Super Weird Happening #6
Everything has fallen into place and we’re finally ready for Super Weird Happening #6!
The first, of what we hope will be many festival happenings, will take place in the beautifully bizarre surroundings of the surreal Italianate North Wales village, Portmeirion, taken over for a weekend by the wonderful Festival Number 6.
We’ve been given the Estuary Stage for an entire twelve hours on the Saturday (5th September/9am-9pm) so on top of the array live music and DJs, we’ve drawn together a rag-tag team of artists, astronauts and alchemists to enlighten, entertain and engage festival-goers throughout the day.
SUPER WEIRD SUNRISE
The first three hours will serve to shake the Saturday morning hangovers out of the festival goers with ecstatic dance, yoga and song, with a sound track selected by DJs Josh Ray and Gavin Kendrick – who has co-ordinated the morning sessions and describes the Super Weird Sunrise as follows:
“The age of the guru is over; now is the time of co-creation. Share ideas, share your song and share the dance, stepping up into this awakening and visionary flow of information that heals, nurtures and expands consciousness in a divine plan / plant / planetary alignment.
All are welcome to the workshops that will run throughout the morning, including a singing circle with Tracey Carmen and The Reverend Cleve Freckleton, ecstatic dance with Lisa Wrigley, an energy breath circle with Sarah Rose Bright and Absolute Yoga with Carrianne.
We’ve brought two beautiful healers from the familia to share their gifts, so do check in with shamanic tantra bodyworker Steph Magenta who’ll be offering cord cutting, tunnel extraction, and breath work, and Debra Delglyn who’ll be sharing sound healing, rattle treatments and kinesiological bodywork.”
TALKS
As with the previous happenings, we’ve invited along some special guests to hold court with Greg and Kermit and regale us with tales of chaos, magic and ‘beneficial herb’ smuggling. The cornerstone of the previous happenings, the talks tie everything together and add a little more substance to the heady revelry.
Discordant forces drew Daisy Eris Campbell to last year’s London Happening as she prepared to adapt one of Robert Anton Wilson’s works, and now she returns, having heroically pulled the Cosmic Trigger in the same ‘pool of life’, Liverpool, her father once adapted Wilson’s Illuminatus! in.
Similar discordant forces drew John Higgs to the Liverpool Happening where he made sense of sense of The KLF, discussing his book, Chaos, Magic And The Band Who Burned A Million Pounds and now we invite him back to make sense of the twentieth century, discussing his new book Stranger Than We Can Imagine.
Mr. Nice, aka former cannabis kingpin with past dealings with the CIA, MI5, IRA and Mafia, Howard Marks will also be joining us on the Estuary Stage. A friend and mentor to Kermit, Howard was there from the start of Super Weird Substance, lending his commanding voice to both Blind Arcade’s Universal Prayer and Kermit’s heavy, cathartic poem Lies And Other Fools.
POETRY/PERFORMANCE
Kermit will be be bringing with him some brand new spoken word material, having plunged the depths of his countless notepads. Gritty, award winning performance poet based in Salford, JB Barrington will also be reciting some of his poetry – revered for his searing satire, snarling delivery and acutely realistic portrayal of working class life.
Former Intastella singer and cutting edge Manchester actress and playwright, Stella Grundy will also be joining us at the Estuary Stage. More recently famous for the one-woman show The Rise And Fall Of A Northern Star, Stella promises to entertain us all with an excerpt from her acclaimed play.
ART
Art coordinator and official photographer for Super Weird Substance, our Polka Dot Princess, Elspeth Moore has again drawn together another great array of artists for the happening, looking to capture a moment in time with their live art.
Painter and creator, combining traditional and experimental techniques, SLM‘s work is a fusion of planned composition and momentary expression. Multi-discipline artist with a focus on hip hop culture, Dan Lish has previously worked with Sony, Lucas Arts and Rockstar Games as freelance concept artist.
With more than twenty years experience as a professional artist, Alastair Price an accomplished draughtsman, painter and muralist. Exhibiting fine artist and urban sketcher, Caroline Johnson gives workshops and has contributed to several books on drawing – well-known for her graphic depictions of Manchester.
