The Happening
ART, MUSIC AND FILM COLLIDE IN A CELEBRATION OF BEACH AND STREET CULTURE
The Sandsifter, July 4th. 

To win two tickets to The Happening at the Sandsifter in Hayle on July 4 answer the following question:

Which cool surf movie did the Malloys make with Jack Johnson under the Moonshine Conspiracy tag with music by Jack Johnson and G Love? Email your answer to Kat@orcasurf.co.uk

With a stunning live music lineup of acoustic sets from G Love, Mason Jennings, Matt Costa, Tristan Prettyman, Neil Halstead and local Ruarri Joseph, plus film previews from some of the top surf/street filmmakers and an a broad selection of photography, mixed media and paintings the event will be a rare treat. Loosely connected with the live Jack Johnson shows taking place over the following two days at the Unleashed site overlooking Watergate Bay, the event consists of an exhibition of artworks, film screenings, with live music to round off the evening.  With G Love (aka Gareth Dutton) heading up the music bill, alongside one of the best kept secrets of the music scene, Mason Jennings, plus Matt Costa’s first appearance in Cornwall, the musical element of the event seems too good to be true.  Add in our own Ruarri Joseph, US singer-songwriter Tristan Prettyman and Mojave 3’s Neil Halstead, credited by Time Out as “One of Britains’ greatest songwriters” and you can’t go wrong.

Combined with a film preview by The Malloys (who filmed seminal surf movie “Thicker Than Water” with Jack Johnson, and are now well known for their music videos (The Kooks, The Raconteurs, The Shins to name but a few) another by Thomas Campell, who shoots entirely on 16mm film and who’s first two full length surf movies, Sprout and The Seedling have received cult status, and the evening transcends into a thing of beauty.

On top of that, there is photography and contemporary painting to look at, ranging from the mixed media pieces of Wolfgang Bloch, who’s brooding land and seascapes made from found objects, the graceful abstract paintings, mixed media installations and assemblages of Alex Kopps, plus pieces from the now legendary experimental typographer and magazine designer (he was art director of surf and style magazine Ray Gun from 1992 – 95) David Carson and you get some hint of the diversity of works on show.

For a full list of the artists with a presence at The Happening, check the website www.thehappeninglive.com. 

Tickets for the event are £16 (stbf) and are available from www.seetickets.com 0871 2200260, wwwhallforcornwall.co.uk 01872 262466 and www.thehappeninglive.com or direct from the Sandsifter.  Ticket price includes entry to the exhibition space, all film screenings and the all music performances.

Artist Information

In no particular order, below are some of the artists, photographers, filmmakers and musicians who will be performing or have work exhibited at The Happening.

To see a short video of The Happening earlier this year at Bondi Beach in Australia, go to the website www.thehappeninglive.com

ART/PHOTOGRAPHY ELEMENT

Wolfgang Bloch
Ecuador born artist Bloch makes multi media pieces from found objects, including old wood and weathered metal, which lend his art great depth and colour. Sea and land scapes with a peaceful feel reflect his love and respect for nature.

“I love nature and the ocean, I love the way it smells and the way the breeze feels on my skin. I remember the excitement of coming over a hill and taking that first glimpse at a new spot and seeing an empty wave doing its thing, with no one around.”

David Carson
One of the world’s most creative and distinctive voices in the world of typography and graphic design, Carson also turns his hand to book and magazine design (he was art director of surf and style mag Ray Gun from 1992 -1995) and continues to push the boundaries of his trade, with a breathtakingly relentless tide of creativity that defies the normal expectations. A truly iconic designer.
www.davidcarsondesign.com

Thomas Campbell
(see also film section). Although he is also a filmmaker, it is for his fine art that Thomas Campbell is best known. With a pared-down simplicity and grace that hint at Japanese woodcuts, Campbells artwork is beautiful in it’s balance and poise.
www.thomascampbell-art.com (site under construction for a better look at his work check www.robertsandtilton.com/artists/campbell)

Alex Kopps
Bay Area, Californian artist, designer and grafitti artist Alex Kopps makes undeniably beautiful work, from his graceful and calming abstract paintings, mixed-media
installations and assemblages.

