Tag Archives: performance

Port Eliot festival

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This Summer, I will be performing at a few events at the Port Eliot Festival, 23rd to 25th July. As the proud owner of ticket 001 purchased at the first Port Eliot festival, I have long harboured an ambition to perform there. I was booked to talk a few years ago but floods prevented my attendance.
The house at Port Eliot during the festival
For an event entitled We Are Camping, I will wander around the Port Eliot campsite, talking about what camping means, its history, and the radical camping group the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift.

Then I will be taking part in the Idler’s Academy, delivering a talk on How Not To Write.

I will also be hanging around The House of Fairy Tales. I have promised to write a short story with Alice, my daughter, and read it there. The last story we wrote together was auctioned off as part of the Significant Objects project.

The Future Human: Advertising at the Frontiers of Consciousness

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I will be performing some of my theories and research in the areas of neuroscience and advertising at this event on February 10th at The Book Club in London.

Performing, not presenting: don’t come expect brain surgery, at least not from me. That will be supplied by the experts on the rest of the bill.

I really enjoyed my last collaboration with Bad Idea, when I riffed on short fiction submissions to sketch out my approach to world-building.

Future Human, London’s New Theatre of Ideas launches at The Book Club, London, EC2A 4RH, on Wednesday February 10, 2010 with ‘Advertising at the Frontiers of Consciousness’. The event starts at 7.30 pm and entrance is £8.

Jonny Mugwump’s Weird Tales For Winter

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Starting on midnight of the 25th January, Resonance FM will be broadcasting a series of specially-commissioned collaborations between writers and musicians, Weird Tales For Winter, curated by the incomparable Jonny Mugwump.

The Dinner Party Wars by Matthew De Abaitua and West Norwood Cassette Library

The Dinner Party Wars by Matthew De Abaitua and West Norwood Cassette Library

The first story sees Moon Wiring Club work on a short piece by the late Nigel Kneale, author of Quatermass, The Stone Tape and The Year of the Sex Olympics. I had the honour of interviewing Nigel Kneale for my TV show SF:UK, which you can watch here.
The second Weird Tale for Winter is my own The Dinner Party Wars, a story I rewrote and performed after the death of JG Ballard, as my own modest tribute to the great prophet of futuristic psychopathy. The West Norwood Cassette Library have done a fantastic job in hewing, smoothing and varnishing my raw recording, adding a rumbling bassline and various sonic constructs that any writer would be pleased to find himself within.

Coming soon: The Most Depressing Day of the Year

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On the most depressing day of the year, January 25th, I will be accompanying Will Self for an evening’s improvised performance at the Komedia in Brighton.

Will Self

Will Self

For previous performances, I have interviewed Will as the editor of the London Free, London’s Freest newspaper. However, the chill economic conditions lead to the closure of the London Free. I have tried to remain upbeat during my long period of unworking and hope that this spirit of can-do positivity will persist into the New Year.

Matthew De Abaitua in felt horned hat with ears

"Spirit of can-do positivity"

We are also embarking upon a warm-up gig at Express Excess at the Enterprise in Camden, on the evening of January 20th.