Meet the Blue Mountains matador who fought a bull at a country show

The Land

Pedro Sidoti, Kogarah, NSW, practiced the art of bullfighting in Spain before returning to Australia and performing at rodeos and ag shows.   Video by Dakota Tait. Edited by Joe Daunt and Dakota Tait. Music supplied by Pixabay.

Transcript

00:00And he said, where are you?

00:03And he says, in Dublin, outside Penrith.

00:06Thousands of people there.

00:08Thousands. It was all over the place.

00:11Another truckie jam.

00:14It charged about two or three times.

00:16You know, it's not the Spanish bull.

00:19You can do all this hard work with them and that.

00:21The crowd were with me.

00:22That's why I got out in the ring.

00:24It was easier when I wasn't married, you know.

00:27My name is Pedro William Sedoti.

00:30And back in 1962, that's when we decided.

00:35I decided I wanted to travel.

00:38When I was young.

00:40I was 19 years old.

00:41We were 19 years old, my twin brother and I,

00:43when we left Australia to go overseas.

00:46But I was interested in bullfighting before that.

00:49We used to jump in the ring and fight these bulls

00:53that they let out one at a time.

00:55They were teaching me how to use the cape.

00:58The muleta, the capote.

01:01And then I got the courage to have a go myself.

01:06I couldn't afford to buy a bull or anything like that.

01:11I came back to live where I,

01:13the place that we originally lived in.

01:17And over the fence was my good friend from school,

01:21Sammy Dominello.

01:23Sammy Dominello.

01:24And he had a car.

01:26And during the week I'd saw our advertisement for a rodeo.

01:30And I said to Sammy,

01:32can you take me up to Bowen Mountain?

01:36And then the clowns went and got the bull off him.

01:39And then I said, talked to myself, I'll have a go next.

01:42I'll have a go next.

01:44I'll jump in the ring without permission, you know.

01:48And I got the next one,

01:51and the bull rider and the bull came out and charred it.

01:54And it threw him, threw the next rider.

01:56I got out in the ring, I got the muleta and went out

01:59and put the cape in front of him and he charred me.

02:02During the week I got a phone call from the empresario,

02:05or whatever you call it, the manager of that.

02:07He said, do you mind if we put on another show next week?

02:10And we'll advertise it.

02:12And I says, all right.

02:15Went through Richmond and going up the mountain

02:17there's a traffic jam.

02:19A big traffic jam.

02:20And I said, what's going on here?

02:22Not realising.

02:23And guess who, guess the truck in front of me,

02:26guess what was on the truck?

02:27The bull that was to fight.

02:28I went to the Easter show.

02:30I got to the side of the ring.

02:32I had my cape with me.

02:34And I was going to jump in the ring.

02:38I saw the bull rider.

02:40It was in the evening.

02:42And some of the fellas recognised me.

02:44And they got the police straight away.

02:46They found out I'd been bullfighting.

02:48Someone from London rang me up.

02:51They wanted me to do a show.

02:52And they got to think that.

02:54And then I said, I'd have a go.

02:57And because it was advertised in newspapers and everything,

03:00I wound up going up there.

03:03Thousands of people there.

03:05And this time, a couple of Spanish boys turned up

03:08that I didn't know.

03:10So I gave one of them, my son of mine, Maletha,

03:13I gave him one of my capes.

03:15I thought just to do, to help me if anything happened.

03:19Because I had no one to help me with this.

03:21And it was this big bull, you know.

03:23That big black one knocked me down once.

03:25I got up.

03:26I didn't have any injuries on me.

03:28A lot of people were, you know, they were happy about it.

03:32They came and talked to me afterwards.

03:34And had little children and put up photographs with me.

03:37And all that.

03:38Even though they got knocked down and that.

03:39It's a form of art for me.

03:40It's art.

03:41It's art.

03:42It's a form of art.

03:43It's tradition.

03:44There's a lot behind it, you know.

03:45When the crowd's with you, you get the adrenaline.

03:48And you feel invincible, you know.

03:51You feel invincible.

03:52It's such a fantastic feeling.

03:54Fantastic feeling.

03:55I've felt it so many times.

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