Cardiff-based artist and photographer with a distinctive abstract linear style, Ani Saunders works with Wales Arts International – Celfyddydau Rhyngwladol Cymru. Part of The Notorious Gasoline Company, Glasgow-based artist Marcus Hislop works with subjects ranging from greats of film, music and comics to 20th Century icons.
More on the artists here.
LIVE MUSIC
On the back their great work with Kermit on Black Grape’s recent reunion tour, we’re delighted to introduce a backing band into the fray; adding a new dimension to Blind Arcade‘s life-affirming magic and offering The Super Weird Society the perfect accompaniment to their much-anticipated debut show.
Performing tracks from the label’s first eight releases – as well as last year’s Blind Arcade Meets Super Weird Substance In The Morphogenetic Field mixtape – the label’s posse of crack musicians will bring to life everything Super Weird Substance has been working towards the past two years.
Given it was his recent burst of creativity that sparked the beginnings of the label, Kermit Leveridge will be at the forefront, playing through his Blind Arcade hits like Give It Away – with the accompaniment of formidable London songstress BB.JAMES – whilst also delving into his more recent tracks with The Super Weird Society; I Wanna Be Your Dog and This Is The Last Time You’ll See Me Here.
A former ‘Minister Of Music’, serving in the deep-South of America, The Reverend Cleve Freckleton channels the fire and spectacle of his former Pentecostal practises to enliven his performance – the gospel sounds oozing from his keyboard. Calling out the evils in a World Gone Crazy, The Reverend adds a spiritual dimension to the happening.
The vocal force of nature that is the Reynolds will be ever present through the live show; providing backing to both bands whilst also taking to the fore on their own tracks. The Merseyside-based twins have an astounding vocal capacity and share an almost telepathic understanding with each other, no better exhibited than in Don’t You Worry Baby The Best Is Yet To Come and She Can’t Love You, released under their Sweet Tooth T alias.
DJS
It’ll probably come as no surprise to hear we’ve got a whole host of DJs to keep the festivities up through the day and round things off with a bit of a party in the evening.
Two of Manchester’s unsung heroes, the Jam MC’s – Tomlin McKinley and Chris Jam – will take us through their vast record collections. Lost under the shadow of the Haçienda, their contribution to Manchester’s black dance culture is often overlooked but they deserve to be remembered with the same reverence.
Joining us all the way from LA as part of his first UK tour, Luxxury will bring his distinctive brand of hazy, slo-mo West Coast grooves to the estuary. He rose to fame last year on the back of a slick re-edit series, feeding tracks like Hotel California, Night Fever and Riders On The Storm through his diazepam disco filter.
The relentless programming workhorse that is Peza and the fine-tuning studio wizard Derek Kaye have proved essential to Super Weird Substance over the past months and for the first time ever, they’ll be playing back to back. Both at the forefront of the re-edit scene, Derek has more than 40 years experience under his belt – witnessing scene after scene come and go – whilst the world seems to be opening up for Peza, who finds himself working on the music for a show based in Shanghai that will go on to open in New York.
The A&R producer who brought the whole Super Weird Substance together, it’s only fitting that Greg Wilson draws the happening to a close. Delving deep into the morphogenetic field with his trusty Revox reel-to-reel, he’ll conclude proceedings with a sample-laden balearicpyschdelicdubdisco odyssey.
ORDER OF SERVICE
09.00 Super Weird Sunrise
12.00 Daisy Eris Campbell
12.30 John Higgs
13.00 Stella Grundy
13.15 JB Barrington
13.30 Howard Marks
14.30 Kermit Leveridge
14.45 The Jam MC’s
15.45 Luxxury
16.45 Derek Kaye & Peza
17.45 Blind Arcade & The Super Weird Society
18.45 Greg Wilson
21.00 Finish
Where am I?
In The Village.
What do you want?
Information.
Who are you?
The new No.2.
Who is No.1?
You are No.6.