Categories
Music News

CSS have a mystery guest

Rizla are set to end their year of live music sponsorship with a one-off gig from Brazilian buzz band Cansei de Ser Sexy, aka CSS. Keeping to the ‘inspired by‘ theme, Rizla asked the band to choose their most inspiring musician to perform with on the evening, and thus, the concert will feature a cameo performance from a mystery guest, the identity of whom is, er, a mystery, of course – but the person in question is being described as a ‘Britpop icon‘.

The band’s Lovefoxx says: “When Rizla first approached us about who has inspired us and would like to play with, we never really thought it would happen as this person is such a legend and we’re so new to the UK music scene. We now can’t wait to entertain London with an unforgettable kick ass show. It’s been an amazing year for the band and this is a really special way to round it off“.

The event takes place at The Forum, NW5 on 8 December. Tickets here www.livenation.co.uk

Categories
Skateboarding News

Steve berra at Sundance

Despite once being married to Juliette Lewis, Steve Berra’s ties with cinema stretch much further back.

With a spectacular opening intro for of skateboarding’s biggest selling videos- The End, and various other 36mm project reels to boast, it is now Steve’s chance to shine at the next Sundance Film Festival with his latest movie, The good life– a tale of two lives colliding between a young woman and an old cinema operator.

Visit Steve’s world here.

Categories
Skateboarding Product Reviews

Etnies Mercury

Before I start to deliberate about whether or not the Etnies Mercury floated my boat, let it be known that Etnies recently celebrated their 20th Anniversary which means that’s two decades worth of knowledge poured into their kicks. I think it’s safe to say that Etnies know what they’re doing when it comes to skate shoes.

So, the Mercury made its way onto my feet and at a first glance everything looks fine. The Mercury is a lo-cut show with enough padding to protect and support your foot with out feeling like a clog or paper bag. In fact, a good sign of a shoe that fits is whether or not you have to tighten those laces. My laces* were threaded neatly, and my feet didn’t resemble kippers which was nice. The other aspect of the Mercury which makes them a comfortable ride is the wide FLO2 tongue that comes a little bit further up than your average tongue, twinned with a protective collar that stabilises your Achilles tendon.

Another aspect of the Mercury is the Etnies patented System G2 in the heel and the STI Foam inner sole. This innersole cushions and cups your foot to prevent slippage and ultimately ankle tweaking. The end result is a stable and comfortable ride that’s ready to rip out of the box.

Now, the Mercury comes in a leather style material which I tend to dislike because it doesn’t generate much friction for the first few games of SKATE. I prefer suede or synthetic fabric. But, the leather on the Mercury is backed up by a 400NBS rubber outsole which keeps everything sticky and under control. The 400 NBS means nothing to me but its tough stuff and won’t slip around on your grip tape, no matter how old the black stuff might be.

The leather takes a couple of skates to wear in, but it definitely doesn’t wear out. In fact the only disappointment was the triple stitching which came apart fairly fast. This damage didn’t result in a case of blown out toe though. Despite the thread being gone, the toe area of the Mercury has held steadfast and protective in the ollie department.

Judging by how fair this winter has been so far, I’ve had more than a couple of weeks worth of skating in these shoes, and their still good to go. For a team shoe that shouldn’t retail at the far end of the market, the Mercury is a good bet.

*Inre: The shoe goo-ed laces- I always goo up my laces because nobody has managed to create the un-snappable lace. Lace savers perhaps..?

8/10
Ralph Lloyd Davis
05.12.06

Categories
Music News

Doherty’s weekend romp!

With a court appearance scheduled this morning to be sentence for several drug offences (including the possession of heroin, cocaine and cannabis) you’d have thought it advisable for Babyshamble’s frontman Pete Doherty to keep a low profile and stick to the straight and narrow for a while.

However Reports are rising of the Kate Moss’s lover trashing a room at the trendy Malmaison Hotel in Clerkenwell. According to sources the troubled singer went on a rampage, breaking mirrors, electrical equipment, emptying the mini bar and causing what amounts to thousands of pounds worth of damage to his room.

A spokesman from the hotel (a favourite with more gentile stars like Kylie Minogue and George Micheals) added ‘We’re used to rock stars here -but this is a whole different level, and is simply not the sort of behaviour one would expect, especially in view of Mr Doherty’s court appearance today‘. There was no comment as to whether Ms Moss was with Doherty last night.

www.babyshambles.net
www.malmaison.com

Categories
Skateboarding News

Whale joins Xmas Jam!

