MY GOLD'S BANGLA

"In 2004 in the UK, following complaints from the public about postal carriers causing litter by discarding the rubber bands which they used to keep their mail together, the Royal Mail introduced red bands for their workers to use: it was hoped that, as the bands were easier to spot than the traditional brown ones and since only the Royal Mail used them, employees would see (and feel compelled to pick up) any red bands which they had inadvertently dropped. Currently, some 342 million red bands are used every year."

Since 2006 i've been picking them up, tagging and labelling them. With with dates, words, phrases, memories, locations, cryptic allusions, precise observations, relevant or completely irrelevant information associated with that red rubber band.

It has been, and still is an exercise in obsessive behaviour. My collection currently stands as a document of a 5 year period between 2006 - 2011. Initially collected as totems and omens of good luck, the compulsion turned into the piece itself. The labelling of the mundane, everyday object to imbue it with some meaning and a sense of it's own time and existence.

It was recently exhibited at the Basement Gallery in Brighton, as part of an exhibition about collectors. People seemed to be interested in it, a lot of people asked a lot of questions and a couple of people thought I was a massive fraud. I even got an article in the local paper and interviewed by a weatherman on tv about it. The people who put the exhibition did a great job of hanging the piece...

I had a tape player hanging from the wall with a loop of the song the piece is named after. The mother and daughter that were quite adamant I was full of shit and a fake collector wouldn't even believe that I was in a band, let alone the singer from the tape. A harsh lesson in the fact that if the aesthetics don't match the sonics then you won't be taken seriously. or something... 

Anyway, the exhibition went great, thanks for asking. Now, luckily for you we're putting up the piece for sale. It's available from our shop here. 

The piece comes with the 300 red rubber bands attached to fishing-wire for ease of display.

It also comes with a signed, framed original copy of the lyrics to "MY GOLD'S BANGLA". 

Also by purchasing the piece you will receive a lathe cut 7", which will be the only one in existence, the a-side being the original version of "MY GOLD'S BANGLA" and the b-side a re-working completely exclusive to the 1 of 1 pressing.

The cost includes delivery to anywhere in the world.

"Crimson plastic, 

flecks of internal luck lie 

amidst the cracks, 

the broken greys, which hold 

no interest 

except for those looking from the shoes up. 

I’m looking for omens everywhere. 

Rituals that hold no weight, 

follow our own rules and our own fates, 

unclean digits aren’t a direct cause but 

an effect,

constricted wrists stop the flow with a

band of red.


I’m looking for omens everywhere."