We're Not Famous

Tonight Tonight. Featuring Tomb Crew, Barry, Bangers and Mash and much more..





Tickets are SOLD OUT for this so get down early if you haven't already got one, I think this is gonna be a road block.

Public Enemy Live @ Space 2

Definitely a night to remember, it all began with a Chicken balti pie, mash, beans and gravey from Urban Pie with Blaise..



Then a stop at the German Market for some mallow goodness, can't get enough of the £4 for 10 offer!



Then linked JP and Walex and headed to Space 2. On entry the crowd was rather sparse and the warm up act was more than disappointing but he definitely made us a good laugh.. all be it unintentionally.

We waited as the DJs span some Hip-Hop classics and DMC champion DJ Switch did his thing, nothing amazing, at times it sounded more like a clash of beats than mixing or scratching but some of the turntablists in the crowd were enthralled.

As the time of Public Enemy neared I hopped stage side camera in hand, got a quick team photo then set up for the show ahead.

Large up Walex on his birthday.



Just after 11 and the sound crew had everything up set Flava Flav graced the stage with the rest of the Public Enemy live band.



As they worked their way through twenty years of hits with various interludes, dedications and wisdom they wowed the crowd for a whole three hours. THREE HOURS! What other Hip-Hop act do you see these days doing that, Public Enemy really showing the fans some dedication with such a stage presence considering they're all about 50 years of age!

Anyway I'm gonna let the pictures do the talking..











The backing vocalist's were quite something





Flav did some surfing



Die hard fans knew every word!



Chuck D saying his final peice



After such an epic performance we hooked up with Seeds for a bit of an after party in the Rainbow.. with free drinks supplied by an extremely lean Sloba we chilled till the early hours finishing off a once in a life time evening.







Yeaaaaaaaaaaah Boiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

Back-Loggin'

Serious back log in club pictures due to my hard disk breaking and me losing EVERYTHING, music, pictures, movies, the lot. Yeah I know I should have had shit backed up, but i've have two hard disks go on me in three months. First my main drive and then my back up. Advice to all DO NOT BUY SAMSUNG 500GB HARD DISKS!

Anyway, the flicks if anyone wanted them... (click on the pic for the full set)

Barry x Bestival: Yoda, The Cuban Brothers & Toddla-T



Fixed: Fabio & Original Sin



Breakthru: Spectrasoul, Alix Perez & Friction



Eardrum: Coki & Rusko



The Big Dirty 2: Benga, Chef, LD, Cotti & Headhunter



Apologies to the none club-pic loving heads but people have been requesting!

Camden Craft..

Much the same as yesterday, but this time, in Camden.. with dog burritos.


2 dogs, 4 drinks, 1 night.

Canalside.

Trackside.

Southside.

12 DAYS OF XMAS

Bristol is on fire right now, launching on the 12th of this month is this massive group show, featuring a whole host of artists from all over it runs for the 12 days of xmas (get it?) but major props need to go to the main man ACE
who will be showing all his new work exclusivley at his first major show.
more info on the website

So make sure you get down southwest and reprazent!

Special Delivery..

Woke up to a phone call that a massive shipment of Vitamin Water had landed at my doorstep, and what did I want to do with it... felt a bit like a very random dream, as I had not expected its arrival.. haha.



Anyway, turns out it's from Sofi Donuts who is doing big promo work for them in this country. So, thanks for that Sofi! - Who, if you don't already know runs Bristol based store Donuts.. check their online store.

I'm working my way through all the flavours currently.. apparently 'Revive' is the one for a hang-over.. drink it when going to bed and when you wake up.. and it's meant to work. 'Spark' wakes you up. 'Defence' - good for immune system. 'Essential' - high in vit C & Calcium. 'Power C' is supposed to give strength and Multi V is... the tastiest.

Vitamin Water party at mine this saturday. Free vitamin water, free party.

Bristol Rise Up!

Yes, that's right; Mary Anne Hobbs has gone and done it again. Ever since the early days of dubstep music Radio 1's very own Mary Anne Hobbs has been a major supporter and exhibiter of the new sounds from the underground scene.

Recently she brought us Generation Bass which featured mixes and interviews with some of the leading producers and dj's of the moment as selected by some of the originators of the sound.

This time round she has taken a trip to Bristol to report on the city’s ever evolving dubstep scene. She makes a visit to Rooted Records which is one of the last record shops of its kind in Bristol to interview some of the producers that are expressing a fresh new sound.



She also reports on the weekly club night put on by the H.E.N.C.H crew and its associates which has rapidly become the city’s epicentre for the dubstep community to join together.



From the brief video and the seamless 2 hour mix she has put together for the feature it’s clearly evident that the Bristol scene is quickly emerging with a sound that is very noticeable. Highlights in the mix without a doubt come from Headhunter, Jakes, Gemmy and Joker. His last two tracks. YES!

The video from her road trip can be viewed right below. I think it probably says enough on its own, so further commentary shouldn't be necessary. Keep an eye out for Joker getting up to his usual antics.



Listen to the show HERE

Other useful links:

http://uk.youtube.com/user/maryannehobbstv
http://www.myspace.com/henchstep
http://www.rootedrecords.co.uk/

Large up Bristol each and every. Soon come my time at University there!

Back in the Game...

I've not copped a pair of sneakers for too long now, nothing seems to be saying much. But today my Taka Hayashi Vans arrived.

Some nice touches on this Syndicate, those being the horse hair and leather laces not to keen on the zip or the feather on the heal though.

Craft.

Met Tangerine in east and stomped around for a bit taking pictures for the new Kung Fu site dropping soon. Can't post all the images just yet, but here's one.



And here's Tan..



