Category: Newsletter

A Night of Flamenco: Jesus Olmedo & La Kati – review

Post author By niccitalbot
Post date March 2, 2019
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I went to see Jesus Olmedo perform at the Kino Teatr last month. A graduate from the Royal Conservatoire of Madrid, he is now working across the globe and runs a collective in London called Flamenco Soul – live shows combining ‘cante jondo’ (traditional song) with Spanish guitar and flamenco dancing. He rose to fame as Pippa Middleton’s flamenco teacher on the back of this article she wrote for The Telegraph.

First up: Flamenco guitarist Adrian Sola who just sat down and started to play. Following a big bang – technical hitch – he looked up with a shy smile, fiddled a bit and carried on. He has such grace – a beautiful, transcendent sound that grounds you and lays the foundation for the rest of the show. He doesn’t say much but has a fantastic stage presence and can hold his own as a solo performer. I noticed I had started crying. After a couple of sets, he was joined by percussionist Ayoze de Alejandro who worked his way into the sound and they played off each other. I think of flamenco as a solo performance, but it’s about teamwork and collaboration with lots of eye contact, banter and gesturing between performers. It was lovely to feel the connection between the two men.

Jesus is petite and slender with a determined chin and an intense expression – he reminded me of Hugh Jackman in The Greatest Showman. For the first performance, he wore a black and white suit which looked a bit Michael Jackson with a shirt that came undone as he moved. He is an excellent dancer and gave an accomplished performance, but for some reason, he didn’t dominate the room or give me tingles down my spine. I wanted him to push it to the edge. Maybe that would come later? For the second half, he wore a red and black suit which looked sharper and took it in turns to dance with La Kati – an excellent flamenco performer.

“You need to watch Israel Galvan,” my friend whispered into my ear. “I saw him in London. He’s such a force… dominates the stage. Such charisma. Chunky, not too skinny. Great ass, too.”

One of the highlights was an improv session around a wooden table featuring all performers. They started out tapping the table with their fists, building the sound, smiling and laughing and ended with a cracking tabletop performance by Jesus and La Kati. Would it collapse, or would they fall off first? Good tension and the audience got into the swing of it, clapping along in delight. I can imagine this scene being played out in bars across the country as a voice for political protest.

All in, an accomplished show, though I was left wanting more. For me, the standout performance was Sola’s solo guitar playing. Graceful and immersive, he took the audience with him on a journey – the total opposite to the flamenco but the two work well in tandem – he sets the stage for the physical movement and didn’t need any vocal accompaniment.

Looking around the Kino Teatr, St Leonards’ Russian art gallery and performance venue, I felt a bit depressed that most of the audience were over 50. £20 per ticket is a bit steep, but this is live theatre and something you don’t see every day in St Leonards. I prioritised this over other events as I wanted to feel something and thought it would help with the winter blues.

When we got home I watched Israel Galvan and Silvia Pérez Cruz on YouTube. She has a stunning, ethereal voice and he is such a force on stage – simple black outfit, hair swept back in a ponytail. He draws you in with his graceful hand movements. I can see why flamenco is Spain’s premier art form and a powerful tool for protest. Not sure I’d be any good at it with my joints, but I look forward to being energised by more of it.

Jesus Olmedo will be back at the Kino Teatr, St Leonards on May 25, 2019. Booking and info here.

Photo by Dolo Iglesias on Unsplash

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The M’Hencha Company – Moreish Moroccan Cake

Post author By niccitalbot
Post date December 21, 2018
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“What is it?”

“It’s a traditional Moroccan cake, but made here in the Cotswolds by a woman in Bourton on the Water,” the shopkeeper said proudly. “It won a Gold Great Taste Award”.

M’hencha (M’hanncha) is a tear and share filo pastry filled with almond, pistachio and rose water. The name is Arabic for ‘coiled like a snake’ so it’s also called snake pie or serpent cake. When things feel drab, nothing lifts the spirits like fresh mint tea, Turkish Delight and pistachio pastries scattered with rose petals. This is my regular afternoon treat at Liban, the new Lebanese restaurant at the Kino Teatr, St Leonards. Intrigued to see if the M’Hencha lived up to its award-winning status, I bought one to take home.

M’Hencha’s creator, Sophie Browne, is an artisan baker based in Bourton on the Water. In 2003 Sophie was diagnosed with a chronic autoimmune disorder and soon realised that juggling a corporate career with motherhood didn’t blend with managing a chronic condition. With a fair amount of trepidation and hope to create a better lifestyle and heal herself, she quit her sales and marketing job and decided to set up her own bakery business.

