| Description | An interview with Dave Rogers, a married man with one son ,one daughter, who is a theatre producer, born in Leeds and now living in Birmingham. Dave Rogers’s father was a Factory worker, born in England and his mother a housewife born in England. In the interview, he talks about …
'MS2255/2/116 ROGERS, Dave logged by Bernadette Shortt
01
I was born on 5th January 1944 in Leeds. I was evacuated from Leeds when I was 4 and spent 2 years in Bristol. I came to the West Midlands when I was 7.
50” My father was in the RAF, he came back in 1947, we moved into a house in Leeds.
2.20 My mother discovered that my father was having a relationship with the girl next door, she confronted him and walked out.
2.40 – Mother carried out various jobs and I moved around with her. My father beat up anyone whom she went out with.
3.30 – Father persuaded my mother to go back and live with her, she agreed on the terms that we moved from Leeds and he reformed his ways.
3.50 – We moved to Bristol, my father had other relationships. My mother started to see the lodger staying with us until she found out she was pregnant by my father (? Sister having DNA test now).
02
When my sister was born in 1950 we moved to Stourbridge where my stepfather, the lodger, had a job as a moulder.
50” Stepfather lost his job so we lived with my grandparents in Stourbridge.
Early memories of Stourbridge – Very unhappy because my father threatened to kidnap me. I had to be escorted to school. I didn’t like school.
3.35 – Lived on the main Bridgenorth Road Stourbridge.
4.20 – Quite a select community.
4.30 – Stourbridge was a peculiar place, one half of the city was industrialised while the other was leafy suburbs.
03
Stayed in Stourbridge till 1961, when I was one of the first people in my school to go to university.
40” Came to live in Birmingham.
1.0 –School –Went to Blue Coat school, which had fallen on hard times - no longer took boarders but day pupils like myself. It was a desperately failing private school.
2.00- School – Authoritarian. It was like apartheid because the boarders were given different treatment, separate changing rooms, toilets, facilities. There were always fights between day pupils and boarders.
2.40 – School – It wasn’t an institute of high education.
3.05 – My sister died 2 years after I moved there.
2.50 – University – I was ill-prepared for students from middle class background. I was doing a chemistry degree.
4.30 – Failed the first year because I felt completely isolated
04
Social life – After my sister died I didn’t do much, I lost self-confidence and became a recluse. I cycled up to the Lake District with my friends and camped out at different sites.
1.20 – My stepfather had a left wing perspective.
2.35 – Didn’t grow up in a racist environment, story about stepfather bringing home an Asian man, radical thing to do.
Moving to Birmingham – I met Chrissie at university, she became a teacher in Birmingham.
4.25 – Worked in a bank for a year which I hated.
4.43 – Part time job selling ice cream which I enjoyed for 6/7 years.
05
I worked for an engineering firm in West Bromwich for 2 years.
40” Became a systems analyst for 1 year.
1.15 – By 1971 went travelling to India with my friends.
1.50 – In 1968 I became involved in Grey Cock folk club attended singing workshops and started to sing at the club. I also got married in this same year.
4.00 – My own songs were industrial ballads, contemporary songs.
06
Worked at Alcan Booth, which was going through hard times, it meant that I had a lot of time to learn different songs while I was in the office.
50” I used to take part in documentary productions at the folk centre. One was called “The Making of the Midlander”, another one was about the Kidderminster carpet weavers' strike in 1820.
2.10 – People involved in the productions – communist, folk club members,
3.00 Describes the productions in detail - Used slides, songs, music, film, drama etc with 30 – 40 people taking part.
07
Involved in anti-capitalist play.
In 1972/73 I came back from India.
2.00 – Radical times in Birmingham – I used to go to Marx classes in Harborne where I learned about politics.
3.00 – Banner Theatre production of radio ballads about the mining industry.
3.30 – Rehearsals in 1973, first production was held at the Birmingham Midland Institute. Miners attended from all over the country. We got positive feedback from it.
4.30 – Took production around to miners' welfares in South Wales, Kent, Nottingham.
4.55 – My daughter was born in 1974.
08
In 1972 there was a big building strike in Birmingham when key activists emerged like Keith Carter.
1.0 – Combine group, Euan McColl critics group from London who had written “the Shrewsbury 24” which we rewrote to support the campaign.
1.40 – We made contact with the builders’ workers union, Ken Barlow. It was used in the rally in Digbeth City Hall in support of “the Shrewsbury 3” which included Ricky Tomlinson, now of BBC TV’s “Royle Family.” We performed the song there and got a standing ovation.
3.00 – Talks about another play.
09
Public sector unions play about Labour Government spending cuts.
Talks about organisation around the play.
3.10 – We saw ourselves as a radical.
10
Australian academics came over and were impressed by our scripts.
2.00 – Rhona decided the roles.
2.40 – Putting the music together was the only job, which required great skill.
