Tony R:
Sandway, Stevie Smith is , and has been living in Spain for at least 10 yrs, maybe 15, but, unfortunetly now drives a wheelchair, not in the best of health.
Hello Tony R. Thats sad news. If you are in touch with Stevie please tell him he has been mentioned on the forum and one of his old Promotor pals has been asking of him. Give him my best regards.
In what area of Spain is he living?.
SUPERCUBE:
sandway:
I heard a tale many years ago that Stevie had a cousin called Slim (I believe he may have done a bit of work for Promotor) who, if you where having a problem with someone, could be relied on to put the frightners on them. I heard he only had to look them in the eye and utter his famous expression “I’m gonna bite yer face” for them to back off pronto. If that isn’t the case Mr Slim I apologise most profusely.Having a senior moment there, your right he was Stevens cousin not bro in law and yes his nickname was slim but as for putting the frighteners on someone I’d have been a bit more wary of Steve, Mick was always too ■■■■■■ to give serious grief, Bobby (aka crack on to Macon) told me Steve was known as the Bow basher, he was a bit handy.
Oh what a let down! For over 35 years I thought the Slim story was gospel. Just goes to show you should never listen to old wives (or lorry drivers) tales. Mind you, I always thought Stevie was a lovely amiable pussycat. But what do I know.
sandway:
SUPERCUBE:
sandway:
I heard a tale many years ago that Stevie had a cousin called Slim (I believe he may have done a bit of work for Promotor) who, if you where having a problem with someone, could be relied on to put the frightners on them. I heard he only had to look them in the eye and utter his famous expression “I’m gonna bite yer face” for them to back off pronto. If that isn’t the case Mr Slim I apologise most profusely.Having a senior moment there, your right he was Stevens cousin not bro in law and yes his nickname was slim but as for putting the frighteners on someone I’d have been a bit more wary of Steve, Mick was always too ■■■■■■ to give serious grief, Bobby (aka crack on to Macon) told me Steve was known as the Bow basher, he was a bit handy.
Oh what a let down! For over 35 years I thought the Slim story was gospel. Just goes to show you should never listen to old wives (or lorry drivers) tales. Mind you, I always thought Stevie was a lovely amiable pussycat. But what do I know.
You’re right, Steve is a nice bloke, I can’t imagine him now in a wheelchair as someone put on here, when he lived on canvey I lived in Romford and I had a drink with him a couple of times, he was so easy to get on with, still I suppose it will come to us all eventually.
Another character on there was an owner driver name of John McFall, he was a giant at 6’ something and in the region of 20stone, he had a ERF non sleeper and slept across the engine cowling, I woke him up one morning in Yugo, the curtains went back and there he was sitting there with a massive great lump of cake in his mouth, I had to walk away cos I was laughing so much, some time later he bought a motor off Peter so it was in the right colours for the job he was doing.
Sandway, I have known Stevie and Slim for nearly 60 yrs, and yes they are cousins, But also brothers-in- laws. Stevie married Sandra who was Slims wife Patseys sister. Stevie lives in the Almeria region of Spain near Vera. Slim still lives on Canvey Island. Regards Tony.
