The spirit and brotherhood of Hip Hop and Graffiti lives on and gains momentum in London in 2010. Thanks to Chrome and Black for organising a wicked Jam in the Leake Street tunnel for real graffiti writers….“The Battle of Waterloo”…
Although it was a crew battle the rivalry was friendly and lots of people, myself included just down purely to hook up with old pals and maybe stick a little something up…I love to paint Vaughn Bode influenced characters as has been done in graffiti since the mid-‘70s; this jam provided the perfect excuse.
This post continues with lots more pics after the jump; although not great quality and not catching all the pieces, my camera broke so I was using camera on phone and drinking, and Jenny kindly took some on her wanderings, so it’s more like the vibe of the day…….
Thanks to to Keen 53 and Sharn.E for organising such a wicked weekend, (a few of us started on Friday evening) it really was the ultimate London oldskool writers’ reunion at a wonderful spot, alongside the Thames with writers painting alongside each other for what seemed like miles…
My unfinished Elate piece by me with help from Jenny and Drew, featuring 1962 rolling stock fill and featuring personal additions from Envy, Time, Keen 53, Sharn.E, Prime WRH, Wish, Part Two, Fuem ACR, Carl 131, Merc, Coad 5, Fuel, Kis 42, Fued, Colt 45, Cazbee DSS, Hit and Urge. People competed over the best spots on ‘the train’ to hit, just like in the old days, it was lots of fun…here’s the view across the river Thames from my spot…
After last years Covent Garden ‘writers bench’ reunion was so well attended and instantly became the stuff of legend, the organiser Keen 53 and Sian decided to take it to the next level and take it to a spot where we could all paint our own pieces with tunes ,a barbeque a gazebo and all the necessary bits and pieces for an amazing day out, but miles from anyone who might bother us and in a spectacular location ….
A 7.30 start is a bit much normally but this was good.
…and a trickle of new arrivals…
…kept arriving…
…until we had our own little mini festival going !!
There were so many oldskool writers painting and loads of legends passing through that it was hard to stay focussed on your piece for more than a few minutes until the next reunion, introduction and retelling of cherished stories …
Nearly everyone there was first/second generation (mid-late eighties) London train writer but there were some honorary additions to the roster who all helped to make it a magic day full of real golden moments that will be remembered forever by all.
In attendance were untold legends from Londons’ rich graffiti history of urban and street art, lost in the mists of time but resurrected in the sun to the live the dream once again….
the line up just went on and on as you walked….
….and seemed to go on for half a mile or so….
…. ohthe joy of really not being sold anything … no stealth marketing, cynical serial media re-launches, product placement, fake posturing and definitely no toys, bandwagon jumpers, brown noses, me-me-me-ism, investment strategies, gimmicks or hype (yawn)….
…instead we had over fifty legendary street and urban transit artists and true blood Hip Hop pioneers including Keen 53, Sharn E, Chic, Desire, Envy, Cop 205, Fuel, Prime, Colt 45, DJ Dexter, Bap, Kis42, Brave 1, Skore, Crok, Shye 131, Rave, Urge, Part 2, Crane, Time, Hit, Carl ST, Merc, Coad 5, Fume ACR, Cazbee, Doze, Ebs, Care, Owed, Kee, Fued 28, Rite, Crok, Freehand, Urge, Ebee, Keylow, Jyer, Kem, Mef, Trans 1, Arian WD, Hert, Steam 156 and many more…..
…the art priceless @ $A-Dime-a-Dozen.00
…the smiles and camaraderie heartfelt, contagious and refreshingly universal…
….our vocational thirst tempered by maturity and wisdom…
…the styles diverse, names earned and skills hard won…..
…and the day featuring absolute legends and cornerstones of global urban art history, some of whom were out painting for the first time in quarter of a century…
… ‘respect the architects’ I read on a certain brother’s shirt….
…never was a truer word worn…
….Elate and ‘OAP’ (old and proud) by Keen 53…
Freya, a dedication piece to her daughter, by Sharn.E and a quick stick-up by Kis42
Higher by Cazbee- nicked from his Flickr cheers Caz, great that you’re back out painting…
Big respect and mad love for all who reached and all those who didn’t make it but should have been there, see you next time, thanks a million to Tony and Sian for organising everything and hooking up so many legends in one amazing spot…
Praise be to the weather fairy for the sunshine, was soooo better than last years hailstone thunderstorm washout…. ta for listening gal you dun good dis time. Respect lol
We kick off part two of this post with the golden age train writer Cazbee 53 from DSS Crew Da Sure Shots, from Ladbroke Grove piecing the outer wall of the MuTate Britain mechanical zoo….Many of Cazbees pieces rolled past this spot on trains,or were under the Westway itself.
Now he’s back 20 years later, along with oldskool steel writers Fuel, Skore, Mear, Crok, Don myself and a few of London’s more new skool to take the vibe back to the raw, enabling a potent and complementary mix of the hardcore underground vibes and tribes….
and back inside for another shot of me and Vibes….
……and onto the wild, diverse art within, here’s Jimmy South of War Boutique
Lyle Doghead, LRRY and friend
Elate, Obey
Anarchist Crockery by Carrie Reichart
In Dog We Trust by Jolly Good, made with real dollar bills…
Vera Bong
Dotmaster
The toilets…
New Arrivals…
What I have posted is a fraction of what is there, you really have to get down to this 12,000 foot space and experience the most revolutionary art happening London, probably even the world has ever seen.
They are working their way around from Sclater Street to Bacon Street buffing everything. Anyone painting on the remaining space is told to stop immediately and move on or be arrested.
