Out and About #3
Get ready, it’s been a busy couple of months!
Where to begin? This summer has been manic, both professionally and personally. I’ve been all over the country and done all sorts of exciting things, I’ll try keep it short:
Passion Killers
At the opening of Girl with Sunglasses, I got a call inviting me to compare a gig for the Passion Killers, a punk band reforming and playing live for the first time in 40 years! It was great meeting Harry, Mave and the whole entourage; I made some absolutely wonderful new friends and enjoyed every moment of messing about with the audience. I decided to dress part flapper - part Crow, freaky and eye catching. I’m not sure why, but once I had the idea I couldn’t shake it.
With Mave outside Wharf Chambers
Matty Bovan: Girl with Sunglasses
Images of me have been featured in Matty’s latest publication and recent exhibition, Girl with Sunglasses, in collaboration with Village Books.
Find out more here:
https://villagebooks.co/products/girl-in-sunglasses
I cut my long hair off for the first time in 10 years!
So liberating!
Rebellion Fest
After booking train tickets to meet a friend in Blackpool for Rebellion, our plans fell apart at the last moment, leaving me on a trip to Blackpool to photograph punks on my own. Fortunately, I knew Passion Killers were playing, so I knew I some friends would be in town at least. To my surprise a friend was able to get me a festival wristband, complicated slightly by ‘the professional camera equipment’ I was carrying, so I was suddenly elevated to being the band’s photographer, allowing me entry to the festival! (not before I was pushed out the venue by a member of door staff). I caught Subhumans and Bradford’s own Skeletal Family, Passion Killers were great, my images of the gig were okay. Stupidly I missed the last train home, assuming there’d be coaches running, I was wrong. Thank heaven for mates with campervans!
Leeds Pride
I performed a stand-up comedy gig, Short for Change, at their Pride Special. I saw a favourite Leeds artist of mine, George Storm Fletcher, had decorated Simply Pleasure, an adult shop, with banners “Too depraved to behave” and “The Gays are revolting”. Spent the night partying, caught a kiss or two. A good night all round.
It was also my birthday, here I am about to pour a class of fizz before I fly out the door.
Space2
I joined Space2’s Dead Plant Society on their weekly walk around Killingbeck Meadow. I was hired to provide historical contrast to the regular route, after the success of our 1840s walk last year. I was a 20’s Yorkshire Communist, in Bolshevik dress I told the group of the oncoming revolution and the importance of their plants during The Great War.
London & Brighton
A medical trip down south led me into a mini-holiday hostelling in The South. I befriended a group of Australian Lesbian Footballers on a night out in Soho. My friend Ivy and myself found ourselves in a Camden junk shop surrounded with LPs from our parents’ bands (she’s the daughter of punks; I’m the child of an old rocker). Was disappointed by Brighton, Scarborough’s lesser cousin.
Run of The Mill: Divided Self
We’ve just announced our first project in our new team line-up, Divided Self is an archive project on Wild Willi Beckett. On September the 20th we will be hosting a launch gig to fundraise for the project.
Poster by Ivy Watts.
Liv Hegdes
I’ve been both shot by and shot photographer Liv, our photos will be out soon!
Leeds Civic Trust
Later this week I have two promenade performances/ tours with Leeds Civic Trust walking Leeds city centre in 1965. These sold out within 24h, but we will be working on something similar in the future: so watch this space!
I could go, but I fear you’d never read past this. The gist of this blog: Summer has been busy, fun and joyful. September holds University, a gig and a house move. Wish me luck!
Jude x
