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.

Technology catches up and my old tape collection is going digital.......first candidate is a mix tape Andy made for me.

I on the other hand need to catch up with technology and get this and the rest of the tapes up as a podcast...in the meantime here is a tracklist.......
California Dreamin M.I.A.
Fight Scream
No one is ever coming home The Freeze
Urban Struggle The Vandals
Seperate Peace Channel 3
Bitchin Summer Bangles
Jason Boneless ones
Rock'n'roll slob Boneless ones
Skate for the devil Boneless ones
I'm a skater/Pipeline Boneless ones
Grey World Attitude adjustment
Dope Fiend Attitude adjustment
Dead Serious Attitude adjustment
Blitzkreig Bop Special forces
Parasite/Second chance Cause for alarm
Time to try Cause for alarm
United races Cause for alarm
In search of Cause for alarm
Poison in the machine Cause for alarm
True colours Cause for alarm
Stand as one Cause for alarm
Death of a nun M.D.C.
Lexicon devil The Germs
Circle one The Germs
No God The Germs
Where is the dream? The Stepmothers
Crucify Me Jerrys Kids
One Family Youth Of Today
I don't mind Tragic Mulatto
Down on my knees Crucifucks
No class ReAGAN yOUTH
Anytown ReAGAN yOUTH
In dog we trust ReAGAN yOUTH
If this is Tuesday ...it must be walla walla Adrenalin O.D.
Bulemic foodfight-second to none Adrenalin O.D.
Breakdown Agent Orange
Indian summer Channel 3
Pick up the pieces Crimpshrine
Blown away Youth Brigade
What will the revolution change? Youth Brigade

A classic tape of 80's punk, i know Andy still loves it and the tape is still going 10 years since Andy made it.....email for a cd of it if your interested.

Rollapaluza 8........

Here's an article from todays Guardian by Matt Seaton, their cycling writer....the Fakenger debate hits the broadsheets or in this case the supplements......



Matt Seaton
Thursday July 5, 2007
The Guardian


It used to be said that the largest political party anywhere was made up of former communists, as membership seemed at one time to have been a rite of passage for so many. No longer, of course. But the same could perhaps be said of couriers, for if you hang out in cycling circles, you will soon find yourself talking to a former bike messenger.
It is a trade with a high turnover. Not surprisingly since, for all the romance, it is a dirty, dangerous and ill-paid way to make a living. But - let's be honest - who among us after a particularly dreary day at work has not cast an envious eye over the implied lifestyle of those seemingly footloose riders.
The courier has always been cool. Sure, riding all day must be hard graft, but then there is all the hanging out in city squares, shooting the breeze with comrades. OK, they are slaves to their controllers, but still they have the freedom of the road. Riding the wrong way up one-way streets, fearless of cabs and vans, they are hip modern highwaymen.
In Boston, New York and London, they pioneered the art of riding fixed-wheel bicycles in city traffic. Trend-setters, they led where others have followed. Not only are single-speed bikes a booming sideline in bike shops, but a whole subculture of courier admiration has grown up - the "fakenger", or fake messenger. These are ride-alikes, dress-alikes, even go-to-the-same-pub-alikes - people who are not couriers, but have bought into the look.

Imitation may be flattery, but not in the eyes of many bona-fide couriers. The legendary "Buffalo" Bill Chidley has blogged angrily on his courier scene-zine Moving Target about the phony messenger phenomenon.

But the irony of all this may be, as my ex-messenger friend Paul was telling me is that "it's a dying industry". More and more of the stuff they used to deliver is now sent down cables digitally. What messengers remain are increasingly from eastern Europe, willing to work on the lower wages afforded by scarcer jobs.

So at the very moment courier culture reaches the apotheosis of its expression, its reality is swept away by the remorseless churn of technological and economic change. What was substance becomes mere style. It is just as Karl Marx wrote: "All that is solid melts into air." That would be the ex-communist talking.

Lake Titicaca.....June 2005





A Day at the Beach from Jono on Vimeo
The air around Lake Titicaca is super thin so it makes things like walking pretty hard work. It also means you can see for miles and the colours are vivid like nowhere else i have ever been. We stayed in Puno at the Peruvian end of the lake for a couple of nights and then headed for the border of Bolivia and the town of Copacabana which is the place to get boats over to Isla Del Sol.

