Hi, welcome to another Urban Spaceman. Thanks for sticking with me! This is going to be more of a traditional newsletter about what I'm up to rather than a think piece, and I'll try to keep it brief. Apologies for only letting you know about things at the last minute, but these days it's often as much as I can do to do the thing, never mind tell everyone about it. And ultimately, doing the thing is what's important.
So, without further ado, the first thing I need to tell you about is a big Festival 23 event happening in Brighton next week. I know, short notice. But if you can make it, I think it'll be worth your while. We're taking over the Rose Hill, a community-focused arts centre / venue / pub on the evening of Friday September 29, from 7pm till midnight for an event called Hot Dog 2: Let's Make It A Hero Sandwich. This is the belated follow-up to an event we did at the same location in 2017, called Is A Hot Dog A Sandwich? There'll be DJs, live music, talks, comedy, installations and performances all crammed into five hours in a 100-capacity space.
Sharing top billing are two music legends who are long-time friends of Festival 23, and it'll be a one-off treat to see them both spinning tunes in such an intimate setting. Kermit Leveridge is best known as a member of Black Grape (alongside Happy Mondays' Shaun Ryder) and before that as part of UK hip-hop pioneers The Ruthless Rap Assassins. More recently he's also been a part of multimedia scene-makers Super Weird Substance. What's perhaps less well-known is that Kermit was actually instrumental in introducing live hip-hop to Brighton 40 years ago, when his teenage breakdancing crew Broken Glass appeared here in 1983, impressing a young Norman Cook among others. We're overjoyed to welcome him back for a rare DJ set.
Our second legend is Richard Norris, whose journey has taken him from post-punk indie musician to chart success with The Grid (alongside Soft Call's Dave Ball). Along the way he worked for seminal psychedelic reissue label Bam Caruso and recorded early UK acid house album Jack The Tab with Genesis P Orridge (Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle) among many other musical adventures and collaborations. I'll be hosting a Q&A with Richard at the start of the evening, discussing his forthcoming memoir Strange Things Are Happening, published by White Rabbit Books early next year. Then Richard will be playing a full DJ set ahead of Kermit later in the night.
But that's not all! Our main live band for the night will be Brighton's very own interstellar space travellers God's Teeth And The Interstellar Tropics. Expect lush, expansive sonic tapestries of shimmering percussion, labyrinthine guitar textures and spectral vocalisations from Dolly Rae Starcore, Karl M V Waugh, and James Parsons. Their 2021 album Solstice can be heard and ordered at bandcamp
Theatre director, writer and actor Daisy Campbell will also be dropping by to say a few words. Daisy's 2014 stage adaptation of Robert Anton Wilson's Cosmic Trigger arguably kicked off the 21st Century Discordian revival, and she's been at the heart of it ever since. We'll have hi-jinks from Tom Baker (not that one) a Discordian Pope, SubGenius Minister and long-standing performer on the London Cabaret Scene. Frontman of The Bohemianauts, sometimes known as The Discordian Accordionist, at other times as HP Lovebox, Tom played Robert Shea, Aleister Crowley and Saul Goodman in Cosmic Trigger and can frequently be found waving his tentacles at bemused audiences up and down the country.
We've also got Thug Witches featuring Puppet Alan Watts, comedian and actor Omar Ibrahim, and Brighton DJ tag team The Heat Goes On keeping the party going all night long. Tickets are just £10 from http://tiny.cc/herosandwich23 or on the door. It'll be great to see you there!
Music Writing
You've got a couple more weeks to grab the current issue of Shindig! (#143) from your local newsagents or record shop. It includes another cover story from me, this time on ground-breaking British record producer Joe Meek, specifically the last few years of his life when he applied his visionary talents to the new wave of mod, R&B and proto-psychedelic guitar bands coming up in 1964-66. Most of these recordings weren't hits, and many weren't even released at the time, but all are worth hearing and prove that Meek had a unique sound that was as suited to harder rocking acts as the haunting ballads and pop instrumentals he's best known for. I also delve into Meek's occult interests at the time, including a surprising link with the so-called Highgate Vampire. You can get it here: https://www.silverbackpublishing.rocks/latest-issue/
One of the best new albums I've heard this year has been the self-titled debut by Abstract Concrete, an experimental supergroup led by drummer Charles Hayward (This Heat) that's surprisingly melodic and structured. They blew me away live as well, at last year's Supernormal Festival, and I spoke to Charles and viola player Agathe Max for The Quietus here:
https://thequietus.com/articles/33406-abstract-concrete-charles-hayward-interview
OK, thanks for reading. I'm currently about a quarter of the way through writing the first draft of my novel American Underground, for anyone who was wondering, and there are a few other things in the pipeline that I'll tell you about at a later date. For now though, keep watching the skies and try not to tread on the cracks.
Ben x