“I photographed the previous Rockers v Bristol game at Alexandra Palace. Brighton underestimated Bris-tol that day. They didn’t roster a few key players (such as Rose Bleed) so as to keep them fresh for potential games against Central City and Brawl Saints. The Rockers line up also seemed weaker than usual, with newer players given more track time. They had players jamming that are not on their usual jammer rotation. Some of those Brighton jammers were really strug-gling to get through Bristol’s strong walls, picking up penalties in the process as Bristol gained a good lead. Although Brighton later changed tactics – putting on star jammers like Chariot Sophia they began to make a comeback – by then the gap was too wide to close. Having said that, I expect Brighton to win today by about 80 points. The Blizzard and Goldie Lookin’ Pain are two Bristol players to watch out for.”THE PHILOSOFEAR, BOURNE BOMBSHELLS

“On paper this looks like it could be something of a mismatch. Flattrackstats’ predictor, based on the UKRDA rankings, gives Brighton 92% chance of the win and an expected differential of 60:31, similar to a 270-140 home win. Their European table, meanwhile, places Brighton 23rd on 645.2 ranking points, with Bristol positioned at 51st (593.3 points). A prediction based on this differs very little from the UKRDA one, with 91% chance of a home win and 15:8 differential.

Whilst we usually only have these computerised guesstimates to base predictions on, in this instance we have two ‘real world’ guides as well. The most re-cent of these is the UK visit of Paris Rollergirls six months ago. The same Paris roster played Brighton and Bristol away on consecutive days. The Rockers beat the French side by a very narrow margin, whilst Harbour Harlots lost by almost three hundred. This, combined with heavy point deficits in other 2014 games for the South West side, suggests that Bright-on could potentially break their current league record for points scored (357) or victory margin (267) today.

The other real world guide is the result when the two sides met in 2013. The rankings gaps and pre-dictions were almost identical to today’s, yet Bristol took a comfortable shock win. Both sides are much changed, but look out for Bristol’s tough Black Thorn and pacy The Blizzard. The Rockers should win this one by quite a margin, but let’s just wait and see.”MISTER ADAM, TURN LEFT EDITOR

EDITOR/DESIGNER/PUBLISHER: Adam Peters CONTRIBUTORS: All of our lovely intervieweesPHOTOGRAPHERS: John Hesse: front and backcovers, pages 3, 4 & 12 (Swann) // Scott Carroll: page 5 // Rebecca Cornford: pages 7 & 12 (background) // Jason Ruffell: page 8 // Kate Murrell: page 10 // Shirlaine Forrest: page 11 (bottom left) // Raw Speed: page 11 (top right) // Dominic Smith: page 11 (bottom right) // Paul Delooze: page 12 (Raven) PLEASE SUPPORT OUR LOVELY ADVERTISERS (THEY HELP TO KEEP THIS MAGAZINE FREE)

UKRDA RANKING TABLEAULD REEKIE ROLLER GIRLS (731.7)TIGER BAY BRAwLERS (721.0)GLASGOw ROLLER DERBY (720.8)RAINY CITY ROLLER GIRLS (676.5)MIDDLESBROUGH MILK ROLLERS (672.3)HOT wHEEL ROLLER DERBY (662.5)LEEDS ROLLER DOLLS (658.6)CENTRAL CITY ROLLERGIRLS (656.9)ROYAL wINDSOR ROLLER GIRLS (643.2)BRIGHTON ROCKERS ROLLER DERBY (640.8)NEwCASTLE ROLLER GIRLS (631.1)HELLFIRE HARLOTS (628.6)PORTSMOUTH ROLLER wENCHES (614.1)SEASIDE SIREN ROLLER GIRLS (595.7)HULLS ANGELS ROLLER DAMES (590.5)LONDON ROCKIN’ ROLLERS (589.9)SHEFFIELD STEEL ROLLERGIRLS (587.4)BRISTOL ROLLER DERBY (585.7)BIG BUCKS HIGH ROLLERS (579.2)LINCOLNSHIRE BOMBERS (576.9)

PREVIEWING THE GAMET L �

1234567891011121314151617181920These placings/points correct as of 9th Sept 2014. See flattrackstats.com for the most recent table.

A few thoughts ahead of the long awaited rematch between Bristol and Brighton...

PRE-GAME PREDICTIONS

After our superhero font led redesign, what more fittingly named Rocker could we interview but KAPOW! One of three fresh faces on the Rockers board of directors, she tells us about the league’s future plans and how our readers can help...

DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY

A KAPOW! POW WOW

Hi. 2014 has been a busy year for the Rockers so far, particularly in terms of home games. Is this a deliberate policy of playing more regularly? And is the preponderance of home games, with no A-team away matches at all so far, intentional? It has been a busy year hasn’t it! Shambolic is our game arranger so she approaches teams (or they approach us) and we have a ‘hands up’ to gauge whether we’ll have enough people to field a team. I guess us play-ing more often is down to a good combo of offers and having enough players available this year. As for only playing home games, I think that was just chance re-ally. Sham has been beavering away to arrange some exciting games around Europe for the next year.

Bristol are only the third team (after Dublin and the Rollerbillies) Brighton will have met more than once in open door contest. Any other previ-ous opponents you’re hoping for a rematch with? Any teams you’ve yet to play that you’re keen to? The Rockers played [top Belgian league] Gent away in 2012 and we’re organising a home rematch with them. It was a close game back then, so who knows what will happen now! We also played a nail-biting home

game against Paris earlier this year, and we’ll be cross-ing the Channel to play them in France some time in the coming year. Personally I’d quite like to play against my old team, Milton Keynes Concrete Cows, as it would be fun playing against the old crew.

There have been a few changes behind the scenes, including new directors, etc. Could you give us a brief overview of who does what organisationally for the Rockers? Behind the scenes has had a huge shake-up recently with a completely fresh set of direc-tors. The newest addition (joining myself and Derby McGee) is Emma The Condemner, who has taken over from Racey due to the latter’s ‘nine month injury’ and wedding celebrations. We have lots of committees doing various jobs. Instead of telling you what every-one does, I’m going shamelessly ask for some volun-teers. Rose Bleed sorts out venues, so if you have any ideas or leads for a larger/more permanent training venue, please let her know. Mistress Von Über Vixen is current bout co-ordinator, which was previously the job of Sal Gore. We are looking for a willing and organised person to take this on. Sal also looked after finances, and we are desperately looking for someone to help us out there – are there any accountants in the Rockers fan base? Enyo Face is our graphic designer and would love a capable second in command. If any of you reading this want to be involved with our team in a non skating capacity, please get in touch. Were you involved much organisationally at your previous league, and how does Brighton com-pare to MK in terms of size/scale, both behind the scenes and on track? Organising league things is brand spangly new to me and I’m learning a lot from it. Both leagues are organised with committees. They then vary quite a bit. Currently the Rockers have only their A-team, whereas MKRD also have a B-team as well as intraleague games. We’re working on bringing back our B-team though, and I’m really excited about that! I can’t comment on how MKRD play on track, as I have been out of the loop for so long now, but certainly when I first transferred I noticed how much more competitive the Rockers were. Who would win an after party? I reckon the Rockers would for sure!

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DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARYWe understand that finding space to train has been an issue this year, given the closure of your previous venue in Shoreham. Is that something that’s resolved itself now, or do the Rockers still have something of a nomadic existence? Venues are the bane of our derby lives at the mo. It’s a huge shame that we lost GYSO, and yes, we are rather no-madic at the moment, roaming between the sites of Moulsecoomb and the King Alfred for training, along with Haywards Heath for games. Surely there is some place hidden away big enough for us to use? If any readers have any leads or ideas of this magical place then let us know... maybe a Room of Requirement? Ask all your friends, please help us!

The Rockers seem to have much more focus on Fresh Meat these days. There used to only be one FM intake a year, now there’s often three. Are you getting a good influx of new skaters from this? Is there a drive to expand the league in terms of numbers, or is it more a case of replacing the skaters who retire or move away? Both of those reasons come hand in hand really. We’ve had quite a few players leave for various reasons, so we need to fill these gaps. We’ve had some good luck in get-ting transfer skaters, but we still need more players, so we’ve been doing more FM intakes. We have got a great bunch at the mo, who are all working hard and progressing nicely. Next stop for them will be the B-team, which we’re working on bringing back.

The Rockers are almost unique these days in stag-ing single header games – everyone else seems to put on double headers now. One factor in this presumably is your current lack of a B-team, or associated men’s team, to play the second game? Closing the B-team was very much because numbers had dwindled a bit over the last couple of years, which meant that supposed B-team games involved a hand-ful of real B-teamers and a lot of A-teamers! However, we are really pushing to bring the B-team back like a phoenix from the flames. Then we’ll be able to have A/B-team double headers. We’re also forming links with Croydon Roller Derby to get a combined double header arranged, so watch this space...!

