 When did you join Lords? Was that soon after you'd passed or? No, I gave it. It was 1970. I think it was February 1970. Was it easy to join? Yes, in those days. It was there again. It was like the Kipper season. There wasn't much work about it. Most of the fellas didn't buy their houses because February was absolutely dead. There was hardly any work about it. When did they call it the Kipper season? Why did they call it Kipper season? Nobody knows. They do not know why. Is it because you had to eat Kippers? Yes, that's all we could have bought on the table. You've always said over the years that the first two groups in London that know what the economy is doing are the prostitutes and the taxi drivers. And publicans. So then you joined the radio set. Do they then put a radio in your taxi? Yes. I think you had to pay for the fitting. It was pie. As you go up Highgate Hill, you go underneath the bridge. Or if you came along Gordon House Road Turnrise, you got the pub there. Underneath the bridge you had muses. Pie's place was there. That's PYE pie. Radio outfits. They just wire up an antenna. You put something in your book. You had a big box in your book. You had a big mouthpiece there. That's right. It's like the McDonald's drive-thru microphones. One night I used to take you to school. We used to hold on to that. And on these days I'd just come over cold because I'd just sit there holding this thing. Because I was sat in the front. There was a petition there. You sat on the petition and they held this thing. We couldn't do that these days. Mind you, things were a lot slower. The cams were a lot slower. Back in the 70s you could go anywhere in a car. At least you'd be in the boot. But in the taxi you could sit in the luggage compartment. I used to love that. Like you say, you'd have this armrest. I'd sit on and hold the microphone. I'd forgotten that. When I think about it these days... Yeah, I suppose so. Oh, it was fun. Oh, it was fun though. It's living a little, isn't it? So you had a radio fitting. The other thing I remember with the radio was that there were two things. There was a secret button. So basically it was like a proper button. So you were Apple 31. Yes. How did you get that number? No, it just dished out. Anyone who joined the circuit, the number was empty. And they gave it to you as someone might have left the circuit. Right. So you were Apple 31. Yes, Apple 31. And then could you hear other... No. You couldn't hear... You could always hear the central control. Yes. But you couldn't hear what the other... Drivers were saying, no. But you'd hear their call sign. So they'd call out, I don't know, what would it be? That's dutchali22 or something. Yes. Black65 with the pipe. Black65 with the pipe? Yeah, because he's always smoking a pipe. So you was called Black65 with the pipe? Well, this fella was. Were there any others? I can't remember any. And how did that work? Because he's like, start the cab up. And would you let them know that you were there? Yeah. They'd just put out a general call. They would say like, I grow up going to King's Cross. And you had an open call, first call. If it was so many yards on top of it, then you was a quarter of a mile, then you was half a mile. But you could sort of cheat on it. But quite fellas, they've always got calls. They're giving a false position. What would happen? You'd go for all the complaints thing and they could have been told off, or less off, or whatever. Wow. So it's like a manual Uber, isn't it? So they put out a call, pick up from Agile Grove. And right, so the open call is just to see who's there. Yeah, I can't remember. So you'd go Apple 31. I'm in. Present. Yeah. And the nearest driver got the job. But some people don't just come out. So they'd have to call like, Agile Grove to King's Cross. I love people. Didn't want to do it. I used to love doing it. Smaller ones. Because there'd be like a minimum on the clock already. How did you know what to say? Did they train you, or would they have said like a protocol of what you're supposed to say? Yes. They'd just say Apple 31, then the dispatcher used to come back to you and say, like, where are you? And you give a position, and then someone else will come in, they give their position. And you couldn't hear what they were saying? No. And he just repeated it what the other fellow had said. Did you get to know the dispatchers over time? Not really. Oh, you do. But you never sort of met them. Just plotted along. And they were based in Pentonville Road? Pentonville Road, then they moved to Maidervale. Right. Yeah, because it was, so the circuit was called Lords, but the company, the organization was the owner, driver, taxi, ODRTS, the owner, driver's radio, taxi service, bit the mouth full. And then that became Dialocab? Dialocab, that's it. And what did Mountview become? Oh, they came radio taxis. And then what ComputerCab came along? Yeah, because there's so much work, we couldn't cover it. So then the third circuit came up? Yeah. Then they couldn't cover it. That's then a full time. And then none of them. Now they're starting to fold back down again. Yeah. Join up. But it's modern technology. I mean, if we'd all been one circuit, you just couldn't cover the work. Yeah. It's technology that's changed the job. Yeah. I mean, instead of asking where Apple 31 is, they know where it is, because what they call it, GPS. Yeah. And then the other thing with the radio was he had the big button that you'd press. Yes. There was a secret button, wasn't there, like an emergency button? I think over the years, I can only remember one incident where one of our cabs, some car, wouldn't let them out of the news. So he'd press the button, then all the other cabs go around. Right, so in an emergency, you'd press this button and it would cut out all the radios, so you could only hear this one taxi. It's like an all, like an all-points emergency. I think, no, what the fellow said, he'd press the button and they'd just say, right, we've got emergency, shut you all up, be quiet, and then he could hear what he was saying. Right. And then the idea was that everyone could go down there to help him. Yes. But like you said, that only happened once in like 30 years. Yeah, well, the hour's all worked. But then there's that thing in the 80s which was that someone was pressing this button and you were, basically you had your cab fitted with like detection equipment. It was like a meter that could measure the strength and you were, they were called rat catchers. Secret swirls. Secret, I had rat catcher in my head. Okay. And then what was that about? Well, some fellas got the hump to the circuit instead of getting ripped out, they would just sit and press that button and just sing or make a noise. They just had to hump to the circuit. Well, this sort of shows the mentality of some people. And we used a London Underground map. You find it's A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and it was about four or five of us when we were working. And if they said the noise is coming from... Oh, a fella fixed his cab up that he could hear the other drivers and they could tell which area. You had a screen, like a meter on your cab and if someone else was misusing your meter would come up. Yeah, it would measure the signal strength and then they'd try and hone it down. Hone it down. Did they have a catch in? No, because I joined when... There was more than one when people started to realise that they're going to get caught so they didn't do it so much. Thanks for watching. The chat continues on the link on screen here or in the description. And thanks again for showing your love with a thumbs up or subscribe by clicking on my face or the button below. Now here's the next part of the chat with my dad.