His mother is the client of a friend of mine. She is, apparently, a rather posh but very likeable and charismatic lady, so if he's anything like her, it's easy to see why he's so popular.
I did also hear a story about a pub being hassled by a local authority about its regular biker nights, despite the locals backing them and the nights being well-behaved affairs. Lembit got to hear about it and backed them (pulled some rank, as I seem to recall) and, lo and behold, biker nights continued.