James is riding his KUOTA Kharma carbon road bike.

Gorgeously sweaty, loud and unhinged rock and roll.
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The Shoestrung brought a very lively performance to The Book Club in Shoreditch at another fantastic Big Ten Inch hosted by his royal highness Count Skylarkin.

In December I was approached by Andy Leung to produce a video for their composition for the Cultural Olympiad 20×12 (more info here). I was given an open brief with an underlying theme of Male vs Female and a just over a month to produce it. You can watch a sample of the video below.

On the 12th to the 15th January the ExCel London played host to thelondonbikeshow.co.uk (also the Outdoor Show and the Boat Show, all under one roof). It was great to check it out for a day and get some snaps of the action. With tons of fresh metal on display, it was hard to know where to look… however the main events for the day really stole my attention!

Firstly the bike polo – it was adrenaline fueled and fantastic to watch. You can find out more from the LONDON HARDCOURT BIKE POLO ASSOCIATION. Featuring across the weekend was the THE LONDON INTERNATIONAL INVITATIONAL 2012 bringing together 20 of Europe’s best bike polo teams.

See the full gallery from the show here.

The other top distraction from the vendor’s stands was the Animal Bike Tour show. Featuring the bike supremos Martyn Ashton (British and World Champion) and Zimbabwean Blake Samson. Together with a top free-runner they laid on a great show with the Animal Tour rig.

The main man himself.

Would everyone please sit down??

Band + The Count!

See the full set here!

The weather really was on our side and showed off gleaming paint-work and chrome bumpers to their fullest.

Look closely and you can see Steve McQueen even put in a special guest appearance…

Older cars were reserved the space in front of the museum.

And newer cars sat proudly outside the fence…

See the full set here.

See the full photo-set here.

Opening set.

A nice selection!

TBC Light Show.

HIPBONE SLIM & THE KNEE TREMBLERS

Natty Bo with his favorite hairbrush / ukulele!

The full photo-set here!

The view of Tower Bridge as you enter Potter’s Field (the Shed already very audible from here!)

Count Skylarkin at the decks and another interesting view of Tower Bridge.

Have Gnomes Will Travel! Somewhat surreal surroundings for the gnome-lined Shed…

Full photo-set is available here!

The mood upon arrival was odd. Mounted police set the tone, with their presence a reassurance but also an unnerving reminder that it can get messy… People were walking in all directions, so unsure which was to set off to get to the heard of it all we sought directions.

There are numerous back-ally soundsytemts like this truly epic stack. (It might be worth noting it’s only a cane in his hand…)

I didn’t see much of the procession but this group of over 100 drummers was by far the most energetic! They trawled through in a bubble of colour and sound.

One of my lasting memories: local companies making a bit of extra cash by pimping their toilets… and I don’t mean Xzibit supplying a truck load of quilted bog roll and cushioned seats. Overall it was a wonderful experience. Got some great food and some interesting photos, I’m glad that the organisers didn’t cancel it!

The Disco Shed truly is a thing of legend. As featured on BBC3, ITV, Channel 4 and on BBC 6Music, the Disco Shed is an 8 x 6ft Billy O garden shed which has been lovingly mounted on an old Sprite caravan base, and converted into a fully functional road worthy DJ / VJ cum booth garden party.

A short video cobbled together from footage I shot while at Latitude fetsival:

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Disco Shed @ Latitude Gallery 1 / Gallery 2

Transforming the concept of what a DJ booth can, and in the name of fun, should be, inside, you’ll find all the usual stuff you might find in a shed, hanging baskets, gnomes, pirelli calendars, tools, combined with classic disco related decor, disco lights, disco balls, the world-famous* Disco Shed Inferno smoke machine and a full DJ set-up.

Proper, sometimes even famous DJs, and the Disco Shed crew perform DJ sets, whilst outside people party with the disco gnomes and marvel at the unique construction and the live video mixing being projected onto the roof mounted screen.

These are a collection of photos from Latitude 2011 with the Disco Shed + crew. It was amazing. Full stop.

The Shed just visible behind a curtain of its own noisy, smoky, well-lit glory. Long live the Shed!

Arms up for the brilliant Shed lightshow! Queue copious volumes of dry ice and a very busy smoke machine…

The stunning interior, with Peepshow Paddy at the helm.