Nottingham…yes that’s right I said Nottingham is home to an Insta worthy coffee shop…with a twist. The twist being the fairground theme oh and the hidden tattoo parlor too!. Neon Wolf opened in January.
An Insta worthy coffee shop at Darby Road
The coffee shop that can be found on Derby Road, is home to fluorescent pink lights creating a candy floss like haze and both dodgem and waltzer cars for tables and seats. Don’t worry though the custom made cars have been fitted to the flooring meaning that you won’t be spun round whilst enjoying your coffee. You also don’t have to dodge other people in your dodgem car whilst trying not to spill your tea!.
Neon Wolf Dodgem Car
The fun theme to this coffee shop has caught the eye of many Instagram users who have deemed the cafe as an Instagram worthy coffee shop. In today’s society that is among one of the best compliments to receive. There are now 4.20 billion social media uses around the world. This figure has shown a growth of over 490 million people in the last 12 months. With more than 37% of the population using Instagram it’s important that businesses utilize social media. Due to the coffee shop being Insta worthy it means that visitors will be more likely to take photos and share it to their Instagram site. This meaning all their ‘followers’ will see the post. This is basically free advertising as once people see the photo they may wish to visit the coffee shop too
Custom Designs
The waltzer car has been manufactured especially for the cafe rather than being a second hand piece from a waltzer. Being custom made ensued that then cafe could put their own touch to the center piece. They had them fitted out with velvet seating and labelled with the phrase ‘sorry mum’ and ‘cry wolf’ in reference to the hidden tattoo parlor under the cafe. The dodgem cars have been restored as they was in very bad condition. With the outside framework being reconditioned and the interior being fitted with the same velvet seating as the waltzer cars.
Neon Wolf Coffee Shop Table
Goose Fair Vibes
Many visitors have said that the cafe gives them major goose fair vibes. Nottingham goose fair is one of the biggest events on both the showmen and public’s social calendar’s. The goose fair turns up to Nottingham the first week of October and can be traced back more than 700 years. Originally a trade fair selling geese among other things it has now evolved into one of the largest fairs in the country. Nottingham Goose fair is now home to more than 500 attractions.
Nottingham Goose Fair By Night
So for 51 weeks of the year if your missing your goose fair fix then you need to visit Neon wolf.The Instagram worthy coffee shop and take a seat in the waltzer car and imagine your being spun round till your dizzy!
Another selection of misadventures from our past history.
Keep Them Wheels Turning 2010
When we first started and was operating on a limited budget, we frequently had problems with equipment failures and vehicle breakdowns. As we grew and ended up in a position to buy better equipment, and also put back up systems in place we found that things seemed to run a lot more smoothly.
However the law of averages caught up with us the other day, we had quite a busy schedule, calling at a small village in Surrey to apply 125 chair covers and sashes and set up a chocolate fountain, then on to Sevenoaks to set a number of stalls and a couple of catering carts up, back to the first venue to drop two members of staff off, then I continued on to Walton on Thames to operate a candy floss and popcorn cart. As soon as I finished I derigged everything and shot back to the first venue with the intention of picking my staff up to travel home to Yorkshire, grab a couple of hours sleep, load the van up with the rest of the equipment for the Sevenoaks job and set back off down South.
Bang Goes The Tyre
Everything was going great guns when a bang, signalled that I had a tyre blown out, ‘great, just what I wanted on a lane in the middle of nowhere, a tyre change.’ In time I ended up wishing I was changing a tyre, because when I crawled under the back of the van I discovered the spare wheel missing (it was a hire van). I rang the owner and ot him out of bed, “ring the AA he said, the van is covered”, trouble is when I explained the problem they informed me that under their terms of service, not having a spare wheel meant that I wasn’t covered. Rang John again, “Ring a tyre firm he said and bill me”. An hour later after ringing every number I could find on the internet I rang John again. After an exchange of ideas, he informed me that he was setting off with a spare wheel, wonderful, the three of us only had to sit and wait in the van whilst John covered the 216 miles to us.
Now before John set off he had to nip up to our place and pick up the items I needed for the next day, this included a striker (test your strength machine). On our striker the base unit is made from 20mm steel plate to give it the weight needed to remain stationary whilst being hammered. The base unit is kept on a small set of wheel which allow it to be moved about the yard. When John and my other half lifted it into the van, John had not realised that the wheels were not part of the structure and left his fingers underneath when they dropped it into the back of the van. My wife rang me to tell me that John was running around the yard squealing about his fingers. She wasn’t in the mood for sympathy and told him that if he went to the hospital they would only tape his fingers up, and she offered to lend him a roll of tape to ensure he got on his way quicker.
When he arrived at our end the first thing he did was show me his fingers, which by then were black and blue and quite swollen. Bloody well serves him right for removing the spare wheel.
Squashed Fingers
Mobile Bar Buzz 2010
We recently installed a bar at an event for a major motor industry manufacturer and a games console company. This was a pre paid job with us supplying a fixed package of drinks, including cocktails and one of our Jagermeister tap machines.
