#punk #postpunk #flashbackfriday: Just The Ticket ... Buzzcocks/Magazine/ The Clash/ The Banshees/ The Fall et al ...
For reasons barely known to myself, I’ve downloaded pics of tickets to some gigs that I attended when I was alive. These aren’t my tickets, I just filched them from various websites. I’ve got nowt, me …
Anyway, here we go 2,3,4 …
Buzzcocks and Penetration at Middlesbrough Town Hall. My second live gig. I’d just turned 16 …
The Clash, also at Boro Town Hall. The support bands were The Slits and The Royal Rasses and there was a mini riot after the gig … Venue organizers had arranged rows of chairs across the main floor in an attempt to stop the punk crowd from pogoing. Management feared that intense, synchronized jumping might cause the floor to collapse into the Middlesbrough Town Hall Crypt below.
When the gig concluded, venue staff locked the main Town Hall exit doors on the departing audience. Fearing they were trapped inside, the packed crowd of fans panicked and grew angry. The situation escalated quickly into a brief riot where audience members smashed the Town Hall doors open to force their way out. Some fans reportedly tried to rip the doors clean off their hinges
Magazine at Redcar Coatham Bowl. One of my favourite gigs. We went backstage after the gig, got autographs, and spoke to the band. Keyboards player Dave Formula was particularly chatty, and funny … I was scared of Howard. He asked me a question that I didn’t catch and I just said ‘yes’ and scuttled away …
The Banshees at Boro Town Hall. Supports were The Human League, who were very futuristic and multi-media, and Spizz Oil, who were a guitar/ kazoo duo.
The following night we headed to Newcastle to see the same line up and it was an even better gig …
I saw The Fall a few times, and this was at a theatre in Newcastle in 1980. Cabaret Voltaire were also on the bill, though I can’t remember anything about the other bands …
I did see a lot of bands over that period, and of course, I regret discarding my tickets to the gigs. Mind you, there are many more things I regret discarding over the years, and if I pull on that thread too hard, my whole life will unravel …
Let’s be careful out there.
© Paul D. Brazill.
I’d have killed to see The Banshees in 1978! Well jel!
You know, I once went to a George Thorogood concert, after eating more than one pot cookie.
I can't remember much of the concert, other than the endless line snaking around endless corners to get in and the non-stop jangling of guitars.
The next day, I was sitting in my Property Law class in law school, with something of a fog in my brain.
And I couldn't follow what the professor was saying. And I thought, "Oh, my God. I'll never get through law school now. I've broken my brain!"
I didn't keep the ticket stub, either. :)
PS: As it happens, I am actually wearing my Sex Pistols T-shirt today. Glad you asked! lol