Whilst we’re often led to believe that time is of the essence and everything must happen right this minute, in reality most things worth dong take a fair while. This interview with Dublin grind-man Eóin Shiel was started back in 2020—a lifetime ago in ‘media terms’—right back when he was adding what he thought were the finishing touches to his third video, Postcards. Nearly three years later, Postcards is finally done, and after much back and forth, so is this interview. Read it now, or read it in three years… what’s the rush?
From back-garden ramp set-ups to the big-top and beyond, James Hudson spent the 80s and early 90s fully engrossed in the world of riding and skating, not just as a rider, but also as a photographer and magazine-man—contributing snaps to R.A.D., editing SK8-Action and publishing BMX Now.
Here’s an interview with him about riding in the Midlands, life in the circus and the differences between fact and fiction…
Interview by Sam. Header photo by Armen Djerrahian.
Cathedral is James Newrick’s first foray into the crystal clear world of High Definition, featuring stuff filmed in Newcastle, Manchester and London over the past couple of years. As you’d expect, it’s a true feast combining serious dope manoeuvres and some real classy editing details. Who else is making riding videos inspired by Raymond Carver stories?
If this flier is to be believed, Sandy’s video actually exists. Is this a mere mirage? Has Sandy actually managed to sit down for a while and piece together a video? Or has a certain tattoo-coated bar-spinner been summoned back to the editing desk for one last job? Find out for yourself via the details above.
Here’s 14 minutes of 4:3 movements and motion courtesy of Act Like You Know and co, with sections from Chase Dehart, Frank Lang and Yazan Odeh. Simply embedding a video and writing a brief sentence about it on a blog used to seem pretty lazy, but at a time when the most praise anything gets is one of those strong-arm-flex emojis on an Instagram story, then maybe sharing something on a real website isn’t so bad after all? Anyway, this video is pretty good and that Yazan guy does some cool stuff.
Here’s the new video from the original gutta mutha-fucka himself… Bobby Scerbo. This one’s pretty short and sharp, and features some particularly bodacious moves from Hoogerhyde, Wiz and a chap named Johnny Monaco. We should have copies of this turning up fairly soon along with an accompanying zine, but until then, here you go. And for anyone wondering, according to Google, the word ‘Lacuna’ means a gap or an unfilled space. Make of that what you will.
It’s been said before, but you can tell a lot about a person by the way they ride their bike. Chaotic loose cannons rarely file their tax returns before the deadline, whilst calculated, reserved riders aren’t usually the last to leave the pub.
Matt Miller is no exception to this rule. I met him briefly on a voyage to Philadelphia a while back and can say that not only was he a smooth rider, but he was also a real smooth, courteous character, a long way from the grubby-mitted street gremlins usually associated with 20 inch wheeled bicycles.
Anyway, cutting to the chase, here’s an interview with him about Chocolate Truck 2, Philly street spots and staying suave. Crew photos by Matt, shots of Matt by Naval and Ooti Billeaud. Interview by Sam.
Whilst visual documents of bicycle motions are by no means important in the grand scheme of the galaxy, it’s funny how much of an effect even the smallest decisions that someone made whilst piecing together footage of their friend’s riding can have on people half the world away.
Joe Cox’s videos, Voices and Tomorrow We Work, are prime examples of this phenomenon. At a time when even the supposedly simple task of capturing footage onto your mum’s Hewlett Packard desktop computer required the patience of a saint, he made well-crafted, thought-out videos that tricked a generation of riders into thinking there were spots in Sheffield. He must have helped shift a few Modest Mouse CDs too.
And beyond all this, Joe wasn’t just some ‘filmer guy’, lagging behind the crew with a load of tripods on his back—he was a highly-honed master of the bicycle, riding with a level of finesse that’s hard to muster on the rain-soaked, glass-smashed streets of the north.
Interview by Sam, photos by Newrick, Wozzy and Benson. Interview originally published in Red Steps Issue 5.
Back by unpopular demand, here’s some odds and ends from around the digital world that you may or may not enjoy.
Addy Snowdon’s rust-coated masterpiece Cast Iron Shore, is now up on the net. There’s obvious bias here but this sharply-edited slab of north west street riding is by far one of the best videos to grace the DVD format in the past few years and if for some strange reason you didn’t decide to fork out for a copy last year… then you’re in luck.
Strangeways Volume 5 is getting the red carpet treatment at 7PM Friday the 10th of June at the Thirsty Scholar just down from Manchester Oxford Rd station. Check the trailer here.
Meanwhile across the Atlantic, El Punto de Sabor is the new one from AM:PM, featuring a mix of golden age playground spots, massive handlebars, Ratkid Japan clips, high school choir cover-versions, Mike Hoder’s seat-post, complicated rail configurations at at least one pair of gloves.
CENTRAL LIBRARY 