KATE
ROCK!
On tour with the skaters' band
Photography by Craig Ramsay.
When a band goes on tour, they will
usually be at ease lounging around,
taking it slow before their stage time,
but with The Faction' it is a different
story. As their manager/agent/pro-
moter, I have the extra tough job of
keeping tabs on their activities.
For The Faction a day on tour
"THE FACTION."
Fresno we were met at Landshark
Skateshop by dozens of local skaters.
Despite the 105" heat we converged
on the local skate spot and a cool dou-
ble quarterpipe set up in an aban-
doned gas station island area. The
locals were blazing so we were all set
to have a hot session. Gavin, the
singer, began hitting flipper sweepers
and the rest of the band followed with
other rad street influenced maneu-
vers; Stevie, the bassist, seemed to
flow easily about the ramps.
We sold 10 E.P's to the shop and
left for Eric Holts' house, which also
happened to have the godly 16' wide
masonite halfpipe in the backyard.
hip of the perfect "clam bowl."
A chance to skate and relax at the famous
Colton Skate Ranch Roadies, crew,
There was soon a mega session. The everybody skates. Keith rocks the shallow
Landshark shop owner, Tony, was
there pulling clean frontal handplants.
All the locals were pushing it hard.
Keith, the drummer, partook in some
long sliding R&R's. The band slid
Gavin, intensified vocal power. away briefly for a much needed swim
session at the local hotel pool com-
plete with handplant entries, water
fights, and transition inspections.
Luckily we were turned on to many
pools (filled and empty) on this road.
The gig was in a large auction barn,
and the locals really got into thrashing.
They were hanging and swinging from
the rafters, and dropping into the pit.
There were some skating across the
cement floor and skate-shanking. A
very cool scene is brewing in Fresno.
The Faction had an encore, and were
quite appreciated. 'America's Hard-
core' was hot as was 'Sin 34. Julie is
a great performer and a very cool per-
son. Faction stickers were every-
where!
Everybody in the pool" The boys take
one of their many H,O breaks along the tour.
Gavin tries to hide Stevie from movie
types with a "clove" smokescreen while the
waitress goes to call the fire department.
means full-on skating with breaks only
long enough to eat, swim, play, and
sleep. The tour started in Fresno, CA,
a city midway between the capitol in
Sacramento, and southern California
The Faction' van was packed with
bags, drums, amps, stacks, guitars,
band members' roadies, and last but
not least skateboards. Upon entering
The band left Fresno the next day
after an early morning session at
Eric's house (our host).
In Los Angeles, we stopped for a
much needed swim at Gavin's uncle's
house. The diving board provided that
needed spring to propel us into a
frenzy of aerial assaults on the pool.
Stevie was contorting intense method
air sans board.
We soon reached Spidey's house
and immediately began to session
Spidey's web. This is a very fun ramp
16 wide. Adam, the guitarist, showed
us a few extended inverts. The locals
were blazing Butch, whose house
half of us ended up staying at, was
tearing the ramp to bits. Lucky for us
again Butch, who lives across the
street, owns one of those prevalently
Southern California structures, the
built-in pool. Another dip and we
headed for the Vex in east Los
Angeles
Were talking heavy cholo-ville. The
Vex is still playing shows after all
these years and there are still the oc-
casional stabbings that have become
standard in that part of town. We stuck
around the hall for the most part. A
local band, Hated Principal' opened.
It appeared that the hardened types in
this joint, which was packed at 350.
people, did not appreciate anyone
that wasn't there fave band, but when
The Faciton took to the stage, the
sleepy crowd packed up close. There
was a vicious pit going during the en-
tire set. Led by Gavin, the stage was
assaulted with skate induced energy
Several groupies were to follow Gavin
around the rest of the night unrelent-
ingly. Present and thrashing were
Here's your basic J.F.A. tribute photo.
Faction members keep the energy levels up
with some U.S. team hockey, arcade style.
