Hyped up to be one of the finest scene videos ever, the Welsh collective behind ‘Who?‘ are offering their DVD up for pre-order now.
For a cheeky fiver you’ll get it before the release date, you can’t hate on that shit!
Pop along to the Whospace by clicking the picture to the right to get your copy!
Filming for the 4th Alien Workshop video is gaining more and more momentum as the time flies on.
A nifty little website has appeared so all you footage cravers out there can get your fix and keep up to date.
Check it out here.
Some of you may have caught the live streaming of this year’s Tampa Pro contest and witnessed the devastating display of littered hammers.
For those who were too busy doing something less important, here are the results from the street and best trick comps.
Tampa Pro Street 2007 Results:
1st Eric Koston
2nd Jereme Rogers
3rd Paul Rodriguez
4th Nick Dompierre
5th Rick McCrank
6th Greg Lutzka
7th Rob Dyrdek
8th John Rattray
9th Mike Peterson
10th Tommy Sandoval
11th Billy Marks
12th Nilton Neves
For Koston’s winning run, click here.
For Best Trick action, click here.
Stefan Janoski claimed the Best Trick prize with a total pisstake switch flip k grind. Ridic.
The NME New Music Tour has announced its line up and dates.
The tour will see The Rumble Strips headline with Pull Tiger Tail, The Little Ones and Blood Red Shoes on the bill below them. The dates for the tour are below.
May:
17th – Cardiff Coal Exchange
18th – Northampton Roadmender
19th – Sheffield Plug
21st – Middlesbrough Empire
22nd – Glasgow Arches
23rd – Dundee Westport Bar
24th – Manchester Club Academy
26th – Nottingham Rescue Rooms
28th – Birmingham Academy 2
29th – London KOKO
30th – Brighton Concorde 2
31st – Norwich Waterfront
The weekend passes for this year’s Reading and Leeds festivals have sold out less than 24 hours after the event had announced its headliners.
Razorlight, Smashing Pumpkins and Red Hot Chili Peppers will lead the line on the mainstage with support around the stages from Ash, Klaxons, The View and more. There are still day tickets available for the event which takes place from August 24th to 26th.
Yep, The Works have yet another event in the diary but this one is with a difference.
Marc Churchill is back on a board after a nasty car accident which left him hospitalised this year so to welcome the old boy back to the scene, The Works Skatepark are throwing a jam for him at their park in Leeds on Saturday 28th April to celebrate his Birthday.
Expect Powley in his gruds singing 80’s music and a good session…
Akercocke will release their new album Antichrist on May 28th.
The band, who will be playing two shows to support the release – March 29th at Colchester’s Art Centre and March 31st at the Water Rats in London – said this about their new album:
“The concept of Antichrist is wonderfully rich. It represents a supreme opposite. The epithet of the great antagonist provided a wonderful metaphoric framework within which to work. We have strived to make elements of the recording as evil as possible.
Creating atmospheres that are deliberately uncomfortable. Spurred on by a rage enhanced by the complete disgust with our recent history, we didn’t have to dig very deeply to find the malice and rancour sufficient toevoke the spirit of violent antithesis. Antichrist is the perfect banner for a collection of songs that are tales of opposition, sanguinary lust and the axiom of our raison d’etre.”
We all know that Adidas have assembled a new team manager in Neil ‘Blueprint’ Chester, but what you may not be aware of is that his eagle eyes have started to move much in the same way of the bionic man on the lookout for Fresh Blood as Adidas prepare to launch in the UK properly in the coming weeks.
A UK team is being assembled right now, so look out for Ches on his travels as it may well be you who is repping the famous shell toes alongside the Gonz, David Bachinsky, Dennis Busenitz, Tim O’Connor and Benny Fairfax.
Click here to visit the Adidas site.
Blair Alley started skating at the age of 10 in San Diego where he was born and raised. 7 years later he started to see skateboarding through a lens for the first time whilst those around him were turning pro such as Adrian Lopez, Willy Santos, Peter Smolik, John Reeves and many more but this only fuelled his involvement in the industry.
He’s a lucky fucker, he lives by the ocean in Pacific Beach where he pays rent on a house but rarely hangs there due to his travelling commitments to Europe, Australia, all over the US, and Canada. Costa Rica and Panama. See, very lucky fucker.
This travelling bug lead him to Barcelona where he lived during the summer of 2003 but overall , he is a quite mellow but red blooded American with an appetite for Tight Units – we know this much as we met him at Marseille with his collegues from TransWorld where he started working in 2002 – he works for the mag and also is one of the online editors of their website www.skateboarding.com
This guy has kept in touch with Crossfire since we first shared a Kronenberg 1664 and when he is not running with bulls in Pamplona, or chatting up skirt, he loves to shoot skating amongst many other subjects which brings us to this feature. Welcome to Blair Alley’s Triple Shot… Z-Ed
Full name?
Blair Alley
How long have you been a photographer?
Fell in love with it in high school
How did you get into skate photography?
As a skater it was the main thing I always shot. It’s still some of the best shit to shoot.
Tell us about the skate image that you first inspired you to take up photography
Dan Sturt bridge jump self-portrait. 1993?
