There are few artists in the charts today who we’ll be commemorating in forty years time. Indeed, it wouldn’t be unfair to say that some of them would struggle to capture our attention in a year or two from now. But one band who have stood the test of time and are still more conspicuous in our day-to-day lines than most of the Radio 1 playlist combined, is Queen.

To celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary and meteoric rise to fame comes the Stormtroopers in Stilettos exhibition at the Truman Brewery in east London – the first ever exhibition of Queen memorabilia. It’s a story told chronologically, starting from Freddie Mercury’s roots, before he even went by the name of Freddie Mercury. There are personal mementos crammed into almost every corner: Freddie’s illustrations and job application letters, broken drumsticks once belonging to Roger Taylor, stage costumes, contracts for shows, magazines, records, tapes and ticket stubs.

But in spite of all these trinkets, there is unfortunately very little context for each relic on hand. No information to tell you when costumes were worn, whether promo posters were reprints or the real deal, where various contracts have been for the last 37 years. Nor was there anyone milling around who might be able to give you the details that you so desperately want.

The fact that the Queen music playing over the sound system is so loud that it makes it difficult to concentrate on any of the information that is available is also frustrating. It’s so loud that even when you don headphones to watch some of the video interviews and mini documentaries dotted around, it’s still being drowned out by the music.

The exhibition comes to a very abrupt end in 1977, with several short paragraphs illustrating what the band got up to from then until 1995. It seems a shame – I wasn’t ready to leave, nor was I interested in a corridor of TV screens purporting to show several Queen videos in 3D, which didn’t appear to work, even with the glasses supplied. Instead, it would have been nice to have a display of artists who had consequently been inspired by the band, or even a continuation of the band’s story but it wasn’t to be.

Despite the flaws, it was a spectacular show, and is definitely worth visiting. The amount of intricate, and arguably a little bit nerdy, information that lines the hallways about the band’s formation and consequent success could keep you mesmerised for hours. Arguably the most impressive part of the exhibition is a written montage of a fragment of Queen’s concert dates. It doesn’t matter how far you walk back with your camera – it’s impossible to get it all into a single shot, highlighting what a phenomenal band they were and how difficult their legacy is to beat

The exhibition is open until March 12 2011, and is free.

Thomas Hardy Ales need no introduction a part of British brewing history, bottle conditioned beers brewed back then by Eldridge Pope until recently by O’Hanlon’s. Sadly O’Hanlon’s have now stopped brewing Thomas Hardy’s Ale so for those of you that are not familiar here is a good link to go by.

Whilst searching on Ebay for Volvo P1800s parts (renovation job) i thought I’d type in beer and see what comes up, well quite interestingly from bottles of Watneys Royal Celebration Ale 1981 brewed for The Prince of Wales & Lady Diana’s wedding too bottles of beers from the Truman Brewery and a Courage Imperial Russian Stout 1993 which I quickly added all to my basket.

There was one chap who was selling a selection of 80 bottles dating back from 1970, a mixture of beers commemorating something or the other and included two bottles of 1991 Thomas Hardy ale. With 5 days for the auction to finish and the current bid at £9 i clicked watch and monitored the bid for a few days, on the 5th day with 5 mins to go to my surprise (shock) the last bid was still at £9. My bid of £10 was accepted and a few days later i was off up the M1 to Royston to collect my beers.

Pulled up at a farm and was greeted by a middle-aged gentleman, nice bloke told me the beers belonged to his step father and he found them whist emptying his late mothers house. I actually felt bad that I paid him only a tenner but he was happy to be shot of them and was surprised someone had actually bought them……i said no more.

Both bottles now 20 years old so you can imagine i was a bit worried about cracking one open and seeing if they would still be worth drinking so I Tweeted the question and a well-known beer blogger Andy Mogg tweeted back saying ‘They should be great’ so i proceeded to see if they would blow my mind.

Poured a Deep Amber color say a Mahogany, as you would expect for a beer of this age it was flat no life in it at all in terms of carbonation. The nose had strong hints of caramel, dark sweet fruits, brown sugar, oak, molasses even. The flavours i believe had become more complex over the years and hence also the strong alcohol presence, it defiantly felt more than the 12% ABV stated on the bottle. A thick sweet syrupy texture on the tongue that which I enjoyed immensely till the last drop of this 180 ml bottle.

My ratings:

Thomas Hardy’s Ale 12% ABV – 8/10

A truly great beer which I am so delighted I opened and now understand why this was one of Britain’s best beers for so so long, people next time your buying stuff on that auction site and you look up beers you know you’ll will be bidding against me  :)

Location: Hackney, North London
Graffiti artist: Alfa
Model: Bex Paul
Body art/Temporary tattoos: John Bishop

Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London, E1. Photo © Roger Dean 2010

“I’m leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it’s not raining ” Groucho Marx

The Little World of London – Charles Manby Smith, 1857:

The sky is one dull sheet of lead; the nearest houses appear as if veiled in a gauze dress, and the further ones are behind a wet blanket, and won’t appear at all. All London is just now under the douche; and undergoing a course of hydropathic treatment. Much good may it do thee, though dear old wilderness of brick: thy alimentary canal has long been out of order.Drink, old Babylon! Drink, and forget thy filthiness, and show thy countless offspring a clean face when the morrow’s sun lights up thy forest of tall towers.

