Colin Barker, RIP
By: Web Editor
The Chalet coffee bar in Gorleston, Norfolk has been the spiritual home of the local scooter boys since the early 1960s. It has been owned by the Barker family since 1960. Colin Barker, who has been there since that date sadly died on September 19, aged 73.
He was very popular and knew everybody who came in by their first names and had seen several decades of changes from the mods and rockers era to the scooterboys of today with their restored bikes. It was quite fitting that on the day of the funeral, October 3, the hearse was followed by a cavalcade of more than 30 scooters and motorbikes to the Gorleston Cemetery. Many had known Colin for more than 40 years. A wreath was laid and signed simply ‘Fond Memories, the Scooterboys’. He will be remembered by all.
Peter Allard
1 Response to “Colin Barker, RIP”
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Mike Tate Says:
March, 8th 2012 at 01:32 pm
How well I remember the first night I was at the Chalet. The Who, blasting I can’t Explain from the jukebox over and over, cigarette smoke, the noise of animated conversation, people coming and going, Colin in attendance at the counter – always there. For a few years, hundreds of people (call them Mods or whatever, just people) in effect started their adult lives there. Not possible now to describe the atmosphere, the modernity and coolness of it, it could only be felt and was about the people, the unfolding events and the times – now gone.
Requiescat in Pace Colin Barker.