Hardcore: Part 3 – with John Dye

We have a third sit-down with BMX old-skool icon, business-owner, tattoo artist, hardcore music fan, podcaster and generally great bloke… John Dye! Thanks for giving us even more of a window into your worlds!

John’s shop – Volt BMX (London, England):

https://voltbmx.com/

John’s podcast – ‘The Union Tapes’:

https://www.youtube.com/@theuniontapes

John’s (Bicycle Union) Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/bicycleunionlondon/

More of John on YouTube:

The Quantum Bridge social media and other channels can be found here:

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Music provided by Marshes: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4Ro7Y4AfeZn6ofoqauA4Kp

Copyright and All Rights Reserved The Quantum Bridge

Any views expressed are those of our guest only and this recording is for entertainment purposes only.

Hello everyone welcome to the quantum Bridge we have a returning guest with us today John welcome to the show again fantastic thanks for having me back that’s right man I mean it looks like you’re in that cabin from the thing where freezing so it’s pretty cold but it’s actually yeah it’s all right

Now but if I took these clothes off it we’re not doing that sort of video this time not next time well maybe maybe people can leave it in the comments but it’s great to see you back by by popular demand yeah I know I know none of us are into football but you

Know this is the first time and probably last time you never get hatrick because it’s your third time on the show so congratulations plenty of hat tricks in this existence all good man that’s it so um I’m gonna pass over to Casper and he’s gonna sort of hopefully take us off from

Where we left last time yeah yeah I’ll have it go I’ll have it Go all right John nice to see you mate man you’re right thank you for joining no worries man all of that business um yeah so John uh we’ve done two two of these so we’ve

Had part one and part two we took a slight diversion in part two and moved away from your life in your early 20s and whizzed around about how we’re taking on the man and how you uh ain’t cow Towing to anybody and uh I love that

One so I encourage people to go back particularly towards the end of that if you want to hear the thing about John taking on the system in his uh BMX shop in uh in London then that’s a good one but I think that we did miss a whole

Section from sort of I think it was a time in your early 20s where you headed off for a while to the states so if you can just pick up on that bit and then we’ll talk about um some of your later life once you actually started to work

And uh and maybe also I’d like to very much touch on your own podcast uh Union tapes because I love it and I think more people should see it and subscribe to it so yeah if you can pick up around your early 20s that’d be great mate all right cool

So so where where I can’t remember exactly where I was but like I’m doing random pieces of artwork for like exactly that yeah bits of t-shirt whatever t-shirt stuff like yeah like um I can’t even I was maybe I was just doing weird odd jobs here and there

Like signing on basically but still doing like a a bit of wherever I could like some getting scraps of work together um with the man this is is so fuzzed out so so like the riding had completely like collapsed like the riding scene had collapsed and like my friends

Who I don’t know if we covered this already my friends who I rode with all the time they went to work in the circus Sean scoff uh and Zack Shaw yeah I I even remember when that happened yeah so they were my like main riding buddies we

Used to like yeah like we would go Venture everywhere like because and that it was so few people riding that we we’d just drive wherever or go wherever and we’d end up riding and that those guys got jobs in the circus riding bikes so I was like stranded completely like

Oh now I’ve not even got my two guys that I’m riding with so we it was actually pants was around at this point in time right and it was me and him and we would go we obviously had other friends that would come into London to ride and we at

One point it got so desolate that we had to go to West London so we started riding in Harrow skate park I didn’t tell this story no no no okay so we’re venturing like from east to west like because there was a riding scene at Harrow skate park at this point and

That’s where I met a bunch of guys that became sort of more lifelong friends was going to the old 70s skate park at Harrow that had a BMX scene and basically like guys from like that side of the suburbs would come in to ride Harrow so like there was guys from

Harford year like Watford area s Auburn’s hitch in like so that kind of created a thing that side and then we was coming from this side and there was already a scene from like guys from like more race BMX guys from like Pinner and a little bit further out of Harrow and

