Six word story- Waiters

Hemingway unwittingly invented 'flash fiction' with the six word story, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." 
Here is a tribute to the old man.

"A waiter stares out the window"

Short Story- Care Home Blues

I walk past the care home twice a day. The care home where my Grandmother lives. Once cruel and vindictive now she rots there, complacent. Demented.

I have walked past the care home twice a day for about two years. I have never been inside the care home.

Sometimes I see the residents for the care home being wheeled out onto the red brick terrace, blankets over their knees, some with mugs of tea, others chuffing cigarettes.

I squint to try to make out her frail shape but it is never her.

Two years, twice a day of being too scared to enter, scarred by memories of tab stained fingers, bad tempers, stale smelling grocery shops, betting slips, soldier soldier re-runs and lemonade in teacups.

Frankie and the Heartstrings

I interviewed Dave from Frankie and the Heartstrings a little while back so I thought it would be fitting to publish the feature this week as their debut album hit the shelves. 

I don't own the copyright to the images so if you own the copyright and wish to have them removed then let me know.

Frankie and the Heartstrings

Sunderland popsters Frankie and the Heartstrings are an intriguing prospect. Talking to drummer Dave Harper, the conversation is peppered with references to art house films, literature and classic pop music. Not that that is unusual of course, in any given era there has always been a plethora of literate British guitar bands, from The Smiths to Maximo Park. 

But it is rare to hear an intelligent, articulate musician discuss a new artist they have discovered with the same degree of erudition as Dave. He says of the undisclosed artist, “I should fucking hate the cunt. My foot should be firmly on his fucking neck.” Even better is that this proclamation is swiftly followed by a discussion on Philosopher Descarte’s ‘Mediationes de prima philopsophia.’ And it’s that duality which makes Frankie and the Heartstrings such a refreshing proposition. These guys are the real deal.

Frankie and the Heartstrings are a gang of gentlemen rogues in the most appealing and unaffected sense,  exactly the type of band that Morrissey has a habit of falling head over heels with every couple of years. They are smart and romantic, tough and uncompromising. Just like the North East town that spawned them.

The band formed in Sunderland around a year and a half ago with the promise of injecting a little bit of good old fashion fun into the UK’s po-faced indie scene. Apart from singer Frankie, who at 25 is the relative baby of the group, most of the other Heartstrings are seasoned veterans of the stop-start Sunderland music scene. Now departed  (as in left, not dead) guitarist Pete Gofton was in 90’s glam popsters Kenickie (his sister was that bands singer, one Lauren Laverne, no I haven’t heard of her either) and drummer Dave has worked with more musicians than Mark E Smith. Ok, not quite true but he’s not far off. And they do share the same fierce reputation.  

After varying tastes of success in other bands the group’s main priority upon getting together was to do things their way or no way at all, regardless of handful s of record labels sniffing around after only a handful of local gigs. “We decided we didn’t want to do things in the conventional way.” Says Dave. “We weren’t interested in the usual cycle of play a gig, get a record deal, put out a single, put out an album then go on tour because it inevitably doesn’t work. Bands are being dropped and record labels are going under.”

Following the success of fellow local band The Futureheads’ attempts to start a label after being dropped from Warner, Frankie and the Heartstrings set about trying to find a different way of getting their music heard. The band were realistic in realising that it was necessary to generate revenue to fund their exploits, as well as maintaining a buzz around the band yet retaining creative autonomy. They were determined to find a fresh way of doing business.

“We thought, let’s think about pop music the way you’re supposed to think about pop music and think about reinvention and adding some fun back to the medium, which is something people haven’t done for a long time.” He says, adding, “It’s always been as if there is an invisible set of rules and I don’t know who made them up, but we decided to pay no attention to them.”

Disregarding those rules the band looked to the innovative artists and labels which had informed their cultural tastes as youngsters. They came up with POPSEX LTD. POPSEX is a kind of boutique record label cum clearing house for all things Frankie and the Heartstrings. It was set up after the group were inspired by local indie collective Boyeater in their teens.

Boyeater operated in the late 90’s in at a time when there was little going on in the Sunderland live music scene other than a ropey hard rock cover band at a working men’s club on a Friday night or a ‘turn’ in the concert room on a Saturday. Headed up by James McMahon, who recently worked for the NME as Features Editor, Boyeater was a celebration of all that is DIY in music and the gigs James put on have since gone down in Sunderland folklore.

