Justin Brock gets tre flip fakie for FTF.
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Author: Crossfire
They are finally back, hopefully to stay. Check out Stephen Lawyer, this September’s dream boat for Roger of the Month. If you want to know more about Roger Skateboards, read our latest deck review here.
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Manchester Orchestra to support Biffy
The astoundingly accomplished Manchester Orchestra had the full UK release of album ‘Mean Everything To Nothing‘ this week and to coincide, their series of videos to accompany the record have also been made available to buy online (see iTunes etc).
Check out the picturesque representations of the songs on the album, directed by Jason Bognacki & Clay Lipsky below. Also check the band out on tour with Biffy Clyro (and on select headline dates) in Oct/Nov :
Live dates –
28 Oct 2009 St George’s Market Belfast
29 Oct 2009 Olympia Dublin
30 Oct 2009 The Duchess, York (HEADLINE)
1 Nov 2009 Caird Hall Dundee, Scotland
2 Nov 2009 Barrowlands Glasgow, Scotland
3 Nov 2009 Barrowlands Glasgow, Scotland
4 Nov 2009 Academy Newcastle
6 Nov 2009 Academy Leeds
7 Nov 2009 Apollo Manchester
8 Nov 2009 Rock City Nottingham
9 Nov 2009 Academy Birmingham
11 Nov 2009 UEA Norwich
12 Nov 2009 Brixton Academy London
15 Nov 2009 University Cardiff
16 Nov 2009 Guildhall Southampton
17 Nov 2009 Heaven, London (HEADLINE)
01. The Only One
02. Shake It Out
03. I’ve Got Friends
04. Pride
05. In My Teeth
06. 100 Dollars
07. I Can Feel A Hot One
08. My Friend Marcus
09. Tony The Tiger
10. Everything To Nothing
11. The River
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Brother Ali – Live
Camden Barfly
15.09.09
The name Rhymesayers has become synonymous with undiluted talent and of producing the best hip hop around for a great number of years. So when Brother Ali announced he’d be coming to London for his first full-length headline show, attendance was a no-brainer.
With new album Us almost upon us (his third full-length is released on September 21st), Ali took to the stage with DJ BK-One and proceeded to rock a 200 strong crowd who had not long been in from the monsoon that was pouring down outside the venue.
Ali has an aire about him that exudes positivity and his smile isn’t one of duty, but one of genuine love for his art and the warm being thrown back at him from his audience. Old favourites like Forest Whitaker, Room With A View and Champion mixed in with newer material like the exhilaratingly upbeat Take Me Home and Truth Is Here and material from his new record, such as the title track and Fresh Air.
There was no part of the set that dipped below amazing, including BK’s one man delivery of a track from his upcoming Radio Do Canibal album. Ali was there for the fans and the fans were there for him – he even allowed the encore to be picked by the crowd and performed Dorian, the first track of his I ever heard.
‘This is the first time we have played most of these songs,’ he declared at the climax ‘and when I’m old and grey, I’ll have memories of every one of you.’ – a fitting uplifting end to a night that left everything grinning as they left the room.
The truth is here and his name is Brother Ali.
Abjekt.
(Photos by Phil Procter)
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DMC World DJ Championships – Live
IndigO2, London
11-12.09.09
Everyone knows at least a brief history of hiphop, the dancing has become accepted on talent shows, rappers top the charts frequently and the art sells for hundreds of thousands of pounds world wide. Dj’ing is a different entity, with all the elements going their own direction, DJ’ing is unashamedly clinging on to its roots.
With the DMC’s now in its 25th year it’s the perfect time to showcase the past, present and future of the artform, the O2 Indigo is the venue DJ’s from the have made the pilgrimage to.Billy Biznizz and Inja are our hosts for the night and have the arduous job of keeping things flowing throughout the two nights.
