Arcade Observations

I’m sat here in the change desk at work looking at the public carelessly wasting their money on machines, the majority of them knowing that there is an overwhelming chance of them leaving this amusement arcade out of pocket. To a lot of people, especially your average middle-aged housewife, the gambling machines are an obsessional addiction. Some think if they hit the 'start' button with different temperaments it'll change the course of the reels' destination! Others talk to the 'bandits' as if to coax or comfort them into landing a winline.

The examples are relentless. One particular woman comes in every day and spends anything up to £30 per session. Even worse, another woman would spend all the housekeeping money in here, while her kids have to wear their school uniforms during the holidays as they don’t have any other clothes. I have, on occasion, found myself falling into the same traps and have spent £££’s at a time on worthless gambling machines. It's so easy to become hooked on them and very expensive.

Having worked at this arcade for nearly a year, I at first found it a physical shock. That was after carrying heavy timber and sawing it and working mainly outdoors in freezing or wet conditions, and then suddenly finding myself walking around an arcade. It took a while to get used to the boredom of the job, but I've adjusted and now use my work time to write letters, conspire 4Q's next move, and plough my way through many a fictitious epic. My respect for the human race has lowered somewhat since I began working here, as most people I deal with are real dregs of society.

GIG 0028: Antisect / Dan at Boardwalk, Manchester

Got the train to Manchester to the legendary Boardwalk venue on Little Peter Street, meeting up with Jill The Ripper and Ann The Beermonster.

Antisect's album 'In Darkness There Is No Choice' was a regular visitor to my turntable, bringing with it a bleak charcoal canvas of despair. Definitely from the Crass school of ethics, blending darkened hardcore with mid-term Flux Of Pink Indians and Dirt. This was to be their final tour, splitting up later this year before returning twenty odd years later as the real deal with a thumping metal sound and even angrier words.

I recall the Boardwalk being packed out and very little lighting for this gig. Apparently local indie pop band The Man From Delmonte opened up, but we either turned up late or they were instantly forgettable.

Dan from Darlington were making noises on the scene, with their eccentric punk/hardcore catching the ear of John Peel. And Antisect kept the anarcho-crusty types happy. We stayed near the back, well (in darkness) there was no choice as it was too jam packed to get any closer.

We crashed at Jill's in Glossop and got the train back in time for work at the arcade in Colwyn Bay.

Here's a dodgy recording of the gig...

GIG 0027: Anhrefn at Bangor University

 

Went with Wayne to see Anhrefn play a hometown gig at Bangor Uni. 

Jez Shea from The Paraletics introduced them in pidgin Welsh, which was quite funny and Sion laughed and said, ‘Rydw i yn hoffi coffi’ and they blasted into Cornel, followed by a track I don’t know the name of then Nefoeddun, Dawns Y Duwai, Wastio Pen, Action Man, Pres Am Gi, Dyfodil Disglair, Coesau Merch Coesau Cath, Defaid and Cornel again.

We stayed at Anhrefn HQ on Deiniol Road in Bangor.

I took a blank cassette with me and the sound engineer recorded the gig - here it is...

GIG 0026: Anhrefn at Ysgol Creuddyn, Penrhyn Bay

 

Myself and Wayne The Bastard travelled the 3 miles from the safety of Colwyn Bay to the leafy suburb of Penrhyn Bay to once again witness our favourite new band Anhrefn. 

This time they were, as bassist Rhys put it, ‘Grooming the school children, for they are our future fans.’ The idea was simple; spread your message to the younger generation for they are impressionable. 

So despite feeling like paedos as hundreds of marauding Welsh teenagers did as lots of marauding Welsh teenagers do, we enjoyed another blast from the bad boys of Welsh rock ‘n’ roll at Ysgol Creuddyn (which is a high school on the outskirts of the village).

GIG 0025: Anhrefn / Datblygu at Fulham Greyhound, London

From Manchester I went with Anhrefn to Fulham Greyhound for a St David's day gig.

A warm comfortable sleep put us in good stead for the trip from Manchester to London. Due to the number of weak bladders on board the Anhrefn tour bus, we had to stop at 429 motorway service stations and also had a chance meeting with touring Dutch hardcore punks BGK.
Arriving in London it didn’t take a genius to realise why I live in Wales! Too many people and not enough sheep ha ha! We first stopped at Kevin's house for some food. The Llwybr Llaethog maestro was very hospitable and said he’d see us later at the gig.

