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Ipswich

Wheels of Steel

14 March 2013
Dubdog, Ipswich, Music
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Earlier this week I was asked to go head to head on the radio in a song war with a friend of mine Tim Hetherington. Kim Trotter, who hosts the All Things Considered show on Ipswich Community Radio runs a feature called Wheels of Steel, where by she pits two people’s song choices against each other in three categories. When Kim asked if I’d be interested, I jumped at the chance, as I’m always up for a bit of musical competitiveness.

The winner was decided by studio guests, the band Reggae Rainbows, and I think I scraped a narrow win against Tim, 2–1, through bias, as one of my choices was Ken Boothe. You can listen to the show here—the Wheels of Steel feature is about an hour in.

For those without the time, here are the tunes I picked, and their competition, plus the rationale I emailed to Kim to justify my choices.

Best punk song: Shot By Both Sides by Magazine vs Alternative Ulster by Stiff Little Fingers
This was actually my second choice, the first being Boredom by the Buzzcocks from their Spiral Scratch EP. However, as that had swearing in it and not suitable for broadcast at 11am on a Thursday morning, I went for Magazine. Howard Devoto has the best Punk voice ever, (he also sung Boredom, as he was originally in the Buzzcocks before leaving after Spiral Scratch to form Magazine). The lyrics have an outsider spirit which completely fits the original punk ethos, as well as having nihilistic undertones. The fact that Pete Shelley allowed Devoto to take a guitar riff with him when he left the band and use it for Shot By Both Sides completes the circle on this. However, the irony is that Devoto formed Magazine because he didn’t want to be confined to punks’ narrow and reductive aesthetic, so I’m sure he wouldn’t be best pleased with thinking it is thought of as a punk classic.

Best pop song: Prince Charming by Adam And The Ants vs Just Can’t Get Enough by Depeche Mode
The opening guitar strum, the primal screams, and the acoustic riff all set this song up for greatness. And then the lyrics kick in, declaring that no one should be afraid to express themselves. Raising self-esteem and personal pride lies at the heart of this song, and that, in my mind, sends an important personal/political message from the get go. Questioning who has the right to tell anyone what to do, how to dress or how to behave should be at the heart of pop, whether implicitly through dress codes or explicitly through lyrics, and pop has been doing this since Elvis first shook his legs in Memphis in July 1954. My love for this song was reaffirmed when I saw Adam Ant in Ipswich last July, and the sight of pretty much the entire audience, (except for me), do ‘that’ dance, made me smile in admiration at them all as Adam sang ‘ridicule is nothing to be scared of’, probably one of the best pop lyrics ever.

Best sing along song: Everything I Own by Ken Boothe vs Sweet Talking Woman by ELO
This song is sheer emotion—there is something about Boothe’s tender vocal delivery that pulls directly on the heart strings. I have always been fascinated by how he pronounces his ‘H’s on this, which I stupidly emulate when I join in wishing I had such a voice as his. I sometimes wonder whether I just HAVE to sing along to stop myself from sobbing uncontrollably, it is that powerful. It is sung directly to the listener forcing you to FEEL his heartache. And all to a gorgeous Lover’s Rock rhythm to boot. But please, don’t anyone mention the Boy George version, or I’m likely to get very angry.

 

Thanks Kim and Tim, this was great fun.

Image Conference

1 October 2012
Conference, Education, Graphic Design, Ipswich, UCS

The BA (Hons) Graphic Design course at University Campus Suffolk is proud to be hosting Image Conference on 13 November 2012. Speakers will include designer and typographer Jonathan Barnbrook, illustrator and designer Brian Grimwood, Roderick Mills of the Association of Illustrators, and motion director Jonathan Yeo.

Held in the UCS Waterfront Building in Ipswich, the conference will look at where images come from, how they help us to understand the world we live in, as well as reflecting on the potential of images. The conference will co-incide with the UCS Waterfront Gallery hosting a retrospective exhibition of the work of Brian Grimwood, which celebrates the launch of his monograph: The Man Who Changed the Look of British Illustration.

There are three pricing structures for Image Conference: Standard ticket — £30, Studio ticket — £100 (admits 4), and Student discount — £10. Price of admission includes lunch and refreshments.

