via Flashbak
Chris Killip didnโt set out to document the anarcho-punk scene in Newcastle on Tyne in 1985. The photographer moved to the city ten years earlier on a fellowship, then stayed on until the early 90s. What attracted him most, he says, were the people โwho history happened to.โ Specifically, for Killip โ who got his start as a beach photographer in his native Isle of Man โ that meant working class people in Englandโs North East during the period of Britainโs de-industrialization.
Killip became known as โthe photographer of the de-industrial revolution,โ he says, โbut it was by default. I was simply photographing what I saw.โ
โDuring this period, I would also photograph things at night; venues and events. One night, somebody said I should check out The Station โ an anarcho-punk venue set up in an old police social club in Gateshead โ so I went along the following Saturday and was blown away by the place. It was so different to anything else because it wasnโt a commercial space. It was owned by the people who were dancing there and the bands that played there โ a group called the Gateshead Music Cooperative.โ
โThings were pretty depressedโ at the time, Killip says. Or as Eccentric Sleeve Notes โ an online archive for a local music โzine that ran from 1981 to 1984 โ puts it: โNewcastle was a grim place in the 1980s. Unemployment was high. Culture was low. The town centre was deserted on weekday nights and if you did venture out, you had to watch yourself because the quiet streets made it more dangerous.โ

Despite, or because of, the cityโs decay, a thriving alternative music scene sprang up. But The Station was an anomaly, off the map. It doesnโt make an otherwise comprehensive ESN survey of 1980s Newcastle clubs. From the looks of Killipโs photos, one might make certain assumptions โ that The Station, for example, was the kind of place one might be warned away from, especially if they didnโt fit a certain type.
But instead of the anti-social violence wrongly associated with anarchism or rightly associated with the fascism of right-wing punk, Killip found solidarity. โThese werenโt the punks of 1970s London,โ he says, โthese guys were politically aware. They were very keen on animal rights and would often join the minersโ strike marchesโฆ. My problem was that they only had one outfit. They were good outfits: they worked on them until they perfected their punk look. But it meant that the nights all blended into one.โ
