21: Carl Kindleysides: Part Two

0:04Hello and welcome to Matt's Trucking Great Podcast. So without further ado, let's dive straight back in with Carl Kindleysides. That's fantastic. So I was doing all the dock work again like I was at CCC, basically the same jobs as well. and I said about going abroad and he said well I'll look into it because he had a little truck little 93 the pup and that was running down to Belgium every week for diesel the tanks on it were bigger than the can yes they were it's funny because just this morning there's a chap who listens to this he's in Australia and he drives B doubles and road trains and we're talking about this exact thing I was saying but the difference in price back in the day that people would actually just buy a tractor unit put massive tanks on it and run it to Belgium to diesel up because you'd save at least 300 quid a week wouldn't you with just one truck and then run your UK fleet on it yeah exactly exactly and that's what he was doing because again Paul Arthur a friend of mine he'd pay you cash to run a tractor unit out fill it up at Verne and bring it back yeah you know and it stood again save a several hundred pound per truck yeah exactly yeah every man and his dog were doing it that's it yeah well they were yeah you know that benefited him and he was running down from Suffolk yeah you know he wasn't like a Kent haul he was a Suffolk haul he was still making or saving money off it yeah so yeah we'd done that we said about going abroad and he he said yeah he said he was going to look into it because because I had a four wheel little two tanks he said you can bring a diesel back yeah and suck it all out when you get back and you can carry on again yeah for um a place at Thetford who do all the Swiss who's that Uniex Uniex yeah for you I was going to do it for Uniex yeah Transmaritime AG as well were they called some of that yeah yeah that's all IRF now yeah yeah but um yeah that never happens but you did you did a week in the pub though didn't you if I remember rightly We did a week in the pub, one Christmas week, yeah.

2:20Yeah. On the 23rd of December, little 93P cab. With big tanks. With these massive tanks. We took an IRF trailer up to Scotland, up near Irvine. Someone on here will know there's a computer place, builds computers and that. IRF used to do a lot of trailer changes in there, so that's what I did. I went up on the 23rd of December. Yeah. I dropped the trailer. They wouldn't let you park in there because there's a lot of money kicking about in there. Parked outside in this tiny little lay-by. And on the 24th of December, I was in this tiny little old lorry. Yeah. Go on hell from there to get back so I could get down the pub with my mates because I was divorced.

3:06Get down the pub with my mates and have a good old Christmas Eve. We'd done that, yeah. That never let me down, the pub. Excellent. Mind you, I went up there empty and come back with about three tonne in the back. But yeah. Fine machine. Yeah. Yeah. And the fillings all fell out and everything. Yeah. That was one of them. But that wouldn't make for doing that. No. But that did it. Fair play to it. Yeah. Yeah. So what did I do after that? Oh. Yeah. I got bored with that. And I ended up doing a lot of rubbish work local in there. which that wasn't my thing and I ended up going to a bloke in Berries and Edmonds who parked in Brian's nun's yard Brian Nun with the bulgars and the white scanniers and vulvas who's still going now, the old brother fella yeah, top man Brian is the fella who used to park in his yard called Kim Gower and all he done was grease and I got a job with him me him and another driver went to pick a couple of brand new daffs up and brought them back to Barry St Edmunds from Ipswich and there was me thinking I was going to get a two year old V1 460 XL nice truck FH which had side lockers on it and that yeah yeah that was Tony Everett's that was white but he had it all painted red Yeah, left-hand drives.

4:42Yeah, all his trucks were left-hand drives. Yeah. And he ended up giving me one of these brand-new DAFs, which a few of his drivers weren't very happy about. He said, I'll give it to you because I know you'll look after it. Yeah. And I did, to be fair. Yeah. And I ended up also, that pissed him off even more, I got a brand-new trailer after about three or four months. Yeah. I used to do hanging garments. we'd load for sea land air out of bargain yeah so it was a proper hanging garment trailer was it some of them were yeah right yeah my Montricon one that was brand new but that just had two rails in it but that wasn't a proper hanging garment we did have a couple and we just had some old fridges as well but we'd take Greenwich do we take Greenwich no no what no no hanging garments down no no no no no We used to load at Gist, whatever you want to call it, at Emil Hempstead.

5:43Yep. For Athens. And then you'd run down to Ancona, get the boat to Petras, get off the boat at Petras, run into, I forgot what the company's called now, something very Greek sounding anyway. That'll come to me probably in a couple of weeks when I'm not thinking about it. When you're listening to this. When I'm listening to this. You bloody idiot, can't you remember? Anyway, that was not far from Harry's truck stop, which if you go to Greece, everybody know where Harry's truck stop is. It wasn't far from there. Yeah. You'd get in there, you'd drive in there, you'd park the trailer up against the doors so no one could open them, and then you'd have to park outside because that's a security thing.

