Andy Goldsworthys Shit

I am sure all art lovers enjoyed Andy Goldsworthys pretty books 'Wood' and 'Stone'. Now the artworld is on tenterhooks awaiting his new book. He has taken the stools and droppings of various animals and arranged them in patterns then taken photos of them in the countryside, a kind of poo pourri. The title of the book, as simple as the titles of his earlier books, never a man to mince words, and clearly not a man to mince turds is published by Stobbart Davies titled 'Shit'

Just for Chris

Thanks for following my blog. The RU versus RL debate is a tough one from a viewers point of view. The objectives of the two games have become so different, and if yoy grew up watching one it is hard to watch the other. To RU fans RL seems simple and the game can only be won by attacking for tries, RU can be bogged down by negative play. To us, it seems ridiculous seeing a team who scores less tries winning through penalties from complex technicalities. The true hatred is a historic and political one. Rugby Union was played as an amateur game. This was ok for the southern public school educated. Up north, miners and dockers who were working 6 day weeks had to take a day off and wanted, needed replacement pay as they didnt earn much. The Northern Union decided to seperate themselves, their teams had won all competitions for a decade, they decided to reimburse the players for lost earnings. What followed was nearly a century of aparthied where if an RU player as much as had a trial for an RL team, they were banned from playing union for life. The 2 sports evolved from this point. Union became a great game for players, I played, there was room for short fat blokes, tall lanky blokes, a great game to play, the ball in play for only 40% of the game. RL evolved in to a game to be watched, the ball in play for 80% of the game, tries outvalueing penalties. By th 1980s we were so far ahead it was a joke, RUs best team Bath played a Wigan team in decline and lost 84 6. Bradford Bulls played St Helens in one of the hardest games of the season, got on a coach, 2 hours sleep then won the RU seven asides competition the next day. The divide was huge. Now RU has pulled its socks up but the games bare little in common, a great RL player may fail in RU, Johnny Wilkinson wouldnt get in any super league side, he's a great kicker but all RL players have to defend and whats more pass to attempt to score tries. I see RU games with scores of over 20 points a side where no tries are scored, all midfield mess and kicks, waiting for penalties. The worst moment was when England dragged the game in to a mess of bodies to win the world cup. Sorry, but visually, morally and spiritually RL is thye greatest game of all.

the Worlds Best Rugby Team

I imagine the whole country is transfixed awaiting sunday night when Melbourne Storm bravely come to Leeds to take on Leeds Rugby League club to see who is the greatest rugby team of either code on the planet, lets face it, either would destroy any RU side. Leeds go in to the game on the back of 2 struggled wins and 2 losses to 2 mediocre teams. One hopes we were holding back with this greatest of sporting events at the forefront of Leeds RLs minds yet my head overrules my heart and think that the storm will probably win.
Last time we beat them I travelled up for the game but due to personal reasons never made the game. The night was decided by an interventionist god who through down the most vicious yorkshire storm you could imagine. I pray that the weather is ruthless, ugly, cold, wet and that Leeds are crowned the greatest games greatest team. C'mon Leeds!

Subterrania

Saw Kip last night and we have pooled all available knowledge of the underworld. There are miles of quarry tunnels that had rail track to transport stone near Shepton, Coombe down in Bath has a massive labyrinth, Frome a vast network of underground tunnels and Priest holes, we also have found out about another vast underground network nearby that we're investigating on saturday. Looks like all that vertigo I put myself through last year climbing towers and gas silos, Kipper has no fear of heights, he is a claustrophobe though so it's time for me to shrink his genitals. Our aim is to map out the underworld of our area. This is a vast project. I'm talking about a 10 mile by 10 mile square of land, probably much more. Gaining info is all secret hidden knowledge, word of mouth from locals.
Last year was spent ,primarily on ventures getting high up industrial architecture. This year looks like a subterranian investigation, getting high down low. The best bit is it doesn't matter if it's windy, dark or raining, all the things that made those climbs so terrifying. Hope to have some good footage by the end of the weekend.

Scrap Club

It's satutrday night in a warehouse in London, a load of old tv's, computers, fridges and other electrical goods sit in a pile. Behind a metal fence about 60 men and women stand apprehensive and excited, waiting to smash them all to pieces. This is scrap club, a burgeoning underground event set up by artists Joel nCahen and Wajid Yaseen.
The public pay£10 and sign a safety disclaimer. Then they get 10 minutes to destroy. It may sound an unusual way to spend an evening yet last saturdays event, thew first in east london, sold out almost immediately. To source thier junk, the a
rtistic duo scour the streets in a van, universities donate a lot too. After each scrap club they sift through the remains and recycle all usable metal. Everyone is provided with goggles and hardhats and st johns ambulance stand by in case of accidents. Everyone who has watched telly or used a computer must want a go.

