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.

You can also read an interview with Addy (seen above over-icing some metallic Malmo art) here if you want.

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.

There’s also some good stuff to read on the new AM:PM site, including this article about New York pools, and this one about that little concrete wedge that Bob Scerbo hops into in his Cuts part. Good to see people devoting a few words to riding for once—especially away from the Instagram cess-pit.

This article about the link between the Spike Jonze/Andy Jenkins/Mark Lewman Wizard Publications master cluster and skateboarding written by ‘the other Antony Pappalardo’ is worth a read for all the historians out there. Nice for riding to get a slight bit of acknowledgement from the glory-sapping skating world for once. From Nick Phillip to Wig Worland it’s sometime’s forgotten that a healthy portion of the people who shaped the look of skating were actually riders.

No bike mentions in this (legendary day-glo rave clobber dungeon Cyberdog gets a nod though…), but this interview with art-man Oliver Payne on the Slam City site has some good bits in it—especially his take on ‘shop culture’.

More words—this time an interview over on the Least Most site with 70s photographer Mel Stoutenberger on the early days of what became known as BMX. Sometimes hard to relate to sun-soaked Californian imagery, but Mel’s snaps of back-yard style-cats getting loose on old Schwinns are pretty universal.

And finally, here’s a few minutes of Barcelona street riding from the Ce.Mess crew.

Over 20 years after it was made, Standard’s 1998 video Domination still stands up majestically to the often damning test of time. The riding is fast, the clothing is dope and the spots look like the sort of everyday features you’d actually find in your town. 

In this fairly long winded article, a decent chunk of the cast and crew discuss the making of this most bodacious video…

Thanks to Tedd Nelson for his amazing photos—and for all his help with sorting these interviews.

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Seeing as the weather has been dire lately here’s a brief round-up of internet-based juicage to remind the mind that dry pavements do exist somewhere.

First off, Big Jimmie Nezza’s 2010 gem Grey Haven is now online courtesy of the visual archivists at BMXMDB. Hard to believe that it’s taken 11 years for someone to get this onto the net, but apparently so. Anyway, it’s a true industrial symphony that deserves countless repeat viewings.

In more ‘videos that were once only on disk and are now viewable via the internet’ news—you may now watch Tyler Rembold’s Call Somebody and Bob Randel’s SF video Percept from 2017 without digging out that Hitachi DVD player.

Meanwhile, in 2021, Conor Bedford (who’s smithing that sheet of metal in the above photo) rode quite fast over a variety of British surfaces and Tim Evans had the foresight to film it.

Paralell is a tasteful bit of ‘Brits abroad’ action courtesy of Infamous and the glorious streets of Barcelona.

Here’s some more mathematically perfect street riding courtesy of the main-man Lord Leopold. And whilst we’re on the continent, here’s Bartek Tołkacz’s section from his Quid Pro Quo video. People like to moan about the state of modern bike riding, but one of the good things about the current age is how you can now easily access videos from far-flung locations that aren’t just sight-seeing tourist edits devised to sell grips. Getting a window into scenes in places like Croatia, Poland or Japan is pretty cool.

Andrew Schubert talked to Jeff Z about the recent TAIF video and riding in Vancouver. Anyone who hasn’t seen the video yet can do themselves a favour and download it here.

And finally… could probably do without having guns pulled on you whilst trying to ride, but Burnside does look pretty good.

Making a riding video takes patience. Making a riding video, sending it to the duplicators, then storing the resulting DVDs in a box under your bed for over a year without anyone else laying eyes on it takes a lot of patience.

Luckily, Addy Snowdon isn’t one to rush things—and whilst last-year’s lockdown malarkey could have easily sent him in search of his Youtube password to hastily upload the fruits of his labour to the information superhighway, he chose to wait things out until he could show it the old fashioned way—in a packed room, with good company and a selection of cold beverages bought from the local Tesco.

With Cast Iron Shore finally available for all to see, here’s an interview with Addy about the making of this fine video. Questions by Sam, photos by Clarky and Sam.

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This is an interview with Joey Piazza about riding in New York, teaching kids at school, complex grind configurations, having the last section in his own video, that guy who had that horrific crash riding down an escalator, flatland, Union Square, goofy-footed grinding, not being indoors, the Caribbean and the new AM:PM video. It originally appeared in Red Steps Issue 5, but seeing as his new DVD is finally done, now seemed like a good time to upload it into the binary world. Photos by Seth, Wozzy and Russ Bengston.

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A certain Chesterfield table-topper was recently heard commenting that’s it’s been a while since we did one of these articles… so here it is. Decent stuff on the net has been very thin on the ground lately, but there has been a few slabs of gold hidden amongst the digital dust and debris.

