ROLLERBURN

Everything is starting to fall into place for this upcoming event.....it's gonna be a hoot!

THE SHOOK-UPS

Thanks to UGLYPUNK for these pics from last Thursdays SHOOK-UPS show in Liverpool. Now booked to play THE BIG STRAMASH, July 28th-31st, a garage festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, with THE POETS, THE MASONICS and THE WILDEBEESTS amongst others.

Also in negotiations for a performance at another big festival this Summer!

In the process of putting together a self-financed 45 together which will consist of 2 of the following tracks
Shook-Ups song set

Hopefully, have these in time for these bigger shows.

70's MUSCLE CAR MAYHEM

Here they are! Some dumb, pointless yet very entertaining muscle car movies from the Seventies.
Classic American V8 powered cars with way-too-soft suspension crashing into things.
Vividly remember all these trailers on TV when they were released.
I feel a trip to PEP BOYS coming on!
In order we got:
DIRTY MARY CRAZY LARRY (1974)
GONE IN SIXTY SECONDS (1974)
VANISHING POINT (1971)
DEATH RACE 2000 (1975)
CANNONBALL aka CARQUAKE (1976)

In 1974 my Dad actually owned  a MUSTANG MACH 1 just like the one in GONE IN SIXTY SECONDS!

RACE WITH THE DEVIL

This film has been floating around in my subconscious for many many years. I was on Youtube exploring a recent obsession with 70's Carsploitation movies (more on that in another post) when I stumbled upon this mighty gem.

The first few minutes of RACE WITH THE DEVIL make great eye candy for vintage Flat Track freaks.Great shots of Bultacos in a mid 70's workshop, followed by a well filmed race scene on asphalt!!!!.......I love the fact his mate in the Winnebago shows up mid race and obliviously pulls onto the track at a snails pace!
Great shots of vintage race leathers and helmets....wonder where this was filmed and who the 'racers' are?

First released in 1975, the film is a weird mix of horror and car chasing and stars Peter Fonda and Loretta Swit (hotlips in M.A.S.H.) so that ticks all my boxes! Not sure if it is commercially available on DVD but I'm gonna try and get a copy for my ever growing Biker movie collection

Tim's new roller-skates

My mate Timothy in Stockport just bought himself some Rollerskates...guess he must have seen that new TV advert for LUCOZADE LITE.....

Faulkner Bmx Archive 1980-1982

 Dave Arnold, Craig Borrows and Alan Woods.....50 mph plus downhill session

Mike Pardon: Styling over Chorley doubles

 Dave Arnold: Southport Skatepark

 Dave Arnold and Craig Borrows in the background

 Mike Pardon: Cheesy grin

 Tony Law: moody punk attitude

 Dave Arnold: Textbook Kerb -Endo, Wigan train station

Dave Arnold(Left) and Mike Pardon (right) Southport BMX track 

 Dave Arnold: Chorley Bomb-Hole

Same session: Handlebar malfunction

 Tony Law Jumping, Terry Lloyd lying down, Fenwick Carr Peace sign: Chorley Bomb-Hole

John Lee #3 and Mark Lavery #11 Chorley BMX track.

Here are some photos from the newly founded FAULKNER BMX ARCHIVE. We have just set up a Facebook group for these Photos......Here's some info from that group:

A group set up solely to showcase the BMX photography of Stefan Faulkner.

A school friend of BMX'er David Arnold and a keen photographer....Stefan put himself in the right place at the right time.
He had a great eye for a good shot, capturing events at a time when no-one else had the foresight to document what we were doing....we were totally in the moment and too busy 'doing it'... we never thought for one second how great it would be to be able to look back at these photographs thirty years down the line.
These shots are all took approximately between 1980-1982, in and around the NW of England. Mainly Chorley BMX track, Southport BMX track, Southport Skatepark and some downhill shots from Rainford St. Helens.
For me, they are a brilliant snapshot of carefree, happy times.....when the only things that mattered were when the next race was, hoping you didn't get a puncture and wondering if the holes in your Vans style #95's would hold out until you could afford a new pair!
Stefan has said that he has a bunch more images stashed in his vault, hopefully over time, this group will act as a platform for him to show them to the world.

We salute you Stefan!

I feature pretty heavily in Stefans pictures and I'm very proud to be involved with this project.
This archive has only been in existance for a couple of days and already there is dicsussions about the possiblities of a photo exhibition hosted both here in the North West and a venue in the South.

See the Facebook page here



GOD SAVE THE KING!

Better late than never! Here's some pics from Runcorn Rich of our Royal Bash a couple of weeks back.

It was a celebration of "Britishness" with a monologue, a Crown of Trifle, Michael Fagin-the royal intruder and some British style wrestling!

