Once an animal, always an animal

Rothesay (Isle of Bute) has been home to the Animals fae Naboombu SC’s past three rallies, the last being their 25th anniversary. Now, five years in the making, it’s hosted the 30th anniversary! Stevie tells all…

Stevie Adair’s report from the Animal fae Naboombu rally.

Venue

This rally would provide a few stumbling blocks along the way, as our preferred venue on the island would have been the famous pavilion with its art deco interior and sprung wooden dance floor, but this was a no-go now as it was in the middle of a total refurbishment. So on to plan B, we tried hiring a marquee, but £1500 was the cheapest… we didn’t want to buy it, just hire it! Thankfully I was contacted by a fellow scooterist ‘Jimmy’ (not to be mistaken for his namesake in Quadrophenia) and he informed me of a local church hall in the town centre that would hold 230 people, so I set up a trip overseas to visit the said venue, confirm its availability and to see for ourselves if it would be suitable. We needn’t have bothered as it turned out to be ideal; Jimmy had found us a little gem.

As we were limited to the amount of people we could have in the hall it was decided to make it ‘ticket only’ and they flew out the door. All too soon the venue was sold out and we still had people clambering to pick up any spares, so we decided to look for a second additional venue… the masonic hall would be ideal as it was 20 yards away from St Andrew’s Hall and would hold another 120 revellers, so tickets were printed. The new venue immediately sold out as well, but we were at our limit now so there were a few disappointed people; for that we were sorry.

Drink!

In the months prior we had raided every supermarket for cheap drink for the sole purpose of making every drink at our venue £1. Now was the time to transfer it over to the island and into the hall on the Thursday, the day before the rally started. Myself, Barry and Garry decided to sleep in the hall to make sure the precious cargo would be safe! Friday came and so did the scooters from all over the place: England, Wales, Scotland,

Ireland, Belgium and France. We also had a special visit from members of our club Andy and Nicki Meikle all the way from Australia! The campsite was filling up nicely with the usual hard-core while others opted for hotels, houses and B&Bs. Back at the venues, St Andrew’s Hall was bouncing with the soul kitchen DJs playing to the crowd, keeping them on their feet the whole night long while in the masonic hall it was Hailey and Lorna who were keeping the crowd happy.

The £1 a drink was keeping our wives and partners run off their feet serving, and what a job they were doing, although the cheap drink had taken its toll on a few who then decided to use the church pews as makeshift beds! All too soon the night came to an end as the DJs announced the free buses were outside to take revellers back to the campsite. The hall soon emptied and the hordes now back at the campsite were sampling Annie’s excellent food before negotiating the tented obstacles and bedding down for the night.

Ride out

We were woken up with the sound of the birds chirping. As the sun was splitting the trees we knew it was going to be a great day. First up was the ride out, which was leaving from the campsite and going right round the island. We gave the pleasure of leading the ride out to Tony and Jimmy from the Isle of Bute SC; both were very proud to take the lead and the smile on their faces said it all for me. The ride out was under way so I took my son Alex on the back of my old Rally 210. As we made our way past the riders my son was doing the job of a stuntman, hanging onto the back of the scooter, as we sped past everyone to find the perfect spot to catch the best photo opportunity. During the ride out we saw beaches of pure white sand and little coves that people vowed to visit again, it wasn’t long before we arrived back in the town centre and to the promenade which would house the custom show.

On arrival at the promenade, we were met by plenty of happy locals keen to see some of the quality scooters on show. In all fairness, it was the glorious sunshine that had brought them out to sample some of Zavaroni’s ice cream. Trophies were given out to the happy winners and it was time to get back to the campsite for the ‘Animals Olympic Games’ which proved to be a big hit with entrants and spectators alike, it was laugh a minute stuff from start to finish and the overall winners were Kilmarnock SC.

Saturday night came all too soon for some who had braved the afternoon sunshine but were now paying the price, as some of them resembled cooked lobsters, and were looking the worse for it as they shuffled into the hall to quench their thirsts. The £1 drinks were again flying from the makeshift bar area, the dance floor now heaving with bodies as every square inch in the place was occupied. The DJs had the place bouncing all

night only stopping for me to introduce the trophies for best turned out club and furthest travelled by scooter. Best turned out club eventually went to Paisley Vespa Club, although there was a bit of a dispute about actual numbers, but they were given it in the end… much to the dismay of many as the boos echoed round the hall! Furthest travelled by scooter went to Guy from France who had travelled up to Belgium to meet Donald and ride with him from there to our rally. Donald was a regular at our past rallies and an adopted animal at heart.

Guy seemed suitably impressed with his trophy and of course the bottle of whisky to go with it. We had one more special award to make and this went to wee Jimmy from Isle of Bute SC for all the hard work he and his club did for us in making the rally happen. That over, I handed the mike back to the lads from the Soul Kitchen as they got the sounds pumping again. Big Alec Carnaby had the masonic hall buzzing with his usual mixture of quality tunes as well keeping those in there happy as well right through the night.

The big clean up

Sunday morning saw us clean up the hall and load what was left of the unsold drink onto the truck to be drunk by us at a later date. Hard work done we made our way back to the campsite to see the early risers pack up and head for the first ferry off the island. By now the rain was coming down and putting a bit of a dampener on an otherwise cracking weekend. Most braved it although one or two stayed to see if the rain would go off. It never did, so they left their tents behind and made their way along the coastal road to the ferry and home.

Once the clean-up was done, Sunday night was our time to party as a club, so we headed into a local pub for a bite to eat. The owner was an American from the deep south who made a few phone calls and got a band together. As we finished our meal they set up and amazed us with a great blend of rock, blues and a few old favourites from Johnny Cash! Unbelievably the owner was the band’s double-bass player and juggled his duty as band member and barman very well… though he had a strange acquaintance with the Lord as he kept shouting “Praise the Lord!” every time he passed us?! The night came to an end as we headed to our beds as we were up early for our ferry home and much needed rest.

Thanks to: Mental Engineering, Monster Forge, Glasgow Lambretta, Go Full Throttle, Bikes on Parade, West Coast Scooters, Scottish No1’s, Coyotes SC, Argyll Roadrunners SC, Woodart UK, Diagos SC, Soul Kitchen DJs, Grant, Davie, Gerry, Alec, Hailey, Lorna, Annie’s Vannie, Yvonne, Rebecca, Isle of Bute SC, our wives/partners who put in an immense effort working in the bar, our members and honorary members who went above and beyond the call of duty for the amount they done and everyone else, we can’t thank you enough. Words: Stevie Adair (once an animal always an animal)

Photographs: Alex Adair