The first competition, is the head to head Battle for World Supremacy. Lots of tidy, perfectly executed sets here, but in battle, these guys need to get more aggressive, excellent DJ’s like Japan’s Shota, S-Trix (Germany), all fell to the aggressive veterans like the UKs, Switch and Rasp. DJ Nelson from France I felt was lucky to make it past Italy’s Mandrayq, maybe the judges knew he could step up from his sets, but Mandrayq was certainly hard done by, he will be back.
Breaking the battles up tonight is a video retrospective set from DJ Yoda. With 25 years of footage at his disposal, he pulls out some classic moments; DJ David with his decks stacked up on coke cans bought back some memories. Some clown set his decks on fire, others choosing to breakdance on the 1200’s while all the old champs sets were dug out, from Roger Johnson and Chad Jackson right up to Rafik and Fly. Definitely a bit of fun to break up the battles.
In the semi finals, Jimmex from Mexico worked some hard beats in to a faultless juggle, but the charismatic DJ Nelson showed some flashes of his performances from last year and edged him out. While the other semi was an all UK affair, with reigning champ Switch lined up against DJ Rasp. Rasp kicked things off with some straight up insults on the battle wax, and progressed to some juggles. Switch came out swinging with a composed air of knowing he was defending his crown. After the two rounds Switch just had that bit more in the locker, but given the look Rasp glanced at the judges, he felt hard done by.
The Next PA was Jehst and Micall Parknsun doing a dual set, backed up with Jazz T on the wheels. Each dropping their own style with ease and backing each other up on the mic. Parkys album is doing the rounds right now, and the Jehst collaboration, “Bang” went down well and the crowd got totally involved in the authentic “All 4 HipHop” anthem – while Jehst dropped donned his “Nuke Proof Suit”
The Battle for Supremacy final was a repeat of last years, Switch from the UK and Nelson from France – the crowd were clearly torn, Nelson has undeniable talent, crossarmed beat juggles and bouncing around like the Fresh Prince, while Switch is much less imposing visually, but way more aggressive on the decks – I think Nelson was maybe a little over confident and hadn’t really progressed passed his 2008 sets, while Switch stepped up a little more and using new tools cockily dressed Nelson down to retain his crown as 2009 Supremacy Champ.
DJ I-Dee took the stage to show off Numarks latest digital scratch tool. I-Dee’s usual flair carried a mouthwatering set through….until his laptop failed and we were left with nothing on stage but a few embarrassed smiles, vinyl might jump from time to time, but when you add processors and hardrives your more than doubling your technical glitches! Set was still sick though.
The Team Finals broke down to the UKs Bionic Stylus crew taking 3rd, France’s excellent, established Traumateam taking the runners up spot – but once again the standout team was Japans Kireek, taking the champions spot for a 2nd year running. Hi-C and Yasa are just born to do this, switching decks, and styles with well practiced ease and winning the judges over with a hectic looking, yet smooth sounding set of quad table juggles and live remixing, deserved winners.
Night two is the big one. Longer sets this time for the World DJ Finals, this isn’t a head to head format, each set is marked by the all star panel of judges including Rob Swift, Qbert and PrimeCuts.
The sets came thick and fast with New Zealands DJ Impact coming through with a full range of skills, DJ Steel was faultless, in his execution, but sacrificed the music for tech ability. The UK’s Jeppa repeated his extra technical “War of the Worlds” set and Mandrayq launched straight in to a heavy battle set and stepping it up a further level at high speeds, amazing skills.
Third place went to the French, DJ Ligone who looked awfully serious up on stage, and was almost bionic in his set, although technically excellent, didn’t get the crowd bouncing, maybe too much time in the bedroom and not enough in the club comes in to play? Stepping up a place on his 2008 performance, DJ Co-Ma from Japan must be wondering what he has to do to take the crown. Technically perfect and definitely got the crowd rocking but the competition this year was equally tough and he shouldn’t feel hard done by, 2nd in the world is not something to ashamed of!
