PlayToon PlayBack

The PlayToon exhibition will be part of an autumn encore at the Holy Biscuit in Shieldfield, Newcastle. PlayToon kicked off four shows, the other three featuring work by local schools. The Holy Biscuit want to bring parts of all four together; all the shows shared a theme of work by people often left out or over looked in the great corporate schemes of things. For PlayToon we will be showing some new photos and videos, including videos of the PlayOut day, and any NE skaters, BMXers, scooter kids and blades are welcome to show work (contact michael.jeffries@northumbria.ac.uk). We reckon over 1000 people came by the see PlayToon. Meantime the city is out there, waiting to be played. PlayToon may be little quite but just out of sight, round the corner listen for the sound of trucks and bikes....

"This is just my place"

How it all started, in 2009 with a doodled map from a BMXer, Jonny Kenyon, in Toon for uni. "It's not so much the places. My whole journey is the place. I'm clueless as the where i am. This is just my place. My place is with my bike".Which is the most important geography in the world.

Plug and play

Many thanks to everyone who took part in PlayToon and PlayOut. 1000+ came through the show and came away with a very different take on what they had assumed about the streets of Tyneside. The PlayToon book (50 pages, full colour, photography and interviews, £8) is on sale in Native Skates or contact michael.jeffries@northumbria.ac.uk. But it is not over; some of the show features inthe London Festival of Architecture 2102, more details at http://lfa2012.org/events/view/plug-in-play-74. Meanwhile elves and pixies have crept out a started to rebuild a new wasteland in Byker.....

A village fete, only more airborne

PlayToon and the PlayOut day was a gem: many thanks to all the Urban Games crew: the half pipe team North east Parkour, the Rough Diamonds and Michael and Monjer for pulling this together. The Late show crowd piled in too. Over 800 visitors through the exhibition so far, stunned and moved by the sheer quality of skater, BMX and free running graphics, video and words. Show stays open Monday and Tuesday 11-4pm.

PlayToon Late Shows tonight, 7pm+...

 PlayToon hooks up with the Newcastle Late Shows. Plus the lauch of the PlayToon book. Holy Biscuit, 7pm+

"A thousand furlongs of sea....

...... for an acre of barren ground". Shakespeare's skaters? Perhaps with the new graff at Bridges, although Gateshead Council's Construction Services are worried because some of the graff is wthin 5m of the road which means they have to do something about it.... even though one of their staff has a nostalgic glint in his eye for skating. Meantime here is another view of Bridges from the PlayToon show.

PlayToon show goes up.....

...and looks stunning. Skateboard, BMX and parkour photography, huge in-your-face colour prints, rasterbator half tones, stunning and sweet video. Plus some more mysterious 3D items, including a remnant from the Wasteland. Here is Sebastian towards the end of the put-up day. Exhibition is open 15th-22nd May, 11am-4pm, with two specials. Friday 18th as part of Newcastle Late Shows 7pm-11pm and on Saturday 19th the Urban Games team host the live action with half pipe, parkour, urban dance and DJs from 4pm onwards. All welcome, free, bring your board, BMX, skates.

PlayToon book

Here is front of the book of the event, featuring photos, text and graphics from Tyneside street sports scenes. So many smiley tales "Early morning Sean would be there, he'd already been there for two hours. Then Bob would turn up and he'd be "YEAH". Then you'd go to Bob's house and skate the mini-ramp in the back garden. It was called Betsy" (Jamie). Do all mini ramps have names? They have histories for sure.

Pilgrim street sign , 2011

This sign appeared on the Bank of England down Pilgrim street sometime in 2011. The "Leap of Faith" finding its rightful place in Newcastle's architectural heritage. The Bank of England is now under attack. Check out most skate, BMX and free running videos from the Tyneside scenes; all the important places are despised plazas, hated concrete ledges or outlands that are nowhere between zombie malls and rotting car parks. Skaters, BMXers and free runners are great explorers and recognise a fine bit of nowhere when they see it.

PlayToon & PlayOut, two weeks away......

The PlayToon exhibition opens 16th May at Holy Biscuit (Shieldfield, Newcastle). On Friday 18th the exhibition is part of Newcastle Late Shows, 7-11pm. On 19th the PlayOut day features live action 4pm onwards hosted by Urban Games with half pipe for skate and BMX, Parkour c/o North east parkour, street dance, DJs and more. Exhibition features photography, video, words and more mysterious objects from Tyneside skate, BMX and PK scenes: work from Bish, Peter Greaves, Ben Larthe, Jacob Garthwaite, Liam Whitfield, Adam Thirtle, Sam Hutchinson, Daniel Dale, Johnny Haynes and many others. All welcome, free event.

