Interview by Jack Lammas - Photography by Rob Whiston
Alright bruva Jake boi?
Yeah not too bad mush, just chillin’, looking after me baby Stella. Got back from a Blast Skates trip to Barca last week, popped my knee out of joint skating MACBA of all places, fucking load of shit, the first five mins of skating there, so drank a lot of beer rest of the trip. Been exercising my knee, taking some Holland and Barrett shit, and trying to be healthy so I can skate again. But apart from that, everything else is cream cheese. Living the life as a dad with me girl Jojo and little Stella. Life’s cushty really.
Now, me n’ you go back, we talkin’ donkeys. I remember you as a lil’ chavy down the skatepark, TN hat, rings, a Sid Vicious tee and an 80s Santa Cruz board, banging out fat bonelesses. That was an aggy combo. What was it that inspired you growing up, in and out of skating?
I think all the chavy aggro shit came from me brother growing up in Worthing and he’d be going out drinking, being a menace, fights, shit like that. The punk shit just comes from the Sex Pistols; I have been fascinated by the 70s and early 80s punk and skins shit since I can remember. Watching documentaries of skins and punks being interviewed, a lot of them were working class kids, so I related to that. I always thought around that noughties era, the chavs were the punks of that time, same attitude towards shit, like fuck everything. And that’s another reason why I got into skating, my dad was a skateboarder in the 70s, so he showed me Dogtown and Z-Boys when it came out, and all the skateboarding videos he had were old ones - Animal Chin, Gleaming the Cube, Powell-Peralta Attack - so that’s what I was watching, that’s what I thought skateboarding was. It weren’t cool in Worthing to skateboard around that time, so by having that chavy side to you, it felt right.
Gunna fill in with a bit of history. So we grew up good mates, then I was made homeless as a kid and your mum n’ dad took me in and raised me; it was then we became as thick as thieves. I remember we had bunk beds and there was a tonne of Micheal Jackson memorabilia, movie memorabilia and skateboards; it was like a bedroom from Gleaming the Cube. Now let’s cast back and tell the reader about some of the ole Homefield madness - screen printing tees, house parties, raves and getting hyped eating Chinese and watching 80s movies before a big night out.
Yeah, good times innit. I definitely think we lived our teens to the fullest. That’s the thing, we’d just watch all these movies like Lost Boys, Roadhouse, Bloodsport and think we were in a movie, haha. Proper Kenny Powers shit. Was rad that we got to spend all that time together, definitely made us brothers innit.
I was a big Michael Jackson fan, haha. Had all of the merch. HE-hee! Fuckin’ hell yeah, skating Homefield every day rain or shine, getting banned from all the clubs in Worthing, going to our first rave together and doing pills and whiff, was rad. There are so many house party stories. Remember that house party in West Worthing was mental. The bathroom had a step down to it, and someone plugged the bath and sink with bogroll and the whole bathroom filled with water up to the step, and the floor went, haha. Fuckin’ water everywhere, all over them birds. The kiddie kicked us out and I climbed back in through his window and jumped out of the top floor window ‘cos Shaun threw his mattress out. Everyone was like “whey-oi! Jump, jump!” Then his windows got done in; don’t know who that was, haha, Yeah mate, fuckin’ chaos, skating everyday, drinking, scraps, was sick. We were like Charles Bronson in Death Wish 3, serving up people justice.
It’s funny ‘cause when ya got a skateboard, people think they can fuck with ya, but I remember as kids we had the same mentality in that we stuck together, brutha from another n’ all that. We didn’t back down to no bully and weren’t scared of a whack. A funny one, we must have only been about 16, 17 and some 30-odd-year-old geezers from a pub in East Worthing followed us, wanting to beat us up because we were skaters. Tell us that story.
