Product Description

Jeff Scott's candid digital photographs offer us an intriguing
glimpse of Speedway in the early 21st Century. Scott has travelled to
tracks around the country, standing on terraces with the fans and in the
pits with the riders and mechanics, as he pursues an interest that borders
on the obsessive. The 245 photographs here reveal but a small sample of the
collection that chokes his computer.

Scott's pictures bear little relation to the images of sport photographers.
He doesn't stalk his subjects with a telephoto lens, and the rather matter
of fact archival quality of his images lend his photographs an authentic
appeal - more of the family photo album than the sports media's managed
icons.

Through Scott's work, which inhabits the area of documentary, we can start
to examine the working-class culture of this local community sport. From
riders and start-line girls to mechanics and fans, he captures the
personality and character of the tracks, as well as portraying the fans'
relationships with their teams, in the context of the relentless decline of
British regional identity. Speedway tracks and their surrounds may lack the
sort of crowds that the corporate media values, but they are nonetheless
densely peopled with the ghosts of a proud history. With these images,
Scott reveals with tender melancholy a community as it struggles to
recapture the glories of its past.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #528101 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
"Marvelously evocative" --John Inverdale, Daily Telegraph

"A brilliantly quirky book that only a fan could convincingly complete - or get away with" --Big Issue

"It s both a hymn to the (largely) blue collar speedway community and a lament that its stolid, unfashionable virtues of loyalty, dedication and dry humor so often fail to touch a chord in Britain 2007" --Tim Hamblin, Express & Star

Peter Oakes, Speedway Star, June 14 2007
Something totally different - a fascinating snapshot of speedway
in the 21st century. Superbly produced. I found it absolutely fascinating.

Brian Owen, Argus, 14th June 2007
Captures the ambiance, from the humorous to the humdrum, of the
nation's speedway tracks....outstanding shots

Customer Reviews

A real gem
Speedway is a funny sort of sport: staged in some rather downmarket stadia; unloved by the mainstream press; looked down upon by terrestrial TV; under financed - the list goes on.
Yet it attracts the most wonderful people. Riders, management and fans form a community quite unlike any other sport in our country. This book, Jeff's third on speedway, captures the essence of this sport as it catalogues, through hundredes of colour photographs, a speedway meeting developing from an empty stadium through to the climax of the action. It is a joy for speedway buffs to see how many tracks they can identify; it is also a pleasure for someone new to the sport, capturing, as it does, so much of that unique atmosphere and friendliness that speedway embodies.

A great present for speedway and non speedway fans.

Great Scott - he's done it again!
When the nights draw in and the tracks go silent around the country, speedway fans look to the coming spring and the start of a new season. Those months of deprivation can be painful but the pain can be lessened with a copy of Jeff Scott's terrific book, "Shifting Shale". In his inimitable style (no holds barred here) he takes the reader through the 2006 season in prose and photographs. It's a wonderful journey, full of the characters that he meets and the stories that he hears.
This isn't necessarily a book for the speedway fan - it's a fascinating cultural history chronicling life in Britain in 2006. It's just a great read and deserves its place on anyone's bookshelf.