PART V11
PART SEVEN = just in case you don't read Latin
We opened in Basingstoke with a strong show but the vagaries of show business in general and circus in particular meant that for contractual or
travel reasons some artists had not turned up for the premiere so we had a couple of temporary acts , Oh I forgot some of you may not have read parts 1-6 so you'll need to catch up ---- here's your chance .
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all caught up ? Good, on we go . As I said, Basingstoke, it was a good week despite lots of rain which I didn't really take notice of, I had an umbrella to take me from my caravan to the Ring Doors ( backstage for those of you who have never been to a circus), My approach to being a RM was to treat it like any compere job but with a red coat instead of a dinner suit, I like people, especially when they are together and called an audience and I wanted to talk to them and not at them , the comedy in the show was handled by Charlie Bale ( Jacko Fosset for the first couple of weeks) and the Enos family, Phil with his comedy car, Colin and Rudi doing reprises, luckily we all got on well together and had lots of laughs both in and out of the ring, Phil's wife Doreen had been my babysitter when she worked on Fossetts circus with my parents, my relationship with the Enos family was to take on more importance many years later, you'll read about it in later chapters if you stick around and I'd recommend that you stick around, it's more fun than watching re-runs of countdown .
Back to the rain , not until Saturday night did I realise the significance of the weeks downpours , these were the days of Lord Chamberlain when Circuses and some other forms of live entertainment couldn't work on Sundays so Saturdays comprised of driving my caravan through to the next ground , coming back changing into my RM outfit wherever there was a space do 3 shows pull down get into my 2nd load which was the Crocodile bus drive through to the next town get up Sunday and build it all up again , fun, fun, fun, all the way, I had never done a pull down on a big show, the Circus in Wales that I referred to in Chapter 1 (bet you wish you'd read it now ) was a 1 pole small tent about 60ft across and was easy work, most of you reading this who have any circus experience will have grown up in a world with Plastic tents , winches , forklifts all of which makes the actual manhandling a lot easier, Chipperfields was a big show with a huge canvas tent and on that Saturday night it was getting heavier with each drop of rain, describing the whole pulldown will probably bring on a migraine but suffice to say at 03.00 am Sunday we were still rolling up the sections of the tent by hand.
About midnight Dickie's brother in law Dave Thomas , who was and still is a huge Everton FC supporter and the word 'huge' doesn't adequately describe his love and adoration of the Blue side of Liverpool, suddenly ran into the middle of this mayhem of wet canvas , mud, skidding lorries and muddy skidding people and shouted, nay screamed across to Dickie “Dickie Dickie, I've got to go back to the farm , It's really urgent” everybody stopped and looked at him , “I've left my Everton tie in my old waggon and I've got to go back and get it “.One bright funny moment in a tough wet night , eventually we managed to extricate ourselves from what had become a huge morass of brown windsor soup by which time it was morning again.
all caught up ? Good, on we go . As I said, Basingstoke, it was a good week despite lots of rain which I didn't really take notice of, I had an umbrella to take me from my caravan to the Ring Doors ( backstage for those of you who have never been to a circus), My approach to being a RM was to treat it like any compere job but with a red coat instead of a dinner suit, I like people, especially when they are together and called an audience and I wanted to talk to them and not at them , the comedy in the show was handled by Charlie Bale ( Jacko Fosset for the first couple of weeks) and the Enos family, Phil with his comedy car, Colin and Rudi doing reprises, luckily we all got on well together and had lots of laughs both in and out of the ring, Phil's wife Doreen had been my babysitter when she worked on Fossetts circus with my parents, my relationship with the Enos family was to take on more importance many years later, you'll read about it in later chapters if you stick around and I'd recommend that you stick around, it's more fun than watching re-runs of countdown .
Back to the rain , not until Saturday night did I realise the significance of the weeks downpours , these were the days of Lord Chamberlain when Circuses and some other forms of live entertainment couldn't work on Sundays so Saturdays comprised of driving my caravan through to the next ground , coming back changing into my RM outfit wherever there was a space do 3 shows pull down get into my 2nd load which was the Crocodile bus drive through to the next town get up Sunday and build it all up again , fun, fun, fun, all the way, I had never done a pull down on a big show, the Circus in Wales that I referred to in Chapter 1 (bet you wish you'd read it now ) was a 1 pole small tent about 60ft across and was easy work, most of you reading this who have any circus experience will have grown up in a world with Plastic tents , winches , forklifts all of which makes the actual manhandling a lot easier, Chipperfields was a big show with a huge canvas tent and on that Saturday night it was getting heavier with each drop of rain, describing the whole pulldown will probably bring on a migraine but suffice to say at 03.00 am Sunday we were still rolling up the sections of the tent by hand.
