A development of 29 new council homes at Hobby Place in Whitehawk has been officially opened.
HOBBY Place is the latest development completed in the New Homes for Neighbourhoods building programme, which is building new council homes across the city.
Residents joined Councillor Anne Meadows, chair of the Housing and New Homes Committee, at the opening event.
So far, 173 homes have been completed on eleven empty or underused council-owned sites across the city, including:
♦ 57 flats at Kite Place in Whitehawk
♦ 45 flats at Brooke Mead Extra Care scheme in Brighton
♦ 8 homes at Salehurst Close in Hollingdean
Construction work is also underway on 12 homes in Kensington Street in the North Laine, work will start next year on 30 flats in Selsfield Drive, Brighton, and more schemes are in the pipeline.
Cllr Anne Meadows
Councillor Meadows said:“We’re working hard to provide more council housing in the city, and it’s great to see people settling into the new flats at Hobby Place.
“The homes have transformed a site which stood empty for years, and they are right on the doorstep of local amenities including the school, library, and children’s centre.”
For more information about the council’s New Homes for Neighbourhoods developments, click here:
Davina Sparkle hosts an afternoon of fun, laughter and entertainment at the Rottingdean Club to raise funds for the Rainbow Fund on Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019 from noon – 6pm.
DAVINA will be joined by surprise guest performers all afternoon and a free buffet will be provided.
The theme will be Mad Hatters Tea Party, so go as The March Hare, The Caterpillar, or Alice herself maybe? It is all a bit of camp fun and hopefully the weather will hold out too so that the beautiful garden can be used.
All monies raised from tickets and collections on the day will go to The Rainbow Fund who give grants to local LGBT+/HIV organisations that deliver effective front line services to LGBT+ people in the city.
Organisations receiving grants totalling £146,481 from the Rainbow Fund in October, 2018 included: Brighton & Hove Sea Serpents, Rainbow Families, My Genderation, MenTalkHealth, Peer Action, Older and Out, Longhill School LGBTU group, Marlborough CIC QTIPOC project, Sussex Beacon, The Rainbow Chorus, Lunch Positive, MindOut, Clare Project, Switchboard, Allsort Youth Project, The Brighton and Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum.
You get your tickets by making a donation via the ticket link here:
With her breathtaking performance at The Brighton dome just last week, we take a deeper look at the virtuoso’s fabulous new album Not too far away.
A WEEK AGO, something magnificent happened. Legendary MBE and Ivor Novello award winning musician Joan Armatrading bared her soul to the stages of Brighton. Clasping her guitar, the acclaimed singer songwriter bled the entirety of her latest album Not too far away to the awestruck audience in the Brighton Dome. And, with the wonderful solo renditions of her newest tracks still wriggling in our heads, we take a closer look at the songstress’ 21st album.
Straight away the hearty, uplifting, I like it when we’re together opens the gateway into an acoustic world of wonder. Delicate guitar melodies waltz around the Grammy nominee’s Contralto hum, leaving just enough room for subtle tinges of reverb to enter in, as her follow up to 2013’s jazz infused album Starlight kicks in. Luscious bass riffs interweave with the jangling guitar, bringing us a happier side to Joan’s usually melancholic material.
And these luscious guitars seem to find themselves into yet another brightly euphoric track, once the, now fan-Favourite, This Is Not That comes into play. Adopting breezy piano trills, and jumping guitar chords that bob around each on-beat, the lively song overflows with effervescence. Even Joan’s syncopated calls carry an undeniable sense of bliss. But it’s not too long before the smiling guitars and charming tambourine whispers fade into tears of sorrow.
“Misery is my companion,” cries Joan, broken and weary, as the heavy piano chords that surround her become engulfed by their own puddles of reverb and sadness. Bawling almost, the haunting notes of third track No more pain greatly juxtoposes the warm lovestruck poetry of tracks like I like it when we’re together, opting to instead lend the stage to feelings of pain and heart-tearing misery. The solemn track is the only one of the collection that keeps strictly to a piano to tell its woeful tale, avoiding even a hint of the rhythmic glee present across the rest of the album. And it’s a nice palette cleanser of sorts, allowing us to recover from the somewhat repetitive onslaught of guitar jingles and tambourine shakes present across the rest of the album.
