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A founder-member of various now-legendary Brighton groups of the early 2000s, Thomas White has quietly spent the last 25 years redefining the parameters of what might lazily be called indie rock. Mercury-nominated at the age of 18 with The Electric Soft Parade's seminal Holes In The Wall, signed to Rough Trade at 20 with cult country-punk supergroup Brakes, self-producing solo albums by 24. Throughout all this early activity he would find time to nurture a canny sideline as a session player - work that would see him backing (among others) pop icons Sparks. Over the years White's own work has flourished - first under his own name then as The Fiction Aisle - reaching some kind of chamber-pop denouement on White Magic for Lovers' 2025 debut, The Book of Lies. Recorded and mixed by Thomas in his Hove studio after a period of prolonged writer's block, the album immediately found fans at The Quietus and BBC 6 Music and led to multiple tours across the UK and Europe. White continues a busy schedule as a sideman, currently drumming with experimental rock group Sea Power and London duo The Waeve. For fans of Judee Sill, Elliott Smith, The Zombies, High Llamas, Broadcast.

Richard Phoenix is an artist integrating painting, writing, music and facilitation. Arriving at painting not through formal education but through many years playing in D.I.Y. bands and working within learning disability arts as creative support, these experiences profoundly influenced the way Richard approaches making and thinking about art. Richard is our current Sussex Spotlight artist.