Up Against The Wall XXVII - Rats Tits!

This was meant to be the Up Against The Wall before last as the one before that reffed the bizarre media this drivel was created in. So, Rats Tits! in tape. Crap, thin tape.

Up Against The Wall XXV - DAN Shit BREAF.

Illiterate, obscene and insulting it may be, but it is also environmentally friendly. Blasted into the floor-grime of a seedy Prestwich back street by a power-cleaner. I've seen ads created using this method - most recently stencilled ads for FC United's community share scheme - but this is a graffiti first for me. Next up, more rude graffiti, and another unique media used to create it. Thanks to Paul Whositsnexttome for the pic.

Up Against The Wall XXIV - Stop Pickin' Yer Nose.

04022011231[1], originally uploaded by mithering.

In chalk, and possibly part of a longer narrative (see writings below), on a side-door on the old fire station on London Road. All that's missing is '...or your head will cave in.'

The Simpletones - I Like Drugs

Posted because I can't get the tune out of my head unless I pass it on like the monkey's paw. Enjoy. Then pass it on when your head buzzes like a Levenshulme fuse box.

Up Against The Wall XV: Louis is a Bum

Louis is a Bum, originally uploaded by mithering.

Barbarism Begins At Home. Written in the dust that gathered on the base of our television by his younger brother, Our Louis becomes the latest victim of pointless, stupid and angry graffiti.

Up Against The Wall XIV: Dick Head iz ur dad!

Dick Head iz ur dad!, originally uploaded by mithering.

I forgot about this! Had to go to Liverpool on business the other week so couldn't breeze into town on The Village Bus, so took the 135 instead. Different bus stop. At this one there's a bus shelter. If you're waiting for The Village Bus there's a bush and a suspiciously-high mound of tarmac to wait on/by. Anyhow, bus shelter had (relatively) fresh graffiti. So here it all is, for your delight and delectation, most juvenile first.

Prestwich is shit? A little unfair, if you ask me. It may not soar to the pretentious heights of whichever south Manchester hell hole is currently overflowing with students, but it has a tidy modesty, a historically-significant mental health facility and my house.



Some times words are enough.

Really Free.

rachaelball, originally uploaded by mithering.

Sometimes things just fall into place. Spent some time on Twitter recently wondering what had happened to Rachael Ball, the fantastic and talented comic book artist who I was lucky to work with for a very short while at City Life. Then, on Sunday, having been instructed that 'those shelves will have to go' I was going through some old boxes of stuff and came across various issues of Hungry and Homeless, a free magazine I used to produce with Mr. Richard Hector-Jones and Mr. Jay Taylor. On top was the one which had a cover drawn by Rachael Ball.



Hungry and Homeless started out as an A4 sheet, folded down to A7 in order to create a pleasing little beast which we used to leave in the bars, shops and public conveniences of Manchester. To quote one issue, "Reviews hardly ever exceed 20 words, features end around fifty, and interviews are usually one question." Those were the rules. We accidentally invented Twitter. In the end we produced about 16 issues, the later ones, including the Rachael Ball one above, were A3 folded down to A6, with covers drawn by a number of comic book 'superstars', including D'Israeli, Evan Dorkin, Sue Platt, Phillip Bond and (to his great confusion) Art Spiegelman. Random interviewees included Arthur Lee of Love, DJ Superstar Justin Robertson, Her out of Bikini Kill, Al Jourgensen of Ministry and Ornette Coleman.



In the spirit of giving, I rescued a small number of spare copies from the bin and will send them to those of you who want them, and who promise me they will not be offended, insulted or otherwise outraged by the offensive juvenalia contained therein. e-mail details to rapwithlester -AT- googlemail -DOT- com (reconstruct the address using Airfix Glue).

Up Against The Wall X: Merseybeat Special.

Numbnuts, originally uploaded by mithering.

NICE PAINT JOB FUCK NUTS!

Like one of those Ishihara Colour Test plates used to diagnose colour blindness (or Daltonism as we like to call it in Manchester), this one can be difficult to decipher.

Taken somewhere in Liverpool.

Up Against The Wall IX: International Special.

Photo-0027, originally uploaded by mithering.

Spotted yesterday, outside Greggs in Carmarthen, Matin Lewis is a tramp 4 eva. A little bit of Wales which will be forever Salford.

Up Against The Wall VII.

Shannon Taylor Dose Not Suck Dick 2009., originally uploaded by mithering.

Shannon Taylor Dose Not Suck Dick 2009.

There's no such thing as bad publicity. Bus Shelter, Chapel Street, Salford.

It's A Good Day For A Parade

It's A Good Day For A Parade, originally uploaded by mithering.

