Skeg Vegas Layby Flyby Baby!

In spite of an exhausting 10-hour return journey from the Scottish Highlands last Sunday, we were excited to be heading back on the road to our first ever Skeg Vegas VW Show just 5 days later.  In that time, we caught up on online orders and enquiries, unpacked the van from holiday and re-packed it for business, caught up with family, made a trophy for the show and shine and generally had a manic few days.

Loughborough Town Centre, Friday

Bright and early (ish) on Friday, we embarked upon what should have been a 3-hour trip to Revesby in Lincolnshire.  Unfortunately, it became apparent when directed to a dead end road in the middle of a wet and windswept Loughborough, that the sat nav needed a map update.  Our tech savvy son took over and allegedly found a much quicker route.  This ended in disaster when we took a short cut down the ominously named “Whale Bone Lane,” officially the most pot holed road in Britain (trust us, we’ve travelled over a fair few of them).  I’ll spare you the details, but the resulting flat tyre meant that we arrived on site at 5.30 pm – two and a half hours later than the set-up deadline.  Thankfully, the staff seemed friendly and laid back and we did not seem to be the only late arrivals.

Revesby Hall, Lincolnshire

Our arrival was equally as dramatic as our journey.  I literally stepped out of the van to stretch my ailing back and was greeted by a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder and it was back in the van to sit out the ensuing torrential downpour.  I must say, I found this all very fitting given our surroundings.  We were in the grounds of Revesby Hall, which was built in the mid nineteenth century in “Jacobethan” style (a fusion of Jacobean and Elizabethan styles of architecture) near the site of an old Cistercian Monastery.  It’s an incredible building and was the childhood home of Sir Joseph Banks, the famous botanist, who travelled with Captain Cook on his famous voyage of discovery to Australia.  It is now in some state of disrepair but is being gradually restored and unsurprisingly, given its long history, plays host to numerous paranormal nights.  The hall was perfectly visible – flanked by trees – in the neighbouring field complete with “Beware of the bull” signs. 

Eventually, the rain (and hail) subsided and we were able to set up without any further drama, unless you count the Monty Python knights, who interrupted their hunt for the Holy Grail to try on our handmade steam punk top hats for size!  

In search of the Holy Grail

Knight on horseback does Steam Punk

Old Ladies

Gumbys

We rarely embrace the fancy dress themes at shows – we’re time poor in the run-up to shows and it’s not really practical to erect gazebos and hang up clothing whilst dressed as a mermaid or Native American Indian.  However, by sheer coincidence, we realised that Caleb had inadvertently embraced the theme and was in fact dressed as a lumberjack!  

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay

We then headed for the entertainment tent and whiled away a couple of hours listening to the covers band, who had an interesting set list, including Electric Six’s “Gay Bar.” 

Saturday brought it’s own challenge – high winds.  These persisted for much of the day.  By midday, word from the Skeg Vegas merchandise stall was that a hurricane was about to hit Bedfordshire.  This was disconcerting for two reasons.  Firstly, the weather for our location continued to show “light winds” which was clearly nonsense as I spent the best part of 2 hours with one foot on our totem hat stand, arms outstretched, holding onto the gazebos.  Secondly, if the weather was already so far out, was the hurricane heading our way?  

Sidewalk Carve Longboards - made to order

We had agreed to display some beautiful, hand crafted long boards for Sidewalk Carve Longboards on our stand and so Caleb was tasked with ensuring they at least stayed upright and didn’t fly away across the Lincolnshire flat lands, never to be seen again.  We relied on passing trade and other stallholders to retrieve our hats, caps and assorted bits and pieces taken by the wind.

Splitty

Regardless of the adversity, we had a blast.  The relaxed pace of trade meant that we were able to take it in turns to have a wander, check out the stunning vehicle displays... 

Gertie Bob's gorgeous Bedford camper

VW Brazilian

...(including one of my favourites – Hayburner Vic’s Brazilian), chat to old friends and new, witness a modified wheelie bin challenge, listen to music and eat a little more leisurely than the usual bursts of mouth cramming. 

