Thursday: When I went up to use the ticket machine at Rochester station there were three kids caving their names into it with a small Stanley knife, the woman in front of me was so scared she didn't even wait for her change before she dashed off (I didn't see her once I got out on the platform so that 20p is mine now damn it). Had to bring a map with me to find my way to Beacon Court, when I got to the bar there was an old dude talking to the barman about how he threw an axe at a guy who pissed him off. I ordered a coke (my boycott on Coca-Cola is void when I'm in a venue that doesn't have a good variety of non-alcoholic drinks), tried calling Mills but just kept getting his answer phone, eventually I had to call Steve to get him to call Mills on his home phone and tell him to turn his mobile on to call me, he said he'd be down after he had a bath. Forty minutes later he showed up with Nick and Genet. Nick and Genet played pool while Mills and I talked bollocks then we went next door for the bands.
8 Ball: Sound was a lot better than the Tap, Steve told me they were just making up the set as they went along but they played pretty much the same stuff they did last time (well they don't have that many songs), the only difference being that Steve lit up a cigarette and smoked it while they did their cover of Let There Be Rock and they got one of the guitarist from the other band to do backing vocals on Built To Endure. Later Steve made their friend Gabriel take a picture of him while he did his guitar solo between songs, coincidently it was this was the only picture I took that came out alright
The only real rant Steve went into this time were about "the enemies of real Rock music, you know who you are, with the mop haircuts and the skinny jeans" which is a bit non-specific as Mills told him later "at least I didn't say anything that could be deemed racist this time" Steve told me later.
Audio Guns: Ben from 8 Ball played drums with them, musically they were alright but a lot of their songs that weren't covers sounded like covers themselves. They opened with the first half of Moby Dick by Led Zeppelin, then one of their own songs, then God Save The Queen, then one of their own songs (which had an intro stolen from that big hit The Coral had), then Fire by Hendrix, then one of their own songs, the Ben went into his drum solo (which 8 Ball have now banned him from doing during their sets because of how many people left when they played at the Tap) I turned to Steve and said "so they're playing the rest of Moby Dick now then?" then another one of their own songs, then a Red Hot Chili Peppers cover (I had to cringe when their singer took off his shirt to imitate Anthony Kiedis, then one of their owns songs THEN the rest of Moby Dick.
Steve thanked me for making the effort to come all this way but apologised as he couldn't give me a lift home this time as he had a car full of equipment, so I started walking back to the train station. I got a bit lost, there was a point when I looked down a road and thought "well that looks like Gillingham station but I don't like the look of those two lads walking up towards me" so I walked round the block, found a kebab shop that was open and mercifully empty, got chips in pita drowned in vinegar (that's the great thing about kebab shops in Gillingham, a lot of them let you put on your own condiments. When I eventually found my way to Gillingham station a train going to Strood had just left but one going to Rochester came right behind it. Got on, no people checking for tickets (and there was me earlier debating with myself whether or not to get a return ticket). Got to Rochester and started walking home, successfully managing to avoid run ins with pikeys, when I was walking up Cuxton Road someone in a passing car did yell "FUCKING CUNT" at me but thankfully that was the only unpleasant thing to happen that night.
Friday: Nearly didn't go out until I saw Defzone had organised a gig at the Command House and Chris told me he'd be at the tap by eleven. Went to the Tap about twenty past seven, tried to sit in the games room to read but someone had thrown up in there and still smelled so I sat in the main room which was so bad as the jukebox wasn't on and I could read in relative peace. Went to the Command House nearly got ID'd by the guy on the door again (doesn't matter how often I go there he still does it, I heard one guy complain he got ID'd twice in one night by that guy, still, at least they are strict on ID checks there). The bands were starting later than usual so I went to the main bar and had a J20, went downstairs half an hour later and saw a Psychobilly band from Tunbridge Wells (stand up bass and everything) sound check, one of their guitarists came up to me before they played and complemented me on all the band patches/badges on my backpack and my Black Flag tattoo, they were really good, not the kind of stuff I really go in for but cool to see happen in a local venue. The next band on wound up just packing their equipment up and leaving without playing (could it have been the poor turn out? that Vic wasn't actually charging the people who did come in?), the band after were actually a pretty good hard Rock band (The Shilling Moors I think they were called) I was tempted to stay for their whole set but I got a text from Chris saying he'd be at the Tap soon. Went back to Tap, couldn't find Chris anywhere so I hung round the door reading that free Indie zine they always have lying around until he showed up with Ollie and one of his mates, apparently the manor was so shit Chris actually wanted to leave (normally we'd have to drag him back to Tap). Went to the top floor hung around the new pole they have on a table up there (someone is so going to fall off that thing), spent about an hour in the Tap until Chris got really pissed off so we left to get something from the kebab shop and agreed to come out tomorrow.
