The Albion will be available for free at local bike shops and selected stores nationwide. The magazine will be on the shelves on the 1st of every other month starting with our first issue on April Fools day. The size of the magazine will be a backpack friendly 200 x 265 with pagination of 148 including cover. Ads to Editorial will never exceed 40% – 60%.
Brian Tunney, www.expn.com, january 2011: Former Ride UK staff members, including Steve Bancroft (who edited and shot photos for the monthly version of Ride UK since July '07, and definitely improved the quality of the mag) have launched a new BMX magazine venture in the UK. Dubbed The Albion, the new mag's mission is "aimed at reinvigorating BMX media, reinstating the authority of the printed word and celebrating all that is great about bicycle motocross," says the staff behind the new venture.
Joining Bancroft (who left Ride UK after completing issue 146) is former Ride UK staff photographer Daniel Benson (also a Fit UK team rider), ESPN contributing photographer George Marshall and former Factory Media ad sales manager and publisher Tim March (who was a top pro racer throughout the '80s.) "It's a group of individuals whose knowledge of BMX spans more than three decades," says the mag's founders.
According to Bancroft and company, "The magazine will be on the shelves on the 1st of every other month, starting with our first issue on April Fools Day." The Albion will be available for free at local bike shops and selected stores throughout the UK. No plans for US distribution was mentioned, but BMX magazines from the UK always have a way of making their way into the US, including Ride UK, Dig BMX and Case BMX.
So yeah, I know this is some industry heavy news that only seems to affect the UK, but I wanted to mention it here because I think it's worth noting. And why is that? I think Nick_Bott said it on best on Twitter this morning: "Another bmx magazine = bmx expansion = good."
And I couldn't agree more. BMX is growing, and even if the magazine industry isn't a huge growth industry right now, a select group of BMXers (past and present) in the U.K. are doing what we've always done, going out on their own to portray BMX the way they want to. Let's hope that spirit never ends, regardless of the format.
Good luck to the staff at The Albion.
www.sourcebmx.com: Issue one contains some good articles featuring interviews with Eddie Cleveland, Matt Hoffman and Steven Hamilton and pages on the United House, Dub Majorca trip and Robbie Morales from Cult.
Nick Ferreira , www.expn.com, april 2011: In 2002, Looking Glass BMX Magazine hit the shelves. Started by college professor Dennis Stancavish, Looking Glass was different than what the other magazines available at the time offered. There was no contest coverage or breaking news but rather instructions on how to build DIY concrete spots with Sean Hoskins, trips to Alaska with Ryan Worcester that barely featured any bikes, and the first issue even had an article on the legendary hardcore band The Cro-Mags. Unfortunately, the second issue of Looking Glass was the last. A promising idea, but not meant to be. And while some of the content was lost on my high school mind, I was sad to see the independent magazine go. Luckily for those who still enjoy magazines, the UK based magazine, The Albion, has completed their first issue. Started by former RIDE UK staff members George Marshall, Steve Bancroft, Daniel Benson, and publisher Tim March, this free publication looks just as promising as Looking Glass did nine years ago. Last week a copy of this thick, (148 pages) full-color, bi-monthly journal showed up in my mailbox and right away I was pleasantly surprised. Besides the smaller size, the first thing that caught my attention was the photography. Compared to the spectacle that is most BMX photography, the work in The Albion seems to use less fisheye lenses and flashes with a much simpler and more effective end result; you really get a feel for where these photos were taken. Akin to the photography, the design and layout is even more understated, which may become the magazine's success or demise. The Art Director, Robert Loeber, takes a cue from contemporary fashion magazines and applies a simple approach to the text with a heavy visual focus on most BMX mag's claim to fame: photography. But that's not to say the content of the text is some sort of throwaway next to the photos. In fact, The Albion seems to be purveyors of the written word, especially the interview. They are long and conversational, touching upon areas other media outlets rarely do. The Eddie Cleveland interview, in particular, shines through with an emphasis on the stark realities of injuries, motorcycles, and some classic Eddie quotes. Some other names of those interviewed include UK Olympic racer Shanaze Reade, Shaun Butler, Mat Hoffman, Steve Hamilton, Geoff Slattery, and more. Some range from one page inquiries into riding concrete bowls (Slattery) to in-depth profiles (Hoffman). There's also an interview with a rather dapper looking Caleb Kilby on quitting BMX. Sandwiched in between the interviews and photos are the less memorable articles ranging from Fit's Desert trip to United's southern California crash pad.
