0309_UK

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An almost independent monthly magazine /MARCH 2009

ALL-NEW FORMULA 1

Let’s Go To Work

BullHorn

STRONG & NATURAL. 2

Credits

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Bullhorn

A magazine world tour Hawaii, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, the Atacama desert in Chile, Los Angeles, USA, and, erm, Milton Keynes in England.

These places, from the exotic to the mundane, have all been visited by our journalists and photographers over the past month, to enable us to bring you the magazine you have in your hands. From the outset, The Red Bulletin magazine and sister website www.redbulletin.com were conceived as international publications, and for this issue, with stories on surf legend Robby Naish, rallying icon Carlos Sainz, skateboard pioneer Don Brown and Icespeedway ace Franky Zorn, among many others, we’ve truly spanned the globe to bring you tales of epic endeavour and human adventure.

In keeping with the global theme, the heart of the magazine this month is our all-action Formula One season preview. Turn to page 48 to read about why Sebastian Vettel, star of Red Bull Racing (home: Bradbourne Drive, Tilbrook, Milton Keynes) is the driver who’ll be giving world champion Lewis Hamilton nightmares from Australia to Abu Dhabi, then forward to page 62 and you can find out why Sébastien Buemi, newly signed to sister team Scuderia Toro Rosso, owes much of his success to his racing granddad. If that’s not enough F1 for you (how could it be?!), our A-Z guide to what promises to be a mighty exciting season ahead (page 54) will arm even the most sedentary couch potato with enough stat-and-fact-filled info to win all but the most arcane pub argument.

Talking of pubs, our nightlife section vacuums up Melbourne, London, Hong Kong and Vienna in its search for the world’s top nightspots and culture from the cutting edge.

Still you want more? OK, how about the compelling human story of two athletes, Heinz Kinigadner and Thomas Geierspichler, whose lives have both been profoundly affected by spinal injuries either to themselves or to close family members. Both drew strength from adversity and now work to inspire others, as ambassadors for the Wings For Life charity.

Inspiration of a musical kind is the theme of an essay from noted writer Paolo Hewitt, who tells how his life was changed by meeting two gobby young brothers from Manchester, surname Gallagher, who went on to front a band you might have heard of: Oasis? And wrapping us up this month is columnist Stephen Bayley, who offers his thoughts on what it is to suffer writer’s block.

That, surely, has to be as good a place as any to stop.

WWW.REDBULLETIN.COM

AN ALMOST INDEPENDENT MONTHLY MAGAZINE /MARCH 2009

ALL-NEW FORMULA 1

Let’s Go To Work

On our cover this month is an illustration from I Love Dust.

We’ve hand-picked our Formula One cover crew: reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton; double champ Fernando Alonso; Felipe Massa, who ran Hamilton so close last year, plus Red Bull gunslingers Sebastian Vettel and Sébastien Buemi.

You can feast yourself on F1 from page 46. Enjoy!

Your editorial team PS: Make sure you check out www.redbulletin.com, for prizes, exclusive behind-the-scenes film clips, star interviews and much, much more…

05

contents

welcome to the world of red bull On the teamsheet for March…

Bullevard 10 gallery The pick of the pics this month

16 Now and next News of 2009’s best festival and a man running 250 miles in a desert 19 Me and my body Freestyle snowmobile rider Heath Frisbee breaks records – and one or two bones as he does so 20 winning formula How maths wins Icespeedway races (and keeps the riders from crashing) 23 where’s your head at?

Obama’s chief speechwriter is just 27 years old: here’s what rocks the world of wunderkind Jon Favreau 24 Hard and fast March’s winner’s roster includes champs of snow, field and track 25 Lucky numbers The 2009 Winter X Games in easy-to-digest digit form 26 kit evolution Listen up: this is how headphones have evolved over the past 55 years

Heroes

64

30 don brown The life and times of a true pioneer, on the skateboard and in the boardroom of etnies, as founder of the action sports shoe and clothing company 34 carlos sainz Reliving every bump, slide and dusty trail of the Dakar Rally with the Spanish champ. You need to stick with this one until the bitter end...

38 jimmY bullard The Hull City midfielder has one man and one man only as his sporting idol: Eldrick Tont Woods, aka Tiger 40 robbY naish Over in Hawaii, the greatest windsurfer of all-time is heading into the water without a sail to propel him – and mastering an entirely new sport in the process. As you do 06

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contents

Action

46 2009 f1 preview The only guide you’ll need to the grand prix season, including: the amazing world of Sebastian Vettel (page 48); the rise and rise of Sébastien Buemi (page 62); and all you need to know about the cars, people and pomp (page 54) 64 airport architecture At Salzburg Airport is the striking Hangar-7,unofficial HQ of Red Bull: here’s a guided tour 68 that’s it, that’s all Behind the scenes of the making of the Citizen Kane of action sports movies, with its main man, boarder Travis Rice

More Body & Mind

76 the hangar-7 interview Motocross star Heinz Kinigadner and champion wheelchair racer Thomas Geierspichler 79 get the gear All you need to conquer at karting 80 atacama desert It’s Earth’s driest place, but there’s nothing dull about the culture 82 wooden it be nice The bamboo surfboard movement

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84 listings Plan your days and nights for March 88 nightlife Leeds band Sky Larkin on home soil; Hypnotic Brass Ensemble fill London’s Cargo; late night tales in Hong Kong with DJ Beware; Melbourne’s Red Violin bar 94 bull’s eye What do you mean work isn’t funny?

96 Read bull Music writer Paolo Hewitt on how he grew up to meet Weller and Oasis 98 mind’s eye Stephen Bayley gets writer’s block

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for more like this, visit: www.redbulletin.com

photography: cornelius Braun/red bull photofiles, Kraeling motorsport, erik aeder, sutton images, rick guest/red bull racing

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07

letters

word up!

Wisecracks and wisdom from the world of Red Bull and beyond: and tell us what you think by emailing letters@uk.redbulletin.com

“I’m looking forward to seeing who can play polka renditions of Roots songs”

“I still get arrested for it, and still leave pieces of skin on the pavement of cities around the world... At 42 years of age, you’d think I would grow up and get a real job”

The Roots’ ?uestLove (his spelling) rules nothing out at the Red Bull Soundclash in Boston

Skate-shoe pioneer Don Brown can’t give up his board (page 30)

“That’s my dream: to one day be strong enough to race with the men… I think I’ll be ready in a couple of years”

“It’s very good for your general well-being, your immune system and apparently it’s good for cellulite. Not much of a worry for me... but it’s very good for the whole body”

Ashley Fiolek, 18, Red Bull’s new Honda motocross rider, won’t let being a girl hold her back

Mark Webber sees the bright side of cryogenic therapy to aid recovery of his broken leg before the F1 season

“My friends call me ‘Le grand con’” The world’s best flatland BMX rider, Matthias Dandois, needs new pals: that translates as ‘lanky berk’

“Red Bull has probably caught me a few fish on gruelling days when I would have otherwise missed bites due to tiredness!”

Six-times Drennan Cup winning angler and ‘Dorset legend’ Terry Lampard on what keeps him fired up

“That was the most crazy idea in my life. I’m going to stop doing that now” Martin Straka, winner of the Prague leg of skate race Red Bull Crashed Ice

“It’s all fundamental to the solitary and lonely and madly egotistical task of being a writer”

“This cannot be legal, but it’s pretty freakin’ awesome. Actually, this is the single coolest thing I have ever done”

Stephen Bayley on writer’s block – and yes, if Alanis Morissette were here, she’d call it ironic (page 98)

New Orleans Saints player Reggie Bush sticks his head out of a low-flying sea plane. As you do

Discover more about what’s happening in the world of Red Bull at www.redbulletin.com

08

Your Letters Congratulations on the new publication ­– it looks great and as usual, it’s very polished.

Well done to all concerned.

Sir Jackie Stewart, motorsport legend I’ve just read the first Red Bulletin magazine and I wanted to say congratulations on an excellent publication.

Marc Cutler Basically – damn impressed with the quality of the magazine – I really enjoyed it. So keep up the good work.

Martin Chester It’s the best magazine I have seen for a very, very long time, and don’t want to miss an issue.

Can I subscribe online?

Mike Whyment We don’t offer subscriptions yet. The magazine is free with The Independent newspaper on the first Tuesday of every month, while our website is regularly updated with new stuff too: www.redbulletin.com I was fascinated to read about the Six Nations rugby tournament in your February issue, but may I point out an error in ‘99 Things You Didn’t Know About Rugby’? Number 88: the 1961/2 season was in fact longer. It began in January 1962, and lasted until November 17, 1962, when Wales played Ireland in a match postponed (I believe) because of bad weather. It was 3-3 in Dublin. I remember reading it in Rugby World at the time.

John Wilson In the rugby article in your last issue, you mention the first player to be sent off in an international match, Cyril Brownlie. My grandfather, Sidney Albert Middleton, was dismissed 17 years earlier, on November 18, 1908, while playing for Australia against Oxford. Earlier that year he won gold with the Australasia team at the first London Olympics.

Rupert Middlleton

illustration: dietmar kainrath

K a i n r at h

09

Bullevard We open another window on the wonderful world of high-octane adventures, thrills and spills

N e w Yo r k , U SA

FLight path

On February 16, the world’s best snowboarders took over a place where joggers, basketball and tennis players, and anglers usually spend their time. Travis Rice, Shaun White and co first used a specially erected ramp in New York’s East River Park for Red Bull Snowscrapers (won by Shayne Pospisil, USA, with a Backside 900) before treating their enthusiastic fans to a jamming session. But it was the backdrop that stole the show; snowboarders had never been part of the Manhattan skyline before.

Photography: François Portmann/ Red Bull Photofiles See Shayne reign in NYC. Visit www.redbulletin.com and click on sports

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P i ru, C a l i fo r n i a , U SA Foto d e s m o nat s (1)

compound Headline_01 interest

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Las Vegas on December 31 last year. As well as tracks, a massive foam pit and a quarterpipe, a technology centre on-site lets athletes film themselves and review their technique on-screen.

Photography: Garth Milan/Red Bull Photofiles Watch Robbie Maddison’s record-breaking jump.

Visit www.redbulletin.com and search for Maddison

13

Va l l e Co c h a m ó, c h i l e

A patagonian Gaudi?

So what did David Lama mean when he described his most recent climbing adventure as ‘Gaudi’ (German for ‘fun’)? Now we know.

After schlepping from Munich via Madrid, Santiago de Chile, Puerto Montt, to Valle Cochamó, then free-climbing (without rope) five brand new routes in nine days, crawling through the thickest bamboo jungle, getting half-eaten by Tabano flies and having nothing to eat, all he had to look forward to when he got home to the Austrian Tyrol was military service.

Photography: Heiko Wilhelm/Red Bull Photofiles For more amazing mountain-climbing feats, visit www.redbulletin.com and click on sports

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b u l l e va r d

You R e a l ly Ou g h t To K n ow Something A b ou t...

AUSTIN HORSE

to the hospital; they took X-rays and said, ‘Yeah, you’re fine, get out of here.’ So, I walked home.”

He dreams his way to the top.

“I’m really good at recovery: that’s my secret. Other messengers train hard for a couple of months and burn out. I don’t train: I work, and make sure I get a lot of sleep and eat a lot of food. My chillout is sleeping. I like to read, too. Right now I’m reading The Hero With A Thousand Faces, which analyses how myths are created.”

Sebastian Vettel (left) and Mark Webber lift the lid on the new Red Bull Racing RB5

Words: anthony rowlinson, ruth morgan. photography: bryan bedder, getty images/red Bull Brandlab

He roams where he wants to.

“Some people thrive on routine, but I love that every day on the streets of New York, something different is going on. The plane that landed in the [Hudson] river in January? I saw it in the water.

There’s no way I would have seen that from an office in midtown.”

He’s fleet of foot and mind.

Horse is North American Cycle Courier champ. “The events I ride in test who’s fastest and smartest,” says the 26-year-old, a New York cycle courier. “Races simulate work: we have checkpoints and manifests, and packages to pick up and drop off. The tasks are complex, so you’ve got to go fast and think at the same time.”

He cannot be harmed.

“In 2007, I was taken out by a yellow cabby making a big-time illegal turn. I’m lying under his vehicle; he tries to get away and drives over my legs and my bike. I went

He is and isn’t the best.

“There’s mutual respect between messengers, but we’re competitive.

I’m the current champ, so when people ask me who’s the fastest messenger in New York, I think I can say that it’s me. But stop the first messenger you see, I guarantee you’ll be talking to the fastest messenger in New York.”

He preaches what he practises.

“When I’m not working or racing, I work for Time’s Up, a non-profit environmental group whose aim is to increase the number of cyclists in the city. We teach people how to fix their bikes and provide tools.

People don’t ride in New York as they don’t feel safe, so we do group rides to show them it’s OK.” Find more Horse tales at www.redbull.com

PICTURES OF THE MONTH

Every Shot on target Send in your snaps of anything to do with Red Bull – and every one we print will win a prize.

Email your digital works of art to: letters@uk.redbulletin.com

London There’s no smoke without a flier — but you have to be quick to catch an air race plane on camera.

Johnny Wiggla, Red Bull Air Race, August 2008 16

Werfenweng

Brown cow meets Red Bull in idyllic Alpine setting. We think she likes it…

Wolfgang Luisser, September 2008

b u l l e va r d

THAT NEW CAR SMELL

Webber and Vettel take their 2009 wheels for a first spin As he stepped from the cockpit of his gleaming new RB5 car for the first time, a small smile was on Mark Webber’s face, hidden though it was behind helmet and balaclava.

He had just completed 83 laps of the Jerez circuit in southern Spain – no big deal for a guy reckoned to be the fittest of the current Formula One crop, but a very big deal for a guy who last November suffered a major fracture to his right leg after a 50mph cycling accident.

The injury came while Webber was competing in the now-annual Tasmanian adventure challenge he fronts, and it cast doubt on his ability to be able to compete in the 2009 season. But he answered any doubters emphatically on his return, despite having had an operation to remove a bolt from his lower leg only a week earlier.

“It was better than I expected,” he said, “I wasn’t going in pessimistically, but F1 cars can be quite ferocious, so I knew what to expect, I tried to do what I could and 80-odd laps, which is more than a grand prix distance, in my first day back was good.”

Webber will line up alongside new teammate Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull Racing, for a season likely to throw up many surprises after an extensive set of off-season rule changes.

The RB5, which has been created under the technical leadership of Adrian Newey, is unquestionably one of the most attractive of the new-season cars and early signs were that it would be fast. However, the eternal F1 question of ‘who’s quick’ will only be answered when the lights go out at Melbourne, for the Australian Grand Prix on March 29.

Turn to page 46 for an exclusive 2009 Formula One season preview

Sibiu Not exactly a relaxing day in winter. The winners were in the saddle for 12-and-a-half hours.

Mihai Stetcu, Red Bull 1000 trails, January ’09

Lienz The fastest snow paddlers will compete at Red Bull Snow Kayak 09 in Obertauern on March 28.

Martin Lugger, RB Snowkayak world champs, Feb 2008

Bartlett

How practical: stop the car, get the board out and you have an instant ‘rail on the roof’.

Alex de Sherbinin, Attitash Ski Resort, Dec 2008

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All Points south

The world’s best music and culture festival is back A number of music events in Britain last year were rooted around novelty. Own a zoo?

Stage a festival in it. Part of a comedy act? You’re a walking Woodstock. And thanks to the economic climate, those punters whining about bad toilets and absent bands were the lucky ones: others turned up in a field only to be faced with no festival at all.

Over in America they do things properly. That’s why from March 18-22, the return of South By Southwest is most welcome. The event, featuring 1,800 acts at 80 venues in Austin, Texas, has been a birthing ground for new talent since 1987, but lets in one or two big names. Confirmed for this year are Primal Scream, current UK album chart stars White Lies and under-the-radar buzz bands such as New York’s Crystal Stilts.

Last year, Red Bull brought something to the party in the shape of the Red Bull Moon Tower, a four-day event launched from a solar-powered stage. This year there’ll be more lunar-cy, with 28 acts and four DJs on the bill, including GoldieLocks (above), Lady Sovereign, Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds, and the Von Bondies.

An appearance at SXSW – now a three-pronged pop culture celebration thanks to its equally super interactive arts and film festivals – can turn a band from music-press darlings into global stars. The festival rightly has a reputation as one of the best for atmosphere, and because it’s in Texas, it is by a county mile the best for barbecue.

Point your cultural compass at www.redbulletin.com for more on GoldieLocks et al

Vienna Artist Florian Pfaffenberger paints a Moscow Russian artist Andrey Bartenev shows his ‘UFO dystopian view of modern society. Cheer up, bro. souvenir’ intergalactic project at Red Bull Music Academy.

Stefanie Hotz, Vienna university, February 2009 Vera Petrova, Museum of Modern Art, July 2008 18

Hot Favourite

Everybody wants to run the world; one man actually will

On March 29, Christian Schiester will begin what he describes as the biggest challenge of his life.

By embarking on a 250-mile crossing of Chile’s Atacama desert, and then similar events in the Gobi desert (China), the Sahara (Egypt) and the Australian outback over the next year, the 41-year-old Austrian will attempt to establish himself as the world’s top adventure athlete.

To prepare, Schiester turns up the thermostat in his training sauna (below, with friends) to a sapping 70°C: ‘warm-up’ doesn’t begin to cover it. Last year, he racked up 11,224km (6,974 miles), the equivalent of 266 marathons.

In the Atacama desert, widely regarded as Earth’s driest place, Schiester’s 12kg rucksack will have a perfect set-up of kit and rations that, he says, “is top secret. And I will also have a breather now and then and enjoy my surroundings.”

Well, you wouldn’t want to overdo it, would you?

For more visit www.redbulletin. com/articles/hot_favourite/uk

Munich Team climbing: Killian Fischhuber shows his skills before Angy Eiter and David Lama hit the wall.

Heiko Wilhelm, Challenge the Wall, February 2009

words: tom hall. photography: Erik Skarwan

GoldieLocks: career going north, tour bus heading South

By Southwest

B u l l e va r d

me and my body

HEATH FRISBY He’s suffered a few hard landings, but the 24-year-old freestyle snowmobile rider just brushes himself off and keeps on truckin’

words: ruth morgan. photography: Gerhard Stochl

Scars on my right arm.

There is a big scar s about 18: it was I crashed when I wa eone had cut m so raining hard and this snowmobile the handlebars on I landed, the rain I was riding. When and I rolled the ck sli made my glove the handlebar, grip at the end of harp edge. It cut exposing a razor-s grip, and I was right through the it just went right wearing a jersey, so d cut a hole an g hin through everyt e scar is almost in my right arm. Th silver dollar a exactly the size of coin].

2p of e [about the siz

Back Three years ago this month, we were filming in Alaska at an event called Red Bull Fuel And Fury and I managed to break my back. We had really bad weather, but I eventually found a big jump I liked on the last day of shooting: a 220ft gap over a canyon-type drop.

I really thought I could do it. It was raining and foggy, so I couldn’t see much of the ground, but we packed the jump as much as we could and I took a run at it. I thought I’d made it, but I was 2ft short. Because of the bad visibility I thought I still had some time in the air, so I landed with my legs completely straight and I crushed my T7 vertebra in my back, dislocated my shoulder, and just went tumbling down the hill. The one lucky thing was that I landed on solid ground – when I bounced off the snow, my dislocated shoulder popped back in. I definitely knew I was hurting. At the hospital, they put a chest cast on me, which I called my ‘turtle shell’ because it was thick plastic. It was camouflage, as that was the best colour they had. So, basically, I had to wear a camouflage turtle shell for six months.

Fitness You don’t have to be hu gely fit to do my sport and I would n’t say I was extremely fit, but the n I haven’t crashed a lot. If you do crash often, or you’re coming back from an injury, that’s when you have to get physical.

I battled with my back for a long time – a lot of pain where the muscles would knot up. At physi cal therapy, I learned that it was be cause of where I’d broken my back: tho se muscles were basically shut off , so my other muscles were trying to compensate.

Lungs With racing competitions, you definitely need big lungs. The X Games can take place at altitudes of over 8,000ft, and you can just run out of gas. I gassed out really badly last year, and so I did everything to come back stronger. I was running stairs and riding the bikes at the gym, and doing weight training and Pilates for core strength. The people who win are those who work the hardest and are mentally strongest.

legs, Knees and Ankles I tore the meniscus in both my knees and my left ankle bothers me because I’ve injured it three times. We don’t have the suspension that dirt bikes have, so you get beaten up a bit more.

I broke my leg pretty much right after my back healed. I shattered my fibula and had a big tibia fracture. Then I broke my ankle and dislocated it at the same time. I broke it again last year – that’s what really got me into mountain biking, on the advice of my physio. Now I feel my knees and ankles are stronger than they’ve ever been.

Throw yourself into Frisby’s world. Visit www.redbulletin.com and search for Heath

19

b u l l e va r d

WINNING FORMULA

#3: sharp corners

Slip-sliding away: the way Franky Zorn can lean his machine into a corner is a result of balancing the centrifugal forces and friction coefficient of both rider and bike – that, and his tyres’ enormous 30mm spikes

photography: rutgerpauw.com/Red Bull Photofiles. illustration: mandy fischer

“Icespeedway,” says Franky Zorn, 2008 European Icespeedway Champion, “is four mad guys on ice tracks, on bikes with no brakes and tyres with 3cm spikes.” That’s his view. What about the physics? Dr Martin Apolin explains

Icespeedway provides some of the most spectacular slanted cornering in motorcycle sport, as perfectly depicted here by Franky Zorn, the 2008 European Champion. What Franky does to be the best on the ice is explained by this month’s formula.

In order to drive through a curve on two wheels, the rider has to balance two different forces. The first is centrifugal force (FC), which pushes the rider and bike outwards. This force depends on the total mass, the squared velocity and the radius of the curve. The second is the weight (FG), which is proportional to the acceleration of gravity (g ≈ 10m/s2) and is a normal downward force. Both forces originate from the centre of gravity of both the bike and the rider, and are perpendicular.

The resulting total force (Fnet) has to point exactly through the tyres’ surface area so that the bike doesn’t tip in either direction. How much of the bike-and-driver system tilts (angle ) is dependent on centrifugal force, and consequently on the radius of the curve and velocity.

Now comes the tricky part. Friction (FF) between the wheels and ground is the opposing force to the centrifugal force. It is also called cornering force, and depends on the friction coefficient (µ). The centrifugal force can only be as large as the force of friction, or both bike and rider will literally fly out of the curve. Let’s look at this extreme case, FC = FF. Now we are able to make a surprisingly simple connection between the friction coefficient and the angle: the maximum angle is solely dependent on the inverse tangent of the friction coefficient.

