All things DIY

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The Underground, Plymouth - TNS Tour : 2017 

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Protest against Tory cuts to NHS - 4/3/17 London

Tim Wilkins, a photographer currently based in Falmouth, Cornwall traveled to London on the weekend to shoot what has been named ‘The biggest protest for the NHS yet’. Tim is currently studying Press & Editorial photography at Falmouth university and is always on the move to cover all forms of documentary work, especially activism.  

You can see more of Tim’s work on his website (link below) with any contact details also being on there.

Website

Photos : Tim Wilkins

‘’Tens of thousands of people - including NHS workers, campaigners and union representatives - have marched in London to protest against "yet more austerity" in the health service. Organisers say that "at least 250,000" people took part in the march, which began in Tavistock Square and ended in Westminster, where speakers including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn addressed the crowd.’’

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TIN CAN VAN PROJECT

The T.C.V is a donation project aiming to be a pop-up community space around Cornwall which offers:

- Food and Drink  - Clothes and Hygiene Products - Support & Health Checks with help from local charities who are onboard

AND MORE...

‘’ With the ever growing population of homelessness around Cornwall, our aim is to travel with local food businesses and a band of buskers to the most effected parts of Cornwall and pitch up a pop up welcome space for the homeless community where they can get: - warm food and drinks - donated clothes and goods - support and checks for health problems from local charities and a durable drawstring bag hand packed with life essentials such as food, under and outerwear, hygiene products and first aid kits.‘’

They are available as a door to door pickup service so do not worry about worrying how you are gonna lug all your unwanted, but useful shite to their van. So far locations incude: (Specifics TBA)

FALMOUTH - 20th March, 12am-4pm CAMBORNE - 21st March, 12am-4pm REDRUTH, St. Rumouns Gardens - 22nd March, 12am-4pm TRURO - 23rd March, 12am-4pm

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

Other than donating all of the above, there are other ways you can help:

1. Pledge to their gofundme page - They are trying to raise £400 to cover catering costs for their van with some of that being used to buy their own supplies to hand out if the donations are under their expectations.

2. Get your hands on deck - You can offer to help with collecting, catering or just being present to undergo tasks that need doing as the event takes place! If you, or anyone you know feels they are upto helping out please get in contact with the event hosts on Facebook

3. Spread the word! - If there’s one thing we are all good at and more than capable of doing, it’s fucking posting everything all over social media! Take a break from those shitty memes and share, discuss and invite the cans out of this event.

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3 Chords Festival: Alex Smith - 2015

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Prolez presents: Punk night @ Jago’s Falmouth (Bobby Funk) 

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‘Where the fuck is our skatepark?’

Over the 25th-26th February, local skaters and members of the community organised and ran a petition stall on The Moor, Falmouth to help them on the way to getting a new skatepark underway. 

Photos: Bryony Padwick  

(Tumblr - Linkedin)

After the circulation of the ‘Dracena Centre Outdoor Gym Public Consultation’ skaters and locals alike have took it upon themselves to conduct direct action into getting Falmouth a new skatepark since the promise from the council to have a new one built has yet to have been fulfilled since their old one was torn down in late 2014. 

In just two consecutive days of petitioning in Falmouth, they have gathered roughly 1020 signatures helping their cause with the hopes of many more signatures to be gathered up until the next Falmouth Town Council meeting. (DATE TBA)

This is a battle which has been fought for time and time again, ever since the deconstruction of the old skatepark at the Dracena Centre playing fields, in many forms such as e-petitions, crowdfunding, events and various fundraisers. 

It’s pretty hard to not get a sense of hopelessness on the matter, especially when things seem to be going absolutely nowhere but it seems the locals are ready for yet another big push into pressuring the council to take them seriously in hopes that things will actually get done this time. 

