BD8 & Beyond, page 13
There never seemed to be a dull moment around this time of my life, we were forever going to have words with people over owed monies or for being out of line with third parties, all par for the course when you mixed in the circles that we did. A family matter meant a visit to see a quite volatile, big in his field, influential drug dealer. Over the years, I’d been to visit quite a few people, for various reasons and 8a.m. is more often than not, a very good time to turn up. The dealer, let’s call him Vic, was a guy that I’d met a year earlier, so I knew what to expect when we arrived at his manor. My two brothers and Gary in tow, I knocked on the door and when it opened, I pushed my way in, telling a bleary eyed Vic to put the kettle on. Gary said he needed a piss and went straight upstairs for a quick ‘once over’ to make sure the place wasn’t full of ‘back up’. We were well tooled up, just to be on the safe side and if the shit had really hit the fan, someone was going to end up shot. Vic knew the score and new he was on a loser. There was some of Vic’s gear to drop off and a wedge to pick up. After a ‘brew’ and a ‘smoke’, all ends were tied up and owed monies paid. Vic gave a knowing grin as we bid him farewell. Everybody happy, no injuries or damage and business concluded.
I decided to have a break and take a decent holiday with the family. So Sue, Lucy and my niece Emma, Russ’s daughter, went to Los Angeles in the States. A week in L.A, which incorporated passes into Disney Land and a rake of other stuff. Absolutely brilliant, the kids loved it, all the rides and shows at Disney were superb and the hospitality shown by the Yanks was second to none. On arrival at Disney Land, the security staff pulled us to one side and informed us of the security measures that were in place regarding child abduction, they were really on the ball with reference to that and advised us not to let the children out of our sight for one second, as they could be lifted, re-dressed and taken out of the premises in a matter of minutes. That scared the hell out of us, I got a bit of a phobia about it and was eye balling everyone, wondering if they were kiddy snatchers! That aside, we had a great week there and visited the Universal Studios, Hollywood and a host of other attractions, then drove through the desert, over to Las Vegas. Driving through that red hot desert was a bit of ordeal but it’s definitely worth it when you first catch sight of the buildings of Vegas shimmering in the sunlight, it’s like some kind of oasis that just seems to appear out o nowhere.
We were booked into the Luxor hotel (the giant pyramid), a real eye opener of a building but then again, the majority of the hotel/casino’s there are all stunning pieces of architecture. I made a point of visiting the Flamingo Hilton, which was one of the first hotels to be built there and was opened in 1946 as the Pink Flamingo. The opening of the hotel/casino was the start of a casino boom in Vegas, it was the brain child of gangster, Benjamin (Bugsy) Siegel but because he over shot the budget agreed with the mob bosses, it cost him his life.
All the hotels/casinos, on the strip had shows on outside, which were there to entice the public into the casinos. On entering the hotels, you have to walk through the casino, even to reach the reception and although children are allowed to pass through the casinos, if they stop for any reason at all, the security staff are there in a breath to move them on. You can literally smell the money and the sound of fruit machines paying out is almost deafening, there are large turntables with top of the range vehicles on them as prizes for crap or bingo games, it’s an almost mesmerising atmosphere. The security in the Luxor was quite tight, there were staff on the stairwells and in the lifts, no access was given to either unless a room key was shown as proof of hotel residency.
Underneath all the glitz and glamour, I found Vegas to be quite a seedy place really, throughout the day people would be pushing porn advert leaflets into your hand, even though you had young kids on your arm. That aside, I would recommend a visit to Vegas, to anyone who has yet to step foot on the sands of one of the richest resorts in the world. When the sun goes down and the ‘strip’ lights up, it is without doubt, a different world, there is entertainment outside each and everyone of the hotels, which is, of course there to entice the punters into the large casinos. The most interesting attraction at the time for myself, was the show outside the Treasure Island hotel. A large galleon ship manned by a team of pirates, floated around a man made lagoon in the grounds of the hotel and into a purposely built harbour. They were met by a small army of Red Coats that was situated in the cliffs of the harbour and the set too between the two groups was tremendous. The galleon was eventually sunk and the pirate raid was thwarted after a twenty minute battle that included plenty of musket fire and the odd cannon booming out. The galleon was then raised from the depths and returned to its starting position, ready for the next show……quality entertainment!
