What's Good? Jon Mackellar X Anthem II
Welcome to round 15 of the latest LUXBMX journal segment, 'What's Good?'. To reiterate, we reach out to one of the homies and get a hot tip on the latest biking madness. It's called 'What's Good?' and for this instalment, I've worked with the transient Jon Mackellar, based out of his van which is wherever the wind blows.
Big Jon from Snakewoods back in 2015, crispy cam photo
"Hmm, where to start? I was 15 when Anthem II came out and at that point, BMX was really digging deep into my veins. It may have been the last Cam White jam I went to when I hear something like 'dude, every song in this is f$#%ing perfect' coming out of Chris Harti's mouth around some sort of car stereo. I got suspended a lot that year at school and the jumps never ran better. Coffee, quick sanga and a viewing of Anthem II became my bible before heading down to Sumners, the best.
This photo perfectly represents Jon, tweaked out in the air in a trail of dust with Weexy uncomfortably close. James Fox photo.
The last proper precious Aitken footage put together to some Judas puts goose bumps through your skin every play. Style to perfection on some world class sets and beautiful use of smaller out of town parks. Makes for some BMX as F shit!! A section that BMX is lucky to have.
This is followed by Brian Yeagle, Mark Mulville, Clint Reynolds, Chris Doyle, Geoff Slattery and Sean Burns. Ya also got 2 x friend sections and 2 x mix sections with Dirt Ron, Brian Foster, Eli Platt and Chase Hawk.
Diversity to bad ass ratio is pretty much impossible to beat and a crew stacked with dead men/trail all rounders. I wish I could watch it again for the first time. If you haven't, hit up an old boy from the local to borrow the DVD, or check the remixed/declassified sections online. Bikes were heavy, no gimmicks. Wild to see how far BMX has come! I hope enough of the new Gs do there homework so this era of riding can stay in the soul of modern BMX."
Anthem II flyer from Ride UK, back in 2010 when this project was released into the wild, for all to feast upon.
What can I say, other than I agree. How can you not?
As Jon touched on, wild to think that this came out 13 years ago, to the dudes I hang with in BMX, this is the guiding force of how BMX should look, feel, smell, sound and taste. So, for this to not have some influence on modern bikers would be beyond a travesty, a downright pariah situation.
There are so many moments in this video that ground the thoughts and focus the mind, before a sensation overcomes, subtly reminding that greatness is about to be witnessed. For example, the shriek of the lady as Burns launches himself into inevitable bone freak as that grimy ass Venom riff takes shape, the boss paired to Brian Yeagle, particularly as the sax solo begins to get into its work and the riding intensity increases. It might be obvious and simple to layer classic rock with BMX riding, but at the same time, it doesn't happen as much as it should and maybe that's for good reason. If you are going to deliver a soundtrack like this, you damn well better make sure it's incredible. Who is the man to handle this situation, Stew Johnson is who.
Brian Yeagle, curved wall to nose bonk out at full speed. Screenshot taken from the video, 3.40.
You can find almost all the featured parts online, but for the purpose of this post, I'll leave you with the almighty Aitken section. Perhaps the most stylish biker of all time, not even overstated. Enjoy ya freaks.
If you would like more Jon content, take a look at this interview from 2016 as well as the below videos.
