Siobhanathon 2007

What do you do when you hear about a fundraising party for a little girl with a potentially fatal illness? In 2006 I heard the story of Siobhan Shearer and was captivated. At 9 years old Siobhan had endured more pain and worry than most us will in a lifetime. The Siobhanathon was created initially to raise enough money to get Siobhan to Disney.

That weekend in August I partied with a bunch of absolute hell raisers with big hearts.

Bearing in mind the Siobhanathon was not put on by a club the weekend was a resounding success with the promise of a follow up in 2007. Unfortunately for the crew and all those who had followed Siobhan's progress she succumbed to cancer on her Birthday in March 2007 never making it to Disney.

The aim of the Siobhanathon was always to help a different child each year and 2007 was no different. The crew (Juke and Gary) discovered another worthy candidate in the form of Leah.  Leah and her family were at the rally and were an absolute inspiration. You need to see the clip of Leah's dad telling their story to Motorsickle.com to understand what they go through.

I missed last year's rally for Siobhan and determined not to miss this one for Leah, I think I might have been strung up if I had!

I had a few quick chores to do around London so decided to do the straight line thing from Surrey through central London, bad mistake the traffic was horrendous. It took me over 2 and half hours to go 58 miles, although the last 11 miles went by in 7 minutes thanks to 2 loonies in a Lotus and a Porsche.

First things first, a pint and get the tent up, then see who is around, I wandered around chatting to various people, saying hello to the usual crowd and filming some of them putting up their tents. El Mick seemed to be having a bit of trouble in the wind with his Chateau of a tent! So I watched and filmed rather than helping.

I arrived at around nine on Friday after a 2.5 hour straight ride from Yorkshire. I was stunned at the size of the venue, at least double the size of the previous year. Once past the gate I was confronted with a prefab pavilion replete with chandeliers which housed the bar and the stage. Creatures disco was in full swing with the usual array of old and young pretending they could dance. Even better was the fact Jake had clocked me coming in and got a beer ready. Jake had been on site all afternoon and bombarded me with anecdotes from his travels around the rally field! 

The site was a sea of happy faces; everyone was there for one reason and one reason only Leah… and beer… that's still only one reason because beer is a necessity wherever you are!  Friday ended with the formidable showmanship of possibly the most talented young band I have ever seen - 'Some Kind of Mushroom'- they got everyone swinging with an eclectic mix of old and new. Jimi Hendrix followed by Arctic Monkeys anyone?

Once Jamie arrived we had a few drinks, which ended around 4:30am, I have not drunk that much since, well I don't know when, but in good company it went down so well, the evening was brilliant with everyone enjoying the atmosphere.

As Jamie said, 'Some Kind of Mushroom' really impressed us for a young band.

Saturday was glorious, with not a cloud in sky, and I opted to soak my aching brain in painkillers and water. No sooner had last night's band gone the Saturday headline pitched up and started setting up their equipment for the other bands to use. Such is the nature of the Siobhanathon,  one of Chris Ireland's crew knackered the prop shaft on his trike and got it welded by one of the Siobahnathon crew.

Jamie pissed off early to get pain killers and came back with a bag full of oranges and bottles of water; he offered me a lift from the gate back into the field and proceeded to ride around in circles
Trying to dig his foot pegs into the dirt, not a good idea when he has a very hung‑over Pyro sitting on the back shouting abuse over his shoulder!

As the morning wore on the bikes started arriving, one after another after another and didn't stop until late evening. Vmaxs, race reps, street fighters, trikes, chops, Harleys, bobbers and vintage bikes all had a presence. The catering van was small yet effective serving fried food but throwing together a great Salad for me at lunch time.

The silly games went down a storm with everyone participating getting a good soaking, much needed as the temperature was soaring.

The heat actually worked against the daytime bands as it was far too hot in the pavilion and only a few enjoyed the entertainment.

Fair play to the acts they persevered and did their thing.  We took the opportunity to interview Leah's dad and we also interviewed Chris Ireland about Britchopper, we had to terminate that interview due to a wedgie and armpit hair fight that erupted (I do not lie).

Fat maggot were custom printing tee-shirts onsite and were responsible for the official rally tees, the twist being that you could have what you wanted printed on the back within half an hour of ordering! We missed the custom show because of the pub menu and copious amounts of white wine (snobs that we are) and we were doubly gutted because Leah won a mini moto bike in the raffle!

Here is the most surprising thing, everyone worked for free! All the bands, the crew, the disco and the printers. The only charges were for the bogs and the bar took whatever they made. The raffle prizes were all donated and included a number of subscriptions for BSH and Streetfighters provided by Blue!

The food and the staff in the pub was excellent, although the same can't be said for the guvnor, I suspect he had no experience of holding a rally for bikers and was hedging his bets a bit, the two security guys he hired thought it was amusing too, basically telling us if there was any trouble that they knew Juke and the crew could handle it.

Interviewing Chris Ireland and Rob of Britchopper was a weird experience, in between demanding beer/cider/gin/anything with alcohol they were assaulting each other rather oddly, but they are great guys and really believe in the magazine, they worked hard…
No they didn't, they got drink and had fun all weekend. Hope to chat soon guys.

Evening wore on with everyone still having fun and the whole thing was so chilled, until slob poured half a pint of freezing cold lager down the back of my combats, I reacted by *cough* throwing a chair at him, well he knows I don't drink lager!

Sunday I heard Slob leave at around 5 in the morning and saw me leaving the site on my FJ1200 matt black rat wearing my white dinner jacket, for those that wondered how long it would be before I was stopped, it was 7 miles.

All in all a damn fine weekend and one we are keen to repeat… hopefully the wanky bike will be back next year? Juke, KKM, Baldy, Jeff, and everyone else, we salute you.