Page 41 - VE Magazine - Issue 42

Would you say Salvage Hunters has changed the antiques trade at
all? It’s certainly made starting out in antiques a more exciting career choice.
I don’t know about that, but I really hope it has! I’m contacted every day, by someone who has just started out in the business, saying “I’ve watched Salvage Hunters for years and want to do what you do!”. Most people would just say, “No, it’s terrible, don’t do it!” but I’m not like that, I always say “Go for it!”, it’s a wonderful business to be involved in, it’s the best business in the world, but it only works for the genuine and the ones that work hard. The others I call ‘Pantomime Dealers’, the ones that wear a silly hat and scarf and call themselves antique dealers... it doesn’t work like that. It’s about knowledge, and soul, and having a half decent eye.
Is it exactly how it’s seen on the TV, nothing pre-rehearsed or staged?
There is no mystery to it, it’s not set up. If you ask anyone we’ve filmed with, they’ll tell you it’s completely honest. I haven’t looked at anything beforehand, I go around and buy as you see on the show and give them a cheque at the end of the day. The only thing different, is they follow me round with a camera while I’m doing it. They know I’m coming, but it’s as honest as it can be.
Let’s fast-forward to Salvage Hunters, how did that come about?
I did a documentary series for the BBC called The Reclaimers, and the Director said I was really good at it, I’d never done anything on TV before, and had never really wanted to be on TV, but we did it and it went down really well. It was really popular, pulling in over three million viewers on Tuesday night at 8pm, prime viewing time. They did want another series, but it never happened. Then fast forward a good few years, I was reading the trade gazette and there was an ad at the back saying “Are you a man with a van that drives around looking for salvage at demolition yards, farms, barns etc?” It was literally describing what I had done that very day. I just thought “God that’s me”, so I tore the advert out
and pinned it to the board next to my computer. I did nothing about it for two months until a friend of mine walked in with the same advert and said “You should ring this!”. I rang that same day and left a message, they phoned back on the Monday and a couple of days later sent a guy over, for me to do five minutes in front of the camera. They already had someone commissioned to do the show, but decided to use me instead. After filming, the show got ditched until a year later, when they called up saying I had a 10-part series on Discovery. I thought it was amazing, but everyone else said “Nobody’s going to watch this!”.
By the time it was aired, the recession had hit me really hard, I had 12 members of staff, a fleet of vans, I had an eight-acre architectural salvage yard, a gothic revival church at the top of Llandudno, a warehouse; a huge business going on! The recession took us down like a ton of bricks. We went from having nothing, to having vast amounts of stock and money, then back down to nothing, in literally no time at all! I had to lay 10 guys off, and then had
a yard sale and two auctions to sell everything off! Then I got another call to say the viewings were going through the roof!
Let’s talk about your time in Liberty, was it everything you hoped it would be?
I thought it would be good fun and a good opportunity for everyone involved. I was really excited about it, however, for the two years prior to going into Liberty, I was one of their main buyers for the antiques floor, they were buying from me, that’s how our relationship began. I was doing way better supplying the antiques that way, and that was the real ‘feather in the cap’ to be honest. I should have retained that instead of taking on the floor. We were supplying a couple of large Luton vans full to them every month, or more, and that was a very good working relationship. When we went on the floor, it just sucked the fun out of it, it was a great experience, lovely people, great for advertising and for the brand, but apart from that it was very difficult.
Do you ever wish the cameras would just go away?
I’m in it now, and it’s not going to go away, I’m always going to be ‘That guy off the telly’, so I may as well just give it my all! I’ll just promote the trade as much as possible, promote the people we’re filming with, promote the restoration guys, and get everyone interested and talking about it. That’s not a bad thing. The popularity of the show is unbelievable, wherever we go in the world! We got mobbed
in Italy, it was ridiculous, terrifying in fact. It is the highest rated programme on the Discovery network, ever! We get 19 million viewers worldwide a day, and we’re just two fat blokes from Conwy driving around in a van.
www.vintagexplorer.co.uk ve / October-November 2018 / 41