Cool Flo's Ant, struggling to keep control of our rat bike

We even managed to celebrate Cool Flo Ant’s birthday on Saturday night.  In fact Anthony modestly drew our attention to the fact that one of our weekend’s highlights was that we got to see him!  Another unexpected bonus was the night sky; layer upon layer of stars – a scene worthy of dark sky status.

Voodoo Street's winner

Sunday gave us the weather respite we needed - wall-to-wall sunshine, little in the way of breeze and brisk trade.  Gaz awarded our trophy to this ratty T25 and added our own rat bike to an impressive line-up of retro bicycles.  People were still buying off us as we were packing away and just as the last few boxes were being put into the van, we were treated to a Spitfire fly by.

Bicycle show 'n' shine

Lee and his partner in crime - nice cap!

After saying our goodbyes, we headed back towards the village of Old Somerby (the scene of our wheel change) to be reunited with our broken wheel, having now managed to free up space for the damn thing.  Again, a big thank-you to Sally.  If you ever read this blog, we hope that you are met with the same kindness you showed to us, in your hour of need. 

The weather gave us one last kicking and the motorway driving conditions were vile on the way home, so in a repeat of the previous Sunday’s experience, we arrived home late, knackered but buzzing and once again ignored the fatigue, had a couple of drinks and watched the late movie before hitting the sack. 

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

I can only apologise to those of you who take some interest in where we are and what we are doing.  My blog entries have been pretty irregular for some time now.  I could offer you a raft of excuses.  For example, our propensity to book trade shows late in the day.  This effectively means that we semi-unpack the van late on Sunday night, gather our thoughts and brace ourselves for yet another Trump headline on Monday morning (or any given day for that matter), muddle through to mid week catching up on online orders, fielding enquiries, etc. before setting ourselves some impossible challenge (usually in the form of new stock), which we then attempt to turn around in time for the coming weekend.  By the time I’m in a position to update the blog, the next show has arrived and the moment has passed.

I could also blame a whole host of other things, but this time, in a typically British manner, I blame the weather.  The heat wave we had (remember?), meant that I ventured outside and whenever I venture outside for prolonged periods, I discover that we actually live on the edge of the Amazon rainforest.  

In short, I’ve been “on some shit” in the garden.  (Trust me, that’s the best phrase to describe the job, which confronted me. Here's the link. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=on%20some%20shit )

I will endeavour to give you a potted history of our recent shows.  Gaz has a 1964 Mini Cooper.  Given that we sponsor the annual Mini and VW Bus Meet in our hometown, it made sense that both the Mini and the T4 make an appearance on our stand.  The main stumbling block was the fact that the Mini has been languishing in a relative’s garage for 17 years, playing winter host to Fred, the tortoise and somewhere along the way picking up a new furry occupant – a mouse.  But Gaz was on a mission.

Cleared of mouse droppings and boxes of long forgotten keepsakes (including a remote controlled skateboarder straight out of the 80s and a wooden Woodpecker cigarette dispenser), Gaz grabbed the toolbox and WD40 and set to work.

  

Unfortunately, the gods had other ideas and progress was slow to say the least.  The inaccessible fuel filter within the petrol tank was blocked and by Friday, the engine was sparking but still not drawing fuel. 

Knackered, jaded, beaten; all words, which could have described Gaz on Saturday morning as he left to set up.  All that hard work for sweet FA.

By the time I arrived to help set up, I was greeted by two familiar faces, Ben and Cerys, a couple we met at Dubs on the Wye.  Ben’s a VW enthusiast and Cerys is a Mini owner.  They had decided to take a punt on the show, breaking up their journey with an overnight stay in Shrewsbury and, luckily for us, Ben had brought along his heavy duty Towing Dolly, which he insisted on hitching up to our Golf to collect the Mini.  What a star!

Within 30 seconds of the Mini’s arrival on site, a tearful Gaz (bless) had had an offer on it and was soon surrounded by a dozen men - all staring, prodding the engine and offering advice on what to do next.