Saturday: I got a text from Chris while I was getting ready to go out saying he wouldn't be at the Tap as he wasn't feeling up to it, I thought "well I'm in my going out shirt now" and went anyway. I took the latest bus I could and still had to wait fifteen minutes for the Tap to open, I was walking around the church next to the tap when I heard a bunch of Chavs fighting just up from the Tap, I turned back to see what was going on just when a group of Chav girls was walking towards me and one got right in my face and started sing Stop In The Name Of Love, I walked away while they laughed about it and talked about Goths. I've been beginning to notice the hostility towards Alternative types from Chavs start to rise again, for a while it had been on a steady decrease to the point of non-existence, and it seems to be the Alternative communities fault that it's coming back, because while Chavs started to lay off us we still gave them shit. I remember it starting subtly as it is now back when Nu-Metal peaked, you had Chavs trying to get in on it (like Emo now) and Metal kids giving Chavs shit for it (I hear a lot of people calling each other Emo-Chavs), the height of Nu-Metals popularity you had Chavs going out on "Sweaty Beatings" (I heard this term from a Chav I went to college with, who tried being down with the Metal kids in my class by talking about how much he liked System Of A Down) where they would go out in packs and beat up the first Metal kid they could find (the idea of Emo Beating may sound funny but you know that they'd just beat up anyone looking vaguely Alternative). Thinking about it I have some things to say about the whole Emo trend, back when Nu-Metal was in me and Steve came up with a theory, the kids who were getting into it at the time would either 1) move on to the next trend (Emo in this case) 2) go further into the music and get into the bands who influenced the bands and maybe the bands who influenced those bands (which is the route me and Steve took) but I've come up with a third 3) get stuck in a certain time frame and hate every new trend that comes along because they aren't the trend anymore (I've noticed a lot of the people who hate Emo Kids are those who still listen to Limp Bizkit on a daily basis and take Korn seriously), I think Emo Kids look stupid but at the end of the day what they do makes them happy and hopefully about a third of them should get better taste in music one day, and rest assured Emo will die in a few years. Got in the Tap, no one I knew around, sat by myself felling miserable, drinking J20 and vowing never to do this again unless I definitely know that someone will be out. After an hour I saw Mills across the middle floor I went over to say hello and noticed he was on a date with a girl he was talking to on Thursday, it got a bit awkward and Mills mentioned that Ollie was downstairs so I left them. Found Ollie and Ed (I learned another one of their names!) at the bar, told them Mills was there with a girl so Ollie suggested we go up and annoy him, we did but Ollie found it was hard when Mills just looks at you without talking in a bid to get us to fuck off, it worked. Spent the night wandering around, chatting, arm wrestling Ollie and his friend Jamie at one point I had to rescue Ollie when he got trapped in a conversation with a badly drunk middle aged bloke who was trying to work out how to use his camera phone and insisted on trying to take pictures of Ollie. Left about half past one, next Saturday will be closest to my Birthday, hopefully it won't suck this bad.
8 Ball: Sound was a lot better than the Tap, Steve told me they were just making up the set as they went along but they played pretty much the same stuff they did last time (well they don't have that many songs), the only difference being that Steve lit up a cigarette and smoked it while they did their cover of Let There Be Rock and they got one of the guitarist from the other band to do backing vocals on Built To Endure. Later Steve made their friend Gabriel take a picture of him while he did his guitar solo between songs, coincidently it was this was the only picture I took that came out alright
The only real rant Steve went into this time were about "the enemies of real Rock music, you know who you are, with the mop haircuts and the skinny jeans" which is a bit non-specific as Mills told him later "at least I didn't say anything that could be deemed racist this time" Steve told me later.
Audio Guns: Ben from 8 Ball played drums with them, musically they were alright but a lot of their songs that weren't covers sounded like covers themselves. They opened with the first half of Moby Dick by Led Zeppelin, then one of their own songs, then God Save The Queen, then one of their own songs (which had an intro stolen from that big hit The Coral had), then Fire by Hendrix, then one of their own songs, the Ben went into his drum solo (which 8 Ball have now banned him from doing during their sets because of how many people left when they played at the Tap) I turned to Steve and said "so they're playing the rest of Moby Dick now then?" then another one of their own songs, then a Red Hot Chili Peppers cover (I had to cringe when their singer took off his shirt to imitate Anthony Kiedis, then one of their owns songs THEN the rest of Moby Dick.
Steve thanked me for making the effort to come all this way but apologised as he couldn't give me a lift home this time as he had a car full of equipment, so I started walking back to the train station. I got a bit lost, there was a point when I looked down a road and thought "well that looks like Gillingham station but I don't like the look of those two lads walking up towards me" so I walked round the block, found a kebab shop that was open and mercifully empty, got chips in pita drowned in vinegar (that's the great thing about kebab shops in Gillingham, a lot of them let you put on your own condiments. When I eventually found my way to Gillingham station a train going to Strood had just left but one going to Rochester came right behind it. Got on, no people checking for tickets (and there was me earlier debating with myself whether or not to get a return ticket). Got to Rochester and started walking home, successfully managing to avoid run ins with pikeys, when I was walking up Cuxton Road someone in a passing car did yell "FUCKING CUNT" at me but thankfully that was the only unpleasant thing to happen that night.
