Shame on you!!

Right now Uncle Flo and myself are deep in the theatre game. We have spent the last 8 weeks working with John Berkavitch (All Torque for those who remember) and the infamous Bboy Bugz to create what is set to be the one of the most original and unique pieces of HipHop theatre the world has ever seen (I shit you not). Marso, Katie P, Jonzi D, Lemn Sissay, Jamie Woon, Royce Wood Jr and Leo Kay have all had a hand in it amongst others and even everyones current favourite Poet Kate Tempest thinks it's good - she said "the best spoken word show I've ever seen". can't argue with that can you?

We will be spending the next 8 weeks or so travelling the country so if it comes near you do try to come and see it and then tweet about it with the hashtage #shamejb

you can find tour info here and more information on the show here

Meet the Jam Man

The Jam man returns and comes face to face with the Honey Badger, part of the live band who will be playing on the 25th January in another thrilling instalment of the JAMuary promotional campaign...

JAMuary's Jar Tenders

young gun Black Frank is starring alongside Heavy Smokers Liam MC in the second part of the JAMuary Advertising campaign... meet the Jar Tenders!

Surrounded By Idiots - ID Group show 9th Jan 2014

The legendary ID crew are doing a group show with a private view this thursday down in Brick Lane. I have had the privilage of working with Shucks and Tizer in the past who are professional, amazingly skilled and all round nice guys.

 If you free go down and check it out and support some real home grown HipHop Heroes.

Ed Spoons .

"Surrounded By Idiots" - The I.D. Crew Show 

@ The Graffiti Life Gallery 10/1/14 - 2/2/14
*ALL NEW WORK*

The collective comprises some of the most eclectic and prolific artists in the global graffiti scene today, with each individual artist boasting what can be described as their own ‘signature’ style. Formed in 1996 by brothers ‘Shucks’ and ‘Tizer’; the ID crew was started as a collective of their friends who they felt were underrated. The letters ‘ID’ after their name gave each member a drive to continually set the bar higher for themselves, whilst carving a niche within the scene.

This, their very first crew show, provides a fascinating insight into their individual practices, the way the collective works together, and their influence on UK graffiti.

for more info check out the kool skool

The Road to JAMuary

Down in london town a few of the pirates are in with our friends the LMNade Associates organising the upcoming party jam JAMuary. There will be a steady line of promo videos coming out in the coming weeks, check out the first starring Heavy Smokers very own Jam man Iain Bru -





Keep your eyes peeled for more coming up!

Ed Spoons

Harlem Handshake

We like secret shakes but Flo and Ed Spoons is no longer a secret after it was caught on camera by FunkstylersTV - the secret is out!

Some old footage of some pirates at the Floor Lords UK qualifer in london 2012, just getting loose in the cyphers.



Ghetlow Pirates at Floor Wars 2012 UK from ed stephen on Vimeo.

Ohhhh Canada!

Last year I went to Canada and the USA for three weeks on a little adventure. I have slowly been able to edit footage from the trip into films of each city...hear are the two installments from canada to see what was going down... breaking, music, travelling, jokes and more if you can be bothered to sit and have a peek for half an hour.



T.O from ed stephen on Vimeo.

MTL from ed stephen on Vimeo.

 - Ed Spoons

Last Night I Dreamt...

Ben Jammin and young pirate Loi have been working on a project for the last months to create a video to show jammin and his dance.

Echoing London the video shows Jammin is tough but sensitive, modern yet with echos of times gone past, alienated yet at one with his environment..just an ordinary guy in a extraordinary city.

joking aside, good work boys, Loi has has done a cracking job, great tune selection good skills, nice durag.

All the Scraps

A small tribute to Leeds Legend Sir Jimmy Saville.

Blast from the past!

I was switching trains to get to class and who else did I see but Alex 'flashback' cookman, Leeds legend and now a proud father to little Remi

Long legs yo!

Song of the Day!

We keep it funky today!

Great Guy

What a guy, he knows when he orders pizza, not to get an mushrooms as I don't like them and that I will definitely want a bit. LEGEND.

