Music fans asked to loan memorabilia for Gloucester exhibition

From band t-shirts to ticket stubs, music lovers have been asked to dig out their best memorabilia for a new exhibition.

The Folk of Gloucester wants to loan items for “What Are YOU Listening To?” which celebrates the music of the past 100 years.

But the new exhibition on Westgate Street, from 12 to 23 August, will not just chronicle music history – it aims to trace the city’s residents’ personal relationship with the music they have loved throughout their lives.

“It’s mainly about people’s stories behind [the memorabilia]”, said Folk events manager John Bassett.

Mr Bassett said the idea for the exhibition “came about from a rather strange thing” – an overheard conversation about memorabilia in a Stroud charity shop.

He explained: “There was a group of younger, younger people about 15, 16, going through the t-shirt rack and saying ‘oh, there’s a Siouxsie and the Banshee shirt, oh, there’s a The Cure shirt,’ and I kind of went, ‘actually, that’s a really good idea for an exhibition’.”

The team behind the exhibition is calling for music fans in the area to contribute by lending their music memorabilia to the display. They are keen to include Gloucester bands who created their own shirts.

Mr Bassett said everything offered will be treated with “the utmost care” and as “the most treasured possession”, before being returned after the exhibition.

Organisers are looking to display items which marked “a significant snapshot of the lives and musical tastes of Gloucester people”.

They want to display anything which has a particular meaning or an interesting story behind it.

Mr Bassett said one of the volunteers from the Folk has a son who once played frisbee with Leonard Cohen. Afterwards, Cohen gifted him his shirt.

Meanwhile Mr Bassett himself owns a t-shirt which he bought from a gig for The Blockheads in 1979.

He said the t-shirt was “notable” because his dog chewed it, biting part of one of the band members printed on the back of it.

“It’s those sort of little stories,” Mr Bassett said.

As well as the exhibition, a series of events celebrating music from over the decades are planned.

The programme culminates with Gloucester Goes Retro on 23 August, where the Folk celebrates the music of the 1920s to 1940s alongside dancing and a display of vintage radios.