Return to the V&A

It embarrasses me to admit that I’ve not been to the Victoria & Albert Museum in many years so on the Bank Holiday weekend my partner Geraldine and I put matters right by visiting their exhibition My Generation: The Glory Years of British Rock.

I enjoyed spotting the stars and lesser lights of the 60s and 70s but judging by the comments book, I seemed to be alone in finding most of  the photos disappointing. It must be said that Harry Goodwin’s images hadn’t been done any favours by the unimaginative cropping, with many subjects forlorn and alone, centred in a square print.

More importantly I didn’t feel that the photos said much about their subjects. Take the image of John Lennon for example. He was wearing a denim jacket with the People for Peace armband from TOTP’s Instant Karma from 1970 yet the photo was a thoroughly un-Lennon-like, posed studio portrait, totally at odds with the subject. Goodwin simply seemed to be recording who was on the show, not trying to tell us anything about them. Nevertheless, I was glad I went.

Glad for other reasons too, as we dashed round the Islamic Middle East Jameel Gallery on the ground floor and saw some truly arresting art. The ceramics in particular were just wonderful; imaginative pieces and like all classic art, timeless. I unhesitatingly recommend it. I even sneaked a snapshot of one below.

A 16th century Turkish bowl from the V & A's Jameel Gallery

Great food that evening at Fay’s house and then we came back to Bristol the following day. I caught up with not one, but two episodes of Mad Men and then had an email I’d sent to Radio 4’s PM programme read out on air.

All things considered, a pretty good weekend.