Tag: Rogue-One

A busy time gone by …

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Music, Street Art, Volunteering

I’ve been very busy lately, hence the lack of recent input to my blog. It all started with Yardworks, followed by volunteering at the Glasgow Mela, and this past weekend I was volunteering at Doune The Rabbit Hole festival, more information on each of these follows:

Yardworks

One of my favourite events is Yardworks, held at SWG3, this annual street art festival is one of my favourite weekends in Glasgow. The event, held on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th June, is one of Europe’s biggest dedicated to street art and graffiti – with artists and writers from across Glasgow, the UK and Europe coming together to paint and draw, creating an explosion of colour.

On the nearby railway arches, wall spaces and boards in the yard, the highly skilled artists including Smug, Ejek, Rogue One and many others worked side by side with some of the most celebrated names from around the globe – including Zurik, Bublegum, and Balstroem.

Smug + Bublegum + The Guzler

I was there on the Saturday with my mate Jim and his 10 year old grandson Jack and It was so good to be able to meet and chat with friends old and new, Jack was enthralled by the talent on display and expressed an interest in trying out some spray painting himself in the future.

Jack and his favourite mural

Sunday saw me back again, this time with my friends Gary and Jan Gammage, it was great to see the works develop and to see the eventual finished articles. Gary & Jan were interested in the many different techniques used, spray paint, palette, brush and the use of stencils in the development of the pieces.

It was a brilliant weekend, great art, good food and fun in the company of friends, what more could you ask for.

My photographs from the weekend can be found here.

Glasgow Mela

Sunday the 26th found me in Kelvingrove park volunteering at the Glasgow Mela, an annual multicultural music and dance festival. The Mela began in 1990 as part of Glasgow’s year as the European City of Culture and has grown from being an indoor event at the Tramway to an outdoor extravaganza, with something for all the family.


I was assigned as the Artist Liaison for the Navras (main) stage, which kept me busy for the whole day. At this stage, we had a variety of acts, dance, music and performance arts. Amongst the acts that entertained me and the crowds were Deesh Sandhu, Hunterz and the headliner Jaz Dhami and his band.

Being busy for most of the day I missed out on some of the other activities on offer but did manage to grab a nice lamb curry for lunch from one of the many food outlets on site.

Doune The Rabbit Hole

Doune the Rabbit Hole is an intimate, independent music & arts festival located amidst the glorious ancient oak trees of the Cardross Estate, near the Lake of Menteith, in Stirlingshire. Starting in 2010, at a site near the town of Doune (hence the name!) they have been celebrating the very best of Scotland’s independent arts scene alongside amazing international guests. This year’s line-up included main stage headliners like the legendary Patti Smith and Band, multi-million selling Scottish singer-songwriter Amy MacDonald, homegrown, world-famous talent Belle & Sebastian, English post-punk duo Sleaford Mods and Bellshill natives and superstars Teenage Fanclub, one of my son Graeme’s favourites (the video below is for him). I really enjoyed the set by Esperanza, a Glasgow Ska band, they took me back to my youth.

I was the artist Liaison on the Bandersnatch stage which had a sort of folkie and blues vibes, and thanks to Chris Blackmore, the Stage Manager and Phil the Sound Engineer, the atmosphere there was pretty chilled and relaxing and we had some really entertaining artists on stage including The Mary Wallopers, Rachel Sermanni and John Francis Flynn, it was good to see and listen to Erin Bradley-Scott perform, Erin is one of my favourite art groups, The Cobolt Collective, she certainly is a talented lady. It seems like I can never get away from street art and artists, I even came across a nice piece by Ross MacRae next to the Jabberwocky stage, I really like his work.

There was also some exceptional food on offer, although there was a crew canteen I gave it a miss at times to sample the fare from Barnacles & Bones, Shawarmarama, and the Pizza Geeks.

As this was a weekend camping festival and I didn’t feel like camping, I decided to book a room in Willow Court, one of Stirling University’s halls of residence, overall this was a great choice. Another great weekend and I’m looking forward to heading back again next year

The Old & The New

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Street Art

I ventured out today to find something new and was pleasantly surprised that a couple of old favourites are still there and looking fairly good.

My first stop was in Govanhill where Conzo Throb & Ciaran Glöbel created ‘A Postcard from Govanhill‘, the first mural in the Govanhill Open Museum art trail. The mural, which contains patterns from Middle Eastern tiles, Romanian fabric, Scottish tartan and ‘wally close’ tiles, represents a different aspect of the diverse local community and is very reminiscent of a similar one created by them in Dennistoun.

