Screaming Asylum Productions presents…SMUT! Returning from Australia with H-Block (Melbourne) on “The Better Off Dead Tour“, January 17-25, 1997.
Better Off Dead Tour
We were on tour back in NZ. There were fucking heaps of us. Like, 19 people all flew over from Australia and all traveling more or less together. We had flown out of Melbourne and the majority of people were totally drunk when they got to the airport at 11am. Pre RSA times as they were the flight attendants gave us beers before the engines even started and then requested that we drink them dry so they wouldn’t have to stock-take. We did.
I remember as we were coming in to land one of our number (who shall remain nameless) was found lying on his back in the galley upending the last of a bottle of vodka. We carried him back to his seat but there was no way he could sit so we just laid him across three seats and strapped him down. The arrival anticipation silence was punctuated by his voice croaking from behind “why won’t any of you fucking cunts talk to me?”.
When we finally got off he tried to stagger straight out of the airport without stopping for passport control so they calmly and carefully turned him round towards the back of the queue. Unfortunately this was too much and he spun and tripped and fell face first on the floor smashing his bottles of duty free bourbon beneath him….. Oh fuck – are they actually going to let us into the country? They ended up pulling us all to the front of the line to get us through and out before anyone threw up.
We toured and played, and drank and played, and left people behind and played and generally enjoyed ourselves. By the time we got to Christchurch we were kind of on a roll. We could play reasonably well regardless of what was going on and had a fair idea of how to deal with the worst of it. The show was in a warehouse space run by beautiful crusty kids and was a great place to be. The bands were great and I was loving the catch up. I had lived here for two years and although I hated the place I had a lot of good friends in town.
The first I knew of anything bad happening was while we were playing and I could see some scuffling in the back and someone came up and told us to stop. Some skinheads had come in and were attacking people and one of them was swinging a hammer at people. The hammer was removed and returned with interest and they were shown the door.
We kept playing, people kept dancing and the night continued. What we didn’t realise until it was a bit too late is when they left they went and got a car and came back and drove it at high speed through the crowd of punks who were outside causing massive injuries and then kept on driving. It was hideous and it is kind of amazing nobody died. The cops turned up and told people that it was an accident and to leave it alone and the rumour came through that the car didn’t exist anymore anyway… and that was it. Another night in Christchurch. My last. I haven’t played there since and don’t think I will again.
Kieren Hills
January 17, Thistle Hall
January 18, Hex Central