Then Harrow itself also had a a little scene so we started emigrating out that way to ride there and that’s where we the sort of scene started rebuilding remember you were telling me about like times where where it’s really quiet and things start getting creative again yeah

So that around that point in time that things started growing out of the soil of of the baron soil that was BMX suddenly had a few little Sprouts that started to come through you know and that probably was 90 93 or 9 92 and 93 I would say I guess

And that that was really good finding that that group of people even though it was further away and we had to Mission train tube ride you know it wasn’t far to us cuz it was like you know it was it was not even an hour but it seemed like

Yeah it wasn’t like going up to SK saw exactly it seemed far because we would go to chenford or local spots South Bank or not that that’s really local but like it was only well Central at least had chingford what had happened to chingford by that point

Then chingford had had been cut down and there was an old vert ramp there but like there was nobody to ride with there anyway there was nobody to ride with there yeah yeah so so basically like that sort of riding was was kind of fading away a little bit well all riding

Had faded away so because that was really hard like vert riding and ramp riding it it just kind of fell by the wayside and that there was no one there like so if I like I could ride that ramp a bit but the other guys like say like

The newer guys who was riding would have been like there’s a guy called lmy who lived in dwon and there was like a younger crew of kids um all from around sort of this area that I’m in now which is like dlon Stoke Newton um hyb it was like a little crew

Of people and those guys were new they were probably two years younger than me yeah but they seemed like real young and those guys it was hard to get riding a vert ramp like which is what chenford was so they started going to local skat parks in around here like Cen um there

Was two parks and like little spots that you could like jump basically which is easier for learning yeah and that’s how that that’s kind of how that come about as well so those guys eventually when we met them would come to Harrow with us so

We had like a crew of like East London and suburb guys going out to Harrow skate park to ride the concrete and it really yeah it served its purpose really well at that point in time but yeah so chingford just in the end got cut down I didn’t actually see

It it got cut down by some roller skate guys who were quite Young Young and the the VT ramp was too big for them so they chopped it down to like 5T but it didn’t work at all because the flat bottom was huge because it was a ver yeah yeah yeah

It’d be hard to pump and get any speed or anything yeah yeah you couldn’t get any speed and then the transition was really really slack so it it didn’t last very long I mean those guys they didn’t know that that was that was going to affect it like that they probably just

Thought we’re the locals yeah can’t use it we we’ll make it inan we use but it didn’t work so yeah I don’t know how long it lasted like that but yeah I go back after that but okay so you went over to that side of London but how far

Is that before in time before you went off to the States what was the and also the circus thing just quickly on the circus thing because even I I knew you at the time I was seeing you more regularly around that time and um it always seemed to me a bit odd that

Really good Riders had to sort of that was the their only Outlet or way of making money at least and and really doing it as some sort of job was to join the circus I mean seems crazy right um and and was it just that you know the

Your level or your interest or what what prevented you from doing something like that as well at the time I wasn’t interested in like stuff whatsoever yeah I wasn’t I mean th those guys yeah I just was I didn’t care about us that was like that didn’t come into my head that

Like it wasn’t even an option no F no it was like that’s not I didn’t yeah that was complet you’re not in the whole thing for that and yeah not some you’re just not interested you’re just like yeah yeah and like I’d see those guys they’d come the circus would travel

And do dates in London so then I’d go and see those guys um but it was quite a lot of big like people that at that point in time in the late 80s really it started coming in that guys would go to Europe and they’d ride the circus and

They’d earn a lot of money and they’d earn good money yeah and they come back and then they’d have a load of money for like a certain period of year and then it’d go back it seasonal but these guys UK I mean later they went into they went

To Europe to do it as well um and it wasn’t so seasonal you know like they did have time out but it was short um and they had to like drive a quarterpipe and a and like a a kick turn ramp around with them in that’s by Vans and like

There’s quite a lot to it yeah involved work for them if they wanted to do it and and their riding did like keep progressing but they removes you from the scene the scene yeah and the scene is what I really like about it like the the [ __ ] you know the [ __ ] that

