On a much more serious note it is with great sadness that the Purple Helmets are a man down as we mark the passing of Brian (Stodge) Crabtree. Brian was full of life last Saturday when he was commentating with us at the Rocket Centre but sadly passed away the following Friday.

 He will be sadly missed by us all.

Brian in Chile in 2007, a man we will never forget.

Rest in Peace

Following on from our Record Breaking shows at the 2010 Isle of Man TT races and at the Rocket Centre of Blackburn Lancashire.

Have a look at the Rocket Centre gallery.

The Purple Helmets live on the Isle of Man in 'Castle Wintop' near to Injebreck, in West Baldwin.They sleep together in a large round bed and mostly eat twigs and leaves that they collect from local plantations. During still autumn nights they can often be heard singing each other to sleep and the orange glow from their peat fire can be seen from many miles away. None of the Purple Helmets go by their real names; they all have stage names to protect their identities from both women and dentists. Because they live on the edge of a reservoir the Purple Helmets are great swimmers, two of whom swam for the North West of England under 12's and the whole team have their brown life saving medallions.

There is no leader of the Purple Helmets, they have instead a form of democracy called "Clinglip", whereby hot stones are placed on their heads and whoever lasts the longest is allowed to make the decision. If one is lucky enough to examine the top of one of their heads when their helmets are off you will see the rotten scorch marks. These marks have never been photographed. The Purple Helmets love Italian food, seafood paella with skunk is their favourite. They will drink almost anything alcoholic and once got drunk on stale sherbet lemons and cheese cake brandy. Only eight of the Purple Helmets have been in prison, mostly for cruelty offences or poaching geese. There is a wi-fi connection at 'Castle Wintop'.