James Newrick is a seminal name in UK BMX, from his early start in the streets of the north east to present day riding and still putting out videos of unique and real BMX. James got an a bus from Newcastle to sit down with me here in London and talk about his BMX journey. We get into it all, from the start and getting his first BMX, early BMX influences, meeting his first riding crew and finding other BMX scenes, building trails, the formation of the NSF in the early 2000’s and the drama that ca...
Jul 24, 2025•2 hr 17 min
This one delivers some good insight into the Scottish scene, a scene which has certainly been over looked for years by the BMX media, other than a few token shots its still largely an untold story. Lots of info I was unaware of in this one, David Frame gives us the brass tacks on his journey in BMX which he is still on today. Framey's been ripping for decades, more so than most of us realise. We get into all the usual and not so usual stuff, from perspectives us English lot haven’t seen previous...
Jun 22, 2025•3 hr 8 min•Ep. 38
Northern John, NJ, Norm, Nawf, real name John Deprieelle has always been a fun dude to hang out with when ever most people have come across him. It's a humorous experience coming across NJ, I cant think of anyone who tell ya any different? John started out in the dark days of 1991, long past the BMX boom, when BMX was at one of its lowest points. From his early start in Southport he quickly started a long journey into every aspect of UK BMX, We get into all here, life in Southport, early hand ra...
May 20, 2025•2 hr 10 min•Ep. 37
Jon Taylor has been around a while eh, Jon first got exposed to the BMX masses-probably a few hundred people back then-in 1989 feature in Freestyle Magazine doing a hand plant. At a mini ramp jam at the infamous Roller snakes skate shop, with a bunch of other well known BMX faces from back then. From that pic we would later see Jon appear in print on the regular, Also from that pic he received the name Mad Jon, which he has never managed to shake off. Then he would pop up at the contest and jams...
Apr 20, 2025•2 hr 46 min•Ep. 36
David Slade has gone on quite the journey in this lifetime, I think the first time I ever saw his name in print was a full colour spread in a 1985 BMX Action Bike Hole Shot report in mid air sky diving next to an ejected pink Dyno bailing something high above a quarter pipe. I'd seen him before that on the BMX beat tv show…but that seemed to have not gone into my brain as deep as the Action bike pic. Un be knownst to me at that time David was one of the riders to look out for on the Freestyle co...
Mar 20, 2025•3 hr 11 min•Ep. 35
Eddie Roman has, coincidently, made a few appearances online over the last month or so. We started this interview in early December, and had to come back for another sit down in early Jan. I was surprised that no one had asked Eddie to do an interview before, the guy was a major part of the BMX scene and the direction it went in back in the mid 80s to early 90s, and beyond. A major innovator and pioneer, from riding to video making to product development. We go in depth as usual, from the start ...
Feb 20, 2025•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 34
Back in 95 myself and Fids took a trip to California to experience the American dream, we stayed in HB with Neal Wood, Chris Moeller, Steve Emig and Jason Timmy Ball, who’d moved to California the year before and was working at S&M bikes. Timmy was one of the Sheep hills locals and popped up in many a magazine and video riding the many trail spots of So Cal from those days. 30 years later he is still working at S&M bikes, we get the low down on how he got into riding BMX as a kid in Cola...
Jan 20, 2025•1 hr 49 min•Ep. 33
Fids was the first episode we did for The Union Tapes, and served as the perfect launch for what we were trying to do. This is a tribute to Fids, who left us on the 08/12/24 he leaves a legacy and a half. The stories I tell here are from his early days, when we started hanging out, he started getting back into BMX again and some of the stories that followed. From the early days Fids lived a life he was pursuing with a passion putting as much into it as he could. We all learned lessons from this ...
Dec 21, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Some highly progressive riders came through after the early 80's BMX explosion, the kids inspired by the King of the Skateparks and early Freestyle contests at the start of it all. The next wave was snapping at the heels of the big pros of the time. Joe Johnson is one of those guys, making a lot of noise on the east coast, Joe built his own quarter up against his moms house, mastered it then continued on to create many of his own moves. Joe went on to become part of the prestigious Haro team in ...
Nov 21, 2024•2 hr 14 min•Ep. 32
John has been in BMX since the start, he’s been involved in a lot of projects both in front of the camera and behind the scene, we tap into all of that and more. From John’s start in BMX in the west London area to present days BMX projects. We get into his first BMX, the early race days, the first quarter pipe ridden. Discovering Harrow skatepark and the early 80s scene. Riding for Raleigh, the team and the BMX programme they tried to create in the mid 80s. Meanwhile quarters and the London scen...