And here's South East London -

SMASH YOUR FACE INTO...

THIS ONE!

FWD>> + RINSE ON A FESTIVE ONE!

BNTL X Urban Industry

Our good friends Dan King and Sean Hammett over at Urban Industry have been doing their thing for a while now, so I thought i'd let the poeple who dont know about this amazing store know what they are missing.

Urban Industry opened its doors in 2002 and since then they have put together a arsenal of heavy hitting streetwear brands. Theres no doubt that these guys are one of the leading stockists in the UK for forward thinking labels. In this day and age so many stores are content with running with the well established brands and play it safe, whats different with Urban industry is that they are not afraid to give those new brands a chance. With this mentality you are never dissapointed when presented with their selection.




Just to give you a better insight into Urban Industry Dan took time out to answer a few of my questions....


Where did it all begin?

We started Urban Industry back in November 2002. We opened a small store here in Eastbourne on a back street as the rent was cheap, didn't really even think of location too much just got super enthusiastic about opening a store! We opened the webstore 6 months later in 2003 and just poured all our efforts into that while the store was quiet during the week. 2 years later we moved and opened a bigger store closer in towards the town centre which worked a bit better but there's only so many niche street wear brands you can sell in a town like Eastbourne, the majority of customers are interested in basic surf brands, top shop or primark so try selling them a £150 Stussy jacket! We plowed on with the site and then in late 2007 we finally decided that the internet was the way forward for us, shut the shop, moved into a new warehouse close by and opened a small, destination store for our local loyal customers...

Have you been effected by the economic crisis?

Touch wood, no. We're still up month on month compared to last year so we can't complain, i think it will get tougher early next year though, we'll have to wait and see.

Have you changed your buying to cater for the credit crunch?

A bit yes, we've had to think long and hard about taking on brand new brands that have a lot of hype behind them and instead put more money with some of the more established brands. The crazy hyped stuff is great to have and looks cool, but cool doesn't often pay the bills! Some street wear is so niche that there may only be a few hundred people in the UK that have even heard of some stuff. It either has to be absolutely fantastic design, dirt cheap or David Beckham needs have been seen wearing it...haha.

What brands are doing well for you?

All the old guard, Adidas, Stussy, Carhartt, Dickies, DC, Vans.....safety in age it seems!

What brands should we be keeping our eyes out for?

Mishka for one, some great stuff coming through, unusual design that you don't see elsewhere. Alphanumeric is making a come back and there was some great designs 4 years ago and from what i've seen it looks good again.
Our own Urban Industry designs! We're working on a range and sorting out some choice collaborators at the moment if anyone is interested, give me a shout!



With Europe now producing so many new brands.
Does the US and Japan need to start taking Europe more serious?

Definitely! Half the time it seems the US brands see the UK as a back water to sort out later. We often get a less than great service in getting all the stock we ordered and on time. Design wise i'm not sure as the US is so big they have their own specific markets, tastes and styles so it probably doesn't bother them about the rest as much. Also its very difficult to export to the US because of the £/$ rate, its stacked against us most of the time..

What are your favourite UK brands?

It would have to be A.IN.T, MHI/Maharishi, Addict...we need more cool brands coming through from the UK!!

What are your thoughts on streetwear blogs?

I love reading them and I check about 40 a day with the help of my Google Reader! The only think that sometimes annoys me, present company excluded of course!, is that some of these big blogs show stuff just too early! I've been to a buying appointment for Spring 2009 back in August this year and within 2-3 days of getting back the items i've just ordered are on half a dozen blogs! Any punter wanting to buy is going to be really disappointed as the item won't be out for 5-6 months! By the time they get delivered to us people have moved on to the next early hyped item! Some of these blogs need to chill out and display things nearer the time...turn the Hype down a notch or two!



What do you think of the current state of sneaker buying?
In regards to resells, custom/personalised sneakers.

Its something we don't really get involved in as its difficult to get going with personalised/custom stuff..we're not set up to do it I guess...Other than that we're as happy as pigs in shit as we've got our Nike account open at long last! Generally though sneaker sales are fairly strong for us, it still seems to be all about the retro styles from Adidas and Vans...its hard for a lot of these brands to push it forward with totally new shapes as neither them or us as the retailer has the balls to stock them! New styles come in very small increments so i like to see other brands like The Hundreds bring their own style even though they are fusing a few retro styles together!

How will streetwear look in 10years?

I'm thinking it will be very similar to what it is now! We're starting a new concept site called the Original Store in collaboration with another guy in the industry and with that we're selling Champion sweaters sourced direct from the US, Buzz Rickson Crews from Japan and other similar Original Streetwear/Workwear products. The Champion stuff is straight from the 1980's and the Buzz gear is a Japanese remake of 1950's US Military gear! So you can see there is still a market for good, well designed product from over 50 years ago. I think some things will always be classic and there will always be someone looking back on a product because they use to wear it when they were young or someone else because its retro and cool. I think amongst this we will still have the start up t-shirt brands mixing it up a little with up-to-date designs, colourways, collabs. If these guys can move on to cut and sew items then thats where the innovation will come from, I think its a healthy future ahead for 'street wear'



And because they are super nice they are giving away 10% on any order to BNTL readers.

All you need to do is enter this code when prompted: bntl10

The promotion only lasts for 10 days so dont sleep.

Click here for the store.

D DOUBLE E GREATEST HITS.

I posted the Wiley best radio moments last month, and Grimetapes have now done a D Double E version.

CLICK HERE to go and get it.

Props Butterz & Grimetapes.

DJ ZINC + DEADLY RHYTHM

STICKER STICKER STICKER STICKER

Or maybe not?

Answers on a post-card please.