All photography - Rob Whiston.
Learning curves are a crucial pathway to any sort of balance or harmony on a skateboard. A seemingly never-ending journey of evolving through trial and error, pleasure and pain. You've either got it, or you're mad hungry for it. No cheat codes, no shortcuts. Nada. Just give the curves the time and the respect they deserve, and embrace each new one with gusto. I got to witness such a momentous learning curve with Marcus. A few of us 'older gents' used to have a weekly ‘dad roll’ on a Sunday evening at the old Ideal ramp. One murky evening, a couple of heads popped up from under the shutter. Usually it was a grinning Brian Travers (R.I.P. styler), but this time it was Marcus and a pal. It was already obvious that Marcus was coming up on the old slabs and stairs, but there was a major curve missing - he hadn't started 'doing the ramps'. With a bit of encouragement and such a great setting, it soon became glaringly obvious that the ramps really are worth 'doing'. From witnessing those first wobbly runs to seeing that front rock at Bowlywood, it just goes to show you that respecting the curves leads to much better swerves.
- Bob Sanderson
Never one to do things by halves, Marcus grinds the whole length, then ollies to flat at the end.
Introduce yourself please.
My name is Marcus Palmer, I’m 29, born and bred in Birmingham.
Rob Whiston: How many cats have you got?
I’ve got five cats, man. I like one of them, but he doesn’t like me. We had one cat and she had four babies, and they’re all just weird.
Rob: Are they still kittens?
They’re grown; they’re all two years old now.
Rob: Whenever I text you and arrange to meet up, if you’re late the next day, it’s usually because the cats have kept you up all night.
They’re gnarly, man. It’s pack mentality; they’ll be running around the house, scratching at the doors. They usually have me up at 5am, but if I get out of bed at 9am, it’s been a good night (laughs).
Which area of Birmingham is home?
I grew up in a place called Nechells, just outside the centre of town. I moved around a fair bit though, through growing up, but I lived mostly around the edge of the city centre.
How old would you have been when you first picked up a skateboard?
14. To be fair though, I was about eight when I had my first ever skateboard; it was a funny shape, and everything underneath was made of plastic. I took that around Nechells, going down hills, riding it on my knees, that kind of thing. I’d fall off and rip my trousers and that, but Mum wasn’t ever really with it, so she actually hid my skateboard from me. It wasn’t until I was 14 that I went and got another Argos board, and tried skating again for myself. It went from there really.
Where did that original board come from?
The very first one, my mum got it me for Christmas, but it was gone by March (laughs). She was having none of it.
What did you have to do to fill your days once your board had been confiscated?
I used to play a bit of guitar, and I was really into drawing too, but as soon as I got into skateboarding and I was hurting my hands and my wrists, I fell away from them, and spent more time watching skate videos and actually going out skating. I swiftly made the transition into being a skateboarder.
What was the board you had when you were 14?
It was another Argos board that I bought off my friend…he got it for a tenner, I got it for a fiver (laughs). I’d be skating the road outside of my school, the little car park round the back of my house, and things like that. I didn’t have a local skatepark or anything, so I was always skating little street spots; that’s how I found my feet.
So in 2006, when you started skating for the second time, Ideal would have been at 175 Corporation Street still. Do you remember first visiting there?
I do. A friend of a friend told me about Ideal, and the first time we went down, it was full of people being really hyped. We were just a super timid little crew that didn’t know anyone, so we felt like we needed to wait our turn to go in. The first time I get the courage up to walk in, I saw someone ollie straight out of the door, so I said, “I am not going in there”. I felt so intimidated, but Bob (Sanderson) broke down the whole barrier for me; I was walking back across the road and he just shouted over, “come in, come chill for five”, so I sat in there and chatted to Bob, and he broke it all down.
Before you met Bob and first visited in Ideal, did you skate in the city much?
Not really. I guess I skated Pigeon Park for quite a while, then I’d go down to Fastlands to skate there, but I think I met everyone at Wild in the Streets. That was the first time I saw everyone get together; it was the main thing that made me want to get involved in the scene.
James Woodley: Is that when they took the rail to Central Library and put it down the long three set? That was 2007 I think.
