The Union Tapes

Marv moved to London in 2005 (with Daniel Benson), I remember wondering why they'd moved to London - I thought they were both from Sheffield and that scene was blowing up at the time with the recent release of Joe Cox's Voices DVD. They had a reputation that preceded them, so the buzz was out these guys were in town. We crosed paths at a Rom jam and at the time I was surprised at their amicability...

The first pic I ever saw of some over tweaking something was Todd Anderson, who at that point in time-1985-was riding for Redline. I picked up a magazine in a mock 711 next to Faze 7 BMX centre in Waltham Cross, Todd was cranking a loopback with his feet on the cranks arms, and his front wheel hitting his shin, I'd never seen this before, until that point a look back was anything with bars passed...

The Union tapes Episode 24 with ex S&M UK rider James Cox, we go back to the start of his BMX journey coming out of Portsmouth in the mid 90s and the routes he took a long the way. We cover BMX influence through out his life and the ever evolving projects he had, from riding to music, to creating his own brands Retribution and then later Antidote. His fascination for S&M bikes and riding for em la...

Got a little bonus going on here, and some thing a little different. Coinciding with the release of our zine 5 and Nails in the Coffin on DVD, ex Uk Fit pro Marv (Nicholas Martin) who was a young 16 years of age and a fan of Nails in the Coffin when it came out back in the late 90s, he wanted to know a few things about it, so came in and asked me some behind the scenes questions about the goings o...

Shaun Allison is a name that was on my original list of guests back when I first started thinking about doing this podcast, and I'm sure many people out there won't have even heard of? After avoiding the media spot light of the news agent mags and finding a home contributing to the zine scene where he felt more at home with the true underground of BMX, There was rumours of shaun floating around th...

Jumping forward a decade or so from our last episode. I first met Owain in the 90's, he was a tiny chatty kid ripping around the boneyard in Chester and the surrounding skateparks of the time. Fast forward many years and this dude has never dropped off. Rode for a bunch of big companies, won contests, flew around the world, scoring multiple magazine covers, video parts, road trips and done all the...

We finally caught up with Nick Philip, and we get deep into it on many topics that he had hands on involvement. This one gives us all a deep dive into much of the mystery for most of us, meeting Jess Dyrenforth, Rom trips back in the early days, starting AA as a mail order from his bedroom, Landing a job at BMX Action bike, working with Dave Curry, and talks about what an influence Curry had on th...

Going right back to the start with this one, the northern start that is in sunny Manchester. Back in the early 80s Andy Preston and Mike Pardon were the superstar trick team of Moorecombe based BMX magazine 'BMX Weekly news paper then BMX Bi weekly magazine', Andy grew up around the Manchester area and both him and Mike Pardon-Pike- were everywhere you looked for a couple of years and early pionee...

What can anyone say about this guy that hasn't been said? I'm not even going to try, you know why you're here and this is good deep dive into some of the mystery surrounding Taj. Topics we cover on this one besides the usual stuff, are first sponsor, how he got into jumping, the sponsor line up throughout the years, multiple S&M Holmes frames, moving around the USA, the infamous UGP Face Value par...

Back in the 80's Lee Reynolds was a charismatic guy on the BMX scene, and still is a charismatic guy today. Lee Reynolds was a name that blew up in the mid 80's as BMX was falling down in the UK, despite the some what lengthy distance between Milton Keynes and London, he became one of the locals of meanwhile quarter pipes crew that would feature regularly in BMX Action bike. He's approach was full...

In the mid to late 80s in the UK the small town of Retford near Sheffield was one the main hubs of BMX riding in the UK. It got known as the Trumpton scene. And featured a long side London's Meanwhile and Chingford as the new hot spots of that era. Jason Ellis was one of the main stays of that scene along with many other infamous names that come up in this talk. We get into the start, his beginnin...

Tim March was the other big name in 80's BMX to Andy Ruffell these guys were legitimate super stars for a couple of years in the BMX boom of the 80s, Tim goes back to the very start of UK BMX. He scored endless magazine covers, features and TV appearances. Tim moved rapidly through some of the early BMX race teams, then went on to expand his brand MRD from making handlebars, race plates, stickers...

