Urban75
Encyclopedia
Brixton
Brixton is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in south London, England. It is south south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It was founded in 1995 and includes various e-zine content, as well as bulletin boards. The site was founded and is currently run by Mike Slocombe.
History
Urban75 initially originated from a footballFootball (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
comic that started in 1991. Its editor claims that "the first issue sold out in three hours and at one point became the fastest-selling small press comic in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
." .
From here, a Football Fans Against The Criminal Justice Act campaign
Advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
started in 1994. The campaign received large amounts of exposure in the media, and in May 1995 a helper on the campaign from Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
put together the first version of the Urban75 site, using a modem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
donated by The Levellers
The Levellers (band)
The Levellers are an English rock band, founded in 1988 and based in Brighton, England. Their musical style is said to be influenced by punk and traditional English music.-1988-1990:...
.
As the site expanded into areas other than football and protest, it grew in popularity and was moved to a different, bigger server (becoming part of The Head-Space Project until it moved to its own domain in 1998). Early publicity was generated by Shockwave games in which celebrities could be virtually "slapped" or "punched".
Urban75 entered the national news when Brixton's police chief Brian Paddick
Brian Paddick
Brian Leonard Paddick is a British politician, and was the Liberal Democrat candidate for the London mayoral election, 2008, coming third behind Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone...
posted on the bulletin boards in order to discuss issues with Brixton's internet users while he was conducting a cannabis
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
tolerance experiment. However, when the tabloid
Tabloid journalism
Tabloid journalism tends to emphasize topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news...
press discovered Paddick's posting on the site, a scandal was born. In particular, the press highlighted one post on the boards, where Paddick supposedly said "The concept of anarchy has always appealed to me". Paddick subsequently met with the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, and accepted criticism of his remarks. No disciplinary action was taken and Paddick remained in his post until his retirement in 2007.
Site content
The 'Action' section of the site contains an events diary, information, articles, reports and photos from various protests and marches.Urban75 features around 3,500 original photographs, mostly taken by the site's owner. There are galleries of Brixton, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, and Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, as well as various 360º panorama
Panorama
A panorama is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film/video, or a three-dimensional model....
s and photography tutorials.
There is a drugs information section of the site. There is information on most well-known drugs available. The site has stated its aim is to give honest information about drug effects, so people can make their own informed decision.
There is a series of links to the bulletin board on drugs, although this requires registration.
The site features dozens of 'useless' games, made by various web designers.
The games section revels in the fact that many games are pointless and have no meaning (such as 'The DOT-CLICKING game' and 'The Curious Thingy!'). The most popular games are:
- Mr Insult - a series of games based on a character who swears frequently
- The Cossack - games with a mysterious Soviet character
- Punch a Celeb - a section where images of nominated celebrities are clicked on and are, supposedly, punched.
- Slap a Spice Girl - a hugely popular game that was available at the height of the Spice GirlsSpice GirlsThe Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...
fame.
Despite being the website's popular feature, the Slap a Spice Girl game has since been removed for unknown reasons.
Football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
remains a solid part of the site, with articles and features on recent cup competitions as well information as on the Criminal Justice Act
Criminal Justice Act
Criminal Justice Act is a stock short title used for legislation in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Canada relating to the criminal law...
and original strips from the Bluebird Jones comic.
The boards
The bulletin boards have grown into a popular community, with over 40,000 registered members. At present, there are around a quarter of a million page impressions each day, with around 5-6,000 new posts daily. There are currently 26 sub forums covering a range of topics.The forums are divided into "General discussion", "Community forums", "Politics, protest and current affairs", "Travel & places" and "Art, tech & science", in addition to an archive section.
Offline Club
The first Offline club night was held on 19 February 2004, at the Brixton Ritzy cinema, and featured DJs only. The line-up included Dubversion of People's Republic Of Disco, DJ Hoax of Urbanites and Hedge Party infamy, Ian of How Does It Feel To Be Loved?How Does It Feel To Be Loved?
How Does It Feel To Be Loved? is a London-based night club which predominately plays indie pop, Northern Soul and Motown music...
, and Blagsta.
Organised by the site's editor, Offline showcases a wide range of DJs, bands, poets, videos and artists. On 30 September 2004, the club expanded to the Dogstar club in Brixton, and has been hosted at other venues in Brixton, Crystal Palace, central London and occasionally New York.
Its growing popularity forced a move to the larger Brixton Jamm club in 2006 before transferring back to the Dogstar on April 9, 2009, with the club now occupying three rooms and two floors in the central Brixton venue.
In line with the club's eclectic tastes, the Dogstar relaunch party featured a large bill including samba drummers, go-go girls, punk rock bands, poets and a hip hop vocal performance.
A second, regular live music night takes place in the Prince Albert bar on Coldharbour Lane, London SW9.
Offline has put on well known acts such as Mercury Prize nominees The Portico Quartet, author Howard Marks
Howard Marks
Dennis Howard Marks is a Welsh author and former drug smuggler who achieved notoriety as an international cannabis smuggler through high-profile court cases, supposed connections with groups such as the CIA, the IRA, MI6, and the Mafia, and his eventual conviction at the hands of the American Drug...
, comedians Rob Newman, Stewart Lee
Stewart Lee
Stewart Lee is an English stand-up comedian, writer and director known for being one half of the 1990s comedy duo Lee and Herring, and for co-writing and directing the critically acclaimed and controversial stage show Jerry Springer - The Opera...
, Josie Long
Josie Long
Josie Long is an English comedian.-Background:Long spent her early life in Orpington, South East London, where she attended Newstead Wood School for Girls in Swift House. She also attended GIFT Ltd. summer schools. She began performing stand-up comedy at 14, winning the BBC New Comedy Awards at...
, Robin Ince
Robin Ince
Robin Ince is an English stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for presenting the BBC radio show The Infinite Monkey Cage .-Stand-up comedy:...
, Richard Herring
Richard Herring
Richard Keith Herring is a British comedian and writer, whose early work includes his involvement in the double-act, Lee and Herring...
and new wave legend Tom Robinson
Tom Robinson
Tom Robinson is an English singer-songwriter, bassist and radio presenter, better known for the hits "Glad to Be Gay", "2-4-6-8 Motorway", and "Don't Take No for an Answer", with his Tom Robinson Band...
, with all acts being paid two pints of beer.
Described as being "Like someone's friendly house party, opened up for the general public....Entertaining, friendly, and free" The Londonist, the Offline club nights are always free.
Radio
On May 1, 2005 a group of posters made a pilotTelevision pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
radio show for the website, available to download as an mp3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
. The three pilots that followed including an interview with the manager of the site, some originally recorded music contributed by members, documentaries, and live recordings from the Offline club night. There is now a mainly music based radio channel which is updated as and when new shows are recorded.