New York’s DJ Shiftee finally made it to the top of the game. His bouncing, confident style won the night, although technically faultless, Shiftee is just simply more fun to watch on the 1210’s – easing in and out of cheeky battle styles and more musical tricks and juggles, he had the air of champion as soon as he put the first record on the platter and even walked out and took a bow long before the results had been added up, a worthy champ, and will likely be back next year to defend too!
The PA’s on the night came in the shape of the legendary Rob Swift from the X-ecutioners, he killed it with some straight talking on the turntables while showcasing the “Scratch Live” system. Last years champ, DJ Fly stepped to the decks for a short set and showed why he easily won in 2008.
The highlight of the weekend was by far DJ Qbert’s showcase set – he is simply the master, and hasn’t lost any love he had for mixing – smiling, confident and here to entertain. Working his way through tools, even chomping on an apple in the middle of his routine and then calling out Killa Kela to rock some beatboxing for his scratching and then moving on to add Swift, Fly, Shiftee, I-Dee, Nelson, Switch and Primecuts to name a few to make up the “Super Jam” even with so many djs mixing at the same time, the sound didn’t sound busy, these guys are the best there is, and best there ever was.
So once again the DMC’s put on the perfect showcase for the art form of DJ’ing, the PA’s all killed it too, so a result all round. Bring on next year! Time for a mix.
Words and photos by Phil Procter
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Murs leaves Warner Bros
Murs has announced he has left Warner Bros. Records.
The LA rapper has denied that he was dropped, saying the move was mutual and that he wanted to work on other projects. He will be releasing Felt 3 this year with Slug from Atmosphere and production from Aesop Rock through Rhymesayers and will release a new record with 9th Wonder in 2010.
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Pavement reform!
Pavement are to reform for some new dates.
Mark Ibold, Scott Kannberg, Stephen Malkmus, Bob Nastanovich and Steve West are reuniting for dates around the world in 2010. The band will kick off in New York next September before moving around the globe. The band have said that this tour will not constitute a permanent reunion, however.
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This is how to rush the stage!
Everyone has been talking about Kanye rushing the stage at the VMAs and what a plum he was for doing it. Which is still true, obviously. Maybe he should have taken notes from O.D.B. who did it properly at the Grammys a few years ago. “Wu Tang is for the children” – classic:
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Unseen Alberta Cross footage!
To celebrate the release of Alberta Cross‘ fantastic debut album ‘Broken Side of Time’ on Monday (September 21st), the band have uploaded a 3 min video of previously unseen studio footage, recorded whilst the band were at producer Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Trail of Dead)’s Texas studio.
Of the finished album, guitarist/vocalist Petter Ericson Stakee explains: “We’re trying to give people truly soulful music, which is hopefully inspirational. I want to ease their minds and give them a little break from reality.”
Watch it here:
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UKSA UK Championships – 2009
Street Pics: Chris Johnson
Vert Pics: Toddtwist
Words & Snaps: Dickfingers
This year’s UKSA UK Championships has just drawn to a close, the ringing in my ears has subsided, the bar for sponsored skating has been raised once again and I’m slowly starting to regain feeling in my lower back…
Hosted by Adrenaline Alley for the second year running, all the usual suspects from the great and the good of UK Skating assembled this weekend to fight it out for the £10,000 purse.
After the success of last years event, the format remained almost identical, with the Qualifiers for both the Street & Vert on the Saturday and the finals held on the Sunday, predictably with some heavy duty hangovers and it goes without saying that the level of skating stepped up, even more than last year which is no mean feat.
I’m not going to give you a trick-for-trick break down as for a start they are boring to write and even more boring to read (plus my memory is shit) but it’s safe to say that the four judges had their work cut out for them as you can see for yourselves from the footage has already been edited and spilled all over the web.
