‘The audience loved it. We’d beaten the White Helmets!’
How could we compete against these full-time, professional army stunt riders? Just six girls who were relatively inexperienced and training part-time? The Signals did their show and their finale was one of the team jumping over a car. At that point Joe stepped into the arena and challenged them to a jump-off, declaring that the Motobirds would jump the length of two cars! We actually didn’t have two cars to use so we asked the Signals if we could borrow theirs. As you’d expect, they were reluctant to let us have it, but they had to bow to pressure from the audience who’d started booing at this point. Joe gave them £300 deposit in case I clipped it on landing and I went ahead and jumped two cars. As the Signals weren’t allowed to change their act to a two-car jump, we’d won the challenge and the audience absolutely loved it. We’d beaten the White Helmets!”
Going solo
While Evel Knievel was performing his Wembley Stadium jump in London, the Motobirds were jumping their Kawasaki KS125s all over the UK and beyond, visiting county shows and fairs. But after a period of four years as a team, Mary and Joe decided to go solo.
“Joe and I eventually got married and we toured all over the world with me doing shows as a solo stunt rider. I also went on to do television, films and advertising work, and actually made it on to the Equity Stunt Register, which was a bit of a coup as they only let four people on a year and very rarely women. In fact, in one project I ended up doubling for John Cleese – which was bizarre when you think about it! I had to ride a bike wearing these huge shoes! I don’t know why I was picked!
“I did an advert for Benson and Hedges cigarettes, which involved jumping through fire and it was really quite hairy. But I did what was required, although I remember being quite miffed that the model they’d employed for her beautiful hands and nails for the close-up handlebar shot earned more than
I did. They couldn’t use my hands because they were motorcyclist’s hands – all grubby and battered!” Mary’s stunt career lasted for 12 years, up until the point she and Joe started a family. “It was a charmed life,” she remembers. “We did a lot and managed to get away with it. It wouldn’t happen at all these days, health and safety wouldn’t allow it. But it was a fantastic experience. We were well trained and were sponsored for bikes and kit, and eventually we didn’t have to look after the bikes ourselves like we did in the early days. The show organisers were always really keen to have us stay at the event after we’d done our shows because the crowds always wanted to follow us, so we used to be able to get on all the fairground rides for free. We’d have people wanting our autographs and we ended up with a fanclub, too. “Until the Motobirds, we were just ordinary girls from Leicester. Up until that point, I’d never even been to a restaurant and then just a few years later I was wining and dining with stars, travelling the world and earning more money than my dad. “The world’s a different place now. Back then, live entertainment was huge and getting 10,000 people at a county show on a summer Saturday was the norm – you just don’t see that these days. I guess stunt shows have fallen out of favour because it is dangerous and people have been hurt or killed. Joe always made it as safe as possible for us – it looked madcap from the outside, but it was really well rehearsed.”
After going their separate ways in 1976, some of the Motobirds got back together in 2016 after the BBC’s One Show put out an appeal for the riders to get in touch. “We’re all in our late 60s now, all OAPs!” laughs Mary. “But it was wonderful. I’d often thought about tracking them down but because most had changed names through marriage it was extremely difficult. But it was great remembering what we achieved. We really did have a fantastic time.”