Efes:
Nothing to do with Promotor’s but it is Tunbridge Wells by the Vale Road post office. The days when we had to do roping and sheeting. I wonder how the driver got out of that one?
That’s him in the phone box,handing in his notice before he was given the DCM!
David
To all my fellow ex-Promotorians keep the shiny side up and the greasy side down and a merry xmas to you all !! 
Nottsnortherner:
To all my fellow ex-Promotorians keep the shiny side up and the greasy side down and a merry xmas to you all !!
Hey, I’m an ex-Promotorian!! Don’t it sound great. Thanks for the thoughts though Nottsnortherner. I would also like to wish everyone a Happy New year and hope there are still a few more tales to be told.
Never did like the British winter. Neither the cold wet weather nor cold dry weather appeals to me. Southern Spain’s the place to be as we all know and its only 3 days from Cherbourg or less if you have a heavy right foot.
In the early 90’s my son did a trip to Kuwait. It was his only trip to that area. Before he left I gave him a Middle East map and highlighted the route. I saw him at Christmas and he showed me the old map. Brought back many memories.
That old map brought memories back for me too Brian…the part that shows where the 5 day ferry sails serenely into Haifa,Israel where you,re then confronted with the enormous effort of a 100k ride down the motorway to Tel aviv only to end the drive with a cool,relaxing drink in one of the old Arab quarter bars by the sea !! Oh, the stress of it all !!! Three times I had to suffer that!!
Nottsnortherner:
That old map brought memories back for me too Brian…the part that shows where the 5 day ferry sails serenely into Haifa,Israel where you,re then confronted with the enormous effort of a 100k ride down the motorway to Tel aviv only to end the drive with a cool,relaxing drink in one of the old Arab quarter bars by the sea !! Oh, the stress of it all !!! Three times I had to suffer that!!
Obviously ‘Staggie’ was looking after you! I ended up in 'Beirut" with an armed ■■■■■■.
To be fair only the first of my three Israeli trips was while I was at Promotor and that had to come at a cost! The occasion was July 1981 and I had been pencilled in for quite some time for a trip to Tehran along with 3 or 4 others to the Trade Fair. Unfortunately this trip was going to clash with the expected birth of my son and I made it quite clear to Stagg that I wasn,t going to miss the birth. Stagg begrudgingly agreed to me dipping out of the Tehran job but said the only other trip I could do that would tie in with the birth date was the racing car show in Tel aviv which was a deliver/fly home for a week/fly back job but I would have to give up my Scania as it had been prepared for middle east running. Now, Tom Miles idea of “middle east prep” was to glue a piece of mossie net over the roof hatch so I wasn,t too concerned about losing the truck, I thing Bobby Kean took it in the end and I went to Israel with the left-hook “Afro-Camion” which by then had been repainted in the traditional Promotor green. It finished up as a trip and a half to remember and all for the right reasons! I could go on but I,m sure I would be repeating myself as I think I,ve described the actual trip elsewhere in a previous post. Both my other two trips to Israel were when I was part of the “Motorvation” set-up so it wasn,t a case of having to argue with the Honey monster! The first of these two trips was almost a non event. It was back in the mid 2000,s at a time of hightened tension in the middle east and we had just had an IBM conference in Swtzerland or Greece cancelled as a result of the threat of a possible terrorist attack. The Septics knew about the proposed Israeli trip with the IBM exhibition trailer and weren,t too keen on a 16mtr trailer with huge IBM lettering making its way to Tel aviv so frantic discussions started to take place. Now it just so happened that the truck/trailer combo was due to be repainted on its return to the UK so the top brass in Trumpville agreed to let us go on the condition that all the IBM graphics were removed before we took off!..Word soon reached the Israelis that they were getting a plain black trailer and they were NOT happy!..Simple solution! extend the tour by a couple of days and we(the Israelis,that is) will put our own graphics on it ! So it was that the weekend of my arrival I was escorted to a local Israeli transport company yard where a local graphics company had been contracted to put back on the exact same graphics that had been taken off three weeks before!!. I could go on but your,e probably bored already so its" Shalom, L’hitraot" from me !
