Scooter boys - The Lost Tribe

"Scooterboys are the lost tribe of British youth culture. Unrecognised, uncelebrated and unwanted; misunderstood by a general public who mistook us for Mods. We weren't Mods though. By the 1980s myself and tens of thousands of scooter riders collectively rejected that label. Instead, we took the roadmap of British youth disaffection and carved a new bypass. This route took us beyond the UK's faded seaside resorts, allowing us to spread our creed across the continents. 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." Martin Sticky Round

Year: 2019
Publisher: Carpet Bombing Culture