Having built the 1 litre race engine from scratch in his youth, we are thankful that Gaz had the foresight to retain most of the original parts, as the consensus was to return it to its original 1964 Cooper engine. 

The thing all classic motoring enthusiasts have in common is passion and a desire to see their favourite rides on the road.  That is why one parts dealer, throughout the day, systematically boxed up all the requisite parts for our Mini (worth just shy of £100) and allowed Gaz to buy them from him for 30 quid!  Talk about good karma!

Cookie

Setting up at leisure only 5 minutes drive from home is always a pleasure and I don’t think the stand has ever looked more organised.  We also managed to squeeze in a couple of cheeky drinks with this man, better known as “Cookie” from E4’s Tattoo Artist of the Year, and his lovely family.  The creative juices were flowing on Saturday evening, so all we can say is watch this space…

Next up was Camper Jam, which is always one of the highlights of the calendar.  We managed to launch a new T-shirt design with hours to spare before the start of the show.  Talk about hot off the press!

Camper Jam was hot - very hot - and very busy.  In it’s 10^th year, it was a great show and we had great neighbours on both sides, which included one fireman aka Brutebox Baz, four labradors (one who uses Jedi mind tricks to secure pork scratchings) and two "Happy Campers" from the Republic of Ireland.  

We also had the luxury of chilling around the campfire with our super organised friends on Saturday evening.  By “super organised,” I mean they brought the wherewithal to mix lip-numbing cocktails.  The only downside was our first experience of theft at a VW show.  Someone stole a rat from our rat bike.  No biggy, just disappointing.

Campfire and cocktails

Since then we have been posting out pre-orders of Vdubs in the Valley show tees and working on re-stocking an early Voodoo Street design, which seems to be suddenly in demand.

In our down time, we’ve made our first visit to Nozstock Festival, in deepest Herefordshire, notable for 3 reasons:-

1.  Excellent music, including Remi Harris (a leader on the Gypsy Jazz scene and highly rated by Jamie Cullum) and up and coming band and Nozstock regulars, The Stiff Joints.

2.  A fireworks display with a distinctly pagan feel.

3.  We managed to get Bez from Happy Mondays, to wear one of our bucket hats on stage.

Bez doing his thing

We also squeezed in the Camper & Bus Show at Eastnor Castle last weekend and decanted the 9 gallons of water, which fell on Saturday night from the top of our gazebos into saucepans.  It didn’t spoil our fun.  Gaz, on his own on Friday night, spent the evening with Retro Classic Clothing’s Adam and co. and on Saturday night, we whiled away a few hours (and a few cans) in the company of Simon and Celia (and family).  Thanks for your company and the amazing brownie Celia – we were fighting over it!

   

Pictured above, is Nala, Celia's canine niece, in her Voodoo Street bandana.

Getting ready for the Soap Box Derby at Eastnor

I will be updating our web store very soon, but with Skeg Vegas looming, it’s possible that we will need to re-stock before then, so bear with us. 

We’re excited about our first visit to Skeg Vegas.  It’s the furthest we will have travelled to a show and therefore we will all be shoe horned into the van, but we’ve heard many positive stories and have high hopes.  Maybe see some of you there!

The Power of Three

Vdubs in the Valley:  The Trilogy.  A title like that kind of builds expectations doesn’t it?  Well, despite an earlier weather warning, the usual last minute stress and sheer exhaustion that accompanies back-to-back shows, “The Trilogy” delivered in ways some of it’s more corporate competitors failed to.

Take the site for example.  Thirty-four acres of level camping in rolling English countryside made for some stunning sunset photographs on both Friday and Saturday night. 

I managed to have the luxury of a night off on Friday and still failed to pack the right clothes.  With the sun kicking out record-breaking temperatures, I opted to dress entirely in black all day on Saturday, which only served as a magnet to the heat.  (Whatever Gaz and Hayley’s super power is as far as influencing the weather’s concerned, I’d love to know, but next year, I’ll be sure to book any staycations when they do!)  I also hit the ground running.  I can only apologise for the lack of photographs and general chitchat on offer from us this year.  We were flat out!