Goes with it and all the like the culture of it is is the thing that I really liked and I didn’t I didn’t care about yeah going to ride for the circus but you so one of the guys I interviewed on the podcast he did however many years

In the circus came back and bought a house with the money that he earned for the circus you know I’m going back like to yeah yeah when you could buy whatever but yeah he went he went to the bank with a carrier bag of cash to pay for the house so like yeah

It’s pretty there’s some good stories surrounding it yeah I do like the fact if they bothered to ask him which they didn’t do as much then but they do obviously now it would have just been howd you get that well been in the circus yeah you got no no proof of

Anything which is good that’s how it should be like yeah of course yeah um but yeah so so they removed their s from it and they obviously came back late many years later but that that was a yeah not did any of those guys end up going to the states as

Well yeah well Zach yeah probably both of them I don’t know about Sean but Zach um are you just talking about the two that I knew are other guys yeah because I remember Zach because obviously I knew him to some degree as well and I seem to remember

That he actually went to the states and you know whatever you call doing wellock suceeding or whatever yeah he he wrote for a living for a good few years like he was one of the top B guys which uh yeah he so he yeah after the circus he

He came back um and then like got back into the the swing of things and then he got sponsored and stuff and then it was all yeah and then he had a job within the industry and then he went on to do like big things within the the BMX world

He was G GT team manager or whatever and yeah he did like he that’s how he earned his living for a good a good while like was riding vert shows so yeah I mean you can come back and into it like yeah yeah of course yeah was that about the time

That you so after this sort of Harrow thing and you were doing bits and Bobs and signing on a bit and whatever was the next major and by the way hello to Andrew or as we just referred to him as pants because that was his his nickname

But um yeah he is a mate of all of ours and yeah hello yeah yeah um but yeah what happened in terms of uh you getting across the stakes and that sort of next chapter in your life and then coming back I’d like to get through that

Because I want to talk about the shop if you want to but I’m really Keen to talk about the tapes as well you know yeah yeah cool man right so so this is all interlocked obviously so in the 80s when all my friends or not like immediate

Friends but like the people I really looked up to and I was I was friends with them but not like close friends at that point yeah it was it like go to America and [ __ ] live the the BMX dream you know that was that was the thing that everyone did everyone seemed

To come back and be really good as well like just I went to America for two weeks and now I’m back and I’m better than all of you guys it was really weird I that’s just an age thing um so I’d seen that throughout and then

It died off a bit like but people still did it and then we’ve going to West London and Harrow and stuff so I met like these like Paul Roberts like these this race guy who was really like he still is he’s still really a BMX guy and

He was into like racing and and jumping and stuff and he would go to America like for a winter and come back so that was one of the things of thatou group that age group of riders would sort of basically migrate to the US for the winter and then come back like when

Yeah nice one February or March you know when was kind of fading out a bit so because I started hanging out with those guys one of those guys moved permanently to the US and started racing Neil wood he became a top top us BMX racer over there so then like those guys

That I knew that were like immediate friends they started going to stay with him like so then they had what was that was that West Coast then California where you could ride all year round like yeah yeah so so they had a connection and this guy obviously his life is now

In the US in Southern California and he knows everyone there is to know that’s that you’d want to know out there or and even even people you wouldn’t want to know but like but it was like it was two steps away you know it’s that whole thing of Six Degrees of

Separation and suddenly there’s only two degrees so close yeah yeah it became so so close that now it was like I could actually do this so after like I don’t even know how I saved some money to go can’t even remember what I think i’ just been saving forever like for two or

Three years or something and like the time had come was I think I’ve got enough money to go so we uh me and this guy fids you probably remember um it was like right I’m now I’m I’m writing back and forward to Neil wood the guy who’s Racing for like the big

Companies out there and doing real well he’s living with a bunch of like American guys the guy from SNM bicycles which is like one of the bigger core brands at the minute and has been for years and years like decades um and there’s like a BMX house there so I’m

Going back and forward back and forward our friend Paul Roberts he went before us um and there was like somebody else went as well so we’re like now we’re going to meet those guys in SoCal never I’ve never been on a plane before I was [ __ ] scared of flying like completely like terrified

