Back for a second run due to popular demand so it would seem, and judging by the crowds attending (and the amount of art being bought) during the first run, there really was a demand for more – no hype needed here, this is really happening. Tonight we’re back is the same place for more, tonight is the rather busy invite only party-preview thing ahead of Friday’s proper opening night of the forthcoming second run. Scroll down this very page for the full review from the first run back in October, this is just an update, news reports from the frontline as it were... So what have we got here this time that wasn’t at the last one? Is it worth going again? Well yes, if you haven’t already been then read the original review and grab this second chance while you can. If you have been already well you know what’s going on – street art, scrap sculpture, counter culture - all there, all out in the open air under the iconic Westway in Ladbrook Grove.  Thankfully the Westway (a foreboding 60’s concrete motorway flyover that dissects West London) offers shelter from the December rain as well as more of that great Mad-Max atmosphere. MuTate is alive underneath the Westway again... 
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              Hard to put a figure on how much of the work is new and not things you would have seen first time around – certainly a healthy percentage. Yes certainly worth going again for the new pieces (be worth going again even if there wasn’t anything new here really...). Hard to say how much of the work is fresh and new for this second run? Forty percent? Perhaps more than that? Yes, more than that.... Things seem a little more subtle this time, a lot more peering in to dark corners needed (not so much fire and light this time?). There’s some impressive new pieces of imposing street art, some really good new pieces. Has to be said, one or two pieces that aren’t quite so impressive this time. Love the free-standing graffiti letter sculpture pieces that spell out Mutate just inside the main gate. 
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MuTATE WINTER '09: MORE ORGAN PHOTOS

            The MuTATE WINTER EXHIBITION runs, under The Westway, Acklam Road, London W10 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from December 4th until December 20th – 
www.mutatebritain.co.uk
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– Now this looked promising on the website, Mutoid Waste Company, under the Westway, with loads of graffiti, some serious names in UK street art and yes, this all looked very promising on line.... So we set off with a feeling excitement and anticipation, only a walk down the road, this is our manor  Tonight is the opening night private party preview of an event that opens tomorrow and runs throughout October. The MuTate team back for more following on from their infamous Behind The Shutters Show, back in Ladbrook Grove and what some of them say is their spiritual home, back with a team that includes some of the most respected names in current UK street art, alongside, photographers, stencil artists, paste up pieces, sculptors... 

The Mutoid Waste Company go way back with us Organs, we’ve been encountering them and their creations pretty much since Organ first started back there in the underground days of the 80’s. Strange vehicles parked outside places like Club Dog, Acid Daze, racing through the dust Mad Max style at the legendary Treeorgey free festival, Skreech Rock, that strange squat hospital that got surrounded by shield-banging riot police in the black of night that time (we all had to crawl through tunnels to get out...). These days the Waste Company pop up at what you might call more mainstream respectable events - official parts of things like Glastonbury Trash City, California’s Burning Man, major corporate festivals in Hyde Park, still as creative as ever though, and good on ‘em, stick them in the real Tate or the middle of Trafalgar Square, they deserve it all, they’re the good people doing well... 
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The old vibe is here, the place is buzziing with energy, alive with the feel of all that 70’s Westway graffiti/punk rock history, the feel of those old Club Dog/free festival/strange squat gig events that happened so much in the 80’s and early 90’s before rave and dance culture changed the shape of free festivals for ever. The heavy thumping dub coming out of the sound system, even the crowds of people look like they’ve fallen out of some kind of mutant page of a 2000AD comic, this is our kind of place, us Organs feel at home. No art-pose here, this isn’t Hoxton, this isn’t the Frieze Fair, there’s a genuine buzz of excitement in the night air alongside the big arc lights and the strange sculptures looming out of the dark above our heads. 
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Straight away you’re hit by the giant Mutoid Waste Company sculptures/vehicles – cannibalised Royal Navy helicopters, military scrap, bits of old fighter plane cockpits that are now bodies of strange looking metal dinosaurs. There’s giant (and we do mean giant) robots, strange mutant motorbikes - the Mutoid Waste Company creations are looking bigger and better than ever, more technical now, still the spirit of those strange psychedelic gun turret trucks parked outside the George Robey back there... The futuristic kinetic robotic creatures made out of bits of scrap that really do grab the most attention, giant fire breathing mechanical bull lurching at the crowds and.... wow! There’s stunning creativity wherever you cast an eye, this is wonderful. Giles Walker’s pole dancing robots are captivating, how did he get them to move like that?! Carrie Reichardt (AKA The Baroness), she of the Treatment Rooms, is by the gate as we go in - she believes the revolution will be ceramicised, there’s that tiled orange pick-up truck by her tile stall that you may have seen in the Funkcutter film. 
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There’s colour and energy coming out of the darkness wherever you look, the graffiti is far from tired, plenty of fresh creativity here, a little more than giant names and I’ve got all the books to copy from if you know what I mean, serious evolution – the old Banksy on the wall outside looks a little tired  (and no disrespect meant there, we’ve still got lots of time for Banksy, easy to shoot at the popular, take art the masses we say). Tonight’s opening was a triumph, need to go back today and take it all in again in the cold light of day. Serious street art, proper counter culture, genuine creative, amazing skill... Brilliant... Thank you MuTate crew, we had a great time 

MuTATE BRITAIN: ONE FOOT IN THE GROVE runs on Friday, Saturday and Sundays throughout October. 2pm – 10pm, under the Westway Flyover, junction of Portobello Road and Acklam Road, London W10. Nearest Tube, Ladbrook Grove, come out of the station, cross the road and walk along underneath the Westway – www.mutatebritain.com
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‘When I think of the punk years, I always think of one particular spot, just at the point where the elevated Westway diverges from Harrow Road and pursues the line of the Hammersmith and City tube tracks to Westbourne Park Station. From the end of 1976, one of the stanchions holding up the Westway was emblazoned with large graffiti which said simply, ‘The Clash’. When first sprayed the graffiti laid a psychic boundary marker for the group – This was their manor, this was how they saw London.’ Jon Savage ‘Punk London’ Evening Standard 1991

‘All across the town, all across the night, everybody’s driving with full head lights, black or white turn it on face the new religion, everybody’s sitting round watching television, London’s burning with boredom now, London’s burning dial 999, Up and down the Westway, in and out the lights, what a great traffic system, it’s so bright, I can’t think of a better way to spend the night than speeding around underneath the yellow lights.’ The Clash ‘London’s Burning’ 1976 
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