by Mick Norman
The Home of Great Cult Fiction!
FALLEN ANGELS
THE LAST HEROES QUARTET
GUARDIAN ANGELS
A giant rock group tour is being planned, with top names from the United States, and security is the big problem with the promoters. How can they avoid the appalling violence from rioting fans, without jeopardising the lives of the security guards themselves?
The Hell’s Angels seem the answer, and Gerry Vinson’s Last Heroes emerge from their Welsh retreat to do the honours. But the American groups have organised their own protection – an American chapter. The inevitable rivalry and ill-feeling is only averted when they are faced with a new threat – the satined and scented skulls!
ANGELS ON MY MIND
The Hell’s Angels are outsiders. They make up their own rules. They delight in perverting the ‘normal’ way of life and turn their backs on the rest of society.
But for those who get in their way, and won’t let them have what they want, they have only one answer – violence. And ebven when the do-gooders step in to save lost souls, they find that what goes on inside an Angel’s head is too much. Stranger than fiction, in fact.
What started out as a crusade ends in death. The Angels swear revenge on those who betray them.
Editorial Comment
We are proud to present the four books in Mick Norman’s Angel Chronicles: Angels from Hell, Angel Challenge, Guardian Angels and Angels on my Mind, in two omnibus editions. Often called The Last Heroes Quartet or The Angels Chronicles, we at Piccadilly Publishing have decided to put them under the colours of FALLEN ANGELS—thus making these classics of the 1970s Hells Angels’ culture available in electronic form for the very first time, with stunning artwork by Tony Masero.
The books were Mick Norman’s (or more precisely, Laurence James’) vision of the then future. Laurence was an editor at New English Library at a time when they were publishing biker pulp-fiction by the likes of Peter Cave and Alex R. Stuart. He was Richard Allen’s editor and dealt with some of the Jim Moffat skinhead books. On the back of these, Laurence decided to change tack—and sent in the manuscript of Angels from Hell anonymously to another editor. He stated that he only every thought of there being just the one book but NEL took up the option and Laurence went on to write three more.
Often called “trash fiction” or “low culture”, the Angel quartet actually sold over a quarter of a million copies, and has gained a cult fiction following. It was their combination of sex and violence, the anti-establishment theme of “us” against “them” which made these books a success at the time.
This fiction is not for the politically correct and is very much a product of its time. It is gritty and realistically brutal. The sex, drugs, violence and music references remain intact because it very much mirrors the attitude of the UK-based Hell’s Angels.
These novels are pure nostalgia, harking back to a time that many bikers of a certain age might identify with. Triumph, Norton, Harley-Davidson and Velocettes grace the pages.
We do not apologise for it.
Mike Stotter,
Editor
FALLEN ANGELS
THE LAST HEROES QUARTET
VOLUME TWO
GUARDIAN ANGELS
CONTENTS
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One: To Smile and Do My Show
Chapter Two: We’re Gonna Rap It Up
Chapter Three: To Gather Flower Constantly
Chapter Four: I Lay Traps for Troubadours
Chapter Five: The Highway Is For Gamblers
Chapter Six: They’ll Pinch Themselves and Squeal
Chapter Seven: So You Want to be a Rock and Roll Star?