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

Fancy getting onboard with the local skaters of Falmouth to help them kick the councils arse into gear? Heres how:

Contact Falmouth Town Council

Phoning up and directly enquiring about the progress on the new skatepark or lack of is the easiest but quite an effect way into causing that small rumble in the minds of the council. The more people ‘enquire’ collectively, the louder the message gets. - 01326 315559

Attend fundraisers/events/gatherings in Falmouth to do with skating

Apart from the obvious, especially if you don’t skate yourself there are other ways you can help/engage on the topic:

Splended Eye Torture -

A weekly skate gathering (Thursdays 8-11p) @ MONO Bar Falmouth to watch classic Skate Films/ Get horrendously drunk/ catch the falmouth skate scene in one place. (Brilliant place to get to know new people and to organise what is upcoming in the town to do with skating)

Follow/Engage online via Social Media -

The most efficient way currently to keep up with what progress is being made towards getting Falmouth a new skatepark is via the campaigns Facebook page. From there you can see regular updates, event announcements and just general discussion on what is going down

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Sam Parsons, The Pyrpgrapher

Hand designing skateboards aint nothing new but hand-burning on designs onto decks puts a whole new level of skill into the mix.

Both for fun and when commissioned, Sam draws up original designs, then burns them onto black decks and other wooden objects all from a desk in his Garage in Falmouth, Cornwall. 

The tool he uses to do so is a ‘Woodburning pen.’ (What a shit name for such a rad skill). Similar to a soldering iron, the pen uses extreme heat to stain/burn on surfaces it is pressed against. 

‘’ I actually started off by heating the tip and blade of a knife till it was super hot and started to make some patterns on small bits of wood and from there i started to get a little more serious with it ‘’ 

Sam primarly burns designs onto decks as it is a stable flat surface but is starting to move onto other wooden objects such as gun stocks and bokkens. I can only imagine something like pyrography draws parallels with that of a tattoo artists in the sense that it takes persistence an practice to achieve turly amazing art work. Well, that and the pressure of trying not to permennalty fuck something up mid session. 

For now, Sam only takes commisions from friends and family with no online presence but if you would like to contact him, do so via his Facebook

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CORE VALUES PRESENTS.... 17TH FEBRUARY - MCR @ RETRO BAR

‘’We've kept this under our collective hoods for a while but prior to the UKIP demo on Saturday the 18th in Bolton we're going to throw a rager for everyone attending the counter demo.’’

To anyone around in the north west of England tomorrow this is a gig not to be missed. Held at RETRO BAR (MCR) from 7pm,  this is a night fulled on punk and ska until the early hours of the morning with a solid 6 artist lineup:

‘Core Values’ - 

Bob Hoskins Experience. BOB HOSKINS EXPERIENCE is a sleazy knee’s up DIY snot rocket punk attack filled to the brim with folky sing-alongs & filthy ketchup breakdowns. Imagine the bastard child of a one-night stand with Tenacious D dripping out the birth canal of Sublime & Goldie Lookin Chain, first and possibly only Manchester show. https://bobhoskinsexperience.bandcamp.com/ Wadeye... Wadeye are a 5 piece ska enthused punk rock band. Sozzlecore? Call it what you want. Based in Manchester. Formed sometime during Summer of 2012, Wadeye have been gigging relentlessly since. The name comes from a remote town in northern Australia known for gang violence between members of its primarily indigenous community. We adopted the name Wadeye after watching a documentary about it and discovering it’s a really fascinating place to google about. It would appear despite the much documented violence (between gangs named after heavy metal bands), the inhabitants manage to put their differences aside and still find unity during heavy metal dance-offs. We thought the troubled history of this tiny place also highlighted the consequences of an ignorant culture expanding and showing no respect for the indigenous inhabitants of the land it comes to dominate. The kind of history much of the white western world would rather sweep under the rug and forget about. The truth is the consequences are ongoing, and it’s a struggle that’s far from over. Obviously an outsiders perspective is never that accurate, there are many details about the other Wadeye we don’t pretend to know about or understand. We’re also just not that good at names. Wadeye are 100% DIY, 0% Profit, Anti-Police, Anti-Crime, Anti-Dick Head, Anti-Margeret, Pro-Choice, Anti-Pro Government and Pro-Anti Government, Anti-Antidisestablishmentarianist and Pro-Anti-establishmentarianist, Anti-Anti-Anti-Inappropriate use of Double-Negatives, Anti-Capitalist, but Pro-Relaxed rules on Capitalisation (and hyphenation) when writing childish lists and always Pro-Partying Hard (like Andrew WK). https://www.facebook.com/wadeyeuk/?fref=ts Jamie Tyrell (of Aerial Salad) acoustic set Ebola-la's PUNK ROCK DUO, HARDCORE 9% CREW. BRIGHTON. UK. https://www.facebook.com/Ebola-las-578136018947110/about/ Borrible by Nature https://www.facebook.com/borriblebynature/ Oli and Bemz acoustic set More TBC ‘’

