4Down / Fit UK rider and freelance photographer Dan Benson is the first subject of our new 12XU feature, where we delve into the good and bad sides of riding bikes, taking pictures and being a London based party animal…
2x SLEEPLESS NIGHTS:
Southsea K.O.C around 97/1998. I hadn’t made any sleeping arrangements for the first night and ended up trying to sleep under a Hilux truck for a hour or so before the torrential rain from which I was sheltering slowly crept under.
Partying with Marv Rob, Ying and Betony from friday until monday a couple of weeks ago. Messy messy messy.
2x UNFORGETTABLE NIGHTS:
20th birthday. First off I went riding down the skatepark then for a meal in the peaks. After this we climbed up Stanage edge and watched the sunset. All nice and civil until we got back to the hatehouse and decided to go up to the ski village for a party. It was so loose; I remember getting back to the house later and somebodys room had a 15ft piece of tree wedged in it.
Going to NY Sushi in Sheff and seeing Souls of Mischief play 93 to infinity to about 60 people whilst stood on a tiny foot high stage. That must have been round 98 or 99.
2x LUCKY FLUKES
Moving to Bristol. I thought it was right by the sea so I would be able to go to the beach every day. Not so much a fluke but more like stupidity. I remember going to wesron super mare, the closest ‘beach’ to Bristol and the sea was so far out you couldn’t even see it
Driving a volley into the top left corner from the edge of the penalty box from a corner for Birley Spa. It looked unbelievable but I actually meant to pass it to Richard Marshall stood to my right.
Benson ‘working’ during the 2008 S&M UK trip
2x THINGS THAT BACKFIRED
Waggin’ school to go and ride chesterfield racetrack with some of my mates then all of us getting in a big pile up at the bottom of Ridgeway hill.
Telling some guy to fuck off on Brixton Hill and getting a glass smashed across my face.
2x PHOTOS THAT WORKED
Everything I shot in the hate houses.
Getting a sequence of the final block of park hill flats getting blown up in Sheffield.
2x PHOTOS YOU MISSED
Nothing springs to mind but I always forget to take my camera to gigs and I know I’ve missed some amazing photos because of it. Two recent gigs were japanther a couple of months ago and the first time I saw Les savy Fav in islington a few years ago.
Benson and his new pet squirrel, rescued from the street and nursed back to health...
2x THINGS YOU REPAIRED LIKE A PRO
Ballcock in the bog the other day.
Washing Machine door in my old house.
2x THINGS YOU BROKE LIKE AN IDIOT
I broke a lot of stuff when I burnt my room down in Sheffield. What I was most pissed off about breaking was J geils band “centerfold’ which was in the record player whilst it melted
Ankle. Jumping from a third storey balcony into a tree and landing with my legs between a fence.
2x ESSENTIAL ALBUMS
David Thomas Broughton – ‘The complete guide to insufficiancy’
Pulp- ‘Different Class’
2x BANDS THAT CAN RUIN YOUR DAY
Simply Red. What a twat.
Phil Collins ‘face value’. The albums shite but that big picture of his head on the record sleeve makes him look like some candlelit sex pest. It’s disgusting.
2x SHEFFIELD SAYINGS
Abberritinters = I bet it isn’t hers
Scutters= Lasses who dress up like some indie bird but who are, in fact utter townie tramps. For example: ‘A gotter home an she started harpin’ on barrt Pete Tong n sum dance shit. Tell yer, she wer a reeet scutter’
2X LONDON SAYINGS
‘I was fackin laggin’
can’t even think of any more. I’ve just heard Dye and Lemsip say the one above and there the only real Londoners I really know.
