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Issue 15 – Autumn / Winter 2016 Birmingham – second city or second rate? / The Argos catalogue: a history 25 pages of men’s style / Drivers in the 1980s / The truth about GPS Europe’s best-dressed pensioners / Salford Lads Club / Failed brutalism
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Umbrella: now available in print Order your copy here for just £6 The latest issue of Umbrella features: 33 pages of winter style, favourite city crests, Oslo: a city undergoing change, the new wave of maps, UK cycle hire report, a history of British youth fashion‌ plus lots more. All for the price of a pint (in certain London bars).
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Manifesto
Welbeck Street NCP Car Park, London Picture: Matt Reynolds
What’s the true second city of England? Birmingham or Manchester? It’s a difficult one to answer. That’s why in this issue we’ve put Birmingham under the microscope: examining everything from its architecture to the quality of its media. Read the report on page 38 and make your own mind up. Other highlights include our 25-page men’s style section, a history of the Argos catalogue and style lessons from Europe’s best-dressed OAPs. Enjoy.
Editor
Tony & Matt, London, autumn 2016
Issue 15 AW 2016
On the cover
Anthony Teasdale tony@umbrellamagazine.co.uk
Creative director Matt Reynolds matt@umbrellamagazine.co.uk
Staff writer Elliott Lewis-George
Contributors
Contributors
Adrian Callaghan Peter O’Toole Alexandra Haddow Don G Cornelius
Online Dan Nicolson dan@umbrellamagazine.co.uk
Commercial manager Jon Clements advertising@umbrellamagazine.co.uk
Printed by Buxton Press
Distribution MMS
Contact
Elliott LewisGeorge Mancunian Elliott has been with us since Issue Two, so it’s with heavy heart we bid him farewell as he moves to Vancouver. He’ll still be part of the staff, but from now on our chats will be via Skype rather than over a pint.
John Mason
Tayler Willson
Andrew Emery
The writer of our feature on Birmingham’s architecture studied Geography, Planning and Urban Studies at the Universities of Cambridge and Vienna. He’s now a planning consultant with Carter Jonas in East Anglia.
When Portsmouth man Tayler’s not writing words for people you may or may not have heard of, he’s feeding his unhealthy obsession with footwear. In this issue, he goes to Portugal to discover Clarks offshoot brand Vivobarefoot.
Andrew first came to attention as one of the editors of FatLace, the pioneering (ie, funny) ’90s rap fanzine. Despite being in his 40s, ‘Drew Huge’ has written about his obsession with hip-hop T-shirts in this issue. The lesson: don’t grow old, kids!
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No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission. Every effort has been made to contact and properly credit copyright holders – please contact us regarding corrections or omissions. Printed on paper from sustainable sources. To stock Umbrella please contact info@umbrellamagazine.co.uk UMB028
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Contents
Issue 15
Editions 06 Pressing matters
Field trip 24 Peak practice
A look at Vinyl Factory Limited Editions
Cycling’s most daunting climbs
08 News
28 Imperfect world
New TGVs for France; WWII bomb-damage book
The triumphs and failures of modernism, as seen by Nicolas Grospierre
60 Old masters Style tips from EU pensioners
84 Our favourite thing
Punk writer Paul Gorman
34 Dublin distilled
62 Road rage
86 Outfits
12 Recipes
Umbrella visits the Irish capital for a shot of whiskey and a chaser of culture
Drivers in the 1980s
Five looks for AW 2016
66 Life at the bottom of the bottle
96 World class
38 Birmingham: second city or second-rate?
A tale of alcoholism
10 The Umbrella-ist El Gato Negro, Manchester
14 Column On class confusion
16 Column Salford Lads Club
18 Q&A
In-depth report on the West Midlands capital
Greg Milner on GPS
46 Finnish second
21 Simple pleasures
We go to Tampere, Finland
Going to a Turkish shop
Stories 52 Hopes, dreams and sovereign rings
Style 72 Bare good
An homage to the Argos catalogue
76 Lacoste
Shoe brand Vivobarefoot Modern architecture meets Mediterranean style Hawkwood Mercantile
Christopher Ward C8 UTC Worldtimer watch
98 Obsessions Hip-hop T-shirts
08 N ews 09 E sses magazine 10 P aul Gorman 12 E l Gato Negro 16 S alford Lads Club
Editions Consume with intelligence
Plastic fantastic The Vinyl Factory has been making limited edition records with artists like Massive Attack and the Pet Shop Boys since 2008. Find out its story on page six.
12 Boys to men Salford Lads Club has been a piece of pop iconography since The Smiths posed outside it for The Queen Is Dead. But for the kids of Salford, the club provides a valuable space to learn and play. Discover its inspiring story on page 14.
Manchester’s reputation for good food is starting to rival that of its music scene – and that’s shown perfectly with El Gato Negro, a tapas bar opened in 2014 by chef Simon Shaw. This issue, we’re running three recipes from El Gato, so even if you can’t get to Manchester, you can enjoy some of its finest food.
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Pictures Vinyl Factory Words Anthony Teasdale Further information vfeditions.com
Pressing matters Bringing visual artists together with musicians, VF Limited Editions releases vinyl records that sound great, and look even better
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Vinyl records were going to be replaced by CDs (and later MP3s), but in 2015 vinyl album sales topped two million, the highest number since 1994, earning more for the UK music industry (£25m) than streaming sites (£24.4m). None of this surprises Sean Bidder, one of the people behind the Vinyl Factory, an organisation set up specifically to push the analogue format. And one of the ways it does this is by working with artists to create limited editions of their records. “The company started in 2001 when we bought the century-old EMI vinyl pressing plant,” says Sean. “Our plan was to collaborate directly with musicians and artists to manufacture, distribute and retail their records, but it took us until 2008 to start our own label, VF Editions. Our first release was with Primal Scream, the second with Damon Albarn and [Gorillaz artist] Jamie Hewlett.” Every release is pressed onto heavyweight vinyl and comes with limited edition artwork or a publication as part of the package. Unsurprisingly, some have become very sought-after. “Two releases spring to mind,” says Sean. “The first being the Pet Shop Boys’ Yes box set, which set a new bar for limited editions (it features a gold-plated metal tick!) and was priced at £300 per copy. It sold out in 24 hours. The other was the Massive Attack vs Burial EP, which had two incredible tracks exclusively to vinyl and a screen-printed sleeve by [Massive Attack’s] 3D.” Later, a copy of the PSB box set sold for £3,000 on the secondary market, while an early hand-signed Mumford & Sons EP that was originally £20 now fetches £250. But do these records ever get played? Sean again: “Most do, yes. Our releases span from £10 vinyl EPs to £500 box sets, so hopefully there’s something for everyone.” And how’s the vinyl scene now compared to a decade ago? “It’s booming,” he says. “A new generation has embraced it.”
Clockwise from bottom left + 3D And The Art Of Massive Attack, 3D Print + Jamie Lidell, New Eyes + Carsten Nicolai, Bausatz Noto + Laurent Estoppey, White Cube Recordings + Gwilym Gold, Greener World + Trevor Jackson, Format + Massive Attack, Splitting The Atom + John Butcher, Live At White Cube + The Golden Filter, Unselected Works Vol II + Keaton Henson, Birthdays + 3D And The Art Of Massive Attack, Hand Signed Book & Vinyl Box Set
q&a
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DAV ID B U RTO N , ED ITO R O F M OTO R B IK E TITLE, ES S ES
News
Paper talk
Interviews with the people behind our favourite magazines
Matters of interest from the worlds of style, culture and transport
U: When, and why, did you start it? DB: We launched Issue Zero in 2013. The mainstream shelf titles have great group
Bang out of order Book of London bomb damage maps tells the bloody tale of the Blitz The extent to which London was damaged by German bombing campaigns during World War II is highlighted in a beautiful new book. The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps 1939-1945 is a visual record of the devastation the city underwent: from the razing of housing in the East End to the deaths that wiped out entire families. Publisher Thames & Hudson, says: “The maps, meticulously hand-coloured to document the level of damage being wrought, represent a key record of the destruction, the impact of which can still be seen in the capital’s urban and social landscapes. Featuring new, high-quality images of each of the 110 maps that make up the set, this book marks the first time these remarkable documents – part historical artefacts, part social history – have been published for a general audience.” While the book concentrates on London, other cities also suffered terribly in the Blitz. The maps focus the mind on the cost of war on ordinary people, no matter the location. The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps 1939-1945 is out now, priced £48
Umbrella: Hi David. Tell us about Esses… David Burton: Esses is about motorbikes, but more importantly it’s about people – those who design, build, tweak, ride, photograph, collect, jump, race, polish and just plain own bikes.
+ Below, The horror of German bombing, meticulously recorded
tests, and give loads of information, but we felt something was missing. We wanted to tell human interest stories, to showcase people you’d never normally read about. U: The magazine is large format. Why? DB: Because we could afford to. The first few issues were A5 because that was the most affordable format. We always said we’d put any money we made from Esses straight back into the next issue. We had enough money to print a bigger magazine so we thought, “Why not?” U: Are you more Moto GP or TT? DB: We’re not solely a bike racing magazine – we want to explore the different cultures associated with motorbikes. The last issue came about because we wanted to produce an entire magazine on one subject, and the TT was a perfect fit. U: What’s your view on bike racing now? DB: It’s great to be able to follow so many British guys. From Scott Redding, Bradley Smith, Cal Crutchlow and Eugene Laverty in MotoGP to Johnny Rea, Chaz Davies and Tom Sykes in World Superbikes. U: Finally, who was cooler in the 1970s: Kenny Roberts or Barry Sheene? DB: Well, we are a British mag… Get Esses from essesmagazine.bigcartel.com
New TGV trains to bring back passengers French railways launch new high-speed train in battle against air travel
+ Above, New trains mean more passengers on the TGV network
France’s high speed railways have received a boost with the launch of a new TGV model, complete with better accessibility and free wi-fi (Something that’s already standard on British inter-city routes). The project has cost €1.3bn for 40 new trains, and is as seen as vital in TGV’s battle with domestic air travel. Passenger numbers on the railways have reduced every year since 2008, with a 1.7 per cent drop in numbers during the first half of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015. In comparison to previous models, the new train is around 20 per cent cheaper to make (and 25 per cent cheaper to maintain), and with an increase in capacity from 500 to 700, ticket prices should come down. The new fleet is rolled out in December, and will first run on the Paris-Bordeaux line.
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T HE UMBREL L A–IS T
No. 5: Paul Gorman Quotes from people we admire Paul Gorman is a writer and cultural commentator living in suburban London. Since 1978, Paul’s amassed an expansive body of work around the visual identity of pop culture, which has been the spark for many of his own projects. These include his book, The Look: Adventures In Pop & Rock Fashion; a series of exhibitions presenting the work of the late cultural iconoclast Malcolm McLaren and recently, a map/guide, Punk London: In The City 1975-78, which marks 111 addresses across the capital that played host to the scene. Here, our latest Umbrella-ist talks about some of his work and research into pop culture. “I gravitate towards visual culture; covering fashion, art, design, photography, interiors and the built environment, and I’m particularly interested in where visual identity relates to mass culture in terms of popular music.” “Ever since we were running around in woad there’s been popular music; a genre that’s consumed by a mass of people in one form or the other, but what fascinates me is the interaction between popular music and visual expression. I don’t think one comes before the other.” “After the war there was a certain set of social and economic circumstances which enabled young people to express their individuality more openly, and part of that was dressing in new ways.”
news
Pictures Paul Gorman
Editions Umbrella 11
Interview Elliott Lewis-George Further information paulgormanis.com
“Punk was one of the most exciting times in British culture. It blew the doors off a lot of expectations which came out of the ’60s – a period that was supposed to be the great liberating time but in fact wasn’t for the masses.” “It was pretty tough in the 1970s because of the social and economic circumstances that came into play. We’d just been through the global oil crisis, the end of the Vietnam war, conflict in South America, Africa and the Middle East, and a series of recessions. Punk coincided with the lingering aftermath.” “I tried to ensure the project didn’t trot out the familiar punk narrative. Sure, we had to feature the 100 Club or The Roxy, but also we wanted to include places which were a bit more obscure but still important to the scene, such as Mark Perry’s Deptford flat where he put together the first issues of punk fanzine, Sniffin’ Glue.”
+ Clockwise from top, Gorman’s punk map of London, his book on pop artist Derek Boshier, the map cover, an exhibition on the work of Malcolm McLaren, Paul himself
“I wrote a book on the life and work of graphic designer Barney Bubbles because his contribution to the visual identity of popular music from the late-’60s through to the early-’80s was undervalued. He was the link between formally educated commercial design and counter-culture of the ’60s, and then a bridge to punk, new wave and post-punk.” “Mapping out my guide, Punk London: In The City 1975-78, wasn’t too much of a challenge because I’m naturally interested in many of the locations as a Londoner. I believed I understood the importance of the particular addresses and wanted to share their cultural significance.”
“I’m currently writing a book about The Face magazine for a simple reason: nobody else has done it. This surprises me. In my view it was arguably the most significant British publication of the late 20th century. The Face prefigured the digital consumption of visual information that we see today in social media such as Instagram.”
