Having to meet him after school to help with house clearances for cupboards or pianos and that.
What do you mean in my ‘heyday’? This is my flipping heyday! Hahaha. Tell us about the glory days of Sheffield and the Hate House?
So you’re getting by OK? You’re making a living as a full time antiques dealer? Yeah, it’s my only job. Between my Ebay business and my shop… Do you dress the part of the antiques dealer? Sheepskin jacket? I might go as far as wearing a shirt.
Just seeing Marv, Joe Cox and Jersey absolutely feed off each, doing the most mental shit. They weren’t scared at all. Just jobless and riding all the time, getting competitive with each other to help push each other, doing crazy stuff down rails. No one else was really doing that in England, that’s for sure. It was great, man. Just riding and eating shit, cheap food. The shower didn’t work, the toilet got blocked. There was no fridge or washing machine.
Oh, I pictured you in my head looking like Lovejoy. I get a lot of that… Do people get put off by seeing a scruffy BMXer sat behind the counter?
I know, at one point we had a big hole in the bathroom sink. And I used to wash my clothes in the bath for about three months. Classic BMX houses. You couldn’t ever really go back to that now, but it was amazing whilst it lasted. Hey, I watched The Shining last night (a Hate House classic)
Do I look scruffy? Did you? Jack Nicholson, absolute classic. A little bit. All BMXers do. I probably wouldn’t wear this Motley Crüe t-shirt in my shop. You still making films? Aye, it’s my main passion I think. Working on any new BMX videos? Yeah, still working on one. Who’s on it? The Count been shredding much?
It was on real late and I was up working on the John Dye interview for The Albion. Now there’s your classic example of a rider who is still cool! Timeless rider. I remember I went to Bike ‘98 once, soon after I got my first BMX. I went with a school friend who was a Mountain Biker, but he just went off on his own to see Mountain bike stuff and I went to see BMX stuff. I saw this bike on a stand and thought, F*ck, that looks just like John Dye’s bike from an old copy of Ride! It had a pink set of A.M.E. grips on it, and Powerlite bars. I didn’t even know it was a Cyclone or Union stand or whatever. There was just this young girl on it. I said to the girl, “That’s John Dye’s bike! Why is John Dye’s bike here?” And she said, “Because that’s John Dye behind you!” I said “Jesus f*cking Christ!”
He got four clips tonight! For one he jumped over a rail and down 20 stairs! Did you go up and talk to him? To flat!? Aye, and doing about 100 miles per hour. Who’s managed to be cool for a long time in BMX? Probably somebody who quit a long time ago when they knew their time was up. Vic Ayala, Mike Ocoboc… Lou Rajsich… Mike Griffin… Griffin rode, was real cool, quit, and is still probably really cool!
Did I hell. I was too scared. I remember once seeing Jamie Bestwick at the Bug Jam in Milton Keynes and I just went and sat near him on this grassy mound. It was his lunch break and he was eating an apple. I sat 20 feet from him and just looked at him a bit. It was his body armour phase, with a Surfers Against Sewage sticker on his bike. Who was the first pro you had the bottle to go and speak to? Umm, Mark Theaker.
What about someone who still rides now? Where? Ralph Sinisi. And the least cool? Dunno. I am ill prepared. I haven’t engaged in any intense BMX politics for some time. Who’s got the biggest half-cab out of you and Ben Lewis? Him, probably.
At a Bristol BCR comp. We went down there but got there pretty late and everyone was out on the lash and stuff. I was young and real new to going to clubs or pubs in them days, but we went to this bar anyway. I saw this dude on the dance floor with 2 pints. Ollie (Olsen) goes, “That’s Mark Theaker.” I couldn’t believe it so I went and had a chat with him. I was pretty stoked. I think I went and bought two pints, just like him afterwards and got proper drunk and was sick all over the Bristol BCR spine mini. Those were the days. Sleeping in a skatepark the night before comp. We’d go down the vert in our sleeping bags and that!
Really? Yeah, did you not see that sequence of him a while ago in Ride? You could have done that in your heyday.
07 | JAMES NEWRICK INTERVIEW
I remember! Anyway, the morning afterwards, when I was in a real bad place, throwing my guts up, this little lad with a helmet on was brushing the bottom of the ramp, sweeping the sick off it, shouting “Who was sick on the spine mini ramp!?” IT WAS OWAIN CLEGG! HAHAHA!