Plaid

When hip-hop first hit the UK in the mid 80’s, Ed Handley and Andy Turner were young teenagers studying at a school in rural Suffolk. Along with a handful of other misfits, nonplussed by the predominant heavy metal scene and uninterested in joining the queues buying into pop culture at the local Woolworths, they formed a breaking crew. Their spare time was spent practicing moves, throwing up pieces under flyovers and putting together cassette tape mixes, played off portable ghetto blasters aside well polished lino squares. The music they favoured was gathered from rough snatches of London-based pirate radio broadcasts, John Peel’s infinitely influential playlists or from dusty vinyl unearthed at car boot sales – many of them left behind by American personnel stationed in the UK during and after the War. These were happy days, marked by positive expression, integration, bad haircuts and a confused dress sense - long before hip-hop’s fall into gangster glamour and money hungry right-wing consumerism. Leaving school and homes a few years later they carried these early ideals with them. A move to London followed and after meeting Ken Downie, formed a group (The Black Dog) and ... more...