Ana Da Silva video

Posted on May 2, 2006 by site admin mr_hopkinson

as promised . . .

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Back To The Old Skool

Posted on May 1, 2006 by richie paradise

No! Not here here or even here Or in Young Liam‘s case here. What I’m alluding too is that most of this week’s practioners were old skool members of the orchestra (and all volunteers to boot), maybe that’s why such graceful posing as this:

Posing

comes across so naturally.
Yunno acting pretentious takes some effort, I should know

How my cats see me

Incidentally, that’s how my cats see me, you see cats only see in Black & White, and that’s why cats like Jazz and are cool baby. So ipso facto we are cool because we are crazy jazz cats, oui?

Not sure what I’m getting at. Anyhow focus on how cool Bel looks in that picture so you can compare and contrast later…………………..

So to the music, well we dragged out the ancient Organ, partly because it’s been in The Cube for ages and partly ‘cus I’m not sure Barry turned up with anything to play. It was kinda groovy

Barry's organ

but unfortunately it didn’t inspire us to sound anything like one of my favourite bands. Still with a double keyboard attack

marcus' oorgan

we managed a pretty good racket of all things Jazz and onwards (got a bit prog like at times).
There was also a good tip of the hat to Tom Waits by Liam (Liam being a well known Hat wearer) and I did my bit with a mish mash set up like Mr. Waits likes

Richie Paradise

Bel took over photo duties and see seemed to get on top of things pretty quickly.

Our next performance is oddly at The Cube’s AGM.

Now as to Bel looking cool…………

Rack off mate

Big Love (and Big Beats)

Richie's Big Beats

Richie Paradise

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Local Kid Video

Posted on May 1, 2006 by site admin mr_hopkinson

Here’s Headfall playing at the Local Kid night last night. . .

. . . legendary Ana Da Silva and Young People to follow . . .

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Late as in The Late Ivor Cutler

Posted on April 30, 2006 by site admin mr_hopkinson

Right, well, I’m afraid I’ve not managed to blog as much recently as I would have like, and I had sort of composed a big illustrated post for the Ivor evening ( which happened a fortnight ago ), but now I think I’m just going to put up a collection of video clips of performances I took on the night ( including The Eccentric Mister Siebert, mr_hopkinson’s computerâ„¢, War Against Sleep, North Sea Navigator and a poet Peter Hunter – but sadly not long distance Aaron Stitch-Stitch, or gHOSTbOY due to techincal difficulites ) . . .

. . . all I’ll say is it was a packed night, and although there was some panic in the cube corridors as the documentary we had planned to show had to be hastily replaced by a VHS of the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour, and Hogge called in last minute for sound, it all pretty much turned out alright in the end I think.

Pictures are available here, including a shot of 2 unexpected but very welcome return visitors . . .

On a personal note I’ve since downloaded a rather great set of mp3s including various Radio 1, 2, 3 & 4 appearances of the late lax one, which I’ve been listening to on my travels, and I reckon would have been a perfect addition to the entertainment in the bar . . .

. . . it was so busy, I suggest it may be worth doing again – bit like the Bill Hicks’ death-iversaries . . .

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The Hell with The Cube

Posted on April 28, 2006 by liam

Thursday night saw the arrival of a new entry in our happy family of monthly events, ‘The Hell with Hollywood’, showcasing the trashiest, most tasteless movies around for the black-clad masses. Tonight’s theme appeared to be ‘Nuns ‘n’ shit’, so we kicked off with Visions of Ecstasy, which I think was directed by our host, Nigel the Big Friendly Satanist, or ‘The BFS’, as I shall now call him. In my head, at least. The movie was… well, it had lesbian nuns, a third nun shagging Jesus on the cross, and, as Tom Morgan pointed out, ‘nice lighting’. It is, apparently, the only film still banned in the UK on the grounds of blasphemy. So there you go, that’s the joy of a membership cinema.
During the break, a short interview with Guillermo Del Toro, director of Hellboy etc., was shown – to be honest he was largely talking about mexican horror directors, so it all went a little over my head. Seemed like a nice fella, though.
Once the band of goths, satanists, trash-lovers and my friend Adrian had re-convened, we enjoyed ‘Alucarda’, a batty Mexican horror flick, which rode along on a wave of kitschy fun for just over an hour, with plenty of needless nudity, proto-S&M costumes and hilarious dialogue. Then just as it might have started to wear thin, it actually became a rather slick bit of religious horror, complete with holy water, nuns bursting into flames, and a giant Jesus-on-the-cross on fire in a Fellini-esque chapel set-up.
Even more exciting, we were watching what I later learned was a unique cut of the movie. It seems Nigel was offered the ‘uncut’ version of the film, and took it only to find that he was given the film with the cut scenes seperate! Nigel, being the clever Satanist that he is, cut the thing back together on his computer, bunging in the new scenes as he saw fit, and a fine job he did.
All in all a very successful night with a healthy (though largely very pale) crowd, who will hopefully be back with friends next month for ‘For Your Height Only’ – a James Bond-esque romp where the lead player’s three feet tall. How can you resist?
After the show, Sarah and I argued about favourite cartoon characters, I was asked to play a rendition of a Jandek song using only an office chair, and Tom struggled with some exciting bar-till mathematics.
So endeth my first blog- look forward to many more. Hopefully I’ll soon get the hang of pictures and links and all that malarkey.
Next week I start projectionist training – usefulness will soon follow! Hurrah!

