What do you think?
Rate this book
Speed Freaks
Filming the Angel's life is different and more difficult than filming a pop festival. But Gerry Shipton manages to persuade his backers that his film will hit, but only as long as he includes other speeding thrills.
The speedway, the wall of death, open up new grounds for the Hell's Angels to show off their daredevil skills, prove their reckless courage. Dreams of stardom and the silver screen are new expeditions for them. So Gerry finds that things get out of control. Everything they touch turns sour; their mark is destruction.
Show more
Show less
The speedway, the wall of death, open up new grounds for the Hell's Angels to show off their daredevil skills, prove their reckless courage. Dreams of stardom and the silver screen are new expeditions for them. So Gerry finds that things get out of control. Everything they touch turns sour; their mark is destruction.
Show more
Show less
127 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
About the author
Peter Cave
27 books2 followersAt various times, British author Peter Cave has been a reporter and an newspaper editor and a magazine editor. He is best known in literary circles for the number of novelizations he has done for television shows.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 9, 2024
Murky Mervyn, Pig, Crapper, Eichmann.... Speed Freaks proves that Peter Cave hadn’t lost his touch when it came to catchy names for Hells Angels...not to mention ones for their train pulling chicks... Dodo, Fat Fanny and Horsecollar.
Written after the success of 1971’s Chopper and its sequel Mama, Speed Freaks finds Cave reflecting on his exploitation of the British Hells Angels, and the possible consequences. Cave later admitted that his run of biker exploitation books resulting in him receiving phone calls from Angels, threatening him with violence, resulting in the author going ex-directory. Cave’s protagonist here, Gerry Shipton, is a young, smug, careerist TV director who is shooting a documentary about a pop concert, when he encounters the British Hells Angels beating up Suedeheads. Immediately flashing on their commercial potential with the thrill seeking public, Shipton attempts to enlist their services as the ‘stars’ of his pop concert documentary. Further playing to their showbiz aspirations by offering the carrot on the stick proposal of a follow on documentary all about the Hells Angels’ exploits. “Speed, Sex and Sadism...the kids would love it and the oldsters would hate it, but neither group would be able to switch off”.
Shipton might have been cast in Cave’s image, right down to having a background in pornography, Shipton having a few ‘underground porn films’ to his name, whilst Cave came to New English Library by way of skin-mags like Flirt n’ Skirt, and also wrote erotic lit for NEL under the name ‘Petra Christian’. Still it’s not exactly a flattering self-portrait, with Shipton depicted as a manipulative opportunist, driven by ego and money. Shipton gets a taste of what he’s in for, when he brings along his new buddies to a travelling circus, where he intends to grab footage of dare devil stunt riders. In a distasteful, yet perversely funny episode, the Hells Angels square off against freakshow performers, after one of the bikers insults a female dwarf “reckon her old man must have used a tea strainer for a French letter”. A quip that you suspect even Cave thought went too far, as he quickly condemns it as a ‘weak joke’ and follows it with one of the Angels getting punched in the face by the bearded lady “that’ll teach you, you little swine”. You don’t mess around with a bearded lady. While Chopper left you wondering whether Cave didn’t have a personal grievance with the seaside town of Seaforth, since he seemed to enjoy writing about it being trashed by Hells Angels a little too much, here that set piece is echoed by the wholesale destruction of the circus. After the humiliation of being beaten up by circus workers, the Hells Angels lick their wounds, before regrouping en masse and leading a sixty strong assault on the circus that leaves the public and elephants running for their lives. Did youngman Cave have a bad experience with circuses? and years later seized the opportunity to cathartically write it out of his system, using the Hells Angels as his instruments of revenge?
