Greg Thorpe.

Unless stated, photos are by Lee Baxter.

‘What a sumptuous banquet you created for us…’

Unterranean was a day-long festival of music, visual art, conversation, food, drink, procession, and performance, taking place at the Grade I listed Unitarian Church in Todmorden on Saturday 2 November 2024.

It was co-curated by myself and Anne Louise Kershaw of Instigate Arts, and brought together artists from Manchester and the Calderdale Valley. 

‘The more avant-garde the better!’

The name ‘Unterranean’ is a neologism, punning on ‘Unitarian’ while also hinting at things un-worldly or other-worldly.

Immediately following Samhain – the old Celtic New Year, the period we know as Halloween – is the ‘time outside of time’, when calendars were misaligned and the year had to ‘catch up’. 

It has long been a time when the dead are remembered and mischief rules in the rift, when other worlds seem visible and possible.

This provided the theme for our festival in which we invited artists and speakers with esoteric and other-worldly interests and methods to participate.

‘You made something really radical and important.’

The event took no funding and we could promise no fees to artist or ourselves. Income from ticket sales just about covered the church hire, to help maintain this precious volunteer-run building, and the PA system to make it all come alive.

Those who needed a fee lovingly declined, and those who wanted to participate lovingly said yes.

Unterranean instead was an exercise in assembling a community of people who wanted to create something together with no pressure of outcome, and an opportunity to develop or trial something new for themselves as artists.

Many artists showed brand new work or work in early development. Some shared their art for the very first time at Unterranean. This completely thrilled us. Anne and I both know that platforming artists is pretty much our dharma.

‘The atmosphere was so special.’

My own investment in Unterranean was an attempt to ‘re-enchant’ my practice. The arts is in turmoil and my career is uncertain. Arts and culture are increasingly decimated, privatised, commodified, with no end in sight. I witness unfair or unavoidable rejections at many levels. People are prevented from putting incredible ideas into the world and we all suffer that lack.

With this culture comes the concomitant burnout and devaluing of the artists. I have been through this and support many others who have. 

‘A joy to be part of.’

Perhaps it seems counter-intuitive in this setting to spend many unpaid hours putting together an event like this? But I like to think Unterranean was a spell to reject rejection itself – to remember why we want to create events and experiences in the first place. For the emotion of it, the adventure, the togetherness, the daring out-of-the-ordinariness of it all in the face of the harsh spectacle of our lives under capitalism. 

Yes, we worked for ‘free’ but we worked for nobody but ourselves. 

We opened Unterranean with a cacao ceremony and sound bath. We exhibited visual art by eight artists and hosted a conversation with speakers in death rites, UFOlogy, procession culture, and cacao.

‘A brilliantly orchestrated range of topics. I am looking forward to the next one. Congratulations for a heartfelt event.’

At dusk we processed through a nineteenth century cemetery to a seventeenth century Quaker burial ground where we heard poetry and practised new rituals of remembrance.

Back at the church, four live musical collectives performed and we held an ‘afterglow’ event at the magical local den of strangeness, Nan Moor’s, where two incredible trans women took us on another musical odyssey.

Read below for our full line up of artists. If you would like to be part of future Unterranean events, get in touch.

‘A big thank you for a special day that has lifted my soul.’

Artists and events…

Cacao ceremony & sound bath with Our Sacred Sun

Beyond The Veil: a conversation with…
Colin Lyall of Todmorden UFO Meeting.
Angilina Stylianou, cacao and holistic practitioner.
Margaret Davies of Pushing Up Daisies.
Esther Ferry-Kennington of Unitarian Church, Horse + Bamboo, and Encounter Festival
… hosted by Greg Thorpe of Unterranean

Visual art by:
John-Powell Jones
Anne Louise Kershaw
Harri Shanahan & dawn madain
Lynda Richardson
Tanja Schoenfeld
Chris Haslam
Alexander Pogson

Candlelit procession with performance by Danielle de la Wonk, readings by Anne Louise Kershaw and Greg Thorpe, and poetry by Sammy Weaver.

Food from Soop Daddy.

Performance of 'The Annals of Todmorden' by Greg Thorpe with Danielle de la Wonk and Story Exists.

Music by…

Story Exists

The Manifestation Group

Maddock Of Skin Forest

back of the brain

Afterglow event at Nan Moor's with music by Quieting and DJ set from Kim Lana

Creative Producer for David Hoyle: Please Feel Free To Ignore My Work, 10–28 April 2024, Factory International. Manchester.

David Hoyle is one of my favourite artists of all time, one of the most significant artists of a generation, making this a milestone project in my life, and a pinnacle of visibility for David's work too. It represented the largest gathering of his creative life in one place, culminating in the largest theatre show of David's career.

