An interview concerned with hauntology, psychogeography, post-brutalist urban landscapes and more with the founders of Concrete Atlantis events at the Horse Hospital in London and purveyors of millions of cassettes, books, records and more.
A seasonal evening of barely-remembered formats and sonic seances featuring glimmers of the ghostly televisual past, psychogeographical spoken word, music and moving pictures. Hosted by Travis Elborough and Stonecirclesampler. In performance The Balloonist and the London premiere of Hidden Britain’s Wren’s Nest.
Comments Off on Event: A Concrete Atlantis Autumnal with Laura Grace Ford, Kemper Norton & Teleplasmiste, Friday 7 November, 7pm, The Horse Hospital , WC1N 1JD
I will be speaking to Iain Sinclair, Sarah Hall and Andrew Michael Hurley on Sunday 2 November as part of the Tales of the Weird weekend at the British Library.
Comments Off on Listen: Radio Sohemia, myself in conversation with Jerry White about The Battle of London, 1939-45: Endurance, Heroism and Frailty Under Fire.
Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love at 40: A Birthday Celebration Listening Party and in conversation with the author and musician Leah Kardos
Kate Bush’s groundbreaking album was released to immediate acclaim on 16 September 1985.
Hounds Of Love invites you to not only listen, but to cross the boundaries of sensory experience into realms of imagination and possibility. Poised and accessible, yet still experimental and complex, with Hounds Of Love Bush mastered the art of her studio-based songcraft, finally achieving full control of her creative process.
40 years to the day of its release join Leah Kardos, author of Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love (33 1/3) in conversation with the historian of vinyl records and the album Travis Elborough in an evening of deep listening and lively Bush appreciation.
Additionally to all this, the Ukrainian artist Daria Hlazatova will be showing some of her Kate Bush-inspired art.
The fearless architectural critic and broadcaster, Ian Nairn, briefly a familiar face on British television in the 1970s, succumbed to drink and despondency just ten days shy of his fifty-third birthday, dying on 14 August 1983.
But back in 1964 and at the height of his powers he authored, Modern Buildings in London, a brilliantly opinionated primer to the best of contemporary architecture in the capital that was issued by London Transport – and even sold from automatic vending machines in key London stations.
Join Travis Elborough, the award-winning author of the introduction to the latest edition of Modern Buildings in London, for this tour of some of the West End buildings that caught Nairn’s eye, including Denys Lasdun’s 26 St James’s Place and New Zealand House by Robert Matthew, Johnson Marshall & Partners (RMJM).
My series The Rise and Fall of the Antique is getting a repeat airing on BBC Radio 4 Extra at 9.30 am every day next week, from Monday 26 May to Friday 30 May.
Comments Off on Event: The Life and Work of George Orwell, D J Taylor in conversation with Travis Elborough, Tues 6 May, 6.30 pm, The Fitzroy Tavern, W1T 2LY
Reimagining the epic battle between man and nature in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Xiaolu Guo has crafted a dramatically different, feminist narrative that stands alongside the original while offering a powerful exploration of nature, gender and human purpose.
As the American Civil War breaks out in 1861, Ishmaelle – a young woman disguised as a cabin boy – boards the Nimrod, a whaling ship led by the obsessive Captain Seneca, a Black free man of heroic stature who is haunted by a tragic past. Here, she finds protectors in Polynesian harpooner, Kauri, and Taoist monk, Muzi, whose readings of the I-Ching guide their quest.
Through the bloody male violence of whaling, and the unveiling of her feminine identity, Ishmaelle realises there is a mysterious bond between herself and the mythical white whale.
Xiaolu will be in conversation with Travis Elborough, the author of numerous books including, most recently, Writers’ Journeys That Shaped Our World, beautiful illustrated atlas that follows in the footsteps of some of the world’s most famous authors on the journeys that inspired their greatest works.
Comments Off on Event: Youth Gone Wild: Teds, Mods, Rockers and the Styles That Shock Up the Nation, Thurs 24 April 7pm, Horatio’s Bar, The Palace Pier, Brighton