Feb 24 1989
Not Our World, Keltic Konviction, Lawnmowers, (Malicious Damage added on the night)
Grattan
The two Not Our World gigs in the Grattan were full of incident. During the first one there was crowd trouble in the venue but, more worryingly, there was trouble outside the second week. Timo played bass in Keltic Konviction. He later moved on to Shred, where he played with the Bearded lady and Shane (both from Not Our World who then moved to Joan of Arse). The gig he mentions was chaotic. Some people came along just to cause a bit of havoc. This was familiar to gigs at the time. Abusive heckling was a craze but the situation got out of control that night when a glass was thrown on stage .
Timo caught the brunt of it and finished his set with a bloodied head. Thankfully no more glasses were thrown at Hope gigs and Timo had no interest in, or intention of pursing the matter legally (which has happened at other gigs where people have been injured). The second gig was, again, memorable for the wrong reasons. One of our friends had her handbag stolen outside. She ran upstairs to the venue, visibly shaken. Deko and I went chasing instinctively. We didn’t find the culprit and Susanne was very upset. As organiser of the gig I felt responsible but she got off better than Timo had the previous week.
Those gigs were turning points. Both attracted 150 people and through the trouble came about a wish for people to make things better. We wanted to be able to go to gigs in peace and not have to worry about safety. Through Not Our World (and then ‘Hope’) a policy was made to encourage friendliness at gigs, let people see that they weren’t just there to be consumers, that they were at a gig to be part of something – something they could find comfort in and something they could be comfortable with. That became the plan, the “hope”.
