hhhhmmmmm Frank and Cliche is a touchy one !
I was in Lyon pretty much the whole time he was "getting on", basically they weren't really that interested, well that's not true, Unabomber went down the tubes, Frank was looking, he set out some tapes, got some boards, Cliche said "let see how is goes", after a breif courtship period, he luld them into getting on the team and a board.
Once on however, he bitched and moan about his shape, constantly, now this may sound pretty petty, but from what i understand, he took this to new levels, also Frank doesn't have a phone, a mobile an email address, moved flat twice and was generally calling Cliche demanding cheques, then complaining they were doing nothing for him, believe me i was staying with one of the Cliche guy's and they were trying to find him everyday, the only way possible was calling his local skate shop and getting them to "pass on messages" as Frank "has no phone/email/address".
SOOOooooo, they shape gets sorted, and they're ready to get the boards printed with whatever the series at the time was, BUT, suddenly Frank reappears on the scene with an address, email, and home phone - YAY they can contact him, so they show him his new graphic, however this graphic is not what he wants for his "debut" board, this follows another couple months of him goign in and out of limbo, while sending them graphics from one of his friends, the Cliche guy's are telling him no one on the team has ever had "graphics that aren't in a series" this is including Jeremy the owner of Cliche, having no had a "singluar debut board" or JB, both i think everyone will argree a little more in the lime light that Frank.
So more bitching and moaning proceeds, his new board graphic arrives at Cliche, i was there the day it arrived, it was actually a pretty nice graphic, there was a couple they "kept for keep sakes at Cliche" but the same day they arrived, they got sent off to get reprinted over - which made me fucking laugh, that same day, they sent Frank i think 10 of his boards, his last package, and an airline ticket to the tour he'd missed which was supposed to be his welcome to the team, the docked the price of the ticket, the price to reprint the boards, from his wages and sent him the bill.
Basically after 6 months in Lyon i got to see what one of the UK's legends is like and how much of dick he was to some of the mellowest company owners and people i've ever meet, the funny thing is, Unabomber reappeard back on the scene that same month - funny Frank had been denying that he'd go back to the Unibomber team if they ever started up again, what's really funny is his Cliche cheques seemed to help while they were getting back in there feet.
Oh sorry i forgot to mention the real reason he quit Cliche was due to not liking the way his part came out - funny how if you don't film anything and just send a company shit they have to make do, and you come out looking like an arse.
On a side note, the current Sidewalk has a Vans ad saying "Frankie get in touch we miss you".
I find it really funny how someone can go missing for 28 days at a time then suddenly appear around pay day, while bitching and moaning about money being late, while never telling anyone what your address is, so they can't even sent money or a package, also when your package arrive just complain about that as well, even if you made the guy packign the box stay on the phone the whole time he packed it and sent it.
Bit of a rant, but yeah, i've met Frank a few years ago and he was a mellow guy, but watching my mates deal with him as a rider and i've never met someone so ungrateful and such a nightmare to try and help, the words complete dick spring to mind.
Anyway he's back on Unibomber, where he always wanted to be so whatever