The visual, auditory and written multiverse of Dr Simon Strange
I am part of a fantastic line up of presenters, exploring the intersection between art and punk, on the afternoon and early evening of Wednesday 20th March at University of the Arts London (LCC campus – Elephant and Castle). It will be dynamic and exciting, intellectually stimulating and with some punk academic attitude.
https://www.arts.ac.uk/whats-on/torn-edges-punk,-art,-design,-history
In 1983 I left school for college and embarked on an adventure to the South of France, with my band mates Hoedown at Hanks in legendary Transit van The Cow, hub caps designed like Newcastle Brown bottle tops. In music worlds other things were also occurring…
Pop critic Paul Morley talks about 1973 as an iconic year within both classical and popular Western music worlds, with releases from Roxy Music to Steve Reich to Bach (?). Our Covid19 neighbour and friend downstairs Matt Davies, alternatively sees 1983 as the most vital year for music. Billy Jean has got your number walking down the pathway, ligting up dancefloors across the globe up. The three members of the Thompson Twins have love on your side whilst in rural Bath, UK the Roman Baths echo to the pain of Tears for Fears. Sweet Dreams and Let’s Dance are two iconic tracks that are played as much today, with the Eurythmics track the theme to the Women’s football world cup in Australia. We come from the land down under, where women glow and men plunder. Still true indeed Louis Rubiales. If you ever get a song stuck in your head, known as an earworm, then listening to a few bars of Karma Chameleon will sort you out. Looking forward, Prince was yet to be symbol but he could predict the millennium bug. Rip it up by Orange Juice. Everything Counts for Depeche Mode, introducing a new synthesised aesthetic to pop worlds, taking the sound of underground electronica into the hit parade. A youthful madame Ciccone was having a Holiday in Club Tropicana with George and friends. This Charming Man, True, Let the Music Play on New Years Day. I was young, Too Shy Shy, hush hush to be much of a Love Cat, Oblivious that Love is a Battlefield. Wow what a year, where the scenius was popular music in general, an epoch where a combination of scenii interact, snowballing Over and Over, a year where popular culture turned to Gold.
Hoedown at Hanks off to le sud be France
So its 2024, another year over, another year starts, but really its just another day, sunrise, do stuff, sunset. The mid winter break (if you get one) allows the chance to rset, to think about those things which you want to concentrate on, to change old habits, bring in new ideas, start afresh from a Blank Canvas (™). I am lucky in that I am happy with my life so my main wish is for continued health and happiness, some resolution to world conflicts, action towards halting climate change, a Labour government, new patio (not like Fred/ Rose), the chance to go to conferences in Copenhagen, Philly and Porto, travel to Vietnam, see more of my kids and be just a little bit more famous.
New Years Day started well on my mission, with the Lyme Lunge, a beautiful site of 1200 people in fancy dress dipping into the ice cold water of Lyme Regis, Dorset. The local press loved taking pictures of friend Steve and myself, our outfit garnished with 2024 futuristic glasses. An easy image to summarise the new year. So far this year I am having an article written about my first book (Blank Canvas), have had some music played on Radio Wigwam and have finalised some amazing acts for the Sidmouth International Jazz and Blues festival. Exciting times ahead. I hope everyone has had a great start to the year, enjoy the increasing amount of daylight and the opportunities a new dawn brings.
I am really excited to have a chapter in this beautiful book that celebrates the work of renowned UK minimalist composer Gavin Bryars. The book really explores the impact Gavin had on the music industry, initially with Brian Eno and other artists who formed the ambient and experimental early popular/ classical music crossovers. As a celebration of his 80th year, this is an exploration of the creative life of an iconic and great bloke.
My chapter looks at his connection between art and music, exploring the innovative teaching methods he used at Portsmouth and Leicester art schools in addition to the formation of the incredible Portsmouth Sinphonia.