The event went stormingly with everyone in fancy dress and the room buzzing. Sabine Schmitz (the German female racing driver who raced Jeremy Clarkson around the Nurburgring race track, with Jeremy in a Jaguar S type, and Sabine in a Transit Van, she lost by only 9 seconds. Ms Schmitz and a cohort of German friends managed to consume our stocks of Jagermeister, before moving onto frozen Margarita cocktails with an added shot of Vodka, something our cocktail mixologist insisted you couldn’t do, but the Schmitz party proving you obviously could!
Our Mobile Bar
De Computer Sez So 2010
Quite often nowadays I don’t have time to keep this blog updated. Odd occasions I do have time I sometimes struggle for something newsworthy to write. Occasionally however something drops in my lap that I just have to put on here. I recently added a new van to our line up, and insured it with the company that insurers our other CItroen dispatch. In common with our other insurances we pay in a lump sum at the start of the insurance term. A couple of days ago the postman knocked on the door to deliver a registered letter from said company, upon opening it I read a formal notice that as I had not settled an outstanding amount they would be cancelling my insurance unless it was paid in the next 7 days. Now this puzzled me as I know I paid in full at the start of the policy term.
Upon reading further down the page, the amount outstanding was in large bold type to make it more noticable. It read that I owed them £0.00 that’s right Zero pounds and zero pence. I sent them a very nice email admitting that I owed this amount and asking if they would like a cheque for £0.00 or would they like it in cash in which case I would send them an empty envelope.
Amsterdam 2010
February, which is usually our quietest month (although this year turned out to be a busy one), saw us managing to fit a 3 day break to Amsterdam in. I have been there in the past both when I was single, and also spent part of my honeymoon there whilst touring Europe.
As is normal nowadays, everything was booked online a few weeks before, with the booking system informing me that actual airline tickets are no longer issued, we instead have E tickets. Anyway a couple of days before we were due to fly I discovered that my other half’s E ticket had been issued in her maiden name, and knowing that airlines are particularly picky about names since 9/11 I rang our carriers, KLM straight up. “No problem Mr Moody, said a pleasant Dutch voice, we can change names quite easily.” was followed by “Oh, sorry we can’t change your ticket”. Upon inquiring as to why, I was told that since I had booked them through a travel agent, the agent would have to make the name change request. I duly rang the agents to do this. (No problem Mr Moody, that’s quite easy, please hold the line”, was again followed by “Oh, we can’t do it”. The reason this time turned out to be the fact that it was Saturday, and the KLM office which deals with name changes doesn’t work weekends.
SO we ended up being told that we should get to the airport early, and the ticket desk there should change the name for us. On the morning we were flying we arrived bright and early only to be met with a queue of about 80 people! We informed an airport attendant of our predicament and asked if there was anyway of getting the ticket sorted sooner, upon asking to see our ticket, his reply was “I wouldn’t worry about your ticket mate, that flight was canceled last night”, turned out that the plane we were supposed to be on didn’t land because of fog.
Five bloody hours were in that queue for. Mid way through it the rumour seemed to be that the next available flight was the day after.Not wanting to lose a day of a short break, I got my laptop out, connected to KLM’s site and booked three seats on a later flight, reasoning that I would worry about refunds later. After booking the seats I was informed that I would have to pay for them at the ticket desk, so I would still have to stand in the bloody queue.
Anyway as we reached nearly to the front of the queue I discovered that the ticket agent was in fact booking people on the same plane I had just reserved 3 seats on, great it looked like I would have 6 seats on the flight, but at least one of the 6 would be in my wife’s current name. I duly reached the front of the queue to meet the ticket agent, a short stern faced lady who looked like she would make a good concentration camp guard in the movie industry.
I was just about to launch into a tirade about waiting 5 bloody hours and not being informed of cancelled flights when a young man dropped a bundle of papers on her desk and exclaimed innocently “These need taking care of when you get a minute”, the look she gave him would have welded steel from 40 paces, and her reply of “You know what you can do with those Stephen, shove them up your bloody arse!” seemed to modify my temper somewhat.
As she turned that steely gaze upon me I gave her my best smile, what I hoped was a slightly pleading look in my eyes, and informed her that not only did we need our flights sorting out, but my wife’s ticket was in the wrong name. Her eyes narrowed, her shoulders tightened and a visible shudder ran through her, taking a hold or herself she sighed loudly, stared towards the heavens, closed her eyes for a long moment then sorted everything out for us.
Amsterdam turned out much as I remember it, the Dutch must be the most laid back and pleasant race in Europe, and we spent a pleasant 3 days strolling around the city, with a short trip to the seaside town of Vollendam thrown in. THe first tram we boarded into the city centre, I asked the conductor for the price of the ticket (most locals use pre paid cards much like the oyster system in London), he just smiled and told me not to worry and get of when we were ready.
The next day having some experience of the tram system, we boarded the tram outside our hotel and I asked for 3 day passes. The lady conductor smiled sweetly and apologised for having run out of them. “It is not a problem”, she said, “Just buy them from a ticket machine when you get off”. Can you imagine that, over here it would go like this, “3 Day passes please”, “Can’t do that mate I’ve run out” “Oh, well can I buy them when I get off at the other end” “No sorry can’t do that you need a ticket to travel” “Oh well give me 3 tickets please” “Sorry, just told you I’ve run out!”
