Blue Angels Motorcycle Club

The Blue Angels Motorcycle Club (BAMC) is a one-percenter motorcycle club that was formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1963.

Blue Angels Motorcycle Club
Motto"Blue Angels forever, forever Blue Angels." ("BAFFBA")
Founded1963 (1963)
LocationGlasgow, Scotland
FounderAllan Morrison and Billy Gordon
TypeOutlaw motorcycle club
RegionUnited Kingdom, Belgium, Spain
MarqueNorton, Triumph
Websitewww.blueangelsscotland.com
AbbreviationBAMC

History
A Blue Angels member wearing the club's colours.

The Blue Angels Motorcycle Club was founded by Allan Morrison and Billy Gordon in Maryhill, Glasgow in 1963 and is the oldest outlaw motorcycle club in Europe.[1] There are claims that "Blue" stands for bastards, lunatics, undesirables and eccentrics, although this is almost certainly a backronym and the name more simply originates from the colour of the Saltire.[2] Club members have been known to ride British motorcycles such as Triumphs and Nortons.[3] In the 1960s, the Blue Angels were involved in clashes with mods and Glasgow street gangs.[4] The club rivaled the Hells Angels during the 1970s; Scotland remains one of the few countries in Europe without a Hells Angels chapter.[4] Blue Angels also provided security for bands touring in Scotland, including The Kinks, Small Faces and The Who.[3]

The Blue Angels have chapters across Scotland and northern England, as well as seven in Belgium and two in Spain.[5] There are approximately two-hundred club members in Scotland.[6] The Blue Angels expanded into Belgium in 1992 after patching-over an unrelated Belgian club of the same name which had been founded in 1978.[7] The English chapters were established in Leeds and Sheffield in 1997.[8]

In November 2016, Kris "Bokky" De Saedeleer, who had served as the president of the Blue Angels' Belgian chapters for twenty-two years, was excommunicated for allegedly embezzling funds from the club as well as founding an unsanctioned nomads chapter.[9]

Club co-founder and president Allan Morrison died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on 29 January 2020, aged seventy-seven.[5] His funeral in Glasgow was attended by around four-hundred bikers from across Europe.[1]

Criminal allegations and incidents

Belgium
Blue Angels clubhouse in Erpe, Belgium.

The Gendarmerie carried out numerous operations against the Blue Angels in 1996. In March 1999, thirty-three members were sentenced to prison, received suspended sentences or were fined for possession of weapons or narcotics, assault and battery, theft, fraud, hostage-taking and criminal conspiracy, while two were acquitted.[10]

In May 2009, Belgium's Federal Police named the Blue Angels as one of four criminal motorcycle gangs operating in the country, along with the Bandidos, Hells Angels and Outlaws.[11]

Two club members were arrested for stealing insulation material from a building site in Erpe-Mere in July 2010. The men allegedly intended to use the stolen material to insulate their clubhouse.[12]

Blue Angels members were questioned by police after a man who was ejected from the Blue Angels clubhouse in Roeselare and later returned armed with an iron bar was hospitalized with a head injury on 7 June 2014.[13] The man was convicted of possessing an illegal weapon[14] and was also the victim of an arson attack at his home on 30 January 2015.[15]

A Blue Angels member was sentenced to four months in prison in November 2015 after being convicted of assaulting his son's teacher during a parents' evening at a school in Aalst. The biker claimed the teacher was bullying his son.[16]

In July 2017, a Blue Angels member from Zonnebeke was sentenced to three years in prison for car theft, drugs and weapons possession, and forgery of a license plate and driving license.[17]

A former Blue Angels member who refused to return his colours to the club was left in intensive care after being stabbed in Sint-Katherina-Lombeek on 8 September 2018. Six club members were arrested afterwards, and police found firearms, explosives and narcotics in the subsequent search of the men's homes.[18] A prospective member who was allegedly involved in the stabbing committed suicide at the Blue Angels clubhouse in Sint-Amandsberg a few days later.[19] The remaining five suspects were charged with violent theft, attempted racketeering, gang building, and possession of prohibited weapons.[20]