I've generally not used this blog for promoting or pushing things as it's too easy to offend people by accidentally missing them out, particularly when you are as forgetful as I am. I'm going to make an exception for Jeremy Deller's Procession though, as it's such a wonderfully daft idea.

So, tomorrow, July 5th, 2pm, Deansgate, Manchester, there's going to be a Procession in the name of art. There are going to be ramblers, Happy Mondays fans, football mascots (here's hoping they all fall into the large holes currently dotting Deansgate while the gas mains are done up), and unrepentant smokers amongst other things. All ten boroughs of the thing they call Greater Manchester will be represented in some form or another, get down there and cheer on your favourites.

More information at http://www.manchesterprocession.com/

There will then be an exhibition documenting the process, and no doubt giving you some insight into previous processions, marches and parades around town (and beyond).

Also, while we're not plugging stuff, why not truck up to the newly-built 'Chips' building in Ancoats for the opening of Trade City, a cross-city launch event for Contemporary Art Manchester featuring some of the city's smaller-scale artists, curators, galleries and associated buccaneers.

That kicks off at 3pm and continues until July 19th.

More information at http://www.contemporaryartmanchester.org

Up Against The Wall VI.

Prick Me Pussyjack, originally uploaded by mithering.

More surreal crudity. This time from the village of Moira in South Derbyshire. Click on the image for full text. Is it a message for Jack? Is it a message for Pussyjack? Is it a message from Moira herself? In some way it put me in mind of The Scottish Play.

Up Against The Wall V.

Big Giant Poo Stain., originally uploaded by mithering.

Poetry in motion. 'Big Giant Poo Stain'. Just off Swan Street, near The Band on the Wall, Manchester.

Up Against The Wall IV

1 Ball King Dong, Higher Broughton, originally uploaded by mithering.

This particular piece of Salford graffiti is perhaps where my interest in stupid and ineffectual wall-daubings began. From what I remember, it was added in the mid-70s when I lived a couple of streets away. There used to be steps and an opening on the right, so this was a shortcut from home (Wellington Street West) or my maternal grandparents house (Kipling Street) to the papershop or the Chinese Chippy whose backyard is to the left of this image.

There was a 70s porn star, reputed to have a particularly large member, called Long Dong Silver and I've always assumed that this was a joke on that. Although, as with most of the other graffiti I've posted, you have to wonder why somebody went out of their way to paint it on a wall.

When I moved back to Salford in the late 80s it was obscured by wall-climbing plants. For all I knew, it had gone forever. That's the nature of graffiti - 'Victoire Vietnam' on the side of The Manchester Tennis and Racquet Club is slowly slipping away, 'Heath Out!' near the tip the other side of Drinkwater Park has vanished behind brambles for the time being, and 'Anita Hepburn Is A Coppers Nark' has been cleaned up.

Then, about a year ago I was passing the site and saw that the buddleia or ivy or whatever it was had been cleared away. Why, I don't know. Another fan of 1 Ball King Dong desperate for a nostalgia fix? Either way, there it was again, in its full glory. 1 Ball King Dong. I'd been meaning to get a picture of it since then, but the only time I passed it was in the car and I kept forgetting to take the camera, or forgetting to ask the driver to stop, or not having enough time to stop, snap and go get the kids.

Recently, though, I've taken up an interest-free loan from work in order to buy a bike. It's been liberating, and my route of choice into work takes me through my old territory. Down streets I've passed along so many times you could take a swab from them and clone me from the DNA. It was a natural to pop a camera in my bag and head there. There's a locked gate across the bottom of the entry now, so I couldn't get as close as I wanted, but I did manage to squeeze the lens through and get my shot.

Up Against The Wall III

The Singing Raving Tree., originally uploaded by mithering.

Which way is the ACID? That a way... When in Rome, I suppose. Or in this case, when in Heaton Park, Prestwich, simulate LSD usage graffiti style by painting the word ACID sideways on a tree. Works for me.

Up Against The Wall II

W.A.R.R.E.N. F.O.X., originally uploaded by mithering.

More graffiti. And more graffiti from Salford. From behind Maxwell House, Salford University, to be precise. Why was Warren Fox the answer in a game of Hangman played out on one of the many walls of Salford University? Was it a good thing for Warren or a bad thing? And isn't it nice that some of The Youth of Salford (I'm betting it's them rather than students) still play word-guessing games with a pen rather than beating one another to death with Nintendo Wiis?

Up Against The Wall.

M. TITLEY the FAT SLAG, originally uploaded by mithering.

I love this sort of graffiti. Petty, childish, frustrated outpourings of anger. We should all get a go at it one day. Get something off our collective chests.

When I was growing up in Salford in the 70s somebody had daubed 'One Ball King Dong' in two-foot high letters onto the wall of a ginnel near the chip shop. To this day, I have no idea why, but I do know that 'Anita Hepburn is a coppers nark'.