_{Earlier this summer there was an all-day Graffiti Jam held in the subways beneath Mancunian Way on the edge of Hulme. Having been a resident for the past 20 years, I thought I might delve deep into ‘the Archive’ & show all you lovely Example regulars the very first Hulme Graffiti Jam ‘back in the day...’}

_{The once-notorious Hulme housing estate was earmarked for complete demolition, (urban regeneration to be paid for by European Social Fund); a socially neglected area that had become a lawless no-go zone with increasing numbers of council tenants moving out & unscrupulous drug addicts moving in; yet hidden amongst soon-to-be derelict properties were psychedelic explosions, colourful creations of hip-hop style graffiti ‘pieces’ painted onto garage doors, shop shutters & boarded-up flats across the estate.}

_{I began to document their overnight appearance with my Pentax K-1000 camera. Colour transparency film. It was 1993.}

_{Over the next couple of years I got to know these local graffiti writers (Inner City Artists) and photographed whenever they painted, sometimes under cover of night but often bare-faced & in broad daylight. Kelz started to experiment with 3-D lettering he has since become synonymous with; Tags was more ‘wildstyle’; Karl-123 was very painterly, most un-graf-like.}

_{As an entire housing estate slowly-but-surely disintegrated their Hall of Fame pieces came & went, but the freedom to paint undisturbed & unchallenged began to attract graffiti-artists from further afield. Elk & Shun (Shit-Head Up North) from London painted regularly in Hulme, as did Fista (Sheffield) before he was incarcerated for his rampant ‘vandalism’.}

The first Hulme Graffiti Jam took place in Woodcock Square on 23rd April 1995. It was an event organied by Kelzo to commemorate the deck-access flats on Bark Walk Estate & Woodcock Square, long since stomping ground of ICA, being cleared & readied for demolition. When young graffiti writer Craig ‘Smear’ Todd died suddenly his 'tag' gave the event a name.

There were more SMEAR jams to follow. In the inclusive spirit of the time graffiti artists were joined by deejays, break-dancers, ravers, punks, travellers. People from the local community turned out in support. Having been invited to graffiti jams in London by Elk & Shun, Kelzo now returned the courtesy by asking the London City boys up to Gunchester!

_{Aime, Alert, Arise, Barney, Cept-148, Demo, Dices, Diet, Jock, Hear, Karl-123, Keds, Kelzo, Kilo, Nile, Rase, Revo, Seige, Shok-1, Shun, Tags, Tase, Teach, Temp-1 & Zack (Zed-9) all painted on the day.}

_{Most of the Londoners got their pieces finished early the night before, extremely wary of daylight on a strange & derelict estate. But lunatic Hulme locals soon crowded round. Beers were brought & sold on. Jamie from ‘the Kitchen’ (two flats knocked into one recording studio) provided a sound-system. The Sunday sun even broke out (only for about an hour) through the Manchester greyness, and the party carried on elsewhere into the night.}

First thing Monday morning, while we were still sleeping, workmen went in and Bark Walk / Woodcock Square was fenced off, another part of our beautiful concrete playground gone forever.