Coventry Society founder member, Paul Maddocks, reviews the latest exhibition at Coventry University’s Delia Derbyshire Building. Paul writes…..
Last week I visited Coventry University’s Delia Derbyshire Art school building and ‘The Gallery of Living History’.
The current exhibition is called ‘Black Sound – Coventry’. It is easy to find; go to the Cox Street entrance, through the doors, into the main atrium and on your left is the exhibition gallery which has windows onto Cox street. It’s free to visit and is open most days from 10am – 5pm. It opened on 18th January and runs till 28th February 2025.
Co-curated by Lloyd Bradley and Scott Leonard, it is an exhibition of British black music and those who made it, exploring 100 years of creativity and ingenuity to celebrate the players, promoters, producers and punters that shaped the UK’s social history.
Being the home of Two Tone, Coventry is ideally placed to host the event, though Black Sound aims to delve more deeply into the city’s wider black music heritage. It features exhibits tailored to Coventry in addition to those telling the national story.
As part of the wider event, special panel discussion events will also take place during a presentation evening on Friday 7th February (7 – 9pm) and on Saturday 8th February (10am – 6pm), featuring films, talks and Q&As diving into the city’s sound system history, the underground black recording industry, the importance of community spaces and pirate radio.
Visitors will also get the chance to experience live performances from Coventry Youth Orchestra and a number of contemporary artists, including Danniella Dee, one of the founders of Sisters in Dub, Coventry’s first all-female sound system.
The final event of Black Sound Coventry will be the Heritage Collection Day on Saturday 8th February (10am-6pm), encouraging people to share their memories of the city’s black music heritage. Visitors are asked to bring in objects or souvenirs to be 2D or 3D scanned, digitally preserving them for future generations to discover, learn from and enjoy.
Dr Ben Kyneswood from Coventry University’s Centre for Creative Economies will use the Coventry Digital platform to make the scans and the stories people tell available online.
The exhibition covers 100 years of Black music with great names like London-born Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, composer and conductor, best known for the cantata Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.
Listen to this interesting music on – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S05Jd6iH0nI
I found out about Winifred Atwell (1914 – 1983). She was famous for being a boogie-woogie and ragtime pianist. She sold over 20 million records and was the first black woman to top the UK charts, and her ‘The Black and White Rag’, was used as the theme for the BBC2 snooker tournament programme ‘Pot Black’.
Listen this interesting tune on – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k3UPct2cqI
I enjoyed it and it is an exhibition but I need to re-visit as I did not take it all in with the time I had given myself. In the main atrium is a very good cafe and a bank of TV screens which you can sit and see all about the various music artist which are producing music today, its also part of the exhibition. I am delighted that the ‘Gallery of Living History’ has been able to facilitate another aspect of telling the ‘People’s History’ because each of our stories, as contributions, are relevant to the success of the city of Coventry and the country.