Chapter Eight: About Some Useless Information
Chapter Nine: On A Tour of One-Night Stands
Chapter Ten: Get Back, Get Back, Get Back to Where You Once Belonged
Chapter Eleven:The Timeless Explosion of Fantasy’s Dream
Chapter Twelve: The Motor-Cycle Black Madonna, Two Wheeled Gypsy Queen
Chapter Thirteen: And The Corner Sign, Says It’s Closing Time
Chapter Fourteen: It Really Was Such A Night
Chapter Fifteen: And Bid Farewell And Not Give A Damn
Chapter Sixteen: Grey Turns Green
ANGELS ON MY MIND
CONTENTS
Title
Dedication
Chapter One: Grey Turns Green
Chapter Two: A Time to be Reaping
Chapter Three: Ballad of a Thin Man
Chapter Four: Talk That Talk
Chapter Five: Drunk Man – Street Car – Foot Slip – There You Are
Chapter Six: Listen Closely To Me
Chapter Seven: And Don’t Speak Too Soon
Chapter Eight: The Smoke Rings of your Mind
Chapter Nine: That’s What Haunts Me
Chapter Ten: And You Hide From My Eyes
Chapter Eleven: Peeking Through Her Keyhole
Chapter Twelve: I Felt the Earth Move
Chapter Thirteen: It’s Bad For Your Health He Said
Chapter Fourteen: The Death Count Gets Higher
Chapter Fifteen: And Handed Out Strongly
Chapter Sixteen: You Ask Why I Don’t Live Here
Chapter Seventeen: That’s Strung A Knot In My Mind
Chapter Eighteen: Time Will Tell Just Who Fell and Who’s Been Left Behind
Chapter Nineteen: A Restless Farewell
Editorial
Copyright
About Piccadilly Publishing
This is dedicated to the day the music died – February 3rd 1959
One – To Smile and Do My Show
‘End of May 1940 it was. I’d been lying there on the bleeding beaches for three days with bugger-all food and only half a canteen of water. Finally, we get our number called and this major comes poncing down to us. “You there,” he says. Very high class. “You there. You men can go and form up as a rear-guard over beyond the canal.” Well, we all knew that Jerry was waiting there, itching for the go-ahead from Berlin to run all over us. But, orders was orders, so we gets up and he leads us over the dunes.’
‘Was there much shooting?’
‘Not much. A lot of them Stukas – Christ only knows where the Brylcream boys were – but not much else. Anyway, we gets over the back of the sand-hills, all among the trucks and equipment that had been busted up, and he calls us round him and goes into this speech. About how proud he was to be able to lead us on this mission and how proud he was sure we were about having the chance to make the ultimate sacrifice.’
‘Bloody hell, Tom. That was a short intermission. Looks like we’re going to be back in business soon.’
‘Yeah. Anyway. Just time to finish me story. This Major went on about home and country and King and mothers and babies. How we’d lay down our lives and that it showed no greater love. Something like that. He did it really well. I was nearly crying with the emotion. In fact, I found me eyes were all blurred. I had to wipe them before I could see. Then I shot the silly little fucker in the back and we all sodded off and got on a boat back to Blighty.’
‘Good days, eh Tom? Good days. Here we go.’
The theatre lights dimmed once, then came up again as though it had all been a mistake. Then, they made their mind up and slipped off into darkness. The screaming that had been going on through the interval, barely above conversational tone – as though the teenies and middies were keeping their hands in – now boomed up to a level that neared the pain barrier.
A solid row of navy-blue power stretching along the front of the stalls, the aging commissionaires winced and some put gloved hands to ears. Most of them braced themselves for the second half of the show, knowing that thi
s would be the big test. That the few girls and women who’d made runs at the stage in the first half were just feeling the way for the others. Waxed moustaches bristled, trouser seams were straightened, fingers flexed, watering eyes were wiped, and thudding hearts crept faster. On the dark chest of every man there was the bright splash of colour of rainbow medals – gallantry awards, stars from Burma, the desert, NAAFI medals, and, in one case, the subdued purple of the bronze cross – ‘awarded for the most conspicuous bravery or pre-eminent act of self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty in the face of the enemy.’
One searing light, bursting through the dust and dope smoke, stabbing at the centre of the stage. The screaming doubled, trebled.
Several years earlier, just before the inevitable decision was made to scrap it, an enterprising T.V. journalist had made a decibel test which compared the engine noise of the Concorde at take-off against one thousand fans of the then popular group, Mealy Plum. Few people were surprised when the plane lost. Apart from having a certain surreal beauty, the plane never won anything.
