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Sonorous Solidarity in Action!

Hullabaloo Quire and Grace Petrie wowed a packed audience on Sunday (March 31) night at Sallis Benney Theatre.

THEIR passionate Polyphonic Protest gig saw a sell-out crowd up on their feet joining Grace and the choir singing Fire in Your Heart from Grace’s album, Whatever’s Left.

Hullabaloo Quire’s mission is to celebrate the joyful power of the collective voice and to support positive social change through song.

The choir regularly fundraises for local charities who support the most vulnerable members in society.  After their set, Hullabaloo was joined on stage by Frances Denham from the Clock Tower Sanctuary – a Brighton charity that works directly with socially and financially disadvantaged young people. Frances spoke about the charity’s flexible and holistic approach to supporting those in need. Relying on donations rather than government funding allows them to be flexible and responsive in their work, providing targeted support exactly where and when it is needed.

A total of £340 was donated by the audience on the night, which was made up to £413.55 by Hullabaloo Quire members through a weekly donation pot throughout the term.

“Working with Grace has been so much fun,” says choir member Sarah Gordon “Hullabaloo is all about community and collaboration, singing together to raise awareness of the huge inequality we see all around us, particularly in Brighton. Grace’s music speaks to those issues so clearly, is full of energy and it was a joy to sing them with her.”

Hullabaloo Quire are on Easter break now but will be kicking off their Summer Term in May, leading to Sing for Water Brighton – a benefit gig in aid of the charity Water Aid on Thursday, July 18. They will then be joining forces with 800 other singers for Sing for Water London in September.

Hullabaloo Quire meets weekly during school term at Brighton and Hove High School and welcomes anyone who is keen to be part of a singing community. There is absolutely no need for members to be able to read music or to have any experience of group singing whatsoever.

The choir has a varied repertoire, from pop to punk, baroque to blues, swing to soul and much more; a cornucopia of choral music influenced by global grooves and international rhythms. Through skilled support and guidance, Musical Director Kirsty Martin navigates Hullabaloo singers through the term towards performances of choral excellence!

Hullabaloo Quire’s summer term commences on Monday, May 13 2019 at 6.45pm with three weekly Open Session where all are welcome, no auditions, no experience necessary. It will be a term of thirteen sessions working towards not only a performance with Zu Choir but a trip to Manchester for Street Choirs Festival, and an outing to London for a second Sing for Water event.  Hullabaloo is the perfect choir for those looking for choral adventures alongside community activism.

With flexible term fees on a sliding scale dependent on income, a bursary scheme and a completely open-arm, inclusive welcome, you’d be hard pushed to find a better way to spend a Monday evening!

PANTO REVIEW: Big Dick Whittington @The Phil Starr Pavilion

Take six of Brighton’s top drag queens, two concert and cabaret singers, some excruciating jokes, a ton and a half of innuendo and what have you got ? Brighton’s legendary Alternative Pantomime!

BIZARRELY transported from Christmas to the week before Easter, the show is this year a major feature of the annual B RIGHT ON month of LGBT+ events based at the Phil Starr Pavilion on Victoria Gardens.

And, writer Andrew Stark and director Quintin Young don’t disappoint. From the moment Dave Lynn comes on stage as the world-weary Fairy Vape-Juice in the prologue, you know you’re in for a riotous night of jokes about dicks, pussies, back passages and all manner of other unmentionables.

In this version, Dick, our hero played outrageously camp by singer Jason Lee, wants to be Mayor of Brighton but is thwarted at every turn by the Killer Queen of the Rats, played with delicious evil by David Pollikett (aka Davina Sparkle).

To add extra spice to the evening, all the male characters are ultra camp while the women characters are somewhat on the butch side. So, Allan Jay is delightful as the idiot boy Wicky Woo, a Glaswegian fool with a fearsome green furry ventriloguist’s puppet, Dirty Den, whose filthy mind and uttering give us some very funny moments.

Even the dancing boys are at their campest best – played by Steven Banks, Cameron Beresford-Holland, Matthew Bashir White and Jack Lynn.

If you get the idea that is absurdist. Drama with show tunes, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Jon Hughes (aka Sally Vate ) is the raunchy cook Sara-Lee, complete with 3-tiered cupcakes on her head, and our heroine Alice Fitz-Tightly is a beautifully timed performance delivered by Stephen Richards (aka Lola Lasagne) who has knockout songs throughout the show.