Yeah, I remember that. There was a small crew of us walking past the Alex pub. Used to get that a lot in Worthing, if there were geezers outside they’d stare you out and try and intimidate, make you feel small. But we learnt to hold our shit. Them three blokes started shouting shit at us and we gave it back, which they didn’t like, so they started following us, so we knew summin’ was gunna go down. We got to the corner and Shaun Jinks, the BMXer, said, “right, I’ll get in the bushes and you lot stand over the road. When they come round the corner towards you lot, I’ll come from behind ‘em and we’ll fuck ‘em up”. We were like, “alright, cool”. So that’s what we did, stood over the road, the geezers came steaming towards us… and Shaun didn’t jump out the bushes, haha, so we fuckin’ served ‘em. I remember that geezer swung and missed and you knocked him out with one punch, me and Jed started banging the others, and then the other run off like, “oh shit, didn’t expect that”, and I was chasing the other two up the road, trying to truck ‘em, skimming their heads. They didn’t expect it to go that way. Then after that, Shaun jumped out the bushes like, “alright?” We were like, “what the fuck? Why didn’t you jump out?” He said, “well it looked like you were doing alright, so I just sat in the bush and watched it”, haha. He was funny like that, Shaun. He was our older, but we looked up to him because he was a proper nutter on the BMX and in life. Proper Gary Oldman in Meantime.
We’ve grown up on the tools, in the pubs and with heads in movies, and a lot of that is reflected in Blokes. I wanna talk about some of these places and people. A dear place with cracking memories was The Globe pub. We was all there - me, you, Luke and sometimes Grandad George, the neighbours and Big Gar in the yard, not too far from the car. Tell us about the local legends, Herberts, and any funny stories of the now-extinct boozer.
Yeah, we got so much inspiration from people we’ve worked with. All these blokes are characters, like Brett, he’s got some stories, he’s a shit magnet. Something always happens to him so it’s never boring, always a new story. There’s a bit of beauty and wholesomeness in all these people that come into our lives; it’s sorta what drives us to do Blokes. It’s the Britishness and the pure comedy gold that is the heart of Blokes; I think that’s why a lot of people can relate to it, it seems to resonate and evoke shit that’s happened in their day to day.
The Globe mate was the best pub ever, proper fuckin’ geezer pub, and it was only at the end of our road. I think about that sometimes, how it had everything we needed at that time in Worthing - beach was up the road, lived next to the skatepark, the Indian, the Wong Sing Chinese, corner shop and fuckin’ banging boozer opposite each other. It’s blokes heaven, haha. That’s definitely influenced all our Blokes shit. What these characters would say and do we’ve used, and talk about it all to this day. Garry and his mum n’ dad were in there all the time with us; they were good neighbours, always up for having a laugh and a house party. There was Dodsey the mechanic, Hills Have Eyes mush, me Uncle Rob, Grandad George, you, me, me brother Luke, we had some good times in there. That fat bloke who owned it, bald head and a Ben Sherman shirt, Dodsey and that Graham bloke were fighting in the alleyway, and the whole pub went out to watch, proper Wild West style, and that bird was like, “you don’t want the owner to come out”. All them dossers were scared of him, we just saw the funny side, like, “why’s everyone scared of that fat tit?” haha. Also when my brother knocked that paedo bloke in the pub after he was touching himself n’ that, weird. Then we chased them cunts up the road, vodka bottles flying everywhere… ah man, it’s a shame it’s gone now… like a lot of pubs are going, there’s so many stories and so much history in these old local pubs, like the Marquis in Stockwell. Glad that’s still going. Support your local boozer! They need your support!
There’s so many stories and so much history in these old local pubs, like the Marquis in Stockwell. Glad that’s still going. Support your local boozer!
