Hartlepool Born & Bred: Mick Sorby

By Jamie Boyle

From a brutal upbringing where he was constantly beaten by a sadistic father, to finding his ideal job as a teenage bouncer, a job he stayed with until retirement.

There's fights galore, Shootings and prison sentences in the Mick Sorby story.

This fighting man is also a loyal friend and loving family man who is currently enduring the biggest fight of his life against terminal cancer.

Open the pages and come with us on this hard hitting Hartlepool journey with Mick Sorby with Jamie Boyle.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WarCryPress UK
• Release date: Feb 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781912543427

Book preview

MICK SORBY

‘HARTLEPOOL BORN & BRED’

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‘HARTLEPOOL BORN & BRED’.

MICK SORBY

with Jamie Boyle

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Mick Sorby / Jamie Boyle (c)

NOTE:

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

ISBN: 978-1-912543-42-7

'HARTLEPPOOL - BORN & BRED’ - MICK SORBY with Jamie Boyle

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. ''Hartlepool born & bred". Produced by Warcry Press (part of Roobix Ltd) on behalf of Jamie Boyle, North Yorkshire (c) 2021.

Thank you to Richy Horsley for his help editing.

Printed and bound in Great Britain by the PMM Group, Leeds

Book Cover Design by Gavin Parker Art – gavinparker.uk

Find out more at facebook.com/warcryublishing

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to my granddaughter Apral Pegg. She runs around doing all kinds for me and this book is a way of letting her know grandad loves her all the world xx…

Also, I must give a special mention to Henry Pegg who’s one hell of a grandson. We almost lost Henry a few years back with sepsis but he’s still here and I’m so proud of him.

Thank you to everyone involved for their help with this book.

To all my children, grandchildren & great grandchildren, I love you all. X

A special thank you to Chafic Flouty for the lengths you went to to get me a job while I was in the open prison and for the friendship we still have today and I’d also like to thank Lenny Hornesy for hiring me when no one else would.

CONTENTS

Foreword – Richy Horsley                        1

A Word from… - Paul Suggit (Filmmaker)            5

Introduction – Jamie Boyle                        11

An Unbearable Beginning                        19

Door Work                                    29

Hartlepool Chew                              41

The Art of being a Good Doorman                  57

The Shooting of Gurmit Singh                  69

The Jailhouse Rock                              77

Pay Your Debts!                              85

The North’s Faces                              93

Our Town Hartlepool                              103

The Hartlepool Monkey                        109

What the fuck am I doing here?                  111

The Big ‘C’                                    119

Looking Back                                    127

The Good People of                               137

Hartlepool’s Views

The Raving Lunatic                               157

A Poem by Philly Gibson (1961 – 2013)

Gather Round                               159

A Poem by Philly Gibson

FOREWORD

RICHY HORSLEY

In the early 1800s during the Napoleonic wars, a French vessel sunk during a storm off the coast of Hartlepool. Some of the wreckage washed ashore which included a pet monkey that was dressed in French military garb to amuse the crew.

The local crofters and fishermen had never seen a Frenchman before and became very suspicious, so they held a trial on the beach and sentenced the ‘Frenchman’ to death by hanging and promptly hung the monkey.

Since then, people from Hartlepool have been known as ‘Monkey Hangers’. Whether it really happened is up for debate but what isn’t up for debate is the story of another Hartlepool legend, Mick Sorby, because this one is 100% true.

The first time I ever saw Mick was when I was 19. I went to a nightclub with a pal of mine, it was about 1.30 am and I said we might not get in at this time of night. Clubs shut at 2 am back then. When we arrived the door was locked so my mate banged on it. The door opened and out stepped this bloke who said, ‘Fuck Off’ and closed the door behind him.

‘Let’s go mate’ I said, ‘There’s people in there I need to see’ was his reply and he started knocking on the door. I had visions of us both getting wiped out but it soon dawned on me that my friend knew the man who told us to ‘Fuck Off’.

‘Mick please let us in, we’ve only got time for one drink’ and the pleas went on for a couple of minutes. I whispered to my mate ‘who’s that bouncer?’ ‘Mick Sorby’ he replied.  The door opened and a voice said, ‘Get in’.

Whenever I saw Mick on the door after that, I observed him, at a distance of course! He had an aura about him that oozed strength and confidence and you could see the power in the man. A few years later (I was about 23) when I had the chance to work the doors with him I understood the respect he received.