England

A number of Blue Angels members were prosecuted following an arson attack on the home of Leeds motorcycle garage owner Paul Malham which took place on 30 April 2006.[21] In July 2007, Malham was shot and wounded with a crossbow at his home in Boston Spa by Paul Miller, who was allegedly contracted by the Blue Angels to kill Malham.[22] Miller was sentenced to sixteen months in prison in March 2008. Paul Moody, the co-owner of the motorcycle shop with Malham, was knocked unconscious in a hammer attack carried out by a group of men at a bikers' gathering near Scarborough in September 2010.[23]

Four Blue Angels members – David Hansbury, David Torr, Steven Clayton and Martin Booth – pleaded guilty to threatening behavior relating to an incident on 27 July 2018 in which they forced a member of the Mongrel Mob to hand over his colours at his home in Beeston, Leeds. The victim had previously been a member of the Blue Angels and served as the club's European secretary before being expelled in 2015 and warned against associating with any other motorcycle club in future. In January 2019, Torr, Clayton and Booth were sentenced to community service while Hansbury was made the subject of a two-month electronically-tagged curfew order.[24]

Scotland
A side patch worn by Tribe 21, a Blue Angels support club.

The Blue Angels have been involved in a number of violent incidents since the 1960s[3] and have alleged links to organised crime.[25]

The Blue Angels became associated with Glasgow godfather Walter Norval after Norval's daughter Rita married club member William Gunn.[26] Gunn was sentenced to five years in prison for threatening a witness in Norval's November 1977 armed robbery trial.[27] Blue Angels served as pallbearers at Norval's funeral in August 2014.[28]

Actor and musician Charlie Allan was allegedly beaten by two members of the Blue Angels in Stirling in June 2012 after they accused him of assisting the Outlaws in founding a chapter in Dundee the previous year.[25]

A turf war involving the Blue Angels and the Nomads – a club formed in Aberdeen in 1966 – started after the Blue Angels expanded into Aberdeenshire by patching over the Road Mutts and Tribe 21. The conflict has led to a string of violent attacks.[29] On 28 September 2013, a Blue Angels member stopped at a petrol station in Aberdeen was beaten with a baseball bat and a metal bar by Nomads members Gavin Blair, Alistair Thomson and Alexander Mackie who then fled the scene in a car. After being chased along the A90 by approximately thirty to forty Blue Angels members on motorcycles, the Nomads were the victims of an attack at Foveran.[30] Blair, Mackie and Roberts were ordered to carry out two-hundred hours of unpaid work in April 2014 after pleading guilty to assault.[31]

Around twenty Blue Angels members armed with hammers and metal bars allegedly tried to gain entry to the clubhouse of a rival club in Moredun, Edinburgh on 11 August 2018. The clubhouse was destroyed in a petrol bomb attack in the early hours of the following morning. A seriously injured man was rescued from the burning building by firefighters.[32][33]

Blue Angels member Ian Ewing was convicted of assault and attempted murder in February 2020 for his part in an attack on Nomads members Colin Sutherland, John Sutherland, Edward Forrest and Nicky Syratt which took place on the A98 near Cullen, Moray on 8 September 2018. The attack was allegedly carried out in retaliation for members of the Blue Angels being assaulted earlier that day.[29] Ewing was sentenced to seven years in prison in April 2020.[34] Co-accused Patrick Noble was acquitted on the same charges after the jury returned not proven verdicts, while charges were dropped against Kyle Urquhart and Ian Yeomans.[35]

