EP69 | Bobzilla | Murals, Music and Mercury Missiles | Local Heroes Podcast

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan sit with Bobzilla - artist, muralist, DJ, photographer, and a man whose own mum still refuses to call him anything but Robert.

The name itself is a tale. Born Robert Page (yes, both off Led Zeppelin), he became Rob, then Bob courtesy of a big lad called Robbie, and finally Bobzilla on a drunken night when a mate needed a DJ name and turned himself into Optimus Prime.

Sheffield-raised and Newcastle-adopted, Bob takes us from photographing illegal graffiti in dodgy railway yards (and getting arrested in one - though he did get a free lift back to town) to painting murals on the Quayside, in people's backyards, and on a Beetle now driven around by a Whitley Bay midwife.

There's the cars at the Salt Market, the burger joints he's transformed, and the eternal question of what happens to graffiti's soul when the money turns up. He talks about clubland and the photo book born from it - 'It's a Family Affair' - a gritty black-and-white document of grassroots nights at World Headquarters and beyond, back when people went out to dance and not a single phone was in sight.

He's honest about the baggage that comes with the lifestyle, and taking risks behind the decks - dropping Public Enemy into a techno set, and playing Windowlicker when nobody dares. And he's honest about the eight-year wait for an ADHD diagnosis, the medication that finally quietened his mind, the anxiety behind the cafe that didn't work, and why Newcastle - with neighbours who turn up to help with the gardening - has been the friendliest place he's ever lived.

Plus, his last-meal favourites get a proper airing: a fierce love of PEK, a deep distrust of tinned salmon, and childhood jars of potted beef made next to his school.

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