Silhouette, Hull: 1980s images online as lockdown antidote

Pictures of post-punk clubbers "embalmed in celluloid" enjoying the "freedom of youth" have been posted online as a lockdown antidote.

Andy Roe snapped away inside Silhouette, in Hull, in the 1980s.

The photographs on Twitter give a snapshot of what was often a hangout for people with an alternative style.

Mr Roe, an artist who now lives in Oxford, said: "In this time when we are fearful, the glamorous and nostalgic past seems more appealing."

The pictures "encapsulate a certain period of the freedom of youth", he said.

Mr Roe, 55, who was born in Hull, explained how he found the long-forgotten pictures .

"I've got this cupboard full of negatives and occasionally I draw from it, it's like an oasis and it quenches a thirst", he said.

The photographer said was inspired after a conversation with author and ex-Hacienda DJ, Dave Haslam, about nightclubs in Hull.

"The Silhouette attracted clever misfits, not a pejorative term, it's meant in an endearing way. They resembled the bricks and mortar - a bit rickety, there was a sense of drama and a daredevil attitude in terms of dress," he said.

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With a bar upstairs that also catered for more traditional, middle-aged drinkers, it was on the claustrophobic dance floor downstairs that he often caught people with his camera.

"When you descended the stairs into the belly of the beast you were confronted by the heartbeat of the club, it was so small, packed, hot."

Mr Roepublished a book of his pictures taken in Spiders, another long-standing Hull venue, and is considering doing something similar with these images.

"How freaky would it be if you suddenly spotted yourself in a picture and you hadn't seen it before?

"Suddenly there you are embalmed in celluloid, it would be amazing and trigger such jaw-dropping memories," he added.

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All images copyrighted.