Today's idea - My Arm at The Basement

Today The Basement, of which we are rather fond, have a curious performance titled 'My Arm'. Having toured internationally since it premiered at the Traverse Theatre in 2003, this is the first time it comes to the public eye in Brighton.

"“At the age of 10, for want of anything more meaningful to do, I put my arm above my head and kept it there. Now, thirty years on, I’m so full of meaning it’s killing me.”

Told through performance, film and the animation of everyday objects, my arm is the story of an empty gesture. It’s the confession of a man who has lived for thirty years by the courage of his lack of conviction. In that process he’s become a celebrated medical specimen and an icon of the New York art scene.  It’s about modern art, bloody-mindedness and how the things we do when we’re ten stick with us for life."

"Colossally powerful” says The Scotsman, singing its praise.

The Basement is often home to experimental performers, describing itself fairly accurately as "a vibrant hub for all things subversive and idiosyncratic". We're not sure if it'll be taking place in The Space, a large room with "unbound experimentation" or in the more intimate amphitheater known as 'The Pit' with a sunken stage but we expect a visit to the arty venue to be very much worth it.

Written and performed by Tim Crouch; film by Chris Dorley-Brown
Date: Fri 16th & Sat 17th April
Doors: 7.30pm
Tickets: £8 / £6 (Concessions)
Find it on the map here.

Today's idea - White Rabbit presents: ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY? SECRETS!

Tonight, a furtive yet sumptuous evening of original story telling and performance in the White Rabbit's Candlelit Warren. The Basement: 'where edgy and interesting stuff goes off in Brighton.' Today part fifties tearoom, part deranged children's party invites you and a host of local writers to enjoy this month's theme of SECRETS with short stories and secrets in invisible ink. There are promises of free cakes, sweets and treats, and perhaps the plan is to fill up the audience until the stories become part of a carb-filled, sugar-high blurry food trip, in the way one reads Alice in Wonderland.

The Basement also promises a secret confession box for the airing of skeletons, and a side of dirty laundry.

"Grab a "Teapot Cocktail" from the bar, cross your heart, hope to die, and follow the bunny... down, down, down."

It starts at 7:30pm, and costs £6 for adults, and £4 for concessions. Find The Basement on the map here. (If you are a writer and have a short story to share with the audience, please e-mail Bernadette Russell: arryousittingcomfortably@live.com.)

Today's idea - Melting Vinyl present.. ROZI PLAIN AND FRANCOIS & THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS

Another slick and trendy event from Melting Vinyl takes place tonight at The Basement; Brighton's self admittedly leading purveyor of innovative and experimental performance which tonight takes the form of two brilliant Fence Record artists, Rozi Plain and Francois & The Atlas Mountains.

Freshly plastered throughout NME and with a rack of venues including the Green Man Festival, Plain "has been working on the ferries that bob in and out of the city of Bristol, along the Avon, whilst creating her own beautifully intimate music that captures life slowly floating by," and tonight headlines at The Basement.



We also welcome back to Brighton multi-talented artist/musician and latest signing to Fence Records, Francois & The Atlas Mountains. Lo-fi electronics meets dreamlike songs, with lyrics fluctuating between English and French, the Gallic troubadour infuses this with an undertone of African influences. The night is completed the incredible bizarro-folk troupe from France, Uncle Jellyfish.




It's on at 8pm-11pm, £7.50 advance or £8 on the door. Find them on the map here.

Today's idea - Go to Melting Vinyl's VIVE LA FRANCE at The Basement

Melting Vinyl evenings at The Basement are a little bit well known for good, and just a little bit hip, evenings (namely as "the region’s leading purveyor of innovative and experimental performance"). Tonight is the second year of Melting Vinyl's (who we've written about before) annual showcase of talent from France called 'VIVE LA FRANCE" and it all sounds genuinely fantastic. I am quite excited.

Bigger than last year's the festival showcases contemporary emerging French musical talent from the country’s innovative labels, and also celebrates Brighton based French performers, ‘The French Connection’. The event is produced by music promoters Melting Vinyl, in association with France's London music office: ‘Bureau Export’ and the largest French Cultural magazine: ‘Les Inrockuptible’s. All wonderful, and Lisa Li-Lund looks lovely, so we must go.

Here is some quoted goodness about them each individually:

Lisa Li-Lund

Not only member and sister of Herman Dune, Lisa Li-Lund has worked with the likes of Jeff Lewis and Zombie Zombie alongside a highly successful career as a solo artist. Come in from the cold and embrace the heart-warming and playful indie-folk indie-folk sounds of one of Paris' most creative artists - namely, Lisa Li-Lund, Hugh Coltman & Hamilton Yarns.

Hugh Coltman

Critically acclaimed in France, charismatic singer-songwriter Hugh Coltman was recently nominated for ' La Prix Constantin' (France's equivalent of The Mercury Music Prize). Having inhabited the same circles as Coco Rosie, and compared to Andrew Bird, this intimate performance will be very special indeed.

Hamilton Yarns
 (with a fabulous name)
Brighton's Hamilton Yarns are made up of members from both sides of channel. One if this festival’s French Connections and one of Willkomen Records' own, they make "music through the looking-glass, mapping in sound odd fragments of a parallel universe" - The Wire.

No reserved tickets, it's first-come-first-served - and FREE (as we always joyfully exclaim over these things). We reckon this is definitely one of the better things going on this month - and a little bit different from all the others. It starts at 8pm, and we plan not to be late.

The Basement is located at 24 Kensington street.

And here is a man, a violin and a horse. Have a lovely Friday evening.