Pennine divide

Manchester - Stone Roses, The Fall, Joy Division, The Smiths, Happy Mondays. How far do you go?

Leeds - Damien Hirst, Henry Moore, Andy Golsworthy, Thomas Chippendale.

Clearly Manchester has a more impressive history in music.

Leeds clearly has contributed to visual arts.

Why do you reckon this is?

Competition

The overall feeling at any competition, exhibition or awards ceremony is one of disappointment. We see the winner, in all thier glory, wallowing in selfish pride. Winners are a tiny minority. The greater mass are the losers. We are led to believe that they are also rans, contenders. In truth the overall atmosphere is one of depression and failure. In most creative fields there is an element of competition. We all aplaud the victors and claim we make art for ourselves, as if creation has nothing to do with communication. Self expression is a strong driving force in many individuals. That is what an artist is. Art made for oneself alone is meerly art therapy.

The Face of the Attacker

I must have been 22 or 23 when circumstance found me living in a shared house in Harehills with Pig, Richard [now dead] and Martin [now dead]. I was reminded of this story recently when I saw a fake Rolex watch on a girls wrist at Pauls.
Staggering home drunk, I ran my fingers through a private hedge for pure sensual, tactile pleasure. My hand hit metal and a watch fell in to my hand. I took it home and though the face was shattered the second hand still moved. It was a Rolex with silver coloured wrist strap. I fell unconscious and slept a drunken night off.
The following days Evening Post, Leeds paper ran the story. A doctor had been mugged in Harehills where we lived, a rough area close to St Jamess' hospital. Little detail was given of the attack. They printed a picture titled 'The Face of the Attacker', a pencil drawing of a young man, no2 haircut, cliperred beard, it looked identical to me.
The story ran for a few days and each clipping was posted on our living room wall by housemates taking the piss. We were all on the dole at the time. Given my similarity to the picture, there was no way I could hand the watch in and due to my poverty, I took the watch to a pawn shop come goldsmiths in town that asked few questions. I got £300. I have since learned I was robbed, the watch was worth £2000. But what could I do? The police would never have believed me . All they want is to tick off a crime to keep their figures good.
All sort of weird thoughts spread through my head. Maybe I had done it. Perhaps I had blacked out, lost control, unconsciously mugged this man of medicine?
The truth has never been found, no culprit apprehended. Maybe it was me. I was out drunk in the area where the crime took place, the police picture was near on photographic accurate. What are the chances of finding a Rolex in a hedge in Harehills?

Why Tinsley Towers?

In the 1980s, hitch hiking was common practice, it was how everyone I knew travelled round the country. Strange that in these times of recession and eco sensibillity, no one does it anymore. I was 17 when I first really noticed Tinsley Towers I must have passed them on coach journeys to rugby league finals and in cars hitching to Stonehenge festival but they'd never slipped through the filters. Sometimes things are just too big and the mind acts like a sieve, letting through only detail. Vaster chunks of reality are rejected. Stonehenge was our mecca and  I missed so much heald back by magic invested in the wrong place.
Cooling towers had always been there on the horizon throughout my childhood journeys. Through drizzle on coach or locomotive windows like memories of dreams, distant, surreal to the max of ordinary. The purity of form and scale elevated  them through my childs eyes to a level where I didn't seperate them from cliffs or hills. Not additions to but part of the landscape.
My generation either stayed on at school or signed on at 16. Few wanted or got jobs. There was far too much to do. The journey I was taking was a 2 day hitch from Leeds to Cornwall. After leaving school the first year was a golden age of alternative culture I had already succumbed to of acid, constant cannabis, constant music. No one had died yet. Drugs werent just fun but sacramental, a doorway to God, the secrets of the universe, time, space were all ours.
It didn't last long before mental illness started to stalk our small tribe, it would be years before all the deaths but I felt a dark cloud spreading so packed a sleeping bag, half punce of weed and stuck out my thumb. My first lift took me just 30 miles and dropped me at the feet of Tinsley Towers. I learned how ants might feel. After all the hype, all the cosmic bullshit, even all the history, Stonehenge had been a disappointment architecturally. It was easy to imagine why and how it was built. Tinsley Towers, though, as I looked up seemed to touch the sky. The polar opposite of vertigo got me. How had man built these? Men had been up there!
Night fell and the M1 flyover before me and the 2 black gods behind pitched me in to darkness slashed open by occassional headlights. When a car finally stopped, I forgot my weed I had stashed a few feet away for fear of filth and ran to the car. I can no longer recall where I slept that night.
Years go by and you come to take things for granted. I have hardly lived up north since then but visitted regularly to see friends, family,. roots. Each homecoming, seeing the towers meant I was nearly there. The Gateway to the North is a phrase often uttered.
Architecture is never just the building. Picture the drawings, models. Static ideals of a world in constant motion. The truth is never like that, it is how it is fed to you; like walking up Wembley Way, the pace, the gradual delivery. Tinsley Towers were never the most beautiful cooling towers, the throat details ruptured the form. It was how you came upon them that heald their wonder. The view from the north was perhaps the best but from the south had a lot in common. Vehicles poured down steep hills, three lanes of traffic, the left lane dropping away to Meadowhall meant concentration of the traffic and the timing of manoever critical as the M1 tightened to two lanes. As a passenger this didn't matter but as a driver your eyes had to pay attention whilst the 2 concrete gods saw you bow your head. Yet you couldnt. You had to look up to their majesty. Most memories of the Towers is from 60 miles an hour.
Since 1975 they had stood idle. Campaigners failed to get the government, through the Big Art project sponsored by channel 4, to stop Eon from demolishing the towers. At 3am on a night in August 2008 the towers were demolished. Many came out to witness this event of huge cultural vandalism, footage of the event is abundant on the internet. At roughly the same time my closest friend in Leeds died along with those days of being able to turn up at friends houses at any time of day or night in any state of consciousness.
Driving round Leeds the other week, having spent an hour at Richards grave, sharing a can of Special Brew, I found it wasnt there anymore. That sense of home. So I drove back down south. The gaping space where the towers had stood had various diggers, dumpers and tippers erasing thier footprint.
Rebuilding the Towers will not bring my home back. Rebuilding Quarry Hill Flats didnt bring my Mother back.
These time tunnels I am creating, climbing Moortown Water Tower again, rebuilding the Flats, the Towers. These time tunnels are an attempt to understand myself. It only dawned on me recently exactly what I was doing. I knew it was about nostalgia, stretching back to the first brick table, grieving for a childhood cut short and adulthood forced on a boy, now a man, able to reconstruct icons to tunnel my way back to grieve for what I never, truly grieved for. The defining event of my life that I never worked through, an event that always lingers like those cooling towers on the horizon seen through diagonal wind driven drizzle on bus windows.