The crew over at The Albion have exceeded my expectations with their first issue and in turn have set a precedent. They're researching their articles and actually spending time with their interviewees and subjects- no matter how uncomfortable it may be. It's a telling moment during the Steven Hamilton interview when Daniel Benson says, "You know I'm sat here right now drinking with you...I'm from England man...that's a long way away. People want to know what's up." You can feel the frustration in his words and who can blame him after traveling to Middle America to interview some guy who's good at riding bikes and updates a blog. But if this little snippet shows anything, it shows that the people behind The Albion have a real interest in what they are doing. Let's hope it doesn't go the way of Looking Glass too soon.
You can find The Albion for free at bike shops across the UK. For information on obtaining a copy here in the states or elsewhere, visit www.thealbion.cc
Here's the Contents list:
Video Days – Mike Escamilla
Artifacts – Nick Ferreira and BMX stickers
Soapbox – Nick ‘Marv’ Martin
Head Banging – First Aid
The Lords of Fun – FBM on the Road
The Florida assignment – Imagine if your dads girlfriend was younger than you?
Thomas ‘Robbo’ Robinson – Alone in the woods
Mike Hoder – Doesn’t hold back
Stay Sick – The many faces of Sean Burns
Seth Kimbrough – Balls deep in the bible belt
Skavenger – Edwin discusses how it came to be
Tommy Curtin – “I was really shit for a long time”
Chris Moeller – Open mic night
Extended Family – Steve Wilson
Quitters – Matt Wakefield
Artifacts – BMX videogames.
Bezanson in London.
Tim Leighton Boyce: Classic photos from the 80s, the golden years in pictures.
Ricky Feather, the Arte of the Blacksmith and missing that United trip.
Extreme heat with Eclat in Atlanta, “they wore long trousers!”
Ruben Alacantara Ortiz: An unofficial biography of one of BMX’s true innovators. “El Pollo” The Chicken on a surfboard and a bike.
Rick Moliterno, Standard, life and not being deep.
Martin ‘Cookie’ Cook – “You don’t want to see me do a turndown.” Full feature by Olly.
Ukraine with Marshall and a crew of McArdles finest nomads, and some prostitutes and Animal fans, eight days in the former Soviet Union.
Hell on Wheels: Ryan Nyquist is happy as a pig in shit and the one and motherfuckin only Ron Wilkerson lets us have it, both by Jeff Stewart.
Video Days: Joe Rich on Road Fools 1.
Soapbox: Will Jackson on pissing off the BMX world with that montage and some other stuff.
Colts – Jamie Mckechnie.
Scaphoids.
Quitters – Chad Muska.
Colts: Josh Roberts.
Comment is Free – Adam Grandmaison and anonymous messaging.
Know your Blood – Windy Osborn and Andy Jenkins.
Tom Blyth – “I rode to an emo song… it gave the section an epic quality”
Jamie Bestwick – “I’d be lucky to get two paragraphs next to the tit count in the Sunday Sport.”
Edwin De La Rosa – ” I’m there, asleep on the couch, face down, butt naked, with my dog Jerry asleep on my ass.”
Jambul – Machete to the head, still ain’t dead.”
Jeff Stewart – A chronology for Survival
Brian Castillo – “I get a lot of shit for riding the same spots every day but i’m 35 and I don’t care anymore.”
Quitters – Ross Tanner
Video Days – John Dye
Chris Silva’s two page spread of an insane over grind in Toronto. Photo by Scott Barker.
www.bikebiz.com, october 2011: Free BMX magazine The Albion is to up its print run on issue five 'to better meet the demand from retailers', placing a further 2,000 copies into circulation. With shops such as Volt of London having shifted around 400 copies on the shop floor, the publisher has told BikeBiz: "When we started The Albion in April we were printing 10k with no subscribers, now we have 437 loyal subscribers worldwide. We've been at 11k for two issues now and at the shop level we can't really supply demand at the moment, so as we've increased our advertiser base each issue, it seemed a good time to do it with the added bonus for all the readers of the mag all being able to get United's new DVD "DownTime" with the next issue for free." DownTime is about the United Team's six months sojourn in California in a rented house during the aftermath of the success of This Is United, with the team calling it home for as long as they wanted. The DVD is the culmination of that easing off with some pressure free riding and fun. The Albion is available to all shops who have accounts with 4Down, Seventies, CSG, Shiner, Tabletop, Mint, Moore and Large, Snap, Scoop, Zeal, Ison and The Boardroom Ireland. Dealer requests for stock of the magazine can also be made via info@thealbion.cc. 13,000 copies of Issue 5 will be in circulation as of December 1st.
