Liverpool Narcos (2021) s01e02 Episode Script
Ecstasy
(engine revs)
Your body ♪
Your body ♪
Your body ♪
Your body ♪
- Oh not again, man.
(man knocks)
Move your body old man. (man chuckles)
Jimmy.
- Hello lad.
Hey, nosy ass.
I don't know where he can be my baby ♪
- Here's what I owe you.
- Hang on, time to step
up lad, there's 500 there.
- Fucking hell, 500 Garys? I
can't afford that, mate.
- Look, lad, they're on
strap, you can take them
and pay me tomorrow, you
know, you're all right.
- It's a lot of pills, Jimmy.
- If you don't want the graft, you know,
someone else will have it.
(dramatic music)
- All right.
- And aye,
don't go feeding them to the ducks.
- What?
- Giving them to the birds
for nothing.
- Oh yeah.
- And Paul, five grand you
owe me and you know that.
And don't fuck me about. Cheeky cunt.
- [Director] Is that how
it would play out, John.
- Yeah, but with me being a cheeky
fucker, I would have asked
for a lot more than that.
Some people say a man
is made out of mud ♪
A poor man's made out
of muscle and blood ♪
Muscle and blood and skin and bones ♪
A mind that's weak and
a back that's strong ♪
You load 16 tonnes what do you get ♪
Another day older and deeper in debt ♪
St. Peter don't call
me 'cause I can't go ♪
I owe my soul to the company store ♪
(upbeat music)
- [Director] What comes up
when you Google your name?
- Oh actually it's at the
top here, John Burton,
Liverpool, okay.
An ex crime boss, fucking
Juicebomb John. (John laughs)
- [Director] Where does
that nickname come from?
- I was putting that many steroids in me.
It was either one rib or Juicebomb John.
See not being funny but you look at that,
you know what I mean, it
just doesn't even look
anything like me.
I knew where I was going.
(dramatic folk music)
You had school and
football or you had heroin,
drug dealing or criminality
and that's the recital.
We were cheeky like growing up
and no matter what we'd be out grafting,
going out doing little burglaries on shops
and stuff like that.
If you got a few quid to buy
a little half point of weed,
than we were all young,
that's what we wanted to do
was get stoned.
And one of my mates used to have a shed
and we used to sit in the shed
getting stoned every night.
You'd be sitting in there
listening to "Dark Sides
of the Moon" or Pink Floyd "The Wall"
and you know whatever, great
tunes when you were growing up
weren't they?
My mate used to have a
little hatch as well,
you'd get a little knock
on the sides of the shed,
a little (John knocks) what'd you want?
Just a fivers please.
(John laughs)
I think on our estate there
must have been at least
100 between 13, 14 or 15 in the 80's.
Me and my mates, we just
all hang around together,
you'd mind cars on the estate
when there was a match game.
- [Director] Finding cars for what?
- Stopped them getting smashed
while they were at the match.
- [Director] Will it be
just stopping you lot
from breaking in and stealing them?
- Well if they didn't
fucking pay us then yeah.
(John laughs)
See you on the dark side of the moon ♪
- There weren't many jobs in
Liverpool in the early 80's
and heroin was taking control of the city.
So, it's just, it was
basically, you just had
to fend for yourself.
So, this was our estate
here where we would all
sort of brought up, we
moved on here in 1977.
Fun, fights, trouble, I
love where we grew up.
- [Director] And did heroin hit this side?
- Yes, heroin was terrible around here.
Anyone who went on that stuff, you know,
within a couple of months,
their lives would be off the wall.
Nice coat, that mate.
(man laughs)
(John laughs)
How are you mate?
(indistinct)
Yeah, how you getting on?
- Yeah.
What are you doing with yourself now?
- It's no good is it?
- How much are you using now?
- Do you not wanna try and
get away from it though?
- You wanna really get off it
and you want a hand, I'll help you mate.
I'll help you all day long.
(John laughs)
Oh, Neil I love you, mate.
And you Neil, I love you loads, mate.
Take care mate, ta-da lad.
That's just shocked the
fucking life out of me.
I feel a bit, I just feel a
bit tingling now me.
Neil was one of my mates growing up.
I didn't even recognise him at first.
- [Director] How old is he?
- Fucking shocked.
Probably the same age as me.
- No he's not.
- Yeah.
It's just crazy, honest to
God, it shocked me it has.
Lovely fella him as well, still is.
- [Director] Of those kids that you used
to knock around with, how
many of them are dead?
- Probably 12.
Shall we get moving on?
(dramatic music)
- 89 is a key year for Liverpool.
89 is the key year, you
know, we had Hillsborough.
- [Reporter] The death toll from
this afternoon's stadium
disaster stands at 93,
all Liverpool supporters.
- Everybody was affected,
the city was affected
and after Hillsborough, so many people
and so many things changed.
The city has seen such loss.
Loss of jobs and loss of
people, loss of families.
You know, people went to a football match
and never came home.
People wanted to forget, people
wanted to lose themselves
in something else, to not feel pain.
And then this drug
popped up, a small tablet
which created happiness.
I was in America with
the new music seminar.
I was wearing a suit and
the young man came up to me
and said, "What do you do?
And I said oh I'm the DJ, I play
at a club called the State
in Liverpool, in England.
And he said to me, do
you play house music?
And I said no I don't think so.
I actually don't know what house music is.
And he said to me house
music is like a cross
between Philly soul and New Order.
Then I went to a record store
called Downstairs Records
which was actually upstairs,
first heard a DJ mixing house music.
I realised this is the future.
And then when ecstasy appeared,
it all kinda came together
with the music.
(upbeat music)
- Goosies, mate.
Oh, probably start crying.
Andy Carroll, first DJ I heard play this.
As soon as ecstasy
happened, it's like it went
from black and white to colour.
Certainly this music turned into another
all the dimensions suddenly opened up,
you'd never heard sounds like this before.
Wow, this record sounds 10
times better than it ever did.
I went to the state when I was 15,
opened up a whole new fucking world.
It was just like a melting
pot of all these mad people.
Grown men, so to speak, the children I see
having the best time of their lives.
Never seen people like that in Liverpool.
I've never seen a fella in makeup.
I've never seen black men,
you know, simple as that,
I was just a kid from Norris Green like.
And then I went to the fucking State,
it was just like whoa.
(dramatic music)
Walked up that corridor
and I said what the fuck's that noise.
And it just fucking sounded amazing.
We shared a fucking pill.
Hey, I didn't know what
fucking it'd be like.
It was just like rushes
and rushes and rushes.
And I just started dancing.
The next thing you know
the fucking house lights
are coming on. (man laughs)
Four hours were just gone.
And then, oh man, (man sighs)
immense, mate, immense.
(dramatic music)
Life was so negative until I
came through that door, mate.
I'd never felt belonging
like I felt when I walked
through that fucking door.
As soon as I walked through that door,
I felt like I was at home,
I actually felt as ease
in this club.
I've never felt as ease in this city.
- The arrival of ecstasy
was the catalyst for change
because people wanted just to
go out and have a good time,
to dance, to forget it all.
And that allowed them to do it.
- Most of them didn't see
themselves as druggies.
Druggies are them people who
stick needles in themselves
and dying and get AIDs and all that.
These were happy, shiny,
teenage kids going out
and having the time of
their life and a lot of fun.