Nottsnortherner:
To be fair only the first of my three Israeli trips was while I was at Promotor and that had to come at a cost! The occasion was July 1981 and I had been pencilled in for quite some time for a trip to Tehran along with 3 or 4 others to the Trade Fair. Unfortunately this trip was going to clash with the expected birth of my son and I made it quite clear to Stagg that I wasn,t going to miss the birth. Stagg begrudgingly agreed to me dipping out of the Tehran job but said the only other trip I could do that would tie in with the birth date was the racing car show in Tel aviv which was a deliver/fly home for a week/fly back job but I would have to give up my Scania as it had been prepared for middle east running. Now, Tom Miles idea of “middle east prep” was to glue a piece of mossie net over the roof hatch so I wasn,t too concerned about losing the truck, I thing Bobby Kean took it in the end and I went to Israel with the left-hook “Afro-Camion” which by then had been repainted in the traditional Promotor green. It finished up as a trip and a half to remember and all for the right reasons! I could go on but I,m sure I would be repeating myself as I think I,ve described the actual trip elsewhere in a previous post. Both my other two trips to Israel were when I was part of the “Motorvation” set-up so it wasn,t a case of having to argue with the Honey monster! The first of these two trips was almost a non event. It was back in the mid 2000,s at a time of hightened tension in the middle east and we had just had an IBM conference in Swtzerland or Greece cancelled as a result of the threat of a possible terrorist attack. The Septics knew about the proposed Israeli trip with the IBM exhibition trailer and weren,t too keen on a 16mtr trailer with huge IBM lettering making its way to Tel aviv so frantic discussions started to take place. Now it just so happened that the truck/trailer combo was due to be repainted on its return to the UK so the top brass in Trumpville agreed to let us go on the condition that all the IBM graphics were removed before we took off!..Word soon reached the Israelis that they were getting a plain black trailer and they were NOT happy!..Simple solution! extend the tour by a couple of days and we(the Israelis,that is) will put our own graphics on it ! So it was that the weekend of my arrival I was escorted to a local Israeli transport company yard where a local graphics company had been contracted to put back on the exact same graphics that had been taken off three weeks before!!. I could go on but your,e probably bored already so its" Shalom, L’hitraot" from me !
Definitely not bored Tony, just leaves us eager to hear more. Great post.
You may have read my recent postings concerning a trip I did delivering and collecting furniture to and from British Embassies around the Middle East. Because of a diplomatic incident following the broadcasting of the film ‘Death of a Princess’ the Saudi’s had stopped issuing visas to us Brits. I enlisted the help of Sami Sirrissi in Damascus and eventually he obtained a visa for me. How he managed it I will never know but I’ve always wondered if it was genuine. I have scanned it as well as a couple of others which were obtained from the Saudi Embassy in London in later years when I was flying out there.
The only thing that I can see that is different is that on the one issued in Damascus in 1980 something has been written in long hand down the side of the visa. So is there anyone out there who can tell me what it says. Did wonder if it said I was a pilgrim on my way to Mecca!!!
I have another little anecdote concerning an Iraqi visa with something similar written down the side. I will relate that story sometime.
Writing up the side probably reads “dodgy geezer, watch him like a hawk!” 
Attached are photos of two visas for the Lebanon. The first one was obtained at The Lebanese embassy in Amman in 1980 during the milk round of British embassies I did that year but the second one was obtained in London in 1981.
It’s been mentioned on this Promotor thread before that you never knew where you would be going next. Thats one reason it was such a great company to work for. I haven’t a clue why the company got another Lebanese visa for me. Its unused but I can only assume Peter (the boss) Calderwood had another great scheme in mind which came to nothing. Perhaps like the Afro Camion business.
