PISTONHEAD RUN, FINLAND....part two

I woke up to a warm, sunny day. Mala cooked a tasty breakfast of scrambled eggs with 4 different Scandinavian cheeses and the local wholemeal flatbread. This was washed down with cinnamon tea.
I spent the morning mooching around the house and yard, absorbing the ambience. Hese from ROAD-WEIRDOES, who I met the last time I came to Finland, showed up with his buddy to work on one of the various trucks parked up. Mala hooked me up with some wheels for the weekend... a brand new 'Retro' 125cc scooter from India with only 280km's on the clock. It was great to have some independence and not be reliant on anybody to get around. In the afternoon Eski and Masa arrived and I pitched in and helped load the vans and trucks with musical equipment, merch and camping stuff for the show.

PISTONHEAD RUN, FINLAND....part one

Just back from a 5 day trip to Somero, Finland representing Sideburn Magazine at The Pistonhead Run.

I was shown some warm Finnish hospitality from Mala Malk, boss of KOPTERI, Finland's best chopper mag!

He picked me up at Helsinki airport and we drove 100 kms to Somero. We stopped on the way to buy sleeping bags etc. The first thing I saw was a pensioner in a THRASHER hoody followed by a monochrome, floppy-mohawked punk sporting TAMPERE SS, DISFEAR and GISM patches.

Mala resides in a huge converted dairy factory, built in 1928 and closed in the mid 70's. Downstairs is an open plan garage/workshop/storage space with living quarters on the second floor. Mala has spent his adult life collecting Americana, so that's cars, trucks, motorcycles, pinball machines, musical equipment, buses, clothing, hats, boots, food products, hair products, gas station ephemera, beer, toys and records....oh and a crane (though technically, that's English). The factory sits way out in the countryside and the surrounding sprawling plot is full of outhouses bursting with the aforementioned stuff.

MILL STREET MUSCLE CAR

More pics from yesteryear. My dad always had fast cars and seemed to change them every 6 months but back in 1973 he owned this Mustang Mach 1. An awesome car to be driven around the Wigan borough in. Left hand drive, V8 lump, 8-track music player and candy red leather interior. We once took a three week long family caravanning trip to Italy and Yugoslavia and averaged between 7-9 miles per gallon! I fondly remember my sister and me lying down in the 'folded-down -seat' boot area, looking up through the tinted panoramic rear window at the crystal clear Mediterranean sky whilst listening to Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra. Unsure of all the contributing facts but I think the car was sold on pretty quickly after this trip....probably because it was such a gas guzzler!
I'm not really into cars but if I ever had a few grand spare...I would hunt down one of these iconic bruisers.

Viva Montesa!

Whilst trawling through old family photos at my parent's house, I found this gem.

That's my sister and me on my Dad's Montesa back in about 1973. Not a clue why we are both wearing RAF dress hats.

1977 ABC WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS: CATALINA CLASSIC

Fantastic for numerous  reasons:

Burly downhill decents with the guys riding out the speed wobbles.

Bobby Piercy and John Hutson riding for TURNER SUMMER SKI and SANTA CRUZ respectively....absolutely charging it!

Dale 'Sausage-Man' Smiths insanely camp freestyle moves.

Amazing Mustaches.....short shorts.

Herds of Buffalo roaming majestically across the horizon.

Jamie Hart's attache briefcase containing his race formula OJ WHEELS.

Tough girls on skateboards.

The anchor mans neat bright yellow blazer!

Takes me right to the spot.....

Just received this shirt in the post from Tim Stamp. It's a short sleeve repro of the MAX shirt that I wore in 1982.

It's a high quality screen print on a 'Super-Premium' Fruit of the Loom and a limited run of 20 pieces.

Tim also excelled himself last year with a repro BICYCLE MOTOCROSS ACTION MAGAZINE long sleeve.

The BMX ACTION shirts are long gone but the MAX design, at this moment, is still available. If anybody wants one, get in touch and I'll pass on Tim's contact details.

 

ACTION NOW MAGAZINE TV SHOW 1981

My good friend Tim Stamp had a VHS copy of this that we hammered when we skated in '83-'84.
ACTION NOW magazine rose out of the ashes of SKATEBOARDER magazine when the skateboard boom took a dump in 1980.
It was a last ditch attempt to stay afloat and the mag opened its doors to other action sports: BMX, roller skating, surfing, skimboarding etc. Unfortunately, this ploy didn't work out...it totally alienated the hardcore few that still skated, the lowpoint for me being a photo of someone on a horse down at the beach.
On a plus point, the mag did have a reasonable music content and it was quick to champion the LA punk scene. Lots of Circle Jerks, Black Flag etc as well as features on the big UK punk bands at the time.
The mag didn't last long and around this time a new, truly independent skateboard magazine was launched called THRASHER that drove the final nail in the 'Action Now' coffin.
The Action Now TV show was a self financed 30 minute showcase produced at one of skateboardings all time low points. By todays standards it looks nothing special but the skate footage blew me away. It was the only way to see moving images of the new 'bionic' skating that was starting to come through. particular stand outs are Neil Blender and Steve Alba....totally inspired by this, me and a few friends built STIFFNECKS RAMP.
I wish the rest of the show was on Youtube. Its been over 25 years since I saw it but I recall some good footage of Jeff Watson on his BMX in the Upland fullpipe and some early Bob Haro ramp riding.

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

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