Animal Antics
The sun shone brightly all day for the Armthorpe Animals S.C.’s ‘Animal Antics 9’ rally and their usual enjoyable mayhem was topped up this year by a ‘Summer of Love’ theme with a Punk/Psychobilly twist…
Armthorpe Animals S.C.’s annual rally and their usual enjoyable mayhem were topped up this year by a ‘Summer of Love’ theme with a Punk/Psychobilly twist…
Live music
With this year’s rally being a particularly special occasion, Mick Shore and the rest of the team decided to put together a spectacular itinerary for the event. “In the marquee we’ve got ‘No Lip’, who’ll be playing two sets. We’ve got ‘Madhouse’ who I saw at Bedlam Breakout and we’ve flown them in from Belfast; they’re different and they’re perfect for our do. Then, to top things off, our headline act is the world-renowned Psychobilly band, ‘The Long Tall Texans’,” Mick explained.
Event preparations in the grounds of the venue had got underway on the Friday with the main marquee being set up in the field immediately behind the Hayfield. In the meantime, the adjoining field had been made ready for campers and by mid-afternoon keen event-goers were arriving and setting up.
The official opening time for Saturday, the main day of the event, was around 11am, but by 9.30am plenty of scooter riders and enthusiastic rally-goers were turning up! Mick quickly directed the team into action and within a few minutes Marie, Abigail (who was celebrating her 21st birthday), Jasmin and Carl got the ‘meet and greet’ bench set up at the top of the main route into the venue.
Moving in motion
With the activity developing and the P.A. system in the marquee playing, I went over to the campsite and chatted with some of the rally-goers. The general opinion amongst everyone was that the success of the Animal Antics Rally is the fact that it’s an old skool rally with a difference. Everyone explained that the music and the entertainment are alternative to other rallies, and the effort Mick and the team put into making them a success for everyone shines through.
By late morning the picnic benches on the patio outside the Hayfield had been moved to allow onlookers to enjoy a drink in the sunshine and view the custom show arrivals. The custom show scooters were soon taking up their places and an interesting line-up of most genres of
scooters was building. Also next to the marquee there were several dealers and traders offering scooter clothing and accessories, and scooter parts. In the meantime, whilst all this was going on, a healthy line-up of day-trippers on their scooters had started to build up in the car park.
Entertainment, sun and fun
‘No Lip’ came on stage early afternoon and set things going with a highly charged set of Punk tracks. By now, the bar in the Hayfield was doing a roaring trade and rally-goers were getting into the atmosphere, during which time, and with a healthy element of banter, Johnny Adams announced the custom show results. In the meantime, Glyn Holland took to the decks in the marque and
delivered a wide range of scooter rally and non-scooter rally tracks. Following all this, John Coopey delivered a ‘spoken word’ performance, which consisted of a variety of his own tracks and well-known covers delivered with a ‘colourful’ interpretation of the original lyrics! When John closed his set he explained that his CDs were available and all proceeds would go to the Candlelighters children’s cancer charity
Late afternoon saw Johnny Adams come back to the mic and facilitated the tattoo competition, which became a comedy spectacular. As Johnny explained, the spirit of the competition wasn’t all about how good the tattoos were, it was also about how well they were delivered. With over a dozen contestants lined up, each contestant enthusiastically explained their tattoos to Johnny, which left them wide open to the wrath of his individual style of feedback. Having got the numbers whittled down to the final two, the winner was decided by the crowd’s ‘cheerometer’ and the title went to Renee from Melton Mowbray.
Evening fun
The drinking competition kicked the evening off at 6pm, and shortly after ‘No Lip’ came back on stage for another set. They closed it with The Clash’s ‘White Riot’ before ‘Madhouse’ set up in the marquee, whilst rally-goers listened to scooter tracks on the P.A. ‘Madhouse’ then opened with ‘Milk and Alcohol’ and during the performance their front man, Billy Riot, entertained the crowd with his own style of psychobilly lunacy, which got everyone engaged and immersed in the infectious performance.
When ‘Madhouse’ closed, scooter tracks continued, and just after 9pm headline band, ‘The Long Tall Texans’, took to the stage, taking the crowd to the next level. When ‘The Long Tall Texans’ finished the entertainment continued with a late-night disco, which went on into the early hours and closed with Chicago House.
Saturday was an amazing day, delivering non-stop entertainment, sun, laughter, scooters and frolics. The mixture of punk, psychobilly and the ‘Summer of Love’ theme was crazy but endearing, and it worked. That is what Animal Antics Rallies are all about: enjoying yourself, taking part and having fun!