There has been mention of trips to Israel on this thread recently. I posted, a year or so back, of a Ford Mondeo film job Promotor did down in the Negev desert back in 93. We shipped over from Greece via Rhodes and Cyprus to Haifa. I have a few odd photos left over from the ones I posted then. I went out with the three lorries and drivers to act as shotgun to keep Ford happy. Once we arrived in Tel Aviv I flew home.
Interesting that you mention a Ford Mondeo film shoot in 93 because in 96 we(Motorvation) took 7 or 8 trailers to Porto Cervo,Sardinia for the face-lift Mondeo and Ka launch! This was for Ford MC courtesy of Mansfield Communications…ring any bells,Brian!
I mentioned a few days ago of writing that had been written down the side of a Saudi visa in my passport and that I had a little anecdote, that I would relate later, concerning writing on an Iraqi visa that caused me a bit of a problem.
In 85 Promotor was into the Baghdad International Trade Fair in a big way. The British Pavilion was organised and backed by the BOTB. We provided most other services. We were not only shipping many trailer loads of exhibits to the fair but also providing flights and hotel accommodation. It didn’t stop there of course. Alongside the freight we handled all the custom clearance, unloading, unpacking and positioning of exhibits. On the travel side we booked flights and hotel rooms for our customers as well as sorting out their visas, airport transfers and generally looking after them. We also provided furniture, fridges, drinks and anything else they may need on their stands. All the exhibitors had to do was sell.
A lot of planning was required on our part and Peter (Mr Promotor) Calderwood went out to Baghdad for a few days well in advance of the fair on a recce trip. He met up with our customs agent, the hotel managers and the British Airways office manager, an Englishman. For Promotor this was one of the largest jobs we had ever handled. Turnover would be in the region of £750k. It was decided I would run the complete show myself with the help of one of our drivers. Peter had wangled a free ticket out of BA and I was to base myself in the Meridian Hotel.
Iraqi visas were always a bit of a problem unless they were for lorry drivers so Promotor obtained my visa at the same time as visas for three or four of our drivers. I flew out Sunday afternoon on a BA Tristar to Baghdad via Amman arriving just after midnight. Immigration could be a bit of a chore at Saddam International Airport and that night was worse than usual. Somehow I ended up last off the plane and joined the queue. An hour later I was the only one left and as I handed my passport over I was thinking of the hotel bed that awaited me. The Iraqi immigration officer opened my passport looked at my visa then at me and asked where my lorry was. It was at that point I knew I was in deep sh-t. I knew I had a lorry drivers visa but didn’t think it mentioned driver on it. In fact I had flown into Baghdad on a couple of occasions previously with visas obtained in London as a driver and not had a problem.
It wasn’t until much later that I showed the visa to our agent in Baghdad, he informed me that written in Arabic down the side of my visa it said “This man must enter Iraq with a lorry”.
I remonstrated with the immigration officer promising to make him a rich man. He then asked if I had any luggage. I said I did and he sent me off to get it. Upon my return he asked me to follow him and we went to a door which he opened. I went through and I found myself looking up at the BA Tristar. Up you go he said and with that I found myself back in London on the Monday morning instead of waking up in a nice Hotel room in central Baghdad.
This is not the end of the story. I will finish it later.
Nottsnortherner:
Interesting that you mention a Ford Mondeo film shoot in 93 because in 96 we(Motorvation) took 7 or 8 trailers to Porto Cervo,Sardinia for the face-lift Mondeo and Ka launch! This was for Ford MC courtesy of Mansfield Communications…ring any bells,Brian!
Nottsnortherner. By 96 I had been retired to the funny farm for at least 2 years so wouldn’t ring any bells with me.
