Friday, November 09, 2012

Paper Sun by Traffic - a mystery solved

Paper Sun by Traffic is one of the great psychedelic hits of the 1960s. But where was its distinctive video (as we would call it now) filmed?

At first I though it might have been the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill, South London. A couple of years ago I asked them via Twitter if they had been the venue, but they said no. They suggested it might have been filmed at the Powell-Cotton Museum at Quex Park in Kent.

So I asked the Powell-Cotton Museum, but they said they had not been the venue for filming either.

Then, a couple of days ago Slugabed left a comment on my post about this quest suggesting that the video had been filmed at the Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale in Brussels.

So I emailed them. And today Kristien Opstaele replied:
Yes indeed, it was filmed in our museum Some of the galleries are still the same, but not for long anymore. The museum will close mid 2013 for renovation.
So, thanks to Slugabed and Kristien, the mystery is solved. Take it away boys...

5 comments:

  1. The museum is strictly not in Brussels but in the neighbouring Flemish town of Tervuren. It's worth going there just for the very picturesque ride through the woods on the no.44 tram from Brussels.

    The museum was built in the late nineteenth century to show off King Leopold II's ill-gotten gains from the Congo. I visited it a few years ago and found it a schizophrenic place; the more modern galleries featured politically-correct ethnographic displays, while the unmodernised parts had old-fashioned glass cases full of stuffed animals.

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  2. Seems my comment was lost, so I'll try again:

    Thanks a lot, Jonathan!

    I'll send this info to the new "Friends of Steve WinwoodGroup" on Facebook, managed by an old friend of mine, Charlotte.

    Just have to warn you - her English is not the best, even me wonders sometimes ...

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  3. The Royal Museum for Central Africa at Tervuren is now staying open until November 2013 before a three year closure for the major refurbishment - so there is still a chance to catch some of the unmodernised rooms for a few more months!

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  4. Hello, all -

    Glad to come across this page. I have been trying to figure out the location for the rear cover shot of the U.S. Mr. Fantasy. It slowly dawned on me that they were wearing the same clothes as they did in the "Paper Sun" and "Hole in My Shoe" promos, so I started looking for info about those instead, which brought me here. Thank you so much for the answer. This was gnawing at me for a while. And I just assumed it was in England somewhere.

    Bit sad to have only one month before the place is closed for three years, never to be the same again... :(

    Ah well, I'm happy to finally find out.

    Thanks,
    Jim Mills
    Los Angeles

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  5. I love stuff like this - well done for tracking down the museum in the video!
    @psychologyrich

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