I went to Jeremy Deller’s procession in Manchester the weekend before last. It was fantastic! Deller’s aim was to represent lots of people who don’t normally figure in civic processions, without breaking the concept of an actual civic procession. We thought it worked really well. Right up History is Made At Night’s street. And indeed Infinite’s – this post is a response to Georgina’s comments on her blog about her end of year show, which is a response to John Eden’s psychogeographical review of it.
Here’s the Guardian’s video:
And another official video about the marchers, including the marching bands – this one performing the Fall’s Hit the North, and the boy racers:
The front of the procession – this one’s just some guy with a phone I think…
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I didn’t video all the bet bits but you had:
– the few surviving Manchester mill workers
– various May Queens
– mobile libraries
– the crowd of goths who hang around a town square with a truck with their favourite local goth band laying
– a 60-strong troupe of Hindu bag pipers in full Scottish regalia (!!!!!!!)
– a collection of boy racers in souped up hot hatches with massive soundsystems, all tuned into a special pirate radio broadcast by the Blackout Crew
– a reconstruction of England’s oldest tea toom
– the African buskers and dancers from the city centre on a flat bed truck performing for the crowd
– best of all, a steel band playing various Manchester hits, especially Joy Division, New Order and Buzzcocks.
It was all absolutely wonderful. It was the sort of thing Sheffield should do.