Blue Angels Motorcycle Club facts for kids
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| Abbreviation |
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|---|---|
| Founded | 1963 |
| Founder | Allan Morrison and Billy Gordon |
| Founded at | Glasgow, Scotland |
| Type | Outlaw motorcycle club |
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Region
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Europe (19 chapters in Scotland, England, Belgium and Spain) |
The Blue Angels Motorcycle Club (BAMC) is an international outlaw motorcycle gang formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1963. The Blue Angels MC is the oldest outlaw biker club in Europe, and one of the largest and most powerful clubs in the United Kingdom. The club has chapters in Scotland, England, Belgium and Spain.
The Blue Angels have been linked with organised crime, and have been designated a criminal motorcycle gang by the Federal Police of Belgium.
History
Founded in the Maryhill area of Glasgow by Allan Morrison and Billy "Stone" Gordon in 1963, the Blue Angels Motorcycle Club is the oldest outlaw biker club in Europe. "Blue" is almost certainly a backronym and the name simply originates from the colour of the Saltire. The Blue Angels emerged from Glasgow's gang culture of the era. From the club's inception in the 1960s, the Blue Angels were involved in clashes with mods and Glasgow street gangs.
The Blue Angels began associating with motorcycle clubs in England during the 1970s, forming an alliance with the Road Rats of London, and rivaling the English Hells Angels; Scotland remains one of the few countries in Europe without a Hells Angels chapter. In a 2007 interview with The Scotsman, BAMC president Lenny "the Lion" Reynolds stated: "We're proud of the fact that there isn't an American influence in Scotland. We fought the Hells Angels in the 1970s which is why they don't have a chapter here." The club established chapters in the Yorkshire cities of Leeds and Sheffield in 1970. An additional chapter in London disbanded shortly after its inception. The Blue Angels expanded into Belgium in 1992 after "patching over" a previously independent Belgian club of the same name which had been founded in Herzele in 1978.
In November 2016, Kris "Bokky" De Saedeleer, who had served as the president of the Blue Angels' Belgian chapters for 22 years, was expelled for allegedly embezzling funds from the club as well as founding an unsanctioned Nomads chapter.
The club's co-founder and former president Allan Morrison died on 29 January 2020, aged 77. His funeral in Glasgow on 15 February 2020 was attended by around 400 bikers from across Europe.
Insignia
The Blue Angels' "colours" originally consisted of the clubs' insignia — a winged skull wearing a Stahlhelm — and the words "Blue Angels" in Gothic script, along with "1%" patches, embroidered onto blue denim jackets. The Blue Angels' insignia was legally protected in 1997. To celebrate the club's 50th anniversary in 2013, Blue Angels members began wearing a more traditional top "rocker", bearing the club's name, and bottom "rocker", denoting the country the member is from. The club is also known as the "Blue Gang", and uses the abbreviation "21" (the numbers stand for the respective positions in the alphabet of B and A). Blue Angels mottos include "Blue Angels forever, forever Blue Angels ("BAFFBA"); "Blue Angels OK"; "Blue Gang forever" ("BGF"); and "Blue Angels, best in the west".
Membership and organisation
Prospective Blue Angels members must be nominated by two members of the club and can be voted into the club by other members after serving a period of time as a "prospect". The club has six chapters in Scotland, four in northern England, seven in Belgium and two in Spain. The Blue Angels have approximately 200 members in Scotland alone. The Tribe, the BAMC's support club, was formed formed in Edinburgh in November 2011, and has 25 chapters, twelve of which are located in Scotland.
