Pride in the Making: art, music and culture in the early days of Tyneside CHE

Posted on 30 June, 2025 by nspeccoll

The Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) was formed in 1972 as a local branch of the national Campaign for Homosexual Equality. The Tyneside CHE Archive held in Special Collections and Archives at Newcastle University is one of the most complete records of CHE in the UK.

As Pride Month draws to a close, we reflect on the importance of art, music and culture in the early days of Tyneside CHE through extracts from the archive.

In the early days of the LGBTQ+ movement in the UK, criminalisation, discrimination, social exclusion and stigmatisation were widespread for its members.

Against this backdrop, art, music and culture, and the social bonds which both created and resulted from them, became powerful tools of resistance and self-expression for the LGBTQ+ community, forming the cultural backbone of a growing movement. Nationally, and internationally, artists, musicians and cultural spaces became lifelines for members of the LGBTQ+ community, and through the Tyneside CHE archive we can see the same unfolding at a local level.

In the early Tyneside CHE newsletters, regular committee business and political matters are interspersed with cultural gatherings and events throughout. In June 1976, plans included a trip to watch the York Mystery Plays and an outing to the Tyneside Cinema to see the film A Bigger Splash, a film significant for its treatment of gay themes.

As well as organised trips, in-house events and productions formed a very significant part of Tyneside CHE’s activities too, from regular film nights and coffee mornings hosted in members’ own homes, to an organised street theatre group which made regular performances on Newcastle’s Northumberland Street. This production of Cinderfella in December 1980 was Tyneside CHE’s own take on a traditional festive pantomime.

Programme for Cinderfella by Tyneside CHE, 21 December 1980 (CHE/01/05)

Theatrical performances and arenas provided a relatively safe and creative space for LGBTQ+ individuals to express their identities, desires, and experiences. Tyneside CHE supported and hosted several touring productions of Gay Sweatshop, a London-based theatre company and the first gay theatre company, which was formed to counteract prevailing misconceptions about homosexuals and promote awareness of sexual oppression experienced by the gay community. This ticket relates to a performance of the play Indiscreet in Newcastle on 17 December 1976.

Ticket for performance of Indiscreet by Gay Sweatshop in Newcastle, 17 December 1976 — Ticket for performance of *Indiscreet* by *Gay Sweatshop* in Newcastle, 17 December 1976 (CHE/01/05)

There were also touring productions of another gay theatre collective from London, Consenting Adults in Public, founded by the British playwright, performer, director, and activist Eric Presland.

Ticket proofs for performance of All our Yester-Gays by the Consenting Adults in Public theatre company in Newcastle, 12 August [1976?] — Ticket proofs for performance of *All our Yester-Gays* by the *Consenting Adults in Public* theatre company in Newcastle, 12 August [1976?] (CHE/01/05)

Arts magazines played a crucial role in the early LGBTQ+ movement, by providing a space for expression, visibility, and community when mainstream media marginalized or ignored LGBTQ+ voices. Newcastle’s first gay arts magazine Slant was published in February 1977 by Newcastle University’s Gaysoc, with assistance from the Student’s Union. According to the Editorial in its first edition, it was formed “to be a magazine of new writings with a gay orientation” and “to provide a means by which gay writers and poets might speak out, from the heart of their gay sensibility to their heterosexual brothers and sisters”.

Front cover of Slant magazine, issue 1, February 1977 — Front cover of *Slant* magazine, issue 1, February 1977 (CHE/05/02)

Editorial, Slant magazine, issue 1, February 1977 — Editorial, *Slant* magazine, issue 1, February 1977 (CHE/05/02)

As Tyneside CHE arrived at its ten-year anniversary in 1982, celebrations included a barn dance featuring many traditional and well-known country dances and tunes, including Cumberland Square Eight, Lucky Seven, Winster Galop and the Blaydon Races, again demonstrating the continued importance of culture in unifying and strengthening the movement and its members, and of community gatherings that defied repression and laid the groundwork for LGBTQ+ visibility and activism.

