Greg Stanley

POV you picked up a flyer on Gardner Street on a Saturday afternoon mooch around Brighton’s Laines. It was handed to you by a guy selling vintage clothing and film cameras. He’s got an accent you can’t quite place. Says he’s from Basingstoke. Tells you those sunglasses are a tenner, by the way, and you can pay on card. The flyer’s for a clubnight happening that very evening at A L P H A B E T — a venue you’ve heard good things about. You ask what sort of music it is. He can’t really say. Just that it’ll be good. And that it’s run by an independent print magazine he’s taken loads of photos for. Curious, you stick it in your pocket. On the off chance. A 10:30pm start can feel like 4 in the morning after a long week. Later on, you’ve done the full rotation. Dinner. Sofa. Prime TV. McIntyre’s Wheel has stopped spinning. The night’s gone. Until a WhatsApp comes in — from a friend you’ve been due a catch-up with: “Going to this later if you fancy a dance x” A UE Boom in the shower and a brisk walk later, you’re pushing open the door at Alphabet. Up the stairs. Gentle thud of a soundsystem. The two blokes pictured are the first thing you see inside the dance. Is that another Basingstoke accent? “Got a ticket?” Pause. “That’ll be £12 then. Cheers.” Photos by @asherpenney , who was also the guy on the market.

On @offlicencemagazine ’s latest radio show, EiC @gregstanley ran through songs heard in 2025 and more specifically, WHERE they were heard. Here’s some reflections on what was the last iteration of @velvetfestival - a Croatian-owned festival that championed what underground music culture looks like in the Balkans today. Good work if you can get it. This full show up on YouTube and Mixcloud, and a whole day of broadcasting from the festival is in the Offie Radio archive, too. Song featured @client_03 - Ur_Love (played by @whereisqendresa on Offie Mag’s boat party with @oblakodermagazin 🛥️) #offiemag #musicfestivalseurope #musicfestivals #velvetfestival #stammer

The Editor’s Letter read on-air by editor and (st)ambassador-in-chief @gregstanley . Full hour-ish show, an exploration of the JAZZ issue itself, now available for playback via YouTube and Mixcloud. Link’s in bio. #offiemag #jazzissue #jazzradio #stammer

@EJTHACKRAY IN OFFIE MAG, ISSUE 16: “JAZZ.” Fluent in the language of cross-genre experimentation and multi-instrumentalist exploration, Emma-Jean Thackray doesn’t resist the pull of other genres, with her latest album ‘Weirdo’ delivering a notable departure from the jazz-fusion foundation she has diligently built over the course of her extensive musical career - and a Marcury Prize nomination. We meet Emma-Jean on a bright Tuesday afternoon in the peaceful arena of the Horniman Museum grounds, a short stretch from Forest Hill overground and a stone’s throw from leafy Peckham Rye. Soundtracked by midweek toddlers and their associated adults, the scene felt reminiscent of Emma-Jean’s explorative and shiny 2021 record Yellow, with the hopeful refrain of “brighter days are coming” from her track Sun silently underscoring our conversation. Read it all in the new Offie Mag. Link in bio to order it to yours. Words by @elsa__yeah Photos by @gregstanley

OFFIE MAG’S GOING ON TOUR 🥹 TICKETS VIA @OFFLICENCEMAGAZINE 🎫 We’re doing events outside of Brighton & Hove for the very first time thanks to some good news that came from @aceagrams . 4 clubnights in 4 grassroots venues in 4 different cities. 4 quiet nights in at the library nots. Thanks to those on the end of our Arts Council bid, to @championeurope for their support, to Hattie and @resident_advisor for the write-up, to the people who make Offie Mag the thing it is-slash-has become, and to the people who don’t watch me or anyone else when on the dance floor. Let me hit my Grandad Sean’s Knee Swapping dance in peace. Posters by @dan.lovr , photos from LHS I by @rodney.deluxe .

Another one for @uncle_insta in New York, this time with @em.ill.e 🎨 We spoke about skipping class to get to art galleries, picking stuff up off the floor in the name of art and archiving, and taking up space - be that in an exhibition or, for the purpose of this collab, in the streets. Full article is at the link in my bio via the UNCLE website.

Told the family group chat I interviewed my Bruce Springsteen 😭 I spoke to @mikelikesrap for @uncle_insta , just before he dropped the new album and set off on the Artist of the Century tour. The album is ridiculously detailed, right down to the visual collages that were plastered over New York as part of this. Read the interview via the UNCLE website, and listen to the album everywhere, including via the vinyl records that were announced yesterday via @10k.global . S/O @khalynguyen S/O @naavink Extra photos by @asherpenney for @offlicencemagazine in 2021.