And so we travel from Brighton fun fair, to the Marina and via the ship The Salty Seaman to the court of the Sultan of Gran Canaria. It’s the wonderfully eclectic nature of the show that Act One’s finale can segue from Viva Espana to Les Mis One Day More with ease.

The sea voyage of course is ruined by a shipwreck and we are transported to King Neptune’s underwater kingdom, where the highly queeny king, a lovely cameo from Steven Banks (aka Stephanie Von Clitz) introduces us to his Disney-like underwater sea creatures.

And then there’s the Sultan, played by David Anthony, betrothed to Alice, but much more interested in a dancer boy in his entourage.

Outstanding for me was Miss Jason (Jason Sutton) as Dick’s sidekick pussy, looking like a very bedraggled soloist from Cats – and guess what ? He sings Memory – oh yes he does !

Good of course triumphs over evil and the lovers are joined in matrimony.

As the cast sing in the finale – It’s Not Where You Start It’s Where You Finish and this show finishes on top!

Big Dick runs at the Phil Starr Pavilion, Brighton till April 14.

To book tickets online, click here:

Extra chairs have been added to the auditorium so extra tickets can now be released for all performances.

You can also buy tickets in person at the Phil Starr Pavilion Box Office from volunteers of the Brighton and Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum. from noon each day.

Review by Brian Butler

B RIGHT ON LGBT+ Community Festival: LGBT BAME Drop-In Advocacy Service

As part of the B RIGHT ON LGBT+ Community Festival the Brighton and Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum host an LGBT BAME Drop-In Advocacy Service.

The event is for BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) people affected by hate crime, female genital mutilation (FGM) and honour based violence (HBV).

Discretion Assured

For more info please email: Suchi and Christel at support@lgbt-help.com

If you have any access requirements email access@lgbt-help.com or by call 01273 855620 and select option 4.

The B RIGHT ON LGBT+ Community Festival celebrates LGBT+ history, lives and culture, is organised by the volunteers of the Brighton & Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum. and takes place at the Phil Starr Pavilion – a multi functional, fully accessible, heated performance, conference and community space with a licensed bar located on Victoria Gardens, Brighton.


Event: LGBT BAME – Drop In Advocacy Service

Where: Phil Starr Pavilion, Victoria Gardens, Brighton

When: Sunday, April 7

Time: 11am, – 2pm

Cost: Free

To book a place online, click here:

Vote with Pride for Hastings!

A University of Brighton student leading a vote campaign to win £50,000 for Hastings Pride 2019 – appeals for support.

Natasha Scott
Natasha Scott

HASTINGS Pride Arts and Entertainment Director Natasha Scott, in her last year studying applied social science, is urging University staff and students to vote for Hastings Pride: “If we are one of the three winners it gets Hastings Pride £50,000 which is going to make a huge difference to our event and activities.”

Hastings Pride has reached the final of the ITV Meridian East region for the National Lottery’s People Projects. Since 2005, the partnership between The National Lottery Community Fund, The National Lottery, ITV and STV (Scotland) has given the public a say in how funding should be put to good use in their local area and has awarded £42m to 960 good causes across the UK.

This year’s Hastings Pride event on August 25 will celebrate the heroes of a protest following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn gay club in New York in 1969, a protest that served as a catalyst for the modern gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.

Natasha said: “We intend giving Hastings LGBT+ community and their friends and families a safe place to be themselves during Pride. We will be running a full programme of events in the lead up to and following the main festival – so please vote for us.”

Voting ends midday, April 15. To vote online, click here:

B RIGHT ON LGBT+ Community Festival: SAFE SOCIAL

As part of the B RIGHT ON LGBT+ Community Festival the volunteers of the Brighton and Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum present SAFE SOCIAL a peer support initiative.

SAFE SOCIAL has been created to encourage those LGBT+ people affected by loneliness and experiencing isolation, domestic abuse or the impacts of hate crime to meet up, prepare and share a meal or take part in a social activity.

If you have any access requirements email access@lgbt-help.com or call 01273 855620 and select option 4.

The B RIGHT ON LGBT+ Community Festival celebrating LGBT+ history, lives and culture, is organised by the volunteers of the Brighton & Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum. and takes place at the Phil Starr Pavilion – a multi functional, fully accessible, heated performance, conference and community space with a licensed bar located on Victoria Gardens, Brighton.