Soon after No more pain‘s perfect mirror of desolation, Joan introduces us to a different chapter of pain. With the thudding bass notes and excited clicking drums of second track Still Waters, Joan traces through bitter-sweet memories, masking any inclination of agony with a fast-paced toe tapping beat. And this is something Joan seems to master more than once, dressing up any affliction in fourth track Cover my eyes with sparkling twangs of acoustic guitar.
Produced, programmed, and composed by the singer herself, the album showcases what Joan does best – a combination of heartbreak and deep love sickness, all with an organic home-grown appeal of her solo tour. From the darker solemn halcyon of Always in my dreams, to the delightful passion and golden charm of This is not that, Joan crafts a wonderful juxtaposition of emotion, all the while keeping her infamously beautiful lyricsm. Unlike her 2013 trilogy of albums This Charming Life, Starlight, and Into The Blues, her latest isn’t at all genre based, but rather a story of love read from cover to cover with all of its glory and intense heart-break underlined. And it is a story that will indeed resonate, with its catchy hooks and earworm style melodies.
If the world ever ended, there’d always be Lydia L’Scabies – scuttler of West Street pavements and recipient of many unfortunate sounding diseases.
Image by Jack Ball
GRAHAM Robson caught up with the self-styled mite-ridden slag and Queen of Flea to chat drag politics, skin complaints and the queer scene…
Where did the idea of Lydia crawl from? She was initially inspired by the wonderful squawking and yacking gals of West Street, Brighton. I’ve always considered drag to be a critical reflection on the current culture (depending when the act started) and I wanted to represent that. I’ve always been motivated to parody the expectations of women in today’s culture, so making a female character that is unapologetically ‘slaggy’ (reclaiming that gorgeous slur), who literally has bugs crawling all over her face and sparkling weeping rashes behind her knees, in her hairline and in-between her fingers, was the perfect satirical response to that.
Scratch that! What’s her story? Lydia can be anything from hilarious to horrifying! I have a few signature acts that are quintessentially Lydia: What The Word Crabs Means To Me, Never Been A Bad Girl, You Ruin Me. Outside of that I do many character acts (Hermione Granger, Britney Spears, Theresa May, Marge Simpson to name a few), all carefully considered as they inform Lydia’s existence one way or another, particularly my Austin Powers Fembot homage which is as ‘sexually threatening’ as Lydia, I’d say.
And what’s your favourite? Theresa was a lot of fun to make, matching her with a Roald Dahl The Witches narrative was such a joy to do – it’s a beloved film of mine and still chills me to this day. But my favourite is probably Hermione Granger from Harry Potter – it’s always nice picking on people using her preadolescent sass.
How do you get into character? Totally depends on the character! Most of the time I just have fun with it, but sometimes it can be intense. Me and Alfie Ordinary were booked in Bristol to do a ’Silver Factory’ Andy Warhol themed night, in which we’d both appear as Andy and Edie Sedgwick. As it was a walkabout performance, I did a lot of homework on Edie and went a bit mad trying to replicate her and her more tragic elements – I think I barely ate on the day so I was already a bit lightheaded and not all there, I was desperately smiling around the club asking everyone if “they’d seen Andy anywhere”, when I’d find him he wouldn’t say a word to me and walk off. IT WAS A JOURNEY TO SAY THE LEAST!
What can we expect in your company? This completely depends on where you catch me! At The Powder Room we usually make new material all the time, which will anything upbeat fun and always a bit dense. Other shows I could be doing anything from being a ‘dumb slag’, your worst nightmare, or something utterly revolting to a song you know and love.
