chilby revealed

A while ago, Londoners started to notice yet another set of mysterious stickers appearing on the city's street furniture. The black-and-white stickers were of a plain design, bearing the capitalised legend THE CHRONICLES OF CHILBY.


Intrigued, this is my england found the associated Facebook group, where similarly baffled individuals speculated in vain about what the stickers might signify. No one guessed correctly.


In the last few days, the answer has come to light. THE CHRONICLES OF CHILBY is a self-produced EP from rapper, singer, dancer and actor V.A.S.


Here is a sample of his wares:



this is my england is typed by a pair of hands attached to a brain too old and out of touch with the kids of today to be able to form a useful view of the merits of the multi-talented Londoner's music. The approach to promotion and entrepreneurship warrants comment, though. It says something about the shrinking of the industrial structures of music promotion and sales. It says something about how even unsigned artists such as V.A.S. buy into the notion of positioning themselves as a brand rather than simply a maker of music. Ahead of doing a deal with any record label, V.A.S. has created a logo for himself and has stepped into the world of advertising and product endorsement, albeit on a local and small-scale basis. “I’m at Shaketastic” he says in an advertisement made earlier this year, “because that’s what I do when I’m in West Hampstead, or Finchley, or Mill Hill or Brent Cross”.



These days it’s striking, then, that there are those who aspire to achieve prominence as music stars or in some other highly visible field and whose approach speaks of their being highly marketing-savvy, branding-aware and digitally literate. When evaluating their chances of success, which will prove more important? This streetwise approach to packaging and promotion? Or levels of actual creative talent? this is my england could only speculate about that, but is mindful of a pervasive celebrity culture in which people famous only for being famous (or, at most, famous for doing something trivial a long time ago) can make a comfortable living. The transformation of loud-mouthed topless poppet Katie Price into a surgically-adjusted, pneumatically enhanced and ever-present irritation is emblematic of this. These kind of phenomena being taken to the horrible place of their logical extremes is further exemplified by Price hosting a TV “talent” show designed to uncover a successor in her role of annoying person who makes money from just being all over the fucking place all of the time for no apparent reason. The plan is for Price and protégé to make money together. Somehow. this is my england does not wish them luck. Anything which hastens the further coarsening of our popular culture is not to be applauded.


Luck, though, is definitely wished to Mr. V.A.S. Seems like a nice chap making a good go of doing what he loves doing and finds interesting.