...This is some old PUNK DIARY excerpts that were found in his inbox whilst doing a random search.....enjoy
Punk Diary 1982
JANUARY
Friday 1st
We (...me, Lol and Rob) all got dressed at left mine with Sarah (...the girl that stayed at mine last night) at 08:30 a.m. and walked up to Kev’s in the rain. Sarah went to her sister-in-laws and didn't say whether we'd get together and see her again. We got Kev up out of bed and told him about last night and had an orange to drink, what we just robbed from his next door neighbours doorstep courtesy of the early morning milkmans 'deliveries' that didn't quite make it..! I later walked home on my own and fell asleep on the front room couch.
Saturday 2nd
Lol came around at about 1pm in the afternoon and after that us two walked up and called for Wayne. He was in and joined us in going up to Karls house. Then Karl and us walked down town to the Longplayer record shop in the centre of Margate. We all bought a Discharge single for 15p (..their 'Never Again' 7-inch e.p.) except Karl. I also bought The Varukers' Protest and Survive' 7-inch E.P. for £1.10p. Me and Wayne robbed a pint of milk each opposite Tesco's supermarket and went back up to Karl’s with him. We played loads of records and I mucked about on his 5-string acoustic guitar. At midnight after going back to mine for a few hours we left there again and we walked up to Karl’s house and on the way we ran across the bonnets of all the cars outside Invicta Motors that were for sale. Wayne threw a piece of wooden fence at one of the windscreens but it didn't smash. We called for Karl then he came out and we went to a Skinette's (...a Skinhead girl) house, who looked a bit like like Hazel O'Connor. Then we left Tina's and walked to Ramsgate which was about 4 miles away. Wayne robbed another bottle of milk off of a doorstep and we got there at about 03:30 a.m. We met another Skinette and she said we could go back to her flat. A drunk-driver nearly run us over and we then went to her flat which she shared with 2 skinheads and a Paki (stani) Arsenal (FC football) supporter. We left hers and walked back into Cliftonville at 05:00 a.m. Wayne and Karl bought a bottle of milk at the dairy. I robbed one more bottle of milk and some more near Karl’s (...I robbed two and Wayne robbed one...!). We slept at Karl’s house the night. I slept on an armchair with a sheet. Wayne was on the other armchair, and lucky Lol still complained about sleeping on the settee in a sleeping bag.
Sunday 3rd
We walked back to my house (...me, Lol and Wayne) and we played loads of my records. 'Never Again' (Discharge) 7" E.P. The Varukers three-track E.P. (...twice), the G.B.H 'Leather Bristles, Studs and Acne' 12", the Sex Pistols 'Live at Winterland' Bootleg LP, The Exploited's 'Dead Cities' E.P. and Disorder's 'Must Be More Than Fights' track quite a lot. Us three then walked over to Lol’s. Rob was in and he played me the Tank (...Algy Ward - ex bass player of The Damned) 45 single and The Hybrid Kids E.P. ('D'ya Think I'm Sexy' and 'Catch A Falling Star'). Rob told me about the Black Sabbath gig they went to see up in London, and Kev taped it. Dumbo Gary sold his £5.50p ticket outside to a tout for £2 then came home...! I looked at the gig-programme he'd bought from the gig. We walked up to Wayne’s and into his bedroom. He has a great B-side of the Discharge 'Realities of War' E.P. picture on his wall...he painted it. We all ended up going to Gary's with Karl, Wayne, Lol and Mike seeing a few Mods on scooters on the way. When we got there after ringing the bell, Rob came down with Gary saying that only 'Heavy-Metal' people are allowed in...! So we couldn't come in...! We kicked coke cans around the shopping centre. Then Lol and Wayne said they'd sleep at my house so we headed up walking that way. At Capitol House Lol said "I wanna sleep in your bed". I said you are sleeping on the mattress on the floor. So childishly and kid like said he'd "rather go home" and did. He said "See you Karl, see you Wayne"....!!!! And he left me to cry. Wayne and Karl went home to their places anyway. Mike later came back from Gary's (...he must have been a 'Heavy-Metal person' then..!) and said that Lol had come along and shouted up and they let him in (...A punk....!). Snides. (...what a dstrange day indeed..!!!)
Monday 4th
Rob came around to my house in the late morning and we went into Mike's room and played records. His Budgie LP and also The Tygers Of Pan Tang records too. Me and Rob walked up to Kev’s and on the way up we saw three 'half-punks' and a blonde-mohican kid (...he was o.k.). We walked up to Kevs as Sarah said she'll meet us there at 5 p.m. We waited there for a few hours and also read the lyrics that Kev had written to his song 'Heavy Metal Woman'. (...which was 'o.k') and 'Rock Is Just A Game' (....'Good'). Sarah came and said I can't stay I'll see you all at Kev's on Friday at 2 p.m...! I went home later to my house. On the TV on the BBC news there was a story of a guy that rang the Police from a house in Maidenhead (...west of London 40 miles) saying "I've got a gun and I'm gonna shoot my dog". They sealed off the whole area and later arrested him without finding any gun.
Wednesday 6th
In the best selling alternative LP's in the Sounds music paper it had Discharge's 'WHY' 12" E.P. was number 17 overall. On telly I watched This Is Your Life, with Anita Harris...she's got a really ugly husband.
Thursday 7th
I got up at 12 noon and went out and bought Sounds music paper which had a 'New Punk' centrespread feature. It had picture of Colin (...the singer) from G.B.H on it. Rob came around and after a while we walked up to Karl’s and played some of his records...the best was 'Subhumans' (Demolition War Gatefold 7-Inch E.P. - their 'Animal' track was the best). We then walked over to Robs and listened to his Tank and Throbbing Gristle LP records. We got a lift most of the way up to Kev’s, then after popping in his brothers we popped back to Karl’s and played the Subhumans E.P. again...! Had a good talk with Karl about what name to call our band we are thinking of forming. I had a look at Karl’s lyrics 'Political Crap' (...which was good), 'Stupid People' (...no good), I forgot the other one. At 11pm me and Rob walked back to mine...he was doing impersonations of Rob Halford (...of Judas Priest) on the way walking back aswell as the singer from Raven too. He stayed the night at mine.
Friday 8th
I woke up at 10:15 a.m. and walked down in the snow to sign on. Then walked down to the town centre and into the Longplayer Record Shop and I bought the Subhumans 'Demolition War' 7-Inch Gatefold E.P single. (Side One :- 'Demolition War' (Parasites), 'Drugs Of Youth', 'Animal' - Side Two 'Society', 'Who's Gonna Fight In The 3rd World War..?' and 'Human Error' - 6-tracks. I walked up to Kev’s and met Rob there. Sarah was also there and us 3 walked to Karl’s, who was in. We played some of Karls record collection and ended up bundling Sarah again after she drew our attention to the fact that she had a 'loose bra strap'. Shortly after that she took off her clothes on a bed and Karl was naked trying to shag her with his vainey knob...but I got in the way - it was complete chaos. Rob demonstrated to me in-between Sarahs legs just 'How To Willy-Brush'...! I asked Sarah for a '69' and so did Rob. Sarah said "Tony did ask first!...". I was 'fingering her' to the drum-beat of Discharge's 'Realities Of War'! We left and Sarah went to her Sis-In-Laws. Us lot back to mine and played Mike the Subhumans E.P., he liked it. I rang Sarah but her sister-in-law answered so I did a girls voice and said 'Goodbye' instead...!
Saturday 9th
Lol and Wayne came around and I got up at 12 noon. Us three walked in the snow up to Karl’s house. The snow had been falling most of the night and was around 3 inches deep in places. We played records at Karl’s, the Subhumans 'Demolition War' 7-Inch 6-track E.P. The 'Why' twelve-inch by Discharge, his 'Dead Cities' 7" E.P. (...The Exploited) 'In God We Trust' LP (...by the Dead Kennedys), 'Police Story' 7-inch (...by The Partisans) The Insane 7" E.P. (...'Bambi's' - Dave Ellesmere = ex-Discharge - first band). Later on me, Rob, Lol, Kev, Wayne Karl and Mike walked down town to the Kokomo Wine Bar along the high street to see a band called 'SACRED'. They were a heavy rock band. The singer looked like Jake Burns from Stiff Little Fingers. Wayne lent me 50p to get in...it was a bit snobby-ish and downstairs. The singers voice was crap and he didn't move around at all. The bassist was ok but he played his bass held too high-up. The guitarist had an Angus Young (...of AC/DC) type guitar and was a good guitarist. The drummer was great and had a giant black drum kit with 7-cymbals, a hi-hat and tom-toms. They did five 'cover-jobs' - 'Never Say Die' (...by Black Sabbath), 'Rock 'n' Roll' (...from Led Zeppelin), 'Wild Thing' (...by Jimi Hendrix) - great, 'White Knuckles' (...Gary Moore). Rob stayed at mine and Mike flooded his room via his sink in the room next to mine.
Sunday 10th
Rob went home after staying three nights in a row at my house. I checked all the Bingo in the national papers for Mum (...it took 4 hours...!). I played some of my records in my bedroom...The Exploited's 'Dead Cities' seven-inch, Disorder's 'Distortion Til Deafness' 7"'er...the Subhumans 'Demolition War' 6-track E..P...three times, The Varukers E.P ('Protest & Survive')...The Sex Pistols 'Filth & The Fury' Bootleg LP and the G.B.H 'Leather-Bristles' 12". Mike came in and had an argument with me about how loud my records were (...I would presume this actual argument was louder than the volume of my records in the first place...!). I actually had them on really quiet. I wrote lyrics to a song of mine called 'Barry Prosser', who died (...in mysterious circumstances...?) in a Birmingham prison cell four years ago. A chorus and a little bit on the end too.
Monday 11th
I got up at 12:30 p.m. Wayne and Lol came around and played Pool in our front room. Rob, Kev, and another Rock-fan called Vivian came around he is going to be in Mike's 'Heavy-Metal' band too. I showed my lyrics to my first song called 'Cover Up' to Rob, Lol and Wayne. We listened to the radio and a really crap song came on. We all listened to it and were saying how bad it was, especially Lol. It turned out to be The Stranglers with their new single 'Golden Brown'. Lol after finding out who it was made by changed his mind completely saying 'It's O.K. really' - poser. Me, Wayne, Lol all thought of names for our band which included :- The Obscene, The Defiled, Dead Corpse, Anti-System (...soon to be 'nabbed' in the U.K. by a band from up north of England..!), Spew Forth, The Condemned, Spit, Hardcore, Filth, Three Chord Thrash. Then spastic-head (...my dad..!) came in and argued with everyone and chucked everyone out at 6 p.m. He then took the Pool Table down to the diner at the back of the house. I watched the telly and a programme called 'World In Action' about how 'our' Government spend 10,000 million UK pounds on a bomb-programme when we are in a financial depression. In Glasgow, Scotland, last night temperatures hit an all time low of...minus 27 degrees...! Also a programme on TV later about snakes and how a drop of venom from the worlds' deadliest snake could kill 16 people.
Tuesday 12th
I got outta bed at 2 p.m. I sewed up my punk trousers and took off the red square Discharge patch I bought at Manchester Mayflower from Heather (...Cal’s girlfriend) last year.
Wednesday 13th
Up at noon. Maggie Thatcher's (...the Prime Ministeress..!) son Mark is lost in the Sahara Desert after they lost contact with him on the Paris to Dakar Car rally...he's probably dead. I played loads of my records, Disorder, Exploited, The Varukers, the Subhumans 6-track E.P. G.B.H 'LBSA' 12" and the first two Generation X LP's aswell. I wrote the lyrics to another one of my songs called 'Northern Ireland'. It has twelve verses and a chorus...it's pretty good.
Thursday 14th
I woke at 12:30 p.m. and went out and bought the Sounds music paper. It featured an Anti-Pasti interview out in America, and also a G.B.H 'No Survivors' (...their new seven-inch single) advert. I played The Subhumans ('Demolition War' 7" E.P). I later walked down to Margate town and met Rob in the Longplayer Record Shop. In there I bought the Anti-Pasti new single called 'Six Guns' (picture sleeve) for 15p and Vice Squads 'Resurrection' seven-inch E.P. which jumps. We walked up to Karl’s and played some of his records, Sarah came around...but no muffing (...that means...'no fun with her'...!). I walked to Wayne’s with Karl, while Rob walked to Kev’s with Sarah and got some Hilda's and Muffing The Mule there (...both of these terms are slang for 'flesh-fun' one could accurately decipher...!). Later I met Rob and walked with him up to Wayne’s and played his Oi LP's and his three-stringed acoustic guitar. Rob kipped (...slept) at my house again and on the way home at the, unlucky, Invicta Motors Car place we drew roodie images in the frost on the windscreens of all the cars (...I would imagine that bums, willies, titties were the order of the day-as one would rightly demand from two 19 year-olds..!).
Friday 15th
Me and Rob got up at around 1:15 pm and walked up to Karl’s and he answered the door in his pyjama's. I played his 5-string acoustic guitar and I learnt two songs on it...The Police's 'Walking On The Moon' and The Damned's 'Neat Neat Neat'..just the bass (notes) lines though. Lol and Kev turned up and we all decided to walk (...the 4 miles) to Ramsgate, no reason at all...it was just 'something to do'..! We found a Johnny Bag (...a condom) and mucked about with it outside a cheap record shop in Broadstairs on the way. Lol bought the Cockney Rejects LP 'On The Streets Again' for £1.50p. While Wayne bought the D.O.A. (...'Yanks'...an American band..!) sevn inch '45' and the Abrasive Wheels 'Army Life' 7-inch E.P single too. We called into a girls house in Broadstairs on the way back, someone knew her..! She took a picture of us all outside her house and showed us some leg when pulling up her leg-warmers and skirt. On telly back home I watched Miss Great Britain...which was won by a not-too-nice-black-haired-bitch.
Saturday 16th
I got up at 10 a.m. and watched 'Tiswas' TV programme which had Hazel O'Connor on it. Me and Rob walked up to Kev’s, to meet Sarah. I mucked about on Kev's small bass guitar. Kev got his sons (..'spam'...he calls him...!) miniature drum kit up too. Which consisted of 1 drum, a bass drum, one tom tom that we couldn't fix on, 1 snare drum and 1 cymbal but no stand for it...! I played 'Realities Of War' (by Discharge) on it and also 'Metal Postcard' (by Siouxsie and the Banshees) and Kev taped them both. Rob and Sarah went upstairs so I followed them. After 15 minutes I jumped on the bed that Rob and Sarah were lying on and bundled them two. It developed into another classic 'willy-brushing' and 'Muffin The Mule' session and getting stark-bollock-naked. Also Lol and Karl (...who joined in) turned up. But then shortly after that so did Kev's wife, Sandra...she went completely mad so we got dressed quickly and left. Went home for the World Cup (Football) draw for the groups stages. England were thrown in with France, Czechoslovakia and tiddley Kuwait (...should got through..the top two teams do).
Sunday 17th
I got up at 3 p.m and played some records...The Subhumans and The Varukers 7-inch E.P.'s, Generation X's first two Lp's and my Siouxsie and the Banshees 'Join Hands' LP, side one only....which was crap and the Angelic Upstarts LP 'Teenage Warning'...and I didn't know it but that have a track called 'Never Again' too like Discharge. I wrote some lyrics out to a song I made up called 'Disarm Now'...two verses and a chorus. Here's my Top Five Breville Toasted Sandwiches chart. 5th...Chocolate Spread, 4th...Ham & Tomato, 3rd...Onion, Chips and tomato sauce, 2nd...Baked Beans and Tomato Sauce and 1st is...Hot Dogs at Wayne’s.
Monday 18th
11:30 a.m was the time I crawled out from my bed. Lol and Wayne came around shortly after that and we played Pool in the front room. We put on some records...including AC/DC's 'Back In Black' LP and Lol head-banged to it. Then we played Rose Tattoo's 'Rock 'n' Roll Outlaw' LP...me and Lol went crazy to it, especially the two tracks called 'Remedy' and 'Astra-Wally'. We also played Motorheads 'I'll Be Your Sister' and 'Overkill' and AC/DC's 'Highway To Hell' LP...the best track was 'Walk All Over You'. We watched T.V. a music programme called 'Off The Record' had Depeche Mode live on it who were crap and the singer had a really baggy suit on too.
Tuesday 19th
I got up at 1 p.m. in the afternoon and Rob & Kev came around after a while and we played snooker, then Lol & Wayne turned up. Rob, while he was here, rang up about a flat he'd seen advertised. at 2ish, and organised an appointment to view it at 4:15 p.m. Lol and Wayne tried to ring a few flats but had no luck. So at 3:45 I combed down the soapy-remains in my hair, put on Mike's white jeans and a grey jumper, Mike's Blue Suit-Jacket and my Doctor Martens to go view the flat with Rob (...in hindsight this was a bit severe to look that unnormally-abnormally-normal - I think I looked a lot more 'weirdly normal-weird' than my 'abnormal-norm' before my Mr Benn advisory..!). Lol and Wayne kept taking the mickey out of me (...is that all...?!?!?). We walked down town to view it (...it was 1 minute from the town centre) in a quiet green square over looking Hawley Park/square area. The owner was Irish and came from Dublin. Had a look at the rules and regulations for the 1st floor 'flat'. It had two rooms (1) 12ft x 7ft, the bedroom with two single beds in..and that was 'just fitting into it'..! and (2) 14ft x 10ft, lounge/kitchen. Not bad for £25 a week. We'll get the D.H.S.S (Department of Health and Social Security) to pay that via 'state benefits' and get that rent paid in full...so we said we'd take it..! I popped back for the deposit on the flat (£5). Then, still dressed 'weirdly/normal' walked into town and Longplayer Record Shop and I bought the new G.B.H 7-Inch single 'No Survivors'. Me, Rob and Mike walked down to our flat and got a receipt for the £5 deposit at 7 p.m. We walked along and called at Gary's who wasn't in and then walked back home (...to Mums) with Mike, who strangely was moaning about how fast I walk...?!?! (...maybe his emotions of me moving out of home surfaced in the most psychedelic of manners...!).
Wednesday 20th
I got up at noon and later walked down to Capitol (...dole = 'state benfits') House to tell them that I am moving out from Mums on Saturday and to no 31 Hawley Square (...it's called 'Kandy House'..!). I asked if they could pay all our rent and then mucked about in the lifts going up and down. We were then told 'to go'. We then went to another office near the town centre, just opposite the place we are moving into...!
Thursday 21st
I woke up at 10:30 a.m. and I walked down to Gary's place by the seafront and met him and Rob outside. Us three went in and Rob headbanged to AC/DC records with Gary's bass guitar. Us three then walked out along the beach (...what in late January..!) and then climbed up an old rusty ladder onto the harbour wall as the tide was out walked up to the old town and met Gary's mum and she invited us in. We stayed for tea and biscuits then left and went back to the harbour promenade area and we walked along the edge and shuffled down a slopey wall and along a bit trying to get around the base of the harbours wall. We got stuck as we could get no further. So we had to judge the waves to run between them and the harbour wall to get by and managed that and went seaweed-rock-walking afterwards. But Gary slipped into a rock pool up to his knees. We then walked up to Cliftonville's coast and the old outside swimming pool, where I scrawled on the concrete promenade with chalk 'Throbbing Gristle', 'Discharge' '300 Miles Of Sandy Beaches' and 'Mind The Steps' then we walked back to my house. I watched the telly later on and saw Top Of The Pops. It had Gillan on it with 'Restless' while Bucks Fizz (...who I recently saw live on tour of course...!) are No1 with 'The Land Of Make Believe'. I watched 'Shoestring' which had a radio-station bloke playing 'Regal Zone' by Siouxsie and the Banshees on it. After that I watched The Old Grey Whistle Test with Iron Maiden on it.
Friday 22nd
I woke up at around 11 a.m. then managed to get around the dole by noon closing time. I asked them why my 'dole' hadn't gone up when it should of and gave them a piece of paper stating this. The lady went off and checked it all through and came back and said that I had an £80 cheque due...Nice One Cyril..! I cashed up my £30 cheque and went home. I then walked down to Margate town centre and met Rob and the rest of the crew (...Kev, Lol, Wayne and Gary). Me and Rob walked around to the flat and paid three weeks rent (...two were for the deposit). Then the landlord gave us our keys to our own place....!!! We went around to Gary’s place five minutes away towards the seafront and we danced to Bill Haley records and also played the G.B.H 'No Survivors' 7 inch single too...it's good. We walked up to Robs and had food and tea. Lol was there too and they had crept out and knocked on the outside of Robs flat door - so I answered as they were not to be found. It was Lol and Rob out in the communal hallway with their trousers around their ankles with their 'todgers' in their hands (...I hesitantly invited them in!). I played with an 'Etch-A-Sketch' a while (...isn't that for children...?..ahh that'll be justabout right then for me...!!).
Saturday 23rd
Up after waking up at about 11:40 a.m and walked down town and met Rob. Then we walked around to our flat after midday. We went in and sat down talking then went shopping for our own food. We went 'halves' on the massive £1.82p food shopping bill..!). Lol and Wayne came round for a while we had jam on toast then they walked up to Karl’s. After they left the owner of the flat who lives downstaira came up and said he doesn't want them around here again...so they are banned after one visit. (...I never realised Rudolf Hess let flats in Margate did you..? - this guy made my mum and dad look like Peter Stringfellow on mogadons). We walked up to Mums house and I got a lot of my stuff I'd packed up, 3 boxes, sleeping bag, pillow, record player etc and Mike and Kev helped us carry it down. Mum gave me 6 eggs and some washing-up liquid, a piece of chicken and half a dozen sausages too. At 10:30 p.m. after Mike and Kev had gone...Sarahs dad came around to our flat and walked in to see 'for himself' that she was not hiding in ours as she hadn't gone home at all (...I think she was at Karl’s the night..?). We watched telly and went to bed for the first night in our own 'flat' and no longer at home after 18 years and 5 months.
Sunday 24th
I was awoken by Rob at 11:30pm in the morning and then we chatted til midday had our first breakfast cook-up and I set up my record player in the front room too. I played loads of my records...G.B.H 'No Survivors' 7-inch...twice, The Varukers 7" E.P. 'Protest & Survive'...The Exploited 'Dead Cities' 7-inch, Anti-Pasti 'Six Guns' 7", Siouxsie and the Banshees '20th Century Boy' and 'Celebration/Drop Dead' and also the Cockney Rejects 'War On The Terraces' single. We listened to the Radio Top 40 chart too. Stiff Little Fingers are at number 39 with 'Listen To Me'. I cooked dinner and I swapped half a tin of spaghetti with Rob for a cheese roll (...that was a big decisions in those days I tell you..!). Sarah’s dad and brother came around at 7 p.m coz she still hasn't come home...we sent them up to Wayne’s house to see if he knew where she was.
Monday 25th
I was awoken by Rob at 09:20 a.m...I did a piss in the sink and got back into bed. Rob was annoying me with his alarm clock so I knocked it out of his hand and onto his head and it bounced onto the floor and broke. After breakfast at midday I walked up to Mums and collected some more of my stuff. I got some more of my Vinyl LP record collection and some bathroom stuff aswell. We went up the dole office and for some reason they paid me £106 in two cheques...fuckin' great. So I went shopping for food...spending just 79p..! We walked over to Robs mums place and I helped him move some stuff back walking to our flat too. Back to the flat and had food. Rob had Spaghetti hoops served up in a dog bowl..! We also brought the Monopoly game to play.
Tuesday 26th
Me and Rob took a bus to Ramsgate and sorted out the free-rent courtesy of the D.H.S.S over there. They told us that 'The cheques in the post'.
Wednesday 27th
I went shopping and had my dearest shopping bill of £1.33p..! Karl came around to the flat at 3 p.m saying that he might get done for rape with Sarah. A hang-glider pilot was killed today when he crashed into Cliftonvilles cliffs at Palm Bay in high winds.
Thursday 28th
I awoke at 11 a.m by the cleaning lady who gave us a letter each which said the dole are paying me £33.45 a week...great poo-poo's indeed...! The girl was about 22 and very nice...she's coming to change our bed linen on Monday..! I sold half a spam roll to Rob for 5p...! I bought the Cockney Rejects 'Live and Loud' LP for only £1.25p in W.H. Smiths and also bought the U.K. Subs LP 'Diminished Responsibilty' in there aswell for the same price. Wayne and Lol came around and said they have a flat. Me and Rob walked down there with them. It just the other side of the seafront and they had a first floor room and me and Rob also looked at another room for rent for £15 per week each, which is £5 more than the much smaller place we are in now. It had 2 rooms but not inter-linked but they were huge and it had a big black and white tv too. So it looks like after less than a week at Kandy House that we are moving out already..! We are calling around tomorrow to pay the deposit and agree when to move into the 'new place' etc.
Friday 29th
Awoken by Rob at 08:40 a.m...who then went out to sign on the dole leaving a chair on my bed...! I played the U.K. Subs LP 'Diminished Responsibilty' - it's not too bad. Lol and Wayne came around and we had a mini-gig to the Subhumans 'Demolition War' 7-inch E.P. I informed the landlord of our place that we are leaving and he said you need a 'weeks notice'. So then we walked over to the 'soon-to-be-new-place' and gave him £2 to hold the keys for us..! We watched the television and saw the 'Oxford Road Show' which had U.F.O on it - they played three songs. Mike and Lol and Wayne turned up and we all jumped about headbanging to the Raven LP. Then the killjoy landlord came up and chucked us all out. So we all went up Waynes and played his acoustic guitar and some records instead and two punkey girls came around (...one in a mini-skirt with a split up the front).
Saturday 30th
We watched Tiswas on the telly and Lemmy (of Motorhead) was on it with one of the Nolan sisters too they played 'Ace Of Spades' live. TV Dallas = bad, Magnum = crap..and a Film called 'Lady-drivers' about lady taxi-drivers = absolute shite. And to tell you how bad it actually was...Rob was flapping his limp-fucker-willy off of the screen all the way through with his trousers round his ankles.
FEBRUARY
Monday 1st
I bought the Vice Squad new seven-inch E.P single ‘Out Of Reach’ for £1.10p down town in the Longplayer Record Shop. I played the E.P. later on at home in the flat and the ‘Out Of Reach’ track was good, ‘So What For The Eighties’...bad, and ‘Sterile’...was utter crap. I played the G.B.H 7” (‘No Survivors’), Subhumans (‘Demolition War’) 7" E.P. and the Vice Squad E.P. I bought today again. I watched ‘Off The Record’ on TV with Gillan on and they had a pogoing bassist in the band. I also watched a music programme called ‘Riverside Rock’, which had a debate about Punk with Garry Bushell and two members from Blitz as well on it talking about the Punk music scene.
Tuesday 2nd
I walked over to Westbrook to pay some deposit on the new flat (..£25) and as I passed the Nayland Rock Hotel near the seafront at Margate, which was on fire. The top floor along four windows was ablaze and there were ambulances, Police and Fire Engines there as well as a huge crowd. I had a look at Wayne and Lol’s flat. It is on the top floor and has three rooms...its real smart. Had a look at our (...mine and Rob’s soon-to-be) flat and he said you could put your posters up on the wall. Went up to Wayne’s with Lol after they called around and mucked about on his acoustic guitar. Us three then walked up to Karl’s house and he showed us the Adscene, local news paper, which had a photograph of him in this issue. We played records at Karl’s and also played on his acoustic guitar. On our TV regions news it had footage of the Nayland Rock Hotel on fire. There was half a million pounds worth of damage done.
Wednesday 3rd
I bought the Sounds music paper and it has gone up to 35p an issue. It had Anti-Nowhere Leagues Animal on the front cover in colour. It also said in the gig pages that Discharge have lined up at a gig at the 100 Club in London and are recording a new LP..! So I’m going to that gig and there should be around 15 tracks on the LP (...there were 12) for around £2.99p (...and it was £3.99p!). Me, Kev and Rob walked over the 4 miles to Ramsgate to sort our some forms for our new flat and dole etc. On the way back I rolled an old car tyre along and got stopped by a pig (policeman..!) on a motorbike. He asked us our addresses...Kev gave a false name and address. We then walked along the dusty industrial track short cut through to Cliftonville’s Millmead Estate (...a shorter walking way back to Margate). Kev and Karl lived in Millmead anyway. We picked up two more car tyres and rolled them really fast and they rolled down the hill for about 200 yards and crashed into a cabbage field. We picked them up and rolled them down the track again and they took off and flew down onto the road (...that the track led onto). The first one rolled up onto the pavement and the second took a wild turn to the right and was heading for a car heading this way on the road...but the bloke driving braked and it flew past him and hit the block of flats wall. We scarpered..! I later played the Cockney Rejects (‘Live & Loud’ LP) and Vice Squad‘s ‘Out Of Reach’ 7-inch E.P. We watched 'Halloween 1' (...the film) on TV.
Thursday 4th
I went halves on a loaf of bread with Rob. We went out up to Capitol ‘Dole’ House and saw a Punkette girl with a leather jacket with Killing Joke on painted on it. She also had zebra print trousers on and Siouxsie type boots with blonde hair...she was ok. The Angelic Upstarts bassist has left the band and also Dru Stix...the drummer for The Exploited has left, his replacement is Steve Roberts (...ex U.K. Subs..!). It had AC/DC on Top Of The Pops with ‘Let’s Get It Up’ and I watched The Old Grey Whistle Test with stupid guests Soft cell...bad, The Little River Band...o.k.
Friday 5th
I awoke at 09:45 a.m...and then got up, and went to an empty food cupboard. It had just two spoonfuls of jam left in the jar, and an instant tomato soup and some sour milk...I had the tomato soup..! I walked up to sign on with Gary, who came around and got my fortnightly dole giro cheque worth £66.86p (...that is £33.43p a week or £4.77p a day..!). I went to mums and packed some of my stuff into boxes. We then walked up to the Longplayer record shop where Rob got them to play the Vardis (...heavy-metal) E.P...it was crap. G.B.H are number 63 in the U.K. national single charts. Dad and Mike drove down to our first flat and we collected our £25 deposit and then took all our stuff from Kandy House in Hawley Square along the seafront to Westbrook and our new flat...!
Saturday 6th
I watched Tiswas on TV and it had Iron Maiden live singing their new single called ‘Run to the Hills'...it was O.K. and it had two members from the band in the studio too. Karl and Joe came around and we went up to Lol’s flat (...upstairs) they played my live Discharge tape (...at the Lyceum, in London). We went up to Lols flat and he let me cook a Pizza up there and I helped him stick up his Sid Vicious (The Sex Pistols) posters. We took a look up in the attic aswell and Lol and Rob walked from the bottom of the house to the top with their trousers down. I played a few records and done our own songs on the acoustic guitar and taping it, crazy and also doing the farmer chickens advert (...a 'jingle' from off of the television..!).
Sunday 7th
I got up at midday (around 12 noon) and mum, dad came around, and they could not understand why I’d rather live in a flat like this than in doors (...at home). The electric went last night and mum put in 10p. We went up to Lol’s flat and got plastic bags, gloves and a torch. Then went over to his mums and got a raincoat and a Harrington jacket then walked up to Kev’s. Lol gave me the Harrington to wear and Kev brought a chisel and a screwdriver and we walked up the mud-paths to the school, which we were gonna rob. But when we got there were two Police cars there so we shelved that idea. So then, we all walked up to a greengrocers shop next to Capitol House. We all walked up a back alley and in a gate. Kev climbed onto the roof but could not get in any windows. So we walked up to the Lido on the seafront and down another alley. Then we all climbed over a garage, down some steps, and along another alley to a storage-shed. Lol and Kev tried to force their way in and bust the lock and after 20 minutes they started to chisel off a sheet of wood and then a light came on and we all scarpered up to the end and hid and then looked back around the corner. Then a bloke came out and we legged it. Then we all walked up along Cliftonville seafront to a cafeteria on the cliffs near Palm Bay. We all got on the roof and jumped down inside a garden area. Kev prised out a pane of glass and then a Police car came we scarpered off but they didn’t see us bolting the opposite way into the dark up the cliffs. After the Police car went Kev and Wayne climbed back up on the roof again of the cafeteria then all the lights in the place went on and two people ran along to the end of the building and we saw Kev and Wayne leg it. We flung our bags away and as we ran past the owners house, she was outside and some blokes were with a Pig (Police) Car and the owners car sped off towards the cafeteria the opposite way from us...! We all walked home and got in around 12 midnight. Wayne came in later but Kev didn’t so he must’ve got caught.
Monday 8th
I went up to Mums and played Pool with Wayne and Lol, who bought The Jam’s ‘A Town Called Malice’...its boppy-ish. I watched some TV and saw ‘Off The Record’ they had Haircut 100 on it they were o.k. And they played ‘Boy Meets Girl’ song. Later on I saw ‘Riverside’ it had Bauhaus on it playing ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’. Went back to the flat and Lol and Wayne said that Kev got beaten up by the pigs (police) so they reckon.
Tuesday 9th
I got up at 10 a.m. and as Rob was going out there were two plain-clothed Detectives (police officers) at the front door. They wanted to know where Wayne was. Rob was asked whether he had seen Kev in the last 48 hours. Rob said no and they said “then you won’t know what we are on about will you..?” and they said, “If you see Wayne, tell him pop up the Police station will you...?” We went up Karl’s then Kev’s both no answer at both. On the way, back I saw that Punkey bird with a fur coat, black boots and stockings. On the way home, me and Rob were going to Rob two bottles of milk at Midland Bank but there were too many people around. Wayne came back and told him that the pigs (...Police) were here for him...he said he is going up to Kev’s tomorrow. Me and Rob ‘re-arranged’ our furniture, actually it was turning it all upside down completely and piling it all up in the middle of the room - great laugh. Tina and Denise came around (...Skinette girl) and we played Wayne’s acoustic guitar and we turned Lol and Wayne’s beds upside down and bundled the girls too.
Wednesday 10th
I got up at 11:30 a.m. Rob was sick last night up to the bog (...toilet) 10 times. I went up with Rob to Lol and Wayne’s (...upstairs flat) and 'had a gig' to all of Discharges songs (...and ‘A Look At Tomorrow’ twice). We also played The Partisans ‘Police Story’ and Abrasive Wheels ‘Put Maggie Thatcher on the Dole’. On TV we watched the Benny Hill Show...he is not funny at all. Around 90% of his viewers are looking at tits and fanny (...including me). When me and Lol walked down the phone box we saw gangs of Mods passing us slowly on scooters.
Thursday 11th
I got up out of bed at around 10:30 a.m, me and Lol mucked about with Wayne calling him ‘Ken Dodd’ (...he was not obviously impressed with this similarity to an old U.K. comedian with buck teeth and frizzey hair...!). Karl came around for a while then us four walked along the seafront and up to the Longplayer record shop. I bought The Partisans ‘Police Story/Killing Machine’ 7”, The Insane ‘Politics/Dead and Gone/Last Day’ 7-Inch E.P...£1.20p each. G.B.H are down to number 70 in the national music charts now from number 63, while Vice Squad are in at number 68. We watched the television and The Old Grey Whistle Test - X.T.C were on it.
Friday 12th
I saw a Punkey bird (...girl...!) with red hair pushing a pram. Later back at the flat in the evening Rob and Wayne went out on our front steps (...our flat is on the main road into Margate from London..!). Rob was wearing his jimmy-jams (...pyjama bottoms) stuff right up his arse, while Wayne was wearing a dress he’d found..! Later we walked up Karl’s who was in with his mum and that red-haired punkey bird, called Ann. Lol, Rob and Karl done 'moonies' (showing ones bottom/arse to the watching world..!) while running around in his garden we all left at 01:40 a.m. and ran down the local roads with our trousers down all four of us moonie-ing.
Saturday 13th
We walked up to Karl’s house in the afternoon. Rob and me went there and Karl played us a load of Yankey (U.S.) Punk records and then we left. Rob did a moonie all the way along that Punkey birds road. Later in Wayne and Lol’s we 'had a gig' to The Insane’s ‘Dead and Gone’ track.
Sunday 14th
Me, Lol and Rob walked up my mums house where me and Lol took down all my Discharge wall coverings of posters and cuttings...it took 2 hours...!
Monday 15th
I went out and got some more of my stuff from Mums and bought some hairspray to spike up my hair with (...I was trying it for the first time to compare it to soap, which I had been using for over a year..!). I played some records later on back at the flat...G.B.H ‘No Survivors’ seven-inch E.P...The Insane E.P...and The Partisans 7-inch E.P. too. We watched the TV up at Karl’s house and saw ‘Off the Record’, which had Stiff Little Fingers on it...they were just a commercial pop band playing wimpish songs with no power. They stood like statues. Later on we saw a programme called ‘Riverside’ it had Sid Vicious (...formerly of the Sex Pistols of course..!) singing ‘My Way’ on it. On the way home Me, Wayne, Lol and Rob done moonies along the seafront in Margate...great laugh. Later on while out calling at some mate of Wayne’s who wasn’t in we done moonies to girl sitting on a bus at a bus stop.
Tuesday 16th
I was awoken at 10:30 by Rob blasting out Black Sabbath with Kev. We later watched a documentary on television all about The Chelsea Hotel, in New York. We were watching it for Sid Vicious (...the Sex Pistols Bassist that was found deaded there..!) in it for 50 minutes but all we got was queer blokes talking. The four of us got all the furniture out of our front room and put all our bedclothes and mattresses on the floor for a massive bed where we all slept.
Wednesday 17th
I set up the bed mattresses, still in the front room from last night’s kip, into a giant settee. I hurt my hand when we later had loads of bundling on it.
Thursday 18th
I bought the U.K. Subs 7” single ‘Countdown’ (picture sleeve) for 15p up in the Longplayer when I went to town. In the Sounds music paper this week it said Disorder are looking for a new vocalist coz they sacked the other crap one. Discharge haven’t got a support band for their 100 Club gig soon - just a film..? - Should be good. Also it had a Crass interview and centre-spread live colour picture too. While at mums I phoned up about a Drum-Kit for £90 but it had already gone. Met Robs dad ('D1') and went with Rob and him into the arcades playing the 2p money-falls machines and shouting out ‘Muffin The Mule’ and laughing at his jokes. We later watched television and Top Of The Pops - the UB40 new single was o.k. And The Jam are number 1. Wayne painted the ‘Skull and Crossbones’ Discharge logo on the back of his jacket...it was really really good. Me and Lol had a G.B.H and Subhumans 'gig'. Later we watched The Old Grey Whistle Test which was live from Germany with both Meatloaf and Saga...and both were crap.
Friday 19th
I rushed up to sign on with Wayne after getting up rather late at 11 a.m. for my £66.86p giro cheque for the next two weeks living amount. Lol came around to mums and we walked up to see Lindel (..a Skinette girl). We met her on the way to hers and she was pissed (...drunk..!). Also we stopped and talked to a fat hippie girl too. We went to the Kokomo Bar in the high street in the evening to see a band called Red-Red but we left, as they were no good. On the way home just at the end of the seafront Lol done a running moonie in front of us right next to traffic for the cars and a bus passing to see. A car stopped quickly and a beefy bloke jumped out and grabbed Lol who did not run despite us shouting out for him to ‘Leg it Lol...!”. The guy said “You’re Nicked Sunshine” - he was an off-duty pig (Police officer..!) and grabbed Lol’s shoulder and pushed and jostled him towards a pig-car (...Police car) following behind and they took Lol away up to the Police station. Lol was saying to them as they carted him off “It’s only a joke mate”, I’m only having a laugh”, “what’s the matter have you not got a sense of humour?” And he disappeared back along the seafront in the back of a Police Car for the night...! We went home and had a long discussion about Punk with Karl.
Saturday 20th
I spiked my hair into twiglets - good (this involved heavily soaping ones hair and twisting a clump into clockwise spike and squeezing them into a stature-of-liberty-stylee!). Lol got ‘nicked’ (arrested!) by the pigs (police!) last night and he has to go to court on March 1st. I went up to mums and got my black ‘Manchester Docs’ (which were 18-hole Doctor Marten boots that had seen better days and had split sides on both the sole-edges but still looked rather Pee-You-Enn-Kay - especially with ones bondage trousers tucked into them just below the knee!). Me and Lol walked up to Karl’s and played ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’ (by those Sex Pistols of course!) and mucked about on his Harmonica and Guitar too. Lol and Wayne came down from their upstairs flat and joined me in a gig to Varukers, Insane, Partisans, U.K. Subs and The Subhumans. We were jumping on and off the bed. Kev, Rob, Gary and Mike then came in as Tygers of Pan Tang was cancelled in Folkestone and they then joined in with us jumping around pogoing wildly. Then of course this attracted the aural attention of our landlord who lived not too far away…..erm beneath our feet just downstairs! And he said “A jokes a joke - stop jumping round, o.k.?” Then he left and so did Kev with Gary’s bass guitar he was using during our ‘gig’. Watched O.T.T (Over The Top) on TV, which had crappy Dave Edmunds on it.
Sunday 21st
Awoke at 9 a.m. and went down to the bath and done my hair. I got my camera and then left at 11:45 a.m. Walked down to the National Coach stop in the harbour, where I met Lol and rang the gig place at Stevenage ‘Bowes Lyon House’ - but there was no answer. Us two caught the 12:20 p.m. coach to London it cost £2.75p for a ‘standby’ ticket (you get on if they are empty or least not full!). We got the back seat and drunk some milk and I bought a Cadbury’s Crème Egg and a Twix too. The coach went through Westgate, Birchington, and Canterbury then into the south-eastern London suburbs of Eltham, Lewisham, New Cross and Peckham (where I was born!) and got into Victoria coach station at 3 p.m. We found out that the next coach to Stevenage was a 732 at 3:50 p.m. and it was only a £1 too! It stopped at Golders Green (North London suburb) where two Skinette girls got on. The coach then went through Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield (where the two Skinettes got off) and then Hitchin. Then got into Stevenage at 5:30 p.m. - it was dark. Asked some guy where the Bowes-Lyon House gig place was. He said I’ll show you so we walked through a deserted shopping centre and crossed a dual-carriageway road and the Bowes-Lyon House was there on the right. It looked like a new sports complex from the outside. It had a real smart Subhumans gig poster in the window at the front window too. Then a Mohican stuck up a poster on the door saying ‘Conflict hadn’t bothered to turn up and are now replaced by The Disrupters from Norwich’. There were loads of little school children posing as punks (as opposed to the ‘Travelling-Sid’ that I was with my immensely ‘punk’ 18-hole doctor martens of course!). We went in search of food, which is not easy on a Sunday in Stevenage. I found a Wimpy and got a Hamburger and chips for 60p - then ate them, went back to the gig place, queued up, and went in at 7:15 p.m. It was £1.75p to get in and I got 4 small gig adverts and went upstairs and sat down by the heater watching the posers go by (yes, it is hard for a super-punk to mingle with those that are Punk-classes beneath he of course!). At 8 p.m. The Disrupters came on and we went into the hall - they were o.k. The drummer was crap and drummed out of beat (almost like a reggae style of bass-kick drum when you should be playing snare drum?!?!?) and the bassist has a bat-eared haircut too while their guitarist looked uncannily like Andy Summers of The Police! At 9 p.m. Part One came on and they were all dressed in black and they had a weird Siouxsie-type guitar sound. Great satanic devil-worshipping lyrics and a good singer. I met Jan and Bill (of ‘Chaos’ the punk band) and had a chat with them two. I also saw the Chron Gen guitarist and bass player too. Then at 10 p.m The Subhumans came on. The singer looks like George out of George and Mildred (a UK comedy TV programme!) a heavy rocker on drums, blonde punk guitarist and normal bassist. They played all the songs from their 6-track E.P. They looked crap, but played brilliant and I took 8 pictures including one of Lol upside down on the crowd down the front. We left at the start of ‘Parasites’ to make the last train to Kings Cross Station (40 miles south) in London. At Kings Cross Station, a black girl threw a cup of tea over a white girl in a British Rail Buffet (Eatery). We were heading for Jenny’s in Bayswater (west central London- she is the girl who stayed at mine, with Lol after the Discharge Gillingham gig while back). We walked past the nearby Euston railway station then jumped on a bus a mile south into London’s West-end and got off a Shaftesbury Avenue (near Piccadilly Circus). We walked up Regent Street, Oxford Street, Marble Arch and Bayswater and bought a Sausage Roll at a tax-cab place and got 60p off of a nice black bird (not the flying variety of course, unless they are particularly generous to homeless punks in London at midnight of course!). We asked a taxi-driver where Monmouth Road was and found Jenny’s Road easily enough at about 1 a.m. and rang all the bells as no one was answering! After a while Jenny poked her head out, came down, and opened the door. She has blonde hair now, not purple. She invited us in for the night and her room is totally black bar the blood red touches of paint around. It had tons of graffiti all over the walls and ceiling too in silver and white pen. We went to sleep at 3 a.m. and I kipped on the floor - Lol slept with Jenny.
Monday 22nd
Up at 1 p.m. and we all went to Virgin Megastore and H.M.V record shops along Oxford Street about 2 miles east from Bayswater. Lol bought The Disrupters 7” single. We walked to Piccadilly Circus and took some pictures on Eros the statue there. We bought food at Wimpy being hamburger, chips and hot chocolates. We dossed around London most of the day and stayed at Jenny’s the night again in Bayswater for the Discharge gig at the 100 Club the following day.
