1990 Al Stokes at Preview Magazine

In 1990 Al Stokes joined Preview Magazine as a freelance crime reporter / feature writer / photographer

Here are some of his articles and photographs reproduced by kind permission of Adam Green, former editor

SEA LEVEL RISE, 198

Articles - Page 1

STREET LEGAL TAGGING, 1989

Articles - Page 2

STREET LEGAL TAGGING, 1989, original photo Articles - Page 3

(left) DRUGGED UP SUBURBIA, JANUARY 1990, part of a 4-page spread

(above right) THE DAY THE WAR SIRENS SOUNDED IN NORWICH Articles - Page 4

MAY 1990 HOW THE POLL TAX EFFECTED MAGGIE’S ‘STORM TROOPERS’ TOO and STORIES FROM THE RIOT

Articles - Page 5

DECEMBER 1990, CRIME STORIES

NB: Not all of Al Stokes’ back issue articles are here. Only those from copies he kept on dusty shelves for 24-years.

Articles - Page 6

AL STOKES PREVIEW PHOTOGRAGHS

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a tour of Norfolk County Council’s emergency nuclear war bunker under County Hall

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GIGS - THE GROUNDHOGS at NORWICH ARTS CENTRE

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KRAKATOA, MIKE & ROD’S MADE TO MEASURE DRESS SHOP IN ST BENEDICTS STREET, NORWICH

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ILLEGAL FLYPOSTING IN NORWICH

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ENVIRONMENTALIST GREEN DESERTS BASE AT ROUGHAM, SUFFOLK

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ON THE HUNT FOR NORWICH PAVEMENT PARKERS

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OUT AND ABOUT WITH NORWICH POLICE

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LIST OF ARTICLES & PHOTOGRAPHS Page 1: How sea level rise could effect Norfolk Page 2-3: Street Legal Tagging Page 4: Drugged Up Suburbia & Air Raid Siren Malfunction; the curious thing was, although the air raid siren was heard all over Norwich no one reacted to it. So much for the four minute warning Page 5: The London Poll Tax Riot and how Police pay will be penalised Page 6: Norwich graffiti clean up, Rent A cop & Police signage for lone female drivers Page 7: Bunker; blast door & air raid siren panel: After reporting on the air raid siren malfunction, Norfolk Emergency Planning officer invited Preview down into bowels of their Nuclear Bunker at County Hall; a strange place, being on a hill the front of the underground bunker is at ground level. Now a document store.

Page 8: Bunker; bomb blast map Page 9: Bunker; Royal Observer Corp map Page 10: Bunker; generator & Emergency Planning Officer on a bomb plotting excerise Page 11: Bunker; unisex lavatories, no modesty screens Page 12: Bunker; computer room Page 13: Bunker; canteen / briefing room Page 14 - 15: The Groundhogs playing at Norwich Arts Centre Page 16 - 18: decommissioned guns; this article came about by complete chance. Walking past a gentry ‘hunting, shooting & fishing’ shop in Norwich I espied the front window display full of machine guns. Intrigued, I asked the shop owner if I could take photos and he was more than happy to show me around. I almost fainted at the sight of 50cal water cooled machine gun on sale to the general public. Norwich Police confirmed the guns were legal because the barrels had been stopped up. Put a whole new emphasis on the expression. ‘get orf my land!’

Page 19 - 21: traditional horse and buggy rides come to Norwich Page 22: Krakatoa Dress shop in Norwich Page 23: Fly posters in Norwich - doing it the right way on Council notice boards Page 24: Fly posters in Norwich - doing it the wrong way which could land promotors in court under the new City Council environmental bylaws. Part of the clean up Norwich campaign.

Page 25: Grean Deserts enviromentalists; Preview Magazine expanded into the eastern region so I managed to finagle editor Adam Green into letting me go down to Suffolk to do a feature article on Green Deserts who planned to ‘green’ the deserts by planting trees.

List of Photographs - i

Page 26: Norwich anti Gulf War demo Page 27: Ibid; I was facinated by the lone campaigner with a megaphone and only a small child who reminded me of Rupert the Bear and a banner holder for company Page 28: Norwich Festival - choir Page 29: Norwich Festival - Spot The Coyote; Suan Moyes (centre) lived in the flat above me and the band used to rehearsed once a week. I had to escape to the pub because, although I liked their music, hearing the same song more than twice could drive a person round the bend. Suan later joined Bob Kerr’s Whoopee Band Page 30: Norwich Festival - vintage cars and a balloon clown; Norwich Festival has come on a bit since then Page 31 - 32: Norwich pavement parkers; these drivers were the scourge of the streets, parking on any flat surface which came to hand. According to Norwich Police there are a raft of offences involved - reckless driving, driving on other than the road, obstruction - but the Traffic Wardens ignored them for some reason know only to themselves. In a largely still medieval city like Norwich, with narrow streets and pavements, pedestrians took their lives in their hands stepping out into traffic to get round the things. One driver almost reversed into me while taking a photograph. NFN - Normal For Norfolk Page 33 - 36: Norwich Police; this may be worth explaining because it turned out to be the story that never was. Someone at Preview thought it was a grand idea to send reporters and photographers out with the emergency services. I got the Police. One night shift in a patrol car (which involved the night club area - ye gods!), a day patrol out in the countryside, a night in the station and an interview with a senior officer at Police HQ. All good so far. I went on holiday for a week and when I got back all hell had broken loose, a misunderstanding of massive and overwhelming proportions had exploded when a senior officer phoned ‘making threats’ which got the story spiked. I phoned the senior officer concerned to find out what the problem was and all he’d done was call the Preview office to find out when the article was coming out. I reported back that there was no problem with the police but Preview refused to publish the article in case they got raided. Such is life.

Page 37 - 39: Norwich Poll Tax demos Page 40: Norwich Women’s Centre; I asked for an interview but was told I was the wrong gender.

Page 41: Squatters sticker Page 42 -43: Norwich Congestion; see medieval streets, above

* List of Photographs - ii