The Dirty Mag

Shed Life becomes aspirational

2011-03-12T12:12:00.000Z

Flicking through the 2010 Ikea catalogue, a picture of the usual perfect glitzy kitchen - but glimpsed through an open door is a garage where an oily engine block without head or sump is dangling from a chain-hoist above an undistinguished old Mercedes, beyond which there's a pile of crap. A lifestyle surely beyond the reach of the average Ikea shopper.

More Scenes from the Shed

2011-03-12T12:09:00.000Z

New Dirty Mag website launched!

2011-02-09T13:33:00.000Z

A bit of spring cleaning around the Dirty HQ means we have given the Dirty Mag its own shed. You can buy subscriptions and back issues there, and get in touch with us.

Dirty Magazine No.3 has just come back from the printers (delayed due to the snow stopping our shed-built team from getting to places!) - so expect 'em to flop on to your doormat any day now.

Going South

2011-02-06T23:53:00.001Z

The new mag has got a great road trip diary to share with you all.......a true MC showing class - going south!

Planning trips....

2011-02-06T23:48:00.002Z

looking forward to the sun bringing us all out and together again to chew the fat over old shit!

Crowds

2011-02-06T23:30:00.002Z

Bet this lot didn't spend a lot of time debatin what a bobber is!!

Dirty Bomber!

2011-02-06T23:25:00.002Z

Check out this photo from a Popular Mechanics magazine article about motorcycle racers from the early 50's. It is of Merwyn 'Red' Fleming who was rumoured to have hauled his race bike in a sidecar on his Harley to and from the races! He rode with the "BOMBERS"! Dirty Bomber!!

DIY signs

2011-01-06T23:11:00.000Z

Every now and then, through our explorations in sheds and outbuildings, in gig venues and the great outdoors, we come across great examples of punk signage.

Brilliant stuff.

Happy Christmas!

2010-12-24T17:09:00.000Z

Thanks to everyone for your support in our first six months - looking forward to a very dirty new year! Merry Christmas folks x

Space Travel Craze

2010-12-19T09:45:00.003Z

During the 1950s public interest in space travel sky rocketed (sorry! haha). Many of the 1950s science fiction films were low-budget B Movies with cold war undertones - they had a unique style of their own! The films rarely met the expectations created by the poster but 50s sci fi had a style and creativity, which in my opinion, is yet to matched by today's Star Wars generation and CGI....

look out for the 50s sci fi inspired feature in Dirty Mag issue 3 ....

Monkey Business!

2010-11-29T08:24:00.006Z

Legend, according to Fat Possum, has it that there's a monkey running around some third world jungle missing a paw - and there's one man to blame, Bob Log III.

During a boating accident as a boy, Log lost his left hand. His parents decided to forget prosthetics, opting instead for a simian addition.

Bob Log III says his only concern is "the paw moves much quicker than a normal hand, so my real hand has to flop around a lot to compensate."

Hayriding Holidays Are Coming!

2010-11-28T08:29:00.001Z

Get your kicks...pre-66

The Battle of Britain reliability run

2010-11-27T17:42:00.000Z

We took part in this great little reliability run earlier in the year, organised by the Detonators CC and raising cash for the Help the Heroes charity. It was a great weekend, intimate and cool!

The run is in this month's Car Kulture Deluxe mag, with Neal's great photography (which is a lot better than mine here!)

Recovering from the Riot

2010-11-23T15:20:00.001Z

Held at Pontin's holiday park in Camber Sands, the Rhythm Riot is now in its 15th year. Very professionally organised by Robin and Colette, the event takes over the entire park, with live music, DJs, dancing, vintage clothing market, record stalls, its own television and radio, and a cruise to Rye on the Sunday. This year there were around 130 cars taking part in the cruise, mainly stock American vehicles, with some hot rods and a couple of classic British cars.

The evenings are spent on the dancefloor, jiving, jitterbugging, bopping, twisting and - er - flailing (in our case) to top notch R'n'B, soul, rockabilly, jazz and blues.

Smooth as Terry-Thomas on a Carry On holiday.

Tin Toys r Us

2010-11-14T09:30:00.004Z

One of the best DicE mag covers in my opinion was the Chopper Tin Toy designed by Scarlett...but I am biased!

Inspired by those vintage wind up pressed tin plate toys which somehow have more character and probably longer lasting than some of their modern plastic counterparts. In the late 19th century these toys were stamped out of tinplate and die cast which were exported from Germany. Many of the toys were clockwork and were developed as a sideline of watchmaking. They were originally made in the 1830s for the amusement of adults. Much of the tinplate trade was based in Nürnberg and companies such as Bing and Issmayer began production there in the 1860s.

After WW2 once the toy industry was (back) in full production, Japan assumed the lead with the addition of many new novelties. Not just wind-up and friction driven, some Japanese tin toys were powered by batteries and able to provide flashing lights and sounds. In the 1950's and early 1960's, the Japanese had flooded the market with many appealingly designed tin toys and a large percentage of them were aimed at the USA with items familiar to Americans. But despite tin toy popularity in the post-war era, tin toy manufacturing was faced with increasing difficulties. They included changing consumer demands, new safety regulations and competition from plastic toy makers.

Check out this Harley 3 speed, magneto equipped Model 16F for sale on www.carandclassic.co.uk at the moment for £22,000. The fitted wheelcovers make it look like it was inspired by a tin toy!

