Working with Warriors (part three)

Following on from part one and part two of Working With Warriors, the next big step in the life of Dennis Martin was his move to The Quad (proper name Quadrant Park), a new club in Merseyside. Martin began working there in 1987 and stayed for seven years. During this time Gary Spiers saw his security company go from strength to strength, eventually getting the contract to run security for a Michael Jackson concert. He took what was at the time the unprecedented step of calling together various security firms and got them working together under his leadership to make sure the security was tight. By himself he would never have been able to cope. Later the same approach would be applied to supplying bouncers for door work.

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.

Working with Warriors

Working with Warriors was written by Dennis Martin and it relives the exploits of three of the most famous martial artists-cum-personal security experts active in Britain over the last few decades, namely Terry O'Neill, the late Gary Spiers and the author　Dennis Martin himself.

Terry O'Neill

Terry O’Neill is currently ranked 7th Dan in Shotokan karate and is one of the senior instructors in the KUGB (Karate Union of Great Britain). He was the former captain of the British karate team that defeated the Japanese in the 1975 World Championship and he held various domestic titles throughout his competitive career. He was the former editor and owner of Fighting Arts International magazine, which maintained an extremely high level of quality throughout its publishing history and really set the standard for all other magazines to follow. Friends with Arnold Schwarzenegger, O’Neill also pursued an acting career which saw him play small parts in movies such as Gangs of New York and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In much of his early adult life, O’Neill was also a bouncer in Liverpool where he perfected his ability to knock people out with devastating kicks to the head. Really.

Gary Spiers

Gary Spiers was born in New Zealand before making his way to Australia. He pursued his interest in various martial arts and put his knowledge to good use until a very serious fight (details follow towards the end of this review below) forced him to leave Oz. He made his way to Japan and trained in both the Japanese and Okinawan versions of Goju ryu. While there he met Terry O’Neill and the two became firm friends. Spiers eventually ended up in Liverpool after being invited there by O’Neill. He began working the doors of night clubs and quickly built a reputation as a fearsome fighter who could ‘do the business’. Later, when the British karate team traveled abroad Spiers was taken along to make sure the world class karateka behaved themselves and didn’t step out of line! His experience led him to create his own approach to combat named Applied Karate (or Ga Ryu, as Dennis Martin labeled it) and he established a security business that provided top notch bouncers for various venues throughout Britain. Sadly Gary Spiers passed away in 2001 at the age of 57 due to a heart attack.

Dennis Martin

Dennis Martin originally got into Shotokan karate under Andy Sherry and Terry O’Neill at the famous Red Triangle dojo in Liverpool. He too began working the door and gained first hand insight into what did and did not work. Though his particular approach to street fighting, Martin eventually moved into the study of Goju ryu and also spent time training in Japan and Okinawa. His interest in Japanese martial arts would eventually pass though as he focused on CQB (Close Quarter Battle) which was heavily based on techniques developed in World War Two which emphasized practicality and simplicity in learning. He wrote a very popular regular column for O’Neill’s Fighting Arts International magazine entitled On Guard while building a career in the personal security field before moving into training people to work in the same field.

Working with Warriors: The Early Years

Working With Warriors is primarily the autobiography of Dennis Martin as far as his life in martial arts, door work and body guarding are concerned. Interspersed between his own experiences are observations on Terry O’Neill and Gary Spiers along with interviews with associated characters and, best of all in my opinion, a reprint of the original interview given by Spiers to O'Neill and published in the magazine Fighting Arts International. I can remember when I first read the four-part interview and being highly stimulated by it. One thing that I got from it was the realization that I was not bred to be a street fighter. The experiences of Spiers (as well as O’Neill and Martin along with people like Geoff Thompson, author of Watch My Back) are from the extreme end of violence. They are way beyond the verbal insults escalating into pushing and shoving and maybe a punch or two that some of us will perhaps experience and enter the realm of life-or-death where there are potentially fatal repercussions, or heavy legal penalties, associated with the level of damage meted out. Reading about how these men have lived their lives and used their art (all three come from a karate background and all were trained in Japan when a black belt really meant you could fight) will, I think, help the reader clarify his or her own aims as far as training and the potential use of a martial art goes. While many may fancy themselves as a hardened pavement warrior, a safe look into the reality of that world and how violence permeates your daily life may cause some to reconsider.

Working With Warriors starts with how Dennis Martin got into martial arts. Like many in those days (early 60s) he first started with the more popular and more widely available judo. He next saw what must have been an amazing demonstration of Shotokan karate put on by Masters Enoeda, Kanazawa, Kase and Shirai (from the JKA). After this he started training at the famous Red Triangle dojo in Liverpool under Enoeda sensei and Andy Sherry sensei (currently the highest ranking Shotokan practitioner in the UK). Terry O’Neill was also training there and the two shortly thereafter struck up a lifelong friendship. Training at the time was hard and often severe with sparring being virtually full out (with no protection).