Renting out sports halls, away travel and so forth must be expensive. How are the Rockers funded? Do you have any new fundraising events, such as Shambolic’s recent Punktured pierceathon, in the pipeline? Yes it is expensive! We’re funded from skaters’ subs, merchandise sales, tickets sold at games and fundraising things. We’re looking into do-ing the Warrior Run (a tough obstacle race) again, but

that’s not confirmed yet. We’re always interested in fundraising link ups. An eating contest has been sug-gested. If you have any ideas please get in touch.

What are the Rockers plans and ambitions, both on and off track, going forward into 2015 and be-yond? We want to become [world governing body] WFTDA certified, play teams we’ve met on the track before, train freshies up to bouting standard, host a double header, get out in the community more, find a permanent venue, find an accounts person, find a graphic design helper, find a bout co-ordinator, bring back the B-team, have fun... Have I missed anything?

Finally, this issue of the magazine is a fashion special. Which Rocker’s fashion sense do you most admire? And most cringe at? I have to say that Enyo Face always rocks whatever she wears. My par-ticular fave was her Bart Simpson denim shirt. Only she could pull that look off so fabulously. Whose do I cringe at? I’m far too polite to say, though I did cringe at the choice of leotard themed travel attire...

Would you like to help the Rockers out in any of the areas mentioned above? Got any great fundraising or venue ideas? E-mail info@brightonrockers.com

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PAST ROCKERS RESULTS18/6/11 v Seaside Siren Roller Girls 281-166/8/11 v ROMSEY TOwN ROLLERBILLIES 141-13215/10/11 v DUBLIN ROLLERGIRLS 158-11518/2/12 v LRG BATTER C POwER 223-19210/3/12 v Gent Go-Go Girls 169-14014/4/12 v Romsey Town Rollerbillies 304-6026/5/12 v DOLLY ROCKIT ROLLERS 224-69 15/9/12 v Dublin Rollergirls 351-84 17/11/12 v BIG BUCKS HIGH ROLLERS 357-1109/3/13 v LONDON ROCKIN’ ROLLERS 237-21020/4/13 v Glasgow Roller Derby 111-31025/5/13 v Kent Roller Girls* 207-12025/5/13 v LRG Brawl Saints* 101-22326/5/13 v Bristol Roller Derby* 175-25121/9/13 v LEEDS ROLLER DOLLS 176-14226/10/13 v Auld Reekie Roller Girls 89-34923/11/13 v CENTRAL CITY ROLLERGIRLS 170-15615/2/14 v RAINY CITY ROLLERGIRLS 174-16315/3/14 v PARIS ROLLERGIRLS 178-17410/5/14 v MIDDLESBRO MILK ROLLERS 123-23026/7/14 v CROYDON ROLLER DERBY 163-151Brighton’s score listed first, capitals = home, * = neutral

OH McGEE!We look back on the last meeting of these two teams and forward to today’s with Rockers blocker DERBY McGEE...

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Hi. Today’s opponents are only the third team that Brighton will have played more than once in open door competition. Do you approach a game differently if it’s an opponent you’ve met before? Not intentionally. We tend to have a bigger set of goals for the year, for example to improve our offensive play or expand our jammer rotation. Those goals are something we set as team after feedback ses-sions from each game. Then for each match we have specific focus, such as not letting the opponents score in the second half. The difference with playing a team more than once is if there are obvious issues we faced before, like outstanding jammers or fast pack speed, then we would feed that into pre-game practices.

That previous meeting with Bristol was at the UKRDA Southern tournament at Alexandra Pal-ace last May, which some Rockers folk now semi-jokingly refer to as “the tournament we don’t talk about”. What are your own recollections of that weekend? I didn’t play in the game against Bristol as we decided to rest myself and Rose Bleed for any further games we might play, so my recollections are different from others. My memories are of a very hot venue with a terrible floor and a demanding schedule. It was our first experience of tournament play. I was shocked at how tired we all were from playing Kent and Brawl Saints, and how difficult it was for us to make tactical decisions as a team, feeling that tired.

Losing that game, there was a sense of disbelief. We were so keen to progress and totally focused on the rest of the tournament. Rose and I had all our kit on ready to warm up for the next game when we realised Bristol were going to knock us out. We really enjoyed supporting them in the rest of their tournament, though. Bristol and Brighton are kindred cities.

