Well here we go with a new Blog for you to delve into. Thanks for the comments and feedback from the first one. I will say however that I had something completely different planned for what I was going to post today but I’ll leave that until next week now because I have to say…
What a topsy-fuckin’-turvy last few weeks this has been to say the least…
As I briefly mentioned when I sent you the Ar’ Back Yard update last week the shit has hit the fan – literally speaking of course.
I had just received the final proof of the manuscript for Ar’ Back Yard including the initial cover design (however I have to say that the cover supplied from the publishers will not be used in any way or form – yes it really was that bad) and was extremely excited to get back into the story – to see the layouts – read through the changes, etc just as soon as I returned from a break away that had been planned at the last minute.
Things couldn’t be better. They really couldn’t. I wasn’t due back into work until Sunday 11th November which would leave me a week to really delve into the final manuscript and also provide me with the much needed time to start working on Full Intensions again.
Well – that was until I was rudely awakened last Tuesday morning with an almighty banging head after a heavy night out watching The Charlatans at Shepherds Bush Empire the previous evening, only to be dragged back into work to discover they had closed down the restaurant I had been heavily involved with for the last 2 years.
Anyway – shit happens right – there’s nothing that can be done about it now so the only thing to do is look forward and crack on and make the most of the free time I now have on my hands and to concentrate more than ever on my writing.
Hence the short and sweet update last week. Which by the way, I hope you all enjoyed the new animated montage that Thiago had put together. For me that piece of work really sums up what Ar’ Back Yard represents and in all fairness looking back we should possibly have used it at an earlier date.
I see this time that I now have on my hands as a real test of my character and talking of characters, that is also what has now inspired the rest of this Blog.
I got to thinking about how when I started out writing and started thinking about whom the main characters were to be before obviously the story developed and progressed to where it has today.
Anyway I was throwing out a load of old gear a couple of months ago and I found this old folder with some of the original work I’d put together. I realised just how much the story had developed from that starting point, especially with the fact I found these old character profile sheets I’d written back in 1999.
You see, after my sister’s comments and the fact the original work I’d written and how there were – how can I put this – too many conflicts of interest I think is the best way to put it.
I therefore took a look at what I had done and then became obsessed with the main characters and how could I write about these people so that they would retain that authenticity – yet they would become fictional and wholly of the authors imagination at the same time.
I started writing a profile for each of the characters almost as if I was the character themselves. I tried to think like them, see what saw, and feel what they felt.
And I have to say for any budding authors out there who are currently working on their first novels and are having trouble in this area – well stop what you are doing right now and take a look at the characters you are writing about and ask yourself do you truly believe in those characters?
Do they make you laugh? Do the excite you? Do they make you cringe? Do they scare you? Do they feel like someone whom you could relate to whether they are good or bad?
Because if you don’t 110 percent believe them to be real then nobody else will. I put together a short bio for twelve of the characters before I started the first lot of re-writes and I found that even though they developed as the story progressed the base of each character was formed from there.
I especially found I needed to do this with the main character Chopper whom will in his own way narrate the story you will eventually read.
So with that in mind I thought maybe you’d like to read the original profiles...
Chopper
The name is Billy Chorlton – or Chopper as I’m more commonly known. I’ve spent my entire life growing up on one of Manchester's worst estates that is known as Hulme.
And there was one certainty that I knew from an early age and that was that the world is most definitely against me and my mates. I also knew that the only lucky breaks would be the ones that I would create for myself.
I never liked school nor felt it a necessity to attend and therefore I began carving out a career in crime from an early age. To begin with it was always me and Scotty. We were like brothers – always had been. Then there was Kezlo who hooked up with us later on in life but who at the same time became like a brother to us.
I always looked up to this lad from our estate called Prey. But I was always fiercely independent and wanted to do things my way.
But eventually what can I say it was probably inevitable that the three of us would end up with the unpredictable Prey, who I will say now became my mentor in matters of violence and street survival.
As the eighties rolled on I unwittingly led a life that was closer to Thatcher’s ‘every man for himself’ creed, more so than I realised back there and then. Life seems like it couldn’t be sweeter.
I mean come on for fucks sake, we was leading lives as full time criminals with ever-ending loved up nights at the some of the best clubs Manchester and its surrounding areas had to offer, the best gear, the best girls, the steady and ready cash. Life was sweet – it really couldn’t be better.
Come on just think about it for a minute will you.
The only problem was that in a sub-world that in truth is built on lies and darkness, severe outbursts of violence and corruption are always waiting in the wings.
Then on one afternoon towards the end of that decade whilst we were watching the Stone Roses at Spike Island, a chance meeting with a rival crew from Salford brings me back to the nasty reality of the world within I had always lived, and faced with the fact that there is a never-ending cycle of vengeance so characteristic of that era back then.
Welcome to my world.
Scotty
I am Scotty O’Conner or simply Scotty as everybody refers to me. I’m Chopper’s life long best friend, and I’ve been by his side since we were little kids growing up on the estate in Hulme, and I see him more as a brother than friend.