"My first proper board.....

...was from Transit, it was £10, it was a blank with an Elements sticker on it, just the best board. Learnt ollies and kicks on it in my street and the next week I went to my friend's street, did an ollie, nose stalled and snapped my board and started crying" (Jamie). Well, it's either that or "mine was an Alien Workshop, but my truck broke and I was really angry so I chucked my board into the river". Which ever way it is a love story.

"Something insufferably patronizing.....

...about the idea that a city like this needed to be made more like Bilbao/ Barcelona/ London (or in an earleir era, Brasilia)" Owen Hatherley, exploring Newcastle's latest regeneration in A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain. It was the 1960s 'Brasilia of the north' regeneration which created so many classic skate spots, not least the plaza and ledges around the Bank of England and Swan House. But the 'Leap of Faith' along the front of the Bank and the step sets on the plaza behind are now fenced off as developers attack the Bank of England. More little playgrounds lost.

"Storming heaven with a millennarian arrogance....

....It's absurd that something so remarkable should be destroyed" (Owen Hatherley, writing about the 'Get Carter' car park in Gateshead in A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain. Now the Bank of England at the bottom of Pilgrim Streeet has great chunks taken out of it. The Bank is a stunning design, Battlestar Galactica re-shaped in the same stone as St Paul's Cathedral. And part of this loss will be the 'Leap of Faith' drop, a rite of passge amongst local skaters (and some in-lines too) and the very spot that kicked off this defence of street sports in the city ia few years back. In case this gets too miserable the Urban Games Launch was a fine mix of dance, bicycle powered smoothies, parkour and emergency pizzas.

Urban Games Launch, 19th April, 6pm, Boiler Shop

The Urban Games crew are launching their 2012 programme with a bash at the Boiler Shop in Newcastle (tucked away behind Central Station off Forth Street).

All welcome: hear what they've got planned leading up to big street shows in Newcastle during the Olympics, plus performances of parkour, street dance and urban music.

"At Solicitors a man started on us.....

....having a go, 'do you think this is some sort of playground?' He looked like he would hit us" (Carl). "Yes, i do" (Phil). North East Parkour out experimenting with the city on a Saturday, "the government tell us off for doing this because they're not earning anything from it... but when they're out drinking they're earning a percentage" (Jamie). Looks like a new city centre plan is needed

"Parkour.. you don't need anything....

...if you're doing flipping, if you're doing the jumps, if you're doing the movement it makes you feel better. I do free running to relax and chill out. I've got lots of stuff to sort out but when i'm free running i don't thin kabout my work and stuff, i just think about this" (Aaron). You don't even need a building, but you probably need a city. Just not the city everyone else sees. "The physio told me to stop... i can't stop, it's a life... it's what I do"

Get your photos & videos in PlayToon show

We are beginning to print and organise photographs, video, rants and other strange items for the PlayToon event and exhibition. Many thanks for all the material we have been sent so far: superb spots, good times and gnarly injuries. All skaters, BMXers, free runners, in line and micro scooter folk.... if you would like your images in the show please get in touch. Images can be emailed direct to michael.jeffries@northumbria.ac.uk (can handle up to 18MB mail). Or send us to your Youtube, Vimeo, Flickr or Facebook page link. This is a non-commerical, non-corporate event, open to everyone to show off and promote NE street sports c/o Native, Digital Deekies, 4Sight, Urban Games........ All work will be credited and remains wholly yours. Cheers, Mike

"Not withstanding the damage...."

..... that followed, the 1963 Development Plan at least recognized that Grainger's town plan deserved protection as a coherent area" McCombe, Newcastle and Gateshead (Pevsners Architectural Guides). That will be the development plan of T. Dan Smith and Wilfred Burns, and the crusade to rebuild Tyneside as the 'Brasilia of the North'. Many of the iconic Brasilia buildings have been demolished in the last 10 years: the old City Library, Westgate House, Bridge Tower, the Get Carter car park. The Bank of England at bottom of Pilgrim Street is only just clinging on having failed to be listed, the "leap of faith" along its ledges still skated. Check out skaters, BMXers and free runners videos. It is the Brasilia architecture which dominates, plus the edgelands of car parks, backsides of shops, odd stairways and forgotten corners. You can't shred Dobson and Grainger. The photo is of Gateshead's shopping precinct (demolished, 2011) from Grace McCombie's guide: every line, surface, ledge, step, roof made to jump and ollie.

