ARAF COLLECTIVE LONDON is a not-for profit organisation, with an aim to unite early career musicians, artists, writers, and performers seeking a testing ground for new projects or inspiration for new collaborations with an enthusiastic, interested, critical and creative audience. You don’t need proof of a paying fanclub to perform with us! You just need a great sound, a bad attitude,or a wild idea. We actively opt out of any commercial interests: the interests of Araf Collective are personal and reactionary; a creative site of resistance against ‘arts cuts’ culture... And before you ask...
‘ARAF’ (pronounced ‘ARAV’) is Welsh for ‘SLOW’. SO TAKE YOUR TIME AND ENJOY
THIS MONTH’S EVENTS:
ARAF COLLECTIVE LONDON are proud to present : ‘LIGHTHOUSE’ at THE WRECK no. 5, Camberwell, 27.06.13 featuring
DR PEABODY/ FEEL GOOD CULTURE/ TRUECOLLECTIVES DJ SET FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE!
And THIS, the FIFTH Edition of Free Zine... SMELLIN’ SALTS featuring
THE BANDS, ART, POETRY, OPINIONS, and more!
FOR PERUSAL AT YOUR LEISURE!
Cover art by the Wonderful Leonore: ascanaday.blogspot.co.uk P.S. Yes,
SMELLIN’ SALTS is a nod to the mid-70s Punk Zine SNIFFIN’ GLUE: oh those heady days of tippex & xerox...
>>>>>>>>>>FUTURE ARAF EVENTS FOR YOUR DIARY>>>>>>>>>
25/07 LIGHTHOUSE 6: last LIGHTHOUSE of the summer, LAST LIGHTHOUSe @ the WRECK! free live music from: Sample Answer / Hattie Whitehead / Little Brother Eli ARAF COLLECTIVE LONDON THANKS PROFUSELY: Rob @ THE WRECK, Dr PEabody, Feel Good Culture,
TrueCollectives Contributers to this issue: O.P.G. H.A. LeonorE, Sophie Armour, Rachel
Long, Dr Peabody,Malina Busch, Azalea O SHorth, Raymond Williams,
And you, our Salt Sniffers and Lighthouse Keepers.
Send submissions for JUNE arafcollective@live.co.uk follow us: @ARAFCollective check us out : www.arafcollectivelondon.com
ARAF COLLECTIVE PRESENTS...
AR A F - N E W S - F L A S H : FEEL GOOD CULTURE
Last month’s Lighthouse at the Wreck opened with Abbey Bowden’s intense, delicate and haunting performance dramatically accompanied by a dusk chorus of sirens. This was followed by Kate Threlfall and her band which brought beautifullyexecuted funk to the crowded Wreck. The night closed with a mellow electronica set from the talented Sense Department. A special ‘Shout Out’ has to go to TONY the Roofer from Hull, who joined us at the Wreck and proceeded to assist in the collection of the Band Tips. Many thanks to Tony !
T
RUECOLLECTIVES
fuses the experience of individual DJs and MCs in an intoxicating cocktail of sound, leaving the listener stirred and not shaken. We love collectivism at ARAF and TrueCollectives demonstrate the benefits of holding hands across the decks. On the 12th October, their debut EP is launched at the studious surroundings of the Westminster Reference Library, so SSSSHHHHHH and bookmark these modern minstrels.
In the current economic climate, Culture is often far from ‘feel good’ - it wheezes under the strangle-hold of the The Bullingdon Club. However, WestLondon based Reggae/Ska Band Feel Good Culture attempt to bring muchneeded dose of contentment to this scene. Playing popular venues across the capital including O2 Apollo Islington and The Troubadour, we welcome this spoonful of musical sugar to the Wreck and know that your ears will be smiling by the end of their set.
D
R. PEABODY
The ILLUSTRIOUS ‘Dr. Peabody’ bring their MIRACULOUS own-brand post-punk-penicillin to your medicine cabinet. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, are you in need of a TONIC to the MODERN spirit or a CURE to EVERY ALIMENT known to Man? Look no further than THE LIGHTHOUSE AT THE WRECK’s Premier medical practitioner, the ILLUSTRIOUS ‘Dr Peabody’.