6:26You'd tip in the morning, you'd get back in the afternoon, back to Petras, you'd jump back on the ferry for another 24 hours. Oh, what a nightmare. On a ferry with swimming pools and discos. Yeah, so you'd get off the ferry and get across to Prado. Yep. You'd get there at night, late at night, and in the morning, go and see the fella. If you were lucky, you'd load up out of the warehouse. Otherwise, you'd have to follow this old Fiat 500, like the original Fiat 500. Yeah. With two blokes in it. You'd follow them around all these villages, and you'd be picking up Armani, Gucci, all that stuff. Yeah.

7:15All the posh clothes. Fine fashion. Yeah, very high end, which is what we had the trainers for. Yeah. You know, the security and the garment trainers and that. And you'd tip. You'd probably spend all day doing that. And then you'd chase it back and you'd tip up nine times out of ten. Burberry in Blythe the Newcastle Blythe yeah Broncaster one yeah you'd tip there you'd get up there at night tip there in the morning run back down to Bury St Edmunds sometimes you'd have two or three days off depending on how the work was yeah and then you'd gone do it all again do it all over again if there wasn't a grease sometimes you would take Creepage out and do a bit of Creepage around Italy yeah mostly grease nearly all the time that was Chris yeah so that was nice little job yeah that was amazing yeah yeah and that yeah Kim sort of give up on it he sort of had enough so I don't know what was going on with him but I ended up leaving there and I had a couple of weeks just bombing about really looking for a job I spoke to someone and he's about you know one of my mates where am I going to get a job now I think I had most of them get back down Felix though surely Jesus Christ and someone said oh there's a bloke at parks at Roy Humphreys and I on the Norwich Ipswich Road he parked in there he's got three or four lorries and he do a lot of European so I found out his name Jill McGovern his name was it was a name I hadn't heard for a while yeah so I didn't know him I rang him up oh yeah and he was all this and that yeah do this do that he said come and see me he said I'll be in the yard whatever it was whatever day yeah at four o 'clock and I remember I was sat in a lorry with him because he didn't have an office or nothing he just parked the lorry so he was there for about till about nine o 'clock just talking about lorries yeah exactly yeah he said yeah he said you definitely got a job he said he said I'll just sort you out a lorry he said give me a week and I'll get back to you and I thought what's going to happen here and he rang me up he said I just bought a bath that was a 430 XF space cab and that had an old Bedworth haulage from Covenry one of their old tilts nice you can't get away from these tilts no no no Like a bad penny, isn't it?

10:04So off I went, doing Germany, a bit of France, a couple of Swiss. I've done a Denmark, but mainly Germany, which I loved. Yeah. And I was quite happy to do, if you want me to do three or four weeks, that didn't really bother me at all. Who was he working for, though? Can you remember? Yeah, yeah. He was working for a company called Evo Logistics. Okay. which was two fellas from Morrison Freight right which was ironic because I had worked for them yeah and Evo Logistics now is known as Kersey Freight oh right Blippin' Egg so it's Dave Dave Crawford and Jamie Jamie Manwaring yeah doing Evo Logistics well I worked with Jamie he left Morrison's and came to work for Haven Logistics where I was in Felix and he's now director of Cursey Freight and Jamie yeah that was brilliant I loved that because that was so easy the boss wasn't making that much money I don't know what Evo were paying him but he and Joe were so sort of relaxed about everything the main job I did on there was loading a plastics factory in Beckles just ran a corner from my house M &H M &H MH Plastics, yeah.

11:30Now Berry, I think it's called. Is it? Yeah, changed name, but still there. Yeah, that was an Evo job. I used to load there on a Friday. Normally, not every week, but mostly. And just used to load up lids for plastic bottles. Yeah. So I had no white. And I'd go out four or five drops around Germany. And I loved it. Brilliant. Every Sunday, I'd be 12 o 'clock, I'd be on the way down to Dover every Sunday. Yeah. Do my drops, do my pickups, do my deliveries over here. Back into Beckles, normally on a Friday morning, back home and done. The rest of Friday off. Brilliant. The money was all right. The lorry and trailer were crap.

12:14And he said, right, he said, it was both time we sorted the lorries out. And he said, what are you driving? The ice can here, it'd be nice. so he got this scammed but that was a 144 530 another left hooker because I said a left hooker yeah and that was a was it a G cab yeah two spring yeah on the front or three springs like the Irish have yes and that sort of sat up a bit hot yeah and I just I don't know I said I don't really like it and Volvo were then if I remember this might just be my mind plan tricks although we're changing from the not from the one was it from the one to the two or from the two to the three and I thought well I can't get a new shaped one because they've only just come out and I don't want to have an old shaped one which I should have had really cut a long story short I ended up with a 530XF super space cam left hand drive it's not a bad place to be to be fair is it no that was alright because it's like to live in yeah to live in and that a couple of free weeks perfectly adequate which I found out later on yeah it's fine yeah doing my plastic bottles and that and that was a really good job but aside that I was laid back he was never pressured don't even chime you either lovely fellas you know are really good the boss Joe So I've written the back of my diary the year I was working for him, the things he used to come out with, and you just wouldn't believe some of the stuff he'd say.

