Punk Culture Newcastle retrospective show at NCA Contemporary Art on High Bridge Street

Punk Culture Newcastle has re-surfaced and presented itself into a showing at the NCA (Newcastle Contemporary Art gallery) based on High-Bridge NE1 6BX. The punk culture Newcastle exhibition showcases fanzines, photographs ( Chris Killip) and punk music memorabilia dating back to the late seventies and early eighties. The exhibition focuses on three main areas of interest, which were – ‘The Station’ ‘The Garage’ and ‘The Bunker’. The public exhibition was collated and presented by ‘The Tyne and Wear Youth Music Collectivism’ and ‘Sunderland’s Music Collective’

‘The Station’ ‘The Bunker’ ‘The Garage’

In the early 1980’s, Punk culture in Newcastle was thriving and residing in three main areas of alternative music interest, which were The Station the Bunker and The Garage.

The station was situated in Newcastle/Gateshead and formed a band practice rehearsal room for musicians to play and perform their alternative music in the north East.

The Bunker – The original venue was situated in Borough Road, Sunderland, then moving to different locations around the area.

The Garage – I believe, was situated at The old Police Social Club on Swinburne Street, Gateshead, Newcastle.

Glue-Sniffing Punks

Upon seeing a poster at the entrance of the NCA exhibition stating – ‘No Glue’ No glass bottles’ I began to remenise of a not too distance past of ‘punks’ and ‘Skinheads’ sniffing glue in Newcastle’s city centre. This was common place, I presume across the country, where young musicians of the punk genre would meet up and sniff glue from blue paper bags. This activity, was also synonymous with anti-social behaviour, and trying their best to mimmic a scene from the 1979 Walter Hill movie – ‘The Warriors’. Of course, not all punk musicians were like this, but going from my own childhood experiences and actually accounts from older boys, this was fact. Plain and simple.

The Waygood Gallery. Funding Refused.

It was a great revelation to me that once inside the NCA Newcastle Gallery I began to realise I had maybe seen this place before somewhere? Somewhere in a magazine or website . . . “ah yes, The Waygood Gallery” If anyone cares to remember, this optimistic public space was intended for the North East creatives and artists. Unfortunately, this did not happen. On closer inspection, this arts funded high Bridge Street ‘project’ was running £6m over budget and five years overdue, with senior ‘management’ talking absolutely no responsibility for their actions. The ‘pulling of the plug’ was eminent.

A report from from the Arts Council and Newcastle City Council read something like : Those in charge did not have skills needed to manage a multi-million pound revamp. This was another example of arts funding in Newcastle upon tyne being wasted by ‘artists’ with no management skills or strategic project experience.

At that time the Waygood Gallery was situated in the Harkers Building, Byker, and this was when I first met the people from the Waygood Gallery, and I could tell you then – once I got past the stench of ‘middle class privilege’, these guys were milking it for every penny ! Hooray ! Yah Yah ! Drinks all round, Yah !

If you would like to watch the complete walkthrough of this unique alternative punk gallery show, visit this link – peep® Newcastle Contemporary Art PUNK CULTURE Retrospective full walk- through