Starting a month of shows about communities of comic book creators around England*, Alex Fitch travels to Devon to interview artists and writers who live and work in Totnes. Jock, Lee O’Connor, John Spelling and Dom Reardon talk about their experiences in the South West, breaking into comics, the importance of 2000AD to their careers and future projects.
(* when Alex has a larger travel budget, expect Celtic comics communities at some point in the future)
Originally broadcast 03/06/12 on Resonance 104.4 FM
Extracts from comics by Lee O’Connor, Jock, John Spelling and Dom Reardon
Latest instalment in Auto-Destructive Art: Gustav Metzger in conversation with Mathieu Copeland, Clive Phillpot and myself. “Gustav Metzger was born in Nuremberg in 1926 and came to Britain in 1939 as a Polish citizen, but since the late forties has been stateless. During his involvement with the anti-nuclear campaign, he continued to develop Auto-Destructive Art and its subsequent manifestations in the 60s and 70s. Now thirty years on, Metzger still feels the need to address issues that put the human race on the edge of a precipice”. (Gustav Metzger ‘damaged nature, auto-destructive art’).
Alex Fitch talks to a pair of film-makers whose experiences outside of cinema have given them unique approaches to the medium. Shezad Dawood is a fine artist who, following a short film about westerns called Feature, is now tackling the SF genre with his movie Piercing Brightness, an extract of which is currently showing at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. Jim Monroe is a novelist and graphic novelist, whose excellent mockumentary Ghosts with shit jobs closed this year’s SCI-FI-LONDON festival and presents the lives of poor North Americans after the economy of the West collapses.
Stills from Piercing Darkness and Ghosts with shit jobs
In this episode of Outsider In; William English, presenter of Wavelength on Resonance104.4fm.
We hear some of the 800 texts exchanged over the past year between Mr. Tregaskis and Mr. English.
William English talks to James Tregaskis as well.
Joining us in the Resonance live room today are Jail and Mark Tingley from Wilberforce.
Jail started off as Jon Leone’s solo project when he was a student at Leeds University. Sounding like a cross between Syd Barrett and The Fall, they have since been compared to Blur, Stephen Malkmus and Half Man Half Biscuit.
The live set has included the themes from Doctor Who and Rhubarb & Custard, as well as covers by the Fall and Television Personalites. Mark E Smith, Stewart Lee and Stuart Murdoch all have copies of their 2003 album Riot at the Health Club, and that’s true.
The band is now seven-strong, and now it is not just Jon who writes the songs. They have played on the deXter Bentley show twice before and three of them are in the studio this Saturday.
Melodic, experimental pop band Wilberforce consist of Mark Tingley, and later Melody Spires, Wilberforce were named after a Prime Minister’s cat. Their debut album “Madame Fruitbowl” came out in 2002 and was named local album of the year. There followed a string of gigs in the UK and Holland. Their very long-awaited second album “What Drama Here” is due out this summer.
Because Wilberforce is a big lumbering band, Mark is currently playing songs solo, from the earliest days to ones written the day before, and has been busking around the streets of Britain.
He wrote his first song and fronted his first group Elastic Band at 16, followed by eight years and 3 albums with Blob Hotel. Now after nearly two albums and over 15 years with Wilberforce, he’s heading out on his own for the first time.
Mark has also played in various other groups including Trojan, the Hairy Penguins, the Bat Device, and the Spook Orchestra.
Track List:
Chips For The Poor – Fistula (Ladies Mix by Robin The Fog)
The Rebel – Ham House (i/ Elizabeth Marshall, ii/ I’m Imprisoned In Ham & iii/ Will Never Leave)
Jail – Knowing Me, Knowing You (LIVE SESSION)
Jail – Count Backwards (LIVE SESSION)
Jail – Billericky Fashion Forever (LIVE SESSION)
Jail – Irene (LIVE SESSION)
Jail – Coco (LIVE SESSION)
Poino – Strength Of A Cowboy
Buttonhead – Sing To The Cows
Jail – ‘interview’
Nought – Horse Shoe Face (HG archive)
Extradition Order – Canoe
Mark Tingley from Wilberforce – Patricia Row (LIVE SESSION)
Mark Tingley from Wilberforce – Far Away (LIVE SESSION)
Mark Tingley from Wilberforce – The Song They Tried To Ban (LIVE SESSION)
Serafina Steer – Ride Out
Little Sparta – Spring
Mark Tingley – ‘interview’
Rachel App – Reese
House Of John Player – Shyrite / Son Esqueet
In two talks recorded at Laydeez do comics, M.K. Czerwiec and Sarah Leavitt talk about their work, mixing autobiography and medical comics. M.K. discusses the strips produced by her alter-ego, Comic Nurse and Sarah talks about documenting her mother’s alzheimers disease in Tangles.
(Recorded and edited by Alex Fitch, Q and A session moderated by Nicola Streeten and Sarah Lightman)
Panels from a Comic Nurse strip by M.K. Czerwiec and Tangles by Sarah Leavitt
Nicky Hamlyn, author of Film Art Phenomena, filmmaker and lecturer talks about cellulose nitrate film, the self-destructive character of film, Tony Conrad and film performances by Annabel Nicolson, Lis Rhodes, and Taka Iimura.
The radio debut of The Mud and the Lotus with Sonja K Peterson and Tim Abbott, talking about endometriosis and infertility. www.mudandlotus.com for more information. We are on Twitter @lightchronic and Facebook
Its was a hot humid evening, the smell of the two dogs’ breath wafted up from under the desk. Facing me was the lovely Miss Roberts and her faithful slave Cos Chapman.
Miss Roberts defied all opposing forces, patiently answering questions prepared for her from a card index. There was no time to waste. Included in their live performance we heard “Mercury River” not heard before in this country. I think they might have played it in their tour of Germany last month.
