On Broadway!

January 1988 sees me starting work (Kairdiff Vernacular) at 'The Printers' on Broadway, Roath Cardiff. It looked less like the one above and more like the one below.

It was run by two partners, John Martenson and Bob Flowers, nice guys, but what I was doing still in Printing I'll never know. Well I do know! Its all that I did know at the time but most of it in theory. Never been a very hands on practical person, more the dreamy esoteric realms type. I had studied for a BTEC OND in Printing Administration after my YOP experience in Gwasg Gee, Denbigh, nye. Your still with me then? You'll have to go back and read the full blog to get the full story but because I had failed my exams at school I was now following an alien script. I had always wanted to be a newspaper journalist, a cub reporter, something at least to do with writing and the creation of words.
I didn't have a plan so I ended up following a Plan B!
My role at the Printers in Roath was a general dogsbody, print finisher, pack and despatch and make the tea. I seemed to have a sense of humor and kept the bosses happy. It was general photocopying in the shop front and I remember the Welsh Language Playwright 'Sion Eirian' coming in to get his scripts photocopied.
It was in this Printers that I met friends that I still have to this day. One a North Walian who came for a week and escaped and another a True Blue Kardiffian. The Printers is no longer there and I believe has been many different businesses in the intervening years. I learnt a little about customers and people in these various jobs and I learnt that I didn't really like them that much. Either my misanthropy was showing itself or the symptoms of the later diagnosed 'Bipolar Disorder' were starting to appear.
I told one customer to F Off! Another from a local Mosque came back down to the shop and Bob came in and said "He wants your head on a plate". Another because I'd made a mistake with one of the Screen Printing Screens told them that I should be sacked on the spot using the words " Why buy a dog and bark yourself?"

On February 14th Valentines Night 1988, Lynette White was murdered above a Betting Shop
in James Street, Cardiff Docks
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Lynette_White
This shocking event for Cardiff and which has turned into the biggest Police Corruption case in British History had a profound affect on the Capital's subconscious and on mine.
I went on to write a play called 'Night People' which received a Highly Commended from the Drama Association of Wales in its One Act Playwriting Competition  and also a Welsh Language Monologue called 'Angel y Bore'/ 'Angel of the Morning' which premiered at the National Eisteddfod in Bala in 2009 and then was performed at the Millennium Centre in 2010. As I left the Centre that night I looked up James Street and could see the Bookies sign lit in the neon glow.

http://www.redbuttontheatre.co.uk/angelybore.htm

So shortly after my 22nd Birthday on March 1st 1988 I was given my marching orders once again but this time they did it in a nicer way. I spent that Summer as a Park Keeper at Maindy Bowling club, handing out tickets, sweeping the paths and trying to be polite to the bowlers.
In September a Printing Business came up for sale at the Royal Stuart Workshops in James Street, Cardiff Docks. I must have been mad! Well I was mad and I am mad but I bought into the dream. If I can't work for other people then I must be able to make a go of working for myself.