We all grew up in Hulme which is situated just outside of the city centre and right next door to Moss Side (which let’s just say could get a little lively at times) The eighties were great years and some of the shite we got up to back then was proper mental.
Both Chopper and me used to rob anything we could get our hands on (apart from robbing houses or flats that is) and that wasn’t ‘cos we had any morals or anything like that. It was simply down to the fact that there wasn’t good enough return on any of that gear.
Nah – what we needed was goods that gave us the kind of cash we needed to keep us stocked up on all the weed we smoked or kitted out in all the branded sportswear like Nike, Adidas and Kappa that went hand in hand with the sub-culture back there and then.
Kezlo
Mark Kulshaw is the name, but hardly anybody knows that as I’m known to all those who know me as Kezlo. The name was originally my tag I used when signing my latest piece of Graffiti (or Bombin’ as it was more commonly known to us)
Not to brag or anything, but I was one of Manchester’s leading Graffiti Artists back in the eighties and early nineties. I loved the entire Hip Hop scene that had arrived and was driven forward with films like Beat Street which really set up the early eighties.
Stemming from this followed my passion for music – and after I hooked up with Chopper and Scotty and became involved with all their criminal activities and the cash started to roll in, it enabled me to take my passion for music to the next level where I started to use the decks that the two lads had bought a couple of years earlier.
Dj’ing became my life back in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Joining up with Chopper and Scotty the three of us became inseparable and as the eighties and the times around us changed we all enjoyed one criminal activity after another and we were drawn deeper and deeper into the criminal underworld surrounding not only the estate but Manchester also.
Prey
Kieran O’Prey or quite simply Prey to you lot. I am the one who runs the main crew of lads from Hulme in Manchester. I’m gonna be honest and say that our activities are somewhat murky to a lot of you.
But growing up in an area that made you feel like the entire world was against you, you tended to carve out a life for yourself – no matter what means were taken to achieve an end was always my motto in life and so we did things by any means necessary to achieve that end goal.
I used to be involved as a teenager in any amount of criminal activities that would make me money to get by and was extremely ruthless with how I went about it. Armed blags became second nature to me and the cash was good – very good in fact.
However even I realised that you couldn’t last long in that game and you had little control over what could happen, no matter how careful you planned the scores.
And I knew better than most that the real money that was being made on the estate was by two families running the drugs trade in the estate. And I also knew that it was going to be something that I was going to take over once carefully planned of course.
Therefore, I now control the entire amount of smack (heroin) and weed (cannabis or high grade skunk) that is sold on the estate with what I’ll describe as military style precision, which extends to the city limits.
I’m also going to be the one who sees the potential in Chopper that nobody else has recognised, and that I will obviously take full advantage of.
Sean Macreedy
Sean Macreedy, straight up. There’s no nickname or anything. So what can I tell you then? Basically I’ve known Prey all my life as we grew up only doors apart and so whatever Prey got up to (and he got up to a lot) I followed suit and so we’ve grown up from young scallies into the men that we have become. And between the two of us we run one of Manchester’s tightest crews.
Prey was always the one to lead, there was never any doubting that and when he set forward his plans to take over all of the drug business on the estate in Hulme, then quite obviously I was going to be there to help him do that of course.
I am what Prey refers to as his Chief Lieutenant in his organisation. That means that I control all of the other lieutenant’s that are below me and they run all of the other member’s of our crew from the foot soldier’s to the watch command who are the lads that merely keep watch over the estate.
All of this might seem a little over the top to you people, but we were running an illegal business after all. So therefore we had to be more careful than anybody else out there to ensure that the police couldn’t get close to us or our organisation.
Steve Griffin
Steve Griffin is who I am and I’m the eldest of the crew (not that hardly anybody even knows I part of the crew in the first place) I’ve been in the drugs business since the sixties until I was incarcerated back in the seventies after one of my closest crew members starting chirping like a budgie and grassed on all of us.
I come into everybody’s lives at a later stage in the game – yet the timing couldn’t be more perfect for everyone involved with Prey’s crew. For I am as I said a lot older than all of them and with that I obviously carry a wealth of knowledge in not only the distribution side of the business, but more importantly the production side of the business with Class A Drugs.
And for any of you out there from back in the eighties who went to all those illegal warehouse parties and some of Manchester’s best clubs will know only too well that as the 1980’s progress, so does the level of drug intake by everyone involved. And it’s probably safe to say that a lot of the drugs you’d have taken back then were more than likely produced by myself.
Therefore I’m gonna make sure that I’m gonna be there to reap all of the benefits from the business along with Prey, Sean and Chopper living through some of Manchester’s best and worst of times.
Sleeper
Known simply as Sleeper I am originally from Manchester but now I reside down in Marylebone, London. I am actually one of Prey’s oldest and closest friends despite the distance between our locations.
I too, back there and then was involved in numerous criminal activities (and not just the drugs business) But I too realise the amount of money to be made from drugs is simply colossal and for now I am content to make a substantial living through selling them.
However – I am also the first to realise that I have other duties to take care of which are beneficial to both the business and to whom ever I feel requires the services I can provide them. All of this dependant on what the reason is and given the cause behind that reason is all for the right reasons then my services will be available.
