Inter Derby is the first and only blog dedicated SOLEY to non-American* roller derby. In the past few years roller derby has reached the far corners of the globe, with leagues popping up in Australia, England, Scotland, Germany, Canada, Sweden, and there are more to come!

Modelled after so many of our favourite blog sites, Inter Derby features bout recaps and scores, news, photos, updates, league spotlights, helpful hints and more! Your one stop shop for finding out the going ons around the globe.

Check it out here!

The London Rockin Rollers get a 4 page feature in Issue 4 of indie mag The Wrench Magazine alongside Mitch O'Connell, Lucifer Star Machine, Klunky's Custom Rover P3, retrophoto.co.uk... and loads more! Get your copy now from The Wrench!

 

 

 

Hosted By: Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames
When: 27 Oct 2007, 14:00
Where: Cocks Moor Leisure Centre
Alcester Road
Kings Heath, Birmingham, ML B146ER
United Kingdom



Click Here To View Event

 

                     

When the London Rockin Rollers were invited by the Stuttgart Valley Rollergirlz to partake in Europe's first Interleague bout we were thrilled! We were shitting ourselves too, don't doubt it, but honoured that they considered us up to the job. The SVRG have been going since the summer of 2006 and we are derby infants in comparison –  the Rockin Rollers were officially incepted in March of this year. But we have had a lot of nurturing and solid advice from SVRG's Miss Tsunami, Dolly BustHer and coach Rockdog for which we are grateful and truly do consider them a sister league for all their help. In Miss Tsunami's words, our league "has got SOUL". And so we were given the date for our first public bout. October 14^th 2007.

 

The evening of Friday the 12^th, our girls descended upon Stuttgart where we were met by some of our hosts. We were gob smacked to hear from Rockdog that the bout had been advertised on huge television screens in the city! Having hauled our gear into our hotel rooms, we then hauled our arses off to meet the rest of the SVRG at an alternative nightclub where the Quakes had just got off stage. The place was pumping – there were almost as many people outside as there were inside! Everyone seemed to know about the bout on Sunday – there was a real buzz of anticipation in the air. 

 

Friday night was a melee of roller girls, vodka, beer, shots, raucous renditions of 'Vindaloo' ... and a vague memory of dancing to The Benny Hill Boogie. At one stage Bruizilla had Margy Bargy over her shoulder like a rag doll, dancing around the square. The last of our girls rolled into the hotel at approximately 7am. (no one knows for sure but the last confirmed sighting was at 6.30am).

 

We were awoken at 11am to meet outside the hotel for 12. An SVRG crewman greeted us to take us to the mixed scrimmage. Completely rooted but keen to see the venue, we got a tram to the Zapata nightclub where we met the lovely ladies of the  SVRG. The newly waxed floors gave everyone a shock but we bumbled through the scrimmage, more arse than class, then waved our goodbyes to meet separately for lunch and discuss tactics (or in our case, survival!)

 

Saturday night alcohol was off the menu for all (except Danger Doll who insists a glass of wine is a formality with every meal in France). The SVRG had booked out a private room in a restaurant for a bit of chat and chew. With interest we noted that traditional German cuisine is basically all the same colour – beige! After a bit of chatting and chewing, we all retired in a most civilised manner.

 

Then rise and shine for the day of the bout! When we got there the SVRG crew had all hands on deck transforming the nightclub into a roller derby friendly venue. About 20 mattresses were strapped around dodgy concrete pillars and any potential hot spots. We were completely reassured and invested some time practising bouncing off them (something we were to do a lot of later that evening). We had a fantastic green room provided backstage and the SVRG put on food and water – there was a spa bath option too (these girls know how to host a bout!)

 

Doors opened at 5pm but at 4.30 the punters were already lining up. By 5pm, the doors opened to a capacity 500 strong crowd! They actually couldn't all fit in the main hall and were spilling into the other bars and outdoor areas. It was insane! The lights were dimmed, the night club lighting was set on the track and the DJ was belting out punk and oi! classics – all setting a true rock'n'roll atmosphere. Backstage we were psyched. Finally we were lining up for our intros .. The SVRG skated out first to a stadium roar. The Rockin Rollers followed, not sure what kind of reception we'd get as the visiting team... but the cheering continued just as mental.