About midnight Dickie's brother in law Dave Thomas , who was and still is a huge Everton FC supporter and the word 'huge' doesn't adequately describe his love and adoration of the Blue side of Liverpool, suddenly ran into the middle of this mayhem of wet canvas , mud, skidding lorries and muddy skidding people and shouted, nay screamed across to Dickie “Dickie Dickie, I've got to go back to the farm , It's really urgent” everybody stopped and looked at him , “I've left my Everton tie in my old waggon and I've got to go back and get it “.One bright funny moment in a tough wet night , eventually we managed to extricate ourselves from what had become a huge morass of brown windsor soup by which time it was morning again.
Over the next weeks I became used to a totally different lifestyle and realised how readily I had been accepted by the community, many of them had known me as a child or we were related in some way and most of us were of a similar age , I wrote somewhere that with the shared talent we had between us we could have done anything but we spent most of our time laughing and joking and there wasn't a situation that we couldn't turn into humour, much of it was directed at Dickie Jnr who was an affable character but not a 'joiner in' , I think he felt the huge responsibility of his name and what had gone before under the Chipperfield banner. We had no such restrictions, very few nights went by when there wasn't something happening somewhere in somebody's waggon, usually John Jnr's , card games , listening to LP's, telling jokes, drinking and generally having a good time, in this manner the season rolled merrily along.
All went well until we got to Chelmsford .
All went well until we got to Chelmsford .
The normal build-up routine was that Mike Freeman his brother Dave and I got up and set about putting the Kingpoles up , at the same time Jim Stockley, John Jnr, Tommy and Charles would build-up the stable tents , sort out the wild animal waggon line-up and the Zoo in general, when the poles were up I went for breakfast while the tent was going up and came back to set the ringfence , bandstand and get everything ready for the first show. That was normal-- until Chelmsford !
During the season a new tent had been ordered and had arrived a few days previously, unlike most circus tents at the time which were made in Germany by a firm called Strohmier this one had been made in Chester by a firm which normally built marquees. It was a different configuration from the 4 Pole canvas tent we were used to, this one was a 6 pole, 4 king poles 2 queen poles ,one on the left one on the right , from above it would have a diamond shape, this meant a more complicated rigging system for the wire cables , the fabric for the tent was new and was supposed to be resistant to tearing and ripping which was always a problem with canvas tents especially older ones. As far as we knew the tent was not going to be used until the next season but we had now been told that we were going to put it up in Chelmsford, hey ho, co-incidentally during the pull down on the Saturday Dickie had driven the seating waggons out , a job normally done by the Freeman boys and while taking the last one out he ripped a great hole in the old tent which was in the way of being a 'fait accompli'
there was now no choice ,the Green Monster had to go up .
Also taking place on the Monday in Chelmsford was Colin Enos's wedding to Dorette , an event to which we had all been invited and were looking forward to with great eagerness especially the party in the evening. The build-up didn't start off well, Dickie took charge of putting the poles up and not to put to fine a point on it he didn't have his finest hour, after we had put them up and down 3 times due to the rigging being wrong the 4th time we left them up and re rigged by climbing up the poles and changing the shackles in situ .I say we, from my memory it was mainly me, Alex Storey and Charles, by midday the poles were up , hoo-bloody-ray !
The tent presented other problems as we got it up you could see the stitch-holes where the makers had gone off line on the seams and lacing it up around the 6 poles was damned near impossible ,Oh and did I mention that it had rained all day ?
The tent was up and the seats were in very late in the day and everyone was knackered I told the Ringboys to have a lay-in on the Monday morning just to make sure that the seats were clean and tidy and I'd be back from the wedding at 2.00 pm and then we could set the props, ,sawdust the ring and the front of the Box Office and still have plenty of time to be ready for a 4.45 pm show. I actually arrived back at around 1.00 to find that Dickie had had the boys working from the morning doing those same jobs , I said that it was silly to do the Box Office too early as the rain would mess it up by showtime and also the boys deserved a break as they along with us had had a stressful weekend, we had a few words during which Dickie recommended that I seek out a job involving sex and travel, further advising me to follow the Biblical entreaty to “Go Forth and Multiply “.