Video Days – Cru Jones.
History – Pegs.
Soapbox – The Count on Plastic Pegs.
Colts – Addy Snowdon.
Backyard – The first seven years.
Hoang Tran – The Scenic Route.
Chris Doyle – The Weather Man.
Farren Downes – Falling Down.
Aaron Ross – Rainbow Piss.
George French – The brains behind Gsport.
Gabe Brooks – Nigguh with Attitude.
Quitters – Bowlhead.
Cory Martinez On Plastic Pegs
Darcy Saccucci And His Pivotal Moment
Rise Of The Tin Man – Clint Reynolds Breaks His Femur
Adam Wasylenko – Working In A Coalmine
Paper Trail – UK Magazines, A Retrospective
Tom Dugan – I Hate ‘The Duganator’
Tom Sanders – The Jack Of All Trades Is The Master Of None
Matthew Roe – In The Clouds
Derek Nelson – People Are Strange, Kill Yourself
Max Wood – A Proper Love Story
Section Songs – Soundtrack To Our Lives
Stewart Johnson – Under The Mask.
John Vandever Homan III: Diary of A Madman
Bob Haro: Haro Remastered
Garret Reynolds: Chasing Some Kind Of Little Thrill.
Scott Ditchburn: At Ease
Geoff Slattery: Rolling With The Punches
Dwelling Portably: Within The FBM Anit-Social Network.
Mass Observation – Theo Simpson
Bouncing Round – Brad Simms
Get Lost – United In Argentina
All City – Andrew Clarke
Dives Bombs and Heavy Petting – Dean Dickinson
Pick Your Battles- Matt Beringer.
The Experiment – Salt Lake City.
The Burrows - A Refugee Camp Of Sorts
Stealing The Show - ‘Barspinner’ Ryan Brennan.
Jailbird - Pete Bond
High & Bound - United x Eclat Photogallery.
No Saint - Chris Mahoney.
History Of Street - Walking To The Beat Of Your Own Drum
Live Free Or Die - Clint Reynolds.
Off The Grid - Russ Barone.
A-Town Trash - Always Trashy, Never Classy
The Porno Couple - Angel Long and Mark Taylor
Self Defence - Always Run
Devotion To The Cause - Inside Zeal Distro.
The Wall Of Death – The Greatest Show On Earth.
The Sabbath – Sean Mckinney.
That’s Show Business – Bob Haro.
Front Row Seat – Bob Scerbo Photography.
I Don’t Have A Problem With BMX – Martyn Tambling.
Observations From The Driver’s Seat – Craig Passero.
The Freewheelin’ Bob Scerbo.
Pleasantville – George Boyd.
Words Made Fresh – Think Before You Put Fingers To Keys.
Why So Simple – Forget The Cookie Cutter Roadtrips.
Philly Cop – Seth Stellfox.
Breakfast With Champions – Leland Thurman.
Cover artwork is by Adi Gilbert.
Almost Quitters – Derrick Girard
Soapbox – BMX vs Money
Colts – Nick Seabasty
Hide And Seek – Owain Clegg
A Life Less Ordinary – Ashley Charles
Under Fire – Dan Lacey
The Transition – Marv
Back From The Future – Ian Schwartz
Union Life – Wolfman
The Garbage Man – Thomas Calliard.
The cover is a working street spots pop up model by Bertie Buck.
Underdog – Stu-art
Colts – Mike Curley
Colts – Dan Bob
Shayn Steels – Shanky
Nothing First – Wintering in Africa
Don’t Mess With Morgan Wade.
Derek Adams and Little Devil.
Back of the Bus – Luc Legrand
Successful Mess – Phil Demattia
The Greatest Bicycle Stunt Rider In The World – Mercury Morgan
Cover artwork by Richard 'French' Sayer
Drugs In BMX
Soapbox – The Future of Southbank
Pumped BMX – A Lesson in Entrepreneurialism
Colts: Cory Wiergowski
A Long Story Short – Jimmy LeVan
Roofies: One Lap and No Crap with Sean Burns
On The Shoulders Of Giants – Dave Mirra
Style Is The Difference – Jeff Kocsis
Taming A Beast – Ben Hennon
Life Lessons 002 – Barcelona Sex Shows
Aggro Rag & The Hoods
The Albion is available for FREE in all good BMX shops in the UK, and is available outside the UK by subscription only.
Cover made by no other than Taj Mihelich.
Editorial: This Too Will Pass
Departure: Jason Phelan and his homage to Mike Escamilla.
