I know there’s been friction in the past, but Scooterboys: The Lost Tribe by Martin Round might still be of interest.
The book is part of the same series as the Mods A Way Of Life book by Patrick Potter from 2018, so if you have that, you’ll have a fair idea of the kind of thing to expect with this one.
Scooterboys is a 288-page book written by a longstanding writer at Scootering magazine (and a Scooterboy himself), claiming to cover ‘the lost tribe of British youth culture’.
It follows the growth of the scene from the late 1970s to its peak in the 1980s, gathering at faded seaside resorts and beyond.
According to the write-up…
Tuned and customised Vespa and Lambretta scooters gave us freedom to roam; transport to live for the weekend. Shared experiences of riots, local hostility and police harassment built strong fraternal bonds that endure to this day. Despite decades of two-wheeled rebellion our threat level was never high enough to put us on the national security radar.
This low profile has its benefits. We aren’t doomed to follow the same cycle as Mods. First feared, then pilloried, accepted and finally adopted as part of UK’s rich culture. As British as a vindaloo.
The cult of Scooterboy has escaped death-by-public-acceptance, simply by remaining too underground. Too difficult to distinguish from what came before. And that’s just perfect. You’ll never see Scooterboys parodied in TV insurance adverts or low budget fly-on-the-walls. The poorly-rendered caricature is always some cliché Mod on a ‘Christmas Tree’ scooter. If you rode to rallies in the 80s and 90s then this book will mirror your experiences. If you’ve never had a scooter then it offers a rare glimpse of life inside the lost tribe of two-stroke terrorists.
If that sounds like your kind of thing you can pre-order the book now, with a foreword by Mani of the Stone Roses, ahead of the 27th May publishing date for £12.87.
Find out more at the Amazon website
