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Left my Tiger Cub outside the Scotchman and His Pack pub back in 1970 , when myself and a mate went to see BB King / Fleetwood Mac at the Colston Hall , in Bristol ......... returned to find some bastard had slit the leopard skin ( plastic ) seat cover ...... soon got over it though ........
What was the concert like?
Paul
 
What was the concert like?
Paul
It was ok ..... we really went to see Fleetwood Mac , who were the support ........ this was the original Danny Kirwan / Jeremy Spencer line up ......

BB King was alright , but a bit " showbiz " ....... He seemed to spend just as much time talking as playing " Lucille " , or whatever it was he called his guitar ......

John Baldry was the compere .... there was a technical hitch before BB came on , so Baldry took the opportunity to entertain us with a couple of his songs until things got sorted out ........... The bloke next to me seemed to take an instant ( or maybe long held ) dislike to Baldry , and gave vent to this by standing up and shouting " F*ck Off , F*ck Off " all the way through Baldry`s impromptu performance .........

.... All a bit embarrassing , as when the lights came back on , everyone turned around in our direction to see where all the noise had been coming from ........ ( Bloke had sat back down again by now ) ....

About half way through BB Kings performance , I glanced at him , and he appeared to have dozed off ....... not really surprising , as like I said ...... BB King seemed to spend most of the time talking ......
 
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It was ok ..... we really went to see Fleetwood Mac , who were the support ........ this was the original Danny Kirwan / Jeremy Spencer line up ......

BB King was alright , but a bit " showbiz " ....... He seemed to spend just as much time talking as playing " Lucille " , or whatever it was he called his guitar ......

John Baldry was the compere .... there was a technical hitch before BB came on , so Baldry took the opportunity to entertain us with a couple of his songs until things got sorted out ........... The bloke next to me seemed to take an instant ( or maybe long held ) dislike to Baldry , and gave vent to this by standing up and shouting " F*ck Off , F*ck Off " all the way through Baldry`s impromptu performance .........

.... All a bit embarrassing , as when the lights came back on , everyone turned around in our direction to see where all the noise had been coming from ........ ( Bloke had sat back down again by now ) ....

About half way through BB Kings performance , I glanced at him , and he appeared to have dozed off ....... not really surprising , as like I said ...... BB King seemed to spend most of the time talking ......
Saw the Darkness at Colston hall just before they changed the name to something not connected to the slave trade.
 
Saw the Darkness at Colston hall just before they changed the name to something not connected to the slave trade.
But we still have ( here we go , deep breath ) ........ Colston Road ; Avenue ; Hill ; Close ; Court ; Dale ; Fort ; Parade ; Mews ; Place ; Street ; Tower ; Yard , in Bristol .........

My first boss had Colston as his middle name ........ As far as I know , no angry ( happy ? ) mob ever threw him into the city docks ( as happened to the bronze statue of Colston in the city centre not so long ago ) ......... although there had been times when I wished someone would .......
 
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Getting airborne # 2 .......... Barry Sheene and his Suzuki XR14 piss off northern race fans by winning the Scarborough Gold Cup at Olivers Mount in 1976 ......

Sheene wasn`t always particularly popular at the northern circuits ........ The rich southern superstar demanding better start money than local riders etc. ......... One of Sheene`s main rivals at Olivers Mount , Yorkshireman Mick Grant , said he was always a bit wary of getting into the parade lap car at the end of the race with Sheene , for fear of being accidently hit by one of the rocks being aimed at Barry .......

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Hand written notes by Barry Sheene to be passed onto the new owner of the Suzuki RT67 which he raced in 1970 .....

The bike was given to Stuart Graham by Suzuki when they quit GP racing , on the understanding he would`nt race it in Grand Prix the following year ....... Graham sold it to Frank and Barry Sheene when he needed the cash to start his garage business .....

Team Sheene were based in the basement boiler room of the Royal College of Surgeons , at Queen Square , London , where Frank Sheene was employed as a maintenance man .......... Frank and Barry were able to modify or replicate parts there , which were no longer available for the ex - factory engine , although it did come with a spare ......

Graham said he could have asked more for the bike , but it was obvious that the Sheenes had sunk all their spare money into the bike , and he was happy to let the bike go to people who knew what they were doing ......

The RT67 `s 10 speed gear cluster was replaced by the Sheenes with a Dutch manufactured six speed unit to comply with newly introduced FIM rules .......

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I am keen to know more as well, Looks like a bigger front tank, saddlebag rear tank and added navigation tower. Must be somewhere around 40 litres of fuel, not fun picking that up after a whoopsy.
 
Chain drive prototype Guzzi- cooler than Fonzie. Built at the factory out of hours with help from the machine shop, the chain drive was part of a project to supply engines to Bimota who insisted on chain drive.Spot the fuel tap under the pannier tanks! The production Quota was actually Dr John Witners baby, never a big seller but paved the way for the retro rally bikes of today.
 

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Time travelling back to August 1979 this afternoon I spotted this ........... Jotas still winning , but now living on borrowed time ...... GSX`s and CB1100R`s on the horizon ...... Noisy buggers those Ducatis ......... Ray Knight on his Honda CB900 ( * Second Hand Rose " I believe he called it ) ... used to feature in Motor Cycle Sport articles at the time ...... Hope he is still around , he also raced production Jotas ... ) .......

Pete Davies adversary in the Avon series Mike James cleans up at West Raynham ......

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Close Tony, but not quite right. Ray did race a CB900F in proddy races but’Secondhand Rose’ was a P&M Honda using mostly second hand ex-works RSC engine bits, I.e. a RCB engine which was a big bore version of the CB750 engine.
Ray is still with us, but unfortunately starting to show his age a bit more these days.
 
Close Tony, but not quite right. Ray did race a CB900F in proddy races but’Secondhand Rose’ was a P&M Honda using mostly second hand ex-works RSC engine bits, I.e. a RCB engine which was a big bore version of the CB750 engine.
Ray is still with us, but unfortunately starting to show his age a bit more these days.
Thanks Andy ....... Going by memory ..... ( again ........ always a dangerous thing , but most of those old MCS mags have been disposed of , unfortunately ....... ) ..... Glad to hear he is still around .... and do have some pics of him on the Jota , plus a NC30 as well I think .... Will try to dig them out ... ( here we go again ..... ) ..... :) .............
 
Didn`t manage to find those pics of Ray on the Jota , which is a pity , as they were good ....... Did find some others of him , which I will put up in a moment .... but in the meantime ......... ( gotta work my way slowly through all this ... ) .......

...... MCS article........

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.... and the chap the Ducati Paso was named after .....

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