Good news travels fast and it doesn’t get better than hearing that Battles, Caribou and Les Savy Fav have been picked to curate the bill at December’s Nightmare Before Christmas by ATP.
Each band will headline and choose a line-up of 14 artists for one day of the festival, with Les Savy Fav 9th December, Battles on 10th December and Caribou on 11th December so expect 45 acts playing across the weekend on three indoor stages with a total festival capacity of around 5500 people.
Tickets will be available on Thursday 3rd March at 5pm and will be £170 for room only and £180 for self catering. All tickets include accommodation in private apartments.
Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s indoor skateparks where hard to find in the UK and with many winters of discontent, skateboarders had very little choice compared to the unbelievable amount of skate parks in and outdoors that are built for us these days.
One park in particular that lead the way was Northampton’s Radlands, that hosted many comps and sessions that went down in skateboard history and since it’s closure back in 2004 local skaters have had to put up with fines being dished out if you skated in the town and have been against the grain in terms of people listening to calls that they needed a new skatepark.
This week it has emerged that Northampton Borough Council will help to “fund the creation of a skateboard park of “national importance” in the town”. £250,000 will be raised to fund the project and a location is being sourced although possible locations include The Racecourse, Midsummer Meadow and Sixfields. The park is said to be ready to ride in Easter 2012.
Well done to all locals who made this happen, let’s hope that Northampton will be back on the map for UK skateboarding.
Enjoy this footage of Tom Penny at Radlands from 1995.
Last night we attended the ‘bunfight’ at the Camden Crawl curator meeting and came out feeling very happy with our choices of the bands that we picked to play on our night.
For those who didn’t tune into this process last year and wonder what the hell we are talking about the process works like this. The bands shortlisted by the many curators who are available to play are picked one by one by each individual curator in turn. Other curators may well pick the bands you want in advance of your turn and vice versa so you do end up with some surprises on your bill as we have done again this year, but generally most people walk out with at least 2 bands they desperately wanted.
We cannot reveal our full line up just yet but we will have 5 bands on the bill at the Barfly club on Sunday May 1st. What we can tell you is that we of course (by the rules) have a varied bill of genres that include indie, hip hop, post punk and thrash. The line up’s are picked like this so that the ‘Crawl’ actually works and people move from venue to venue.
Get your tickets in advance before it sells out from here and click here for the initial evening line up. We will reveal the 5 acts that we have picked very soon.
Portrait/sequence courtesy of Emerica and Atiba Jefferson
2010 was a cracking year for Brandon Westgate. Not only did his official pro status on Zoo York come to fruition, his part in Emerica’s most anticipated DVD Stay Gold kicked off smiles for miles as his technically gifted style stomped through the streets of SF and beyond.
His pro shoe on Emerica released last month brought another edit that swept the web and kept his skating do the talking so we decided to share a few of our own words with the Massachusetts kid that keeps himself one step ahead of the game by wielding some seriously devestating pop.
Easy Brandon, what’s going on?
Nothing much just got back from my shoe party in LA.
New Year’s Eve wasn’t too long ago, do you remember it?
It wasn’t messy, my girlfriend and I went to her sister’s and she had this karaoke machine set up and everyone got drunk and sung songs all night, it was fun.
Turns out you’re a month younger than me. That’s bonkers. I haven’t even bombed a hill in SF yet? How did that feel the first time you did it?
It was the best feeling and every time it gets better, you really have to get out there one time.
Compared with many other skaters in recent years, very little is known about your personality and life off the board. Was it a conscious decision to not let the world’s collide and let your skating do any necessary talking or are you just being you?
I guess I’m just being me. I like being out here and Massachusetts, away from everything.
Even a recent interview with Chris Nieratko didn’t disclose too much about you. So let’s just talk straight skateboarding for the rest of the interview: last time we interviewed you was in 2006, has skating changed for you at all during those four years or is it still the raddest thing ever?
It’s for sure still the raddest thing ever, I’ve learned how to skate different and learned new tricks I never would have thought about then. Thats the best thing about skateboarding you can learn whatever you want.
Over the last few years who has helped you out or inspired you to get you where you are right now?
There’s a lot of people who inspired me and helped me out: Jeff, Timothy, Miner, Seamus, Suski, Leo, Shetler, Herman, Reynolds, Figgy…
Your shoe has just arrived and everyone is mad stoked on it. Looks a little similar to the Hsu model (very good thing). Was the design inspired by that model at all?
I always really liked the Jerry’s so I started off that, but I just tried to make a really comfortable skate shoe that skated good and held up.
Think back to when you first got a pro deck, what were you more hyped on: a graphic with your name on or a shoe?
I was so stoked on both but if I had to say probably the shoe. it’s really hard to get your name on a shoe and you get full advantage to make the best shoe you always want to skate.
