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Scooterboys The Lost Tribe
ISBN: 978-1908211-75-
Price: £16.
Author: Martin ‘Sticky’ Round
Publisher: Carpet Bombing
Culture
Reviewer: Mau
Having had an obsession with
two wheels since the age of 14,
virtually all of my teenage years
were taken up with the scooter
scene of the Swinging Sixties (as
it has since become known).
But by the mid-70s with
life and responsibilities both
demanding attention, it was time
for me to move on in with my life.
However, by the early 90s, with
the younger family members now
at the age where they leave the
nest, my scooter interest finally
had a chance to resurface. So
in effect, I had missed out on
around 15 years of the scooter
lifestyle.
Scooterboys, The Lost Tribe,
effectively focuses on the
scooter lifestyle history from
the point I had exited it back
in the 70s. And by that point in
time, the scene had changed
dramatically, as reflected in this
particular book written by Martin
‘Sticky’ Round.
To quantify his Scooterboy
tale, ‘Sticky’ uses his own
interpretation of the scooter
historic timeline from the
mid-40s when the Vespa
and Lambretta marques
were introduced (although in
reality scooters – albeit other
makes – have been around for
much longer than that). The
introduction of the Vespa and
Lambretta were to become
a major game-changer for
scooter enthusiasts.
Historically, the scooter
lifestyle was at its height during
the 1950s and those early dayswere (in some respects) a much
gentler time during which the
UK was still recovering from the
aftermath of the Second World
War; by the time the 1960s
arrived, technology had moved
on, especially with regards to
the media, and things like colour
photography and colour TVs
made the recording of social
history so much easier. With new
innovative inventions coming
out of the woodwork at a rapid
rate, the whole era exploded
into a myriad of music, fashion
and social lifestyle – the UK was
finally starting to emerge from
the shadows.
By the mid-1970s all those
memories of the 60s were
becoming a part of the distant
past; not only had technology
continued to develop, but
people’s views of life were
changing fast, and it wasn’t long
before the ‘peace and love’ of
the 60s was quickly replaced by
a much stronger attitude towards
life – and it’s at this point (once
you’ve waded through his history
lesson) that the heart of this
book gets into full flow.
The Scooterboys tale is a very
different story to the previous,
much gentler eras; ‘peace and
love’ was replaced with a much
more ‘in-your-face’ youth culture,
and like all youth cultures they
wanted to make their own mark,
which they did in their own
inimitable way.
The book works its way
through the progression of the
Scooterboy lifestyle from its early
beginnings to modern-day and,
being written by someone who
has been part of the Scooterboy
cult since its original inception
(and is still in that scene today),
it’s a tale that comes from theheart of someone
who still has the
same passion for the
Scooterboy scene
as he had back in
the mid-1970s. The
storyline is written
in an edgy style that
only a Scooterboy
will fully relate to and
embrace it as his
chosen lifestyle.
If you were part of
that culture, embrace
the Scooterboy lifestyle as it is
today, or are even just interested
in the social history aspect, then
this latest book on the subjectwill be worth its £16.95 cover
price.
More info/availability:
http://www.carpetbombingculture.co.ukBOOK
REVIEW