A Portrait of Tonia Wilson and Adrian Manning

by John Ferguson

Tonia Wilson and Adrian Manning’s friendship was established through their shared experiences visiting the ICA. For both of them, this building served as a true community hub, a second home, and a melting pot of cultures.

Tonia Wilson first visited the Caribbean Centre with her parents. Her father had arrived in the UK at the end of the Windrush era, and his connection to the ICA highlighted how essential the centre was for many who had journeyed from the Caribbean. It was where the community came together for everything from domino games and dancing to weddings and funerals.

Adrian Manning, on the other hand, had his first experience of the ICA in 1989 for a gig featuring local punk band Extreme Noise Terror. He remembers feeling a little dumbstruck while talking to the late Radio One DJ John Peel. For Adrian, the ICA was a haven for outsiders, where hardcore punk seamlessly combined with the Caribbean cultural surroundings, and where he began to feel more at home than at any of the working men's clubs of the time. 

Beyond the gigs, Adrian spent a decade training in martial arts at the club, and he eventually became an instructor there. The discipline of the Wednesday night martial arts sessions contrasted and complemented the raw energy of the music scenes that also thrived there. 

Tonia and Adrian’s stories show how the ICA existed at the centre of a diverse community—a place that welcomed everyone, from the young to the old, from those from the Caribbean diaspora to white punk rockers to those involved in the rise of drum’n’bass in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Both remember bass loud enough to rattle your lungs in your ribcage. 

Tonia and Adrian remember the ICA as a place of open-mindedness where diverse communities came together to share in the arts, music, and culture. It offered something for everyone, regardless of their background or financial means. Both believe that a new Caribbean Centre would be just as eclectic and relevant today as it was in the past.