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Craig had contacted me because he was doing a series of old school articles for one of the UK mags (may have been Sidewalk..) and he wanted to talk to Spex about the Bristol scene. I passed his details on and I know Craig was trying to put together an article with him.
During our correspondence, Craig and I talked a lot and he eventually asked me to also do an interview. I was reluctant because didn't feel I warranted one but he insisted. In the end I think the whole thing fizzled out anyway and Craig only did a couple of articles and never got around to doing one on Spex and Bristol, which is a shame. But I thought I'd post this up here for posterity...
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QUESTIONS QUESTIONS ME...
What was it like growing up and skateboarding in Bristol?
I grew up in Cornwall (didn't move to Bristol until much later). Got hooked on skateboarding first in the 70s, rolled around Watergate Bay when it first opened. Watched the Benji team at a wooden park called 'The Flamingo' (cuz it used to be a dance hall originally). Skated Playing Place and Holywell Bay every weekend. Loads of old spots, too many to mention, Cornwall was very surf influenced and in those early days skateboarding was a natural fit with surfing. But it was skateboarding that really knocked me out and what I soon found myself spending all my time doing.
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| Watergate Bay, 1977. Pic: Unknown |
I know there is a lot of spots and a massive scene in Bristol, tell us about some of the history and who skated what?
I moved to Bristol in the 80s I knew nothing about the skate scene there. I went into Rollermania (the only shop at the time) and they were telling me about Dean Lane skate park in Bedminster and a guy called Spex who ruled it. So I went down there and all the crew were really friendly and welcoming to me. They all skated really well too. Down in Cornwall we had mainly old style concrete bowls so I was used to skating in a style that suited carving. Dean Lane had banks, ramps, inter-connecting bowls, the rhythm run and all sorts of stuff that the Bristol boys had wired. I'd been there every day for about a week and not seen Spex once, but I was quietly impressed by all the other locals.
Dean Lane was built on a steep slope and I remember one night this blur of speed came bombing down through the park, banging massive ollies through the rhythm run before launching a mighty backside bodyjar off the junky metal quarter pipe. That was Spex, and it was instantly obvious why he had such a rep.
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| Spex boosting Planet Rock, Dean Lane (great excuse to run this pic). Pic: Pete Litchfield |
Ashton Court was long gone by the time I got there, so as far as Bristol skate history goes I only know from the 80s on. But there were still a couple of concrete spots as well as Dean Lane. One of the gnarlier spots was Lockleaze which had a really deep old school pool that was a buzz to ride. St Georges is a mellow carvey sort of spot. There were loads of other little banks and curb setups around the city such as the Nat West banks which had a little handrail at the top.
Can you remember skating with Spex, Die, Yan and all those guys, what was it like?
There was a really excellent crew of skaters that all hung around Dean Lane. Even though Bristol is a fairly large city, at that time Dean Lane was the hub. With Rollermania and Shiners providing the support. Spex was amazing, he never failed to impress. Barney was very stylish, and all the crew had their different styles and strengths.
Yan was classic; one day he came hurtling down the rhythm run, every single turn was sketchy, his feet all over the place and on the edge of slamming every inch of the way down. When he got to the bottom all he said was "Wrong shoes". Along with the Dean Lane regulars there was also the SM5D skate punks who we used to go street skating with, they always had excellent parties.
Die was one of the younger guys who seemed to go from just being average to suddenly being real fugging good overnight! I remember being in the Pink Palace (a great indoor mini-ramp just off Park St mainly built by Vern) and I was standing on the platform chatting to Spex while Die dropped in from the other platform and he blasted a frontside stalefish right in my face and I'm 6'2"!
Who were the most influential skateboarders at that time to you?
I dug a few of the 'name' skaters particularly Chris Miller and I always really liked Lucero for some reason. But actually it was the people around me that made an impression. I know I keep rattling on about him, but Spex was probably the biggest influence. He's not only a good skateboarder, he's a great person with a really good outlook on life, we shared a flat for a while and we still see each other regularly. Also there was a skater in Cornwall called Paddy Best, who really pushed me to skate vert mainly at Crantock cuz the one thing Bristol lacked at that time was a vert ramp.
When the rebirth of Skateboard! magazine came around you scored the cover of the first issue! How did it feel seeing it? Can you remember that session when the photo was taken?
