In yet another moment of folly, I thought I'd post another extract from Almost Human today. Why? Why not.If you have some friends who were around and reasonably sober at the time of this, please feel more than free to forward the link on for comments - but it would be helpful if you could hook it back to it's source at www.zodiaclung.blogspot.com rather than any other feed you might have picked up from.
Here we go:
IN WHICH STIV BATORS STOLE MY HEARING
Back in 1985, Kerrang! - then being the only source for rock news of any kind - ran a little news piece on a new show that would air on the fledgling Channel Four. In 1985, this was unheard of. With a little hindsight and maturity under the belt, The Whistle Test was a great show that I should have liked, but man, they broadcast some crap. This new show promised to blow the Whistle off the air...
That legendary show was called E.C.T. - which I think stood for Extra Celestial Transmission. There may be an outside chance of course that it's only legendary in my own head but humour me while I give you a rundown - drawn entirely from memory. If I could be bothered, I'd check my facts as a footnote later but it will be more fun this way.
I sent off for tickets and as promised, got two in the mail for the first show. I believe the line up was Magnum, Torme, Madam X and Motorhead. I don't remember seeing Magnum, but they're really not my sort of thing so if there had been a bar, that's where I would have been. Torme cancelled and while I was uber-disappointed about this, they were replaced with the Lords of the New Church. For the anal information collectors of you out there, the history books still have Torme logged as playing. If anybody feels strongly enough about this to change it, go ahead, knock yourself out.
As is the need in such a young rock fan, I needed to be at the front - it was TV after all. If you check out the YouTube footage of the Lords set (some of which is here), you might be able to see me doing that thing that Dee Snider says one must always do at a rock show - being a fist-throwing motherf****r. Yeah - that's me on the right with the fishnet stocking sleeve and a .22 rifle bullet on a bracelet - seemed like a good idea at the time. They did maybe two or three songs but shortly after they started, I got pushed over in front of the PA speakers and was crushed there with my head in the loudest place in the universe for the remainder of the set - which is when Stiv Bators did me over with a scream that he must have pulled from the Devil's Satchel (TM) during Method to my Madness.
My right ear never truly recovered from this and as luck would have it, Madam X went on to compound this during their set as I went nutso during High in High School and Lemmy put the finishing touches to what was left with no mercy whatsoever. Having become mostly deaf on one side of my head, I became besotted with Maxine Petrucci of Madam X. I was 17. She was a goddess. After the show, she came over and was signing jackets and scraps of paper for fans. All I had was a pound note, so I got her to sign that. I kept it for years until I was utterly desperate one day and had to trade it in for some kind of foodstuff. Maxine - if you're out there… mail me! No other reason other than it would be fun… or weird… or just plain wrong.
The show ran the full length of its allotted schedule which is a miracle. Today, the axe would have fallen after a couple of shows. More importantly than it being funny looking back at this, it served a huge purpose. With very few exceptions, most of these bands would never have been seen outside of London or their home town. For the record - and my sins - I became a huge fan of The Grip, Tarazara and Pet Hate following the show and spent a ruckload of money on most of the other bands (apart from Rogue Male because that would be stupid) that appeared because this is how things got done back then. You can look at the list down below and laugh your ass off all you like, but this was it. This was The Scene - and The Scene Was Good. It was a breeding ground and while very few of these bands have survived the ravages of time, it was great while it lasted. Such a thing does not exist today. I don't want to sound like an old dinosaur here - we've got it good in these times of techno-gratification but it's not on a par with what we used to have. I have great memories of all these shows but it's damn hard to wrap your arms around a digital memory.
If anybody wants to direct me to YouTube links to any of the performances, that would be great. I'd place money that some of you must have all of this on VHS. Anyway, here's the official list of the show's and the dates they aired. As mentioned already, Torme where replaced with the Lords. There may have been others. If you were there and your memory is not so badgered as mine, and know some of this is wrong, please comment away and I shall correct:
motorhead 12.4.85
magnum 12.4.85
madam x 12.4.85
torme 19.4.85
rogue male 19.4.85
girlschool 19.4.85
waysted 19.4.85
shy 26.4.85
tobruk 26.4.85
warrior 26.4.85
tygers of pang tang 3.5.85
mamas boys 3.5.85
robin george 3.5.85
mc coy 3.5.85
marino the band 10.5.85
wildfire 10.5.85
spider 10.5.85
gary moore & phil lynott 10.5.85
pet hate 17.5.85
tarazara 17.5.85
chariot 17.5.85
cannes 24.5.85
lionheart 24.5.85
the grip 24.5.85
persian risk 24.5.85
the torpedo's 31.5.85
venom 31.5.85
lee aaron 31.5.85
dumpy's rusty nuts 7.6.85
rock goddess 7.6.85
heavy pettin 7.6.85
she 14.6.85
trash 14.6.85
magnum 14.6.85
warlock 14.6.85
