#68-2: Liverpool
During my time at University in Liverpool, I didn’t witness much violence at all. Despite the bad reports that you sometimes hear about big cities, Liverpool was never that bad a place to go out. Of course there were incidents, but they were usually minor, and I never experienced any such trouble myself. This may be because I tend to keep myself to myself, but I never felt uncomfortable or unsafe when I was out in the town.
There is a big club called “Nation” in Wolstenholme Square. It’s most well-known as being the home of “Cream”, Liverpool’s famous nightclub which closed several years ago. There are still other events going on there, and during my three years I went to a few drum & bass nights there. They were always good fun, everyone got on (mostly because they were all on ecstasy and too busy gurning and hugging each other to do anything else). There used to be an event every Wednesday called “Medication”, which offered cheap entry for students, loud house music and many single people for the night. I went quite a few times - it wasn’t really my cup of tea, but I like a night out as much as anyone else.
One particuar time, my housemate Paul’s younger brother came over to visit from Ireland. Paul, wanting to show him a good night out, got us all to go to Medication for the evening. We had a good evening, but on leaving at 2am (closing time), Paul got into an argument with the bouncers. He tried to go out of the door holding a bottle of WKD in each hand, and the bouncers (rightfully) stopped him, saying he couldn’t do so. The corridors for leaving were very narrow, and Paul asked if he could step outside quickly to finish his bottles and clear the corridor. The bouncers were indignant that he couldn’t, and Paul downed the remains of one bottle and then proceeded to argue with the bouncers. They forced his bottle off him and pushed him out of the door, where he proceeded to noisily remonstrate with them about the injustice of them taking a drink off him that he had paid for. He asked several times to see the manager, only to be met with apathy and silence.
I’ll admit it now, he was being a bit of a tool. I understood where he was coming from, but the bouncers were only doing their job and making sure that he didn’t go and smash the bottle over someone’s head. Obviously it seems like a good idea to argue when you’re drunk, however.
The bouncers grabbed Paul and dragged him to the other side of a set of security railings, which are put there to keep the crowds back from the exits. There were lots of people around as it was kicking out time, and the scuffle didn’t go unnoticed. An official-looking woman who seemed to be the manager had appeared at the exit, and Paul promptly escaped the bouncers’ grasp and went up to question her on why he couldn’t finish his bottle. He’d barely got two words out before two bouncers grabbed him again, forced him back to the other side of the security railing… and then began to throw punches at him. The crowds backed off and there was a lot of comotion - girls screaming “get off him!” and many people just watching and wondering what on earth Paul had done to deserve this.
He went down to the floor almost instantly, as the bouncers were big and he didn’t really stand a chance. His brother saw this and ran over quickly, punching one bouncer and throwing him backwards, but he took a surprise punch from the other bouncer and hit the floor himself, at which point yet another bouncer ran in, and they both started kicking what I can only describe as seven shades of shit out of them both. I like to think that I’m able to look after myself, and I won’t deny that I was very tempted to jump in to try and help Paul out, but upon seeing the kicking they were receiving, I really wasn’t about to throw myself into it when I wasn’t part of what was going on in the first place.
This all happened very quickly, and was probably over in ten seconds or so. Before this happened though, one of the bouncers grabbed Paul’s bottle, and broke it over his brother’s head. I’d seen enough by this point and I think the crowd had too - the jeers and shouting had become absolutely deafening, and the bouncers backed off and went back to the door of the club, taking a lot of verbal abuse from the irate crowd. Paul and his brother managed to pick themselves up and were in a bad way. Paul’s teeth were wonky, his nose was bleeding and his face was red from the kicks he’d taken - his brother was bleeding profusely from the side of his head where the bottle had struck and he too was nursing a lot of bruises. There was a police van just round the corner and we told them about everything - a few policemen got out and started the questioning the bouncers and the crowd, and the driver gave us all a lift to the hospital.
I don’t think anything ever came of this in a legal sense, but it was an eye-opener for me. I’d never seen violence that bad in real life before, and again I was quite shocked by it all. One thing I will note is that when the fight originally started, one of the bouncers shouted “watch for the camera” as they ran over to Paul - it’s quite clear that the bouncers watched exactly where they started the trouble because they knew they could be caught on CCTV if they did it in certain areas. It’s the age-old “give them a kicking down a back alley” style.
Needless to say, I think that the bouncers in both these stories are pathetic, spineless police force rejects who have a god complex and a serious problem when it comes to abuse of pseudo-authority. I won’t say that Paul wasn’t inviting them to start something with him, but the use of a bottle is never, ever necessary.