But nobody knew what it was
and what the potential harms might be,
taking a tablet their mate said is great.
- We will always see opportunity
as a people in Liverpool
and ecstasy was an opportunity
when there's so many people
participating in something.
There's money to be made.
Whenever there's money to be made
and if it's criminal money to be made,
that's when it's gonna get interesting.
And that's what happened with ecstasy.
(dramatic music)
(man knocks)
- Get in lad, just in time.
(indistinct)
- Busies would have a
field day in here, Robbie.
- You worry too much mate.
Latest batch is ready.
Kev's just had one.
(upbeat music)
Feel anything yet?
- It's only been 20 minutes.
- If we wanna start making proper money,
we need these to work.
That cost us two and a half grand.
- They will work.
- doesn't look like it to me.
- Look, I'm gonna need your help tonight.
- I'm telling you six time Robbie.
- That's what you said
with the last lot knobhead.
Who are they from?
- Jimmy.
- For fuck's sake, lad.
- I couldn't say no could I?
I reckon we needed the dough.
So, we get the pills right.
- They're from Jimmy.
I thought we agreed no
more deal and clubs.
- How many even are in here?
- [Paulie] 500 but we'll
spin them on tonight.
- Fuck me, Paulie.
- What lad?
- Hey lads, can we go raving please?
- Yes, yes, see told you it'd work lads.
- Brains, my son I never
fucking doubted you.
- Well, I am a genius aren't I?
- Seriously, lads can we go raving,
I'm off me fucking bonnet!
- Yes!
(dramatic music)
- I remember the first
time I ever went out
to the club property to take an E,
the place called Quadrant Park.
Never seen nothing like it in my life.
It was just chaotic.
(upbeat music)
(people holler)
Probably got to be at least
2,000 people in there.
It was glowsticks, whistles,
the way they were all dancing,
sweating, I was thinking,
what the fuck's this?
And everyone was just dancing everywhere,
hugging you and you're fucking hell.
I thought they were all like
a hang of fucking dickheads.
And I think everyone in the world did.
And then you'd have
your little half a pill.
So, you're sitting there,
you've got a bottle of water
or something in your hand, you'd be like,
yeah, shit this, and your mates are going,
yeah, yeah, I think it's shit isn't it?
And your body is start
tingling a little bit
and you be going to your
mates, I think I feel this.
(upbeat music)
And because of the music and the beats,
you just sort of feeling it
and then within 20 minutes,
you're right up there.
It was banging.
Dancing everywhere like a lunatic.
And then you probably
come around about an hour
and a half later going
what the fuck was that?
Here's the other half, bang.
Best buzz you'd ever get.
(upbeat music)
(crowd hollers)
It was a love drug.
It was weird to get used to at first
because when you've grew up in a world
where heroin was bringing
misery to Liverpool,
ecstasy was bringing happiness
and you're actually seeing
people and culture change.
(upbeat music)
- If I'd have to pick a particular era,
best years of my life,
it would be what we would save
in the rave era, phenomenal.
Big flare jeans,
bright chippy jumpers more
favoured by the merseyside select.
Upmarket shell suits
that's a classic one from 1991.
Reebok was massive in Liverpool.
They were particularly
big at the outdoor raves.
But listen, if they bounce into the gaff
in something like this, they're
getting legged out of town.
(upbeat music)
The Quad at first was another
level, it was amazing.
- I walked in and I couldn't
believe what I could see.
There was men dancing with each other.
I mean, that was unheard of.
Some of the most violent
people normally in the 80's
were hugging and kissing
and you think fucking hell.
- If you were still taking trips or wizz,
you were a bit of a meth,
'cause you had to have an E.
You were that strong,
a whole one of them,
you're going to know the world backwards
but a whole E is like 40 quid.
That's like best part of a Barbour jacket
or a pair of new Adidas from Wade Smith.
- So if we had no money,
we'd go out and do
what we'd call a mazy.
(car crashes)
- [Director] Sorry.
- We were that desperate on Friday night,
if we had no money, we'd go
out to Warrington or somewhere
and we'd do a ram raid.
We just went into a shop
and take a rack of clothes
just to get our money
because you couldn't miss it.
You could not go a weekend.
If you were skins, you'd
have to do something.
It was that good.
We had to get out on a
Saturday night at all costs
or that's unthinkable.
(crowd cheers)
- [Mike] I actually found
it a bit frightening
it was so wild and it
took off trying ecstasy.
- I was just put off by the price at first
'cause you thought I'm
not paying 25 pounds
for that little thing.
Now when I finally had
one I was like oh my god,
I'd pay 50 quid for that. (man laughs)
(crowd cheers)
- The first time I took a tablet.
As it came on I had a panic attack
and I truly believed I was gonna die.
I laid down on the
floor of this night club
and I thought to myself
what a squalid death.
And then the next thing
the pill just went bing
and that was it, it was unbelievable.
(man laughs)
(audience cheers)
- [John] Nine times out of 10,
everyone who has an E in them days,
they'll tell you it was
probably one of the best nights
of their life.
- [Director] After that first night,
what point did you think, you know what,
there's money to be made here lad?
- Fucking hell, the next day.
All of these young people, you know,
you could sell hundreds in there.
The second time I went to the Quad,
that's when I went with a bag of pills,
took 150 between the three of us.
- [Director] At 20 pounds a pop.
- 20 pounds each, yeah.
- [Director] Three grand worth of pills.
And what'd you pay for them?
- I think about that time,
probably about 12 quid.
(upbeat music)
We were into drugs and stuff at the time,
so for us, it was fucking hell,
looking at the money
that could be in this now.
In the early days, you'd 10 of yas,
you'd all have 200 tablets each
and then we'd watch them
selling them, you see,
so we done the dirty work fast,
got a reputation for
selling goods, ecstasy
and stuff like that and
then we had our own punters
out there and selling them for us.
When you're 18, 19, you're
still learning a lot
of the trades and stuff like that.
And by the time I was 23, 24,
we were fucking smashing it.
Probably like a group of 20
for us that used to all
put our money in and buy
like 10, 20, 30,000 of them.
It was big money.
What does money bring,
it brings you coats,
it brings you clothes,
it brings your footwear,
it brings you cars.
It brings you nice furniture in your house
and stuff like that.
- The concept of a drug
dealer became a culture,
it became a lifestyle.
- In a sense there was
something evangelical
about selling ecstasy.
You were doing a good thing for people.
If they had an idea for the first time,
you'd want to turn them on
because this is so good,
you're going to enjoy it.
I want to do you a favour.
But what happened was
demand outstripped supply
in terms of quality for the first year,
they were reasonably good
quality and then it took off.
And when it became more popular,
the production of ecstasy couldn't keep up
with the demand for it.
- [Director] So you started
making your own pills?
- Yeah.
- [Director] Just talk
me through the decision
to start making your own pills.
- Money, money makes the world go round
when you're a scouser and you
come from a council estate
and you're making money,
you want to try to
capitalise on it, don't you?
So, everything we tried to
do was capitalise on it.
So for us, basically, it
was get a pile of drugs
to make a bit more out of it.
If you have to dance on it
as we say, we'd dance on it.
- [Director] Dance on it?
- It means bash it.
- Bash it?
- Take some out and put some
in and make some more money,
increase the quantity
and decrease the quality.
