Book Review: Read and Destroy / The Book of the Mag
SKATEBOARDING THROUGH A BRITISH LENS ’78 TO ‘95
Book by Dan Adams / ACC Art Books
Cover: Eric Dressen at Dean Lane* by TLB in 1987
July 8, 2024 — St.Paul-de-Vence, France. Today is the day that the long-awaited RAD Magazine book officially releases worldwide. As you may be aware, Dan Adams, former designer at the mag and curator of the @readandestroy Instagram handle has been working diligently with Tim Leighton-Boyce, Paul Sunman, Wig Worland, Sebastian Palmer, Steve Douglas and a host of others to get this book released since at least 2018, when I interviewed him (https://www.skateboarding.com/photos/r-d-book-magazine) for TWS about the project. While the ’18 initiative ultimately failed to raise enough cash to get it to the finish line, in testament to Dan’s persistence and labo(u)r of love, the book will finally reach coffee tables worldwide this week.
I was lucky enough to get an advance copy to check out and here were my two cents (along with an exclusive sneak peek below). First off, I’m heavily biased as this magazine shaped much of my worldview growing up skating in Europe circa ‘87-’94. Two of my closest friends were British and the early ‘90s skate scene in France was very similar to the one developing in the UK. The best description of it being “against all odds.” The visuals alone hit me square in the sweet spot. The Nick Philip RAD logo and overall design aesthetic—cut and Xeroxed and in neon glory—personifies everything I love about DIY skate culture (ironically or perhaps fittingly Nick was a BMXer). Strictly from a design perspective, without even getting into the absolutely historic and beautiful skate photography, the book is a pure joy to flip through.
Broken down into four time-frames; 1978-1980 “The Routes to RAD”, 1980-1986 “Death & Rebirth”, 1987-1993 “In Full Colour”, and 1993-1995 “Phat & All That”, “Read and Destroy” chronicles the history of skateboard media in the UK and follows Tim Leighton-Boyce as he navigates from the “death of skateboarding” around ’77 and lack of any skateboard-focused magazines in Britain to the launch of RAD a decade later when it essentially takes over and converts BMX Action Mag into just that.
From there, Adams does an absolutely stellar job dissecting the peak newsstand glory days of RAD’s tenure, its wider impact and connectivity within the resurging scene, whilst name-checking and quoting some of our biggest heroes along the way. The final section covers Tim Leighton-Boyce and his team losing control of the title in ‘93, the short run of Phat (which for myself as a teenager with full-blown Big Brother fever was a favorite), and ultimately the post-TLB run of RAD with Wig Worland and Andy Horsley that would set the stage for the UK’s next bible—Sidewalk (’95-’15).
The book itself is massive—272 pages of gorgeous large-format 300 x 240mm, hard-bound history. I went into pretty deep detail with Dan in our previous ’18 interview, so I’d suggest reading that for more bits of trivia, factoids and historical context. But if I had to boil down what makes this book indispensable—beyond the amazing TLB story-arc, neon RAD visuals, and testament to so much hard work done by so many with the love of skateboarding as the only pay-off—the real nuclear cultural energy leaping off its pages—is the result of the near decade Dan spent combing through the photographers’ archives—painstakingly selecting exactly the right photos. Photos that may very well never have seen the light of day again or in some cases—ever, had Adams simply phoned this project in and scanned a few old mags. The photos will speak to you, whether you were a part of it then or not. The creativity, determination and passion are simply that infectious.
Buy this book today here: https://www.read-and-destroy-archive.com/.
Check the @readanddestroy Instagram for upcoming book launch events:
• July 11 — RAD Magazine Photo Exhibit & Book Launch, 6-9pm at Pure Evil Gallery in London.
• July 12 — RAD Book Signing with OG RAD staff, 6-9pm at Slam City Skates in London.
• July 13 — Custom Tee Printing Workshop with RAD designers, 11:30-1:30pm at Imprint Works in London. Exhibition open from 11-6pm. RAD Forum hosted by @scienceversuslife and @beeps1973, 3-6pm at MOTEL in London. After party from 7pm-1am at Horse and Groom Pub. Exhibit will remain open (at Pure Evil Gallery) 11-6pm until July 21.
• July 21 — Skate session all day starting at 11:00am at Crystal Palace Skatepark. Full details at @readanddestroy.
Rest in Peace: Gavin Hills 1966-1997
Rest in Peace: Tony Luckhurst 1977-2023
Huge thanks to Dan Adams, Tim Leighton-Boyce, Paul Sunman, Wig, Skin, Dobie, Stig, Ray Calthorpe, Simon Woodstock, Andy Horsely, Nick Philip, Jay Podesta and everybody who ever worked on this book or at RAD.
* Side note: I was stoked to see Dressen get the cover of this. I’m sure the decision to put an American pro on the cover was heavily debated. Regardless, I had also interviewed Eric about that same ’87 trip (when he shot the cover photo at Dean Lane) to England for the Slam City Skates site. Head there (https://blog.slamcity.com/dressen-southbank-1987/) if you want more background on that.
Exclusive Sneak Peek:
