PART 8,
Nothing fancy in the title- what did you want fireworks ?, it's part 8 of God knows how many , depends how long this bloody lockdown goes on, I'm only writing this to take my mind of drinking !
Okay so you've done with 7 and we're off to Spain , lovely sunny Spain ,Land of Flamenco , Sangria , Senoritas , Tapas, Chocolat y churros and the rest of that == well Spain can Sod-Off, from the moment we left Polbrook things didn't go well, I was driving a short AEC Mandator with a trailer full off seats, poles,ring-fence, props, basically everything, the load was grossly overweight and on the way to Southampton docks I managed to half jacknife the whole thing and bent the drawbar so while everyone else buggered off Michael Austin stayed behind with me to repair it, We got help from Jimmy Chipperfield and had a nice couple of days staying at his home while we got the job done, that was the best bit of the whole exercise . We met up with the rest of the convoy in France so that we could cross the France /Spain Border together , Britain had only recently joined the common market so Border protocols were still observed ,the Elephant act and Ponies had a contract for the Xmas Circus in Madrid and we were smuggling the rest of the RBC circus into Spain with the intention of touring the south coast with 'Circo de Inglaterra' ( RBC with a Spanish accent ), That was the plan and you know what happens with plans !! The tent that they got for the trip was the first Plastic tent in the UK ,I heard that they had got it in a swap from an Italian show in exchange for a Lion act, when it arrived in England it came with an Italian who explained to Michael and me how to build it up , I was just there with Michael and didn't take a lot of notice, anyway it was then stuffed into the swan neck of the elephant waggon and the kingpoles were strapped on to the top with the hope that we could convince the Spanish Border guards that it was the stables for the animals, We actually had 9 elephants and there were only 6 on the contract for Madrid , maybe the guards thought they were Subs to come off the bench if one was injured , anyway they fell for it and we were in !.
If it had been me I would have got to the first Spanish town , built up and opened so as to get some money in , but no we then drove another 1000km to the South coast , with a stop in Madrid on the way, I say we , I very nearly didn't make it .Going through any town in a convoy is always risky ,with Sat Navs it's easy peasy, but Spain , Madrid , Rush Hour, I was last in the line so problems arose , I could see the elephant waggon about half a mile ahead and it turned right at a big roundabout which was presumably where we were going to park for the night, the 'Placa Eliptica Madrid' so I just carried on, The traffic was horrendous and slow when all of a sudden a Spanish Police officer jumped onto the running board of my tractor and shouted “Ve, Ve, Mas Rapido” which I , at the time didn't understand , I thought he was welcoming me to Spain and hoped I would enjoy it's countryside and be sure to visit it's many places of beauty , I was wrong , how did I know I was wrong you ask , and even if you didn't ask I'm going to tell you , I knew I was wrong 'cos he POINTED A BLOODY GUN AT ME ! You can believe me I 'Ve,Ve'd as rapido as I could Rapido, we kept going straight for a while until we got past the main traffic , me desperately trying to remember the way back to the 'Placa Eliptica', As suddenly as he had arrived the policeman shouted “Basta” which I presumed was either stop or “would you like coffee”
I stopped and he jumped down off the running board stepped into the road and did the scene that you see in all Cop movies, pointed his gun at a car coming up the road and when it stopped got in and buggered off .
