We’ve been wanting to do something with the music world for quite some time now and if you’ve been keeping an eye on our Twitter account, you’ll of noticed we talked about music on there quite a bit.
The simple fact is, all of us at Hollow love music (who doesn’t!?) and we want to incorporate that love into our Hollow ‘brand’. We’ve started working with Kid Rolls Royce, he’s the first artist to work alongside. He provided ‘Fellin It’ by Kaylim Allah featuring himself on our front page.
So you ask, what’s the criteria? You have to not affiliated with any other clothing brand and have the two main social media’s (Facebook & Twitter) where you promote your band. ANY type of music and from anywhere in the world – please e-mail us at info@hollowclothing.co.uk and label the subject line ‘MUSIC SUBMISSION’.
What will you get, is what you’re thinking now? We’ll sponsor your band, with sending t-shirts and plugging you on our site, social media hook-ups and featuring your music on our site.
So e-mail us with the following;
- Your name
- Link to your music or attach MP3′s
- Band photo
- Social Media links
- Website link (if you have one)
Well, I know its been a while since we put the last blog up so here a little catch up on what the Hollow cronies have been upto lately..
Our last photoshoot (for the winter range)
This photoshoot was for the new winter range. It took place in Birmingham City Centre with the back drop of the German Market- a market set-up every year around Christmas, half of which arent even German, but that’s another story. The photos included George, co Hollow founder and Dani Burrows, our more recent female model aswel as a random American sounding guy who had been drinking too much German beer and decided to pose for us in the splits, which he pulled off like a pro I must say! Really cool guy and nice to have people like this bothering you rather than some chavs with staffies barking in your face asking why your taking photos, which we also encountered inevitably.
One of the photos from this shoot also made it into our local newspaper ‘Stourbridge News’
Surf trip to Newquay (Christmas Bank Holiday)
Finally some half decent surf here in the UK that coincided with the bank holiday weekend (not very often!) we set off boxing day morning after a turkey filled Christmas day and arrived in Newquay around 2pm, just enough time before it got dark to surf. So we wasted no time and got in at the town beeches for some half decent surf which I managed to break my fin again in some how. After a month of not surfing it felt even colder now and it was full suit, gloves, boots and hood job and took a bit of getting used to wiping out in the icy washing machine, but we soon got over it.
The next morning, after spending a small fortune on some decent fins we got back in the same spot, the wind was blowing offshore today and it was a lot cleaner and more far heavier, as we paddled out we could see right down the barrels of the dumping waves across from us and tried our best to stay out of the sand-dredged kill zone where the waves were crashing down. After watching Lloyd eat mullusks from the ocean floor after attempting to drop in on a wave that was practically vertical before he had even started paddling I made a move and paddled for some too before long though I was also sampling the delights of the ocean floor too.
A few hours later we got in to some large waves at Fistral by walking straight out back from the rocks, then after an hour got caught out by some big waves and couldn’t paddle back out again.
We were going to get up early the next day for the surf, but instead we went on an 8hr long eating and drinking binge which we must of spent a fortune on thinking back to it.. Needless to say we did not get up early the next morning!
All in all though a really good Christmas holiday surf!
And that’s it pretty much for Hollow up to now; check back here for more updates and news.
An avid supporter of Hollow Clothing, David Hadley is touring Europe just hanging out for 3 and a half months. He e-mailed us saying he was doing this and thought taking photos randomly across Europe would be cool on the website, we concurred.
This is something we’ve been wanting to try for a while now at Hollow using our photographer Ben Turner.
Stop motion video is basically a rook-load of pictures of an object or person in our case, taken in a sequence and then put together using software on a computer to create a video. It is mainly used to make inanimate objects or characters appear to move by themselves. This is done by manipulating the object in tiny movements for each photo, so when the series of photos are put together and played fast it appears to be moving.
Stop motion was first used in the early 1900′s so it has been around for a good while now!
Notable stop motion productions you might remember include:
‘The Clangers’ – those weird little things that lived on the moon and only used a dialect of whooping sounds, freaked the hell out of me, that’s for sure!