“I thought baking cake to order would be a grand plan, a pleasure to do, creative, local. I’d start small so there was less pressure and with some serious persistence, a hefty dollop of determination along with an unsustainable business plan under my belt I finally came up with a unique proposition: M’hencha. I created my interpretation of it in 2011, and after taking it to market for the first time and receiving an extraordinary response, I submitted it to the Great Taste Awards. I was utterly overwhelmed to receive three stars and have M’hencha Citrus, Rosewater & Pistachio named as one of the Top 50 Foods in Britain & Ireland 2012. This catapulted M’hencha into the limelight and The M’hencha Company was born.”

Sophie’s version of the North African pastry cake is an amalgamation of five recipes from Algeria to Morocco. She has added her favourite flavours to give it a new spin with citrus and frangipane. “My palate is my guide, I have a passion for Persian flavours and I like what I eat to be a sensory experience.” In 2015, she created an alter ego to the fragrant, fresh Citrus Rosewater and Pistachio, and, inspired by the other flavours of North Africa, the orange, cinnamon and date M’hencha was born.

“The final recipe was an accidental hero born from a bag of dates splitting in the mix when up against the clock. It turned out to be the best thing that could have happened making the fine-tuned recipe punchy and spicy. I submitted this version to the Great Taste Awards where it achieved three stars, ‘Top 50’ status and was awarded the Golden Fork for the South West (the Oscars of the food industry)”.

Sophie has kept her business small and specialist, personally making every M’hencha order and, in addition to the baking, manages the business development, orders and events – with the help of an enthusiastic support team. “I am a passionate artisan and incredibly proud to be one of many creative Cotswolds’ foodie businesses.”

My M’Hencha didn’t make it home in one piece. I heated it up and had some for breakfast with coffee from Fillet & Bone. Strikingly different, it tastes extraordinary and you don’t need much to feel satisfied. An excellent alternative to almond croissants in the morning and an exotic gift for foodie friends.

https://themhenchacompany.co.uk

The Cotswold Chocolate Company

Photo: Thanks to Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Tags Cotswolds, M'Hencha Company, Morocco

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Ground Zeroh: Bottle Alley, Hastings

Post author By niccitalbot
Post date September 1, 2018
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Daniel Hardiker and Neil Hetherington started working together as ZEROH on New Year’s Eve 1999 – a name inspired by new beginnings so it’s fitting that their initial project in Hastings’ neglected Bottle Alley was the first public art show in its 80-year history. Their second work, WaveLength, comes after the repairs and serves as a celebration of the iconic seaside structure. I met them to find out what’s in store for 2018.

What drew you to Bottle Alley?

How can you not be drawn to Bottle Alley? It’s an incredible space, unique to Hastings and we should be proud of it. We always take that route from St Leonards to Hastings and became really fond of it. It’s been neglected for years and people would avoid it because of the street drinkers and drugs. We got a lot of aggro when we were working on our first project, Point of Decay, as it was being used for drug dealing. We wanted to make it more inviting and encourage people to go down there and for the council to take more care of it as well. We knew they were going to redevelop the alley so we came up with a concept that would fit in with that in terms of commissioning art that would decay over time with the weather.

What was your next project?

WaveLength is our second project in the space, which was produced for Coastal Currents 2017 after the repairs. We painted 113 concrete columns of the passage in different shades of green and blue from east to west and yellow and orange from west to east. When you stop halfway along and look back, you can see the colour shifting like the sand. It’s a stunning effect and has a real rhythm to it, it makes you slow down and appreciate the view. We’ve had a really positive response with more people going down there and there seems to be more respect for space. There’s only been one incidence of graffiti since last September.

And now we have an amazing light installation….

A new lighting installation was launched in Bottle Alley in November 2017. The council has replaced some 500 metres of broken lighting with equipment that can be programmed for special effects and synchronised to music to create a sound and light show. We advised them on the lighting and produced a demo at the launch event to show local businesses and councillors what can be done in the space.

There are 1,524 lights and each one has its own address so it can be controlled as an individual entity. The potential is enormous – it’s a proper spectacle. The lights are so strong that they create their own bands of colour – pure whites and pure blacks and that’s something we want to play with in terms of sound and movement. The guys who fitted the lights were quite shocked – they didn’t envisage how they would look. We were there for the first test run and it was amazing to see the light coming towards you, it definitely makes you move faster!