Mid way through I had a headache coming on so thought I would nip into a chemist for some pain relief. What greeted me must have been one of the barest shelves of painkillers I have ever seen, about the size of a television set, it contained pretty much only what you could buy from a late night garage in this country. Upon inquiring about something a bit stronger I was informed that I would need a doctors prescription. “So let me get this straight,” I said, “I can walk into anyone of a million coffee shops and buy cannabis or marijuana, without any problems, but if I want something stronger than 400mg of Ibuprofen I need a prescription?”. “That’s pretty much it”, replied the chemist. “Strange country”, “Yep” came the retort, along with that pleasant Dutch laid back smile.
Amsterdam Coffee Shops
Ready to come home, we reached Schipol airport, and found that they have a fully automated system to book in and be issued with your boarding card. I entered our E ticket number, only to learn that I was booked on the flight along with our daughter, but not my wife. It made me think of a recent case where an immigration official had waved his wife off at the airport in London, went back to work and added her to the known terrorist list of people banned from entering the UK, and then proceeded to live the single life until he was found out 4 years later, in the meantime his wife had spent 4 years stuck in Pakistan unable to find out why she wasn’t allowed to board a flight back to England!
As it turned out, because of the name change we had made at Bradford, my wife had received a separate reservation, which no one had bothered to inform me of.
If you missed them take a look at some of our other old stories here.
Our look today is at one of the larger ride manufacturers on the States. Currently producing a range of amusement rides, roller coasters, people movers and giant wheels. Chance Rides operate from a 40 acre site with around 310,000 sq ft of buildings in Wichita Kansas. The area is regarded as the aviation capital of the world, and provides a large pool of highly skilled workers, along with many specialised manufacturers.
The C.P. Huntington Train
The original C.P. Huntington was a locomotive purchased by the Central Pacific railway, the third of their loco’s in 1863. When it was sold to the Southern Pacific railway company it was named in honour of Collis P. Huntington, their third President.
Collis.P.Huntingdon
Richard Harold Chance, who had originally been building small trains for the Ottaway Amusement Company since 1946, designed a 2ft guage replica of the Locomotive. In 1960 he began to build these using petrol, diesel, propane or electric engines for sale to amusement parks, zoo’s and similar.
The very first one was delivered to the Joyland Amusement Park in Wichita. Replacing their original miniature train that had operated since 1933. It has been the most popular park train model since The Allan Herschell Company merged with Chance closing down the production line for their Iron Horse train. The company has built over 400 trains and coaches for customers around the globe. With prices running upwards of $200,000 for an engine and $60k or so for a coach.
Chance Train
Chance Carousels
Chance Manufacturing was incorporated in 1961 and by 1971. They launched their first carrousel (deliberately spelt that way by Chance) after they had acquired the Allan Herschell Co. At that time the largest Amusement ride manufacturer in the States. Their designs were modified to a more ornate decorative style. The company then acquired Bradley & Kaye in 1986, another carousel manufacturer to acquire their stock of molds. David Bradley had reproduced many of the historic carousel figures in fibreglass and had over 60 molds for them. When the D.H.Morgan carousel company was merged into the group it added even more unique figures for the company to use.
This wide range of ornate, highly detailed animals has become something of a trademark on Chance built carousels.
Chance Carousel Horse
D.H. Morgan Acquisition
When Chance acquired Morgan, and formed Chance Morgan, they didn’t just get access to the companies line of carousel figures. But also its roller coaster manufacturing line up.
They had built coasters as early as 1969, producing the Walter House designed Toboggan. A portable ride where a train climbed up a vertical tower before spiralling back down the outside. They built 32 of these and also introduced a children’s big dipper coaster.
The integration of the D.H. Morgan line took their ability to design coasters to a new level. With their own track manufacturing technology and the ability to offer a range of designs.
Chance Morgan Coaster
Ferris Wheels
1967 saw the first Ferris wheel from Chance, debuting at the Iowa State fair. Carrying 32 passengers in 16 cars. Their first park model was an 8-ft Giant Wheel for an amusement park in Minnesota. A tie up with Ronald Bussink, of Switzerland and Dutch Wheels BV, part of the Vekoma rides organisation saw the combine building observation wheels. Giant wheels that place the riders in cabins or pobs rather than seats. They acquired the rights from Bussink Design GmbH to build and sell the R80XL 76metre wheel in North America.
Over time we have managed to acquire 5 highly detailed prints of some of our family transport on the fairground, they show some of the classic British trucks that were once so prevalent, not only on the fairground scene, but worldwide.
Roland Tucker’s Scammell Pioneer
Roland Tuckers Scammell
Owned by Roland Tucker, a well known Yorkshire showman, this was a fabulous example of its type. Scammell was a late Victorian era wheelwright and coach building business that provided maintenance services to owners of Foden steam wagons. Eventually they were asked by a customer to build a high power haulage unit. World War I put a stop to the project, but equally proved the concept of mechanical haulage over horse drawn carts. By 1920 Scammell had presented a concept for a new model at the Commercial Motor show, taking 50 orders during the event and launching one the worlds most famous heavy haulage marques.