Peace out, mofos,

Liam

Posted in Cube, General | 7 Comments

Turning Japaneso?

Posted on April 25, 2006 by richie paradise

Cube Kyoto

“What the?”, I hear you say, “A Cube in Kyoto J Pan?!” Read on and find out why:
Some of you may know that I’m The Cube’s overseas development officer and that I was an integral element in setting up The Kobe Orchestra, Japans’ first and only Improvised Orchestra.
Well that isn’t he only thing that The Cube pay me in excess of $100,000 a year for. And so off East I headed to see how The Cube’s outreach program had been going. Stop number one was with Yuikiko Jukaya

Yukiko

who is The Cube’s right hand person in Nihhon. We had a great power lunch

Sasutsiun power

where with the help of the Honshu regional Govt. we established a rather huge Cube in central Kyoto, see

Cube Kyoto

Whilst in Japan I took the opportunity to catch up with Bass player par excellence Tomoko Takahashi who was back eastside with Boyfriend Charlie. Here we all are enjoying the fine hospitality of Kyoto’s Cube Volunteers

Yummers

Later on I enjoyed some more hospitality too…………………..

But that’s not the only Cube that we have established amongst our Eastern friends. Further up the Coast in Tokyo I had managed to secure funding for a smaller Cube just south of the popular Shinjuku area

Cube Tokyo

It really was a fine building and I caught a rerun of Zatoichi before it was Santory time. One thing different about Cube Japan is things ran on time! Don’t worry I’m on it..

OK Honourable Blog readers, till next time sayonnara,

Richie Paradise

Richie Paradise

Posted in Cube Cinema History, Cube Orchestra, General, Richie Paradise, Stories | 4 Comments

Random Festival Of Improvisation

Posted on April 24, 2006 by richie paradise

orch

So you take a chance, turn up to something that says Random on the poster. You are confronted by the usual Cube delay and an assembled mass of musicians including the tall and bewildering Liam. Luckily for you you are also met with a Host, not just any host, NO this host is well dressed, articulte, has a charming smile and a certain way with the ladies. He puts you at ease, warms your heart and sets the night on its way.

Ladies and Germs, that host

Richie Paradise

was me.

No the plaudits should really go to everybody for this (but especially Belinda), and that includes the audience. Here’s why…………..

Orch2

First up was The Cube Orchestra conducted by The Maestro Peter Swaffer-Reynolds. We showed the assembled masses how this improv malarkey works and then we encouraged them to join in with the few finger cymbals and bird whistles that we had. Some wise souls had bought their own instruments (well done Mario) including my best mate Krissy,

Krissy

which meant that Peter could conduct by getting some of us to be quiet and the audience could make a huge input into the tune. Also for the first time ever

Richie And Krissy

I could play a gig with my best Bud, double whammy. Triple whammy in that for the first time with The Orch’ I played my Cocktail drum kit.

Mad Conduct

I have to admit I was egging the Maestro on for mad song names and he didn’t fail, but I can’t remember any but I’m sure icecream was mentioned because Peter’s song titles always feature icecream (X rated link that by the way).

orc

up!

Mark Richard Hugh

Then we had a short break, so off to the bar for a drink and Pippin’s random djing, put your hand in Pippin’s 7″ selection and pull one out, voila the next tune, nice

Ppin and the bar staff

Suitably refreshed we went back for part two. Now I had difficulty saying this mob’s name, two many M’s, now I can’t remember it. Check back soon and I’ll put it in. Anyhoo it was long time Orchestra member Ale‘s band

Ales' band whose name I can't remember

who also featured Martin who graces the Movieoke stage sometimes. Their music was introduced as being improvised around a theme. Lots going on, different instruments making a tapestry of sound and lyrics and words were weaved on top. The lady doing the majority of the talking

Talk Talk

(sorry I should have got your name) even gave my Skool a mention (I think it must have been nightmare based). You can hear some of Ale’s music HERE.