A lot of the scenes in the first 2 Robocop films with the robots were shot using stop motion.
‘Wallace and grommet’ – one of my child-hood favourites!
‘Robot Chicken’ – one of my adulthood favourites!
Although CGI and many other forms of animation have mainly taken over stop motion now, its still used today for its more ‘real’ feel.
Our Hollow Tee Stop motion video is a bit different to traditional stop motion as we used people instead of inanimate objects. This is so we could do things with the t-shirts that wouldn’t be physically possible in real life. for example when the t-shirts put themselves on George or when then spin round etc. Not only this but it gives the whole video a different feel. To start with we found a good location to shoot, with a good backdrop, George as the subject, Joel the Director and Ben, photographer. We basically ran a load of poses with different shirts and positions, painstakingly taking a picture of each tiny movement. Joel then took the pictures home and put them all into one to make a video with the background track as the remix of the bad rabbits and hey presto!
For our next stop motion video we want to include lots more gravity defying tricks, such as flying t-shirts and what not. Comment on this blog, send us a message on twitter, facebook or to our email with your ideas for our next stop motion shoot to see your idea come to life!
I’m currently doing several different things in the might USA, one of them was visiting the highest peak in the US – Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs, CO.
When you get into Colorado Springs, you’re already at around 6,000 ft (the cities level), then to drive up these steep,tights, winding roads up another 8,000 ft was crazy and un-seemingly NOT safe. At around around 12,000 ft I saw a sign that said ‘Treeline’ and I thought to myself, “what the hell does that mean!?” – I found out later on that tree’s can’t grow any higher than that.
We got to the top and the oxygen was so thin my head went ‘tripping’, I felt so unwell, urgggh.
Unless you have been living on a desert island with the only company being a football named ‘Wilson’, you will have seen and heard The Royal Wedding just about anywhere you go – especially in England where we’re from! I don’t resent it in anyway shape or form, nor am I bothered like a lot of people that so much money from tax payers is being spent on it. at the end of the day its giving, most of us, a day off and creating a lot of media and tourist attention.
Anyway this is what we got up to over the royal holiday.
Friday:
There was 4 of us in one car and we decided to camp down there with the biggest tent possible + 2 surfboards, wetsuits, blow up beds, stove etc.. In order to get all of the stuff in we had to win one of the hardest games of car tetrus ever played, after many variations, we finally got all the luggage in and set off on our journey. In the car was me (George) Jenna, Sammy and Lucas. The trip took around 4 1/2 hours and we arrived around half 10 in the morning, at a really neat campsite that only let on families and couples, it had shower blocks with heated flooring, bar, restaurant, shop and even a swimming pool!
Finally the tent was up and we decided to get a look at the town and sea of St Ives. The town is picturesque, nearly all of the shops and restaurants there are independently owned, the sea is crystal clear and the harbour is full of fisherman that I could not understand a word of when I was trying to book a fishing trip! You’ve gotta love Cornwall!
We had a meal at a grill house and watched a bit of the royal wedding, which consisted of William and Kate standing on a balcony waving – dayum she is FINE though, I must say!
After few hours in town we went off to Sennen beech to check out the surf, there was some breaking waves towards the right hand side, but not quite worth getting in on considering how many people were on it!
Later that evening we went back to the tent and had a little fire on a bbq tray like hobo’s.
Saturday
Saturday and we were all awoken by the sound of a loud horn echoing around the campsite, luckily it was just one of the few hundred children staying next to us with a plastic thing. The weather was fair so I gave Cirel a call (the old Cornish fisherman we spoke to yesterday), I think he said that the sea was too choppy to go fishing so we went to check the surf instead down Sennen again. The surf was a lot better today so we suited up and made the huge mistake of leaving the car keys with the girls instead of locking them in the keypod like normal. We got in and surfed for a while until the tide came in too far, so we did a bit of body surfing for a while.
After 3 hours or so we got out as it was getting a bit crappy, I made the second huge mistake and took my wetsuit off and had a cold shower outside to get the sand and salt off my, leaving me in just Speedos and consequently freezing my balls off. We got back to the car and the girls were nowhere to be seen. Lucas went off on the search for them and I was left for at least 45 minutes hugging the car for warmth and asking strangers for their mobile phones in nothing but my panties! Finally they came back, after hiding in some secluded spot on the beech and I just about saved my testis from ever returning!
