"1975 MOTOCROSS - THE STADIUM PHENOMENON PT 2 OF 3" ['247MOTO'] . . . . I'M UNSURE EXACTLY WHEN THE STADIUM CAPER GOT GOING BUT IT MUSTA BEEN A COUPLE OF YEARS PRE '75 . . . . OUT HERE IN OZ BEFORE THE INTERNET, CABLE AND SPORTS T.V, ALL WE HAD WAS MAGAZINES . . . . MARTY SMITH, VIA MY SUB TO 'M/X ACTION', WAS MY HERO . . . . IT WAS KINDA LIKE DOGTOWN GOES BERM BUSTING.

It was pretty much like the skateboard thing, all around the world from late 1975 there were thousands of kids like me avidly reading the re-released 'Skateboarder', thumbing through 'Surfer' and 'Surfing' just to get an eyeful of these dudes from Santa Monica that were laying down a whole new trip, the lines, the look, the entire fucking thing was so different to what had gone before, no fucking gumby tricks, no pretty boys just all aggression and attitude . . . . well, to me, the same was true of Marty Smith and his FMF tweaked, blood red, CR in this thing called Stadium Motocross that was all happening concurrently with the new blood skate revival and what were the beginnings of the punk scene. He was young, totally amped and the epitome of all that was cutting edge cool, surrounded by veteran pedallers from the world over who had gone to the States to have a crack at the glitzy grandchild of what was once 'scrambles' . . . . it's funny looking back because I didn't get to see any real footage of him until 1979 just before I finished school but the photos of Smith on the pages of 'Motocross Action' seemed as though they were actually moving as my eyes strained to suck in every detail, each new issue would be about picking Marty Smith in any tight group shot, constantly reading and re reading anything about him and his bikes . . . . getting my paws on a FMF tee shirt became a grail like quest that was only ultimately fulfilled in the early nineties when I was a partner at Classic Bike Tune, I wore that fucker like a second skin for about five years until it was more holes than fabric, after a gig one night a well known then 500cc World Champion rider, with a head full of beer, which for Mick wasn't much, offered me two hundred bucks for it thinking it was from the original batch back in the seventies . . . . yeah, I still have the tee . . . . Marty fucking Smith, the bloke who took it all to a new level, what a total ruler . . . . Fearless Mother Fucker !!!

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO . . . BAR HOPPING SMITH STYLE

BACK THEN NOBODY HAD A CLUE . . . SHORT AND SNAKEY, WTF???

REAL DIRT DOGS WEAR LEATHER . . . DIG THE HOST'S GET UP