We found the Greyhound in Fulham and the bands started setting up etc. I stood on the stage and marvelled at the history of this venue, of the countless punk bands that had graced this place, that I had only ever dreamed of seeing as a teenage school kid clutching his copy of Sounds, and here I am standing on that very stage at the age of 20… Ok, enough of the dreaming now Welshboy, you’re not on stage tonight, you’re reporting, now get your pen and paper out.

Sitting down with David from Datblygu I thought I’d get an insight into what made this complicated character tick. Hailing from Brecon and basking in the interest and publicity their debut release has created, you would think both David and Patricia Morgan would be riding on the crest of a wave. ‘Hwgr-Grawth Og’ came out on Rhys’ Anhrefn Records and immediately John Peel picked upon the simplistic yet extremely catchy Casserole Efeilliaid (The Casserole Twins)- airing the track numerous times on his Radio One show.

Datblygu formed in 1982 out of what David described as ‘pure hatred for what was being expressed by Welsh rock and the Welsh language in general.’ They have only played around forty gigs in the last four years (only four in England, including last night and tonight) as David explains, ‘We tend to limit our activities because we dislike the mechanical formula approach of most groups and would never become a part of that. We never play the same set twice, so when we do play concerts we make them as interesting as we can for ourselves and hope that interest is reflected on anyone who can be bothered to turn up and see us.’

I asked him how he felt about Datblygu been touted as Wales’ answer to The Fall, ‘It is not a reasonable comparison, but rock journalism has a severely limited vocabulary of description, so if hacks describe us as Fall-like, they do so for the sake of convenience. The Fall are probably the most innovative rock group of the last decade, so it’s quite a compliment to be compared to them – that said, the comparison isn’t accurate.’

He continues, ‘The Fall are an influence, but so is everything you see and hear. Datblygu just do what we do, but nothing is without its influences. We strive for originality, not derivative of anything else. One reviewer said we were like Kraftwerk with a hangover, which is fair enough.’

Anhrefn’s bassist-manager-svengali, Rhys Mwyn released the EP on Recordiau Anhrefn (Records), and in a Crass style, only releases bands as a platform for bigger things, like a youth opportunity programme of nascent bands, so this in effect leaves Datblygu without a label – what are their plans for future material? ‘I wouldn’t sign to a major label and in 1987 I doubt if we’d ever be approached to do so anyway. I’d only consider an indie label if we didn’t have to compromise on our music or the Welsh language. Record companies generally have one thing in mind; they make, market and sell records as if they were chocolate bars. Factory and Rough Trade have hardly taken a risk between them for five years. Recordiau Anhrefn was totally different and we’ll probably be a part of whatever succeeds it. We've been working with Rhys Mwyn for four years and that’s bound to continue in some capacity in the future.’

I asked David what was meant by the slogan ‘File Under Non-Hick’ on their EP, ‘We haven’t personally been called Hicks, but the way the music scene operates, anything outside hip trends or isn’t by a group from Berlin, Liverpool, Manchester or London is going to be seen as a Hick thing. Mind you, most Welsh rock records traditionally deserve to be seen as Hick, we just wanted to state our independence.’

Are you not carving a channel of isolation? You hate the traditional Welsh scene, you insist on only singing in Welsh and you hate gigging! "We've played with English language bands once or twice and would gladly do so again, there’s no problem with that aspect at all. I like gigs themselves, but get pissed off by things like ten hour journeys, moronic PA people, being treated like shit by venue owners, sleeping on floors and losing money doing them. They’re often good fun but are invariably overshadowed by hassles.’

I may have asked the wrong question or maybe time was running out as Datblygu were due on stage in 15 minutes. On asking David if he was looking forward to performing tonight, he stood up and walked off…

Fifteen minutes later Datblygu were assembled and ready to rock, well, quiver would be a more appropriate word. Their act ran as smooth as the proverbial baby’s bum. As previously promised, a slightly different set to last night and they went down well in front of a London audience with a strong ex-pat Welsh element to it. On introducing the final number David said that this would be their last song ever… I hope not. They were even asked back for an encore, which I later learned was the first time ever! This was sadly, but predictably declined.

