Features Location: London

shame are a rough-and-ready post punk band and are back for their third time around, with album ‘Food for Worms’. It debuted on 24^th February after a slew of singles gave a taste to avid listeners, eager to hear what’s next. UNCLE partnered with shame on the release by pasting their alluring artwork across their hometown of London.  

Having established themselves on the scene of alternative music in early 2018, shame have only since grown, having become a force to be reckoned with. They have consistently appearing in cult music magazines NME, Clash and Pitchfork, and their previous album ‘Drunk Tank Pink’ was met with universal praise, peaking at number three on the UK indie charts.  

The resurgence of modern post punk has eclipsed certainly the UK music scene for the better part of the last decade. However, shame have been more eclectic with their sound in ‘Food for Worms’ taking influence from the lyrical stylings of Lou Reed and the more melodic approach of German band, Blumfeld. It’s a record primarily about friendship –and how have the fivesome grown together. They hope it’ll be a welcome departure from overused subject of romantic love and tap into audiences on a different level.  

Tha band have also just released a music video for ‘Fingers of Steel’, an irreverent take on the Information Age seeing the band create social media accounts to like their own content – an on brand jovial take on society. They band are set to embark on a European tour in the coming months, along with an American tour following that. See their website for full details of the tour and tickets. 

To mark the moment for the album release we talked to drummer Charlie Forbes and bassist Josh Finerty who shed light over the growth of the group’s sound, artistic choices and live shows. 

HOW DID THE NEW ‘FOOD FOR WORMS’ COME TO BE? 

Charlie – The summer of 2021, we got our own practise space, which we’ve never had before. So we were like thought we had a bit of time to write this album quickly and then we won’t need to worry about it – and that didn’t work. We almost forgot how to make music, we failed to write anything for a really, really long time, and I thought we’d forgotten how to write music altogether. That is annoying when you’re trying to write an album.  

Josh – Then it kind of just clicked, at the beginning of 2022. Our management booked in some shows for us in some small venues – like The Windmill – where we had to perform all new material, so the pressure is on and it kind of went there.  

HOW IS THIS ALBUM DIFFERENT TO YOUR PREVIOUS ONES? 

Charlie – It’s less overthought than the second album, definitely more melodic, our most melodic album, there’s a lot of group vocals and harmonies. We’ve embraced periods of actual space in music which didn’t happen on the second where we just clogged up every single beat of every single song with 15 different sounds. We’ve tried to consciously have parts in the songs where stuff really comes down, varied dynamics. 

WHY DO YOU TACKLE THE SUBJECTS YOU DO AND HOW HAS THIS CHANGED?  

Charlie – The political stuff was early days, we’re obviously still political individuals, but I don’t know how much that comes through in the music anymore. We’ve left that behind and started talking about our feelings and emotions, we’re men but we have feelings, and we want the world to know. It’s [frontman Charlie Steen] Steens remit but I know he writes what’s on his mind. It naturally comes through; he writes what he sees and feels. He was perhaps looking outward a bit more during the first album and then he started looking inwards. Obviously covid happened and everything became really introspective. This one’s all about friends, it’s primarily a platonic rock album. 

HOW DO YOU DECIDE ON ARTWORK FOR YOUR RELEASES? 

Charlie – We got lucky this time around, we got ahead of the curve with trying to sort it out, which didn’t happen on the first two. We got in touch with this artist Marcel Dzama, is who our manager knows and went from there. We picked some of his pre-existing works that we thought would work well singles. It lined up quite nicely for us on this one, which was nice, as I said the previous were very stressy to get done.  

Josh – The first two were very DIY, it’s nice having somebody who has their own style, that we can build our own world from, and it feels adjacent to the music. We made a decision and wanted something cohesive and wanted somebody to have their way with it and usually we’ve very different people and we have very different tastes, and we had to try and find some sort of middle ground. You have to trust in one vision and put it in someone else’s hands sometimes. 

WHAT DOES MUSIC MEAN TO YOU? 

Charlie – I didn’t like any music, there wasn’t a single song that I liked until I was ten or something. But then I heard Franz Ferdinand – ‘Do We Want To’ in an advert for ‘Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends’ on Cartoon Network. I’m very grateful that I get to do it every day as my job, very lucky boy. I don’t know – it’s just about rocking out and feeling fine.  

