COVENTRY Music Museum curator Pete Chambers BEM writes for the Observer.
MANY thanks to all the people who help mark the 10th anniversary of the Coventry Music Museum last week.
Especially the godfather of 2-Tone Jerry Dammers who I had the honour of interviewing before he began the finest DJ set I think I have ever heard, delighting the gathered crowd at Knights at the 2-Tone Village.
Earlier we welcomed members of the Coventry music scene including Bob Jackson of Badfinger, Dave Willetts, Grammy award winning producer Roger Lomas and, from the rock-band Paris, Tim Constable plus the current trailblazers Ruth Kelly and Chrissie Dux, Chris Clarke, Danny Ansell, Guy Surtees and many more.
The artist of the month – the very talented Yes, Princess – was also there and delighted our guests with a short acoustic set.
Later CMM poet in Residence Nick Knibb gave us another amazing poem marking our ten years.
Then Jerry surprised myself and Julie who presented me with a gold disc and flowers for Julie from the amazing volunteers – the irony was not lost on me that there was Jerry giving ME a gold disc!
Then I got to interview the man himself, Jerry Dammers, who was on amazing form and delighting the many fans.
As you can imagine the conversation flowed to many places.
Following the question and answer session, Jerry took to the decks, giving us a wonderful journey through ska, reggae, soul and 1960s pop, along with many other genres.
The highlight for me and many others was when Jerry played Ghost Town – there in front of us was the man who wrote that epic song and there he was turning the volume down so we could sing to it, that for me was very emotional.
It really made the circle complete and made all those ten years make sense. It was a great night and I even danced the night away. Thanks also to DJ Dave who too gave us some great sounds.
On the Sunday we welcomed the Dirt Road Band – they did a superb set of R’n’B that rocked the venue on Ball Hill like never before, rounding off a perfect weekend.
I can’t name everyone but special mention to Jerry Dammers, Yes, Princess, The Dirt Road band, Dave Willetts, Trevor Evans, Suky Singh, Alph and Angela Knight, Andy Kemp, Louise and Nigel Leech, all our amazing Volunteers and of course my other half Julie.
Thanks to you if you have visited, promoted or helped the museum in any way – there has been some low time especially during Covid, but thankfully with our great team and supporters we are still here.
