Pudsey happy to look after Bear necessities in new Blackburn Rovers role
1:00pm Saturday 8th September 2012 in Sport
By Andy Cryer, Blackburn Rovers reporter
HE has performed in front of millions, waltzed with Terry Wogan and been a national treasure for almost 20 years. Now, he is the new kit man at Blackburn Rovers.
His name ‘Pudsey Bevan’ should be enough for most to guess the identity of his alter-ego after he annually donned the now famous yellow bear suit at the BBC’s Children in Need extravaganza at Television Centre for 16 years.
‘So you were basically a man in a daft bear costume?’ one senior Rovers player commented to him as he was telling his unlikely story at Brockhall yesterday.
He has had to get used to the banter over the years.
Bevan, who changed his name by deed poll from Alan to Pudsey about four years ago, became the official Children In Need mascot who paraded around the TV studios every November following a few drinks after work.
He said: “I was working in the security at the BBC and after a shift one day, I was at Television Centre on fourth floor in the social club, I was talking to a group who were doing a filming for Children in Need and the guy who played Pudsey could not make it.
“I said I would do it. I did it and I have done it for 16 years.
“I missed one year when I was working for Fulham because we had a game at Walsall and I couldn’t get out “I was there through the Spice Girls to the last couple. There are obviously different ones all over the country, but I was in Television Centre, had my own changing room. It was great fun.
“The longest I was ever in the costume was 16 hours and it was very, very hot. I had a chaperone who took me round because you can’t see anything. You can only see through the nose.
“The funniest one was completely unscripted, Wogan starts doing the dance with me.
“Then he leaves me as he reads the total and I can’t see a thing stuck on the middle of the stage.
“I am stood there like an idiot, it is all right because it is a big yellow bear waving his arms round, but I was thinking I don’t know what to do, was disorientated and didn’t want to fall off the stage in front of millions of people.
“At Fulham my nickname was Pudsey and a couple of years ago I changed my name by deed poll to Pudsey.
“Driving licence, passport are all in that name.
“Everyone called me that.”
So how does a man originally from Gloucester and who combined being Pudsey Bear with working in security and running his own driving school get into the world of pro-fessional football?
Bevan often asks himself the same question.
He got his big break at Fulham – almost by accident – and admits he is now doing the ‘next best thing’ to being a footballer.
He said: “I was working as a fireman/security guard at the BBC and I applied for a job at Fulham on that side of things.
“With no experience at all, Fulham decided they needed a kit man – Kevin Keegan was the manager – I don’t know how I got it.
“The only experience I had ever had of professional football was going to watch the team I supported, Bristol City. I had followed my team around the country but then suddenly I am right in the middle with a guy who was a legend to me.
“I did eight years with Fulham. Al Fayed had just come in, I was right the way through until Chris Coleman and Steve Kean were there. I saw John Tigana, the French revolution, we won the Championship by a country mile.
“After seven or eight years the club had changed a bit too much.
“It wasn’t the family friendly club I first joined and I decided I would find something else.”
Bevan, 46, worked in sports marketing for first Puma and then Under Armour for the next six years before being made redundant in January.
His old kit man network got him back inside the game, working with QPR’s academy and the Welsh youth, before getting the chance to link up again with Kean this summer at Rovers.
“People think it is 90 minutes on a Saturday and maybe a game in a week,” said Bevan. “What else do you do? I have a list here of my 52 grown up children. They range from Nuno Gomes to young lads and everything between.
“We look after everything for them, from their kit to everything they could need on a daily basis.
“Pre-season is the worst time ever for a kit man. I drove to Austria with the kit. The big transit is full with everything they need, with the exhaust dragging. We took everything, anything you could possibly imagine they would need.
“It got better. We went just over 1,200 miles to Austria, then 500 miles to Holland and then a little one to Ireland.
“Then the first game of the season I drove to Ipswich. A lot of kit men bundle everything on the coach and go with the team. I want to be with the kit all the time though. The only away game I haven’t driven myself was MK Dons and we lost.
“Football is full of superstitions and to my mind, until we lose, I go everywhere in the van, I don’t care where it is.”
Comments(45)
SimonGarner
says...
1:13pm Sat 8 Sep 12
SimonGarner
says...
1:14pm Sat 8 Sep 12
RUinsane
says...
