The gentle everyday hubbub of Cliffe High Street on a sunny Thursday afternoon (8th May) was shattered as an armed gang smashed their way into WE Clark's just before 3.30pm, and made off with bags filled with jewellery. They left a car parked outside the shop, situated on the west side of the Cliffe Bridge, with the keys in the ignition, ready for a swift getaway. An alert and brave passer-by pulled the keys out of the ignition while they were in the shop, which meant that they had to escape on foot, down Cliffe High Street, at some speed. They were chased by four members of the public, including Viva Lewes employee Steve Watts, but managed to outstrip their pursuers, and make their way to a second car parked near the Snowdrop. Police eventually stopped the second car at Boship Roundabout near Hailsham, and arrested three men. A fourth man managed to escape on foot, and is still, as we write, at large. Police are asking for any eyewitnesses to come forward, as well as anyone who saw either of the two cars or their passengers before the crime was committed, and up until 4.15pm. The cars in question were a red Peugeot 307 Estate (reg GJ52 ZHE) and a dark-coloured Ford Focus (NJ04 RYS).
On Saturday (May 3rd) several hundred protesters marched through Lewes in support of Jenny Mumford, who has been threatened with legal action by the District Council for putting up a humorous anti-overdevelopment sign on the front of her house in Lansdown Place featuring Glenda Slagg, the fictitious Private Eye hack. The march finished up at the Convent Field where several speakers stressed that they were not against development per se; that they were against bad developments. The unexpectedly high attendance at the march signalled the dissatisfaction of a growing number of Lewes residents with the Council's planning department, for green-lighting so many applications in recent years, having ignored the complaints of those who had opposed them. The march also served to bring together a number of pressure groups who had hitherto been acting independently from one another. There was a tangible feeling in the air that this was just the beginning of a movement that will grow and grow. We will, of course, keep you involved of any developments. In an earlier edition of this webmagazine we suggested that the police diverted the march: we were misinformed. The organisers tell us that on the other hand, the police could not have been more helpful and sensitive. We apologise for the misunderstanding. Finally we would like to alert you to a new blog by Peter Chasseaud, who is building a 'Tom Paine' 18th century-style printing press, and who wonders in an open letter what Paine would have made of the issues facing Lewes today.
This week's cover features the vanguard of last Saturday's march, with Alexis May dressed as Glenda Slagg. Thanks to Marco Crivello for use of his artwork in the magazine's header. As ever, here is a round-up of the best of this week's events in and around town. If you want to alert us of any future events for consideration in this space, please do so here.
Fri 9th (and Sat 10th): Cinema - The Orphanage (15)
A well-made horror movie directed by Juan Antonia Bayona but produced by Guillermo de Toro, and like a tell-tale murder weapon, bearing his fingerprints all over it. Belen Rueda plays a former inmate of a remote and now-cosed-down orphanage who returns with her family to try and get it going again. Of course, there are skeletons in the closet (and mysterious masked children in the cellar): don't expect to leave the church without having the shit scared out of you.
Rotten Tomatoes found that 84% of 126 reviewers gave the film a positive write up
Watch an over-the-top trailer of the movie
Lewes Cinema, 8pm (6.30pm Sat), £5
Fri 9th: Gig - The Fold
Highly experienced and highly eclectic folk-rock band who mix trad belters with Americana, funk and dance music. Fiddles, mandolins, flutes, electric geetar and plenty of attitude.
Con Club , 8.30pm, £3 for non-members
Sat 10th: Cinema - Vantage Point (12A)
William Hurt plays the American President, who is shot while attending a crisis summit in Spain. So far, so good, then. But is everything all it seems? We are shown the same event, over again, from different viewpoints, with Dennis Quaid trying valiantly to unravel the clues. It's all 9/11 conspiracy theory meets Day of the Jackal meets Rashomon. Whodunnit? Who cares? The best thing about the movie is its location: Salamanca is one of the most beautiful cities in Spain.
