Back in July 2009 I wrote a piece about the graff co-existing with the rubble of the old Huncoat Power Station in Lancashire. Join me for a couple of return visits and a visual ride into them thar hills….
All photos by shellshock
Quick Link to the July 2009 blog – if you are interested…..
Quick Link to Part 1 of this blog….
The disused power station at Huncoat (between Accrington and Burnley) is easily the best hidden graff den I’ve ever been to. Rubble and shit are everywhere, right next to stunning pieces from the Trans Pennine Nomads (TPN) crew (and a few others). A visual overload; you don’t know where to look (actually I do know where to look….. look up for graffiti… and look down for that pit full of glass and old shoes that you are about to fall in you spanner….).
A week ago I finally summoned up some enthusiasm to get out of Manchester and bob back up to Huncoat. I knew there was some new stuff there; although I hadn’t really done my research on what exactly was there, and if anything new was down at the other spot.
We only had a dusting of white stuff in Manc so I hadn’t expected to be greeted at Huncoat with thick fog and snow. I’d never seen this empty shell like a magical realist playground before.
I knew that Pryme and Riot 68 had done a piece upstairs so I headed there, not to be disappointed by a typical Pryme piece (is it just my eyes getting adjusted but are his letters getting slightly easier to read?), and Riot’s futuristic slabs of metal (I’m not into sci-fi at all, but I could imagine this forming part of a space ship, or a missile shield…), plus umbilical cord style swirls connecting into and out of both pieces.
What I didn’t realise was that Pryme had been doing a lot of work with Burnley writer, Slack – a name I previously didn‘t know. They have reclaimed the main wall, with a more bird / aeroplane like Pryme piece, and Slack’s classy wild style.
It’s always a hard wall to photograph (especially for someone as cack as me), coz of the gaping entrance next to it always streaming in with light, so on this shot I thought I’d embrace the light rather than try to deny it…..
And on a less used side wall, they’d done another collab. Slack uses big bold day-glo colours, whereas Pryme goes for drips and perfect shadows. All on a slightly psychedelic background which makes we wonder what they might have been smoking….
And I’m saving the best ‘til last. Part 3 will be coming soon and will include one of the best chrome and black’s you’ve ever seen, and a peel-back style that had writers everywhere wondering why they hadn’t thought of that before……