All Systems Go

I was a normal teenager I liked music, drink and then girls in that order, music and drink at the same time were pretty much high on the list, not many bands came to Gimpsville so we normally had to travel to see even local bands!

I had seen a few, many lost back in the mists of time, Wet Dream (I wasn’t old enough to get in so I stood outside The Mount to listen), Fallen Angel and New Disease to name but a few, I liked local bands, I supported them as often as possible, I loved pubs as well, I supported them every single day, I had to it was my god given duty!

To be honest with little else to do pubs were a great source of comfort either with company or not, although I tended to get insular (hammered) if I went drinking on my own, as I tended not to gravitate towards company, just the bar! One day in 1982 I was invited to go and join a cunning plan to see the mighty Hellanbach, playing in Gimpsville, was I up for it hell yeah I was.

It was a mid-week gig (a Thursday if my memory serves  me right) and it was at the Masons a great pub that has gone to waste, one of best music venues in the area and the owner does nothing to it, how the band managed to get the gig in there I have no idea, but it was my focal point to get me through the coming weeks, I had to go there as I had  not a lot going on, Big G told me where to be and when, it was a plan, I then had a really bad episode so disappeared off the face of the world for a few days, when I resurfaced, I had cut off all of my hair and was not in a good place.

Thankfully Big G was just the right medicine for this world-weary gutter snap, I was given instructions to grow up and buckle up, I was told to stop drinking as it would kill me, “erm is that a clown’s nose you are snorting shorts from”? “This isn’t about me come on man up”! and with that we disappeared into the night arriving at the venue just in time for the crowds to appear ok maybe about 30 people but not a bad crowd for Gimpsville somebody who I didn’t know asked if I was a member of the road crew, allegedly a crew cut and a combat jacket is what it takes!

Much merriment ensued with Big G snorting so many shorts out of that clown’s nose I got drunk just watching him, I had one or two pints (cough splutter) and then enjoyed a great gig from one of the better local bands, do I remember the intimate details of the gig hell no I was shitfaced and I know I slept behind Helen’s Cash Stores ( a local landmark from back in the day) a mere 400 yards from my mother’s house as I was so emotionally tired (ok I was as pissed as a rat) I know my intention to sit and look cool as the band played lasted all of about two songs, what the band thought of the lunatic with a crew cut and a combat jacket on headbanging along to all of their hits was doing I have no idea whatsoever!

Although I saw many more bands in Gimpsville nothing ever matched that gig just for the sheer power and spectacle, me and Big G might have been slightly intoxicated but we knew how to enjoy bands local  or national, the fact that the gig is still in my top ten gigs speaks volumes, I suppose the moral of this blog is get out and enjoy music be it local or national level groups, it sooths the savage beast, I still enjoy the power that music brings, I still like a drink (I’m old I probably drink in a year what I used to drink in a night go figure) and I’m still married so I must still enjoy the company of girls, well the wife I don’t want her to get any ideas that I’m a bad person I am most definitely a one girl guy (one crazy Pyscho bitch from hell is enough………..but she is my crazy Pyscho bitch from hell) .

So there you go I hope you enjoyed keep spreading the disease until the next time keep watching the skies for incoming until then ………..Toodles!