Chicago Mods vs Rockers 2012 Photos


The 2012 2012 Mods vs. Rockers rally was Father’s Day Weekend, we made it out to the Mayday SC Friday night party at Late Bar, but once again we couldn’t make it to the main event on Saturday, so Jordan sent loads of great photos. Thanks, Jordan!
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Put on a Trojan

Jen points out that Heritage Helmets now offers Trojan Records helmets to go along with their Consortium-approved Lambretta helmets. They even offer one with both Trojan and Lambretta logos, which is kind of surreal. Beautiful stuff, but, once again, they totally forgot the part that covers your chin and face. If you can afford an extra helmet for parades and photo shoots, pony up!

Oasis Triumph On The Block. Or Is It?


Journallive.co.uk is reporting of a sale of the Triumph Tina scooter used in photos for the Oasis interview CD “Be Somewhere Else Now”. The photo included in the story shows something close, but not quite exactly like one in a photo retrieved from an online sale of the CD in question. There is different letter placement and a horn in the ‘O’ on the bike pictured for auction. Who cares? Maybe someone buying for the purposes of provenance. I was just disappointed to find it wasn’t a Velocifero (see page 18/19).

Update 7/7/11:

The winner of the auction, Mark Watson, contacted us to explain:

I bought the Oasis Triumph at the Boldon auction. It came with various documents, including the certificate of authenticity. The letters on the fairing where put on the cd case using a computer. The actual stickers on the bike were put on later while the bike was displayed as an exhibit.

Ah, that all makes sense (and digital color adjustment would explain the color. Mark also explains the horn in the comments below.

Ace’s Bomber Jacket

Inspired by a newbie thread about patches on Modern Buddy, I finally tracked down the source of a particularly awesome JPEG I came across a few weeks ago. Turns out the JPEG was just the tip of the iceberg of Ace’s Jacket Cosplay Breakdown. Anyone stuck home watching Dr. Who on PBS in the late 80s, I bet you’re with me on this one. I wanted a scooter in 1986, but I wanted a Honda, thanks to Adam Ant and Lou Reed. I didn’t know anything about scooter culture back then, but man, did I want a bomber jacket with a bunch of random patches.

Mod Photo Mystery

Also via Scooterism: Help Sandra find the photo of her brother Raymond Kelley used in countless books, ads, and such. I don’t have my copy of Richard Barnes’ Mods handy, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the original source. Sandra refers to a book “Mods” in the story, but I think that’s a newer book that features the NME cover. As neat as it would be to see Sandra reunited with a good print, it’d be even better to see the original photographer pick up royalties from the frequent and probably unauthorized reproduction of his work over the years, and hopefully get a chance to exhibit or publish more prints from that period!

Mods Surely To Find New Pride From Film, Brighton Rock

Mark from Minneapolis passed on to us this trailer for the film Brighton Rock and it’s pretty Mod-tastic with more mirrors than a…place with a lot of mirrors. It shows off a pack of Vespa and Lambretta scooters looking for trouble. Was the Tokyo Film Festival a do-not-miss for the jet-set international Modernist? A quick search turns up the basis for the film. The cast includes the hard-working Helen Mirren. But will it be better than Quadrophenia?

Merge: Dance ‘n’ Ride

Starting a couple weeks ago, and into the foreseeable future, Chicago has a weekly Mod allnighter at LateBar called The Merge. It seems to be run by a rotating coalition of mod groups and scooter clubs (and it’s so nice to see teamwork in Chicago lately). You all know how 2SB feels about dressing nice and dancing, so we haven’t been yet, but the next two weeks look promising for folks more into the scooter thing than the preening thing. This Friday (July 2, 2010), there’s a long midnight ride out to Skokie Lagoons leaving at 11:30 from Late Bar. Next Friday (July 9, 2010) the whole shebang’s being run by The Secret Society SC and Mayday SC (flyer above), with another ride and more scooter-related stuff than usual.

UPDATE: From Jordan:

Every 2nd friday of each month till November will be scooter night with us, SSSC & MDSC together with friends. Officially the scooter night starts next friday (7/9) and hopefully we can pull all the local scooterist to join the fun. The plan is to meet somewhere for dinner, ride etc. and head to LateBar for night of dancing :-)

ANOTHER UPDATE: From Jordan, on this weeks’ events with new flyer:
RIDE TO EVENT AT 9:45 PM START AT NEW WAVE COFFEE (CORNER OF MILWAUKEE AND LOGAN).

Casey S. (Secret Society SC) will spearhead the ride starts from New Wave Coffee: http://www.newwavecoffee.com/

MODchicago Weekender (and Fridays!)

OMG we can’t keep up. Apparently ModChicago is back THIS WEEKEND with Our Way of Thinking: A Simple Headphone Mind and a regular night The Merge at Late Bar (Fridays) starting June 18. I’ll never figure out Mod politics so I probably just pissed off someone there, maybe they’re not related. Facebook is confusing, so I’m not even going to link to it. Karrie will straighten us out. Karrie, please straighten us out.

Mods and Rockers 10 Chicago

Jordan reminds us Ton Up Chicago’s Mods and Rockers Street Clash is next weekend (Friday June 18-Saturday June 19 2010). This year it looks like they’re moving it from Delilahs to the new(ish) Bottom Lounge on Lake Street. As great as Delilah’s is, it’s been way too crowded in years past I’ve gone (was it at Bottom Lounge last year?) so the new venue (and the less busy street/area) should be a big improvement. Not that an improvement was needed, the event, venue, and artwork have always been top-notch. This year promises an even fuller two days of events, including Quadrophenia at the Music Box, bands (Irving Parkas!), rides, and the centerpiece bike show. Sadly, I’ll miss it again this year, but Jordan will surely give us a report.

Update: We hear the Discovery Channel is shooting the whole thing, so you’ll definitely want to shine up and show off!

Another Adidas/Vespa event

Johnny at Motoworks let us know there’s another Vespa party at the Adidas Original store (923 N. Rush Street) this Thursday (4-1-10) from 5-9pm. Last year, they had similar parties all over the country, so if your town has an Adidas Original store, you might want to give them a call. They promise “first dibs on new Adidas gear” and a 15% discount at the party.

(Note: Motoworks’ new location at 1710 North Avenue is having a grand opening party on April 17, so save that date, and we’ll post more about that later!)

Now, I’ve been wearing Sambas since Pelé played for the Cosmos (Hmm, “Pelé” is in the Mac spellcheck dictionary, nice!). I love Adidas, I love Vespa, but I gotta say, the party last year was a disappointment. I had the impression that the Adidas Originals boutique threw a party at least once a week (Missy Elliot Line! El Salvador Line! etc…) without much thought into pleasing the specific target market. They had a generic trip-hop DJ, and a few chicken salad sandwiches, but (even after being asked a week early) couldn’t wrangle a scooter parking zone for the evening. A respectable dozen or so scooterists showed up, pretty excited about what we’d seen online, only to discover that a tiny fraction of the line was actually available in-store (two shoe styles, a couple t-shirts, and a “meh” tracksuit). No one wanted to stay long, with meter maids hungrily eyeing the assortment of semi-legally-parked scooters outside, and even though the 15% discount was extended to online orders placed through the store, no one bought much. So it may be worth checking out, but I’m betting the Motoworks store opening party will be a lot more fun.