King for a day / Kingdom come / Brunel blues etc etc

I first went to a gig at Brunel University in Uxbridge early in 1977- it was to see Wilko Johnson (although it said 'The Wilko Johnston Band' on both the posters and the tickets) who had just left Dr. Feelgood and was out on his first solo tour. The next band I remember seeing there was Eddie and the Hot Rods supported by No Dice; the venue was then called The Kingdom Room which became The Academy in (I think) the 1980's, and I saw countless acts there over the years, from The Motors to Motorhead and back again via Mega City Four - and that's just the ones that begin with M! (Incidentally the bigger bands- The Sex Pistols, Rockpile and The Kinks to name but three witnessed by your humble narrator- played in The Sports Hall, or 'Sports Barn' as it was then known.) Having such an excellent, eclectic venue so close to home helped my early interest in music to an incalculable degree, to such an extent that I've often wondered where I would have been without it... The Price played one of our very first gigs there in 1985 (supporting Action Pact and Porky The Poet) and appeared there on many occasions over the years (including a show with Transvision Vamp that has long since passed into Price folklore) and we played one of our final shows in our original incarnation late in 1993. Last night I saw my first gig there this century (!) and it was definitely a good one to come back with...

The King Blues are a band that I'd heard lots of good things about but had not heard a note by until a week or so ago when Andy Peart played me their latest album 'Save The World- Get The Girl'. He called them 'a breath of fresh air' and he's not wrong- I don't remember the last time that I heard an album by a 'current' band that I've liked as much as this one. Describing them is difficult- musically they're a kind of acoustic ska/punk band with shouty choruses and empassioned vocals (and, it must be said, the politics) reminiscent of Blaggers I.T.A. and The Redskins (who played a classic Brunel gig during the miners strike of 1984.) Maybe best of all, they've got band members with names like Itch and Fruitbag... lots to enjoy here then, making a visit to their gig last night essential.
It looks like things have changed a bit since I was last here. It's more like a modern town than the time-warped university campus of memory, with it's inhabitants looking like they've got things to do, places to go people to see... I walked around for 10 minutes or so, passed through the area featured in 'A Clockwork Orange', the sports hall has changed too and the whole place is somehow brighter than I remember it being, more colourful, maybe more inviting to potential students coming for interviews than the grey buildings of yore? At the venue I walk to where the entrance used to be, but it's not there anymore, it's maybe 20 or 30 yards further along, there's a security man in a shirt and tie on the door, he looks at me quizzically as I say I'm here to see the band, he's probably about 10 years younger than me after all but directs me to the young lady behind the counter at the end who has a similar look on her face as she give me a colourful wristband to wear; I can remember getting home after that first Wilko gig where they'd rubber-stamped the back of my hand to show that I'd paid to get in, I spent hours trying to scrub the ink off fearing that I'd never get rid of it and that they'd somehow tattooed me without me realising it, because you think things like that when you're 15 don't you? Well, I did anyway.
Inside things have changed too. The stage was along the longest side of the oblong room opposite where you used to come in, now it's moved 90 degrees to the right and doesn't seem to be a permanent structure. The bar's still in roughly the same place meaning that it's now all but opposite the stage, with the dancefloor a bit lower than I remember it- or maybe the raised section next to it is a bit higher? There's maybe 150 people in and they're pretty much all late teens/early twenties, presumably most of them are students which didn't seem to be the case all those years ago- I get a drink and look around, trying not too look at the girls in case they think I'm a dirty old man, trying not to look at the boys in case they agree with the girls, feeling like some kind of 'Uncle Ernie' in the corner counting the bubbles in my lager- thankfully Andy and his girlfriend Abbie arrive to rescue me from the shadows before the police are called.
Suddenly the band are on- it's 9.40, earlier than I remember the headline bands appearing back in the day. They sound great and look even better, no one stands still for a second, both guitarists sweating by the end of the first number which is always a good sign in my world. I'm standing near the back behind the main audience crush, trying to work out what's different from last time, suddenly realising that the room's not full of smoke anymore. There's a lot of singing along, people punching the air as Itch leads them in the revolution, because that's what it is, a revolution where we're all going to go out and change the world after the show, because the world needs to change, has to change, there should be more people like us and less people like them, we're taking over, taking over, taking over again...

A great gig- Andy was right, they're a breath of freah air, 'though they're actually more like a hurricane. If only I wasn't the best part of three time (yes, three times) the age of most their audience... and another thing- the bar closed at 10.30! When did that start happening? It wouldn't have happened in my day- let me tell you, we drank all night ever night in them days, when men were men and punks were punks and the revolution didn't start until closing time. The young people today, they don't know they're born... continued on page 98...