How about the part itself… was it made up from leftovers from Stay Gold? You can’t have had much time to gather new footage so soon after Stay Gold come out…
There’s some left overs, but there’s a lot of new footage. Miner and I worked really hard together on this one. It was mainly just us and not the whole team so I think it easier to focus. To begin with they just wanted to use leftovers to make a little clip online then we ended up coming up with a lot of new stuff given the time.
As a pro skater this side of the decade, do you feel under any pressure at all to produce more content as the online edit takes over the skate DVD?
I feel the same amount of pressure either way people see it and online more people see it sooner than a DVD.
What surprised many is how both parts could essentially be interchangeable, they’re both so good. What approach to filming did you prefer, the long-term project approach of the short but exciting turnaround of footage?
I liked them both. The short-term project was a lot more stressful because I didn’t have much time and it was a clip of only me, not the whole team. I prefer the long term just because it’s easier to get the tricks you want for your part.
Are you stoked with how both parts come out?
Yeah I’m stoked on them, there’s always more tricks I wish I could have got for them but time just runs out. I think Miner killed it putting it together. I think that makes it more enjoyable to watch when they’re edited really good.
You have a good mix of East and West coast skating in your parts… what elements of each do you enjoy skating the most and why?
I really like skating the West because SF is so fun. There’s nothing like bombing those hills and skating all the natural bumps- it’s truly like nowhere else. I like skating the East because the spots are a little bit more beat up so you usually have to do some fixing up and the spots turn into a challenge to skate.
Who had your favorite part in Stay Gold?
My favorite part was Leo’s, just seeing him skate is so gnarly and he just loves to skate. Herman also had one of my favorites; all those picnic table lines are amazing. I love everyone’s part though for their own way of skating.
Leo obviously was a deserved winner of SOTY but was there anyone you skate with often that kills it that you think was overlooked a little?
There’s definitely a lot of skaters who kill it but Leo I think deserved it by far.
Ph: Brandon shows Atiba one of his favourite FS 180 5050’s in China.
What trip in 2010 did you enjoy being a part of the most?
My favorite trip in 2010 was to China with Emerica filming for Stay Gold. It was a fun crew and awesome skate spots.
You just got a house right? What’s it like? Got any plans for it?
Yeah it’s cool, big back yard, farmer’s porch, fire place, garage, it’s just really comfortable. I’ve been doing work here and there a lot the whole time I’ve had it, mainly tile, painting and yard work. I’m planning on making a sick ramp in the back yard this summer.
What about when you hang up your trucks?
I would like to own some cranberry bogs I think they would be fun to try and run. Plus, I just like all the land that comes with it.
What would you be doing right now if skateboards were never invented?
I was going to a tech school which is a school where you do regular class work like your math and science, and the next is your shop class, I was in marine machines where I worked on boats. I would probably have tried to get a job in that field.
Finally, any words of wisdom?
Just keep skating and have fun.
Win a package of Brandon Westgate ‘s sponsors that includes a Zoo York board, Bones Swiss Bearings, Hubba Wheels and a pair of his Emerica signature shoes here this weekend.
Lady Gaga got some photo’s with Terry Richardson’s eagle eyes behind the lens and bared all for Supreme in NYC recently. Watch this video of the shoot.
Chris ‘AVI’ Atherton and the Lancashire crew feature in Avi’s latest video edit that made its way onto t’interweb last night. These videos never disappoint, click the yes button for cheeky tricks and Northern charm.
Part 4 of Nate Sherwood’s Frankie Hill documentary has hit the web featuring Guy Mariano discussing his switch to Blind Skateboards at the same time that Hill decided to stay on at Powell Peralta and much more
First up tonight are Kettering quintet Blacklight Pioneer, who deal in an angular art-rock sound with a certain melodic sheen. They’ve been compared to 90s alt-rock mavericks Mansun, and whilst the two bands do share some common ground, BP’s more radio-friendly sound calls to mind more current reference points – a good or bad thing, depending on how you see it.
Dead Confederate, on the other hand, prefer to serve up their tunes with lashings of all-out sonic warfare; kicking off their set with a steadily building, hypnotic wall of distortion that would surely get the Kevin Shields seal of approval. Whilst their sound owes plenty to the leading lights of the late 80s/early 90s grunge scene, the addition of John Watkins’ swirling organ provides a great foil to the fuzzed-up guitar action that has proved a trademark of the DC sound.
The band themselves don’t move too much thorughout their live set, with singer/guitarist Hardy Morris pretty much anchored to the microphone for the duration of their set. He’s clearly happy to hide behind the mop of hair that’s plastered to his face, and when the feedback briefly subsides for the surprisingly catchy ‘Run From The Gun’, he cuts a confident yet reticent figure – not unlike that of a certain alt-rock hero from the early 90s.
Still, with an album as good as last year’s ‘Sugar’ under their belts, they’re more than welcome to invoke the old ‘let the music do the talking’ cliché. Their set doesn’t really end in the traditional sense; rather it gradually dissolves amidst torrents of wailing feedback and strobe lights, and frankly, it’s hard to imagine a finer way to be blasted out of a post-work daze. Keep an ear out for these guys.
