Memories of growing up Bradford in 1970s and 80s in new exhibition

Being Young in Bradford draws on the experiences of six people who grew up in the district during the era’s vibrant music scenes. On display are items from personal collections relating to punk, Bradford bands, sound system DJs, scooters and Northern Soul.

The exhibition is a partnership between Bradford Council’s Museums and Galleries service and the Being Bradford collective. The exhibition was originally planned for Cartwright Hall and is now online, with content including photos, video clips and blogs shared on social media. People are invited to post their own memories of being a teenager in the district, starting with those growing up in the 1970s and 80s.

Johna, Anthony, Gary, Nagbea, Derek and Steve are the original six contributors in the exhibition and have each written a blog and compiled a soundtrack to their youth. Further contributions include Aki, one of the first Asian punks in the district.

Johna talks of how punk changed his life. He saw the Sex Pistols twice in the same week in 1977; the second time was at Ivanhoe’s in Huddersfield, he walked there from Bradford with his friend. It took them three hours and when they got there it was sold out, but Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren let them in.

Anthony recalls moving here as a child and hearing the word ‘black’ in a negative way. Getting involved with Bradford’s punk scene, he sang with bands such as Angelic Upstarts then reggae band Amazulu which supported David Bowie and played the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.

Gary recalls his days working in the radical Fourth Ideal Bookshop, and the start of Bradford’s 1 in 12 Club which had over 1,000 members and organised benefit gigs, festivals and compilation LPs. The club, says Gary, “was formed in an atmosphere of mutual aid and self management and collectively run with a strict no racist, sexist or homophobic policy”. Next year is its 40th anniversary.

Nagbea recalls disco nights at the Mecca where the house band appeared on a revolving stage. He left work in a mill to join Reflex Action, Bradford’s first and possibly only black punk/new wave band. Their gigs included Rock Against Racism and supporting New Model Army at Queen’s Hall. In the early 1980s Nagbea got a record deal with The Word, which played miners’ strike benefit gigs at the 1in12. He hosted the Black Agenda Show on pirate radio station WKLR. He shares memories of Bradford’s first sound system, Conquering Lion, and talks about the African Caribbean community in the district and venues “where people got together to enjoy food, music and community”.

Derek grew up in the suedehead and ‘Boot Boys’ era. He talks of meeting at The Queen’s Hotel before Bradford City home games, where his group were known as ‘townies’, and nights out at the Norfolk Bar, frequented by ‘soulies’. It wasn’t long, says Derek, before lifelong friendships were formed with ‘townies’ and ‘soulies’. Late 1974 at The Queen’s he heard Why Can’t We Live Together by Timmy Thomas on the jukebox. It was the start of Derek’s lifelong love of Northern Soul.

Steve got into scooters by accident - his first cost £30 and was, he says, the best £30 he ever spent. He became a bus conductor aged 18 and went to the Queen’s Hotel after shifts, where he metscooter riders who were into Northern Soul. They created a scooter club called the Night Owls, heading off to Northern Soul all-nighters. They later got into the Mod scene and made use of the city’s secondhand shops, especially Sykes’s Wardrobe.

Abby was one of the district’s first Asian Scooter Boys/Mods. He got into scooters one weekend and it turned into a way of life. He was, he says, accepted “as someone who belonged”.

Aki recalls his family home “erupting like a volcano” at the arrival of punk. He and his brother challenged their Muslim upbringing, wearing ripped jeans, safety pins and dyeing their hair. Aki was in Southern Death Cult at a time when there were no Asian punk musicians on the scene. “Within months we were the hottest property in the music business,” he recalls.

Val tells of how she didn’t fit in until she was part of Bradford’s punk community and went to gigs by the likes of Adam and the Ants, The Negatives, The Damned, The Stranglers.

Ian Beesley was a hippy before getting into rock. After leaving school he worked at Esholt sewage works where he began to take photos of colleagues. With their encouragement, he went to Bradford Art College. Today he’s an award-winning, internationally acclaimed photographer.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Healthy People and Places, said: “This is a fascinating exhibition taking us on the journey of the lives of a diverse bunch of people who grew up in the Bradford district during the 1970s and 1980s. It shows how the powerful music scenes of the time shaped their lives and influenced them.

“Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic we’ve again had to close our museums, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t share this exhibition online through the photographs."

* Did you grow up here in the 1970s and 80s? Share memories @BradfordMuseums Facebook page, using #BYiB, email to rsvpcartwrighthall@bradford.gov.uk. Visit bradfordmuseums.org

To contribute a spoken recollection email byib@bcbradio.co.uk