Pioneer
Designed as a 6 x 4 off road vehicle for use in Britain’s colonies where the roads were less than pristine. A bit like the A road network in the UK today. THe combination of incredible suspension travel, with excellent traction and a low revving high torque engine gave it impressive performance. Eventually being chosen as the basis for a heavy artillery tractor during WWII. The type was also developed into a heavy recovery vehicle and a tank transporter. The units were equipped with a Gardner 6 cylinder engine developing a mighty 102 BHP, driving the four rear wheels through a constant mesh gearbox with a top speed of 24mph and powering a Scammell winch.
Our family model was named Invader and used to tow
Dunny Tucker’s S36 Foden
Dunwell Tuckers Foden
Foden, one of the most popular makes on the fairground scene along with E.R.F, which stood for Edwin Richard Foden, a member of the Foden family who resigned and started a new firm specifically to build diesel powered trucks, rather than the steam wagons that Foden insisted on continuing with.
The company was originally founded towards the end of the 19th Century, and came to prominence when it won MOD trials to supply a series of 3-ton wagons for the military. The family split over diesel power led to the creation of ERF, but Foden was quick to switch its own production to diesel power. Sadly the last Foden rolled of the production lines in 2006 when the American owners Paccar mothballed the brand.
Dunny’s S36 tractor unit, was in the classic funfair style of carrying a couple of generators to power the rides, and towing a couple of trailers, in this case a waltzer ride.
Robert Moody’s E.R.F. ‘Sabrina’
Robert Moody Sebrina
The family split that led to E.R.F.’s creation, saw a range of well regarded vehicles produced. They were built in much the same style as Foden’s offerings, with glass fibre cabs, Gardner engines (though over the years Cummins, Caterpillar, Rolls Royce and Detroit diesel engines were also offered) and Eaton/Fuller gearboxes.
The model above was the KV or Kleer Vue cab. Most of them were typical flat fronted cabs, what the Americans call cabovers. But a number of bonneted versions were produced and proved popular with brewery operators. The rather large appendage on the front led to them being christened ‘Sabrina’ in homage to a busty television personality of the era (her real name was Norma Ann Sykes) a glamour model famous for her tiny 18 inch waist and erm, rather large 41 inch upper works.
This vehicle was used to carry a children’s ride in the North East, and eventually ended up at the end of its life with the engine being removed to build a generator with.
A.R. Moody’s Foden 4000 Series
AR Moody Foden
Another entry from the Foden stable, this one was unusual in that it started life as a 4000 Series model, which is actually more modern than the picture shows. The reason was the company that owned it had all day cabbed vehicles (the type that didn’t have a bed built in), and their changing work pattern meant that they needed a sleeper cab. Rather than purchase a new vehicle, they swapped the cab for an older type cab they had in a corner of the yard. The lorry had a 14 litre Cummins engine, a type revered for its high power and torque, though less well liked for its high fuel consumption.
This carried a pair of silenced generating units, along with supplies for a catering unit, and was used to tow the owners 40ft living caravan, along with occasional trips with a children’s ride attached.
A.R. Moody’s Atkinson MkII
AR Moody Atkinson
The last entry is from Atkinson Lorries, another old British brand. The original firm, like many others manfactured steam wagons. However it didn’t make the transition to diesel and eventually was fading away, before being bought and re established to manufacture diesels. Again using the well trodden path of those days, ie, a Gardner engine, David Brown gearbox and Kirkstall drive axle. Eventually graduating to Rolls Royce, Perkins and Cummins engines as Gardner’s began to lag behind in power outputs.
This one carried two children’s rides from the famous British ride manufacturer of Coulson’s of Ripon. It had a Gardner 5LW engine producing 94 BHP and a two speed eaton back axle that doubled the number of gear ratios. I remember it well as I spent hours painting and polishing it as a kid. Then as others got more up to date transport, hours begging my dad to swap it in. This he refused to do, until one day travelling through the Tyne Tunnel, we passed a broken down vehicle, a short time later the recovery vehicle saw us travelling that slowly they tried to recover us, due to the low engine power and the large caravan on the back meaning we were at about cycle speed on inclines.
He swapped it in shortly after for a Seddon Atkinson 400 series, which at the time was a quantum leap forward in British lorry engineering, and had the ‘high’ powered Gardner 6LXB engine with the startling output of 180 BHP.
The carousel was long a mainstay of funfairs and amusements parks throughout the world. As one of the first, big amusement rides, it transcended the generations and is still operating regularly today.
It was estimated that in the USA, at one point there were around 5000 carousels. Sadly when the great depression hit the number dwindled and gradually as the 70’s rolled around they kind of fell out of favour with maintenance costs making them unviable in the financial climate of the times. Numbers fell to to around 150.
