Wicksteed Bank Convention....more pictures....i found a few photos i took at the legendary Bank Convention and the rest of the pages from Skateboard! That issue of Skateboard! basically covered all the spots i skated during that time, Wicksteed and Market Harborough...
I was taking a few snaps that were far from mag standard...so i got this shot of Mac while Skateboard! got the pictures in the article...then again i got to be in the picture aswell as taking my own...right side of Dosset's knee pad with the dodgy helmet...and the legendary Rowell Mutie T, just waiting for Jess to do a re-run on the shirts. Iknow i posted these scans a couple of weeks ago but anyway....

Nerves in Leicester......

Again i have a mountain of tapes to filter through and make something of......Stoo met me at a service station near Leicester a couple of months ago and gave me a ton of tapes to mess around with. Stuff he had filmed at Radlands and Leicester and a contest at Docklands....so this stuff is pretty old.
I'm going to try and get a few clips together from all my tapes and the rest of Stoo's stuff and make some elongated compilation of stuff....some old and some newer....a sketchbook of my skating experiences around the uk and other places....another ongoing project which will be ongoing for sometime as Ione is now 3 months old and getting more demanding.....she is getting into everything....books, music, socialising, travel, laughing, sleep, food and everything else......104 days old today so here's some pictures of the first 104 days......




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Rollapaluza...and the London Fixed gear and single speed forum roller race.......

Rollapaluza...London fixed gear and single speed forum roller race....
The battle of the Fakengers and a sprinkling of messengers took place at the Waterloo action centre last night and an amazing event it was too.
I played a few tunes before the Deadley Treadleys played their last gig under that name.....
There was a mad mix of music but i really liked the first guys....teenslain i believe...some cool garage hits..
The living Graham Bond stood out for his epic enthusiasm....
Some footage from the race

Hosoi documentary...........torrent can be downloaded here
And here is Hosoi on the cover of RAD issue 60 which as i keep saying was saved from the jaws of destruction at Ketterin tip a few weeks ago.......

save harrow skatepark

save harrow skatepark

I recently got hold of a binder full of RAD magazines that Len's Mum found on Kettering tip, it got me thinking and a plan was formed to get together all the copies of RAD, Skateboard! and SK8 Action i could find....i already had a good few of them before the Kettering files came to light, the one i really wanted though eluded me....i had it once but i gave it to Skateboard Phil in Leicester a couple of years ago....it was the issue of Skateboard! which he himself had two pages, a layback on Harborough wall as it used to be and a frontside rock on the block that Giles built....not only this but a big section of Wicksteed Park report/bank convention review....Phil had my copy and i needed another to replace it, ebay might have the answer i thought...i couldn't remember the issue i needed but it must be out there somewhere and guess what, i found it first go......click on the images for a life sized facsimilie of the pages.......found in a collection of 20 80's skate mags i collected from my ebay seller in Brighton yesterday.....nice!!!
Talking about old skateparks, Harrow seems like it's in a bit of trouble at the moment...sign the petition to try and save one of Britains few remaining original 70's concrete parks.........
Click here to save Harrow Skatepark from demolition......don't let it go the way of Wicksteed and Knebworth and all the rest!!!

Ben wearing the Mutie shirt Jess designed and printed....

Mike took this pole from EC1 to Waterloo yesterday...he made it after 2 punctures and a near miss on Blackfriars Bridge...

This amazing collection of Rad magazines found it's way to me from it's sorry resting place in Kettering tip where it lay abandoned until it was rescued by Len's mum...thanks Len!!!!

Latest post from Greg in S.F.

Bill's homage to Marco


My homage to Marco!!!
.....and Crass were actually more than just a band as we all know;

Something i found on Youtube...a "documentary" about postcard punks in London made by some cheesy Australian film maker...pretty funny.

Another beautiful testament to Lance Hahn's effect on those he met........

BMS Manchester and Rollapaluza present:
"The Manchester Sprint"

Sat December 8th
7pm-11.30pm
Central Skatepark
28 Mason Street
Ancoats . M4 5FT

Entry £5.00...free to race.

Minimum £500 cash prizes!!

Generously sponsored by Odaban, PAC bags and Bicycle Messenger Service MCR

Rollapaluza bring their unique mix of roller-racing, music and beer to Manchester.
The World Famous Central Skatepark, already a haven for indoor extreme sports in Manchester will be taken over by cyclists for one night only, who knows maybe some of the "resident" BMXers might steal the show from the club cyclists and couriers....in the style of Jamie Staff?

The event kicks off at 7pm with qualifying, after signing-on riders will get to try to set the fastest time they can in order to move on to the knockout rounds, competitors will be able to make multiple attempts at setting their best time so turn up early to get in as many as you can.

