*New Skin – 11th March 1985

Blotched and ragged
Rough and jagged
You want to trade this one in
For a new skin

Plastic and tough
And it’s flexible enough
To take everything
Your new skin


The Week That Was

Record of the week: False Prophets – Banana Split Republic, Husker Du – New Day Rising LP, Atrox – Loose (live)

11th March 1985
Got up at 11.30. Went to Careers Office, told them I’ve got a job. Couldn’t draw any more money out. Only just managed to get some fags from Gaunts. Bennett didn’t get any dope. He says it was white (?). Stayed in tonight. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot was on again. It’s still good.
6

12th March 1985
Got up at 11.45. Had a bath. Got dirty! Hah! Sorry, but I’m not gonna fill this out properly, OK?
5

13th March 1985
Signed off. Came home. Found letter. Said I wasn’t accepted for job. Careers Office rang and said it was going again so I rang back and start on Monday. Y.C. is being supervised now.
5

14th March 1985
Paul came over to stay. Had a good time. Stereo wouldn’t tape properly. Got my PEACE compilation which is so-so.
7

15th March 1985
Travelled around all day. Got Husker Du’s New Day Rising LP. Went down Dorchester. Said I could sing for Atrox. It was fuckin’ brilliant. Most fun I’ve had for ages. Charlie looked a bit shitty though. Came home same night.
9.5

16th March 1985
Can’t get over yesterday. Went to town. Went down Bournemouth. Gig didn’t look like being on so came back. Saw Burd on the bus. Went up to see Void gig instead. Came home. (Found Mothers Day card on bus)
7

17th March 1985
Went down Gaunts. Had a mud fight. Crabby got shitty. Dean got his nut cracked open. Stayed in tonight.
6

Cottage Industry – Parkstone Labour Club, Poole, Dorset, UK – 6th March 1985

18th Dec 2022 – Cottage Industry was the country band (may have just been solo, not sure now) of our local (Holtwood) youth club leader.
As kids, we had lots of fun fucking around and fucking things up at the youth club, often getting ourselves banned for periods of time.
I guess I was trying to ingratiate myself with him in some way and was also a little interested in learning about things musical as a player so I blagged a ride in the back of his van with the equipment and helped carry it in and out of the venue. I was kinda amused to be in this place, still not quite of drinking age and seemed to enjoy the atmosphere whilst not being particularly interested in the music.
I had grown up through my very early years in the north of England with the local country music scene as my mum’s boyfriend was a guitar player that played a lot at the time. Mum also played folk music at home sometimes too. This Cottage Industry shit certainly wasn’t punk rock and that was all I cared about at the time.
I guessed I learned something from this experience but probably didn’t recognise it at the time.

Just look at this place. I don’t know what I really expect places to look like but this just brings to mind the drabness of England. This picture contains the best of the English colour scheme. The stand-out colour in the picture is a fucking traffic cone.

*The Void – Wimborne Youth Club, Dorset, UK – 4th March 1985

The Week That Was

Record of the week: Toy Dolls – Dig That Groove Baby, Atrox – Elitist Prey

4th March 1985
Got up at 10. Went to Wimborne. Met Sharon, Mayo and Paul Miller. Bought laces and sweets. Went to sign on. Went to Careers Office. Bought crosswords book. Came back. Just about to go see Void when Scott came round. Took him along as well. Void were pretty boring. Saw Wayne so gave him the tape. Got back at 10.30.
6

5th March 1985
Got up at 11. Farted around for most of the day. Started doing crosswords. Played Toy Dolls LP – it’s pretty good. Went on common and climbed a few trees. Trying to improve my singing. Went down Youth Club. Everyone was in a pissy mood. Going down to see Pete’s group tomorrow. Came back.
5

6th March 1985
Can’t remember what happened during the day so I’ll tell you what happened tonight. Pete gave me a lift down to Parkstone. Met the rest of his band. One of them told me that Madisons holds a musical workshop every Monday. They played pretty well. It wasn’t my type of music but it made a welcome change.
7

7th March 1985
Oh shit, what happened today? Oh yes. I went for interview in Corfe Mullen. Bloke said I could start on the 18th so I said I would. It’s doing painting and decorating. New programme was on tonight called Street Hawk. It’s great – typical US trash.
6

8th March 1985
Sent off for Internatione PEACE Benefit double LP and 3 Maximum Rock N Rolls. Went down Youth Club – it was piss boring. Took some records down that no one liked. We can’t do our trick on the pool table anymore – which is a big fuck off.
6

9th March 1985
Everyone went down Poole – so I went. It was OK at times but got boring after a while. Jasper was pissed off cos he wasn’t the leader. Met Justin, Ratty and Midge down there. Let off smoke bomb on the bus. Played Spotlight this evening which was quite a good laugh.
7

10th March 1985
Went down Wareham. Got train to Dorchester. Practice was really good. Met Tony on the way down. He came along. Got back about 7. Watched telly all evening. Done my back in though which isn’t very pleasing. Night Court was good.
8