We are finally here,
The Flashback Series has now caught up with all the blogs on the website and what better finale for the series to finish than with the crescendo of the gig of all gigs. The Wild Strays supporting legendary bands like Vice Squad, The Lurkers and the Vibrators.
Plus, Complete Dysfunction, Ghoul, Queen Mantis and of course our great friends Tinfish.
It was quite a line up put on by Adam Ward and top it all off. It was the last ever Punks Alive gig,..ever at the Flapper.
There was a big petition to save this venue from being knocked down and turned into luxury apartments. But sadly that failed.
So here we are, a legendary venue approaching almost 30 years of music history in Birmingham and this is now Punks Alive's last ever gig at this venue.
There really was a lot of excitement around this gig. Huge bands that had been around for years and we were stoked to be on the same bill as them.
Plus we are due to catch up with a long time friend of the mine and Grace, a guy called Chris Long.
Chris has spent a lifetime on the road looking after bands with various names such as Joan Jett and travels all over the world constantly with the most awesome Charlie Harper from the UK Subs and The Urban Dogs plus more recently with the Ramonas.
(Maybe one day he will join us Wild Strays)
Crikey I have just realised. This last Flashback is full of links to the past and future.
Because not only is this the last Flashback Series, our next gig is our first headline show and this leads straight into another gig which will see us supporting The Ramonas for the very first time.
So I’m sure our paths with Chris will cross again.
We must get a picture with him this time. (In fact you can hold me to that)
Thinking back to this night. I remember the parking being a pain. Just one small road leads down to the venue. Once you were down there, the only way back was to reverse.
We were actually one of the first bands there so pulled down to the bottom of the road. The Lurkers pulled up shortly after, and said to me, hey are you staying all night ?
He said the next van to pull down would be Becky from Vice Squad. No one was going anywhere once the headling bands were there.
We started taking the gear out of my car and into the side of the venue, and as we were on 3rd there was no pre sound check for us.
Chris was indeed here, not only because he wanted to see the bands, but also because Adam had asked him to help with security on the back stage door. Also to help with the loading in the gear from all the bands.
We settled in and had a drink. We also got chatting to Chris, and had one of the legendary hugs from Adam Ward.
Then it was time to get the show started,
I think Ghoul were on first, then our friends Tinfish were next, but because there were so many bands on the bill. The night did start quite early.
A few more people started to arrive and it was then our turn to take to the stage.
We had a great sound at The Flapper, and we cracked straight into our set list.
It was after this show we all got together and agreed we sit more comfortably in the Rock and Metal scene.
Don’t get me wrong it was a blast to play alongside these awesome bands, but this really was a hard punk scene that night and although we gave it our all. We decided from here on we would choose our audience a little more carefully. We are more rock and metal. Sure we have punk overtones. But hey we had a blast.
A fantastic night and someone also filmed a video.
Sadly this was the one song of the night that went a bit wrong... when I went to a clean guitar in the break down of Guilty of my Innocence, it was so loud that it threw me.
I think we watch the video back and when it approaches we all smile. In fact I have a picture here proving we smiled in the moment.
Well that's live music for you and its got to be fun right..
If you haven’t done so, head over and hit Subscribe to our Official Wild Strays channel. There is some great videos on there and much more to come from us in the coming weeks.
We had a great night and the headlining bands smashed the night away
Looking to the future. we now move into a our 2nd year as gigging band.
I think we have grown a lot in the last 12 months. We have played alongside many bands and made many new friends. We also have some new promoters on board and are venturing further afield.
Here’s to another year of Wild antics.
Be sure to catch next weeks “KT Tuesday” where of course we will talk about the headline show and not forgetting our new bass players debut.
Until next time,
Keep it Wild x