Tuesday 23rd
We got up at 1 p.m. at Jenny’s and had black coffee and peanut butter sandwiches for eats. Me and Lol left at 1:30 p.m. and caught a bus to the 100 Club on Oxford Street. We got there at 2 p.m. Then walked around the back alley-road and saw Discharges van parked at the rear of the club. It was empty so we hung about there for half an hour spitting on the 100 Club sign. Met a bald old guy (in his 30’s) called Johno and two kids from Stoke-on-Trent (that turned out to be the drummer and bassist of the Discharge guitarist, Bones’s future band - ‘Broken Bones’ around a year later). Me and Lol went into a downstairs record shop, after meeting Wayne, opposite the 100 Club on Oxford street who charge £1.20p for the Crass single ‘Reality Asylum’ and met two nice Punkette girls, Tracy with long blonde spikey hair and Sue with long brown spikey hair. Those Punkette’s couldn’t afford to go to Discharge for £2.50p and were going to see The Satellites (at the Marquee Club in Wardour Street?) instead. They hung around with us and went to a Wimpy in Piccadilly Circus - I bought Tracy a chocolate milkshake and Wayne got Sue one. We all sat in there and chatted. Tracy and Sue kept singing “Hillbillies, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah”! We left; Tracy and Sue went to The Satellites and we three walked back up to the 100 Club. The P.A. sound-system turned up and we helped to take some gear down into the 100 Club - all of Discharge were in there. Cal saw us and came over and said, “I’ll put your name on the guest-list” before we got chucked out. After a while Cal came out and had a chat outside the 100 Club’s front and he said that “Discharge are going on tour in April 16th the day after their album is coming out and we are doing 15-20 dates”. Then Cal zipped off back inside the gig place. By 6:30 p.m., around 100 Punks were outside the 100 Club. At 7 p.m., Karl and Ann from Margate came along and joined the queue. Me and Lol went to Wendy’s Hamburgers and got hot chocolates and passed the time spike-ing up our hair in the mirrors in the toilets down there and going a shit too. Walked back to the 100 Club and passed the queuers and told the old guy on the paying desk that I was on the guest-list. He asked my name, and I said “Tone or Margate” and he said, “No, you are not on the guest-list it’ll be £2.50p in”. So I paid that and went in. Cal came over after a while and said, “Did you get in alrite, mate?” I said, “Yeah, but I wasn’t on the guest-list and it cost me £2.50p!” Cal said, “Yeah, you were - I’ll go and get you your money back”. So off Cal went and came back with £2.50p for me! Sat down near the sound-system, which played mostly reggae all night and saw 2 beautiful Punkettes with red hair. The support ‘Film’ was a Porno-Film that lasted only about 2 minutes with a fat bloke and two birds! I asked Rainy if I could take a photo of him offstage and he was really o.k. about it so Lol and Wayne stood next to him near the bar next to the dressing room at the back of the club. Then Discharge came on shortly after that at 10 p.m. I stood at the left of the stage and took around 10 photographs. Discharge started with ‘Never Again’ and they played a good gig. Rainy had his yellow flying-V fixed. I moved around the right and took 10 more photos (they played 20 songs in 37 minutes – Tape List). They did a 3-song encore and ‘Realities of War’ for an end encore song. Cal told me their LP is called ‘See Nothing, Hear Nothing, Say Nothing’! (I obviously recollected it wrongly or Discharge changed it at the 11th punkey-hour!?!?). Me, Lol and Wayne made our way over to Jenny’s in Bayswater and stayed there the night taking photo’s and having fun playing records in a London flat/squat with a few Italian Punks that were over here squatting/living. Went to sleep at about 1, or 2 or 3 a.m.!
Wednesday 24th
We got up at 1 p.m., got all our stuff, said goodbye to Jenny, and headed for the 2 p.m. coach from Victoria Coach Station, to Margate and home. We just missed it so waited for the 4 p.m. one in the information centre there. While we were in there, two stoned blokes started shouting at us from the outside through the glass. One walked in, the other just walked into the glass window, and it smashed and all the people around scarpered. The two blokes just ran off. Of course, we got chucked out and got our 4 p.m. coach with a stand-by fare of £2.75p. I got Sounds, Varukers are playing up at Skunks, at the Angel-Islington, in London on third of March - I’m going to that. N.M.E. (the New Musical Express was shit-crap!) On the way to Margate while looking out the back window at the traffic behind I saw a car hit the central reservation barriers behind us and career across the lanes and up the grass hilly verge - the driver must’ve fell asleep.
Thursday 25th
Lol wrote to a German Punkette called Annette. Top of the Pops - best was Iron Maiden, ‘Run to the Hills’. Old Grey Whistle Test had AC/DC on it Live on their U.S. Tour from Maryland. They played ‘Put the Finger on you’ - Angus (Young, their guitarist) still goes crazy.
Friday 26th
Up at 12, and Rob played the new Tank LP and free 45 he’d just bought ‘Don’t Walk Away/The Snake’ (The Pink Fairies one) - great. Kev, Lol, Rob, Wayne and me went up to the Longplayer record shop and I bought Black Sabbath’s ‘Turn Up The Night’ picture disc 7”, Blitz ‘Never Surrender’ 7” and the Tank LP + free single £6.89p. At 6:45 p.m., Rob and Kev left to see Spider in Gravesend. Watched TV - ‘Dead Heart’ with Toyah in -shit. I played all the records I bought earlier. Rob got back at 11:20 p.m. they had arrived too late to even see Spider at Gravesend by the time they had got there.
Saturday 27th
Up at 11 a.m. but got up 4 hours later after Rob played hours of music from Jethro Tull, David Bowie, Sweet, Raven and Tank LP. I spiked my hair up and my brother chose our football pools draws and got 7 whereas if he’d let me do mine we’d have won loads as I got 9 when you only need 8 for a big win! Put some of my Discharge posters up on my side of the bedroom wall - the four big ones. Then Lol came back from his mum with a purple pudding-basin-shaped haircut. Wayne hasn’t come back from his mum and dads since Friday! Watched a cartoon called ‘Is There Life in Peckham?” about a man with a small willy who writes to a problem page!
Sunday 28th
Up at 1:30 p.m. and played the great Tank LP. Went up mums with Lol and she said that Mike managed to get 9 score-draws out of his selections somehow and we’ve won the football Pools. We should net about £25 each for an outlay of just £1.85 and a half pence! Got some old records from mums like the Tubeway Army picture disc (‘Are Friends Electric?’). Mike got in a fight downstairs with Dave next door (we called him Mr ‘Potato-Head’). We went up to see Wayne - his tooth fell out and he’s suffering from bad headaches. We went up to Karl’s and he and Anne was in, her hair is red and orange and she made me some tea. We went round to see Kev, who sold me a Motorhead 7” picture-disc for 90p (Motorhead/’Over The Top’ both live). Later on me, Lol and Rob walked up to Karl’s. Anne was still there with Karl watched a film and left with Anne walked her back to her road and us three were doing moonies beside her and full frontal flashes too.
MARCH
Monday 1st
I was awoken at 11 a.m. by Rob who played records while I was asleep again. And the other 2 brothers (Lol & Kev) came back from their Court cases today - both adjourned. Got up at one when they stopped playing records and very thoughtfully went into the lounge to let me get up at last. I watched children’s TV - absolute shite. A programme called ‘Words and Pictures’ was enough to make kids go stupid. Played some records, Tank LP, Blitz, Motorhead and Black Sabbath. I played some old 45’s The Fall = shit, the best was Rezillos, Jean Michel-Jarre - ‘Oxygene’, ‘T.V Stars’ by The Skids (live), and Magazine’s ‘Big Dummy’. We went up to Karl’s where Anne dyed Karl’s Mohican green and red. Karl kept saying how he could ‘have Anne’ anytime - but all of us said ‘no chance’ and he kept going into a maddie (a mood) about it. Rob, who hadn’t met Anne yet, got on great with her doing his customary trick - a moonie. Me and Rob are seeing her tomorrow. And just to cement their newfound friendship Rob chased her up her road with his trousers down round his ankles (his unique manner with females is second to many).
Tuesday 2nd
I got up at 11 a.m. and played records of Black Sabbath ‘Turn Up The Night/Lonely Is The Word’, Motorhead’s ‘Motorhead’ and ‘Over The Top’ (Live), Blitz ‘Never Surrender’, ’Razors In The Night’ and Tank ‘Don’t Walk Away (live) and ‘The Snake’. We walked up to the Longplayer and Rob got the Human League LP ‘Dare’. Me and Rob called around for Anne and she answered and we went in and played records (just around the corner from Karl’s). Dead Kennedys LP, and Killing Joke LP. She was wearing a skirt with a rip up her inner leg. We watched TV and Animal Magic with Toyah on it. While walking home later on after going to Karl’s and Anne’s again me and Rob done moonies in every phone box on the way back home along the seafront to Westbrook and our flat.
Wednesday 3rd
Up at 09:45 a.m. me, Lol and Rob walked up town and I got my photos back of Discharge live at the 100 Club - some great ones - and Subhumans were o.k. We went up to Longplayer where they had the Discharge single ‘Never Again’ for 15p. They had three copies in the cheap box so I bought them all for 45p! Me and Lol left for The Varukers in Skunks in London tonight on the 2:10 p.m. coach from the harbour. We got standby return tickets for £2.75p. We got into Victoria Coach Station at 4 p.m. Then we caught a tube up to the Angel, Islington and then found a Wimpy and bought a Hamburger, chips and a hot chocolate for £1.28p. We then found Skunks (Blue Coat Boy) - it was a pub, and right by the tube station, we came out of, and passed! The Varukers were there unloading their equipment from their van. We walked into the city to waste some time before the gig opened up at 7:30p.m. We walked around Oxford Street, Wardour Street and cheap record shops etc and had some nosh then jumped on a 73 bus back up to The Angel at 7ish. It was only £1.50p in with a dole card. There were about 25 punks/skins there - pretty empty indeed. Jan and Bill (from Chaos) were there and chatted to them also Roi (from The Last Resort) was there too. Dead Wretched were due to play but they didn’t get here. So the other support band called Stress came on at 8 p.m. One of their members looked like Bobby Ewing (from the TV programme ‘Dallas’)! They played two songs then fucked off. I chatted to Jan and she wanted my address but couldn’t find a pen. Another support band came on called The Suspects they were shit. The bassist played his bass really funny and they had a fat balding snob on drums while the singer looked like a disco-star. They played for too long. Met Luciano (the Italian Punk I met at Jenny’s) he was with a nice Punkette and friend. At 9 p.m. The Varukers came on. Tom (the 2nd Rainy) was on bass (somehow he earned/was given the nickname ‘Pork Sausage’?!?!) Bruce had pink hair and a podgy new drummer. The singer, my namesake, Anthony (or Rat as his Discharge fans know him now of course!) was dressed in all black and he had a ring in his nose. They played a good set, all of the tracks on their first E.P. ‘Protest & Survive’. They played all the three tracks off their new E.P. out in April. The singer is really lively and I took 12 photos of them live onstage. The singer said “Anybody buy our last E.P.?” - the crowd were pathetic and no one was moving (including a pathetic me of course!). They done a two-song encore, which culminated with Bruce throwing his guitar onto the drum kit as a parting gesture and they went off about 10ish. I had a chat with Anthony the singer of The Varukers and he asked ”Where I came from tonight to see us?” I said “Margate in Kent”. He said “No, no way?” I said “Yes we travelled up on a train its only 75 miles”. He was shocked that the band had fans that travelled that far to see them (perhaps it was the first time they had heard of it of course!). Me and Lol left and caught a tube over to Jenny’s and stayed the night there which was great.
Thursday 4th
Me and Lol got up at 11:10 a.m. and left Jenny’s in Bayswater. We went into the city centre and Virgin Megastore and I bought the Tank new single ‘Turn Your Head Around’/’Stepping On A Landmine’ for £1.05p. Then to Our Price (record shop) I bought a Discharge badge for 30p (‘Realities of War’ cover jacket - in green). Went to Virgin underground record shop and I bought Tank’s first single ‘Don’t Walk Away’/’Shellshock’ & ‘Hammer On’ for £1.05p. Got a bus to the coach station and caught the 4 p.m. coach to Margate. The coach driver charged us £3 each but didn’t give us a ticket as he pocketed the money himself! I played the records when we got home to Margate. Top of the Pops - best was Toni Basil - ‘Hey Mickey’. Watched TV and the Kenny Everett Show - Toyah was on it (she must have had a particularly active agent in early 1982!). Rob, Wayne and Anne came around and we had a mini-gig to the records I bought earlier in London. They had some booze, and Wayne brought down the acoustic guitars with three strings on. Rob pulled his trousers down and sat next to Anne tucking his willy under while crossing his legs to make a ‘fanny’. (Yet another one of Robs endearing qualities comes to the fore around Anne!). Rob also ran around with his trousers down a while. Lol stayed in and the rest of us went out. We walked Anne home to Millmead up the other end of Cliftonville a mile or so. We done moonies on the way and Wayne kicked in a cars wing mirror. We all piled onto a pram in Dane Park and demolished it. Me and Rob tried to get a goodnight kiss off of Anne (without any success it would seem - ah not enough moonies Rob!). We dropped her home and then walked back ourselves at 12 midnight.
Friday 5th
Up at 10 a.m. Popped into mums to pick up the not £25 each Pools win but only £8.10p. Went into town and into Longplayer. Where I bought Rose Tattoo’s double-pack 7” single for £1.20p.
Saturday 6th
Up at 10 a.m. and went up town. I bought the Trust (heavy French rock) ‘Repression’ LP for Mike for £4.49p. Went into W.H Smith and got two mags for Mike with AC/DC in them. Caught a bus over to Canterbury and went up to Jim’s (second hand record shop over the railway lines) where I bought Generation X ‘Valley Of The Dolls’ (Brown Vinyl) 50p and Stiff Little Fingers ‘Nobody’s Heroes’ for 50p too. Rob went into Our Price=shit. There were loads of Punk/ette’s outside there hanging around and Karl woz among them. Into another record shop where I bought X-Ray Spex ‘Identity’ (Pink Vinyl), ‘Highly Inflammable’ (Red Vinyl), U.K. Subs ‘Keep On Running Til You Burn’ (someone told me that they’d sold out?), The Plasmatics ‘Butcher Baby (multi-coloured vinyl), and a live tape of Discharge and G.B.H at Gillingham gig I went to last year.
Sunday 7th
I got up at 2 p.m. and me and Lol walked up to call for Anne. Then us 3 walked to Wayne’s and went in and watched him spike up his hair in his bathroom (you have to realise these were the days before Sky TV people!). Us three left spikey-Wayne and walked up to Karl’s and went in and he played records for us D.I.R.T=good, Dead Wretched=good and mucked about on his acoustic guitar.
Monday 8th
Awoke at 10:30 a.m. Later watched TV and Riverside had Killing Joke on it playing two songs live. Me and Lol walked home with Anne past the Nayland Rock Hotel which was on fire again! When me and Lol got back we decided it would be rather wise to piss in the hallway of our flat - which I have described as ‘A superb laugh’!
Tuesday 9th
Up at 11:30 a.m. Played my Tank LP. Walked up to mums with Lol, Rob and Kev. Lol and Rob said they’d chip in to by a next door neighbour’s snooker-table top with me for £40 (complete with cues and balls). The seller was none other than Mike’s last boxing opponent - Mr Potato Head. We put a deposit on it and walked home with the cues and triangle while we moved the tabletop into mums next door.
Wednesday 10th
Up at 11 a.m. then me and Lol walked up to Anne’s house - she’s dyed her hair red and black it looks real smart. Me, Lol, Wayne and Rob decided to move the snooker table to our flat on a skateboard. So we tied it up and covered it and roped it to a skateboard. While we wheeled it, halfway up Arthur Road (my mums road) it fell off the skateboard. The next-door neighbour to my mum saw us and said he’d drive it down in his estate car. Wayne paid him a quid and we got a lift too. We carried it up to Lol’s flat at the top. And set it up across two small Formica tables.
Thursday 11th
Up at 11 a.m. and me and Wayne walked up to the Longplayer where they had another ‘Never Again’ single by Discharge - which of course I bought for 15p (I now have 6 of them!). I picked up a film from Boots from last year of Mike’s - it had four photographs of Discharge live at the Mayflower Club, Manchester last April - not too bad. One nice photograph of Bones. Me and Went up Anne’s and while we were there she bent over showing her tits & bra. Back to Wayne’s and took some photo’s mucking about on Lee’s (Wayne’s younger brother) moped he was fixing up. The Old Grey Whistle Test was pap with Nine Below Zero and The Comsat Angels.
Friday 12th
Up rather early at 09:30 a.m. and later went up to the harbour and got a standby coach ticket to London for £2.75p and caught the 12 o’clock coach to London which got there at 2:30 p.m. Jumped on a bus up to Oxford Street and bought the D.I.R.T single for 80p and Dead Wretched E.P. for £1:05p. While we were walking to Virgin Underground record shop, we saw Terry Hall (of The Specials) and Neville out of the Fun Boy Three walking down Oxford Street. Went into Virgin Megastore where I bought Rose Tattoo’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Outlaw’ E.P. and ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Is King’ single for £1:15p and £1:10p respectively. We then got a bus to Jenny’s place in Bayswater. Left our records there and then caught a bus back to the centre and walked to the Marquee Club (in Wardour Street). It was £2 in to see Tank, but £1.90p if you had a dole card! There were plenty of denim and long hair there. But also inside there were a few punks too. They played loads of rock over the sound system. At 8:30 p.m. the support band came on they were called Last Flight. They were good; the singer was a cross between Rod Stewart and Dave Lee Roth (of Van Halen). The bass player looked like Cliff Williams (of AC/DC). They went off after about 45 minutes. Rob and Gary headbanged to a few records over the sound system. At 9:30 p.m., Tank came onstage at the tiny Marquee club, it held about 300 people and there were about 150 to 200 there tonight. I went to the right side of the stage and took eight pictures while they played. They started with ‘Shellshock’ after 3 songs I went past the static Gary and went down the front of the crowd with the pogoing Rob and Lol. Had a great laugh head-banging and shouting out ‘Shit-Rings’ in-between songs. Algy Ward looked really young but he had a bit of a beer gut. He’s a great bassist. The guitarist looked about 25 and had a Tank sticker stuck on his guitar. The guitarist and drummer are brothers, but I didn’t see much of the drummer. They came back on for two encores ‘Heavy Artillery’ and ‘The Snake’ and Gary actually came down the front three songs from the end too! We caught a bus to Bayswater and bought chips and sausages and some flat-mates let us in and we went into Jenny’s, who was out, and we got in her bed and played records. She came in at 2 a.m. and joined me and Rob in her double.
Saturday 13th
Awoke at 10 a.m. and us lot got a bus up centre. I bought The Plasmatics LP ‘New Hope for the Wretched’ for £2 on multi-coloured vinyl in Cheapo Cheapo records in Soho. I also bought the Angelic Upstarts LP and free 4-track flexi for £1.99. Rose Tattoo’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Outlaw (pic) 40p and The Professionals (ex Sex Pistols men Cook & Jones band) single for 50p (pic). Then caught the 4 p.m. coach back to Margate. Played my records, and Rob sold me his Rose Tattoo 12” (‘Bad Boy for Love’/’Tramp’ (pic) for 50p. Anne came around she had a black and white striped pair of ‘Iron Maiden’ trousers on. We went for a walk along Westbrook beach a while then later I walked Anne home alone.
Sunday 14th
I got up at 1:30 in the afternoon. Called round for Wayne - he had his hair fucking ace! Stayed up there all night eating breville toasted sandwiches in the kitchen and taking photographs with Rob with his todger out and his rather loose trousers and stretching his ballbag exercises too! We left at 12 then walked home.
Monday 15th
Up at 11:30 a.m. Played records, D.I.R.T, Dead Wretched, Rose Tattoo, Blitz, Vardis (‘Let’s Go’ single - which I bought for 10p! - it still does not constitute a bargain officially!). Played more records after lots of snooker games upstairs in Lol’s & Wayne’s. I played The Professionals, Black Sabbath, The Varukers, Tank, Dead Wretched, Plasmatics and Stiff Little Fingers. At 11:30 p.m., Lol and Rob burst through the door of the front room as I was eating and guess what? - Yes they were completely bollock-naked…not a stitch on, like a skeleton with a willy.
Tuesday 16th
I Up at 11:30 a.m. and played records - Angelic Upstarts Live and flexi-disc 7”, (Excellent condition). Their live versions of their good songs are o.k. but some shit tracks. The Plasmatics ‘New Hope For The Wretched’ LP - great condition and a good LP. Played Snooker upstairs and Rob won 10p against in a game. Anne with an ‘e’ came around. Bundled Anne on the floor and spanked her bum and poked her ‘gibbs’ (I feel this is a metaphor for something rudie-poodie emanating from the word ‘giblets’). To compound the matter Rob then chased me down the stairs shouting ‘let me sniff your fingers” in the dark. Muff, that’s Anne to you and me, went at about 12ish after all 3 of us ran about in the near-nude trying to ‘willy-brush’ Anne - I nearly collapsed on the floor I was hurting so much with laughter.
Wednesday 17th
I woke up at 11:30 a.m. and looked out of the flat window and John Reed, my cousin who I went to see Discharge with at Northampton in the snow last year, wanders by! He came back along five minutes later - he has come down to Margate to see the Theatre Of Hate at the Winter Gardens (in Margate) later on tonight. I got my DM’s (Doctor Martens) on and me, John and Lol walked up to mums. I got Sounds - it had a G.B.H interview and a 1-page colour picture of Colin. G.B.H are playing Skunks, in London on Friday - I’ll go to that. We went down to the Winter Gardens with John and he got a ticket for TOH for £2.50p. We walked into the gig place and the Queens Hall and saw Kirk Brandon of TOH in there. We saw two heavy metal girls near the roundabout and one was flashing her boobs! Later on we walked down to the Ship Inn for the regular Wednesday night gig and a band called Bathsheba were playing. Karl was there with two girlfriends and also a load of Canterbury and Maidstone Punks. Me and Lol left and walked up to the Winter Gardens and around the back and listened to Theatre Of Hate - they sounded shit. We walked back down to the Ship Inn by the harbour and watched the rest of the Bathsheba set. Rob and Kev were there. A guy that looked rather too much like Rod Hull (minus the emu!) on drums, Geddy Lee (of Rush) lookie-likey unlikely on bass and a rather too-high-pitched singer with frizzey-hair for a singer…they were horrible (yes and I use that word ‘horrible’ under strict advice from my solicitors).
Thursday 18th
Awoke at 11 a.m. and Rob woke me up again by playing records. Walked up to mums with Lol, Anne and her niece in a pram. I pushed Dawn (Anne’s niece) along the seafront. Mike was there and he had dyed his hair bloodey light brown - it’s o.k. though. I got my photographs back from the Varukers (Skunks - 12 pics) and Tank (Marquee - 8 pics) gigs - some good ones. We all went up to Northdown House and took some photo’s in the dark by a night spotlight and later watched the Old Grey Whistle Test with King Crimson and Pat Benetar (live) on it - she was o.k.
Friday 19th
I got up at a quarter to 12 as I had to sign on at 11:30 a.m. - so I ran up to Capitol House and got there at 11:59 a.m. - but they still said “come back at 2”. I walked around to mums, Mike was there and he bleached his hair white again. He sold me some of his Metal records - Motorhead 12” ‘Golden Years’ 4-track E.P. for £1.50p and his Motorhead ‘Ace Of Spades’ 12” (pic) but no label on one side mis-pressing for £3.50p - or both for a fiver! I went back and signed on for the £75 dole-cheque at 2 p.m. I saw the ‘Motorheadbangerettebadgeshopfatgirl’ on the way home too (she was covered in badges and quite a large denim-clad head-girl too as you may have deciphered!).
Saturday 20th
I got up at a quarter to 2 in the afternoon. Wayne said that the Anti-Nowhere League are playing in Margate in May! I done my hair from a ‘Mohican’ to a real good spikey style all over (this simply involved soaping ones hair that you had all over your head into a mohican while it dried - and just as it was drying you’d pull it apart then soap it again lightly - and voila it kept up much better - next week ‘How to nail jelly to the ceiling’!). Mike came around on his way to see Iron Maiden and The Rods at the Hammersmith Odeon in London (as our flat was about 2 minutes from the train station!). Went up Wayne’s and he played records - Attak E.P. and Chaos UK 7”’ers. Then Wayne’s C.B Radio bird came around. She called herself ‘Lazy Daisy’ and was a dog - so we got rid of her and then we went up to Karl’s house. Later at 2 a.m., Mike came around as he just got off the last train from London after seeing Iron Maiden. We all stayed up til 4 a.m. talking about strap on dicks and doing loads of farting.
Sunday 21st
Up at half an hour after noon. Went up to Kev’s house and got out Gary’s bass guitar and amp speaker and also Kev’s boys miniature drum kit – a good laugh it was. Later after watched a film in the flat Lol, the cunt, just starts to piss on me and then pisses in a drinking glass in the front room too for good measure - literally!
Monday 22nd
I got up at 1 p.m. Me and Lol walked up to Wayne’s and he said he is thinking of going on the Discharge tour soon with me. I painted over the ‘Fight Back’ Discharge 7” cover picture on the back of my leather jacket again.
Tuesday 23rd
Up at 11:15 a.m. and walked up to the Longplayer and the guy in there played Motorhead’s new single, on red vinyl, called ‘Iron Fist’ - it’s great…really fast. Walked up to Wayne’s, he got out of the bath let us in and made tea - then Rob tipped me out of my chair onto the floor for a laugh. We then walked up to Karl’s who played us Black Flag LP - which was, as we all know, typical Yanki-shit. Yes, shit, and shit too. We then took a short walk to Kev’s, where spam (Kev’s child) locked Rob in a cupboard (so bright for such tender years!). Walked to mums, then Mike came in after a game of football down the green by the seafront - his legs are really fat! Touched up my ‘Fight Back’ Discharge painting on my leather some more (again - I guess you have it by now that painting and art is not my strongest subject yeah?).
Wednesday 24th
Up at 1 p.m. I went up town and to Boots and got some photo’s back - six of Discharge at the 100 Club, London (23rd November 1981) and 12 of Judas Priest (Jesus Christ!) of Mike’s. I found out that Rob is such a filthy bastard as he pisses in the sink - aswell!
Thursday 25th
I got up nearing 3 p.m. in the mid-afternoon. Went up town to buy a loaf of bread with a £20 note - bakery lady thought it was a fake (because, as we know all now know, money-launderers in the early 80’s were infact poor UK Punks on the dole living on £33.43p a week of course). Went up mums and actually had a bath - shock horror! Gasp! - steps back in amazement! Really? Yes, Really!!! Well I never - only my second bath this year you filthy bugger - “Who said that?”. I walked home in the thick mist at 7 p.m. along the seafront. Top of the Pops had Killing Joke on it playing their new single ‘The Empire Song’ - o.k. Altered Images new single was o.k. Number 1 was Gumbay Dance Band with a Boney M sounding rip-off.
Friday 26th
Up 30 minutes before midday. Rob and Lol came back from signing on and Lol had bought me the Iron Maiden ‘Run To The Hills’ picture disc for £1.30p - nice one Lol. Me and Lol later went up town along the seafront, which was really misty at 2 p.m. I got Mike a ‘Metal Fury’ magazine with AC/DC in it. I bought the Motorhead’s new single ‘Iron Fist’ in red vinyl too. Went home and watched a programme called Dear Heart - “Dear Heart, why the fuck is your programme so terrible, yours sincerely Mr Fucked-Off”.
Saturday 27th
Up at 10:45 a.m. and watched Tiswas that had Bucks Fizz on (Hey? - they didn’t mention their No 1 south-east U.K. fan again!). Spiked up my hair into loads of twigs - excellent. Me and Lol walked up town, it was really warm and we saw 2 ‘silly-punks’ up there too (are you sure it wasn’t just a reflection from a shop window?). I bought Punk Lives magazine (definitely NOT for silly-punks I might add!) with a picture of Bambi and Rainy, of Discharge, in it -great (but only if you are NOT a ‘silly-punk’ of course!). Watched Battle of The Bands on TV and the best were a poppey-skinhead band called ‘The Crack’. Later we went along the seafront and met Anne and her German Punk friend Annette.
Sunday 28th
I awoke at 2:45 in the afternoon. Rob permed his hair (as all good rockers do, with curlers like Shirley Temple only with much more a tendency to drop ones trousers than her). Me and Lol walked up to Wayne’s and Lee was there (Wayne’s younger brother) with some photo’s of me him and Rob with flowers up our bum and willies out - great stuff! Me, Lol, Rob and Wayne walked up to Karl’s (who was a bit too much into Anne we decided!) and so after no answer (but the light was on!) we decided to ‘quieter-than-quiet-burglars-in-sheep’s-wool-slippers’ creep around the back of his house. Our version of this was to kick footballs, throw Frisbee’s generally make as much noise as possible. We went in the back door and there was no one in. So we went in and had a cup of tea and went upstairs and had a piss too - oh and a handful of biscuits while we were there aswell! On TV we watched ‘Whoops Apocalypse’ which was shit making fun about nuclear war (…that was a Party Political Broadcast on behalf of the Discharge Party”!). I left with Anne and walked her home.
Monday 29th
Woken up at 10 a.m. by the landlady, who we nick-named ‘elephant women’ (not because she was hideously ugly but…because she fucking grotesque!) knocking at the door saying, “are you awake lads?” She then went and while Rob was naked and talcum powdering his knob (as all good rockers do?). Then the ‘elephant woman’ just strolls in without knocking and Rob starkers dives headlong for cover into a room injuring himself. Later she showed us a three room flat on the middle floor and offered us three (me, Lol and Rob, because Wayne was just claiming for a flat and not really living there anymore) those rooms and to keep the upstairs Snooker/Pool room aswell for the same rent - so erm we said yupp! We all walked up to a bookshop in Northdown Road Gary, Rob, Kev and Lol who just fucked off without saying goodbye or we are going - call themselves mates? - poppycock I say! Watched TV and Riverside had Cabaret Voltaires video of ‘Nag Nag Nag’ on it - great.
Tuesday 30th
Up at 12 listened to the UK record charts on the radio - Motorhead are straight in at No33 with ‘Iron Fist’ (you said that in such a Smashy & Nicey tone there mayte - “aaah yer nott farr wrong there mayte coz pipping Mojohedd are Bachman Turner Overdrive accelerating in at No32 with ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet’ - tayke it away BTO..!) and Goombay Dance Band are still No1 with ‘7 Tears’ (or is it ‘7 years?’). I played records of Tank, Blitz, Dead Wretched, Plasmatics, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, SLF, Black Sabbath, The Professionals, Generation X, U.K. Subs and yes, even the much over-looked, for obvious reasons, Vardis. Went out and it was blowing a gale along the seafront - going nowhere fast. I bought the new Angelic Upstarts single ‘Never Say Die’ for 10p. Went home and played it - it’s shite and that was the first and last time that’s ever gonna see the light of day.
Wednesday 31st
Yesterday the Space Shuttle landed in the U.S.A. I bought Sounds it didn’t have any Discharge tour dates in it. We all walked along to the harbour to the Wednesday night gig at the Ship Inn. Tonight it was a band from Folkestone, Kent called English Rogues. They came on at 10 p.m. and were a trio a Tommy Vance (UK rock D.J.) lookie-unlikely on double bass-drum kit, chubby guitarist with joker t-shirt and leather trousers, white boots and dark glasses and a cap (watch out girls, but mostly the guys I’d say!) and a black flying V guitar. The bassist, who moved around, had a really good bass sound too. They played some boogie songs, done a good version of The Troggs ‘I Can’t Control Myself’, and they came back for an encore of ‘Walking the Dog’. Later on back at the flat Rob done a moonie out of the window in the general direction of a passing car full of girls and they saw him and waved and shouted wildly (whether or not it was to tell him to stop the ‘hairey-arsed’ public show I guess we’ll never ever know?).
APRIL
Thursday 1st
Out of bed at midday, Rob woke me up and gave me the letter from Vernons Football Pools of my win from last Saturday. Half asleep I opened it up trembling to find that I’d won £2,924 pound..!!!! Ha-Ha-Ha April Fool - I’d really won the insurmountable figure of, wait for it, £4.90p - Shit…Fuck…Piss…Bum…Tit…Willy…Fanny…Cunt…Bastard…Nipples…Foreskin…Pubes…Ball-Bags…Plonker is just about how I feet. Vernon - I hate you cunts. Walked up town to go shopping and saw a blue-haired Punkey bird go past and walk along the beach to the Mini-Pier and sat by the pool wall. Me and Lol decided to walk near her on the beach - she then fucked off with a skinhead (ahhh - emo s eh!). Rob got back at 00:50 a.m. after walking back from Ramsgate after seeing Desolation Angels (heavy-mental) band - he said they were great (Mike and Kev also went).
Friday 2nd
The Falkland Islands, in the south Atlantic have been invaded by Argentina - which are British. I helped Lol move all his stuff down from the top old room of his to mine and Rob - which all three of us are sharing now - he wore his black and white ‘The Jam’ shoes. I played records - Iron Maiden ‘Run To The Hills’, Motorhead ‘Iron Fist’ (nice n fast), ‘Remember Me I’m Gone’ (ok).
Saturday 3rd
The first day in the middle flat with two Maycocks (Rob and Lol). I got woken up at 11 a.m. by Lol. Watched colour TV! - Tiswas - Tygers Of Pan Tang ‘Love Potion No9’ video was on it - shit. Watched Pop Quiz and it had Jake Burns (of Stiff Little Fingers) one time punk now dressed in a 3-piece suit - my how some people change eh? O.T.T had that black bitch baring her tits on it - bloodey big ‘uns.
Sunday 4th
Out of bed a quarter after 12 and played Pool and Snooker all afternoon with Lol and Rob - 25 bikers drove past on their way to the seafront from London I guess. Tina and Denise (2 skinettes) popped in. I spent the afternoon too putting up my Discharge cuttings and posters on my wall. Played records - Iron Maiden, Tank and U.K. Subs. I went out and phoned up Cal (of Discharge) with Lol and Lee in the phone box. Cal’s dad answered then Cal came on. He said “Here’s some of the dates we have lined up to play soon” - 13th April (100 Club, London), 16th April (The Taboo Club, Scarborough), 17th April (Ajanta Club, Derby), 28th April (Drifters, Manchester), 29th April (New Yate Entertainment Centre, Bristol), 30th April (Gala Ballroom, Norwich), 3rd May (Alton Towers, or Haltower Theatre - it was infact the Hull Tower Theatre!), 4th May (Community Centre, Grimsby) 9th May (not confirmed yet - possibly the Lyceum in London or Marples in Sheffield). Cal said that “the album in coming out a week later on the 8th of April” - I said bye.
Monday 5th
I was awoken by Wayne banging on t’door. Walked up town shopping with Lol, Wayne and Rob - it was really warm. Walked along the beach and met Annette (Anne German Punk girl friend) and her mate Mettina. Walked up to Cecil Square where we saw a bus drive over a motorcycle. Watched the U.S.A Grand Prix won by Niki Lauda and while being interviewed he said “This track is shit!”. Walked up to Karl’s and he said he is not going out with Anne anymore - he is going out with a bird from Faversham 69. Me, Lol a ob walked home and we passed Wayne’s where Lee and his mum (Jean) looked out of the window as we passed and we done nude moonies to them. We also did some running across Dane Park too shouting our heads off shortly before bumping into two skinettes.
Tuesday 6th
Up at 11 a.m. and listened to the UK singles record charts - Motorhead’s ‘Iron Fist’ has gone up from number 33 last week to this weeks No29. I stuck up virtually all of my Discharge pictures and posters and also the giant black logo along my be looks great. Walked up to Wayne’s - him and Joe were outside his gate playing Discharge on his cassette player. On the way back later me and Rob done nude-moonies running across Dane Park and Rob didn’t pull his trousers up til he approached the next innocent passer-by (great laugh!). We saw Annette, the German punk girl, and Mettina in Cecil Square at 11:30 p.m.
Wednesday 7th
Out of bed on midday. Later on we made the trek along the seafront to The Ship Inn for the Wednesday Nite Gig. At 9:30 p.m. White Diamond came on who were from Colchester. They had a backdrop of a bald guy with spikey hair at the sides. The drummer was good and had a massive white premier kit. The bassist was silly with a cowboy hat but looked like an Indian. Great guitarist, while the singer had a pair of spandex trousers on and ‘Shirley’ hair (that’s ‘Curly’ to you and me and Rob!). The guitarist played like Schenker (Michael that is of Michael Schenker Group!). We got talking to two girls of 23 and later did moonies again in Dan rk (pity any moonlight dog walkers of the early eighties in Margate eh?). Then met Barbara a woman of 24 or so and we got chatting and she let us go back to her house - that was me, Lol, Rob, Kev, Mike and Karl (we are such a well-behaved lovely bunch how could she resist?). Had tea’s chats and met her animals then her and Lol went to bed and Lol kicked us out the room (nice!). Me and Rob slept in a single bed together (after all that moonie-ing I’m not sure that was such a bright idea after all - let’s t hope either of us don’t dream about Dane Park that’s all…!). The other 3 slept on the floor doing farts. After a while Lol came out and said, and I quote - “I didn’t get anything…her holes only this big” curling his fingers up into a shape not too dissimilar from a one-penny piece. Kev tried to get in - but she wouldn’t let him - (she must’ve known he was married with a kid about 400 metres away at home methinks). Kev said, and I quote - “You don’t even know how to fuck” to which a pleasant evening air was shattered with in reply “You couldn’t even find the right hole”..(This is love isn’t it here I’m witnessing?) - How romantic! Mike, Kev, Karl and Lol went but for the last word from Kev as a parting shot of thanks, and I quote - “Thanks for the great fuck”. But he told me….? - Never mind! Me and Rob stayed the night with Barbara in the next room in separate beds which was really comfortable.
Thursday 8th
I woke up at 08:45 a.m. and saw Barbara in her petite briefs and bra. We got up and left after Ba a said “You two can pop around anytime you want, but just don’t bring any of the others” (…hey waddizzthiss?!?!?!? You mean Kev and Lol’s Love-talk did not work?!?!?!?). I stuck up my Discharge stickers on my door and my Varukers (live) photographs. Top Of The Pops - crap - Goombay Dance Band still glued to No1 for ‘7 Years, I mean Tears’ - they were onstage and they were absolute shit.
Friday 9th
Up at midday. Mike won £22 on the Football Pools. Watched the film Chitty-Shitty-Bonk-Bang. Kev, Lol, Rob me went down the arcades and played video games a while. Kev went home and Wayne then joined us three in going around to Barbara’s. We had pizzas and drinks and played her UB40 Lp’s and later were invited to stay on the pillows and cushions. Rob got a ‘bonk’ on (which sounded like a Hungarian Hat but infact it was just a monstrously-colossal erection that’s all - phew that was lucky wasn’t it?). So in the dark and in the nude he walked over to the light and switched it on and off very quickly to show us. We said to Barbara “Your nipples are up” and she pulled up her sweatshirt and showed us her tits and said “No, they’re not!” And she done it once more and even pulled down her white knickers and done half a moonie at us. When she pulled them up her pubes and giblets popped out a bit. She slept next to Lol (the man that invented l’amore). But Lol kept saying, “Get your hands off - you’re not getting it”. She done maddies and went upstairs to sleep.
Saturday 10th
I was woken up by the others watching Sesa treet on TV at 08:45 a.m. Also watched a cartoon about Space including a character that made a noise like a castrated Turkey - fucking shit. Untwiggled my twigs and spiked up my hair as normal - it looks bad.
Sunday 11th
I woke up at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. I did my hair into a ‘mohican-shape’ last night with soap. I spent an hour and half messing around with my hair trying to spike it up decent, but in the end I cut off an inch and a half to do it. We walked up town and met loads of Margate Skinheads with Tina and Denise among them. We went around Barbara’s and Rob was there already - we mucked about with hr Gerbils in the kitchen (not giblets - Gerbils - her pets!). Me and Lol walked up to Karl’s and he was in with his new red-haired tree-trunk legged girlfriend bird.
Monday 12th
I got up at 11 a.m. Anne and a blonde mohican kid called George, from Ramsgate came around shortly followed by Karl and Joanne (his girlfriend). Me, Lol and Anne went out along the seafront, which on Easter bank Holiday weekend Monday was a little daring to say the least - but there were no Mods, No Skins, No Rockers or Bikers at all. Us three walked up to Kev’s, who slept at Barbara’s last night. Sandra, his wife at home did maddies (she was so out of order than woman I tell yer!). He didn’t come home all night and she said for us to tell him “He needn’t bother to come back ever”. We walked to Barbara’s and met coming this, and Sandra’s way. We told him what she said and he strode on regardless toward battle, slash homelessness. Walked home and me and Rob done moonies and willy-showing out the window to 3 frogs (which roughly translated as baring ones genitalia to some French females one could hazard a guess at?). Went down the beach with rob and Anne doing moonies and I lost 30p rolling car tyres along in the public toilets and throwing them up on Christmas Trees. Anne did a few half-moonies. Later Rob took a picture of Anne in his jimmy-jams (pyjamas). Anne went to sleep in Lol’s room.
Tuesday 13th
Up at 09:00 a.m. by the alarm. Anne left in a taxi to Manston where she now lives with her mum. Caught the 12:30 p.m. coach to London for £4 - no standby’s anymore. Got into London at 3 p.m. We walked past Buckingham Palace and Piccadilly Circus and popped into a Soho supermarket for some foodies. Walked up to the back entrance around the 100 Club near Oxford Street. Me and Lol made Turkey slices sandwiches in dry bread on the boot of a car parked there. After a while we heard Discharge doing their sound-check including a couple of new songs, which sounded great. The owner came out who looked like Charlie Harper (of the U.K. Subs) and said, “Get lost”. We made some more sandwiches and then Wayne walked towards us. We went round the front and two mohicans scrounged not 10p off of me but a bite of my sandwich instead. I gave Wayne my last 17 an a half pence for some drink and that left me with £2.75p for a standby coach ticket home and the £2.50p in to see Discharge tonight at the 100 Club. Bought a ticket for £2.50p. I said to Lol “Look down there (and pointed along Oxford Street) its John Cooper Clarke (the ‘Punk Poet’) and his girlfriend. Lol said to him “You look just like John Cooper Clarke!” - he smiles in his dark glasses and black n white clothes, frizzy hair and rubbed his hands together as he walked by. Then at 8:30 p.m. we went into the 100 Club. Met Cal inside and he got me my £2.50p back for my ticket. It was really packed in there and met Jan (Bill’s partner) and Jenny (from Bayswater). Then they put on a Film, which had facts about nuclear war in words like: - after a 1 megaton bomb drops, people five miles away will be charred beyond recognition. Tonight’s support band was called Anti-Establishment (in fact they were called Antisect!). They were good and played a set list of Fear Of God, No Release, Suicide Victims, Ulster, Existence Of Restriction, Spoils Of War, Philosophy Of Anarchy, Prisoner Of Society, Consequence Of Hunger, Aftermath and Anarchy Ruleth (They played 12 tracks in 26 minutes – Tape List). The singer tatty jeans. Discharge came on and started with ‘Never Again’ during which I sang through the microphone with Cal. Then they went into ‘Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing’ – which was great. The Final Bloodbath, which was o.k., ‘Fight Back’ then ‘Protest and Survive’ which was great. Then ‘Nightmare Continues’ which was brilliant and then ‘Why’ and after that they played a track called ‘Life’s Destruction’ which was called ‘The Possibility of Life’s Destruction’) – o.k. then into ‘Hell On Earth’ – brilliant and ‘Cries Of Help’ – o.k. Then ‘Is This To Be’ – o.k., and then ‘Drunk With Power – excellent stuff and ‘Realities Of War’ good, ‘I Won’t Subscribe’, o.k., ‘Blood Runs Red’ – good, ‘Ain’t No Feeble Bastard’ and ‘The End’ – o.k. (They played 18 tracks in 46 minutes – Tape List). And Discharge came back on for an encore of ‘Decontrol’. They missed out playing ‘Meanwhile’, ‘Two Monstrous Nuclear Stockpiles’, ‘And Children’. I chatted to Cal after the gig as the 100 Club emptied; there are 14 tracks on the LP of which they played 11 tonight. We caught a bus over to Jenny’s in Bayswater with her after we left the 100 Club about 11:30 p.m. and we crashed there the night – I slept on the floor.
Wednesday 14th
Up at 10:30 a.m. and left and caught a 36 bus to Victoria Station, which broke down on the way so we caught the next one behind –paying 20p on each. Then we walked to the Coach Station and bought a £3.50p ticket to Margate. It was lovely and warm and sunny – read a blokes N.M.E which was shit. Got i d picked up my Dole Cheque for £75.66p, which we then went out to cash (that’s £5.40p a day or £37.83p per week!). I went straight up Longplayer and bought the Iron Maiden LP ‘Number Of The Beast’ on picture disc for £5.99p and the Girlschool ‘Wildlife’ E.P. for £1.20p. Also picked up a Girlschool ‘C’Mon Let’s Go’ 7” single (pic) for 10p in Cliftonville cheap record shop called Thornton Bobby’s. Went to mums and played the Iron Maiden LP – good and Mum and Dad are flying to Canada tomorrow for 2 weeks. Me and Rob walked down to the Ship Inn and met Mike and Gary there. The band had just come on called T.N.T who were local from Ramsgate and Margate I think. Pretty packed in there – about 80 denims. The band was good, the guitarist looked like Sammy Hagar and he had a red guitar (deranged in shape!). They played ‘Rock Bottom’ by U.F.O. ‘Somebody Get Me A Doctor’ and ‘Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love’ (Van Halen covers). Me, Rob and Lol left at 10:40 p.m. I went home with Lol, and then later Rob and Barbara came back from a party. Me and Lol took loads of pictures of Barbara with her camera including my nipple, the cupboard door open, the oven and grill, Barbara’s muff (that’ll be her pubic hair then!), and her in bed with Rob where they slept the night – I slept n Lol’s room.