Family

Good to see our Martha and Rufus, usual disagreements with dad Loudon but that'll always be the way

The Fall

The best group this country has ever produced play Frome 14th may

Hawklords

Well Hawkwind were great last night, Allen Davey, Jerry Richards, Steve Swindells, Danny Thomson, Harvey Bainbridge, Nik and Ron. Seems they've sorted out their differences and all looked like they had a point to prove. A long set, Born to Go, Brainstorm, Master of the Universe, Shouldnt do that, Sonic Attack, Hassan i sahba, High Rise, Psi power, Robot, Ejection, Silver Machine and many others. A broad body of work stretching from Space Ritual through the Calvert stuff. A decent turn out too.
I first saw Hawkwind when I was 14 and can't count how many times I've seen them. I had a long stretch where I never saw them but when I met up again with Ron, who I lived with aged 16, lost touch with for 20 odd years, then met again. I asked what he was up to, he told me he was Hawkwind frontman. Shortly after he got dropped. There could be at least 5 Hawkwinds made of ex members but this line up is as good as any I have ever seen.

Hawklords

I've known Ron since we were boys, fallen out at times, in at times, but they're playing tonight in Frome. I first saw Hawkwind when I was 14, one of the genuine great British rock bands of all time. Guess I better get down there.

Stairfoot Lane Air rade shelter

An unusual thing about Leeds airrade shelters is that most were built in 1938, we tend to be a bit ahead of the rest of you, it's a genetic thing.

As a young lad, on a similar mission to the first escallations of Moortown Water tower, we went in to the underworld. Just off Stairfoot Lane in Adel Woods there was a small bricked up hole that had been kicked in leaving an opening just big enough for us to get inside. Terrifying pitch black, two floors of subterranian terror. This article from The Yorkshire Evening Post oct 21 2006 explains;

Bunker was vital to hommes front

Howard Williamson

The mystery of a wartime bunker found in overgrown north leeds woodland has been solved.
Speculation in the village of Adel was rife that it was a second world war air rade shelter and in a way that was true.
But the real story has emerged thanks to some timely information from the halifax bank, which took over Leeds Permanent building society in 1995.
Bosses have revealed that the bunker was a wartime store for the deeds of property worth nearly £100 million, together with other building society records.
These documents had been lodged in strong rooms at Permanent house in leeds where they were vulnerable to German airrades.
Safer quarters were hard to find. The solution was to build the bunker in a 4 acre quarry in SAdel Woods, the plans being prepared in 1939.
The bunker provided 25000  cubic feet of storage space on two decks. It was built of reinforced cocrete and a watertight envelope of asphalt and brick.
Heavy doors and grilles protected the entrances and an armoured steel door guarded the main entrance
It was essential to bring electricity to the bunker and a road up to the entrance had to be made so vehicles could take deeds to and from the site.
Boxes of deeds began to rustbecause of condensation and several methods of drying were tried before a cure was found.
A survey of One Hundred years of Leeds Permanent Building Society 1848-1948 states; 'in spite of all the difficulties the project was highly successful,
the best proof is the fact that Leeds Corporation stored many of its historic documents there including the charter granted to the citry in the 17th century by Carles the 2nd.
these together with the deeds deposited in the safe were in excellent condition when removed in september 1945. In 1946, the place wasdismantled and bricked up.'

