6th February 2012
Illustration by Julie Khan
May Day! May Day!
No, we’re not in distress, we’re just looking forward to
International Labour Day, which brings with it an outbreak of Morris dancing, pagan
sensuality, protest, rain, rave-ups and of course, a Bank Holiday! That’s right, another
mega Monday lie-in and we’re going to need it after Eastern
Electrics.
And we’ve further cause for celebration at Spoonfed Towers this week. We’ve launched an iPhone application which is not just good – it's brilliant – meet the Spoonfed Radar iPhone Application.
Also, we’re running a fistful of great competitions including the chance to meet Beyonce and her l’il sis. As if all that wasn’t enough, Arts Editor Tom has foolishly agreed to clean the fridge – toxic result!
Have a lovely long weekend!
And we’ve further cause for celebration at Spoonfed Towers this week. We’ve launched an iPhone application which is not just good – it's brilliant – meet the Spoonfed Radar iPhone Application.
Also, we’re running a fistful of great competitions including the chance to meet Beyonce and her l’il sis. As if all that wasn’t enough, Arts Editor Tom has foolishly agreed to clean the fridge – toxic result!
Have a lovely long weekend!
Friday 1st
The title for this exhibition comes from the voiceover to a film by
contemporary artist Matthew Buckingham. The full quotation is: 'Everything
has a name, or the potential to be named, but who does the naming when
the unknown is falsely assumed not to exist?' It's a pretty
important and interesting question - one looked at to a greater or
lesser
All sorts of weird and wonderful art forms come together this May and
June at Nettie Horn in an exploration of the theories around the idea
of multiple worlds. David Lewis' Modal Realism theory is one
of the more interesting, but some of the ideas can be found as far back
as Leibniz and even Lucretius. The actual likelihood of these
theories
For the first time in 10 years, the cats behind the absolutely
legendary Heavenly Social parties at Turnmills return to London
clubland. This time, they bring with them a band of merry makers fit for the kings and queens that you are. Trevor
Jackson (aka Playgroup) dishes his high class mix of everything from
hip hop to house via funk, dub and
Z Shed keeps on touching you in all the right places with its bass-face
beat policy - tonight headed up by ghetto bassline monster Baobinga.
This guy is serious. This is an excellent, high octane,
underground party at which you'll hear some swerving, off-centre beats
slung at you by hardened pros through a 20K rig. Better be ready. They've
Saturday 2nd
The Architectural Association presents an exhibition that seeks to
explore the ways in which architecture is exhibited. A mere exercise in
the meta-tastic, or something more meaningful? Well, given
that this show is the result of a collaboration between curator Cedric
Libert and Belgian architect Pierre Hebbelinck, we're placing our bets
on the
World-famous camp extravaganza the Alternative Miss World skips its
dainty way to Camden's Roundhouse for a big old night of fun and
frolics on Saturday May 2nd. This is the 12th outing since
1972 for the event that brought Leigh Bowery to London and has
enchanted such folks as Brian Eno, Zandra Rhodes and David Hockney. Andre
Logan and Ruby Wax
Eastern Electrics secured their position as blinking great with their sell out new year party. This
bank holiday mash up looks set to be equally blinding and early bird
tickets are ONLY £8. That represents stunning value right there. The
line up is simply superb. Justin Martin is a legendary producer and DJ
(Dirtybird) and headlines the Man Make
Sunday 3rd
A super-exciting edition of Communion today.
Firstly there's sets from the excellent Dark Captain Light Captain and Jeremy Warmsley, and, if that's not enough, there's a stint from Sunny Day Sets Fire who not only name-check two of the most amazing emo bands ever, but also make incredible avant-rock.
Captain Picard and Gandalf in a British classic at a huge, comfortable
West End theatre? It sounds like a marketing man's wet dream. In fact,
however, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, as well as being national
treasures, are both thoroughly subversive. What this national tour of Godot
actually represents, is an impish assault on the TV watching
Leeds' favourite after-party starters KeToLoCo make another pilgrimage
down south to service the Ket-hungry people of London with some decent
tunes and an all-round belter of a party.