Thursday 15th
I went out at 10:30 a.m. after waking at 10. I walked to a phone box and I phoned Cal. He said “The Derby Gig is cancelled for tomorrow”. Went up and signed on and my dole money has gone down to £34.77p (£1.15p a week!). Walked to e’s and as my parents were off to Canada already it was only right n proper than the house is full of people like: - Rob, Lol, Kev, Wayne, Anne and Lee all playing Snooker and Pool of course. Lol and Anne left without saying anything to anyone. Mike played records Riot’s ‘Fire Down Under’ – good, and ‘Outlaw’ – o.k. and a ‘Sex With Sonia’ flexi-disc – silly (This was given away with a ‘Men’s Magazine’ and was a woman simulating rather crudely, but not rudely, kissing a mans banana plantation certificate!). Lol and Anne, who had come back for a while, fucked off again without saying goodbye to anyone. We all walked up to Thornton Bobbies and I bought Siouxsie and the Banshee’s 12” (pic) ‘Spellbound’ for 49p. Walked back home with Rob and bumped into the two skinettes Tina & Denise in Dane Park – who were drunk. Kev, Wayne, Lee and Nympho (Barbara to you and me!) came down to the flat and Lol and Anne were there but they left 15 minutes later. After a while we all left and walked up to mum house where Mike was having a party (as you do when your parents are 3,000 miles away!). Lee and Dean (a skinhead I didn’t know) were there and Gary turned up with some dope to smoke. I went up to the toilet and when I came down there were 5 skinheads and two girls in the front room uninvited. Wayne put some Punk and Oi music on and after 45 minutes they all left thankfully. Then me, Rob, Mike and Gary started headbanging to music with the snooker cues as guitars. Also we had loads of bundling, rucks, bumming and moonies – cially Rob (I have no idea what I refer to when stating ‘bumming’ but if the Police are reading this then I can assure you that you would have probably arrested us for anything, least of all that, that night!). Barbara ‘Nympho’ took lots of photographs of all us and Lee held her boobs in his hands for one photo. Me and Rob went to the offy but it was closed just after 11 p.m. Denise and Tina came round and left just as quick although I did get a kiss from Denise. A few people left and the rest of us watched TV – Barbara tried to rape me and then I swapped a Discharge badge with the German Punkette girl Annette. Lol & Ann went back to the flat, shortly followed by Me and Rob. Had food and got into bed. Lee and Dean turned up and made loads of noise and this descended into a ‘Pant-Ripping-Contest’. I came off best as I took mine off before they were ripped off – Dean, the skinhead, was left in just his pants ‘n’ braces! I went into Lol’s room and annoyed him and Anne who were trying to do ‘personal things’ I think. Made a mattress bed on the floor for everyone and pissed in tins of beer and threw them out the window into the street. Also we pissed in a saucepan (as you do).
Saturday 17th
I went out with Lol, Anne and Rob, but the ‘couple’ got ‘lost’. Me and Rob walked to Kev’s and played on his bass guitar a while and popped to Wayne’s where Lee found an injured bird (this time a ‘bird’ really should have flown but it still didn’t!) which we put in an open shoe box up high on a fence. We then walked up to Ba a’s and had food and tea and played records like UB40 LP. Had loads of ‘rear-rucks’ (don’t ask please – simply because I don’t know!!!). I dragged Murphy (Barbara’s surname) around the front room. Mucked about on her piano a while (the neighbours must’ve bee on the phone to the estate agent at this time). Wayne got really stroppy as he was saying in so many words ‘Piss Off I wanna Fuck Nympho!”. We did at 10 and walked home and we met a German girl trying to get to Margate Station, near our flat, so we walked her to there. We done moonies in the park and the girl thought we were bent! (which was slang for ‘gay’ – I’ve no idea whatsoever how she jumped so inconclusively to that decision at all!). What us? Watched a play called ‘Oi For England’ about a skinhead band in a basement and riots in Manchester.
Sunday 18th
I awoke by alarm at 10.m. I left with £20 and at around midday for Discharge live in Stevenage tonight. Phoned up the Bowes-Lyon House (gig place) but there was no answer. Lol and I caught the 1 p.m. coach to London for a £3.50p standby fare. We got into London at 3:15 p.m. and caught the 3:50 p.m. coach to Stevenage on nearby Eccleston Bridge for £1.85p. Got into Stevenage at 5:30 p.m. Walked 5 minutes to the Bowes-Lyon House and Discharge’s van was there already. It had a real smart Discharge gig poster of tonight’s gig in the foyer window of the ‘equality face’ on the b-side of ‘Realities Of War’ and a smaller one, there were only a few punks there then. Me and Lol went back to the shopping c e and got a wimpy but couldn’t get any food as ‘All Punks Are Banned’! So we sent the waitress back in for two portions of chips for 28p each which she duly obliged to order and bring to us as we were not from Stevenage (I would imagine that if you dated a Stevenage Punk then their table-etiquette left a lot to be desired methinks?). Some skinheads went by and kicked a pile of building bricks over (they’re ever-so clumsy skinheads aren’t they!). At 6:50 p.m. we walked back to the gig and sat outside on a wall – loads of nice punkettes walked by. Heather (Cal’s girlfriend) and Helen (Bone’s girlfriend) went by too, Heather had her hair dyed white with the sides shaved – looked horrid. Gary (Maloney, drummer of Discharge) and the Antisect singer (Pete Boyce) came out. We went off for more food and saw Jan (Bill’s girl) and the two black mohican guys (brothers?) from Oxford (soon to gain recognition as ‘The Oxford Mental Mob’ with their trademark wagging finger down the front at gigs!). Queued up and went in for £2.25p, I asked about the poster in the window and the guy on the door said “See Bill”. Went upstairs and bought a ‘Fight Back’ badge 20p. Met Cal and he said “The Scarborough gig was really great and that we’ve added Bradford Gig to the tour on April the 27th”. And he told me “Supporting us at the London Lyceum gig on May the 9th are The Dark, Charge, Vice Squad and G.B.H”. Cal then disappeared as Gary came past and said “Hello” to me. I went to the gig stage down the front and then Antisect came on. y played good but the crowd were terrible, like statues (erm like me then perhaps?). After that a Film came on (which I found out was called ‘The War Game’). Which was about a bomb attack on Rochester, Kent in the 1940’s. With a simulated attack on nearby Canterbury too and it mentioned Manston on it (4 miles from Margate – where Anne now lives!). A couple of small kids were laughing out loudly at a man with a charred face by the firestorm – I don’t see what’s funny? Then the Mickey-Mouse guy came on stage (later I found out this was infact none other than ‘Biffo The Gasmask’) with red shorts funny boots and a Gasmask (a-ha that gev ther gemmer way!). Biffo/Mickey watched TV with his little wrapped-up baby on his knee ( and believe it or not I slept at his house in Stoke on July 1st last year after a Discharge gig in Manchester). Biffo then went off and me and Lol went downstairs and got a Discharge poster each (from the window – I got the big one of course!). We met Jenny and at 9:45 p.m. Discharge came on. They started with ‘Never Again’ after that Bones had to change his guitar amp-head coz the fuse blew, then they played it again. Lol was down the front. I took 20 pictures all around the stage (these were to get lost in the post sadly went sent away for developing!). Discharge played great – better than the 100 Club gig. Bones snapped the bottom string on his guitar and changed it. Cal climbed up on the speaker stacks and managed to get up 20 foot. I got a photo of it (oh no you didn’t!!!). Discharge do Decontrol’ and ‘Never Again’ (again) for a 2-song encore. A gang of five skinheads called us ‘punk wankers’ on the way to the station with Jenny. Travelled with her and Lol to Kings Cross Railway Station in North Central London for £1.50p. Then we walked and bussed it across to Bayswater the night and stayed at Jenny’s having food and coffee.
Monday 19th
I got up at 11 a.m. Me and Lol walked to Hyde Park after grabbing some milk and munchies on the way. Dossed on the grass in the sun. Walked down Oxford Street after that and I bought a 30p ‘Realities Of war’ Discharge badge. Went and sat of Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus and ate some more food we picked up. Loads of people were trying to take pictures of us. And some bloke pestering us was asking for swigs of our drinks (lemonade). Walked up to the Marquee Club in Wardour Street later and met Rob and Gary. We got 25p off the ticket in and ours only cost £2.25p. They played the new Iron Maiden LP over the sound system. At 8:15 p.m. the support band came on called Ore. They were Ore-ibble. Four fat bikers and the singer had a jogging suit on (that he obviously didn’t run to put on this morning). He kept doing shadowboxing with the mike-stand. Good guitarist in a white suit (who looked suspiciously like the guitarist out the last band we saw at the Marquee supporting Tank – strange?). The singer had a huge water-container, which he threw into the crowd at the end and I got drenched – Ore-ibble Fat Bastard. They then went off. Met the mohican bloke who was a nk gig here last time. At 9:30 p.m. Tank came on and I took the four pictures left on the film in my camera. Then I went down the front pogoing and headbanging with Lol, Rob and even Gary! They didn’t play ‘Hammer On’ and ‘Struck By Lightning’ or ‘Who needs Love Songs’ – they played good. It was really loud and undistinguishable but a good gig though. We left and all walked up to Jenny’s – I found a one pound note on the way there. So I shared it out and put 8p with it for a Sausage and chips we all shared. Got some milk in the Bayswater 24-hour supermarket. Then slept in Jenny’s on the floor with Lol., while Gary had the sofa and Rob shared Jenny’s double bed.
Tuesday 20th
Up t 11 a.m. left and all walked to Notting Hill Gate and their Record & Tape Exchange cheap vinyl shops. I bought Plasmatics ‘Butcher Baby’ 12” (pic) for £1, Girlschool ‘C’mon Let’s Go’ 10” (pic) for £1, and ‘Hit And Run’ 10” (pic) for £1 too. We all travelled across London to Victoria with our vinyl and caught the 2:30 p.m. coach to Margate for £3.50p. At Birchington (about 3 miles from Margate) when the back seat became empty, me and Rob went up there and done moonies – great laugh.
Wednesday 21st
Up around midday, walked up to town and got Sounds, which had, Discharge ‘On The Road’ tour dates. Chron Gen have joined the Anti-Nowhere League Tour and should therefore be playing Margate Winter Gardens too. Me, Lol and Rob then walked up to Kev’s and Lol & Rob with mike stand and Gary with his bass guitar head-banging to Tank. Walked b to ours and Wayne was there with Barbara who was wearing a home-made ‘Too Drunk To Fuck’ T-Shirt (Ha-Ha-Ha), no – there’s more! Dyed hair (Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha) – Green (Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha) and Red (Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha) – poser. (Perhaps the idea of making ones t-shirt and not buying it for £3.50p is laughable then? And not ‘Punk – I didn’t realise it but it was she that was more Punk than me – Ha-Ha-Heurggggggh!). On the way to the Ship Inn along the seafront Rob picked on Wayne and rucked (shook and bundled) him, quite violently, to the ground (perhaps this was a reaction to Barbara and Wayne being close?). So Wayne threw beer over Rob. So Rob laid into him seriously as in a fight with boots in the back. We went down the Ship and Fokker Triplane were on tonight. Rob and Wayne (who had made-up so magnificently that they) did moonies outside for all to see through the glass wide and low harbour pub windows. Fokker were great and they played really heavy stuff and everyone was standing up head-banging. We shouted o Willy’ in-between their songs and the singer said ‘We haven’t got one!’
Thursday 22nd
Up at a quarter to 12. Anne came around and me her and Rob walked up to Thornton Bobby’s where Anne changed the price stickers on a Reggae LP from £5 down to £3.99p – she then bought it. I bought Raven’s ‘Rock Until You Drop’ LP for only £1.99p (with poster and a t-shirt offer). We walked to the seafront and saw Mike playing football and then we walked along the beach and some bird took a picture of us (was it a seagull with an Olympus?). Watched Top of the Pops – Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder are No1 with ‘Ebony and Ivory’. Went into Lol’s room and played ‘Stations Of the Crass’ LP. Watched the Old Grey Whistle Test – it had Iron Maiden on video on it. The track was ‘Number Of The Beast’ with a great light show, 2 red devils, 2 dancers and a giant ‘Eddie’ monster 12 feet high – great. The Damned video of ‘Smash It Up’ – shit – all white background with silly drawings as speakers. Captain Sensible acting stupid (why does that man never live up to his name I ask you?). He smashed up their stuff. Deep Purple with ‘Smoke On The Water’ David Coverdale on vocals – shit. Anne left at 11:30 p.m. then me, Lol and Rob decided it would be rather entertaining to do a gig to Chaos UK’s ‘4-minute Warning’ in the nude (never have four minutes gone so slowly!).
Friday 23rd
Up at 11, and the landlord ‘Andy Warhol’ gave us some keys for our doors at last. I played my Raven LP – o.k. Mike had another party at mums. I walked up with Ann d we got there at 9:30 p.m. Mike, Rob, Kev, Gary, Karen and Sandra were there and lots of head-banging to Iron Maiden’s ‘Transylvania’ and ‘Prowler’. Also AC/DC’s ‘What Do You Do For Money Honey?’, Whole Lotta Rosie’ ‘Back In Black’ and ‘T.N.T’ even Anne was head-banging too. Me, Rob, Gary and Anne went out Mike’s dormer window and onto the roof. Mike put on his ‘Angus’ (Young) AC/DC School Uniform and got his cardboard guitar I made him. Anne came back to ours with us at 01:45 a.m. and Lol waited up fo – she slept in mine and Rob’s room – they kept me awake till 05:30 talking so I played the Space Invader game till they stopped.
Saturday 24th
Woke up at 1:45 p.m. and I was the first up! Watched The Eurovision Contest from the UK – our entry was ‘Bardo’. A bloke and a nice girl in a short white skirt (…It’s so hard to please me you know!). Germany won it with a girl singing ‘A Little Bit Of Peace’. Finland’s entry called ‘Don’t You Drop The Bomb On Me’ which was Anti-War (ish) amassed the earth-shattering nil-poin (No points). Anne was staying the night in Lol’s again and me and Rob decide to pretend we were gonna stay in Lol’s room. Lol got really annoyed about it and it’s so obvious girls come before mates (letalone we did purposely ask him to choose). Otherwise he would have let us ‘mates’ stay but no – he wanted to shag Anne more (..and who can blame him? –Anne or two sad bum-showing ‘not bent’ weirdo’s - I’d know who I’d choose!).
Sunday 25th
Up at half-past two in the afternoon. I have beaten An 2 games to nil in Pool so far. Watched TV a programme called ‘Jangles’ had Tank in the studio doing (She fell In Love) ‘With A Storm-trooper’ – different version with new lyrics. They had a huge backdrop logo like their sticker behind them - great! Hazel O’Connor was on there too doing a very bad electronic version of Alice Coopers’ ‘Schools Out’. Beat Anne 2-0 in Pool - that’s 14-0 now (big head!). Walked up to Nympho’s with Rob and Anne. Wayne’s and Andre were there – mucked about putting the hamster Rob’s pocket. We bundled Anne on the road on the way back. Watched ‘Tales Of The Unexpected’ at Wayne’s, where we went. It had Toyah in it as a model called ‘Blue Marigold’ (such a great agent eh – but such a crap name for a model!). Had a bundle with Anne on the way back from there and shoved Anne over a wall in the park and she said “I’ve lost my ear-ring’ so we started looking for it in the dark while Rob carried on walking and never came back – I guess he went home as we walked back up towards Wayne ooking for it. Which took a while and chatted while walking slowly back. When we eventually got to the flat Lol was up with Rob and both were clones of each other annoyed about me spending some time out with her and in major kiddie-type strops. Lol said “what have you been doing shagging her?”. I just went to bed in dis-belief at ‘ownership rights’ of a female friend.
Monday 26th
Had a talk, with Rob last night in bed about Anne and my assumption is that Lol wanted to go out with her but she didn’t want to go out with him. So as she doesn’t he won’t let her move in and make it cheaper for everyone. He wants a girlfriend or nothing while Rob is neutral and still wants her to move in as a friend. Watched Blue Peter (children’s TV programme) ‘How To Make Your Very own Punk Wig’ – it was pathetic. Played records Motorhead and Dead Wretched. I went out with Rob and rang up Cal. His mum answered then put him on. Cal gave me the address for the Bradford gig tomorrow night (The Palm Cove Club – as Bradford would jure up in your mind rightly!). Walked home doing moonies in the park.
Tuesday 27th
Woken up at 7.a.m (Crikey was there a war or something?). Rolled up our sleeping bags and me and Lol left for the gig in Bradford at 08:30 a.m. (I took £35 with me). Got the 9 a.m. coach for £3.50p and it got into London at 11:30 a.m. We got a Bradford £6 single ticket on the next coach and the driver nicked some of Lol’s chips. It pulled out at 12:30 p.m. for the 200-mile journey north of London. It stopped at some mo ay services on the way – I got some film for my camera and Lol got some coke. It went through Leicester, Derby and Sheffield and stopped at Leeds then pulled into Bradford at 5:30 p.m. I phoned the gig place and they said they are in Whetley Hill so get on a 618 bus. Walked to the bus station but decided to get the after-gig train times and fares to London etc. Queued up behind this bloke who kept asking questions and more bloody questions, about trains, fares and times. After 15 minutes he actually got bored and left – ugly bastard. We got bored and left and walked around the inner ring-road and decided to walk it and even the folk up north are friendly – a guy working behind the counter in a sweet shop said ‘Hello Lads’ as we walked in for a mars bar and a milk! Up a hill and down a few roads and we found The Palm Cove Club on a cobblestone type road – nobody was there except a few black blokes – it was like a boarded up prefab building. We went around the back and Discharge’s van was there in the glass ered car park. (This place was very bleak grey and drab and very poor area too – I felt at home at last – so did my ferrets!). Met the small girl with Antisect and chatted to her then me and Lol sat on a crumbling wall by a dump over-looking the valley and factories of North Bradford (not quite The Bahamas – but it was just about affordable). Took some photo’s and started up a fire with some smouldering old wood and an old chair (the guy sitting in it was well annoyed!). Load of Pakistani kids throwing es and stuff at us. A few punks turned up and the black blokes were throwing a Frisbee around. Heard Discharge do their sound-check. Went round the front queued up and went in. Heather was at the door and let me and Lol go through for nowt. It was like my small primary school I went to in Peckham, South London. Sat on the floor by the speakers and got a leaflet/flyer off of Antisect. Cal came over and talked with us a while. They played Reggae on the sound-system. Biffo the Gasmask came on and actually got some applause. Talked to two blokes on tour with Discharge. Antisect came on and they played great – the best I’ve seen them. A few punks moved around and rucked to the music while a spastic skinhead stood in the middle waiting to get touched so he could cause trouble – thick cunt. Discharge came on at 10:45 p.m. and Rainy jumped right up in the air and started with ‘Never Again’. Bones had a new maroon guitar. Discharge played great with Cal climbing up on the speakers again. I took 11 photographs of t and Cal fell forwards into the crowd yet still carried on singing! They went off at 11:30 p.m. We sat on stage and Rainy came over and he said “I didn’t recognise you” and that “I didn’t see you in the crowd”. Chatted to Cal who said that “The LP has been put back again til May 7th”. And he also told me “We are playing over in America in June – along the East coast – New York, Boston, Washington etc”. All the bands left and me and Lol got crisps and walked back to the Town centre at about 12:30 a.m. – l of Police around. Walked to Bradford Railway Station and got a bar of chocolate at 1 a.m but couldn’t sleep there as they looked it up as we got chucked out. Went around to the Bus Station and went to sleep on the floor there by a lift. But at 2 a.m. we were woken up by Security Guards. So we walked up a road and into some block of flats and went to sleep on the top landing by some stairs and two people’s doors to their flats. It was 02:45 a.m. and got into our sleeping bags.
Wednesday 28th
We were awoken at 07:30 a.m. by a black bloke shouting his head off so we left (much cheaper than an alarm but I couldn’t find his (fuck) ‘off button). We packed up and walked to the Coach Station. The next coach to Manchester was at 08:50 p.m. I bought a loaf of bread and a mars bar and sat on a bench there and wasted time. The coach cost £1.25p and we got the back seats. It went along the M62 and The Pennines (hills of Northern England). Then it turned off and we went across the hills and down skinny roads for 50 m es until we pulled into Oldham. Then we arrived in Manchester at 10 a.m. Asked at the information desk on how to get to Dukonfield (where Discharge were playing later). It turned out to be about 10 miles from the centre where we were in Manchester. I thought ‘fucking poo’. Walked to the Tourist Information and local records shop for more info. Went downstairs to Piccadilly Record shop and the bloke there said try Virgin, so we did but they didn’t know. We went to H.M.V record shop and met a guy called C who used to work in The Manchester Mayflower (the gig place I saw Discharge last year!). Chatted to him and then went into a supermarket. Met the crazy Punk kid on crutches from Mansfield there (that turned out to be Tim latterly associated with lots of ‘Skumdriblerzzzering’!). Had some spam sandwiches and milk and walked around The Arndale Shopping Centre a while – it’s massive – some blond bird kept smiling at us. At 1:30 p.m. Antisect came along and chatted – they were trying to ponce fags (cigarettes!) off of the ladies on a Rothmans Cigarettes stand. (It was a free sample-offer-giveaway type thing there for the day, and I think they done rather well!). They went after an hour and me and Lol wasted more time there til 5:30 p.m. We went into W.H Smith’s and I bought a Motorhead ‘Iron Fist’ 7” in Blue Vinyl for £1.20p – Lol typed on a computer screen that people could use, some of the lyrics to ‘They Declare It’ by Discharge. Went around to the bus station and caught a 220 bus to Dukinfield for 70p. Me me punks and a punkey bird from Sheffield on the bus, which took 30 minutes to get there. We got off the bus at 6:30 p.m. The gig place called ‘Drifters’ looks like the Mayflower club but painted brown. Discharge and Antisect were there in their vans. Had some sandwiches and then went up the local shop (the area was quite far, east, from the centre of Manchester but pretty grim and bleak – but at lest it was an improvement on the Mayflower Club area!). We got stopped by the Police walking back to the gi ace by the drug squad and then searched (stereo-typically they believed punks to be drugs takers – on this occasion they were so wrong!). We went around the side and heard Discharge soundcheck through the doors. Bones was doing Motorhead’s ‘Bomber’, Van Halen’s ‘Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love’, Siouxsie’s ‘Staircase Mystery’ and some Killing Joke riffs – well good. Lol picked up his sleeping bag and started pogoing with it ‘rucking it’. And was so into it that people came out of the gig doors and he didn’t notice them looking at him – at least for a few seconds – then, ahem he did and promptly stopped by throwing it on the floor. We went in and paid £2, the place inside is really mirrory and psychedelic. Sat down and listened to the music and watched other punks like they did us. Antisect came on 10 p.m. GET SET-LIST and played excellently. Even a few people ‘danced’ to them. Lol shouted out for ‘Ulster’ (as he saw it on their set-list I nabbed off the back of a speaker!) as an encore and voila – they played it! isect went off and I asked the singer, Pete Boyce if they had a record coming out but he said “No”. He also said “we are not playing at the Lyceum gig in London either”. We went down to the left side of the stage and then at 11 p.m. Discharge came on. GET SET-LIST They played bloody brilliantly – really great and played all their set too. Cal was going crazy running around really fast and holding the mike stand and also swinging the microphone around by its lead like a windmill! I took loads of photogra during their encores from the side of the stage behind the speakers. Cal puked up and that’s signified an excellent end to an excellent gig. The crowd were quite frantic too and the lights and mirrors made it a really great visual gig too – Nabbed the Discharge Set-List too as they exited the stage. The crowd left and we hung around and got a lift to Stoke with the band when they left at 1 a.m. In the Discharge-Van on the way back Cal had an argument with Bones on the M6 motorway about the ‘Never Again’ backdrop as they thought they’d forgot it and Cal was saying ‘That’s your job to check the backdrop’. We stopped the van at the next services. Someone found the backdrop and Bones said, “I told you Cal”, but Cal was still adamant that h should have known whether we had it or not! We had bad food at inflated prices as usual. I had sausage, chips, and beans and tea. Rainy and Bones threw sausages at each other while Antisect decided to have a salt n pepper fight. We pulled into Stoke-on-Trent after a journey miles south at around 3 a.m. We slept at Dave’s (the Discharge van driver), flat with Antisect, at 3:30 a.m. on a chair.
Thursday 29th
We got woken up at 11 .a.m by the electricity men breaking in! They turned off the electric and left. Rolled up my sleeping bag and left and got a lift in Discharges van with Tina and the rest piled into the ‘green heap’ (I think that was Antisect’s travelling vehicle!). Me and Lol got dropped at the bottom of Cal’s road and we walked the short distance, past Victoria H up to the Hanley Coach Station from there at 12 noon. Got food for the coach. Saw Tina and Heather in the Discharge van driving by. We got on the 1:45 p.m. coach to London, which cost £4.50p and was about 140 miles south. Sat at the back, read Sounds and made sandwiches of bread a spam and drank my milk. It went through Birmingham then Coventry we talked to a 70-year old lady that liked the Undertones – great laugh! Went asleep from Coventry to Golders Green, in North London. When I woke up it was pissing down with rain, got into Victoria Coach Station, in London at 6:20 p.m. and jumped on the next coach to Margate, which left at 6:30 p.m. We had to sit in separate seats as it was so packed (it cost £3.50p). Got off at Westbrook (in Margate near our flat) at 9 p.m. Rob was in and we watched the Old Grey Whistle Test with Michael Schenker Group Live In Noo york – o.k. The studio bands were The Waitresses and Chris Rea – both poo.
Friday 30th
I got up at 10 a.m. The landlady emptied the empty meter. She wo ed why there wasn’t money in there – that’s because the meter’s lock is broken (perhaps we were fiddling it by tampering with the locks or something?). I walked up and signed on and got me giro cheque of £69.54 (£34.77p a week which is £4.96p each and every day!). Went to mums Mike was there and mum n dad got back yesterday and they took some photo’s of me, Mike, Lol and Wayne in the back garden doing bundles etc. We walked up to Wayne’s he played The Exploited’s new single ‘Attak’/’Alternative’ (great! nfa-Riot – crap and The Defects – Shit. Me and Lol went around Nympho’s and look at the party photo’s she had developed. The English Navy/Army set up a blockade around the Falklands Islands today. Listened to Tommy Vance who played a Tank seesion which consisted of: - ‘Hammer On’, ‘Don’t Walk Away’, ‘Heavy Artillery’ and (she Fell In Love) ‘With A Stormtrooper’ – all good. The new guy called James who’d just moved in came down and complained after we played ‘Stormtrooper’ by Tank on 10.
MAY
Saturday 1st
Up at 1:30 p.m. and played records – Iron Maiden ‘Number Of The Beast’ LP – great and Motorhead’s ‘Iron Fist’. The Royal Navy bombed Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands so Argentina have nowhere to land. We also had two planes shot down – unconfirmed though (I like the term ‘we ‘ here!). I played Girlschool ‘Wildlife’ and ‘C’mon Let’s Go’ E.P’s., Motorhead ‘Iron Fist’, UK Subs ‘Countdown E.P., The Varukers E.P. and The Insane ‘Politics’ E.P. Gary and Karen came around and me, Lol and Rob and those two threw cushions at the TV all through the Val Doonican Show, also we tipped up the couch upside down and turned out the lights ( I think it turned into ‘direct-action’ against Val meself!). Played ‘Number Of The Beast’ by Iron Maiden. Later when out walking a car passed us and some opinionated young man, with his mates and birds in the vehicle, verbally referred to us as followes “Hey Prick! – You look like a wanker” (Funnily enough I didn’t; actually look much like him at all!). I referred to him, touchingly, A cunt in a car’. Me and Lol had a ‘ruck’ down the seafront and ended up on the floor. Argentina and Britain are, officially, at war now. Fighting with planes and ships. And now the propaganda score on the doors – 7 Argentinean planes shot down and 1 of our ships ‘slightly’ damaged. (I actually believed this shit at the time too! – now I know we shot down miles more than 7of their planes and our ship wasn’t even hit at all!).
Sunday 2nd
Up at noon, loads of Mods on scooters went by (our flat is on he main road into Margate and it’s weekend beano’s for any gang that wants to come down here en masse!). We, me, Rob and Lee, went out at 6:30 p.m. and walked up town (we had to along the front to get there –brave at the time – fucking stupid in hindsight!) only a few Mods around. As we were walking past the Job Centre (how did I know where it was, but more strangely what is was?) a load of Mods came out of the top end of the precinct about 30 yards away up a side street we were walking across. And you could sense and see they sped up and headed straight for us three. So we knew we’d have t run or get demolished by about 30 Mods. So we went to get on a bus at the far side of Cecil Square – it pretty desolate around the square. They were obviously going to kick poo well and truly out of us so we stood at the bus door waiting for the driver to open it as we could literally hear the running of feet nearing us. A nearby couple ran up behind us, one a soul-boy as the door opened and as we stepped up on the platform we attacked by the mob of Mods. Rob got a kick in the side and stomach and a punch on the jaw. While Lee escaped unharmed and untouched – possibly as he looked ‘more straight’ than us (so much for looking highly ‘queer’ then eh!). I got punched on the back of the head a couple of times but it didn’t hurt (such elevated pride here you could almost name a cloud after it!). I also got kicked a few times – but I lost a badge in the ‘affray’ and a knife rip in the back of my jacket. We all ran up the end of, the lower floor, of the bus. But they cleared off down the hill after that. We got off after a while and took the back roads up to Northdown Road via Dane Park (away from our flat but also the seafront and hopefully trouble!). Chatted to a group of local kids seemingly penned into the arcade up there watching Mods go by. We saw some Mods much further up Northdown Road come out of Tesco’s on their scooters so we ran across the petrol station forecourt and behind a building across the road (it was dead end so we could have got trapped – but they didn’t see us luckily). They actually all pulled into the same petrol station and filled up but later left without seeing us (kissing bricks in the wall and shitting them too no doubt too!). We made it up Karl’s o.k. he was in with Joanne and played records a while. Called to Kev’s around the corner – he wasn’t it but his wife Sandra said a relative of Kev’s called Stuart (a skinhead) was hit with a hammer and a glass smashed in his neck earlier. Me Rob and Lee then pop into Nympho’s – Wayne was with her in bed. So we went back downstairs and left, but not before robbing some pizza’s and tea-bags and then went round Lee’s. Got a lift home by Lee’s dad to the flat door – loads of gangs of Mods n Skins about on the seafront.
Monday 3rd
I woke up at 9 a.m. but my alarm didn’t go off. Me and Lol left at 10:30 with my sleeping bag and camera – loads of Mods about (where on earth were we risking on going on our own on a Bank Holiday Monday in Margate anyway?). We were off 300 miles to see Discharge in Hull, and nearby Grimsby the following day – oop norf!. A load of, Mods about 30, drove past but were escorted out of Margate by the Pigs (Well 1 Police Car – and isn’t it ironic that these people I refer to as ‘pigs’ are now the very thing I need to stop myself from ending up in hospital if I’m lucky and the cemetery if I am not eh?!). We walked up to the Westbrook coach stop as the seafront and harbour walk seemed like it could wait for another morning! A 4-car pile up happened at the zebra-crossing we were walking past and then caught the 11 a.m. and got a £3.50p standby ticket to London. It was relief to get away from Margate I can tell you (in fact I just have). Got into London at 1:45 p.m. We asked about a coach to Hull and found out the next one is ages away at 4 p.m. and doesn’t get into Hull till 9 p.m. – not good, infact plop. Or we could catch the 2:30p.m. to nearby York and get a bus, coach or train. It cost £6.50p but the driver was a cunt as he wouldn’t issue us a t t and made us go over the Ticket-Office to buy it (I’m utterly inconvenienced and I have little choice but to simply sue you –see you in court fat-arse!). Got back on the coach and made spam sandwiches and drunk milk. It went the same way north as Bradford, but Hull is about 50 miles east from there and around 225 miles from London. It was fairly packed and sat separately and fell asleep for an hour or so. We pulled into York at 6:45 p.m. (which was quite late for a gig in Hull that opens at 7:30 p.m. really). We asked directions to the coach station but we couldn’t find it and we walked back and forwards three times before we actually found out there in no coach station. So we walked to the bus station and found out the last bus left 8 minutes after we got there, when we were walking back and forwards, for Hull at 6:53 p.m. But if that made us angry the fact that it didn’t get into Hull till 11 p.m. made us a little less aggrieved. The guy at the train station said the quickest way to Hull is the ‘change at Selby’ service, which would get us into Hull at 10:12 p.m. (great eh!). Little chance of seeing Discharge but still it’s best to try while there’s time! Got a single ticket for Selby for £3.50p and made some sandwiches and waited in the warm waiting room. The Inter-City 125 train (for Edinburgh) came in at 8:25 p.m. – Lol couldn’t believe the automatic doors (he gets amazed very easily y’see – he even liked Eater and The Adverts, oh and ‘Golden Brown’ too!). We pulled into Selby 20 minutes later at 8:45 . We got off walked across the bridge ready to wait an hour for the Hull train but the Hull train was standing there ready to go on Platform 2! So perhaps we stand a chance now! We sat in a backwards-facing seat along the northern shore of the River Humber. We went under the Humber Suspension Bridge – absolutely massive. We pulled into Hull Railway Station at 9:30 p.m. and the ticket guy tried to charge us £2.50p more, from Selby to Hull!!! We argued with him and in the end we got through for £1.50p. Asked where the Tower Theatre (gig venue) was. Walked through an alley with him and it was almost next-door! We could hear Discharge already onstage and got a £2 ticket and went straight in. They were playing ‘Blood Runs Red’ and I took 12 photographs. The stage was very high and the venue was like Hanley hall in Stoke with a balcony. The place was huge; my camera batteries opened and flew out but managed to find them. I saw Discharge play 6 songs and I found a watch, some batteries and a few studs and earrings, the latter I gave to Lol (as ‘badge finding’ was very popular after the chaos down the front of Punk gigs – so you could find anything really, money, badges, watches etc). Had a chat later on with Rainy about badges and fun fairs, Rainy went on the ‘Loop-the-Loop’ in Blackpool a while ago and the safety harness came off of him. Cal came over and said “Have you got anywhere to stay tonight?”, I said “No we only just got here 6 songs from the end of your set!”. He said “If you go over to the New York pub site we’ll be in there and we’ll sort something out for you and us”. So after a while we left and went over there and waited an hour with Tim, the cripple-dribbler from Mansfield for Discharge but they never turned up. Cripple went and me and Me and Lol walked to the Town centre and got chips then returned to a near deserted New York Pub – still no Discharge at all. It was quite bleak in Hull so we walked up Anlaby Road (where the gig was situated on) and saw a block of flats over on the left so headed over there to find hopefully somewhere inside as it was quite chilly. No foyer or benches so we went for a quiet-kip in a sort of cupboard/cycle area with concrete floor and a bar gate with a padlock on it but it was open, this was at about 11 p.m. We put our sleeping down on cold concrete, but at least we hopefully would not be disturbed if freezing cold all night.
Tuesday 4th
Up at 08:30 a.m. by Lol who said “Have we been locked in here all night”! I got up and he was right the metal bar gate was padlocked and we couldn’t now get out. Although the key was in it the angle and width of the barred gate ruled out twisting the key to free ourselves although I slammed my, skinnier-than-un-Lol’s fingers and hands through to repeatedly try. I eventually just about did it and voila we were free. There were workmen outside and they said, “The Police are coming and you’d better wait for them”. So we did the complete opposite and left. Went up town and got some food – haslet (a sort of spam) and a bottle of coke (mout tering here?). We caught the 10:30 a.m. coach to Grimsby for £2.34p (exactly!). We got the back seats as it was fairly empty and we went across the Humber Suspension Bridge today, as yesterday we went under it! We had to get off at Barton-Upon-Humber and catch a train. It had only 2 carriages, and one track for train both ways and it only went 30 miles per hour! It took about 45 minutes through some quite nice countryside though. We got into Grimsby at 11:45 a.m. Met Tim, the cripple, and he hung around with us. We walked to the gig venue, the Community Centre (whereas Tim hobbled). We crossed a railway goods yard on a footbridge, which was particularly bleak, even for Grimsby I would imagine. Found it down a side street but nobody was there. Lol ripped down a Discharge poster. We got thrown out and dossed on the grassy patch opposite. Then went back up town for food, we got bread and spam for 44p. Then back to the Community Hall (centre!). Drunk coke and had sandwiches on the staircase up to the gig on the first floor (of what looked like an converted old textile building). We talked about music and how many times we’d seen bands with Tim ‘Cabbage’ from Skumdribblerz (not a place called Skumdribblerz, the place he was from is called Mansfield!). Tim, it turned out had seen Anti-Pasti 14 times! We went outside and the Discharge gang came along and Rainy came over and talked with us. I said, “Your jackets ripped Rainy” as half the arm was hanging off and he said “It’s hardcore eh Tone!” (He really is a very y man isn’t he!). He asked us why we hadn’t turned up at ‘the flat’ last night (that they stayed at), I said, “No-one came back to the pub or told us where they were going or staying!” He was quite unhappy about that when he heard he exact location we dreamed our dreams in Hull. Discharge went in and done their sound-check. We went up and blagged our way in to see them do a few songs then we got chucked out (again!). We went into the toilets and done our hair (have to keep up ones travelling appearance – albeit a bad one). Chatted with a tattoo-kid who was into 1977 punk. Garry came over and chatted with us sitting on some stairs about how he sticks his hair up. He uses just soap. We got chucked out for the third time shortly after that. Waited by the door with 2 mohicans (of the ‘Oxford Mental Mob’) and 2 girls (one a ‘moke’). A few posers turned up (apart from me and Lol of course!). Cal came to the door and said to us “I’ll put you both on the guest-list, alrite?” Great stuff Cal. Went in at 8pm for nowt and got an orange Discharge poster (of the gig, and the Hull Gig last night on it too, for 40p). We sat on the stage and chatted to a rooster-mohican punk into Saxon. Had some of his coke and put our sleeping and in Discharge’s dressing room. Biffo the Gasmask’s slide-screen fell forwards and got damaged so he didn’t come on and ‘play’ tonight. A stand-by support got up and played called ‘Dead Loss’. A bloke singer in tartan gear was o.k. The guitarist was o.k. The drummer had a tiny drum kit with bass moving after every kick on the bass-pedal. They played ‘House Of The Rising Sun’ and three other songs and the band went off all except the guitarist who was, by then, behind the stage kneeling down playing so he carried on til he noticed or someone brought it to his attention that ‘their gig’ had already finished! (Aptly named if nothing else!). I went over and sat on a warm radiator for a while until Discharge came on. They launched into their set and Cal took of his jacket first song and gave it to me to look after. Cal jumped down into the crowd too mid-song. Cal climbed up on the speakers but had to go behind a curtain to do it. I took loads of photographs – about 12 or so. Discharge played pretty good tonight and took a picture of Garry and he smiled. Rainy laughed at that (it must’ve been a rarity to see smiles by the members onstage). Cal came across to the speakers I was behind, he tried to climb those but slipped and as he tried to jump clear he fell back down but I kind of caught him and pushed him back up and the speakers were nearly falling when he was on them so I held them until he jumped down. The highlight of the evening was seeing a punk standing up seemingly asleep to Discharge while they played ultra-loudly. Discharge went off and I got Bones to get our sleeping bags from the dressing room and chatted to Tina about were we slept last night. Me and Lol went outside and chatted to the mohican punks, from the ‘Oxford Mental Mob’, the asked us if we had a place to stay. So we said no and th aid we are getting put up so come with us! So we walked with them to loads of pubs in Cleethorpes and Grimsby with a kid called ‘Shit’ (…Shit, that’s a pissing bad name eh?). After that us 2 and about 6 or 7 other punks, walked another 2 or 3 miles to the outskirts of Grimsby to ‘Shit’s house (well his parents house – Mr & Mrs Shit’s house I presume?). He said “Wait down the side in the shed until my parents, Mr & Mrs Shit, go to sleep then I’ll come and get you”. So me and Lol and the others crammed into the cold musty dark shed over bikes, bins, boxes, Wellington boots and waited…and waited and waited. Gradually the waiting list shortened as people left and went elsewhere and you couldn’t sit, letalone lay down – and it was pretty darn cold too (Shit’s house is a shit-house to stay in – and yes it’s rather Grim-sby up north too if you were wondering). He never came back – shit-head. So we were almost the last to leave about 3 a.m. and walked the 3 miles back to town centre and just slept on a too-skinny bench in the open air in the coach station (as there really was little difference to the shit-house we checked out of recently, bar there was more room on the bench – even after me laying on it). ‘Sleep’ at 3:30 a.m.
Wednesday 5th
Woken up at 06:30 a.m. by Lol as a Police car came into the coach station. It stopped and they wound down the window and asked us over. Asking us our names, addresses and identity etc (as it was 7 a.m. by then so after a huge 3 hours kip out in the open in Grimsby – we got up f ng fresh and alive – it’s on days like these that people take their own lives I would imagine – or just leave Grimsby by any means possible – me and Lol left on the 8 a.m. donkey). We walked around to the supposed coach-stop, but then got told it was over the other side of town centre (…if the government want a location for future bomb tests they could do worse than look at Grimsby). As we were walking to it – the coach we actually wanted went past us so we scarpered through a shopping centre walkway that cut through the circular route the coach needed to take to the coach stop. We just about made it (..but ‘shit’ was driving the coach-and he was going home!) and got a standby £6.50p ticket to London and grabbed the back seat (so we could turn around and wave goodbye to Grimmer-Than-Grim-Grimsby). We passed the blonde mohican and his bird from Oxford, they were hitch-hiking – fresh from a night at the ‘Hotel Mr & Mrs Shit’. I got in my sleeping bag and took off my boots and went to sleep till we reached Peterborough. Went down the A1 and got into London at 1:20 p.m. It pissed down with room so we found 3 papers to read while we waited for it to stop. We then walked to the Paki-Market (..now we must call them Asian shops instead of Pakistani Supermarkets – so please don’t refer to me as a ‘U.K. Punk’ when I am simply a ‘Euro-Music-fan’ o.k?) for bread and milk up near the Railway Station. Then just made it back for the 2:30 p.m. coach back to un-grim Margate. Got back in the flat and home at 5:20 p.m. While ere away this is what (was rumoured to have by the U.K. media) happened about the Falklands War. One Argentinean Ship torpedoed and sank – 300 feared dead. One Navy Harrier jet shot down, and one Navy ship torpedoed and caught on fire then after 4 hours it sank with 40 dead. Lee, Wayne, Nympho, Kev, Vivian and Gary all came around then me, Rob and Lol joined them in going to the Ship Inn for the Wednesday Nite gig there. It was raining torrentially (but Margate still seemed nice compared to sunny Grimsby!). The band on were called Breakaway, who were a laugh. We kept shouting out ‘Brown bears’ in between songs (..now for the uninitiated amongst you ‘Brown bears’ is a metaphor for ‘large U-bend poo’s’ that just will not, no matter how hard you try, flush them selves away to the fishes at the seaside – erm like Margate – what was I saying about Grimsby?). And Breakaway said “Every song is dedicated to The Brown Bears” (if they only knew!). They did a few cover jobs, The Police, ‘I only want to be with you’, ‘We Gotta Get Out Of This Place’, bald keyboard player whose organ just about worked. Drummer was o.k., they had a crap basin-headed bassist singer in suit and guitarist looked like Shoestring with a left-handed guitar. After the gig Nympho took photo’s of us all doing moonies with their road-crew in the pub!
Thursday 6th
Awoken at 2 p.m. by Lol. Anne and her friend came around, her friend was complaining about how bad her tea was (coffee?), how dirty I was (fair comment!), the carpet (fancy hoovering lu – stupid cow. Anne had her high leather boots on – they cost £40 on – they looked good. We walked up the Longplayer – me and Lol, and they played Side One of the new Discharge LP in a record shop in Margate! It has a gatefold sleeve, with lyrics on the inside. Pictures of a girl lying on beach sunbathing before and after the bomb drops. On the back cover it has great pictures of each member of the band. The one of Cal is just like one of mine. The LP is produced a bit too clean for my liking. On the label it’s got the ‘Never Again’ logo – 14 tracks and 1 they don’t play (which is ‘Free Speech For The Dumb’). It’s £3.99p and I bought the Spider single ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll’ (pic) for 15p and UB40’s ‘I Won’t Close My Eyes’ for 15p. Two Navy Harriers have gone missing over The Falklands. Old Grey Whistle Test had Spandau Ballet and The Fixx on it –shit. Also showed a clip from Jubilee the film with Adam Ant and Jordan. Saxon, supposedly live done ‘Denim & Leather’ – o.k.
Friday 7th
Up at 11:30 a.m. and Gary came around we went out at 12:30 and we bundled Gary in a car park and shoved him on top of a car roof. We then walked up to the Margate Winter Gardens where Rob, Gary and Lol got their Anti-Nowhere League tickets for £3 each - they got numbers 53,54,55. Walked up to mums where Lol and Mike headbanged to Iron Maiden. Went home to the flat and the Ambulances and Police cars with sirens and flashing lights went past up towards tbrook - shortly afterwards all the Margate little skinheads walked past the flat with sticks. I don't feel well and went to bed with a cold, sore throat and a temperature - took a tablet.
Saturday 8th
Up at 2 p.m. and watched the Beatles film 'Let It Be'' on TV - load of shit with crappy made up tunes in the studio. (I'm so glad they never got anywhere - that rash comment could've made me look an idiot!). Gilles Villeneuve, the French Grand Prix driver, is critically ill in hospital today after crashing his car in practice for the Belgium Grand Prix tomorrow his car hit a barrier and rebounded in little pieces. He was thrown out of his wreckage into a fence at 140 M.P.H. Watched Pop Quiz with Toyah on it with Punk hair and it had 1966 psychedelic Status Quo on it. Later me and Lol walked up to Karl’s who was in with Joanne and he played the Discharge LP, both sides and heard ‘Free Speech For The Dumb’ aswell – ok. He also played the bad Anti-Nowhere League LP and two skinheads came around that are going up to see Discharge tomorrow too.
