Nastiest fight

Hi mate! Not spoken for ages!

Anyways, what's the nastiest fight you've ever seen (or been in)? What made it so nasty, and what did you learn from it?

Hi Brian .. howya doing mate?

Well in my book ALL fights are nasty when things get wild .. but two spring to mind, one from each part of your question.. one I saw and one I was in..

strangely enough (maybe some psychologist could answer it), the one I saw affected me more than the one I was in, given that I was in no danger as a spectator????

Anyway the one I was in that I consider the nastiest involved some Pikey's or Travellers whatever... It was at a club called the Homestead in Heywood....

We had ejected three guys for simply being obnoxious, and had to work a bit hard to get them out, causing a few lumps and bumps in the process (three of us on the doors)....
Lost of dogs bark but few bite, so we had the usual 'Arnie' thing "I'll be back" ..

They did

One battered Ford Transit minibus full of scruffy evil looking guys all fired up for us ... The landlord saw them screech into the carpark and it was obvious what was coming..

so we decided as they were still slowing down and stopping to take it to them...So the three of us grabbed our favourite equalizers (mine was the Pick axe handle) and ran out into the car park to meet them.. AFterwards it turned out we were outnumbered 11-3.. the worst odds I have ever faced.... I hit anything and anybody I could... in a daze really.. I felt I was almost having an OOBE (out of body experience)....

Dont know how long it lasted seemed like 2 hours probably only 3 minutes.. But when Andertons Angels (GMP) turned up in a Black Mariah Riot van .. One lad of ours was lying badly cut up and stabbed, and 6 of them were lying on the carpark in various states of damage...
The Police told us later that their minibus was full of knives, hand axes and a shotgun..... and that warrants were out on 2 of them for manslaughter in Blackpool..

I got a few minor injuries and got patched up.... Next morning my other partner on the doors came round and said "I think we are redundant" .. drove me to the Homestead to find it burned down the ground totally gutted... nice people eh?


The one I witnessed was at the Bury Palais de Dance in 1966, I was 18.. I was upstairs on the balcony when a small scuffle between about 5 or so lads broke out about 5 yards from us (me and my mate Les) .. it stopped but I watched 3 of the lads go down the long stairs to the dance floor..

The remaining 2 or 3 stayed upstairs for a couple of minutes then they wnet to get some of their mates.. there was 7 eventually of them and they ran down the stairs and simply swamped the other three lads...
The 7 had knives and cut throat razors (popular in the 60's)..

Lots of girls screaming, lots of people trying to get out of the way and I watched in horror as these 7 simply slashed and stabbed wildly at the three lads (all 17-18 ish).. they just went at it for quite a few minutes then legged it through the firedoors.. it looked like an abbatoir when they had gone.. One lad died .. the others were almost unrecognisable as human beings.. just slashed to ribbons..... there was masses of blood and bits of flesh all over the dance floor....

I threw up outside when we all evicted out .. it seemed ages before police and ambulances arrived and the staff (and me and all the other revellers) didnt have a clue what to do..

it was the first time I actually SMELLED blood, and teh sight of one lad with almost no features left on his face and another just rolling from side to side with blood pouring from him will never leave me..

we are a F*****G sick species at times arent we?

Bloody hell, what a nightmare.

Hi Dave,

Do you think your age had something to do with the impact of the fight you witnessed? Or do you think the events would have the same emotional impact on you today?

cheers
Chris

Good question Chris .. I think (not 100% sure though) that although I had been brought up on a rough estate, up to then most of the 'violence' I had either witnessed or been involved in were 'punch ups'..

I think I was a 'severe violence virgin' up to then.. hearing tales is one thing, witnessing the actual events was another....

