But there was, and still is, another side to Jarrow. The town may have been murdered, to quote 'wor Ellen', but it didn't die. There was ever an appreciation of culture and the arts.
Music, as always in times of depression, kept spirits high and Jarrow's Jarvis Brass Band were highly regarded in brass band circles. Not much jazz although most of the local dance bands had musicians who could blow a nifty hot chorus.
Later, Dickie Backwood (Heritage Hall Stompers) and Charlie Carmichael (Newcastle Big Band, Ronnie Young Jazzmen etc.) appeared and my late mother helped Paul Moran become the master musician he is now - Van Morrison agrees!
However, this is all digression as what I'm (eventually) getting around to is not music but art as in paintings.
Some years back there was an exhibition of Picasso cartoons in a former nuclear bunker (we may need another one soon) which was the home of the Bede Art Gallery. Apart from Picasso there were also exhibitions of paintings by Matisse, Degas, Hockney and many others. The gallery ran for 28 years gaining a worldwide reputation before it closed in 1996.
Vince Rea, the brains behind the gallery died earlier this year.
However, I'm sure Vince would be delighted to know that this week, until Sunday, John Constable's The Cornfield is on show in an empty shop in Jarrow's Viking Shopping Centre - you couldn't make it it up!
The painting is on loan from the National Gallery and, even if (like me) you're not an art connoisseur you will be impressed by the attention to detail, the subtle variation of colour the simplicity which, if you study it long enough you will realise is far from simplicity but the work of an artistic genius who just makes it look simple. It's what all artists do, and you fall for it - until you try to do it yourself!
Although there were people coming and going, they should have been queuing around the block - it was free - and will probably never happen again. Lance
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