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| THE PISH BETWEEN TWO SHITTYS Livingston is a "new town" in central Scotland, between Edinburgh [15 miles to the east] and Glasgow [35 miles west]. It sprang up in the late 60's to deal with the overspill from both these cities. Up until the late 80's it was nothing more than a vast concrete jungle of houses, car parks, one shopping centre and not much else! A real "soulless" place - the perfect breeding ground for an army of punk rockers! [and senseless violence, sadly!] By 78/79 [when the rest of us caught up with London] there were loads of punks in Livingston and a few bands. (See List) Early '79 and I was 11 years old and got my 1st punk record, THE DICKIES - 'Banana Splits', and was hooked! Some of the older punks who were going to gigs/pubs in Glasgow and Edinburgh and at local gigs had a terrible reputation for violence and it basically stayed that way for nearly 10 years! Crazy! A real shame as there were tons of positive people in the Livi punk scene but the negative punks seemed to rule by fear. Every gig became a riot zone and punk gigs got banned in Edinburgh for around 3 or 4 years in the early 80's! The 'Livi punkz' had a notorious reputation everywhere they went. Which was justified, I think communication, help and friendship between punks from all over would have been better than petty tribal warfare, was it like this in other parts of the UK? I dunno? (Certainly was in Wolves -PDC) |
| Maybe it was the glue?! Livingston was covered in used glue bags back then and the punks were [nearly] all at it. It was so deppressing and repressive. The repercussions are still felt to this day as over the years, punk bands from Livi were treated with fear, disinterest and/or contempt by the rest of Scotlands punks. It gradually got better but other sections of the scene never forgot the early days 'mugging' of the scene by a minority of Livi punks and Skins who spoiled it for the majority. At least they spread it around - also battered were the mods, Poiice [one of the big cheeses in the Livi scene killed a police dog with one swing of his steel toe capped D.M.!!] and anyone else stupid enough to get in the way. But in the middle of all this warfare there was lots of good stuff too - I saw my first gig in 1980, aged 12. An open air gig at a youth club by GLASGOW SS. [A local band, they were all 'overspill' from Giasgow, the SS bit stood for 'social security' - apparently!] The singer Stench, stopped singing after the first song and sat at the side of the stage in a mood for the rest of the short set!? Weird! Anyway, the band carried on with the guitarist and bass player singing at the choruses. They did 'I'm An Upstart' but the gig was a letdown cos of Stench! He was replaced by a punk called Chic Fullerton [who had a 'circled' R on his bike jacket??] and the band was much better. They made some demos and played a few good gigs but never made it onto vinyl. Pity as they had a great guitarist in Bongo - he was excellent, in the vein of UK SUBS Nicky Garratt he went on to be in another local band MOLOTOV COCKTAIL. My second gig was a turbo charged set by UGEN KAMPF at another local youth club. This was early 1981 and I was 13. [the Todd brothers lain and Ralph were in this band. They went on to be in BARBED WIRE/MOLOTOV COCKTAIL and CHINESE BURN.] I thought they looked great - all dyed, spikey hair, studs, bondage gear etc...and the songs just blew me away. Real quality punk rock in the flesh for the first time. At 13 years old this was like seeing the PISTOLS/CLASH/DAMNED etc in 77! I thought bombs were going off all around me - I felt I was plugged into the mains! Sounds mad but it's true! I had a churning in my stomach of pure excitement and addrenal. [that I had at every gig for the next 3 years til I got used to it!] and I just wanted to go crazy to this superb punk music but was too scared to cos I didn't know how to! And thought the older punks would laugh or I'd be trampled underfoot! Another band criminally ignored, seeing UGEN KAMPF made me want to be in a punk band of my own -10 years later, I was!! |
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| By 1981 there was nearly 37,000 people in Livingston (official council statement) and hundreds [well it looked that way] of them were punks! Punk was huge in the UK at that time and so many bands came from this one town it's gotta be a punk rock record breaker!! [see list] OK, back to the aggro. Not sure how much fighting went on in Glasgow by the Livi boys as Glasgow is one of the most violent cities in the UK (always has been, always will be] and has more than it's fair share of nutters but Edinburgh took a pounding - but for the record there was one young chap called Wattie Buchan who was always up for a scrap. He'd be at the front lobbing bottles at the Livi punks against overwhelming odds! I was very young at the time and a lot of this is second hand information but I'm led to believe he never backed down. There was a real hatred between Livi/Edinburgh punks back then - 79/80/81 but funnily enough Wattie became friends with some of the top dogs in the Livi scene!! |