Today is a bank holiday spesh at the beautifully terraced Light Bar with subterranean ravers turned Manc promoters Micron. They've got a live show from SIS (aka Burak Sar) a Turkish producer whose single 'Standing' was Beatportal's top single of 2008. He's joined by Richie Hawtin's latest M_nus recruit Hobo plus Ilario Alicante - the Italian wonderkid also releasing on excellent house label Cecille. The capacity is only 600 so get on it if you want to get on it. Monday 4th
FREEZE! are a comedy duo made up of Tom Basden (if.comedy 'Best Newcomer' 2008) and legendary comic poet Tim Key. Both have a smattering of awards and nominations between them and make up half of top sketch group Cowards who recently appeared in the self-titled BBC4 series.
Expect songs, sketches, poems and a lot of laughs - these guys are two of the most talented and highly regarded young comics on the circuit.
It seems almost impossible to get from Manhattan's Lower East Side to
the endless mobile phone shops and Greg's bakeries of Nuneaton, but
Youves seemed to have managed it. Sounding like Ex Models soundtracking
a Van Damme movie they throw angular dance shapes about with the best
of them.
Tonight they're playing a free show at the Old Blue Last alongside Data.Select.Party and The Tupolev Ghost. There will be nakedness.
Michael Vaughan - one of the most graceful batsman in world cricket and
the most successful captain in England's Test history - has now turned
his attention to the world of contemporary art.
Apparently inspired by trips round Shoreditch galleries with Ashley Giles (is there no end to that man's talents?) Vaughan has been hitting paint-covered cricket balls at canvasses to produce art. Martina Navratilova pioneered the idea using tennis balls and now Vaughan follows suit. Tuesday 5th
Using a menagerie of voices and cheap instruments, The Ukulele
Orchestra of Great Britain elicits emotion and thought in unexpected
forms and successfully mix highbrow with lowbrow to appeal to an
astonishingly broad audience.
Think Morecambe and Wise, explaining Joseph Beuys’ 'Desert Island Discs'.
Winner of the 2007 if.comedy awards, Brendon Burns previews his new show at the Soho from Tuesday to Saturday this week.
The title of the show An Hour of Bullshit with Jokes and Shit may sound base enough but don't let that fool you. Burns may be renowned for being a controversial comic (he handed out enough mushrooms at the Glastonbury festival to get a thousand people high because Bill Hicks and John Lennon talked about it but didn't) but there is a blistering amount of truth in most of the things he says and a very sharp mind working behind the smoke and mirrors obscenities. Wednesday 6th
The press release for the ICA's month-long season Talk Show
begins by saying that 'the ICA has long been a site for heated exchange
through conversation, oration and performative speech'.
Damn right! When Spoonfed's Arts Editor was last there, middle-aged Russian performance artist Alexander Brener interrupted a lecture by doing a poo into his hand and plonking it into the glass of one of the speakers. (You can read all about it here.)
Controversial. There's no other word for a play about the Jamie Bulger
killing. Using verbatim technique, i.e. splicing together of real
testimonies and transcripts, this show pieces together the events of
that dreadful day from the perspective of the two children under police
interview, and their mothers.
Monsters has already been acclaimed and reviled in equal measure in Denmark (originally written for Danes by Niklas Radstrom, it is here translated by Gabriella Berggren) but you can only imagine it getting an outing in a daring theatre like the Arcola, and with a bold company. There's sure to be media outrage even though this senseless inter-infant murder took place over 15 years ago.
Another year, another round of ATP 'Don't Look Back' shows, which seem to have this uncanny knack of getting better and better.
Convincing seminal new-wavers Devo to appear at The Forum tonight is no mean feat, but getting them to perform their 1977 album, 'Q: Are We Not Men? A:We Are Devo!' in a one-off show is a stroke of genius. One of the first albums to use synthesisers, 'Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!' was a touch-paper for the electronic new wave movement of the 1980s, and its dada-esque satire on the unthinking, submissively mechanical US mindset has become a cult icon since its 1978 release. Thursday 7th
Timothy West plays a father fighting to clear the name of his son in
this lavish period version of Terence Rattigan's 1941 play, based on a
real incident that made headlines in 1908.