Oct 24, 2024•2 hr 18 min•Ep. 31
Kurt Schmidt is without doubt the fakie pioneer, no one was doing fakie tricks like him in the mid 90s, we delve deep into that topic and as usual go right back to the start. Kurt grew up near Minneapolis in middle America, a long way from the sunshine drenched concrete skateparks of California but the lust for BMX was strong and these guys made their own thriving scene, mostly in Kurt's garden, where they constructed quarter pipes to rip on. I never knew just how deep Kurt's BMX roots were, he ...
Sep 29, 2024•2 hr 23 min•Ep. 30
Dan Price made an impact on the UK scene in the mid 90s but his BMX roots true back much further than that. We take a step back into the archives of Dans active mind and uncover a lot of things most of had no idea about. His journey into BMX being quite different to most others who came through the 80s BMX explosion where he went in a few different directions and found himself returning back to a BMX scene that was desolate but he didn’t even realise it. Get into this one, we cover 80s BMX boom,...
Aug 20, 2024•2 hr 23 min
Back when I first got into BMX, we used to go Rom on semi regular basis, dreaming of one day being able to air the concrete bowls there like the other kids could. Rom had some amazing locals, low key and top sponsored guys. But what everyone really fawned over was the California skateparks, under the picturesque blue sky, light coloured concrete, motocross googles and colourful race uniforms. There were a few riders that featured regularly in the UK magazines, pics started coming out in UK magaz...
Jul 20, 2024•2 hr 32 min
BMX action bike was the real BMX bible back in the 80s, it set the standard for uk bmx mags in its approach to covering BMX and how the many themes of it grew.I don’t know where to start with this intro, this is the first person on the show that has never ridden BMX, but contributed so much to it and many people have requested I get him on the show. If you are into BMX you would have undoubtedly seen TLB real name Tim Leighton Boyce’s pics some where, even if you didn’t realise they were his. Fo...
Jun 20, 2024•2 hr 18 min•Ep. 27
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. I came to learn both these guys were students of the BMX game through and through. Marv was one of...
May 21, 2024•2 hr 44 min•Ep. 26
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 90 degrees. I think those pics set the standard for many people to follow with all tricks not just t...
Apr 20, 2024•2 hr 8 min•Ep. 25
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 later on, making videos and becoming a magazine regular, moving around the uk to different sce...
Mar 20, 2024•2 hr 25 min•Ep. 24
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 on in and around the making and riding in the video.
Mar 13, 2024•57 min
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 the London scene for a year or so before any of the lesser travelled kids saw him in action, He showed...
Feb 20, 2024•1 hr 43 min•Ep. 24
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 there is to do in the game of BMX. We get in to the start of his BMX journey, trips to Woodward as a ki...
Jan 20, 2024•2 hr 47 min•Ep. 22
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 the scene. All about the behind the scenes of BMX Action bike RAD magazine. Early Southbank scene, Mon...
Dec 20, 2023•2 hr 34 min•Ep. 21
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 pioneers of UK Freestyle, with barely any contest appearances they were infamous names on the Freestyle sc...
Nov 20, 2023•1 hr 32 min
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 part, going from Standard Bykes to Hoffman Bikes to starting T-1 with Joe Rich, where the name Terr...
Oct 20, 2023•2 hr 21 min•Ep. 19
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 throttle fearlessness in a time where the only real reward was self satisfaction. After a year of c...
Sep 20, 2023•1 hr 55 min•Ep. 18
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 beginnings in BMX, meeting the Hudson brothers in school, local riding crews. Getting to ride the Hudsons le...
Aug 20, 2023•3 hr 45 min•Ep. 17
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 and brake guards and with the help of Tran Am moved on to making UK made MRD frames with a huge team...
Jul 20, 2023•3 hr 28 min•Ep. 16
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 for Skyway, How Dave Vanderspek was a total pioneer of BMX and all the antics he got up to. Skyway ea...
Jun 20, 2023•3 hr 44 min•Ep. 15
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 the BMX industry scoring his school work experience at Gsport, Not long after that Benson found him...
May 20, 2023•2 hr 37 min•Ep. 14
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 BMX shop at that time. Racing in the north east and meeting local riding crews. Catching Mike Domingue...
Apr 20, 2023•2 hr 48 min•Ep. 13
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 riding took over the BMX world. I don’t know why but the Westway part of the A40 has always made space...
Mar 20, 2023•47 min•Ep. 12
