Bovril Bee Bop

The concept of doing something in the same style as a jazz musician is something of a cliche in the arts - Jackson Pollock painted in the same manner as a jazz musician, Jack Kerouac wrote prose in a long continuous flow like a soloist and I, well what was it that I did? This is rather more difficult to explain than I can really express.

It was a number of years ago at Swanshurst when I was at sixth form there that there were a few names mentioned having been seen in the dreams of staff and students who were at Swanshurst at the time. The names didn't mean a thing for years - until I met people who's names were mentioned at a place I worked at recently. It doesn't surprise me that this type of thing takes place - coincidences purposefully manipulated in order to cause an individual what I class as distress through what may appear like a paranormal phenomenon. This is a pretty unusual form of harassment I'd tend to argue, a form that should result in at least investigation by the Police but may be this won't take place.

What may seem quite a coincidence is that I've not had full recall of the events that took place there over twenty years ago now - when I lost an entire weeks memory - I had no recall of an entire half terms break. What I think took place was a brainwashing session similar to that shown in the Mancurian Candidate that is only likely to be dismissed as pure paranoia - a product of my own imagination. One of the concepts that I think has emerged recently, has been the Bovril Bee Bop that I didn't understand for years. The concept of Bovril in Birmingham is quite unique - a drink that you have only at a football match, and at no other point in your life - as Jasper Carrott said once.

What I think took place was only manipulation that I think was totally unnecessary - I think the concept of 'Bovril Bee Bop' was born, only for the purposes of ridicule. What I tended to do when I was taking shots of the musicians performing at Rush Hour Blues was to try to mimic the senses of the musician while I was taking photographs of them, trying to photograph in a manner enhanced by the subtle changes that drifted around the room as the music took control. When Charlie Parker played jazz, the world listened, when Kerouac wrote the world read his free flowing text and when Pollock painted the world wanted to watch the results emerge. I have been photographing non-league football with the same gusto as Charlie Parker played his most inspired solos, as Pollock painted his most magnificent works, as Kerouac expressed the doubts and fears of a nation. When I photographed non-league football the world until now has ignored the freeflowing photoessays that make up bovril bee bop shots of Solihull Moors home games this season. Maybe one day, the world will flow with the tunes of Bovril Bee Bop.

In some respects I think there's a possibility that the idea was one I was manipulated to have - what ever took place there at Swanshurst on or off the grounds does still bug me - perhaps very little took place. Was the concept of Bovril Bee Bop something that was generated only for comedy purposes - and why have I lacked so much in the way of inspiration when it comes to finding a means to connect with a jazz community? It's a real shame that I didn't manage to get my ideas in order but I guess, like jazz, photographing jazz is very much about the moment and somehow, the moment even though it may not be caputured perfectly, can still be represented. While I suggest that there's been some form of ridiculous manipulation I can only expect to be beleaguered by problems but for whatever reason, I guess I still think this makes more sense than anything else....curious really.