When the world was young, and so was I
An interview with lyrical genius JB Barrington, and a look at his Mod-based scooter… pure poetry?
Rik Bardsley meets up with wordsmith JB Barrington to find out more about him, his work and his scooter.
So who is the owner of this most obviously ‘Mod’ scooter? JB Barrington is an award winning performance poet from Salford, known for satirical poetry of strong sentiments and sharp rhymes. He’s a funny, nostalgic, outspoken word maestro who provides one of the most powerful performances on the UK scene. JB has been on tour with Sleaford Mods, performing in front of huge sell-out crowds across both England and Scotland and he supported The Charlatans on the main stage at Kendal Calling. He’s also performed with both Johnny Vegas and Ricky Tomlinson. Suggs from Madness was so impressed by JB’s book Woodchip Anaglypta And Nicotined Artex Ceilings he took a copy on stage with him and during the Madness Saturday night headline show in front of a sell-out crowd he read one of JB’s poems.
Soon to be oh so superb
SC: Sitting in his back garden on a sunny afternoon, I asked what gave him a love of scooters… was it music first and then the scoot, or did he like scoots and then get into the music?
JB: Honestly? Music first. It was always the music. When I was eight years old my brother bought me Setting Sons, Christmas 1979. Looking back, it was that album which got me into writing and doing the poetry. One particular song always stood out – Little Boy Soldiers, with the lines “They send you home in a pine overcoat with a letter to your mum, saying find enclosed one son, one medal and a note to say he won”. It’s all on a video on YouTube called A Solid Bond it’s an interview about where my influences came from. Hannah Weller saw it and re-tweeted it, so I guess Paul’s seen it too.
I was also listening to what I thought at the time was the Sex Pistols… it wasn’t, it was Ten Pole Tudor and the like – and this kid near us called Neil Gorton, called me into his place and he showed me the cover to In The City and All Mod Cons, he said “That’s what you should be listening to!” and said, “Look at that guy.” Who’s that? “Paul Weller.” Oh, he’s cool isn’t he? ‘Yeah. Listen to this…” and he put on
This Is The Modern World, Down In The Tube Station At Midnight. Setting Sons hadn’t come out then. I begged me mum to get me a pair of two tone pants and a Fred Perry from the catalogue, you know a three pack of polos for 50p a week where you end up paying it off for years. Then I was off down the youth club listening to stuff like The Specials, The Selecter, The Jam, Lambrettas and Madness, it just took over. It stayed with me ever since. Then the transition period came, I grew me hair, the flicker cut and was wearing the Fred Perry stuff and got into the casual scene, track-suits, trainers and the like. The trainers bit has never really left me either. Thinking on, I’ve got to mention that lyrically it was people like Malcolm X – who I found by listening to Public Enemy and the lyrics of Chuck D opened up a whole new world to me that no teacher at any school I went to ever taught me about. Tony Benn was another inspiration, as I got older it was Bill Hicks, George Carlin and later Doug Stanhope.
Musically, as I’ve said, my first love was The Jam then from that I got into the Small Faces, The Kinks, The Who, Tamla Motown etc. As a kid I got right into the Mod thing during the revival period post punk (I wanted to be a punk but my mam and dad wouldn’t let me wear the clothes) plus Mods looked better, much smarter. For me though, I wanted my bands to say something to me lyrically, The Jam did this perfectly, then I remember Billy Bragg coming along and his lyrics opened up a world of politics that resonated with me and made sense of the world and the surroundings I was living in.
Then along came The Housemartins and the lyrics of Paul Heaton which spoke volumes to me and I would say my writing became more and more political. To this day I still consider Paul Heaton to be one of the greatest poets ever. Public Enemy, as mentioned earlier, and the writings of Chuck D plus the lyrics of KRS One also had a profound effect on me.
Chrome won’t get you home
JB: Anyway, getting back to the main topic… about ’97 I was looking for a scooter. Before that point, I’d never had any money, I’d been on YTS scheme and pissing round with bands, so never earned much to speak of.