Do you get up as Lydia or Alex in the morning? I think I’d have a complete nervous collapse if I woke up and saw Lydia in the mirror! I’m Alex by day, and the Mr (Miss) Hyde that is Lydia by night.
What inspires you? I love female characters with a bit of malice. I’m really inspired by blonde villains and vixens, anything from Jennifer Tilly in Bride of Chucky, Anjelica Pickles, Regina George, Velma Von Tussle (sans casual racism), Cathy Moriarty in Casper, and Bernadette Peters in Annie.
Dream party guests – alive or dead? Amy Winehouse, Marilyn Monroe, and Boris Karloff – definitely. Amy and Marilyn would bring the party, and Boris I owe everything for my initial love of horror – the flat-headed daddy that is Frankenstein’s Monster.
Should drag be political? For me, drag is political from the get go, challenging what is perceived of gender norms through anyone’s chosen way of expression is already socially engaged and political, I’d say. I’ve done some acts that present a critique on something, may it be today’s internet culture, the expectations of women, slut shame to name a few, but first an foremost it has to be accessible and entertaining.
Is the scene in good health? Absolutely, I’d say it’s changed and developed a lot and there’s a lot going on now, which is lovely to see. Everyone has their places to be and everyone’s welcome to visit. I’ve a new love for the trad scene having played Charles Street Tap and visited many a night with my darling Alfie – working on contemporary stuff is great but reminding ourselves of the local roots is always lovely.
Anywhere exciting you can recommend? I’ve heard there’s a new sexy night going on at Pop Vault on November 4. It’s called POLYGLAMOROUS. I may or may not be involved with some other local creative titans I call my near and dear.
Tell us a bit about your act Cinebra… Like cinema, but with a bra – making it movie themed drag, started out with mine and Rococo Chanel’s first character duo, Sophie and Megan, two socially unfortunate college students with a mutual love of movies.
The first full length show Ro and I wrote together (music by her, script by me) is called A History of Horror which is an original horror comedy musical following the format of a Powerpoint presentation with a terrifying twist.
For our second show, under the Cinebra name, we moved on to (ex) movie stars Glenda and Rita – two golden era actresses who don’t get work anymore because they are physically black and white in a technicolour world. The show premiered at this year’s Fringe, and we can’t wait to do it again! (@wereallylikemovies on Instagram)
Where next for Lydia? I’m content with what I’ve achieved so far, and I’m enjoying every new adventure. I would love to write a solo show for the new year though, and maybe build some material to translate into live sets as a solo, we shall see!
MORE INFO: Instagram: lydialscabies Facebook: Lydia L’Scabies Twitter: LydiaLScabies
Series four of Mrs Moore’s Bona Balls Up Bingo at Charles Street Tap came to an end after a twelve week run on Wednesday, September 26.
DURING the run Charles Street raised £500 in cash from the pool of balls round which was match funded by Global Corporate Ltd., bringing the running total raised by Bona Balls Up Bingo for THT South to £2,000
BAGS of Help is run in partnership with environmental charity Groundwork, and sees grants raised from the sale of plastic carrier bags awarded to thousands of local community projects every year.
Since launching in 2015, the scene has provided more than £60 million to over 18,000 local community projects.
Switchboard will be putting the £2,000 towards their helpline service to enable then to train more volunteers so that more LGBT+ people can be supported through the helpline.
Switchboard’s helpline is operated entirely by LGBT+ volunteers who provide support to communities by creating a space where people can talk confidentially and anonymously about anything that’s on their mind.
They support people with a range of questions, whether you are looking for information and support, or just need someone to talk to.
Daniel Cheesman
Daniel Cheesman, Switchboard’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “Thank you to all those who voted for us and to Tesco and Groundwork for supporting and shortlisting us to participate in this fantastic scheme. The money will help us to support the LGBT+ communites further by enabling us to train more volunteers which will allow us to support more LGBT+ people who contact our helpline, webchat and email service.”
Alec Brown, Tesco’s Head of Community, said: “Bags of Help has been a fantastic success and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from customers. It’s such a special scheme because it’s local people who decide how the money will be spent in their community. We can’t wait to see the projects come to life.”