I will be posting a memorial superpost featuring the best and the worst moments of this fantastic free space in the coming days.
It will be sorely missed by all and no doubt replaced with a mess of tags and throw-ups.
This one was done on Thursday on Sclater Street, near Brick Lane, London E1, and was the first collaboration between myself and Tizer,who did the character and background, we were both happy with the end results.
There’s also a Envy piece by Envy,Time and Fued and Wisher. A massive shout to Jim Wilson who filmed everything in HD, also to Jenny, Sarah, Fued, Time, Envy, Wish, Fuel, Hit, Trix, Inkfetish and all who passed through.
Last Saturday 27th June I went along to the Covent Garden writers bench reunion to meet up with some very old friends, put some faces to old tags and drink some beer. The day started well with glorious sun…..
I started hanging out there in 1986, but it had been a meeting point since ‘84. Every Saturday afternoon through the late eighties it was a hive of activity with often over 100 writers signing blackbooks, showing photos and planning missions to get paint and then on to the train yards.
It was one of the first places in London to have proper graffiti art on the street, the work by The Chrome Angels on the hoardings around the Royal Opera House. As a young inexperienced writer it gave me a focal point to meet up with those with more experienced, make friends and be taken along on various missions.
The sun was however short lived and the day took on a dramatically different turn…..pictures continue….
When we all went off to paint together at Tufnell Hall of Fame that changed very quickly….The heavens opened and what followed was a torrential hail, thunder and rain storm of epic proportions…
This was the size of the hailstones ricocheting around our shelter spot, every now and then over the roar you’d here a surprised ‘Ow!’ or a ‘Eek’ as they found their mark…it was like being pelted with icy stones.
After about half an hour of this the heavens really opened and it turned to torrential rain, before long the trees provided no cover at all and deafening thunder and lightning broke out directly overhead so by now fearing a direct strike and utterly drenched we made a dash and hid in various bin rooms and people’s porches. It carried on like this for about another half hour.
We emerged from our cover soaked to the skin but laughing to do some tags and take some shots. It was a brilliant day and certainly one to remember and laugh about even more in years to come. After this we all went to the pub and I dried off under the hand drier and carried on. I hope to see more old faces at the next one, but better weather next time please…
Massive, massive respect to Envy, Colt 45, Sham 59, Dj Dexter, Mess, Prime, Coad 5, Reez, Dev 666, Crane, Shoom, Time, Jano, Baps, Mear, Urge, Crime, Keen53, Don One, Fuem, Merc, Fued, Dsia and anyone I missed…Legends All !
Please note the ‘rant’ that previously accompanied this post has been removed for revision as it appears that some people completely misunderstood my point….
The Painting
In this painting I have gone back to the gritty roots of UK graffiti, to show where it all started, tags, throw-ups and early pieces on London trains.
The images from New York in the book Subway Art and the film Style Wars had radicalised fertile minds in 1984 where it incubated, mutated and developed through important years of early bombing. By 1986 London writers had become numerous and dedicated enough that most trains were running with live graffiti on them and confident enough to concoct identities and assimilate styles more independently of New York influence, by now using our own indigenous cultural references and attitudes.
This is when our scene really began in earnest as a uniquely London phenomenon rolling on the oldest underground railway in the world. Pieces got bigger more beautiful and more original, raising the bar higher and higher.
This painting is not meant to be a complete list of London’s graffiti pioneers but features many of London’s legends. I’ve painted it from my own personal memories with input from my pal Envy, one of my old bombing partners, and from my experiences of the yards (particularly Loughton) between 1987 and 1989.
Anyone who spent any time in the yards of London in the late eighties will instantly recognise the vintage rolling stock, layers of stains of old tags on the panels, empty cans on the gravel, and spookily quiet atmosphere in this painting.
It’s based on Loughton train yard. Check out the leaves around the outside and the trees to the left, it could be accessed through bushes and this was one of my favourite views of the fronts of the rolling stock as emerging.
I have put people’s tags and throw-ups in the places I remember them hitting wherever possible. I realise there are discrepancies that purists will notice, (I have included certain writers who didn’t actually hit that yard) but it’s not meant to be historically accurate more a ‘dream-yard’.
Featured writers are Robbo 484, Doze, Prime and PIC from WRH We Roc Hardcrew. Envy, Jano, Kis 42, Coma and Dsia from CD Criminal Damage, Elk and Drax from WD World Domination, Cast and Fuel (who kindly did his own F throw-up on the canvas) from Cold Crush Dukes, Chane and Grand from YDS Yardies, Tilt, Hit, Rate, Kez, Sham 59, Cop and myself, Elate.
If you look carefully at the ‘stainers’ of old tags you may be able to pick out a few others. …there are many more legends that are missing than there are included!! Massive respect to all….
Many of these writers were either better artists than me back then or more ‘up’ than me and did more pieces on trains than me but I was still there doing my thing on the trains for a good couple of years and I spent a lot of my best memories bombing with some of these guys, who showed me the ropes and took me to yards, the others I looked up to and emulated their work.
The early graffiti scene was however vital to my development and one of the biggest influences on what made me the artist I am today. I can almost feel the crunch of gravel under my feet, surge of adrenalin thumping in my heart and the sickly smell of the paint fumes…
I got the idea for this series of paintings as this was a time in history that most never got to see, so decided to try and get the vibe of those mad days across as well as I could. Anyone who wants to see photos from this era of London graffiti should check out Rocking The City.
I came up to Plaistow Hall of Fame, East London to meet Keen One with the intention of spending a sunny day drinking beer and maybe putting a little something up myself…
