As the singer in cult indie band the Long Blondes, Kate Jackson experienced all the thrills of the mid-00s music scene: chaotic gigs, hedonistic parties, an abundance of winklepickers and angular fringes. But years later, when she went back over all the photographs she’d taken during that period, things looked rather different. “I’ve got tons of photos of airport lounges and long stretches of road in Europe,” she says with a shake of the head. “Lots of German service stations. Nothing of the band! No backstage fun, no frolics!”
Jackson may regret not capturing more of the band’s short but spectacular heyday, but the road has always been important to her. As a Pulp-obsessed teenager in Bury St Edmunds, she would gaze out of the kitchen window and dream of escaping small town life via the A14. The Long Blondes track Separated By Motorways told the story of two girls doing a runner down that exact road (“Wipe your eyes darling, it’s OK / Meet me on the dual carriageway”). And over the last decade or so, roads have become a central feature of her second career in visual art.