Every Friday night there’s a light show in Bottle Alley, which is organised by the council in association with the pier.

How do you want to make people feel?

For the launch event of Point of Decay, we had a classical trio on a red carpet in the space. We’re really proud of that – it’s such an opposite feeling to how it is normally down there – using the language of privilege in a way to entertain people and showing how it used to be back in the day when the seaside was a destination. Hastings & St Leonards was a very social space in the 1920s/1930s so it’s interesting to reconnect old photos with the potential for what we can do now. Seaside architecture is very monotone and traditional, all white and beige. We really love the splashes of colour along the seafront and the lights add to that, It reflects the diversity of Hastings a bit more than the white architecture.

Did you have much support from local businesses?

We applied for Arts Council funding through Coastal Currents, the town’s annual arts festival. WaveLength was supported by Trade Paints who provided materials and advice and Leyland Paints who provided the paint.

Our budget would have meant a more simple piece, but thanks to Trade Paints we were able to add two colour tones instead of one. We had a small team of 5 – 6 artists working on the installation for one week and used over 200 tins of paint!

You said you were planning a live event in the space – how’s that coming along?

We had plans to do something big in the spring but have moved this to the other end of the year, when the clocks go back, as we realised the people we wish to involve would need more time and none of us wanted to rush it. We want to do an event which is a little bit different, something people haven’t experienced before; a bit more challenging and less obvious. The musical response on the demo day was a real spectacle so we’d like to push that further and have a live element to it. At the moment the lights are pre-programmed and don’t cater for any live control so if we were to put an artist down there, we’d want to have the space to respond to them in a live way – that’s the goal for the next event.

What attracted you to Hastings?

We lived in Brighton in the early 90s when it was a vibrant, creative, edgy town and then it became a city and lost its identity. We stumbled across Hastings on a day trip to buy a camera. Driving by Marine Court we were amazed by the level of beauty of the architecture and the sense that it’s a real place to live with real people. Brighton had lost that a bit. We did the Hastings Moth Project, which integrated us into the arts scene – the work became a talking point and was a good way to meet new people. Since then, we’ve collaborated with a variety of artists on many levels and really enjoy the process. Andrew Kotting recently commissioned us to do the end title sequence for his next film, Lek and the Dogs, which has just had its international premiere in Rotterdam.

What else is happening on the arts scene?

We’d love to see more permanent public art in Hastings and there needs to be a space for artists to create and exhibit their work. There seems to be a hierarchy of acceptance for graffiti! If it’s not offensive and has some artistic merit like the Banksy in St Leonards then it’s more acceptable. The decision-making process seems to go up the ranks in the council. That kind of conversation should be happening in public and we would like to see an agenda for this and further conversations about permanent art. We have some fantastic street artists in the town and it would be nice to celebrate this in our public spaces. There’s been a lot of talk about a street art festival over the last couple of years and it would be fantastic if Hastings could develop this in the same way Blackpool has.

facebook.com: ZEROH

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10 Reasons to Visit Rye, East Sussex

Post author By niccitalbot
Post date August 1, 2018
1 Comment on 10 Reasons to Visit Rye, East Sussex

“Nice shoes.”

“You don’t miss me in these,” I laughed looking down at my battered fluoro Converse. I fit in with the colour scheme at Ethel Loves Me, a new interiors store in Rye, East Sussex. It’s busy too, always a good sign, which is what drew me in as I wandered up Conduit Hill to Rye’s main shopping street. “Come and have a look, it’s all work by local artists and makers.”

Part art gallery, part lifestyle store & gift shop, plus experimental space, Ethel’s aim is to showcase original pieces and collectables made in Rye. An elegant jumble of arts, craft, curios, upcycled, salvage, vintage and fun fashion – it’s a joy to stumble across something handmade that I really don’t need but have to have – funky bottles for Fairy Liquid or these fabulous knives (stick ’em in your herbs!). I also love the oversize striped furniture and adventurous paintings by Tina Kaul – (a journey to Berlin, New York and other places she’s lived) and work by former graffiti artist James Tomlinson.

So, I have a rare day to myself in Rye, a very nice feeling. It’s been a while since I last visited and I never get bored of coming here as there’s always a new shop, gallery or cafe to sit and read in. It’s a foodie place (annual Scallop & Oyster festival) and has an entrepreneurial, upmarket vibe. This goes back a long way. It has always been a port town trading in luxury goods and has had to reinvent itself since invasion. Ryers are very proud of the town’s ‘royal’ status, independent shops, literary connections, festivals, and it has some high-end places to stay. With excellent train connections to Brighton, Ashford & beyond (just 38 minutes to St Pancras on the high-speed rail), it’s easy to get to from London and there’s plenty to do in a day, weekend or longer break.

