Part 5: The Streetkids vs the Punks
So life was a bowl of cherries, our crew had grown and our tentacles were touching parts untouched by tentacles before. About this time some Skins moved into the Big House…We were a bit worried but they turned out to be alright guys and the knock-on effect meant that other skins didn’t hassle us fuck-all anymore. We formed the St. GEORGES BAY RD./ PARNELL PUNKS/YPRS (young punk rockers…tho the bastards hassled me about getting my shirt cos I was the oldest..a wizened 18!….). A very young Bartleigh (Wgtn) showed up and moved in, his stay only marred by his attempt at chopping 3 of our heads off with an axe one night…We’re still mates tho (he was up for the Gobsmackt, DIY, Nunrapers show and we yarned about the old days!)….LOL…I thank Satan that my running skills had not diminished. \m/…It was also around this time I met ‘Nazi Scum’! Tho he was ‘Punk Scum’ back then I guess….
Sometimes, Kurtis and I would sit outside pretending to smoke pot to bum the people at rehab out (Higher Ground is next door to the Big House). Or he’d throw tinnies filled with tea-leaves over and watch them scurry to get them. We’d creep over and liberate their milk and bread supplies before they’d get up and once I was fucked off my tree on crap pills and went over there. I thought I had been hallucinating til I realised my visions were actually drug counsellors telling me to leave or they’d call the cops. I saw ‘Death’, but I guess he didn’t see me. Yayyyy!
The Big House org.committee decided to have a show and shadily sell piss to cover the costs. Some old school punkers were living at the Big House by now and the skins had been kicked out. Tho they would come back round and steal our food supplies from the unsecured kitchen. Fuckers…. The Org. set up a few bands to play (Not the 78 Punk Show and some others?) and on the night hordes of people showed up! Us punkers were up the front slamming into the old codgers…LOL…(Slamdancing was taking over from grappling, pogoing etc…) and it was all good. A skin asked/ informed me that “We’ve seen you round, do you wanna join our crew?”…but I refused…”Nah mate, Punk rock! cheers for asking tho…” Bron couldn’t make it to the party but it didn’t really matter. We had free piss and a cranking band.
Then some old school skins tried to step out our mates on the bar for the bar takings. One of the org.crew/ barmen got bashed so grabbed a knife and stuck the thieving bastard. That was it… party over…The cops flooded the house/ road and chucked everyone out. Our mate who had stabbed the skin packed up and bailed for whereabouts unknown (we later heard there was a death sentence on him from some skins). He’s still alive today tho and living a fine life in…(oh no…I don’t know nothing….)! Yayyyy!
We did have a neighbour who would complain all the time that ‘your hideous music is too loud’ (tasteless bitch! Black Flag is wicked!) and would barge into our house asking for the landlord. Kurtis shot her in the ass one day with our air pistol….LOL…he’s seen her bending over in her garden and nailed her on the rather large buttcheek…A young girl we knew up the road from us hung herself. It was so sad…(I can’t remember her name but I remember her face).
Then there was Woodpecker…grrrrr…He hung out with us for a while but decided that we ‘sucked’ so went to live with the streetkids. I knew a few of them (they’d hit me up for 20 cents and smokes when I’d go play video games in town). But Woodpecker started spreading rumours about me and he got a few of the bigger street kids together and started beating up lil punks for there boots and belts..etc…We had to move from the Big House (the landlord wanted to ‘upgrade the tenants’..LOL…he’s alright tho…a bigwig in the medical profession now…) to a place off Symonds street near the Uni. My Metro mates informed me one night that Woodpecker and some big streetkids were out to get me, “We’ll stick by you but these guys are huge!”… thanks mate…I bought a leather jacket and started studding/ painting it up. My musical tastes were heading towards America now but the UK music was still the foremost. The Turakina crew listened to American HC and Dioxin OD reflected Fang, Black Flag, Circle Jerk influences. One of my favourites was MDC, I painted a huge ass Foghorn Leghorn on my jacket.
Then one Sunday night, Bron and I were walking up Queen Street to home. When lo and behold…Woodpecker shows up. He started mouthing off that they’d ‘beaten up heapsa punks for their gears’ and ‘I’d better watch myself’. Fuck him! I duly informed him I didn’t give a rat’s ass if his street scum had beat up some punks and I was gonna kick his ass ‘right there’! (I had consoled myself that fighting was alright if you were defending yourself or your friends). He turned and pointed up the street where I saw about 6 big street kids walking down so I told Bron to bail. Her and I sloped off up the hill when they started yelling abuse at us…the usual ‘PUNKS SUCK’ and ‘WE”RE GONNA KICK YO PUNKASS’…then they started yelling they were gonna ‘GET YOUR MISSUS WHEN YOU AINT AROUND’…Right…I turned round and yelled out as loud as I could…”FUCK YOU YA FUCKING BLACK CUNTS! WHY DON’T YOU FUCK OFF TO ZIMBABWE!” (yeah, well they started it…and that’s like my favourite insult…tho I never get to yell it at anyone these days). A moment of shocked silence fell then was replaced by yells of “GET THE PUNK CUNT!”
Bron and I bailed uphill, I told her to go one way and I’d lead them off the other way “Get your ass home babe and get the boys! A couple of them started running after her (she wasn’t as fit as me…LOL) and so I yelled at them “HEY FUCKERS! COME AND HAVE A GO IF YA THINK YOUR HARD ENOUGH! (LOL…I love that shit….tho at the time it was a bit ‘nerve racking’) and stood my ground. I was trying to pull a fence post out of the ground but the fact that it was attached to a fence sort of detracted from my plan. They turned from running after her and came towards me but once again my speedy running skills saved me. Seeing she was alright I legged it! We got home…everyone had gone out…bastards!