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| Skateboard! magazine, Session 1 July 1988. Pic: Paul Duffy |
Yeah that was fairly ace! Of course I loved getting the cover pic as it was really my one and only 15 minutes of fame moment. Skane had recently relaunched Skateboard! and had got together a load of really good skaters for a weekend of skating in Bristol. There was Dan-z, Gary Lee, Dave Davies, plus all the Bristol crew along with photographer Paul Duffy, so basically lots of skaters who were all much better than me. We had a blast skating all over Bristol. The shot they used was taken when we were just mucking about in a little bowl section at the bottom of the snake run at Bedminster, we had all our pads on cuz we'd been sessioning the metal pipe. I was doing a kicked out sweeper and Duffy was snapping away. It was a total surprise to me when Skane told me just before the mag came out that I was on the cover. I'm sure there were lots of shots from that weekend that were a lot more rad, but thinking about it now, I guess that was Skane's thing, he was always looking for a slightly different angle.
What was working for Skateboard! like, tell us what it involved doing?
Skateboard! had already been going for a few issues and frankly I wasn't that impressed with it. I think they were still finding their feet and trying to work out their position in comparison to RAD which had undergone a total revamp.
Skane lived in Bristol, one day I was chatting with him and out of the blue he asked me what I'd ideally like to be doing. Without any hesitation I said my dream job would be Art Director for a skate mag (in my mind I had a secret fantasy about working at Transworld or Poweredge in California). Skane practically offered me the job right there, which I wasn't expecting at all, but it suddenly made perfect sense, I was a skater and a designer so why not combine the two.
I moved up to London and started working on the mag - it was great fun. Sifting through thousands of slides, working with Skane and Meany and loads of cool photographers like Duffy, Frankie Shea, Pete Litchfield etc. Dreaming up cover designs and laying out articles. I was the 'Art Dept' so I designed and produced layouts for the whole magazine and often it was hectic cuz we were relying on skaters most of the time for copy, images and ads etc and they weren't the most reliable or efficient when it came to deadlines. But I loved it and I got to meet a lot of London skaters and skate all the spots. Crouch End ramp, Latymer Rd, Chingford, I liked going fast through the corners at Kennington, Meanwhile 2 and my fave which was Gladstone Park Pool in Neasden. I remember skating that at midnight on Midsummers Day in 1989 on my own under a full moon.
Skane was a bit of an eccentric character and had a particular way of looking at things, but his heart was in the right place and he'd been a skateboarder himself back in the 70s. He had a tendency toward the technical side but I think his main strength was his ability to look beyond the status quo. He really liked to mix things up, and he made a point about doing stories from all over the UK. He also went beyond that with features about different scenes across Europe and he did a whole issue about Brazil.
I know you were part of the test team, explain a bit about it.
Skaney was big on 'product testing'. Often mags will do that stuff to encourage advertising, ie: "we'll run editorial on your proddy - in exchange you buy ad space in our mag". But in his case I think Skane genuinely enjoyed doing all that analyst shit. I think it was Sketchy zine that did a brilliant piss-take of a Skane type product test on a Bic biro, right down to detailed measurements of the little hole in the plastic at the top of the pen.
Anyway Skane ended up with a lot of skateboard goodies at his disposal. He was quite discerning about it and gave some to the skaters who hung around the office in London, such as Morbid etc. But as he was based in Bristol he ended up handing out decks, wheels and trucks at Dean Lane and all we had to do in return was give him some critical feedback. I don't remember there ever being an official 'test team' but I do know that I got enough gear to keep me rolling for a few years. I think there were a few pics of me in the mag 'testing' gear.
Over the years many people have passed through Bristol. Jesse Martinez, Eric Dressen, the Gonz and a whole host of others. What’s been the most memorable?
Yeah, there was a period when it seemed like there were quite a few visiting pros. Tony Coffey from Rollermania, played a big part in the Bristol scene in those days and had some connections and bought them over. They were all rad in their own ways, but I remember Natas made quite an impression because he was at the top of his game at the time and probably because the terrain at Dean Lane suited his style. He went big everywhere and he was very smooth and hardly ever bailed. The Gonz was the Gonz, very unique, very individual.