I got a printer and a scanner and I think I may now be able to efficiently and tastefully share my writing right here on L̶i̶n̶k̶e̶d̶I̶n̶ Instagram. This interview with @jacob.consenstein happened the day before Christmas Eve, so Jacob dialled in from Brooklyn and I dialled in from Basingstoke. It’s part of an ongoing project for the good peoples at @uncle_insta who’ve got me looking into music and culture in all the cities where they put their wild posters up. Artists that we interview get their work on the city walls and seeing Jacob’s photography up in New York City - a city he spoke really honestly and passionately about in this here interview - is great. Jacob himself that said he’s ‘always seen the value of presenting work physically. There’s something uniquely impactful about seeing art in person—on the street or in a gallery—rather than on a screen. It removes the hierarchy of galleries and makes art accessible in a raw, immediate way.’ The full interview is available via the link in my bio, in which we get into the ups and downs of social media, documenting a world that he’s proud of, and ultimately, what makes him one of my favourite photographers around right now. Photos via UNCLE.

For @offlicencemagazine , I had the pleasure of formally chopping it up and photographing @zackfox for a front cover story. Here’s a little excerpt for freeloaders and prospective editors I hope will commission me: ‘With an unfiltered tone, motivated simply to just make a cluster of his friends in Atlanta laugh, Zack Fox’s use of social media for social commentary, illustrations, short skits and joke writing - now all known homogenously as ‘content’ - were the launch pad for work in the more traditional art forms of TV, film, stand-up comedy and music. What makes Fox unique though is that he brings the raw, chaotic spirit of a golden era of social media, into all of the above. Only in the last few years has highly-funded, scrutinously directed mainstream media begun to tackle the so-called stigmas of mental health, race and religion. Zack Fox dump-tackled them all in the one-minute and 52 seconds of ‘Jesus is the One (I Got Depression),’ a musical score made in one, improvised session for his good friend Kenny Beats’ YouTube show, The Cave. To over-analyse the song - or start a campaign for it to retrospectively win a Grammy - would be to miss the point. As with everything that Zack makes, it’s not a case of thinking about the reception it will get when it’s done, it’s how it felt whilst making it. This ethos is one of the grounding principles of his process, even when it comes to choosing who he works with. ‘I collaborate with people who make me feel like we’re just two six-year-olds. It’s that feeling of pure creation, where you’re not thinking about the end result or how it’s going to be perceived, but just having fun with it and trying to make each other feel good.’ ‘Once I stopped trying to make my career make any kind of sense to me or anybody else, a lot of that pressure dissipated. I realised I was always the dude in the back of the class making crazy shit, and that was enough for me. I stopped caring about what other people expected, stopped caring about trying to fit into any one box. That’s the freedom that allowed me to do everything—music, comedy, DJing—and to not worry if it makes sense to anyone but me.’ ‘

Ended 2024 by curating a whole @offlicencemagazine exhibition. First time I’d ever seen all fourteen issues at once, and the first time we ever did an Offie Mag event that was just about the photos and interviews we’ve done over the years, with imagery, event tickets and other artefacts dating back to 2017 (AD). Massive thanks to @lighthouse_btn for having us and to @btsbobby and @lucie_rachel for all of their work on it. Guest installation from @patternup.pu . Production, physical and emotional support from @brickcellphone . Never ending doom scroll video by @jaybartlett__ with cameos from @tellmewachuwan . Additional archive photography from @asherpenney . Poster design by @dan.lovr . Coffee by @skylark.coffee . Photo prints by @colourstreambrighton . First photo by Fezzy.

Earlier this year I spoke to @foundation.fm for @buildhollywood . Off the back of their debut release as a record label, @becky.tong and @alicevyvyanjones told me about how they make the ‘community’ part of community radio a real thing and not a buzzword, and the importance of having their own space. Having just relocated to a new spot of their own in Hackney, it’s as good a time as any to tap in with them. Full interview on the BUILDHOLLYWOOD site 🧹

It was a pleasure speaking with @hakbaker for @buildhollywood recently. ‘HAKEEM,’ a film that documents five or so years of his life, has been touring up and down the country, and it’s just as beautifully honest as Hak’s music is. Hak’s story shouldn’t just be seen as inspiring, it should be seen as proof. Proof that we need more youth centres, proof that we need more access to music and proof that we need more working class creatives. And YOU need more Hak Baker. So watch the film. See the billboard. Listen to the music. Read the interview on the BUILDHOLLYWOOD website. Have a nice weekend dog bless.