Part two: Whakatane gets too small, I go to Auckland and meet some Punks
I ended up at a BP party one night with one of my uncles and the ones that had tried to run me over were there. Declining my Uncles invitation to line-up for some girl getting ‘blocked’ (remember, this was a gang party…sick shit like that did happen and still does…). I cruised in and froze… These guys were huge, I was just a lil wee cherry punker, then my uncle* strode in (imagine a younger Jake the Mus without the bad bits…well, he liked fighting and was damn good at it….) and intro’ed me to the crew and they were “yeah we’ve seen you around, your his nephew eh?” Sweeeeettt asssssssss! plus there were a few of my cousins there that I grew up with so it was cool. I did, however, split later on when one of the Ruatoki guys decided to start petting my ‘hawk’.
I went to Sweetwaters the year that UB40, Rose Tattoo, Split Enz, No Tag played. A buddy and I hitched up but he told me to wear a hat(….) or else we wouldn’t get rides. My mom ended up driving us to Hamtown (I love my mom). We got to Huntly and started walking and walking until this van load of Shaveheads drove past and yelled out “Walk ya cunts!”. I whipped off my cap and they saw my mohawk… “Fuck, that cunts gotta mohawk! Stop!” and screeched to a halt and offered us a lift. Heh, vindication for my haircut…(not many people had mohawks or spikeheads back then). Turns out, they were mates of The Plastic Pegs!
Sweetwaters was wicked (think the BDO with pot, dodgy food etc for 2-3 days). My faves were The Girls (all-female band, Kim Willoughby, Debbie Harwood? some others…) sorta NZ girlpop, No Tag (of course!) Fucking awesome!!!…and a shitload of other bands I can’t remember. UB40 were excellent (1 in 10 era stuff), Rose Tattoo weren’t bad, Split Enz, I was off drinking and cruising. We hitched back and I shot off to Gisborne for a look. My mate was off to England (he interviewed Glen Matlock while he was over there and came back with a cheesy pommie accent). Gisborne was shit (no offence…read on..)
My ride to Gizzy got busted within half an hour of us being there and I was stranded in a strange town, my clothes and ska sneakers in the damned, stolen, impounded car. Someone did ask me if ‘GBH’ stood for Gisborne Boys High. I got my gear back, the cops believing I was ‘just hitching’ and slept under a bridge that night. Bought The Clash’s ‘Combat Rock’ the next day and caught a bus back to Whakas.
A few younger guys from school were now into punk and we started kicking around for a few months, stealing milk from mailboxes and playing video games and checking out one of the guys hot as sisters. They headed off and hung out with some people who wanted to kick my head in a few months later…apparently I didn’t ‘talk enough’ for the new crew (bogans) and I was a ‘weirdo punk scumbag’ that if he ever shows his face in this town again etc etc(Kawerau)…well….the punk guys from Kawerau were all cool cunts (errr all two of them and one of those was a skin) tho and we kicked round a bit after that getting drunk and going to parties.
By now my mate was back from England and invited me up to stay at his Moms in AK (his mom was like a second mom to us lil punks back in WHK…). I went to a wicked as party with another mate of mine living up there. It was like being at the NZ Music Awards of 1980something ( my dates are a bit fucked up….long time ago…). There were people from The Narcs, Dance Exponents, The Girls (!), and heaps of other then-at the-time-famous bands. The Singer from the Narcs asked how I spiked my hair up…..’Soap man’….I also met some people who said I could move up there and flat with them!
The week before I left AK (2 week holiday) there was a punk gig at Mainstreet. ‘Not the 78 punk show’ with people from the Instigators and some other old NZ punkers. I went but had to take my combat boots off before they would let me in…Fucking brilliant gig! I pogoed, grappled and skanked away (in my socks…) to a night of punk rock classics…I went back to WHK, informed my folks I was moving to AK. I missed the Dead Kennedys at Mainstreet….(I don’t want to talk about it….) and the week after DK’s (…) I was back in AK.
The new flatties were into the nightclub scene. I had been dragged off dressed in NC clothes (with my mohawk spiked up and an indignant look on my face for looking like a trendy git…) to a few clubs. The nicest one was a club called’ the Venue’ (AA Venue) on Upper Symonds street. My pommie mate and a few others from WHK worked there and they intro’ed me to the owner, a nice guy by the name of Russ Le Roq (Russell Crowe back when he was a struggling muso/pre actor..strange but true). He said cruise up any time and they’d let me in no matter what I was wearing! What a cool cunt!
Also, one of the flatties had been a punk back in ’77’ (gasp! an original…. ). We’d play cards and he’d tell me about Zwines, The Scavengers, Instigators, Proud Scum etc (AK 79 is, was and will always be a fave…except for the emo bits…)…He also told me about the High School round the corner (Metro…I lived on Grange rd. Mt Eden then) and that punks go there. So the next day I cruised round, sat down and waited til some punkers showed up. A spiky-headed chap came out for a smoke and introduced himself as Keegan and asked if I went to school there. “Nah I’m just here to meet some punks”…Hehehehe…He told me a buncha them were getting on the piss at a pub in town (Hmmmm….just off Symonds street up the hill from the square? Starts with ‘G’ maybe?…) and to show up on Friday. That place became our local.
My record collection had grown, my mohawk was a suitable length, I had scored Flesh D-Vice’s ‘12 inches of Hard Flesh’ (chortle…). That record ruled! Still fuckin does…and met some punks to kick round with and a sanctuary to escape to if it all got too much.
AK to me back then was wicked! Country boy in the big smoke! I hadn’t been to Wellies yet but planned to because Flesh D-Vice came from there. But AK was full of strange sights, punk rockers and gigs! Tho most of the bands I saw were at the Venue. The Mockers I remember seeing after I’d been at the pub. I cruised upto the Venue on the way home one night and ran into Russ and a bouncer doing a sweep. He asked me if I was goin up but I wasn’t really dressed nice (LOL…bleached jeans 1″ roll-ups, red braces, combats, army jacket with an EXPLOITED backpatch) He gave me a card to give to the bouncers on the door. I went to walk in and the guy on the door was all “Sorry Bro! your not dressed for it!” I told him Russ said to give him this card, he looked at it and was all “Ooooo Sweet bro, Go on up!” The teenies round the door were stunned! A scumbag kid dressed like a post-apocalyptic, punk-mutant, Oi! rat was allowed in! HAH! Went to a coupla parties at expensive houses in the country with the Venue crew. It gets a bit hazy around this part….
Next
I moved to Parnell with the Crusties (Crass punks! Fellow travellers on the road to peace and tofu…)
* My Uncle OC, coupla years older than me and still a damn good dude. When we were kids he’d help us beat up the other kid gangs from across the St. Josephs Rugby Club valley in WHK…His wife is a Christian, I’d kill at her command (not that she would ask)…LOL…alright I like some Christians…