Friday 21 August 2009

Iron Masks

Skinningrove 2003. Saltburn artist Andy Broderick and local young people use driftwood and ocre (ironstone waste) to make masks.

Wednesday 19 August 2009

Jez Lowe Fans (aren't we all?)

I thought I would write a story for all the Jez Lowe fans that have stumbled across this blog and found a song by Jez they haven’t heard before. The director of the film Demonstration Day, Neil Scarth, was friendly with Jez, and asked him to write the film’s theme song. Jez was not familiar with East Cleveland towns and had originally written, “In every town from Skelton to Brotton” I pointed out to Neil that Brotton was only about a mile from Skelton, and “Eston to Brotton” would sound better, so when I am being mischievous I tell people I am a co-writer of Cleveland Iron. One of my photographs shows one of the young stars being interviewed by Luke Casey, a reporter from the local news programme Look North. At that time the show's presenter Mike Neville and weatherman Bob Johnson used to do a bit of a double act, so at the end of Luke’s film Mike said to Bob “that’s the way to teach kids history” and as every Jez Lowe fan should know, "If Mike Neville said it then it must be true."

Jez Lowe & The Bad Pennies at the premiere of Demonstration Day. Middlesbrough Town Hall. 15th September 2004