Rotten Tomatoes found that 36% of 137 critics gave the film a positive review
Watch a trailer of the movie
Lewes Cinema. 8.30pm, £5
Sat 10th: Gig - John Crampton
Quiet-spoken John Crampton takes the stage with a 1930’s steel guitar, a harmonica strapped into a rack around his neck, and a stomp box. He looks an unassuming type. You don’t expect much from him. Then he gets started. A slow one, maybe, to get things going. Pretty soon he’s making the sort of racket you’d expect a four-man band to make, whipping up a pitch of frenzy that has this reviewer tempted to take the ‘g’s off all his ‘ings’. Crampton is a prodigious blues talent, a Londoner with a heart as big as the North Mississippi Delta, whose largely self-penned repertoire inevitably gets the crowd up on its feet.
Crampton made his name with the legendary Brighton skiffle band Daddy Yum Yum, then realised that he could do it all on his own. Since the late eighties he’s been gigging the world, in his own right, or supporting the likes of Van Morrison, Dr. Feelgood and Nine Below Zero. He cites Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker and Ry Cooder as his influences: his music is what music reviewers love to call ‘low-down and dirty’. His voice has the sort of quart-of-whisky-and-a-packet-of-filterless quality that makes Tom Waits Tom Waits. He rocks, basically.
Top-notch bluesy singer writes self-penned tunes culled from a beat life on the road. Anderson is a legendary folk hero, who has been recording his idiosyncratic takes on life since the mid sixties.
Anchor Inn, Barcombe Mills, £10 from Rik's Disks, Octave Records, or on the door (ring 0787 907 6677 to check availability).
Sun 11th: Plumpton races
It's a sharp, undulating, left-hand jump course, of just over a mile. And it's right on our doorstep. Sunday meets are boistrous, crowded events full of everyday punters. This race is the 'Equine America Family Fun' day. Plumpton, incidentally, derives from the Old English 'plumpt', meaning 'down below' and referring to the village's position in relation to the Downs. And, as we never tire of telling you, the seminal kids' show 'Trumpton' was rumoured to be inspired by the village.
Next to Plumpton Station, first race 2.10pm, entry from £8.50
Sun 11th: Cinema - The Spiderwick Chronicles (PG)
Adult-friendly fantasy flick starring Freddie Highmore as a pair of twins who find that their family's move to a remote house in the country isn't as tedious as it seems when they discover a dusty book on supernatural biology written by their great-great uncle. There are goblins, there are ogres, and careful with the tomato ketchup.
Rotten Tomatoes found that 80% of 113 reviewers gave the film a positive write-up
Watch a trailer of the movie
Lewes Cinema, All Saints, 6pm, £5
Sun 11th: Cinema - Love in the Time of Cholera (15)
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a very readable novel about the lifelong love of a man for a woman who chooses to marry someone else. The cholera epidemis surging through South America at the time (it is set around the turn of the twentieth century) is a metaphor for the man's stubborn passion. The film version, which gives Javier Bardem the difficult job of playing the spurned lover over a 40-year period, isby Harry-Potter director Mike Newell. Let's say it hasn't garnered a reputation to equal that earned by the novel.
Rotten Tomatoes found that 27% of 98 reviewers gave the film a positive write up
Watch a trailer of the film
All Saints, 8pm, £5
Mon 12th: Song Cycle - The Magic Hand
"The combination of artists in this Brighton Festival preview show couldn’t be more diverse or unlikely. They comprise a sometime Beach Boy, a Dutch counter tenor, a Cuban pianist and a guitar strummer born on a council estate just outside Brighton," says Richard Durrant (left), the strummer in question. The show, organised by students of Lewes Youth Theatre in order to raise funds for their organisation, will be like nothing ever seen before in Lewes before, a collaboration between songwriter Stephen Kalinich, international counter-tenor Sytse Buwalda, guitar icon Durrant and Argentinian composer Pablo Escande. "it is a magical mixture betwen song, poetry and music," says Buwalda, "that's why we call it 'The Magic Hand'.
Pelham House , 7.30pm, £12/£10 on door if available, otherwise from Laporte's, MG&M (formerly Video Box) and the Tourist Office
Tues 13th: Flamenco - Cafe Cantante
A 14-scene flamenco musical, in two acts, put together by the touring group Simpatico Flamenco, featuring cante jondo singer Fernando Reyes and father-and-son guitarists Los Macaleses. This is vintage-style flamenco, from the early twentieth century, with flamboyant costumes and plenty of rat-a-tat dancing. Picture by John Singer Sargent.
