PISTONHEAD RUN, FINLAND....part three

The show was held on a local camp-site close to Mala's house. It was a small and intimate gathering with some interesting people turning up. Friday night, a 2 piece band SPOON HILL played (bass drum, tuba, acoustic guitar and harmonica) I ended up joining them on percussion. Oddly enough ....a guy from Lancaster rolled up....it turns out we share the same barber!

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.

SIDEBURN EURO-ROADTRIP part one

Jasons bike gets photographed for LOWRIDE mag

                                        GI and MP ....put 'em together and whatya got?..GIMP!!

I JUST WANT SOME SKANK! The boots the girl in the last picture was wearing

                                         Anna and friend peruse THE FLAT-TRACK BIBLE

                                                                     MEEOOOWW!!

ZAETA PRODUCTION BIKE

Just got back from a 5 day road trip to Milan, Italy to have a presence at a custom/hotrod show. We had a super hectic schedule, managing to take in an motorcycle art show launch in Paris, a home visit to photographer/RUBY HELMETS guy Dimitri Coste, an overnight stay with IVAN THE TERRIBLE which included some frantic record buying and then a US BOMBS gig on the way home in Belgium. It was a 2200 mile roundtrip and almost 40 hours behind the wheel.

Personal highlights were:

Getting to know Paulo from ZEATA MOTORCYCLES a little better. He booked us a nice hotel and generally made sure we enjoyed our stay in Milan.

Spending time with Ivan in Paris and getting the chance to buy some records out of his recently deceased good buddy "SF Sorrow Seb"s collection.

Driving in heavy snow conditions over the Alps.

Hooking up my portable record player and playing my records over the big PA at the show.

Catching up with DP in Belgium. I lent him some DVD's to while away the hours in the van. He almost borrowed a comp of classic british tv adverts including all the Leonard Rossiter/Joan Collins CHINZANO ads!