Can you keep a secret? Well, it seems here at The Herald we certainly can.
It started out as a regular Monday morning in the newsroom, then a phone call from a contact came through asking if I had a moment to talk – a major exclusive could be on the cards but there was no more information than that.
ORDER YOUR SOUVENIR BANKSY HERALD HERE
All would be revealed, they said, at a hastily arranged meeting. I had a hunch that despite having very little to go on this was going to be a big one and I must admit I was intrigued by the secrecy.
At that point, little did I know, it would turn out to be a conversation that was going to lead to the creation of what is one of the most iconic Herald front pages in its 240 year history.
Newsrooms are always busy places, with deadlines round the clock, but I cleared time for this mysterious meeting.
Introductions were made and I was told ‘Banksy is coming to Glasgow and the artist wants The Herald to cover it.’ We were being given the opportunity to have the world exclusive on Banksy’s first solo exhibition in 14 years.
Read more: Banksy unveils Glasgow show spanning 25 years of iconic works
It didn’t take me long to answer and there was only ever going to be one response to this. It was an immediate Yes.
For an artist whose elusive nature as to who they are and where and when their work appears, this was not going to be as straight forward as the unveiling of most exhibitions we have covered. However, I was assured we would have everything we needed and when artwork from the show was shared with us we knew we would be creating a one off - a legacy of Banksy in Glasgow and a legacy for The Herald.
We had 72 hours to go to unveil this special souvenir edition and as each hour passed without a leak, it became more and more tense for the team involved. This was to be carried out on a need to know basis as Banksy’s team were trying to preserve the maximum impact with a 12am reveal on Thursday June 15 on our website followed by coverage in our morning edition.
With previous Banksy shows rumours have been rife in the media and in certain areas might have been more difficult to contain. The Dismaland show in Weston Super Mare in 2015 was subject to speculation but then it was being created in town’s seafront, but somehow we managed to pull it off in Glasgow. At one minute past midnight on Thursday we had the honour of revealing to the world on www.heraldscotland.com Banksy was coming.
Our readers woke up to a striking front page image which is fast becoming a collector’s item. It’s not every day we get to work on such a special edition and I’m just glad our secret is finally out.
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