Ticket for Tyneside CHE barn dance and disco, 18June 1982 (CHE/01/05)

Browse and search the Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality (Tyneside CHE) Archive

Read our blog post on celebrating 50 years of Pride

See our Finding their Voices exhibition which celebrates the many diverse voices present within our collections.

See our exhibition on The North’s Forgotten Female Reformers which examines the role of women in Tyneside CHE

Beauties in Strains Seldom Heard: The Famous Tune – January 2017

Posted on 31 January, 2017 by nspeccoll

Image from ‘An Introduction to Harmony by William Shield’ (18th Century Collection 780 SHI)

25th January, Burns’ Night, has just passed for 2017. The day (and evening!) celebrates the birth, life, and work of famous Scot Robert (‘Rabbie’) Burns (1759-1796). Regarded as the national poet of Scotland, Burns composed many folk songs. He also collected songs and adapted them for his own use.

To many, he is best-known for his anthem ‘Auld Lang Syne’, which is often sung (in Scotland and throughout the world) at New Year. Burns ‘wrote’ the words for ‘Auld Lang Syne’ in about 1788 and sent a copy of the original song to the Scots Musical Museum with the remark,

“The following song, an old song, of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript until I took it down from an old man.”

Some of the lyrics were indeed “collected” rather than composed by the poet; the ballad “Old Long Syne” printed in 1711 by James Watson shows considerable similarity in the first verse and the chorus to Burns’ later poem, and is almost certainly derived from the same “old song”.

25 January also marks the anniversary of composer William Shield, who died on the same day in 1829. Shield was born in Swalwell, Gateshead, on 5 March 1748 and was taught music by his father before becoming an apprentice shipbuilder in South Shields following the death of his mother. He continued studying music with Charles Avison, church organist at St John’s Church in Newcastle, and moved to London in 1772 to play violin in the opera at Covent Garden (later the Royal Opera House). He met Joseph Haydn and, in 1817, was appointed Master of the King’s Musick.

Like Burns, Shield was a great plunderer of folk tunes, often incorporating them into his own compositions. He is often cited as being the composer of the tune of Burns’ ‘Auld Lang Syne’. In 1998, John Treherne, Gateshead’s Head of Schools’ Music Service, studied Shield’s score for his operetta Rosina (1782):

“I started to copy out the score and hummed the tune as I was writing it down. I was coming to the end when I realised the tune floating through my head was Auld Lang Syne.”

Had Burns ‘stolen’ the tune from Shield and taken credit for it? It’s more likely that Shield knew the tune of a traditional Scottish folk song and used it in Rosina to convey a Scottish atmosphere. The same could probably be said of Burns: he may have ‘stolen’ the tune from Rosina, but it’ more likely that he borrowed from a traditional Scottish tune that he’d heard somewhere. The debate has raged on for years, with north-of-England folk song traditionalists claiming that it was their local lad who composed the tune to one of the most-performed songs ever.

Shield’s ‘An Introduction to Harmony by William Shield’ (18th Century Collection 780 SHI) was published in 1800. This comprehensive treatise on the elements of harmony shows Shield’s encyclopedic knowledge of local and more ‘exotic music’ by using (unnamed) excerpts of existing music as exercises and examples. Shield’s ‘Introduction’ is, in fact, composed of an anthology drawn from music in his own library, including obscure pieces never reproduced before.

A second edition appeared in 1817. In the preface to Part the Second, Shield explains his reasons for using excerpts of existing music:

“. . . it has appeared to me the most liberal plan to let every musical illustrative example recommend itself by its own intrinsic merit, and not by the name of its author.”

Is this what Shield possibly felt when he first heard the theme he adapted in Rosina? Or what Burns experienced when he heard the tune he appropriated an obscure air for ‘Auld Lang Syne’?