FRUIT MACHINE NO. 2, AUGUST EDITION VENUE TBA... LIKELY A PUB IN CAMBERWELL! OPEN CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS! ARAF COLLECTIVE’s MOUTHY YOUNGER SISTER EVENT, FRUIT MACHINE, is an OPEN FORUM IDEAS-JAM/ DISCUSSION GROUP HELD IN a PUB.
IDEAS JAM AT THE PUB, 2 !
OPEN CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS EXACT DATE & VENUE TBA. LOOK OUT FOR DETAILS. SOMEWHERE IN CAMBERWELL...
ANYONE is WELCOME to present/ discuss on ANY TOPIC for 10 minutes, to a friendly pub audience. DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SHARE with us? Want to show us an art work in progress, read us a poem, give your opinion on something, show us your research, etc. over a pint? AV equipment is available. SURPRISE US! DROP US AN EMAIL!
WORDS as Weapons of Mass Distraction - Azalea O’S.
H
ow frequently a choice turn of phrase blurted on BBC Question time churns the stomach or set the ears ablaze.
A
s a recent twitter convert, I have begun to follow the commentary on #bbcqt, particularly vitriolic from the protester performance artist Mark McGowan, a.k.a. @chunkymark, the ARTIST TAXI DRIVER (just follow him). Cynicism reigns supreme as we observe the familiar circus before us, the twirling dervish-like feats of linguistic damage-limitation and masquerade from politicians in shoes a few sizes too big, with hair colours a few shades short of convincing. On twitter we make it our work to read between the lines, to fill in for the audience’s frustrated attempts at articulation, where Dimbleby cuts them off. A list of contentious words, and phrases spotted in the last episode, during discussions on the banking crisis, drug laws, policy on Syria and Iran, and housing, organised by speaker: Boris Johnson: regulate/ deregulate, rehabilitation, pressure, diplomatic, rebellion, reigime, owner-occupation. Ed Davey: sanction, crisis, risks, reforms, evidence, humanity, society, communities, decriminalisation. Tessa Jowell: sanctions, under-regulated, ‘the culture of banking’, consensual, macho, poor, rebels, insurgent, Jihadist, displaced peoples. Melanie Phillips:greed, individual, judgement, negligence, ‘culture of integrity’, war on drugs, harm reduction, law enforcement, war, anti-diplomacy, Islamists, rogue state, terror, negotiate, nuclear bomb, genocide, ‘neutralize Iran’. Russel Brandt: emotional, addiction, compassion, alienate, stigmatize, militant, privileges, tax avoidance, ‘weird lefty agenda.’ Audience:compliance, behaviour,humanitarian, weapons of mass destruction, transparency.
While slippery politicians bear the brunt of our scorn for evading verbal transparency, malleability of meaning is a fact of language, exploited wittingly and employed unwittingly, by all, in all walks of life. What a politician might call a ‘regeneration’ policy for a town centre, local communities might read as ‘gentrification’, for instance. As we have recently discovered at the Recreation Ground in Camberwell, ARAF Collective’s regular venue since January, one man’s ‘local boozer’ and music venue is another’s potential ‘Gastro Pub’ (sad news imminent!). It was this notion that different individuals ‘…just don’t speak the same language’ that prompted Raymond Williams to write Keywords in 1973. Look up any word in the Oxford English Dictionary, as Williams points out in the introduction to his book Keywords, and you will find that definitions are never as impersonal, apolitical or definitive as our school teachers may have drilled into us. Meanings can be seen to change with the differing values held by individual speakers, and the political, economic and social circumstances of the times. A list of common words in daily use including art, collective, culture, development, expert, history, individual, labour, masses, nature, originality, popular, reform, society, taste, were selected for his study, deemed significant for their slippery meanings. These were investigated in terms their provenance and changing use in writing, thought and in ordinary everyday speech over time. Key terms were also placed within a broader network of related key terms. Williams’ Keywords could be criticised for its limited scope on issues of sex, gender and race, but significantly the book includes a number of blank pages for the readers’ own suggestions. The work
of Keywords is necessarily a never-ending project, and there have been revisions from Williams himself (1983), and others, including Tony Bennett (2005). Why is a Keywords-style strategy still useful today? Words continue to confuse and obscure intent, no more innocent today than they were in 1973. It is useful for us to continually challenge our assumptions and map the transformations of meaning, that continue to surprise us about our changing relationships with each other, as well as highlight alternative ways of thinking through problems, how we might work around old linguistic binds (there being little hope of us escaping them entirely).
