100
Published: 17th April 2009
Author: Sean Lawless
After eight-and-a-bit years at the helm of the good ship DBR, Sean's celebrating his 100th issue with the top 10 digital editions here to view...
Here’s a little brain-teaser for you…
Working for DBR is…
A) ‘The best job in the world’
B) ‘Three weeks f***ing around, one week grafting’
C) ‘Poorly paid s**t-shovelling’
Now correctly attribute the above quotes to…
1) DBR Managing Director
2) DBR reader
3) DBR Editor
The correct answers are 1 - B, 2 - A and 3 - A, B and C.
The three statements are, of course, closely linked. For three weeks out of four it’s the best job in the world before deadline week arrives and A swiftly becomes C. And believe me, as this issue of DBR is my 100th as Editor that’s a whole lot of f***ing around and quite a bit of s**t-shovelling n’all.
If I stop to think it’s actually quite frightening – 100 months is a big slice of my life since I started work on the February 2001 issue the morning after Boxing Day in 2000. Without checking my back issues I can remember the cover – a Frank Hoppen shot of Tony Marshall testing the brand spankin’ new Yamaha YZF250 over in California – as clearly as if it was put together yesterday.
Since then it’s been a rollercoaster ride with lots of highs and the odd low as well but on the whole (think three weeks out of four multiplied by 100) it’s been a blast for the last eight years and three months. So to celebrate my continued employment here is a selection of some of my own personal highlights over the last 100 issues.
All 10 complete issues will be available to view free below for a limited period so click on the front covers with the mouse…
February 2001
My first issue…
Lovingly thrown together in less than a fortnight, my first issue as Editor included Tony’s YZF test, interviews with Paul Malin, Warren Edwards, Wayne Smith and Mike LaRocco and a report from the awesome – and sadly missed – UKSX series…
October 2001
Dobby’s world title
We’d been waiting 12 long years for a Brit to lift a world MX crown and the losing streak was finally broken by Jamie Dobb who wiped the floor with everyone to nail the world 125cc crown for Queen, country and KTM! The then 29-year-old had started the season fully up for it and he dominated all year with a string of wins – including one around Namur with not one but two busted collarbones. Skills Dobby!
August 2002
Sean’s gone to Iceland!
No, not the home of the £1 prawn ring, cow scrotum sausages and Scouse train wrecks – I’m talking about the island of Vikings that’s a two-hour flight from Glasgow Airport. Myself and long-time DBR contributor Rob Bayman flew out to race the six-hour Transatlantic Challenge team enduro and were knocked out by the hospitality and warmth of welcome we received as well as the potential for 24-hour off-road riding. I’ve made some life-long Icelandic friends and my daughter Hazel was ‘created’ there on a separate trip to see in the New Year…
December 2002
21st birthday issue
Yeah, yeah, yeah – an easy-to-do and budget-friendly page-filler by way of a trawl through the back catalogue. Wouldn’t do that again, eh? Going through the bound issues is a staple of slow Friday afternoons in the office so to be able to do it for a bona fide feature is always a bonus – and some of the stuff that turned up from DBR’s early days was awesome. Well worth it just for baby-faced shots of the likes of Jack Burnicle, Warren Edwards, Carl Nunn and Tony Marshall plus Kurt Nicoll’s infamous ‘champagne mullet’ and Rob Herring looking, er, in touch with his feminine side in Apico adverts.
May 2003
Mixed Bag!
Big soft sh**e that I am, the main reason this has dropped into my favourites list is the scan of baby Hazel at 11 weeks old in my comment. But there’s tons more in here including a mental pic of Neil Prince crashing hard at Canada Heights, Jeff Goss’ mum Jenny flipping the bird and the much-missed World of Embo column taking on a strangely phallic (looks a bit like a c**k) shape. There’s also a shot of relatively new recruit Sutty flat-out (on the deck) after a big off during a DBR test. Some things never change…
July 2004
Wight Heat!
I’ve got grim memories of the Y2K British GP at Foxhill that was rained off. At the time I was based in Bath and working for a new – and ultimately doomed – mag called MXUK so I did a swift u-turn and headed home for an afternoon cider session in the Hat and Feather. At the time no-one realised we were going to have to wait a full four years for another grand prix so when the British GP went off at Gore Basin on the Isle of Wight it was long, long overdue. We were heavily involved in the event and produced the 100-page programme. We also came out with a patriotic masthead to celebrate the return to our shores of the world championship.
October 2005
Mixed Bag #2
So the DBR office is a raging inferno, beams are collapsing and a distant wailing tells me the fire brigade have left it too late. So with a wet sack over me I charge back upstairs to find designer Marge whimpering in the bottom of the wardrobe and Sutty slumped over my desk. What do I do? I’ll tell you. I ignore Marge’s pitiful cries and with the last of my strength heave Sutty out of the way, grab my October 2005 copy and race downstairs to safety. Why? Well, this issue covers the second IoW GP which told us that 2004’s event wasn’t a one-off and that Britain was once again a motocross superpower. But the clincher is a picture of my gorgeous daughter modelling Smooth Industries Chad Reed PJs in our stuff section!
November 2006
X Hits The Spot!
The Motocross des Nations at Matterley Basin and Everts handing Bubba a beating! What’s not to like about this issue (apart from the fact that the Yanks won)? Then there’s a great action sequence of Sutty crashing out of the Maxxis British championship race at Hawkstone Park. But the best bit for me is an article I wrote covering a trip to Madrid for the Red Bull X-Fighters where I got to meet Travis Pastrana, laughed as Paul Lindsay from Irish Racer was ejected from the Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas for general hooning and then (allegedly) met David Beckham at a vodka-soaked post-gig party. And I also met a rather lovely lady from Red Bull who I spent the next couple of years courting! Good times!
April 2008
Bum’s Rush
The opening spread of Steve Cox’s AMA SX wrap makes this one an absolute no-brainer! Obviously, there’s loads of great stuff inside including an exclusive first test of the new CCM – a marque I’ve always felt a connection with ever since my dad researched and wrote the original Rolling Thunder – but I keep going back to pages 92 and 93!
November 2008
The ‘Angry’ Issue!
Another home MXdN feature steals the cover glory – fair enough, it was the biggest single MX event on the planet in 2008 – but this issue is my final choice from 100 because of ‘Angry’ Geoff Walker’s heroics in the Red Bull Romaniacs. We all love to take the p**s out of our Extreme Oirishman but when it comes to dirt bikes he’s the most passionate person I know and to contest the Pro class – and finish all five days of the world’s hardest extreme enduro – is deserving of total respect. Okay, he got disqualified at the end but that’s just the way he rolls!
Cheer’s m’dears!
Heart-felt thanks
Over the last 100 issues there have been so many people I’ve relied on for help, advice, motivation and – on the odd occasion – a shoulder to cry on that if I start naming names the list will go on and on and on and I’ll be guaranteed to miss a few out. Worse still, a few I’ve missed out on purpose will think I’ve forgotten them accidentally and that simply won’t do. So no names – I think you all know who you are anyway – just a big, fat thanks…
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