I started my advertising career in the London office of MCN in late 1976. I was the lowest of the low, as evidenced by my job title – Classified advertising punkawallah.
I loved riding bikes so this was the perfect job for me. I got on well and in my spare time was retained, for no money, by BEMSEE, the British Motorcycle Racing Club. My job was marketing and advertising. This brought me into contact with many aspiring riders with whom I became good friends over the years. Gary Lingham, Simon Buckmaster and Keith Huewen to name a few. I was the same age as them which helped.
In about February 1981 I somehow persuaded BEMSEE and most of the pro GP riders from UK to attend a pre season shakedown test at Brands Hatch. Brands’ management thought we were completely stupid (we were) but we went ahead. I cannot for the life of me understand how I managed it but all the top riders came including Barry Sheene Akai Yamaha, Team Heron Suzuki Roger Marshall and Mick Grant etc. Being February it was cold, very cold and it also snowed for several days before and during the event which was held on a Saturday.
Incredibly over three thousand fans turned up and paid I think, just one pound, to sit in the stands in the freezing cold and watch nothing. The garages and pit lane were very busy; teams, mechanics, riders, motor homes and such like were all present but no one would ride due to the snow and inherent danger.
I was facing a somewhat embarrassing situation when all of a sudden Barry came up to me and said he would ride a slow lap or two just for the fans. Word spread and most of the other riders followed suit. Despite the lack of grip, frost bitten fingers and balls of steel they all did it and the fans went mad for it. It turned out to be a great day and sort of got me known a little in the racing scene in GB.
My history with Barry goes back a bit further than that. Graham Saunders, a cousin of mine had been at Suzuki working as one of his mechanics so I had heard from him about Suzuki and Sheene. Then I was a sidecar passenger in about 78-80 and had met Barry a good number of times, well enough for him to know my name etc.
At the time of the Brands test day I was dating a page three model Gina. It’s the only time in my life I have ever dated a girl so out of my league, but we were introduced by a friend, who employed her as a hairdresser in his salon in Bromley. I foolishly asked her out and to my surprise she said yes. More out of sympathy I guess but beggars can’t be choosers and I can tell you walking into a pub with her on my arm was fabulous.
She was with me on the Brands day and was desperate to meet Barry. He saw Gina with me and when he got the chance (in other words when Stephanie wasn’t looking) he galloped over to talk to me about nothing and introduced himself to her. Gina and I didn’t last, no surprise and no heartache there then.
Later that summer I was the UK rider manager for all British riders, who wanted to ride at the famous Chimay road race in southern Belgium. The year before I had raced in my sidecar team there, and the circuit management had asked me to organise a strong contingent of riders for the following year. Barry always raced there but did his own deal. Chimay, for those who don’t know it, is a road circuit of a different age. Long at over 6kms with a back straight over 2kms long. It was incredibly fast and attracted a massive crowd every year.
I was wandering around the paddock checking that all was well with ‘my riders’ when Barry’s motorhome door suddenly burst open. Barry was standing there shouting in a low voice at me. ‘Ian Ian quick come over here, got something to show you’. I went over to him and then was shoved inside his motorhome and sat down at the table. ‘Look look at this mate’. He was like an excited little school boy as he produced the latest copy of Mayfair magazine, inside which were 9 pages of a naked Gina! In a way that bonded us a little and though I would never claim to be a ‘friend’ of Barry’s we always got along well thereafter.
I was at Snetterton that summer at a British Championship race helping a friend of mine and his underfunded private team. By now I was sort of well known to many riders. Denys Rohan the MD of Suzuki bikes, and who I didn’t know too well, surprised me by coming over, shaking my hand and asking for a chat with me later that day. Between the races we met in the back of the Suzuki garage where upon he offered me the job of Suzuki PR and marketing services manager! I was completely stunned. To this day I have no idea why I was chosen and got the gig. I accepted but said I had no idea what they wanted so asked to meet Denys the next day at Suzuki HQ. When I met Denys I found out that the job wasn’t just bikes but all divisions which at the time were bikes, cars, marine, corporate and racing. Power products were added later just in case I was bored. I was also interviewed by John Turner who was group MD and a frightening man. A pussycat really but we got on well and my appointment was confirmed. I think I started the following Monday.
Suzuki then moved to Crawley and life as PR/Marketing boy was never less than hectic but great fun. Denys called me into his office in about November 1982. We were alone and he announced that he was going to tell me something that was top secret. Suzuki had re-signed Barry Sheene for the following season and I was in charge of all publicity and PR for it.
I was completely dumbstruck, my hero Barry was coming back to Suzuki! Denys’s plan was to have a launch exclusive for the Daily Mail at Donington Park. I told him outright that if he made it an exclusive all the other media would ignore the story and it would backfire massively in his face. He was annoyed at me for saying this but knew I was right. So in typical Denys fashion he said, ‘ok, well then you handle the Donington Park launch and you had better not f**k it up’.
We booked the track for January, told all the world media, booked the local hotel and arranged the team stuff etc.
The internal Suzuki announcement was met with a huge rush of excitement throughout the company. The buzz in the offices was wonderful. Barry made several appearances at the Gatwick Road location. His home, The Manor House, at Charlwood, was only about ten-fifteen minutes drive around the airport service road so was easy for him to pop in. I was really excited about the launch event which was due to happen a week or so later. When it happened it even caught us out. There were hundreds of journos and tv crews, all eager to get first shots of him and ‘private interviews’. The hotel was literally full and the night before we had to shield Barry from the media so as to have something to launch the next day. One should remember this was only six months after his terrible crash at Silverstone and so as a story it had massive following.
