For those of you without FaceBook, enjoy this recent selection, inspired by Mick Woollett...
For those of you without FaceBook, enjoy this recent selection, inspired by Mick Woollett...
Bob Berry and 4 other people commented on this.
Bob Berry created the group Bike journalists '70s and '80s.
Unlike · · 11 February at 00:31 ·
- You and Nigel Tye like this.
- Bob Berry Also in memory of the venerable Jim Greening, the marvelous Charlie Rous ('dear boy') and Norrie Whyte. All good men when MCN was selling 196,000 copies a week. Is Mick Woollett out there?
- Bob Berry Then there is Nick Harris. And Andy McGovern. And Robin Miller - in charge of MCN in 1972. I know that. He employed me. And Bruce Cox.
- Bob Berry I suppose I'll have to include the incomparable John Noble. Plucked from photographing ice cream and sent to the IoM with a mission to do 'something different'. And he did.
Bertie Simmonds I shouldn't be here Bob! I was nineties! Ha ha. Chris and Selwyn aren't on Facebook - the Luddites!- Bob Berry It was Andy McKinnon I think. I was pressurised into replacing JB with 'new talent'. Should have stood my ground. He wasn't a patch on the old Ace.
Peter Donaldson JB fondly remembered out here. Messrs Avant, Ireland and Woodley all break into a smile at the mention of his name. And a whole bunch of Australians share similar good memories.- Bob Berry He was a great reporter Peter. In the Seventies he'd strut into the office with his Olivetti and start typing. It spewed out and I'd take it from his desk sheet-by-sheet, usually accompanied by 'Piss off and leave me alone'. But when I'd got it all, I'd give half of it back to him for Paddock Gossip. He had all the info and I disseminated it for him. I'm proud to say we made a good team. Miss the grumpy old sod.
John Nutting Mick Woollett is still living in Flaunden with Peta. Worked with him in the 70s: great days. Here he is at Brands during the CB750 UK launch.
- Bob Berry Hello mate. I see you're still stringing out the MIRA Files in Mechanics. How many years is it since we started it? Give my regards to Mick if you see him.
- Bob Berry Wish I'd have kept all my 'blacks' as well. I remember good old Charlie Rous recycling all of his old stories for Classic Racer when I published it. All good stuff.
Bob Goddard I remember John Brown shouting at you across the office: "Shut your festering split!" and other less polite insults. All with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face- Bob Berry Aye, big Norrie. I didn't send him to the IoM one year. That he was not pleased would be a massive understatement! So he took a fortnight's holiday and told everyone, 'I'll be there laddie but you'll no see me...'
Mat Oxley "I'll be there laddie but you'll no see me", has passed down into legend. Norrie could be a right bastard. When I was doing GPs for MCN in the late 1980s, I'd get to the office on Monday, with 1000s of words and stories, and he'd say, sorry laddie, only 4 pages, and spike 90% of my work. Then in mid-winter, when there was f**k all going on, he'd tell me on a Monday morning, 8 pages of gossip... Bastard!- Bob Goddard But it was little challenges like that, Mat, that made you the journalist you are today...
Dave Calderwood MCN in the 1970s was great fun, often hilarious. So many strong characters - JB and Norrie, of course, but also Peter Howdle, Jerry Clayton and... Bob Berry's favourite sub, "Ga-ga". Can't remember his real name.- Bertie Simmonds Way before my time at MCN (I did inherit his 'jacked up' desk and shot Rover 214...) but I loved the reader ringing for advice about camping at Assen to be put through to Norrie who said: "You'll need a tent... goodbye." My brief meeting with him was at the TT when he said of Adam Duckworth: "For a journalist, he's a great photographer." I also offered to buy the legend coffee and a bacon bap at the Southern 100 and I waited patiently in a queue, to which Norrie said: "That's not our queue." He knocked on the side door, the coffees and food were passed through and Norrie stomped off saying: "The boy will pay..."
- Bob Goddard A few others who were at MCN in my time were Brian 'Badger' Crighton, Dave Wilcock and Andrew Edwards. And Peter Strong, Editor when I was there, was running Archant Press here in Norfolk a few years ago.
- Bob Berry It's Crichton Bob. He got his nickname because of an argument on the subs desk with Jerry one day about what sort of border to put around a layout. It went on for an hour. Brrian wouldn't let it go and in the end Jerry said 'Oh for fuck's sake do what you want'. So I said 'You badgered him into submission'. It stuck.
- Bob Berry Jerry was a great bloke but was a nightmare on the Sunday night subbing session. He'd spend all night on the phone and at two in the morning look at the pile of copy and say 'Christ. we'd better get on with this!' On a shift with Jerry, it was always three in the morning and then a spooky walk through the print works (hot metal in those days) with all the strange noises, to leave the copy for Monday morning. Loved it.
- Bob Berry Don't let us forget the inimitable Peter Howdle. The most unflappable man of a Monday press day.The 6pm deadline approached but no sign of him. Apparently he'd rushed home because the coalman had been and he had to rescue the kids' tortoise.
- Bob Goddard Yes, Peter Howdle was a kindly soul. He gave me great advice when I was stumped for an intro (first Honda Gold Wing test on the Isle of Man). Remember him quitting smoking, from 40-a-day to nothing and keeping a full packet of cigs in his desk drawer just to remind him of what a fool he'd been!
Christopher John Myers Thought I'd share this true Woollett story with you, http://chrisjmyers.blogspot.co.uk/.../normal-0-false...chrisjmyers.blogspot.com- Christopher John Myers We tried to sellotape Jerry Clayton into an office chair at MCW, but he was soooo strong!! Too strong, in fact.
- Dave Calderwood I seem to remember that we manage to do that to you Chris, and then popped you in the lift at Surrey House and pressed all the buttons.
Roger Willis This may be apocryphal but somebody told me that Peter Howdle once got thumped by a taxi driver while attending the old Cologne IFMA show (the one with bicycles as well as bikes). Upon being asked if he'd visited the city before, Howdle riposted: "Many times, but we never stopped." He'd been Lancaster aircrew during the war...- Bertie Simmonds An old but brilliant joke! Like the whole thing with the US aircraft carrier and an Irish lighthouse etc... or the copper catching an RAF Tornado on a radar gun... Maybe PH was the first though? I was in Hamburg for a stag do back in 2004 and my mate's...See More
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