Promotor picked up a Ford contract to look after their promotional vehicles in the early 90’s and because of that had to move from Tunbridge Wells to Childerditch near Brentwood to be near Ford’s head office. The first major job was the upcoming Mondeo launch which I think happened in early 93. I had thought it to be earlier and had dated a couple of photos accordingly. We had in the region of 180 cars in total of which about 80 were Mondoes at that time. It was Ford’s most important launch of a new vehicle ever. “Nothing must go wrong” or so it was drilled into us. The future of Fords depended on it. The advertising boys had come up with an idea to be screened on TV which involved 2 cars coming together and then merging into one which kind of appeared like a mirage in a desert. An Israeli company got the job of filming and we were told to prepare some cars and ship them out to Israel and provide men onsite to assist as required. Tony Blackman was our expert on preparing cars and was put in charge once we arrived on site. He drove one truck loaded up to the gunnels with gear. Three more of us were required as there was so much stuff to go. Stevie Smith, Graham Bertram and myself went as we were all very experienced drivers. We ran down through France and Italy to Bari. Ferried to Greece then across to Piraeus to board the ferry to Haifa. This went via Rhodes and Larnaca. After Cyprus we ran into one of the worst storms for many years to hit the eastern med. I took to my bunk whilst the other 3 propped up the bar. Once we arrived in Haifa we ran down to Tel Aviv and were put up in a fantastic hotel. Well, after Hotel Scania and heavy seas any hotel was great. I was only there a day or so then returned home. The other three, I believe, went down to the Negev desert where the filming took place. It must have been late November at this time. Filming was still taking place towards Christmas and a decision to fly the 3 lads home was taken. However, Stevie I think it was, suggested we fly his wife Sandra out to Israel and they would make a holiday of it. So thats what happened.
The resulting ad was quite something. There was one all silver car, I mean like all silver. The windscreen, windows, tyres, exhaust pipe. Everything was painted silver. The other car was a cutaway and these 2 cars merged in the desert to be one. The new Mondeo. Bryan May did the score. His famous " everything I do is driven by you" was used. Or was it just “driven by you”. Dunno. Must see if the old ad is on youtube.
Tony R:
Sandway, I have known Stevie and Slim for nearly 60 yrs, and yes they are cousins, But also brothers-in- laws. Stevie married Sandra who was Slims wife Patseys sister. Stevie lives in the Almeria region of Spain near Vera. Slim still lives on Canvey Island. Regards Tony.
Hello Tony R. Vera you say. Thats really got me thinking. A few years ago I spent a lot of time in Turre (Essex New Town in the sun) which is about 10 miles from Vera. One day we went to Los Gallardos residential and camping site which is between the 2 towns. We had a meal in the restaurant and during the meal I could have sworn I saw Stevie there. I dismissed the idea and put it down to the fact that we had drunk a lot of vino. What a fool I was. I should have realised Stevie wasn’t an apparition but who’d have thought I would see him there 1,500 miles from Essex.
Tony R:
Sandway, I have known Stevie and Slim for nearly 60 yrs, and yes they are cousins, But also brothers-in- laws. Stevie married Sandra who was Slims wife Patseys sister. Stevie lives in the Almeria region of Spain near Vera. Slim still lives on Canvey Island. Regards Tony.
Tony, I thought Micky was married to a Norwegian girl, he met her when she was doing the courier job on a coach he was driving, and I’m sure someone posted on f/b he died, you understand I am going by what I’ve been told so perhaps now I can get the story right.
SUPERCUBE:
Tony R:
Sandway, I have known Stevie and Slim for nearly 60 yrs, and yes they are cousins, But also brothers-in- laws. Stevie married Sandra who was Slims wife Patseys sister. Stevie lives in the Almeria region of Spain near Vera. Slim still lives on Canvey Island. Regards Tony.Tony, I thought Micky was married to a Norwegian girl, he met her when she was doing the courier job on a coach he was driving, and I’m sure someone posted on f/b he died, you understand I am going by what I’ve been told so perhaps now I can get the story right.
I came round a corner at the West Kent Cold Store in Dunton Green and there was Stevie standing in the back of a Pro-Motor trailer. Nothing unusual in that then. Except that he had hold of Billy Tooke’s ankles and was holding him out of the back of the trailer, upside down and threatening to drop him on his head. Luckily, I talked Stevie out of doing it and he let Billy down. Billy does no more than to leg it to the corner and then start shouting and swearing at Stevie. Steve jumps out of the trailer and chases him off out of sight. I couldn’t be arsed to save Tookie again, so left them to it.
Tony R:
Sandway, I have known Stevie and Slim for nearly 60 yrs, and yes they are cousins, But also brothers-in- laws. Stevie married Sandra who was Slims wife Patseys sister. Stevie lives in the Almeria region of Spain near Vera. Slim still lives on Canvey Island. Regards Tony.
