Page 61 - Decadence

Henry parks himself on the bench in front of vintage look Sealey tool chest, whilst Jenny takes a seat on a 50 Gallon Oil Drum that’s been converted into a chair, tea and biscuits in hand, we settle down for a chat about what we’ve just seen and why it’s all here.
So who are these two characters? How did they nd themselves doing these shows and more importantly how did Gladstone Motorcycles come to be? Henry and Guy have been mates since they were 15 years old. Eaton educated Henry had left school and was quite happy lounging around and getting into trouble with guy, well he has the only Mohican haired Punk at Eaton, until his mom arranged for him to work, for free, at the TV production company she was at. Basically the guy who ran it had never seen anyone from Eaton, so said he would meet Henry... he got the job. He learned the ropes at this company and when one of the producers left to set up his own production house in London Henry went with him. By this time Henry was about 20 years old, slightly older Guy was doing what he loved, xing bikes. The production company was growing when the founder was killed in a road accident, so Henry took the reins and now found himself at the head of the table.
Leaning his craft behind the camera he was a war photographer in Sarajevo, made a lot of factual programmes and even wrote and directed a couple of features. Guy and he had always been close and their hard partying from the days of punk rock led them down a road of Heroin addiction. Guy was working at a motorcycle dealer when Henry asked him to join the company as sound man. How hard could it be? Guy learned the basics of sound recording on the job and soon the pair of them were living the rock n roll lifestyle by way of lming all the major rock bands of the time... not helping the drug abuse much. It was Guy that picked himself up one day and checked into rehab. As soon as he came out clean, he got on his motorbike and rode directly to Henry’s London at where he tried to get his life long friend into rehab. Eventually, Henry woke up from his drug fuelled whirlwind of rock bands and TV shows and got clean. Neither of them have looked back since. HCA Productions is stronger than ever and they are both enjoying what they do.
As a pair of dedicated riders they had always dreamed (as I’m sure most do) of creating a custom bike. The Gladstone was born. So why Gladstone? Is it because Henry’s great uncle was none other than William Gladstone the prime minister and chancellor of the exchequer? No, it was named after great uncle Dick “Redbeard” Gladstone the man who got Henry into motorbikes in the rst place. Gladstone or Redbeard, was one of those great British eccentrics when he introduced the twelve year old Henry to the world of classic motorcycles. Henry already holds a world speed record for pre 1955 750cc bikes, he rides for Brough Superior every year on the Bonneville Salt Flats and he and Guy are currently building their own speed record Gladstone drag bike for this years trip.
So what about these bikes for decreeing hooligans? You can see the passion both of the guys have for their babies. A bike is all about the frame, so they went to British frame builder Matisse Motorcycles to build the Gladstone frames. After all the king of cool “Steve McQueen” once quoted his Matisse dirt racer as “the best handling bike I’ve ever owned”. Its a hard tail bobber, so that means no rear suspension, which can be a bit of hard ride, but man does it look cool... The elegant triangular
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