Scream, Mad Thatchers, Free Beer – West Indian Club, Southampton, Hampshire, UK – 4th June 1986

28th Jan 2024 – Things I remember about this show:

It was incredible! 5 piece Scream played all the hits from their first two albums.

Skeeter told us how insane hanging out with the Butthole Surfers was.

The pit was rough as fuck and I got winded under a pile-up on the floor. I went off to the side and grabbed a chair, dragging it into the pit in a brief lull between songs and sat down in a sulk, hoping that it might cool things down. I lasted about five seconds into the next song before I was knocked off and the chair disappeared.

At one point there was a small boy on the side of the stage and singer Pete Stahl picked him up to include him during whatever song it was they were playing but the boy wasn’t too happy about it and started crying.

The support bands suffered in the way that I have no memory of them at all. Scream outshined them completely.

Rich ‘Punk Encyclopedia’ Levine also had this to say when questioned about Free Beer!

FREE BEER from Fareham/Pompey way, replaced NOX MORTIS as Simon was ill. The West Indian got funny about their name being on the poster as they thought people would assume there was a free bar! Member of staff took objection to Skeeter climbing on top of the porch outside the front door. Toilets got damaged so we lost our deposit & got banned from the club for 2 years until new management meant we returned for the start of the S.T.E. era. Then someone with FREE BEER “mistakenly” took home part of the PA meaning the PA guy had to follow them in his car all the way to Fareham to retrieve it!

Bob The Goat – 11th May 1986

Bestiality is the best
Animal love, fur caressed
But my love was a coat
Poor old Bob the goat

29th Sept 1986 – My coworker Stuart was maybe 5 to 10 years older than me at the time and was always very vague about his relationships eventually resorting to the line that he had a goat called Bob as his girlfriend and hence this poem. Semi-ironically he got married a couple of years later, presumably to a woman. He used to go swimming a lot to keep fit but got out of the pool one day to find his bag had been taken from the changing rooms and everything stolen from it, including his wedding photos that he had gotten printed that day and all his clothes! He had to wait for the police to arrive in just his swimming trunks.