Just like the Brands day a couple of years before the track was frozen, only this time it was even worse. No riding was possible. So we commandeered the scrutinisers building and did dozens of interviews, pictures and general chit chat with the assembled media. This was pre internet and mobile phones so they were all on a deadline that meant a physical presence in the offices in London. Therefore they were all gone by lunchtime. After a few telephone interviews that I had lined up we were done.
Barry and Stephanie came over to me and asked what I thought of it. I remember telling them it was great and just watch the news the next day. He was disappointed not to have ridden the track but overall happy. Then he said to me ‘come on let’s have a laugh, get in the car and we’ll go for a spin around the track’. Barry, Stephanie and me got in his Mercedes 300 or 500 (reg number 4BSR) S class and went slipping and sliding around the full GP circuit. He was unbelievable, his driving was amazing and we didn’t dump it once. Stephanie and me were shrieking and laughing all the way. It was great fun.
I did learn a lot about Barry on this launch though. Firstly how difficult he could be to work with and secondly how nice he could be.
The night before, the Daily Mail sports writer, who had lost the exclusive don’t forget, came up to me in the hotel lobby and asked for an exclusive interview before the other papers, the next morning over breakfast. Barry heard this conversation. I was under strict instructions about no specials and had to decline, but I thanked him for coming and assured him he would get some good stuff the next day. Barry called me over to his table. I sat down and Barry was angry with me. He said ‘Ian never ever thank a journalist’. He was quite bitter about it and dismissive of me. Then he broke the mood by asking me to join him in a one arm press up competition in the lobby. He won mainly due to the fact that I couldn’t do any and he was the king of the one arm press up!
The next day I made the mistake of asking him to wear a Suzuki logo’d team jacket for the photos. Once again he got me in a corner and shouted at me, ‘Ian don’t ask me again, I am not wearing one. Everyone will know who I ride for and Suzuki will get masses of publicity’. Yet after the car ride around the track he and Stephanie came up to me in the quiet of the garage and gave me a big hug, and said a really heart felt thanks for all the work on this press launch ‘homecoming to Suzuki’ day at Donington. It meant a lot to me. Actually he did put his leathers and boots on for picture by and on the bike, which looked great. I had the idea of asking him to do a one arm press up in front of the bike with Stephanie standing behind him. I expected a mouthful from him but he agreed. It looked great and was the iconic picture from that day.
Barry didn’t like coming to Suzuki HQ much. Don’t know why. But after the launch and before the season started he called me on the telephone regularly. The switchboard reception girls were always excited about talking to him and putting him through to me. ‘oh Ian it’s Barry for you’ they gushed. We got along fine, and he regularly asked me round to his house to talk about the media and promotional plans etc. I was staggered to be asked to his house. To get into his house one first had to run the Stephanie gauntlet. She would open the door and shout ‘shoes off’. No outdoor shoes were allowed in the house. Then I would always follow here into the kitchen. The house was never less than spotless. To be fair she was more than just a beautiful woman, she was kind, warm and intelligent. I was always offered tea or coffee and we would chat about nothing until Barry called me into his office.
His office was a small, ten foot square room, back along the entrance hallway. There was no desk but a couple of leather chairs and a Chesterfield sofa around a coffee table. On the coffee table was his famous Mickey Mouse telephone. I had seen this telephone over the years in loads of pictures but thought it was a toy. Not so, it actually worked and rang constantly. We would check publicity photos of him, talk about race or dealer meetings coming up. He would comment or even moan about certain journalists but wasn’t really interested in other riders at Suzuki or gossip of any kind. He knew I was with the team in Port Rush the year before when his old mate John Newbold was killed, but he never once asked me anything about it. I suppose for riders death was a close companion and they just ignored it, probably the best policy.
I would often walk with Barry to the workshop behind the house to check over the team prep for the next race. It was always busy in there, I found it fascinating. In the first four months of 1983 I would estimate I spoke to Barry once or twice a week, visited his home six times and worked with him at events another six times. He was recording Just Amazing (or as it was known in the trade Just Appalling) and I once found myself taking him to Heathrow in my little old Ford Capri. He had no airs and graces and never got above himself in those situations. He was a normal Joe Public kind of guy.
I knew Barry as a fan and then as a racer and as a colleague if I could put it that way. I was never less than in awe of him and yet he could disappoint people very easily. World Champions don’t win many popularity contests among those who really know them. They can be aloof, arrogant, single minded and brutal. Yet we all loved him and the world has been a less colourful place without him.
He sent a nice card to my wife and I on the occasion of our wedding.
In April 1983 we all drove to the Le Mans Circuit for the GP. I went with Keith Huewen in his 2.8 Capri and we hooned it all the way. I was specifically handling Keith’s promotion at that race. The next morning, probably the Thursday of race week, Barry came up to me for a chit chat about nothing. He asked if I had driven. He had driven too, unusual for him as he would normally fly himself to ‘local’ races. He knew that I lived in Peacehaven and made a bet with me that when each of us got home after the race would leave an answer phone message on the other’s phone. The loser would buy the champagne or something like that. I got home and called him to leave a message. He never left a message for me.
The following day I was in Denys Rohan’s office being made redundant! Bike sales had fallen off the cliff and though they wanted me to stay I and 22 other staff were to be let go. I was shell-shocked, I loved my job, was good at it and didn’t want to leave. Right at that moment Barry walked into the office. Interrupting nothing he thought, he slapped me on the back and announced I had won the bet and he would buy me some champers. He could tell there was a problem when Denys said to him ‘not now Barry’.
A couple of minutes later I left the office and found Barry waiting for me. I told him and we walked back to my office to clear my desk. He told me to keep in touch.
Ian Burgess