CHAPTER 7
The Harbour, the Swimming Pool and the Police.
1976
The summer of 76.
What a summer, 8 weeks of 80 degrees with no rain, just glorious sunshine, warm nights and brown grass, hose pipe bans and people whining it’s too hot.
It is the only time I can remember wearing a T-shirt riding the bike going to work at 05:00 in the morning and still feeling warm air as I rode the bike down the shadow side of the valley.
On one weekend during this very unusual warm period my friends and I were in the KNIGHTS ARMS pub in Porthcawl.
For any of you who don’t know the Knights Arms, it was the main biker pub in the area, it was the go-to place for any and all bikers, it was a bit on the rough side, but that goes with the territory.
Great music on the jukebox and the square outside the pub filled with bikes and like-minded people, bikers from all over the country would make it a must-go to place to visit if they were in the south Wales area.
I myself was there every weekend and quite often in the week during this hot summer.
On this particular weekend, I was with three friends Lawson, Trem and one other friend who shame on me I can not remember his name, it was so many years ago, in fact it was 42 years ago, I think I’m allowed to forget a few things after all this time that as passed.
So it was getting late evening.
The knights was still buzzing, there was no sign of night ending until Ken the landlord kicked everyone out.
( Photo 1 ) . The knights arm`s Porthcawl, this photo is of the Taff Riders m.c.c club, stopping at the knights for some refreshments.
Myself and my friends left the knights at around 11:00 pm, my gloves were tucked away out of sight under the seat of my bike and my crash helmet locked on to the helmet lock on the side of the bike, it was to warm to carry them around, in 1976 I was riding my Yamaha RD 250.
The bikes were quite safe outside the pub, there would be people be around the pub for many hours yet.
We went for a stroll just to take in the salty sea air and enjoy the warm night, we headed down town toward the harbour, just to kill some time and to have a break from the hundreds of people that were at the pub, we also had arranged to go to a party later that night and to pick up two female friends of ours that were working at the sea bank hotel for the summer months, and we knew they were finishing their shifts around 11:30 – 12:00.
We would pick them up and then head back to the pub and then make our way to the party on the bikes, the party was in the village of Ewenny, a small village just outside Bridgend town.
So just to kill some time, we wandered around the promenade and the harbour area.
There were no mobile phones in those days, so waiting around for people was a normal thing to do, if they were held up for any reason, there was no way for them to let you know they would be late or not turning up.
As I mentioned earlier it was a very warm humid evening, the pavements still had heat raising from them after being baked from the day's sunshine.
So we wandered around the sea front just taking in the warm holiday atmosphere, there were many people about all enjoying the unusual weather we were having, warm weather always brings out the party element in people, it would have been too hot to sleep, so what better to do but go out for a cool drink in a beer garden or just go for a walkabout in the warm evening air.
( Photo 2 ). Porthcawl harbour, Knights Arms located just out of sight behind the large white building on the left of the photo.
We hung around the harbour sitting on the low wall watching the boats bobbing up and down, I could see the cool water in the harbour looking very inviting.
From what we could make out from our position on the harbour wall the water level was about 10 to 15 feet below us.
It was hard to tell for sure, the streetlights above the harbour cast shadows over the boats that were moored up, I could see them slightly bobbing up and down, so I guessed the tide was in but I had no idea how deep the water was, but trying work it out logically, the boats would not have been moving if the water was too low and they would be leaning on their sides, so there must have some depth to the water in harbour, well that’s how I worked it out.
The streetlights only created an illusion of light, they we dim yellow lights which lite up a very small area, the harbour itself was just a series of boat shadows cast by the lights, the scene in the harbour itself was not very clear, it was hard to judge the distance of anything in the yellow light and the boats bobbing up and down didn’t help, you had to witness the scene to know what I mean.
I looked a little harder in to the semi darkness and thought about it taking a dip, I then said “ fuck it, I’m going in “.