"When i went to school..."

...none of my friends skated and all i used to talk about was skating and then that got one of my friends into skating and we used to skate together, pretty much just me being into skating, like, my best friends from school, it got them into skating which was the best situation ever" Max. Which may not be obvious to passing members of the public: friends and fun lie at the heart of these scenes, which can't be bad. Just watch how much time skaters, BMxers and free runners spend not skating, BMXing or free running. Just hanging out. Which is important, because if you doing nothing make sure you do it superbly well.

PlayToon Late shows info

Check out the PlayToon entry in Late shows brochure for the live events http://www.thelateshows.org.uk/venues/holy-biscuit.html

Sanderson & Shell psychogeography map

Not that maps need even be maps with roads and streets and buildings. Here is a fine psychogeography map doodled by Sanderson and Shell in Native a couple of years back. Tells you much more about a skate day out than an A-Z street find ever could. Because the city changes so much depending who is where. Newcastle's Monument on a Saturday afternoon is not the same place as Newcastle's Monument at midnight with a swarm of skaters shredding past

"i know where we are going, but i don't know where it is..."

Which is why maps are useful, although maps of roads and streets are not as good as maps of loves and hates. So we have started redrawing the Tourist Information map of Newcastle, doodling skate spots, who goes where and places that matter. The felt tip pens were out in Native today and we'll be doing some more in other places, plus you can always send in your own versions, cut up, scrambled and re-arranged as much as you like. I think the Tourist Info office would benefit from a few copies. This map is Lewis, Lewis and Ryans' day out, once Lewis had put the trucks on the new board, plus a bit of Johnny H, although his mind was wandering from having to choose between cakes.

"covered in dead birds... dead birds everywhere..."

Not Exhibition Park, but one the Toon's most mysterious and ominous spots, according to Bish. And nothing to do with microscooter rotor-blade tricks either. Here is Exi in the sunshine today; skate, BMX and micros. Not got any videos or photos in from micro-scooter kids yet, so if you are out there and reading this check out Feb 23rd entry for info on getting your pictures in the PlayToon exhibition and event.

"We'll just find somewhere else..."

"skateboarders reject the idea that the city is only a grand project of planners and magnificant Utopias.... instead that is is also about local micro-spaces and actions of actual city residents" (Ian Borden). Plenty of new spots out there to be discovered and re-arranged. Meantime a little momento of the Wasteland's sunny days.

Many thanks for the photos, videos and other ideas for PlayToon exhibition that are coming in. Keep them coming. Check out February 23rd blog entry for how to get in touch/ send in material. Mike

Wasteland wasted

The Wasteland has been dug up. The plaza in great ripples and slabs. It was being BMXed in the twilight on Thursday, with a couple of little kids wanting to knbow how long it would last. Well it lasted 20 years. A forlorn skater was walking back to Toon today, distracted, texting, lost. There are some new graffiti on the boards around the adjacent sites along Portland Rd (opposite Shieldfield Hse). Metnor agree to let the writers loose.

Did any one see the plaza getting ripped up... photos even?

"It was 1999.....

...it was all white at that time, you can still see the white paint over there. I suppose it is slightly toxic underneath. We built that and we built that. That's new. Built it one day, amazing, everyone loves skating it". Wasteland: in-lines turned up today playing the rail against the setting sun.

Wasteland Wake fan club

Newcastle's Wasteland has gained a hard core fan club holding a wake as the machines creep up to the edge of the plaza. The spot has been BMXed (and a little bit skated and scooted) everyday over last week or two by an affectionate crowd of friends determined not to let the Wasteland go unloved and un-mourned. There if even some new graff, a sort of love letter, a fond farewell to concrete, trash and hanging out. A sentimental bunch of hoodies.

The Siege of the Wasteland....