David, myself, and Creative Director Lee Baxter developed the show for over two years, conceptualising it as a part-retrospective, / part-occupation of the new Factory International space. David's life at the fringes of the art world, whilst also being immeasurably influential, gives his work a unique place in the culture and we wanted to reflect that in the nature of the show.

Visual art was hung in banners from the ceiling, played inside toilets, projected onto floors, stuck onto glass doors, and displayed on security fencing in a listed Victorian archway behind a vast smiling face of David on giant curtains. The architectural intervention of the work reflected David's desire to break into a perceived artistic world where he might be valued, all the life critiquing the same world from its fringes.

David's residency also included live art-making, an alternative performative pub quiz, an in-conversation event with David and myself about David's film and television work, as well as bespoke 'souvenirs' – artworks that people could purchase and take home.

The show closed with 'David Hoyle: Still Got It...!?' a revue-style spectacular for an audience of 1200 featuring guest artists and a narrated journey through David's life and career. New musical interpretations, contemporary dance, cabaret, game-show and vaudeville all came together, climaxing with a vintage double decker bus taking the artists away into the night.

Here is some of the blurb from the project:

For three gloriously unpredictable weeks, David Hoyle breaches Aviva Studios with a dazzling showcase of his work to date. Part retrospective, part takeover, Please Feel Free to Ignore My Work is a celebration of Hoyle’s prolific output from the stage to the screen to the canvas.

A chance to immerse yourself in Hoyle’s world, get to know the Manchester artist through rarely seen paintings, slogan works and new commissions on display in the Social – where Hoyle also takes over our digital screens – as well as screenings of his iconic television appearances and films, all brought together for the very first time.

Can’t get enough? Dig even deeper with a series of riotous, avant-garde events – featuring talks, live painting and a classic pub quiz all hosted by Hoyle. Bringing the takeover to a climax is the spectacular finale David Hoyle: Still Got It? – an end-of-the-pier variety show from hell. Brace yourself for plenty of anarchic surprises along the way.

As a cabaret star, actor and visual artist, Hoyle’s infamous alter-ego ‘The Divine David’ transported him from radical alternative settings in the '80s to the studios of Channel 4 in the '90s. For the last four decades, Hoyle has queered the boundaries between live art, performance, theatre and cabaret – conquering nightlife around the world and working extensively in film and TV.

Please Feel Free to Ignore My Work brings together key themes that run through Hoyle’s output: gender, mental health, AIDS, revolution, decadence and the effects of capitalism. Tracing his career from the '80s to the present day, this body of work asks how and why we value our art and artists.

Ever the outsider, David Hoyle opens the door to his outrageous and moving world. Come on in, we’ll pop the kettle on.

Festival Director, GAZE International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, Ireland.

In 2022 I was appointed Festival Director of GAZE, Ireland’s International LGBTQ+ Film Festival. The festival was celebrating their 30th year of bringing queer cinema to the Irish capital, so it was an enormous privilege to take hold of the creative mantle of the festival for such a milestone year.

As well as four days of diverse cinema programming, I also curated two weeks of international gallery shorts and a host of free screening and social events to bring artists and audiences as close as possible to the festival after three rocky pandemic years.

We opened the festival with Wildhood and closed with Girl Picture and in between we screened a whole host of dynamic, original, moving and hilarious films from around 40 countries, made by, for and about queer, gay, lesbian, bisexual, non-binary, trans and two-spirit people. It was truly emotional, and one of the finest creative experiences of my career.

I was thrilled, then, to be invited to stay on at the festival helm for the 2023 and 2024 festivals, a real honour and I hope you will join us in Dublin from 1–5 August. See you in the cinema.

For six proud years I was Creative Director of Superbia, the year-round calendar of culture from Manchester Pride. Through it we offered support to LGBTQ+ arts and culture projects across Greater Manchester, including free event promotion and access to a dedicated grants programme.

During my time on the project I curated dozens of events, partnered with diverse community groups, and worked with hundreds of artists across many disciplines, including literature, film, dance, theatre, photography, education, drag, publishing and more.

Each August Bank Holiday The Superbia Weekend offers a mostly free programme of events to complement the main Manchester Pride programme, including cinema, author events, sober socials, cabaret, yoga and more. Through Superbia I launched the Day With(out) Art programme for Manchester, a city-wide roster of creative events designed to use art to draw attention to ongoing HIV and AIDS.

You can find out more about Superbia here.

Follow on Facebook, Twitter, Insta, and sign up to the newsletter here.

