During the Sixties art became identified with popular culture, provided a critique of social justice in the US and in Europe, was experimental and helped create some of the lasting images of this period of history.  During our fifth session we examined the meeting of Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan in the summer of 1965.  Dylan sat for a ‘screen test’ and left with a Warhol painting strapped to the roof of his car.  

Dylan was becoming a controversial figure at this time making the transition from folk singer to something else.  Warhol, always fascinated by celebrity, may also have been challenged by the mythic qualities evidenced in Dylan’s new material.  Dylan was absorbing Beat poets, symbolists, modern literature in particular the idea of the ‘stream of consciousness’.  He was not only in the process of ‘going electric’ but was re-defining the whole scope and ambition of popular music.  

Warhol was also in the process of changing his way of working.  Film, installation and music production were increasingly the focus of his attention.  The Exploding Plastic Inevitable multi-media event was first staged by him early in 1966.

Dylan visits Newcastle

Before his trip to the Factory Dylan had been on tour in the UK.  On 6th May 1965 he was in Newcastle appearing at the City Hall.  The visit is recorded in the film Dont Look Back by D. A. Pennebaker.  Dylan walks up Pudding Chare, admires a guitar shop window and buys a jacket at Marcus Price in the Groat Market.  Whilst the black and white Dont Look Back has been available since 1967, colour film of Dylan’s second Newcastle visit is much less well known.  Extracted in the narrative of Martin Scorsese’s 2005 documentary No Direction Home (and complete as an extra on the DVD) is footage of Dylan’s final song on the evening of May 21st 1966.  Dylan and his backing band (lead guitarist Robbie Robertson, bassist Rick Danko, pianist Richard Manuel, organist Garth Hudson and drummer Mickey Jones) play Like a Rolling Stone to a seated and apparently stunned audience.  The concert was held at the (now demolished) Newcastle Odeon on Pilgrim Street.  As Dylan flees to a waiting car we hear the first strains of the national anthem, catch a glimpse of the street, the sky and the waiting crowd.

You can find out more about Dylan’s visit here

You can read about the nightclubs of Newcastle here

And there’s a book on the Sixties shopping and fashion scene published by TyneBridge Publishing:

It’s My Life, edited by Anna Flowers and Vanessa Histon

The City Hall, the Odeon and Marcus Price were not the only places in Newcastle to hear popular music and buy the latest fashions. Steve Barrett has an important archive of his brother Peter’s photographs from the mid-sixties.

We’ll continue to Explore the art of the Sixties next season on Monday afternoons starting on the 15th January 2018 with the optical art of Bridget Riley CH CBE.   Find the full Explore programme here.

Come and try the Explore taster event on Tuesday 9th January - find out more and book your FREE ticket here

Peter Quinn

Club Agogo

I was privileged to see many music greats appear here in the 1960s.  There was no arena circuit in those days, it was all in yer face.  The resident group was the Alan Price Rhythm and Blues Combo who as the Animals had much success in the mid 60s with several hits.  We saw John Lee Hooker( in photograph), Jimmy Reed, Eric Clapton with the Yardbirds, Jimmy Witherspoon and loads of the groups who subsequently became rock legends.  Under 18s were restricted to the Young Set but oldies could get into the Jazz Lounge (after an ultra violet stamp on the left hand if I remember rightly).  Half pints of Newcastle Brown (price 2/6d - so expensive ) were my favoured tipple, a big, but necessary, chunk of my student grant.

My first Newcastle music venue was the Downbeat Jazz Club near Carliol Square.  I was too young for most of the time it operated but the MC5 ( with Mike and Ian Carr who became top modern jazz musicians) were the star attraction.  I went for the RnB.

New Orleans Jazz Club. This was behind the Central Station, not far from the Railwaymen's cafe (Greasy Spoon).  The building is now Sachin's Indian Restaurant.  One of its claims was that it was open 365 days a year.  Wednesdays and Saturdays were the modern jazz nights.  The main band was Mighty Joe Young, a not very mod leader who played guitar, but the band was impressive.  John Walters, trumpeter, became John Peel's main man on the Beeb.  The other guys later became stalwarts of the Newcastle Big Band which featured a young Sting (when he was Gordon before re-branding) on bass.

The Handyside Arcade (1968) was THE place to be seen.  It was on Percy Street where the Eldon Garden is now, just next door to the Agogo.

The Scala Gateshead.  The photograph of the current attraction John Wayne in Rio Bravo was taken in about 2005.  So the chalk must have lasted about forty years as the movie was released in 1960.  They don't make chalk like that any more.

Scotswood Road – this shop was at the south end on Silver Lonnen.  Fork handles must be there somewhere.

The Ginger Beer Factory was knocked down over twenty years ago. It was at the south end of what is now Haymarket Bus Station.

Hazelrigg Pit

One of the last pits in the Newcastle area photographed in about 1965.  It is now a wildlife area frequented by breeding red squirrels.

Steve Barrett

All photographs © Peter Barrett