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Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 11:35:54 -0000

The two people you refer to are sadly two of the few whose names I don't recall either Algie. I have a couple of different versions of the photo, so I know what you mean. I'll bring them in next week to let you see.

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:47:12 -0000

I have a funny feeling that the guy Gerry is referring to is Frank Cameron from the Gorbals. I am sure he kept his TV 175 in his verandah in the flats while he was doing it up. In a post by Andy Mulvie last year he was saying that big Frank had got into bikes. The last time I saw him was about 20 years ago, and he had the beard and all that stuff then.

Big Frank is actually one of the guys in the Mickey Oates photo from Autumn 81; he is in the bakground where Div Campbell and Johnny Wallace are on their scoots as far as I remember.

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:41:07 -0000

I think the back of eight is plenty of time Algie. The Friday Street do is on until 3 am so that is quite a bit of drinking time. There are not an awful lot in the way of seats there right enough, so unless people don't mind standing all night it may be an idea to go a bit ahead of the crowd and get a couple of tables.

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:28:47 -0000

Hi Gerry. I don't have Matt's number at all. I have just been communicating on the site. But you are right, I have not seen a post from the big man for a few days now.

Sorry to hear that you will not be able to make next Friday. I am tied up for this weekend, so I will not be able to escape for a pint or two. I will give you a bell and see if we can get something arranged for another time. Enjoy Brussels, and watch out for that strong Belgian beer.

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:24:34 -0000

Hi Rab. Spot on about the time Friday Street starts getting busy. The first time we went we went downstairs about 10.30 and there was about a dozen people there. We thought well this is going to be great, but after a while we just thought why the fuss. The music was great so if we just sat there for a few hours chatting and enjoying good music it would not be the end of the world, even if the place was empty. Needless to say, by 12 O'clock the joint was standing room only.

I won't be able to make it along to the Twisted Wheel unitl about 8.30 but that is still quite a lot of drinking time before hand. So I don't know if my dance steps will be up to much by then.

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:49:40 -0000

The Twisted Wheel sounds like the popular choice at the moment then. It is quite good the way they have done it up inside. There are a lot of Mod artefcts on the walls; things like covers of LPs such as the Motown Mod classics, and other 60s greats. They usually play some great music as well, which helps.

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 03:44:16 -0000

Hi Gerry. It was great meeting up with you in Barlfly at The Gift concert a few years ago. It is always brilliant meeting up with some of the old Scene Club crowd.

I am still about, and go to the odd Friday Street do, and I would never miss the Glasgow Mod weekender. As you said right enough, it is difficult to explain to Mods who were not around at the time exactly how good the whole Mod scene was in Glasgow in the days of the Scene Club. Sometimes I don't even try as people would think we were exagerating. That time all the scooters gathered for that shoot down on the Clydeside is a prime example. There must have been close on 200 scooters there that day, and most had two people on them. There was also another 200 Mods watching fromt the sidelines. But if you said that to someone who was not there they would not believe it.

Good to hear you are up for a couple of drinks on the 27th. I will give you and Mr Russell a call nearer the time.

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 03:32:10 -0000

Hi Rab. Are Stu, Mitch, and Paul Viola coming along on the 27th ?

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 03:30:07 -0000

McChuills is a fairly decent boozers Algie and is a good size inside, as is the Twisted Wheel as suggested by Rab. The only thing against the Twisted Wheel is, as Rab suggested, the distance between it and Blackfriars. There are a lot of good pubs to choose from but they are usually quite busy on a Friday night.

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 10:36:43 -0000

Yeah, the Blane Valley is the one I was talking about Algie. There is another one a bit further down, and I could not remember which one was the Blane.

When you consider the amount of the guys who are no longer with us it is both sad and incredible. They should all still be here to join us in a few weeks for a great night out swapping stories. As you say though, we will certainly remember them all.

