Keith Armstrong of ‘Northern
Voices Community Projects’ looks at twinning exchanges and recounts a few stories
along the way
‘Ein bier bitter –
und ein Martini for the wife’ demanded ‘the lad’ from Peterlee
Cricket Club of the German barman in the twin-town of Nordenham.
Spotting ‘the lad’ was of English extraction, the barman, in near
impeccable style, politely enquired ‘Sweet or Dry, Sir?’ ‘Just
the one!’, our ‘twinning boy’ snapped back, sensing a German
plot, returning triumphantly to his stool in the town’s ‘Beer
Akademie’, thinking how well he’d handled a potentially tricky
diplomatic situation.
As Peterlee’s Community
Arts Worker, having eavesdropped this touching exchange, I thought to
myself ‘So that’s what twinning is all about!’ As one of the
co-ordinators of the initiative, I felt I was entitled to wonder just
how the twinning link had transpired and was it worth all the effort.
This was back in 1980-6 and times were hard in the mining
communities around Peterlee. People’s minds were concentrated on
survival; ‘twinning’ could hardly be considered paramount. But
it played a small part in expanding horizons. By 1986, I’d made 8
visits to Nordenham with different groups and individuals, including
the Youth Drama Workshop, the East Durham Writers’ Workshop, and
the local band ‘the Montgolfier Brothers’ (ex-‘DTs’, ex-‘Sick
Note’, ex-‘Death By Trombone’!) for many, this was their first
excursion to foreign shores, and it changed them, they occasionally
fell in love, and cried when they had to leave Germany. Who would
have thought?
Naturally, there was
method in the developmental madness. It was meant to change
attitudes, get the ball off the Durham island, develop links, forge
exchanges, and generally broaden political and cultural
understanding. Not that it was plain-sailing, of course. I well
remember a night out with ‘the Montgolfier Brothers’ around
several local bars, ending with an extended toasting session with a
man with a monocle and a scar down his cheek who we promptly
christened ‘Uncle Herman’. Uncle Herman declared a passion for
British Scientists and offered Schnapps all round for every such
scientists we could name. I think a general state of collapse was
declared after the toast of ‘Michael Faraday!’ and Kenny, the
bass guitarist, was, as legend has it, woken early the next morning
in a local shop door-way by the drip-drip of a window cleaner’s
wash-leather! Yet the band bounced back and gave several outstanding
performances in the town’s schools and in the community centre.
Their single at the time ‘Things That Go Bump In The Night’
quickly became a cult hit in Nordenham.
And the there was the
coach-tour round the town with Frau Ehleman of the Rathaus (Town
Hall) as our guide, a very enthusiastic and kindly lady with an
unfortunate way of constantly popping a microphone! Not only was
this, however, her phrase-book unique. As the coach rolled away from
the Rathaus, we were pleased to have pointed out for us, in rapid
succession, ‘the field of the dead cows’ and ‘the house where
you can buy the women’. By way of explanation, it transpired that
there was pollution in the soil, from a local factory, and, further
down the road, was situated the local brothel. And we’ll never
forget the unique invite to go ‘mud-walking’ the next morning!
So we weren’t short of
the odd moments of humour, though, in fact, we did get through a lot
of hard work, with the Writers’ Workshop performing, with
translation, their poems and songs in the town’s schools and at an
Anti-Nuclear rally. General political and cultural discussion was
always encouraged and usually ensued. During the 1984-5 Miners’
Strike, the twin-town of Nordenham sent parcels of food and toys to
the striking miners and their families and made financial
contributions to the ‘Save Easington Area Mines Campaign’. And
we vividly remember heading the Nordenham May Day procession and
visiting local factories there. Our delegation generally stayed in
twin-town homes, a gesture which was usually reciprocated when our
friends from Nordenham trade unions and peace group visited us in
Peterlee.
Many of the twinning
links in North East England are with Germany and French towns and our
positive experience of Nordenham has led myself and others connected
with ‘ Northern Voices’ to seek to develop further links,
building on this success to overcome the negative feelings local
people often have of such connection, viewing them as council
‘junkets’ and the like. Whilst this ‘junketing’ does still
go on, there is scope for getting involved in promoting more
constructive political and cultural dialogue with our twinning
partners, especially more significant in the changing European
landscape. Indeed, in recent years, through the good offices of
Durham’s Euro M.P. Stephen Hughes, poets and musician from
‘Northern Voices’ performed at the European Parliament in
Strasbourgh!
The town of Tübingen in
Southern Germany has been described as ‘a town on a campus’,
given that out of a total population of 77,000, 25,000 are students
and 8,000 employees of the University. So that the nature of its
twinning with County Durham is distinctly academic compared to the
more industrial nature of both Nordenham and Peterlee. It has also a
somewhat richer history in a number of ways – Hegel studied there,
the eccentric poet Friedrich Holderlin lived there in his Tower for
30 years and expired there, and Hermann Hesse, the writer, worked in
a bookshop there in his formative youth. To this extent, the town’s
Cultural Office was interested in a literary link and ‘Northern
Voices’ was, therefore, invited, and funded, by Durham County
Council’s International Exchange Officer to pioneer a literary
connection in 1987. since when, 11 successful visits have been made,
featuring poets, and musicians in the folk and jazz idioms. Readings
have been staged in schools, pubs, and at the University, and
reciprocal visits to Durham by Tübingen poets ant the University ’s
Anglo-Irish Theatre Group arranged. We have also participated in
discussions on regional culture in the new Europe. In both the
twinning examples highlighted above, the links forged have led to
anthologies being published. To accompany a visit by East Durham
Writers’ Workshop to Nordenham in 1986, a bi-lingual pamphlet,
‘North Sea Poems’, was produced and, in the cases of Tübingen, a
joint bi-lingual anthology ‘Poets Voices’, featuring poets from
both Durham and Tübingen, was launched in the Holderlin Tower in
June 1991.
Other interesting
twinning links which ‘Northern Voices’ has pioneered in the
cultural field are those between Newcastle upon Tyne and its Dutch
Counterpart, Groningen, and between Wear Valley and Ivry-sur-Seine
(just outside Paris). And ‘Northern Voices’ remains committed to
this area of cultural work now and in the future. This might have a
lot to do with our being based on the North Sea Coast. Certainly, in
my own case, not only did my father graft in the shipyards for forty
years or so, and his father before him, but his tales of his Merchant
Navy days and of travels to Rio, Cape Town, Lisbon and so on truly
inspired me as an impressionable youth and this excitement in
travelling has carried over into my cultural activities. As a
founding member of ‘the Tyneside Poets’ group back in the 1970s,
I vividly recall the links we developed with our Icelandic
counterparts, and, in particular, our visit to Reykjavik during the
Cod War of 1976 when I performed my epic poem ‘Cod Save The Queen’
(!) to an audience of over 200 excited Icelanders. This was followed
by a visit in 1980 to Georgia in the then Soviet Union. After one
late night session with a worker-writers’ group in the steel-works
town of Rustavi, I coined the following short poem:
(TO A FELLOW WRITER IN
RUSTAVI0
Last night we swapped our
shirts
They didn’t fit our
bodies too well
But they fitted our mood
Exactly.
Such memories stay with you for the
rest of your life. They change you. And whilst I’ve dwelt
exclusively on international links, I recall with fondness the
twinning of Greenwich and Easington Councils during the ’84 Strike
and the links we developed then. So it can happen within our little
island too. And it’s fun. That, after all, is what twinning’s
all about! Try it.