“Ever since we were running around in woad there’s been popular music” “There’s long been a push-me, pull-you dynamic between regional cultures and those born out of the capital; things like Madchester broke the exclusivity of London in the late-’80s for example. I believe the suburbs are now where it’s at – the centre of town and places like Soho are property-driven theme parks. However, it’s a fact that London is involved in the bigger cultural interplay with Paris, New York and Tokyo, and benefits from that in ways which take a while to trickle down to, say, Leeds or Manchester.” “Punk presented various musical and visual choices that could take each person down different paths if they chose. Ultimate individualists such as George O’Dowd (Boy George) who became his own fabulous creation and influenced people on the other side of the world such as [shocking transgender clubber] Leigh Bowery. You can’t pin Bowery directly to punk but he wouldn’t have found the form of expression he did without it.”
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upper class
middle lower special
“I’m still fiercely proud of my roots. Or am I?” Brought up in the new town of Corby, Alexandra Haddow styles herself as working class, but her current existence is anything but…
opinion
Pictures Matt Reynolds
Editions Umbrella 13
Words Alexandra Haddow
Recently, I went on a cruise around Italy with my family. I have a small family. Myself, my (now ex-) boyfriend, my parents who are separated but still holiday together (what, yours don’t?), my sister and her boyfriend. My parents have lived in my home town of Corby for most or all of their lives (my dad being Scottish), they went to school there, bolted from said school at 16, and have worked locally ever since. My sister is a recently qualified paramedic, stayed at home while she studied, and has been dating her boyfriend for six years. They’re moving in together next week. I was ferociously encouraged by my father to “get out” of Corby as fast as I could. As long as he saw me off to university, he felt he’d done his job of giving me a better chance than he’d had. So I studied, hard. I got my faultless GCSEs, my good A-levels and went to a redbrick university on the other side of the country. I expanded my mind, my horizons, read lots of stuff, and drank more stuff. When you’re working class and you go to university, it’s great. You’ve made it. There’s no more expectation for you! You’re either the first in your family to go or you’re one of the first. Whatever you do from here on in is a bonus. You’re out. Conversely, when you go to college as a middle-class person, whose parents are heart surgeons, business owners or diplomats, the pressure is still on. This is one of the rare times when I hold some sympathy for them: there’s always much more expectation on the middle class at this stage, which is why so many follow blindly into professions they hate, earn enough to fund a family and an affair, then remarry and relive their youth at 52 when they realise they’d always wanted to give their music career a go. But here’s the thing. I’m working class, I went to university, I live in London and work in the media. I read Joan Didion, I write for independent magazines, I’m friends with folk singers and psychologists, writers and architects, and I’m still fiercely proud of my roots. Or am I? Actually, I’m a walking contradiction. I am proud of my home town, of being working class, and have a casual disdain for posh people, but one-on-one find them to be mostly lovely (the worst kind of prejudice) and yet, on the aforementioned family cruise, I was a complete and utter snob.
I felt embarrassed by the fact that my parents and the other 2,000 old people on the ship had been looking forward to this holiday, enjoyed the entertainment from 1980s comedians, and bought the official photos of the dinners most nights. I didn’t fit in. But I wouldn’t have fitted in if I was in a private villa in Antigua either, with people with trust funds and those who started their own businesses confidently and never panicked about failure because there’s always a safety net. I’ll go to a Martin Parr book signing and marvel at his portraits of British seasides and old people sunbathing fully clothed, I’ll read books about estates and good people and resilience and Thatcher and how completely awful Tories are (and they are). Then I’ll go home at Christmas, see my pals, but secretly be relieved that I’m not them, married or with kids and living two minutes from the places we had sleepovers in as kids. So I’m not working class anymore (although my heart will always say I am), I’m not middle class, what am I? Perhaps I’m part of the ‘Creative Class’: a term coined by American economist and social scientist Richard Florida to describe “people in design, education, arts, music and entertainment, whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology and/or creative content” which I know may just sound like an official way of saying ‘hipster’ but the category also includes scientists and engineers. And, probably, baristas. According to the BBC class calculator, I’m an ‘Emergent Service Worker’ which means I’m financially insecure (true) but enjoy a cultured social life (true, I hope), I’m probably young, and rent my house. Spookily accurate. The Emergent Service Worker and the Creative Class-er are synonymous, but the latter label sounds a lot cooler. It’s exciting to be in this new bit of society, although a little unnerving with regards to financial future. My other friends that are married, are, mostly, happy, just as my single London friends are. None of this really makes a difference. But what university does do, is open your eyes to class. Class still exists, unfortunately, in the minds of those who have constantly been defined by it. And right now, I don’t know which one I am. I’m not living in the same world as my parents did, but I’ll be damned if I’m taking a gap year to surf any time soon. AH
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upper class
middle lower special
“The kids here don’t stand a chance – just under half the area’s youth are living below the poverty line” An icon for Smiths fans and Mancunians alike, Salford Lads Club stands strong; brightening the lives of the local youth like it has done since 1903
opinion
Pictures Matt Reynolds
Editions Umbrella 15
Words Elliott Lewis-George
Salford’s still rough. Sparkling Media City is nothing more than a cluster of low-level skyscrapers that cast a shadow over sprawling streets, slums even, of decaying terraced houses. It’s the scally that reigns supreme here, not the soft lad with a background in ad sales. The Salford scal might speak like the Manc lad across the other side of the River Irwell, but he’s facing a different set of social and economic struggles. Cast your mind back to August 2011 as boasting boys made off with clobber from the Pretty Green boutique on King Street in the city centre, while ballied-up bad lads tore through Salford Precinct, nicking scran from Lidl and TVs from Cash Converters. Salford may basically be west Manchester, but it’s a very different place. Since then, there’s been the usual cash injection to make the usual cosmetic changes. In Ordsall, an area hit hard by the closure of Salford’s dockyards in 1982, 500 new homes sprung up in 2006, as did a primary school and leisure facilities. But still the kids don’t stand a chance, with just under half the area’s youth living below the poverty line. “Physically Ordsall has been regenerated, but that doesn’t do the job. We still have a poor population,” said Leslie Holmes, a local resident and project manager of the Salford Lads Club to The Guardian. “You can physically change the buildings but unless people have got more jobs, it’s still a poor area. The Salford Lads Club provides a route away from the gangs.” The Salford Lads Club, made famous by The Smiths in that photo, has stood strong in resilient red brick since two philanthropic brothers, James and William Groves, opened it as a place for shelter for local kids in 1903. Pulling in 200 annual members, and now inclusive to girls, the club isn’t some sterile social experiment: it’s scraped knees from five-a-side; annual camping trips, cooking lessons, warm cups of cocoa for 20p and, most importantly, the kind of character building that’s hard to find in this online, money-solves-all world. “The Salford Lads Club offered me an escape from a
shithole of an estate,” says local lad, Louis. “It’s a place that cares about the younger generation and the history of Salford.” Step foot in the club and its impact on the area is obvious from the sprawling, steel Wall of Names that lists the club’s 22,500 members since 1903 to 2015. Names include 131 victims of World War I, local Busby Babe, and youngest victim of the fatal Munich air disaster, Eddie Colman, and BetFred boss, Fred Done. Fred Done, there. The millionaire mastermind behind plans to demolish a grade A-listed pub close to the Lads Club and build 400 swanky apartments in its place, erasing more of Salford’s historic character and stretch the gap between the skint and the new influx of city slickers. Though the outsiders play a crucial role in the survival of the Lads Club too. Like you and I, these out-oftowners queue up to pose underneath the bottle-green Salford Lads Club sign on the club’s Coronation-Street street. Trying to looking all sulky and that. Trying to look a bit like Mozza. The Smiths gave the club its iconic status when Stephen Wright snapped them outside the club for the inner sleeve of their 1986 album The Queen Is Dead. Wright still travels to Salford from his native Berkshire to take identical pictures of super-fans who request the exact same snap on the same spot as The Smiths stood (and were pelted with stones by local youths). It’s no secret that Salford Lads Club was furious at the time about being associated with a record called The Queen Is Dead. However, the club showed that entrepreneurial hustle so often seen by the northern working class, opening a dedicated Smiths shrine in the old weightlifting room and shifting limited-edition Smiths T-shirts to fans. This raised over £50,000 for the club, affording members a trip to the US and allowing some vital repair work to be carried out. It’s this spirit that will hopefully see the Salford Lads Club standing strong against gentrification, and servicing the true community of the city of Salford for many years to come. ELG
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To El and back Manchester’s El Gato Negro is fast becoming the go-to place for quality Spanish food in the north-west
food & drink
Roasted butternut squash with cauliflower florets and Manchego Serves 4 800g butternut squash
Madrid and Manchester have much in common. Both have two excellent football teams; both are blessed with beautiful weather (Hmm – Ed) and both are acknowledged as places where diners can get excellent Spanish food. Obviously, that’s not surprising in Madrid – try Calle Cava Baja – but Manchester? Really? Really. There’s no doubt the food at King Street restaurant El Gato Negro is as good as anything you’ll find in Spain. And the man behind it is chef Simon Shaw. “My inspiration comes from reading, and visiting Spain,” he says. “It’s important to maintain the authenticity. You go to Barcelona and yes, they’re using Spanish ingredients, but there are also Japanese, Mexican and Peruvian influences in the food.” And like the food of the English north-west, simplicity is at the core of great Iberian cuisine. “Spanish food is all about provenance and quality of product,” says Simon. “We work with Brindisa in London to ensure we source the best products.” A regular visitor to London, Simon’s a big fan of Soho tapas bar, Barrafina, which occupies a similar space in the capital’s eating scene. “They have some staple dishes that probably don’t ever change. What they do very cleverly is change the specials on the menu to keep it interesting. That’s my goal here at El Gato Negro, to have a menu of classics that people expect, like our scotch eggs, and ham croquetas, but on the edge of that, all this other interesting stuff.” That sounds a recipe for success.
200g cauliflower 100g Manchego
Peel the butternut squash, then cut in half across the centre. Remove seeds, cut into 1 inch strips and then cubes. Remove outer leaves of the cauliflower and cut into individual florets.
cheese 25g unsalted butter 2 sprigs of fresh thyme Juice of half a lemon Rock salt
For the Picada 30g sourdough bread, cubed 60ml olive oil 30g almonds
Boil one litre of water, adding the lemon juice and a good pinch of rock salt. Add the cauliflower florets and cook until al dente. Remove from the pan, refresh in cold water and set aside. S eason the diced butternut squash with salt and pepper. Cover with cold water in a pan and cook until al dente. Remove from the heat and leave to cool in cooking liquid. Drain and set aside.
20g flat leaf parsley 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
+ Below, Spanish-style bar steating at El Gato Negro, Manchester
To make the picada, roast the diced sough dough bread in a baking tray with the almonds and olive oil until golden brown. Remove and blitz in a food processor to a crumb. Grate the manchego. T o assemble, heat a non-stick pan. Add a little olive oil, then the butternut squash to caramelise. Remove and do the same with the cauliflower. Check seasoning. Transfer to a serving dish, scatter with grated Manchego cheese and finish with chopped parsley. Sprinkle generously with the picada and serve.
Pictures Joby Catto
Editions Umbrella 17
Words Anthony Teasdale Further information elgatonegrotapas.com
Creme Catalan Serves 4 5 medium egg yolks 375g double cream
A dd the vanilla seeds and orange zest to the cream and in a pan. Bring to a simmer, then remove from heat.
200g full fat milk 75g caster sugar Zest of 1 orange Seeds of 1 vanilla pod A little extra caster sugar to finish
Mix together the egg yolks and caster sugar in a bowl. Add the milk in stages and stir to combine. Pour mixture into 4 wide moulds or ramekins and cook in a bain-marie at 100°C until set. Refrigerate for 2 hours until chilled. Sprinkle each with a fine, even layer of caster sugar and gently flame with a blowtorch until golden, taking care not to burn the sugar. Return to the fridge for 5 min to set.
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Q&A Greg Milner From ordering cabs to finding bars, GPS has transformed our lives. Here, the author of Pinpoint, a new book on the history of GPS, talks about its beginnings post-Vietnam war, its use in modern agriculture and why it’s messing with our sense of direction
Umbrella: Hi Greg. What actually is GPS? Greg Milner: GPS – Global Positioning System – is a system run by the US Air Force and wholly owned by the United States Department of Defense and the federal government. It’s a constellation of 24 active satellites that are arrayed in a way so that just about every spot on Earth has a direct line of sight with at least four of them at any given time. GPS is also the network of monitoring stations scattered around the world, all owned by either the Air Force or the National Geospatial-Intelligence, a wing of the Pentagon. It’s all overseen by the GPS master control station at Schriever Air Force base in Colorado. U: So if we’re on the phone and pull up Google Maps, how does it tell us where we are? GM: The GPS chip in your phone works like every other GPS receiver. It first tries to find the four closest satellites with the strongest signals and when it does, determines the transmission time of a signal that’s sent from the satellite to the receiver. The signal has information in it that tells it where the satellite was when it left the satellite and the
exact time. The GPS receiver figures out how long it took for the signal to reach it. If it does that simultaneously with at least four satellites it can extrapolate that information, translated into a three-dimensional position: latitude, longitude and altitude.
