In the wind....

Me and Louise havin' fun in the sun in 2000

Mert Lawwill

Here is a nice little 'promo' mini mag given away free with the March '99 issue of Classic Racer.

This was exclusive to the USA edition and features a bunch of pictures from the Dan Mahoney archive.

I picked this up during Bike Week and got Mert to Autograph it when we met him at a 'Hall of Fame' Breakfast fundraiser, where he was guest of honour.

The event was kinda like a Sportsmans Dinner with maybe 150 guests in attendance. It started at 7.45am with a fantastic breakfast followed by an 'after-breakfast' lecture/talk from Mert. He talked at length about his racing career, his contributions to the bicycle industry, his patented amputee gadget for motorcycle riders and his friendship with Steve McQueen and the making of 'On any Sunday'. It was a very special morning and something I will remember forever.

In all my life I think I only ever asked for 3 autographs: Mert Lawwill and Evel Knievel, both at Daytona '99 and Tony Alva in '78 at Southport Skatepark.

DEAD GENERATION?

Three top-drawer early 80's punk singles that I really love......this is the only way I can post music until I can figure out how to do a linked podcast.

The Stags in Paris 2009

 

Here are a few shots from The Stags trip to Paris, to play a pre-party show for BORN BAD's 10th birthday.
We drove in the van and also delivered a Triton motorcycle for head honcho Ivan Le Terrible. A great weekend was had by all...the video clip is very poor quality and probably only of interest to the people that were there at the time...

Jacob Roberts BMX national #1

Coppul 2008

This is my Nephew, BMX racer, Jacob Roberts. He started racing when he was 8 years old, he's gonna be 15 this year and has been the UK national #1 for the last 3 consecutive years. He rode for SE RACING for the last couple of seasons but this year he is back on REDLINE. The shots on the motorcycle are from when he was 9 years old. The video clips are Jacob winning the British Championships in 2008 and Coppul national 2008(He's in blue SE RACING riding gear)

Split Skates indoor mini ramp

This is Pete 'insomnia kid' McNiel doing a f/side smith grind on a mini ramp that I built.

This ramp was the 2nd ramp I actually got paid to build. It was situated upstairs in Split Skates Manchester in 1988. I built the ramp for the owners and on the back of that somehow ended up working there as Shop Manager. The ramp was heavily used every day for about 6 months until there was some argy-bargy between some skaters and the neighbouring businesses. People came to skate from all over and we even had Natas Kaupas and Jesse Martinez do a demo there.

When the landlord forced the shop to shut the ramp down, we hired a Luton van and relocated it at my house, where it stood for almost 14 years.

I like magazines....part one

Whilst up in my attic space, photographing the stickers for the last post, I came across my stash of old magazines. I've never been that much into books but have always really loved magazines. I think this started as a 5 year old when my Grandad took on the role of night watchman at a magazine distribution warehouse. The warehouse was located on the same grounds as the Joinery company he worked for. He agreed to keep an eye on the warehouse on the understanding that he could take a few comics and magazines, for his trouble, to give to his grandson. This was 1969-'70 and I vividly remember visiting my Nana and Grandads in St. Helens, Merseyside and him taking me into the warehouse every Saturday. The place was just stacked floor to ceiling with mags and comicbooks. As a 5 or 6 year old  I was mainly drawn to the comics, American Marvel and DC. I remember Gold-Key comics with Photo covers of 'Man From Uncle' and 'Star Trek'.

I also got 'Mad' magazine and 'Famous Monsters' magazine plus all the other FM ripoff publications.

I still have some of the 'Famous Monsters' today but regretfully, I sold all the other comics (200 plus) for 6 pounds back in 1980.

 As with a myriad of things, I think the internet has killed off the Raison D'etre of the specialist magazine. In the late 70's the only way of checking out what was going on with U.S. skateboarding was to read SKATEBOARDER mag. This was before the video age and you would just look at the pictures and try to imagine how the guy got up there.....and how he got back down and there was never ever any question that the guy bailed the trick. Nowadays, its all de-mystified, you are aware that Jake Phelps smashed his glasses within minutes of it happening and if you wanna see him do it, it will be on Youtube.

The old mags featured in these pics are just a few of the hundreds that I have boxed up. I have most THRASHERs from the beginning to the mid 90's. I also have a good collection of early BMX PLUS, KUNG FU MONTHLY, FAMOUS MONSTERS, EASYRIDERS, IRON HORSE, MONSTER MAG, AWOL, BACK STREET HEROES, 60'S PLAYBOY, 60'S MOTORCYCLE MECHANICS, FANGORIA, FLIPSIDE, MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL to name a few.

I think I'm gonna go back in the attic and find the issue of the English SKATEBOARD mag with the topless model kneeling on a giant skateboard!

UPDATE Fri 19th Feb: Here it is.......in issue # 9