But as long as you still
got a buzz out of it,
or hit out of it, then it's
doing it's job, isn't it?
(upbeat dance music)
- Get out there.
I forgot how much I enjoyed this.
You having one?
- Nah,
not until we sold them all.
Be careful.
- What?
(upbeat music)
You've had one, haven't you?
You're off your fucking barnett.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, man.
Get on this, nearly sold the lot.
(indistinct)
- That way dickhead.
(dramatic music)
- When you were kids,
you always talk about
having a big car or you always
talk about having a big house
or nice clothes or blah, blah, blah,
but that's all we did as kids, like.
By the time I was 24 I was
earning that much money
and I didn't know what to do with it,
I was spending it silly.
Buy trainers, you'll buy trackies,
you'll buy a watch, you'll
buy a car, you'll buy a house
and then before long your
neighbours, your mates,
everyone they see, they
see all you driving around
in nice cars and I don't
know, I'll be honest with you,
a lot of it became jealousy then.
- John was one of them, he
was just like flashy harry,
he just had a lot of
excess cash around him,
do you know what I mean?
I always remembered him with his nice big,
extravagant shades on,
do you know what I mean,
all his tans, do you know what I mean,
he looked the part.
I was a young teenager
and I probably aspired
to the likes of him.
I probably wanted to like the big cars.
And so ecstasy was a means to an end.
And I started going to the State
and you know, after going in a few times,
one of the doorman, he said
take them there, 10 of them
for 70 quid, give me 70
quid, you make 100 quid.
So, we make a little
bit of money doing that
and then we sourced our own supplier.
- [Director] So the bouncer
has confiscated those
from somebody?
- Yeah.
- [Director] And given
them to you to sell.
- Yeah, that's what it
would have been, yeah.
- [Director] Well, how did the bouncer
know you were the one to-
- 'Cause at the time I
was mad, young and angry
and I wouldn't bow down to
anyone and he gave me respect
from being like that,
do you know what I mean?
And then I sold a tablet
to someone in the State,
only went to 20 quid each with
these in the Isle of Mann.
I thought it might be
my entrepreneurial side.
I was like I'm going to the Isle of Man.
I went to the Isle of Man
with 33 tablets in my pocket,
me and my mate, 16, 33
tablets and a fiver.
You went into a club, within an hour,
we had like 600 quid in our pocket.
But it's enough for a number of weeks,
just young, naive, stupid,
really just kids, just blase,
thinking that we were untouchable
and then we ran out of ecstasy tablets.
(phone rings)
Phoned me mum.
- Sorry your mum?
- My mum.
Mum, do us a favour, if I get
something dropped off to you,
will you bring it over for us on the boat?
So she brought 150 tablets over.
She got off the boat, come
into the flat where we were.
But what I didn't know were
that the busies were watching
through the windows, it was
just all seen on cameras
you know what I mean,
because they'd seen us
passing class A drugs to each other.
We done two weeks remand, me
and my ma. Saying goodnight
to my mum in prison.
I was in the juvenile wing,
she was in the adults wing.
Not many people have been
to the knick with their mum
or got their mum knicked.
No, I think I might go
in the Guinness Book of Records for that.
(crowd cheers)
(upbeat dance music)
- By the time 93 came
about, the drug scene
had just gone through
the fucking roof, mate.
Kids who was going out
with 50 pills in the pocket
in the fucking State.
These same kids now were going out
with fucking 1,000, 2,000 pills
in the pockets, you know what I mean?
Fucking cleaning up. Walking out
with fucking 5000
in the pocket made profit.
The business was growing across the board,
bringing huge amounts
of people into the city.
Just absolutely a massive amount of people
travelling from all over the country,
Liverpool became that destination.
And it just spiralled.
You were getting clubs that
were four nights a week
till two, three a.m. in the morning,
you were getting all nighters
once a month in clubs.
- The whole mood changed,
the real crime element
started to come into it there.
Their little gangs of scallies
getting onto the fact,
there were loads of
out of towners in there
that you could rob from,
take the clothes off,
if you wanted the drugs,
the money, whatever.
- There were kids turning
up with the paracetamols
and selling them to them
to the out of towners
who were off their face already.
And one story, I always remembered,
some kid sold some worming
tablets to some kids
from out of town,
and the kids from out of town
come back demanding the money.
These kids would sold
them the worming tabs
said go away, mate, you're
barking up the wrong tree.
(man laughs)
(slow music)
- If you got caught selling in the club,
the bouncers would not
let you back in that club
unless you were selling drugs for them.
'Cause what they used to
do was confiscate drugs
off the fucking punters coming in
and then give it to their
lads to sell them in the club.
They have to do it
because the fucking club
was that fucking good, you know,
and they didn't want to miss out.
- Bouncers were up to
fucking all kinds in clubs.
That's the way it was.
I'm not saying every bouncer
was but in them days.
it was a big business, it
was a massive business.
(upbeat music)
- I wouldn't take the crap off anyone,
like even though I'm just little
old me, sweet and innocent,
you know, I can pack a
punch, I can, if I want to.
I was just this little girl
working on the door type thing.
I loved being classed as a bouncer.
I just loved it, loved everything about it.
And there's nothing nasty
about me, you know what I mean?
- [Director] Do you have
to look after yourself
if you're a doorman?
- Oh yeah, but I never
have no fights with girls,
more fights with men than
girls, do you know what I mean?
(audience cheers)
(upbeat dance music)
I was there to search the girls
and anyone that came in with anything,
it would go in the box behind the counter.
- [Director] That would
be quite a popular box.
- Yeah, probably yeah.
- [Director] I heard stories
that if you got caught
by the bouncer, the bouncer
would take the drugs off of you
and say right now you're
dealing with me or you leave.
- Yeah.
- You heard the line.
- I never heard none of
that but obviously went on,
I'm not saying it didn't,
you know what I mean?
Obviously there was doormen in there
that did wanna snatch of
the patch type of thing.
- [Director] Snatch of the patch?
- Yeah, snatch the patch.
They wanted to snatch the patch.
If people were drug dealing,
the doorman obviously wanted
to take that patch off them.
Everybody wanted to be a part of it.
Everybody wanted to make money
and they seen that house music
and ecstasy was a way to making money.
- That's when, I think for a lot of people
the kind of the shine came off
because of commercialisation,
because of dodgy tablets.
- You had a drug which
brought people together,
which made people be happy
but then there was as fear
which started to come with them.
And that's when you started
seeing being getting hurt.
- [Reporter] Ecstasy is
the fastest selling drug
outstripping by far anything else.
- [Reporter] Doctors are warning
it can have long term physical
and psychiatric effects
and it can be lethal.
- Suddenly this wonderful
huggy, lovey happy drug
wasn't completely harmless,
wasn't completely risk-free.
There were consequences
attached to it, possibly death.
- [Reporter] Researchers
say during 1990 and 91,
there were seven deaths and 17 other cases
of severe poisoning, all
directly connected with the drug.
- They had taken between one
and five tablets of ecstasy,
their body temperature went up and up,
blood stopped clotting, they
had convulsions and they died.
People can get depression,
flashbacks, panic attacks,
it's possible that many
of the people's lives
may be wrecked in the longterm
due to taking this drug short term.
- By 1995, the Home Office
estimated one and a half million people
were using ecstasy every weekend.
But the police were very,
very slow to latch onto it
from a law enforcement perspective.