We’ve ended up in some weird places, haha. A funny time was when we went to a medium down The Charmandean Centre, ole Steven Holbrook. I shouldn’t laugh because this mush was summoning the dead, but it was like something straight outta Phoenix Nights. Let’s hear about it…
Ah yeah, haha. We was having a Toby Carvery with me mum n’ dad, and my mum said she was going to a medium evening with her mate Sue. My mum didn’t believe that shit but went to support her mate who I think had lost someone, but was hoping to speak to them; proper Sixth Sense shit. We was like, “whaaat? Let us come with, will be well funny”. We made me dad come too, remember? We walked in to the foyer and there was a massive cardboard cutout of Stephen Holbrook - look him up, fuckin’ funny - it was a cutout of him busting through a wall, holding his new book, which had the same photo of him busting through the wall [on the cover], haha. Trippy shit.
He looks exactly like the medium off of Phoenix Nights, I think they based the character on him - frosted tips, mullet, northern mush. His hand went all kakked and he said, “ignore the hand, it’s an antennae to the spirit world”. It was clever what he was doing, how he was working people and had people fill out forms beforehand so he knew shit. It was funnier than any stand up comedy I’ve ever seen and it wasn’t even a comedy show.
He clocked we was laughing at it all and stayed clear of interactions with us, haha. He knew we knew it was bullshit. It was bad, thinking about it, he had old grannies crying, saying their dead husband said this n’ that. It’s not morally good when he’s benefiting financially from it, proper cunt, haha. I saw a Channel 5 doc, one of them undercover shows, expose him. Mate, he was a character though! Bloody brilliant, that shit.
A moment when the stars aligned was when we met the mirror images of ourselves, Mr Dan Singer and Craig ‘Questions’ Scott. It was like Bart’s evil twin in The Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror. They liked Jason Voorhees, we liked Freddy Krueger, they were straight edge and we were fuckheads, but our humour, love of 80s skateboarding, horror movies and our working-class upbringings made us click like Adam Sandler in 2006. The Kent connection was formed, which later extended north with Mr Joe Howard and the Croydon connection with Big Ross. Tell us about some of the memories of skating Stockwell, skating the city all night, house parties, punk shows, Yeti, and the morning bacon sarnies at Rock Steadies.
Yeah, we met Craig at Stockwell in 2009, 2010 I think; a while ago. I remember some ginger cunt, croaky voice, The Germs, Sk8-Hi Vans, scribbles all over his grip, wouldn’t stop talking, was rad. Mental meeting someone like that, loads of energy, was like, “fuck me, who’s this kiddie? He’s into everything we’re into”. Skateboarding was weird back then, it seemed like we was the only ones into that shit, old punk and 80s skateboarding, but we weren’t, there were others out there. I guess ‘cos we weren’t big on the internet then, it seemed like we were the only ones. Then we went and stayed with Dan n’ Craig in Kent. Dan was rad, always wearing that black beanie, proper nutter. It was sorta like looking in a mirror for me and you. Kipped on Dan’s mum’s hardwood floor and watched A Reason for Living in the morning. His mum made me an egg butty, lovely; always remember that.
From then on we’d always meet up with them, and skate everything and everywhere. We met Joe Howard and would go stay with him; he was another one of us. Started filming stuff and put together the Yeti videos. Think Joe Howard there edited them. They were rad; it’s always better to include all that fuckin’ about shit, makes it more of an experience than just skating. Taking the piss, that’s what life’s about. We went to a lot of punk shows when we first moved to London. After Suicidal Tendencies, that arsehole drunk bloke up on the train. He was hassling people, being a right cunt, then because Brian Stock was tapping his board under his foot, he got well angry and started grabbin’ him up, so we served him up a good ‘un, and kicked him out the train, haha. Then the old bill turned up and everyone on the train backed us up and said he was the aggressor, haha. They were all cheering for us! Same with the house parties; there’s too much to write about.
Films have always been part of the fabric of the Snelling household. The amount of films we would watch and re-watch with ya dad n’ Luke was astronomical, and we still do. We would always watch them n’ say, “he looks like so n’ so” or, “bet he’s well alright, proper nutta”. Then at some point, we started getting a few tinnies and bowling down Comic Con for a laugh, picking up quad posters and meeting movie legends. Tell us some Comic Con tales.
