Post by graham on Mar 26, 2006 11:51:24 GMT
My best memories of the Southend Punk Scene had to be all the hours whiled away sitting on top of Anarchy Hill from 84-86 era. It was a fabulous spot, on top of a mound, one of three or 4 grassy knolls created on the ruins of the old Southend Technical College, and interspersed with fruit and nut trees. Another of the mounds was colonised by 'the casuals', with whom we seemed to have an uneasy truce most of the time, the others by office workers enjoying their lunchbreaks in the sun sitting on the grass. Talking of grass, that was another advantage of our spot, one had a good all round view both down the High Street and looking towards the Victoria Circus roundabout, so anybody indulging in illicit activities such as rolling joints, etc had plenty of warning if any cops, etc were coming in our direction. Here's the shot that says it all...
At the time I used to work in one of the Customs & Excise office blocks on Victoria Ave, and often used to while away my lunch breaks on Anarchy Hill drinking vodka and cheap cider with the likes of Polly, Wayne Stallard, Pigeon (RIP), Oz (RIP), Slug, Mim, Jo Dawes, Rick 'thingyy Death' Prevost, Tony Quinn, Blane, Lefty Kid, Gary Lewis, Liz, Jan, Lisa Grey, and many others, I used to often retun to my desk completely out of my box, not that any of my colleagues seemed to notice...
Then there was Prestos supermarket, purveyors of cheap 2 litre bottles of cider, and the famous quote from Oz, "Go on Rick, go down Prestos and get some cider. I know you've got a pound cos I saw it..."
I started out with the rather more earnest 'vegan lot', the animal rights, hunt sab, green army coat, Autumn Poison Anarcho-punk Crass-fan gang including Sheena, Mark, James, Gary & Jeff Frost etc, but sort defected over at the start of 1985, mainly due to a rumour going round that Polly wanted to fight me. At the time I'd never spoken to him, so I thought i'd better sort it out and went up to him in the Cliff to ask what it was all about. We got chatting and found we had loads in common, both vegans, both pacifists, into Crass, Flux of Pink Indian, etc and became good friends. It was nice that the two groups merged, even though their was always that freindly rivalry between 'the Teddies' lot and the 'Threshold' lot, culminating in the football tournaments down at Priory Park. This certainly brought out the serious sportspersons in the crowd, and I remember getting sent off by Tony Quinn once for being too stoned and spending all my time chatting up the Armless Teddies cheerleaders when I should have been paying attention to being in goal and letting several balls in...
I'd pin-point the end of that era as when the manager of The Cliff banned all punks due to some minor fracas or something, and though the various factions all found other pubs to drink in, there was never that big coming together of everybody in one social place, and the scene slowly disintegrated. Of course, Anarchy Hill has now been replaced by a soul-less Odeon complex, and all the grungers at the top of the high street who I suppose are our equivalent all look the same in their uniforms of 'Slipknot' teeshirts and baggy black trousers... Whatever happened to all the individualism of people like Pigeon, Polly, Slug, Jonas, Weeble, Oz, Alice, Jan, Mim, Kerry, etc? All recognisably 'punk' but all totally different from each other, in both dress and attitude, and CREATIVE too, not just consuming the offerings of MTV or whoever...
As Joni Mitchell once sang, "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got til its gone..."
(They've paved Anarchy Hill, and put up an Odeon Multiplex...)
At the time I used to work in one of the Customs & Excise office blocks on Victoria Ave, and often used to while away my lunch breaks on Anarchy Hill drinking vodka and cheap cider with the likes of Polly, Wayne Stallard, Pigeon (RIP), Oz (RIP), Slug, Mim, Jo Dawes, Rick 'thingyy Death' Prevost, Tony Quinn, Blane, Lefty Kid, Gary Lewis, Liz, Jan, Lisa Grey, and many others, I used to often retun to my desk completely out of my box, not that any of my colleagues seemed to notice...
Then there was Prestos supermarket, purveyors of cheap 2 litre bottles of cider, and the famous quote from Oz, "Go on Rick, go down Prestos and get some cider. I know you've got a pound cos I saw it..."
I started out with the rather more earnest 'vegan lot', the animal rights, hunt sab, green army coat, Autumn Poison Anarcho-punk Crass-fan gang including Sheena, Mark, James, Gary & Jeff Frost etc, but sort defected over at the start of 1985, mainly due to a rumour going round that Polly wanted to fight me. At the time I'd never spoken to him, so I thought i'd better sort it out and went up to him in the Cliff to ask what it was all about. We got chatting and found we had loads in common, both vegans, both pacifists, into Crass, Flux of Pink Indian, etc and became good friends. It was nice that the two groups merged, even though their was always that freindly rivalry between 'the Teddies' lot and the 'Threshold' lot, culminating in the football tournaments down at Priory Park. This certainly brought out the serious sportspersons in the crowd, and I remember getting sent off by Tony Quinn once for being too stoned and spending all my time chatting up the Armless Teddies cheerleaders when I should have been paying attention to being in goal and letting several balls in...
I'd pin-point the end of that era as when the manager of The Cliff banned all punks due to some minor fracas or something, and though the various factions all found other pubs to drink in, there was never that big coming together of everybody in one social place, and the scene slowly disintegrated. Of course, Anarchy Hill has now been replaced by a soul-less Odeon complex, and all the grungers at the top of the high street who I suppose are our equivalent all look the same in their uniforms of 'Slipknot' teeshirts and baggy black trousers... Whatever happened to all the individualism of people like Pigeon, Polly, Slug, Jonas, Weeble, Oz, Alice, Jan, Mim, Kerry, etc? All recognisably 'punk' but all totally different from each other, in both dress and attitude, and CREATIVE too, not just consuming the offerings of MTV or whoever...
As Joni Mitchell once sang, "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got til its gone..."
(They've paved Anarchy Hill, and put up an Odeon Multiplex...)