It is designed to be dismal. The staff are dismal, the paths are full of mud and there are a number of grotesque art installations. So what makes me want to go there? Well exactly the same reason that makes me want to see programmes like the X Factor and Britain's Got Talent consigned to the rubbish bin of television. Those programmes are abominations of art forms but sadly not deliberate abominations. Dismaland, on the other hand, is a deliberate abomination. It is deliberately naff with its floating display of migrants, a post riot city, a crash scene involving Cinderella and much more. It's all in such bad taste that I just can't wait to go. And of course there is serious art there. Also I just want one of those large black balloons with the logo "I am an Imbecile."
In fact the whole thing is a glorified piss take of modern life. I particularly like the idea of children being offered horrendously expensive loans to get mortgages for bouncy castles.
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Many years ago I got to know a freelance photographer by the name of Ric Turton. At the time I was a young reporter on the Beccles and Bungay Journal newspaper in Suffolk. Ric had been a DJ on Pirate Radio Caroline. I did a number of extensive interviews with him and those interviews are now on this web site.
It's a fascinating story of the early days of pop/rock music and the interview was picked up a few years ago by a major Pirate Radio appreciation web site. Recently I was contacted by well known DJ from those days Tony Prince who had come across my article. He had been a friend of Ric's in the pirate radio days and my interview had filled in some gaps. There was a sad end, however. When Tony found the interview with my e-mail address he was hoping I might be able to put him in touch with Ric, whose DJ name was Ric Jonns. Sadly Ric was killed in a road accident in the USA many years ago.