Photo exhibition of black music legends in Birmingham
Mar 20 2009 by Richard McComb, Birmingham Post
the house I would have a little glass of sherry or QC wine and listen to the music. There was Andy Williams, Nat King Cole, the great crooners.”
In the 70s, he discovered the magic of soul and reggae, taking in a huge musical sweep from Stevie Wonder to Lee “Scratch” Perry, both of whom are featured in the Fazeley Studios show. The revolutionary spirit and political bite of the performers was inspirational.
What followed was an education in sweet soul and the joy of skank, courtesy of the Birmingham touring circuit. The biggest names in music came to Brum. Pogus saw them all. At the Odeon in New Street, he watched Bob Marley, the Four Tops, the Jackson 5, George Clinton, Barry White, Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway. Across town at the Hippodrome, there was Ben E King and Earth, Wind & Fire. He saw Otis Redding at the venue but can’t remember it (a friend reminded him the other day).
“Is there a reason for that? Why you can’t remember seeing Otis?” I ask.
“No!” says Pogus, laughing.
But he does recall the stars he saw at the Top Rank in Dale End. “Solomon Burke. Wilson Pickett and Ike and Tina Turner. It cost something like 10 shillings to see these people,” says Pogus.
It was his love of the music and desire to capture Birmingham’s music legacy that prompted Pogus to become the city’s unofficial recorder of performing black icons. Some are caught on stage, such as The Wailers at the Tower Ballroom, Edgbaston, in 1986, an image that encapsulates the steamy atmosphere of an intimate reggae session.
Other performers are photographed out of the “office” including singers who were later cut down in their prime. There is a haunting picture of the R&B star Aaliyah, taken six years before she died in an air crash. A cool looking Lynden David Hall, who appeared in the film Love Actually as a wedding singer, is taken outside The Drum in Aston in 1999, the year after he picked up a MOBO for best newcomer. He died of cancer three years ago, at the age of 31.
Pogus says it has been a humbling experience to meet so many stars, but if one encounter sticks out it is his session with Stevie Wonder. Pogus grew up listening to the star’s 1972 album Talking Book and was bowled over to be asked to film a video for Wonder when he came to the city in 1989. Wonder had been playing at the NEC and was working on a video at the now demolished Central Music Studios. Pogus was called to the studio after midnight. “Stevie had no concept of night and day and would just come in a record when he wanted to,” recalls Pogus.
His intimate image of Wonder, alone in the studio, caught in the moment as he plays out melodies on a keyboard, is the show’s emotional centrepiece. Here is the star stripped of artifice.
“I was like a child in his company,” says Pogus. “It has been an immense pleasure to spend time with people like him. But their is no point in that experience unless you can share it with people.”
* Muzik Kinda Sweet is at Fazeley Studios, Fazeley Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, until April 3.
