DRUMMER MAN

Spoke to my mate Ian Barwick tonight on the phone. He lives in France and I don't see him and his partner, Erica very often.

 I have known Ian since 1977. We were both skateboarders in a small town and inevitably became friends. Ian was a punk rocker before I was. I remember him going down to the NUPRO, the local under 18's school disco sporting an old school blazer with safety pins, drain pipe jeans and the winkliest of winkle-picker shoes that he bought at Callens, the army and navy shop in Wigan. Strangely, he didn't cut his hair though, opting for a Ramones/page boy bowl cut instead.

Ian moved to chester in 1980 and totally missed out on the hayday of BMX, which, if he had stayed here in Wigan....I'm sure he would of been a part of.

I hooked up with him again in 1984, when we both got back into skating again in a big way. We were both driving at this point and it was easy to stay in touch.

We travelled somewhere most weekends to skate a new ramp or go to a contest or a gig.

Ian learned to play the drums and in 1986 was the drummer for our Hardcore band Jailcell Recipes, for the majority of the bands life span. He left the band in 1991 to go travelling, eventually settling in rural France.

In recent years,Ian and Erica came back to work on a couple of big skatepark build-projects that my company was contracted for.

I saw Ian last November when we put together our new band BAIL-BOND.

We recorded the new record and played a coupla shows whilst he was home.

We plan go over to France this summer to play a few shows and spend a bit of time with them....which I am looking forward to.