Flash back: Bodé Jam 17th – 18th May 2008

We’ve been attending local jams for years and have always either painted at them or turned up to have a look about, support the lads and lasses and take a few snaps to archive the day. As the website’s only recently been up and running we’ve got quite a few sets of photographs to share with you over the coming months from Jams that have happened over the years. We thought we’d start off with probably the best and most popular local event in recent years: Kemefinc’s Bode Jam.

As you know from an older interview we did that we are good friends with Kem and Mef and after chatting to them about the Bode jam. It wasn’t just a case of lets call a few people and paint Tamworth, Kem said they’d put a few invites out about painting Bode themed walls at Tamworth HOF. Kem said it went mental; he was inundated with requests to paint and after a while had to turn down writers from all over as there was no space to accommodate everyone.

“It turned out to be a real stressful time” Kem said “It was just non stop until after the event, Me, Mef and Chu even stayed the night in a tent so we could keep on top of things. But looking back at it now – even though at the time it was a headache – it was fucking brilliant weekend.”

Mef even contacted Mark Bodé about it and he had the decency to get back to them, his reply was along the lines of “If I wasn’t on a boat in the middle of nowhere I would have turned up”. Mark Bodé apologised for not being able to make it and made a very generous offer to Kem and Mef. He offered to tattoo them at a convention in London. Unfortunately they couldn’t make it, well that’s what Kem said… personally I think they were a bit scared of the pain.

Kem and Mef are still going strong, you can see more of their stuff here and we will be featuring a lot more of their work in the coming months. In the meantime why don’t you “Like us” on Facebook and “follow us” on Twitter (links below – look for the icons).

We hope you enjoy these pictures of a remarkable weekend at Tamworth.

400ml Heroes
We got bigger tins goin on

Vodka shot!

Earlier this year we’d heard that Vodka, one of Brightons finest had met up some of the NFA boys and they’d all painted at the Midlands largest Hall of fame the Walsall Copperworks. 

Obviously being 400mlheroes it was a nighttime trip down to do a bit of NTC.  We were not disappointed; contrary to rumors that the site was about to be built on, it was good to see that the Copperworks is still a hotspot for some of the best writers in the country.  While we were having a look around at what was new we found a piece by Kak from Infamous last words which had been up a while, and a couple of fresh pieces by local writer Ziner NFA.

This how we do it!

A little video for you of us doing our night shots without giving the game away too much. See the description on the video

Lakeside

In May us 2, Vomet and Bert took a drive down to Dartmouth to visit Lakeside where one of the legendry jams was taking place. Vomet was painting so we decided to jump in and take a look. The lakeside wall isn’t exactly legal but the sites tolerated by the owners. It’s massive! one of the longest single walls in Europe weighing in at approximately 2km long and it’s all painted. You get the odd fisherman when the tides in and a few dirt bikes but that’s it as the path ends at a petrol storage depot and you cant get any further….we tried. There was a decent turnout considering the weather wasn’t the best, but it’s definitely a spot to visit in the sun.

The Lakeside Graff Jam was started in 2010 by Tony Keen, Fivethree, Stamp and Sian.E as the old School Reunion and Graff Jam. Even for its first outing it was big with over 30 of some of the best artists – Old School and new School painting alongside each other at this reunion. The event continued in 2011 with Sian.E and Colt 45 and slammed it with over 58 artists repping with some incredible piece of work. There were again old School, new School and artists from all over the UK, top names and top pieces. 2012 saw the third year but despite the horrendous rain 20+ artists showed and produced some quality pieces. A second event for 2012 is to be organised for July time (weather permitting) for those that didn’t make it the first time round and is promising to be even bigger than the previous 3.

Digbeth reappropriation.

Not much to say about this one folks!  This weekend a few of the Midlands finest had a little get together over Digbeth to celebrate our wonderful Queen spending 60 years on the throne.  That last bits a lie but due to legal reasons……

Dont forget you can follow us on Twitter @400mlheroes and Like us on Facebook….Link bellow.

