A film that’s never been rehashed, Quadrophenia is one of my faves. The London mods and rockers battling it out on the Brighton streets? What’s not to love?
Cars and bikes have come a long way since then, and the gangs just aren’t the same. What would it be if they made a new movie? The Hells Angels battling with the Mobility Scooter parade?
This aside, that road trip from London to Brighton is still a great British tradition many of us love. There’s something quite special about leaving the smoky city behind for one that has a pebbled beach and a pier.
You’ve probably already made the trip this year when we had that sunny bank holiday. Swapping the buzz and busyness of London for the Lanes, live music, ice creams, seafood and pavements littered with sunbathing bodies.
We decided that this year we’d do it in style and take a new breed down to the coast. For a shoot, we took the brand new electric BMW i3 on a road trip from London to the sunny shores.
Now this year, as you know, despite the high expectations, our British summer is turning out to be like any other British Summer.
A BMW in hot tropical heat waves would not have looked very British, and would not enable drivers to envisage using this car every day. So we’ve mixed it up a bit. We’ve made the streets of Brighton deserted. We’ve picked out the shoreline and shown the beach in its glory but we’ve kept the threat of rain just in the periphery.
This, I hope, gives the BMW a real feel. You can imagine it on a road trip from London to Brighton, especially the convertible.
Consider it with the top off as you leave, soaking up all the rays on the motorway, only for the clouds to arrive when you hit the beach and you’re left eating fish and chips from the car as you watch the waves.
It’s still a break, it’s still a great day out and what better interior (my own preferences aside) could you choose, than the new BMW?
Ok I’ll stop selling the car now and tell you about the shoot.
Despite our best efforts we couldn’t rally up a fleet of minis to go head to head on Brighton prom. It could have made quite a grudge match but it wasn’t meant to be. So we settled for doing our job, shooting in London, Brighton and the route between and this is the result. Coming soon to a billboard/magazine near you.
If you do go on a road trip from London to Brighton, stash some salt and vinegar in the dashboard as there’s never enough to go round!