The second coming of Worship
Worship descended on Leeds again this year with 50 new original bikes, no repeats, quite the feat and challenge for the show’s creator and runner, Gary Inman. The show was a spectacle of speed, it was impressive to see all the organisers and volunteers transforming the church into a curated space of modified muscle, displaying (mostly) high-performance custom Japanese machines.
Throughout the morning I witnessed each builder and owner pushing in their creations; long sturdy metal ramps were on hand to climb the steps to the altar. I was extremely impressed with the high caliber of motorcycles; of course you had lots of beautiful custom bikes with everything on display, race exhausts, sponsor stickers, air intakes and nitrous bottles, it really was a feast for the eyes.
As both Art director and photographer I found myself attracted to the visual style and language of Worship; It’s a disarming contrast; an 120 year old gothic church in Leeds mixed with Japanese glyphs, chromatic aberration, TV lines and a VHS aesthetic. The event also had special hosts to make you feel welcome; Sticky’s speed shop Zombie priests were keeping a watchful eye on all attendees.
The 90s nostalgia is here, but these motorcycles don’t feel like a passing fad, more like a cultural statement of style and muscle in equal amounts. The autumnal sunshine was literally shining on some of the most beautiful bikes at the show, they were all perfectly presented for the compositions I had in mind. Light played with all the surfaces and materials to give depth and form to these machines.
Visual style & 90s aesthetic
A selection of special bikes had taken their place at the top of the altar; the first was from Guy Martin, the custom built Martek Suzuki turbo GSX-R1100 from his class winning Pikes Peak adventure. An iconic number eight to catch your eye, this extremely minimal raw machine has a stance for extreme speed at high altitudes in thin air. Next to Guy’s bike was its ‘sister’ another Martek GSX-1100, formerly owned by The Prodigy’s Keith Flint.
The family was complete with another GSX-R from Death Spray Customs, in my eyes this is a very classy machine. The graphic design is on point, high contrast graphics with glow in the dark decals contrasted with the avant guard. On the other side was another stunning design, The Yamaha FZ1000R from Manu Piddiu. This custom build is super high spec, but I also love the graphics, the design from Manu himself. The striking purple graphics, contrasted white tail and race graphics with yellow highlights really do it for me.
Factory Spec
I was also fortunate enough to meet Marc from Haxch again this year, still in love with his Thunderbolt XZR900 yard built project. A crazy amount of work was put into that Aluminium fairing meaning it looked better than factory. In fact Marc and his partner Lou will be special guests at EICMA this year, Yamaha will proudly be displaying his machine at the centre of their exposition, clearly all that hard work has paid off.
Continuing the 90s aesthetic was the Rothmans Honda NS500 from Andy Feeley, this is the first and only two stroke machine to grace the Worship show’s church. I photographed this motorcycle a lot as the rays from the church windows created an atmosphere centred around it, this livery is so iconic and the Jim Lomas full exhaust system really caught the light.
The Peoples choice
It’s always interesting to see where people place their stickers for the peoples choice award, this year a Ducati stole the show away from the Japanese bikes. The Alonze 600 Special from Jim Alonze; quite the masterpiece from a Ducati Monster 600. I’m a massive Ducati fan myself and this build is on another level handcrafted from scratch, the Worship attendees have spoken.
I have to say as a ticket holder of Worship we were all well looked after. We had Paradise Tap & Taco supplying the great British BBQ favs, plus the bar was serving up great coffee, tea, beers and cakes! There were plenty of places to sit-down, relax and enjoy the bike/people watching.
I also found some new and familiar faces at the show, Andrew from Bolt London, Geoff from Co-Built (who I see at all the events) and a new face but familiar name from Amsterdam; the artist Lennard Schuurmans was checking out all the designs on the bikes, a great mix of people and I think they all left with lots of new inspiration for the future. Talking about the future, Gary has already announced Worship 3 coming September 28th 2026!
