Tag: punk rock
Hate That Smile, Corporate Grave – Labour Club, Southampton, Hampshire, UK – 29th December 1988
Unsure of the date or exact location of the recording – I believe it may be at the Labour Club, Southampton, either on 20/10/88, 2/12/88 or 29/12/88. We played there 3 times in 2 months – all with Corporate Grave!
Hate That Smile, Corporate Grave – Labour Club, Southampton, Hampshire, UK – 2nd December 1988
We played the Labour Club 3 times in 2 months – all with Corporate Grave!
*Hate That Smile, Corporate Grave – Labour Club, Southampton, Hampshire, UK – 20th October 1988
Culture Shock, Hate That Smile, Corporate Grave – West Indian Club, Southampton, Hampshire, UK – 29th June 1988
From the STE Collective Facebook page:
S.T.E. 1! CULTURE SHOCK/HATE THAT SMILE/CORPORATE GRAVE – Wed 29 June 1988 – Southampton West Indian Club.
Kent Jolly who was an American woman living in the U.K. was booking a CULTURE SHOCK tour & contacted me (Rich) about a Southampton gig. A load of us had a meeting at the Joiners & put some money into a kitty. Paul Jay came up with the S.T.E. (Southampton, Totton & Eastleigh) Collective name simply based on the places where we lived. This might have been HATE THAT SMILE’s 1st gig – they were ex ATROX & old friends from Dorset (Wimborne, Dorchester & Wareham). This was definitely CORPORATE GRAVE’s first gig with Rik Godfrey on bass after Bren left. I made the flyer which was a bastardisation of a BRIGANDAGE poster with the pics from a CULTURE SHOCK fanzine interview I think. Beforehand we were really worried that no one would turn up but over 200 did. Bing at the WI warned us prior to the gig about people smoking drugs at the gig, which was ironic as afterwards when we went to pay him the member’s room was thick with smoke.
Paul Chambers: Yep, HTS 1st gig, I broke my A sting on the 1st note of the 1st song and replaced it in the dark with a D.
27th Jan 2024 – I reckon this picture must be from the first Hate That Smile gig because I actually don’t even remember Rich Waitland ever playing live with us so I think perhaps this would be our first show and that he bowed out soon after. Looks like we managed to get a good crowd of two people up and dancing, that being juggling Rut on the right.
Hate That Smile – Energise – 14th June 1988
Alex Vann: Drums
Rich Waitland: Guitar/Vocals
Paul Chambers: Bass/Vocals
Paul Simmons: Guitar
Shaun Hemsley: Vocals
26th Feb 2021 – Not certain about the date for this but 1988 would be correct. This was the first iteration of Hate That Smile. Rich left fairly soon after recording this as we started to want to play more shows and I think he had young kids at the time and wasn’t able to commit his time. If I remember correctly I joined the band a little later after formation and still wasn’t sure about how to sing some of Paul’s lyrics so he and Rich ended up singing their songs in the studio.
Alex, the two Paul’s and I had all played together in Atrox which disbanded after Dave Redfern and Charlie Mason went off to university. I’m not sure of the genesis of Hate That Smile anymore. I think the Paul C came up with the name though not sure what the meaning was behind it. This was the time of the rise of Acid House music and raves which adopted the smiley face symbol and I found an image that was similar but the smile had been manipulated into something a little more sinister. I got 500 stickers made up and spread them everywhere I could around my little town. I don’t think they had any impact.
I still enjoy listening to these songs and we felt part of the much larger punk scene of the time though musically sometimes it’s hard to see where we fit in. I was always critical of my vocal skills, especially as this band needed a strong singer and not so much a shouter (which I also wasn’t particularly good at anyway) but considering how badly I sing these days I think I gave it a fair shot. The music holds up as interesting and I was happy with the lyrics I was contributing.
*Hard-Ons, Boltthrower, Cerebral Fix – Fulham Greyhound, London, UK – 11th June 1988
*The Void – Colehill Memorial Hall, Wimborne, Dorset, UK – 4th December 1987
(unsure of date but probably one Friday in December)
*Circle Jerks, Gang Green – Hammersmith Clarendon, London, UK – 21st November 1987
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!
1994ever 