Donald Woods & the Vel-Aires – Death of an Angel (1955). Pulled from American radio station playlists on the grounds that it promoted suicide (I want to be beside her/ But I’m afraid to die) and also due to objections from the Catholic Church that it is impossible for an angel to die, thus making … Continue reading
George Formby’s When I’m cleaning windows (1936) was banned by the BBC: “If the public wants to listen to Formby singing his disgusting little ditty, they’ll have to be content to hear it in the cinemas, not over the nation’s airwaves.” Although he was ostensibly attacked for bawdiness, it is probably the political line about … Continue reading
During the War on Music the mainstream media stopped printing old pictures of musicians with their instruments or cropped the instruments out. As part of their effort to rewrite history, they often printed iconic shots of musicians and removed the offending instrument, and then subsequently claimed that their doctored photo was the original and that … Continue reading
In Helsinki, Finland, at the time when music was banned, there was one instrument that escaped destruction – all 24 shiny stainless steel tons of it – even though it stood proudly, 9m tall in plain view in the middle of a city centre park. As a monument to Finland’s greatest composer Jean Sibelius it … Continue reading
The Discord Regulation Unit was a branch of the police that specialised in combatting opposition to the War on Music. The photographs below show DRU police breaking up demonstrations. The DRU was known colloquially as D-Reg, and members were referred to (mockingly) as Discos and (disparagingly) as The Dregs. Their iconic shields featured a modern design … Continue reading
A cairn in the Highlands of Scotland marking the War on Music. Continue reading
Fumographs are visual representations of hummed music. The technique, which been developed by the pioneering fumographer Bobby Christie, involves stimulating smoke with the hummed vibration of different pieces of music and recording the different forms and patterns produced via high-speed flash photography. The War on Music museum has commissioned a series of these from Christie to celebrate … Continue reading
Fumographs are visual representations of hummed music. The technique, which been developed by the pioneering fumographer Bobby Christie, involves stimulating smoke with the hummed vibration of different pieces of music and recording the different forms and patterns produced via high-speed flash photography. The War on Music museum has commissioned a series of these from Christie to celebrate … Continue reading
Fumographs are visual representations of hummed music. The technique, which been developed by the pioneering fumographer Bobby Christie, involves stimulating smoke with the hummed vibration of different pieces of music and recording the different forms and patterns produced via high-speed flash photography. The War on Music museum has commissioned a series of these from Christie to celebrate … Continue reading
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