The wait is over… GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE : THE HAUNTOLOGY OF GRAFFITI AND RAVE CULTURE 1990 - 2010 GitM documents graffiti and rave subculture in the wake of a post-Thatcher Britain, as a disenfranchised youth finds social cohesion and identity through the act of graffiti. Meanwhile, rave’s rhetoric of social inclusion resisted the binaries of boredom, race, class and gender, making it one of its generation’s most significant youth movements. Written through the eyes of two participant observers, @christopher_stead_ and Nema, who witnessed these two movements in their infancy blossom into global sociocultural phenomena, the book contains seven chapters of imperfect histories, lucid anecdotes, and subcultural polemics to accompany 300 archival photos that capture the spirit of intervention amid an oppressive political climate, along with a foreword by the artist and activist @sportsbanger .  Continuing into the 21st Century, the book charts counterculture’s journey to an unknown future, questioning if the mass acceleration of communication has led to a freezing of time, leaving both seemingly stuck in a state of hauntological retrospection. ft: Essays / photos: @christopher_stead_ & Nema Archive: @ghostsinthemachine__ Foreword: @sportsbanger Publisher: @aliaspress Art direction / graphic design: Studio Aurèle Sack Copy editor: @simonthebooks Printer: @gutenbergbeuys Studio photos / reel edits: @louistfilm Legal team: Sean Summerfield @doughtystreetchambers Available via the link in the bio Hardcover / 32 x 24 cm 360 pages / 2 paper types ISBN: 978-90-81710-15-2

In 2020, whilst debating on the foreword writer for our Ghosts in the Machine book, we drew up a shortlist of artists who stood up and offered a voice to this generation’s societal concerns, and @sportsbanger topped that list. Historically, rave and graffiti culture has been written about by reporters, self-styled gatekeepers, clout chasers, and influencers for years, sticking their flag into the hill of history for good measure. But sometimes, you have to look from the outside in to see the bigger picture. Jonny Banger never painted graffiti in his life. Still, he’s spent the last 15 or so years raving and hustling alongside its writers, which is a life sentence in itself, meaning his lived observations of British counter-culture were vital to this document. Getting the manuscript from Jonny on time was another story, however, on the day he sent the manuscript, I opened the laptop and a pigeon landed on the screen as I started to read it, which I took as a sign from above and the words on the pages brought a little tear to my eye.  Books like these will live on way past our expiration date, and when the next generation looks back to this period, they’ll need a written reference, not digital content. This book aims to be one of those key references to our culture and the era. ‘Ghosts in the Machine : the Hauntology of Graffiti and Rave Culture 1990 - 2010’ by @christopher_stead_ & Nema is out now via @aliaspress ft: Foreword: @sportsbanger Essays / photos: @christopher_stead_ @ghostsinthemachine__ Copy Editor: @simonthebooks Art direction / graphic design: Studio AS Print / binding: @gutenbergbeuys Legal team: Sean Summerfield @doughtystreetchambers

OUT NOW ‘Ghosts in the Machine : the Hauntology of Graffiti and Rave Culture 1990 - 2010’ documents subculture in the wake of a post-Thatcher Britain, as a disenfranchised youth finds social cohesion and identity through the act of graffiti. Meanwhile, rave’s rhetoric of social inclusion resisted the binaries of boredom, race, class and gender, making it one of its generation’s most significant youth movements. Written through the eyes of two participant observers, @christopher_stead_ and Nema, this book contains seven chapters of imperfect histories, lucid anecdotes, and subcultural polemics to accompany 300 archival photos that capture the spirit of intervention amid the oppressive political climates of the ‘90s and ‘00s questioning if the mass acceleration of communication has led to a freezing of time, leaving both seemingly stuck in a state of hauntological retrospection. Designed by Studio AS, the book contains a foreword written by the artist and activist @sportsbanger . Available now via the link in the bio. ft: Essays / photos: @christopher_stead_ @ghostsinthemachine__ Foreword: @sportsbanger Copy Editor: @simonthebooks Art direction / graphic design: Studio AS Publisher: @aliaspress Printer: @gutenbergbeuys Legal team: Sean Summerfield @doughtystreetchambers Film editor: @louistfilm Music: Primal Pads by @bentondread @heras_records ISBN: 978-90-81710-15-2

