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1970s road bike stars in video for new British Sea Power single (+ video)

Album title track Machineries of Joy features 1970s bike from Croydon's Allin Cycles...

A 1970s road bike is one of the stars of the video of the forthcoming single Machineries of Joy by acclaimed Brighton-based rock band, British Sea Power. Released on 1 April, it's also the title track of the group's new album. The video, filmed near Biggin Hill in Kent, was made by BBC documentary maker Clare Tavernor and Angus Sutherland - an editor and cinematographer who just happens to work on the Tour de France for ITV4.

The single is being released by Rough Trade records, which says:

The film has two stars – sometime triathlete Kate Tiernan and a 1970s road bike by Allin Cycles of Croydon. Apparently, as well as filing frame lugs into elegant filigree-like patterns to save weight, the Allin Cycles staff would also sell gramophones to boost winter income. Now the worlds of cycling and recorded sound are once more combined in the British Sea Power video.

British Sea Power, described by The Sunday Times as “the best band in Britain”, are based in Brighton and released their first album in 2003. Cycles have been an occasional feature in the band’s history. The lyrics to the 2008 track No Lucifer include mentions for the Carlton Corsair road bike and the Raleigh Twenty shopper bike. Frontman Yan Wilkinson worked in the Kendal branch of Halfords while at school.

The Classic Lightweights website has more information about Allin Cycles.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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9 comments

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daysofspeed | 11 years ago
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OK I lied. I liked it.  41

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daysofspeed | 11 years ago
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Sorry, only one cycling video for me. Ever Changing Moods - The Style Council. Would kill for Weller's Magniflex - Torpado jersey.

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farrell | 11 years ago
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I unashamedly love British Sea Power, to the point I nearly took a kicking by a man mountain of a security fella in Texas defending one of the band.

They've hinted, probably a bit tongue in cheek mind, that they'd like to do their own line of bikes:

http://thequietus.com/articles/11728-british-sea-power-bike-range

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gazpacho | 11 years ago
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How did they find empty country lanes round there without hordes of Dulwich Paragon in shot?  39

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robert_obrien | 11 years ago
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That's not a pulley it's a 'vintage' base-layer. And judging by her face at the end, as itchy as it looks.

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zok27 | 11 years ago
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I hate seeing a bike laid over on the derailleur. It'll be all scratched now!  3

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Some Fella | 11 years ago
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I bet she is warm in that pulley.

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wild man | 11 years ago
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Didn't like the look of those freshly- cut hawthorn hedges.

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Linkinbassist | 11 years ago
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I definitely ride around there with Dulwich Paragon. Love the song =]

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