Urban Art Association

The detail in this print is UNREAL! Well done J. Well deserved too!

Yapsey that looks stunning, well done.

I have to agree with the majority of the forum POW have a lot to answer for.

I gave up queueing when it became obvious that it was pointless.

Still seeking my first Banksy

i am still catching up reading posts from last night and this mornings football matches. on page 88.
a couple things that strike me as an overseas fan who has never queued overnight for a print is that there are plenty of you who know each other on here and have fellow bansky collectors as mates. power (and saftey) in numbers as shown by the polish thugs you speak of. organise yourselves and roll together.

i am hoping that in the last 15 pages there will be a happy ending and that the nice guy who sent me a pow catalog has gotten a print or that someone has sorted this graffik fella out with a print.

i also hope in the coming pages i read of pow coming to their senses. not sure i want to spend the several hundred i had planned to spend on the next dran as consolation on not getting this. 2nd hand raven haired it is...

No one even knows if they exist yet.. and the pow preview crew hardly ever post that they were there.

I wonder if it's similar colour to the Hirst spot prints? they are garish.

Well done Yapsey, much deserved and congrats on getting your first one at source. It's a beauty - I'll post my thoughts on it all later after a glass of wine and a meal... Good to see you again.

Hey guys...I haven't read through all the pages...but I thought I would share my story of the events that unfolded.

Having missed out on NBG last year and not having a got a Banky release at source since trolleys, I decided that I would try my best this year.

I had Friday off, so headed down to London with all my camping gear on the off chance that the release happened.

About 3pm and there were a couple of gents starting to queue, so me and my two friends decided to queue up as well.

The queue continued to grow throughout the evening. We asked if the print was going to be released on the Friday and were told 'no'. We asked if the print was going to be released tomorrow and were given nothing but large grins.

The young lady working in M&S than decided to start erasing the 'coming soon' message on the board and writing something like 'released sometime, somewhere'.

As the POW employees left at just after 7pm, we were told to keep an eye on our emails.

The queue continued to grow, people were optimistic of a Saturday morning release. Everyone was quite relaxed, making themselves comfortable and getting to know each other. I was about 8th in line and there seemed to be a great atmosphere. The tents were going up and everything seemed quite civil.

10pm came and suddenly the announcement of the release at the East London showroom started spreading causing panic and confusion. Suddenly the crowd dispersed in a frantic frenzy.

I couldn't find a cab so ran to Tottenham Court Road and grabbed the central line and ran to Commercial Street.

When I arrived I was about 115th in queue (from 8th at Berwick Street). I thought I was still good to get a print.

I was expecting some POW staff to greet us, accompanied by some security. There was neither. The atmosphere was also very very different from the one at Berwick Street.

Through the night, even though people were trying their best to prevent people from pushing in, my number in the queue fell from about 115th to 125th...140th...etc

I had my fingers crossed..and was hoping for the best and tried to catch some sleep and was awoken at about 4.30am by the sound of shouting and car horns going off as a fight got underway as someone tried to jump the queue.

I spotted the security guard that was at Berwick Street pull up in his land rover and I thought at last, some security and perhaps things would get organized.

But the opposite happened, the 'queue' for the tickets was a farce with people pushing in all over the place.

It was chaos and it seemed as though there was a serious risk of a stampede or riot breaking out.

By the time I was near the front I saw that they were up to the 160's in handing out tickets. There were a handful of people in front of me but I thought I was okay.

The security guard closed the book when he reached 170.

I, and all the people behind me who had queued from 10.30pm without pushing in were gutted.

The ticketing was a farce. Loads of people pushed in and those who were honorable and kept there position came away with nothing.

I had gone from 8th in the queue at Berwick Street (started queuing at 3.15pm Friday afternoon) to about 110 - 120th in line at Commercial Street at 10.30pm Friday night. To 170 something at 6.30am on the Saturday.

I had queued up for 15 hours for nothing...and was really upset and angry.

My friend heard a rumor that some prints (25 or so) would be made available at the Soho showroom and grabbed a taxi as fast as possible.

Myself and another friend started slowly walking back towards Liverpool Street at about 6.45am in silence and complete dejection. We were gonna grab the first train back home.

