From BAC to Bremner and Sub-Prime Market explained

Interesting day yesterday at the Battersea Arts Centre – I took part in their Inspiration Week and I was supposed to inspire young performance artists. The group proved to be a challenging mob from Search Party (young company from Bristol, studying at Dartington, already making work using sport as an influence), Tassos Stevens (football fan and member of Coney/Rabbit collective), Catherine Walpole (recent graduate from Goldsmiths – did a 13 hour piece at BAC where she danced on stilts to music chosen by audience members), Sally Marie (choreographer), Ben Faulks (Manchester based artist who has started developing work with a sonic trampoline).

I delivered a talk on the art of media story telling using the on and off line media to create a canvas to publicise work. The sporting context was used as an example of how sport can generate community and collective word of mouth. There was conflicting opinion and a healthy debate on my methods and views.

A short limo bike ride later, I was in an office listening to Rory Bremner’s weeze to publicise the new series of Bremner, Bird and Fortune. The last time we took the Vera shilling, we helped Rory out his Margaret Beckett spoof. The Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett was tricked by Rory when he pretended to be Chancellor Gordon Brown. He phoned her on the day of the 2005 general election when she was environment secretary, and they discussed her Cabinet colleagues. She gave frank assessments of some of them, advising “Gordon Brown” on who was performing well. The media firestorm was a mighty kick off to the Jan 08 run of Bremner, Bird and Fortune.

Rory was excited that the two Johns (Bird and Fortune) were starting to be a hit on Youtube with their satire on the sub prime market.

Not bad for two old bastards.