Alternative Cabaret Group, Birmingham
- Artist: Chris Steele-Perkins
- Date: 1980–9
- Medium: Photograph, dye destruction on paper
- Dimensions: image: 280 x 382 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is “Alternative Cabaret Group, Birmingham” by Chris Steele‑Perkins. It belongs to his series *The Pleasure Principle*, a set of forty‑four colour Cibachrome photographs created between 1980 and 1989. In this print the camera captures one of those lively public rituals that the artist was keen to document – the kind of performance scene where music, dance and community intersect.
The image is a colour photograph processed with dye destruction on paper. The technique removes certain colours from the original negative, leaving a striking contrast between vivid reds and greens and more subdued tones; the result feels both alive and slightly other‑worldly. On the paper it measures about 280 × 382 mm, an intimate format that lets us see details up close.
The scene shows a group of performers – a cabaret troupe in Birmingham – against a backdrop that hints at stage lights and a simple set design. The composition gives a sense of immediacy: the performers’ expressions, their movement across the frame, all suggest a spontaneous performance rather than a staged tableau.
In the wider context of *The Pleasure Principle*, this print is one of many that record leisure activities across Britain in the 1980s – from sport to countryside hobbies, even a portrait of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The artist used these images as a way of “re‑orientating himself” after working abroad; he wanted to capture public rituals where identity and belief are communicated through enjoyment.
See it in person
Alternative Cabaret Group, Birmingham is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
