Job Done, Tick......Tick (part 6)

4 Piece (The Maid’s Neck) and Peckover - live shows  

Arguably this was our tightest line-up musically.  Possibly because we introduced the keyboard and were able to tune up properly, most of the time anyway.
 
We played 2 great performances over the space of a couple of weeks.   One a triumphant return to Marton College.  There were 5 bands on and we played third.  Local punk band The Filth were on after us and some heavy metal band were top of the bill (probably because they supplied the PA).  I can’t remember their name.  But I can remember we played one of our best ever sets.  We were all in tune and went down really well.  We were still buzzing as we were walking out of the venue with our gear as reports reached us that fighting had broken out just after The Filth started and the concert was abandoned.  That was amusing enough but who was coming swaggering towards us?  This was just too good to be true.
 
“Have a good time lads?  We’re xxxxxxx, we’re the headliners”
“Yeah?”  We managed to suppress our laughter until they were out of earshot.  A great memory.
 
The daft thing is The Filth were amongst the nicest lads in the local punk scene and we went on to play quite a few gigs with them.  We played quite a lot of shows with local punk bands.  We had to if we wanted to play because they were the local music scene.   Obviously we were very different to the punks.  We dressed and spoke differently and we generally disliked their music but we never condescended.  Most of them were ok and they treated us ok.  Even if they didn’t like our music and they almost certainly didn’t they respected our attitude.
 
 I don’t remember us having that much chew but there was one occasion at The Teessider when Terry Doyle from Discharge, an old friend of Gary had to step in to save our skins from the skins! 

We played the Rock Garden for our third and final time with The Fall in November 1980 and it was brilliant.  Everything just about just turned out just as we planned.  We weren’t on the bill to play, we just decided we were going to support them. It never occurred to us that it wouldn’t happen.  Mark Smith was our hero and Grotesque (after the gramme) had just been released, my favourite Fall album.  We went down to Stockton on the afternoon and got drunk on white wine.  Can’t remember what that was about.  We got the bus to the Rock Garden and waited for The Fall to arrive. 

When they turned up I just walked up to their then reportedly formidable manager and girlfriend of Mark Smith, Kay Carroll and just  asked if we could support them.  I was drunk and full  of bravado and think I caught her on the hop.  From memory I don't think she took much persuading.  although she did initially baulk when I asked if Paul could use their drums.  Think there might have been something wrong with his car but he definitely didn't want to drive home for his drums. 

Kay Carroll said he couldn’t use their drums.

“Why not?”

“What if he does a skinnin. ?”

“What’s a skinnin?”

“You know break the skin of the drum”

“Right, a skin in”  I didn’t see that happening but I told her that if Paul did a skin in, they could drive round to Paul’s to pick up one of his drums.  Only they would have to use their van.

I swear that is how the conversation went and Kay Carroll just agreed.

“You’ll have to pay Grant Showbiz” £5 to do the sound though”

“No problem” (only £1.25 each and free in to see The Fall - result).

We even had a sound check.  I’d gone home for some reason and when I came back cuddly Radio 6 presenter Marc Riley was having a hissing fit with Ste because he didn’t know how to switch the synth on.

I walked up, switched it on and Riley walked off chuntering something under his breath. 

By the time we went on stage we’d been drinking for over 8 hours and it told.  Gary introduced the first song.  “The plough’s mightier than the pen, Hand Over Fist”  the synth came in “whoo hooo whoo hoo whoo whoo whoo hoo.  “Ha-ha-hand, o-o-ver Fist!” Whoo hooo whoo hoo whoo whoo whoo hoo and so on.  The mix of our friends, the punks and the skins lapped it up.  It was surreal.  This one’s called “Who Killed The Mystery Girls” before breaking into For the Benefit of Mrs Smith.  We were way out of tune and tried to tune up mid-set (no electric tuners in those days).  Gary asked the audience if it was in tune?  "That'll do".

 

At the end of our set Gary goaded the crowd.  “Do you want more?”

Crowd “Yeah!”

Gary “Yeah?”

Crowd “Yeah!”

“Ha Ha (laughter not as in Hand Over Fist again), hard luck”

Not sure if The Fall would have let us?  Of course, they would have, I’d have squared it with my new pal Kay, but we stuck to our guns, we didn’t do encores.

Mark Smith saw Ste at the bar and told him how much he enjoyed it as did the Rock Garden Manager.  He said  he’d pay the sound man for us.

After that?  It just all kicked off again.  Fights broke out, skinheads were punching people at random.  It was Marton College all over again.  It is remembered in Rock Garden history as a particular brutal Rock Garden night and that's saying something.  I think I remember it referred to "Hell on Earth" on a Fall fans forum.

Obviously it would have happened anyway but I don’t think us winding up of the audience helped.
Our friend, Anarcho Punk Lee Gibson taped it all for us and then interviewed Mark Smith with Gary for his fanzine.  I digitized the interview and shared it on the Internet a couple of years ago and the transcript is in Lee's book

That could have been our last show with Paul although I do remember us going to Darlington to play at a pub called The Speedwell.  He might have still been around for that one and I know it’s starting to look like I’m making this up but we travelled on the train carrying our gear.  We walked out of Darlington Railway Station only to get chased all around Darlo by some (presumably) County Durham thugs.  Thankfully we were all reasonably fit and even lugging our gear we managed to shake them off before making our way to the venue.  Pete Farrell who’d joined up with Ste to form Those Responsible met up with us.   It was a good show.  We involved the locals and let them use our gear to play at the end.   I think Pete come in a Community Transport van and thankfully gave us a lift home, phew!

We had another close shave, although this time it was only me when we played the Birds Nest pub in Hartlepool, one of only a couple of concerts we played with Peckover.  He was only a kid, probably about 15 and although he mostly kept reasonable time he had a habit of losing it when he came out of drum rolls.  We advised him not to do drum rolls but he ignored us.  With the benefit of hindsight he was just doing what Tick Tick generally did and  ignored what he was told.  In truth he just wasn’t a very good drummer. 

The show was set up by Braz and our other pals from Hartlepool.  They also had a band,  Almost Cried and I’m guessing they probably supported us.  We decided to make it a concept show.  We still had loads of our records left and decided to call it "The Tick Tick Quiz and Sale".   We played half of our set and I introduced the quiz.  There was a bloke worse for wear talking loudly at the back and I asked Workingman’s Club stylee for a bit of order. 

He took exception to this and in a clear attempt to intimidate me he came right up to me so close that I could feel his breath on my face.  I didn’t have time to think through a response so I just continued with the show and lady luck smiled on us me and he just went returned to his seat ready to take part in the quiz, probably saving my beating for later.  As luck would have it he ended up winning a record answering “Who in darts is known as the crafty cockney?” correctly.  He was never going to kick my head in after winning a copy of “The Immortalisation of Tick Tick”.