Engine Punk

Although the weather was much kinder to us this year, I missed most of the Calstock Bike Show for 2009. But I was running late for the right reasons - I'd been in my garage-cum-studio making a Vintage Thing come back to life. More of that some other time. Anyway, when I pitched up in Calstock the party was in full swing - it was just that most of the bikes had gone home. It was starting to get dark,too. So I had a look around and it struck me how many trikes there were. I am ambivalent about motorcycle-derived trikes. They have all the disadvantages of cars and bikes with few of the advantages. I firmly believe that dynamically the single wheel should be at the back and the centre of gravity as low as possible. These convictions don't stop me liking these oddities, though. Take this example, frinstance. It's a yellow shaft drive XS Yamaha with an axle across its behind but it's one of those vehicular contrivances that reveal more the more you look. I fell into conversat...

I often visit the Launceston Steam Railway . It's a kind of drop in centre for the oily fingered and connoisseurs of Vintage Things. Since last year, they've made a few changes to the displays in the workshops. For the early part of the summer the place was closed but on a wet and dreary day last month I dropped in and - lo and behold! - found a cut away engine of the Trojan two stroke engine. The Trojan van at the Launceston Steam Railway Previous examinations of these Vintage Things offered some answers but raised more questions. A close look at the engine was what I really needed - don't bother looking under the bonnet, it's under the floor. There's always been at least one Trojan car in the little museum at the Launceston Steam Railway but now there's a van this splendid cut away examples of the extraordinary engines these things have. But don't worry - no working examples of Trojan engines were harmed or destroyed in making this display. I ...

Time's flown by since this gig on the 14th August and I've been very busy doing other stuff but - the memory is still fresh in my mind of a great night out at The Hippo. The crowd was much larger than that for Sham 69 but much smaller than that for Stiff Little Fingers. I thought the numbers of people were perfect, especially as they seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as me. Support act was ThE bUs stATiOn LoONiEs , who are world famous in Plymouth for their problems with the Caps Lock key on their word processors. They are also the prime movers behind the Plymouth Punx Picnic, which unfortunately clashes this year with the Great Dorset Steam Fair. This is an annual thing and having seen what fun can be had with just one local band, I'd like to see what a dozen or so can manage. That Chris Wheelie, with his kilt and hot water bottle sporran, was thought a but scary by some of our party but gradually even the most respectable pillars of society got into the scene and m...

Is it cheating to see an open air theatre company perform in the tent at Sterts ? Not when the rain on the roof falls so hard they have to shout! These hardened open air performers regularly defy the elements but I worry about them hurting themselves when they perform their stunts on a slippery stage. At least we were able to see them in the dry. And stunts there were aplenty in this adaptation of Moliere's play. The costumes were old time but the delivery was contemporary and according to my friends who know about such things the Miracle Theatre's interpretation is unlike any previous versions. That's what Miracle Theatre do - they re-vitalise already popular plays and turn them into something quite extraordinary, ultra-mundane even. I particularly liked Holly Kavanagh's portrayal of Marianne's pathetic attempts at suicide when faced with marriage to Ben Tyson's Tartuffe, who was a very dissolute and slippery character. Ben gave Tartuffe a sort of...

When I heard that The King of Prussia Cove was being performed at the Minack Theatre, I leapt at the chance to see it again. Only a few days after seeing Gonamena, I was revelling in another aspect of Cornish history. The King of Prussia Cove was that rare kind of a man -- an honest free trader who understood how much his customers relied upon him. Although he flouted the law, he was an honourable man fell foul of a bored and unprincipled noblewoman. But everything works out all right in the end and this particular performance was brilliantly handled and very funny. I'd seen it before when performed by the Kneehigh Theatre company at the Drum Theatre in Plymouth over 10 years ago and was delighted to hear it broadcast on Radio Four with many of the original Kneehigh cast. Tim Smit subsequently chose the haunting song that rhymes Poseidon with beside ‘un as one of his Desert Island Discs. This performance by Rough Coast therefore had a lot to live up to but it is difficult to...

It was while surfing for information about 1750 cc Allegros in connection with my recent post about the Austin Allegro Equipe and I discovered the Allegro All-Ego. I don't have a television and I don't read The Sun newspaper so the exploits of the All-Ego had passed me by. It seems to have gathered a certain amount of notoriety in its short life for it recently went to auction and realised a heady £5500 on 29th October, 2008. And having posted about it fleetingly on the Engine Punk Litmus blog (for I reckon it demonstrates hands on rolling sculpture better than anything), I feel sufficiently well-disposed towards it to claim it as a Vintage Thing. The All-Ego was built from a 1977 1100 cc Austin Allegro by the legendary car customiser Andy Saunders. He accomplished this feat in three days in December 2006 for a television pilot programme called Juice My Lemon, described by Saunders “as a cross between the American programme Pimp My Ride and The Benny Hill Show.” As mo...

I saw Sham 69 again last night and they were better than ever! The atmosphere at The Hippo was excellent and I think the Shamsters responded to a crowd who were eager for a good time. And leading the revellers were my friends Steve and Carolyn. Carolyn's usually the punk rocker of the two but Steve had been on the Stella and having lost his inhibitions set about loosing everyone else's. He dragged me and Carolyn down to the stage for the support band Russel Can't Drive . Although these guys messed about a lot, they were actually very tight and I enjoyed their set. They did a cover version of a song that's really bothering my mate Gary. He recognised it but not enough to really place it. He's now on a mission to identify it and can't rest properly until he can. Russel Can't Drive may not be able to drive but they rock and are on tour soon. Catch them if you can. Sham 69 have been playing for years and their experience shows. They know how to wor...