Sunday 9th
I got up at 10 a.m. by alarm clock rolled up my sleeping bag and Lee and Gary came around and later, with Rob at 12:45 p.m. we all walked around the station and got the train at 1:23 into London at 3:15 p.m. We all walked through Hyde Park up to Edgware Road and along to Jenny’s in Bayswater. She was in and said we could stay there the night after the gig so left the sleeping bag there for later. We walked from there the 4 or 5 miles through the heart of Londo The Lyceum, through Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. Got there at 6:15 p.m. met the Antisect singer (Pete Boyce) and his girlfriend and he said “Discharge are not playing tonight now – they’ve cancelled” – shit. He also said, “Vice Squad are headlining with The Insane now supporting”. Danny from Leicester was there from the Discharge tours. I also met the mohcan guy I shared the bicycle shed with in Grimsby recently (A member of the ‘Oxford Mental Mob’!). I also found out soon after we left they were invited into the house and let stay the night and given breakfast! (Grimsby just gets worse and worse for me eh!). Karl, Joanne and the two Margate skins turned up and we chatted outside and then paid £3 in after the crowd died down queue-wise. Got my pack of biscuits taken off me by a black bouncer but he later gave them back. The Dark were on and they were poo -–with a fat singer, they soon went back off with no encore – hooray! Chatted to Karl – the good news is that Charge didn’t turn up and are not playing! But that joy was short-lived as I found out their replacement was The Defects from Northern Ireland. I went up to the balcony with Wayne and Lee and watched them. They were much better than I thought they’d be. The singer didn’t move around enough and they had a skinhead bassist and drummer but a lively guitarist. A little bit of pogoing but no encore. Rob and Lol came up after that. Rob joined Wayne and Lol down the front when The Insane came on next. Bambi looked nger and had a new kit. A little bit of pogoing and the bassist had back-hair and had a ‘high-up’ bass guitar and done a really funny hop-skipping jump dance while playing. They had a skinhead guitarist with an orange guitar – he was good. Shit singer who looked like Peter Grogan (an Irish mate of ours when we lived there whose love of life was robbing other people’s cars and crashing them between the hours of 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.!) and acted like a demented baboon (The singer of The Insane – aswell as Peter Grogan of course!). They played pretty good and all the songs from their first E.P. and heir new single ‘El Salvador’ too they didn’t play an encore. Wayne and Lee came down the front for G.B.H. They came on and Jock has a black eye and longer hair and a flying V guitar. They played newies of ‘Timebomb’ and Sick Boy’ (the new single) and ‘Prayer Of A Realist’ – they played excellent and really lively with one encore. The sound system played 'Never Again’ by Discharge straight after G.B.H left the stage. I found a green ‘Realities Of War’ (Discharge) badge and me and Rob went down the front right-hand side of the stage for Vice Squad and they played good, better than last time. Beki (Bondage) looked lovely in her thigh-high leather boots, short mini-skirt, split high and fishnets with a black top. They played 3 encores and went off. Lol got kicked by a black bouncer. Me, Lol, Rob, Wayne and Gary went back to Jenny’s place in Bayswater. Whilst in a 24-hour shop near Jenny’s a New Zealand girl had a go at Rob making silly noises while queuing up to pay for his stuff. (Maybe Rob sang for The Insane?!). She then turned out to be staying at Jenny’s aswell! I slept on the floor in my sleeping bag and got to sleep at 01:30 a.m.
Monday 10th
Rob and Wayne had left before I woke up. The New Zealand girl came in and put on Sid Vicious’ ‘My Way’ on volume 8 then left the room. Gary got up and returned the favour by putting on The Sweet ‘Blockbuster’ on even louder and I was trying to get to sleep! I twisted my hair into spikes and left my sleeping bag and camera there and left at 1:45 in the afternoon. Had some milk and chips. Me and Lol walked all the way to Clapham Junction from Bayswater (about 6 miles). This was south of the river, to get Lol’s nose pierced at a place he knew of that could do it. Walked through Hyde Park, Knightsbridge, Sloane Square and the Kings Road. Sat down on some benches there and over Battersea Bridge and up to Clapham common and down to the high street and into Goldmine (the piercing place). It cost 99p for two gold studs in Lol’s right nostril. The guy jus sat Lol down on a chair and loaded the gun and ‘pop’ – one was in and ‘pop’ both were in! Both were done in less than 15 seconds. Bought some bread and luncheon meat in a Kings Road supermarket on the way back and some fizzy drink. Walked up to Sloane Square fountain and sat there from 4:30 til 6:30 p.m. Two Punkette girls that were at the Lyceum last night came over and asked us for some fags and sat with us a while. After a few people ed slyishly to take photographs of us four. Left the punketttes and us 2 walked up to Hyde Park and stopped for bread and luncheon meat sammies on deckchairs by the lake there (the Serpentine). I phoned up Cal after buying some films for my camera. Cal’s dad answered and Cal wasn’t there. But his dad told me that the reason they didn’t play the Lyceum last night was because Cal was ill. And also said the Sheffield Marples gig was also off and said something about a USA Tour too. Us 2 walked back to Jenny’s and picked up our sleeping bag and stuff and said ta-ra to Jenny and left at 8 p.m. Lol got Motorhead’s ‘No Sleep Til Hammersmith’ LP in Gold Vinyl for £4.99p. We walked to Victoria Coach Station (4 miles) but had missed the last coach so then walked up to Victoria Train Station and got ‘two halfs’ (child fares) for two punks aged 19! It cost £3.25p each to Margate. Met a Canadian Punkette with some London skins. Caught the 9:39 p.m. back home to Margate and took some photos of each other on the train. We got in at 11:15 p.m.
Tuesday 11th
I was awoken at 10:30 a.m. by Kev ringing on the doorbell so I got up. I went out with Lol and up town and into loads of jewellers with him for some sold silver studs for his nose – he got 2 for a pound. We went up Longplayer where I bought Iron Maiden’s ‘Number of the Beast’ 7” (Pic) single on Red Vinyl and Tank’s ‘Stormtrooper’ Picture Disc 7” both were £1.25p each. We walked up to the Winter Gardens and it has a huge pink ‘Anti-Nowhere League’ poster for the forthcom gig. Paid £3 for my ticket which is number 81.
Wednesday 12th
I was awoken by Gary talking to Rob whilst sitting on my bed. Got up and twisted my hair better than last night. Me and Lol had a ‘Dirty Feet Contest’. Lol won it with his left foot little toe – it was black. Two Argentinean fighters were shot down and my cousin John is coming down tomorrow for Anti-Nowhere League. I took a picture of Rob in his jarmers and he took one of me and Lol on Lol’s bed.
Thursday 13th
Awoke at 11 by Gary, then my cousin John came in with a mate – but they left straightaway. Walked up to town and Longplayer with Rob and Gary but no Discharge LP in yet. We walked to the Winter Gardens where Gary took some photos of me and Rob above the ‘Anti-Nowhere League’ giant poster. Went into mums and John and his mate left as we got there. Mike was off to see Girlschool and Raven tonight at the Hammersmith Odeon, in London. Went home and played half of the Tank track ‘Blood, Guts and Beer’ and my record needle snapped (that’s just a testament to the sheer brute force power of Tank I feel!). Boy that really gave me the needle. I looked out of the window and saw the bassist of Chron Gen going into the hotel across the road called ‘The Chelmsey’ – the band must be staying there I reckon. I walked up the Winter Gardens at 7:15 p.m. with Lol and met Wayne, Lee, Joe and Nympho up there who all went for a walk along the beach. Everyone in the queue went in and I went with Anne to get her ticket from the foyer. I met Johno from Leicester side. We went in and sat at the back on some blue chairs by a pillar. The Defects were first to go on and I went down the front and took 2 photos of them. They played good – better than the Lyceum gig and they done ‘Emotional Blackmail’ (The U.K. Subs song) brilliantly. They didn’t play an encore though. I got a 50p poster and rugby-tackled Nympho then Chelsea came onstage at 8:35 p.m. and played better than the last time I saw ‘em. They got the crowd really moving and the bassist looked like Tezz (from Discharge) and lead guitarist like (The Exploited’s) Dru Stix. Went and sat down and watched them – they actually played shorter than The Defects. Chron Gen came on at 9:10 p.m. and I took about 6 photos of them onstage. They played excellently with Lol and Rob pogoing to ‘Lies’ and ‘Mindless Few’. They have a new guitarist – he’s good. Excellent drummer and they went off at 9:50 p.m. and I went and sat down. At 10 p.m. Anti-Nowhere League came on and I took about 5 photos. The guitarist had a top hat on and all the skinheads were piling into the punks down the front from behind and pulling them over and kicking shit out of them (what’s it like to be that thick?). If there are no more punk gigs in Margate then blame it on them. Anti-Nowhere League played good with ‘I’ve been To Margate Too’ line from ‘So What’ was funny. Went home to the flat and John and his mate slept the night. Stuck up my poster in the poolroom just as the Chron Gen bassist and singer walked past going back into their hotel, via the loc hip shop a few doors along with a few punks. Me and Rob were leaning out of the window and the singer said “Pass down your bird mate!” I told them Rob was a bloke and they burst out laughing. Gene October (of Chelsea) passed with his guitarist and chatted about drugs and the flat of ours while standing out front a few floors down! Mike came around at 01:15 a.m. off the last train from London and said Raven were better than Girlschool – he left at 02:30 a.m.
Friday 14th
I got up at 09:45 a.m. I got my P Win through from last Saturday which was for 24 points £81.40p! As I got 24 points I thought they should have paid me that but they sent a cheque for fucking just 65 pence – bunch of cunts, I’m writing back to them for my £81.40p. Me Lol and my cousin John walked up to Longplayer up town – still no Discharge LP in. Me and Lol walked up mums after I signed on and got a can of coke for 12 and a half pence and drunk it in mums garden – real warm sunshine. Me and Lol went up to my old room and Lol looked through my punk badges and punk bumflaps (which are fabric sections hanging by a chain around the back of ones bottom over the punkiest trarsers ye coulde muster!). Went back to the flat and later Mike, John mu cousin and his mate popped around after going to Dreamland (Theme Park along Margate seafront) – they met Chron Gen in there! I watched TV at 9:25 with Status Quo live from the N.E.C in Birmingham – shitty crowd and no headbanging – Quo were sluggish and boring – it was on for 45 minutes. Mike and John came back later and talked till 02:15 a.m. and stayed the night.
Saturday 15th
I got up at 11:30 a.m. Later I watched Pop Quiz with Ann-Lu Win of Bow Wow Wow on it. We shouted out the window to loads of birds (they just flew off though – I think young Anthony meant girls!!).
Sunday 16th
Rob woke me up at 1:30 p.m. He played me loads of Iron Maiden – excellent. We watched TV – Bob Marley in concert, his last in England, at the Rainbow in London. Me and Rob done a piss out the window (Hey the toilet was STAIRS!). We went to bed at 1 a.m. After a while we decided things were not that crazy so we came to an agreement that a balcony walk, from me and Rob’s bedroom to Lol’s along the main road into Margate was definitely in order at that time of the morning! Rob poked his bum over the railings to a taxi driver going past. We walked along to Lol’s room completely in the nude and banged on his double doors and nearly got locked out naked by Rob.
Monday 17th
I got woken up by Lol and Ro at 1:30 p.m. Me, Lol and Rob walked up town trying to get a needle for my record player after three places still no yes! I bought Charlie Harper’s ‘Freaked’ 7” for 10p and also Slade’s ‘Knuckle Sandwich’ too. Me, Lol and Rob later walked up to Nympho’s, she and Wayne were in bed – but Wayne left as soon as we turned up as he knew he wouldn’t get his willy up coz we’d already said we’ll sleep the night there. I put on Wayne’s pyramid studded belt and us two went around Karl’s. We slept at Nympho’s who was walking around in just her knickers…me and Rob stripped off naked on our beds – Lol kept his clothes on. And Nympho was trying to get him in just her panties. But Lol didn’t want to know – so why didn’t he move away then! Me and Rob kept flapping willies on our stomachs making noises and bundling Nympho. We also were walking around in the nude opening the window and saying “There’s only three of us in here” (don’t ask – coz I do not know o.k.!). We kept farting and so did Nympho too and me and Rob pulled up Nympho by the sides o r petite knickers which then ripped and we then slapped her bum cheeks in celebration. Me and Rob walked home leaving Lol there – who clearly was not in the slightest bit interested of course.
Tuesday 18th
Woke at 11:27 a.m. by Kev looking for Rob. Went back to sleep until Gary woke me at 12 ish. I bought Vardis’ ‘Silver Machine’ for 10p. Me and Rob later nearing bedtime some nude balcony walking again and took a trip to Lol’s window again banging on it – he didn’t open up surprisingly enough!
Wednesday 19th
Woken up at 11 a.m. by Gary talking to Rob about Fast Eddie leaving Motorhead. Lol came in later and said Discharge and Antisect are playing the Zig-Zag Club in London on May the 29th. Tank are playing the day before with Rock Goddess supporting – I’ll go to both of those gigs. Mike and Gary came around and we watched Miss U.K. with loads of fanny and erect nipples. Me, Lol and Rob done pisses off the balcony corner down onto the side street. Then all three of us went out for nude balcony walks while some blonde bird opposite got undressed with the light on (she was such a show off that we looked for ages to confirm this).
Thursday 20th
I woke up at 11:45 a.m. when Gary came around; I played him in Pool and won the 10p (massive stake) game. Went up to town and got Sounds and N.M.E – it had a Discharge ‘Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing’ LP review – it’s o.k. Rob wrote off to Neat Records because he didn’t get a poster and t-shirt offer leaflet with his Raven LP (too right – what’s the point of without this I sayeth!). I met mum outside a shop and carried her Daz washing powder home (how low can a punk get? How clean can a punk get?). Me, Rob, Lol, Kev, Gary and Mike walked down to the flat seeing ‘Hardcore Andy’ on the way, who was a mess of metal and punk and Venom (ooh that’s near fatal methinks!). Mike and Kev went down the seafront arcades we nicknamed the ‘Half P Jews’ (half pence they actually were!). Me, Mike and Kev watched Top Of The Pops back at the flat it had Iron Maiden on it at. They are at number 26 with ‘Number Of The Beast’ video – excellent – the same as the one they showed on Old Grey Whistle Test. Went up Nympho’s with Lol and Mike – looked through her great all-colour nudey books. Murphy (Nympho) put on her black stockings and red and black suspender belt with her white petite briefs, when she lifted up her red top showing the ‘works’ – nice. We switched off the TV at 11:45 and loads of headbanging to tunes we made up on the spot – to which a neighbour complained about (incidentally me and Rob, Lol and Kev eventually did get a band together that played with The English Dogs in London!). Some person called Andre and a friend came around to Nympho’s and told us to leave (god knows who they were but she was quite powerless herself to stop this seemingly!). He called me a ‘cripple’ for taking so long to do up my Doctor Martens – I said, “Have you seen the length of these laces?” (That shut him up no doubt!). Mike kipped at ours and we did synchronised pisses over the balcony lik delayed-time golden shower into the road below at 2 a.m.
Friday 21st
I was awoken at 08:50 a.m. by Rob. Me, Rob and Lol were off to Ramsgate Market together – they said meet us at Kev’s and we’ll go from there. I walked to mums a while and when I got to Kev’s they weren’t there – testicle flaps is what I say! So I went around Karls, whose hair was red now. I went with him and Joanne to Wayne’s where we looked at rudey mags. Me and Wayne walked to Nympho’s and when she answered and he heard a male voice in the background he ran away crying and I ran after him. We went back to the flat where Rob was – he bought me Rose Tattoo’s LP ‘Assault and Battery’ for £1.50p kind isn’t he – yeah I suppose so! Lol came in later and gave me a Cal/Discharge badge – he had flat hair.
Saturday 22nd
I awoke at 1:20 p.m. Went up Northdown Park on the swings and roundabouts saw Wayne on the way back from Nympho’s later – he was nearly crying again. And went around his listening to a bloke called Ivor Biggun on tape – a great laugh and he had songs like ‘The Man With The Biggest Plonker On The Planet’ and ‘Thomas Alcock’’. Later back at the flat around ‘nude balcony walking time’ we ‘nude balcony walked’ – while rob was out on it me an Lol shouted out the side window to two foreign birds – who turned around but couldn’t see the then locked out Rob cowering down as best he could still.
Sunday 23rd
I woke up at 11:25 a.m. there was loads of fighting in the Falklands during Friday and Saturday – one of the governments’ ships got with 30 dead. Also one helicopter ditched with 15 dead. A couple of Argentinean planes got shot down and ships damaged. Played records on robs record player, Charlie Harper (of the U.K. Subs) solo single ‘The Harper’, Vardis ‘Silver Machine’, Tank Picture disc of ‘Stormtrooper’, Iron Maiden ‘Number Of The Beast’ (Red Vinyl), and Picture Disc LP of ‘Number Of The Beast’, and the Rose Tattoo LP ‘Assault and Battery’ – ok. Lol scraped off his Cal face off of the back of his leather jacket and put the lyrics to ‘They Declare It’ on the top panel of his jacket instead. Me and Rob drew suspenders on the birds in the Sunday Express (seagulls in lingerie did it for me big-time back then people!). On Tales Of The Unexpected (TV programme) it had a bloke with Discharge on the back of his leather jacket. Siouxsie and the Banshees were on TV live. Pretty good – Siouxsie dressed like a gypsy and they played ‘Israel’ (good), ‘Pull To Bits’ (ok), ‘Arabian Knights’ (ok), ‘Save My Heart’ (great ‘n’ fast), ‘Happy House’ (ok), ‘So Unreal’ (poo), ‘Eve White/Eve Black’ (good), ‘Spellbound’ (ok) Siouxsie squatted down singing and showed her giblets – aaaaaarggggh! (Maybe she was a part-time punk butcher or something y’know?). Me and Rob watched it in the nude, and Rob went downstairs to the bog (toilet) in the nude halfway through it – I pissed down the stairs as he came up!
Monday 24th
Awoken at 1 pm by Lol and Rob talking. I walked up town and I bought the Discharge LP ‘Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing’ for £3.60p and player are closing down and being taken over by Our Price. Lol and Kev went to the half-P-Jews arcades, me and Rob walked up to Mums – Mike had just got up at 3:30 p.m! I played the Discharge LP –excellent, even Mike said it was excellent and that he’d even buy it. Left Mums and saw 3 Heavy-Metal Birds on the way home – one with dyed blonde hair –lovely. Went out at 8:30 p.m. up Northdown Road and saw those birds again (bloodey Punks twitchers are everywhere eh?). Me and Lol walked up to Karl’s and he played a Chelsea LP (poo). Then went home – Rob done a nude balcony walk and waved to two good-fun birds who waved back!
Tuesday 25th
Awoken at 1ish and played the excellent Discharge LP again (never!) on Rob’s record player, he won’t mind – he’s a big boy. Mike came around and said he has bought tickets for me and Lol to go and see the ‘Mighty AC/DC’ in concert when he goes to see them up in London soon. I told Rob I played the Discharge LP on his record player – he was really stroppy and said “Is nothing sacred?” but he doesn’t think that when he uses my copy of Sounds music papers as dinner mats and messes ‘em up does he? And my green pen and boot polish etc (these are the real important issues for punks everywhere I felt – maybe apart from the green pen – that’s a global issue for governments everywhere!). Lol dressed up in a mac and tartan trousers, straps and bumflaps – really funny.
Wednesday 26th
Woken up at 11 a.m. by Rob with a letter from Vernons (the football pools company). It had a cheque for 6 nce in it – the cunts said I made a mistake but didn’t send back my coupon so I could check it. All they sent back was a photocopy with Division 3 blanked out (I think purposely). I think I’ll write back to them. Two of the governments’ ships were sunk last night with loads of casualties off the Falklands Islands. Went up town and got Sounds – in the Independent charts Discharge’s ‘Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing’ went up from number 5 to number 2 – No1 next week? In the UK national record charts it went straight in at No63 and then up to No40. Iron Maiden’s ‘Number Of The Beast’ single is up 7 places to number 19 – ‘House Of Fun’ by Madness is at No1 (from number 8 last week which it went straight in at). Walked up to Kev’s and practised on lead and bass guitars up there. Lol, Rob and Kev walked down to the Ship Inn to watch T.N.T play. We had torrential rain, thunder and lightning so me and Lol watched it from upstairs in the snooker room.
Thursday 27th
Up at 1 in the afternoon, Tottenham beat QPR in the F.A. Cup Final (football). The Old Grey Whistle Test had The Gang Of Four on it live – live poo and the Simple Minds live in Noo Yawk – yankie-poo and a Frank Zappa song with the lyrics ‘Roly-Poly-Fish-Heads-Eat-Them-Up-Yum’ in a Pinkey and Perkey (UK Childrens show) high-pitched voice – funny. The Discharge LP dropped to 52, from last week’s number 40 (after going in at 63). Lol took a picture of my on my bed with all of my Discharge records and I took on of him in his room with all his Damned re s and him in his pants – which he told me not to get in.
Friday 28th
Rob woke me up at 08:35 a.m. (You know when I get up early it’s for punk and only punk – well maybe not!). I woke Lol up at 10 to 10 after watching The Pope faff about at Gatwick Airport and go to London on a train (maybe he, and his bullet-proof Popemobile, secretly came over for Tank and Discharge gigs in London – I’ll look out for him down the front!). Me and Lol went out and signed on for £69 for 2 weeks dole (to finance my punk gigging lifestyle of course!). We caught the 1 p.m. coach with a standby fare of £3.50p and arrived into Victoria coach station, in London, at half-past 3. Me and Lol bought The Exploited’s ‘Attak/Alternative’ (pic) for 40p in a local Woolworths. Then walked the 4 miles across Hyde Park northwest to Jenny’s in Bayswater. Some girl let us in and we left our stuff there. Jenny and the rest had gone to see the Subhumans gig up in Welwyn garden City (30 miles north of London). We got a bag of chip for 25p around the corner and then we walked up to Westbourne Park a few miles and found the Zig-Zag Club just before 5 p.m. It was a lot bigger than I thought it’d be – a big white old cinema I think? Got our tickets for Tank and Rock Goddess for only £2.50p. Number 14 mine was and asked a bird at the desk about a poster they had up but she said no (are you sure she didn’t just coo or something?). Stood in the foyer a while and watched, through the open door, Rock Goddess soundchecking a few songs – Algy Ward (of Tank ex-Damned) came out and said to me “What have you done to your hair tosh?” – “Want a light?” – cheeky fat bugger! I put 10p in a machine and it didn’t work – I complained to the cow behind the desk and she got right sarkey about it (wasn’t she a seed-eating beakey feathery bird a minute ago?). Me and Lol sat outside on the steps a while in the sun and a really huge fat biker went past a on bike and then got off and walked past us into the Zig-Zag Club. Loads of horny rock chicks were around and we sat in amongst the masses of rock and denim metallers then went in at 7 p.m. Pretty big place inside too – we sat upstairs on a wall by the stairway and it had a video screen either side of the speaker stacks. That was showing Jimi Hendrix live at the Marquee, Isle of Wight and Woodstock – playing guitar with his teeth – excellent stuff. The Cure ’10:15’ – poo and Patti Smith – shit. Saw that mohican punk we always see at Tank. Walked downstairs and sat on the dance-floor watching video’s. Super-Duper Ore came on and out of the 350 there about 15 were down the front moving to them. It was the best time I’d seen them play – still no good. The singer poured water over the crowd again and also threw badges out to them. We watched the Tank video after they went off which had smoke and a real Tank on in the background. They played ‘Heavy Artillery’ and ‘Turn Your Head Around’. Then at 10 p.m. Rock Goddess came on and I took 9 photographs of those sexy fuckers. Good drummer and sexy bassist in tight black spandex and a ck top. Nice singer in jeans and a bullet belt with a guitar like Bones (of Discharge). They were on for about 40 minutes and were pretty good with a two-song encore aswell. At 11 p.m. Tank came onstage to two flashbombs going off and into songs and I took 11 photos and they played all their singles and ‘Hammer On’ and ‘Stepping On A Landmine’, ‘Who Needs Love Songs’ an ‘Struck By Lightning’. They played a good set and I got down the front (…Hey.!!! – It’s THE POPE!). I was on the right hand side of the stage and Algy and the guitarist, Pete, came and sat down right next to me crossed legged-calmly playing looking all relaxed and lah-dee-dah – really funny listening to that noise and the way they looked doing that!) . They also done a ‘Dad’s Army’ (UK TV Programme) theme tune song re-arranged from ‘Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Hitler?” into “Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Argentina”. The drummer smiled at me as he recognised me from the Marquee gig and two more flashbombs went off and so did Tank. They played ‘The Snake’ during the encores. We left and tried to rip a Discharge poster (for tomorrow night’s gig there) off the wall by a bridge and got it but really thick and there were 2 together for us. Walked back to Jenny’s and met a nice 15-year old Crawley girl there who was homeless. Jenny and everyone came back from the Subhumans gig a little later and crashed on her floor at about 1:45 a.m.
Saturday 29th
Awoken at 12 noon by the mohican guy, got dressed and walked to Hyde Park and sat under a e. Lol peeled off the back of his Discharge poster we got last night. Had coke and spam sandwiches and took off our leather jackets laid down in the sun. Then at 3 pm me and Lol walked up to Virgin Record shop at Marble Arch. Sat down on a wall up Edgware Road by some traffic lights and had some more spam sandwiches and coke. We got to Jenny’s when it was nearly 5 p.m. We dropped some stuff off there and walked up to the Zig-Zag Club and got there at 5:30 p.m. We passed Meanwhile Gardens and there was a free concert on there and met all of Antisect going there and chatted to them on a bridge before we went on to the Zig-Zag Club. We also saw Tom (2nd Rainy) the bassist in The Varukers and one of the Oxford mental-Mob (waggley-fingers at the ready!). Cal came out and he had his hair cut to 4 inches long and said “there’s no guest-list tonight Tone” – and gave us two tickets instead! – nice one Cal. He chatted to Lol and then went off. Garry (hair cut like Cal’s) Rainy and Heather also came out and had a chat and then disappeared off somewhere. There were two guys outside asking anyone and everyone, at least twice, for 10p – one had a mohican like a bulging fish and the other was a toothless Welsh bloke (I think they deserved 10p for the sheer social audacity alone!). They scrounged a fiver in an hour – even from cars stuck at nearby lights – and I saw them get 60p from a guy in a suit too. We went in at 7:30 p.m. and sat on the left-hand side seats watching videos. Alice Cooper Live In Concert with dancing b es of drink and girls in suspenders with whips and an excellent hanging scene too. The Sex Pistols interview with Bill Grundy – twice, Motorhead, Jimi Hendrix and even Derek And Clive’s ‘Horse racing’ track too – superb! Met Karl and Anne in there from Margate who came up in someone’s car.
At 9 p.m. Antisect came on and Tom of The Varukers is their new bassist and I took a few photos of them and they played ok (They played 14 songs in 31 minutes – Tape-List). A bit of dancing down the front and they done a 2-song encore of ‘Spoils Of War’ and ‘Ulster’ then they went off. Went and sat back down and watched some more videos then Biffo The Gasmask came on to no applause and after a few minutes he left to none aswell. Shortly after Discharge came on and Rainy went crazy jumping up in the air and Bones snapped a string. I took 15 photos including a really close one of Cal. They did a two-song encore of ‘Two Monstrous Nuclear Stockpiles’ and ‘Decontrol’. They played a pretty good set and a great gig (They played 14 songs in 33 minutes – Tape-List).. Had a dance down the front with Lol, Jenny and her friend and her bloke. Walked back to Bayswater and got milk and chips in Kentucky Fried Chicken where there was a nice Asian bird in tight punkey trousers (macaws they are Asian birds aren’t they?). And some bloke in there kept on saying to us “Punks…Maaaaaaaaan” to which a Rockabilly guy queuing up was laughing at him and he called us ‘King Rockers’. Slept in Jenny’s on a mattress on the floor. Jenny was knobbing so e in the night as all the others slept in the double bed 2 feet away.
Sunday 30th
Woke up at 12:30 in the afternoon got dressed and left at 1:15 and got some milk and walked across Hyde Park in the scorching sun with loads of sex-starved kittens sunbathing (did I turn into a feline sexologist between Discharge last night and this afternoon somehow?). Got to Victoria Coach Station at ten-past 2. Got the 2:30 p.m. coach back to Margate for a standby fare of £3.50p. Got the back seats and had milk and spam sandwiches heading east 75 miles home to Margate, Kent in the summer sun after 2 nights in London watching two gigs. Got into Margate at 5 p.m. Played Pool and Snooker upstairs with the window open looking at sexy birds. About 50 Rocka/Psychobilly’s kept wandering backwards and forwards up the main road. Also saw a punk with a mohican with them. Saw a girl in number 12 opposite lying on her back rubbing her tits and her slope (I take it she didn’t come on holiday and have a life-size ski-slope with her in her hotel room! – now that would be worth rubbing yourself over I feel). At the same time in number 20 a couple came in and got undressed – a bird with big headlights (someone had a car in their room?!?!?! – maybe that girl at number 12 did have a real ski slope then!) and bloke with a supple dick. We all came down at 11:30 p.m. and watched The Rolling Stones in concert – shit (that band make watching people in hotel rooms seem more interesting!)
Monday 31st
Awoke at 11:30 a.m. Saw a bird in car stopped o de our flat down in the passenger seat in a bikini. She opened her legs showing her red pouting fanny – nice. Watched Jim’ll Fix It with a kid getting to sing with Tight Fit’s lovely birds (tackey pop band but not-so-tackey females – at least their side of the screen!). I watched my hair for the first time since February – at lest 100 days ago. Put more soap in and blow-dried it after washing it. Then stuck in some dry soap after that (can’t let it shine too much now can I? – I’ll end up on telly or something equally awful!). Watched Cher in concert in tight spandex trousers and a see-through design that just about covered her vital parts – pity that.
JUNE
Tuesday 1st
I went up town and got a needle for my record player £6.68p. Lol got a copy of Rising Free Punk Fanzine free with his The Insane ‘El Salvador’ 7”. It had a picture of Cal of Discharge and Colin from G.B.H that I hadn’t seen before in it. We played Snooker upstairs and watched the woman from No12 on her back rubbing between her legs with the curtain open in her front room. Later before bed we done about 10 nudey walks on the balcony. I also done a piss off the end into the side road and also mimed to Iron Maiden’s Transylvania’ track in the nude – all three of us bollock naked headbanging to tunes we, whisperingly but metallically, were humming.
Wednesday 2nd
I got up at 2 p.m. Kev, Rob and Gary went to the Ship Inn to see a rock band called Monster (scary huh!). Got Sounds – A gig up in London soon with D.I.R.T, Conflict, The Subhumans an ur others bands – all for a spiffingly cheap £1.50p. Which is on Monday – I’m going to that. There was a bit of Funda tonight too. Discharge’s LP dropped to No73 in the national record charts from No52.
Thursday 3rd
I was awoken at 12:30 by Rob – he played records. We went up town in the pouring rain and I bought the Melody Maker music paper. It had a review for Discharge’s ‘Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing’ LP – which was shit really. Watched England win 1-4 in Finland in a Football friendly (Ah the days when English players could play and there were more than just a mere handful of them in the ‘cream at the top’ league of the premiership – cough-splutter). Watched Top Of the Pops, which had Siouxsie and the Banshees on it doing their new single ‘Fireworks’ – not bad. I cut my floppy soapy hair down from 6 inches to 3 inches.
Friday 4th
Woken up by Rob and Lol at 1 p.m. and Kev woz ere too. Gary turned up and me and Lol went out in the hot sun – me in my denim shorts and black T-shirt up town. Later we did loads of nude walking from our room along the balcony to Lol’s room and back with our lights out. Waitress (a girl across the road in a room on the second floor that ‘caught our eyes’ …yes - all three pairs) kept looking out. After a while a cop car went past really slowly at 1 a.m. After they’d gone we waved to two birds in the nude (they shat on us instead and just flew off over the roofs) they were laughing and a bloke then looked out of a window opposite in Charnwood Hotel so we went to slee en at 2 a.m.
Saturday 5th
Woken up at 09:10 a.m. and went up town alone buying Motorhead’s ‘No Sleep Til Hammersmith’ (Golf Vinyl) LP for £4.99p. Got a £1.75p return to Canterbury on the train (wot a rip-off!). Caught the 11:08 a.m. train which was really hot and stuffy and got into Canterbury, 15 miles south-west inland, at 11:45 a.m. Bought some records – Anti-Nowhere League’s ‘I Hate People’ (pic) 50p and the ‘Don’t Let ‘Em Grind You Down’ 4-track E.P. (pic) from Anti-Pasti and The Exploited. Got some Coke and bourbon biscuits and sat and ate them on a bench saying ‘Fanny at 1 o’clock’ and ‘Pebbles at 3 o’clock’ and ‘Muff at 9 o’clock’ – great larf (this is a slightly obtuse and abstract reference to the beautiful, but intimate, parts of the female anatomy in a strictly ‘love fighter-pilot’ stylee!). We saw that black haired bird we saw at the Anti-Nowhere League gig in Margate. We tried to uncessly (what?) uncessly (no!) unsuccessfully (yeah that’s right!) get back to our flat – she smiled at me – twice (surely not paraletically inebriated at that time of day?) – sexy bitch (ah all that Shakespearean prose comes to the fore in one great sonnet-rocket now eh!). I bought Motorhead’s ‘No Sleep Til Hammersmith’ (black vinyl) for £1.99p (record collectors have short memories and cannot turn down the same record 101 times – it’s a sort of emotional issue to do with love, abandonment and inner emptiness!). We caught the 3:12 p.m. train back to Margate, via Ramsgate. Got in at 4 p.m. Oh by the way on No73 (Chi n’s TV programme) earlier at 10:45 a.m. it had Gillan doing ‘Ain’t No Laughing In Heaven’ live in someone’s front room – Wot! No Parties? Saw a Mini (car) drive by with The Clash logo on it across the back – pretty good. Done the ‘kitten call’ to loads of girls (this involves being slightly stereotypically carelessly thick in calling females like little pussies to a saucer of milk – but in this case there was no milk or even a saucer of any description – just a couple of smelly sad punks on the second floor!). Rob, Lol and me got some chairs and put them out on the balcony and sat out there singing the lyrics to The Clash’s 1st LP and quotes from many Sex Pistols interviews like “I don’t dress like this to be the bourgeoisie”. We shouted out “waitress” who was watching TV; she then looked out her window – we then done nothing. We got two birds to wave twice (some feat as birds do not have hands!). We came in off the balcony at 11:30 p.m.
Sunday 6th
I woke up at 11:45 a.m. Got into my shorts and went out through town and up to Mums. Me, Mike and Rob went up to Palm Bay beach with the inflatable dinghy. Went out on the dinghy and for the first time in 1982 into the sea. The water was pretty cool and clear (25 years on and I have travelled to India and this statement is not now holding any water – be it clear or otherwise!). Me and Rob kept capsizing the dinghy trying to bundle in it in the water. We both took off our shorts and done a rude-strip. A girl saw Rob jump up out of the water and show the world his ngler’ (an now ma frens - we can die peaceful deaths we have witnessed ‘Les Danglers Masseeves Anglais’ Leddies Un Genitaliamens!). Done some lazing on towels on the sand and walked home afterwards at 5 p.m. Lol later went to bed while me and Rob decided to go down the beach with the dinghy in our shirts and shorts after dark (oh no! – world close your eyes now!). Had a laugh bundling on the dinghy – and we kept standing on it and it ripped 6 inches. Two birds came along paddling – they were o.k. (Were they ducks perchance Antoines?). I played snooker alone upstairs looking out of the window – 3 birds looked up and said “Don’t get too close to the edge or you’ll fall out love” – sexy bitches) I think at this juncture in my life I could reasonably appear professionally assessed as ‘clinically pathetic’!). There was trouble at the Chinese Takeaway up the road a little way – pig cars (made of bacon no less!) and bikes.
Monday 7th
I woke up at 12:45 p.m. Me and Rob sewed up the split in the (canvas) dinghy. Watched ‘Chegger Plays Pop’ with shitty Coast To Coast, ‘Monsoon’ and The Nolan’s on it. President ‘ha-ha wot a joke’ Raygun from smelly-old yanki-dump dropped in on da Queen at Windsor castle today – how absolutely spiffing what! Me and Rob hung out the top window and he kept shouting out “HI!” really loudly. Saw those 3 girls again and they said the same thing to us tonight – sexy bitches (see last nights comment – coz I frankly can’t be bothered to say piss-all about my-piss-sad-self!). Saw a bird get u ssed in the room next to waitress – tits and fanny (I’ll have what he’s ordering sir!). Rob done a piss over the balcony
Tuesday 8th
Awoken at 1 p.m. Went up town with dinghy and into Longplayer and bought the G.B.H new single ‘Sick Boy’ – ‘Slit Your Own Throat’/’Am I Deed Yet?” (pic) for £1.20p. Went up to mums and found cousin Johns Anti-Nowhere-League drummers’ drumstick fixed up with super glue in Mike’s room. Saw three hippie girls who walked behind us home. I bought Motorhead'’ 'Motorhead’/’City Kids’ on the Chiswick Records label for £4.
Wednesday 9th
I got up at 1:15 int tut afternoon. Me, Rob and Gary went down the beach. Me and Rob tied to surf but no big waves so came back at 4:30 p.m. Lol painted Motorhead’s Ace Of Spades on the arm of his leather jacket. Gary and Vivian came around at 8ish and me, Rob and Lol and those two went along the seafront to The Ship Inn to see who was playing tonight. A band called Gizmo – we didn’t stay walked up Northdown Road shouting out to a girl we heard her friend call ‘Claire’ so we did really loudly over and over again. We wet up an alley and all five of us ran along doing moonies – excellent (possibly not as ‘white knuckle’ as joyriding kids – but the jail sentences are a lot more negotiable officer). We then saw that ‘Claire’ girl again so Rob and Gary crossed the road specifically to do a moonie at her in the bus shelter as she waited for her bus home (and as far away from us weirdo’s at the greatest possible velocity as possible too no doubt!). She sque ‘Fuck-Off’ (Which I can only but gauge from that witty repartee that she was neither impressed nor entertained by the R & G show then?). We walked home and done moonies in the park – great. Went out on the balcony in just my black T-shirt.
Thursday 10th
Awoken at 09:45 a.m. by the alarm. Top Of The Pops – Soft cell with ‘Torch’ in No1 – ok. Adam Ant with ‘Goody Two Shoes’ was on it. Saw those two Liverpool birds that said again ‘Don’t fall out of the window’. Watched The Old Grey Whistle Test with Tom Verlaine, Little Feat, The Jam live at the Rainbow, in London and Jimi Hendrix live at Monterey Festival doing ‘Wild Thing’ and sets his guitar on fire and smashes it up – brilliant.
Friday 11th
Awoken at 09:35 by the alarm and me and Rob walked up town and bumped into Wayne who still paying the rent on our place – but not living there – he gave me he money. Us 2 went up Longplayer and I bought 3 Motorhead singles, ‘Beerdrinkers’ 12” (pic), ‘Motorhead’ (live, pic) and ‘Beerdrinkers’ 7” (pic) for £1.99p, £1.99p ad £1.20p. Went up to Kev’s and mucked about with his bass guitar an lead geetaw and had a ‘cup-of-tee-osaurus’ (what?) and listened to the Scorpions and Samson records then left at 3 p.m. In the local paper ‘Thanet Gazette’ it had on the back page a report of a postmistress and daughter and two friends that faked a burglary at a post office to pocket £6,145. It turned out to be Anne ‘mavis’ Garrett, her mum and two mates! They messed up their statements and got found out and then confessed – they are out on bail! It happened only two days after then Anti-Nowhere League gig in Margate. Poor Mave – silly little girl. Kev and Vivian came around and played snooker then went down the Ship Inn to see a band called Hydra. Me, Lol and Rob partook in a little splash of nude-balcony-walking.
Saturday 12th
Up at 10:30 a.m. Watched TV – No73 and it had The Fixx and Kim Wilde (aaaaarrrrgghh) on it (not too sure why the ‘aaaaarrrrgghh was there but it, at the time, had much relevance methinkums!). Played the D arge LP which is excellent – in the pouring rain and we had a two-minute power cut (was it the power –surge of Discharge or another rainy English summer?). I went out and got milk in the thunder and lightning and heavy rain. Watched Pop Quiz with Dave Gilmore’s (Pink Floyd) Team was – Claire Grogan (Altered Images) and the bent bloke from Japan (David Sylvain has spinal injuries?). It had a clip of The Clash’s ‘I Fought The Law’ (live) and Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Hey Joe in black and white off of the Lulu Show in the 1960’s – good.
Sunday 13th
Woke up at 1:15 p.m. The World Cup (football) starts today in Madrid in Spain. Went up to Wayne’s and he played The Exploited’s ‘Troops Of Tomorrow’ – it’s not too good. Went back to the flat and stuck up loads of ‘page three’ girls (topless models from a English paper) in the snooker room. These came hung with ‘life-like’ feeling nipples and slits (these were meticulously attained by ergonomically studying the undulating flesh of said models and placement of blu-tack to nce this 3-d image to a more ‘touchey-feeley-lets-go-to-the-bathroom’ moment in teenage life!). Watched Jethro Tull in concert – poops.
Monday 14th
I awoke at 12 noon and went up town with Rob and into Longplayer where I bought another ‘Never Again’ by Discharge and ‘Take It All Away’ by Girlschool both 15p. Also got Flux Of Pink Indians ‘Neu Smell’ and The Exploited ‘Dogs Of War’ for £1.25p each. Back to the flat and bought Motorhead ‘Ace Of Spades’ 7” (pic) off of Rob for 80p and Wolf ‘Head Contac ck ‘n’ Roll’ (Clear vinyl, pic) for 15p. I bought Zig-Zag magazine coz it had a Discharge LP review, 60p. Halfway through some World Cup match a newsflash appeared on TV and said that Britain and Argentina have signed a cease-fire over The Falkland Islands.
Tuesday 15th
Awoken at 10:30 a.m. by Rob and popped up to Longplayer and bought a Record Box that holds 300 7-inch singles which cost £13 and carried it home. Scotland just managed to beat tiny New Zealand (in footballing terms of course!) 3-2 in the World Cup while Hungary were hungary for goals against El Salvador and walloped them 10-1 (maybe they had The Insane’s 7 inch on headphones or something?). Me and Rob played snooker up the top and looked at sexy prick-teaser No12 (I’m sure she had other qualities that I have overlooked here!). Me and Rob slept in Lol’s room with him coz we couldn’t find a creepy-crawlie bug that we saw briefly in our room.
Wednesday 16th
I woke up at 11:15 a.m. Later on I watched Tv – World Cup Football. England’s first in the competition and they beat France 3-1 to top the group.
Thursday 17th
Rob woke me up at 10 a.m. and shortly after me and he walked up town. We went into Funhouse Records (A mail-order only record shop). But they let us look at their records and I bought three Motorhead 7-inch Import singles from them. ‘Leavin Here’ (French, pic) for £2.50p, ‘Leavin Here’ (Swedish, pic) £3.50p and ‘Motorhead’ (Spanish, pic) £5. Came back to the flat and saw No12 on her wall in a tiny white robe. Lovely legs – pr teaser (such a way with compliments – no wonder I was a virgin until I was 24 years of age eh?). In the World Cup Northern Ireland drew 0-0 with Yugoslavia.
Friday 18th
I woke up at 2:15 in the afternoon and went down the seafront one-arm bandit arcades and spent 26p (He certainly knows how to have a lavish lifestyle in the dole doesn’t he? – who needs Las Vegas eh!). Came back at 4 and watched World Cup on TV. Brazil thumped Scotland 4-1.
Sunday 20th
I woke up at 12 noon and went up mums with Lee. Rob and Lol were later on going to be watching Lawrence Of Arabia (Film) so I took had to watch World Cup up my mums. England beat Czechoslovakia 2-0 to go through after two wins in two games, to the next phase. Watched ‘Rock For Kampuchea’ with Queen doing ‘Now I’m Here’ (good) ‘Crazy Little Fing Kord Luv’ (poo), Matumbi –poops, The Clash doing ‘Armagideon Time’ (ok), The Pretenders with ‘Brass In Pocket’, Wings, The Specials ‘Monkey Man’, Elvis Costello and Rockpile. Then Ian Dury played ‘Sweet Gene Vincent’ with Mick Jones (from The Clash) onstage joined by another 50 guitarists! Me and Rob looked out of the snooker room window and stripper came to her window to see if we were looking then went back inside. She then sat on her bed and took off her shoes and trousers and walked across the room behind a mirror in her white knickers. Then she crouched down and slid off her briefs and went nude coming right over to the window. She had big black mass of pubes and luvly tits. And as if to celebrate – Rob cut off his pubic hair and we did a nude balcony walk and to cap it all a piss off the balcony to finish!
