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Thanks for the read AP

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What's better than sitting by the pool with a good book? Well the answer must be sitting by the pool with a book you can relate to.

This in mind on my last visit to V12 I bought Punk in't Gym. My thoughts being what ever happened to Pollit. My curiosity stemmed from back in the day when mags were the only source of news and Andy was often to be seen at the cutting edge of trad climbing. His great leads like The Bells and Knockin and those superb cover shots.

Another aspect of my curiosity was the Australian bit. I too had been to Arapiles, though I beat AP to PITG! Well I stood and walked under it more than once in January 1990...never was I good or talented enough to climb it.
But I did know the Natimuk milk bar, where there was a record for drinking milk shakes, and once drank in the bar. We had to hitch to Horsham for a shower, not that we did much!

I once posted a thread on here around 2000, maybe a little later enquiring what ever happened to Andy Pollit? Now I know.

Cheers for the read Andy.
 AP Melbourne 18 Aug 2016
In reply to A Nidderdale boulderer.:
Hey, thanks heaps A N b, just seen your post.
Very kind words indeed and SO pleased you enjoyed it. And related in some way too.
Its been truly remarkabe you know; Have received dozens and dozens of positive emails and messages through friends' FB accounts etc and not a negative one yet - cept for some guy on his own blog who actually enjoyed the book but thinks I'm a tw*t coz i thought he might be a troll as I didn't know him. That was eleven years ago - talk about holding a grudge!
Cheers,
Andy.

Volume 2 anyone?
Post edited at 05:27
 Michael Hood 19 Aug 2016
In reply to AP Melbourne: Greatly enjoyed reading your book but did think there were some gaps that could be filled by vol2 - so go for it.

 TobyA 19 Aug 2016
In reply to AP Melbourne:

Odd seeing this thread now, as I just read (on the loo, apologies) Andy Popp's review of your book in the most recent Climb! Have you seen it? Very brief, he enjoyed it but was interested to hear more about life after climbing for you.
 AP Melbourne 20 Aug 2016
In reply to TobyA:
> Odd seeing this thread now, as I just read (on the loo, apologies) Andy Popp's review of your book in the most recent Climb! Have you seen it? Very brief, he enjoyed it but was interested to hear more about life after climbing for you.

Ta TobyA, just as well you spelt Popp with two P's not two O's or it could've gone very pear-shaped given the location ... ahem, clears throat.

Am sat here with a thick head this fine morning. Glenn Robbins is slumped in a chair five feet away - up all night boozing, not a wink of sleep. You should (all) hear Grimer's podcast with Glenn - brillliant.

Its been put to me from various 'influential' sources to publish a sequel (probs a more affordable softback). Well, I have 25% of it already written and (for the two of you interested) it plugs many gaps - before, during and after the climbing years.
'Before'; Learning not to ever lie and sex ed from a 'Victorian' mother - "Just Don't Do It Andrew" ,,, "Bit late Mum, I'm seventeen"!
'During'; More tales of 'derring do' ,,, many of which I vaguely remember through bloodshot eyes.
The 'after' part is a litany of disaster, a stumble from one broken relationship to the next, 12hr days (for 8hrs' pay), being rammed by a stolen Porsche Cayenne with an iced-up loon behind the wheel and the resultant chiro fees to fix up my whiplash. Company refused to pay even though it was whilst on duty!

Part two; Thinking, thinking ,,,
Post edited at 00:47
 FactorXXX 20 Aug 2016
In reply to AP Melbourne:

Its been put to me from various 'influential' sources to publish a sequel (probs a more affordable softback). Well, I have 25% of it already written and (for the two of you interested) it plugs many gaps - before, during and after the climbing years.

You could call it: The Whore of Melbourne...
 Shani 20 Aug 2016
In reply to FactorXXX:

> You could call it: The Whore of Melbourne...

What with the whiplash story above, he could call it 'The bills, the bills'?
 AP Melbourne 20 Aug 2016
In reply to Shani:

> What with the whiplash story above, he could call it 'The bills, the bills'?

Oh very droll.
My mate Charlie reckons Drunk in the Gym.
Hmm, not bad humour from a Kiwi. Hey Bro'
 Dan Arkle 20 Aug 2016
In reply to AP Melbourne:

Andy, when/why did you stop climbing?

Or should I buy the book to find out
 AP Melbourne 20 Aug 2016
In reply to Dan Arkle:

> Andy, when/why did you stop climbing?

> Or should I buy the book to find out

Mean you haven't bought it yet Dan, cheapskate ... I make one pound fifty p you know.
It's all in there - the 'when' (5th May 1992) and the 'why'. Read it and weep brother.
 Michael Hood 21 Aug 2016
In reply to AP Melbourne: When is quite clear in the book, but why is not so clear. It's apparent why you stopped climbing at the top level of putting in maximum effort. What isn't clear is why you totally stopped climbing when it read as if you were still enjoying recreational climbing.

 TobyA 21 Aug 2016
In reply to AP Melbourne:

> Am sat here with a thick head this fine morning. Glenn Robbins is slumped in a chair five feet away - up all night boozing, not a wink of sleep. You should (all) hear Grimer's podcast with Glenn - brillliant.

