Well I’ve decided that I obviously can’t commit to making a post-a-day on the blog so my “Illustrator a Day” experiment has been abandoned for now … I’m pursuing a life of random activity!

Here is a fantastic link to a film interview with the photographer John Myers about the exhibition he had at the IKON gallery in Birmingham (November 2011-February 2012) It was entitled Middle England. The wonderful photos were taken between 1972-1979 and are of ordinary people with ordinary lives.

Photo by John Myers from the Middle England exhibition.
IKON Gallery. Nov 2011-Feb 2012. Click on the image for the film.

They are fantastic photos that show details of homes and everyday lives, house interiors and clothes that evoke memories, but they are also photographs that make you feel that nothing much has changed really. The outside toilet in the yard might now be a shed, the wooden chest with the stereo or drinks cabinet might not be there anymore  - but people are pretty much they same, despite the fashions. These are everyday people.

John Myers describes his photos as

“the kind of England most of us live in, the wold of suburbia, the world of substations…”

He describes the people  in his images as…

“People that are not famous, not picturesque, they don’t walk around doing maypole dancing or these kind of exotic English festivals, they are not strange, they are normal people. And the world that they live in is the world that we recognise and most of the time we just blank it out. We want things that are spectacular and exciting.”

The reason I’m giving you this to look at today is because Stoke on Trent could be seen as a city that fits John Myers idea of Middle England.

But today the Olympic Torch parade is coming to Stoke on Trent and I know that people from everyday lives will be involved in something that could be described as an exotic English festival, just for one day. It might very well be something they have never done before, they might not do it again. But today over 1000 people will be taking part in something that isn’t everyday.

Today some colour and excitement will be coming to our little bit of Middle England.

The Stoke 100 Olympic Torch Parade with school, children, teachers, adult volunteers and organisations from across the city will be organised by B arts. Coverage will be across the television and newspapers and people will feel famous, strange, exciting and exotic … even if its just for today!