I was always a fan back in the day but I'm just now starting to realize just how sick Mad Circle really was. A solid squad (Girard, Cairo, Wu-Welsh, Fujimoto and Devera), crisp art direction (even the always-ill Twist/Barry McGee early on), and an overall super clean style makes the Circle one of the most slept-on crews of the 90s.1) I believe "Sings the Blues" is what eventually became 5ive Flavors, video numero dos. I liked that vid but does anybody remember that animated intro off the first one? Classic.
2) Another stylish photo of another Johnston frontside tail (I wonder if after a while they stopped paying him for tailslide photos... he could've bankrupted the industry).
3) Karl hits the trees (too easy) while channeling his inner-Jordan on some tongue-out/parachute pants steez.
4) Granted, this ad is Infamous-era Puleo... but that shit is just too sick. And those shoes are Joe Bananas.
17 comments:
Sick dude. The footage of that Johnston tailslide made it into Chico's section in Mouse I am pretty sure.
Mad Circle was sick. Real bummer when they put Moses on though. Yuck.
I have an old Mad Circle Scott Johnston board under my bed. It's the single only deck I have saved. I have no idea why I saved it. It's thrashed as fuck, and the graphic wasn't even good. Some cartoony World Industries type shit. A cartoon duck hunting a hunter. I think I kept it because at the time it was my favourite shape ever. It's definitely a bit under 7.5.
Those Dr. Js are sick. I'm really excited about the vulcanized versions coming out, but I hope they re-do that original version too.
You forgot to mention Tas Pappas.
Moses!
tas is an interesting one cause he was super sick but i never really thought he fit the team that well. my man was crazy good but mad circle had all these inner-city hiphop street kids and here was tas, the eastern european vert metal dude... an ill fit (as was the case for most vert dudes in the 90s). tas always reminded me of tom boyle's hidden part (remember those?) on Rubbish Heap... super good but just kind of weird. always wondered why Giant just didn't put him on New Deal with Hendrix, Richter and later Lasek... (whatever happened to him? and RIP Ben).
and sorry Royce, going with watson on this one. i was never that big of a moses fan. always thought he was crazy overrated (switch frontside 5-0s/tails on street and ollies to tail on vert).
seemed like both Moses and Cao got by at times just for being down with the two most infamous crews at the time (red dragons and emb).
Cao was good but i really don't remember him doing anything other than pre-circle era late shoves and pressure flips. seemed he started to fade by the time horns came out.
i'd actually give my man Pontius Alv the nod before Moses.
Yeah dude, Pontus was sick, but also felt he didn't fit in. Like you said, street company, euro kid. Doesn't work. Of course Welsh was a good addition though.
Always been bummed on Moses. Such a raw jock. Ever hear the story about when he punched out the wrong kid at Slam City Jam? Oh man.....
wasn't he from Finland or somethin... he wasn't my favorite or anything, but i thought he was okay.
I may have liked Moses a little better if there just wasn't so much hype about him. He was everywhere and just always seemed so mediocre. What happened at Slam City? Was that the same year Vallely and Suriel almost got into it?
Tas is an Aussie.
By the way love your blog, read it everyday. I ran a site a couple of years ago which had a classic 'skate ads' section, if I find any scans you haven't got i'll email them.
shit, that's right. sorry man. i think i got him and alv messed up in my head. do you know what happened to tas... wasn't he on the ill-fated XYZ, too?
hey thanks for the support jason. really cool.
I always like Mad Circle too. When they first started, I didn't think too much of them. Then when they landed SJ, everything changed. Never a fan of Wing Ding. He was a total prick to me at EMB. His skating was totally weak IMO. Nothing special at all.
As for Moses, he was a great skater. He was one of those guys that you see skate in real life, and it's like holy crap... serious skill. He locks all his ledge tricks so tight, he'll grind right through a base plate so the hanger pops out of the pivot. He only turned jock after Mad Circle... a lot of those RDS guys seemed to get into fitness and weights. He used to be the scrawniest little kid when he was on Real.
i seem to remember slap's write-up of 5ive flavors was something like scott johnston coming correct with the shortest video part ever.
yeah that was a great company in its time. puleo had some cool ads toward the end.
Last I heard Tas was in Melbourne. Yes he was on the now defunct XYZ Clothing with his late bro Ben.
Tas Pappas was repping Vision Street Wear not so long ago.
Where abouts is Tom Boyle in Rubbish Heap again?
not sure if its on the DVD (I always seem to turn off Rubbish Heap a couple minutes into Vallely's part) but on the VHS version after rubbish heap ended and it went to noise, you fast forwarded a minute or two and boyle's part was on there. He's skating Tony Hawk's old ramp in Fallbrook.
There was a second hidden part after that with slow-mo stuff in it.
I'll dig out my old VHS copy tonight and check it out. Cheers
I gotta step in here almost ten years later and set ya'll straight about Moses Itkonen... Idk wtf you jokers were smoking back in '08 or in '94 for that matter but his opening part in Let The Horns Blow should shut all your mouths.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs5HYcTc6Sc
I shouldn't have to link that for you, being that you were commenting on a Mad Circle post you should've been familiar already. Maybe you didn't understand how impressive the versatility was or how much was switch or just don't have the proper context of this being filmed in 1993. Whatever your malfunction is something wasn't getting through to your damn cerebral cortex if you thought Moses shouldn't have been on the team. They gave him the opening part in the debut video you schmucks.
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