Tuesday 25 January 2011

ITALIAN MOTORCYCLE EXPO, VERONA 2011 part one











Just back from a truly great trip to The Italian Motorcycle Expo in Verona where SIDEBURN MAGAZINE were invited to "exhibit"....
We shipped a pallet of goodies (thanks Wilky #99) and jumped on a plane armed with 2 small boxes of Garage, Soul and British Beat 45's along with my portable record player and the four Psychedelic Terrorist Masks.
Got picked up by the "Viscount of Verona" Paolo Zieta, in his pimped out paddy wagon and travelled in style to a nice hotel where the EVEL KNIEVEL EXHIBITION and LOWRIDE MAGAZINE staff were also staying.
The show was HUGE!! I didn't actually manage to get round all the 8 halls....and I was there for 3 days!
The Sideburn Booth turned out to be in a great spot....hall 1, in the shadow of Mr. Martini's double decker London bus and right next to the LOWRIDE MAGAZINE photo studio! This meant that all the really cool bikes from all around the different halls were lined up ready to be photographed in front of our booth. Add to this, a constant parade of stunning models in various states of undress, entering and exiting the studio, thus providing endless photo opportunities!
Although the Sideburn booth was one of the smallest there, we seemed to make a big impression, resorting to shock tactics and "masking up" in matching white overalls and dancing like loons to IL GEGHEGE by Rita Pavone, around the new ZIETA STREET-TRACKER.
I met a bunch of cool people, Roberto Totti and his wife Chintzia (respected Italian bike builder and winner of best street bike) that's them pictured with Paolo Zieta under the Sideburn banner. Also Mr. Martini (more on him later) who sorted out a nice loud amp for me to play my records with and took us out to a bustling pizza joint that sold pizza by the metre! We spent time with the OFFICINE MERMAID folks  Dario, Stefania, Antonio and Toto...we were treated like kings.
Jeff Decker was there with his collection of Motorcycle Club Colors and a couple of his bronze statues.
Fiddy introduced me to a guy called Neil Blaber, director of AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER WORLD who turned out to be a JAILCELL RECIPES fan and saw us play with GREEN DAY at Tunbridge Wells in 1991.

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