The Grand Canyon is one of the wonders of the world and we decided to pay the place a visit and see it in all its splendour. We took a trip on a seven seater plane, over the Hoover Dam and all the way through the canyon before landing at a small air strip above the massive gorge. There was a meal laid on and then we were treated to a film showing on huge Imax cinema screen. We toured all the way round the top of the canyon and the purpose built museum, before doing some shopping in the large retail centre that has been erected there. The weather became overcast and there was a bit of panic generated from a few of the pilots on the air strip, the pilot flying our small plane decided to brave the storm, so we boarded and got ready to head back to Vegas. The pilots of the other half dozen planes thought it was in the best interests of the passengers to stay put until the storm had run it’s course. I was sat up front next to the pilot, with Sue, Lucy and Emma seated behind me and then three German guys seated at the back of the plane. The turbulence was quite bad and we would have been thrown all over the place if it wasn’t for the fact that we were well strapped in. The sky was black, visibility very poor and the small plane was being tossed all over, we were almost upside down on several occasions. Each time a small pocket of light appeared through the blackness, the pilot headed towards it, only to be engulfed in total darkness before reaching it. Beads of sweat were dripping from the pilot’s forehead as he tried in vain to fly the small plane through the storm and I could tell that the panic element related to this traumatic ordeal was beginning to get the better of him. A constant barrage of pleading and begging with ground control to find him a route around the terrible storm seemed to be in vain then, low and behold, the sky seemed to open up and a huge bright light appeared, opening a tunnel of vision up for us and our ordeal was coming to an end. We flew straight down the beam of light and towards the red hot skies above Las Vegas.
We landed safely and a huge grin on his face, the pilot handed us a certificate, stating that we were never in danger and thanked us for flying with the airway. I know for a fact that the geezer was shitting it! The rest of the planes from the small airfield arrived for touchdown approximately 5 hours later, so I was quite pleased that our pilot had taken the bull by the horns and battled his way through, although, I can honestly say that I was glad to be back on solid ground.
Before we left the Luxor Hotel, Sue had spotted a ‘very’ nice jewellery store in the Hotel and the credit card was flexed to accommodate (that girl did love her gold and diamonds).
The American hospitality is second to none, although at first I did think that they were taking the piss in the way that they address you. It’s in you face from day one, with all that ‘how you doing?’ and ‘hey, how’s your day? Even so, I was impressed with how everyone seemed to bend over backwards and tried to help with anything they could.
Reality soon set in as soon as we were back on British soil. When I went to fill the car up at a petrol station near Heathrow airport, it was a case of “What pump are you at?” and then they mutter the price at you without a please, thank you or a fuck off! The majority of youngsters that serve us in this country, even up to present day, seem to have a, ‘couldn’t care less attitude’.
A couple of months later, I was in the office at work being told that since I had got a decent hold on the maintenance schedules in the ‘giftwrap’ department, the production levels were up by over 30 percent and they were thinking of updating some of the ‘unwind’ machines.The unwind machines in the main production area were mainly German ‘Moller’ machines and American ‘Elsner’ machines. The one’s in question were the Elsner machines, which came from Hanover in Pensylvania U.S.A. A trip was arranged for Gorman, who was chief ‘setter’ in the Giftwrap department, Resham Singh, the electrician and myself. We were trusted to go to Hanover and access the new design of the ‘unwind’ machine that was being produced by Elsner and report back our findings as to whether the new design would be beneficial to future production in the Giftwrap department.
We arrived at Newark airport and met by the ‘rep’ and a large Lincoln Cadillac, which, with the three of us in the back, had acres of room to spare!! We were taken to a large diner situated off the beaten track, where we had a few beers and a decent meal before being dropped off at our Motel. It was a Black Ball 8 Motel with a huge fat bloke behind the counter, who spoke in ‘yes’, ‘no’ answers. We got freshened up and headed a couple of blocks to the nearest bar, which was a ‘pizza’ type place with a dozen big ‘Rigs’ parked outside. Now, if you picture this place as being similar to the television program ‘Northern Exposure’, with plenty of 20 stone bearded blokes driving round with rifles and dead stags in the back of their trucks, then you’re somewhere on the right lines.
We entered the bar and all the big bearded truckers went quiet and stared in our direction, Sean mumbled “fucking hell Dave”, to which I giggled and shouted to ‘skirt’ behind the bar “3 large beers please love.” Now all the huge guys at the bar were drinking half pints, quite a funny set, those Yanks, so the barmaid had to root about a bit to find us some pint glasses. We ‘downed’ them quite sharpish and ordered another round, to which the barmaid “I’ll get you a pitcher, that’ll be cheaper, if you take a seat, I’ll bring one over.” We got settled and started to watch the American Football that was starting on the large screen, as a couple of these huge truckers came over and wanted to know where we were from and how many pints we drank and the rest. They were ‘gobsmacked’ when we said we could easily drink 10 or 12 pints of this stuff in a sitting, hence we had a good evening, chatting with these guys about all kinds.