Monday 21st
I got up at midday and us joined Gary, who was here in going up town. Princess Diana went into hospital to have her baby. Longplayer record shop is closing down and Our Price is taking its place on Monday. Back to the flat and me, Rob and Lol had a laugh bundling each other with mattresses up and down the stairs. Then we piled up a load of chairs into a precarious tower which when anyone came out of our flat door would touch and send crashing down the stairs – great fun. Northern Ireland drew 1-1 with Honduras to stand a chance of making the next phase (with England). Lady Diana had a baby boy at 9 p.m. tonight
Punk Diary 1982
JANUARY
Friday 1st
We (...me, Lol and Rob) all got dressed at left mine with Sarah (...the girl that stayed at mine last night) at 08:30 a.m. and walked up to Kev’s in the rain. Sarah went to her sister-in-laws and didn't say whether we'd get together and see her again. We got Kev up out of bed and told him about last night and had an orange to drink, what we just robbed from his next door neighbours doorstep courtesy of the early morning milkmans 'deliveries' that didn't quite make it..! I later walked home on my own and fell asleep on the front room couch.
Saturday 2nd
Lol came around at about 1pm in the afternoon and after that us two walked up and called for Wayne. He was in and joined us in going up to Karls house. Then Karl and us walked down town to the Longplayer record shop in the centre of Margate. We all bought a Discharge single for 15p (..their 'Never Again' 7-inch e.p.) except Karl. I also bought The Varukers' Protest and Survive' 7-inch E.P. for £1.10p. Me and Wayne robbed a pint of milk each opposite Tesco's supermarket and went back up to Karl’s with him. We played loads of records and I mucked about on his 5-string acoustic guitar. At midnight after going back to mine for a few hours we left there again and we walked up to Karl’s house and on the way we ran across the bonnets of all the cars outside Invicta Motors that were for sale. Wayne threw a piece of wooden fence at one of the windscreens but it didn't smash. We called for Karl then he came out and we went to a Skinette's (...a Skinhead girl) house, who looked a bit like like Hazel O'Connor. Then we left Tina's and walked to Ramsgate which was about 4 miles away. Wayne robbed another bottle of milk off of a doorstep and we got there at about 03:30 a.m. We met another Skinette and she said we could go back to her flat. A drunk-driver nearly run us over and we then went to her flat which she shared with 2 skinheads and a Paki (stani) Arsenal (FC football) supporter. We left hers and walked back into Cliftonville at 05:00 a.m. Wayne and Karl bought a bottle of milk at the dairy. I robbed one more bottle of milk and some more near Karl’s (...I robbed two and Wayne robbed one...!). We slept at Karl’s house the night. I slept on an armchair with a sheet. Wayne was on the other armchair, and lucky Lol still complained about sleeping on the settee in a sleeping bag.
Sunday 3rd
We walked back to my house (...me, Lol and Wayne) and we played loads of my records. 'Never Again' (Discharge) 7" E.P. The Varukers three-track E.P. (...twice), the G.B.H 'Leather Bristles, Studs and Acne' 12", the Sex Pistols 'Live at Winterland' Bootleg LP, The Exploited's 'Dead Cities' E.P. and Disorder's 'Must Be More Than Fights' track quite a lot. Us three then walked over to Lol’s. Rob was in and he played me the Tank (...Algy Ward - ex bass player of The Damned) 45 single and The Hybrid Kids E.P. ('D'ya Think I'm Sexy' and 'Catch A Falling Star'). Rob told me about the Black Sabbath gig they went to see up in London, and Kev taped it. Dumbo Gary sold his £5.50p ticket outside to a tout for £2 then came home...! I looked at the gig-programme he'd bought from the gig. We walked up to Wayne’s and into his bedroom. He has a great B-side of the Discharge 'Realities of War' E.P. picture on his wall...he painted it. We all ended up going to Gary's with Karl, Wayne, Lol and Mike seeing a few Mods on scooters on the way. When we got there after ringing the bell, Rob came down with Gary saying that only 'Heavy-Metal' people are allowed in...! So we couldn't come in...! We kicked coke cans around the shopping centre. Then Lol and Wayne said they'd sleep at my house so we headed up walking that way. At Capitol House Lol said "I wanna sleep in your bed". I said you are sleeping on the mattress on the floor. So childishly and kid like said he'd "rather go home" and did. He said "See you Karl, see you Wayne"....!!!! And he left me to cry. Wayne and Karl went home to their places anyway. Mike later came back from Gary's (...he must have been a 'Heavy-Metal person' then..!) and said that Lol had come along and shouted up and they let him in (...A punk....!). Snides. (...what a dstrange day indeed..!!!)
Monday 4th
Rob came around to my house in the late morning and we went into Mike's room and played records. His Budgie LP and also The Tygers Of Pan Tang records too. Me and Rob walked up to Kev’s and on the way up we saw three 'half-punks' and a blonde-mohican kid (...he was o.k.). We walked up to Kevs as Sarah said she'll meet us there at 5 p.m. We waited there for a few hours and also read the lyrics that Kev had written to his song 'Heavy Metal Woman'. (...which was 'o.k') and 'Rock Is Just A Game' (....'Good'). Sarah came and said I can't stay I'll see you all at Kev's on Friday at 2 p.m...! I went home later to my house. On the TV on the BBC news there was a story of a guy that rang the Police from a house in Maidenhead (...west of London 40 miles) saying "I've got a gun and I'm gonna shoot my dog". They sealed off the whole area and later arrested him without finding any gun.
Wednesday 6th
In the best selling alternative LP's in the Sounds music paper it had Discharge's 'WHY' 12" E.P. was number 17 overall. On telly I watched This Is Your Life, with Anita Harris...she's got a really ugly husband.
Thursday 7th
I got up at 12 noon and went out and bought Sounds music paper which had a 'New Punk' centrespread feature. It had picture of Colin (...the singer) from G.B.H on it. Rob came around and after a while we walked up to Karl’s and played some of his records...the best was 'Subhumans' (Demolition War Gatefold 7-Inch E.P. - their 'Animal' track was the best). We then walked over to Robs and listened to his Tank and Throbbing Gristle LP records. We got a lift most of the way up to Kev’s, then after popping in his brothers we popped back to Karl’s and played the Subhumans E.P. again...! Had a good talk with Karl about what name to call our band we are thinking of forming. I had a look at Karl’s lyrics 'Political Crap' (...which was good), 'Stupid People' (...no good), I forgot the other one. At 11pm me and Rob walked back to mine...he was doing impersonations of Rob Halford (...of Judas Priest) on the way walking back aswell as the singer from Raven too. He stayed the night at mine.
Friday 8th
I woke up at 10:15 a.m. and walked down in the snow to sign on. Then walked down to the town centre and into the Longplayer Record Shop and I bought the Subhumans 'Demolition War' 7-Inch Gatefold E.P single. (Side One :- 'Demolition War' (Parasites), 'Drugs Of Youth', 'Animal' - Side Two 'Society', 'Who's Gonna Fight In The 3rd World War..?' and 'Human Error' - 6-tracks. I walked up to Kev’s and met Rob there. Sarah was also there and us 3 walked to Karl’s, who was in. We played some of Karls record collection and ended up bundling Sarah again after she drew our attention to the fact that she had a 'loose bra strap'. Shortly after that she took off her clothes on a bed and Karl was naked trying to shag her with his vainey knob...but I got in the way - it was complete chaos. Rob demonstrated to me in-between Sarahs legs just 'How To Willy-Brush'...! I asked Sarah for a '69' and so did Rob. Sarah said "Tony did ask first!...". I was 'fingering her' to the drum-beat of Discharge's 'Realities Of War'! We left and Sarah went to her Sis-In-Laws. Us lot back to mine and played Mike the Subhumans E.P., he liked it. I rang Sarah but her sister-in-law answered so I did a girls voice and said 'Goodbye' instead...!
Saturday 9th
Lol and Wayne came around and I got up at 12 noon. Us three walked in the snow up to Karl’s house. The snow had been falling most of the night and was around 3 inches deep in places. We played records at Karl’s, the Subhumans 'Demolition War' 7-Inch 6-track E.P. The 'Why' twelve-inch by Discharge, his 'Dead Cities' 7" E.P. (...The Exploited) 'In God We Trust' LP (...by the Dead Kennedys), 'Police Story' 7-inch (...by The Partisans) The Insane 7" E.P. (...'Bambi's' - Dave Ellesmere = ex-Discharge - first band). Later on me, Rob, Lol, Kev, Wayne Karl and Mike walked down town to the Kokomo Wine Bar along the high street to see a band called 'SACRED'. They were a heavy rock band. The singer looked like Jake Burns from Stiff Little Fingers. Wayne lent me 50p to get in...it was a bit snobby-ish and downstairs. The singers voice was crap and he didn't move around at all. The bassist was ok but he played his bass held too high-up. The guitarist had an Angus Young (...of AC/DC) type guitar and was a good guitarist. The drummer was great and had a giant black drum kit with 7-cymbals, a hi-hat and tom-toms. They did five 'cover-jobs' - 'Never Say Die' (...by Black Sabbath), 'Rock 'n' Roll' (...from Led Zeppelin), 'Wild Thing' (...by Jimi Hendrix) - great, 'White Knuckles' (...Gary Moore). Rob stayed at mine and Mike flooded his room via his sink in the room next to mine.
Sunday 10th
Rob went home after staying three nights in a row at my house. I checked all the Bingo in the national papers for Mum (...it took 4 hours...!). I played some of my records in my bedroom...The Exploited's 'Dead Cities' seven-inch, Disorder's 'Distortion Til Deafness' 7"'er...the Subhumans 'Demolition War' 6-track E..P...three times, The Varukers E.P ('Protest & Survive')...The Sex Pistols 'Filth & The Fury' Bootleg LP and the G.B.H 'Leather-Bristles' 12". Mike came in and had an argument with me about how loud my records were (...I would presume this actual argument was louder than the volume of my records in the first place...!). I actually had them on really quiet. I wrote lyrics to a song of mine called 'Barry Prosser', who died (...in mysterious circumstances...?) in a Birmingham prison cell four years ago. A chorus and a little bit on the end too.
Monday 11th
I got up at 12:30 p.m. Wayne and Lol came around and played Pool in our front room. Rob, Kev, and another Rock-fan called Vivian came around he is going to be in Mike's 'Heavy-Metal' band too. I showed my lyrics to my first song called 'Cover Up' to Rob, Lol and Wayne. We listened to the radio and a really crap song came on. We all listened to it and were saying how bad it was, especially Lol. It turned out to be The Stranglers with their new single 'Golden Brown'. Lol after finding out who it was made by changed his mind completely saying 'It's O.K. really' - poser. Me, Wayne, Lol all thought of names for our band which included :- The Obscene, The Defiled, Dead Corpse, Anti-System (...soon to be 'nabbed' in the U.K. by a band from up north of England..!), Spew Forth, The Condemned, Spit, Hardcore, Filth, Three Chord Thrash. Then spastic-head (...my dad..!) came in and argued with everyone and chucked everyone out at 6 p.m. He then took the Pool Table down to the diner at the back of the house. I watched the telly and a programme called 'World In Action' about how 'our' Government spend 10,000 million UK pounds on a bomb-programme when we are in a financial depression. In Glasgow, Scotland, last night temperatures hit an all time low of...minus 27 degrees...! Also a programme on TV later about snakes and how a drop of venom from the worlds' deadliest snake could kill 16 people.
Tuesday 12th
I got outta bed at 2 p.m. I sewed up my punk trousers and took off the red square Discharge patch I bought at Manchester Mayflower from Heather (...Cal’s girlfriend) last year.
Wednesday 13th
Up at noon. Maggie Thatcher's (...the Prime Ministeress..!) son Mark is lost in the Sahara Desert after they lost contact with him on the Paris to Dakar Car rally...he's probably dead. I played loads of my records, Disorder, Exploited, The Varukers, the Subhumans 6-track E.P. G.B.H 'LBSA' 12" and the first two Generation X LP's aswell. I wrote the lyrics to another one of my songs called 'Northern Ireland'. It has twelve verses and a chorus...it's pretty good.
Thursday 14th
I woke at 12:30 p.m. and went out and bought the Sounds music paper. It featured an Anti-Pasti interview out in America, and also a G.B.H 'No Survivors' (...their new seven-inch single) advert. I played The Subhumans ('Demolition War' 7" E.P). I later walked down to Margate town and met Rob in the Longplayer Record Shop. In there I bought the Anti-Pasti new single called 'Six Guns' (picture sleeve) for 15p and Vice Squads 'Resurrection' seven-inch E.P. which jumps. We walked up to Karl’s and played some of his records, Sarah came around...but no muffing (...that means...'no fun with her'...!). I walked to Wayne’s with Karl, while Rob walked to Kev’s with Sarah and got some Hilda's and Muffing The Mule there (...both of these terms are slang for 'flesh-fun' one could accurately decipher...!). Later I met Rob and walked with him up to Wayne’s and played his Oi LP's and his three-stringed acoustic guitar. Rob kipped (...slept) at my house again and on the way home at the, unlucky, Invicta Motors Car place we drew roodie images in the frost on the windscreens of all the cars (...I would imagine that bums, willies, titties were the order of the day-as one would rightly demand from two 19 year-olds..!).
Friday 15th
Me and Rob got up at around 1:15 pm and walked up to Karl’s and he answered the door in his pyjama's. I played his 5-string acoustic guitar and I learnt two songs on it...The Police's 'Walking On The Moon' and The Damned's 'Neat Neat Neat'..just the bass (notes) lines though. Lol and Kev turned up and we all decided to walk (...the 4 miles) to Ramsgate, no reason at all...it was just 'something to do'..! We found a Johnny Bag (...a condom) and mucked about with it outside a cheap record shop in Broadstairs on the way. Lol bought the Cockney Rejects LP 'On The Streets Again' for £1.50p. While Wayne bought the D.O.A. (...'Yanks'...an American band..!) sevn inch '45' and the Abrasive Wheels 'Army Life' 7-inch E.P single too. We called into a girls house in Broadstairs on the way back, someone knew her..! She took a picture of us all outside her house and showed us some leg when pulling up her leg-warmers and skirt. On telly back home I watched Miss Great Britain...which was won by a not-too-nice-black-haired-bitch.
Saturday 16th
I got up at 10 a.m. and watched 'Tiswas' TV programme which had Hazel O'Connor on it. Me and Rob walked up to Kev’s, to meet Sarah. I mucked about on Kev's small bass guitar. Kev got his sons (..'spam'...he calls him...!) miniature drum kit up too. Which consisted of 1 drum, a bass drum, one tom tom that we couldn't fix on, 1 snare drum and 1 cymbal but no stand for it...! I played 'Realities Of War' (by Discharge) on it and also 'Metal Postcard' (by Siouxsie and the Banshees) and Kev taped them both. Rob and Sarah went upstairs so I followed them. After 15 minutes I jumped on the bed that Rob and Sarah were lying on and bundled them two. It developed into another classic 'willy-brushing' and 'Muffin The Mule' session and getting stark-bollock-naked. Also Lol and Karl (...who joined in) turned up. But then shortly after that so did Kev's wife, Sandra...she went completely mad so we got dressed quickly and left. Went home for the World Cup (Football) draw for the groups stages. England were thrown in with France, Czechoslovakia and tiddley Kuwait (...should got through..the top two teams do).
Sunday 17th
I got up at 3 p.m and played some records...The Subhumans and The Varukers 7-inch E.P.'s, Generation X's first two Lp's and my Siouxsie and the Banshees 'Join Hands' LP, side one only....which was crap and the Angelic Upstarts LP 'Teenage Warning'...and I didn't know it but that have a track called 'Never Again' too like Discharge. I wrote some lyrics out to a song I made up called 'Disarm Now'...two verses and a chorus. Here's my Top Five Breville Toasted Sandwiches chart. 5th...Chocolate Spread, 4th...Ham & Tomato, 3rd...Onion, Chips and tomato sauce, 2nd...Baked Beans and Tomato Sauce and 1st is...Hot Dogs at Wayne’s.
Monday 18th
11:30 a.m was the time I crawled out from my bed. Lol and Wayne came around shortly after that and we played Pool in the front room. We put on some records...including AC/DC's 'Back In Black' LP and Lol head-banged to it. Then we played Rose Tattoo's 'Rock 'n' Roll Outlaw' LP...me and Lol went crazy to it, especially the two tracks called 'Remedy' and 'Astra-Wally'. We also played Motorheads 'I'll Be Your Sister' and 'Overkill' and AC/DC's 'Highway To Hell' LP...the best track was 'Walk All Over You'. We watched T.V. a music programme called 'Off The Record' had Depeche Mode live on it who were crap and the singer had a really baggy suit on too.
Tuesday 19th
I got up at 1 p.m. in the afternoon and Rob & Kev came around after a while and we played snooker, then Lol & Wayne turned up. Rob, while he was here, rang up about a flat he'd seen advertised. at 2ish, and organised an appointment to view it at 4:15 p.m. Lol and Wayne tried to ring a few flats but had no luck. So at 3:45 I combed down the soapy-remains in my hair, put on Mike's white jeans and a grey jumper, Mike's Blue Suit-Jacket and my Doctor Martens to go view the flat with Rob (...in hindsight this was a bit severe to look that unnormally-abnormally-normal - I think I looked a lot more 'weirdly normal-weird' than my 'abnormal-norm' before my Mr Benn advisory..!). Lol and Wayne kept taking the mickey out of me (...is that all...?!?!?). We walked down town to view it (...it was 1 minute from the town centre) in a quiet green square over looking Hawley Park/square area. The owner was Irish and came from Dublin. Had a look at the rules and regulations for the 1st floor 'flat'. It had two rooms (1) 12ft x 7ft, the bedroom with two single beds in..and that was 'just fitting into it'..! and (2) 14ft x 10ft, lounge/kitchen. Not bad for £25 a week. We'll get the D.H.S.S (Department of Health and Social Security) to pay that via 'state benefits' and get that rent paid in full...so we said we'd take it..! I popped back for the deposit on the flat (£5). Then, still dressed 'weirdly/normal' walked into town and Longplayer Record Shop and I bought the new G.B.H 7-Inch single 'No Survivors'. Me, Rob and Mike walked down to our flat and got a receipt for the £5 deposit at 7 p.m. We walked along and called at Gary's who wasn't in and then walked back home (...to Mums) with Mike, who strangely was moaning about how fast I walk...?!?! (...maybe his emotions of me moving out of home surfaced in the most psychedelic of manners...!).
Wednesday 20th
I got up at noon and later walked down to Capitol (...dole = 'state benfits') House to tell them that I am moving out from Mums on Saturday and to no 31 Hawley Square (...it's called 'Kandy House'..!). I asked if they could pay all our rent and then mucked about in the lifts going up and down. We were then told 'to go'. We then went to another office near the town centre, just opposite the place we are moving into...!
Thursday 21st
I woke up at 10:30 a.m. and I walked down to Gary's place by the seafront and met him and Rob outside. Us three went in and Rob headbanged to AC/DC records with Gary's bass guitar. Us three then walked out along the beach (...what in late January..!) and then climbed up an old rusty ladder onto the harbour wall as the tide was out walked up to the old town and met Gary's mum and she invited us in. We stayed for tea and biscuits then left and went back to the harbour promenade area and we walked along the edge and shuffled down a slopey wall and along a bit trying to get around the base of the harbours wall. We got stuck as we could get no further. So we had to judge the waves to run between them and the harbour wall to get by and managed that and went seaweed-rock-walking afterwards. But Gary slipped into a rock pool up to his knees. We then walked up to Cliftonville's coast and the old outside swimming pool, where I scrawled on the concrete promenade with chalk 'Throbbing Gristle', 'Discharge' '300 Miles Of Sandy Beaches' and 'Mind The Steps' then we walked back to my house. I watched the telly later on and saw Top Of The Pops. It had Gillan on it with 'Restless' while Bucks Fizz (...who I recently saw live on tour of course...!) are No1 with 'The Land Of Make Believe'. I watched 'Shoestring' which had a radio-station bloke playing 'Regal Zone' by Siouxsie and the Banshees on it. After that I watched The Old Grey Whistle Test with Iron Maiden on it.
Friday 22nd
I woke up at around 11 a.m. then managed to get around the dole by noon closing time. I asked them why my 'dole' hadn't gone up when it should of and gave them a piece of paper stating this. The lady went off and checked it all through and came back and said that I had an £80 cheque due...Nice One Cyril..! I cashed up my £30 cheque and went home. I then walked down to Margate town centre and met Rob and the rest of the crew (...Kev, Lol, Wayne and Gary). Me and Rob walked around to the flat and paid three weeks rent (...two were for the deposit). Then the landlord gave us our keys to our own place....!!! We went around to Gary’s place five minutes away towards the seafront and we danced to Bill Haley records and also played the G.B.H 'No Survivors' 7 inch single too...it's good. We walked up to Robs and had food and tea. Lol was there too and they had crept out and knocked on the outside of Robs flat door - so I answered as they were not to be found. It was Lol and Rob out in the communal hallway with their trousers around their ankles with their 'todgers' in their hands (...I hesitantly invited them in!). I played with an 'Etch-A-Sketch' a while (...isn't that for children...?..ahh that'll be justabout right then for me...!!).
Saturday 23rd
Up after waking up at about 11:40 a.m and walked down town and met Rob. Then we walked around to our flat after midday. We went in and sat down talking then went shopping for our own food. We went 'halves' on the massive £1.82p food shopping bill..!). Lol and Wayne came round for a while we had jam on toast then they walked up to Karl’s. After they left the owner of the flat who lives downstaira came up and said he doesn't want them around here again...so they are banned after one visit. (...I never realised Rudolf Hess let flats in Margate did you..? - this guy made my mum and dad look like Peter Stringfellow on mogadons). We walked up to Mums house and I got a lot of my stuff I'd packed up, 3 boxes, sleeping bag, pillow, record player etc and Mike and Kev helped us carry it down. Mum gave me 6 eggs and some washing-up liquid, a piece of chicken and half a dozen sausages too. At 10:30 p.m. after Mike and Kev had gone...Sarahs dad came around to our flat and walked in to see 'for himself' that she was not hiding in ours as she hadn't gone home at all (...I think she was at Karl’s the night..?). We watched telly and went to bed for the first night in our own 'flat' and no longer at home after 18 years and 5 months.
Sunday 24th
I was awoken by Rob at 11:30pm in the morning and then we chatted til midday had our first breakfast cook-up and I set up my record player in the front room too. I played loads of my records...G.B.H 'No Survivors' 7-inch...twice, The Varukers 7" E.P. 'Protest & Survive'...The Exploited 'Dead Cities' 7-inch, Anti-Pasti 'Six Guns' 7", Siouxsie and the Banshees '20th Century Boy' and 'Celebration/Drop Dead' and also the Cockney Rejects 'War On The Terraces' single. We listened to the Radio Top 40 chart too. Stiff Little Fingers are at number 39 with 'Listen To Me'. I cooked dinner and I swapped half a tin of spaghetti with Rob for a cheese roll (...that was a big decisions in those days I tell you..!). Sarah’s dad and brother came around at 7 p.m coz she still hasn't come home...we sent them up to Wayne’s house to see if he knew where she was.
Monday 25th
I was awoken by Rob at 09:20 a.m...I did a piss in the sink and got back into bed. Rob was annoying me with his alarm clock so I knocked it out of his hand and onto his head and it bounced onto the floor and broke. After breakfast at midday I walked up to Mums and collected some more of my stuff. I got some more of my Vinyl LP record collection and some bathroom stuff aswell. We went up the dole office and for some reason they paid me £106 in two cheques...fuckin' great. So I went shopping for food...spending just 79p..! We walked over to Robs mums place and I helped him move some stuff back walking to our flat too. Back to the flat and had food. Rob had Spaghetti hoops served up in a dog bowl..! We also brought the Monopoly game to play.
Tuesday 26th
Me and Rob took a bus to Ramsgate and sorted out the free-rent courtesy of the D.H.S.S over there. They told us that 'The cheques in the post'.
Wednesday 27th
I went shopping and had my dearest shopping bill of £1.33p..! Karl came around to the flat at 3 p.m saying that he might get done for rape with Sarah. A hang-glider pilot was killed today when he crashed into Cliftonvilles cliffs at Palm Bay in high winds.
Thursday 28th
I awoke at 11 a.m by the cleaning lady who gave us a letter each which said the dole are paying me £33.45 a week...great poo-poo's indeed...! The girl was about 22 and very nice...she's coming to change our bed linen on Monday..! I sold half a spam roll to Rob for 5p...! I bought the Cockney Rejects 'Live and Loud' LP for only £1.25p in W.H. Smiths and also bought the U.K. Subs LP 'Diminished Responsibilty' in there aswell for the same price. Wayne and Lol came around and said they have a flat. Me and Rob walked down there with them. It just the other side of the seafront and they had a first floor room and me and Rob also looked at another room for rent for £15 per week each, which is £5 more than the much smaller place we are in now. It had 2 rooms but not inter-linked but they were huge and it had a big black and white tv too. So it looks like after less than a week at Kandy House that we are moving out already..! We are calling around tomorrow to pay the deposit and agree when to move into the 'new place' etc.
Friday 29th
Awoken by Rob at 08:40 a.m...who then went out to sign on the dole leaving a chair on my bed...! I played the U.K. Subs LP 'Diminished Responsibilty' - it's not too bad. Lol and Wayne came around and we had a mini-gig to the Subhumans 'Demolition War' 7-inch E.P. I informed the landlord of our place that we are leaving and he said you need a 'weeks notice'. So then we walked over to the 'soon-to-be-new-place' and gave him £2 to hold the keys for us..! We watched the television and saw the 'Oxford Road Show' which had U.F.O on it - they played three songs. Mike and Lol and Wayne turned up and we all jumped about headbanging to the Raven LP. Then the killjoy landlord came up and chucked us all out. So we all went up Waynes and played his acoustic guitar and some records instead and two punkey girls came around (...one in a mini-skirt with a split up the front).
Saturday 30th
We watched Tiswas on the telly and Lemmy (of Motorhead) was on it with one of the Nolan sisters too they played 'Ace Of Spades' live. TV Dallas = bad, Magnum = crap..and a Film called 'Lady-drivers' about lady taxi-drivers = absolute shite. And to tell you how bad it actually was...Rob was flapping his limp-fucker-willy off of the screen all the way through with his trousers round his ankles.
FEBRUARY
Monday 1st
I bought the Vice Squad new seven-inch E.P single ‘Out Of Reach’ for £1.10p down town in the Longplayer Record Shop. I played the E.P. later on at home in the flat and the ‘Out Of Reach’ track was good, ‘So What For The Eighties’...bad, and ‘Sterile’...was utter crap. I played the G.B.H 7” (‘No Survivors’), Subhumans (‘Demolition War’) 7" E.P. and the Vice Squad E.P. I bought today again. I watched ‘Off The Record’ on TV with Gillan on and they had a pogoing bassist in the band. I also watched a music programme called ‘Riverside Rock’, which had a debate about Punk with Garry Bushell and two members from Blitz as well on it talking about the Punk music scene.
Tuesday 2nd
I walked over to Westbrook to pay some deposit on the new flat (..£25) and as I passed the Nayland Rock Hotel near the seafront at Margate, which was on fire. The top floor along four windows was ablaze and there were ambulances, Police and Fire Engines there as well as a huge crowd. I had a look at Wayne and Lol’s flat. It is on the top floor and has three rooms...its real smart. Had a look at our (...mine and Rob’s soon-to-be) flat and he said you could put your posters up on the wall. Went up to Wayne’s with Lol after they called around and mucked about on his acoustic guitar. Us three then walked up to Karl’s house and he showed us the Adscene, local news paper, which had a photograph of him in this issue. We played records at Karl’s and also played on his acoustic guitar. On our TV regions news it had footage of the Nayland Rock Hotel on fire. There was half a million pounds worth of damage done.
Wednesday 3rd
I bought the Sounds music paper and it has gone up to 35p an issue. It had Anti-Nowhere Leagues Animal on the front cover in colour. It also said in the gig pages that Discharge have lined up at a gig at the 100 Club in London and are recording a new LP..! So I’m going to that gig and there should be around 15 tracks on the LP (...there were 12) for around £2.99p (...and it was £3.99p!). Me, Kev and Rob walked over the 4 miles to Ramsgate to sort our some forms for our new flat and dole etc. On the way back I rolled an old car tyre along and got stopped by a pig (policeman..!) on a motorbike. He asked us our addresses...Kev gave a false name and address. We then walked along the dusty industrial track short cut through to Cliftonville’s Millmead Estate (...a shorter walking way back to Margate). Kev and Karl lived in Millmead anyway. We picked up two more car tyres and rolled them really fast and they rolled down the hill for about 200 yards and crashed into a cabbage field. We picked them up and rolled them down the track again and they took off and flew down onto the road (...that the track led onto). The first one rolled up onto the pavement and the second took a wild turn to the right and was heading for a car heading this way on the road...but the bloke driving braked and it flew past him and hit the block of flats wall. We scarpered..! I later played the Cockney Rejects (‘Live & Loud’ LP) and Vice Squad‘s ‘Out Of Reach’ 7-inch E.P. We watched 'Halloween 1' (...the film) on TV.
Thursday 4th
I went halves on a loaf of bread with Rob. We went out up to Capitol ‘Dole’ House and saw a Punkette girl with a leather jacket with Killing Joke on painted on it. She also had zebra print trousers on and Siouxsie type boots with blonde hair...she was ok. The Angelic Upstarts bassist has left the band and also Dru Stix...the drummer for The Exploited has left, his replacement is Steve Roberts (...ex U.K. Subs..!). It had AC/DC on Top Of The Pops with ‘Let’s Get It Up’ and I watched The Old Grey Whistle Test with stupid guests Soft cell...bad, The Little River Band...o.k.
Friday 5th
I awoke at 09:45 a.m...and then got up, and went to an empty food cupboard. It had just two spoonfuls of jam left in the jar, and an instant tomato soup and some sour milk...I had the tomato soup..! I walked up to sign on with Gary, who came around and got my fortnightly dole giro cheque worth £66.86p (...that is £33.43p a week or £4.77p a day..!). I went to mums and packed some of my stuff into boxes. We then walked up to the Longplayer record shop where Rob got them to play the Vardis (...heavy-metal) E.P...it was crap. G.B.H are number 63 in the U.K. national single charts. Dad and Mike drove down to our first flat and we collected our £25 deposit and then took all our stuff from Kandy House in Hawley Square along the seafront to Westbrook and our new flat...!
Saturday 6th
I watched Tiswas on TV and it had Iron Maiden live singing their new single called ‘Run to the Hills'...it was O.K. and it had two members from the band in the studio too. Karl and Joe came around and we went up to Lol’s flat (...upstairs) they played my live Discharge tape (...at the Lyceum, in London). We went up to Lols flat and he let me cook a Pizza up there and I helped him stick up his Sid Vicious (The Sex Pistols) posters. We took a look up in the attic aswell and Lol and Rob walked from the bottom of the house to the top with their trousers down. I played a few records and done our own songs on the acoustic guitar and taping it, crazy and also doing the farmer chickens advert (...a 'jingle' from off of the television..!).
Sunday 7th
I got up at midday (around 12 noon) and mum, dad came around, and they could not understand why I’d rather live in a flat like this than in doors (...at home). The electric went last night and mum put in 10p. We went up to Lol’s flat and got plastic bags, gloves and a torch. Then went over to his mums and got a raincoat and a Harrington jacket then walked up to Kev’s. Lol gave me the Harrington to wear and Kev brought a chisel and a screwdriver and we walked up the mud-paths to the school, which we were gonna rob. But when we got there were two Police cars there so we shelved that idea. So then, we all walked up to a greengrocers shop next to Capitol House. We all walked up a back alley and in a gate. Kev climbed onto the roof but could not get in any windows. So we walked up to the Lido on the seafront and down another alley. Then we all climbed over a garage, down some steps, and along another alley to a storage-shed. Lol and Kev tried to force their way in and bust the lock and after 20 minutes they started to chisel off a sheet of wood and then a light came on and we all scarpered up to the end and hid and then looked back around the corner. Then a bloke came out and we legged it. Then we all walked up along Cliftonville seafront to a cafeteria on the cliffs near Palm Bay. We all got on the roof and jumped down inside a garden area. Kev prised out a pane of glass and then a Police car came we scarpered off but they didn’t see us bolting the opposite way into the dark up the cliffs. After the Police car went Kev and Wayne climbed back up on the roof again of the cafeteria then all the lights in the place went on and two people ran along to the end of the building and we saw Kev and Wayne leg it. We flung our bags away and as we ran past the owners house, she was outside and some blokes were with a Pig (Police) Car and the owners car sped off towards the cafeteria the opposite way from us...! We all walked home and got in around 12 midnight. Wayne came in later but Kev didn’t so he must’ve got caught.
Monday 8th
I went up to Mums and played Pool with Wayne and Lol, who bought The Jam’s ‘A Town Called Malice’...its boppy-ish. I watched some TV and saw ‘Off The Record’ they had Haircut 100 on it they were o.k. And they played ‘Boy Meets Girl’ song. Later on I saw ‘Riverside’ it had Bauhaus on it playing ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’. Went back to the flat and Lol and Wayne said that Kev got beaten up by the pigs (police) so they reckon.
Tuesday 9th
I got up at 10 a.m. and as Rob was going out there were two plain-clothed Detectives (police officers) at the front door. They wanted to know where Wayne was. Rob was asked whether he had seen Kev in the last 48 hours. Rob said no and they said “then you won’t know what we are on about will you..?” and they said, “If you see Wayne, tell him pop up the Police station will you...?” We went up Karl’s then Kev’s both no answer at both. On the way, back I saw that Punkey bird with a fur coat, black boots and stockings. On the way home, me and Rob were going to Rob two bottles of milk at Midland Bank but there were too many people around. Wayne came back and told him that the pigs (...Police) were here for him...he said he is going up to Kev’s tomorrow. Me and Rob ‘re-arranged’ our furniture, actually it was turning it all upside down completely and piling it all up in the middle of the room - great laugh. Tina and Denise came around (...Skinette girl) and we played Wayne’s acoustic guitar and we turned Lol and Wayne’s beds upside down and bundled the girls too.
Wednesday 10th
I got up at 11:30 a.m. Rob was sick last night up to the bog (...toilet) 10 times. I went up with Rob to Lol and Wayne’s (...upstairs flat) and 'had a gig' to all of Discharges songs (...and ‘A Look At Tomorrow’ twice). We also played The Partisans ‘Police Story’ and Abrasive Wheels ‘Put Maggie Thatcher on the Dole’. On TV we watched the Benny Hill Show...he is not funny at all. Around 90% of his viewers are looking at tits and fanny (...including me). When me and Lol walked down the phone box we saw gangs of Mods passing us slowly on scooters.
Thursday 11th
I got up out of bed at around 10:30 a.m, me and Lol mucked about with Wayne calling him ‘Ken Dodd’ (...he was not obviously impressed with this similarity to an old U.K. comedian with buck teeth and frizzey hair...!). Karl came around for a while then us four walked along the seafront and up to the Longplayer record shop. I bought The Partisans ‘Police Story/Killing Machine’ 7”, The Insane ‘Politics/Dead and Gone/Last Day’ 7-Inch E.P...£1.20p each. G.B.H are down to number 70 in the national music charts now from number 63, while Vice Squad are in at number 68. We watched the television and The Old Grey Whistle Test - X.T.C were on it.
Friday 12th
I saw a Punkey bird (...girl...!) with red hair pushing a pram. Later back at the flat in the evening Rob and Wayne went out on our front steps (...our flat is on the main road into Margate from London..!). Rob was wearing his jimmy-jams (...pyjama bottoms) stuff right up his arse, while Wayne was wearing a dress he’d found..! Later we walked up Karl’s who was in with his mum and that red-haired punkey bird, called Ann. Lol, Rob and Karl done 'moonies' (showing ones bottom/arse to the watching world..!) while running around in his garden we all left at 01:40 a.m. and ran down the local roads with our trousers down all four of us moonie-ing.
Saturday 13th
We walked up to Karl’s house in the afternoon. Rob and me went there and Karl played us a load of Yankey (U.S.) Punk records and then we left. Rob did a moonie all the way along that Punkey birds road. Later in Wayne and Lol’s we 'had a gig' to The Insane’s ‘Dead and Gone’ track.
Sunday 14th
Me, Lol and Rob walked up my mums house where me and Lol took down all my Discharge wall coverings of posters and cuttings...it took 2 hours...!
Monday 15th
I went out and got some more of my stuff from Mums and bought some hairspray to spike up my hair with (...I was trying it for the first time to compare it to soap, which I had been using for over a year..!). I played some records later on back at the flat...G.B.H ‘No Survivors’ seven-inch E.P...The Insane E.P...and The Partisans 7-inch E.P. too. We watched the TV up at Karl’s house and saw ‘Off the Record’, which had Stiff Little Fingers on it...they were just a commercial pop band playing wimpish songs with no power. They stood like statues. Later on we saw a programme called ‘Riverside’ it had Sid Vicious (...formerly of the Sex Pistols of course..!) singing ‘My Way’ on it. On the way home Me, Wayne, Lol and Rob done moonies along the seafront in Margate...great laugh. Later on while out calling at some mate of Wayne’s who wasn’t in we done moonies to girl sitting on a bus at a bus stop.
Tuesday 16th
I was awoken at 10:30 by Rob blasting out Black Sabbath with Kev. We later watched a documentary on television all about The Chelsea Hotel, in New York. We were watching it for Sid Vicious (...the Sex Pistols Bassist that was found deaded there..!) in it for 50 minutes but all we got was queer blokes talking. The four of us got all the furniture out of our front room and put all our bedclothes and mattresses on the floor for a massive bed where we all slept.
Wednesday 17th
I set up the bed mattresses, still in the front room from last night’s kip, into a giant settee. I hurt my hand when we later had loads of bundling on it.
Thursday 18th
I bought the U.K. Subs 7” single ‘Countdown’ (picture sleeve) for 15p up in the Longplayer when I went to town. In the Sounds music paper this week it said Disorder are looking for a new vocalist coz they sacked the other crap one. Discharge haven’t got a support band for their 100 Club gig soon - just a film..? - Should be good. Also it had a Crass interview and centre-spread live colour picture too. While at mums I phoned up about a Drum-Kit for £90 but it had already gone. Met Robs dad ('D1') and went with Rob and him into the arcades playing the 2p money-falls machines and shouting out ‘Muffin The Mule’ and laughing at his jokes. We later watched television and Top Of The Pops - the UB40 new single was o.k. And The Jam are number 1. Wayne painted the ‘Skull and Crossbones’ Discharge logo on the back of his jacket...it was really really good. Me and Lol had a G.B.H and Subhumans 'gig'. Later we watched The Old Grey Whistle Test which was live from Germany with both Meatloaf and Saga...and both were crap.
Friday 19th
I rushed up to sign on with Wayne after getting up rather late at 11 a.m. for my £66.86p giro cheque for the next two weeks living amount. Lol came around to mums and we walked up to see Lindel (..a Skinette girl). We met her on the way to hers and she was pissed (...drunk..!). Also we stopped and talked to a fat hippie girl too. We went to the Kokomo Bar in the high street in the evening to see a band called Red-Red but we left, as they were no good. On the way home just at the end of the seafront Lol done a running moonie in front of us right next to traffic for the cars and a bus passing to see. A car stopped quickly and a beefy bloke jumped out and grabbed Lol who did not run despite us shouting out for him to ‘Leg it Lol...!”. The guy said “You’re Nicked Sunshine” - he was an off-duty pig (Police officer..!) and grabbed Lol’s shoulder and pushed and jostled him towards a pig-car (...Police car) following behind and they took Lol away up to the Police station. Lol was saying to them as they carted him off “It’s only a joke mate”, I’m only having a laugh”, “what’s the matter have you not got a sense of humour?” And he disappeared back along the seafront in the back of a Police Car for the night...! We went home and had a long discussion about Punk with Karl.
Saturday 20th
I spiked my hair into twiglets - good (this involved heavily soaping ones hair and twisting a clump into clockwise spike and squeezing them into a stature-of-liberty-stylee!). Lol got ‘nicked’ (arrested!) by the pigs (police!) last night and he has to go to court on March 1st. I went up to mums and got my black ‘Manchester Docs’ (which were 18-hole Doctor Marten boots that had seen better days and had split sides on both the sole-edges but still looked rather Pee-You-Enn-Kay - especially with ones bondage trousers tucked into them just below the knee!). Me and Lol walked up to Karl’s and played ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’ (by those Sex Pistols of course!) and mucked about on his Harmonica and Guitar too. Lol and Wayne came down from their upstairs flat and joined me in a gig to Varukers, Insane, Partisans, U.K. Subs and The Subhumans. We were jumping on and off the bed. Kev, Rob, Gary and Mike then came in as Tygers of Pan Tang was cancelled in Folkestone and they then joined in with us jumping around pogoing wildly. Then of course this attracted the aural attention of our landlord who lived not too far away…..erm beneath our feet just downstairs! And he said “A jokes a joke - stop jumping round, o.k.?” Then he left and so did Kev with Gary’s bass guitar he was using during our ‘gig’. Watched O.T.T (Over The Top) on TV, which had crappy Dave Edmunds on it.
Sunday 21st
Awoke at 9 a.m. and went down to the bath and done my hair. I got my camera and then left at 11:45 a.m. Walked down to the National Coach stop in the harbour, where I met Lol and rang the gig place at Stevenage ‘Bowes Lyon House’ - but there was no answer. Us two caught the 12:20 p.m. coach to London it cost £2.75p for a ‘standby’ ticket (you get on if they are empty or least not full!). We got the back seat and drunk some milk and I bought a Cadbury’s Crème Egg and a Twix too. The coach went through Westgate, Birchington, and Canterbury then into the south-eastern London suburbs of Eltham, Lewisham, New Cross and Peckham (where I was born!) and got into Victoria coach station at 3 p.m. We found out that the next coach to Stevenage was a 732 at 3:50 p.m. and it was only a £1 too! It stopped at Golders Green (North London suburb) where two Skinette girls got on. The coach then went through Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield (where the two Skinettes got off) and then Hitchin. Then got into Stevenage at 5:30 p.m. - it was dark. Asked some guy where the Bowes-Lyon House gig place was. He said I’ll show you so we walked through a deserted shopping centre and crossed a dual-carriageway road and the Bowes-Lyon House was there on the right. It looked like a new sports complex from the outside. It had a real smart Subhumans gig poster in the window at the front window too. Then a Mohican stuck up a poster on the door saying ‘Conflict hadn’t bothered to turn up and are now replaced by The Disrupters from Norwich’. There were loads of little school children posing as punks (as opposed to the ‘Travelling-Sid’ that I was with my immensely ‘punk’ 18-hole doctor martens of course!). We went in search of food, which is not easy on a Sunday in Stevenage. I found a Wimpy and got a Hamburger and chips for 60p - then ate them, went back to the gig place, queued up, and went in at 7:15 p.m. It was £1.75p to get in and I got 4 small gig adverts and went upstairs and sat down by the heater watching the posers go by (yes, it is hard for a super-punk to mingle with those that are Punk-classes beneath he of course!). At 8 p.m. The Disrupters came on and we went into the hall - they were o.k. The drummer was crap and drummed out of beat (almost like a reggae style of bass-kick drum when you should be playing snare drum?!?!?) and the bassist has a bat-eared haircut too while their guitarist looked uncannily like Andy Summers of The Police! At 9 p.m. Part One came on and they were all dressed in black and they had a weird Siouxsie-type guitar sound. Great satanic devil-worshipping lyrics and a good singer. I met Jan and Bill (of ‘Chaos’ the punk band) and had a chat with them two. I also saw the Chron Gen guitarist and bass player too. Then at 10 p.m The Subhumans came on. The singer looks like George out of George and Mildred (a UK comedy TV programme!) a heavy rocker on drums, blonde punk guitarist and normal bassist. They played all the songs from their 6-track E.P. They looked crap, but played brilliant and I took 8 pictures including one of Lol upside down on the crowd down the front. We left at the start of ‘Parasites’ to make the last train to Kings Cross Station (40 miles south) in London. At Kings Cross Station, a black girl threw a cup of tea over a white girl in a British Rail Buffet (Eatery). We were heading for Jenny’s in Bayswater (west central London- she is the girl who stayed at mine, with Lol after the Discharge Gillingham gig while back). We walked past the nearby Euston railway station then jumped on a bus a mile south into London’s West-end and got off a Shaftesbury Avenue (near Piccadilly Circus). We walked up Regent Street, Oxford Street, Marble Arch and Bayswater and bought a Sausage Roll at a tax-cab place and got 60p off of a nice black bird (not the flying variety of course, unless they are particularly generous to homeless punks in London at midnight of course!). We asked a taxi-driver where Monmouth Road was and found Jenny’s Road easily enough at about 1 a.m. and rang all the bells as no one was answering! After a while Jenny poked her head out, came down, and opened the door. She has blonde hair now, not purple. She invited us in for the night and her room is totally black bar the blood red touches of paint around. It had tons of graffiti all over the walls and ceiling too in silver and white pen. We went to sleep at 3 a.m. and I kipped on the floor - Lol slept with Jenny.
Monday 22nd
Up at 1 p.m. and we all went to Virgin Megastore and H.M.V record shops along Oxford Street about 2 miles east from Bayswater. Lol bought The Disrupters 7” single. We walked to Piccadilly Circus and took some pictures on Eros the statue there. We bought food at Wimpy being hamburger, chips and hot chocolates. We dossed around London most of the day and stayed at Jenny’s the night again in Bayswater for the Discharge gig at the 100 Club the following day.
