Well, it's five to one on Monday afternoon. It's bleak at best outside and I'm sitting in Poppies Cafe waiting to go back to work. Boo! This past week has been one of the busiest of my life and my body and brain are struggling to accept that I have to go back to selling booze to jakeys.
The weekend kicked off on Thursday night when me, Ben, Gain and Kev met at Broxden Park and Ride in freezing cold. We were heading for the 13th Note and our first ever show as Joey Terrifying. It's been a long time since I was the singer in a band with no acoustic guitar strapped on and even longer since Ben has played a show, other than Jam in the Den, so we were all pretty nervous. We were also pretty damn excited as we've been together for 3 months or so and are desperate for people to wrap their ears around the fruits of our endeavours.
We loaded in and met Michael from The Wrecking Pit and the guys from Fake Problems and All Or Nothing, then headed upstairs for some scran. The look on Gain's face when he realised that his beer and burger was actually vegetarian was priceless. Dave Hughes opened the show with his friend on bodhran and serenaded us with his political folk-punk sweetness. We were up next and ripped into our set. Folk seemed pretty into what we were doing and we fired through our set in just under 25 minutes. I made the mistake of wearing a beanie and we all came off stage sweating our balls off! Thanks to everybody for their kind words after the show, it was a pleasure to play our first show for you folks! All Or Nothing came on next with their saccharine-sweet pop-punk. They were tight but I must confess, not really my cup of tea. Fake Problems were ace, as expected, my only gripe being that they didn't have any small white T-Shirts. I get in trouble for wearing shirts that are too big for me. 
Friday night was Dundee and saw us joining The Living Daylights and The Hijacks on their touring bandwagon. The show was at Club Kage and sorted out by our man Kieran. We quickly made friends with the Daylights and it's always good to catch up with The Hijacks. The show was pretty empty, which was a little disappointing because the bands were ace. It seems as though attendance at Dundee punk shows is the smallest it has ever been at the moment, while the standard of the bands seems to be ever-improving. Everybody seemed to have a good time overall. We didn't hang about for Transmission afterwards, as it was back to Perth for bed in anticipation of the mayhem that was duly set to follow.
I could hardly sleep on Friday night with the ringing in my ears and nervous excitement at the prospect of the looming Book Yer Ane Fest. It has seemed as though the organisation and energy spent getting everything sorted out has taken over my life for the past month or so. After about 5 hours, it was morning and I was up for breakfast and a quick trim of my seemingly uncontrollable barnet. I met the rest of the JT boys and Johnny Harcus, loaded in the gear and began setting up and soundchecking. Doors open time arrived quickly and the first few folk started making their way in.
The Hijacks took the stage first and blew us away with 20 minutes of the finest, most life-affirming ska-punk you are ever going to hear and set the tone for the day. The sound was crystal clear (thanks John!) and the band were razorsharp for such an early start. Next up was The Living Daylights who ripped through their set in front of the steadily growing crowd. These guys have been on tour for weeks and this was the first of two gigs for them, as they were playing Glasgow along with The Hijacks later that night. These guys are great and even though we'd never met before, they are already one of my favourite UK punk bands. They're off to Europe in a week or so. Check them out.
State Of Affairs were up next and were in good form in matching ginghem shirts. These guys are always a solid bet when it comes to the rock'n'roll! I was running around like a blue-arsed fly and didn't catch all of their set. PHC's dirtiest swine MAFAFI destroyed eardrums and sweated all over the place, with Sam being the first person to get in people's faces. The new material is sounding as brutal and schizo as ever. Sunset Squad upped the intensity and delivered an epic set of harsh melodic hardcore. Props to Potter for the onstage vomitus! There is a photo knocking about somewhere that will tell the story better than I ever could!
It was great to see Torturo Nervosa playing in front of warmed-up crowd and they treated us to their dischordant punk noise. Their new CD is top quality and take on an even rougher edge live with the three-way vocals and brooding aggression. Top notch indeed. Barry and Gain were up next and rattled through their folk-punk anthems, including a D4 cover. Barry's lyrics seemed to have added poignancy and I was choked up during '9 Years'. I love 15 Minutes and this was one of the most primal and engaging sets I have ever seen them play. Fragile were running a little late so Franco literally came straight from his car and onto the stage. We got involved in some dancing and I'm sure there was the first pyramid of the day. Hard and fast as always, the boys represented the punk rock'n'roll as we prepared for a more hardcore-orientated evening.
A Swordmaster set is always a sight to behold and Bobby demonstrated his technical virtuosity and melodic sensibilities clad in his fetching leopard print tights. 80's metal has never been my thing, but they were super-entertaining and are amazingly talented musicans. Epic would be the word. The room filled up in anticipation of Black Channels first hometown show. It was inevitable that everything was going to kick off given the circumstances and when the kicked off, almost everybody seemed to completely lose their shit. Absolutely immense, emotive, brutal and chaotic. Perfect.
By this stage I was shitting myself as we were up next, playing our first Perth show and our third gig ever. I raced from my last-minute tabby and straight onstage and it went off. Everbody was hyped after Black Channels and the booze had obviously began to take effect as everyone on the floor was skanking and dancing about. The crowd were awesome with cuddyback circle pits, human pyramids and an epic crowd surf at the end of 'Troubled Times'. I don't know if I jumped or if I was thrown, but I was up their for fucking ages! Honestly, it has to be one of the most primal, emotional and chaotic sets that I've ever been a part of and I couldn't been happier or more proud of my boys. I love you guys! We'll be recording our first CD soon and will be hitting the road shortly thereafter, so be warned, we are coming and we are bringing it big time, no fucking about!
By the time Kaddish came on, the back room was packed and I was absoutely knackered. They are one of the most devastating bands I have ever seen and they didn't disappointed as they ripped through old favourites and a couple of new songs. The emotional connection Kaddish seem to have with everyone is unique as it is powerful and it was a pleasure to have them playing the fest. I didn't think it possible, but Mesa Verde upped the bar and tore Mucky's apart. It was amazing.
We ran slightly overtime but nothing was said of it. There are so many people that I have to thank. Thanks to all the bands for coming and supporting the cause. Sometimes within this DIY community it is easy to become dissillusioned and factional, but it is days like Saturday, when everybody comes together united for the same reasons, where all the hard work seems worthwhile afterall. All of the bands were great and the atmosphere was amazing. Thanks so much to Mandy, Louise, Lee and Merlin at Mucky Mulligan's for allowing us to have the run of the place and for being such accomodating hosts. Thanks to the cowpunks for all the help and support over the past weeks and thanks to my good lady for putting up with me! Special thanks to everybody that came along and supported the cause!
Massive special thanks to Lisa from Safe-Tay for all the help with printing and the posters. I hope that we did you and the memory of Graham proud.
After everything, we made £435 profit for Safe-Tay. Stoked!
Cowpunk love,
x