Josh – He’s joking but it’s true, it’s that rock n’ roll feeling. 

YOU’VE USED THE PHRASE “WRITING TO PLAY” IN THE PAST, DO LIVE SHOWS IMPACT THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT MUSIC CREATION? 

Josh – I think that’s how we approached this album especially.  The way in which we wrote this album was very different to how we wrote the second – ‘Drunk Tank Pink’ we had a year off touring, we only did festivals, and we used it to hunker down in a make-shift studio in my parents’ house. We recorded everything very separately and we didn’t really have any live shows to test out the songs on. But when we first started, we’d have a gig booked for the next week and we didn’t have enough songs to play. So we’d just box something out and get it ready so that it wasn’t super embarrassing. As Charlie said that’s exactly how we did this album. So we puddled together and wrote in a very insular way. 

HOW HAVE YOUR LIVE SHOWS CHANGED OVER THE YEARS? 

Charlie – I think the set is a bit more thought out in terms of ebb and flow, we try to keep things moving in a fresh way. The way in which we play them hasn’t changed all too much, it’s just now a bit more considered. 

Josh– There’s still an energy to it, which we’ve carried over. We are very happy to do a small set, like we used to, where we’d slap something together and in a way that’s better than something really thought out, but you can get carried away. 

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE LONDON GIG VENUE? 

Charlie – The Queen’s Head, which is just round the corner from the [Brixton] Academy, and the Windmill of course, where we have played roughly 60,000 shows, each better than the last, apart from a few duds. I’d say the Windmill is easily the most important building in the whole of London or maybe in the whole of the UK in terms of new music. It’s just incredible, that’s where we did the new material shows for this album. 

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE SONG TO PLAY LIVE? 

Charlie – I like ‘Tasteless’, ‘Tasteless’ is a banger, it’s always good live, it’s quite simple but it has a catchy hook at the end, that repeats over and over, it’s primal. 

JOSH – I really like playing the song ‘Adderall’ which is a new song like about to release. It starts off really slow, and it’s this much needed rest bite in the set, but it has a big climax and payoff. People always are trepidatious when it starts, they think it’s mellow, but then, by the end people are won over with it and say it’s one of their favourite songs from the set. 

WHAT GOALS DO YOU HAVE FOR YOURSELVES AS A BAND? 

Charlie – The most albums sold of all time would be good. 

Josh – To play some wonderful shows with some wonderful people and just have a great time making friends across the across the globe. Oh and have some fun that would be great, that’s kind of where I’m at with it. 

HOW DO YOU WANT TO BE REMEMBERED MUSICALLY? 

Charlie – Maybe in 30 years someone in a pub will say – “Do you remember that band shame? I saw them once, they’re pretty good live” – that’d be alright, I wouldn’t mind that. 

UNCLE have partnered with film company Altitude and PR Agency Margaret for ‘All the Beauty and the Bloodshed‘ – the latest offering from Academy Award winner Laura Poitras detailing the esteemed life and work of Nan Goldin and her significant activism. Integrated with rare footage and Goldin’s progressive photographic catalogue comes a deeply emotional story of her fight with the Sackler family, intending to hold them accountable for the overdose crisis.  

The contentious issues surrounding the big pharma rhetoric need no introduction thanks to the growing number of corruption allegations that seem to plague the sector. Movements continue to be led against these apparent conspiracies, with Nan Goldin being a prominent spearhead. Goldin took a risk to forever impact her own legacy by taking on Sackler – having been told that her involvement would probably result in her career imploding. 

The brevity of life is explored through the film’s narrative depicts the travesty of the opioid epidemic and the companies that are able to make billions from the industry. Poitras expertly weaves the story of Goldin into the fabric of the documentary giving the crisis grounding thanks to a personal connection to the cause. 

Goldin’s artistic history is riddled with rawness, never shying from depicting harsh truth. Her famed projects ‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependency’ and ‘Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing’ have legendary status on their own right and now also appear in the film.  The documentary details the various creatively driven protests taken against the family that culminates in one of the most riveting social issues of our time.  