My friend said that he was 8th in line and there were now approx 30 people in line at Berwick Street. Me and my friend were debating whether to take the tube to Waterloo to go home or grab a taxi to Soho.

We took a taxi, we thought we'd check what was going on and say goodbye and wish my friend luck.

We were completely silent during the 10 or so minute cab journey. Physically and emotionally exhausted after a roller coaster night.

We arrived at about 7.15am expecting to be far too late. We were kicking our heels and feeling rather sorry for ourselves as we approached M&S again.

There were 49 people in front of us. Sohosteve (member on the forum) was just writing numbers on peoples hands so that we had some sort of queue. He also convinced us to give it a couple of hours as we were already there to see what would happen.

I was number 50 and my friend number 51. A couple from Germany (who were behind us at the queue in Commercial Street) who had decided to visit London for 24 hours on the off chance of a Banksy release arrived a few minutes later and were numbers 59 and 60.

We later found out that 60 prints were available at M&S.

Having been one of the first to queue up at M&S on Friday afternoon, and missing out on a ticket at Commercial Street...I was ecstatic!!!

There has been so many highs and lows over the last 24 or so hours that I was queuing it has been quite surreal.

I didn't believe that I got a print until the tube was in my hand.

I want to thank sohosteve for organizing a basic queuing system that worked brilliantly. Everyone knew the situation and the release of the 60 prints went without a hiccup.

Everyone was so happy, there was a great atmosphere. A lot of smiley faces who thought they had missed their chance due to the queue pushers at commercial street.

People were clapping as each number was called out and people were going into M&S to choose their colourway and get their print.

After nearly 22hours of not knowing if I would get a print, I finally managed to get the colourway I was after (magenta, which will be on its way to misterframeman asap!).

It just goes to show that if a forum member can create some sort of order, why couldn't POW.

If they didn't want to release the print on the Saturday, they should have told people there was going to be no release and sent people home.

Why were people not given tickets at Berwick Street and told to take their time to head over to the East London showroom? It was chaos and people were running like headless chicken across London, in the middle of the road and oncoming traffic!

Why was there no security or staff at Commercial Street until 5.30am (which was completely inadequate). A very serious and dangerous situation could have developed.

In the end, with a little but of luck and perseverance me and my friends managed to get one.

I met loads of good people who were very kind hearted and I was very happy to see them get a print. Especially the German couple, it would have been quite sad to seem them head back to Stuttgart empty handed and was great to see them collect their prints with beaming smiles.

It was a very interesting 24 or so hours...I'm glad I managed to grab a print...but I'm not sure if I would choose to do it again.

For all those who missed out, you have nothing buy my sympathy and I hope you get lucky in the lottery.

Best of luck.

(Sorry for the long post!! Time to head off to bed!).

nice post sand ...

Congrats Sand!

well done sand, with that journey you deserved one!!

Thanks fellas...i'll be sure to post some pics once it's back from Gary and up on the wall!

I too consider myself very fortunate to secure one after 19 hours of queueing.....needless to say, I am absolutely over the moon with this! ;D

What I found funny was how the guys at POW seemed to know these guys at the front and even shook hands with them when they arrived in the morning. And again it was funny how these guys were at the front of the queue before anyone else arrived at Commercial street as if they were tipped off

Great post. At last some good news on the forum. And top marks to stevesoho.

A fairly astute observation from RC. What's intriguing me is that there's not been any tangible discussion around the piece. The nod to Haring is acknowledged and improves what, without this, would be a weaker image.

My view...lacks the wit and humour (and social comment occasionally) of previous releases. I've not been attracted since Trolllies and Morons and given the choice between a B&W signed version of either of those two and this is a no brainer.

Prices will settle of course, there's 40% odd of the confirmed release yet to go and only the bravest of mercenary fuckers are selling (or not) now. In a month or so we'll get the same old excuses...

1. Wife doesn't like it
2. I'd like to trade for another signed Banksy (which I'll then sell, as don't want to known as a flipper)
3. Big, expensive Christmas to pay for
4. Snow boarding holiday
5. Nan died, got to pay to bury the old dear and give her a decent send off

Go on Matt Cardle!!!!