Tell yer ma, tell yer pa, our love’s gonna grow – 1st August 1994

Well here I am, many days later – time has been against us once again. Now I’m at work, all stirred up caffeine wise and about to briefly run down some of the stuff that’s been going on this week.

I must mention the Danish hitchhiker I picked up. A real relaxed cool dude who told me of his travels hitching across Europe, Russia, Siberia, China and into Tibet. And going to places where they’d never seen white people before, camping under the stars and spending days in countries with nothing to do except watch the world go by in all its beauty (can you imagine me doing that!!). I asked him what started him off travelling and he said it was an English sunset. Time and travel had turned him into a beautiful person, not craving after the greed of modern life. A balance I would find difficult to cope with what with my possessions which I love so much, although I know they are meaningless in my heart and in my soul. Much respect to that dude anyway and he showed me it back. We understood each other and knew we were both good people.

At the end of the last piece I wrote we went to Southampton and we saw us some bands. One from Belgium called Byetail, their drummer later purchasing some of my beloved records. When they played they impressed me enough to donate the Mission of Burma album to him too. He was pleased! (He was a cool guy too). And back home, intending to pack some more but knowing it wasn’t going to happen.

And then, Monday out for a meal at Rosemary’s. She is a fellow speech therapist friend of Broni’s. One of the few who is okay and works hard and is friendly. Some of the stories I hear about the others are incredible. Real typical social climbing stuff and putting themselves into positions where they don’t have to work so hard and when they do do some work they make sure they get the really well-paid jobs. It seems whatever your profession there’s always some of that bullshit going on. Well, we had a great meal and lots of wine which meant we had to stay over the night (night four of being drunk!).

Tuesday, Broni went out with Danny, Joe and Stella (over from Amsterdam) while I did some packing up and crashed out fairly early, all the late nights are catching up (but I think Broni got in at about 2!).

And Wednesday more packing before racing up to Newport via Southampton to see the excellent Wholesome Crack, okay Swine Flu and the fucking awesome Drive Like Jehu, whose music just took me away and made my body jibber and twitch that my head nearly fell off. Unbelievable!

Back to Simon’s and to sleep about 4.30, me and Broni in the hallway, Rob, Rich and two Irish guys in the front room. Of course with Simon’s kids we were up at 8.30. Young Elliot first shy but then running around shouting and screaming. A real cutie! We hung around Newport so long, a planned game of golf went out the window. Eventually driving back zombiefied and home where I slept for an hour or two as Broni continued packing stuff up. I woke up for a couple more hours to eat some food but couldn’t keep my eyes open so once again went where the Sandman walks.

Friday, we moved a ton of stuff down to Kerry’s – I think that took all day, I can’t remember. And then went up to Wimborne to show Kerry another nice Tandoori, suitably stuffed and we went back and crashed out – a small day in descriptive terms but a huge one in reality. Our old house now empty of all possessions.

It’s Saturday, up at 5:30 to take Kerry up to Heathrow to catch a plane for Helsinki to Tokyo. Had fun watching people from a hundred different countries go by, hustling and bustling! And back to make preparations in our old house for the party later that night. We hired out a big disco and set it all up and decorated the house with balloons and streamers and spray string. And waited for the masses to come and slowly but surely they did.

Later dudes!

Searching for pictures to use on this post led me to this page: https://abstractanalogue.tumblr.com/post/167514322499/drive-like-jehu-uk-tour-1994-press-clippings
which, would you believe, is written by one of the Irish dudes who stayed with us all at Simon’s house!

If there was some sense to make I’d try and understand – 15th May 1994

Much to write about once again. Finally finished reading The Vanity of Dulouz. Such a great read – beautifully written. Besides all that and the usual run ins at work (I really have had enough!) we, fucking hell, got my visa! And celebrated at the Mandarin! Took my mum out for a meal next night too! No wonder we have no money!

Anyways, trekked up to Newport for the wonderful Trumans Water (they get better the more I think about them!), no bass player but some didgeridoo instead! Broni was very tired though and it was very loud so she wasn’t so impressed – maybe next time we see them.

Cowboy killers – 12th January 1994

Getting Bronwyn up is great fun!  She looks like a little child looking up at me through sleepy eyes, with her bottom lip stuck out.  She looks so beautiful.  She sleeps on and I wish I could get back into bed with her and into her arms and into dreams.  These winter mornings are difficult to get up to.

Read parts of ‘The Understanding…’ book as aid for tomorrow’s encounter with Fatty.  Learn to disagree, respect yourself and others – that kind of thing.  Just have to remember all the things it mentions and not get hot-headed as I could be tempted to and then I know nothing would get resolved.

Received our special chicken pox edition of the free LP for the Newport New Year gig (that we couldn’t attend).  Good old Simon – punk rock in spirit and in heart.