Tuesday 23rd
We got up at 1 p.m. at Jenny’s and had black coffee and peanut butter sandwiches for eats. Me and Lol left at 1:30 p.m. and caught a bus to the 100 Club on Oxford Street. We got there at 2 p.m. Then walked around the back alley-road and saw Discharges van parked at the rear of the club. It was empty so we hung about there for half an hour spitting on the 100 Club sign. Met a bald old guy (in his 30’s) called Johno and two kids from Stoke-on-Trent (that turned out to be the drummer and bassist of the Discharge guitarist, Bones’s future band - ‘Broken Bones’ around a year later). Me and Lol went into a downstairs record shop, after meeting Wayne, opposite the 100 Club on Oxford street who charge £1.20p for the Crass single ‘Reality Asylum’ and met two nice Punkette girls, Tracy with long blonde spikey hair and Sue with long brown spikey hair. Those Punkette’s couldn’t afford to go to Discharge for £2.50p and were going to see The Satellites (at the Marquee Club in Wardour Street?) instead. They hung around with us and went to a Wimpy in Piccadilly Circus - I bought Tracy a chocolate milkshake and Wayne got Sue one. We all sat in there and chatted. Tracy and Sue kept singing “Hillbillies, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah”! We left; Tracy and Sue went to The Satellites and we three walked back up to the 100 Club. The P.A. sound-system turned up and we helped to take some gear down into the 100 Club - all of Discharge were in there. Cal saw us and came over and said, “I’ll put your name on the guest-list” before we got chucked out. After a while Cal came out and had a chat outside the 100 Club’s front and he said that “Discharge are going on tour in April 16th the day after their album is coming out and we are doing 15-20 dates”. Then Cal zipped off back inside the gig place. By 6:30 p.m., around 100 Punks were outside the 100 Club. At 7 p.m., Karl and Ann from Margate came along and joined the queue. Me and Lol went to Wendy’s Hamburgers and got hot chocolates and passed the time spike-ing up our hair in the mirrors in the toilets down there and going a shit too. Walked back to the 100 Club and passed the queuers and told the old guy on the paying desk that I was on the guest-list. He asked my name, and I said “Tone or Margate” and he said, “No, you are not on the guest-list it’ll be £2.50p in”. So I paid that and went in. Cal came over after a while and said, “Did you get in alrite, mate?” I said, “Yeah, but I wasn’t on the guest-list and it cost me £2.50p!” Cal said, “Yeah, you were - I’ll go and get you your money back”. So off Cal went and came back with £2.50p for me! Sat down near the sound-system, which played mostly reggae all night and saw 2 beautiful Punkettes with red hair. The support ‘Film’ was a Porno-Film that lasted only about 2 minutes with a fat bloke and two birds! I asked Rainy if I could take a photo of him offstage and he was really o.k. about it so Lol and Wayne stood next to him near the bar next to the dressing room at the back of the club. Then Discharge came on shortly after that at 10 p.m. I stood at the left of the stage and took around 10 photographs. Discharge started with ‘Never Again’ and they played a good gig. Rainy had his yellow flying-V fixed. I moved around the right and took 10 more photos (they played 20 songs in 37 minutes – Tape List). They did a 3-song encore and ‘Realities of War’ for an end encore song. Cal told me their LP is called ‘See Nothing, Hear Nothing, Say Nothing’! (I obviously recollected it wrongly or Discharge changed it at the 11th punkey-hour!?!?). Me, Lol and Wayne made our way over to Jenny’s in Bayswater and stayed there the night taking photo’s and having fun playing records in a London flat/squat with a few Italian Punks that were over here squatting/living. Went to sleep at about 1, or 2 or 3 a.m.!
Wednesday 24th
We got up at 1 p.m., got all our stuff, said goodbye to Jenny, and headed for the 2 p.m. coach from Victoria Coach Station, to Margate and home. We just missed it so waited for the 4 p.m. one in the information centre there. While we were in there, two stoned blokes started shouting at us from the outside through the glass. One walked in, the other just walked into the glass window, and it smashed and all the people around scarpered. The two blokes just ran off. Of course, we got chucked out and got our 4 p.m. coach with a stand-by fare of £2.75p. I got Sounds, Varukers are playing up at Skunks, at the Angel-Islington, in London on third of March - I’m going to that. N.M.E. (the New Musical Express was shit-crap!) On the way to Margate while looking out the back window at the traffic behind I saw a car hit the central reservation barriers behind us and career across the lanes and up the grass hilly verge - the driver must’ve fell asleep.
Thursday 25th
Lol wrote to a German Punkette called Annette. Top of the Pops - best was Iron Maiden, ‘Run to the Hills’. Old Grey Whistle Test had AC/DC on it Live on their U.S. Tour from Maryland. They played ‘Put the Finger on you’ - Angus (Young, their guitarist) still goes crazy.
Friday 26th
Up at 12, and Rob played the new Tank LP and free 45 he’d just bought ‘Don’t Walk Away/The Snake’ (The Pink Fairies one) - great. Kev, Lol, Rob, Wayne and me went up to the Longplayer record shop and I bought Black Sabbath’s ‘Turn Up The Night’ picture disc 7”, Blitz ‘Never Surrender’ 7” and the Tank LP + free single £6.89p. At 6:45 p.m., Rob and Kev left to see Spider in Gravesend. Watched TV - ‘Dead Heart’ with Toyah in -shit. I played all the records I bought earlier. Rob got back at 11:20 p.m. they had arrived too late to even see Spider at Gravesend by the time they had got there.
Saturday 27th
Up at 11 a.m. but got up 4 hours later after Rob played hours of music from Jethro Tull, David Bowie, Sweet, Raven and Tank LP. I spiked my hair up and my brother chose our football pools draws and got 7 whereas if he’d let me do mine we’d have won loads as I got 9 when you only need 8 for a big win! Put some of my Discharge posters up on my side of the bedroom wall - the four big ones. Then Lol came back from his mum with a purple pudding-basin-shaped haircut. Wayne hasn’t come back from his mum and dads since Friday! Watched a cartoon called ‘Is There Life in Peckham?” about a man with a small willy who writes to a problem page!
Sunday 28th
Up at 1:30 p.m. and played the great Tank LP. Went up mums with Lol and she said that Mike managed to get 9 score-draws out of his selections somehow and we’ve won the football Pools. We should net about £25 each for an outlay of just £1.85 and a half pence! Got some old records from mums like the Tubeway Army picture disc (‘Are Friends Electric?’). Mike got in a fight downstairs with Dave next door (we called him Mr ‘Potato-Head’). We went up to see Wayne - his tooth fell out and he’s suffering from bad headaches. We went up to Karl’s and he and Anne was in, her hair is red and orange and she made me some tea. We went round to see Kev, who sold me a Motorhead 7” picture-disc for 90p (Motorhead/’Over The Top’ both live). Later on me, Lol and Rob walked up to Karl’s. Anne was still there with Karl watched a film and left with Anne walked her back to her road and us three were doing moonies beside her and full frontal flashes too.
MARCH
Monday 1st
I was awoken at 11 a.m. by Rob who played records while I was asleep again. And the other 2 brothers (Lol & Kev) came back from their Court cases today - both adjourned. Got up at one when they stopped playing records and very thoughtfully went into the lounge to let me get up at last. I watched children’s TV - absolute shite. A programme called ‘Words and Pictures’ was enough to make kids go stupid. Played some records, Tank LP, Blitz, Motorhead and Black Sabbath. I played some old 45’s The Fall = shit, the best was Rezillos, Jean Michel-Jarre - ‘Oxygene’, ‘T.V Stars’ by The Skids (live), and Magazine’s ‘Big Dummy’. We went up to Karl’s where Anne dyed Karl’s Mohican green and red. Karl kept saying how he could ‘have Anne’ anytime - but all of us said ‘no chance’ and he kept going into a maddie (a mood) about it. Rob, who hadn’t met Anne yet, got on great with her doing his customary trick - a moonie. Me and Rob are seeing her tomorrow. And just to cement their newfound friendship Rob chased her up her road with his trousers down round his ankles (his unique manner with females is second to many).
Tuesday 2nd
I got up at 11 a.m. and played records of Black Sabbath ‘Turn Up The Night/Lonely Is The Word’, Motorhead’s ‘Motorhead’ and ‘Over The Top’ (Live), Blitz ‘Never Surrender’, ’Razors In The Night’ and Tank ‘Don’t Walk Away (live) and ‘The Snake’. We walked up to the Longplayer and Rob got the Human League LP ‘Dare’. Me and Rob called around for Anne and she answered and we went in and played records (just around the corner from Karl’s). Dead Kennedys LP, and Killing Joke LP. She was wearing a skirt with a rip up her inner leg. We watched TV and Animal Magic with Toyah on it. While walking home later on after going to Karl’s and Anne’s again me and Rob done moonies in every phone box on the way back home along the seafront to Westbrook and our flat.
Wednesday 3rd
Up at 09:45 a.m. me, Lol and Rob walked up town and I got my photos back of Discharge live at the 100 Club - some great ones - and Subhumans were o.k. We went up to Longplayer where they had the Discharge single ‘Never Again’ for 15p. They had three copies in the cheap box so I bought them all for 45p! Me and Lol left for The Varukers in Skunks in London tonight on the 2:10 p.m. coach from the harbour. We got standby return tickets for £2.75p. We got into Victoria Coach Station at 4 p.m. Then we caught a tube up to the Angel, Islington and then found a Wimpy and bought a Hamburger, chips and a hot chocolate for £1.28p. We then found Skunks (Blue Coat Boy) - it was a pub, and right by the tube station, we came out of, and passed! The Varukers were there unloading their equipment from their van. We walked into the city to waste some time before the gig opened up at 7:30p.m. We walked around Oxford Street, Wardour Street and cheap record shops etc and had some nosh then jumped on a 73 bus back up to The Angel at 7ish. It was only £1.50p in with a dole card. There were about 25 punks/skins there - pretty empty indeed. Jan and Bill (from Chaos) were there and chatted to them also Roi (from The Last Resort) was there too. Dead Wretched were due to play but they didn’t get here. So the other support band called Stress came on at 8 p.m. One of their members looked like Bobby Ewing (from the TV programme ‘Dallas’)! They played two songs then fucked off. I chatted to Jan and she wanted my address but couldn’t find a pen. Another support band came on called The Suspects they were shit. The bassist played his bass really funny and they had a fat balding snob on drums while the singer looked like a disco-star. They played for too long. Met Luciano (the Italian Punk I met at Jenny’s) he was with a nice Punkette and friend. At 9 p.m. The Varukers came on. Tom (the 2nd Rainy) was on bass (somehow he earned/was given the nickname ‘Pork Sausage’?!?!) Bruce had pink hair and a podgy new drummer. The singer, my namesake, Anthony (or Rat as his Discharge fans know him now of course!) was dressed in all black and he had a ring in his nose. They played a good set, all of the tracks on their first E.P. ‘Protest & Survive’. They played all the three tracks off their new E.P. out in April. The singer is really lively and I took 12 photos of them live onstage. The singer said “Anybody buy our last E.P.?” - the crowd were pathetic and no one was moving (including a pathetic me of course!). They done a two-song encore, which culminated with Bruce throwing his guitar onto the drum kit as a parting gesture and they went off about 10ish. I had a chat with Anthony the singer of The Varukers and he asked ”Where I came from tonight to see us?” I said “Margate in Kent”. He said “No, no way?” I said “Yes we travelled up on a train its only 75 miles”. He was shocked that the band had fans that travelled that far to see them (perhaps it was the first time they had heard of it of course!). Me and Lol left and caught a tube over to Jenny’s and stayed the night there which was great.
Thursday 4th
Me and Lol got up at 11:10 a.m. and left Jenny’s in Bayswater. We went into the city centre and Virgin Megastore and I bought the Tank new single ‘Turn Your Head Around’/’Stepping On A Landmine’ for £1.05p. Then to Our Price (record shop) I bought a Discharge badge for 30p (‘Realities of War’ cover jacket - in green). Went to Virgin underground record shop and I bought Tank’s first single ‘Don’t Walk Away’/’Shellshock’ & ‘Hammer On’ for £1.05p. Got a bus to the coach station and caught the 4 p.m. coach to Margate. The coach driver charged us £3 each but didn’t give us a ticket as he pocketed the money himself! I played the records when we got home to Margate. Top of the Pops - best was Toni Basil - ‘Hey Mickey’. Watched TV and the Kenny Everett Show - Toyah was on it (she must have had a particularly active agent in early 1982!). Rob, Wayne and Anne came around and we had a mini-gig to the records I bought earlier in London. They had some booze, and Wayne brought down the acoustic guitars with three strings on. Rob pulled his trousers down and sat next to Anne tucking his willy under while crossing his legs to make a ‘fanny’. (Yet another one of Robs endearing qualities comes to the fore around Anne!). Rob also ran around with his trousers down a while. Lol stayed in and the rest of us went out. We walked Anne home to Millmead up the other end of Cliftonville a mile or so. We done moonies on the way and Wayne kicked in a cars wing mirror. We all piled onto a pram in Dane Park and demolished it. Me and Rob tried to get a goodnight kiss off of Anne (without any success it would seem - ah not enough moonies Rob!). We dropped her home and then walked back ourselves at 12 midnight.
Friday 5th
Up at 10 a.m. Popped into mums to pick up the not £25 each Pools win but only £8.10p. Went into town and into Longplayer. Where I bought Rose Tattoo’s double-pack 7” single for £1.20p.
Saturday 6th
Up at 10 a.m. and went up town. I bought the Trust (heavy French rock) ‘Repression’ LP for Mike for £4.49p. Went into W.H Smith and got two mags for Mike with AC/DC in them. Caught a bus over to Canterbury and went up to Jim’s (second hand record shop over the railway lines) where I bought Generation X ‘Valley Of The Dolls’ (Brown Vinyl) 50p and Stiff Little Fingers ‘Nobody’s Heroes’ for 50p too. Rob went into Our Price=shit. There were loads of Punk/ette’s outside there hanging around and Karl woz among them. Into another record shop where I bought X-Ray Spex ‘Identity’ (Pink Vinyl), ‘Highly Inflammable’ (Red Vinyl), U.K. Subs ‘Keep On Running Til You Burn’ (someone told me that they’d sold out?), The Plasmatics ‘Butcher Baby (multi-coloured vinyl), and a live tape of Discharge and G.B.H at Gillingham gig I went to last year.
Sunday 7th
I got up at 2 p.m. and me and Lol walked up to call for Anne. Then us 3 walked to Wayne’s and went in and watched him spike up his hair in his bathroom (you have to realise these were the days before Sky TV people!). Us three left spikey-Wayne and walked up to Karl’s and went in and he played records for us D.I.R.T=good, Dead Wretched=good and mucked about on his acoustic guitar.
Monday 8th
Awoke at 10:30 a.m. Later watched TV and Riverside had Killing Joke on it playing two songs live. Me and Lol walked home with Anne past the Nayland Rock Hotel which was on fire again! When me and Lol got back we decided it would be rather wise to piss in the hallway of our flat - which I have described as ‘A superb laugh’!
Tuesday 9th
Up at 11:30 a.m. Played my Tank LP. Walked up to mums with Lol, Rob and Kev. Lol and Rob said they’d chip in to by a next door neighbour’s snooker-table top with me for £40 (complete with cues and balls). The seller was none other than Mike’s last boxing opponent - Mr Potato Head. We put a deposit on it and walked home with the cues and triangle while we moved the tabletop into mums next door.
Wednesday 10th
Up at 11 a.m. then me and Lol walked up to Anne’s house - she’s dyed her hair red and black it looks real smart. Me, Lol, Wayne and Rob decided to move the snooker table to our flat on a skateboard. So we tied it up and covered it and roped it to a skateboard. While we wheeled it, halfway up Arthur Road (my mums road) it fell off the skateboard. The next-door neighbour to my mum saw us and said he’d drive it down in his estate car. Wayne paid him a quid and we got a lift too. We carried it up to Lol’s flat at the top. And set it up across two small Formica tables.
Thursday 11th
Up at 11 a.m. and me and Wayne walked up to the Longplayer where they had another ‘Never Again’ single by Discharge - which of course I bought for 15p (I now have 6 of them!). I picked up a film from Boots from last year of Mike’s - it had four photographs of Discharge live at the Mayflower Club, Manchester last April - not too bad. One nice photograph of Bones. Me and Went up Anne’s and while we were there she bent over showing her tits & bra. Back to Wayne’s and took some photo’s mucking about on Lee’s (Wayne’s younger brother) moped he was fixing up. The Old Grey Whistle Test was pap with Nine Below Zero and The Comsat Angels.
Friday 12th
Up rather early at 09:30 a.m. and later went up to the harbour and got a standby coach ticket to London for £2.75p and caught the 12 o’clock coach to London which got there at 2:30 p.m. Jumped on a bus up to Oxford Street and bought the D.I.R.T single for 80p and Dead Wretched E.P. for £1:05p. While we were walking to Virgin Underground record shop, we saw Terry Hall (of The Specials) and Neville out of the Fun Boy Three walking down Oxford Street. Went into Virgin Megastore where I bought Rose Tattoo’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Outlaw’ E.P. and ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Is King’ single for £1:15p and £1:10p respectively. We then got a bus to Jenny’s place in Bayswater. Left our records there and then caught a bus back to the centre and walked to the Marquee Club (in Wardour Street). It was £2 in to see Tank, but £1.90p if you had a dole card! There were plenty of denim and long hair there. But also inside there were a few punks too. They played loads of rock over the sound system. At 8:30 p.m. the support band came on they were called Last Flight. They were good; the singer was a cross between Rod Stewart and Dave Lee Roth (of Van Halen). The bass player looked like Cliff Williams (of AC/DC). They went off after about 45 minutes. Rob and Gary headbanged to a few records over the sound system. At 9:30 p.m., Tank came onstage at the tiny Marquee club, it held about 300 people and there were about 150 to 200 there tonight. I went to the right side of the stage and took eight pictures while they played. They started with ‘Shellshock’ after 3 songs I went past the static Gary and went down the front of the crowd with the pogoing Rob and Lol. Had a great laugh head-banging and shouting out ‘Shit-Rings’ in-between songs. Algy Ward looked really young but he had a bit of a beer gut. He’s a great bassist. The guitarist looked about 25 and had a Tank sticker stuck on his guitar. The guitarist and drummer are brothers, but I didn’t see much of the drummer. They came back on for two encores ‘Heavy Artillery’ and ‘The Snake’ and Gary actually came down the front three songs from the end too! We caught a bus to Bayswater and bought chips and sausages and some flat-mates let us in and we went into Jenny’s, who was out, and we got in her bed and played records. She came in at 2 a.m. and joined me and Rob in her double.
Saturday 13th
Awoke at 10 a.m. and us lot got a bus up centre. I bought The Plasmatics LP ‘New Hope for the Wretched’ for £2 on multi-coloured vinyl in Cheapo Cheapo records in Soho. I also bought the Angelic Upstarts LP and free 4-track flexi for £1.99. Rose Tattoo’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Outlaw (pic) 40p and The Professionals (ex Sex Pistols men Cook & Jones band) single for 50p (pic). Then caught the 4 p.m. coach back to Margate. Played my records, and Rob sold me his Rose Tattoo 12” (‘Bad Boy for Love’/’Tramp’ (pic) for 50p. Anne came around she had a black and white striped pair of ‘Iron Maiden’ trousers on. We went for a walk along Westbrook beach a while then later I walked Anne home alone.
Sunday 14th
I got up at 1:30 in the afternoon. Called round for Wayne - he had his hair fucking ace! Stayed up there all night eating breville toasted sandwiches in the kitchen and taking photographs with Rob with his todger out and his rather loose trousers and stretching his ballbag exercises too! We left at 12 then walked home.
Monday 15th
Up at 11:30 a.m. Played records, D.I.R.T, Dead Wretched, Rose Tattoo, Blitz, Vardis (‘Let’s Go’ single - which I bought for 10p! - it still does not constitute a bargain officially!). Played more records after lots of snooker games upstairs in Lol’s & Wayne’s. I played The Professionals, Black Sabbath, The Varukers, Tank, Dead Wretched, Plasmatics and Stiff Little Fingers. At 11:30 p.m., Lol and Rob burst through the door of the front room as I was eating and guess what? - Yes they were completely bollock-naked…not a stitch on, like a skeleton with a willy.
Tuesday 16th
I Up at 11:30 a.m. and played records - Angelic Upstarts Live and flexi-disc 7”, (Excellent condition). Their live versions of their good songs are o.k. but some shit tracks. The Plasmatics ‘New Hope For The Wretched’ LP - great condition and a good LP. Played Snooker upstairs and Rob won 10p against in a game. Anne with an ‘e’ came around. Bundled Anne on the floor and spanked her bum and poked her ‘gibbs’ (I feel this is a metaphor for something rudie-poodie emanating from the word ‘giblets’). To compound the matter Rob then chased me down the stairs shouting ‘let me sniff your fingers” in the dark. Muff, that’s Anne to you and me, went at about 12ish after all 3 of us ran about in the near-nude trying to ‘willy-brush’ Anne - I nearly collapsed on the floor I was hurting so much with laughter.
Wednesday 17th
I woke up at 11:30 a.m. and looked out of the flat window and John Reed, my cousin who I went to see Discharge with at Northampton in the snow last year, wanders by! He came back along five minutes later - he has come down to Margate to see the Theatre Of Hate at the Winter Gardens (in Margate) later on tonight. I got my DM’s (Doctor Martens) on and me, John and Lol walked up to mums. I got Sounds - it had a G.B.H interview and a 1-page colour picture of Colin. G.B.H are playing Skunks, in London on Friday - I’ll go to that. We went down to the Winter Gardens with John and he got a ticket for TOH for £2.50p. We walked into the gig place and the Queens Hall and saw Kirk Brandon of TOH in there. We saw two heavy metal girls near the roundabout and one was flashing her boobs! Later on we walked down to the Ship Inn for the regular Wednesday night gig and a band called Bathsheba were playing. Karl was there with two girlfriends and also a load of Canterbury and Maidstone Punks. Me and Lol left and walked up to the Winter Gardens and around the back and listened to Theatre Of Hate - they sounded shit. We walked back down to the Ship Inn by the harbour and watched the rest of the Bathsheba set. Rob and Kev were there. A guy that looked rather too much like Rod Hull (minus the emu!) on drums, Geddy Lee (of Rush) lookie-likey unlikely on bass and a rather too-high-pitched singer with frizzey-hair for a singer…they were horrible (yes and I use that word ‘horrible’ under strict advice from my solicitors).
Thursday 18th
Awoke at 11 a.m. and Rob woke me up again by playing records. Walked up to mums with Lol, Anne and her niece in a pram. I pushed Dawn (Anne’s niece) along the seafront. Mike was there and he had dyed his hair bloodey light brown - it’s o.k. though. I got my photographs back from the Varukers (Skunks - 12 pics) and Tank (Marquee - 8 pics) gigs - some good ones. We all went up to Northdown House and took some photo’s in the dark by a night spotlight and later watched the Old Grey Whistle Test with King Crimson and Pat Benetar (live) on it - she was o.k.
Friday 19th
I got up at a quarter to 12 as I had to sign on at 11:30 a.m. - so I ran up to Capitol House and got there at 11:59 a.m. - but they still said “come back at 2”. I walked around to mums, Mike was there and he bleached his hair white again. He sold me some of his Metal records - Motorhead 12” ‘Golden Years’ 4-track E.P. for £1.50p and his Motorhead ‘Ace Of Spades’ 12” (pic) but no label on one side mis-pressing for £3.50p - or both for a fiver! I went back and signed on for the £75 dole-cheque at 2 p.m. I saw the ‘Motorheadbangerettebadgeshopfatgirl’ on the way home too (she was covered in badges and quite a large denim-clad head-girl too as you may have deciphered!).
Saturday 20th
I got up at a quarter to 2 in the afternoon. Wayne said that the Anti-Nowhere League are playing in Margate in May! I done my hair from a ‘Mohican’ to a real good spikey style all over (this simply involved soaping ones hair that you had all over your head into a mohican while it dried - and just as it was drying you’d pull it apart then soap it again lightly - and voila it kept up much better - next week ‘How to nail jelly to the ceiling’!). Mike came around on his way to see Iron Maiden and The Rods at the Hammersmith Odeon in London (as our flat was about 2 minutes from the train station!). Went up Wayne’s and he played records - Attak E.P. and Chaos UK 7”’ers. Then Wayne’s C.B Radio bird came around. She called herself ‘Lazy Daisy’ and was a dog - so we got rid of her and then we went up to Karl’s house. Later at 2 a.m., Mike came around as he just got off the last train from London after seeing Iron Maiden. We all stayed up til 4 a.m. talking about strap on dicks and doing loads of farting.
Sunday 21st
Up at half an hour after noon. Went up to Kev’s house and got out Gary’s bass guitar and amp speaker and also Kev’s boys miniature drum kit – a good laugh it was. Later after watched a film in the flat Lol, the cunt, just starts to piss on me and then pisses in a drinking glass in the front room too for good measure - literally!
Monday 22nd
I got up at 1 p.m. Me and Lol walked up to Wayne’s and he said he is thinking of going on the Discharge tour soon with me. I painted over the ‘Fight Back’ Discharge 7” cover picture on the back of my leather jacket again.
Tuesday 23rd
Up at 11:15 a.m. and walked up to the Longplayer and the guy in there played Motorhead’s new single, on red vinyl, called ‘Iron Fist’ - it’s great…really fast. Walked up to Wayne’s, he got out of the bath let us in and made tea - then Rob tipped me out of my chair onto the floor for a laugh. We then walked up to Karl’s who played us Black Flag LP - which was, as we all know, typical Yanki-shit. Yes, shit, and shit too. We then took a short walk to Kev’s, where spam (Kev’s child) locked Rob in a cupboard (so bright for such tender years!). Walked to mums, then Mike came in after a game of football down the green by the seafront - his legs are really fat! Touched up my ‘Fight Back’ Discharge painting on my leather some more (again - I guess you have it by now that painting and art is not my strongest subject yeah?).
Wednesday 24th
Up at 1 p.m. I went up town and to Boots and got some photo’s back - six of Discharge at the 100 Club, London (23rd November 1981) and 12 of Judas Priest (Jesus Christ!) of Mike’s. I found out that Rob is such a filthy bastard as he pisses in the sink - aswell!
Thursday 25th
I got up nearing 3 p.m. in the mid-afternoon. Went up town to buy a loaf of bread with a £20 note - bakery lady thought it was a fake (because, as we know all now know, money-launderers in the early 80’s were infact poor UK Punks on the dole living on £33.43p a week of course). Went up mums and actually had a bath - shock horror! Gasp! - steps back in amazement! Really? Yes, Really!!! Well I never - only my second bath this year you filthy bugger - “Who said that?”. I walked home in the thick mist at 7 p.m. along the seafront. Top of the Pops had Killing Joke on it playing their new single ‘The Empire Song’ - o.k. Altered Images new single was o.k. Number 1 was Gumbay Dance Band with a Boney M sounding rip-off.
Friday 26th
Up 30 minutes before midday. Rob and Lol came back from signing on and Lol had bought me the Iron Maiden ‘Run To The Hills’ picture disc for £1.30p - nice one Lol. Me and Lol later went up town along the seafront, which was really misty at 2 p.m. I got Mike a ‘Metal Fury’ magazine with AC/DC in it. I bought the Motorhead’s new single ‘Iron Fist’ in red vinyl too. Went home and watched a programme called Dear Heart - “Dear Heart, why the fuck is your programme so terrible, yours sincerely Mr Fucked-Off”.
Saturday 27th
Up at 10:45 a.m. and watched Tiswas that had Bucks Fizz on (Hey? - they didn’t mention their No 1 south-east U.K. fan again!). Spiked up my hair into loads of twigs - excellent. Me and Lol walked up town, it was really warm and we saw 2 ‘silly-punks’ up there too (are you sure it wasn’t just a reflection from a shop window?). I bought Punk Lives magazine (definitely NOT for silly-punks I might add!) with a picture of Bambi and Rainy, of Discharge, in it -great (but only if you are NOT a ‘silly-punk’ of course!). Watched Battle of The Bands on TV and the best were a poppey-skinhead band called ‘The Crack’. Later we went along the seafront and met Anne and her German Punk friend Annette.
Sunday 28th
I awoke at 2:45 in the afternoon. Rob permed his hair (as all good rockers do, with curlers like Shirley Temple only with much more a tendency to drop ones trousers than her). Me and Lol walked up to Wayne’s and Lee was there (Wayne’s younger brother) with some photo’s of me him and Rob with flowers up our bum and willies out - great stuff! Me, Lol, Rob and Wayne walked up to Karl’s (who was a bit too much into Anne we decided!) and so after no answer (but the light was on!) we decided to ‘quieter-than-quiet-burglars-in-sheep’s-wool-slippers’ creep around the back of his house. Our version of this was to kick footballs, throw Frisbee’s generally make as much noise as possible. We went in the back door and there was no one in. So we went in and had a cup of tea and went upstairs and had a piss too - oh and a handful of biscuits while we were there aswell! On TV we watched ‘Whoops Apocalypse’ which was shit making fun about nuclear war (…that was a Party Political Broadcast on behalf of the Discharge Party”!). I left with Anne and walked her home.
Monday 29th
Woken up at 10 a.m. by the landlady, who we nick-named ‘elephant women’ (not because she was hideously ugly but…because she fucking grotesque!) knocking at the door saying, “are you awake lads?” She then went and while Rob was naked and talcum powdering his knob (as all good rockers do?). Then the ‘elephant woman’ just strolls in without knocking and Rob starkers dives headlong for cover into a room injuring himself. Later she showed us a three room flat on the middle floor and offered us three (me, Lol and Rob, because Wayne was just claiming for a flat and not really living there anymore) those rooms and to keep the upstairs Snooker/Pool room aswell for the same rent - so erm we said yupp! We all walked up to a bookshop in Northdown Road Gary, Rob, Kev and Lol who just fucked off without saying goodbye or we are going - call themselves mates? - poppycock I say! Watched TV and Riverside had Cabaret Voltaires video of ‘Nag Nag Nag’ on it - great.
Tuesday 30th
Up at 12 listened to the UK record charts on the radio - Motorhead are straight in at No33 with ‘Iron Fist’ (you said that in such a Smashy & Nicey tone there mayte - “aaah yer nott farr wrong there mayte coz pipping Mojohedd are Bachman Turner Overdrive accelerating in at No32 with ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet’ - tayke it away BTO..!) and Goombay Dance Band are still No1 with ‘7 Tears’ (or is it ‘7 years?’). I played records of Tank, Blitz, Dead Wretched, Plasmatics, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, SLF, Black Sabbath, The Professionals, Generation X, U.K. Subs and yes, even the much over-looked, for obvious reasons, Vardis. Went out and it was blowing a gale along the seafront - going nowhere fast. I bought the new Angelic Upstarts single ‘Never Say Die’ for 10p. Went home and played it - it’s shite and that was the first and last time that’s ever gonna see the light of day.
Wednesday 31st
Yesterday the Space Shuttle landed in the U.S.A. I bought Sounds it didn’t have any Discharge tour dates in it. We all walked along to the harbour to the Wednesday night gig at the Ship Inn. Tonight it was a band from Folkestone, Kent called English Rogues. They came on at 10 p.m. and were a trio a Tommy Vance (UK rock D.J.) lookie-unlikely on double bass-drum kit, chubby guitarist with joker t-shirt and leather trousers, white boots and dark glasses and a cap (watch out girls, but mostly the guys I’d say!) and a black flying V guitar. The bassist, who moved around, had a really good bass sound too. They played some boogie songs, done a good version of The Troggs ‘I Can’t Control Myself’, and they came back for an encore of ‘Walking the Dog’. Later on back at the flat Rob done a moonie out of the window in the general direction of a passing car full of girls and they saw him and waved and shouted wildly (whether or not it was to tell him to stop the ‘hairey-arsed’ public show I guess we’ll never ever know?).
APRIL
Thursday 1st
Out of bed at midday, Rob woke me up and gave me the letter from Vernons Football Pools of my win from last Saturday. Half asleep I opened it up trembling to find that I’d won £2,924 pound..!!!! Ha-Ha-Ha April Fool - I’d really won the insurmountable figure of, wait for it, £4.90p - Shit…Fuck…Piss…Bum…Tit…Willy…Fanny…Cunt…Bastard…Nipples…Foreskin…Pubes…Ball-Bags…Plonker is just about how I feet. Vernon - I hate you cunts. Walked up town to go shopping and saw a blue-haired Punkey bird go past and walk along the beach to the Mini-Pier and sat by the pool wall. Me and Lol decided to walk near her on the beach - she then fucked off with a skinhead (ahhh - emo s eh!). Rob got back at 00:50 a.m. after walking back from Ramsgate after seeing Desolation Angels (heavy-mental) band - he said they were great (Mike and Kev also went).
Friday 2nd
The Falkland Islands, in the south Atlantic have been invaded by Argentina - which are British. I helped Lol move all his stuff down from the top old room of his to mine and Rob - which all three of us are sharing now - he wore his black and white ‘The Jam’ shoes. I played records - Iron Maiden ‘Run To The Hills’, Motorhead ‘Iron Fist’ (nice n fast), ‘Remember Me I’m Gone’ (ok).
Saturday 3rd
The first day in the middle flat with two Maycocks (Rob and Lol). I got woken up at 11 a.m. by Lol. Watched colour TV! - Tiswas - Tygers Of Pan Tang ‘Love Potion No9’ video was on it - shit. Watched Pop Quiz and it had Jake Burns (of Stiff Little Fingers) one time punk now dressed in a 3-piece suit - my how some people change eh? O.T.T had that black bitch baring her tits on it - bloodey big ‘uns.
Sunday 4th
Out of bed a quarter after 12 and played Pool and Snooker all afternoon with Lol and Rob - 25 bikers drove past on their way to the seafront from London I guess. Tina and Denise (2 skinettes) popped in. I spent the afternoon too putting up my Discharge cuttings and posters on my wall. Played records - Iron Maiden, Tank and U.K. Subs. I went out and phoned up Cal (of Discharge) with Lol and Lee in the phone box. Cal’s dad answered then Cal came on. He said “Here’s some of the dates we have lined up to play soon” - 13th April (100 Club, London), 16th April (The Taboo Club, Scarborough), 17th April (Ajanta Club, Derby), 28th April (Drifters, Manchester), 29th April (New Yate Entertainment Centre, Bristol), 30th April (Gala Ballroom, Norwich), 3rd May (Alton Towers, or Haltower Theatre - it was infact the Hull Tower Theatre!), 4th May (Community Centre, Grimsby) 9th May (not confirmed yet - possibly the Lyceum in London or Marples in Sheffield). Cal said that “the album in coming out a week later on the 8th of April” - I said bye.
Monday 5th
I was awoken by Wayne banging on t’door. Walked up town shopping with Lol, Wayne and Rob - it was really warm. Walked along the beach and met Annette (Anne German Punk girl friend) and her mate Mettina. Walked up to Cecil Square where we saw a bus drive over a motorcycle. Watched the U.S.A Grand Prix won by Niki Lauda and while being interviewed he said “This track is shit!”. Walked up to Karl’s and he said he is not going out with Anne anymore - he is going out with a bird from Faversham 69. Me, Lol a ob walked home and we passed Wayne’s where Lee and his mum (Jean) looked out of the window as we passed and we done nude moonies to them. We also did some running across Dane Park too shouting our heads off shortly before bumping into two skinettes.
Tuesday 6th
Up at 11 a.m. and listened to the UK singles record charts - Motorhead’s ‘Iron Fist’ has gone up from number 33 last week to this weeks No29. I stuck up virtually all of my Discharge pictures and posters and also the giant black logo along my be looks great. Walked up to Wayne’s - him and Joe were outside his gate playing Discharge on his cassette player. On the way back later me and Rob done nude-moonies running across Dane Park and Rob didn’t pull his trousers up til he approached the next innocent passer-by (great laugh!). We saw Annette, the German punk girl, and Mettina in Cecil Square at 11:30 p.m.
Wednesday 7th
Out of bed on midday. Later on we made the trek along the seafront to The Ship Inn for the Wednesday Nite Gig. At 9:30 p.m. White Diamond came on who were from Colchester. They had a backdrop of a bald guy with spikey hair at the sides. The drummer was good and had a massive white premier kit. The bassist was silly with a cowboy hat but looked like an Indian. Great guitarist, while the singer had a pair of spandex trousers on and ‘Shirley’ hair (that’s ‘Curly’ to you and me and Rob!). The guitarist played like Schenker (Michael that is of Michael Schenker Group!). We got talking to two girls of 23 and later did moonies again in Dan rk (pity any moonlight dog walkers of the early eighties in Margate eh?). Then met Barbara a woman of 24 or so and we got chatting and she let us go back to her house - that was me, Lol, Rob, Kev, Mike and Karl (we are such a well-behaved lovely bunch how could she resist?). Had tea’s chats and met her animals then her and Lol went to bed and Lol kicked us out the room (nice!). Me and Rob slept in a single bed together (after all that moonie-ing I’m not sure that was such a bright idea after all - let’s t hope either of us don’t dream about Dane Park that’s all…!). The other 3 slept on the floor doing farts. After a while Lol came out and said, and I quote - “I didn’t get anything…her holes only this big” curling his fingers up into a shape not too dissimilar from a one-penny piece. Kev tried to get in - but she wouldn’t let him - (she must’ve known he was married with a kid about 400 metres away at home methinks). Kev said, and I quote - “You don’t even know how to fuck” to which a pleasant evening air was shattered with in reply “You couldn’t even find the right hole”..(This is love isn’t it here I’m witnessing?) - How romantic! Mike, Kev, Karl and Lol went but for the last word from Kev as a parting shot of thanks, and I quote - “Thanks for the great fuck”. But he told me….? - Never mind! Me and Rob stayed the night with Barbara in the next room in separate beds which was really comfortable.
Thursday 8th
I woke up at 08:45 a.m. and saw Barbara in her petite briefs and bra. We got up and left after Ba a said “You two can pop around anytime you want, but just don’t bring any of the others” (…hey waddizzthiss?!?!?!? You mean Kev and Lol’s Love-talk did not work?!?!?!?). I stuck up my Discharge stickers on my door and my Varukers (live) photographs. Top Of The Pops - crap - Goombay Dance Band still glued to No1 for ‘7 Years, I mean Tears’ - they were onstage and they were absolute shit.
Friday 9th
Up at midday. Mike won £22 on the Football Pools. Watched the film Chitty-Shitty-Bonk-Bang. Kev, Lol, Rob me went down the arcades and played video games a while. Kev went home and Wayne then joined us three in going around to Barbara’s. We had pizzas and drinks and played her UB40 Lp’s and later were invited to stay on the pillows and cushions. Rob got a ‘bonk’ on (which sounded like a Hungarian Hat but infact it was just a monstrously-colossal erection that’s all - phew that was lucky wasn’t it?). So in the dark and in the nude he walked over to the light and switched it on and off very quickly to show us. We said to Barbara “Your nipples are up” and she pulled up her sweatshirt and showed us her tits and said “No, they’re not!” And she done it once more and even pulled down her white knickers and done half a moonie at us. When she pulled them up her pubes and giblets popped out a bit. She slept next to Lol (the man that invented l’amore). But Lol kept saying, “Get your hands off - you’re not getting it”. She done maddies and went upstairs to sleep.
Saturday 10th
I was woken up by the others watching Sesa treet on TV at 08:45 a.m. Also watched a cartoon about Space including a character that made a noise like a castrated Turkey - fucking shit. Untwiggled my twigs and spiked up my hair as normal - it looks bad.
Sunday 11th
I woke up at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. I did my hair into a ‘mohican-shape’ last night with soap. I spent an hour and half messing around with my hair trying to spike it up decent, but in the end I cut off an inch and a half to do it. We walked up town and met loads of Margate Skinheads with Tina and Denise among them. We went around Barbara’s and Rob was there already - we mucked about with hr Gerbils in the kitchen (not giblets - Gerbils - her pets!). Me and Lol walked up to Karl’s and he was in with his new red-haired tree-trunk legged girlfriend bird.
Monday 12th
I got up at 11 a.m. Anne and a blonde mohican kid called George, from Ramsgate came around shortly followed by Karl and Joanne (his girlfriend). Me, Lol and Anne went out along the seafront, which on Easter bank Holiday weekend Monday was a little daring to say the least - but there were no Mods, No Skins, No Rockers or Bikers at all. Us three walked up to Kev’s, who slept at Barbara’s last night. Sandra, his wife at home did maddies (she was so out of order than woman I tell yer!). He didn’t come home all night and she said for us to tell him “He needn’t bother to come back ever”. We walked to Barbara’s and met coming this, and Sandra’s way. We told him what she said and he strode on regardless toward battle, slash homelessness. Walked home and me and Rob done moonies and willy-showing out the window to 3 frogs (which roughly translated as baring ones genitalia to some French females one could hazard a guess at?). Went down the beach with rob and Anne doing moonies and I lost 30p rolling car tyres along in the public toilets and throwing them up on Christmas Trees. Anne did a few half-moonies. Later Rob took a picture of Anne in his jimmy-jams (pyjamas). Anne went to sleep in Lol’s room.
Tuesday 13th
Up at 09:00 a.m. by the alarm. Anne left in a taxi to Manston where she now lives with her mum. Caught the 12:30 p.m. coach to London for £4 - no standby’s anymore. Got into London at 3 p.m. We walked past Buckingham Palace and Piccadilly Circus and popped into a Soho supermarket for some foodies. Walked up to the back entrance around the 100 Club near Oxford Street. Me and Lol made Turkey slices sandwiches in dry bread on the boot of a car parked there. After a while we heard Discharge doing their sound-check including a couple of new songs, which sounded great. The owner came out who looked like Charlie Harper (of the U.K. Subs) and said, “Get lost”. We made some more sandwiches and then Wayne walked towards us. We went round the front and two mohicans scrounged not 10p off of me but a bite of my sandwich instead. I gave Wayne my last 17 an a half pence for some drink and that left me with £2.75p for a standby coach ticket home and the £2.50p in to see Discharge tonight at the 100 Club. Bought a ticket for £2.50p. I said to Lol “Look down there (and pointed along Oxford Street) its John Cooper Clarke (the ‘Punk Poet’) and his girlfriend. Lol said to him “You look just like John Cooper Clarke!” - he smiles in his dark glasses and black n white clothes, frizzy hair and rubbed his hands together as he walked by. Then at 8:30 p.m. we went into the 100 Club. Met Cal inside and he got me my £2.50p back for my ticket. It was really packed in there and met Jan (Bill’s partner) and Jenny (from Bayswater). Then they put on a Film, which had facts about nuclear war in words like: - after a 1 megaton bomb drops, people five miles away will be charred beyond recognition. Tonight’s support band was called Anti-Establishment (in fact they were called Antisect!). They were good and played a set list of Fear Of God, No Release, Suicide Victims, Ulster, Existence Of Restriction, Spoils Of War, Philosophy Of Anarchy, Prisoner Of Society, Consequence Of Hunger, Aftermath and Anarchy Ruleth (They played 12 tracks in 26 minutes – Tape List). The singer tatty jeans. Discharge came on and started with ‘Never Again’ during which I sang through the microphone with Cal. Then they went into ‘Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing’ – which was great. The Final Bloodbath, which was o.k., ‘Fight Back’ then ‘Protest and Survive’ which was great. Then ‘Nightmare Continues’ which was brilliant and then ‘Why’ and after that they played a track called ‘Life’s Destruction’ which was called ‘The Possibility of Life’s Destruction’) – o.k. then into ‘Hell On Earth’ – brilliant and ‘Cries Of Help’ – o.k. Then ‘Is This To Be’ – o.k., and then ‘Drunk With Power – excellent stuff and ‘Realities Of War’ good, ‘I Won’t Subscribe’, o.k., ‘Blood Runs Red’ – good, ‘Ain’t No Feeble Bastard’ and ‘The End’ – o.k. (They played 18 tracks in 46 minutes – Tape List). And Discharge came back on for an encore of ‘Decontrol’. They missed out playing ‘Meanwhile’, ‘Two Monstrous Nuclear Stockpiles’, ‘And Children’. I chatted to Cal after the gig as the 100 Club emptied; there are 14 tracks on the LP of which they played 11 tonight. We caught a bus over to Jenny’s in Bayswater with her after we left the 100 Club about 11:30 p.m. and we crashed there the night – I slept on the floor.
Wednesday 14th
Up at 10:30 a.m. and left and caught a 36 bus to Victoria Station, which broke down on the way so we caught the next one behind –paying 20p on each. Then we walked to the Coach Station and bought a £3.50p ticket to Margate. It was lovely and warm and sunny – read a blokes N.M.E which was shit. Got i d picked up my Dole Cheque for £75.66p, which we then went out to cash (that’s £5.40p a day or £37.83p per week!). I went straight up Longplayer and bought the Iron Maiden LP ‘Number Of The Beast’ on picture disc for £5.99p and the Girlschool ‘Wildlife’ E.P. for £1.20p. Also picked up a Girlschool ‘C’Mon Let’s Go’ 7” single (pic) for 10p in Cliftonville cheap record shop called Thornton Bobby’s. Went to mums and played the Iron Maiden LP – good and Mum and Dad are flying to Canada tomorrow for 2 weeks. Me and Rob walked down to the Ship Inn and met Mike and Gary there. The band had just come on called T.N.T who were local from Ramsgate and Margate I think. Pretty packed in there – about 80 denims. The band was good, the guitarist looked like Sammy Hagar and he had a red guitar (deranged in shape!). They played ‘Rock Bottom’ by U.F.O. ‘Somebody Get Me A Doctor’ and ‘Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love’ (Van Halen covers). Me, Rob and Lol left at 10:40 p.m. I went home with Lol, and then later Rob and Barbara came back from a party. Me and Lol took loads of pictures of Barbara with her camera including my nipple, the cupboard door open, the oven and grill, Barbara’s muff (that’ll be her pubic hair then!), and her in bed with Rob where they slept the night – I slept n Lol’s room.