Since 2016 I have been a member of the staff team at Islington Mill. We are the custodians of a truly magnificent landmark building, a six-storey Grade II listed Georgian textile mill on James Street in Salford. Since the mid-90s artists have made their home in the building, and since 2000, Bill Campbell has owned the building, turning it into a studio building, a place for experimentation, collaboration and dynamic independent art.

Hundreds of artists are now based at Islington Mill and we are currently partway through a large scale refurbishment and expansions project. This will make our building weatherproof, accessible, open to the public, and will see the installation of a whole new space on the 5th and 6th floors for artists and others to live/work/play/experiment.

I arrived at Islington Mill as a freelance writer in 2016 and since then I have worked on fundraising, artist and event support, research, strategy. co-ordination, workshops and more. Current projects I’m involved in include WEAVE, an EU-funded programme of free training for North West creatives; and a Heritage Lottery funded programme of historical research and creative commissions based on the rich heritage of our building.

I also write the Mill newsletter, curate and produce events, and support our incredible team however I can.

You can reach me at greg@islingtonmill.com

Top image: Cheddar Gorgeous, MIF 2015. Photo: Lee Baxter

2019, Fabaret!
2017, Night Life
2015, We Only Happen At Night
2013, Drunk At Vogue

Our club night, Drunk At Vogue, was invited to host the launch party for Manchester International Festival at the Pavilion Theatre, Albert Square in July 2013. We styled the event as an immense disco and invited drag performers from The Family Gorgeous to work with us to produce a combination of extravagant nightclub meets stage show. The main draw at MIF 2013 was Kenneth Branagh's Macbeth. We opened the show with three back-lit, fan-blown, smoke-swathed drag performers in postmodern witch outfits, lip-syncing to Cerrone's 'Supernature'. At the end of the night we recruited audience members to join the 'Drunk At Vogue Community Gospel Choir' and brought them on stage in disco choir shawls and giant flags to close the show. It's a night people still talk about... The event was a sell-out and we were invited to return in 2015.

This time we formally collaborated with Cha Cha Boudoir to produce an event that combined a giant nightclub with Cha Cha's original stage performances, containing elements that referenced MIF commissions, including Bjork, Red Riding Hood and Alice in Wonderland, and subjects like paganism, transformation and transgender expression. We incorporated original voiceovers by performance artist David Hoyle to draw a narrative thread through the evening as we moved between DJ sets and stage extravaganzas. The title, 'We Only Happen At Night' referenced both the Geraldine Hunt disco classic and the unleashing of creativity that comes from Manchester's queer creative nightlife, of which we are a proud part. I think we managed to top 2013...

Behind The Times was the culmination of my time as a writer at the Fourdrinier, the contemporary art magazine that emerged from PAPER Gallery in Manchester. It was a collaboration with the artist Sarah Hardacre – a project that would produce both new writing about Sarah’s art practice and a new solo show that would help to push the boundaries of the work Sarah was making.

Sarah’s beautiful intricate collages often incorporate images of Northern architecture alongside female models taken from vintage pornography. Her work can be read as a feminist archival practice, one that deftly juxtaposes concepts of masculine/feminine, public/private, utility/pleasure, utopia/reality. Sarah’s work incorporates and subverts humour, the male gaze, sexual frankness, and empowerment, and it offers a challenge to the concept of our supposed social evolution.

The new work that Sarah produced for Behind The Times at PAPER Gallery saw us enter the richly symbolic world of the postcard to produce a raft of new image-making. The artist also upscaled her concept of the collage itself to substitute actual architecture in place of her typical pictorial representations of it.

It was also one of the most fun and unexpected projects I have ever worked on. You can read my in-conversation with Sarah here, and an article about the making of our show here. Thank you Sarah!

Following an incredible experience working on The Storming – the closing programme for Manchester’s legendary Cornerhouse venue – I was invited to join the team to launch the new arts centre HOME in its place.

I collaborated with a diverse array of musicians, DJs, writers and artists who kept HOME alive and activated with all manner of creative interventions, driving a curious audience through the doors of this versatile and welcoming new space for the city.

Then, after a spectacular debut year, I returned to join the creative team to plan a First Birthday celebration that would showcase more talent from the region that spoke to our many different audiences. We had record-breaking footfall for the events and a renewed sense of pride and ownership of the building from artists and community alike.

Finalist 'Special Event of 2015', City Life. Images by Len Grant.

After thirty years of bringing quality independent arts and cinema to Manchester, the iconic Cornerhouse closed its doors in April 2015. As a final intervention/celebration, and part of the wider Playtime exhibition, Panamanian artist Humberto Vélez brought together a team of curators, artists, directors and producers, including myself, to give the beloved venue a creative send-off before it was re-born as HOME. 