Power struggles are what fuels the drama in Cave’s biker books, which also emphasize the importance of loyalty, earning respect and brotherhood to the Angels. “He showed class” is a phrase Cave is especially fond of bringing out, meaning to impress other Angels, no matter what disgusting or reckless activity has to be resorted too. Given how prized such characteristics are in this world, it is inevitable that they’ll be retribution for transgressors. Despite Shipton initially winning the respect of the Hells Angels, by holding his own in a fight with Eichmann, and being rewarded with the sexual services of Dodo- a good natured, big-titted, train pulling mama- cracks soon begin to show. Shipton cowardly makes his escape when the Circus workers overpower the Angels, playing Judas by distancing himself from them. “They’re nothing to do with me...I’m merely doing my job...the TV boys asked me to make a film about them” claims Shipton...which isn’t showing class.
Cave, through Shipton, makes a perceptive observation that the Angels go from being ‘actors’ willing to perform for Shipton for a chance of fame, to becoming dictatorial ‘directors’ who bully, threaten and intimidate Shipton into dragging his camera around after them. The exploiter becomes the exploited, and vice versa. Going one step further than Chopper, which only had two men –‘Chopper Harris and Marty ‘Big M’ Gresham’- battling for biker supremacy, Speed Freaks has a three way power struggle going on. As head biker Murky Mervyn tries to remain top of the heap, and Shipton attempts to play puppet master, a third challenger Johnny ‘Reb’ Tucker- a movie stunt rider- casts a greedy eye in the Hells Angels’ direction. Hoping to sign several of them up to a stunt riding team, with no regard for their personal safety. Ultimately though you’re left with the sense that the collective force of the Angels is something that can never be controlled by one man alone, and like Frankenstein’s monster will turn against anyone who tries to exploit it. “The essence of Angeldom was destruction...and destruction is a two edged sword”.
Speed Freaks is a far more misanthropic text than Chopper, making you wonder if writing about these people wasn’t taking its toll on Cave’s view of humanity. Chopper might have been able to convince you, against better judgement, to root for its title character and give a damn about his ill-fated power grab, but there is no such figure to latch onto here. Murky Mervyn, Shipton, Tucker are all deceitful, self-serving assholes. This book hates everyone in it. Whereas the tragic ending of Chopper left you thinking ‘aww...poor bastard’, here your final thought will be ‘the fuckers deserved it’.
It’s almost as if Cave had started picking up bad habits from the Hells Angels he was writing about, particularly when it came to grossing out the average Joe on the street. It’s no surprise that his books are remembered fondest by people who were kids back in the early 1970s. Before punk came along books like this fuelled all of their juvenile delinquent fantasies of taking drugs, swilling beer, getting into fights, participating in gang bangs, swearing on live TV and generally giving straight society the fear.
If Speed Freaks was written around the time that Cave was receiving threatening phone calls from the Hells Angels, then the man must have had balls of steel. Since there is no attempt here to flatter or pacify his Angel critics in this book. Cave evidentially wasn’t swept along by any kind of Easy Rider type notion that these were nomadic, free spirited, rebels, instead Cave clearly saw them as scumbags whose exploits sold allot of books. A strong stomach is required for Speed Freaks, it is as if Cave was trying to top himself with each subsequent biker book. There are moments in Speed Freaks when you can practically feel Cave trying to force his fingers down the back of your throat. One vomitious episode involves Johnny Tucker being initiated into the Angels’ fold by getting pissed on, spat on, bleed on, having the remnants of a dead cat thrown at him, and finally being ejaculated over. The homoerotic implications of the latter act being slightly defused by having one of the Mamas, Horsecollar, do the jerking. “Pulling them by the penises, like cattle on a lead, she lead them one either side of Johnny’s prostrate body, where she proceeded to masturbate them both with well practised hands”.....a woman’s work is never done!
What with the carnage and violence being mostly played out in the earlier part of the book, the focus of Speed Freaks then strongly turns to the carnal side of the Hells Angels. Johnny’s girlfriend Shirley is required to pull a train in order to grant her old man entrée into the Angels. Fortunately “insensitivity, plus a natural tendency towards nymphomania made her an ideal choice for her peculiar role in the proceedings”. Another mama, Fat Fanny, gets fucked by two of the Angels using a wine bottle. We also discover that Hells Angels earn the right to wear RAF style red-wings on their jackets by performing cunnilingus on a menstruating woman. A fact so outrageous, so farfetched sounding, that of course it checks out to be totally true. So, if you ever hear a menstruating woman orgasmically crying out, that sound means another angel got his wings. Attaboy, Clarence.