Ready to hit the Rye Trail? Here are my suggestions…

For book lovers… my first port of call is always Rye Bookshop. I can lose hours in the travel section, browsing biographies, local history and reading their recommendations (I love those handwritten stickers). All genres, regular new stuff and the staff are knowledgeable and enthusiastic. The woman next to me was addressed by her first name. Rye is the setting for the fictional town of Tilling in EF Benson’s popular Mapp & Lucia books (adapted recently by the BBC – a very funny tale of social climbing). The American author Henry James also lived in Lamb House, just around the corner and wrote three bestselling books here (ghostly turns and very atmospheric, it’s now a National Trust property which you can visit during the summer).

For local history… Rye Castle – Ypres Tower and Women’s Tower
It’s the first time I’ve had a proper look around Rye Castle Museum and it’s well worth it. Ypres or ‘wipers’ as the locals call it was built in 1249 to help defend the town against attack, and has had many reincarnations since – it’s been a private residence, women’s prison (thought to be the only women’s prison to survive unaltered from the 1800s to present day), a mortuary and is now home to the castle museum. Great views of the town and harbour from the top and a humble medicinal herb garden hidden behind its walls.

For quiet time… St Mary’s Church, Church Square

This is the biggest church in Rye and in a prominent spot at the top of the hill. The only pre-1200 building to survive in Rye and the former lookout point before the castle was constructed. Great views from the top of the tower. My favourite church in Rye, however, is the only Catholic one, St. Anthony of Padua, just opposite on Watchbell Street. It has a welcome sign outside the door in various languages, beautiful stained glass windows and is less busy so more peaceful. It’s where I always go to light a candle and say a prayer.

For a pint… Mermaid Street at dusk
I couldn’t resist this beautiful photo by Helen Hotson, a landscape photographer based in Cornwall. She has captured Mermaid Street at its best, at dusk when you can nosy into other people’s homes (there was scaffolding up when I visited during the day so not quite so enticing to photograph). Once Rye’s main street (Middle Street), this is the vision in all the postcards. Cobbled streets and a pretty steep hill so not great for heels or buggies (took me ages in both). Have a drink in the Mermaid Inn, an ancient pub which is now the mainstay for celebrities, festival events etc. Charming house names too, ‘The House Opposite’ … ‘The House with the Seat’. I wonder if the owners get fed up with all the gawping?

For shopping… luxury and vintage goods…
Rye is excellent for homewares, interiors, art, photography, books and unusual gifts. New since I last visited: Ethel Loves Me, Rye Chocolates, WiDEYE, an ethical beauty shop & treatment room, Rye Weddings, Rye Candy, Art & Soul Gallery, and Corridor Café. I’m lusting after several pairs of beautiful retro Italian brogues from Crispin’s of Rye. There’s also Rye Pottery, Glass Etc where misery, moans and frowns are banned – run by the Decanterman Andy McConnell – who once gave a talk at one of my Salons and had us all rolling around on the floor. Byzantium for jewellery and watches, butter knives and Beryl Woods Ware in Crock & Cosy on Strand Quay.

For tea and treats…

I had a cream tea in Hayden’s – a lovely organic coffee shop and B&B with a lovely view from its courtyard and bought some Sicilian pastries (gluten free!) to take home from Rye Deli.

It’s a pleasure to wander around Rye on your own but if you want to make a connection with a local to uncover Secret Rye (buildings not open to the public like the Town Hall), I recommend booking a two-hour walking tour from Rye Heritage Centre (Thursdays, Fridays and some Saturdays).

If you’re here for longer take a walk or cycle out to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, a conservation area just two miles out of town that’s home to 4,275 species of wildlife (more than 300 are rare and endangered in Britain). There are several walking routes depending on energy levels and you can visit the ruins of Camber Castle (guided tours during the summer). I also like to walk or cycle to Camber Sands, about an hour’s walk, for book and beach time. A pretty flat track and not that exciting but the view from Camber Sands more than makes up for it.

Getting there: www.visit1066country.com for accommodation and transport.

Photos: Nicci Talbot, Mermaid Street – Helen Hotson, Shutterstock.