Part 11: Inglewood vs. Tariki…duhn dun dunnnnnn! Trips to AK
Some punks and skins had moved up from Wellington to Tariki (5 mins south of Inglewood). What the fuck were they doing on our turf! They didn’t even have the decency to drop in and pay homage/ cringe in our presence! One day a lil punker showed up and told us tales of ‘humiliation and degradation’ he suffered at the hands of Poodle and his cronies. Poodle?! Poodle lives there! Yayyyy! Unfortunately, Slug and the rest of the unit wanted to go out there and pay the Tarikis a ‘visit’ (you know, a VISIT! with extreme prejudice) As they tooled up to leave they asked if I was coming… “FUCK YOU’S!” “You touch those cunts and y’all can get fucked! They’re mates of mine from Wellington and as far as i’m concerned they can do what the fuck they want! and who the fuck is this lil cunt anyway!” Needless to say Slug and the crew didn’t go out and lil punker was sent on his way to stay with some less-partisan punks.
Several months later, Slug came up to me at a gig at the Rising Sun (AK) and stuck a pair of Docs on the table. “Where did ya get those?” I asked…”Lil punker, I stepped him out for them” replied my buddy, Slug. “Fuck you cunt!, Take those fuckin boots back and apologise, ya fuckin asshole! We’re not fucking Skinheads or gangmembers so don’t fucking pull that ‘step-out’ shit around me!” (I was starting to get angrier as I got older). Slug duly returned the boots and avoided me for the rest of the night. I hate that shit having had it tried on me a few times when I was younger.
Our crew had grown, Shane had come up and joined the SRH, there was young Steve (a local lad and trainee punker), Selwyn (ex-army), Sid (Slug’s bro), Slammy, Rachel, Joannne, Belinda lived not too far away and a few hangers on. The keg parties were going off but when I’d bail to AK for R’n’R they wouldn’t have them!? (How hard is it to put a skull on a piece of paper and collect 10$ off people? quite hard nowadays, granted). We’d play war in the bush (using those light beam guns) around our place and set booby-traps for each other (I found the neck height ones worked good).
We had a big bash for Neil Roberts/ Vickies B-day (can’t remember what year) I drove over all T-Anarchy sussing out a PA which in the end no-one knew how to use and cost someone shitloads) We’d got 6 kegs for the non-SRH and between 9 SRH’ers we got 3 kegs for ourselves…heheheheheehehehehehehehee). By the time I got back everyone was well on it and I settled in for a beer. The Toxic Avengers were playing and some others?:oops:…I got drunk, slammed, avoided women and had a wicked night!
I had painted ‘TOXIC NPHC’ on the back of my leather and started carrying gear for them. Colin, Richard, Brett and Craig made up the Toxic Avengers. I called my cat ‘SLAMMY’ (after the MEATMEN song ‘Punkarama’?) and soon after called myself that as well to make it easier at dinner time not because I slam danced wickedly. The NPHC were made up of the IHC (Inglewood HC) and the Taranaki Hardcore (THC) and, of course, the New Plymouth crews (predating those stupid surfer shirts nowadays….none of us wear them). And I hate being called ‘Naki boy’…grrrrrr.
We’d travel to AK to visit old mates and meet new ones at parties/ gigs. Auckland Uni, Rising Sun, Gluepot (but I never went there, even when I lived in AK). Kurtis had changed into a Rockabilly (geeee…guess it was ‘Cosmic Radiation’…). I’d catch up with the Overlord (don’t kill me) and a lot of crusties at the Calgary Manor and stay at Amanda’s and Ajax’s. At a gig at the Railway Shed (owned by some BP’s, I heard) I was approached by a skin (I’d heard about this one from my mates in AK, he was an Aussie (ewwwwwww) and had been hassling people out at a gig previously) with the words “Noice bleddy Mow-hork meaate” (my aussie accents shit…). Some band called the Hallelujah Picassos were on but I was so intent on the approaching shavehead that I didn’t recognise my old WHK buds in the band!) He went to touch my hawk and I blocked his arm “don’t fucking touch it ! Your that fucking Aussie ain’t ya?! I’ve heard of you”…. I gave him the ‘I’ve stepped in something’ glare and he nervously toddled off (if one can toddle nervously).
Amped up on adrenalin I buggered off outside to have a beer and a smoke when I noticed a young punk girl crying (tadddaaaddaaa! Sir Slammy to the rescue!…crying girls and cats…gets me everytime). It was ‘Aussie Skin’. He was hassling her BF for his boots. I cruised over and said to the lil punk guy “Hey Man! How the fuck is it going!? I ain’t seen you for years!”. The lil punk guy and his GF both stared at me in puzzlement (they didn’t know me, I didn’t know them). Aussie skin looked at me. I gave him the ‘Fuck off or Die in Pain and Humiliation’ look (hmmmm and a song for NEKROTIKA me thinks!). He fucked off. “Cheers man!”…”No probs, that fuckers an asshole”. After the gig, they came up to me and said cheers again. It’s cool, just doing my job…I also changed a tire for someone that night too. Ahhhhhhhhhh…Someone gave me a 750 of Tequila later on…wicked! A warm glow settled in my bones (not just tequila induced, I’ll remember that night for Eterni…Alzheimers).
Around about then this friend of mine nearly got raped, I was lucky enough to get there before…lets just leave that buried… It did however get me invited to some damn fine piss-ups, a few handshakes and the ‘super’ added to the front of my name for a while. It’s not about rewards, it’s about duty though. Duty to your crew and some esoteric ideal of what is right. Maybe…I’m rambling…that memory always fucks me up.
Quite a few people would come from around the country to hear my wisdom…(:lol:) nah just joking…to stay and we’d get on it and hunt the fungus. Skins, punks, herberts, were moving here and it was good. Lots of parties and gigs. I also got my head beaten in by this thieving fucker who stole Selwyns leather when I drunkenly challenged him to a fight. Luckily I was drunk (If I can find the photo I’ll post it). It hurt for days and my face was like 10x bigger and I couldn’t wear my mohawk up because it covered my beaten visage. Bastard…you get that sometimes.