Thursday 15th
I went out at 10:30 a.m. after waking at 10. I walked to a phone box and I phoned Cal. He said “The Derby Gig is cancelled for tomorrow”. Went up and signed on and my dole money has gone down to £34.77p (£1.15p a week!). Walked to e’s and as my parents were off to Canada already it was only right n proper than the house is full of people like: - Rob, Lol, Kev, Wayne, Anne and Lee all playing Snooker and Pool of course. Lol and Anne left without saying anything to anyone. Mike played records Riot’s ‘Fire Down Under’ – good, and ‘Outlaw’ – o.k. and a ‘Sex With Sonia’ flexi-disc – silly (This was given away with a ‘Men’s Magazine’ and was a woman simulating rather crudely, but not rudely, kissing a mans banana plantation certificate!). Lol and Anne, who had come back for a while, fucked off again without saying goodbye to anyone. We all walked up to Thornton Bobbies and I bought Siouxsie and the Banshee’s 12” (pic) ‘Spellbound’ for 49p. Walked back home with Rob and bumped into the two skinettes Tina & Denise in Dane Park – who were drunk. Kev, Wayne, Lee and Nympho (Barbara to you and me!) came down to the flat and Lol and Anne were there but they left 15 minutes later. After a while we all left and walked up to mum house where Mike was having a party (as you do when your parents are 3,000 miles away!). Lee and Dean (a skinhead I didn’t know) were there and Gary turned up with some dope to smoke. I went up to the toilet and when I came down there were 5 skinheads and two girls in the front room uninvited. Wayne put some Punk and Oi music on and after 45 minutes they all left thankfully. Then me, Rob, Mike and Gary started headbanging to music with the snooker cues as guitars. Also we had loads of bundling, rucks, bumming and moonies – cially Rob (I have no idea what I refer to when stating ‘bumming’ but if the Police are reading this then I can assure you that you would have probably arrested us for anything, least of all that, that night!). Barbara ‘Nympho’ took lots of photographs of all us and Lee held her boobs in his hands for one photo. Me and Rob went to the offy but it was closed just after 11 p.m. Denise and Tina came round and left just as quick although I did get a kiss from Denise. A few people left and the rest of us watched TV – Barbara tried to rape me and then I swapped a Discharge badge with the German Punkette girl Annette. Lol & Ann went back to the flat, shortly followed by Me and Rob. Had food and got into bed. Lee and Dean turned up and made loads of noise and this descended into a ‘Pant-Ripping-Contest’. I came off best as I took mine off before they were ripped off – Dean, the skinhead, was left in just his pants ‘n’ braces! I went into Lol’s room and annoyed him and Anne who were trying to do ‘personal things’ I think. Made a mattress bed on the floor for everyone and pissed in tins of beer and threw them out the window into the street. Also we pissed in a saucepan (as you do).
Saturday 17th
I went out with Lol, Anne and Rob, but the ‘couple’ got ‘lost’. Me and Rob walked to Kev’s and played on his bass guitar a while and popped to Wayne’s where Lee found an injured bird (this time a ‘bird’ really should have flown but it still didn’t!) which we put in an open shoe box up high on a fence. We then walked up to Ba a’s and had food and tea and played records like UB40 LP. Had loads of ‘rear-rucks’ (don’t ask please – simply because I don’t know!!!). I dragged Murphy (Barbara’s surname) around the front room. Mucked about on her piano a while (the neighbours must’ve bee on the phone to the estate agent at this time). Wayne got really stroppy as he was saying in so many words ‘Piss Off I wanna Fuck Nympho!”. We did at 10 and walked home and we met a German girl trying to get to Margate Station, near our flat, so we walked her to there. We done moonies in the park and the girl thought we were bent! (which was slang for ‘gay’ – I’ve no idea whatsoever how she jumped so inconclusively to that decision at all!). What us? Watched a play called ‘Oi For England’ about a skinhead band in a basement and riots in Manchester.
Sunday 18th
I awoke by alarm at 10.m. I left with £20 and at around midday for Discharge live in Stevenage tonight. Phoned up the Bowes-Lyon House (gig place) but there was no answer. Lol and I caught the 1 p.m. coach to London for a £3.50p standby fare. We got into London at 3:15 p.m. and caught the 3:50 p.m. coach to Stevenage on nearby Eccleston Bridge for £1.85p. Got into Stevenage at 5:30 p.m. Walked 5 minutes to the Bowes-Lyon House and Discharge’s van was there already. It had a real smart Discharge gig poster of tonight’s gig in the foyer window of the ‘equality face’ on the b-side of ‘Realities Of War’ and a smaller one, there were only a few punks there then. Me and Lol went back to the shopping c e and got a wimpy but couldn’t get any food as ‘All Punks Are Banned’! So we sent the waitress back in for two portions of chips for 28p each which she duly obliged to order and bring to us as we were not from Stevenage (I would imagine that if you dated a Stevenage Punk then their table-etiquette left a lot to be desired methinks?). Some skinheads went by and kicked a pile of building bricks over (they’re ever-so clumsy skinheads aren’t they!). At 6:50 p.m. we walked back to the gig and sat outside on a wall – loads of nice punkettes walked by. Heather (Cal’s girlfriend) and Helen (Bone’s girlfriend) went by too, Heather had her hair dyed white with the sides shaved – looked horrid. Gary (Maloney, drummer of Discharge) and the Antisect singer (Pete Boyce) came out. We went off for more food and saw Jan (Bill’s girl) and the two black mohican guys (brothers?) from Oxford (soon to gain recognition as ‘The Oxford Mental Mob’ with their trademark wagging finger down the front at gigs!). Queued up and went in for £2.25p, I asked about the poster in the window and the guy on the door said “See Bill”. Went upstairs and bought a ‘Fight Back’ badge 20p. Met Cal and he said “The Scarborough gig was really great and that we’ve added Bradford Gig to the tour on April the 27th”. And he told me “Supporting us at the London Lyceum gig on May the 9th are The Dark, Charge, Vice Squad and G.B.H”. Cal then disappeared as Gary came past and said “Hello” to me. I went to the gig stage down the front and then Antisect came on. y played good but the crowd were terrible, like statues (erm like me then perhaps?). After that a Film came on (which I found out was called ‘The War Game’). Which was about a bomb attack on Rochester, Kent in the 1940’s. With a simulated attack on nearby Canterbury too and it mentioned Manston on it (4 miles from Margate – where Anne now lives!). A couple of small kids were laughing out loudly at a man with a charred face by the firestorm – I don’t see what’s funny? Then the Mickey-Mouse guy came on stage (later I found out this was infact none other than ‘Biffo The Gasmask’) with red shorts funny boots and a Gasmask (a-ha that gev ther gemmer way!). Biffo/Mickey watched TV with his little wrapped-up baby on his knee ( and believe it or not I slept at his house in Stoke on July 1st last year after a Discharge gig in Manchester). Biffo then went off and me and Lol went downstairs and got a Discharge poster each (from the window – I got the big one of course!). We met Jenny and at 9:45 p.m. Discharge came on. They started with ‘Never Again’ after that Bones had to change his guitar amp-head coz the fuse blew, then they played it again. Lol was down the front. I took 20 pictures all around the stage (these were to get lost in the post sadly went sent away for developing!). Discharge played great – better than the 100 Club gig. Bones snapped the bottom string on his guitar and changed it. Cal climbed up on the speaker stacks and managed to get up 20 foot. I got a photo of it (oh no you didn’t!!!). Discharge do Decontrol’ and ‘Never Again’ (again) for a 2-song encore. A gang of five skinheads called us ‘punk wankers’ on the way to the station with Jenny. Travelled with her and Lol to Kings Cross Railway Station in North Central London for £1.50p. Then we walked and bussed it across to Bayswater the night and stayed at Jenny’s having food and coffee.
Monday 19th
I got up at 11 a.m. Me and Lol walked to Hyde Park after grabbing some milk and munchies on the way. Dossed on the grass in the sun. Walked down Oxford Street after that and I bought a 30p ‘Realities Of war’ Discharge badge. Went and sat of Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus and ate some more food we picked up. Loads of people were trying to take pictures of us. And some bloke pestering us was asking for swigs of our drinks (lemonade). Walked up to the Marquee Club in Wardour Street later and met Rob and Gary. We got 25p off the ticket in and ours only cost £2.25p. They played the new Iron Maiden LP over the sound system. At 8:15 p.m. the support band came on called Ore. They were Ore-ibble. Four fat bikers and the singer had a jogging suit on (that he obviously didn’t run to put on this morning). He kept doing shadowboxing with the mike-stand. Good guitarist in a white suit (who looked suspiciously like the guitarist out the last band we saw at the Marquee supporting Tank – strange?). The singer had a huge water-container, which he threw into the crowd at the end and I got drenched – Ore-ibble Fat Bastard. They then went off. Met the mohican bloke who was a nk gig here last time. At 9:30 p.m. Tank came on and I took the four pictures left on the film in my camera. Then I went down the front pogoing and headbanging with Lol, Rob and even Gary! They didn’t play ‘Hammer On’ and ‘Struck By Lightning’ or ‘Who needs Love Songs’ – they played good. It was really loud and undistinguishable but a good gig though. We left and all walked up to Jenny’s – I found a one pound note on the way there. So I shared it out and put 8p with it for a Sausage and chips we all shared. Got some milk in the Bayswater 24-hour supermarket. Then slept in Jenny’s on the floor with Lol., while Gary had the sofa and Rob shared Jenny’s double bed.
Tuesday 20th
Up t 11 a.m. left and all walked to Notting Hill Gate and their Record & Tape Exchange cheap vinyl shops. I bought Plasmatics ‘Butcher Baby’ 12” (pic) for £1, Girlschool ‘C’mon Let’s Go’ 10” (pic) for £1, and ‘Hit And Run’ 10” (pic) for £1 too. We all travelled across London to Victoria with our vinyl and caught the 2:30 p.m. coach to Margate for £3.50p. At Birchington (about 3 miles from Margate) when the back seat became empty, me and Rob went up there and done moonies – great laugh.
Wednesday 21st
Up around midday, walked up to town and got Sounds, which had, Discharge ‘On The Road’ tour dates. Chron Gen have joined the Anti-Nowhere League Tour and should therefore be playing Margate Winter Gardens too. Me, Lol and Rob then walked up to Kev’s and Lol & Rob with mike stand and Gary with his bass guitar head-banging to Tank. Walked b to ours and Wayne was there with Barbara who was wearing a home-made ‘Too Drunk To Fuck’ T-Shirt (Ha-Ha-Ha), no – there’s more! Dyed hair (Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha) – Green (Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha) and Red (Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha) – poser. (Perhaps the idea of making ones t-shirt and not buying it for £3.50p is laughable then? And not ‘Punk – I didn’t realise it but it was she that was more Punk than me – Ha-Ha-Heurggggggh!). On the way to the Ship Inn along the seafront Rob picked on Wayne and rucked (shook and bundled) him, quite violently, to the ground (perhaps this was a reaction to Barbara and Wayne being close?). So Wayne threw beer over Rob. So Rob laid into him seriously as in a fight with boots in the back. We went down the Ship and Fokker Triplane were on tonight. Rob and Wayne (who had made-up so magnificently that they) did moonies outside for all to see through the glass wide and low harbour pub windows. Fokker were great and they played really heavy stuff and everyone was standing up head-banging. We shouted o Willy’ in-between their songs and the singer said ‘We haven’t got one!’
Thursday 22nd
Up at a quarter to 12. Anne came around and me her and Rob walked up to Thornton Bobby’s where Anne changed the price stickers on a Reggae LP from £5 down to £3.99p – she then bought it. I bought Raven’s ‘Rock Until You Drop’ LP for only £1.99p (with poster and a t-shirt offer). We walked to the seafront and saw Mike playing football and then we walked along the beach and some bird took a picture of us (was it a seagull with an Olympus?). Watched Top of the Pops – Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder are No1 with ‘Ebony and Ivory’. Went into Lol’s room and played ‘Stations Of the Crass’ LP. Watched the Old Grey Whistle Test – it had Iron Maiden on video on it. The track was ‘Number Of The Beast’ with a great light show, 2 red devils, 2 dancers and a giant ‘Eddie’ monster 12 feet high – great. The Damned video of ‘Smash It Up’ – shit – all white background with silly drawings as speakers. Captain Sensible acting stupid (why does that man never live up to his name I ask you?). He smashed up their stuff. Deep Purple with ‘Smoke On The Water’ David Coverdale on vocals – shit. Anne left at 11:30 p.m. then me, Lol and Rob decided it would be rather entertaining to do a gig to Chaos UK’s ‘4-minute Warning’ in the nude (never have four minutes gone so slowly!).
Friday 23rd
Up at 11, and the landlord ‘Andy Warhol’ gave us some keys for our doors at last. I played my Raven LP – o.k. Mike had another party at mums. I walked up with Ann d we got there at 9:30 p.m. Mike, Rob, Kev, Gary, Karen and Sandra were there and lots of head-banging to Iron Maiden’s ‘Transylvania’ and ‘Prowler’. Also AC/DC’s ‘What Do You Do For Money Honey?’, Whole Lotta Rosie’ ‘Back In Black’ and ‘T.N.T’ even Anne was head-banging too. Me, Rob, Gary and Anne went out Mike’s dormer window and onto the roof. Mike put on his ‘Angus’ (Young) AC/DC School Uniform and got his cardboard guitar I made him. Anne came back to ours with us at 01:45 a.m. and Lol waited up fo – she slept in mine and Rob’s room – they kept me awake till 05:30 talking so I played the Space Invader game till they stopped.
Saturday 24th
Woke up at 1:45 p.m. and I was the first up! Watched The Eurovision Contest from the UK – our entry was ‘Bardo’. A bloke and a nice girl in a short white skirt (…It’s so hard to please me you know!). Germany won it with a girl singing ‘A Little Bit Of Peace’. Finland’s entry called ‘Don’t You Drop The Bomb On Me’ which was Anti-War (ish) amassed the earth-shattering nil-poin (No points). Anne was staying the night in Lol’s again and me and Rob decide to pretend we were gonna stay in Lol’s room. Lol got really annoyed about it and it’s so obvious girls come before mates (letalone we did purposely ask him to choose). Otherwise he would have let us ‘mates’ stay but no – he wanted to shag Anne more (..and who can blame him? –Anne or two sad bum-showing ‘not bent’ weirdo’s - I’d know who I’d choose!).
Sunday 25th
Up at half-past two in the afternoon. I have beaten An 2 games to nil in Pool so far. Watched TV a programme called ‘Jangles’ had Tank in the studio doing (She fell In Love) ‘With A Storm-trooper’ – different version with new lyrics. They had a huge backdrop logo like their sticker behind them - great! Hazel O’Connor was on there too doing a very bad electronic version of Alice Coopers’ ‘Schools Out’. Beat Anne 2-0 in Pool - that’s 14-0 now (big head!). Walked up to Nympho’s with Rob and Anne. Wayne’s and Andre were there – mucked about putting the hamster Rob’s pocket. We bundled Anne on the road on the way back. Watched ‘Tales Of The Unexpected’ at Wayne’s, where we went. It had Toyah in it as a model called ‘Blue Marigold’ (such a great agent eh – but such a crap name for a model!). Had a bundle with Anne on the way back from there and shoved Anne over a wall in the park and she said “I’ve lost my ear-ring’ so we started looking for it in the dark while Rob carried on walking and never came back – I guess he went home as we walked back up towards Wayne ooking for it. Which took a while and chatted while walking slowly back. When we eventually got to the flat Lol was up with Rob and both were clones of each other annoyed about me spending some time out with her and in major kiddie-type strops. Lol said “what have you been doing shagging her?”. I just went to bed in dis-belief at ‘ownership rights’ of a female friend.
Monday 26th
Had a talk, with Rob last night in bed about Anne and my assumption is that Lol wanted to go out with her but she didn’t want to go out with him. So as she doesn’t he won’t let her move in and make it cheaper for everyone. He wants a girlfriend or nothing while Rob is neutral and still wants her to move in as a friend. Watched Blue Peter (children’s TV programme) ‘How To Make Your Very own Punk Wig’ – it was pathetic. Played records Motorhead and Dead Wretched. I went out with Rob and rang up Cal. His mum answered then put him on. Cal gave me the address for the Bradford gig tomorrow night (The Palm Cove Club – as Bradford would jure up in your mind rightly!). Walked home doing moonies in the park.
Tuesday 27th
Woken up at 7.a.m (Crikey was there a war or something?). Rolled up our sleeping bags and me and Lol left for the gig in Bradford at 08:30 a.m. (I took £35 with me). Got the 9 a.m. coach for £3.50p and it got into London at 11:30 a.m. We got a Bradford £6 single ticket on the next coach and the driver nicked some of Lol’s chips. It pulled out at 12:30 p.m. for the 200-mile journey north of London. It stopped at some mo ay services on the way – I got some film for my camera and Lol got some coke. It went through Leicester, Derby and Sheffield and stopped at Leeds then pulled into Bradford at 5:30 p.m. I phoned the gig place and they said they are in Whetley Hill so get on a 618 bus. Walked to the bus station but decided to get the after-gig train times and fares to London etc. Queued up behind this bloke who kept asking questions and more bloody questions, about trains, fares and times. After 15 minutes he actually got bored and left – ugly bastard. We got bored and left and walked around the inner ring-road and decided to walk it and even the folk up north are friendly – a guy working behind the counter in a sweet shop said ‘Hello Lads’ as we walked in for a mars bar and a milk! Up a hill and down a few roads and we found The Palm Cove Club on a cobblestone type road – nobody was there except a few black blokes – it was like a boarded up prefab building. We went around the back and Discharge’s van was there in the glass ered car park. (This place was very bleak grey and drab and very poor area too – I felt at home at last – so did my ferrets!). Met the small girl with Antisect and chatted to her then me and Lol sat on a crumbling wall by a dump over-looking the valley and factories of North Bradford (not quite The Bahamas – but it was just about affordable). Took some photo’s and started up a fire with some smouldering old wood and an old chair (the guy sitting in it was well annoyed!). Load of Pakistani kids throwing es and stuff at us. A few punks turned up and the black blokes were throwing a Frisbee around. Heard Discharge do their sound-check. Went round the front queued up and went in. Heather was at the door and let me and Lol go through for nowt. It was like my small primary school I went to in Peckham, South London. Sat on the floor by the speakers and got a leaflet/flyer off of Antisect. Cal came over and talked with us a while. They played Reggae on the sound-system. Biffo the Gasmask came on and actually got some applause. Talked to two blokes on tour with Discharge. Antisect came on and they played great – the best I’ve seen them. A few punks moved around and rucked to the music while a spastic skinhead stood in the middle waiting to get touched so he could cause trouble – thick cunt. Discharge came on at 10:45 p.m. and Rainy jumped right up in the air and started with ‘Never Again’. Bones had a new maroon guitar. Discharge played great with Cal climbing up on the speakers again. I took 11 photographs of t and Cal fell forwards into the crowd yet still carried on singing! They went off at 11:30 p.m. We sat on stage and Rainy came over and he said “I didn’t recognise you” and that “I didn’t see you in the crowd”. Chatted to Cal who said that “The LP has been put back again til May 7th”. And he also told me “We are playing over in America in June – along the East coast – New York, Boston, Washington etc”. All the bands left and me and Lol got crisps and walked back to the Town centre at about 12:30 a.m. – l of Police around. Walked to Bradford Railway Station and got a bar of chocolate at 1 a.m but couldn’t sleep there as they looked it up as we got chucked out. Went around to the Bus Station and went to sleep on the floor there by a lift. But at 2 a.m. we were woken up by Security Guards. So we walked up a road and into some block of flats and went to sleep on the top landing by some stairs and two people’s doors to their flats. It was 02:45 a.m. and got into our sleeping bags.
Wednesday 28th
We were awoken at 07:30 a.m. by a black bloke shouting his head off so we left (much cheaper than an alarm but I couldn’t find his (fuck) ‘off button). We packed up and walked to the Coach Station. The next coach to Manchester was at 08:50 p.m. I bought a loaf of bread and a mars bar and sat on a bench there and wasted time. The coach cost £1.25p and we got the back seats. It went along the M62 and The Pennines (hills of Northern England). Then it turned off and we went across the hills and down skinny roads for 50 m es until we pulled into Oldham. Then we arrived in Manchester at 10 a.m. Asked at the information desk on how to get to Dukonfield (where Discharge were playing later). It turned out to be about 10 miles from the centre where we were in Manchester. I thought ‘fucking poo’. Walked to the Tourist Information and local records shop for more info. Went downstairs to Piccadilly Record shop and the bloke there said try Virgin, so we did but they didn’t know. We went to H.M.V record shop and met a guy called C who used to work in The Manchester Mayflower (the gig place I saw Discharge last year!). Chatted to him and then went into a supermarket. Met the crazy Punk kid on crutches from Mansfield there (that turned out to be Tim latterly associated with lots of ‘Skumdriblerzzzering’!). Had some spam sandwiches and milk and walked around The Arndale Shopping Centre a while – it’s massive – some blond bird kept smiling at us. At 1:30 p.m. Antisect came along and chatted – they were trying to ponce fags (cigarettes!) off of the ladies on a Rothmans Cigarettes stand. (It was a free sample-offer-giveaway type thing there for the day, and I think they done rather well!). They went after an hour and me and Lol wasted more time there til 5:30 p.m. We went into W.H Smith’s and I bought a Motorhead ‘Iron Fist’ 7” in Blue Vinyl for £1.20p – Lol typed on a computer screen that people could use, some of the lyrics to ‘They Declare It’ by Discharge. Went around to the bus station and caught a 220 bus to Dukinfield for 70p. Me me punks and a punkey bird from Sheffield on the bus, which took 30 minutes to get there. We got off the bus at 6:30 p.m. The gig place called ‘Drifters’ looks like the Mayflower club but painted brown. Discharge and Antisect were there in their vans. Had some sandwiches and then went up the local shop (the area was quite far, east, from the centre of Manchester but pretty grim and bleak – but at lest it was an improvement on the Mayflower Club area!). We got stopped by the Police walking back to the gi ace by the drug squad and then searched (stereo-typically they believed punks to be drugs takers – on this occasion they were so wrong!). We went around the side and heard Discharge soundcheck through the doors. Bones was doing Motorhead’s ‘Bomber’, Van Halen’s ‘Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love’, Siouxsie’s ‘Staircase Mystery’ and some Killing Joke riffs – well good. Lol picked up his sleeping bag and started pogoing with it ‘rucking it’. And was so into it that people came out of the gig doors and he didn’t notice them looking at him – at least for a few seconds – then, ahem he did and promptly stopped by throwing it on the floor. We went in and paid £2, the place inside is really mirrory and psychedelic. Sat down and listened to the music and watched other punks like they did us. Antisect came on 10 p.m. GET SET-LIST and played excellently. Even a few people ‘danced’ to them. Lol shouted out for ‘Ulster’ (as he saw it on their set-list I nabbed off the back of a speaker!) as an encore and voila – they played it! isect went off and I asked the singer, Pete Boyce if they had a record coming out but he said “No”. He also said “we are not playing at the Lyceum gig in London either”. We went down to the left side of the stage and then at 11 p.m. Discharge came on. GET SET-LIST They played bloody brilliantly – really great and played all their set too. Cal was going crazy running around really fast and holding the mike stand and also swinging the microphone around by its lead like a windmill! I took loads of photogra during their encores from the side of the stage behind the speakers. Cal puked up and that’s signified an excellent end to an excellent gig. The crowd were quite frantic too and the lights and mirrors made it a really great visual gig too – Nabbed the Discharge Set-List too as they exited the stage. The crowd left and we hung around and got a lift to Stoke with the band when they left at 1 a.m. In the Discharge-Van on the way back Cal had an argument with Bones on the M6 motorway about the ‘Never Again’ backdrop as they thought they’d forgot it and Cal was saying ‘That’s your job to check the backdrop’. We stopped the van at the next services. Someone found the backdrop and Bones said, “I told you Cal”, but Cal was still adamant that h should have known whether we had it or not! We had bad food at inflated prices as usual. I had sausage, chips, and beans and tea. Rainy and Bones threw sausages at each other while Antisect decided to have a salt n pepper fight. We pulled into Stoke-on-Trent after a journey miles south at around 3 a.m. We slept at Dave’s (the Discharge van driver), flat with Antisect, at 3:30 a.m. on a chair.
Thursday 29th
We got woken up at 11 .a.m by the electricity men breaking in! They turned off the electric and left. Rolled up my sleeping bag and left and got a lift in Discharges van with Tina and the rest piled into the ‘green heap’ (I think that was Antisect’s travelling vehicle!). Me and Lol got dropped at the bottom of Cal’s road and we walked the short distance, past Victoria H up to the Hanley Coach Station from there at 12 noon. Got food for the coach. Saw Tina and Heather in the Discharge van driving by. We got on the 1:45 p.m. coach to London, which cost £4.50p and was about 140 miles south. Sat at the back, read Sounds and made sandwiches of bread a spam and drank my milk. It went through Birmingham then Coventry we talked to a 70-year old lady that liked the Undertones – great laugh! Went asleep from Coventry to Golders Green, in North London. When I woke up it was pissing down with rain, got into Victoria Coach Station, in London at 6:20 p.m. and jumped on the next coach to Margate, which left at 6:30 p.m. We had to sit in separate seats as it was so packed (it cost £3.50p). Got off at Westbrook (in Margate near our flat) at 9 p.m. Rob was in and we watched the Old Grey Whistle Test with Michael Schenker Group Live In Noo york – o.k. The studio bands were The Waitresses and Chris Rea – both poo.
Friday 30th
I got up at 10 a.m. The landlady emptied the empty meter. She wo ed why there wasn’t money in there – that’s because the meter’s lock is broken (perhaps we were fiddling it by tampering with the locks or something?). I walked up and signed on and got me giro cheque of £69.54 (£34.77p a week which is £4.96p each and every day!). Went to mums Mike was there and mum n dad got back yesterday and they took some photo’s of me, Mike, Lol and Wayne in the back garden doing bundles etc. We walked up to Wayne’s he played The Exploited’s new single ‘Attak’/’Alternative’ (great! nfa-Riot – crap and The Defects – Shit. Me and Lol went around Nympho’s and look at the party photo’s she had developed. The English Navy/Army set up a blockade around the Falklands Islands today. Listened to Tommy Vance who played a Tank seesion which consisted of: - ‘Hammer On’, ‘Don’t Walk Away’, ‘Heavy Artillery’ and (she Fell In Love) ‘With A Stormtrooper’ – all good. The new guy called James who’d just moved in came down and complained after we played ‘Stormtrooper’ by Tank on 10.
MAY
Saturday 1st
Up at 1:30 p.m. and played records – Iron Maiden ‘Number Of The Beast’ LP – great and Motorhead’s ‘Iron Fist’. The Royal Navy bombed Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands so Argentina have nowhere to land. We also had two planes shot down – unconfirmed though (I like the term ‘we ‘ here!). I played Girlschool ‘Wildlife’ and ‘C’mon Let’s Go’ E.P’s., Motorhead ‘Iron Fist’, UK Subs ‘Countdown E.P., The Varukers E.P. and The Insane ‘Politics’ E.P. Gary and Karen came around and me, Lol and Rob and those two threw cushions at the TV all through the Val Doonican Show, also we tipped up the couch upside down and turned out the lights ( I think it turned into ‘direct-action’ against Val meself!). Played ‘Number Of The Beast’ by Iron Maiden. Later when out walking a car passed us and some opinionated young man, with his mates and birds in the vehicle, verbally referred to us as followes “Hey Prick! – You look like a wanker” (Funnily enough I didn’t; actually look much like him at all!). I referred to him, touchingly, A cunt in a car’. Me and Lol had a ‘ruck’ down the seafront and ended up on the floor. Argentina and Britain are, officially, at war now. Fighting with planes and ships. And now the propaganda score on the doors – 7 Argentinean planes shot down and 1 of our ships ‘slightly’ damaged. (I actually believed this shit at the time too! – now I know we shot down miles more than 7of their planes and our ship wasn’t even hit at all!).
Sunday 2nd
Up at noon, loads of Mods on scooters went by (our flat is on he main road into Margate and it’s weekend beano’s for any gang that wants to come down here en masse!). We, me, Rob and Lee, went out at 6:30 p.m. and walked up town (we had to along the front to get there –brave at the time – fucking stupid in hindsight!) only a few Mods around. As we were walking past the Job Centre (how did I know where it was, but more strangely what is was?) a load of Mods came out of the top end of the precinct about 30 yards away up a side street we were walking across. And you could sense and see they sped up and headed straight for us three. So we knew we’d have t run or get demolished by about 30 Mods. So we went to get on a bus at the far side of Cecil Square – it pretty desolate around the square. They were obviously going to kick poo well and truly out of us so we stood at the bus door waiting for the driver to open it as we could literally hear the running of feet nearing us. A nearby couple ran up behind us, one a soul-boy as the door opened and as we stepped up on the platform we attacked by the mob of Mods. Rob got a kick in the side and stomach and a punch on the jaw. While Lee escaped unharmed and untouched – possibly as he looked ‘more straight’ than us (so much for looking highly ‘queer’ then eh!). I got punched on the back of the head a couple of times but it didn’t hurt (such elevated pride here you could almost name a cloud after it!). I also got kicked a few times – but I lost a badge in the ‘affray’ and a knife rip in the back of my jacket. We all ran up the end of, the lower floor, of the bus. But they cleared off down the hill after that. We got off after a while and took the back roads up to Northdown Road via Dane Park (away from our flat but also the seafront and hopefully trouble!). Chatted to a group of local kids seemingly penned into the arcade up there watching Mods go by. We saw some Mods much further up Northdown Road come out of Tesco’s on their scooters so we ran across the petrol station forecourt and behind a building across the road (it was dead end so we could have got trapped – but they didn’t see us luckily). They actually all pulled into the same petrol station and filled up but later left without seeing us (kissing bricks in the wall and shitting them too no doubt too!). We made it up Karl’s o.k. he was in with Joanne and played records a while. Called to Kev’s around the corner – he wasn’t it but his wife Sandra said a relative of Kev’s called Stuart (a skinhead) was hit with a hammer and a glass smashed in his neck earlier. Me Rob and Lee then pop into Nympho’s – Wayne was with her in bed. So we went back downstairs and left, but not before robbing some pizza’s and tea-bags and then went round Lee’s. Got a lift home by Lee’s dad to the flat door – loads of gangs of Mods n Skins about on the seafront.
Monday 3rd
I woke up at 9 a.m. but my alarm didn’t go off. Me and Lol left at 10:30 with my sleeping bag and camera – loads of Mods about (where on earth were we risking on going on our own on a Bank Holiday Monday in Margate anyway?). We were off 300 miles to see Discharge in Hull, and nearby Grimsby the following day – oop norf!. A load of, Mods about 30, drove past but were escorted out of Margate by the Pigs (Well 1 Police Car – and isn’t it ironic that these people I refer to as ‘pigs’ are now the very thing I need to stop myself from ending up in hospital if I’m lucky and the cemetery if I am not eh?!). We walked up to the Westbrook coach stop as the seafront and harbour walk seemed like it could wait for another morning! A 4-car pile up happened at the zebra-crossing we were walking past and then caught the 11 a.m. and got a £3.50p standby ticket to London. It was relief to get away from Margate I can tell you (in fact I just have). Got into London at 1:45 p.m. We asked about a coach to Hull and found out the next one is ages away at 4 p.m. and doesn’t get into Hull till 9 p.m. – not good, infact plop. Or we could catch the 2:30p.m. to nearby York and get a bus, coach or train. It cost £6.50p but the driver was a cunt as he wouldn’t issue us a t t and made us go over the Ticket-Office to buy it (I’m utterly inconvenienced and I have little choice but to simply sue you –see you in court fat-arse!). Got back on the coach and made spam sandwiches and drunk milk. It went the same way north as Bradford, but Hull is about 50 miles east from there and around 225 miles from London. It was fairly packed and sat separately and fell asleep for an hour or so. We pulled into York at 6:45 p.m. (which was quite late for a gig in Hull that opens at 7:30 p.m. really). We asked directions to the coach station but we couldn’t find it and we walked back and forwards three times before we actually found out there in no coach station. So we walked to the bus station and found out the last bus left 8 minutes after we got there, when we were walking back and forwards, for Hull at 6:53 p.m. But if that made us angry the fact that it didn’t get into Hull till 11 p.m. made us a little less aggrieved. The guy at the train station said the quickest way to Hull is the ‘change at Selby’ service, which would get us into Hull at 10:12 p.m. (great eh!). Little chance of seeing Discharge but still it’s best to try while there’s time! Got a single ticket for Selby for £3.50p and made some sandwiches and waited in the warm waiting room. The Inter-City 125 train (for Edinburgh) came in at 8:25 p.m. – Lol couldn’t believe the automatic doors (he gets amazed very easily y’see – he even liked Eater and The Adverts, oh and ‘Golden Brown’ too!). We pulled into Selby 20 minutes later at 8:45 . We got off walked across the bridge ready to wait an hour for the Hull train but the Hull train was standing there ready to go on Platform 2! So perhaps we stand a chance now! We sat in a backwards-facing seat along the northern shore of the River Humber. We went under the Humber Suspension Bridge – absolutely massive. We pulled into Hull Railway Station at 9:30 p.m. and the ticket guy tried to charge us £2.50p more, from Selby to Hull!!! We argued with him and in the end we got through for £1.50p. Asked where the Tower Theatre (gig venue) was. Walked through an alley with him and it was almost next-door! We could hear Discharge already onstage and got a £2 ticket and went straight in. They were playing ‘Blood Runs Red’ and I took 12 photographs. The stage was very high and the venue was like Hanley hall in Stoke with a balcony. The place was huge; my camera batteries opened and flew out but managed to find them. I saw Discharge play 6 songs and I found a watch, some batteries and a few studs and earrings, the latter I gave to Lol (as ‘badge finding’ was very popular after the chaos down the front of Punk gigs – so you could find anything really, money, badges, watches etc). Had a chat later on with Rainy about badges and fun fairs, Rainy went on the ‘Loop-the-Loop’ in Blackpool a while ago and the safety harness came off of him. Cal came over and said “Have you got anywhere to stay tonight?”, I said “No we only just got here 6 songs from the end of your set!”. He said “If you go over to the New York pub site we’ll be in there and we’ll sort something out for you and us”. So after a while we left and went over there and waited an hour with Tim, the cripple-dribbler from Mansfield for Discharge but they never turned up. Cripple went and me and Me and Lol walked to the Town centre and got chips then returned to a near deserted New York Pub – still no Discharge at all. It was quite bleak in Hull so we walked up Anlaby Road (where the gig was situated on) and saw a block of flats over on the left so headed over there to find hopefully somewhere inside as it was quite chilly. No foyer or benches so we went for a quiet-kip in a sort of cupboard/cycle area with concrete floor and a bar gate with a padlock on it but it was open, this was at about 11 p.m. We put our sleeping down on cold concrete, but at least we hopefully would not be disturbed if freezing cold all night.
Tuesday 4th
Up at 08:30 a.m. by Lol who said “Have we been locked in here all night”! I got up and he was right the metal bar gate was padlocked and we couldn’t now get out. Although the key was in it the angle and width of the barred gate ruled out twisting the key to free ourselves although I slammed my, skinnier-than-un-Lol’s fingers and hands through to repeatedly try. I eventually just about did it and voila we were free. There were workmen outside and they said, “The Police are coming and you’d better wait for them”. So we did the complete opposite and left. Went up town and got some food – haslet (a sort of spam) and a bottle of coke (mout tering here?). We caught the 10:30 a.m. coach to Grimsby for £2.34p (exactly!). We got the back seats as it was fairly empty and we went across the Humber Suspension Bridge today, as yesterday we went under it! We had to get off at Barton-Upon-Humber and catch a train. It had only 2 carriages, and one track for train both ways and it only went 30 miles per hour! It took about 45 minutes through some quite nice countryside though. We got into Grimsby at 11:45 a.m. Met Tim, the cripple, and he hung around with us. We walked to the gig venue, the Community Centre (whereas Tim hobbled). We crossed a railway goods yard on a footbridge, which was particularly bleak, even for Grimsby I would imagine. Found it down a side street but nobody was there. Lol ripped down a Discharge poster. We got thrown out and dossed on the grassy patch opposite. Then went back up town for food, we got bread and spam for 44p. Then back to the Community Hall (centre!). Drunk coke and had sandwiches on the staircase up to the gig on the first floor (of what looked like an converted old textile building). We talked about music and how many times we’d seen bands with Tim ‘Cabbage’ from Skumdribblerz (not a place called Skumdribblerz, the place he was from is called Mansfield!). Tim, it turned out had seen Anti-Pasti 14 times! We went outside and the Discharge gang came along and Rainy came over and talked with us. I said, “Your jackets ripped Rainy” as half the arm was hanging off and he said “It’s hardcore eh Tone!” (He really is a very y man isn’t he!). He asked us why we hadn’t turned up at ‘the flat’ last night (that they stayed at), I said, “No-one came back to the pub or told us where they were going or staying!” He was quite unhappy about that when he heard he exact location we dreamed our dreams in Hull. Discharge went in and done their sound-check. We went up and blagged our way in to see them do a few songs then we got chucked out (again!). We went into the toilets and done our hair (have to keep up ones travelling appearance – albeit a bad one). Chatted with a tattoo-kid who was into 1977 punk. Garry came over and chatted with us sitting on some stairs about how he sticks his hair up. He uses just soap. We got chucked out for the third time shortly after that. Waited by the door with 2 mohicans (of the ‘Oxford Mental Mob’) and 2 girls (one a ‘moke’). A few posers turned up (apart from me and Lol of course!). Cal came to the door and said to us “I’ll put you both on the guest-list, alrite?” Great stuff Cal. Went in at 8pm for nowt and got an orange Discharge poster (of the gig, and the Hull Gig last night on it too, for 40p). We sat on the stage and chatted to a rooster-mohican punk into Saxon. Had some of his coke and put our sleeping and in Discharge’s dressing room. Biffo the Gasmask’s slide-screen fell forwards and got damaged so he didn’t come on and ‘play’ tonight. A stand-by support got up and played called ‘Dead Loss’. A bloke singer in tartan gear was o.k. The guitarist was o.k. The drummer had a tiny drum kit with bass moving after every kick on the bass-pedal. They played ‘House Of The Rising Sun’ and three other songs and the band went off all except the guitarist who was, by then, behind the stage kneeling down playing so he carried on til he noticed or someone brought it to his attention that ‘their gig’ had already finished! (Aptly named if nothing else!). I went over and sat on a warm radiator for a while until Discharge came on. They launched into their set and Cal took of his jacket first song and gave it to me to look after. Cal jumped down into the crowd too mid-song. Cal climbed up on the speakers but had to go behind a curtain to do it. I took loads of photographs – about 12 or so. Discharge played pretty good tonight and took a picture of Garry and he smiled. Rainy laughed at that (it must’ve been a rarity to see smiles by the members onstage). Cal came across to the speakers I was behind, he tried to climb those but slipped and as he tried to jump clear he fell back down but I kind of caught him and pushed him back up and the speakers were nearly falling when he was on them so I held them until he jumped down. The highlight of the evening was seeing a punk standing up seemingly asleep to Discharge while they played ultra-loudly. Discharge went off and I got Bones to get our sleeping bags from the dressing room and chatted to Tina about were we slept last night. Me and Lol went outside and chatted to the mohican punks, from the ‘Oxford Mental Mob’, the asked us if we had a place to stay. So we said no and th aid we are getting put up so come with us! So we walked with them to loads of pubs in Cleethorpes and Grimsby with a kid called ‘Shit’ (…Shit, that’s a pissing bad name eh?). After that us 2 and about 6 or 7 other punks, walked another 2 or 3 miles to the outskirts of Grimsby to ‘Shit’s house (well his parents house – Mr & Mrs Shit’s house I presume?). He said “Wait down the side in the shed until my parents, Mr & Mrs Shit, go to sleep then I’ll come and get you”. So me and Lol and the others crammed into the cold musty dark shed over bikes, bins, boxes, Wellington boots and waited…and waited and waited. Gradually the waiting list shortened as people left and went elsewhere and you couldn’t sit, letalone lay down – and it was pretty darn cold too (Shit’s house is a shit-house to stay in – and yes it’s rather Grim-sby up north too if you were wondering). He never came back – shit-head. So we were almost the last to leave about 3 a.m. and walked the 3 miles back to town centre and just slept on a too-skinny bench in the open air in the coach station (as there really was little difference to the shit-house we checked out of recently, bar there was more room on the bench – even after me laying on it). ‘Sleep’ at 3:30 a.m.
Wednesday 5th
Woken up at 06:30 a.m. by Lol as a Police car came into the coach station. It stopped and they wound down the window and asked us over. Asking us our names, addresses and identity etc (as it was 7 a.m. by then so after a huge 3 hours kip out in the open in Grimsby – we got up f ng fresh and alive – it’s on days like these that people take their own lives I would imagine – or just leave Grimsby by any means possible – me and Lol left on the 8 a.m. donkey). We walked around to the supposed coach-stop, but then got told it was over the other side of town centre (…if the government want a location for future bomb tests they could do worse than look at Grimsby). As we were walking to it – the coach we actually wanted went past us so we scarpered through a shopping centre walkway that cut through the circular route the coach needed to take to the coach stop. We just about made it (..but ‘shit’ was driving the coach-and he was going home!) and got a standby £6.50p ticket to London and grabbed the back seat (so we could turn around and wave goodbye to Grimmer-Than-Grim-Grimsby). We passed the blonde mohican and his bird from Oxford, they were hitch-hiking – fresh from a night at the ‘Hotel Mr & Mrs Shit’. I got in my sleeping bag and took off my boots and went to sleep till we reached Peterborough. Went down the A1 and got into London at 1:20 p.m. It pissed down with room so we found 3 papers to read while we waited for it to stop. We then walked to the Paki-Market (..now we must call them Asian shops instead of Pakistani Supermarkets – so please don’t refer to me as a ‘U.K. Punk’ when I am simply a ‘Euro-Music-fan’ o.k?) for bread and milk up near the Railway Station. Then just made it back for the 2:30 p.m. coach back to un-grim Margate. Got back in the flat and home at 5:20 p.m. While ere away this is what (was rumoured to have by the U.K. media) happened about the Falklands War. One Argentinean Ship torpedoed and sank – 300 feared dead. One Navy Harrier jet shot down, and one Navy ship torpedoed and caught on fire then after 4 hours it sank with 40 dead. Lee, Wayne, Nympho, Kev, Vivian and Gary all came around then me, Rob and Lol joined them in going to the Ship Inn for the Wednesday Nite gig there. It was raining torrentially (but Margate still seemed nice compared to sunny Grimsby!). The band on were called Breakaway, who were a laugh. We kept shouting out ‘Brown bears’ in between songs (..now for the uninitiated amongst you ‘Brown bears’ is a metaphor for ‘large U-bend poo’s’ that just will not, no matter how hard you try, flush them selves away to the fishes at the seaside – erm like Margate – what was I saying about Grimsby?). And Breakaway said “Every song is dedicated to The Brown Bears” (if they only knew!). They did a few cover jobs, The Police, ‘I only want to be with you’, ‘We Gotta Get Out Of This Place’, bald keyboard player whose organ just about worked. Drummer was o.k., they had a crap basin-headed bassist singer in suit and guitarist looked like Shoestring with a left-handed guitar. After the gig Nympho took photo’s of us all doing moonies with their road-crew in the pub!
Thursday 6th
Awoken at 2 p.m. by Lol. Anne and her friend came around, her friend was complaining about how bad her tea was (coffee?), how dirty I was (fair comment!), the carpet (fancy hoovering lu – stupid cow. Anne had her high leather boots on – they cost £40 on – they looked good. We walked up the Longplayer – me and Lol, and they played Side One of the new Discharge LP in a record shop in Margate! It has a gatefold sleeve, with lyrics on the inside. Pictures of a girl lying on beach sunbathing before and after the bomb drops. On the back cover it has great pictures of each member of the band. The one of Cal is just like one of mine. The LP is produced a bit too clean for my liking. On the label it’s got the ‘Never Again’ logo – 14 tracks and 1 they don’t play (which is ‘Free Speech For The Dumb’). It’s £3.99p and I bought the Spider single ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll’ (pic) for 15p and UB40’s ‘I Won’t Close My Eyes’ for 15p. Two Navy Harriers have gone missing over The Falklands. Old Grey Whistle Test had Spandau Ballet and The Fixx on it –shit. Also showed a clip from Jubilee the film with Adam Ant and Jordan. Saxon, supposedly live done ‘Denim & Leather’ – o.k.
Friday 7th
Up at 11:30 a.m. and Gary came around we went out at 12:30 and we bundled Gary in a car park and shoved him on top of a car roof. We then walked up to the Margate Winter Gardens where Rob, Gary and Lol got their Anti-Nowhere League tickets for £3 each - they got numbers 53,54,55. Walked up to mums where Lol and Mike headbanged to Iron Maiden. Went home to the flat and the Ambulances and Police cars with sirens and flashing lights went past up towards tbrook - shortly afterwards all the Margate little skinheads walked past the flat with sticks. I don't feel well and went to bed with a cold, sore throat and a temperature - took a tablet.
Saturday 8th
Up at 2 p.m. and watched the Beatles film 'Let It Be'' on TV - load of shit with crappy made up tunes in the studio. (I'm so glad they never got anywhere - that rash comment could've made me look an idiot!). Gilles Villeneuve, the French Grand Prix driver, is critically ill in hospital today after crashing his car in practice for the Belgium Grand Prix tomorrow his car hit a barrier and rebounded in little pieces. He was thrown out of his wreckage into a fence at 140 M.P.H. Watched Pop Quiz with Toyah on it with Punk hair and it had 1966 psychedelic Status Quo on it. Later me and Lol walked up to Karl’s who was in with Joanne and he played the Discharge LP, both sides and heard ‘Free Speech For The Dumb’ aswell – ok. He also played the bad Anti-Nowhere League LP and two skinheads came around that are going up to see Discharge tomorrow too.
