Guy Martin's Blog, page 5
December 23, 2015
Proper Happy Christmas from Guy
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December 11, 2015
Latvia
After the India programmes, that were on the telly earlier this year, the TV bods asked where else I’d like to go a do a travel programme. I’m quite happy in North Lincolnshire, and though I like seeing other places, I have to have reasons to go there. I’ve always wanted to go to Latvia, because my Granddad was from there. Voldemars Kidals is the man who told me, When You Dead, You Dead, that ended up being the name of my book.
The programme was originally going to be me sussing out what Latvia was about, but it turns out there’s an interesting story on my granddad, that we never knew. We knew he was a prisoner of war, but we found out more. He only died ten years ago, but there was loads of stuff he hadn’t even told his own son and daughter.
While I was out there I was looking into the family history, but also travelling around Latvia and meeting the locals, seeing them going about their daily business. It’s very like Lincolnshire. It’s only been out of Soviet control since 1988. Latvia that is, not Lincolnshire.
My mum and Granddad went over there in 1972 and you couldn’t say anything, because walls had ears back then and I like hearing all about stuff like that.
I saw where my granddad grew up and I could see why he settled where he did, near Caistor, where me and most of my family still live.
There are really only two major cities in Latvia, one being the capital, Riga, but the most interesting place we went was Liepaja, on the south-west coast. There are dirt roads between the towns and cities.
It was such an interesting place, and while the country isn’t all anti-Russian, most of it is. There’s still a lot of Russians there.
It’s beautiful. Though maybe that’s not the right word, because it’s not beautiful like New Zealand or the Lake District, but beautiful like North Lincolnshire. Proper.
Blog brought to you by guymartinproper.com
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Latvia
November 25, 2015
Vulcan XH558
November 24, 2015
Vulcan XH558
“The Vulcan is being parked up for good and I was asked to do a programme about the plane, its history and the final flight. The Vulcan first flew in 1952 and it’ll never fly again. The reason is, it needs a load of people from BAE systems, Marhsall Aerospace and Rolls-Royce to sign off the plane to be safe to fly, and all the folk with the right sort of 1950s skills to do that are either retiring or dying off.
“It would be so difficult to do again because the Vulcan is classified as a complex aircraft by the CAA – the Civil Aviation Authority. Spitfires and Lancasters and all that are classed as simple aircraft.
“Before the one the programme concentrates on was made air-worthy again, the CAA said that plane will never fly again, we don’t even have a category for it, but Dr Robert Pleming, the main man behind getting it back in the air, said ‘Well, what if I do this?’ And the authority said, ‘Well yes.’ And he did that for every problem. It cost £7 million, raised through the charity, Vulcan To The Sky Trust, to get the Vulcan back in the air and it’ll never fly again.
“It has 14 miles of wiring and 100,000 components. There are no mechanical links to anything. With a Lancaster or a Spitfire you can see that bit moves that bit, but the Vulcan is all run by mechanical computers: gears and cogs that flick this relay that energises that relay. It is massively complex.
“I was having a craic with the pilots, but as soon as it came to the pre-flight checks they turned into robots. They aren’t nervous going up in it because they spend an hour doing pre-flight checks, every button is checked.
“The majority of Vulcans were based in Coningsby, Scampton and Waddington, all Lincolnshire air bases, but that link to Lincolnshire doesn’t make me like it more, even though this county is the centre of the universe. It just made sense to base bombers here because of it’s strategic location during World War II and the Cold War. The attraction is just that the Vulcan is a fascinating plane with a lot of history.
“There was a week of celebration of the plane, just before it was parked up for good and during that week I went up in The Blades’ stunt plane and flew so close to the Vulcan that I felt I could have reached out and touched its wing. It was another money couldn’t buy it experience that i’ve had through the TV job.
“You can watch the programme on Channel 4 on Sunday 29th November at 19.30 hours.”