References
  1. Hundreds of bikers descend on Glasgow to escort motorcycle club boss to funeral in a sidecar Cheryl McEvoy, Glasgowlive.co.uk (15 February 2020)
  2. "Inside the Biker Gangs: The Truth About Guns, Drugs and Organised Crime", The Independent, 14 August 2007, archived from the original on 20 February 2009
  3. Special report: Angels and sinners Gavin Madely, Scottish Daily Mail (22 February 2020)
  4. No Angels Gavin Madely, The Scotsman (28 August 2007)
  5. Bikers to descend on Glasgow for Blue Angels gang boss' funeral Jackie Grant, The Scotsman (3 February 2020)
  6. Bikers from around the world to attend funeral of Blue Angels Motorcycle Club founder Rosalind Erskine, The Scotsman (3 February 2020)
  7. Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs and Street Gangs: Scheming Legality, Resisting Criminalization Tereza Kuldova and Martín Sánchez-Jankowski (2018)
  8. Inside the biker gangs: the truth about guns, drugs and organised crime Belfast Telegraph (3 July 208)
  9. Blue Angels zetten president op straat Het Laatste Nieuws (12 November 2016)
  10. Les Gangs de Motards Criminalisés: Une expansion internationale Xavier Raufer, Institut de Criminologie de Paris
  11. Vier criminele motorbendes in België Het Laatste Nieuws (14 May 2009)
  12. Blue Angels stelen materiaal op bouwwerf om lokaal te isoleren Het Laatste Nieuws (8 July 2010)
  13. Man voor rechter na mislukte wraakactie bij Blue Angels Het Laatste Nieuws (31 January 2015)
  14. 600 euro boete voor verboden wapenbezit Het Laatste Nieuws (13 February 2015)
  15. Brand in brievenbus roept vragen op bij bewoners Beversesteenweg Het Laatste Nieuws (2 February 2015)
  16. Vader krijgt vier maanden cel voor slaan leerkracht op oudercontact Het Laatste Nieuws (3 November 2015)
  17. Drie jaar effectief voor lid van motorbende Blue Angels Het Laatste Nieuws (20 July 2017)
  18. Explosieven, wapens en drugs gevonden bij huiszoekingen bij Blue Angels MC Het Laatste Nieuws (30 November 2018)
  19. Zes leden motorclub Blue Angels opgepakt voor steekpartij op ex-lid, vuurwapens en explosieven gevonden bij huiszoekingen Het Laatste Nieuws (30 November 2018)
  20. Blue Angels in herfst voor rechter voor raid op voormalig bendelid Wouter Hertogs, Het Laatste Nieuws (23 March 2020)
  21. Bike shop owner shot with crossbow Visordown.com (16 January 2008)
  22. Man admits crossbow shooting Visordown.com (17 January 2008)
  23. Leeds boss suffers hammer attack at biker rally Yorkshire Evening Post (16 September 2010)
  24. Blue Angels threatened Mongrel Mob member in Leeds biker club feud Tony Gardner, Yorkshire Evening Post (30 January 2019)
  25. Hollywood star is battered after being caught up in biker gang turf war Daily Record (10 June 2012)
  26. The story of Glasgow's original Godfather, Walter Norval Ron McKay, Glasgowlive.co.uk (2 April 2019)
  27. High Court bombed by gang of heavies Reg McKay, Daily Record (19 October 2007)
  28. In pictures: Glasgow Godfather Walter Norval laid to rest by his daughters and Blue Angels biker club Keith McLeod, Daily Record (29 August 2014)
  29. Bloodbath fears as violent biker gangs battle for supremacy on streets Derek Alexander and Chiara Fiorillo, Daily Mirror (19 April 2020)
  30. Arrests after biker attacked The Press and Journal (30 September 2013)
  31. Bikers sentenced for Aberdeen attack on rival club Karen Roberts, Evening Express (23 April 2014)
  32. Man pulled from Edinburgh fire seriously hurt BBC (14 August 2018)
  33. Hammer-wielding gang seen before Moredun blaze which injured one Edinburgh Evening News (22 August 2018)
  34. Man guilty of rival bike club attack in Moray jailed BBC (15 April 2020)
  35. Man guilty of attack on rival bike club members in Moray BBC (3 February 2020)
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