The Winslow Boy follows a family's attempts to overturn the conviction for theft of their youngest boy, a stain which would have ruined the whole family. It has one of the most devastating legal cross-examinations in theatre, but also offered an acute insight into how love and solidarity can flourish even in the most repressed, stiff-upper-lip middle class English families.
An unmissable night for fans of dubby house and techno, three legends
of the Berlin scene grace Plastic People's thumping soundsystem for a
night of deep beats plucked straight from underground canon.
The
prospect of seeing Mark Ernestus (one half of dub techno godfathers
Rhythm & Sound/Basic Channel), Sleeparchive (one of Berlin's best
techno producers) and DJ Pete (Tresor legend and current Berghain
resident) under one roof is almost too much to handle. Get your tickets
quick!
Friday 8th
You know when you were a kid on bonfire night and used to try and write
your name in the air with a sparkler? Well, that's kind of like what
Joe Madeira does.
The designer and photographer uses all sorts of light producing devices - LEDs, bike headlights, glowsticks and even keyring torches - in order to, as it were, draw with light. The resulting images really do look amazing and this May, as part of the Wandsworth Arts Festival, he has a solo show at The Old Sweet Shop.
It's been three long years since the French Revolution began at 93 Feet
East and their work is still not done. It seems that you thick-headed
Rosbifs aren't getting the message that French music is amazing, so
they're back with another three bands.
This time they're taking no chances and have jetted over an amazing line-up headlined by hardhitting indie-rock act Poni Hoax. Perhaps this time we'll get it. Oui, mes amis?
Gipsy Hill Comedy, now held in the Black Sheep bar in Crystal Palace,
is a fortnightly show held every other Friday in an intimate and
comfortable venue.
Tonight there is a fantastic line-up consisting of the eccentric Phil Kay, Hackney Empire New Act of the Year winner Fergus Craig and deadpan cult favourite Stephen Carlin. Hosting the gig will be ace storyteller Terry Saunders. Saturday 9th
Whoopi Goldberg is one of the producers on a feelgood musical version
of her smash hit 1992 movie, which is sure to be one of the biggest
hits of the year. Book early for this one.
Sister Act tells the unlikely but uplifting story of Deloris Van Cartier, a disco club singer who witnesses a gangland shooting and ends up hiding out in a convent under the witness protection programme. There, she rescues the sisters from boredom and revitalises the congregation, and the community, through the power of music. Unfortunately, she also attracts the attention of the mafia and nobody can protect her, except a brave cop and her new best friends.
Holland's house-loving homeboy and supreme producer Laidback Luke plays
a rare set in Matter's main room tonight for Perverted Audio.
His upfront main room sound will be absolutely delicious on Matter's famous sound system. Impressive back up in the shape of hot-property techy duo of the moment Filth and Splendour, Kanio and Kids of Funk. Sunday 10th
Factory Theatre are the most innovative, daring team producing
regularly in London and this show takes their free-spirited ethos one
step further than the acclaimed Hamlet they put on last year.
This time around, characters and text are interchangeable - effectively, punters pay £10 to see a show which changes every time, and in which nobody knows who they will be, or what their lines are meant to be. Very free form, sometimes slightly haphazard and once or twice a production, not just verging on but actually accomplishing genius. That's the Factory doing Chekov.
The beloved reggae night organised by Soul Jazz Records returns - this time to Cafe 1001 for a monthly showdown.
Today is an all-day affair in honour of the Dub Echoes documentary and compilation on Soul Jazz Records. There's a screening of the film plus a discussion with director Bruno Natal, followed by an evening of the best bone-shaking roots reggae, dancehall and dub from Don Letts and Adrian Sherwood, plus dubstep from Cotti and Cluekid and guests. Next weekGet Spoonfed Elsewhere
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