Many of the carousels from the great historic manufacturers such as Dentzel and Charles Looff suddenly became more valuable for their parts than as actual rides. At auction horses from these master carvers were bringing in an average of $40,000. One example, a St Bernard went for a record $250,000.
As with many traditional skills and crafts, the art of manufacturing these works of art was in serious danger of disappearing. Fibreglass and metal carousels were still being produced for the market, and whilst still beautiful and ornate rides, weren’t the individual unique masterpieces of yesteryear.
Fortunately two friends decided that it was still possible to make a successful business with individual hand crafted rides.
Art Richie
Richie started carving in 1973. Leaving college on a Friday and opening his first business making plaques and other wooden goods the next day. One day a customer asked for a quote on carving a carousel horse, Ritchie told him around $1800 and laughed the guy couldn’t get his cheque book out quickly enough.
Dan Jones
The other founder of the company was a construction worker who had carried out repair and maintenance work on a number of historic carousels. Together their skills made a perfect complement for the initial business of restoration.
Carousel Works
In 1986 the duo formed Carousel Works. The aim was to work on existing vintage carousels, to repair and renovate them. Keeping part of the amusement industries rich history working. Their ultimate aim however was to design and build new carousels.
This dream was achieved in 1991 when their first carousel was delivered to Richland Carrousel Park in Mansfield Ohio. Becoming the first new wooden carousel to be delivered since the 1930’s. With 30 horses and 22 menagerie animals the ride was carved in the style of G.A. Dentzel,one of the all time greats in carousel history.
Richland Carousel ParkRichland Park GiraffeRichland Park HorseRichland Park TigerRichland Park ZebraSome Of The Richland Carousel Figures
The lovely thing about wooden carousels carved in the traditional manner, is the variety and uniqueness of each animal. They are all individual one off carvings. Modern carousels with fibreglass horses will have used perhaps three or four different designs meaning large numbers of the horses are identical.
60 Carousels And Counting
Since then the company have delivered in excess of 60 rides around the world. They currently have 28 employees including painters and carvers. The animals are made the old fashioned way by gluing blocks of basswood together before being cut into a rough shape by machine, then hand carved into intricate works of art. Despite what people believe, the figures aren’t made from single blocks of wood, this wouldn’t be flexible enough and would crack. Instead they are anything upto 70 individual blocks glued together.
Looking at their list of clients they seemed to have cornered the market in carousels for Zoo’s!
Their designs all start the same way, with a blank sheet of paper. They are truly one of a kind, using traditional skills and craftmanship to keep alive a great tradition. Their offerings include over 160 different animals for the ride. They are happy to work with a client to create something totally new. Whether its an unusual animal for a zoo, or something specific to a corporate clients design. A couple that stand out were the chariot carved in the shape of a pile of dung being pushed by a dung beetle, and a dog food company had one cared as a bag of dog food with a puppy sticking its head out.
This customisation extends not only to the animals on the ride, but also to the decorative panels that adorn it, each ride is a work of art.
Carousel Works Carousel
Not Everyone Is Happy
Evidently however there are some who are not happy. Their willingness to innovate and new style has drawn criticism from some of the carousel ‘purists’. Who feel that they cannot compare to the great designs from Looff, Dentzel et al. A similar reaction was encountered when car firm Bentley announced it was going to manufacture some new examples of its historic Bentley Blower model. Perhaps they feel it will devalue their investment in historic carousel horses if new ones are still being made.
The favourite quote on the subject we heard came from Bette Largent, president of the National Carousel Association. She exclaimed “We didn’t stop painting after Rembrandt died!”
With the nostalgia that’s now back in fashion, and the fact that historic carousels are fetching upwards of $1 million, the company is perfectly placed to thrive with a stunning hand crafted product at a great price.
UPDATE
Sadly since this was published, the company has sadly filed for bankruptcy. Details here…
I was using the wayback machine recently to look up an old website. In case you don’t know it is a site that has indexed and stored past examples of peoples web pages so you can go back and look them up years later.
Looking around at some of our original blog posts that disappeared when our original blog software stopped working. In the old days we didn’t have Word Press and Blogger. Blogs were either hand built, or created using desktop software. We used a program called Tangelo, quite happily for a number of years. Anyway, I am going to reprint a few of the more humorous posts. Sadly on many of them the original images have not been stored, so they might be text only.
Bimbo’s Last Stand 2008
History is littered with tales of heroic last stands, usually against forces much bigger than the defenders, there was Rorkes drift, The Battle of Gandamak and The Battle of the Imjin River all fought by British troops, the Alamo and Battle of the Little Bighorn by our American cousins and the immortal Camarón which established the Foreign Legion as one of the world’s elite fighting forces.
Predating all of these was the Battle of Thermopylae in Greece when King Leonidas and his Spartan soldiers, accompanied by a force of allied Greek city states, held back a much larger Persian force under Xerxes for three days in one of the most memorable and eulogized last stands in classical antiquity. Well now we have another last stand on the island of Greece to rank up there with the battles of antiquity.
Bimbo Bishton
Bimbo Bishton, who we occasionally work with, has for a number of years provided Victorian carousels for the Christmas event in Athens. A venture which has proven both lucrative and enjoyable over the years. This year however there was the little problem of a major riot taking place after the shooting dead of a young Greek boy.
