Doors 7.30pm Performances begin 8pm
Tickets: £6 on the door
(please note no credit card facilities will be available on the night)
Author readings, film screening, live music, poetry, & more
Travis Elborough, Lindsay Anderson’s O Dreamland, Karen McLeod, The Vatican Cellars, Benedict Newbery, hosted by Guy Sangster Adams
Returning from a seaside summer holiday, the first Plectrum Live Edition of the autumn mixes postcards from the promenade and the view into the fairground fortune teller’s crystal ball, with fresh perspectives on the sights and sounds of London, to present an evening of author readings, film screening, live music, poetry, and more with Travis Elborough, Lindsay Anderson’s O Dreamland, Karen McLeod, The Vatican Cellars, and Benedict Newbery, hosted by Guy Sangster Adams.
Travis Elborough presents a vinyl accompanied reading from his latest book, Wish You Were Here: England on Sea (Sceptre), a cultural history of the English seaside, which was published earlier this summer to great acclaim:
‘Elborough is an English nostalgist in the mode of John Betjeman […] and as a cultural commentator he is a terrific companion.’ - Sunday Times
‘Elborough proves an erudite and entertaining guide, combining the keen
eye of a social historian with the lapidary prose of a fine journalist.’ - FT
‘In this brilliant book, Travis Elborough does a wonderful job of analysing the history of our masochistic love affair with the seaside.’ - Mail On Sunday
O Dreamland (screening by arrangement with the BFI). An early short film by the highly influential British director, Lindsay Anderson, which explores the Dreamland funfair in Margate on the Kent coast. Originally filmed in 1953, the film was first screened in 1956 at the inaugural programme of the Free Cinema movement.
Karen McLeod author, cabaret performer, and recently retired air stewardess, reads from her London and Brighton set debut novel, In Search of the Missing Eyelash (Vintage), which won a Betty Trask Award, and has been critically acclaimed:
‘A marvellous debut: quirky, honest, funny and sad. I loved it.’ - Sarah Waters
‘I loved it. A brilliant mix of the poetic and the comic, a quirky novel that also explores how we can become undone through love.’ - Jackie Kay, Books of the Year, The Guardian
The Vatican Cellars play an acoustic set, celebrating the release of Bitter Plans the first single taken from their new album, The Same Crooked Worm, which will follow in November; both are released by Where It’s At Is Where You Are Records. As The Vatican Cellars say, “Bright summer days are all very jolly but it’s in the thrill of the night time that adventures really happen. As the year starts to turn it’s time to leave behind the hey diddle diddle of cider-tinged, hanky-waving frivolity and wrap up warm with folk that’s a little bit darker, folk that’s bitten it’s lip and tasted blood, folk noir.”
Benedict Newbery reading a selection of his poems exploring both the seaside and London. Newbery’s poems have been published in Magma, Succour, the delinquent, South Bank Poetry, Carillon and Plectrum - The Cultural Pick. The film of his poem, Cul de Sac, which he storyboarded and co-directed with animator Sandra Salter, was shortlisted for the 2008 ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival, Berlin.
Guy Sangster Adams hosting the evening and performing a spoken word and performance poetry set. Sangster Adams is the editor of Plectrum – The Cultural Pick, a multi-platform arts magazine with a bi-monthly print edition, whilst www.theculturalpick.com is home to the webzine edition which has a stand alone content from the print edition, primarily focusing on reviews and previews. In addition there are regular Plectrum Live Edition events which mix spoken word, author readings, live music, screenings, fashion shows, art, and more.
