Well i wanted it, i got it. I finally got it, the rough and tumble i so foolishly asked for. All of a sudden, it all seems to real...So I'm out of town tonight, first of all i get lost in the endless spaghetti of roads and junctions and turn offs. It's way out of my Town, a good hour or so. I ring boss number two and inform him. He is fine with it, as long as i get there. I arrive, the club is next to a College, and the students have passed or graduated something or other.
It is going to be a big night. Little did i know it was going to be the biggest night of Bouncing I'd ever done. In many ways....
First i was positioned by the fire exits, a nice big bright deterrent. They made me don a luminous green waist coat saying security. For the most part of the night i was looking around releasing this is it, what I've wanted to do for so long, and i love it. The club was glamorous, icy, flashy. It was packed to the brim. Short pretty girls with stunning make up, tight jeans, hair immaculate. Tonight was definitely dress to impress night for these kids. I'm not sure what the big celebration was but people were coming dresses as fairies, Mars Bars, it was most odd.
A few people trying it by sneaking through the fire exits i was guarding when my attention was caught, or climbing up on sides and platforms they shouldn't be. It really was like telling kids off, it WAS telling kids off.
The club was well designed chairs and tables modern designer, the music loud and pop. Lights lazers, it was a really nice looking club. It was so busy i was scanning around 24/7 my head whipping around when voices got too loud, or when a couple of lads play fighting went on a bit too long for me to be comfortable. But besides the abundance of tempting teenage (18+) flesh nothing really to hold the attention. All i remember feeling was, this is it...i am a bouncer.
Now, by the end of the night, the queue for the coats had grown to a ridiculously large number. There seemed to be people piling out of a magic hole from another dimension when it came to getting their coats. The place could not move, rammed. We set out metal barriers to indicate where the queue was supposed to be formed, eventually everyone gelled into place and a rowdy queue was formed, this was all still inside the club.
Some people however, tried to push their luck and get their belongings first. See i was the unlucky bouncer on preventing people from queue jumping or sneaking around the gates we'd placed. So my ears were treated with the tunes of protest for the most part of that position. "My coat is just there, please can you just get it", etc etc ..."if i let one i let all in love" etc etc For the first time ever, the job became frustrating. Loads of pretty young faces asking for me to just pop into the booth with a ticket and get their coat, forgetting there were several other hundred people asking the same thing.
It later got so rammed near the end of the night when people were collecting their coats, that some girls were getting crushed against the temporary metal railings we had to put up to maintain some kind of order. "Oi! fucking watch it" i shouted in the most professional manner i could muster. The heaving mass of bodies slowly moved backward giving the girls a bit more room. It felt like i was doing security at a Concert as opposed to inside a club, it just had that atmosphere. Mostly Asian faces. The area i thought was a village area, White. Obviously not.
Let me explain, now I'm a big Black dude from a black area, so to me it's essential to know what kind of faces and atmosphere I'm gonna be working at. Race comes into it IMO. Although after drink everyone is pretty much the same, but you have to approach most people different depending on assumptions, stereotypes which in a split second, you sometimes have to make.
We cleared everyone out fine, the club was a dejected mess of plastic bottles and cups, tissues, it looked like a bomb had fell. Good luck cleaning staff. I was half expecting to be asked to start mopping the shit up. I'm sorry there was more important issues we are payed to deal with right? and of course they must have known how this club goes...as we weren't asked to help the barstaff with chairs etc, which sometimes happen, our radios crackeld into life, and we were called outside...
Outside there was a huge gathering, about fifty or so people spread out across a huge park in front of the club. We were asked to move them from the area. The rain was coming down hard. There was an excited look on peoples faces, something was going to pop off. Black faces with hoodies looked around, i took a mental note of their grins, mugs and features. Asians in big groups huddled. The rain increased in intensity. The night wasn't over by a long shot...
I look to my left and one of my collegues is on the floor, scuffling with an asian boy, he couldnt have been over 19. Skinny, three of his mates were standing around trying to put a few fists and boots in. Pow, i steamed in and lifted the boy off my collegue, gripped him up as he was swinging about wildly and moved him away from the area as requested by another doorman. "He jus started on me for no reason man. He just come at me man" He shouted. The rain seem to increase in ferocity as the nights action peaked. God was watching?
Another fight next to me breaks out, and one of my collegues trys to restrain another Asian boy, this boy shorter, they spin in a circle scuffling i run over and see my collegue place a juicy uppercut into the boys stomach. Not needed IMO, but quick descisions are made at times. Fine. He twisted around the boy, and managed to grip him up by the time i got over there. I saw the punch from my collegue, and it was the first time really the reality and ugliness of this job hit in.
