Musos at The Shelley 2011

13th
Those two words probably best describe what
we, the organisers, were going through in the
build-up to Musos at The Shelley 2011. Despite
the undoubted success of the inaugural event last
year there was, nevertheless, a certain amount of
anticipation and a deal of trepidation in the air.
MUSOS AT THE
SHELLEY 2011
ANTICIPATION – AN
EMOTION INVOLVING
PLEASURE, EXCITEMENT AND
SOMETIMES ANXIETY IN
CONSIDERING SOME
EXPECTED OR LONGEDFOR GOOD EVENT.
TREPIDATION – TO BE
APPREHENSIVE, FEARFUL,
UNEASY, NERVOUS,
CONCERNED.
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he landlord of The Shelley Arms pub, Richard, had contacted us
at the end of 2010 to ask whether we’d be running another event,
as it’d turned out to be the pub’s best weekend of the year, so if it
was happening, he wanted it on the calendar as soon as possible.
Us? Well, all we knew was that we wanted to continue from where
we’d left off, so that decision was done and dusted fairly early on.
Besides, what else would anyone want to do on FA Cup Final day?
The Shelley Arms, situated in Broadbridge Heath, West Sussex, is a
perfect venue for what we do; basically, a get-together that’s a natural
progression from having formed (with the help of BSH, of course) a loose,
informal group of bikers who also happen to be well into their music, viz,
Musos On Bikes, or ‘MoB’. This sizeable pub boasts a spacious car park
and an equally big garden with loads of room for us to stage a four-band
party attended by a good crowd. The only disappointment was that
we were unable to offer any camping facilities. We had tried, though,
oh, how we’d tried. Letter after letter, phone call after phone call, more
paperwork than a passport application, and still the local council and
the Environmental Health red tape merchants found more and more
obstacles to put in our way. It reached the point where it just wasn’t
worth the time and effort trying to pursue it any further, and we had to
admit defeat. For 2012, however, we have an idea...
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We decided to stick with last year’s successful
formula. ‘If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it’, and all
that. Thus, the day started at 12 noon, with the
bike show scheduled for 2pm until around 5pm
(5pm being somewhat open to interpretation...).
To accompany the bike show, the pub provided
an excellent barbecue in the beer garden all day
before the bands kicked off at 6pm, playing until
midnight. This year, we thought we would provide
something a little different, so, just before the
trophy presentations, our own Pete and Mark,
bedecked in masks and full costume, led out the
fantastic Mythago, the craziest Morris-dancing
musicians you’ll ever see. Forget all of the white
handkerchief and little bell bollocks, these guys
do their stuff dressed all in black, wearing scary
masks and Doc Martens, and wielding fuckoff big
sticks ... excellent stuff !
Last year, the day’s events were handled, pretty
much, by three or four MoB members, with valuable
assistance from Hannah and Kaye, who ran the show
bookings and undertook general admin duties (ie,
Hannah and Kaye did all of the work, then, STU). It all
went off pretty smoothly.
A year later, when Pete and I turned up at 9am
to start setting things up, we found quite a few
more like-minded souls eager to help, which
made the whole process much less of a ballache
all round. The weather seemed to be holding out,
too, and slowly but surely, more and more bikes
and trikes of all sorts started rolling into the car
park. Eventually, we had over twenty top quality
customs entered into the show proper, with over
150 bikes arriving throughout the rest of the day
and evening. Many of these should, by rights,
have been entered into the show, but for some
reason, their owners thought that they
weren’t up to scratch or something. Far
too modest, in my opinion – I’d have been
proud to show any of them, and it was, all
in all, a fantastic turn-out.
We managed to enlist Wade from Sickboyz
Customs to help us with the judging of the bike
show, while the Best of Show award was voted
for by everyone present. The list of classes
comprised Best Trike, Best Custom, Best Paint,
Best Rat, Best Classic and, of course, Best of
Show. Once again, the excellent hand-crafted
trophies came courtesy of our own Mark
Peckham, someone whose leatherwork is of
an exceptional standard, and someone who’s
starting to make a bit of a name for himself
in that area of expertise. So if there’s anyone
reading this who happens to be in need of
unique, hand-made wallets, belts, tool rolls,
seats, guitar straps, panniers, etc, drop him an
email at [email protected].
