WHEN IT COMES TO CULTURE: Brighton 6 London 0
Brighton – Amazing for years, dived for years and now amazing again.
It’s not just the seagulls smashing London’s Spurs, Arsenal, West Ham and Palace it’s Brighton ‘sea-lebs’ smashing it!!! See what IT is below…
Culture – I wrote this in 1988 when I had no idea what the word culture meant…
Once upon a time Brighton was seen as a ‘very arty’ town. That meant high culture – you know nice architecture, fur coats, nice theatres, which none of us ever went to and expensive jewellery if you did go. In the late sixties things got scruffier – hippies flourished, the town became known as the San Francisco of the UK. There were serious developments in theatre with Steve Berkoff, Brenton and Barker all living here – they changed British drama forever. But who knew in Brighton? (Faynia and Richard from Brighton Theatre knew then and still do as they progressed big festivals and fringes). Poets littered the streets. Most of the population could play the sitar. Grateful Dead albums were provided free on the rates. Time passed and people began to wear platform soles. That led to punk bands who rarely strayed from the dives of the Alhambra or the Resource Centre vaults.
Brighton bands were seen by the outside world as a bunch of toss-pots. Peel and The Piranhas saw the water rising. In 1988 there is a remarkable flowering of the local cultural scene – musically there is the long awaited album of Attaco Decente and we sent Richard Osman out to get the facts.
He’s still getting the facts on Pointless!
I wrote that in 1988 with my colleague Tony Miller in The Punter magazine which became The Latest. Those seminal years of Brighton creatives (we never called them that) made the first steps in developing Music City, Theatre City – whatever you want to call it. We used to joke it was called Project City as nothing ever got finished or recognised! In those days you had to go to London for that. Now practically the whole of London is moving here – or wants to.
London Culture – they think they’re it, we think they’re shit!
Nowadays it seems like everyone is having conversations about culture. My view – skip all that: start a great club like Fatboy Slim or now Ardee are doing, put on a great play or musical, run a great Jazz Festival like New Generation Jazz do, with Cherise and Sara Oschlag, dance your feet off like J P Omari’s Street Funkers, create new dance music like Osaro, form a band – you will be recognised now ESPECIALLY IF YOU’RE NOT FROM LONDON (We make an exception for The Leaning), write a great poem like Aflo, Priss and Jade from Aflo & the Poets, braid some great hair like Stephanie Prior, campaign like Dostoevsky all over Brighton and check out Tristan Sharps’ DreamThinkSpeak in Brighton Festival.
Start calling Brighton Project Completed City. Stop petty arguments. Realise we’re all samesies!
Make sure you watch all my films and buy all my records and all my friends’. Apparently they’re all culture but we don’t know it.
I was told to write 600 words – I can say it in 6
Do it , don’t talk about it.
The IT is culture.