Sunday
Sunday and the weather had took a turn for the worst, the wind had picked up tenfold and it was pissing down for most of the day. Me and Lucas left the girls in the nice warm tent and headed back to Sennen, the surf was producing a good 3ft steep wave and breaking beautifully over the low tide banks over at Gwenver beech. There was hardly anyone in and there was lots of wildlife including cormorants and a cheeky seal that kept on popping his head up at me.
Later on the night the weather turned from bad to worse, and we right underneath a huge thunder storm in a tent/ lighting conductor! We didn’t get struck though and it was nice to be out in the elements.
Monday
Monday had arrived and I’m amazed the tent was still standing considering it was pegged down with mostly bits of twig and knifes and spoons! We packed it up and went for one last stroll on a nearby beech called Gwithian. The wind was blowing a gale offshore and the Frisbee went so far that a body boarder had to fetch it out of the sea for us. Around 1pm we sadly began our journey home, apart from the girls who couldn’t wait to get back home for some reason. Got to go back to this place soon, probably nicest place in England I’ve been to.
After the recent grand opening of our clothing brand mentors; Johnny Cupcakes. Me and Joel thought we’d pay a visit to the new shop to have a look round and maybe get some inspiration. We decided to go on the National express coaches as every time I’ve driven anywhere near the vicinity of London I’ve always got horrifically lost there. The coach trip to London was a good 2 1/2 hours, I didn’t get a window seat and there was a baby crying about half the way but still preferable to driving myself! We arrived at Victoria station around 11am and walked from here through the parks surrounding Buckingham Palace to get to the Tube station the other side. On the way we fed some of the native cockney squirrels here who were more than happy to bite my nuts, unlike the squirrels from round Stourbridge which tend to shy away..
We also passed Buckingham Palace where the guards were in the process of changing, there seemed to be more foreign people than English people watching this as I think English people are aware of how boring it is! The surrounding pavements were chocked full of people and you had to be led across the road in groups when you wanted to cross over by police on horseback.
We got to the tube station shortly after our splendid walk amongst the royal parks and headed off for Carnaby Street, the square where Johnny has he’s new shop setup.
On the walk there from the tube station I had to make a pit-stop at a toilet to wipe my arse as I hadnt wiped it properly previously that morning due to the harsh sandpaper like toilet paper the coach company had provided in their toilets and after some good walking it was sweaty and rather itchy.
When we noticed the shop straight away as it had a bakery style menu board outside. The shop inside was setup like a bakery with t-shirts in glass display shelves with sneeze guards over them like you’d find in any bakery. There were lots of interesting things going on inside the shop to keep peoples interest, see my video tour and pictures:
and that it did as it was rammed when we went there first, although I think a lot of people were confused to find t-shirts and not cakes when they got in there!
We decided to come back a bit later when it was less busy and had a browse around some of the other independent clothing companies around the square. Some of them were really impressive and I would of brought more tee’s if I hadnt just got back off a surfing holiday. I only brought one t-shirt which had a tattoo style like sketch of Mickey Mouse on it which I found really nice. One thing I noticed there is that the staff in the independent clothing shops took a lot more interest in the customer and were generally a lot more helpful than anyone in the bigger brand stores.
We later went back to the Johnny Cupcakes store where we had a conversation with the staff there who asked about our Hollow t-shirts that we were wearing at the time, we told them a bit about who we are and what we’re doing and they seemed really impressed. Joel brought a t-shirt from there and I think we headed on back on the coach after that around 6pm which I slept practically all the way back on as we had 2 seats each.
