THE SHOWBUS LONDON & HOME COUNTIES BUS IMAGE GALLERY
Wings Over Europe
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 The January 1973 Brunel University rally was organised by Martin Isles at Brunel as part of a student festival for the local community, the occasion of the first bus rally which gave birth to SHOWBUS. A contingent of four classic vehicles was provided by the then London Bus Preservation Group and those four are now housed at Brooklands Museum. A handful of other preserved buses was solicited through an advert in BUSES magazine. In order to increase the size of the gathering local companies were approached with London Country exhibiting one of the first Leyland Nationals, LN15 (NPD115L) and Alder Valley one of the first curved screen ECW bodied Bristol VRTSL6G, 928 (LBL586L). South Midland regularly deployed one of their front line tour coaches to promote the summer programme throughout the tour catchment area and they responded to the invitation to Brunel. Local coach company, Valliant-Silverline brought along their newest Plaxton bodied coach AND - fresh from its European tour, former Eastern National open top Bristol KSW5G 2381 (WNO481). The bus had been used by Sir Paul McCartney's group Wings for their 1972 tour of Europe.
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 Some old slides of the Brunel parade appeared recently and the South Midland Duple bodied Bristol LH6L coach can be seen following a Burton Corporation Guy bodied Guy Arab III, 63 (FA9291), with the Wings KSW in front following the tale end of the new Alder Valley VR. Further behind are a Bedford OB, the modern Valliant-Silverline coach and a Plaxton bodied Austin CXB.
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 A second view of the parade where it looks like the LH6L is disgracing itself!
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Preserved Portsmouth City Transport Leyland Titan 78 (GTP995) was an all Leyland vehicle. It is seen here in the picture taken by the Middlesex Advertiser, which subsequently adorned the front cover of 'BUSES' magazine. FPortsmouth 78 had led the parade around the university perimeter road, with new Alder Valley VRTSL6G and Paul McCartney's Wings KSW open topper clearly visible behind. Glimpses include the preserved Burton Corporation's Guy singledecker and the South Midland's Bristol LH6L tour coach.
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 The KSW had a fun career after its Euro tour. Later in 1973 Valliants became part Tricentrol and the KSW was transferred to their Dunstable depot and turned out in their mustard and white livery as such Tricentrol entered it in SHOWBUS 80 at Thorpe Park. The bus passed to White's of St Albans at some stage and adopted a London red livery with white lower deck window surrounds. It continued to lead a celebrity lifestyle appearing with Cilla Black on "Surprise Surprise" a couple of times and with West Ham start Trevor Brooking at the FA Cup. In May 1989 WNO481 appeared at BAFTA’s Cavalcade To Cannes The Great British Film Rally that went from London to Cannes in the South of France to fly the flag for the British Film Industry and again in 1990 for a BAFTA London to Cardiff Great British Film Rally. In between it was part of BAFTA's Julie Andrews tribute in October 1989. It eventually ended up outside a cafe in Tenerife before being moved to the cafe owner’s garden. Someone spotted it, realised its significance and it was then brought back to the UK and subsequently bought by Tom Creaven-Jennings, who wanted to restore it for the 50th anniversary of the the tour. These pictures are from its unveiling at The Classic Motor Show at The NEC in November 2022. With live bands performing each day on the newly imagined and engineered top deck performance space named in honour of its very own superstar: "The McCartney Stage". The bus was rocking to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 7500 mile Wings Over Europe tour in 1972.
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 With the 50th SHOWBUS looming we attemped to make contact with several of the vehicle owners from that 1973 Brunel Rally, including Tom Creaven-Jennings who was keen to bring it along. Sadly, as you can see from the above, it was not ready in time. The SHOWBUS5O celebrations were to take place over two consecutive weekends with a SHOWBUSflyby from RAF High Wycombe to Brunel University and the following weekend the Hertfordshire Showground display. Sadly Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II passed away just before the first event so as a mark of respect we postponed it to the following summer. That had the bonus that WNO481 was available! Arriva the Shires kindly arranged to house the KSW on Saturday night at their now closed High Wycombe depot. It travelled from East Anglia on tow and is seen here on arrival.
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 Here it is behind the Volvo towing unit in the Arriva yard.
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 It was brought under cover in the maintenance shed with a couple of Arriva singledeckers in the background.
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 The bus was an early arrival at RAF High Wycombe and posed specially by the twin Spitfires at the front of the establishment.
Picture courteay of Pete Brown |
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 A second Spitfire view with a Routemaster beyond.
Picture courteay of Pete Brown |
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 ...and here it is back at Brunel University fifty years on, parked roughly in the same spot as in 1973. Tom had a special banner made as the event coincided with Sir Paul McCartney's 81st birthday.
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 An offside view at Brunel.
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 This is the view now familiar to showbus.com viewers with the sign altered to read 50.
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 Martin Isles got a special viewing inside the KSW, getting to sit in Sir Paul's seat!
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 After its return to Uxbridge the KSW returned to High Wycombe and spent a period on display in the High Street. Shortly after the event the bus was put up for sale and is now owned by the Adam Hall Group, an event technology company and on display as part of a "Rock 'n' Roll Library" at their Frankfurt headquarters.
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