You know the guy went with fits he didn’t really care he was cool about it like so we saved the money booked the flights I think it was 270 quid it was return yeah big money at the time yeah yeah for a flight to California yeah for

A flight you didn’t want to take yeah well I I had to do it it was like yeah this is my destiny I have to go to I thought I was going to go to California and then never come back like I was like it’s going to be me I’m never going to

Come back so uh we did we we sorted all out yeah we’re arriving at this date coming at we I don’t even know what happened we arrived in LAX no idea how we got to must have got a taxi or something I have no idea that seems outrageous for

Us to have got a taxi maybe we got a bus because we’re definitely on a budget like but I can’t remember how we got to hunting and Beach we got to hunting and Beach got to the house met the dudes was like [ __ ] we are in America this is a

Different planet like it was completely like mindblowing like yeah I was there in ’89 as well and I just remember how even though I’d seen all those films and I thought I knew it and I thought it was exactly the same as just really a hot England with different accents and

Bigger it was still totally different from what I even I’d expected you know what part did you go to I was huntingt them Beach all around that area yeah so yeah we we got we basically that was it like we’d fulfilled our dream and like got there thinking we’re big [ __ ]

You know like big big like we’re gonna [ __ ] show these guys like what’s going on you know so um in that period of time what we hadn’t realized was like we was going riding with ra race guys and like at Trails so where we’d come from the

UK and it was a little bit behind all of because we didn’t really have much of a race scene to ride with other than these these few guys that was from like Pinner and stuff but they hadn’t they was also a little bit behind because they’re in

The UK so yeah in the UK If you go ride ride dirt jump It’s one jump like ped you Wang a trick you land like doesn’t matter how you as long as you ride off so we get to America and there’s like jump jump jump jump and they’re all

Like it’s like a racing course but full of jump exactly yeah all twisted different W like lengths and widths and like and like completely like not something that we’d ever done um we didn’t know how to do it we were like and this’s and to do anything you you

Had to like actually get through to the last jump really like was the thing that everyone session so yeah we we just we we just spent days like I I thought I was never going to be able to do it and people and people that I always laughed

At and were like these race idiots like really look down upon like stupidly being young like these dicks they can’t do anything you know suddenly they were just like they were just whipping for the lines and me and fence were just like off like eating [ __ ] on the first

Jump like getting nowhere maybe getting to the second one like just useless like completely useless didn’t know how to do it and I was there was like they were trying to help us so again look you know just like you know when you’re on a ramp

You just just push PP it getting the flow all of those we just could not figure it out we were just pulling up hard as we could like and then trying to hopefully doing an encasing or jumping off or just falling over and it took forever and the like and also the first

Like place we went to to ride was at that point the longest line to get through so it wasn’t just like jumps we had to get through we had to get through like 30 yeah yeah like just a SE of them and yeah that was good that was a good

Humbling experience like what happened in terms of the bikes themselves I mean you didn’t take your one from England over there yeah yeah yeah you just box it up yeah you box it up bike and a backpack back then you the bike was free you could just put a bike on the plane

They wer in charge of yeah was pretty cool yeah it was good now I think P pretty much pay all the time but back then it was good you just threw it in the bike box took it with you yeah yeah that was that was a that was a

Good thing yeah but yeah it was it was a good experience didn’t like California really it was totally not what I was expecting it was all like yeah super spread out and yeah it just seemed weird like it wasn’t like the UK where it’s very much more communal like here I

Think but yeah it was it was good man went to see a load of like hardcore shows like amazing like for music it was so good oh yeah for that I thought you would love it yeah yeah yeah but as you say everything is and even downtown LA

And whatever well I seem to remember at the time there was no it didn’t really feel like there was particularly a center end up in Hollywood and then Hollywood was a massive let down because it was just full of you know I won’t even go into it it’s just you know if

Anybody’s been there they’ll know what it’s like and when you’re expecting it to be paved with gold and you know you’ve maybe got man’s Chinese Theater and a few things that are interes in and if you went to the hills you’d see some big houses but beyond that it was a real

