Poser Mobile, a parody of common boy racer mods

Boy racers refer to teenage boys or young adult^{[citation needed]} men who "cruise" around in vehicles modified with loud exhausts and stereos, or modified body kits. This behavior is frowned upon by members of the public irritated by the noise and the criminal behavior associated with it,^[1] including violence by Neo-Nazi "boy racers".^[2] Many cars are cosmetically modified in an unlawful manner.^[3] Car enthusiasts who drive sporty cars, or those modified to perform better, typically seek to distance themselves from the culture.^[4] Responses to the boy racer problem range from laws prohibiting the antisocial activities they engage in to vigilante actions such as spraying expander foam, a common building supply, into boy racer cars with loud "big-bore" exhaust tips to stop such cars driving around emitting loud droning noises which is illegal and highly disrespectful to their property.^{[clarification needed][5]}

Culture[link]

Publications for boy racers included Max Power, Fast Car, New Zealand Performance Car Magazine, MTV's Pimp My Ride and The Fast and the Furious as well as DVD publications and television shows.

Boy racers are typically known for speeding away from traffic lights, playing loud music, and revving their engines rather than street racing.^{[6][not in citation given][7]} A typical boy racer is seen as a young man who sits very low in his seat and wears a beanie and/or hoodie.^[8][9]

Vehicle modification[link]

Modifications typically associated with the stereotype include:

• Powerful sound systems
• Extravagant paint jobs
• Large, loud exhaust tips
• Spoilers^[10] and bonnet scoops (usually non-functional)
• Suspension modifications to lower a car's ride height^[11][12]
• Body kits, neon lights and other appearance modifications
• Tinted windows restricting the view from the car^[13]

Performance upgrades such as engine tuning adding turbochargers are rare amongst the boy racer subculture due to the high costs involved and the fact that most insurance companies charge extremely high premiums to young drivers with modified cars.

Boy racers by country[link]

Australia[link]

In Australia, the terms hoon and "revhead" are used for people who drive in an anti-social or dangerous manner. However, revhead (which derives from "revolutions per minute") may refer to any motor enthusiast, while hoon is always pejorative.

New Zealand[link]

The term boy racer is used in New Zealand to describe a youth that drives any form of vehicle that is Japanese and/or has been modified in anyway (including factory fitted parts). The Land Transport (Unauthorised Street and Drag Racing) Amendment Act 2003 is commonly known as the "Boy Racer Act". In 2009, a government led by the National Party augmented the Act with the Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Act and the Sentencing (Vehicle Confiscation) Amendment Act, which allow police to confiscate and "crush" (correctly, dismantle for salable parts and destroy the remainder) vehicles on the third offence within four years, issue infringements for "cruising" and prosecute street racing and "antisocial" behaviour, by creating temporary by-laws. The first car-crushing sentence was passed down in late 2011.^[14]

While the slang word "bogan" generally has a broader meaning, it is often used in New Zealand in reference to owners of larger Australian cars that perform horribly, like Ford Falcons or Holden Commodores.^[15][16]

Most cheap vehicles in New Zealand are used Japanese imports and the culture follows modification of these cars.^[17] During the late 1980s and 1990s tariffs were gradually removed on imported vehicles. This allowed many cheap second hand vehicles to enter New Zealand's car market and even caused new car prices to drop. In Japan, like New Zealand, cars drive on the left side of the road, and the Japanese car registration system discourages use of second-hand vehicles.

Boy racers in New Zealand have led to several cities putting "no cruising" bans in place around the major business districts. Christchurch was notorious for the "laps", or "aves". These were the Four Avenues, the ring road around the central business district, which restricts cars from doing more than 3 consecutive laps of between 10pm and 5am. This has led to boy racers and cruisers migrating to other areas which has angered locals.^{[citation needed]}.