It’s a year to the day since we released Ghosts in the Machine : the Hauntology of Graffiti and Rave Culture to the world. From inception to conception, the journey spanned over a decade as life’s interventions, lockdowns, and three failed publishing deals all played their part in delaying the train, and at times it seemed we may never arrive at the destination. Thankfully, @aliaspress intervened with a plan, and the real work began, but despite the endless archiving, OCDC-rated attention to detail, and uber-contemporary design, you never know how a book will be received, so we almost considered hiring a ‘cool publicist’ to help us fly the ship, but decided to spend the money on a tip-top lawyer and grow organically instead. The rest is history. One year, some signings here, talks there and a couple of million views later, this physical and online part of the chapter is coming to a close, as we only have 25 books left, which we will take with us to be signed at the UNLOCK BOOK FAIR (@unlockfair ), held at the UNESCO world heritage site Völklinger Hütte (@voelklinger_huette ) in Germany next month. This year’s programme brings together publishers, projects, and speakers from across Europe, America and beyond for a comprehensive weekend of books and culture. More details on this and on an institutional project we have quietly bubbling away in the background later. The ideas surrounding the Ghosts in the Machine project aren’t just limited to printed matter. Books are forever, but the real goal is to tell the story of British subculture, representation and resistance in times of political retrograde, which will involve you, the public, no matter where you are from or how you were raised, as the current regime and one waiting in the wings have no love for culture, and we have to hold on to this thing of ours. See you on the ice. UNLOCK BOOK FAIR 2026 8–10 May Völklinger Hütte @voelklinger_huette ➔ Book Fair Opening Times
May 8, Friday: 1—6:30pm
May 9, Saturday: 11am—7pm
May 10, Sunday: 11am—5pm

Repost from @practice__magazine ・・・ Rave, graffiti, politics, art, Britain. The inimitable artist @christopher_stead_ speaks to @jacobnegushill on the themes of his incredible book ‘Ghosts in the Machine: The Hauntology of Graffiti and Rave Culture 1990 - 2010’. Co-written alongside graffiti writer Nema, both rave and graff are seen as necessary acts of youth cohesion that are shaped specifically by post-Thatcher Tory Britain. The book was released last year. But the ideas are so relevant, so brilliant, it’s a timeless capsule of Britain’s past and, importantly, an optimistic look at what could be our future. Link in @practice__magazine bio.

Call of the Void Why is the allure of fear so addictive? Call of the Void (l‘appel du vide), also known as high place phenomenon (HPP), is the commonly misunderstood experience of feeling the sudden urge to jump in front of a train, despite fear and rationality. Described by French playwright Jean-Paul Sartre as the ‘vertigo of possibility’, whilst viewed as delayed logic within existential philosophy, despite being part of the human condition, these obsessive-compulsive symptoms are more prevalent in ADHD minds, as the neurodivergent brain is more prone to processing intrusive ego-dystonic thoughts. That’s why it’s no surprise that 30% of people in both penal and art institutions have identified learning difficulties, with the real figure believed to be 50% when you consider the undiagnosed. This explains why so many graffiti writers, artists, musicians, and ravers make up this wonderfully weird heterotopic bubble. Post-publication notes and redacted images from the yellow brick book, Ghosts in the Machine : the Hauntology of Graffiti and Rave Culture 1990 - 2010. Archive: @ghostsinthemachine__ Essays / photos: @christopher_stead_ & et al Foreword: @sportsbanger Publisher and distributor: @aliaspress ISBN: 978-90-81710-15-2

