In 1992 we filmed our last Speedway season for Glagow speedway having covered the last 3 seasons and being voted the best video in the whole of the National League. We decided to go
rogue and film away footage at various stadiums throughout the league for a separate videos and a video fanzine called Tacky Sub (Tactical Substitute). We were certainly using the best of gear a Panasonic WV-F350 camcorder with 1/2″ FIT CCD for smearless image reproduction and a horizontal resolution of 700 lines. This camera docked with the AG-7450 S-VHS VCR. Good but heavy.
We used Mike Hunter a lovely very knowledgeable chap from Edinburgh for our live commentary’s and he put me onto his pal Geoff Chandler an unknown genius from Edinburgh who was by all accounts was mad to do our Edinburgh interviews.
Chis and Melanie at our last Christmas dinner during 1991. They were my interviewers, Chris was blind but very knowledgable and many of the riders were not aware of his disability. Melanie was also knowledgeable, very keen and was liked by many of the riders. Im not a rugby fan but her dad was a Scottish rugby legend, Sandy Carmichael he had received the insignia of an MBE at an investiture held by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
Speedway was not only a very entertaining sport but on occasions a very dirty sport. Let me explain, dirty in repect of shale, shale ash gets everywhere especially on a summers evening.
Video cameras have lenses that are very had to protect from shale dust, even on a gantry that was up in the stadium the dust got everywhere. Eventually the lenses got damaged and needed cleaned out by a specialist lens repair company. They told me this was not an option beyond the first and only clean out as the lens would become unusable. This was during our final season at Shawfield and I needed my cameras for more lucrative corporate work. It was a no brainer to exit the sport to keep my video business on track. The management were unaware of this so it was a blessing that they stupidly cranked the filming fee by 100% to £100 a match for me to tell them to shove it where the sun don’t shine.
It has taken 33 years to revamp this old footage and update some of the older stale music from the 80s. It has been a great trip down memory lane. Fortunately Chris, Melanie and myself remain good friends all these years.
