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Margate Mod Weekender
Most people would perhaps visit their local DIY superstore
or sort out the garden over a bank holiday. Many would
consider travelling over 15 hours by car to attend two
Mod Weekenders to be somewhat on the crazy side, yet
there we were, from Gloucester to Margate via Skegness in
search of beautiful Italian machinery, good entertainment
and a drink or two with relatives of a different nature.
A
fter a flying stopover at the 3 Keys
Weekender in Skegness on the Friday
(interview with 3 Keys supremo, Joe
Tucker, covered extensively in this mag last
month), we headed down to Margate for
The Great British Music Culture and New
Untouchables Weekend for three days of
incredible scooters, music, drinking and
seaside amusements. Bands for this amazing
weekend included The Spitfires, Big Boss
Man, French Boutik, Graham Day and the
Forefathers and more backed up by an array
of super-cool DJs including The Cookin Catfish
crew, Rob Powner, the young Vinny Baker and
Jack Gadsden, Lee and Dave Grimshaw, Lee
Miller, Ian Hurford, Rob Bailey and others.
The weather was kind for the weekend and
the sun shone over the proceedings, making
snapping our two-wheeled steeds a pleasure.
Beautiful scooters, whilst obviously feeling at
home in Italy, looked wonderful on this stretch
of the Kent coast, and have done now for over
50 years since our Mod predecessors first
arrived. Saturday was fantastic, but Sunday
was scooter cruise day and the midday traffic
was stopped whilst the steady stream of 100s
of loved pieces of art were guided through the
streets, courtesy of the Thanet scooter club,
before heading out along the coastline in a
haze of two-stroke magic. An hour or so later
we were back to where the usual trophies
were awarded.
Best Lambretta:Li150 Rallymaster (Martin
Poulter)
Best Vespa:SS180 (Emma Poulter)
Best Mod:SX200 (Gary Stephenson)
Once the trophy presentations were over,
it was back to the important task of enjoying
the sunshine and listening to the DJs who
were playing outside the venue, Olby’s, to a
confused public who’d just popped down to the
seaside with the kids for the day. It must have
felt like they’d stepped through a Sixties’ time
warp that only the Mod scene can create.
Margate is a recent addition to the Mod
calendar for the New Untouchables, compared
to its bigger brother, the August Bank Holiday
in Brighton, but it’s fast becoming another huge
destination weekend for Mods, Sixties and
scooter lovers in the south of England. It won’t
be long before it gives its bigger brother a run
for its money; Rob Bailey, it’s promoter, has
some huge plans for the future of this weekend
festival and we’ll be there to see it grow.
Monday came round far too fast and it was
time to pack up and head back to a not-so-
sunny Gloucestershire, but before we did so,
every Whitsun Bank Holiday Monday, Margate
becomes the destination for every motorcyclist
in the country, with literally 1000s of them
descending on the town for their own annual
event. It was an awe-inspiring site seeing
streams of huge motorcycles entering the
town, but it was really amazing seeing them
being chaperoned by Mods and scooterists on
their own two-wheeled dream machines – a
stark difference from the battles of over
50 years ago. Brilliant stuff.
Margate, Rob Bailey, the bands, DJs, scooter
and motorcycle enthusiasts – we salute you all
for a fantastic weekend. Now where did I put
that paint brush...
Cris Davies
http://www.suityourselfmodernists.com
May 24-27