This was the real punk scene completely devoid from any possibility of commercialism.
Literally tens of bands, fronted by anoraked squeaky-voiced pimply teenagers were jabbing a rusty nail in the gonads of society by subliminally subverting the nations youth through unlikeliest of channels - the Scout Hut.
In a torrent of pre-pubescent anarcho-headfuck these band would ram their message down the throats of the audience (and their parents waiting to collect them at the back of the Hall). At one legendary The Blanx gig, somebody even threw a ping-pong ball at the band. Luckily for all concerned the ball missed the stage and nobody was hurt.
The undoubted leaders of the scence were Johnny Moped although the band never acknowledged their status and probably never played a Scout Hut. They did make a pretty silly cassette tape though.
The scence was unique in that it had two epicentres: Hull and Esher.
The Hull scence was perhaps the quieter of the two and was dominated by three bands, Madam Madman, The Blanx and The 1/2 Blanx. Esher, on the other hand, boasted a burgeoning scence sponsored by the likes of X-Bein, Armitage Shanks, Anna and the Dogs and King of the Nosebleeds. Technically speaking, the Esher scence was more of a School Hall scence than a Scout Hut scene. (Acutally, pop historians have recently conclusively prooved that the Hull Scout Hut Scence is actually a misnomer - it should, by rights, be referred to as the Hull Guide Hut Scence.)
The most noteworth incident was an anarchic X-Bein gig. Scores of shocked schoolgirls had to be treated for mass hysteria after the bands guitarist played a whole concert in the nude. Black-market bootleg tapes of the gig audibly demonstrate the effect that the band had on the audience that day. Crazed screaming can be heard as the band take the stage. Seconds later, as the hysteria begins to kick in, the, by now shocked and stunned schoolgirls, begin to lose their grip on reailty and begin to laugh uncontrollably. This laughter lasted for 40 minuted before the band took a hold of the situation and left the stage.
The scence seems to be making an unprecendented comeback but this time it is top Pop Band The Fall who are the undoubted Royalty of the scene.
© Mantra Communications, 1997.