Dougie's Story

I've always been into heavy metal but no always as a drummer. I used to be a partner in an armour making business. At first, working in a business partnership was great. It was much easier to raise the capital to get us started with two of us to share the liability. We were starting from scratch! We needed money for tools, rent, scrap iron, beer and insurance, and beer's no cheap these days!

Angus, the other guy in the partnership, was a really good blacksmith and with me being a designer our own specialist skills complemented each other really well. I came up with most of the good ideas [see diagram] but Angus had his moments too. Looking back two heads were definitely better than one. We shared the responsibilities of running the business between the two of us and we each had our own tasks to perform. Angus did the paperwork and looked after all the money, I made the tea and cleaned the toilets. Sounds perfect I know, but it all went horribly wrong!

The business did really well at first and it was great having someone to share the workload. It wasn't so great having to share the profits though. If I was on my own I could be making twice as much! About a year after we started when 'Executive Armour Solutions' was at it's peak, Angus discovered the fruit machines. It started with the fruities, but before long he was betting on the horses, casinos and even losing at shove ha'penny to the kids down the street.

And that's no all! I'd been seeing Rhona the Scrap Iron guy's daughter for six months when I found the note. Angus and her had ran off to Gretna Green, got married and were never seen again. She'd fallen for his superior tools. Anvil envy can be a powerful emotion as many a spurned blacksmith will testify. I was left ruined! Shared liability can be a double edged sword. It's great when you're starting up but if something like this happens you can be left to pay for other peoples mistakes.

Still! I got over it and I really landed on ma feet with The Pencils, they're the kind of boys you can really trust…which reminds me! Time for a beer and it's definitely Rocky's round, the tight…