Blackpool's Comedy Carpet

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Created by artist Godron Young, Blackpool's Comedy Carpet is the town's latest public art project aimed at improving the promenade and changing people's perception of the town.

It features jokes, catchphrases and one-liners from over 1,000 comedy legends, from W.C Fields to Vic Reeves, and including Peter Cook, Dame Edna and any comedian you ever forgot.

Young was helped by Blackpool's comedy expert Barry Band, historian and writer Graham McCann, and on the typography and layout by graphic designer Andy Altmann of Why Not Associates. It was installed by Andrew Sawyer and Russ Coleman.

The carpet is a great effort from Blackpool Council (ReBlackpool), easily the best thing they've done since the giant mirrorball which was unveiled in 2002.

And finally for you technical lovers, hard facts about the carpet: Five years in the making. Each of the 160,000+ letters has been individually cut from 30mm solid granite or cobalt blue concrete. They've been arranged into over 300 slabs and then cast into white concrete panels.

Brilliant Blackpool exhibition

Brilliant Blackpool at FYC in Blackpool

Images from my Brilliant Blackpool are to be exhibited in Blackpool this month.
From Friday August 12 until Wednesday Aug 31.
Eighteen images will be on show at FYCreatives (just up the road from the Syndicate nightclub for you clubbers).
Brilliant Blackpool coincides with Mass Photograpphy at the Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool, an amazing show which features a who's who of photographers Ian Berry, Alfred Gregory, Peter Marlow, Martin Parr, Tony Ray-Jones, Humphrey Spender, Chris Steele-Perkins and Homer Sykes.
While they all share the venue, the Brilliant Blackpool exhibition is exclusive to Garry Cook.

And the countdown starts here with some of the images from the show appearing on this blog between now and the opening.
Buy the zine:

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Comrades of the Great War Club and Old Bridge House

 

There is something thrillingly nostalgic about social clubs. Some are like walking into a snapshot of the 1970s, others pride themselves on their working-class splendour.

All are the antithesis of modern superpubs. With a president, secretary and committee, they all have the same aim: to keep the community they represent together. Many struggle, many fail.<o:p></o:p>

But in British society where community has failed in so many areas, social clubs remain a venue where people who use them can exercise a feeling of inclusion and belonging.

I was very fortunate to be allowed to photograph inside Blackpool’s Comrades of the Great War Club.<o:p></o:p>

Situated on Adelaide Street, it’s a private club for ex-servicemen, particularly sub-mariners. <o:p></o:p>

There were some wonderful tales from the members. I was made to feel very welcome by Wally, all the staff and the members. <o:p></o:p>

They drank, they played bingo and they listened to the club singer. <o:p></o:p>

The place is brilliant. Long may it thrive.

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And after that I gate-crashed a karaoke party at the Old Bridge House Cabaret Bar on Lytham Road. The place was rocking. For me, this is Blackpool.<o:p></o:p>


All images taken on Saturday, August 21, 2010.

Blackpool FC promotion party images

Blackpool FC promotion party images

Blackpool's promotion parade party pictures

This slideshow is in celebration of Blackpool Football Club's promotion to the Premier League.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=12065119&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
All photographs taken on May 24, 2010.
Blackpool's promotion party from Garry Cook on Vimeo.

Blackpool's promotion parade party pictures

This slideshow is in celebration of Blackpool Football Club's promotion to the Premier League.


All photographs taken on May 24, 2010.
Blackpool's promotion party from Garry Cook on Vimeo.

Blackpool's promotion parade party pictures

This slideshow is in celebration of Blackpool Football Club's promotion to the Premier League.


All photographs taken on May 24, 2010.
Blackpool's promotion party from Garry Cook on Vimeo.

Blackpool on a Saturday night

Images as brash as I could make them.

Shortlisted: Travel Photographer of the Year 2009

You can travel right around the world.

You can cross four continents.

You can take some fantastic photos*.

And you can get nominated for the 2009 Travel Photographer of the Year awards.

But where in the world were my four short-listed images taken? Himalayan mountains, Bethlehem, Kiev, Tunis or Topeka.

None of the above. 

The answer is, of course, my favourite frivolous weekend destination, the hardcore venue that everybody loves to hate and the place where brash meets trash with appealingly appalling consequence. Yes, it's Blackpool, Lancashire.

This week I sent off my four prints (excellently done by Genesis in London) to the TPOTY organisers for final judging. The result is announced in December (though possibly not on this blog if I fail to bag the first-prize trip to China).

NOTE: The above image was can be seen elsewhere on this blog. It is one of the images in my short-listed submission to TPOTY's Homeland category.
* The term 'fantastic photos' is not necessarily the opinion of this photographer and his over-inflated ego.

Paradise lost

LEGG UP: Blackpool Council's Head of Enterprise & Employment Peter Legg tells it like it is.

Spent the evening in Blackpool at a kind of social event for creative types last week. It was in the Paradise Room of the Pleasure Beach – parking £5 for up to 12 hours.

Creative Lancashire (other regional organisations available) is, to put it briefly, is a Lancashire County Council-funded group which assists creative companies in the region in their business dealings.

As a photographer, that means I can be part of the process. It’s still a bit fuzzy in my head as to how this organisation works or how it quantifies its success but Gemma could not have been more helpful to me and persuaded me to take part in two upcoming events.

This was the first. I am slightly skeptical of these organisations (an appointment with Business Link in my early freelance journalism days was largely useless) but the theme Chasing The Public Pound looked interesting so along I trotted.

There were several photographers at the Sizzle event, validating my own appearance, and it was eye-opening.

My journalistic and photographic background has been largely editorial, so to see such a network of support for small businesses on a regional level was impressive. I had no idea these networks existed.

I’m not really one for PR networking and schmoozing – in fact I hate using the word schmoozing, it’s offensive to me – but being able to meet people from similar and complementary industries was rewarding.

As I aim to market my photography in a more focused fashion over the coming months, I will be taking in a whole range of events, courses and seminars – and includes an appointment with Yusuf from Business Link. Can’t wait.

IN TRIPLICATE: North Western Universities Purchasing Consortium's Mike Haslin, Think Say Do's Iain Leslie and 2am's Peter Stubbs at Sizzle Blackpool

Dressed-up dogs in Blackpool

“This is the place to be if you like dogs dressed up, and who doesn't love a clothed canine?”

Not my words and not here. No. These are the words of the Peckham Pet-Tastic website, home of the slightly surreal and very eccentric Pet-Tastic event.

And where does Pet-Tastic go for a holiday? Blackpool, of course. Home of the surreal and the eccentric. The brash and the crass. The working classes and their dogs.

Artist Rachael House has the kind of pink hair usually seen in wig-wearing dozen-strong Hen Parties.

The point of her art is that it reaches the working classes, communicates with the masses and takes away the elitism of art. They should give her a summer season in Blackpool.

Anyway, I love owt like this me like.

On Sunday, September 13, I went along (without the dogs) and took photos. Here are a few.