is omitted and replaced by other words thought to better reflect contemporary use, contemporary controversies and confusions (see Bennet, 2005). Perhaps collective has lost its polysemic nature, or has fallen out of use? We don’t think so: a quick Twitter search reveals numerous uses: art collectives, hacker collectives, collective voices, collective revenue, collective apathy, collective sighs of relief: what would Williams have made of Twitter, had he lived to see it?
In future editions of this Zine, I will produce a series of ‘keywords of the month’ discussions that seem of particular significance to ARAF Collective. This week, there’s only space for a brief discussion of our choice of name: ‘ARAF COLLECTIVE’ One of our founding members is of Welsh extraction, and Araf Collective took for its name the Welsh word ‘araf’ (pronounced ‘arav’), meaning ‘slow’. We chose this as antispectacular, unfashionable ‘slowness’ presents an antidote to the obsessions with speed, newness, fast-fame seeking and throwaway nature of much of what we consume, hear and see. Why a collective? We believe in value of sharing and working together, beyond university institutions, neither for profit, nor for notches on that old corporate internships bedpost- but to encourage new creative collaboration. In Williams’ discussion in 1973, an early use of the word collective was to describe ‘people acting together’ (in 1600), and in the 19th century, collective implied a social or political group of a democratic ilk. In recent attempts to update Keywords, collective
___________________________________________ Raymond Williams (b.1921, Pandy, Wales, d.1988), was educated at a grammar school, attended Cambridge, and served as an Anti-Tank Captain in the Royal artillery during WWII. He worked as an adult education tutor at Oxford University until 1961, later becoming professor of Drama at Cambridge. ‘his lifelong concern with the interface between social development and cultural process marked him out as one of the most perceptive and influential intellectual figures of his generation.’ (Anthony Barnett, 2011) ___________________________________________ Williams, Raymond, 1983 [1973], Keywords, a vocabulary of culture and society (revised edition), Oxford University Press. Bennett, Tony., et. al, 2005 , New Keywords: a revised vocabulary of culture and society, Blackwell
A Spoken Word Poem by Rachel Long
Cuts to De ‘art was inspired by an Apples and Snakes, Writing Room session at The Albany, Deptford, with the legendary Spoken Word poet, Jean Binta Breeze. She introduced us the the politics in dub-poetry, and told us to pick a topic that riled us, told us to wrestle with it, then rhyme with it. I chose the topic of the current government’s cuts to the arts, and wanted to highlight the dangers of this, not only to us, but for the generations coming up after us.
Cuts to De ‘art Cuts to de ‘art. A generation bleeds Grey minds give born to grey seeds
Cuts to de ‘art. A generation bleeds Grey minds give born to grey seeds
Me ‘arts payin’ de banker’s debt Dey takin’ all me colour Dis time gov’ment nah care if me black nor me white Dem shades, not colours Dis time dey nah joke Dey takin’ from de pigment snatching hues Who’s? You’s! De generation dat grow Colour blind Ev’n when yo’ close yo’ eyes.
And de chillun grow grey So yo’ say “Chil’, wah cry? Go outside an’ play” but his playground is grey So he cry Ca chil’ slit deep Ca paper cut thro’ And he don’t dream in colour Him mind washed white Paint’d over Banksy, him scrawl pon de wall ‘Dreams cancelled’
Cuts to de ‘art. A generation bleeds Grey minds give born to grey seeds Dey taxin’ me soul To save dem suits Tak’n my paper all de way to the bank To print pon it green Wha you mean? Dey tak’n me brush Ma pen to paint words Me sword to draw battle To recal’ d’ last time I saw colour Before de rainbow dey slice Before de sunrise dey chain My landscape stripped grey Without sunrise how will I rise? Now dey have drained Evr’y colour ‘tween de rain and the sun I can’t paint red if I gots to pay rent
“But what’s a dream anyway?” he say
Remind de child! But, the memory has long been swept away Cuts to de ‘art. A generation bleeds Grey minds give born to grey seeds Think, think back Tryn r’member De colour of your pain So little you won’t walk the grey world in vain You tink and you tink Hand press’ to your breast tryna recall the shade ofAnd you cant remember wha’ colour it even bled You forgot red Forgot you; De generation dat dream withou’ blue.
