Ton-Up Day at Jack’s Hill Cafe

Rockers from all over the world headed to Jack’s Hill Cafe at Towcester for the annual Ton-Up Day last weekend…

This character had all the gear and no idea; didn’t see him riding a bike – he’s probably one of those they used to call ‘Bus-stop Rockers’…

The Jack’s Hill Cafe event is a bit of an antidote to the commercialisation of the Rocker scene, that has, I’m told, seen someone register the word ‘Rockers’ as a trademark for clothing and memorabilia. Better get your application in for ‘Wheel-tappers and Shunters’ before somebody else does all the tee-shirts… At Jack’s Hill it’s very different; you ride up, park your bike and wander about looking at the bikes in the car park – cafe racers only out the front to keep the look right. You can hear some good music both recorded and live band  – this year British Rock’n’Roll favourites,The Rapiers played a Johnny Kidd and the Pirates tribute set with special guest Nick Simper, formerly of both the Pirates and the original Deep Purple  lineup.

The great thing about Ton-Up Day is that you get all of this and the only thing you have to pay for is a mug of tea and a bacon butty.

Well unless you visit my autojumble stall, of course…

I dug out my old leather jacket wot I bought when I was sixteen, pleased to find it hasn’t shrunk THAT much over the years (thanks to Sue Peschiera for the photo) and set about selling my wares. There’s too many hungry cylinders to feed in our family and every bit helps.

I like doing autojumble stalls because it’s a good way to spend all day jawing and still come back with less stuff and more money, a pleasing inversion of the usual autojumble experience where I generally come back with a load more junk to accomodate and an empty wallet. 

 

But I managed to escape from the stall long enough to photograph a few tasty bikes in the car park…Hmmm, I’ve got a bit too tied up in the 1920s thing for the past few years; now I’ve dug out the jacket maybe it’s time I got the Goldie back on the road again…

If you like what you see here, make sure Ton-Up day at Jack’s Hill Cafe goes in your calendar for next year.

This no-bull Goldie belongs to Chester Dowling, the driving force behind the event. Chester was a Rocker back in the day and has provided us with a window into his fascinating life through three very entertaining books, the first being his sort-of autobiography “Just for Kicks”. They’re all well worth a read.

Just as we were thinking about packing up to go, two people came over to say ‘hello’, one was our old 59 Club mate Irish Steve (left) who’d ridden his Thunderbird all the way up from London, the other was Len Patterson (right) proprietor of High Gear Motorcycles/ Engine Centre and founder of the Rocker’s Reunion events that got us caught up in all this Ton-Up nonsense in the first place. Proof that old Rockers never die, they just turn up late…

Cheers Rick