30 Years of Graffiti on the Willy Banjo Walls
Some shops have a sign. We’ve had a wall that never sits still.
Since 1995 the front of Willy Banjo has been airbrushed, sprayed, tagged, buffed and painted again by a Preston techno legend, a lad who now does car upholstery, a crew from Poland, one of the city’s best-known muralists and an artist from El Salvador. We’ve never treated it as something to scrub off. It’s the best shop sign in Preston, and it changes every few years.
We went digging through 30 years of old phones, memory cards and Google Maps snaps and pulled together every piece we could find. Here they are, roughly in order.
Around 1994: Baron’s door
The very first door, airbrushed and hand-painted by Baron, flames and all. It set the tone: this was never going to be a beige shop.
Geoff’s elephant: our first graffiti
The first proper graffiti we ever had was an elephant by Geoff, a Preston legend from the early-90s illegal techno parties round town. Geoff was part of the Art Lab: the underground rave venue on Marsh Lane, famous for its kooky decor, until the police raided it with riot shields in 1995 and took the sound system. If you were there, you’ll know. You can also see some of Gavin Renshaws art too.
He took our whole wall and the shutter in one go. Not something you see on many shop fronts. RIP Geoff, a proper legend.
“The Legendary Willy Banjo”: Baron again
After Geoff’s elephant, Baron came back with the airbrush for his first ever go at graffiti: the red-and-chrome “Legendary” panel that a lot of you will remember. It started on a white wall covered in bubbles, then the wall went blue around it. It’s where the “Legendary” in our name really stuck.
Baron, aka Andy, swapped spray for a sewing machine and these days does car interior upholstery. Find him at Andy the Stitch.
2008: The Polish lads
In 2008 a crew of Polish lads turned up with a step and a bag of cans and painted it in front of everyone, with customers walking round them. When they’d finished, the wall said WILLY BANJO in letters you could read from the end of the street.
The same crew did a black-and-white portrait alongside the lettering (it looks like KRS-One to us) and a full piece across the shutter.
We never got their names. If you know who they were, tell us.
The night Mike Skinner turned up
That’s Mike Skinner from The Streets in the middle, in front of the new piece. He was playing Preston that evening and we bumped into him. We reminded him he’d been on our mates’ stall, attached to ours at Glastonbury, the year The Streets headlined the dance tent, if memory serves. He walked off from that stall with a “Will F**k for C*ke” T-shirt from our mates at A-Non Clothing on Cheshire Street in London. A real wild crew, and great mates.
Gavin Renshaw’s tea man
The man is by Gavin Renshaw, long before his murals were going up all over Preston. This is the only photo we can find of it, and it doesn’t do the full piece justice, because the whole thing was amazing. If you’ve got a photo of the rest, we’d love to see it. (The “SMD” tag was done by a kn*b head)
Reasm One’s shutters
The big purple-and-brown letters across the shutters are by Shawn Sharpe, aka Reasm One, now the man behind half the murals you walk past in Preston. We were proud to back his Spray It Forward crowdfunder for the Limehouse wall on Lowthian Street as well. Gavin’s tea man is still there on the left, next to an orange WILLY BANJO by persons unknown.
Teal and pink
Teal and pink letters right across the frontage, and round on the shutter a bloke in a cap and shades shouting about when we opened.
Artist unknown. One of our favourites, so if it’s yours, give us a shout.
Now: wings and a bird
The current frontage went white and calmer, for us anyway. The angel wings are by Studio Ask. Go on, stand in front of them and get your photo. Next to the door is the green bird by Meret One, who came over from El Salvador and left us some of the best animal pieces we’ve ever had. Watch Meret One’s video here.
Help us fill the gaps
Thirty years is a lot of paint, and we know we’re missing pieces, plenty of which only lasted a few weeks before someone went over them. If you’ve got an old photo of our walls, or you painted one of the pieces above, send it in and we’ll add it to this page with full credit.
Back in 2021, when Preston street-art crew Boo Who Up North pasted up in Lowthian Street, they gave our walls a shout-out to Blog Preston. We’ll take that.
Come down and see the current wall for yourself, or have a read of the full Willy Banjo story. If you want the shop on your back as well as on the wall, the Willy Banjo own-brand gear is here.