I met an old pal of mine who was working as an office boy for a firm of solicitors. They had a football team and were a player short for an important match in the Yorkshire and District competition. Using such skill as I had, I played in the match and managed to score three goals.
I was asked to play in the quarterfinals, where I scored five goals. Then I was asked to play in the semi-finals, and scored a hat trick.
On the day of the final, I was due to attend an interview at Barclays Bank in Nottingham. When the senior partner at the firm found out, he was livid. He thought Bury and Walkers had a very real chance of winning the championship, and was adamant that I should play.
To cut a long story short, they had no alternative but to offer me a job as an office boy's assistant, earning the grand salary of £4.10s a week. And so my legal career was born.
I hadn't given up my aspirations to a show-business career, but thought that having this job would placate my parents and also give me a bit of spending money. So that I would look smart on my first day, my parents bought me a pair of cavalry twill trousers and a new sports coat. When I arrived at the solicitors' office, all the men were wearing suits. To say I felt out of place is an understatement. I swore an oath then that one day I would have a different suit for every day.
My first two tasks as office boy's assistant were to blow up his rugby ball for the senior partner's son, and to fetch sandwiches and buns for the typing pool.
I managed twelve months before I was sacked.
This was all due to Lord Byron.
One of the partners had bought an antique desk belonging to Lord Byron. I had never heard of him, and I assumed that it was going to be replaced by a 'proper' one from MFI. With some help, I took the desk down to the basement, and thought that would be the end of it. In effect, it was. Three months later, when the auction house Christie's came to value the desk, I rushed to the basement to find it. (By that time I'd found out who Lord Byron was.) Unfortunately, our caretaker had shared my initial ignorance. He had burned the desk, believing it to be rubbish. The senior partner was not altogether happy, and I found myself applying for a job at another firm.
Here I was promoted to the exalted position of Office Boy first class, carrying out a series of mundane tasks commensurate with my ability. Then on one occasion I was asked to take some papers to the local Magistrates Court. I went inside and watched the advocates dealing with their cases. They were resplendent in their black coats and pinstripe trousers, and the whole essence of the theatre was apparent to me. I wanted to wear a suit like theirs– – I wanted to be just like them.
My passion for the law had begun.
I worked in the wilderness for 3 or 4 years. I still hoped for a career in music, but as time was passing by, I started to attend night-school classes. My almost impossible goal was to become a solicitor of the Supreme Court – without A–Levels, a degree or even, to be frank, a formal education.
I worked in Wakefield for 3 years, until in l971 I left G. W. Towell & Co to work in a place I had only heard of, called Rotherham. I was told it was a rough area, full of macho men who liked to fight. It was so rough even the kids played conkers with hammers.
On 4 September 1971 I married my wife Jennifer. We had met through music – she was an accomplished opera singer from a theatrical background.
I started work as a Legal Executive with Creehan, Tierney, Hartnill and Co on 20 September l971 . No Byron desks this time! I continued ploughing through my examinations, and was given six months off to go to Leeds University to complete my finals.
I enjoyed it. It was a whole new life for me, because of course I had been used to working. The six months soon passed and, with a substantial measure of luck, I passed my exams and became a solicitor of the Supreme Court.
My mum and dad paid for my first black jacket and pinstripe trousers. A little different from the sports coat and cavalry twill trousers I wore when I first started this job.
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