If there wasn’t any more of a reason to show your faces to this solid gig, all profits are being donated directly to helping the homeless of Manchester. The gig is £5 OTD or £3 if you bring along donations of food, clothing or hygiene products again which will be directly donated to helping the homeless. 

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Pier Session: Falmouth

With currently having no skatepark in Falmouth, many locals have took it upon themselves to create and skate their own ledges, ramps and rails. The latest creation of this growing collective is a wooden ledge made by Eddie Belvedere. Made in his garage, from bits of wood he has gathered from local skips and dumps with two angle irons screwed on top enabling skaters to grind as well as slide on it.

The Prince of Wales pier is a brilliantly smooth space to skate on, also with the benefit of it being floodlit at night allowing it to be skated at all times of the day. You do run the risk of your board slipping off into the sea but it is definitely worth such a risk when weighed up with such smooth flooring and good lighting; a true rarity in the streets of Falmouth.  

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Truro City Centre: Joe Robertson - 2014

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TEN QUESTIONS #1: PHOEBE PLANT of FOULMOUTH ZINE

‘’ FOULmouth is a collaborative, submission-based zine founded by illustrator Phoebe Plant and fashion photographer Ruby Maris-Stephens‘’

With Falmouth being home to thousands of art students, it goes without question that there are places to feature work other than through the university itself. FOULmouth, founded by an illustration student and a fashion photography graduate, is one of these places in which you can submit work to feature across different social media platforms as well as in print in hopes of communicating and collaborating with different artists both near and far. 

They are currently available via their WEBSITE, FACEBOOK, TWITTER and INSTAGRAM with copies of ISSUE #1 available via their online store or at various art fairs throughout Falmouth, particularly TOAST’S ART FAIR. S.W.S.O managed to contact co-owner and illustrator Phoebe Plant to answer our ten questions on FOULMOUTH:

Q: Tell me a bit about yourself, where you're from, how old you are and how you ended up in Falmouth at uni

A: I'm Phoebe, I'm about to turn 21, I have pink hair and I'm an illustrator, zine maker and aspiring art therapist. I'm currently living in Falmouth and studying BA Illustration at Falmouth University (I'm in my third and final year!), I ended up in Falmouth after my art teacher at college told me about the university and I came down to check it out - fell in love with the idea of living by the beach and luckily got the place on the course to match! I spent the first half of my childhood growing up in a town in Hertfordshire, and then rest in the Essex countryside, but always feel as though my roots will always lie in East London, where all my mum's family are from - it's where I got my accent AND my love affair with pie and mash! 

Q: What is your hometown like? Is it similar to Falmouth? If not, how does it compare?

A: My hometown honestly couldn't be more different to Falmouth. It's made me realise how having students around from all over the place completely alters the dynamic of a town or city for the better. It dilutes the right-wing bastards down to a bearable level and home just doesn't have that.   We also don't have prominent night/skate/creative culture, making it a bit shitty for someone like me who thrives off everything like that and the people that make up that sort of demographic. It's weird because I'm so physically close to London - I can get there in 30 minutes by train, yet I feel more cut off from London there than I do when I'm Falmouth. Totally has everything to do with the atmosphere of Falmouth. As creative students, we make it like that and it is so special. I kind of think Falmouth will always be my home now, even though I will probably come and go for a while. I really hope something draws me back once I move away.

