About B of the Bang

Born to Blog No. 1

Why – B of the Bang?

Origin –   Linford Christie – British Olympian sprinter – when interviewed in a TV broadcast some years ago.  Was asked – ‘You are known as one of the fastest starters on the sprinting circuit – why is that’?

His answer – ‘Just a lot of hard work – and a secret trick!

Interviewer – ‘Well, I’ll bet none of your competitors are watching this – will you share the trick with us?

‘Sure – why not.’

Inside information – the interview  was broadcast in the late 60s / early 70s – when the  start for a 100 metre sprint was a ‘starting pistol’ – firing  a noisy blank – and well before the modern electronic starter blocks which now  can record  the exact  time each athlete leaves their blocks – primarily to catch those who take off too soon i.e. cheat.

So- with very  little persuasion – Linford reveals his ‘trick’.

‘I don’t set off – on the Bang!   I set off, on the B of the Bang’

So he didn’t give much away.

It may be that you had an alternative answer – which was –  a large sculpture erected on a street in Salford, South Manchester, called the B of the Bang.

Devised by the sculptor Thomas Heatherwick as a commission to celebrate the2002 Commonwealth Games, held in the City of Manchester Stadium – just a walk away from the site.

From the start -subject to mixed comments – which didn’t improve with time – in fact a short chequered history:

Construction completed  two years past the deadline – just six days before the planned launch.The work of art was seen by many,  as an expensive folly: not only did it cost £1.42m to build –  it also ended up costing the taxpayers a further £300,000 on testing and maintenance. Prompting critics to denounce the ‘artistic extravaganza as a waste of public money’.

At a height of 56 metres it was the tallest structure in Manchester and the tallest sculpture in the U.K. – until 2008 when ‘Aspire’ was unveiled at Nottingham University in 2008 – strangly enough just four metres higher!

With 180 hollow spikes, it was an impressive sight  – until the unveiling – by Linford Christie in January 2005  – when the tip of a spike -fell off! – nobody injured.

The following year – nine full spikes were removed for safety checks – and, following legal action by the local City Council – the sculptor’s business team paid an, ‘out of court’ settlement of  £1.7m in damages.

By then, the local residents had renamed it the ‘KerPlunk’ – a child’s board game of the 60s/70s – which inloved lots of dropping marbles when spikes were pulled out.

The Epilogue

In the wake of an investigative report published in early 2009, The City Council found itself facing a crucial decision regarding the fate of B of the Bang.

They  announced that the sculpture would be taken apart and placed in storage, as the “only practical alternative”.

It said it was committed to working closely with the design team in order to “determine whether there is a robust and affordable strategy for the re-construction of the structure on the site.

Despite the promise of storage and potential reassembly, the core and legs of the sculpture were cut apart during removal. The core eventually sold as scrap for £17,000 in July 2012, uncertainty loomed over the fate of B of the Bang.

However, the spikes found temporary  reprieve in a secret storage location – which, as far as my research shows – remains secret – but with various allegations that they  have  also been sold as scrap.

Finally –

A statement in one of the ouncil’s final public responses:

“Although this iconic sculpture no longer graces the Manchester skyline, its legacy endures, reminding us of the city’s ambitious spirit and artistic heritage”.

What a load of bull****.   More like  – ‘the ambitious spirit and egos of incompetent Councillors’  and- I know Manchester has a special ‘industrial heritage’ – but, not all of it to be proud of – and we do have an ‘artistic heritage’ in terms of exceptional galleries and libraries  – but primarily due to benefactors with wealth generated from industry and trade – including slavery –  not from City Councillors.

‘We’ – I regard myself as a Mancunian now, having moved here for work in 1978 – lived and worked around the city centre for 15+ years and then – always lived somewhere in Greater Manchester for the last 25 years – I like it.

Anyway – I continue to be the living – ‘B of the Bang’.

.

The B of the Bang sculpture in Manchester has been dismantled and its 180 hollow spikes sent for recycling. Only the steel core remains.

Born

Born (1950 – Chinese ‘Year of the Tiger’!) and brought up in a deprived area of Merseyside, in a pre-war red brick four-story block of Council flats – all stairs – no lifts.

Dad an unskilled labourer, with an inadequate education, always worked, but never saw him read a book. Mother a pub and office cleaner, but from a good family, intelligent woman with a decent education and a regular reader, mostly, historical romances –

and a younger sister on the side.

Luckily, inherited my mother’s intelligence and passed the 11 + in 1961. Got a scholarship to the local Grammar School – The Birkenhead Institute – first child in living memory to go there from those flats.

Also, first child to have to wear a school uniform -which alienated me from my peers for a few years.

I know that there are differing opinions about the ethics of streaming children, at the age of 11, into two streams:

– 1. ‘Deserves a ‘good education’

and

2 ‘who cares’ –

but I believe that the investment in my education produced a decent payback for the UK economy, as well as a good living for tax paying me and my family. Which, what follows may prove.