So, the sellers had carte blanche
and when you have an illegal market
that's not being heavily policed,
that's Christmas for the drug dealers.
(upbeat music)
- I don't think it was
realised how prolific ecstasy
was going to become as a drug.
I think we had bigger
issues with other drugs.
And although it was class A then,
they were thinking more
on how to end the problems
with burglaries in the
city and stuff like that.
Ecstasy definitely wasn't a priority then.
(dramatic music)
- [Director] Why do you think that was?
- I don't think they
understood what it ecstasy was
as a drug, what it did
to people, you know,
and the effects it had on people.
It wasn't until they saw the
profits being made from it
and the rival gangs controlling clubs
that they realised probably the importance
of why these gangs wanted
to take over the clubs
because they were going
to make a massive profit
using their dealers to
sell the drugs inside.
- Ecstasy was essentially an end product.
You have to see the whole
environment surrounding.
So where would you use
ecstasy, in a nightclub.
So how could you generate
money, in a nightclub.
Through a bar, through an
admission, through security?
A lot of times the people
who control the door
were the people who also
could potentially control
the supply of drugs within the place too.
That's where there was money.
If you could control the club,
you could control the door.
You could control who was
selling the drugs in there.
You could control everything about it.
The amount of money you could
make was huge at that point.
We're not talking five pounds on a pill.
We're talking you know, 50,
60, 100, 250 thousand pounds
a night potentially.
- [Director] Control the
door, control the floor.
- Simple as.
(dramatic music)
- Now we know what you've been doing,
we've been clocking you all night,
so I want to give you one
chance, who are you grafting for?
- I don't know what you're on about mate,
they're just mine and
the money, just my wages,
I got paid today, honest.
- Do I look like a dickhead?
Do I look like I've got a
fucking dick on my head?
You think that's fucking funny!
Hey, think I'm fucking around?
Got family, son?
- Yeah.
- Well, you've let your father down,
you've let your mother down.
You got any brothers or sisters?
- Yeah.
- You've let your brother down,
you've let your sister down.
So for the last time,
who are you grafting for?
- I don't know his name but
that there is his money.
- Not anymore it ain't.
Fuck off, dickhead.
(dramatic music)
- I'm sorry, Jimmy, he took the lot,
they even took my Rockports,
only bought them yesterday
as well, fucking twats.
- Took your shoes, eh, lad, unbelievable.
- You don't have to take me home,
you know I can find my own way.
- Is that him there lad,
the one with the baldy head?
- Yeah.
You don't want me to.
- Stay there, I'll sort this lad.
- Hey, Jimmy try and get
me Rockports back as well,
my feet are fucking freezing.
- You right, lad?
- Did you take that?
- Yeah.
(dramatic music)
He can't be fucking grafting in there.
- Says who?
- Listen (indistinct).
You're a fucking prick, fuck off.
- No, no, no!
(gun fires)
(dramatic music)
(dramatic music)
- [Reporter] When two men were thrown out
of a Liverpool nightclub,
the whole episode
was filmed by security cameras.
As James Connolly crashed to the ground,
his friend Darren
Delahanty became agitated
and shouted the words, "we'll be back."
- I think the concept
of door wars came naturally
because that's what would happen
whenever there's that much money involved.
Whenever there's egos involved,
it's always going to be
a situation which will
spiral out of control
and I think that's how it happened.
(gun fires)
The nature of people in general,
when you're protecting a
territory, it becomes tribal
and clubs essentially became very tribal.
In the 80's in Liverpool City Centre,
you could count the amount of nightclubs
that had a late licence on one hand.
You'd need multiple hands by the mid 90's,
it had this exponential growth
because of the market for ecstasy.
And you needed security for the clubs.
So it is natural that they
were gonna to be drawn
from certain areas to criminality.
That's what a lot of the
trouble came out of criminals
using security firms as a
front to make huge, huge money.
And when you've got egos, when
you've got something to lose,
that's when there's
always going to be trouble
and that's when conflict arises.
- The people who were most effective
in this new club
environment where the people
who were the hardest and most violent.
The law abiding security companies
were finding themselves
increasingly getting squeezed out
by the criminal security companies
and the criminal security companies
were quite happy to sell
this new drug, ecstasy
and any other drug that they could.
- Doormen actually
blocked dealers going in
and then within a couple
of hours, 30, 40 doormen
from another door company
will come around to your office
and say to our lads, we're
doing it. Our dealer's in.
If they're on a door and
some other door company
comes to take over, we've got two choices.
Walk away, lose their job or fight.
- You're going to war every
night and that's when you saw
an element of militarisation of doormen.
You had doormen wearing
vests, Kevlar gloves,
with an ad hoc army or
several of them at one point
in one place at one time.
That's a recipe for disaster.
- All of a sudden there was
something you'd never seen
in these places before which
was fights, stabbings, attacks.
- It was just chaos.
Everything in the club
scene sort of changed.
- You could say it was over.
The genuine feeling of all being as one,
you know, pulling in the same direction,
do anything for anybody.
It was like the bubble had been burst
and it was reverter type.
Everybody trying to rob everybody,
everything becoming
about money, territory.
- When it was bad, fuck
me, it was horrific.
It's guns and money, guns and
money, that's when it turned.
I remember saying to somebody
this is how it's going to go.
And that was it after that,
it was a roller coaster
at least three years and
never slept in the same place
ever, ever, I used to have
a vest on 24 hours a day.
- And that's one thing
people don't talk about
but it's the fear in that game.
That price you pay is not worth it at all,
the waking up in the
night, the general fear.
- [Reporter] There have been
than 80 serious shootings
on Merseyside in just 18 months.
- [Peter] The violence got
completely out of hand.
- [Reporter] Five people have been shot
in just two incidents,
escalating violence as scores
are settled in full scale gun battles.
- Shootings, stabbings, firebombings,
three or four very high profile murders.
- [Reporter] 35-year-old
David Ungi paid with his life,
shot as he drove through the
notorious Liverpool Lake
district three weeks ago.
- You know for the first
time we had armed police
as standard in the city.
You know, in the nicest
way the shit got serious
at that point.
And it went through a level at which
it never went back down from,
I only went one way after that.
- I've got some amazing memories
that will never go from me,
but I've got some terrible
memories that'll stick with me
for the rest of my life.
Seeing people getting
stabbed, people getting shot,
and guns were out all the
time and stuff like that.
- [Director] You've
had guns pulled on you?
- Yeah, that was a long
time ago, that was when,
a part of my life I don't
really wanna talk about
but I'm here today so I'm
happy, scary but I'm happy.
(dramatic music)
- The legacy, I think of
ecstasy is as the opening act,
if you like, for cocaine.
The guys who arrived in Liverpool
with the explosion of the cocaine trade
were ruthless people
who were just out there
to make millions.
- People used to come over
and pay fortunes in suitcases,
go to bed broke and wake up a millionaire.
- To meet the Cali cartel,
you know this guy is big.
- People killing and revelling
in the misery of others.
- If there is a devil, I really
believe he has a crack pipe
in his hand.
Some people say a man
is made out of mud ♪
A poor man's made out
of muscle and blood ♪
Muscle and blood and skin and bones ♪
A mind that is weak and
a back that is strong ♪
You know 16 tonnes and what do you get ♪
Another day older and deeper in debt ♪
I owe my soul to the company store ♪
Your body ♪
Your body ♪
Your body ♪
Your body ♪
- Oh not again, man.
