I spoke to Graham Horne, vocals and guitar for The Barlights last week about the band, their influences, recording their first album and this year’s Hot City Sounds. You can catch them at Chapelfield Gardens and The Brickmakers on 11th July. Also download their first album If It Wasn’t For The Light, The Dark Would Have Killed Us on iTunes.

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This week’s Monday Morning Distractions is a Great Yarmouth heavy one to remind you that the latest in a long line of skate videos from the seaside town is coming very soon. With the premiere at Hopton fast approaching, Chris is putting a series of out-takes to wet your appetite onto YouTube.

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Last night was the opening night of this year’s degree shows at NUCA (What used to be called Norwich School of Art and Design) they are open for the next fortnight, to showcase students’ work from Graphic Design, Photography, Fine Art and more. There’s some really impressive work on display by some talented people, so go have a look over the next fortnight.

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Stop go animation might be synonymous with such wonderful childhood plasticine creations such as Trap Door and Wallace and Gromit or recently the numerous lego based comedy videos on youtube. Some recent favourites have been Deadline (pictured above) and TXT Island.

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Tom Harrison - Backside 5-0 - The Works, Leeds

Here’s another selection of online skate videos that should serve as a good distraction this Monday Morning. Starting with Tom Harrison’s (Pictured at The Works a couple of years ago above) introductory video now he’s joined the Blueprint team. Next is the rather bangin’ Battle Commander with Brandon Biebel over at The Berrics. Finally here’s a little treat Glen sent me in the week, Nick Jensen’s section from The Scrum Tilly Lush.

Beccles skateshop Smash Skates have moved from 42b Blyburgate into a larger shop just up the road at number 36. They had a little premiere of the Hi Fi Wheels video on Friday night at the new shop, which I’m sure a few photos should pop up on the Smash blog soon. In the mean time pop down to the new shop and have a look at the more spacious premises.

Liverpool’s disco art-rockers the Wave Machines are playing the Norwich Arts Centre on the 30th June, to promote their debut album Wave If You’re Really There which came out on Monday. Tracks like I Go I Go I Go, The Line and Punk Spirit bounce around brilliantly and promise to be great tracks to hear live. Support for the night comes from Pepe, Alex Hill and Hi My Name is Rory, Hi My Name is Fliss (An interesting collaboration between members of The Kabeedies and Violet Violet)

Tommy May - 5-0 Shove Out (Click for Larger)

Well the latest local scene video has been brewing away over in Great Yarmouth and it’s now in the final distilling process with skaters involved putting the hours in to get enders and I’m sure Chris has been feverishly editing. So the premiere is on the 24th July at The Turnstone Pub in Hopton. check out the facebook event page for more info.

Paul Rand was one of the 20th Century’s great graphic designers, having produced some of the most iconic logos of the last century including IBM, UPS, ABC and Enron.  Now he has an entire website dedicated to him and his work including posters, advertising, packaging and more, put together by Daniel Lewandowski. Head on over to the website and have a look through some wonderful galleries of his work.

Craig Smedley - 360 Flip - Derby (Click for larger)

Here’s a few links to some pretty cool skate videos online, for those or you who are looking at this from your work computer trying to dodge that project that should be finished.

First up is the footage from the Wakefield Skatepark opening day which has some tricks from Craig Smedley (hence the photo above). Also worth a look is a full street section of the underrated Lewis Threadgold. Then a couple from across the pond that you should check out include the latest Berrics’ Thrashin Thursday and Hi Fi Wheels promo, Smash Skates will be putting their new video on for the opening of their new shop soon. Keep an eye on the Smash Skates website for more on that.

Latitude Update: Some more artists have been confirmed for Latitude 2009 including Rumble Strips and Mika.