I enjoyed the excellent Mod exhibition at Leicester’s New Walk over the weekend. It made me wonder if there’s a person among us who hasn’t had ‘the scooter phase’ at one time or another. You may even have acted upon it and got yourself one – and props if you did – but it’s the ‘phase’ bit I’m wondering about: that fortnight or so you spent poring over the classified ads for secondhand Vespas, wanting to look like Phil Daniels in Quadrophenia or Jude Law in The Talented Mr Ripley — and it never going further than that.
Likewise, is there any one here who hasn’t had a Metal phase? You must have lusted after a leather jacket, surely? Haven’t we all at one time decided to build up an impressive collection of novelty erasers but only got as far as five or six? And who can say they haven’t pledged to keep a diary but fallen at the first hurdle? Actually, on second thoughts that might be even more common than scooters and Metal.
Your thoughts please. Are you a craze refusenik or an enthusiastic adopter of fads?
https://www.visitleicester.info/whats-on/mods-shaping-a-generation-p758341
Leicester Bangs says
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davebigpicture says
I’ve not really been one for fads although I did go through a metal phase, like lots of teenage lads. Oddly, neither of my kids have their heads turned by the latest “must have” thing, they both just like what they like and don’t really care what anyone else thinks.
fishface says
Coughs….a bloody scooter….why?
I went in rapid succession from Yamaha FS1E to RD125 twin then RD250.
Having ridden the cream of Japanese two stroke, race developed perfection, why on earth would I reduce myself to looking like a 60s throwback on a underpowered, undertyred, badly engineered piece of shit?
muffler says
Because, sir, they look unbelievably cool. Mechanically and practically inferior to a half decent motorbike in every way. But a classic Italian scooter is a glorious thing and makes anybody riding it instantly and incontrovertibly more attractive.
Lemonhope says
A classic Italian scooter is a glorious thing – In Italy, ridden by Giuseppe. Not so much in Warrington, ridden by Colin.
Twang says
In Macclesfield in the mid 70s they were known as Puff Chariots.
I nearly got one when I lived in Paris but bottled it in the end.
retropath2 says
Is that puff with two o’s?
muffler says
Dave and the Phase3 massive would presumably beg to differ, Lemonhope. https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16963362.phase-3-scooter-club-appear-in-soft-cell-video-filmed-at-twisted-wheel-manchester/
Lemonhope says
Haha – marvellous.
[Although I think the photograph of Dave & The massive disprove your theory that “a classic Italian scooter … makes anybody riding it instantly and incontrovertibly more attractive.”] 😉
Paul Wad says
I had a bit of a metal phase in my late teens. More classic 70s stuff than that 80s nonsense with all the hair.
I kept a diary from about 15 to around 22/23, but I stopped when something horrible happened and they’ve long since disappeared to the tip. I don’t think I’d really like to relive my thoughts on that period of my life and all that teenage yearning, although it may have been interesting to see my reaction to some of the horrible things I saw during my nurse training (I mean whilst at work and not whilst living in the nurse’s home!).
Nowadays it’s daft ideas that have taken over from fads.
retropath2 says
Keeping a diary this year, as it happens. Done it once before, in 1979. (Until now I hadn’t realised it was 40 years.) Partly prompted by the idea it would help me do Blogger Takeovers. It hasn’t.
Tony Japanese says
I kept a diary for about two months when I first started university. It took me that long to realise my life wasn’t worth writing about.
Tiggerlion says
I had a scooter. I loved it, pootling around Birmingham, sometimes venturing as far as Loughborough. It was a bit hairy waiting at traffic lights surrounded by a bunch of smellies.
Its demise came as I was overtaking a bus on the Bristol Road in rush hour. The back wheel fell off. I have no idea how I stayed upright. I was terrified my head would get crushed under the bus. The bus pulled up and the driver helpfully pointed out, “Oi, mate. Your back wheel’s fallen off,” then drove on. The Bristol Road had a massive grass verge in the middle but a Good Samaritan going in the opposite direction spotted me and came to my rescue. He said the same thing had happened to him.
retropath2 says
So that’s why they knocked the cinema down!
Billybob Dylan says
Diary phase – Guilty. Lasted about 4 months.
Metal phase – No, but I did buy a cheap leather bikers style jacket from a catalogue when I was 17.
Scooter phase – No. I had a moped once, though.
Moose the Mooche says
Me and mate went through a phase of writing “comedy scripts” after the example of The Russian Revolution in The Young Ones book.
The only ones I can remember is one of mine featuring two bungling villains called Dollop and Wick trying to steal the Mona Lisa, and one of his featuring a sort of picaresque adventurer called Noddy O’Ginty-Smythe.
They weren’t even as good as that sounds.
Basil Batlord says
I haven’t posted for ages but I can’t let this one lie…I’ve still got the Lambretta that I got in January 1983, It’s a bit like Trigger’s broom, but I genuinely love it. I only do dry summer miles on it (if I can help it). Whenever I look at it, I feel privileged to own it…I’ve also got a few others,including a Vespa T5 that I bought brand new in 1991, 2 of which I restored from bare metal over a long period…Muffler was right in what he said including the bit about about making anyone who rides one more attractive because I look considerably better with a full-face crash helmet on!
Tiggerlion says
Respect!!
muffler says
I’m currently on holiday on the amalfi coast and it’s scooter heaven. Everyone from cool youths to whole families to old men with their dogs between their legs is scooting around. Most of the scooters are oldish ( 70s-90s ). Everyone looks magnificent in their own way.
Basil Batlord says
Cor, lovely!
Leicester Bangs says
From this small sample I’m sensing that keeping a diary may be the most universal short-lived fad.
I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned lifting weights. I’ve got a set gathering dust somewhere.
Kaisfatdad says
When the kids of today look back on the fads they indulged in, a lot of them will be either on line or smartphone related. Minecraft, Pokemon Go, World of Warcraft, Skylanders…
In Sweden, 16 is nicknamed the “Moped Birthday”, particularly in the countryside. We have one now, a Tomos, parked outside our holiday place here on Öland and it has transformed life for our lad.
nigelthebald says
Metal? Pah! Not likely.
Diary? Kept one for ages. Not sure why – nothing of note happened for me to record.
Scooter? In the mid 1960s, at the age of seven or so, I often travelled on the back of my Mum’s Lambretta through the country lanes to the village school . She was a teacher there.
Kaisfatdad says
On the back of your mums Lambretta! You must have been the coolest kid in school.
My Facebook page has become my diary. And I feel that the fewer things that happen to me, the more interesting and enjoyable it all gets. Today I stopped the car to photograph the magnificent blue chicory flowers that, along with vipers blugloss, line the roadsides here on Oland.
During WW2, when there as no coffee in Sweden, chicory was used as a substitute. My partners mum and dad got married in wartime. The big event at their wedding was that they got to drink a cup of real coffee with the priest!
kalamo says
All the ancient Vespas have found their true purpose, negotiating the narrow backstreets of the crowded commercial district of Bangkok.