Graffiti artist John ‘Robbo’ Robertson passed away this week, aged 45, after three years in a coma. His work was found in areas including the Regent’s Canal, where it often remained for many years

Published: 6 August, 2014
by DAN CARRIER

TRIBUTES have been paid to graffiti artist John “Robbo” Robertson, a trailblazer whose first shows were on the streets of his north London neighbourhood in the 1980s – and who became a legend in art circles across London, Europe and New York.

Robbo passed away this week, aged 45, after spending three years in a coma. In 2011, he was found unconscious with a head injury outside his King’s Cross home. It is believed he may have tried to climb into a first-floor flat at 2am after locking himself out.

Robbo grew up in Islington and started out in the graffiti world in the early 1980s. He saw the form as a cultural collaboration between artists, musicians and people who organised parties. His stamping grounds included the Regent’s Canal, where his pieces often remained for many years – a rare sign of respect in the graffiti world. 

In the mid-1980s, he was a key member of the NLA collective – the North London Artists. He then became a founder of the TDK – the Tone Deaf Krew – which featured other well-known north London graffiti artists such as Doze, Reez, Choci and Drax. 

Other collectives he was an integral part of included the We Rock Hard crew, the PFB crew and the World Domination crew – all renowned in the secretive world of graffiti. 

Some of Robbo’s work on a New York train

At the same time, Robbo worked occasionally as a DJ, playing at seminal venues in the development of London house music, such as the Ministry of Sound, Bagleys in King’s Cross and Rage at Heaven in Charing Cross.

Close friend Drax, who met Robbo in the mid-1980s, recalled how he went to New York in 1992.

He said: “It was like our version of a pilgrimage, a Hadj, something all graffiti writers want to do. He painted art on subway trains. After that, he began to settle down a little.” 

Coupled with the advent of fatherhood, while he kept in close touch with his friends from graffiti crews, he began to work less outside. But in the noughties, Robbo emerged from semi-retirement and fresh pieces began to appear, receiving critical acclaim from mainstream art commentators. 

He was also taken from the streets into art galleries, his work seen as having enough cultural worth that the Victorian and Albert Museum took some of his paintings and the gallery Pure Evil celebrated his output with a show.  

Drax added: “When Robbo began working again, graffiti had become an acceptable hobby. It became something people could do on a Sunday afternoon with their children. People had stopped when they had children. Now their kids were in their teens and they could start once more.”

This led to a new crew, made up of various old friends, called Team Robbo. They had held a number of successful shows at the time of his accident.

Robbo was an imposing character, standing at 6ft 8ins. A keen Arsenal supporter, he would follow the side around Europe, combining the trips with the chance to look at different graffiti styles. He was welcomed – European enthusiasts knew his work was important in the growth of a non-American graffiti culture. In the years before his accident, he worked as a cobbler and key cutter on Caledonian Road.

Recently, Robbo’s fame took another twist due to an interview he did for a Channel Four documentary on graffiti. He was quizzed about an apparent feud with street artist Banksy. The pair had briefly clashed at a bar in Old Street and Banksy then painted a figure of a man putting wallpaper over a Robbo mural completed in 1985 on the Regent’s Canal which had been left untouched for more than 20 years. It sparked some tongue-in-cheek tit-for-tat responses by Team Robbo across London. Robbo told the New Journal at the time: “He painted over my piece. There are plenty of walls we could both use. There was no need to do this.”

Robbo is survived by a son and two daughters.