....Funny how new people keep discovering the Wasteland, even now. Friday afternoon and a bunch of students who i'd not seen there before were sunning themselves, plus lager and wine, to a backdrop of three machines: a digger, a JCB and something for grinding up concrete into tiny bits. Skateboards, in-line and a football amongst the debris. Not sure if there is any agreed word for places like this. Once did a Toon tour of what were described as the city's shadow-spaces, similar spots like the tucked away plaza behind northern facade of The Side, or the dead-end rail cutting running roughly from Manors north. But "shadow" sounds too gloomy for when the low sun was glinting off the concrete and bouncing off the towerblock across the road like a spotlight

Wasteland hanging in

Newcastle's Wasteland (Classic long summer days spot) has seen major levelling and earth moving over last few days with skaters getting chucked out during the day. Does not look like it will be much longer before plaza gets hit.... but as dusk fell, hottest day of the year so far 20+ skaters and BMXers reclaimed this magical space

"So I threw my board into the pond......

...then i threw it in again to see which way the current was flowing". Only one of the brilliant tales of Tyneside skating from Sean, Long Board Man, Bryan and Liam (i hope i got those names right) along with the dangers of sugar, 14 cups of coffee, the nicest security guard you could ever meet, why skating and football mix, what became of Bryan's front teeth (it's okay... they were only first teeth), why skaters and free-runners are good mates and getting your board nicked. A nicer bunch of skaters you'd be hard pressed to find and i'm only sorry my recorder ran out of batteries because we could have gone on for hours. Did I mention the guitar playing scorpion? Or advice on when not to fight a dwarf?

Getting your photos, video and more into the Exhibition

We will print out and display your photographs. This will be done to professional standards, so your work will look mint.

Please email photographs as .jpgs or .pdf, along with a brief description of content, e.g. names of people.
We can handle .tiff, .psd and other formats but this is harder; don’t let this put you off though, so get in touch if you are not sure.

For video either email or send on a DVD, CD or datastick with info about format so we can download for video displays and projection during the exhibition.

The maximum size of files that we can handle via email is 18MB.

If you have photos or video on the web (Facebook, blogs, Flickr or anywhere else) please let us know. There may be brilliant images on your sites which would help get the PlayToon message across and we will check through work and ask for copies .

Material should be emailed to michael.jeffries@northumbria.ac.uk

Address: Mike Jeffries, Department of Geography, Ellison Building, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST

Deadline 15th April 2012.

All work shown will be credited and remains your copyright.

This not a commercial or corporate event; all those involved are doing it because we take part in or support the street sport scenes around Tyneside and want to show off and promote these scenes; Urban Games, 4-Sight, Native, NEPK, Digital Deekies.

The work will be used for the PlayToon exhibition, which will feature in Newcastle’s Late Show programme, and some be incorporated in an exhibition in London later in 2012 as part of the London Festival of Architecture, which is all about the playful city

What kinds of images?
Portraits & people: You and your mates, either single portraits or groups so we can represent the sheer numbers and mix of people from the street sport scenes.
Photos of people hanging out together as well as doing tricks and stunts.

Roots, culture & history of the local scenes: Photos of you and your mates telling your story, days out, epic spots, lost spots, legends from the Tyneside scene, big events, classic sessions, jams and parties, training.

Have you got an old photo of you and your first skateboard or BMX? Any photos from back in the day and spots no longer so easy to use, e.g. Haymarket? The discovery and building of spots. Favourite food, clothes, boards, bikes
Even injuries you are proud of....

Top spots: Where are Tyneside’s skate, BMX and free running scenes?
How your use, re-invent, change and play with the city are important.

"Our space has strange effects.....

....for one thing it unleashes desire" (Lefebvre, 1974). In this case the desire to skate Grey's Monument in the centre of Newcastle. For however briefly the monument is a skate spot, and, for that time, the most constructive use of this urban space. In 2002 Philadelphia's City council tried to deter skaters from the long-treasured Love Park spot in their city centre, only to face a wave of protest and realise that the skaters were " the shock troops of gentrification" , as a writer called Ocean Howell put it. The skaters "breathed life" into that city plaza. £160 million has been spent restoring Newcastle's Grainger Town; gentrification of buildings yes, but maybe the fleeting presence of skaters at the Monument hints at other possibilities, not just bricks and mortar. Earl Grey might look down approvinlgy

"They're so small they are evading our turbo lasers"

Bridges this morning had acquired a crop of strange white globes and a mysteriously flickering thing on a tripod. The thing was a lazer scanner which rotates, firing lazer beams at the surroundings which then bounce back, are detected and used to create a 3D computer model of the architecture. We'll see if this can be used to make a fly-through version of Bridges. But what if you get hit by the lazers? We'll never know; the skaters out early at Bridges were simply too quick to hit, dodging the beams.