Over the next three days, we made our reports and spoke on the phone regarding changes to the new ‘unwind’ prototype. Teething problems aside, the three of us thought that the purchase of at least two of the machines would be beneficial to our production, so that in mind, we finished off and home went.
Christmas was round the corner and everything went smoothly for once, with myself and Kinder managing to accommodate all ‘our’ pubs and clubs with doorstaff but life rarely runs smoothly and it was a turbulent year that lay ahead.
January ’96, a bleak foggy Monday morning and I was asked to go the airport to pick up the Yank engineer from Elsner. There was no company vehicle available, so I had to go in my own Merc 190E, which, at the time was my pride and joy. He got settled in and later I dropped him at his hotel, which was on my way home. Monday night, myself and Sean Gorman were off down to the Lord Clyde for our pool league, the American declined our offer of a night out and so I arranged to pick him up the next morning. It was a cold morning and the fog was still really thick in patches, Gorman didn’t answer the door, so I went to the Hotel and picked up the American. We headed a couple of mile to the factory and unfortunately I went across a ‘T’ junction in the fog, there was a footpath and I braked to guide the front of the car into the opening but hit the lamp that jutted out. I went through the windscreen and then through the side window as the car slammed to a halt. I reversed the car out and parked on the side of the road, I was bleeding from quite a few wounds and when the Yank said he’d hurt his hand and would have to put a claim in, I told him we were on company time, so the claim would have to go through them. I ended up at a friend’s house not too far from the factory and woke up in the afternoon!!! I went to the hospital to get ‘fixed’ up and treated for concussion.
Now there are quite a few different opinions as to what exactly happened on that day. The incident was only a hundred yards from the factory and apparently, I went into the works, whereupon one of the ‘jobsworths’ working on the security gate, rang the law, who turned up with three motors and around ten ‘uniforms’. According to most, I just wondered off in a daze, others said I went off the premises in the boot of a car to avoid the law, as I was probably under the influence and others say I just ‘legged’ it over the back fence! I was suspended from work while enquiries were made. Now my employers, stated that I had advised the American engineer to make a fraudulent claim against the company, as they thought that any injury claim for him should have been made against my vehicle insurance. The lad actually should have been looked after by company and covered by company insurance on entering the U.K, so I asked them if he was covered by them when I’d picked him up from the airport in company time, (albeit, in my own vehicle). They appeared to be ‘bricking’ it for not covering all angles and were desperately needing a scapegoat………..yours truly!! They were adamant that I had to leave my position, so they could save face and agreed to pay me everything that I was entitled to, as if I had resigned. I new that if I didn’t accept the terms, it would just be a matter of time before they removed me from the position for other reasons that they could come up with………Adios!! It came to my attention that a couple of directors had had their say and made it clear that the book was stopping with me, one in particular, had supposedly said that I was just a hired thug (because of the door connections) and that the company was well shut of me. I’ll refrain from naming the guy. Statements such as he made though aren’t forgotten easily.
I was working out at the gym quite a bit then and Nick, the owner, was a builder, so I went and gave him a hand for a few weeks while I was between jobs. On a night I was well into the doors, which was doing ok, with around ten ‘manors’ on the go and a good 40 bodies on call. At tat time we had the ponytail and waistcoat brigade, Piotre, a Polish guy was well into bodybuilding and sported a long ponytail and black leather waistcoat. Ponytail Mark was very similar in attire and size, he was quite a clever kid and worked for the council. Rishtu was another foreign mate of Piotre’s, he was bald but did the bodybuilding and waistcoat thing. These lads were damn good doormen when it suited them but weren’t too keen on moving form one club once they had their feet under the table. A young lad called Jay was on the scene, big lad, ponytail and looked the part but I always feel that he held back and seemed quite apprehensive, although I did persevere with him and tried to groom him, rightly some say, others not. Others in the frame then were, Richie, a big set, really well mannered Jamaican kid called Simon, Chris, John, Garfy, Roger, Jamie………to mention a few.
There was one evening around that time at the Rio when Bob was having a bit a verbal do with some arsehole and Bob basically told him that he was on his last chance and would be out o his ear if he had to speak to him again. As Bob turned to walk away, the twat hit him with two glasses, one either side of his head! Bob was sorted out at the hospital and his injuries weren’t as bad as originally thought. In that game, there’s always some arsehole wanting to do the doormen some serious damage. Bob was soon fixed up and back on the job.