Frankie and the Heartstrings’ drummer Dave decided to take the Boyeater aesthetic and run with it. He Says, “A lot of the Boyeater stuff was a little sugary for my taste and too fan-boyish plus it didn’t encompass anything other than the music. “When starting the band and label we knew we would never just be about the music, we’re about anything that is tangible that people can tap into and use for whatever they want.”

This search for anything tangible has led to a vast catalogue of POPSEX related items. The band admits shamelessly ripping off the seminal Manchester label Factory Records in deciding to catalogue all their releases but they have been much more playful with the aesthetic. So far there has been POPSEX numbers allocated to everything from a mix-tape limited to one copy (available on request) to posters, T-shirts, DVD’s and even guitarist Michael McKnight’s newborn twins (needless to say, not available by request).

I ask Dave how the band chooses what to catalogue? The answer is simple, “The question we always ask is, why not? And it seems to be working because as we add to the catalogue peoples interest in it seems to swell.” The result is a compelling archive of the bands career so far. POPSEX operates much like a fan club, an old school way of doing things, but it is not without its modern flourishes.

Frankie and the Heartstrings have a weapon in their arsenal that the likes of Factory and Boyeater did not. The Internet. The band has embraced limited edition downloads and free podcasts in order to sate their fan base’s appetites while they graft away at their debut album. More importantly than that though, the Internet, and Twitter in particular play an important role for the band.

Dave Harper was initially cynical about using social networking to address fans. Now 32, and a resolutely no nonsense type of chap, Dave resisted buying a mobile phone until in his mid 20’s. But even the self confessed Luddite has embraced Social Networking and admits that it is a significant tool in maintaining the momentum of the buzz around the band between releases while generally keeping the ball of communication rolling.

“I didn’t realise how big these things had become. Twitter is great just to let people know what you’re up to day to day by posting pictures on the road. The un-glamorous bits other bands wouldn’t let you see. That might mean nothing to some people but to some of our fans it means a lot.” He says in his broad County Durham accent.

Giving a snapshot of their real lives and breaking down the barrier of myth surrounding professional musicians is something that is important for Frankie and the Heartstrings. In an age where indie bands are dressed and preened by teams of professionals and lavished with free clothes from brands eager to have their wares associated with anything remotely perceived as being cool, Frankie and the Heartstrings remain nothing but themselves. 

But that’s not to say the five-piece are unconcerned about the way they present themselves. “Image is very important.” Dave says. It just appears they don’t have to try very hard. “There are all of these bands who hire stylists. We’d never do that, but then were lucky because we have incredibly good taste.” Boasts Dave. Luckily this isn’t boasting of the idle variety, the band do look great. In a sort of James Dean meets 60’s Kitchen sink Drama sort of way. It’s certainly fair to say they all know their way around a charity shop, which is appropriate as it turns out Frankie used to manage one.

Bands, of course, are supposed to look cooler than the rest of us, something Frankie and the Heartstrings are acutely aware of, “It’s always been important right from the Rolling Stones through to Orange Juice. All the bands I love have a great look.”

Luckily the band are not a case of style over substance, they certainly have the tunes and the stage presence to back it up.  On stage, Frankie is a natural, flouncing around making dramatic hand gestures and flicking his quiff about like his life depends on it, all the while trying to maintain an air of nonchalance. He performs with a kind of vulnerability and androgynous gusto that has been sadly missing from pop music since Morrissey swung round some gladioli on top of the pops. The Sunderland music scene has produced some enduring and talented acts but, perhaps with the exception of Kenickie, Frankie and the Heartstrings are the first approaching anything that could be described as sexy. Seeing them live it is hard not to be swept up by the longing and urgency they instil in every song.

While still ploughing the traditional pop furrow of songs about girls and heartbreak, Frankie and the Heartstrings’ songs are also filled with pop cultural and specifically, literary references adding to the overall sense of doomed romance and lost intimacy. Despite the deceptively light and catchy hooks and ‘oh oh’ sing-along choruses there are sprinklings of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Norwegian Nobel prize winning author and Nazi sympathiser Knut Hamsun and the uncompromising and notoriously ‘gritty’ filmmaker Mike Leigh.

While many fans have embraced this bookish influence, the band says that it all came about unintentionally. Dave tells me the band, ““just wanted to encompass things like literature or whatever crossed our path that interested us.” He is a concerned of over intellectualising what Frankie and the Heartstrings do, “It’s something we worried about but in the end we reasoned; don’t be ashamed of it but don’t show off about it. I’m not precious about things like books.”

