East End Review

Tag: Eleonore de Bonneval

Sam Lee’s Campfire Club takes live music back to its roots

Sam Lee of the Nest Collective (left, in shorts) stokes the passions of crowds. Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

The smell of fresh firewood burning is one of the most nostalgic smells for me. It instantly evokes my childhood, camping and fun. So when I heard that renowned folk music impresarios the Nest Collective, led by the Mercury Prize-nominated musician Sam Lee, had started a Campfire Club, it immediately captured my imagination and I made sure to join them at their next event.

The Campfire Club is hosted by art and botany project Phytology in the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve throughout the summer. According to records, the location was a market and nursery gardens in medieval times, and in 1846 a church with active social functions was erected there before being totally destroyed in the Blitz. “The land was left dormant for 50 years and only just being used as a community space” explains Lee.

The old Second World War bombsite now feels like a little gem hidden away in buzzing London. Lee points out that “as a species we’ve existed every night for thousands and hundred of thousands of years around a fire. It is only now that we don’t do that anymore. I think people see the romance in it and are connected in a way that we don’t get an opportunity to do.”

On entering the nature reserve for the first time, I was invited to take a seat on the log benches of this intimate amphitheatre. Without amplification, the performers began to sing by the fire and their voices sounded timid. The sounds of the city seemed to override theirs: people talking in the street and cars passing with their horns sounding, constantly reminded me I was in East London.

But as the sun set and the night came, I leaned closer to the fire, and listened better. The city seemed to have calmed down and the performers’ voices became more audible. By that point I was captivated by the music, mesmerised by the flickering flames and – just as I was as a child – enchanted by the smell of the wood smoke.

Next Campfire Club with Bridie Jackson and the Arbour and Daniel Green Saturday 12 July at Phytology, Bethnal Green Nature Reserve, Middleton Street, Bethnal Green, E2 9RR

www.thenestcollective.co.uk

July 11, 2014
Fernando Messulam: the restaurant owner with a ‘steak’ in opera

Catering for opera: Fernando Messulam. Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

Performing arts is part of Fernando Messulam’s life. Originally from Rosorio in Argentina, he used to live in front of the city’s Opera House. His mother was a ballet dancer, as were all his nannies.

Unsurprisingly, he too entered the arts, but in a less traditional discipline – breakdancing. Later, while auditioning for a musical, he discovered he was able to sing opera as a tenor.

But alongside artistic ambitions, he started catering and managed a café located inside the Opera House. His waiters were mimes and there was a tap dancer at the bar. It was “quite a bohemian gathering”, he says. “Beyond food it was about the social experience.”

It is this experience that Messulam decided to reproduce in London. Since last year, he has managed De La Panza, an Argentine steakhouse on Southgate Road. He tries to be different but not “mechanically different”, preserving the local feel of the restaurant alongside the kind of vibe you might find in an Argentine bodega.

Music is a big part of this, and once a month on a Sunday musicians gather to play and sing. “Cinderella here is the Opera” he insists. “It is not rehearsed, there are no numbers. We all know what we are doing, so we just bring it on!”

The next Opera Day is on 27 April when Messulam will be accompanied by tenor Yuri Sabatini and Orpheus Papafilippou on violin. The event will last from 2-7pm and people are welcome to stay all afternoon, as if they were in their own living room. “The only thing is that they don’t have the keys!” he quips.

De La Panza
105 Southgate Rd, N1 3JS

April 11, 2014
Parkour life – opening of new academy in Docklands

Alex Pownall at the London Parkour Academy. Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

As a kid, I used to climb trees, swinging from the branches and jumping off. Sometimes I’d fall, sometimes not. But after encountering parkour, I realise that such physical interactions with the environment can just as easily happen on the streets of London.

Parkour is an athletic activity in which practitioners traverse a usually urban environment in the most efficient way possible. Originating in France, this non-competitive ‘sport’ can include running, jumping, climbing or any other form of movement.

Walking out of Trinity Buoy Wharf’s newly opened London Parkour Academy, the UK’s first purpose-built indoor parkour and functional fitness facility, all perceptions of my direct environment changed drastically. Stairs and ramps became, in my imagination, something I could use to move in unique and challenging ways.

Apparently that is how you become a ‘freerunner’. Francois Mahop, alias Forrest, director of the academy, explains that with parkour “your perception starts to change and you realise that everywhere can be a potential spot to train. There are no more obstacles, only resources to help you move forward.”

With training, the brain of a freerunner becomes accustomed to look at the physical environment and question how it can optimise movement. The beauty is that you need only a few minutes of mind-mapping before being able to operate in the space in exactly the way you had imagined. It is all about problem-solving skills.

Parkour has a strong code of conduct. “It isn’t a chaotic sport,” says Forrest. “The first rule is to respect yourself, you need to be physically strong.”

For this reason the Parkour Academy has an area dedicated to fitness, strength and conditioning. Rule number two is “to respect your environment. It is your playground and you don’t want to damage it.” The final rule is to respect other people and to steer clear of private property.

