When We Was Rad:
Skateboard History from UK Vintage Magazine

Category: Issue 82 December 1989


  • Skateboarding, Smash Hits and Bruce Forsyth

    Steve Douglas in a Smash Hits TV Commercial? Lucian Hedrickse on “You Bet? These were early days for TV’s use of skateboading. More was to come… The “Chingford Torched” Stop Press story was clearly so fresh that we didn’t have time to set any type. That’s not a retro “typewriter” font: it would have been…


  • Zorlac open up in the UK, Nick Philip opens up in Carnaby Street (1989 styley)

    This comes at an appropriate moment: I heard from Nick Philip last week. He’s still in San Francisco and he’s designing T shirts again. There’s an article about Nick in Res Magazine or you can see the shirts themselves at The Imaginary Foundation. “Is it Art?” the headline asked, at a time when the idea…


  • Contents of Issue 82, R.a.D Magazine, December 1989

    The pictures on this page were from our road trip to Northern Ireland. It’s a great shame we didn’t get out more. FEATURES 20 SCARY PLACES More pleasurable carbuncles 35 BARBECUE AT BEAST MANOR Shred, pig out and party 41 DEATH BOX CHRISTMAS COMPETITION Seasonal fun with Team DB 44FREESTYLE IN STREET TERRAIN They came,…


  • Sean Goff Airwalk shoes advert

    Airwalk ran the same advert several times, which means that there’s not much to be said about this time round. It’s good to see that they tried to produce something specific to the European market, but it’s a shame that it didn’t work better. Having said that, perhaps they recognised a fundamental truth with the…


  • From a time before iPods: Tango “Radio Hat” competition 1989

    I don’t know which is more amusing, the weird product or the placement of this advertorial competition. The prize is a cap containing a radio, complete with a telescopic aerial. Cheesy or what? Did these things work, I wonder? The placement of the competition before the contents page (they were normally near the back of…


  • Early example of soft drink company using skateboarding

    Long before the days of Sprite’s involvement in skateboarding, Britvic had spotted the potential. The choice of imagery for this advert could not have been worse: all street cultures are hardly the same! Getting the fine detail of things like that has always been a problem for big agencies. It would have been a bold…


  • Death Box Skateboards advert from December 1989

    Runnning a double-page spread advert must have been a huge investment for Jeremy Fox at this point. Ultimately it all came good for him with Flip, but that was a long time in the future. The skaters featured are Pete Dossett on the left and Wurzel on the right. The Wurzel picture was taken at…


  • Christian Heitman, cover of Issue 82 of R.a.D Magazine, December 1989

    Issue 82 contains a lot of interesting material: an article about freestyle evolving into streetstyle, coverage of skateboading in Nothern Ireland and my favourite Slam City Skates advert. This cover shot by Mike John shows Christian Heitman at the Madrid competition, allowing us to get a bit of sunshine on the front of the magazine…