A seminal location for both Clown and Banksy. This first London show for Banksy in Rivington Street was conceived after a drunken night out and a conversation about us doing a show on the cheap as we were all seriously skint. A walk down Rivington Street, well more of a stumble really, made it simple, “fuck, let’s do it here”.

Not wanting to wait, a week later, we were back with 2 tins of paint, the stencils and some cans. We always thought we might get a tug, so we were ready with a forged letter from an arts organisation wishing us luck with the ‘Tunnel Vision Project’.

After a day of Banksy, Jeff and London Dave sloshing white paint in a dirty tunnel, we were ready for the stencils (or should we now call it the “curation”?).

The opening party was planned with free beers which we got from Vikas’ uncle and playing music on a sound system powered by a petrol generator in the back of an old van. The promo hit the streets, and a hotmail address was set up so people could buy. It was now a waiting game to see if anyone would turn up.

We needn’t have worried. It was a roadblock: beers, scuffles, and a fire; history made. The police rocked up but let us carry on as they had not yet realised if we were legit or not. The answer was both. The event was legit, we just didn’t have any permissions. We all walked away chuffed, and now it was time to get Clown going with a first drop from our mate Banksy.

Our very first spot of our own was City View in Bethnal Green. This was part of a new build on the very rough and ready Bethnal Green Road. This was Bethnal Green in 2000 – a very different beast to the East London beloved of the fashionistas and tourists. But we made it ours, literally, We got Banksy to paint a massive mural with his “One Day We’ll Be In Charge” writ large. And that summed it up. We were the lunatics in charge of that asylum with an ever-expanding cast of artists, DJs, and skateboarders.

These were the worlds that Jeff and Vikas were from, and introduced to each other. There was a LOT of creative cross-pollination going on under that particular roof.

Highlights? Party space, a pro coffee machine, Pellicci’s, a fantastic view of two Krays' funerals, and we lived locally. Cons? The local pubs. Very local. Also, the fact that we couldn't remove the giant mural intact when we relocated.

Gutted.

We started Clown off with a single iMac between us. Rather like the Graeae from Greek mythology who shared a single detachable tooth and eye, and so had to take turns to eat or see.

Unlike the Gray Sisters however, the iMac was beautiful and had a great set of Harmon Kardon speakers - a real thoroughbred. We treated it like a pit pony. If it could have made us a fry-up, we would have definitely tried slotting an egg into its DVD drive. One of the team may actually have tried just that, as it blew up. It didn't break down, go a bit slow or make funny sounds; it blew up.

This was pre-cloud, and we didn't know jack about external “hard drives” or, to be fair, we could not afford them even if we did!

So, adios to all the original artwork…we had to recreate it from scratch, and thank fuck for acetates.

We cannot stress enough the importance of this magazine run by Percy on editorial duties and Stephen their photographer, not only for the UK skateboard scene but for us in particular.

Its values aligned with us perfectly – as stated elsewhere, we were the UK grime and grit versus the polish of the US and didn’t take our selves too seriously (still don’t). We do things properly, but we do them with a smile on our face and our tongue firmly in our cheek.

It was the crucial (and mutual) support of Document that allowed the minnows that we were to really flex our muscles.

When we went to France and Germany (as well as roadtrips nearer to home) there was no question who we wanted to (ahem) document proceedings.

Because it was such a lynchpin of the scene and had such a talented editorial team, they really showcased the fuck off skills that our team of misfits actually had to a much wider audience.

Thanks guys!

We've always loved the easter egg concept – though back then we wouldn’t have called it that.

Some may remember that on our early shirts, the sleeve had some “random” lines of various lengths spewing out of the gun and logotype Clown Skateboards. Not so random. And they weren’t lines either.

They were in fact dots and dashes from Morse Code which spelled out HERE TO STAY on the first 30 Ts we printed. We then moved on and frankly after that, it WAS random. So, for those that followed who knows what they spelled!

We eventually dropped the code but not the message: we are definitely here to stay.

Now we have loved Carnival for forever and a day – a truly mad, unique English affair via the Caribbean and beyond. Rum, smoke and sound systems. FOR TWO DAYS. And nights.

In 2003, we linked up with Trouble on Vinyl (shout out Clayton and Mark) to host the CMC soundsystem on All Saints and then club night Clash of the Titans in south London which rolled through til 6AM and then back to West London to do it all again on the Monday.

