Adrian Berry played in bands, studied sound and lighting, switched to acting, became a successful playwright, set up his own theatre company and has pursued a busy career as a producer. His latest show Dye Young/Stay Pretty takes us back to 1976 and charts the rise of New York’s music scene through the eyes of a Blondie obsessed teenager from Wolverhampton. When he’s not writing and producing, he is employed by theatre companies needing a little redirection themselves. Arts Hub tries to keep up with the man some know as “the theatre doctor”.
Adrian Berry can spare Arts Hub some time to talk – but only as he runs along the street on the way to his next appointment.
He is in the middle of a successful tour of his new play Dye Young/Stay Pretty. The play was written and produced by Adrian, based on friend Beth Medley’s idea of a one-woman show about the life of Debbie Harry.
Adrian had “a healthy obsession” with the mid-70s New York music – cult actress Beth plays a fanatical Debbie Harry fan determined to meet her heroine, despite living in Wolverhampton.
Adrian admits that, as far as music is concerned, he is “a bit of an old head on young shoulders”. His previous play From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads was about “a teenage David Bowie obsessive”.
Adrian concluded Debbie Harry’s biography was “a standard tale of sex, drugs and rock and roll”. But during discussions, the show developed from being about a rock star in New York to being about a teenage girl in the West Midlands.
His obsession with the music of the 70s he attributes to the fact that the music of the past few years has not yielded anything particularly groundbreaking or exciting.
“That particular time of Bowie, Blondie and the mid-70s, leading up to what became punk, seemed a very, very glamorous, exciting time – but was musically also very strong, as well, and I don’t really see that happening now.”
He contrasts the advent of Iggy Pop and bands like Roxy Music with the current lack of “groundbreakers and innovators” of tomorrow.
So what was it about 1976 that sticks so firmly in people’s minds?
It was a long, hot summer.
The pound plummeted, was rescued by the International Monetary Fund – and Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigned. A Drought Act was passed and the 1976 Race Relations Act made it a crime to incite racial hatred.
In the West Midlands, Wolverhampton Wanderers were relegated again – but went on to become Second Division champions.
Girls everywhere wore Tramp perfume.
London’s National Theatre (now The Royal National) opened – Broadway and the West End were awash with musical revivals.
The charts were full of names like the Bee Gees, Thin Lizzy, The Eagles, Average White Band, Wings, The Carpenters, Led Zeppelin, Steely Dan, Queen, Donna Summer, The Isley Brothers, Rod Stewart, The Who, Bob Marley – and the new boss, Bruce Springsteen.
Elton John became a waxwork at Madame Tussauds.
In the US, NYC faced financial crisis, the Ramones and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released their first albums, hip-hop was born in the Bronx – and clubs like Studio 54 and CBGBs cut the ribbon on punk.
In London that September, the first international punk festival was held at the 100 club in London’s Oxford Street; and the newly signed Sex Pistols livened up prime time TV by swearing like – well, everyone, nowadays.
The humble T-shirt bore the mission statement of punk and some of its foot soldiers got arrested.
Other bands formed that year include The Feedback (later U2), The Jam, The Cure, The Damned, Generation X, The Clash, Madness, Throbbing Gristle (yep) and Elvis Costello and the Attractions.
The UK’s best selling single was Save Your Kisses for Me by Brotherhood of Man, which won (repeat won) Eurovision. Abba’s official logo with the back-to-back “b” was also launched.
Punk and pop were thus perfectly poised for punk/new wave band Blondie and ‘Atomic’ sex kitten Harry to detonate onto the scene, after forming in late ’75. Harry proved the perfect blonde ammunition to fire up the music scene.
Adrian denies, however, that his writing is just an excuse to give good rock and roll – the play is not about rock stars or music, although they provide the backdrop for the stories to happen.
“It is about breaking free from confinement,” he says – but is not a tribute to the cult of the bedroom poet.
“The character is not really like that – she’s not a ‘bedsit Morrissey’, but a person who seeks escapism in clubs.
“It makes her sound shallow, maybe, but she’s not a literary figure. She’s a typical West Midlands teenager of the 70s.
“It doesn’t set out to be innovative or groundbreaking, although there’s a lot of pressure to do that these days. This is literally one woman, a table and a chair – it’s just a good, honest, truthful piece of theatre, especially if you have an interest in that 70s American rock era.” A visit to the show’s MySpace website reveals a dedicated legion of followers.
Debbie Harry’s permission was not asked – as the musical was not about her, it was simply a matter of licensing the music through the Performing Rights Society.
Adrian’s experience in production and music proved invaluable when he formed his own theatre company in Hull in the early 1990s. He also spends much of his time running venues and used to run The Bull Theatre – now the Arts Depot – where Dye Young/Stay Pretty will be for one night on Saturday, September 15.
The show has been on the road since a pre-Edinburgh run in the summer before heading to the Festival itself. After Arts Depot, there will be a short tour before taking to the road again nationally in Spring 2008.
And while Dye Young/Stay Pretty stays on tour, Adrian himself is about to re-launch Stratford Circus in East London – as well as working with the Africa Centre in London’s Covent Garden. He is also returning to Jackson’s Lane theatre in London to programme a re-launch season, prompting the question does he see himself more as a theatrical trouble-shooter than anything else?
“I tend to go to venues and regenerate them,“ he says. “And I tend not to go into places that are flourishing and achieving – more to places that are just starting up or need an injection of something new, or something to remind people what it was about their venue that was great in the first place.
“Most venues have similar troubles – and not just funding. So it’s really interesting working across the range of them and having a real overview and also the chance to contribute something to bring them back to life. Some people say I am like a theatre doctor rather than a trouble-shooter.
“But I’d love to write and direct constantly. That is a luxury not many people get. And I really enjoy the whole venue management aspect: sometimes I can combine the two jobs, as when I worked at Trinity Theatre in Kent, where I was director of a receiving and co-producing venue and also produced and directed work. I like combining all the skills I have. I like anything that excites me or challenges me.”
So will he ever settle into running an institution such as the Royal National Theatre?
“I’ve held back from going for those jobs for so long,” he admits. “Although I have worked at the National and it’s great. But I tend to work for smaller organisations because I have a strong support for the arts/community ethos.”
And the proof of this lies in the audiences Dye Young/Stay Pretty is attracting.
“We’ve had teenagers that have been to see it – fourteen- or fifteen-year-olds who don’t know the music or the scene – but who absolutely loved it. And we’ve had people in their sixties and seventies because the music isn’t so central that it excludes anybody.
“It’s a bit of an Everyman story,” he concludes. “It’s a really honest piece of storytelling.”
And with that, he’s at his next meeting, leaving Arts Hub hanging on the telephone, reaching for the Tramp and the peroxide.
Dye Young/Stay Pretty will be at the Studio Theatre, Arts Depot, 5 Nether Street, London N12 0GA. Box Office: 020 8369 5454. Saturday, September 15th at 8pm. Tickets cost £10, Concessions £8.
adrianberry.co.uk
Dye Young/Stay Pretty at MySpace
Sources:
wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_in_music
guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,3604,1170776,00.html
bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/years/1976/fashionclip.shtml
blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/03/the_new_york_city_sound_in_the.html
niceup.com/bmbio.html
bbc.co.uk/weather/features/understanding/1976_drought.shtml
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverhampton_Wanderers_F.C.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_1976