The rioters went berserk in the city square and flattened pretty much everything, setting fire to hotels, shops, cars and anything else that took their fancy. Slap bang in the middle of this stood alone the slightly portly figure of Bimbo armed only with 3 fire extinguishers, facing a crowd which Bimbo estimated at 100,000, but the BBC world service claimed to be around the 10,000 mark (I suppose when you are facing them alone it looks more like 100,000).
Petrol Bombs And Arsonists
I spoke to Bimbo about the events and he explained one particularly tense moment. It seems a young Greek man was holding a petrol bomb in one hand and trying unsuccessfully to strike his lighter in the other, all the time Bimbo was trying to convince him not to set fire to his ride, (Bimbo told me at this point he was debating whether or not to kick the said young man in the testicles), the potential arsonist appeared to be taking no notice of Bimbo when his lighter suddenly flared to life, he looked at Bimbo, shrugged his shoulders and promptly threw the bomb at the giant Christmas tree, so really it is Bimbo’s fault that the Athenians lost their famous tree. As the night wore on our intrepid hero was stoically holding his ground when a cloud of teargas drifted his way and proved to him why it was so named,
Athens Christmas Tree
Bimbo said that at this point he was more interested in water for his eyes than in guarding the carousel, but luckily for him one of the rioters explained that water is no good for tear gas, you need lemon juice to neutralise the chemicals and obliged by providing some I can categorically state however that rumours Bimbo is thinking of setting up a Jif lemon stall at future events are untrue.
Thankfully both Bimbo and the Carousel survived the evening. Bimbo even remarked at how civilised the rioters were, as he put it, there were very few injuries and signs of violence against people, it all seemed to be directed at property, indeed one vendor in a street kiosk remained open throughout the riots and wasn’t molested in any way.
Oops 2009
Arthur almost struck again last weekend. What happened was this, we were contracted to supply 4 games units to an event in the North East. One of these games was our striker (test your strength machine) which is 13ft high. On arrival we were shown the room which would accommodate these games, including the high roofed part of the building where the striker was to be positioned. Due to the fact that once erected the striker would block the door, we were told that we couldn’t erect it until after all of the guests had arrived. This isn’t a problem as it takes a matter of seconds to assemble the device.
We carried it into the room and left it on the floor near to where it had to go. Almost everyone had arrived when we were told to put the striker up. As we pushed it skyward we discovered to our horror that the room was about 6 inches to low! As we stood there wondering where to go, one of the guys who had hired us told us to push the plastic roof tile out of place and let the striker poke into the attic.
We did this, but try as we might the tile remained wobbling in position. Arthur decided to go to the pool room and bring back a long extension bar to dislodge the tile, which he promptly did just as the managing director’s wife walked through the door. If she had been two steps quicker, Arthur would have subjected her to a drastic reshaping of her nose, something along the lines of amputation without a general anaesthetic!
Luckily everyone present had a sense of humour.
Flash Bang 2009
Coming back to the yard last week I notice a large stretch of the adjoining field being dug up. After investigating I discovered that the electricity company are removing the overhead power lines (which run over the middle of our property) and re routing them underground. This is an extremely good idea, especially considering what happened a few years back.
To protect those involved, I won’t name any names John Henry, but I was sat eating breakfast early one morning, contemplating starting to load everything up ready for the move to northallerton. At the time it was absolutely throwing it down with rain, and I didn’t really fancy making a start. Anyway, whilst I was psyching myself up, I suddenly heard a yell, followed by a crash, more yelling and some Anglo Saxon language. Coming out to investigate, I came across the unnamed person (John Henry) who was hobbling about with smoke coming from one of his boots.
Not Quite The Scene, But Close
What had happened was that he had an aerial mounted on a long pole, fastened to the drawbar of his trailer (caravan). To remove this ready for hitting the road he had to lift it up a couple of foot higher , the power cables ran directly overhead, and with the amount of moisture in the air, a spark of electricity had jumped from the power lines, into the Aerial, down the pole into his knee where the pole was resting and out through his boot to earth!, luckily when he dropped the pole he missed my car which was parked next to him so it could have been much worse.
The Really Really Great Garage Sale
we recently supplied a mulled wine and hot dog cart to an event in London. This was organised by a bunch of celebrity mums including Yasmin Le Bon and Louise Redknapp. I started the day by nearly walking into Yasmin Le Bon, and ended it by her just stopping short of driving into me.
One of our new recruits, Ray, pictured below(in his apron and plastic antenna) spotted someone he recognised part way through the day, “Look Oliver Lance”, he exclaimed. “Who the heck is he”, I said, thinking it was some rugby player or sports personality. “She’s off one of them Australian soaps”, said Ray I wondered why she had a blokes name and asked Ray, “she hasn’t”, was the reply, “She’s called Oliver Lance”
Turned out he was talking about Holly Valance! You can take the guy out of Barnsley, but you can’t take Barnsley out of the guy.