Ben Jammin' Solo 2012

As a treat to show off one of our more recent members check out the video of our main man Ben Jammin' in full E-F-F-E-C-T....

We chose the music to honour his ongoing morrissey obsession and to give you a little insight into his inspiration and style...hope you can get down with that!

Breakin Brass brings you ATD TV!

The 6th April saw ATD return to London for its premium jam BREAKIN BRASS in collaboration with the incredible Brassroots.

Our young shipmate, Loi was enlisted (with the help of his glamorous assistant) to film a short documentary as a test for ATD TV...check it out below...




Special thanks to the sponsors :

House of Billiam
Eastpak
Strike Cover

Something you do to nourish your soul...

I was chatting with Ben Jammin and the point came up that nowadays the younger generation Bboys have less of a grasp of what has come before...not that the information is not obtainable or hard to find, but that the sheer volume of footage available out there has actually meant there is less appreciation for it. This is by no means a rant but its just an observation of what is going on...

When we were starting out I remember getting stuff on VHS by hook or by crook and then watching the same bits over and over to get my fill...then the internet came along and you would spend an hour to download a 5 second clip of a Hungarian doing tombstones now its all there at your fingertips but its almost over saturated to the point that people dont know what to watch.

I was shocked when i spoke to some guys who hadnt seen Style Wars, Wild Style or Beat Street, as i guess these were passed on to my generation by the old/mid skoolers above us as essential watching and something to treasure, especially in the European tradition where as these things were the most direct connection to the source available at the time, they became almost sacred.

. Below is the interview with Ken Swift from style wars which is one of my favourites...



Some killer footage of him in there and you can see the root of his style and how he moves is unique to him, it was watching this stuff and seeing that all the dancers were different and recognisable by how they moved that made me realise what i needed to do for myself.

check this classic footage of Kenny in the Mid 90s , so good!

Just say YES!

Our good friend and retired Bboy from the Leeds days, Frank, has a great band that are doing well in London town, they just dropped a new video for their latest release...take 5 mins to have a look and support a great group of people making great music...and note Frank is rocking a House of Billiam Tee - keeping eth Ghetlow connection alive!

Webisode wait is over ..... PART 5!

You guys have had a long wait for the latest Webisode, we had a technical difficulty so the classic opening credits are missing, but all the content is there.... get a cuppa and take 15 minutes to catch up with what we been up to and what's coming up next!

Ghetlow in Ireland - Dublin

So last week, Ghetlow was invited to perform and battle in Ireland for Skill Masters, the Irish finest jam.

Unfortunately, only me and Zorro were able to go (see previous posts for back stories).

To sum up the weekend:
-Flights at 6am are never a good idea
-Go on free breakfast!
-Lots of unhealthy food
-Too tired to dance
-Flo is a control freak
-Music was killa
-A bgirl won the under 18s battles, KILLA!
-"Party party part" lololol

Thanks to Lukasz and the whole team for looking after us!!!





Some pix for those who care:

Zorro after the flight inbound, tired pirate!
























With Dark Mark and Kjetil - VIKINGS!
























Jutsice will get you!
























Final of the under 18s!















Graff expo and workshop















Yes!!! I win!















Big dog Rukus, winner of the jam!
























Classic Mcdonalds abroad!














Back to Leeds, church meal with the homies!

The pirates proudly present: Spoon the Pegleg Ship Captain!

We have some bad news from the Ghetlow ship.

Our beloved Eddie Spoon has seriously injured himself after teaching a toprock step at one of his classes (for more details as how it happened, you might have to ask him).

We, at Ghetlow, are proud to say we put our body on the line for art & education on a daily basis (Bendie - 2012).

Check out how the poor fella is doing:















We did try to cheer him up though (featuring Ryan, Foggy and Jamie from the cheeky Puma show):















Does anyone else think he strangely looks like the pirate from Asterix?

















To our good old friend hitting a rough patch right now: get well soon, BRO!