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Interviewee: Owen Wint, Breakdancer

Of 'Future Shock'. How began breakdancing, practising, type of music. 'Scratching'. Emulating 'Rock Steady Crew'. Different because danced in unison. Highlights of career. 'Battles' between breakdance crews.

0:08 Member of Future Shock 82-87
0:25 Holyhead Youth Centre. Wanted to Breakdance, formed group.
0:55 Wanted to settle down, so broke up, travelling had to stop.
1:15 Africa, Bambatta, Zulu nation, Zulu warriors saw Rock Steady Crew. BBC2. Tried to breakdance. Music inspirational. Original. Never heard 'scratching' before. Recorded music. Played it back. Watched videos over. Bruises.
2:49 ,Grandmaster Flash', 'Fab Five Freddy', 'Afrika', 'Cold Crush Brothers', 'Busy Bee', forgotten. People won't know them now.
3:48 Favourite Songs 'Black & White', 'Day & Night'. Afrika Bambatta. Loads of songs. If looked at records would know. Fast beats and breaks.
4:32 One would break rest routine. Two would break. Were routine specialists. Wanted to emulate Rock Steady Crew. Very entertaining.
5:21 Uprocking before get down and break. Body popping. Lock and pop. Breaking when you get down. Wild to watch entertaining.
5:50 Could break anywhere took linos into town and system on shoulder. In five minutes people watching. All looked the same. Sponsored by Davies Sports Shop, looked cool. Crowd loved it. Birmingham crews would come over and battle.
6:53 First crew in Coventry. Other crews. Holyhead Youth Centre. Everyone trained together. Helped each other. Rivals when battle, but not when learning the moves. Taught break dancing. Amazing to feel the beat.
8:10 Electrifying, alive. 1982 fresh culture really touched you.
8:30 Nike Melody Crew. Mellow. Awesome rappers. Rhythm Doc was DJ. Scratching and mixing. 1984 Canon Hill Breakdance Festival. BBoys from Wolverhampton. Rock 6 from Birmingham. Battled, but did routines. Unison. Outside Coliseum was packed. Challenged and beat Rock 6, drew with B Boys. B Boys were awesome.
11:23 Battled B Boys on Saturday Starship. Went on Russell Harty show. Met musical youth. Highlight was hitting television. First goal to be best in Coventry. Travelled. Others were better, but didn't have routines.
12:44 5 Original crew members. One cousin, brothers and friend. Married and live in Coventry. Derrick the best dancer. Brilliant dance form.
14:38 Crews all over, about twenty. First to hit the town. Got all the shows. Big in Brum, too. Other crews and breaking faded out. Went back to Jazz dancing. Mixed breaking and Jazz. Got on televisionv, and equity cards because different. Always been into dance. Dave Kerns, a white guy good at dancing. Snatched him. Best popper ever seen in England.
17:27 Travelled to Italy. Breakdancing not the same now. Lost its soul.
18:03 The soul of breaking is the music. Touched you talking about drugs and life. Talking about street identified with it. No swearing. Break dance with feeling. Uprocking to the beat. Proud to be a B Boy. Your culture. Rappers rapping for you. Hung around outside Fishy Moors at night. Breakdance. Rappers rapping. Music. Police would move to subway. 2-3hrs. 60. Not causing trouble. 18 years old. Great days. Feeling beat of the raw rhythms. Graffitti artists rappers. Different. We were alive. Associated with, and able to develop it. Big movement.
21:33 Crews they didn't like, but no fighting. Developed to get away from gun crime. Get big without fighting.
22:21 History of break dancing, Bronx America 1977. Cool hand hurt parties. Mcing over music from Jamaica. Parties anywhere. Fab Five Freddy was graffiti artist. Rap artists at parties. Cold Crush brothers. Scratching led to breakers.
25:25 Grand Master Flash was later. All done in house parties first. Charge people to get into them. Paid rappers and breakers. Organised. Fab Five Freddy organised it all. Malcom Mclaren bought it to England. Made money out of it. Buffalo girls go round the outside. Double Dutch. Culture Vulture.
28:13 Tried to hit MTV. Recorded everything to do with breaking. Only little bits. That's how learnt about Afrika Bambatta .Read more. Wasn't interested in America etc just breakin but interest grew in history/culture. Uprockin dancing on foot. Challenging opponents. Deliver challenge on the floor. Took bits of others and added own.
31:09 Culture came first but breaking was to stop violence. Afrika Bambatta was in gang but became a leader.
