Black Country MAG

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since 04.04.2000

BCMAG's 4th Birthday Bash.

1st - 3rd June 2001

The Venue

Friday 1st June saw us back at the Royal Oak in Alveley, where we held last years Sort-of-Xmas rally. Thankfully, some of the BCMAG lot had been down the previous night to erect the marquee we had aquired from Gloucester MAG, so I missed out on all the sweating and shouting - cheers!

To our amazement, people actually started showing up! The last two rallies have almost been private parties for Black Country MAG, so it was nice to see some unfamiliar faces for a change. By Friday evening, we had around fifty people on site - making the pub seem very cozy!

Roger and Heather (pub landlord and landlady) worked their asses off, not only coping with the crowds in the pub, but also serving up some cracking food too. As well as the normal pub food (very tasty and reasonably priced), they also did bacon and sausage baps for 60p a go - even really tight buggers couldn't complain about that (though I'm sure they will!)

The Entertainment

Friday night there was a disco in the marquee/M*A*S*H Tent, done by Chris and Shaz of Roadhouse Roadshow. They laid on a cracking set of tunes, unfortunately to a crowd of around six people. We must remember to tell people there's a disco next time! They'll be at the Heart Of England rally in July - hopefully with a few more people to appreciate them! If you need a good rock disco (they aren't expensive), give them a call: 07788 622107 / 07929 213639

Saturday night was live music night - courtesy of "Nothing But Grief". Decent rock band, who'll play for hours for two crates of lager! They seemed to go down well with the crowd, and we managed to fill the marquee. Unfortunately, they've packed it in shortly after this perfomance, so if you didn't see them at our rally, you've missed out. (Mind you, they've said this before, so don't be shocked if they turn up again!)

We had a decent size bonfire both nights at the rally. After the fiasco lighting the fire at the Sort-of-Xmas rally, I'd invested in a large blow torch, and had also been saving all my junk mail for the last 4 months. A couple of hundred credit card offers, and a touch of gas saw Friday's bonfire kick off in a big way. Saturday proved more difficult, as we had had the mother of all downpours just before we lit the fire. However, extended use of the blow torch (now my favourite toy!), and a bit of petrol nicked from the generator saw it burst into life - and saw us diving for cover!

The People

No rally report would be complete without pictures of drunkards, so here they are.

(Some Of) The Bikes

Here are a few of the bikes that caught my eye around the site.

The Village Idiot

As usual, Simon proved great entertainment all weekend. After having to go to bed at 9pm on Friday (we think it was something he ate!), his (not-so) beloved Bonny managed to break down 3 times in 10 miles on the run we had on the Saturday afternoon! Not bad going, and they a different problem each time! After this, Simon swears he's flogging the old English bag-of-spanners, and getting a BMW!

The Verdict

Not a bad affair, by all accounts. This was the first time we had risked significant cash on a rally (mainly laying on the disco, band and marquee), so we were all a bit nervous. Luckily, everything went well - no major problems or mistakes, and we've learnt a bit more about the black art of rally organisation.

You can read Bod's report on the MoonShiners site.

We're currently talking about doing the Sort-Of-Xmas rally again this year, so get in touch if you are interested.

The "Thank-You"s

Many thanks to everyone who helped organise the rally, or just turned up and spent some money.

Also, 'thank you's go to the following businesses who donated prizes for the raffles:

QB Motorcycles
89-91 High St
Quarry Bank
Brierly Hill
DY5 2AD

Carnells Birmingham

Cradeley Kawazaki
St Annes Road
B64 5EJ

StreetBike
Mucklows Hill
Halesowen

Speedaway Motorcycles
78A Oldbury Road
Blackheath
West Midlands
B65 0JS

West Midlands Motorcycles
343 Brettle lane
Brierley Hill
West Midlands
DY5 3JU

B&J Bikes
Doctors Piece
Willenhall
West Midlands
WV13 1PZ

Tyre Sales
(nr the Scott Arms traffic light)

Fred Hanks Motorcycles
Slade Road
Erdington

Scooter Way
Erdington

Hein Gericke
Five Ways, Birmingham

.... and anyone else that I've forgotten!