This Friday, 31 January, The Grundy Gallery invites us to open our ears to the music and take a trip back in time through three musical genres. Pogo with Punk, throw down some talc with Northern Soul and throw some shapes in the cathedral of dance with Rave in a Cave.
The Grundy shall be exhibiting an eclectic archive of these musical movements from award-winning artist Matt Stokes with his show, Dance Swine Dance.ย The exhibition utilizes both floors of the gallery, showing a selection of artworks that explore Stokesโs particular interest in musical subcultures, charting the development of this important strain in the artistโs work. Visitors can expect to see a range of historic and contemporary music scenes.
Large screens transform the gallery space, showing short films that capture the essence of these musical movements.ย A journey from Austin, Texas, to the Lake District is on offer as you move from gallery space to gallery space. Vintage flyers and fanzines are among the items on show to enrich the experience. I should point out that as some of these publications are a record of an angry subculture that were often shocking for their time.ย Some strong language and imagery is included; nothing too excessive though.
The exhibition has a number of events linked to it, including an evening with legendary Northern Soul DJs and a night with comedic poet and Northern Soul aficionado, John Hegley. A heads up on those events will follow shortly.
Also on the night, The Grundy is joining forces with contemporary gallery space Supercollider, which is opening its doors to a one night only event: Sasha @ Shaboo. The Cookson Street gallery space is given over to the showing of just one film, but what a film!ย Sasha @ Shaboo, Blackpool, June 1990, is a film documenting a single night during the summer of 1990 at Shaboo, a nightclub on Blackpool Promenade, filmed six days before the opening matches of the Italia 90 football World Cup and 9 months after the Freedom to Party Campaign was launched at the Conservative Party Conference, in Blackpool, by Sunhouse, one of the UKโs most widely publicised Acid House promoters.
For those who remember the heady days of the โsecond summer of loveโ, this film will be a trip back in time, to when Blackpool was a floppy-haired, loved-up, wide-eyed place. For those of you who missed it, the film is a fascinating hand-held snapshot of a time when the promise of the new decade was tantalisingly in reach and revolution seemed possibleโฆ musically at least.
Dance Swine Dance runs 31 January to 29 March at The Grundy Art Gallery, Queen Street.ย Sasha@Shaboo runs 31 January 8-10pm at Supercollider, Cookson Street. For more information about The Grundy go online to grundyartgallery.com, like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter: @GrundyBlackpool. For more information about Supercollider go online to supercolliderhq.org.uk, like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter: @sprclldrprjcts.
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