It was Wednesday night and I was packing all my stuff for my morning flight to Portugal, Faro. This trip was all about surfing, Bill had already been out there for nearly a month and I was going over to join him for as much time as I could possibly get off work -10 days. I remember being more anxious than excited about the whole thing after him telling me that they’d been getting disgustingly huge waves the last couple of weeks. I set off around 4am to catch my flight for 7am, it felt a bit weird being by myself at the airport and everything but everything went smooth a babies butt and before I knew it I was shaking hands with sugar (the hairy German rocker who does all the transfers there) down at Faro airport. Soon after, I met Henry and Lisa (an American couple who were sharing the ride with me to The Surf Experience). I loved their deep American accents, the only place you do hear it is on the TV.
After around an hour of driving we arrived at the surf house in Lagos where I met one of the new surf instructors; Bra – yes that was he’s real name. We dropped off the entire luggage then headed off to a sheltered cove where the others were all surfing. There I met up with Bill and met Cloudagh along with her newly acquainted lesbian Dutch surfers. After spending the whole trip bricking it about how large the waves were going to be I got there to find it was practically flat with the occasional 2-3ft set coming in.
The water was about the same temperature as the UK’s water over late spring/summer and after being in 5mm straight jacket (wetsuit) complete with hood, boots and gloves over the past 5 months surfing in a 3mm wetsuit here felt like I was doing it naked. After waiting around half an hour for a set I cold however and got out. Soon after we had a mini fire with some twigs and all huddled round it for warmth. On the evening I stayed in because I was really tired from the lack of sleep the previous night.
Friday and we were up by 9:45am and ready to go, I cant remember what the name of the beech we surfed at but this is a picture of it anyway:
I think this beech was a lot more exposed than the beech we went to yesterday and although the waves didn’t look that big from up above where we were standing when you got in there they really were! Bill got in first as he couldn’t wait for me to put my wetsuit on and soon after got out because he got mauled by a huge set. I got in the same time as he was getting out and managed to get outback to the unbroken waves, I caught two medium sized ones then spotted everyone on the beech so got back in to see what was going on. We walked over to the side for a bit then got back in with the main instructor Jez further along the beech. We had a good little session from here on getting some steep waves.
Friday night and the town was pretty busy unlike the night before so we headed out with the intention of seeing TobyOne playing at the Stevie Ray’s bar. We went to the Shakers bar first to get some pre drinks and came across a dude who looked like a chick, after him speaking to us in a ridiculously deep voice we soon realised it was a dude. After which he started coming onto me by giving me deep stares, asking why I had a girlfriend etc. so I diverted he’s attention to Bill who at the time was laughing he’s ass off, when the boy/girl went to lean in to talk to Bill he bit bill’s ear – just a cheeky nibble! Needless to say we hot-tailed it out of there soon after. Later on that night we bumped into Cloudagh’s Dutch lesbian friends who she instead weren’t lesbians. After spending a lot of time laughing at me and Bill for getting hitting on by a boy we were now the ones laughing! Oh yeah and Cloudagh rode a horse round town as well! (VIDEO TO FOLLOW)
When we returned from the club we looked through the main PC folder pictures and did some artistic editing on a random picture we thought rather deserved and left this as the desktop background for everyone to find in the morning.
- Best Friday night in a long time!
That’s all I can remember, the rest is kind of a blur – so I presume a good time was had. Co-owner of Hollow is coming back this weekend after a seven week stint over in Lagos
Another early Sunday morning, this time though not for early morning surf but for the sunrise.
We wanted to use the sunset over the sea for the theme of the Anchor T-shirt shots, but the weather just wouldn’t allow it – no surprises here! So we decided to use the lake at Netherton instead, where me and Bill used to wakeboard with the low sun reflecting off the water. Lots of good memories at this place like when we used to leg and a wing each other in off the jetty, spitting on each other when we were strapped in to the wakeboard and couldn’t move, running into the hot showers after a run in the winters and the time we dropped the boat off ramp onto the concrete. We arrived at the lake at about 8am, took some pictures from one side of the lake into the sun, then some of the diver club members came so we asked them if we could take the pictures off their jetty. I’m not sure why they were diving that day as the water looked almost black! They were quite excited at first because they thought we had some models -as in hot girls, however this soon died when they realised I was going to be the model! Ben got some good shots here then we left as the clouds came over and it started to rain, sausage sandwiches were consumed by all shortly after.
