Americana Show - Newark Showground, Notts (UK)
4th to 7th July 2002
(Report by Nick Lappage)

Part 2 (Sunday)

Good Morning - It's Sunday and the day's looking fine. Tea and orange juice all round and then off to put the bike back into the show (after a run over with a polishing rag). There was a gospel service going on at the Main Stage and over at Stage 2 there was the Alternative Gospel by Loony Chris and Badaxe. Which one do you think we saw? Actually neither as we were too late for some reason...

Even more cars and bikes were arriving today along with the great British public who had decided that since the weather was looking promising, they'd take the family out. I walked around, taking pictures of my favourite vehicles and strange people. Watched a few of the bands, which were really great. Top of the shop for the small stage was Matchbox in my opinion. Do you remember them? They had numerous hits in the late seventies with songs like "Rockabilly Rebel" and "Midnight Dynamo".

All of a sudden it was 1.30pm and the judging of the bike show had been completed. Any bikes that had won a prize had a 2001 Americana patch (cheapskates - what about a 2002 patch then?) and a note to be at Stage 2 at 2 o'clock. Some wonderful machines had been chosen and to my delight so had Midnight Thunder. As we all gathered round the stage we talked about how each bike had come to be. One of them had only been completed the day before, so this was his first run out. A great paint scheme with red and green flames on a white marble base. The flames were then edged with gold leaf and each hand trimmed to give a sawtooth edge to the flames - a very nice job! Also there was Rumpshaker - another great bike that won last years Bulldog Bash Custom Show. Unfortunately he turned up too late for the judging, but at least he came.

    .

The Hard Rock Cafe in Nottingham had sponsored all of the prizes and Richard Whiting and the lady owner of Hard Rock presented each one. Some marvelous silverware was up for grabs and it turned out that Midnight Thunder had won Best Non American bike of the show. Phew, no more Harley trophies then. All trophy winners received a complimentary pass for next years Americana too (that's worth about fifty quid).

The bands then started again and this time it was T-Rextasy, a Marc Bolan/T Rex covers band, who are simply brilliant. They've been on TV more then a few times and even have the original keyboard musician playing with them. If you know what Marc Bolan was like in the Seventies, then take a look at this band some time. You will not be disappointed. I went off to put the trophy into the tent and was accosted by some lovely ladies who wanted a ride on the back of the bike. Who am I to say no? "Hop on" I said, and off we went around the showground having a bit of a cruise. I had to about 4 laps of the show before I was allowed to stop.

Finally we had to put away the tent and say our goodbyes to some of the people we'd met this weekend, but we weren't going anywhere until we'd seen a bit of Lonnie Donegan, who was headlining the Main stage this year. We sat at the back of the field having a light snack and tea and relaxed back soaking up the evening sun and feeling just fine. Lonnie is kind of, well ok but not what I'd thought he'd be like in this modern day. Still, guess who's on next year? Oh goodie.... Suzie Quatro. Now I will be there for that one.

'Til next time....

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