Yeah I didn’t want there nothing there nothing there that was it I was like people were saying oh yeah we’re in Downtown LA now yeah I’m like well where is everyone just some buildings and just like a load of closed buildings with nothing there like weird probably

Not like that now but back then that’s what it was like and I just like you say it didn’t seem like there was any Center to it like no yeah I think there’s a whole load of different centers and a whole load of different communities and

We turned off one of the freeways and ended up in Compton and down that side of it and to be honest you know okay maybe obviously it can be dangerous and whatever but actually it did seem to have like a feel at least it had some vibe to it some feeling whereas the

Other bits to me felt dead or you were at the you know Santa Monica or Huntington Beach and whatever and you’re at a beach but again it didn’t feel and I’m not blaming anyone there why should they be welcoming you but it did feel like it would take a while to make any

Legitimate friendships there yeah yeah it’s definitely seemed like sort of empty but could have just been my Outlook on it but it didn’t appeal to me at all so so fids who I went with he stayed there longer and he kept going back and forward but I came I cut my

Trip short and came back after six weeks and I was really glad to like I man I I realized when I was there that the stuff I really liked was the stuff at home yeah was really so much into the the the C that’s interesting isn’t it that you

Know it’s a bit of a Wizard of Oz thing right of that thing of you know you go away and you have all these adventures and you go and see things and do things that you think might be you know your new path so to speak and and isn’t it

Great that in a way it reaffirmed the fact that you do like the people the scene the and also we can’t pretend that we’re not socially conditioned living in the UK I’ve been to parts of the states that did feel like they really jelled with me to some degree places I’d never

Expected I’d like and then and I did look I met nice people and I had I actually had a really nice time on the west coast I really liked it but I didn’t get a feeling of this place is for me and I get the sense from you John

That you just even though you’d had those thoughts before that this might be the next stage in your journey you might never come home and all of those things that you just didn’t have that that feeling that this is the place for me you yeah no and and if you

If you’re riding BMX in the 80s like California was like the ultimate like BMX heaven like because it was where all the amazing photos were all the amazing Riders every good place to ride like all the skate parks and the jumps and like the tracks and like just everything it

Was like it was a super stardom you know like it was the ultimate living BMX experience but it wasn’t for me yeah I also would say about that that my feeling there I think the reason I didn’t have such a good time is again I went there with hardly any money and uh

And it did feel to me like that part of America and America generally can be like that it was real sort of payto playay territory you know if you had some money and you could just say well we’ll jump in that taxi or I will do

This and I will do or I will hire that car you could whiz around and go to all sorts of places and probably find some interesting Adventures but when you’re trying to do that on a budget I found America generally but certainly the West Coast was very hard to do on a budget

Yeah well it spread and and the unless you’re get in a bus places which they weren’t they it weren’t like a bus in London which comes every it’s not really set up for that is it yeah yeah it’s not yeah you’ve got to plan it out long term

Yeah got ride long ways well you’ve got to hire a car or yes it it’s not for yeah you’re not just dashing back and forward somewhere like did you meet any interesting people while you were oh yeah no like yeah I was going to say don’t like don’t get me wrong I met

People I still speak to now yeah but it just like the it wasn’t so much the people that I met that was in my immediate scene that I didn’t like it just wasn’t the right it just all of it wasn’t it wasn’t yeah I preferred it

Here I like really good friends here we had a really good scene we had like places to ride that we like riding there were but you just assumed it was going to be better that that’s what it was the expectations was so high and all of course like you think well I’m coming

From the UK of course it’s not going to be as good as California yeah it was like for me it was better for you yeah yeah for you yeah yeah I mean I really liked hunting and Beach and I did meet some really nice when I managed to make

A bit of an effort and get over those barriers and also just because we you know the whole thing of being divided by a Common Language just because we do speak English um it doesn’t mean necessarily that we’re the same culturally you know yeah no yeah not at

