By The Rivers, Brixton Hootananny

I’d never been to the Hootananny in Brixton before. From Brixton underground you walk down a road unpromisingly lined with council estates and massive car and textile units. The venue has a peripheral outer gate and a pair of typically truculent bouncers. There are fried food stands in the front garden and a man wants to know if I’m on the weed tonight. Inside the dance area fills up quickly when the first band of the night, By The Rivers, arrives on stage. They deliver a really bright energetic set that has the whole house dancing. When not themselves playing, the wind/brass section of the band do their own little dance in one corner of the stage which is really fun and amusing to watch. The whole band looks so comfortable and happy performing and of course that lifts the audience. A few clips below.

--

Ian McLachlan

Pepe Belmonte involved in serious bike accident - tour cancelled but support event organised for the 16th of April

On 31st March Pepe Belmonte was just about to start off on a tour to launch his critically acclaimed debut album 'The Hermit's Waltz' but was involved in a serious bike accident after being knocked down by a speeding police van.

On Saturday 16th April, he was supposed celebrate the final night of his UK tour. Instead his friends are hosting a very special fundraising night for the Beatroot Rendez-Vous founder who is currently recovering from the accident.

We friends hope to raise some funds to help him do his tour once he's better.

The proposed line up is set to include:

Jenny Lindfors
Benjamin Folke Thomas
Trevor Moss and Hannah Lou
Frank Doody
Jack Day
Trent Miller
Grace Banks
All the Queens Ravens
+ many more!

When: Saturday 16th April 2011

Where: The Betsey Trotwood, 56 Farringdon Road, City of London, EC1R 3BL

Time: 8pm - 11.30pm

Price £4

**Make sure you get there early if you definitely want to get in because we expect it to be packed out!**

News about the crash
http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/cyclist_in_serious_condition_after_crash_with_police_van_in_haggerston_1_848940

http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2011/04/please-send-some-big-vibes-to-pepe-belmonte/

Some early 'The Hermit's Waltz' Reviews
http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2011/03/album-of-the-week-pepe-belmonte-the-hermits-waltz/

http://www.thecamdenstore.co.uk/pepe-belmonte-the-hermits-waltz

Pepe Belmonte

Pepe Belmonte 'Family State Blues' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS5S3MI8GOU&feature=related

Pepe Belmonte 'Mountain With a Moving Peak' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwScnGZ28EE
Pepe Belmonte 'The Hermit's Waltz' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBiHy4ghmOI&feature=related

Pepe Belmonte 'Glory of Love' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV7Xn10S24E

Pepe Belmonte 'Pending on my Mind' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnAM-PLGm_c

Pepe Belmonte 'Mistletoe Kisses' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU14wlcFxWc&feature=player_embedded

For more information about Pepe Belmonte and Beatroot at the Betsey please contact Jody VandenBurg

07793-251-688

jodyvandenburg@mac.com

Patch William at Nambucca

What the hell happened to gig audiences? I’ll come back to this. First time I’d been to Nambucca since the fire that gutted it. The insurance money's created a new spacious look I like. I get a drink and wait for the DJ to stop playing and the bands to start up out back. After a protracted period of this not happening I go round the back to investigate only to find there’s now a separate closed-off room where the bands perform. Who knew? I see a band who don’t do anything for me, wonder if I’ve missed Patch William, the band I’ve come to see. Luckily I haven’t. They do a cool set ending with a really rocking indie tune called Skinny White Boy which I’m considering ditching the camera for in order to dance to. Glancing at the audience they’re as static as hypnotised cult members, apart from two couples in the corner who seem to think they’re attending a barn-dancing contest. To my dismay, the table I’m filming from starts to rock slightly – one attendee’s contribution to the night is a bit of swaying against the furniture. In fairness the audience gives decent verbal feedback. Couple of clips below.

--

Ian McLachlan

Check out PEPE BELMONTE on his 'SUPPORT YOUR INDEPENDENT RECORD STORE' tour !

