I did have a really good night at the Tap on Friday but couldn't be arsed to write it up.
Sunday: Today felt doomed from the start. Had to walk to Strood station in the pissing rain, couldn't get a train to Charring Cross as the station was closed that day so I got off at London Bridge and made my way to Camden. Went to the second hand bookshop in the market building and got a few books. Started to walk down the high street and ran into Will handing out flyers, he asked what show I was up to see "Conflict at the Astoria" "that's an all day gig, 20 on the door, you should go there now and get your monies worth" yeah, suffer through a load of shit bands to wait for the two I actually care about, I'll pass. Went to the nearest coffee shop and got a double Espresso and walked down to Mornington Crescent station. Got down to Soho, walked to Sister Ray, picked up a Subtle album, a Why? ep and Nick Cave's cover album. Walked through Soho Square, found they having a Gay pride thing again, got to the Vegan Thai/Chinese place and grabbed something to eat. Got something to drink then had to push my way through an unmoving crowd of Gay people standing around listening to shitty dance music. I found that the show had been moved down to the Mean Fiddler, first good thing to happen all day, at least I didn't have to go through the indignity of being asked by the bouncer if I was drunk, in fact they didn't even search my bag, they were too preoccupied with trying to stop Punks from taking their beer out on the street, caught the end of Suicide Bid's set.
Sonic Boom Six: It was amazing to see the looks of utter indifference on the faces of people who didn't know who they were, perhaps it wasn't a wise decision to put a band that mixes Punk, Ska and Garage on this bill (but at least the people who put this on make an effort to book different types of bandsproviding they're Punk). Towards the end of the set they got Itch from King Blues to sing with them, the bass player and guitarist put their instruments down, took their mics and started emceeing to the drummer and a fucking backing track. They played a cover of Sound System by Operation Ivy, I saw a glob of spit go clean over the female singer's head.
The Filaments: Didn't bother watching them, had a walk around and found Conflict and Leftver Crack had set up merch stalls, Conflict had their own records and some bootleg patches and badges of other Punk bands, picked up badges of Conflict, Subhumans and surprisingly Tragedy. Went over to Leftver Crack's stall and got their first album, the split with Citizen Fish and the Choking Victim album. The girl doing their merch directed my attention to the tip cup "that's how we are paying for food on this tour" I dropped in all my pennies and a pound. A lot of people left after the Filaments finished "we've had six last shows before but this IS the last we swear."
The Business: I sold the one album of theirs I had but they're still fun to watch live. "Do you know why we late?" says Mickey Fitz pointing at the bass player "me an' 'im 'ave been to a block party round the back, lots of nice boys therewell that's what 'e said anyway" They changed the lyrics to Guinness Boys to make them lewd (I always thought the "love your women and drink their beer" sounded dumb), they got shit for being Skinheads from the crowd, some girl in the front was shouting "get out of my house" "I've never been round your house" they got spat at, saw Mickey get it full in the face, he just wiped it off and kept going. "Anyone remember Gareth Southgate" cheer "what a wanker, I'll never forgive him" they played Southgate and had to laugh when they sang "Southgate's going home, Southgate's going home, Southgate's going home, Southgate's going home, oh no, he's missed the bus YOU CUNT!" some people hung an England flag from the balcony but it had England written in the middle so you could tell that it was hanging upside down, which Mickey said right in the middle of singer a verse, they got it the right way round "that's a bit better, there's a couple of bits I'm not too sure of" referring to Millwall FC The Lions written at the bottom and the Millwall logo in the top corner "you cunts up there then?" It was fun to Watch them and sing along to the songs I remembered, a couple of Mickey's mates came onstage to sing along to Harry May, one of them I recognised as the Skinhead who grabbed my by the neck and dragged me up front to sing along when Mickey's other band played the Underworld with Agnostic Front.
Conflict: They've lost another member, they're down to one guitarist now, to compensate they turned to bass and lead guitar right up, they sounded really heavy and mental without the rhythm parts. When they did There's No Power Without Control they got a woman with big tits wearing a Discharge shirt to sing Sarah's part since she's left an all, after the first two songs they stayed clear off the stuff from the last album and just went through all the crowd pleasers, I wasn't complaining.
Leftver Crack: They started they're set really suddenly, they had just finished setting everything up when one of the guitarist's went into the riff of Clear Channel (Fuck Off) and the rest of the band just walked onstage and played along. I was getting crushed up front so I moved to the back, Stza made a point of mentioning the Gay pride thing out back and how they were Anti-Homophobia and how most music was Homophobic, especially Hardcore before playing Gay Rude Boys Unite. They talked about how this was going to be their last show in England before they broke up and how much it meant to them to play with Conflict "bands like us wouldn't exist without bands like Conflict, if you don't know about Conflict, you don't know shit" it was a fun show, they even played some Choking Victim songs, well they are the same band with a slightly different line up. I notice when Stza screeches he kinda sounds like Dani Filth.
While they played their last song some kid tried to get onstage and got thrown out by the bouncers, I see what happened there, he got thrown out for trying to get onstage so we're going to invite everyone onstage for the end of this song"
Took the train the long way to Victoria seeing as the Victoria line was shut that day. Got some tofu and rice from the Japanese place, got a train to Rochester, got shit from the old guy for taking a different route home, what the fuck was he going to do, the train was fast to Rochester anyway. Had to walk home through the pissing rain, got on eBay and bided on some rare Hardcore, some of which I actually won when I woke up.
