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John Squire: Heat, Light, Death and Industry, Gallery Oldham, 7 July – 5 September 2009


Trips to see John Squire’s exhibitions have, for me, taken on what is commonly referred to as epic proportions. The last time, part of the bus journey up involved travelling through a blizzard. This time, I found myself, along with companion, Mr Jah of Scouse, driving to Oldham through torrential rain for the most part. And I think the whole trip would not even have happened if it hadn’t been for John Squire’s agent saying to me at the last exhibition, “you’ll have to make it up to the next one” – a dare, if ever there was one.


Despite the poor weather conditions, we spent most of the journey chatting away merrily, listening to, amongst other things, The School, Tom Novy, John Squire’s “Time Changes Everything” and The Music’s “Welcome To The North”. In fact, so merry were we that somewhere round about Birmingham, we found ourselves joining the wrong motorway and careering down the M1 towards London. Exactly how this happened, I’m not entirely sure. I thought I spotted a UFO at one point, but I think this was just circumstantial.


We needed to be in Oldham by 9pm, as this is when the opening was, erm, closing, and despite having left Cardiff at 3, with our little detour and the heavy traffic, it was now quite likely that we were not going to make it in time. Undeterred, we carried on, choosing to bomb back up the M1 the other way, rather than rejoin the M6. At least this way, the traffic was clearer. We made one further unplanned diversion through Rotherham, before finding that we were now truly taking the scenic route through the East Pennines. We saw a couple of rainbows, but there was barely time to stop and admire the views – we had a place to be, as well as people, and paintings to see!


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