Right, so yeah, we’ve met a lot of movie legends now innit. George A Romero, Tom Atkins, the Crypt Keeper, Warwick Davis, Lurch from The Addams Family, Julian Sands (RIP), Adrienne Barbeau from The Fog and Escape From New York to name a few. One that stands out is when me, you and Dan went to the London Film and Comic Con and met the geezer that plays Lord Humungus in Max Max 2, the bloke with the hockey mask. We had a few skimmages before n’ think we belt racked beers and had a bottle of Boost and vodka; we were getting on it at Comic Con, haha. We ran out of booze and Dan chored up all the bottles of Stella from the cafe area. We went to get his autograph and got talking to him, think he clocked were were pissed up and asked for a beer, haha. So we ended up sitting at his autograph table getting lashed up with him innit. He was well alright. I remember after me n’ Dan went to get Rutger Hauer’s (RIP) autograph but this woman wouldn’t let me in the queue as I didn’t have the right ticket. It was the end of the day and I was like, “fuck that, I’m getting this Hitcher 1986 poster signed”, told her to do one and queued up. She called security and they came and escorted me out ‘cos I swore at her, so I slipped the poster to Dan and he got it signed, thank fuck. They sat me in the corner ‘cos I was intoxicated and was telling me to chill out, then who walks past? I heard the Saw theme tune in my head, it was Jigsaw Tobin Bell, nutter. I said, “alright Saw mush, whey-oi” and put me fist out for a bump, his security went to to grab me and Tobin was like, “hey, hey, nah, it’s cool, man”, and said, “wassup brother” and bumped me. Lovely bloke, ole Tobin Bellend. Junpei from Japan was staying at mine one summer and I asked him if he wanted to come meet Steven Seagal at Comic Con with me, haha. He was down, all the Aikido shit, he was well on it. Bet that was mad for him, the first time in London and he’s going to meet Steven Seagal, haha.
Building on the movie madness, you have a pretty impressive VHS collection and been on the quad poster collecting for some years. Let’s hear any stories from car boots and poster fairs tracking down these treasures, some of your favourite covers, and how the artwork relates to your recent Blast pro board The Reaper, and the inspiration behind the creative direction.
Yeah I collect quad cinema posters, been going to a few poster fairs now and again. They’re pretty funny really, there’s a lot of characters there. I don’t know if I quite fit in at them, sorta like Comic Con, people are nerdy, not that that’s a bad thing, I’m quite nerdy, I’m just a geezer nerd, haha.
I’ve been collecting VHS for quite some time, some of them are worth proper bunce. My dad had a massive VHS collection back in the day, before DVDs, so growing up me n’ me brother were always watching movies we shouldn’t have been watching. Then when DVDs came about he basically replaced his VHS collection with DVDs; think he sold his VHS collection when they was on their way out. I’ve been building the collection back up since. So it’s the nostalgic thing for me, I hold them memories very close of watching videos, going blockbusters on a Friday and renting horror films n’ shit. Also, it’s sad to think that a lot of VHS are going thrown away and unwanted. The artwork on 80s covers is unreal; they’re worth keeping just for that. So I hit up bootfairs when I can, I’ve always got me eye out for a video. I guess that’s why I wanted to do a 80s style painted graphic, for the nostalgic shit, even though it’s my face massive on it, haha. Oh well, fuck it, someone’s gotta do it, aye.
Now a big credit to ya dad, he told us to do what ya want but both get trades so ya got summin’ to fall back on, then ya can go chase ya dreams. And good on him because we are now both a couple of chippys with a summer blockbuster on its way. Tell us about the graft, working, skating and raising a little one.
