On the Edge

On the Edge, originally uploaded by fred pipes.

The great thing about Brighton is all the quirky little clubs, if you can find them. The Catalyst Club is one, down the Joogleberry every second Thursday (when it's not) - with Dora Bryan next month! Another is 'On the edge', a night of improvised music etc by Safehouse, which used to be downstairs at The Sanctuary Cafe but is now at the Open House pub. Last night for a modest four quid we got 20 minutes of the Wildcard Quartet, comprising names pulled from a hat, this time my old mate Gus Garside on double bass, and blokes various on cornet, soprano sax and electronic ukulele. Next up was a Song-Picture-Performance with Mr Eugene playing electric violin as Nickova attacked a miked-up canvas with black and white paint (all around was shrouded in polythene!). The resulting painting was put up for auction and made 26 quid, I think. Last on was Hugh Metcalfe, renowned for The Klinker, and his work with Bob Cobbing and Lol Coxhill, amongst others. We got film, guitar, violin and voice from Hugh and keyboard accompaniment from Darren Morris. It could have been Guildford Arts Lab circa 1969, but I don't think they had synthesizers back then!