RULE BRITANNIA.......with THE STAGS!

Bored rigid by the forthcoming Royal Wedding?
...Then get down to THE OCTOPUS at The British Legion for a night of over the top POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE!!!

I'm sure there are lots of things to do on this special day .....but you could do a lot worse than spend it with The Stags, celebrating WHAT MAKES BRITAIN GREAT!!
Everyone attending RULE BRITANNIA...WITH THE STAGS will receive their very own to keep, British Legion commemorative Stags ornamental plate, by Royal appointment to Dennis the Bar-Steward!
Support is from girl-fronted, power-poppers THE STACHES from Geneva, Switzerland....don't know what they will make of all the jelly eating and flag waving!

FRIDAY 29TH APRIL at The British Legion, Wigan
£3.00 ON THE DOOR (including commemorative plate)
Doors open 8.30pm

"God save the King"

Rammy the Rookie

Via the magic of Facebook, I've recently been back in touch with some old BMX buddies. I invited  Jason Ramsden and Tony Law over to the SKOOTER FARM practice track a coupla days ago.

Jason was an old ROBINSON team-mate back in 1981...and I ain't seen him since about 1982.

Both guys had a good day but Tony was struggling in pain due to 20 plus years of Freestyle MX abuse to his body.
However, Jason got into it really quickly, within minutes he was comfortably sliding the bike through the corners.
Jason was always a natural on a bike, tons of style and a total command of "Body English". He came away smiling and really stoked and can't wait to ride again next week.

 I know I said the SKOOTER FARM  team was fully subscribed but taking into account CAPTAIN HIGHSIDE is pretty much out for the season... I think there may be room for one more rookie on the team. I reckon a couple more sessions on the little track, maybe a practice session on a big track and then maybe Rammy could try a race or two......I hope so!

BIG BALLS...BIG HEART

My nephew Jacob Roberts got hurt this afternoon.

 He flew out to Copenhagen, Denmark with 12 other top English BMX racers.

They have privately rented the UCI SUPERCROSS track for the weekend. The track is ultra-gnarly......it's BMX on steroids.....super-hero stuff.....the stuff you see in an X-BOX game.

Unfortunately, Jake went down hard on his first attempt to take the fearsome first jump... a 40-footer. According to his Step-Dad, Roy... he did a massive, terminal endo..... landing on his head and breaking his collarbone.
the phone footage is shaky and doesn't show the impact....but it still sickens me to watch.

Over the last 8 years, we have watched Jake grow from a little kid "having a ride round" to becoming one of the most promising racers in the country. He will turn 16 in April, he's the 4 times defending British and National number 1 and is one of only a handful of racers on the BRITISH CYCLING TALENT TEAM.....grooming him to represent his country at the 2016 Olympics (he's just a few months too young  for 2012 London)

I'm watching his progress "live" on Facebook....it's a bad break and he's been moved to another hospital to see a surgeon.

Jake is my hero...his first time on one of these "X-Games super tracks", only been there less than one hour, he has the balls to take a jump like that, fully commited, not knowing whether he will make it or not.
Unfortunately, today, it didn't go quite as planned, but knowing Jake like I do, if he had not broken his bones ..I'm 100% certain he would have dusted himself down and tried it again and again ..until he made it.
These modern, made-for-TV tracks make the tracks I raced on back in 1980-81 seem like pre-school.....I wouldn't even ride down that start ramp!!

I'm so proud of his achievements and if he wasn't so damn good at BMX I would have had him on SKOOTER FARM in the junior class in a heartbeat....I know he is in good hands but I am thinking about him....

BTW, Jakes bike sponsor is REDLINE ENGINEERING for those that know their flat track motorcycle history..a company formed by Linn Kastan....originally producing thoroughbred cro-moly race frames before sidestepping into BMX racing in the late 70's!

UPDATE

Jacob is now recovering from his surgery which involved a steel plate and pins. It's a complicated break, he splintered the collar bone into 4 pieces and has been told he can't even begin to do any physio for another 6 weeks. This means he will miss the first few rounds of the British BMX championship...which he's gutted about.

Long live THE SHOOK-UPS......The lentalists are dead

Just a name change.. only played 4 local shows under the old name so no harm done.
After weeks of deliberation, a list of 356 potential names and the recruitment of a new drummer....we settled on THE SHOOK-UPS!.
Now we got a name all the band members are happy with...we can now start to spread the word, book shows start to have some fun with this project.
Comprised of members from various North-West bands: MOCO, THE V.C.'S, THE STAGS, DOKTOR COMBOVER and FILTHY ROMANCE......THE SHOOK-UPS play up-beat tuff 60's Garage in the vein of BOB SEGER SYSTEM, THE SEEDS, ALARM CLOCKS
We just set up a Myspace for the new band...but there ain't a lot to look at right now, however. you can listen to a bunch of newly recorded songs like the one below.

listen to six more songs HERE

Say something with Billy Childish

Looking forward to this lecture by Billy Childish about German pop artist Kurt Schwitters next Thursday.

Venue is the Islington Mill, Salford and is part of the "Say something" season....

SEVENTY-SIXTIES

Had a pretty crappy day today. I came home and cheered up when I found this cool set of pics I took in 1999 when US BOMBS came to stay with us for a couple of days.I gave the prints to Duane the next time I saw him at the Blackpool punk weekender in 2000 and the shots finally see the light of day on his official website http://duanepeters.net/
There is shots of our kitchen (hasn't changed at all) my chopper, the backyard ramp, my Evel Knievel BMX and even my little Honda CM200 flat tracker being built in the workshop!!

UPDATE:
I actually did a more indepth post about the time The U.S. Bombs came to stay when I first started this blog, Almost a year to the day!
Read it HERE

Billy Childish and Tracy Emin

Unbelievable footage from 1997 of Billy and Tracy publicly deconstructing Billy's writings about their relationship in Billy's "novel" MY FAULT.
If you are familiar with the history between these two, then it makes compelling viewing.