Liam Cottrell & Miles Lacey - Hipster Caesars

Miles Lacey - Rumpstepper

Another great night at the Rose Theatre Café, Kingston once again saw a broad palette of live music and performance genres crammed into one night (23/05/2013) of fresh abandon.
Mosaic is hosted by the charismatic duo, Miles Lacey and Liam Cottrell, who are more than pretenders to the laurels of Kingston's Live Music empire. Working together between the varied sets, they rule the night with warmth and precision, the sound is always superb and singers voice's ring true.

Liam Cottrell -
Our Friends Records

Cottrell wears his heart on his sleeve or at least on his chest,  his community led Our Friends Records logo emblazoned proudly for us all to see. Despite his DJ persona in dark glasses he has the look of a hipster Caesar with soft locks, curling around his temples. He is no Roman despot but more of a Princeps Iuventutis, or "Prince of Youth".


Lacey is very much more hands on, music, juggling and long legged leaping. With baseball cap firmly reversed and singlet loosely hanging he stood tall like a wiry togaed Adonis amongst the suburban libertini.





Charlie Law - Poignant

The night always takes some time to warm up and that should not reflect badly on the first act Charlie Law, whose sharp wit only helped the audience simmer to the boil that bit quicker. His 'A change is gonna come' by Sam Cooke was poignant to say the least, especially in the context of the week's events.

Sean Westwood

Although this was only my second visit to Mosaic, I recognised composer/director/guitarist Sean Westwood from my last adventure in March (New Curiosity Crop) and we chatted about his latest project, a satirical musical about our celebrity culture called Snow White: The Whole Grimm Affair which will premiere at the Camden Fringe in August. Here's a sneak preview! He was very much in thought for the whole night, gently stroking his beard, the pressures ahead obviously weighing heavy in the mind.

Tommy Hare - Smoky

Moonlight Theatre served us another tasty portion of their 10 minute vignettes. Their Pinter sketch was one of the highlights last time, and although this didn't reach the same heights, I very much enjoyed the original writing/dialogue by Andy Currums.

Sheraz Yousaf

With his polka dot shirt, purple scarf thrown around the neck and smoky spectacles Tommy Hare is every bit the louche performer. Languid at first and full of latent power his earthy voice barely scuds across the tables at the Rose Theatre but once cranked up to full speed there isn't a latent bone left in the man's sinewy body. A soundtrack for late nights and bad behaviour.

Comedy was once again brought to us by Sheraz Yousaf who introduced us to three new performers, Adam Green, Dan Hooper and Evelyn Mok. The latter two were excellent and inventive especially Hooper who tickled my ribs, and I'm not known for my receptive GSOH.

Jack Buckett

Once again I never last the distance. These nights are such a successful mix of styles and personalities I over-consume and have to admit defeat with the musical equivalent of a bloated belly. I was able to loosen my belt though for Jack and Katie Buckett whose duets were beautiful, particularly 'Don't call it love' which was adapted from their larger ensemble Third Cortez/Jingo.



Dan Hooper -
Comedian

Jack Buckett kept disappearing under waves of his  hair whilst Katie Buckett epitomises everything that is great about the ethos at Mosaic. Here was a multi talented performer flying by the seat of her pants tonight, desperately holding onto her top hat whilst her musical bucking steed entertained us all, but during the day she was busy preparing for a fascinating solo show of her surrealist paintings in Shoreditch.
When Mosaic next comes around for another special night at The Rose Theatre I will indeed be lending them my ears.

Valvete!

AL.

Tim Fulker - The New Curiosity Crop

Jaz Delorean - vocals/piano

 An artist friend, Stuart Simler, organised a sleepover at the British Museum once, he said it was the most unusual of experiences. As he walked the hollow corridors and peered into the crowded display cases his nerves were wired into the mains. He was convinced that many a mannequin was about to spring to live or old ritual totems would spill their curses and spells.

Last night's entertainment (14/3/2013) at the Rose Theatre Café held the same kind of compartmentalised joy as a trip to the Pitt Rivers Museum. The exotic collector, with suitable wild beard and explorers hat was Tim Fulker. He is an impressive musician in his own right but had converted from poacher to gamekeeper to present a new experience called Mosiac with chums at Our Friends Records.

Mosaic is a project that fuses music, dance, poetry and comedy. Even though it is set in the Rose Theatre's Café, this isn't a hastily constructed affair, with a couple of bar stools and a guitar. No, the sound is expertly produced and the space creatively fluid for all the different genres at play.

Jack Grace

It was a modest start for what was to become a raucous finale and that suited those of us who needed to recalibrate our Thursday night radars. Jack Grace played tunes from his recently released EP. Looping his own voice and accompanying guitar he created sound strata that emphasised once again the imagery of empty museums and landscapes. Both 'Remember Me' and 'Winter' were particularly haunting.

Wayne Hughes (left)
Turan Duncan (right)

Drama and Theatre took the spotlight with a fantastic performance of Harold Pinter's 1964 vignette That's Your Trouble by Moonlight Theatre's Turan Duncan and Wayne Hughes.

David Goo

In true eccentric style Tim Fulker had two monkeys leaping about between sets, known as the 'Rumpsteppers' they DJ'd from a commandeered Chippendale sideboard, juggled and generally made mischievous. In fact both Miles and Liam (Cottrell) found themselves as erotic dancers for the next act of the night, David Goo. It was a riot of noises and charisma, Goo's mouth so loud and big at one point that the audience teetered precarious on the edge of his tongue.




Liam Cottrell

Another notable act was the melancholic Jaz Delorean who was playing from the Tankus the Henge's songbook. A little fragile from the Tankus album launch the previous night he took to the stage embalmed like a chrysalis in a heavy poncho. Once de-robed he warmed his wings in the sunshine of the crowds fervour until he flew high into the Rose Theatre's ample atrium. But he was more of a Mayfly than the Butter variety because no sooner had we got the best of him his short set was over.

Jon Stone - Poetry

Jon Stone gave us several poems from a variety of publications. His work was evocative and beautiful and he stood like the birds he is inspired by. An absolute pleasure to draw, he held still like a hunting heron and spoke with clarity, his cheek bones an artist's delight.

As this was my first time and I was completely alone I sketched a young man in my eye-line who carefully corralled 3 bottled of Becks into his arms. I introduced myself and he (Sean Westwood) explained what had attracted him to Mosaic's showcase.
"I'm always stuck to my seat because of the variety of genres but never too comfortable as the performers all have a streak of unpredictability about them."

Sean Westwood

Tim Fulker has undoubtedly snared my own curiosity in his net and hopefully in the coming year my own creations will be taking to the Mosaic stage. The Murder Minutes project has been playing throughout Europe at arthouse cinemas but maybe the time has come to release it into the wild. I do not know in which category to place our combination of Artist film and improvised Jazz, hopefully it wont be the one labelled 'Pretentious'.

You can judge for yourself when you come and see it.

AL