Viva Lewes - The what's on guide

On Saturday afternoon, Tesco supermarket was ‘invaded’ by a jovial group of climate change protestors, campaigning to prevent the store from achieving its proposal to increase in size by 50%.
Among the protestors was Marina Pepper, the former Chair of the District Council.
The group had, according to a subsequent press release, planned a ‘Tesco whirl’ in which they all were to collect a trolley, enter the supermarket, and proceed in convoy around the aisles, in a large ‘conga’.
It seems that police had been tipped off, however, and prevented the bulk of the protestors from carrying out their plans. However, around ten did manage to get into the store, and carry out their ‘whirl’.
Outside, others, some wearing endangered animal masks, played musical instruments and sang songs, attempting to alert shoppers to the negative effect they believe Tesco has on the local economy, and particularly the danger that many existing shops are likely to close down if Tesco adds a further retail outlet to their current operation.
A PR statement from the protesters estimates that of every £3 spent on retail in Lewes, £2 goes to Tesco, a figure which is only likely to rise if the store’s expansion goes ahead.
The climate protesters estimated 80 activists took part in the action. Sussex Police estimates were lower. “About 35 people attempted to do a conga around the alcohol section of the supermarket with about nine empty trolleys,” an SP spokesperson told Viva Lewes. “They were asked to leave, and they left peacefully, getting on their bus and going their merry way.” No arrests were made.
If you study test cases in other market towns, it appears the protesters have a good case. In towns where a store has expanded its range significantly beyond traditional supermarket products, it appears that a number of High Street shops soon tend to close down. After a while, footfall in the High Street decreases beyond a ‘tipping point’, whereby it is difficult for any shops to sustain themselves.
For a look at both sides of the issue, here’s a fairly balanced article from the Independent in March last year. For a more emotive response, backed by references, check out the Guardian’s George Monbiot.

Well done to Breaky Bottom, producers of local sparkling wine, who got a pretty positive write-up in the Telegraph. And the whole town got a positive write-up in an article by Reb Stevenson, for the Ottawa Citizen, called ‘Stepping into Magic’, which starts: ‘Harry Potter's was a brick wall. Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter's was a wardrobe. Alice's was a rabbit hole. I, too, know of a magic portal in England. It is called the Lewes Train Station.’ Now that’s what we call a good bit of PR.

The BBC are promising a continuation of the gorgeous weather, with temperatures dropping down as low as 3 in the daytme and -1 at night. Clouds arrive on Monday. Thanks, as usual, to Adele Jarrett-Kerr for all her hard work on the listings in this issue. Our 'cover' is from the film 'Fierce Light' (see listings, below). Enjoy the week...

“Fierce Light” is the name that acclaimed filmmaker Velcrow Ripper has given to the common strand that runs through Ghandi’s “soul force” and Martin Luther King’s “love in action” and through the philosophies of the many icons he comes into contact with. Ripper takes an insightful look at how big changes are motivated by love. The film features interviews with spiritual activists Thich Nhat Hanh, Desmond Tutu, Daryl Hannah, Julia Butterfly Hill, and more. Fierce Light has the intention of inspiring its viewers to embrace transformation by exploring the point where spirituality meets activism to result in a profound commitment to making the world a more compassionate place. AJK

Lewes Werks, 8pm, £3, www.fiercelight.org

Written by composer-in-residence Julian Philips and award-winning Brighton author Nicky Singer, Knight Crew is a community opera based on the Arthurian legend, with a contemporary gangland setting. The orchestra is made up of young people as well as professional musicians. Gareth ‘The Choir’ Malone is chorus master and rehearsals have been filmed by BBC2 for a documentary entitled Gareth Goes to Glyndebourne. The designer is Es Devlin whose previous clients include Kanye West, Mika and Lady Gaga. After taking the rare opportunity to watch a rehearsal, I suspect it will be terrific. And a life-changing experience for those lucky and talented enough to have been given the opportunity to take part. EC

Glyndebourne, 7pm, £14/£7, 815000. Not suitable for under 12s.

Jose Brown, an English woman who lived and trained in America for 25 years with the Chippewa Cree medicine man and storyteller Ron Evans will perform a pipe ceremony, a sacred Native American ritual where the physical and spiritual world are viewed as powerfully entwined. Only a little tobacco is used in the pipe and the smoke is not inhaled but for those who prefer, there is an option of placing prayers in the pipe and holding it. AJK

Zu Studios, 7.15 for 7.30pm, £12, please book with Sonia 077 599 750 46.

Dr. Jim Endersby, author of award-winning A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology and science historian at the University of Sussex, will deliver a talk on how myths have distorted our understanding of Darwin and how contemporaries didn’t have to choose between Darwin and God, followed by an auction of local art to raise funds for the Green Party. AJK

Lewes Town Hall, 7.30, £5.

