By now I’m sure many of you will have heard about the plight facing Iklectik and their Old Paradise Yard neighbours as they fall foul of a ‘punishment eviction’ by landowners The GSST Foundation, a particularly cretinous version of The Forces of Darkness who in a fit of pique are forcing the entire yard to pack up and leave before the end of the year despite not yet having full permission to put their redevelopment plans for the site into action (spoiler alert: buldozing Lambeth’s oldest school building to build more luxury apartments, quelle surprise). It’s nasty, vindictive and leaves a sour taste in the mouth – not to mention a number of charities, arts organisations and small businesses with nowhere to go, just before Christmas.
Online petitions and a campaign to highlight the huge importance of Iklectik and their neighbours to London’s cultural cache have predictably fallen on indifferent ears – as a friend of mine recently commented ‘London is a city that does not care about the places that make it great’, a sentiment that rings truer every year as more and more small venues and grassroot spaces get cleaved aside to make way for more gleaming blocks of dreary, empty Turbocapitalist investment. Most likely it was ever thus, but speaking as someone who has recently had to vacate two separate South London studio spaces, it does seem to be reaching terminal velocity in the current climate.
On a more positive note, To Have And To Hold is a benefit concert put together by Touch and featuring sets from Howlround, Simon Fisher Turner, Jennifer Lucy Alan and Mark Van Hoen, with all profits going directly to support this most fabulous venue as they face down these challenging times, so please do come down, make a donation and show your support. Tickets can be purchased here and further information about the plight of Old Paradise Yard can be found at savewaterlooparadise.com. Who knows, if we all pull together and make lots of noise, we just might just get a Christmas miracle?
Speaking of ‘The Current Climate’ I shall be returning to Iklectik a week later to perform a Howlround set as part of SPECIES PIRACY, an ‘Anthropocene concert of resurrected species, robot ventriloquists and other ushers of the uncanny’ put together by artist, composer and al-round genius Dr. Amy Cutler. This world premier event will be consist of a live cinema / video synthesis work in response to de-extinction science by Amy and myself with James Holcombe (aka Erewhon) alongside live performances and experimental sets by Sarah Angliss, Murmur Ensemble / Matt Lewis, and Ojon / Jim Hobbs plus a discussion panel with scientists and filmmakers. I can’t reveal too much at this juncture, but for my own part I shall be attempting to recreate the sounds of long dead avian and insect specimens using nothing but magnetic tape, a microphone and – as you can imagine – quite a staggering amount of artistic license. Can’t wait!
In other news, last week marked not only Delia Derbyshire Day, but also the 60th anniversary of the first broadcast of Dr. Who and the recent surfacing of one of the most important bodies of work in her archive – The Inventions For Radio, a series of longform radio pieces created in the 1960s with the writer Barry Bermange, that are now finally available in full remastered form as part of a lavish (and let’s face it, rather pricey) 6LP box set.
In celebration of these milestones, the latest episode of Resonance FM’s FogCast features one of these inventions Amor Dei in its near entirety, almost certainly the first time it has been broadcast on UK radio in half a century. This is about as far out as Delia’s work (and indeed The Radiophonic Workshop in general) ever got and it’s an incredible testament to the BBC that the Third Programme was broadcasting such forward-thinking works all the way back in 1964! The show also includes an extended extract from Delia’s equally magnificent soundtrack to Circle Of Light, an experimental film from 1972 exploring the remarkable photographic works of Pamela Bone (itself finally released to huge acclaim on Trunk Records in 2016). Huge thanks to Delia Derbyshire Day lynchpin Caro C and also Mark Ayres for their help in putting it together. Sadly not available as a podcast, so if you missed it you’d better start digging down the back of the sofa for that spare £200 you could have sworn you left somewhere…
Alongside the usual flurry of events, workshops, performances and the creation of new artworks supervised by Caro and the ever redoubtable Delia Derbyshire Day team, I must give a shout out to Green Croft Arts for putting on the superb ‘TRAILBLAZER’ weekend at The Sill in Northumberland in celebration of both Delia’s legacy and her time living and working in the area. A personal highlight was Sunday’s tape loop workshop, where I finally convinced my 6 year old niece to lend a hand in the creation of a spooky racket. She ended up needing slightly more convincing than I had anticipated. Kids these days, am I right?!!
Robin The Fog 