Voting ran in stores throughout July and August with customers choosing which local project they would like to get the top award using a token given to them at the checkout. Three Brighton based LGBT+ charities were chosen for the months July and August, to coincide with Pride, including Allsorts Youth Project and Terrence Higgins Trust.
Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups each time they shop. Every other month, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions are awarded funding.
Funding is available to community groups and charities looking to fund local projects that bring benefits to their communities.
To nominate a project or organisations, click here:
The Brighton Bear Halloween party – Night of The Living Zombears 2 returns to the wicked depths of Subline tomorrow (Sat, Oct. 27), starting at 10pm – going on until the coffin lids shut.
THE spook-tacular night is always busy with many arriving dressed up in costumes from the bizarre to the wonderful. So let your imagination go wild.
Prizes will be given away for the best dressed zombie including £50 from Moody Bear, Brunch and bubbles for 2 at Trading Post and a Polo shirt from the Sea Serpents rugby team.
There will be free shots of spirits and treats to all those that brave the stairs down into the crypt of Subline.
DJ Screwpulous will be giving you his monster beats, to fling yourselves around the bear pit and keep you banging beyond the veil.
Chair of Brighton Bear Weekend, Graham Munday said:“Subline is the perfect place for a Halloween party and all the ghouls who work there are really supportive especially Steve and Polly which guarantees it is always a wicked night.”
As always Brighton Bear proudly supports The Rainbow Fund who give grants to local LGBT/HIV groups and organisations that deliver effective frontline services to LGBT+ people in the city.
Event: Brighton Bear Halloween party – Night of The Living Zombears 2
Where: Subline, 129 St James’s St, Brighton BN2 1TH
When: Saturday, October 27
Time: from 10pm
Cost: £5 for members and £7 for non-members to the psychokinetic Polly on the door.
Edge Hill University academics challenge the image of ballet by re-creating and queering photos of ageing and fat dancers in The Buttcracker.
RUPTURING the traditional image of thin, heterosexual, athletic, young dancers, Mark Edward and Helen Newall have constructed photos of famous ballets and songs renaming them Gaysell (Gisele), La Sifilis (La Silfide) and Sugar Bum Fairy (Sugar Plum Fairy).
Reader in Dance and Performance, Mark Edward, who appears in the photos in drag, said:“This work is about shifting perceptions, looking at how we see traditional dancers and read the body through a queer and queered lens.
“No-one expects to see a fat, ageing, bearded man on pointe in a tutu. But it’s about disrupting the performance and aesthetics.
“Someone like me would be invisible in a mainstream classical ballet stage production yet I am a trained professional dancer who has worked in the industry for over 20 years. Standing on pointe is highly technical yet it looks effortless.”
Professor of Theatre Praxis, Helen Newall, who constructed, photographed and photoshopped the images and appears in some of the photos as a drag king, added:“I’m interested in how photographs capture reality and often misrepresent it, as well as the performances of identity which people make in front of a camera, something which has gone on from as early as 1839 when the invention of photography was first announced, and Hippolyte Bayard, who was piqued at having been excluded from the announcement, made a hoax self portrait of himself as a drowned man in protest.
“We think the camera never lies, but these photos, the drowned man, the drag queen, Mark on pointe, me as a male ballet dancer, they’re all performances for the camera. Here, we’re looking at the photographic depiction of ballet as a heteronormative micro-performance.”
Mark and Helen are currently curating a selection of photos which they plan to exhibit at arts venues, conferences, festivals, queer events and pop up shows across the country.
The Buttcracker follows on from their previous collaborative exhibition Dying Swans and Dragged up Dames which parodied iconic performance photographs of legendary dancers.
It also forms the basis of a co-written chapter titled ‘The Buttcracker: Dragging Ballet into Queer Places’ focusing on historical drag performance for one of two of Mark’s and Dr Stephen Farrier’s (from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama) drag anthologies due to be published by Bloomsbury in 2019.
