A pop-up exhibition and drop-in shop is to open in Coventry city centre throughout the month of May, focussing on the history of British pop music programming.

Researchers at the University of Warwick and De Montfort University are calling on Coventrians to pop-in to the old Co’v’ee shop, in Shelton Square, to share their opinions and experiences of programmes such as Top of the Pops, Ready Steady Go, The Tube, Six Five Special or The Chart Show.

The research team, who are being funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, are keen to talk to women about their memories of watching pop programmes, and how important they were in keeping up with (and recording) the latest trends in pop music and fashion. They are also keen to hear about their impact on their evolving identity as teenagers and young women and are interested to hear whether pop programming was as significant for a male audience as it was for the female viewer.

Dr Helen Wheatley and Dr Rachel Moseley, from Warwick’s Film and Television department, have set up the exhibition as part of their A History of Television for Women in Britain, 1947-89 project, in conjunction with Coventry arts organisation Artspace and Coventry City Council.

The exhibition makes use of the large shop window (and the inside of the shop) to display props, documents, and moving-image footage which evokes the rich history of this programming in this period, and to get the passing public thinking and talking about the pop programmes that were important to them

Display items include: 1960s style furniture and artwork that evoke a typical Coventry living room of the time, a 1960s TV set playing pop programmes of this era on a loop, a mannequin of 1960s icon Cathy McGowan, reproductions of Radio Times and TV Times coverage, and printed excerpts from interviews already conducted about this aspect of the history of television for women.

The shop will be open between 10am-1pm every Saturday, 12noon-4pm every Monday and 9am-1pm every Thursday throughout May.

Notes to Editors

For more information contact Luke Hamer, Assistant Press Officer, University of Warwick, l.hamer@warwick.ac.uk, 02476 575601, 07824 541142