This is the tenth in a series all taken from the Fanzine Hope *.2. The fanzine sees a collection of 70 contributors from the punk rock world. All asked the same question What is Your Favourite Gig.
The zine is €5 including postage to anywhere It is a benefit for Pikpa Refugee Centre, Lesvos
This week it is Scott McLauchlan from the excellent Brassneck Records who have a full roster of great tuneful hardcore bands
All + China Drum
London 1994
My favourite gig? That’s not an easy one. Lots of gigs stick out as memorable for different reasons. I’ve been going to gigs since about 1990 and even though I’ve been to hundreds of gigs over the years, it’s some of the earlier ones that have stayed with me the most. On that basis, if I had to narrow it down, it was probably seeing ALL on their Breaking Things tour @ The London Powerhaus in 93 or 94 with support from China Drum. ALL (and the Descendents) were pretty much my favourite band in the world in the early to mid 90s and I made the trip down from the North to see them.
I grew up in a little Northern town where punk gigs simply didn’t happen. I only had a small number of friends who shared similar musical interests and getting into Manchester for gigs (the nearest city with any kind of notable punk activity that I was aware of at the time) was difficult. Getting to London was even harder. So this was a big deal for me even before I got there.
With memories affected by the passage of time and the beer consumed on the evening, some of my recollections are slightly blurred. I don’t remember all the songs that were played, I don’t recall any specific onstage banter or quite what happened in the latter stages of the night but I remember it as the first time I really felt part of a “scene” in any definite way. Aside from my few local friends, I just assumed there were only a handful of people in the UK who gave a damn about the bands I loved. But here there were hundreds of them all singing along and running into each other as ALL ripped into their opening song. I spoke to loads of peo-ple that night. All strangers who loved the music I loved. I stayed in touch with some of them for a while and often saw them when I went back to London over the following years. It all sounds bit cheesy now, but I was young(ish) and naive to how big the scene was in the UK at the time. As such, it was a defining moment for me and my love of punk outside of just listening to records in my bedroom.
Additional high points included having a pre-gig coffee with Stephen Egerton and talking to Karl about our shared love of cartoons and bands like The Chemical People and The Hard-Ons. Also the inclusion of some of my favourite Descendents songs in the set and meeting a young and slightly nervous Chad Price. This was the first time they’d played the UK with Chad on vocals and, apart from the songs on the (at the time) new LP I’d ever heard him sing before so I didn’t know how well he’d handle the songs Scott and Dave sung on record. Clearly, I needn’t have worried. Chad & the band took it all in their stride and blew me away. I saw ALL play London again in 2014 and, while that show was also great fun, the first time I saw them always sticks out as one of my fondest gig memories.
Scott McLauchlan – Brassneck Records – http://brassneckrecords.bigcartel.com/