In New Zealand the majority of boy racers cars are the rear-wheel drive Nissan Silvia's and Skyline variants, heavily modified in appearance with rather large external wastegates, locked rear differentials, loud/large exhaust systems (straight pipes) and extremely powerful sound systems using multiple amplifiers and subwoofers (in particular, Subaru Legacy station wagons). Neon lighting is almost unheard of in New Zealand. Excessive window tinting is common as window tints can be self installed and there are no restrictions on the sale of window tints that are too dark for certain vehicle classes.^{[citation needed]}

United Kingdom[link]

In the UK boy racers are often synonymous with chav culture, although the average boy racer tends to be more affluent than the welfare-dependent majority of British chavs as they are able to purchase and insure a low-end car. Some could be described as 'middle-class dropouts'.

The stereotypical boy racers in the UK can be easily identified by their vehicle choice. They tend to prefer aged, small, three-door, front-wheel drive hatchback cars, such as the Vauxhall Corsa, Fiat Punto, Ford Fiesta, Peugeot 106, Citroën Saxo, Volkswagen Polo and the Vauxhall Nova with small engines usually ranging between 1.0 litre and 1.6 litres; this "preference" is more based on financial restrictions rather than desire. (Engines with higher capacity are higher performance and carry increased insurance premiums, making them too expensive for many).

These smaller cars are then often fitted with alloy wheels and large gauge or straight through exhausts to make them sound more powerful than they really are.

Though not as common as the cars previously mentioned, mainly due to their price and insurance cost, Subaru Impreza WRX STIs and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions are favoured among Boy Racers because of their turbo charged engines and racing-intended designs. Criticisms are often raised regarding these loud exhausts as they do not actually sound like a performance car, just louder. Powerful stereos and speakers are installed, which can be felt more than heard (usually due to a sub woofer), people can normally hear these cars coming before they come into sight.

Boy Racers often neglect to tell their insurance provider about modifications as this would further inflate their premium, even though British law requires drivers to notify insurers of all material changes to the vehicle.^[18] This creates a major problem, as many hundreds of young drivers may actually have invalid insurance (which is also illegal in the UK) as a result.

United States[link]

Americans often use the term "rice burner", "rice rocket", or ricer^{[citation needed]} to describe the boy racer concept, since most of the vehicles are of Asian manufacture. If a car is "riced out", it has the import tuner look, and may or may not actually have performance parts under the hood. There's also the less popular term "wheat burner", "rice rocket", or ricer or "Domestic Rice,"^{[citation needed]} which is the same thing, but with a domestic American model such as a Ford Focus, or Chevrolet Cavalier. A "krauter" is a German model, usually a Volkswagen Jetta or Volkswagen Golf. The latter two categories are also sometimes referred to as "rice eaters,"^{[citation needed]} since their competition in the tuner scene is usually the more popular Asian models.

Colombia[link]

In Colombia boy racers are very common due to the lack of knowledge on how to customize enigines.

There for many bad and ugly bodykits are attached to the car.

Alternate uses[link]

The Ford Grand Am Cup racing model of the Mustang, the FR500C was nicknamed "Boy Racer" by Ford executives.

See also[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up Boy racer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• boyracerguide.co.uk
• New Zealand Classic Car- Boy Racers or Car Enthusiasts?

Jools Holland
Holland at the British Academy Television Awards 2009
Background information
Birth name	Julian Miles Holland
Born	(1958-01-24) 24 January 1958 (age 54) Blackheath, London, England
Genres	Boogie-woogie, jazz, blues, R&B
Occupations	Musician, composer, television presenter, bandleader
Instruments	Piano, keyboard, guitar
Years active	1974–present
Associated acts	Squeeze Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
Website	Official site

Julian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, and television presenter. He was a founder of the band Squeeze (1974-1980 & 1985-1990) and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, David Gilmour, Magazine and Bono.

