The Umbrella Club – a 10 year celebration January 1966

The Umbrella Club – a 10 year celebration January 1966

by Pete Clemons

This is a great find by Pete Clemons - taken from an article in The Coventry Standard

January 1966. It's a good sketch of the Umbrella in those days when the Umbrella pioneered an early folk club in the city leading a brilliant folk scene in the 60's. Music was dominated by Classical recitals and Jazz and poetry was always big.

In October 1969, when I first went the Coventry arts Umbrella club, Jo Petter, the Drama organiser, created a game changing mini festival for the Umbrella called the Transcendental Cauldron, a three day all night festival that emulated the kind of events happening at places like Drury Lane Arts Lab where Bowie started out. It was my introduction to the Coventry music scene but had alternative films, art exhibitions etc. The programme can be seen in the flyer posted here and included last fair deal, Asgard and Dando Shaft.

It was followed a month later by the Music Marathon and after which Al Docker and I put on regular Friday band nights for a year and half featuring the cream of local or regional bands. There was a shift away from jazz at this stage but this article is a good representation of the Umbrella in 1966 and shows it be a place where people could get involved and organise their own events, as both I and Al Docker did in 1970 / 72.

The next stage of the Umbrella had Neol Davies, Kevin Harrison, Indian Summer, Asgard playing there.

The Umbrella Club – a 10 year celebration January 1966 

Where in Coventry could a theatre, coffee bar, exhibition room, studio, photographic dark room and music room all be found under one roof – or rather, under one umbrella?. The answer is, at the Umbrella club, Coventry's Art Centre located in a small terraced house in Queen Victoria Road.

Behind its modest exterior something lies that lovers of the arts find valuable. They discover companionship and enjoyment in appreciating with others the many cultural topics which the club embraces. Some have already discovered their worth, while others renew it.

Here is a unique club. It is a meeting place where all classes and all races can enjoy one another's company and share common leisure interests.

It has been said by the ill informed that it is a club of misfits. These surely are to be found in all walks of society but no more so at the Umbrella Club.

A member will say that it is up to the individual to cultivate friendships and to show enthusiasm for a form of art that he would like to appreciate – whether it is classical music, jazz, art, drama or any other.

It was ten years ago last month that Harry Secombe unfurled a large black umbrella and proclaimed 'The Umbrella, long may it reign' at the clubs official opening.

In a small Victorian house in Little Park Street the club steadily grew and began to make an impact in the city. The turning point came in 1961, only six years after its formation, when the headquarters became due for demolition.

After much fruitless searching, a terraced house at Queen Victoria Road was made available by the council. But it was in a shocking condition. Members worked day and night to prepare it for the opening.

Since that day, the Umbrella Club has flourished and despite many financial set backs has achieved, and is still achieving, it aims.......

(a) To provide a friendly meeting place for those people interested in the arts

(b) To arrange exhibitions, recitals and general discussions

And most important of all, for the club to be a source of encouragement and enjoyment of the arts.

All this has come to fruition within a span of ten years but only due to endless hard work and enthusiasm of its members. Without enthusiasm this club could, like an umbrella, have folded. But it kept going without financial support, apart from a small grant from the arts council.

The club is unlike any other in Coventry. It is neither a youth club nor a community centre. It is also not a club devoted to professional people. It is an arts centre for everyone, irrespective of their profession, their colour or their creed.

There are no restrictions, but instead, complete freedom of choice for each member to choose how his time will be spent there. The beauty of such freedom is the ability one gains to 'discover' oneself.

Talents, hitherto hidden deep, will rise to the surface as shyness or nervousness disappear in friendly conversation or over a game of bridge. You may find that you cup of tea is in the drama line, perhaps acting, or even helping to produce. On the other hand, there is a film group, which not only shows films regularly but has begun to make them.

Debates and discussions take place on a variety of topics including religion, politics, poetry, theatre, television, travel. The range is almost limitless.

Exhibitions are an accepted part of club life. Many members are keen artists who submit pictures for local exhibitions (the last one was a members display at the Herbert Art Gallery). Nancy Upshall and John Budgett, to name but two, are well known Coventry artists who have exhibited at the club.

And what of music? The works of the great composers are regularly played and discussed. Operas, Continental, Flamenco, or music from far away lands is enjoyed and appreciated by many.

If you are a jazz enthusiast there is plenty of enjoyment for you. On Wednesday's this circle gather round to listen to records. Occasionally the Umbrella Club Jazz Band gives a performance.

The visual arts group provides members with some very interesting subjects for discussion. Recently an exhibition boards was given. The cosy music room often holds the motoring enthusiasts or those who want to play their favourite recordings.

As leader of the club, Terry Watson, who is a teacher at King Henry VIII School, said 'Those who come here seem to 'find' themselves and something for which they were perhaps looking'.

He went on 'This club is for everyone who would like to enjoy the arts. We are all amateurs and believe that what would kill it most of all would be the existence of professionalism. We want to keep the atmosphere the way it is even if we one day have another and better building. The building is not really the important thing, it is the people who matter'

Richard Sadler: Coventry post-war photographer

Richard Sadler - Coventry Post-War Photographer.