The fallacy that a monetized industry is concerned about anything other than profit first is dissected in the piece, hoping to shed the light and influence the masses trust in these organisations. ‘All the Beauty and the Bloodshed‘ received the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, as well as securing five-star reviews from The Telegraph, The Sunday Times, Metro and Empire and an Academy Award nomination. UNCLE pasted posters over London to bring eyes to the worthy cause. 

UNCLE are hitting the streets with a no-brainer message for the festive period. Artist, printmaker, motorcycle rider and Jaffa Cake connoisseur Dave Buonaguidi has supplied a version of his kindly classic JUST BE NICE poster for us to spread far and wide on walls around the U.K.

After decades spent in the clasps of advertising, Buonaguidi – AKA Real Hackney Dave – found a new calling: that of the humble screen printer. It’s a process superbly aligned with the artist’s fondness for mass communication techniques, propaganda and making work that stirs a reaction.

But in Buonaguidi’s case the printing is anything but humble. Bombs, photobooth pic.s, ordnance survey maps, postage stamps, vintage love letters… You name it, he’s printed on it. And in mediums ranging from pheromones to glitter, sprinkles to gold leaf. “I love to work with found images and materials, experimenting with the practice of screen printing to push the boundaries of what it is and can be.”

Promoting Buonaguidi’s bright and bold type JUST BE NICE poster is a double no-brainer as it’s also the title of an auction and show in aid of The Big Issue magazine. East Art Gallery is hosting the event where a profusion of brilliant artists have made works that riff on the JUST BE NICE template. Over sixty superbly diverse pieces are featured, in Buonaguidi’s words, “The work is insane, I am humbled by all the artists’ talent and generosity.”

We know winter isn’t a festive time of year for everyone. What with international conflict and injustice, climate fears, the cost-of-living crisis, homelessness, in-work poverty and the imminent Xmas Jaffa Cake shortage, JUST BE NICE is a positive, uplifting message that transcends faith, race, ethnicity and many another perceived boundary. Our thanks go to Real Hackney Dave, UNCLE are overjoyed to share his poster’s warm sentiment as our 2022 seasonal greeting.

When Lee Baker (of Baker & Borowski studio, aka Skip Gallery, Graphic Rewilding, etc.) got in contact regarding their latest poster campaign advocating for Iranian women’s freedom from social and political oppression it was a no brainer for UNCLE to support such a pressing and important cause.

In September this year – after 22 year old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini died whilst being detained by Iran’s morality police – girls and women across Iran have defied the draconian dress code: cut their hair, burned their headscarves and confronted the Islamic authorities and armed security forces with such bravery and determination it’s been argued that this might be “the start of the end of the Islamic Republic.”

The clarion cry, roaring defiance and demanding justice as women take to the streets in protest against the Tehran regime is WOMEN, LIFE, FREEDOM. Baker and Borowski have presented this phrase in English and Farsi using bold white type against red and verdant green flora. The glowing, ember-like cluster of asters, chrysanthemums, and poppies with their dark purple pistils is a fiery and foreboding background that propels the text’s fervent message forward.

In recent years Baker and Borowski have created numerous exhibitions, installations and environments that have delighted, amused and entranced audiences. Their street posters, whilst being equally eye catching and sumptuous, are a more laconic means of communication.

In March 2022 they hit the streets with their PHONE YOUR MUM BACK poster: a work that addressed both moving personal issues and at the same time critiqued the commodification of motherly love. With the thunderingly salient WOMEN, LIFE, FREEDOM poster seeded into the urban environment we’re reminded that across the globe human rights and civil liberties we often take for granted are being denied by cruel and undemocratic regimes.

We’ll leave the last word to Baker and Borowski, “Collaborating with UNCLE on this artwork and helping spread the word about the tumultuous events in Iran, has been tremendously important to us. Lee’s mum came from Iran when she was 15. She dated an Englishman in secret for a year, and when her family decided to return she stayed. But for fate, how different our lives would have been. Her children would be having to fight tooth and nail for freedoms people take for granted in the UK.”

