Read Goldie’s feature

LSD Magazine

Fans of Goldie’s art should get themselves along to Red Bull Studios where his work will be on show at the Lock Up 2 exhibition.

The show runs from Friday 18th to Sunday 27th November & Goldie’s artwork will be shown alongside other works from artists such as Dan Baldwin, K-Guy and Mau Mau. Admission is free, so this is a must-see for any fans of Urban Art. For more info, visit eddielock.co.uk

Filmed over 2 days in Stockwell, Aug 2011.

Tats Cru over from NYC and Goldie painting for the first time in 16 years.

Look out for more details soon, or for further info on purchasing this unique piece contact Eddie Lock .

Check out this piece that Goldie made to promote Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. Spraying paint, then bullets was the order of the day for this one. Goldies unique piece is now hanging outside the Truman Brewery in East London.

Check this video from the Vintage Festival at Goodwood. Goldie was there lending his support to the Forest Friendly campaign. B&Q had donated materials for a skateramp, built using 100% sustainable FSC certified wood. Goldie spent some time at the ramp &  donated the skateboard he painted in the video to the campaign.

Find out more about the Forest Friendly campaign here

Bid on the skateboard at ebay here

Goldie sprays a West Midlands Travel double decker bus for Bass M&B’s new cocktail drink, Pink Lady, West Midlands Travel Walsall spray booth, 1989. Image – Martin Jones

The Pink Lady bus was one of several commercial commissions and trade shows I obtained for Goldie between 1987 and 1989. Others included Swatch Watches skateboard ramps and British Telecom.

The commission was offered by top London advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty. I think they intended to play on the irony of commissioning the hero of graffiti artists throughout the UK with an opportunity to cover an entire bus with graffiti – legally.

As I recall it was done over a weekend, because the spray booth was used for normal maintenance during the week. At the time Goldie was living in London so the agency put him up in a nearby hotel. It was one of two murals to promote Bass M&B’s new cocktail drink Pink Lady: the other was a live mural on a hoarding in Soho Road Handsworth, which was photographed and printed up onto large sheets for poster sites up and down the route of Handsworth carnival.

I was told by the agency that the bus did run, but it proved to be a magnet for fans who travelled from all parts of the country just to ride on Goldie’s bus. Eventually drivers refused to take the bus out because of the massive attention it attracted and it was withdrawn from service.

The 40’ foot long Goldie mural sprayed live for BBC Children in Need, November 1988 – image – Martin Jones

This was an attempt to establish a new category of record, specifically for spraycan mural painting. The occasion we chose was the annual BBC Children in Need telethon, based at BBC TV studios at Pebble Mill in Birmingham in November 1988.

The challenge was to execute a 40’ x 8’ mural, live and non-stop over 12 hours. The BBC themselves made and primed the mural panels and erected them on an outside wall of the Pebble Mill building. We received donations of paint from the UK distributor of Buntlack,paints and from Nicholls paints in Walsall who used to mix Goldie’s special colours. Viewers were invited to ring in and pledge money for the successful completion of the epic undertaking.

Goldie began the mural live at 12 noon, on the BBC Pebble Mill talk show, interviewed by Playschool’s former presenter Floella Benjamin. Over the next 12 hours, virtually non-stop, he sprayed this magical forest landscape, which was inspired by the Cheech Wizard cartoons of New York artist Vaughn Bode.

Cheech Wizard is seen reading a book of stories in the far left of the piece, and his apprentice, the Lizard called Razzberry, is seen sitting at a desk on the far right.

The mural was completed in the final part of the telethon, at 12 midnight. The Radio 2 deejay Simon Bates was the host for the completion, walking the entire length of the mural and congratulating Goldie for his supreme effort. Goldie was then invited on stage, waving goodbye alongside other celebs who had raised money that night.

Goldie at Sun Street factory studio, Wolverhampton in 1987, with his ‘TAT’ mural. Image – Martin Jones

Goldie created a range of canvases experimenting with different styles for the ‘Rockin’ the City’ show in 1987. In recognition of his outstanding work he was made an honorary member of New York’s TAT crew and invited to return to New York to work with them again.

In 1988 he went back, carrying out several late night pieces in the yards and lay-ups on the New York subway, teaming up with his friend Vulcan once more. He extended his stay to visit Florida, where he met his father again after many years’ separation, and worked in the Miami Flea Market doing airbrush t-shirts. It was during this time that he met a trader who cast gold grills that fit over teeth, whom he asked to teach him the trade.

When he returned to the UK, he began a small business in Walsall making custom grills and gold rings for the Hip Hop community as well as carrying out mural commissions I obtained for him with a range of commercial clients such as Swatch Watches, British Telecom and Bass Mitchell and Butlers. He also appeared live on BBC Pebble Mill at One, defending his art form in a debate with local police and the Birmingham council cleansing department, and created a mural for a debate on graffiti art on ITV’s Central Weekend Friday night current affairs discussion show.