CONFESSIONS OF A BIKER - OR, HOW MY BLACK LEATHER JACKET BECAME A STAR EXHIBIT AND A MEDIA STAR!

 

Full cover of my official sell-thru VHS video of Black Leather Jacket (© Nick Mead/Paul Cowan/Mick Farren/Channel 4 Television Corporation/Polygram Music Video – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

As a biker ever since my late teens in the 1970s, my habitual and favourite garment of choice to wear has always been the classic black leather jacket, of the motorbike style beloved by bona fide, would-be, and on-screen bikers alike, not to mention rock stars, fashion models, punks, and rebels of every shape, size, and description.

So when while browsing in a bookshop one Sunday afternoon during the mid-1980s in the Warwickshire, England, town of Stratford-upon-Avon, world-famous as the birthplace of one William Shakespeare, I chanced upon a fairly large brand-new hardback book entitled The Black Leather Jacket, sporting an embossed, textured front cover designed to look and even feel like the real thing, and documenting the fascinating history of this truly iconic item of clothing, I lost no time whatsoever in purchasing it and reading it from cover to cover as soon as I arrived back home.

Written by English journalist Mick Farren and first published in 1985, this engrossing book reveals and extensively illustrates via a comprehensive selection of very distinctive glossy b/w photographs how its titular subject, the black leather jacket (or the BLJ, as I'll refer to it hereafter for convenience), has evolved and diversified since its origin during the early years of the 20^th Century.

The BLJ's progress is succinctly chronicled from the standard unadorned predecessors worn by the likes of WW1 fighter pilots and the Gestapo of WW2, through the classic 1950s Brando/Dean rebel styles, plus all manner of self-customised be-studded and badged-to-the-hilt individualized versions worn by outlaw bikers and 1960s rockers/greasers, to the slashed and safety-pinned punk gear of the 1970s, and the somewhat emasculated 1980s fashionista formats more at home on the catwalk than the highway, as well as every conceivable variation in between. So too is its enduring intrinsic appeal, traditionally daring, dark, even dangerous, regardless of its ever-changing external form. But that's not all.

 

The front cover of the original hardback First Edition of Mick Farren's book The Black Leather Jacket that I still own today (© Mick Farren/Plexus Publishing – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

In 1988, Channel 4, a terrestrial TV station in the UK, produced and screened a 60-minute docu-movie directly inspired by Mick Farren's book but simply entitled Black Leather Jacket (i.e. no The). It was directed by Nick Mead, co-written by him with Farren, and produced by Paul Cowan. Narrated by big-screen bad boy Dennis Hopper of Easy Rider fame, Black Leather Jacket stayed faithful to the contents of Farren's book but also featured clips from a number of classic movies relating in some way to the BLJ and motorbikes, such as the cult 1970s British biker/horror movie Psychomania, which I've reviewed here (on my Shuker In MovieLand blog, which also includes here a version of this present Eclectarium article re my black leather jacket).

Moreover, it contained an excellent rock soundtrack too, including contributions from famous BLJ-wearing performers such as Elvis Presley, The Clash, Gun, L.A. Guns, Zodiac Mindwarp (remember them?), Velvet Underground, Kiss, and Motorhead – whose song 'Black Leather Jacket' was used as this documentary movie's title song, accompanying clips of a teenage BLJ/Levis-wearing Michael Vartan (in his on-screen debut) riding a Harley through a neon-lit city centre at night and duly dubbed Motorcycle Boy in the credits.

Knowing full well that I would definitely enjoy Black Leather Jacket just as much as I'd done with the original book, I had the foresight to video-record it for future re-watchings at home, which was just as well, because I never remember it being re-screened. Tragically, however, as was so often the case with all but the highest-quality recordable blank videocassettes available back then, the picture quality of my precious recording of it diminished with repeated viewings down through the years.

