The National pub Ralliesfests | OPINION
This time last year I wrote an ‘opinion’ piece about the National Rallies I got quite a bit of hassle for writing it at the time but it was heartfelt, true and I still stand by it today. One year later and we’re heading up to Bridlington for what could possibly be the very last time. The pubs know it, the town knows it and the publicans are very worried. And they’re obviously worried that their annual late autumn bumper weekend is to be no more and are probably wondering why. Sadly it’s them that have killed it, rather than us and the local economy will suffer…
If you’re an outsider looking in you’ll view our weekends with pound signs in your eyes, we book every bed up a year in advance, turn up, spend a few hundred quid each, cause very little hassle and go home again. If you’re a publican, sticking a tribute band on, or wheeling the local DJ out (who once wore a boating blazer in 1985) to play some cheesy ska and soul is an instant winner. Every shop in town will have windows full of comedy mod starter kits, you too can become ‘one of them’ just by buying a pork pie hat, shades and a parka with an odd selection of patches sewn on to it. Surely that’s what we all want isn’t it? Well no, actually not everybody does. We’re not a Butlins style themed weekend where middle-aged people do a Superman-style change at the weekend and become a mod/skinhead/soulie or just plain old scooterist for two days before going back to ‘normal’ and telling our mates what a great weekend we had at the latest ‘Scooterfest’.
Through the thick and thin
This is our life, many of us live and breathe scooters, we’ve grown up with the scene and with our friends from within it. We’ve been there through the troubled times when towns hated us, stuck at it in the mid-1990s when the rallies were dying a death. We were at Bridlington for the very first and very last NSRA rally, along with around 600 other people. We didn’t have or need comedy themed pub nights then, we had our own venue and entertainment just as we do now. We also used the pubs around town, we could socialise with friends without being part of Tracey from Hull’s factory outing, all dressed in a pastiche of what they imagine will allow them to be immersed into the ‘Scooterfest’. No, Tracey, it won’t. Take your ‘kiss me quick’ factory lasses back on the train, go to Butlins instead.
Hangers on
Back in the 1980s scooter rallies had problems, often but not always attributed to ‘hangers on’, people with little or no interest in the actual mode of transport that is at the heart and soul of what we do. We still have hangers on but they bring different problems, they have no intention of ever owning or riding a scooter. Many will never have even sat on one and won’t know an AJS Modena from a Vespa GS. Neither will they care. These weekend scooterfesters are turning us into a sideshow, a circus, we’ve become the modern-day equivalent to a 60-year-old Teddy Boy in the 1980s. Stick as many patches as you can on your parka, wear some fancy dress mod/ska items and you’re suddenly the Ace Face. Brian from Tamworth, no you’re not. You’re the same dull Brian as you are in the week, you just look stupid. At least the so-called comedy mods who cover their modern scooters in all manner of chrome tat actually own a scooter and ride it (even if it is just from the back of the motorhome to the town centre).
Scooterfest
Getting back to the crux of all this. As we head to Bridlington this weekend for the last National Scooter (see that word in the title) Rally of 2018 the pubs have started advertising the ‘event’ for next year. They’ve started social media campaigns, had posters printed, told us to remember to book our digs and promised entertainment throughout the town during the weekend.
Killed the golden goose
That’s all well and good but our fate for 2019 will be decided around a table in the Spa on Saturday. Our BSRA National Scooter Rallies are organised by genuine road-going scooterists (the kind you wave at as you pass in your Ford Fiesta with the northern soul stickers Sheila). The true scooterists will go to wherever the official rally is, just as we have done for well over 30 years. You’re welcome to keep Tracey, Brian and Sheila. Keep selling your themed weekends, the novelty will soon wear off when there are fewer and fewer scooters to look at. The greed that follows us around is the thing that’s essentially slitting the throat of your golden goose.
Towns and landlords listen up. We don’t need to be bribed to stay in a pub (or town), if it’s a good place with a decent atmosphere and our friends are in there then we’ll stay. We’re not particularly bothered about your tribute band and will most likely go to the next pub whilst they’re murdering the classics we grew up with. We’ll head off to support the official do at night, with an advance ticket you can watch Bad Manners (yes the real ones not Fuster Clubvessel) for just six pounds, yes £6 (or pay on the door for just £8).
You see dear publican, if you’d have just left us to organise a weekend in your towns, drink in your pubs (if it was a good place to be) and leave if we wanted to go to our own venue then we’d have been there next year. Instead, you all let greed and the false perception of what you thought we wanted cloud your judgement. What we actually want is to ride to scooter rallies, party with our friends and not conform to what the grown-ups think we should be doing.
