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By Jessica Hazel There’s a new gang on the streets of East London. More terrifying than any gun-wielding estate mob and more wayward than the hobos found loitering outside the job centre. They call themselves, Gaggle, a choir of twenty-odd women led by classically trained choir master (and ex-586 member) Deborah Coughlin.
By Jessica Hazel. The Women’s Institute (W.I) was first established in 1897 and now has over 205,000 members in the UK alone. The W.I carries a somewhat frumpy reputation and most people imagine a gaggle of old ladies, who meet each week in the village hall to discuss jam making techniques and various health complaints. This is indeed the case, except for a pocket of women from East London who go by the name of the Shoreditch Sisters, who have been tipped as the most glamourous W.I group in the country. I tagged along one Tuesday evening for the first meeting of 2010.
IT’S a rainy Saturday night in East London, when three taxis pull up outside a warehouse in Hackney. Armed with only a text message of it’s whereabouts, there’s a certain air of apprehension amongst my friends as we approach the doors. Once inside, our names are ticked off the guest list (this party is not for random walkers-in off the street) and we pay our £3 entry fee. It’s one of our friends 25th birthday’s and she’s promptly presented with a handmade birthday card from the organisers. This all comes as a bit of surprise considering my only illegal rave experience involved being barricaded inside a Sainsbury’s storage facility in Brighton, with about 500 dreadlocked drug-dealers and their pet Alsatians whilst the police waited outside to shut it down and search everyone.
The king of Brit-pop, Jarvis Cocker, spent the majority of this week performing at the Village Underground Gallery in Shoreditch. It’s here that Cocker and his motley band, provided the backing track to a variety of bizarre workshops, including, pole dancing, hula-hooping and yoga classes. Open to all, and intended to break down the barriers between performer and audience, musician and artist and of course Cocker and fans.
East End graffiti artist Cyclops, has become an ubiquitous part of London’s trendy East. It’s hard to turn a corner without being presented with his trademark one-eyed Charlie-Brown or toothy grin. But, judging by his latest exhibition of fine art light-boxes and political badges, London’s favourite graffiti artist has grown up. |
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