Julie of Sin 34
Lance Mountain, Big Steve Keenan,
Little Steve, Spidey, Butch, and many
other skaters. The crowd was ex-
hausted, but still flailed for Wasted
Youth, and Aggression', another hot
skate band
The next day was spent sessioning
all local spots, and swimming due to
the staggering heat in So. Cal. The
band invaded a local Chuck-E-Cheese
joint for pizza and a full on U.S. Team
Hockey tournament. This is a cool
lever controlled hockey game that is
akin to the excitement level required
by skaters. Soon the entire place was
there watching the ferocious play as
the game was literally being lifted off
the ground.
That night at the Rock and Roll Or-
phanage in Hollywood, the band was
late, but put in a good show to a small
crowd. A few skaters came to see us
again from the Vex show. More stick-
ers were plastered. Kraut' who head-
lined were great! The drummer had
numerous skate stickers on his bass
drum including mega Thrasher stick-
ers. They dedicated a skate song to
us and really had the skater-crowd
going
Monday there was no show so we
went to Colton and sessioned the en-
tire park all day. It was very clean and
the Holliday bowl was great. The band
and roadies had the park to them-
selves for awhile. It rained off and on
even though it was 95 out. Carl's
Junior was terrorized often.
Exhausted we returned to Rick
Spidey Demontrands' house after a
session at the Fountain,' a skateable
mall fountain.
In the morning we drove to Holly-
wood to purchase some equipment.
We were eating lunch in a cafe across
the street from EMI Corporation, and
these two Hollywood types sat by us
to eat. We began to stress as they
kept staring at Stevie and shispering
but as soon as we tried to leave they
approached us and told us they were
major MTV rock video producers, and
they wanted Caballero for a part in
their 15 segment rock video adventure.
serial. They tried in vain to interest
Stevie, but he only shrugged and said
"don't know.
We went to Golfland and played all
courses for the price of one round.
Spidey attempted to scam a few stray
balls from one of those stale green)
ponds, and the moment his shoes
touched the wall he did major back
loops into the center of the scum. He
was covered with slime. We all stan
dardarly laughed, and then departed
due to the stench factor.
Steve and Keith put at least $20 into
Dragon's Lair before we left.
Wednesday morning we
were
awakened by the producers at 9:30.
This is too early and they were again
shined on. A small contest was or
ganized on 'Spidey's Web, and the
producers somehow, found out how to
get to Spidey's house about 30 miles
from Hollywood. They showed up and
started snapping pictures of everyone
skating and doing other stuff and they
took notes while Stevie blew them
away on the ramp. They were so
amazed and impressed that they de-
cided to let Stevie write his own scripts
complete with full on skating adven-
tures. Steve then agreed to the terms
and they went on their way. To think it
all started in the atypical producer dis-
covers star in cafe' fashion. The sad
thing was that 300 desperate actors
tried out for this part and lost!!
For lunch we drove by the future '84
Olympic site and stopped at a Jolly
Jugs restaurant. The roadies were
smoking cloves and pretty soon a
large firetruck #22 flared in 'cause the
waitresses thought the smell was
burning wires in a vent. Clueless
people. We jammed.
A swim session complete with
stump dives, wall dives, and even
neighbors roof dives was committed.
The band had a practice jam in Spi-
dey's garage while several betties
hung out front.
That night at Shamus O'Brien's in El
Monte, Dr. Know,' with Eddie Corbett
from Courtship of Eddie's Father'
playing guitar ripped a clean, power-
set. Skaters took the bus all the way
from Colton and Santa Monica to see
The Faction, who filled in for 'S.S. De-
control. Scream headlined
blazed.
and
It was girls free night, and the band
was given several explicit offers from
overzealous betties. After some party-
ing we crashed back at Spidey's.
Early to rise this day. We drove vir-
tually non-stop to San Francisco to
play the 'On Broadway' with 'Pariah"
and Personality Crisis.' Street ses-
sioning was heavy before the show
and we were all glad to be home after
the show, back in skaterville. The tour
was a non-stop skate-jam that I will
not soon forget.
-Craig S. Ramsay
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