So recap , I'm a few miles from where I should be and I'm facing the wrong way so I drive until I see a piece of waste ground so I drive on and on the way out get stuck, not badly but I didn't want it to get worse so I uncoupled the trailer, turned the tractor round so as to couple it from the front but the trailer still wouldn't move so I uncoupled again got on the road and drove back , by this time it's safe to say that I was mildly aggrieved and my mood didn't get any better when I got back to the ground and found everyone in one of the caravans drinking tea , I had a small hissy fit explaining what had happened complete with expletives , details signs and interpretive dance moves , declaring that for me Spain could go F*** itself and take it's police with it especially the fascist with the gun and the Starsky and Hutch impression . Michael calmed me down enough to explain where the trailer was and said OK lets go back and sort it out , He got the land rover and I said you'll need more than that the trailer is really stuck, don't worry said Michael, so I didn't, we got back and I coupled up the trailer again knowing it was futile when I heard a whooshing sound , that was Michael emptying the Brake air tank on the trailer , those of you who have driven big stuff will now be giggling at my stupidity ,the rest of you just be content with the fact that I felt a complete pratt.! In my defence I had just had a Star Pistol next to my head for about three miles which tends to upset your equilibrium and turn your thinking capabilities to jelly . Suffice to say all these years later it's one of the first topics of discussion whenever the trip to Spain comes up .
The rest of the tour was eventful but the business was awful and it came to a head when we got to a site which was a football ground on a single track road with a small gate and 2 concrete huts as payboxes on either side . Michael and I were always the last two loads he with the tent artic and me with my tractor, and now 2 trailers , Oh I forgot to mention that we had got a booking office from a Spanish circus which was a small 4 wheeler with Ackerman steering , if you ever had a go cart or a pedal car you'll know what that is , enough to say if you went over about 25mph it would start to tango all over the road, even uphill, thats why we were always the last. Anyway we arrived at said ground and realised we wouldn't get through the gate with our loads , the others were walking the ground marking out where the tent , stables etc would go so Michael and I tagged onto the group occasionally mentioning that we couldn't get into the ground but not being heard , this went on for a while until Michael suddenly erupted , now this is a man who speaks quietly but is always listened to because he's well respected and he's been around a while so when he raised his voice everyone stopped and turned , very slowly he explained the problem , what followed was a Monty Python sketch various solutions were mooted among them strapping to steel cables aroung the concrete huts and pulling them down , finding another place to enter and take down the hedge and bushes etc, and one , I kid you not ,which suggested that we could blow the huts up , one of the directors did a cowboy act and had black powder and ignition caps on hand ! In the midst of all this someone asked Michael what we should do and he said “I'm going to the next town” I was behind and said “I'm with him” so we got into our transport and went to the next town .
The next day we were all around talking about what to do next when somebody said to Michael “What do you think we should do “ Michael replied “ I'm going home “ I was behind him and said , well you know the rest , we got our transport ready and early a.m. the next day we started the journey home with the wager between me and Michael that the last one home paid for the drinks. I won 'cos Michael stopped at Oxford services for a tea .
A lot more happened in Spain ,most of it's painful but one story typifies Michael Austin and why he's my best friend and for the last 25 years my Uncle and I love him dearly . We were opening the tour in Murcia on the south coast and everyone was away except for me, Mike and Kevin, he was one of our ring boys but so much more, anyway the ground was not the biggest so when we were pulling the poles up Mike had to back the tractor out onto the road so Kevin is on the ground making sure the stakes don't pull and that the cables are OK , meanwhile I'm on the road checking traffic ready to tell Mike when it's safe to go , As I'm looking up the road I see two girls, well girls doesn't do justice to the beauties that were strolling in our direction, all thoughts of work was put aside while we enjoyed the view, the closer the girls got the more we appreciated the difference in the sexes until they got real close to the tractor and one looked up and said in a thick Irish accent “Jaysus Chroist, It's Michael Austin” ! . Very few times in life have I been lost for words and this was all of them . They were showgirls from a touring theatre company who had worked with Michael before on some other circus , Small world , made smaller and a little brighter on that day .
We got home and started building , painting , getting ready for another season , Timm was there for the season showing the lions, Michael was there as well so it was a fun season ,Timm left before the end and even though I agreed to do the winter in Edinburgh I knew my time on RBC was coming to an end , I enjoyed the work but it wasn't challenging enough , I wasn't sure if they wanted me because I was a good RM or the fact that I drove a heavy load and built up the lights.
For 1977 I had a contract to RM the Hippodrome Circus in Gt Yarmouth at the time it was one of the most prestigious shows around , the big 4 were Blackpool, Yarmouth in the Summer and Belle Vue , Kelvin Hall in the Winter .