Spermbirds, Victims Family, Rectify – TJ’s, Newport, Gwent, Wales, UK – 17th March 1992

THE VICTIMS FAMILY/MORRIS MARINA TOUR DIARY

Starring:
Shaun as the driver on the road to rock n roll oblivion!
Morris Marina as the nightmare in transit!

And Introducing: The Victims Family Crew
Ralph Spight: guitar and vocals
Tim ‘Bucky’ Solyan: drums
Larry Boothroyd: bass 

Assisted by: Josh Ray: sound and sales
Hetty: Tour coordinator and Diks van driver

SPERMBIRDS/VICTIMS FAMILY/RECTIFY
Newport TJs

I departed home at about 12.30, allowing enough time to get to Newport and give me a chance to find a decent place to park and find Rockaway Records.  I was pretty nervous of my car on the way as it hasn’t always been the most reliable of vehicles (as certain people on an ill-fated journey to Leamington Spa to see Shudder To Think will testify). Travelling along all the A roads gives you chance to see some pretty nice scenery and towns (particularly Bradford Upon Avon).  Having made it to the motorway with a couple of brief rest breaks, I headed towards the Severn Bridge and Wales.  The bridge is pretty spectacular in size, and offers a mean view in all directions.

A straightforward drive took me into Newport and I found a place to park easily enough.

Check out the monument by the river! I headed in the general direction of the shops and found the Provisions Market, home of Rockaway Records (run by Simon, who helps put on the shows in Newport). Hung out til closing time, checking out the great selection of new and secondhand records – picking up a couple of bargains with the ‘Happy World’ 7” and the  World Class Punk’ Rior cassette. Headed over to TJ’s after my first portion of chips of the tour so far.

Simon had been hassling me to come to a Newport gig for ages and this one promised to be a treat. TJ’s is quite a small place, but just about the right size for this kind of show, i.e. not too full, not too empty.  As it’s a club things start and finish a bit later too which meant a fair while sitting around and waiting. Most people didn’t start coming in til 9.30. A stall had been set up with tons of merchandise available (like a mini-market!) all at very reasonable prices too.

Rectify came on stage at about 9.50 and blasted out their hardcore attack to an appreciative audience (gosh! people dancing to a support band!).  I enjoyed Rectify live but it’s not what I’d choose to listen to at home. Their set was halted due to a broken bass drum pedal.

After a short break, the Victims Family took the stage and plenty of people gathered around to watch.  Even knowing the old songs they are still a great spectacle live. The quirky stops and changes never cease to amaze me, and they played a couple of songs way faster than their vinyl versions. Highlight was a song which reminded me of The Minutemen and talking to Ralph later he confessed an affection for both them and the Big Boys.  A couple of people in the crowd were literally stunned by the Family’s musical accomplishment and the new songs are easily added in to their set. After a short gap, they came back to finish with an ultra-fast ‘Anti Satan Song For Mom’.

Again, after a brief gap, the Spermbirds hit the stage and knocked out their own brand of HC, putting in tons of energy and huge riffs aplenty. Lee (singer) was slightly perplexed at a girl screaming at the side of the stage, “I want to come on your fucking face!” She was quite adamant about it too! The masses of people dancing sucked up all the energy the Spermbirds gave and after about 40 minutes, it got a bit too much for me, so I went outside for a while til the encore of ‘Shit Job’, which went down a storm.

The piles of sweaty people went home contented. They even found it in themselves to donate £40 to Victims Family who had had their tyres slashed by some arseholes outside the venue earlier. I eventually left at about 3am to go back to Simon’s with him and a couple of other guys (sorry, forgot your names already!). Over a nice hot cup of tea, we chuckled at the local newspaper with Pig from Rectify and Chaos from Chaos U.K. in a full colour cover, with a centre page spread about the Newport HC scene. Good stuff, which will hopefully encourage others to support one of the best scenes I’ve come across.

After that it seemed like a good idea to get some sleep as we had to be up early next morning.


HAVE YOU BEEN IN ANY PREVIOUS BANDS?

Larry: Yeah, lots of ’em. The one right before VF was Skirt Boys, a sort of mid tempo, groovin’ peace punk band.
Tim: Only a local metal sort of Victims Family outfit.
Ralph: I was in a sort of power pop thing.

WHAT WERE YOUR CHILDHOOD AMBITIONS?

Larry wanted to play music and travel in a van! Ralph wanted to play baseball until he discovered guitar. Tim had no childhood ambitions.

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE THE HEAD OF THE NEW JAZZCORE EXPLOSION?

Larry: It wasn’t us, we were outta town, you can’t prove anything! No, but really, if jazzcore means breaking down barriers, that’s cool, but if it’s just this year’s trend – fuck it!
Tim: I could hardly call it jazzcore. I think that’s a bogus description.  I personally feel 2nd to No Means No if there were some chart.
Ralph: Or John Zorn.