Mumbles mini........

it's a bit generic but the transition is nice and the view of the bay rules.....


The pictures are taken with my Holga so the light is flooding into the back and the plastic lens gives nice distortion......

Last years London race.......Lost in the crowd Alleycat.

Overdrive was 7th, Marco 2nd, Donny won and i got 10th.....60 or so raced...62 got the taxi drivers love and respect at the end and went on to get a puncture in Trafalgar Square....a couple of small crashes, Tower Bridge split the race by going up and Lucas got a flat somewhere around Southwark Cathedral but still got all this cool footage....nice one.

The source of all the high octane footage is on the helmet of Lucas Brunelle.

The Wheelers looking almost 3 dimensional.

Roller Race at the 2007 Bike Film and Animation Awards

Saturday 2nd of June 2007 was a long day...started in Desborough at Mum's house....got up at 6.30 am to head over to Rob's house for my first taste of a West End Wheelers club run....dragged ourselves out of bed waved goodbye to Mum and Rockin' Desborough and headed through the mist to Rob's for the start of our 60 miler round the far reaches of Leicester...an almost perfect circumnavigation of Leicester....me and Rob rode down to the county arms to meet Iain, Gregg, Dan, Kev, Duff and Michael.........
The weather hit a high early on and the temperature rose steadily all day...there were hills; up and down, cattle grids, sheep, dogs, villages, trees and very few cars...amazing...the pace was quick all ride and Greg's route was fun and not too demanding despite some of the steeper sections which were thankfully pretty short....the Wheelers clock up a lot of miles every week and kept up a good, even pace all ride.


West End Wheelers from Jono on Vimeo

I had some trouble on the steep bits with the old fixed wheel set up with the big gear so my cadence was erratic.....i don't normally have many big hills or long periods of riding without stopping so i was well out of my recent riding experience...i realized i need gears if i was going to do this without massive effort...it was pretty demanding going up some of the hills and harder going down...spinning out and having to bring my legs under control pretty fast as a couple of the downhills ended on a T junction at a busy main road...all in all though it was brilliant and i want to get out with the Wheelers more often....shame they are in Leicester and i'm in Swansea right now.....I'll be hooking myself up with some retro cycle gear though in a Wheelers style.

The film was being shown at the Phoenix at 7.30 as part of the Bike Film and Animation Awards showing of the Leicester Bike Film Festival and as it turned out also before "The Flying Scotsman' the next day ......it's the 6th Bike Film Festival in Leicester so it's a regular event for the Phoenix....the awards on the other hand is in it's first year.


Roller Race from Jono on Vimeo
Other films in the Awards are"Written in the streets"....the London Messenger Film, "The Cyclist" which deals with a man with psychiatric problems who uses cycling and photography to cope with his illness, short films from New Zealand, Scotland, Canada also dealing with aspects of cycling..some personal and others observational.....it was wicked to see my own film up there on the big screen and at the end it got voted audience favourite .....good job i knew a good proportion of the small audience....score!!! Anyway the festival goes on to other venues over the summer so a chance to see all the films.....i might go to Brighton to see it again...don't know much about the dates yet though so i'll check and post them when i know......Quick meet up with my Bro and Rachel who is all repaired after getting hit by a car while cycling in Leicester a few weeks ago.....luckily the car had only just pulled off so no big injury but the driver wasn't really looking it seems so again it shows you cant trust drivers even in Leicester...England's Cycling City!!!
Onward to Duff's surprise party and the Wheelers flaked out by midnight on the Sofas of Loaf......classic Leicester visit...more of the same soon i think.
Back in Wales today and a trip down to find the bowl at Aberdare...this is what i found.....

Roller Race film on big screen........


The 6 minute film i made last year with Buffalo Bill is going to be shown in Leicester this coming weekend at Phoenix Arts alongside some other bike related shorts. Here is how its billed on their website.....

2007 Bike Film & Animation Awards
Saturday 2nd June at 7.30pm
Dirs: Various UK 2007, 1hr 50mins
An engaging, irrverent and passionate selection from the first ever UK Bike Film Awards this packed programme features cycle speedway, roller-racing revivals, BMX, cycle-couriers and freewheeling esoteric bikes hitting the road on Super-8! This is cycling as the new football and film as the new fanzine. Saddle-up and ride.

