Introducing

Let me introduce you to Joshua or Gent as he is prefers to be known when contemplating his work. He is a good citizen of the borough of Digbeth in the magical, uplifting city of Birmingham. Digbeth is a fascinating place, located within a stones throw of the shiny retail palaces of the Bull Ring and yet it could be a million miles away, standing within its confines; the oldest pub in Birmingham (The Old Crown, 1368), the regenerating Custard Factory, once the home of Birds and now a home to arts and media projects, the Old Wharf, a metal venue of distinction, Pauline’s Café that will do you an excellent Full English for £3.95, Victorian railway arches and old factories, some still employed in traditional heavy industries but others being adapted to more underground and inspirational pursuits.
Gent and his friends are the most visible manifestation of this vibrancy and much to his amusement even the local police seem to approve of his work. Here are a few of his latest pieces, some still not quite dry at the time the photos were taken. You can see that these works are mainly monotone as he likes how he can achieve shadowing effects. There are many other fine and much more colourful pieces and I will put some of these up at a later date.

RIP SLIPKNOT

To write about Paul Gray was a difficult decision. Numerous eulogies are already out there and it is with a growing sense of unease that I add to the list. The anaesthetic of quantity over quality which numbs the senses rendering us unable to raise more than a passing sigh to even the most calamitous of events devalues the worth of the written word and so when a faceless man dies a lonely death in a hotel room in Iowa why should I increase the dosage of morphine?
The justification came in the shape of a hastily arranged and possibly ill advised press conference where the spectacle of seeing the remaining band members exposed to grief and shock was unsettling to witness. My heart felt sympathies are therefore directed at the remaining band members of the phenomenon known as Slipknot rather than family or friends.
This was poignant as it brought into sharp focus my personal experience which has been to observe a group of young individuals start a metal band three years ago. In that time, whilst driving them to gigs, watching them practice, create and record their own music, argue, laugh, get drunk, sing Justin Timberlake songs after gigs, meet incredible musicians all culminating in live performances that show a bond that those of us non musicians can only look upon and envy. A telepathic understanding and a pure enjoyment of performing is something that those of us looking up from the pit crave but can rarely fulfil, so we consol ourselves with a secondary but important role of witness. Therefore if it is possible to detect this growing empathy in a young band with an uncertain future, what must it be like for a band that needs no retrospective analysis to confirm their greatness?
There are a few instances in life when the death of a person you have never met touches you deeply, for me the news that John Peel had past away affected me at a very personal level as he was with me via the airwaves spanning my formative years and on into adulthood, he never let me down, a constant reassuring voice. I have never heard Paul Gray speak, and I haven’t until recently known what he looked like, but nonetheless his death is genuinely sad and deserves more than a throwaway line that vanishes into the ether because no matter what the future holds, this band of brothers calling themselves Slipknot died on the 24th May 2010