We want to raise awareness of the RaD Magazine Book Kickstarter to help them raise the funds to make this a reality…
RaD Magazine is a mythical beast and whether you were aware of it at the time or not, it is the foundation for all skateboarding media which followed. This heavily influential publication obviously existed in a time where the internet was yet to progressively shorten our attention spans. Mags lived in bedrooms, cuttings lived on walls and folklore and memorable editorial live on in heads, forever changed by experiencing skateboarding in the first place. This puts the magazine and everything that went into making it, in a strange limbo. There are obviously the archives of each mag released which is incredible in itself but these became gradually accompanied by the boxes of content that got it there in the first place.
Thousands of negatives shot by staff photographers Vernon ‘Jay Podesta’ Adams, Tony ‘Dobie’ Campbell, ‘Mad’ Mike John, Tim Leighton-Boyce, Paul Sunman and Wig Worland fill boxes as do those of contributing photographers. Some shots were sent to US mags, returned and never looked at again, some were found years later. These snippets of skateboarding history are part of a much bigger whole. The RaD book was talked about for a very long time but now it is on the cusp of becoming tangible which is exciting stuff! Here are Slam founder and RaD photographer Paul Sunman, TLB and Vernon Adams talking about what made this whole time period so vital…
When we visited the office where the RaD archives live to scan some mags for a project we were working on we got a taste for just how much gold dust had been located and put it one place. The labour of love, collating and organising this treasure trove has been the hard work of Andy Holmes and Dan Adams. After years of digging they have managed to make sense of this important part of skateboarding history and have created the body of this long talked about book which will celebrate this important publication and do it justice.
The book will exist in two 300 page volumes, containing photos and editorial spanning the years 1978 all the way through to 1995. It will tell the story of the mag through the voices of everyone involved and surprise everyone with the depth of unseen photos, contact sheets, layouts and other visuals that Dan and Andy have been making sense of. We all want to see it and it’s important that we do, which is where you come in…
In the spirit of the original magazine this project will be self published in order to create the best quality product at the best price. The cost of scanning and turning 30-year-old analogue transparencies and negatives into a digital format, suitable for high-quality modern lithographic printing is immense. To get this project made is down to all of us. There is a Rad. The book of the magazine Kickstarter running for the next 28 days and your donations will help ensure this goes to print and later resides in our homes. There are many different options and donation plans where you receive a copy as soon as it is released as well as a mention in the book. Investigate all of the package options available and get involved…
Support the RaD Magazine Book Kickstarter and make the book of this iconic magazine a reality HERE