Sunday 9th
I got up at 10 a.m. by alarm clock rolled up my sleeping bag and Lee and Gary came around and later, with Rob at 12:45 p.m. we all walked around the station and got the train at 1:23 into London at 3:15 p.m. We all walked through Hyde Park up to Edgware Road and along to Jenny’s in Bayswater. She was in and said we could stay there the night after the gig so left the sleeping bag there for later. We walked from there the 4 or 5 miles through the heart of Londo The Lyceum, through Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. Got there at 6:15 p.m. met the Antisect singer (Pete Boyce) and his girlfriend and he said “Discharge are not playing tonight now – they’ve cancelled” – shit. He also said, “Vice Squad are headlining with The Insane now supporting”. Danny from Leicester was there from the Discharge tours. I also met the mohcan guy I shared the bicycle shed with in Grimsby recently (A member of the ‘Oxford Mental Mob’!). I also found out soon after we left they were invited into the house and let stay the night and given breakfast! (Grimsby just gets worse and worse for me eh!). Karl, Joanne and the two Margate skins turned up and we chatted outside and then paid £3 in after the crowd died down queue-wise. Got my pack of biscuits taken off me by a black bouncer but he later gave them back. The Dark were on and they were poo -–with a fat singer, they soon went back off with no encore – hooray! Chatted to Karl – the good news is that Charge didn’t turn up and are not playing! But that joy was short-lived as I found out their replacement was The Defects from Northern Ireland. I went up to the balcony with Wayne and Lee and watched them. They were much better than I thought they’d be. The singer didn’t move around enough and they had a skinhead bassist and drummer but a lively guitarist. A little bit of pogoing but no encore. Rob and Lol came up after that. Rob joined Wayne and Lol down the front when The Insane came on next. Bambi looked nger and had a new kit. A little bit of pogoing and the bassist had back-hair and had a ‘high-up’ bass guitar and done a really funny hop-skipping jump dance while playing. They had a skinhead guitarist with an orange guitar – he was good. Shit singer who looked like Peter Grogan (an Irish mate of ours when we lived there whose love of life was robbing other people’s cars and crashing them between the hours of 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.!) and acted like a demented baboon (The singer of The Insane – aswell as Peter Grogan of course!). They played pretty good and all the songs from their first E.P. and heir new single ‘El Salvador’ too they didn’t play an encore. Wayne and Lee came down the front for G.B.H. They came on and Jock has a black eye and longer hair and a flying V guitar. They played newies of ‘Timebomb’ and Sick Boy’ (the new single) and ‘Prayer Of A Realist’ – they played excellent and really lively with one encore. The sound system played 'Never Again’ by Discharge straight after G.B.H left the stage. I found a green ‘Realities Of War’ (Discharge) badge and me and Rob went down the front right-hand side of the stage for Vice Squad and they played good, better than last time. Beki (Bondage) looked lovely in her thigh-high leather boots, short mini-skirt, split high and fishnets with a black top. They played 3 encores and went off. Lol got kicked by a black bouncer. Me, Lol, Rob, Wayne and Gary went back to Jenny’s place in Bayswater. Whilst in a 24-hour shop near Jenny’s a New Zealand girl had a go at Rob making silly noises while queuing up to pay for his stuff. (Maybe Rob sang for The Insane?!). She then turned out to be staying at Jenny’s aswell! I slept on the floor in my sleeping bag and got to sleep at 01:30 a.m.
Monday 10th
Rob and Wayne had left before I woke up. The New Zealand girl came in and put on Sid Vicious’ ‘My Way’ on volume 8 then left the room. Gary got up and returned the favour by putting on The Sweet ‘Blockbuster’ on even louder and I was trying to get to sleep! I twisted my hair into spikes and left my sleeping bag and camera there and left at 1:45 in the afternoon. Had some milk and chips. Me and Lol walked all the way to Clapham Junction from Bayswater (about 6 miles). This was south of the river, to get Lol’s nose pierced at a place he knew of that could do it. Walked through Hyde Park, Knightsbridge, Sloane Square and the Kings Road. Sat down on some benches there and over Battersea Bridge and up to Clapham common and down to the high street and into Goldmine (the piercing place). It cost 99p for two gold studs in Lol’s right nostril. The guy jus sat Lol down on a chair and loaded the gun and ‘pop’ – one was in and ‘pop’ both were in! Both were done in less than 15 seconds. Bought some bread and luncheon meat in a Kings Road supermarket on the way back and some fizzy drink. Walked up to Sloane Square fountain and sat there from 4:30 til 6:30 p.m. Two Punkette girls that were at the Lyceum last night came over and asked us for some fags and sat with us a while. After a few people ed slyishly to take photographs of us four. Left the punketttes and us 2 walked up to Hyde Park and stopped for bread and luncheon meat sammies on deckchairs by the lake there (the Serpentine). I phoned up Cal after buying some films for my camera. Cal’s dad answered and Cal wasn’t there. But his dad told me that the reason they didn’t play the Lyceum last night was because Cal was ill. And also said the Sheffield Marples gig was also off and said something about a USA Tour too. Us 2 walked back to Jenny’s and picked up our sleeping bag and stuff and said ta-ra to Jenny and left at 8 p.m. Lol got Motorhead’s ‘No Sleep Til Hammersmith’ LP in Gold Vinyl for £4.99p. We walked to Victoria Coach Station (4 miles) but had missed the last coach so then walked up to Victoria Train Station and got ‘two halfs’ (child fares) for two punks aged 19! It cost £3.25p each to Margate. Met a Canadian Punkette with some London skins. Caught the 9:39 p.m. back home to Margate and took some photos of each other on the train. We got in at 11:15 p.m.
Tuesday 11th
I was awoken at 10:30 a.m. by Kev ringing on the doorbell so I got up. I went out with Lol and up town and into loads of jewellers with him for some sold silver studs for his nose – he got 2 for a pound. We went up Longplayer where I bought Iron Maiden’s ‘Number of the Beast’ 7” (Pic) single on Red Vinyl and Tank’s ‘Stormtrooper’ Picture Disc 7” both were £1.25p each. We walked up to the Winter Gardens and it has a huge pink ‘Anti-Nowhere League’ poster for the forthcom gig. Paid £3 for my ticket which is number 81.
Wednesday 12th
I was awoken by Gary talking to Rob whilst sitting on my bed. Got up and twisted my hair better than last night. Me and Lol had a ‘Dirty Feet Contest’. Lol won it with his left foot little toe – it was black. Two Argentinean fighters were shot down and my cousin John is coming down tomorrow for Anti-Nowhere League. I took a picture of Rob in his jarmers and he took one of me and Lol on Lol’s bed.
Thursday 13th
Awoke at 11 by Gary, then my cousin John came in with a mate – but they left straightaway. Walked up to town and Longplayer with Rob and Gary but no Discharge LP in yet. We walked to the Winter Gardens where Gary took some photos of me and Rob above the ‘Anti-Nowhere League’ giant poster. Went into mums and John and his mate left as we got there. Mike was off to see Girlschool and Raven tonight at the Hammersmith Odeon, in London. Went home and played half of the Tank track ‘Blood, Guts and Beer’ and my record needle snapped (that’s just a testament to the sheer brute force power of Tank I feel!). Boy that really gave me the needle. I looked out of the window and saw the bassist of Chron Gen going into the hotel across the road called ‘The Chelmsey’ – the band must be staying there I reckon. I walked up the Winter Gardens at 7:15 p.m. with Lol and met Wayne, Lee, Joe and Nympho up there who all went for a walk along the beach. Everyone in the queue went in and I went with Anne to get her ticket from the foyer. I met Johno from Leicester side. We went in and sat at the back on some blue chairs by a pillar. The Defects were first to go on and I went down the front and took 2 photos of them. They played good – better than the Lyceum gig and they done ‘Emotional Blackmail’ (The U.K. Subs song) brilliantly. They didn’t play an encore though. I got a 50p poster and rugby-tackled Nympho then Chelsea came onstage at 8:35 p.m. and played better than the last time I saw ‘em. They got the crowd really moving and the bassist looked like Tezz (from Discharge) and lead guitarist like (The Exploited’s) Dru Stix. Went and sat down and watched them – they actually played shorter than The Defects. Chron Gen came on at 9:10 p.m. and I took about 6 photos of them onstage. They played excellently with Lol and Rob pogoing to ‘Lies’ and ‘Mindless Few’. They have a new guitarist – he’s good. Excellent drummer and they went off at 9:50 p.m. and I went and sat down. At 10 p.m. Anti-Nowhere League came on and I took about 5 photos. The guitarist had a top hat on and all the skinheads were piling into the punks down the front from behind and pulling them over and kicking shit out of them (what’s it like to be that thick?). If there are no more punk gigs in Margate then blame it on them. Anti-Nowhere League played good with ‘I’ve been To Margate Too’ line from ‘So What’ was funny. Went home to the flat and John and his mate slept the night. Stuck up my poster in the poolroom just as the Chron Gen bassist and singer walked past going back into their hotel, via the loc hip shop a few doors along with a few punks. Me and Rob were leaning out of the window and the singer said “Pass down your bird mate!” I told them Rob was a bloke and they burst out laughing. Gene October (of Chelsea) passed with his guitarist and chatted about drugs and the flat of ours while standing out front a few floors down! Mike came around at 01:15 a.m. off the last train from London and said Raven were better than Girlschool – he left at 02:30 a.m.
Friday 14th
I got up at 09:45 a.m. I got my P Win through from last Saturday which was for 24 points £81.40p! As I got 24 points I thought they should have paid me that but they sent a cheque for fucking just 65 pence – bunch of cunts, I’m writing back to them for my £81.40p. Me Lol and my cousin John walked up to Longplayer up town – still no Discharge LP in. Me and Lol walked up mums after I signed on and got a can of coke for 12 and a half pence and drunk it in mums garden – real warm sunshine. Me and Lol went up to my old room and Lol looked through my punk badges and punk bumflaps (which are fabric sections hanging by a chain around the back of ones bottom over the punkiest trarsers ye coulde muster!). Went back to the flat and later Mike, John mu cousin and his mate popped around after going to Dreamland (Theme Park along Margate seafront) – they met Chron Gen in there! I watched TV at 9:25 with Status Quo live from the N.E.C in Birmingham – shitty crowd and no headbanging – Quo were sluggish and boring – it was on for 45 minutes. Mike and John came back later and talked till 02:15 a.m. and stayed the night.
Saturday 15th
I got up at 11:30 a.m. Later I watched Pop Quiz with Ann-Lu Win of Bow Wow Wow on it. We shouted out the window to loads of birds (they just flew off though – I think young Anthony meant girls!!).
Sunday 16th
Rob woke me up at 1:30 p.m. He played me loads of Iron Maiden – excellent. We watched TV – Bob Marley in concert, his last in England, at the Rainbow in London. Me and Rob done a piss out the window (Hey the toilet was STAIRS!). We went to bed at 1 a.m. After a while we decided things were not that crazy so we came to an agreement that a balcony walk, from me and Rob’s bedroom to Lol’s along the main road into Margate was definitely in order at that time of the morning! Rob poked his bum over the railings to a taxi driver going past. We walked along to Lol’s room completely in the nude and banged on his double doors and nearly got locked out naked by Rob.
Monday 17th
I got woken up by Lol and Ro at 1:30 p.m. Me, Lol and Rob walked up town trying to get a needle for my record player after three places still no yes! I bought Charlie Harper’s ‘Freaked’ 7” for 10p and also Slade’s ‘Knuckle Sandwich’ too. Me, Lol and Rob later walked up to Nympho’s, she and Wayne were in bed – but Wayne left as soon as we turned up as he knew he wouldn’t get his willy up coz we’d already said we’ll sleep the night there. I put on Wayne’s pyramid studded belt and us two went around Karl’s. We slept at Nympho’s who was walking around in just her knickers…me and Rob stripped off naked on our beds – Lol kept his clothes on. And Nympho was trying to get him in just her panties. But Lol didn’t want to know – so why didn’t he move away then! Me and Rob kept flapping willies on our stomachs making noises and bundling Nympho. We also were walking around in the nude opening the window and saying “There’s only three of us in here” (don’t ask – coz I do not know o.k.!). We kept farting and so did Nympho too and me and Rob pulled up Nympho by the sides o r petite knickers which then ripped and we then slapped her bum cheeks in celebration. Me and Rob walked home leaving Lol there – who clearly was not in the slightest bit interested of course.
Tuesday 18th
Woke at 11:27 a.m. by Kev looking for Rob. Went back to sleep until Gary woke me at 12 ish. I bought Vardis’ ‘Silver Machine’ for 10p. Me and Rob later nearing bedtime some nude balcony walking again and took a trip to Lol’s window again banging on it – he didn’t open up surprisingly enough!
Wednesday 19th
Woken up at 11 a.m. by Gary talking to Rob about Fast Eddie leaving Motorhead. Lol came in later and said Discharge and Antisect are playing the Zig-Zag Club in London on May the 29th. Tank are playing the day before with Rock Goddess supporting – I’ll go to both of those gigs. Mike and Gary came around and we watched Miss U.K. with loads of fanny and erect nipples. Me, Lol and Rob done pisses off the balcony corner down onto the side street. Then all three of us went out for nude balcony walks while some blonde bird opposite got undressed with the light on (she was such a show off that we looked for ages to confirm this).
Thursday 20th
I woke up at 11:45 a.m. when Gary came around; I played him in Pool and won the 10p (massive stake) game. Went up to town and got Sounds and N.M.E – it had a Discharge ‘Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing’ LP review – it’s o.k. Rob wrote off to Neat Records because he didn’t get a poster and t-shirt offer leaflet with his Raven LP (too right – what’s the point of without this I sayeth!). I met mum outside a shop and carried her Daz washing powder home (how low can a punk get? How clean can a punk get?). Me, Rob, Lol, Kev, Gary and Mike walked down to the flat seeing ‘Hardcore Andy’ on the way, who was a mess of metal and punk and Venom (ooh that’s near fatal methinks!). Mike and Kev went down the seafront arcades we nicknamed the ‘Half P Jews’ (half pence they actually were!). Me, Mike and Kev watched Top Of The Pops back at the flat it had Iron Maiden on it at. They are at number 26 with ‘Number Of The Beast’ video – excellent – the same as the one they showed on Old Grey Whistle Test. Went up Nympho’s with Lol and Mike – looked through her great all-colour nudey books. Murphy (Nympho) put on her black stockings and red and black suspender belt with her white petite briefs, when she lifted up her red top showing the ‘works’ – nice. We switched off the TV at 11:45 and loads of headbanging to tunes we made up on the spot – to which a neighbour complained about (incidentally me and Rob, Lol and Kev eventually did get a band together that played with The English Dogs in London!). Some person called Andre and a friend came around to Nympho’s and told us to leave (god knows who they were but she was quite powerless herself to stop this seemingly!). He called me a ‘cripple’ for taking so long to do up my Doctor Martens – I said, “Have you seen the length of these laces?” (That shut him up no doubt!). Mike kipped at ours and we did synchronised pisses over the balcony lik delayed-time golden shower into the road below at 2 a.m.
Friday 21st
I was awoken at 08:50 a.m. by Rob. Me, Rob and Lol were off to Ramsgate Market together – they said meet us at Kev’s and we’ll go from there. I walked to mums a while and when I got to Kev’s they weren’t there – testicle flaps is what I say! So I went around Karls, whose hair was red now. I went with him and Joanne to Wayne’s where we looked at rudey mags. Me and Wayne walked to Nympho’s and when she answered and he heard a male voice in the background he ran away crying and I ran after him. We went back to the flat where Rob was – he bought me Rose Tattoo’s LP ‘Assault and Battery’ for £1.50p kind isn’t he – yeah I suppose so! Lol came in later and gave me a Cal/Discharge badge – he had flat hair.
Saturday 22nd
I awoke at 1:20 p.m. Went up Northdown Park on the swings and roundabouts saw Wayne on the way back from Nympho’s later – he was nearly crying again. And went around his listening to a bloke called Ivor Biggun on tape – a great laugh and he had songs like ‘The Man With The Biggest Plonker On The Planet’ and ‘Thomas Alcock’’. Later back at the flat around ‘nude balcony walking time’ we ‘nude balcony walked’ – while rob was out on it me an Lol shouted out the side window to two foreign birds – who turned around but couldn’t see the then locked out Rob cowering down as best he could still.
Sunday 23rd
I woke up at 11:25 a.m. there was loads of fighting in the Falklands during Friday and Saturday – one of the governments’ ships got with 30 dead. Also one helicopter ditched with 15 dead. A couple of Argentinean planes got shot down and ships damaged. Played records on robs record player, Charlie Harper (of the U.K. Subs) solo single ‘The Harper’, Vardis ‘Silver Machine’, Tank Picture disc of ‘Stormtrooper’, Iron Maiden ‘Number Of The Beast’ (Red Vinyl), and Picture Disc LP of ‘Number Of The Beast’, and the Rose Tattoo LP ‘Assault and Battery’ – ok. Lol scraped off his Cal face off of the back of his leather jacket and put the lyrics to ‘They Declare It’ on the top panel of his jacket instead. Me and Rob drew suspenders on the birds in the Sunday Express (seagulls in lingerie did it for me big-time back then people!). On Tales Of The Unexpected (TV programme) it had a bloke with Discharge on the back of his leather jacket. Siouxsie and the Banshees were on TV live. Pretty good – Siouxsie dressed like a gypsy and they played ‘Israel’ (good), ‘Pull To Bits’ (ok), ‘Arabian Knights’ (ok), ‘Save My Heart’ (great ‘n’ fast), ‘Happy House’ (ok), ‘So Unreal’ (poo), ‘Eve White/Eve Black’ (good), ‘Spellbound’ (ok) Siouxsie squatted down singing and showed her giblets – aaaaaarggggh! (Maybe she was a part-time punk butcher or something y’know?). Me and Rob watched it in the nude, and Rob went downstairs to the bog (toilet) in the nude halfway through it – I pissed down the stairs as he came up!
Monday 24th
Awoken at 1 pm by Lol and Rob talking. I walked up town and I bought the Discharge LP ‘Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing’ for £3.60p and player are closing down and being taken over by Our Price. Lol and Kev went to the half-P-Jews arcades, me and Rob walked up to Mums – Mike had just got up at 3:30 p.m! I played the Discharge LP –excellent, even Mike said it was excellent and that he’d even buy it. Left Mums and saw 3 Heavy-Metal Birds on the way home – one with dyed blonde hair –lovely. Went out at 8:30 p.m. up Northdown Road and saw those birds again (bloodey Punks twitchers are everywhere eh?). Me and Lol walked up to Karl’s and he played a Chelsea LP (poo). Then went home – Rob done a nude balcony walk and waved to two good-fun birds who waved back!
Tuesday 25th
Awoken at 1ish and played the excellent Discharge LP again (never!) on Rob’s record player, he won’t mind – he’s a big boy. Mike came around and said he has bought tickets for me and Lol to go and see the ‘Mighty AC/DC’ in concert when he goes to see them up in London soon. I told Rob I played the Discharge LP on his record player – he was really stroppy and said “Is nothing sacred?” but he doesn’t think that when he uses my copy of Sounds music papers as dinner mats and messes ‘em up does he? And my green pen and boot polish etc (these are the real important issues for punks everywhere I felt – maybe apart from the green pen – that’s a global issue for governments everywhere!). Lol dressed up in a mac and tartan trousers, straps and bumflaps – really funny.
Wednesday 26th
Woken up at 11 a.m. by Rob with a letter from Vernons (the football pools company). It had a cheque for 6 nce in it – the cunts said I made a mistake but didn’t send back my coupon so I could check it. All they sent back was a photocopy with Division 3 blanked out (I think purposely). I think I’ll write back to them. Two of the governments’ ships were sunk last night with loads of casualties off the Falklands Islands. Went up town and got Sounds – in the Independent charts Discharge’s ‘Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing’ went up from number 5 to number 2 – No1 next week? In the UK national record charts it went straight in at No63 and then up to No40. Iron Maiden’s ‘Number Of The Beast’ single is up 7 places to number 19 – ‘House Of Fun’ by Madness is at No1 (from number 8 last week which it went straight in at). Walked up to Kev’s and practised on lead and bass guitars up there. Lol, Rob and Kev walked down to the Ship Inn to watch T.N.T play. We had torrential rain, thunder and lightning so me and Lol watched it from upstairs in the snooker room.
Thursday 27th
Up at 1 in the afternoon, Tottenham beat QPR in the F.A. Cup Final (football). The Old Grey Whistle Test had The Gang Of Four on it live – live poo and the Simple Minds live in Noo Yawk – yankie-poo and a Frank Zappa song with the lyrics ‘Roly-Poly-Fish-Heads-Eat-Them-Up-Yum’ in a Pinkey and Perkey (UK Childrens show) high-pitched voice – funny. The Discharge LP dropped to 52, from last week’s number 40 (after going in at 63). Lol took a picture of my on my bed with all of my Discharge records and I took on of him in his room with all his Damned re s and him in his pants – which he told me not to get in.
Friday 28th
Rob woke me up at 08:35 a.m. (You know when I get up early it’s for punk and only punk – well maybe not!). I woke Lol up at 10 to 10 after watching The Pope faff about at Gatwick Airport and go to London on a train (maybe he, and his bullet-proof Popemobile, secretly came over for Tank and Discharge gigs in London – I’ll look out for him down the front!). Me and Lol went out and signed on for £69 for 2 weeks dole (to finance my punk gigging lifestyle of course!). We caught the 1 p.m. coach with a standby fare of £3.50p and arrived into Victoria coach station, in London, at half-past 3. Me and Lol bought The Exploited’s ‘Attak/Alternative’ (pic) for 40p in a local Woolworths. Then walked the 4 miles across Hyde Park northwest to Jenny’s in Bayswater. Some girl let us in and we left our stuff there. Jenny and the rest had gone to see the Subhumans gig up in Welwyn garden City (30 miles north of London). We got a bag of chip for 25p around the corner and then we walked up to Westbourne Park a few miles and found the Zig-Zag Club just before 5 p.m. It was a lot bigger than I thought it’d be – a big white old cinema I think? Got our tickets for Tank and Rock Goddess for only £2.50p. Number 14 mine was and asked a bird at the desk about a poster they had up but she said no (are you sure she didn’t just coo or something?). Stood in the foyer a while and watched, through the open door, Rock Goddess soundchecking a few songs – Algy Ward (of Tank ex-Damned) came out and said to me “What have you done to your hair tosh?” – “Want a light?” – cheeky fat bugger! I put 10p in a machine and it didn’t work – I complained to the cow behind the desk and she got right sarkey about it (wasn’t she a seed-eating beakey feathery bird a minute ago?). Me and Lol sat outside on the steps a while in the sun and a really huge fat biker went past a on bike and then got off and walked past us into the Zig-Zag Club. Loads of horny rock chicks were around and we sat in amongst the masses of rock and denim metallers then went in at 7 p.m. Pretty big place inside too – we sat upstairs on a wall by the stairway and it had a video screen either side of the speaker stacks. That was showing Jimi Hendrix live at the Marquee, Isle of Wight and Woodstock – playing guitar with his teeth – excellent stuff. The Cure ’10:15’ – poo and Patti Smith – shit. Saw that mohican punk we always see at Tank. Walked downstairs and sat on the dance-floor watching video’s. Super-Duper Ore came on and out of the 350 there about 15 were down the front moving to them. It was the best time I’d seen them play – still no good. The singer poured water over the crowd again and also threw badges out to them. We watched the Tank video after they went off which had smoke and a real Tank on in the background. They played ‘Heavy Artillery’ and ‘Turn Your Head Around’. Then at 10 p.m. Rock Goddess came on and I took 9 photographs of those sexy fuckers. Good drummer and sexy bassist in tight black spandex and a ck top. Nice singer in jeans and a bullet belt with a guitar like Bones (of Discharge). They were on for about 40 minutes and were pretty good with a two-song encore aswell. At 11 p.m. Tank came onstage to two flashbombs going off and into songs and I took 11 photos and they played all their singles and ‘Hammer On’ and ‘Stepping On A Landmine’, ‘Who Needs Love Songs’ an ‘Struck By Lightning’. They played a good set and I got down the front (…Hey.!!! – It’s THE POPE!). I was on the right hand side of the stage and Algy and the guitarist, Pete, came and sat down right next to me crossed legged-calmly playing looking all relaxed and lah-dee-dah – really funny listening to that noise and the way they looked doing that!) . They also done a ‘Dad’s Army’ (UK TV Programme) theme tune song re-arranged from ‘Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Hitler?” into “Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Argentina”. The drummer smiled at me as he recognised me from the Marquee gig and two more flashbombs went off and so did Tank. They played ‘The Snake’ during the encores. We left and tried to rip a Discharge poster (for tomorrow night’s gig there) off the wall by a bridge and got it but really thick and there were 2 together for us. Walked back to Jenny’s and met a nice 15-year old Crawley girl there who was homeless. Jenny and everyone came back from the Subhumans gig a little later and crashed on her floor at about 1:45 a.m.
Saturday 29th
Awoken at 12 noon by the mohican guy, got dressed and walked to Hyde Park and sat under a e. Lol peeled off the back of his Discharge poster we got last night. Had coke and spam sandwiches and took off our leather jackets laid down in the sun. Then at 3 pm me and Lol walked up to Virgin Record shop at Marble Arch. Sat down on a wall up Edgware Road by some traffic lights and had some more spam sandwiches and coke. We got to Jenny’s when it was nearly 5 p.m. We dropped some stuff off there and walked up to the Zig-Zag Club and got there at 5:30 p.m. We passed Meanwhile Gardens and there was a free concert on there and met all of Antisect going there and chatted to them on a bridge before we went on to the Zig-Zag Club. We also saw Tom (2nd Rainy) the bassist in The Varukers and one of the Oxford mental-Mob (waggley-fingers at the ready!). Cal came out and he had his hair cut to 4 inches long and said “there’s no guest-list tonight Tone” – and gave us two tickets instead! – nice one Cal. He chatted to Lol and then went off. Garry (hair cut like Cal’s) Rainy and Heather also came out and had a chat and then disappeared off somewhere. There were two guys outside asking anyone and everyone, at least twice, for 10p – one had a mohican like a bulging fish and the other was a toothless Welsh bloke (I think they deserved 10p for the sheer social audacity alone!). They scrounged a fiver in an hour – even from cars stuck at nearby lights – and I saw them get 60p from a guy in a suit too. We went in at 7:30 p.m. and sat on the left-hand side seats watching videos. Alice Cooper Live In Concert with dancing b es of drink and girls in suspenders with whips and an excellent hanging scene too. The Sex Pistols interview with Bill Grundy – twice, Motorhead, Jimi Hendrix and even Derek And Clive’s ‘Horse racing’ track too – superb! Met Karl and Anne in there from Margate who came up in someone’s car.
At 9 p.m. Antisect came on and Tom of The Varukers is their new bassist and I took a few photos of them and they played ok (They played 14 songs in 31 minutes – Tape-List). A bit of dancing down the front and they done a 2-song encore of ‘Spoils Of War’ and ‘Ulster’ then they went off. Went and sat back down and watched some more videos then Biffo The Gasmask came on to no applause and after a few minutes he left to none aswell. Shortly after Discharge came on and Rainy went crazy jumping up in the air and Bones snapped a string. I took 15 photos including a really close one of Cal. They did a two-song encore of ‘Two Monstrous Nuclear Stockpiles’ and ‘Decontrol’. They played a pretty good set and a great gig (They played 14 songs in 33 minutes – Tape-List).. Had a dance down the front with Lol, Jenny and her friend and her bloke. Walked back to Bayswater and got milk and chips in Kentucky Fried Chicken where there was a nice Asian bird in tight punkey trousers (macaws they are Asian birds aren’t they?). And some bloke in there kept on saying to us “Punks…Maaaaaaaaan” to which a Rockabilly guy queuing up was laughing at him and he called us ‘King Rockers’. Slept in Jenny’s on a mattress on the floor. Jenny was knobbing so e in the night as all the others slept in the double bed 2 feet away.
Sunday 30th
Woke up at 12:30 in the afternoon got dressed and left at 1:15 and got some milk and walked across Hyde Park in the scorching sun with loads of sex-starved kittens sunbathing (did I turn into a feline sexologist between Discharge last night and this afternoon somehow?). Got to Victoria Coach Station at ten-past 2. Got the 2:30 p.m. coach back to Margate for a standby fare of £3.50p. Got the back seats and had milk and spam sandwiches heading east 75 miles home to Margate, Kent in the summer sun after 2 nights in London watching two gigs. Got into Margate at 5 p.m. Played Pool and Snooker upstairs with the window open looking at sexy birds. About 50 Rocka/Psychobilly’s kept wandering backwards and forwards up the main road. Also saw a punk with a mohican with them. Saw a girl in number 12 opposite lying on her back rubbing her tits and her slope (I take it she didn’t come on holiday and have a life-size ski-slope with her in her hotel room! – now that would be worth rubbing yourself over I feel). At the same time in number 20 a couple came in and got undressed – a bird with big headlights (someone had a car in their room?!?!?! – maybe that girl at number 12 did have a real ski slope then!) and bloke with a supple dick. We all came down at 11:30 p.m. and watched The Rolling Stones in concert – shit (that band make watching people in hotel rooms seem more interesting!)
Monday 31st
Awoke at 11:30 a.m. Saw a bird in car stopped o de our flat down in the passenger seat in a bikini. She opened her legs showing her red pouting fanny – nice. Watched Jim’ll Fix It with a kid getting to sing with Tight Fit’s lovely birds (tackey pop band but not-so-tackey females – at least their side of the screen!). I watched my hair for the first time since February – at lest 100 days ago. Put more soap in and blow-dried it after washing it. Then stuck in some dry soap after that (can’t let it shine too much now can I? – I’ll end up on telly or something equally awful!). Watched Cher in concert in tight spandex trousers and a see-through design that just about covered her vital parts – pity that.
JUNE
Tuesday 1st
I went up town and got a needle for my record player £6.68p. Lol got a copy of Rising Free Punk Fanzine free with his The Insane ‘El Salvador’ 7”. It had a picture of Cal of Discharge and Colin from G.B.H that I hadn’t seen before in it. We played Snooker upstairs and watched the woman from No12 on her back rubbing between her legs with the curtain open in her front room. Later before bed we done about 10 nudey walks on the balcony. I also done a piss off the end into the side road and also mimed to Iron Maiden’s Transylvania’ track in the nude – all three of us bollock naked headbanging to tunes we, whisperingly but metallically, were humming.
Wednesday 2nd
I got up at 2 p.m. Kev, Rob and Gary went to the Ship Inn to see a rock band called Monster (scary huh!). Got Sounds – A gig up in London soon with D.I.R.T, Conflict, The Subhumans an ur others bands – all for a spiffingly cheap £1.50p. Which is on Monday – I’m going to that. There was a bit of Funda tonight too. Discharge’s LP dropped to No73 in the national record charts from No52.
Thursday 3rd
I was awoken at 12:30 by Rob – he played records. We went up town in the pouring rain and I bought the Melody Maker music paper. It had a review for Discharge’s ‘Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing’ LP – which was shit really. Watched England win 1-4 in Finland in a Football friendly (Ah the days when English players could play and there were more than just a mere handful of them in the ‘cream at the top’ league of the premiership – cough-splutter). Watched Top Of the Pops, which had Siouxsie and the Banshees on it doing their new single ‘Fireworks’ – not bad. I cut my floppy soapy hair down from 6 inches to 3 inches.
Friday 4th
Woken up by Rob and Lol at 1 p.m. and Kev woz ere too. Gary turned up and me and Lol went out in the hot sun – me in my denim shorts and black T-shirt up town. Later we did loads of nude walking from our room along the balcony to Lol’s room and back with our lights out. Waitress (a girl across the road in a room on the second floor that ‘caught our eyes’ …yes - all three pairs) kept looking out. After a while a cop car went past really slowly at 1 a.m. After they’d gone we waved to two birds in the nude (they shat on us instead and just flew off over the roofs) they were laughing and a bloke then looked out of a window opposite in Charnwood Hotel so we went to slee en at 2 a.m.
Saturday 5th
Woken up at 09:10 a.m. and went up town alone buying Motorhead’s ‘No Sleep Til Hammersmith’ (Golf Vinyl) LP for £4.99p. Got a £1.75p return to Canterbury on the train (wot a rip-off!). Caught the 11:08 a.m. train which was really hot and stuffy and got into Canterbury, 15 miles south-west inland, at 11:45 a.m. Bought some records – Anti-Nowhere League’s ‘I Hate People’ (pic) 50p and the ‘Don’t Let ‘Em Grind You Down’ 4-track E.P. (pic) from Anti-Pasti and The Exploited. Got some Coke and bourbon biscuits and sat and ate them on a bench saying ‘Fanny at 1 o’clock’ and ‘Pebbles at 3 o’clock’ and ‘Muff at 9 o’clock’ – great larf (this is a slightly obtuse and abstract reference to the beautiful, but intimate, parts of the female anatomy in a strictly ‘love fighter-pilot’ stylee!). We saw that black haired bird we saw at the Anti-Nowhere League gig in Margate. We tried to uncessly (what?) uncessly (no!) unsuccessfully (yeah that’s right!) get back to our flat – she smiled at me – twice (surely not paraletically inebriated at that time of day?) – sexy bitch (ah all that Shakespearean prose comes to the fore in one great sonnet-rocket now eh!). I bought Motorhead’s ‘No Sleep Til Hammersmith’ (black vinyl) for £1.99p (record collectors have short memories and cannot turn down the same record 101 times – it’s a sort of emotional issue to do with love, abandonment and inner emptiness!). We caught the 3:12 p.m. train back to Margate, via Ramsgate. Got in at 4 p.m. Oh by the way on No73 (Chi n’s TV programme) earlier at 10:45 a.m. it had Gillan doing ‘Ain’t No Laughing In Heaven’ live in someone’s front room – Wot! No Parties? Saw a Mini (car) drive by with The Clash logo on it across the back – pretty good. Done the ‘kitten call’ to loads of girls (this involves being slightly stereotypically carelessly thick in calling females like little pussies to a saucer of milk – but in this case there was no milk or even a saucer of any description – just a couple of smelly sad punks on the second floor!). Rob, Lol and me got some chairs and put them out on the balcony and sat out there singing the lyrics to The Clash’s 1st LP and quotes from many Sex Pistols interviews like “I don’t dress like this to be the bourgeoisie”. We shouted out “waitress” who was watching TV; she then looked out her window – we then done nothing. We got two birds to wave twice (some feat as birds do not have hands!). We came in off the balcony at 11:30 p.m.
Sunday 6th
I woke up at 11:45 a.m. Got into my shorts and went out through town and up to Mums. Me, Mike and Rob went up to Palm Bay beach with the inflatable dinghy. Went out on the dinghy and for the first time in 1982 into the sea. The water was pretty cool and clear (25 years on and I have travelled to India and this statement is not now holding any water – be it clear or otherwise!). Me and Rob kept capsizing the dinghy trying to bundle in it in the water. We both took off our shorts and done a rude-strip. A girl saw Rob jump up out of the water and show the world his ngler’ (an now ma frens - we can die peaceful deaths we have witnessed ‘Les Danglers Masseeves Anglais’ Leddies Un Genitaliamens!). Done some lazing on towels on the sand and walked home afterwards at 5 p.m. Lol later went to bed while me and Rob decided to go down the beach with the dinghy in our shirts and shorts after dark (oh no! – world close your eyes now!). Had a laugh bundling on the dinghy – and we kept standing on it and it ripped 6 inches. Two birds came along paddling – they were o.k. (Were they ducks perchance Antoines?). I played snooker alone upstairs looking out of the window – 3 birds looked up and said “Don’t get too close to the edge or you’ll fall out love” – sexy bitches) I think at this juncture in my life I could reasonably appear professionally assessed as ‘clinically pathetic’!). There was trouble at the Chinese Takeaway up the road a little way – pig cars (made of bacon no less!) and bikes.
Monday 7th
I woke up at 12:45 p.m. Me and Rob sewed up the split in the (canvas) dinghy. Watched ‘Chegger Plays Pop’ with shitty Coast To Coast, ‘Monsoon’ and The Nolan’s on it. President ‘ha-ha wot a joke’ Raygun from smelly-old yanki-dump dropped in on da Queen at Windsor castle today – how absolutely spiffing what! Me and Rob hung out the top window and he kept shouting out “HI!” really loudly. Saw those 3 girls again and they said the same thing to us tonight – sexy bitches (see last nights comment – coz I frankly can’t be bothered to say piss-all about my-piss-sad-self!). Saw a bird get u ssed in the room next to waitress – tits and fanny (I’ll have what he’s ordering sir!). Rob done a piss over the balcony
Tuesday 8th
Awoken at 1 p.m. Went up town with dinghy and into Longplayer and bought the G.B.H new single ‘Sick Boy’ – ‘Slit Your Own Throat’/’Am I Deed Yet?” (pic) for £1.20p. Went up to mums and found cousin Johns Anti-Nowhere-League drummers’ drumstick fixed up with super glue in Mike’s room. Saw three hippie girls who walked behind us home. I bought Motorhead'’ 'Motorhead’/’City Kids’ on the Chiswick Records label for £4.
Wednesday 9th
I got up at 1:15 int tut afternoon. Me, Rob and Gary went down the beach. Me and Rob tied to surf but no big waves so came back at 4:30 p.m. Lol painted Motorhead’s Ace Of Spades on the arm of his leather jacket. Gary and Vivian came around at 8ish and me, Rob and Lol and those two went along the seafront to The Ship Inn to see who was playing tonight. A band called Gizmo – we didn’t stay walked up Northdown Road shouting out to a girl we heard her friend call ‘Claire’ so we did really loudly over and over again. We wet up an alley and all five of us ran along doing moonies – excellent (possibly not as ‘white knuckle’ as joyriding kids – but the jail sentences are a lot more negotiable officer). We then saw that ‘Claire’ girl again so Rob and Gary crossed the road specifically to do a moonie at her in the bus shelter as she waited for her bus home (and as far away from us weirdo’s at the greatest possible velocity as possible too no doubt!). She sque ‘Fuck-Off’ (Which I can only but gauge from that witty repartee that she was neither impressed nor entertained by the R & G show then?). We walked home and done moonies in the park – great. Went out on the balcony in just my black T-shirt.
Thursday 10th
Awoken at 09:45 a.m. by the alarm. Top Of The Pops – Soft cell with ‘Torch’ in No1 – ok. Adam Ant with ‘Goody Two Shoes’ was on it. Saw those two Liverpool birds that said again ‘Don’t fall out of the window’. Watched The Old Grey Whistle Test with Tom Verlaine, Little Feat, The Jam live at the Rainbow, in London and Jimi Hendrix live at Monterey Festival doing ‘Wild Thing’ and sets his guitar on fire and smashes it up – brilliant.
Friday 11th
Awoken at 09:35 by the alarm and me and Rob walked up town and bumped into Wayne who still paying the rent on our place – but not living there – he gave me he money. Us 2 went up Longplayer and I bought 3 Motorhead singles, ‘Beerdrinkers’ 12” (pic), ‘Motorhead’ (live, pic) and ‘Beerdrinkers’ 7” (pic) for £1.99p, £1.99p ad £1.20p. Went up to Kev’s and mucked about with his bass guitar an lead geetaw and had a ‘cup-of-tee-osaurus’ (what?) and listened to the Scorpions and Samson records then left at 3 p.m. In the local paper ‘Thanet Gazette’ it had on the back page a report of a postmistress and daughter and two friends that faked a burglary at a post office to pocket £6,145. It turned out to be Anne ‘mavis’ Garrett, her mum and two mates! They messed up their statements and got found out and then confessed – they are out on bail! It happened only two days after then Anti-Nowhere League gig in Margate. Poor Mave – silly little girl. Kev and Vivian came around and played snooker then went down the Ship Inn to see a band called Hydra. Me, Lol and Rob partook in a little splash of nude-balcony-walking.
Saturday 12th
Up at 10:30 a.m. Watched TV – No73 and it had The Fixx and Kim Wilde (aaaaarrrrgghh) on it (not too sure why the ‘aaaaarrrrgghh was there but it, at the time, had much relevance methinkums!). Played the D arge LP which is excellent – in the pouring rain and we had a two-minute power cut (was it the power –surge of Discharge or another rainy English summer?). I went out and got milk in the thunder and lightning and heavy rain. Watched Pop Quiz with Dave Gilmore’s (Pink Floyd) Team was – Claire Grogan (Altered Images) and the bent bloke from Japan (David Sylvain has spinal injuries?). It had a clip of The Clash’s ‘I Fought The Law’ (live) and Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Hey Joe in black and white off of the Lulu Show in the 1960’s – good.
Sunday 13th
Woke up at 1:15 p.m. The World Cup (football) starts today in Madrid in Spain. Went up to Wayne’s and he played The Exploited’s ‘Troops Of Tomorrow’ – it’s not too good. Went back to the flat and stuck up loads of ‘page three’ girls (topless models from a English paper) in the snooker room. These came hung with ‘life-like’ feeling nipples and slits (these were meticulously attained by ergonomically studying the undulating flesh of said models and placement of blu-tack to nce this 3-d image to a more ‘touchey-feeley-lets-go-to-the-bathroom’ moment in teenage life!). Watched Jethro Tull in concert – poops.
Monday 14th
I awoke at 12 noon and went up town with Rob and into Longplayer where I bought another ‘Never Again’ by Discharge and ‘Take It All Away’ by Girlschool both 15p. Also got Flux Of Pink Indians ‘Neu Smell’ and The Exploited ‘Dogs Of War’ for £1.25p each. Back to the flat and bought Motorhead ‘Ace Of Spades’ 7” (pic) off of Rob for 80p and Wolf ‘Head Contac ck ‘n’ Roll’ (Clear vinyl, pic) for 15p. I bought Zig-Zag magazine coz it had a Discharge LP review, 60p. Halfway through some World Cup match a newsflash appeared on TV and said that Britain and Argentina have signed a cease-fire over The Falkland Islands.
Tuesday 15th
Awoken at 10:30 a.m. by Rob and popped up to Longplayer and bought a Record Box that holds 300 7-inch singles which cost £13 and carried it home. Scotland just managed to beat tiny New Zealand (in footballing terms of course!) 3-2 in the World Cup while Hungary were hungary for goals against El Salvador and walloped them 10-1 (maybe they had The Insane’s 7 inch on headphones or something?). Me and Rob played snooker up the top and looked at sexy prick-teaser No12 (I’m sure she had other qualities that I have overlooked here!). Me and Rob slept in Lol’s room with him coz we couldn’t find a creepy-crawlie bug that we saw briefly in our room.
Wednesday 16th
I woke up at 11:15 a.m. Later on I watched Tv – World Cup Football. England’s first in the competition and they beat France 3-1 to top the group.
Thursday 17th
Rob woke me up at 10 a.m. and shortly after me and he walked up town. We went into Funhouse Records (A mail-order only record shop). But they let us look at their records and I bought three Motorhead 7-inch Import singles from them. ‘Leavin Here’ (French, pic) for £2.50p, ‘Leavin Here’ (Swedish, pic) £3.50p and ‘Motorhead’ (Spanish, pic) £5. Came back to the flat and saw No12 on her wall in a tiny white robe. Lovely legs – pr teaser (such a way with compliments – no wonder I was a virgin until I was 24 years of age eh?). In the World Cup Northern Ireland drew 0-0 with Yugoslavia.
Friday 18th
I woke up at 2:15 in the afternoon and went down the seafront one-arm bandit arcades and spent 26p (He certainly knows how to have a lavish lifestyle in the dole doesn’t he? – who needs Las Vegas eh!). Came back at 4 and watched World Cup on TV. Brazil thumped Scotland 4-1.
Sunday 20th
I woke up at 12 noon and went up mums with Lee. Rob and Lol were later on going to be watching Lawrence Of Arabia (Film) so I took had to watch World Cup up my mums. England beat Czechoslovakia 2-0 to go through after two wins in two games, to the next phase. Watched ‘Rock For Kampuchea’ with Queen doing ‘Now I’m Here’ (good) ‘Crazy Little Fing Kord Luv’ (poo), Matumbi –poops, The Clash doing ‘Armagideon Time’ (ok), The Pretenders with ‘Brass In Pocket’, Wings, The Specials ‘Monkey Man’, Elvis Costello and Rockpile. Then Ian Dury played ‘Sweet Gene Vincent’ with Mick Jones (from The Clash) onstage joined by another 50 guitarists! Me and Rob looked out of the snooker room window and stripper came to her window to see if we were looking then went back inside. She then sat on her bed and took off her shoes and trousers and walked across the room behind a mirror in her white knickers. Then she crouched down and slid off her briefs and went nude coming right over to the window. She had big black mass of pubes and luvly tits. And as if to celebrate – Rob cut off his pubic hair and we did a nude balcony walk and to cap it all a piss off the balcony to finish!
Monday 21st
I got up at midday and us joined Gary, who was here in going up town. Princess Diana went into hospital to have her baby. Longplayer record shop is closing down and Our Price is taking its place on Monday. Back to the flat and me, Rob and Lol had a laugh bundling each other with mattresses up and down the stairs. Then we piled up a load of chairs into a precarious tower which when anyone came out of our flat door would touch and send crashing down the stairs – great fun. Northern Ireland drew 1-1 with Honduras to stand a chance of making the next phase (with England). Lady Diana had a baby boy at 9 p.m. tonight