U: How did GPS start? GM: GPS came about because there were a few people in the Air Force, and one in particular, Brad Parkinson, who learned about ‘passive ranging’, which is the conceptual idea behind GPS. He’d been to Vietnam and was appalled by the way the bombing campaign was conducted there – there was no precision to it. Bombs were just dropped from really high distances just to make it safer for the pilots. And the way he put it to me, it was almost like an act of terror, rather than a way of fighting a real war. What he saw in GPS was basically a way to create a precision weapons delivery system or “to drop five bombs in the same hole”. U: Was GPS used in the 1991 Iraq War? GM: Yes, but not how most people think it was (that was mostly laser-guided bombs). In the opening hours of the war, it was used to drop cam lights to guide the way for the bombs, so they could be dropped in exactly the right place. It was also used after the war in things like clearing mines. U: Were soldiers using it? GM: There were military contractors who were building military-grade GPS receivers but they were doing it so slowly that by the time the war happened, they weren’t very many. So
science
Words Anthony Teasdale
Editions Umbrella 19
Further Reading grantabooks.com
as the word of GPS spread around, individual soldiers were calling home and trying to get their families to send them the few civilian GPS receivers that had gone on the market. It was also a great advertisement for GPS in the civilian world.
U: So when did it start being used for civilian purposes? GM: Almost from the very beginning a sort of hackerish type who was fascinated by GPS was finding a way to use it. And there was a civilian GPS signal along with the military GPS signal from the start: that was always a precondition of its funding from Congress. U: Are ‘darker forces’ utilising it? GM: Yes: one of the most surprising things I discovered is how international and universal GPS is. There are certain systems that are similar, but the only one that’s got plenty of global coverage and a full satellite constellation is Russia’s GLONASS system and it’s nowhere near as dependable as GPS. The EU’s
“GPS has changed little since the 1970s because its architects were so forward-thinking” Galileo system is coming and China’s BeiDou, too. But like I say in my book, if an ISIS terrorist is getting a position fix on his phone, he’s using technology that comes courtesy of the US Department of Defense.
U: What else is GPS being used for today? GM: ‘Precision agriculture’ is really transforming the way the world grows food because if you know exactly where a seed is planted, and you know exactly to the millimetre where to put the water and fertilizer, and exactly where it is when you dig it up so that you only use the right amount of fuel when you go to those fields, the savings are astronomical. U: What do you think GPS is doing to us as people? GM: It may be affecting our ability to navigate. Countless scientists and psychologists talk about the cognitive map – basically the ingrained knowledge we have that allows us to figure out where we are in relation to things around us. When you use GPS, especially when navigating a street or city, you don’t really have to have any kind of contextual awareness. So there’s a growing amount of studies that are looking at the
ways in which GPS may be essentially eroding our cognitive map, and whether that actually has a sort of neurological component. It’s too early to tell, but that might be happening, too.
U: Moving on to the taxi industry, Uber couldn’t survive without GPS, could it? GM: Uber is absolutely dependent on GPS. I was in a New York City a cab yesterday, a ‘Green’ one (not Yellow), and they’re only allowed to cruise in the outer boroughs. In Manhattan the main part of midtown is off limits to them unless they’re dropping people off. And the guy was telling me that they have it set up so as soon as they go south of 95th Streer, the meter shuts off automatically, making it impossible for them to pick up fares. That’s GPS. U: What is the future for GPS? GM: One of the most impressive things about GPS is how little it’s changed since the ’70s. The architects of GPS were so forward-thinking that they came up with this system that, although it’s constantly being updated, the core technology stays the same. U: Could it break down and lead to chaos? GM: The fear isn’t of a global GPS shutdown, but a local one – it’s easy to jam the GPS signal or spoof it to introduce a signal that nearby GPS receivers think is real. And because GPS is used so much for critical infrastructure, especially for timing, a local outage could have wide-ranging consequences. For example, GPS clocks are used to regulate mobile phone transmission, the handover of one call from one tower to the next. And if you were to spoof a GPS signal so that towers in one area are confused and their clocks go wrong because they’re following a spoof GPS signal with a different time signal, then that could affect mobile phone traffic over a big area. Pinpoint by Greg Milner is published by Granta, £14.99
Pictures thehow-den.com
Editions Umbrella 21
Words Matt Reynolds, Anthony Teasdale
The simple pleasures of… a Turkish supermarket The small miseries of… Hotel breakfasts Being the sort of glutton whose idea of a good time is 15 minutes with three packets of Frazzles, I should love hotel breakfast buffets. But there’s simply too much choice. How many plates do I need? Can I go back for more bacon without the Swiss couple tutting me? Is that teddy-bear ham stuff designed to give me nightmares? In the end I always get the same thing: lukewarm scrambled eggs, salmon and 15 mini pain-auchocolates for later. AT
Visiting an inner-city convenience store can be profoundly depressing. From the sharply inflated prices to the lonely self-service checkout, the ‘metro’, ‘local’ and ‘express’ versions of our favourite supermarkets often feel soulless and dehumanising. Essentially, they’re the Tinder of grocery shopping. Step forward then the Turkish supermarket. These welcoming havens of delicious flatbreads, affordable olives and pickled vegetables (pickled everything, it would seem) offer a delicious alternative to the familiar tubs of pastasalad-to-go and those weird microwaveable burgers. Gone are the sliced white loaves, replaced with freshlybaked piles of pita, pözleme, lavaş and mısır ekmeği. Forget the landfill cheddar, too – delicious slabs of Beyaz peynir, Çökelek and Örgü peyniri are what you melt onto your late-night toastie after a visit here. The differences don’t stop there. Jars of Sultan Baci quince jam balance on top of tins of Arnika Durmaz black olives. Türkel ring-cut pickled jalapenos sit side by side with Aynoor sliced chicken sausage and Kurukahveci
Mehmet Efendi coffee rubs shoulders with Bodrum mixed atomic cezerye. Whatever that is. And If this all sounds a little too exotic for your tastes don’t worry, there’s always a great selection of Haribo, too. To visit one of these stores is as close to wandering through a sun-drenched bazaar as you can get without leaving the glum British high street. Many are open 24 hours a day, meaning you can rely on your local Turkish for everything from the ingredients of your breakfast menemen [eggs, peppers and tomatoes] to the cuts of chicken and lamb for your evening köfte (followed by a delicious baklava pastry and washed down with a bottle of Efes Pilsen, natch) at prices that put the more established stores to shame. Sure, you’ll carry your goods home in a flimsy blue carrier bag – and don’t expect service with a smile if you try and pay with a card for anything costing less than a tenner – but what these stores lack in slick modernity they make up for with variety, personality and charm. A Turkish delight indeed. MR
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Field trip
24 R olling news 28 M odernism 34 D ublin 38 B irmingham 46 T ampere
Transport, travel and exploration
32 In a special feature, we go to Birmingham to uncover the cultural, architectural and design aspects of the city. You can read our in-depth report on page 38.
40 Tampere with it When it comes to Finland it’s Helsinki that gets all the attention. However, as Simon Cunningham finds out, the ‘second city’ of Tampere has plenty of charm, too. And a satisfying amount of grit to boot. Read more on page 46.
28 We’re lovers of modern buildings at Umbrella, but while we can admire the incredible things people have done with concrete, often this is architecture that’s failed. Photographer Nicolas Grospierre shares this view, having spent 15 years capturing the best and worst of it on his travels. See his incredible photos on page 28.
Balneological Hospital Water Tower, Druskininkai, Lithuania
Birmingham: our view
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Pictures Michael Blann Further informationn thamesandhudson.com
cycling
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Peak practice Going up hills is where this cycling lark loses its appeal a bit. It’s all very well having the Rapha water bottle and the bike made from space dust, but no amount of tech gear is going to make a one-in-three climb fun. And yet here are some people – mad people, naturally – who not only love riding bicycles up mountains but get paid to do so. They’re called professional cyclists, and they dig going up and down the Alps on bikes so much they’ve contributed to a book about it. Michael Blann’s Mountains: Epic Cycling Climbs is a comprehensive look at the art of the cycle climb, mixing “Jesus, did he actually take that?” photography with beautiful prose, much of which is written by top riders like Stephen Roche and Robert Millar. If you want to know just what the Stelvio Pass does to your lungs or how much fun basically losing consciousness on Mont Ventoux is, this is the book for you. If it all looks a bit scary – alright, terrifying – then you can stick it on your coffee table and marvel at these lycra-class tubes of muscle, and give thanks it’s not you doing it.
+ There are 48 hairpin bends between Prato and the summit on Italy’s Stelvio Pass
Mountains: Epic Cycling Climbs by Michael Blann is published by Thames & Hudson, priced £34.95
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Pictures Oliver Heald
cycling
Words Don G Cornelius Further Reading britishcycling.org.uk
Witnessing the magic One of the things I love about cycling is being able to see so much of England/ Europe that I wouldn’t without my bike. To ride through rolling terrain as the sun shines, feeling the miles slip away, looking left, looking right at the ever-changing countryside you’re passing through, is a joy. There’s nothing like it to bring a new-found awareness of how magnificent natural surroundings can be. And this is coming from a city boy who loves nothing better than dancing with traffic on a daily basis. Now, one way to see more of this sceptred isle is to watch some cycle racing around the country, a chance to head to parts of England that you’d usually miss as you go to someplace bigger, faster, more exciting. But here’s the thing: you don’t get many chances to see professional racing in the UK. A quick look at the UCI’s (Union Cycliste Internationale) calendar of races, shows our European neighbours outshine us in the spectating as well as racing stakes. The UK has nine races (male, female and junior) sanctioned by the UCI, Spain has 25, Italy 60, France a whopping 89, and – king of the cycling mountain – Belgium 94. It’s got more racing in February than we have for the whole year. I say this not to create an inferiority complex (OK, maybe a little one), but to shine a light on the races that you should see. There are many sportives, and time trials, and criteriums to see up-and-coming racers, wannabe pros and hardcharging amateurs, but to witness the professionals, the whippet-thin, steely-eyed men (and women) is a chance you should take. Despite how many miles you ride, how many club runs you head out on, or how hard you sweat during a sufferfest session, there’s nothing to compare to the pace of the peloton at full speed when they come scorching past you. It’s why they get paid cold, hard cash to race their bicycles. It’s an eye-opening experience, a moment to wonder about what might have been. And then as the team cars roll into the distance, if you’re lucky and the roads are still closed, you’ll get the chance to ride the tarmac those giants of the chain gang have just raced over, struggling on the ascents and coasting on the descents. But riding them just the same. So, ready the bike racks and break out the panniers – it’s time to see some racing.
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Pictures Nicolas Grospierre
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Words Matt Reynolds Further information prestel.com
Imperfect world The triumphs and failures of modernism have been captured in a beautiful new book, as Umbrella discovers There’s something about modernism that keeps us coming back. One man who’d certainly agree with this is Swiss photographer Nicolas Grospierre – who ‘s spent the last 15 years obsessively documenting modernist architecture around the world. His work has been collected in a new book, Modern Forms: A Subjective Atlas Of 20th Century Architecture, which features his most breathtaking, brutal – and downright bizarre – images. Although the structures he captures vary wildly in appearance, they’re united by a common thread: what Nicolas calls “the universality of modernist architecture”. This commonality helped him to edit and organise his collection. As he says: “The problem was that the buildings photographed were all different: different styles, different architects, different functions, different countries. Even the format of the pictures was different: sometimes square, sometimes landscape, sometimes portrait. “It came to me that the key to this archive should come from what makes the buildings different, ie, their shapes. I therefore imagined that a good way to organise the archive would be to create a gradient of forms, starting from one arbitrary form and gradually moving on to the next until all the shapes are exhausted and one comes back to the form which started the cycle.” The shapes certainly are striking: from the iconic Gateway Arch in Saint Louis to Oscar Niemeyer’s little-known (and unfinished) International Fair Grounds in Tripoli, their concrete forms are bold and uncompromising. However, as Nicolas discovered, an unwillingness to compromise on the well-intentioned (but stark) principles of
modernism often produced mixed results. “Modernism in architecture was the physical embodiment of one of the most beautiful ideals of mankind: progress. In architecture, it meant to create buildings that would make a better life for the common man. “This ideal failed. And not only did it fail in its political or ideological dimension, but it even failed practically, as many of these buildings proved to be utopian and sometimes alienating in their everyday use. This is perhaps especially true in the architecture of the former socialist camp.” Looking at his images of crumbling concrete monoliths it’s hard to disagree, but it’s not all bad news: “To my eyes,” he says, “this doesn’t disqualify progress on a philosophical level. It’s perhaps because progress was an erroneous ideal from the very start that makes it even more beautiful. There’s great generosity in this ideal – the belief that man can perfect himself. “Paradoxically, all that remains of this in architecture are the modern forms. For me, their boldness and expressive shapes are the reflection of the boldness of this optimism.” Whatever the thinking behind these unique structures they offer a very different vision of the future to the functional-butbland glass office blocks of today. They hail from a time when principles and idealism informed design, rather than maximising profit or indulging architectural vanity. Ultimately, what keeps us coming back to modernism isn’t discussing whether it’s buildings have ‘succeeded’ or not, it’s what lies at their very heart – optimism. We’re just glad that Nicolas feels the same way.