14:01We're getting brand-new daffs. They're going to have hot and cold running water. And he was serious. Nothing ever happened, obviously. Yeah, you could write a book about him. He ended up driving for Stennerts. He had that Stennerts trailer with all the stickers on. Okay. bit if you ever remember that 15 years ago yeah um anyway yeah and he bought because he was at humphreys humphreys by magnum by magnum he bought two or three magnums i said i don't want one yeah and luckily he never got me one but he got i think he got two and then within about three months and that all went down the plug hole.

14:47Yeah. So that was me. That was a lovely little job, nice and easy. Yeah. Did I go there next? It looks like I went to Paul Magnus. Oh, yeah. I forgot you went for Magnus. Great Blakenehm at Ipswich. Yeah, back on the tilts. Back on the tilts, yeah. Yeah, that was. Yeah. Well, Norfolk, my mind, if I remember already. Yeah, I was speaking to the – What's that bloke's name? John. John, you'd know. If I said it so wrong, you'd know. But anyway, I got a job there. I had a big old Merc. Oh, in Megaspace. Yeah, Megaspace, 2545. Lovely lorry to live in until you turn the key to start it up. The German hill detector.

15:36Yeah, but that was a lovely motor to live in. It was amazing. Yeah, yeah. Really nice. didn't joe mcgovern have a yeah mega space as well if i remember yeah i've got a photo yeah i've done a week in that yeah yeah between that death and the other death right that was in 1857 yeah that was horrible that had all that all the seats like someone had been hallucinogenic yeah you know yeah yeah i remember green and pink yeah yeah blue and orange seats yeah with the old automatic gear that was that was a terrible lorry that was but i only had that for a week anyway Yeah, he did. Yeah, I forgot about that.

16:13Yeah. Yeah, so I had this Merck at Paul Magnus. That was 53 originally, pretty sure. I had that for a bit. And then the bloke in the office, we was only doing Norfolk line, and there's quite a few of us on. And I'd done other stuff as well, but we was, you know, the trucks, what I had, and the others on Norfolk line, just had Norfolk line on them. I don't think they said Paul Magnus or anything on them. No. so we was running around for Norfolk line and that was good I enjoyed that that was good work and he said we're going to be starting to do some Germany and Holland for Norfolk line lovely old job and they took me off the Merc and I got an MAN because I had a lower ride height and that they run exactly 4 metres so I was like are we getting somewhere now and that was a nice old truck at MAN XXL wasn't it?

17:09yeah TGA yeah that was a 4 that was a 430 no to be fair that really impressed me that was apart from the steering wheel where you could just you could just touch both sides yeah it's like steering off the Titanic ginormous because of MMA ends but yeah again massive cab lovely to live in I liked I did like it to be fair and I kept going on about this continental job and that are about a month enough. It's never going to happen, is it? It's not going to happen. Let's see what else is about. And about three weeks after I left again, same with Morrison Freight, when I started, I bought all these super space cab daffs.

17:57Yep. And I started doing continental. But I'd left then anyway. Yeah. I'd left just before that and went to work for Piglet. Mr. Paris yeah SM Paris with his I think there was four four possibly five 144 530s and he had a 460 as well yeah and ironically the 144 that I drove for Badger a few years previously he now owned right so that was weird seeing that in the yard and that wasn't my lorry but it was I ended up with a ex-Charles Russell 155 530 that had done at least 850 ,000 K's on it when I got it. That's still in his colours. Obviously all the name and that had been took off. I was pulling a pulling an old Euro liner with it, doing two trips to Holland and back each week.

19:03That was hard going but that was all legal and that that was all the right that's for Walters wasn't it LKW Walters LKW Walters yeah that was all one hit yeah people take a mick out of them I don't know I don't think the rights were that bad but the work was fine yeah and he took the he took my truck off the road he said I'm going to have a painted and that was the first lorry of his out of all his lorries that he'd done in that if you know the company he had done in metallic blue with the gold and that yeah yeah that's the first lorry yeah that's the one what I had yeah and that was stunning that was beautiful yeah and I was doing these two trips a week to Holland and I remember one day I was about four months I was there something like that and then my mate rang me up he said what are you doing and at that exact time I just loaded in big old paper rails what nearly hit the roof yeah i said i'm sliding along the top of these rails putting straps over them yeah i said i'm bloody pissed off i'm covered in covered in dirt and you know blah blah blah he said we you will be coming and working where i am and that i said oh yeah yeah well that that boy on the phone his name was oil and matt yeah matt matt Matt Hyland is named, yeah.

