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!

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.

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.....

Roots of UK skateboarding

I stumbled upon a little bit of UK skateboard history by pure accident. The pics in this post came from two entirely separate sources.

Firstly, after watching a 1965 British teen movie BE MY GUEST (starring a very young pre-Small Faces Steve Marriot) I googled the leading actress JOYCE BLAIR. It turns out that she was the sister of famously camp TV dancer LIONAL BLAIR. I also found the shots of Joyce posing in London's Hyde Park on a wonderful Gerry Anderson licenced STINGRAY skateboard!

Fast forward only a few weeks to Christmas time. I received some vintage TV21 comics as a present and there, amongst the pages, was this ad for the very same skateboard. The magazine advert dates the photo to 1964.

It's strange to me that two completely unrelated interests of mine, namely Gerry Anderson memorabilia and sixties beat music led me to learning stuff about a third unrelated intrest!!

Duane Peters...update

Our thoughts are with our good buddy Duane Peters, who has been fighting to not lose his left leg after developing a serious staph infection following a bad slam on a skate tour last month. GoGo Lou emailed Duane yesterday and got a reply.....He is in good spirits and feels he's turned a corner in the last few days. Doctors said his leg has to grow some "new meat" in order for it to begin to heal and if this didn't happen soon he was facing amputation at the knee. DP has gone back under the surgeons knife very recently and signed a document to allow them to take the leg off if necessary. If amputation was to be the outcome, he told the docs not to bother making the stump to take a prosthetic limb saying he was gonna go back to boozing and "go pirate with a wooden peg-leg".

He ain't out of the woods yet but the gap in his leg has started to close up a little..and that's an improvement!

Above are some progress pics of the wound and some pics off Ebay. Duane is selling some of his art and personal skateboards to help to pay off some crippling hospital bills. If you feel you wanna bid and help raise some cash take a look on Ebay HERE

Update 20th October 2010:

Here is a post from earlier today over at Duanes facebook page....

just noticed all the cool donation sugestions.I dont think I,m cool with that tho,but thank you all you radsters.cant go to jail for oweing I dont think,I just gotta stir up the shit instead of siting in it I think,so I,m burning A disc with all my last Shoe ideas & even tho the market is soft I,m gonna look for someth...ing.when my son clash told his class his daddy was a shoe maker for a living the other day it made me start to think about it.no real offers yet but I'll wash dishes ,Tap dance or what ever I gotta do till shit happens. ive allready done the bum thing,begging aint my style no more.Clash gets his tonsils out friday so I hope it dont rain that day,gonna ride motto up to LA to see him,coreys brother cherokee has been going to bat for me during this whole fucking last ordeal of mine. I guess some shit sold on ebay.I will be able to give her half.I,ll sell garage junk next weekend & next till I can tap dance on the road in 3 weeks.rent got paid.Gonna work on just staying sober & healing for now.More people way werse off than I ! You ROCK ME ! Thank you Friends for even wanting to help out,much Love.

 

One night in September 1995....

Classics from Barry Thornton on Vimeo.

Psychick-Boy does it again unearthing unseen footage of THE RAMP COMMANDOS sessioning my old mini-ramp back in late September 1995. On duty that night were me (blue shirt/dyed black hair) Psychick-Boy, Captain Highside, Julian Parkinson and Daz Robinson.The list of tricks I have forgot I could do leaves me at a loss for words......look out for my backside boneless one, Psychick-Boy's Lein to tail and Captain Highside's frontside roll-in.......LIVIN' IN A WIGGLY WORLD!

Vintage Jim Goodrich photography

A few examples of the skate photography of Jim Goodrich. In the late Seventies I would see these kind of images in SKATEBOARDER MAGAZINE and they would make me wanna grab my board and get shredding.

From the top we have Steve Alba (at Winchester pool??) then Shogo Kubo in the Lakewood half-pipe. Next is Marty Grimes at Oxnard and to conclude, Greg Weaver, at Skatopia.

Forgotten footage.....

Untitled from Barry Thornton on Vimeo.
Big thanks to Psychick-Boy for digging up some skate footage of me on my mini ramp 15 years ago in 1995. The ramp stood for 12 or so years until it was dismantled to make way for YOYO'S BOWL.
That's Capt. Highside on the platform waiting to drop in. I had completely forgot I could do both those tricks...Frontside Rock 'n' Rolls and little Frontside Ollies.......Looks like I just threw down a gauntlet to my own self.......

Mini Ramp skating in the late 80's

Many thanks to Pete Rogers for sending me these skate shots. The first three are taken at Dave Davies backyard ramp, in Lark Lane, Liverpool in around 1987. First 2 pics are me (stand-up F/side Grind and B/side Air) and then the 3rd shot is Ian Barwick mid Rock 'n' Roller.

The last 3 are of my own backyard ramp from maybe 1988-89. We used to skate for hours and end up full of splinters!!

the 4th pic is Paul 'Cyb' Lewis with a stylee, relaxed F/side Grind. Next up is Ritchie on a Fakie Smith Stall.

The last shot is Natas Kaupas (F/side Ollie) skating the ramp on a visit with Jesse Martinez at the ramps original short-lived home......upstairs at Split Skates shop in Manchester.

I'm really hoping that Pete digs out some more nuggets for me to post here!

UPDATE: Here's a pic of Pete himself Smith Grinding again on my old ramp

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.

I love my Vans....

"Skates like a rocking horse!"

Baz Thornton has got in touch through Myspace and sent me these pics from EMPIRE SKATE BUILDING Warrington and the "Locals only" STIFFNECKS ramp.
First 2 shots are me, then Baz, then me again at Stiffneck's and then finally Bull-Craigos over the channel in Warrington.
We just made a pact to both skate more during 2010....it's hard to motivate yourself to go skating on your own...so having someone to hook up with will be a real bonus....BRING ON THE MAGIC ROLLING BOARD!!