Normal rubber on concrete has µ of 0.65. A normal bicycle has a maximum slanting angle of 33°. Extreme values for professional dirt bikes using special soft tyres give us µ of around 1.2, which results in a slanting angle of 50°. But no one leans further than icespeedway riders: they slide around at about 70° with their handlebars almost touching the ice.

This angle corresponds to a µ of 3. Naturally this is no longer in the range of classical friction, seeing as this extreme grip results from using tyres with spikes 30mm long.

Dr Martin Apolin is a physicist and sports scientist.

This Icespeedway World Cup 2009 is on March 7-8, Berlin, Germany (rounds 5/6); March 14-15, Assen, Netherlands (rounds 7/8). To see Franky Zorn in action on the ice, go to www.redbull.com and search for Zorn

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First at the last

Petrolhead for heights

If God had meant for man to fly, He’d have given us all motocross bikes

Take the largest bullfighting arena in the world, add mariachi bands, 40,000 spectators and substitute the bulls for airborne bikes, and you have the first stop on the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour at Plaza de Toros in Mexico City.

Red Bull X-Fighters is freestyle motocross with what snowboarders would call ‘big air’. Very big air. Huge ramps and jumps propel riders over 20m above the arena floor, where they flip, twist, and manoeuvre their machines in order to complete a set of tricks and secure the judges’ points. Through a series of head-to-heads and round-robins, 12 become two for a final.

In the 2008 series, overall champion Mat Rebeaud managed to string together a stomach-churning 10 backflips in a rodeo arena in Texas. American Jeremy Stenberg, meanwhile, performed superman seat grabs (picture it; it’s exactly what you’re thinking) at Carnival City in Rio, and in Madrid, Sweden’s Fredrik Johansson managed the series’ first 540-degree spin, also at a bullfighting arena.

There’s a new and local flavour for 2009: of the dozen men taking part, eight will be the core of pro riders permanently on tour, while the remaining four at each stop will be local riders who are invited to challenge the tour heroes.

Following the series’ debut in Mexico on March 27, it moves to Calgary, Fort Worth in Texas, and Madrid before landing in Britain for the first time in August.

Rev-elations of a two-wheeled kind can be found at www.redbulletin.com 22

Not everyone can be a snow pro, but that won’t stop anyone competing in Red Bull Homerun, the race to the bar that celebrates the final day of the British Ski and Snowboarding Championships on April 4.

As the pros prepare for some serious après ski after a week of tough competition in Laax, Switzerland, the civs take to the slopes in a free-for-all charge to the finish. (NB: you don’t have to be British to take part.)

The many skiers and snowboarders brave enough to enter will jostle for position at the mountain-top starting line, before hurtling down the fivemile slope to the finish.

Using previous years’ results as a marker, organisers say competitors will have to deal with the 1,200m of vertical descent in around four minutes to stand a chance of winning.

The first male and female to make it to the bottom unscathed will be crowned 2009 champions, and all being well, won’t have to pay for a single drink at what is recognised as one of the ski season’s great championshiptopping celebrations.

For more, go to www.redbulletin. com and click on sport

Words: ruth morgan. photography: nathan gallagher, jorg mitter/red bull photofiles

Big finish for British snowsport’s flagship event

B u l l e va r d

where’s your head at?

Jon Favreau

The man who puts words in President Obama’s mouth is all about the small hours, big ideas and staying off the radar It’s Good To Ta

lk

theless author himself, none Obama, a bestselling writer ch ee sp ief ch est ng you lets Favreau, at 27 the avy he the of y, do a lot in White House histor paign es. His landmark cam ch ee sp his h wit ing lift er aft u rea Fav itten by speech on race was wr half-hour a in him to hts ug Obama dictated his tho en The connection betwe phone conversation. rie, ee is , ces en fer dif ir the two, despite the as opens up to Favreau and aides say Obama life. his in le op pe er oth he does to few

Game Over

Until three months ago, Favreau lived in a house in Chicago with six friends, which meant he was never starved for company when it came to one of his all-consuming passions: all-night video gaming sessions, mostly on Guitar Hero. Sadly, his fraternity house existence is now over – he bought an apartment in Washington DC after his boss became President of the United States of America.

Off By Heart

He takes a copy of Obama’s Dreams From My Father wherever he goes, and has likely already committed most of it to memory. He has memorised most of the 2004 Democratic Convention speech that introduced Obama to the nation.

Low Jinks

Favreau caused a minor scandal follo wing his boss’s monumental victory after a friend posted pictures of him on Facebook, drun k, groping the right breast of a cardboard cuto ut of Hillary Clinton at a party over Than ksgiving. The shamed speechwriter called both Obama and Clinton to apologise. They both acce pted.

Pick-Up Artist

Hidden Talent

riter He’s likened being Obama’s speechw the for h coac ing batt the g to bein . legendary baseball hitter Ted Williams ire ump an to him s pare com A colleague gh, no because, if he does his job well enou r, apho met the r teve Wha es. one notic haven’t.

Favreau’s still got the job. And you

Words: andreas Tzortzis. Illustration: lie-ins and tigers

and they did

Although ‘Yes We Can’ was the slogan for Obama’s 2004 senate race, Favreau and Obama decided to make it a refrain in his concession speech after losing the New Hampshire primary in 2008, and the mantra of a movement was born.

Night Bird

It won’t come as a surprise that being the chief speechwriter for the country’s most eloquent and dynamic presidential candidate requires many, many late nights. Favreau’s 3am ‘crash’ sessions, as he calls them, required a few double espressos and, of course, a can or two of Red Bull.

Granted, he really didn’t have time for much of a love life, but Favreau admitted to having difficulties picking up ladies during the campaign.

To be fair, his chat-up line – “I’m chief speechwriter and confidant of presidential candidate Barack Obama” – was a little tired. I mean, right Jon, like we haven’t heard that before.

is offlin

e Favreau’s Facebook pro file has been taken dow n due to, allegedly, the hu ndreds of women writin g to him with proposals (some, we assume, quite indecent). Ladies , some bad news: Favrea u is now reported to be dat ing Alejandra Campoverdi – Harvard graduate, White House aide and, yes, former Ma xim lingerie model.

Well, I guess if you’re int o that sort of thing…

Sea rch for Ali Campove rdi at www.maxim.com and see who ruined all tho se American dreams

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B u l l e va r d

HARD & FAST Lindsey Vonn (USA) The US skier, and last month’s Red Bulletin cover star, captured two golds at the World Championships in Val-d’Isère, France. The victories in the downhill and super-g – Vonn’s first at a world champs – mark her as favourite for an Olympic title in Vancouver next year.

Gregor Schlierenzauer (AUT) By recording 133m in the world cup event in Sapporo, Japan, the ski jumper notched his fourth consecutive win and eighth of the season. “That was one of the best I ever did,” said Schlierenzauer, who’s just turned 19: the best is yet to come.

Sébastien Loeb (FRA) It was victory at a canter for the Frenchman (right) on Rally Ireland, the first round of the 2009 World Rally Championship.

Loeb, looking for an incredible sixth consecutive world rally crown, took his Citroën over the finishing line 1m 27.9s ahead of his team-mate Daniel Sordo of Spain.

Ivan Cervantes (SPA) The three-times World Enduro Champion, 26, steered his motorcycle to his first indoor title in front of a delighted home crowd in Madrid. After dominating previous rounds in Italy and elsewhere in Spain, it was a well-deserved win.

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Benjamin Karl (AUT) The new parallel snowboarding world champion overcame tough conditions and a foot injury to take the gold medal and his first world title at the FIS Snowboarding World Cup in South Korea. A jubilant Karl said: “I had to really push myself before every run.”

Words: Paul Wilson, ruth morgan. photography: Florian Klinger, zita/red bull photofiles, mirja geh/red bull photofiles, mcklein. Illustration: dietmar kainrath

The champions of speed on skis, snowboards, two wheels and four wheels

B u l l e va r d

lucky numbers

winter x games ’09 This year’s extravaganza was the biggest yet. But who rocked, who stacked and who gave it all away? We have the stats that tell all

100,000 Votes sent by text from TV viewers in less than 10 minutes. This year, the audience instead of judges decided the Ski Big Air and Snowboard Big Air winners. Travis Rice took the gold medal for snowboarding with a double cork 1080 and 78 per cent of the votes. Likewise, Simon Dumont clinched the Ski Big Air title with 76 per cent.

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Shaun White (below) has won nine Winter X Games gold medals. This year he won gold for the second year running in the SuperPipe, the first time a rider has achieved back-to-back victories. He holds the record for golds won at the event, but a clutch of silvers and bronzes bring his overall medal tally to 14. His first gold came in the 2003 Slopestyle when he was just 16. The ‘Flying Tomato’, as he is known because of his mop of red hair, hasn’t looked back.

Joe Parsons from Yakima, Wyoming, had a good Games, turning 21 on the Wednesday, taking gold in the Snowmobile Speed and Style on Thursday, and holding back on the celebrations until taking a second gold for Freestyle Snowmobile on Sunday.

“Definitely mission accomplished,” said Parsons of his big week.

Words: Tom Hall. photography: getty images

2

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Levi LaVallee completed a double somersault on a snowmobile this year. Although taking a tumble after landing meant he was ineligible to score points, the spectacular flip was a snowmobile first.

But the American, who has been named Athlete of the Games twice before, had nothing to prove, admitting: “That was the hardest landing of my life. I’m glad I’m still walking here.”

The Winter X Games started back in 1997 at Big Bear Lake mountain resort in California – 13 seasons ago. After moving to Crested Butte in Colorado for a short period, the games finally settled at Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen, Colorado, in 2002. The town throws X Fest every year to coincide with the event, featuring parties and live music. With all X Games events free to spectators, the event retains a laid-back vibe despite the huge following it inspires.

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10,000 Amount in dollars donated to charity by the American Simon Dumont after winning the Freeski Big Air. Dumont’s friend and filmmaker Riley Poor suffered a serious back injury in January. The pro-skiing scene has since pulled together to help fund his recovery. Canadian skier TJ Schiller also donated winnings from the Ski Slopestyle.

X Games events in 2009, divided between the men’s and women’s competitions. They range from superpipe to multi-terrained parks, and also single-jump big-air contests. The general rule in all categories is go big, go fast and keep it original. Some of the more interesting names of new tricks invented at the X Games include freeskier Jon Olsson’s ‘kangaroo-flip’ and snowboarder Danny Kass’s ‘Kassaroll’.

Dubious puns aside, staying creative is the key to success.

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1

Jenny Jones proved that Bristol’s lack of snow doesn’t mean we can’t produce world-beating boarders when she took Britain’s only gold.

Ironically, parts of the UK received their heaviest snowfall for years just after her Slopestyle win.

For the chance to win a Burton snowboard helmet, visit www. redbulletin.com and click on competitions

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B u l l e va r d

KIT EVOLUTION

head music

Behind Enemy Lines Trimm Professional, 1951 Made by Trimm Inc of Libertyville, Illinois, USA, these headphones were marked for use by radio operators in the US armed forces. Trimm grew in the 1930s thanks to its development of

hearing aids, but during World War II was co-opted to make headsets, and continued to do so until the 1960s. Trimm now makes power distribution products for the communications

industry. The earpieces are Bakelite, with no cushioning, but they’re not as uncomfortable as you’d imagine. The wire is covered with cloth, while the stainlesssteel headband is covered in

rubber. If you have a working crystal radio set from the 1920s, you can plug these in and they’ll work fine. But then, if you have a working 1920s crystal radio set, you already knew that.

Words: Paul Wilson. Photography: Theo Cook. For vintage headphones, visit www.vcomp.co.uk. For sennheiser, visit www.sennheiser.co.uk

Six decades of aural advancement from wartime to floor-time: how military technology influenced the art of the disc jockey

Behind The Decks Sennheiser HD 25-1 II, 2009 At first glance, there’s little to choose between these cans and their ancestors. But made from lightweight plastics and alloys, this pair is much lighter – 140g without cable, compared with

360g – with detachable cable and earpieces you can rotate for that essential one-ear listening look. DJ Sam Young wouldn’t step into the booth without them: “The sound quality is

really good,” he says. Young, a fixture at Red Bull parties and resident tunesman at London clubs Punk, Boujis and Bungalow 8, is also big on their coolness. “They’re not sweaty

headphones – some get really hot – and they’re really flexible.

They go with me everywhere.”

To hear the latest from the Red Bull Music Academy and studios, search for radio at www.redbulletin.com

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At 19, Californian Ryan Sheckler lives for skateboarding. Turn the clock back 30 years and imagine, in his place, British skate pioneer Don Brown. On page 34 you can read more about how he followed his dream to the sunshine state.

Photography: Jody Morris/Red Bull Photofiles

Don Brown page 30 Carlos Sainz page 34 Jimmie Bullard page 38 Robby Naish page 40

Heroes Skateboarding, surfing, soccer and rallying: pioneers at the top of their game

Road warrior: Don’s passion for skateboarding led him to create ‘Go Skateboarding Day’ which stopped the traffic on the 405 freeway in Costa Mesa, California, during rush hour in June ’08 Photography: Skin Phillips

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pioneer

DON BROWN He left the UK 25 years ago armed with only a skateboard.

Now at the forefront of the sporting business world, he’s still more likely to be on a board than in a boardroom Words Ruth Morgan 31

D

on Brown’s wardrobe is that of a man who hasn’t compromised on his path to success. His staple work attire consists of shorts and T-shirts and, he jokes, Speedos on Fridays. It is almost exactly what an 18-year-old Brown wore when he packed up his skateboard and left England 24 years ago heading to the US. In the intervening years, Brown has made his mark on the history of the evolving skateboarding scene, becoming the first English skater to have a board bearing his name, a world champion freestyle skater and then an innovator who helped build a unique skateboarding company now worth more than $200 million in sales per year. Against the backdrop of his spacious office within the company’s 75,000sq ft headquarters in Forest Lake, California, Brown’s relaxed aesthetic sums up the anomaly that he’s become: a hugely successful businessman who’s still true to the rebellious roots of skateboarding.

As a 10-year-old, in 1976, Brown, along with every other child in the country, was acutely aware of just how cool skateboarding had become. The invention of urethane wheels to replace the hazardous clay wheels of the ’60s transformed skateboarding into a sport for the masses. Imported American magazines made international celebrities of the Dog Town skaters of Santa Monica who were carving out surf moves on concrete. Thousands of miles away, in Brighton, England, Brown stood on the sidelines, a plastic skateboard stolen from his sister in his hand, watching the first wave of skaters get chased off the streets by the police, who would go on to inspire the town’s nickname.

“Brighton was kind of the Dog Town for England,” Don remembers.

“When the Pig City crew turned up, there would always be mayhem and madness.”

Jeremy Henderson, an American skater who moved to Brighton in 1976, remembers the trouble with the police, as well as the younger skaters of Brown’s generation – “little guys with their socks pulled up like they were playing soccer.

I think we gave Don’s generation a flavour of skateboarding’s rebelliousness.”

Just a week after turning 18, Brown boarded a flight to America on a one-way ticket. Now a known skateboarder in Pig City himself, Brown had developed a single-minded passion for skateboarding.

California, birthplace of skateboarding and its heroes, was an irresistible lure.

With no particular plans and $300 to 32

Name Don Brown Born August 24, 1966, Brighton, UK First skateboard Orange Powell-Peralta Steve Caballero deck, Tracker Six-Track trucks, Powell Cubic 3 wheels Biggest win 1989 Freestyle World Championships in Munster, Germany Signs of success Sole Technology distributes in more than 70 countries and is worth $200m a year in sales

his name, Brown arrived in San Diego.

He slept in skateparks and on beaches, living off $1.99 breakfasts at fast-food chain Denny’s. He was on his skateboard for eight hours a day, honing his style and technique, and was soon placing well at amateur contests.

“I was living in the moment,” he recalls. “I didn’t have any plans other than to skate. I remember going to a contest in Huntington Beach one day, looking in my wallet and realising I only had a dollar to my name.” So, Brown took a warehouse job with Vision Skateboarding. After winning three consecutive amateur contests, Vision became his sponsor, eventually giving him what no other English skater before him had managed – a professional board model named after him.

By 1989, Brown was well-known in the skateboard community, cementing his position with a win at the Freestyle World Championships in Munster, Germany.

He now had numerous sponsors, was making enough money to get by, and had moved in with the girlfriend who

would later become his wife. But gnawing at Brown was a desire to do more with the scene that had become his life.

Skateboarding had gathered momentum in the 1980s. Clothing brands had sprung up to accommodate its growing community, and mainstream youth culture was buying its way into the lifestyle. But skateboarders found little quality among the numerous footwear brands around.

One company beginning to change that was a little-known French skate shoe company bought by an old friend of Brown’s. Pierre Andre Senizergues and Brown had first met in a skate park in Farnborough in 1981. “I clearly remember Don on that day,” says Senizergues. “He was young, just a kid, and he had these skinny legs, ridiculous long shorts and socks that came to his knees.”

“He always mentions my skinny legs back then,” says Brown, “as I always remind him that he had a moustache, a ponytail and these tiny Dolphin shorts.”

Over the years, the pair regularly met to skate, and in 1990 Senizergues

Heroes

Far left: Don Brown was a freestyle skateboarding star in 1989. Left: Pierre Andre Senizergues first met Brown in Farnborough, England, in 1981

Photography: Grant Brittain, dan bourqui

From top: The Rap Vul Mid first came out in 1990 and features classic etnies styling; the iconic Sal 23 was introduced 1994; the 1990 Ollie King

approached Brown about joining his company. It was called etnies, from the French word for ethnicity, a nod to the underground tribes at the core of skateboarding. “I knew I had to have someone great at skateboarding, who’d been skating a long time – who had a sense of integrity,” says Senizergues, who had worked as an engineer for IBM. “Someone who wanted this long-term and who had a genuine passion for it – someone who was ready to create skateboarding shoes that would help skateboarders. Straight away, Don and I were on the same page.”

Brown joined Pierre at etnies during the economic downturn of the early 1990s. “The good thing about that was that the corporate giants left the industry and as a result it was back in the hands of genuine skateboarders,” Brown says.

Skaters themselves, Brown and Senizergues knew what was needed from their trainers. “Shoe companies at the time felt you needed this visual durability factor and just threw lumps of rubber over the shoe so it looked durable,”

says Brown. “But it actually made them harder to ride in. What Pierre and I did was create shoes that didn’t have these lumps of rubber, but had a nice clean aesthetic. We used rubber underlays so they looked good but had the durability.

We used strengthened rubber, triplestitching – there was lots of stuff we did that made us stand out.”

High-profile skaters of the time such as Rodney Mullen began to wear etnies and appear in skate videos that were sold worldwide. In 1993, Pierre and Brown launched their lo-top trainer, a design that spawned a new generation of skate shoes as other companies played catchup. But the going was still tough.

“When there are only two people, you do everything,” says Senizergues.

“I focused on making the shoes the best design. We would run with what our etnies skateboarding team was thinking.

Don and I would get feedback, then design the trainer on paper, go to the manufacturer and make it.” Senizergues and Brown worked tirelessly to make the business a success. “We weren’t making

any money,” says Brown, “but we were committed to making it happen. As a kid, my family never had any money, so I guess that survival instinct was in me – you just do whatever you have to.”

In the mid-1990s, the skateboarding scene grew to epic proportions of popularity. The economic skies had cleared, and children of the baby-boom generation were coming of age. In the new mass-market, the popularity of the authentic etnies trainers rocketed. In 1996, three more brands were created alongside etnies, with éS, Emerica and ThirtyTwo added under the umbrella of Sole Technology. In the same year, the company was awarded the Rookie Manufacturer of the Year title by Action Sports Retailer magazine.

At a time when other successful brands were dogged by accusations of selling out, the skating pedigree and scientific approach of Sole Technology meant it was well respected by the core. “The most amazing thing to pull off is the ability to suck and blow at the same time,” says skateboarding historian and author Michael Brooke, “and Pierre and Don did that. Skaters are very loyal. If they feel that a company is sucking the lifeblood out of boarding, they’ll be swift and fierce in their reaction. But etnies and Sole Tech were there when times were tough.”

Ryan Sheckler has been with etnies since he was eight. One of the scene’s prodigious talents, Sheckler, now 19, says the company stands out from others that have begun populating the booming industry. “The difference with etnies is the sense of family,” he says. “They know where they’ve come from, they keep their heads up and keep going strong.

Today they’re one of the best shoe companies on the planet.”

Maintaining that sense of tradition and integrity is crucial to Brown. “Don has always been a down-to-earth guy who remembers his roots,” says Michael Brooke. “He’s a straight shooter who’s up for partying. Those guys bring in a lot of money and it’s a huge business, but I can’t ever picture Don Brown in a three-piece suit. If you really peel back the onion with him, you can take the boy out of Brighton, but I don’t think you can take Brighton out of the boy.”

Brown agrees. “I still skate frequently,” he says, “still get arrested for it, and still leave pieces of skin on the pavements around the world. At 42 years old, you’d think I’d grow up and get a real job.”

To win a pair of etnies skateboarding shoes from the spring collection and a branded T-shirt, visit www.redbulletin.com and click on competitions

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Heroes

CARLOS SAINZ

The 2009 Dakar might have been an eventual triumph for Red Bull Volkswagen, but for the team’s lead driver, the rally ended on the rocks – quite literally Words Justin Hynes

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globally recognisable superstar of the race, a world rally legend and holder of records for most rally starts and podium finishes, extends a remarkable career by conquering and dominating the world’s most demanding off-road rally.

Dakar, though, is built differently, designed to edge fairy tales into darker territory – a land where Prince Charming doesn’t get the girl, where the wicked witch triumphs and fate is cruel.

It has been this way since its inception in 1979, two years after creator and motorcycle racer Thierry Sabine, lost in the Saharan sands of Libya during the 1977 Nice-Abidjan rally, decided that the environment would be perfectly suited to an annual event, something tough beyond measure – a race to test not just machinery to the point of collapse, but also the competitors.

Every year, the Dakar has coursed a path through most of North Africa, with, invariably, the Senegalese capital as its holy grail – until this year.

On the eve of the 2008 rally, as the hordes of cars, bikes and trucks gathered in the Portuguese port city of Lisbon for the start, the event was cancelled.