Similar to my memories, perhaps someone I was with posted this on Secret Leeds, 'the entrance had a small opening wide enough fpor 3 12 year old boys toclimb through and shimmy down a short knotted rope ladder, my friends had previously had the courage to creep down two flights of concrete stairs, but never to go any further. Madness overtook this day and we went all the way to the bottom. We came across an underground room at least 100 yards long [slight exageration] . Every 3 or 4 yards were pillars that had what looked like bunk beds. The room was pretty dusty and looked like it had been kept in good condition.'

I recall my own trips, terifying for clostrophobes. There were two floors, the legendary third, we never found though it may have caved in. Skreeworld plan a return trip, if we can still squeeeze through the opening.

Yorkshire water towers for sale

I spent this weekend on an expedition to look at Lovesome Hill Water Tower, just outside North Allerton, auction estimate just £5000 and Wheldrake Water Tower, estimate £20 000, also managed to take in a view of my all time favourite, Moortown Water Tower, Leeds. It looks like Wheldrake could attract developers but, sadly, Lovesome Hill with the small land and little likelyhood of conversion may be demolished. I am sureyou all gfeel the same that this cultural vandalism is horrific. I did try to raise the money to save this icon of the local skyline but failed. Auction takes place at Elland Road football ground on the 18th. Let us pray that someone out there can save this icon of industrial architecture, overlooked by the normals, a treasure of our culture.

Brick Chair Fucking Ace

Richards Grave

I went to Richards grave yesterday, my best friends grave. Feeling lost or too off my head to turn up amnywhere else I could always go see Richard . No judgement. Never a need to talk or be up or on the ball, I could just turn up and be welcomed. If I had no money or meens he would share his humble lot, if I was wedged up, it was his too. We were together, total trust. Seldom in life do ypou get that. Had Richard ridden the storm he would be here now. But it was not to be. His downward spiral, his deathwish too strong.

So, lost and confused I went to his grave. In the green burial area at Lawnswood cemetery there are some hundred saplings, one for each body, 6 feet under. Just one tree died. Perhaps the toxins in his body, the alcohol, the heroin, the methadone, the crack cocaine in Richards blood were just too much to sustain life, even the life of a tree. Isat with him, shared a can of special brew. I then took a walk to the undergrowth. No permanent markers are allowed in the green burial area, to the carved block of oak I had placed there to commemorate his death, I hid it in the undergrowth. Winter reveals it, in summer it is hidden by nettles and other weeds. I thank the Lawnswood staff for not moving it and hope it remains there.

Richard was the most honourable person I ever met. All people with prejudices about alcoholics and drug addicts are the same as racists anmd homophobes. Small minded boigots that the world could do without. But then Richard was always disabled, an invalid, an in valid, a none valid human being. I never saw him as anything other than a great human being. He saw himself not as he was percieved but as what he thiought 'normals' saw him. His bravery was huge. But his bravery gave out. No one is invincible, but he came close.

When the last time he went to hospital I hoped it may give him time to think. The strongest I saw him was in jail. His 'friends' let him down, but the break from being on the out gave him time to heal. He signed himself out from hospital, you can't do that from jail. Out of hospital he was free to destroy himself.

Those who broke his legs and hip nare dealt with. But it can't bring him bnack. They wetre the degrenerates. And I hope there is no place for them as I know there is a place for Richard. It was all we could do for you, my brother, I hope they burn in hell and that you rest in peace.

My Old Man

Went to see my Dad yesterday, he's still going strong. Top floor of a block of flats in Seacroft. A brilliant mind, I sometimes thought he could have made more of himself yet where is there togo? you can social climb to a point where you are not truly accepted and lose all your old friends and links to your youth and sense of self, sometimes feel I have done that, or you can talk to those intelligent people, unsoiled by education and retain your routes. Perhaps he has got it right.

Local Grafiti

Red cover

After my gold cover work around Frome perhaps it's no surprise that plaguerists would come about. Still, it is the greatest form of flattery. The red man is out there too. One night, 4am our paths will cross. Big up the red man/woman. We are in it together.