Vintage Recording

2010-11-14T08:59:00.007Z

Here at Dirty HQ we are lucky to have an analogue recording maestro (Tim Ray) who can work wonders on a four track. Before then we used to try (unsuccessfully) to capture our raw and raucous sound at local studios. Until we discovered back in the early nineties a small studio in the backstreets of Shoreditch called Toe Rag. For the first time ever we captured 'our' sound and recorded two albums there under the moniker Stewed and released them on Twist Records.

Toe Rag now have moved premises and record some of the big 'stars' of today, still run by the Infamous Liam 'Baine' Watson.....I wonder if he has a 'Cheese Room' nearby with a Sexton Ming batcave called HMS fairycake?

In our pursuit of all things vintage and obsessional we have tripped over another fanatical collector/user of old analogue recording equipment...see issue 3.....
Toe Rag's vintage EMI REDD 17 valve desk originally from Abbey Road - complete with a Filth Knob

Camber Sands Blues - Rhythm Riot Will Go On

2010-11-13T07:37:00.003Z

News hit me yesterday through my travel industry buddies that Pontins had gone into administration..shit I thought, no Rhythm Riot. I felt a bit selfish afterwards as I had not cared that this iconic british brand was potentialy soon to be no more.

Robin and Colette obviously had a sleepless night cos I received an email at 4.49 this morning saying it was all systems go and that they had assurances the park would still be operating (fingers crossed!)

So only a week to go! We've never been before, but seeing past reports it promises to be a good weekend. We have a space to sell the Magazine and Scarlett's gonna be working there over the weekend, 'live painting' a skate deck for the expo and she designed a couple of T shirts for them for this year.

Scenes from the shed...

2010-11-07T11:13:00.000Z

More random shedness

Signs of the times

2010-11-05T10:20:00.000Z

The Land of Lost Content

2010-11-03T18:50:00.000Z

Sod the Pyramids, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Graceland and the Somerset Brick Museum (OK, maybe not the Brick Museum), but if you only manage to get to one special place before you kick the bucket, it's got to be the Land of Lost Content in Craven Arms, Shropshire. More old shit than you can shake a stick at - check it out here!

Scenes from the shed...

2010-11-02T16:15:00.000Z

Some random photographs from a life of professional shed-investigation

The Octa-J.A.P. in the making

2010-11-01T12:46:00.000Z

Those of you who have got a copy of No.2 will have seen Robert Laycock's gorgeous little JAP motorcycle, the Octa. Here are some extremely rare archive glass-plate photographs of it in the Atco factory during production.

(and for those of you who haven't got No.2 yet - nab yesself one here! http://www.dirtybobbers.co.uk/subscribe.html)

Not The Same Old Blues Crap

2010-11-01T07:38:00.005Z

Jim Jones Revue are the latest pop sensations to be interviewed by Tim Ray in the Dirty Mag. Our Scarlett has done some mean promo posters for Rupert, guitarist for the Revue and promoter for the Not The Same Old Blues Crap gigs. She's too modest to post some of these works of art soo I thought I would do it just to annoy her!! ha ha enjoy!

check out more of her stuff here

Folk Devils

2010-10-31T10:25:00.000Z

The moral panic is over but the fun continues.....check out the Hotrod Hayride in issue 2!

The Devil on Wheels - Hot Rod Movie (1950's) - A funny movie is a click away

Dirty Action

2010-10-31T09:23:00.005Z

Jedd from NLAMC, who advertised his marvellous racing sweaters in the first issue, also does a great blog called Wingnuts Motorcycle Club. Full of great pics of early bikes, clubs and races....at Dirty HQ we love the Gypsy Tour era (see No.1) and this blog satisfies!

check it out http://wingnutsmotorcycleclub.blogspot.com

Disturbing The Fkn Peace

2010-10-30T11:48:00.003+01:00

Benny Thomas builds cool bikes! Fullstop! Check out this this Sporty he built for Graeme Clarke that is featured in the current issue of 100% Biker magazine.

His Black Douglas he built for Bill is featured in the latest issue of Dirty Mag. It's a perfect example of real deal, scavenged, reclaimed and repop fused together in a beautiful looking blatter - perfect for any occasion....almost definately disturbing the fkn peace!
Check out Benny's blog for more of his inspirational work...

http://d-t-f-p.blogspot.com/

Issue 1 Still Available

2010-10-30T11:46:00.002+01:00

If you didn't get, why not? still available while stocks last! click here to buy

Indians and Wall Of Death

2010-10-30T11:40:00.002+01:00

The new issue looks at the showmanship of Wall riding. These guys have it!

Pamela Green and the W.I.

2010-10-29T16:25:00.003+01:00

Yahya El-Droubie, who wrote the article about Douglas Webb and his partner Pamela Green for Dirty Mag No.2 sent this little piece about Pamela's nude films…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/southtoday

Dirty Magazine No.2 out now!

2010-10-29T16:20:00.000+01:00

Announcing the tricky second issue of the Dirty Mag! Amongst the glorious old shit in this issue is the Wall of Death, the Octa-J.A.P., the Land of Lost Content, pinup photographer Douglas Webb, and much much much more!

Click here to get yerself a copy: http//www.dirtybobbers.co.uk/subscribe.html