Maryhill was my next stop, where I went looking for a new(ish) mural by Mack Colours and Frodrik on Stockline Plastic’s building on Hopehill Street, it really is well worth a visit to see it, the company are delighted with it and In their opinion, it makes a wonderful addition to the impressive collection of murals around the city.

Mack Colours & Frodrik

Whilst in the area, I popped along Maryhill Road where I photographed a piece by Ohpanda in the Braeside Community Gardens, a nice big fish from Frodrik on the front of a building near the corner of Cowal Road. At the end of the building, you will find the little Scottie Dog and Bumble Bee and across the road, there is the Glasgow Panther, both created by Rogue One and Ejek way back in 2014.

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A Slice of Life

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Street Art

I took a trip into Yard Life at SWG3 last night to see the new exhibition by Prefab77 (AKA Peter Manning). A Slice of Life, which is Peter’s first solo Scottish show, is a stunning series of portraits in a mixture of print, acrylic, spray paint, wheatpaste and varnish which creates a dark world of Gangs, Goddesses and Groupies, woven into pure, rock and rebellion. I had a good blether with Peter, a thoroughly nice guy, who stated that he loves Glasgow and is looking forward to returning in June for Yardworks 2022, I would love to see him in action then.

Prefab77
Native Love II
Killer Queen
Blame Society
Riot Heist
Power to the People

It was really good to see many of the Glasgow based artists visiting last night and to catch up with them, I look forward to seeing the many new pieces they were discussing when they appear.

On my way to the gallery, I walked down Haugh Street and on hearing some good music coming from a doorway, I peeked in to be surprised by some really good paintings of well-known chefs, by the style it looks like the work of Rogue One. It turned out to be the Dockyard Social, who state that they are the best street food traders Scotland has to offer, providing a taste of global comfort food, it certainly looks like a place I will return to.

Street Art in Northern Ireland

by theholmesteader, posted in Street Art, Travel

Now that I’ve had a bit of time I’ve put together a couple of pages of the street art I photographed during my recent trip to Northern Ireland. I discovered so much I have split it into two pages, one for Belfast City and the other for the pieces I found in the other towns I visited on my trip. A few sample images are shown below.

The complete set of photographs can be found on the Street Art in Northern Ireland page.

COP26 in Glasgow

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Street Art, Volunteering

I have been quite busy recently volunteering at the COP26 conference in Glasgow, I was based in the City Chambers in George Square in a Protocol role, this basically was a meet and greet role at the many Civic Receptions being held there. It was good to see the reaction of many of the delegates to the mosaic of the city’s coat of arms at the entrance to the building, and the many other mosaics found throughout the building, on the ceilings and domes, with an estimated 1.5 million individual tiles used and laid by hand. However, the greatest surprise was shown by many delegates when confronted by the marble staircase, made entirely from imported Italian Carrara marble, they were stunned to hear that it’s the biggest of its kind in Western Europe, meaning it’s one storey taller than the one in the Vatican City.

  • City Chambers entrance
  • Marble staircase
  • Marble staircase
  • City Chambers

COP26 gave some of our artists a chance to put up some new related works with some on the arches at SWG3 facing towards the SEC Campus. Although I was disappointed to see Guido Van Helten’s badminton player disappear from Wilson Street, I was pleased to see a new mural by the Fearless Collective showing the faces of indigenous leaders who have been at the forefront of the COP26 conference. If you look closely at the top of the mural you can see the top edge of the shuttlecock, a little bit of Guido’s legacy left behind.

  • Fearless Collective Wilson Street
  • Govan
  • YTardworks Arches
  • YTardworks Arches
  • YTardworks Arches
  • YTardworks Arches

While travelling around the city during the conference, I did manage to catch some good street art, with an especially nice piece by Frodrik at the side of CASS Art on Queen Street, a good mural about youth homelessness in Midland Street opposite James Kling’s portraits, but what really pleased me was a little charcoal type drawing of a figure in a doorway on Candleriggs, I noticed that as I made my way down the street after having a rather good pizza in Nonna Said with it’s ghood artwork by Conzothrob, he also pooped up in the St Enoch Centre with a funadvert for the new cinema there.  I’ve also included a mural from Mikaku on Queen Street painted by Rogue One.

