Wildlife Discotheque at the Great North Museum:Hancock

Tyneside Sounds Society and Devon based community radio station Soundart Radio teamed up to present the Wildlife Discotheque at the Great North Museum:Hancock



The Wildlife Discotheque was billed as "a sonic extravaganza and unique listening experience that will guide you through the esoteric and lost world of vinyl wildlife recordings and spoken word albums."

Devon based Soundart Radio founder Chris Booth and DJs Nathan Carter and Tony Whitehead developed The Wildlife Discotheque.




"Wildlife Discotheque plots the course of the often neglected and overlooked history of nature sound recording and the pioneers who spent hours in the field with cumbersome gear and an ear for sound and song. Names such as Ludwig Koch, Eric Simms and the Woodland Bird BBC Series, Victor C Lewisand his Bird Sounds in Close Up. John Burton and David Tombs - British Wild Birds in Stereo, Sture Palmer and Jeffery Boswelland the seminal Field Guide to the Birds of the British Isles. Alongside these, many lesser know names and releases; Ray Goodwin’s - A Gloucestershire Wildlife Tapestry, the delicate sounds of British Wild Mammal and Amphibians and not to forget……Johnny Morris and Animal Magic."




Tony Whitehead, Soundart Radio “Not knowing if there was an audience for such an eclectic, and obscure mix of sounds we were pleasantly surprised when our first night attracted a crowd, an appreciative bunch who filled the room, sat, chatted, drank local ale and cider, listened and had a good time. I didn’t notice dancing, but we did have a couple of requests. We’re really excited to be taking this on the road and Great North Museum will be a fantastic venue for it!"


Author, Sunday Times and Guardian Columnist Tom Cox“Properly Psychedelic!”



Listen to the first Wildlife Discotheque here

Having attended one of the other Tyneside Sounds Society events I was keen to be introduced to a new sonic experience and hear some unusual field recording. Although it was advertised as a family friendly event, I was expecting the audience to consist of others interested in sound and field recording. It was great to see lots of children attending and participating in the craft activities that were provided for them, but I felt that this conflicted with my ability to fully appreciate the sound aspect of the event as the subtleties of the recordings were lost due to the excited children who were running around enjoying the event. Unfortunately, I felt that by making the event family friendly, it actually compromised a major aspect of the event. I would have rather it have been concentrated just on children, or focus more on the sound part and allow those who want to listen to be able to! Another frustration of mine was that I didn't know what I was listening (or trying to listen) to. It would have been good to have a description of what the recording was, or a brief introduction to each piece before it was played.

In theory I think this kind of event is an excellent idea, but I hope that the organisers would consider their target audience and adjust the nature of the event appropriately.

Launch of the Tyneside Sounds Society at Shipley Art Gallery

I attended the launch of the Tyneside Sounds Society at the Shipley Art Gallery. Michael McHugh has set up this group to establish if there is an interest in forming a network of individuals in Tyneside dedicated to Phonography, Field Recording and the aural environment of Tyneside and North East.

The network will have an emphasis on exploring both the current environment of Tyneside (also North East in general) and also its heritage (or ‘lost’ sounds).

The objective of group is to establish a grass roots network of individuals irrespective of age, gender, knowledge or experience who have an interest in this area and want to share knowledge, promote/organise events or activities and contribute recordings.



The evening included an introduction to the Tyneside Sounds Society by Michael McHugh, a presentation by John Kannenberg about The Museum of Portable Sound, and a performance by Mariam Rezaei.

John Kannenberg is a multimedia artist, curator, writer, researcher and composer. He investigates the sonic geography of museums and archives, the psychology of collection, the processes of making and observing art, and the human experience of time.

His work has included exhibitions for radio, online and physical venues including the Herskovits Library of African Studies in Chicago, the ZKM Medienmuseum, the Biennale of Electronic Arts in Perth, London's ResonanceFM art radio station, the Version Festival in Chicago, as well as a display of ancient Egyptian soundmaking objects for the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology in Ann Arbor.

John established The Museum of Portable Sound in 2015 when he visited London from the United States and discovered that his iphone did not function as a mobile phone in the United Kingdom. That is when he decided to turn his iphone into The Museum of Portable Sound. John aims to bring the culture of sound to the world, one listener at a time. He uses his iphone to record a vast array of sounds, which are then catalogued in the museum. As the museum's strapline states It's not an app, it's an experience. Rather than make the sounds available to download online, the museum only exists on John's mobile phone and visits have to be booked in advance on an individual basis (though group bookings can now be taken due to the museum acquiring headphone spilters). The museum has a guide book that can be downloaded as pdf and also, in keeping with the need for museums to generate income, a gift shop.

The launch of Tyneside Sounds Society coincided with the centenary of the Shipley Art Gallery. To mark this occasion, Mariam Rezaei was invited to perform using a gramophone recording of a speech made by King George V the from Tyne & Wear Museum Archives collections. The speech was delivered in the Shipley Art Gallery on 10th October 1928, part of a ceremonial address to mark the opening of the Tyne Bridge. The speech was recorded by Columbia Records and also includes an address of welcome by W. Swinburne, Town Clerk of Gateshead. It was subsequently published by Columbia as a souvenir of the event. The record was originally part of the collection of Gateshead's Local & Industrial Museum or Saltwell Park Museum.

Mariam used the original gramophone record and a digitisation of the recording to improvise, with turntables, a live cut-up of the speech to create - a form of erasure or sonicblackout as a reinterpretation of the 80 year old recording.

It was an interesting evening, and I'm keen to get involved and explore the museum's collection of sound recordings.