regular events
The Sunday SocialOur regular night at Brighton's Sussex Arts Club is a collaboration with Bareskin Rugs.
Chastock
Chastock is the name that has evolved for the yearly gathering we organise in the grounds of a fifteenth century farmhouse in Sussex. It’s a weekend of music and anything people care to bring to it. Highlights have been fire making, jousting, video projections, puppet shows, high fashion and always a pretty ambitious stage show.
The focus of the event is the nightly bill of music in the barn which has included Bareskin Rugs, Drei, Pico, The Don Bradmans, Sharon Lewis, Ellie Osbourne, Luke Adams and us (of course).
This is no ordinary barn, however, but a timber, wattle and daub structure with an original tiled roof which Alastair and Patta lovingly restored entirely as it would have been in 1499 AD. The floor is mud, the walls are oak, and as we have found the acoustic is soft, accepting and yet the whole thing resonates like a giant sound box. The amps go on top of logs, axes and farm tools are pushed to one side, lights are threaded through the rafters, and screens are stretched on boughs of bendy hazel. Junk that is somehow always to found in barns also adorns the set: an old, moth-eaten Union Jack for instance is one of my favourites; rotting photos of regiments before Embarkation in 1914; a judge’s wig; and a bunch of sheep skulls among other things combine to create an invariably magical effect which has been reflected by some wonderful music over the years. Some of it we even videoed – results to be posted in the downloads section one day (not too long, we hope).
Chastock as it is can never be a commercial affair – it’s about a community sharing its creativity in the heart of summer. But it’s not a closed group – primarily, this is an artistic community which every year aims and needs to make new bonds with a wider circle of contributors.
Please let us know if you wish to know more.