Support Skater Owned Skateshops! It’s an order!
If you’re in the Chester vicinity, here’s the address of a brand new SOS that has just opened:
NO COMPLY SKATE SHOP
Shop A7
Chester Indoor Market
6 Princess Street
Chester
CH1 2HH
E-mail them at: nocomskate@aol.com
The second round of the annual Globe Bowlbash got underway in Hamburg over the weekend of June 3rd and 4th. Apparently the turnout was hampered due to the German’s love for beer on a long weekend, but that didn’t mean they weren’t killing it on their boards. The bowl featured extensions and a mad over-vert corner pocket with coping.
Naturally, this obstacle took a few out, but not Daniel Beck who hung upside down and set the coping on fire with his tricks. Despite a great show, it was Anders Tellen who took first place with some ridiculous stalefish grabs over the hip and massive backside airs.
The next round will take place in Burnley, England, over the July 15th-16th weekend. Expect some serious carnage!
The boys at Flip are on the road this Summer and they’ll be hitting Europe up very shortly! Before they reach the motherland, Geoff Rowley and Co. have been busy throwing down demos like this one for Zumiez [see picture] and a week long trek through Canada for the Feast Canada Tour.
Get yourself over to Prissick Plaza, Middlesbrough on July 2nd if you want to catch a glimpse of Rowley, Arto Saari, Ali Boulala, Danny Gonzales, Rune Glifberg, Mark Appleyard, Rodrigo Texiera, Lance Mountain or Eric Fletcher. Phew!
Oh! And don’t forget, Geoff Rowley will have an exclusive interview with Crossfire very soon!
There’s nothing like a local contest to support the scene in the summer. If you live in the area, or feel like making the trek, the skaters at Perdy will be holding a comp for over and under 16’s with loads of prizes (kindly supplied by A Third Foot, Death Skateboards, Spine Skateboarding and Gnargore) and malarkey on July 9th from 11am onwards. All the money raised will go towards renovating the already existing park. Good stuff!
This week will see more additional obstacles being installed at the Southbank. On Sunday night/Monday morning, Badger and Zac went down to the Southbank with a car full of self levelling concrete, water and gravel to kick start the build of a brand new manual pad where the cobbled stones have always been.
They will also install a rail that will be attached so you will be able to ollie onto a double rail into the drop over the other side. This should be finshed for Saturday, please do not skate it until it’s finished.
As well as the best UK street skaters from all over the country, various riders from the Emerica European Team such as Julian Dykmans, Jo Lorenz, Pontus Alv, Maxime Genin, Oli Buergin, Adam Stoddart, Vaughan Baker, Woody, Joe Gavin, Rory Milanes plus a couple of Element European teams will be in attendance. More when we get it.
Lady Sovereign
The Fox Theatre, Boulder, Colorado
14.06.06
How many times can a 5’1″ British MC shout to an already drunk Boulder, Colorado crowd that she herself is “soooooo drunk”? Five. Five times. One can imagine that any alcohol in her small body with the Rocky Mountain elevation would put this girl on the floor. Well, almost. It at least made her stumble, ramble, and go hoarse. This is pure entertainment considering us silly Americans have a hard enough time understanding Lady Sovereign’s quick-paced lyrics, let alone drunk.
But I digress. Lady Sovereign is (cute) dope. So dope, in fact, that when she invited the entire Fox Theatre crowd back to her tour bus on Wednesday, I honestly considered going. She did invite us. Insisting that nerves had caused her to drink so much, Lady Sovereign seemed pleasantly surprised by how down Boulder was with the SOV.
Males lined the front of the stage. Hands in the air, like they just didn’t care. Females guffawed and poked their girlfriends, wishing they could be as crass and outspoken as she. The crowd went wild once lyrics like “If you hate me then fuck you! If you like me then fuck you!” started flowing. It’s not every day a white, female MC breaks into the scene with such guts and honesty. Kinda makes a girl want to follow suit.
While the truest Boulder heads were at the June 14th show for their “guilty pleasure,” Lady Sovereign, most of the crowd was in attendance for headlining act, The Streets. Leo The Lion was a great addition to the already talented group. My first time seeing The Streets and I wasn’t disappointed. They played all of the songs you’d expect them to play, interacted with the crowd, and seemed to enjoy themselves. Maybe a little too much.
