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ADRIAN
FROM PORTISHEAD POPS IN WHEN HE NEEDS A MODULAR SYNTHESISER, AND IT’S
SURELY
THE STUFF OF BRIAN ENO’S
DREAMS
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Here is Sarah Murray. She works with all her passion in the Underfall Yard with a small army of green boiler-suited volunteers to keep the living, working, thriving Yard going. When I took this photo several years ago she was in her old office with hard hat on standby, ready to go off and check building works. Workers were starting the long project of restoring, with Lottery money, the many buildings closed or mothballed at the Yard. Now it has a thriving visitors’ centre, where some of my documentary and landscape photography can be seen on display. What I love about Sarah is that she is always on the go, loves getting into every aspect of engineering and history in this wonderful place; with that hard hat poised, she can be out the door again in a jiffy ensuring the very best for the Yard. When you have a flat white at the café, think on about all her hard work and passion.
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Now a whole new kind of engineering. Sound. Pop over to Stokes Croft and you can have made for you a customised music drum machine from Macro. Go on, you know you want one. Between the Bear Pit and Hamilton House sits this rather normal looking shop, but inside, James (seen here) showed me what these machines can do. Marco (unseen, he is shy) started up the business when this was a record shop. Now it’s a music-mashing, tech-loving hub. Adrian Utley from Portishead pops in when he needs a modular synthesiser and it’s surely the stuff of Brian Eno’s dreams – James tells me that post-Emerson, Lake & Palmer, this kind of technology has been very popular, and bands can come to find a unique sound here. Bristol has had waves of unique music, and Massive Attack, who are nearby, are testimony to that. It’s really amazing to stand here in the shops, a stone’s throw from St Paul’s where the Windrush Generation brought that deep heavy dub and reggae into the music, and see how in these wires and flashing lights the Bristol Sound came to be, and continues to inspire new waves. 32 I BRISTOL LIFE I www.mediaclash.co.uk
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Staying in Stokes Croft there is the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft China. Their attitude is that this area should and will always resist corporate takeover. Their porcelain with upcycled stencils that Chris bought from another of those closing potteries up north is able to turn out huge quantities of hope, and now their beloved cups sit in many a Bristolian’s kitchen. Everything you need to know about the Bristol spirit is here. Take something no one wanted and turn it into something amazing in a way that no one else could have done, Bristolfashion. I’m documenting the work here for a larger project, and expect to see more porcelain wonders. But aside from that, Chris is introducing me to the homeless and travelling community who are supported here in ways that are lacking in other parts of the city. PRSC has water and power available outside its factory so that anyone who needs it can get water and a phone charge without having to ask. Giving hope and a bit of enablement to those who need it most.