Anhrefn then took over and the double ignorance of the cockney sound engineer shone through when he announced, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Daiblugoo’. Sion laughed and said, ‘Actually we’re called Duran Duran.’ I noticed the band seemed tired tonight compared to Manchester, maybe the excitement of it being St David’s Day had taken it out of them, or the shared driving down to London and the prospect of a gruelling six hour slog back to Bangor immediately after the show. They gave the paying punters all the faves, including Defaid (Sheep) which was the most requested song over the two nights. Finishing with Action Man and encoring with the eight second long Nos Da (Good Night), Anhrefn then finished their drinks, sold some records and swiftly rode off into the night.

GIG 0024: Anhrefn / Datblygu at Manchester University

Travelled with Anhrefn & Datblygu to Manchester Uni - Got picked up with Huw Prestatyn (who lives in Rhuddlan, not Prestatyn) in the Anhrefn tour bus (well, hired minibus) and headed to Manchester University for the first night of a two day jaunt into England. It took us ages to find the venue, like Bangor, the University spread out across a lot of the city, so ‘Live at Manchester University’ is really a very loose term. We also failed to see any posters advertising tonight’s event, but were assured once we finally found the place, that flyers had been distributed the week before.

Datblygu turned up from their hut in mid-Wales, a line up that is David, Patricia and a drum machine and in front of about 70 to 80 people; including bar staff and sound engineers they raised their ugly heads and peered at the unsuspecting faces. They’ve been called Kraftwerk with a hangover and their music falls into The Fall [sic] mould and I can only describe it as an experience, a spectacle actually! Both David and Patricia’s attitude seemed to be one of total disinterest, as if they were hating every second of their own performance but were unable to do anything to stop it.

Very few bands like an in-house PA and Datblygu are no exception as David continually demanded, ‘Will you turn the fucking drum machine up please.’ He repeated the line so often that fitted quite well into the song!

The Datblygu experience (my first time!) was perhaps not as long as it should’ve been for me to fully get what they were about, their set included titles such as Tymer Asprin, Mynd and the near legendary Peel favourite Casserole. Perhaps the idea was to give the audience a short sharp shock, whereas in reality it was a slow, dull uncomfortable pain – they’ll probably go a long way… if they wanted to.

Then Anhrefn mounted the stage and Sion’s guitar blasted into 500 watts of Cornel (his amp is probably 100 watts, but 500 sounds better in print!). The song is about the same guy, same pub, same pint, same corner, same Tom, Dick and Harry and is pretty new in Anhrefn terms and pretty damn good. I think this is the fifth time I’ve witnessed an onslaught by the band and the fifth time I’ve walked away feeling fulfilled. There’s never a dull moment when these lads hit their notes; Hefin Huws is sat tightly at the back thumping those drums like there’s no tomorrow, Rhys Mwyn is stood there looking proud as he pumps those bass notes through his amp, and there’s Sion Sebon and Dewi Gwyn providing us with two guitars and vocals. Sion picks a chord, gives us a twang and they burst into another song while Dewi struts around providing ample back up; he was once reported to have played a solo!

When it comes to breaking the ice with an audience, Anhrefn must be pioneers at it, and despite wide open spaces due to a lack of a large audience the band finally coaxed the nervous gathering down to the front to boogie to the encore, which lasted four songs (Anhrefn hate doing encores).

After the gig Rhys complained over the apathetic way the hosts handled the publicity – or didn’t in this case! Yet it was a success by the fact they made more new friends and future gigs in the city will only be beneficial to both band and punter! A floor for the night was kindly donated by Artists For Animals coordinators Peter Elliot and Sue.

GIG 0023: The Primitives / Screaming Trees at Bangor University

Got on the ‘free’ train to Bangor and headed to The Mandela Bar at the Uni to watch The Primitives with Wayne. They were supported by Screaming Trees from Rotheram whose heavy guitar sound was well received by the packed house, and their set included both their singles Beaten By The Ugly Stick and Release.

The Primitives, fronted by the 5′ nothing peroxide Tracy Tracy hit the ground running and helped by the coverage they get from John Peel they slammed their way through their repertoire to rapturous applause. Not bad for a Tuesday night.