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+ Opening spread, Residential Tower, Saint Petersburg, Russia + Second page, Space Museum and Heliport, International Fairgrounds, Tripoli, Libya + Previous page, House of Soviets, Kaliningrad, Russia + Opposite, Institute of Scientific Research and Development, Kiev, Ukraine + Below, The cover of Modern Forms: A Subjective Atlas of 20th Century Architecture by Nicolas Grospierre, published by Prestel publishing
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Pictures Umbrella, James Earley, Jameson Whiskey Words Elliott Lewis-George Matt Reynolds + Right, Street art by James Earley; the Spire of Dublin on O’Connell Street; a chandelier made from whiskey bottles at the Jameson distillery; city details and the Samuel Beckett Bridge
Dublin distilled Umbrella goes to the Irish capital to discover street art, culture and whiskey… n James Joyce’s meandering modernist novel, Ulysses, he wrote that “a good puzzle would be to cross Dublin without passing a pub”. An impossible challenge when you consider the conviviality of the people and Ireland’s reputation for making excellent alcoholic drinks. One of those is Jameson whiskey (the Irish stuff is spelled with an ‘e’ between the ‘k’ and ‘y’), which began life in Dublin in 1810, before transferring its operations to Cork. Happily, the old Jameson distillery remains, and became the base for Umbrella’s exploration around Dublin’s hidden spots. And what of the Irish capital? It’s a metropolis that feels effortlessly cool like Amsterdam, yet warm and welcoming like Manchester or Liverpool. It also has a decent metro, the DART, which puts it in Umbrella’s good books.
I
On our trip, we took in authentic local experiences a far cry from the boozed-up Americans in leprechaun beards and British stag parties that populate Temple Bar. Our stay featured creative feasts that flipped the script on Irish food traditions, and a walk around the city with local street artist James Earley. Of course, we were completely willing to prove Joyce right as we imbibed our fair share of Jameson whiskey – well, it would have been rude not to. On our return we decided to share what we learned, including a little of James Earley’s insider knowledge on where Umbrella readers should head to in Dublin, and some drinks knowledge from Scottish whisky blogger Tom Thomson. His number one rule: never order your tipple ‘on the rocks’. That’s something we’ll drink to.
The street artist Dublin-based James Earley is best known for his large scale, spray-painted street art pieces that adorn the city’s walls. In 2014 he painted Ireland’s largest mural at the Blooms Hotel, taking nine months to complete. James comes from a long line of artists – his family ran a stained glass business for over 100 years in the centre of Dublin – and their past artworks form the aesthetic base to a great deal of his work. Here, he shares his tips for Umbrella readers visiting the Irish capital.
Eat
“There’s heaps of amazing restaurants in Dublin, we really are spoilt for choice. I’m a massive fan of Japanese food and Musashi is definitely the best place for it. Superrelaxed, great service and very fresh food – their tuna sashimi is particularly good. Baffles is great for lunch (the seafood broth is something else), but for traditional Irish food there is only one place to go – Mulligan’s. This is a pub that specialises in Irish cuisine, it’s a serious culinary experience.”
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Shop
“Spray paint shop All City is a cool spot with heaps of character and history for the graf/street art scene in Dublin. The Irish Design Shop is excellent too, they stock beautiful contemporary Irish-made homeware, gifts and jewellery. The Winding Stair is an old bookshop with a lot of charm and an interesting selection of books. Finally, if you can’t make it to their shop, check out Iverna.ie, an online gallery specialising in Irish art curated by yours truly.”
Art
“Make sure to visit The Kerlin Gallery, Green On Red or IMMA for a contemporary gallery experience. For street art, there’s the Camden Street area and then The Tivoli Theatre if you want to see some letter-based graffiti. Temple Bar also has a lot of work throughout its streets. My largest piece to date – based around the principal characters in James Joyce’s Ulysees –is down there as well as a bunch of other paintings I’ve worked on over the years.”
Music
“There’s a few decent spots: Button Factory, Whelan’s and Pygmalion, all those places have a great buzz to them. It really all depends on who’s playing where on the night you’re going out. I find pub crawls more fun if I’m honest!”
Drink
“Unsurprisingly, Dublin has an excellent pub culture. There are three places you can’t afford to miss: The Stag’s Head, this is a genuine, old-school Irish bar with
unsurprisingly great pints of Guinness; The Dingle Whiskey Bar, I absolutely love my whiskey and you’ll be spoilt for choice in this place. Take a seat at the bar and let them educate you while you sample a few. The Dean Hotel has an awesome rooftop bar that looks out over Dublin. They make a mean old fashioned. I also curated all of the art in the hotel, so you can check that out while you’re there, too!” jamesearleyart.com instagram.com/james_earley
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The whisky expert Intimidated by single malts? Confused by oak barrels and ageing? Whisky blogger Tom Thomson can help you out… Hi Tom. It’s been suggested that rare whisky is outperforming investments such as wine and gold. Is this really the case? There’s some compelling evidence from specialists who monitor the situation, such as Rare Whisky 101, to say yes, but it’s worth noting that this is on a much smaller scale than both wine and gold. It’s also been suggested this bubble might burst soon and the situation we currently see of people ‘flipping’ – the process of buying a bottle to sell it straight away for a profit – will reduce. The reputation of Japanese whisky has improved over the last few years. Why do you think that is? Japanese whisky has, for the 20 years or so that I’ve been drinking it, always been very good. It’s still, on the whole, produced using the same traditional techniques as scotch whisky, and so it’s no surprise to see it doing so well. For me, the water quality in Scotland still ensures that scotch is a better product, but then that’s just my opinion! Does the ‘craft’ alcohol movement translate well to distilling whisky? Bearing in mind there are potentially years of ageing in barrels before a distillery can begin selling malt whisky and turn a profit… Craft alcohol is where many whisky distilleries evolved from. Many were set up initially as small farmhouse distilleries and in fact Kilchoman, Edradour and Daftmill are all actually that size. Distilleries can still turn a profit by producing gin first (Eden Mill and Strathearn do this, for example) which can be sold immediately without having to wait three years (the minimum required ageing time) to produce whisky. The definition of ‘craft’ would also extend to larger distilleries like Springbank which still use the same techniques that were involved in the production of whisky 100 or more years ago, with the only computer being a pencil and paper! Is it true that older is better? Not necessarily. “Older is different” would be better. Some older whiskies can be influenced too much by the oak, some not enough. Age really is just a number and some of the best whiskies I’ve tasted recently have been very young.
+ Left, The Daniel Libeskind-designed Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in the regenerated Grand Canal Dock area; stacks of whiskey bottles at the Bow Street distillery
Should we drink whisky ‘on the rocks’? Ice should be avoided as much as possible with whisky, it shocks the drink and prevents it from opening up and releasing its flavour molecules. So unless you’re in a country where room-temperature whisky is too warm to drink then ice should be left for the long drinks and cocktails. There’s a saying: “Always have water with your whisky, and whisky with your water” and a drop or two water does open up the nose and palate of a whisky and can give off different flavours. It’s definitely not essential though and simply down to personal preference. tomswhiskyreviews.com | twitter.com/TomsWhisky
Umbrella was taken to Dublin by jamesonwhiskey.com
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Some of the world’s mostloved places are ‘second cities’ – think Chicago, Barcelona or Munich. Not so Birmingham. With a population of 900,000, in terms of numbers it’s the UK’s second most populous city, yet it has nowhere near the cultural clout of Manchester. So when the brutalist Central Library was demolished, we decided it was worth having an in-depth look at Birmingham now, from its architecture and transport, to the printed media scene, all to the answer the question:
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Birmingham: second city or second rate?
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Style Since 2012, Liquor Store has been a haven for style-savvy men in Birmingham. Here, owner Phil Hazel chats to Elliott Lewis-George about its ethos Was there a demand in Brum for a new menswear shop? I was aware the city offered huge potential and there was an opportunity to bring something different here. A vast amount of brands that Liquor Store stocks were unavailable in Birmingham when we opened so we were able to represent labels that were new to locals. How has the location influenced the store? Our location in one of the oldest arcades in Birmingham, the Great Western Arcade, offers a contrasting experience to typical high street shopping. Also, a loyal customer base has given the store a real sense of community. It’s a place where people feel comfortable.
+ Above, Selvedge denim and quality tops + Right, Creative window displays at Liquor Store + Below, Red Wing – a staple in Birmingham
Who’s the typical customer? It ranges from young guys just getting into brands to the older guys who’ve been into them throughout their life so our demographic varies anywhere between 16 and 60. As long as the customer wants quality, longevity and timelessness, we can cater for them.
Further reading: liquorstoreclothing.com
Have you seen styles and trends shift in Birmingham? We’ve seen the demand for streetwear die down. The typical Liquor Store streetwear consumer is moving on to the likes of Wood Wood and Norse Projects; brands that offer product with a street edge but on a cleaner tip. Is there a current trend in the city? In terms of buying trends we’ve seen a rise in customers adhering to that method of ‘buy well once’ They’re looking for quality that they might not find in every corner of Birmingham. Liquor Store isn’t trend-driven – the core of the store is the heritage brands we stock and our huge denim offering. Any favourite brands? There’s the likes of Red Wing; our best performing footwear brand. Customers love buying them as they stay true to their roots; delivering quality and longevity. Then there’s the raw, selvedge denim, and in terms of fit and design, Edwin come out on top. Universal Works also a brand resonates with us as a fellow indie company.
Accent Mention Birmingham – certainly in the UK – and it won’t be long before someone makes a reference to the accent, usually with a poor ‘Dudloy’ impression of it, a world away from the quickfire speech of most locals. According to Birmingham English: A Sociolinguistic Study, among UK listeners, “Birmingham English consistently fares as the most disfavoured variety of British English, yet with no satisfying account of the dislike.” However, to this magazine, the accent is one of the things that makes Birmingham unique, and interestingly, a new Brummie, which mirrors Multicultural London English, is also appearing. You can hear it in the speech of footballer Daniel Sturridge, the clipped Caribbean tones merging with influences from Urdu to create something unique. Birmingham’s speech, like the city itself, never stands still.
Population of Birmingham (Source: Office For National Statistics)
Population 1,200,000
1,101,360
1,000,000
+ Above left, The listed New Street signal box
800,000 600,000 400,000
+ Above, Modernist windows in the city centre
Infrastructure Richard Cowell MRTP, Birmingham City Council’s Assistant Director of Development, answers Umbrella’s questions
Pictures: Umbrella, Wikimedia Commons
Why was it necessary to rejuvenate New Street railway station? Firstly, the old station couldn’t cope with the number of travellers that passed through it each day. The new station provides a significant increase in passenger capacity. Secondly, the old station was unattractive and didn’t provide either a good experience to travellers or a decent first impression of Birmingham.
200,000 1538
1785
1841
1881
1939
2016
Year
Birmingham suffered from a reliance on the car in the 1960s-’70s. Is that being redressed? One of the key steps in unlocking regeneration and growth in Birmingham city centre has been addressing the over-dominance of roads – the legacy of post-war redevelopment under Herbert Manzoni. The problems presented by the inner ring road – the ‘concrete collar’ – have been recognised since the late 1980s. Our 2015 Snow Hill Masterplan sets out a vision for adopting a similar approach at St Chad’s Queensway and Great Charles Street, replacing the A38 urban motorway with a tree-lined boulevard and reconnecting the Jewellery Quarter and Gun Quarter with the city core.
How will HS2 affect the city? HS2 will bring to Birmingham a swift, direct connection with London and beyond. The area around the new HS2 station is expected to see a total economic uplift of £1.4bn. The Snow Hill district is an area where we see a significant part of this expansion happening.
Are there places for small businesses to set up? Birmingham has lots of opportunities for small businesses and shops across the city. In addition, we’re working to provide a range of opportunities in the city centre for all scales of retail, particularly the kind of independent retail offer that bring choice, distinctiveness and character. The key areas for this are Digbeth, Jewellery Quarter, Southside and the Cathedral Walks.
Two iconic buildings (the Central Library and Nat West building) have been demolished recently. Are you not wary of losing your 20th century heritage? The historic environment is central to the city’s future and we aim to conserve all of our historic assets. Buildings from this era make a huge contribution to the character of the city, and the city centre is dominated by landmarks like the BT Tower. A number of 1960s buildings have been given listed status, including the brutalist New Street signal box, the Rotunda and the Alpha Tower.
Finally, what’s the overall plan for Birmingham? The vision is for a city where residents have a high quality of life and live in attractive, sustainable neighbourhoods. We want Birmingham to have a strong economy and a skilled workforce which will be globally competitive. Meanwhile, the city centre will see major growth and development, and we’ll preserve and enhance the city’s historic environment and distinctive places. Overall, Birmingham will grow in a sustainable, resilient and innovative manner.