FRIDAY NIGHT RACING AT OXFORD

A couple of shots from Oxford on Friday night...In my opinion, the most successful UK Flat Track race in its seven year history!
This was round one of the 2011 GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP, held at the defunct Cowley Stadium. There hasn't been a motorcycle race here for over 5 years and in order for it to happen, a lot of hard work had to be done. The CO-BUILT guys spent a couple of weeks prior to the race, grading and watering the unloved track. On the day of the race, a bunch of us sheeted the entire greyhound track around the outside with tarpaulins and then secured them with literally hundreds of old speedway tyres!! We had to ensure that no shale whatsoever got roosted onto the dog track. CO-BUILT organised bringing in the plant hire needed to do final grooming and watering in between heats. There was a few uninterested parties who didn't want this to happen....namely the dog track guys and the owners of the tarmac go-kart track in the infield.
All the collected hard work paid off, it was a warm summer night with a record attendance of spectators. The grandstands were full as well as the indoor glass-fronted viewing balconies.
The track was a loose cushioned track that didn't groove up and suited my riding style. It was rather bumpy but that somehow added to its charm. It felt magical to ride under the bright floodlights.
The racing was very close and fast-paced with suprisingly very few stoppages, only one serious accident requiring the ambulance to take Geoff Baldock to hospital with a shoulder injury.
Special Guest, DAVE ALDANA put on a great show, riding like someone half his age......but crashing 3 times consecutively in the semi and the following restarts.....rendering his borrowed bike unridable. I asked him if he wanted to borrow a bike, he answered "who's gonna want to lend ME  a bike after that!" ...I guess he had a point.
SKOOTER FARM had a great nights racing. Personally, I rode my best ever......leading my first two heats for the majority of the race but making a couple of mistakes and settling for two 2nd place finishes. This was good enough to put me 6th on the grid in the final. I rode hard and really on the limit and finished 10th overall.
Pete Wilky #99 also rode great on his Harley XR750, finishing in a respectable 7th overall.
Gary Inman #13 rode tough all night but failed to make the THUNDERBIKE final. He did do well enough in the super competitive SHORT TRACK class to make the semis.which is no mean feat!!
The whole event was a media frenzy with 2 seperate film crews and a host of Hi-Viz wearing photographers.
During the interval, the pits were opened to the public and literally hundreds of curious race fans came over to see the bikes and racers up close.....at one point 4 rows deep in front of the SKOOTER FARM/SIDEBURN race tent...it felt good to be the focus of all that attention!
It was no accident all these folks showed up. Again, CO-BUILT did an amazing job of promoting the race and can give themselves a huge pat on the back. Perhaps Friday night races at Grand National level is the way forward for getting spectators into the grandstands?
The UK racing scene has really stuggled to pull any sort of crowd since its launch in 2004.....I really hope that this Oxford race is a turning point in crowd attendance!

Its Dave Aldana time!!

Dave Aldana is here this week....gonna be good!

  Talky night Thursday 5th May then racy night Friday 6th May

details here

update: whilst googling Aldana images....this came up.... Rachel Aldana!!

Daves nickname was RUBBER BALL.....I wonder what Rachels nickname is?

POLY STYRENE PASSES AWAY ....."OH CANCER UP YOURS!!"

Another idol of mine claimed by cancer at the age of 53. With her band X-RAY SPEX she really was a unque artist. I played the early singles to death IDENTITY, OH BONDAGE and DAY THE WORLD TURNED DAYGLO.

I met her backstage once in London in 1989 on a Youth of Today/Jailcell Recipes tour . She had Krishna beliefs and was friends with Y.O.T. vocalist Ray Cappo, a new Krishna convert. She came down to see what the current punk scene was like. I remember her being very positive about the gig...very sweet and soft spoken and not looking any older than she did in 1977!

Keep turning left

I'm jazzed to stumble upon this rad racing shot of myself (number 31) over at keep-turning-left.blogspot had a really great day racing, finishing in a strong second in this last Thunderbike heat. It was disappointing the finals were abandoned due to many stoppages and the meeting over-running......I'm sure I could have got a favourable result had the final taken place.

"You shall go to the Prom"

It was my Nephew, Jake Roberts 16th Birthday yesterday. As I posted a couple of weeks back, he's recovering from surgery to a splintered collar-bone after a heavy BMX crash whilst training in Denmark.

One positive outcome from all this is Jake can now take his girlfriend, Aimee-Kate to his school Prom Night! The date clashes with a round of the National race championship and he's under contract to attend 'em all...However, he is recuperating...so he's excused.

Jake came round yesterday to raid my attic and try out some suitable threads for the Prom. this is the outfit he picked out.

I know for a fact that his mum has different ideas about this.......thing is.... he's Sixteen now!

RULE BRITANNIA....WITH THE STAGS

Oh Yea, Oh Yea, Oh Yea!......There's gonna be a wedding! Here's the official poster....by Royal Appointment.