A perfect christmas present for your cultured family member and/or friend
So its that wonderful time of the year when top 10, 20, 50 lists are compiled by all and sundry, books, albums, tracks, exhibitions, TV programmes, films etc.. Culture laid bare by the usual protagonists. In my world of popular music culture the lack of diversity and retrospective nature of the so called music books of the year I find staggeringly depressing. Topping the Times list is the alternative mainstream funk of Sly Stone, sound interesting to me, but the rest include tombs on Madonna, Bowie, the BeeGees and Barabara Streisand. OMG. Surely music books of the year should not be so biographically in the past and mono cultured. There is a whole other array of music writers and publishers that the regular mainstram of White Rabbits, Faber, Rough Trade have a slightly more eclectic mix, including Jeremy Deller’s Art is Magic, although it does include Rick Rubin’s rambling rough ruminations on creativity. He aint no Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi that.s for sure. Too many male authors too, lads talking about lads in bands. Boring. Atleast Audrey Godden’s reconstruction of Factory Records hits many a list. Whatever year final retrospective you view there is a lack of black identified music genres including grime, jungle, reggae, or global music outpourings around South American, Asian, or African music cultures. Music is also of the hear and now, not just for getting back to the Beatles and their ilk.
Just before the onset of those traditional festivities where families argue or try and flick an After Eight from forehead to mouth without using fingers, I am speaking about connections between punk and jungle music genres at the wonderful Punk Scholars Network conference.………
Punk is timeless and extends beyond the year zero late 1970s definition and identification in which it is commonly held. In connecting to other time points and genres I interpret jungle as a genre which combines many of the same elements, reflecting on the wider connotations of punk, stepping into the Hardcore Continuum identified by music journalist Simon Reynolds which led through techno, jungle, drum and bass, dubstep, and grime.
Key elements of punk and jungle show equivalence: DIY, creative emancipation, postmodern eclecticism of genres, dole and squatting, technological shifts, subcultures, resetting the music landscape, minimalism, anyone can be a musician, pirate radio, delivering an original sonic difference. Visual arts also played a key role as jungle initially connected with graffiti whereas punk defined new fashion, emerging from Dada and art inspired spaces. Punk and jungle resonated sonically, music that is dynamic, danceable, and fluttered speaker membranes.
Every scene, or scenius (the genius of certain scenes – thanks Brian Eno), cooperative genius needs a key instigator to push it forward so within punk, managers Bernie Rhodes and Malcolm McLaren forged the scene whereas jungle was led by its musicians, specifically Goldie or Roni Size in London and Bristol respectively. Community spaces including key venues, rehearsal and recording studios also supported and defined both scenii (scenius in plural), from the Roxy to the Blue Note.
Acknowledging the punk continuum in preceding genres such as jungle, reduces retrospection and highlights future punk infused possibilities for popular music scenes related to inner city modern life.
Come along, its the most fun you can have in any conference anywhere ever!
Gradually we descend through the blustery moments of autumn hoping to arrive within the warm embrace of log fires, nights in and out, fluffy socks, pipe and slippers. A time to dive into creative pursuits to fight off the dark (k)nights. About a year ago I excitedly released my first book Blank Canvas, containing musing on creative development alongside a wonderful array of interviewees such as Brian Eno, Pauline Black, Bill Drummond, Stephen Mallinder, Gina Birch, Helen McCookerybook, Lester Square and the dearly departed Keith Levene. It has been great seeing its journey into the world.
Every morning through 2023 I have woken by 6am at the latest and furiously tapped away for an hour each day, conjuring up my next book Resonance. It is a semi autobiographical frolic through music scenes, using the concept of scenius (collective genius) as a lens. It’s currently a mash of ideas, thoughts, pages of autonomic writing, exploring individual to collective creativity. I always get over excited as I develop creative products, so I need to calm down and take a steady path to the finish line.