Both squads have changed a lot since that game. Any players or tactics people should keep an eye out for today? Brighton is such a transient place, and we’re definitely a different squad from last year. However we have always had key players move on and excitingly new ones join us, so look out for Swann. She transferred to us a few months ago, will be play-ing her second game with us, and is an excellent all-

round player who is settling in well and coping with our weird ways. Tactically we’ll be throwing it all out there, breaking out the rusty summer legs and try-ing to remember how to play... so watch out for Hairy Fairy falling on her own player, Bash throwing me through an opponent and Rose jumping over one. An ex-Rocker now skates for Bath Roller Derby and has told us one or two Bristol players to watch out for. We also saw them play Portsmouth recently. We know they have some very experienced and strong skaters, so we’ll be keeping an eye on all of them.

Will the Rockers be in action again before the year is out? Can we expect an away trip at some point? We have a really exciting event planned at home before the year is out, so put November 1st in your diaries. We also have two away games before Christmas and another home game around Christ-mas I think. It’s going to be a really busy autumn for us, playing a lot of teams new to us and some old fa-vourites, so it will be a great few months.

Finally, this issue of the magazine is a fashion special. Who are your fashion heroes and vil-lains in the Rockers roster? Ha ha, do we have any heroes? Mass Janeycide always kills a boutfit and Sal Gore was our glamour puss, who always looked a mil-lion dollars. Bash and Racey did some modelling last year, so maybe we do. As for villains, where to start? We always do travel fashion for away games; double denim, leotards, shell suits, etc. Actually I think I’d have to choose Rose as our fashion villain. She always chooses the most horrific versions of travel fashion, and somehow manages to style it out.

BRISTOL HARBOUR HARLOTS � T L

SAFE AVONBristol captain BLACK THORN previews today’s game and tells us what we can expect from the South Western side...

Hi there. Can you tell us a little about Bristol Roller Derby’s history and achievements to date? We were founded in 2010 and have grown rapidly ever since, now boasting three female home teams and a men’s team, alongside our female travel team, the Harbour Harlots. The Harlots had a very successful 2012/13 season, the highlight of which was the UKR-DA tournament which helped us to break into the Eu-ropean Top 20 for the first time. 2013/14 was challeng-ing, but as the summer has been turning into autumn, we’ve made some changes to our team structures and have had some really promising closed door results. We’re focussed on re-building a successful team and climbing back up the rankings in 2014/15.

What’s the derby scene like in the South West? Very healthy. We have lots of close neighbours; Bath, Wiltshire and Severn Roller Torrent, to name a few. We try to scrimmage locally as often as possible and recently scrimmed against Team Wales. We’re a co-ed league so have our very own men’s team (Vice Quad) and team up to create Bristol co-ed teams whenever possible. We have only met Cardiff powerhouse Tiger Bay once on track in an A-team v A-team game, way back in 2010, but we’ve enjoyed many guest coaching sessions from BB and Kid Block over the years.

You upset the rankings/seedings to take the win over Brighton in London last year. What are your recollections of that UKRDA tournament? We have warm memories of the weekend. It was our first ever tournament and it brought us very close togeth-er; literally, as well as in spirit – we stayed at a very cramped youth hostel. We all felt very charged and focused throughout the Brighton game. It was hard in a good way. We’d love to know what the exact recipe was because it baked a fantastic result!

Does playing against a team more than once af-fect tactics at all? Is there anything you’ll be do-ing differently at today’s game based on your pre-vious meeting? A year and a half is a long, long time. I’m sure both teams are very different now. It’ll be a surprise! We do recall that Brighton had big strong blockers and feisty jammers, with dynamic and hard hitting pack work, so we’ll be ready to evade and block accordingly. Bristol have always tried to play our own game, though, and won’t be changing our gameplay based on probably out-of-date recollections.

How much has your line up changed since that game last year? Travels, relocations, pregnancies and sabbaticals have slowly shaven off most of the May 2013 roster. Our line up looks very different now, but you will spot a few familiar names, including my-self, E-Z Roller and international stars The Blizzard (Finland) and Da Silva Surfer (Portugal). We are also blessed by the number of keen players climbing up the ladder. We’d love to give a shout-out to all of our rising stars, watch out for them!

Do the Harbour Harlots have any style tips for this special fashion issue? The Harlots endorse Frock ‘n’ Rollers, a local derby accessory business with a special no-centre-seam hot pant design – check them out on Etsy & Facebook. For the after party, we’d recommend Inkabilly’s rolling and rocking derby clothing. Also, BRD trucker caps are the hottest s**t around.

Finally, do you have a message for the BRD fans in the crowd today? Thank you so much for continued support, despite a lot of recent results not going our way. You’re all fantastic and the beers are on us. Now, which one of you is going to start a Bristol fanzine?!

