Tuesday 28 | 8.30pm | £8 |

Red Square

The release of ‘Thirty Three’ (in 2009 on FMR Records) documented the music of Red Square – a pioneering British group that originally formed in 1972, broke up in 1978 and reformed in 2009 as a result of renewed interest in their extraordinary history.

Though largely forgotten for 30 years, Red Square – Ian Staples (electric guitar), Roger Telford (drums) and Jon Seagrott (flute, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet & electonics) – was a key link between the worlds of psychedelic rock and avant-jazz. The group also had a fierce, ideological commitment to total improvisation delivered through very big speakers.

There was an almost proto-punk quixotism about their railing aural assaults on the mainstream. Very few people thanked them for it, and the music on ‘Thirty Three’ was considered too extreme for release at the time.

'Red Square's name implies radical zeal and angularity, both of which this...group possessed in spades’ (The Wire).

Challenger / Doyne-Ditmas / Hayward

Trio featuring the percussive explorations of Charles Hayward, the underworld of Tom Challenger's saxophone and the 'stomach' of Nick Doyne-Ditmas's acoustic bass.

Their first meeting in New Cross' Amersham Arms quickly led to the first gigs in gardens and clubs. Since, Hayward (known for his work with projects such as THIS HEAT, CAMBERWELL NOW, MASSACRE, ABOUT), Doyne-Ditmas (Who co-leads experimental group CRACKLE) and Challenger (Who's other involvements include 'MA.', OUTHOUSE (+ RUHABI), REDSNAPPER and The Loop collective) have come together sporadically to play their unique brand of ultra-telepathic, shape bending acoustic improv.

Past performances have veered from the serene, the rootsy, the abstract, to euphoric highs that the trio discovered to be a basic part of their ever expanding, improvisatory palette. This is a band that rarely surfaces – do not miss!