Tony. If you are in contact with Stevie, please tell him that Mick Twemlow sends his best regards and say that the next time that I see him in the Zagreb Motel, then the calamari are on him.
We used to start off a night at the Motel with a couple of plates of calamari each, then have a proper dinner. Happy days.
Back between 1990 and 1995, I was an owner driver and spent those five years living in Moscow and operating the truck from there. A large part of my work was running down to Poland, swapping trailers and then returning to Moscow or other destinations in Russia or the Ukraine. It would have been winter 1991 or 1992 and I had left Minsk heading for Moscow. As I got to Smolensk I came to the dip where you dropped down, passed the large fuel station on your left and the small one on your right. You then passed the police post, as you climbed up the other side. It was snowing heavily.
Suddenly a Pro-Motor truck came into sight, out of the blizzard, driving in the opposite direction. I flashed my headlights and hit the air horn, then pulled over to the side of the road. But the truck did not stop. He probably did not see me until the last minute, because of the snow and would not have recognised my truck, which was a plain, white Daf 95, pulling a blue tilt.
I was sure though that the driver was Stevie Smith.
I knew that he had left Pro-Motor in the 80s but did not realise until I read this thread that he had returned to The Evil Empire by the 90s. Therefore, I thought that I must have been mistaken. So, maybe I wasn’t.
Vodka Cola Cowboy:
Back between 1990 and 1995, I was an owner driver and spent those five years living in Moscow and operating the truck from there. A large part of my work was running down to Poland, swapping trailers and then returning to Moscow or other destinations in Russia or the Ukraine. It would have been winter 1991 or 1992 and I had left Minsk heading for Moscow. As I got to Smolensk I came to the dip where you dropped down, passed the large fuel station on your left and the small one on your right. You then passed the police post, as you climbed up the other side. It was snowing heavily.
Suddenly a Pro-Motor truck came into sight, out of the blizzard, driving in the opposite direction. I flashed my headlights and hit the air horn, then pulled over to the side of the road. But the truck did not stop. He probably did not see me until the last minute, because of the snow and would not have recognised my truck, which was a plain, white Daf 95, pulling a blue tilt.
I was sure though that the driver was Stevie Smith.
I knew that he had left Pro-Motor in the 80s but did not realise until I read this thread that he had returned to The Evil Empire by the 90s. Therefore, I thought that I must have been mistaken. So, maybe I wasn’t.
Well, there you go then. Maybe the Stevie Smith we both saw was an apparition!!! But I never did believe in ghosts.
SAndway, Sent you a PM. Tony.
sandway:
Vodka Cola Cowboy:
Back between 1990 and 1995, I was an owner driver and spent those five years living in Moscow and operating the truck from there. A large part of my work was running down to Poland, swapping trailers and then returning to Moscow or other destinations in Russia or the Ukraine. It would have been winter 1991 or 1992 and I had left Minsk heading for Moscow. As I got to Smolensk I came to the dip where you dropped down, passed the large fuel station on your left and the small one on your right. You then passed the police post, as you climbed up the other side. It was snowing heavily.
Suddenly a Pro-Motor truck came into sight, out of the blizzard, driving in the opposite direction. I flashed my headlights and hit the air horn, then pulled over to the side of the road. But the truck did not stop. He probably did not see me until the last minute, because of the snow and would not have recognised my truck, which was a plain, white Daf 95, pulling a blue tilt.
I was sure though that the driver was Stevie Smith.
I knew that he had left Pro-Motor in the 80s but did not realise until I read this thread that he had returned to The Evil Empire by the 90s. Therefore, I thought that I must have been mistaken. So, maybe I wasn’t.Well, there you go then. Maybe the Stevie Smith we both saw was an apparition!!! But I never did believe in ghosts.
Trouble was we passed each other so quickly, because the visibility was atrocious that I was not sure.