A month earlier, a group of French tourists had been gunned down by suspected terrorists in Mauritania, a country that formed a substantial part of the rally route. Despite assurances from the Mauritanian government that, “despite the isolated cases of killings, Mauritania remained a safe, welcoming, hospitable and open country”, and a commitment that 3,000 troops would be deployed to ensure safe passage for the competitors, the French government

warned organisers that threats from terrorists linked to al-Qaeda were very real. There would be no rally in 2008.

But from the ashes of the cancelled event, a new one was born. Less than two weeks after the abandonment, Dakar organisers were revealing a new plan, on a new continent. For 2009, the rally would move to South America, taking in Argentina and Chile. For the purists, this was tantamount to deciding that the Monaco Grand Prix should be staged in Torquay harbour. The challenge, they insisted, would be diluted – the whole raison d’être of the rally compromised.

They couldn’t have been more wrong.

Saturday, January 10, 2009 Rest day, Valparaíso

It’s five days before Sainz’s exit from the race, and in the five-star Sheraton Miramar Hotel, the rally leader is doing what he does best: looking unmoved. It’s hard to miss this incongruity – in the car, he is furious, on the edge, pushing the limits, constantly searching for the tiniest margins beyond where others go, but in person he seems to move in slow motion.

Waiting for camera crews to arrive to interview him on his single day off, he pads through the lobby, stares into space for what seems like minutes and then disappears back towards the lift. When the TV crews finally arrive, he takes his place in front of the camera, body still, staring straight ahead until he is asked the first question. The world, it seems, buzzes around him like a firefly, a blur of frantic movement contrasting with his apparent calm. This is Sainz in the comfort zone. Today, he’s firmly in

Photography: afp/getty images

“C’est pas normal.” Three small words – the only ones Carlos Sainz can find to describe what’s happened to him. To the left of the double World Rally Champion lies his broken and battered Red Bull VW Touareg, now pitched at an angle against the wall of a dry riverbed. Just a few minutes ago, it lay on its back, like a dark blue insect flipped over by a cruel child who just wants to watch it struggle impotently in the breeze. To his right, co-driver Michel Périn is screaming in agony as a medic desperately tries to strap up his broken shoulder. Sainz’s head swivels from one to the other disbelievingly. “C’est pas normal,” he moans again in broken French.

This, though, is the Dakar Rally, where ‘normal’ does not apply. Fifteen minutes earlier, the Spaniard had been breezing through the 12th stage of the world’s toughest rally. His lead, though not commanding, had been comfortable, and only Red Bull VW team-mates Giniel De Villiers and Mark Miller were any kind of threat. The other big guns, the BMWs and Mitsubishis, had departed the rally long ago or were way behind, with mechanical failures, missed waypoints and exclusions accounting for anyone who might have challenged Sainz’s right to claim his first Dakar win.

Even better, the 11th stage of the rally, one of the most challenging, had been cancelled as a result of heavy fog on the planned route across the Andes mountains from Copiapó in Chile to Fiambalá in Argentina. Everything, it seemed, was pointing towards a glorious march to victory in Buenos Aires for Sainz. The fairy-tale result: the one

Name Carlos Sainz Born April 12, 1962, Madrid Nickname El Matador Rallying highlight First (and only) Spanish World Rally Champion, in a Toyota Celica, in 1990 – and again in ’92 Other sports Champion squash player aged 16 – also skis, and plays tennis, football and golf. Owns kart track in home city Web www.carlos-sainz.com

control of the rally. Newspaper reports are saying that the terrain is playing to his strengths, and that South America is his home-from-home. For the three-time winner of WRC’s Rally Argentina, the Dakar is a gift waiting to be picked up after a comfortable run back to the starting point of Buenos Aires.

To try to demonstrate just how the rally is not playing into his hands, Sainz simply raises both palms. Each is covered in a patchwork of flesh-coloured bandages. “Today is an important day, because you can have a rest,” he says.

“As you can see, my hands have a lot of blisters from the other day, driving over 200km without power steering, so obviously it’s a good break from it all.

“With this rally, you really feel it,” he adds. “Your body really tells you if you had a hard day… On the other hand, you try to arrive well-prepared, and a day like this gives you the chance to do that. You just cope with it.”

And what about the suggestions that he is at home in this terrain?

“Listen, if the Dakar was all around Córdoba, maybe I could agree with that, but here… I think after however many thousands of kilometres we drive here, maybe 20km will be the same as what I raced before in Argentina. The only advantage I have is the language, but that’s not much use when you’re in the middle of a mountain road or in the middle of the desert.”

It is a common theme during the rest day. The evening before, as a vicious wind whipped in from the Pacific Ocean, kicking up throat-clogging clouds of dust across the Valparaíso bivouac (enough to make you believe you were in the North African sub-Sahara), a steady stream of drivers and riders clambered from groaning machinery and admitted this was like nothing they had encountered.

Former WRC driver Alister McRae, contesting his first Dakar with his company’s new McRae Enduro Sport low-cost off-road racer, looked around at the mess of dented and buckled machinery surrounding his corner of the bivouac and raised his eyebrows. “It is really punishing,” he said. “I came out here expecting that on a 400km stage you might have 100km of really hard stuff. But it’s more like 300. Every day.

I’ve no experience of past rallies, but if the really experienced guys are telling us that it’s the most gruelling they’ve done, then there’s got to be something in that.”

And the manufacturers’ star drivers concur. Sainz sighs when asked about the hardest section up to that point, 36

New era dakar

BOLIVIA

PARAGUAY ARGENTINA ATACAMA Copiapó La Serena

Fiambalá La Rioja

BRAZIL

Córdoba VALPARAISO

Mendoza

FINISH BUENOS AIRES Santa Rosa START

San Rafael

CHILE Neuquén

Puerto Madryn

Above: Nissan mechanics at work after the San Rafael to Mendoza stage. Right: Sainz’s Red Bull VW was leading before getting stuck between a rock and a hard place on Stage 12 (far right), with devastating consequences

Stage Five, in which unexpected torrential rain in the desert made the route almost impassable, accounting for the departure of almost 50 per cent of the bike field. “So far, we have done the first week, which was supposed to be an easy week,” he says. “It has been,” and here he permits himself a wry chuckle, “quite a difficult week. I don’t know what to expect now. Theoretically, the hardest part of the rally is coming next week. I agree that maybe the organisers tried to prepare a route in a way that people will not remember Africa so much. I just hope it’s not too much.”

Thursday, January 15, 2009 Stage 12, Fiambalá to La Rioja

It is too much. Deep in the ravine, Sainz is striding back and forth between his ruined car and the boulder where Michel Périn is being attended to.

“Help me!” he yells to anyone standing by, looking up at the lip of the ravine.

“Help me put it up there!”

On the co-driver’s side of the car, the door hangs off limply, smashed beyond repair. The bonnet is buckled and torn away from its hinges. Sainz bends down and begins dragging boulders away from underneath the

Far left: New continent, new route, new challenges… Top: A Chilean fan waves Sainz’s Touareg through one of the earlier stages, as the Spaniard himself flies the Red Bull flag.

Above: If the cap fits… Sainz in reflective mood at the wheel of the VW before the rally.

Left: The rugged landscape of South America is not your average high-speed surface

front valance of his car in a vain attempt to clear a path to get going again.

Périn’s medic yells across: “Carlos! It’s finished. For him, it’s finished.” Périn now sits silently, his torso wrapped in hastily-applied field bandages, a nurse hooking him up to a portable drip.

“Take your time, take your time,” Sainz says to his co-driver, but the doctor interrupts again. “It’s finished for him, Carlos, the race is finished for him.”

Sainz finally gives in and rips off his fireproof balaclava. “This is not normal.

How is it possible?” he sighs. “It’s not in the road book. Not normal at all.” The

photography: F Kraeling Motorsport-Bild/VW (2), AFP/getty images, epa, Getty images, volkswagen motorsport/red bull photofiles MAP ILLUSTRATION: MANDY FISCHER

Heroes

46-year-old Spaniard’s zen-like calm of the Valparaíso rest day is gone, now replaced by a mixture of impotent rage and growing despair. Just three stages from the finish, with victory so close it’s almost palpable – and all of it snatched away with a single bizarre error.

The ravine is not mentioned in the road book, the stage guide that is handed to co-drivers the night before each new section. Later, in the medical helicopter ferrying the pair back to the Fiambalá bivouac, a disconsolate Périn explains: “There was a double caution there, down into this dry riverbed. But it seems the people doing the recce didn’t see it. This is not dangerous – it’s extremely dangerous. End of story. We won’t win this year.”

In the seat next to him, Sainz is quiet once more. He has been here before, though. In 1998, at the RAC Rally, the British round of that year’s WRC campaign, the Spaniard was within sight of the finish line and a championship victory. Five hundred metres before the line, his car expired and the title was gifted to Tommi Makinen. Then, as now, he greeted the disaster with a quiet resignation. While his co-driver Luís Moya kicked his Toyota rally car and threw his helmet through the Corolla’s rear windscreen, Sainz simply walked away in disgust. The reaction this time, now that he’s accepted the inevitable, is almost the same.

“What happened is unbelievable.

With this… hole… that is not in the book… a 4m drop,” he says, falteringly.

And then he simply shrugs and turns away, adding, “We’ve been fooled.”

Sunday, January 18, 2009 Stage 15, Buenos Aires

It is what the Dakar does best. Every rider and driver in the rally has a story of how the event hurt them – how, just when things were looking good, the rally bit back, of how a momentary lapse of concentration punched them out of contention or left them reeling in the desert, alone beside wrecked machinery and waiting for the sight none wishes to see: the camion balai, literally the ‘broom truck’ that sweeps up the debris of failed machinery and exhausted competitors.

And there are many: of 212 bikers who started out on the 9,574km rally, just 113 make it to the finish line. Only 91 of the 168 cars arrive in Buenos Aires to see Giniel de Villiers give Red Bull VW something to celebrate by becoming the first to win the Dakar with a diesel

car. American Mark Miller gives the team double cause to party, bringing his Red Bull VW Touareg home in second for a historic one-two.

For them and all the others who made it to the end of the 18-day event, it is something that will live long in the memory. As a small cameo of the experience of perhaps every competitor, in a secluded area of the bivouac on the rest day in Valparaíso, privateer rider Philip Noone, an Irishman who had harboured a dream of competing in the event since his teenage years, was applying ice packs to swollen and infected knuckles that had been pierced by thorns from bushes hit along the route. The thorns had beaten the handguards of his bike and ripped through his gloves. It went, he said, with the territory.

“My only goal is to finish,” he said.

“It is the toughest thing I’ve ever done.

I honestly don’t know what I’ll do if I make the finish. I’ll have to try and take it all in, but I don’t know how I’ll do that. It’s such an amazing thing to do. The only way to describe it is ‘pleasurable pain’.”

Unfortunately for this privateer, as with Sainz, it was pain. One stage from home, he was forced to pull his bike over and retire. Asked if he would come back, he struggled to find an answer. “I might. There’s something mysterious and beautiful about the Dakar. It’s hard to describe. I don’t know what to say really…”

Thierry Sabine did, though. In coining a saleable motto for the Dakar, he reckoned it “a challenge for those who go, a dream for those who stay behind”. The truth is that it is probably closer to a blend of both. There is a surreal quality to the idea of taking the challenge on, of joining this motorised caravan of turbocharged nomads that each evening tears itself down and builds itself back up, before charging headlong into the unknown each dawn.

Event director Etienne Lavigne, voicing his feelings of vindication after the rally is deemed the toughest ever by a host of competitors, manages in some small way to get it right in analysing the appeal of the Dakar. “This Dakar was historic,” he says. “Before coming here, a lot of people said that it was dead, but it [rose] from its ashes and became this great race. It was a human adventure.”

Indeed, the Dakar Rally is that, and – whether it be in sub-Saharan Africa or South America – much, much more.

Look back on El Matador’s progress in the Dakar.

Visit www.redbulletin.com and search for Sainz

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Heroes

Hero’s Hero: Jimmy Bullard On

tiger woods I’m a golf fanatic – I play off scratch.

I was six or seven years old when my dad bought me a half set of clubs and first took me out. There’s that clip of Tiger playing on American TV when he was two – it looks like he was born with a club in his hand, the way he held it and swung it. I think he’s now the greatest sportsman in the world. He dictates his sport more than anyone else in any other.

I’ve never seen him play in the flesh.

Football gets in the way of that. I always line up the chance to watch him at the Open, but then all of a sudden a preseason tour is announced and I have to go on that. Two or three times I’ve had to cancel right at the last minute.

Tiger’s won 65 tournaments on the PGA Tour, which is unbelievable when you consider there are lots of players on the Tour who haven’t won one. I know players on the European Tour who earn a living but have never won, so his record is something else. To win 14 Majors is incredible. Then there’s Mrs Tiger Woods.

She is tidy. He’s done well there, too.

I think it must be his mindset that makes the difference. A lot of people look at golf as 18 holes, but tournament play is 72 holes, which is a really long time to keep everything together. He does 18 holes every day for four days in a row, and there’s often a practice day on the Wednesday beforehand. It’s a lot of golf – 90 holes perhaps.

The most I’ve played is a 36-hole competition, 18 in the morning and 18 after lunch. It takes it out of you and next morning you wake up a bit stiff. I usually get eight weeks off during football’s offseason, and I’ve played golf almost every 38

day of that in the past few years. That’s a lot of practice. When I first started going to a club, when I was 15, I went from an 18 handicap down to 12 in a year, and since then I’ve got it down through sheer practice. One year I went down from nine to five. Football allows me to play a lot of golf, so I’m very lucky. We finish training early and I like to go and have 18 holes. I’ll have a Red Bull when I’m going round, to keep my concentration.

In football, you can see the players who have more mental strength than others. Cristiano Ronaldo has a very strong opinion of himself, but if you are among the best in the world, you have to have that. Football is different, though. It’s a team game, and you’ve got to think about your team-mates. And you have different pressures, thinking as an individual while playing for a team. It’s

totally different to golf, where winning or losing is down to the golfer alone.

I watch a lot of golfers, and for me, Tiger has the best swing. I’ve read a lot of books on him, and he goes about everything in the right way, a step ahead of everyone else. He was the first one to take a fitness regime to golf. The body strength, the conditioning, the diet, the hydration: he was the first one to do all that stuff together seriously, and now golf is a fitness game for all the players.

His best moment for me was the Major he won by 15 shots: the US Open at Pebble Beach in 2000. He took the field apart and won by a record margin for any Major. I’d love to play there, or at another of the big courses, Augusta National. I’ve played them plenty of times on video games – I was addicted to them at one point, so I’ve stopped it now.

The only criticism Tiger gets is for not being as amazing in the Ryder Cup as he is on his own. I don’t know why he isn’t. Maybe he approaches it differently because it’s a team game. He’s obviously strong as an individual, but in matchplay golf you’re part of a team and there are different pressures. The Ryder Cup is 18-hole matchplay. Tiger is the best over 72 holes, so if it were 72-hole matchplay, he would win every time.

The best footballer I’ve played against on the golf course is John Moncur, who used to play for West Ham. Awesome player – he plays off scratch – and so is Simon Davies, who was my team-mate at Fulham. He plays off three or four, but strikes it like he’s scratch. Unbelievable.

Listen to Jimmy talking about his sporting hero.

Visit www.redbulletin.com and search for Bullard

Words: Paul Wilson. Photography: lime foto/Eyevine, pa

The Hull City midfielder and keen golfer, would love to follow the world number one on a Major adventure, but he has to play football instead

Name Eldrick Tont ‘Tiger’ Woods Date of birth December 30, 1975 Lives Windermere, Florida First world title Junior Champion at the age of eight PGA Tour career earnings to Dec 2008 $82.6m Endorsements to July 2008 $750m Favourite food Cheeseburgers

Name Robby Naish Born April 23, 1963, La Jolla, California (USA) Lives Maui (Hawaii) Sail number US-1111 Achievements First crowned windsurfing world champion in 1976 at the age of 13 (still the youngest ever); winner of 23 windsurfing world championship titles between 1976 and 2004; in the Professional Windsurfers Association (PWA) Hall of Fame; two-time kite-surfing world champion; kite speed-surfing record holder Web www.naish.com

Heroes

Robby Naish What Tony Hawk is to the sport of skateboarding, the Hawaiian ‘waterman’ is to windsurfing. Now he’s standing up without a sail and going faster than ever – in the playground paradise he calls home

Photography: Kolesky/SanDisk/Red Bull Photofiles

Words Jan Cremer

It’s 6.30am at Ho’okipa on Maui’s North Shore. This is the place and time you’re most likely to bump into Robby Naish. The renowned surfing location is where our hero, 45, trains daily, sometimes in life-threatening conditions. Naish no longer competes; he simply wants to satisfy the demands he makes on himself, to remain one of the world’s best windsurfers. “I no longer go head-to-head with competitors,” he says, “just against myself. I just have to have the challenge.” It’s this approach that has kept Naish at the top of his game for 30 years.

“The fairly reliable trade winds from the northeast very often create perfect conditions, so this is my favourite training spot,” he says. It’s a place only for very experienced surfers, where winds can reach 25 knots and waves 3m. There’s a nasty reef underneath and a bank of sharp stones on the shore. Turtles are also a hazard. Windsurfers have been seriously injured here. In addition to the windsurfers, the water is also heaving with kitesurfers, surfers and stand-up-paddlers.

There are strict rules for every section of this stretch of coast. Just along the shoreline is Jaws, the legendary big wave location, “a sleeping giant that only appears occasionally,” says Naish. “For 340 days of the year, you wouldn’t think there were waves there at all, but when they come, they are unique, huge and magnificent.” The swell can reach 8m, and when Jaws is in full effect, it’s perhaps the most dangerous surfing spot in the world. The road to the beach is littered with burned-out cars 41

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1pm: Hot dog from the gas station

1.30pm: The view from the edge of his property

1.45pm: Expert cow-feeding

and blockages, put there by leading surfers in an attempt to stop the area being overrun by inexperienced surfers without the skills to cope.

In spite of his weakness for fast food, Naish is in as good shape now as he was in his teens and early 20s. When you’re face-to-face with him, you appreciate the decades of daily trips into the water.

As a pioneer of windsurfing and co-inventor of kitesurfing, with numerous world championships in both disciplines, and currently the world’s leading stand-up paddler, he spends more time in and on water than a regular human. [Stand-up paddling is self-explanatory; participants stand on a board and use a large paddle to propel themselves.]

People refer to Naish as a ‘waterman’, although he would disagree with this description. In his opinion, those deserving of that particular title must have a special relationship with the sea, and you’ll be wasting your time if you look for that in him. He doesn’t like fish or seafood, gets seasick on boats and can imagine nothing more boring than diving. As far as he’s concerned the water is just a playground. That’s all there is to it.

For the 15-minute drive along the beautiful coastal Hana Highway from Ho’okipa to his home, Naish takes his huge pick-up truck with 1.5m tyres: the sort of vehicle that reminds you of a stunt show.

He uses the journey to make business calls. It’s rare that you see Naish anywhere on land without his

BlackBerry to his ear. The entrance to his 10-hectare estate, secluded in tropical surroundings, is marked by an imposing electric gate ornately decorated with Asian carvings. His herd of 32 cows graze the luscious green meadows that reach across the estate to the Pacific cliffs. “I know each animal’s name,” he says happily. Inside his two-storey villa is an atriumlike entrance, with lots of heavy wooden furniture from Bali, which leads into an open-plan kitchen. It’s a layout more in keeping with the American luxury family home than you’d expect from someone with Naish’s unconventional life and times.

Naish lives here with his wife Katie, one-yearold daughter Christina and their dog Aka, a black mongrel named by his eldest daughter Nani for the Hawaiian word for shadow. Nani, 26, lives in California and, after a short professional surfing career, works as an elementary school teacher.

Naish loves romping around the house with Christina; he didn’t have as much time when Nani was young concentrating on his career and spending a lot of time away from home.

Hearing Christina’s first words has brought more joy to his eyes than a weather forecast announcing perfect wind conditions.

In the two garages are six cars, a quad bike, a buggy, a tractor, two jet skis and an incredible number of surfboards and sails – in other words, everything the heart of a child in a man’s body

photgraphy: Stephen Whitesell, Erik aeder (6)

8am: Surfing warm-up

3pm: The, er, games room…

2pm: At home with wife Katie and daughter Christina

6.30pm: In the family surf-shop with dad Rick

could desire. Naish becomes that child when he’s pootling around the estate in his buggy, dreaming of owning his own racetrack. Cars and motorsport are his second passion. He has even raced himself, and is very impressed with Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel, who he met last year.

“I’m not a very contemplative person,” says Naish. “I live for the moment and never plan very far ahead. If I read at all, it’s mainly car magazines.”

Naish is often understated when talking about himself. As soon as you have any discussion with him, however, he advances clear opinions and makes well-grounded assertions, whatever the subject – be it the global economic crisis, the price of Quiksilver’s shares, the values presented on MTV, or the salaries of European footballers.

He also still speaks fluent German. He learned the complicated language at school and it was very helpful in the 1990s when windsurfing just kept on booming in Germany. “Sylt is my second home,” says Naish, referring to the island off northern Germany noted for its long sandy shoreline, “and I actually like Germany a lot.” He was and remains a star there, and still has a lot of German friends, and is more than happy to go out on the town in London for a night with tennis star Boris Becker. Naish sits alongside Becker on the Laureus World Sports Awards jury with other former athletes including pole-vaulter Sergey Bubka, sprinter Michael Johnson

and hurdles star Ed Moses. It’s recognition by his peers of his contribution to sport on a global scale.

In remote Hawaii, almost nobody recognises him.

“Here, I’m just another of the many surfers on the island,” he says. This allows him to lead his life without the attention he would attract elsewhere.

Naish was also smart enough to establish his own company, also called Naish, early on in his career.

Naish is now a very successful manufacturer of surfboards, sails, kiteboards, kites, stand-up boards and associated equipment, and its founder is still the heart of the company. Three years ago, he moved from O’ahu to Maui, where company headquarters is located, as he was fed up with commuting between the two islands. His offices are located above an inconspicuous warehouse. Many of his old companions and friends work there, such as former professional windsurfer Michi Schweiger and his wife Julia, who moved from Burgenland in Austria to Maui a couple of years ago. Naish likes to surround himself with people he knows and trusts and runs his business with this in mind: “I want to be able to pay my staff well, but have enough time to surf.” He comes to the office once a week, every Tuesday afternoon. His visits feel less like the boss dropping in and more like a good friend popping in to say hello.

