The classic scooterists club magazine

Raiders of the lost archives - Aberdeen Vespa Club

The Aberdeen club was conceived in the autumn of 1959 and held its first meeting on November 12, 1959. It was Branch No. 82 of the Vespa Club of Britain – at one time, the parent organisation had over 30,000 members, making it the largest ‘single make’ club in the country. When you joined the local branch, you automatically became part of the umbrella organisation, but each club arranged its own activities, as well as contributing to the national EuroVespa rallies.

Membership of Aberdeen VC was drawn from folk in their twenties and thirties, mostly from within the city, plus a handful from the surrounding county. There was an even mix of men and women including Helen Riddell, Dave and Nan McDonald and Marion Esson who bought a new 125cc Douglas Vespa Mark II (a cream 1959 model with a red seat), registration RSA 645, from Rossleigh’s Garage. The showroom ran back from the kerbstones on Aberdeen’s Union Street to Justice Mill Lane at the rear and contained more impressive machinery – but perhaps nothing as swish as that scooter. At that time, Rossleighs were the main Vespa dealer for North East Scotland.

RSA 645’s owner first went to a club meeting at the start of 1960, almost at the peak of the scooter's popularity in Britain, and she soon became part of a thriving scene with 30-40 other riders. In due course its windscreen was decorated with stickers and decals, symbolising both local and national events.

As with its sister clubs, Aberdeen VC’s badge was shaped like a cog wheel with the silhouette of the Brig o’ Balgownie featuring inside to signify Aberdeen. Balgownie lies on the old route northwards from the city, towards Ellon, Peterhead and Fraserburgh and many club runs headed northwards past the bridge – often into the face of a prevailing north-easterly blowing off the North Sea! As a result, most club scooters were fitted with plexiglass fairings...

Initially, Aberdeen VC met on weekday evenings in the Princess Tearooms on Union Street; a rank of scooters was parked echelon-fashion against the kerb with shining paint and brightwork for passers-by to admire. At that time it was the first-and-only band of scooter enthusiasts in the city to form a club. After 1961, AVC met in a scout hut at Ardarroch Road, near the football stadium at Pittodrie, where the forthcoming weekend’s manoeuvres were planned. Scooter rallies, concours events, treasure hunts, hill climbs and competitions were organised – often in conjunction with other Vespa clubs and sometimes including scooterists of other persuasions, such as the owners of Lambrettas and NSUs.

One of the largest rallies organised by AVC in the early 1960s was held on the grass at the Brig o’ Dee at around the same time as the Dee Motel (the first modern hotel in Aberdeen) was under construction. The Brig o’ Dee rally attracted more than 50 scooters from across northern Scotland and even gained a mention in the local papers. Thanks to active club secretaries like Mary Bain and Ramsey McKay, AVC had a knack for garnering publicity and made the newspapers on many occasions through promotional stunts and event participation. For example, the club led the Kildrummy Rally procession in 1962 – complete with a photocall in front of fire-breathing traction engines – and also turned out for similar rallies at Hazelhead Park within the city. AVC also took part in Aberdeen University’s student charity ‘Torcher’ – the fundraising parade – perhaps with an eye to recruiting from the student population.

Naturally, AVC members ensured theirs were the smartest scooters around with matching banners made up to advertise themselves fixed prominently to the fairing – the choice of colour scheme was obvious; black lettering on a yellow background. The sense of belonging was reinforced by the ubiquitous Vespa scarf, striped yellow and black; it was both wide and exceedingly long, wrapped around and around to block the cold Scottish wind. In addition to banners, AVC had windscreen badges and little pennants which flew from the front mudguard; these were supplemented by various other ornaments. For example, Esso petrol ran an advertising campaign in the 1960s, ‘Put a Tiger in your Tank’ and its gimmick was to give away little tiger tails which scooter riders clipped to their whip aerials – the more extrovert scooterists in Aberdeen collected strings of them.

AVC regularly arranged runs, taking to the road simply for the pleasure of riding. These runs traversed Aberdeenshire from Ellon and Inverurie and along Royal Deeside to Potarch and Banchory. The gathering in 1961 at Potarch, on the south bank of the River Dee, was dutifully recorded on Kodachrome slides by Marion Esson and both the multi-coloured line-up of club scooters and the brave chap doing a wheelie on a 150cc Sportique, took place at the Potarch campsite. In fact, there was an urban myth circulating at the club about the 150cc Sportique model: some brave souls managed to bend their speedo needle against the stop by planting the twistgrip then holding on with white knuckles. Even though the scooters are long gone, the Kodachromes have survived to chronicle the club’s activities.

As the 1960s progressed, the original generation that formed the club had got married, moved house, infants had become teenagers... although by the time that RSA 645 was replaced, it had travelled throughout Britain, visiting Newark, Anglesey and Norfolk, as well as trips to the far north of Scotland, including Loch Ness and Sutherland. Often Scottish scooter enthusiasts toured Britain by using youth hostels as overnight stops – the two went together well, considering scooterists travelled lightly and of course in those days four-wheeled travellers were discouraged from staying at hostels.

In 1965, Douglas ceased UK scooter production and by the turn of the decade, AVC membership began to dwindle. The first incarnation of the scooter clubs began to fade, to be replaced by a different kind of enthusiast. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, membership had traversed a wide spectrum: by the late-1960s, the Vespa was closely identified with a particular youth movement.

It took the pendulum of fashion to swing back before the mods (in their Fred Perry shirts and parka jackets) discovered scooters. Scotland never experienced the Brighton Rock-inspired mod v rocker clashes of Whitsun 1964 which the tabloid newspapers delighted in, but the mod movement duly travelled north, and membership of AVC gradually swung towards sharply dressed young men inspired by Quadrophenia as much as La Dolce Vita. By the start of the 1970s, scooters paraded up and down Aberdeen’s Beach Boulevarde, although latterly that tradition has been taken up by boy racers with modified hot hatchbacks – the local press called it ‘the monkey parade’!

Until 1975, AVC organised the annual Brig o’ Balgownie rally in May or June, which was the highpoint of its calendar. Club members also attended, participated in and won concours at scooter rallies across Scotland, including events in both Edinburgh and Glasgow. In the early 1970s, AVC also won prizes at major national rallies such as the Isle of Man Scooter Week. However, 1975 marked the end of the scout hall at Pittodrie (lost to redevelopment). Combined with the lack of a local scooter dealer (Rossleighs had given up the franchise around the start of the decade), the club’s membership began to decline. In 1976, the club went into hibernation – to re-emerge in 1981 for a brief spell, before dissolving for good.

At the end of the 1970s came the first mod revival, encouraged by new wave musicians such as Paul Weller, who selectively borrowed from history. In the early 1990s came a second revival, leaning on both the 1960s and 70s. In response to both of those, new clubs sprang up in Aberdeen. Although Aberdeen Vespa Club no longer exists, there are still scooter enthusiasts in the city – belonging to the Aberdeen SC and Aberdeen Outlaws SC – and you can occasionally see them travelling along Holburn Street on a Friday afternoon, with sleeping bags and bedrolls strapped to their chrome carriers, on their way to some far-flung rally.

Unwittingly, perhaps, the Aberdeen Outlaws SC has almost completed the circle… because its regular meeting place is the Broadhill Bar in Golf Road – close to the football stadium at Pittodrie and just a stone’s throw away from Aberdeen Vespa Club’s former home.

Mark Chalmers