“Scooter rally will bring original Mod style to Redcar” says the Gazette Live

“Fifty years on from the heyday of the Mods, enthusiasts have arranged a weekend-long rally at Redcar Rugby Club”

They rode Vespas and Lambrettas, they loved groups like the Small Faces and The Who and they had a style all of their own.

And now, 50 years after the original mods had their heyday, the era is set to be recreated at a scooter rally in Redcar.

On June 6, 7 and 8, a full camping weekend at Redcar Rugby Club aims to bring the best in scooters, scooter sounds and traders to the town.

Musically, there’ll be Mod, Ska, Northern Soul and more. But there’ll also be scooters - lots of them.

It’s the brainchild of scooter fan Damian Hunt and his old school friend Paul Power, who organised the VW Power event at the same venue.

And while some people associate Mods with seaside violence, both in the 1960s and the Mod revival in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Damian, 45, stresses the Redcar event will be a peaceful, family friendly affair.

Damian, manager of the Stainton Lodge nursing home and a former pupil of Redcar’s Sacred Heart school, said: “I remember the rallies coming to Redcar in the 1980s, but I didn’t have a scooter and I was too young to go.

“Since then, there hasn’t been anything like it in Redcar, which is a shame.

"Bridlington, Scarborough, Whitby... they’ve all had scooter rallies and they’re incredibly popular.

“Thousands of people turn up so I think Redcar has been missing out.”

Damian, who admits The Who movie Quadrophenia was a “big inspiration” to him, got his first scooter, a Vespa, when he was 20 but has since progressed to a Lambretta.

He said: “I love the sight and sound of them. People stop and stare when there’s a group of them together.

“I like the 2 Tone music, the fishtail parkas, three button suits, Fred Perry clothes - it’s a great style and the music’s fantastic too.

"Mods got a bad press in the old days, but thankfully the days of violence have gone - now it’s all about the music and the scene.

“And it won’t just be Mods - we’ll have skinheads, punks, a range of people who just want to express themselves and share something they’re passionate about.

“We are putting on a professional, family-orientated rally for people to come and have a look at the vehicles, listen to the music and get some young blood into the scene.”