Herbie Fletcher
Pioneer of big wave tow-surfing, surfboard designer, shaper, big wave rider, cinematographer and photographer, Herbie has lived and breathed surfing since the 1970s. Herbies artboards, photographs and custom sculpture are now held in the collections of amongst others, Julian Schnabel, Dennis Hopper and Bruce Webber.
www.herbiefletcher.com

Joe Curren
“Joe Curren prefers the road less traveled…he enjoys nature and immersing himself in it; photography, looking for waves and surfing are his way of doing this” Surfers Path
Joe Curren’s dramatic photographs, often rendered in black and white, feature waves, landscape and surfers in the water as well as documentary shots from his travels. His pictures have an incredible sense of stillness and peace to them, whatever the subject.
www.joecurrenphotography.com

Other artists/photographers with work at the Happening are: Jenny Bowers, Jeff Caham, Ben Cook, Harry Daily, andy David, Ned Evans, Julie Goldstein, Yusuke Hanai, Ryan Heywood, Andrew Holder, Andy Huges, Natas Kaupas, Alex Knost, Greg LaMarche, David Lloyd, Emmett Malloy, John McCambridge, Barry McGee, Geoff McFetridge, Jason Murray, Randy Noborikwa, Scott Richards, Scott Soens, Kate Sutton, Koji Toyoda, Patrick Trefz, Tyler Warren and Alex Weinstein.

FILM ELEMENT

The Malloys (One Track Mind, preview)
Collaborators with Jack Johnson on cult surf movie Thicker Than Water, now known for their music videos – worked recently with Cold War Kids, Wolfmother, Jack Johnson, Santana, The Kooks, The Raconteurs, The Shins.

Thomas Campbell (The Present, preview)
Self-taught painter, photographer, filmmaker and writer. He has a small painting studio in Santa Cruz in California where he spends any time he’s not away globe trotting, shooting films and photos on his travels. In 1999 he made his first feature length surf film The Seedling, followed in 2004 by the second, Sprout. Campbell is the creator of the artwork on the latest Jack Johnson album, “Sleep Through The Static”.

Britton Caillouette & Nicholai Lidow (“Sliding Liberia”)
Made by Stanford filmmaker Caillouette and PhD student Nicholai Lidow, “Sliding Liberia” is a surf film/documentary that follows a group of young surfers to Liberia in search of more than perfect waves. Travelling through the country, devastated by decades of brutal civil war, they record the stories of the people they meet along the way, including Alfred, a young boy who became Liberia’s first surfer after finding a bodyboard whilst fleeing from rebels.

Alex Kopps (“Displacement”, a preview)
To see a clip go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMUZixFdk_8&feature=related

MUSICAL ELEMENT

Mason Jennings One of the best kept secrets in pop music, Mason Jennings regularly attracts crowds of 3000 fans in his adopted town of Minneapolis. Recently releasing his sixth full-length album, Jennings is a prodigious songwriter, known for his affable nature and for being a family man (he has two young children). Recording his latest album with the aid of a laptop and two microphones in a hut in the woods, Jennings was keen to take his recordings back to basics. “It was pretty raw but fun” he says, “I wanted to do it quickly in a childlike way. I’d write songs in the morning, record them in the afternoon and finish thm up by night.” The albums’ title comes from his son talking about where he came from before he was born “Ya know dad, when I was in the Ever?”. Spirituality remains an important part of Jennings’ music and indeed life.

“How Deep Is That River” outlines Jennings crisis of faith, and looking for reasons to believe. “I feel kind of uneasy because I haven’t found any answers” admits Jennings. “That ambiguity is really hard for me.” “I Love You And Buddha Too” outlines his inherent belief in the oneness of all religions: “I don’t believe anybody is on the outside or excluded,” he explains “We’re all a part of things.” www.masonjennings.com

Matt Costa With latest album out now Unfamiliar Faces out now, the follow up to 2005’s Songs We Sing, this will be Matt Costa’s first show in Cornwall. Taking an unusual approach to writing the latest album, Costa got together a collection of treasured possessions, put them on a shelf, then just stared at them and let the memories flow. “That way I could see everything that I loved,” he explains (the collection included his favourite books, a giant wooden pipe, and a box of old 45-speed records from the late 1950s). Costa grew up next to a pet cemetery, learnt piano and trumpet and focused as a kid more on skateboarding than school in his hometown of Huntington Beach, California. Though he discovered a lot of music through skating, it was an unfortunate accident in which broke his leg, as he was on the point of turning pro, which turned him towards music as he waited for his injuries to heal. He wrote some songs, which he then recorded with No Doubt guitarist Tom Dumont, who was a strong influence in this period of his life. “One fo the first things he told me was ‘stop practising so hard and let the feeling come out’”, says Costa “ It stuck with me because that’s the key to music. The light went on in my head.”

