Monday 13th October 2008 - 18.01 (CET) This afternoon I received an omen so abundantly clear I was almost hurled sideways, Victoria’s words still ringing in my ears, “The chateau is our home, Greg. I refuse to sanction a swarm of insects which could sting our kids to death in their beds.” The line was delivered with Olympian heartlessness. I was extremely shaken, and about … [Read more...]
Last Night in Benidorm
It was 6.30pm. The sky was still bright blue and the terrace of the Queens Hotel still bathed in neon sunshine. With chairs curving together and chunky calves brushing, Martyn and Diane gazed across the hotel skyscrapers towards the dazzlingly clear Mediterranean Sea. “Once more with feeling…” said Diane lifting her cocktail, putting the straw to her lips and taking a lovely … [Read more...]
The Room: Art Versus the American Dream
“Bullshit! This is fucking bullshit!” he yelled, slurping from a Coke can and stomping up and down the line. “Front row. Front row. But no.” He rhymed aggressively. No response - unable to find anyone to engage with his mad ranting, the bonkers chap joined the queue directly behind us and continued his loud conversation with himself. We had all just been kicked out of the … [Read more...]
Brum Brum Baree: A Decidedly Odd Arts Documentary
When we set out to make this documentary in the spring of 2014, we had a pretty good idea how it was going to go. But by the time we finished in autumn, it had turned into something completely different. Instead of making a thought provoking piece on the complex relationship between the arts and the political left… we accidentally made a documentary about Birmingham. This … [Read more...]
Spoz: Brummie Poetry & Alternative Forms of Education
Giovanni Esposito, more commonly known as Spoz, is much more down to earth than any preconceived image of a ‘poet’ you might have. Dressed in a vest and jeans and sporting a dark Mohican, he is an extremely friendly chap with a ready Brummie wit and constant stream of chatty opinion. This is partly because Spoz is a normal bloke, not some lofty artist. Back in 1980, aged 16, … [Read more...]
Oozing Brie Song: Why Won’t He Join My Yearly Cheese Holiday?
Our resident protest singer doesn’t always write songs with a political edge. Stella recently picketed her cheese-dunce of a husband for refusing to join her annual cheese constitutional in France. After five years of refusal, you’d think he might relent and join her for some seeping Reblochon and gum-tingling Saint-Maure de Touraine. Alas no… and Stella is not … [Read more...]
Ballad to Modern Colonials: Don’t be Snooty with the Kenyans
If there is one thing guaranteed to rile our Stella it is the patronising British attitude to the ‘Africans’. “Africa is a continent… not a bloody country!” she begins to wail to ultra-middle-class golf club types up who momentarily glance at their shoes before going back to bragging and brandishing upon the fine exploits of young, trainee doctor, Tarquin. “It is not just a … [Read more...]
Mental Health & the Arts: Overcoming a Double Stigma
It is a widely established fact that the arts can help with a variety of mental health problems... it is also the case that both mental health issues and arts as therapy are still heavily derided throughout our society. In this series for Searchlight Arts, we take a look at some of the people working on the front line of arts therapy, as well as those who have experienced it in … [Read more...]
David Edgar: The Complex Balance between the Arts and the Left
It’s around 5.30pm, the rest of the conference crowd has disappeared off to dinner and we’re sitting in a brightly lit common room with playwright David Edgar. We’ve come up to Northampton University for the 50th anniversary conference of Searchlight Magazine, the anti-fascist, anti-racist publication that Edgar first wrote for back in the 70s. The Birmingham born writer has … [Read more...]
Louis: A Love Story
“Louis, I’m back,” Simon called softly, opening the brown paper bag, removing three newspaper wrapped items and placing them reverently on the envelope-strewn butchers block. Lifting a plastic carrier bag onto the knife-scored surface he set down Champagne, raspberries and a stiff white cardboard cake box. Outside it was sticky hot, but down here was much cooler, the August sun … [Read more...]