Last Pipe

Last pipe and the best

Leeds drain cover

Had to stop on busy roundabout to get this one unique to Leeds

Darwin versus Dawkins

Why does evolution preclude the existance of God? Dawkins has done more damage to his own cause than anyone.

Back to School

I once heard a friend, in conversation, blurt out, 'Darwin is crap'. I was embarassed for him for having come out with such a stupid statement. Another in the room agreed with him.  I thought , 'where am I and why am I wasting va;luable minutes of my life listening to such crap'. Darwin wrote one of the most important books ever written. I don't imagine either of the two people had read any Darwin. This is the point I want to make. I was just reading a piece about the author J G Ballard, I always read any article about hin, I like his mythology. I know Burroughs, Will Self and Michael Moorcock all kew and respected him. I have a grasp of what he contributed, yet what I have read of his work? Very little. Maybe 2 or 3 books. I didn't find them brilliant but quite good. Yet I put myself in the Ballard camp. I like Ballard. Now, people  have opinions on Darwin who have never read Darwin. People have opinions on Freud, opinions on Marx, on many major writers yet have never read them. They construct an idea of what Darwin, Marx or Freud was about  through newspaper and magazine articles, sometimes from books inspired by their work like Dawkins is by Darwin. They maybe watch a TV programme about them, chat in pubs about them, then they feel they have the right to an opinion. I say, go back to school, read Darwin then come tell me he is crap, otherwise, you are talking out ofd your arse.

Drainspotting, new Hepworth

Love this new Hepworth so far undocumented, the concentric H's look amazing. I'm not sure why Hepworths look so light and attract surface rust yet maintain such detail in contrast to the polished look most draincovers develope from footware such as this CATV INTEGRAL, another gem

Charlie Farley

we can only speculate as to wear Piggy Malone carved his name

Dog in Church

Skree and better half Claire Bear were shocked to find Tex, king of the Wolves taking an interest in religion

Alexander McQueen RIP

If ever a fashion designer was an artist it was Lee. Aworking class lad and proud of it he stole the focus from France. After the death of his mother Joyce on 2nd february he was broken and found dead yesterday moening at his home. Rumour says he hanged himself. The phrase 'enfant terrible' is in any piece of writing about Lee. From writing 'I am a cunt' on the inner lining of a suit intended for Prince Charles to wearing a 'we love you Kate' t shirt after Kate Mosses career looked to be hanging on a thread after her cocaine bust.
Aged just 40 he had been honoured by the British Fashion Design Council as designer of the year on 4 occassions and was awarded the CBE in 2003. A show in the Conciergerie in Paris, achill dungeon where Marie Antoinette was heald before her execution, starred a model in lilac hooded coat, guarded by wolves. The show with a gold pyramid with hologram of Kate Moss inside. In one London show, the audience was seated around a giant mirrored cube which gradually turned transparent so that they could see the models on a padded white floor while the models saw just reflections of themselves. The show where he had his models on a giant chess board, models wqearing antlers, amputee models. McQueen was never an air kissing luvie and chose to socialise with his own friends. His manner to nosy or insincere people was brutal, gruff, rude. Gay but never a puff. Londons upcoming fashion week will have a dark shadow over it.

Lovesome Hill water tower

Surely the aspiration of any sane man in modern Britain is to own his own water tower.
Just checking out a few details regarding listed building status and duties of maintenance though the Northern Echo headline about how a local landmark may disappear suggest otherwise. After our failure to get the arches today the fact that the auction takes place at Elland Road suggests righteousness. What to do with it once we have it is a different matter.
Anyway, we're off up to climb the beast before the 18th and talk to the estate agents about what developements are possible.
At the same auction, yorkshire water are selling off Wheldrake water tower, estimate on this one is £20 000, well out of our range but me and Kipper aim to scale this one too. Only accessible by track so no vehicular access.

The Death of Charlie

Sad to hear tonight of the death of one of the Bath street scenes most famous faces. Jim could always be seen with Jim busking in Bath city centre. A black staffordshire bull terrier, rough old beast in his younger days but in recent years he had calmed a lot. Over the last year I had seen his decline. A diagnosis of lung and bollocks cancer had seen him venturing out from the flat only to piss and shit. Jim did the brave and right thing and put an end to his suffering.

Charlie RIP

Lovesome Hill Water Tower

This water tower has been unused since 1992 and goes under the hammer 18th feb Elland Road football ground Leeds. The auction estimate is a meer £5000-£10000. Our duty is at stake. I understand why the arches project was unattainable but this one surely is. Check it out. 50 feet so only half the size of the one me and Kipper scaled last year but an invincable fortress for the church of skreeworld. Meet any interested contributors at Elland Road on the 18th.

