Working with Warriors - The Rave Scene
Something else new came along in the same period that would affect Martin: the rave scene.
The Quad became one of the first large venues to get in on the house music revolution. And with house music came something else: drugs. Stopping the informal drug trade on the dance floor was a nightmare and the doormen eventually had to resort to wearing casual clothes themselves to have any chance of getting close to the traders. Another problem was that as the punters took drugs they consumed less alcohol. The money from the drugs wasn’t going into the club coffers like the profit from alcohol would. And then there was the profit margin enjoyed by the druggies. With more to lose the level of violence increased and many of the doormen, Martin included, took to wearing discrete body armor.
As the rave scene became more and more popular all-nighters soon followed. Crowds could easily go up to 4000 people a night. Martin notes that it took 30 minutes to cross from the front door to the other side of the dance floor. No alcohol was sold at this time, only cans of coke. The water in the toilets was turned off so no drinking there. The drug craze was really taking off now and with it the violence. Five doormen were stabbed in a four week period. Another problem facing the security was people ODing. With more danger and more drug use the club eventually decided to keep a full time medic on site. Even he couldn’t prevent what became inevitable: a death caused by an Ecstasy overdose. The all-nighters were stopped shortly after out of fear that one of the security guards would eventually be killed while working.
Competition saw the Quad decline in popularity and Martin left to work elsewhere. After a year off he ended up in the Paradox. There were plenty of fights but there was something different too; a new level of violence more severe than what had been around before. At one point the Police Firearms Unit turned up and spent the night sitting in their armored Land Rover. For anyone unfamiliar with the use of firearms by either the Police or civilians in the UK, this kind of action is highly unusual and points at just how bad things were getting. The club was finally closed down voluntarily by the owners.
The chapter on the Quad is not uninteresting, but will be of more interest for people into the club scene and the origins of modern day security firms. There is very little to excite a martial artist and the same can be said for the next chapter.
Dennis Martin had been heading over to South Africa for various reasons since 1975. Martin put together a string of successful courses in one of his favorite places in the world, as always making new contacts and building his business. A lot of names are mentioned, none familiar to me and I suspect not known to a general reader either. These characters are noted briefly then the narrative moves along. We never really get to know any of these people. Also lacking are the anecdotes which make so much of the rest of the book such a good read (especially the stuff with Gary Spiers). South Africa was, and still is, a very dangerous country and the seriousness comes over in the reporting. Not that there weren't any funny moments, but Martin's journeys there seem to have been much more about business than pleasure.
Next is an interview between Graham Noble (a famous martial arts historian in the UK) and Dennis Martin. This interview re-introduces Steve Morris (if you still haven't visited his site, now is the time to do so...). Morris was introduced to Martin at a karate championship. Martin’s team faced the Kyokushin squad and lost. He noted that the Kyokushin guys all looked beaten up; the result of some hard training over in Holland with a man named Jon Bluming. All the guys except one...Steve Morris. As a white belt Morris had put his Dutch black belt opponent away with a single kick, sending him to hospital. The rest of the interview is a welcome return to karate with more anecdotes from the door.
Working With Warriors now turns back to the Fighting Arts International interview with Gary Spiers. While the careers of both Dennis Martin and Terry O'Neill were taking off, so was Gary's. He was copying the model used by Bobby Jones in Australia by training individuals in his art of Applied Karate, and these students would go on to form the nucleus of his own security company. He described himself as a professional security advisor (Bouncers being, according to Mr Spiers, bra-less ladies out jogging) and in the continuation of the interview he describes various (but not all...some had to be omitted for legal reasons) of his encounters. The stories come thick and fast and all point to a level of violence that will be incomprehensible to many. The life-or-death nature is driven home and Spiers notes that every year there are fatalities among both punters and doormen in the club scene (and this is in the UK where gun ownership is illegal). Broken bottles cutting jugulars was perhaps not common, but it certainly happened.
In this part of the interview Gary Spiers offers some valuable insight into what it takes to fight and win on a consistent basis. He states that once you know an altercation is going to turn physical then perform to finish the fight as quickly as possible as you have no idea who else may become involved. This requires you to explode, both physically and mentally. As for weapon users, Spiers simply tried to inflict as much damage on them as possible.
And less any reader think Spiers a thug, there were plenty of times his actions and skill in fighting saved people from very serious, possibly even fatal, harm. One story occurred in a club in Liverpool where eight attackers armed with Stanley knives (effectively a retractable heavy razor blade secured in a hand sized holder) were carving up a victim. Spiers waded in to save the lad who already had one wrist slashed to the bone (while using his hands to protect his face). This cost Gary a stab to the knee and seriously impaired his mobility. Two other bouncers came to his rescue and Spiers was eventually able to do 'Lots’ to the guy that stabbed him.
One of his most memorable fights was with Eddie Palmer, the Terror of Toxteth, a man later stabbed to death but who had a truly fearsome reputation while still alive as being one of the hardest men around. Palmer had head butted and KOed a girl in a club for refusing to dance with him. A diminutive Indian doctor (the only one there with any balls to get involved) had also been put on the floor when he tried to help. Spiers was hit hard and fast when he intervened and then things kicked off. Spiers too him down and was tempted to choke him out but knew that Palmer’s friends (The Stanley Boys, a reference to the Stanley knife mentioned above) would have started. So the two left the club to settle it man to man. Spiers got his forearm in the mouth of Palmer and was bitten but at the same time was able to drive him against a wall and smash his head into it. Gary got the upper hand and left Palmer a bloody mess; he didn’t finish the fight properly though due to a fear of escalation. A point seldom covered in self defense.
Spiers also has a lot to say on the training undertaken by many martial artists and questions if it is suitable for preparing them for a street fight. His basic point is that no, much of the traditional training doesn’t suitably prepare you. Here though I somewhat disagree with him. Earlier in his interview he notes that the vast majority of people he faces on the street are not rated as good fighters. While I understand that there is a small percentage of very violent types I also think that one of the problems with these types of interviews (and the book Working With Warriors in its entirety) is that it actually misrepresents the level of violence most people are going to come into contact with. How much need does the average person have to be conditioned to be repeatedly bitten, recover and continue fighting? Little to none I would say.
This chapter of Working With Warriors ends with details of the early death of Gary Spiers and includes a very touching story which shows the human side of his larger than life personality.
