Dysfunctional is a book that celebrates anything artistic about skateboarding. There are board graphics, portraits, skate photos, adverts and magazine layouts. Plus, an extensive introduction that tells the reader all about the history of skateboarding, its key players and its key moments. Artists and photographers that have contributed are Wig Worland, J.Grant Brittain, Bryce Knights, Skin Phillips, Mike O'”Meally, Daniel Harold Sturt, Andy Jenkins. The list goes on. Basically anybody who has done something creative in skateboarding. If you want something that reflects skateboarding over the last 30 years, be it a portrait of Andy Roy or Guy Mariano doing a switch tre-flip, then this book is a must have item. Trust me, you will not be disappointed.
Ralph Lloyd-Davis
Sid Vicious may well have been an impressionable idiot who swallowed his own hype and chased it down with numerous armfuls of smack, but he is still the embodiment of the smash-it-up, fuck-them-all attitude of punk. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t play an instruments because he looked brilliant and had great hair and ‘too Fast To Live.’ is crammed full of pictures of Sid in all of his fucked up glory. It also tells his short story in the most detail yet. Author Alan Parker became close friends with Sid’s mother Anne Beverley and gained a good insight into what Sid was really like and also claims to have unravelled part of the ongoing who killed Nancy conspiracy theories. Yes, Sid was an idiot but it’s easy to forget just how young and impressionable Sid was when his whole life turned into a drug addled punk rock cartoon. He was just twenty-years old when he died ” he was still just a kid and people forget that. Before he”d even had a chance to grow he was thrown head-long into a drug-addled chaotic world with the full glare of the world’s media in his eyes. Who wouldn’t lose the plot? The fact is Sid lost it in spectacular style and took it right to the limit and over the edge. Yes, he was dead at twenty-one but he”ll be remembered for years to come. Will you?
If we’re all honest, Graham Coxon was always the best thing about of Blur. His warm fuzzy guitar tones and hop-skip-jump bendy guitar lines worked so well, and his nervous high pitched cooing gave a real sense of emotion to Damon’s everyman delivery. But in one swift action that finally gave conclusive evidence that Damon is in fact a nasty piece of work (well, I wasn’t gonna just believe what the Gallagher’s were saying was I?) Graham was asked to leave the band in such a humiliating manner. He quit the drink and alcohol, sorted his mind and family life out, and pushed on with his solo work whilst Blur went on to sell a lot of records (as per usual) but generally bore people into buying Gorillaz records (so it would occupy more of Damon’s time until the inevitable reunion of Coxon and Blur.) and while Blur may sell more records than Graham, the respect he gets from the critics, fans and other bands far exceeds that of his former band. So just to rub it in that little bit more we have one frantically electric show of Graham’s (and his amazing band) captured on DVD for the first time. 
Competitions kicked off at 2.30pm with the Amateur Street section. This was a jam format with girls skating in groups of four and the level of skating was pleasingly high. Third place was taken by 14 year old Kim Lewis who showed great promise with 180 ollie nose grabs and kickflips to fakie on the driveway. Becky Wood impressed the judges, Andy Willis and Phil Proctor, with her run that included a 180 ollie, boardslide down the kinked rail and kickflip to fakie on the flatbank. But she was piped to the post by her friend Kerri Dennis who bagged herself first place with a floaty ollie to fakie on the quarter pipe, 180 ollie over the driveway and smoothly caught kickflip to fakie on the flatbank. Both girls had travelled down from Derbyshire the same day, yet still managed to throw themselves around the park with enthusiasm.
Next up, the comp moved outdoors to the miniramp, where MC Jack Wiggins from the Oxford Wheels Project amused the crowd and skaters – especially Lucy who was all most crying – alike with his unique brand of MC-ing. “In her spare time Faith is a Racing Driver and Demolishes buildings” he announced of the 10 year old “But she also throws the best parties that go on for days if not weeks”. In fact the skaters were so amused they began making requests for topics for him to comment on them. Third placed Lucy Adams “is into cloning, and has cloned herself seven times and today we have the Sunday version which is much better than the Saturday version”. She flowed effortlessly, apart from trying not to fall off due to laughing too much, with front and backside 50-50s, boardslides and lipslides and even attempted tasty looking Indys out of the coping.
It was then back to the Street course for the sponsored riders street comp. Once again it was jam format with one group of three, followed by a pair. Essex girl and Rogue rider, Sadie Hollins deservedly took third prize with her impressive tech tricks on the banks of nollie flip shuvs, switch flips, nose manuals and k grinds. She also took best trick with a brilliant boardslide shuv out down the kinked rail.
Refusing to start her run until the right Queen track was played by the DJ – Don’t Stop Me Now, her run included a perfectly caught fakie flip on the steep bank, back-to-back boardslide and switch boardslide, 50-50 on the top ledge of the Koston Block and finishing with noseslide down the driveway ledge. Not intent on just winning the comp she also decided to have a hand in the DJing whilst the best trick comp was underway. The girls skated to the sounds of Madonna and Van Halen, Lucy would like to make it known that she is available for hire for comps or even weddings.
This attitude is born out by ‘One More Sinner’, the band’s first album as DTX. It’s a record dripping in great tunes; an uncompromising yet melodic mix of hard rock and punk influences. More importantly, it’s a hungry record; the sound of a rabid rock n’ roll underdog slipping its leash and slavering to sink its teeth into the leg of the mainstream. Never shy about voicing their opinions, second track ‘NME Darlin” is a vitriolic, yet amusingly tongue-in-cheek attack on the increasingly ubiquitous weekly music paper, and the bands that feature within its pages.
Transworld