Richard Sadler has passed away at 90. Richard documented the opening of the Coventry Arts Umbrella club with the Goons, in the Umbrella's original premises in Little Park Street, Coventry, in 1955. (Photos of the Umbrella Below)

His photos were published in The Journal of London Independent Photography. http://www.londonphotography.org.uk/magazine/pdf/LIPJWinter02.pdf

The Goons in Coventry 1955 with Umbrellas!! Photo Richard Sadler.

Richard Sadler - Nicola Young Photography

BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Article

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-52758152?fbclid=IwAR3xmKxHrvxpEangTQpby7yX9MIlJSFxubvGkqp_iM0HtntEAEVhqGTfsQ4#

"Richard Sadler lived through the German bombing of the city and documented the rebuilding of the cathedral.

Dr Ben Kyneswood, of Coventry University, said he was "probably Coventry's pre-eminent post-war photographer".

Sadler captured ordinary life around the city and the poverty that remained, despite Coventry's post-war boom.

Jason Scott Tilley from Coventry's Photo Archive Miners group, described him as "theatrical" an "extrovert" and "one of these characters who came out of that booming city after the war and made a name for himself".

He said Sadler was special because he was a perfectionist. Dr Kyneswood added that because he was a fine art photographer by trade, he was taught to take one photograph at a time and spent a lot of time framing his photos before he took them.

Michael Pritchard from the British Photographic History website said Sadler was "one of British photography's important post-war figures".

In his 60-year career, he worked for many of the big local companies, including Jaguar, Wimpey, the University of Derby, Courtaulds, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Belgrade Theatre.

He also worked with playwright John Wiles on 'Never Had it So Good', a social documentary about the city, performed at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre.

A body of Sadler's work has been digitized by Dr Kyneswood and colleagues as part of the Photo Miners project.

He died at his home in Monmouthshire after a short illness.

A Richard Sadler Photograph -  This man was photographed at the Coventry research centre of fabric-makers Courtaulds.

A Richard Sadler Photograph - Copies of Weegee the Famous are held by the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum among others.

Sadler's photos combined the modern city and everyday life.

New York City is full of bustle and business, and Richard Sandler has been capturing it perfectly since the 80s. In his ongoing series, he captures a slew of New Yorkers commuting to work everyday via taxi, bus or subway or by foot. https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/richard-sadler

RICHARD SADLER - REBUILDING OF THE TOTALLY DESTROYED CITY CENTRE OF COVENTRY -1948 – 1950.

Two Tone Photographer John Coles has said that Richard Sadler developed some of his early band photographs.

This is the article on the opening of the Umbrella Club by richard sadler from The London Independent Photographer 1955.

London Independent Photography - Winter 2002/3

The photograph as an aide-mémoire Richard Sadler The shorter Oxford dictionary tells us that an "aide-mémoire" is a book or document serving as an aid to the memory; it goes on to say, in diplomats' terms it is a memorandium. Should we read then, photograph, in addition to book? Of course, for from the Daguerreotype to the present day the photograph has fulfilled that function, though the image, like words can also be manipulated to suit romantic ideals, serve political propaganda or simply tell the truth of the moment, or an economical version of it. It is evidence, and by the very nature of its production a document of a real moment in time. In our quest for the art of the medium we forget the strength of the photograph in this its primary role, linked, as it is, to a time and reality seen through the impartial camera. So, what are the memories within these images of a party at the Umbrella Club for the Arts in Coventry in the 1950s? The image above reminds of parties enjoyed, friends, lost, forgotten, dead, rich or famous, and a personal past of, lost or gained hopes and aspirations. The Umbrella Club is a piece of history long overtaken by a City rebuilt and continually trying to keep up with the times. It is the image with two bespectacled gentlemen (they must be gentlemen look at their overcoats, it was still clothes rationing then) talking to another whose back only is visible. Then it all comes flooding back, it is Mr Harry Secombe and Mr Peter Sellars, and in that party crowd image the man in a "deerstalker" must be Mr Spike Milligan. In spite of the formality of the times for us they were the "Goons". The occasion was the first time when our heroes, appeared on stage to delight us with their wit and wisdom. It was a flop of course, though not for us, due in the main to having a public that enjoyed them, till then, only via the radio The theatre too at that time was controlled, not on1y by the management, but the Lord Chamberlain. All theatre performances had to be approved by him and any deviations from the script, at each performance, recorded and forwarded to his office. The anarchic humour and wit of our heroes, to whom the art of the ad lib was fundamental, suffered from this bureaucratic machinery; they had in truth been "sent to Coventry'. We, the members of the Umbrella Club, would have none of that, they would come to our party to celebrate that which we would create together with them, a future of peace, prosperity and fun! The top image (p. 21) sums up that evening , as obligingly they put up an umbrella, embraced the girls and assumed a pose that would remind us of their personalities, wit and wisdom that changed , though no one realised it at the time, English humour for ever. Here’s to Sir Harry, and Peter, who died some years previously, and to Spike, who died this year.