Post by neilcrud on Feb 26, 2007 10:34:30 GMT
4Q Diaries - Part 4
Bangor then The Henchmen - Aug 1987
Bangor then The Henchmen - Aug 1987
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Rhys Mwyn of Anhrefn saw The Imperial in Colwyn Bay as a great little venue to start rolling in punk bands from all over the UK and arranged with myself a show for 6th August 1987 featuring two South Wales bands, Classified Protest and Cowboy Killers, along with Alan Holmes’ other project The Lungs. I of course sneaked 4Q onto the bottom of the bill for good measure.
With 24 hours to go The Imperial’s landlord pulled the plug which prompted this headline in the North Wales Weekly News:
Pub Pulls Plug On ‘Caring’ Punk Band
A PUNK concert has been cancelled at a local pub.
Now the leader of one of the bands involved is complaining that they are misunderstood and get a raw deal.
Self-styled Neil Crud, 21, of Colwyn Bay, was due to play with his band, Group 40, at the Imperial, Colwyn Bay, last Sunday.
But he and 2 punk bands from South Wales who were also expecting to play were pulled out the day before.
"They told us that we were banned because we were punks and because our magazine Crud, is anti-establishment," said Neil.
"When local heavy rock bands play at the Imperial, they only pull 20 to 30 people. When punk bands play we draw crowds of 75-150
Media
"I disagree with the description that punks are violent. It is the media's fault," he said.
He added that punks no longer spat and mugged old ladies, but wanted a peaceful and caring world.
"The local police force are narrow minded when it comes to dealing with the town's youth, who are treated arrogantly, offensively, aggressively and patronisingly," he said.
Landlord Alf Nettleton said he booked what he thought were heavy rock bands, but when he realised they were punk bands he cancelled the concert.
His wife Dora added that they had tried to sort out the mix-up but everyone thye called seemed to contradict each other.
"When we have heavy rock people coming they do not want to hear a different type of music," she added.
The article was prompted by a letter that Satan sent into the paper and all the quotes had nothing to do with myself at all. Satan also sent a similar letter to the Daily Post, but nothing came of it.
A month to the day after our live debut 4Q headed to Bangor to play with The Flaps,
‘We’re headlining tonight as you’re on our patch now!’ Announced Ann as we stumbled into the venue for tonight’s show.
The Albion Vaults is not renowned for it's musical entertainment was also not designed for it. The bands had to move the pool table against a wall, set their back line up on it and squeeze the drums into the corner. All this in a room the size of a lounge!
There was a buzz around Bangor and a lot of people tried to get in to see the show which meant because of the size of the place, there was going to be disappointed punters.
Those who managed to see the bands were given what was becoming a typical bout of 4Q entertainment; loads of noise but not much music coupled with loads of abuse but all good humoured. One of Edi’s old schoolmates introduced us,
‘Ladies and gentlemen… Johnny Rawhide and the Cowhorns.’
It was Edi’s finest hour, the majority of the crowd had seen us now for the third time and knew the script; whatever they threw at Edi they’d get it back ten fold with humour and abuse. He didn’t let them down, and even invited Jed from the Bangor punk band Paraletics to scream during the chorus of Video Party.
Paul Puke’s mate Mark was put forward to replace Bod on rhythm guitar. He was renamed Marc Mucus in true punk style, and perhaps in true punk style he couldn’t play a note. Marc did one rehearsal with us and kind of learnt to play I Hate TV which we aired for the first time at the Albion. During the song Paul nodded to me with a grimace at the sound coming out of Marc’s amp, it was awful even by 4Q’s very low standards and I quietly turned Marc’s volume down to zero. That was his only apprearance with the band and we didn’t resurrect the idea of two guitarists for a very long time.