How To: Steal A Bike
Freecoasters: Progress or fleeting fad?
Colts – Dale Armstrong
Colts – Troy Merkle
Holding The Room – Alex ‘Fathead’ Barton-Holmes
Snakes & Ladders – Shawn Mcintosh
Taj Mihelich – “You can’t win BMX”
The Rise & Fall of BACO.
The 100th Monkey
Cover artwork is by Jeffrey Bowman
Colts – Eric ‘Ewip’ Whitescarver
Colts – Freddie Househam
Whatever Happened To Lard? – Photography, Madness & The Cosmic Chuckle
Josh Harrington – Standing Tall
Mildly Aggressive – Ben Hittle
Eternal Optimists – Villij, Epsom and Brighouse trails
The Pursuit Of Happiness – Éclat In Hong Kong
Survivor – Troy McMurray.
Cover artwork is by Mat Waudby
Harry Mills-Wakley – Colts
Grimaldo Duran – Back On A Promise
Josh Bedford – A Family Trait
Harry Main – Stepping Out Of A Crowd
Waffle – Hard Target
Kevin Kalkoff – Je Ne Sais Quoi
Tyrone Williams – “You Gotta Love It”
Steven Hamilton – The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Steven Hamilton interviews himself, for his second feature in the magazine after his controversial interview in The Albion Issue 1. Photography by Scott Marceau
Gary Young – Diamond In The Rough. The story of the day The Albion and Gary Young were robbed at gun point and pistol whipped by three kids on a motorcycle in Argentina. Words and photography by George Marshall
Ty Morrow – Making Sense Of It All. It's been a big year for Ty Morrow. It’s been a year of big changes and achievements, namely the completion of his epic section on the Deadline video. With that finished he’s had more space and time to think. In this in depth interview, Ty Morrow tries to make sense of it all. Words and photography by Dan Benson
Crandall Shrugged: Steve Crandall interview. Steve Crandall, the owner and founder of FBM Bicycle Company, is the most important man in BMX today. Without him and a small handful of other prime movers, BMX as we know and love it would be in a horrible state. Words and photography by Steve Bancroft
Timmy Theus – The Greatest. The Albion visits Chicago in the autumn to clock in and put in some hard work with the Northwest's Timmy Theus. Words and Photography by George Marshall
Video Days – Ben Lewis’ Early Sections. Today 'Ben Lewis' is a staple name in the BMX scene now but once he was just a rumour. He was unsponsored and largely unknown except for two video parts, we talk to makers of those videos NSF2 and The Make's Cut The Crap about how far of his time Ben was. Split Section in NSF2 (2002) The Make, Cut The Crap (2006)
Colts: Justin Henninger. Justin Henninger is the real deal. He approaches riding with a quiet confidence that is as rare as it is impressive. Justin handles business; there’s no yelling, bike throwing, or excuses. Once he’s committed, that’s that. “I don’t like spending my time on computers, I’d rather be out riding or digging or doing something” Words and photography by Devin Feil
The Albion, january 2014: The Albion is approaching its third birthday. From George’s flat in South London we’ve created a respected magazine with a global audience. We’ve provided content that has been insightful, inspiring and at times controversial. Producing six high quality magazines in a year can be one hell of a headache, so we’re going to distill our efforts into three magazines a year, starting with issue 18 which will be available on April 1st. You’ll have even better content and longer to read it. We’ll have more time to ride and do other stuff we love too, which will benefit both the mag and ourselves.
This isn't the only change. To build upon the success of our free digital editions - available to a worldwide audience - we’ll be making it even easier to view or download with a new App. As of issue 18, the magazine will appear online one month after the release of our print edition. We’ll also be taking on US based contributor Scott Marceau as a staff photographer and writer after his consistent and quality work throughout our past issues.
Subscribers, you will all be contacted regarding your subscriptions, and we’d like to thank you all for your continued support. To everybody who has offered us content, a floor to sleep on, a lift home, or simply enjoyed some of the work we’ve put out, thank you.
The Albion, august 2014: Somethings are not meant to last forever. Thanks for the support whilst we were here, we are sunk, at the bottom, wrecked, broke, in debt, bust. I’d like to say we gave it our all but we did not, not by a long shot, we gave what we were prepared to give and sometimes thats just not enough. There are no survivors. Pour over our remnants in years to come and revisit your memories of what we represented to you, maybe one day you’ll turn again the pages of time and remember us, 17 issues, thats enough, time to die. The Albion is dead. Ride on kids… its a new day tomorrow, live it… “Till the wheels come off”…