With ongoing instability in the world due to humanitarian crisis, UNCLE wanted to help shed light on a cause that supports the needs of the many by partnering with Dust Off. They are an organisation that – through the medium of photography – spread awareness about global issues and are hosting a photographic print sale in aid of the charity War Child UK. We have decided to support the sale to show how powerful art can be in promoting positive change amongst the masses – a core principle of ours and Dust Off respectively. 

Over 150 collectable and noteworthy photographers are being featured in the collection, presenting “trailblazing and authentic images from fashion to documentary, to portraiture”. Those involved have been selected to ensure an eclectic and fresh selection of images from both recognisable and emerging photographers across the world. The photographers include: David Sims, David Bailey, Inez & Vinoodh, Anders Edström, Casper Sejersen, Venetia Scott, Carlijn Jacobs, Nadav Kander, Drew Vickers, Willy Vanderperre, Zhong Lin, Walter Pfeiffer and Tim Walker. 

The sale is running from the 3^rd October to 30^th November with all proceeds from the sales going to helping vulnerable children living through conflict from Afghanistan to Ukraine. The collaboration also involves John Gayner from INK Retouch and with support from Michael Nash Associates, Chroma Centre, and The Lab.  

Our posters will be going up around London over the course of the month in order to spread the word of the cause. Prints from the sale are available on at here. 

In recent years, we’ve all learned that connecting as human beings doesn’t always mean being able to touch one another, reaching across screens and borders to forge genuine human connection. Two artists, Jim Eyre and Natalie Christensen, have taken that connection to the next level with a large-scale mural project that they collaborated on from different countries–the UK and U.S.A. The piece, entitled SHIFTINGSCAPE (S), will be taking over two mega sites in London.

A colourful, chaotic piece that challenges our perception and retrains our eyes, Shiftscapes is going to stop passers-by in their steps. Natalie and Jim began their partnership in 2017 over Instagram and since then have refined their work together. As they put it, their correspondence “blossomed into a collaboration in which they built art pieces that respond to the often-fraught practice of sharing work in a virtual space that wasn’t built with art appreciation in mind.”

SHIFTINGSCAPE (S) is a 10’ x 20’ installation that works as “an idealised manifestation of a social media hyperscape and its accompanying profound psychological effects.” Speaking to Uncle, Jim said: “Working in different continents has its limitations and time differences but working in a new way we are able to meet , share and produce work in our digital studio. We meet physically in the real world when we display our work to have a shared experience and create memories.”

With their work, says Jim, the duo aim to challenge the viewer, to make them ask questions of themselves and to open conversations about the digital realm. Natalie added: “It is important to us that the audience experience a sense of wonder and disorientation from our work, especially SHIFTINGSCAPE (S). Because we take our inspiration from social media and the impact of those spaces on our brains and lives, we want to create that kind of experience through our art.” They do that with a mash up of street elements, a confusing mix of scale and texture, bright colours, and the temporary nature of installation. 

Reflecting disorientation and aimlessness, the bright colours and chaotic visual landscape encourage us to keep watching–even when it’s uncomfortable.  SHIFTINGSCAPE (S) will be live until the end of August, when Natalie will also visit the piece.

Legendary performance and conceptual artist Marina Abramović needs no introduction. Born in Serbia, Abramović has made global waves in the art work with innovative works that straddle the boundaries of art and performance. Exploring the limitations of humanity and the human body first with her Rhythm series and more recently with The Artist is Present, there is no one working in that field today quite like Abramović–or that wasn’t inspired by her.

That’s why we’re so honoured to team up with Abramović and The Cultural Institute of Radical Contemporary Art (CIRCA) on a very special piece of work entitled The Hero. The Hero is a collection of 25FPS NFTs that will “expand the concept of time-based media for a digital audience”, hosted on the energy efficient Tezos blockchain.

To get the word out about The Hero, UNCLE are flyposting across London. Featuring Abramović on a horse waving a white flag, the posters include a QR code so passers-by have their chance to own a piece of history–and the future. Speaking, fittingly, to Hero Magazine, Abramović explained that she originally filmed The Hero in 2001 when her father died, an homage to her own hero. In order to fill the screen in Piccadilly Circus, Abramović worked for months to edit each individual frame.

