"Twelve on a Roll", by Robin Dale

"Songscapes" the best-selling book of Graeme's songs illustrated with photographs by Robin Dale has been out of print for some time now.  The website still receives requests for the book, now a collector's item, but unfortunately it cannot be reprinted since the printing plates have been lost.  However, some of the requests are also solely for Robin's photographs which so ably outlined the era in which these songs were written.  It is to this effect that we are very pleased to announced that Robin's book "Twelve on a Roll" is now for sale through the website.  All the photographs that were included in Songscapes is in this excellent tome.

For many years the partnership of Graeme and Robin played a huge part in commemorating through song and words and pictures the industrial life of Middlesbrough and its environs during the latter part of the twentieth century when Middlesbrough was undergoing great change.  Their illustrated talks were famous, with Graeme narrating to highlight the photographs and Robin singing Graeme's songs.

Robin writes: "The book's title "Twelve on a Roll" comes from the film format used in my camera ROLLEIFLEX 2-8F, 120 KODAK FILM - 12 exposures per roll, each exposed film sent off to the Kodak labs, to be returned in a week to ten days' time - not like today's comeras' instant results.  The photos cover a period from the late 60s to the 80s, taken mainly in Middlesbrough and its surrounding area.  This was a time when children played in the streets, foundries produced steel - and pollution!, and Middlesbrough's docks were busy.  I was often just one step ahead of the bulldozer, as industry and the housing for its workers, which were a familiar landscape to me, were changing.

I hope this collection of images taken with love and affection reflects this period of change."

"Twelve on a Roll" is available at £30 per copy at robin.dale3@ntlworld.com.