If you want to watch punk classic ‘New Rose’ live, featuring the guy who wrote the song, get down to the Con Club. Brian James, founder member of London’s cultish thrashers The Damned (other members included David Vanian, Rat Scabies and Captain Sensible) is leading his latest band, The Brian James Gang, into the fray at the Con Club. James went on to found The Lords of the New Church. "We'll be doing a couple of Damned songs, a couple of Lords songs, and a mixture of covers and originals. How's that old wedding saying go? Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue." He tells us that the Gang's regular guitarist has hurt his arm and can't play, so they're hiring a pianist instead, which might make their sound a little less raw than normal. "It's not exactly going to be cocktail music," he says... "more Jerry Lee." As we go to press it hasn't been arranged who's top of a bill also including The Dirty Strangers, Stones-buddy rock and rollers who we featured several months back in the handbook. Neat neat neat. AL

Christian Women of Cameroon welcome all to pray on Women’s World Day of Prayer. Each year a different country writes the ecumenical service and that country becomes the focus of the day’s prayer starting at sunrise in Tonga, circling the world for 36 hours and finishing back in Samoa. AJK

St Pancras Church, 10.45am.

With non-linear storytelling and unconventional lighting, Citizen Kane (1941) boldly broke the rigid cinema conventions of its time. In the film we meet Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) in a series of flashbacks as he is taken from his parents to be raised by a banker and eventually becomes a wealthy, egotistical and corrupt newspaper magnate. Throughout, a reporter tries to find out what was meant by his final word, “Rosebud”. Kane’s unhappy life becomes a symbol for the mirage of the American Dream. AJK

All Saints, 8pm, £5.50

Working in ‘corporate downsizing’, Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) has led a life characterized by sacking, frequent flying and very little in the way of emotional baggage. It is a routine which has left him disconnected and unwilling to settle down. When a young woman (Anna Kendrick) joins the company and attempts to introduce video-conferencing so they can fire people remotely without needing to travel, Bingham strongly opposes her and takes her with him on a business trip to show her why the face-to-face part of the business is essential. AJK

Named after the iconic single by Ian Dury (Andy Serkis), that renegade icon of the punk and New Wave scene in the ‘70s, the film takes a look at the colourful life of the bus driver’s son who turned into one of the era’s great lyricists. The film continually refers back to Dury’s contraction of polio by swallowing swimming pool water, which renders him permanently disabled from the age of ten. The Observer calls Serkis’ performance “mesmerising” and says of his Dury: “From the start, he is aggressive, angry, cruel, egotistical, as well as witty, charming and lovable; he doesn't mellow or change significantly over the 20-odd years from the late 60s to the early 80s that the movie covers.” AJK

All Saints, Sat 8.30pm, Sun 7.30pm, £5.50

Get much more than your five-a-day by topping up on community spirit and heading down to the precinct. Look out for cabbage, celeriac, chicory and, of course, the much underrated beetroot, all of which are in season at the moment. AJK

Soroptimist International of Lewes & District, the world's largest classified service organisation for women in management and the professions, is having a late breakfast to celebrate International Women’s Day. Eat heartily to the global celebration of the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. AJK

Pelham House, £10.50.

Alvin, Simon and Theodore, chipmunk pop sensations, compete with female chipmunk band The Chipettes to save their school’s music programme. The producers have dubbed this follow-up ‘The Squeakquel’.

All Saints, 3.15pm, £5.50

Meryl Streep plays a woman who reignites a past attraction and becomes mistress to her ex-husband (Alec Baldwin) after ten years of marriage. The prospect of being “the other woman” is thrilling but is even more complicated by her involvement with a love-struck architect (Steve Martin), all with comic effect. It has no high-brow pretentions and delivers what it promises, a grown-up rom-com. AJK

Helena Wojtczak will give an illustrated talk on the subject of women who took over men’s jobs on the railways during the war. “I was the first woman to become a guard for British Rail, in 1978,” Helena said when asked why this topic caught her interest, “People know about land girls but not everyone realises that a multitude of jobs were performed by women after men went to war, from bus conducting to the manufacture of munitions.” EC

Newhaven Fort, 2pm, £5.95/3.95 (includes day entry to Fort), 517622.

Radio 3 presents a two-part play about the life of Lewes' most-celebrated resident, Tom Paine. Jonathan Pryce stars as the revolutionary writer. Paine, of course, achieved most of his fame ('notoriety' might have been a better word in contemporary times) after leaving Lewes, and this play depicts his time in the United States, and in France. Pryce, of course, is a versatile actor who you might remember from a wide variety of roles, including the fugitive protagonist in Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

The Women’s Institute invites women to wear white t-shirts as a symbol of peace and meet at the precinct on Cliffe Bridge. The group will then head to the Assembly Room in Lewes Town Hall for a day of activities in support of women’s empowerment including a talk by Sybil Oldfield entitled “Some Inspiring Forerunners; Women who Reached Women Before Us” and one by Gossypium’s Abigail Petit entitled “Joining Women’s Skills Across the World”. AJK

Where are we going takes a look across the span of recorded history and asks the big questions about the origins and cause and affect of our social problems, questioning the “profit and scarcity” basis of our society. It asks: “In a world where 1% of the population owns 40% of the planet's wealth and 1 in 6 people are going hungry, one thing is clear - something is very wrong. Why?” AJK

All Saints, 7.30pm, £2.