Explaining her foray into NFTs, Abramović said, “If we think about the history of performance art, it’s always about immateriality,” she added, “All that is left with the audience is a memory of that event and the performance is very important to be done for the public, so it’s also interactive. So many years later, what do we have? We have the NFT which is also immaterial, also about time and also about the direct experience of the audience.”

The Hero will launch on July 25 at 2pm UTC.

As our technologies advance, it becomes increasingly apparent that all things regarding the digital world and metaverse are ever evolving. For our latest collaboration, we have partnered with RedKite and Ourtypes to put up flyposters promoting their group NFT art fundraising show.

Running for 16 days, the art show entitled ‘Humanity’ has been created to raise money and awareness surrounding the conflict in Ukraine. The show features 33 esteemed artists, both traditional and NFT specialists, who have come together with the intention of raising USD $84,000 for charities including: Emergency Fund, The Refugee Council, UNICEF UK Children’s and The Voices of Children Foundation.

The collection of work itself sees 256 NFT art pieces, ranging from 0.1 ETH, 0.15 ETH, 0.2 ETH, and 0.25 ETH in value, are available in editions of 8. Pieces include art from the likes of Pure Evil, street artist Fanakapan, Ben Eine and Dave Buonaguidi, AKA Real Hackney Dave. Most notably is work featured by Heath Kane – who created a bold image with the text ‘liar, thief and murderer’ in Ukrainian, which we flyposted across London.

Speaking on the show, curator Angie Davey said, “as with any global crisis, artists are some of the first to get involved to help out, and as an NFT platform with access to these artists and a means to raise funds, RedKite made the quick decision to put on Humanity, to aid refugee charities.” Alongside the show, limited edition artwork created by Pure Evil during a session of art therapy with children in Ukraine will be put on auction on Tuesday 21st June. You can find out more here.

As an artist, Yoko Ono is synonymous with the word “peace”. A lifelong pacifist, her “Imagine Peace” project was born in March 1969–an event with strong imagery that people around the world remember, regardless of whether or not they’re fans of her work. It was then that Ono and her late husband John Lennon staged a “bed-in” against the Vietnam War, protesting from their bed for a week at the Amsterdam Hilton hotel and later Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. It was part of a larger series of similar protests, but theirs and the photos of it garnered the most attention. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the latest war that has shocked the world and grabbed the attention of Yoko Ono. We collaborated with Ono, arts and culture platform Circa Art and BUILDHOLLYWOOD to promote the latest instalment of a decades-long project for peace. Ono’s words, “Imagine Peace”, will be occupying digital screens across the world in their local language. Piccadilly Lights in London, Times Square in New York and K-Pop Square in Seoul were among those interrupted to broadcast the phrase, but the art installation, presented by Circa and Serpentine Galleries, can also be seen in Berlin, Los Angeles, Melbourne and Milan. Our flyposters spread word of the project in London and New York, bringing a message of peace to streets across the world.

Alongside the public art and posters, a limited-edition print will go on sale with all proceeds donated to the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund. In a press release, Ono said, “Imagining is something that we can all do, even when we have different opinions about how to get there.” You can find out when the screen near you will next be interrupted here.

In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, you can see the familiar blue and yellow of Ukraine’s flag flown in solidarity everywhere you go. Many artists are using their talents and those colours to show support of Ukraine, both with art and with tangible efforts like cash aid.

We teamed up with Migrate Art and artist Idris Khan to create his own take on the flag, a limited-edition print on sale for £300 for 10 days only, a reflection of the concept of running out of time. Called “I Thought We Had More Time…”, the piece inspires the viewer to think about the reality of what’s happening and their own lives. Collaged with those bold colours over sheets of music, Khan was inspired because the flag has become, “the symbol of the free world for a lot of people, and a symbol of hope and defiance. It’s really strong — two bold, strong colours, blue and yellow,” he said to the Evening Standard.

