Chatham, Kent - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

The term 'chav', research suggests, derives from the romany word for 'youngster'. However, one of many popularly suggested 'origins' for the word 'Chav' is an abbreviation of 'Chatham Average', alluding to a public perception of a segment of Chatham residents as tracksuit-wearing, gold hoop-earringed common people with a penchant for hard drinking, recreational drug use, and aggressive and anti-social behaviour.

On a cultural level, Chatham also gave birth to several movements in literature, art and music. In the period from 1977 until 1982 the Medway Delta Sound emerged. The term was coined as a joke by Chatham born writer painter and musician Billy Childish after Russ Wilkins' Medway based record label, Empire Records, used the phrase "from the Medway Delta". Several Medway Delta bands gained international recognition, including The Milkshakes, The Prisoners (see also James Taylor Quartet), The Daggermen, The Dentists, Christopher Broderick and The Singing Loins. In the mid- to late 1980s a scene of more contemporary indie bands emerged, centred around Churchill's pub, and organising themselves within the Medway Bands Co-operative.

Out of the Kent Institute of Art & Design KIAD that is now been renamed the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) came the band known as Wang Chung. The vocalist and guitarist with Wang Chung, Jeremy Ryder, who is better known as Jack Hues attended KIAD. Also Alan Denman, who was a well established lecturer at KIAD formed the Electronic Town as an urban theatre movement in the Medway Towns in 1984. Alan Denman also helped to form The Medway Poets with Billy Childish, Robert Earl, Bill Lewis, Sexton Ming and Charles Thomson. The Medway Poets used to meet regularly at the Railway Tavern that was known as The York during the period from 1974 to 1985 in Ordnance Street in Chatham. So Chatham has had a strong musical and creative arts heritage that was centred around local groups, many of which were part of KIAD. Sexton Ming went onto to create the artistic movement known as Stuckism in 1999.

There was a resurgence in the live music scene in early 2001, with an initial focus on the Tap 'n' Tin venue in Chatham. The spirit of the original greatness of the Medway Delta Sound was revived by music and poetry evenings promoted by David Wise's Urban Fox Press, which also published several books by Medway poets and artists. In 2008 the independent arts organisation Medway Eyes was founded, specialising in music and photography. Medway Eyes has promoted several arts exhibitions and gigs at The Barge in Gillingham and The Nags Head in Rochester.

The Medway Poets were formed in 1977 and disbanded in 1982 having performed at major literary festivals and on TV and Radio. They became a major influence to writers in the Medway Towns. From the core of this group the anti conceptual/pro painting movements of Stuckism and Remodernism came into being.

Recent Medway artists of note include Kid Harpoon, Crybaby Special and The Monsters, Red Light, Underground Heroes, Tyrannosaurus Alan, Pete Molinari, Lupen Crook, Stuart Turner and Theatre Royal.