Well I done carpentry at college for two years when I left school. I didn’t want to, all I wanted to do was skate, but me dad told us innit, you gotta get summin’ under the belt just in case, and he was right; me dad knows the shit. Skateboarding don’t pay the fuckin’ bills, it contributes, unless you’re some American monster mush, or so good on a skateboard that brands throw money at you. And I got me little daughter to support now, so hats off to me old man for pushing me to do that. I work for myself but also do a lot of jobs for people, and work for my old man, so I’m always doing something different. Full house refurbs, general building, floors, doors, roofing work, first, second fix; I do everything really. I do really enjoy it, but fuck me it has its days sometimes. I do think there’s got to be an easier way to make money. But still, it pays the bills and it’s fucking expensive living in London at the minute, it’s mental. Rent’s high, cost of living’s through the roof, so I’m working like a dog. I try and skate once a week, try to skate Stockwell or film something for Blokes. Bromley at Blast Skates has supported for time, since he started the company, so I’m very grateful for that. Big up Bromley! Now I’ve had a baby, the game has changed. Your responsibilities change; it’s not the skateboard first anymore, it’s the family. My girlfriend Jojo has been well supportive of me over the years, so now we’ve had a baby it’s time for me to put them first. Then comes the skateboard, ha. I’m trying to skate as much as I can; I’ve always only really skated at weekends since I’ve lived in London, which has been eight-ish years now I think. So we managed to make the best skate video since Animal Chin just skating weekends. I’m sure we can do it again, haha.
I’m so stoked on having a baby girl, it’s the best thing that’s happened to me in my life. It’s definitely making me a better person; being a dad is rad. You really have to step up and get your shit into gear. I can’t be doing a GG Allin anymore, don’t wanna end up like that small dick pisshead shitbag in an early grave… but still do love GG though, haha. He’s the shit.
Another legendary boozer, this time whilst working off the Edgware Road, was The Brazen Head. Tell us about some of the characters and stories from there.
Yeah, that was when we were doing all the work for the Lisson Gallery innit; we’d go into The Brazen Head after work for pints n’ shit. We met that little bloke that looked like Hoggle from Labyrinth, but a proper geezer version. I remember one day he walked into the pub and a duck followed him in. We were like, “what the fuck? Why’s there a duck in the pub?” And we found out it was his pet, haha. He said it got him loads of fanny.
It lived in his council flat with him. We went round his one night for afters innit, and had a go on his punch bag n’ shit with Brett, then I went out onto his balcony and stepped in some hay… the fuckin’ duck lived on his balcony, and he had a little heater out there for it, haha. Well weird. Remember as well, we were avin’ a fag outside the pub and he was like, “SHIT! I think I’ve left the heater on! Gunna be a fuckin’ crispy Peking duck by the time I get home!” Haha.
I sat on my brother’s shoulders with an apple on a chopstick and the bloke would spinning kick the apple, bust it everywhere.
I remember Luke’s room was pretty mad - a fibreglass Lara Croft, slot machine, movie replica Rambo knife display case, and a martial arts wooden dummy. You twos was pretty handy in the ole martial arts. Let’s hear some funny stories of the characters down the dojo when you two done Jeet Kune Do.
