Schiffer Publishing
www.jimphillips.com
There are many artists out there who have touched us personally with their view on life in general through art but there is only one person that has personally made me stop in my tracks and has affected the route of which I have led my life more than others over my 31 year existence.
Skateboard art and graphics are more important than the set up itself when you are young and I don’t think that there is another artist that has had the same impact on kidsover the last 40 years in skateboarding. Jim Phillips is that man. He started out with surfboard art in 1962 which became famous throughout the years. His motorcycle art inspired a generation of bikers and he even found time for local communities to use his unique art skills by supplying adverts for local health stores and more.
But it was his skateboard art that put skateboarding firmly on the map across the world in the early 1980’s. If you think about how huge skateboarding became back then, and then look at who was at the controls of designing its very lifestyle, it was down to Phillips. One man, working for one company, and that company was Santa Cruz Skateboards.
Jim became the art director for the company who were of course based in Santa Cruz from 1974 onwards. Jim started by designing art for Road Rider Wheels with their famous wings that let you know that when you rode them you would indeed fly, as these wheels came with built in bearings. Something very new to the scene back then. Jim then gave birth to the Independent Trucks logo and then all the Santa Cruz logo’s for their wheels, boards, rip grip…you name it, Phillips designed the image for it.
His most famous image in my eyes would be the Screaming Hand. A detached hand drenched in blood, blue in colour with a mouth that said everything gnarly about skateboard culture and it’s endearing roots. This particular design amongst many others can be found tattoed over people skin around the world, seen on walls spray painted and stickers produced into the 8 million mark. This is big stuff here, this art changed a generation, it inspired a generation and that generation are still passing on this beauty now as you are reading this review.
Jim Phillips art in the 1980’s WAS skateboarding, no doubt about it, but when Phillips asked for royalties from the $50 million sales that Santa Cruz were hucking in, he was flatly turned down and he left. After 16 years of creating the energy for Santa Cruz it came to an end and Phillips left the company with a handful of people of whom he had taught his wonderful skills.
I remember buying various Santa Cruz boards and wheels when I was young including Jeff Grosso, Jason Jesse, OJ 2’s, Bullets, Slime Balls, and all because of the quality of the products and the graphics, it was the perfect company. It’s image was fun, colourful, ever changing and always had an edge that would appeal to many.
Jim then designed rock posters for classic artists such as James Brown, Bonnie Raitt, and Jerry Garcia but also got involved with posters for newer punk bands at the time such as Canadian punksters NoMeansNo and D.O.A amongst many others. But Jim could always put pen to paper to anything, and did it ten times more uniquely than any other at that time. Even when the computer world decided to step into change the way graphic art was formed, he was always one step ahead and took the changes by the horn with great success.
This fantastic book is filled to the brim with all of this fantastic art mentioned in this review and loads more. The story of his life also sweeps you through every page with quotes from famous skaters, other artists and colleagues and family members along the way. His son Jimbo is now in the Phillips hot seat and has seemed to have matched his Father’s skills tenfold. You do not have to be a skateboarder to appreciate excellent art and everybody at least once in their lifetime should come face to face with a Jim Phillips creation. This book is amazing. Flick through one today!
Zac
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Full of British pride, I will proclaim that this book is a rip off of Harry Bastard’s Spot Guide book. But, I won’t. What these 4 Frenchmen have come up with is a skateboarders A-Z or Lonely Planet guide to all the skatespots within the Hexagone. Ever wondered where that obscure full pipe is in Cliché’s ‘Bon Appetit!’? Or, where Bastien grew up skating? Get Finest and find out. The book covers various regions and goes into great detail with the street address of each spot, its difficulty rating, what it’s made of, etc… Oh and all the pictures are in colour. Even if I found a few of the spots featured were pure shite i.e. very poorly made skateparks that even Dan Cates would have difficulty with, I can’t blame them because at the end of the day the locals from some oblique little village either skate that mouldy bank or don’t skate at all! Plus there are a few gems in this book that will definitely have you scratching your head as to why you’ve never seen them before. So, hats off to the team for getting off their arses and travelling over 40000km in a year for our future pleasure. 
Whilst many punks accuse Green Day of selling out because – shock horror- they’re successful and have albums that are listened to by millions of people, as opposed to just a few punks in a pub ‘keeping it real’, Myers argues their case, defending their ‘punk ethics’ throughout and not hesitating to put down those who really have made their fortune through commercialised pop-punk (the snipes at Good Charlotte throughout are perfect).
