A minute with circus performer Greville Matthews, who flings his body through the air for a living
I was drawn to the circus because
I’ve always loved jumping around and hanging off stuff and generally mucking about. I was a gymnast as a kid then I started karate, after that I did a dance degree. On a dance job I met a Alex Frith who was setting up a circus school (The Hangar), so I started taking trapeze classes. Soon after that I started doing acrobatics at the Circus Space. eventually I got on to the degree program. It all flowed from one thing to the next and I’m still mucking about and hanging off stuff and being paid for it! Result.
The strangest performance I’ve done
I do a lot of weird characters in strange places. One that is fairly up there is being a roller-skating snowman…
The best thing about my job is
Feeling an audience is 100% behind you and making them laugh.
The performers that inspire me
Charie Chaplin, Tommy Cooper, Peter Sellers, Le Cirque Invisible, James Thiérrée are my idols.
You must go and see
Apart from me? (HAHAHA) La Soiree – it’s an awesome tongue in cheek circus cabaret.
Home to me is
East and north London.
I’m scared by
Big hairy spiders.
The best advice I ever got was
Be yourself.
What I really want to do next is
Be in Le Soiree.
I last laughed when
I laugh all the time. My friends are hilarious.
I can’t imagine living without
My iPhone. I really don’t know how I lived before…
30 Dec 2012
Damien Jurado - Kalla Hus
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Even cutting-edge, ice-cool publications like Snipe go weak at the knees for a well-timed, sentimental Xmas ditty. Our pick for ‘least likely to be featured in a top fifty list of Xmas bangers curated by a third-rate celebrity on ITV2’ is this gorgeous piano ballad from Seattle songwriter Damien Jurado. When he sings ‘I will never see Christmas’ you almost want to grab the nearest relative around the dinner table and engage him or her in a warm, tender embrace, before you realise you hate said relative, they’re kind of racist and their breath stinks.
Damien Jurado’s 12th album Maraqopa is out now on Secretly Canadian.
24 Dec 2012
Digits - Love Is Only Affection
We’ve posted about Digits a couple of times; amazingly, for someone so prolific, this is his first music video. It features a Bowie-esque creation witnessing a succession of grotty goings-on in an indeterminate location bathed in late afternoon light. She’s so traumatised she starts to leak oil the poor thing.
Download the track for free here; read more about Digits here.
24 Dec 2012
GHXST - Doomgirl
And so the fetish for 90s fuzz-revivalism continues unabated – the latest to fall onto artfully distressed, denim-clad knees before the altar of plaid are New York trio GHXST (Shelley X, Chris Wild, Nathan La Guerra). They released their debut single via Club.The.Mammoth earlier in the year; the b-side (today’s MPFree) – available as a free download via their Bandcamp – possesses enough swagger to potentially set them apart from their similarly retro peers. It’s the kind of music that makes you want to do a little Billy Idol sneer whilst imagining yourself in a pair of leather keks you once saw on a Scandinavian male model.
21 Dec 2012
Stephen Greenhalgh refuses to answer harassment questions
Boris Johnson’s policing deputy today refused to answer questions about the harassment allegations against him, saying that he wanted to “focus on the job.”
In a prepared statement to the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee, Greenhalgh apologised for the alleged incident but insisted that this was “not an admission of guilt.”
He told the committee:
“I would like to apologise unreservedly for anything that could be or may have been construed as inappropriate behaviour on my part, or any distress which I may have caused. And I want to make clear to the committee that this was not an admission of guilt but a reflection of my deep concern for the wellbeing and the welfare of that member of staff.”
Boris Johnson yesterday refused to take any further action against Greenhalgh, saying that “no hard and fast conclusions” could be drawn about what happened in the City Hall lift.
Greenhalgh would not say today whether the Mayor has given him a verbal warning.
Asked whether his authority as Policing Deputy had been brought into question, he replied: “I note your concern and do not want to make any further comment.”
You can watch the full exchange below:
20 Dec 2012
Meursault - Seb Reynolds remix available now, for children's hospice charity
Big-voiced Scottish singer Neil Pennycook of the awesome Meursault has been remixed by Oxonian ambient keyboard wizard Sebastian Reynolds. The track is a shimmering glide of reverb, and costs just £2 via Bandcamp, with the proceeds going to a children’s hospice charity.
Why wouldn’t you buy this?