20:31And you said, come and work here. Mm-hmm. I thought, I don't know. I don't think I'd be any good there. So I actually met Matt and spoke to him around Bob's, a mutual friend. Yeah. For argument's sake, say that. And, yeah, you told me about, you know, what you do and all that. And I said, I don't take me on. I ain't done enough. And you sort of laughed. I said, well, I said, I've done Greece, Sweden, Denmark, there's Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, and all this and that. And you said, I took a bloke on the other week and he said he just passed his test. Yeah. I thought, I might.

21:23Should be right. Maybe I should be right. Yeah. I said, I can drive the left-hand rope, I'm driving one at the minute. So I run Trans Am trucking up, and I think I spoke to Dave. Dave Flatt. RIP Dave, I've heard recently. Yeah, yeah, he passed away a couple months ago. Yeah. And I got on there. I got the first job. I had a Mercedes-Benz axle. So did I. my first ever tour 2006 I had a rental Mercedes Axel which is ideal for three weeks away isn't it yeah I had a step frame trailer went down to I think that was Karlsruhe and the plan was drive down to Karlsruhe load in on a Monday or whatever it was I think it was load in on a Monday and that's where they're going to check everything because everything all the equipment had come over from America so they were doing sound checks just make sure nothing was broken whatever you call that so me being me, I went down there some haller in Carlsra and the security guard I said red hot chilli peppers he said and he came back five minutes later he said no Monday, Monday I said no No, red hot chilli.

22:56Anyway, he let me park in there. Yeah. And I just sat there. I thought, well, I can't be doing a tour by myself. And I had no idea what was going on. I didn't really get told what the hell's happening. I got a photo of my laurier. It's a massive place. And I was like, what the flip is going on? Yeah. And then Sunday night, Martin. Ford. Martin Ford come along he said who are you? I said I'm Carl I'm a new driver he said what are you doing here? I said this is where I was told to come he said we've all been in the services up the road or the auto for the last fruit I thought oh great I said I've just been sitting here minding my old business and anyway yeah he introduced us lovely lovely lovely bloke got on really well with Martin yeah yeah I'd done another couple of tours with me he's a really nice bloke and he sort of filled me in on what's what and there was a few new drivers on it some were part time and there was a couple of people I think like going full time the same as me yeah and eventually everybody turned up on the Monday and we sort of got into it then had my photo took for the old access all areas we've gone round Europe with red hot chilli peppers funnily enough it was my first tour in 2006 yeah red up chilli peppers well this was 2007 yeah so then when they loaded out they decided that I could lose I could fit more stuff in other trucks so they could lose two lorries so that was me and this other because you were in rental trucks yeah because we was in rental trucks me and this other old boy what turned up and I said I think it was Pigpen.

24:52I said, well, I'm not very happy. He said, well, I left a good job to come here. Yeah. You know, good, steady, reliable. Regular income. Regular, yeah. Yeah. He said, that's all right. He said, you'll be back on Thursday. He said, you're out on Saturday. I said, oh, that's all right. What am I doing Saturday then? He said, you're taking the lorry, you're going down to Brixton Academy, tipping Brixton Academy. you'll meet another lorry driver there which was Digger and you'll have the lorry his in and you'll be bringing his lorry down for him because I had a service or whatever whatever happened so no alright and then dropping some stuff off at Iron Maiden at Brixton Academy then you go to is it Mojo Barriers in Holland Mojo Barriers in Holland and down to Lisbon from Holland, then across to Athens, then up to Wembley, and then up to Gazahus, north of Denmark.

26:05Oh, wow, that's all right. Nice little run around. Yeah, nice and lovely. So all in Europe in one go. Yeah. So, yeah, we dropped a lorry off and went off and done that job. We had a, what was that, back in the left-hand drive again, just a little space cab. Mm-hmm. One of the space cab DAFs. Was it? Ah, Reg one. Oh, was it? Yeah. Oh, I thought you had an 03. Was it after that? Oh, no, that was an 03. I'm thinking of that old Yeardley DAF I had, the Volvo I had for a bit. That was an 03. Yeah, A-C-Y-X, I think, because that was. You want to have a photo? I'll show you some photos. Because it's the one with the spotlights on the roof and the sun visor.