GIG 0022: Alien Sex Fiend @ Manchester International

Myself and Wayne have so far sold nearly a hundred copies of Crud at 25p a throw, and got reviewed in the local paper (North Wales Weekly News) and on BBC Radio Lancashire’s ‘On the Wire’ programme where the reviewer Fenny, described it as ‘a little pearly.’

Wayne, Edi, Myself and Uncle Bowler got on the train went to see Alien Sex Fiend play a Valentine Day gig at The International in Manchester this evening after being convinced by Dae Goth that it would be a worthwhile trip.

It certainly was because I sold all the remaining issues of Crud at the gig and met Jill The Ripper who became a great mate and a great help with the making of Crud 2.

The gig itself was quite an experience, the support act was a solo rapper whose name I have long forgotten. He was awful, coming out with rubbish like, “I’m a sex machine.” Being punk rockers from Wales and let off the leash we stood right at the front and showed him our displeasure at having to be aurally tortured in such a way. The punk way to show gratitude or disgust to a band is the same in both cases; we gob at them! And we gobbed at this rapper and made all the various gestures that go with it. I was so pissed off listening to this rubbish that I climbed over the barrier onto the stage and walked past the rapper and towards the back. I was soon accosted by a bouncer and guided back from whence I came. The Crud Crew, as we became known, soon got known around the punk/goth circles in Manchester and it wasn’t too long after this gig that a rumour was being spread around about me being a racist. I eventually tracked down the source of this to an alternative clothes shop and confronted him, his name was Seb, a goth who said he was half Pakistani. He told me that I was spitting and swearing at a black rapper during a gig. I told him that was correct, but why does that make me a racist? Because he was black, came the reply. Now hold on a minute! My actions were justified by the fact that this was a rapper spurting his bullshit at a punk concert, it didn’t make a jot of difference whether he was black, white, pink or blue, he would have got the same treatment. In fact, I would have been a racist if I declined to gob and swear at him on account of his colour. Racism is for narrow minded bigots and school playgrounds where the kids don’t know any better.

Seb agreed and apologised to me and his gothic clothes shop became a regular stockist of the forthcoming issues of Crud.

Alien Sex Fiend were incredible - Nik Fiend most definitely being a larger than death character - he slid on stage with his appalling makeup and donned in a skeleton apron! They had a cool guitarist and Nik's beautiful wife, Mrs Fiend on keyboards. It was a pivotal performance for me, one that sticks in the mind and right up there among my favourites.

After the gig we had a 6½ hour wait for the train the following morning, Bowler tried to set fire to a pile of bin sacks in the road for a laugh when a police van screeched to a halt & a load of pigs jumped out & started pushing us around. One of them grabbed Bowler took his lighter off him & tried to set fire to his scarf while he was wearing it! The pigs jumped back in their van & sped off to mash some other punks.

We stopped at a chippy and a girl overheard our prospect of freezing on a platform all night and offered to put the four of us up for the night! The offer was very kind but we declined on the grounds that any one female willing to accommodate a group of marauding punks she didn’t know must be mentally insane and probably planned to chop us up in our sleep! We found the station & found a mobile temporary-waiting room full of down & outs keeping warm on this freezing night & we tried to get some sleep.

GIG 0021: That Voodoo at Speakeasy, Llandudno

 

High on last night's successful Anhrefn gig in Colwyn Bay, we got the bus to Llandudno to The Speakeasy to watch That Voodoo play, being pretty impressed with them last month in Rhyl. 

With alternative gigs / bands few and far between in the area we have to make the most of what’s given to us. The band set up in the corner on the dancefloor next to the DJ booth, they had a lot of local friends and family there to support, although I felt a bit more detached from the performance this time.

The Speakeasy was a pub hours night club underneath the Imperial Hotel in Llandudno on a Monday night and had become a regular jaunt, although filled with punks and goths, they would occasionally play the March Violets or Bauhaus to keep us marginally happy, but as Wayne said, ‘The DJ was such a tosser and we ended up being banned when Edi got into a fight with James Baguley [who played in Sleepless Dream] and glasses were smashed.’

GIG 0020: Anhrefn at The Imperial, Colwyn Bay

 

So I arranged for Anhrefn to play The Imp in Colwyn Bay in February 1987. The Imperial Hotel was at the bottom of Station Road and hosted regular heavy rock band nights, such was the glut of those awful bands. I made posters and flyers using Letraset transfers and my newly acquired second hand typewriter and with a bucket and brush, pasted them all over Colwyn Bay, Llandudno and Rhyl.

