Five Minute Interview With Steve Bagley

With just three weeks to go until the opening of our Summer exhibition Coming Of Age At The Ace Cafe, we dug Head of Collections Steve Bagley out from under the mountain of books, videos and photographs that he has been buried in for the past few months while putting the exhibition together, and sat him down for a quick chat about how it’s going:

What did you set out to do in putting the exhibition together?

Steve: The exhibition is about the Ace Cafe in London, but in reality it’s about an awful lot more than that. We were approached by the Ace to do an exhibition, and we wanted to explore what the Ace was in a cultural sense, what it stands for today and what it stood for in its heyday in the late 50s and early 60s. So when they asked us to put an exhibition together we didn’t just want to build another Ace Cafe, we wanted to explore how the cafe had become a cultural icon – that was our starting point.

When we started looking at it, it became fascinating – that for a very short period of time, for a very few people the Ace became a centre for them – as much as being a meeting place it became a symbol of youth and rebelliousness, in a sort of typically British way. It wasn’t inherently violent, it wasn’t really antisocial – the guys who went there were normal working class guys with 9-5 jobs and they’d go to the Ace to let off steam.

Then it became really fascinating to me to explore why those guys went, why they became rockers, leather boys or whatever you want to call them, and from that point I began to expand the exhibition into being about more than the cafe itself and what it stood for.

What kind of research have you been doing?

Steve: I’ve been researching very specifically about Rockers, cafe cowboys, leather boys – a group that grew out of the teddy boy group and were what we typically think of today as ‘rockers’ – all motorbikes and leather. A lot of my research has been done online, and through a number of books, films and of course Mark Wilsmore at the Ace has been an absolute font of information.

I’ve been trying to put together not just these guys’ time at the Ace, but their backgrounds, where they came from and to some extent the phenomenon – what they were as a group and the subculture we now know as rockers. I’ve tried to link the idea of the rocker subculture nationally and how it fitted into British society at that time and then link that specifically back to the Ace, to show how the Ace became a symbol of that culture.

Have you made any exciting discoveries through your research?

Steve: Yes – it’s a funny thing but this whole subculture that I’ve been exploring has fascinated me, and I think that what I’ve discovered is the Ace. It’s one of those places that you go to it and it captures the essence of something – although it isn’t Warwick Castle or any of the great houses around the country, it’s still this really strong part of our culture. If you go to an important building you feel something – at Hampton Court you almost ‘feel’ Henry VIII – you go to the Ace and you can still feel these guys and get the sense of what it was like back then.

So what I would say is, the most exciting thing I’ve found is the Ace. At the end of the day it’s just a caff – you go there, the food’s nice, and there’s all sorts of people coming in – but there’s a thing about this place - it’s a really interesting part of our culture, and I have to say it has fascinated me.

With three weeks to go until the exhibition opens, how are you feeling?

Steve: I’m actually not worried that the exhibition won’t come together – it will come together because it always does. What always worries me about putting an exhibition together is the detail – whether it’s going to look right, whether it’s going to capture that essence of the cafe we’ve talked about, and what we’re trying to say. The real cafe is a busy place and I hope we’ve managed to convey that and that it will all look right and feel right – and be a fun place to visit!

What do you hope that visitors will feel when they have seen the exhibition?

Steve: I hope they’ll feel the same as me – a fascination with the Ace and that subculture, and a better understanding of what went on at that time. And I think they will enjoy it too – it’s going to be a great fun exhibition, as well as motorbikes and leathers there’ll be jukeboxes, pinball machines – and lots of interactives too. Of course it will attract bikers but the exhibition will have a broad appeal – people always enjoy visiting a recreation of a building and that’s what we’ve tried to capture with this exhibition. I think it’s going to be very special.

Coming Of Age At The Ace Cafe is at Coventry Transport Museum from 3 June to 2 October 2011. Tickets are £5 on the day or £4.40 in advance, with concessions and family tickets available. Find out more and book online at www.transport-museum.com/ace.

Car Clubs at CTM

Over the last few weekends we have been hosting some rather prestigious Car Clubs, and they’ve been very warmly received.

Recently we hosted the Morgan OC with over 20 cars on Millennium Place as part of their annual Lincoln to the Cotswolds Run, and on Sunday 8th May we hosted the Audi Quattro OC with another 20 cars to enjoy. Click here for images from both events.

On Sunday 15th May, we are hosting the Porsche 924 OC with up to 30 cars on Millennium Place from 10am through to 4.30pm.

All these Car Club days are FREE to our visitors, so bring your family and your camera to capture some rare and interesting cars. We have Car Clubs on Millennium place most weekends between 10am and 4.30pm. Keep up to date by logging on to our website for more information www.transport-museum.com

Guest Speaker at CTM - Peter Forwood

Australian Peter Forwood has spent a considerable portion of his life to date travelling around the world on his Harley Davidson Electra Glide V2 motorcycle. So far he and his wife Kay have visited over 400 Countries and States around the world, and from Mid May of 2011 they will be off again, this time to Europe and Russia on the bike.
Before they depart, Peter will be appearing at Coventry Transport Museum to give a fascinating talk on their amazing adventures with the Harley!
The Harley-Davidson is on display at the moment at Coventry Transport Museum until 13th May.

Tickets for Peter Forwood’s talk on Thursday 12th May at 7.30pm are just £5 each, with all ticket money going to fund the Museum’s future transport projects.

You can book your tickets by telephone: 024 7623 4270 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 024 7623 4270 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Fire up the Quattro!

On Sunday 8th May, we welcome back the Audi Quattro OC with 20 of the iconic cars on display on Millennium Place.
The club are returning to the Museum for their AGM and will be parking their cars on Millennium Place for everyone to enjoy between 9.30am and 3.30pm.

The Quattros joined our Festival of Motoring last year for the first time and will be part of this year’s Festival in September.

If you’re a fan of BBC TV’s ‘Ashes to Ashes’ Drama series, then the Quattro’s are a must!

Facilitators Blog…Forties Fun!

Last week we reached the 1940s in our Through the Decades weekends, so we dusted off our ration books and put our hair in curls! It was a great weekend and lots of you came to learn about life in Britain during the war. We were very grateful to our resident gardener and museum assistant Jeff who explained all about Digging for Victory and planted lots of French bean seeds with you all! We were amazed to see how much his shoots had grown overnight, so hopefully lots of you who visited us have your own mini plants beginning to grow at home! On Saturday we were visited by Monty’s Double! Colin-Brooks Williams is a professional Montgomery look-a-like who spent the day at the museum near the Victory Car – Monty’s own staff Humber vehicle. He had a great day chatting to visitors about Monty’s life and posing for lots of photos! Many thanks to Colin for coming along.



It’s always a highlight when we do wartime activities to hear the memories of those who lived during the time, and this weekend was no different. Several of our visitors told us about their experiences as evacuees and reminisced about rationing. Our younger visitors were surprised to see how little food a weekly ration was, and how heavy a small piece of shrapnel could be!
This weekend we’re still in the Forties, this time celebrating the anniversary of VE Day! There’ll be bunting galore, so don’t put it all away just yet! Children can have a go at our free activity and make their own Union Flag to wave as well as learning about how Britain celebrated the end of the war.

Don’t forget next month we have our 1950s weekend, coinciding nicely with the opening of our new exhibition ‘Coming of Age at the Ace Café’. At the Fifties weekend you can expect lots of rocking and rolling! Come along and have a go at our Elvis Karaoke (complete with Elvis wig and glasses!), and see how life changed for people after the war. We hope to see lots of you there!