Haha, yeah I done Jeet Kune Do from about 10 to 14, before I started skating. I was in Martial Arts UK magazine n’ shit. Man, it was so fuckin’ funny thinking about it, there was so many characters and weird people who would come to the classes. Like some geezer came to his first class, then the next week he turned up and showed the instructor and us a hand poked tattoo saying ‘Bruce Lee’ on his arm, well wonky n’ shit, haha, after one lesson! We used to do demos in shopping centres and weird halls n’ shit. I sat on my brother’s shoulders with an apple on a chopstick and the bloke would spinning kick the apple, bust it everywhere, ha. Then we went on a little trip with the martial arts class - dedicated ones only - for an advanced training thing with Dan Inosanto; got a photo with him and it was in Martial Arts UK. I also remember another trip we took to Birmingham for a martial arts tournament, proper Karate Kid style, the instructor had us pair up to warm up beforehand. I paired with me brother and everyone else got a partner bar one mush as he wasn’t competing. We was doing the drills and the he sorta looked at the instructor, as in, “what should I do?”, and the instructor was like, “horse stance, horse stance!” So he squatted down into the horse stance with his eyes closed and hands out proper focusing on trying to hold the position, then me brother started laughing - proper snuffling giggles style - and the kiddie had some old karate trousers on with a small hole in the crotch, and his nob was poking out! Me and me brother were in fucking giggle mode, couldn’t control it, and the instructor was like, “what’s wrong? What’s wrong? Focus, focus guys”, which made it even worse! The I think the kiddie opened his eyes and realised his chicken was poking out and poked it back in, haha. I always think you can’t even write that shit, them Jeet Kune Do days would make a fuckin’ funny tv series, I tell ya. We also invited our instructor round our house for a Chinese, as you do, and when we met him at the station I skidded on a fat pile of dogshit and fell over, right in front of him, haha. Was well embarrassed; me brother was pissing himself.
Another moment when the stars aligned was when the Brighton connection was formed. A seriously talented cinematographer by the name of Mr Hubert migrated to London, joined the firm, and with a clash of minds and talents, Blokes was engineered. Tell the reader about Blokes and what they can expect later this year
Yeah, was rad that we linked up with Ed. We were going to them Brighton premieres back in the day, like Brighten, then Ed’s videos, the Like video, shit like that, and looking up to what they were doing. So when we joined forces it was sick. I guess as I’ve said Blokes is fun and relatable for a lot of skateboarders and people in general. Comedy connects innit. It’s all self-funded through merch sales, and all the proceeds are put right back into it, so we’ve never made a penny from it, it’s purely for fun. So it came from us going to New York that time and you were talking about how funny it would be to film a parody of Larry Clark’s Kids, a bunch of British skateboarders go to New York and all get AIDS. Then we started to make the first one from your idea of the Millwall scene innit; I remember you telling me that idea pissed up on a bus. Then hey presto, a couple months later we made it happen with Ed using his film connections. Fuckin’ mad, that opening Millwall scene was filmed by Charlie Rizek before he hit it big with 1917 and Mission: Impossible. Then he returned to help us with a skit in Blokes 2, mental.
So yeah, we’ve been filming Blokes 2 for about three years I reckon; I don’t really count the year after Blokes as I don’t think we were focused on it then. It’s been hard to film this one I think because we’ve gone bigger and better, more cinematic, and it’s all been funded through shirt sales, shit like that. So it’s taken time.
But I feel like we’re getting close to finishing it now, in time for summer. I hope people like it. You, Ed, and me, Dan (and I suppose Craig) have put a lot of work into it, but yet again it’s all for a laugh, so if people don’t think it’s as good as the first one it don’t matter, haha, ‘cos we’re just taking the piss at the end of the day. I reckon that’s the key, do what you want to do and have fun with it; you can’t go wrong if you stick with that formula. So I don’t wanna give away anything that we’ve done, just buckle up and get ready for it to be released very soon! Git up der ma babe!
Let’s wrap up with any final thoughts and shout-outs.
Final thoughts, erm, love your family and friends, don’t be a cunt, never stop skateboarding, always have fun and take the piss! Shout out to me baby Stella and me girl Jojo, I loves ya both. Love me mum n’ dad, me nan, brother, to you Jack, all me friends and family. Ed Hubert, Dan Singer, Craig Questions. Thanks to Bromley and Blast, thanks to Brady and Lev at Palace for sorting me shit, thanks to Fos and Snot Wheels, thanks to Val and Daphne at Baddest Skateshop, thanks to Amanda Pérez at Vans for hooking me up, thanks to Will and Michael Boardman, and cheers to anyone else that’s helped me.
Follow Blokes - @blokes_official
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