It turned out a quite enjoyable day with amongst others Melanie Blatt, Trinny Woodhall, Christina Estrada all making an appearance.
Newcastle Hoppings is the largest travelling funfair in Europe (though both Nottingham Goose fair and Hull Fair also claim the title). A major fixture in the funfair calendar. Held in the North East city of Newcastle Upon Tyne over 9 days in June.
With over 300,000 visitors a year, and featuring over 60 major adult rides, and a plethora of children’s rides, games and catering to match. The event is held in June to coincide with the Northumberland Plate. Part of the flat season races for horses of three years or older.
It is situated on the Town Moor, a large grazing land just outside the city centre (during the first world war it was held in Jesmond). The showmen commonly refer to the event as the Town moor, or even just ‘The Moor’, rather than the hoppings name used by the locals.
Temperance Festival Association
The driving force behind the establishment of the hoppings, was Alderman William Davies Stephens, chairman of the Temperance Festival Association. The association, typical of the Victorian era do gooders, felt that the horse race would attract drinking and gambling. They wanted to provide a temperance festival for the miners and other workers as an alternative, to save them from the fires of damnation.
I suppose in a way it was a better idea than the Americans had. Our abstinence gave us a major funfair, the American prohibition gave them Al Capone.
Early Years
In the beginning, the event will have been typical of fairs of that era, stalls, games and sideshows would have formed the bulk of the event. Indeed in the North East, funfairs are often referred to as ‘The shows’ in allusion to the preponderance of that type of attraction.
Funfair Sideshow
These tended to be animal managaries, or the popular at the time human freak shows. Large steam powered rides were appearing on funfairs by then, and quite possibly would have attended the hoppings, but at that time they were still a supporting act.
Over the next 50 years the event began to resemble what we would recognise today. With some of the early thrill rides appearing, Octopus, dive bomber, waltzers, all designed to fly you higher, spin you faster and scare witless.
Shaws Moonrocket
A well known ride, the Moonrocket of Shaws, built in 1939. This was typical of the early rides that would have appeared at the Town Moor.
The Modern Era
Nowadays, well not 2020, and possibly not 2021 due to the little matter of a global pandemic, most of the top rides from around the UK appear at the event. Immaculate examples of the old favourites such as dodgems and Waltzers still jostle with the thrill rides for customers. There are fabulous examples of all the current funfair games, children’s rides and food stalls.
Newcastle Hoppings Funfair
A look at the fair from the air shows the sheer scale of the event. Hull and Nottingham might possibly have more rides in attendance, or be classed as bigger due to some other statistic. But for sheer acreage, there isn’t anything else in the UK that comes near.
2013 was notable for the fair being cancelled due to the severe weather leaving the ground in a poor state. Work has since been carried out to improve drainage and add a metalled road to prevent a recurrence.
Charity
The event was always noted for the free riding the showmen provided for a number of charities, the Variety club would bus as estimated 3000 children in to enjoy the showmen’s efforts, usually on the first evening of the event.
Indeed records indicate that the very first year of the festival saw a tea provided for 1000 of the cities poorest children.
The Name Hoppings
When we used to attend the event, I often wondered about just why it was called the Hoppings. I presumed it was one of those stories lost in time. However recently I came across the official website for the event, maintained by the Freeman of the City/Newcastle Council. They offered two possible explanations for the name. One is that hopping was a very old name for a dance.
The other explanation the offer, is that the showmen used to wear sacks as cloths. These would become infested with fleas and the showmen being bitten would ‘hop’ about. Hmm, the photo below is a typical old image of showmen. Actually one of our earliest corporate entertainment crew who provided a show for Queen Victoria. Take a look, although it is in a poor state, it sure looks to me like they were wearing regular type cloths. Nary a cloth sack in sight.
‘Work from home if you can’, has been the echoing call, since the first lock down in march. The call from Boris Johnson and his team.
Due to the current pandemic many businesses have been closed and working from home has been of paramount importance. With many people turning rooms in their homes, or escaping to the garage to put together a make shift office.
One you probably wouldn’t think of is a work from theme park set up. In Japan they have announced a new initiative in order to encourage working from home. The initiative being to utilize their theme parks. A large theme park in Tokyo is offering ‘workcation’ packages. Giving employees across Japan the opportunity to work next to a beautiful pool or even on a Ferris wheel! yes that’s right you can work from a Ferris wheel.
The park charges 1,900 yen which is roughly around £14 for a weeks ticket pass. The pass includes a booth located at the pool and an hour in a private carriage on the Ferris Wheel. WIFI services are located throughout ready for you to connect your laptop or tablet to.
The Yomiuriland theme park
Japans, Work From Home Management
Japan, although a large country has managed the pandemic very well and is currently near normality with the rest of the theme park also open, which means that after a hard days work you can pay a little bit extra and purchase a park ticket allowing you to chill and unwind on all the fairground rides available…although remember you cant scream on the scary rides because that is against the covid rules.
Japan has primarily moved their businesses to being based at home. The government requested companies to have around 70% of their employees working from home. With this in mind they have been coming up with new inventive ways to encourage staff to take this option, Firstly they introduced the Theme park scheme, and then secondly they placed workstatiosn around National parks that people could rent and visit in a hope that people would reconnect with nature.