16/3/14 v PARIS ROLLERGIRLS 119-39824/5/14 v Portsmouth Roller wenches 118-28621/6/14 v MANCHESTER ROLLER DERBY 188-29926/7/14 v Dublin Roller Derby 95-429

BRISTOL 201� RESULTS

QUEENSQueens of the Sin Bin are the highest profile of all UK derby clothing brands. Co-founder KANDI CORPSEGRINDER tells us about their current and future plans...

How did QOTSB get into roller derby? We have a background in surfing and skateboarding apparel as Obsolete Industries. In 2010 I joined my local derby league, the Swansea Slayers. We got instantly hooked on the sport and Queens of the Sin Bin was born.

What are you most known for? Our main business comes from custom sublimated team uniforms. We do like to make a lot of crossover products especially aimed at the fashion side of things. Our team uni-forms and off the shelf training items, such as sports bras, leggings and vests, are all made for sports use, with material that’s specifically designed to wick away moisture and help the athlete focus on the game.

Regarding off track fashion, is there a particular look or style you think defines derby? The sport has blown up so much recently, that, while the days of fishnets and the alternative look are not completely dead, there’s a growing change taking over. I think this comes from the appeal of the sport. People from all backgrounds are turning on to it. This brings great options for diversity within the fashion designs of derby. We can go from black, skulls and blood splash-es to white, unicorns and rainbows... anything goes!

Derby fashion brands reflect the demographics of the sport, so tend to focus on women’s clothes.

Do you do much in the way of clothing for men? We’ve always designed with men in mind. It comes from our early days in the surf/skate business, but af-ter the Men’s World Cup in Birmingham last year we had a radical rethink and new focus on our male uni-forms. Men’s derby is growing rapidly; it’s just as cool as the ladies’ and we are big fans. We are very proud to endorse some of the best male skaters in the world, such as Jonathan R, The Machinist and Chemic-Al. It was clear the men needed something designed from the ground up, and we’ve put a lot of time and effort into the design of these garments. We also have a new material that has better resistance to bobbling and to the arch enemy of all sublimated products (Velcro).

What other derby brands do you like? We love Inkabilly – those guys make some killer derby threads with their unique rockabilly twist. We’re also big fans of Skatanist. We love their blend of iconography.

Do you have many link ups with derby leagues and skaters? When we started moving over to derby we set out to get ‘a face’ for our new label. The person that jumped out was Jack Attack of London Rockin’ Rollers. She has it all; awesome skills, a badass league, and she looks incredible – the perfect blend of all the things we required. After that we started to work with other incredible skaters and leagues, and not just in

DERBY STYLE GUIDE 10 T L

FASHION

the UK. We now sponsor leagues like former WFTDA champions The Oly Rollers in America, LRR and Eu-rope’s third best men’s league, Tyne and Fear. As for individuals, we have some truly awesome skater tal-ent like Jonathan R from New York Shock Exchange, The Mortician from Swansea City Roller Derby, and Reaper, Piston and Spectral from European men’s champions Southern Discomfort.

You also have your own exhibition side... It was never really our intention to get the awesome talent we sponsor together to skate under the QOTSB ban-ner, but during the summer we had a change of heart. Some of our team were hinting strongly to form a co-ed squad, so we thought what the hell, it could be fun! We set up an exciting summer co-ed tournament but unfortunately we had to cancel due to very poor ticket sales. We were gutted, but it was financial suicide to put it on... That sucked so bad.

What are your plans going forward now, team and sponsorship wise? We have an initiative called New Bloods where we try to find up and coming skaters that we think are going to be big names. We currently have two on our roster; Portsmouth’s RIP McMurphy and Tori Bee of Manchester Roller Derby. We’ve been on the hunt for the next New Bloods and have two more on the way. We have plans for our exhibition team too, and we’ve begun sponsoring our first youth team, Seattle’s West Sound Rollers. We are also very excited to be sponsoring the sin bin on the final day of the upcoming Ladies World Cup held in Dallas.

In terms of artwork, we’ve started collaborating with some fantastic new illustrators, who are now working on new hoodie and T-shirt designs, and we’ll be looking at launching new training products utilis-ing these designs. As for roller derby fashion in gener-al, I’m not really sure how it will progress. I know that the band merch style clothing (which we do a lot of) will continue because our customers like that style.

One of the newer derby fashion brands is Hoodlum Fang. CHLOE HOOD tells all...

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How did Hoodlum Fang come about? I studied Fashion and Textiles at Uni, and the idea of trying to get a job in the industry without moving to London was near enough impossible! I got into roller derby in my final year and wanted to start a brand that had products no one else had. Like leggings and shorts that are high waisted with an elasticated waistband, so they stay in place while on track, without the need to adjust all the time. Most leggings are cut too low and would always fall down. I designed Hoodlum Fang products so that problem would be erased!