It’s a 30-minute island-hop flight from Maui back to O’ahu, where Naish grew up, and he usually spends the half-hour glued to the window, to get 43

Surf star: the world-famous athlete doing what he does best at Ho’okipa

photography: John Carter/Red Bull Photofiles

Heroes

a bird’s-eye view of the wave conditions on the islands. “As far as I’m concerned, O’ahu is the most beautiful place on earth, and at some point I want to move back. I still have a house there.”

Naish moved to O’ahu with his family from La Jolla, San Diego, at the age of five. His father Rick wanted to surf the huge waves, and moved his family to this Pacific paradise for that exact purpose in 1968. Rick was one of the first famous big-wave riders, appearing in Surfer magazine. “He was never one of those ‘tennis parents’ who drove their children to great things,” says Naish. “He was my great example and supported me the whole way.”

His parents still live in the house in Kailua that they moved into from California 40 years ago, and the neighbourhood could easily serve as the set of Desperate Housewives, with its perfectly tended front lawns and impeccable houses. Naish went to school barefoot until third grade. Two grades above him was a certain Barack Obama, who pips him to the post for the title of the school’s most famous graduate.

Rick, now in his 60s, appears to live the life of a stereotypical old hippie surfer. He has a moustache and likes to wear his long grey hair in a plaited ponytail. For the last 20 years, he has designed the board prototypes for his son’s company, which go into mass production and are used by professionals.

Naish’s mother Carol looks after the company finances. She is also a Pilates teacher. Younger brother Rolly also helps out in the family business by managing the shop, older brother Randy lives in Italy and sister Christine has moved back to California.

In the Naish surf shop, there is an instant transformation from international sports star to regular son. Rick ribs Naish about his penchant for wearing baseball caps, while Carol eyeballs his hair, which she deems slightly too long. Once the cheerful greetings are out of the way, Naish’s parents suggest a dinner to which family, friends and visitors are also invited. Talk around the table is of grandchildren and other regular topics. Only a regularly bleeping BlackBerry and a detailed discussion of new board designs draw attention to the fact that the world’s best-known windsurfer is sitting here at his parents’ kitchen table.

Success for Naish has come about due to natural talent and the friendly yet professional way he has conducted himself. His principle of “maintaining extremely long partnerships with sponsors and business partners, and living properly” has served him well. His latest passion, stand-up paddling, makes him quicker through the wave than any other surfer, and he doesn’t even need the wind. Stand-up paddlers, says Naish, can enjoy any body of water, even without waves, and in view of his influence on windsurfing, and considerable contribution to the development of kitesurfing, it will be interesting to see how this traditional Hawaiian sport develops now he has become its de facto leader.

What is certain is that Naish will devote all his strength to his latest concern. If you’d like to see proof, you can: it’s at Ho’okipa, at 6.30 every morning.

Watch surfing action from such hot spots as Costa Rica, Alaska and Munich. Visit www.redbulletin.com and search for surfing

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Sebastian Vettel page 48 F1 season preview page 54 Sébastien Buemi page 62 The story of Hangar-7 page 64 That’s It, That’s All page 68 The sun shone down on Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull Racing RB5 at testing in Jerez, Spain, ahead of what could be a glittering season for the German driver. Photography: LAT Photographic

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We hit the F1 trail in a big way this month, while others take to the skies – so hang on tight and enjoy the ride

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F1 SPECIAL

sebastian vettel

from prospecT to player Sebastian Vettel was one of the sensations of the 2008 Formula One season. This year, with Red Bull Racing, he must meet the expectations born of his own, precocious talent

The kid sitting opposite has a black-and-blue finger. It’s the index digit on his right hand. The top of it was stitched back on a few weeks ago and it still looks swollen, sore, tender-to-thetouch, painful. It was near-severed in a 170mph racing-car accident at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium – the most fearsome European track still in regular use.

The kid, Sebastian Vettel, finds it all (the crash, the injury, the fact that right now he’s sitting in the hospitality unit of a Formula One team, in Istanbul, preparing to take part in his first grand prix weekend) pretty amusing. “Look,” he says, grabbing the fated finger with his left hand, “it doesn’t hurt.”

He wiggles it left, right, back and forth, as if he wants to pull the bloody thing off again. It makes this onlooker wince.

He laughs at my discomfort. “Don’t worry,” he says, “it’s fine.”

And he leaves the pulsating body part in peace. Good job, for moments later, he needs it again. A press aide has joined us and she’s holding a very significant piece of paper. It’s a 48

superlicence issued by the FIA (the governing body of motor racing) and it’s Vettel’s ticket to ride in F1. Without it, he’s not allowed to compete in the world’s fastest motorsport series.

But first he must sign it – which leads to a comedy moment involving pen, throbbing finger and autograph.

And with that briefest rite of passage, a footnote of sports history is written. On August 25, 2006, aged 19 years and 53 days, Sebastian Vettel became the youngest person ever eligible to race in a Formula One grand prix.

That same weekend he managed to set the fastest time in a practice session and earned himself a fine for speeding in the pitlane (a no-no in F1, where team mechanics are permanently at risk of being flattened by too-fast race cars). Not bad for a rookie. Not bad for a teenager who looks like he took the wrong turn out of the college gates in his home town of Heppenheim, Germany, and somehow found himself in an F1 car.

Heads turned, people noticed.

Additional reporting Werner Jessner

Words Anthony Rowlinson Photography Rick Guest

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ebastian didn’t start that weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix, as he was only present in a ‘third driver’ capacity – back-up to the two nominated race drivers. He did, though, succeed where many sportsmen fail in their careers: he started to make his name.

For the rest of that season, as BMW’s ‘third man’, he continued where he’d begun. At the Italian Grand Prix a couple of weeks later, he was fastest in both practice sessions and he sashayed through the remaining events, impressing the team with his speed, maturity and good grace.

Impressing – but not surprising, for Vettel was already on the radars of F1’s mover-shakers. One such was BMW Motorsport boss Dr Mario Theissen, who had watched Vettel, a former Red Bull Junior Team driver, progress through lower-league racing categories before a breakthrough year, 2004, in Formula BMW. That season, driving cars designed to look and feel like mini-F1 machines and groom future superstars, Vettel won 18 from 20 races, and finished second and third in the two he didn’t win.

“Sebastian displayed outstanding talent,” says Theissen, “and his results record remains unequalled. He was still only 19 when he drove his first Formula One race for us and already, after only one full racing season in F1, he ranks among the well-established drivers.”

The grand prix race debut Theissen refers to came at the 2007 US Grand Prix, at Indianapolis. Substituting for an injured Robert Kubica (the Polish driver who only a week earlier had survived a truly horrifying accident at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal), Vettel started seventh and finished eighth, and thereby scored a point on his grand prix debut. Another of those small, significant moments that pepper the CVs of guys marked for greatness. More would follow – and fast.

By the time of the Hungarian Grand Prix, four races later, he had switched teams to come back into the Red Bull fold with Scuderia Toro Rosso. There were no points this time, but he was driving a car not considered among the fastest machines. Speed, results were initially hard to come by. Then F1 headed off for its season-closing races in Japan and China, both of which were affected by rain.

Water on racetracks can be a wonderful thing. It reduces the grip between tyre and tarmac. It makes cars harder to drive. It makes accidents more likely and – crucially – it places a premium on driver skills. All of F1’s greatest, most talented drivers have stood out from their peers on soggy tracks – Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher.

Vettel, baby-faced, precociously talented Sebastian Vettel, was about to show he was made of the same stuff.

In Japan, at the Fuji Speedway, he was running a confident third in a deluge behind Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber, before an extremely unfortunate prang with Webber (driving for sister team Red Bull Racing) eliminated them both.

It was an excruciating blot on the copybook; one that briefly reduced Vettel to tears. But only a week later, in Shanghai, in wet, though less treacherous conditions, he 50

Additional photography: Thomas Butler, xpb, getty images/red bull Brandlab, getty images, sutton images

s

Top row, from left: Young achiever: Vettel receives his winner’s trophy from BMW team principal Dr Mario Theissen after the Formula BMW race at the Norisring, Germany, in 2004 A big test: Vettel’s F1 entrance was with BMW, who he tested for in 2006 Into the fray: Vettel gets the opportunity of a regular F1 drive with Scuderia Toro Rosso at the Hungarian GP in 2007

Centre: Eyes on the prize: Vettel is focused and ready for his new challenge with Red Bull Racing Second row: Vettel’s big chance to impress came at the Chinese GP in 2007

(left), when he finished fourth, much to the joy of his team (far right). It also gave him a chance to redeem himself after crashing into the back of Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber in torrential rain at the Japanese GP, when they were running second and third, ending their race

Bottom row, from left: Following in his footsteps: Vettel chats with team-mate Michael Schumacher at the Race of Champions at Wembley in 2007 Champagne moment: The delight shows on Vettel’s face as he becomes the youngest driver ever to win a grand prix at Monza, Italy, in 2008

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Heroes

Name Sebastian Vettel Born July 3, 1987, Heppenheim, Germany

Final Vinyl Seb’s old-school when it comes to musical media: he spurns CDs and downloads in favour of vinyl albums

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credits

F1 highlights Youngest pole position and race winner, Italian GP ’08; youngest points-scorer, US GP ’07; youngest grand prix participant, Turkish GP ’06

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steered his car to fourth place. This was A Big Deal. Vettel’s team was among the least well resourced and to have one of its cars jousting with the big boys was akin to Hull City beating Arsenal in the Premier League earlier this year. There were tears again after the race, this time of joy.

The team’s technical director Giorgio Ascanelli (a Sopranostough Italian) remembers it as a showcase performance that marked Vettel out as a coming man. “He was outstanding,” Ascanelli recalls. “Ahead of him was Felipe Massa in a Ferrari and over the closing laps Sebastian gained 18 seconds. There’s no way he should have been able to do that.”

All this though was a mere amuse-bouche for one of the most remarkable main courses ever delivered in F1 (and for a sport fuelled by excess, that’s no small claim). Vettel, still with Scuderia Toro Rosso, won last year’s Italian GP at Monza (no, he dominated it) from pole position, to become the sport’s youngest-ever winner. Aged 21 years, 73 days, he snatched that accolade from Fernando Alonso (who won the 2003 Hungarian GP aged 22 years, 26 days and is now a 27-year-old double world champion).

The lachrymose scenes that greeted Vettel aren’t often seen in such a hard-edged, money-fixated sport, but he gave himself, and his team (most of whom had joined when it was known as Minardi, F1’s perennial minnow) a day none would ever forget.

He says: “When I landed pole position in qualifying, the day before, I screamed over the intercom to the team and I was happy. But in the race itself, I was surprised; you’ve just taken the chequered flag in first, the race is over and you’ve won your

‘It’s dumb; you work your whole life for a moment like this and when it finally happens, you don’t you where you are’ first grand prix. To start with I didn’t understand and started thinking, ‘What do you say at times like this?’ In the end my engineer, who’s a very quiet type, came on the radio and told me that I’d just won the Italian Grand Prix. I turned on the radio and started talking very slowly and collectedly, thanking people. It’s dumb; you work your whole life for a moment like this and when it finally happens, you don’t know where you are. But by the end of the slow-down lap it clicked and then I turned the radio back on again and screamed my thanks, this time in Italian. No one had taken the team we used to know as Minardi seriously for years and I was able to give them their first victory; that was unique. You can give people so much joy with so little, just by driving a car for a couple of hours!”

Aficionados will reminisce, misty-eyed, about ‘Vettel’s Monza’ in years to come, but for those who’d already watched closely, this was a result-in-waiting. After teething troubles with a new braking system in the early races of the 2008 season, Vettel finished fifth at Monaco, having started 19th; he scored points in Canada, despite starting from the pitlane, and at the European Grand Prix in Valencia, he started and finished sixth, keeping supposedly bigger players behind.

Ascanelli, who, earlier in his career, enjoyed a famously close working relationship with the late triple world champion Ayrton Senna, remembers the Valencia weekend as a turning point in the development of a young sportsman emerging from prospect to player. “On the Friday afternoon,” he says, “Sebastian did a fantastic lap time in a car that was heavy with full fuel tanks. I asked him if he understood what he had done and how he had done it. He said: ‘Let me go and think about it.’ He did and then he went out and repeated similar times.

That for me is the characteristic that marks out the guys who are simply talented from the guys who can become champions.

They need to have something between their ears. Spare mental capacity, if you like. For someone like Sebastian, the process of making a racing car go very fast isn’t that difficult, so they have space to think, which means they’re always composed.”

Composure, intelligence, natural ability… the common currency of champions in any sport. Is it too soon to be thinking of Vettel in these terms? Sir Jackie Stewart, world champion in 1969, ’71 and ’73, thinks not: “In a funny sort of way I think Sebastian can be compared to the young Alain Prost or Ayrton Senna. You can see the natural gift and the intelligence, but because he’s still such a young guy he doesn’t yet have all the layers of polish that the top drivers acquire after many years in the sport. But there’s no question he has absolutely everything he needs to become a ‘big’ driver. One of the top stars. You could see that by the way he handled his win.”

While the emotional release of that Monza weekend underscored every cliché there is about the Italian sporting psyche, it also demonstrated in a very public way the sincere affection in which Vettel’s team held him.

Vettel, street-savvy and dosed with the necessary levels of self-protecting egotism every top-line sports star requires, is nonetheless refreshingly open and guile-free. He likes to watch British TV comedies (Little Britain, Monty Python); loves the Beatles and buys music on vinyl. On a human level, he’s the antithesis of the vacuum-packed, pre-processed, speak-no-evil sportsman-cum-marketing commodity deemed appropriate by an iPod-YouTube generation.

“He knew how to get the team around him,” says one who worked closely with him last year, “and he would always say ‘hi’ to everyone in the morning, shake hands and that sort of thing.

He got quite a reception at the Toro Rosso Christmas party.”

What, then, for 2009? He has stepped up from Toro Rosso to Red Bull Racing, where he’ll be teamed with by far the fastest team-mate he has yet encountered, Mark Webber. The sport’s regulations have been extensively overhauled so all teams will be entering uncharted technical waters and Vettel has the burden of his own early success to live up to. Quite a challenge?

His new team boss, Christian Horner, is sure he’s up to it: “The early indications are that he’s a very rounded guy. He has a wise head on his shoulders for someone so young and he has all the trademarks of a driver who can go on to achieve something really superb within Formula One.” Flashback for a second to that Sunday at Monza 2008, a famous day that for many would mark a career pinnacle.

For Sebastian Vettel, one senses, it was a mere foothill.

For more news on Red Bull Racing’s new star, visit www.redbulletin.com and search for Sebastian Vettel

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A-Z of F1 F1 SPECIAL

New-look cars, a whole book of new rules, new faces, absent teams…

It’s all change for F1 in 2009, but The Red Bulletin’s alphabetical guide to all things GP will keep you up to speed Words Matt Youson

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A … is for aerodynamics Wings aside, all ‘appendages’ – deflectors, chimneys and winglets – have been banned for 2009.

This year’s clean-looking cars go back to a style not seen since the early 1990s. The aim has been to reduce downforce by 50 per cent, so cars will be harder to drive but better to watch.

… and for Abu Dhabi Like Valencia and Singapore, Abu Dhabi’s new-for-’09 Yas Marina circuit seeks to steal some of that Monaco glamour by racing around a harbour. Of more significance is that the race signals another swing towards the east for Formula One. With North America abandoned entirely, the French Grand Prix off the calendar and Turkey’s Istanbul Park circuit just over the border in Asia, European races are now in the minority.

photography: lat/renault f1, getty images (2)

b … is for Bernie While F1 is full of people with fingers in many pies, Bernie Ecclestone prefers to own the bakery. Bernie doesn’t actually run F1 – he just looks after the money and makes sure everybody does what he tells them. The ultimate mover and shaker, Bernie owns a piece of the commercial rights to F1 and represents the interests of the banks who own the rest. He also has an unofficial responsibility to ensure the sport is healthy, regularly finding new owners for struggling teams in years past. With Honda’s departure, Bernie has a lot to do.

… and for Buemi Unless Bruno Senna grabs a lastminute deal, Sébastien Buemi (see feature on page 62) will be the only rookie in 2009. The new Toro Rosso pilot, who’s stepping up from GP2 aged just 20, has to fill a big space left by Sebastian Vettel.

d … is for duct tape Duct tape and a lump hammer – the two F1 essentials for emergency behind-the-scenes fixes on a million-dollar car.

… and for BMW Two years ago, BMW decided not to invest in a second wind tunnel, lavishing cash instead on a very powerful supercomputer.

This year’s partial ban on windtunnel testing will suit them. They are also confident about their KERS technology (see next page).

… and for driver dads Many drivers show up at races with their fathers, so that ‘Driver Dad’ is almost an official team position. Some are their son’s manager. Many are former racers, and two – Rosberg Sr and Piquet Sr – are F1 world champions, too.

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… is for champagne Every F1 race ends in an orgy of champagne-spraying on the podium. The latest fad is for the driver to drop his jeroboam down to the waiting mechanics below.

Given that the bottle is a) heavy, b) slippery and c) often dropped from a great height, this can lead to the biggest crash of the afternoon. Few drivers drink their bubbly, the notable exception being Kimi Räikkönen…

Podium bubbly is particularly sweet if you’ve just won your first grand prix, as Heikki Kovalainen did in Hungary last year

… is for electronics To increase thrills and spills on the track, F1 has been doing away with electronic aids like traction control and engine braking. … and for engines Each car has an allocation of eight engines to last all year. The same eight will be used for practice, qualifying and races. As each engine will have to do more laps than in previous years, the rev limit is lowered to 18,000rpm.

… and for evenings Both the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix will start at a local time of 5pm. Both venues have been reluctant to change over to a night race like the event hosted

by Singapore last year – the first F1 night race ever held – so this is seen as the best way to enable TV viewers in Europe to see the race live without having to get up in the middle of the night. … and for ego It’s hard to believe we know, but F1 is full of very large ones.

f … is for Fernando Fernando Alonso is fast, fearless, incredibly motivated and probably the best all-round driver in F1.

Scourge of the British tabloids, he’s feted in Spain and by all fans of his aggressive driving style. Fernando is with Renault this year, but if the car’s not a winner, expect a megabucks move to Ferrari for 2010. The rest of the driver market will fall into place after his move.

… and for Ferrari The most important team in F1 and the most divisive: fans either love or loathe Ferrari. Rumours suggest the team may be behind rivals with their 2009 car, as they continued developing their ’08 car right up until the last race. … and for FOTA FOTA – the Formula One Teams Association – is a new working group through which the teams negotiate with one voice about costs and income. May be more powerful than predecessors, as Ferrari – who usually don’t join in – are heavily involved.

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the standard by which other motorhomes are judged, serves 5,000 meals to 3,000 guests over a typical weekend. It has 10 chefs, three bars and 14 other staff. … and for horsepower Smaller engines and a limit on revs per minute mean less horsepower… but a top engine will still produce around 800bhp.

g … is for grip Grip comes in two forms: aerodynamic grip from airflow around the car, pushing and sucking it to the ground, and mechanical grip, generated by big, sticky tyres (see page 60).

More grip equals more speed, which equals better results.

h … is for hospitality In the ’70s, F1 teams usually catered with a tea urn, a Primus stove and a big cauldron of pasta.

Today, each team welcomes hundreds of guests into their multi-storey hospitality unit, serving them haute cuisine, often prepared by Michelin-starred chefs. Red Bull’s Energy Station,

… and for Honda Honda’s decision to pull out of F1 came as a complete surprise.

At the time of writing, Honda are assessing several offers for the team – a management buyout by team principal Ross Brawn and CEO Nick Fry has been heavily rumoured. They will need a new source of horsepower, but with each team using fewer engines this season, manufacturing capacity shouldn’t be a problem.

Mercedes are currently favourites to supply the new team.

i … is for in-car camera One of the great innovations of recent times, bringing home what a chaotic, bumpy environment the cockpit of an F1 car really is. It’s rumoured that the BBC will offer live, selectable in-car footage as part of their interactive content.

j … is for journalists The dyed-in-the-wool F1 hack exists on a diet of free food (see Hospitality, left). He will talk in seasons rather than years, and races instead of months: eg, when asked the question, “Where did you get those ugly sandals?” he will answer, “Canada ’03.”

k … is for Kubica No one is able to drive on the very edge as well as Robert Kubica. He led the championship midway through 2008, but, as BMW turned their focus to 2009, he fell away from the battle. BMW have to deliver a winning car or Kubica will leave. His love of Italy makes Ferrari a likely destination.

The Red Bull Energy Station: considerably more complicated than a flat-pack shed, and much more appealing

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… and for KERS … or the Kinetic Energy Recovery System. KERS will allow F1 cars to recover and store kinetic energy, either in batteries or flywheels, and use it to provide short bursts of speed. The intention is that one day F1 KERS research will make road cars more fuel-efficient.

The Monaco Grand Prix: where glamour and racing collide and produce the event every driver wants to win

photography: sutton images, gepa, lat photographic, getty images, dppi, xpb

l … is for Lewis The reigning world champion is also the sport’s youngest.

The McLaren team groomed Lewis Hamilton for success from an early age, instructing him on how to behave, dress and talk to the press. What they didn’t teach him was how to drive, a talent as natural as they come. The mark of true racing genius is thought to be the way a driver copes in the rain. Hamilton handles standing water like a duck.

Whether or not he can repeat his success will depend largely on how well McLaren have coped with the new rules. Hamilton may need to up his game further.

m … is for Monaco When people talk about the glamour of F1, the chances are that they’re talking about its race on the streets of Monte Carlo.

Together with the casino, motor racing created the lustre that surrounds the Riviera’s most famous port – though it’s the tax laws that compel most drivers to make a home there.

to lose than anyone else under the new regime – however, they have proved themselves adaptable in the past and will start 2009 as favourites. … and for Massa While team-mate Kimi Räikkönen likes a car that oversteers (slides at the back), Felipe Massa prefers one that understeers (slides at the front) – and the 2008 Ferrari definitely suited the latter. If the new car is more to Räikkönen’s liking, Massa may have missed his best chance of a title last year.

… and for McLaren McLaren took their first championship of the decade last year. Boss Ron Dennis has decided it’s a good time to step down as team principal, but expect him to remain firmly in charge as the power behind the throne. As a big budget, high-tech organisation, McLaren have more 57

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n … is for new rules Smaller teams often grumble about the cost of constantly having to reinvent the wheel (literally in many instances), so 2009 will present them with their best chance to shake up the sport’s established order. Here’s how Red Bull Racing’s RB5 shapes up for the challenge ahead.

o REAR WING The 2009 rear wing is higher and narrower than in ’08. Aero grip reduction is intended to allow cars to run closer to each other, then overtake

TYRES (1) Bridgestone slicks are part of a package of rule changes intended to promote more overtaking and improve on-track action

… is for overtaking Due for a comeback this year (fingers crossed), with new rules and wing packages designed to make it easier for cars to pass each other. This should keep much of the action out of the pitlane and on the track.