26:44No, that was before that. Oh, was it? Yeah. Oh, okay. On the place. not the police that was some Metallica and you know I'm into that sort of music so yeah I really enjoyed that the fella who was my double driver he was the one who would come back from and he had he'd never driven a left hand drive track before so I met him in the yard to go down to Brixton at the start of all this hello mate yeah blah blah blah he said what are we doing and I said right we're taking this lorry to Brixton swapping lorries then we're going to Holland then to Portugal then to Greece London Denmark where are we going in London Brixton Academy oh yeah we know that area quite well he said do you want me to drive I said I said I'm not being funny mate I said I don't know you've driven a left hooker before no I said we better drive then what was that you're saying I can't drive no no no we were Transhands Yard at the time they've moved now but in 2007 Wilby Wilby is back basically the back end of nowhere yes in the middle of nowhere in the sticks it was right out in the sticks in Suffolk yeah and that was a horrible old drive to get there I said we're not being funny if I drive if I get us down onto the A14 if I get us down onto the A14 at Ipswich we'll go that way then we can change over at the last lay by before the M25 then we'll go in that way a bit longer but we'll swap and drive us and that and he got the arse about it he got really funny about it I said the roads here are not very good mate I said if you hit driven left hand drives This isn't the place to learn.

28:42This is not the place to learn. You're better off on the motorway just to get... All right, then. This episode of Matt's Trucking Great Podcast is kindly brought to you by Light Brothers. From metal recycling, plastic recycling, data destruction, general scrap, scrap cars, and even electronics recycling, Light Brothers can cover your entire needs for any waste management. Thank you very much, Light Brothers, for your continued support. he left his nails in the seat because he just he was just through it was all the way down to the A14 it was about a 15 minute drive wasn't it something like that if I remember yeah about a 15 minute drive down the back roads B roads meeting traptors and bulkers yeah bulkers come flying around corners yeah and uh so I got down on the A14 I pulled in a lay-by I said right you drive down to that last lay-by on the A12 before the motorway alright then so five minutes later he was still going where all the controls and one of his first questions was are the pedals the same way around and I just thought yes mate I am right and what's I see him look how you heard that's the window white that's the fog and he was going through everything yeah and this was half nine in the morning I said mate we're just driving so you don't need to worry about any of that manual gearbox obviously everything was manual and um zf 16 speed lovely lovely box beautiful beautiful gearbox yeah and he's

30:22we've got to be gone mate we've got to be there at 12 o 'clock or whatever yeah he said i think i've done this gearbox before we had to run through that yeah so right come on if you're not going now I'm driving all the way down there we've got to get there we've only just started working for training you don't want to be late on your first job sort of thing alright alright so if you've ever had a ZF 16 speed gearbox you know you don't start off in first gear mate your boy didn't know that first low yeah first low first high second low second order oh god and he went about 12 times before he got out of the lay body he went through every single split 1, 2, 3 and 4 yeah and then when he went to change into high range that's when the trouble started because he was in a left hand drive yeah normally you pull up two you don't you you go 1, 2, 3, 4 sorry push it away yeah in the left hand drive hang on I'm getting rid of that In the left-hand drive, you pull it towards you.

31:33If you're in the right-hand drive, you're going away. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and he couldn't get that bit. And in the low gears, you wouldn't be doing more about 25, 26, 27 mile an hour before you went into high range. So we was crawling from about 25 mile an hour, and we were just slowing down because he couldn't get it into high range. and he kept looking and he said bloody face I said just look would you care just to look out of the window and just check your position on the road that's not exactly what I said yeah I said it was a bit more urgency exactly a bit more urgency and because I was in the passenger side I looked down and there was about three inches of roads before the stones on the central reservation yeah on a dual carriageway on a dual carriageway And he just drifted across, came from 25 mile an hour down about five.

32:33So for fuck. Goodness sake. Yeah, for goodness sake. I said, look what you're doing. Anyway, you eventually got going, eventually. And we came up to the, we came off at the A12 round about at Coptop to turn right. And he just carried on. He couldn't stop because he didn't know how to change down. to cut a long story short we wobbled all the way down to the m25 i drove into brixton we jumped out of the other lorry he wanted to drive from brixton to the we was going on the train yeah he wanted to drive from brixton to the i said no there's no chance we need to get the train today yeah so um we got on the train i said do you want to drive now i said let's motorway all the way on yeah he said that'd be easy getting off the train i left my fingernails in the seat anyway how we got to holland i don't know but we got there late at night he went to the hotel i went to bed got up in the morning right today's another day let's have another go and we were was it 20 or 21 hour shifts you can do when you're double manning yeah yeah 21 well we were double manning as hard as we could from Holland down to the south of Portugal and I went sleeping yeah I went I did my stint of driving 4.15 or whatever right there you go he had his sat nav, he had his map out and he'd taken the time to write out the route as well so he had three points of reference right so yeah but he just couldn't drive in a straight line all the way to Portugal I didn't sleep when he was driving and I was absolutely shattered when you know I'm surprised after doing like a 20 hour day yeah didn't sleep a week yeah and then we went across to Ancona to get the boat to Greece where there was me do you know Richard and Martin Walker Martin Walker yeah good old Wally Walker and Dave yeah all double man and we dropped all the double manors off in Italy because we didn't need them in Greece because that went far to just the other side of Athens so we got on the boat we was having a laugh we was throwing shoes on the net covering the swimming pool that was absolutely mental that's so funny so we'd done the gig in Greece and Martin Walker said that's the maddest he said I've been doing this job a long time he said that's the maddest concert I've ever been to in my life well in Greece I was like now this is 2007 everything's second hand must be from Germany and we was doing the spotlights and you were like you've got to follow the bloke on stage running around doing guitar solos or singing with these massive spotlights and he was like Go on, go on.