Shield’s ‘Introduction’ met with varying reviews on its publication. The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle, although acknowledging Shield’s genius and popularity, dismissively stated:

“This work has proved serviceable by enticing grown-up lady-performers to acquire some knowledge of musical theory.”

Robert Burns, 25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796. William Shield, 5 March 1748 – 25 January 1829.

The Woodman: a comic opera … by William Shield – January 2012

Posted on 30 January, 2012 by nspeccoll

Title page from Shield, W. The Woodman: a comic opera, as performed with universal applause at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden. — Title page from Shield, W. *The Woodman: a comic opera, as performed with universal applause at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden*. Composed chiefly by Willm Shield. The poetry by Mr. Bate Dudley.
(London: Printed by Longman and Broderip, c.1794)
(**Friends Collection, Friends 649)**

William Shield (1748-1829) is a much-neglected figure in British music yet, in his day, was a prolific composer of opera and Master of the King’s Music.

The son of a singing master, he was born in Swalwell (Gateshead). His father gave him musical instruction but died when William was nine years old. Thereafter, William was apprenticed to a Tyneside boat builder but continued to study music. He enjoyed a particularly good relationship with Charles Avison (another celebrated composer from Newcastle upon Tyne) who was then organist at St. Nicholas’ Cathedral, Newcastle. Under Avison, William learned about composition, started to perform at concerts and dances, and became a significant violinist in Newcastle’s programme of subscription concerts. He was 21 years old when he was given his first commission: to compose an anthem which would be sung at the consecration of St. John’s Church, Sunderland.

Completion of his boat building apprenticeship allowed him to work away from Tyneside and he began to lead theatre orchestras in Scarborough and Stockton-on-Tees. At the same time, he struck up a friendship with the antiquarian Joseph Ritson with whom he shared an interest in the folk music tradition.

He was persuaded to move to London and by 1772 was playing violin in the Covent Garden Opera, becoming principal violinist in 1773. The chamber music which he wrote during this period could not compete with the more exciting music of Joseph Haydn but his first comic opera, The Flitch of Bacon (1778) was an immense success and contributed to William’s being appointed composer to Covent Garden. It is in comic operas that William’s contribution to English music lies. Hayden attended the first performance of The Woodman (c.1794) which is featured here.

In 1817 he became Master of the King’s Music and, upon his death; his favourite violin was given to King George IV.

The Woodman comprises 97 pages of music for solo voices and a chorus, and an accompaniment for keyboard. It was gifted to Newcastle University Library by Dr. David Garder-Medwin, President of the Friends of the University Library, in December 2010.

Music score from Shield, W. The Woodman: a comic opera, as performed with universal applause at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden. — Music score from Shield, W. *The Woodman: a comic opera, as performed with universal applause at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden*. Composed chiefly by Willm Shield. The poetry by Mr. Bate Dudley.
(London: Printed by Longman and Broderip, c.1794)
**(Friends Collection, Friends 649**)

Walter Crane: When the Bright God of Day – August 2008

Posted on 17 August, 2008 by nspeccoll

Illustration of When the Bright God of Day, with accompanying music script — When the Bright God of Day from *Pan-pipes: a book of old songs*, 2nd ed. [ca. 1890] (White (Robert) Collection, W 784.3 MAR)

This image is taken from an illustrated music book featuring decorative colour illustrations by the artist Walter Crane (1845-1915).

Walter Crane was one of the leading lights of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England, along with other major designers including the likes of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. The Arts and Crafts movement aimed to recapture the spirit and quality of traditional craftsmanship in response to what many saw as the soulless mass-production of the factories of the Industrial Revolution.

Crane became especially renowned as a children’s book illustrator and was interested in the design of the book as a whole, concerning himself as much with borders and typography as with the illustrations themselves.

The Pan Pipes book from which this image is taken features musical scores for a variety of traditional songs, accompanied by Crane’s bold and elaborate border panels featuring images of lovers, beautiful maidens, gallant soldiers and the like.