Dave Myers Memory Booth

On 8 June 2024 an estimated 40,000 bikers joined a memorial ride from London to Dave Myers’ home town of Barrow-in-Furness, for “Dave Day”.

When Dave Day II was announced the Barrow Dock Museum started preparations for a special 2025 exhibition about Dave’s journey from a young carer in Barrow to a celebrated TV chef as one half of the duo The Hairy Bikers.

They wanted to create a special roadshow ahead of the exhibition and so The Dave Day Memory Booth revved into life.

We created an interactive video booth that invited people to record memories of Dave Myers whilst ‘riding’ a classic replica motorbike, painted to match his favourite Hawaiiain shirt.

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Once inside ‘riders’ could:

  • Sit atop the full-sized wooden Harley Davidson;
  • See themselves transported into the Dave Day biker convoy, using some greenscreen, webcam + code magic;
  • Press the ‘Say Cheese’ button located on the bike’s handlebars to record their memories of Dave Myers & Dave Day;
  • Watch their videos outside the booth which we decorated with quotes about the much-loved Hairy Biker as well as mini-Dave silhouettes and Hawaiian shirt motifs. It’s an eye-popping Hawaiian shirt come to life containing a colourful bike for a colourful character.

Three computer keys, the left one looks like a hotdog, the middle is white, the right one looks like holey cheese

Press CHEESE to record and HOTDOG to cancel!

Dave fans came to ‘ride’ the bike as it pulled up at venues around Barrow, recording fond memories of him, relating favourite recipes or just wishing everyone a Happy Dave Day.

We met neighbours and friends of Myers at The Roa Island Boat club where he was a member for many years, recalling his days zipping about in his motorboat, winding-up the ‘yachties’.

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Team Dock at the Club, John Irving & Charlotte Hawley

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A sunny scene for callers to the gothic town hall

And rode with Barrovians and tourists at The Holiday Inn before a final lap inside Barrow Town Hall with the Mayor.

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At The Holiday Inn

The bike was then parked in the Barrow Dock Museum ready for the ‘Dave A Barrow Lad’ exhibition, where Dave’s widow Lili recorded a special message in the Booth. Like Dave Day itself, the exhibition was a huge hit, attracting visitors from across the UK and featuring on BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio Cumbria and of course The North West Evening Mail.

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Jennie testing before opening to the public

The booth’s curtains featured fabric reproduced from his favourite shirt, donated by Liliana Myers to the museum.

A group of Barrovian bikers had themselves another Dave Day to create the video used in the Booth. They popped on their Hawaiian shirts on a sunny evening and rode around Barrow for us with a GoPro to get the right reverse-orientated video so people can ‘appear’ in the convoy.

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The booth's exterior included over 400 laser-cut wooden pieces, each hand-painted with several coats of acrylic.

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The wooden Harley was found on Ebay via a fascinating seller - Postscript Antiques in London, specialists in ventriloquist dummies, wax works and taxidermy. The bike was sharing shop space with a waxwork Eric Morecambe and puppets of Tony Blair, George Bush and Prince Harry! The exact source of the wooden bike is unclear as Postscript acquired it from another antique dealer but was told it had been a garage prop. It needed a lot of sanding and filling after many years outside but was clearly lovingly-made with individually-carved sections including the large wooden wheel arches, etched with the marks of a lot of pain-staking chiselling.
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In the end thousands of visitors to the exhibition recordeed messages for and about Dave.

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