Holland is a published author and appears on television shows besides his own and contributes to radio shows. In 2004, he collaborated with Tom Jones on an album of traditional R&B music. He currently hosts Later... with Jools Holland, a music-based show aired on BBC2, on which his annual show Hootenanny, is based.^[1]

Life and career[link]

His great grandfather came from Ireland.^[2]

Holland played as a session musician before finding fame, and his first studio session was with Wayne County & the Electric Chairs in 1976 on their track "F*ck Off."^[3]

Holland was a founding member of the British pop band Squeeze, formed in March 1974, in which he played keyboards until 1981 and helped the band to achieve millions of record sales, before pursuing his solo career.^[3]

Holland began issuing solo records in 1978, his first EP being Boogie Woogie '78. He continued his solo career through the early 1980s, releasing an album and several singles between 1981 and 1984. He branched out into TV, co-presenting the Newcastle-based TV music show The Tube with Paula Yates. Holland achieved notoriety by inadvertently using the phrase "groovy fuckers" in a live, early evening TV trailer for the show, causing it to be suspended for six weeks.^[4] He referred to this in his sitcom "The Groovy Fellers" with Rowland Rivron.

Holland at the Tsunami Relief concert in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, 22 January 2005

In 1983 Holland played an extended piano solo on The The's re-recording of "Uncertain Smile" for the album Soul Mining. In 1985, Squeeze (which had continued in Holland's absence through to 1982) unexpectedly regrouped including Jools Holland as their keyboard player. Holland remained in the band until 1990, at which point, he again departed Squeeze on amicable terms to resume his solo career as a musician and a TV host.

In 1987, Holland formed The Jools Holland Big Band which consisted of himself and Gilson Lavis from Squeeze. This gradually became his 18-piece Rhythm & Blues Orchestra.^[3]

Between 1988 and 1990 he performed and co-hosted along with David Sanborn during the two seasons of the music performance program Sunday Night on NBC late-night television.^[5] Since 1992 he has presented the music program Later... with Jools Holland, plus an annual New Year's Eve Hootenanny.

In 1996, Holland signed a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records,^[3] and his records are now marketed through Rhino Records.

Holland has a touring band, The Rhythm And Blues Orchestra, which often includes singers Sam Brown and Ruby Turner. In January 2005 Holland and his band performed with Eric Clapton as the headline act of the Tsunami Relief Cardiff.

Personal[link]

Holland lives in the Westcombe Park area of Blackheath in South East London, where he had his studio, Helicon Mountain, built to his design, inspired by Portmeirion, the setting for the 1960s TV series The Prisoner.^[6] Holland owns costumes and props from the series and occasionally appears wearing the trademark brown-with-white-pipe blazer featured in the series. In 1987, Holland demonstrated his love of the series and starred in a spoof documentary, The Laughing Prisoner, with Stephen Fry, Terence Alexander and Hugh Laurie.^[6] Much of it was shot on location in Portmeirion, with archive footage of Patrick McGoohan, and featuring musical numbers from Siouxsie and the Banshees, Magnum and XTC. Holland performed a number towards the end of the program. His younger brother, Christopher, also plays organ in the Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, as well as being a singer-songwriter.

Holland was an interviewer for The Beatles Anthology TV project, and appeared in the 1997 film Spiceworld as a musical director.

He received an OBE in 2003 in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, for services to the British music industry as a television presenter and musician. In September 2006 Holland was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Kent.^[7] He is also known for his charity work: in June 2006 he performed in Southend for HIV/AIDS charity Mildmay,^[8] and in early 2007 he performed at Wells and Rochester Cathedrals to raise money for maintaining cathedral buildings.^[9] He is also patron of the Drake Music Project^[10] and has raised many thousands of pounds for the charity.

