Interestingly, it was our first exhibition as Ouse Life, and one of the first exhibitions held at the then brand new Babylon Gallery by the river Great Ouse in Ely

Our theme for this show was local people. This led to a really wide spread of different ages, professions and went beyond just the City of Ely. We had a librarian, an old school headmaster at Little Ouse, a signal master and many more. I have mislaid the original catalogue for now, as well as the full-scale photographs.

We were encouraged to add audio to these paintings, by recording interviews with our subjects. Currently I only have a transcript of each of mine.

I chose to stay local. In those days, Cliff Ward,  the very well-respected music teacher, musician and original instigator of many local bands, including a couple of my son’s, was in fact Duncan Earlam’s first (only) guitar teacher. So Imade a composite portrait of an early band of his, called Jeff.
A second subject was a local student dancer, who also taught junior classes, called Layla. For now, I do not remember her second name. She studied and worked at the Lane Academy at the time, although I expect she went on to other things. Now she reminds me of a younger friend, Josie Shipp, who played a similar role at the Octagon Studios, Ely.

My final character was a guy called Stephen, once a pub landlord, at that time selling the Big Issue. One of the first in Ely.