The Venice boys were gnarlier, more hell-for-leather type characters, they ripped on Planet Rock - which was more like a mutant shore dump wave than a skatepark bank. There was a good session with them up at Lockleaze where Skane got a classic shot of JT, Hartsell and Danforth doing simultaneous front rocks on a sketchy quarterpipe. Cardiel was a maniac too, he did a huge ollie across the bowls that I'd never seen anyone even attempt before. I also remember that guy Ged Wells from Insane coming to Bedminster and skating really well down in the halfpipe, which was incredibly tight and steep and not at all easy to ride.
I know all the Venice guys passed through in '88. What was that like? I heard it got out of hand!
That was interesting. I'd come from Cornwall where the skate style was surfy and cruisey, then in Bristol I had my eyes opened by the more street and park style skating that the Bristol boys did. The Venice guys took that to another level, they had a much harder edge to their style, there was a definite hardcore vibe about them. For instance we were street skating one night with Dressen, charging down a hill, doing ollies and slides etc when a car came around the corner and Dressen actually collided with it. Our default reaction would have been to skate off in the other direction (skating in the city at night you learnt to avoid confrontation as some of the 'towners' could turn nasty). But Dressen immediately picked up his board and started swinging it at the car, putting a nice dent in the side before we legged it down a side street. That told me something about where he was at.
Jesse Martinez was also larger than life, a great character. We were drinking in The Lion in Clifton Wood and he was full of stories about the scrapes he got into back in Venice. After closing time we went to a club in town and carried on necking beers while Jesse held court. I'm not sure what started it, but next thing I knew there was a bit of argy-bargy with somebody at the bar and Jesse leapt into action. He grabbed a pool cue out of somebody's hand, snapped it in two and started swinging the ends around as if they were nunchucks and he was trying to take on the whole club! Bedlam ruled until the bouncers got involved and we all ended up being booted out into the street. Jesse Martinez just took it all in his stride, one minute he was chatting and laughing, the next he was a raging psycho and then in the blink of an eye he was calm again and looking for another bar to carry on the session.
Tell us about the Bedminster scene and locals.
That park was 'home' to me for quite a few years, wasted way too much time there. Because no matter what time of day or night there was always someone to session with. Too many names to mention and I'd hate to leave anyone out, but there were all sorts of people; punks, crustys, surfers, layabouts, kids still in school, students, other guys working manual jobs etc, etc. But it was never an issue, everyone just skated together it was a cool little scene.
We'd skate all over Bristol, not just Bedminster. St Georges was always fun. Night time NCP curb sessions. Mini-ramp gatherings at the squats. One Sunday morning Spex took us to Nugent Hill, which is a seriously steep hill. It was the sort of hill where you just step onto your board and immediately start accelerating, it was like a ski-jump! The rest of us were doing wide zig-zag slides to try and burn off the speed. But Spex runs from the brow of the hill, throws down his board and adds some giant pushes just to really get himself motoring. He was absolutely tearing down this hill for about 50 metres and then he threw himself into a full four wheel backside drifter. I'd never seen anyone do that before, frontside, yes, backside never. And certainly not at that speed on that incline. He was going so fast that he was literally gliding down the hill sideways, the rest of us were doing these farty little slides and stopping in our tracks, whilst Spex was a mile away at the bottom of the hill going backwards at warp speed!
What was your favourite era of skateboarding and why?
That's a really hard question. Talking about Dean Lane in the 80s reminds me how much I loved those times. I made a lot of great friends, I was probably skating every single day and getting paid to look at skate pictures for my job!
But despite that I'm gonna show my age here and opt for the era when I first discovered skateboarding back in the late 70s. Why? Because it struck me like a lightning bolt, it got deep into my soul, it shaped me, and it made me feel fuckin rad! And if something makes you feel like that you never forget it.
Is there anything you miss about the old days?
Apart from my hair. Not really, cuz once you get the bug you're hooked and even though I don't skate as much these days and as cheesy as it sounds I can't change being a sk8r-4-life.
I know now you run a really good blog (kernowkalling.blogspot.com) and surf a lot. What else takes your days up?
Well I'm still a graphic designer which is what I do to pay the bills. I'm surfing as much as I can and I've got a family that I love to spend time with. I guess ultimately I do all sorts of things to try and grow old disgracefully.
Can you finish us off with one last memory?
Davey Philip, indy to nosepicker across the channel at Mon's ramp. He picked his nose but he didn't eat it!
Thanks Sqeez, it's been rad.
Interview by Craig 'Questions' Scott, December 2011
