MUZIK KINDA SWEET BY POGUS CAESAR

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BRITISH MUSIC EXPERIENCE CELEBRATES BLACK HISTORY MONTH WITH EXHIBITION OF RARE PHOTOGRAPHS
1st – 30th October 2011

The British Music Experience presented by the Co-operative, in association with OOM Gallery will be showcasing an exclusive exhibition of 38 rare photographs celebrating legendary black musicians working in the UK.

Using a simple camera photographer Pogus Caesar followed the musicians and singers around the famous venues producing a collection that celebrates a style of black music that brings together the UK, the US and the Caribbean.

From Stevie Wonder in 1989, Grace Jones in 2009 and Big Youth in 2011, this unique exhibition documents how black music, in its Reggae, Soul, Jazz and R&B tributaries of sound, has changed and renewed itself over the decades.

Journeying from Jimmy Cliff to Jay-Z via Mica Paris and Mary Wilson of The Supremes to David Bowie's bass player Gail Ann Dorsey, these images conjure up an alphabet of the music of the Black Atlantic.

The photographs selected from OOM Gallery Archive are also as much about the clubs and venues, as it is about the singers, producers and musicians. The Wailers at The Tower Ballroom, Sly Dunbar at The Hummingbird Club, Courtney Pine at Ronnie Scott's, Cameo at the Odeon Cinema, Ben E. King at the Hippodrome and Soul II Soul's Jazzie B at BBC Pebble Mill, many venues now lost to regeneration or renewal, and only recalled through memory and imagery.

In their day such venues welcomed black music with open charms, giving safe havens to their audiences, and helping to shape the cities own distinctive underground and mainstream sound.

Author and historian Paul Gilroy who wrote the foreword for the book remarks "Pogus Caesar's emphatically analog art is rough and full of insight. He conveys the transition between generations, mentalities and economies. These images record a unique period in what would come to be called black British life."

In a 30-year career of taking pictures, Pogus Caesar has uniquely captured moments of everyday life with a simple Canon 35mm camera, spontaneously recording the unfamiliar, as well as the celebrated and the iconic. With reference to the title Caesar says “In my teens, when listening to the latest records, if the song had a wicked rhythm and cool lyrics and we would nod our head and say yeah man, the Muzik Kinda Sweet!”

In addition to the exhibition, Pogus Caesar will be launching his book Muzik Kinda Sweet and conducting a Q&A session at the British Music Experience on the 12th October 2011.

About the British Music Experience
The British Music Experience is the new national museum of Popular music, and the first real interactive museum in the UK. Following its opening at The O2 on the Greenwich Peninsula in 2009 it has made its mark as the centre for everyone who wants to celebrate the fantastic history of British popular music.
Unique ‘smartickets’ enable visitors to actually download content from the museum as they go round the galleries, learning zones, music studio, dance area, live music area and the audio visual spaces. In addition there is a full education and public programme which ranges from workshops and trails to full scale concerts and Master Classes. The museum received a Special Commendation at the 2011 European Museum of the Year Awards.
The British Music experience is grateful to be supported by the following high quality partners, who contribute to its mission to advance the appreciation and understanding of the art, history and science of popular music in Britain: The Co-operative, Gibson, Sennheiser, Getty Images, Planet Rock and BBC Worldwide.
The British Music Experience is a registered not-for-profit charity with the purpose of advancing the education and appreciation of the art, history and science of music in Britain. www.britishmusicexperience.com

About Pogus Caesar
Pogus Ceasar was born in St Kitts, West Indies, and grew up in Birmingham, UK. A self-taught artist, he originally concentrated his early artistic talent on painting. Influenced by the pointillist paintings of the French Impressionist George –Pierre Seurat, Pogus developed his own technique using a simple fountain pen and ink. Composing his paintings with thousands of tiny dots, this minutely detailed use of the pen meant that even the smaller works would take several months to complete. Pogus would then sell his work through a stall that was part of the Bullring market.

In the 1980s Pogus became director of the West Midlands Ethnic Minority Arts Service, an organisation that promoted multicultural arts regionally and nationally. He was also the first Chairman of Birmingham International Film & Television Festival. For the Arts Council of Great Britain he has curated and contributed to major shows by black British artists including into the Open (1984) and Caribbean Expressions in Britain (1986).

In the late 1980s Pogus started working in television – originally as a journalist on Channel 4’s Black on Black (1985), then as producer and director of entertainment, sport and multi cultural programmes for Central Television, Carlton Television and the BBC. Pogus’ productions at Central Television included I’m Black in Britain (1995), at Carlton Television – Respect (1995), and Drumbeat (1999), and at the BBC – A-force (1997). In 1993 he formed a production company, Windrush Productions, whose productions include the award winning multi-cultural series Xpress (1995), and independent films such as Forward Backward – Backward Never (2002), Francesca’s Key (2007), The Diver (2009) and Aaliyah Live in Amsterdam (2010).

As a photographer and artist Pogus has worked in the UK and many other countries including Spain, India, South America, Sweden, South Africa, Albania and Jamaica documenting the lives of diverse communities. He has also photographed artists, musicians, poets and politicians such as Archbishop Despond Tutu, Julie Christie and Paul Robertson Jr. His works are in private and public collections such as the City Gallery, Leicester; Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield; Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

In 2004 Pogus established the internet based OOM Gallery which houses his extensive photographic archives. OOM Gallery collaborates with the private, public and voluntary sector by developing and producing a diverse range of multimedia projects.

In 2010 his first book Musik Kinda Sweet was published. He was also given the Westmore Ezekiel Award by the Birmingham Black International Film Festival for his contribution to British television.

About The Co-operative
The Co-operative Food is the fifth largest food retailer, following the acquisition of the Somerfield supermarket chain in March 2009. The Co-operative Financial Services is one of the largest and most diversified financial mutual businesses, operating The Co-operative Bank, The Co-operative Insurance and Britannia.

It is also the UK’s number one provider of funeral services, the third largest retail pharmacy chain, a leading travel retailer, supplying the travel needs of more than three million people annually, and is the UK’s largest farmer.

The Co-operative stands apart from other major retailers in the UK as a business, which is owned, not by a small group of shareholders, but by more than five million consumers. With core interests in food, financial services, travel, pharmacy, funerals and farms, it has an annual turnover of £14 billion, employs 123,000 staff and operates over 5,000 retail trading outlets handling more than 20 million weekly transactions.

The Co-operative has been voted the UK’s most ethical brand, and 98 per cent of all its outlets are powered by renewable energy. With 260 Fairtrade grocery products, it has the widest range of Fairtrade grocery products.
For more information about The Co-operative please visit www.co-operative.co.uk