STEVIE KNOCK
Stevie Knock is a bouncer extraordinaire. He worked the door for 13 years and he’s seen the lot, knows the lot, had more rucks … you know the score! What Stevie doesn’t know about the door isn’t worth knowing!
If you’re on the door, he says, you know you’re going to get trouble sooner or later if you work long enough then you’ve got to be prepared. What surprised me was that he blames women for a lot of it. It’s the women who often kick up, he says. ‘They can start a hell of a lot.’
The women start it, then the men with them, as Stevie puts it, ‘their mentality does them in. It’s the old male bravado. The men finish what the women started …’
Stevie is big, bloody big. He’s training and fitness mad. When he walks into a room he has a presence, an aura. Everything about him is rugged and manly. He hasn’t really got a neck – it’s as big as his shoulders, it’s as if his head has just been plopped on to his shoulders.
Get him talking about the door and suddenly he comes alive. He has story after story of violent encounters, each one more brutal than the last. He leaps to his feet to emphasise what happened during a stabbing; he acts out every detail, not to show off or boast but to make sure I get the story exactly right. He has gone, and still would go, toe to toe with any man from here to wherever. He is as tough and brutal as they come.
But … but … every man has an Achilles heel and Stevie is no exception.
Just the mere mention of his girlfriend’s name turns this big guy to jelly. Julia is the love of his life. His girl, his sweetheart, his friend and confidante. Suddenly, the conversation is no longer about violence, violence, violence. Now it’s all top hat and tails, romance, bridesmaids … Yep, Stevie and Julia are getting married. Will she tame him? We’ll see …
BACKGROUND
I had two sisters but one died when I was nine and she was eight. That was a big turning point for me. My other sister is still alive, she’s youger than me. I was brought up in Bermondsey, we used to live down the Old Kent Road. I had a really difficult childhood. There was no money about. Dad wasn’t always there so my mum brought me up alone a lot of the time. Then my sister died and that freaked me out.
I looked like a little angel but I was very, very agressive. I think that came from looking after my sister. She was in and out of hospital for quite a while and it was me mainly looking after her. She had a malignant brain tumour so it affected her slowly; gradually it affected her speech and sight. She wore the national health specs and, kids being kids, she was a prime target for people to have a pop at, so me and my little gang looked after her. I was leader of the gang and I was called Knock-out Knock. It was the milkman who first called me that because I used to help him but then we fell out because I robbed him to pay for our Christmas turkey.
LIFE OF CRIME
I’ve been arrested numerous times but I’ve been lucky enough never to go away. There were accusations of violence, a few other things they couldn’t prove. I’ve been lucky.
DO YOU THINK PRISON IS A DETERRENT?
Yes, I do, because I certainly wouldn’t like my freedom taken away from me. I’m a straight guy – ish – but the trouble is when my temper gets the better of me. Normally I’m very straight, very sensible. I know what to do not to get myself into too much trouble. I try and keep two steps in front. My temper is very calculated – I can switch it on and off like a light. My trouble is – and it’s a fault of me own – I tend to be too spiteful. My own attitude is that I’ll always come out on top. Out of all the hundreds and hundreds of encounters, I’ve never lost one. Never been knocked down, never. But I’ve always been fair; anyone’s ever hit the deck, I’ve never followed it up. If he goes down, he can go down and stay there and he stays there on his own.
There was an incident once when I was working the door down the Old Kent Road and I had this Portuguese guy round telling me he was special forces, telling me how tough he was, this, that and the other. But then it got a bit out of hand. He told me I was too big or fat or whatever. When it actually comes to the row, I took his eye out. Because he’s told me how tough he was, I’ve gone in all the way. I don’t regret it. I’ve never in me life regretted anything I’ve done.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN CAPITAL PUNISHMENT?
I do for certain cases; the obvious one is the kids because they’re defenceless so someone’s got to really dish it out to these people. I couldn’t actually say for all murderers because it’s part and parcel.
Some people murder within their business, there are decent criminals. Definitely, it’s the children really. Some women ask for it – no, that’s a joke! Rapists, I don’t know, what do you do with them? I think they should go with the child molesters. No man has the right to do that, to take that.
WHAT WOULD HAVE DETERRED YOU FROM A LIFE OF CRIME?
A very well-paid job. But to get that you’d need a good education and I haven’t had the chance. Education, it’s the answer to material gains. It’s the answer to your everyday life – houses, cars, the way you eat, the way you go out. A good education does give you the basics.
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN STABBED/SHOT?
I’ve been stabbed twice in the body and cut – I had a very bad cut all around the ear. And I’ve been shot in the head. That happened when I was on the door. It’s part of door work, just one of those things. It was meant for someone else but I happened to be in the way and took the full force of a shotgun. They’re still in there now as reminders, there are about 24 shots in there.
But it’s part and parcel. At the end of the day, I’ve dished out some, so what goes around comes around. I couldn’t be a liar and a hypocrite and say I didn’t do similar.
SCARIEST MOMENT?
When I was told my sister had died, it frightened the life out of me. I didn’t know what I was going to do without her.
SADDEST MOMENT?
I was off on a weekend with the Cubs and my dad and my grandad met me off the minibus in the Old Kent Road. They told me my sister had gone into hospital to have an operation for the tumour. They said she was there for the weekend but she didn’t come out.
WHAT RATTLES YOUR CAGE?
Disrespect. I’ve got a lot of respect for people I’ve met, people like Roy Shaw, people that have got a history. What rattles my cage is these guys who go on and there’s no proven history. They make up what they like.
I mean, if I want to talk about my past there’s always been someone there to back up what I say.
So disrespect rattles my cage. And bullies. I can’t stand a bully, never have done.
HAVE YOU EVER REALLY LOVED ANYONE?
My Julia – we’re getting married in August. And my kids.
WHAT FRIGHTENS YOU?
Harm coming to people like my family. That’s all. Not myself. Nothing bothers me like that. I’ll handle it. I’m only frightened of things I can’t control, when I’m not there, things happening to Julia or my family, my kids, mother, father, that sort of stuff.
DESCRIBE A HARD BASTARD
A hard bastard is someone who can have it toe to toe and always, or mainly, come out on top. He’s respectful with it. He’s just hard, no talk. Someone who can just get on with it, who’ll row with anyone and won’t pick and choose their victims.
NAME A HARD BASTARD
I think one of the toughest people I know is my mother. It’s a different kind of hardness. She’s tough because she’s had to be, the way she coped when my sister died. She loves kids, she’s so good with kids. She’s had a bad time with my kids because she has difficulty seeing them as often as my ex-wife has custody of them. That’s crushing but she’s tough, my mum.
Apart from that, well, I suppose I’m the toughest one I know. I’ve come against all sorts and I’ve never shied away from a fight in my life. I just wouldn’t – it’s not in my nature. I would never go into a fight thinking that I was going to lose. I’m trained in the martial arts. I’m used to full-contact fighting and kick-boxing.
WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN FIVE YEARS?
Happily married to Julia and hopefully we’ll have our first child. But, still, my principles would be the same – nothing like that will change. I see myself, in five years’ time … just happy really.
ANY REGRETS?
I could say about me ex but I won’t. I can’t have any regrets because if I had regrets I wouldn’t be where I am now. So life is what it is. If I regretted things … no … maybe life could have taken a different path. I don’t regret anything because things that have happened in my past have shaped my future, and have made me into the man I am today.