Rachel Long
Malina Busch - ‘Nightfall’ - www.malinabusch.com
Cuts to De ‘art:
Born Stale: The John Byers Story The following article is composed of excerpts from the forthcoming biography of Dorset’s premier removals man/cult folk hero.
Many things are known about John Byers – the points on his licence (15), the town of his birth (Bridport, Dorset), the name of his boat (Chugger) – but few know what is perhaps the most important tale to shed light on the life and career of this remarkable individual: his acquaintance with folk legend Kelly “Salty Skillet” Stephens. Byers got to know Stephens during a brief interment in Portland’s Verne Prison in 1965, after a drunken incident at Weymouth’s annual trawler race which unexpectedly led to what he has always described as his “political awakening”.
Accounts vary as to the reason for Stephens’ imprisonment. Whilst the official police records state the crime as GBH and indecent exposure, Stephens himself recounted it as a misunderstood moment of righteous ire for which he has been wrongly imprisoned. Byers’ view of the story, told in a rare interview, states, “he beat the shit out of Claudius at an interactive staging of Hamlet at the Weymouth Pavilion. The tension got to him so much that during the interval, he jumped out his seat and twatted Polonius for being such a prick then glassed the King himself with a half-finished pint of Old Thumper. This has always inspired me, Salty’s conviction I mean. To him, it didn’t matter that it was just a play, he just wanted to bring the bastard to justice.” […] In 1979 Byers went electric, with his folk-disco fusion outfit ‘JB and the Spitshine Band’, and enjoyed moderate success with such hits as ‘I’m Your Removal Man’, ‘Sound Your Van Horn’ and ‘Get Pissed Tonight.’ Although hardcore fans lament his departure from the gritty Dorset folk stylings that made him so unique, this is widely regarded as his most accessible, and without a doubt most commercially viable, period. “It was great. I was a happy man with a fuelled up van, a packet of
fags and a pint in my hand”, reminisces Byers. JB’s collaboration with the Spitshine Band led to the ill-fated Moving Boxes, Talking Neds tour (1987) of the North, Scotland and the outer reaches of the Highlands, which was by many considered the last gasp of Byers’ eclectic and cantankerous career. It has recently been leaked that Byers is currently working on a new album, Byers Sings Peabody. His fans hope that this is the first spark of a renaissance in his career and the beginning of a wider appreciation of his much-maligned oeuvre. “Having grown up with Byers’ music, having had it somewhat forced upon me I guess, I’m well chuffed to hear about this. I’m not sure what the other guys will think but I can’t wait to listen to it!”, says Dr. Peabody guitarist and Dorset native Mario D’Agostino. When asked what he’s up to at the moment, Byers replied: “A quote? Why, what d’you want moving? I’m free Thursday.” […] Ultimately, Byers remains resolutely unchanged, perhaps best
summed up by these lines from his hit single Johnny from the Dock: Don’t be fooled by the lobsters in my pot I’m still, I’m still Johnny from the dock Used to have a pedalo and now I’ve got a yacht I still know where I came from – DT6, Bridport!
