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After working on the exhibition for a couple of months or so, it was great to finally step back, have a beer and detach myself from it all, and I’d like to thank everyone who made it to the opening night and everyone who helped me get the whole show together.
Thanks to my mum and dad for all their help and support, and for popping down the M1 to give me a lift back up with all the work. Thankfully I didn’t have to book myself onto the Mega-Bus with a teetering pile of decorative plates. Thanks again to mum (and to Lucy) for hunting down a selection of surprisingly elusive plate hangers, and to dad for helping me hang the plates (and everything else) up.. Without his installation skills the show would’ve probably ended up looking more like the aftermath of a Greek wedding with a few paintings dangling precariously over the decorative shards of crockery.
Thanks to The Forum and Claire and everyone there for inviting me to put the show on in the first place, and for helping me out with stuff for the opening night n’ all that.. Not so many thanks to the bouncers who weren’t actually aware that there was an exhibition kicking off in The Forum, and who initially turned away about twenty people looking for the exhibition that was kicking off in The Forum. I suppose the twenty-odd people who were so easily persuaded were partly to blame too though. It was free to get in to the venue anyway so, as they didn’t decide to poke their heads through the door to double check the bouncers’ misinformation on their first visit, I do hope they eventually found their way back to the show after they’d checked all the other Forum Café Bars down Devonshire Street.
I’d like to aim another ‘No Thanks’ (more positive praise will be along shortly) at the general current state of the disc-jockey equipment found in most ‘CD-J friendly’ bars. After dusting off the Technics drink holders that I found in the DJ booth, I was only able to get one of them to play records with a sorry looking stylus that allowed for no sc-scr-scratching antics… There was still plenty of fun to be had though, and Mr. Glover-Glover surpassed himself in the ‘T-O-M-J-N-E-W-E-L-L DJ Challenge’, spelling it all out with Tom-themed tracks-a-plenty. The Heebie Jeebies DJ Display Team weren’t quite as successful, but the ‘Hot Boy Trio’ did manage to put out some pretty good vibes at the bar.
The new prints that Archipelago Works sorted out for me turned out really well and it was great to be able to show them, The Good Ship Sheffield prints, and my Silver & Black design alongside all the other work… Big thanks to Rupert, Josh and Dan for making all that happen. Thanks to their printing and framing skills, and general support of my work, the exhibition ended up looking proper professional like it was done by a real artist or something. The prints are selling like fairly warm cakes now too, so if you’ve got your eye on any of them contact rupert@archipelago-art.co.uk to check on availability and stuff.
My illusions of grandeur were also fuelled with the help of Sally, who arranged for me to get totally papped by The Sheffield Telegraph as I was putting the work up. Actually, we’d pretty much hung everything by the time the photographer arrived on the scene, so I was asked to pretend to hang a picture that was already pretty well hung (fnar).. The article about me, the Forum show, and the elephant I painted in Sally’s Chimney House was featured in yesterday’s Telegraph and the photo of me pretending to hang the painting is right up there with it, so yeah.. I’m a pretty big deal in the Sheffield local press, and you might find me wrapped around your chips in the next few days.
Many more thanks going out to all the other promotion that the show received. I narrowly missed a printed mention in Now Then (a Sheffield mag that’s shown me nuttin’ but love since I started putting out my doodles) so they made a big song n’ dance about it on their blog, which was nice. It was also super-nice to see my old crew, The Carol-Anne Showband mentioned in Now Then’s piece about Two Steps, so let’s hear it for Now Then eh? Let’s also hear it for fellow, quality Sheffield magazinesters, Article, who whacked out a slick-looking interview and feature about me-me-me to coincide with the show opening. The issue looks great chaps and by my reckoning, after ‘The Good Ship..’ ad last month and the Speedball poster the month before, I should probably endeavour to get a little something in every issue from here on in!
More promo thanks to Craig and his Broke and Famous blog, who’s been biggin’ up my work over in Prague. Cheers for that mate and cheers for the interview too.. Let’s get some mo’ cheers on the go now. Let’s get mo’ Cheers than a Boston-based drinking hole.. Cheers to the ol’ Chesterfield crew for popping up at the opening and showing their support. Cheers to everyone who bought stuff off the Pop-Shop that night. Cheers (and a happy 4th birthday!) to Syd & Mallory’s, where you can still buy the remaining copies of my mixtape (for those of you that got it, I’m putting the tracklist together as a Word Doc. at the mo, so email me if you want a copy of that).. Cheers to Del Hardin Hoyle for opening up the guestlist on the facebook event to hundreds of people who probably don’t know (or care) who the chuff I am, but some of them actually were interested (I think) so that was good. Cheers to Winnard (straight outta Clapton brother) for popping round and giving big thumbs up to all the stuff I was doing as I was making it. Cheers to Dafydd, who sported a very fetching ‘Liars Beware’ t-shirt to the opening night. Cheers to Simon (welcome home buddy), Ben, Nick, Shaun (the international buyer), Newms, Saul, Emma (T.O.S.S), Emma Pud, Mikk, George, Max, Tyree, Golland, Kane, Ed, T-REX, Jack (R.I.P Mexican Kids at Home), Nicky, Dronny and everyone else who came up to me and told me how much they liked the work.. Cheeeers.
Ok, I think I’ll have to wrap this thing up before it becomes even more ridiculously long-winded and pointless than it probably is already..(is there actually anyone left who is still reading this?) I know it’s only a few pictures hanging up in a bar in Sheffield, but this was a pretty big deal for me. When I first used to go into The Forum as a kid, I used to get bottles of Jolt Cola or Snapple from the bar and buy massive clothes and de-lammed boards from the second-hand list in Sumo upstairs. Back then I would’ve probably been well ‘stoked’ if I’d have known that I would one day have an exhibition that I was really happy with up in The Forum Café Bar, so I don’t want to play this thing down or act like it’s ‘no big deal’ in any way. Thanks again to everyone I’ve already thanked and to everyone who I forgot to thank too. Thanks to MF DOOM’s ‘Mm..Food’ and J Dilla’s ‘Donuts’ for helping to inspire the culinary direction that I took on the exhibition, and an extra special thanks to Helen (The Girlf) for being my biggest fan, most constructive critic and bestest friend.
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