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:27:18 -0000

Hi Gerry. Are you still in contact with John Russell. (Pongo) There are a few meeting up prior to the next FS do. If you are up for a small sherry or two it would be good to see you again mate. I think big Matt from the PMB may well also be coming along. There have certainly been quite a few Mods on here recently who were Scene Club regulars, so it would maybe be a possibility to have a reunion do. Maybe we could hold it in that club on Oswald Street next to where the Scene was.

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:15:26 -0000

I always aim to make sure I am in okay condition for any drinking that may come around Algie. They do say it is good for your heart after all. It's a pity the Rooster is not there any more, it sounds like you guys had a great arrangement with the bar staff.

I will certainly keep on looking for that film. I have seen it before and thought it was amazing. The other bit of it with the EE Mods driving down Edinburgh road was also good, but I can't for the life of me remember who was in it. It may be a false memory thing but the only scoots I think I remember were Eddie Phillips' and Geordie Steins. There was a decent tip from John Riddell in one of the past posts, but I will be making a big sacrafice going to see a rockabilly band just to see this guy Joe after it. I have never changed my opinion that that sort of music is crap, but each to their own I suppose.

I can't honestly remember if the video became available to buy. I remember as clear as day watching it in that room at the back of the club, and I'm sure they also showed Quadrophenia the same night. The last I recall anyone having one was in the mid 80s when either Ged or Tony Skivvington had one.

Re: Glasgow Mods Story

ChrisC — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:48:16 -0000

I remember Donnie Woods from Townhead. He used to go about with Rab Aitcheson . Sad to hear he has passed away.

If you look on the part of the site for the Glasgow Mod Weekender from last year I have posted a photo of Paul Viola sitting on his Vespa PX. You will have to go through quite a few to get to it right enough, it is photo number 120.

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:44:48 -0000

Great to hear that some of the old crowd have been back in contact Algie. Rex was definitely one of the coolest guys around at a time when the Scene Club was heaving with Mod guys and girls looking amazing. It was an incredibly exciting time, and personally speaking nothing has come close to the buzz I felt the first time I went into the Scene and witnessed a heaving Mod club full to brimming of these amazing looking cool people, listening to some incredible music. I think I spent that whole first night just gazing around me in awe. It was like dying and landing in heaven.

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:09:51 -0000

I got to know the big man in early 82 up at the Scene, and then he later went out with a good friend of mine called Amanda Balducci for a while.

I know what you mean about that style of Lammy. The first time I came accross the guys I went about with at the Scene and Lindella, one of them (John McGowan) was sitting at the bottom of his flats in Royston scraping down a Lammy Vega. I drove past on my Vespa and then turned round, just in order to ask what exactly is that heap of s...you are scraping. He took my ignorance in good humour thank god.

The only time I was in Blackpool we went past that Dimaond Lils. Maybe they were the same bouncers, as they were throwing some poor black guy out the door head first.

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:40:23 -0000

Hi Algie. The Stewart Street lot were most definitely a bunch of psychos dressed in police uniforms. And to think it was us who copped the fines as well.

I knew big Tank fairly well, and I thought he was a nice big guy despite the intimidating height. When I first bumped into him at the start of 82 he still had quite a pronounced limp, obviously from the time in Blackpool that you were referring to.

I never made it to Blackpool as a mod, which is a shame because I have heard some great, mad stories about the jaunts between 1980 and 1982. In actual fact I must have been the only guy in the whole of Glasgow who never went to Blackpool on holiday as a youngster.

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:00:56 -0000

I remember I once drove down the top of Edinburgh road, right through a pitched battle between the Torran Toi and the Bar -L. They very kindly stopped fighting each other for a few seconds to throw their bricks at me on my Vespa, which was very nice of them I thought.

I cannot say I was as lucky as you Algie with being done by the rozzers. I must have spent an amazing amount of money on fines for taking people on the back of the scooter. The worst of them all were the Stewart Street lot, they absolutely, utterly hated us with a passion usually only found in people with a serious mental illness, which I suppose summed them up quite well.

Re: Matt Drennan - Morecambe and Scarborough

ChrisC — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 03:57:27 -0000

Hi Matt. The January Friday Street do was too early for me and I did not go along to it. All being well there are a few going along to the one at the end of this month, so if you could make that it would be great to meet up again after all those years.