A nice little anecdote there Micky T about Stevie and Tookie. It take me back to when I fist joined Promotor. I visited them a couple of times at Dunton Green and Dave Stagg, transport manager, said I could have a job but it might be a month or two before a vacancy came up. On the second visit I remember Tookie, who could do no wrong as far as Staggie was concerned, took me for a test drive up to the quarry where the trailers were parked and back and I was given the thumbs up. That was on a Saturday morning. The following Friday Staggie was on the phone wanting to know when I could start. So much for a month or two. I had to give a weeks notice, to be fair, to Invicta Transport who I was working for at that time so I started after that. I got on well with Tookie and visited him and his family at his home in Maidstone. Of course a couple of years later the tragic house fire and loss of his daughter was an unbelievable tragedy. Tookie did a lot of Yugos as we all did. We often shipped over Dover to Zeebrugge on the midnight ferry. I would most times get to a lay-by just north of Munchen that night (new tacho card at Archen). Tookie always got the other side of Munchen. No wonder he was Staggies favourite.
Now don’t that just about sum up the British lorry driver. Cigarette in his mouth, a smile on his face and a bent dipstick!!! Come on Blue buckup, you’re meant to be a high calibre representative of Promotor International. The external face of the company.
Just been reading of the terrible things going on in Syria. This civil war has been going on for at least 5 years and no end is in sight. However, this is not a new thing. Its been going on for many years. I remember back in 81 or 82 I was making my way north heading home when I came to the outskirts of Hama. There were eight or nine lorries parked up on the side of the road. A couple were Brits with a sprinkling of other nationalities. I slowed down and drove past them but was then confronted by a military roadblock. I stopped and they said I must park up. Now, when I first saw these soldiers I thought they were British paratroopers as they were all wearing maroon berets and appeared very smart but of course that wasn’t the case. I found out later that some of Assads elite soldiers wear them. I had a word with the other two British lads who said they thought they would let us go in a couple of hours so off I went to make a cuppa. After about an hour there was a lot of shouting and then gunfire as the soldiers ran down the road ordering us all to turn round and go. As they were firing their guns in the air and not being to sure when they would lower their sites we all did as we were told and hightailed it back down the road. We all made our way over to the coast then up near Latakia and then back towards Aleppo. I heard later on the BBC World Service that Hafez Al-Assad, father of President Assad who is in charge now, had sent his air force and elite soldiers into Hama to take on the Muslim Brotherhood who were giving him all sorts of grief. A massacre had taken place that night and over the next few days and obviously they didn’t want us sitting around to witness it.
After being week ended its always nice to hit the road again. Today its an easy poodle down to Bari.
As I have already posted, Promotor was in the Negev Desert in southern Israel in late 92 on a film shoot for the new Ford Mondeo. After leaving the UK we ran down to Bari in southern Italy, took the ferry to Patras, then drove across to Piraeus. There we embarked on the Dimitrios Express, it was a back on job. The ship was a bit of a rust bucket, but it got us to Haifa in Israel and only broke down once! Trouble was when we broke down and were wallowing something alarming we were in the middle of one of the worst storms seen in the eastern med. for many years. Thats when I wedged myself in my bunk whilst the others were propping up the bar to stop it falling over, they said. We went via Rhodes where we had six hours ashore and it rained most of the time. We also called in to Larnaca in Cyprus and it was raining there also. When we arrived in Haifa we did passport control. Of course we couldn’t have visas stamped in our passports so they were on a separate sheet of paper. We were met by representatives of the film company who led us down to Tel Aviv. I was only there a day or so then returned home. The others three worked with the film company and were there for around 8 weeks. Unfortunately I took no pictures whilst in Israel. I have attached one of a port where we were about to tie up. That might be Haifa?
I have now attached the last of my photos portraying Promotors trip to Israel. A trip we all enjoyed immensely but the other three more so as I drew the short straw and had to come home early.
Looks like that would have been an interesting trip. There cant be many drivers or British companies who have run to Israel!