I dropped my leather jacket down on the pavement, I was not wearing it, it was far to warm, but I would need it dry when I was riding the bike later on and a wet leather jacket is heavy and takes ages to dry out even in this heat wave, I was only wearing a T-shirt underneath which I remember was jet black with an image of ALICE COPPER with a nose around his neck that I had bought at a concert called the ( welcome to my nightmare tour ) at the Empire Pool, Wembley in London.
I took a position on the low wall of the harbour and stood upright looking down into the water, I picked a spot in the water that was not to near one of the boats and a little away from the stone harbour wall, and then without saying a word to the guys who were sitting on the wall near to me, they were just chatting away to each other and not taking notice of what I was going to doing.
Then without warning the others I promptly jumped off the harbour wall without making a noise, I went in feet first into the darkness below me.
I could hear the guys above me as I jumped saying ” what the fuck are you doing “ and then splash, I hit the water some 10 feet or more down from the top of the harbour wall, and thankfully the water was deep enough and I just disappeared below the surface of the water and luckily I did not end up sticking into the mud and silt at the bottom of the harbour, but to my surprise it was much colder than I had expected.
I completely disappeared beneath the still water for what seemed like ages, and suddenly I was in total darkness, not knowing which way was up or down, I gasped for breath as the cold water instantly cooled me down, this was not a good thing to do when your underwater, it was totally involuntary on my part.
I will admit, I did panic a little.
Not to exaggerate the situation to much, but the cold water made me gasp for air while I was still underwater and I instantly took salt water down into my lungs.
I began to panic big time now and took even more water down.
The temperature difference of the water and what it was like standing on the harbour wall was a massive shock.
I was completely under the water and my natural buoyancy forced me to the surface, and there I instantly gasped for air, as soon as I cleared the water surface I went straight back down again and once more in this submerged state I started to panic again, this time I kicked me legs out and pushed my arms down to my side and I bobbed back up again choking on the oily salt water.
Back then in 1976 I was a good swimmer and fit enough to deal with this situation I had put myself in.
When I first hit the cold water my body automatically went into shock, I involuntary opened my mouth, so I took a large amount of water down, once I knew which way was up, I stayed there treading water with my head just above the surface of the oily water, it is very surprising how heavy your clothes are when you get them saturated with water.
I coughed and spluttered and splashed around in the water making lots of noise, still trying to find my bearings.
I was only wearing light trainers, a pair of light blue Gentle Folk jeans and my Alice Copper T-shirt, and at the time of this story I was only around nine and a half stone, so not to heavy and with no excess weight it all helped me stay afloat, and I was a good swimmer, so I kept myself from drowning.
It was much darker than I had imagined, all I could see was shadowy dark boat shapes and the glow of the harbour lights above me.
I looked around in desperation for a way out of the harbour, which was something I did not think about before I jumped in.
I treaded water and then I noticed a long shape running up the harbour wall, I could just make out a metal ladder fixed to the harbour wall, some 15-20 foot away from me.
I swam immediately toward this escape route, because that is what it was now, my body temp was cooling down rapidly, I crossed this small area of water very quickly.
I grabbed the bottom ladder rung and hung on, holding on with both hands trying to get my breath back, I pulled myself up on to the second or third rung of the ladder and climbed up out of the water and hung on to the ladder with all my strength, I hung onto the ladder with my leg’s still dangling in the dark water below me.
I needed to gather my strength before I attempted to climb the rest of the ladder, I looked around at the bobbing boats, everything was dark, it was much darker down here close to the water.
After a short time catching my breath, I climbed up the rest of the metal ladder with little problem, my hands did slip twice as I climbed up, my hands had gone very cold, very quickly, it did not take me long to ascend the ladder, and I was up and out and on to dry land.
When I got to the top of the wall, the guys were looking for me further down the harbour.
They could not see me in the water, all they could hear was me splashing around, they told me they were shouting down to me, but I had heard nothing, I must have been to busy trying not to drown.
I stood on the wall soaked to the skin looking like a drowned rat, I immediately started to shiver, Lawson said “ what the fuck did you do that for, you stupid twat ”.
I just laughed and then I took off my T-shirt and tried to wring the water out by screwing it up into a ball, trying to get as much water out of it as possible.