[ The above photograph was taken at the Middlesex College Fashion Department Degree Show which was held in part of the old Truman brewery in June 2010. R.D.]

]]> http://yhworld.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/yhs-kezias-photos-to-be-shown-at-the-old-truman-gallery/ Thu, 14 Oct 2010 12:09:18 +0000 yhworld http://yhworld.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/yhs-kezias-photos-to-be-shown-at-the-old-truman-gallery/

Barcelona star Lionel Messi is heading to London today, Wednesday September 15th

The Fifa World Footballer of the Year, who played and scored for Barca against Panathinaikos in the Champions League last night, is being flown to London to appear at three ‘mystery locations’ in the capital.

LATEST: Lionel Messi’s Hackney Marshes appearance cancelled over ‘security fears’. Also, watch a video of Messi being mobbed…

Adidas – his boot sponsor – are organising his appearances and have given photgraphic clues as to his whereabouts, which Metro Sport has deciphered and can exclusively reveal to you!

Hackney Marshes – the first stop on Messi’s tour of east London

According to the boot manufacturers, Messi will fly into London (arriving at City Airport in Docklands, Metro can confirm) before going by helicopter toHackney Marshesin east London, where he will be ‘the world’s fastest sub’ in an 11-a-side game between 4pm and 6pm.

Next, he will head further into London to thePower Leagues pitches near Liverpool Streetstation (the picture clue here is of the nearby Truman Brewery, taken from Wilkes St just off Brick Lane), where fans can swap their old boots for a pair of Messi’s Adidas F50s between 5pm and 7pm.

A picture of the back of the Truman Brewery, which faces onto Brick Lane – near Messi’s second stop-off

Finally, the Argentinean international footballer will take on some specially selected local school children in a 5-a-side game at the fenced off pitch inTrafalgar Gardens on White Horse Lane, Stepney Green.

The 5-a-side pitch near Stepney Green where Messi will take on some local kids

See if you can catch the football superstar on his whistlestop tour of east London. Good luck!

My new poetry project has been influenced by all sorts of challenging snickleways, from medieval Catholicism through to 70s dub, blues clubs, Ackroyd and Sinclair, and on to The Frankfurt School and Nan Goldin. My head is upside down trying to pin all of these things down into one cohesive narrative. One person who I have huge respect for, Alan Moore, wrote an absolute masterpiece on the myths of  Jack The Ripper – From Hell. I’ll be talking about him (and some of the other pieces in the jigsaw puzzle) at Kingston University in February 2011.

It is part of a series of seminars hosted by Heidi James-Dunbar called Theory in Practice, I’ll be presenting a paper (The Beast I Am – Shebeens, Sutcliffe and Yorkshire Noir) alongside the wonderful Marisa Carnesky. Marisa is the creator of Ghost Train, a spellbinding piece of work that uses influences from fairgrounds, theatre, burlesque and illusion. I first saw it in 2004 at the Truman Brewery, people like Paloma Faith and Immodesty Blaize were part of the original cast.  It’s now showing at Blackpool, definitely worth the trip if you are heading that way in September.

Other people taking part in the series are Paul Ewen, Stephen Alexander and Lee Rourke (on 20th October) – and  Belinda Webb, Katy Darby, Travis Jeppesen and Melissa Mann on 17th November. I think tickets / invites are on a first come first served basis? Will post more about that on my readings page as and when I get the info.

Bonus points if you can find my forehead in one of the pictures…

Hanbury Street, 11 April 2010

Hard to pick this particular knob out from the surrounding Sunday crowd, but what can I say. I have a keen eye.

Helpfully, this was labelled in large black letters, ‘A COCK’. No shit.

Does this count as Street Art because it’s in Shoreditch?

This looks fantastic.

An exhibition showcasing all that is great about Britain and its hands. Lots of nice photographs about the bike frame building business in Blighty.

On now at 14 Bike Co so if you are about go and see it.

More images here at Jonathan’s Flickr spot.

(Click logo for the website)

King Apparel, one of London’s headlining urban brands at the moment had so much success with its Covent Garden based pop-up shop that it is allegedly opening a different set of doors across town in ‘The Truman Brewery’ Brick Lane (East).

More info after the jump…

Running for the next three days (I think) there should be some serious clothing based ramping going on.

(Click image for OGz MySpace)

Here is a video which will give you an idea of the in-store party that went down before xmas, thanks to Gwil for the film, and OGz for dropping a nice little takeover.

HI_RISO

If you love the Colette store in Paris, well you are in luck.  There is a Colette Cube pop-up shop in conjunction with Nissan at the Truman Brewery near Brick Lane.  Open until Jan 3rd so just in time for the holidays.  Get there while its hot!