People

From the raw energy of the Sex Pistols to the international Stuckist art movement, Paul Harvey has spent a lifetime challenging convention. The Penetration guitarist and acclaimed artist talks to Alicia Ward about punk, painting, authenticity and his refusal to conform to the British art establishment. Two creative revolutions, one enduring philosophy.

John Ellis has spent almost 70 years working around North Shields Fish Quay. Now, in his own words, he shares memories of its fishing industry, people, characters and a way of life that has changed beyond recognition.

For the past few years, North Shields has been quietly reimagining its post-industrial landscape, with a new generation of independent businesses bringing life back into unexpected spaces. On Northumberland Street, just a stone’s throw from the Fish Quay, Low Quay Brew Co has transformed a former car repair garage into a brewery, taproom and neighbourhood gathering place.

It was twenty-one years ago that Cullercoats-born Lucy Ratcliffe won the first series of Britain’s Next Top Model, winning over the judges with an elegance that made her stand out on our TV screens.

Documentary photographer David Hall, AKA Nostalgia Kid, talks North Shields, punk, music, community and the people and places that have shaped his distinctive photography.

Sirkka-Liisa Roberts MBE, more well known as Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, is a celebrated Finnish-born photographer and founder member of the Amber Film & Photography Collective....

Photo credit: Adam Kennedy It doesn’t feel like almost two years since I first sat down with Hels Pattison at The Exchange in December 2024,...

Photographs by Christopher Owens

He may be a celebrated musician playing regular gigs at local hotspots like the Engine Room and The Exchange, but when we sat down at Arbor Seven Cafe with Nev Clay, the first thing he wanted to set straight was his connection to North Shields.

Listening back to my interview with musician and writer Julie Grant, a popular nineties song comes to mind; ‘Tubthumping’ by Chumbawamba, famous for its rousing refrain: ‘I get knocked down / But I get up again / You’re never gonna keep me down.’ The professional life of Julie Grant is less a career and more a sustained act of insurgency. From a fractured family start in North Shields, where she felt like an uninvited guest, to a high-speed emergence onto the national music scene, and later, infiltrating the ranks of television’s national institutions, Grant has consistently operated on her own terms. She is the epitome of the 'gatecrasher'- a term that perfectly suits her upcoming memoir - entering elite, often London-centric, creative spaces without shedding her integrity or her regional roots.