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2008

2009 TYRES (2) Grooves are gone, slicks are back, for the first time since 1997. Drivers are already praising better feel and handling

AERODYNAMICS(1) So-called ‘bargeboards’ at front of car banned are for ’09.

Simpler, cleaner bodywork marks a return to the car shape of the early ’90s

… is for paddock The paddock is the closed-off area behind the pit garages, full of car transporters, workshops and motorhomes. Depending on location, it might be a cramped enclosure heaving with humanity and gossip, usually smelling of drains, or a vast expanse of pristine tarmac the size of a small town. The term is also used as a collective noun for the people who make a living inside it. … and for pitstop It’s always exciting when a racing car is barrelling at high speed towards a group of mechanics and a big tank of fuel (see also Refuelling, right).

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AERODYNAMICS (2) The tiny wings and intricate body shapes of recent F1 cars are out.

The FIA (F1’s rule-maker) wanted better-looking cars less reliant on airflow to provide performance FRONT WING A movable element is a feature for the first time since such devices were banned in the 1960s

WIND TUNNELS A new rule limiting hours spent in wind-tunnel testing to 40 per week means there will be less chance to fix errors made at the design stage

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… is for Qualifying Qualifying, to determine race start position, takes place on a Saturday and is often more exciting than the race on Sunday.

It doesn’t always give a fair reflection of relative pace: some drivers and their cars excel at delivering one blistering lap but are anonymous under racing conditions. It’s complicated further by the different teams being secretive about the level of fuel they have on board. So, while qualifying might prove decisive for the race, it doesn’t necessarily follow that anyone else knows exactly how it’s proved decisive until much later. Got it?

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r … is for Red Bull racing New rules and decreased budgets represent a real opportunity for all the non-manufacturer teams, in particular Red Bull Racing. If the team, led by chief technical officer Adrian Newey and technical director Geoff Willis, are able to create the right car, they have a genuine chance of changing the balance of power in F1. Drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber should be an ideal blend of youth and experience.

photography: gepa. illustration: peter clausen

… and for refuelling Where a red-hot car, a highpressure fuelling hose, a twitchy driver and a frantic pit crew all come together. It isn’t unknown to see the driver scream out of his stop with the hose still attached, skittling mechanics as he goes.

This season, several teams plan to use the system of lights – introduced last year by Ferrari – to tell their driver when to exit, while others are sticking with the traditional ‘lollipop’ method. The lights should be slightly quicker and less likely to lead to mistakes, but, as Ferrari proved last year, they can cause a disaster if they don’t work correctly. Well-timed pitstops are often crucial to victory. There is a planned ban on refuelling for 2010, but for 2009 it will be as important as ever. … and for RaIkkonen Kimi Räikkönen had a poor 2008, taking only two wins. Those close to the Finn say he never felt completely comfortable with the car. But don’t write him off: even in a car he disliked, Kimi was the fastest man at more than half the races. Rumours persist that he’ll retire at the end of this season. … and for Renault Good news for Renault – and their customer, Red Bull Racing– is that the team have been allowed to upgrade their engine to be comparable in horsepower to the rest of the field, as both teams – and Honda – were disadvantaged last season in terms of power.

Singapore – a snapshot of the future of F1: more street circuits, more night races and more grands prix in the East

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be exceptionally well-managed and resourceful, and should become stronger in the middle of the year.

… is for Scuderia Toro Rosso According to team principal Franz Tost, 2009 is going to be tough for Toro Rosso. They won’t get their new car until just before the first race, giving them no chance to optimise it or let the drivers familiarise themselves with its characteristics. But the team have shown themselves to

… and for safety car When the safety car was deployed in 2008, the pitlane was closed to stop drivers travelling at speed to get in a ‘cheap’ pitstop. While this made the track safer for marshals, it also led to unfair results. This year, the pitlane will remain open, but drivers will be given a ‘minimum lap-time’, requiring them to drive slowly back to the pits.

… and for street races Street racing is F1 gone crazy – Melbourne, Monaco, Valencia and Singapore all allow F1 cars to race around public roads for one weekend a year. Instead of vast run-off areas of gravel or tarmac, drivers are greeted with drains, gutters and concrete walls mere inches from their cars’ wheels.

Dirt and dust result in lower levels of grip… which leads to crashes.

But best of all, restaurants and bars are a stroll away at day’s end.

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t … is for tyres With new aerodynamic rules to slow cars down, slick tyres are returning this year. They replace the grooved tyres introduced in the late ’90s, as cars were going too fast and with very high G-forces. Only a few of the current field have raced on slicks in an F1 car, but most have done so in junior categories.

Supplier Bridgestone will offer two compound options this year: hard and soft. They estimate that soft tyres will be around half a second per lap quicker than the hard compound. … and for testing The limit of 30,000km of testing has been reduced to 15,000km, but, more importantly, there is to be none during the season. Testing

will stop seven days before the Australian GP, and cars will not be allowed to test on a racing circuit again until January 1, 2010. … and for truckies The backbone of any race team is their army of truck drivers. During the European F1 season, the teams move from race to race in up to 30 HGVs, transporting their cars, spares, equipment, workshops and the enormous semi-permanent motorhomes. Truckies don’t just drive the trucks: they build the motorhomes, provide security, do the shopping, operate the coffee machine and generally ensure the operation runs smoothly. … and for Toyota Toyota have the biggest budget in Formula One, and therefore they will be most affected by the cost-cutting measures. This may be no bad thing. Many prominent

commentators, including one former Toyota technical director, feel that the sheer scale of the Japanese firm’s operation causes them problems, denying them the flexibility an F1 team needs in order to be effective.

u … Is for uniforms Worn by everyone from press officers to mechanics, and one team always draws the short straw. Last year’s lime-green Honda kit inspired mutiny, as did McLaren’s tangerine Lycra a few years earlier. Team kit tends to be created by fashion designers, so it looks great on catwalk models but less so on a 20-stone gorilla wielding a spanner in 98 per cent humidity…

It’s a long road, but they keep on truckin’ – Red Bull Racing’s truckies transport the team’s equipment around Europe

v … is for Vettel Last year was Sebastian Vettel’s breakthrough. He became the youngest driver to take pole position and the youngest to win a race. Seb’s also frequently compared to compatriot and seven-time F1 world champion Michael Schumacher. A dark horse for 2009 success if Red Bull Racing get their RB5 right.

… and for V8 Formula One engines are gradually shrinking. Once a V12, then a V10, the current standard is a 2.4-litre V8, though there’s talk of a smaller engine in the future to better forge the link between F1 cars and the average family hatchback.

w … is for wings The ban on movable aerodynamic devices has been partially lifted.

This year, the front wing will have a movable flap that the driver can operate, twice a lap. Based on the recommendation of the Overtaking Working Group (McLaren’s Paddy Lowe, Renault’s Pat Symonds, Ferrari’s Rory Byrne and Charlie Whiting of the FIA) there are new front and rear wings that will allow cars to race closer together without destabilising their aerodynamics. Previously, a twoseconds-per-lap advantage was needed to overtake on the straight. … and for wind tunnelS Many teams have had two tunnels running 24/7. New rules demand a team run only 40 hours of windtunnel testing per week. This will 60

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Water, water everywhere: 2008 was the wettest F1 season in years, and Monza was almost subermerged

be greatly advantageous to teams – particularly BMW – who chose to invest in supercomputers rather than a second tunnel.

photography: gepa, rick guest, afp

… and for wet Rain is horrible to work in, watch from the stands in and drive in – but the sight of rainclouds nevertheless brings joy to armchair viewers, as nothing makes F1 more interesting than a wet track. It’s a day for the underdog, as horsepower suddenly becomes less important and talent takes centre-stage. … and for Williams A sleeping giant. The last true privateer team, existing only to race in F1 rather than being allied with marketing a global brand.

The new rules and plans for a cheaper, simpler series might herald a return to glory for one of the oldest teams on the grid.

x … is for XY chromosomes … because all of the drivers in F1 are men. Formula One has had female drivers, but rarely and not in any great numbers, and not at all since the very early 1990s.

y … is for youth An F1 driver was once considered to reach his peak in his early 30s, the slight dulling of the reflexes more than compensated for by the extra strength and wealth of experience that come with age.

But with Hamilton and Alonso winning the title at 23 and 25 respectively, youth is suddenly

very fashionable. Most of the grid are now under the age of 30 – anybody older is considered a veteran – and all of the teams are scrambling to find the next teen prodigy out there.

z … is for zoo …of the travelling variety – or possibly a circus, because that’s what F1 really is. It shows up in town promising impossible creatures and great feats of daring, in the greatest show in the land. Crowds are thrilled by the noise and the spectacle. Then F1 disappears into the night, on to the next town, leaving behind an empty space, quite a lot of litter and a promise to be back next year with something even greater.

Get your diary out – here’s this year’s F1 calendar 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Australia Malaysia China Bahrain Spain Monaco Turkey Great Britain Germany Hungary Europe Belgium Italy Singapore Japan Brazil Abu Dhabi

March 29 April 5 April 19 April 26 May 10 May 24 June 7 June 21 July 12 July 26 August 23 August 30 September 13 September 27 October 4 October 18 November 1

For news from the F1 paddock and to see Red Bull’s fantastic animation of the rule changes, visit www. redbulletin.com and search for F1

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F1 SPECIAL

family affair The meddlesome ‘racing dad’ is a notorious figure in the careers of young racing drivers. But Sébastien Buemi, newly signed for Scuderia Toro Rosso, is rather more appreciative of his family’s support Words Anthony Peacock Photography Thomas Butler

The Swiss aren’t renowned for great literature, but the obvious exception, which practically every kid in the world has heard of, is Heidi. The basic plot is simple: a young girl is sent to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps, embracing the rustic lifestyle.

The previously reclusive grandfather teaches Heidi everything he knows and the two live happily after.

It’s not entirely dissimilar to the story of Swiss Formula One driver Sébastien Buemi, although his genial grandfather, Georges Gachnang, is anything but a recluse. In fact, the lively 78-year-old only retired from the family business (Gachnang Automobiles, in Aigle) a year ago, and he is more than happy to recount tales from his former life as a racing driver, which took in some of the world’s biggest adventures like the Le Mans 24 Hours and Nürburgring 1000 Kilometres. He cheerfully displays the scars of injuries from an era when sex was safe and racing dangerous, chuckles at an old photo of himself being loaded, unconscious, into what once passed for an ambulance, and proudly displays his amply-stocked trophy cabinet.

You only have to spend a couple of minutes in the office of ‘Grandpapa’ – as Sébastien affectionately calls him – to understand exactly how Toro Rosso’s latest signing became a racing driver. Under Grandpapa’s influence, it would have been hard to become anything else. Not only that, but Georges (together with his brother Claude) actually used to build his own racing cars: a garagiste in the true sense of the word.

“This one did Le Mans,” says Sébastien, pointing out an amateur painting of a red car on the office wall. “He built a Formula One car [a Maserati-powered CEGGA – an acronym for Claude Et Georges Gachnang Aigle] as well, and entered it for the Pau Grand Prix. You need to hear these stories…” With Buemi and Grandpapa, it’s hard to tell who’s prouder of whom.

After that 1962 race, Maserati offered the brothers an entry for the Monaco Grand Prix the following year. “We had to build the car, they would supply the engine and I would drive,” says Georges. “But my brother never got around to building it, as he was having problems with his wife and eventually got divorced. So if he had never married her, I would have driven in the Monaco Grand Prix!” The thought seems to amuse him.

Georges stopped racing in 1970 for a number of different reasons: his family, a life outside motorsport and the pragmatic realisation that his competition career was going no further.

So, when Sébastien started karting in 1993, it’s maybe not surprising that Georges was a little sceptical. “Sébastien was doing more and more racing, but we insisted that school came first,” says Georges. “I’ve had friends who lost everything 62

through racing: their health, their money and their business.

I did not want that to happen to my family. I was always going to support Sébastien in his racing, although we are definitely comfortable rather than rich. But school was the priority.”

When Sébastien was karting in Italy, for example, many of the races took place on a Sunday. Afterwards, Georges would drive their van through the night back to Aigle so Sébastien could be at school on Monday morning. “Often there was hardly time to go home first,” remembers Sébastien. “We might get back at 6am, but I would always be at school by half past seven.”

His grandfather assures us with a wagging finger that there would have been trouble otherwise. But then, he generously points out, it would never have occurred to the young Sébastien not to go. “It’s just the way he was brought up,” explains Georges. “There was always respect for the family and respect for the work of other people. That’s not only a useful human quality, but something essential for a racing driver. You have to feel right in your head and always stay concentrated.”

He tells a chilling tale of his friend, the Swiss driver Tommy Spychiger. Tommy had just taken over the factory Ferrari from Herbert Müller in the 1965 Monza 1000 Kilometres, but crashed and burned on the first lap of his stint. “I spoke to Herbert afterwards and he told me that Tommy wasn’t right in his head that day,” remembers Georges. “It cost him his life.”

Along with his grandfather, the other big influence on Sébastien’s life is Dr Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s driver-adviser (and also the holder of the outright lap record for the fearsome Targa Florio road race in Sicily). Dr Marko happened to be at the Hockenheim Formula BMW meeting in 2004, which was Sébastien’s very first car race. The youngster finished second – the start of a story that led to his Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 drive via the Red Bull Junior Team programme. “I copied my grandfather’s way of thinking, but Dr Marko is somebody to whom I owe everything else,” points out Sébastien. “I could say ‘thank you’ a thousand times and it wouldn’t be enough.”

In a curious twist of fate, it’s possible that Sébastien’s destiny was written before he was born. Dr Marko recently mentioned to Sébastien that he had done some racing in Switzerland himself: the famous Ollon-Villars hillclimb in about 1965, only a few kilometres up the road from Aigle. “This was a race I always did myself,” remembers Georges, “so I think we probably met.” Decades later, they met again, this time not as rivals but collaborators in building the dream of the young Sébastien – now a dream come true.

Follow Séb’s progress. Go to www.redbulletin.com and search for Buemi

Name SÊbastien Buemi Born October 31, 1988, Aigle, Switzerland Career highlights Three GP2 wins in 2008. Quickest in Toro Rosso testing in December, clinching him the F1 drive Magic number Buemi’s 2009 Toro Rosso is number 11, the same as the Ferrari of the late Clay Regazzoni, his compatriot, five times a GP-winner Website www.buemi.ch

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he woman in the bureau de change at Salzburg Airport speaks perfect English.

Of course she does: “You go through the tunnel and it’s the first right turn after that. Anything else you’ll be needing, sir?” Following her perfectly-pronounced directions to Hangar-7 is easy, but there’s absolutely nothing straightforward about the place when you get there.

Hangar-7, on the fringe of Salzburg Airport, in Austria, is an asymmetrical dome constructed from glass panels in a squint-and-you’ll-see-it steel frame. It’s a space mainly designed for aircraft, but also culture and food. It was conceived in 1999 by Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz and completed four years later. The fleet of vintage aircraft flown and maintained by the Flying Bulls, Red Bull’s aeronautic wing, is the hangar’s largest and most regular resident, but the building also plays host to an audience of people in search of a good time.

On the approach to Hangar-7, the aircraft towed to and from the building’s smaller, less flamboyant neighbour, Hangar-8, are a reminder that this space is part of a working airport, complete with the trappings of the world’s gateways: ultra-functional layouts and barren stretches of concrete runway. But as the main building comes to dominate the view, its radical form, framed by the imposing mountains that surround Salzburg, takes you away from all that.

photography: angelo kaunat/red bull photofiles

Architecture Walk into Hangar-7 and you’re struck by the amount of natural light and a sense of space. Salzburg architect Volkmar Burgstaller was commissioned to produce a building that interprets the conditions needed for flight. He did this by incorporating a winglike shape in the curvature of the building. For something so vast and fixed, it nevertheless implies weightlessness and a sense of freedom.

Look up on a day when the weather is good, and the sun beams in through the roof’s 1,754 glass panels. Visitors can wander around the planes on the ground, or climb up and follow the

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Salzburg Airport’s first six hangars are regulation plane sheds.

Number seven, on the other hand, is something else entirely Words Tom Hall

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The Threesixty Bar, suspended above the main area of Hangar-7, provides a spectacular view of the planes below, including the gleaming, silver North American B-25J Mitchell

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flowing steel walkways threaded along the building’s interior edge, which are punctuated by paintings and other artworks. Follow the walkways upwards and you reach the Threesixty Bar, which seems to float beneath the hangar’s roof in the middle of the building. The view of the aircraft below is worth the trip.

photography: darren jacklin, jürgen skarwan, ulrich grill/red bull photofiles

aircraft The aircraft in Hangar-7 are all very different, but what they have in common are their vintage appeal and their tip-top working condition. There’s a 1954 North American T-28B, originally a training aircraft and the first plane to be restored by the Flying Bulls, and a Douglas DC-6B that once belonged to Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia. Keeping these machines in working order is no mean feat: every hour of flight is preceded by 40 hours of preparation. Chief pilot Sigi Angerer has overseen the restoration of all the aircraft since the collection began in the 1980s. All the planes regularly appear at airshows and are permanently fuelled-up.

Food Executive Chef Roland Trettl oversees the kitchen of Hangar-7’s Ikarus restaurant, and every month he recruits a guest chef to inject the menu with original dishes.

Michelin-starred chef Dani García, of the vaunted Calima in Marbella, is the

most recent invitee – the Spaniard’s cuisine complements Trettl’s staples such as côte de boeuf crusted in bonemarrow with artichokes. Down below, on the first floor, the Carpe Diem lounge (below) is a bitesize version of Ikarus’s grandiose creations. (The two share a kitchen.)

Choose a baguette with duck rillette and apple-celery-salad, or the Miami Wrap with crab, avocado and grapefruit.

Billed as sophisticated finger-food, the eats here are far more than that.

Bars At night in Hangar-7, floor lights reflect the position of constellations on the building’s opening night, and visitors have a choice of two fine bars. On the pressure-sensitive and screen-like surface of the bar in Mayday, tapping fingers or placing drinks causes animations to dart between glasses. You can also send text messages to fellow drinkers via this bar top: just make sure you pick the right stool number. The other night spot, the Threesixty Bar, is unmissable at the centre of the space. The circular platform hangs from the ceiling, offering its guests a 360-degree view of the attractions below. Concerts are regularly held at Hangar-7, and it’s hard to imagine a better vantage point to see the likes of the Gipsy Kings or Buena Vista Social Club, two recent star attractions.

Art New art talent is given exposure three times a year in Hangar-7 (above). Previous exhibitions have showcased work from Iceland and Los Angeles, and the efforts of Portugal’s bright young things are currently on display, including Maria Condado and Rui Algarvio’s tranquil landscapes and the abstract canvases of Isabelle Faria and Marta Moura.

Explore the wonders of Hangar-7. Visit www.redbulletin.com and search for Hangar

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World in Motion

Perfect powder, stunning riding, amazing scenery: That’s It, That’s All is probably the best snowboarding movie ever. The result of two-and-a-half years hard work by snowboarder Travis Rice and filmmaker Curt Morgan, this is how it was made Words Gerhard Stochl Photography Tim Zimmerman

Credits

Breathtaking stunts in front of the camera, innovative technology behind it: That’s It, That’s All showcases the best of the white stuff in Alaska (opposite) and also the greenery of New Zealand (this page).

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Action

A helicopter was invaluable in the search for never-before-seen perspectives, but other vantage points – like trees – also helped

C

urt Morgan’s voice keeps cutting in and out, turning half of his sentences into white noise until the call gets dropped altogether. Five minutes later, he’s on the phone again, setting the scene. “I’m sitting in the back of a heli in the California desert, on top of a Cineflex [camera system] with a laptop controller on my knees. We’re in the middle of nowhere here and this is probably gonna keep happening.” The disjointed interview, taking place as Morgan shoots scenes for a television commercial, suggests that little has changed in the 26-year-old filmmaker’s life over the past few years. Morgan has spent most of them crammed into a helicopter over intimidating snow-capped mountains in the far reaches of Alaska, New Zealand or British Columbia, controlling an incredibly sophisticated piece of camera equipment attached to the chopper’s nose while directing the 70

pilot to keep up with some of the most talented snowboarders on the planet flying down untracked powder below.

Between takes, a handheld radio kept him in touch with the athletes, whose hair-raising manoeuvres he captured on film in never-before-seen beauty.

The end result of this adventure has been hailed as one of the top action sports films ever made. That’s It, That’s All has been picking up awards, most recently taking home both Best Overall Film and Best Cinematography at the X-Dance Action Sports Film Festival held in Salt Lake City, Utah. “That’s It, That’s All has made an impact on the industry that cannot be ignored,” said festival founder and director Brian Wimmer. “It has all of the components – cinematography, editing, soundtrack, action and just enough story – to completely raise the bar.”

Getting to that point was a team effort, with Morgan behind the lens and

snowboard superstar Travis Rice, his close friend of 10 years, in front of it.

Together, the duo founded Brain Farm, their own production company, to oversee all aspects, including finding sponsors and recruiting some of the brightest names in the sport to star in the film. Perhaps most importantly, they gave themselves plenty of time, “definitely a condition for us going into it and something that we agreed on from the very beginning,” Rice says. Bad weather would keep the crew grounded for weeks at a time, while riders’ competing schedules and equipment failures were obstacles. Managing different helicopter pilots was also a challenge. “All these guys know how to fly, of course, but following a bunch of snowboarders down the mountain and making sure that the camera is positioned right is a whole new deal to most of them,” says Morgan.

Rice funded the first trip over to New Zealand back in 2006, covering

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It might not look pretty (above), but the nose-mounted Cineflex camera was a key component in filming something unique

helicopter hours and a host of additional production-related expenses. A big Red Bull sticker was slapped on one of the choppers in the hope that the energy drink giant, longtime supporters of Rice’s career, would get behind the project.

It was Morgan’s first time to the island country in the southwestern Pacific, and over the course of the following month and a half, he and Rice worked on putting together a teaser that could be used to approach big-name sponsors to help keep the production going. Rice’s status in the world of professional snowboarding definitely helped. He is widely regarded as one of the best big-mountain freestyle riders in the world and made it to number 13 of Snowboarder Magazine’s 20 most influential riders of the last 20 years.

