Look out for copies of a new magazine appearing in your library, bookshop or arts centre. It’s called Glass Eye and is being produced to feature the arts and culture scene in St Helens with a special emphasis on heritage.
In fact it’s been funded by the Heritage Lottery and is a continuation of the Creative Underground 82-95 Project which was launched in 2023. The Project continued through the Borough of Culture year to gather and publicize heritage material from that thriving period of the town’s history for inclusion in the town’s Archive. It included the production of a film, Another Country: A Journey through St Helens past about the period. Now readers of Glass Eye will be able to dig even deeper into neglected aspects of St Helens history and culture and contribute their own heritage items to its pages.
What kind of publication is Glass Eye, and who is it for? Its editors say that,-
“Glass Eye” is a “zine”, partly a fanzine in the spirit of early punk,- also maybe a culture-zine. It’s for people who are keen on heritage, but heritage as the sediment of the past and the building materials for the future. Its focus will be St Helens but not in a narrow way. It aims to be a bit cheeky, a bit eccentric and to raise as many questions as it answers.”
The first issue will feature a range of photographs of the 82-95 scene taken by Barry Gore and a tribute to Mike Parker, stalwart of the local music scene, who died earlier this year. There will also reflections on the idea of “heritage”. “Glass Eye” is free and is already looking out for contributions from local people across the Borough, also help with editorial and production.
Meanwhile a year after its launch at the Lucem Cinema the film Another Country: A Journey through St Helens past is being launched on-line. and for free, courtesy of the St Helens Arts Service. Written and produced by Roger Hill.
What’s it about? Well, here’s what it says about itself-
“Another Country tells the story of a not-so-quiet revolution. It is a documentary account of a particularly memorable period of music and culture in St Helens, a township among the many which sprang up across Northern England in the Industrial Revolution. In the 1980’s and 1990’s an exciting, unexpected and uniquely wonderful scene developed in the town, apparently from nowhere, and here it is in all its wayward spontaneity, as told by the surviving “actors” in that scene, with material from the period, and brought into the present with an optimistic glance into the future. Can culture make history? And then make it again? “Another Country” says Yes.”
You can access the film by going to https://vimeo.com/892908308. The film was made to provoke new activities and to open up the debate about local culture and is still available for public showings.
E-Mail: glasseyemag@gmail.com .