Q: How did FOULmouth come about? Was there a particular event/thought or was it something that had been worked on over a period of time?

A: FOULmouth began when I started dating a guy during the summer of 2016 whom happened to be best mates with a guy who was also dating a girl from Falmouth University! Ruby had already graduated from Fashion Photography the previous year and had moved back home, having the whole "Falmouth thing" in common kind of just sparked a friendship an gave us something to chat about when our boyfriend's were playing Xbox or American football. Somehow we got onto the topic of zines and Ruby suggested that we made one, just out of collages photos and stuff we liked and maybe then photocopied it for friends. My boyfriend and I then split up out of the blue and I was absolutely heartbroken, not just because of the romantic love I had lost, but because I thought my friendship with Ruby had probably gone down the shitter with it. But Ruby literally turned round and was like LETS MAKE A ZINE ABOUT THIS LETS TURN THIS PAIN INTO SOMETHING AMAZING!!!!! And we did, and FOULmouth was born! A horrific breakup caused a loss of someone I didn't really need after all, but gave me someone (Ruby) and something (FOULmouth) that made the pain and shit kind of worth it - silver linings or what! We brainstormed the first issue in a notebook whilst eating burgers in Byron, Cambridge city centre and that was back in like, August, so it's been a long haul journey to get to where we are now in February the next year, releasing issue one. 

Q: As a co-founder of F.M, are there any specific roles you take on/oversee? If so, why is it you do that job as opposed to the other co-founder?

A: My official title is Deputy Editor but right now Ruby and I oversee everything together, we share the social media and replying to emails, and everything that has gone into issue one has been approved by us both. It's a real effort and I love that. If one of us is having a super busy week, the other takes over for a bit and vice versa. It's been a little tricky with me in Cornwall and Ruby back in Cambridge, but we've managed to pull it together - a lot of issue one was organised on my bedroom floor over the Christmas holidays! I plan on moving back home when I graduate, as I'm going to do a Masters, so we are hoping that we can be hand on together in person much more with future issues. 

Q: Issue 1# was 'LOVE': How did that theme make it as the opener for F.M? Were there other strong runners for the first theme or as love the main idea from the get go

A: Love was pretty much always going to be our first issue's theme, regardless of whether that breakup had happened. It was more of a case of, fuck, how do I want to explore and portray the idea of love having just been bereft of it. It really opened up to me, and hopefully will our readers, of how limitless the theme is in terms of how you perceive it. All of our contributions were different and contrasted each other beautifully. I never ended up putting in anything super personal or that portrayed my negative love experience that fed the making of FOULmouth, because the whole experience of seeing our contributors' work and sharing ideas with Ruby was healing enough. Sounds so stupid but it genuinely did put me back together again. 

Q: How did you find getting F.M to launch? Did it go as you planned, did anything go wrong? if so, how did you overcome it?

We had a few release dates in the pipeline, like Christmas, but we just couldn't get everything done on time. Ruby brought Jade on board as our features editor and I think it was her idea for a Valentines release, we were just like WHY did we not think of that?! It fitted with our schedule for how things were coming together so we went for it. We have had hiccups along the way but I feel like Ruby and I are on the same page with our vision, so luckily it's mostly a piece of cake. I know we had a few technical problems with getting the website live but everything worked out in the end - and on the 14th as planned! The reception since has been overwhelming. 

Q: Do you think Falmouth has a strong sense of community when it comes to projects, events and collaboration? if yes, what events etc have you seen/been a part of which show this.  if no, what do you think needs to be done to show a stronger sense of community

A: I think Falmouth is amazing for this. FOULmouth definitely wouldn't be what it is right now without the support of people down here, we've got a good few submissions in issue one from Falmouth students to prove it! The arts fairs every month at Toast are a real highlight for me when it comes to creative events in the area, I think. I can't wait to bring FOULmouth to the fair on 8th March and beyond. MONO is iconic for events in Falmouth in my mind, I love everything the venue does and brings to the town, not sure I can remember what life was like before MONO! I think having a real mix of events throughout the week/month is so important and predicting what day a certain event will perform best on is key. I've had some wicked times and met some amazing, creative, like minded people through stumbling in there when I thought I was on my way home! It's one of the biggest things I will miss about Falmouth when I leave, without a doubt. 

