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Victoria Nangle steps back on to the boards with trepidation.

I haven’t done a gig for a while. There, I’ve said it. I lost my bottle after a few scary shows and thought I’d take a breather, which is not really the best move in the world but was the one I decided to take. Really, I should’ve got back onto the horse and just gigged on through my bad patch and got better with experience. It’s what all the pros say – just keep gigging and you’ll get better. And beside it being a bad move on the front of grim determination, it actually makes you get worse if you take too big a gap. Like riding a bicycle, you never forget how to do it but if you haven’t straddled the saddle for a while your steering’s likely to be more than a little wonky. I’ve lined up an afternoon ride. I’m getting back behind those handlebars and it’s going to be on the nicest cycle path I know.
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Victoria Nangle is finding days off sick are not good for your comedy health and has some tips for scriptwriters…

Whenever I end up watching daytime TV soap Doctors it’s generally because I’ve had to see the doctor. A small irony in life. Another was added on to it, as I coughed and spluttered through my dressing gown hood, when the storyline I caught myself watching featured a stand-up comedian character who takes the gamble and goes out to do a university gig, while still infectious with the chicken pox. This is all despite the pleas of his girlfriend. Halfway through his set he saw the error of his ways and declared his troth to the aforementioned girlfriend, stepping out of his stage persona and walking off stage and out the door, arm in arm with his one true love. Ah. And then as a postscript he gets a call on his answer machine saying that there was a big agent in who loved his new persona and could he do loads more gigs. Happy ever after, right? No!
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Goth-rock legends Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds play the Brighton Centre this week. Nick Aldwinckle spoke to Bad Seeds and Grinderman drummer and frontman of The Vanity Set, Jim Sclavunos

What have you been up to lately?
I’ve been doing a lot of sessions in New York. I have a studio and a friend down in Long Island and we’ve been working with a band called The Bellmer Dolls. They’re named after the Dadaist Hans Bellmer who used to make obscene doll sculptures. I’m about to do a Vanity Set session too. We’ve just finished a US Bad Seeds too, so this is my ‘in-between time’. We played the Hollywood Bowl with Spiritualised and Cat Power on the bill. It was a thrill to play such an iconographic venue. We’re heading to Europe for a tour, playing a few places we haven’t played before.

Do you come to Brighton much?
The last time we were in Brighton was with Grinderman, when we played a secret gig at the King Alfred Centre. It was fun. What’s not to like about Brighton?
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South East Dance have an extraordinary array of films lined up for the 11th Dance for Camera Festival

Award-winning dance performances and world premieres will be screened in Brighton next month as part of the city’s 11th Dance for Camera Festival.
South East Dance, the body behind the festival, has lined up a varied and exciting programme of nearly 50 films, which will be shown over one weekend from Friday 5 to Sunday 7 December.
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