Valis

To all followers of the work of Philip K Dick Valis is hugely important.

When I moved to Frome in Somerset, a town built from people excluded from         the roman town of Bath,

I knew I was in the right place when I followed Valis road to a large outdoor party at a place called Valis

Site Shite

Rick is alive and recovering. Rick who lived in the next trailer to me on the same site had a place similar to where I was living, an extension built on to his trailer. After a nights drinking him and his mate crashed out. His mate in the extention fortunately woke up by the smoke tried the caravan door which was toohot to touch. He ran outside and smashed in Ricks window and dragged his unconscious form from the flaming inferno. A close shave, Rick lucky to be alive and recovering.

Sports News

Five Catalan Dragons arrested in Leeds city centre brawl last night. Unable to fly back to Perpignan after thier loss to the valliant Wakefield the Dragons rampaged near Leeds City Hotel on Boar Lane around 2am.
Six Huddersfield Giants are currently under investigation regarding an alleged rape in the north east during pre season training, well, not actually during training, this is rugby league and not the public school rugby union.
Johnny Wilkinson made just 5 passes in open play to 14 kicks in the borefest versus Wales. In the 2nd half he didn't pass once in the last 38 minutes. Sorry to mention the terrible sport, I only do so to illustrate the games inferiority.
Another stop nand start game, american footballs superbowl was won by the underdogs New Orleans in there first superbowl. Though I am no fan of the sport where they are so soft they where helmets, they arn't on bikes. Nevertheless I am proud and happy for the people of New Orleans who have been through hell.The team who were homeless for a long while, having given up thier stadium to house homeless survivors of Hurricane Katrina truly deserve the prize. A sporting legend.

Regarding Assault Charge

Fortune favours the brave. The Law saw my side of the story. I didn't start the trouble, just finished it off. Keep my head down now for a while.

Possible titles for the upcoming Skree exhibition

Pull
Dogfood
Keep fiddling while Frome burns
Domestic monsters
Fromosapien
Fabricate
Red elephants and White herrings
Judo, Cluedo, Psuedo
Frome wasn't built in a day
Frogspawn
When in Frome...
Torque
The devil is in the detail
Full Stop
Guido
The Livingstone Extractor
Pondlife
Bogus asylum seakers versus insurgents
They found Michael Wainwright cuffed to the bed, with a gag in his mouth and a bullet in his head
Stickyback plastic
Some gave up, some grew up

Spring

Spring has sprung, well, at least it is in the air, everywhere I look around. And I dont know if I'm Being foolish, Don't know if I'm being wise, but it's something that I must believe in, and it's there when I look in your eyes. The skreeworld competition is over, most lost interest but we have a clear winner and the presentation ceremony will be blogged soon. The answer to the final question was Wainwrights Gentlemen became the Sweet, later shortened to Sweet. A tear still comes to the eye when I think about Brian. The joy of freedom and escape from Chinn and Chapman, who did write some classics, can be heard in Action and let it not be forgotten that the self penned Fox on the run was the biggest worldwide hit they ever had, staying in the American top 5 for a few weeks. However, for me, it will always be the Six Teens that brings me to an emotional high, as a child I knew it was about young love but never got the 68 reference, Bobby and Billy did make it, one day. Probably won't be much blogging later this week, off on a work trip.

Drainspotting new Stanton

Got a new Stanton today, same as the one on the photo. Trojan 75 but I'm fairly sure this isn't a date reference. I reckon it's circa 1954. Looking forward to getting the gold leaf out, maybe a bit of copper or silver leaf too.

Drainspotting - Gold and Rust

A pivotal piece regarding our extracuricular activity. The Skreeworld blog was begun to document by climbing industrial architecture for the purpose of an art tunnel to how I viewed existance as a child before my mothers death when I was 12. As the face of Britain has changed as all communication systems became less visible. This was no surprise, we have long tried to push the reality of death, disabillity, in fact anything under the carpet. Locking our defects away in 'hospitals' whilst it has always been our excentrics, our strange genes that stood out, that led us forward. As someone who has been treated for mental health problems it has always struck me as strange watching 'straights' trying to be crazy in some sort of desperate search for what it is we have that they dont. You will never find it and we will always be there because, without our ideas you would be a drab bunch. You cant seperate creativity from our madness, much as you would like to. We see a beauty you will never find. Maybe temporary setbacks of brainstorm, temporary hospitalisation, temporary re habilitation to tour mundane world. Without us you are lost, and you fucking know it.

