Rollerbillies survive epic skate marathon

Last weekend, a handful of the RTRB trekked down to Goodwood, West Sussex to take part in a charity roller marathon hosted by The Camberley Skaters in aid of the NSPCC. Driving Destructor, Hermaphrodite, Mollie Cosh & Ruby Hurl pulled up to the old motorcar race track in Driving’s Thunder Wheels, cramped up & nervous, but raring to put their derby eights on the tarmac and skate for victory! Okay, nobody was going to win gold, but they were all hell-bent on skating as many of the 2.42 mile-long laps as possible.

Goodwood Roller Marathon is the largest in the UK and attracts skaters young and old from every reach of the country. A array of disciplines were in attendance this year, from speed skaters with super long inlines, to fellow quaddies, long boarders and ski-polers. RTRB were proud to be part of the Roller Derby contingent, alongside some of the London Rockin’ Rollers who also started in this years race.

The course was tough work on quads, and slaughtering gale force winds made it even tougher. Situated in the middle of the track was a live airstrip, so vintage airplanes were flying in to land as the RTRB made way round the old circuit, the rain clouds threatening to open above; ‘What about our bearings?!’ It was a great craic.

A big cheers to all the great folk involved in establishing this awesome fixture in the skating calendar, and well done to the girls for their first long distance skate, who between them managed to clock up their milage to a massive 87.12 – two full marathons from Hermaphrodite and Ruby, and two halves (plus a few!) from Mollie and Driving.. Well done!

x Ruby Hurl x

Are none of you local?

Some rollergirls aren’t content with one alter ego: when Sailor Cherry and Chelsea Smile aren’t being Rollerbillies, they’re putting on gigs and DJ nights as part of the Last Gang in Town, Cambridge’s purveyors of all things punk, psychobilly and ska. On Sunday night, they hosted the Graveyard Johnnys, Henry and the Bleeders, and the legendary Quakes at the Man on the Moon.

We figured that we might find some potential Rollerbillies in the crowd, so we got our flyers and posters printed up and started scouting. Since Tesco kicked us out of our local skating venue (see below), our freshly printed (and numerous) flyers were a bit inaccurate, but as it turned out this was the least of our worries. The crowd was awesome, the hair was outstanding, the girls looked like rollergirls waiting to happen.. but it turned out that none of them live here.

Such was the appeal of the line up, they’d come in a crowd on the bus from Hemsby.. they’d travelled down from Lowestoft.. two of them even came from Bedford. We did actually find two from Cambridge, but regrettably they considered themselves too delicate for derby. Still, we gave them flyers anyway. We gave everyone flyers. And we still have a stack of them. Anyway, the gig was awesome, we met some neat people from somewhat far off places, and we got to wear our new Rollerbillies shirts, so no complaints.

www.myspace.com/thelastgangintownuk

Skating cancelled due to corporate brutality

Yesterday evening Tesco were denied their planning application – again – by the City Council. This morning, in what can only be described as a fit of petulance, they sent in the heavies and evicted the residents of the Mill Road Social Centre.

On the evening of the planning meeting the folks at the MRSC held another ace night of entertainment, with tango and a string sextet, before making their presence felt at the meeting.

The people in our neighbourhood built and sustained a self-organising community centre that stood for freedom, activism, creativity (and roller derby) in our community. Tesco obviously don’t like what we like. If they can’t profit from it, they’d rather have the property boarded up than see it used so positively.

With love and thanks to all those who made the Mill Road Social Centre the amazing place that it has been. Skating on Mill Road has been awesome. But above all…