Fiona and Phil have the open ears and curiosity that they had as kids.
They find things by going to look for them. They travel, they go to sampler shows and all-dayers, in search of something they don't know about. One discovery leads to the next. Their internet is a source of information rather than music. They find shape shifting and amorphous scenes inhabited by pools of do-ers and activists, villages of musicians, designers, t shirt people, putting on festivals without name bands or even headliners. There are echoes of counterculture; of Co-ops and communal living, ways of doing things that have risen out of both necessity and nous, a determination to be in control of the vehicle; an insistence on fleshy, real time relations within overlapping scenes; a pleasure in operations on a human scale, with a core audience that is big enough to maintain you and small enough to get to know.
They never miss a support act.
Hi John,
I’ve been thinking about what I’d be interested in chasing via the Reverb project, stuff we’d be able to include other folk in and discover some interesting ideas. I’ve been doodling a first pass at what that content might be - the diagram atttached is a big-picture take. If you think this is where we should be going I’d be happy to refine some questions for each of the 7 areas, though I’m not sure we’d need much more to get folk talking?
Ta Geoff....Meanwhile the oral history project rolls on some of it gets into the writing too, thanks to everyone who has engagaed after reading this stuff, and through the social media links and word of mouth.
Of what we've done, this is one of my favourite interviews....Labour Club “Squatters” Dave Clancy ,Sarah Duffin and Nessa Hughes. Lovely, funny people...
Sarah Duffin.. My mam was involved in the Labour party, so I was there at the opening and at the close, we were at 6th form, going there slightly illegally, and later we worked there as well..I did glass collecting, bottling up... we were very reluctant to work behind the bar...we were better on the other side of it..
David Clancy: I went for an 18th there, uninvited, we smuggled our way in...it was rough as shit...but I went back with Sarah and Ness...., no,the first time I was about 14, there was a Clause 28 meeting going on...
Nessa Hughes. First time I went, I was meant to be in maths. I was 17...I didn't think about the politics.. I just knew I wasn't conservative..we didnt get judged in there......we were called the Zippys, the Squatters..We were the Zippys because we were a bit hippy, a bit goth and a bit of punk thrown in...we had our own little Squatters corner....we had all our records on the juke box, we got to play them for free, we got the pool table for free...they knew we didnt have any money.
S We'd sit there all night with glasses of water, near the jukebox..”play number 125!”
S We were comfortable...it was such a bizarre mix of people...a lot that I remember chatting to were probably in their 50s and 60s, going out for a pint of stout, and I was there with my Robert Smith hair and eye-make up all over the place and they'd be like “hiya Sarah....” and then theyd be arguing with Chatty and the punks...
N I got banned off drinking Newcastle Brown...they didn't ban me, but they'd not serve me a bottle of dog..
S There was Graham and Arthur.. I was on a YTS scheme, on Walney, and Graham used to make me my lunch every day...
S the only trouble was in the upstairs bar...18ths, engagements, christenings...wed work the bar on function nights, you'd get to nine o clock and you'd think...its going to kick off....the only time there was trouble downstairs was the bikers from out of town...they were asked to leave, and they started to chuck pool balls at the optics.
N one of the glass collectors had to hide behind the bar..
S Me and you took up pool cues, didnt we? “We'll protect you...” Some nights we'd be like scowling at the punks...we all had our own little section..but on music nights it was pretty united , just there for the music, even if it wasn't your genre..
N like the Clementines...who'd have thought we'd get into that sort of music, but we became the Clementeenies...it made you go wild on the dance floor...
S Everytime they played we were there...when we got up to dance, everyone else did...especially when they saw what our dancing was like, they'd think..oh I can do that...
N You'd sit inbetween the tables on the floor, round the dancefloor...everyone wanted to be there...
DC it was a place beyond rules...you'd get Hash n Thrash raffling mushrooms...
S The Regal was over the road... we'd leave the club...go in the Regal through one door, do a conga right through it and back to the Labour Club through the other...past some bloke doing “tie a yellow ribbon..”
S That's where we grew up, what we grew up in..
N It was a safe place... It had no beer gardens so wed sit on the ground outside, by the DSS...we spent every spare minute we had there, for no reason...you heard a lot of things... you were exposed to lots of people and personalities...
S 16 year old me , I wouldnt have got interested in poetry and stuff any other way...
DC You were interested in peoples difference, you could celebrate that.
S the people that ran it had a tolerance and acceptance that spread to the people they employed, and the people that came in...
DC it almost didn't need rules. There was no threat.
S it was built on respect...if we got out of hand you'd get a telling and you'd apologise the next day..
DC..when it shut we had to move into a different world......I used to end up getting battered..
N I went out a lot less after that...we lost a community
S yeah, when I moved outside of the labour club I thought mm, I'm not sure I like this
DC I got my nose broke in Eddysons...one of the bouncers, and then he threw me out...to go from the Labour club, your nice little bubble, to that...
N we weren't equipped for it.
DC the last night....that was depressing.
(Bob Spencer: On the last night, the Clems has a revolving dartboard with song titles on it....they'd ask you to throw a dart and they'd play the song... I recorded it, but I missed a lot of the speeches to get the music on...I wish Id managed to get both now.)
N It was day light when we left, the police were there, we were all in tears..
DC why did it shut?
S We should have paid for our drinks...
Thanks, you three.
Anyone out there fancy getting involved? artspacebarrow@gmail.com
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