Guy Martin's Blog, page 6
November 4, 2015
Performance Bikes – December issue
In this month’s (December issue) Performance Bikes Magazine Guy talks exclusively about riding his dream bike, the Britten V1000 – plus there’s an extract from his new book – ‘When You Dead You Dead.’
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October 29, 2015
The G-force had better be with me — or I‘m hitting the roof
DAFT things started to happen when all the Jeremy Clarkson stuff kicked off and it became clear he was getting the boot from Top Gear. Loads of rumours started that I was going to replace him. It was all a load of rubbish at first — just bookies putting out odds to get gullible people to part with their money — but then Chris Evans got involved with Top Gear and Andy Spellman [Martin’s manager] got a phone call from some gadgie at the BBC saying that Evans wanted to talk to me and that I could do one show, do all the shows, do what I wanted, as long as I was in Top Gear.
I didn’t say no straight away, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew it wasn’t right for me. For one thing, if I did it, I’d always be compared with Clarkson . . . Another reason not to do it was because the BBC man said it was the biggest television show in the world.
How many presenters would turn that down? Not many of them, but I did. I’m not being cocky, but I can turn down the biggest TV show in the world because TV work is not my big picture. I sometimes whinge about the amount of attention I’m getting at the moment — imagine how bad it would be if I were on Top Gear. I couldn’t go and race a Harley-Davidson chopper at Dirt Quake on a quiet weekend, could I?
Top Gear might pay squillions of pounds, but what do I want all that for? I can earn enough for the life I want fixing lorries and doing a few other bits and pieces. In any case, we’re doing our own thing and North One Television is on our wavelength now. It’s the only production company I’ve worked with, and it’s come up with its best idea. It’s the best idea anyone’s come up with — the wall of death.
I’ve done a lot of interesting stuff in the process of filming the Speed with Guy Martin television shows, but some of it has been a bit dangerous. Cycling blind at 112mph on a beach, in the slipstream of a racing lorry, got the heart pumping. Flippin
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The G-force had better be with me — or I‘m hitting the roof
October 21, 2015
Guy talks about his new book: ‘When You Dead, You Dead.’
October 20, 2015
Guy talks about his new book: ‘When You Dead, You Dead.’
“My new book comes out tomorrow and you might be wondering, Why do another book? I don’t know, is the honest answer. I’ve never approached anyone to do a book, they’ve always come to me. The money’s alright, but it wasn’t about the money. I enjoyed the process of writing the first one. It brought back a lot of memories. This one was different, because everything was a lot fresher in the memory. The book company were dead keen, and they gave me the freedom to come up with an idea. I knew I had an interesting year coming up so I wrote it as I went a long. That means I was writing a chapter not long after it had happened, so people get to read what I was thinking there and then, almost as soon as something happened, but it isn’t a diary.
“The name of the book is where the first one, the Autobiography, finishes. It’s what my granddad Kidals used to say. I wanted to call the first book When You Dead, You Dead, but they wouldn’t let me, because they wanted the cover to be as obvious and clear as possible so people might pick it up. And plenty did, so they let me have more of a free hand this time.
“The book includes a chapter on the best race of my life, Pikes Peak; the greatest shit of my life; the biggest crash; new missus; new dog; mountain bike racing; India; New Zealand…
And there are things I talk about that that haven’t changed, like my boss, Mick Moody; my friends, the Maws; my dad… They’re all like GMT, Greenwich Mean Time, they never change, you know where you are with them.
The publishers wanted a photo of me on the cover of the book, but I also got chance to have a special cover made too. It’s just something a bit different. It’s like the calendars we do. It looks good, but if you know what it means it’s even better. I think it’s a good cover, but people can interpret it however they want. The regular book will be available from books shops, supermarkets and all that, but the special cover is only available from the Proper webshop.
“Ryan Quickfall is the artist who did the book cover, and he’s done other stuff for us too, including some of the calendar artwork from previous years, the whole of the 2016 calendar, that’s coming out soon, and the tea mug too. He’s a real nice, polite lad, from Newcastle. He comes to Dirt Quake with his missus and is a cool-looking lad, but if there was a line-up of ten folk and I had to pick the person who could put my thoughts into pictures, I wouldn’t pick him, but he can. He’s on the same wavelength. I can’t believe how well he can do it.
“The select few who have read this book: my sister Sally, my girlfriend, Sharon, my mum and dad, are brutally honest and they reckon it’s better than the first one, but it’s hard for me to say.
“This book isn’t even out yet, and I haven’t got any plans to do another one, but never say never. I can see this year being even busier than last year. It looks like I’m off to Latvia and China, building a bike for the Wall of Death, and then I’ve got the biggest race of my life…..”
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