Q: What are your plans for issue #2 ? Will there be a consistent theme throughout or do you both kind of plan it as you go along?

A: Now that would be telling! I can't reveal specifics for issue 2 just yet, but I can tell you it will be absolutely awesome and we are already excited about it!!  Keep your eyes peeled on our social media pages @foulmouth_zine and on our website www.foulmouthzine.com for all the latest! There will be a different theme for each issue, we are kind of just planning things as they happen and really responding to our readers/followers. 

Q: If anyone wants to submit, contact or meet up to collaborate and communicate with F.M, how should they go about it?

A: If you wanna chat then hit me up at [email protected], you can also contact us and follow us via Instagram and all that @foulmouth_zine, you can also contact me on my website www.phoebeplant.co.uk Submissions should be sent to [email protected] and we will get back to you! We are accepting submission 24/7 right now, and if you want to be featured on our website then that's the way to go! 

Q: What advice would you give to anyone wanting to start their own zine?

A: It depends on what scale you're producing your zine on. If you're creating a brand like we have with FOULmouth I think you've gotta be in it for the long haul, like, this is what I wanna be doing forever now and I think that's really important. There's so much more to getting issue one out there than asking people to submit work, if it was that simple we would have had an issue back in the summer!! Having said that, you can produce beautiful zines with amazing content in a matter of days if you've got a vision and know what you want. All you really need is a photocopier if you want to have something quickly and for no money at all. I would love to able to mentor other students and aspiring zine makers, so please get in touch with me! 

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Topps Tiles : Alan Wyatt - 2014 

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Dracena Centre Outdoor Gym Public Consultation 

Cornwall Council have recently been handing out a public survey based on what the local community in Falmouth would think about an outdoor gym being built on the grounds of the Dracena Centre. 

For now this is the first contact to the public about the potential proposal but one question looms among some locals which is:

‘Where is our skatepark?’

In December 2014 Falmouth’s 14 year old skatepark was torn down due to the council needing access to a ‘ruptured pipe’ located underneath it. The decision was then made not to rebuild the skatepark due to the ramps being at the end of their life. This, at the time left local skaters with nowhere official to skate other than in the streets which has caused friction between them and pedestrians.

In April 2015 plans for a new skatepark were put out to public with 3D mock-ups and costings, which at the time kept the local skaters very enthusiastic about their local skatepark being rebuilt and even to a much better standard. Enthusiasm rose to a level for some where they began to raise money to put towards the construction costs but just under 2 years since the plans, not much else has been said.

The local skaters around Falmouth still remained hopeful until this particular survey surfaced with absolutely no mention of a skatepark. Even though the survey references an ‘outdoor exercise facility’ it seems they aren’t willing to consider anything other than a gym as an exercise facility based on this survey. 

It is already quite apparent that there is a passionate following behind a new skatepark due to several events being held to raise awareness:

Falmouth Skateboard Olympics

Falmouth Skateboard Olympics was an ‘Olympic’ style event which took place last summer on the grounds of where the skatepark used to be. This event was ran entirely by local skaters to raise awareness for both a skatepark and because skateboarding has recently at the time just been announced as an official olympic sport. 

Skaters had to compete it teams to win hand-made medals and an array different prizes donated from local businesses throughout Falmouth.

The event attracted more than 40 people and also the interest of local radio station BBC Radio Cornwall.

Splendid Eye Torture: A Weekly skateboard movie premiere

S.E.T is a weekly event held at MONO bar which premieres skate videos from over the past 4 decades. It provides a space for local skaters to meet up, discuss and hang out which naturally brings up the topic of Falmouth’s new skatepark 

Local gig: Bobby Funk skatepark fundraiser 

Local bands have come together in the past to raise money to put towards the funding for the construction of the new skatepark. Music has a direct link to skateboarding the culture than spans from it so local punk band Bobby Funk took it upon themselves to create a fundraiser. 

