The Tango Job

This page first appeared in November 1998 and was my first foray into web page design. Over the following months this site grew from 1 page to several, animated gfs were added plus an E Mail link and links to other sites. Finally a page counter in 1999 .

The Tango Job covers an event the Bug Club got involved with in November 1998.

Tango orange is well known in Britain for its wacky advertising, so it didn't come as much of a shock when they asked the Bug club to provide some cars for a promotion. 5 competition winners had won a trip to London where they were to be treated to a shopping spree around Regent street, including a reception in the evening and a chance to see ALL SAINTS switching on the Christmas lights.

Harvey Brugier,Les Gore,John Fowler,Len Scarrett and Myself agreed to take part in the promotion which took place on November 17th.Harvey And his girlfriend Manda stayed the night at his sisters then met myself at 6 am on a frosty morning, we had arranged to meet Len but he had lighting problems so went along ahead. When it came to organization breweries and pissups came to mind, so it was with some relief that both Bugs made it to a small office under the A 40 west way all 5 bugs having made the journey O.K. We were then given some silly hats and the front of the cars covered in TANGO stickers. Each bug was then sent off to pick up there allocated competition winner. My job was to pick up Tom who was flying in to Heathrow from Glasgow. A mental picture of what sort of person I was to pick up formed on the way, probably young into pop music and trendy gear so I got quite a shock when Tom introduced himself dressed in a kilt complete with sporran, socks etc. He didn't seem to bothered when I told him he was going to driven to the big smog in a Bond Bug, in fact he said he always fancied a ride in one. I'm not to sure what a Scotsman keeps under his kilt but after my drive back to his hotel I'm surprised it wasn't brown. Being a humble chef from Hertfordshire and not possessing the knowledge of a London cabby, it was no surprise we got lost, trying to read an A to Z in the center of Oxford street is not to be recommended. After finally finding the hotel, I was then to head for Marble Arch, that's OK I'll follow the signs, only to discover they disappeared 1/2 way along the route. Eventually having located this great big stone thing in the middle of the road it was time for a photo session. I've enclosed a couple of shots I took, there can't be many people that have photos of there car under marble arch. After this session we were free to do what we wanted for a couple of hours, so we headed for a pub for coffee (very responsible of us).

The next part of the operation, was the procession, but first we had to get the bugs out the car park. On retuning to the hotel the underground parking attendant, wanted to charge us £8.00 to get each car out, yes mate we came down on a banana boat. Some swift talking from John and we were on our way. The plan was to pick up our passengers and drive along Regent street, generally being festive. We met opposite the BBC at 5.15 and then the fun started. We had to follow an open topped bus along the street, which by this time had 1ooo s of people lining the route this to me was the best bit of the day, partly because there was no way we could get lost, (or was there?) and partly because of a great party atmosphere. I'm not to sure what happened next. Someone said the bus driver made a wrong turn so we ended up down a side street with a local bobby clouting the roof of the bug saying "we can't park here". After a bit more farting around where no one seemed to know what was going on, we were free to leave, (we never did get to see the lights turned on). Harvey, Len & Myself then had the daunting task  of making or way back out of London with me leading the way but surprise, surprise we made it back to the Edgeware road with only one wrong turn. Despite suffering a splitting headache induced by traffic fumes, getting lost and the general lack of organization  I had a good day that wont be forgotten in a while- And we got paid for it.

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