The Modernist wrote:And I was replying to Echolalia!
I don't know Ray...that's not my impression, or indeed of people I know who have lived there a long time. Superficially parts like the North Laines haven't changed that much I guess, but it feels very different. I think that it's changed pretty radically is widely accepted among people I know. What you think about this depends where you're coming from though. For rich people who have maybe swapped Islington for Brighton, then seeing it go upmarket is a good thing.
Fair enough G, our impressions are bound to be different. I spent a bit of time there a couple of years ago, staying with a friend in Kemptown, but before that hadn't been for fifteen years, after falling out with my mate acid and Frisbee partner Bill, who still lives in Hove. Spent loads of time there in the late 70s to late 90s as had more than one friend there, was dealing. We were druggies, and stayed in at night, and didn't really mix with people other than other druggies, bohos and lowlifes living in rentals, mostly Georgian stuff up by Seven Dials and Hove. And because I never actually lived there, the sense of being by the sea, of edginess (literally), the absurdity of the pavilion, the piers and the beachlife, the gayness, the street art, those louche streets on the walk from the station to the Old Steine – I just didn't really pick up on any gentrification, or social movement, because my Brighton was always about the topography, the possibilities, acid, frisbee and the sea, access to the Downs, and so on.
So we're both right really.
And good luck at our ground tomorrow.
