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!!

OUTRAGIOUS!!!.....Screaming Lord Sutch

An in-depth documentary  about Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages.
I've seen the "Jack the Ripper" performance before but here is the entire original UK broadcast from 1964...in four bite-sized chunks.
Listening to Sutch sum up the dynamics of putting a great band together is compelling......he talks about  band-mates requiring "no sense of self embarassment" and a the overwhelming desire to perform and not just be interested in the money at the end of the night.....great advice that still holds true today.
The clip of the band rehearsing whilst doing the Hokey Cokey and moving the drums around is inspiring.
I really envy his use of crazy props and "in your face" theatrics....you would get punched in the face if you tried that stuff today!
I can't help but think Vic 'n' Bob could well have been influenced by the WIG ON STICK prop, and the Sid Vicious "My Way" scene in ROCK 'N' ROLL SWINDLE has more than a passing resemblence to Lord Sutch's Schtick with the blank firing revolver.
Ever the trendsetter, just look at the length of his hair....in 1964!!!
He was a truly original, eccentric and pioneering performer who sadly only seems to be remembered for his political career with his MONSTER RAVING LOONY PARTY in his latter years and not the things he was really good at.......