The Thousands

Graphic design luminaries from either side of the pond Luke Wood (NZ) and Stuart Geddes (AUS) are both aces at making shit look good with the computer. It makes sense that these guys (and many more like them) have become obsessed “reconnecting their heads with their hands” by building and riding vintage motorbikes. They’re all about hunting down parts, talking to old men in sheds, piecing it together, making it work.

Head Full of Snakes is like the bridge between their two worlds. It’s a carefully crafted deluxe fanzine of sorts, printed using the riso on pulpy, rough paper. It looks lovely. Within its 108 pages, HFoS delves into all kinds of interesting cul-de-sacs of motorcycle culture – like a sweet photo essay of salt flat racers by Tobias Titz, an interview with John Taylor-Leigh (secretary of New Zealand’s Norton Owners Club), Jason Crombie’s story about his Dad’s long lost petrol head brothers, and a comic strip called ‘Biker Wolves’ that is as awesome as it sounds. There’s even a flexidisc insert, with a four-and-a-half-minute cover of Richard Thompson’s ’1952 Vincent Black Lightning’, which is actually a recording of Paul Elliman riding a 1952 Vincent Black Lightning for four and a half minutes.

As awesome as it looks, it’s all about the stoke that these pages amplify. HFoS makes me excited, even if I still have no intention of ever riding a motorcycle. It is a vessel of enthusiasm, it makes me want to do something and that’s one of the best things that a thing can be.