Selected Discography: -
The Inebriated Sound of John Byers (1967) Born Stale (1968) Live at Durdle Door Free Festival (1969) Aqua Vitae (1972) (Get Yer) Jugs Out! (1979) Remain In Pub (1980) I Spit On Your Rave (1992)
Selected Singles: -
-
-
“Pint is Just a Four Letter Word” (#54, 1967) “I Lost My Love to the Bastard Milkman” (#43, 1967) “That’s My Lager” (#12 UK, #8 US, 1969) “Shyne Bryght, You Crazy Moonshyne” (#183 UK, #19 USA, 1972) “(Hit You With My) Seven Pint Stare” (#76 UK, #147 USA, 1979) “How Soon is Last Orders?” (Uncharted, 1986)
SOPHIE ARMOUR So information we voluntarily publish on a globally accessible platform is being collected as if it were a stack of tin foil in a field full of magpies. Understandably, this has many people ducking for cover. The excellently-named Prism-break.org has gone viral as people seek to encrypt their every click. Swathes of people have known about this surveillance, and taken measures to avoid it, for years of course. But now that creeping feeling that we are being watched has entered the mainstream. And yet, for the most part, it seems unlikely that people will cease to share every photo they take, check-in at every bar they stumble into and rant to 556 Facebook friends about their boyfriend/ex-boyfriend/ it’s complicated. It appears to be quite irremovably ingrained in us, this need to document our lives. Since the dawn of mankind we have smeared our handprints on walls as proof that we were there. Paper, quill, paint brush, printing press and camera were all invented to enable us to confirm, even long after our perishable hearts have stopped, that one time, we met Tulisa in a train station. Our new flirtation with anonymity in the face of unending opportunities to document our lives raises uncertainties. Does anything have value if no evidence of it exists? Judging by the way we do things, the answer appears to be ‘no’. We need a certificate to prove we were born, qualifications to prove we went to school, we gather all manner of receipts, passport stamps and signed contracts until finally, we need one last certificate to prove we are gone. Nice as it is to have mementos, and even on occasion to be able to prove how clever we are, there is something far more endearing about the lesser known aspects of our lives. They are held only in our highly corruptible memories. Bits get lost over time, and everything in the rear-view can look both
bad and good, depending on our moods. We add things, take things away and switch things round, often unconsciously. And this works best when there is nothing to set us straight. It can be disappointing to find yourself faced with the true version of events. When you wake up thinking you had a fun, carefree night at a party, no one wants to be confronted with stories and photographs that prove you got up to no good and maybe, possibly, almost got your friends beaten up. And when something terrible happens, it feels safer to dwell in the edited version of events – the one where you cut out some of the aches and pains and shaded over the darkest parts. Parents now report their children’s ups and downs all over the internet. Never mind this being the start of a very thorough permanent record of a person that can be sold and used to market to them, or be held against them, at a later date – it is the end of fantastical childhood memories that have been so edited and embellished you believe you grew up in an innocent wonderland of endless summers, in which you were tipped to be a Wimbledon champion. In a few decades, people in their early twenties will discover through an innocent self-Google that no, they did not meet Mickey Mouse at Disneyland: it was Minnie. That Father Christmas who visited nursery was not Saint Nick, or even a harmless stranger, but their weird uncle who no one speaks to any more. Ruined memories don’t necessarily ruin lives, but they can cause disillusionment or regret. This age of creating solid evidence of everything that ever happens wreaks of a stoney-faced ‘get real’ attitude. If anything comes of this worry of being watched, let it be that some things are held back and kept sacred. Keep some things to yourself, and enjoy how they morph. Read more from Sophie Armor at: StandardLondonEvening.wordpress.com
ARAF COLLECTIVE NEWSFLASH>> A bout of
GASTRO-PUB-ENTERITIS
ARAF COLLECTIVE SET TO LOSE GIG VENUE A SAD DAY for ARAF COLLECTIVE LONDON : After five successful gigs in 2013, we are set to lose our beloved venue, THE WRECK, upstairs at the recreation ground pub, Camberwell, as it is changing ownership: set to become another foody pub. Where you once swigged Red Stripe and partied to the tunes of ARAF artistes including The Caulfield Beats, you will now sit politely and eat your organic sunday roast. Elbows off the table, they say. Don’t lick your knife, they say. Well, their loss ! NOW WE NEED YOUR HELP: Where should we go next? Let us know!
W
ANTED:
A FRIENDLY GIG VENUE IN CAMBERWELL/ PECKHAM Must be : 1. free to hire 2. Must Sound Good 3. capacity 50-100 people
Our final gig at The Wreck is on JULY 25th, as planned:
ARAF COLLECTIVE LONDON PRESENTS: Upstairs @ THE RECREATION GROUND, CAMBERWELL
FREE LIVE MUSIC SAMPLE ANSWER HATTIE WHITEHEAD
LITTLE BROTHER ELI 25 JULY 2013 7.30PM
LIGHT HOUSE no.6