You may have seen it on Instagram. Or, maybe you’ve seen a select few Novocastrians roaming the streets, proudly displaying it on their chests. If not, you’re about to get schooled in taking hometown pride to the next level…
FKN NEWY just might be the next big thing in streetwear (perhaps even bigger than Hot Tuna and Bad Boy combined), and we got the chance to sit down and shoot the breeze with creators, Rick and Rusty.
So guys, what on earth is FKN NEWY?
FKN NEWY is a lifestyle. It’s a celebration of all things STEEL city. How many other towns can you rock up to a Henny Penny and have Paul ‘The Chief’ Harragon step out from behind the deep fryer, and serve (slop) you up some dirty bird and a tub of gravy? …Not bloody many.
We make shirts, and put on mad dog parties, and wear Lynx ‘Africa’. But, we’re so much more than that. We are a place, a hub, a community for past, current and future Novocastrians to rep and appreciate how sick Newy is!
Note: Our humour is very eye brow and may be a little dessus de votre tête for the younger folk.
I imagine there’s a pretty interesting story behind how the brand came to be… Where, how and when was FKN NEWY born?
Rick: You imagine… correctly. Now, this might be tugging our own schlongs a little bit but whatever. Basically, whenever you leave Newcastle and find another Novocastrian, they’re always up for a good time and are the life of the party. But, you don’t go up and ask them, “Are you from the city of Newcastle?” like some Steven Glansberg. There’s a special unspoken bond, kinda like Gidley and Tahu, where you can just nod and say, “Fuckin’ Newy?” and 99% of the time (because Novocastrians are smart as) they respond with “Fuckin’ Newy!”
Rusty: Just like that, you hit it off and it becomes this club for people who have left quake city, but still call it home. In saying that, there’s also people that aren’t from Newy and want to get in on it, because they’ve seen that giant prawn out past Swansea and think it’s mad as. But yeah, I think what we’re trying to say is that a lot of people use the phrase ‘FUCKING NEWY’ so I put ‘FUCKING NEWY’ on a shirt, and Rick, god bless him, was like “Let’s make a brand out of it”. So, we cut it down to FKN NEWY to make it a little more PC. You can even chuck one on Granny and she can rep it at a Knights game. But be careful, because when Granny slips that shirt on, MUY BUENOS, you’ll probably want to pash her… right on the mouth.
Tell us a little bit about the creative brains behind FKN NEWY?
Well there are 2 of us. Both born and bred Novocastrians, but sadly had to move away from the golden land to find work.
Rusty: I’m Rusty, last name Wallace. I suppose you could say I am like Australia’s answer to Steve Jobs. In that, I like to wear joggers and jeans and own a computer of sorts.
Rick: And I’m Rick O’Shea. We are a dream team, but to be honest, we both put our pants on just like everybody else… reluctantly.
You seem to have unshakable ‘Newy pride’ and an undying love for its day’s past… If you had to pick your favourite Newcastle moment in history, what would it be?
Rick: I really can’t go past the iconic photo of Joey skating down the street after defending the kingdom in the ’97 win, topless with a beer in hand.
Rusty: But also, attending Newcastle Falcons games watching Butch Hayes take ‘em to school, while we heckled Fat Elvis and stomped out ‘We Will Rock You’, flailing giant novelty hands. This was pretty all time as a wee kid.
Rick: What about when Joey crashed the Pasha Bulker?
Rusty: Pfft, that was Tony Butterfield, ya dingus.
Where can we get our hands on some FKN NEWY merch?
Rusty: Type in FKN NEWY into ‘Ask Jeeves’ or ‘Bing’ and the first thing that comes up is our Big Cartel. Pretty nifty, hey?
Any last words?
We’re having a launch party in November. One in Newy (yewww!) and one in Sydney (yeah what idiots) for the EXPATS! There’s a lot of whispers in my house (read: sick one bedroom apartment with 2 x TV) at the moment about what’s going to be involved. Well, you’re hearing it here first. We’ll be screening vintage NEWY videos all night. There’s going to be some guest DJ’s (COUGH Joey Johns / Daniel Johns / Yahoo Serious … IF THEY WB TO MY FKN TXTS), some awesome local Newy bands, and we’ll chug cheap beer and drink the night away. And if any angry knobs think of coming, you can piss right off because we don’t want Tony Brown(eye) killing our buzz!
Plus a few more words: Follow us on Instagram, you flirts!
And here is Part 1 of our promo video series (it’s pretty abstract, but will start to make more sense as the series evolves… I swear):
Rusty: PS, if Yahoo Serious, Ray Dineen, Our Joey, Super Hubert, Paul Lobb, Fat Elvis or The Wounded Seagull reads this, I’M NOT WORTHY!
Thanks to Rick & Rusty being all-round sick dudes, they’re offering Newcastle Live one of their shirts to giveaway! Check out our Facebook page for details on how to enter…
