My brother had a NES, I was useless at ‘Duck Hunt’ so I stuck to ‘Paperboy’ on the Amiga. My mate John had a SNES and ‘Streetfighter 2’, he was great at it – why was I so bloody useless? I loved the game, a million miles away from ‘Potty Pigeon’! I think I did improve, slightly but would always get slapped down by the fatty in the nappy or my head kicked off by a screeching girl.

Yet ignoring my pitiful displays my memories I take from this game far outweigh the embarrassment and I loved creating this piece. Has it made me want to get back involved with the game? Yes. Will I be any better now we have the use of the internet ‘how to’ videos? No chance! It has made me think back to quality time with quality life-long mates who I know more than ever that I need to make time to see them more, different world, new battles, same characters.

The original plan for this was to create a really gritty market scene and have the characters fighting amongst it but after seeing the vibrancy of the ‘Masters Of The Universe’ piece I changed direction and chose to use a backdrop of a stunning temple where the full spectrum of colours could be embraced and amplified. So, what you see is actually brutal yet beautiful, something that I have often embraced in darker pieces where we consider the negative as an art form and a thing of beauty through striving to master ones’ skill.

I also always intended to overlay the scene with gameplay screen details such as the ‘life bar’ and scores but I decided against this once I saw how intense and real the scene had become and it really felt like you were stood there watching the fight unfold rather than simply playing a game. This is the very quality that I hoped to achieve where you are using every bit of your imagination to really live the moment. I am so pleased with the end result that it has 100% created the platform for exciting developments… Round Two!

My ‘Lost in Hollywood’ collections have been so incredibly well received by collectors and with my previous collection continuing to be popular in galleries I was keen to create a piece that followed on and would sit really nicely within the movie artworks yet offer something a little different.

What we see is an abandoned theme park that is starting to be reclaimed whilst an imposing entrance to ‘Lost in Hollywood’ world frames the scene. The cool thing is it is all a question of timing and what you see compared to what you could have missed. My previous style of not showing characters could have existed a mere ten seconds prior to what you now see, yet you now see a scenario where the machines are rising up and taking control.

Like with so many other movies I have toyed with the idea of interpreting ‘Short Circuit’ for years and it was at a charity event earlier in the year and the day after ‘Lost in Hollywood 2’ was released that I was heckled by Johnny 5! It reminded me just how much I loved him from the films so I had to give him the lead role here. It was his mischievous character that is shown again here as he goes on a mission to ‘tag’ the park.

I always have the main hook when planning each piece but I love to see how it evolves and adjusts as you create and build each scene and that is personified by a bumper car rocking up (well at a steady 8.8mph!) and being driven by EVE and WALL-E, totally random but really quite cute. Other iconic machines and characters play their part, quite something to imagine being stood there as Alien and Predator jump into view! Then ED-209 takes his position, he scared the hell out of me as a kid when I first watched Robocop on VHS with my mate Keith. The brutality was so raw and real I had never seen anything like it and it still freaks me out seeing the sense of panic in the room as the countdown starts. You have twenty seconds to buy!

The piece was about 80% done and saved ‘locally’ and due to go to print in two days’ time, oh how I wept like a baby. Blubbering and crapping myself aside I luckily was saved by ‘iCloud’ and was able to finish it to what you now see today. There’s a story for the Grandkids right there.

‘The Memory Remains’ focused on an intriguing, classic toy shop – a million miles away from how we shop for our kids nowadays. So, what we see in the follow up is inside the toy shop, a nostalgic feast of pretty much every toy that you can think back to owning or wanting to own. The room is full to bursting with classic games, toys and sweets in the hope that I have created the ultimate shrine to our childhood playtime. This is without doubt the most labour-intensive piece that I have created to date, with in excess of one hundred hours going into the scene. There are subtle qualities that link visually with the first piece in terms of composition and I am keen to see if you spot them.

I am always keen for my pieces to link together and this is done here by some of the toys and teddies being referenced in the toy shop that are also shown in my 2019 ‘Skool’s Out’ piece where the Summer holidays are in full swing (can’t help myself with the puns). This shows that everything revolves around the toy shop that you see here now, there was none of this shopping around or click and collecting – it was that trip in with you family or friends to the toy shop in town and you loved and lived every minute of it.

So, for everyone who owns the first piece or missed out but hoped for a great follow up I genuinely hope that you love what you see and that I have done justice to your memories. I have loved every single minute of creating this piece (with the exception of paragraph 1!) and on a personal level it has reinforced what a cracking childhood I enjoyed and without doubt those memories burn more vividly than before, the best memories will always remain.

I have so many vivid memories as a kid being taken to football matches by my Dad, Michael, be it Saturdays at Luton Town or long trips up to Elland Road. Yet it was the real treat when you were taken to Wembley to watch an England game, it was always about how you felt seeing those famous towers and all of the football coaches parked up that I remember more than the game itself. Coming home with a flag or sweatbands that you would cherish long after the game.

I’ve only been to the new Wembley once (all part of being a Leeds fan!) and whilst it is a magnificent arena it is nothing in comparison to the stature of seeing those towers appear. So that was the aim for this piece, to create a scene where the stadium loomed up suddenly between buildings with a real sense of magnificence. Nostalgia personified.

What we see took an absolute age as I wanted to create a perfect scenario within the London street scene. I wanted to feature an iconic green tiled boozer and a proper old-school high street shop that we can all relate to. I saw the opportunity to link nicely in with the format of ‘The Memory Remains’ and I am really pleased with how it has turned out!

The piece is actually celebrating the World Cup win of 1966 with so much of the details paying homage to the Ramsey boys who lifted the ‘Jules Rimet’, there are some really subtle but beautiful details for you to seek out. However, the more you look you realise that the scene is actually set in the late 80’s, references to ‘Live Aid’ and the Queen sell out Wembley concert all help to build the story.

Those who follow my work closely will know that I love to inject a multi-layered narrative where possible and this is the case with this piece. ‘Greavsies Rentals’ is a quirky TV rental shop like so many of us can remember. This detail in itself provided a really great quality to the scene but right from the start I had wanted to feature a reference to the wheeler and dealer Del Boy.

I had originally intended to just have his three wheeler parked up in the side street but the more personality that grew from the rentals shop and the questionable quality of the goods I chose to showcase the source of the TV’s by insinuating that it was actually Mr Trotter himself that was supplying Greavsie! It is just a wonderful bit of randomness that I feel takes this piece away from simply being able to be embraced by football fans. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did creating it.