An IT solutions firm FLEQ was among one of the first companies to encourage employees to work from the theme park. In the first week around 10 employees used the amusement park as their new office. Feedback from the employees was all very positive! however some said it was hard to concentrate at first as once on the Ferris wheel they just wanted to admire the view!.
An employee working from inside the Ferris Wheel carriage.
There aren’t a great deal of amusement ride manufacturers that started life building aeroplanes. The American Eyerly Aircraft CO. was initially set up to manufacturer training aids for pilots. The first was the curiously entitled ‘Whiffle Hen’, an airplane which only used two gallons of fuel per hour of flight.
Whiffle Hen
The craft derived it’s name from a bird thought to be good luck that appeared in the Popeye cartoons, everyone thinks Popeye gained his strength from eating spinach, but in the early days he used to rub the whiffle hen instead.
Lee Eyerly’s dream was to make flight available to all classes, not just the rich. He was responsible for building Salem Airport, and ran a flight training school, as well as taking people up in his own plane at fairs and events.
His second great invention was the Orientator, basically and airplane fuselage suspended between what looked like a giant tuning fork. The wind from the propellor streamed across the aircraft wings and surface controls and allowed the pilot to bank climb and roll, just like in a real aircraft but without the cost and danger associated.
Orientator
A few were sold (including four to the Cuban air force), but sales began to slow down. It was suggested by someone who remains unrecorded by history, that he take the device to a local funfair, or Midway as our American cousins refer to them. Allegedly he also sold rides in a real aeroplane that he flew, but soon noticed that the queue for the Orientator was far longer than for the real plane.
That lighbulb moment saw the focus of his company switch to amusement ride manufacturing. The trainer was re christened the Acroplane and was sold purely as an amusement device.
Line Of Amusement Rides
This was just the beginning. The ride was quickly followed by the Loop-O-Plane, Roll-O-Plane, Spider, Fly-O-Plane, all designed to give people a taste of what it was like to fly, just at that period in history when Aviation was beginning to take off, excuse the pun.
Fly O PlaneRoll O Plane
The Rock O Plane was invented in 1947, and the ride type still survives on many funfairs today. Some in the original style, others have been modified to create a slightly more thrilling and up to date ride.
Rock-O-Plane
The Octopus
Perhaps his most popular ride was the Octopus. Little seen nowadays on the modern fairground, there are still a few doing the vintage circuit at shows and rally’s, but it is considered a bit tame for the modern generation of thrill seekers.
Octopus Ride
The company continued in the business up until the mid 1980’s. Sadly in 1988 at a Florida fair, an arm on an Octopus ride snapped. The arm was suffering from metal fatigue. The crack was paint covered and unnoticed by both the ride owner and the State inspector. A 17 year old girl died from head injuries. In the wake of the lawsuit that followed, the company closed its doors in 1990.
The genesis of the Eyerly Aircraft Company was certainly unique as ride manufacturers go.
Most of the early funfair rides were things like carousels, Noah’s arks and dodgems. Exciting rides, but all with a similar movement, you go around in circles. What we would call thrill rides came later, and nowadays most of the high thrill attractions have you leave the ground. One of the earliest examples of this was the Dive Bomber.
Initially created by the Eyerly Aircraft company which was formed to create equipment to help train pilots. They moved into the amusement ride arena, and gradually moved away from their original business model. Much of what they designed had an aviation feel, and the dive bomber was no exception.
Roll O Plane
Roll O Plane
Patented in 1938 by Eyerly, as the ‘Roll-O-Plane’, the ride had two cylindrical shaped cars on the end of a rotating boom. As the arm rotated the ends of the cylinders rotated to keep the riders sitting upright. The chain drive made it a particularly noisy ride, added to the usual decor of a fighter plane and it was an imposing, thrilling ride for the era.
Lusse Dive Bomber
Lusse Dive Bomber
Lusse Brothers of Blackpool (American designers) developed the ride for the UK market under licence from Eyerly. Building their first version in 1939 and the last of 25 examples in 1949. With the recent end of WWII the ride was perfectly themed for the fairgoers of that era.
One of the drawbacks was its low passenger capacity, but a number of enterprising UK showmen, joined two rides together to double this as in the Carters model above.
The rides were a high maintenance device and eventually fell out of favour, I can just remember them as a kid in the 80’s and only for a few years. Truth be told I seem to remember them having a propensity to fold up, what Elon Musk would call a RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly). The testing regime in those days wasn’t as developed as today, with x-ray and dye penetration testing, so I think the metal was a little overstressed for the job it was doing.
The Modern Bomber
Fabbri Booster
Like many things in life, the wheel turned and a new version appeared. Built by Italian manufacturer Fabbri as the Booster Maxx, this is a much bigger, much faster and carries a lot more riders (up to 16). It is also a lot more sturdily constructed with modern techniques and materials. It is easily one of the highest and fastest rides on the circuit. Bringing the same aerial thrills to new generations.