That final instruction presents a challenge, for doesn’t the adrenaline gained from parkour not at least partially come from the ability to access unique places? On this point Forrest makes himself clear: “The real practitioners like the challenge of a new space but respect the environment and do not trespass,” he says.

This doesn’t make parkour any less interesting; I quickly realised that you don’t need the space to be particularly complex to push yourself hard both physically and mentally.

Parkour is a sport that develops your balance; you learn to be precise in your movements, take controlled risks and to be creative with the way you move. And crucially it forces you to be more observant of your surroundings.

Chainstore Parkour Academy, Trinity Buoy Wharf, 64 Orchard Place, E14 0JY

April 11, 2014
Creating a safe space with Arch 76

A painting by one of the participants in the Arch 76 project in Bethnal Green. Photograph by Eleonore de Bonneval

Down a back road in Bethnal Green, tucked under the smog-stained railway bridge, a grey dingy arch has come to life with colour. Artwork explodes on the walls; knitted blankets, golden prophecy paintings, and jewellery made from old car tyres are crammed into every corner. Inside, 12 women, old and young, talk over each other to show off their art and tell their stories.

“When I first came here I was so dirty, you could stick me to the walls,” says Tracy, 41. “It saved my life this place. It gave me hope, it gave me love and it gave me friendship. I’d never done anything like this before.” Arch 76 is a charity-based art project that was set up two years ago by Wendy Rolt. The idea was to create a safe space for vulnerable women to gather; away from men; sheltered from the streets where many of them have lived, and far from the drugs and abuse that had made them lose hope.

In the whitewashed brick room, through a combination of artwork and group chats, many of the women who are battling addiction or mental illness, have found a new focus in painting. Tracy has become deeply entrenched in the religious aspect of the group. Though women from all faiths are welcome, she draws on the short bible passages they read each time they meet, depicting, with massive swirls of gold paint what she’s understood. She points at one of her pictures hung on the wall. “In this story, this person was murdered by his half-brother. A lot of those stories, you see, we can relate to.”

The art project has become a community staple in Bethnal Green. Although the location is kept quiet for the security of the women, local cafés and cinemas have provided breakfasts and organised film outings. A gallery in Brick Lane helped them put on an exhibition of their work, with the money from sales going straight into their pockets. “It was the first time some of them had made any money themselves,” says Rolt. “ – at least legally.”

Most of the women who attend come regularly, and they see the group as family – for some it’s the only one they’ve ever had. And for others, it’s the only time they’ve had the chance to have their voice heard, either through group chats or by using the myriad of supplies that burst out of drawers and cabinets. “I don’t think that art is the answer,” says Rolt, who volunteered at a rehab centre before starting the charity. “But it’s a way of being creative, and it really encourages them. Some are more shy, and the group meetings bring out more in them.”

She adds: “We once read a story about fasting. And it brought out a lot of the women saying they fast – but not out of choice. Until then they’d been too scared to tell people they had run out of food money.” After that, many of the group members brought in extra food to share when they met twice a week.

“I know we can’t do everything, and that can be hard,” says Rolt. “We have to be really honest. We can’t do their housing, we can’t do their benefits, but we can be there for each other through all of that. It’s what friends are for. We have a lot of birthday parties here. Some of the women have never even had a cake.”

www.arch76.co.uk

January 10, 2014
‘Alone in a box of stone’ – Benjamin Clementine

Stage presence: Benjamin Clementine. Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

One morning in June I was listening to French radio when I heard some folk-soul music. The voice singing “I am lonely, alone in a box of stone” sounded intense, fragile and incredibly sincere. I was moved to tears.

“Benjamin Clementine is from Edmonton, London” said the presenter. Edmonton is the final stop of my 149 bus route and I’d never heard of him?

Then last month in St Luke’s church, Old Street, a hushed crowd listened as Clementine played ‘Cornerstone’, a song emblematic of the loneliness he carries within him.

Clementine, 24, actually left London two years ago. He explains it was “because of family problems, friends, work, studies. There was nothing there. The only thing I was good at was English.”

His career started after being spotted busking in Paris. Astonishingly, Clementine claims he never aspired to be a singer. “It was more a matter of finding a place to stay and finding some sort of accommodation, food … No matter how bad, I just sang. I had no choice,” he says.

An extreme honesty runs through his music, which he writes himself. He cites his older brother’s advice: “Don’t waste your breath if what you say isn’t important. There is no point.”

Clementine’s style developed while he sang covers on the Paris underground.

Nina Simone was a “revelation”, he says. But his main influences are the classical and operatic music he listened to as a boy. He started playing piano by ear aged only 11, after hearing Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie. Later came Noel Coward and Pavarotti.

“When I say ‘I am alone in a box of stone’ it is not a lie – it is true,” he says. “I don’t perpetuate emotions. I don’t want people to feel sorry for me. I think I just want people to understand me more.”

November 5, 2013