David J, Alan Moore, Tim Perkins
The 16th of July, 1994, marked the last night of a three-night confluence o… Read Full Bio ↴The 16th of July, 1994, marked the last night of a three-night confluence of subterraneans at London's Bridewell Theatre, just off Fleet Street and within prayershot of St. Paul's cathedral. The event, titled "Subversion In The Street Of Shame", was organized by Paul Smith of Blast First Records as part of his DISOBEY! programme and coordinated by lain Sinclair, visionary author and book-dealer; Metromancer; hit man for MENSA.
The roster of performers had for the most part grown out of those assembled for the previous year's documentary / mystery play for Channel 4 television, "The Cardinal And The Corpse." The profoundly deaf performance poet Aaron Williamson gave a crackling and intensely physical nterpretation of his poem Holythroat Symposium, while sculptor, poet and performer Brian Catling crawled with video camera through the cellars under the theatre, a misshappen cyclops whose sole zoom-lens eye relayed its shadowy impressions to the audience above.
The noir crime writer Derek Raymond / Robin Cook showed up to give a reading about death that, as it turned out, was his last performance with his own death following within the week. Peter Whitehead, legendary 'sixties cinematic portrait artist, gave a showing of his documentary film Wholly Communion, with Ginsberg, Corso and Alex Trocchi at the Albert Hall, before moving on to read from his Horus-meets-Holography occult novel The Risen, lit by the pencil beam of a green spotlight. The luminous Kathy Acker appeared unannounced out of nowhere and gave both the best and the most relaxed reading of her work that I've ever seen. The entire event seemed to vibrate with its own clandestine electricity, eerie and purposeful.
Quite apart from the performers, the venue itself had an energy born of its history (a former printer's institute and print museum next door to St. Bride's Church; the site of the earlier Bridewell Prison and allegedly a safe house once used as a bolt-hole by Giordano Bruno during espionage engagements). The theatre itself is set out in the converted space that was formerly occupied by the Print Institute's swimming pool. Under the stage are the cellars that sometimes still flood when the underground River Fleet rises, one more subterranean current to add to the gathering vortex.
The Moon & Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels closed the last night of the three-evening event, and coincided with the impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 and the gas giant Jupiter. Conceived as a fusion of Shamanic Magic and performance poetry, the piece was read live to a prerecorded backing tape of sound-scaping by Tim Perkins and David J, with the latter also enacting a sparse mime accompaniment to the performance. The Enochian Angel of the 7th Aethyr was vocally channelled by the underground cartoonist Melinda Gebbie, who was also responsible for the unusual photograph that adorns our front cover.
Taken during rehearsals, the photograph shows a masked David J holding a mirror up in both hands while I sit behind a wood table upon his immediate right. The hand that appears to emerge from a point behind David is not his, nor did it belong to anyone that was visible on the stage when the photograph was taken. The curtain or veil that appears to drift from the hand over the foreground was likewise not visible, although it seems to be lit by the same spotlight that is illuminating the stage area around David and 1, ruling out a simple double-exposure. Today, a year after the picture was taken, we still do not possess the faintest idea what it means.
The lights are going down upon a whispering audience. The unseen curtains, billowing. Step up now, Gentlemen, and Ladies, come this way...
Alan Moore
Northampton, July 1995.
The roster of performers had for the most part grown out of those assembled for the previous year's documentary / mystery play for Channel 4 television, "The Cardinal And The Corpse." The profoundly deaf performance poet Aaron Williamson gave a crackling and intensely physical nterpretation of his poem Holythroat Symposium, while sculptor, poet and performer Brian Catling crawled with video camera through the cellars under the theatre, a misshappen cyclops whose sole zoom-lens eye relayed its shadowy impressions to the audience above.
The noir crime writer Derek Raymond / Robin Cook showed up to give a reading about death that, as it turned out, was his last performance with his own death following within the week. Peter Whitehead, legendary 'sixties cinematic portrait artist, gave a showing of his documentary film Wholly Communion, with Ginsberg, Corso and Alex Trocchi at the Albert Hall, before moving on to read from his Horus-meets-Holography occult novel The Risen, lit by the pencil beam of a green spotlight. The luminous Kathy Acker appeared unannounced out of nowhere and gave both the best and the most relaxed reading of her work that I've ever seen. The entire event seemed to vibrate with its own clandestine electricity, eerie and purposeful.
Quite apart from the performers, the venue itself had an energy born of its history (a former printer's institute and print museum next door to St. Bride's Church; the site of the earlier Bridewell Prison and allegedly a safe house once used as a bolt-hole by Giordano Bruno during espionage engagements). The theatre itself is set out in the converted space that was formerly occupied by the Print Institute's swimming pool. Under the stage are the cellars that sometimes still flood when the underground River Fleet rises, one more subterranean current to add to the gathering vortex.
The Moon & Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels closed the last night of the three-evening event, and coincided with the impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 and the gas giant Jupiter. Conceived as a fusion of Shamanic Magic and performance poetry, the piece was read live to a prerecorded backing tape of sound-scaping by Tim Perkins and David J, with the latter also enacting a sparse mime accompaniment to the performance. The Enochian Angel of the 7th Aethyr was vocally channelled by the underground cartoonist Melinda Gebbie, who was also responsible for the unusual photograph that adorns our front cover.
Taken during rehearsals, the photograph shows a masked David J holding a mirror up in both hands while I sit behind a wood table upon his immediate right. The hand that appears to emerge from a point behind David is not his, nor did it belong to anyone that was visible on the stage when the photograph was taken. The curtain or veil that appears to drift from the hand over the foreground was likewise not visible, although it seems to be lit by the same spotlight that is illuminating the stage area around David and 1, ruling out a simple double-exposure. Today, a year after the picture was taken, we still do not possess the faintest idea what it means.
The lights are going down upon a whispering audience. The unseen curtains, billowing. Step up now, Gentlemen, and Ladies, come this way...
Alan Moore
Northampton, July 1995.
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01Overture: Hair Of The Snake That Bit MeDavid J, Alan Moore, Tim PerkinsDavid J, Alan Moore, Tim Perkins
14Overture- Hair Of The Snake That Bit MeDavid J, Alan Moore, Tim PerkinsDavid J, Alan Moore, Tim Perkins
15The Moon And Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre Of MarvelsDavid J, Alan Moore, Tim PerkinsDavid J, Alan Moore, Tim Perkins
16Moon & Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre Of MarvelsDavid J, Alan Moore, Tim PerkinsDavid J, Alan Moore, Tim Perkins
19The Spectre Garden - (II) The Demon Regent Asmodeus Pt 1David J, Alan Moore, Tim PerkinsDavid J, Alan Moore, Tim Perkins
20The Spectre Garden - (II) The Demon Regent Asmodeus Pt 2David J, Alan Moore, Tim PerkinsDavid J, Alan Moore, Tim Perkins
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