Macclesfield Express

January 7th, 2004

HEADLINE: Disco Inferno

BYLINE: By Paul Taylor

An eccentric entrepreneur is more than £25,000 in pocket after buying a classic fire engine to use as a mobile disco.

Steve Howard bought the 1969 HCB-Angus Water Tender for just £5,000 from a friend who had moved to South Africa.

Just weeks later he went to Co-operative Insurance in Manchester to get some cover for it and was told the vehicle is worth at least £30,000.

The five-ton beast more than triples in weight when filled with water, up to 16 ½ tons and is capable of pumping 2,000 gallons of water every minute.

But Steve, 53, has no plans to sell the machine for profit.

He’s keeping the five-litre engine on his drive on Salter Lane in Lower Withington while he converts it into a mobile disco with 1,000-watt speakers, 650-watt base boxes, a 10,000 watt amp and £1,000 worth of lights.

Steve said: “I’ve been after the Angus for a while now – it took about six years of negotiations with my friend before he would sell it to me.

“I was surprised to hear it was worth that much but I won’t be selling it. It’s perfect to use as a mobile disco, so I’m fitting it with lights and a music system that I bought from a pop band that had gone out of business.

“The Angus has been in service on one of the Queen’s estates in Scotland, so it has only done 24,000 miles from new.

“I love classic motors anyway, they’re my hobby. I’ve got an ex-army Landrover and a Hillman Minx on the drive as well; an 89-person double-decker bus at my business yard in Hyde; and another fire engine, a 1969 Dennis on the way!”

Steve – whose businesses include Barracuda Disco, Swiftline Services, First Cheshire Chimneys, as well as landscaping firms- has been married to Susan for 30 years.

They have three children, Tracey, 19, Clare, 21 and 27-year old Lee. Lee’s mobile disco form Starburst will also use the Angus.

 GRAPHIC: Cheers: Steve toasts his new music machine.