Following the opening scene in 2024 the story travels back in time to 1963 when a seventeen-year-old Judy wakes for her first day of a new life at Hairdressing College. Excited about her future she prepares her “look” for the day. Typical early sixties look: a beehive hair style held in place by lots of hair spray, mohair jumper, black slacks and kitten heeled shoes. She has dark eye shadow around her sparkling emerald, green eyes and cherry red lipstick. Like many kids of the era, she had failed her eleven plus exam and was condemned to a secondary modern school where expectations were low. Starting life at hairdressing college might lead to her owning her own business one day. She had ambition keen to avoid working in a factory or finding a man to settle down as a housewife and perhaps a mum.
Something else happened that day that would lead to changing her whole life. She went to the local shop for cigarettes and chewing gum when a biker roared around the village green. He startled Judy with his good looks. He was a Café Racer, a Rocker complete with swept back hair nice and greasy, silk scarf white and tight, leather jacket as sleek as a fox, knee high boots blue jeans white socks. At that first meeting in the local sweet shop, both Jimmy and Judy lost their hearts to each other and so began the Rocker side of this story.
This song: “Ace to the Bee” immortalises the era of the Café Racers riding at breath taking speed between famous café landmarks. The Ace Café on the north circular road and the equally famous, at the time, Busy Bee Café on the A41 at Watford were just two of the transport cafes taken over by bikers at weekends and the evenings. The Busy Bee closed in 1969, but the Ace Café is still on the North Circular road around London. This song captures the spirit of these daredevil riders who risked and sometimes lost their lives riding like the wind.
Track 3 Ace to the Bee
