Mar 30 1991
AC Temple, Shred
Charlie’s
It cost £70 to hire Charlie’s, including p.a., sound engineer and staff. This equalled 30 people at £2.50 in and allowed us great leeway in agreeing to put bands on. The idea was to get people to see all sorts of music, once the bands were independent. To be honest it didn’t really work. There was a diversity between the bands but unfortunately people still only went to certain gigs. Despite the consistent few regulars in attendance, each band seemed to attract a specific audience.
I suppose people like what they like and that’s all. AC Temple made a great racket. They weren’t a straight-ahead punk band/ hardcore band or even an indie band. However, after this gig I felt like stopping. ‘Hope’ could have just concentrated on agreeing to put on the formulaic hardcore/punk bands – but then it would have seemed like a job or service. That certainly wasn’t the point. Instead of not being involved anymore I decided that if the band were happy to play and I was happy to be involved in putting them on, then the people who didn’t show up weren’t going to affect me. It took gigs like this to make me realise that.