Call the cops

They're already here. Ever wondered why Gateshead Council should spend £11,000 turning 5 Bridges into a decent skate spot? The story varies a bit, like all good urban tales should. Some versions: (1) The Council used money from a housing dveleopment mitigation scheme to improve a spot they already knew skaters used and, when they were there, reduced anti-social hassle from other people (okay, and so skaters wouldn't keep lifting up the flagstones), (2) visiting pro skaters were contacted by the Council, again because the Council had realised that skaters made the space safer for other people or (3) a Gateshead councillor was visited by a little old lady at a surgery who started to tell him about the skaters. Bracing himself to hear that they were a nuisance which the Council should deal with the councillor was suprised to hear that the little old lady liked the skaters being at Bridges because when they were the place felt safe. Pick which ever version you like, the messgae is the same. Skaters are good for the cityscape.

"when they work, we'll skate"

"Skaters create their own fun on the periphery of mass culture". Lowboy. And whilst a good read might not be such immediate fun as a sick ollie it can be useful ammo, representing street sports beyond what passers by see. Academic articles may not be the slickest read but they have their uses. Plus, if it is a cold day, better to stay inside Native and check out "The accidental youth club: skateboarding in NewcastleGatesehad" which comes out in the Journal of Urban Design later this year and hopefully does the job of breaking past the stereotypes of skaters=damage and nuisance. Will have more copies to hand round at local spots (PlayToon project will be around at 5 Bridges on 12th for Bingo's bash). Mike

skating and mushy peas

"Like, when I went to school none of my friends skated and all i ever used to talk about was skating and then that got one of my friends into skating and we used to skate together and then just pretty much me being so into skating got, like, my best friends from school, it got them into skating which was the best situation ever" (Max). Collecting more tales of first skate boards and skating in Tyneside in Native today. Bitter cold today, so even Bridges did not sound a good bet. Who needs to skate when you can head to Grainger Market and have chips and mushy peas? Skating is not just about skating.

PlayToon in Native Skates, Saturday 4th Feb

PlayToon will be in Native Saturday 4th ~ lunch time, collecting more tales from the local skate scene, doodling and copies of an article about the Tyneside skatescene to give out.

"the art of displacement"

The original French term for parkour, which translates into English with brilliant ambiguity. The whole spatial, physical movement of parkour, the ability to move through and in a city space; the phrase certainly captures that plus maybe a sense of difference and alternative. On the other hand it is pretty good summary of the attitude of many city centre managers to the presence of street sports; make them go away, not cluttering up the streets and getting in the way of customers and their cash. Displace the skaters, BMXers and free runners to somewhere out of site and out of mind. Here is another view of NEPK displacing the conventional view of a grade II listed building from polite heritage to living, lively space. Displacing, it seems, works in several ways.

Grade II listed climbing frame

Newcastle city centre is in the UK top 3 for listed buildings, especially concentrated in Grainger Town. Exquisite and magnificent but not much good for skating or BMX. A sort of beautiful deadzone compared to the unloved modern plazas, car parks and walkways. But for parkour it turns out the older Toon is ideal, festooned with hand holds, climbing faces, ledges and walls. Here are North East parkour turning the Old law Courts (1864-65) into a climbing wall (2011-2012).

Wasteland still loved

It may be January, the "private property" signs may be up, the block may be demolished but the Wasteland in Newcastle is still being skated. Across the old factory floor are mini ramps, blocks and pallets. Maybe they only come out at night. Keeps getting ripped up, burnt and battered and keeps getting put back together. Last year one of the JCB drivers used his digger to help shift some of the debris away and two old radgies on the Lambrini at 11am, sitting on the wall by the block and tuned into radio Newcastle, bemoaned the loss of trees because that is where the birds nested. There are some stunning wild flowers there too, but the botany can wait til spring. At this rate the block will get rebuilt before the flats get going.

