The two main icons of the scooter world, Lambretta and Vespa have gone head to head for years, it’s the same with the age-old argument of geared versus auto, but there’s new controversy on the scene and this time, it’s not about the scooters. The music we hear at scooter rallies and events has been pretty much set in stone from our early years. You know the sounds you’re going to hear in the venues and for many of us, the music we love and hear is one of the main reason we go in the first place.
What if this was about to change?
Well there’s a National Rally in Kent that’s putting the cat amongst the pigeons by bringing The Darkside into the main venue at a National Scooter Rally and it’s causing quite a stir.
The Darkside
For those who aren’t familiar with the Darkside, it’s run by a group of longstanding rally-going scooterists who have fought to get auto scooters accepted into the scene since the late 1990s. In more recent years they have started putting on alternative music rooms under the name ‘Darkside Progressive Sound System’ at many rallies across the UK and Europe. Ironically much of the music they play is now already 30-years old (half the age of some of the DJs), with late 1980s Rave and Madchester influences a main ingredient of a Darkside night out.
A spokesman for the Big 7 Scooter Club, who runs the B.S.R.A. National Scooter Rally in Kent commented…
“The music at rallies is stale, it’s the same old same old where ever you go and although some of that music is great, it’s good to bring more modern and alternative music into the scene. Not everyone wants to listen to ‘Do I Love You’ ‘Down in the Tube Station at Midnight’ and ‘The Snake’ every night at a rally, people get sick of it! The Darkside have played at our rally for two years now in a tent and it’s become more and more popular, especially with the younger generation, which we get a lot of at our rally. We thought we’d bite the bullet, take the plunge and invite the Darkside into the main venue, we think they deserve to be in the main venue, we’ll just see what happens!”
DJ battle
From 10 pm in the main venue of the four music rooms they run at the Big 7 Scooter Rally, it’s a fight for the dance floor between the traditional mainstream DJ’s and the Darkside. 3 tracks of music from each, alternating throughout the night. For more details on the bout, visit the Big 7 Scooter Rally website at: Big 7
What’s your opinion?
Should the music of our scene adapt and change like the scooters we ride, or should we stay loyal to the music that a generation has grown up with, loved and enjoyed since we got the first set of scooter keys that changed our lives forever?
New products always in development…
I would like to see a Westside Story style ‘dance off’ taking place also – but with less flick knives and more clicking of fingers ;0D
Brrrrrraaaappp!!
A Jazz Club marquee would be N-I-I-I C-E!
Featuring the syncopating fusion sounds of Pops “Belly” Porci and the Piglets, with their 4/4 version of Ornette Coleman’s ” Lonely Woman” in the key of F#. The plastic saxophone of the original being substituted by a Tudor Rackett!
Eartasmic….sweeeet.
The alternative/indie nightclub of my teens/twenties played 3 themed tracks at a time and each tribe did their thing when their music played. Got introduced to some great music at that club. I like the idea.