Friends of St. Anne's are hosting a talk by David Lang, a seasoned hiker of the Himalayas and an orchid specialist. Sikkim is a variety of orchid that grows in that part of the world and we’ve been told it’s so difficult to cultivate that title "Sikkim - the hard way" is certainly apt. AJK

St Anne’s Church, 7.30pm. Tickets £10 at the door. Tel: 474964.

Trudi (Hannelore Elsner) and Rudi (Elmar Wepper) are a couple in their sixties, living a stable but humdrum life. When Trudi is told her husband has a terminal illness, she decides they must visit their three grown-up children before she lets him into the secret. It’s easy enough meeting the two who live in Berlin, but it’s a whole lot more complicated travelling to Tokyo, to see her favourite, and Rudi refuses to go.
A genuinely surprising twist to the plot changes matters, and the second half of the film is set in Tokyo. The movie has been accused of over-sentimentalism, but it works hard to get the tear ducts flowing, and has a lot to say about the modern-day disintegration of family values. It might make you want to take up Butoh dancing, as well, so be warned. DL

All Saints, 8pm, £5

The time’s rolled round again to scan or skim the shelves at the fundraising book fair for cat rescue charity Paws & Claws. Collectable and readable rare and second-hand books are on sale and if children’s books are your thing, they’ll certainly be represented. There’s often even a bookbinding or autograph expert about for your toughest questions. AJK

Town Hall, 10-4pm, 50p, 477555.

Havant and Waterlooville are a better-than-average unit, with a slim chance of making it to the play-offs. Lewes will have to pick up their spirits after two demoralising home games on the trot, against Worcester and Eastleigh.
In the first match Lewes were 3-0 up with 18 minutes to go, and ended up hanging on for a 3-3 draw. ‘Gutted’ is a footballing cliché, but if you stop to think for a minute what it actually means (ie ‘having had your guts removed’, like a fish) it is a pretty accurate description as to how the Lewes fans felt after the game. And the players, too, by the look of them.
The midweek fixture against Eastleigh saw the Rooks go down 2-1, though two identical goals headed in at the near post from corners. The one consolation of the night was Jean-Michel Sigere’s first home goal of the season. Lewes rallied in the second half, but the closest they got to an an equaliser was a rasping Barness shot which hit the crossbar: Tim Rivers volleyed the rebound wide.
There are three ‘welcome backs’ to report in the Havant line-up this afternoon: Joe Tabiri, who impressed on loan from Barnet last season; Ian Selley, former Arsenal man who played for Steve King’s Rooks for half a season in 2007, and captain Ian Simpemba, so dominant at the back for the Rooks between 2006 and 2008. ‘Simbo’ scored a trademark thumping header for Havant against the Rooks last season, at the Dripping Pan, in the FA Trophy. The game finished 1-1 in Hampshire just over a month ago, with Chris Breach scoring a last-minute equaliser for Lewes.

Dripping Pan, 3pm, £10/£5/kids free

Three-time winner of the UK Blues Harmonica Player of the Year award, Errol Linton, and his band The Blues Vibe are bringing their “blues-reggae groove” to All Saints. Thanks to Chasin' the Blues, Womankind Worldwide, Women's Aid & Lewes Town Council for one toe-tapping, hip-swinging, celebration of International Women’s Day. Their songs take you through the history of British blues with a Caribbean hint here and there. AJK

All Saints, 8 till late, £10/ £7 from Tizz's & Laporte's. www.ticketsource.co.uk/chasintheblues

The Ska Toons are returning to one of their earliest gig haunts this weekend, packing their big, blustry sound into the Snowdrop.
It will be a mighty crowded affair – the group are eight strong, featuring trombone, trumpet, tenor sax (no bad jokes on the subject this week), guitar, keyboard, bass, drums, and Helen Nicholls on vocals. And the space available for them to perform (just south of the side door) is pretty tiny.
I don’t know how many times we’ve featured this hard-gigging band over the years. Do we need to tell you they are a highly danceable fusion of jazz, ska and soul? Should be a great night - expect to sweat. AL