| Figs, Bear and Bongo (different one) spring to mind [they even get a mention on the thanks list on 'Punks Not Dead'] maybe he knew them from before or maybe they finally had mutual respect for each other after years of kicking the shit out of each other, who knows? But there was a lot of EXPLOITED fans in Livingston and the name was painted on a few leathers.... also, Billy [bass master general from the SKROTEEZ joined THE EXPLOITED in 1983 to play on their 'Lets Start A War' album and UK tour. [Bear got him involved], so finally the warfare was over! [But it was the end of the SKROTEEZ] Billy went back for another stint in 1996 and did a 40 date European tour with Wattie and co. Also from Livi, Gogo [BAYONET BABIES guitarist] joined THE EXPLOITED in 1990 [I think] to play on their 'Massacre' album, and world tour. Surely the best punk guitarist from Livingston bar none! Like billy another punk music genius! |
| Not much to do in Livi back then [changed days now!] Nowhere for bands to play except schools and youth clubs. The Tower pub was the punks pub but they didn't do live bands till the late 80's when it was dying out! Down by the river the punks had a campfire for years where they would get pissed, sniff glue and fight! The shopping centre on a Saturday afternoon was the focal point. Here I have to mention RAINBOW RECORDS - it was a mecca for every punk record that came out, they were all up on the wall and in the window. Also had punk T-shirts in the early days and if you wanted a punk badge, they had hundreds! Great shop, really crucial for us younger punks who didn't have the money or know how to get into Edinburgh or Glasgow to get stuff. The shop manager was taken to court by an angry mother who heard her sons SEX PISTOLS - 'Some Product' album, the one with tons of swearing on it!! Can't remember the verdict. Anyway, at the shops. All the punks would gather at a certain wall and pose then walk round and round and round posing. This was great to see [especially the punkettes Hooh la la...] as some of the hairstyles, bondage gear, leather jacket painting etc..were brilliant.I got loads of inspiration for perfecting my 'punk' look a few years later as I couldn't at the time being only 13 or whatever and living with a real violent father. I was treated like shit by him for years - my crime? Being into punk rock!! He fucking hated the fact I was into punk with a vengeance. It was a real struggle to live in an enviroment like that and I embraced the punk scene totally even though he tried to crush it out of me. I had to cling onto it desperately as I felt I was slowly suffocating in this nightmare of mental and sometimes physical torture. Looking back on those times fills me with bitterness, anger and hatred. I felt I was the only guy in the world getting shit from their parents because of my choice of music and it just wasn't fair. I would have had it easier from him if I was a murderer or something. What the fuck was it all about???? Anyway, back to the shopping centre - 2 jacket designs really caught my eye back then - Crany [BAYONET BABIES drummer] had FUCK RELIGION in huge white capital letters on his bike jacket - looked great as he picked his way through the shoppers and another punk had a massive CRASS patch safety pinned to the back of his army jacket with what looked like 2000 pins!! Excellent! Ecky [UK ANARCHISTS guitarist] stayed at CRASSHOUSE for a while around this time. Oddly there was only ever one fanzine that I know of from the town. It was called CULTand was made by the manager of ON PAROLE - I think? I've still never seen a copy. I saw a few local bands gigs over the next two years before I finally saw a 'Big' punk band [Test Tube Babies - in Glasgow 83] and they were all great - 1ST OFFENCE [my fave local band - finally got a single out late 83 -see list, pity the cover was so poor! but it done ok in the punk chart] SKROTEEZ/ GLASGOW SS/ ABUSE/ RED ALERT - ANTI SOCIAL - BAYONET BABIES/ UK ANARCHISTS/ DISGUST/ BARBED WIRE (THE FIRST LOCAL BAND TO MAKE AN ALBUM,CAME OUT.IN 86 - SEE LIST]/ UGEN KAMPF/ MOLOTOV COCKTAIL/ INTERNAL DIMENSIONS. All great bands sadly some of them only did a few gigs then folded. I can't recall any 'outside' bands ever playing here. There was talk of BLITZ and THE PARTISANS playing at a local high school and DEAD MANS SHADOW at a youth club but both fell through. The SUBHUMANS did play in Bathgate (5 miles away] in 1984 and the whole gig was rammed with Livi punkz. BAYONET BABIES did manage to blag their way into a quick support slot and they played WHITE RIOT along with there own excellent material,good times. THE PISH BETWEEN TWO SHITTYS PART TWO |
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