While Notting Hill is famous for Carnival, a Romantic Comedy and Up Market Boutiques , Ladbroke Grove to me represents the more urban and gritty end of the scale, synonymous with graffiti , breaking and hip hop in general. I remember the Vinyl Solution record shop and Children of Vision Hair Stylists back in the day.
I was lucky enough to go see Mos Def and Talib Kweli (Black Star) at Ladbroke Grove early in their career with my friends Alex Shaolin and Wayne Snooze.
I remember the year Tim Westwood hosted the Radio 1 stage in the underpass at Carnival under and got shot.
While Westwood clearly loved the music . I always thought he portrayed an inauthentic gangster image and that was before the sex allegations came to light.
I had my own experience in "the end" just after finishing University. I was "temping" and was given a job attendant of open air lido in a small park just off Ladbroke Grove.
On my first day my I met my Supervisor at "Cerco" he practised Five Animals Kung Fu so we had a nice chat about that, He said people don't often last in this post don't take it personally . I couldn't think why, it seemed a nice stress free role. I was looking forward to reading a book a friend had recommended the "Celestine Prophecy"
No sooner had my supervisor left and a gang of youth , turned up they said this was their park and lido and I shouldn't bother coming back to work tommorow. That night the lido was vandalised so it was closed to children the following day as I spent the day clearing up the mess.This happened all week and I suffered verbal abuse , threats ,intimidation during the days as I worked. By Friday I'd had enough and called in sick the following Monday at which point my agency at the suggestion of the supervisor moved we to a different job.
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