Black History month is with us (Northampton’s best kept secret ),
Marriage A-la-Mode: The Toilette - Hogarth 1745/6
Hogarth took a Punch like style of editorial to his easel exposing the anomalies & pretentious hypocracies of 18th century (big) Society.
Strangely enough even after 250 years his work has lost none of its poignancy, as we serially elect Governments intent on bringing a wastrel , venal electorate to heel (cuts).
A second striking feature of Hogarth’s work is that he specifically depicts London’s BME population. ( The manservant & the boy) : Simultaneously reflecting the dilemma of their presence and precarious position in the big Society. Strangely I feel more umbilically aligned to Hogarth’s viewpoint, than a packaged millionaire whose experience of real life is through prism of East Enders and IDS.
Moving on swiftly, contrarily, there are several Black History Events happening in Northampton:
Good Hair
Forum Cinema: 20(21)-Oct-8pm Good Hair : Chris Rock’s scary exposé of the Black American Hairdressing Industry (worth several billion dollars): Our very own Alan (naturally coiffed) Howard will give a talk before hand, no doubt explaining the anthropological minutiae of the Weave, Lye, Jeri-curl, Asian imports & that oft heard (Tubes) epithet You can touch anything but not my hair, not to mention the Racoon.
One Community Many Cultures Festival
Northamptonshire Libraries are hosting several One community events this month. An array of diverse events (W.Favell – Turkish Dance & Jah troopers) has a BME genealogy day ( Central Sat.16th) featuring Paul Crooks. Rageh Omaar will be in town (Central Lib. 20th) talking about British Islam (& hopefully why he left the BBC for Al Jazeera). The festival concludes with a Marketplace multicultural extravaganza (Central Sat. 30th 11-4pm).
I’m informed that the Library service is costing about £44 a head, as so few people use it. This will no doubt attract the attention of Council bean counters, adding another nail in the educational coffin, as a good library service is the University for the poor & disenfranchised.
It all began in Pwhelli
It was at Weston Favell Library that a I came across Have Guitars … will Travel, Derrick Thompson’s extraordinary Tome of Northampton’s Beat history (1957-1966): Tracing the emergence of the skiffle bands (aping the imported black american blues) through to the emergence of the Beat & R&B bands.
Saucy Gayeway
Millie lollipops The Descendants - Weedon - 1964
It’s easy to forget that Northampton was an important venue for major pop combo’s and the book is littered with period shots of long lost venues like the Salon, the Gayeway & the New Theatre which featured many famous acts,and cultural classics such as My Bare Lady. The book contains innumerable vignettes of the great & (not so) good of the period, including the sound genius of Joe Meek, who allegedly pinched the name Tornados from Northampton’s The Tornadoes after watching them at a show in Oxford. Focusing on the fortunes of local group The Apex, the narrative weaves an intricate musical nest of interconnections and unequivocally disproves the notion that Bad Hair is an obstacle to success: my one gripe is the lack of a definitive Beat family tree. (For the yuff if you don’t understand Beat, listen to drum sound on The Jam’s Start)
Slippers at bedtime
In the period vernacular TTFN : I’m off to get that free Jeri-curl upgrade: On a serious note as George Michael resumes his slippered role in the big Society , let’s hope the Chilean miners get the same result!
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