Thrasher Magazine

Photo: Mike John

Over the course of four days in August, the LONDON CALLING! event played out as one of the most significant get-togethers in skateboarding’s relatively short history. Skaters and fans from the 1970s through to the 2000s came together to pay homage and respect to the UK’s trailblazers, the ones who helped establish one of the biggest skate scenes outside of California at the time.

On their annual return trips to the UK in early in 2023, skate industry giants, ex-pros and UK-to-USA transplants, Steve Douglas, Bod Boyle and Don Brown discussed how to pull off a bigger-than-usual blowout with some old skate faces. Then a chance meeting in California with ’70s UK skate enigma Jeremy Henderson fired up Steve’s imagination to pull off a more significant event back in London.

Steve’s drive and passion for all things skateboarding and the personalities that have made it happen, rapidly evolved from boozy London get-togethers into an ambitious program of British skateboarding celebrations—a once-in-a-lifetime gathering of many of UK skateboarding’s most significant heads from it’s formative years. LONDON CALLING! was to be a tribute event to show respect to those 1970s UK-based skaters that laid the foundation for arguably the most influential skate scene outside California.

Skateboard collectors were contacted, vintage photos scanned, forgotten film rolls digitized, artifacts gathered and long-lost skate heroes hunted down. Then we got celebratory tees printed, magazines written, special limited-edition Van’s created. Flights from the USA, Australia and Europe starting booking up. The modest exhibition of long-lost ’70s skate photos first proposed had now evolved into four days of events, product releases and a month-long gallery show. See how it all played out.


Pure Evil Gallery, opening night

Day one kicked off with the opening exhibition of vintage British skate photography, ephemera and artifacts put together by Dan Adams from the Read and Destroy archive and Juergen Bluemlein from the Skateboard Museum in Berlin. All this generously hosted by the Pure Evil Gallery.

Pure Evil Gallery, the foyer featured a collage of rediscovered photos from British Skateboard! mag. Danger, indeed

First looks at the display by Juergen Bluemlein and The Skateboard Museum

Team Logos reunited, Simon Napper, Bobby G, Ben Liddell and Alex Turnbull

Decades of stoke

Don Brown and "King" James Cassimus

Jeremy Henderson introduces his former self and a Cassimus outtake from the famous 1979 Skateboarder shoot

Reunited for the first time since 1979, Marc Sinclair, James Cassimus and Jeremy Henderson

Marc surveys the shots stolen by Jeremy from Cassimus’s desk in 1979

Cassimus hears for the first time that jeremy had stolen several photos from the Skateboarder offices back in ’79

Henderson highlights from the missing photo stash

Shut down the neighborhood. Gallery overspill, opening night

Henderson reveals more of his secret photo stash to Tim Leighton-Boyce

Don Brown attempts to join the Benjy team AND Team Logos. Benyboards teamsters Paul Sully, Kadir Guirey and Jeremy Henderson, with Don Brown and Team Logos’ Ben Liddell

Tim Leighton-Boyce and legendary London skateshop Alpine Action alumnus Sid

The ’80s/’90s gang comes to check it all out: Ace photographer Wig Worland, Unabomber boards supremo Pete Hellicar and RAD mag cover star Yogi Procter

Pig City crew alumnus, Tim Dunkerly name checks the rest of the Brighton boys

Going all the way back to the earlist days of Southbank and Skate City, Henderson and Alex Turnbull reconnect

Bod Boyle, Dan Adams, Tim Leighton-Boyce, Steve Douglas

TA now and then. Opening night and and back at the Mad Dog Bowl in 1978 shot by Wynn Miller

Mark ‘Floater’ Maunders and his younger self hucking an Ollie back in 1979 at Rolling Thunder

Two of the UK’s earlist skate lensmen. Tim Leighton-Boyce and Jerry Young meet for the first time

Steve Van Doren mingles with the opening night masses

Leading lights of the ’70s London scene, left Marc Sinclair and right, slalom ace Jim Slater