What fashions do you think are most appropriate to derby? Loads of colour! Most derby girls I know love a splash of colour to match their different per-sonalities. Generally, brightly coloured leggings and shorts are always a popular choice. As well as lots of skulls – who doesn’t love skull prints on clothes?

Do you have many links with local derby leagues or individual skaters at all? I do a lot of business with the Portsmouth Roller Wenches. I’m currently in the process of making them custom Wench-print leggings and custom shorts for their uniforms. I can’t wait until their next game (a week today) to see them all sporting my designs! I would love to work with other teams as I have so many customers from lots of different leagues; derby people are the best people.

What future plans do you have? Hopefully branch-ing out more into the alternative fashion market and also into other extreme sports. I’ve already got some customers who do crossfit, pole dancing and BMX. I’m noticing that now derby is becoming more rec-ognized as a serious sport, players are opting more for function over fashion, which is great for us as we de-sign with busy and active customers in mind!

DOING THE RIGHT FANG

I’m not very superstitious and I tend to be more anxious about games the more I think about them. So, aside from eating/drinking

a bit better in the week leading up, I like to go in on the day the same way I would if I was just turning up for regular practice.

‘Spitfire’ by The Prodigy.

Bont Hybrid Carbons with Pilot Falcon plates, which I’ve had since the beginning of the year. I use Roll Line wheels in various duros.

This is only my second game with the Rockers, so I just want to go out, work well with my team and play a consistent, clean game.

If I have one, side surfing is probably my ‘thing’.

Jamming against Team Double Threat in Sur5al. That and trying out for Team England, which was a great experience but so tough.

Er, the only ‘pets’ I have are a box of beetles which I got for cleaning skeletons. People have flea circuses, right?

Snail racing is a thing, yeah? So why not beetle derby?

In a pile on a shelf. I’m still chasing a best jammer award though!

Lane four.

I actually passed everything first time without too much trouble, but jumping was my least favourite part. I still hate doing it.

I don’t follow fashion at all. I mostly just wear derby T-shirts and skirts, Disney and Hello Kitty. So I guess you could say my look

lies somewhere between derby devotee and five year old girl.

Portsmouth’s RIP McMurphy. I saw her scrim when the Wenches were still really new and I’ve followed her progress ever since.

She’s achieved so much and it’s been really inspiring to watch.

Do you have any special game day rituals or superstitions?

Is there any special song/music that motivates you for a game?

What skates/wheels do you play in and how long have you had them?

What are you personally hoping for from today’s game?

Do you have a particular ‘special move’ you’re known for?

What’s your greatest achievement in roller derby?

Do you have any pets? If so, do you think you could teach them to play derby?

Where do you keep your best blocker/jammer/etc certificates?

What’s your favourite part of a derby track?

What did you find the hardest element of Minimum Skills to pass?

Do you follow fashion much and how would you describe your ‘look’?

Who is your own roller derby hero and why?

The night before I generally check my kit, tape my skates and give my wheels and bearings a bit of a clean. The morning of the game I have a big bowl of porridge and check my kit again – about five more times – as I’m convinced I’ll forget something crucial.

Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Evil Empire’ at full blast gets me in the derby mood – it’s a bit old school, but then again I’m quite old!

I skate in Riedell Vixens – a pressie to myself after I passed my Minimum Skills last year. I have Atom Jukes 97a wheels.

I wasn’t in the squad the last time the two teams met, but I’d love it if the Harlots could upset the applecart again and take the win.

Not really, although I do have quite long legs and managed to completely straddle a Dublin skater when we played. Does that count as one? (NB the Dublin player had fallen – I’m not that tall!)

Definitely making it onto the Harbour Harlots team and getting the best jammer award on my debut home game.

My cat Willow is a pretty feisty creature. I think she’d be awesome at derby, but I wouldn’t like to be the one trying to strap the tiny skates to her paws – she’ll have your eyes out.

I have a couple on my fridge vying for space alongside my offspring’s swimming and school certificates.

I love lining up behind the jam line waiting for the five second call. The adrenaline is pumping and I’m ready to hit something!

Transitions to the right. Why is that move so damn hard?

We have some extremely stylish ladies (and gents) at BRD whose fashion sense I would love to emulate. Sadly, I have no style whatsoever. I’m much more of a jeans and T-shirt kinda gal.

