The evening I was to interview Clifford Joseph Price, I drove across London diagonally, from the Isle of Dogs in the South East to Ladbroke Grove in the North West, with Goldie’s Timeless on the stereo. The perfect soundtrack. Not in a “Songs-Inspired-By-The-Movie” way. Instead the visuals seemed to overlap the music like playing Dark Side Of The Moon while watching The Wizard Of Oz.

It’s been over a decade now since Timeless was released and Goldie was hailed as one of a number of the vanguard of artists pushing forward an exciting new genre, born in the warehouses, pirate radio stations and nightclubs of Britain. In the interim, he has appeared in films such as The World Is Not Enough, Snatch and the quintessential British soap opera, Eastenders. He has also DJ’d at countless raves across the planet and worked with artists such as KRS-One, David Bowie and Noel Gallagher.

In person, Price stands about 6 foot, not looking a day older than when he used to DJ at Dingwalls in Camden Town back in 1999. As assistants and management keep themselves busy around his East London print studio, he holds court, his trademark grill illuminating his scowl and smile.

Having been around the world spreading the drum n bass gospel, Goldie stopped back in the capital – one of the cities that was responsible for putting him and his Metalheadz movement on the musical map - for Love Over Gold; an exhibition which “challenges our ideals of sexuality, allure and desire”.



Attended by the likes of actors Kevin Spacey and Jason Statham (both of whom purchased works to add to their collections), Love Over Gold appears to have been an all round success. The man himself wasn’t on hand to collect the plaudits, though. “I did the first night and just left the second night,” he says, a month after the exhibition “I left and went to Asia for a month and spent my time in Shanghai and Beijing which I like to do with my girl.” Inspiration for the works behind came during a trip to London. “I got the idea walking past a phone box in The West End.” Goldie says. “I thought it was mad how we pay £50 for parking in the wrong place for 2 minutes but then, we got these prostitute cards splattered all over the phone boxes and no-one gives a flying fuck, so I found that quite interesting. The fact that we keep prostitution hidden in the realms of Baker Street tucked away somewhere, for the judges and solicitors of this country,” He chuckles, “it’s not poor people from the ghetto that go to hookers, really, is it? They need that money to feed themselves…”

This is another new direction for Price. He is already a respected DJ, producer and actor. In the 80’s he was an accomplished graffiti artist, writing alongside the likes of 3-D of Massive Attack and he still speaks fondly of the artform (“The things that have been done with that raw, primal medium are quite outstanding”), but at the same time he feels the need to re-invent. Price has had his artwork showcased in galleries before. This is his first, what the critics might call, “fine art show”. When asked how much Messrs. Spacey and Statham would have had to shell out for their purchases, he suddenly comes over a little coy.

“I can’t say that,” he laughs. “Speak to my agent. I don’t look at it like that. For me especially with art, it’s quite easy for me to do paintings productively because I’m not living with them. I’ve always found that paintings in my house, I’d never sell because I’ve grown with them. They’re like kids. It’s like saying what price would you never want to see your kid again for. You can’t put a price on that.”

Having been an artist since his youth, Goldie is impressed by what computers allow “Technology has allowed the person that’s painting to be able to do things like wrapping the letter ‘F’ around a spherical object on a computer, rotating it and printing it out, thus giving the artist the idea to conceptualize and go out there and approach this medium again. That to me, is something that you could call alchemy, and there’s a lot of alchematical stuff happening with artists now. A big change. My techniques that I’ve used for this concept was going to an old print shop and printing. In terms of using all the old print machines – it has a certain feel that I really like. I think that is the difference between buying an old skool denim jacket which has been hand-painted by some guy in The Bronx, or buying a panel print from Oxford Street. Which one would you want? I know which one I’d like.”


Whether he’s talking music, art or fashion, he always refers to an all encompassing idea that surrounds his work. The Concept. The thread that ties everything together. “When people’s art doesn’t get treated as a concept usually they fucking die and someone buys it for millions of pounds. People that treat it as a concept, put it out there as a concept and it’s not as valuable to the artist as it may be to the general world. I like to place concepts of art like the way I place tracks. If I’m doing a track in the studio, I’ve always been meticulous in the way I do it. I’m not like “Oh, let me go into the studio and bang a little bit of jungle together”. For me, I’m 42 years of age so I don’t need to make music for kids, I make music for adults, so I like to be able to make music which has a beginning, middle and an end and depth and everything else. I have the same attitude towards painting.”


Goldie still DJ’s on a weekly basis with his comrades from the legendary Metalheadz nights at the Blue Note in Hoxton. when asked about his latest musical endeavours he becomes particularly animated.
“Malice in Wonderland was very successful, very underground.” He offers. “That was great. In terms of concept albums, I did one three years ago that was called Sine Tempus, which is the soundtrack to the film I’m directing next year and that’s a very strong album, still very, very powerful – we’re going to be releasing it online, there’s something very precious about it because it’s the soundtrack for a film which is still in production and development. I always wanted to do a score album; a production album about a film. It’s a screenplay we spent seven years doing and I’ve always been really into that. That will be the only Goldie concept album – it took me seven years to do the last one – it’s just about time. I’ve just gauged the industry. Certain people have been trendsetters in this whole thing, like Radiohead and such. Record companies are out of sorts at the moment and there are new avenues.”

