The colour of the cover changed with every issue. I sometimes checked on the cover color before Joop started photocopying but at times I couldn't be bothered and found out when the 'zines were done.
It's still 1988 and Carlo Griggs scores the cover. Jamie Cameron took the photo and 20 years later Jamie is working for Carlo over at Proper Bikes. Nice one.
The 'zine is starting to look professional with an official editorial page, contents page, and articles.
Interviews in issue 6 come from Tommy Guerrero, Dennis McCoy, Rick Allison and Robert Moeller. There's a photo of Axel Reichertz flatlanding with a fullface. Paul, Menno and I did a Coca Cola commercial and made easy money.
Frank Peeters reports about the Titus Cup, Le Clip provided the free sticker, we went to Bonn for a contest at Mathias Rechenburg's place, we cruised over to Den Haag for a sk8 contest, we visited Tropica in Germany and also discovered the banks at the University of Düsseldorf (1988!).
The Stokebros are starting to make a presence and Olli contributed a nice drawing of Alf.
It was 1988, the year after the Tizer World Championships in England and the IFN had called for the Tizer World Cup. My plan was to get a ride from Robert Moeller after the Trier contest but while over there they told me there was no space for me in their car.
I bought a single train ticket to England from Trier, Germany and had 10 pounds left for food. Luckily I got the leftover bag of bread from the contest so I did not starve. My sleeping bag was the bike bag again so I wouldn't have to pay for my bike on the train. 14 hours later I arrived in Manchester. Read the contest report in issue 5 of FAT-'zine.
We have interviews too with street pioneer Dave Slade, Carlo Griggs, Steve Giberson, Chris Potts and Jeff Cotter. They've got some funny things to say.
The 'Zines scene was getting big and we have reviews from Euthanasia (Jamie Cameron), COW (Mike Rose), Crucial Mania, Totally Intense (Effy), The 'Zine (Pat Wirz), Damage (Dave Slade) and Decade 'zine (Thomas Fritscher, Bresie, Thrasher and Geisser).
The free sticker was provided by FAT-'zine. Yes we had stickers back then.
Joachim Mulkens, Speed and Ollie took care of some great art again. Paul writes about his freestyle activities in 1982. We did a contest report on the Kenn/Trier event. Check this. I went by train to Duesseldorf first. We shredded the city there all afternoon and then took a train to Trier. Axel Reichertz picked us up and we went street riding in Trier till 01:00am. And they didn't evensell RedBull back in the day.......
Issue 4 of FAT-'zine is more of a skate issue. BMX Freestyle was at an all time low so we did some fun things next to it. It kept us on the streets and the ramps that we had placed at the end of the street could be used for everything.
It was the time when we did shows with the Town & Country crew. Bert, a T&C distributor was a crazy guy who organized demos for us at some of his dealers. We loaded up the ramps, did some demos and received dinner at the local snackbar in return. When one shop did not want to give us the gas money or some decent food, it was time to do some anti-promotion. Charlie Sport sucks! Haha, funny shit.
Vert ramps were hard to find back then but we found one in Rotterdam. The hiphop concert review of issue 4 is from the Stetsasonic concert at De Effenaar in Eindhoven.
A free sticker came from Seaflex again Charlie Sport did make it on the Lame side of the RAD-LAME list (of course).
We had an interview with Dave Vanderspek and mini interviews with Elger Blitz and Dan Archer. Find a photo of Bart doing a cancan on a scooter wearing pink Oakley blades, pink/blue T&C pants and a pink T&C backback and win nothing.
Sniper Frans Swinkels was getting rad on his Zorlac representing Vision Streetwear in 1988 and Mario Scheepers was the FAT FAN of issue 4. He had the FAT logo shaved in his hair. We took some pics and then the camera got stolen. Damnit!
FAT-'zine issue number three. The year was 1988. Flip through the pages. Go back in time.
It was rough at times to do a 'zine. Photos were received by post and then photocopied. The original photos were returned and you had the paper to work with. You made a layout of the page and started typing on the actual page.
The space you had available was the space you needed to fit your story in. The pages got stuck in the typewriter very often which caused major headaches. The typewriter ribbon faded out after a while too and finding a new one for the old typewriter was a challenge in itself.
The page numbers were added at the end with a number mold. The pages needed to line up and all of you who have done a 'zine before know that this did not always go smoothly.