Imagine my surprise but delight, then, when just over a year ago I discovered not only that Black Leather Jacket had actually been released as an official sell-thru video but also that there was a single example of it listed at that very same time on ebay, on a Buy It Now basis. So that's what I did, and just a few days later I was able to watch and enjoy it in its original top-quality viewing state all over again. But that's still not all.

Just a few miles from where I live in the West Midlands, England, is the prestigious Walsall Leather Museum, devoted to the history of the town of Walsall's long-established leather trade and manufacturing, and during summer 1993 I learnt from a friend who worked there that they were planning to stage a temporary public exhibition devoted exclusively to the BLJ!

 

Mini-poster produced by the Walsall Leather Museum advertising its BLJ Exhibition (© Walsall Leather Museum – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

As a local biker who had painstakingly customized several of my motorbike BLJs in the classic 1960s rocker/greaser style (having been inspired to do so after seeing and admiring original examples worn by various bikers featured in clips from Black Leather Jacket of London's famous biker/rocker-associated Ace Cafe and 59 Club during that decade), it occurred to me that the Museum may perhaps be interested in including one of them in their exhibition as a representation of that particular BLJ genre. So one afternoon shortly after learning about their plans, I rode there on my motorbike wearing one of them – and was delighted when they were indeed very keen to exhibit it!

 

My official invitation to the preview of the Walsall Leather Museum's BLJ Exhibition in autumn 1993 (© Dr Karl Shuker/Walsall Leather Museum – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

The Walsall Leather Museum's 'The Black Leather Jacket' Exhibition ran from 4 September to 14 November 1993 inclusive, but I was invited with other contributors to an exclusive preview, and when I turned up on my motorbike (wearing a different BLJ), there on display in a tall glass showcase was my very own jacket, fully labeled and fully visible from all angles. If pride is a sin, then I sinned very extensively that day!

 

The official b/w photograph of me wearing my exhibited BLJ that appeared alongside my jacket's showcase in the Walsall Leather Museum's BLJ Exhibition, and which also appeared in Mike Phillips's article 'Black Art', on the subject of the BLJ, published by the British monthly motorbike magazine Bike in its October 1993 issue (© Walsall Leather Museum (photographer unknown to me) – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Moreover, perhaps because of how eyecatching it was, bristling all over with badges, studs, chains, and above all else its full official Easyriders back patch, it was my BLJ that attracted much of the media attention relating to the Museum's BLJ Exhibition.

 

Report from The Observer (London) for 5 September 1993 re the Walsall Leather Museum's BLJ Exhibition, and including a close-up photo of my exhibited BLJ – please click to enlarge for reading purposes (© The Observer/Guardian Media Group – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

It was pictured in a number of newspaper reports (including one by none other than London's eminent weekly broadsheet The Observer, the world's oldest Sunday newspaper, founded in 1791, and in which I am referred to as "a local biker with a vivid sense of design" - love it!), as well as in a special BLJ article entitled 'Black Art' authored by motorbike journalist Mike Phillips and published in the October 1993 issue of Bike, Britain's best-selling motorbike magazine.

 

Birmingham Post newspaper's 2-page magazine supplement report for 29 September 1993 re the Walsall Leather Museum's BLJ Exhibition, which includes a name-check and quote from me (arrowed in red) on p.4 and a picture of a model wearing my exhibited BLJ on p. 5 – please click to enlarge for reading purposes (© Birmingham Post/Reach plc – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

My exhibited BLJ also featured in two local TV news reports, and in one of them it was even worn by Midlands Today presenter Richard Ulridge while sitting astride a motorbike and then riding off on it, with my BLJ's Easyrider back patch fully displayed (click here to view both of these TV news reports – and my BLJ! – on YouTube).

 

Photo-still from the Midlands Today news report re the Walsall Leather Museum's BLJ Exhibition depicting presenter Richard Ulridge wearing my exhibited BLJ (© Dr Karl Shuker/Midlands Today – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

If you'd like to watch Black Leather Jacket, most of it can currently be viewed free of charge on YouTube, where it has been uploaded in nine parts (but, oddly, Part 3 is seemingly missing), though the resolution quality is not great. Click here to begin viewing with Part 1.