 

Photo credit:  Richard Harper

Vdubs show tees and stickers were flying.  A particularly tasty burrito was raised to my lips and placed back down again so many times, I gave up on it and as Gaz will testify, I can turn when deprived of my food!  Even Dr Jones stayed sulking in the van for much of the day, as neither of us had time to help him to his rightful place on his Lancaster Bomber toilet seat.

With BruteBox as our neighbours for the weekend, music was abundant (and a fair few cheeky Amarettos from the bike bar).

Usually it’s me who splashes the cash at shows, indulging my love of vintage, but with our regular neighbours Kinky Melon otherwise engaged, this time around Gaz kitted the P6 out with new plates.  What do you think?  He also mooched off to view a scooter and very nearly bought a klaxon.

No identity crisis for the Rover P6!

We also had an early Christmas present from Brutebox – a life ring bearing our name and now piled on top of the Rover.  Trust me, with the rain we’ve experienced at some of this year’s shows, a life ring has the potential to be a very handy piece of kit.

Gaz and Hayley Aulton and their crew (too many to mention – you know who you are!) pulled off a blinder of a festival, with visitors travelling from as far afield as Scotland.  There were no toilet issues – always a blessing, quality catering, including Little Retro Kitchen and the Bayked Potato Bus), a chilled out daytime musical line-up and some vaguely familiar and very animated dancing ladies kicking up a storm in their twilight years (thanks for the turban hat Charlie!)

There are no words.

  

Our downtime was spent chilling with friends, shooting the breeze over a few drinks and harvesting firewood with the generous assistance of Baz’s chopper!

Sunsets, sunrises (OK I didn’t witness the latter), sales and stupendous memories – that was 2016’s Vdubs in the Valley.

Eight Shows Eight Weeks

OK.  Where were we?  It's the end of July already and there has literally been no time to blog.  We have completed over 8 consecutive weekends of trading with a shed load of work in between.  Talk about living out of a suitcase!   

Our Monday to Friday routine has been unpacking the van, stock taking, processing orders, administration, preparations for the next show, haemorrhaging money on new stock and supplies, struggling to keep house and home afloat, before packing up the van again for the next trip, the next show. 

Sometimes we’ve been lucky with the weather (Dubs in the Middle)....and at others it’s been biblical (Deva Dubs), the stock’s had to stay in the van and our trusty pop up tent has been home for the weekend.

Rainy Selfie at Deva Dubs 'n' Rods

  

Each show has also been memorable in some way (usually to someone's detriment!)

Dubs in the Middle, Evesham - friend’s ankle sprain. 

Boddelwyddan Castle, Wales - severe sun burn to feet.

Dubs Mania, Shropshire - attracting the attention of drunken revelers and receiving random hippy hugs.

Deva Dubs, Shrewsbury - wet and windy weather, resulting in a torn window panel and a very leaky gazebo.  

Bristol Volksfest - inadvertently returning home with keys to the van and leaving Gaz stranded in Bristol 

Mid Summer Mini and VW Meet - The sheer novelty of trading literally 5 minutes from our home.

Camper Jam, Weston Park - forgotten sleeping bags and flying suitcases.  

Dubs at the Castle, Monmouthshire - the tastiest burger ever, cooked by our trading neighbours from Doncaster and an interesting challenge involving a world famous rock star.

Anyway, some shots from recent Voodoo Street trading outings before they become yesterday’s news!

Kicking back at Dubs in the Middle

Dubs in the Middle highlights included burlesque (a first for us) and a long overdue reunion with some close friends who rolled up in their stunning Bay Viking Superior.

   

Dubs Mania was not one of our best trading days - we spent more time walking round talking to people - but the sun shone brightly and a night spent in the stunning landscaped grounds of Weston Park can never be called a waste.

Show and Shine, Dubs Mania

Plus there was one of the best show and shines we’ve seen.

