The Union Tapes

Im guessing a lot of people out there may not be too familiar with the name Chris Hamer? But he's a name that was on my original list of guests, I finally got to sit down with Chris and his life long friend Zach Shaw in the late summer. Chris has been there and done a lot more than most will know. Although featured in a few magazines over the years he's always been fairly under the radar of BMX media. This interview goes in a few different directions, as usual we start at the boom period of BMX when Chris resided in Yorkshire jumping around the local track then building his own quarter in the Yorkshire hills. Moving into the more core times of the late 80s, being influenced by the street pioneers and meeting other crews f riders as things dwindled down to the dedicated few. By the late 80s he was part of the Manchester scene and the few remaining guys from around those areas-Jon Taylor, Stef Evans, Graham Critch, Jim Tomlinson, Paul Harrison and a frequently visiting southerner Zach Shaw, that were turning BMX in to a more cultural movement. Later opening the infamous Sheep store with Paul Harrison in the early 90's. Delve into this one, its quite a wild ride. And Chris has ridden through out the ups and downs of all the era's of BMX, and has strong views on most of it.

FBM team rider Ryan Corrigan was in the UK, yet again-for the recent annual Boyley Jam in Hastings recently. We knew he had a storied life so took the opportunity to get him in the chair and find out the some of the stories. Ryan has visited the UK many times over the years, partied, on multiple tours and events, shooting pics for magazines and just cruising around London more often than you'd think. As usual we take it from his earliest BMX and punk rock days in Arkansas to moving to Austin, early sponsors, recent sponsors and follow it right through and up to todays BMX sessions, he still rides BMX now, travels and builds ramps as a day job.

Theres not many people who fit in this bracket, Mark Noble first started in BMX magazine publication business when he began contributing photos and writing to a lost and dwindling publication, Freestyle BMX in 1986, saying that, BMX was lost and dwindling at that time. The publishers gave up the magazine and the Nobles, 2 young BMX riders took the reigns, with virtually no budget, very few advertisers, a couple grains of know how and no audience they some how managed to put a monthly magazine out of BMX Freestyle, Racing and Skateboarding for a few years. In 89 Freestyle shed what was left of the very 80s looking Freestyle BMX title and turned into Invert magazine, which featured more of the same but with a more feel and grit to it. As BMX started its slow rebuild, Invert eventually evolved into Ride UK, solely BMX with content from around the world. Shortly after that the publishing company 4130 started releasing other titles, and a family run company grew into something stronger than they'd imagined, eventually being bought by some idiotic venture capitalists who bought every core magazine in the uk and managed to run almost every one of them into ruin . We cover this whole journey right up to current day, and the release of Marks highly praised Emulsion book, a select collection of Marks BMX pics from 1987 to 2003, which came out a few years back.

Crandall has lived a BMX life, you probably heard about it before? But you wouldn't have heard most of these topics. Cause I havent and I listen to most BMX audio out there. The Cran man could definitely be considered a 'Lord of fun' as one of their old t shirt slogans used to say. I wanted to know the in's and out's of FBM, one of my favourite BMX co's of all time. Who was involved at the start? And what spawned its inception as it bounced from Ithaca to Fort Wayne to Ohio. How did they break into selling and designing soft goods, ads in USA ride, why did they make such chaotic and ground breaking videos, what was road fools 2 like. Why did they end up becoming a full blown bike company-and one of the most important brands of the 90s- and what happened to finish it off? The stories behind the jams, how they went up against the multi million corporate X games with a bunch of pallets in parking lot and where it went from there to what he is up to now?

So we reached the big 50…A harder task than you'd think in this BMX podcast thing. For one reason or another a fair few people that I want to come on and tell their story are difficult to convince. Anyways lets hope that they do eventually change their feeble minds! Cause there are a few that myself and other people know should come on... But onto Paul. A very fitting episode 50. This guys has been on my list for a long,long time and I have asked him to come on before, he's been one of the most requested characters for this podcast so It was good to finally get him on….He didn't stop talking though, which I expected (Its episode 50 right, make it count, make it a task!) but then what do you expect from a guy that's lived this much BMX and seems to remember all his weekend race results from 12 plus to current day, it is gonna go on a bit. This guy has done it all from a kid who couldn't place at races, to getting sponsored, onto being a pro racer, trail rider, Chasm jumper, roof dropper, magazine contributor, Ride uk assistant editor, professional photographer, team manager for multiple brands, celebrity commentator/announcer and still rides BMX now, find out the journey from West London to Southern California, you may need to book a week off work to listen tho!