Sturt’s work as a whole has been the most influential photography for me. There will never be another Sturt. He was always years ahead of his time. Ask any skate photographer that knows our history and they’ll tell you the same. Years later I found out how he shot this from someone who was there—truly nuts. Maybe one day I’ll go jump off that same bridge to pay homage!
What were the best and worst bits of advice anyone gave you in regards to photography?
Best: “Burn celluloid” a friend of my mom’s said that Warren Miller told him that which basically means just shoot film. The more you do the more you’ll learn.
“Nothing good comes easy.” Mike O’Meally regarding shooting digi over film. He’s right, film still looks better and those of us that learned on film will always have an advantage. Ask questions, that’s the best way to learn.
Worst: anything anyone who works in a photo/camera shop says because they don’t understand skate photography and are just trying to get you to buy some fucked up lens and the shitty accessories that go with it.
Have you ever felt bad about taking a photo? If so, which one?
Sometimes, but not as bad if I don’t take the photo!
What were the best and worst days shooting skateboarding of your life ever and why?
The last 4th of July was pretty amazing. We hit up so many spots in San Diego while people were barbecuing and partying. We were in the ghetto and all these hood kids were hanging out riding our boards and eating ice cream with us. We got a shitload of photos and hit the beach around sundown and partied all night, everyone was stoked. Worst days are harsh weather, long drives, no photos going down, tickets from police, confiscated boards and cameras, kicked out of spots by gangsters—but it still beats any other job out there.
What’s the relationship like between a photographer and filmer?
We all gotta work together.
What is your favourite skate shot ever that you have taken?
Josh Zickert, tre flip, NYC. 2002 – I shot this in NYC in 2002. It was an idea I had and finally got around to shooting the last day I was there. I was staying with my friend Josh Zickert and wanted to shoot a photo of him from his roof. It started raining as soon as I got on the roof to shoot. We messed around for awhile anyways and it turned out pretty good. I was working at TransWorld at the time and I showed it to Grant Brittain and he was nice enough to run it in the Photo Annual that year.
What main advice would you give to upcoming skate photographers?
Just do it, stick with it, and don’t be a kook.
Are there ways of getting better/free equipment as you continue to grow or do you have to fund everything yourself?
That’s the worst thing about photography, it’s expensive as hell. If you don’t make money off it, I imagine it’s the most expensive hobby you’ll ever have. Unless you, like, collect motorcycles or something. And, yes, it is super annoying to see rich kids get a whole kit on a whim and not know what they’re doing with it.
Is the work of a skate photographer well paid? Do you get by in life with this income alone?
It’s like pro skateboarding, some dudes are rich and some barely get by. At the end of the day, you gotta hustle, you gotta be a cool person, and you gotta be in it for the love.
Does music ever inspire your photography? What music artists can you not leave for a tour without?
Fuck, the Pod is bursting, but all skaters have the same iPod, don’t we? The folk, the hip hop, the classic rock. My friends’ band The Heartaches is the latest one stuck in my head. Check em out.
And tell us about your favourite photo that you snapped outside of skateboarding.
Bum In Barcelona. 2003 – I was living in Barcelona for a couple months skating and shooting skating everyday, but I finally made a point to walk around one day by myself and shoot some of the amazingly photogenic stuff I was seeing everyday on my skateboard: kids playing soccer in the gothic quarter, crazy street performers, beautiful women, Gaudi architecture, etc. I ended up with so many rad photos from that one day. One of them is this bum passed out on a fountain ledge in front of a church. I even got a bird flying by in the background. Just a lucky day, I guess—and I still went skating.
If you were to buy a pocket snapper for capturing skating on a budget to get going, which camera would you suggest?
Anything fully manual—Nikon FM2, Conon AE-1, Leica if you can afford it.
Would you recommend digital or film?
Depends what you’re shooting for. If it’s for yourself or for fine art, definitely film. It looks better and there’s no substitute for a hand-printed photograph—they’re priceless. If you work for a magazine or anyone commercially, digital is way more efficient, convenient, cost-effective, competitive, safer, etc. That’s reality.
What kit do you use?
Canon stuff. All skate photogs have the same kit. But we all have our little camera collections too. You know, Hasselblads, Holgas, T-4s, X-pan maybe, Leica, whatever. But I have a Diana, too. I’m kinda proud of that.
Your photography website address if you have one?
Try www.blairalley.com..it’s just up.
Blueprint has served up some tasty new decks and wheels to get your greasy mitts on this month.
The Afterhours range, which features pro models from the usual bunch, and the Artwork II series are both available right now.
Any fellow monster footed fellers out there will join me in welcoming the release of the Gilded Grande decks, weighing in at a respectable 8″ and 8.25″ each. Decks with girth and two new sets of wheels, the Pro Fellowship and Team Infinity mean that Santa has come early this year.
Other Blueprint happenings include Mikey Wright helping the Nike SB team claim the throne at the recent “We Are The Champions” competition at the Works in Leeds, whilst Baines and Shier are out reppin’ t’Print in Malaga on a DVS trip.
Good timing on escaping this god awful weather lads, ya lucky gits!
Blueprint are the latest skateboard company to be involved in the forthcoming Meanwhile 2 Gap Jam, visit www.blueprintskateboards.com for more.