An interview with Major James Howe

By Sarah Coggrave, Data Protection and Rights Clearance Officer, Unlocking Our Sound Heritage Project. In 1996, Les Back (Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London), interviewed Major James Howe, MBE (1917- 2005), a musician and bandleader who led a dance band in a German POW (prisoner of war) camp…

Recording of the week: The horrors of the long drop

This week’s recording of the week comes from Emma Burman, Learning and Engagement Coordinator. Helena Street, Burnley, Lancashire, 1966-1974 © Heritage Images via Getty Images (1094419358) As a 1990’s baby, I have had the pleasure of never experiencing an outdoor toilet, ‘long drop’ or ‘privy’. I have frequented many a…

Going batty for Halloween

Bats have a long association with Halloween. The most obvious reason for this emerges when we look at another classic character for this time of year, the vampire. As with vampires, bats are creatures of the night, only leaving their roosts after the last rays of sunlight have faded for…

Eddie South – Dark Angel of the Violin

Eddie South in 1946 (The Library of Congress, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons) By Jonathan Summers, Curator of Classical Music For Black History Month in previous years I have written about classical musicians such as Dean Dixon and Cullen Maiden who had to leave the United States for Europe in…

Recording of the week: Go on then, tell me about the duppies

This week’s selection comes from Andrew Ormsby, Audio Project Cataloguer for Unlocking our Sound Heritage. ‘Go on then, tell me about the duppies…’ Made in 1976, at Princess Junior School in Moss Side, Manchester, this recording captures a group of schoolboys talking about duppies, the malevolent ghosts of Caribbean folklore,…