1:15pm Sat 8 Sep 12
RUinsane
says...
1:17pm Sat 8 Sep 12
RUinsane wrote:Fulham of course and also who will take on the tinky winky role?
Welcome pudsey, as you have worked with Lala before, when at Fulahm and at cebeebies, was the chance of linking up with Dipsey and Po to good an opportunity to miss?
A Darener
says...
1:19pm Sat 8 Sep 12
ronnie clayton
says...
1:47pm Sat 8 Sep 12
dangerous dave
says...
2:03pm Sat 8 Sep 12
OUT WITH KEAN AGNEW SINGH HENDRY VENKYS IN WITH THOUSANDS OF FANS
Lancs - pensioner
says...
2:26pm Sat 8 Sep 12
Then we take on a scout when the window has shut.
Hendry finds the money from somewhere to buy his medal back but can't afford to give them poor pensioners a penny.
Shebby went shopping and bought three players behind the tossers back.
You could not make this up if you where writing a book.
Welcome to Faulty Towers, commonly known as Ewood Park.
Is it any wonder the fans are leaving in there thousand despite us luckily being second in the Chumpionship.
P!ss up in a brewery springs to mind.
Kean out Pension robber out
eddie the eagle
says...
2:33pm Sat 8 Sep 12
gleechy
says...
2:46pm Sat 8 Sep 12
Why do we need expensive strikers when if kitman drives his van to every match we'll win anyway?
When the whole world is cutting back on luxuries, we take no action to stop relegation,get a global advisor then another global advisor a British version, when the window shuts, a rake of Portugeezers, and a heavily overpriced frontman.
Is Black burn Rovers just there to syphon money off?
OnePostThenTheOther
says...
3:47pm Sat 8 Sep 12
Just one more responsibility left to take off him now Venkys....
KEAN SACK
THOUSANDS BACK
rovertakenmb
says...
4:27pm Sat 8 Sep 12
Looks like he has got something in common with Kean.
BOOK OUT NOW
www.rovertaken.co.uk
RUinsane
says...
4:50pm Sat 8 Sep 12
ronnie clayton wrote:Hey up, Hendry stalkers back, you been following him round lytham golf course again? You'll get locked up.
read about colin hendry today , google Scottish Sun . interesting !
alfa111
says...
5:01pm Sat 8 Sep 12
OnePostThenTheOther wrote:Keans only qualification is as a waterboy and playing with momas big boobys
Good, another job taken off Kean, although he might have been able to make a go of this one.
Just one more responsibility left to take off him now Venkys....
KEAN SACK
THOUSANDS BACK
stick to football
says...
5:12pm Sat 8 Sep 12
peely
says...
7:44pm Sat 8 Sep 12
MxMave
says...
2:17am Sun 9 Sep 12
" I have a list here of my 52 grown up children. They range from Nuno Gomes to young lads and everything between. "
MxMave
says...
2:18am Sun 9 Sep 12
jonjonweatherman
says...
7:54am Sun 9 Sep 12
whappen
says...
8:25am Sun 9 Sep 12
RUinsane wrote:Hear, hear.
ronnie clayton wrote: read about colin hendry today , google Scottish Sun . interesting !Hey up, Hendry stalkers back, you been following him round lytham golf course again? You'll get locked up.
It's a nothing story anyway. Certainly not enough for RC to be pointing everyone towards at every opportunity.
More a witch hunt than stalking.
Give it a rest FFS,
whappen
says...
8:27am Sun 9 Sep 12
MxMave wrote:As if he could....eth.
Conspiracy #9215: Didn't the kit man hand Ped's the walking stick for his celebration? PERHAPS SHEBBY HATH WEILDED THE AXE!?
whappen
says...
8:34am Sun 9 Sep 12
MxMave wrote:Harsh but fair.
Why do I get the feeling this guy is really camp and a potential sex offender? " I have a list here of my 52 grown up children. They range from Nuno Gomes to young lads and everything between. "
Changing your name to your nickname is a little, well, sad really.
Sounds a bit of a star struck luvvie wannabe.
whappen
says...
9:23am Sun 9 Sep 12
ronnie clayton wrote:No it's not, it's a nothing piece using old information with a little add on about his medals.
read about colin hendry today , google Scottish Sun . interesting !
Like I said, give it a rest.
