BARRY ON A GRIFTER UK OLD SCHOOL BMX FOOTAGE DVD

Dec 28, 2006

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 7550 times

It's not Joe on a Stingray but Barry on a Grifter. Those not old enough to know what a Grifter is, it's one of the first bikes that kind of looked like a motorcycle and arrived at the same time as the first "original" BMX bikes. Raleigh made them so they were big in the UK. Anyway, back to the subject. The DVD is great entertainment. To see people like Ian Morris, Zach Shaw, Jamie Bestwick and Jon Taylor push their 35 pound bikes to the next level for sure was a good laugh. It brings back memories to the "good old times" when bikes were hard to get and the welder came out before going to the local shop to get a new one because they had none.

England has always been a fascinating country that raised great riders. I believe it's the attitude that pushed their level week after week. Crazy Eric Steele, Mad Jon Taylor, those names arrived on the scene for a reason. Barry on a Grifter has a lot of the footage from these days. It also has footage of Dennis McCoy, Rick Allison and Joe Johnson who came over for the Tizer World Cup in 1988 and Mat Hoffman's first flip 180 (flair) on vert.

The Backyard jam back in the day was a little different too and so is the video quality. Don't expect HD but VHS tape quality. But that's not the point. The double DVD shows a lot of UK's BMX freestyle history. Great riders like Shaun Allison, Mark Atkins, Brian Wills (I had to dig into an old FAT 'zine for that name), Steven Bisseker, Lincoln Blacksley and Mike Canning won't appear in the results list these days but the DVD shows that they did their thing to push BMX. If you're from the old school you need to have this one in your collection. Cheeky Monkey has saved all the VHS tapes for you and made a it easy by putting it on a double DVD. It doesn't get much easier than that.

BdJ

Watch the trailer

Content:

Disc One (running time approx 65 mins)
-Intro
-Jamie Bestwick
-Phil Dolan
-Carlo's Ramp Jam/Mansfield King Of Vert
-Chase Gouin
-Backyard Jams 1 & 2
-James White
-Gerry Galley
-UKBFA Manchester
-Albert Retey
-Chris Job, Steve Geall, Mark Atkins, Mike Canning, Carlo Griggs
-Rick Allison
-Zach Shaw, Jon Taylor
-Tizer World Cup
-Lincoln Blacksley
-Dennis McCoy
-Mat Hoffman
-Steve Bisseker
-Outro

Disc Two (running time approx 50 mins)
-More flatland from Lincoln Blacksley, Phil Dolan, James White, Chase Gouin, Steve Bisseker
-Ow
-Jon Taylor's Birthday
-Rodney Mullen at Romford
-The Defunct Video
-Photo Gallery by Jim Thomlinson

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