happy birthday everyone

Posted on October 18, 2007 by site admin mr_hopkinson

I think today, the 18th of October, is the actual anniversary of the day The Cube first opened it’s doors to the public in 1998 to screen Radio On. It was quiet cold as I remember and the wrong lens was on the projector for first half – those were the days.

Anyway, not much to add right now, but hopefully soon more documentary of recent nostalgic events ( the Port City affilated Cube Tour, the Billy Childish gigs and more party pics ) meanwhile here’s one of those old S&H movies Zulieka mentioned. This features camera work by Chiz and the old pre-fire entrance through the Chinese restaurant at around the 3 minute mark . . .

. . . sorry for the terrible encoding quality – it’s from the old days.

As always any type of Cube related posts ( doesn’t have to just be reportage – in fact the more unusual the better . . . ) are welcomed here – do email me ( mr_hopkinson at hotmail dot com ) for a login if you don’t have one, but happen to have sometime to say or show . . .

Posted in General | 6 Comments

Cube 9 from Outer Space

Posted on October 10, 2007 by zuleika

The Cube’s 9th Birthday and the fourth cabaret took place at the end of a rather nostalgic cube week for me.

Saturday the 29th was my fith anniversary of Cube and Billy Childish was back (that gig was actually my first shift). Rounded off suitably by a late night, early morning dance-off. Then there was the tour on Tuesday. Then the birthday, with all the familiar faces and watching S&H films just to add to the memories.

The Cabaret went well, I enjoyed putting a Russian slant on Ziegfeld. We had some great acts designed specially for the night (thanks to Richie for his amazing bookings).
I was really pleased about the amount of costumes and the effort put into making them.

At one point the beroller-skated I went into the auditoium to check out The Man from Uranus and presented with a scene of madness. There was a free for all on his theremin and much dancing (a rare thing in the auditorium itself). There were black robot knights, day-glow aliens, cosmonauts and silver galor.

Wonder what will happen when we are ten…


Promoted to full page from the comments, by request, here’s a little edit of the evening . . .

Posted in Cabaret, Cube, Cube Cinema History, General, performance, Richie Paradise | 7 Comments

Return of the QuWack a.k.a. QuWack Off out of The Cube

Posted on September 26, 2007 by site admin mr_hopkinson

The third edition of QuWack, QuWack(E) . . .

QuWacktion

. . . took place last weekend – the first two . . .

QuWack(M) and QuWack(F)

. . . were held at The Cube, which is my justification for mentioning it here, despite it being an event at Spike Island . . . and I will just mention it rather than do a full review, but suffice to say it was a pretty universally acknowledged triumph and a credit to Cube affiliates Qu Jucktions and Blackout Arts. The only criticism I can muster is the f to m ratio wasn’t as balanced as the overall Qube outings . . .

Many pics here : https://sparror.cubecinema.com/mr_hopkinson/2007.09.22%20QuWack(e)/

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Even better than the real thing

Posted on September 16, 2007 by site admin mr_hopkinson

Last week I enjoyed one of the best nights out at the Cube for a long time – the “Cube Cola all spirits night”. This was the ‘first’ Cube Cola birthday party – though, slightly confusingly, not their first year – it was, according to the exquisitely James-Vickery-designed programme, “celebrating almost 4 years on the path to food science enlightenment”. The Cube Cola project is by Kate Rich and Kayle Brandon . . .

cola grrls

. . . and is based around providing a viable alternative to branded cola, manufactured from scratch. There is more info here, and here. The evening also celebrated many other home-spun products: food stuffs . . .

foody

. . . some presented quite straightforwardly and deliciously, others with a bit more attached ( notably Jelena Stanovnik’s extremely good pie-chart Chocolate cake, which marks out the proportions of recorded religions in the UK as part of the ‘Life In The UK’ project by Jelena, Kate and Rasha Shaheen – who I’d previously seen give their presentation at Spike Island and Blackout at Shambala ); and also some clothes – in the form of some very versatile garments by Sylvia Zidek, including her specially designed trousers that level the pissing-field to make dignified street-urination as easy for women as men.

Kush DJ’ed infectious afro-beat in the bar . . .

kushy

. . . and Suffolk band The Pancakes played on their home-made instruments in the auditorium . . .

cakey

. . . creating a very warm village fête type feel, though with their casual references to murder, along with a live on-stage demonstration of the aforementioned feminist piss-pants, it was all kept just on the right side of too cosy.