35:40And you couldn't keep up with him. The one I had, you'd get about 70%, 75 % round, and for some reason that'd just drop. So you'd go, yeah, I'm following him. You're following him with Kirk Hamer doing a massive solo. Yeah, he's all lit up. He's gone, he's gone. Get back, get back. And you'd have to wait for him to come back for you. You could only do like three quarters of the stage. Anyway, that was so funny. and that was there was a fire ban because that was that was one of the really hottest summers they'd had for a long time but the fans were throwing them red flares and that was in a forest yeah and then I know exactly the park you mean where they do the gigs there yeah brilliant so we we'd done that then we had to pick the drivers up when we got back off the boat and matey got back and again we come back through I think we come back through Mont Blanc I can't remember Mont Blanc or Thrice anyway and heading back out swapping drivers and I don't know whatever day I'd done my bit it was like tea time so right here you go and for the first time in a week and a half two weeks I said I've got to have a cue yeah I just can't get me on so I laid on the bed he had his sat-nav his mat with his instructions yeah I said and I remember clear as a bit I said whatever you do don't go to Paris yeah I think I can see where this might be going yeah this is that's alright that's fine that's fine you get to sleep so I was like got in the bunk pulled the curtain said my prayers I'd wake up because he was still all over the place he was still waving all over he couldn't just couldn't drive in a straight line yeah so um I woke up like four hours later and I just poked my head through the curtain I said um how we doing he said that wasn't too bad and I'd actually slept so at least he didn't hit nothing yeah because I'm quite a light sleeper anyway so I had a yawed and I had a stretch got up jumped in the passenger seat he said there's a service that's up here in like 10 minutes I said that's perfect where are we then he said we're back three quarters and a half from Paris you're joking no no no he said you you said something about Paris.

38:03I said, yeah, whatever you do, don't go to Paris. I said, you've got your sat-nav and your book and your – yeah, but he said, you said something about Paris. And I couldn't think if you said – did you say go to Paris or don't go? So obviously against all the paraphernalia, he said, I went to Paris. So, yeah, drive around the periphery. Any time of the day, it's rubbish. Yeah, it has a pain in it. Yeah, we've done that. and then we had to have a night out in the morning because of, you know, times and that. Yeah. We parked in the motorway services and couldn't get him a room, so we had this space cab.

38:42Yeah. And we had a share of... Oh, great. We had a share of cab. Yeah, come back. I dropped him off. We didn't need him anymore. We didn't really need him. It was relief. Yeah. We stopped him in one of the emergency lay-bys on the 406 and his brother picked him up. I thought, oh, thank God. And that was 2007 because I'd done that. I'd done a Live Aid thing. That was called Live Earth. Right. At Wembley Stadium. And loads of people, you know, loads of different bands were there. And then Metallica on the Sunday, they had their own concert there. So it was there for two or three days. and then we went up to Denmark so we had about five or six days to get to Denmark from Wembley Martin and Digger stopped off in Holland for some reason I don't know I just carried on I remember I had a day and a half or two days at Padborg yeah the truck stops there the famous truck stops and that just watching all the well not quite what I thought sort of watching all the Lithuania where I've got all these Danish notes it's all bloody Eastern Europe anyway yeah done that and yeah job done yeah so that's alright I've done a few because a lot of the as you know better than I do a lot of the drivers don't live local to Transhale that's it they're all over the countries yeah there was one old fella from Australia wasn't there yeah right Ray, that's right.

40:23Yeah, Ray Sudbury. Yeah, there's Burby, Ray, that's another story. Yeah, so I got on another few tours. I'd done a few little day jobs, two or three day jobs, just because I lived local. Yeah. And I can't remember how I got it. But that was either, who was that? Somebody in the office ran out, Steve, I think Ben, I think it was. Yeah. He said, you know, I spoke to lead drivers and that. He said, you know, you seem to know what you're doing. You've got your head screwed on. Do you want to do a one-track tour? I said, I don't know. I don't know if I'm sort of up to that. I don't know if I might, you know, that's not like work, doing events work.