 

And the bout. Fookin hell. It was an insane pace and totally fierce. Adrenelin junkies were satisfied – it was a white knuckle ride from start to end. Roller girls were flying everywhere and being bounced off every pillar much to the crowd's delight. The MC whipped the punters into a derby-induced frenzy. The SVRG had the game in the bag but not without a fight –in true bulldog spirit,we never gave up and made sure they had to fight for every point. But alas, the Golden Skate remained in Stuttgart, the SVRG victorious in a clear-cut win – 94 to 71. There were no tears from London – the SVRG really are the best league in Europe hands-down and we were euphoric to have bouted them. Cheers and hugs all round in true derby sisterhood!

 

Unfortunately the bout wasn't without a casualty - Kiara Oke took a bad fall and broke her arm. There was a Lap of Honour done with her helmet at the end and the crowd gave her a standing ovation.

 

A HUGE thanks to the SVRG for hosting the bout and doing it in true rock'n'roll style from start to end. Thanks for the unbeatable hospitality and true camaraderie. Keeping it real in every way. We salute you!

 

Skate Magazine UK, Issue 3 is out now and has a feature on The London Rockin Rollers! Also coverage on Europe's First Interleague Scrimmage in July 2007 with the LRR and the Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames! Loads of photos, loads of roller derby action!

Get your copy from www.skatemagazine.co.uk OR the list of trusted skate stores below...

Skate Attack, London!

and...

DemonXtreme, Colchester
The Skate Shop, Poole
Slick Willies, London
Slapshot UK , Dunstable
UK Skate, Manchester
Streatham Skates, London  
Quad-Skates.co.uk, London
Camberley Skaters, Web Forum
RollerGroove, Web Forum

Thanks to Lee at SMUK for your continued support of roller derby and the Rockin Rollers!

THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR ROCKIN (& ROLLIN!)

Bubblegum Slut magazine does a feature on the Punk Rock rebirth of the roller skate and talks to the LRR, the LRG and the BB*DD about what we are doing to help this sport explode in the UK!

Available from Bubblegum Slut on My Space.

 

Hello again, the event I'm blogging about today is the "Ladies Biker Day" at the legendary Ace Cafe, London. We arrived in true Rockin' Roller style ~ on the tube!  Von Bitch, always the one to be different, arrived in a rickshaw and Margy Bargy arrived by aeroplane, quite literally! 

We donned our skates and pulled on our kit, grabbed our waitressing trays and proceeded to skate around the car park. Talking of skates, Dangerous Doll had been out on the lash the night before and it was then that she packed her gear for the event. Not a good idea. Dangerous Doll had indeed packed a pair of skates but each skate was from a different boot, a size 5 right and a size 4 left, but that didn't stop her! Oh no ~ she still skated like a demon!

As we were there before the main bike run arrived we got a chance to try out some of our death-defying feats. Our coach, Von Bitch decide to unveil her leapfrog. She set her distance and raced towards a rather fine looking cafe racer, she did indeed manage the leapfrog on to the seat of the racer, amid the screams of a hairy man biker. You see he bet £20 that Von Bitch couldn't do it. He lost. He cried.

Spaghetti Machete, Dangerous Doll and Bloody Valentine decided to cone drill around a nice row of shiny faired bikes, at one point we thought, hey ho dominos!  Ever seen a big man cry??

It was at this point that the bike run of about 200 bikes arrived. Now what we going to do? No more hell raising ~ boo hoo. So we started to take drinks and food orders from the weary bikers (who by the way had road kill flies on their visors, oh yes). On receiving her first order, Lily Thumpster accidently rolled down the slope outside the cafe and promptly fell (as you do) and landed face down into the lap of and old biker, chips and beer went everywhere it was sheer carnage, not that the old boy minded, he had a smile on his face for the rest of the day (and one of Lily's spider eyelashes in his chips!).

A few minutes later Margy Bargy (nee Gail Storm!) who had been raising LRR hell down under in Oz arrived. She got off a 24 hour flight picked up her skates and in true hardcore Rockin' Roller style did the biz with the rest of us.  You see they make London Rockin' Rollers out of iron... GRRRR!! We do our own work.

