Sohemians

The latest instalment of the Radio Sohemia podcast is a recording of Robert Elms’s conversation with Keiron Pim. If you’re even remotely interested in 1980s pop culture, I urge you to listen to it. Robert’s reminiscences of the influential nightclub, Blitz, were vivid and often hilarious. So far, he’s the only Sohemian Society guest who has demonstrated a dance-step.

The Q-and-A with Robert, which was co-promoted by Fitzrovia Noir, took place inside the giant pontoon supporting the Victorian steamship, Robin, moored at Trinity Buoy Wharf. Despite the best efforts of our post-production maestro, there’s still a slight echo on the recording which, as he pointed out, sometimes makes it sound as if Robert and Keiron are officiating at a Sunday church-service.

To get free access to this or any of the previous Radio Sohemia podcasts, just click on one of these links:

https://open.spotify.com/show/7v8RaoDrQRjS5HUDxb6Lfz

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radio-sohemia/id1798432565

Don’t forget, if you fancy joining us at the Q-and-As about Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Talking Pictures TV, or Kurt Schwitters, please follow the link below. There are also a few tickets left for the guided tours around Poplar and Henrietta Moraes’s Soho.

https://www.sohemiansociety.com/opening-page.

On Wednesday 28 October at 7.00pm, the writer Jennifer Potter will be chatting with Sohemian Society co-founder Marc Glendening about the period when the avant-garde German émigré artist Kurt Schwitters lived in London. Jennifer’s the author of a tremendously enjoyable new book about Schwitters – a book that’s part memoir, part biography. It’s attracted well-deserved praise from Iain Sinclair, Jonathan Meades, and the art critic Andrew Lambirth who wrote: “One of the enduring purposes of art is to make sense of life. This intriguing book does just that.” Too true. I must confess that I’m not a fan of Schwitters’s work, yet I found “Looking For Mr Schwitters” charming and deeply touching.

Seats and standing room tickets to this event can be booked via the following link: https://www.sohemiansociety.com/opening-page

The Andrew Lownie event has sold out, but tickets are available for the Q-and-As with Noel Cronin (aka “Mr Talking Pictures TV”) and with Viktor Wynd, as well as for the “High Rise & Low Life” and “Soho’s Mistress of Mayhem” guided walks. The latter is hosted by the writer/artist Darren Coffield, creator of the late lamented Colony Room Green – a replica of Soho’s famous, long gone Colony Room club.

On Tuesday 13 October at 7.00pm, the self-styled Viktor Wynd – writer, curator, and host of his “Gone With The Wynd” tours to Papua New Guinea – will be chatting with Ross MacFarlane about his Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Unnatural History. This is a rare opportunity to hear him speak about his collecting obsession, his love of cabinets of curiosities, and his disdain for mainstream museums.

To book a ticket for this or for any of our September events for which there are still places available (the Q-and-A with Noel Cronin, aka “Mr Talking Pictures TV”; the “High Rise & Low Life” guided walk, and “Soho’s Mistress of Mayhem” tour), you just need to click on the following link:

https://www.sohemiansociety.com/opening-page

Just thought we’d let you know that there’s only one ticket left for this Sunday afternoon’s guided walk, themed around “Science & Wonder in the Victorian West End”.

A few tickets are also available for the “Life in Blondie + Late 1970s/Early 1980s Youth Culture” Q-and-A, plus the other guided walks: “Frank Norman’s Soho” (Sunday 26 July at noon and 2.30pm), “Whistler’s Riverside Chelsea” (Sunday 2 August at 2.30pm), and “Soho’s Punk Scene” (Sunday 23 August at 2.30pm).

Further details and ticketing links for all these events can be found by clicking on this link: https://www.sohemiansociety.com/opening-page.

Our Sunday 26 July guided walk around “Frank Norman’s Soho”, which starts at 2.30pm, has proved so popular that his grandson Joe Daniel, who is hosting the tour, has kindly agreed to stage an additional version of it, which will kick off at noon that day.

Continuing the Soho theme, we’ve lined up a “Soho’s Punk Scene” walk, which Aidan McManus will be hosting at 2.30pm on Sunday 23 August. Aidan’s skills as a tour-guide have been endorsed by the writer Irvine Welsh: “If you haven't been on one of my mate Aidan McManus’s tours, you haven't lived. Irreverent and hilarious stuff.”

To obtain further information about these walks and reserve tickets for them, please visit the following page: https://www.sohemiansociety.com/opening-page. The site also offers you the chance to buy heavily discounted copies of the beautiful, recently reprinted edition of Soho Night & Day, the classic collaboration between Frank Norman (who wrote the text) and Jeffrey Bernard (who took the accompanying black and white photos).

More about Soho’s varied history can be found in our latest, newly released Radio Sohemia podcast, which consists of a characteristically charming and informative talk by Dan Cruickshank about the area’s architectural history. You can listen to this for free by clicking on one of the links below:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radio-sohemia/id1798432565

https://open.spotify.com/show/7v8RaoDrQRjS5HUDxb6Lfz

Last call for boarding the forthcoming Sohemian Airlines flights to the Fitzrovia Chapel and Trinity Buoy Wharf…

All three of our late June talks/Q-and-As are poised to get some extra publicity this weekend, so if you fancy hearing Andrew Lownie, Robert Elms, and Iain Sinclair, you should make a booking before the remaining tickets are hoovered up. Click on this link to make bookings: https://www.sohemiansociety.com/opening-page

We’ve had some good news about a couple of North American-based future speakers. During March or April, the U.S. bestselling true-crime writer Dean Jobb will be at the Sohemian Society for his only British appearance next year. And the brilliant investigative journalist Evan Ratliff – creator of the part-sinister, part-hilarious podcast series, Shell Game – has also agreed to appear at the Stade de Sohemia when he’s next over this side of the Atlantic.

Evan is the founder of an exceptionally good online magazine called The Atavist (https://magazine.atavist.com/). They commission one lengthy nonfiction story each month. The stories are usually strange and fascinating