of opportunities to become enmeshed in the fabric of a working-class city with born-and-bred Bradfordians who were characteristically independent strong-minded ‘doers’. Bradford has a long legacy in fostering grassroots cultural forms that blur art, politics and the social. There’s a history of workers movements, including The Chartist Risings and the formation of the Independent Labour Party in the 19th Century. Industry’s need for trade and cheap labour have seen Bradford first in welcoming new communities from Ireland, the Indian subcontinent, and Eastern Europe. These migrants set up their own community centres, pubs and clubs offering endless opportunities for cross- cultural exchange and collaboration. Deindustrialisation and economic decline in the 1970s and 80s decimated the city. But the lack of infrastructure and resources has prompted a collective and collaborative Do-It-Yourself (or rather Do-It-Together) approach, whilst cheap and plentiful space in which to experiment abounds. In Bradford the ‘alternative’ strategies of self-organisation and mutual aid have been the most practical and pragmatic way to get by.
Against this backdrop we find the birth of street theatre and public happenings; The Welfare State International and IOU performance art groups; claimant’s unions and ‘Dole-Q-Discos’ that led to the formation of 1 in 12 Club; the Anti-Racist Alliance and sit down protests against the National Front; Bradford Women’s Action Group; the Gay Liberation Front; the Asian Youth Movement; the Black Future dystopian science fiction film co-produced with unemployed West Indian youths; Topic the UK’s longest running folk club; peace activism and poetry; warehouse parties that became the huge scale people-led Bradford festivals and melas of the 80s and 90s; The Fourth Idea and Black Agenda Bookshops; the boom of the UK hardcore punk and the Asian Underground music scenes. Then there’s the Polish hip hop nights; qawwali music gatherings; arts collectives and queer nights; voluntary run refugee and asylum seeker support groups; spontaneous vigils in support of migrants; Bradford Community Broadcasting 106.6FM; empty shops and market stalls used for socially engaged arts and avant-garde performance; scratch orchestras and commoners choirs; disabled
When I started playing in bands in the early-mid 00s we would do the occasional gig at the 1 in 12. It was of course both a privilege and a rite of passage to play but, at a time when the membership had grown a bit older and audiences were sparse, could feel like community service – something you had to do every so often to keep your punk credentials up to date. In 2008, however, we arrived at a very different 1 in 12 than I’d experienced before. There were swarms of young people, inside the venue and out. And on the bill, instead of a another five noisy-guitar bands, the headline act was a satirical boy band called Pro-Life. It was a joyous, youthful, friendly and utterly bizarre night. Where had this new energy sprung from? It transpired that the young people responsible for putting the night together were literally the next
generation of radical activists: the offspring of the counter cultural community that had grown in Bradford over the past forty years. Many of the key players had come to study at the University on progressive courses including Peace Studies, International Development and Womens Studies. Others like Dusty Rhodes, who went on to set up the radical theatre group General Will, were doing unrelated courses but were caught up in the fray due to the presence of the University’s ‘Fellows’ in theatre, art and ideas including playwright David Edgar. Some studied at the Art College where lecturers including Albert Hunt, Jeff Nuttall, Robert Galeta, Sue Gill and John Fox, and Al Marx got students involved in politicised public art projects like the recreation of the Russian Revolution on the Streets of Bradford in 1967. There were a multitude
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator