Back in the 70's, Brighton’s scene was skating hard round Churchill Square, the streets and the piers with skaters always getting harassed by the police hence the name 'Pig City' was banded about. There was also ‘The Barn’ in Southwick with a gnarly marbalite blue tiled pool and a mini bowl, skated by Brighton skaters including Mad Mark Baker, Jock Patterson the Kellner brothers and too many more
to mention! There was also a rickety old mini in Woodingdean and a halfpipe in Saltdean. Of course there was The Level - a concrete jungle, halfpipe, mull bowl etc. In 1986, Pat Newnham open Pig City Hot Shop right opposite The Level Skate Park. The shop sold all major brands and manufactured their own clothes range under 'Mad P*P' (makers and designers of Pig City products). A year later Andy Binns and Justin Ashby bought in to the shop and became partners. They sponsored the best local skaters; Andy Binns, Justin Ashby, Mark Collins, Jon Mitchell, Steve (Gandi), Luke Mckirdy, Merlin, Si Levine. The team were notorious hard core skaters with a reputation that is still remembered today - their motto:
'destructive and loud, hated but proud'! The Pig City Team were approached by Etnies when they first started their company. Etnies asked if Pig City would be the English Skate team. Obviously they said YES! The first comp/demo for Etnies was at Cholet in France where all were hugely impressed. Level Vert Ramp
Andy Binns got the Council and various shops/organisations to finance the vert ramp at the Level which went through various changes, more vert was added, a channel was put in and a small tombstone over the years. Int he storms of 1987, a tree landed on the ramp and crushed one side so it was rebuilt. Much respect to Andy Binns for all his work with the Council and the building and maintenance of the ramp. Pig City team skaters and sponsors were:
Luke Mckirdy - Pig City & Etnies
Jon Mitchell - Pig City, Etnies and Skull Skates
Andy Binns - Pig City, Etnies and Foundation
Gandi - Pig City & Etnies
Justin Ashby - Pig City, Etnies and Eppic
Si Levine - Pig City, Converse, Santa Cruz, Smith and Etnies
Mark Collins - Pig City & Etnies
Merlin Nation - Pig City & Etnies
Don Martin - Pig City & Etnies
The team attended many a competition in England and Europe, smashing it wherever they could. Later Justin ran the company for a while and tied in with Deacon from Flip to produce some boards and goodies. He also had some rad skaters on his crew.