SATURDAY
I spent the majority of the first day tending to the needs of the swarms of kids queued up for a Vans Waffle crafted with my very own hands, however I did peer over my sweet smelling stall long enough to see Ben Grove kicking the shit out of every obstacle in his path, Ross McGouran flowing about with speed and consistency and Daryl Dominguez, who spent all day dropping some rarely seen tricks with high, relaxed, laid back pop and cruised through to the finals.
After the 70 odd people in the street qualifiers had been wrapped up (and I ran out of waffle mix) everyone trundled over to the frankly terrifying vert ramp to check out the action there. Having been to a few vert events in the past year, it’s truly is amazing to see not only how far the new Vert breed has progressed but also how quickly they have reached this level..
Standing on the platform alongside guys that have been holding it down for years are a new breed of Vert shredders. Still years away from being able to legally drink, yet smashing every contest they enter. It says a lot when one of the competitors is an Xgames Gold medalist before his 15th birthday.
Considering that it’s only been a couple of months since Sam Beckett became the first Englishman to land a 720 and now he’s throwing them out in lines along with 540 Airwalks, which he said was the first one he’d ever landed apparently. It’s no surprise to find out who went on to win. The level that these guys are skating at is genuinely shocking. The Vert stalwarts Pete King, Scotty and Jim The Skin all held their own but young guns went higher and further with a seemingly endless bag of tricks with Sam Beckett taking 1st, Sam Bosworth in 2nd and Alex Halford taking 3rd.
Above right: Sam Beckett – Nose bone Indy
Above left: Alex Halford: Getting some and more! Right: Sam Bosworth – Tweaks a huge stale.
I know that this is meant to focus on the skating that went down but I couldnt really miss out the afterparty. As far as Im concerned the party is just as important as the skating. Last year Cates’ band Day Release subjected a poor unsuspecting pub to the sort of rowdiness usually reserved for football riots, so this year we had to relocate and went to a rugby club in the middle of nowhere. Predictably the skater to girl ratio was about 30:1 as it usually is at these things so dispensing with all pretence, it was decided to turn it into a gay disco.
I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much in one night as I did looking over the dancefloor and seeing everyone thowing some seriously suspect maneuvers to YMCA and Copacabana! I went home and woke up in the morning to find that someone who was staying in my room is really unable to hold their drink. Or bodily fluids for that matter. It also emerged that in their hour of need, toilet paper had been substituted for one of my towels… The dirty little bastard. Skidmarks should not be left on sinks. Especially not on mine… Ever…
SUNDAY
The Sunday kicked off with the Girls jam with some hefty moves dropped by Lucy Adams who ended up taking home the title and Mandy, the manager of Adrenaline Alley decided that next year she was personally donating £500 to the girls comp to boost their prize fund up. Righteous.
Below: Stevie Thompson drops a backside boneless off the extention rocking the CF.
Once the ladies had vacated the course the finals kicked in and everything was stepped up from the day before. The qualifiers went off. Daryl Dominguez, a regular face at Crossfire Jams, dropped some serious tech bangers including my personal highlight of the weekend: a backside 360 lateflip over the driveway in the jam. I can’t work out his skating: it’s fast, but so ridiculously smooth it looks like he’s in slow motion and he cruised into a respectable 5th overall. Grove was on a mission, giving 100% to every trick, with gap to 5050 and gap to 50 over the funbox and down the hubba as well as gap to front board and gap to back lip on the rail. Everything was pulled at about 60 miles and hour and with his usual scant regard for personal safety and nudity laws, whipping his shirt off and finishing in 4th.
Below: Snowy-Switch Frontside Heel
The top three were too close to call for me: Dan Wileman skated consistently throughout the weekend, dropping tricks in lines that he used to win the best trick last year (gap to front tail bigspin out) and thumping out rail bangers and perfect flip tricks at the drop of a hat. Kris Vile improved on his 3rd place last year, stepping up to 2nd using all of the course and banging out smooth lines with flow for miles. A well deserved first place went to Ross McGouran who also stepped up a place from last year, pulling off some insane tricks including a fs wallride pull in above the extension and kickflip back smith grind up the rail amongst many many others.