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Architecture
As a damp May stuttered into a cold June, the last crunch of a mechanical excavator revealed a view lost since the late 1960s. The concrete hulk of Birmingham’s Central Library had been dramatically split in two to reveal a direct line of sight between Chamberlain, and Centenary Squares. The Victorian clock tower of the Museum and Art Gallery was perfectly framed between shattered concrete columns. It was a piece of demolition theatre from the developers, Argent. Its £500 million redevelopment of Birmingham’s infamous brutalist library complex promised to open up long-forgotten pedestrian routes and sight lines. The Central Library was seen to be a symbol of a past Birmingham was trying to shake off. The discoloured concrete of the top-heavy inverted ziggurat loomed uncomfortably over Birmingham’s finest Victorian civic buildings. Its dingy passageways stank of urine; its deadened public spaces were filled with litter, puddles and the homeless. Critics had long demanded its erasure. How could Birmingham present itself as a modern global city with a “concrete monstrosity” squatting at its heart? The vision had been rather different. When the library opened in 1974 it was the largest in Europe, a neighbour to complement the 1834 Town Hall and 1879 Council House. Like them, it was an expression of civic confidence. This was an era of radical redevelopment. Herbert Manzoni, the city’s Chief Engineer from 1935 to 1963,
“Perhaps something of the lust for demolition is in the city’s psyche” infamously believed that there was little of Birmingham’s architecture that was worthy of preservation. He masterminded the emergence of a bombed-out, grimy Victorian city into an idealistic modern metropolis defined by the automobile. Futuristic projects rebuilt swathes of the city. The Bull Ring shopping centre, opened in 1964, was the first indoor inner city shopping mall in the UK. New office towers such as the Birmingham Post and Mail, and Alpha Tower thrust proudly upwards. New regional and national motorways mingled together in the spectacular Spaghetti Junction to the north of the city centre, while a new inner ring road threading the city’s showpieces together was completed in 1971. But it came at a cost. Slum clearance exiled communities to high rise towers or out to the suburbs. Pedestrians were removed from the streets, confined to subways and bridges. Victorian buildings such as the old library, Mason Science College and Snow Hill, and New Street rail stations were cleared in the name of space, light, progress, the car. A city was built that was ill-prepared for the shock of the 1973 oil crisis. The collapse of the city’s industries led to sky-rocketing unemployment rates, and by 1982 nearly 20 per cent of the city’s population was without work.
In the late 1980s a conference of architects and planners was convened to forge a way forward. The resulting ‘Highbury Initiative’ called for a re-emphasis on pedestrians, culture and the arts. Since then, the inner ring road has been dismantled, while the Bull Ring shopping centre has been transformed with the otherworldly Selfridges. The library’s replacement – also claimed as the largest public library in Europe – opened in 2015, its lacy facade paying homage to the city’s metal industry. These regeneration efforts have unquestionably created a livelier, friendlier city. But at what cost? Few miss the bunker-like New Street Station or the old Bull Ring. Yet with each swing of the wrecking ball, there’s one less reminder of a time when Birmingham was visionary and international. The sleek Post and Mail tower, based on New York’s Lever Building, has been replaced by an underground car park. The monumental Central Library will be substituted by a generic, could-be-anywhere riff on Starbucks and office blocks. The brutalist NatWest building supplanted by plate glass and the ubiquitous rooftop restaurant. Calls for a rethink are growing. There have been some successes: Alpha Tower (1970) recently joined the New Street signal box (1964) and the Rotunda (1965) when Heritage England declared it as worthy of a Grade II list. Debate has moved on to Smallbrook Queensway, a sweeping 1960s office block with fine detailing and dramatic uplighting, known by some as ‘Birmingham’s Regent Street’. Completed in 1962, it may be butchered by a proposal to reface it as something approximating an Indian call centre. Perhaps the lust for demolition is in the city’s psyche. Successive waves of city fathers have sought to remake it after the fashions of the day. Birmingham’s motto is ‘Forward’, a suitable moniker for a city with such an appetite to wipe the slate clean and start afresh every few decades. ‘Forward’ is simultaneously optimistic and myopic. It has led to an architectural hodgepodge of a city, one that will always be a work in progress. When the mechanical excavators finish on the Central Library, they won’t be hungry for long. Birmingham native John Mason is a writer on architecture
Illustration: joerampley.com Picture: Ade
John Mason finds that Birmingham’s insatiable appetite for architectural fads has led to a cityscape lacking in coherence and identity
Design
Further information: handoveragency.com
Umbrella caught up with Curtis McNally and Daniel Tuck from the Handover Agency to discuss finer points of the city’s creative scene What’s the design scene like in Birmingham? It’s great. Not only do we have big agencies in the city, but we’ve also got a surge of young designers making a go of it themselves. With the prices of city centre studios and office spaces increasing, young creatives have started moving out and creating small strongholds of like-minded individuals. Alongside the more obvious areas like Digbeth (that have supported various scenes in the past) there’s been some massive changes in the Jewellery Quarter and the south of the city. In Jubilee Hall alone we now have Rope Press Printers, Provide Store, Space Play and more, all operating in a gorgeous listed building . The same thing is happening in Minerva Works on Fazeley Street and at locations all over the city. Are there any great art/design shops we should know about? Where do you find inspiration? Places to check out would be Provide Store at Jubilee Hall, the Framers at The Custard Factory, the IKON gallery gift shop, then Honest Skincare in Kings Heath to name just a few. There’s also a lot of great coffee shops popping up like Faculty and Quarter Horse. This always helps the creative scene.
+ Left, modern art gem, the IKON gallery + Below, the Custard Factory, “a lot of businesses have left”
What role does the IKON gallery play in the city’s creative scene? Which other galleries are worth visiting? IKON is like our own little Tate Modern. Not only has it exhibited some of the greatest artists in Birmingham (people who highlight the city’s heritage such as Vanley Burke and Stuart Whipps), but it brings exciting art from around the world to our doorstep. Jonathan Watkins has been an incredible director for the IKON, and he and his team bring groundbreaking international art to our city. Other galleries worth visiting are Eastside Projects, The Barber Institute Of Fine Art, The Library Of Birmingham Gallery, The MAC and the Stryx gallery. What role has Digbeth’s Custard Factory (a regenerated industrial building home to artists’ studios) played in Birmingham’s creative revival? The Custard Factory still has a lot of potential and hopefully that will be realised in the future. Affordability for small businesses and creative start-ups is the biggest hurdle so that’s definitely something that could be addressed, both in Digbeth and city wide. With a lot of positive change happening, the future looks bright for Birmingham for sure.
Regeneration As you’d expect from a city that was once a manufacturing powerhouse, there are a number of unoccupied, and in some cases, near-derelict, industrial spaces worthy of regeneration. Leading the charge against the ‘rip it up and start again’ mindset that can be so pervasive in this city is Stuart Holt, director of Javelin Block – award-winning specialists in re-purposing buildings as leisure spaces and accommodation aimed at Birmingham’s growing creative class. Its recent Derwent Works conversion in the neglected area north-west of the city centre is a prime example of its approach: creating a modern living space while still retaining the building’s original character. As Stuart says: “For us at Javelin Block this building has proved an asset of the past that was a liability of the present can be an asset of the future.” We can only hope that other investors share such a progressive attitude.
Media Matt Nation, owner of menswear/magazine store Provide, gives us a glimpse into Birmingham’s print and media scenes
+ Above left, Umbrella takes pride of place at Provide + Left, Localism in T-shirt form + Below, Mags with an international outlook
What’s the market like for selling indie mags in Brum? Before I opened Provide four years ago, there wasn’t a single shop in Birmingham with a good selection of independent magazines, so I started pushing independent publishing in my shop from day one. At first, there were very few takers but in the last two years there’s been a huge increase in the number of Brummies who are prepared to seek out something a little different to read in print. Now we have a really loyal following.
Tallest buildings in Birmingham
You’ve had trouble finding a shop space. Why? There’s been something of a land grab and landlords are happy to sit on empty properties safe in the knowledge that major investors are looking to invest in Birmingham. When a small business comes along with no guarantee of security, or without the ability to pay huge sums of cash up front, landlords just aren’t interested. This has pushed us to move on from a traditional ‘high street’ retail model, to developing something a lot more exciting which will launch in the next month or two.
(height in metres)
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BT Tower 1966
10 Holloway Circus 2005
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Alpha Tower Chamberlain Orion Building 1973 Clock 1908 2007
Are there any Birmingham-specific mags/fanzines? In the ’80s, when rave culture was exploding there were a number of amazing DIY zines, but these are long gone. Out and about now you’ll spot the odd local listings magazine, but nothing worth mentioning beside the sporadically-published Brum Notes and Area Guide which are both great for keeping tabs on the local music scene. One title to watch out for is Bab Mag, a pretty polished magazine from a few local creatives.
Further information: provideshop.com Picture: Inès Elsa Dalal
What sort of titles are popular do well? The minimal, Instagram-friendly travel, home and lifestyle aesthetic: Kinfolk and Cereal are consistently good sellers, and more recently, coffee and travel magazine Drift has been unbelievably sought-after. I’ve had calls and emails from all over the world from people trying to track down earlier issues. With all the redevelopment going on around town, and the demolition of so many of our brutalist icons, there’s a city-wide discussion about architecture, and The Modernist is another title that sells out.
Field trip Umbrella 45
How are the local newspapers doing? The main two, the Birmingham Post and Birmingham Mail still have great reach – however the print editions have taken a back seat as owner Trinity Mirror desperately tries to grow each paper’s online audience. Print circulation is falling and I don’t see it picking up any time soon, unfortunately. Other smaller local newspapers have it even tougher, and in a city that gets so much of its news from social media accounts, I wouldn’t want to be responsible for sustaining any of them. What local websites/blogs are worth checking? At the moment there isn’t a website or blog that really has its finger on the city’s creative pulse, and there’s
“We have a really loyal following for indie mags” definitely an opportunity for someone to make it happen. I’d say the closest thing we have is I Choose Birmingham, a carefully put-together weekly email that introduces a lot of people to interesting things going on in and around the city. What’s the music/nightlife like at present? House and techno are huge here, and clubs like Social Underground throw parties in interesting venues for the most dedicated party kids. Listening Sessions is a totally different kind of night where local producers and beatmakers showcase tracks they’ve been working on, and it’s held in this great hidden gem of a venue called PST. But you couldn’t talk about music in Birmingham without mentioning Jack Parker. He puts on shows all over the city with no musical boundaries, and you’ll see his name on flyers for everything from homegrown hip-hop nights to touring indie bands. How would go about improving the city’s cultural and media scenes? I’d like to see a lot more people have a go at producing and distributing their own work, and then have the persistence to continue with it even if it’s not an overnight success. I’m a firm believer in the idea that if you’re not happy with the way something is, you should do something about it. It’s all very well producing something amazing, but if you don’t tell people about it you can’t rely on anyone else to!
Conclusion Birmingham, despite its undeserved reputation as a place lacking in sophistication, has always been one of the creative hubs of the UK. From its pivotal role in the industrial revolution (steam engine pioneer Matthew Boulton was from the city) to its output of 20th century pop music, it’s always had plenty to shout about. But with Manchester dominant as the acknowledged counterpoint to London, we wanted to see what was happening in Brum. Our study has shown a metropolis bursting with talent, and yet the lessons of the post-war transformation don’t seemed to have been learned by those in power. The fondness for knocking down great buildings (Victorian in the ’60s, modernist ones today) is still there, leading to a city centre constantly in flux. And while there’s a will from entrepreneurs to set up new businesses, vast high-street chains dominate the city centre. Where’s Birmingham’s Northern Quarter? Can there ever be one? This sounds harsh: but that’s because we passionately believe that London has become too dominant in Britain, and other centres must provide an alternative voice. Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester are developing into hubs yet Birmingham – bigger than them all – feels like its waiting for someone else to make it happen. The people we’ve interviewed in this report are capable of transforming Brum, but they need help from big players in both the state and commercial sectors – something you see in similar, and poorer, cities (the buzzy Leipzig in Germany being one example). Birmingham’s motto is ‘Forward’ – it’s time landlords and planning officers used it as an inspiration. And please stop demolishing those architectural treasures. Use what you’ve got!
Finnish second Simon Cunningham explores Tampere – a northern Finnish city emerging from the shadows
Tampere at a glance Arrived in Finland’s second city but have limited time on your hands? Here, Umbrella’s express guide to the the must-visit attractions gives you the cream without any of the froth
Style If you like a bit of Fjällraven (and we do) you’ll be chuffed to find a down-jacket paradise hidden within Tampere’s Partioaitta outdoor shop.
he cityscape feels oddly familiar against a dark winter sky. Red-brick industrial palaces that once housed thousands of cotton workers are now illuminated studios and loft apartments. From high above the quays, the city’s inhabitants huddle through the chill like Lowry’s matchstick men. Were it not for the lack of Gregg’s and blokes in Barbour jackets, this urban snapshot could be off Oxford Road in Manchester. But this is Tampere, Finland’s second city, the scrappy northern underdog to Helsinki’s capital charms. It’s the gloomiest part of a particularly damp winter, and yet Tampere still has an illuminating buzz about it when we visit. The locals are fed up about the lack of snow – which would normally send them skiing across one of the city’s two vast, neighbouring lakes – but there’s enough going on to keep everyone busy. The once-industrial Finnish heartland is seemingly achieving what many British northern towns can only dream of – it’s harnessing the legacy of its proud manufacturing past to build a city of the future.
