Noise, blood and confetti: how Industrial Coast built a radical arts scene in ‘dark, deprived’ Middlesbrough (opens in new tab)

The Teesside town struggles with drugs and social discord, but inspired by its magical light and mercurial artistic spirit, some say it has the best cultural scene in the UKAt a gig in a Middlesbrough art gallery, the room smells of blood. Rainbow confetti is strewn across the floor. Someone has been making music by rattling rusted springs from their dad’s sofa. Movement artist Shlinga bends and rises around tuned gardening wires; later, Finn Darrell pulls needles from their skin as loop peda...