Evil Jeanius, Whipit, Kiara Oke, Purple Veexen, Sin D Doll, Evil Weasel and K-Bomb were in a circle ever-ready to get orders from the great unwashed. (After all our job was to cater to the needs of our fellow wheel-sters, these dashing'n'daring tired bikers!) Well Whipit got bored and decided to approach a large biker and challenge him to arm wrestle for his supper, all we could see through the mass of bikes was Whipit with the biker's helmet in a head lock, he struggled of course but he had no chance against the might of our Whipit. He gave in and ordered a piece of currant cake. Go Whipit!! She takes no prisoners!

It was then that the bets came in. A bunch of bikers challenged us to a "shake you tail feather" competition. Who won? I hear you say. Need you ask? We did. The prize was a plate of chips. It was worth it, we were hungry, and when a Rockin' Roller is hungry, never challenge her to a competition when the prize is food. We of course missed Sandi Hell Santo because she is the best chip eater that we have in the LRR.

To close this blog I have to say we had a great day. Thank you to Clare from the Ace Cafe and to all the people who donated to the Jeans for Genes charity. Many thanks to all the Bikers who made the day such fun for us.

See you at our next event September 7/8 for the Ace Cafe Reunion.

Our Fundraising Event was held under the Cock Tavern, that should give some of you readers an idea of what to expect from the rest of this blog. The London Rockin' Rollers turned up ready to rumble. What was the deal with Whipit's shoes though? I think she got them from an old tramp for 10 pence, she insisted she'd made out like a bandit, but I think she was robbed! So we were all glad when it was time to get our skates on and skate around the venue. We put on an impromptu exhibition for our excited public ~ actually if the truth be known we used them as cones and decided to do a few drills around them! That was until Gez, our sponsor from Toxico, decided to take on Sandi Hell Santo (she eats raw chillies for breakfast) and lost.

Machete (yes she really does sleep with a machete under her pillow) decided to walk down the stairs on her skates, she slipped, as you do, and bummed her way down the rest of the stairs, much to the delight of the crowd. Shortly after that stunt Lily Thumpster decided to do the same to see if she could make it all the way down without falling, she did well until she hit the last step and did a very graceful self takedown on the floor, she swears the stairs were wonky ~ whatever girl!

Our DJ Chris Setzer 666 (man can he work those decks) conjured up the most in~your~face rockabilly set that we were compelled to dance on our skates ~ yes us derby girls occasionally have a sweet and cute side to us (?)

We were all then treated to a spontaneous one off song "London Rockin' Rollers Suicide Stomp" ~ by our very own Ref-Purple Veexen on lead vocals singing like Elvis himself, Pivot-Sandi Hell Santo was dry humping her double bass like it was the last man on earth and Jammer-Danger Doll hammering the guitar strings near to breaking point! The entire audience lapped it up and screamed for more.

Kiara Oke did the most amazing twist dance, I'm wondering if she can do it on skates, we'll see next practice if she can. Our league dominatrix Evil Jeanius whipped us into shape as the god-like band The Celtic Bones climbed onto the stage. Strangy worked his double bass like a bitch, Doyley played his guitar like he'd sold his soul to the devil, Gaff the drummer had obviously been taught to hit the skins by a voodoo priest. The Celtic Bones took over the entire venue with the most unbelievable kick-your-ass and slap-your-face gig ever! As soon as the Bones took to the stage everybody rushed to the front of the stage, I've never seen a bar empty so quickly (which left more alcohol for us, we drank the bar dry by the end of the night anyway so all was cool) the punters were loving every second of the Bones rock'n'roll magic. It was one hell of a show.

The raffle was a complete success with prizes including piercing vouchers donated by our own Full Metal Jackie, a £50 voucher from our sponsor Toxico-Gez, a signed CD from Madness (yes, THE Madness) thanks go to our Ref-Purple Veexen for that one! And of course no self respecting prize giving would be complete without a bottle of Jack Daniels.

After The Celtic Bones had finished their set our Ref-Purple Veexen played a killer DJ set ~ I swear there's nothing our ref cant do. Again we London Rockin' Rollers ~ Luck Wild, Bloody Valentine, Evil Jeanius, WhipIt (and her shoes), Full Metal Jackie, Machete, Sandi Hell Santo, Kiara Oke, Sneaky Ferret, Catherine Beat 'er Bones, Von Bitch, Dangerous Doll, Lily Thumpster, Sin D Doll and K-Bomb thrilled the audience with our own London Rockin' Rollers dancing style, and if you want to see what thats all about your just going to have to come to our next fundraising event! Poor Gail Storm missed all the boogie action as she's in Oz whipping up some derby demons down under!

By the end of the night we found Catherine Beat 'er Bones and Bloody Valentine slumped over the front desk by the door, don't worry we didn't leave them there, we carried them home, not sure who's home but at least they had one for the night.

It was a great event night and I would like to thank everyone who came to our fundraiser and helped to make it an unforgettable night, it was pure 100% rock'n'roll!

WE LONDON ROCKIN' ROLLERS PLAY HARD AND PARTY EVEN HARDER!

 

 

 

Blitz Dames v London Rockin Rollers with special guests, Stuttgart Valley Rollergirlz and  Bedford Bandits - 1st July

On July the 1^st, roller girls from across the UK and Germany descended upon the unsuspecting town of Milton Keynes for the first ever formally organised EU mixed scrimmage. The leagues represented were The London Rockin Rollers, The Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames, the Bedford Bandits and the Stuttgart Valley Roller Girls from Germany. The buzz of anticipation was so tangible you could grab it. Never before have so many derby girls in Europe been in the same place, that's for certain!

What started off casually with mixed teams soon got serious as we were divided into our own UK leagues – the Blitz Dames vs the Rockin Rollers. The other leagues, smaller in representation, split to help opposing teams.

From the first official whistle, passions ran high and adrenelin pumped. This was it. No bullshit. Everyone gave their all. The jamming was slick, the blocks were fierce, the take downs had the spectators gasping! The refs and assistants kept score for each individual jam, and although we weren't sure who had the upper hand, it was certainly close either way by the end.

We all left so psyched to have taken part – and to have been part of European roller derby history!

The Blitz Dames rock hard – we salute you. Special thanks to Spaghetti Machete for finding the hall, to Iva Issues for coordinating the day and to refs Omar the Mystic and Purple Veexen. Thanks to Skate Magazine UK for being there to cover the event. And a big hunka hunka love to our Stuttgart roller schwesters. Til next time!

Photos courtsey of Spida-X. See more here:   http://www.spida-x.org/BBDD/

 

 

At its core, roller derby is a speed race on quad skates. A bout is made up of three x 20-minute periods with five skaters from each team on a flat track at a time. Teams score points when their team's Jammer laps the opposing teams' skaters. Sounds easy, but here's the catch: Jammers have just one minute to make this mad dash as a pack of Blockers desperately try to stop them.

The Pivot - leads the pack and is the last line of defense. The pivot controls the speed of the pack.
The Jammer - attempts to break through pack and score points for team by passing opposing teams players.
The Blockers - prevent Jammer from passing by providing a physical barrier or knocking them out of bounds.

 

Other Rules:

+ The first time through the pack, if the jammer passes a blocker out of bounds, there is no lead jammer & the jam will continue for the full 2 minutes. This is tough on the jammers!

+ A Jammer will not be awarded points if one or both of her skates is on the ground out of bounds.

+ If the jammer drops behind the blocker she passed out of bounds, she may re-pass the blocker in-bounds and get that point!

+ If a jammer laps the opposing team's jammer, she scores an extra point.

Penalties:

Activities that result in a skater being sent to penalty box are:

+ holding

+ blocking or pushing an opponent from behind
+ blocking with feet or deliberately tripping an opponent
+ illegal use of hands
+ deliberately falling as a method to block
+ grabbing a skater from the ground
+ fouling a skater who is down
+ intentional cutting of track
+ insubordination to referee
+ fighting
+ other minor penalties are called at the discretion of officials

 

 

 

Elbows may be used in blocking, but not in the following manner:

 

+  A skater is not permitted to use an elbow block above the shoulders

+ A skater is not permitted to use an elbow with an upward or downward motion.

+ A skater may not use the elbow as a "punch" to the chest.

 

LEGAL BLOCKING ZONES:

 

 

<O:P>

If a blocker commits a foul on the jammer, the jammer will be awarded the point that she is attempting to score.

 

The jammer will be awarded an extra point for every opposing skater in the penalty box, but only after passing all opponents in the pack.

 

A jammer cannot score on a blocker upon whom she committed a penalty.