The band really just want to share all of the things that they love and admire, the motivation is simple, Dave says, “I just hope that we can make people’s lives that little bit better. Whether it be from listening to our songs or from reading a book we referenced.”

That said, he ponders over the last sip of his coffee, “Finding a rhyming couplet for Dostoevsky might be tricky.”

'Hunger' is out now.

She One

Last year I interviewed the artist She One. Here are the results. Note that I do not own the copyright to the images so if you are the copyright holder and wish for them to be removed then please let me know.

She One

London artist She One is pretty clear about his role in the art world. “I’m a Graffiti artist.” He states bluntly. This is not strictly true. To say She One is a Graffiti artist is like saying Jackson Pollock used to throw a bit of paint on the canvas. Both statements are partially accurate but give no genuine indication how great each of the respective artists work is.

She One’s huge paintings push the notion of what can be considered Graffiti to its limits. To the casual observer his pieces seem to have more in common with Abstract Expressionist painting than the kind of Graffiti we see thrown up by train lines or daubed as tags across the country.

I first came across the work of She One in the ground breaking 1998 street art compendium Scrawl, Dirty Graphics and Strange Characters. Of all the awe inspiring art in the book it was the work of She One that captured mine and many other’s imaginations. This was pretty out there stuff, even in a book featuring legendary New York Graffiti oddball and bona fide legend, Futura 2000. Somehow, She One managed to make some luminaries of the scene look decidedly pedestrian.

A key text in the history of graffiti was the 1984 book Subway Art by photographer Henry Chalfant. The book chronicled the early days of New York Graffiti, and along with classic Graff movies Wild Style and Style Wars countless kids were inspired  to pick up a spray can and take to their nearest drab city centre and put some colour into in the grey and decaying town centres of eighties Britain. She One was one of those kids.

“My work is deeply rooted in the New York Subway graffiti era circa 78' - 82, in particular
a group of artists called The Death Squad who were at the forefront of taking art from the
trains and translating it onto canvas.” He says. The Death Squad was a crew that cared more about pushing the envelope stylistically than ritualistically tagging every blank surface going. The Death Squad pioneered challenging and innovative new typography and lettering, developing a signature style that was more out there and complex than any of their predecessors in the New York and Global Graffiti scenes.

So deep rooted is this New York influence in She One’s work that you really have to train your eyes to make out the traditional Graffiti and typographical elements in the paintings. At first they seem like a series of minimal, violent streaks of spray paint on the canvas which form spidery abstract patterns. But look into the painting, and consider the title of the piece and the letterforms may suddenly become clear. Like a Graffiti magic eye picture.

Other than being inspired by the heritage and origins of the original Graffiti birth place, New York City, She One claims that “As for influence, there is nothing concrete; I just paint what I feel.”  It is in fact, the titles of the paintings which are of the most important creative decisions She One makes when beginning new work. “In the studio I work paintings up from drawing” He says, “I will essentially design a set of paintings before I start them, the feel, the direction of the paint and the titles. The titles are very important as they inform the content.”

Both She One’s studio and live work can seem slapdash and chaotic given the rapid speed at which he paints and the vast broad streaks of paint which criss-crossing the canvas, yet the brush and can strokes are carefully applied and meticulously orchestrated. They are an accumulation of over ten years of She One honing his unique style. “I definitely didn't just 'hit upon' my style of painting; it is purely the result of drawing typography and executing paintings with spray paint.” He tells me.

When painting live for a club night or event, She One paints straight onto whatever surface is in front of him with no planning. He feeds off the urgency and spontaneity that painting live in front of an audience demands. “It’s like doing a 20 minute guitar solo, where once you start you don’t know where it’s going to end. You have to go with it and commit to that moment.”

This takes me a little by surprise, that for an artist whose work is characteristically lean, he compares himself to such a bloated and self indulgent act as the extended guitar solo. But shake off the Spinal Tap associations and the comparison makes sense, it is improvisation and virtuosity which informs the work he creates. He is often totally surprised by the outcome of the live painting to the point of feeling overwhelmed when viewing the work after leaving the trance-like plain he inhabits when creating it.

Many of She One’s Scrawl peers were art school educated. Mr Jago trained as a graphic designer while others like Will Barras worked in illustration and Animation but She One has no formal training. “I have never been to art school, however as a teenager I was fortunate to discover spray paint as a medium.” He says. “Fortunate because spray paint and the application of graffiti had no legitimate artistic legacy and so I was free from any pre conceived critique of my approach to image making.” He adds.