(man knocks)
Move your body old man. (man chuckles)
Jimmy.
- Hello lad.
Hey, nosy ass.
I don't know where he can be my baby ♪
- Here's what I owe you.
- Hang on, time to step
up lad, there's 500 there.
- Fucking hell, 500 Garys? I
can't afford that, mate.
- Look, lad, they're on
strap, you can take them
and pay me tomorrow, you
know, you're all right.
- It's a lot of pills, Jimmy.
- If you don't want the graft, you know,
someone else will have it.
(dramatic music)
- All right.
- And aye,
don't go feeding them to the ducks.
- What?
- Giving them to the birds
for nothing.
- Oh yeah.
- And Paul, five grand you
owe me and you know that.
And don't fuck me about. Cheeky cunt.
- [Director] Is that how
it would play out, John.
- Yeah, but with me being a cheeky
fucker, I would have asked
for a lot more than that.
Some people say a man
is made out of mud ♪
A poor man's made out
of muscle and blood ♪
Muscle and blood and skin and bones ♪
A mind that's weak and
a back that's strong ♪
You load 16 tonnes what do you get ♪
Another day older and deeper in debt ♪
St. Peter don't call
me 'cause I can't go ♪
I owe my soul to the company store ♪
(upbeat music)
- [Director] What comes up
when you Google your name?
- Oh actually it's at the
top here, John Burton,
Liverpool, okay.
An ex crime boss, fucking
Juicebomb John. (John laughs)
- [Director] Where does
that nickname come from?
- I was putting that many steroids in me.
It was either one rib or Juicebomb John.
See not being funny but you look at that,
you know what I mean, it
just doesn't even look
anything like me.
I knew where I was going.
(dramatic folk music)
You had school and
football or you had heroin,
drug dealing or criminality
and that's the recital.
We were cheeky like growing up
and no matter what we'd be out grafting,
going out doing little burglaries on shops
and stuff like that.
If you got a few quid to buy
a little half point of weed,
than we were all young,
that's what we wanted to do
was get stoned.
And one of my mates used to have a shed
and we used to sit in the shed
getting stoned every night.
You'd be sitting in there
listening to "Dark Sides
of the Moon" or Pink Floyd "The Wall"
and you know whatever, great
tunes when you were growing up
weren't they?
My mate used to have a
little hatch as well,
you'd get a little knock
on the sides of the shed,
a little (John knocks) what'd you want?
Just a fivers please.
(John laughs)
I think on our estate there
must have been at least
100 between 13, 14 or 15 in the 80's.
Me and my mates, we just
all hang around together,
you'd mind cars on the estate
when there was a match game.
- [Director] Finding cars for what?
- Stopped them getting smashed
while they were at the match.
- [Director] Will it be
just stopping you lot
from breaking in and stealing them?
- Well if they didn't
fucking pay us then yeah.
(John laughs)
See you on the dark side of the moon ♪
- There weren't many jobs in
Liverpool in the early 80's
and heroin was taking control of the city.
So, it's just, it was
basically, you just had
to fend for yourself.
So, this was our estate
here where we would all
sort of brought up, we
moved on here in 1977.
Fun, fights, trouble, I
love where we grew up.
- [Director] And did heroin hit this side?
- Yes, heroin was terrible around here.
Anyone who went on that stuff, you know,
within a couple of months,
their lives would be off the wall.
Nice coat, that mate.
(man laughs)
(John laughs)
How are you mate?
(indistinct)
Yeah, how you getting on?
- Yeah.
What are you doing with yourself now?
- It's no good is it?
- How much are you using now?
- Do you not wanna try and
get away from it though?
- You wanna really get off it
and you want a hand, I'll help you mate.
I'll help you all day long.
(John laughs)
Oh, Neil I love you, mate.
And you Neil, I love you loads, mate.
Take care mate, ta-da lad.
That's just shocked the
fucking life out of me.
I feel a bit, I just feel a
bit tingling now me.
Neil was one of my mates growing up.
I didn't even recognise him at first.
- [Director] How old is he?
- Fucking shocked.
Probably the same age as me.
- No he's not.
- Yeah.
It's just crazy, honest to
God, it shocked me it has.
Lovely fella him as well, still is.
- [Director] Of those kids that you used
to knock around with, how
many of them are dead?
- Probably 12.
Shall we get moving on?
(dramatic music)
- 89 is a key year for Liverpool.
89 is the key year, you
know, we had Hillsborough.
- [Reporter] The death toll from
this afternoon's stadium
disaster stands at 93,
all Liverpool supporters.
- Everybody was affected,
the city was affected
and after Hillsborough, so many people
and so many things changed.
The city has seen such loss.
Loss of jobs and loss of
people, loss of families.
You know, people went to a football match
and never came home.
People wanted to forget, people
wanted to lose themselves
in something else, to not feel pain.
And then this drug
popped up, a small tablet
which created happiness.
I was in America with
the new music seminar.
I was wearing a suit and
the young man came up to me
and said, "What do you do?
And I said oh I'm the DJ, I play
at a club called the State
in Liverpool, in England.
And he said to me, do
you play house music?
And I said no I don't think so.
I actually don't know what house music is.
And he said to me house
music is like a cross
between Philly soul and New Order.
Then I went to a record store
called Downstairs Records
which was actually upstairs,
first heard a DJ mixing house music.
I realised this is the future.
And then when ecstasy appeared,
it all kinda came together
with the music.
(upbeat music)
- Goosies, mate.
Oh, probably start crying.
Andy Carroll, first DJ I heard play this.
As soon as ecstasy
happened, it's like it went
from black and white to colour.
Certainly this music turned into another
all the dimensions suddenly opened up,
you'd never heard sounds like this before.
Wow, this record sounds 10
times better than it ever did.
I went to the state when I was 15,
opened up a whole new fucking world.
It was just like a melting
pot of all these mad people.
Grown men, so to speak, the children I see
having the best time of their lives.
Never seen people like that in Liverpool.
I've never seen a fella in makeup.
I've never seen black men,
you know, simple as that,
I was just a kid from Norris Green like.
And then I went to the fucking State,
it was just like whoa.
(dramatic music)
Walked up that corridor
and I said what the fuck's that noise.
And it just fucking sounded amazing.
We shared a fucking pill.
Hey, I didn't know what
fucking it'd be like.
It was just like rushes
and rushes and rushes.
And I just started dancing.
The next thing you know
the fucking house lights
are coming on. (man laughs)
Four hours were just gone.
And then, oh man, (man sighs)
immense, mate, immense.
(dramatic music)
Life was so negative until I
came through that door, mate.
I'd never felt belonging
like I felt when I walked
through that fucking door.
As soon as I walked through that door,
I felt like I was at home,
I actually felt as ease
in this club.
I've never felt as ease in this city.
- The arrival of ecstasy
was the catalyst for change
because people wanted just to
go out and have a good time,
to dance, to forget it all.
And that allowed them to do it.
- Most of them didn't see
themselves as druggies.
Druggies are them people who
stick needles in themselves
and dying and get AIDs and all that.
These were happy, shiny,
teenage kids going out
and having the time of
their life and a lot of fun.
But nobody knew what it was
and what the potential harms might be,
taking a tablet their mate said is great.
