We continued as a two piece whilst looking for a bassist, eventually we got thrown out of the scout hut. Warlock was allowed to use the scout hut for free to practice on his drums then I turn up with all my equipment and become a drain on the national grid thus the scoutmaster was somewhat unhappy with the electricity bill.

We was at our local venue The Square one night and we watched a dreadful covers band however I was interested in the bassist, a great guy called Si. Its worth noting at this point both Warlock and I were amateur players but with a passion for punk rock n roll. Si joined us and it soon become evident that he wasn't a very good bassist and was a different level of shit compared to Warlock and I. I overlooked Si's short comings on the bass and was happy to finally have the three piece Punk band I always wanted. We soldiered on with Si however it was taking a long time to get him to get up to speed on a song. I was wanting to build a 12-14 song set to play live, but tutoring Si slowed us down. I was always wanting to do new songs and this become Warlocks burden however with Si's lack of ability this wasn't going to happen.

By the end of summer 1995 things were slowly coming together again I overlooked my bassist frustration hoping to be gig ready for 1996.

Martin Kollusion, who promoted a regular Punk night at The Square, was interested to put us on as a support band in the near future. He offered us a gig on December 1st to which we stupidly agreed to, we only had four songs ready at this time due to afore mentioned bassist.

The evening of the gig Warlock & I was driving back to Harlow when he tells me he has never played live before, I told him I had never sang before in public. We listened to Rocket From The Crypt in his XR2 shitting ourselves, judging by the smell I would say Warlock more than myself as I had played live many times with Obscene Toys, Premature Death, Thee Primebeats and Seedjoy.

Me & Warlock pretending not to be scared The Square Dec 1st 1995

                                  

I did warn Martin, the promoter, that we could only play four songs and then to my joy my friend Paul Epworth, now renowned producer, was doing live sound. This was a night of firsts, but importantly for me was Iain Murray becoming Warlock. When we arrived for sound check the headlining band kindly let us use their drum kit which had scaffold around it. Seeing Iain behind the kit I named him Warlock like Frankenstein I think I created a monster! I don't particularly remember that much about the gig now, thankfully it was recorded and I can tell by my voice I'm shitting it. What I do remember was saying to Paul as I passed the soundboard "give it some Lee Perry" he didn't disappoint. Armed with only four songs we took the stage and blasted through them, I was continuingly having to show Si where the notes were on each song and I couldn't fully relax knowing that he may fuck up. It felt shitty only having four songs to play but at least we got out there and done it warts and all.

Locally the Punk scene in Harlow was very much the American skate punk style and we really didn't fit it in, I never really wanted to be a style or sub genre I guess I was trying to achieve Ramones deluxe. I believe we were misunderstood largely, I never wanted to be 77, Anarcho, UK82 etc my influences go beyond Punk as does Warlocks. I preferred Punk as opposed to Punk Rock. Lyrically it was merely seeing the world with humour & anger as well as piss take and contradictions.

I have always had the belief that the next song will be best, I would say that these four songs we played live are not our best but I think we was still trying to find our groove. We hadn't found our sound as yet.

SET

Fucked If I Know

Shut Up!

England's Atrocities

You're Dead Already

Download 1st Gig: http://www115.zippyshare.com/v/cOOA8Dum/file.html