The 26-year-old, supported by Red Bull since 2002, has racked up trophies at contests all over the world, including gold at the X Games, and has pioneered

tricks such as his trademark double backflip, which he lands backwards for increased difficulty. Rice and Morgan had also worked together on a previous film.

The Community Project was bankrolled

by Oakley, the major California-based maker of sunglasses and sports accessories.

“We were sort of in a holding pattern after that [The Community Project] and wanted to work together on something again,” Morgan says.

After Red Bull and Quiksilver came on board, Rice and Morgan set out to achieve a unique blend of mind-bending action, stunning camerawork and an infectious soundtrack that would grip viewers from the first minute to the closing credits. Aerial shots showcase Rice and his fellow riders throwing themselves off gargantuan cliffs at breakneck speeds, captured from neverbefore-seen angles by various highdefinition camera systems. The viewer feels as if they are perched on the

athlete’s shoulders, cutting through the fresh powder along a sketchy spine in the Alaskan backcountry. One of the most breathtaking shots shows Rice almost getting swallowed by a huge avalanche in Alaska. Viewers see the snow around him cracking, like a windscreen hit by a stone, almost before he does, and hold their breath as he claws his way to safety.

“From the beginning, we tried to think about other ways that we could show snowboarding instead of just shooting from the ground, because I really wanted the cinematography to complement what the riders were doing,” says Morgan. He describes coming across the Cineflex, a revolutionary helicopter-mounted camera system also used by the makers of the award-winning BBC documentary series Planet Earth, as a life-changing experience and “the only way to shoot snowboarding”. Jeremy Jones, a professional snowboarder and bigmountain pioneer who prominently 71

Action

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Rice and partner Morgan (above, right) wanted to “show what snowboarding means to us”. That’s It, That’s All was the result

features in That’s It, That’s All and is interviewed about the making of the film on the DVD version, agrees. “I see the Cineflex footage, and it not only captures the snowboarding but [also] the beauty of Alaska, and is closer to showing how incredible it is [in those mountains].”

The last snowboarding film to employ similar techniques (and an equally healthy budget) was First Descent in 2005. But despite featuring some of the biggest names in the sport (including a short cameo by Rice) and enjoying a theatrical release across the United States, the film failed truly to resonate with both snowboard enthusiasts and casual viewers on the same level that Morgan’s and Rice’s film does.

Unlike First Descent, many snowboard videos have traditionally been funded by companies within the sport, yet serve a more important function than simply to promote its riders and products.

For years, movies and magazines 72

primarily put together by snowboarders themselves were the main vehicle of communication across borders and continents. Stars weren’t so much made on the contest circuit, but through video parts and photographs in the sport’s respected publications. In the late ’80s, long before the YouTube revolution, kids in Switzerland would line up at their local skate and snowboard shop to pick up videos by small companies such as Fall Line Films, featuring innovative freestyle snowboarding filmed in places like Lake Tahoe, California. The tapes were passed around, turning the riders into stars and helping a young sport evolve. Some of the most memorable productions, including Snowboarders in Exile and Critical Condition brought together riders with different sponsors, allowing for a captivating blend of tricks and styles, often shot with simple handheld camcorders. As snowboarding matured and the industry grew exponentially

throughout the ’90s, production budgets started to allow for more sophisticated camera equipment and funds to travel the world. Mack Dawg Productions was among the companies that kept pushing the envelope by constantly polishing the look and feel of its movies. Tricks were shot from multiple angles at the same time, often on 16mm film, setting the standard for years to come.

“People are trying to outdo one another every year with either fresh ideas or new technology, using dolly shots, cable-cam shots and helicoptercams,” says Jim Mangan, a Utah-based filmmaker who has put out two films for the Park City Mountain Resort, both of which were previously nominated for awards at X-Dance. His films have employed techniques familiar to audiences of high-end Hollywood productions, including a remotecontrolled helicopter camera and a 2,000ft cable-cam that took an entire

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3 years in the making 2006 March Curt Morgan and Travis Rice develop the basic concept and timeline for their film.

July The project gets underway with Rice and Morgan heading to New Zealand.

December Rice wins Air & Style, Munich, and Big Air at Nissan X-Trail Jam, Tokyo.

Both feature in the film.

2007 JANUARY Rice and Morgan shoot around Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

February Crew in British Columbia with Nicolas Müller and Terje Håkonsen March Pat Moore joins Morgan and Rice to shoot in Park City, Utah.

July Two months in New Zealand backcountry.

November The team return to San Francisco for Icer Air, which Rice wins.

December The crew make trips to Munich for Air & Style, and Tokyo for the X-Trail Jam. 2008 January Rice organises the Quiksilver Natural Selection in Jackson Hole.

The footage appears in the DVD bonus section.

February The crew shoot in some of the heaviest winter weather around Jackson Hole.

April The team depart for Valdez, Alaska, to film the final segment.

May Morgan starts editing the movie.

August World premiere of That’s It, That’s All in Wanaka, New Zealand.

crew of specialists to set up and operate on the mountain. Despite this obvious embrace of new technologies, Mangan also cautions that they are simply tools.

“Technology is important, but it doesn’t work if you have horrible music, bad editing and bad camera angles,” he says.

“It’s all about sticking to fundamentals, which is projecting something to the audience that is fun to watch and captures the essence of snowboarding.”

Authenticity was also on top of the list for Rice and Morgan. “We just wanted to show our vision of snowboarding,” Rice says. He’s sitting on a bus rented by one of his sponsors to get him and a few others from the X Games in Aspen, Colorado, where he has just won gold in the Big Air competition, to Las Vegas.

He is about to dominate Transworld Snowboarding magazine’s prestigious Riders’ Poll Awards by being voted Men’s Rider of the Year by his fellow professionals, as well as readers’ choice

for Men’s Rider of the Year, Men’s Video Part of the Year, for his tricks in That’s It, That’s All, and Standout of the Year.

But while groundbreaking riding

by Rice, Jones, Nicolas Müller, Terje Håkonsen, Mark Landvik and others guaranteed the attention of the snowboard world, it’s the hypnotising aerial shots of some of the planet’s remotest locales, coupled with the bigscreen-worthy intros and documentary elements, that keep even casual viewers glued to their seats. Interviews with Rice’s mum as well as his peers weave a compelling narrative that puts viewers in the shoes of the film’s sometimesreluctant star. “[Snowboarding] is about exploration. It’s the never-ending search for that new zone. And most importantly, it’s just about being out here and being able to enjoy all this with my friends,” Rice says. So, strap in and enjoy the ride.

To watch the trailer for That’s It, That’s All visit www.redbulletin.com and click on film

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SUIS400 «Wind Blocker» - www.swatch.com For stockist information: 0845 296 2448

The boys from Brooklyn-based Hypnotic Brass Ensemble head onto the streets, and back to their roots, for a night of busking in east London.

Photography: Thomas Butler

Hangar-7 interview page 76 Desert adventure page 80 Bamboo surfboards page 82 Day & Night page 84 Nightlife page 88 Bullseye page 94 Short story page 96 Stephen Bayley page 98

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Dinner with …

Thomas Geierspichler and Heinz Kinigadner Wheelchair marathon champion Thomas Geierspichler and former double motocross world champion Heinz Kinigadner discuss injury, faith and sporting achievement over fine cuisine at Salzburg’s Hangar-7 Words Herbert Völker Photography Philipp Horak

Austrian Thomas Geierspichler is an amazing athlete: European Champion, multiple world record holder, World Champion and gold-medal winner in world-record time in the Paralympic marathon in Beijing. His success has come in wheelchair after a car accident in 1994, when he was 18, left him paralysed. Compatriot and motocross champion Heinz Kinigadner created the Wings For Life Foundation together with Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz, a charity that supports research into spinal cord injury, after his son Hannes was left wheelchairbound after a motocross accident in ’03.

The wheelchair marathon stretches over the same classic distance of 26 miles and your quadriplegic world record is 1:40.07, which means a racing wheelchair is quicker than a runner’s legs [the equivalent world record is approximately 2:04]. But are the drama of the fight, the suffering and the hope much the same?

Thomas Geierspichler: It’s exactly the same interplay of mind and body, even if my propulsion comes exclusively from the shoulders and triceps because I have no trunk musculature. I rest on my shins in the racing wheelchair and can’t use my trunk to press down, and I have a different lung capacity, and pulse and lactate levels, from an able-bodied person. But I still have to find my rhythm somewhere between stepping on it and being too hectic, and still have to be 100 per cent on the attack just like a top able-bodied athlete. So it’s all a huge adventure, and it’s one that I train over 15,000km a year for.

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Totally Delicious Celebrity chef Dani García cooked up an amazing menu for Thomas and Heinz

What they ate Starter: Stuffed tomato with green tomato soup, snow peas and Breton lobster Second course: Traditional fish soup with carabineros, gnocchi and dried tomatoes Fish course: Potato in silver foil, stuffed with tuna toro and olive oil cream Meat course: Ravioli of ox tail with cauliflower and black truffle Dessert: The full moon made of white chocolate, tangerines and yuzu Ikarus’s celebrity chef principle brings top-class international cuisine to Hangar-7. Dani García, from Calima in Marbella, was delighted to cook for Thomas Geierspichler and Heinz Kinigadner.

What they loved the most was the taste explosion of the ‘full moon’ dessert. All guest chef details can be found at www.hangar-7.com

Does the marathon also serve as a model for life?

Thomas: It does. You have phases where you think you’re doing well and where you have to overcome setbacks, but it’s not just a matter of gritting your teeth like with sprinting – you have to summon up your mental strength. But the initial vision is more important, having the marathon as an extreme goal in life, wherever you’re starting from.

In my case, I had a crucial experience about three years after my accident that suddenly gave rise to an incredible amount of energy that I wanted to channel. The sprint wouldn’t have been enough, so I dangled the idea of the marathon in front of my own nose and made myself chase it. At the time it was unrealistic, but now I know that you have to set yourself unrealistic goals.

What was the ‘crucial experience’?

THOMAS: Without going into details, it was conversations with acquaintances who brought me closer to the Bible and finding a basic way of believing in something. It has nothing (or not much) to do with the church or religion; we could also talk about ‘energy’ rather than ‘God’. For me it was a question of whether I could harness this energy to stop smoking dope, smoking at all and boozing. And whether that would do something in my heart that might lead from belief to strength. It worked.

I found so much more energy within myself that I could accept myself as I was: disabled and in a wheelchair.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m still not happy about the state I’m in, but I can accept

Food for thought: Heinz Kinigadner (left) and Thomas Geierspichler (below) took time to savour each course at Hangar-7

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me put my foot down and position the bike to fly over the gorge; I didn’t go high enough to reach the road on the other side and the bike hit the rock face with both wheels, but it threw me into the air and I landed on the road. When I heard the bike crashing 40m below me, my legs were shaking so much that I nearly fell over the edge.

Speaking of faith, in the broadest sense, Heinz, has your attitude towards it changed after the blows that fate has dealt you?

HEINZ KINIGADNER: Of course you think about it a bit more after your loved ones have been in accidents, but basically it’s still the same. My attitude is similar to Thomas’s. The church is not necessarily a place of refuge for me although I do go every now and again, but more to contemplate... But in my sporting career I’ve felt that there’s a power that helps me do what I do. Of course I can’t rely on God kindly running the races for me.

I’ve been lucky enough to be endowed with abilities and opportunities but you can do what you like, if someone up there doesn’t agree with it, it won’t work.

You must have heard the angels singing with some of the falls you’ve had.

What was your closest scrape?

HEINZ: That was probably in Peru, when I was competing in the Inca Rally, on a rocky road in the mountains; I was having a fantastic time. I got past one guy and then another and was trying to get past another and saw the sharp bend too late. Thirty metres ahead of me the street turned back on itself.

There was no way I was going to make it. Something in my unconscious made 78

Top: Thomas Geierspichler set himself ‘unrealistic goals’ and is now the wheelchair marathon Olympic gold medallist Above: Motocross star Heinz Kinigadner at the Austrian Championships in Paldau To find out more about Wings For Life visit www.wings for life.com

Heinz, in relation to your son, and you, Thomas, how do you differentiate between coping with daily life and hoping for a fundamental cure?

HEINZ: My son Hannes and I do the best we can, which isn’t as little as you might think. Plus I’m convinced that great progress is still to be made in our lifetimes. To what extent I don’t know.

But so much has been happening at laboratory level recently and that needs time before it can really be applied.

THOMAS: I’ve pretty much brought my potential back to the max, but no functions have come back. Nothing will make me give up hope. I won’t collapse and go under unfulfilled. I reach up, so I’ll be able to catch a cure if it comes, but I won’t break down if it doesn’t. I dream of one day climbing Mount Untersberg; it is a mystical mountain I see every day from the bathroom.

And I’ll dance with my mother as soon as I can walk again. I’ve promised her. I believe firmly that something will happen and in my lifetime.

additional photography: Andreas Waldschütz, gepa

it and do the best I can with it. I use my sport to keep making progress, no limits.

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Get the Gear: Karting

photography: simon vinal

You may never line up on the F1 grid, but you can live the dream closer to home (and the ground) with this killer karting kit

Above left: FIA-approved Puma racesuit, price on application (www.puma.com). Above right, clockwise from top: Biz Karts go-kart, £3,450 (www.bizkarts.com); Puma drivers’ underclothing, £90 (www.puma.com); Puma gloves, price on application (www.puma.com); Ginch Gonch pants, £22.50 per pair (www.ginchgonch.com). Bottom, left to right: Arai SK-5 helmet, £340.42 (www.whyarai.co.uk); Puma balaclava, £20; Puma Kart Cat Mid Pro II boots, price on application (www.puma.com).

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On the Road to Nowhere

They’re not all that generous with road signs in the Atacama, so drive with caution.

The road may suddenly veer down to one side, descending into a canyon for 25 or 30km. Most of the time you’ll have the road to yourself. That is if you weren’t passing through last month when the Dakar Rally turned the desert into a gigantic playground

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The bleak and dusty landscape of Chile’s Atacama Desert made a fitting setting for the final scenes of the last James Bond film, but visitors to the spectacular plateau, the driest place on earth, will be forgiven for thinking that the phrase a ‘Quantum of Solace’ is just a little inadequate when it comes to expressing the vast emptiness of the place.

Stretching for 900km south of the Peruvian border, the Atacama is one of the world’s largest expanses of sand: 181,000 square kilometres of rocks, scree and horizons under a burning sun. A sparse network of roads and tracks crisscrosses the landscape, but they don’t seem overly popular; after four days behind the wheel, I spotted around 280 alpacas and vicuñas, but only 10 other cars.

As befits the place, there aren’t a whole lot of road signs: they either point north, al norte, or south, al sur. And that’s about as much information as you get.

East and west have been done away with. Chile is a very long, very narrow country; a few kilometres to the west and you’re on the coast, and to the east, the snow-capped volcanic peaks of the Andes soar into the sky looking like a sketch mocked up by a surrealist set designer.

As for towns, there’s Iquique on the coast, with Copiapó further south, Antofagasta, where the cast and crew of Quantum of Solace stayed during filming, and Arica in the north, on the border with Peru. It’s a city that looks small and manageable on the map but, up close, turns out to be a logistical nightmare. The town relies on its trade with Peru and

Bolivia to survive, and, although business has increased, the infrastructure has yet to adjust.

The road gets narrower and busier, and at some point the north-south signposts disappear, and the car runs down a road that ends with the sea. It’s then that you realise you’ve got to turn back. Through the town.

Perhaps it comes as no surprise, then, that the best thing about Arica is the road heading out of town, towards Bolivia.

Rising from sea level to 4,500m, the road passes through the Lauca National Park, where you’ll find the astonishingly clear Chungara Lake at the base of the twin peaks of the Payachata volcanoes. Only the previous evening we had joked about our choice of hire car; a 4WD pick-up, with huge tyres. All a bit overthe-top, wasn’t it? We’d spoken too soon. Just an hour into the mountains and, with ever bigger

boulders scattering the road, we were grateful for every extra centimetre of chassis clearance.

And for every extra litre of fuel the huge tank held.

Settling over the dreamscape is air so thin and clear that even volcanoes in the distance seem to be just a stone’s throw away.

Distances and dimensions blur making you drift off, that is if you don’t have to brake every so often to avoid a herd of alpacas.

After leaving the national park, you can either make your way al sur on dusty rocky tracks over the highlands (which, given the road conditions, would require phoning home to ask for more time off) or go back to Arica and head south on the great Pan-American highway.

Stretching from Alaska down to the southernmost reaches of the continent, the network of roads looks, in Chile, as if the people who built it laid an extra-long

Words: Stefan Nink. photography: Corbis (3) Getty Images (3)

The Atacama desert is where Bond villains go to die, and where the adventurous can indulge in some dusty off-roading amid incredible vistas. Just make sure the tank is full

Chile’s Atacama desert is vast, hot, dusty and bone-dry.

The impressive Cerro Miñiques stands at 5,910m and towers above the surrounding plateau

ruler over a map and said, “OK, build it from here to there please.” You can drive along it for hours on end without feeling as if you’ve gone anywhere. Every few minutes you pass small altars on the roadside. Decorated with colourful plastic flowers, Maria statuettes and faded photos, they are the physical manifestation of the Chilean belief that animatas, or little souls, linger at the site of an accident. Ruins of old mining towns appear on the horizon one after the other, and an hour later you can still see them in the rearview mirror. As unpredictable as the desert’s other roads, the highway can descend in broad hairpins into a canyon, before shooting up the other side.

In North America, landscapes like these would have been designated as national parks in an instant, but here in Chile, no one even knows if anyone’s ever laid foot on the land 10 or 20

paces from the road. The area is also rich in cultural history and you sometimes catch a glimpse of the huge stone motifs that were created by the Chinchorros, who predated even the ancient Incas.

After a couple of days you reach San Pedro. Tucked behind adobe walls, the city, filled with the type of hotels, spas and restaurants that are missing from the rest of the region, looks like the set of a spaghetti western.

There are more tourists here, but San Pedro has nevertheless managed to retain its character, and the town’s bars will provide travellers with a welcome respite from the bleak surroundings.

But the Atacama doesn’t release you from its clutches that easily; sand will trickle out of nooks and crannies for weeks after your journey, and just when you’re about to forget your days in the desert, you open a book and out fall a few grains of sand.

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Don’t be fooled by the guy with the snowboard: the Atacama sand dunes make perfect downhill runs for boarding enthusiasts.

But for the odd tourist, the desert is, suitably, deserted

In the Know...

Atacama Want to get back to civilisation?

Arica: On the outskirts of town by the sea, the Hotel Arica is your best option in Chile’s most northerly city. It has large rooms and a good restaurant, too. Double rooms cost around US$100. Book online at www.chile-hotels.com.

Iquique: The Hotel Terrado Suites has a great location right on the seafront. Looking the other way and out past the town, you get a wonderful view of one of the world’s tallest sand dunes from which paragliders launch themselves down towards the beach.

Double rooms start at US$160. www.terrado.cl.

San Pedro: The Hotel de Larache is perfect for sporty and active guests: visitors can choose to hike up volcanoes in small guided groups, go sandboarding or riding. Complete packages including meals, excursions and airport transfers cost from US$1,920 per person based on three nights sharing. www.explora.com.

Make sure you: Fill up the tank whenever and wherever you can. Petrol stations are few and far between, and this isn’t the place to run low on fuel.

Even if the Altiplano plateau is largely as flat as a pancake, many parts of the Atacama are at very high altitude. Take your time, don’t overexert yourself, look out for symptoms of altitude sickness, and use high-protection factor suncream.

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Riding Green Giants For a sport so profoundly connected to nature, surfing is surprisingly harmful to the environment. In Hawaii, surfer and innovator Gary Young is working on changing that

Gary Young doesn’t just build bamboo surfboards, he sells them as well: at $125 per foot it’s a pretty good deal, considering how green you’ll feel. Visit www. bamboosurfboards hawaii.com

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Queuing in a line of cars for petrol in Northern California in the mid 1970s, Gary Young pondered the oil shortage that had gripped the country in a panic. A surfer and builder of wooden boats, a child of postWorld War II southern California, Young was a visionary, a thinker who worked with his hands.

“I’m thinking, ‘If this is really true, if we’re going to be running out of gas, maybe I should figure out a way to make skins for surfboards that use more natural than oil-based materials,’” he recalled. “My perspective was wood. I had just built a wooden boat hull laminated with thin layers, and I thought: If only I could figure out a way to make them stick to the blank…”

Fast-forward to 2009 and an eerily similar situation. Energy efficiency is the topic of the day and Young has meanwhile become the surfing industry’s pioneer in the use of bamboo wood. In an open-sided workshop that lies down

a narrow rainforest path, a tangle of roots and vines gives way to a tangle of tools and materials.

Bundles of bamboo laminate, tubs of epoxy, rolls of plastic film and stacks of foam blanks, which form the basis of every surfboard, clutter the workspace in Kapoho, the easternmost point of the Hawaiian Islands.

Bamboo surfboards, Young’s passion and the latest portal to a greener surf technology, are propped up here and there.

“Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on the planet,” says Young. “So why not use it as a fibre in a composite?”

Before he turned to bamboo, Young began with wood veneer, building a 36ft boat hull that used less wood than traditional models and was light, strong, weatherproof, and durable.

In 1976, he says he was the first known shaper to make wood-veneer surfboards using a vacuum-bagging technique that laminated the veneer over the deck of a board. He patented the

device, based on the principle of compound curvature, in 1979.

“Compound curvature makes it very strong, like an eggshell,” he explains. “If you take veneers and cross the grains, you can create rigidity and strength. Take the same material, add a little bit of compound curvature, like you would in a canoe, car fender, or surfboard, and you have something much stronger.”

In the 1970s and ’80s, and after he moved to Hawaii in 1990, Young made wood-veneer surfboards and sailboards for some big names in surfing, among them big-wave legend Laird Hamilton. In the mid-’80s, with friend and sailboard dealer Gib Cooper, he hit upon the idea of bamboo as a sturdy, renewable, and visually stunning alternative.

Young got his first bamboo samples through Cooper, who now runs a bamboo nursery in Oregon, and after years of experimentation produced his first bamboo prototype in 1996.

