I know there is a shit load of people hating on this book, I'm sure for all their own reasons. Heard alot about it, and obviously read all the comments last night on the last blog post.. Amongst other things.
The main issue probably being that they sent in, or got asked to send in their stuff and then never see it appear... And that's the way it's always been with anything that's come out in London and it always will be... until 2012, GraffLondon mag edition 1... hold tight
So I had a flick through the book eventually, wasn't at the launch party as me & Shoreditch don't exactly see eye to eye..
..It was bigger than I thought, which is a good thing. It's all laid out quite nice, good quality pages. I didn't have time to read much inside, but there's alot of text, which I'm sure is a good read.
Alot of well known writers who you would expect are included, obviously there's alot also missed out.. can't have both.
One thing that kind of didn't surprise me was the fact that I've seen a big majority of photo's which are in the book. Alot I know other people won't have seen, but there are so many that everyone would have seen in there.. and I'm not sure why you would bother putting them in there, unless you are trying to reach out to another crowd or something.... who knows...
Now I heard so many rumours about what exactly GraffLondon's part in the book was. And to clear it up for anyone that's still asking. Basically on ATG's page it says something like 'ATG thought it would be wrong to comment about themselves in the book so they thought they would leave it up to members of the London graffiti forum, GraffLondon.'
Then appear a page of quotes with certain peoples usernames, all completely negative comments which was pretty bloody funny! I suppose they could of put at least 1 positive comment in there. Even if they were just doing it for laughs, comments like this are well worth it:
"ATG mounted an expedition to south london once. in north london it was widely believed that crossing the thames was impossible, but with their gung ho islington spirit and a final cup of earl grey, the chaps set off southwards. by all accounts they found a way across the river, but no one knows how. despite coming under constant attack from the pale faced, voodoo practicing gypsies that inhabit the barren wastes south of the river, they finally got to streatham common and planted a flag signifying that they had conquered this awful place. after a triumphant "huzzah!" and a bit of back slapping, not to mention the last satisfying mouthfuls of their panini rations washed down with mummies homemade pimms, they set their bearings for home. unfortunately, its reported that things started to go wrong at this point. its thought that rest and harm succumbed to the inhospitable terrain somewhere around elephant & castle, running out of oxygen. the air was too thin for their delicate lungs you see. the others bravely carried on, making it as far as london bridge before disaster struck again. rayds was kidnapped by bandits and never seen again. some say they took him to a football match - leyton orient v millwall - but the horrors that he must have witnessed at such a place are too dreadful to think about. thankfully, the rest of ATG made it back safely. they didn't do any graffiti for about 10 months in 2005, in order to recover from this ordeal." - Skidz (posted on the forum but who knows if its skidz's words or not..)
The book is something outrageous like £25 but a must see for anyone that takes interest in this movement.
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