Super Fly Launches Call Out For Musical Memories of The US Air Force

Noise of Art and Woodbridge Festival Seek Musical Memories of The US Air Force For New Project in Suffolk.

Woodbridge Festival of Art and Music and Noise of Art are launching their project, Super Fly, on Wednesday 12 February, with a call out for stories and memorabilia. Super Fly is the first project to explore the influence of the United States Air Force Bases and Black American music on culture in Suffolk.

Noise of Art are asking local people to share their pictures, posters and stories about music and the US Air Force bases present in Suffolk from the post-war period up until the 1990s. The collected stories, pictures, posters and flyers will be added to existing and new research, to create immersive shows and exhibitions later this year. The events will celebrate this untold East Anglian cultural history for the first time. CONTACT woodbridgefestivalsuffolk@gmail.com

The project is being launched with an exhibition in the Woodbridge branch of Suffolk Building Society, which features artworks specially created by students at Suffolk New College and is curated by local artist and Woodbridge Festival chair, Alice Stallard.

Pioneering UK funk DJ Les Spaine, who played USAF bases in the 1970s, says: “Super Fly is investigating the influence that the USAF played in bringing American black music into the UK via Suffolk airforce bases, and the influence this had on music in the UK. I have agreed to be a principle representative for the project and will be adding to the interviews Ben Osborne has already done with me to help build the overall narrative. I look forward to seeing the far reaching results of this project come to fruition.”

Noise of Art founder, Ben Osborne, who started work on the project in 2018, says Super Fly will celebrate an important and over-looked East Anglian cultural history: "Super Fly will celebrate the influence of the post-war USAF bases on musical culture in Suffolk. This hidden history is well known locally and will hopefully now become recognised nationally. Usually the influence of American black music in the UK is thought to have arrived through major port cities, such as London and Liverpool. This story reveals an alternative route for music coming into the UK through East Anglian American air bases."

CONTACT woodbridgefestivalsuffolk@gmail.com