There are so many amazing skaters out there, including lots of inspiring people at BRD. I do love to watch Rose City’s Scald Eagle – her strength, agility and speed are just phenomenal.

BRIGHTON vS BRISTOL 12 T L

Can you speak any other languages? If so, how well? After a glass of wine I think I’m fluent in French. After two glasses I’m fluent only in Gibberish.

What’s your favourite movie, and do you think it would be improved by everyone in it wearing skates? Strictly Ballroom – and yes, definitely.

Marmite – yes or no? Yes! For breakfast, lunch and dinner, but not for dessert.

What’s the strangest thing (or things) you’ve ever worn as an artist’s model? Dr Martens, chains and a balaclava in support of Pussy Riot.

What’s the strangest thing you crashed into when learning to skate? A referee’s crotch. And then I grabbed his bum cheeks to steady myself.

Who in the Rockers roster do you think you could comfortably beat at arm wrestling? Comfortably, no one, but I would give anyone a go. I have weak arms but lots of enthusiasm!

Which pop or rock group would you most like to play a derby game against and why? Spinal Tap. Because it would be funny, legendary... and we’d win.

How it works: Our interviewee picks seven from 26 sealed envelopes. Each contains a random question. If they wish they can swap one of these for the ‘Star Envelope’ holding a question specific to them.

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PERFECTION TO A TEEElsewhere in this issue we’ve taken a look at the wider topic of roller derby style, but how do the Rockers themselves relate to the sport’s sense of fashion, and what branded clothes and items do the league sell? ANTI-GRAVETTY has the answers...

Tell us about some of your away trip fashion themes. I may be wrong, but I think the themes are designed to cause maximum embarrassment to the wearer, combined with a modicum of discomfort. For example, we recently had a trip to Lille in France where the theme was leotards. Mine was a sparkly dance number that unfortunately was cut a lot higher than the eBay pictures had led me to believe. It shed sequins in enormous quantities everywhere I went. It was particularly embarrassing getting lost with Emma The Condemner on the Metro, where we were a huge novelty and source of amusement to fellow passen-gers. If we had been thinking straight, we could have found our way home like Hansel and Gretel, by fol-lowing sequins instead of breadcrumbs. Instead, we found our way to the after party and drank mojitos.

The best leotard was definitely Chaka Carnage’s with ‘Fantasy Life’ motif and neon waistband. Super flattering! Past themes include tracksuits (thankfully I missed that one), tennis wear (very cold, politely ig-nored by the other team) and Hawaiian shirts (a nice easy one). I’m not particularly keen on dressing up, but I have to admit it has a strangely bonding effect.

Moving on from the fashion the Rockers wear to the fashion you sell, we understand that you have recently expanded the range of T-shirts on sale at games. Yes, our Art and Merch committees teamed up and have been working really hard over the last few months to update our look. T-shirts make up the bulk of our sales at games, and up until recently have been limited to plain Rockers logo T-shirts and vests. Lovely, but not a lot of choice. We wanted to head away from the typical derby look of tattoo and rocka-billy styling (especially the ‘sexy lady’ look) as we feel this doesn’t represent us a team, so our new designs have a cleaner crisper more ‘Brighton’ look.

We’re delighted with what we’ve come up with. We’ve taken inspiration from Brighton icons, such as our beautiful Duke of Yorks cinema, chips and seagulls, who we think are as scrappy and tough as the Rockers are! So far the ‘Legs’ design inspired by the Duke of Yorks is proving to be a top seller. We are constantly dreaming up new designs and ideas for T-shirts, so keep an eye out for additions to the range.

Are there any particularly fashionable or unfash-ionable individuals amongst the Rockers roster? For a long time after joining the Rockers I only ever saw people in their practice gear, which is mostly T-shirts, running tights or shorts, so when I eventually saw people wearing their own clothes it was quite a shock. I still think everyone looks odd without their helmets on! Let’s just say that a lot of the team make ‘interesting’ fashion choices off track. I think there may be more than a few who would live in fancy dress if they could get away with it.

If the Rockers could be defined as having one overall fashion ‘look’, what would you describe it as? Eclectic with a dash of West Street circa 1994.

Roller derby has a very specific look that is often associated with it, encompassing rockabilly hair and graphics, tattoos, etc. Is this a look which many in the Rockers organisation adopt? To be honest, very few people in our team go for what is a traditionally ‘derby’ look, although we do have some brilliantly tattooed and pierced players. I suppose roller derby was originally seen as quite a counter cul-ture activity, one which traditionally attracted people who are not strictly mainstream. In Brighton no one is all that mainstream, so I guess we have more of a mix of styles than a lot of leagues. We also have a healthy dose of people that just don’t give a ****!