The UKBFA has been brought up numerous times in the Union tapes, often in a disapproving way. Its fair to say at one point the UKBFA was a target of the core riders of the 80s. Its never had a chance to tell its side of the stories-excluding a few letters in BMX Action bike back in 1986, so when I got an email from ex 80s pro Simon Kefford, son of Colin Kefford, the UKBFA founder, when I saw his name pop up in my inbox, I first thought id said something negative on a podcast about his Dad? Fortunately that was not the reason he mailing me. He said he had found a box of the UKBFA's history/time line and if I wanted it he would send it over. Of course I wanted it, I love all this stuff. So he sent the box and it did not disappoint, all kinds of intriguing letters, proposals, news letters, contests itineraries, programmes, fliers, news paper cuttings, a list of UKBFA members, early contest ideas, so much info. I managed to talk a reluctant Simon into coming on for an interview to hear his BMX pro life story and tell us as much as he knew about Colin Kefford's / UKBFA's side of things. Thanks Simon!

Dylan Clayton is one of the UK's most winning racers, not only that but also known as one of the guys who rewrote the book on how to gain speed without pedalling, a method most others had not yet thought about. With an addiction to BMX starting at a very early age, and a thirst for riding even if it meant taking the occasional unofficial day off school. Dylan takes us through his path into riding round the streets then moving swiftly onto the race track through being sponsored by Alans BMX, Robinson then onto Mongoose. The boom years getting pics in magazines and winning races at an early age, then the dead days of BMX and how he and the race scene survived it. Winning races moving through the ranks getting on other BMX teams and eventually landing on Sunn for a pro ride, riding in the USA, riding trails and skateparks, and now working for BC, as well as a whole lot more info in here...Lets get it on!

There's not many in UK BMX more legendary than Mike Pardon, Pike was there from the start. In the early days living near the first Alans BMX store. Mike got into the early race scene, soon developed a skill for BMX racing, travelling the UK race circuit with the Alans BMX team and landing a sponsor from Torker. He soon got disillusioned with racing taking up Freestyle riding as it just started developing in UK, thanks to Bob Haro's demo at the Birmingham NEC. This quickly developed on to becoming one half of the BMX Bi Weekly trick team along side riding buddy Andy Preston. These guys were on all over our bedroom walls in the 80s, and also all over the TV at the same time period. Mike won the first BMX Beat and the BMX Bi weekly trick team had their own mini BMX teaching show on early morning Saturday TV. Pike got BMX fatigue in the glossy days of 85 and ended up getting more into vert skating, to which he also achieved at pro level…This is a fun journey to listen to, Pike is still doing these activity's right up to present day.

Effraim Catlow has been riding a BMX almost as long as BMX has been about in the UK. I first saw Effraim riding flat in the car park of Woking sports centre when I and a friend-park Watling- went to watch the Tizer worlds Woking stop. He just picked up a Hutch sponsor and was on a pink or purple trick star. From then I saw him very often at all the events, and when BMX died off in the late 80s early 90s he was always about, he became more a flatland specialist and off he went on his own path into flat land mastery and a huge part of the flatland scene. We cover a lot of ground here, from early days discovering Southsea skatepark, seeing the 80's pros at KOS 85, making zines, taking pics, putting on KOC events, writing flatland columns for magazines, winning world titles, and the Flat matters online community he's been doing for decades now….click play and take it all in!

Nerd alert….As if this podcast aint nerdy enough already...Union tapes episode 45… We have Issue 7 of our magazine/zine due out in the next few weeks. Featuring all the usual BMX entertainment and more…I love magazines and back in the early days of BMX life magazines is what kept us all in the loop of what was happening with in the BMX scene. Before TV shows started showing BMX there were BMX magazines. Pictures of BMX inspired us to keep riding and want to do the moves we were presented in the mags. Magazines have a lot to answer for, in the late 80s and into the 90s opinions in magazines kept our will strong to keep riding in our little scenes, and provided us with info on where the other little scenes were and any events happening. I thought id delve into the history of UK BMX magazines, coming from the first print mags we got which were weekly news paper style, all the way up to the present day. But spent more time covering the early ones and boom time prints/quite a lot of info here about our beloved magazines and its very interesting to see how each one differed to others in content with literally in the mid 80s some mags seemed years apart but came out at the same time! Check this out if you are as nerdy as I am. There should be a lot to learn! Support BMX print, its better than ya phone!