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Cities
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The Pispala and Pyynikki districts at the edge of the city were once a community for mill workers. Now, they’re a haven for creative types.
Näsinneula tower (inspired by Seattle’s Space Needle) is a monument to 1970s brutalist opulence. Visit the revolving restaurant.
The Sara Hildén Art Museum is the permanent home of over 5,000 works of fantastic modern art collected by the acclaimed Finnish art collector.
48 Umbrella Field trip
Pictures Visit Tampere, Wikimedia Commons Words Simon Cunningham
+ Overleaf, The Tammerkoski flows through the centre of Tampere, dominated by a 1930s power station + Left, Everyday life on the streets, streams and markets of Finland’s second city
Tampere’s city centre looms above the impressive Tammerkoski rapids, which connect the great Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi lakes, and give a hint of the area’s industrial past. Today, the Taku paper mill is the only building still puffing out white smoke, and most of the neighbouring chimney stacks have been redundant since the 1990s. But Tampere is still letting the world know that it’s got a lot to offer. Giant LED screens boast about it inventing the smartphone (the neighbouring town of Nokia gives you a clue), and since the 1970s it’s been a world leader in ICT development and data processing. With an average of 608 tech start-ups founding every year, the legacy for innovation will continue long after the last factory has been converted into flats. To the visitor, Tampere feels like a young city, and that’s got a lot to do with its four universities and aforementioned startups. This leads to a bit of an eclectic feel to many of its arty hotspots. There seem to be theatres and indie cinemas on every block corner, and redundant mills have been snapped up by Shoreditch-esque creative types. In a long-defunct warehouse, a cold war ‘spy museum’ is neighbours with a club that hosts mad, all-night raves. The city centre is compact, tranquil and peaceful – yet it also boasts a sort of ‘adult playground’ on the fringe, composing of the eerily quiet Särkänniemi amusement park, which incorporates a retro 550ft-tall revolving restaurant. Dining up in the clouds at Restaurant Näsinneula gives you the best vista of the city, and – were it not for the platters of Mouhijärven herkkujuustola cheese and reindeer – the vast sodium glow below would once again convince you that you were in Greater Manchester. There are clear similarities with Tampere and Britain’s Pennine-straddling industrial heartlands, but can those towns
and cities currently flirting with George Osborne’s ‘Northern Powerhouse’ promises learn anything from the thriving city? For starters, it’s investing a lot of money in its infrastructure – something that would make the town halls in places like Leeds or Hull seethe with envy. Tampere is in the process of a vast, Crossrail-style project to tear up its dated ring road and replace it with a modern network of motorway arteries. The city has also just begun construction on that most coveted of civic hallmarks, a tram network (cost €250m). There’s a lot of building going on too, with modest skyscrapers and tech campuses springing up on the urban fringes. None of this is likely to happen in our northern cities any time soon. Yet amid all the engineering buzz, this is first and foremost a city that adores the outdoors. Locals love their bikes, and they trek up through fairytale forests to former workers’ villages that now house art collectives and trendy coffee shops. And everyone worships the lakes (all 2,751 of them) and saunas. In recent years, the city has adopted a new brand and civic identity: ‘Tampere All Bright’. On a literal level, it reflects its ambition to ‘light up’ its industrial buildings and bring them back into modern use, but on a deeper level it’s a reflection of a confident and ‘bright’ population. Tampere will never be a New York or a London, but it’s a city that charms its visitors – and could (but probably won’t) inspire our own northern towns to come out of the shadows.
Fly – Norwegian, from £113 return to Helsinki Cars are cheap to hire – from £60 for a long weekend Stay – Cumulus Hotel Koskikatu, overlooking the rapids, and feels like the hotel from The Shining. In a good way
SOCIAL MEDIA
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Follow us on Instagram Daily updates on stuff that we love Everything interesting that’s caught our eye, from brutalist Soviet tower blocks to expensive jackets with loads of pockets. Well you can’t look at David Beckham’s feed all day, can you?
52 A rgos catalogues 60 E U pensioner style 62 D rivers in the 1980s 66 L ife at the bottom of the bottle
Stories Longer reads for broader minds
62 The 1980s has been fetishised endlessly since the late 1990s, usually by people who didn’t live through it as adults. A new book puts paid to the myth of new romantics on every corner, by showcasing a selection of pictures of ’80s London drivers looking stiff, hot and miserable. If you like a little social realism with your style, this is something you need to take a look at.
Pictures Umbrella
Stories Umbrella 53
Words Matt Reynolds Further information argos.co.uk
Hopes, dreams and sovereign rings High-street mainstay Argos is 43 years old this year. Matt Reynolds leafs through the laminated pages of its history Rummaging around a car boot sale a couple of years ago I happened across a mint condition Argos catalogue from Spring/Summer 1973. The first ever edition. I wish I could say this was one of those Antiques Roadshow anecdotes where I go on to sell a purchase of a few pence for thousands of pounds at auction, but that’s not the case. Although there is a brisk (ish) trade in vintage catalogues online they rarely command high prices. Rather, their value is cultural. An essential sociohistoric artefact recording the hopes, dreams and shopping lists of a nation, if you will. OK, I’m using deliberate exaggeration for effect, but there’s a grain of truth in it. For the past 40 or so years the bi-annual Argos catalogue has been an inscrutably accurate barometer of exactly what we want to spend our hard-earned on, from the latest electronic gadgets to this year’s must-have kid’s toy. If it hadn’t got it at least part right, then it wouldn’t still be with us today. As for the ‘dreams’ there’s always been an element of aspiration to the catalogue. The products arranged in ascending price order suggest the possibility of a lifestyle different to (and often a lot better than) our own. What child in 1993 didn’t secretly covet the Sony D111 Discman Personal Compact Disc Player (RRP £159.99) but had to settle for the Alba CP45 Personal Stereo Cassette Player (RRP £6.99) instead? Exactly. It’s easy to mock Argos – and many do. From Bill Bailey to Michael McIntyre, the store has been the butt of many jokes, often with (snobbish) reference to the people who shop and work there. But credit where credit’s due (no pun intended). Not everywhere can be Habitat, nor should it be. And if I suddenly decide I can’t live without a drying rack, or a mop, or a nine-carat gold sovereign ring then Argos will be my first port of call. The mild inconvenience of a five minute wait at collection point B made bearable by their sensible pricing policy. Inevitably, the internet has had an effect on the
store. Although Argos was arguably Amazon before Amazon, the ‘point and click’ shopping experience they prefigured is now more preferable to many than a headache-inducing trip to the high street. Their response has been to streamline and update; 700 or so stores have been provided with iPads to replace the endless laminated book-pages and stubby blue biros. Printed catalogues are still available of course, distributed to an estimated 18 million UK households via the latest in picking-oneup-off-a-palette-outside-the-shop technology. A colleague tells me of a fool-proof way to keep his kids quiet on a long journey: “Give them an Argos catalogue each, and a pen. Ask them to work their way through the book, circling items on each page that they’d like for themselves, and items they’d like to send as gifts to friends and family. Instant silence, guaranteed.” So back to the boot sale. “How much do you want for this?” I ask, gesturing towards the slim burgundy volume as casually as I can. “Twenty quid to you, mate,” comes the reply. My heart sinks a little. It’s not the twenty pence I’d hoped for, but my curiosity has got the better of me. Later on, while leafing through the remarkably well preserved pages of Sodastreams, teasmaids and hilariously naff couples in matching bathrobes I resolve to track down each of the spring/summer editions from ten year intervals. The year is 2013 so the first one is easy. 1983 isn’t hard to find online, and 1993 soon follows. 2003 remains elusive for months – maybe it’s just too soon for it to be considered a listings-worthy artefact on eBay? Eventually though (and to the absolute horror of my better half) I am the proud owner of five catalogues that represent the most detailed, comprehensive – and often bizarre – record of 40 years of British spending habits. Over the next few pages we examine the highs and lows of each edition, from Elizabeth Duke jewellery at the front to the bikes at the back. Expect to exclaim “Oh my God, my Nan had that!” at least once.
1973 Super 8 cameras and a frogman suit
1983 His and hers leisurewear and Space Invaders on the Atari
1993 Head bags and a bazooka for your Super Nintendo
2003 George Foreman grills and a MiniDisc player
2013 Apple tablets and powders for muscle growth
Stories Umbrella 59
Argos in numbers Spring/Summer 1973
Spring/Summer 1983
Prime minister Edward Heath Number one record Blockbuster, The Sweet Bestselling Christmas toy Mastermind Board Game
Prime minister Margaret Thatcher Number one record You Can’t Hurry Love, Phil Collins Bestselling Christmas toy My Little Pony
Garden & DIY 9.90% Sports & Leisure 11.48% Health & Personal Care 3.56% Jewellery & Watches 6.73% Gifts & Hobbies 6.33% Technology & Computer 5.14% Kitchen & Laundry 24.55% Home & Furniture 21.38% Baby & Nursery 1.98% Clothing n/a Toys & Gaming 4.75% Index 3.96%
Total pages 252
Garden & DIY 12.39% Sports & Leisure 14.04% Health & Personal Care 4.53% Jewellery & Watches 12.39% Gifts & Hobbies 3.30% Technology & Computer11.51% Kitchen & Laundry 19.82% Home & Furniture 12.39% Baby & Nursery n/a Clothing n/a Toys & Gaming 5.36% Index 4.54%
Total pages 242
The first catalogue dedicated almost half of its pages to home furnishings and kitchen gadgets (mainly Sodastreams)
A smaller but more varied catalogue for Thatcher’s Britain, with an increased focus on faux-leather VHS cassette cases
Spring/Summer 1993
Spring/Summer 2003
Prime minister John Major Number one record No Limit, 2 Unlimited Bestselling Christmas toy Power Rangers
Prime minister Tony Blair Number one record All The Things She said, t.A.T.u Bestselling Christmas toy Beyblade
Garden & DIY 6.60% Sports & Leisure 9.24% Health & Personal Care 2.90% Jewellery & Watches 13.72% Gifts & Hobbies 5.01% Technology & Computer 15.84% Kitchen & Laundry 12.40% Home & Furniture 20.85% Baby & Nursery 0.79% Clothing n/a Toys & Gaming 8.44% Index 3.96%
Total pages 378
The technology section continued to grow as more and more people become fully addicted to Tetris on the Gameboy
Garden & DIY 7.65% Sports & Leisure 7.30% Health & Personal Care 2.64% Jewellery & Watches 10.47% Gifts & Hobbies 1.84% Technology & Computer 19.44% Kitchen & Laundry 6.77% Home & Furniture 33.26% Baby & Nursery 0.61% Clothing n/a Toys & Gaming 6.86% Index 2.20%
Total pages 1126
Home furnishings dominated the 2003 edition, possibly due to lovely Carol Smilie appearing on TV’s Changing Rooms
Spring/Summer 2013 Prime minister David Cameron Number one record Impossible, James Arthur Bestselling Christmas toy Teksta Puppy Garden & DIY 5.88% Sports & Leisure 8.05% Health & Personal Care 4.16% Jewellery & Watches 4.79% Gifts & Hobbies 1.14% Technology & Computer 15.24% Kitchen & Laundry 12.73% Home & Furniture 23.81% Baby & Nursery 2.05% Clothing 1.31% Toys & Gaming 10.84% Index 1.82%
Total pages 1750
Forty years on this mammoth edition was seven times the size of the original – and still featured loads of gold chains
So what have we learned? Certainly, our shopping habits have changed over the last four decades. From the rise and fall of matching bathrobes to the inexplicable popularity of the Big Mouth Billy Bass singing fish, Argos has grown steadily throughout – updating its well-thumbed catalogues to accommodate our shifting tastes. Gone are the stubby blue biros and laminated books in store, replaced by iPads, self-service checkouts and eBay ‘click and collect’ stations. And still the home catalogue survives – but face it, you’d miss it if it was gone. There’s something reassuringly familiar about the nostalgia-inducing images of domestic flotsam and jetsom that fill the pages. It’s bigger now than ever before, because we want more choice and we like to buy more stuff. Some things don’t cost as much as they used to (a 24” Sony widescreen TV would set you back a hefty £649.99 in 1993) yet proportionally the amount of ‘Home & Furniture’ items in the catalogue today is virtually the same as what it was back in 1973. It seems that, in Argos at least, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
60 Umbrella Stories
Pictures Peter O’Toole Words Anthony Teasdale
Old masters What UK menswear can learn from the pensioners of Europe
hile the – sigh –‘fashion pack’ scour the seasonal collections of Florence, London and New York for the big stories in menswear, superior sources of sartorial inspiration are actually to be found elsewhere: notably in the cafes and locals-only bars of Europe. The best-dressed people here are pensioners, who eschew fly-by-night trends in favour of classics that have served them well for decades. So, whether in Venice or Seville, when it comes to sartorial guidance, these oldies really are goodies.
