DG1

Now he sat backstage at the Mariners Arms in Blackpool, actually just a room behind the stage where the old kegs were kept with a cardboard sign on the door saying ‘band’ He was making last minute alterations to his costumes and cardboard constructions for the show, the first of two warm up gigs for a small tour of Europe culminating in a big festival gig in Prague. As he went through his pre gig routine he thought back idly to 1979. After the band split up he had felt empty. Though he wasn’t particularly bothered about fame or money he did feel strongly that his life needed to stay creative in some way and that a return to job, marriage, kids, middle age, holidays once a year etc was a bit premature. He responded to a few music paper ads for bands who ironically were the time wasters they forbade before he hooked up with “The Y”, a loose but determined collective of post punks with enough interest banked from a few Peel sessions and well received singles to continue touring and getting gigs at small venues throughout the UK as well as northern and eastern Europe. Always feeling a bit at a loose end during solos and between songs he had started adding little theatrical/performance ideas to his vocalisations and gradually over time with the encouragement of the band these had started to predominate. Now the band presented as a kind of punk theatre with loud guitars like a modern Pere Ubu, the play that is, though actually there were some similarities to the band as well. Quite original, a good show but quite polarising , Loved or loathed in equal measure they got by.