I had also been contacted by an agent who wanted me to compere some Sunday Shows on the south coast and with the agreement from Roberto Germains who was the Agent and Manager at Yarmouth I had a busy summer ,Saturday night I would drive to either Bournemouth or Eastbourne stay in a hotel and do two shows on Sunday with some great stars . Ken Dodd, Vince Hill, Mike and Bernie Winters, Frank Ifield, Lionel Blair, Anita Harris , Rod Hull and Emu just some of the names , alongside all this I was also doing cabaret spots on a Wednesday in the Gorleston Ballroom / Cabaret club just down the road from Yarmouth .
By the end of the season I was knackered but my bank account was pretty healthy. During the season I got an offer from Gerry Cottles Circus to join them as RM , Mike Denning was the normal RM but he was being moved up to General Manager and I was headhunted , seriously it was a compliment because at the time GCC was the best and most innovative show on the road, He had the Seaside specials and was about to host the Circus World Championships in a Huge tent on Clapham Common and it was run as a business , I wasn't expected to drive or build-up and pull down, my responsibility was putting the ringfence together making sure it was always painted , clean and full of sawdust, sort out rehearsal times , organise the ringstaff and run the show from when the public came in to the last note of the finale, I was also in the discussion on the programme running order , proper RM work .
It was an enjoyable time , Gerry and I had first met many years before when I was about 14 and my father and I were clowning( sic) on Gandeys Circus for a few weeks , this young guy turned up to join the show with a bag containing some juggling props and it was Gerry.
We didn't have that much contact on his show, he was away most of the time doing PR or plotting his next venture , I had a credit card from the company for sawdust, dry cleaning ,paint etc and anything else I sorted out through Mike Denning . I knew everyone on the show and was related to most of them, Sydney Howes with the Lion act, Carlos MacManus presenting the Elephants, Horses and exotic acts , Julie and Baba Fossett with aerial acts , Barry Walls being anything anyone wanted , he would be an Indian chief for a western show, El Hakim the Fakir for his own act but whatever he did he put his heart and soul 100% into it , the most talented man I have ever known in and out of the ring. We used to get Milk delivered to the caravans , one of the jobs the advance team organised, one morning I woke to find bottles with my name on them on my steps, Barry had bought an engraving kit , His painting, signwriting and leather engraving was of the highest professional standard and he could have got a job anywhere at a lot more money but all he wanted to do was entertain , a wonderful man and he was gone way too soon.
The Clowns were Sonny Fossett, Matto and Jimmy Scott , Jimmy was the prime example of what a reprise( run-in) clown should be and I learned so much from him which was to stand me in good stead a little later in my life even though I wasn't aware of it at the time . Matto was a young eager clown who had a wicked sense of humour and a talent beyond his years , Uncle Sonny, thats how everybody knew him ,was a clown of the old school , easy to work with a good carpenter outside the ring .
The Circus World Championship took place on Clapham Common it was one of the best things I've been involved in with some of the best artists taking part and some great memories , it ran for about 6 years and I was there for 3 of them as assistant to Norman Barrett. His years at the Blackpool Tower Circus, Big Apple Circus and latterly Zippos are a testament to his professionalism and his calm nature is a reassuring presence in any situation , working with him also made me realise that there was only room for one 'number 1' and he was it in the UK so If I was to make my name as a Ringmaster I had to travel further afield. I would be a couple more years before I could achieve this but I knew what I had to do.