  • Frodrik Cambridge Stret
  • Frodrik Queen Street
  • Rebel Bear Sauchiehall Street
  • Nonna said Candleriggs
  • Nonna said Candleriggs
  • Nonna said Candleriggs
  • Unknown Candleriggs
  • Molly Hankingson St Enochs
  • Conzothrob St Enochs
  • Rogue One Mikaku Queen Street
  • End youth homelessness by GWMcLaughli midland Street

On the Town

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Music, Street Art

I had a bit of a pub crawl on Friday, I had arranged to meet my son Graeme for lunch starting off with a pint in Brewdog’s Doghouse on Hutcheson St. Looking for something different for lunch we went round to Mikaku, Glasgow’s new Japanese Izakaya-style restaurant on Queen St. Lunch there was brilliant, the Ramen and Yaki Gyoza’s were excellent, all washed down with a nice pint of Asahi. The large Blade Runner styled mural by Rogue One along the main wall made it more enjoyable for me.

Graeme had to collect some records from Mono in King St., where I bumped into Nick, a friend from the Barn in the Gorbals, so we stayed a while for a beer with him. We were joined later by some of Nicks mates, including Conzo & Globel, (which reminded me that I hadn’t posted my wide angle shot of their Yardworks piece, you can see it above).

A good few pints later we decided to move onto the Scotia Bar on Stockwell St, this turned out to be a great choice, the beer was very good and we happened to be sitting next to a guy called Danny, Danny, a visiting American music teacher, who had his fiddle with him, was desperate to play some of his traditional music in Glasgow, we eventually convinced the staff there to let him play, we, and the punters in the pub, really enjoyed his playing and he was asked for more and more tunes. After a few too many beers and eventually after getting Danny on a train to Edinburgh, I drifted home after a really great day out with Graeme, I certainly felt a wee bit fragile in the morning.

 

Yardworks Weekend 2019

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Street Art

I had a great weekend at Yardworks, the weather for a change was brilliant.  The crowds turned out and the artists working put on a tremendous display.  In addition to the local favourites, many national and international artists created some tremendous work.

There was something for all the family in a carnival atmosphere, skateboarding and art experience for the kids and plenty of street food and bars for the adults, definitely something to add to the diary for next year.

Some of the photographs I took over the weekend can be seen here.

 

Jim Jimmies Revisited

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Street Art

I had a ‘cracking’ day in town yesterday with my mate Jim.  We were pleased that our efforts at the Kilt walk raised over £900 for Cancer Research UK, not bad for a couple of old guys out for a Sunday Stroll.  We also were able to go over our plans for our coming trip to San Francisco, Vega and New York, deciding what we are going to do with our time there.  After a nice lunch in the Shilling Brewing Co. we headed over to Paisley Road Toll for a beer in the Old Toll Bar and to see how Rogue-One’s latest work there has progressed since my last visit.  Jim hadn’t seen them before and he was very impressed, especially by the one of Mark McManus.

Wednesday Wander

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Street Art

As I am still in training for the Kilt Walk on the 28th, I decided to do a bit of walking today. I started off in Commerce Street for a Physio Appointment then headed off to the Old Toll Bar at Paisley Road West, I managed to meet up with Rogue-One and we had a rare old blether, and I got a sneak preview of his current work in the downstairs function room, so far he has finished James McAvoy, Mark McManus and Gerry Rafferty and he was putting the finishing touches to Billy Connolly while I was there.  They all look fabulous, with tremendous attention to detail, and I was told that there are more to come on the other walls in the room, I can’t wait to see the room finished.

While there I was impressed by the friendly staff and the range of good beers on tap, I had a great pint of stout to send me on my way.

Leaving the bar, I continued walking along Paisley Road finishing off in Govan hoping to take the ferry to the Riverside Museum but it wasn’t running so I had to walk back to the Science Centre and crossed the river there.  Lunch in SWG3 then back into town before a pint in the Raven before home.  16k was my final tally so I think I should be OK for the Kilt Walk.

Glasgow North

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow

I had to go over to the north of the city for a physio appointment the other day and while in the area I thought I would visit one of my favourite Rogue-One murals, the Cowlairs Incline, on Endrick Street, just off Keppochhill Road.  That led me on to the corner of Hawthorn Street and Balmore road to photograph another of his pieces I have intended photographing for a while, his depiction of a speedway rider advertising the local team, The Glasgow Tigers.  As it was a nice sunny day, I then took a stroll along the banks of the Forth & Clyde canal where I spotted a nice wee naive mural in a wall near the Ruchill church, I couldn’t find out anything about who painted it and why.

Cowlairs Incline
Glasgow Tigers
Glasgow Tigers
Canal Bank

You never know what you will find when out wandering, while at the canal bank, I met 2 young guys who were ‘magnetic fishing’!  Instead of a hook on the end of their lines they had strong magnets, their catch so far that day was a bicycle, a couple of scooters, several bunches of keys and a knuckle duster.  For some reason or other, they didn’t want their photograph taken.