There is something authentically dirty, authentically rock n’ roll about Peter Cave’s biker novels. By rights the yellowed, battered copies of them that are still around should smell of cigarettes, beer and other, less legal substances. In terms of lively writing, thoroughly sick humour and exploitation incident, Cave is at the top of his game here. Speed Freaks is a book that veers into the fast line, does a ton, and gives two fingers to everyone it passes. As the Hells Angels themselves might put it, Cave shows class.
Written after the success of 1971’s Chopper and its sequel Mama, Speed Freaks finds Cave reflecting on his exploitation of the British Hells Angels, and the possible consequences. Cave later admitted that his run of biker exploitation books resulting in him receiving phone calls from Angels, threatening him with violence, resulting in the author going ex-directory. Cave’s protagonist here, Gerry Shipton, is a young, smug, careerist TV director who is shooting a documentary about a pop concert, when he encounters the British Hells Angels beating up Suedeheads. Immediately flashing on their commercial potential with the thrill seeking public, Shipton attempts to enlist their services as the ‘stars’ of his pop concert documentary. Further playing to their showbiz aspirations by offering the carrot on the stick proposal of a follow on documentary all about the Hells Angels’ exploits. “Speed, Sex and Sadism...the kids would love it and the oldsters would hate it, but neither group would be able to switch off”.
Shipton might have been cast in Cave’s image, right down to having a background in pornography, Shipton having a few ‘underground porn films’ to his name, whilst Cave came to New English Library by way of skin-mags like Flirt n’ Skirt, and also wrote erotic lit for NEL under the name ‘Petra Christian’. Still it’s not exactly a flattering self-portrait, with Shipton depicted as a manipulative opportunist, driven by ego and money. Shipton gets a taste of what he’s in for, when he brings along his new buddies to a travelling circus, where he intends to grab footage of dare devil stunt riders. In a distasteful, yet perversely funny episode, the Hells Angels square off against freakshow performers, after one of the bikers insults a female dwarf “reckon her old man must have used a tea strainer for a French letter”. A quip that you suspect even Cave thought went too far, as he quickly condemns it as a ‘weak joke’ and follows it with one of the Angels getting punched in the face by the bearded lady “that’ll teach you, you little swine”. You don’t mess around with a bearded lady. While Chopper left you wondering whether Cave didn’t have a personal grievance with the seaside town of Seaforth, since he seemed to enjoy writing about it being trashed by Hells Angels a little too much, here that set piece is echoed by the wholesale destruction of the circus. After the humiliation of being beaten up by circus workers, the Hells Angels lick their wounds, before regrouping en masse and leading a sixty strong assault on the circus that leaves the public and elephants running for their lives. Did youngman Cave have a bad experience with circuses? and years later seized the opportunity to cathartically write it out of his system, using the Hells Angels as his instruments of revenge?
Power struggles are what fuels the drama in Cave’s biker books, which also emphasize the importance of loyalty, earning respect and brotherhood to the Angels. “He showed class” is a phrase Cave is especially fond of bringing out, meaning to impress other Angels, no matter what disgusting or reckless activity has to be resorted too. Given how prized such characteristics are in this world, it is inevitable that they’ll be retribution for transgressors. Despite Shipton initially winning the respect of the Hells Angels, by holding his own in a fight with Eichmann, and being rewarded with the sexual services of Dodo- a good natured, big-titted, train pulling mama- cracks soon begin to show. Shipton cowardly makes his escape when the Circus workers overpower the Angels, playing Judas by distancing himself from them. “They’re nothing to do with me...I’m merely doing my job...the TV boys asked me to make a film about them” claims Shipton...which isn’t showing class.