Anhrefn’s Welsh punk rock ignited the need within me to learn Welsh and break free from the mental abuse I endured in that oppressive village school of my childhood. The Anhrefn way was to promote Welsh culture by opening the doors to outsiders; to open up the closed mentality in Wales. It wasn’t the Wales For The Welsh and Fuck The English kind of jingoistic nazism we see all over Twitter today, it was about changing people’s attitudes toward the Welsh language. To stop non-Welsh speakers feeling like outsiders, to change the way people think. Welsh people were forever being called sheep shaggers, and rather than get all snowflakey and upset about it, Anhrefn would say;

‘Yes, we may shag sheep, but you eat them!’

This self-deprecating humour and punk ideal was catalyst in opening the psychological borders within the Welsh and English mentality and helped spawn Cool Cymru. We are all human! The fact you were born in Welsh Saltney or just over the border in English Chester doesn’t make you a different person; you are still human! Yes, it’s great to have a culture, a history, a cause, but is it really necessary to hate someone simply because they weren’t born in the same country as you?

The fretting, the panic, the worrying (a gig on a Sunday night!), the chewed fingernails, the financing; it all paid off. It was a good gig (I still have a recording on cassette), a good turnout and Anhrefn played well and they got paid £50. They brought a contingent of punks from Bangor, with whom I am still friends with today. And at the tender age of twenty I began to get a feel for local bands, and the need to create a local music scene.

Bands and local gigs were few and far between, there were rumours of ‘legendary’ punk or goth bands like The Dark, Foreign Legion, The Scargills, Sleepless Dream, Open Defiance but I had never seen or heard them. I caught a band called That Voodoo (from Llandudno) a couple of times who were a little like New Order meets the Wedding Present.

Also the ridiculously named Heroes On A Beach from Colwyn Bay who were nice guys but played fucking awful music, we dubbed them Hemoglobins In The Sand or Herpes On A Bitch. Aside from these, there was the poodle hair spandex pants high pitched screaming heavy metal brigade, whom we avoided at all costs.

GIG 0019: Heroes On A Beach @ The Metropole, Colwyn Bay

 

Saw Heroes on A Beach play their debut gig at The Metropole in the Bay. A great place for a venue (sadly under used for such purposes) as the bands set up on the dancefloor, which had a slightly raised balcony partly circumnavigating it - a bit like the Roundhouse in Camden.

It’s a difficult one this as they’re fronted by Steve Jones who kindly trims my mohican at the Lox Box; we talk about music and he has a bit of history once fronting the almost famous Harvest Moon (who released a single on the Charisma label and recorded a John Peel session).

So I tried to like them (HoAB), and played the tape back a couple of times to familiarise myself with their songs, but it’s like telling yourself you like your mate’s band, or telling your mate you like his band, but really you think they’re shit. 

Sorry Steve, I loved you guys but hated your music.

[Steve aka Pablo, eventually moved to Caernarfon and formed Profiad, and also hired out PAs. He's also a great painter and sells his creations at the art shop he runs]

[The Met, as it was locally known as, catered more for the trendy elements of the town, before giving way to the elderly twats and becoming another fucking care home].

GIG 0018: That Voodoo at The Bee Hotel, Rhyl

 

Saw That Voodoo play at The Bee Hotel in Rhyl, a bit of a dive of a place just by the train station, (we jumped the train from the Bay). 

Took my little tape recorder to bootleg the gig cos if I’m gonna take being a fanzine editor seriously then I need to support local bands and cover them in the next issue of Crud. 

The band came from Llandudno and formed last year after MCM split and they featured Andre Valero (bass,voc), Matt Davies (gtr,voc), Simon (drms), Julie (keys,voc), Sally (b.voc). 

Also featured at some point Shaun Davies who later joined the marines (not doubt after watching Full Metal Jacket, which hit the big screens later this year). 

That Voodoo had a delay pedal rigged up to the microphone that made some cool effects. They were definitely influenced by B.A.D. and Spear of Destiny, two bands I didn’t at the time particularly rank highly, apart from SOD’s Liberator, which we slam danced ourselves into bruised oblivion on the Bistro dancefloor. 

Matt later formed Charlex Dexter Ward Experiment, and sadly died in 2002.