Tim sent me a

Young Offenders T....cheers Tim!
Before i left for London today i went down to the miniramp at Mumbles for a quick skate...2nd time since my cast came off...my wrist is still stiff so i dont want to go over on my right hand.....tentative attempt at skating and as i also have no friends down there to skate with i was alone but then again i haven't seen anyone skating at that ramp before. My camera is going haywire so it turns green intermitantly......here's a quick clip i put together on the 3 hour trip up to London........





Broken camera..partly fixed arm from Jono on Vimeo

My continuing rehabilitation from a broken arm.......

Carry ever larger packages across London and attend Mikey's brilliant Yoga classes early on a Thursday morning....these are the ways i have chosen to enlightenment and a non stiff wrist....2 days in London packed full of physical extremes and then back to Swansea for a rest.Mike took the picture of me with the box with his camera phone....nice.
Drive by Styley sighting down Brick Lane for the package handover.......

Met up with Styles and Rich in between medical appointments down at Bunhill Fields cemetary for a spot of lunch with Danny Defoe and Jonny Bunyan in attendance.

May 1st....Ages ago...Spencer came to visit...

Did some touristy stuff like checking out the east end, here Spencer hops the post, a typical English tradition that brings luck to the traveller.
This blog has re-located to Swansea in Wales for a few months to recouperate before our baby arrives in August, hopefully in Worthing near Brighton but who knows.The broken arm is not so broken but isn't fully operational yet, a few more days riding might stretch it out quicker than the weekly physiotherapy sessions can. Commuting back to London though for 2 days a week on the road.

Dates for my short film festival appearance will be here in a few days but Leicester is a confirmed one on 2nd June so Wheelers take a break from your long miles and come and have a look.....It's me and Bill's Roller Race short, filmed over three years and condensed into 6 minutes, stuff from Rolapaluza races over those three years and interview clips with Mike62, Caspar, Bill, Therese and Eddie Wingrave tell the story of what a Roller Race is.........The film will be shown in Leicester first and then on to a series of Bike Film Festivals around the country......


Check out the legendary Fyxomatosis in Australia...there is an

article about my place of work and a couple of my shots too.....nice even.

Crossfire Contest at Meanwhile 2.......cinco de mayo.

Spencer was looking forward to this Crossfire jam all week but unfortunately for Spencer i had told him the wrong week, Spencer was back in Budapest King Diamond style......back in West London though the Westway was the place to be, at least under it, just where Harrow Road slopes off from under the grimy overpass, behind the garage is

Meanwhile 2.......it is skate history down there under the Westway.
The flyer was designed by French and had a lot of blood on it.....French likes

blood and metal, sounds like a good name for a Manowar tribute...besides the blood there was the bearded Haslam flying across the legendary gap wizard like...a sight sadly missed as he had a broken toe and kept his skating low profile....it wasn't hard to see though from what little stuff he was doing that he was super solid and was indeed a wizard if a bit under the weather.
I had caught sight of Chris Haslam the evening before though wandering around Waterloo looking a little lost with Lewis Marnell. They headed off up towards Westminster Bridge and i in the other direction towards Hercules Road to collect the van i was borrowing to drive the contents of our flat down south to Worthing....another story though and not much to do with the Crossfire Jam.
The video is for Spencer...i used Pailhead from Spencer's ipod....i love that song....Ian MacKaye and Al Jourgensen....asides aside the skating was amazing and the atmosphere was amazing and Crossfire pulled off another amazing day......

Brick Lane to Brazil part 1.....





brick lane to brazil part 1 on Vimeo

Cantelowes skatepark, London is open.......





cantelowes on Vimeo

So i went and broke my arm at Dagenham skatepark 2 weeks ago.......

Better days at Bay66
and two weeks after i broke my arm this opened.

Goldsprint 2000 at the Horseshoe. This epic footage was captured by Mike 62 who is now showing his work all over the world to high acclaim.........Stevie lent me the tape and i filmed it from the tv hence the old lo-fi look....everyone looks mighty young too.





Goldsprint London 2000 on Vimeo

.....and a picture i took of Marco on Monday in the alley behind work.

....and whats more we went to Bethnal Green Working Mens Club last night and saw this.....





Luchador on Vimeo

Bay66 14/03/07.......





bay66 on Vimeo

The Eclipse on Saturday night.......with a bit of Giant Haystacks and some juicing thrown in......