Cave, through Shipton, makes a perceptive observation that the Angels go from being ‘actors’ willing to perform for Shipton for a chance of fame, to becoming dictatorial ‘directors’ who bully, threaten and intimidate Shipton into dragging his camera around after them. The exploiter becomes the exploited, and vice versa. Going one step further than Chopper, which only had two men –‘Chopper Harris and Marty ‘Big M’ Gresham’- battling for biker supremacy, Speed Freaks has a three way power struggle going on. As head biker Murky Mervyn tries to remain top of the heap, and Shipton attempts to play puppet master, a third challenger Johnny ‘Reb’ Tucker- a movie stunt rider- casts a greedy eye in the Hells Angels’ direction. Hoping to sign several of them up to a stunt riding team, with no regard for their personal safety. Ultimately though you’re left with the sense that the collective force of the Angels is something that can never be controlled by one man alone, and like Frankenstein’s monster will turn against anyone who tries to exploit it. “The essence of Angeldom was destruction...and destruction is a two edged sword”.
Speed Freaks is a far more misanthropic text than Chopper, making you wonder if writing about these people wasn’t taking its toll on Cave’s view of humanity. Chopper might have been able to convince you, against better judgement, to root for its title character and give a damn about his ill-fated power grab, but there is no such figure to latch onto here. Murky Mervyn, Shipton, Tucker are all deceitful, self-serving assholes. This book hates everyone in it. Whereas the tragic ending of Chopper left you thinking ‘aww...poor bastard’, here your final thought will be ‘the fuckers deserved it’.
It’s almost as if Cave had started picking up bad habits from the Hells Angels he was writing about, particularly when it came to grossing out the average Joe on the street. It’s no surprise that his books are remembered fondest by people who were kids back in the early 1970s. Before punk came along books like this fuelled all of their juvenile delinquent fantasies of taking drugs, swilling beer, getting into fights, participating in gang bangs, swearing on live TV and generally giving straight society the fear.
If Speed Freaks was written around the time that Cave was receiving threatening phone calls from the Hells Angels, then the man must have had balls of steel. Since there is no attempt here to flatter or pacify his Angel critics in this book. Cave evidentially wasn’t swept along by any kind of Easy Rider type notion that these were nomadic, free spirited, rebels, instead Cave clearly saw them as scumbags whose exploits sold allot of books. A strong stomach is required for Speed Freaks, it is as if Cave was trying to top himself with each subsequent biker book. There are moments in Speed Freaks when you can practically feel Cave trying to force his fingers down the back of your throat. One vomitious episode involves Johnny Tucker being initiated into the Angels’ fold by getting pissed on, spat on, bleed on, having the remnants of a dead cat thrown at him, and finally being ejaculated over. The homoerotic implications of the latter act being slightly defused by having one of the Mamas, Horsecollar, do the jerking. “Pulling them by the penises, like cattle on a lead, she lead them one either side of Johnny’s prostrate body, where she proceeded to masturbate them both with well practised hands”.....a woman’s work is never done!
What with the carnage and violence being mostly played out in the earlier part of the book, the focus of Speed Freaks then strongly turns to the carnal side of the Hells Angels. Johnny’s girlfriend Shirley is required to pull a train in order to grant her old man entrée into the Angels. Fortunately “insensitivity, plus a natural tendency towards nymphomania made her an ideal choice for her peculiar role in the proceedings”. Another mama, Fat Fanny, gets fucked by two of the Angels using a wine bottle. We also discover that Hells Angels earn the right to wear RAF style red-wings on their jackets by performing cunnilingus on a menstruating woman. A fact so outrageous, so farfetched sounding, that of course it checks out to be totally true. So, if you ever hear a menstruating woman orgasmically crying out, that sound means another angel got his wings. Attaboy, Clarence.
There is something authentically dirty, authentically rock n’ roll about Peter Cave’s biker novels. By rights the yellowed, battered copies of them that are still around should smell of cigarettes, beer and other, less legal substances. In terms of lively writing, thoroughly sick humour and exploitation incident, Cave is at the top of his game here. Speed Freaks is a book that veers into the fast line, does a ton, and gives two fingers to everyone it passes. As the Hells Angels themselves might put it, Cave shows class.
Displaying 1 of 1 review