Category: Derek Harris Interview

Andrew Bunney talking to Derek Harris Pt 2

Honeyee post a follow-up to their feature titled “The History of Lewis Leathers”. Continuing where they left off, part 2 goes into detail behind what the brand represented through the 60s and 70s, its importance to the world of motorcycles and its heritage as a British-made brand.

Andrew Bunney (A): Were any groups of young people going to Lewis Leathers specifically for the name by the ‘60s?

Derek Harris (D): There were other labels around like Mascot, Pride And Clarke, but Lewis Leathers was always the jacket to have partly through clever marketing, but also through the quality and styling.

The main thing was the 59 Club）, the motorcycle group set up by Father Bill Shergold. He was a motorcyclist, but he’d been watching all these kids dying trying to do ‘the ton’ and not understanding the danger they were in and not appreciating death. It was already called the 59 Club from 1959, but in 1962 he went up to the Ace Café and started handing out leaflets to come to this youth club in East London. They laughed at him a little bit, but they went on the first night and little by little more and more went and they would have dances. They would never try and force religion onto these kids, but they would council them and see if anything was wrong at home and they would work with the police and try and give these kids some sort of direction.

From late 1962, Lewis Leathers would go there, onto the stage in the church hall and take a load of jackets, badges and tape measures and measure up these kids – two weeks later they would come back with a jacket.

09-Jul-10 16:23

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