Armed with these qualifications he soon realised his occupation at the time, grave digging, was a dead-end job and after subsequently spending a year in a fish factory decided to seek work at a local printer. He joined Martins the Printers in 1977 as a cartographer. During his 38 years in the industry he has experienced life as a studio manager, production manager and production director. When not at work Steve can be found spending time topless with his MG, walking with his wife in the Lake District, or visiting his two daughters. Sadly he says there is not enough time to play golf or his guitar.
Why did you get into print?
I was embarrassed by the foul language in the fish factory
What would be your dream job?
I have three dream jobs: an impressionist painter, a musician or a golf pro. Hopeless at all three, apparently
Who would play you in a movie about your life?
Donald Sutherland, playing Oddball in Kelly’s Heroes. Driving a Sherman tank through life in the print industry
What is your dream bit of kit?
MG to build a new two-seater sports car with the quality of a Ferrari and the reliability of a Porsche
What would you most like to print?
Money, when will the next order for quantitative easing arrive?
What is your favourite TV show?
Breaking Bad. Yes every episode
What is your favourite phrase or saying?
Can we do it any quicker?
What is your favourite album?
At the moment Steve ‘N’ Seagulls. Crazy bunch of musicians playing hard rock on banjos, hillbilly style
What book are you reading at the moment?
The Plantagenets by Dan Jones. Two centuries of greed, insecurity and selfishness mixed with savagery, butchery, cruelty and stupidity. It’s nice to know where you come from
What is the strangest job you have done?
A client complained about the quality of a print job, 20,000 letterheads, which she described as being covered in talcum powder. I organised to have them picked up and dusted on our GTO to remove the excessive spray powder. This we did and delivered the next day. When I checked over the history of the job, it transpired we didn’t print it in the first place
Most embarrassing moment?
Turning up to a PrintWeek Awards with the wrong trousers. I naively brought my DJ to work before heading down to London. My trousers were replaced with a pair whose owner was a lot shorter than me
What is your greatest fear?
Falling behind with new technology
What is your greatest ambition?
Right now it would be driving down the west coast of the US in a Mustang, topless of course
Where would you go if you could time-travel?
Back to Abingdon in the 1970s to revise MG’s quality control
What is your worst kind of print?
It doesn’t matter how well a job is printed if it is finished poorly
How would you like to be remembered?
I kept my sanity until the end
Life is..?
Trying to slow down, I am getting on a bit after all