But it's 1988 and issue 3 came out. It had the following content:
The cover was shared by Jeroen Hoogaerts (RIP) and Bart on the skateboard. The issue had lots of art again, made by Joachim Mulkens and Speed One who showed up with new drawings during school breaks.
We visited a secret spot in Germany which is not so secret these days: The University of Düsseldorf with all those brick banks. 1988!
Starting from issue two we had a little theme going. We had regular sections such as the Believe it, or not!? page where we could make up news and leave it up to the reader if they believed it, or not. We actually still have that going today just to cover our asses in case someone is coming after us with an axe.
We also had the RAD/LAME list which was liked and feared at the same time. The free sticker of issue two came from Lageja skateshop in Eindhoven. A shop that supported us though thick and thin.
The rap concert report this time was from the Just-Ice & DMX concert in Den Bosch. Good times, good times.
More and more English text so by now you should be able to read most of the FAT-'zines (if you don't know how to read Dutch).
There's a report from the skate contest in Belgium which was also a good time. Scooters were still hot (in our eyes). Remember, we were living in the year 1988.
There's a German scene report by Robert Moeller and a report from the UK by Dave Beveridge.
Paul writes about his last contest in Hampton, Virginia and of course there is some grafitti art by Speed this time.
FAT-'zine issue 01. To know where you're going, you gotta know where you're coming from. Back to 1988.
After the first "Try-mag" the feedback was so good that we decided to continue with the FAT-'zine project. Paul had just got back from the USA where he stayed for a few months and visited the 2-Hip KOV in Washington, Mount Thrashmore skatepark and the Powerhouse Bike Shop in Hampton, VA.
Issue 01 had three stickers, one FF sticker, one Powerhouse Bike Shop sticker and one Skeletor sticker that Paul found on a roll in the $ 1 dollar shop.
Mike Loveridge got interviewed and street riding is starting to take off. Paul and I used to do BMX freestyle demos and placed a full page ad in the FAT-'zine. Or maybe it was just a filler, who knows.
Some things that made it on the RAD list were: Town & Country wear, Club Homeboy, Fingerboards and Centerpull brakes. Yes, these were the eighties (1988). Things that made it on the Lame list were: The Del Mar killers, Grabber seats, Dyno shoes and Lee Chi brakes. Some of this makes me laugh.
Scooters were still hot (in our eyes) and we even had a page on Snowboarding (the next cool thing to do).
Robert Moeller got introduced as the first German FAT-'zine correspondent and we also took a trip to an LL Cool J, Eric B & Rakim and Public Enemy concert in Amsterdam. Memories........
The official start of FAT was in 1987. It's 2012 now. That makes it 25 years of covering the BMX scene trying to make it bigger and better for everyone to enjoy. Find the info on issue 00 below and then flip through every page by hitting the link at the very bottom.
It just had to happen. The old FAT-'zines online. We're starting off with issue zero here which was fueled by the fact that a Dutch BMX magazine (Trickx) started putting more racing and international freestyle riders in their magazine instead of the Dutch riders.
That's actually where the name comes from: Freestylers Against Trickx (FAT). It wasn't a goal or plan to make a total of 34 issues but after issue 00 came out the Dutch scene wanted more. Anyway, the "Try-MAG!!!" is mostly in Dutch but that will change soon in the issues to come.
It all started in 1987 and we were young and stupid. There were no computers in sight and the internet had to be invented for most of us. Markers, scissors, photocopies, rulers, the typewriter, these were the things you had to slap a 'zine together.
Compared to now the quality was shit but at least you had something in your hands that you could relate to.
It's a done deal, the FAT-'zines will go online starting from this weekend. Every weekend you will get to read a copy of the infamous xeroxed FAT-'zine. Riders from the new school won't understand a damn thing about it but riders who were into it over 20 years ago will get a weekly flashback by reading the 'zines. Some of you have saved a few copies but you can now read them online starting from this Saturday until we run out of issues. That should be until some time in October. Boy were we harsh on TrickX magazine in the 00 issue! Good stuff, crazy stuff, stupid stuff, you will find it in the FAT-'zines. Misspellings too, plus scooters and skateboarding and terrible photocopied pics. We just wanted to warn you. It's coming!
The digital issues will be archived in the FAT-'zines section on this website so you can read them all when you've missed an issue.
Nothing else to do?!
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.