Last night I visited the Star and Shadow for a Celebration of the life of Craig Puranen Wilson / Sheena Revolta. It is a wonderful space and a lot of work has gone into getting this ready. I wasn't sure want to expect but you get a wonderful welcome and there is a labyrinth of corridors and rooms and places to explore.
There were a lot of people and the main performance hall / bar was decorated with gittery stars and pink flamingoes (I don't know if that was a refernce to the divinely trashy John Waters / Divine film, probably). Incidentally John Waters appeared in the last episode of The Blacklist that I watched in a hilarious section with James Spader discussing clothes at a suit fitting.
The corridor to the venue was a redisplay of Craig's Garageland , images of female musicians, from last year.
Anyway the music playing included Gram Parsons and The Beach Boys and we were introduced The Mush described as dark folk music and featuring some wonderful playing and amazingly atmospheric songs. The spirit of Craig / Sheena hovered in the form of Divine Trash movies featuring lots of gratuitous nudity causing lots of laughter among the crowd and band. I can't find anything about The Mush, maybe it's one of those unsearchable terms.
It was like when I saw the Japanses noiseniks Xaviers supporting Wire. They were selling Tea Towels and Pillow Cases but know CDs but said they had stuff online. I couldn't find anything.
My friend Hedley post a link to the Mush website here and they have been going for around twenty years. The website is comprejhensive with details of members, albums and music and well worth visiting as they are an amazing musical collective.
So I will include the video I took from last night so you can see the venue and hear the band. I definitely want to see more of them.
Next was Nathalie Stern , who was backing singin in The Mush with friends. Here music was electronic based with some awesome vocalising, and off course more Divine Trash on the screen, but I think here music would have been beautifully served by "The Wicker Man" or "A Field In England".
There were roller skaters, drag queens, some amazing costumes and lots of love in there but I had to leave at ten as the final collective sang their take on Blondie's "Heart of Glass" and the evening was just getiing going, but I would not have been an enhancement to the dancefloor.
There were DJ sets and dancing through to two AM and a truly wonderful event and get together heralded the return of the Star and Shadow, and veritable jewel to our wonderful home in Newcastle.
There were a lot of people and the main performance hall / bar was decorated with gittery stars and pink flamingoes (I don't know if that was a refernce to the divinely trashy John Waters / Divine film, probably). Incidentally John Waters appeared in the last episode of The Blacklist that I watched in a hilarious section with James Spader discussing clothes at a suit fitting.
The corridor to the venue was a redisplay of Craig's Garageland , images of female musicians, from last year.
Anyway the music playing included Gram Parsons and The Beach Boys and we were introduced The Mush described as dark folk music and featuring some wonderful playing and amazingly atmospheric songs. The spirit of Craig / Sheena hovered in the form of Divine Trash movies featuring lots of gratuitous nudity causing lots of laughter among the crowd and band. I can't find anything about The Mush, maybe it's one of those unsearchable terms.
It was like when I saw the Japanses noiseniks Xaviers supporting Wire. They were selling Tea Towels and Pillow Cases but know CDs but said they had stuff online. I couldn't find anything.
My friend Hedley post a link to the Mush website here and they have been going for around twenty years. The website is comprejhensive with details of members, albums and music and well worth visiting as they are an amazing musical collective.
So I will include the video I took from last night so you can see the venue and hear the band. I definitely want to see more of them.
Next was Nathalie Stern , who was backing singin in The Mush with friends. Here music was electronic based with some awesome vocalising, and off course more Divine Trash on the screen, but I think here music would have been beautifully served by "The Wicker Man" or "A Field In England".
There were roller skaters, drag queens, some amazing costumes and lots of love in there but I had to leave at ten as the final collective sang their take on Blondie's "Heart of Glass" and the evening was just getiing going, but I would not have been an enhancement to the dancefloor.
There were DJ sets and dancing through to two AM and a truly wonderful event and get together heralded the return of the Star and Shadow, and veritable jewel to our wonderful home in Newcastle.
http://www.mushnewcastle.co.uk/about.html
ReplyDeleteThe band was called Mush and they're fabulous. They often play with Gem Andrews and vice versa.