32:01 no violence here. Just skinheads. No guns. Culture different battling the same as US. Street culture was their own. Didn't live the street life. Had nice bed and family. Not criminal. English culture. Breaking terms wanted to be like Americans. Getting to American now. And then. Walk clothes etc was American. No English influence, All best breaking music American. Hunt down records. HMV was mainstream. Get hardcore off films. Beat Street Electric boogaloo. Got bigger and more imports. 1984/85 hip hop became mainstream. Hip hop on films.
35:34 B girls as well. Elements were Attitude own style. Know about street music. Rhythm Feel the beat. Held audition when Derrick left at Holyhead. None had the beat. Could tell from the uprocking. Individuality. Team came first. Attitude. Embrace the culture. Respect for life. Anything goes in breaking. Danced the night away. Break all night. Trained loads. Shoulder burns. Back spinning. Bold patches on head from head spinning all breakers now pain went through. Unique. 1982 formed his life now. Freshness. Kids having fun. Breaking bought something unique to Britain. Unique.
39:44 breaking now but not fresh and unique not the heart. Felt they belonged to the movement. Zulu Nation created. All as one.
40:28 At first into Jamaican culture. Knew history. Watched Afrika Bambatta learnt about Zulu Nation.
41:41 Can see influence of African dancing in break dancing.
42:21 Hard to explain to people. If didn't learn didn't belong. Had to know why or meaningless.
42:59 all breakers saw themselves as members of the Zulu Nation. Afrika Bambatta was the leader. Had to be part of it. 43:48 New wave of influences in city. Tracksuits baseball caps. Music wise took a while. Shops sold out the clothes. Buying gear all the time. Young kids trying to be B Boys. Kids on balcony by M&S ghetto blasters and lino.
45:27 Every culture into break dancing. Zulu Nation for everybody.
46:07 Always into funk & Reggae. Soul. Liked American music. Hip Hop big cultural change. Threw away old. Took on American way of life bought it into British life. Not in America cant have all the attitude. Kept soul and Jamaican roots. Still practiced other dancing. Kept own identity. Loves Reggae but Soul main music.
48:46 Caribbean influence. Party style. Cool hand hurt started party scene. Fab Five Freddy made it big by taking it to socialites. Afrika Bambatta watching African films.
50:22 Understood where it came from. People use Zulu warriors as violence. Used it properly.
50:52 Our place where black youths grew up. Milton was a great leader. Taught important member of society. What it means to be a black youth. Important to achieve. Gave them a choice. Followed his path. Free room. Knew about youth. Knew how to help, praise, reprimand. Everyone was there after breaking. First just for blacks.
53:11 If it weren't for hip hop and breaking it would still be a black centre. Only place to practice. Hip Hop took over Reggae. Practiced scratching in Basement. Storm took over city. Lasted for four years then went back.
54:26 Fad. Tried it. 1988 wanted to try different things but still loved it. Still sees crew. Scrap books and videos. Best era of his life for dancing. Influx of moves culture music. 1982 best era. Buffalo girls body popping. Excited thinking about it now. Shame it died.
56:25 Went underground. Too much money came into it. Died in Coventry in 87. Late 90's came back.
57:13 Now hasn't got it but great to look at. Expression. No heart. Zulu Nation. No history. Capoira. Don't know history. Capoira relation to break dancing. Dancing on slave ships.
59:13 Scrapbook. 1984 Futureshock. Tour. City Centre Dance stage. Paul Tennent & owen. Taught kids. Like youth workers. Used to be everywhere. Martial Hi fi. Canon Hill Park Edgbaston Birmingham 1984. Coventry sports centre. 1st All dayer Futureshock toured youth clubs. Russell Harty. Tried to form club in Coventry. Aims. Wanted to make breaks into TV. Shows. Rhythm Doc. Roma place all breakers went to on Saturday night. Opposite the round Wimpey. Sports centre. 1985 got equity cards. Went to France. Great days. Made it on telly. Not much breaking in France. Routine specialists. Brings it all back. Future shock went back to Jazz dancing. Could talk about it forever. Great days.living that life. Finish work break dance. Practice practice. 4hrs a day. Gave up job to tour. Easy to get jobs. Living a dream paid for dancing. Staying in hotels. Unbelievable. Blessed to go through it. Learnt loads. Manager. Captured them at Canon Hill Park. Moulded them. Thank him for it.
1:09 No sad times. Never had an accident. People injured. Didn't care took knocks and bruises to get the moves. Smiles from moves. Learning about life. Teach his kids about Africa. Only way forward.
1:10 Explains moves Turtle, Windmill, Flyer, 99, One handed spin. Bouncing moves. Swipe. Space invader. Poses. Moves got harder. Had videos taught ourselves. Helped each other. Footwork was brilliant. More gymnastic orientated now. Looks good but hasn't got the heart.