Event: SAFE SOCIAL – A peer support initiative

Where: Phil Starr Pavilion, Victoria Gardens, Brighton

When: Sunday, April 7

Time: 11a, – 2pm

Cost: Free event

To book a place online, click here:

PREVIEW: PRIDE: The Story of the LGBTQ Equality Movement by Matthew Todd

2019 sees the 50-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in the US which are seen as the key moments in the beginning of the fight for LGBTQ rights.

In PRIDE Matthew Todd documents the milestones in the fight for LGBTQ+ equality – from the victories of early activists, to the gradual acceptance of the LGBTQ+ communities in politics, entertainment, sport and the media, and the passing of legislation barring discrimination. It spans seminal moments and key figures, events and breakthroughs of the movement with reproduction of rare images and documents.

Todd draws together the individual stories and moving personal testimonies from key figures such as David Furnish, Maureen Duffy, Paris Lees, Bisi Alimi, Will Young and Reverend Troy Perry.

In June 1969, police raided New York gay bar the Stonewall Inn, and the LGBTQ+ equality movement was born. PRIDE charts the events of that night in New York, the days and nights of rioting that followed, the ensuing organisation of local members of the community – and the 50 years since in which activists and ordinary people have dedicated their lives to reversing the global position.

Todd says; “If we really want to honour the people who fought at the Stonewall Inn on that unusually hot June night in 1969, then we need to defend those hard-won rights and confront anything that threatens the free and stable societies protecting them. Those who wish to control others or have an interest in the status quo will tell you that protest never achieves anything. I hope this book assures you that protest can achieve a great deal, and that when people act together they have true power – and that sometimes using that power is absolutely necessary.”

Matthew Todd
Matthew Todd

Matthew Todd is the multi-award winning author of Straight Jacket (2016) which was described as “an essential read for every gay person on the planet” by Sir Elton John, as “utterly brilliant” by Owen Jones in The Guardian and was awarded Boyz Best LGBT book of 2017.

He was editor of Attitude magazine between 2008 – 2016 where he secured Prince William as cover star, the first time a member of the British Royal Family has featured on the cover of a gay magazine. Matthew writes for The Guardian, Evening Standard, Observer and has presented two films for BBC Newsnight.

 

PREVIEW: The Trials of Oscar Wilde @Royal Pavilion

This April, lucky theatre lovers have a unique opportunity see a powerful and moving dramatisation of the tragic downfall of Oscar Wilde in the intimate and sumptuous surroundings of the Royal Pavilion Music Room.

CO-written by Merlin Holland, Wilde’s only grandson, and actor/director John O’Connor, the Trials of Oscar Wilde draws on original court transcripts to bring to life the three scandalous trials which ruined the life and reputation of one of our greatest ever writers. 

Wilde may now be a gay icon and his genius celebrated worldwide, but at the time his ultimate conviction for gross indecency led to a prison sentence of two years hard labour and to his subsequent exile, decline and death in France.

During the trials did Wilde sacrifice himself for truth and art? Was Wilde’s downfall a result of his own arrogance and vanity? 

Co-writer O’Connor writes: “Oscar Wilde is many people’s ideal dinner guest but it’s difficult to imagine how he actually spoke. However, thanks to the transcripts of the trials, we can hear Wilde’s true voice in all its exasperating brilliance. It’s exciting to discover that he did talk in perfectly formed epigrams and paradoxes but the Old Bailey was far too dangerous a place to do that. The stakes couldn’t have been higher. Wilde deflects, stumbles and feints like a boxer up against the ropes but he meets his match in the British Establishment. His wit is incomparable, his humanity a triumph but his tragedy makes him immortal.”

The Trials of Oscar Wilde will be performed at Brighton Pavilion’s spectacular Music Room for two nights only on April 10 and 11.  Tickets £32.50 or £29 for Royal Pavilion members.

To book call 03000 290 902 or click here:


Event: The Trials of Oscar Wilde

Where: Royal Pavilion, Music Room, 4/5 Pavilion Buildings, Brighton BN1 1EE

When: Wednesday, April 10 and Thursday, April 11

Time: Doors open 7.30pm – performance starts at 8pm

Cost: £32.50 – member £29.00 (includes interval glass of white wine.soft drink in the Banqueting Room).

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