I had been refused entry to Iraq at Baghdad airport because I had a lorry drivers visa and been put back on the BA Tristar to return to London. Monday afternoon I was back in the Promotor office in Longfield Road, Tunbridge Wells. I sat down with Peter, the boss and the companies other director at that time, Dave Stagg. “Well, where do we go from here” Peter enquired. I had to get into Iraq. The 1985 Baghdad International Trade Fair was the biggest job Promotor had ever handled and I was the cog in the middle. Apart from the trailers loaded with exhibits there were about 120 exhibitors relying on me for their travel arrangements. “If I’ve got to go in overland then thats what I’ll do” I said. “Book me a flight down to southern Turkey and I’ll thumb a lift from there”.
And thats what we did. However, it wasn’t quite that straight forward. I ended up flying from Heathrow to Istanbul then on to Ankara. From there I was to fly to Diyarbakir but when I came to check in I found Diyarbakir airport was closed due to the runway being resurfaced. All flights were being redirected to Batman, which, as it so happened, was better for me as it was closer to my intended destination. The TIR lorry park and cafe at Kiziltepe. From there I intended to get a lift. If I couldn’t get a lift to Baghdad I would have to hang around until one of our lorries bound for the fair called in. Of course there was always the chance that none of them would call in but that wasn’t worth contemplating. Peter had said before I left that he would try to get a message to our drivers enroute to look out for me but when I spoke to them later none of them had received it.
Domestic flights at that time didn’t normally go to Batman, it was a Turkish airforce base but as I said it was better for me. After we landed I made my way, carrying my suitcase and a pilots bag full of paperwork through customs to join the queue at the taxi rank outside. This could be fun I thought. Am I going to be able to find a taxi to take me down to Kizeltepe. It was a fair plod so thought I might have a problem. The first taxi I approached in fact didn’t want to take me but the second one did. We agreed a price and set off, it was early evening and dark by then. I sat in the front with the driver and managed, as you do, to hold a bit of a conversation in broken English and German. However, it was when I saw the gun stuck in his belt that I began to doubt my strategy. Was I about to be mugged, perhaps shot and dumped in the middle of the Turkish countryside where my body could lie undetected for the next hundred years. Attack is the best form of defence so they say so I immediately pointed to it and made a joke about it. The driver laughed and pointed to the side of the road and said “bandits, bandits”. Hmmm I thought, and is the biggest bandit of them all sitting alongside me.
Never the less we arrived in Kiziltepe without incident and I dragged my luggage into the cafe. What I wanted was a driver who wouldn’t be hanging about. Someone who would be heading out that evening. Down to the border at Habur where I prayed there would be no queue and from there nonstop to Baghdad. I needed to be there asap as I was way behind schedule. And believe it or not I had only been there twenty minutes when this old, rough looking english driver sat down near me. I explained my situation and he said he also wanted to be in Baghdad the next night. Soon we were heading off to the border, which was, for a change, very quiet. We passed through Habur and onto the Iraqi side of Zacko. There I handed my passport over to immigration and it was stamped without fuss.
We drove all next day, the driver only taking cat naps now and then. We finally entered Baghdad late evening where we found a taxi to take me to the Meridien Hotel. I was back in business.
It is with great sadness that I have to inform everyone that Bob Heath passed away on Sunday 14th January 2018.
Although Bob and I did not work on Pro-Motor at the same time, I had become friends with him through this thread
and through my book’s facebook site.
Bob was one of the earlier drivers on Pro-Motor.
I have no details as to the funeral arrangements but when they become available I will post them on here.
Rest in peace Bob.
I too have been informed of the sad passing of Bobby Heath (SUPERCUBE on this forum). Bob was enormous fun to work with and I had the pleasure of his company many times. Sadly he had one to many arguments with Stagg and ultimately this led to his premature departure from Promotor around mid 1975…R.I.P. Bobby.
So sorry to hear of the passing of Bob Heath aka SUPERCUBE. One of the early Promotor drivers from 71 to 75. One who’s name I heard mentioned fondly many times by both Peter and Liz.
R.I.P Bob Heath.