A slim figure minced on the stage, wearing a tight-fitting black suit with a tightly-knotted silver tie. The hair was cropped short – not as severe as the Skulls, but shorter than usual – and the eyes twinkled under a dusting of silver powder. Facing the black pit of screeching females, he waved a negligent hand, the silver finger-guard catching the spotlight and bouncing it back into the audience.
The voice was harsh, surprisingly loud for such a small man. Amplified and double-echoed it thundered out. ‘Lovely! Lovely! Glad to see you’re all still here. Quiet, hush a minute. Shut your gobs! That’s better. Now, Roland Porringer Super-shows have got a second part here for you that’s just packed with jean-creamers. Two acts. Only two. Shame! Here’s the first. Specially for the middies. Let’s hear it for “Mucking Punt”. Lovely! Lovely!!’
This was for the middies. The teenies would get their kicks later when the top of the bill came on. The line of commissionaires braced themselves as waves of middle-aged – and older – women hurtled forward in an attempt to get at the stage. Tom found himself facing an Amazonian figure, nearly as tall as himself and probably twice the weight. Her face painted in the garish fifties fashion of the middies, her mouth a crimson cavern, she struck blindly at him. The lilac silk blouse she was wearing tore across the front with the effort of her blows and her enormous breasts spilled out, distracting Tom for a moment. In that instant, she brought up a nylon-clad knee smartly into his groin.
Things went black and he clutched at his savaged genitals, sinking to his knees. In a second, the woman was trying to climb up to the stage over him. When the blackness cleared, he felt her weight on him, kneeling on his shoulders. Pressing down with all his aging strength, Tom managed to rise to his feet, throwing her back towards the auditorium. She fell on other women, crashing into a chaos of flailing limbs. Tom caught a brief glimpse of her breasts, jiggling apart, then she vanished as another woman planted her foot in the centre of her stomach to help her own progress.
‘Chivalry be damned,’ thought Tom, crossing a swift right to the middie’s face. Cutting his knuckles on her teeth. Watching a flower of blood blossom in the middle of her face. Getting ready for the next one.
It took a full, savage five minutes of fighting to get the women cleared from the front of the theatre. Legislation aimed at checking at the hysteria and casualties at pop concerts had made it illegal for police to enter theatres unless a serious breach of the peace seemed imminent. This measure had been intended to minimise provocation, but seemed to have had little effect. It had placed the onus for security on promoters, who had tried dogs and hoses, but adverse publicity had caused the cancellation of several tours.
No private firm would handle a pop concert, so the publicity agent for this package, Rupert Colt, had been forced to enlist the help of the Corps of Commissionaires. They were willing to help – the payment was more than generous – but some of their members had reservations about possible danger. “Gang of kids and a few frustrated housewives”, that was what they had been told. “Probably get a chance to cop a feel with some of the ladies.”
But, it wasn’t working but that way. Tom groaned as he surreptitiously rubbed the damaged part of his anatomy. ‘Bloody cows!’ Still, they’d been hurled back and there was only one act to go.
Behind him, Mucking Punt were coming to the end of their first song, oblivious of the frenzy in the audience. There were four in the group – all under fifteen. They were all dressed in a similar fashion. Bare to the waist, with tight jeans, supported by garish braces, and heavy working-men’s boots. Their hair was shoulder-length and back-combed to give a bizarre bouffant appearance. They wore no makeup at all – unusual among pop groups, but their teeth had been filed down to needle points and tipped with vermilion paint.
The stage was littered with gifts, tied with ribbon or brightly-coloured paper. The thing that had shocked Tom most was when some of the middies – old enough to be his daughter – had ostentatiously taken off their knickers, bits of lace to his thinking, and thrown them at the young boys.
At the end of the first song the leader had picked up one of the pairs of pants and wiped the sweat from his face with them. Then, he had wiped suggestively at his crotch, getting more cries and screams. Finally, he had spat into them and thrown them back to the howling mob.
