Page 8 - BN1 July-Aug 2019 web

THE ROCK HOUSE TRANS PRIDE

FESTIVAL SEASON

SAT 27 JULY // THE GREEN DOOR STORE TUE 9 – SAT 20 JULY // THE MARLBOROUGH

© Bryony Jackson

Rock House Festival, presented by Carousel is a real Brighton’s annual Trans Pride Season comes to The
statement on how learning disabled and non-learning Marlborough Theatre and The Spire this July, It aims to
disabled bands can jointly create a fabulous scene and promote equality and celebrate the diversity of trans,
this July is their third comeback. Since 1982, Carousel non-binary and intersex people.
helps learning disabled artists develop and manage their
creative lives, true to their voice and vision, challenging Performances will be featured by some of the
expectations of what great art is and who can create it. community’s most compelling artists, including
internationally recognised performance maker Emma
The bands will be performance all-day, accompanied Frankland, contemporary dance artist Es Morgan,
by a range of stalls, drinks and food to complete this performance artist turned comedian Krishna Istha and
accessible and ear-opening event. This year’s line-up Brighton-based fat positive show Fat Cabaret.
includes the only Brighton performance by The Daniel
Wakeford Experience - pure and ecstatic pop from a Emma Frankland’s new show Hearty opens the season,
charismatic frontman and his band, fresh from a national exploring attitudes to menopause alongside the
tour of 02 venues. There’s also Guy Lloyd’s glam punk liberation of her own body as a transgender woman.
band Sock and Meggie Brown, a band offering ‘terrifying Krishna Istha’s show Beast offers a comedic exploration
Hi-Fi pop songs’, whose debut single was produced by into the life of a trans person in 2019 and what it means to
Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand. be trans ‘masculine’ without becoming the men we hate.
Es Morgan will be performing Mum, I’m in the Fourth
Also on the bill is metal band Zombie Crash, the world's Dimension, See! – a dance, a poem, a fit of rage, an
premiere learning disabled metal band, thrilled to be exorcism and a queer, secular hymn to the impending
celebrating 10 years in the music business. They came capitalist apocalypse. In addition, Fat Cabaret unleash
together through a love of noise and showmanship. a very special Trans Pride edition named Trans Fats,
“I started two years of music training with arts charity hosted by Chub Rub.
Carousel, composing, recording and playing in-house
gigs,” says guitarist and vocalist Ryan O’Donovan. The always popular Trans Pride Art Night will also bring
“When the course ended, five of us got together and a rich assortment of trans and non-binary artists to The
formed a band. From our wild, boisterous stage Marlborough, in what promises to be the event’s biggest
demeanor there was no denying that metal music was year yet.
right for us.”

“We knew we didn’t want to write songs about the
challenges that learning disabled people like us face,
so we made ourselves into characters a bit like the
video-game hero Duke Nukem and took inspiration
from film, gaming and historical settings.” Gigs soon
followed, and by 2012 they’d become the six-piece
Zombie Crash of today, 100% learning disabled with
no need for facilitators to fill the gaps. “The point is,”
adds O’Donovan, “we’ve made it a decade and we’re
not done yet. We remain committed to our natural calling © Helend James
in life as musicians and entertainers."