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Skateboarding News

Salmon – full video

salmon_skate_video

Following Friday night’s premiere down in Maidstone, Kent, Alex Pasquini and Lee Santer’s new scene video Salmon has lept upstream to the web and is now playing in full.

Get the teas on and watch skating from Mikey Patrick, Jack Razzell, Johnny Bairstow, Lee Santer, Alex Pasquini, Jack Martin, Joms Gilbert and Leo Goodhew.

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Skateboarding News

Henry Calvert’s ‘Mouth Of The Ribble’ Part

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So here it is, the first full part from Blackpool’s new scene video, Mouth Of The Ribble headed up by Henry Calvert.

If you’ve been glued to instagram over the last couple of months, Calvert’s front flip coffin trick is one of those moments that only the most pissed skaters would be throwing themselves into at the end of a sesh. Naturally he felt inclined to kick his part off with another as he drops in on everything, loves a dirty old spot and takes slams like a don. Pure crust.

Enjoy Jake Powell’s footage and look out for the full flick premiering on November 21st here.

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Features Home Music

Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC

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We’ve waited a long time for this one. Crowd-funding for the making of ‘Salad Days’, a look at the incredibly fertile hardcore punk movement that exploded out of Washington DC in the early 80s, first started over four years ago when brief snippets and enticing trailers started to work their way across the internets. And now it’s finally here…

We live in an age now where so many bands, movements and artists are getting to tell their stories in film. Every week there’s a new music documentary to see, a story to tell, but Salad Days is something special. From the very start, the Washington DC punk scene documented itself. More than any other punk scene in the world at that time, the participants took care to photograph, film and record everything that was happening. They knew what they were doing was important and special and wanted it preserved. “I didn’t want to own the scene, I just wanted there to be one,” explains Ian Mackaye, who through his work with Minor Threat, Fugazi, Dischord Records and many more is understandably the lynch pin and constant through the whole movie. So the upshot of this is that there is a wealth of incredible footage in this film. It rushes past, much like the music, in a high-speed, high-energy blur. This is not any easy film to sit still and watch in a cinema, as each band and song crashes by, every moment made me want to leap out of my seat and explode.

Ph: Ian Mackaye of Minor Threat, Wilson Center, DC, 1983 by Jim Saah

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Film maker Scott Crawford has done an incredible job of capturing the spirit and energy of the time. Having been involved in the scene in DC from a very young age (he was just 12 when he started going to gigs and making fanzines), he was trusted to tell the story and help the various participants open up.

Running chronologically from when Bad Brains exploded onto the scene and everything went FAST with bands like SOA, Void. Teen idles, Minor Threat, Untouchables, Youth Bridge, to the mid-80s ‘Revolution Summer’ years with Rites Of Spring, Embrace, Gray Matter, Dave Grohl’s first band Mission Impossible. They then move onto the end of the 80s as the alternative rock explosion beckoned, and Grohl, fresh out of Dischord legends Scream propelled Nirvana into the mainstream, bringing Fugazi attention they never expected, Jawbox a major label deal and the rest is history.

There are so many magical moments in ‘Salad Days’ that it’s difficult to know where to start but here’s a few. The footage of Void is utterly off-the-hook insane and demonic, the bit where MacKaye talks about Straight Edge and how he still gets people, to this day, phoning him at the Dischord office and screaming “hey Ian, I’m drunk, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT!!” before slamming the phone down, the self-belief, politics and conviction that run through every band, the thought that they really believed they were making a difference and could change. Subject to change. The realisation of just how young everyone one was when this started…

“Salad days” is a Shakespearean idiomatic expression to refer to a youthful time, accompanied by the inexperience, enthusiasm, idealism, innocence, or indiscretion that one associates with a young person.”

That says it all.

James Sherry

You can pre-order the film on Vimeo as it will be Video On Demand from August 4th.

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Skateboarding News

Shaun Currie’s Brass Monkey section remixed

Shaun Currie’s part filmed and edited by James Cruickshank from Brass Monkey has been remixed this month and is here for you to watch. Pick up the full Sheffield scene video for only £6 from brassmonkey.bigcartel.com

The full video features skating from Shaun Currie, Dan Beall, Henry Stables, Dave Adlington, Timmy Garbett, Liam Sproat, Jethro Coldwell, Nathan Morris, Will Mason, Arthur Tubb, Richard Chung, Ash Hall, Alan Chadwick, Alex Burrell, Jerome Campbell, and the rest of Sheffield.

Shaun Currie – Brass Monkey remix from James Cruickshank on Vimeo.