It is this lack of legitimate artistic legacy that has led many in the street art and Graffiti community to be open about the prospect of commodifying their work. While many fine artists would rather starve than sell their work to clothing companies and toy manufacturers, Graff artists have never been so precious.

The artists of the Scrawl generation realised that through collaboration with commercial outlets more people would get to see their work and they would have a legitimate opportunity to make a decent living doing what they love. And the icing on the cake was that through choosing to work with companies and organisations which were sympathetic to their aesthetic they could maintain a great deal of creative autonomy.

This mix of commerce and creativity seems perfectly natural to She One. “All art is commerce or we wouldn’t have any galleries.” He Says, “Graffiti artists in particular have been good at commodifying their aesthetic into low priced collectibles. The art world has really caught up and contemporary gallery and museum shops are bulging with art licensed onto everyday objects.”

One of She One’s most enduring collaborations was his work for the Addict clothing brand which has seen his designs sported by thousands of people worldwide.  “Addict gave me the opportunity to create a fabric pattern, the S1 Camo, initially it was going to be for one jacket but it is still in production on clothing and products five years later.” He says.

There is no denying that seeing your work on people in the street must be a buzz to rival seeing one of your pieces on a wall or train. It’s something that is not lost on She One. He confesses, “Wherever I travel in the world I see people wearing it. It is a genuinely humbling feeling to have created something that has resonated with such a diverse audience.”

But does he feel that he has had to compromise his artistic vision in undertaking this type of collaboration? “I will explore any avenue of application of my works as long as I feel it is sympathetic to my overall body of work.” He says.

So, I ask, what do you have planned for your work in the near future? He answers as if this were the most unoriginal question in the world (which it indeed may be) and he clearly doesn’t feel the need to offer an elaborate answer, “Colour, slogans, coffee and cigarettes.”

The brevity of his answers seems largely due to being bored of being asked the same old questions (he confirms this to me in a later email). I can’t help think it is inevitable that numerous journalists would pursue the same lines of enquiry given he has maintained the same striking visual aesthetic for over a decade now.

He has never deviated dramatically from his style of painting, he has simply evolved his initial vision, stretching it across the canvas until it has no where left to go then stretching it some more until it spills over and takes on a new identity, becoming its own new piece. He has innovated in style, but not in form.

She One is like a scientist in his lab testing a formula. He works to balance all the elements within a painting; the colour, the dimensions, the textures. He repeats the things that worked previously and eliminates those that have failed with the hope of one day presenting a perfect distillation of his aesthetic. Whether he will ever achieve the perfect alchemy will remain to be seen, but for the rest of us, it will be fun watching him try.

A Story A Day 31th Oct

The very last story then. It's been lovely. I hope the whole thing has been enjoyable to others than just me but if not, it was still entirely worth it. Day 31, a full month, what comes next hopefully will be the most fun. Get in.

Gareth double checks the plugs, turns off the lights and sets the alarm. Flicking the last switch he looks back and says, “Ten years man, ten years.” Then turns the key.

A Story A Day 30th Oct

“I never thought this was how I’d spend my 45^th birthday” Keith thinks, sat in an empty bar surrounded by students. He looks at his card, “May god let happiness blossom.”

A Story a Day 29th Oct

Jim smoothes a silk stocking over his knee to his thigh. Facing the mirror he takes a deep breath, then mutters, “don’t be daft.” and carries on getting ready for work.

A Story A Day 28th Oct

Eleanor sits in a cafe lost in reverie. The world fails to notice the tear that wells heavy in the duct and drips onto the open newspaper in front of her.

A Story A Day 27th Oct

I returned home to find my possessions on the lawn. Clothes, books, even the antique hat stand inherited from my mother. He kicked me out, all because of a little sex.

A Story A Day 26th Oct

Nearly at the end of the 31 word story a day then. Today's story is concerning the ever poisoned chalice that is 'youth.'

Over in the corner stand the young guns with the confidence of kings. Eighteen and trying for reckless, drinking cokes, playing pool, affecting an air of sarcasm, secretly hopeful, entirely doomed.

A Story A Day 25th Oct

Nick leans against his scooter by the seafront of his hometown. A group of tourist girls giggle coyly in unison. “Better than nothing I suppose.” He sighs, turning to follow them.