Country boy, Chris Carr - Born for the lights, camera, action of the big city

Moving from bar to restaurant, then to club or gig, the night unfolds at a pace. Mobiles on the go, “where r u?”, “We’re in The Soho Hotel.” “We’ll meet you at Garlic for a Shot.”

For the creative crowd it’s not about the money, it’s about stimulation. You might be sipping Champagne with a client one moment, then in a ‘dive bar’ listening to ‘Death Metal’ with a bunch of skater punks the next – The head of a music label might be found packed ‘cheek by jowl’ with the creators of a viral ad. campaign for sports shoes or something more subversive.

Living smack bang in the centre of Soho, you soon pick up on the ‘rhythm of the city’. You begin to notice the ‘village like’ micro communities that exist around you, almost oblivious to the millions of day workers commuting in and out, tourists meandering through and the night owls looking for a ‘fix’. The ambient sound of the ‘hustle and bustle’ which, at first, can be alarming, soon becomes a comfort.

The night is punctuated by the spluttering of a diesel truck and hiss of it’s air breaks, soon followed by clattering delivery of barrels of beer for the Carlisle and The Dog and Duck – It’s five in the morning and time to drift back to sleep – not so comforting. By half past eight vans arrive with supplies for Bar Italia, Jimmy The Greeks and Ronnie Scott’s to name but a few of the myriad institutions crammed together below me. It’s a humid morning and the sun is pushing it’s way between the narrow alleys as a Westminster City Council water truck hoses the vomit beneath ground.

Time to get up ‘I suppose’ and go mix it up with the ‘trendies’ piling into ‘adland’ and ‘filmland’. Many look as though they have arrived direct from ‘clubland’ – all retro trainers, iPods, fixed gear bicycles and Apple laptops in ‘uni-strap’ rucksacks.

Soho Square is jammed with sunbathers. By lunchtime it’s looking like a penguin colony. By the afternoon the coffee shops are also full. With open windows you can hear the chatter and clinking of china. And by six the bars and pubs too are full to overflowing. Shaftsbury Avenue strains to contain the theatre crowd as they funnel into their stalls and circles. Staying in my third floor apartment is impossible – mobile chirping and door bell ringing. The Soho crowd that have worked such long hours and now want to party hard!

Born in Birmingham, Chris grew up in a Gloucestershire village, went to Grammar school in Cheltenham and won a scholarship to Cheltenham Art College and in the late 80’s got a job as a graphic designer in Mayfair. Chris played gigs at night with a rock band in small clubs and bars around Soho and Camden and powered by Apple Inc, Chris became involved in the world of video for the emerging ‘house’ dance scene. Everyone seemed to be in Soho. The Shoreditch scene was not happening yet. Chris took a studio in Frith Street opposite Bar Italia, with a photographer, and started to create. By day retouching images for BMW and at night editing dance videos and title sequences for television.

By the late nineties Chris was working so many hours, he took a flat in Bateman Street. It was tiny, a complete tip. The building had been split into fats in the sixties and nothing much had changed since then. The first floor flat had two doors and a water pipe with atap on the staircase. Chris recalls  asking the owner why his flat had two front doors to which he replied “One door in and one door out.”

These days Chris produces videos for Silver customers, most recently Logica. He still works in Soho, but the need for space to start a family with his partner has forced them to relocate to King’s Cross – And so another chapter begins. Welcome Cooper Carr.