Cars....as well! Early 80's recollections

Cars......As we were all getting a bit older now, although we were still all mad about bikes, the lure of warmth in the winter was starting to push us toward getting on four wheels. My own journey to getting a test was mainly paid for by my grandmother, who wrongly thought I would fall out of love with bikes. So once a week she paid for an hours tuition in a Mini Metro with BSM, needless to say it didn't go exactly to plan, the first time I put in for my test it was cancelled due to dense fog. The second time I managed to break my collar bone when my bosses brother in-law jumped a red light in a Mercedes van and I t-boned him on a Yamaha V90 I had bought 40 minutes earlier. The third time was great and I passed with flying colours, so although I had three tests, I passed the first time I actually took it. Obviously I then had to get a car, or rather a £200 very used Mk1 Escort 1100 van from Adrian, a friend and K's customer. What a wreck this turned out to be with barely enough power to get to 70mph down hill and enough holes in the foot well that it filled up with water when it rained. This was quickly equipped with a rather rubbish tape player and more importantly a CB radio, an illegal AM set that when sitting on the top of Dunstable downs with a fifteen foot tank aerial on the roof and a 50 watt burner allowed me to talk to people in Canada and the USA very late at night, using my handle 'The Pedlar' (a person who goes from place to place selling small items) very apt. Anyway, true to form, I crashed it one night when I failed to negotiate a ninety degree bend just after Oakley bridges and planted it in a ditch. Fortunately, I had several passengers on board at the time. One in the passenger seat and a few in the back, so we all leapt out and dragged it back on to the road. But, I'd bent something as it pulled very strongly to the left, I managed to get it home but ended up scrapping it. Mates were also getting in on the act with classics like Vauxhall Firenza's, Viva's, Triumph 1500's Mk2 Cortina’s etc, at the time they were all old junk but they gave us one important thing freedom, and adventure.

One night, for example, a few of us decided we would go to the 'Smoke' to watch John Otway, possibly accompanied by Wild Willy Barrett at the Kings Head in Fulham. So we met up at Bedford Bus Station, I was in my mate Nick Lane's Viva along with two lasses who worked in a local bank, Gail and Tracy who used to hang around with us, they obviously had a sense of humour. In the other car, a Mk2 Cortina owned by Phil Evans, was the Mad Ug and Phil's girlfriend, Julie. We set off at about six heading for Hammersmith in West London initially, which was where Nick worked for the Borough Council, so we parked up in their car park and hit the pub for the gig. We had a great time rocking to classics like Headbutts, Really Free and Beware of the Flowers, check them out if you haven't already heard them, you'll get our vibe. Obviously, as it was only just past eleven when we left the pub, old school closing time, we decided to grab a tube into the city centre for some sight seeing jumping on at Fulham Broadway and off at Westminster, I think. Anyway we headed for Piccadilly Circus and ended up siting with the lions on Trafalgar Sq, eventually we headed home getting back to Bedford Market Sq for a brew and a burger at some ridiculous time in the morning at the van that never seemed to shut.