On Your Radar
MARK WALTER spends some enchanted evenings at new venue for performance artists – Off Radar – and meets the progenitor of this ‘un-ordinary’ platform.
Ross Clifford, a tall, exuberant man, bounded over the turf of the Beacon and grabbed a chair to elevate himself even higher above the excited crowd, welcoming everyone to Off Radar. With his Jools Holland -like patter, he introduces the performers who come thick and fast, and keep, roughly, to exciting 15-20 minutes slots.
I got the chance a week or so later to ask Ross how Off Radar came on to our radar. He explained it started in July this year from a germ of an idea to run an open-mic night with musicians and poets, but also to open it up to others including dancers, filmmakers, and performance artists. To give them a truly unique platform to champion the un-ordinary and alternative. It’s also a space for collaboration and to exchange ideas. “Although there are nearly as many performance artists as musicians in Hastings, there isn’t a platform for them”, he says.
Why the Beacon? Ross loves the space and enjoyed playing there in the past. He had originally gone to arrange a gig for his band Column 258. While there, he suggested an open mic night. Beacon boss Judy Dewsbury looked at her diary and forlornly expressed disappointment that it was mainly empty. Probably because it was just after Covid
and there was still distrust in going out to live performance, but it was at a time when people wanted to stretch their going out legs again.
Blow the lid off it
Ross, although keen on the open-mic strategy, wanted to inject a new persona and energy. In his words “blow the lid off it and take it in a completely new set of directions, like opening a box of fireworks from a country you have never heard of and setting them off in your garden and being totally wowed by the effect!”
With Judy and her partner Martin on board they agreed to run three pilot nights on the last Thursday of every month from July to September to see who turned up. On the first two nights, quite a lot did! Everyone was blown away
by the response.
Lise Boucon at Off Radar
Ross has been involved in music and the spoken word from his teenage years and it all started in the band The Sumerian Kyngs, the name taken from a novel by Robert Rankin and their music linked to the well-known genre, British space rock!
Cross between Bauhaus and Fame Academy
Ross’s latest project is Column 258 who play psyche groove. His background is in fine art and journalism, he then got into graphic design, and he has been a slave to its wheel for the last 20 years. It was his university days that opened his mind to what art could do. In his words “it was a bizarre little course at a bizarre university in Chichester with the word ‘otter’ in its name – which sounds so quaint and English – but inside the faculty it was like a cross between the Bauhaus and Fame Academy – students abseiling the walls of the canteen with a cello strung round their body, or running naked round the Uni’s chapel grounds, students collaborated in extraordinary way”. One of his first projects was to make a mini opera from TS Eliot’s The Wasteland and stage it within a week.
As to the future Ross has been amazed by the response of the performers, but also the reaction of the audience ranging from young students to retired people, “it’s totally non ageist” he says. As to taking it to a wider audience and other venues, he is thinking how to do this, even taking it to other countries. “I don’t want it to be a fixed thing, but in flux and able to morph in to different situations. And inspirationally, to transpose it into the global festival scene”. It will be interesting to see this come to fruition.
Multiple projections and sound-systems
Ross says Off Radar runs like a well-oiled machine but that it takes a team. Step forward his very good friends, Andrew Cooper and Nick Weekes who have been two hugely important components. “Andrew is the co-host, and we plan the nights together and Nick is in charge of tech.” I witnessed this on the second night with different performers in all different parts of the Beacon and often having very different requirements, sometimes having to run multiple projections and sound-systems simultaneously to make the artist’s vision come alive. Underpinning all of this is Ross’s wife Julia Andrews Clifford who greets everyone and keeps Ross sane. Judy and Martin Paul Everett and all the Beacon team are the most cooperative, hard-working crew who underpin it all.
Left Ross Clifford; Right Anna–Helena McLean
Finally, but very importantly are the performers. Ross explains that it’s non-formulaic. “I know a lot of musicians, poets and dancers. Sometimes they’ll drop me an email or I’ll see someone singing at a bus-stop or we’ll be looking for a particular performer – someone who can bring in some trip-hop mash-up to complete the month’s programme and Andy or Nick will say “I know this person” or I can tap into hybrid collective or often as not they simply appear magically from nowhere”.
• If you’re interested in performing contact Ross via Facebook @offradarhastings, or go to an event and introduce yourself. The next Off Radar is on the 29 September, The Beacon, 67-68 St Mary’s Terrace, Hastings. https://beaconhastings.com
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
Leave a Reply