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Suits: Italy England has long been recognised as the home of the suit. In our opinion this is a mistake, as can been by the beautiful whistles worn by Italian OAPs on their evening passagiato. The key here is the fit, specifically the ‘Neapolitan shoulder’ that characterise the Italian suit. For the uninitiated, this means all padding has been removed from the shoulders, leaving a natural silhouette. Navy-blue blazers are also favoured, while in the summer months, off-yellow suits appear, usually worn with a pocket square and cutaway collar. And always with the unpadded shoulder and tapered waist. Italian pensioners have also worked out that trousers should finish slightly above the shoe, making the wearer look taller: as opposed to have them puddling around the ankle like a Yorkshire businessman on a day out in town.
Stories Umbrella 61
Headwear: Portugal
Shoes: Germany Being a practical bunch, Germans tend to place functionality above style – as can be seen when its pensioners descend en masse into whatever spa town they’ve set their eyes on this week. The result is not a pretty sight. For most German oldies, unflattering too-short shorts, baseball caps and gilets with a million pockets are standard issue, and that’s just the women. However, there’s one saving grace: the footwear. As befitting its reputation for engineering, Germany produces incredible orthopaedic shoes, which are extremely popular with its over-65s. The good news is that the wares of brands as Finn Comfort and Mephisto also look brilliant with the type of selvedge denim and expensive technical coats that appeal to the younger chap in the UK. A happy coincidence.
For those in northern climes, hats are there primarily to keep out the cold and hamper CCTV cameras. Further south it’s a different story. In Portugal, the cap is a protection against the afternoon sun, shielding the wearer’s scalp from its damaging rays and providing shade for the eyes. But style’s a factor here, too. On sunny winter mornings, OAPs gather in town squares to gossip, drink coffee and bemoan the fortunes of Sporting, Porto or Benfica. And while many British seniors walk about in Asda fleeces and Lonsdale trainers, these Portuguese pensioners cut a dash in smart shirts, tank tops and, topping it off, beautifully shaped caps.
“For most German oldies, unflattering too-short shorts, baseball caps and gilets with a million pockets are standard issue, and that’s just the women”
Knitwear: Spain For a country that doesn’t often get cold, the Spanish do have a way with knitwear. Leading the charge are the older gentlemen of Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, who enjoy their morning cafe con leche-wearing the sort of classically continental outfits we all admire. The key item for these caballeros is the fine-knit V-neck, which is always worn over a neatly pressed button-down shirt, and coupled with tasteful ‘Peter Allis at Wentworth’ slacks and tan loafers. When the sun rises a little too high, the gentlemen discard the jumpers until the evening, when they end up on their shoulders, providing protection against the mellow chill of night. Sadly, this is not a time for complacency. As the older generation pass on, it seems that younger Spaniards’ fondness for Jim Morrison tattoos, tribal piercings and ‘ganja leaf’ T-shirts shows no sign of dissipating with age. A worrying portent.
62 Umbrella Stories
Pictures Chris Dorley-Brown Words Anthony Teasdale Further information hoxtonminipress.com
Road rage A timely book captures the London of the 1980s with photographs of drivers stuck in traffic jams You might be familiar with the 1980s, especially if you didn’t live through them. It’s the decade of puffball skirts, shoulder pads and yuppies – specifically that yuppie waving a wad of cash about in repeated TV montages. But of course the 1980s wasn’t like really that, as a new book, Drivers In The 80s, perfectly illustrates. On a summer day in 1987, Chris Dorley-Brown began to photograph drivers stuck in traffic around east London. His original plan had been to capture financial workers involved in the privatisation of Rolls Royce in the City, but instead he shot snaps of cars stuck in traffic on the way into the Square Mile. These form the basis of Drivers In The 80s. With their windows wound down to counter the summer heat (today the windows would be up thanks to air-con), these drivers gave Dorsey-Brown a completely unimpeded view of themselves. Unsurprisingly, he found them far more interesting than the bankers he’d set out to photograph. Here are women doing their makeup in rear-view mirrors, middle-aged men with comb-overs staring into the distance, and van drivers seething against implacable traffic jams. This east London, bereft of coffee shops and hip cocktail bars, is a very different beast to the one of today. There’s even people who look like Cockneys here. The 1980s has been the subject of revivalism since 1998 – around the time when London’s Hoxton really took off as a hip neighbourhood – and in that period it’s been misunderstood and misrepresented, and neatly packaged into a decade-long party of big hair and shoulder pads. Britain then wasn’t about Ghostbusters and Back To The Future: it was violent, political and divided between rich and poor. A mostly unpleasant, if interesting, place to live. Dorsey-Brown’s photographs may only be of those longing to get out of never-ending traffic jams, but they manage to embody the 1980s better than few books have managed before. If you lived through it, it’ll strike a chord with you – remember those British Telecom vans? – and if you didn’t, it’ll give you more insight into the era than a thousand ‘power ballad’ nights ever could. Drivers In The 80s is published by Hoxton Mini Press, priced £12.95
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book extract
Life at the bottom of the bottle John Newlove was a Canadian poet, writer and alcoholic, or as he termed it, “a drunk”. In this frank essay he talks about the release and freedom that intoxication gave him
It was a soft summer night and I was trying to walk the two blocks home from a wedding dance in the community hall. Men with large trays had been going back and forth, offering glasses of the best local home-brew to all takers. My particular dance was called one step forward, two steps back, fall into the caragana hedge, puke, rest, and try again. At one point as I was lying in the hedge I heard someone walking. The steps stopped and the corner light shone on a pair of black oxfords. A voice said, “Are you all right?” I puked on the shoes and they went away. I got home. Details are vague. In the morning I woke up lying across my bed, partially undressed, stained with and smelling of vomit. I didn’t know if I had been caught or not. My mouth was arid and I had a huge, pulsing, soprano headache. I loved it. I had found what I wanted. I wasn’t John the unlikable, unlovable one. I was that other guy, the tough guy with the same name, but drunk. It was freedom.
That’s only the booze talking, people used to say. Funny stuff; but I don’t know any other way to tell you what I am. I knew this was for me, especially the part about not being able to remember anything. If you can’t remember anything then you can do anything, I thought, and it isn’t your fault. I had been caught, of course. I listened meekly to my mother’s reproof – God knows that poor dear woman had enough knowledge of drunks to last an eternity – and agreed with her and said I was sorry and it would definitely never happen again, but absent-mindedly, because I was trying to figure out how to get some more booze. I was a reasonably bright kid, fourteen, too lazy to do homework but bright enough to read the book the day before the provincial exam and get a decent mark, and I was cursed with an argumentative mind that loved what it thought, in its superior teenage way, was logic. But it was intuition, not logic, told me that so-and-so
book extract
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Pictures Christie Rider christierider.com
book extract
Words John Newlove
(the names have been disguised, as they say, to protect the guilty) was weak. Intuition, not logic, told me that if I kept yapping at him he’d buy me a mickey of rye. It didn’t take much intelligence, logic or intuition to realise that in a town of about 2,000 people a 14-year-old walking around with a case of beer would be noticed. I didn’t consider wine; that was for drinking with fancy meals or on fancy occasions, the novels told me, and in the novels no one ever seemed to get drunk. I wanted to get drunk. I wanted to get pissed out of my head. I was right about so-and-so. Evil little bastard that I was, I knew once he’d bought me the first bottle he was hooked. What if I told someone? He got me a mickey of rye on a Friday. Because my parents were going to Yorkton Saturday I saved the whisky till then. Saturday morning I got up, had my breakfast, and wished and wished and wished that they’d hurry up and go to Yorkton. After they left I had a big slug of the rye and nearly puked again. Puking was looking like something I could get good at. I couldn’t skate worth a damn, to this day I don’t know the difference between an in-turn and an out-turn; I couldn’t dance, or wouldn’t; I still have three small spots of lead in my right hand where Karen stabbed me with a pencil after I tried to grab her largely theoretical tits in Grade 9; and I had a bad mouth and flew into screaming, sobbing rages I could never see coming on and if I got clocked in a fight it didn’t matter, because nothing could hurt me.
The freshman drunk I was registered at the University of Saskatchewan for a year but I had to pass pubs on the way to classes. I had my first draft beer at the Senator. We go grey early in my family and I’d had some grey in my hair since I was sixteen or seventeen: not tragedies, not heartbreak, just genetics. I thought it might get me by. The Senator had two levels. I went to the top one because there was no one else there, sat down and put a five-dollar bill on the table. My intuitive, intelligent, logical mind had never gotten around to asking anybody what draft beer cost, but I knew five bucks
would cover it easily; then I could count the change and figure it out. A bored waiter came over and put two draft on the table. I eased the five-dollar bill toward him. He made change (he’d given me two big glasses, twenty cents each) and I dropped a dime into his hand. I had a mouthful of beer. I thought, OK, I can do this any time. I looked around. The waiter was leaning against the wrought-iron railing that divided the lower and upper floors. He was watching me. When he saw that I was watching him too he came over and put my draft back on his tray. I thought, Oh shit. He said, “Follow me,” and I did. He went to a two-man (no women allowed) table behind a big pillar, put my draft on it and said, “Sit here, sonny. Nobody can see you here.”
The eventual toll Clinically, pancreatitis is one result of alcoholism. The pancreas gives up in despair and refuses to process your food. My doctor in Ottawa was English and she weighed me on an old imperial scale. When I got to 134 pounds from 195 she said, “You have a very strong constitution, Mr. Newlove. Why don’t you give it a chance?” I discovered that if you have water handy and some sour-lemon candies to keep your mouth wet, starving to death is a good way to die. You lose interest. You sleep a lot. A specialist later told me that pancreatitis is very difficult to diagnose, and that what seems like back pain is caused by this little bit of specialized meat spewing out angry juices into the surrounding organs. Of course, I have back pain on its own. My English doctor had a total body bone scan done on me – why don’t they put television on the ceilings of those cold white rooms for the occasions when you have to lie still for forty minutes? – and she told me I had cracked or broken at least one representative bone in every part of my body, from the right collarbone down. I said, “I’ve never broken my collarbone.” “Yes, you have,” she said. “See. In two places.”
This excerpt is taken from Addicted: Notes From The Belly Of The Beast, published by Greystone books, priced £12.99
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BACK ISSUES
Show your coffee table some love Three back issues for just £10 Want to complete your Umbrella collection? You can pick up any three back issues for only a tenner (or £4 each). Get yours at steeplepine.co.uk.
72 Vivobarefoot 76 Lacoste 84 Favourite thing 86 Outfits 94 Overshirts 96 Christopher Ward
Style
Travel agent Christopher Ward’s C8 UTC Worldtimer boasts a ‘GMT’ hand and rotating bezel that instantly gives you the time in any one of 23 other time zones. Review: page 96.
76 Sole power The brainchild of Galahad Clark – of the famous shoe dynasty – Vivobarefoot combines revolutionary thinking on footwear construction with fetching designs. We went to see its new shoes being made in Portugal. Story: page 72.
Lacoste has been making quality clothing since 1933, inventing the concept of branded sportswear with its crocodile-logo tennis shirt. In this issue, Umbrella joins forces with Scotts Menswear to create a Lacoste fashion story that brings elegant garment design together with the best of 1960s modernist architecture.
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Pictures Ron Timehin Words Tayler Willson Further information vivobarefoot.com
Bare necessities Tayler Willson travels to Portugal to meet Galahad Clark, sixth-generation shoemaker and the man behind Vivobarefoot, a company dedicated to a more natural way of walking
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+ Above, Vivobarefoot’s new Handcut Opanka Lace shoes at its factory in Portugal
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+ Clockwise from above, Galahad Clark with one of his creations; archive designs; shoeboxes at the factory in Sao Joao da Madeira; shoes under construction; a finished pair of Porto Heel Rocker shoes
G
alahad Clark is on a mission. One to make us walk like our ancestors did with the aid of some ingeniously designed shoes. A member of the famous shoemaking clan, Galahad grew up in Street, Somerset, where Clarks Shoes still has its HQ. During the ’90s he moved to North Carolina to study, forming a friendship with hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan at college. The unlikely bond led to the Wallabee-inspired ‘Wu Shoe’ collaboration later in the decade following an “interesting meeting” with his father, Lancelot. Since 2012, however, his priorities have been with the brand he and cousin Asher launched in 2004: Vivobarefoot – which, as the name suggests, is geared to getting people to reconnect with a
more natural way of walking. Up until recently, its shoes have been activity-focused, but the new Handcut collection brings fashion and traditional shoemaking methods into the equation. “We’re trying to create a traditional, goodlooking shoe that still ensures you walk as God intended,” says Galahad at one of Vivobarefoot’s two factories in Sao Joao da Madeira, Portugal. “It’s important for a shoe to be flexible, but most aren’t.” He aims to create shoes that not only look great, but enable the foot to move as it was intended. “As humans, we left Africa 70,000 years ago and we didn’t have hoofs or pads on our feet. So, one of the first tools we made were shoes to give us protection. Shoes should really be the shape of your foot, and that’s our aim.”
