More cultural archaeology for you nerds/ connoisseurs.
Years ago, I wrote a piece for Slap about a video tape that materialized in our house- ‘The Penny Files’ said the spine, and it contained most of the Tom Penny footage then released. Even in the early 00’s, the cult of Penny was a well established (and growing) phenomenon. In the article, I mention some long-lost TP footy at a concrete BMX track that I used to have on a video that a friend made, back in the UK, back in the early 90’s. That video was Carry on Cabby and it was made by Don Brider.
Don B has been a pillar of the British scene since the first skateboard dragged itself out of the primordial ooze. In 1993 he stitched together a video from stuff he had filmed of Southampton/ Winchester skaters, and 80’s vert legend Sean Goff’s footage of a young Rune Glifberg, Alex Moul, Geoff Rowley and Tom Penny.
And here, at last, after pestering Don, it is. (Again.)
For most, the highlight of this video will obviously be seeing me perform a sketchy double flip at 2mph with dyed hair. But once you’ve watched that a few times, you might want to check out the Penny/ Rowley stuff. And non-Europeans should probably be hipped to the fact that Glifberg was a good street skater. And that Moul was one of the most popular and cutting-edge UK street skaters around 1990 or so. And so when this was filmed, he was the only pro of the bunch (he got demoted to amateur for US-based Flip).
You also probably don’t need to watch most of the vert footage- see timeline guide with video. But then again, as soon as you think you should just hit the Richter button when that vert ramp appears, you are proven very wrong, because at 4:43 in Part 2.. Well, you’ll see..
Enjoy-
Richard Hart.

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An Interview with Video-Maker Don B

When is the footage from and who filmed it?

Can't remember what year it was; early 90's somewhen. A lot of the footage is from Sean Goff, I think Cabby happened because he couldn't be bothered to do anything with it.

The Penny/Rowley stuff is pre-Flip; was it 'DB' or Death Box' at that point? Do you know if the footage was for anything?

That stuff was from Sean and was going to be a Flip promo I think, when they were changing from Deathbox to Flip, or Bash to Flip. But again it didn't happen. I think some of it is on the DVD extras on the Es video.

The editing is pretty.. loose! I mean, you show whole runs including bails- something that is only recently 'acceptable'. Was this due to crappy editing equipment?

Yeah, two VHS video recorders tied together with twigs and sellotape made editing somewhat difficult. We weren't trying for an Oscar or anything.

Opening the video with 5 minutes of vert footage filmed from a motionless tripod is a good way to alienate your viewers, especially with today's attention spans.. Why, Don, why?!

Again, Sean's footage so that's why we had the vert stuff to hand.

How was Cabby circulated at the time?

Anyone who wanted one, we just made them a copy, like you did in them days.

There's a lot of footage from Radlands (Northampton skatepark), was it a significant place?

Radlands and the Ince family made skating what it was, then. That was pretty much the only indoor park in England at the time, and there were so few skaters around that it was the place where you would meet up with people from all over. Similar to the old ESA comps back in the 80's. Good times.

Penny has achieved some sort of mythical status. What do you make of that? What did you think of him when he was a little kid?

Tom always looked as if he wasn't even trying. That was his style: just stand on the magic rolling plank and it did stuff. Remember him at the mini ramp across from SS20 skating, and mid-run his trousers falling down? He still made the trick, haha. Maybe he's even grown into the XXL clothes by now.

Do you still watch Ren & Stimpy and listen to the Breeders?

Not so much Ren & Stimpy anymore, the original ones are so good before they sacked the guy and got other people to carry on. That never works: look at when them Canadian guys tried to do Blueprint with a non- European team. Did listen to ‘Cannonball’ last week on a mix tape while I was printing stickers. You need tunes while you’re inhaling fumes screen-printing.

(UK skate companies, contact Don at Blackmarket for all your screen-printing needs.)

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