That sounds about right. I was so fresh, I could barely ollie, but I tried to get involved anyway. There was at least a hundred people skating through the road, blocking traffic; no cars were going anywhere. We skated a lot of spots that aren’t there any more, but we went to a spot under the Mailbox and they got the wallride out, and I was watching people wallriding way over my head out of that. CJ (Chris Johnson) showed me a photo he shot under the Mailbox at that session, and I’m actually in it, standing there.
Rob: He sent me that as well, and you looked properly emo. What was the name of your crew back in 2006?
Erm…the Dark Lords of the Underworld (laughs). Bob called us that one time and we thought it was the best thing ever, so it stuck. We called the crew ‘TDL’ for short, because it sounded a bit cooler (laughs). There were four of us that met up regularly, but we’d come to town on a weekend and there’d be maybe 30 of us. Everyone has the fondest memories of those times.
What are some of your fondest memories from that Dark Lords era?
Skating Demo, the old stomping ground.
Wasn’t Demo was the old wasteland spot with the gap and the ledge, that Jack Edwards used to skate a lot?
Yeah, that was it. You’d see Jack there on his own, we wouldn’t talk much; he was on his own vibe.
When you think of the Dark Lords of the Underground, it conjures up a particular image…
It almost sounds a bit satanic, doesn’t it?
Do you think the crew name was inspired by Birmingham’s metal past?
I think that’s what it was based on. I guess Bob saw me walk into the shop with a studded belt on and all of these wristbands, all blacked out…I looked very…‘Pigeon Park’. I really liked Nightmare Before Christmas; I had the hat, backpack, hoody…I was Nightmare Before Christmas, top to bottom (laughs).
This tiled number has seen some action over the years, but Marcus ups the Redditch ante with one of his flawless three-sixty flips.
What sort of music would you have been listening to back then? I’m thinking Coal Chamber…
Rob: More like Coldplay.
I liked my metal. Not the Slipknot kind of metal, but I had a good time with Korn (laughs). In Flames…anything that had melodic riffs.
Since you’ve mentioned it a couple of times now, what’s Pigeon Park?
It’s a park in town where all the moshers would chill. They’d congregate there and be at the park all day. I used to go there…you’ve got to respect where you came from.
Is it the park that has the massive double set in it you hardflipped?
No, that was a different one. Sometime after 2012, I moved into a flat in Highgate, and every time I was heading into town, I’d have to go through the park where that double set was. It became a thing that I had to do; I just got it in my head. I had a go at the hardflip and got close, but then it turned into a war; I went back for it a few times over a year.
Wasn’t that hardflip the reason you got on Emerica?
Pretty much. The photo was shot in Emericas that Jake Smith gave me, so I think that had something to do with it. CJ must have spoken to Kev Parrott, he sent me some shoes, then I cheekily asked if I could have some more when they were done, and it went from there.
CJ was pretty instrumental in you getting national coverage early on. Do you remember first meeting him?
Nah; I was meeting so many people in such a short amount of time that I couldn’t remember who everyone was, but once I came to talking to him, it was like I already knew him. Everyone was familiar.
Rob: In Birmingham, everyone knows each other. You walk around the streets for long enough, and that just happens.
You skate past each other two or three times, then you’re like, “yeah, I know that dude”.
Narrowly avoiding a dip in the local canal, Marcus stands atop of a tall and textbook frontside noseslide.
Rob: The first time I remember meeting you was at the Ideal ramp, at the Custard Factory. That was a good meeting point, and the reason a lot of people in the city now know each other. I thought of you as a transition skater for years; I thought you were some crazy dude with a wild surfer style who would not accept slamming (laughs). You must’ve frequented Ideal quite a lot back then, I’m guessing?
Oh yeah, it was fully my second home once Bob took me under his wing. I remember him telling me back at 175 Corporation Street that they had plans to get a new shop in the Custard Factory, that they were building a ramp, and that I needed to come skate it. He tried to make me promise that I’d come skate it, and I told him, “nah, I’m not skating a ramp”. I was too scared; I’d rather go skate Demo, or skate street. Once it was built, it took a really long time to convince me to skate it, but it was after hours when they had a lock-in, they invited me to come in, and that was the first time I skated the ramp. I got to watch a lot of good people skate ramp there, too. Everyone had their own flare, everyone showed me something sick to take on. Watching Neil Bailey do front 5-0s or front boardslides, and Martin Darragh with that switch frontside nosestall 360 out…it was like food for my brain.
What sticks in your mind most from those Ideal ramp sessions?
