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'The music transported us to another planet'

'The music transported us to another planet'

bbc.co.uk 04.10.2026 08:08 5 views
The people captured in a celebrated photograph are reunited nearly 50 years later.

Captured at Wolverhampton's Culture Centre in 1978, the image shows her among a group of young people immersed in a night of music and dancing. At the time, none of them could have known the photograph would become an iconic image that has been viewed across the world and one of photographer Chris Steele-Perkins' most recognised works. Nor could they have imagined that, decades later, they would be reunited through the photo and finally have their stories told.

"Oh my goodness - oh my, and I do look like me, don't I?" Vivianne said when she saw the image. She is the central dancer in the photograph and can still remember the atmosphere inside the venue. She said: "Back then, everybody was doing their own thing, was all dancing, and when the music hit us, we felt no pain.

"At the end of the day, we're showing that we're black sisters enjoying reggae music." Nearly 50 years after it was taken, the image continues to attract attention, appearing most recently in the V&A East exhibition The Music Is Black: A British Story. Now it is going on display in its home city of Wolverhampton, at the Grand theatre. Vivienne said she had no awareness when she was dancing that her photo was being taken.

"If you notice the way we all dance, it's like we were on another planet," she said. Her dance, as captured in the photo, would also later go on to be recreated in a painting by artist Claudette Johnson, external, which will also appear in the Wolverhampton exhibition. "I appreciated the fact that someone could put their time into painting a portrait of me.

"I can't believe I looked so attractive back then, really and truly. I look very lovely." While the photo has become celebrated over the years, the people captured in it have remained largely anonymous, until now. For Winston Logan, who appears at the back of the photo on the far left, the image is a reminder of a very different Wolverhampton.

Having arrived in Britain about five years before the photo was taken, he remembers a lack of opportunities for young Black people. "Life is hard, no entertainment, nowhere to go, no fun," he said. But the Culture Centre on Clarence Street offered something different, becoming a hub for music, dancing and community.

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