  

Bristol Volksfest was a revelation.  If it’s at all possible, I felt that BVF offered a little Glastonbury magic.  Maybe it’s on the same ley lines.  Who knows?  But there was definitely magic in the air on Saturday night and the slightly pagan burning VW sign only added to the vibe.  

Silent discos, great music, a DJ working from inside an ice-cream van, Surreal Spaces (beautiful willow garden structures, lit from within and created by a former roadie for U2) and some incredible cars and buses were just some of the features that made BVF so special.

Flaming VW

Camper Jam’s entertainment was spot on (Musical Youth and The Major Toms, a David Bowie tribute act who didn’t murder Heroes), even if the trading layout somehow affected the vibe this year.

And finally, Dubs at the Castle, our first trading outing at the fascinating medieval Caldicot Castle in Monmouthshire.  We’d like to go again as campers just to be able to pick our own little camping pitch in the scenic grounds.

Caldicot

Seeing our artwork on cool cars never gets old!

Next booked shows are Bus Fest and VDubs in the Valley, but hey, we've been known to book shows at the eleventh hour, so catch you somewhere soon!

Bikes, Boxes and Blogs

OK, so it’s been a while since I posted and today is the day that I make good on my new year’s resolution to bore you, sorry, blog more frequently.

Running a business, child containment, crappy day-to-day domestic stuff and maintaining sanity and fitness is a struggle many of us deal with.  Waiting for the perfect week to blog about is never going to happen and there aren’t enough hours in the day to labour over the words to write, so this week’s as good as any to let you in on the random events, irritations and lifestyle of the three of us here at Voodoo Street.

Monday dawned with the usual mixed feelings; a new week in prospect and all the potential that brings, coupled with the knowledge that we face the nightmarish back-bothering task of lugging our entire stock down from the loft (once quite a nice room, now a dumping ground for Voodoo Street’s growing collection of stock, skulls and curiosities) to the front room and again outside into our VW van ready for Bus Types this weekend.  An intense 30 minutes swim at the local pool helped reinvigorate the senses (or dull them just enough to cope with the week in prospect!)

Tuesday was a race against time to supply our friend and super talented BMX rider Pinder, with some Voodoo Street tees.  He had been asked at short notice, to film a video for Rockermini BMX in India, but we all failed miserably with Pinder stuck at work in Birmingham after 9 pm having still not packed for his 3 am flight.  Thankfully he still has enough Voodoo swag to rep us out there and we’ll hopefully share some of his updates.

In between, I’ve been assisting the boy with SATS homework, babysitting tortoises (!), booking a ferry to the Outer Hebrides (more of that at a later date), talking Gaz down from finishing off our complete tool (not in a good way) of a printer with a lump hammer, tackling a gremlin on Facebook which has served to arbitrarily delete our posts, ironing stock, updating our web store and photographing an array of items we have accumulated in recent months, some of which might be on offer at Bus Types. This Packaway Stove might be on offer for example.

Bus Types is in Oswestry, one of Britain’s oldest settlements, and in keeping with Voodoo Street’s trading history, no doubt set to be the scene of apocalyptic weather for the next few days!

As I type, the living areas of our home have been sacrificed to boxes, filing cabinets, paperwork and our SMEG fridge door sticker display.

 

I have accepted that until Monday evening, our home is more likely to feature on TV show “The Horders Next Door,” rather than gracing the pages of Ideal Home magazine.

Today, with Gaz organising stickers, lifting boxes, ensuring Dr Jones, our tattooed mannequin, is ready for business, I’m wrestling with the more important business of what to wear.

Always keen to rep the brand, I shall be donning one of our logo beanies at the very least.  But those of you who know me, also know my penchant for vintage and that I like to mix things up a bit.  So, given the forecast is damp and chilly, these are going to be my key pieces:  Voodoo Street Logo Beanie, Doc Martens, ageing nicely and vintage faux fur jacket.  I might also throw in one of the maxi dresses acquired from our trader friends Kinky Melon’s Retro Boutique alongside my jeans.

If it ain’t nailed down, it’s going in a box or a suitcase!  Til next time. x 

Shiver by the River to Heaven by the Severn!