You know what? It’s hard to pinpoint just one thing in particular, because a lot of the time it was literally going off. Even when it was just little local sessions with maybe three of the boys, if people were learning new tricks, it got crazy.
You had some pretty heavy names pass through the ramp. The Gonz…
Rob: Mike Carroll, Rick Howard…
Grant Taylor, (Jeff) Grosso.
Rob: (Ben) Raemers, Felix (Owusu-Kwarteng)…
Sebo Walker, when he did the blunt tre flip fakie in my face. Chris Haslam must have skated there.
Rob: Haslam was a bit a local in Birmingham at one point, because he was seeing a girl there (laughs). How did the This is Birmingham videos start?
Birmingham changed when the Ideal ramp went, because that was the main place where everyone would meet up. Skaters from different areas started to lose touch because people weren’t coming to town as much. After that happened, we needed to bring some hype back, and get everyone into the streets. Me, Jamie (‘OG’ Hewett) and George Thompson were talking about filming a video; we were going to call it About Time, and it sounded like such a good idea that we just had to go with it (laughs). Jamie did most of the filming and editing; he’s Birmingham’s best hype man, the man with the plan.
Rob: He whipped you lot into shape.
The biggest thing for me was that we started making the video, and then I went to hospital because of the stabbing. When I came out of hospital, I got better, started skating again, then started filming again. That whole process is in the video. There’s even footage in there of me in hospital.
If the mag could pay photo incentive, Marcus would be quids in here. On brand nollie heel in the dead of the Alvechurch night.
I remember hearing about the stabbing at the time; everyone was obviously so shocked by it. Do you want to talk about that? What was all that about?
It was a robbery gone wrong. I was in a car, the driver was someone who I worked with, but he had a friend with him. I guess their intention was to try and rob me. They thought I was going to be an easy hit, and I wasn’t; I put up a bit too much of a fight. The driver’s friend started stabbing me with the knife, and I kicked the back window through and got out, and managed to crawl my way to the kerb. I remember looking up through the window that I broke and seeing the driver. I was so enraged, I got up like I was going to do something, and they drove off. That was it; I was just there by the kerb, bleeding.
How many times did you get stabbed?
At least twice in every limb, and once in the ribs. It was a minor one in the ribs, but severe ones everywhere else. He got me in my knees, my wrists…it was pretty intense.
Once you got into hospital, what were the doctors original thoughts on your situation?
It was really serious. I had three blood transfusions after the first operation to stabilise me. I was only in hospital for eight days, but the damage was pretty extensive. They said I’d be in a wheelchair for life, and I’d only get up to 50% recovery in my hands.
Rob: They obviously hadn’t seen your This is Birmingham sections, or else they’d have known how determined you are (laughs).
In the ambulance, I was saying to the paramedics, “stop trying to cut my clothes off, man. I need them to go skating; leave my shoes alone” (laughs). They were saying, “nah, these aren’t going to be any good to you now”.
Rob: I came to the hospital with CJ about five or six days after you’d been admitted. We went to Tesco and got you some supplies, got you your favourite food and drink.
Didn’t you bring me some joggers and a dressing gown? I’ve still got those.
Rob: When we got there, you were in surgery. They said you still had a few surgeries to go through, but there was so much stuff in your room that people had come by with for you.
Seriously though, after the eight days of being there, I went home and I had food in my cupboards for two months (laughs). When I left, I needed help, like, “how am I going to get all of this food home?”
I’m guessing the guys that did that to you got arrested? What happened there?
Nothing, the case collapsed. The guy I was working with told the police that he was on holiday abroad at the time, when obviously the flight records would show he was in the country. The guy who did the stabbing got away with it in the end too, but whatever. There’s no point holding hate over something like that.
What was the rehab like after your surgeries? I imagine the recovery was lengthy if you’d had both knees operated on.
I don’t know the logistics of what they had to do in surgery, but afterwards, the rehab was intensive. I had to do a lot of physio. I started basic, doing push-ups off a wall, but ended up having to do really advanced squats and things like that. I tried to walk straight away, but I didn’t have the balance; it’s mad how fast you lose muscle mass. I was on crutches for a while. I was really, really weak, and it took a long time to get myself built back up. But I got there, and after a while it was like nothing had ever happened.
How old were you when the stabbing took place?
