GBH - Reviews - Derby, Saturday July 10th - 1999
Well here I am again writing another GBH concert review, quite amazingly for
my record, it's not even a year since I wrote the last one, things must be
improving. However, it has to be said that the circumstances of the weekend
were hardly ideal as I was home in England not because I wanted to be there,
but because I had to be there !
I know it's boring to have to read about all the details of my personal life
when all you want to read about is what happened at the gig itself, but I have
always believed that gigs are special events and it is as much the events
before and after .. as well as during the show itself that make the evening
what it is and so I am afraid that you'll just have to tolerate my usual
rambling lead-up.
There was one thing which both helped and hindered on Saturday .. the heat !
It was great to bike it over in the evening sun but bloody hell when we got
inside the venue, and particularly in the stage area .. I thought I was going
to melt. It seemed at least ten degrees hotter as you walked in through the
dividing doors into the stage area, the condensation inside made it even worse,
very oppressive indeed. I felt really sorry for the bands who had to play in
that, especially the drummers, it's no wonder they usually look really fit,
they must sweat it all off during the performance. Scott as usual was stripped
down to his pants when he got on-stage later on, can't say I blame him.
Mind you, having said that I felt sorry for the performers, it was difficult
to feel sympathy for Ross who seemed to insist on wearing a t-shirt, shirt and
jacket whilst inside !! I asked him if he was not feeling a bit hot and he
replied "actually I was feeling a bit chilly", unbelievable in the
circumstances.
Jackie and I quickly located the band .. who were in a room just off-stage and pretty quickly got into the swing of a damn good chat with Colin. That is not to forget of course the other 'stars' of the evening .. we found Ross in the bar later whilst I found Jock eventually somewhere 'backstage'. As is customary for Jock, he had probably changed his appearance at least ten time since I had last seen him and tonight was no exception. He had pretty well shaved all his hair off and the little remaining had been dyed different shades each side. He was also sporting more piercing than ever and capped it off with a paint brush type goatee beard .. and of course no doubt all that will have changed the next time I catch up with him.
Scott was happily ensconced in the corner of the room drinking and smoking with a bunch of guys that I had never seen before .. it turned out later that these were all the members of 'Bomb Disneyland' with whom he used to be the drummer. I had already seen the biggest star of the evening outside .. well if I have mentioned the vocalist, the guitarist, bassist and drummer then who could be left out ?
Well of course I haven't mentioned Pedro the band's faithful roadie. It has to be said that most people adopt a more conservative style of dressing as they get older but not old Pedders, oh no. Tonight he combined the usual bandanna with a hair dye job that Jimmy Saville would have been proud of. He behaved all night with his usual gentlemanly manner. As with all these long time acquaintances of the band, the guy has as much to offer as anyone else taking part in the performance.
Whilst talking to Colin inside the off-stage area I could hear the first band 'The Apocalypse Babys' go on-stage, they sounded pretty good, though I have no idea what they were playing as I don't know anything by them unfortunately.
At some point later on, I could hear Beerzone get going and would take a few minutes outside to watch them. I haven't heard any of their actual records (though I know a few of their songs .. work that one out), and they sounded very solid. It has to be said that there is nothing further that I could add to this statement that could possibly compete with the praise of the walking self-publicity machine that is Iain Killgallon, their singer.
That statement is not meant nastily, it is just that Iain has such a supreme self-confidence regarding his band that you cannot fail to notice ! I wish I was so self-confident to be honest,. They played really well anyway and I am sure they'll go far .. which is nice of me to say since Iain rubbished one of my prized web-sites in-between telling me how good Beerzone were .. not that I would take such a thing to heart of course.
By now it was already ten o'clock, which was not a good thing at the Vic because it pretty well meant that the band had just one hour to play. The Vic you see has a very strict timing schedule, which in many ways is a good thing actually .. there is nothing worse than sitting round waiting nearly an hour for the next band to get on-stage ! The main problem is that the Vic is sited next to a load of housing and as you may know, too many complaints about the racket and bang goes the music license and that would be an absolute tragedy as The Victoria Inn is probably the best Punk supporting venue in the whole area.
And so finally the band hit the stage, as ever it always seems to me, Scott got on first, Ross and Jock plugged in and struck a few notes and finally when all was ready, on came Colin garbed in his usual dark clothes (plus resplendent 'Batman' logo) and not a spiky bleached hair out of place. And the set ? Well, they kicked off with a lovely version of 'Pins and needles', I hadn't heard that one for years and that wasn't to be the only song like that either. Second was 'Diplomatic immunity', these both went down really well. After that, well loads more favourites, 'Time bomb', 'I need energy', 'Cryin on the hard shoulder', 'Junkies' then in various places 'Catch 23', 'Hellhole' (thanks for the dedication Colin) and 'Womb with a view'.
The sound on Jock's guitar seemed to keep cutting out at times which was a bit
annoying. Having already played several classics he went for the opening
chord of 'Give me fire' and the sound went completely, there was 'no need to
panic' though (excuse the pun), a few seconds later all was fixed and they
launched into a blistering version of the track.
Like everything that happened that evening, it was just one of those excellent
events where the atmosphere was good, the bands were good and everything just
gelled really well. I am beginning to wonder whether GBH have entered a new
domain. One could argue that after twenty or so years a band could have done
all it could, but I tend to think that their rough patch was the late 80's -
early 90's and now that they've emerged through the others side of that, they
seem to be here with a vengeance .. and hopefully to stay for good.
Now admittedly, there was one 'secret ingredient' (or rather lack of one ..
sorry Colin) that really helped the evening along .. the vodka bottle. Now,
everyone drinks at these events and the bands are usually the worst offenders
and well er .. Colin likes his drink like everyone else. One could say that I
have certainly noticed that he's been on it before ! So the masterplan was to
give him his Vodka ration afterwards which worked fine for Colin.
Unfortunately .. the person LOOKING AFTER the vodka ration i.e. our reliable
friend Paul wasn't exactly being teetotal himself. He was proudly showing me
what was left of the hidden rations (he had of course prevented Colin from
drinking it by downing it himself), whilst busily telling me "how excellent
Thursday night had been". May I explain that GBH had played just 10 miles from
my home the Thursday two days before .. I was of course still in Ireland at the
time. All of this he managed to remind of about every 10 minutes just to rub
it in .. cheers Paul !
So anyway, time marched on very quickly and the band didn't even get to the
encore before suddenly the lights were flashing for everyone to go home .. what
a bummer ! I think that they had just finished 'Revenge' so we hadn't heard the
usual medley of 'Generals', 'Race against time', 'Knife edge' etc. Ross and
Jock carried on with some kind of impromptu jam session for a bit but that
unfortunately was that from the rest of GBH for the evening. It didn't spoil
the night for me though, the band had been superb, really 'world class' .. to
borrow a very cliched business term.
So to end, firstly I'd like to say a big 'thanks' David A. Hindley for spending hours optimising
the photographs shown below and secondly, to everyone who made the evening what
it was especially to the bloke on the door (who should be an example to
'doormen' everywhere). The guy not only kept an eye on my motorbike all night
but wouldn't even accept a drink in return for it .. what a gentleman .. and
what an evening, good-bye !