All yeah yeah yeah so then you came back right that’s that’s interesting so you came back and obviously you came back to a scene you’d worked hard on with friends you’d worked hard to cultivate and places to go and you’d created these new strands and groups but what about

Money I mean you saved up that money You’ been away you probably broke when you came back yeah how what what did you do for those next sort of 10 years or so after that um so the F when I came back I had like you say I had nothing and I

Think I came back in may possibly so it was summer so I just I don’t know how but I breathed through the summer just rode a lot you know had a good time really enjoyed myself um and then when winter was coming I I think maybe I came

Back and started getting got back on benefits and then when winter was coming it was getting really difficult like there was you know doing one of their clampdowns on on benefit guys like it was one of them eras right and they just kept calling me into the and doing this

And doing this and I was like [ __ ] this I’m not I can’t take anymore this is [ __ ] um because I was like just not non-cooperative with them and they they was really like on my case and um and I was young and should have been doing

Something really um so I was like [ __ ] it one of my friends was a cycle Courier I know that’s easy to to get a job all I need is a bike and some gear and I can do that and they it will pay me for it’ll get me through my

Short-term existence right so uh I ended up doing doing some cycle career work for about a year which was crushingly bad like like super dangerous like so so dangerous yeah not it’s like being a World War II pilot or something yeah yeah yeah like one day I every day I was

Every day I went out one week I came off yeah every day five five in a week I remember telling the controller like man every day this week like and it was like from anything from cabs coming into your lane and just driving into you and just

That was the first one I had and that like the dude was freaking out at me and it was his fault like a woman has like a cut through of a a single Road between two it’s like it might be febs Road and high hurn possibly you can can cut

Through and there was a woman on the path so I was I think I was on the I was on the road they looked at me and for some reason started panicking as I was riding up and she was I was coming up behind her and she stepped into the road

Then I got on the path to avoid her and then she got back on the path and then I got in the road she got back in the road and I hit her it was like and then she went mad at me and I was

Like like yeah it was weird all kinds of weird scenarios went down I think the universe was sending you a message John went went down Oxford Street woman Steeps out in a row this is my first like Oxford Street of right you can’t really ride down Oxford Street so I’m riding down Oxford

Street woman steps out in the road straight into me flip over my bike I’m perfectly right I landed straight on top of her there was nothing wrong with me my bike flipped over and hit this dude’s car he gets out and he’s he’s get mad at

Me like and he’s and you obviously like he’s he’s having a go at me from in the car it was like a convertible car he’s like what you doing my car man what you doing my car and I was like God I was all sort of shaking I was just like [ __ ]

You obviously made him more mad and so then he gets out of the car and there’s a bunch of people gathered around by this SP and they sort of stopped him because he didn’t know what happened I was it happened behind him and the so yeah it was all right in the end

But I mean yeah but it was just things like that like and to be doing that every day you need ridiculous amounts of money and it was just risky and it was yeah it was dangerous yeah well you literally are putting your life on theine and also you’re breathing in all

Sorts of chemicals and crap and stuff yeah but then at the same time it’s still quite a good job when it’s when you’re just breathing about and you’re see out it’s like quite so yeah there and you like bikes I mean you like being out you like bikes I it’s not a BMX

Right but you you I presume you didn’t use a BMX for that I did a couple of times I went on a BM because I was going riding on a Friday night or something I would take my Friday and be like it would kill you wouldn’t it wipe you out

Yeah yeah yeah yeah right okay so that’s that next thing so when was there a Time coming up in this journey where you actually got a quote unquote you know shop job real job you know whatever you want to call it no so oh good so then

From there what I can’t so so like a couple of years later there was a shop called Cyclone the open this is like so so the BMX scene is building and building and then like my friend steart King he’s got this bike brand and it’s

Quite like it’s a good bike brand he’s a UK Rider he’s got what’s what’s the brand King bike Co he’s G he doesn’t do it anymore but like at that point in time was like really it was a real strong brand and it was coming up like

As a real good ride own brand like and there’s a guy in the US doing selling it for him and it was all like it was all happening for him you know he really clever he’s was one of the top Riders at that point and I went into this shop

