Most scooter historians know that Scootering is the child of Back Street Heroes but, as Stan explains, that’s only part of the story…
In August 1981, I’d nursed my Vespa 50 Special to Scarborough, where word of mouth said that there was to be a large gathering of scooters. The previous year a group of us young Mods had gone to the same event by train, the journey enlivened by a fight on the train between rival gangs of National Front supporters. That had ended with one of them losing the ends of his fingers when his hand got ‘repeatedly trapped’ in one of the old-school carriage doors… ah, blood-soaked happy days. Anyway, where was I going with this story?
Like many 16-year-olds of the time I’d been seduced by the Mod revival, and I’d scrimped enough from my £30 a week apprentice wage to buy a measly set of chrome which I’d bolted to my 50 Special, reducing its top speed to little more than a walking pace. Once on the seafront I’d been surprised to find that lights and mirrors were no longer the thing to be seen with; instead, the scooters were stripped back to essentials, big carbs were added and exhausts with VW tailpipes spewed 2t fumes across the bay. Also gone were suits, and in their place were combat trousers. To be honest, I’d found my period as a Mod rather exhausting; in Jimmy’s language I’d never be more than a ‘third class ticket’ and just trying to keep up with the rich kids at our school disco had been impossible. I could certainly get on board with this new look. Within 24 hours of getting home the chrome had been dumped, and most of my pay the following week was spent at the army surplus store. I wasn’t alone, in fact if the Scooterboy movement had a birth certificate, that August Bank Holiday would be written large across it.
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Having seen custom scooters in the flesh, I wanted to know more about how they were built, but in those pre-internet days there was a complete lack of information. Fortunately, my next-door neighbour was a custom car nut, and I scoured the pages of his Custom Car magazines for hints and tips. That continued until 1983, when Back Street Heroes hit the shelves. Pretty soon everyone in our club was reading this motorcycle mag, not just for the custom tips but for its anarchistic attitude, which reflected our approach to life far more than the few Mod-based music mags that had survived the ’79 revival’s demise.
I didn’t realise it at the time but plenty of other Scooterboys felt the same. Indeed, a young scooterist from Chelmsford, Gareth Brown, was actively lobbying the publishers of BSH, Myatt-McFarlane, to create an offshoot of BSH for scooterists. The rest, as they say, is history, and one that’s well known. However, while Gareth was lobbying BSH’s publishers in the North West, there was another scooterist busy at work further south, and his name was Stu Lanning.
Origin of the species
(Body text) If asked to nominate a hub of historic British scooterist activity, I suspect that most readers would either plump for Brighton or ‘the North’. Both are understandable, but that perception does a great disservice to the South West, which has a strong history of its own. In February 1984, Stu produced the first edition of The Somerset Scooterist, a handwritten, photocopied newsletter that was distributed among the various scooter clubs in the area and by Stafford Motorcycles in Bridgwater. This newsletter ran for 14 issues, each edition seeing Stu’s professionalism and experience grow.
By April 1985, Stu had outgrown the limitations imposed by the photocopied format of The Somerset Scooterist and took the plunge to move up a gear. His new magazine would be called British Scooterist Scene, a title that reflected its national coverage. It was far more professional in its approach and was also professionally printed.
Modern technology means that anyone can now lay out a magazine using commercially available software, but the 1980s was a different era. The magazine was produced by Stu on a tabletop (as indeed was BSH by Steve Myatt) and ‘cut and paste’ meant exactly that. Each sheet could take hours to produce, and that doesn’t include the time spent editing the printer’s proofs. Forget instant communication, amendments were, literally, posted between the editor’s desk and printers using Royal Mail. That Stu managed to produce such a high-quality magazine and single-handedly manage its distribution in person at scooter rallies, and eventually through newsagents, are feats worthy of recognition.
By August 1986, British Scooterist Scene had a cult following, while its rival, Scootering, was perhaps a little more mainstream. The latter’s circulation certainly benefited from Myatt-McFarlane Publishing’s experience in distribution. It’s probably an oversimplification of the situation but the combination of Stu’s ‘street smart’ and MMP’s business acumen meant that a merger of the magazines made perfect business sense. This happened in August 1986, issue 16 marking the end of British Scooterist Scene.
The story’s not over
When Scootering’s first editor, Mike Roberts, was killed in a tragic accident involving bump-starting a Harley, Gareth Brown had taken over the editor’s chair. When, in 1989, he left for pastures new, it was Stu who became editor number three. Production of the magazine remained in the North West, and predictably Stu soon grew tired of the commute, eventually selling his share of the magazine to MMP in 1990. The new editor was Steve Berry, who’d worked on both British Scooterist Scene and Scootering, but it wasn’t a natural fit and after editing a few editions, Steve left MMP in pursuit of other opportunities.
