Bristol’s Shady Past And Dark Arts

Excerpt from Wiki about Bristol’s underground:

History of the Bristol Underground scene

Bristol has long been a multicultural city. In the 1950s and 1960s there were waves of immigration that made Bristol one of the most racially diverse cities in the UK. This mix included greater access to new strands of music such as reggae. “In 1980, following a police raid on the popular Black and White Café, the St Pauls riots erupted, the first of the decade’s civil disturbances.”

“Around this time, the Bristol underground scene was steeped in punk and reggae influences, and soon embraced hip-hop – and with it the colourful New York-style lettering at the most creative end of the graffiti art spectrum.”[6]

The 1990s was when the scene began to create work of international significance. 1991 saw the releasse of Massive Attack’s Blue Lines, an album which has met international critical acclaim. Blue Lines was named the 21st greatest album of all time in a ‘Music of the Millennium’ poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. Stuart Bailie of BBC Northern Ireland stated that “It was soul music. But it had bold, symphonic arrangements. It featured samples of the Mahavishnu Orchestra … It had funky breaks and an emotional power that was hard to figure. It sounded anxious and lost. But there was a grandeur in the music also. People who came across the record became obsessed, spinning it endlessly.” The release in 2006 of “Live With Me” is proof that the trip hop scene is still capable of producing great work.

Darkness

The Bristol underground scene was characterised by a sparseness and darkness. Bands like Portishead and Massive Attack used sparse sounds – a simple bass line, a vocal and a few other effects, and usually very melancholy lyrics. Banksy also tends to use very few colours, concentrating on blacks and whites and sharp outlines, and often looking at controversial topics such as war.

Separately to this, some writers have talked of an undercurrent of darkness within the City due to its history.[7]

Racial tensions within the City

An article in 2008 in The Telegraph stated that: “Racial matters have always carried a historical resonance in Bristol, a city made affluent on the profits of tobacco and slave-trading. Street names such as Blackboy Hill and Whiteladies Road remain as reminders.”

“It’s a past that we feel equivocal about”, says Steve Wright. “It’s a double-edged thing. There are the beautiful Georgian terraces that we love, but they were built on the profits of slavery. It’s our shady past, and Bristolians are a bit self-effacing, a bit ashamed of it and are quite keen to layer new associations on top of it. There’s always been a defiant, subversive streak in Bristol, and Banksy’s work is very much in that tradition.”[8]

There has often been a slight undercurrent of tension both in the politics and creatively with artists and musicians in the merger of black and white culture. During the 1950s the Bristol evening post carried what many today would consider openly racist articles, warning of the dangers of black bus drivers.

Creative tensions within bands

Some of this tension spilled over into some of the artists creative work. Massive Attack for example were wrought with creative tensions over their 1998 album Mezzanine, which resulted in one of the three core members leaving. Robert Del Naja has described the dark atmosphere within the group: “There was always this tension between control and collaboration. Always… We were just trying to get the job finished… Everything became thinner and smaller. All that warmth being spun into a tiny little thread, then that thread just being cut.”[9]

Most of this is actually quoted from this article about Banksy in the Telegraph.

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