Sunday: Today felt doomed from the start. Had to walk to Strood station in the pissing rain, couldn't get a train to Charring Cross as the station was closed that day so I got off at London Bridge and made my way to Camden. Went to the second hand bookshop in the market building and got a few books. Started to walk down the high street and ran into Will handing out flyers, he asked what show I was up to see "Conflict at the Astoria" "that's an all day gig, 20 on the door, you should go there now and get your monies worth" yeah, suffer through a load of shit bands to wait for the two I actually care about, I'll pass. Went to the nearest coffee shop and got a double Espresso and walked down to Mornington Crescent station. Got down to Soho, walked to Sister Ray, picked up a Subtle album, a Why? ep and Nick Cave's cover album. Walked through Soho Square, found they having a Gay pride thing again, got to the Vegan Thai/Chinese place and grabbed something to eat. Got something to drink then had to push my way through an unmoving crowd of Gay people standing around listening to shitty dance music. I found that the show had been moved down to the Mean Fiddler, first good thing to happen all day, at least I didn't have to go through the indignity of being asked by the bouncer if I was drunk, in fact they didn't even search my bag, they were too preoccupied with trying to stop Punks from taking their beer out on the street, caught the end of Suicide Bid's set.
Sonic Boom Six: It was amazing to see the looks of utter indifference on the faces of people who didn't know who they were, perhaps it wasn't a wise decision to put a band that mixes Punk, Ska and Garage on this bill (but at least the people who put this on make an effort to book different types of bandsproviding they're Punk). Towards the end of the set they got Itch from King Blues to sing with them, the bass player and guitarist put their instruments down, took their mics and started emceeing to the drummer and a fucking backing track. They played a cover of Sound System by Operation Ivy, I saw a glob of spit go clean over the female singer's head.
The Filaments: Didn't bother watching them, had a walk around and found Conflict and Leftver Crack had set up merch stalls, Conflict had their own records and some bootleg patches and badges of other Punk bands, picked up badges of Conflict, Subhumans and surprisingly Tragedy. Went over to Leftver Crack's stall and got their first album, the split with Citizen Fish and the Choking Victim album. The girl doing their merch directed my attention to the tip cup "that's how we are paying for food on this tour" I dropped in all my pennies and a pound. A lot of people left after the Filaments finished "we've had six last shows before but this IS the last we swear."
The Business: I sold the one album of theirs I had but they're still fun to watch live. "Do you know why we late?" says Mickey Fitz pointing at the bass player "me an' 'im 'ave been to a block party round the back, lots of nice boys therewell that's what 'e said anyway" They changed the lyrics to Guinness Boys to make them lewd (I always thought the "love your women and drink their beer" sounded dumb), they got shit for being Skinheads from the crowd, some girl in the front was shouting "get out of my house" "I've never been round your house" they got spat at, saw Mickey get it full in the face, he just wiped it off and kept going. "Anyone remember Gareth Southgate" cheer "what a wanker, I'll never forgive him" they played Southgate and had to laugh when they sang "Southgate's going home, Southgate's going home, Southgate's going home, Southgate's going home, oh no, he's missed the bus YOU CUNT!" some people hung an England flag from the balcony but it had England written in the middle so you could tell that it was hanging upside down, which Mickey said right in the middle of singer a verse, they got it the right way round "that's a bit better, there's a couple of bits I'm not too sure of" referring to Millwall FC The Lions written at the bottom and the Millwall logo in the top corner "you cunts up there then?" It was fun to Watch them and sing along to the songs I remembered, a couple of Mickey's mates came onstage to sing along to Harry May, one of them I recognised as the Skinhead who grabbed my by the neck and dragged me up front to sing along when Mickey's other band played the Underworld with Agnostic Front.
Conflict: They've lost another member, they're down to one guitarist now, to compensate they turned to bass and lead guitar right up, they sounded really heavy and mental without the rhythm parts. When they did There's No Power Without Control they got a woman with big tits wearing a Discharge shirt to sing Sarah's part since she's left an all, after the first two songs they stayed clear off the stuff from the last album and just went through all the crowd pleasers, I wasn't complaining.
Leftver Crack: They started they're set really suddenly, they had just finished setting everything up when one of the guitarist's went into the riff of Clear Channel (Fuck Off) and the rest of the band just walked onstage and played along. I was getting crushed up front so I moved to the back, Stza made a point of mentioning the Gay pride thing out back and how they were Anti-Homophobia and how most music was Homophobic, especially Hardcore before playing Gay Rude Boys Unite. They talked about how this was going to be their last show in England before they broke up and how much it meant to them to play with Conflict "bands like us wouldn't exist without bands like Conflict, if you don't know about Conflict, you don't know shit" it was a fun show, they even played some Choking Victim songs, well they are the same band with a slightly different line up. I notice when Stza screeches he kinda sounds like Dani Filth.
While they played their last song some kid tried to get onstage and got thrown out by the bouncers, I see what happened there, he got thrown out for trying to get onstage so we're going to invite everyone onstage for the end of this song"
Took the train the long way to Victoria seeing as the Victoria line was shut that day. Got some tofu and rice from the Japanese place, got a train to Rochester, got shit from the old guy for taking a different route home, what the fuck was he going to do, the train was fast to Rochester anyway. Had to walk home through the pissing rain, got on eBay and bided on some rare Hardcore, some of which I actually won when I woke up.