Hokua, a big-wave sailboard for

Words: Jocelyn fujii. photography: Brian Bielmann (5), Erik Aeder (4)

In a workshop covered in bamboo and tubs of epoxy, Young builds his boards

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Robby’s Surf Patrol Windsurfing legend Robby Naish shows us his favourite Hawaii stomping grounds

Kailua Bay, O’ahu. “This is where I learned to surf. Modern windsurfing developed here up until the early 1980s. The wind is often moderate and your feet still touch the ground far out into the sea.”

Young’s boards can also be used by stand-up paddlers

the pioneering windsurfing star Robby Naish (right), had an outer layer of koa veneer and inner structural layers of bamboo.

Hokua passed its test of strength when Naish rode the board in the humongous waves of Maui’s vaunted Jaws, an event captured in National Geographic.

While bamboo itself is crooked and can degrade, bamboo veneer is made of tissue-thin sheets rolled out by a lathe from the wall of the bamboo column.

When laminated, it uses less epoxy than glassfibre and creates a composite that’s twice as strong. Young imports his veneer from China and optimises its strength in the skin and construction of the board.

Shaving bamboo doesn’t create sawdust, it doesn’t need to be extensively sanded and cleaned, and it doesn’t itch like glassfibre when sanded. It decomposes into dirt and is more environmentally friendly. And strength? Some tests say that the compressive strength of bamboo is higher

than concrete, says Young, and its tensile strength is stronger than steel. He shapes the light, more environmentally friendly polystyrene foam blank (which doesn’t absorb water) with a hand-operated hot-wire device.

“Typically a board made of epoxy is more buoyant, and some people find it more difficult, more likely to behave erratically,” says ‘Ceviche Dave’ Weaver, a wellknown local wave rider. “These feel like a normal polyester board, but are more resilient and much more pleasing to ride because they’re so beautiful.”

While his bamboo boards have yet to hit the mainstream, Young hopes that the times are catching up with his vision. “Bamboo boards weren’t fashionable eight to 10 years ago, but they’re more fashionable now,” he notes.

When he looks to the horizon, he sees a world of bamboo cars, boats, and all manner of fibre vessels. “And yes, we can build an airplane out of bamboo,” he says, and he’s not entirely joking.

Diamond Head, O’ahu. “This is where I spent my time as a teenager. In the summer you often get nice, not too radical waves when the wind conditions are good.”

North Shore, O’ahu. “You need to know what you’re doing here or you’ll end up doing yourself a serious injury. The wind is very impetuous and changeable and the waves are radical.”

Jaws, off Maui. “These massive waves only rarely appear. For 340 days of the year, you wouldn’t think there were waves there at all, but when they come, they are magnificent.”

Win a pair of Sunwise sunglasses. Click on competitions at www.redbulletin.com

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Day Spots

What’s hot – and cool – as spring approaches

wolrd rookie fest tour 06.03.09 – 08.03.09 On this tour to find the snowboarding champions of tomorrow, the best international freestyle rookies demonstrate their skills in the same conditions that they will face later at pro level.

Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic

European Indoor Athletics Championship 06.03.09 – 08.03.09

Photography: Gepa, Jörg Mitter/Red Bull Photofiles, RutgerPauw.com/Red Bull Photofiles (2)

Top British sprinters Jeanette Kwayke and Craig Pickering will strive for a medal. Kwayke won silver at the 2008 Indoor World Championships in the 60m and Pickering took bronze as part of the British 4 x 100m relay at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka.

Turin, Italy

FC Red Bull Salzburg vs SK Sturm Graz 07.03.09 This Austrian Bundesliga match could be close, but on paper the Red Bulls have the edge – the first two headto-heads between the sides this season have ended 2-2 and 3-1 to Salzburg.

Red Bull Arena, Salzburg

International Duathlon Cup 07.03.09 Difficult conditions await the participants in this gruelling race. Cyclists and runners must be equipped for bitterly cold weather and even deep snow.

Igman, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Brazilian Wakeboard Cup 07.03.09 A high-profile wakeboarding event in the Brazilian sporting

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calendar, featuring many of the country’s top athletes.

Belo Horizonte/Brasília, Brazil

Seattle Sounders FC vs New York Red Bulls 19.03.09 In the first game of the new season, the Red Bulls take on major-league newcomers the Sounders.

Qwest Field, Seattle, USA

Chill and Destroy Tour 07.03.09 The snowboard slopestyle tour makes its stop in the Pongau region. This Swatch TTR 3Star event will challenge even the best rookies with a 12m rail, tree jib and an 18m kicker.

Alpendorf, Austria

Quiksilver King of the Groms 08.03.09 – 09.03.09 Junior surf series designed to help potential future surf legends get noticed. National winners will qualify for the international King of the Groms in France – and the chance of a big surf career.

Cape Town, South Africa

FIS World Cup Skiing 11.03.09 –15.03.09 After the awarding of medals at the World Cup event in Val d’Isère, the cherished large and small crystal globes for the overall titles will be handed out at the World Cup season finale in Sweden. Can Lindsey Vonn repeat her overall triumph of last year? Åre, Sweden

Sailing Week 12.03.09 – 22.03.09 Regatta with 200 boats from Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay competing.

Ilhabela, Brazil

WRC Cyprus Rally 13.03.09 – 15.03.09 After a two-year break, the rally returns as a WRC fixture for 2009. All eyes will be on Sébastien Loeb, who won three times in a row from 2004-6.

Limassol, Cyprus

Camboriú Xtreme 14.03.09 – 15.03.09 Red Bull skateboarder Sandro Dias would love to win this halfpipe contest in front of his home crowd.

Camboriú, Brazil

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Red Bull Tricky Roulette 14.03.09 – 15.03.09

Icespeedway World Cup 07.03.09 – 08.03.09 After four grands prix in Russia, Austrian rider Franky Zorn (see page 20) will now compete a little closer to home as the World Cup rounds five and six will be held in the German capital.

Berlin, Germany

A freeskiing contest with a twist: a roulette wheel picks a trick that each skier must perform with the difficulty level rising each round.

Miss a trick and you’re out!

Czech Republic

Tampa Pro 2009 20.03.09 – 22.03.09 X Games gold medallist Ryan Sheckler leads a field of the best skateboarders into competition.

The street and vert contest has a prize pot of $100,000 and Sheckler will be going for his first win at the annual event.

Florida, USA

Red Bull Whiteout 21.03.09 Eight snowboarding and four freeskiing teams do battle to find out who rules the rails.

Along with well-known Estonian and Scandinavian riders are some Red Bull athletes challenging for the win.

Tallinn, Estonia

Red Bull City Scramble 21.03.09 – 22.03.09 Enduro champion and Red Bull athlete Chris Birch has invited 60 motocross riders to take part in a two-hour race of endurance he has organised. A bespoke track, complete with wood and stone barriers, has been constructed to give a unique backdrop to the event.

Auckland, New Zealand

Food City 500 22.03.09 The NASCAR Sprint Cup moves on to Tennessee, to the ‘world’s fastest half-mile’. The stadium seats 160,000 spectators and has a NASCAR tradition dating back to 1961. The season continues with top drivers including Red Bull team-mates Brian Vickers and Scott Speed.

Bristol Motor Speedway, Tennessee, USA

Red Bull Motorclash 26.03.09 Red Bull Crashed Ice 14.03.09 The toughest race on ice skates reaches the final stage. Athletes speed down the 400m track from Place de la Riponne to Place du Château below.

Lausanne, Switzerland

Car v motorbike, man v man.

Rally champion Sébastien Loeb will take on motocross rider Stefan Everts in a one-off battle.

They’re both used to victory, but there can only be one winner in this unique head-to-head.

Muur Van Geraardsbergen, Belgium

British Snowboarding Championships 28.03.09 – 04.04.09 Either we don’t get a flake of snow in the UK or we get too much to cope with. No problem – Switzerland always has the right amount. The best of British will battle it out on the Swiss slopes, with Milton Keynesborn snowboarder and Red Bull athlete Laura Berry set to be a major contender.

Laax, Switzerland

Formula One – Australian GP 29.03.09 It’s a new season with new rules (see preview page 48). The first grand prix of 2009 will be the first real test of the newlydeveloped cars. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing, and Sébastien Buemi and Sébastien Bourdais for Toro Rosso, will be out to show how far the two Red Bull-backed teams have progressed.

Melbourne, Australia

Atacama Crossing 29.03.09 – 04.04.09 Extreme runner and Red Bull athlete Christian Schiester (see page 18) embarks on the first of the four races in the 4 Deserts.

He and other competitors from around the world will race more than 250km across the Atacama, 1,600m above sea level.

Chile

Red Bull Paper Wings Irish Final 02.04.09 Paper plane-making contest for longest air time and aerobatics.

The winners will make it to Salzburg’s Hangar-7 world finals on May 1 and 2, where winners from 84 other participating countries will be waiting.

University College, Dublin

Red Bull Home Run 03.04.09 The mass-participation mountain race celebrates the last day of the British Snowboarding Championships.

Anyone who thinks they’ve got what it takes can jostle for position at the top of the 1,200m descent. The first to reach the bottom will be crowned 2009 Home Run champion and have ultimate bragging rights at the post-race party.

Laax, Switzerland

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die macht Night der nacht Spots Mehr als einmal umat night, The stars come out diemake Welt sure für alle, so youdie see nie müde them shinewerden. this month

photography: thomas butler, James Pearson-Howes, GEPA, Jörg Mitter/red bull photofiles

Red Bull Bedroom Red Bull Jam 2./6./9./16./20./ Bedroom Jam 23./30.3.2009 2, 6, 9, 16, 20, 23, 30.03.09 Young Bands Junge bands have habentheir wieder chance die Mögto get lichkeit ihre noticed by uploading Performances performances auf www. redbullbedroomjam.com to www.redbullbedroomjam.com. upzuloaden.

Die Fans Votes cast bestimmen by their fans durch decide ihr Voting a den Sieger, weekly winner, als Belohnung who will then winkt haveein aprofessionell live performance gestreamter professionally Live-Gig. streamed across the internet, Jeremy Jay gig. creating a virtual 5.3.2009 UK Jeremy Jay ist eine Mischung aus Jeremy Jay Geschichtenerzähler, Künstler und 05.03.09 Sänger. Mit seiner 2009 erschieneJeremy JayLove is a storyteller, nen Single Everlastingartist tourt and singer combined.

In 2008, Jeremy heuer noch durch Europa, he released his debut album und USA, Australien, Neuseeland A Place Where We Could entitled Großbritannien. . This year hasÖsterreich already Go FlucOnWanne, Wien, seen him release his single Love Clara Everlasting Motoand embark 5.3.2009 on his current world tour.

ClaraWanne, Fluc Moto zählt Vienna, zu den Austria neuen Gesichtern der österreichischen Clara Moto Elektronikszene und veröffentlicht 05.03.09 ihre Platten auf dem Label des franBrought upSzene-Stars with live jazz and In zösischen Agoria. classical studies,kombiniert Clara Motosie ihren DJ- piano und Livesets in now one of the newest Minimal, Microhouse undfaces Electronica on Austrian scene.

Rexthe Club, Paris,electronic Frankreich Appearances at last year’s Sonar Dorian Concept and Montreux festivals saw her 6.3.2009 dubbed the ‘princess of minimal’ Derthe Wiener Elektroniker for unusual eleganceund andKlangkünstler, der Einflüsse wie Elecfemininity of viele her blend of minimal, tronica, Jazz,and HipHop und Funk kommicro-house electronica.

Rex Club, Paris, France biniert, gilt als vielversprechendes Talent der heimischen Musikszene.

Dorian Concept Tate Modern, London, UK

06.03.09 The FISViennese Skisprung keyboard Weltcup wizard 7.3.2009 and Red Bull Music Academy Das letzte Teamspringen auf einer participant has many influences Großschanze in dieser Könfrom electro and jazz toSaison. hip-hop nen beim Schlieri, Morand jungle,Nachtbewerb and is getting his gi undknown Co erneut einen name around theErfolg worldlanden?

Tate Modern, London, England Lahti, Finnland

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hypnotic brass ensemble The jazz and hip-hop group have practised and practised their way to Carnegie Hall (see page 93 for details) – via a special gig in London. Read more about their UK trip on pages 92-3.

Red Bull X-Fighters 27.03.09 Local challengers have the chance to take on their heroes – eight of the world’s top motocross riders. Flips, jumps and gravity-defying tricks will ensure all eyes are on the sky.

Mexico City, Mexico

Event d. M. 2009 Met ilisi ex elenibh euis nulla acilismodo exero odolor ipit ver nos adit at nulla nibh et atie.

Location

Event d. M. 2009 Met ilisi ex elenibh euis nulla acilismodo exero odolor ipit ver senim in eu facilla cor summodo nos adit nibh et nulla atie.

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FIS Ski Jumping World Cup 07.03.09 There are two more contests over the next two days in Lahti, not to mention more at Kuopio after that, but this one will be for a night-time audience.

Lahti, Finland

THE BAYS 06.03.09 The improvised music of The Bays is tailored to the crowd and can only be heard live, as the UK collective don’t rehearse or record in a studio, true to their slogan, ‘Performance is product’.

Expect anything from reggae and funk to hip-hop and house.

Concorde 2, Brighton, England

FIS Snowboard Big Air 07.03.09 The snowboard season is coming to an end, but there’s still time for a massive spectacle in the middle of a world metropolis. Sports fans in Russia will be able to cheer the winner of the Big Air tournament, as well as the new World Cup victors.

Moscow, Russia

I LOVE IBIZA 07.03.09 The party atmosphere of the Mediterranean island is captured many miles away in Styria. Now in its fourth year, this clubbing highlight is hosted by DJ Paulette, who makes sure the right beats keep coming.

Dom im Berg, Graz, Austria

The Prodigy 08.03.09 Seemingly no closer to settling down and taking up stamp-collecting, the Prodigy will hit Vienna with a customary bang. Expect all the classics, which still sound as fresh today as when they got their first club airing, along with material from their new album Invaders Must Die. Gasometer, Vienna, Austria

Franz Ferdinand 09.03.09

SKY LARKIN 06.03.09 As well as leaving the UK for Norway, the Leeds outfit will hit the SXSW Festival in the United States this month. Read about their crowd-pleasing Yorkshire homecoming gig on page 90.

The Garage, Oslo, Norway

The Scottish rockers are back with a European Tour for 2009.

Hammersmith Apollo, London, England

Peter Fox feat.

Cold Steel 09.03.09 Peter Fox and the Cold Steel drummers, from North Carolina, play music from album Stadtaffe.

Gasometer, Vienna, Austria

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World’s Top clubs Red Violin Melbourne

Highly Strung This bar offers a classy postpaddock rendezvous spot as the Grand Prix season kicks off in Melbourne this month Melbourne has a well-earned reputation for owning Australia’s finest bar culture – it’s an essential part of the city’s landscape as a cosmopolitan hub, and the quality of the bars leads rival establishments to push each other to new heights. Nowhere else across the wide expanse of the country will you find an area so good for drinking, socialising and generally having a good time than in the diverse environment of Melbourne.

It’s with this in mind that you head into Red Violin, which would almost be too easy to discount at first glance as just another one of M-Town’s many classy-looking bars.

A velvet rope, plush scarlet stairs and antique wall-detailing greet you before you reach the wide-open loft space that is, unsurprisingly, mostly coloured a dazzling red. The club’s name was obviously taken literally as an interior design motif, and the inherent elegance that goes with the association is also reflected in its smooth, dark, violinlike recesses. But the most alluring parts of Red Violin are the many antique sofas, the imposing bar and its burnished beer taps, and, of course, the people.

Lounges and the DJ dominate the first floor, with fairly easygoing ‘lounge-house’ on offer on the decks. In this environment, it’s easy to slip into a deep-seated plush sofa and spend hours in conversation, nursing a glass and watching the diverse sea of people moving through the bar.

Upstairs, however, there’s something of a party going on – a selection of uptempo commercial dance, house, R ’n’ B and other cool tunes provide a good mix, and, judging by a well-populated dancefloor, it seems that this is exactly the kind of thing that the audience want to hear.

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The most striking facet of Red Violin – outside of the fact that it’s open late every night of the week – is the amazing range of its clientele. This particular strength means that, despite having only been operating for a couple of years in its heart-of-the-city Bourke Street location, Red Violin mixes strangers and regulars very well.

While Melbourne’s bar scene may be diverse, it can lead to cultural isolation, and the downside of this is that many of the city’s clubbers tend to stick to favourites, which can make for cliques and an unwelcoming atmosphere for newcomers. But Red Violin’s relaxed comfort and across-the-board chill make it a haven for all kinds of people, no matter what their age, race, class or social station. In being simply a beautiful yet tranquil bar, it makes the vibe of the place, even on a busy Saturday night, casual and almost soothing, yet also a lot of fun.

Discover more about Red Violin at the official website: www.redviolin.com.au

School Of Seven Bells 12.03.09 The American band, named after a mythical South American training academy for pickpockets, consists of musicians Benjamin Curtis and twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, who met while all were opening for band Interpol.

Flex, Vienna, Austria

GoldieLocks Live 12.03.09 The Croydon-based rapper and producer is now becoming well established in the genres of electro, hip-hop and garage. The former Red Bull Music Academy participant will be joined by hip-hoppers Crazy Cousinz and London’s MC Bashy.

RWD in Stereo, Cargo, London, England

Buraka Som Sistema 12.03.09 The Portuguese Kudora formation, whose 2009 single Kalemba from the album Black Diamond went to number two in the Portuguese charts, continue their European tour before heading to Japan and the USA. Wonka, Amnesia, Milan, Italy

Red Bull Music Academy 12.03.09 – 15.03.09 The Red Bull Music Academy Showcase hits Portugal for a four-day festival. Dub minimalist Deadbeat, electronic artist Patrick Pulsinger and DJ Kaspar will all be descending on Lisbon and Porto with their bags of vinyl and synthesisers.

Lisbon/Porto, Portugal

You Me At Six 13.03.09

Words: Jaymz clements. photography: daniel mahon

Unlike many Melbourne venues, Red Violin is free of cliques and welcomes all-comers, leading to a cosmopolitan atmosphere in its bar areas and lounges, and on its heavily-populated dancefloors

The Surrey rockers embark on their first headlining tour after a successful 2008, which saw them release their debut album Take Off Your Colours and receive a Kerrang! Awards nomination for Best British Band.

Roundhouse, London, England

ChloE & Kill the DJ Posse 13.03.09 The Tilt electro night will be devoted to French artist DJ Chloé and the Kill the DJ posse, along with electro-master Dave Clarke.

Tilt Festival, Perpignan, France

Str©m.Club – Get.Electrified = 1 13.03.09 Catering for those who appreciate good electro, British electronewcomers The Whip will be joined

by DJs Korrelator and Indikator, and DJ Beware (see page 91).

Fluc Wanne, Vienna, Austria

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FIS Ski Jumping World Cup 13.03.09 The Nordic tournament moves from Finland to Norway and the site of the 1994 Winter Olympics, with another eagerly awaited night-time World Cup contest on the 138m jump.

Lillehammer, Norway

Jamie Woon 13.03.09 At a night celebrating music and the spoken word, Jamie Woon will be creating his soul/rock sound with a new band. Headlining are Swedish soul/electro outfit Little Dragon.

Jazz Café, Camden, London, England

Rock Renaissance 14.03.09 Music, fashion and photography will combine in celebration of one of the oldest working rock ’n’ roll photographers, Joe Bangay. Jade Jagger, The Kooks and The Neon Empire will be among the guests performing and paying homage.

London, England

SXSW 13.03.09 – 22.03.09 The SXSW (‘South By South West’) is a music, film and interactive festival with around 1,800 music acts, film-maker conferences and the latest media technology. At the 23rd edition of the unique music event, grime queen Goldielocks, UK up-and-comers Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds, and Leeds threesome Sky Larkin are among those making the trip to the deep south.

Austin, Texas, USA

Hot Chip DJ Set 14.03.09 The London electro-pop outfit take their collection of relentless, infectious beats on tour.

Fluc Wanne, Vienna, Austria

DJ Storm 14.03.09 DJ Storm, aka Jayne Conneely, has been at the forefront of the drum ’n’ bass movement for years, first with her late DJ partner and best friend, Kemistry, and then with Goldie as part of Metalheadz.

Hafen, Innsbruck, Austria

Snow Patrol 14.03.09 –16.03.09 The British rock band have now been around for 10 years, but are still going strong with the release last year of their fifth album A Hundred Million Suns.

O2 Arena, London, England

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Green Room Sky LArkin

Larkin About in Leeds Backstage with the Yorkshire trio as they return home “I’ve been coming here to watch bands since I was 15,” says Sky Larkin’s Katie Harkin, a little overwhelmed as the band take to the stage for a hard-earned encore. Though they’ve been together since 2005, this marks a turning point for them – it’s one of the last shows before their debut album, The Golden Spike, is released, it’s the end of their first real headlining tour and they’re playing in their home town of Leeds. Little wonder that the band seem stunned by the rapturous reaction.

Cut to earlier, and the band are finishing soundcheck while staff at Leeds’ Brudenell Social Club clear up ahead of the gig. The social club is one of the city’s finest venues – a tiny working men’s club, complete with brass and burgundy trimmings, which has seen gigs by the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs. The men in the back room sip their pints and watch the football, completely unmoved by any of the fuss.

But Sky Larkin are excited to be home.

They’ve been touring almost solidly since

September and tonight is a special occasion.

Drummer Nestor Matthews’ mum is coming, while Katie will later compare the crowd to her Facebook friend-list. And, as bassist Doug Adams points out, “We’re excited because it’s the Brudenell.” It means something.

The venue has tiny dressing rooms, but as there are three bands on tonight, Sky Larkin are hanging out in a strange little room behind the pool hall, filled with social club relics like a giant charity cheque from 1990 and an enormous stuffed bear. Though they’re not into pre-show rituals, there’s stretching to be done (Nestor) and a support band, Pulled Apart By Horses, to watch. “Last night in Brighton, these guys shouted, ‘F*** yeah!’ when we were playing. And James [PABH guitarist] thought they’d said, ‘F*** you!’ So he went up to them and said, ‘You can’t talk to her like that…’ They’re like my brothers,” says Katie. She films them “for the rockumentary”, dances like a superfan and then, after a beer, heads backstage and gets ready to headline.

Though Katie and Doug admit they are nervous, they’re strident, loud and spectacular on stage. When they launch into old single Molten, the room is full of dancing.

There’s a brief blast of an encore, then a proper stage invasion and much giddiness from the crowd when it’s all over. “This is the best I’ve ever seen them,” one satisfied punter grins. “When we played in London last week, it was our biggest headline show, and the head of our record label came up to us and said, ‘If 10 people show up, don’t worry. It happens to everyone.’ And there were 350 people there,” says Katie. “Afterwards, we sat backstage and went, ‘Yessss.’” That’s a feeling Sky Larkin should get used to.

