VENUE:
TELSTAR. 297, Kronekaseide, Donk. Belgium
DATE: Saturday
November 17th 2001
BANDS: SUPERYOB,
EVIL CONDUCT, CRUSADERS, SKINFLICKS, THE VEROS
Ah, an adventure!! A
chance to bond in the classic band fashion of getting well
pissed and playing a blockbuster of a gig to likeminded herberts.
Superyob had been kindly requested
to play at the occasional Live'n'Loud Festival organized by
Bieze and the gang in Bruges in Belgium. There had been an
impressive contingent who'd come over for the Herne Bay show
earlier in the year and they had obviously decided that the
'Yob were the vital ingredient necessary for a fun-packed
singalong Oi!/Punk evening on the continent.
The bands lined up to play were pretty
flippin' good. Headliners were First Wave of Oi! stalwarts
Criminal Class and the other bands advertised were Skinflicks
from Luxembourg, The Veros from France and Crusaders from
Germany.
The logistics for the trip were fairly simple. Drive to Belgium,
play a gig and then consume Chipshop and Dave's combined weight
in beer. Bieze had arranged an overnight kip for the band
in a hostel/hotel in the centre of Bruges called Charlie Rocket's
so all the lads had to do was get there.
Frankie and Dave had volunteered to
drive. Good job really, 'cos Ace's car was a tiddler and Chipshop
had enough trouble fitting his own stout frame on his motorbike
let alone anyone else. Two return trips on the Eurostar were
booked and it all seemed a doddle. Guests on board were Mrs.
Flame and trusty Peanut the Pisshead. As Frankie was coming
down from Sarf London, they all arranged to meet at the traditional
venue for potential European travellers- the Maidstone services
on the M20. Chipshop had stayed the previous night at Dave's
so we had Dave, Chippie and Ace in the Vitesse with guitars,
amps and a generous supply of pies for the trip: and Frankie,
the good lady wife and Peanut were all aboard the Flame-mobile.
The Haystacks party arrived at the rendezvous bang on time:-
in fact bang on time for a phone call from Peanut announcing
that Frankie had driven straight past the services and now
thought that it best we meet up at the Eurostar terminal.
Off they trotted, and as they rolled into the entrance of
the terminal, there was the blue Flame-mobile waiting patiently.
A rather sheepish looking Frankie announced that he'd been
a bit confused about which services to stop at on the M20
and when Chipshop explained that there was only ONE service
station on the M20, he did the decent thing and blamed Peanut.
They had plenty of time before the train, so the gang parked
up, got their money changed up and went for the customary
Superyob 'nice cup of tea'. When they were called for boarding,
Chipshop let Dave and Ace into a little known fact that Frankie
always got stopped at the barrier and interrogated about his
movements:- apparently he had a skeleton key face which fitted
the description of every known terrorist and drug smuggler
of the day.
True to form, Frankie's car was pulled over as he queued to
join the train and, not willing to be party to the inevitable
rubber glove treatment, the Haystacks Vitesse shot past towards
the waiting train.
Both parties had agreed to hang about on the other side and
wait for each other. Frankie and Chipshop had been to the
gaff before, but it was thought safety in numbers was a good
plan.
The tunnel journey was uneventful apart from Dave driving
straight into the car in front of him on the train and Ace
disappearing for the entire journey only to re-appear 15 seconds
before disembarkation. Pies unguarded, Chipshop had a little
foray into Ace's supplies in his absence and loaded up on
some wholly un-necessary pastie shapes calories.
Seeing as they were in front of Frankie, it seemed logical
for the Haystacks Vitesse to simply wait by the exit to the
Calais terminal for the Flame-mobile to catch them up. Well,
it would have been had Frankie not found an alternative little
known exit from the terminal and missed them completely.
After waiting 15 minutes for Frankie's inevitable run-in with
the French authorities, Dave, Ace and Chipshop did the decent
thing and fucked off. Chipshop tried to phone Peanut but had
no joy. They talked each other into the idea the fact that
as Frankie had been there before and was an intelligent grown
up he would simply see us there. No one chose to mention that
he had the ability to drive through non-existent exits and
could upset authority figures to the point of internal examination
just by smiling politely at them.
The road from Calais to Bruges-ish is straight, flat and fast
so with the turbo given a sound talking to and Chipshop having
re-arranged the pie-payload position with almost Olympic efficiency,
the Vitesse shot off for its destiny with punk. Dave had a
small re-acclimatization with continental road manners and
after upsetting a few Belgian travellers set a course for
fun.
With the Speedo well into three figures, Ace thought it time
to have a piss stop and perhaps allow Frankie time to catch
up. This the boys did at a handily placed picnic area by the
roadside, but with no sign of the Flame-mobile , they continued
on to the Bruges turn-off and after one final 'see if Frankie
appears' stop they hit Bruges in the late afternoon.