Dr Samuel Hall on HIV/AIDS hitting home, and working not only to save lives, but souls.
I’VE been putting off writing this column for a while. Partly, I think, because I always feel like a bit of a fraud when it comes to writing about HIV, which this month’s issue is dedicated to. I feel like a fraud because in the 1980s and 90s I was a bystander, an outsider to the LGBT+ communities. I wasn’t out, I hadn’t transitioned, I saw the rise of HIV infection and deaths from HIV related diseases from the sidelines, as a young doctor working in intensive care, this wasn’t having an impact on my life in any way.
I wasn’t really affected by it, until one day one of my colleagues lay dying in an intensive care bed in front of me during a long hard night shift. Then it hit home. Felt a bit closer. It was a uniquely personal experience of the power of disease, pathology, overcoming medicine. We couldn’t help him, the world hadn’t caught up yet, there was no cure, no holding this at bay. So now, rather than a capable and resilient colleague with whom we had all shared tough shifts, we found ourselves crowded around another patient we couldn’t save, and felt helpless.
Yesterday I worked an out-of-hours GP shift. This is a very different way of working to my usual everyday GP clinic. The out-of-hours is telephone-based, and we try to sort things out over the phone if we can. If that’s not possible, we arrange for people to visit one of the bases that are open in the evenings and on weekends. And if that doesn’t work, we arrange a visit by a roving doctor in a car. Being a GP is hard, but working in the out-of-hours service is even worse. You don’t know the patients; NHS IT means you can’t see their history; you’re geographically miles apart and aren’t able to use facial expression and body language to aid your assessment on the phone. You have to rely on your knowledge, experience and intuition.
Many doctors don’t like working out-of-hours because it’s more risky from a medicolegal standpoint. And it’s the backstop for other healthcare practitioners out there. Nursing home staff, district nurses, carers, pharmacists and paramedics all use the GP service to refer the patients they can’t deal with. We mop up all the difficult and lonely, the forgetful and anxious, the hypochondriacs, the chancers, and the overtly suicidal.
Years ago I wouldn’t have coped with this kind of work. I hid behind the snazzy bling of intensive care and hi-tech anaesthetic equipment. I saved lives no doubt, but doing the kind of work I do now, as a GP, saves souls. There’s a connection to be made, and a doctor is in a privileged position. Patients will trust us and tell us things they can’t say to anyone else. This is never more evident than during an out-of-hours session when you have an interaction with a patient you’ve never met and probably never will. You’re so aware of the potential to say or do something detrimental, you learn to tread carefully and assess the risk of making a mistake, and spend a lot of time ensuring that both you and the patient are safe. Them, from further harm, and yourself from the torture of having got it wrong.
It was in this context then, that I picked up the phone and dialled the number of a young (well, younger than me) man who had earlier called an ambulance. On arrival the crew had assessed him, decided he didn’t need to go to hospital, and passed him on to us for a call later in the day. I woke him up. He wasn’t sober, and he didn’t want to live. This guy had run out of steam for life. As his story unfolded on the phone, I began to feel helpless. He was HIV positive, he’d been assaulted by an intimate partner, and he was addicted to several illegal drugs. He had tried his best to pull himself together, had done some detox, and sought appropriate help. But none of this was enough. Not in the face of such low self-worth. I wondered how much of his poor mental state was due to his HIV status. And what is the connection between this and intimate partner violence, depression, suicide and addictive substance misuse? I felt the pull of the darkness he was living in.
I just wanted this guy to have one thing he could live for. One little speck of hope, of light to focus on so that he could walk away from the temptation to end his life. It wasn’t the first time he’d felt like this, there has been a previous serious suicide attempt in the recent past. He hadn’t succeeded and in some way didn’t want to this time either. That’s why he’d dialled 999. He needed to be saved from himself. He couldn’t trust himself not to take his own life. Anyone who has ever felt this will know just how terrifying it is.