Systemisation was the final song - I used Marc's guitar as mine was by now void of strings, I also had a pint poured over me and Wayne was completely legless after consuming five pints of lager and half a bottle of whisky so Paul turned his amp off too, and he didn’t even notice! We encored with a Scraps song called Alcoloos, about the joys of drinking, five or six of the crowd join us on stage to sing the words which go ‘La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la oi!’ before they all start throwing each other around. I took a walk over some seats onto a table and then threw Marc’s guitar at the pile of bodies.
The Flaps set was their best so far, it looked like they'd had a row before hand as they were very abrupt, tense, and giving each other dirty looks and it was reflected in the angry mis-chords that bled from the amplifiers, to top it all Johnny Flaps kicked his drumkit at Alan and Ann and stormed off to wind up a cool evening.
Edi then took a week off to visit some friends in Torquay only to arrive home to find a Hells Angel jihad hanging over 4Q. Some arsehole had petrol bombed the Henchmen's Headquarters in Old Colwyn. The Henchmen being the North Wales chapter of Hells Angels are obviously not too happy about the situation. The bomb went off and there was a note left saying that they were a bunch of wankers and on the bottom of the page was a number ‘4’ after which the paper had been torn. The number was the beginning of the address, but the Henchmen are assuming that it said '4Q' and unless the culprit comes forward within one week they are going to start visiting the abodes of punks in the area to dish out some medication, gulp!
Edi is as hard faced as nails, if he believes in something he’s not afraid to let you know. He went straight up to Hagar the Henchman’s house to try and resolve the situation. They both discussed who they thought the culprit may be and Edi learnt that there had been a magic mushroom festival last weekend and the Henchmen gave their two penny's worth by smashing up the cars etc of festival goers and that the petrol bomb was probably a form of revenge. Thankfully for Edi’s delicate liasing there would be no premature punk burials in Colwyn Bay and we lived to drink another day.
Dancing at The Galleon, Rhos-on-Sea
Then things got a little interesting a couple of weeks later. I was minding my own business working at The Prem Arcade on that fateful Saturday morning when some low life scum bag marched in on an errand for the Henchmen. He told me that 4Q had a gig tonight in front of all the Chapters from all the country - yikes!
A gig is a gig I thought and I argued the toss with the rest of the band who weren't all that keen on doing the show, although once I told them that our payment was as much beer we could drink they agreed to do it.
We used a landrover belonging to the Henchman known as Pablo to get the gear to a disused quarry called Ghost’s Canyon at the back of Dyserth in North Wales. The setting was excellent; a huge quarry, a beer tent with barrels of draught beers, a generator and a huge bonfire. We set the equipment up on a mound of rocks; a great place to shoot a video (if we had that kind of money). An hour later we heard the distant rumble of 150 very large motorcycles and stood by as they all passed. To be honest, we totally crapped ourselves
I thought that this was the point of no return. Here we were a punk band playing only our fourth gig with a reputation for rowdiness and about to do it in front of marauding Hell's Angels! Just as we plodded into the second song the PA blew up; 'oh deary me' I thought and had visions of 200 upset bikers removing our heads in order to shag our necks, very slowly.
Edi decided to prat around on the drum kit to ‘entertain’ the crowd while the rest of us tried to sort out the problem, then two bikers got up, one grabbed the bass off Wayne and the other pushed Edi off the drum stool saying; 'Outta the way you stupid little punk.' And both proceeded to make an unholy racket; even worse than some of 4Q’s songs! I could see that our equipment was going to end up as firewood, but as it turned out it was nearly me who got burnt when a monster of a Henchman grabbed me by the neck and the balls, said;
‘You're that Neil Crud and I'm gonna fucking burn you.’ He picked me up and carried me to the huge raging bonfire. Thankfully another Henchman, Ivor who I knew from my youth stopped the incident.
Alas, it was technically impossible to continue the gig; there was no voltage regulator on the generator which is why the PA blew, but the majority of the bikers were very friendly and told the band not to worry about it and to enjoy the evening. Which is what 4Q did and survived to tell the tale.
This turned out to be Edi’s final gig with 4Q.
4Q on tour - Edi's car