Big Andys Scootering Site

    We finalised our plans a few weeks ago after speaking to Nigel, one of the organisers. I was riding up to Skegness on Wednesday morning and Dawn was going to follow up on Thursday once she had finished work. Dawn was going to travel up in the van because we were driving back as soon as Bad Manners had finished on Sunday night/Monday morning because i was back at work Monday morning and as much as i enjoy riding my scooter, the prospect of riding home at 2am was a bit much so we decided we were going to commit the cardinal sin and chuck my scooter in the van. As i said this was the plan, right up till Wednesday morning. Typically a spanner was thrown into the works when the prop shaft bearing on the Transit decided to call it a day. After a frantic phone around i found a garage that could do the work almost immediately. So our plans were now put back 24 hours, so it was just after 5pm on Thursday that we arrived outside the street to get our caravan key. Inside several people were rushing around getting everything ready for the big push on Friday. After a (very) small amount of help from us, we on our way to our caravan just outside Skeggy, to meet our roomies for the weekend, Slave Dave & Mistress Fifi, otherwise known as Dave Porter & Fiona. The nicknames were given to them by our mutual friends, Crash & Donna who we were looking forward to meeting up with later that weekend.

    We soon found our caravan, despite Daves best efforts to hide the caravan number and throw us of our tracks, and unloaded the van of all our stuff. It was suggested to me to drive the van upto the caravan to unload it, which seemed a good idea untill i came to drive it back off the grass. It was stuck, as the wheels just kept turning in the mud. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we finally got the van off the grass, just a little bit muddier that it had been. We all then went back to The Street to meet up with everyone as we were all going for a meal. Nigel told us a table had been booked in an Italian restaurant near The Ship pub so we went off to find it. Only problem was there are 3 Italian restaurants in that area, but got the right one on the 2nd attempt. We then retreated back to The Street for a few beers before calling it a night.

    We arose Friday morning to find Fiona cooking bacon butties, whilst Dave was busy setting up his mobile studio. Dave was going to be recording the following weeks show on his Scooterists Internet Radio site, here in the caravan as he was going to be joined by Wigan Tim for the show. Dawn and myself shot of into town to get some vitals (beer, vodka and more beer) so Dave could finish setting up. On the way back we called in on the campsite to see who was about and met up with the ii mob as well as Rudy & Chell and Chesterfield Mark and his misses who informed us of the sad death of Desmond Decker. We then returned to the caravan to watch Dave and Tim do their radio show.

    We all met up in the caravan park pub for a beer once everyone had done their thing, then made our way to The Street, where we left Dave, Fiona, Tim and Tims fiancee Claire to set up and went off into town, picking up (Modrapheniacs) Ricks girlfriend, Alison, on the way. We got as far as The Barfly and joined Craig & Jo from the Olympics as well as Tony and his mate from the Monsters. Also there was Malice and her fella, the ii mob and a few from Salford Knights SC. After a while Dawn and Alison went off back to The Street leaving me to have a beer or 3 (or 5) before staggering up there myself to meet up with them. By the time i got back up to The Street the 1st band, Circa, had already been on and by the time the 2nd band, The Mods, came on, i could bearly remember my name let alone their performance, as i was a little bit worse for the alcohol. I do believe though that they had to put up with a power failure to the sound system. (memories of Cala Gran). I was that wasted i didn't even notice. I am still putting parts of Friday night together as i either get reminded of my behaviour or i get flashbacks. I was also introduced to a few of the members of Scooterboy World, but again i can't remember who so apologies to them as well.

    We awoke Saturday morning to the sound of the rain on the caravan roof so after one of Dawns cooked breakfasts we lounged around the caravan waiting for the rain to stop. We finally got to The Street just after lunchtime and browsed among the many stalls as well as admired the scooters in the Custom Show. From their we made our way to the Litten Tree on the sea front to join up with the ii mob and meet up with Macca. We then went off to get something to eat before returning to our caravan.

    Both myself and Dawn were working Saturday night so we were at The Street just after 7:30pm. I left Dawn at the entrance desk and took root in the bar area, but only because that was my area for the night, well someone has to do it. Before long the 1st band, Grasp, were on stage, shortly followed by Dr & The Medics. These played in the back room a couple of years ago and in my opinion were the best band of the weekend so it was great to see them play again. Again they put on a great show, which is not bad for a band who have only had one hit. The organisers of Sticky Rock, Nigel, Paul & Simon had thrown in a surprise by adding the Sex Pistols Experience to the line up and these took to the stage late on. I like these guys but it was late by the time they came on so it must have been a bit disheartening for them to play to an almost empty venue. By the time everything had finished and we had got everyone out we were shocked to find it was daylight outside as we left, but then it was about 4:30am.

    With not much sleep we arose about 11am as i was off to Mablethorpes to visit my sister whilst Dawn was off to meet her mum in Ingolmells. Dawns mum was staying just down the road in Chapel St Leonards but my sister had moved to Maplethorpes earlier this year to take over one of the seafront cafes so i thought i would drop by to see how she was getting on. When we both got back to the caravan we loaded up the van (yes, including my scooter) and went back into Skeggy to the Chinese restaurant next to the Street for a meal. My job for tonight was at the front door which meant i was going to miss out on Bad Manners performance but seeing how many where in The Street i wasn't too downhearted. Most of us had expected a quietish night and were amazed at how many turned up. It just goes to show the pulling power Bad Manners still have. The rest of the security lads had their hands full keeping them under control.

    Once Bad Manners had finished i got the nod that we could go, so after saying our goodbyes we set off home, taking just 2 hours to get back. Having to be at work at 9am really took it out of me but it was worth it. This had been another top weekend spent at a skeggy rally. The organisers really deserve a big slap on the back for all their hard work on another smoothly run rally. You, the scooterists also deserve a pat on the back for just being you. These rallies would not be as much fun without you. If there is a better group of people around, then i have yet to hear of them let alone meet them.

So thats it now untill Whitby when we get to do it all again. Isn't live tough.

See you there

Safe Scootering

Big Andy

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