I’ll be attending the BSRA National Scooter Rally this weekend. I won’t be at this or any future ‘Scooterfests’ and I’ll try to avoid pubs that display posters advertising such events for 2019 as well. Let us have scooter rallies our way, not your way. It’s likely that Bridlington won’t be the only rally sacrificed for 2019 but we’ll have to wait until Saturday to find out what else is being shaken up.
Iggy
There’s a flyer for Bridlington at the top of the page. It’s the official flyer for the rally, it has all the info for bands, entertainment and the custom show over the weekend. It’s put on by VFM and the Lambretta Club of Great Britain. Please support the genuine scooterists who put these official events on or one day you’ll only have scooterless Scooterfests to look forward to.
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25th October 2018 @ 11:35 am
100% agree with you Iggy
13th November 2018 @ 9:10 pm
Well by now I’m sure the news of cleethorpes has filtered through as well . I agree with 99% of what Iggy says probably 99.9 % .Yes the pubs are killing the national , Yes we do have the fancy dress element of the locals with their hen night themed weekends , yes their are the skinmod2toneska boys in pork pie hats and parkas swelling the ranks . Yes the town is taking the piss . The one part i dont agree with is the venue at cleethorpes. If you want the crowds to flock to the venue , you have to put on what they want. possibly a band I dont know , but they certainly aren’t going to the beachy cos they dont want to, on the other hand do you want the “comedy mod” ( i hate that term) brigade in there? we cant have it both ways , like it or not it is those people that are swelling the scene . if you dont want them , it doesnt matter what they do.
………. on the other hand on the back of the cancellation . Cleethorpes appears to be organising its own rally ….. This couldnt be further from the truth .
A young lad with no connection or idea of the scooter scene , has with the noblest , but misguided intentions , made a meme saying scooterfest 6th july 2019 . he is having no further involvement in any organising of a scooter rally than that . he thinks it just needs a date and people will flock pubs will do the rest and the local doris’s can teeter in on their 6 inch heels and chuck prosecco on the dancefloor to the snake .
Be warned there is no camp site no showers no toilets no parts fair , No Beachy ( ive booked that for Sues 60th ) probably not even any music judging by the bands he tagged in his post saying come and play at scooterfest . it will be a local knees up , as anyone round here knows a local knees up on a saturday night in cleethorpes invariably ends in arrests and ambulances
please dont book B and Bs on the strength of this it probably wont happen . the local scooter clubs are looking at putting on a low key old school rally on sometime in the summer but it wont be that weekend.
25th October 2018 @ 11:45 am
Spot on Iggy. As much as I love Bridlington I have to agree with you.
25th October 2018 @ 11:48 am
It’s such a shame that the local pubs are killing this. The B&B we always stay at say this is their favourite weekend of the year, they have become friends and due to others trying to get a slice of the pie the rally is being ruined.
25th October 2018 @ 5:41 pm
It’s the B&B owners I feel sorry for as well, we’ve grown up with them for 20 odd years and they do become friends.
25th October 2018 @ 2:34 pm
That hits the nail square on the head, a truly brilliant verbalise in the written word, a lot of people think just can’t express it that well, truly great iggy.
25th October 2018 @ 5:40 pm
Thanks for that, if it’s any consolation I’m a verbal reatard in real life.
25th October 2018 @ 8:30 pm
Couldn’t agree more.
26th October 2018 @ 9:23 am
Well said that man they r taking the piss lately nothing wrong in goin around the pubs and enjoying your day with great people but when there upping the prices more and more then yes it’s time to say fuk off don’t get me wrong I do love brid and cleethorpes which I think is in the balance. Enjoy your weekend people
26th October 2018 @ 9:40 am
100 % agree with you Iggy, as you know I can’t make it this weekend (gutted), but I wouldn’t go near the ‘Scooterfest’ if I was.
I’ve seen the fallout in Cleethorpes and Exmouth (both rallies I love) when the local pubs went up against the rally and the bad taste it leaves in the mouth.
Towns like these need to look at W-S-M, The pubs are filled to the brim during the day and early evening, don’t have bands etc late in to the night so they don’t clash with the rally venue.
They make money, everyone has a great time and the rally venue’s rammed. Everyone wins.
Sadly though short term greed wins all too often, but long term it will kill the rally.
Booga
26th October 2018 @ 9:11 pm
No beef with autos per se, from Modena to Django to Scomadi but it’s the increasing numbers of Pork Pie’d Comedy Mods smothering their new RAs in Union Flags that grinds my gears! About as unpatriotic as you could get. A moving contradiction in terms. These guy’s patriotism is worth about 300 quid…the price difference between supporting the work of two long time British scooterists who give back to the scene and giving precious pounds sterling to Chinese businessmen who are trying to crash the west by stealing our technology. Feck you all!