Benjyboard collector Adrian Wink, packing original Henderson signature deck meets John Sablosky, Paul Sully, Neil Harding

Benjyboard display at the gallery

North of England crew with Sheenagh Burdell and Darren Burdell

Display cabinet ephemera

Closer look at the cabinet display celebrating the reproduction shoe created for the event

Mad Dog Bowl team rippers Seth Gittins and Raf Makada

1980’s VIPs, Steve Douglas, Shane Rouse and Derry Thompson

Skate City originals John Sablosky and Bobby

James Cassimuss and Bod Boyle

Champ of the British 1980s vert scene and former Dog Town pro, Lucien Hendricks

Sablosky signs a collectors board on display

Gallery display in quieter times

Without the crowds, you can still hear the wheels screech

1970s Team Logos slalom ace John Shayer

Benjyboards teammates Paul Sully and Kadir Guirey

When flatland freestyle met downhil slalom—'80s slayers with '70s roots, Shane Rouse and Tim Panting

Display of the now famous Benjyboards ad featuring Henderson and Sablosky and the LSD logo

Henderson and Sinclair with a LOT of catching up to do

The King's Speech

Powerful words

Henderson signing

Last look at the opening-night overspill. What a scene

After the party is the afterparty. Sablosky and a very hyped Tony Hallam (who travelled from Australia for the celebrations)

Late-night antics with Joe Evans, Steve Van Doren, Don Brown and Shane Rouse. But isn't it someone's birthday?

Sinclair shocked

Douglas presents THE cake

Marc Sinclair at Marina Del Ray shot by Ted Terrobone 1979, immortalised in edible icing

Rolling Thunder skatepark heavy hitters Brian Murray, Shane Rouse and Mark Maunders

Benjyboard brothers Marc Sinclair, Jeremy Henderson and John Sablosky

The celebrations continued into the night with a VIP afterparty punctuated by significant birthday celebrations for Marc Sinclair, crowned with a cake decorated with his famous 1979 Skateboarder magazine full-page photo by legendary photographer Ted Terrebone (RIP).


The Forum fans gather. Sablosky, Sheenagh, Burdell, Sinclair and Henderson get ready to spill the beans

Late night celebrations were no deterrent for skate fans and personalities alike to gather in the morning of day two for a three hour forum with the ’70s icons on stage to spill the beans on the behind the scenes memories of those formative times.

A full house took notes as Jeremy diffused the Pig City and LSD rivalry of old and Sinclair recounted hosting Shogo Kubo in his London apartment. A lively discussion took place on how the early London scenesters translated skateboardings surfing origins to an altogether more urban pursuit. And secrets were unlocked to the original discovery of London’s legendary Southbank skatespot.


Watch the whole forum as the pioneers take the stage and recount the early days in UK skating

Don Brown makes the introductions

Henderson,Sinclair, Sheenagh Burdell and Sablosky, tell it like it was

Alex Turnbull, Kadir Guirey, Simon Napper and Ben Liddell

Mark Baker Zooms in from Bali

Good hang

Henderson holding court

Steve Van Doren, TA, Cassimus and Bod Boyle get the lowdown

Sheenagh Burdell tells tales of the North

The 300-strong audience eat it up

Skate City skatepark reunion. Left to right: Johnny Turnbull, Thea Cutts, Marc Sinclair, Sheenagh Burdell, John Sablosky, Alex Turnbull, Bobby G, Kadir Guirey, Simon Napper, Ben Liddell, John Shayer, Paul Sully and Max Kirsten

Next panel, Henderson, Cassimus, Sinclair, Sablosky and TA

Henderson, Cassimus, Sinclair, and Sablosky remember the best of times

Cassimus blows Benito Schwarts’ cover

Alva reminds us all just how bad British food was in the 1970s

Tour talk with TA

And of course, Henderson and TA get to sparring

"King" James signing limited edition prints of the 1979 Skateboarder Magazine shoot

The eager and engaged 300-strong audience enjoyed plenty of laughs and even came close to tears when British ’80s pro skating icon Sean Goff, took to the mic and got emotional as he paid a sincere tribute to the pioneers. In this spontaneous moment he spoke for the entire audience in expressing his gratitude for the lives that those on stage had inspired.

