Just About Me 15

Amongst the artists, whose shows I worked for were, Saxon, Deep Purple, The Who, Wings, The Police, Thin Lizzy, Status Quo, OMD, Tina Turner, Kiss and Cheap Trick. One of the earliest shows I was working at was a Mott The Hoople gig (Who?) it was remarkable in the fact that the support act were not too bad, support act's tend to be rubbish and instantly forgettable, well I remember thinking this band ain't too bad, their name, Queen. I met some top blokes at the Odeon, guy's who once again have become lifelong friends, Bernie Kelly, Eddie Kelly, Colin Butcher, Ernie Collins, Bob Kidd, Mick Collins. These people have always stayed friends although we do not see too much of each other any more. I was also fortunate to be onstage (albeit as a non playing person) for Motorhead, The Crusaders and Kate Bush, funny thing is I remember Kate Bush's costume changes stage left more than the others. I was also fortunate to meet some people who were my hero's one of which was Rod Stewart who I stood in a corridor with playing football with a rolled up Benson and Hedges box.

Around 1982, I bought an Ice Cream van with a friend from the Co-Op Derek Fuller, we paid £600 for it and we were going to earn a fortune, we borrowed the money from Paul Sime. Our van was known as a scoop van because you had to buy tubs of ice cream and scoop it out onto cones. The freezer had to be charged via a cable and a domestic electricity supply, I still lived at my parents ground floor flat in Sulivan Court, so could not have a long trailing wire from the window as it would have probably decapitated someone, so we got a really long extension cable and plugged it into Derek's kitchen in Barclay Close, SW6 on the 6th floor. We stocked up, and went out round the streets of Fulham and took about two bob old money, we went to every event at Wembley Stadium selling hamburgers and hot dogs, we had wholesale rows with other sellers who seemed to think we had nicked there pitches. I was taking time off from the Co-Op to run the van which gave them the right hump, so they sacked me. Derek had to pack up because the money was terrible so I bought him out to carry on trying. I had managed to pay Paul Sime back his money and was determined to go for it, only problem I had without Derek was that I still could not drive, so I asked Dennis Sime to drive the van to the Derby at Epsom. We were supposed to pay a concessionary fee to a bloke to sell food on the course but I thought no way, so I paid £5 to park, and park we did slap bang on the finishing line, all was going well when these three blokes approached and one asked for a strawberry cone " Of course" says I, this bloke took right umbridge at this and informed me he owned the concession and wanted paying, I told him I had paid £5 to park, he then told us we had to leave the course, I started arguing back at him when one of the other guy's opened his coat to reveal a gun, he suddenly climbed in the window and now your waiting for the bit where I attack him, well I never did we simply drove away dropping him off at the gates with a cursory "goodbye sir!"