I'm working with thugs for the most part who love a scrap.
Now, i thought i was there to try and diffuse the situation and whip out the old fists at the last minute if needed, not just pop one in for the fun. the crack. I wouldn't hit anyone specially smaller than me unless i absloutely had to, really to defend myself. It was interesting to see. The whole scene was straight out of the Bouncer programmes they show on TV. Bright orange jackets falling. Scuffling...it was messy. And i was there in the middle....and then...
"YOU FUCKIN PUSSY, COME ON YOU FUCKING PUSSY" The biggest, and i mean, the biggest human being that walked the earth stormed over toward us. He was going for someone in the crowd, but the doorstaff including me were spread out in front of his target. Me and a tall white collegue instantly moved in, and tryed to calm the monster down.
No word of a lie, my adrenalin turned to fear of being fucking hit by this dude for the first time on my job. I went in ready for it. He was about 6'5 so stood over me. He must have weighed about 25 stone, he was visciously overweight, and he was fuming, i'd never been next to someone so angry and ready to fight in my life before. But i needed this early, to jump the mental hurdle.
My collegue tried to restrain him with one arm and lead him away from the clubs grass area, he wasn't going, "Can you fucking grab him please" He shouted to me, i placed a long arm over the guys massive chest and tried to push him back, this monsters face had turned from a golden Asian brown to beet root red, someone has pissed him off majorly, and he wasn't afraid to let them know he thought that they were a small feline. Many times.
He started swinging, me and my colleague were almost like two gnomes being thrown about by the Evil Giant, gripping onto his arms so we didn't go flying off into space. The big guy rocked me with a shot to my ribs, it had no force or didn't land right. So i wasn't backing off. He wanted a fight back i didn't give it. One because if I'd have got caught with those fists i don't think I'd have got back up, and two i have nothing to prove. I remained determined to get the guy away from the premises as instructed, i didn't want it to go to the ground i wanted him out by the main road.
By now blue lights could be seen in the distance. Someone had called the police. The guy thunders way from us now, as his target was spotted legging it past us while we were in the ruck. His target escaped and the bear calmed down. All the while my brain is preparing myself for a thump to the nose, i mean of all people, did i have to be hit by someone blatantly bigger than me? But i was proud to say i overcome the fear in a split second.
Remember, I'm not a fighter, i was a Office Manager in my last job, my last scrap was when i was a kid. So it's more challenging for me, then it is for dude who street fight like everyweek as standard after a beer and Kebab.
Later on the guy apologized, and shook hands with my colleague, i was standing right next to him waiting for a quick head butt to be planted and ready to pounce if so...it didn't happen.
Now, the thing is about the night. The one thing that will always stick with me. Is that there was a team of about what 10 doorstaff overall? and the only two trying to stop this monster was me and the other guy. I actually saw the others look on in fear, they later laughed and joked about how they were bricking it. Ok, fair enough. I was fucking bricking it too, I'm sorry I'm not a fighter and this guy was huge, I'm not stupid.
I needed to face someone like this early on, get it out of the way. But my point is, they could have stood around for back up. No one else was kicking off, most of the crowd had ran, only the guys friends remained. But the door staff were visibly shook, scared and weren't even close to help.
I am very very lucky i didn't get a Hulk sized fist in the kisser. It was coming, but because i wouldn't get into a fight unless i had to defend myself or my colleague it didn't happen. Last night was easily the closest I'd been to a whack. I was just a bit disappointed more experienced door staff than me were standing around looking, scared. And me, the new boy was right in there trying to restrain the beast. I guess different areas have different ways of working. And i may be back there next week...will i go? fuck yeah.
I needed to be challenged with an opponent who was bigger, and more intimidating than me to see how i reacted. I'm not even gonna lie, my gut was screaming "walk the other way Dee" there was many a corner, or alley way i could have slipped down, walked round the back of the club and stood twiddling my thumbs, whistling a bird morning song, while the ruckas kicked off elsewhere. Which is the route i think a few of the other Wussies i worked with took. But i was there, ready to get popped, in the thick of it...well done me....
I was the new boy from way out of town and i saw how another crew works, i think it's going to be good to stay with the people you know, you can be sure of. But i liked the challenge in a way. It almost felt like the big guy was there to test me, to see if I'd break.
I walked to my car the rain still screaming down. I was soaked through. I reflected on the night for a few minutes as the engine heated my drenched body up. I wiped my face of the rain, and decided to myself...i love this job. Started my engine and headed off for the long journey back home.
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