Below: Kris Vile-Frontside 360 Ollie
While the totals were being tallied, Grove stepped it up again for the best trick jam on the rail getting robbed on a flip back lip but still taking home some cash after landing pretty much every trick he tried gapping out over the funbox to the rail, and Harry Lintell and Dan Wileman killed the bank sesh with sw bigspin in and 270 front tail revert respectively.
Below: Caradogg Emanuel – Flip
All in all, it was another amazing weekend and once again confirmed beyond all reasonable doubt the utterly pisstake level of UK skating at the moment. Writing these things are so bloody hard as theres no way that you can do justice to the ridiculous skating that went down in a matter of hours and as amazing as the footage is, theres nothing that can beat seeing the tricks go down in front of your eyes instead of a 2inch square screen on a laptop. This time next year, get off your arses, get yourselves to Corby and scream yourself stupid to support the UK scene and I guarantee you definitely wont regret it (unless someone poo’s in your sink, then you might)
See you next year for more waffles and a Gay Congo Bum line…
Final Results
Mob Grip Bank – Best trick
1 Dan Wileman – Frontside 270 to Backtail Revert
2 Harry Lintell – Switch Bigspin into the bank
3 Carl Wilson – Kickflip Backside Five-0
Blueprint Rail – Best Trick
1 Ben Grove – Everything!
2 Flynn Trotman – FS Nollie Swith K
3 Jess Young – FS Blunt Shove it.
Street Finals
1 Ross McGouran
2 Kris Vile
3 Dan Wileman
4 Ben Grove
5 Darryl Dominguez
6 Chris Oliver
7 Neil Smith
8 Conhuir Lynn
9 Dave Snaddon
10 Dave Davies
11 Korahn Gayle
12 Vaughn Baker
Vert Results
1 Sam Beckett 465
2 Sam Bosworth 442
3 Alex Halford 414
4 Jake Anderson 404
5 Andy Scott 399
6 Pete King 384
Girls Street Results
1 Lucy Adams
2 Lois Pendlebury
3 Helena Long
4 Becky Jaques
5 Ellie Ford
6 Cora Stocker
7 Dani Mellor
8 Georgina Winter
Overall Street Results
1 Ross McGouran
2 Kris Vile
3 Dan Wileman
4 Ben Grove
5 Darryl Dominguez
6 Chris Oliver
7 Neil Smith
8 Conhuir Lynn
9 Dave Snaddon
10 Dave Davies
11 Korahn Gayle
12 Vaughn Baker
13 Tom Harrison
14 Flynn Trotman
15 Manhead
16 Carl Wilson
17 Trevor Johnson
18 Ben Nordberg
19 Harry Lintell
20 Tom Watts
21 Sam Pulley
22 Jason Cloete
23 Tom Shimmin
24 Dan McDermott
25 Alex Lally
26 Adam Howe
27 Rob Smith
28 Jake Collins
29 Scott Howes
30 Eddie Belvedere
31 Alex De Cuna
32 Caradog Emmanual
33 Marc Churchill
34 Mark Nicolson
35 John Bell
36 Steak
37 Greg Nowik
38 Jess Young
39 Alex Barton
40 Simon de Oliviera
41 Mark Radman
42 Felipe Falcin
43 Daryll Nobbs
44 Joe Habgood
45 Mikey Patrick
46 Paul Regan
47 Chris Barrett
48 Jerome Campbell
49 Adam Moss
50 Rogie
51 James Coyle
52 Ivan Rodriguez
53 Pete King
54 Snowy
55 Paul Silvester
56 Johnny Carter
57 Craig Smedley
58 Kevin McKeon
59 Karim Baktaiou
60 Ben Devine
61 Nicky Howells
62 Joe Lynskey
63 Matt boyo Williams