Who The F*ck is Howard?
This article will be published in issue 1 of 1922 but we thought we'd give it to you earlier seeing as though most of the "nice" Howard messages we documented have since been removed (his name is still everywhere though, make of that what you will...)
They say you’re never more than 6ft away from a rat - this one luckily turned out to just be an urban myth. But one things for certain, step on any street in Manchester and you’re never more than 6ft away from a Howard tag. Dubbed Moston’s answer to Banksy - no one seems to have a clue who he is. I’ve spotted his name emblazoned on bridges and bricks from Stockport to Salford, but judging by the ‘Howard of Moston’ tags dotted around North Manchester most of us have come to the conclusion he’s from round here.
The rest of the city only ever seems to really ‘Howard’ but come to Harpurhey, Moston and Collyhurst and the messages are a little more heartwarming. After Zelfa Barrett stopped Jordan Gill in the 10th round to win the all-British super-featherweight world title, a message from Howard appeared the same night leaving the police scratching their heads when they watched the CCTV back from McDonald’s and he’d been and gone without a trace in less than 10 minutes. Behind Conran street market you’ll find a wall that reads “Put the knives down and do better”. Michael Kennedy’s funeral home, which has since been crudely painted over read “Treat all equal and fair no dispair(sic)”. - not bad advice.
Whoever he is, he’s got both Pat Karney and GMP’s knickers in a twist with a Manchester Evening News article dedicated to the elusive graffiti artist appearing in April. Pat Karney, councillor for Harpurhey vowed to catch him referring to it as environmental vandalism - which it may well be - but surely the true environmental vandalism is councillors and politicians acting like local heroes when all they seem to have done is leave their catchment areas to rot?
The M.E.N. recently updated Harpurheys blurb on their website to read:
“Harpurhey was once named the most-deprived neighbourhood in England but has recently seen significant investment in its district centre and through the new Manchester Communication Academy - one of the city’s largest schools. It was the birthplace of ‘A Clockwork Orange’ author Anthony Burgess and is also the home of late comic Bernard Manning’s ‘World Famous Embassy Club’.”
So you’ve thrown some money at the precinct (where exactly?) but what about the fact the market has seen a catastrophic drop in business over the last year because of the exceptional rise in energy, rent and food costs? So we have one of the city’s largest schools but how many of its students are going hungry? Living in extreme poverty? Living in houses full of mould and damp that aren’t fit for an animal?
This areas been in poverty for years and when I look around me I don't see it getting any better. Pat Karney's answer to these issues is donning a chicken mask in the middle of a crunch meeting - something I'm pretty sure we'd all be sacked for if we tried to pull it at a work meeting - basically calling Rishi Sunak a shitbag for not calling a general election sooner. These are peoples lives and futures that these overpaid, useless muppets are making a joke out of, and with Labour offering nothing but more of the same - who exactly is coming to save us or level us up?
Is it Howard's name that looks so bad or is it the fact it draws attention to how run down and let down this place is? Maybe if the arts funding hadn't been cut into oblivion Howard could find a better creative outlet than spraying his name onto every surface he can find.
