SCOOTERS IN THUNDER VALLEY 3
11th - 13th SEPTEMBER 2009
Having just about recovered from the fun and frolics down on the Isle Of Wight, i set off on the long arduous trip to the Middle of F**king Nowhere, otherwise known as MFN, in Shipley on the Nottinghamshire / Derbyshire border. Completing the 15 mile journey, i soon had my tent up and was catching up on the alcohol consumption. Judging by the amount of tents already erected, this was going to be a busy weekend for the host clubs.
Before long i was sat amongst various friends outside the main building catching up on all the gossip and talking the usual rubbish, whilst consuming far too much alcohol. Inside the main building the fine DJ'ing skills of Tony '1 shirt', Mr Bean, Mod Paula and others were being put to use, interrupted for a while by a local band called Jimmy The Squirrel, who, from what i saw of them, did a decent job of warming up the crowd for tonight’s main band, Complete Madness, who took to the stage about 10:30ish. These lads from Leeds do a really good tribute act to the Nutty Boys and soon had the dance floor bouncing away under the weight of the bopping scooterists enjoying the usual Madness classics, as well as a few other classic Ska tunes.
Bands finished, i returned to my beer consumption but had to nip back to the tent for some thermals as the temperature outside had dropped quite a bit, but we were soon warming ourselves around the camp fire Mad Dog had set up by his camper van whilst his other half was busy BBQ'ing burgers. I started to flag about 3am ish so returned to my tent and shivered myself to sleep leaving others to keep the wide awake club going.
I awoke to the sun beaming in through my tent and set about getting fed and watered ready for the day ahead. The custom show was being set up in front of the main building with a good standard of Scoots being shown, with 'Scum' winning best on show. A Dyno Lorry was also in attendance for those wishing to test the BHP of their Scooter. There was also a selection of inflatable fun and games including a Human Table Football. Throughout the whole weekend a tattoo bus was in attendance for those who wanted their skin doodled on. The DJ's kept us musically entertained outside most of the time until Mr Bean burned out the amplifier and a replacement was hastily put in place in time for a live acoustic set from Bernie. The whole place was by now extremely busy with well over 800 having passed through the gates. The final piece of entertainment was the Tug Of War which saw a very close final between the Ripley Harriers SC and the Worksop Lions SC, with Worksop winning narrowly by 2 - 1.
The evening started with Rallyoke taking place in the bar area which sounded more like cats being strangled most of the time. The main room soon opened and first up on stage was a band called A Multitude Of Sins who did a really good set of punk covers. The DJ's then kept the dance floor busy until Special Brew took to the stage belting out all the classic Two Tone tunes, with the dance floor again heaving with bopping scooterists.
Gatecrashers Sc, Ripley Harriers Sc, Skegby Sc and Worksop Lions Sc can be really proud of the weekend they put on for our amusement and the fact it was the warmest weekend for many a week also helped. There was plenty to keep us entertained over the whole weekend with good bands on show too. The only complaint i heard was the prices the snack van had been charging which was a tad expensive. A small inconvenience for us personally was my wife Dawn being unable to find her keys on Sunday morning which ended with me taking her home for the spare key and bringing her back only to find them when we got home again. I didn’t swear at her too much...Honest.
Ride Safe till next time
Big Andy