Oh Mike Skinner. Mike Skinner, Mike Skinner, Mike Skinner. I heard he is training for the New York Marathon, a 26 mile (41.8 kilometers) race. With the workout he gets from his groupies, he shouldn’t have a hard time getting in shape. Well aware of his female fan-base, Skinner made no bones about getting girls liquored up and back stage. “Is that your boyfriend? Are you here with your boyfriend? You’re beautiful. I only have three backstage passes left and I’m so lonely. Is he your boyfriend?” Was one of the many lines used to coerce an already willing throng of girls backstage.
The show was a blast and provided loads of talent, humor and entertainment. There’s no question about that. Though I’m not sure whether the UK should be happy that our narrow minds have Sov and Skinner to stereotype as your hip-hop offerings, or whether you should start putting some other artists up on the charts. Actually, that’s a good idea. Until then I’ll get “Random” with Sov and imagine how down the UK gets.
Legendary DJ Gilles Peterson is in the World Cup spirit by bringing out a 6 part series of podcasts exploring Brazilian music. Each part will last 30 minutes and will be presented by Gilles.
He’ll feature interviews with famous Brazilian musicians, live sessions and much more. Each part will cover a musical theme, from Roots to Baile to Hip hop.
All the podcases can be heard here and a new podcast will go up each week [the first went up on June 13th] for the six weeks of the World Cup.
Definitely not one to be missed.
MF Grimm’s new album, which is an amazing triple disc effort with around 75 songs on it, has had its release date delayed due to the US Government deciding they didn’t like some of the content and threatened him with court action.
Whilst the rapper can’t say anything about it, he did confirm that the album, American Hunger, is to be released on June 27th. Make sure you cop it, he’s all good.
If you want to hear some more hip hop and maybe even request some MF Grimm for the next show, click here.
The last few years have been tough for Bakersfield boys Korn. Previously hailed as the godfathers of a once revolutionary movement in the now loathed “Nu-Metal”, the band found themselves seemingly shunned by much of the music press, their then record label Sony, and even long-standing guitarist ‘Head’ who swiftly exited from the fold after discovering the joys of Christianity.
While many bands may have crumbled and withered away in the aftermath of such events, the four remaining members united with much revered production team The Matrix to produce their most diverse offering to date in 2005’s Virgin Records released ‘See You On The Other Side’. Steering away somewhat from the previously angst-ridden formula that many had since begun to loathe, elements of pop and hip-hop were thrown into the mix to create a sound that would surprise and silence the vast majority of critics and doubters alike.
Released on June 12th ‘Coming Undone’ is the follow-up to previous chart-bothering single ‘Twisted Transistor’, and is yet another reminder of just why Korn have been at the top of their game for more than a decade.
Video links for your viewing pleasure:
Real:
http://exodus.interoutemediaservices.com/?id=2062296a-dfe3-4317-b37d-a2cd501497e2&delivery=stream
http://exodus.interoutemediaservices.com/?id=ba067717-6b49-4608-b4de-272f883633c1&delivery=stream
Windows Media:
http://exodus.interoutemediaservices.com/?id=a9edf485-1f42-4b47-83d0-d5754563fae4&delivery=stream
http://exodus.interoutemediaservices.com/?id=d4a5784f-deac-4117-85eb-b2e665d0caa0&delivery=stream
Tristan Manco
Thames & Hudson
There are many books on graffiti, and most of them are extremely interesting and well put together, but as we all know, street art isn’t simply graffiti. Increasingly in the world today we’re seeing stencils and stickers, a fast and effective way of getting your personality across without having to spend time spraying a wall or train. In this book, Tristan Manco takes us around the world, from London to Spain, Holland to America, France to Australia, and shows us in short sharp bursts, the new life being breathed into street art but stickers and stencils.
Each page is covered in brilliant vibrant colour photographs [in fact, you’ll find 463 colour illustrations inside these covers] and a short description of the artist and what they do. As always with art, it has a message and Manco attempts to convey the message in as short and simple a way possible, allowing the art to take up most of the page and do the talking for itself.
Looking at the differences and effectiveness of signs, logos, free-form, iconographics and urban characters, this book has depth and isn’t just a hastily put together collection. It goes a long way to show how this new form of art is bringing people together from all over the world, how an idea in Madrid can end up being realised on the streets of Brisbane and so on. The illustrations are excellent and it is brings to life this amazing phenomenon. He also features three of my favourites – D*Face, The London Police and Buffmonster – So he must be good. A book definitely worth picking up.