Well, jumping into the harbour did certainly cool me down, but now I couldn’t wait to warm back up again.
Lesson learned I think.
The lesson was, don't jump in to dark harbor’s with very cold water, it could be you first time and your last time if you try it, I was just very lucky that I was not pulled out of there in a body bag.
But oddly enough, this harbour escapade nearly got me arrested later on in the night.
( Photo 3 ) . The Sea Bank Hotel on the sea front at Porthcawl, the main entrance is on the left side of the building, It was once a private house with one small family occupying the whole building, just as a point of interest the first Knights Arms reunion was held here in 2006.
It was getting close to midnight, so we decided to start to walk up towards the Sea-Bank hotel which was only a 5 -10 minute walk from where we were at the seafront by the harbour.
Our friends were about to finish work, we arranged to meet them outside the main entrance, so we just sat on the wall opposite the main door to the hotel.
As we waited a cop car pulled up with two miserable looking coopers sitting in the front seats of the car.
The car was a mini with the pale blue and white colour paint, it was very common to see a patrol car with this paint job.
They parked up in front of the main entrance, and then they slowly took their time to get out of the car.
We were just minding our own business not bothering anyone, so we didn’t think that they had turned up for us or for anything that we had done as we had not caused any incident or issue in front of the hotel, we were not noisy and just sat on the wall chatting to each other, so we just ignored them.
It was best not to pay too much attention to any patrol officers of the law, any eye contact would be enough to get them thinking your hiding some crime you had just acted out or going to commit some crime, so it was best just to pretend they weren’t there.
( Photo 4 ) . This type of police car, mini’s like this one were very common for the average patrol copper, the faster pursuit cars like the ford Granada or the triumph pi were kept for the motorway coppers.
As soon as two coppers climbed out of their car and put their hats on their heads, they came straight toward us.
One copper was huge, he climbed out of the passenger seat with great effort, huffing and puffing, lifting his body weight was an effort, he lifted himself out of the front passenger seat and stood there form a minute leaning against the car and readdressing his uniform while he was catching his breath.
There would have been no room for him and the steering wheel in the driving seat, he must have been 6`4`` if he was an inch, and from the look of him he spent a lot of time entering pie eating competitions and winning them from the size of his gut, he was puffing and panting just getting out of the cop car, the other copper was younger and fitter looking, he must have been the one who runs after people.
Well they both made a bee line straight for us, the first thing they said which did surprise us a little was ” RIGHT, WHO’S GOT THE KNIFE “, and this statement was said in a very aggressive manner.
We all spoke together in complete surprise to the question that was put to us in such a unexpected and aggressive manner “ what, what knife “.
The coppers did not wait for the reply.
The large copper grabbed me by my collar of my leather jacket, which I was now wearing again.
I was still trying to warm up after my late night dip.
He grabbed me roughly and spun me around and pushed me up against the low wall that I had just been sitting on, and then he started to pat me down and shouting at me at the same time “ WHERE`S THE KNIFE “.
I answered “ what the fuck are you on about “.
While this guy was molesting me, the other copper was in the face of one of the other guys shouting things like ” what are you doing here, you have no business here, what are you guys up too “.
The big copper was pulling me around and reaching inside my jacket still looking for this mysterious knife, he kept hold of my collar to stop me from running away, not that I would have, I had not done anything illegal and was not carrying any weapon of any kind.
Well not that I knew of, I have known someone to be taken into custardy because he was carrying a concealed thin aluminum comb.
Fatso kept pulling me around like a rag doll, pulling me from side to side as roughly has he could.
I said to the copper “ what the fuck is this all about ”.
He replied aggressively ” SHUT UP, YOU LITTLE PRICK and give me the knife “, he then stopped searching me a for a second and put one of his hands in front of his face and said “ you are soaking wet, you’ve been in the hotel swimming pool causing a disturbance”, why he needed to look at his hand ill never know if his hand was wet looking at it would not have confirmed it.
I said ” no I haven’t, I haven’t been anywhere near the pool, I didn't even know they had one, we only just got here a couple of minutes ago”.
