Bristol’s Festival of Contemporary Theatre running across the city between Friday 1st and Saturday 16th May 2009

2009 will see Mayfest hit Bristol for its 6th year and the festival is really starting to get comfortable in its shoes as Bristol’s showpiece event in the theatre calendar, as festival co-producer Matthew Austin explains; “Every year it feels more like it’s become a festival rather than just a collection of shows. When Mayfest started it was basically a month of work which you’d just watch and not engage with, whereas now it feels that you can come for a few days and really get involved and hang out at the festival.
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Showing between Saturday 28th March and Thursday 2nd April 2009 @ Centrespace Gallery, Bristol

Tom White is older than I expected. What a terrible way to start a review I know, but it’s true. The only reason I had expected someone younger is the subject matter he has chosen for his Moment In Time exhibition; the slightly run down, underground cool and, lets face it, a little rough areas of Bristol. His paintings depict Stokes Croft, Easton and Montpellier, and it was this fact that made me expect an urban graffiti type artist in their early twenties. However, as soon as you look at White’s work, it is apparent that there is something entirely more compassionate and sensitive than the art these areas usually offer. It soon becomes apparent why, as White talks of the charity work he does in the area. He works for Second Step, which supports people with mental health and other support needs in the area.
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Thursday 26th February 2009 @ The Fleece, Bristol
With Support From: Young Husband

No sooner had I sat down in the backroom of The Fleece to have a chat with Emma Lee-Moss of Emmy The Great ahead of her performance, than I was presented with the naked, broad butt-cheeks of Joe from support band Young Husband. Two wholesome slabs of ham that were red-raw from a brutal spanking the night before…

SY: Owww – what had you done to deserve it?
Ric (violin/bass): He didn’t sell enough merch!

SY: Erm…eventful tour then?
Emma: I have become too comfortable with Joe’s genitalia and nether regions. This is the longest tour I’ve ever done - we’ve been going for 4 weeks and we’ve done 25 dates. This is our penultimate gig!

SY: Was the spanking yesterday a peak?
Joe: I’d say it was a low point…
Tom (keyboard) and Ric: Peak! Peak!

Emma: Alright! I’ll shout out an event from the tour and you’ve got to say whether it was a peak or a trough, OK?
All: Haha! OK!

Emma: Joe taking a piss in the middle of my photoshoot? (I got my photo taken in Hull and they wanted to do it in the toilets. Joe got his dick out to draw as much attention as possible and started pissing into the urinal from as far as he could…)
Joe: That was a peak. Definite peak.

Emma: Breaking up with your girlfriend?
Joe: Oh, trough.
Emma: But meeting another girl?!
Ric: Wayhey!
Joe: Definite peak!

SY: There’ve been a lot of peaks then?
Emma: Newcastle was a great gig – ooo – and a great meal.
Tom: Yeah, but it did give me food poisoning.
Ric: Oooo – trough.
Tom: Yeah, eating it was a peak, then I went to the toilet and it was a definite trough.

Emma: Euan’s guitar breaking?
Tom: Ah, definite trough.
Ric: Trough of hell.
Emma: Utter trough.
Euan (guitar/bass): I was fucking pissed off.

Emma: I got a Frisbee thrown at my head in Leeds when we were packing up…
Voice in the distance: Do you guys wanna come and just check on the stage setup cos there’s a problem?
All: *huff*….trough. Definite trough coming up.

And so the merry band of indie/folksters scurried off to prepare for their gig, leaving me to contemplate their tour of nudity and physical assault, and looking forward to what peaks we could expect that evening.

Onstage around ten o’clock the gig did, however, start with an unwelcome trough. The first three songs, including the perky single We Almost Had A Baby, were frustratingly hampered by a mic that kept on cutting out, sound levels that fluctuated more than Joe from Young Husband’s trousers and the occasional screech of feedback. Things were sorted out quickly though just in time for what was the peak of my evening; a gentle acoustic number called The Hypnotist’s Son which Emma played solo with some subtle backing vocals. It was just a truly beautiful song; lovely, desperately fragile and sad whilst also being genuinely and honestly funny; “Can’t tell if this is love or a stomach disorder” - causing ripples of laughter through the warm smiles that flowed over a crowd whom watched respectfully, gently swaying and softly mouthing the words themselves.