The pension was untouchable and you can't stop someone taking a job just because they were made bankrupt - even though he shouldn't have got the job he has. The pro rata payments were a result of the original bankruptcy order - the piece almost makes it sound like it was an offer CH made by choice. It was certainly put in place before he got this job.
I don't know how his bankruptcy works now he's on a sizeable wage, but that's the system and will look after itself. Same as selling the medals - was it to the LMA? - and buying them back.
He may not even be able to favour one of his creditors over the others so couldn't pay the couple a bigger slice of the pie, even if he wanted to.
I accept he doesn't seem to have made much effort to do that. I am most certainly not a CH apologist nor am I trying to condone what he's done. I'm as disgusted as the next man by his behaviour SINCE he was made bankrupt, especially towards the couple. Showing a little remorse wouldn't go amiss, but that's not been forthcoming either so it is difficult to have much sympathy for him.
However, it is also easy to see how he ended up bankrupt and, I fancy, far from unique.
It has become a little obsessive on here by one or two posters; look at the bigger picture before slagging someone off on the basis of a nothing story; or just let it drop - preferably both.”
bburnrover
says...
11:04am Sun 9 Sep 12
philmoulden
says...
2:13pm Sun 9 Sep 12
philmoulden
says...
3:12pm Sun 9 Sep 12
what a circus weve become .
Arthur Labore
says...
6:07pm Sun 9 Sep 12
Kean/Hendry/Orr/Venk
ys/Shabby/Pudsey OUT
Then fans will return
icannotrace
says...
8:39pm Sun 9 Sep 12
silverstan
says...
9:03pm Sun 9 Sep 12
the genuine cypruslad wrote:The icing on the cake, words fail me !!!!!
Another addition to the cast of the pantomine.
silverstan
says...
9:04pm Sun 9 Sep 12
SimonGarner wrote:He will be **** if he doesn't !!!
I wonder if SEM took a backhander for this one? Does Pudsey speak Portuguese?
Sportivo
says...
11:36pm Sun 9 Sep 12
aibeen
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4:10am Mon 10 Sep 12
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bring back the good old days
says...
7:30am Mon 10 Sep 12
not the real world as we know (knew) it.
Rovers 1495
says...
8:18am Mon 10 Sep 12
SimonGarner wrote:He is ... the Kit Man ... it's Kean
Please God, let Pudsey be the new Rovers manager
dangerous dave
says...
8:48am Mon 10 Sep 12
Dukes
says...
12:46pm Mon 10 Sep 12
Hendog
says...
1:05pm Mon 10 Sep 12
Hendog
says...
1:09pm Mon 10 Sep 12
Rovers 1495
says...
1:21pm Mon 10 Sep 12
Dukes wrote:In an exchange deal for Junior Hoillett
he came in before the season started from QPR.
getskills
says...
4:27pm Mon 10 Sep 12
“I am stood there like an idiot ...waving his arms round, but I was thinking I don’t know what to do, was disorientated ... in front of millions of people."
“With no experience at all ... I don’t know how I got it." (The job)
“The only experience I had ever had of professional football was going to watch the team I supported"
You'll fit right in mate. You've got management potential written all over you.
whappen
says...
8:37pm Mon 10 Sep 12
dangerous dave wrote:If you'd bothered to read what I said you'd see I am not disputing his behaviour has been disgusting. Nor have I said the couple shouldn't be upset or that I wouldn't be.
WHAPPEN - get real - disgusting behavior on Hendry's part wonder how you would react if you were owed thousands - a lot different I think!!
Like I said, I'm no CH apologist but I am capable of being "real" enough to at least try and understand how a situation arose rather than just taking a one-eyed view of the consequences.
It's just some posters' indignation has turned into a pointless witch hunt bordering on the vindictive.
jim 2012
says...
7:34pm Tue 11 Sep 12
1875 Rovers
says...
10:31pm Tue 11 Sep 12
I can't believe that this guy has gone public with this and put his family at the mercy of the media. No wonder kids get grief at school, has he no common sense ?
Who in their right mind would admit to being part of Keanochio's 'management' team. He could have kept quiet and nobody needed to know ..... he's brought it on himself and deserves all he gets.
Kean out, Arte et Labore !!
the genuine cypruslad says...
1:11pm Sat 8 Sep 12