The one single memory was of the lad who died .. he had had his throat cut (probably with the aptly named cut throat razor) a couple of times.. and the sight of very dark rich thick arterial blood spurting through his fingers wasnt pleasant ...
I think maybe 100 people watched a young man die in front of them (I was one)... the blood simply slowed down then stopped and he was just there lifeless.. 18 years old and gone .. I never found out anymore about it, other than seeing the funeral report in the 'Bury Times'... no details about the attackers just his girl friend saying what a lovely lad he was etc.
I was 18 then and am now close to my 60th Birthday this year.. this kid would have been the same age

Just a sheer waste and it couldnt have been over anything major by the way it initially broke up... Sad

That is fackin sad Dave, Fortunately I've never witnessed anything as vicious as that.

yeah mate .. once is once too many

I'm not a psychologist or a psychiatrist Dave but i have a real interest in psychology and i'll fire off a couple of theorys if you like and see what you think.

The fact that you were only 18 when you witnessed that fight was probably a factor, you weren't used to seeing or experiencing violence, as you said you were a violence virgin. I might also guess that due to your lack of experience you were probably afraid at your own ability to handle something like that should it happen to you which no doubt would also add to the shock. Also could guilt have played a factor?

The fight you actually participated on the other hand was different in that it was several years later after you'd aquired more experience and more confidence in your ability to handle violent situations, also in the heat of the moment your only focus was on survival and getting out of it in one piece. I would also guess that the fact you were unleashing and venting aggression probably helped too.

I remember watching a documentry several years ago on PTSD (at least i think it was a documentry) which suggested that soldiers were actually more traumatised by the terrible things they'd witnessed and seen then by the things they'd actually directly participated in.

Anyway i'm not a professional and am only theorising, that would be my take on it anyway.

cant fault your theory mate .. makes sense

thanks for the input

David Turton wrote:cant fault your theory mate .. makes sense

thanks for the input

Good god, someone's agreeing with me.

Last weekend I was enjoying the sun in the local park. There was a special kids day so a lot of people where there. Out of the blue I heard someone screaming and a few guys ran so it looked more like some sport contest until I saw the baton in the hand of one guy who fell down and got booted. There was a huge scuffle of over 120 guys fighting, one got stabbed, lots of police around 10 cars and 4 vans. Although I wasn't involved with the fight I was highly switched on. Such a nice day with kids laughing etc. and such a sad ending...

The nastiest I have seen was not in a fight but when I was a kid riding with my bike. In front of me was an older guy and snap felt down, help was called and arrived but he was dead. Never saw that again it was like he got shot with a bullet and his face wasn't a pleasant view because I looked more like a puppet than a human... but in the end what is life without death.

Cheers
Julian

P.S.: Sorry for butting in but I thought it may be interesting...

Thanks Bri for indirectly reminding me of repressed memories

Let it out dude..... share it with us.

We can all de-anchor together!

I shouldnt have read this thread

I can't hope to compare with Dave...the worst act of violence i saw was a guy knocked out outside a club, the guy who had koed him climbed up onto a car and then jumped on his head! The poor guy doesnt get out much now - can't walk properly and no hope of getting a job. His attcker got 3 years!

Sounds like the justice systems across the world invariably let the victims down.

Before I was a cop, I used to work with a lovely Romanian man who was always happy and cheerful. He had come to NZ for a better life and seemed to have one. He also had a lovely daughter and wife.

Then some pieces of shit decided to rob him one morning while he was waiting for the supermarket to open. They bashed him as he lay unconscious on the ground and he never woke up.

They got 4 years and showed no remorse......what a fucking joke.

Mr Nobody wrote:Sounds like the justice systems across the world invariably let the victims down.

Before I was a cop, I used to work with a lovely Romanian man who was always happy and cheerful. He had come to NZ for a better life and seemed to have one. He also had a lovely daughter and wife.

Then some pieces of shit decided to rob him one morning while he was waiting for the supermarket to open. They bashed him as he lay unconscious on the ground and he never woke up.

They got 4 years and showed no remorse......what a fucking joke.

That sounds horrible. I hope the man's family is doing alright now. Those scum bags only got 4 yrs? What is happening to this world?

Yeah the family have moved on and the daughter is studying law at Uni. She told me her intentions were to make sure people like those who killed her father got the penalties they deserve. The last I heard, her mother was trying to join the Police for similar reasons.