Brought to you by Beatroot Rendez-Vous, The Support Your Independent Record Store Tour in association with Record Store Day is under orders. Pepe Belmonte - the delightful opening act of our latest event at the Old Queen's Head - will be travelling by camper across the UK playing in-store shows followed by gigs the same evening in local venues supporting local acts.

If he's coming to your town, you should not miss it, if he's not, it's worth the trip!

Here's the schedule:

**APRIL**

7th BRIGHTON
4pm @ Ziggy's Basement, 29 Gloucester Rd &
7pm @ The Latest Music Bar, 14-17 Manchester St,£1/£4

8th BOURNEMOUTH
Red Rose Records, 3 Royal Arcade
Chaplins Cellar Bar, 529 Christchurch, Boscombe

9th YEOVIL
Acorn Music, 3 Glovers Walk

11th BRISTOL
5pm @ Rise Records, 70 Queen's Rd, Clifton &
7pm @Mr. Wolf's, 33 St Stephen's Street

12th STROUD
1-2pm @ Kane's Records, 14 Kendrick St
7pm @ Star Anise, 1 Gloucester Street, £1/£4 (with HERONS and HERMES)

13th FLINT
12-2pm @ Mold Music, 27 New Street
7pm @ Y Pentan, 3 New Street (with local acts)

14th NOTTINGHAM
5pm @ The Music Exchange, 18 West End Arcade7pm @ The Golden Fleece, 105 Mansfield Rd, FREE

16th LONDON
2pm-4pm @ Brill, 27 Exmouth Market
7pm @ The Betsy Trotwood, 56 Farringdon Rd, £1/£4

There is a small door charge at some of the evening shows but collect a magic mystery item at the in-store gig for £1 entry!!!

More info here...

Underground Poetry (UP)

Underground Poetry (UP) is a new movement founded by Nina Ellis that distributes poetry leaflets to London Underground travellers. More information here: http://undergroundpoetry.org/

UP have run three events so far this year (two in London, one in Cambridge) which feature poetry readings and musical performances.

The most recent event was held on 2nd March at Proud Kitchen, Stables Market in Camden. I shot a few clips on my Flip-cam. Here’s Nina Ellis and George Worsley reading poems, and Will Adlard and Benjamin Compston performing together on guitar. Cool.

--

Ian McLachlan

Howl did they manage to make it so boring?

For those of you hoping to see the daring, honest, brutal, sexy, filthy and scandalous on film, choose something else as you will certainly not find it in Howl, tonight, at the Curzon Soho.

Howl is rubbish. But let’s take a closer look. This film is made of scenes of Ginsberg reading Howl, scenes from the obscenity trial, an interview with Ginsberg, and HORRIBLE animation. Aside from the horrible animation, the ingredients for a decent film are there. But at a certain point film makers need to stop and think about how they're doing what they’re doing, who will end up watching it and whether it will work or not. Here it just looks like this wasn't done. Putting together all the ingredients is not enough, you must have some kind of vision, an instinct, something that will make it all gel together - and it should involve the ability to hire a better casting director.

Turning Howl, poem poet and crowd, into a film didn’t work - let's see why.

First of all, this is like being at school, the poem is paraphrased either visually, via horrid animation of people shooting up or mating (heterosexually), or through endless repetition, or – final straw really – through dialogues, literally explaining, in the trial scene, what the words might or might not mean. Surely to find out about Howl, one would have rather read the poem itself, or the relative wikipedia entry.

Second: there are times in which films set to tell stories we already know the end to, like the obscenity trial in this case, but these films generally manage to create some sort of tension, work their magic so even if we know the outcome, we might either put it out of our minds or wish to see how we got there anyway. Not here, this is not a film about the trial, nobody gives a crap about it. This is a film where the trial is thrown in for good measure, no tension is built around it and nothing justifies it even being there. Oh, and did we have to cast Don Draper as Don Draper? Doesn’t the fellow want to try something else for chrissake?