It was a small ground and the caravans were quite close to each other and I couldn't easily get mine out so I said I'd need some help to which Dickie said anyone helping me could ****** off as well which resulted in the crazy sight of the artists and men from the show lifting my little home and carrying it to the gate . I was sad that it ended the way it did but I wasn't sorry because I wasn't prepared too be verbally abused by anyone , I had taken enough abuse from my father to last a lifetime and wouldn't tolerate it any more , during build-ups and pull downs there's a lot of shouting and yelling but most of time it's an emotional outburst and not aimed at anyone in particular and yes, I'm as guilty as everyone else, sometime it just gets too much and you have to explode but in my experience most of the time it's deflated with humour and is not a huge problem ,
It's the measured abusive response of someone who has run out of a logical or convincing argument that proves to be the proverbial 'Straw that breaks the camels back ' for me . My greatest teacher in this was my stepdad Ron as I wrote in Chapter 2 ( go back and read it again in case you missed it ) ! .
PS The Chipperfield's endgame, I had to go back a few days later to sort my wages and also my % from the mobile shop I had with Jim and John jnr , the show was at Romford so I parked outside and went round to settle up and say goodbye to those I'd missed out with my hurried departure including Dickies mum and dad who had known me all of my life and had both been exceptionally nice to me during my time on the show, on my return to the car Dickie was there, we didn't exchange any words he just kicked my car. !
I went back to Rosaires farm wondering what to do next, quite a few Circuses were around so I went visiting and had a couple of offers for the next season which was 5 months away so I worked a few clubs to take me through the winter while I made my mind up, ! 1975 saw me with Robert Brothers Circus , Michael Austin was on the show and when I arrived I found he was in Viet-Nam with a boxing Kangaroo , he got all the good jobs !
This was a very different show, more of a 'them and us' between the directors and the artists, once again I was in a strange position because they were from the Fossett family the same as me so we were cousins a couple of times removed but I had spent a decade away from Circus and in an age without social media or instant communication it was a case of 'out of sight out of mind' . My responsibility as RM was also a lot less, I was basically a compere, I had no control over the show itself, it started when Bobby Roberts Snr gave me the signal to start , the ringboy's answered to the family not too me and I was not involved in the actual programming of the show all things that were part of my job on Chipperfields.
The tent presented other problems as we got it up you could see the stitch-holes where the makers had gone off line on the seams and lacing it up around the 6 poles was damned near impossible ,Oh and did I mention that it had rained all day ?
The tent was up and the seats were in very late in the day and everyone was knackered I told the Ringboys to have a lay-in on the Monday morning just to make sure that the seats were clean and tidy and I'd be back from the wedding at 2.00 pm and then we could set the props, ,sawdust the ring and the front of the Box Office and still have plenty of time to be ready for a 4.45 pm show. I actually arrived back at around 1.00 to find that Dickie had had the boys working from the morning doing those same jobs , I said that it was silly to do the Box Office too early as the rain would mess it up by showtime and also the boys deserved a break as they along with us had had a stressful weekend, we had a few words during which Dickie recommended that I seek out a job involving sex and travel, further advising me to follow the Biblical entreaty to “Go Forth and Multiply “.
It was a small ground and the caravans were quite close to each other and I couldn't easily get mine out so I said I'd need some help to which Dickie said anyone helping me could ****** off as well which resulted in the crazy sight of the artists and men from the show lifting my little home and carrying it to the gate . I was sad that it ended the way it did but I wasn't sorry because I wasn't prepared too be verbally abused by anyone , I had taken enough abuse from my father to last a lifetime and wouldn't tolerate it any more , during build-ups and pull downs there's a lot of shouting and yelling but most of time it's an emotional outburst and not aimed at anyone in particular and yes, I'm as guilty as everyone else, sometime it just gets too much and you have to explode but in my experience most of the time it's deflated with humour and is not a huge problem ,
It's the measured abusive response of someone who has run out of a logical or convincing argument that proves to be the proverbial 'Straw that breaks the camels back ' for me . My greatest teacher in this was my stepdad Ron as I wrote in Chapter 2 ( go back and read it again in case you missed it ) ! .
PS The Chipperfield's endgame, I had to go back a few days later to sort my wages and also my % from the mobile shop I had with Jim and John jnr , the show was at Romford so I parked outside and went round to settle up and say goodbye to those I'd missed out with my hurried departure including Dickies mum and dad who had known me all of my life and had both been exceptionally nice to me during my time on the show, on my return to the car Dickie was there, we didn't exchange any words he just kicked my car. !
I went back to Rosaires farm wondering what to do next, quite a few Circuses were around so I went visiting and had a couple of offers for the next season which was 5 months away so I worked a few clubs to take me through the winter while I made my mind up, ! 1975 saw me with Robert Brothers Circus , Michael Austin was on the show and when I arrived I found he was in Viet-Nam with a boxing Kangaroo , he got all the good jobs !