Anyone who was anyone in the drum and bass /hip hop scenes passed through.

We had a huge vinyl banner made with The Clown looking menacing/comic depending on your mood and level of consumption, over the stage with rolling beats pounding out of that legendary sound system. Stoked doesn’t even begin to cover it.

We never did get that banner back – though the same could be said about some people’s minds after 48 hours of partying - so if anyone sees it and we get it back, we’ll see you right!

This was a brilliant madcap idea. Sam set a music festival loose on his family’s camping site in Camber Sands. In Winter. What could possibly go wrong?

Now weekenders in general and specifically weekenders in Camber Sands were not a new idea, but the line-up definitely was. Heavy hitters from the hip hop and electronica scene included Big Daddy Kane, Roots Manuva, Andrew Weatherall and Aphex Twin to name just a few. In fact, we found Aphex Twin’s passport in the unlikeliest of places – but that’s another story. What were we doing there?

Well, Jeff got roped in to run the site and Vikas was in full force on the Friday night with the LIckshot hat on and playing the deepest of roots.

On the Saturday, we hosted our very own Pool Party with DJ friends including Dave & crew from WordPlay Records as well as Lickshot. Hip Hop and Reggae with a distinct U.K. flex.

And to round things up on the Sunday evening we put Skitz & Rodney P with guest Estelle on the main stage. UK’s finest.

Happened to be Vikas’ DJ name but also became the name of our music projects. True to our founding mission of insisting on a British lens to our love of skateboarding, art and music, this travelling session stuck to a policy of UK music with various guest DJs.

We were incredibly lucky to have a Sunday night residency at the legendary Plastic People club. Not that it was necessarily legendary then. We had first started going to Ade’s spot on Oxford Street in the 90s at least twice a week, and when we heard Ade was moving east through an architect friend of ours who happened to be in charge of designing the place, we leapt at the chance.

The sound system was out of this world. This was a complete antithesis to the super club culture that was then all the rage. This was a club designed for one purpose, and one purpose only: music.

We chose Sunday 7-12 because

1. It was available
2. Sundays were when the serious music heads went out
3. It was a nod to Sunday nights at the late and much lamented Blue Note

Sundays were also Ade’s day of rest (in his role as a new Father, as he was then), so we'd often have to go around and pick up the keys when we arrived at a locked club.

Luckily, we knew where he lived!

The city of light, lovers, impressionism, crepes, flea markets, and then there was us.

This was our first foreign skate trip, and in true Clown style, while we could get a bunch of us together, we only had enough money for one hotel room (after the first night, they turfed us out), a few baguettes, a bag of the good stuff and a couple of cases of stubbies.

This really was one of the debauched trips you only hear discussed in hushed tones, but what we achieved in that single weekend was epic: some great pics from our mate Kingy, some footage by Kevin for our first and only skate video, and a séance which led to the idea of making the now legendary Ouija board.

More than anything, it cemented Clown as a solid crew. We just needed to make some boards.

Zut Alors!

Did you know Bethnal Green was twinned with Edinburgh? No, neither did we.

In the early 00s we spent so much time in Edinburgh (shout out Pete, Seanie, Flapper and Vixie) and were so active there – our riders, putting on skate jams, holding our Lickshot nights and even putting out a record with two of our team Bryan and Neil (Plus One of the mighty Scratch Perverts who were actually in the same building as us in City View) and which was recently rediscovered in a second hand record shop in New York of all places – that a lot of people thought we actually were Edinburgh based.

Now we can understand the similarities and have a lot of love for that city, but nah, Clown was born in East London.

We could devote books to the all-around legend of Simon Skipp. Now aged 50, he’s still one of the best skaters we know!

Simon has been with us from the very beginning. He is a skater, a fine artist, and a TRUE gentleman. In a team of misfits (and that’s really who and what we are), Simon is first among equals. A misfit’s misfit. When he wasn't skating, he was still constantly rolling. And packing boxes, just like us.

While many factors led us to come back in 2020 (notably among them the pandemic and wanting to start a CIC in skateboarding), and despite regular promises for us to put the band back together again, it was a small show that Jeff put on in his garage / gallery in Clerkenwell of Simon’s work that led to an escalating clamour for us to finally rewind and come again.

So thank you, Simon, for that and for everything else.