THE AMBUSH

1999
Woodcut
Work in progress
122x122cm

As a teenager I drove a Vesper and was part of a scooter club that travelled the country , to scooter rallies and to northern soul nights. this drawing is a condensed memory of some of those experiences, that when I look back, I have to question myself if they really happened because it was all a massive blur. One night when about a hundred scooterists from The Black Country were traveling in convoy to a rally at Weston super Mare , passing through Bristol after midnight, there was an ambush, when lots of rockers appeared with home made spears which were launched at us. Chaos ensued in a massive brawl, but some how we arrived unscathed. Another particularly frightening incident was in Sedgley in the Black Country, when as the scooter convoy passed through there another ambush , that was much more violent. My pillion passenger has a knife put to his throat as he was attempted to be wrestled off , but as if by magic the police appeared, and the gang dispersed. The scooter rides at the time felt like the epitomy of freedom , whilst simultaneously being very mad.