My fairground memories and close calls with the Reaper.

I first started working at Whitley bay Spanish City fairground at the age of 14.  My mate Ged was working for Jimmy Cooper on the Big wheel, so I went down to get a weekend job to earn a bit of pocket money. Jimmy was on the Twister and told me that no jobs were available, boooooo I thought, so I helped the lads on the floundering big wheel anyway, I used loads of enthusiasm  my loud voice rang through the fair ground, " are you commin on", I would shout and I would whistle as loud as possible drawing the customers in with patter and smiles. Anyhoo I managed to fill the big wheel for all that morning, one of the lads must have told Jimmy because he was watching me from the shadows filling his ride time after time,  he then came over and offered me a job there and then. The big wheel was the first ride I had a brush with his Darkness Mr Reaper. The ride had to be kept balanced, so the opposite car of an occupied car had to have someone in it, so we would jump in to balance the ride when required. Once the ride was going  the lads would stand under the cars as the ride went around  and tipped the cars so they swung, this was to add a bit of excitement to a rather boring ride for the customers, anyhoo they swung my car and the bar that fastened you in came open and I fell out of the car as it was on the way up, but luckily I managed to keep hold of the fastening bar and pulled myself back into the seat and fastened the bar down properly,  I had a sweaty arse on that day I tell ya.
My blackest day ever happened while working on the Twister when fatal accident occurred, a 12 year old girl and her friend got onto the ride and when  it was going full speed  the front of the car snapped off (metal fatigue was found to be the cause in the investigation), I was sitting in front of the pay box watching the ride go around as usual and what I witnessed was horrifying. One girl was thrown onto the ride platform and was laid flat by the car behind as it smashed into the back of her head, she was lucky enough to survive that day but her friend was not, she slipped into the main cog in the centre of the ride and was ripped apart.  I will always remember when the ambulance men were placing her into a body bag the blanket that was held up to shield this from view dropped down, so I went over and held it up, I wish I  didn't,  I saw her there up close and she had no face, this still keeps me awake sometimes.  There was also a police man that picked up her shoe five foot away from the ride, he went deathly pale when he noticed it still contained a foot. I found out later her parents had told her she couldn't go to Whitley Bay on that day, but the sad truth is children never to listen to their parents. I can clearly remember cleaning the blood from the rides platform with a bucket of soapy water and a hard brush later that day, and life just carried on at the Fair. There is a lot more to this story but I will not include it here, so a brief factual report is probably best  in the circumstances.

It was a while after that I began working for the Crow family on the Parachutes, Samantha Crow was a marvel at working that ride, she used to make it glide down to a stop causing many a Bloke and Lass to say hello again to their breakfast. I clearly remember one day sitting in front of the pay box and getting covered from some bloke who couldn't handle the sudden loss of G force, I was stinking and I was not best pleased about it. I would also work for young John Crow on the Easy Rider, he called it the ARK as it once had animals instead of motorbikes. The pics below is similar to the Ark the Crows had. (note the rise and fall of the walkway)

This ride was the epitome of cool for a fair lad like me, It was a similar platform than the Waltzer but contained motorbikes and Chariots and the entertainment opportunities were a lot better than the tame Waltzer rides. John told us the ride would reach approx 30- 40 mph when going flat out, and the G force that produced was tremendous, you actually had to lean right into the centre of the ride to stay on, if not you could be catapulted off into oblivion.  Health and Safety wasn't taken very seriously in the early 80s as you will see, this actually made our fair lads such a draw for the crowd, we offered a unique sense of danger and excitement with our acrobatics and larking around on the fast rides. We had to practice a lot jumping on and off the ARK until we could get on when it was going full pelt, this was extremely dangerous but the buzz was unbelievable and people would gather around as we defied death with our antics. The art to jumping onto the ARK was that you had to chose and keep track of your entry spot, this was a 2- 3 foot gap between the bikes, now remember at full tilt its going around about 30 - 40 MPH and up and down due to 3 rises in the walkway, you would be on top of one of the rises and would run down hill as your chosen spot closed, then you would jump in before the ride started up the next rise, you would be holding onto the back of the left bike and the handle bar of the right bike and leaning forward to counter the G force trying to throw you back off, once grip was achieved you could make your way into the ride to run around or keep hold of a struggling customer so they didn't end up in orbit, many a bruise was received in the ribcage from the front of the right hand bike due to hand slippage on the handle bars, getting off was easy just swing out while going up the rise so you would land at dead stop about half way up the rise, but more on this ride later.

Claude Cooper owned the Spanna (Spanish City Fairground) back then, and the lads working for each faction Coopers and Crows would fight with each other all the time mostly after the fair closed so the customers weren't scared off, it would get quite nasty sometimes. Cooper eventually wanted the Crows off the park, so the Crows purchased Seaburn Fairground in Sunderland.  We managed in one day with the help of a few lads from the travelling families to dismantle and pack up all Crows rides and ship them out leaving the Spanish City half empty, bit of a gutter for Claude as a half empty Fairground is an economic fook up.