OK enough for number 8, my fingers are tired, I'll be back with No 9, take it as a threat or a promise however you like , but I'll be back
So recap , I'm a few miles from where I should be and I'm facing the wrong way so I drive until I see a piece of waste ground so I drive on and on the way out get stuck, not badly but I didn't want it to get worse so I uncoupled the trailer, turned the tractor round so as to couple it from the front but the trailer still wouldn't move so I uncoupled again got on the road and drove back , by this time it's safe to say that I was mildly aggrieved and my mood didn't get any better when I got back to the ground and found everyone in one of the caravans drinking tea , I had a small hissy fit explaining what had happened complete with expletives , details signs and interpretive dance moves , declaring that for me Spain could go F*** itself and take it's police with it especially the fascist with the gun and the Starsky and Hutch impression . Michael calmed me down enough to explain where the trailer was and said OK lets go back and sort it out , He got the land rover and I said you'll need more than that the trailer is really stuck, don't worry said Michael, so I didn't, we got back and I coupled up the trailer again knowing it was futile when I heard a whooshing sound , that was Michael emptying the Brake air tank on the trailer , those of you who have driven big stuff will now be giggling at my stupidity ,the rest of you just be content with the fact that I felt a complete pratt.! In my defence I had just had a Star Pistol next to my head for about three miles which tends to upset your equilibrium and turn your thinking capabilities to jelly . Suffice to say all these years later it's one of the first topics of discussion whenever the trip to Spain comes up .
The rest of the tour was eventful but the business was awful and it came to a head when we got to a site which was a football ground on a single track road with a small gate and 2 concrete huts as payboxes on either side . Michael and I were always the last two loads he with the tent artic and me with my tractor, and now 2 trailers , Oh I forgot to mention that we had got a booking office from a Spanish circus which was a small 4 wheeler with Ackerman steering , if you ever had a go cart or a pedal car you'll know what that is , enough to say if you went over about 25mph it would start to tango all over the road, even uphill, thats why we were always the last. Anyway we arrived at said ground and realised we wouldn't get through the gate with our loads , the others were walking the ground marking out where the tent , stables etc would go so Michael and I tagged onto the group occasionally mentioning that we couldn't get into the ground but not being heard , this went on for a while until Michael suddenly erupted , now this is a man who speaks quietly but is always listened to because he's well respected and he's been around a while so when he raised his voice everyone stopped and turned , very slowly he explained the problem , what followed was a Monty Python sketch various solutions were mooted among them strapping to steel cables aroung the concrete huts and pulling them down , finding another place to enter and take down the hedge and bushes etc, and one , I kid you not ,which suggested that we could blow the huts up , one of the directors did a cowboy act and had black powder and ignition caps on hand ! In the midst of all this someone asked Michael what we should do and he said “I'm going to the next town” I was behind and said “I'm with him” so we got into our transport and went to the next town .
The next day we were all around talking about what to do next when somebody said to Michael “What do you think we should do “ Michael replied “ I'm going home “ I was behind him and said , well you know the rest , we got our transport ready and early a.m. the next day we started the journey home with the wager between me and Michael that the last one home paid for the drinks. I won 'cos Michael stopped at Oxford services for a tea .
A lot more happened in Spain ,most of it's painful but one story typifies Michael Austin and why he's my best friend and for the last 25 years my Uncle and I love him dearly . We were opening the tour in Murcia on the south coast and everyone was away except for me, Mike and Kevin, he was one of our ring boys but so much more, anyway the ground was not the biggest so when we were pulling the poles up Mike had to back the tractor out onto the road so Kevin is on the ground making sure the stakes don't pull and that the cables are OK , meanwhile I'm on the road checking traffic ready to tell Mike when it's safe to go , As I'm looking up the road I see two girls, well girls doesn't do justice to the beauties that were strolling in our direction, all thoughts of work was put aside while we enjoyed the view, the closer the girls got the more we appreciated the difference in the sexes until they got real close to the tractor and one looked up and said in a thick Irish accent “Jaysus Chroist, It's Michael Austin” ! . Very few times in life have I been lost for words and this was all of them . They were showgirls from a touring theatre company who had worked with Michael before on some other circus , Small world , made smaller and a little brighter on that day .
We got home and started building , painting , getting ready for another season , Timm was there for the season showing the lions, Michael was there as well so it was a fun season ,Timm left before the end and even though I agreed to do the winter in Edinburgh I knew my time on RBC was coming to an end , I enjoyed the work but it wasn't challenging enough , I wasn't sure if they wanted me because I was a good RM or the fact that I drove a heavy load and built up the lights.