Terefore, our expeditions are now going to nfocus, instead of climbing industrial buildings, in to going down those manholes. We have cast keys to lift the covers and investigate what is going on underground. Subterrania. Potholers of the urban landscape. try telling me you know what they are doing underground? It is clearly the job of Skreeworld

Therapy

A message to all cognescenti, you will know who I meen. A man who contributed as much to 1970s musical culture as anyone. James Whild Lea now has Therapy available for download, if you look hard. Apparently, a few years back, he played Jims Jam at Robins no 2 Bilston, apparently a legendary night.Our hero was always shy, hated stardom played live for the first time in 25 years with , amongst others, an original member of the N Betweens.
Robins 2 is a special place.  A temple to the culture skreeworld has spent a year pursuing the echoes of. Last week Nazareth ripped the roof off. I recall the night I took Ron up to front Space Ritual, Nik was sick. I was fortunate to be there for all sound checks and hospitallity, sat with Terry Ollis and other faces I knew from album sleeves of my acid drenched early teens, 'In Search of Space', 'Hawkwind'.
Also Noddys bar, still sticky carpeted from double diamond and newcastle brown, poster sized photos of early Slade gids before the mainstream caught up. A legendary venue. I am looking forward to the Nazareth gig in Bristol tunnels 16th feb but the heart of that black country dive hulds the spirit of Sabbath in its walls, like a serious crime scene, still the smell of Slade.

Drainspotting 06 02 10 Gold and Rust

Finished off first in thr manhole cover series today. Not a great picture and, as yet, unframed but looking good.

Gold and Rust

Finished my first drain cover today

Stanton 56 gold and rust detail

Stanton 56 detail

Competition tie breaker

We have 2 winners so the only solution is a tie breaker question. The first to e mail, comment or call me on 07814616998 with the correct answer to this question will win the skree artwork valued £10,000.

Which major Glam Rock band started working under the name WAINWRIGHTS GENTLEMEN?

You know who you are. Answers by sunday.

Award ceremony will be posted on skreeworld.

Drainspotting. Just to remind you that skreeworld was there first

With the japanese drainspotters book out in the next few weeks, skreeworld thought it wise to remind you, we did it all a year ago if you delve back. Also, ours are better. This one is a true gem if you click on it. Hurtful that the jap, bespoke work mat get more coverage than all skreeworlds hard work. If you want the whole catalogue, its a vast body of photography, let us know, or just trawl back through the old postings and grab some pictures.

Drainspotting class

I love these broad curved cleft drain covers, the yellow lines never spoil thier purity and grace

Drainspotting unsung hero

Check out this little local  beauty. They are all there deep down in skreeworld blog history

Drainspotting classic

 this J and S eyres non rocking manchester says it all

Drainspotting

Adams at thier best

FH manhole Drainspotters

Check out this masterwork from Rotherham

Nazareth

Pete Agnew and Dan McCafferty met on thier first day at school aged 5 St Margaretts Primary School Dunfermline. McCaffertys' vocal delivery has few equals ,Holder, Lydon, Stewart, yet who's band still play? Last night in Bilston Robins 2 . Nazareth are the equal if not superiour to AC/DC. For all Skreeworld blog followerrs 16th feb, the tunnels, Bristol. It even references our campaign to buy the arches. Come along and see one of the last soldiers of the 70s', never glam, never heavy metal, Naz wrote thier own path. Meet up night.

Drainspotting 3

Bottom left hand corner, aside Tinsley towers, two chairs and brick chair 2. Work in progress, draincover, gold paint and gold leaf and Stanton drain cover.

Drainspotting 2

Anyone fancy a pipe?

Drainspotting

Regular skreeworld followers will be aware of the ongoing manhole covers project. British manhole covers are a marvelous marriage of graphic design and unnoticed urban beauty. My first works involved a huge photographic research project. Next stage I went out painting manhole covers gold in the early hours. This was a start to see the idea that now is reaching exhibition completion. My first is a split rectangle Stanton cover, onehalf gold with gold leaf embossment, the other side retains rust with just the embossment gold leaved, you can see it in the corner , half complete in the corner of various stacked up work.

Remo Camerota has been round Japan compiling his book of man hole covers. They produce bespoke covers that reference thier history. I am glad there other drainspotters out there however I prefer our industrial, un painted covers.

The Arches

Two viaduct arches. An ancient long barrow. 3 quaters of an acre of land 7 miles from Bath city centre. Come on you fucking idiots! I am half way there. Help us to create a little utopia, a little haven for Festivals of pagan anarchy. I'll find a way, it is a matter of whether you want to be involved in this great opportunity, I'll even buy you out in one year.

