Uncategorized | CENTRAL LIBRARY

This interview was meant to go on the internet a while back when Sandy’s video, Lost Collective, was released. For some reason it got lost in the inbox matrix for a while—but seeing as someone on Instagram recently demanded a new blog article to read, here it is. Not sure if Sandy has indeed ‘kicked a whip’ since this was first typed out…

How old were you when you started riding? Growing up in a little village outside of Hull, what got you into riding in the first place?

I first showed an interest when I was around 12 years old, I used to go ride some jumps in the woods close to my house but I had a mountain bike at the time. Not long after people started getting BMX’s instead so it was a no brainer to follow suit, it looked a lot better.

Apart from the jumps in the woods we didn’t have much to ride in the area, we’d all meet at the local car park and ride there most nights or we would go down to the steelworks to ride the girders. I think the first thing that stood out for me was seeing one of the older locals Nath (Safe Nath) hop a shopping trolley on this knackered Hoffman Dirty130.

I know the Blyth brothers were big on the Hull scene, but who were the older crew when you first started?

Yeah Adam and Tom were definitely a big part of the scene growing up, more so Adam as Tom moved to Sheffield soon after I started hanging out with them. There were a bunch of other older guys who used to ride trails at a spot next to the motorway. Nath was another main character in the scene but Snot, Stork and Kitch were a few names I remember from the trails.

When I got into riding there were the Blyth’s, Nath, and a bunch of lads of similar age to me, Carl Wood, John Hanson, Paul Baker, Christian Smith, Richard Green and Rob Julian. Safeways was always the main meeting spot. We’d also go to ride a lot of the local schools in the area or head into Hull. I can’t remember any videos coming out of Hull, we had cameras but most of the footage was given away.

Hull got a bit of bad press a while ago when it was named the number one ‘crap town’ in that book, but what was the reality of growing up around there? What’s good about Hull?

Yeah it was fine, same as any other small northern town. We were mainly bored and had nothing to do, hence we would ride the car park daily. I guess back then we were the alternative kids, so we used to get heckled when riding in town, but I don’t think anywhere else was any different. The only thing that stood out about Hull to me then was that it was a pretty scrappy city, but it’s ridiculous to say it was the worst place to live. I think they based that statement on employment stats and residential living.

When did you start riding with the Sheffield lot? You did some decent stuff on Tomorrow We Work.

I started riding with them lot when my mate Dan (Cannon Dan) moved there for university. He was living with Tommy C, Mainy and Green Bike Steve. I was at college in Hull at the time so I used to go up and stay with him during the holidays. I was going up a fair bit and soon became mates with all the HHH. I started going to stay with Alex Riley, Josh Bedford and Ernie who was crashing with them at the time. Joe and Dan Cox weren’t working at the time so we’d go meet up. Joe was starting to get footage together for TWW.

I remember when you lot came to Manchester the famous day Blyth did that massive wallride at the Gasworks, you all managed to hop over one of those over-bar-height plastic barriers very easily. How come you can all hop dead high?

Haha—I guess that was because I just had the car park to ride. We used to stack crates up there and hop them all night. No one seemed to be that bothered about learning tricks, it was just about who could hop the highest or manual the furthest.

What made you want to move to London? How would you say riding in London differs from riding around Hull?

During the TWW era a lot of the UK scenes merged and people were always visiting Sheffield, that was when I met Marv and Benson. I’d been on a few trips away with them during that time so after that I would often come down to London to visit them.

I reckon I’d been coming down to London monthly for a year so I became mates with a lot of the London locals like Richie Goff, Joe Fox, Rob Hate, Jon Gorrigan and Loz Taylor. It was at this point they got me in the bully boy circle and said I should move down. Not long after I moved onto Marv’s sofa until getting a flat with my mates Sam and John.

Riding in London is a lot different than riding back home, Hull isn’t big and you could ride between most of the spots in minutes. You don’t actually ride much in London, it’s more a case of pedalling miles to a certain spot for someone to do something.

I forgot the few tricks I had, it was more about pedalling around to find setups whilst chatting shit. In Hull we had one group, but down here it’s too big for that so people tend to stick to their groups. I prefer it like that.

In your Albion interview you mention that if you could do barspins you’d be content with not learning anything more. With barspins now conquered, what’s next? You not fancy learning can-cans or something?

Haha—I’d argue that they’re definitely not conquered, I basically don’t have the bottle for them. I have recently thought about kicking a whip, but so far it’s just a thought.

No disrespect here, but you don’t strike me as the sort of guy who wants to devote loads of time to being sat in front of a computer rendering video files. What made you want to make a riding video? Was it a case of the mantle being passed when Marv retired his video camera?

Cheers mate! Nah you’re right, I enjoy filming people as the process is half the fun. If someone’s doing a line I like trying to keep up and get in there as much as I can, but I’d get the clips on the computer then lose interest over time when I’d constantly be messing them up on the timeline. I knew how I wanted the video to look but didn’t have the patience to learn how to get it there.

I don’t think enough credit is given to people for that. If you look at the stuff people put out as a hobby they’re on par with the ones people are getting paid to do in my opinion.

How come you had to get Coxy to edit it? Did you have to deter him from adding in any masonic symbols or leather-vest psych music?

Unfortunately for James it comes with being mates with me. I’m sure if you had an issue with your plumbing you’d be on the phone to Leo so it’s basically the same thing. James offered to help so I just took the clips and music over to him and we edited it over a weekend. It was pretty enjoyable… actually maybe not for him. If it wasn’t for him I’d probably never have put it out. It had been sat on a hard drive for over three years before then. Nice one James!

Was there anything in particular you were trying to show with the video? Are there any standout clips with a good backstory you’d like to share with the Central Library readers?

Yeah I was pretty concerned about making a video that was a rip off of one of my mates vids. I thought it could easily be an imitation of a mate’s video when a lot of the people are doing the same thing. Aside from that I was just wanting to make it an easy watch that wasn’t too long. I like watching the Magenta skate vids as they’ve got a good pace so I guess that was the sort of thing I was going for. I guess I basically ripped off something less well-known in that case, but imitation is the biggest form of flattery.

Last question—and maybe the most important—you’ve been renovating a flat in London over the past few years. Do you have any useful DIY tips you’d like to pass on?

Yeah if DIY is not your thing, just do like I did with the video editing get someone else to do it! It’s really frustrating and eats up way too much of your time and money.