One thing was painfully obvious after the first gig. Groupies
were a myth.
Not one girl even came up to make an enquiry. I would have
been happy with a simple “You were shit”
Sadly it was a trend that would haunt our careers. But as for
the band; we were all bitten by the bug, even Jessy.
But Al was bitten hardest, he wanted to form his own band
with other guys from his school.
In one fell swoop, we lost our equipment, transport and our
practice room.
As well as having no lead guitarist, Jim had managed to get
off the dole and find work, so practice was often held without Jim.
Roger at this stage had stepped up a notch, his ambition to
play had turned into an obsession and he bought himself a bass guitar out of
the “Trading Post” and practice was now held in his garage.
There was no way I could carry the guitar role off by myself
, so Roger asked his old band member.
Russell who had moved out of the area a year earlier was
eager to play with his old mate . How anything was achieved during this period
is still amazing with Russell living so far away and nobody having a licence to
drive. It was usually a patient brother or sister who dropped everyone off at
practice and picked them up again especially Jessy with his huge drum kit.
With Russell in the band they and with practice, they were
able to play more complicated pieces, though they had to knock back Russell’s
suggestions of Jimi Hendrix material.
Much like Metal Magistrate we still liked to play our own
material. I had taken up writing simple tunes and covering them up with an
overdrive pedal. To my surprise the others like them. Mainly because they were
easier to learn and you didn’t have the problem we had with covers. People saying
it didn’t sound anything like the record.
One thing that probably has to be noted at this point was we
were either at school or on the dole so the only thing that actually kept us
excited was the band, and it was contagious. In the space of 3 weeks after the
Metal Magistrate gig, 2 more bands were in the process of practising and using
the Youth Club as their venue.
Even though Jim was unable to make it to a lot of practices
we were confident we were improving on our original gig.
We called ourselves KASHMIR which was chosen by Rogers older
brother (the same one who became a monk) because Metal Magistrate was too
pretentious (?).
When Al ‘s band RACK announced their first gig at the local
youth club, Kashmir was asked to support.
On the day of the gig, Al informed us that his band had hired
a public address system for the night and hit us for part of the costs then set
themselves up first making it difficult for Jessy to construct his ever growing
drum kit
We eventually pushed all their gear to the back and hoped for
the best.
When the crowd rolled in the fear factor rose somewhat ,even
more, people than the last gig had turned up, of course, the Youth club
increased the price, none of which we saw.
Then the next piece of an already compelling farce came
through the door, It was Jim and he was pissed.
It was the first time our band had used a P.A and Al’s band
let Roger and Me plug into their amps.
The gig was a shambles.
Kashmir wasn’t rehearsed enough, (Duhhh)
My guitar broke on the first note of the first song, at first
I thought I broke a string but discovered the who machine head had fallen
apart. ,
Mandy Brown (a late addition as a backup singer ), as well as
Jim, couldn’t hear what they were singing.
None of the Band could hear what they were playing due to no
foldbacks and the mixer sat in front of the speakers. So all the audience –
which was close to 150 – heard was a mess.
Russell was told by the mixer to keep turning his amp up
because his speaker was actually behind the mixing desk. (the mixer, by the
way, had a graphic equalizer on his stereo, that’s how he got the job)
Roger actually sang one song because Jim didn’t know it.
Kashmir was blown off stage by RACK who were smart enough to
fix all the problems before they went on stage. Important lessons were learnt,
the support act is scum and always do a soundcheck.
We were shaken but not knocked down.
