Thursday 24 November 2022

Wilko is Going Back Home

So Wilko Johnson has finally gone to the great Oil City above. As a teenager I loved reading about Dr Feelgood in Sounds, with the band described as dressing like "out-of-work accountants" and listening to the live album Stupidity in the era of Yes and Pink Floyd. And I  saw Wilko Johnson's Solid Senders play a great set while at Lancaster University in 1980. 

Then there was his revival with the film Oil City Confidential in which he showed us his telescope and described looking from Canvey at the flares from the refinery, which were like, "something out of Dante's Inferno." I saw Wilko play at Canvey Island and wrote about it in my book The Joy of Essex in 2012. Plus there was his memorable role as a mute executioner in Game of Thrones and his wonderfully philosophic attitude to having cancer. A great guitarist and true Essex eccentric, let's hope Wilko is now standing down by the jetty.

Tuesday 15 November 2022

Billericay Dickie

Enjoyed appearing on the Ben Fryer show on Radio Essex last week to add my opinion on supermodel and entrepreneur David Gandy telling the Daily Telegraph that he wanted to take his birthplace of Billericay off his passport. The show played segments of Ian Dury's Billericay Dickie and Gavin and Stacey of course to emphasise the town's place in modern culture. 

Does David not realise that Billericay now has a Waitrose? I mentioned the bluebells of Norsey Woods, the Peasants' Revolt, Billericay Brewing, Lake Meadows and the Chequers pub among other Billericay contributions to the world. And also that Adrian Chiles' thought having a regional Brummie accent was an advantage as people underestimated him and were surprised by anything vaguely clever he said — the same surely applies to Essex. Gandy is not a bleeding thickie and he's doing very well, for which he should be thankful.

Friday 28 January 2022

Culture wars over Essex

Good piece by Gaby Hinsliff in the Guardian today where she argues, "Give me the cheeky Essex that I Iove over a snobby rebrand." She's referring to Essex County Council's new campaign to emphasise the county as the home of Boudicca, the Peasant's Revolt, Michelin-starred restaurants and fine wineries. Which is all very true, but as I argued in my book The Joy of Essex, there will always be two sides to the county, estuary Essex with its East End overspill, and the posher villages and towns to the north. 

Should Essex ditch the Towie image? It's all sparked a (lack of) culture war. The Sun also covered the debate and PR guru Mark Borkowski made the point: "There’s no denying the cultural — and, I’m certain, economic — impact of Towie on Essex’s fame. For me, the ideal campaign would acknowledge these positives, even use them to introduce lesser-known facets of Essex, rather than using Towie as a sacrificial lamb.”

Discerning visitors surely know that Essex isn't completely vajazzles, though that side of the county can't be disinvented. Just as Upminster boy Ian Dury could indulge in clever wordplay yet also start Plaistow Patricia with a barrage of swearwords, high and low culture can mix. The artist Michael Landy had it right in his Welcome To Essex exhibition at Firstsite in Colchester last summer, where he celebrated lowbrow Essex with high art. 

The PR campaign is well-meaning but you can't air-brush out dodgy Essex. As Gaby Hinsliff writes: "My Essex is a pancake-flat, dead ordinary hunk of East Anglia that has ingeniously vajazzled itself up into something much more interesting by leveraging the idea of Essex as a cheeky, sexy, loudly inappropriate cultural and economic phenomenon... How do you reinvent a place that has already reinvented itself in ways no other county would dare? Try it, and the joke’s on you."