Up until now, Chipshop's navigation had been exemplary and
as he guided Dave around the outskirts of the town there was
an air of jubilation only mildly tempered by the fact that
the boys didn't have a bloody clue where Frankie was. According
to the map, the venue was about 10 or 15 minutes from the
centre of town. Chipshop sent them off into the darkening
evening and as the miles ticked by and the landscape bleakened
the jubilation slowly evaporated. Chipshop's demeanour went
from "It's on this road" to "We'll go past
Die Kastelein in a minute" to "I'm sure it's on
this bastard road".
He finally spotted the venue and their journey was complete:
Dave and Ace were relieved and Chipshop was choking for a
pint. Frankie's car wasn't there, so the boys popped into
the place to check out the state of play. They strolled through
the foyer bar and then into the venue out the back. It was
a fairly large place with a good size stage and more importantly
a good size bar. Ace and Dave brought the gear in while Chipshop
sought out the 'Yob beer rider for the evening. It had turned
out that Criminal Class were not going to make it so the lads
had been elevated to headliners. An extra band had been added
to the bill:- Evil Conduct from Holland.
Whilst waiting for Frankie, Ace, Dave
and Chipshop blagged some gear, did an excuse for a soundcheck
and had a bit of a ponder. Frankie finally showed up and it
was decided that they'd go back to town, dump the cars at
the hostel and have a bit of dinner before getting a cab back
later. Chipshop declined in order to '
.stay for a quick
pint
'.
They journeyed back into Bruges and found their accommodation
for the evening which was pretty darn good. A friendly place
with a late bar and somewhere to kip. What more does one need?
There was one single dorm room for the 'Yobsquad which was
found at the end of several dark corridors and up several
dark flights of stairs. Haystacks saw this as a potential
beer based hazard for later on in the evening
.and was
right.
After a wash and brush up, a quick pint and a spot of dinner,
the assembled throng sorted themselves a cab from Charlie
Rocket's back to the venue and by the time they'd got there,
the place was buzzing. The front bar was full, the foyer was
choc-a-bloc with record and CD stalls and everything was set
up and ready to go. They even discovered Chipshop, who was
still performing sentry duty on the Superyob rider.
As Frankie departed on one of his habitual flesh-pressing
sessions, the lads happened upon a few familiar faces:- Hedgy,
Stewart and Steph from On File. Hedgy and Stewart had apparently
offered to take their better halves Nick and Debbie away for
the weekend to get in their respective wifely good books.
This strangely enough happened to coincide with a Live 'n'
Loud event
..uncanny!!! They had booked themselves into
a posh hotel in town though:- they were never going to get
away with a boozy sleepless night in Charlie Rocket's
..or
so they thought!!!
Next task of the evening was to set
Peanut up as Official Superyob Merch Man. He was squeezed
into a corner in the foyer with strict instructions to sell
everything before he next went to the bar.
The whole thing progressed quite splendidly.
The sound was bit dodgy in places but, considering the paralytic
state of the sound man it was hardly surprising. The Veros
and Crusaders blasted through short, sharp sets and with help
from the available beer got the crowd warmed up nicely
When Evil Conduct came to the stage for an angry set of their
own tight as arseholes tunes and some classic Yesteryear of
Oi! covers, the boozy git of a soundman thought they were
the last band of the evening and prepared himself to do the
off. Frankie had to none too politely remind him that he still
had a bit of work to do and advised him (nicely of course)
to remain at his station. As it happened, he finally conked
out during the Superyob set. Big Yob TA's to Nick for manning
the knobs and faders during our set.
The crowd had now swelled to an impressive
size and the beer consumption was reaching epidemic proportions
as midnight came and went. Poor old Ace (who was way past
his bedtime) had decided that the best way to remain awake
for the set was to have a little drinkie or 25. This kept
him awake alright but had the rather adverse effect of rendering
him pretty damn shitfaced come performance time.
Conversely, Chipshop was showing no adverse effects whatsoever
as his '
little afternoon tipple
.' rolled into
its seventh hour.
As the boys got ready to take the stage,
the clock was lurching towards 1 a.m, Ace was lurching towards
the drumkit and Dave was wondering if there might be any beer
left by the time they'd finished.
The 'Yob set was the usual classic
500m.p.h mixture of singalongapunkrock, stage invasions and
200 encores. There were a few new songs earmarked for the
new album ('Heartbreak Bridge', 'Big Brother' and 'Bang To
Rights') given a blasting to the happily shitfaced audience
in between old faves, some classic covers and of course the
Frankie-led Jolly-a-longs. Highlight of the crowd participation
was George the security mountain engaging in some glorious
belly wrestling with an equally rotund Italian skinhead.
Meanwhile, hidden away at the back, Ace was in a mild amount
of difficulty. Unable to maintain the necessary anti-kip dosage
of alcohol between songs, he had to resort to plan B:- throw
your drum sticks all over the place and stay awake by scrambling
all over the floor looking for them .
As Frankie began racking up the encores, Ace also realised
that his bladder was in grave danger of exploding. When the
crowd finally took over the complete stage during the third
rendition of 'On Yer Bike', Ace took his chance. As Dave and
Frankie led the throng in an a cappella sing song and Chipshop
repelled stage invaders who he assumed were after his stage
beer dump, Ace hastily dismantled the drum kit, dropped his
sticks for the last time and legged in off the stage. With
a drummer en route to the bog and a bass player leaping from
the stage with a crate of beer under each arm, Dave and Frankie
had to finally admit defeat and the gig was over.