Which was just a bike shop that had a little bit of BMX stuff and it was in wol from Abby where my parents lived and uh I was like Wow they’ve got some parts Stuart King’s Parts my friends like my one of my riding buddies like I was like

[ __ ] like that’s pretty [ __ ] cool you know I just like talking to the guys like you BL small talk you know and then um I just didn’t that that was that and I was like was cool you know blah went went out then like went back a while

Later see what else they’ve got in like probably a month or six weeks or what whatever it was they were quite friendly dudes so like it it was they would always like hang out with you you know yeah give you the time of day yeah yeah

Went back they had a bit more stuff and like all the other stuff they were selling was like mountain bike stuff because that was in a boom as well right that was in it main boom probably at that point yeah so then like we went back and then they had asked me some

Stuff like what about like and then we had then we got this sort of relationship going like so I was their door to the BMX scene so like they would get the mags and then like maybe I would have a picture in it or they would see a

Video part and I of a VHS they’d have in I was on it or something like that it was it was saying vague I can’t remember exactly and they were like [ __ ] like so they knew I was kind of like a serious like seriously into it and it just built

Up this relationship of us like you know that shop I want obviously want the to do more BMX stuff because it’s close to me and it’s kind of cool and it’s novel um so I’m trying to help them out they’re taking taking in like what I’m telling them like I’m doing it

And like and then I was like well maybe like see this advert with these bunny girls that your friend has drawn with some bad logos or maybe you put like a picture of someone actually like doing something on a bike and like change the logos and like so then I start doing

Like ad direction for them you know like you know draw them a logo try and put the good brands in like give them more perspective and and a bit more idea of what they’re doing so then the time rolls on and he’s like look you fancy like you fancy working here for us

We can’t even gonna be a to pay you much but like we we we’ll try and like continue it rolling on so yeah that’s right so I was signing on again so he’s like I was like [ __ ] yeah because I I can just yeah I was doing doing your

Notate yeah it was [ __ ] it was horrible again and um so then we did that and then it after that it started rolling quick like it really gained Pace once I was in there I was in there five days a week so once I was in there all the time things

Started really happening quick and that shop turned into like one of the was it’s probably for like specialist ride own Brands it was the biggest shops in the 90s selling them specific Brands amazing yeah was huge you know like double age double page spreads in in the

Mags like everyone knew it was always got the good stuff had a good relationship with all the like core dros and stuff and it because they were all my friends from before really yeah so they had an in route and we it was it was really good yeah and then we’d have

Like visiting pros from the US come hang out and like it became a a good a real good thing and uh inevitably just to check in Gary I know that we’re always up against the time thing where are we at 2 minutes 53 Sean we’re gonna have to do a part four

Mate that went really quick sorry yeah I know it’s amazing actually that’s not a bad place to sort of stop you’re you’re in the shop you’ve helped to transform that the the whole bike thing is is on another slightly on and up at that point by the sound of it and actually you’re

Sort of now signed off you’re in situ there and you’re probably creating a lot of new Rel or fostering some of your current relationships creating other ones and whatever I think that’ll be a nice segue into the sort of final journey of your recent let me just so

That yeah of course that period of time is when the union stuff which is what I still do yeah became more prominent so we were doing ads in bags we were making t-shirts and hats and getting things they they was like things were coming out we done it before but not to this

Degree now things were happening regularly so yeah that’s a that’s where that started to to become oh that’s brilliant because the the name and what you were doing there under that sort of Union um brand then ended up with the podcast that you do now and everything

Else that we’re building up to so maybe we call the final one the union years then yeah yeah that’d be cool yeah yeah because like a lot I’ve done a lot of stuff with that since then so yeah that that would be good yeah yeah it’d be

Nice to go through all of that all right mate look that was I think you got and sorry I was rushing you a bit but um need to be kept on track otherwise we talk we need to collapse the timeline on it so yeah yeah cool man no no problem

All right look brilliant to see you I think we’re gonna get cut off so thank you for John yeah cheers man all right thank you very much see you shortly see L on thanks By