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 03:51:46 -0000

Good to see you are still around Mr P. I had thought that you had taken to that cave in the Campsies to see out the winter.

What was the name of the guy in your pictures with the paint job done in a tiger skin style, was it Angy ?

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 03:46:37 -0000

I think we all had some hairy moments driving the scooters around Glasgow then. If it wasn't skins, punks, or rockabillies lobbing bricks, it was the police giving us a dig on any possible pretext.

The price of a scooter now is definitely incredible. Any time I look on e-bay to see what they are going for I am amazed at the prices for some of the classic Vespas and Lambrettas. If you were daft enough to like strip downs and stuff like that you can get them a lot cheaper; I wonder why that is !

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:59:15 -0000

Yeah, the union jack scooter is one that did stand out in that bank holiday 1980 snap Algie. I think it is the fact that we did not really have scooters done like that or muralled that made it a bit different. I remember a photo's that Wass and Mick had and one of the scooters belonged to a guy called Angy (as far as I remember) and he had a paint job done in a tiger skin style, and that would also have been unusual for the start of 1980.

I think Tony Taylor must have been a very brave Mod to drive about the Calton with a union jack scooter, nearly as bad as Wass driving up Royston road with the original globetrotters jumper and helmet Li Li !

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:29:58 -0000

There are cerrtainly a lot of good pubs around the Merchant City area, so there are loads to choose from Algie. I'm sure a couple of the guys I went around with may come along, and Hopefully big Matt fae Pollok will put in an appearance, and give me a copy of that photo of me and him on the modded up Vespa SS 180 at Scarborough 82.

Re: Algie-EEM Photos 1980 -81

ChrisC — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:32:17 -0000

Hi Algie. I think there is some sort of conspiracy going on here. First of all I could not manage to do any comments from my home computer at the weekend, and then to day I cannot access the 'Polaroids' part of the site.

Anyway, the Friday Street do is held at Blackfriars, which will bring back mixed memories for you. It is held in the downstairs bit and starts about 10 and goes on to 3 am. If you are still up for it we could meet up for a pint before hand. I would suggest the Hangmans or Brookes' bar, but sadly they don't exist any more.

It is sad to see some of the guys and girls who looked so incredibly cool in the Mod days fall down due to reliance on booze or smack. There are quite a few I know in that category, but it would not be fair to mention them by name on the site. One wee guy was up there as the coolest, best dresser with Rex, yet the last time I saw him he looked in a terrible state due to the drugs.

Re: Polaroids

ChrisC — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 11:29:10 -0000

I will plan on getting along to the next Friday Street do, which should be on the last Friday in February. That should give those who were stone broke after Christmas a chance to recover. It would be great if we could meet up for a drink or ten then.

I know what you mean about the scooter thing. There is an Italian restaurant where I stay in Bishopbriggs called 'La Vita.' They have this lovely Li 150 which is mostly sitting outside in all the elements. I once jokingly asked the owner if he would sell it but the answer was no. If it keeps up like this it will look crap in a few years.

I have sadly not seen Jim for a good few years now. The last time I saw him he did not look the too hot and was with a couple of guys who were out of their faces. I wanted to to go over and say hello but I didn't bother. That was about ten years ago. It's one of those situations that I would change if I could turn the clock back but as I said, the two other characters looked wired to the moon.

Re: Polaroids

ChrisC — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:44:34 -0000

I'll bet the older Mod guy was absolutely over the moon when he was on your PX Algie. I have not been on a scooter now for over 20 years, but I would love to have one more go on one. I keep threatening to buy one but these new regulations put me off somewhat.

You are spot on about some of the trouble that was a small part of the scene back in the early 80s. It was just growing up and a tribal sort of thing. Everyone I know from that time (myself included) did things they would rather they had not but no one ever bore any grudges in the long term.

Maybe those interested could meet up for one of the Friday Street do's. The one coming up would possibly not be good for most people recovering from Christmas, but it should definitely happen. It would be great to swap stories of the mad old times.