Our heroes re-assembled in the dressing
room. Frankie was on his usual post-gig high: Ace was ready
for his bed after a 20 minute slash and Dave was politely
inquiring as to whether Chipshop had left him any beer. The
stack was still fairly high, but it soon became obvious that
to fuel his own gargantuan thirst and also to keep plenty
in the kitty, Chipshop had become a beer hoover and had been
casually adding to the Yob Beer Stack with almost the same
regularity as he himself had been depleting it:- all at the
other bands' expense it would appear. Unworried, Dave set
about 8 hours catching up.
As was traditional, the post Live 'n'
Loud party was held at Die Kastelein (check out 'Kezze in
Die Kastelein' from the last Resistance 77 album). Everyone
was invited and the boozy multitudes slowly made their way
back there for yet more beer. Come 2.30a.m, the place was
heaving. The 'Yobs had bummed some lifts back there and were
all soon in full party mode as the beers flowed and Oi! was,
as ever, on the jukebox. Ace was by now dead on his feet (rather
than his drumstool). Frankie, Jill and Peanut were also a
bit knackered so after a few ales they sorted themselves a
lift back to Charlie Rocket's with Big George.
This transpired to be the scariest journey of their lives
as George, who, shall we say, had quaffed an ale or two, simply
aimed the car at Bruges, buried the throttle and did his best
to avoid whatever happened to be in his way. He dropped them
off at Charlie Rocket's and headed straight back to Die Kastelein
for further re-fuelling.
By this stage Dave's boozing partner had become Wee Stewart
from On File and as per usual he was the loudest bloke in
the place. With scant regard for European Community spirit
he began threatening violence upon anyone who would not agree
to give On File a gig. At least it gave Steph a wee break
from his abuse anyway. Fed up with not scoring with girls
(as usual), Steph did his next favourite thing
.and fell
asleep in the pub.
Come 4-ish Dave had had enough and politely accepted a lift
back to town:- leaving Superyob diplomatic duties in the capable
hands of a now-shitfaced Chipshop.
When he got back to Charlie Rocket's the place was still swinging.
He stopped in the bar just for a quick nightcap but then the
On File boys turned up having tucked their better halves into
bed in their posh hotel rooms and feeling the need for more
beer. Another hour and a half's drinking then ensued before
it dawned on Dave that it was half past five, he was rotten
and he had to be up in 4 hours time to drive back to Calais
to catch the Eurostar.
After falling up and down the various flights of stairs as
predicted, he finally found the room. Chipshop's bed was occupied
by skin unknown and after searching his unconscious form for
hidden pies Dave finally hit the sack and conked out.
Come morning, Chipshop was still nowhere
to be found. One clue was that the car belonging to his habitual
beer buddy for the evening, Big George, appeared to be parked
outside Charlie Rocket's with the back half on the road and
the front half on the pavement. As early morning hangovers
were assuaged with a mixture of tea, croissants and boiled
eggs, The Chipshop finally re-appeared. Gloriously wankered
and still carrying three quarters of a case of beer, he revealed
that he'd been up boozing all night with Big George in a variety
of late night bars and houses of ill repute and was now ready
to go home please. Big George himself then appeared:- to wish
Superyob a fond farewell and to inform them that Chipshop
was a poof for going home because he was now off to the football
and the rest of the day on the piss. Top performance!!!
The gang loaded up the cars and said
cheerio to Charlie Rocket's. Chipshop settled himself down
in the front seat of the Haystacks Vitesse and through prolonged
bouts of snoring managed to direct Dave the wrong way out
of Bruges.
By the time Dave had found the right
road, both Chipshop and Ace were fast asleep and it pretty
much stayed that way all the way back to Calais.
This time the 'Yob never managed to lose each other and made
it back to the terminal in plenty of time for the train. Dave
used this time to toddle on down and acquire himself some
duty frees and several dozen cups of tea.
When Frankie was stopped in the queue this time it was not
for his usual 'touch your toes' job but it was by a machine
gun wielding copper who'd recognized him and asked him how
the gig went. It turned out he was a Superyob fan and had
missed the gig because he was working. Superyob fans in the
strangest of places eh? Machine Guns 'n' Alcohol
.don't
we know a song about that?
The tunnel trip was uneventful and
as our heroes landed back in Blighty Chipshop celebrated by
going straight back to sleep again. As dusk closed in, the
Vitesse left Frankie behind on the M20 and Dave sed back to
Crayford with his 2 snoring fellow band members giving a repeat
performance of the trip from Bruges to Calais.
Ace was dropped off and then all that remained was for Dave
to wake up Chipshop. The big man was disappointed to discover
that he had no room on his motorbike for his remaining beer,
so he generously entrusted it into Dave's care until he could
retrieve it. With that, he was gone and it was all over
..