Pubs and Clubs used to be packed to the rafters back then and the place I was working at with Mick was hectic and I’m not joking when I say between one and two thousand people would be through the doors from 7pm until 11.30pm. There was only the two of us but we were very capable. Almost everyone wanted to shake Mick’s hand and buy him a drink; it was like working with a famous rock star. I used to think ‘wow this guy is something else’. Respect is earned and not given and boy had he earned it.

Not only was he a fighting man with hundreds of winning battles under his belt, but he was also a very nice bloke and if you treat him with respect you got the same in return. He did not suffer fools and piss takers and trouble causers were dealt with swiftly.

He was also a loving family man who doted on his family and also a loyal friend who would give you the last quid in his pocket and the shirt off his back.

I went to work in other pubs and clubs over the next few years and eventually teamed back up with Mick. We also did other things like debt collecting etc and had some great times.

You didn’t need a license or a badge when we worked the doors, a reputation as a good fighting man was the only badge you needed. Our method of nipping trouble in the bud and keeping it stamped out was very successful because people knew the consequences. Violence is the only language a minority of people understand and that’s the way they had to be dealt with before peace was restored. Our way isn’t allowed these days it’s seen as barbaric, but it worked! Mick was one of the last of the old school bouncers.

I hadn’t seen Mick in a number of years and got a shock when I was told he was in a bad way with cancer. I got some books together and took them to his house for him to read. I was hoping to have a chat with him but he was in bed and was very poorly. I didn’t know he had lost five stone in weight and was about to be given end of life care. Mick being the fighter he has always been fought back one last time and threw his cancer drugs in the bin. He started taking the cannabis oil, the proper stuff and not the crap you buy in the shops. After a month he started to feel better and had no pain and was putting his weight back on. He said he feels like a new man. Although the biggest fight of his life may not be over, he is fighting and winning and that’s the spirit of the man.

It has been an honour and a pleasure to have called Mick a friend throughout the years and I’m glad he is finally telling his story and letting us walk around some of his memoirs.

Good luck mate.

Richy Horsley

A WORD FROM…

PAUL SUGGITT

FILM MAKER, EXTREME ADVENTURER

& BROADCASTER

Being born and bred in Hartlepool and proud of that fact, I grew up in an era where the name Mick Sorby was synonymous with tales of violence, shootings, and as a person who was not to be messed with, should your path ever cross with his.

In the 80’s and 90’s, Mick Sorby was a big name in the town and throughout this time Mick was heavily associated with another name of significance, Terry Richardson, known locally as Terry Rich.

Terry Rich was another name to fear in the town and I would often listen to a scanner back in the day and you would hear the chatter coming from the law about Terry Rich and Mick Sorby driving around the town. There was an air of panic coming from the control room as they were alerting officers on the ground as to these two prolific names riding together and to be vigilant as to the things that could possibly happen that night.

With the shooting of Gurmit Singh in 1998 and Mick’s subsequent jail time that followed, this one incident forever cemented Mick’s name in Hartlepool as a naughty boy.

To this very day, whenever anyone talks about Mick Sorby, two things come out in the chat, the doors and the shooting.

In all the encounters I had with Mick over the years, I always found him to be a gentleman and someone who took time to chat with you.

If you didn’t know who you were talking to, you would not think that this mild-mannered man was someone with a lively past who associated with some of the biggest names of the time, including Viv Graham, Ernie Bewick and even Lee Duffy.

Whilst Mick’s mannerism was mild on the surface, you could never confuse this with him being meek.

There was an air of confidence about Mick and whenever you spoke with him, you knew this man was very sure of himself, no matter what situation he faced.

Whenever trouble started bubbling, Mick was a gentleman first and foremost who would always try and reason with someone in the hope they could figure the situation out between them before it went any further, and even then, Mick would diffuse a situation without violence wherever possible.

I have witnessed people provoking Mick and his lads on the doors to a level where other bouncers would have snapped and began lashing out in retaliation.

It must take a strong level of control when someone drunk is shouting and spitting in your face in an aggressive manner, however, Mick had a big threshold for taking the drunken abuse, and the years of him working the doors and seeing the mess some people ended up in with the drink never seemed to faze him.

I think people wanted to provoke him because of who he is so they could then boast that they tried to bash (and failed miserably) Mick Sorby.

Mick made a career out of looking after the doors and the patrons who drank in the establishments and it is a testimony of the person he is that his career far outlasted that of other doormen who stuck around for a few years before calling it a day. Mick consistently ran the doors and took the abuse and fights 6 nights a week, for 50 years! (Give or take a few years of