The aesthetics of British boredom. Whilst the term ‘bumpkin’ was often used as a mean-spirited word for those not born in London, it also provided a source of suburban inspiration and a escape plan to the restless, because if all you saw out of your bedroom was cows and tractors, you knew you had to get out of the countryside, aka the Bumpkin Zoo and head to the big smoke sooner or later. London forever holds a romantic place in the hearts of writers, ravers, and artists as the subcultural capital of Europe. Despite its dystopian flaws, social inequality, and systemic failings, these idiosyncratic imperfections in its civic tapestry make it the beautifully broken utopia it is, attracting the curious like moths to a light. Cherry-picked capers, tales and post-publication notes from the yellow brick book, Ghosts in the Machine : the Hauntology of Graffiti and Rave Culture 1990 - 2010. Archive: @ghostsinthemachine__ Essays / photos: @christopher_stead_ & et al Foreword: @sportsbanger Publisher and distributor: @aliaspress ISBN: 978-90-81710-15-2

👻 Hauntology, undefined and unexplained. 🕵️‍♂️ One of the challenges in focusing the lens on some of the hauntological themes present in British subculture as it traverses the post-digital age was finding a neutral balance between past, present, and future conditions, without being overly critical or naively nostalgic. 😷 Primarily penned in the height of Covid, as both rave and graffiti counterculture seemingly drifted in a state of cultural amnesia, the social conditions sharply shifted towards the end of writing, as a T@ry -induced moral-minimalism created a new economic faultline, returning us to divisions not seen since the Miners’ Strike and that familiar haunting feeling of a failed future, that Mr Fisher warned us about some years ago. 💊 Both the algorithmic anxieties of social media and the parliamentary malaise of a headless Right preceding a Right-leaning Left produced a generational change in how we perceive power, as we well and truly discovered, there wasn’t much difference in who was in charge after all, leading to a state of SSRI melancholy where 15% of the nation is fuelled by anti-depressants. To quote CP30’s Fisherian future premonition, ‘we’re doomed.’ Rip Mark. ✍️Post-publication notes, afterthoughts, and cherry-picked JPGs from the Ghosts in the Machine : the Hauntology of Graffiti and Rave Culture (1990 - 2010) book.* Archive: @ghostsinthemachine__ Essays / photos: @christopher_stead_ & et al Foreword: @sportsbanger Publisher and distribution: @aliaspress 📒* Only 100 yellow bricks left.

🇫🇷Flâneurs of Paris ✍️We’re packing our blue passports, and toothbrushes for a GitM book signing and presentation at Paris’s magnificent @legrandjeu bookstore, 3-7pm this Saturday afternoon. Despite some cultural differences, both the London and Paris scenes share similar tropes, in that neither draws inspiration from outside, choosing instead to extract its energy from within. As with Berlin and Rome, the scenes are more organic and insular, as each has subway and transit systems so sprawling yet dense that their respective local politics and systems alone are as complex as a whole country’s, meaning, collectively, they don’t seek validation from outsiders, which makes each city’s individual scenes so uniquely special. The similarities end there. The Ghosts in the Machine book is a quintessentially British affair that documents graffiti and rave culture in the wake of post-Thatcher England. Written through the eyes of two participant observers, @christopher_stead_ and Nema, the book contains imperfect histories, anecdotes, and subcultural polemics to accompany archival photos that capture the spirit of intervention amid the oppressive political climates of the ‘90s and ‘00s. If you are in town, pop down and get squiffy with us. @legrandjeu bookstore 📍 15 Passage Ménilmontant, 11th Arrondissement, 75011 Paris 🕸️ GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE : THE HAUNTOLOGY OF GRAFFITI AND RAVE CULTURE 1990 - 2010. Essays / photos: @christopher_stead_ & Nema Foreword: @sportsbanger Archive: @ghostsinthemachine__ Publisher: @aliaspress Printer: @gutenbergbeuys Hardcover / 32 x 24 cm 360 pages / 2 paper types ISBN: 978-90-81710-15-2 25,000 words 360 pages 300 photos 20 years of archival documentation 12 years in the making 2 accounts 1 story but