41:14It's not like working, doing general haulage, is it? No. You know, you've got to be there because there's going to be 20 ,000 people there. That's it. And they've been looking forward to it. That's not like you go. Turn up the next day. Yeah. A bit late. Yeah. Rebook it. Yeah. That's it. That's not like you go to Tesco with a bag with a pallet of crisps on or whatever, you know. Yeah. So I sort of, I said, yeah, yeah. I said, all right, then. So he said, right, that's, it's gone back for a lot of people. That was Whitesnake. Bit of rock. Yeah, that was rock. Yeah. Proper. That's why my mate called a cock rock.

41:51and I said, yeah, all right. I said, is it abroad? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He said, that's all over the shop. He said, that's a lovely tour. He said, the bloke, the tour manager on it, his name I've forgotten, he's a lovely old boy, he'll look after you, you'll be all right. And I ended up getting rid of him three quarters of the white because he was not very good. Yeah, I said, yeah, I'll give it a go. so we started started for rehearsals went out to Denmark which is where I met the the famous Gary Wright hello Gary uh who'd done a lot of the bussing for the tour companies we went there for rehearsals the first gig was in Sweden and we went to Norway did we?

42:42Norway Sweden Finland and Norway Denmark anyway come back to Britain went over to Ireland down to Belgium Greece again Bulgaria Romania Croatia all the Balkan countries Bulgaria Austria Switzerland we've basically done all of Europe apart from France. But yeah, doing, went to, went to Turkey. That was, that was a bit scary. Got down on the border, took all my paperwork in, joined the queues, and that was about, if I remember, that's like a load of port caverns stuck together at the time, making one big area. Was it Ipsala? The Greece, Greek-Turkish border? Bloody hell. I honestly can't remember.

43:37God, come, I did come from Greece to Turkey Bulgaria I think I come in through Bulgaria yeah and there I was sitting there in the line with a pair of army camouflage shorts on tattoo on my leg what Matt Ireland made me get in that's another story I think I had a motorhead t-shirt on short hair got my nose pierced so it didn't really look like a lorry driver and this bloke come up to me and he had like a North Korean army suit on. He had all these medals and that, you know. You just pull that off eBay or something. And he hollered something out at me and I said, English. I said, no, I understand.

44:22And he said, papers. I said, give them all my T-forms and that. And he was flicking because there's a lot of them in there. Everything's got to be listed. And he said, what is this? And I said, it's for a concert. for music and he was looking and he said which band is this and he's being quite aggressive and I said Whitesnake and his his total everything changed about him his eyes lit up he stood up straight he said I love Whitesnake Whitesnake is my favourite band and my wife my wife she loves David Coverdale I said oh really he said yeah he said Whitesnake is the best he said do you have a gift for me from Whitesnake I said a gift I said let me think and behind I think that's the first wall when you walk in and all the workers are on the left behind the first wall there's this big sign 15 foot square whatever one bribery will not be tolerated could end up in an$80 ,000 fine or six months in prison and all that sort of warnings.

45:46And I thought, here's the bloke in charge of all this, one and a bride. I was like, Jesus. I said, yeah, you wait two minutes. Yeah, no problem. So I walked back to my truck and I got some old T-shirts, white snake T-shirts and some guitar plectrums and that. I went near with two T-shirts and a plectrum. I'm thinking, honestly, this is actually ridiculous, but I thought the next time I see the sky, I might have handcuffs. Honestly, I really didn't know. You hear about all these sort of coverings down that way, being a bit mental than that. And I walked in, ah, hey, my friend. he said what what do you have and i held up this t-shirt front and back tour dates on the back on the front two of them ah this is fantastic and i said from from the guitar i don't i was speaking in broken english i said for the guitar and i give him his plectrum with their look ah my wife will he said oh this is fantastic he said okay now i can help thank god for that so he took all the the paperwork yeah and he basically he just jumped in front of everybody yeah yeah and I next window stamp back sign that whatever and now you can go everything is finished and he shook my hand wish me a nice day thank you very very much you're very kind very kind man yeah thank you thank you I thought brilliant two hours yeah that's not bad that's not bad getting into Turkey two hours so and you drive across from no man's land and you drive across no man's land went and see the old boy in the window on the Turkish side give him all the paperwork and he looked at it what's this the concert, Whitesnake thinking we know how to play the system mate he said okay come back in five hours I sat there for twelve I got there at midday yeah I come out the Bulgarian side at two yeah and I left the Turkish side to drive to Istanbul at midnight great so that was that yeah yeah and I had a very similar thing getting into