We’ll be putting up flyposters across the UK, bringing the crisis to the attention of all passersby. Sold as part of the Evening Standard’s Ukraine appeal, the piece is powerful. Speaking to the Standard, Khan said, “My first thought was about not having any time. One day everything’s okay, and then suddenly you’ve got two hours to leave everything behind and get out of your house or flat, wherever you are, and make a decision about what you take. I’ve got two kids as well, and that vision of just grabbing them and having to flee and leave everything behind while you watch your home be destroyed–that was a complete shock. Your emotions are: what can you do? How can you help?”

Everyone has been using what they have to hand to help the people of Ukraine, and in both our and Khan’s case, that’s art. 100% of profits will be donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee. 

The upcoming AW21 collection for Charles Jeffrey’s brand, LOVERBOY, reflects on why it’s important to acknowledge the bad times as well as the good.

Ceremoniously dubbed “the ringleader of London’s next generation of club kids,” by Dazed, Jeffrey’s LOVERBOY was born as a cult club night, morphed over the years into something more without ever losing that subversive, collective spirit.

To celebrate his AW21, Gloom collection, we collaborated with the designer to flypost the streets of London with bright red and white posters of striking models wearing his gender neutral, punk-inflected pieces. Inspired by Jeffrey’s home, the collection radically uproots tradition, riffing on tartan and knitwear, tearing up the rulebook to create unique kilts, jumpsuits and other garments that feel fresh yet familiar. A new uniform for an uncanny Glaswegian autumn.

Shot by iconic fashion photographer Thurstan Redding, the images will stop even the busiest passerby with “the brightest gloom around.” Gloom is almost an indefinable mood, but as Jeffrey puts it, “Gloom speaks to the moment in which we find ourselves, for how could we do it otherwise? Teetering on the edge of something new and gazing into the unknown.” The shots show models lounging on beds and couches, as Jeffrey says they are, “stuck in their own melancholy, dreaming of celestial bodies in their teenage bedrooms.” 

The depth of the photographs and garms captures the ethos of LOVERBOY’s Gloom, offering a texture that needs to be seen IRL to be understood.

A collab with Real Hackney Dave puts the onus for women’s safety where it belongs.

While the city streets can be a source of inspiration, for many others, especially women, they can be a breeding ground for fear. With gendered violence dominating the news this year, women have felt increasingly unsafe walking the streets, and the onus is often put on them to avoid terrifying outcomes. This series Give Her Space, in collaboration with printmaker extraordinaire Real Hackney Dave, has an important mission statement of “Brightening the streets with simple ways men can show up for women against sexual harassment.”

Give Her Space launched in early 2021 in an effort to combat the narrative around street harassment and to help women to feel less at risk when out and about, particularly at night. Real Hackney Dave, known for his tongue-in-cheek text-based pieces, seemed like a natural fit to keep the project’s message concise yet unforgettable.

We wanted to get this important message, “Just be nice, give her space”, onto the streets, prompting men to step up and find ways to make women feel less scared. With stats that show 97% of women have been sexually harassed, these bold, red, simple yet effective texts all over the UK were intended to serve as a reminder to everyone and take the pressure off women for a change.

Cult British-Jamaican menswear designer Martine Rose has had an unusual and illustrious career. Born in South London, Rose received a degree in fashion design at Middlesex University before launching her eponymous label in 2007, focusing on menswear with a playful twist. She has also worked with a number of big names both in street and luxury fashion, collaborating with CAT on a line of boots in 2011, working as a consultant to Balenciaga for Demna Gyesalia in 2015, and collaborating with Nike on a tracksuit in 2018.

For her own line, Rose draws inspiration from punk, reggae, rave and other London subcultures to craft boundary-pushing clothes that don’t fit into any box. She incorporates playful fabrics not often associated with menswear, like fur, satin and lurex into her designs, crafting collections whose reference point is always music and subculture, drawing on her upbringing and first influences.

Her pieces blur gender boundaries in menswear, and we were excited to bring her SS21 collection to the streets. With camboy thrills, stretch nylon and frills, the clothes bring a playful edge to an arena that can often feel stale. The posters, featuring models poised on a frilly pedestal, are simple, bringing the focus to the clothes and to Rose’s venerated name, letting the work speak for itself. Rose often showcases her work in non-traditional spaces, including a street market and a climbing gym, so the street seemed like the perfect catwalk for someone so adept at subverting the fashion world’s strict expectations.