Banksy’s Bristol was just pipped for the Christmas Number One slot at Waterstone’s, The Galleries by Russell Brand’s My Booky Wook. Here we reproduce an extract from Steve Wright’s book…
Bear essentials: The story behind The Mild Mild West, by Jim Paine - the man who got Banksy to do it
Jim Paine started out with a shop, Subway Records, in Walcot Street, Bath, selling techno and hip hop records. He got that one decorated by Bristol graffer Feek. He opened a second Subway Records on Stokes Croft, Bristol in 1998. The shop also sold spray paint, and Jim later had the shop front decorated by TCF (Twentieth Century Frescoes, aka Paris, Eco, Xenz and Feek). He was also involved in the Bristol free party scene from 1993 to 2004.
‘I knew Banksy from a while back, from the mid to late Nineties when he was sharing a house in Easton, a couple of streets from me. I was at a free party at a warehouse on Winterstoke Road, Ashton – the old HMSO building. This must have been New Year’s Eve 1997/98. Free parties were basically unlicensed
events where we broke in to a disused building. There were a lot of them at the time, in warehouses in Feeder Road, St Philips Marsh and Whitby Road in St Annes. But we also did legal club nights at Easton Community Centre, the Trinity, the Lakota, Club Loco and the old Leadworks [demolished to make way for the At-Bristol complex].
‘Many of the crowd that night at Winterstoke Road were assaulted by the police, along with members of the sound system who were playing. That party, in fact, marked the beginning of a more hardline approach from the police, using violence as a method of breaking up the parties. We were also getting chased and
harassed a lot by the police at the time.
‘Anyway, soon after I opened up the Bristol Subway shop, I told Banksy about this massive space on the wall of the building next door. The building was unoccupied at the time – it had been squatted, set fire to, abandoned and boarded up. I had access to the wall, and it seemed like a great place for a big graffiti piece. He was really up for it. I got a ladder, we bought the paints between us. ‘We discussed what the piece should be for about a fortnight. His first sketches had an anti-consumerist message. Banksy’s first design had a building in flames, with a looter fleeing the inferno with a loaded shopping trolley. But then I started talking to him about the episode on Winterstoke Road. That was what gave him the idea for the piece.
‘I said that, as far as social expression went, we felt pretty oppressed. We were ordinary, fluffy, party people, and we were being bullied by police with riot shields and truncheons. The teddy bear was his idea. A teddy bear with a Molotov cocktail in his hand – it was showing a mix of hard and fluffy that was the free party scene. We were a laid-back scene, but we were involved in things like the Poll Tax demos, Reclaim The Streets… it was a mixture of laid-back and quite fervent. We were also involved in the demos against the Criminal Justice Act. The free party scene in Bristol had a strong New-Age Traveller element, and they also had a history with the police. With the teddy and the Molotov motif, Banksy was saying, ‘we could be one or the other. We’d prefer to be mellow, but…’
‘I was surprised that there wasn’t more reaction to the piece – police attention, angry letters to the Evening Post. After all, it’s someone (OK, a teddy bear) chucking a petrol bomb at the police! I expected there to be all sorts of complaints of incitement to violence. Instead, it’s been accepted into mainstream culture. And yet they complain about him writing his name on a bridge…
‘Is it a reference to the St Paul’s riots? I don’t think so, particularly. We certainly never mentioned it while we were talking about the piece. And the riots were a long, long time before that. So no, I don’t think they were an inspiration – but then again, I’m sure he was thinking in a much wider context than I was.
‘We did it in daylight, over three days. I held the ladder for him and kept lookout. The first day, he painted the wall black. Banksy used car paints – he had a deal with a guy who ran an auto shop. The next day he put the teddy bear in, and then the police. We did the cops last thing that day because that was the most provocative part. The third day, I think, he did the lettering. He wasn’t happy with the coppers after doing his first draft, and if you look closely you’ll see he’s adjusted the outlines of the policemen. Banksy’s a
perfectionist. I love the way the teddy looks slightly wobbly, slightly ungainly… he looks kinda docile. It’s a simple piece, but there’s so much to read into it.’ ●
