Blog: Doctor Doom at The Catalyst Club

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I had the afternoon off work on Thursday afternoon last week so I could ZOOM down to distant BRIGHTON to do a talk for The Catalyst Club. This is a WONDERFUL event running three times a month in the general Brighton area where Dr David Bramwell introduces a range of speakers who talk about Something They Really Care About for 15-20 minutes and then answer questions from the audience.

I'd been down for a RECCE a few months ago (when I'd also had my first meeting with Mr CJ Thorpe-Tracey to discuss our current collaboration - he was the PAL mentioned in that blog entry) and had THOROUGHLY enjoyed it, so was really looking forward to go back and do some Doctor Doom talking myself. I thus arrived SUPER PROMPTLY at the venue for a slidecheck - like a soundcheck but with more powerpoint and less drums - before then toddling next door for some CHIPS.

I returned to BRAVELY hang around on my own for a while as people turned up. There was NOBODY I knew either on the bill or coming along, which used to be the NORM for me back in my days of heavy touring but now feels a bit scary. Still, it wasn't long before the evening started, with David talking through some recent events and forthcoming attractions (including the upcoming return of the marvellous Ben Moor to the show) and then Susan Sainsbury talking about her book Undressed. This is a Graphic Novel, so it felt like there might be a subtle undertone of COMICS already!

After the break Jane Bom-Banes was on, as she had been on my previous visit, this time playing a song on Harmonium and then doing the same song but BACKWARDS. It was amazing, and I pitied the fool who had to go on after her... which unfortunately was ME! I was doing a heavily abbreviated 18 minutes (I'd timed it) version of the show without SONGS, which felt odd but seemed to go pretty well - early on it turned out that the microphone didn't work very well if you took it out of the microphone stand, so I decided to TALK LOUDLY instead, which to be honest felt a lot more natural to me. I waa still relieved to have got through it in one piece, and then DELIGHTED to do the QUESTIONS section at the end, which was GRATE!

We then had another break during which I was EMBOLDENED to actually talk to some people - this is usually the case, as having been on stage I kind of feel like I've been INTRODUCED to people so don't feel like just some weirdo stranger forcing them into conversations (not JUST like that anyway). The evening concluded with David Bradford doing a talk about the history of his family tied up with a book by a horrible aristocrat that he'd found in a bookcase inherited from his Nan, and then there was further chat and the reciept of a BOOK and bottle of CHAMPERS to say thanks for doing the show, which I felt was VERY classy!

It was a lovely evening and also a delightful way to begin my two-date tour of BRIGHTON, and I returned to my hotel room for the evening full of the delights of LIVE SHOWS, ready for whatever was to come next!

posted 17/8/2025 by MJ Hibbett

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