For more information, and to buy tickets, go to:
www.imageconference.org.uk

Revisitations at Ipswich Art School

7 August 2012
Art, Exhibition, Ipswich
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I’m vaguely ashamed to say that today was the first time I’ve visited Ipswich Art School since it opened as a gallery in 2010 after years of no-one really knowing what to do with it. Tucked in next to Ipswich Museum off a main thoroughfare in Ipswich, it is a marvellous building, purposefully built as an art school, with an amazing glass ceiling in the central atrium that floods the space with natural light.

Brian Griffiths’ Boneshaker. 2003

Currently on display is Revisitations, an exhibition of work from the Saatchi Gallery. The Saatchi Gallery first supported the opening of the Ipswich Art School with work for it’s initial exhibition two years ago, and it is good to see the link continuing. In the current show, I particularly liked Brian Griffiths’ Boneshaker, above, entirely made out of old furniture, and Aleksandra Mir’s Newsroom, made of giant drawings from New York newspapers from 1986–2000 and 2007.

Other highlights include Spartacus Chetwynd’s spooky life-size costumes:

The Lizard, 2004

And Bedwyr Williams’ Walk a Mile in my Shoes, which made Claire laugh out loud several times. Visitors are invited to try on items from his personal size 13 shoe collection.

He provides anecdotes about each pair:

Other artists exhibiting include: David Batchelor, Steve Bishop, Matthew Darbyshire, Tessa Farmer, Guerra de la Paz, and Bedwyr Williams. The show continues until 26 August, and is well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Hipswich

25 June 2012
Event, Ipswich, Music
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Ipswich is having a bit of a surge of cultural activity of late, much to the surprise of many of the locals. Sure, for a few years there’s been hi-brow events at the NewWolseyTheatre and Jerwood DanceHouse, and the chattering classes love it when productions in these venues are mentioned in The Guardian Guide.  Alongside this, the annual Ip-Art Festival also brings a cosy but somewhat parochial Gig In The Park, visual art and performance to the town, and big name acts play the football stadium or big parks throughout the year for the X-factor crowd. But for a town with a growing University, a vibrant FE College and culturally diverse population, Ipswich lacks a musical/cultural scene that many other towns of a similar size take for granted. There have always been a lot of gigs over the years, run on a shoe string and in the back rooms of pubs by music obsessives, but you have to know they are happening and they take a little hunting out for anyone new to the town. I’ve stated much of this before on Dubdog, especially earlier this year when there was a call for an Ipswich Arts Centre, (you can read previous posts about this here). But this week sees the Switch Fringe Festival get into full swing which should hopefully start to redress the balance:

The excitement amongst aged local gig goers is palpable as Switch takes the town by storm with its diverse range of acts and culturally rich itineracy. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing the Sons of Joy play the local Labour Club tomorrow night, supported by Nathaniel Robin Mann of The Dead Rat Orchestra.

While I have my gripes about Switch—I think it has an identity problem, Ipswich already has the (albeit performance art focused) Pulse Fringe Festival to rival Ip-Art, and Switch is happening when most of the university students have gone home for the summer—but I can’t knock it for the effort that has gone into making this happen, and that it has created the sense of vibrancy about Ipswich that it hasn’t had for a while. That has got to be a good thing.

Switch will hopefully fuel others to get up and do something in this town, and that, to me, is the beauty of this little festival. It doesn’t feel like it has been organised by the local town council doing something for the ‘kids’, nor does it come across as something created by a cultural elite desperate to get in the pages of coffee table magazine. So all power to Switch, and thanks to those who are involved for making it happen.

Underway

21 May 2012
Exhibition, Ipswich, UCS

This chair is testament to the fact that there is the construction of an Art & Design Degree Show by students going on around me at work, while I’m trying to get a mountain of assessing done.

University Campus Suffolk Degree Show, featuring work from BA (Hons): Computer Games Design, Dance, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Graphic Illustration, Interior Design and Photography courses.
Public view: 9 June–17 June
UCS, Arts Building, Ipswich, IP4 1QJ

More details and advert to follow.

Bicycle ball

18 May 2012
Cycling, Event, Ipswich

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Gold bikes have started appearing in Ipswich advertising a Bicycle Ball. To celebrate National Bike Week 2012, and as part of Switch Festival, the good people of Ipswich are being invited to take their bike as a partner to an evening of music and performance after a mass cycle ride through the town and along the quayside. It’s all happening on 23 June; more details at Bicycle Ball

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