It happened on my 25th birthday. Callum (Sidlauskas) was one of the first people to come see me in the hospital, and Jake Smith was there with me, day in, day out.
Callum: We didn’t know where you were for a couple of days, because you obviously lost your phone in the robbery. We were worried; everyone was asking, “where’s Marcus?”
There were a lot of rumours that I came back to, a lot of rumours, but that’s all what happened.
Off the glass and into the bank by way of a solid nollie, Longbridge.
Whilst your recovery was going on, did you have it in your mind that you wanted to get back to skating, or was that not even on your radar?
The whole way through, skating was a constant thought. Along with all of the love that I was getting from people around me, the thought of getting back to skating was what pulled me through; it was the reason that I wanted to get back out in the world. It is kind of hard, you know, going through something like that; you get certain levels of anxiety, and all of these other thoughts come into your head, but you need to push past it, overcome it, and try to do better for yourself and for everyone else. Everyone around me really gave me the power to get through it. I think I came back pretty quickly though; I remember three months after I left the hospital, I was back at the skatepark, and I filmed a clip. In three months I went from being in intensive care, to landing tre flip fakies on a quarter (laughs). I had the best memories just before the stabbing too, because I’d literally just been to NASS festival, Glastonbury, I was planning on going to Nozstock, and it was in between those when it happened. I didn’t believe the extent of the damage at all when everybody was telling me. I was saying, “it’s cool, I’ll be fine tomorrow, I’ll be skating; don’t worry about me, I’m bless”. Every day that went by I realised more that I wasn’t as good as I thought I was, but I still knew that I’d get there, and it was going to work out. Positive thinking and a lot of love can go a long way.
How are you physically feeling now? You’re 29 and you’ve been through a lot, with the stabbing and the rehab, but you’re still going, and you’re still jumping down stuff on a regular basis.
My body feels bless. I think I’ve been pretty lucky with the whole stair game. I’ve not been breaking bones or hurting myself too bad. I’ve been lucky with knowing how to roll from the get go, and knowing how to fall. If I’m slamming, I try to spread it out; I’m not trying to stand straight back up after a slam.
Rob: Me and OG were just talking about this. I thought you were still 22, and OG told me you were nearly 30. I was tempted to phone you up to have a word, to stage an intervention.
(Laughing) The guys at Karma said that. “Hey, if you’ve got a problem and you want to talk about something, we’re all here for you. You don’t need to throw yourself down stuff so much”.
Prior to this interview, was your last bit of national coverage your First Light?
Yep.
How is it that you’re so low key? Do you leave the Midlands much?
I do travel about a little bit, but on my chilling days, I just stay local.
Rob: But people know you. We were skating a metal vert ramp just outside of Coventry, and this guy drove by, stopped the car, and shouted over, “you’re Tokes Daily” (laughs).
The guy didn’t even skate (laughs).
Rob: Marcus is the most famous un-famous person I know.
I never did put myself out there enough. CJ was about shooting stuff, but then Sidewalk went down so there was no magazine coverage of the Midlands. I was going out filming with the Spread Eagle guys, and it went from there to the This is Birmingham vids, but there was no photos, so it was all on Instagram and YouTube, instead of it being in print.
Rob: You got a lot of attention for the front rock at Bordesley Green on the Slap Forum, though. People just couldn’t believe it was real.
Yeah, right. Any festival I went to after that came out, people would be calling out, “yo, front rock!” I remember one time, a guy was asking for the footage of it, and I had to tell him that I never saw the footage of it myself. Someone filmed it, but the clip must have got lost. I know people say that without footage, it’s fiction, but I did it a few times that day, and CJ isn’t the person to run something that wasn’t made. He’s got far too much integrity.
Backside flip a lengthy expanse of Brummy cobbles.
Recently you’ve been out filming with Callun (Loomes); how did you become initiated into the Get Lesta fold?
Sometime around 2014, I went with Kris Vile to meet Callun for the first time, when they were going out filming. I didn’t film anything though, because they were skating eight or nine stair rails, and I didn’t feel like I had any tricks for stuff like that. Callun kept asking me to come out, but I just didn’t feel like I had anything for his camera, with all the stuff he was filming with (James) Bush and Mark Stern and them. I didn’t know what I could do that would be impressive enough, but after a couple of years, he talked me round, and I started coming out filming with him; I put some work in.
I know you’re filming a section for the next Get Lesta video; how’s your part looking?
