Typography & design by
Richard Wolfströme

Exhibition and installation
by Standard 8

Website
Words William Shaw
Design Richard Wolfströme
Publishing consultant Adrian Driscoll

An Unmadeup Production

Tom feels instantly light-headed, dazed by the horror of the moment

Outside Pressure Point, 33 Richmond Place

Tom is excited, happy. The summer is just getting underway. He steps off the train from Hastings, baseball cap on his head, skateboard under his arm, looking forward to the evening. He hasn’t been in Brighton for weeks.

On the longboard he weaves past pedestrians, quickly gathering speed down Trafalgar Street. It can be a bit hairy, the way cars come round corners there. At the Steine he turns south, heading for Pressure Point where he’s meeting his friends.

As he rides up, he can see them standing outside in the early darkness. He wonders why they’re not inside. A mate turns, catches his eye. From that look Tom knows already something is terribly wrong.

It’s Max. He’s sitting on the pavement, back against the brick wall, holding both hands up to his face, friends crouching either side of him. There is some blood on his hands and shirt – surprisingly little, considering, and big dark lines on his face where the skin has been so badly cut. Max is holding his own
face together.

"What happened?" "He was glassed."

"Jesus Christ. You alright?" But Max is silent, oddly calm in his shock.

Tom feels instantly light-headed, dazed by the horror of the moment. Others around him seem the same; nobody is saying much.

"You called an ambulance?"

"It’s on its way."

It’s only when the ambulance arrives, a few minutes later, and the medics start tending to Max that Tom asks what happened. It was over nothing. They’re all friends from the free party scene. Max had asked this guy they all knew to buy him a drink. The guy just went psycho and glassed him. Nobody can believe it.

The police are cordoning off the area now, asking a few of them questions.

After they take Max away in the ambulance, Tom drifts down Grand Parade with some of the others. Shock is turning to anger. "He wants to confront this person he can’t even put a face to. As they walk he’s talking, talking, talking, unable to understand how this violence has gatecrashed their circle of friends.