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 21st Century

The Edinburgh Blues Scooter Club

The 21st Century

 So we entered our 21st year as a club and indeed the 21st century. Things started off slowly with local events such as our stall at the Scottish Motorcycle Show at Ingliston, and our charity Easter Egg run which for the first time visited a new venue, Barnardos. The Easter Rally for 2000 was Great Yarmouth, which we had a good turnout from the club at. The organisers had decided that the Sunday night would be a shorts and shades do and so never ones to be outdone we searched about and bought a job lot of extremely loud Hawaiian shirts to wear for the weekend. Obviously seeing a dozen people wearing the same obnoxious shirts caused a bit of a stir so for the Sunday night itself we decided to go one better and arrived clutching newly bought surfboards. The laughs we had at this rally gave the year a real kick-start and saw good turnouts by the club at other national rallies such as Ayr, and Skegness. For many people the big event of 2000 was the Euro Lambretta Rally at Durham. The Blues were well represented with just over twenty members travelling down from Edinburgh. This was obviously very different from normal rallies with a sit down meal and all the foreign lambretta clubs represented. It was nice to see so many of the club opt for national dress of the kilt at the meal on the Saturday but it was very worrying to see that in the Mr Lambretta competition the majority of the men dressed as women were members of the club. And I share a tent with these guys? Another highlight of the year had to be the Mersea Island Rally down in Essex. Around a dozen of us made the journey down and had a great time with all the silly games. We even invented our own game of Sea Golf, which involves seeing who can knock one of the poseurs off a Jet Ski with their golf ball. Close Davie but no cigar. The line up of bands was fantastic and we won Furthest Travelled Club. The Blues were also active in Scotland attending many local events and winning Best Turned Out Club at Scootering In The Park, the Kingdom Weekender in Fife, and of course the Lambretta Club of Scotland Rally at Dumfries. What can be said about Dumfries? A brilliant weekend was had by all but next time can we have the gymkhana before the Yard of Ale contest? That way we might stand a chance. The club also found time to attend Scooter Glory in Ireland, and the famous Holiday in Holland run as well as Morecambe, and Bridlington. The end of the year saw our 21st Anniversary Dance at the Gyle Park Inn, which was very well supported, and which has been well reported elsewhere.

 2001 saw the club acquire its first branch in Europe when Switzerland joined up. We had been travelling there for many years and they were old friends. The club was continuing to attend runs throughout the country, and this was leading many of our friends down south to decide to join with us and become part of the Blues Family. We also brought in the first of our German branches from Baden-Wurttemberg. We started to put on free events at the rallies as well. This started at Great Yarmouth were we took over the pub Boston’s on the seafront for the whole weekend, and had the band Skaville playing. We also had free do’s at the Southcliffe Hotel in Bridlington for the Trade and Custom Show. We were also involved in sorting the venue for the Scottish National Rally at Hawick and worked to make the rally a success. With the club growing we decided to put on a bigger anniversary dance with the venue being the Edinburgh University Student Union again with the live band being Skaville.

 The following year saw us continue to expand the club in England and Germany with new branches coming in from Dusseldorf and Munich. Indeed the club was expanding so quickly that we actually stopped recruiting new branches in Britain. We continued to travel all over the country and make new friends. For our anniversary we were back at the student union with the live band being the excellent Jam tribute band All Mod Cons. So with the club continuing to thrive and travel throughout Britain and Europe we came to 2004 and the 25^th Anniversary of the club. This year saw the first Blues event held on mainland Europe with the Munich Blues Family Party in March, which saw our newest branch Bremen in attendance. The event was such a success that a number of us travelled over to Munich in September of that year for the second of their parties. This was a superb weekend with us being made so welcome by our German brothers and sisters. Over the long weekend we visited two scooter shops having a good look round the museum housed at one of them. This was followed by a Blues only meal and mega drinking session. The party itself – what can you say about a party that doesn’t finish until seven in the morning? Brilliant !!! Also at the party we chartered our new branch of the family from Austria. Sunday saw us visit the huge bi-annual motorcycle show just outside Munich before joining our German brothers for a farewell meal (our treat this time).

 Of course the highlight of 2004 was our anniversary dance. Our top promotions guy Sumo was on the case to make this something special. Working with Alex from Carnaby Records he certainly did us proud. A free welcoming do at the Corn Exchange on the Friday night. A huge custom show and parts fair during the day on Saturday and then in the main hall of the Corn Exchange at night the dance itself featuring Bad Manners live on stage. Members past and present were there together with Blues from all our branches. A fantastic way for us to end our 25^th year.
The End of the Beginning.

 So the club entered its second 25 years with a trip to Elba in Italy. Members driving via Germany where they met up with our German brothers and sisters to travel to what for many was the highlight of their scootering lives. We also continued to have our free do’s at Bridlington where again we played host to our Swiss members and some friends from Scandinavia. The year ended with us going over en masse to Munich for the party where around eighty Blues from four countries did what they do best drink and party. At the time of writing 2006 is just upon us and we have started the year by travelling over to Sweden to attend the launch party of the latest addition to our family the twenty or so members of the Swedish Blues. Our first time in Sweden a lovely country and lovely people. We will be going back very soon. Who knows what the future will hold but I for one can’t wait. For most of us scootering has never been so good or such a close knit international community. Indeed in many ways this was the year of the Swedes. In May some of our new Swedish members came over to Scotland to spend a week with us touring. They then travelled down with us to Whitby were they partied with Blues from all over Britain as well as some of our Finnish members. August saw us driving down to Newcastle to catch the ferry to Sweden for Rally Scandinavia. A really good friendly rally. A number of us stayed on to spend some days seeing the sites in Gothenburg were we were really looked after by our Swedish Family. Also Rally Scandinavia saw the debut of our new branch the Hamburg Blues. The year ended with three great parties, first of all our annual Bridlington extravaganza with free band which saw the Swedes and Swiss travel over to join us.  Next we were over to Munich which saw Blues from five countries enjoying the excellent German hospitality. We ended the year as we had begun it by travelling to Sweden for the first Swedish Blues Family Party. A fantastic meal and the singing was something else.

  Willie Greive.