The uniform

Early information from the school includes a reference to the fact that, once inducted into the school – we guessed that it meant ‘signed up’,

the wearing of school uniform, including a cap, was compulsory at all times outside the school – and gave a bit more information about available grants and how to apply.

Mum straight on the job getting the grant forms and filling them in, then sent off for ‘means testing’ (not a dirty word at the time).

for those not familiar with the phrase – evidence of household income and expenses had to be supplied in detail – to what was then called

‘the Social’ to be accredited, in order to qualify for – in this case – help with certain school expenses.

Luckily, we qualified This meant that she /we got grant vouchers, specifically for uniforms and P.E. equipment (we did ‘Physical Education’ then).

Makes sense, rather than a bunch of cash – particularly if my dad knew about it.  But it meant that they could only be spent at specified shops -only one of which was in walking distance.

When we got there, not a surprise – the choice and quality was limited i.e. no choice and no quality.

Then discovered that we could order, but couldn’t collect, until I actually started school and gone through induction and been allocated a house. My first thought – are we getting a new house? Not bad for just the 11+. Maybe mum’s first thought as well, because she asked what he meant.

Now, I understand that, if any of you reading this, have also read any Harry Potter, then you are familiar with the concept of school pupils being divided into houses, mainly, so they can compete with each other.

But then, I didn’t even know that public schools had them, let alone grammar schools – and secondary modern schools (later to be Comprehensives) didn’t even have a uniform, let alone houses.

First Day

School about twenty minutes’ walk from home.  Secondary Modern alternative was only five   minutes and no uniform, and they played football.  I knew I was in for rugby – and even when I got to sixteen, I was about six stone soaking wet I would have to be fast!

All a blur – I quickly realised that it was a very big, very old Victorian building and if I got lost, I might never be seen again – and just went where I was sent. Found out later that the school had been built by Liverpool merchants – probably financed by the slave and cotton trade.

I remember being given an induction timetable for the following week – no classes just introductions – guided tour of the various premises – there was also an annexe somewhere –

Then queuing at a few tables –

First – A or B stream – just two streams from first to fifth year –the pupils seen as having best potential in the A stream. I do remember thinking, that fifth year felt a hundred years away.

I was allocated to the A stream – no explanation why – I guess – the score on the 11+?

Next – your house – no hat at all – just a list – seems there are four houses – all named after past pupils – Atkin, Stitt, Tate and Westminster – I think I would have preferred Slytherin.

probably allocated at random I got Atkin – didn’t mind the colour – maroon.  Better than the options – red, green and blue.

Turns out the colour is basically a stripe on your tie – and sports kit for inter-house wars.

That’s it – back on Monday for real – in uniform. Have to get that sorted.

The Uniform part 2

Not exactly Moss Bros

Sort of measured – maybe twenty seconds – stuff straight off the rails and stuffed into a big paper bag– no changing facilities!

I ended up with a thick flannel jacket that, on a warm day, felt like wearing a blanket with sleeves, and short trousers which itched and rubbed a red mark around my thigh (no long ones for under 16s).

Included a badge – sewn on by my mum, and cap, and tie in the appropriate colour.

 Start School

I could understand why some apparently, didn’t come back – but they haven’t met my mum!

At least got to find the annexe and different classrooms.

Generally, a bit of a culture shock at first, most fellow pupils seemed to come from quite different backgrounds than me  and seemed less confused.

Sgt Pepper’s

years later, having made friends, I remember four of use sharing the cost of the new Beatles’ album – ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’,( June 1967) and met up one evening in the home of one of them – a large detached house containing  a luxury – a stereogram  (a piece of furniture, like a low cupboard with doors, but containing a radio, record turntable and two speakers i.e. stereo.)

played the whole album, without comment. At the end – a complete silence – they must have thought the same as me – ‘What the hell was that?’. Never heard anything like it before.

Took quite a few weeks for the shock to abate and multiple radio broadcasts before we realised that it was revolutionary and re-invented pop music – a seminal work in fact.

I have to say, that I was not really a Beatles fan before that – too much bobbing heads and ‘yeah, yeah, yeahs and ooh, ooh, oohs – now forced to change my mind -and they went on to produce some remarkable stuff, of course.

Lovely, well publicised, event – Paul McCartney visited Bob Dylan in London, with the album, before general release.  Dylan listens to the whole album and then says –

‘I get it – You don’t want to be cute anymore.”

Hit the nail right on the head – as Dylan invariably did/does – and it was getting rid of the cuteness that changed my opinion of the Beatles – so me and Bob were of the same mind.!

Culture shock? – in addition to the album. How other people live – at some point, dad pops his head around the door and says, ‘the news  is on’.  His son jumps up and we follow – not sure if the others were confused – but we go into the lounge -we had been in the front room – and sit down with mum and dad to watch the news.

Now – the telly and/or radio, was on nearly all the time in our house –when broadcasting and only two TV channels. But I can’t remember ever watching the news. If it came on, the channel was changed.

So after about six years mixing with my Grammar school peers and in and out of some of their homes – I could still be surprised!