Occurring in two parts, a daytime and evening event, The Storming saw the Cornerhouse building symbolically ‘stormed’ by a choreographed parade of people, including diverse art practitioners, a local disabilities group, the Manchester School of Samba, drag artists, a women’s motorcycle gang, a breakdancer crew and many others, symbolising the open democracy of art.

The evening portion event was a full-on party with a line-up of DJs dispersed throughout four floors of the building, spliced with original performances, art installations, dance classes and more, referencing the multi- and cross-discipline history of Cornerhouse programming.

As Musical Director, my role involved a mix of creative control, curating, soundtracking and producing. I compiled sound and musical effects for the dramatic daytime takeover of the building, and DJ’d to celebrate the successful occupation. For the evening event I curated the DJs and many of the performers, including commissioning original work from dancer Joshua Hubbard, film artist Chris Paul Daniels, DJ collective Wasp Nest, typewriter artist Elizabeth Willow, visual artist Mark Barton and drag performers, Cheddar Gorgeous and Anna Phylactic. I also screened a showreel of short films related to the themes of the event, many of them by Manchester filmmakers.

The line-up was devised to both celebrate the history of Cornerhouse and its unique place in the cultural life of the city, and to look to the future by bringing new creatives to a new audience. Audience participation was crucial so I installed a Northern Soul dance class in one of the galleries and Chris Paul Daniels’ film installation The World Spins was audience interactive. 

Line up:
DJs: Graham Massey of 808 State, Mike Joyce of The Smiths, Violent Femmes, Claud Cunningham of Black Angel, Philippa Jarman, Kath McDermott, Ian Jones and Damien Johnstone of Clique, Will Tramp, Wasp Nest, Chew Disco, The Whim Wham Club, Pumping Iron.
Art and performances: Northern Soul Dance School with Tobin Lochrie, B-Twist Dance Crew, Joshua Hubbard, Cheddar Gorgeous, Anna Phylactic, Mark Barton, Elizabeth Willow, Chris Paul Daniels, The Hooping Harlots.
Films: 
1985 Manchester Breakdance Championships (2:47), TV news item, 1985
VSE IDET PO PLANU (3:10) Florelle Michel, Damien Charamel, 2013
Northern Soul film trailer (1:54), Elaine Constantine, 2014
Bang Street Party (1:51), Sarah Jenny Johnson, 2014
PlayTime official reissue film trailer (2:55), Jacques Tati, 1967/2014
Drunk At Vogue: The Glitter Ball (3:42), Gary James Williams, 2014
The City (7:22), Thomas Beswick, 2014
Clique (1:31), Paul Ambler and Clique, 2009
AKSE P19: MADIBA, Northern Quarter, Manchester (2:11), Duncan Lees, 2014
Storming the Winter Palace (2:17), Soviet footage, 1920
Press: Guardian, Manchester Evening News, Corridor 8
Images: Flickr

NEXT QUEER ARTIST TALKING CIRCLE:

WEDNESDAY 17 MAY

7–9pm, Mirage Bar, Islington Mill, James Street, Salford M3.

The Queer Artist Talking Circle is open to all queer/questioning people who are creative in any way or would like to be.

We are a free and open forum for discussion, conversation, gossip, support, networking and flirting.

You don't have to speak if you don't want to, we are also a Listening circle.

The Circle is an ancient paradigm where we are linked and not ranked.

If you are nervous about attending, email greg.thorpe@icloud.com and I will look after you.

The bar will open for drinks at the break.

Facebook link.

I established the Queer Artist Talking Circle as a way for LGBTQIA artists in Manchester to meet regularly to socialise, support each other, gossip, network, scheme, moan and BE TOGETHER.

We have an active Facebook page here and I share all forthcoming meetings on my Twitter.

The group is for anyone who identifies as LGBTQIA/queer and an artist or would like to be, and is in Manchester or just passing through.

Join us and be uplifted!

Adventures in Marginal Dance

Dancers: Christian Asare. Aria Scere-Jacobs. Jess Rose. Finley Odin. James Henson.

I had a fantasy project where I would recruit eight LGBTQ+ dancers, representing the colours of the rainbow, and each artist would produce a dance responding to the original theme of the Pride flag.

Then, as usual, I sat on the project for a couple of years. One day I was chatting to my sports therapist James and I mentioned the project and he shared with me that had been a trained dancer at a prestigious school but had left his practice due to the high pressure nature of the culture.

