Tuesday 28 January 2014

Portsmouth Photography

Well it's just as well that very early on this month I realised blogging my good in every day wouldn't actually be possible every day, otherwise by now I would have been very disappointed with my blogging rate for January.
The internet connection has been a bit hit and miss these past few days and then last week my laptop was out of action for days on end because it was running so slowly and needed some attention.
I'm not going to recap on all the time I've missed, I'm just going to record our Saturday afternoon.
I had noticed there was a photo exhibition on in Portsmouth showing the work of Harry Goodwin, who was a resident photographer on Top of the Pops from 1964-73. I mentioned it to G who was just as keen as I was to see it and so we settled on visiting last weekend.
I double checked the website for details in the morning and we set out from our local train station at lunch time.
Another location, another wall to be walked along.


A group of volunteers have planted up an area on the platform and there were some lovely pops of colour, enjoyed by us and other creatures.



The Guildhall is just a hop, skip and jump from the train station so we didn't have far to walk.
Once inside I asked the lady on the desk if she could point us in the direction of the exhibition.
'I'm sorry but it's closed today,' she said. They were having some electrical work carried and this had meant that they had to close the exhibition.
I said I had checked the website that morning and there had been no information regarding this online and that we had come down on the train from Southampton specifically to see it.
I wasn't rude, I just wanted to express our disappointment.
She called someone to come and see us and they explained that the music which accompanied the exhibition couldn't be played because of the electrical work but nothing else was affected and if we were happy to view it without it we could go in and they would waive the entrance fee.





As well as the photos we had gone to see there were other small displays, one of bands who had come from the Portsmouth area and one of the artists who had come to play at the Guildhall over the decades from The Beatles to Rizzle Kicks and everyone in between.

The Harry Goodwin exhibition didn't disappoint. They were all there, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Roy Wood, The Who, Slade, Cliff Richard, Eric Clapton, The Sweet and this glam trio.
Marc Bolan looking so beautiful, Rod Stewart looking so cool and Elton John looking so young!



This photo triggered many memories of prancing around our living room with my sisters, making up dance routines and pretending we were Pans People.



And never in a month of Sunday's would I have guessed this was Barry Gibb.




Being the polite people we are we made sure we thanked the staff on our way out for letting us in,  we would have been sad to have missed it. 

6 comments:

  1. ooh so my era ! My primary school teacher went to school with Babs from Pans People; we were in awe !!

    It pays to be polite but firm x

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  2. So glad they let you in. Whilst I'm sure you would have found something else interesting to do, you always do, it would've been so disappointing not to have seen it. x

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  3. What a fab exhibition, it would have been a shame to have missed it. I'm glad you managed to get in, and for free too.

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  4. My era too! The exhibition looks right up my street. Glad you got to see it. xx

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  5. Wow I'd love to see that exhibition, Top of the Pops from my era too.

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  6. Marc Bolan was indeed beautiful. I would have LOVED to see this exhibition. Very much my era too. I was once in Laura Ashley's in Kensington behind Cherry Gillespie from Pans People - and let me tell you, she was not a polite lady!!! xxxx

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