Talk
Brunel Good Shed
Sunday 15th November, 7:30pm
In November/December 2026 Eric Isaacson (the founder of the inspirational Mississippi Records label and shop) is touring his latest project, an audio/visual show called A People’s History of Music. Prepare for a presentation of around 90-100 mins (more of an engaging performance/screening rather than academic lecture), which charts a moving and vital people's history of underground musical resistance.
Making wide, bold swings while always coming back to intricate and strange details, this show, covers music from Ethiopia, North Korea, Kenya, the USA and beyond, while drawing on Eric’s colourfully described, personal experiences of the fascist creep. Its a whirlwind presentation of archival film, sound clips and images that avoids political grandstanding, instead emphasizing vital anti-authoritarian stories of resistance through samizdat music distribution.
Soviet era X-Ray Records, IRS Records, the enigma of Jimmy Rogers, Ethiopian Record Distro, the rad roots of Cowboy Music, Vice Magazine x The Proud Boys, Pol Pot, New Age Music and the Giant Tech Distraction Tactic of Speed & Efficiency are some of the topics that get dug up by Eric.
Eric is known for his humbly comical, singular style and for his ability to revitalize audiences through digging up buried treasures from the global music underground. He has an intuitive and captivating way of finding the kinks, idiosyncrasies and soulful stories in the histories of under-acknowledged punk, gospel, soul, blues and roots based music from around the world. Eric has previously constructed and internationally toured three other mind-altering presentations, but never one as timely as this — a must-experience sampling of audio and visual folk art.
The tour travels around Ireland and the UK and Europe. The programme and tour is a heartfelt response that pays tribute to the messages, wonder and spirit that gets embedded into music. Its a show & tell revealing how music and its players, mechanisms and audiences respond when political powers become misaligned, corrupted and sick. There is also offbeat but meaningful tangential stories, bizzaro clips and examples of the deluded attempts of power-obsessed-leaders to use music as propaganda. Eric ensures things don't get preachy and as the show progresses we never know what going to happen next! This is a show exemplifies that music eludes simple explanation.
Tickets £10-£12