Me Agin!
I have played the Drums for many years, from the age of 15 right through to 1995 when I decided to put my sticks down and turn to song writing... I played in allsorts of Rock/Heavy Metal Bands over the years, one of which was called, “Desolation Angels” from the Eastend of London, I joined this band in the early 80's and stayed with them for two years... throughout my blogs I may come back to this band from time to time as some of the stories are so funny, and really Rock ‘n’ Roll... and sometimes a little Bad News lol, remember them!?... Anyway... The first gig I did with this band was in the Eastend of London, in a well know Rock pub called, “The Ruskin Arms”, some of you may have been there! It is where Iron Maiden gigged before they became what we all know now, A huge Mega Band... But at the time they were still a small band like the DA’s, the night of the gig came and as we set up there was a poster across the top of the stage saying IRON MAIDEN here next week! Cool I thought, everyone was saying I should go see them! I din't, as I lived up in Bury St Edmunds and getting down was a problem at the time, car trouble or something? All the pubs where we played in London were monitored by “The All England Hells Angels”. Coming from a small country town like I did this was a little bit of a shock to me!... but I soon found out they were ok and just looked out for trouble, but until the trouble, you didn’t really know they were there!? And I weren’t, and still ain’t the type to cause trouble to find out where they were lol... Our singer decided to send a DA sticker to the biker magazine “Back Street Heros”, good idea we thought, till the sticker ended up on the back page with all the other Hells Angel Chapters from around the world... We soon found out our fans were getting a bit of a bad time, as the Hells Angels thought we were a biker gang? We had to let them know we were a band and please stop the DA fan bashing!
Soon after that we got a gig playing for them at “The Mitre” just the south side of the river through the Blackwall tunnel where around 300 bikers came to party from 11am on the Saturday to 11am on the Sunday! Long day for most, but these guys partied right through lol... When we got there, we unloaded the van and I got back into it to reverse it out the way being seen back by one of our Roadies, he kept saying, back... back... back... WOOOOOOO!... I stepped on the breaks and heard a voice beside me say, as this giant Hells Angel held his forefinger and thumb half an inch apart... “You were this close to death”... I nearly hit one of the Chopper Bikes with the Van!? At this time my testicales retreated into my abdomen with great haste, and my mouth dried up to taste like the bottom of a dirty budgie cage... and I think I pushed a conca out to boot! He walked off not knowing what he had put this little country fella through lol,
Anyway, we got on the stage, we played for 45 minutes with not one single clap cheer or anything? We were getting a bit worried to say the least... As I started to take my Cymbals off my kit hearing every painful squeak the stand screw made, a huge biker came up to us and asked “What you doing?” we said, moving on out ready for the next band! With a sheepish smile on our faces, the large Biker said, they want you to go on again! For an hour! They liked you!... We said, but there were no applause or cheers? He replied, You didn’t get any bottles thrown at you did yah!?... We went on and they went mad! A great night followed... But I must say, it was the scariest moment in my life, apart from my heart attack, but that’s another story...
The Desolation Angels have just released a 4 CD Box Set covering all the years they were together, it was great to receive one and see all the old photos of when I was in the band... good days...
Take care, all the best and lot's 'a' love... Brett...
"The skin slapping Conga thumping Nuttster"
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