19 Dec 2012
10 musicians that 'should' make a Christmas song
Creepy Snowman by woodleywonderworks
It’s Christmas time again, and we all know what that means: mince pies, mulled wine, and the same awful festive songs, played ad nauseam at every party you attend and in every pub you step foot in. With The Pogues, East 17, Wham! and (arguably) Slade at the ‘good’ end of the spectrum and Michael Bublé at the other, the chances of you wanting to throw yourself under a bus are higher than ever.
Sure, there is some fine Christmas music by the Beach Boys, Sufjan Stevens and the Sex Pistols, but December is one month long, and unless the Mayans got it right, it will continue to happen, implacable and relentless, every single year. There are only so many times you can listen to King Knight by Salem, Lindstrøm’s 43-minute remix of Little Drummer Boy, and Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis by Tom Waits. It’s time for some new songs that you can add to your Christmas Spotify playlist.
So here is a plea to ten bands to please, please make some Christmas music, for our ears’ and our sanity’s sake.
Scott Walker
Suggested title: Yuletide at Stalin’s
I envisage this being about thirteen minutes long, starting with the sound of Christmas pudding after Christmas pudding being splattered against a slab of sheet metal. This is followed by a series of industrial noises, unsettling squelches and thudding drums competing against each other, occasionally interrupted by abrupt silences. Six minutes in, Scott’s baritone kicks in with an amorphous, low howl of pain that gradually transforms into words. The lyrics would be about the bitter cold, the soil rotting outside, and Stalin’s genocidal fantasies. These would be interspersed with cryptic, symbolism-ridden lines about horses, muzhiks, and the suffering inherent in the human condition.
Sebastien Tellier
Suggested title: Let It Come (A Sexy Christmas)
We all know that Christmas is a time for love: for humankind, for your neighbour, and for your family. But how about what Freud would term ‘genital love’? Picture a modern-day Serge Gainsbourg song framed by buoyant electronic beats, with a video of quasi-nude French models writhing around a pole adorned with baubles. Sebastien’s lovely lady love could spice things up with orgasmic moans and satisfied ‘mmm’s. Sebastien would perform this dressed as Jesus, draped in a white cloth and wearing his trademark sunglasses.
Die Antwoord
Suggested song title: XXXmas vs. Ninjas
For those of you planning some serious Christmas revelry, look no further than this unpredictable South African rap-rave ensemble. Featuring high-speed Afrikaans rapping and headache-inducingly banging beats, inappropriate lyrics, and theatrical costumes, this will make even your office party feel less boring.
Boredoms
Suggested title: {*}
This would involve thirty-two minutes of guttural chanting, dramatic crescendos, and as many drummers as possible. The band’s shamanic frontman Eye would work the band up to an anarchic but tightly controlled frenzy, before starting a cyclical, mesmerising repetition of chords that will leave you dazed for weeks. During live performances, he would crash a steel-armoured sleigh through the wall of whatever venue they are playing in. As the ass and the ox can attest, health and safety is not a necessity at Christmas.
Big Boi
Suggested title: $anta’$ Chri$tma$ $ong (Ca$h)
Consumerism is a big part of Christmas, and Big Boi knows a thing or two about business. He could educate us all with some clever rhyming about making dollars in the festive season. ‘While y’all are watching Murder She Wrote re-runs / my tunes are selling faster than Usain Bolt runs,’ he could rap. The chorus would be a young woman singing about how sexy she finds Santa, with a sly allusion to his ability to last all night.
Grinderman
Suggested title: O Come All Ye Faithful
Nick Cave and his merry old men would do a wonderfully filthy remake of this Christmas classic, crammed with literary allusions and sleaze. It would be a bluesy number with jagged Stooges-style guitar riffs, and Cave’s deep voice would drip disgust at the world and at his own indecent desires.
Dying Fetus
Suggested title: Bleed, Virgin
I’m not normally a fan of death metal, but to balance out all those soft and soppy ditties about family values and snowflakes, this song is unfortunately necessary. The lyrics would be distasteful, but at least they would be less retch-inducing than Justin Bieber’s.
The Flaming Lips
Suggested title: The Fairy Lights (are Dancing!!)
Psychedelia, tinsel and elves are at the essence of this song, the inspiration for which came to Wayne Coyne during a particularly fruitful acid trip. They would perform it live on a real-life, perfectly-functioning flying sleigh, throwing gift-shaped balloons, fake snow and glitter onto the fans tripping balls below.