There has always been a question mark over the reason why Mark Chapman, an apparent John Lennon obsessed nut, had actually pulled the trigger on Lennon outside his house in 1980, especially after evidence found that the man in question only owned records that Lennon had performed on. The Beatles were outspoken whilst Lennon captained their fame throughout the 1960’s and in that period his words and the success of the Famous Four were noted by many, including America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation. This fantastic book written by Alan Parker and Phil Strongman analyses evidence from the FBI’s files on Lennon and portray theories that link together the mystery of Lennon’s death to the deceptive Government operation. These deceptions are compared to many other assassinations such as JFK, his Brother Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. These public executions were a string of assassinations riddled with unanswered questions concerning the work of the FBI’s head honcho J Edgar Hoover, of whom many would interpret to be a cold blooded killer and a bungling liar. 
Skateboarder and snowboarder Mark Munson alongside Designer Steve Cardwell have just completed ‘Skateboard Stickers’ the first book to document the world of Skateboard sticker art!
Let’s start this review by saying that this is probably the best book that could ever fill space on a shelf in your bedroom or living room!
Before the mid-nineties Devon’s contribution to the rock world was at best poor. Until along came three lanky teenagers calling themselves Rocket Baby Dolls, a raw, brash, utterly confident yet uncouth band who slowly moulded themselves into the arena-playing super group we now know as Muse. If you’ve ever wondered how Muse came to be, who they are, what made them – this is the book for you. Self confessed Muse-fan Ben Myers charts each band member from birth to the present day, and it’s the intricate details and random facts that make this book a must for any Muse-follower. From revealing the rumour about Matt Bellamy buying a Paramotor (a rocket propelled jet back pack) with his first pay packet, to drug fuelled day trips to Amsterdam, to how they came to sign with Maverick; it’s a compelling story of three school boys who were determined come hell, high water and playing to just two people at The Bull & Gate, to follow their dreams of becoming a rock band.
Today I got a hold of the new photo book from Olivier Chassignole and everybody’s favourite Euro skate company, Cliché. The book is entitled ‘rendez-vous’, and invites us to a rendez-vous with the various visions of different lens-men within the skateboard community. Among the different contributors are Mike O’Meally, Ed Templeton, Fred Mortagne, Ollie Bartok, Olivier Chassignole, Pontus Alv and many more. Each person has a few pages to himself, or herself as is the case of Laure Allegrini, to showcase their point of view from behind the camera. Some use polaroids, whilst others go for finer, more colourful prints. Sections that particularly appealed to me were those of Eric Frenay, graphic artist for Cliché, Ollie Bartok, for his little character inserts, and Ed Templeton, for his ability to capture a slightly seedy yet captivating perspective of people.
Dysfunctional is a book that celebrates anything artistic about skateboarding. There are board graphics, portraits, skate photos, adverts and magazine layouts. Plus, an extensive introduction that tells the reader all about the history of skateboarding, its key players and its key moments. Artists and photographers that have contributed are Wig Worland, J.Grant Brittain, Bryce Knights, Skin Phillips, Mike O'”Meally, Daniel Harold Sturt, Andy Jenkins. The list goes on. Basically anybody who has done something creative in skateboarding. If you want something that reflects skateboarding over the last 30 years, be it a portrait of Andy Roy or Guy Mariano doing a switch tre-flip, then this book is a must have item. Trust me, you will not be disappointed. 
Sid Vicious may well have been an impressionable idiot who swallowed his own hype and chased it down with numerous armfuls of smack, but he is still the embodiment of the smash-it-up, fuck-them-all attitude of punk. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t play an instruments because he looked brilliant and had great hair and ‘too Fast To Live.’ is crammed full of pictures of Sid in all of his fucked up glory. It also tells his short story in the most detail yet. Author Alan Parker became close friends with Sid’s mother Anne Beverley and gained a good insight into what Sid was really like and also claims to have unravelled part of the ongoing who killed Nancy conspiracy theories. Yes, Sid was an idiot but it’s easy to forget just how young and impressionable Sid was when his whole life turned into a drug addled punk rock cartoon. He was just twenty-years old when he died ” he was still just a kid and people forget that. Before he”d even had a chance to grow he was thrown head-long into a drug-addled chaotic world with the full glare of the world’s media in his eyes. Who wouldn’t lose the plot? The fact is Sid lost it in spectacular style and took it right to the limit and over the edge. Yes, he was dead at twenty-one but he”ll be remembered for years to come. Will you?