- We will always see opportunity
as a people in Liverpool
and ecstasy was an opportunity
when there's so many people
participating in something.
There's money to be made.
Whenever there's money to be made
and if it's criminal money to be made,
that's when it's gonna get interesting.
And that's what happened with ecstasy.
(dramatic music)
(man knocks)
- Get in lad, just in time.
(indistinct)
- Busies would have a
field day in here, Robbie.
- You worry too much mate.
Latest batch is ready.
Kev's just had one.
(upbeat music)
Feel anything yet?
- It's only been 20 minutes.
- If we wanna start making proper money,
we need these to work.
That cost us two and a half grand.
- They will work.
- doesn't look like it to me.
- Look, I'm gonna need your help tonight.
- I'm telling you six time Robbie.
- That's what you said
with the last lot knobhead.
Who are they from?
- Jimmy.
- For fuck's sake, lad.
- I couldn't say no could I?
I reckon we needed the dough.
So, we get the pills right.
- They're from Jimmy.
I thought we agreed no
more deal and clubs.
- How many even are in here?
- [Paulie] 500 but we'll
spin them on tonight.
- Fuck me, Paulie.
- What lad?
- Hey lads, can we go raving please?
- Yes, yes, see told you it'd work lads.
- Brains, my son I never
fucking doubted you.
- Well, I am a genius aren't I?
- Seriously, lads can we go raving,
I'm off me fucking bonnet!
- Yes!
(dramatic music)
- I remember the first
time I ever went out
to the club property to take an E,
the place called Quadrant Park.
Never seen nothing like it in my life.
It was just chaotic.
(upbeat music)
(people holler)
Probably got to be at least
2,000 people in there.
It was glowsticks, whistles,
the way they were all dancing,
sweating, I was thinking,
what the fuck's this?
And everyone was just dancing everywhere,
hugging you and you're fucking hell.
I thought they were all like
a hang of fucking dickheads.
And I think everyone in the world did.
And then you'd have
your little half a pill.
So, you're sitting there,
you've got a bottle of water
or something in your hand, you'd be like,
yeah, shit this, and your mates are going,
yeah, yeah, I think it's shit isn't it?
And your body is start
tingling a little bit
and you be going to your
mates, I think I feel this.
(upbeat music)
And because of the music and the beats,
you just sort of feeling it
and then within 20 minutes,
you're right up there.
It was banging.
Dancing everywhere like a lunatic.
And then you probably
come around about an hour
and a half later going
what the fuck was that?
Here's the other half, bang.
Best buzz you'd ever get.
(upbeat music)
(crowd hollers)
It was a love drug.
It was weird to get used to at first
because when you've grew up in a world
where heroin was bringing
misery to Liverpool,
ecstasy was bringing happiness
and you're actually seeing
people and culture change.
(upbeat music)
- If I'd have to pick a particular era,
best years of my life,
it would be what we would save
in the rave era, phenomenal.
Big flare jeans,
bright chippy jumpers more
favoured by the merseyside select.
Upmarket shell suits
that's a classic one from 1991.
Reebok was massive in Liverpool.
They were particularly
big at the outdoor raves.
But listen, if they bounce into the gaff
in something like this, they're
getting legged out of town.
(upbeat music)
The Quad at first was another
level, it was amazing.
- I walked in and I couldn't
believe what I could see.
There was men dancing with each other.
I mean, that was unheard of.
Some of the most violent
people normally in the 80's
were hugging and kissing
and you think fucking hell.
- If you were still taking trips or wizz,
you were a bit of a meth,
'cause you had to have an E.
You were that strong,
a whole one of them,
you're going to know the world backwards
but a whole E is like 40 quid.
That's like best part of a Barbour jacket
or a pair of new Adidas from Wade Smith.
- So if we had no money,
we'd go out and do
what we'd call a mazy.
(car crashes)
- [Director] Sorry.
- We were that desperate on Friday night,
if we had no money, we'd go
out to Warrington or somewhere
and we'd do a ram raid.
We just went into a shop
and take a rack of clothes
just to get our money
because you couldn't miss it.
You could not go a weekend.
If you were skins, you'd
have to do something.
It was that good.
We had to get out on a
Saturday night at all costs
or that's unthinkable.
(crowd cheers)
- [Mike] I actually found
it a bit frightening
it was so wild and it
took off trying ecstasy.
- I was just put off by the price at first
'cause you thought I'm
not paying 25 pounds
for that little thing.
Now when I finally had
one I was like oh my god,
I'd pay 50 quid for that. (man laughs)
(crowd cheers)
- The first time I took a tablet.
As it came on I had a panic attack
and I truly believed I was gonna die.
I laid down on the
floor of this night club
and I thought to myself
what a squalid death.
And then the next thing
the pill just went bing
and that was it, it was unbelievable.
(man laughs)
(audience cheers)
- [John] Nine times out of 10,
everyone who has an E in them days,
they'll tell you it was
probably one of the best nights
of their life.
- [Director] After that first night,
what point did you think, you know what,
there's money to be made here lad?
- Fucking hell, the next day.
All of these young people, you know,
you could sell hundreds in there.
The second time I went to the Quad,
that's when I went with a bag of pills,
took 150 between the three of us.
- [Director] At 20 pounds a pop.
- 20 pounds each, yeah.
- [Director] Three grand worth of pills.
And what'd you pay for them?
- I think about that time,
probably about 12 quid.
(upbeat music)
We were into drugs and stuff at the time,
so for us, it was fucking hell,
looking at the money
that could be in this now.
In the early days, you'd 10 of yas,
you'd all have 200 tablets each
and then we'd watch them
selling them, you see,
so we done the dirty work fast,
got a reputation for
selling goods, ecstasy
and stuff like that and
then we had our own punters
out there and selling them for us.
When you're 18, 19, you're
still learning a lot
of the trades and stuff like that.
And by the time I was 23, 24,
we were fucking smashing it.
Probably like a group of 20
for us that used to all
put our money in and buy
like 10, 20, 30,000 of them.
It was big money.
What does money bring,
it brings you coats,
it brings you clothes,
it brings your footwear,
it brings you cars.
It brings you nice furniture in your house
and stuff like that.
- The concept of a drug
dealer became a culture,
it became a lifestyle.
- In a sense there was
something evangelical
about selling ecstasy.
You were doing a good thing for people.
If they had an idea for the first time,
you'd want to turn them on
because this is so good,
you're going to enjoy it.
I want to do you a favour.
But what happened was
demand outstripped supply
in terms of quality for the first year,
they were reasonably good
quality and then it took off.
And when it became more popular,
the production of ecstasy couldn't keep up
with the demand for it.
- [Director] So you started
making your own pills?
- Yeah.
- [Director] Just talk
me through the decision
to start making your own pills.
- Money, money makes the world go round
when you're a scouser and you
come from a council estate
and you're making money,
you want to try to
capitalise on it, don't you?
So, everything we tried to
do was capitalise on it.
So for us, basically, it
was get a pile of drugs
to make a bit more out of it.
If you have to dance on it
as we say, we'd dance on it.
- [Director] Dance on it?
- It means bash it.
- Bash it?
- Take some out and put some
in and make some more money,
increase the quantity
and decrease the quality.
But as long as you still
got a buzz out of it,
or hit out of it, then it's
doing it's job, isn't it?