Rollapaluza events are an exciting spectator sport so bring your mates to cheer you on as you attempt to claim a share of the cash prize which will go to 1st Male, 1st Female and fastest time on the night!

Musical accompaniment to the racing will be provided by DJs "Jono" from London and local boy "Zero" of Manchester. There will be a licensed pub price bar.

A proportion of revenue will be donated to the British Heart Foundation.


Full details at: www.rollapaluza.com

overthrow, originally uploaded by pj_rockstar.

This is a page from my old zine....Lance sent me his J-Church A to Z and i put it in issue 5...i only printed off 50 copies so the chances are not many people saw it.....

Lance and his music have played a big part in my life... probably totally unknown to him but he did stay at my house once and i'm sure i might have mentioned how much i loved his music and lyrics....his blog has been an inspiration and insight and has introduced me to some great music.... the world is emptier without Lance in it but his energy and enthusiasm lives on with his music and writing....love to those he left behind. Thanks Lance.........

Rest in peace Lance

Wild night in El Reno....George Kuchar...1977

I love the way George Kuchar uses music and sound against some pretty nice footage especially here with the storm shots, shot at a motel in Oklahoma...seems like there is an ongoing theme with storms in Kuchar's work...check out Thundercrack for the inevitable storm theme...."have you ever seen an ostrich run down by a wheelchair"
Calm day in London......thursday by me...2007

Cool stuff to do........

Roller Race on Saturday night in London!!!!!!
The Roller Race made it into G2 in Thursdays Guardian as Matt Seaton the Two Wheels columnist was a member of The Journalist team...here's what he had to say about the race.....

"But you don't have to go to Ghent for a taste of something similar, if a little less balletic. Last Saturday night, I took part in a roller-race in London. This pits pairs of riders racing against each other on stationary bikes that sit on rollers linked to a large, stopwatch-style dial with an arrow for each rider. You race over a nominal 500m, so it's like a track sprint, lasting just over 20 seconds at an absolutely killing cadence.

It has a gladiatorial quality, in this case underlined by the staging (courtesy of Rapha and Rollapaluza) inside a boxing ring, surrounded by a baying crowd. On a previous occasion, the journalists' team - staffed by the honed athletes of Cycling Weekly - were winners. This time, with me guesting, they were roundly trounced by a messengers' squad. A popular result, as you might guess.

In the 1960s, roller-racing was a popular winter event, somewhere between a sport and a fairground attraction, with all-comers pitting themselves against a professional, Eddie Wingrave (whom I came to know as a gloriously cantankerous race commissaire in latter years), who toured along with a big band and chorus girls. With its decline, the tradition was barely kept alive in the obscure premises of cycling clubs. Now, it has been reinvented by the courier community, which has brought roller-racing to a paying audience of fixie-riding hip urbanites, complete with bottled beer, band and DJ. A scene is definitely happening: coming to you soon, the new rock'n'rollers."
Matt Seaton sets his time against a fellow journalist of the cycling variety in the ring....




Cool stuff to look at.......(Cheers Angus for showing me this one)

Jim Phillips studio visit

Fecal French

Death Premier of Better than Life.....

Better than life pics

Simon

Barnes, originally uploaded by Jono 01.

...i raced Simon at a Roller Race in a Classic Car garage on Old Street last Tuesday night...he beat me but i got my fastest ever time over 500m, 23.10 seconds which is a million miles from the Horseshoe.

The Edge Pool party a couple of years ago now...Stoo handed over the tapes in a service station carpark on a foggy morning last week, there is plenty more to search through so this is just a quick sample from them.......

ione

ione, originally uploaded by Jono 01.

ione loves to have a bath!!!

"In recent years, fixed-gear bikes have become ubiquitous in hipster-saturated cities such as Seattle, Portland, Austin, and San Francisco—valued as much for their appearance as for their functionality." not my words but lifted from an article from Seattle about dangerous fixed wheels on the road......anyway on to something more important, to me anyway...my new daughter ione was born on September 5th weighing in at 8 lbs and 3 oz...........
Many photo's and video will soon follow......

A still moment from Spencer's all action visit earlier in the year.....

Skaterham skate shocker sightings......



Andy invited me along to his reunion of skaters from Harrow and Crystal Palace ramp and other hot spots of the 80s.....

Footage.......

Holga double exposure

The results for Rollapaluza 8 can be found here.......Rollapaluza results!!!!!



....and a set list for the music i played will be here soon....and i'm putting a cd together of it so the night can be re lived again and again...i know a couple of people enjoyed the background muzak.