Part 13: Funeral in Hamtown…The SRH disintegrates
The next day, we all cruised to the Hart. It came on the news on the radio that Colin had been killed the night before and we all went quiet. There must have been 20-30 of us all dressed in our usual black and leather. The barmaid asked why we were there and we told her. “Oh, I knew him, he was alright, nice and quiet most of the time”. Someone had told me the night before who had done it and the name was disseminated to the people.
We cruised up to Hamtown for the funeral, hordes of us, and after the usual shit at the crem. We headed back and got on it at Colin’s olds with the people from Hamtown, Colin’s brothers and family. All the NP people looked wicked, hair all spiked or heads shaved, and we drank to our brother. Fuck, it was so hot! We headed down to the Outcasts (before they got the pad where they are now) and got drunk. That was the last day I ever spiked my mohawk up…
The bikers showed up at our place in NP and gave us a day to move out (they owned it…strange thing is…bikers have come up to me recently and asked if we’ve ever had a problem and if we did, we’re sorry….LOL…respect!)
For weeks after, the guy who killed Colin, was hunted by evil as skins and HC. The place where he worked had its windows smashed every weekend. His car was vandalised. A couple of skins went to blow him away but the fucking gun jammed! In the end he left town. Supposedly, he comes back now and then, but I’ve never seen him. Shit went down about that for months. Even now his brother avoids us. Fucker…paybacks a bitch in steelcaps.
My funniest memory of Colin was after a Keg party. I had crashed out in my room when this girl, Roche, came in (picture the hottest punk babe ever…well back then) and jumped into my bed (wicked!!!!!! I’m in!). Then Colin comes in and jumps into my bed too! “Fuck!” ….”you cunts can have my bed, I’m gonna crash in the lounge”. Next day, I asked Colin if he had scored… “nah, but I beat off and shot a load on her face…” was his reply….”What the fuck did she do man?!!!”…”Smiled”…
See you in Hell, Colin.
The SRH had moved into town but weren’t living together. We had a place right in town and this place called the Practice Rooms was out the back of us. Casualty and a few other bands would jam there, then they started having gigs. Everyone would cruise over and hang out ‘cos we lived right in the middle of town (in the year we were there, I think there was only one day when no-one came round!) We’d have keg parties and listen to Zodiac Mindwarp, Metallica, Slayer, Overkill, Napalm Death, DRI, Black Flag (of course!), Beastie Boys (early shit…), Death!!!!, Sticky Filth, and all the old faves…Subhumans, DK’s, Violators, Flesh D-Vice, etc… We met heaps of nurses doing their degrees (they could drink like fishes!).
I remember seeing SHIHAD at the Practice Rooms all young and fresh-faced playing Metallica covers! They did look a bit scared…The Practice Rooms were great! All ages, BYO, a double garage with concrete walls and a toilet. I guess the cops reckoned it kept us from causing trouble elsewhere so left it alone. It was a 55 second stumble home. Sticky Filth, Das Untermensch (pre Tension), Casualty, The Warners and a lot of other bands played there…(yes, I was drunk a lot and can’t quite remember who played) I do remember waking up with puke down the back of my screenprinted Corrosion of Conformity, Suicidals army shirt. Apparently, some girl had food poisoning and I carried her out to a taxi on my shoulder. I’m glad I can’t remember her puking on me…
My hair was getting longer and I listened to lots of Slayer, Death, Mega Death, Agnostic Front, Metallica (went and saw them on the ‘In Justice ‘tour…got the poster somewhere…Simon’s band played with them! Enigma….wicked). But I still listened to heaps of punk and HC (and always will…) Slug was slowly fucking out and up. Too many drugs and booze. He punched his ex out in front of us one day and we jumped him til he mellowed out (we shoulda kicked his ass…mighta saved him…ah well…who can say?). We were hanging out with more bogans and carheads but heaps of people would still come and stay. People from Dunedin, Wellington, Auckland, Hamtown, Christchurch. But the crew was changing, getting older, some were hitting the drugs hard and doing fucked up shit.
Fiona died, she was a cool as punker whose sister I went out with for awhile in NP. Burnt to death in a fire in AK. Heath had tried to save her, but it was too late. Dodger Droog and Tim Droog had died. Belinda and I went to the funeral in Palmy for Dodger. A hundred skins, nazi saluting! and two punkers (Alana and I). I was doing the SRH salute (arm raised, trigger finger cocked!) I ran into Pat from the Aro’s and we stood back from the grave and watched as drunken Skins tried to fill it with their bare hands. Someone fell in…
One night at a gig, Slug got kicked around by some bogans. We all cruised over to sort them out but I held Shane back and said “Wait on, come round the back and watch…” We watched, then when we saw some Bogans try to double-team one of our guys I yelled at Shane “C’mon! Him” We both rushed in, grabbed one of the bastards and wacked him and told him to ‘Fuck off’… Then back to wait for the next one…LOL..We won that fight.
Shane moved back to Wellington (taking with him my ‘Thor’ icon as a present) and I met a girl from Finland. I still travelled to AK to visit and check out gigs. The Ramonees, Warners, Migraine, Enigma and shitloads of others. But the scene was slowly changing…