Good Afternoon, Gentlemen, the Name's Bill Gardner by Cass Pennant & Bill Gardner

Author:Cass Pennant & Bill Gardner [Pennant, Cass]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: west ham, united, icf, inter city firm, football hooligan, hooligans, hooligan, violence
Publisher: Category C Publishing
Published: 2012-11-04T23:00:00+00:00

JOE REID

21 YEARS A DOORMAN, ON BILL GARDNER

I worked Busby’s before it closed, and when it reopened we were told we had a new head doorman coming in called Bill Gardner. All we knew about him was that he came from the East End of London. There were a couple of us not too happy about that. We’d all grown up together. The feeling was, who the fuck’s he? I was only 20 years old, and you know what it’s like when you’re 20. I thought, If he fucking starts telling me what to do, I’ll fucking knock him out. But virtually from the first night he’d won us over. He just got us together and said, ‘Look, boys, my name’s Bill.’ He told us his age, where he came from and that was it. He never said any more about his past. He just said, ‘I’m the head doorman, but we’ll work together. Follow my lead and we’ll work all right; we’ll all stick together and we’ll do it properly.’

Bill’s got a tremendous personality, and I think that was a mark of how good he was as a head doorman. Again, when you’re in your twenties and you’re still growing up, you actually really want to fight everyone. And I used to look at Bill sometimes on the door and I used to think he was bottling it. But he showed me really what door work’s about. It’s about getting the best result with the least amount of problems. And, if they want to think you’re a fucking bottle job, then that’s up to them.

I think I questioned him once when there was a bloke giving him a load of fucking grief. I said, ‘Why the fuck didn’t you knock him out?’

And he said, ‘It makes me just as bad as any bully in the area. Anybody can clump someone who ain’t up to it, or really doesn’t want it. Look at him. He’s pissed, he’s with his mates, he don’t want a row, he’s just giving me loads of old bunny and I’m happy to take it.’

I did door work for 21 years eventually and he did actually fucking show me how to do it properly. It’s not about having fucking massive tear-ups, it’s about being diplomatic and using a little bit of psychology. You can’t meet everything with a fist.

We did about three years together at Busby’s and then we went up to Russells in New Addington. I went on holiday to Italy when we were at Busby’s and there was a big row with these power lifters. Bill managed to get all these power lifters – there were eight or nine of them – into the foyer, and they were all jumping up and down saying, ‘Let’s have it, let’s have it.’

And Bill shut the front doors of the club, took the beading off the door and he’s gone, ‘It’s me birthday, boys, who fucking wants it first?’

And all the other doormen had left him. They all just backed off.

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