Teenaphobia & Old Eldon Square

Redeveloping Old Eldon Square. Peter Rogers (who worked at Newcastlele Uni) points out that much of the local media coverage of young people around the Square (okay, not all skaters are teenagers, but you get lumped together), was a poor representation of how people felt. Opinions of elderly people in the area were not unanimous in wanting a blanket ban, ex-servicemen's associations also were okay about youngsters (just don't skate the memorial itself). The Square had a 50 year history, maybe more, for hanging out with friends. So, what's the big deal with the space? Maybe all the consultation around developing Exi Park was a bit meaningless... Exi was always going to be developed where it was, out of sight and out of mind. Meantime Gateshead Council were keen to get skaters into 5 Bridges because when skaters were there little old ladies felt safe.

BOOOMPFF. My first skateborad

In Native today, hearing tales of people's very first skateboards and "BOOOMPFF" is the best ever description of suddenly getting one. Turns out everyone could remember; where it came from, colours, graphics, trucks, stickers. Okay, even if most of them came from Argos or £10 from Transit. "I went to my friends street, did my first proper ollie and broke my board and started crying". Brilliant tales of starting out. Just the sort of everyday happenings we take for granted but mean a great deal. Just the sort of tales we'd like to hear more of for PlayToon. If you got a photo of your first board (and, even better, you with it) or would like to jot down a few lines about your first board, when you got it, what happened, it would be great to hear from you. email photos or your first board tales so we can weave your story into PlayToon for the exhibition. email address michael.jeffries@northumbria.ac.uk. Big thank you to everyone who was in Native today. mike

Cartooning & skate chat, Native, Saturday 21st Jan

We will be in Native on Saturday 21st if you fancy telling tall tales from your skating days around Tyneside. i'll have a little digi-recorder so you can chat away to your hearts content, whatever is important to you about the skate scene. Or maybe just which is your favourite Greggs pasty. All skaters are welcome to join in, and doodle some cartoons of yourselves, your mates and your adventures. Mike J

The trouble with hanging around

"An integrated strategy for economic and spatial deveopment: it shows how we build the knowledge economy" NewcastleGateshead 1Plan, (2010).
That's the trouble with city centres: dominated by a commercial/corporate agenda which sees everyone as a customer. And if you are not a customer you are a nuisance. Skaters, BMXers and free-runners are using space for free. They hang around. Is that the heart of the alleged problem? Maybe city planners are missing a trick. Even 1Plan's culture and creativity summary ends up "the creative economy will take a big step forward strengthending links with the manufacturing sector, expanding into international markets and growing businesses of scale". Not much about there about the brilliant videos, blogs, photos from Tyneside's street sports' scenes. Time to start showing off.

North East Parkour on board

"Z-boys did the unprecdented by sparking skaters' interest in their own history". Stacey Peralta.

Met up with Craig and the North East Parkour team at the Sage yesterday. Craig and co very happy to get involved with PlayToon too. Sounds like they have an inner and outer city orbit with spots like the Discovery Museum and new City Library. Curious too see if PK and skaters ever get to use same spots. Maybe trucks and feet need different surfaces. Brilliant horde of glittering microscooters sweeping past Grainger Town Market on Sunday. Back at the Wasteland in Shieldfield good to see some wheel tracks in the frost. The Wasteland is not unloved or abandoned quite yet.

Skatopolis. Put your self in the picture

PlayToon opening event will be 19th May, Holy Biscuit Gallery, Shieldfield, (Newcastle), with follow up exhibition throughout the week after. Opening event will feature half pipe and parkour frame from Urban Games team, plus DJs, along with videos, photography, zines, atlases, cartoons, animations.

At the heart of this is representing your worlds to the city. Many street sports folk are already expert photographers, film-makers and cartoonists. We would like to include work from as many as possible In particular a shout out to those of you just starting out. You may think your photos are not as good as the best. So what, it is your world not theirs. Maybe you'd like to just send in a photo of yourself or your mates for a massive gallery of Tyneside's skaters, BMXers and free runners. That is just as welcome. So, we will use this blog to tell you what is going on, how to get in touch and get involved. There is also a Facebook group (search for PlayToon2012) and soon a Flickr group for more images. Mike

"Finding the groove and exploring you own style where gravity is the only law" Eric Haze.

PlayToon sets out to explore, document, doodle and play the cityscape of Tyneside. Over the weekend of 18th-19th May 2012 the Holy Biscuit Gallery down in Shieldfield (Newcastle, near the Wasteland) will host an event of live action, art and architectural misbehaviour.

If you skate, BMX or free run across our city this is for you to represent your world. This blog will document what we are up to, plans, progress and why this matters.

In a city that sees young people out and about as, at best, a nuisance, it is time to put yourselves on the map.