A Lasting Impression

At Kev Walsh’s Bradford Parts Fair in January 2018 we met 14-year-old Elly Phelan who was busy helping her Dad with his ‘jumblers’ stand. The stand in question was run by Bob Phelan of the West Riding Scooter Club (Bradford) who now lives in Bridlington. In between Bob and Elly helping the customers at their stand we were able to spend a few moments with them…

Interesting nature

“I got interested in the scooter scene through my dad. He’s had dozens of scooters over the years. I really liked the look of them and I liked the whole image which came along with them,” Elly explained.

Bob Phelan’s been into scootering since the early 80s. He was brought up on the Buttershaw estate in Bradford, and he explained that his interest in scooters started from when he used to see the lads riding round the estate on their scooters.

Bob also used to be a regular visitor to the Buttershaw Youth Club and the Sedburg Youth Club, both of which had music nights with Northern Soul sections in them. “There used to be some lads who came across especially for the northern soul music and their dancing was something else. The whole northern soul music scene encapsulated me and I caught the infection,” said Bob. Since Elly was a little girl, Bob and her mum used to play northern soul music in the