Gary Firby: The Duke of Windy

By Jamie Boyle

Bullied as a child, The Guvnor, prisoner, Roy Shaw belt holder, barred out of the city of Newcastle for six years, doorman, bareknuckle fighter and chosen actor who'll be playing Viv Graham in The Sayers film.

Felling's Gary Firby has led just a bit of a colourful life. Now for the first time with Jamie Boyle Author / Film Maker he'll be penning his life story, The Duke of Windy Nook!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WarCryPress UK
• Release date: Feb 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781912543373

Book preview

GARY FIRBY

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‘THE DUKE OF WINDY NOOK’

‘THE DUKE OF WINDY NOOK’

GARY FIRBY

by Jamie Boyle

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www.warcrypress.co.uk

Jamie Boyle (c)

NOTE:

The views and opinions expressed in this book are those of the interviewee, in the main Gary Firby, they were obtained during a recorded interview and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the author.

GARY FIRBY: THE DUKE OF WINDY NOOK

ISBN: 978-1-912543-37-3

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying and, without the written permission of the copyright holder, application for which should be addressed to the publisher via the dealing agent at [e-mail]. Such written permission must also be obtained before any part of this publication is stored in a retrieval system of any nature. This book is sold subject to the Standard Terms and Conditions of Sale of New Books and may not be re-sold in the UK below the net price fixed by the Publisher / Agent. GARY FIRBY: THE DUKE OF WINDY NOOK. Produced by Warcry Press (part of Roobix Ltd) on behalf of Jamie Boyle, North Yorkshire (c) 2020.

Printed and bound in Great Britain by PMM Group

Book Cover Design by Gavin Parker Art – gavinparker.uk

Find out more at facebook.com/warcrypublishing/

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to my Mam (Irene), Dad (Brian), my children Joe, Eleshah, James and Lilly. Also, to my wife Clare and mother of Lilly who made me change my life when I got out of prison. I will be forever indebted to you all xx…

CHAPTERS

Foreword                         1

Introduction                               5

Gary Firby                                    9

My Beginning                                    11

Discovering the noble art                        19

The Young Firby                              24

Being naughty                                    31

Behind the Door                              38

A Chip?                                     48

‘You mean A Bag of Tatties on my Shoulder’

Fight, Fight, Fight                              54

The Birth of an MMA Legend                        66

London Nights                                    73

Drugs & Alcohol                              78

Hello, Hello, Hello                              83

Frisk Man Frisk                              88

Fog on The Tyne                              91

Reaching My Everest                              95

Being the Guvnor                              105

Notorious                                    111

Viv no more for ’94                              116

Party hard, but Train Harder!                        122

Fishing & Spooks                              127

A Different Kind of Fishing!                        133

Life? Go with The Flow                        137

The Final Say                                    142

FOREWORD

I first came across the name of Gary Firby when he was boxing at Caesars Palace in London. I watched several of Gary’s fights, I thought he was fantastic and he always amazed me.

The thing that strikes me about Gary other than his electric blue eyes is the excitement which is attached to all of his punch-ups. You know when you are watching someone special.

Gary got into the game deep, from way up North right into London and he took on anyone that was put in front of him. If you could bottle the sheer guts that Firby had it would change the world. Gary wasn’t only a brawler, he was smart enough to box also and be clever enough to set traps for his opponents and counter punch. Gary knew what he was doing in the ring and had great experience. Another thing about Gary which set him aside from everybody else was he was only small in stature, around 5ft 9 and only weighed around 13st 7lbs when he took on the big ugly giants of our business. Compared to some of the monsters he was facing he was tiny, often weighing seven stone plus less than his opponents. He may have given so much away in advantages but boy did he make up with it with heart, guts and determination.

Gary Firby didn’t walk into the unlicensed game like Cliff Fields and Roy Shaw with a real professional background or glittering amateur careers. Gary Firby tackled some of the toughest men in London with those electric blue eyes shining out. The man was just marvellous, absolutely out of this world and seemed to fear nobody.

Gary took on people who fought for European titles in the pro’s and never batted a fucking eyelid. Firby would fight anyone and I’d just like to say that I love Gary like a son and I was truly honoured to have passed my Guvnor belt down to him. The man is just totally loyal as fuck.

Regardless of whatever Gary’s said in this book I would like to see him stay retired as The Guvnor. If he made a comeback I’d fully support him 100% but I really wouldn’t want to see that. I love the man to pieces and as I’ve said I love him like a son. He’s only ever been tremendously loyal, honest and truthful to me.

‘Stormin’ Norman Buckland – The Guvnor

"I first met Gary when he was working the doors in Newcastle’s infamous Bigg Market. It takes a tough man to work any doors but those ones had kick offs every night of the week but Gary always sorted things out and kept the punters safe.

I have watched a few of his unlicensed fights that Steve Wraith invited me to and I never saw him lose. He has become a good friend to me and my family over the years and has just landed the role as Viv Graham in a film about my life. He is an honest family man and I wish him nothing but happiness."