There was a healthy crowd despite stiff competition from a sort-of homecoming gig by The Goxxip ( Cube associates Local Kid memorably brought them over here before they blew up in the mainstream ) and everything just seemed to fall into place to make a perfect entertaining and thought provoking evening that I couldn’t quiet imagine happening anywhere else . . . thank The Cube !

Later in the week, and probably because it was mid-week, the tribute night for Anthony H Wilson, wasn’t so well attended. Possibly just as well as the promised Karaoke Orchestra couldn’t make it, and my proposed contribution ( a compilation of YouTube clips transferred to DVD ) wasn’t ready too . . . not unlike the various mythologically-behind-schedule-Peter-Saville-moments chronicalled in ‘24 hour Party People‘, which we did get to screen from the DVD with Tony Wilson’s commentary ( a great idea from Hog ), after showing some performances recorded in the Haçienda from the FAC71 vhs I bought second-hand as a young teenager.

Having searched around the net for bits and pieces the pretty obvious parallels in attitude, and more than occasional ineptitude, between the Cube and the Manchester music scene Tony Wilson was so associated with, seem even more blatant to me, and hopefully we’ll schedule another more party friendly, and suitably irreverent celebration night later in the year . . .

. . . meanwhile here’s links to a little gem I uncovered that was made for Channel 4 in the 80’s [ it’s split into 7 parts ] . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyk5FwrbcgQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffeORmsUKL0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VnGxoz5RZk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laD5czT58gk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93qAiUIFysE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FveqO3T-2to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An013JKUgcY

. . . which, if nothing else ( presuming you’ve seen 24hr Party People ), should draw attention at just how good Paddy Considine was at playing Rob Gretton !

Posted in Art, Bar, Cube, dj, Events, feminism, Food, General, Gossip, Music, performance | Comments Off on Even better than the real thing

I am falling for you again

Posted on September 11, 2007 by ladylucy

Oh dear. I think I am falling in Love with you again. Good job I am moving, I’ll just have to love you from afar. Just as well probably xx

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Billy Childish returns to The Cube

Posted on September 11, 2007 by ladylucy



billy_childish_bw_upload

Originally uploaded by lady_lucy

You must come to see Billy Childish this month.
Five years since his last visit, Billy returns
http://www.theebillychildish.com/
http://www.billychildish.com/home.html
http://www.hangmanbooks.com/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2367831047
Look at these fabulous photos that Adam took last time.
https://sparror.cubecinema.com/adam/docu/childish/childish_main.htm
Buy your tickets in advance

Posted in General | 1 Comment

‘to do’ post its

Posted on September 8, 2007 by ladylucy

Cubesters, if you havn’t done already. You should get along to Mark Pawson’s show at The Here Shop.
Mark has been a most wanted artist in Bristol for many years and now he is finally here.

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Zuleika Ziegfeld’s Ladyfest Cabaret – latest pictorials

Posted on September 1, 2007 by site admin mr_hopkinson

Last night was Cabaret night at The Cube, and possibly because of the association with the current ladyfest, it was full to the rafters.

I didn’t catch it all but did see a spellbinding performance from Rasha Shaheen . . .

Rasha Rocks the Cabaret

As instructed in an earlier post I, and a friend, donned our fanciest hats in the hope of getting a free paradise punch . . .

hats entertainment

. . . but must say poor Mr Paradise himself, and his punchlines, seemed to be struggling with an unreceptive audience on stage somewhat, as he presented alongside Zulieka . . .

Ba-boom tish!!

. . . many of which, rather bizarrely I would venture, would not exactly be classed as classically lady-friendly material . . !

Anyway much fun was had – documented not just by me ( and hopefully / most probably by the aforementioned Richie ), but also the tuxedoed Paul Albrecht of the Cube Orchestra . . . a mixture for your delight and perusal follows below . . .

picture this

and that

Posted in Cabaret, comedy, Events, feminism, General, performance, Photography, Richie Paradise | 5 Comments

Summer of Blush 2007

Posted on August 17, 2007 by zuleika

We’ve had a lot of work lately! Working through the understudies though!
Anyway, we did Bloom and got this beauty (taken by Lawrence Mohammed of Bloom):

Blusherettes at Bloom

At Shambala next weekend.

Posted in Blusherettes, General, The Blusherettes | 4 Comments

bluescreen at Mutant! I am on the Moon Fest!

Posted on August 15, 2007 by steve

This Saturday at the Full Moon, Stokes Croft.. a Free one day festival featuring:

Bands, DJs, Poetry, Storytelling, Circus, Workshops and BLUESCREEN screening films between 4-5.30pm!

Check details at: http://www.myspace.com/mutantonthemoon

See you there!

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