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!

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 

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.

Nobody's Fool!

It’s April 1^st and we made it through the morning unscathed, managing to avoid becoming fools for the day, although there was a close call when a friend posted a photograph of herself having undergone a quite dramatic hair transformation.  She is an artist and so her Rosemary’s Baby/Mia Farrow pixie crop wouldn’t have been a complete surprise, but something just didn’t ring true!  Also now questioning whether the re-christening of Wolverhampton Station as “Wolverine” Station for one day in honour of the new X-Men film is legit?!

Some very real news is that we’re testing the children’s market.  Why should the little terrors be excluded from wearing Voodoo Street apparel?  We’re hearing reports of how difficult it can be to find really good kids tees, by which we mean, quality of the kind you can repeatedly wash and wear (maybe even get away without ironing) and good design that kids want to wear – not just recycled, rips offs of old designs.  From the feedback we’ve received, we hope we’ve achieved that. 

Currently, we offer two designs (limited stock) for the age group with the most discerning fashion taste - 8-10 year olds.  This may surprise some of you, but in our opinion, this is the age when children decide that they are no longer happy to just wear clothes their parents have chosen for them.  It’s the age that marks the first bold steps towards attaining a unique fashion identity.  While many teenagers have the desire to fit in and wear similar clothes to their peers, we’ve encountered one 9 year-old child who is adamant that his favourite colours are red and green.  Nothing else will cut it.  He knows what suits him.  Another was keen to wear the design that his friends had not picked in order to stand out from the crowd! 

We’re now receiving enquiries from parents of children in other age brackets, so watch this space…and at £10.00 plus postage; we think they’re a bargain!

March-ing On!

Not sure whether you spotted us in the local press.  The Stourbridge News, obviously stumped for exciting news, featured us in last week's issue.  Inkeeping with Voodoo Street's underground image, we argued the case for donning masks (Point Break style), but sadly, the photographer insisted we reveal our identities to the folk of Stourbridge.  We guess it could've been worse.  The sun shone brightly that day for the first time in what seemed like months and we found a pretty cool graffiti backdrop!  

The photo which made it into the story was taken in front of the darker part of the graffiti, featuring a Slash-from-Guns 'n' Roses-style character, due to the intense sunlight bouncing off the wall and blinding the photographer.  But we managed to take this pic in front of the more vibrant part, which we think does justice to our new Vibe tee.  What do you think?  

As a result of the article, we've picked up some positive reviews of our new design and more new followers from the Dudley area, so it's all good!

Now Spring has sprung, we've launched our new 5 panel snapbacks in black and navy.  We decided to buck the trend of shouting from the rafters branding and have instead opted for a cool, more understated look.  

We're also continuing to develop new sticker designs, so any BMXers, skaters, car pimpers or stickerbombers, check out the website.  Our stickers now have their own category, to make the website more user-friendly.

We've also altered the category layout, so as well as having all the products available to view at one time, if you're specifically looking for men's tees, just click on "Men's" etc. etc.  This should hopefully save you all some time.

In other news, we're pretty excited to have got hold of tickets to see the BMX Supercross World Cup in Manchester next month. Anyone else going?  Look out for us and come say hi!

***

6.02 pm

Anyone been watching Inside No. 9?  Each week there's a new darkly comic story.  Tonight's the final episode and, judging by this promo poster, the producers have drawn upon the same influences as we did for our Vintage "Haunting of Voodoo Street" women's hoodies!