This was a very different show, more of a 'them and us' between the directors and the artists, once again I was in a strange position because they were from the Fossett family the same as me so we were cousins a couple of times removed but I had spent a decade away from Circus and in an age without social media or instant communication it was a case of 'out of sight out of mind' . My responsibility as RM was also a lot less, I was basically a compere, I had no control over the show itself, it started when Bobby Roberts Snr gave me the signal to start , the ringboy's answered to the family not too me and I was not involved in the actual programming of the show all things that were part of my job on Chipperfields.
I managed to steer around the in-house politics which is a part of every circus and probably every business in some form or another and the season progressed fairly well .
I bought Michael Austins 4 wheeled showmans waggon which was more comfortable than my little one and a few weeks into the season I heard that Timm Delbosq a friend from my youth was back in the UK from a couple of years in Scandinavia and was working odd days for a small circus not far from us, Bobby jnr and I went over to see him and he was doing a spinning plate act in a one pole tent , all through his act he kept looking at the pole in the middle of the ring until finally he grabbed a plate , ran out of the ring after a couple of seconds came back in and shook the pole as though there was a plate on top , funny gag , end of the act he took all the plates off the props in the ring took a bow and as he walked out he kicked the king pole,== a plate dropped from the top and he caught it ! Funniest thing I'd seen for years , after the show Bobby had a chat with him which resulted in Timm coming to work with us, If I remember he took over presenting the wild animals , he was and still is an accomplished animal trainer and he recently retired after an illustrious career working for some of the most prestigious circuses in Europe. Before his return to the UK he had a burgeoning film career in Scandinavia but gave it up for his love of circus . Anyway he arrived on RBC ( Robert Brothers Circus, acronyms are easier than the full thing ) with no transport so he moved in with me for the rest of the season, It was a bit like 'Men Behaving Badly' but awkward if we chatted up any girls after the show, two sex-bombs-- one caravan , OK I'll wait for the laughter to die down and carry on when you're ready.
Just to clear things up , the next season Timm had his own transport which was great and made 'dating' easier , all was well until the day I got up and everyone was giving me really bad looks and moaning to me about the noise of the baby crying all night keeping everybody awake, I didn't understand until I discovered that Timm had had a 'date' In his waggon who had a small child who cried a lot , I was still confused until I found
he had put the pushchair under my veranda .
I bought Michael Austins 4 wheeled showmans waggon which was more comfortable than my little one and a few weeks into the season I heard that Timm Delbosq a friend from my youth was back in the UK from a couple of years in Scandinavia and was working odd days for a small circus not far from us, Bobby jnr and I went over to see him and he was doing a spinning plate act in a one pole tent , all through his act he kept looking at the pole in the middle of the ring until finally he grabbed a plate , ran out of the ring after a couple of seconds came back in and shook the pole as though there was a plate on top , funny gag , end of the act he took all the plates off the props in the ring took a bow and as he walked out he kicked the king pole,== a plate dropped from the top and he caught it ! Funniest thing I'd seen for years , after the show Bobby had a chat with him which resulted in Timm coming to work with us, If I remember he took over presenting the wild animals , he was and still is an accomplished animal trainer and he recently retired after an illustrious career working for some of the most prestigious circuses in Europe. Before his return to the UK he had a burgeoning film career in Scandinavia but gave it up for his love of circus . Anyway he arrived on RBC ( Robert Brothers Circus, acronyms are easier than the full thing ) with no transport so he moved in with me for the rest of the season, It was a bit like 'Men Behaving Badly' but awkward if we chatted up any girls after the show, two sex-bombs-- one caravan , OK I'll wait for the laughter to die down and carry on when you're ready.
Just to clear things up , the next season Timm had his own transport which was great and made 'dating' easier , all was well until the day I got up and everyone was giving me really bad looks and moaning to me about the noise of the baby crying all night keeping everybody awake, I didn't understand until I discovered that Timm had had a 'date' In his waggon who had a small child who cried a lot , I was still confused until I found
he had put the pushchair under my veranda .
For the winter RBC had two shows out, one went to Spain as 'Circo de Inglaterra' the other went to Leith in Edinburgh , you know Leith, where the polithe dithmitheth you ? ( another one for the oldies ) Timm went to Scotland with my lorry and waggon , I went to Spain and 46 years later I still don't know who got the better deal .
Thats it for 7, back with 8 as soon as I can remember what happened.
