AUGUST 1999
ISSUE FIVE

Chasing The Vapour Trail
Text by: SYRE AB

The weekend of 12th-13th June this year saw the third Vapour event. Originally to be entitled Vapour V3, the name was changed to Vapour 700 to tie in with the 700th anniversary of Hull as a Royal chartered city.

The weekend was to see some of the finest writers from across the country, as well as some international writers, come together for a massive jam at the Kingston Community Centre. London, Halifax and of course Hull were all well represented at the event, so it was obviously going to be a mad two days. Although there was free paint for the writers everybody had brought as many cans with them as possible, and not just paint. Unfortunately that meant the TCF/RFM wall would sit there blank until late Sunday evening whilst the members sat pissed out of their skulls passing around the gear.

There was minimal trouble over the weekend, which unfortunately is not always the case in Hull. The extent of the trouble was the usual sad twelve year olds giving the writers gyp, and one writer painting the wrong building for one reason or another. The result of that was the organiser Dher getting very worried, as it happened to be a listed building and if the council found out about it then future events may become a no-go…


Rize (London)

Sykz (London) & SMD (Halifax)
That aside there was the usual bitching about shit walls and so on, but the writers got on with their painting. Calis painted a strangely simple piece, leaving him and Acme at loose ends to how to fill the rest of their admittedly hard to fill wall, made so by the two huge barred windows in the middle. Perv, who wasn't intending to paint yet still turned up with his fatcaps, lent a helping hand with a character, but the wall was going nowhere so they packed in early and watched the rest paint. Safari was having problems with her outline and eventually decided to do another piece early on the Sunday. It was disappointing to find out that Pinky could not make the event, but Spam and Smell still came up with the goods. Mojo turned up to do a nice abstract piece and Equal did a small piece which eventually got painted over on the Sunday by Disko and Zumo. The best and largest wall of the lot went to the Londoners, with some nice characters appearing amidst the burners dropped by Team XL. Si2 painted some absolutely wicked characters despite not getting a lot of stuff up in recent times. Kelzo was representing the Hulme scene in his unmistakable way, dropping an amazing piece in his own mad 3D style. Apart from Risk, the TCF/RFM writers didn't get up to the event until the Sunday, during which time Risk had painted several outlines and gone over them all. They were understandably pissed off with their wall, as four of them were expected to paint on a wall half the size they where expecting, but the first-come-first-served Dher decided to operate in was the best way and it was just unlucky. Alongside them there was a strange piece from the Ikonoclast Movement, as there was an amazing photo-realistic face but the rest seemed a bit bland. The Halifax writers were having a good time, although nobody understood why one of them decided to have a piss up his wall while he was painting it. Perhaps some things are best left alone… Dher did a nice piece as did Myst, who's piece was amazing considering it was only the fourth time she had actually painted. Pensl's piece wasn't one of his best which was a shame. The rest of the wall space was filled by the end of the two days, with even the small parts filled in by some nice dubs by the XL Crew.

Something more impressive then the jam was the amount of damage done afterwards. There was the usual tagging and stickers everywhere. Perv had five out of town writers staying at his house, and the trackside took a slap on Saturday night along with the three crates they found there. On the Sunday the warehouses took one of the biggest slaps it's ever seen- thirteen writers turned up, the only local writer being Perv, and had their own jam. The five of the XL Crew who turned up knocked out 32 pieces in 48 hours.


'Baby Girl' Logo XL - one of many on the streets of Hull

Looking back on this, we can hope that Vapour will become a more regular event in Hull.

Shouts to: Acme, Fuel, Perv, Calis, Safari, Rakar, Erone, Canda and all the Hull crews and everyone else who turned up to the event.

Maximum respect goes out to Dher for what he put together over the course of the weekend, you know its appreciated.

For more photos from the event, check out :