
Yes. Pele has unveiled a statue of England's best ever goalkeeper and probably the world's greatest one-eyed sportsman, Gordon Banks. Banksy is remembered for the "save of the century" in which he turned a header by Pele over the bar during the 1970 World Cup.
I always thought he made a bit of a meal of it as it would surely have been easier to tip it around the post. But then I have both eyes (yes I am aware Banksy didn't lose his eye until long after that match).
In similar news it seems that another Banksy has also been revealed by the ever helpful Daily Mail. Turns out the Citizen Smith of street art is allegedly a public schoolboy who was quite good at rugby. Is that any surprise? Surely street-smart art-punk Zorros wouldn't have been reading Private Eye which seemed to be where Banksy derived much of the inspiration for his stencil cartoons.
Around our way we have many a dedicated "street artist" decorating our already grimy streets with their squiggles. There is one name that has risen to prominence over the last few months with literally dozens of examples of his art from 6" doodles at the tube station to 25 foot sprinkles on a disused billboard. What he lacks in talent he makes up for in persistence. But could there be a worse name for a tagger than PUBES?
Kirk Lake is a writer, musician and filmmaker. His published books include Mickey The Mimic (2015) and The Last Night of the Leamington Licker (2018). His films include the feature films Piercing Brightness (2014) and The World We Knew (2020) and a number of award winning shorts.
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