I hugely enjoyed listening to that too, last week while pottering around on French camp doing the washing up and stuff - it was great! The only thing that I was a bit confused by was whether Glenn is gay or not? Both him and Grimer made some references to the homoeroticism of his photography, and he talked about being a "leather boy", but I didn't get whether that was part of his identity that made him (and maybe some of the other Arapiles crew) even more of a real outsider in 80s Australia. Glenn's comments about the Japanese climbers they got to know at Arapiles in the 80s were fascinating: that they had broken out of an even more from a stifling conventional society than he had done. He came over as both particularly insightful and warm there. I don't think most of us in the west have much knowledge of Japanese climbing culture - it tends to get stuck a bit on the cliche level of what we think Japanese society more generally is like, but Glenn's point about how rebellious the Japanese lads (and girls?) who gave it all up to climb were back then really shone a light on that.
 FactorXXX 21 Aug 2016
In reply to TobyA:

I hugely enjoyed listening to that too, last week while pottering around on French camp doing the washing up and stuff - it was great! The only thing that I was a bit confused by was whether Glenn is gay or not?

Does it matter?
 TobyA 21 Aug 2016
In reply to FactorXXX:

Of course it doesn't matter in the sense that people should of course do whatever they wish, but in the context of the discussion I didn't really get whether that was the central issue of not. Have you listened? It's really interesting, particularly if you have been to the Araps or have Aussie climbing mates.
 FactorXXX 21 Aug 2016
In reply to TobyA:

Of course it doesn't matter in the sense that people should of course do whatever they wish, but in the context of the discussion I didn't really get whether that was the central issue of not. Have you listened?

No, I haven't listened to it. However, I just find it a bit strange to ask a third party about someone else's private life in a public discussion forum.
 FactorXXX 21 Aug 2016
In reply to AP Melbourne:

Mean you haven't bought it yet Dan, cheapskate ... I make one pound fifty p you know.

Consider yourself richer to the sum of £1.50.
Look forward to reading it.
 Mooncat 21 Aug 2016
In reply to FactorXXX:

> Mean you haven't bought it yet Dan, cheapskate ... I make one pound fifty p you know.

> Consider yourself richer to the sum of £1.50.

> Look forward to reading it.

£3.00 now.
 TobyA 21 Aug 2016
In reply to FactorXXX:
I guess, but it was because the discussion was about his private life that I was trying to understand. The stories of violence they faced by pissed up bogans from Horsham, driving utes through the Arapiles campsite were hair raising. I wondered if homophobia was part of that, or just climbing and not washing much was enough to get locals wanting to bash you.

Far more generally, I think that climbing culture generally has been quite conflicted about homosexuality; in some ways there is a long tradition (in the UK, the US, and elsewhere also it seems) of many hardcore climber being real outsiders to mainstream society. The old guard in the UK like the tales of fast living and breaking all conventions in the 60s/70s/80s. Look at how often on UKC you see comments saying "climbers are all so performance focused now...", "tickers...", "sport climbing/bouldering has taken the wildness out of climbing..." or comments along those lines. So many climbers have been quite bohemian figures. But it is also still male dominated and was even more so in the past. When I started winter climbing in Scotland the scene was so "male" and quite "blokey" as a result (early 90s), but English/Welsh rock climbing seems to have been rather similar in the decades previous. But with that blokeyness went a much less bohemian attitude to gay men (and women I'm sure too) - perhaps not outright homophobia - but not really an easy going acceptance either. Someone commented on how much society had changed with two of the gold winning GB hockey team being married to each other and it being mentioned in passing if at all in the news, I guess climbing as a culture is similar now? Hope so anyway...
Post edited at 14:49
 AP Melbourne 21 Aug 2016
In reply to TobyA:

The only thing that I was a bit confused by was whether Glenn is gay or not?

Errr, ahem, clears throat. Well he's spread-eagled, maggoted on the floor right next to me with a massive boner coz its warm tonight and I'm topless. Hang on I'll ask him (but I reckon he's a poof).


 FactorXXX 21 Aug 2016
In reply to AP Melbourne:

Errr, ahem, clears throat. Well he's spread-eagled, maggoted on the floor right next to me with a massive boner coz its warm tonight and I'm topless. Hang on I'll ask him (but I reckon he's a poof).

Steady on! This is a family chat room don't you know...
 AP Melbourne 21 Aug 2016
In reply to FactorXXX:

> Errr, ahem, clears throat. Well he's spread-eagled, maggoted on the floor right next to me with a massive boner coz its warm tonight and I'm topless. Hang on I'll ask him (but I reckon he's a poof).

> Steady on! This is a family chat room don't you know...

Yeah FactorXXX, Glenn just mumbled "and we are the children" .. Then collapsed in a massive heap. I can't lift him, HELP!
 Stu Tyrrell 21 Aug 2016
In reply to A Nidderdale boulderer.: Not read it yet, so don't give to much away you lot.........


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