For cartoons, photos, gig information and much more fun stuff about Sky Larkin, visit www.weareskylarkin.com

Sky Larkin grin and bear it backstage at the Brudenell

Beware has both an insider’s and outsider’s view of Hong Kong

Resident Artist Dj Beware

Delta Force

words: rebecca Nicholson, dj beware. photography: james pearson-howes, dj beware

Hong Kong still has a pretty generic club scene, but this group of islands in the mouth of the Pearl River Delta does harbour some hidden gems for true clubbers, says one of its native leading lights “Hong Kong is the city that never sleeps. You can cop a new pair of sneakers from Mong Kok at midnight, have a proper meal in a Central restaurant at three in the morning, or even get a foot massage in Wan Chai at 4am. I mean, there’s this record-digging spot in Sham Shui Po – basically an apartment full of records owned by a funny character named Paul – which is open from 11.30 at night till 5am. After that, the first MTR subway trains start running again and the early birds are up doing their morning exercises.

“When I’m back home, I stay at my parents’ in Tsuen Wan, which is a bit of a way from the main downtown areas. I used to hate living there – it was a bit grimy and it always took ages to get home after a gig. Now that I’ve been living in Europe for more than 10 years, I appreciate it much more. It’s good to have a place to escape the hustle and bustle.

“The scene has changed very much from when I started playing in clubs in the ’90s. The

whole club culture at that time has influenced me very much in the way that I approach my music now. Clubs used to have a very diverse policy to cater to the different groups of people from all over the world who would come down and party at the same spot. You would hear everything from hip-hop to disco, reggae soul to house, pop to rock, ’90s dance to Miami bass… When that whole ‘mash-up’ thing came in that people like Erol Alkan and 2 Many DJs were doing a few years back, I was thinking to myself that they must have gone to Hong Kong for a holiday, been to a couple of clubs, heard what we Hong Kong DJs were doing, taken the idea, improved on it, developed it, and then taken it back to Europe to create the mash-up.

“Since Hong Kong is a commercial city, it probably comes as no surprise that most of the clubs play popular US rap music. It’s not that I’m not a fan of Lil Wayne or Beyoncé, but it would be nice not to hear all the same tunes in every club on a night out. You can’t even blame it on the DJs either, because the club owners or promoters give them grief if they catch a DJ playing a tune that’s not going off. In recent years, clubs have been coming and going – the ‘hot’ spots change every six months to a year, so most club owners are just interested in making as much dough as they can in a short period of time.

“However, it’s not all about Popping Bottles and diamond chains, and there are a handful of clubs and nights that try to push the envelope and deliver something

different to Hong Kong clubbers. There’s a small but wicked dubstep night called Heavy at Sammi’s Kitchen, which also puts on more alternative hip-hop nights once in a while.

Kongkretebass.com, a website with an online blog and a podcast (‘Kongkast’), also do club nights promoting drum ’n’ bass. There’s a tiny bar in Central called Yumla, something of an institution in promoting dance and electronic music of all sorts in Hong Kong, and on a larger and more upmarket scale, there’s Volar, a pretty upmarket club that has been bringing over quality international acts from the house and electro scene in the last year or so.

“I only get to play in Hong Kong once or twice a year now. My favourite gig of recent times was last Christmas at this new club called Cliq. Man Recordings boss Daniel Haaksman and I, with lots of help from DJs Kid Fresh and Enso, were able to do a fantastic ‘Man Recordings meets Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy’ night at the club. I think this was the first time most of the party people on the night got to hear baile funk, kuduru and kwaito mixed up with house, techno and hip-hop. I was a bit nervous about whether people would be feeling it, and it was a bit of a challenge earlier on in the night. By 2am, the whole club was packed with people going nuts over tunes most of them had never heard before, like Mujava’s Township Funk. Things like that just don’t happen in Hong Kong very often.”

For more, check out DJ Beware’s music, pictures, blog and other information on his official website at www.alivenotdead.com/djbeware

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Night Crawler HYPNOTIC Brass Ensemble

Hypno Therapy Punters and cabbies rejoice as Jay-Z’s favourite brass band do a little pre-gig busking in east London It’s five o’clock in the afternoon and London’s Cargo club is playing host to all nine members of Chicago-born, Brooklyn-dwelling Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, their friends, family and children, a substantial backstage crew and some very large instruments. Tonight the event will draw in 800 fans, keen to catch a rare British performance and planned collaboration with Afrobeat legend Tony Allen.

Right now, it’s chaos. Gabriel Hubert, the trumpeter also known as Hudah, is not fazed.

“We’re cool,” he drawls, as journalists and cameramen shift him from one place to the next. “We’re free and easy.”

That attitude should keep them sane through 2009, which promises to be the biggest year of their decade-long existence.

They’ve already played with Mos Def and Erykah Badu in recent years and call the likes of Kanye West and Jay-Z huge fans. Straight after tonight’s show, they’re travelling to Paris for yet another gig, before returning to the UK to record with Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn. But for now, they’ve decided to escape the madness of venue preparations, unplug their already-soundchecked instruments and head out into the street for one of the busking sessions that, as much as anything, have helped make their name.

They position themselves against a graffiti-covered red wall underneath one of east London’s many railway arches and quickly tune up. Already, the sonorous acoustics begin to warm the freezing winter air, even though it’s so cold that some band members are visibly shivering. Their initial notes attract a small crowd, which swells once they launch into the majestic Satin Sheets. (“It’s the first song we ever wrote together, back in ’99,” Gabriel explains later.) In five minutes, 30 people have gathered. The band have their eyes tightly closed, moving in perfectly co-ordinated time to the song, which sounds enormous. The arches amplify the 92

deep bass of the sousaphone and pick out the melodies of the trumpets with perfect clarity.

Surprised onlookers take out cameras and phones to capture the moment. Even a cabby, forced to slow to a crawl so as not to hit the band or spectators, stops for a second and dances in his seat, beaming at the sounds he can hear. If this is what five minutes of a last-minute street performance can do, tonight promises to be spectacular.

After enthusiastic applause and a shoutout for the band’s website – “You’ve been listening to Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – that’s Hypnotic Brass-dot-net,” they yell – the band head inside for a bite to eat and a break from the madness. They gather on the club’s leather sofas to talk about tonight’s main event. There are pockets of discussion about whether to busk again when there are paying punters in the venue, whether to do it inside the foyer or back out on the street; there are conversations about women, about a lack of vegetarian food, about how they’ll work out their collaboration with Allen. Then, one by one, they drift off back to the hotel.

Three hours later and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble are standing outside underneath the same railway arches, only this time they’re watching a heaving crowd at the doors of the club. There’s pleading over the guestlist and with the bouncers as people jostle to get into tonight’s sold-out show, put on by Karen P’s Broad Casting and Red Bull Music Academy Radio Presents.

Only a handful seem to notice that they’re smoking and joking around with Albarn.

When the audience are finally inside, they file into the foyer and, against the door of the gents’, start to play.

People begin to realise that while they’ve been waiting for the band to take to the stage, there’s a mini-performance happening right here for the lucky few who turned up in time to squeeze themselves into the tiny space, mostly filled by the Brass Ensemble themselves. Magic happens as slack-jawed amazement gives way to ecstatic dancing and cheering. They may only play one song, but it’s enough to guarantee the love of the entire audience before they’ve even taken a bow.

As they disappear backstage, the spectators turn to each other, all grinning like the cabby who passed by earlier in the afternoon. “Did you just see that?” Ahmad Dayes, from London, asks his friend. He’s more than impressed. “I’ve been checking out their stuff on YouTube, but this is even better,” he says. “This band are exactly what we need right now.” When the Ensemble step out onto the tiny stage, which barely looks like it will hold all nine of them, 800 people whoop and cheer in agreement.

Catch the whole night on Red Bull Music Academy Radio, tune in at redbullmusicacademyradio.com

The ensemble’s word-of-mouth busking performances are, as much as anything, responsible for their rising popularity among fans and the music world elite

More Body & Mind

Lily Allen 16.03.09 Ms Allen is now on tour and sharing her new album It’s Not Me, It’s You with the masses.

O2 Arena, Dublin, Ireland

Joachim Garraud 20.03.09 The successful French house producer and DJ Joachim Garraud joins top international DJ Laidback Luke to guest-star at the Stargate Club Session.

Volksgarten, Vienna, Austria

Night of the Jumps 21.03.09 – 22.03.09 The freestyle motocross world championship begins for 2009 with riders performing the death-defying mid-air manoeuvres that give the series its name.

O2 Arena, Berlin, Germany

Gerd Janson with Soundstream 21.03.09 Gerd Janson is one of the hottest talents on the German house music circuit, mixing deep house, garage and disco tracks from a range of decades.

Zukunft, Zurich, Switzerland

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble 22.03.09 A chance to hear the ‘hypnotic’ sound of the brass pioneers bringing hip-hop and jazz together.

The family group has a growing international following, so arrive early for this chance to see them for free, and at Carnegie Hall.

New York, USA

Words: Rebecca Nicholson. photography: thomas butler

Skull Disco Swiss Tour 26.03.09 – 28.03.09 London Dubstep outfit Skull Disco are performing together for the last time at a former factory in the heart of Geneva. Appleblim, Shackleton and Necta Selecta will deal out the bassheavy beats that have become their signature sound.

Le Zoo, Geneva, Switzerland

Snowbombing Mayrhofen 29.03.09 – 04.04.09 The ‘greatest show on snow’ won’t disappoint in 2009.

Acts braving the cold include Fabio & Grooverider, London Elektricity, Scratch Perverts, Zinc, Skream, Benga, Greg Wilson and many more.

Mayrhofen, Austria

93

more body & mind

Bull’s Eye

illustrations: www.cartoonstock.com, dietmar kainrath

Red tape, office politics and shrinking salaries aren’t much to laugh about, but some people can still see the funny side of work

94

INSIDE THE WORLD OF RED BULL

From orphanage to the living rooms of Britain’s most celebrated bands, Hewitt reflects on how a certain band called Oasis changed his life

I boarded the silver train in Surrey and woke up in Tufnell Park, in north London. It was 1978, September-time.

I was 21 years old and had just spent eight years in an orphanage. Save for two half-sisters I had yet to connect to, I had arrived in London with nothing. I had no family, no roots, no identity and no money. I only had one thing on my side and that was an ambition, a bright, all-consuming ambition, to write for the New Musical Express.

I was obsessed with the NME, and had been for years. To me, NME writers were the most glamorous people in the world. They were hip and sharp, and I imagined shooting the breeze in the office and then going home to spend all night at the typewriter, producing wonderful articles that the world would devour that week.

This daydream had its roots in the day my schoolfriend Enzo Esposito first showed me the NME. I was 14 years old, and because life for me had been cruel, music and books had become my only refuge. Through those two art forms – and another called football – I escaped the horror of my childhood.

When I picked up that first copy of the NME, I suddenly held something in my hands that brought together my two big obsessions – music and words – wonderfully. I was hooked.

The two main writers at that point were Charles Shaar Murray and Nick Kent. But it was when Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill joined the NME in 1976 that I actually began thinking I could realise my dream.

Parsons in particular was highly important to me. He had a distinct writing style, bags of attitude, an enviable cleverness and good musical taste, but also, above all, he had come from nowhere to land the job.

Murray and Kent were great writers, but I never identified with them in the way that I did with Parsons. He came from a world I knew, and he made me believe that if he could land one of the most prestigious jobs in my world, then maybe there was a chance for me.

I knew then that it was imperative I get to London, so I enrolled in a college course in the capital.

The first thing I did when I arrived at college was join the weekly paper, which was called Fuse. I wrote album and gig reviews for them and interviewed any bands that came to play. I spent some of my time at college lectures, but it was writing for this paper, and buying my copy of the NME every Tuesday at Camden Town underground

Illustration: Adam Pointer

An Oasis Odyssey A story by Paolo Hewitt

More Body & Mind station, that remained of the utmost importance in my life at college.

Then, it happened. One Tuesday lunchtime, I arrived at Camden Town to discover that the news stall had sold out of the NME. I stood for five minutes at the counter, badgering the woman who served there.

“So, you’ve got none left whatsoever?”

I asked despairingly. “Not even one?

Maybe there are some at the back.”

“Love, for the 10th time…”

There was only one thing for it. I had to have some kind of fix, however bad.

So, I bought Melody Maker, considered the squarest musical rag in circulation, and went home disconsolately.

Once there, I opened up the paper, and the first thing I saw was an advert: ‘Young writers wanted. Apply to Richard Williams, Melody Maker Editor.’

I stared at the advert for a bit. Then I collected up all the articles I had written for Fuse and posted them off.

The next afternoon, I got a call – it was from Melody Maker. Would I like to come in for an interview the next night? After saying yes, I put the phone down in disbelief and let the call sink in.

I arrived at the MM offices in Waterloo the next day more nervous than I had ever been in my life. Richard kept me waiting for about 20 minutes and then invited me into his office. I sat down in front of him and looked up. There, high above him, was a picture of the Italian football team from 1970.

“Do you like football?” I enquired.

“Oh yes, very much,” he replied. “You?” And that was it – we were off, talking about Italy (I am half-Italian), Spurs and the season in general. Within half an hour, he had commissioned me to start writing live reviews for Melody Maker. I went home in a daze.

My first review appeared in June, 1979, and my workload grew from there. Then in 1980, Melody Maker’s staff went on strike and, when it was all sorted, job vacancies appeared.

I was offered a staff job. Unable to believe my luck, I quit college and joined up. I had a monthly wage, all the music I could handle and the lifestyle I had dreamed about.

In 1983, I was asked by Paul Weller to write The Jam’s official biography.

Both Weller and I were from the same town, and since I’d joined Melody Maker we had become close friends.

I knew that Weller liked the NME’s Deputy Editor, Tony Stewart. I asked Tony to edit the book, knowing that this would bring me into the NME’s orbit. This proved to be another

“The first thing I saw was an advert: ‘Young writers wanted. Apply to Richard Williams, Melody Maker Editor’” fateful opening. Within six months, I was a staff writer at the NME. I was 25 years old and, against all the odds, I had finally achieved my dream.

I spent six very enjoyable years at the NME. I interviewed musicians I adored, including Stevie Wonder. I strongly promoted hip-hop and acid house music, and travelled the world for free, ending up in Tokyo, New York, LA and most of the European capitals.

It was an amazing time, but one thing would bug me now and again. Every so often, I would become convinced that the publishers knew I was an orphan and that’s why I had got the job. Despite my success and hard work, I could never quite reconcile myself to the fact that it was my efforts that had put me there.

In 1990, I left the NME. The paper had changed considerably and so had I, and I needed a new dream, which was how writing books became my obsession. Then, in 1994, a friend of mine suggested we check out this new band from Manchester…

Their name was Oasis. After the gig, I met Noel Gallagher. He knew my name from NME days. The next week, he called me up – it was the start of a great friendship. Shortly afterwards, Noel moved near me, to a flat in Camden, which I later described as ‘being so much smaller than his fame’.

It soon became clear that Noel and I were on the same wavelength, with football, The Beatles, the ’60s, clothes, a belief in UFOs, and a liking for lots of humour – usually of the pisstaking variety – binding us together.

We both had troubled backgrounds, something we chose to acknowledge, but never played on (Noel’s father beat him as a child before leaving the family home for good). Instead, Noel poked fun at the world and poked fun at himself. When things started to slip a little for the band later on, he gave me a book for Christmas and signed it, ‘Noel Gallagher – Former Most Important Man In Rock’.

Everything was so relaxed then.

I remember Loaded ringing me up one day, desperate for anything on Oasis.

Could I help? I called Noel, and a week later I delivered a lengthy interview with

him to their editor. Loaded put Noel on the cover and his record company, Creation Records, went mad. All the exclusives they had promised had just been blown out of the water. “If this album doesn’t sell,” a press officer wrote to me, “it will be your fault.”

(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? sold 11 million copies – happy days.

The gigs then were really special, too.

There is no more thrilling time for a band than the journey up to stardom, and this wasn’t just a band making it, it was a phenomenon. Oasis brought ‘sex and drugs and rock ’n’ roll’ back to pure rock ’n’ roll. This band were dangerous, turbulent and out of control.

Their music was huge and beautiful, and it remained so because every day was an adventure for Oasis, and every day was a new experience.

In 1995, I asked Noel if I could write a biography of the band. He agreed. I spent the next three months talking to all kinds of people, reading everything I could get my hands on.

Then, in the January of 1996, I closed my flat door to the world and didn’t open it again until November of that year. By that time, I had a book that ran to 125,000 words. I called it Getting High in honour of the writer Nick Tosches, and on its release in 1997 it received amazing reviews.

I knew I had made a breakthrough – that I had created something I would always remain extremely proud of. Then fame, fortune and money intervened.

I soon began to lose contact with Noel, and with the passing of time our friendship eventually petered out.

I don’t look back in anger. I have those wonderful days in my heart, but, more importantly, I hold the knowledge that I had realised my ambitions against all the odds –from absolutely nowhere, this young dreamer really had arrived somewhere. And all because, one week in Camden Town, he had been unable to buy the NME. Go figure.

About the author

Since writing The Jam: A Beat Concerto in 1983, Paolo Hewitt has written almost 20 books, including the novel Heaven’s Promise about the ’90s acid house scene. He has also co-written The Mumper, a story about south London chancers and a racehorse, which is now a short film. paolo.hewitt.googlepages.com 97

Mind’s Eye

Going Around the Block Stephen Bayley tries to explain what it’s like when the screen is blank and the words just won’t…

Writer’s block is a sort of Hell – my crippling, lifelong struggle with it has brought you here and got me, at last, but only after some agony, to the very end of this, the crucial first sentence.

Not a lot is certain about this debilitating – possibly imaginary – condition. In fact, the only evidence of its existence are the howls of misery from self-diagnosed sufferers. It’s something you feel yourself, rather than something observed by another.

So I suppose, as such, it’s all fundamental to the solitary and lonely and madly egotistical task of being a writer.

But one of the few things that is certain about writer’s block is that the big obstacle is simply starting. Once you have done that crucial first sentence, a sense of muscle-relaxing relief and possibly a small smile of contentment replace tight shoulders, rolling eyeballs, wringing hands and grinding teeth. It is strange that, like so many things in life (including saying “sorry”), it is very difficult to do, but marvellous when you have. And we never learn from experience just… to do it.

Anyway, here I go, and so much so that I feel at pains to tell you some of the devices I use as displacement activity when I sense the solemn constipation of blockage in my system. I rearrange the pencils and Pilot G-Tec-C4 microball pens on my desk. I answer emails I would otherwise have binned. I check references in a spurious fit of scholarship.

I get up and go to the window. I check emails again, just in case. I promise

myself I’ll be more inspired a little later.

I make espresso. Maybe I’ll see if the world news is a stimulant, so I go to BBC Online and read stories headlined ‘Study reveals shocking health risk of kebabs’ and ‘New coalition talks for Iceland’. I go for a pee. All these things I have done in the last 10 minutes. Then I write that first sentence. And, oh yes, then I check the emails yet again.

All writers fear that one day the words just might not come. And since the brain chemistry governing the mysterious processes of selecting and deploying words in a meaningful order is not at all understood, even by brain scientists with white coats and MRI scanners, that fear is very hard to dissipate.

How do you know when you have writer’s block? It used to be when you threaded a sheet of alarmingly white and empty A4 into a typewriter and stared at it in terror. Now you stare at a luminescent screen instead. The only difference today is that the Devil has given us word-processing software which actually adds humiliation to the existing pain. The metrics of your inadequacy

are there as a stigma on the toolbar: top right, the seconds whizzing past; bottom dead centre, a wordcount. For a blocked writer, here is a horrible numerical equivalent to the humiliation of erectile dysfunction. You have to do 800 words by 15:00 – you have done 000 and it is already 14:15. (Excuse me, I must just check my emails a moment.)

Most optimistically, writer’s block might be understood as a sort of proud professionalism vested in the belief that the piece will be better if you leave it until later – give yourself more time to plan. That is delusional. Dizzy Gillespie said the professional is the guy who can do it twice. In writing, the professional is the guy who can do it the once.

There are tricks you can play on yourself to ease a blockage. Because of the paramount importance of that first sentence, there’s a reluctance to commit.

So, start with the second paragraph and promise yourself you’ll write a new beginning later. So was that my original first sentence? Possibly not.

Sometimes writers use alcohol to connect with their muse. Certainly, the 17th-century poet Andrew Marvell drank copious amounts of wine in his hut by the Humber. Byron wrote everything on “hock and seltzer”, but drink, I find, tends to confirm all the indulgent procrastinatory deceits already attendant on the condition. Creative writing courses often suggest listening to music, but even as wallpaper I find it disturbing – the acoustic waves seem to disturb and lock the brainwaves. In fact, any form of noise is distracting – workmen with high-speed whining drills next door especially so.

My best starting advice is this: just get some words down, whatever they are.

Don’t be humble – you’re not that great.

Nothing ever reads better than a frank account of what you are seeing. Then, as Ernest Hemingway knew, bring whatever you are writing today to a neat conclusion. You have not, Hemingway said, and I think quite correctly, finished the day’s work unless you know exactly where to start tomorrow. That’s simple, but profound.

But my very best advice? A Boeing 737-800. Away from everything familiar, exciting, possibly even scary, but with few banal distractions, FL37 is a mere seven miles above the ground – but it is Writer’s Heaven.

The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bulletin GmbH. Publisher and editor-in-chief Norman Howell Executive Editor Anthony Rowlinson Associate Editor Paul Wilson Contributing Editor Andreas Tzortzis CHief Sub-editor Nancy James Production Editor Rebecca Eling Photo Editor Susie Forman Deputy Photo Editor Catherine Shaw design Miles English, James Greenhow, Phil Slade Contributors Tom Hall, Ruth Morgan Production Manager Adam Carbajal Deputy Production Manager Lee Laughton Web Manager Will Radford w w . sAdmin a l z bAssistant u r g . c o Sarah m Chief web Editor Paul Keith Web Editor Tom Howell Office Manager Kate w Robson Thompson. The Red Bulletin is published simultaneously in Austria, the UK and Germany on the first Tuesday of every month. UK office: 14 soho square, london W1D 3QG, +44 20 7434-8600. Austrian office: Heinrich-Collin-StrASSE 1, A-1140 Vienna, +43 1 90221-28800.

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