We’re off to Bridlington to see Auntie Doris for summer but return in Autumn when the Catalyst will be taking a residency at the Last Tuesday Society in Hackney, second Friday of every month. Easy to remember; it’s the day after the Catalyst Club in Brighton. Have a great summer and thanks to everyone for continuing support; not least the 200+ speakers we’ve had in the last 6 years!

Yes we’re hurtling through the years towards a utopian future when everyone in the entire world will have done a 15 minute stint at the the club. In the meantime come and celebrate our 6th birthday party with three brand new speakers, a nostalgic glance back through the Catalyst’s six-year history and a free mince pie.

Dear Catalystians, after a short break for the May festival we return with three brand new speakers: performer Vicky Melody, Henry Butler (of Butler Wines fame) and Ewan Kirkland. Hope to see you there. Dr Bramwell

We return after a successful evening at the Last Tuesday Society in London with a trio of top banana speakers.NB this is the last Catalyst until June; taking a breather during May for the festival. But if you’re stuck for things to do you could always come to see the No9 Bus to Utopia at the Earth Ship. See www.drbramwell.com for details!

Live from the Catalyst Club, January 2010

As always this February we’ll be teaming up with Richard Robinson and the gang for some inspiring and entertaining science-based talks. Bending the rules of the Catalyst just on this occasion, all the talks are listed on www.brightonscience.com, including on the 25th, a whole night dedicated to Brighton with a talk on the pros and cons of drinking our sea water, stunning images from under the pier from our local divers and a scratch and sniff demonstration of happens to your poo by Ben Green. Plus on the 23rd Feb, talks on the Flat Earth Society and Robert Hooke, who invented the science of low-slung bass playing.

Tickets always sell out for these events so get there early!

Note it’s a 7.30pm kick off, not 8pm. Tickets will be £6 for these events.

Those who came to the last catalyst of the decade will, I’m sure, agree it was one of our best ever. We had Mark Bennett’s free absinthe handouts, Sarah Space Dog’s demonstration of Edison’s wax recorder, Dave Flack’s history of undersea cabling and, to wrap it all up, Lorraine Bowen’s Sequined Safari; the story of how, in 1979, her family won a ’spot the sun’ competition through Shredded Wheat to go on safari in Africa. Lorraine even brought along her parents and the original giant cheque…

Thanks to Mark, a few moments from the night have been preserved below…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=immVVJUop-M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TTRt0e_MJI

and for those who’d like to see themselves in Angi’s pop video, follow the link below…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78yXQyNpfGA

To end the noughties in style we’ve got a very special performance from the legendary Lorraine Bowen, a fascinating demonstration from Sarah Angliss (aka Space Dog) and a gent called Posh Dave who spends much of his time at the bottom of our great oceans! Any more would be telling…

At the request of many of our regulars, Ivan Kirby, who recently did a talk, ‘Captain Birdseye in the Nude’, has kindly drawn up his top ten of UK sexploitation/horror films from the 60s/70s.

1. Blood on Satan’s Claw (1970)
A sordid tale of Satanism in a 17th century English village. Amongst the village’s possessed youngsters is Michele Dotrice, later Frank Spencer’s long-suffering wife Betty in Some Mothers Do ‘ave ‘em.

2. Psychomania (1972)
Zombie bikers, Beryl Reid, frogs. What more could you reasonably ask for from a cinematic experience? Magnificently absurd and possibly the ultimate British cult film.

3. Konga (1960)
Hilarious bargain basement King Kong rip-off from the always wonderfully tacky producer Herman Cohen. Ends with the awesome spectacle of a man dressed as a gorilla destroying downtown Croydon.

4. Scream and Scream Again (1969)
Thoroughly groovy psychedelic horror/sci-fi weirdness with Vincent Price creating crazed human duplicates for a new world order. Supporting cast includes Peter Sallis of Wallace and Gromit fame. Please don’t expect it to make any sense.

5. Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly (1969)
‘Revolting black comedy for sadists showcasing the British cinema at its lowest ebb’. Halliwell’s Film Guide. Frankly that’s all you need to know to realise it’s worth watching.

6. Secrets of Sex (1969)
A thoroughly weird sex/horror/art cinema collision from William Burroughs collaborator Anthony Balch consisting of several stories ranging from the disturbing to the pointless, and lots of bare flesh in between. Narrated by an Egyptian mummy.

7. The Wife Swappers (1969)
A phantasmagoria of late 60s grottiness and one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen. A sternly disapproving psychiatrist narrates as several bored suburbanites broaden their sexual horizons in a number of seedy ways (including being fondled by future Captain Birdseye Larry Taylor).

8. Zeta One (1969)
Sexploitation film lifted to surreal heights by the presence of comedy stars Charles Hawtrey and James Robertson-Justice as the villains.

9. Corruption (1967)
Peter Cushing as a homicidal maniac, cutting out various women’s pituitary glands to restore his girlfriend’s acid-ruined looks. It’s also got Kate O ‘Mara in it, and Cherie Blair’s dad.

10. Frightmare (1974)
The best of Pete Walker and David McGillivray’s brilliant 70s horror movies. Sweet, elderly Dorothy Yates (an astounding performance from Sheila Keith) isn’t quite as free of her cannabilistic tendencies has her family would like to hope & Andrew Sachs is one of her victims.