Holland was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Canterbury Christ Church University at a ceremony held at Canterbury Cathedral on 30 January 2009.^[11]

On 29 August 2005 Holland married Christabel McEwen, his girlfriend of 15 years (between 1983 and 1995 she had been married to Edward Lambton, 7th Earl of Durham, before they divorced). The wedding, at St James's Church, Cooling near Rochester, was attended by many celebrities, including Ringo Starr, Robbie Coltrane, Stephen Fry, Lenny Henry, Noel Gallagher, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.^[12]

Holland is also a patron for The Milton Rooms, an Arts centre in Malton, North Yorkshire, along with Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Kathy Burke.^[13]

Writing[link]

His 2007 biography, Barefaced Lies and Boogie Woogie Boasts was BBC Radio 4 "Book of the Week" in the week beginning 8 October 2007 and was read by Holland. He is the author or joint author of four other books.

Discography[link]

Albums that have charted and gained Certifications[link]

Releases[link]

• 1978 "Boogie Woogie '78" (EP)
• 1981 Jools Holland and His Millionaires
• 1984 Jools Holland Meets Rock 'A' Boogie Billy (U.S. release only)
• 1990 World Of His Own
• 1991 The Full Complement
• 1992 "Together Again" (single with Sam Brown)
• 1992 The A-Z Geographer's Guide To The Piano
• 1994 Solo Piano
• 1994 Live Performance
• 1996 " Jazz & Rock & Roll
• 1997 Lift The Lid
• 1998 Best Of
• 1999 Sunset Over London
• 2000 Hop The Wag
• 2001 Small World Big Band
• 2002 SWBB Volume Two: More Friends
• 2003 Jack O The Green (SWBB Friends 3)
• 2004 Tom Jones & Jools Holland
• 2005 Beatroute
• 2005 Swinging the Blues, Dancing the Ska
• 2006 Moving Out To The Country
• 2007 Best of Friends
• 2008 The Collection
• 2008 The Informer (With Ruby Turner)
• 2008 "The Informer" (single with Ruby Turner)
• 2009 "I Went By" (single with Louise Marshall)
• 2010 Rockinghorse

Film and television[link]

• 1981 Urgh! A Music War
• 1982 Police: Around the World
• 1982 - 1987 The Tube (Host for 121 editions)
• 1983 Rebellious Jukebox: Compere
• 1984 The Young Ones: Punk (Episode entitled "Summer Holiday")
• 1985 Walking To New Orleans (Jools Holland in New Orleans)
• 1987 Eat the Rich: Sun Reporter
• 1987 Filthy Rich & Catflap: Strip Show Pianist (Episode #1.3)
• 1987 The Laughing Prisoner: No. 7
• 1987 French and Saunders (Episode 1.5)
• 1988 Sunday Night: Host (unknown episodes)
• 1989 Juke Box Jury: Host (unknown episodes)
• 1989 The Groovy Fellers Himself, 6 episodes
• 1991 Mr Roadrunner (Jools Holland in Memphis)
• 1994 There's No Business: Pianist
• 1994 - 1995 Don't Forget Your Toothbrush
• 1995 The Beatles Anthology
• 1997 Spice World: Musical Director
• 1997 Name That Tune: Host and Pianist
• 2003 Jool's History of the Piano : Presenter
• 2006 Top Gear: Star in a reasonably priced car.
• 2007 Fairport@Forty: Interview
• 2009 Chop Shop Rover Concept: The Jet 1 Car : Customer

Current television programmes[link]

• 1992–present Later... with Jools Holland
• 1993–present Hootenanny

Books[link]

• "Rolling Stones": A Life on the Road, (with Dora Loewenstein), Viking/Allen Lane (1998), (ISBN 0-670-88051-5)
• Beat Route: Journeys Through Six Counties, Weidenfeld & Nicholson (1998), (ISBN 0-575-06700-4)
• Ray Charles: Man and Music, (with Michael Lydon), Payback Press (1999), (ISBN 0-86241-929-8)
• Hand That Changed Its Mind , International Music Publications (2007), (ISBN 1-84328-645-9)
• Barefaced Lies and Boogie-woogie Boasts , Michael Joseph Ltd (2007), (ISBN 0-7181-4915-7)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Jools Holland at the Internet Movie Database
• Jools Holland's Radio 2 show at BBC Programmes
• Later...with Jools Holland at BBC Online