Reaction over premeditation

Scientists have always wondered why the gunfighter who draws second is quicker than the man who draws first. Nobel laureate and quantum physicist Niels Bohr came up with the theory that the one who draws second moves faster because he reacts without thinking. Now from research from psychologists at Birmingham university, this has proved to be right, at least to a point. He who draws in response is 10% up on the proactive shooter. All this will come as no surprise to students of boxing. When I boxed I tried to never lead but wait for a punch then react, it worked better for me, points judges don't like this.
Andrew Welchman 'reactions are faster than conscious thought, in our everday lives, some of the movements we make come about because we decide to make them, while others are forced on us by acting to events, we wanted to know if there was evidence for these reactive movements being swifter than the equivalent proactive ones,'
This ties in to a lot of my theories. I have always judged people more accurately in the first microsecond of meeting them than the next 20 years of getting to know them.
Not only this but it puts Art higher than science.

The Church of Skreeworld

There is another way to buy the viaduct, 3 quaters of an acre, including pasture land and an ancient sacred barrow dating back to 3000bc. There are over 100 who read or have read skreeworld blog. We have raised £5000 , half the money needed. If all readers committed a meer £50 we could have this wonderful piece of land as our playground, wild bonfire parties, small festivals, quiet rural breaks for anyone who commits a mere £50. Come on you lazy bastards, I'll even gadually buy back your shares in this. A sacred long barrow. Think about it. An  viaduct. A brook flows through, water. A trailer and a geny and we could all have time there. The church of Skreeworld could carry out our sacred pagan rites and you could all be part. The auction date is 12th feb. I have loads of work on at the moment but an opportunity like this will make me work 24 7 till its done. Wake up to possibility. It could also be a great site for Glam Fest 2010 and the huge 200 piece furniture bonfire. Love to all and remember your balls.

Buy more shit and we're all fucked

With the end of th recession, the British sense of cynicism has returned. Finally people are tiring of the mantra 'Keep calm and carry on'. Slogans far truer to to our national character are bbursting forth,' Now panic and freak out', comes upside down crown to rival the gaudy red optimism of 'Keep Calm'. Devised by 21 year old designer Olly Moss as a reesponse to nthe Keep Calm message, it has become an industry in its own right with tea towels [£7.95] and mugs [£10.95] available amazon selfridges.
My fave comes in red, 'Buy more shit and we're all fucked'. The almost gothic Breathe deep andLet go of Things in black.
The anti calm backlash can only be a good thing. At first the exhortation to return to the blitz spirit was a slogan for our times but it is wearing thin, who will govern us? do we care?

Tex story 1

There are many great Tex stories. Here is but one.
I drove up to see Richard to stay for a few days. His flat was a tip of brew cans, foil, works, pipes etc. I walked up to the local chippy to get something to eat. The queue of 7 or so forced me to tie Tex to one of those old style zinc dustbins full of rubbish, must weigh 40 pounds, sufficient I thought for a few minutes. The queue all spun heads as a crashing sound came from outside. Tex must have seen a dog and pulled the bin over, this banged and Tex ran full pelt with this 40 pond chunk of metal thinking he was being chased by it. I ran out after him with all in shop and many passersby to see him charging across the busy road, cars screeched to a hault. He ran between two parked brand new cars, the bin clanging from one to the other leaving big dents then smashing off the front light cluster, both alarms went off. Tex tearing off in fear chased by a metal monster chased by me. He swung down by the post office, the bin smacked another car with the force of a sledge hammer, the bin, still hanging from hois neck swung close to killing 2 old ladies collecting thier penshions. I got hold of him, three alarm sirens , a trail of smashed cars, a line of litter from the bin, 30 odd people looking on. I unclipped him and said 'scarper' and we ran from car proud enraged men. We took the longer route so as not to lead the lynch mob to Richards door. We got on to the recreation ground, over the fence and to Richs' back door.
A deep draft of special brew and a deep lick to calm me down. Texs' memory is fortunately quite short on that sort of thing so he calmed down. Phew,

Blogging

Having a blog is a bit like having a party that gets out of hand, loads of strangers turn up because you left the door wide open and invited them in to shuffle through your thoughts. You can, however, unlike at a house party, call them all a bunch of cunts without getting a smack in the mouth. Most of them wander round your house, picking up the odd ornament, then fuck off home because, basically it's quite a crap party, others, however, can be found weeks, even months later sleeping under your settee and become good friends. So all in all, it's worth it.

Dead Junkies

I think of all the junkies dead
and seak to find a common thread
of Martin ripped from the Carribean at nine
to concrete Leeds, mud, no sunshine
of Turps who wove an Archadian noose
found dead, st georges crypt from drug abuse
of Bev I never knew so well
who shone so bright to burn off hell
of Wid, so young, so vibrant, why?
who chose to let his blood run dry
Romance is the common thread
that links all of these junkies dead
and Richard, my soulmate whos love destroyed
through misled lust a bitch who toyed
and passion killed the boy so pure
a child adrift to her alure
and still my loved ones dream of futures
nostalgic, all, for past