48:21another country I honestly can't think what a white snake yeah Albania no Albania is alright yeah they didn't know what to do with an ATI car. They had to get this big book and look it up. Yeah. Because people didn't go to. No. Albania. No. I mean, White Snake was one of the first. I would say so. In that sort of. Yeah. At that time, to actually play a concert in Albania. But no, that was all right. One of the, another country, which I can't think of. The bloke was in a booth. Yeah. And he pulled up, give me your paperwork. he had the shutter like that shutter on the door yeah the shutter down all you see was a hand yeah hand come out give me your paperwork blah blah blah and he said the same thing he said he said you have music he said which band and I thought here we go yeah he's going to be pissed off if I said something like napalm death yeah but I said what's night and the old shutter come up yeah biggest smile you'll ever see oh my friend yeah he said I play in a tribute band I said no I said what music he said our favourite music is White's Night yeah I said no yeah I said hang on oh you have a gift so I jumped out of the seat jumped up got up in the cupboards it's a White's Night t-shirt you have one for my wife a small lady small lady so I went yeah this is perfect yeah paperwork yeah thank you very much I said enjoy yeah enjoy everything thank you thank you thank you and off I went I thought well it's as bad as I say it I'm not in prison yeah everybody I love Whitesnake yeah so yeah we went through Germany and didn't do anything in France like I said that's quite weird done a few in Spain done about four in Portugal and the last gig was at her sort of like the Norfolk show yeah a lot of agricultural thing Whitesnake were playing really weird as they do yeah and they were using local crew all the time to do the spotlights yeah and halfway through a set David Coverdale said who's doing the spotlight on me yeah and there's this little little bloke young lad didn't speak any English and he said get him off a spotlight and he didn't say that politely yeah so I was sort of just milling about and I mate he said I can't I'll just go and do the content so I had I had to finish his spot and I was just something that made me laugh but yeah that was an amazing thing doing all that by myself yeah I did spend time with a couple of McGuinness drivers they were doing Def Leppard yeah and they helped me out for a bit Bob Wogan was one of them wagon yeah yeah yeah i can't think of the other fellas now but he was one of the funniest blokes anyway yeah that was a massive learning curve you know going to e-stambul and all them uh let's say albany and in the east and all that yeah that's a big learning curve yeah and uh transam were really good about it they really i mean pig pen ran up one week he said um how are you getting on I said that's great isn't it yeah I said I'm really really loving her he said well we heard nothing from you for three weeks just check how you're getting on I said yeah don't worry about it I'm just really loving her yeah and that was from memory that was about nine weeks nine and a half weeks I was away yeah and that was great so I'd done that and got back tipped all the stuff off and I spoke to Martin who was in the office Martin who died recently Martin Palmer yeah Martin Palmer yeah he said we are very very impressed with what you've done since you've never you know you haven't done it before by yourself blah blah blah so I went on the mighty bush yeah it's just a tour around the UK cream tour they want to yeah they called it the cream tour yeah you'd have to do something really good yeah to get on that tour because that was only a three truck tour yeah and um I got on there I only ran Britain for about seven weeks or something when it was quiet as well that was yeah yeah and that was brilliant yeah Mick Anderson yeah with Mick Anderson and Pusher Pusher the legend good old Pusher yeah and that was I really enjoyed that yeah done a couple of little bits of buggering about and got on ACDC Black Ice Tour mm-hmm 2008 2008, 2009, started off in Norway.

53:22That was great. Down to Spain. Yeah. Switzerland, all that. Yeah. Met Mrs. Condorcides. Yeah. And a thing where I used to laugh at my mates when they say, my missus don't want me going up the road anymore. And I used to say, who's wearing the pants at you? You know? And she said, there's a bit much in it, so yeah. You're wearing your words. Yeah, you're wearing the pants. Yeah. I jacked it in but in fairness I'd done a thousand times more than I thought I'd ever do yeah driving so I was more than happy to finish it yeah although I did think I'd just finish my time out there but yeah yeah lovely blokes on it met some really nice people on there yeah had a couple of months off scratching my backside I don't know what I'm going to do now yeah same job working from Attleborough with a chap called Brian Ballam was meant to be doing fridge trailers to Morrison's is it Sandbatch somewhere out that way Wakefield no no no no Cheshire I think it's Sandbatch and yeah I'll do that yeah and between him giving me job and the job start and the people whose work it was took it off him and decided to do it themselves so he rang up he said oh and I did say I did say I'll give you a job he said oh we're supposed to buy you a lorry and that because the lorry he had on it was a low ride for some reason so he went out and bought two fh 460s serious two yeah

55:0455 6 55 fdc 55 reg fhs yeah they were 420s but they were he had them checked out the 460s manuals yeah and that was great he didn't really know what to do yeah because he had me up for this other job and uh I said Norfolk line always out of paper and I was like they're alright I was just looking for an easy life yeah I was on Norfolk line and that was good got some good work out of her yeah had a nice lovely lorry yeah back on the tilts well I was Euro liners then yeah everybody gone off tilts done some daily fresh work done some fridge work yeah it's brilliant yeah and the rates were getting worse the jobs were getting shorter and longer between and I said about barterums ended up on barterums didn't like that at all didn't like general haulage yeah and for a bit I spoke to him about the money current party he said some weeks he said I'll put money into your wages yeah but I still never really had a good wage yeah Still obviously tramping again.