PISTONHEAD RUN, FINLAND....part two

I woke up to a warm, sunny day. Mala cooked a tasty breakfast of scrambled eggs with 4 different Scandinavian cheeses and the local wholemeal flatbread. This was washed down with cinnamon tea.
I spent the morning mooching around the house and yard, absorbing the ambience. Hese from ROAD-WEIRDOES, who I met the last time I came to Finland, showed up with his buddy to work on one of the various trucks parked up. Mala hooked me up with some wheels for the weekend... a brand new 'Retro' 125cc scooter from India with only 280km's on the clock. It was great to have some independence and not be reliant on anybody to get around. In the afternoon Eski and Masa arrived and I pitched in and helped load the vans and trucks with musical equipment, merch and camping stuff for the show.

PISTONHEAD RUN, FINLAND....part one

Just back from a 5 day trip to Somero, Finland representing Sideburn Magazine at The Pistonhead Run.

I was shown some warm Finnish hospitality from Mala Malk, boss of KOPTERI, Finland's best chopper mag!

He picked me up at Helsinki airport and we drove 100 kms to Somero. We stopped on the way to buy sleeping bags etc. The first thing I saw was a pensioner in a THRASHER hoody followed by a monochrome, floppy-mohawked punk sporting TAMPERE SS, DISFEAR and GISM patches.

Mala resides in a huge converted dairy factory, built in 1928 and closed in the mid 70's. Downstairs is an open plan garage/workshop/storage space with living quarters on the second floor. Mala has spent his adult life collecting Americana, so that's cars, trucks, motorcycles, pinball machines, musical equipment, buses, clothing, hats, boots, food products, hair products, gas station ephemera, beer, toys and records....oh and a crane (though technically, that's English). The factory sits way out in the countryside and the surrounding sprawling plot is full of outhouses bursting with the aforementioned stuff.

MILL STREET MUSCLE CAR

More pics from yesteryear. My dad always had fast cars and seemed to change them every 6 months but back in 1973 he owned this Mustang Mach 1. An awesome car to be driven around the Wigan borough in. Left hand drive, V8 lump, 8-track music player and candy red leather interior. We once took a three week long family caravanning trip to Italy and Yugoslavia and averaged between 7-9 miles per gallon! I fondly remember my sister and me lying down in the 'folded-down -seat' boot area, looking up through the tinted panoramic rear window at the crystal clear Mediterranean sky whilst listening to Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra. Unsure of all the contributing facts but I think the car was sold on pretty quickly after this trip....probably because it was such a gas guzzler!
I'm not really into cars but if I ever had a few grand spare...I would hunt down one of these iconic bruisers.

1977 ABC WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS: CATALINA CLASSIC

Fantastic for numerous  reasons:

Burly downhill decents with the guys riding out the speed wobbles.

Bobby Piercy and John Hutson riding for TURNER SUMMER SKI and SANTA CRUZ respectively....absolutely charging it!

Dale 'Sausage-Man' Smiths insanely camp freestyle moves.

Amazing Mustaches.....short shorts.

Herds of Buffalo roaming majestically across the horizon.

Jamie Hart's attache briefcase containing his race formula OJ WHEELS.

Tough girls on skateboards.

The anchor mans neat bright yellow blazer!

AMERICAN SKATEBOARDER

Jason Adams makes a custom print of Duane Peters

70's MUSCLE CAR MAYHEM

Here they are! Some dumb, pointless yet very entertaining muscle car movies from the Seventies.
Classic American V8 powered cars with way-too-soft suspension crashing into things.
Vividly remember all these trailers on TV when they were released.
I feel a trip to PEP BOYS coming on!
In order we got:
DIRTY MARY CRAZY LARRY (1974)
GONE IN SIXTY SECONDS (1974)
VANISHING POINT (1971)
DEATH RACE 2000 (1975)
CANNONBALL aka CARQUAKE (1976)

In 1974 my Dad actually owned  a MUSTANG MACH 1 just like the one in GONE IN SIXTY SECONDS!

RACE WITH THE DEVIL

This film has been floating around in my subconscious for many many years. I was on Youtube exploring a recent obsession with 70's Carsploitation movies (more on that in another post) when I stumbled upon this mighty gem.

The first few minutes of RACE WITH THE DEVIL make great eye candy for vintage Flat Track freaks.Great shots of Bultacos in a mid 70's workshop, followed by a well filmed race scene on asphalt!!!!.......I love the fact his mate in the Winnebago shows up mid race and obliviously pulls onto the track at a snails pace!
Great shots of vintage race leathers and helmets....wonder where this was filmed and who the 'racers' are?

First released in 1975, the film is a weird mix of horror and car chasing and stars Peter Fonda and Loretta Swit (hotlips in M.A.S.H.) so that ticks all my boxes! Not sure if it is commercially available on DVD but I'm gonna try and get a copy for my ever growing Biker movie collection

LANCELOT LINK......IN COLOR!!

 I noticed that the last few posts have been mainly monochrome...so, for no reason other than to add some color to FULL FROKKUL...here are some Lancelot Link comic covers and a clip from the TV show with the band singing "Evolution Revolution", another song squished through THE STAGS mangle and served up on the DO THE TON album

snow fun January 1965

Sick of the snow? Paul Revere and the Raiders love it!!

BLACK FLAG DEMOS 1982

Scorching demo versions of songs, recorded in 1982 that ended up on the MY WAR and SLIP IT IN albums.
Stuck with record contract hassles, BLACK FLAG secretly recorded a bunch of new songs.
 In my opinion, these demos are superior to the official releases.
Rollins had just joined Greg Ginn, Dez Cadena and Chuck Dukowski plus amazing drummer Chuck Biscuits(RIP) a formidable line up and these songs showcase the direction the band was going to go in.......

AURORA BOX ART

Continuing on the monster tip....take a look at the great box art for the "GLOW IN THE DARK" AURORA MONSTER KITS.
The "long box" non-glow versions issued in the 60's are probably more valuable and sought after.... but these are the kits I remember buying with my pocket money as an 8 year old!
 Aurora Plastics Company had been making figural models of the Universal monsters for a few years and they were really one of the first companies to captilize on the Monster craze of that decade. In the 70's they relaunched the line with a new feature, they now glowed in the dark. Monster items and glowing in the dark is still a prevelant trend to this day..The box art was re-vamped and looks really great, even more ghoulish and lurid.
The last picture of the BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN is a mock up of a kit that was never released.