This years Xmas Jam best trick obstacle has been designed by Mark “Fos” Foster from Heroin Skateboards.

The Whale” will be unleashed for the day with best tricks ending the session.

For those of you who voted for the Ring of Fire we can tell you that we researched it, priced it up, and were ready to go ahead until the fire brigade pout our dire out and came up with too many health and safety issues for us to deal with, so sorry, your votes were not ignored, we just could not do it in the end.

But The Whale is ready to rock for this Saturday, so spread the word…

Categories
Skateboarding News

Beer Advent Calendar!

This has bugger all to do with skateboarding other than Colin Dorricott from Liverpool who sent this in today is a skater.

He gladly reminded us that it is the 1st of December today and kids all over the country will be opening little windows each morning leading up until Xmas Day. So therefore he has devised a perfect equivalent for adults.

Feat your eyes on the Beer Advent Calender! – Much better idea!

Categories
Skateboarding News

Trisickle incoming!

A brand new UK skate magazine is about to hit skate shops across the UK called Trisickle put together by none other than Insane graphics and clothing company skater Ged Wells.

The first issue will feature an exclusive interview with Dirty Sanchez, Death skateboards rider Horsey, vert master Mattias Ringstrom and artist Arron Rose. There is also coverage of recent events at Revolution, Stoke and Epic skatepark, War of the Roses and loads more.

Wells says “we are committed to distribute through all UK independent skate shops so it won’t be available from news agents, secret agents or fucking estate agents“.

Trisickle issue one will be available from your local skate shop from next week and issue two will be out just after the xmas binge. Go to www.trisickle.co.uk for more.

Categories
Music News

GnR on the rampage!

It’s all going off in the world of rock right now – Jesse ‘The Devil‘ Hughes, frontman of Eagles Of Death Metal, has responded to Axl Rose, who called his band “the pigeons of shit metal” before axing them from the support slot on the current Guns N Roses US tour, allegedly after Hughes’ band was poorly received at a GnR gig in Cleveland.

Responding via the NME, Hughes politely gave his side of the story: “Axl Rose is fucking out of his mind. He wasn’t even there when we played. He got there about 30 minutes after we got done playing. He waltzed on to the stage and went nuts. He had a couple of fans thrown out for pissing him off. Then when he called us The Pigeons Of Shit Metal, Tommy Stinson, their bass player, took his bass off and goes: ‘Fuck you, that’s it’. And then he threw his bass down. But then Axl picked up his bass and fucking threw it at him dude. It was a fucking circus up there“.

Hughes claims that after Axl’s raging there was major stress in the GnR camp, with Rose’s bandmates furious at how their support band had been treated. So much so Rose’s management called up the EODM’s tour manager asking the band to rejoin the GnR tour. An offer to which Hughes responded:
You can tell that motherfucker to go and fuck himself because I will never go through that again“.

Elsewhere in EODM stuff, the band are due to tour the UK in early 2007, with Hughes’ part time partner in crime Josh Homme joining the band for some of the live dates.

Categories
Skateboarding News

Karma have fresh blood.

I believe in Karma. I threw my board at a little kid’s deck the other day out of blind rage and 10 minutes later a kid ran straight into my ankle. My bad.

What goes around comes around, so the good people at Karma Skateboards have hooked up two good skaters – John Tanner (who has footage here) and also cheeky Liverpool rider Adam Aulaqui whose hilarious intro interview will be live here at Crossfire in a week or so.

Watch this space for footage, pics and words but in the meantime expect the full team at our Xmas Jam.

Categories
Live Reviews

Moral Soul – Live

Storm
17.11.06

Moral Soul created one hell of a storm in the Storm Club, London. The audience was blown away by the thick bluesy beats of this Southampton quartet. It was a welcome change in musical weather considering the mundane bands which graced the stage before Moral Soul took the mike.

In one short show they put on the full throttle. No song was wasted. Every note skilfully tuned into a great song had full power charged into it-and what power that band had. Steely blues, electric rock and husky acoustic, they could do it all.

However, the real stamp on their talent was that they managed to beat the crap job of the techie doing the sound check. Where other bands had drowned in the rush of over-vamped amps, they whipped the chaos into good music. The audience loved them and they thrived off that love-the great rapport demonstrated loud and clear when they trusted the ordinary listeners to takeover their best song ‘Black Butterfly’. As yet they’re unsigned, but watch out for this one. Moral Soul may only have a few more dingy basements to play in before they get recognised.

Rebecca Geach
[Photo taken from www.myspace.com/moralsoul]