London, The Forum
16.11.05
They might have been Public Enemy Number 1 fifteen years ago, but today they don’t even make the top fifty most wanted. In hip hop circles, Public Enemy dropped further and further off the radar with every new release after Apocalypse 91 – The Enemy Strikes Back, so it’s no surprise that the Forum’s not even full to half capacity. Seems the kids just don’t care anymore for Chuck D’s rhetoric.
Most of us here don’t care for anything other than the classics, preaching the word to a room full of white, middleclass, 30 something males is like trying to tell a teenage boy if he doesn’t clean his room up, it’s gonna stink worse than his cock. Yeah, whatever. So the numerous, long-winded rants against Bush, Blair and anyone else who has pissed Chuck off recently make for one big yawnathon. As do recent, internet only released cuts like Make Love, Fuck War. In fact, PE’s new material is shit. When once their live shows were one long explosion of hard and fast beats, like some sort of riot on a funk farm, today it is peppered with these slowed down crawls through medoicrity.
Add that to the inclusion of a live band, and you know things are looking bad. Indeed, when they cut away from the hip hop and plumb the depths of rock depravity to give us all a guitar solo that manages to murder Purple Haze (even the worst pub rock band knows not to these days), followed by an interminable bass solo, complete with slap and tickles, you could quite easily be forgiven for tearing your hair out and making a break for the hills.
But that’s only half the story. The other half of the story is made up of some of the fiercest music to ever be spawned that didn’t come from the fret board of a guitar. Behold the power of Welcome To The Terrordome, steel yourself for the aural assualt of Fight The Power, shake that spotty arse to Don’t Believe The Hype. When they come good, Public Enemy show why they are gods, at least in the eyes of the fans here tonight. Classics like these send pulse waves of pleasure over our heads; the stage is like a giant bass bin, you can almost see the sonic boom.
And Public Enemy have, in Flava Flav, the greatest sidekick hip hop has ever known. Imagine if Bez actually had a talent. Now imagine he was black and from New York City and was blessed with a manic hyperactivity and you’re only halfway to the core of Flava. In fact, watching him cavort around the stage like a giant, bouncing banana, you forget that he is also pretty damn handy with the mic, until everyone else fucks off and leaves him to it on the killer 911 Is A Joke. Chuck must recognise that Flav is now the coolest member of the band, since Flava wraps up the evening in true style, blasting the Slayer sampled Channel Zero as the entire PE entourage play at moshing. It’s kinda cute and almost makes up for the whinging when someone throws a plastic beaker onto the stage. “That’s dangerous,” they cry. Oh come on.
Neil Aldis
Photo by Jeanne Ellenby (stolen off the web as cameras were banned from this show)
Ronnie Calow is the latest UK rider to join the injury list. Apparently whilst sliding down a wet ramp on the flat of his shoes, Ronnie hit a dry patch as he sliding and ended up breaking his fibia, tibia and ankle which really sucks.
The only reason I hate Harrow is that I always get lost there. Every time I go to visit the Death lot, I’m always phoning a few times to Aneka Rice me in, next time though I will rent a stretched hearse and do it in style, theme it, it would be worth the money as I’m sure we could get use out of it after the event, even if it was hotwired and smashed into a parked police car or something, as that is the usual outcome of these Trinity visits.
the sheet was attacked with bottles from the off and by midway, once Zorlac’s part kicked in with Nazi Punks Fuck Off by the Dead Kennedy’s (that screamed through the JBL’s) the place erupted into chaos and a mosh pit spawned the dancefloor and met the bar within seconds knocking people everywhere! Ben Cundall has a full part which rocks, new flow rider India Matt aka Steak has a rocking section, Cates gets tech everywhere and kills it, Zorlac has 1 minute 45 secs of gnarly shit, Munson and Potter star as Oregon concrete slaves and rip the arse out of it, Wag, Horsey, Snoopy and Nicolson have bangers and some fuck off slams in this film, the Aussies put themselves on the map with bowl madness, Richie Jackson hammertime and plenty more. It was quite hard to actually watch the film but who cares anyway when it will be in the shops in a few weeks and probably for a fiver or something so you can see it then.
All I remember is that Cates head gets blown clean off, there’s some shit hot skating all the way through and raw as a badgers ass which is the best way to be, the music is punk as fuck featuring all sorts of classics, some 80’s pop and special appearances by Billy Idol and a few other borrowed clips, plus Death mascot Dibble does not star in it….Yep, sorry Dibble fans but Death Skateboards and The Death Squad are 2 completely different entities, so sorry to disappoint, but I hear he does have a star role in the new Motel 6 DVD that if all goes to plan should be an extra DVD with this release before xmas, so you will definitely be wanting a copy.
One of the first skateboard videos I ever saw was Powell Peralta’s “Public Domain“, and during the intro the viewer is taken on a guided tour throught P&P’s manufacturing plant. The scene is dusty and noisy as hordes of little underpaid immigrants sand away at the next hottest shape. I was too young to know for sure that I would one day work within the skate industry, but I knew for certain that I didn’t want to be one of those poor sods!
Please state your name, age and what you do for a living?
Do you know of other European companies that make their own boards?
The Pacific Northwest of United States is a hot bed for melodic, rhythmic indie rock. The likes of Death Cab for Cutie and Hot Hot Heat have put a nice twist on the music in this region. When you think of the demographics of the country you can understand why some sounds are allowed to nurture without mainstream crud being shoved down their throat.
Just a quick reminder that the Holy Water pre-Christmas sale is now on! Sale items include mens and womens t-shirts, sweats, watches and more from your favourite brands including We, Nixon, Ando, Crownfarmer and more…
As if it really matters to know who rides for what, where and when… All that really matters is that they’re skating, right? So, to put a few weird rumours about sponsorship, money and Koston aside, here’s some hot shit going down for next Es video. Yes!
In the age of nano-technology, high unemployment and cheap gadgets, it comes as no surprise to see so many kids working on their own skate videos… So, once you’ve agthered all of tht footage and sat on it for a couple of years, re-editted the lot, filmed a bit more, sat on it a bit more and re-editted it again, and so on… you can finally think about releasing your precious brainchild to the ungrateful masses. No wonder deadlines get pushed back. However, you need a name for this masterpiece because without one people might not know what to ask for (if they ask for it at all!).
Jon Burgerman’s unique art has always inspired us here at Crossfire. This concertina book printed on thick matt laminated art-board, folds out to reveal a wondrous inter-connecting sprawl of characters and colour. It can also be displayed as a stunning frieze.
Fusing rock, reggae and ska, Canada’s Bedouin Soundclash have created a truly refreshing and uplifting sound that holds the spirit of The Clash true to it’s heart, whilst drawing inspiration from Bob Marley’s combination of pop song-writing skills and roots reggae. Produced by legendary Bad Brains bassist Darryl Jennifer, ‘When The Night Feels My Song’ is one of the many gems from their ‘Sounding a Mosaic’ album that will appeal to fans of classic punk-reggae hybrids like The Ruts, The Police and Still Little Fingers, harking back to the days when the first generation of punks found much they could relate to in reggae. Bedouin Soundclash are guaranteed to lift your spirits through these cold, dark winter months. We need this now more than ever!