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Skateboarding Events Skateboarding News

‘Join Us’ premiere in Cardiff

Christian ‘Pirate Man’ Hart has been slaving away the past few months for Cardiff Skateboard Club’s first ‘proper proper’ video ‘Join Us‘.

The video follows the groundbreaking (in the vandalism sense) path of the infamous lo-fi masterpiece ‘First Blood‘ and will be certainly filled with bangers from the CSC massive and other Cardiff locals.

So Welsh heads, make sure you have no other plans for Friday July 30th as Dempsey’s Bar is the place to be for the premiere – featuring appearances from a REAL pirate! See you there!

www.cardiffskateboardclub.com

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DVD Reviews

Monster Network – In Between Days

When he’s not networking with the metaphorical beasts and ogres of the interweb, Russell Cowling turns his creative eye to the viewfinder of a camera aimed directly at the gritty shores of the South-East. Though countless filmmakers have been influenced by the do-it-all-yourself approach to filming and editing that’s evident in the finer skate videos courtesy of French Fred, Greg Hunt et al, no one achieves it with such DIY honesty than the Essex lad himself. There’s no stock footage in sight. The Monster Network, seek to progress even further from the wonderful Never Forever and Into The Fall, combining creative skateboarding with artistic interpretations and observations from the eyes of those that walk the four-wheeled plank. In Between Days does just that…

After biting through a typically impressive visual introduction, the filling bursts through the crust in the form of ‘Gorgeous’ Dave Watson who’s been steadily on the up since silently killing it on the now-defunct Clown and having the raddest trick in Into The Fall half-way through the end credits. This section is effortless and his style speaks volumes that the dial on big-talkers doesn’t even turn to. While they’re blabbing away at 10, Dave is cruising away at 11. And that front-blunt on the unreal natural quarters in Basildon is completely off the scale. Essex Legend Simon Skipp – whose Romford ditch recently got some gnarly coverage in the new Blueprint flick – shares his section like he did in Never Forever and proves himself still worthy of being the undisputed king of Romford. There’s no bad-talking the way Skipp can attack Romford’s blue wall switch and still 360 flip like no other. Nigel Davies slips in a huge noseblunt before Dave sleeps through a killer ender to close this excellent opening section – that’s kindly been posted online to whet your appetite on the Monster Network site itself. Good stuff.

I’m gonna call out my own bias right now on the second section, because I grew up skating with Warren Greatrex, and I can only express my anger that he didn’t land such incredible shit when I was the one filming him. A lot has changed since secondary school and that huge gap he glides over wasn’t even in the shitty bike track we used to skate back then but Warren’s style has always been perfect. We could be seeing more from this kid if he keeps killing it like this. George Gough and Wil Thomson follow to the spectacular soundtrack going with some interesting ledge trickery and a couple quick-footed gems. That frontside shove…

In Between Days Trailer from Monster Network on Vimeo.

What I’ve always enjoyed about Monster Network productions is that they’ve never been afraid to have lots of shared sections. For someone with Firefox-Generation-ADD (or FIGADDS! as I’ll call it), keeping it consistently fresh makes the skating flow down even more nicely, like a well-made mix tape made for a friend. For the next track we have new Channon King footage, and it’s like hearing the opening chords to a song you haven’t heard in a while but always loved. His style is unmistakable and still suits his off-beat trick selection on ridiculous spots, including what’s either the world’s worst designed bench or one that’s been victim to the world’s largest arse sitting on it.

The next treat is a meaty friends section full of some more familiar South-East heavy-hitters, culminating in some really piss-taking malarkey from Raemers, Veran Tull and Neil Smith. Nick Remon jams to a song you’ve all heard before but not in such raw context. Nick rips through impossible terrain and reps Switch Skatestore hard. This admirable local loyalty is kept up with the notorious smooth stylings of Jay Tate. This is a section so fresh and clean that even the haters-gonna-hate brigade that often dismiss natural style for sketchiness can’t talk shit on. Real pop, excellent catch and fluid, bolt perfect skating that’s never robotic, Jay Tate kills it. With the assistance of Adam Howe and Jay Minta (specifically that Kalis-as-fuck catch on the nollie frontside flip off the indoor kicker) this montage is my personal favourite in a video full of bangers.

Carl Wilson takes the end section and deserves the honour. Park skating in videos is something often contested and I disagree with those doing so, particularly if you can kill it like Carl, if you skate what you want and film what you want and be creative in your own way then you get a great video. And this is just that. Top work to all involved, 3,5,0,1,2,5 go!

Order it now for £5 before it sells out at www.monsternetwork.co.uk

Stanley

Enjoy these offcuts…

Unused footage In Between Days from Monster Network on Vimeo.