A former boxer who ran nightclubs has told how the emergence of drug gangs in the 1990s forced him to retire from the business.
John Conlan said that he often witnessed serious violence including a customer who was shot in the head and machete fights in the street.
He ran a host of Liverpool nightclubs over the decades such as the Gauntlet, Oceans Eleven, the Norseman, the Bobbins Theatre Club and John's Spot. John's managed the Alicante up until 1999.
John who learned to box in the army, described who the violence began to change in the 90s as new drug gangs emerged in the city.
He decided to retire from the business in the late 90s after criminals started to target his family home.
Last July the ECHO spoke to John about his colourful career running clubs in Liverpool's night-time economy.
He told the story about the fateful night in the mid 1980s when a man was shot in the head at John's Spot by one of the club's own doorman.
He said: "This fella came in one night and he was a bit drunk. He had a bit of a grudge against me and I thought, ok here we go.
"But then he pulled this gun out and started waving it around. One of my doormen managed to grab it off him, but then the doorman started to tell him off, shouting 'why have you come in here with this cap gun.'
"The gun was on the small side, and could have been a toy. Anyway the doorman then pushed it against the man's head, and really started to shout at him."
He added: "But he then pulled the trigger of the gun - and shot this fella in through the ear. He was hollering 'he has shot me he has shot me.' We all then realised that the gun was real. The bullet had lodged in the back of his neck."
John said he grabbed the man and took him into the backroom at the club, all the time feeling anger that someone had brought a real gun into his club.
"I told him to shut up and to stop hollering, not to cause a fuss. He wanted me to dial 999 but I said no - I knew this incident would finish my club. We would have been closed down.
"So I made him wait until closing time, and then I let him go. I told him to say he had been shot somewhere else - anywhere but in my club. I think of the doorstaff got rid of the gun - it might have ended up in the Mersey.
"I want to make it clear that the shooting was an accident - the doorman thought the gun was a fake."
John also remembered other violent incidents which happened outside his club the Alicante. He said: "One of our doorman had his arm chopped off outside the club.
"He had turned some lad away and he had come back with some pals. They attacked the doorman with machetes - his arm was left hanging by a thread.
"They managed to save his arm though - just. So the city has always been a dangerous place at night. "
John told the ECHO how Liverpool's clubland began to change in the 1990s as drug gangs and security firms became powerful forces.
He said: "Yes drugs started to change the landscape in the 90s. There were people who suddenly had a lot of money and you knew where it came from. But it was none of my business what people did for a living.
"The security firms also became a force in the 90s - they wanted to run the doors. Some of these individuals wanted to control the doors so they could sell drugs in nightclubs. That was a problem for me but I always said no - I don't want that in my clubs.
"I used to sack lads getting caught up in that scene."
John was born in Bootle but his family moved to south Liverpool when he was a child. John served in the army as a young man and became light middle weight champion of the far east. He was working as a fitter in 60s Liverpool when he decided to he wanted to get into the club game.
He said: "At the time I was working in a lot of pubs and clubs and realised I wanted my own place. I started with the Gauntlet and then the Ocean's Eleven.
"In the 60s there were not that many clubs in town - you had the Wookie, the Blue Angel, The Cavern, the Pink Parrot and the Knightsbridge. The licensing situation was strange in the 60s - you had to be a social club or serve food to get a late licence. The reason so many clubs served the 'chicken in a basket' was to get the late licence."
John said that be began to meet some of the city's more colourful characters in the 1970s. He said: "There was Tommy Commerford, and other criminals from across the city. I associated with these types because they came into my club."
John said that he held a firm line with villains and would not let them drink in his clubs for free. He said: "Sometimes a firm would come in, order a big round then give the barman a pound. That was it.
"So I would go over and ask to speak to their leader in private. And then I would tell him that he was making a fool of me and unless they paid for the round we were going to have a fight. Most of them would apologise and offer to pay for the drinks. But I had to be that way or they would drink the club dry."
He said that as he became successful criminals started to target his family in the 1980s.
He said: "My wife was robbed twice outside our home. People knew we ran a cash business and were doing well, so they went after her. They were nasty incidents that left my wife badly shaken."
And John said that a crime family once arrived at his home after he fell out with a man at the opening of a car showroom. He said: "I opened up this showroom and this well known baddie turned up. He caused a problem and I try to deal with it. But when he threatened one of my sons I pulled him into my office and beat him up.
Anyway they all turned up at mine afterwards - all his family making threats. I was ok but I think that was another distressing incident that upset my wife."
John Conlan ended his involvement in nightclubs in the 1999. Today he is retired, and lives in south Liverpool.
In the past John helped support a community charity in Dovecot which helped young people in the area.