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MUSOS YAT20T1H1
SHELLE
play a bit! The Badgers are very popular round these
parts – West Sussex, that is – and if you ever get the
chance, you must go and check them out.
Next, it was the turn of Quo-Caine. Now, I’ve
seen these lads performing a number of times, and
they do play that ol’ Quo stuff rather well. But this
particular set was an absolute stormer, and you
didn’t have to be a Quo fan to get your rocks off ! An
hour of all the classics and they didn’t let up once
– just brilliant!
Finally, The Blox took to the stage. Once again, this
is a must-see act! For those who don’t know, The Blox
is an Ian Dury tribute band (though they do throw
in some ska classics from time to time) and they are
absolutely brilliant. I know that Ian Dury’s music can,
for some people, be a bit of an acquired taste, but
I scanned the crowd and could only see everybody
dancing and getting off on the whole thing. In fact,
someone told me about a week later that they’d
never liked Ian Dury, but after having seen The Blox,
had just bought a greatest hits CD ... how cool is that
? The Blox are currently playing a lot of gigs, and can
be seen at many bike events, too, so make a point of
looking out for them.
The second year of Musos at The Shelley was a
great success, and for that, we would like to thank
everyone who turned up and/or supported it in any
way. Thanks must go to Richard, Andy, Lorraine and
all of the staff at the Shelley Arms. A special thanks
goes to Jeff and Hosey for helping with the bands
and equipment, to Mark for the trophies, marshalling
and general help throughout, Hannah and Kaye for
being the bike show management team, Mick and
Nige and for their help with the set-up, Wade from
Sickboyz Customs for judging the bike show and
finally, to Mythago, The Conspiracy, Furious Badgers,
Quo-Caine and The Blox for their storming sets.
Ride safe and keep rockin’.
words: NICK PAXTON (MoB FRONTMAN)
photos: CHRIS TAYLOR & HANNAH PAXTON
One satisfying aspect about the Musos at The Shelley do
has been that it’s attracted two distinct audiences, the first
of which is the daytime crowd, keen to see the bikes, and
the second being the evening crew, who are there for the
live music. However, this year it turned out that there was
actually a third group – what with it being FA Cup Final Day,
a good number of non-biking locals were there to watch the
footie, though they entered into the spirit of the day, well
impressed by the whole vibe, which can only help to dispel
any lingering, outdated impressions that one or two civvies
might still have about us bikers, eh?
All the bands that we book are MoB members’ outfits.
Musos on Bikes exists because of our music, so this is a good
opportunity for some of our crew to do their thing in front
of their peers. This year, the evening’s entertainment kicked
off with some classic rock craziness by The Conspiracy, a
local band consisting of Phil Young on Drums, Mark Randon
on bass, and Nick Parsons on guitar and vocals. Then there’s
me – I just leap about at the front, have a bit of warble, bash
a guitar and then try to take all the credit ! I’m a frontman
– give me a break here.
Second up, and back by popular demand, we had the
Furious Badgers, led by Dave Arthur. The band’s acoustic,
jiggy, Levellers-type set had the whole place on its feet, and
once again, our own Don McKay, joined the lads for a couple
of numbers with his collection of harmonicas. Man, he can
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As once described in this very publication, Musos on Bikes is a club that isn’t a club.
Rather, we are a collective of like-minded people who are into our music, as well as our
bikes and the lifestyle. We have no political affiliations whatsoever within the biker scene
and that’s the way it will stay. We’ll party with anyone, slags that we are! And the Musos
at The Shelley bash sums up what we’re all about – good vibes, good people, good bikes
and shit-kicking rock ‘n’ roll!
Please check out www.musosonbikes.com and, if you’d like your event or gig
posted, please contact me by email at [email protected]
7/11/11 5:37:34 pm