Stories about London, Culture & Creativity

This is the 39th recording, oh and I’ll be 39 on New Year’s Day. nice.. anyway the 39th recording is the last of the year and this week we have PIC WRH.. another London OG who has been styling on us since 84′, I was 4 then but you know what I mean. P’s a true soldier of the culture, relentless, aggressive with it at times through the last 35 years, never stopping.. I spotted some bits local after he’d visited.. He’s not on this side of town much so did what he does so well. P brings us on his journey from being a Publicans kid and growing up in those surroundings, what Camden was like in the 80’s and 90’s and his first interactions with the graffiti even before it was here and how he got the name PIC… We chat about great times with the WRH squad and his adventures with King Robbo running about the city, the amazing friendships he built and a passion for a culture that has never dwindled. We chat about loads of bits throughout and also, I tell him about the first time I met him in 96/97 which was an eye opener to what a real bomber was about.
P’s a legend.. Another superhero and the truest of gents.. Enjoy..

We’re going to have a bit of a different one this week, I started working on this podcast idea about 2 years ago, I love podcasts and I love my culture, I know most of you know that and we have so many people with the best of stories so I got it together and recorded some, Jack Murray, Will Robson Scott, Any Gillman, Done London and Jamal Peace, they are the early ones in the series but it took me pretty much a year before I put them out. Anxiety, confidence and making my business and work more important than feeding my soul all came into play and I couldn’t justify spending all the time it’d take to do this. I stored the recordings.
Then Jan passed away in late December 2017. I’d known him since the 90’s, properly. It hit hard. The funeral was a few weeks later and I went with my friend and fellow NW6er Sam. It was great to see all these people come to pay respects to Jan. A tearful and yet joyous event full of stories, memories, laughs and tears. He touched a crazy amount of people, we walked his coffin down Kilburn High Rd. and locked it off there was so many of us. A beautiful but sad day.
Pretty soon after the funeral, I decided I was going to do these interviews and get this podcast going and I did. I had wanted Jan round to chat, I should have had him round in 2017, but life is what it is and at the time I wasn’t sure I was going to do the podcast at all.
Him going let me know I needed to do this, he did everything he put his mind too and so I was going to do the same. About 2 -3 weeks after the funeral I had around that time, heard the final Combat Jack podcast, one I’d been listening to for 7 odd years, Combat had passed from Cancer and Dallas Penn, A King, Premium Pete, Just Blaze, Ben Haeremeen, and a couple other of his colleagues and friends got together to talk about Combat, his accomplishments, his life and work, I thought that’d be great for Jan, bringing us to this week which is a special episode as we have a glimpse into Jan’s life through one of his best mates, his crew partner, his travelling companion, festival goer and party starter, Jack.
We recorded it early July and it was tough, especially on Jack but we told stories, had laughs and remembered our friend.
This is some of Jan’s London, Culture and Creativity story.