Then, boots stamping heavily, guitars swung low on their hips, Mucking Punt moved on into their second song. Called “I live in an old body and I’m young”, it was aimed deliberately at the middie-boppers in the audience. Tom couldn’t hear most of the words, as the volume was set way up high, but he could have sworn he heard a line about how this woman thought her breasts were like ‘wrinkled prunes’.
In front of the thin blue line, the mob of middle-aged women screamed and howled at their idols. On the stage, the group played on regardless. A third and fourth song followed, heightening the mood. A thin woman of forty, just to the left of Tom, dressed in a light blue denim jacket and absurdly short skirt stood, tears rolling down her powdered cheeks, hardly aware that she was touching herself and that her arousal was self-induced.
‘Disgusting!’ screamed Tom to his neighbour.
‘What?’ he yelled back, unable to hear, though they stood together with arms linked against the pressure of the middies.
Tom shook his head hopelessly. The noise was really getting to him, numbing his mind and making it hard to think with any kind of coherence. It penetrated though that Mucking Punt seemed to have finished playing, though the screams from the older women carried on. He had noticed vaguely that the young half of the audience – the teenies – had been comparatively quiet during the set, just keeping the moans going to stay at a high ready for their own special idols.
The lead vocalist sidled up to the mike, sweat streaking his naked chest. ‘All right. All right. Me and Chris and Dick and Jeremy are splitting now. Nice doing it for you. Sorry these senile old bastards kept you away from us. See you all again and think of us when you’re in your beds.’
Another onslaught on the commissionaires from the middies and Mucking Punt were gone.
Tom’s mate banged him on the arm to attract his attention. ‘Rude devils! If it hadn’t been for us those women might have torn him and his poof friends to shreds!’
He nodded his agreement. The noise was building again, and talking seemed more effort than it was worth. But, he tried. ‘Nearly over. Last damned time I get involved in this. I say, it’s the last time for me. Never again. Still, it should be only the little girls this time. Easier than some of those heavies. Eh?’
The screaming had built to a crescendo of agony, and the compere was finding it impossible to get into his build-up. For his own special climax, Tiny Tony Nelson had changed into a silver suit with a tightly-knotted black tie. The shining finger-guard was gold, and a ruby earring dangled fetchingly.
His voice cracked with the effort of trying to climb above the bedlam, and he finall
y gave it best. He pointed up into the shadowed flies, high above the proscenium arch of the old theatre. His mouth opened, revealing a twinkling of diamond fillings to his teeth. “Erection Set!”
Total blackness.
The keening sound of a bass guitar on full feedback, throbbing round the echoing cavern. Above it all, the distorted voice of a man, whispering obscenities. Or, were they obscenities? The distortion was so arranged that nobody could ever be quite sure. The words could mean whatever you wanted them to mean.
When the blue lights flicked back on, the steel cables had lowered the gondola-shaped stage to the centre of the stage proper. It had unwound from the roof of the theatre where a helicopter waited to whisk them away at the end of their set. Erection Set would hardly leave that stage-within-a-stage for their entire act, and a roadie was always on the watch for any threatened invasion by fans. The steel cable could be operated within seconds to lift them up, up and away.
Tom glanced over his shoulder for a second, just so that he could tell his envious grandchildren that he had seen the magical duo. The taller one – nobody knew the real names of either man, and they refused to adopt any stage names as individuals – wore his hair very long, secured to silver nipple rings. Apart from a ‘minimum’ of leather, his only other adornment was a cluster of little bells hung over his groin.
His partner, who was shorter and much fatter, wore only a see-through lace dress. Nothing else. He played electric flute – painted pink and shaped like no flute you’ve ever seen. The taller one played a bass guitar, with a beautifully engraved reproduction of a naked girl exactly where his pale fingers plucked the steel strings.
Their opening number was mainly an instrumental, with repetitions of the phrase ‘Rub yourself on me’ at decreasing intervals and at increasing volume. It ended with the shorter one on his knees, rubbing the end of his flute faster and faster and faster against the strings of the taller one’s guitar.