For starters, these two videos from Jake Frost are more definitely worth a watch—featuring clips from the 90East contingent, as well as plenty of larking about, tomfoolery and shenanigans. I wouldn’t want to be an old TV in New England…

Talking about Instagram and its effect on riding is a tired subject by now, but the ability to serve up a full video straight in front of people’s eyes as they ride the bus back from work is a startling development.

Whilst we’re on the subject of everyone’s favourite time-sapping app, Bob Scerbo has been uploading loads of amazing old footage into the matrix—painstakingly piecing together disparate clips of people like Gonz (the bike one™) and elusive street pioneer Wilbur Barrick, as well as sections from FBM’s The Bar is Closed.

Colombia looks pretty good.

Here’s the Ralph Sinisi/Mike Tag part from an old Ride video.

Meanwhile in Japan, this guy is grinding some very large ledges.

This Hideout video from a few months back is worth a watch.

And finally, here’s a few minutes of prime Yorkshire cruising courtesy of Messrs Fathead and Jambul. Nice to see Jim C’s cruiser getting taken for a spin.

Much more on the way soon. Red Steps 5 is done. Addy’s new video might hopefully be seen this year. Still no word on Sandy’s video though…

The third part of Jim Newrick’s Hit the North saga is here. Just over 12 minutes of North East street riding from Cookie, Count, Clarky, Wozzy, Jim, Jambul and more, put together with a level of attention to detail seldom-seen in the often formulaic world of bike videos. The riding is fast, the music is hypnotic, and no ridable surface is left unscathed—from the world’s smallest pole jam to some colossal concrete sea-walls. Describing a riding video as ‘a masterpiece’ might sound a bit gratuitous, but the term is certainly warranted here. The Street Shark has returned.

Read an old interview with Jim here.

Bob Scerbo has uploaded his latest masterpiece onto the world wide web. Most people who lurk on this site will probably already have a copy of this sat on their shelf, but for those who don’t… drag yourself out of the Instagram worm-hole for a while, pour yourself a refreshing beverage and press the play button post haste.

Bogus awards like ‘Video of the Year’ are obviously pretty naff and mean next-to-nothing in the real world, but this mixed-media meander around the lesser-spotted corners of the United States was perhaps one of the most enjoyable videos to come out last year… and whilst it’s maybe too early to say, it’ll probably stand up to the test of time more than most.

Get a copy of the video here.

Read an interview with Bob about Vacilando here.

At a time when complex algorithms feed us clip-after-clip of zappy kids in zany attire zipping around damp prefab skateparks, it’s important to remember that out there in the real world, people dressed in regular clothing are making full-length videos that you wouldn’t be embarrassed about being caught watching.

The City Wide Awake, a recent release from Louisville’s Phil Bossmeyer, is one such video. Documenting a few years of zig-zagging across the USA, it’s a most relaxing watch—and the perfect visual sorbet to cleanse the palate after a few minutes of shameful Instagram lurking.

Here’s some video parts that mean something to Phil. Wall carve photo by Chris Zidek.

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By now it’s pretty obvious that these articles aren’t exactly ‘monthly’, but luckily everything here stands up to the test of time fairly well. Here’s a few decent bits which have cropped up over the last three months…

Cast Iron Shore is the new video from mild-mannered peg maniac Addy Snowdon. Think plans are afoot for some sort of premiere (hopefully within the next ten years), but until then, here’s a short trailer featuring a particularly potent icepick from Roper and a rare sighting of Daddy Cool himself, Matt Glover.

Here’s a few minutes of prime lock-down cruising from the main-man Gary Hunt. Probably a bit biased, but it’s funny how this solo video pieced together on a mobile phone has more editing ingenuity than most lavish full-length productions.

On the subject of phone videos… this ‘Calles Pesadas’ video from reptile-expert Zac Costa is a real treat, and features everything from dodgy looking snakes to high-speed bike collisions. Those concrete parks in South America look unreal.

Here’s a quick interview with Jared Souney about his new book.

And here’s some late night Japanese street riding courtesy of Masa Yanaka. Just be prepared to hit the mute button unless you’re a fan of home counties rap-attacks.

Must have missed the first one, but Words of Encouragement Vol. 2 is 15 minutes of Midlands street riding from people like Sam Marsden, Gaz Docker and Mitch Atkin.

If anyone wants a raw slice of 1990s Manchester on four wheels, this Promotional 97 is most definitely worth a watch. Plenty of long town hall lines in the golden age of trousers. If you enjoy this and partake in the Instagram world, you might want to follow Manchestalgia for more old gems.

Sad way to end this, but thoughts go out to friends and family of French street pioneer Thomas Caillard. This video from 1999 is one of the all-time greats. There’s a pretty good interview with Thomas in this issue of The Albion too. RIP.