The crows were now settled into Seaburn after a bit of fighting with the locals landing Big John Crow in a whole heap of bother from the Police but the trouble makers needed a good stiff talking to and the Crows were good at talking, wink wink etc. I started working on the Swivelling skid for Big John Crow. It was on this ride I had my next kick in the unmentionables from Mr Reaper. Its hard to explain this ride, its like a waltzer, but you controlled a brake peddle in the car causing it to swing you back and forward 180 degrees, and if you got the breaking rhythm right could get some big Gs out of this giving you a good buzz.

The normal working cycle was the ride would fill up and you would start taking the money from the peeps  sitting in a car, and if the ride was full Big John would set her going slowly while you were collecting the money, you would be stepping from  "A bar" to track  back to "A bar" as each car passed and you had to be careful not to let any cars hit you as they swung in. When finished you would walk along the "A bar" to the walkway and give the money to John and get your change, by then the ride was speeding up as you were giving out the change, once finished you could walk the "A bar" to the walkway or grab the back of the car as it swung in and ride it until it catapulted  you to the outside putting you off the ride by the waiting customers, then you could have a little bit of a pose and some cheeky banter to keep them warmed up until the ride finished. I spent a lot of the time sitting on the giant speakers air Guitaring to the music which was mint as we had a lot of 60s rock and roll playing. To help the rides speed  we would pour powdered graphite onto the steel track to make it slippy, you would often get graphite stuck to the bottom of your boots making them rather slippy as well. This in fact was my downfall and it nearly smoked my kipper big time. The ride was getting toward top speed when I had finished giving out the change so I grabbed the back of the car to swing out because as at that speed walking the "A bar" to the walkway was a bit dodgy in fact I would probably end up with my head up my arse trying it. Well  my foot slipped off the ledge on the back of the car because of the graphite on my boot and I ended up back on the track with the next car swinging in fast, the car smashed into my back and  I was catapulted over the outside wooden rails and into the crowd, it was quite fortunate that I did not land in the ride itself because I would have become the Reapers bitch with Gimp mask and leash. My back was bruised and my head had a canny bump on it but the lasses in the crowd provided plenty of sympathy so I was happy. Mr Reaper with his leather whip was hanging around again one afternoon when I ran out of change for the Skid,  Big John gives me a fiver and I ran over to the Ark, as the pay box was at the back I just jumped on the ride at the front and jumped off at the pay box for speed and a bit of a pose of course, I then got a fivers worth of 10p pieces and jumped back on the ride one handed, but once again graphite was having the last laugh and my foot slipped, so there I am hanging on with one hand and my legs are flapping behind me hitting peeps in the head as I passed by, and now the ride was speeding up. My mate Will ( Paul Wilson) was on the ride trying to pull me back in but the Gs force was to much to manage it, so he told me I would have to leave go, Ha!  bloody easy for him to say, but very true none the less. I looked him in the eye as I kicked another unfortunate in the head as I passed, I smiled and then left go, I was catapulted head first into one of the front uprights of the stairway at the front of the ride. Dazed I picked my self up still holding onto my change ( believe it or not I never dropped a penny) and I stumbled over to the Skid.  A few of us lads came a cropper on the ARK, as did some of the customers, there were tooth marks on one of the front uprights from some poor unfortunate who left his front teeth in it, now that must have hurt a lot, he was trying to stop the ride by grabbing the handrail at the side of the bikes and was flung straight into the upright mouth first, and another young lady got a stiletto inbedded in hear head by another young lady doing the same flapping around I did, she had fell off because she did not lean into the ride properly to counter the G force, quite a common mistake as any of the customers could tell you.
The hours were long as your day started at about 8.30 am and the fairground finished at 10pm and I was paid £5 a day which was pretty poor, ahhh but it was one hell of a job so I didn't really mind.  Once 9.30 pm came around the rides closed shop that was all except the Ark, this was when the fun really started, all the fair lads gathered on that ride and the crowds would gather, and it was always packed with people. We would have half an hour pure posing and showing off  for the lasses before we closed shop. It was dark out and Little John would  turn off the music and the lights and put on the strobe light,  we would then take some of the biggest risks ever jumping on and off the Ark at full pelt with the strobe light flashing. This was hardcore stuff we were doing here real arse twitching bollock tightning stupid stuff, I mean trying to keep track of your entry spot in strobe lighting, it was a chuffin nightmare but we did it and it must have looked fricken terrifying to those sitting on a bike having a body just appear in front of you with a sly grin and then disappear just as quick, Ha Ha! this got them going, oh absochuffinlutely it did, they loved that shit. The lights would come back on, this is when we would get to the middle of the ride running opposite to the flow, around and around we run then we stop and out of the silence young John would shout over the mike  OGGY OGGY OGGY and we would shout OI OI OI and then we would get the whole ride to join in with us shouting while flying around and around, now this was entertainment. Safety wise it was a complete cluster fuck but we made those peeps scream and they loved it. It was at this fairground I met my lovely wife Sue, she blew me away and not long after that at the age of 16 I left the buzz of the Fair behind and became a Butcher. Mr Reaper has visited a few times swinging his gimp mask and no doubt he will be back, but I'm no ones bitch.
Thanks for reading and keep smiling