As Martin progressed though the ranks of Shotokan he became more interested in Goju ryu. He preferred the arsenal of shorter range techniques and made the switch.

It was through O’Neill that Martin got involved in door work. Martin was a regular at the world renowned Cavern Club in Liverpool, made famous as the home of the Beatles among various other bands. O’Neill was on the security there and Martin was impressed by his senior’s ability to ‘do the business’ for real and not just in the dojo.

Terry O’Neill had become interested in physical culture at an early age through his exposure to the Tarzan character. Like Martin, his desire to become a competent fighter first led him to take up judo. O’Neill was not physically gifted as a child. He had surgery on his knees and had to use a walking stick for a year. His doctor told him that he would never play sports. Years later he broke his ribs while competing at the European Championships and when visiting the hospital, he had the same doctor that had given him the bad news when he was a child. He notes that had he listened to his doctor it would have been ‘the kiss of doom’ for him.

Terry O’Neill began his karate training at the age of 14. Later he got involved in wrestling with Tommy McNally and Tony Buck, an Olympian and a champion. It was Tommy that invited O’Neill down to The Cavern and was the first to offer him door work. Terry at that time was just 16 and had to wear multiple layers of clothing to make him look bulked up and a little more intimidating. Tommy also suggested to the youngster that he start bodybuilding and he put on nearly a stone of muscle in 6 months.

While this was going on O’Neill had been knocked back from the Police cadets due to poor eyesight. He had a tough decision to make: he could wear contact lenses, but they would be dangerous to him while doing karate. He opted to pursue his martial arts and continue working on the door.

His first fight didn’t last long but it taught him an important difference between practicing techniques in the air and actually performing them against a live opponent. He kneed someone in the groin, one of a pair of assailants, and suddenly felt a blow to his face. Suspecting that he had been punched by the other of the two, he was nonetheless dazed. What had actually happened is that after striking his opponent, his adversary’s head shot forward and involuntarily head butted Terry full in the face. He simply wasn’t ready for this kind of reaction. Luckily another doorman stepped in and finished the fight while O’Neill nursed a nose pouring with blood.

O’Neill didn’t do much of the fighting at the Cavern before it closed when he was 17. After various gigs he ended up working at what would become the Victoriana as the head doorman. Here he really cut his teeth. During these years he also perfected his ability to knock people out with a round house kick to the head and his reputation grew. He was, at that time, the youngest black belt in the UK.

The Victoriana was where Dennis Martin and Terry O’Neill, already friends, started to work together on the door. They also started training on a regular basis with one another and a stronger friendship grew with them taking frequent trips to London for special courses and to see the latest films in the West End. During this period O’Neill headed over to Tokyo in 1970 for the first World Karate Championships. While there he met a superb Goju ryu master named Morio Higaonna (readers of the old Fighting Arts International will know that years later this Okinawan warrior featured regularly in the hallowed pages) as well as a ‘really interesting bloke' called Gary Spiers.

Dennis Martin first met Gary Spiers on the day he arrived in England in 1971. He had made his way over from Japan. Originally from New Zealand, Gary had spent some time working and training, under the famous Bob Jones, in Australia. From there he practiced in harsh conditions in various dojo in Japan, specializing in the Goju style. Some of the stories about Gary are fearsome and he was nicknamed ‘The Animal’. For anyone looking for an insight into personal violence at the sharp end, Working With Warriors is worth the price and the read just to learn about Spiers and his exploits. One story is of how he forced an opponent’s head into the drain along a roadside. Another is of how he picked up a massive slash across his face fighting, with friends, against a large group of Italians who were all tooled up. Apparently there was some confusion about the word ‘mate’ which is Italian sounds something like homosexual. A final extreme story relates the conditions in which Gary Spiers had to leave Australia. After having refused entry to a couple of soldiers at a club, the two returned later to find Gary enjoying a post-work meal in a nearby restaurant. Deciding to start a fight they had the better of it until one of them lost an ear…bitten off by Spiers and never found, so where that ended up is anyone’s guess…and the second ended up going through a second storey window as he hurtled around trying to escape. He was subsequently hit by a cab and killed. Gary made himself scarce and friends got him out of the country and he ended up in Japan.

Soon after Gary Spiers arrived Terry O’Neill began publishing Fighting Arts International, a high quality magazine that, in my opinion, has never been surpassed. The most popular interview ever published was between Terry O’Neill and Gary Spiers, and chapter four of Working With Warriors reprints the first part. In this part Gary talks about his early experiences boxing and wrestling and how his training was always geared to being practical. Next he became enthusiastic about karate, seeing value in the kicks. He also relates some of his earlier fighting experiences in Australia, including the battle with two soldiers that led him to leaving Oz and going to train in Japan. I will continue with some of his stories in the second part of my review of Working With Warriors.