I’m afraid I had to get a bit pushy towards the end of their set to get them to finish as we still had story telling and another band to hear. So sorry you guys if I seemed a bit rude but like I said on the stage, you were going on a bit…………

So then we had the marvellous Hannah (no pic again sorry). Hannah does the story nights at The Cube. She riffed and made up stories ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?‘ style with ideas shouted out by the audience (mainly made up of rather drunk and boisterous Orchestra members). I’m sure felching was mentioned as well as numerous other devious and niche sexual practices enjoyed by Cube members. Despite the bawdiness we all enjoyed this alot, a friend of mine found it awe-inspiring.

So then there was a lengthy bit of improv style hosting by yours truely whilst The Dream Palace trio set up and soundchecked. Well I got the chance to thank a few people and I’ll do it now too, Belinda for setting it up for a start. Bel played with the Orch’ and then had to leg it over to Seymours family Club to play with The Beatnik Filmstars, Croikey as our antipodean cousin may put it. Leah, on sound, did a great job, as did all the backroom staff, hey you know who you are, give yourselves a pat on the back. Mr. Hopkinson had appeared by this point which gave me the emphasis to plug Movieoke and to demonstrate how one could perform before we finally got the music going again.

Wow, this was good.

Dream Palace trio

Peter had assembled a wee band for the Edinburgh festival and this was it. As he said, their aim is for about 60% of the audience to leave, 30% to love it and 10% to buy the CD afterwards. Peter did some great delay pedal tricks to make his Sax sound like dozens playing ,meanwhile the Rhythm section backed it up with solid grooves (incidentally the bass player ingratiated himself to the audience by playing Paranoid by Black Sabbath for the soundcheck).

trio

Twas the best thing I’ve heard in ages.

And so our evening came to a close, a small but significant success. Thanks to Laura and Neko for taking pics of The Cube Orchestra for me, and thanks to Paul Smith who designed the suit that helped me Host a most enjoyable night.

Till next time, Ciao Ciao

Richie Paradise

Richie Paradise

Posted in Cube Orchestra, General, Music, performance, Richie Paradise | 2 Comments

Posted on April 22, 2006 by kyra

Here are a couple of photos from Friday 14th April’s The Light Fantastic event at the Cube. This was in collaboration with Eduardo Bozzo, whose project Tango Alchemy brings Tango, traditional and experimental, live and direct from Buenes Aires to Bristol and surrounding areas.

Tango on the stage

Beginning with an introductory class squeezed into the bar area, then performance and films, the evening built up into quite a full-on all-in knees-up, with people Tango’ing their way around the whole public part of the building, bar, lounge, auditorium, stage, garden, toilets (maybe)….

Tango in the Cube Bar

Since September, TLF has been putting on monthly dance-related events with a Cube feel, mixing film and live work, celebrating DIY culture, highlighting connections between locally distinctive and international work and experimenting with how artists & audiences engage with each other. All suggestions for future events welcome, and always interested in discussing collaborative possibilities: email kyra@thelightfantastic.co.uk

Posted in Bar, Dance, Events, General | 3 Comments

Welcome to the amazing quiz page of the living colour magazine

Posted on April 20, 2006 by ladylucy

Whilst doing some research. I came across this

Jack Stephenson’s web site , and it has a quiz on it

http://hjem.get2net.dk/jack_stevenson/quiz.htm

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Can You Kick It?

Posted on April 18, 2006 by richie paradise

can
Well you could do whatever you wanted to it really, so long as it moved, for then the music would too. Yes it was a return to kick the can, one of my contributions to The Cube Orchestra (for more info see the previous can related blog .
I wasn’t gonna say too much about this rehearsal because I’m really jet lagged and have lots more good stuff to blog but then I saw the photos,
garoovyyes, reprobates

dang we’re a photogenic bunch, (and avaiable for all your modelling requirements).

Musically we were hampered by a lack of Maestro, but I was pretty mouthy so we started with kick the can, which one felt was successful and then we had one side of the stage against the other in a kind of Sharks v Jets thing, farout and groovy daddio.
We don’t see nearly enough of Stu, stu

Stu’s just one of our many talented guitarists. Stu’s a different kinda player, uses a lot of slide and plays in a very percussive style. I like it.
so heres some pictures of one of the coolest looking members of the Orchestra
stuuuustuuuud

In a whole new world are Marcus and Richard who looked like some kind of Sparks esque duo, good work though chaps, hats off to yew Saprks?

Right off for sleep, look out for more ramblings sooooon,

Sayonnara, Richie Paradise Richie Paradise

Posted in Cube Orchestra, General, Richie Paradise | 1 Comment