( Photo 5 ) . This was me in 1975, sitting on my Yamaha RD 250, this is what I looked like back then with the same leather jacket on, the same jacket that the copper was pulling around.
He just looked at me for a few seconds and came closer to me with his face inches from mine hid breath smelt of stale tobacco and said “ you have done something, you're going to spend a night in the cell “ , he then pushed me back and said all over again ” WHERE'S THE KNIFE, BOY “and started to pull me around again.
I said “ what fucking knife”.
The fat copper answered, he had stopped shouting now “ don’t be stupid boy, you’ve soaking wet you’ve been in the pool that’s all the proof I need to take you down the station”.
I replied “ I went swimming in the harbour, I haven’t been anywhere near the hotel pool ”.
The copper stared at me, I could hear the cogs turning in his head, and then he shouted at me again “ DO I LOOK LIKE A FOOL TO YOU BOY ”.
I didn’t answer that.
This copper was getting really annoyed with me, I said ” it is seawater, it’s salty “.
The copper kept hold of me and kept pulling me around and refusing to release his grip on me, I could feel his grip tighten on my collar, my jacket which was now halfway down my arm and my back, I could have just slipped out of the jacket, if I wanted too, but he was too thick to work that out, if I had made a run for it there was no way this guy was going to catch me, I had no intention of doing a runner, as far as I was concerned, I had nothing to answer for, apart from being wet.
While this was all happening an employee from the Sea-Bank hotel came out from inside the hotel via the main entrance to see what all the noise was about, because this copper was doing all the shouting and making a right noisy scene , if anyone was causing a disturbance it was the copper.
The waiter or whatever he was, had a good look at what was happening outside the hotel entrance, he took good look around and watched the scene for a few seconds, and then as quickly as he turned up, he disappeared back inside the hotel, and within a minute or so, the hotel manager came out from hotel through the main doors and walked up to the other quieter copper who was still talking to my friends and said “ they didn’t do it, they look nothing like the boys in the pool.
( Photo 5 ) . A copper like this one, but fatter.
The fat copper looked at the manager and then back to me, he pulled me towards him very roughly, he bent over and looked me right in the face.
He was about 2 inches away from my nose, I could feel his hot breath on my face, I pulled my head back to keep some kind of distance, and he said “ we are fed up with you biker types coming down here from the valleys and causing trouble, now fuck off out of Porthcawl, if I see you again I’ll have you “.
He let go of my jacket, I immediately pulled the jacket back on to my shoulders and straightened myself out, he spoke to the other wooden top, he said “ come on let's go, we are wasting our time here”, he gave the manager a real long hard stare, not saying a word to him, they both got into the mini without saying another sound and the coppers once seated in the mini, just stared at us as they pulled off.
I tried not to make eye contact with the fat one, I had wound him up enough by not being freighted of him, he tried his best to intimidate me.
I still had to ride home out of Porthcawl, so I didn’t push it.
The copper was about to arrest me on some trumped-up charge until the manager come out, thanks to the hotel manager coming out when he did, he saved me from spending a night in a police cell.
The manger looked at us and said “ this is private property, please leave “ we had no issue with him and without him realizing it he had done me a favor.
So we left the hotel main entrance and waited across the road and sat on the cool grass until our friends had finished their shifts.
This was a small incident with the police with no real significance, but it does highlight the general attitude they had against bikers at the time, I remember one copper telling me at another time that I may not have been guilty of whatever they were trying to pin on me, but I must have done something to deserve their attention at some point in my life and that was good enough for him, there were more to come from these guys over the following years.
The police using bully boy tactics just made everything hard for them to do whatever they had to do, I don’t know how they acted with other people, but coppers during the 70s and 80s seem to target bikers, or am I just being paranoid, I had more than my far share of crap off them, who knows, maybe it was just me being me.
We went back to the knights Arms to pick the bikes up, the pub was still bouncing with many people still drinking outside, we went straight from there and rode to the party, there I just got drunk and smoked some weed and just chilled for the rest of the night and laughed about what we had done earlier in the day with the fat copper being the butt of most of the laughter.
This was just another weekend in the 70s.