Douglas and Tim Leighton-Boyce re-connect in the "411 Pub"

Close by, the festivities continued in the London pub forever known by Steve Douglas as The 411 pub AKA the Crown and Anchor. It was here that Steve was first inspired by British skate mag editor and legendary British skate photographer Tim Leighton-Boyce to think about the idea of a video magazine. The seed was sewn for what would eventually become the groundbreaking and influential 411 Video Magazine of the 1990s.


The decades align as Southbank alumni gather

Day three brought more get-togethers starting with a morning skate session at Bay 66 skatepark. After decades off the board, Marc Sinclair was inspired enough to dust down his wheels and revisit his West London roots to hit the transitions.

The afternoon saw the heads gathering for the 10th Anniversary Southbank Reunion at the world famous Southbank Centre skate spot. Skaters from every era of Southbank’s rich history arrived to find ace London skate snapper Wig Worland capturing portraits for posterity whilst Alva, much to everyone’s delight, took to the board and threw down a few lines.


Wig Worland and Andy Simmonds record five decades of Southbank regulars for posterity

TA slash at SB

Don Brown takes the technical route

Later that evening and with gas still in the tank, a large skate contingent trekked across London to witness every ’70s punky skater’s favorite band, Devo in concert at the Apollo Hammersmith. It was Devo that had provided the soundtrack to many a skate session in the ’70s and early ’80s. For the superfans among us, Steve D wrangled passes to the soundcheck. The result was a mass skate around the empty dance floor as Devo played on. The epic night was capped off with an afterparty hangout with the band.



Widen Your Horizons Tee at Crystal Palace bowl

Rounding off the weekend was an all-day Sunday skate session at Crystal Palace skatepark. The location has born witness to top-flight skateboarding since the staging of the first “National” skate contest in 1977 where Sablosky, Henderson and Guirey first made the pages of Skateboard! Magazine. Cab and McGill hit the ramp there in ’82, followed by a host of US and international skate VIPs throughout the 1980s.

Everyone packed their quiver, old school contest style, to hit the pool, haul ass through the slalom cones or whip up a Casper flip with the freestyle contingent. The pool session was buzzing and the good vibes racked up a notch or three when Henderson dropped in for the kill. The stoke was high as he attacked the coping with all the gusto and flair of old. The “still got it, kid” adage never looked more at home. It was a fitting end to a few unforgettable days.

Sam Gordon carrying on the CP hill traditions

Tony Campbell charges the cones like it’s 1984

CP local charging

Aussie New Deal vert destroyer Tony Hallam, cruisy double trucking

Nostalgia overload; The ’80s Palace ramp crew joined by ’70s rippers and friends re-visit the site of the orginal CP vert ramp.
Back row left to right; Alex Turnbull, Noddy, Bobby G, Rob Ashby, Jeremy H, Simon Napper, Steve Douglas, Phil Burgoyne, Darryl James, Neil Brighton, Bod Boyle, Dan Adams, Jay Podesta, Paul Atkins, Mark Lawyer, Sean Goff
Front row left to right: Dickie, Paul Price, Shane Rouse, Simon Porter, Sid, Dean Bennett, Mike John and Twiss Enwright

Jeremy Henderson dazzles with full attack frontsides in the pool

Raf Makada brings the Mad Dog Bowl flavours

A fired up Sean Goff locks in for multi-block grinds

To the movers and shakers of the 1970s British skateboard scene, skateboarding owes you a great deal. Thank you for carrying the torch and lighting the way.