Seagull Recommends 10/03

Hello and welcome back to Seagull Recommends! This week we've got talks from the Volks Electric Railway Assocation, festivals, musicals, poetry and more.

Few different housekeeping bits: Brighton Fringe is fast approaching, and we’re looking for writers to review events! If you’re interested in helping us with our coverage of the Brighton Fringe 2023, fill out our contributors form here.

Also, remember to sign up here to get your unique referral link to share with your friends, family, and people you meet in the street who seem nice, and be in with a chance of winning one of our five limited edition Seagull Weekly Briefing mugs!

If you come across anything coming up in the city that you think we should know about, let us know!

🎶Gigs: Lauren Ruth Ward is at The Hope and Ruin on Tuesday: expect vulnerable, gut-wrenchingly honest, heart-on-sleeve lyricism, earworm hooks, and a fusion folksy, bluesy, rock sound (tickets); also on Tuesday is well-known singer, composer, viola, fiddle and tenor guitar player Lucy Farrell: big on the folk scene, she'll be gracing The Folklore Rooms with her soft vocals and poetic lyrics (tickets); and finally, everyone's favourite café owner Fatboy Slim is at the Brighton Centre on Thursday (tickets).

🎵Festivals: The Great Escape is just around the corner, and our editor is getting very excited—did you know the first time she ever came to Brighton was to go to it? Another 150 acts have been announced, including The Murder Capital, Mae Stephens, SORRY, PVA and Deb Never, alongside day tickets (as in tickets for each day of the festival, that isn't the name of a band) (tickets).

🎭Theatre: Heathers The Musical is at the Theatre Royal from Tuesday until Saturday. The black comedy musical based on the eponymous 1988 film follows Westerberg High’s Veronica Sawyer,  just another nobody dreaming of a better day until she joins the Heathers. Her dreams of popularity look like they're about to come true, until mysterious teen rebel JD teaches her that it might kill to be a nobody, but it is murder being a somebody (tickets).

🗣️Poetry: FemFest’s annual Poetry Night is taking place tonight at the Feminist Bookshop. Headline poets include Luci:d, an award-winning writer and BBC featured poet; One Inky Queer, described as 'a trauma poet keeping it light'; and Tatenda Naomi Matsvai, a facilitator and devised performance maker, working with spoken word poetry in theatrical and non-theatrical performance contexts. It starts at 7:30pm, and will also be streamed on Zoom (tickets).

🎨Art: The Royal Pavilion is holding an illustrated talk on Tuesday, looking at a particular body of work by John Constable. Following his visits to Brighton during the 1820s, he returned to Sussex in the following decade. The 1830s saw him stay in Arundel and Petworth, which he famously christened 'that House of Art'. This illustrated talk looks at the work he produced during these later visits, held by Andrew Loukes, curator of the Egremont Collection at Petworth House (tickets).

🚩Politics: Do you love Brighton & Hove and want to make a difference in the city and help shape its future? If so, you're in luck! On Monday, the council is running a Being a Councillor event, primarily for people who are considering standing for local council elections or who want to find out about standing for elections and what being a councillor involves. It runs from 6pm to 7:30pm, and you'll get to hear from current councillors about their experiences and what advice they have for you, learn about the role of a councillor, and talk to other people in Brighton & Hove, councillors from different political groups and senior council staff. Email to book your place here.

🚋VERA: The Volks Electric Railway Association will not be holding its next winter meeting this Wednesday: it has been moved to Wednesday 29th March. The last winter meeting of the year will be given by Brian Meredith on The Royan Tramway. Brian tells the fascinating story of this French steam tramway, opened in 1890 and originally operated by the Decauville company, which had connections with the Volk's Railway. Join VERA at Patcham Community Centre, Ladies Mile Road at 7pm—admission is free, but they appreciate a donation towards running costs.

🍱Food: Bear with us here: the Waterstones café is truly a delightful place: if you buy their book of the month you get a free hot drink; they have very reasonably priced food and drink; you're surrounded by books; there are lovely views of the clock tower; they have food options for everyone; they use really nice teapots; you might see our editor writing Seagull articles there sometimes. The list goes on. Try anything they do, you won't be disappointed.

☕️Coffee: Presuming Ed's Coffee House on London Road does really delicious coffee, but their chai lattes are especially good. Highly recommend, and particularly delicious after going to the gym. Something about chai after exercise is invigorating. Maybe it's the cinnamon?