“I just wanted this guy to have one thing he could live for. One little speck of hope, of light to focus on”
Dr Sam Hall
Many of us do know what it feels like to want to leave the planet. To go to sleep and never wake up. Mercifully these feelings do pass, if we can only find a reason to hang on, we can ride the wave of emotional pain and move on with our lives. All I could hope to achieve on the phone yesterday morning was to give this patient enough hope to get though another day. I felt helpless and I was helpless, because nothing changes unless we want it to. Not a single word of mine was going to be enough if he couldn’t find a reason. But he did. We spoke for 20 minutes. I gave him numbers to call for help, he said he wanted to live. For today, anyway, that is enough.
Manchester Pride recruit four new Ambassadors to help spread the word about the work carried out by the LGBT+ charity all year round.
Daniel Brocklebank, Annie Wallace, Lucy Spraggan
SINGER/songwriter and Big Weekend stalwart, Lucy Spraggan has been appointed as an ambassador for the charity this year along with Coronation Street stars, Daniel Brocklebank and Dolly-Rose Campbell, Hollyoaks actress, Annie Wallace who was appointed in late 2017.
Manchester Pride works to enrich and empower LGBT+ people across Greater Manchester, and every year this is supported by the work and commitment given by the charity’s key ambassadors who each have their own unique ability to reach new audiences and connect with different groups within the city’s communities.
2018 marked the 10th year that Lucy Spraggan played The Big Weekend, which takes place every year on August Bank Holiday weekend. The former X Factor star broke the silence at 2017’s Candlelit Vigil and she also spoke to guests about her involvement with the charity at the Manchester Pride Spring Benefit earlier this year.
Lucy said:“I am very excited to be an ambassador for Manchester Pride. I’m so looking forward to getting stuck in with what Manchester Pride is all about, not just for The Big Weekend but all year round. They do such amazing charity work and at the Spring Benefit this year there was a video about helping young people overcome the struggles of being out which, as an LGBT+ person myself, really opened my eyes. Now more than ever I really want to get involved in the charity work that Manchester Pride do.”
Both Dolly-Rose Campbell and Daniel Brocklebank, who play Gemma Winter and Billy Mayhew on the Manchester-based soap, are regulars at Manchester Pride events and have been key supporters of the charity for years. Both have taken part in the parade on the Coronation Street float in recent years and attended the annual Manchester Pride Spring Benefit in May this year.
Dolly-Rose Campbell
Dolly-Rose Campbell said:“I am thrilled to be an ambassador for Manchester Pride. The work that Manchester Pride does throughout the year to engage with and create opportunities for people in Manchester’s LGBT+ community and beyond makes a huge difference to so many people’s lives and I am very much looking forward to getting involved in their fantastic charity work.”
Making history as the first transgender person to play a transgender character in British soap history, Annie Wallace is also a newly appointed for Manchester Pride. The Scottish-born actress has lived in Manchester for a number of years, currently playing headmistress, Sally St Claire in TV soap, Hollyoaks. Having been a regular at Manchester Pride events for several years, alongside her co-star Ross Adams, Annie’s works as a trans activist and LGBT+ supporter makes her a perfect fit as ambassador.
Annie said:“I’ve been involved with Manchester Pride for 18 years and I was honoured to be asked to be an ambassador for the organisation. They are a celebration of all things LGBT+, a support and educational organisation, helping to end ignorance, prejudice and hatred, and a charity that raises so much for the LGBT+ community. Everyone knows the Bank Holiday Weekend celebration, but Pride is about so much more. I look forward to helping where I can, and flying the flag for Manchester Pride!”
Mark Fletcher
Mark Fletcher, CEO of Manchester Pride, said:“We’re so pleased to have been able to appoint Lucy, Daniel, Dolly-Rose and Annie as ambassadors for the charity. They have been huge supporters of ours for such a long time that this was a natural process for us and we can think of no better people to go out there and represent LGBT+ people on behalf of Manchester.”
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