Here is a little snippet:
Resonance is a story of collective success through individual failure, where my own role petered out but the collective force continues to resonate and scenes run on. The genius of the Love – did did, do do did did. I’m going to have some fun. Fun lots of fun. And I did fail many times. Pulling apart the bellows of accordions through over vigorous activity, desperate to be heard. Playing a battered trombone which had more dents than tubing. Spending a month in a Southern Spanish villa where there was only local English cuisine available, rehearsing diligently parts for a new album which would all be completely scrapped on our return to Paris. Trying to synch multiple ADAT digital tape machines, time stretching over night, selling dodgy grey market synths on Charing Cross Road. I was working for a camping company based in Hemel Hempstead when I saw a small advert in the middle of a page in Loot, the ads paper of choice, looking for a hi-fi installer. I whizzed down to London, got offered the job, given a brand new silver Astra van, and was soon installing tech stuff for the rich and famous. Sultan of Brunei, Rodney Trotter, Bros, Pamela Bordes and Princess Diana. I am terrible at DIY and managed to place a Bang and Olufsen flat speaker on one of her walls, walk gently away and it crashed to the floor, ripping its brackets out and leaving a great gash. We quickly left. The company (Le Set) went out of business soon after. Hi-Fi was big business in the 1980s. People bought high quality boxes and spent fortunes on ever shorter cables, hoping to experience every nuance of sound that recording studios imparted. Listening for pleasure, placing your favourite seat equidistance between your KEF or Quad Electrostatics. The Linn Sondek, imperfect perfection. Sound quality was universal, something to seek out and aspire to. I’m not sure our latest mp3s can remember those times.
Blank Canvas can be purchased directly from the wonderful people at Intellect publishing or through all good retailers.
https://www.intellectbooks.com/blank-canvas
https://www.pagesofhackney.co.uk/webshop/product/blank-canvas-simon-strange/
Synergy and serendipity are key elements of creative development, where working together and chance combine, natural energies allowed to collide so that ultimate experiences emerge. My book Blank Canvas, relates to coming from an empty space where previous learning doesn’t affect outcomes. This is a space where synergy and serendipity can be allowed to foster. Synergy can be defined as when the collective whole is greater than what could be achieved just by individual parts. Synergy connects to flow, a collective natural magic where everything just fits into place. Don’t you have those days when everything seems to work perfectly. You wake up, the weather is beautiful, your body feels great, you hug your partner, the morning light sifting through creates beautiful patterns. You gaze through the kitchen window to see the sun rising out of the flat calm sea which is starting to glow and has a lovely deep blue hue.The coffee machine is ready, there are lots of berries in the fridge, the news on the radio is uplifting. It’s a Friday morning, best day of the week. You have time to sit and write before going for a gentle run to the beach and diving into the still deep blue water. You win toward the gradually rising sun with a few other early birds happily swimming along. Somedays it all fits into place. Collective synergy is about alliance, coming together as one. Music composition has a synergy in that as you develop a piece it starts to gather a natural flow if you allow it. You might start with your main melody, riff or rhythm but working on certain parts then informs the next. Like knocking the first skittle over in bowling, you don’t know what kinetic effect this will have on the rest of them until their energy is transferred. I was just writing about flow and then on Doodle up pops a picture of Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi. Happy 89th birthday Dr Flow. Serendipity.
When Femi Koleoso from Ezra Collective collected the Mercury Music Prize for 2023 he thanked the support and inspiration of Tomorrow’s Warriors. They are an education organisation, not a school or college, who support underrepresented jazz musicians, nurturing them from early teens through to mid 20s. They have had 9 Mercury Music prize nominees including Moses Boyd, the Comet is Coming, Sons of Kemet, SEED Ensemble and Nubya Garcia. All musicians who come through TW have a free education, supported by crowd funding and sponsorship.
A couple of current projects include combining electronic producers with jazz musicians who breakdown silos of music style and thought. They are also interested in bringing jazz to rural areas across the UK, having just completed a successful project in Devon. In 2024 we are hoping to bring TW to the Sidmouth Jazz and Blues festival to bring the story of jazz to the countryside. All hail the warriors.
Article in the Observer paper which uses Blank Canvas and art schools in the title. Is it plagiarism or just obvious? Anything which discusses their importance and inter connection is great
