Claire Griffiths, Author at Blackpool Social Club

03 May

Skate Stories: Hidden skateboarding spots and creativity

Claire Griffiths0 CommentsLocal NewsBlackpool, creativity, skate, skate culture, Skateboard, skateboarding

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Blackpool bods whose skateboarding activities feed into their creativity. In this article, we talk to a chap known as "Sandy" to his pals. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Tell us who you are: My Name Is Rob Sanderson, most skateboarders and artists know me as Sandy, I'll be turning 32 this year, born and raised in Blackpool. I've been skating for about 17-18 years now which doesn't feel that long ago, I'm starting to feel the ache now though, having to stretch and get warmed up more each time I go out. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] What came first skating or creativity? Skateboarding definitely came first, I was sketching things…

28 Mar

Blackpool skate stories – This is skateboarding

Claire Griffiths0 CommentsColumns & Opinion, Environment and NatureBlackpool, skateboarding

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] In this chapter of Blackpool Skate Stories, Claire talks to Rick Bailey about a lifelong affinity with skating and his philosophy on why skateboarding is so important to him. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Tell us a bit about you. My name is Rick Bailey, I’m currently a 44-year-old PE teacher working at Armfield Academy in Blackpool. I moved back to Blackpool on the 18th December 2020, after leaving to go to Bangor University in September 1995.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Why is skateboarding important to you and how long have you been doing it? Skateboarding is massively important to me as it is more than an activity, it…

10 Mar

The Skate Escape: Lewis Farley & Plant Skate Co

Claire Griffiths0 CommentsEnvironment and Nature, Sports & WellbeingBlackpool, Film Making, Skateboard, skateboarding

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] I met Lewis Farley years ago filming an event at The Grand Theatre, it's interesting how many filmmakers are also skateboarders. In a further instalment of "Blackpool Skate Stories", we talk about a new skate park, making films, mental health and what skating means to him [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Tell me about you - who you are and what you do. Hello, I'm Lewis - a Blackpool-based filmmaker/skateboarder. I'm currently running Plant Skate Co with two of my friends. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Can you tell me what came first film making or skating? Skateboarding came first for sure, I started skateboarding when I…

07 Mar

Blackpool Skateboard Stories: Big Woody

Claire Griffiths0 CommentsEnvironment and Natureenvironment, health, skate, Skateboard, skateculture

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] I wonder a lot about skateboarding after studying Fine Art in Northampton once the home to the largest skate park in the UK, Radlands. It was there I found a peer group making work about skating and it felt like the very fabric of Northampton was made up of the sights, sounds, and musical influences of four wheels and a board. I remember speaking to a tutor who told me about a student in a previous year who painted landscapes, works depicting how he saw the world as a skater - a series of flat surfaces and potential spaces…

28 Jan

Independent music venues week at Bootleg Social

Claire Griffiths0 CommentsMusic & Gigslive music, Music, Music Venues

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Blackpool a place based on live performance and showmanship - over many years the town has hosted high-profile acts at The Winter Gardens through to historical happenings such as The Good, The Bad, and The Queen playing North Pier a couple of years ago. Through lockdown, live music events couldn't be missed more with music fans wondering when they can get back to what they enjoy most. This week sees a full programme of live streams for Independent Music Venues Week at Blackpool's own Bootleg Social.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text]What is Independent Venue Week? Independent Venue Week is a 7-day celebration of music…

17 Jan

Unique outdoor photography festival is coming to Preston this spring

Claire Griffiths0 CommentsLocal News, OpportunitiesExhibition, festival, Lancashire, photography, preston, workshops

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] A new outdoor photography festival is set to bring some of the UK’s best documentary photographers to the streets of Preston. Lancashire Photography Festival, created by Preston-based photographer Garry Cook, will display brilliant photography projects in the city this spring, with all images able to be viewed in a safe, socially-distanced way from the street. Photography projects exhibited will also include historical images of Preston and several projects by local Lancashire photographers, who will take part in the festival via a series of free documentary photography workshops.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image="31507" img_size="large" add_caption="yes" alignment="center"][vc_column_text]The festival has been organised with lockdown conditions in…

08 Jan

Front of House: the devastating impact of Covid-19 on musicians

Claire Griffiths0 CommentsMusic & Gigslockdown, musicians, photography

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] “A world without live music feels like living in a house with no windows. Live music is uplifting, it’s nourishing, it’s social glue. It’s well and truly missed by me.” (Participating musician, Rob Young) [/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image="31137" img_size="large" add_caption="yes" alignment="center"][vc_column_text]Do you miss gigs, live music events, dancing with your friends sloshing a plastic beaker of booze as you break out your moves on the dance floor? It's something I have thought about a lot in lockdown - not so much one to attend the swathes of events I went to in my 20's or late teens but know how those…

30 Dec

Barry Lewis photographs of Blackpool part II: Images of Christmas past

Claire Griffiths0 CommentsVisual Arts & Exhibitionsartist, Blackpool, entertainment, history, performance, photographer, photography

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Photographing Christmas and the New Year celebrations was a very different experience. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/3"][vc_single_image image="31292" img_size="large" alignment="center"][/vc_column][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text]I’d stay in a small friendly hotel, full board, with nightly entertainment in its tiny bar and an even tinier room where the sink overhung my bed. Christmas dinner in these places was shared with strangers, who became family and friends, and even included a present! Outside of these holiday-home comforts I’d shelter in warm pubs and steamy cafes from the strong winds and cold rain outside. Life over those days was a continuous pub and club crawl, full of dancing, singing and laughter as the rain whipped past outside. The daytime trips outside, fuelled by a full…

12 Dec

Dave Draws Blackpool – inspired by the folks that live here

Claire Griffiths0 CommentsVisual Arts & ExhibitionsArt

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] I caught up with Dave Gee the artist behind Dave Draws on a cold but bright Wednesday morning via everyone's favourite lockdown tool, Zoom. Blackpool Social Club came across the artist after being tagged by a fellow creative online. His illustrative maps incorporate places like the Northern Quarter, York, Brighton and New York. Through lockdown, popular demand on social media dictated that Blackpool was where he should draw next. Nothing thrills me more than to find creativity and art with a connection to place and people, Dave is an unassuming character living in Manchester as a freelance artist. His…

11 Dec

They’re More Than a Youth Club. They’re Magic

Claire Griffiths0 CommentsLocal Newscommunity, opportunities, youthclub

It might be Christmas but the magic has been happening in the Claremont area of Blackpool for some time in terms of a Youth Club housed in a building where magicians used to meet. Once the home of a donkey shed the site became The Claremont Theatre Club and then for a number of years hosted a staggering 56 Magic Conventions it now happily houses a successful youth club - aptly called The Magic Club. The Magic Club is now a youth charity and this year it launches its first Christmas campaign between the 7th-18th December on the charity’s…