kind of thing so they think I’m just swearing for the sake of it.’

Sleaford Mods are a band that defy comparison.

They’ve rejected suggestions of being influenced by punk acts like The Fall or Ian Drury, though the same sense of angry dissatisfaction, alienation and grim humour runs through their music.

Even the ‘Mod’ part of their name doesn’t help much – outspoken frontman Jason Williamson told Gigwise in an interview that the subculture ‘doesn’t exist anymore’, and that its foremost figure Paul Weller ‘is too drunk on former glories to realise that he looks daft.’

The word that comes up most often when people describe Sleaford Mods live gigs is ‘visceral’, despite the unassuming figure the pair cut. They play without a live band, but you get the feeling that one would just get in the way. The anger, the authenticity, it’s direct, real, and totally unforgettable.

The band’s music is defined by stripped-down yet gritty punk-inspired beats created by the other member Andrew Fearn – fast, insistent, slightly rave-y drum rhythms and bass lines – underscoring Williamson’s lyrics.

Sleaford Mods play Brighton Dome on Mon 31 Oct Words by Charlie Hayton

22

Super Furry Animals ‘We were a young family and found ourselves parents to two, boisterous albums, suddenly born between 1996 and 1997’ with other commitments and priorities the pace is very different to 20 years ago when they first made a name for themselves.

A nostalgia trip for long-time fans of the Welsh band and a great introduction for latecomers to their music, Super Furry Animals will be performing debut album Fuzzy Logic and its follow up Radiator in full and back to back.

They explain: ‘We were a young family and found ourselves parents to two, boisterous albums, suddenly born between 1996 and 1997. It was our doing; we took full responsibility and endured the sleepless nights.

The time goes so fast and they are all grown up now, old enough to be taken on the road again and let them stay up late.’

The band are celebrating a reissue of Fuzzy Logic and the release of a ‘best of’ album ZOOM! The Best of Super Furry Animals, 1995 – 2016. Super Furry Animals originate from the brit pop era, and yet they defy such easy classification, the music having always veered towards the psychedelic while remaining political at its core.

Whether there are plans to make any new music is a question that currently remains unanswered. The most recent release, was an unofficial anthem for the Welsh football team. The song Bing Bong had been written in 2000 but only released after the team qualified for Euro 2016. If nothing else, this is a sign that it is impossible to predict what the band will come up with next.

Apart, the band members have explored a variety of different projects. For example, lead singer Gruff Rhys’ most recent solo album American Interior was a concept album based on the life of 18th century Welsh explorer John Evans.

All five members have put their various individual projects on the backburner since Super Furry Animals returned to live shows in 2015 after a six-year break. Now

Super Furry Animals play Brighton Dome on Tue 13 Dec Words by Hannah Collisson

23

Mexrrissey Mexico loves Morrissey, and that’s a fact. Now a band from Mexico City has recreated the music of Morrissey and The Smiths. Singer and keyboardist Ceci Bastida explains why Mexrrissey is more than a tribute act.

When did you first discover the music of Morrissey/The Smiths?

When I was a teenager. I grew up in Tijuana, a border city north of Mexico that is next to San Diego. Back then, in Tijuana, everyone listened to radio stations from the US and that’s how I got into a lot of British and American music.

Why do you think Morrissey is so popular in Mexico?

People have been asking that for a long time and the only thing that comes to

mind is the fact that we are people that love melodrama, love stories and songs about love and loss. I think is somehow part of our DNA so when we listened to Morrissey’s music it didn’t feel completely foreign, we somehow feel a connection with what his songs convey.

Have you seen Morrissey/The Smiths perform live?

Never but I might see Morrissey in a couple of months.

How have the musical backgrounds of the band members influenced your interpretation of the songs?

We all have somewhat different musical backgrounds but it all makes sense together. I think our main thing was to adapt music from the streets of Mexico to these songs and somehow they worked really well. There

24

How did you feel visiting Manchester for the first time, where this music was born?

are elements of mariachi and cumbia for example, which is music that we all grew up listening to even if it was unintentional, it’s part of Mexico’s soundtrack.

It was a bit surreal. I was so obsessed with The Smiths when I was younger that being able to be there was pretty amazing.

How would you describe Mexrrissey’s sound?