11
Great Divide – Mid 1970s, national racism, National Front was strong. The political side of Banner decided to do something on racism.
1.35 – We worked closely with Joshi, General Secretary of the Indian workers.
2.20 – Took an anti racism perspective.
3.00 – Description of Joshi.
3.25 – Interviewed racist bigots.
4.30 – Interviewed activists in Afro-Caribbean socialist movements.
12
Created a pilot project.
1.0 – Rewrote the play.
1.30 – Play traced the different histories of rebellion in the West Indies, Colonialism in India. How they merged with the British experience. Anti-racism conclusion to it.
2.00 – Took the play around to the mining contacts that we had.
2.20 - It was the first major anti-racism piece we had done.
3.00 – We play mainly to left groups, mainly to the converted. You are on one level reinforcing the work of activists and add strength to their movements.
13
Tried to build rapport with audience.
14
Mid 1970s- first Banner show around sexism was called “Womankind”.
1.15 – Dealt with issues such as abortion, rape, shop floor discrimination, pay issues.
2.40 – There were many strong women in Banner, so that politics developed in the early 1980s.
3.00 – Women' group was formed in the company, gender became a central issue to every show. They produced their own shows.
4.30 – Story about women miners – my friend Charlie said that it would be disgraceful to have women miners . . . they are not built for it. it would destroy their bodies.
15
Like all political theories you learn the politics by doing it.
40” You can’t do a play about political theories if you are not involved in those issues yourself.
1.10 – Banner became a professional company in 1978/79 when we got sufficient funding to pay people.
1.30 – Brought in Fran Griffin, a particular activist.
2.40 – Developed more pieces for workers involved in struggles.
3.10 – 1980 was a transforming year. We did a show called “The Housing Game”, a comic piece about the building trade.
16
Building workers in Sandwell had large debates going on because they were cutting back on the direct labour organisation.
20” Produced piece based on their experiences.
1.30 – Wrote a play on the steel industry in Corby.
2.20 We were banned by the ISTC because we portrayed the union leadership in a less than positive light. (Laughing)
Story about John Gelling, who we portrayed as a scab and was sitting in the audience . . . he walked out in disgust.
4.00 – Difficulties that arose, political tensions.
17
Theatrical frustrations.
1.25 – Banner became more directly political in the 80s.
By the 1984 Miner’s strike we were busking for the miners in Birmingham.
2.20 – Worked full time going around miner’s welfares. Took my children with me sometimes - Keith was 7 and Catherine was 10.
3.10 – The strike socials – You would provide politicised music, people would stand up on their chairs and join in . . .. Someone would then make a speech. There was a cross fusion of politics, the atmosphere was electric.
18
“You are allowed to represent the struggle, crystallise it and feed it back. "
We had busking sessions in the Union passageway in town every Saturday, young people taking part.
My marriage broke up in 1984.
4.00 – Banner’s funding stopped in 1984.
The late 80s early 90s were hard times financially.
19
By early 1990s we revived a version of Saltley Gate. We staggered through the 90s on project grants.
3.00 – Banner became more sophisticated, we brought in more professional performers, directors etc.
4.30 – Use other forms of music now including Afro Caribbean, Irish etc
20
Central threads of Banner today are the folk music and political theatre movement.
40” Recent venues – bigger audiences, lack of resources though, community-based projects using their own stories.
2.50 – We are not just theatre nor are we a community arts project.
21
Homes in Birmingham – Started off in a council flat in Hamstead, North Birmingham. After returning from India we bought a house in Holt Road Aston in 1973. We stayed there till 1984.
1.05 – We broke up and I moved into a house in Aston.
1.30 – Description of Aston – mixed ethnically . . .. Pretty decaying increasingly derelict part of Birmingham. A lot of drug problems.
2.40 – Moved to Grosvenor Road.
3.25 – Going out with Joyce, a part time lecturer at UCE Birmingham. Story of how we met.
4.15 – Becoming separated – I had to develop a stronger relationship with my children otherwise I risked loosing them.
4.30 – After 1984 I had to learn how to nurture them, cook for them, provide them with an environment that they felt happy in.
22
Close relationship with children
Description of daughter / son.
1.30 – Joyce played an important role in their upbringing.
2.45 – Description of life with Joyce.
4.00 – Joyce, as a feminist had strong influence on Keith, he would express his emotions.
23
Living in Birmingham – Entertainment scene – A number of folk clubs, in the back rooms of pubs . . . . . smoky overcrowded places. Digbeth City Hall was a folk club. Plenty of venues to perform, the Crown, Golden Eagle in Hurst Street. A lot of these venues have gone. The decay of small pub venues which was an important part of the political/cultural network of Birmingham.
2.30 – Description of small pubs.
3.50 – Birmingham has decayed as a working city.
24
Buoyant Brummie does not exist these days. Story about miner who couldn’t bear to come back to Birmingham because spirit has gone.
ENDS |