Last week was probably our craziest to date.  On a weekend road trip through Shropshire, we spotted a sign advertising the first VDubs in the Valley festival.  On a whim, we decided that it was the right time to unleash Voodoo Street onto an unsuspecting public and where better to start than our favourite local market town, Bridgnorth!  Only problem was, we had less than 7 days to prepare.  And so, fuelled by coffee and adrenalin, we worked a series of late nights labelling and finishing stock, finalising paperwork and packaging, designing a trade stand, buying a weather-proof trade stand, sourcing props and signs to furnish said trade stand and sorting transportation.  Oh, and we also designed and produced a sticker to mark the occasion.  At first we decided it should read "Shiver by the river" (still loving that!) but after seeing a more promising weather forecast, opted for "Heaven by the Severn."

With very little time to spare, Thursday (set-up day) arrived, literally like a damp squib.  In relentless drizzle, Gaz pitched up next to an old oak tree in the middle of a damp but beautiful field by the Severn....with literally no-one else in sight. Starting to fear the worst and experiencing something like first night nerves, he set up shop (with a little help - you know who you are, cheers!)  He needn't have worried.  By the time Claire rocked up at 7 (ish), the place was full and she was greeted by security staff and organisers grinning like Cheshire cats, chuffed that their humble little festival was taking on a life of its own.

COMPETITION TIME!!

The rest of the weekend went in a blur of amazing people, awesome vans, huge support, a raft of compliments, a little alcohol, delectable food, great music and a few rays of sunshine!  Our tattoo'd mannequin (aka "The Illustrated Man) proved to be a big hit, so much so that we have formally adopted him, which leads us to the point of this blog.  No adoption process is complete without a name and our man desperately needs a show name.  So, we're throwing it out there.  The person who comes up with the best name wins a free goody bag!  To enter, simply check out our website and like our Facebook page (to get a flavour of what we're about) and then put forward a name you feel befits such a handsome dude!  Please post your suggestions on our Facebook page and we'll pick our favourite and notify the winner on Monday 6th October.  Good luck and thanks again!

Bloomin' June

Hope you all managed a break from the grind over Easter and the May Bank holidays.

We’ve hit the road quite a bit recently, heading up to Manchester for the BMX Supercross on Good Friday, taking the younger members of our team to the Insomnia Gaming Festival in Coventry and chasing the sun all the way to Cornwall last week.  Our Instagram followers have been treated to regular updates from action shots of the BMX competitors to gaming festival pics where pretty much everyone had a ponytail and/or a dose of acne. We spotted several confused looking dads roaming around the arena wondering how the hell they had ended up in the Minecraft Zone! 

Last week, we headed to North Cornwall in our ageing Golf - roof box all stickered up for the journey.  The waves were disappointingly flat (to quote Gaz, “Flat as a witch’s t**!,”) which leads me nicely to our pilgrimage to the Witchcraft Museum in Boscastle last week, which even had it’s own Voodoo display! 

It wasn’t all play last week.  In between the sun, sea and cider, we still found ourselves posting out sticker packs on a daily basis.  As you will have noticed, the Voodoo Street brand now includes a pretty cool range of stickers.  Hot rod enthusiasts, surf bus/campervan owners, BMX riders and skaters are coming out of the woodwork and showing love for our limited edition vinyl sticker accessories. 

New designs are tested on Ebay, so check us out:

 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/voodoostreetwear/m.html?item=301211618824&hash=item46219c8e08&pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562)

…and give our regular bidders some competition!  We also sell through our website, Facebook page and via Amazon.  As we speak, we’re compiling sticker packs specifically aimed at surfers, skaters and hot rod owners.  Gareth’s prolific at the moment, so keep checking in.  There are new designs all the time.

Meanwhile, we’ve produced a limited run of kids’ tees (age 9-11) in two designs.    They are very robust and, we are told, apparently don’t require ironing!  We only have a few left, but the response has been encouraging.  At only £12.00 (free postage) we think they’re a bargain.