Goldie's Fab Four #14

My cultural (and other) highlights of the week

Wednesday (Netflix)

Are we in the midst of a Goth Revival?  As the Whitby tourist board will testify, for some people it never went away, but a slew of books including John Robb’s bestseller seem to have reignited wider interest in this post punk movement which was itself rooted in Victorian architecture, painting and literature. 

Tim Burton has always mined the cavern of darkness for his art, and rarely to better effect than in this timely updating of the Addams Family story.  Jenna Ortega is striking in the lead role – scarily intense, daring you to laugh at her boldness – as she probes the dark secrets of Nevermore Academy (a kind of 15-rated Hogwarts). 

Suspenseful and funny with more than a dash of action adventure, this is a classic in the making.

Bournville – Jonathan Coe (Penguin)

I remember the excitement of leafing through Jonathan Coe’s ‘The Rotters’ Club’ for the first time and recognising his description of a suburban pub that I knew must the Black Horse in Northfield – a mock Tudor, Berni Inn style steakhouse, and the first place where my Mom and Dad ever took us for a meal.

There’s more to Coe than playing Spot The Location, but the Birmingham born author describes his (and my) home city in such detail, that it’s undeniably part of the thrill of reading one of his books.

Don’t worry, though – if you’re not from the West Midlands, there’s still plenty to appreciate in his series of novels about post war Britain.

I really enjoyed Coe’s post-Brexit work Middle England, and his latest novel filters 70 years of British social change through the intertwined stories of musician Lorna Simes and her family members, across a series of landmark events – the Coronation of Elizabeth II, V E Day, England’s 1966 World Cup win and the Platinum Jubilee.

The book came out before Charles’ recent ascent to the throne, but that undoubtedly adds a layer of resonance too.

Britain’s industrial history is referenced through the ‘chocolate town ’ that gives the book its name, while Coe also charts Britain’s changing attitudes to race and sexual orientation in this kaleidoscopic swirl.

Auschwitz Memorial

The Twitter stream @AuschwitzMuseum has a very simple premise.  It features pictures of people incarcerated in the notorious Nazi death camp, alongside a short biography. Sometimes the pics are their official camp photos – where the prisoners’ faces reveal a mixture of fear and defiance.  Others show inmates in their civilian life - pictures of children, perhaps, on holiday (like the one above) or adults captured in family portraits.

The conclusion of these stories is usually (but not always) grim, but it’s the unemotional repetitiveness of the site that ultimately gets to you.  This was death on an horrific, industrial scale, extinguishing lives (including those of my paternal grandparents) that were as varied and as valuable as our own.

Neil Jones and Neil Sheasby from Stone Foundation

A few months ago I was invited to host a night to mark the release of a documentary about Stone Foundation – a Midlands based soul band who’ve been performing their own songs for a quarter of a century.  In between a few questions by yours truly, the band’s core songwriting duo Neil Jones and Neil Sheasby played a few of their tunes acoustic-style – and they were brilliant.

Now they are venturing out with a few shows in this stripped back style – including one I’m promoting at the Rock n Roll Brewhouse on June 8, which I was able to confirm in the last few days.

No apologies for including it here.  It’ll be a cracker.