A light bulb went on and I thought: this is what this project is really about – dancers who have overcome barriers, boundaries and limitations. James was up for getting involved and returning to dance. Soon, by magic or synchronicity, the rest of the cast began to find me: Christian, Aria, Jess and Finley, each with their own experience of moving in and out of the dance world because of gendered expectations, health, access, opportunity.

I developed the piece closely with the artists, weaving extracts of their oral history interviews into the work, and shining a spotlight on the true voices of these incredible performers. For a short time we were a little family. The show debuted at TURN ON FEST at Hope MIll Theatre 2020. I would love to use this model again some day. It remains one of the things I am most proud of in my career.

For two extremely mad years I produced a queer cabaret at one of Manchester’s finest venues, Band On The Wall, featuring some of the very best Manchester performers, plus some very special guests from further afield. Between drag, tarot, DJs, contemporary dance, comedy, poetry, bands, trans takeovers, singing contests and stuff I have definitely forgotten, I learned the joys of organised creative chaos. At last count around 75 performers graced our stages / decks / bars / toilets / balconies. A magical blur of break dancing, Disney ballads, emergency makeovers, reverse stripteases, peckers, punks and cocktails. A Queer Revue! forever…!

Portico Library, Manchester, May 2016, three performances.

I curated and produced this exciting dance/poetry collaboration, inviting dancer/choreographer Joshua Hubbard to interpret selections from Andrew McMillan’s debut poetry collection, Physical (winner of the Guardian First Book Award) as part of the annual Manchester After Hours late-night arts programme.

Joshua and Andrew performed together in a combination of live reading and dance with Joshua’s movements inhabiting bodily memories of Andrew’s intimate and sensual words. In Joshua’s vision, poet and dancer merge and switch places as sex, longing and satisfaction are expressed in verse. We were excited to be bring this collaboration between three working-class gay men to the beautiful environs of the Portico Library.

Preview here, review here.

Song lyrics are the poetry most of us encounter daily and know by heart. This poetry night aims to break down the divide between poetry and song. Guest readers are invited to read a selection of their own poetry, plus a poem by another writer they admire, plus the lyrics to any song. The choices and contrasts are startling, disarming and funny.

Readers to date have included: Andrew McMillan, Cheryl Martin, Helen Darby, Bryony Bates, Violet Blonde, Ella Otomoewo, Jae Lythgoe, Maz Hedgehog, Fat Roland, Danny Moran, Liz Gibson, Jane Claire Bradley, Bonnie Hansell, Mica Sinclair, Tolu Ajayi.

I was invited to be a writer-in-residence at Manchester Central Library during the ‘Chaos to Order’ residency by the band Everything Everything.

I undertook a digital art project during my residency using the simple tools of library books, my iPhone and the Manchester Central Library Twitter account.

The concept was devised as follows:

‘In a modern library you’re just as likely to leave with a laptop full of information as a rucksack full of books. I wanted to find a way to symbolise the evolution from paper to data that emphasises the importance of both.’

The project turned into a way to showcase printed treasures from around Central Library; exciting, mundane, beautiful, forgotten, well-loved. Each book was reduced to one single image and a piece of quoted text and sent out as a Tweet – a digital artefact – to Central Library’s thirteen thousand followers.

Armistice Day fell during the residency so I opened the collection with an image from the First World War and finished with an entry from a compendium of Army names from the Second World War, a soldier named G. Thorpe.

Pictured are some of the images sent over the duration of the residency.

For seven years myself, Thom Docking, Gary James Williams and James Sizen Bell ran a classy but chaotic, explosive and sexy disco-with-a-touch-of-house night called Drunk At Vogue. I named the night after a line from Sex & The City that seemed to encapsulate the right mix of hedonism, style and trash that we were always striving for. “I’m drunk! I’m drunk at Vogue…!”

When we took on the dynamic artistic talents of Grace Oni Smith as our front-woman, the magic line-up was complete and we embarked on an adventure that saw us go from back street to big top, opening the Manchester International Festival three times, playing a run of shows at Festival Number 6, launching Guy Garvey’s Meltdown at Southbank, and working with a plethora of queer performers across vogue, drag, performance art, film and contemporary dance. An essay that I wrote about our final party even appeared in an American art journal.

It’s no exaggeration to say the Drunk At Vogue years made my current career possible. Will we ever reform? Oh who knows, honey. Ask the Pet Shop Boys…

My directorial debut, Elizabeth Gibson’s one-person stage show was a gently effective exploration of urban life and fleeting but vital glimpses of nature against a backdrop of lockdown ennui. Both funny and tender, I had a great experince working with the artist/writer/performer to bring her work to the stage of Hope Mill Theatre for TURN ON FEST.