The Accidental Cathedral

In 2009 it was voted Britain’s most terrifying junction, 40 years ago it was opened and called the Gravelly hill interchange but we don’t know it by it’s official name, we all know it as Spaghetti junction. For those that want to know, Jct 6 of the M6 in Birmingham links the M6, A38 and A5127. Yes that’s right it’s a junction that links three roads, which would be hard to guess from the complexity of it.

The whole of the junction is elevated, it covers 30 acres and is supported by 559 concrete columns that rise up to 80 feet high; which form a magnificent accidental cathedral. It took four years to build costing £10.8 million and it spans two rivers, three canals, and two railway lines.

The site was of such strategic importance that it was thought to be a nuclear bomb target for the Russians in the cold war. Luckily the only bombing that took place was of a totally different kind. It soon became a mecca for local graffiti artists, there’s still stuff down there from the early 80’s from writers such as Astro, Atiski and Chase albeit a bit faded now.

It really is a remarkable place, just outside the city of Birmingham the sprawling structure is situated magnificently. It’s dark, its vast, and the constant rumble from the connecting motorway pulsates its rhythm. From below the sounds of the Spaghetti splendour above, roar and vibrate as a living being. Feeling energised and alive you can wander about for hours along the many paths that spread out through the supporting columns . You may not see anyone for sometime, which is why it was such a popular place for graffiti artists.

I don’t think when the planners started this project off 55 years ago they had any idea what they were about to create. 11 years planning and 4 years building has given Birmingham yet another landmark, Happy birthday Spaghetti Junction.

It’s all about paint and pens…

Long gone are the days of racking paint, we know it still goes on but it’s no where near as bad as it was back in the day. There are shops selling paint all over the place now whether it’s a walk in shop or an online store it’s now easily available to buy. Our local store The Bench 504 is in the Custard factory Birmingham, It’s run by Rob and he sells most paint and pens and has a good selection of clothes and accessories in there as well. He’s been good enough to let us do a few shots in the shop like the Montana hardcore limited edition full set and he’s got a nice selection of old Krylon which he let us take some pics of. If your in Birmingham the bench is definitely worth a visit.

While out visiting Amsterdam Meek had the opportunity to visit one of Europe’s finest graff shops Henxs it’s stocked up with everything you could possibly need for weekends painting in Amsterdam. Another highly recommended place to visit if your ever in the area.

Running Amuk in Tamworth.

So yet again we’ve been out and about in Tamworth, we’d gone down there with Diva for a specific reason which will hopefully be put up next week. While we were down there we noticed that Amuk had done a very nice full wall piece, and given the size of the walls at Tamworth thats no mean feat to do by yourself. We were joined later on by Mr Vomet who gave us a hand with some pyrotechnics cause apparently he “Loves burning shit” he then insisted on striking one of his very best catalogue poses for a shot by a very nice piece of his that he did the weekend.

Chu’s our weapon.

If you look above then you’ll notice that our banners changed.

If you know your hand styles you’ll know that this was done by the one and only Chu. We’ve been close friends of his for 25 plus years and he has had a big part to play in 400mlheroes.

Apart from being one of the best graffiti artists around he’s also a master at design, print and web design as you can see if you look at his website, we just wanted to say a big thanks to Chu for the help he’s given us and a great big thanks for doing our logo/banner.

A bit more NTC.

So here you go, a few NTC shots we’ve done over the past month. The first one was when we went down the time tunnel to do a burner but we got the wrong idea, then while we were up Kem and Mefs spot taking the shot for the steel horses show we got a few that the lads did from up there including a nice one of the whole building. Also in this set is a piece one of us did and one of us tried to destroy with molten metal, we nearly didn’t get this shot due to a bloke in the factory next to it telling us to move our car then watching as we snuck off past the factory down to the line. After about an hour we heard sirens and they came to an abrupt halt right above us we contemplated sloping off up the track but we had that much kit with us by the time we’d got it all together if they we’re coming down we’d still be packing up. So we waited for the inevitable and then we realised that the police really wouldn’t be interested in a couple of guys taking photos on a disused railway ………hope you like them…..more to follow soon…..honest.