VDubs in the Valley Episode IV

On Friday morning, in a field far, far away (well, Arley - about 20 minutes’ drive from here), Episode IV of VDubs in the Valley dawned.  Gaz and Hayley Aulton and their crew had been hard at it since the previous Monday, battling high winds, unseasonable temperatures and heavy rain (thankfully no Sith lightning), to turn what had been a field full of sheep the previous week, into a weekend haven for Vdubbers.

The day was spent going backwards and forwards to the site.  Gaz had already driven a fully loaded van over to Arley (seriously, not even a ferret could have squeezed inside our T4 on Friday).  I followed later with yet more boxes, before leaving him to set up so that I could manage our online store and enquiries and to be on hand to cook tea at school kicking out time.

With plummeting temperatures on Friday night, BruteBox, our neighbours on one side, took Gaz and his man flu in hand, providing a fire and dispensing their own special brand of medicine (a rum hot toddy – rum, lemon, rum, honey, rum, a dash of hot water, some rum).

Saturday was manic.

The sun shone and the crowds came!

Great to see our 2015 designed tees are still going strong!

There were Star wars costumes aplenty and geeks ruled!  (For me, the word “geek” is a term of endearment). 

Spot Hayley, far right, on a rare break.

Cookie

Some folks started earlier than others (Cookie!) We met Cookie Simon Cooke), his wife Vikki and son Alfie as customers at our first ever trade show – the first ever VDubs in the Valley, pitched up next to a solitary oak tree.  A different field, a different time.  Four years on and Simon, fresh from his appearance as a finalist on E4’s Tattoo Artist of the Year, was a fellow sponsor and trading neighbour, adding his own unique artwork to various coveted items and getting dressed up at 10.30 on a Saturday morning! (Sadly, I didn't get a photograph of him in his awesome costume, but here's an oldie!)

Mouse Droid lurking behind Boba

We were privileged to be custodians of this incredible Mouse Droid, built by Simon Flack.  Simon reminded us to include a Mouse Droid in the design for the official tees and beady eyed regulars may just spot our dedication to him in the artwork. 

"Leia No Buns" an obscure Star Wars character

I managed a token effort.  I was aiming for “Hoth Leia” but with theme appropriate leggings, a padded body warmer and cherry red Doc Marten boots, the link was tenuous.  I didn’t even have time to attempt the famous Leia buns.  Caleb donned a Boba Fett knitted hat.  Gaz had just been too busy in the weeks leading up to the show. 

Under the Fridge in action

Saturday night we managed to squeeze in a little socialising - accompanied by a cider (Gaz, standard) and a rather nice local beer from the BeerBuz (me), Under the Fridge providing the soundtrack.  With Autumn beginning to kick in, the temperature dropped as rapidly as darkness descended and…with no dead Tauntaun to shelter in, it was soon time to hit the sack and we headed 20 minutes down the road to our own beds. We also wanted to collect the P6, which has made an appearance at every VDubs in the Valley show to date, but with a flat battery and no fuel, this was not going to be straightforward.

The Beast and Gaz's stickerbombed unicycle

Gaz decided to redeem himself on Sunday morning, having failed to cobble together a Star Wars inspired outfit.  Therefore, he drove on site in the P6 wearing a Darth Vader helmet, but even the shocked photographer scrambled his camera too late and failed to get a decent shot.  So if anyone did witness Vader driving a 1970s Rover - Mrs Vader on the roof - into a farmer’s field early on Sunday morning, no you weren’t still suffering the after effects of a heavy Saturday night.

We hit the ground running on Sunday, fuelled by sausage sandwiches from BruteBox.  By 11.00 am, we had sold out of show stickers and were running low on tees.

Our dancing Coke can (a late 80s/early 90s craze, which had been sealed away in Gaz’s Mini for at least a decade) was a reminder of a more simple time.  Really simple.  We didn’t have to get our entertainment YouTube clips or from sharing memes on Instagram – oh no!  We were laughing hysterically at a moving soft drinks can in sunglasses!

Sunday was all about the vehicles and they were varied, sometimes outlandish, but always stunning.

Gaz fell in love with this Chevrolet Corvair

A beautiful splitty

The arse end of a Beetle.

VW Bugs

Love this Beetle!

Scooters 

Far Out!

We judged the Show n’ Shine's "How the hell did it get here?" category on Sunday and awarded a mummified skull (what else?) to Mark and his unique rat bus.  

Gaz as usual, got carried away and tried to re-brand everything as Voodoo Street.

Mark's Bus

BruteBox Bus?  Are you sure?

Powered by Voodoo Street

Express & Star photographer, paid the show a visit and captured this excellent shot of our rat bike and picked some unsuspecting child to model one of our steampunk hats, which ended up in Richard Guttridge’s online coverage of the event.

Photo courtesy of Express & Star Newspaper

Show ‘n’ shine over, prizes handed out, rain clouds gathering and rumours of thunder storms heading over from Dudley, we started to pack away.  Once the Golf was full of boxes, I took Boba Fett home, knocked up a roast dinner and started to trawl through the emails.  Meanwhile, Gaz was failing to dodge the rain and I felt a disturbance in the force.  A phone call confirmed my suspicions.  He was drenched and returned home an hour or so later, bedraggled, with a look and mood to match a snow beast.

Thank f*$k for Celia’s brownies, our VDubs in the Valley mugs and a night in front of the TV. 

THE END.

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!