Stevie Nicks
Suggested title: Snow
This would be a ballad of resounding beauty and heartbreak, driving all who hear it to tears of simultaneous joy and sadness. Reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac at their peak but with added 80’s-style synth, it would be simple but perfect.
Swans feat. Einstürzende Neubauten
Suggested title: Weihnachten mit die Mutter der Welt
An antidote to the saccharine bilge that is everywhere at Christmas, this dream collaboration would probably not be all that festive, but you would be too entranced to notice. It’s not like either of these bands needs any help making abrasive yet transcendental noise, but together, dressed like elf factory workers in a dystopian future, they would create something akin to a religious experience.
Other possibilities …
• Rihanna dressed up as a sexy Santa purring about what a naughty, naughty girl she has been this year.
• Battles doing something Brazilian-sounding and dancefloor-friendly, overlayed with high-pitched elf voices singing about toys.
• I was going to suggest that Lil B record a song with his cat, calling it Keke’s Got Xmas Swag. But, as always, the Based God is one step ahead of us all.
Follow Kathryn on Twitter @kathryn42 and check out her blog London Scrawling.
19 Dec 2012
If you want to talk meaningfully about London life, the hipsters have to die
“On-trend Generation Ys will love the sprawling loft apartment refurbs, while Archway market is a hub for hipsters at the weekend, with a mix of fashion and organic food.”
There are many things wrong with this sentence from an Evening Standard piece touting London’s up and coming neighbourhoods.
But I want to train my fire on only one part of the monster.
For here is as a good an opportunity as any to demand that we kill the hipster as a character in any genuine conversation about Londoners, where they live and what they do.
People need to understand this: there is no such group of people as “hipsters”. Not really.
The word doesn’t describe living, breathing people. It describes an idea of people. Everyone thinks they know who hipsters are. Everyone can point one out in a lol tumblr meme. But it’s a meme without meaning, because the hipsters don’t exist.
Ask someone you know to name a specific hipster of their acquaintance, to physically tell you the first and last name of an actual real hipster, and they will struggle.
Ask them if they themselves might be a hipster, and they’ll deny it outright.
Hipsters are always other people; strangers abstracted. When they appear as the subject of a sentence, the real world departs.
So when someone you know starts talking about “hipsters”, remember that they’re talking about fictional characters. And paper-thin characters at that.
If you want to say something funny, cutting or dismissive about people who you think look really cool/like complete twats, then hipster is still as good a word as any.
If you want to say something insightful about the actually existing world, then the hipsters have to die.
19 Dec 2012
Boris Johnson refuses to take action against Stephen Greenhalgh
Boris Johnson is to take no action against his policing deputy following allegations that he molested a female member of staff.
Last week we revealed claims that the Deputy Mayor for Policing Stephen Greenhalgh molested a woman in the City Hall lift.
Following widespread media reports, the Mayor asked City Hall’s monitoring officer to review the allegations.
The monitoring officer spoke to the woman concerned who said that the “core element” of the allegations were true.
However, he chose not to speak to the Deputy Mator for Policing Stephen Greenhalgh, saying that: “I do not consider that to have been a necessary part of this process.”
As no official complaint had been made he decided that any disciplinary action should be a matter for the Mayor.
Speaking at Mayor’s Question Time, Boris said that he took “a very strong line against inappropriate behavior, sexual discrimination and harassment.”
However he said that he would take no further action against Greenhalgh because “no hard and fast conclusions” could be drawn on what had happened.
Conservative London Assembly Member Andrew Boff criticised unnamed Assembly Members for speaking to the media about the allegations, claiming that it would discourage other members of staff from complaining about harassment.
Stephen Greenhalgh has yet to speak publicly about the allegations. However in a bizarre statement last week he apologised for the incident whilst claiming not to remember it.
He is due to appear befor the Assembly’s police and crime committee tomorrow.
19 Dec 2012
Þerney (One Thing) by Pascal Pinon
Twosomeness, the second album from Icelandic twin sisters Jófrídur and Ásthildur, looks set to be one of the first big releases of 2013 – look out for a full interview in the coming days. In the meantime, sink into today’s Alex Somers (Sigur Rós, Jónsi) produced MPFree – pronounced ‘therney’ – and let your imagination run wild in magical, snow covered landscapes.
18 Dec 2012
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
- An interview with Desiree Akhavan
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- Only 16 commuters touch in to Emirates Air Line, figures reveal
- Hope and despair in Woolwich town centre
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
- Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
- The five best places in London to have an epiphany
- Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
- Number of people using Thames cable car plunges
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