Friday: Nearly didn't go out until I saw Defzone had organised a gig at the Command House and Chris told me he'd be at the tap by eleven. Went to the Tap about twenty past seven, tried to sit in the games room to read but someone had thrown up in there and still smelled so I sat in the main room which was so bad as the jukebox wasn't on and I could read in relative peace. Went to the Command House nearly got ID'd by the guy on the door again (doesn't matter how often I go there he still does it, I heard one guy complain he got ID'd twice in one night by that guy, still, at least they are strict on ID checks there). The bands were starting later than usual so I went to the main bar and had a J20, went downstairs half an hour later and saw a Psychobilly band from Tunbridge Wells (stand up bass and everything) sound check, one of their guitarists came up to me before they played and complemented me on all the band patches/badges on my backpack and my Black Flag tattoo, they were really good, not the kind of stuff I really go in for but cool to see happen in a local venue. The next band on wound up just packing their equipment up and leaving without playing (could it have been the poor turn out? that Vic wasn't actually charging the people who did come in?), the band after were actually a pretty good hard Rock band (The Shilling Moors I think they were called) I was tempted to stay for their whole set but I got a text from Chris saying he'd be at the Tap soon. Went back to Tap, couldn't find Chris anywhere so I hung round the door reading that free Indie zine they always have lying around until he showed up with Ollie and one of his mates, apparently the manor was so shit Chris actually wanted to leave (normally we'd have to drag him back to Tap). Went to the top floor hung around the new pole they have on a table up there (someone is so going to fall off that thing), spent about an hour in the Tap until Chris got really pissed off so we left to get something from the kebab shop and agreed to come out tomorrow.
Saturday: I got a text from Chris while I was getting ready to go out saying he wouldn't be at the Tap as he wasn't feeling up to it, I thought "well I'm in my going out shirt now" and went anyway. I took the latest bus I could and still had to wait fifteen minutes for the Tap to open, I was walking around the church next to the tap when I heard a bunch of Chavs fighting just up from the Tap, I turned back to see what was going on just when a group of Chav girls was walking towards me and one got right in my face and started sing Stop In The Name Of Love, I walked away while they laughed about it and talked about Goths. I've been beginning to notice the hostility towards Alternative types from Chavs start to rise again, for a while it had been on a steady decrease to the point of non-existence, and it seems to be the Alternative communities fault that it's coming back, because while Chavs started to lay off us we still gave them shit. I remember it starting subtly as it is now back when Nu-Metal peaked, you had Chavs trying to get in on it (like Emo now) and Metal kids giving Chavs shit for it (I hear a lot of people calling each other Emo-Chavs), the height of Nu-Metals popularity you had Chavs going out on "Sweaty Beatings" (I heard this term from a Chav I went to college with, who tried being down with the Metal kids in my class by talking about how much he liked System Of A Down) where they would go out in packs and beat up the first Metal kid they could find (the idea of Emo Beating may sound funny but you know that they'd just beat up anyone looking vaguely Alternative). Thinking about it I have some things to say about the whole Emo trend, back when Nu-Metal was in me and Steve came up with a theory, the kids who were getting into it at the time would either 1) move on to the next trend (Emo in this case) 2) go further into the music and get into the bands who influenced the bands and maybe the bands who influenced those bands (which is the route me and Steve took) but I've come up with a third 3) get stuck in a certain time frame and hate every new trend that comes along because they aren't the trend anymore (I've noticed a lot of the people who hate Emo Kids are those who still listen to Limp Bizkit on a daily basis and take Korn seriously), I think Emo Kids look stupid but at the end of the day what they do makes them happy and hopefully about a third of them should get better taste in music one day, and rest assured Emo will die in a few years. Got in the Tap, no one I knew around, sat by myself felling miserable, drinking J20 and vowing never to do this again unless I definitely know that someone will be out. After an hour I saw Mills across the middle floor I went over to say hello and noticed he was on a date with a girl he was talking to on Thursday, it got a bit awkward and Mills mentioned that Ollie was downstairs so I left them. Found Ollie and Ed (I learned another one of their names!) at the bar, told them Mills was there with a girl so Ollie suggested we go up and annoy him, we did but Ollie found it was hard when Mills just looks at you without talking in a bid to get us to fuck off, it worked. Spent the night wandering around, chatting, arm wrestling Ollie and his friend Jamie at one point I had to rescue Ollie when he got trapped in a conversation with a badly drunk middle aged bloke who was trying to work out how to use his camera phone and insisted on trying to take pictures of Ollie. Left about half past one, next Saturday will be closest to my Birthday, hopefully it won't suck this bad.
i found you in the hardcore group
xx