Misremembering the 80s
A new Tate Britain exhibition purports to display the photography of the 1980s. In its rooms, that decade has never felt longer.
14 Articles by:
Ben Thompson
Ben Thompson is a critic and ghostwriter, and the host of The London Ear on Resonance FM.
Val Wilmer: ‘I Want to Tell a Story About People Striving to Create’
Legendary writer and photographer Val Wilmer sits down with Tribune to discuss her five decades documenting the greats of blues and jazz — and the politics and philosophy behind her work.
Modernism’s Tropical Turn
Modernist architecture in India and colonial West Africa may have been introduced by jobbing English architects, but new generations of local architects quickly made the style their own. A new exhibition at the V&A tells the story.
Back to Black
The British Library’s new Beyond the Bassline exhibition is an ambitious attempt to showcase five hundred years of black British music — but fails to do this rich history justice.
Ghost in the Machine
Chris Blackwell’s memoir of his life between Jamaica and Britain is attuned to the uses of a posh accent in the post-colonial music industry.
‘Don’t Tell Me Punching Nazis Ain’t the Way’
‘Grime-punk’ duo Bob Vylan talk to Tribune about Margaret Thatcher, Jimmy Savile, and the importance of pissing people off.
Remembering Greg Tate
Celebrated critic Greg Tate passed away earlier this month. His music writing contained multitudes, mixing together politics, poetry and theory – and earned him renown as the ‘godfather of hip-hop journalism’.
When Hobsbawm Went Jazz
The British left of the 1950s eschewed modern jazz in favour of folk and trad – but Eric Hobsbawm bucked the trend, writing a secret music column about the radical potential of ‘jazz solidarity.’
Space Is the Place
Four new books show the emergence of a new tradition of London music writing, which swaps myth and hyperbole for the poetry found in harsh political realities.
Memories of a Punk Poet
Poet John Cooper Clarke’s memoirs are an addictively readable set-text of a drug-fuelled, working-class and autodidactic life.
No Time to Wallow in the Mire
Mike Davis and Jon Wiener’s history of Los Angeles in the 1960s can sometimes feel as long as the decade itself, but is a monumental and moving tribute to a heroic, violently suppressed moment of possibility.
Lives in Sound
New books by veteran music writers Ian Penman and David Toop show that, at its best, there is no higher category than music journalism.
Municipal Memories
London’s 1960s new town, Thamesmead, is remembered in a new book. A former resident wonders what went wrong, and where.
Still No Black in the Union Jack?
Historian and philosopher Paul Gilroy gives a critical assessment of racial politics in Brexit Britain.