And how does he feel about dubstep and grime – two music genres born in the UK - which are gaining exposure on foreign shores at the moment? “I don’t think they’re that big around the world, mate, to tell you the truth.” He says, after a pause. “Not in terms of when you go to Sao Paulo and listen to drum n bass and you go to Russia, or Japan or China – they’re not that big. I think as a concept it’s very early doors for that kind of genre. Drum n bass has spent the last 12 years trying to kick off doors in different countries and it’s done that. I don’t think there’s any genre that’s been as strong as drum n bass in being able to do that. I don’t care if it’s grime, I don’t care if it’s garage; none of them have been as strong as drum n bass in terms of worldwide dominance. There are other things that can break through, most definitely. Out of that pile, Dizzee Rascal’s the only one that’s out there that’s really, for me, changed the whole concept of it. I consider grime as old garage and I consider old garage, old Dillinja records. Early drum n bass records being played at 33 RPM. That’s what I call dubstep. If I’m going to listen to that sort of music, I’d rather listen to Jah Shaka down at the Orange or down in Camden – you know what I mean?”

When asked who will be starring in his forthcoming film, Sine Tempus, he bristles a little. “That’s the last thing you should ask about a screenplay. What you should ask is what is this screenplay doing for you? How does it motivate you? The characters in the film, which are played by actors, are fictitious. The people who play those roles isn’t decided yet. It doesn’t need to be. Someone who’s famous in a film can fucking ruin it just by their presence.” He says, between sips of coffee. Of the screenplay itself, he says, “I’ve seen people in my life, being in the ghetto, being in Heathtown, being in The South Bronx, looking at the social decline and depravation and understanding how my society works. Being able to portray a love story within that environment that’s not fuelled by crack cocaine or ‘we’ve got to be drug dealers because society tells us we have to be’. The idiocy that I find within my society - especially within urban society – we always think that we’ve got the short straw and we have to understand that we’re in a very blessed position. This ain’t some Conan The Barbarian shit when you get your head cut off and someone comes down and rapes your village and your family. We all have an opportunity, some are slimmer than others, but the opportunity is still there.” So speaks a man who took his chance and escaped. “Some people have the opportunity and they don’t want to get out of there. Each to their own.” Sine Tempus will, according to Goldie, reflect his own upbringing in areas he refers to as “multi-cultural”. Several communities lived side by side, bound by poverty.

While the screenplay reflects his past, he’s also using it to make a comment about the future. “In the 70’s it was all about being burly, being fucking huge, being physically threatening. The New World Order isn’t like that. It’s about geeky technology and how you apply it. Now there’s people who have multi-million pound companies and they weigh 8 stone. They’re lethal and they work for Steve fucking Jobs. You’ve got to get it off the corner, kid! We’ve gotta move it, because the corner’s getting smaller and smaller…” Price recalls comments made to him in the past about his own heritage and African immigrants. “These fuckers used to chuck spears!” He was told. “Yeah, but these fuckers got here and learned the numbers and now they’re lawyers and accountants, and it’s them that you go to when you want a good lawyer or a fucking good accountant.”

He’s worn a lot of different hats in his life, so far, and while he doesn’t come across as worried about how people view him, he is aware of how he may be perceived. “People look at me walking down the street and they see a man walking down a straight line. They’re completely wrong. If they look carefully, they’ll see a man walking down the street at a slight left curvature. In fact, he’s walking in a very large circle. As far as I’m concerned, my circle is almost complete. In terms of all the applications and mediums I have learned from jewellery design, to centrifugal casts in my back garden, to making gold teeth, to airbrushing gangstas’ rides in Miami, to painting trains, to doing walls, to doing printing, letter alphabets, letter design, letter construction. All of these things are part of my make-up. I’m learning that 40-plus is probably better for me in terms of being an artist, where I feel more comfortable.” By now there is no trace of annoyance in his voice. “I never finished anything – I painted trains in New York, that’s it had enough. Designed jewellery that’s it had enough. I learned enough of what I wanted to learn and I wanted something new. But now, these are the funny years. This isn’t really a struggle for me anymore. I’m having fun with it.”

“I get to DJ every week – it’s a fucking hobby. I’m very blessed to be in this position. My dad was wearing big fucking collars at 40, he was probably in a bar trying to chat up some white woman in Leeds after coming out of work at the foundry. I’m playing fucking music that my own kid, who’s fucking 20 goes out and listens to. What is that? When you’re kid listens to something you helped create?” He pauses, maybe a little surprised at it himself. “I’m proud to be part of British culture. To be part of something that’s not resolved itself and will become something else. You get on the train, you’ve got to realize there are five carriages behind you and five carriages ahead of you. You’ve got to realize where you’re at…”