(upbeat dance music)
- Get out there.
I forgot how much I enjoyed this.
You having one?
- Nah,
not until we sold them all.
Be careful.
- What?
(upbeat music)
You've had one, haven't you?
You're off your fucking barnett.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, man.
Get on this, nearly sold the lot.
(indistinct)
- That way dickhead.
(dramatic music)
- When you were kids,
you always talk about
having a big car or you always
talk about having a big house
or nice clothes or blah, blah, blah,
but that's all we did as kids, like.
By the time I was 24 I was
earning that much money
and I didn't know what to do with it,
I was spending it silly.
Buy trainers, you'll buy trackies,
you'll buy a watch, you'll
buy a car, you'll buy a house
and then before long your
neighbours, your mates,
everyone they see, they
see all you driving around
in nice cars and I don't
know, I'll be honest with you,
a lot of it became jealousy then.
- John was one of them, he
was just like flashy harry,
he just had a lot of
excess cash around him,
do you know what I mean?
I always remembered him with his nice big,
extravagant shades on,
do you know what I mean,
all his tans, do you know what I mean,
he looked the part.
I was a young teenager
and I probably aspired
to the likes of him.
I probably wanted to like the big cars.
And so ecstasy was a means to an end.
And I started going to the State
and you know, after going in a few times,
one of the doorman, he said
take them there, 10 of them
for 70 quid, give me 70
quid, you make 100 quid.
So, we make a little
bit of money doing that
and then we sourced our own supplier.
- [Director] So the bouncer
has confiscated those
from somebody?
- Yeah.
- [Director] And given
them to you to sell.
- Yeah, that's what it
would have been, yeah.
- [Director] Well, how did the bouncer
know you were the one to-
- 'Cause at the time I
was mad, young and angry
and I wouldn't bow down to
anyone and he gave me respect
from being like that,
do you know what I mean?
And then I sold a tablet
to someone in the State,
only went to 20 quid each with
these in the Isle of Mann.
I thought it might be
my entrepreneurial side.
I was like I'm going to the Isle of Man.
I went to the Isle of Man
with 33 tablets in my pocket,
me and my mate, 16, 33
tablets and a fiver.
You went into a club, within an hour,
we had like 600 quid in our pocket.
But it's enough for a number of weeks,
just young, naive, stupid,
really just kids, just blase,
thinking that we were untouchable
and then we ran out of ecstasy tablets.
(phone rings)
Phoned me mum.
- Sorry your mum?
- My mum.
Mum, do us a favour, if I get
something dropped off to you,
will you bring it over for us on the boat?
So she brought 150 tablets over.
She got off the boat, come
into the flat where we were.
But what I didn't know were
that the busies were watching
through the windows, it was
just all seen on cameras
you know what I mean,
because they'd seen us
passing class A drugs to each other.
We done two weeks remand, me
and my ma. Saying goodnight
to my mum in prison.
I was in the juvenile wing,
she was in the adults wing.
Not many people have been
to the knick with their mum
or got their mum knicked.
No, I think I might go
in the Guinness Book of Records for that.
(crowd cheers)
(upbeat dance music)
- By the time 93 came
about, the drug scene
had just gone through
the fucking roof, mate.
Kids who was going out
with 50 pills in the pocket
in the fucking State.
These same kids now were going out
with fucking 1,000, 2,000 pills
in the pockets, you know what I mean?
Fucking cleaning up. Walking out
with fucking 5000
in the pocket made profit.
The business was growing across the board,
bringing huge amounts
of people into the city.
Just absolutely a massive amount of people
travelling from all over the country,
Liverpool became that destination.
And it just spiralled.
You were getting clubs that
were four nights a week
till two, three a.m. in the morning,
you were getting all nighters
once a month in clubs.
- The whole mood changed,
the real crime element
started to come into it there.
Their little gangs of scallies
getting onto the fact,
there were loads of
out of towners in there
that you could rob from,
take the clothes off,
if you wanted the drugs,
the money, whatever.
- There were kids turning
up with the paracetamols
and selling them to them
to the out of towners
who were off their face already.
And one story, I always remembered,
some kid sold some worming
tablets to some kids
from out of town,
and the kids from out of town
come back demanding the money.
These kids would sold
them the worming tabs
said go away, mate, you're
barking up the wrong tree.
(man laughs)
(slow music)
- If you got caught selling in the club,
the bouncers would not
let you back in that club
unless you were selling drugs for them.
'Cause what they used to
do was confiscate drugs
off the fucking punters coming in
and then give it to their
lads to sell them in the club.
They have to do it
because the fucking club
was that fucking good, you know,
and they didn't want to miss out.
- Bouncers were up to
fucking all kinds in clubs.
That's the way it was.
I'm not saying every bouncer
was but in them days.
it was a big business, it
was a massive business.
(upbeat music)
- I wouldn't take the crap off anyone,
like even though I'm just little
old me, sweet and innocent,
you know, I can pack a
punch, I can, if I want to.
I was just this little girl
working on the door type thing.
I loved being classed as a bouncer.
I just loved it, loved everything about it.
And there's nothing nasty
about me, you know what I mean?
- [Director] Do you have
to look after yourself
if you're a doorman?
- Oh yeah, but I never
have no fights with girls,
more fights with men than
girls, do you know what I mean?
(audience cheers)
(upbeat dance music)
I was there to search the girls
and anyone that came in with anything,
it would go in the box behind the counter.
- [Director] That would
be quite a popular box.
- Yeah, probably yeah.
- [Director] I heard stories
that if you got caught
by the bouncer, the bouncer
would take the drugs off of you
and say right now you're
dealing with me or you leave.
- Yeah.
- You heard the line.
- I never heard none of
that but obviously went on,
I'm not saying it didn't,
you know what I mean?
Obviously there was doormen in there
that did wanna snatch of
the patch type of thing.
- [Director] Snatch of the patch?
- Yeah, snatch the patch.
They wanted to snatch the patch.
If people were drug dealing,
the doorman obviously wanted
to take that patch off them.
Everybody wanted to be a part of it.
Everybody wanted to make money
and they seen that house music
and ecstasy was a way to making money.
- That's when, I think for a lot of people
the kind of the shine came off
because of commercialisation,
because of dodgy tablets.
- You had a drug which
brought people together,
which made people be happy
but then there was as fear
which started to come with them.
And that's when you started
seeing being getting hurt.
- [Reporter] Ecstasy is
the fastest selling drug
outstripping by far anything else.
- [Reporter] Doctors are warning
it can have long term physical
and psychiatric effects
and it can be lethal.
- Suddenly this wonderful
huggy, lovey happy drug
wasn't completely harmless,
wasn't completely risk-free.
There were consequences
attached to it, possibly death.
- [Reporter] Researchers
say during 1990 and 91,
there were seven deaths and 17 other cases
of severe poisoning, all
directly connected with the drug.
- They had taken between one
and five tablets of ecstasy,
their body temperature went up and up,
blood stopped clotting, they
had convulsions and they died.
People can get depression,
flashbacks, panic attacks,
it's possible that many
of the people's lives
may be wrecked in the longterm
due to taking this drug short term.
- By 1995, the Home Office
estimated one and a half million people
were using ecstasy every weekend.
But the police were very,
very slow to latch onto it
from a law enforcement perspective.
