Tag: West Indian Club

Culture Shock, Hate That Smile, Corporate Grave – West Indian Club, Southampton, Hampshire, UK – 29th June 1988

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

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.

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

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

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!

Paler Shade of Black, Atrox, Suicide Pact, All The Glory – West Indian Club, Southampton, Hampshire, UK – 19th September 1985

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Diary entry: Last (Atrox) gig in Southampton. Went really well.

12th Feb 2021 – A Thursday night, no less. Not being too familiar with Southampton after having only been there a couple of times, we often got misdirected by the locals, whether by accident or folks not appreciating these scruffy young punks in their city.

We did establish many lifelong friendships from these times though. The West Indian Club was a magical place (in my mind now) though I had no real idea of the workings of organising shows or even understanding how sound was mixed in a live situation. I just stood on the stage and shouted as loud as I could and hoped I could be heard. Folks seemed to enjoy it, either way.