Fugazi - Calton Studios and Paradise Lost - The Venue, Edinburgh 1990

I first heard Fugazi through tape trading, one of the guys I used to trade with stuck some songs on the end of something to fill up a side of the tape with "Ian from Minor Threat's new band" so I thought cool looking forward to hearing this. I listened to it and was a bit confused, it wasn't fast hardcore, I didn't get it, at that point I was into speed, music pretty much had to be as fast as possible so Fugazi wasn't hitting the mark. It was off kilter and complicated. I just didn't get it.
A few months on and they released Margin Walker and the same trader stuck the whole thing after another hyper speed hardcore album and I thought, not that shite again but I kept listening to the tape and it really grew on me and I went out and bought the vinyl. In 1990 I bought the album Repeater on tape and it was pretty much the only thing I listened to for ages, even my Iron Maiden loving mate Steve loved it and as such it was the tape for any car journeys we undertook.
So one weekend I was due to go see Autopsy and Paradise Lost on the Sunday at the Venue in Edinburgh and decided to go through to Edinburgh on the Saturday to buy records in Avalanche rather than buy them before the gig and then risk them getting broken or nicked. As I walked towards Avalanche I spied a poster saying Fugazi were playing, which got my interest going and as I got closer realised that the date was that night, fucking hell, well I had to go so went without vinyl in favour of a gig ticket and a ten flash bulb for my 110 cartridge camera, yeah I only got to take 10 photos at a gig back then, and those flashes kind of just balanced precariously on top of the camera and would fall off at the slightest touch so just perfect for taking photos at gigs. They also just looked cool as fuck...

 I then fucked about Edinburgh for a while killing time before heading down to the Calton Studios and ended up running into Ian and Brendan on the Royal Mile, I think I said something like "Hey you're playing tonight!" they were probably glad I was around to give them such a handy tip as they obviously had no clue why they were there eh...
Dr Phibes and The House of Wax Equations opened the gig with swirly trippy indie rock and lots of fancy lights and strobes. It felt like what I imagined being on drugs must have been like, I saw them a few times more and they were always great.
They paled into insignificance though as soon as Fugazi played, really intense and played just about everything they had put out at that point, a few folk shouted for Minor Threat songs and stage divers were stopped by the band which added a bit of tension to proceedings. I can proudly say I was not one of those people on this occasion, I saved that for when Mindfunk played.
This was the only time I ever saw Fugazi and I wish I had had a better camera to take more shots.

After the gig I had to figure out what to do with myself as I'd missed the last train home and spent some of the night sleeping on a bench in Waverly train station until being chucked out at about 5am, I then wandered about a bit and ended up climbing Arthur's Seat and watching the sun come up. Sounds quite serene and beautiful eh, possibly it was, but I was chilled to the bone, ached all over and was fucking starving so fuck the sunrise.
I had a pretty miserable Sunday morning wandering the city aimlessly waiting for somewhere to open, bummed spare change of people for a while so I could buy a hot chocolate in a vain attempt to thaw me out a bit and then headed to The Venue mid afternoon in the hope that some of the Sunday regulars were as sad as me and be hanging about at that time.
Autopsy and Paradise Lost were both great, again I wish I had a better camera, or more money for flashes and films at least as I used the last of my shots on Paradise Lost as I liked them more than Autopsy on record.

In all it was a great weekend if somewhat unplanned but I was thankful for my bed after the three mile walk home after getting the train back to Dundee on the Sunday night. Then on Monday I got to go to school and brag to Steve that I just got to see Fugazi. In your face mate, ha ha.

Sink - Fashionably Unpopular

Favourite band alert!
In '88 I bought the first Sink 7" from the Full Circle distro because after the record title it had this: "(ex-stupids)". It was indeed ex-stupids, Ed Shred on guitar but it was a lot different to the Stupids, not as fast, not as hardcore, more melancholy I suppose, but I loved it. When their first album, Another Love Triangle, came out the next year I picked it up immediately and they had moved even further from the straight up punk with a liberal dose of post hardcore ala Fugazi to blues and country influences, my mind was truly blown and I played that record continually as it had a bit of everything to it. The mini LP, Old Man Snake And His Fat Black Pig, came in 1990 and continued the development and contained one of my favourite Sink songs, Won't Sell My Guitar, the only thing I didn't like about this record was the length, I needed more.
I got to see Sink live that year and met Ed, it was Sunday night, the Moshpit at the Venue in Edinburgh, thrash and death metal night and I went through every Sunday not knowing who I was going to see most weeks, we got off the train about two in the afternoon and nipped down the back stairs to see if there was any mention of who was playing that night on the blackboard of the Venue and there wasn't so we went on our usual trawl round the record shops and pick up pizza and pepsi before the gig, we just came out the West Nicholson Avalanche shop when I spotted a poster for the Venue with Sink listed and, to say the least, I was excited to know that Sink would be playing soon, then when I saw it was actually that night they were playing I literally exploded with joy, the two mates I was with had no idea who they were and dealt with me being hyper pretty well. They also dealt with the news that it wasn't a thrash or death metal band we were seeing that night admirably well also. I literally ran back to the Venue and waited for the band to turn up and then helped them load their stuff in and hung out and chatted for a while before the gig started.
The usual Sunday night thrash crowd turned up and when Sink came on in multi coloured tie dye apparel with acoustics and tambourines they stood in a large semicircle wide eyed and slack jawed throughout the set. Me and my mates danced non stop like complete loons for the whole thing, was such a great gig.





Sink released a comp of their first two 7"s plus two unreleased songs, Mama Sink, The First 18 Years (1963-1989) that year (which has a great cover of the Replacements song If Only You Were Lonely, which I actually like better than the original...) as well before the final album Vega-Tables was released in 1991. Slower in general but still with the Dischord feel in places. They changed name after that and became Big Ray and continued with the slower more gentle stuff but still great songs throughout.
Anyway for your listening pleasure I give you a bundle of Another Love Triangle, Old Man Snake And His Fat Black Pig, Mama Sink The First 18 Years, Vega-Tables, Don't Burn The Hook 7" and the first Big Ray album, Naked.
I hope you enjoy it all as much as I do.

Sink

Acid Reign - The Venue, Edinburgh, 17th December 1989

Well this is the tape of the Acid Reign gig I mentioned in this post. It's a little bit wobbly at the start but hey, the tape is 21 years old so I think we can give it some slack, anyway it's only a few seconds and there's over 80 minutes.

Acid Reign were one of the best live bands I've ever seen. Every time I saw them, they were a bundle of energy, speed and silly banter, as were the crowd at the Venue. The tape is from their December gig in 89 but the photos are from 1990 or maybe 1991 and are really shit quality I know but it's no great surprise as they were taken with one of those 110 cartridge cameras that weren't designed for use indoors, in the dark or of moving subjects...





Set list:
1 - Reflection Of Truths
2 - All I See
3 - Godess
4 - Suspended Sentence
5 - Humanoia
6 - Bully Boy
7 - Chaos
8 - The Fear
9 - Insane Ecstasy
10 -Blind Aggresion
11 - Motherley Love
12 - Life In Forms
13 - Warriors Of Ghengis Khan
14 - For Whom The Bell Tolls
15 - Whiplash
16 - Big White Teeth

Acid Reign - live at The Venue, Edinburgh, 17th December 1989