Third and final, third and main: excitement, or the total lack of. If you go and see Howl you are either a Don Draper/Franco fan, or know Howl. If the former, you are dismissed. If the latter, you are expecting at the very least cock and balls, insatiable ecstasy, or both. As on screen Franco fails (was he even trying) to look less like the badly cast unremarkable hotshot he is, and more like Ginsberg reading Howl to an enraptured, galvanised, and adoring crowd, people in the auditorium start to leave or fall asleep.

Snoring.

Really.

This might have been acceptable or even a source of pride for, say, Antonioni or Pasolini, Bergman or Haneke, at times, knowing that this or that film they made was not designed to be immediately accessible to all, but just to an élite; but here?? That such a blood pumping, all shaking, whirlwind of a poem (and of a poet) [and of an era] should be translated so tamely into film that people fell asleep is in itself a certain failure.

All this film needs now is a subtitle, a caption:

‘Howl, by Disney'

‘Howl, was it in fact censored? I can’t remember’.

‘Yawn..’ sorry I meant ‘Howl, soon on a plane near you - for those who fear flying and would rather be asleep’

--

Faye Fornasier

Nutshell Winter Boum, Islington

Family performing at the Nutshell Winter Boum, Sunday 27th February 2011. Much of the ambient noise is provided by Faye yacking away about something or other. The decision to shoot directly at a pillar is an innovative one, but I think artistically it paid off.



Having shot a few clips of Family I then forgot about my flipcam until Faye went up to take a photo of These Furrows, at which point I retrieved it and captured their dying moments on stage. I realise such a short clip is of no use to man or beast and present it here for perusal by amphibians.



Luckily, early on in the evening, I did manage to record a clean audio track of Josh displaying a worrying absence of knowledge about his siblings’ work in our magazine. It wasn’t clear he’d looked at either Kat’s or Alex’s poems in Nutshell 1, and, though he claimed to have read Kat’s story in Nutshell 2, damningly, he then failed to recognise the issue it appeared in. How distressed Josh’s poor mother will be to hear this tale of fraternal impiety I can only imagine. Now I’ve never been one for blackmail. Faye, however, has no such reservations, as one might expect from the national of a country that routinely elects Berlusconi to power, and we’re hoping a financial backer for Nutshell has at last been found.

Never Let Me Go - Film Review

My friend Siobhan and I have started going to the cinema together, there seems to be one implicit condition though, we can only see unbearably depressing films. It's unbearable or nothing. Which is fine, I guess, since we both enjoy that kind of pain, and we seem to bear it all right. Recently she suggested Blue Valentine, then I suggested Never Let Me Go. You can see them both and let me know which one you found to be the most depressing.

First of all, let me admit that prior to watching them I had no idea what they were about. Of Never Let Me Go I knew the cast, and the only reason I suggested it is that I quite fancied seeing pan-faced Keira and pig-faced Carey in action together again. It might be a bad habit but in the past few years I have started deliberately avoiding reading plots and reviews of films I might want to see at the cinema. I am far too put off by genres, so not having a clue what it is that I am about to see makes it easier to actually go and be surprised - sometimes. This doesn’t, of course, explain why I knew nothing of NLMG, since it's based on a novel which I own but i haven't read yet. I won't apologise for that though, I am busy, get over it. It's on the pile of books to read, I keep adding to the pile and keep reading the last book added. I was going to read it at the right moment and the moment hadn't come yet, so, from the poster alone (I don't read back cover plot outlines either) I assumed I would be a coming of age smooch fest, a boarding school version of Pride and Prejudice, only modern and therefore – I hoped – more explicit.

