The Chauffeur For The Beatles

My Grandad John is a very private person. A recent Widower he now lives alone spending his time taking photos and saturating in himself in his main passion, photography.
Get him at a family gathering with a glass of wine though, and the stories start flowing. Always off the record, private stories just for us.

John writes poetry and is in the process of writing his memoirs. He's had many adventures spanning many careers. Personally I always like to ask him about his time with the Beatles. He plays it down just calling it 'another job'. He has so many amazing tales that may never see the light of day due to the subject matter. John is a very honourable man and I imagine he will take many of these amazing tales to his grave. Sometimes he finishes a story with "..and that story never made the papers.. Only me _____ and the police know about that".

Fascinating stuff.

Anyway, today I took John aside for a few moments and asked him a couple of questions. Nothing probing, as I knew he was on the record very reluctantly.

Maybe i'll ask John to share more. Perhaps he will let me see his memoirs from this time. I am mainly interested in the truth and tales around the phenomenon that became the Beatles. Their story was honed, polished and drip fed to the press. John and the others that supported and worked with the Beatles hold the raw truth. They really know what happened.

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Tech-no-harp

Another last minute VloMo09 blog entry.. I really wanted to play harmonica in the shower. It's a ritual I have in all the hotel rooms I frequent.

I turned my bag upside down though and with all the tech i have packed.. all the cameras, the power, the leads, the solar devices, the gps trackers and the tool.. I aparently didn't pack my harmonica.

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Watch This Space

Yesterday (actually only a few hours ago) I was at Urbis for the opening night of a Hip Hop Exhibition called 'Home Grown'.

I met some great people, had some amazing conversations and grabbed some moments in photos, film and audio.

It's gone 2am here in my Manchester hotel room and I have been browsing some of the images and viewing some of the online conversations around the event.

I thought it was a great exhibition creating a window to a scene I am visiting only now. I could tell from the expressions and conversations from people revisiting this time that It was a job well done. Flashbacks were had. Memories allowed to flood back and friends reacquainted.

I'll name some of the photos, encode some of the video and no doubt drop the various bits and bobs online in the next few days.

If you are anywhere in the UK or have an interest in the history and origins of the UK Hip hop scene, please go visit the Urbis in Manchester before March..

Otherwise.. Watch this space.

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Home Grown Hip Hop

                                 

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Home Grown: The Story of UK Hip Hop

This Wednesday the 14th of October I'll be heading up to Manchester to the Urbis in Manchester for the launch party of 'Home Grown: The Story of UK Hip Hop'.

From the Urbis Website:

"Looking back over three decades, the exhibition tells the story of how a generation of youth took the spirit of the  Bronx block party and fused it with their own uniquely British influences. In doing so it shows how a US subculture featuring art, politics, rhyme, dance and music was adopted, adapted and embraced to create a powerful, complex, cultural force, this side of the
Atlantic.

 Working with the UK's most influential figures in Hip Hop the exhibition brings together the rare, remarkable and irreplaceable in Hip Hop photography, music, film and fashion from the best private collections."

I'm quite excited about this. Not just because my entire knowledge of UK hip hop could be written on the back of my ticket and I'm eager to learn more. But also because I have been given full access & invited to document and capture some of the conversations that occur on the night.

In addition to my feeds please follow Caroline at @CarolineUrbis the Urbis itself at @UrbisManchester and look out for our collective content as it's posted to  http://urbis.posterous.com/

More info on the exhibition here.. http://www.urbis.org.uk/page.asp?id=3340

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Beaver Wax

I've been in a few bands over the years. Some never left the bedroom recording studios they were born in. One hit the decks of the late great John Peel and others toured the UK bars and Uni's brushing dangerously with the possibility of becoming something.

I was just trawling through an old photo folder and found a mock up image for an album cover than never got made. 'Beaver Wax' were formerly (and i think latterly) called Reptile Sounds and after the death of one of it's members we drifted apart.

Here is the image and one of our unfinished track's I found on my hard drive.

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Not Dead Just Sleeping #longplayer

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Here all day

 I imagine people may well be fed up of all the #Longplayer tags that are flying around my feeds. It is difficult to get across just how amazing this place is.. The conversation, the soundtrack, the questions posed that may never be answered. Time is flying by. This is the first time this composition has been played live. I am sure it will happen again but I can't think where. Surely nowhere can be as suited to this sculpture made of Tibetan bowls as the Roundhouse..

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Music

                             

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