Jay Z is coming back to the UK for a short tour in September. The performer, who has retired from recording his own albums and who is now a major player behind the scenes of rap, is playing dates in Scotland, Ireland and England. The dates are:
21 Sep: Manchester, MEN
22 Sep: Glasgow, SECC
23 Sep: Birmingham, SECC
24 Sep: London, Wembley Arena
26 Sep: Dublin, The Point
This year’s Bulldog Bash has announced its line up. The rock festival happen in August and the line up is:
Thursday 10 Aug: Hells Bells, Hellrazor, Sweet Black Angels.
Friday 11 Aug: The Almighty, Paradise Lost, Skindred, Engerica, Rattlesnake Remedy.
Saturday 12 Aug: Pitchshifter, Hundred Reasons, Breed 77, The Answer, Losing Sun, Love Rocket.
For more information, go to www.bulldog-bash.co.uk
Ex-Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft has been arrested and fined for being drunk and disorderly – at a youth club for under-12s!
The police have confirmed he was arrested and ordered to pay an on-the-spot fine.
Reports are that he went there to help out working with the kids there, and wasn’t aggressive, but in fact “charming and friendly”.
Babyshambles singer and all round tabloid fascination Pete Doherty has announced that he’s getting his intimate diaries published next year. Typically though, Doherty missed his own press event so it was announced for him.
The book will look at his rise to stardom, his addiction to drugs and his relationship with Kate Moss. The book will consist of 20 volumes and feature poetry, film reviews, drawings and photo which, according to his publisher, is “incredibly readable”.
Doherty said of the deal: “I am very happy to have a book coming out with Orion and to share a bookshelf with H G Wells, Ian Rankin and Stan Bowles. I’ve always wanted to have a book published and it’s all very exciting for me personally.”
XL Recordings have just launched a new section of theeraser.net with 4 videos with snippets from the upcoming solo album from Thom Yorke.
Things are being added all the time and you shouldn’t wait any longer before checking the goodies out. Point your lucky browsers to www.xlrecordings.com/theeraser.
The Eraser is due out in July.
Peaches will release her new album Impeach My Bush in typically rowdy fashion in July.
To celebrate the album, check out the splash page on this website and get in the mood. Crank that volume to the rafters people!
It would seem the premiere Euro skate shoe company Aeon Footwear is shutting shop in a bid to concentrate on skateboard manufacturing..? If this disaster strikes, that’ll leave a lot of foreign heavy hitters floating on the shoe market.
However, in light of the crashing market a new French board company, Metropolitan Skateboards is about to hit the streets. Headed up by skater/filmer/ badman David Couliau, Chloe Bernard and David Dupas, these goods should be aimed at a higher aesthetic than other French companies.
Finally, seeing as we’re in Euro land, Belgium has given birth to two new things:
A magazine- POP, and a pro model for national scandal meister David Martelleur on Yama Skateboards .
Never slow to leech the extreme youth market, MTV2 fell off their pedestal when they saw Danny Way get gnarly.
So, everyone’s favourite madman is up for an award at the MTV2 All that Rocks! Ceremony for Sickest Sports Moment. Danny’s up against Moto-X rider Mike Metzger with his Ceasar’s Palace jump, and Shane Dorian’s surfing of the big Tahitian tubes.
To vote for Danny, click here: http://mtv2.mtv.com/mtv2/ontv/atr/#/mtv2/ontv/atr/category.jhtml?categoryId=sports
Things are all a bit up in the air at the moment concerning Lyon getting a second free skatepark. Despite being home to France’s strongest skate scene and several skateshops, and two of Europe’s most notable skate companies (Cliché and Antiz), the town just can’t seem to get it together for a new concrete park to be built on the Rhone river bankside smack bang in the middle of town (below the graffiti ledges/miniramp for those who know…).
Apparently Jeremie Daclin is in heavy talks with the local politicians, and sketchs of a plaza with lovely connecting bowls are floating around somewhere… Note to Jeremie and Lyon officials – Look at Stoke and Prissick!
I have to admit that I received these shoes seond hand- But that actually works in their favour as you will soon find out… The Es Accel Plus is a jazzed up version of the classic Es Accel being in that extra flair was added with an ankle strap. Why an ankle strap on a lo-top shoe, I don’t know but it definitely makes for a steady shoe on your foot and that beats broken and twisted ankles any day!
So, like I mentioned at the start, these shoes were passed on to me by a friend who had barely skated them, plus he’s the opposite stance to me (Goofy) so it all works in my advantage. I owned a pair of Accels in the past and knew they were a staple for good skate shoes, but the Accel Plus is that level higher of fresh-o-meter. Firstly, the material Es have used a synthetic suede, is bloody grippy and tough. No slippery leather of grazed suede here. When the material does wear through, it reveals a weird fluffy white coat which does stand out on a pair of black shoes, but remains nonetheless resistant to a good scrape.
Another sweet feature to the Accel Plus is the gum sole. You just can’t go wrong with a gum sole on your griptape. Look how many companies are ripping the ‘vulcanised’ gum grip at the moment! The sole does wear away gradually, and the grip fades, but that’s only after a good solid few months of skating. Any sole that maintains it’s function of connecting you and your board for a few months or more is a good sole.
Finally, we’ll finish on the ‘plus’ factor of this shoe, the ankle strap. Like I said earlier, it definitely secures your foot like a seatbelt and doesn’t dig into the top of your foot because of the padded tongue. However, the stitching last about a week before it starts to rub away and the cut material starts to flap about in the wind- This rates pretty low on the fresh-o-meter. I just fixed it up with some shoe-goo, but I can imagine some people will straight cut those things out if they look like that.
All in all, the Es Accel Plus is a top skate shoe. It’s simple and functional. I know Es have been getting a bad rep for making footwear oddities that try and look tech but end up looking like badly tuned blobs. Then there’s the argument that Es are trying to disguise every shoe as an Accel, but I don’t see the problem in this at all. The Accel blueprint is one of skateboarding’s finest and most copied shoe of all time. I’m still skating mine, and if I get a chance to ride some more (especially with this synthetic material!) I will without hesitation.
9/10
Ralph Lloyd-Davis
22/06/2006