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New range
Men’s Lisbon Rocker, £240
Unisex Porto Rocker, £200
Unisex Opanka Slip-on, £170
Wu shoe In the early ’90s, Clarks was considering selling itself to an investor, but the WuTang Clan’s endorsement of Wallabees gave the model, and Clarks, a real boost. The brand then moved from a manufacturingbased company to one driven more by consumer marketing – as can be seen in its Originals range. Which, when you have guys like Tony Starks rapping the praises of your comfortable kicks and Ghostface Killah releasing a record called The Wallabee Champ, made perfect sense.
Each model Galahad and his team creates features a curved heel known as: the ‘heel rocker’. “We started making traditional shoes in Portugal again,” he says, “and realised our first shoes had quite a conventional 90-degree angle [at the heel] and you lose what barefoot is.” That’s now been fixed. The innovative system on the Handcut range creates a softer heel strike, causing less muscle strain on the shin. The curved heel is contoured to the natural foot shape for a smoother heel stroke, instead of a jarring heel strike you find with normal shoes. Vivobarefoot’s goal of finding the perfect balance between comfort, health and style seems a near-on impossible task in the mad world of fashion, but the latest work seems to have found the ideal blend. Maybe we should all go barefoot once in a while.
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Welcome to Sport Club Lacoste The home of elegance and athleticism: when Lacoste gets together with Scotts Menswear, this is the place to be
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Winter protection While Sport Club Lacoste’s modernist headquarters are architecturally satisfying, in the colder months draughts have been known to creep in. Members guard against this by placing button-down shirts under zip-up knitted tops for that winter-luxe look. This keeps the cold out, while ensuring sartorial standards are maintained.
+ This page, and previous Grey men’s half-zip cotton sweatshirt, £100 Men’s slim-fit mini-check poplin shirt, £90 Stretch denim jeans, £110 Montbard boots, £140 + Opposite page Classic fit long-sleeve polo in marl petit piqué, £85 Regular-fit jeans in stretch denim, £110 Men’s classic belt in petit piqué embossed leather, £40 Green Lacoste 12.12 watch, £75 Khaki suede Sevrin boots, £80 All products available from from scottsmenswear.com
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Sleeve notes While black-tie is only necessary at the annual awards ceremony, members (and guests) are expected to look smart at all times. One stylish staple is the long-sleeved tennis shirt, which can be worn under a sweater, or, as here, on its own – though the rolling up of sleeves is frowned upon by some on the club committee.
Umbrella promotion
Leap year After a summer of cliff-diving in the Med, the club’s bravest athletes are ready for the annual high-dive contest. While competition will be fierce, the current champ’s poolside get-up is already a winner. The versatility of the Lacoste T-shirt and jacket combination (and those slim trousers) are brought together with perfect white trainers. Jump in!
+ This page Green hooded, zippered jacket with contrasting accents, £160 White regular-fit crew-neck cotton T-shirt, £40 Navy blue regular-fit chinos in gabardine, £85 White Lerond trainers, £60 All products available from from scottsmenswear.com
Umbrella promotion + This page Grey crew-neck wool jumper, £100 Light blue shirt in oxford cotton, £95 Stretch denim jeans, £110 Blue Lacoste 12.12 watch, £75 Brown suede Sevrin boots, £80 + Opposite page Navy-blue hooded, zippered jacket, £160 Men’s full-zip cotton fleece sweatshirt, £110 Red regular-fit, crew-neck cotton T-shirt, £40 Blue classic-fit jeans, £100 Court-Minimal off-white trainers, £95 All products available from from scottsmenswear.com
A study in subtlety It gets a little chilly in Sport Club Lacoste’s library, where members are encouraged to read up on sports science and the art of fair play. This outfit is perfect for the task. The light blue oxford button-down nestles beautifully under the soft wool crew-neck, while the dark jeans and casual shoes add a touch of subtle formality. First class.
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Outside influence After a morning in the pool, some members like to spend Saturday afternoons watching Sport Club Lacoste’s amateur football team. This outfit is perfect for the home enclosure: lots of layers to keep out the cold, and smart enough to be worn in the clubhouse after another well-earned victory.
scottsmenswear.com /scottsmenswear @scottsmenswear @scottsmenswear
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our favourite thing
Hawkwood Mercantile Tryfan Anorak ÂŁ180 Hawkwood Mercantile is the brainchild of Delhi-based British designer Richard Illingworth. Inspired by classic military, work and outdoor-wear, this is casual clothing with a Savile Row twist. How so? Every piece in the (excellent) collection is made to order, meaning your garment is unique to you. Truly modern tailoring. Contact via Instagram @hawkwood_mercantile or email richard@hawkwoodmercantile.com
+ The anorak comes in its own canvas storage bag with a button pouch, spare buttons and fabric swatches for patching
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+ The Tryfan anorak is made by a single tailor from 100% cotton with hand-cut genuine buffalo horn buttons
+ As each item is made in-house, sizing can be altered slightly with particular fabrics sourced on request
+ Every garment is individually cut and sewn to order, and takes two/three weeks to arrive from Delhi
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Outfit
Liberal arts fantasist This gent looks like the epitome of the well-read student. Sadly, looks can be deceiving. While his mum believes he’s doing a Ph.D in art history, the truth is he’s resitting his GCSEs for the 12th time and looking after the hamster section in the local pet shop (Sat only).
Universal Works Barra jacket, £199, universalworks.co.uk
Gymphlex rugby shirt, £90, gymphlex.co.uk
CP Company wool scarf, £85, cpcompany.co.uk
Sekford Type 1A watch, £695, sekford.com
Universal Works Fatigue pant, £190, universalworks.co.uk
Vans OG Era LX trainers, £55, vans.co.uk
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Outfit
Respectable anarchist It’s been a long time since the punk days of 1976, but our man keeps the faith with his luxe version of Johnny Rotten’s onstage get-up. The effect is only slightly compromised by his five-bedroom house, golf club membership and ‘robust’ views on immigration.
Paul & Shark wool round neck, £289, flannels.com
Cambridge Satchel Company Folio satchel, £195, cambridgesatchel.com
Realm & Empire back-print Naval Supply overshirt, £130, realmandempire.com
Realm & Empire back-print Naval Supply overshirt, £130, realmandempire.com
Techné Instruments Merlin 296 dual-time watch, £150, technewatches.com
OHW? Deacon trainer £80, ohwshoes.com
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Outfit
Craft-ale escapist What went wrong? Every Saturday he was off on his travels, checking out new microbreweries. Then one day he came home to find his lady had cleared off, Now all he’s left with is a collection of Tedious Home Brewer magazine and boxes of pork scratchings. So not all bad then.
Newfangle Treinador jacket, €155, newfangleclothing.com
Samsøe & Samsøe polo neck, £80, samsoe.com
Christopher Ward C60 Trident Pro GMT, £860, christopherward.co.uk
Albam straight-leg jeans, £115, albamclothing.com
Pointer Kinman boot, £130, pointerfootwear.com
Fjällräven Re-Kånken bag, £70, fjallräven.co.uk
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Outfit
Caledonian dreamer This family-tree obsessed American is proud to be “1/64th Scotch-Irish”. So much so that he wore a special outfit for a tour of the old country last month. Something to ponder as he lies in intensive care after treading on ‘wee Jimmy’s’ foot in a charming 1960s pub in Easterhouse.
Scotch & Soda tartan shirt, £100, scotch-soda.com
Nomos Orion Neomatik watch, £2,260, nomos-store.com
Ray-Ban Clubmaster sunglasses, £135, ray-ban.com
astpak navy London backpack, £75, E eastpak.com
Albam garment-dyed sweatshirt, £89, albamclothing.com
GH Bass Weejuns loafers, £125, ghbass-eu.com
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6876 Modern Studies T-shirt, £45, sixeightsevensix.com Realm & Empire wool shirt, £120, realmandempire.com
Darter Goods T-shirt, £26, dartergoods.com Vans Green Leaf Exeter jacket, £57, vans.co.uk
Fine Grains Records T-shirt, £25, bleep.com Scotch & Soda overshirt, £170, scotch-soda.com
CP Company Mako T-shirt, £65, cpcompany.co.uk Realm & Empire LS shirt, £90, realmandempire.com
Over it An overshirt is the perfect foil for a tee this season, especially if you’re the sort of chap that likes to layer up
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Pictures Christopher Ward Words Anthony Teasdale Further information christopherward.co.uk
World class Christopher Ward’s C8 UTC Worldtimer is just the ticket for travellers and geography fans alike Bringing the worlds of military and civilian aviation design into one watch, Christopher Ward’s C8 UTC Worldtimer puts the wearer directly in touch with cities around the globe thanks to its two-piece worldtimer dial and ‘UTC’ functionality. Named after Universal Coordinated Time – a term which aviation types prefer over ‘GMT’ – the C8 UTC Worldtimer offers the wearer near-unlimited timing possibilities. The watch takes its design cues the Smith’s Mark II A clock used in Spitfires during World War II. And like the rest of the models in CW’s C8 range, it carries engravings of the aviation wind tunnels in Farnborough where the aerodynamics of aircraft like the Spitfire and Concorde were honed. The most striking part however is the two-piece dial, which features a 24-hour inner ring and a rotating worldtimer bezel showing prominent international cities, meaning the wearer can immediately work out the time anywhere on Earth. Want to know the time in Hong Kong while sitting in Manchester (that’ll be a yes then)? Just line up ‘London’ with the current local time on the inner ring, and you’ll get the HK result immediately. For those looking to keep track of one timezone in particular, the fourth 24-hour ‘GMT’ hand is another brilliant addition, while its ETA 2893-2 movement, has a power reserve of 42 hours: meaning it’ll run for nearly two days off the wrist. Not that you’ll be taking it off for that long.
+ The C8 UTC Worldtimer has ‘pipette’ hands covered in SuperLuminova for visibility after dark
+ Sekford’s watches look to mid-century horology for influenceid-century
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+ Sekford’s watches look to mid-century horology for influence
98 Umbrella Last word
Pictures Andrew Emery
Obsessions: Hip-hop T-shirts Andrew Emery wears his rap obsession on his sleeve(s)
O
utside a Public Enemy concert in Leeds, 1987. I’ve just been ‘taxed’ for the hat I bought from the merchandise stall inside by a group of lads who punched me for good measure. But there’s one thing they didn’t take. My pride? No, they definitely took that as I tried to weasel my way out of a beating. That’s long gone. What they didn’t take was the Public Enemy T-shirt I bought and was wearing over the top of another tee. The Public Enemy shirt I had on when I pushed my way to the front of the show and got my hand touched by Flavor Flav and Chuck D. A shirt that still takes pride of my place in my ever-swelling hip-hop T-shirt collection nearly 30 years later. Being a hip-hop collector – tees, records, posters, tapes, stickers, press shots, you name it – in the UK is not easy. You’re struck by geographical limitations as all the US collectors get first dibs. You’re hampered by financial considerations as Japanese hoarders with deep pockets outbid you on eBay. But still, I plug away. Every victory seems the sweeter for the struggle. From the Luke Skyywalker T-shirt I’ve been after for 20 years to that Poor Righteous Teachers tee I didn’t know existed until I swooped and bought it recently. And I can take it on the chin when my richer best friend simply goes online and drops $400 on a rare Diamond D promo shirt I can’t quite bring myself to spend this month’s mortgage payment on.
There’s regret, too. The T-shirts I gave away or shrank in the wash. The clear-outs to make space in poky London flats. Ones that I’d love to wear now, ones that I know would fetch a lot of money. As a hip-hop writer in the ’90s I was drowning in black XL Hanes and Fruit Of The Loom tees with crappy logos on, a time of plenty I thought would never end. And when it did, inevitably, end, I found I’d given a lot of it away. The complete range of Rawkus Records tees I was allowed to help myself to for free in their New York stockroom, the Loud Records x Helly Hansen coat of such an awful yellowness I stuffed it into a bin on Briggate in Leeds. When DJ Ross One published his brilliant Rap Tees book in 2015, my obsession took a new turn. There was jealousy at some of the incredible T-shirts he’d put together. There was annoyance at myself for having had some of these over the years, carelessly discarding them. And there was the pleasurable reinforcing of my collecting instinct: this book was proof that not only was I not alone, I was right. I even felt, with some justification, that the book would have been a smidgen better if they’d borrowed some of my shirts. And my Rap-A-Lot Records game is very, very strong. Ross One’s book has increased the clamour for rare tees, sent bids on eBay through the roof, but I’m still hanging in there. Nothing gets thrown out anymore. Time to find a bigger house.
Next issue Benidorm: the Manhattan of Europe; Enclaves and exclaves; Underworld on cities; usual trendy stuff
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