Slam-door Society. 🛤️ Whilst Brighton’s network of hidden graffiti spots in squats and abandoned warehouses offered a sense of catharsis to the curious, the real mystique dwelled in the liminal spaces on the train tracks, where the graffiti remained out of public reach, quarantined in precarious heterotopic spaces of deviance. Here, there wasn’t much colour, just the faded silver names of the faceless, which appeared as the ghosts in the machine that was British Rail. An ever-expansive network of electrified tracks, tunnels and bridges, where tags were physically embedded into the fabric of society as part of the (sub)urban clamour. The capers experienced riding the lines of the old slam-door trains were a way of life for the wayward, providing a home away from home, called Bumpkin Zoo. 📒 Don’t forget to check out the GitM interview between writer and literary critic @leerourke and @christopher_stead_ in 3am Magazine, an online journal that focuses its lens on radical literature and philosophy. Link below. 🔗 /3am/ghosts-in-the-machine-christopher-stead-interviewed/ 📻 Stay tuned for news of imminent talks and book signings, as we pack up the last copies of the book and hit the road. Remember, when it’s gone, it’s gone. Ghosts in the Machine : the Hauntology of Graffiti and Rave Culture 1990 - 2010 Essays / photos: @christopher_stead_ and Nema Foreword: @sportsbanger Art direction / graphic design: Studio AS Print: @gutenbergbeuys Publisher : @aliaspress Archive: @ghostsinthemachine__ Hardback / 32 × 24 cm
360 pages / 2 paper types
300 colour photographs ISBN: 978-90-81710-15-2

🚜💨 From the Farmyard to the Tube Yard 🛤️ The first GitM book documents the hidden histories of the self-unemployed, who worked without rules or money, to create their own rules and currency. Spanning over two decades, the journey begins in the countercultural revolution of Acid House and graffiti in the rural farmyards, traversing the Blair, millennium bug, and yonder years, where groups lost themselves within the sprawling metropolis of the London Underground, in order to find themselves. 🐇 Made up of 249 miles of Victorian tracks and 270 stations, the Tube is a mazy myriad of lines and tunnels that connect the city’s boroughs, interweaved with an additional 334 overground stations, providing a never-ending rabbit hole where the curious can disappear indefinitely and the impossible possibilities are infinite*. Ghosts in the Machine : the Hauntology of Graffiti and Rave Culture 1990 - 2010 Publisher: @aliaspress Essays / photos: @christopher_stead_ & Nema Foreword: @sportsbanger Archive: @ghostsinthemachine__ Hardcover / 32 x 24 cm 360 pages / 2 paper types ISBN: 978-90-81710-15-2 *Allegedly, by all accounts.

Magical day in Manchester talking all things Ghosts in the Machine last weekend with @leerourke First time I’ve had to talk about anything graffiti or rave-related without a lawyer present, so the nerves kicked in when @boundartbookfair invited me to speak at The @whitworthart , as writing is a solitary sport and anxiety doesn’t tolerate company. Thanks, Lee, for grabbing the steering wheel as we sped through the neurodiverse universe, discussing the aesthetics of poverty and boredom, mental health as a medium, and crash-landing in the Neoliberal cul-de-sac for good measure. Big hugs to @lillianwilkie , @robert___parkinson , and Joe from @villagebooks.co , who’ve created a lovely, creative community up there, and to the local writers and friends who showed love and support (you know who you are)! Salute! Whilst writing GitM during COVID, ‘someone’ told me that ‘no one’ would actually read the book, as ‘everyone’ would be more interested in the photos 🧐🤓🤔 Books are forever. More soon.