All Saints, 7 for 7.30pm, £10/£8/£6 from Duende Flamenco (07963 959262) or Laporte's
Thurs 15th: The Decorative Living Fair
If you are interested in the idea of more than 30 exhibitors selling vintage and new decorative items for the home and garden, then we suggest you head out to Eridge Park nr Tunbridge Wells for the day, where the annual Decorative Living Fair is taking place. Amongst the exhibitors are Caroline Zoob, who will have a special exhibition of her embroideries and Henrietta Purbrick who helped create the event back in 2006. They will be joined by 30 or so other designers, showcasing a wide range of wares, including hats - from Gil Fox Designs, jewellery, ceramics and french vintage (from Savoir Faire).
The fair runs from 9.30am to 3pm and entry is £4.50 at Eridge Park, on the A26 3 miles South of Tunbridge Wells (the entrance is opp. the church)
Thurs 15th: Folk - Dana and Susan Robinson
'Dust-on-the-boots vignettes of rural America' from this husband-and-wife team, who incorporate an eclectic mixture of styles (Celtic, Appallachian, African) in their multi-instrument repertoire. Expect poetic lyrics about tractors in tobacco fields, expect a mountain claw-hammer banjo and some fine harmony singing.
Tom Reeves, a charming and interesting individual, talks you through a selection of photographs in the vast collection accumulated over the years in his family business. Reeves was started in Lewes High Street by his great, great grandfather Edward in 1858, is still running from the same premises, and claims, with much plausibility, to be the longest-running photographic studio in the world.
Anne of Cleves , 7.30pm, £5, 474610
Fri 16th: Classical Music
The Lewes Concert Orchestra, featuring soloist Chloe Wolpe, perform Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor, one of the most plagiarised pieces of music of all time. "The Germans have four violin concertos," stated legendary violinist Joseph Joachim, a year before his death. "The greatest, most uncompromising is Beethoven's. The one by Brahms vies with it in seriousness. The richest, the most seductive, was written by Max Bruch. But the most inward, the heart's jewel, is Mendelssohn's."
Town Hall, 7 for 7.30pm, £8/£6, 559727
Fri 16th: Folk Rock Festival, Part One
The first of a two-day festival, loosely following its 'folk rock' remit. First up are alt-folk duo Pillowfish and 'woozy bohemian pop massacre' Flipron (pictured, left). Headlining tonight are vibrant five-piece blend of fiddle, flute and gypsy mania Sheelanagig. This band are well known for a blistering live act and are named after a species of extremely vulgar Celtic gargoyle. Festival continues on Saturday (see below).
All Saints, from 7pm, evening tickets £14/£12 from Dome Box Office (01273 709709) or from Octave or the Tourist Office. Whole weekend tickets available for £22 only from the Lewes outlets.
Next up in what has become the town's biggest cultural festival of 2008, featuring another three bands who very loosely follow the remit promised on the tin. First up are 'virtuoso bluegrass trio' Six Fifteen (named after the time of their first gig), then its seven-piece electric-psychedelic ensemble Mary Jane; finally, and much-awaited, are the festival headliners Baka Beyond. This lot, who've been going for fifteen years, blend Celtic and African music, the latter inspired by the Baka pygmies of Cameroon, to whom they send a percentage of their royalties. Last year they played in front of a 15,000 crowd in the Edmonton Festival. Expect to get sweaty.
All Saints, from 7pm, evening tickets £14/£12 from Dome Box Office (01273 709709) or from Octave or the Tourist Office. Whole weekend tickets available for £22 only from the Lewes outlets.
Sat 17 th: Gig - In Bob We Trust
This isn't your average homage by your average tribute band. In Bob We Trust are a collection of musicians, all of whom are admirers of Dylan's music, all of whom perform his songs in their own individual style. I've heard of people who have seen Dylan live and seen this lot, and whispered it quietly that they preferred the latter. Judge for yourself: they won't fall apart on you tonight.
Royal Oak, 8.30pm, £7 on the door or from Laporte's