This is one that goes back to the creation of BMX, Maurice was there at the start when this BMX thing first started. We get into it all here, the early days pre BMX, the influential golden gate park scene and the day Bob Osbourne came to cover it for Freestylin. The infamous Curb Dogs which was the first BMX crew to get coverage in the mags as a crew. How the whole Curb dogs crew ended up riding f...

So we've jumped forward a couple of decades for this episode of the union tapes. But is equally as fascinating as the rest of em. Dan Benson started out riding in Sheffield in the mid 90s aboard an 80s bmx frame. Sheffield always had a strong BMX scene going back to the 80s. In the 90s George French started G sport out of Sheffield which is where Dan first experienced a behind the scenes peak into...

Dave Young was a top name pro in the mid 80s. Coming from Gateshead way up north the odds were stacked against the riders from up there, but thanks to the talent of himself, Pepi Winder and Steve Laidlaw, they shone a light on their scene and left a lasting impression as guys to look for at the contests and in the magazines. We get into the early days of the BMX scene in the north, working at a BM...

So, we got a slightly different episode this month. The Union tapes was originally going to be a series of shows about different aspects of BMX. Everything that went along with BMX basically. The first episode we worked on was the one you are about to listen to. Its about Meanwhile quarter pipes in West London. Which was at the time the place to be if you rode BMX, this was just before halfpipe ri...

Mike Canning was one of the guys who caught the media spot light as BMX was well and truly going down the pan popularity wise. A start in racing, he quickly moved into Freestyle with a bunch of like minded friends around his home and they gained a reputation as a scene to watch, starting out on backyard quarters and jumping at the local tracks Mike appeared in an issue of BMX Action bike in 86 in...

Starting out in the early 80's Jess Dyrenforth became a staple name in mid to late 80s BMX scene. From the first time anyone had seen him featured in BMX Action bike magazine's track in the woods article in 83. He would pop up multiple times in the coming years to the point where he was a regular in BMX Action bike and then RAD magazine. Jess discovered Rom skatepark early into his BMX days and es...

Rooftop sprung into the BMX spot light in 1993 and scored the last part on the game changing VHS dirty deeds, which was the ground breaking video in 94. From there he established himself as a solid fixture in any BMX media or event. He's still riding at a high level and been through every bmx period since then and remained relevant to this day. We get into almost all of it in this one, drawing inf...

Eric Steel is a name that started getting known in the quieter times of BMX, although one of the original Rom BMX locals. The media didnt give him full credit until around 85 onward. Eric was one of the names you'd hear about at Rom back in the mid 80s. The names 'Eric and Marco' were often mentioned in the same sentence back then. Eric was elevated to pro level status when BMX Action bike run a s...

Back in the 80s I bought a magazine called BMX Action bike, the first issue I bought had a pic of a guy in race gear and full face helmet dropping into a concrete bowl.  It was shot at night and they had a bunch of additional coloured lights behind him. The feature was called 'Dark side of the bowl', within the pages was a feature on Craig Campbell, blasting around Rom skatepark, it was a feature...

Scott Malyon was one of the big break out names from UK BMX in the late 90s early 2000s. Whenever he rode an event he was always a name that stood out, huge transfers, higher airs than the whole group and usually the furthest gaps.  Scott bounced around a couple of sponsors early on, and ended up riding for the super influential T-1 team, with Joe Rich And Taj Mihilech. And in time had his own sig...

I've known Andy Brown for well over 30 years now. As a kid many of us looked up to him and the crew he rode with as the older riders coming out of the London area, leading the way. Although there was always rumours of an angry persona, he was always friendly to us youngsters and later on when I started hanging out with him regularly I borrowed a lot of his traits, I considered him an adult, even t...

Stuart King discovered BMX at its lowest point in popularity, we pin it down to around 1990. How the carcass of a 80's kids boom held any interest to a young teen back then is quite intriguing. He quickly picked up a friend group and a heavy arsenal of tricks, which only got bigger and bigger as he himself grew. He is one of the most naturally determined riders I've ever met, and that determinatio...

Greg Guillotte was one of the riders pushing the limits in mid to late 80's, part of the legendary meanwhile quarter pipe crew in west London. Greg scored a Radness unlimited page in BMX action bike magazine as his first pic and that was the start of many print pages to come. Whilst BMX dwindled in size and became a pointless childs activity in the eyes of the public, crews of dedicated riders up...