Over the next few years, Costa worked his way across the States in a van, earning a reputation as a man blessed not only with skiful acoustic guitar playing, but a gently artistry that endears him to audiences across the globe. His latest offering contains not only country-tinged acoustic tracks, but also some more introspective material that hints at the darker side of his days kicking his heels after that leg-break. Costa’s world view has a questioning and quirky appeal which is how the different approach to writing inspiration has worked so wee, “Every day I’d look at the same things and find different memories and attach different moments. You can come into a room and every day feel different about it, I feel the same way about songs, each time you listen to them you can find something new,” he muses. www.mattcosta.com

Tristan Prettyman
Born and raised in Del Mar, California, it may come as no surprise that Tristan was a competitive surfer while still in middle school. Music became an inspiration after she was given a copy of Ani DiFranco’s Puddle Dive, which she played constantly. Inspiring her to sneak into her parents room to ‘borrow’ her Dad’s guitar, Prettyman soon moved to playing songs in front of friends ant their homes and it was around this time that she began to start writing her own material.
It was at one of these mini shows that an employee of The Moonshine Conspiracy, run by surf filmmaker Taylor Steele and professional surfer Chris Malloy heard her and asked Tristan to appear in the film the company was working on at the time, Shelter. Tristan’s song, “Anything At All” was chosen to be on the soundtrack.
Having toured with artists such as G Love, Ray LaMontagne, Jason Mraz and Chris Isaac, her latest album “Hello” tells the story of her life in the wake of a painful breakup. Although there are a couple of dark tracks, the album is predominantly one that comes out fighting and glad to be back out there: “I didn't want to waste time being negative. I just wanted to rock out and get groovy and be happy!" she says. With a warmth and laid back breeziness lent to her sound by the Wurlitzer, plaintive pedal-steel guitar, finger picked acoustic guitar, Hammond and strings, Hello explores Prettyman's love of country-blues and folk from the '60s and '70s, artists like The Band, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Dylan. "There's something really pure and uncontrived about what they do," she says. "I really connect with that simplicity, and I think it made me write more bluesy songs."
www.tristanprettyman.com

Ruarri Joseph Home grown talent Ruarri Joseph has become a familiar face on the local circuit, with his unusually upbeat and sometimes winsome songs, as witnessed on his debut album “Tales of Grime and Grit” and more recently on his own self-produced EP “They Can Rule The World But They Can’t Ride A Bike”. Joseph, who looks at the minutae of other people and weaves them into songs like charming snapshots of lives, imbued with a positivity that marks him out from the average introspective singer songwriter. www.myspace.com/ruarrijoseph

G Love Philadelphia born G Love (aka Gareth Dutton) is an artist who has become renowned along with his band Special Sauce, for amazing live shows, as anyone who witnessed his appearance last year in Newquay will attest to. Citing influences such as old schoolers Rum-DMC and Beastie Boys as well as Bob Dylan, you get a hint of the melting pot that makes up the inimitable style of G Love. Featuring a then unknown Jack Johnson on his 1999 album “Philadelphonic” had led to an enduring working partnership, Dutton is now signed as a producer to Brushfire (Johnson’s label), and is a regular touring partner. www.myspace.com/glspecialsauce

Neil Halstead
Time Out has called Neil Halstead “one of Britain’s greatest songwriters” and NME said he wrote “the kind of honest, heartfelt love songs men are too scared or too cool to write these days”.

Now based in Newquay, the singer and guitarist with Mojave 3 and previously Slowdive, struck out on his own in 2002 with his solo debut “Sleeping On Roads”. Although there was no direct plan to release solo material, Halstead found himself with some tracks which didn’t get used on the 2000’s Mojave 3 album “Excuses for Travel” so he decided to put them out independently from the band.

After touring the album for three years, Neil returned to Cornwall, converting a building in a field "that stinks of cow shit" into a new recording studio. This was completed in time for Mojave's fourth album, Spoon And Rafter, which came out in 2003. Neil still has plans for a second solo record. As he explains: "Because I've always been in bands - I was 17 when Slowdive signed to Creation records, and then I went straight onto Mojave 3 - it's been really good doing something on my own. I want to do it again."
www.myspace.com/neilhalsteadofficial