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November 9, 2015
Guy Martin’s Calendar 2016
Guy Martin’s Calendar 2016
From magic fish to Ducati’s secret test rider. Guy Martin’s once a year dip into the art world. The 2016 calendar sees him tie up with artist Ryan Quickfall for some personal, oddball pictures and photos from Guy’s head and world – available at www.guymartinproper.com.
Automatic entry to Guy’s prize draw, well done to all this year’s winners. JUST £10 with £1 from every sale going to Spinal Research. Guy Martin Proper has donated over £15K to charity from product sales, including Spinal Research, Animal Rescue Centre, Just Jane Lancaster Bomber and the Southern 100 Marshals association.
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November 6, 2015
The bands I’m into and why being a mate of Ken Fox’s is handy
I went to see Sleaford Mods on the first and last night of their tour. I love my bands, but I’ve never done that before.
They’re two normal blokes. Normal blokes you wouldn’t want to fall out with. They’re not mods. I don’t know how you’d describe their music. Jason Williamson is the front man and Andrew Fearn is the DJ, but he hardly does anything on stage, just presses a button on a computer every now and then and drinks beer. But they’re good.
They’re in their mid-40s, in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, no boy band hair-dos. There’s no stage show, just Jason screaming down a microphone. I wouldn’t say it was hip-hop or rap, but it might be a bit of both those things. It’s a bit ska too, but electronic. It’s angry, whatever it is.
What got me into them was listening to a right rare mix of music on my iPod on the way back from a mountain bike race in Austria. There was a van full of us: Jason, Sam, Lee and Tim all in the Trannie. We had to drive through the night to get the ferry. The new Prodigy album came on, and Lee said, ‘That’s the fella from Sleaford Mods doing the vocals on that. They’re doing a tour.’ So we went.
The lyrics aren’t taking the piss out of the working class, because he is working class, but he’s observing all the shit we do. He’s not looking at life through Orwell’s eyes, but what Sleaford Mods talk about proves Orwell was right. The working classes are getting shit on by the establishment. He doesn’t sing, he shouts about it. He also rips into Johnny Borrell from Razorlight and takes the piss out of Radio 6 DJ Lauren Laverne, even though Radio 6 play them more than any other radio station. And he talks about a bloke bowling down the street with a Maharishi shoulder bag, looking like he owns the path.
I’ve listened to the album 20 times, but every time I play it I pick out the odd phrase that I think, Ah, I see what you’re saying now. He’s got summat to say, but you’d have to listen to it yourself to get the gist.
I went to the first night of the tour, at the Ritz in Manchester, with Sharon, Jason and his missus, and Lee. I couldn’t get in the mosh-pit at the first gig. I tried, but it wasn’t long after the Ulster accident, so I thought twice about it. I felt a bit out of place stood on the edge.
Lee said the last show was at Nottingham, the band’s hometown, so we went to that too.
I was stood right at the front and one of the bouncers, who was a Hell’s Angel, nodded to me and said, ‘Alright? You know Ken Fox, don’t you?’ I said, Yeah, and he let me stand in the photographer’s bit between the stage and the moshpit. Then I was in the moshpit for 20 minutes. It was a good night.
I went to see another band, last month, The Picturebooks, a German band in Grimsby too. It was at a little club called Yardbirds, a place I’ve wanted to go to for a long time. It’s run by the local bike club, The Warlocks.
The Picturebooks (https://www.facebook.com/ThePicturebooks/) are another band of just two blokes, but they’re very different to Sleaford Mods. The have big beards, long hair, dress all in black. One is a singer and guitarist, the other is on the drums. They play heavy blues. And the drummer really means it.
It was on a Sunday night and there weren’t more than 50 people there, but it didn’t stop the band going for it. They were bloody good.
Give them both a listen.
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November 5, 2015
The bands I’m into and why being a mate of Ken Fox’s is handy.
November 4, 2015
Performance Bikes – December issue
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