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Are there any other items of clothing on the way? Rockers pants, for example? At the moment we stock mens, womens and kids’ T-shirts and vests. It would be great to expand our clothing range, but at present we are constrained by the amount of merch we can store. We could look into pants (figuratively speaking!) if there’s a big demand. It would be great to hear from fans about what they’d like us to make.

You have various accessories too. Can you give us a quick rundown? Our accessories range is really good fun. Today we have for sale fantastic tote bags, our magnetic bottle openers (my personal favourite), mirrors, keyrings, badges, stickers and temporary tat-toos. We’ve tried really hard to keep the price of the accessory range as low as possible, so there is some-thing for everyone, no matter what their budget is.

If you could produce anything at all with a Rock-ers branding, what would you choose? Recently we made a one-off ‘Rockers clock’ for Mistress Von Über Vixen as a retirement present. It worked out beautifully, and I’d love to be able to produce more of these, but I’m not sure they would be very cost or (pardon the pun) time effective.

What does the money raised from merch sales go towards? Running the league is very expensive, especially since we lost our permanent training ven-ue. Most of our money goes towards hall hire for our training sessions. It’s always a struggle raising funds. The whole league runs on goodwill and the hard work of its members. We really do appreciate it when fans come to games and spend their hard-earned cash.

Finally, what combination of Rockers merch do you suggest for the fashion-minded Brighton derby fan? I’d suggest one of our beautiful and very reasonably priced T-shirts, which you can then adorn with a selection of badges and stickers – you may as well buy lots of those as they only cost 50p each or three for a pound. We have temporary tattoos to cover the bits that the T-shirt leaves exposed. You should also buy an extra shirt (or vest) for a loved one, and carry it in a Rockers tote bag. Check yourself out in a Rockers mirror. Gorgeous! Finally after all that shop-ping and shouting, you can pop open a beer with one of our very cool magnetic bottle openers. Perfect!

The Rockers merch range is also available online at http://www.brightonrockers.com/#!shop/cttr

Ann C’s back with more tales from my time with the original derby league, Stink City Roller Psychos. Now I don’t know what kinda merch y’all do in Scotland, or wherever the heck Brighton is, but Stink City’s was pretty damn innovative. Wasn’t on purpose, minds. Looking back, maybes it was a mistake puttin’ Deb-bie Demolition in charge of our merch. As her derby name suggests, she spent her days blowin’ up build-ings – mostly on a professional basis – and as a result her hearing was pretty much shot to shinbones.

I remembers one bout day she turned up just before the first whistle, draggin’ a huge sack full of jumpin’ and squealin’ behinds her. “I’ve been up all night,” she tells us, her eyes as red as pinecones, “took me ages to catch the little beggars. Got damn near two dozen. Hope that’s enough.” We’d asked her to sort out some badges with our logo on. As the bag breaks open and the screaming starts, it seems she heard it as badgers. We manage to round up mosta them, staple a couple to the merch table, even sells a few... Some of ’em got out, though, and ate up the Mayor’s prize-winning Koi carp. Was hard for us to deny responsibility when

One former American derby league had ‘merch issues’. ANN C BITCH explains...

SALES GO WITH A BANG!

the cops turned up to quiz us, seein’ as how Debbie had spray painted our logo onto the badgers’ sides.

Then there was the time we asked her to come up with some ‘explosive’ new merch for our third birth-day bout. As well as her hearing problems, she also took things far too literal. Went and stole some TNT from work. We thought it would be OK, long as we didn’t sell it to children, ’cept Debbie wanted to watch the bout so she left her dog Pooball in charge of the stall. With half the penalty box on fire and the other half stuck to the ceiling, we realised Pooball hadn’t been checkin’ young un’s ID like he was s’posed to.

These mishaps weren’t the half of it. Don’t get me started on our idea of selling ‘pressed pennies’ (one cent coins, flattened with our logo on, like they sells in museums and parks). I won’t tells you what Debbie misheard that as, but let’s just say that there sure was some awfully sore fellas in Stink City that weekend.

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What derby fashion special would be complete without a dress up referee? Cut out his bits, stand him up and mix ‘n’ match those styles. For a bigger and sturdier non mag vandalising version visit brightonbrats.com/doll and print onto A4 card...

OUTFITS FOR A ZEBRADRESS UP REFEREE DOLL 1� T L

Concept by MrAdam (BRATS) & Artwork by Paul Stapleton (Bedsit Press Comics)