27th October 2018 @ 6:51 pm
IOW is probably the worst for this sort of thing, but is it “too big” to pull the plug ?
27th October 2018 @ 10:14 pm
As you predicted Cleethorpes gone this year as well as Bridlington so a bit of a shake up in a sense,glad to see Llandudno though and will attend that one.My thoughts are isn’t it about time Scarborough got a fair crack instead of getting shitty early season weather should of moved that to the 2nd bank holiday for once they put a lot of effort in to be stuffed with the rough weather same can be said of this weekend rough weather another Yorkshire rally.Give these guys a peek summer one for once they’ve worked hard enough to put one on.
28th October 2018 @ 4:02 pm
Well said Iggy, see you at Southport if you don’t breakdown again
28th October 2018 @ 8:59 pm
This year was one of the worst attended brids I have ever been to, down on real Scooterists but chocked full of plastic idiots, I agree with live and let live to a point but it’s beyond a joke there now, I agree with what’s been said and the solution, let’s see how long scootfest lasts with no scooters, reminds me of mods at the pod or whatever it was called, soon fizzled out without attendance from real scooterists. Got to be honest scootering magazine doesn’t help by pandering to the twats with roving bellend reporters that know jack shit about the scooters their writing about!!
29th October 2018 @ 4:18 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWTINcpk2_w
29th October 2018 @ 10:18 pm
Our community is a broad church, that’s for sure! The official do’s have to be supported, simple as. It’s the main point I get from this feature and I agree totally.
30th October 2018 @ 12:05 pm
I feel slightly uncomfortable reading the above, I think what comes across the most for me is an elitist attitude. I’m not a person who usually speaks out as I really can’t be bothered with arguing with people who can’t accept a different point of view and that’s way I live and let live. It appear that the success of Bridlington and Cleethorpes have contributed to their downfall, but also it seems only to be applicable to them two and not I O W at this time. I also think that a lot of the pubs in the towns that are talked about etc. putting bands on do so to make a living, these people do not make a lot of income in a declining seaside resort and I don’t have a problem with that. However I do think if the main event is not being fully supported and is not breaking even at least, then it is a problem, can anyone tell if the recent official events at Bridlington and Cleethorpes lost money at all? So to come back to my initial point, it seems that some change is needed to try to get back to a smaller group of harden long standing scooter rally attendees with little room for an evolving scene.
30th October 2018 @ 4:23 pm
In my opinion if they wanna hold a non official rally then fine as if you wanna wear a primark parka with jam patches on or even if you wanna attend on a ajs modena its your choice and we have no right to offend or even say your now allowed cause your not a real scooterist/mod. What actually constitutes as a scooterist allowed to the rallies. New bllod has to be found from somewhere and if 1 year a bunch of comedy mods become real mods then its a job well done.Also you dont have to own a scooter to attend. I would happily attend a Ferrari meet just to look even though i dont own one.
31st October 2018 @ 1:16 pm
Iggy, I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment of what you have said above. I think people who have never been involved in organising a scooter rally, let alone a national one the size of Cleethorpes, may struggle to understand why it was decided not to run Cleethorpes rally for the forseeable future, but I get it. You are right in what you say. I don’t see it as elitist at all. What is more elitist are some of the comments above about the different kinds of people who are now involved in scootering. It takes all sorts, and I happen to believe if you ride a scooter, it really makes no odds what sort or type it is. We are all in this together. I own a 1967 series 3 lambretta AND I have recently bought a Royal Alloy. I enjoy riding them both. I am not a real fan of those who try to immitate scooterists, but they say that immitation is the sincerest form of flattery so why would any of us be bothered about that. Onwards and upwards I say. Change isn’t a bad thing, it’s just different. This time next year we will all no doubt have somethig new to whinge about. Colin Cartwright.
31st October 2018 @ 7:54 pm
Thanks Colin, it certainly wasn’t done for reasons of either greed or elitism. At Cleethorpes most of the revenue comes from the campsite (the wristbands get free entry to the do) so whether people come to the do or not only affects the atmosphere of the rally.
I ride all sorts of scooters as well, if people are riding (or at least would if they could) then all is good. On the other hand, if you plan to make a lifestyle out of our lifetime passion without any thoughts of actually riding a scooter then we have every right to make a fuss.
1st November 2018 @ 8:38 am
To the point and with no bullshit, great work Iggy.
Change is needed so let’s see how it goes ✌