ALICE'S WICKED TEA PARTY

Very pleased to announce that I'll be at this amazing festival on Saturday 3rd June!!!

This is the best alternative music festival of the year, with a whole range of genres to suit all tastes, so be there!!!!

Tucked away in deepest Dorset, it's being held at Knolle Farm in Purbeck, not far from the gorgeous Corfe Castle.

I'll be sharing the stall with the marvellous Arcane Publishing, and together we'll have a fantastic selection of goodies!!!!
Check out Arcane's blog HERE, to see what they are bringing along!

Tickets are still available for the festival, so check out all the details HERE

Also, click HERE for the full line-up of bands!

Below is a sneaky preview of some items that'll be adorning the ArtPix table, a few are absolutely essential festival requirements!!

By the way, special thanks to our model Bertie, who is taking a break from his duties at my unit at The Customs House, to show you some of my stock. You'll be able to say hello to him at the festival, although he is a little shy!!!

This is Bertie, wearing groovy shades!

 Bertie modelling a 1990s Skanx Systems MA2 jacket.

The logo on the back glows in the dark, perfect while staggering home on those dark country lanes after the festival!!

 Fantastic Global Grooves shoulder bag.

Here is a Planet Sound record bag.

Absolutely essential Industrial Music fan footwear ... German Para Boots! These things NEVER wear out!!!!

 Optional festival equipment, depending on the state of the loos!!! This is an original Second World War gas mark.

 It actually pre-dates the War, as this date stamp shows ... 21st March 1938.

 It also comes with the original box, a pretty rare item these days.

So get your tickets NOW and we'll see you down there!!!!

CORFE CASTLE – THEN AND NOW!

Whilst trundling around the village of Corfe Castle in Dorset, I remembered a postcard I've got, showing a view of the castle.
So I decided to take a photo in exactly the same place as the card!

This is the original... An absolutely classic John Hinde postcard!

I blogged before about Hinde's fantastic postcards, and his pioneering ways he used colour and getting rid of things he didn't want in photos.

Taken some time in the 1960s, it has all the usual qualities his cards had. The enhanced colours, any superfluous bits in the street deleted and a random person plonked in the foreground wearing bright colours!

Here is my photo taken recently...

As you can see the view has hardly changed.
But, there are horrible traffic lights and other bits getting in the way of the perfect view.

This is where the influence of John Hinde kicks in, and of course Photoshop!
So I got rid of all the bits I didn't want, the street lamp, traffic lights, shop signs, the bike, even the dead mown grass in the foreground!

Then in typical Hinde fashion, I added the blue sky and I also put back the 1960s lady, in a weird time-travelling way!

Put the caption at the bottom and you now have your very own modern-day John Hinde/Matt ArtPix postcard!!

PORTLAND'S STONEHENGE!

Forget that boring old Stonehenge in Wiltshire, come along to Portland and see a brand new one!!

At the top of the hill, you'll see these amazing standing stones, which acts as an entrance to the fantastic Sculpture Park at Tout Quarry.

With specially aligned stones, all from different quarries around the island, this really is like its better known forerunner.

And because this is Dorset stone, its full of fossils as well, check out this huge ammonite!!

RETRO FOOTIE STUFF!

Pop along now to my unit at The Customs House in West Bay, Dorset to check out these retro footie treats!

First up is the best goalscoring maestro of them all... JIMMY GREAVES!

I've got a framed original Ty-Phoo Tea Card from 1967. This highly collectable card measures 25cm high x 20cm wide and was part of the International Football Stars 1st Series.

Next up is another original vintage item, this time featuring LIVERPOOL.

This fantastic team-group picture is from the 1968/69 season, and also comes as a framed picture. The Reds' World Cup winning striker Roger Hunt lines up here, and I also have a stunning framed picture of him already in the unit!

My RETRO FOOTBALL PROGRAMMES packages have already proved very popular and I've added CHELSEA to the list, which currently includes ARSENAL, TOTTENHAM and WEST HAM.

These packages will contain original programmes from the 1980s and 90s.

The programmes chart a fascinating era in Chelsea's history. You can follow the progress the club made right up to the time Roman Abramovich bought the club. 

Going back to the mid-80s, Chelsea had an exciting team, including strike duo Kerry Dixon and David Speedie. By the early 90s, the club were dragging their heels, when all of a sudden Glenn Hoddle arrived to revolutionise the club.

Then Ruud Gullit signed!!! 
Still they couldn't win any trophies though. Then along came Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Di Matteo and Gianfranco Zola, and BANG!! There were cups everywhere!! 

The club haven't looked back since, but they were heady days. Read all about it within my programme packages!

WHAT'S-HIS-FACE ON FACEBOOK!

Yikes, looks like I'm the featured trader on The Customs House Facebook page!!

Have a peep now, right HERE