When we got to the do on Friday night it was being evacuated as someone had set off the fire alarms. Despite wanting to hang around to see some firemen, I was persuaded to decamp to the pub as Jamie and Mark were in urgent need of food. They weren’t disappointed and piled up their plates from the carvery, and Jamie’s was all gone in about 5 minutes. Then it was back up the hill to the do, which by now had reopened, where there were various grass-skirted, brightly-coloured-haired scooterists clearly up for a night of King Kurt fun.
This soon started with a drinking game which consisted of a rubber chicken with a pipe stuck up its bum, connected to a bucket through which beer was poured. A succession of boys gladly participated, most of them ending up being covered in goo, which soon got transferred to everyone in the vicinity. Clearly Smeg and Co hadn’t read the recently-published government warning on binge drinking….
And so to the main event. I Can’t Believe It’s Not King Kurt were backing Smeg again, joined by Andy Gillard (Riffs) on trumpet and Jonah on backing vocals. They’d added a couple more songs to the set and were absolutely superb. The wrecking was frenetic and it was all captured on camera by Angie, given a shoulder carry by a very helpful chap! Afterwards, the music carried on and was a fantastic mix, including some punk, baggy, mod and even a classic Pogues track which got us all in the party mood. DJ Rich even let me make a gabbled birthday dedication to Lee as it was by now past midnight!
Saturday
In the morning, ably assisted by Duaine (blowing), Jo (tying) and Stacey (sticking), I decorated the caravan with balloons and birthday banners. However, when one of the balloons burst it kind of gave the game away, but Lee was still delighted with his birthday surprises!
We then headed up to the stalls where I finally bought a t-shirt from the Velocity stall, which I’d been badgering them about for over a year. We also purchased a copy of the video of this year’s Isle Of Wight rally which Paul Mason reliably informed us we are on. Probably for a nanosecond… We caught the beginning of the custom show and then headed into Woolacombe for a birthday lunch. The weather was gorgeous and the sea was full of surfers and bodyboarders despite the lack of waves! Then it was back to the caravan to chill out and then prepare for the (surprise) party that evening….
The party was great and everyone appreciated the cheese-and-pineapple-on-a-stick that Duaine and I had prepared, along with further gourmet treats. The birthday cake featured the colours of Coventry City FC along with a Nuneaton Pacemakers patch and Lee was chuffed with it. Then he revealed that I’d texted him earlier in the week about it (I’d meant to text Lin) so it wasn’t as much of a surprise as I’d hoped! Bloody mobile phones…. I’ve had a few blonde moments recently, it must be the onset of early(ish) senile dementia….
Saturday Night
And so to the rest of the evening. We’d been expecting Neville Staples to play with his own backing band, but it turned out to be More Specials providing the sounds. Excellent! Johnny was providing backing vocals and the rest of the band were squashed onto the small stage. Jo was hoping that Solomon would strip off, but she was disappointed as he only ended up shedding his suit jacket!
It was a brilliant set, not as many songs as MS usually do, but still a fantastic, quality sound. The bouncers had a tough job keeping some of the crowd at bay, but Andy and co did a great job as usual. The music afterwards was as varied as the night before, the highlight being Dancing Queen which Emma Cox and I danced to a bit too enthusiastically – hopefully there were no video cameras around…
Gallery
Old Blue Vespa rally diaries
This is one of the rally diaries that appeared on my old website, BlueVespa.com, back in the 2000s.
I'm starting to put these on Diary Of A Detour so that everyone can take a wander down memory lane and relive the revival of my scooter club, the Midhurst Detours, and the fun we got up to back then.
Here's a handy link to them all, by year, for ease of reference!
(More years will be added soon!)
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