For 1977 I had a contract to RM the Hippodrome Circus in Gt Yarmouth at the time it was one of the most prestigious shows around , the big 4 were Blackpool, Yarmouth in the Summer and Belle Vue , Kelvin Hall in the Winter .
I had also been contacted by an agent who wanted me to compere some Sunday Shows on the south coast and with the agreement from Roberto Germains who was the Agent and Manager at Yarmouth I had a busy summer ,Saturday night I would drive to either Bournemouth or Eastbourne stay in a hotel and do two shows on Sunday with some great stars . Ken Dodd, Vince Hill, Mike and Bernie Winters, Frank Ifield, Lionel Blair, Anita Harris , Rod Hull and Emu just some of the names , alongside all this I was also doing cabaret spots on a Wednesday in the Gorleston Ballroom / Cabaret club just down the road from Yarmouth .
By the end of the season I was knackered but my bank account was pretty healthy. During the season I got an offer from Gerry Cottles Circus to join them as RM , Mike Denning was the normal RM but he was being moved up to General Manager and I was headhunted , seriously it was a compliment because at the time GCC was the best and most innovative show on the road, He had the Seaside specials and was about to host the Circus World Championships in a Huge tent on Clapham Common and it was run as a business , I wasn't expected to drive or build-up and pull down, my responsibility was putting the ringfence together making sure it was always painted , clean and full of sawdust, sort out rehearsal times , organise the ringstaff and run the show from when the public came in to the last note of the finale, I was also in the discussion on the programme running order , proper RM work .
It was an enjoyable time , Gerry and I had first met many years before when I was about 14 and my father and I were clowning( sic) on Gandeys Circus for a few weeks , this young guy turned up to join the show with a bag containing some juggling props and it was Gerry.
We didn't have that much contact on his show, he was away most of the time doing PR or plotting his next venture , I had a credit card from the company for sawdust, dry cleaning ,paint etc and anything else I sorted out through Mike Denning . I knew everyone on the show and was related to most of them, Sydney Howes with the Lion act, Carlos MacManus presenting the Elephants, Horses and exotic acts , Julie and Baba Fossett with aerial acts , Barry Walls being anything anyone wanted , he would be an Indian chief for a western show, El Hakim the Fakir for his own act but whatever he did he put his heart and soul 100% into it , the most talented man I have ever known in and out of the ring. We used to get Milk delivered to the caravans , one of the jobs the advance team organised, one morning I woke to find bottles with my name on them on my steps, Barry had bought an engraving kit , His painting, signwriting and leather engraving was of the highest professional standard and he could have got a job anywhere at a lot more money but all he wanted to do was entertain , a wonderful man and he was gone way too soon.
The Clowns were Sonny Fossett, Matto and Jimmy Scott , Jimmy was the prime example of what a reprise( run-in) clown should be and I learned so much from him which was to stand me in good stead a little later in my life even though I wasn't aware of it at the time . Matto was a young eager clown who had a wicked sense of humour and a talent beyond his years , Uncle Sonny, thats how everybody knew him ,was a clown of the old school , easy to work with a good carpenter outside the ring .
The Circus World Championship took place on Clapham Common it was one of the best things I've been involved in with some of the best artists taking part and some great memories , it ran for about 6 years and I was there for 3 of them as assistant to Norman Barrett. His years at the Blackpool Tower Circus, Big Apple Circus and latterly Zippos are a testament to his professionalism and his calm nature is a reassuring presence in any situation , working with him also made me realise that there was only room for one 'number 1' and he was it in the UK so If I was to make my name as a Ringmaster I had to travel further afield. I would be a couple more years before I could achieve this but I knew what I had to do.
OK enough for number 8, my fingers are tired, I'll be back with No 9, take it as a threat or a promise however you like , but I'll be back