You’ll probably think of me as a mysterious character that as you learn more about as time progresses – and the more you learn – the more afraid of my dark side you will become.
Eazy
Weighing in (the last time I checked that is) at over twenty stone I am Eazy – with a Z not a bloody S okay. As you can see I am a huge character both in stature… but I think personality as well.
I’ve known Sleeper since we were teenagers knocking about in Lewisham and London’s city centre of course. Sleeper was always a quiet character compared to me and not many kids wanted anything to do with him (although I realise now that it was more from fear than anything else) That’s because Sleeper is a truly fearless character and not one who you’d ever want to cross.
We’re really quite opposite in every way, yet I know of no other who will be the first to step up and take care of anything that I need. We are both successful at what we do and my real passion is music. And with what happened back there and then in Manchester with the likes of Chopper and Prey (and not forgetting London of course) were the best of times.
Through the help of Sleeper I got enough finance together to buy into my own record shop down in Brixton known as BoomBasticSounds. We deal in Hip Hop (mainly white label imports to begin with) and then when the Chicago music starts to land we lead the way in introducing this to the DJ’s and the clubs. And not to brag or anything, but I am one of the very best DJ’s out there.
Donna Hayes
I’m Donna Hayes and the first time I see Chopper I know that he is going to be the one and that no matter how I am going to do it I will succeed in not only getting his attention but in getting him full stop.
When I come into Chopper’s life I’ll become the reasoning voice behind him, and I’ll be the one thing in his life that he couldn’t bare to be without. I’m very head strong and very independent.
Clubbing back the eighties when the music and clubbing scene came into to play at Manchester’s greatest ever club that doesn’t even need naming, were some of the best nights out I’ll ever remember. And when Ecstasy arrived on the scene, everybody saw a new era take over what had previously existed.
And I was never stupid. I always knew what business Chopper was involved with (not that he ever talked about it with me) But I also knew that he was the one for me and none of that ever mattered. I knew that there was another side to him which doesn’t consist of all the drugs and violence that everybody else associated with him.
Chan Yung
I’m Chan Yung the owner of Chan’s Restaurant that is located in China Town, Manchester. And not to blow my own trumpet or anything but it is one of the cities finest restaurants.
I have been indebted to Prey for a number of years now as he helped – no in fact that is incorrect – for he saved my youngest son from hands of evil. And through this we have become great friends. And through Prey I have met many of his associates and closest friends like Chopper and Steve not to forget Sleeper and Eazy all of whom I have welcomed into my world.
The restaurant is merely used a cover for my other activities. I have many fingers in many pies as they like to say. So to have people around like these boys who I consider to be like family is very good for old Chan.
For old Chan knows that if he ever need help outside of my own inner circle I have these boys with whom I would trust my own life with.
Paddy
What the fuck do you want to know about me for eh? What is it to you? So what if my name is Patrick McNally or Paddy to you lot alright. And if there’s one thing I hate that’s talking to wanker’s like you, who don’t know shit about shit alright.
I’m not from Manchester even though you lot probably think it’s the same fucking place it’s not. I’m from the neighbouring city of Salford. Did you hear me say city? As in it’s a city within its own right. Manchester is Manchester and Salford is Salford – they’re not the same.
Apparently some people think that I am aggressive. I don’t why the fuck anybody thinks that or why apparently I have a fierce reputation. I mean I hear the rumours (albeit most are true of course) especially the ones about my reputation for chopping people up with a machete.
But they deserved it right? I mean you can’t let any fucker take the piss out of you can you now. I just love my weapons and the machete has been a personal favourite of mine for years now. I mean it’s just so up close and personal ain’t it.
I mean don’t get me wrong – I love guns as well – but well, they just don’t feel the same when you take someone down with one.
I run everyone around me with fear rather than respect, and I don’t give a fuck what they think as long as they do as they’re told. And the one thing that has got my back up at the moment is that fucking crew of lads from Hulme run by that twat known as Prey.
Chris Walker
Chris Walker is the name and I am also from Salford. I have known Paddy since we were little fuckin’ nippers alright and no matter how many times we fell out over the years I am the closest as a mate can get to being one with Paddy. For the simple reason that I have known Paddy all my life and because he can be lets say somewhat un-fucking-predictable I am the only one that has remained loyal to him throughout all the years.
I loved the eighties in Salford and Manchester. We had the best of times and we always made good money with all the drugs business we ran. Well that and the numerous taxing’s (basically when we – actually Paddy – simply took what he wanted from other dealers)
Paddy always made sure that I was looked after and everybody knew how close I was to him so they never fucked with me. Even after I went and ripped off that cunt Sean Macreedy – the so called Chief Lieutenant of Prey who ran the estate in Hulme. I knew that I was taking the piss, but Paddy didn't complain when I returned with the cash I’d taken.
And there had been no come back, so I thought I’d gotten away with it didn’t I? I mean months had past and still no come back so I just figured they were way too scared to come and face off against Paddy.
But what eventually happened was bad. I mean looking back I think I must have honestly known that something would happen; I mean it had to really. But I didn’t expect for things to go the way they went that day at The Greyhound.