The natural choice of editor was Stu, but he had no intentions of returning to the North West commute, and that same year he bought Scootering from MMP. In his hands, Scootering thrived through the 1990s, a difficult era when attendance at British rallies diminished and the magazine’s natural readership concentrated on building their careers and families. To broaden the magazine’s appeal, Stu turned towards the German scooter market and for a while published a German language edition. The major difference between this and its British parent was that the German edition was distributed free of charge through scooter shops, its production and distribution costs being paid for by advertising.
Having weathered that storm, a change in Stu’s personal circumstances meant that he could no longer devote the time needed to run the magazine and in 1990, Stu sold Scootering to Horncastle-based Mortons Media.
Lost and found
Throughout the course of its existence, Mortons has acquired many historic titles, some defunct, others still in existence. This has led to the publisher owning one of the UK’s largest archives of motorcycling material, some of which dates to the early 1900s. It’s a superb resource, and if you’ve got eagle eyes it’s not at all unusual to see ‘Mortons Archive’ credited in the production of various TV shows. Setting aside the archive’s historical importance, it’s also a significant source of income. Which makes what happened next very difficult to understand. During the move to Horncastle, much of Scootering’s archive of material was unceremoniously disposed of. Why? We’ve no idea, but it did leave a hole in the archive that every subsequent editor – from Sticky to Andy Gillard, and then Dan – has worked around.
However, life always holds surprises and just when all seems lost, a chance conversation can bring about a change in fortunes. While Stu and I were chatting at the Woolacombe National, the topic of Scootering’s 40th anniversary and the missing archive cropped up. During this chat Stu added a little more to the story: “When Mortons came down to collect the material from Weston, for whatever reason, I wasn’t around. Some things that belonged to me were taken up to Horncastle and things that belonged to the magazine were left behind. It took ages to sort out, but although I got my things back, they never came for theirs. It’s in Weston if you want it…” It was an offer I couldn’t refuse.
While it’s still only part of the Scootering story, Stu has handed over many original proofs, layouts and transparencies that had been used to produce the magazine during its early years. This discovery led to a discussion with our current archivist, Jane, who was convinced there had to be more material somewhere in the collection. After digging around in the archive’s darkest corners, two large boxes of transparencies, last used in the early 2000s, were rediscovered. We know there are plenty of missing editions and there’s still a lot of work to be done but, so far, we’ve identified photoshoots from editions 5 to 200, together with many from British Scooterist Scene. These, together with the material that had remained with Stu, give us access to more original material than we’ve had in decades.
It’s complicated
The obvious question is that now we’ve rediscovered the material, what are we going to do with it? I know that’s of interest to quite a few of you as since we published news of the archive’s discovery there have been plenty of emails asking if we have images of scooter ‘X’. Unfortunately, the answer to that isn’t quite so straightforward as it may seem.
Firstly, we need to index what we have, and although most of the material is in order, one of the boxes was little more than a jumble of transparencies. The process of indexing it all will take some time. Then we have the issue of copyright, and with a magazine that’s had several owners and numerous contributors, all on different contracts, that’s not always easy to establish. Once we’ve catalogued the material, we’ll probably take things on a case-by-case basis. So, when we’d like to use something, we’ll dig into its provenance and take a decision on whether we can use it or not, based on what we discover. Trying to establish copyright for material we’ll never use would be too onerous a task. Finally, and I’ll try to be delicate here, some of the early material was quite ‘fruity’.
In a nutshell, that won’t be used as there’s no place for soft pornography in the modern Scootering. We also have responsibilities as a company, and in Steve Myatt’s own words, the models were usually ‘the prettiest girl down the pub’. Even if those models did work to a contract, most of them will now be married and have children, or even grandchildren, of their own. We need to make sure those images don’t fall into unauthorised hands, so we’ll steer on the side of caution and shred them.
Although we wouldn’t commission them today, some other photoshoots are iconic and over the decades have taken on a life of their own. Our archive image this month is a case in point. Where we have copyright, from time to time, we’ll use one of those. After all, they do sum up an era when the magazine, and British scootering as whole, was at its most anarchic. If you were one of those models, don’t worry. As Kenny Everett would have said: “It’ll all be done in the best possible taste.”
Into our fifth decade
There’s a certain neatness in that as Scootering celebrated its 40th birthday, the celebratory issue was the first to be published under new ownership. For now, the name above the door remains the same but the publishing division of Mortons was sold in its entirety to Kelsey Media in March 2025. Under the new ownership, and with your continued support, we’re moving into our fifth decade. Who could have seen that coming in 1985?
Words: Stan
Images: Stan, Mortons Archive
