Lunchtime Lecture: The Bristol Sound, multiculturalism and anti-racism

From Lunatic Fringe to World-Wide Massive: The Bristol Sound, Multiculturalism and Anti-racism

Dr Peter Webb – Senior Lecturer and Researcher, UWE, Bristol.

From the Wild Bunch to Massive Attack , Portishead, Tricky and Reprazent to the current Young Echo Collective, Kahn and many others a musical cocktail was blended in the cultural context of Bristol.

Its varying communities, its small geographical size, the cross-pollinating musical subcultures and communities of Punk, Reggae, Soul, Jazz, Alt Rock, Rockabilly, Ska, Hip-hop and Metal all filtered into the sound that Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky, The Cup of Tea Record label and many others produced that would come to be known as the Bristol Sound.

This music though was constructed in an environment that had its own peculiarities and moments of important development. Much of the Bristol sound was made away from the gaze of the mainstream music press and media. The development of their sound was as much to do with the musical community around them and their own journeys through music. Punk was a key part of their development, as was Reggae and the early form of hip-hop.

Bristol has made music that has been influential across the world - this talk explores the impact of Bristol as a city, the lack of a music industry in Bristol, the different ethnic and class communities and the development of the Bristol sound within their work.

This talk also discusses the key role that the multi-culture of the city and a strong component of anti-racist activism played in the story of the Bristol sound and music scene. The talk will discuss the development of St Pauls, the riots of 1980 and 1981, the links between the music and the political activism and the role of the anti-racism and a cultural mix in the clubs, venues and groups of musicians that grew through the 1970s to the present day and ends with the toppling of Colston's statue, the K*ll the Bill riot and the most recent anti immigrant rally on Castle green on the 3rd August 2024.

Biography

Dr. Peter Webb is a writer, lecturer and musician who specializes in research into popular and contemporary music, subcultures, politics and social theory. He is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the UWE, Bristol. Webb previously worked within an independent record label from 1990 – 2002 as an artist and tour manager, the physical theatre companies Blast Theory and Intimate Strangers and the film company Parallax Pictures. He is the Owner and Creative Director of the publishing company PC-Press – which has published books about Test Dept, Killing Joke and Massive Attack. He is currently making music with a project called New Brand and re-releasing Statik Sound system material.

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