Stephen Sayers

INTRODUCTION

Although me and Gary Firby are the same age and grew up within the North East boxing scene through the 90’s, I never came across him. We even shared mutual opponents in Scott Rogan (R.I.P) of Grainger Park ABC but for the life of me I can’t remember ever hearing of him which is unusual among the Northern amateur circuit because usually the Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Sunderland, Darlington and Hartlepool lot all end up being very familiar with each other. Even if you don’t end up boxing each other you’re so used to seeing various clubs at shows around the North.

The first time I came across the name of Gary Firby will have been around 2008 and he was on every unlicensed fight poster in the North East because the fucker was so active. I would often walk around Middlesbrough and see Boro promotor Tony Robinson’s fight posters up and nine times out of ten Firby’s name would be on them. Either he’s got millions of kids to support or he’s just a psychopath who loves fighting, I thought as I looked at his shaven head, startling blue eyes and angry stare.

To be honest, although I’m the biggest pugilist fan and somewhat of a historian in the game, I’ve only ever been interested in amateur and professional boxing. Yes, I’ve watched the Lenny McLean v Roy Shaw fights and read a bit of the game’s old traditional history from yesteryear but I had little interest in it until I came across Gary on a personal level. I knew Gary as a prolific fighter who would fight any man in the world for easily the best part of a decade before I got to know him.

I received a message to one of my social media pages sending me his number because he wanted to talk to me. I’m often sent messages from people I don’t know, many of them are to say something nice about my work, at other times its to send me abuse and I’ve even had the odd one or two who call me out for a fight because they haven’t liked the latest True Crime book I’ve released! Nine times out of ten I don’t ring people and especially not hard case looking nutters like Gary Firby but for some reason I did and I’m glad I did. Basically, Gary wanted to speak to me to tell me he’d just read the ‘Lee Duffy – The Whole of the Moon’ book that I had written. Considering I’d never spoken to Gary before or even met him I couldn’t get him off the phone, he was very easy to speak to. He was saying how good he thought the book was and just how unique the whole Lee Duffy life story was. I have to be honest here, by this point I’d known who Gary was for a decade but I’d never heard him speak and I just assumed, wrongly, that he’d be a bit of a Neanderthal but he did surprise me, he’s very clued up. I chatted to Gary that day in the summer of 2018 and I saved his number. I think we may have exchanged memes and other silly banter over the next year or so that Gary and I kept in touch. Before I got to know him, I’d have sworn he couldn’t even read but he did surprise me often by getting in touch to talk about many of my various releases i.e. Paul Sykes, Roy Shaw or Dominic Negus etc…

I wouldn’t actually meet Gary until January 2020 in a bar in Middlesbrough. Garry Fraser, who was a director on The Trainspotting 2 film had rounded up the troops for his forthcoming film on the life of the well-known West End crime family the Sayers with people such as Stephen Sayers, Steve Wraith and Paul Venis. When I first met Gary in the flesh he was nothing like I thought he was going to be like. I knew he was going to be friendly enough because I’d spoken to him for the last year or so but I was surprised that although he was obviously a hardman, there was no edge to him. What I mean is I’ve met a lot of this type now because it’s been my job for the last four years. Some of them have big ego’s and like their bellies tickled like a dog but I never got that from Gary and it was admirable. He was very warm and when I spoke with him he was interested in me whereas normally his kind can be narcissistic sociopaths and only interested in themselves.

2020 has been a bloody awful year for everybody in the world but it was also the year I really got to know the Firbanator. As I’ve already stated I wasn’t even really aware of the unlicensed boxing game or anything at all what Gary Firby had achieved until North East fight promotor Steve Wraith put it into context for me. I also wrote Steve Wraith’s biography ‘Every Boys Dream’ and I had to spend a lot of hours in Steve’s Newcastle West End office which had Gary Firby fight posters all over. Over several visits to Steve’s office the conversation must have got around to Gary Firby and that conversation really pricked my interest in him seriously. I think Gary had even suggested previously that I write his book but until then I hadn’t given it much thought, that was until Steve Wraith said, He’s a fucking legend him you know whilst pointing up at one of the Gary Firby fight posters. I must have looked like an Alsatian tilting my head and my ears were now up. I think that was the point where I first became aware of just what Gary Firby had done in the game and perhaps I should get his book done ASAP.

Steve told me that day that not only was Gary Firby a legend but he’d achieved more than Lenny McLean & Roy Shaw put together, on paper at least. Up until this point I liked Gary Firby immensely but to write his book was another thing so I suppose I’ve got Steve Wraith to thank for tipping me off.

One thing in life which annoys me is people who judge other people before they get to know them. I often have people who say they can’t stand me because of the work I do and then when they meet me they just realise I’m even more of an arsehole than they had first thought (HA HA)! No, jokes aside, I’m probably guilty of not judging Gary Firby fairly before I knew him, but I certainly thought he was going to be different. Gary Firby is the kind of lad I could go for a pint with. I’m drawn to weird crazy oddballs who like a laugh like a pisshead to a curry and Gary Firby is exactly one of them but I mean that in the nicest possible way. Although, you don’t really tend to realise he’s a bit of an oddball until you’ve spent a bit of time with him.

This book you’re about to read is over 12 hours and 40 minutes of the best bits of sitting with the Firbanator over three days. He’s been an absolute pleasure to work with from the start in August until the finish in October 2020. Whatever I’ve asked him to do there’s never any drama whatsoever with what