Snowdrop, 8.30pm, free entry

De Wilde is a Sussex painter with Belgian roots, and the subject of his paintings for his exhibition is Cuckmere Haven. He’s been familiar with the meanders of the estuary since childhood because his grandfather used to fish there. He tells me “I’m conscious of making a record of a landscape that will be lost forever when the area is finally allowed to flood”. Michael Gage’s paintings are of the Downs and Firle Beacon. Favil Hensel is a jeweller as well as a sculptor, and it was he who made the platinum setting for Damien Hirst’s diamond skull. He was also the subject of international press attention in 2006 when the Royal Academy, because of an administrative cock-up, accepted his stand and support for their summer exhibition but did not allow the sculpture itself. Ironically enough, it was of a laughing head. EC

Mon-Sat 10.30am-5pm, Sun 12noon-5pm. www.hopgallery.com

Lewes Junior Film Club is screening a classic about three siblings who discover a fugitive murderer (Alan Bates) in their father’s barn, and mistake him for Jesus Christ. The films are always accompanied by a workshop at the start and needless to say, whatever activity precedes the film this time it will be fun and informative. DL

All Saints, 10.30am, £5, 471588.

An oddly paced but ultimately compelling film about the struggles of a Tokyo family after the father loses his corporate job, directed with some style by Kurosawa Kyoshi, usually associated with gory-yet-arty horror flicks.
Too proud to admit his failure to his wife, the father continues to put on a suit and set off in the morning, brief case in hand, spending his days hanging round libraries, job centres and charity soup kitchens.
Meanwhile the structure of his family falls apart, as his elder son joins the US army, his wife is abducted by an armed burglar, and his younger son takes up the piano against his wishes.
What starts off as social realism, turns, by the end, into fast-moving, unlikely-to-happen tragi-farce, but there’s enough substance to what’s going on to make your stay rooting for the mother and the younger son until the credits roll. DL

Thurs 4th: Andy Turner & Mat Green, melodeon/concertina with fiddle and Morris jigging, Royal Oak, 8pm, £6.
Thurs 4th: Dunia Duo, guitar and voilin, gypsy & Arabic flamenco, Dunio Duo, 8pm, free
Thurs 4 March The Koan Brothers (Acoustic Show), Guitar and mandolin driven original Americana, Snowdrop, 9pm, free
Fri 5th: Dirty Strangers & The Brian James Gang, classic rock, Con Club, 8pm, £8/£6 adv.
Fri 5th: Nigel Bagge, hard-hitting blues, Volunteer, 9pm, free.
Sat 6th: Jim Glover & Chris Skinner, singers of traditional & more recent songs, Elephant & Castle, 8pm, £4.
Sat 6th: Phil Light. 60s to 80s covers. John Harvey Tavern, 8pm, free
Sun 7th: Indigo, sweet laid-back popular jazz, Volunteer, 4.30pm, free.
Thurs 11th: Tim Van Eyken, folk singer of West End and National Theatre fame, Royal Oak, 8pm, £7.
Thurs 11th: Swing on a String, 30s and 40s swing, Pelham Arms, 8pm, free.
Fri 12th: Daveson, Dancehall rock ‘n’ roll , Volunteer, 9pm, free.
Sat 13th. Alter Ego. Funky trio. John Harvey Tavern, 8pm, free
Sat 13th: Damien Barber & Mike Wilson, singing, concertina & guitar with humour, Elephant & Castle, 8pm, £6.
Sat 13th: Errol Linton’s Blues Vibe & support, roots music/blues/reggae, All Saints, 8pm, £10/7, www.ticketsource.co.uk/chasintheblues
Sat 13th: Tenek/Spellbound. Top Brighton sounds for DJ Dig’s birthday bash. Con Club, 8.30pm, £4
Sun 14th: Paul Cox, Traditional bluesman and primitive and British style, Volunteer, 4.30pm, free.
Sun 14th: The So Last Century String Band, Con Club, 3pm, free.

An Italian Lewes resident, Francesco Andreoli has been filming recent Lewes gigs in the Con Club, the Royal Oak and the Snowdrop. You can check out the video of Thunderclap Newman’s recent performance of their number one hit ‘Something in the air’. Follow the LewesMusic link on the right of screen for more local concert footage.

Rupert Lloyd Thomas, co-dounder of Rocket FM, is a Canadian exile (apart from in early November), who has started up two new Wiki pages concerning Lewes, and namely the speed trials held on the Motor Road, and on Firle Hill. If any readers have any memories, reports or photos, that they would like to share with him, they can contact him here.

We’ve heard from a very delighted Andie Camper, minister of the Unitarian Westgate Chapel, that legislation to allow gay couples to hold their civil partnerships in places of worship has safely passed through the House of Lords. Until now, Andie has been performing non-legally binding marriage ceremonies in Westgate, but now hopes they will be the first religious establishment in Lewes to perform a civil partnership ceremony. “I’m very pleased to be able to provide equality for same-sex couples at Westgate, something we have long fought and petitioned for.” For more information, call Andie on 07956 581837.