By ’97 I’d got a regular job. I’d hang around at Valley Scooters and Ian had a couple of these Indian-made Vespa things in there. I kept on looking at them, thinking, I’ll get one of them. In between that, I saw an advert in Scootering for Phoenix Heinz. I thought I’d go and have a look there. Valley Scooters did bits and bats, but didn’t have all the kit. So I nipped down to Phoenix and he tried to sell me a T5, mainly coz he had one in the shop. I stuck to it, telling him I wanted the Bajaj.
I wanted something that was new, but looked the part too. So Mike got one in for me, and I wanted a white scooter with a target on the front – like Weller had on one of his. It was either him or Dave used to be a sign writer and they did it for me. Cut a long story short, I got the scooter. And that’s when I discovered the curse of the Bajaj, come any whiff of damp or rain and it would just cut out and refuse to budge. It was shocking. I had to buy a new stator plate… from India. It was a nightmare, this was before how the internet is now.
In the end, through a mate of mine in the Salford Knights, Tizer, he took me to Pete Merchant’s and we got a P200 engine fitted. Luckily I got it supplied and fitted, just before the 200s went mental prices, I can’t remember exactly, I think it was about £400, nowhere near the footballer sums we’re now talking. I remember him showing me how to check my spark plug, as I said before, I knew nothing about scooters, I just wanted to ride the thing. It’s been sound since then. Getting the lamps to work was next hurdle that got solved by Tizer, he got his mate, Big Bri and his pal to wire up the lamps.
It’s a proper two-stroke… you know, chuck the oil in fuel and do the waggle dance on the petrol station forecourt. It’s the scooter I always wanted, just a pure Mod scooter – well to my mind at least. The P200/Bajaj had been in mothballs for years, being moved from mate’s garage to mate’s garage. Then I moved to York and it sat in my dining room for a couple of years. Now I’m living here and it fits the surroundings.
I used to ride out with the Salford Knights, well, I say ride out. If the weather turned on our way to Rhyl, Morecambe or Blackpool I’d piss off home. Who wants to ride in that? Call me a fair weather
rider, I don’t care. If you look at the rear end of my scoot, you’ll see the Salford Knights name stamped on it.
A nauseating need for nostalgia
I’ve done the Isle of Wight three times on this scooter. I got involved in doing those capers through Shaun Parkinson (Parky from Walkden) introducing me to the Salford Knights, that was when they met at The Duttton Arms on a Thursday. So I went down there and met Steve who ran it and met Aussie. Then I was in the Shameless Scooter Club at Atherton for a while. I’m going back a long time now.
I was on tour recently with a band called Sleaford Mods, they’re not particularly liked by the Mods, because they use the name ‘Mods’ and they’re not mods, well, they were… like we all were, but they’ve left it behind… moved on. There has to be a time when you say… D’you know what. We’ve already done that, leave it; it’s become like the Hollywood Cowboys and Indians thing – it becomes a cartoon of a memory of a cartoon. Having said that, it’s each to his own, if that’s someone’s thing and they’re happy with it, then that’s fine by me. Anyway, Sleaford Mods are great, Jason’s lyrics are great, he’s a breath of fresh air.
There’s a reason
Things have to progress, unfortunately a lot of the scooter ‘boys’ are middle aged men with disposable income whose kids have grown up and gone, so they’ve bought a scooter, again, and that’s why I think that’s why t the prices have ballooned.
Don’t forget, back in the day Aussi sie flogged a Series 1 Lambretta to Horne er’s (the one that Liam Gallagher was pictured sitting astride during the photo-shoot for the Definitely Maybe album sleeve) that was Aussie’s scooter. Suddenly it’s 1998 and loads of blokes who had scooters back in the day have taken early retirement.
Then it’s a case of ‘Oooh. I fancy getting a scooter again now…’ Couple that with scooters being everywhere in the media thanks to the marketing people of Oasis, Blur and the like, they become ‘cool’ again and the prices go through the roof. Weller came back on the scene and it all inflated, that’s my thinking.
Me, myself & greed
In hindsight, I wish I’d got a Lambretta. I’d always wanted a Lambretta and a GS too, but never got round to it. Other things become more of a priority. I might get a GS for Sharon, well the GS I want, for her, and then you still have it.