I think it’ll be alright. It’s been hard work. Call is quite honest about everything (laughs), but that’s cool though, because some people do want to know if a spot or a trick has been hit before. I might not personally care, but people watching a Get Lesta video might, so it’s good to have that in mind, but at the end of the day, it’s just skating, so none of it matters.
Is this your first section for something that’s not a Birmingham scene video?
Yeah. It’s definitely the thing I’ve worked the hardest on. It should be out in November. The guys have been skating tough; I’ve seen some of the footage and it is mind blowing. I think we’ve been filming for two years, but I’ve not been going out with them every week; I’ve been going out with them maybe once a month, though I might have slacked off a little bit in the middle.
You’ve had to overcome another injury just recently, haven’t you? Didn’t you slam badly on your face earlier this year?
I bent my teeth in, yeah. I was at the local skatepark, I’d been there from early and it was getting quite late, I hadn’t eaten and I’d been drinking a little bit. I tried to ollie the jump box, I went pretty high up and kicked my board out from under me, but stepped on my board again. I didn’t manage to get my hands up in time, and I hit my face on the floor so hard, man. My tooth chipped, then all of the teeth in between my fangs bent back, so when I felt my mouth with my hand after I got up, I couldn’t feel them; I thought I’d lost all of my teeth right there. I’m pretty lucky that I didn’t break my jaw from the way that I fell. My glasses were safe, but everything between my nose and my chin hit the floor, so I’m lucky that I only chipped the one tooth.
Rob: When I saw a photo, it looked like your gum had been snapped because your teeth were all so bent in.
I had to pay £300 on the spot for emergency surgery to have all of my teeth bent back into place. It was horrible. It was one of the worst things I’ve been through; it was probably worse than the stabbing (laughs). At least that one was a skateboarding injury. I’ve had a good run, though; 15 years skating and I’ve only chipped one tooth (laughs).
A return visit to the skate Mecca of Redditch see Marcus send a summertime hardflip over a vibrant and welcoming pedestrian stabaliser.
Rob: What did your work think about you coming in with this injury from skateboarding?
They didn’t care so long as I could still get the job done.
Tell us about your work. You’re a chef, right?
I’m a chef. After school I went to one college, and I wanted to be an architect, but I don’t think that was in my path; that wasn’t for me. But my next choice after that was a panic decision. I thought, “I need to know how to feed myself, I need to know how to eat”, so I got into cooking. I got a job as a kitchen porter, then I went to chef school, then that’s been me since. I’m in between jobs right now, but tomorrow I’m starting at Meat Shack, cooking burgers with Dan Smith, another skater from Birmingham. I like to think the grill is where I really thrive, in the heat…that’s my favourite station.
What are the three most memorable tricks to have gone down in Birmingham?
Callum Sidlauskas, back 360 down Fastlands nine set; that was amazing.
Ben Grove’s kickflip over the rail at Fastlands, that was f*cked.
Neil Bailey’s frontside 5-0 flip out on the Ideal ramp that was in the Thrasher edit.
Rob: What’s going on right now? What’s been going on with Karma?
Karma and Supertoxic Urethane have recently been bought out by Far Skate Foundation, and they seem to be pushing it in ways that I don’t think it’s been going before. I like the direction; I like what they’re trying to do. They’re investing more in the team; we’ve met up four or five times in the last year. It’s sick to have a team of people that you see regularly, too. There are riders all over, there are some in Scotland, but when everyone comes together, it’s sick to mix all of that energy.
Rob: The team naturally feels so diverse. There are several girls in there, along with people from all different backgrounds.
Even with the skating, there are not just loads of people who all skate the same thing. Because of OG, the team is heavily influenced by Birmingham, and Birmingham is a very diverse city.
Rob: Skating takes you other places, out of the city and into the towns and villages on the outskirts, and it doesn’t feel as welcoming to such a mixed crew sometimes.
The first time we went to one town, I was the only black kid in the skatepark, and as soon as I opened my mouth, everyone started looking at me. I felt like saying, “come on, guys”. It’s not a thing at all usually, though you do notice it sometimes. But in Birmingham, everyone is almost colour-blind, and that’s how it should be. We’re all in it together.
Any final words?
I just want to say a big thanks to everyone that I’ve met along the way; you’ve all made it a monumental experience.
Follow Marcus - @tokessdaily