I’d got another ‘day’ job with a Lift and Escalator firm, Gregson & Bell, which wasn’t brilliant but it brought in a few quid and would have to do for the time being. A Bradford firm got in touch with me regarding a ‘setting’ job that they needed sorting out abroad. The firm were an agent for American Elsner machines in the UK and they did a lot of business with Fine Arts. Their problem being was that they didn’t have an engineer that could set up the A4 Elsner unwind machine, so one of the directors from Fine Arts, who’d been involved with me in reference to the Giftwrap department, had told them I was the boy they needed to speak to. A top chap from the company rang and offered me £2000 plus expenses to go to Saudi and set up a couple of A4 Elsners for them, to which I replied, “no problem, as long as you give me full time employment when I get back.” He was having none of it, maybe due to rumours regarding my departure from Fine Arts, or not, who can say? It was no secret that all the top top Brass from both firms were chums and I’ve no doubt that the incident had been discussed. I couldn’t just up sticks and go because of the ‘Lift’ job I’d just started, so after three days of this bloke ringing me, I finally gave him a resounding NO…… I thought it was his loss, without a doubt.
I followed quite a bit of boxing at that time and could tell you, the majority of the title holders, the best pound for pound fighters and what was happening in the fight game. We were on a race day out to Haydock Park with a full coach load from the Clyde, Sean was on the trip with his mate John from Harwood and we had a ‘ball’. On the same day, Nigel Benn was fighting Steve Collins for the World title. My luck was in and I was taking quite a few quid from the course bookies……celebrating with plenty of beers in the course bar! From the course we headed to a large boozer near Warrington, where we had booked to eat beforehand. We’d all had a good day out and the night was going champion until the Benn fight. Benn was never my cup of tea and I had never put a bean on him to win……..until his first fight with Collins! I had a flutter with half a dozen of the guys on our trip and when Benn packed in, most of my horse winnings went for a nose-dive! I lost it for a couple of minutes and in return for the heavy verbal I was getting from our lads, I turned a couple of tables over in the boozer! Everyone was covered in booze and going mental, shouting that I’d gone round the bend. Needless to say, I had to apologise profusely to the landlord and his staff and offer to pay for the broken glasses etc. I also had to replace the lad’s drinks that I’d flattened! There was three hours to kill before we headed home, so a few of us made our way into Warrington town centre. We had a decent drink and a few laughs but there was a bit of an altercation at the taxi rank and three or four local scrotums got a slap. We were back to coach pick up point with time to spare and after waiting for a straggler or two, we were on our way back to Bradford. On the way back, most of the lads were catching a few ‘zzz’s’ but there were a few in a more boisterous mode that were knocking out a tune or two. There were three or four younger Leeds fans half way down the coach, two of which were Andy Gorman and Steve Hardy and they decided to start belting out a few footie tunes, which was fine until they started with the Munich air disaster and the Bradford City fire. There were quite a few City fans on board and even though they were out for the count, the songs were out of order, so I asked the guys to curb it and stick to ‘normal’ tunes. I was told that I was an ‘old school’ Leeds fan and they were the new breed and I should shut the fuck up and sit back in my seat. As we were expressing differences of opinion, one of the lads, Steve, said that he was going to come and shut me up and put me in my place and he started towards the back seat with Andy coming up behind him. This was something I seriously didn’t need but I had no choice than to stop him in his tracks with a straight right to the gob. The punch knocked him backwards and although he took it, he was shaken and sounded off with a volley of ‘fucks’. There was quite a lot of loud verbal going on and whole of the bus was now awake. I myself was getting a right earful from all corners for ruining the day from waking sleepers who had no idea what had happened. The commotion calmed and everyone took their seats and I recall Sean’s mate John saying something about Leeds fans being ‘unhinged’ to the point that they scrap among themselves! Back at the Clyde, the ‘afters’ were going on well into the early hours and I was still getting slated off, so to ease the earache, I stood on a chair and apologised to everyone for my actions and although there were few who knew what had gone on, I left it at that. It was a couple of weeks later that the facts came out and then I was the one receiving all the apologies and everyone was saying that the ‘songs’ were well out of order. Oh well……….if you can take the criticism…..you can definitely accept the praises! I’ve had beers with Steve and Andy a few times since that night and they’re sound, decent guys. Too much ale sometimes dulls our senses and can cause some major problems in our lives. We all tend to step out of line from time to time but it’s being able to admit it, stand up and take the consequences of our actions and being able to move on, that brings out the man in us.