Most if not ALL events to do with raising awareness and funds for Falmouth’s skatepark, since its deconstruction which involve the community, are created solely by this same community with absolutely no help from formal organisations and companies. Yet at the same time as these events over the past 2 years i have seen no events as such which want an outdoor gym being installed. 

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Fundraising, for a crowdfunder, for a film.

‘What a load of malarkey’ Fundraiser @ Woodlane Social Club - Feb 3rd

‘’A night of unfathomable malarkey with the aim of launching a 3rd year Crowdfunder for the production of the film, "Mrs Malarkeys Lost Her Man". A film about mortality, isolation and relationships including caravans, corpses and the last survivor on Earth. Come and hear the sounds of some fresh scents new to the Fally scene and a couple of the regs! All money raised will go into the Crowdfunder campaign which will launch on the night!’’

To launch an online crowdfunding campaign can be a great way to giving a project that financial kickstart that it sometimes needs, but i reckon physically putting together an event to raise money through a gig will always be the better option, especially if the event actually promotes the launch of the online crowdfunder which is exactly what 3rd year film students have done. 

 ‘What a load of malarkey’ correlates to the name ‘Miss Malarkey’s Lost Her Man’ which is the title of the film in which this event was raising money for. 

‘’Miss Malarkey’s Lost Her Man is the story of an unglamorous apocalypse.  Miss Malarkey obliviously lives out her mundane life in her caravan listening to a self-help tape while searching the surrounding fields for ‘her man’. On one of these searches she comes across a corpse. In an act of morbid desperation, she drags the body into her caravan and precedes to live with it as though this it is in fact the man she has been looking for.

The film focuses on this hopeless relationship, slowly building to the reveal: that this small story is only a snippet of a much more pressing reality.’’

The event was £3 (OTD) for 3 bands, with all proceeds being put into the crowdfunder meaning anyone who played that night did so for free. The three bands that played were:

JOOD

Just Friends Being Sensible

MOTH CLUB

All three bands absolutely smashed it, playing a completely variety of music that i definitely wasn’t expecting, drawing anyone who turned up to the event to the front of the stage. The entire night held a consistent high energy throughout it even in between sets! 

The event raised over £500 for the crowdfunder which is already straight off the bat more than half way to their total goal of £1,000. 

To support their project please visit their Crowdfunder Page

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Splendid Eye Torture

Since the new year, a free weekly event has emerged in Falmouth that goes under the name of ‘Splendid Eye Torture’. Created and ran by Falmouth’s local skate scene, this event is a place where you can enjoy some of the legendary skate videos that have been released over the past 4 decades. 

Hosted every Thursday in MONO, this is probably one of the only social events around where it is possible drink beer, sit with numerous other skaters and watch a VHS video section of from when Andrew Reynolds still had a full head of hair. 

Chris Thomas, local Falmouth skater is the guy that runs the event, searching high and low to find those old VHS gems that could well have shaped and revolutionised how people skate to this very day. As well as using his own established collection of skate VHS’s he is open to donations and suggestions in what to add to that particular weeks playlist. 

As well as the event being a screening of different skate videos, there are prizes to be won in the form of a raffle. Prizes so far have consisted of a care package sent from Emerica in support of this event which included T-shirts, Belts, Bottle openers, Belts and even a pair of skate shoes. 

This even is purely for the appreciation of skating and to bring a local skate scene together to discuss, drink, party and well...skate! 

S.E.T is currently on it’s 4th week (2/2/17) with this weeks VHS playlist being:

Plan B - Second Hand Smoke (1994)

Osiris - The Storm (1999)

Flip - Sorry (2002) 

To keep directly in touch with S.E.T check out their INSTAGRAM and FACEBOOK to regular updates on what they are up to.