So, the sellers had carte blanche
and when you have an illegal market
that's not being heavily policed,
that's Christmas for the drug dealers.
(upbeat music)
- I don't think it was
realised how prolific ecstasy
was going to become as a drug.
I think we had bigger
issues with other drugs.
And although it was class A then,
they were thinking more
on how to end the problems
with burglaries in the
city and stuff like that.
Ecstasy definitely wasn't a priority then.
(dramatic music)
- [Director] Why do you think that was?
- I don't think they
understood what it ecstasy was
as a drug, what it did
to people, you know,
and the effects it had on people.
It wasn't until they saw the
profits being made from it
and the rival gangs controlling clubs
that they realised probably the importance
of why these gangs wanted
to take over the clubs
because they were going
to make a massive profit
using their dealers to
sell the drugs inside.
- Ecstasy was essentially an end product.
You have to see the whole
environment surrounding.
So where would you use
ecstasy, in a nightclub.
So how could you generate
money, in a nightclub.
Through a bar, through an
admission, through security?
A lot of times the people
who control the door
were the people who also
could potentially control
the supply of drugs within the place too.
That's where there was money.
If you could control the club,
you could control the door.
You could control who was
selling the drugs in there.
You could control everything about it.
The amount of money you could
make was huge at that point.
We're not talking five pounds on a pill.
We're talking you know, 50,
60, 100, 250 thousand pounds
a night potentially.
- [Director] Control the
door, control the floor.
- Simple as.
(dramatic music)
- Now we know what you've been doing,
we've been clocking you all night,
so I want to give you one
chance, who are you grafting for?
- I don't know what you're on about mate,
they're just mine and
the money, just my wages,
I got paid today, honest.
- Do I look like a dickhead?
Do I look like I've got a
fucking dick on my head?
You think that's fucking funny!
Hey, think I'm fucking around?
Got family, son?
- Yeah.
- Well, you've let your father down,
you've let your mother down.
You got any brothers or sisters?
- Yeah.
- You've let your brother down,
you've let your sister down.
So for the last time,
who are you grafting for?
- I don't know his name but
that there is his money.
- Not anymore it ain't.
Fuck off, dickhead.
(dramatic music)
- I'm sorry, Jimmy, he took the lot,
they even took my Rockports,
only bought them yesterday
as well, fucking twats.
- Took your shoes, eh, lad, unbelievable.
- You don't have to take me home,
you know I can find my own way.
- Is that him there lad,
the one with the baldy head?
- Yeah.
You don't want me to.
- Stay there, I'll sort this lad.
- Hey, Jimmy try and get
me Rockports back as well,
my feet are fucking freezing.
- You right, lad?
- Did you take that?
- Yeah.
(dramatic music)
He can't be fucking grafting in there.
- Says who?
- Listen (indistinct).
You're a fucking prick, fuck off.
- No, no, no!
(gun fires)
(dramatic music)
(dramatic music)
- [Reporter] When two men were thrown out
of a Liverpool nightclub,
the whole episode
was filmed by security cameras.
As James Connolly crashed to the ground,
his friend Darren
Delahanty became agitated
and shouted the words, "we'll be back."
- I think the concept
of door wars came naturally
because that's what would happen
whenever there's that much money involved.
Whenever there's egos involved,
it's always going to be
a situation which will
spiral out of control
and I think that's how it happened.
(gun fires)
The nature of people in general,
when you're protecting a
territory, it becomes tribal
and clubs essentially became very tribal.
In the 80's in Liverpool City Centre,
you could count the amount of nightclubs
that had a late licence on one hand.
You'd need multiple hands by the mid 90's,
it had this exponential growth
because of the market for ecstasy.
And you needed security for the clubs.
So it is natural that they
were gonna to be drawn
from certain areas to criminality.
That's what a lot of the
trouble came out of criminals
using security firms as a
front to make huge, huge money.
And when you've got egos, when
you've got something to lose,
that's when there's
always going to be trouble
and that's when conflict arises.
- The people who were most effective
in this new club
environment where the people
who were the hardest and most violent.
The law abiding security companies
were finding themselves
increasingly getting squeezed out
by the criminal security companies
and the criminal security companies
were quite happy to sell
this new drug, ecstasy
and any other drug that they could.
- Doormen actually
blocked dealers going in
and then within a couple
of hours, 30, 40 doormen
from another door company
will come around to your office
and say to our lads, we're
doing it. Our dealer's in.
If they're on a door and
some other door company
comes to take over, we've got two choices.
Walk away, lose their job or fight.
- You're going to war every
night and that's when you saw
an element of militarisation of doormen.
You had doormen wearing
vests, Kevlar gloves,
with an ad hoc army or
several of them at one point
in one place at one time.
That's a recipe for disaster.
- All of a sudden there was
something you'd never seen
in these places before which
was fights, stabbings, attacks.
- It was just chaos.
Everything in the club
scene sort of changed.
- You could say it was over.
The genuine feeling of all being as one,
you know, pulling in the same direction,
do anything for anybody.
It was like the bubble had been burst
and it was reverter type.
Everybody trying to rob everybody,
everything becoming
about money, territory.
- When it was bad, fuck
me, it was horrific.
It's guns and money, guns and
money, that's when it turned.
I remember saying to somebody
this is how it's going to go.
And that was it after that,
it was a roller coaster
at least three years and
never slept in the same place
ever, ever, I used to have
a vest on 24 hours a day.
- And that's one thing
people don't talk about
but it's the fear in that game.
That price you pay is not worth it at all,
the waking up in the
night, the general fear.
- [Reporter] There have been
than 80 serious shootings
on Merseyside in just 18 months.
- [Peter] The violence got
completely out of hand.
- [Reporter] Five people have been shot
in just two incidents,
escalating violence as scores
are settled in full scale gun battles.
- Shootings, stabbings, firebombings,
three or four very high profile murders.
- [Reporter] 35-year-old
David Ungi paid with his life,
shot as he drove through the
notorious Liverpool Lake
district three weeks ago.
- You know for the first
time we had armed police
as standard in the city.
You know, in the nicest
way the shit got serious
at that point.
And it went through a level at which
it never went back down from,
I only went one way after that.
- I've got some amazing memories
that will never go from me,
but I've got some terrible
memories that'll stick with me
for the rest of my life.
Seeing people getting
stabbed, people getting shot,
and guns were out all the
time and stuff like that.
- [Director] You've
had guns pulled on you?
- Yeah, that was a long
time ago, that was when,
a part of my life I don't
really wanna talk about
but I'm here today so I'm
happy, scary but I'm happy.
(dramatic music)
- The legacy, I think of
ecstasy is as the opening act,
if you like, for cocaine.
The guys who arrived in Liverpool
with the explosion of the cocaine trade
were ruthless people
who were just out there
to make millions.
- People used to come over
and pay fortunes in suitcases,
go to bed broke and wake up a millionaire.
- To meet the Cali cartel,
you know this guy is big.
- People killing and revelling
in the misery of others.
- If there is a devil, I really
believe he has a crack pipe
in his hand.
Some people say a man
is made out of mud ♪
A poor man's made out
of muscle and blood ♪
Muscle and blood and skin and bones ♪
A mind that is weak and
a back that is strong ♪
You know 16 tonnes and what do you get ♪
Another day older and deeper in debt ♪
I owe my soul to the company store ♪