The end of the song was answered with such a positive roar from the entire audience that it perked and loosened us all up. The rest of the gig was all the better for it too because after hearing the stunning, pure beauty of Emma’s voice stripped down like that, we were able to really appreciate the compliments of the full band.

www.emmythegreat.com

Matthew Whittle www.matthewwhittleblog.blogspot.com

Photos: Alex

‘Love thy neighbour’ read the Bristol Rugby website ahead of their opening battle of the season against Bath on Sunday 7^th September. That particular biblical reference may have been the last thing on the minds of the fifteen that took to the field that day, but rugby is a sport traditionally set on moral high grounds and few players evoke this in the same spirit as those of Bristol Rugby.

Rugby is more than just a sport in the West Country and Bristol, it is a way of life and with that comes a culture, as Club Captain Joe El Abd explained; “We’ve always said we want to be a professional club with an amateur heart, that’s the sort of ethos we like to carry forward.”

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Saturday 1st November 2008 @ Syndicate

This coming Saturday sees the techno/trace legend, Marcel Woods, return to Bristol to headline Syndicate for a night of danced crazed partying! SY caught up with the man himself to ask him a few questions:

Have you played Bristol many times before?
Yup! I’ve played in Bristol before; I really love it there.

What is Bristol’s techno/trace scene like?
Well I only know the Syndicate and that’s pretty awesome there, always a good crowd and atmosphere, so the scene is alive & kicking I guess!

What are you favourite festivals to play?
That most be Sunrise (Poland), Mysterieland (Holland) and Global Gathering (England).
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Although not Bristolian himself, while you are in the city, you will hear a hell of a lot about Mr. Brunel, the renowned and revolutionary engineer, workaholic and semi-officially the 2nd Greatest Briton! Ever! We popped along to his statue in Temple Quay to pose him a few questions about his favourite city:
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Editor of the divine Suit Yourself Magazine, Matthew Whittle BA is a graduate of UWE (You What!!) himself. He escaped from the sleepy hillsides of Devonshire nearly 5 years ago to study…ahem…geography and fell in love with Brizzle! When not checking spelling mistakes, Matt can be found cycling up hills that are far too steep and waving his arms around at gigs that are far too loud.
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Bristol’s favourite TV historian (well, joint favourite with Baldrick) Doctor Adam Hart-Davis is a great lover of Bristol, its theatre and its cycling facilities. Renowned throughout BS1 to BS19 as the presenter of What The Romans Did For Us and Tomorrow’s World, we caught up the blue-blooded, white haired eccentric to ask these three taxing questions on your behalf:

What are three things you love about Bristol?
I love the fact that Bristol is a real city with all the facilities you could want, that it’s small enough to go everywhere by bike and that Bristol is full of fabulous history.
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One of the most exciting new bands coming out of Bristol at the moment, SY catches up with Roxy’s Wardrobe to ask them a few question’s about Bristol!

What are 3 things you love about Bristol?
The nightlife definitely; you can go out on the same night every week and yet have a different type of music each time. The live music scene is so diverse in this city that everyone’s taste is so easily catered for no matter how random. We love Pizza Palace next to the Hippodrome on a Friday night after Ramshackle or Reflex; gotta be done!
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SY catches up with Bristol’s favourite, liveliest and hairiest son, Justin Lee Collins – host of The Saturday Night Project on da telly – to talk everything Brizzle!

What are three things you love about Bristol?
Well there’s an awful lot to love! I’ll give you a whole list of things and you can pick out three:
First Bristol is a beautiful city; I love the architecture, we’re surrounded by stunning countryside and we’re close to the coast.
It’s an incredibly friendly city, it’s officially the happiest city in Britain and it’s very laid back. It’s very, very easy to make friends here.
It’s a very individual and independent city, we’re not trying to be anything else; Manchester has referred to itself as the London of the North but we don’t call ourselves the London of the South West.
It’s easy to get around; you don’t need a car cos you can walk everywhere, or cycle, or skate. Everything’s on your doorstep, everything you could possibly want: bars, pubs, restaurants, coffee shops – oh, and it’s more cosmopolitan than a lot of people realise!
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