In a way it feels like a rock band that has adapted a lot of elements from Mexican music. We don’t think of it as a tribute band, we are reimagining these songs, taking them apart and putting them back together while at the same time adding traditional Mexican music to it and Mexican slang to the lyrics as well.

What can the audiences expect from the live show?

In the end we are all having fun and it becomes almost like a party. There’s a lot of energy onstage.

What has the reaction been to your interpretation of the songs from audiences outside of Mexico?

What have been your other musical influences aside from Morrissey?

Very positive. People have been incredibly supportive and their reactions at shows are incredible. I think we are surprised every time we finish a show, it’s just been amazing.

I’ve listened to a lot of things over the years. I think as a teenager I was very influenced by bands like The Clash but I also listened to English Beat, David Bowie, Bob Marley, lots of different artists, it’s hard to name them all.

Mexrrissey is at Brighon Dome Concert Hall on Thu 26 Jan 2017

How did you become involved with Mexrrissey?

See this show for just £10 with special feat. discount.

Turn to page 27 for more info.

Camilo Lara is sort of the mastermind behind this. We’ve been friends for many years and we’ve collaborated a bit in the past. He told me that he wanted to put a band together with different artists from Mexico and wanted to see if I was into it and I said yes immediately.

Interview by Hannah Collisson

25

Brighton Dome

feat.uring Brighton Dome staff make gigs happen in our venue and many make music of their own.

Here are just some of the creative projects by people who work in our dynamic team.

Arif & Jonezy from King Porter Stomp With afro funk horns, dub reggae rhythms, melodic hooks and conscious rap, King Porter Stomp fuse musical genres creating their own refreshingly unique sound. We Are One is an E.P by band member and Brighton Dome crew Arif and fellow Stomper Jonezy to help raise funds for charity projects. Find out more: pledgemusic.com/projects/kingporterstomp

Paul_S From the ICT department, Paul Smith aka Paul_S has been experimenting with music production since ‘97, using old computers, synths and samplers. Starting on the software Fast Tracker 2, making jungle and drum and bass. He has a passion for experimental music production, gigging, collaborating, and encouraging other local artists. You may have noticed him at our SPECTRUM Digital Festival Special (pictured).

Listen here: soundcloud.com/paul_a_smith

Rex Speedway and Thee Fortune Tellers A garage fuzz band made up of our Technicians and Maintenance team have just had their first release on a garage compilation put out by Well Suspect Records.

Find them on Facebook and give them a listen: @Rex-Speedway-and-Thee-Fortune-Tellers.

26

Building for the Future Did you know Brighton Dome Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre are on the threshold of a major restoration?

Major improvements to the Studio Theatre will include balcony seating, a new artists’ creation space, new bar facilities and a café opening out onto New Road.

The transformation of the Corn Exchange will restore and reveal original heritage features of the former Prince Regents’ riding house as well as provide increased capacity seating and a magnificent new Corn Exchange viewing gallery and audience circulation space.

To keep up to date on how our plans are developing and how you can support us build for our future, visit: brightondome.org/our_future

feat. discounts

Get in Touch

As a thank you for picking up a copy we would like to offer you these enviable discounts:

Did you enjoy feat? Let us know by tweeting us @brightdome #feat

£10 tickets to Flit (p.4) using the promo code FEAT

Editor: Florence Salisbury

Design: Jordan Uwins

01273 709709 brightondome

£10 tickets to Mexrrissey (p.24) using the promo code FEAT There are only a limited number of tickets at this price so get in quick.

Music at Brighton Dome is kindly supported by

There is a £2 per order charge.

Additional postage charges (50p or £1.50) apply Cover image: Corinne Bailey Rae

27

brightondome.org brightdome

6 – 28 MAY 2017

KATE TEMPEST Guest Director Wed 15 Feb 2017

Full Programme Announced Thu 16 Feb 2017

Members’ Priority Booking Fri 24 Feb 2017

Public Booking

BECOME A MEMBER Enjoy a week of priority booking on selected Brighton Festival 2017 events and an invite to the Launch with Kate Tempest on 15 Feb Membership starts at £30 a year brightonfestival.org/membership Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival is a registered charity.

No. 249748 Photo © Hayley Louisa Brown

brightonfestival.org