Imagine my surprise seeing Keira play the part of the selfish bitch in what turned out to be a really disturbing story scripted to spin sci-fi on its head and free it from any sci-fi elements bar one, microchip bracelets, a cinematic addition apparently. As it was a Q&A, I had the chance to see that the book lovers had no objection to the filmic rendition, and Ishiguro himself – I hear – is fairly happy with it, as he was consulted every step of the way to make sure everything felt right and nobody got pissed off. The casting worked really well, the children, in particular, were well trained to mimic their adult correspondents; and the Japanese aesthetics were well respected. What annoyed me, I have to say, is the exasperated cinematic cliché of colour representation of emotions. Blue, gray, green and the combination of the three equal sadness and hopelessness. Great, let’s turn this film into the winter installment of a knitting catalogue. In fact, let’s also design our intertitles to match that and turn the film locations ans time placers into knitting chapter openers (Hailsham: child wear, The Cottages: farming housewives, Completion: er... shawls?)

Anyway, enough technicalities, what is the film about? Should you see it? You should read the book first - you should always read the book first unless we're talking of The Girl With the Pearl Earring - but if now is not the right time yet, I'll be happy to spoil it for you. NLMG is the story of three children who meet in a special boarding school for clones who are created and raised for the sole purpose of becoming organ donors in their 20s. As the three protagonists grow up friendship, love and resentment get tangled, until Completion time approaches (death, that is) and they have to let go. The sadness is constant and justified: just like normal humans the clones know their existence will come to an end and hope to postpone it, the difference is that unlike that of most humans, their life will terminate in their prime and they don't get a chance to forget about it. Their desperation is not the raw, uncontrollable one of the replicants in Blade Runner, which is probably why this film didn't do well in the US market. The fact that the characters don't run much, reveals Romaneck, has displeased some critics over there. There is only one run in the film and not much screaming and confrontation; this is down to Romaneck's desire to remain close to the Japanese concept of Yūgen, according to which emotions should be expressed subtly, elegantly, like a small ripple on the surface of a river troubled by very strong, deep undercurrents. Not in the screamy, snotty way we go about things.

Ignore the remark on the overindulgent photography, I recommend this film because it surprised me, and also because not watching films only because Keira Knightley is in them is no longer a good excuse.

Good for you, Keira.

-- Faye Fornasier

Circalit Launch Crime Fiction Competition with Leading Literary Agency

Circalit, the new online hub of the literary world, has just announced a competition to find the next big crime fiction blockbuster with winning entries being submitted to the leading literary agency, A.P. Watt.

Circalit, whose social networking and digital distribution platform aims to bring writers and agents together, are hosting the competition online where the public are able to read all submissions and vote for their favourite novels. The top submissions will be read and considered for representation by A.P. Watt. The competition is free and those wishing to enter must start by creating an account at Circalit and posting their work online.

Raoul Tawadey, founder of Circalit, commented, “There is a wealth of literary talent across the globe, only a fraction of which gets the recognition it deserves. Crowd-sourcing is a great way for the publishing industry to find literature that already has a proven readership. We hope this competition will give talented new writers the opportunity to get their work noticed and demonstrate the power of the internet to create a global talent pool.”

To enter your script please visit www.circalit.com.

About Circalit
Circalit is the world’s premier social networking site for writers. Originally launched in February 2010 as a place where screenwriters can showcase their work to film studios, Circalit is now also home to novelists, playwrights and short story writers across the globe. Its free service allows writers to have their work reviewed by peers and professionals, enter into free writing competitions, create a fan base, make industry contacts and market their work, and apply for professional writing jobs online. Circalit’s mission is to digitise and democratise the way that good literature is discovered by agents, producers and publishers.

Cool For Cats presents the Nutshell Winter Boum

Cool for Cats and Nutshell Magazine team up to bring you the perfect Sunday do. Expect to stuff your belly with the best Sunday roast in town while watching live acts that are the pick of the crop, then the night will escalate both in beat and in heart rates as drinks replace food and it all turns into a massive party… without the hassle of a late night.

Aside music, food and drink there'll be a crafters' couch, and a Nutshell mag corner to keep your hands busy.

The line up includes: The Palpitations, Chapter 24, Microdance, These Furrows, The Inevitable Pinhole Burns, Raven Beats Crow, and Family

FREE ENTRANCE - you can't miss it!

Old Queen’s Head, Essex Road, Sunday 27th February, from 3.30 until night falls