Finally: To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film/TV reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

Photo-still from the Midlands Today news report re the Walsall Leather Museum's BLJ Exhibition depicting the back of my exhibited BLJ as worn by presenter Richard Ulridge (© Dr Karl Shuker/Midlands Today – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

SIN CITY RIDER: MEMOIRS OF A VEGAS BIKER - REVIEWING RICK HART'S LATEST BOOK

Rick Hart is and has been many things – a Vegas bartender, a US Air Force military man, an accomplished writer and eloquent poet (as this book readily demonstrates), a highly-skilled martial artist, and much else besides. But first, foremost, and forever, he is a biker.

Me with my copies of Rick's books (Dr Karl Shuker)

Sin City Rider: Memoirs Of A Vegas Biker, Rick's second book, following on from his equally enjoyable and insightful Lines On The Bar – Whiskey On The Rocks, is a thrilling eye-opener of a read, recounting his years as a member of a back-patch motorcycle club beginning in the early 1970s. In it, he strips bare the many romantic, nonsensical images of what being in what is often termed an outlaw club is all about, revealing the true, sometimes gritty, often eventful, but always honour-bound reality. Because despite what you may have read elsewhere, being a club member is much more than riding a bike with your buddies and wearing the colours – it is about loyalty, dignity, being there for your bros, and – above all else – commitment.

Back cover of Sin City Rider

In his club, Rick – or Turk, to give him his club name – was the Sergeant at Arms, responsible for maintaining order and discipline, and the club certainly chose the right man for the job. Rick is someone who others cherish greatly as a friend, knowing that he will ever be there for you, but fear greatly as an enemy, knowing that he will never not be there against you. And once again, the key theme to these twin aspects is commitment – never giving up on anyone or anything, and as his book so evocatively confirms, Rick never does.

This overriding sense of commitment shines through every page of Rick's words, with which he recounts in an engagingly laid-back but ruthlessly honest style of writing just some of the many adventures, good and bad, that he and his fellow club members experienced over the years. There is humour, frustration, surprise, tragedy (I guarantee the final chapter will tear your heart out!), revenge, joy, disappointment, and so much more here, plus a section in which he describes how he felt one night when entirely alone in the Nevada desert outside Vegas with just his Harley for company that is quite simply some of the most evocative poetry that I have ever read.


Many bikers (myself included) have dreamed at some stage or another in our lives of what it must be like to belong to an 'outlaw' motorcycle club, but few of us have shown the courage and single-minded determination to live that dream, to abandon so much of the trappings and chains of the modern age in search of freedom and comradeship, a brotherhood linked by two wheels and the open road. Rick, however, is one of those few who did just that (the chapter in which he describes how he became a patch holder is one of my personal favourites), and this fine book is a moving, spirited testament to that choice.

If you're a biker like me, you will devour page after page of Sin City Rider with a gnawing hunger to experience those long runs with Rick and his bros down the wide, starkly beautiful desert highways – I read it from cover to cover while on holiday recently, and enjoyed every last word. And if you're not a biker, then I strongly suggest that you read this book without delay, and see what you've been missing out on all these years!



And don't forget to check out Rick's previous book too, Lines On The Bar: Whiskey On The Rocks, for an exhilarating, eye-opening insight into the other, much less glamorous, darker side of Las Vegas.

To order either or both of Rick's books online, just click on them at http://www.amazon.com/, http://www.amazon.co.uk/, http://www.barnesandnoble.com/, or directly from their publisher, Xlibris, at http://www.xlibris.com/ - or, if you prefer, you can order by phone from Xlibris on (within the U.S.A.) 888-795-1274 ext 7879, or place an order through your local bookstore.

You need these books! (Dr Karl Shuker)