Some 100 people attended the first public outing of the Our Subversive Voice project. The research team collaborated with the Norwich Arts Centre to host the event.

As they entered the NAC, visitors were greeted with the sight of placards on which were featured some of the case studies from the project. Above their heads was a display of ‘radical bunting’, as one observer noted. Hanging from a makeshift washing-line were examples of protest songs to the tune of ‘God Save the King/Queen’. On another line were ten censored protest songs.

In the bar area, four large boards carried the 250 protest songs that the project is highlighting.

Appearing in chronological order and coded for their time period, each song was assigned to a beermat, the title on one side, a description of the song on the other. There were also other, blank beermats for suggestions of songs that were deemed to be missing. Several of these were submitted.

The exhibition catalogue took the form of a ’zine, in which the full 250 were listed, together with an essay on religion and protest songs, the list of the censored songs, and the lyrics of two of them.

Meanwhile, in the main auditorium, Steve Ignorant, formerly of Crass and now with Slice of Life, answered questions from Professor Matt Worley (a Co-I on the project).

Matt asked Steve about his musical history and about how he connected music and protest and how Crass engaged with politics in their time in Dial House.

The evening ended with a performance by Steve Ignorant and Slice of Life, featuring Steve Ignorant’s own songs.

The gig concluded with an encore of David Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’ and ‘Sweet Thing’.

The OSV team hung around to answer questions at the bar, along with Slice of Life and local activists.