Beachcomber’s Tales from the Day – Sept 2011
- “ Café Racers follow the Dress Code”
Maybe the last one before Christmas as I hope THIS year to be off to Saxony – snow allowing !
OK, this one is in the same vein as the Tale of Mrs.B 2nd., the Jota and “the pub that doesn’t serve motorcyclists”
This time we’re going back to the Summer of ’66 – the Café Racer era is hitting somewhat of a plateau. What should have been “new blood” were being seduced by the new Mini, and cars that were plentiful and cheap. Bikes and Bikers were also getting bad press, courtesy of the Mods and Rockers duels [ mainly media fuelled ] of the previous years.
Bikes were suddenly “uncool” and society AND the pubs / caffs decided that bikers were no longer welcome – having kept their places going for the previous 5 years or so !
It wasn’t unusual when you went outside your own turf to find pubs and caffs with signs outside stating “No Coach parties – No Bikes”. This was especially annoying when you went for the rare long run – holidays to the coast etc. when a rest stop was essential – for rider and machine !
As a rule our crowd very rarely went into pubs [ whilst riding ] as balance and judgment are more critical on a bike than 4 wheels. Maybe one reason why so many of my mates were put in hospital, and sadly killed as a result of drunken car drivers.
However, there was one pub on the Southend Arterial road – just past the Blinking Owl – which was situated at a large roundabout that was the natural meeting place for bikers coming from several different directions. We’d often rendezvous in the huge car park, ready to take off for a night in Southend.
This particular pub didn’t have the obligatory – No Coach Parties – No bikes signs up, as they actively encouraged coaches to stop on their way to or from Southend.
When we were well into the FO Bikers period, this particular pub in an effort to discourage us bikers instigated a “dress code” which involved no leather jackets – smart dress and / or gentlemen to wear ties.
That was OK as we rarely went into the pub anyway, but they started to enforce this BS in the car park as well.
After a while this became intolerable, if only for losing the convenient meeting place. So it was time for retribution.
Most of us were known to the staff there from previous visits, so one of the lads went in and asked if we complied with the dress code, were we allowed in? Yes was the answer – so the seeds were sown.
Two weeks later, after we’d laid our plans – 30 of us turned up in various vans and cars on a busy Saturday evening when the coach crowds and locals were rammed in.
Our dress code was – White Dress shirt [ starched front ], black bow ties, and a full length raincoat / overcoat. The staff welcomed us in saying how nice it was to see us all dressed up – no doubt thinking of the 30 x 5 or 6 pints we’d all be drinking. Most of us had to borrow the gear from older Brothers. Dads – as the clothing was somewhat alien to our culture ! A few couldn’t find suitable footwear so resorted to biker boots, but that was accepted by the pub as they could see we’d all made a big effort.
The pub had by this time grown into one of the first to offer food at the tables in the main bars, so there were the attendant waiters and staff on hand and the kitchen doing a roaring trade.
We all crowded to the bar area to order our drinks, much to the amazement of the pub staff and customers – it WAS the height of Summer, and there we all were in full length overcoats ………………………………………
See where this is going ?????? They didn’t.
So, we ordered up 30 odd pints of draught beer before a curious waiter asked if he could take our coats to the cloakroom for us.
That was the cue for thirty odd hairy arsed bikers to remove their topcoats to reveal – well, NOTHING underneath, except the dress shirt front and bow tie !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There was much mayhem and screaming, whilst we casually put our coats back on and walked out leaving 30 odd pints of beer on the bar top.
Years later when I was passing the area, I noted the pub had been demolished and had been replaced by blocks of flats – karma.
